The Time Stone (20 page)

“
Look for what?” Asked
James.

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

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

“
That’s right,” said Broad
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 was begun.” He spoke 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
and the central face of the Ancient God of Death began spinning
counterclockwise. James and Tina looked at it fiercely.

“
What is going on?”
Screamed 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 was in a black
out.

“
What’s going on?” Asked
Tina.

“
I think that thing is
draining power from every source around us.” Said James. “The
object from Brazil is acting as a natural electric stimulant.
Remember when we thought the alter was some kind of charger for the
object? We were wrong. It’s the other way around, the object was a
charger for the alter and 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?”
Asked Tina.

“
You are a very smart man,
James Timewalker” said 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 in our greatest
achievement, our greatest experiment, our true meaning.” He raised
both hands up and then extended his right arm to the center face of
the sunstone and pressed it. Within seconds, a spiral golden yellow
beam of light emerged from the combined objects magnified in green
light and shot out into the daylight sky and blacked out city out
of the open window unleashing a portal vortex ten times as large as
previously seen by the duo James and Tina.

“
James, that is huge.”
Said Tina.

“
Yeah, look…” James
pointed as they saw out of the window as a series of golden orbs
emerged from the portal dematerializing before their very eyes,
integrating with the normal flow of reality around them and as each
one formed, Tina saw a piece of the sunstone blinked green as it
continued to spin around making a jagged sound.

“
James, look its 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 profound were those with heads and
chests like ladies and bodies like eagles.

“
They’re harpies, James.”
Said Tina referring to the last to be emitted from the
circle.

“
Hahaha” Broad laughed
continuously. The door opened and a well-dressed middle-aged woman
with glasses and two armed security guards entered the office.
Broad turned and smiled, “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 and he moved back and she fell on top of him and they
struggled on the ground. James did a roundhouse kick and attacked
at the other officer as the officer reached for his baton. James
grabbed the baton and used it to strike the officer on the head
knocking him out and then he waved his fingers up curling them and
the belt of the officer struggling with Tina flew up along with the
officer and to the left then with a sudden drop on top of the other
officer.

“
Those powers. I see you
are the legendary ‘holder’ and I thought you were just a myth but
then again I though the same thing about the sunstone.” Said Broad.
The middle-aged woman ran out screaming. James helped Tina up and
the duo stood facing Broad. “Very, very good. But not good enough.”
Yelled Broad. “I have a much stronger fighting force at my
disposal.” He pulled out a remote control from his breast pocket, a
small metal box with a single red switch, which he flicked with his
finger and instantly one of the harpies flew by the window and grew
to one hundred times her normal size, about the size of a
skyscraper and she landed on the floor causing shockwaves and
tremors to the citizens of Chronix Bay. She walked, each step like
a miniature earthquake, and knocked down signs, billboards, and the
tops of buildings with her arms swinging wildly and wings behind
her stretching out destroying anything and everything in their
path.

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

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

“
We got to do something.
She is destroying the city.” Said Tina.

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

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 and 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 moved back in shock as the light
balls hurled out the window and into the sky towards various focal
directions as if acting on some inordinate predetermined set of
intelligent instructions from somewhere.

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

“
Huh?” James beckoned
forward curiously.

CHAPTER 45

Miles away sixteen armored tanks and
fourteen helicopters were ready and moving towards the city of
Chronix Bay, under the command of the United States Army, Corps of
Special Ops headed by Commander Sergeant Felix Ramrod. He was an
aged soldier with a grit iron, stern wit, set of strong teeth, and
crooked smile, chewing lightly on a toothpick as he sat in his seat
of the command Humvee heading up the project.

“
We are almost there, Sir”
said Private Corporal Lance Davis, a cocky twenty-five year old
that was selected by Ramrod for the project because of his
demolitions expertise. “We are being told by radio that the
situation in Chronix Bay is growing critical. There is a state of
emergency. We are dispatched by the City Order. There is a giant …
beast… a harpy… or something attacking the city.”

“
Don’t worry, kid. We are
on the way. It is not something I haven’t dealt with before.”
Barked Ramrod smoking his large cigar.

The tanks and copters arrive and pull
up near the Central Tower. People are scattering everywhere from
the debris falling from the skies being knocked down by the
destructive rampage of the giant harpy. The army corps set up their
gear as quickly as they could.

“
Get some trip wire and C4
all over the area. Clear all civilian and non-essential personnel
immediately.” Yelled Ramrod at the top of his lungs as his puffed a
large cigar. He put on his hardhat and held a black box detonator
for the explosives. The portal faded and the harpy continued her
rampage.

“
The C4 is set, Sir.”
Yelled Davis.

“
Good, on my mark, we are
gonna blast that piece of space trash to kingdom come.”

CHAPTER 46

“
Why are you doing this?”
Asked Tina.

“
My dear, this is only the
beginning. We opened a portal to their world. The experiment was an
accident but the purpose was fated by higher powers. We are after
complete control of everything and we have no rival who can match
us toe to toe on our best day not even the legendary holder.” He
looked at James and shook his head. “A mere bum of a
man.”

“
Wait, you’re forgetting
one thing” said Tina.

“
What is that?” Asked
Broad annoyed.

Tina walked over to him and caressed
his face and pinched his cheek. “Maybe you want to take me for a
ride.” She spoke seductively and provocatively. “I don’t want to go
back to jail and will do absolutely anything to avoid it, you know?
I don’t work for this bum of a man,” beckoning to James.

“
Tina, what are you
doing?” Said James curiously.

“
He tried to get me to do
some horrible things. He was abusive, vile, disgusting, using his
powers he threatened to kill me if I didn’t follow him. He made me
get on my knees for him.” Tina shook her head pitifully as she
spoke openly and Broad turned to her and grabbed her by the
wrists.

“
I may enjoy …having my
way with you. But now….”

Tina frowned then smirked as she
beckoned to James who saw her cue and started to make his way
towards the sunstone.

Broad saw him and released Tina as he
reached out to grab James and the two men grabbed one another by
the shirts and were locked in a sudden struggle.

“
You fool.” Broad
yelled.

“
I’ll show you who the
fool is” James swung at Broad and struck his face while Broad
quickly recovered so she struck back. Then the two men exchanged
repeated blows. Tina ran to the sunstone and removed the emerald
from the back of the sunstone simultaneously shutting it off and
stopping it from spinning and lighting up.

“
I got it.” Screamed
Tina.

“
Get it away from here,”
yelled James as he struggled in a blow for blow contact with Broad.
James realized he was not the stronger man physically but tried his
best to withstand the blows.

Tina feared, “I can’t leave
you.”

“
Go!!!” Yelled James
during the struggle.

Tina ran down the stairwell all the
way to the first floor and exited the building. A young blonde girl
with curls, about ten years old, sat in the nearby building happily
observing the situation, as she was missed during the army sweep of
the area for civilians. Tina stood outside of the building and
looked around and saw the military station not too far away. She
saw the harpy approaching from a few blocks away having seen her
with the object.

“
Oh, so it’s this that you
want huh, you overgrown canary?” She yelled in a rhetorical
inquisitive verse as she ran with the object towards the military
group and the harpy began to accelerate towards them. Davis and
Ramrod saw her.

“
Who is that, Sir?” Asked
Davis.

“
I said clear all civilian
personnel. Arrest her.” Screamed Ramrod.

Tina ran over and saw that Davis and a
dozen armed soldiers were pointing guns at her head. She put her
hands up and stopped running. “Wait a minute.”

“
Madam, you’re under
arrest by the United States Army. Drop that… whatever it is,” said
Davis.

“
You don’t understand…”
Tina said beckoning to the armed soldiers as the harpy ran towards
them and they all dropped their attention from her and aimed at the
harpy who posed a much larger threat, literally.

“
Fire” said Davis and they
all shot up at the harpy simultaneously without effect.

“
Let me try.” Tina said as
she held the emerald up and twisted it slightly concentrating it
towards the sun’s rays and a beam of golden yellow spiral energy
emerged and shot up passed the harpy and opened the portal vortex
once again. “Damn, missed” said Tina.

“
Wow,” said Davis. All of
the men were shocked.

“
Take this, you
birdbrain.” Ramrod pressed his detonator ignoring the portal
vortex. An explosion erupted from the C4 before the towers and
knocked the harpy back. Tina and Davis took cover with the other
soldiers. Ramrod pressed the detonator again and again and again
causing multiple explosions and knocking the harpy back towards the
portal. Ramrod laughed as he pulled the explosive device triggers
with a chuckle for each blast. Then the explosions stopped. “Damn,
we are out of ammo” Ramrod yelled as his detonator did not
function. “I said more C4 next time, damn it”

“
Next time?” questioned
Davis.

“
We are screwed” said Tina
as she saw the harpy furiously roar into the sky and begin to fly
up to swoop down on them. Then suddenly as the harpy was swooping
down towards their position, a bolt of hot white lightning flew out
of the cloudless sky from another portal that opened up in the
distance only for an instance and struck the harpy knocking her
back and flying straight back into the portal waiting behind her.
As she flew back, the large body and wings fluttered the air and
caused cars to topple over and buildings to fall and the young girl
with blonde curls, who was hiding in an alleyway between two
buildings nearby overlooked by the sweep of the army corps the
first time, was suddenly absorbed by the gust of wind and knocked
into the portal with the harpy. The young blonde girl let loose a
blood curdling scream as she fell into the portal and it
subsequently faded.