The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

In the office in Chronix Bay, James and Tina turn to run.

“What is that thing?” asks James.

“Looks kind of like a Satyr like in mythology, only hideous!” screams Tina.

“He seems pretty non mythical to me” says James.

“I will take that artifact. Give it to me!” screams Satyr.

“What is that?” James stops, having noticed an ancient looking circular disc like device near the control panel where Satyr had been working. It has a face in the middle and a series of animal like drawings around it.

Tina saw it and gasped “it is the Aztec Sun Stone.”

“Damn, you are brilliant” says James.

“Yes and I will use it to summon more of my brethren from beyond your world, hand me the artifact now” says Satyr.

“Never” yells James tossing it to Tina who ran with it until James got closer, then she tossed it back to him, he tossed it back, and so on until Satyr grabbed Tina by the hair with his clawed hands, pulled her to the floor and pounced on top of her. He was going to strike her face with his clawed hands until he felt an unbearable pain: James had stuck a very sharp letter opener in his back.

Satyr let loose a tremendous yell as he faced upward in agonizing pain.

Tina tossed the artifact to James and then both saw a marble inlaid table, whose top appeared removable, in the center of the room and knew what they must do. They looked at one another with one mind as Satyr rose and yelled “I will curse you both and destroy you!” Shaking his fist as he struggled wildly grasping for the opener in his back, but he could not reach it. He lunged at the duo, running towards them the length of the room as they ran towards him, lifting the marble tabletop which James boosted above their heads and, with a wave of his hands sent it flying into Satyr, knocking him back towards the window. Satyr fell out of the window while James held the object outside, and then let it go. As it touched Satyr, a stream of yellow swirling energy emerged out of the object, a vortex which quickly engulfed Satyr and somehow transformed him into a golden ball of energy. The vortex’s loud roar and whirling light then sucked the golden ball into itself where it immediately was vanished leaving Tina and James staring at the space where he had been with staring eyes and mouths open in shock.

“Wow, that was close,” says James.

“You don’t say,” Tina added.

“Too bad I had to give up that device, it was pretty amazing.”

“Who says we have to give it up, buddy?” Tina put out her hand and held the object before him. “It’s called the old five finger discount remember,” she joked.

“Well done” says James, taking the device. “Now what do we do with this?” he wonders as they look at the Sunstone.

“There is an insert in the back for the object,” says Tina looking around it. “That’s what Satyr wanted to do. Good thing we stopped him, right James?”

“Right”, said James.

Then suddenly a man in a suit entered. “Hello, who are you and what are you two doing in my office?”

“Oh hi… that is a good question”, says James.

Yeah, we were just lost” says Tina.

“I’m Broad Staffnight. CEO of Temporo, Inc. and who are you?”

“James Timewalker.”

“And Tina Prescott... what’s it to you?”

“Right,” Broad walks around to his desk. “I heard about you. You guys are wanted on the news for questioning by the police, murder is it?” asks Broad acting innocent.

“We didn’t do it” says Tina. Then she looks at James and whispered “he is the one who pointed us out at the airport. I remember it.”

“I know” replies James.

“Right,” Broad says sarcastically and picked up the phone at his desk. Tina and James look at one another frightened, as Broad dialed. “Yes, Mildred. Tell security we have them. That’s right, the pair from TV, delivered right to our doorstep. They say the hand of God works in mysterious ways.” He smirks. “You know what to do, Sweetheart. Thanks.” He hung up the phone. “You know we’ve almost given up on you. We were ready to go look for it ourselves.” Broad walks over to them from his desk.

“Look for what?” asks James.

“This,” Broad approached James and snatched the emerald out of his hands.

“Wait, you mean...” Tina started, but is interrupted.

“That’s right,” Broad says speculating “we are the ones meant for the power this possesses. You two just fluked your way into this by chance, we were the ones who set you up. We needed the most obvious patsies and you fell for it hook, line, and sinker. You don’t even know how to handle it. Now we will finish what is begun.” He speaks sinisterly as he approached the sunstone and without hesitation inserted the object into the back of the sunstone.

Within seconds, the sunstone began glowing bright green. The lights in the office flickered and soon shut off completely, leaving the only luminescence from the bright green sun stone that began spinning clockwise around the perimeter, while the central face of the Ancient God of Death began spinning counterclockwise. James and Tina look at it fiercely.

“What is going on?” asks Tina.

“So you see there is nothing else you can do. Soon we will have all the power and the control over both sides. The lights from buildings seen from the window began to blink off and soon the entire city is blacked out.

“What’s going on?” asks Tina again.

“I think that thing is draining power from every source around us” says James. “The object from Brazil is acting as a natural electric stimulant. Remember when we thought the altar was some kind of charger for the object? We were wrong. It’s the other way around, the object is a charger for the altar and the same is being done here, but it harnesses its own energy from outside sources, wherever it can find, once activated.”

“So how do we stop it?” Tina asks.

“You are a very smart man, James Timewalker” says Broad “but you are too late. The face of Tonatiuh is still and brightest, which means there is enough power to fulfill our destiny and bridge the gap of our greatest achievement, our greatest experiment, our true calling.” He raised both hands up and then extended his right arm to the center face of the sunstone and pressed it. Within seconds, a spiraling golden yellow beam of light emerged from the combined objects and shot out into the daylight sky and blacked out city through the open window, unleashing a portal within vortex ten times as large as the one James and Tina had unleashed in Mexico.

“James that is huge” says Tina.

“Yeah, look…” James pointed, as they saw out of the window a series of golden orbs emerging from the portal before their very eyes, integrating with the normal flow of reality around them and as each one formed, Tina saw a part of the sunstone blinking green light as it continued to spin around making wrenching, grinding sounds.

“James, look, it’s blinking. Each different animal figure or beast…” started Tina.

“And then they form out there from the orbs” finished James.

They saw several beasts arrive in their home town, one with long antlers, one with wings like a falcon, one with a snout like a pig, and several with appearances like lions and ladies. The most astounding were those with heads and chests like ladies and bodies like eagles.

“They’re harpies, James” says Tina referring to the last to exit the vortex.

“Ha” Broad laughs. The door opens and a well-dressed middle-aged woman with glasses and two armed security guards entered the office. Broad turns and smiles “lock these two up.”He pointed to them and the officers ran to them with guns drawn.

“James, we can’t let them take us in” shouted Tina.

“Right” James waved his hand and the guns flew out of the officers’ hands and out of the window. Tina stepped forward and lunged with a punch at one of the officers but he moved back and she fell on top of him as they struggled on the ground. James did a roundhouse kick and attacked the other officer while he reached for his baton. James grabbed the baton and used it to strike the officer on the head knocking him out, and when he made a lifting motion with his hands the officer struggling with Tina flew up, then fell with a sudden drop on to the injured officer.

“Those powers, I see now you are the legendary ‘holder’ and I thought you were just a myth, but then again I though the same thing about the sunstone,” says Broad. The middle-aged woman had run out screaming. James helped Tina up and the duo stood facing Broad. “Very, very good, but not good enough” yells Broad. “I have a much stronger fighting force at my disposal.” He pulled out a remote control device from his breast pocket, a small metal box with a single red switch, which he flicked with his finger.Instantly one of the harpies flew by the window and grew enormously bigger, as big as a building, then landed on the sidewalk, causing shockwaves and tremors felt by the citizens of Chronix Bay.She walked, each step like a miniature earthquake, knocking down signs, billboards, and the tops of buildings with her arms swinging wildly, destroying anything and everything in her path.

“James, can your powers affect that thing?” asks Tina.

“I can’t affect living things.” He waved his hand at the harpy and nothing happened. “See?”

“We’ve got to do something. She is destroying the city” says Tina.

“There is nothing you can do” says Broad. “They don’t wear clothing. Ha.”

Then within moments, the spinning sunstone began glowing wildly on its individual parts representing individual figures or beasts and deities, each one lighting up in a synchronistic pattern. Then, the light, bright orange on the silvery disk began fusing to the central figure and spitting outward in pellets of orange colored energy out the window and around the room. “Whoa,” James said as he moved back in shock, while the light balls hurled out the window and into the sky as if acting on some inordinate predetermined set of intelligent instructions from somewhere.

“The guardians are free. This is not what is supposed to be.” Broad says regretfully.

“Huh?” James says, moving forward curiously.