Stopwatch 3: Collapse

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Cloning? No, not exactly" replied the agent. "We are, if you like, giving you a son. A son free from the connection with the Collapse entity. That is something you wouldn't get anywhere else" he explained. 

 

"And yes, we could have asked. But, to be honest, with the future of the multiverse at stake, your answer would have been irrelevant. That may seem callous from your perspective, but from anybody else's, no. Asking you would risk your refusal and you taking precautions to avoid this desperate plan"

 

"So, here we are" he finished, examining the frozen Robert. "Our process is complete. Robert Harrow is now, genetically, free. And now, you are here to either let us save the universe by creating a son for you, or damn us all to Collapse" he said, voice like tombstones. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity's frown did not go away at the time agent's answer about why they did not bother trying to talk about things rather than just kidnapping Robert.  She was also not quite sure what to make of what he said regarding the son they were planning to create.  "A classic example of believing the ends justifies the means."  She responded simply.

 

She then looked down at Robert as he announced that the process was complete.  "So you going to revive him now?  How long will that take?"

 

The speedster considered something a moment, then added, "and while we're waiting, why us?  As in, why the two of us from this particular time stream?  There must be scores of other possibilities."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Its called a classic for a reason" answered the Blonde man, as cool as a cucumber "the end do justify the means. Would you kill one person to save ten? no? then you have, in effect, killed ten to save one. Non action is morally no different from inaction" he replied, a man who clearly had thought about this. He did not answer with blind fever, or certainty, but with the gravity of consideration. 

 

"Why you? there were many suitable time streams, and many unsuitable ones. We had to pick one, we picked yours. The taint is low, the problems...limited. A balance between a time stream where the Collapse entity was not strong, and one where he could yet be born. A time stream where things were finely balanced. A time stream were the confrontation, the war, will be decided" he said. 

 

"These words are cold to you, are they not? I was not always cold. I had a family once, a warm world, warmed than yours, until Collapse was born into it, and our world was crushed into the entity. I still hold that warmth to me, and it is inside me still. My actions are not born from coldness, or hate. None of our actions are. They are born from that warmth that is being sapped" he said, sadly. 

 

"So, the time has come, we will create your son, or you will try to stop us" he said, simply, and bent over to start work on the Frozen Robert and the med unit he was in. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity rolled her eyes slightly as the time agent began a philosophical discussion, an expression hidden behind her reflective hi-tech goggles.  "Your example assumes that killing the one person is the only way of saving the other ten.  More often than not, there are other options.  A lot of the problems between me and your organization could have been avoided by different choices during or initial encounter."

 

The speedster remained silent as he explained that the choice to focus on her time stream was in some ways random, at least once the suitable ones had been narrowed down.  "I am sorry about your family and time stream."  She said quietly as she watched him start to work on reviving Robert, quite a moment after his last statement.

 

"I am here to get my Robert back."  She then replied.  "Beyond that...I am not sure about."

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"No decision is a decision" replied the agent, working away on the medical unit. 

 

"I am now extrapolating the DNA from you and Robert and fusing them according to our own template. As you are aware, it only requires one cell, and we have artificial womb technology here..." he said, calmly focussed on the device at hand. 

 

"Philosophy is a luxury for the idle and safe, I am afraid. And I, like the agency here, are neither. And, to be honest, we have permission from at least one parent..."

 

He paused. 

 

"Of which I cannot say. But you know of whom I speak. You have, after all, met him here before..." he finished. 

 

"There, it is done! The first cell made. Now, to transfer to our womb, and the babe will be born...in hours, with our technology...as I said, Velocity, or Megan...no decision is a decision..."

[Thevshi]

Velocity frowned as the time agent mentioned having "permission" of one parent.  "Permission from the older Robert hardly counts as permission from my Robert."  She gestured down at the sleeping Englishman.  "And in any event, his permission does not extend to my DNA.  But then I understand that does not matter much as your using discarded DNA."

"Still does not address the moral issues with what you are doing, but of course, you will simply state that moral considerations are just another luxury."

 

She paused as she looked back down at Robert.  "You still have not answered my question about how soon he will be back awake."

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"The process is complete. He can be awakened now..." replied the agent, barely looking up. He was not lying, either, in a few moments, the med unit slid open and Lord Robert Harrow stirred. 

 

"Mmm...wuazzatt....Megan....mmm....Four and twenty sir....rumblswizmsm...howzat! mwlwrumwhaw...and then Cressida jumped on the scrumpy stick!" he yelped, as he awoke, completely disorientated. 

 

"There may be some after affects, disorientation, confusion, disinhibition, for the next hour or so. Nothing to worry about, perfectly normal" explained the agent, causally. Velocity caught the faintest of grins on his partners face. 

 

"Megan, why you look positively splendid in all that fancy spandex hoo-har gear! what a jolly little place this! why, its like the lecture hall with old Batears Billingham giving us a lecture on some dreary German physicist. Why, you look tastier than a tasty crumpet, my love! how about a kiss! where are we? what is this place? why, I don't even know what time it is, how peculiar! what a rum old thing! how about a jot of rum for old times sake, Megsy? Like in that pub in Cambridge, the ghastly one, where old Henry Peckingforth used to sing kareoke...." he spewed his words, before finishing with a brief redintion of Elvis Presley's "Love me tender", in a slightly slurred voice. Velocity would not have been surprised if his eyes were slightly crossed. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity was a bit surprised at first at Robert's rambling as he awoke very disoriented.  She frowned slightly, but then had to resist an urge to smile as his rambling continued after the time agent indicated that it was normal.  It would be much more funny if they had not kidnapped him and were not in the process of creating our son.  She thought to herself.

 

"Well, that is nice to know."  She said somewhat flatly to the time agent before giving Robert a smile as he continued to ramble.

 

"In a little bit."  She replied as she dodged his attempt at a kiss and slipped one arm around him and helped get him back to his feet.  "We are in the Null Zone, the location the time agents we have run into before operated out of."  She said, not really expecting too much of that to register.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...with the Caretaker...

 

Hronos was engaging in polite conversation with the extremely polite Caretaker, who seemed to remain graceful and dust free in his shiny perfect costume, as if in perfect stasis. 

 

"I have heard of your Mechanodynames. They are not a study of the Time Agency, whose resources have been entirely committed to managing the Collapse entity. Nevertheless, the archives do speak of them. Information is, regrettably scant, and, I am afraid the Agency is very circumspect with the sharing of information. Undue information can alter the course of history, something the agency tries to preserve"

 

"At what cost" whispered an irritable John Smith, whose normally irritable tone was, it should be noted, muted by the pleasant tranquil of the null zone. 

 

The caretaker gave a polite nod of apology to Hronos. 

 

"You do, I am sure, understand the position of not sharing information..." he asked, polite as always.

[Vahnyu]

Even from before he was reactivated, Hronos became aware of the predicament the 5 Mechanodynames had fallen. After the battle with the entity known as Katastrophe, millenias ago, all five of them were severely injured, and scattered throughout the 5 corners of the universe. In fact, from the information Hronos recieved from Thanatos, the Holder of the Essence of Death, it seemed that only Hronos still remained in the universe proper. Thanks to being half-conscious/half-unconscious at the time, Thanatos had managed to communicate with Hronos from the realm he currently resided, the Essence of Death itself, and he had relayed as much information as he possessed. It was thus Hronos' hope that the caretaker would be at least able to provide him with some useful information, perhaps point him in the right direction to look, even.

 

Alas, that would not come to pass. Hronos was disappointed to find out that the knowledge he sought could not be provided to him. Nevertheless, he understood the caretaker's position, and he wasn't gonna press the matter any further. Still, he had one more question to ask. "I understand your position completely, Caretaker. I have but one question to ask of you, if it does not violate your protocol. Can you relay to me whether the other Mechanodynames are well?"

[Supercape]

GM

"I regret to inform you that..." started the Caretaker, before a deep rumbling hit the entire dome...

The soft white lighting of the null dome was replaced by a red one. 

"...it appears the Null Zone is under attack" continued the Caretaker, his smooth melodic tones not stopping for one moment. He paused for a moment. 

"We have a breach. A thing we thought impossible, as this zone is outside of the space - time continuum" he said, calm despite the enormity of the situation. 

"The obvious explanation is your arrival here, or, to speculate further, the arrival of the stopwatch. It has allowed Collapse to strike..." he said ominously. 

 

Meanwhile...

 

The Time Agents looked startled, and afraid. They briefly stopped their work on the artificial womb inside which was growing Velocity and Robert's baby. 

"Collapse! Here? How?" he mumbled, genuinely afraid. 

"He can't...we have shielded..." he groaned, wiping sweat from his forehead. 

"It can only be the stopwatch!" he said, turning to Velocity, fury on his face. 

"Your interference here may just have cost us everything! Well, now you get to see what horror lies in your future! in everybodies!" he shouted at her. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity glanced around in surprise as everything was bathed in red light.  She then regarded the time agent once more a sneer of her lovely face.  "Oh, that's right, this is completely my fault.  It has nothing to do with the fact you lot are running around kidnapping people and generally doing whatever you want because you cannot be bothered with the moral implications of your actions or otherwise acting like jerks."

 

"You will have to excuse me if I had little confidence that Robert would be returned to me unharmed, let alone returned at all."

 

"Now stop your winning and tell me where the problem is and I will do what I can."  The speedster finished as she lowered Robert down to sit on the floor.

[Vahnyu]

If Hronos had lungs and breathed air, he would have felt his chest rising from sharply inhaling and keeping his breath, as the Caretaker spoke the words 'regret to inform you'. Luckily for the Mechanodynamis, the Caretaker was simply referring to an intruder breaching the sanctity of the Null Zone. Unluckily for him, and quite possibly everyone involved everywhere, the intruder appeared to be none other than the enigmatic multidimensional entity known as Collapse. At the Caretaker's speculation, Hronos took some exception "If one considers the fact that Lord Harrow is directly and intristically connected to the Stopwatch and the Collapse entity, it would not be unreasonable to surmise that the Time Agency brought this situation unto itself. Nevertheless, regardless of who is responsible for our current situation, the fact remains that action must be taken." Turning at John Smith, Hronos said "I apologise for putting you in this position, John Smith. Unless you are willing to put yourself in front of the path of the entity known as Collapse, I would suggest that you find some place to take cover."

 

Taking flight, Hronos headed outside. "As for me, it is my duty to make sure no one inside this station gets harmed." Hronos said, as he clenched his fists. Hronos could only remember one time in his life that he had felt anything close to fear, and back then, he had the support of his fellow Mechanodynames. Right now, he could only wish that he was halfway as fortunate as that time.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The agent looked at his readout for a brief moment. 

 

"The breach is coming overhead. Loosely speaking. That is, directly over the dome. But you have to understand that the null zone has very peculiar spatial and temporal dimensional qualities...oh!"

 

A flutter of lighting, and the power went out, leaving them in darkness. After a brief moment, a dim red haze appeared, giving them the barest level of lighting. 

 

"The anomaly has shorted out the power systems. We are running on fading residual energetics..." he muttered, consulting the medical unit. 

 

"The embryo...won't survive in this unit. We only have a few minutes of basic power left..." he muttered, before turning to Velocity. 

 

"There is only one option...transplantation to a natural womb..."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...

 

The Caretaker slumped, powered off, dying like an old mannequin, when the power failed. When the red haze came back to the null zone, only the faintest glint in his eye revealed he was active. 

 

"innnntruuuderrrr allllerttttt.....innnntruuuudeeerrr allllllerrrrtttt...." he said in a slow, flat voice, bereft of the Caretakers normal melodic tones. 

 

"Machines. Can't trust them" muttered John Smith, by Hronos side. 

 

"On the other hand, I don't much fancy the universe ending, tinribs" he said to Hronos. "So whatever this creature from the future is, I won't let him destroy the past and my wife..." he said, fiercely. 

 

"Let's get out of here and see what horror awaits us!"

[Thevshi]

"The space above the dome, got it." Velocity replied as the time agent determined what was going up. But even as quickly as she said that, the speedster realized there was not much she could do about something that was essentially up in the air at the moment. "Wait…I am hardly the best at dealing with stuff up in the air." She then added, remaining in place as she waited to see what else he might be able to determine.

When the power went out, Velocity somewhat regretted not having her normal goggles, as she was plunged into darkness along with everyone else. Luckily that was temporary, as emergency lighting came back on in a few moments.

She glanced back over at the time agents began talking about the problems with the embryo they had created, the one that would become her son. "Wait….what? A natural womb?" She replied as the agents looked at her. "You're not suggesting what I think you are, are you?"

But Velocity knew full well that was exactly what they were suggesting. A variety of emotions rushed through her, happening in mere milliseconds as far as everyone else was concerned. She glanced down at the device before them, tying to look for something that was still too small to easily see. "If you put it in, you will be able to take it back out once the power is back right?" She asked, knowing what she had to do.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"If the power comes back on...yes..." said the agent, rather glumly. "A breach by Collapse, or one of his manifestations, does not bode well..."

 

His companion was already trying to get her side arm to work, but it seemed it had been killed by the breach. 

 

"I hope you can handle what is coming through..." he said. "But just say you can...then yes, if the power comes back on, we can revert to using the artificial womb. The...uh...." he said, blustering. 

 

"You may experience some slight discomfort and nausea...and other effects..." he said, as he prepared the machine, and indicated for Velocity to lie on the med-bed. 

 

"Gosh isn't this exciting a real life baby well we always talked about one or did we perhaps we just skirted around the topic you know its kind of akward to bring these things up its so soon after all the problems and worries we had and after all we knew each other for years but only months with that gap of years but what is time anyway if there is one thing all this null zone superspeeding jiggery pokery wokery has taught us is that its all relative isn't it babe you are the best gosh how exciting" blabbered a seamless train of thought at full speed from Roberts mouth. 

[Thevshi]

"Well, aren't you just overflowing with optimism."  Velocity commented as the time agent talked about whether or not she would be able to stop whatever was going on. 

 

She glanced over at Robert as he babbled about being excited over having a baby, but bit back a retort, as she recalled that he was not really thinking clearly.  He did have a point, that though they had first met over four years ago, they had really only been together a little over a year, and even that was broken up by nearly a year of being apart. 

 

But having a child was certainly something they had not talked about while they had been dating at Cambridge.  They had barely even talked much about what would happen once Megan had to return to Yale and the United States at the end school year.  In the past several months after reuniting, the discussions about children had not been much more common, and had been tinged with the worries about Collapse.

 

So Megan just gave Robert a small smile as she climbed up on the med-bed.  "Yeah, you don't think?"  She commented sarcastically as the time agent mentioned she might feel some discomfort, nausea and other effects.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Robert continued to babble almost incoherently. It seemed the prospect of fatherhood, even the very peculiar route to fatherhood that the time agency and the null zone had thrown him, had driven his mind to mania. Even with her superspeed mind, Velocity could only make out one word in three. The rough gist of his flow of thoughts seem to wobble between excitement and concern for her. 

 

The procedure was quick, and efficient, and Velocity did indeed feel a tingle, blossoming into a wave of nausea, erupt in her abdomen. 

 

"There! The blastocyst is implanted and secure!" said the agent, wiping his brow as another brown out occured in the nullzone dome, and redlight once again flickered. A rumble, louder and deeper drummed through the building and air. 

 

"And not a moment to soon..." he added, an injection of fear hitting his voice. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity half tried to focus past Robert's babbling, was it only served to make her more nervous. Now that she was thinking about it, even if the child was put back in the artificial womb, she was going to be a mother…well, sort of. She was not sure what to think of all of this, biologically, the child was her and Robert's.

But at the moment, she had other things to focus on, like possibly staying alive with whatever was going on here. The wave a nausea did not help matters as the speedster sat back up and the lights flickered once more. "Oh I hope this passes." She said, mainly to herself as she got back to her feet.

Looking over at the time agents, she then tried to get serious once more. "Okay, I need to get out there and see what I can do. Is there somewhere safe you two can take Robert?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Like where? The Null Zone...the dome...its the safest we have..." blurted the agent, a trace of panic despite his tracing. His companion, the dark woman, put a hand on his shoulder. Her voice was stiff with fear but she glanced at Velocity with the memory of empathy. 

 

"I'll sedate him. Keep him out of trouble..." she said, putting an advanced hypodermic gun to his arm. 

 

Robert stopped his babbling for a moment - cutting off his wandering curved diatriabe about the nature of reproduction in Scottish small mammals and how it implausibly connected with the nature of the universe - and gave Velocity cow eyes. 

 

"Sedate me? But Honey you are in danger and our kid I cant let you go I dont want anything bad to happen what if I am asleep and something bad happens you cant let them sedate me I want to be there for you let me go instead you are number one I love you and I love our baby and you mustn't do anything now and let me go and dont go and let me be with you" he burbled like a broken record...

 

The dark woman looked at Velocity, asking for her permission with her eyes, the hypodermic gun still pressed on the passive and zany Roberts arm. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity paused a moment as Robert became at least partially coherent, talking about not wanting her to be in any danger and to let him go instead.  She resisted the urge to kiss him for the moment, and shook her head at the agent that was looking for permission to sedate the British nobleman. 

 

"We are all in danger here love."  She replied.  "Although I have a sneaky suspicion that if this is Collapse, he might be somewhat unwilling to harm me, seeing as his birth has not yet come to pass in our time stream.  Given that his goal is to produce as many copies of himself as possible, he might not be too willing to limit any possibilities."

 

She paused a brief moment before adding.  "But perhaps it might be even better if we go to face him together.  Though you have to promise if things get rough, you will seek cover...somewhere."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...outside the dome...

 

Hronos and Smith emerged from the dim Red Light of the Null Zone to a frosty reception. The sky was the wrong shade of blue, and the air was full of cold hard rain, despite the temperate forest around them, vibrant with green warm life. 

 

Up above them, in the distance, a distortion, painful to look at, was descending. It was hard to judge the distance - perhaps because past the breach in the Null zone there simply was no dimensions. The Null Zone existed outside normal time and space. 

 

A violent roar emitted from beside them. 

 

One of the cyborg T-Rexes, its control systems down - or worse - from the breach, was charging at the pair...

 

"Reminds me of when we first met..." said Smith. Adrenaline and fear were in his voice, but he was a master of his fear. He dived for cover, melding into the scenery like a man with millenia of hunting experience would have...

[Vahnyu]

"When we first met..." Hronos, reminding himself of the events that transpired a year earlier. It was the first time he had come in contact with a dinosaur. He might have spared memory lane a few more nano-seconds, but the truth was that at this point, just existing in the Null Zone was a painful experience to the robotic guardian, a fact that was further exasperated by the Null Zone's imminent contact with Collapse. Trying to draw strength from the Essense of Time, Hronos morphed his two hands and upper body into a laser cannon, and aimed at the dinosaur. I must take careful aim. There is no telling what Collapse will do, if I do not act as swiftly and efficiently as possible. With these thoughts in mind, the Mechanodynamis powered up the Deccelerator Blaster that he had created, and tried to fire it. "..." Unfortunately for him, no chronal energy escaped the canister, and Hronos found his weapon rapidly powering down. "This is gravely alarming." he noted, as his arms reformed. "It would appear... that Collapse and the Null Zone have barred me access to the Essense of Time!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

John Smith was very well hidden, but he couldn't resist a sneer and chuckle - the sound wafted from a dense set of ferns nearby. 

 

"That's machines for you..." he chortled. 

 

The T-Rex was as angry as ever, the beeping cybernetic implant at the back of his neck had gone haywire and had driven it mad. It was a norse bezerker of a dinosaur, and it charged, screaming a deafening roar, straight at the robot. 

 

Its speed and power were a fright to behold at the best of times, but powered by the rage of the thing, any such wonder was doubled. Fortunately, it was also blinded by rage, and it trampled straight over Hronos, its legs passing either side of the artificial hero, and its jaws and head lowering far too slowly, to snap on an ancient tree just behind Hronos. The tree splintered spectacularly, but no man, and no robot, was in its jaws.