Stopwatch 3: Collapse

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...at the Medical bay...

 

The agent withdrew the hypodermic without a word. Instead, her blonde colleauge spoke up "I'm not sure that's wise, but with this breach, I doubt there is any course that is wise. If there is an end to all things, this is it..." he sighed. He looked as his pistol - the same high tech device that Velocity had seen used in the Swiss Alps by the agency when they had tried to recover the stopwatch. It was dead now. 

 

"But perhaps, if things are at that stage of desperation, we may even need to use the Stopwatch itself" he said, grimly, looking at Robert. As manic as he was - or perhaps because of his disnhibition, his eyes glowed with lust at the mention of the device. 

 

"Yes yes where is it! I can save the day! With it I am as fast as you, even faster!" he garbled at Velocity, repeating the phrase over and over with only minor variations. 

 

The darker woman agent sighed, and pressed the hypodermic into Velocities hand. 

 

"You may want this" she explained. 

[Thevshi]

A frown came to Velocity's face at Robert's comment about wanting to use the Stopwatch to save the day. She had thought that whatever the Time Agents had done to him would have eliminated that desire for the object that haunted him. But now she was not so sure that was what was fueling the comment, instead of just a desire to protect her and the unborn baby.

"Thanks." She replied quietly as she took the hypodermic the female agent gave her and slipped it into a belt pouch.

"Let's not get too carried away here Robert. The Stopwatch should probably be our last resort. So let's see what we might be able to do without it first." The yellow clad speedster stated as she led Robert out of the medbay and towards the entrance to the dome.

[Vahnyu]

The dinosaur flailed wildly, as it tried to trample Hronos, but even so, the beast posed clear danger, and it took a lot of effort for Hronos to avoid recieving a permanent marker in the shape of the T-Rex's footstep on his chasis. Energy blasts and fancy tricks of any kind were out of the question, of that much Hronos was certain; even if he could manage to fire a bolt, the anti-chronal effect of this dimension would cause the blast to fizzle out, unless fired from point-blank distance, and even then, it would be a contested shot.

 

His power reserves draining, Hronos nevertheless resolved that he would unleash all of his power, in the hopes of subduing the raging beast. Forcing his support motors to operate at maximum rotation while imbued with chronal energy, the Mechanodynamis jumped high and unleashed a powerful haymaker at the Tyranosaurus's  beak, delivering a staggering blow at the uncontrollable creature. Then, in one fell swoop, he flew right under its belly, attempting to lift the gigantic creature, but it proved too stubborn and heavy, and Hronos could feel that his control over even the most basic of functions was unstable, at best. All he could do was muster a few grunts, as he tried in vain to get a good grip on the T-Rex.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The T Rex thrashed about wildly, its head ringing from the mighty blow of Hronos. The cybernetic device at the back of its head was emitting a shrill beeping noise and glowing an angry red. A warning? a malfunction? whatever it was, it didn't sound or look good. 

 

Meanwhile, above, the breach was complete. As Velocity and Robert left (or in Robert's case, stumbled in a drunken flop) out of the Null Dome, there was a peculiar flash of silence above them. 

 

What it was? A nothingness and a presence at the same time. It was hard to look at, and impossible to not look at. It was man shaped, but not a man, a shimmering, an absence, a presence, a distortion in time and space. 

 

"An anomaly" said a briefly sage Robert, stunned at the disturbance that formed far above them, as time around it slowed like sludge at it swept like a hawk through the slowed time towards the Null Dome. 

[Thevshi]

As Megan and Robert arrived outside the dome, Velocity quickly took in the scene around them, spotting Hronos and a downed (at least for the moment) T-Rex.  There was no sign of John Smith, but she recalled he had been pretty adapt at hiding, so he could be somewhere in the jungle.

 

The speedster then glanced up into the "sky" at the anomaly that was quickly descending down towards the dome.  "I guess that's him."  She replied, a faint unease in her voice.  Megan still had no idea how she would do facing down someone that was her possible son, even if she had no true connection to him, though now there was the slight nausea that was still present in her stomach.

 

With Collapse still so high above them, there was little Megan could do at the moment anyway, so she waited to see what happened when he got closer, ready to make herself as hard a target as she could if he just attacked.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Fast...

 

Or was it?

 

The anomaly was drifting down to the Null Dome, but at mind bending speed. Perhaps it was not that the anomaly was fast, but that everything around it, the whole universe, seemed to be running at treacle-speed slowness in comparison. It was hardly exerting itself, it just bent time around it, and swam through it. 

 

As it drew closer, it hurt to look at, having more than four dimensions, empty and full at the same time. It was not human, but human shaped, a psychic projection of Collapse, a manifestation of his power, limited and dull of mind, singular of purpose, bent towards its will. 

 

And it streaked towards John Smith. 

 

John had millenia of experience in fighting, and new every trick of warfare and combat ever devised. He had never studied, but he didn't need too. He was an expert just by centuries upon centuries of conflict. He twisted and turned, but was no match for the distortion of Collapse. He was hit by the manifestation, and lifted to the air, wracked with pain, broken and bruised...

[Vahnyu]

Even as the mass of the immobilised Tyranosaurus weighted down on him, Hronos frantically tried to grab a good hold of the beast and lift it off the ground, to no avail. The situation was worsened by the arrival of Collapse, who immediately spoted Smith's hideout and went after him, causing him to stagger and waver on his legs. "John Smith!" Hronos exclaimed, catching the briefest of flashes from the corners of his eye-visor as Collapse hit him. How could Collapse locate John Smith so quickly? And why did it go after him and not my self? Hronos pondered, but the answer didn't take long to come to him. I recall now. John Smith is still in possesion of the Stopwatch. That must be the answer to both of those questions. I should have taken it from his hands. Hronos reprimanded himself. Smith might have been an unpleasant fellow, but he was still under his protection as a civilian, if only by a technicality.

 

It was at that moment that Hronos spoted Velocity exiting the Dome. "Miss Velocity!" He called at her. "The Collapse entity is after John Smith, who posseses the Prototype Stopwatch with him!"

 

Deciding that he had no more time to waste, Hronos kicked his engines into high gear, Hronos stopped futily pushing the T-Rex from bellow, took his distance, and charged right back at the gigantic dinosaur, scoring a hit on its lungs and completely knocking the wind right out of it. Not letting it time to recover, he flew past it, and grabbed it from it's tail. This one was heavier than the one he had grappled a year ago, and his own power was still unstable, so instead of using brute force alone, he relied on his gained momentum in relation to the Dinosaur's center of mass to transform into enough force, and, planting his feet firmly into the ground, swing the dinosaur with all the strenght he could muster in order to toss Collapse aside. Sadly, his aim was way off, and the Mechanodynamis could feel his circuits overheating, a new experience for the time-weary robot.

[Thevshi]

Velocity watched as the distortion went over and quickly took down John Smith.  She heard what Hronos yelled out as the android knocked out a T-rex he had been fighting with and then tried to use it as a club against the distortion.

 

Yeah, and he has the Stopwatch as well.  The yellow clad speedster thought to herself as she considered what to do.  "Stay, don't go near that...whatever until we have a better idea what it is."  She said to Robert before she was gone in a blur of movement.

 

Almost instantly, she was between the distortion and Smith's injured form.  Velocity caught a glimpse of the Stopwatch, tightly held in one of his hands, but she focused her attention on the distortion. 

 

She had no idea whether this was really her son from some alternate timeline (or even her own future), but she had to proceed as if it might been.

 

"Okay, time to stand down!"  She yelled as her hand shot out at supersonic speed, a loud *CRACK* echoing as her hand broke the sound barrier.  As when she had been forced to fight Robert several months ago, the speedster focused on trying to stun her target with the blow, as opposed to trying to injure it.

 

The instant her hand arrived at the distortion, she felt pain wrack over her fist and then forearm, but it all happened too fast for even her to pull her hand back.  Luckily, Velocity was tougher than she looked.

 

But when her hand should have reached the form inside the distortion, the speedster instead found nothing there.  Her attack seemed to cause no effect, and it did not seem to be any sort of actual being.

 

Pulling her sore hand back, she looked at the distortion as her mind raced on how to try to deal with it. 

"Hronos, get Smith clear.  I've got an idea on how to deal with this."  She stated, not wanting any anyone nearby when she tried what she was planning.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The human shaped hole in time and space spun, the very nature of time slowing to a sludge around it. Everything sort of fell into it. 

 

Everything sort of collapsed into it. 

 

"Moth...er...." came a distorted voice, dull of wit and with only the echo of sentiment. The strange anomaly only seemed to have basic sentience. Enough to recognise her. But not enough to process that recognition. 

 

John Smith was tossed aside like a rag doll, his body broken and bleeding, his face contorted in pain. He grunted and growled with pain, and rolled flatly, gasping for breath, his clothes shredded. 

 

And with the Stopwatch still grasped in his hand. 

 

The Anomaly turned to the stopwatch, and then to Velocity, undecided which of these magnificent targets to attend to, before striking out at Velocity. It moved so slowly, but so fast. Everything else seemed a snail in comparison. For all Velocities blistering unparalleled speed, the manifestation was faster somehow. Its attacks were crude, but its tore through time itself, faster than she could move, and as it touched her, she felt another crunching distortion of space contort through her. 

[Vahnyu]

Hronos let the dinosaur's tail free, seeing as he was barely able to wield it. The T-Rex was out for the count, so it wouldn't pose any threat at this point, either. He was barely able to grasp Velocity's attack, which came fast like the lightning, but even more amazed he was at the fact that Collapse was completely unaffected by it. More worrying was the effect the attack had on Velocity herself. When she spoke to him, Hronos understood that Velocity was planning something big, perhaps even dangerous. "That is understood." Hronos exclaimed, as he dived towards Collapse and Smith. "I will remove John Smith from the immediate area." Grabbing the downed immortal human, Hronos accelerated further away into the distance. "Rest assured that I will return imediately!" he shouted, as he ran accross the field, further and further away. "Hold yourself tight, John Smith. I will try my best not to further injure you." The Mechanodynamis tried to reassure Smith, unaware of whether the human could hear him or not.

[Thevshi]

Velocity had seen the attack coming, barely, but not been able to avoid it.  But even as the distortion of space and time wracked through her, the speedster was once again able to withstand the damage caused by the entity.

 

Once Hronos had run clear with John Smith, the superspeedster acted.  There was a loud *BOOM* as she broke the sound barrier running, almost instantly accelerating beyond supersonic and even hypersonic speeds.  But she was not trying to cover a great distance, in fact she was not moving very far at all from the distortion. 

 

Instead, she was running at blinding speeds around it, making a number of tight circles as she went.  Velocity had made a large cyclone a number of times in the past, this time she was making several smaller ones spaced around the entity.  The result was something of a reverse effect of what the distortion was doing.  While it was collapsing everything into it, Velocity created multiple points pulling out away from the distortion.  As she went, the speedster vibrated her body at incredible speeds, similar to how she did when she wanted to make herself insubstantial to pass through walls and other objects. 

 

The result was a chaotic counter force to the distortion, which pulled at the entity itself, which appeared to harm it.

[Vahnyu]

Hronos made sure to lie John Smith gently into the ground, so as not to further injure him. It didn't take long for him to hear the loud boom as Velocity broke the sound barrier in the process of creating a closed circle made of cyclones. He wanted to help her, he wanted to give her a hand, but he knew that at this point, his powers were next to useless. Still, he could hold his own if it came to it. The Mechanodynamis was about to ran back to the battlefield, when he noticed that John Smith still held the Stopwatch within his clutches. "It would be dangerous if I left this item on your possession at this time." Hronos said, taking the item from Smith's hands. Examining the Stopwatch, Hronos grimly thought of what Collapse would do, if he could find its way to it. He then started running away from Smith and in a curved line, all the while keeping his distance steady from Collapse.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Nyuuurghhh!!!!" groaned John, as he sat up, his face gritted teeth and sweat. He was in pain, but he was iron willed. His body was really broken up. It was hard to say exactly what bones had cracked or what damage was done, but he was bleeding, and bruised. And he spat out a tooth. 

 

"Ribs broken. Maybe my shoulder..." he winced. "But I'm still here, Robot!" he yelled after the fleeing Hronos. With an effort, he cupped his hands. 

 

"You shouldn't have taken the watch away from me! I'm the only one who can use it!" he said, furiously, as he started, fruitlessly, to hobble after Hronos. 

[Thevshi]

The counter forces that the miniature cyclones were creating seemed to be affecting the anomaly, as it remained roughly where it was and not attacking her again or going after the Stopwatch. Velocity could see Hronos had moved Smith well away from the anomaly and the moved further away himself, presumably with the Stopwatch. Of course, the speedster was not sure it was anywhere near far enough away from the anomaly, it certainly wasn’t if she wanted to get over there.

That just mean she needed to keep the anomaly where it was and hopefully finish it off. So she continued her hypersonic speed in the circle around the anomaly, keeping the miniature cyclones going. The ground around the anomaly was being ripped up by the forces generated by the cyclones. Once again the anomaly appeared to be held in pace by the disturbance Velocity was generating. The question was for how long.

[Supercape]

GM

 

As the distortion once again buckled and shimmered, it seemed to be losing mass, or volume, or something else. Whatever it was, it was well outside the normal parameters of four dimensions. Just looking at it made eyes and brain hurt in a odd way. 

 

Meanwhile, as Hronos charged through the Jungle, now cold and icy, with hailstones joining the rain and winds whipping up, he heard and then spotted the other T-Rex. It was just as large, just as angry, running through the Jungle like a beast on a mission, making a beeline for him. 

 

"Behind you!" yelled John at him, needlessly, before buckling to his knees, cold and wet, His shredded clothing offered little protection from the now harsh weather caused by the Anomaly's breach of the Null Zone. Even the air seemed thinner. And he was in bad shape from being tossed around in the Anomaly. Even a strong man like him could take so much. 

[Vahnyu]

It didn't take much effort for Hronos to spot the giant rampaging Dinosaur gunning for him, even throught the thickness of the trees. The problem was that his hands were preoccupied by having to hold the Stopwatch, which made things slightly awkward. I doubt that I can exert enough brute force to take care of this creature as well. He thought, as he worked in zig-zag patterns through the trees. I will have to rely on using a rapid succession of blows aimed at the vulnerable spots of the T-Rex. That course of action should definitely ensure that I will draw the attention of the Dinosaur. Afterwards, it will be a simple matter to lead the creature around.

 

With that in mind, Hronos ran straight at the T-Rex, clutching the Stopwatch on one hand, and making a clenching fist with the other. He thrusted his fist forward, and it disappeared as it went through a purple coloured hole. Hronos ran around the Tyranosaurus, under its belly, on its knees, behind its back, and over its head, as a multitude of holes appeared, delivering a barrage of time-delayed fists from his disappeared hand. Then, jumping from the creature's head, Hronos took flight, making sure that he'd be just out of reach for the dinosaur to follow him.

[Thevshi]

With the anomaly still appearing to be active, Velocity had little choice but to continue with the attack she had been using against it.  She saw the other T-rex remerge from the jungle to attack Hronos, who luckily was able to avoid the attack and how he counter-attacked before taking into the air to say away from the dinosaur.

 

But there was little she could do about that at the moment, as she continued to move around the anomaly at hypersonic speeds, more sonic booms echoing over the jungle.  Again she appeared to be able to affect the anomaly, but not quite as well as she had in her previous attempts.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The anomaly's actions were hard to perceive - it was blurred, incoherent, and existed in more than four dimensions, breaking several of them. Its vaguely humanoid appearance did look up, directly towards Hronos. 

 

One could imagine its eyes focussing in, like a hawk on prey. It did not speak, but there was some sound, something primitive, like a hunters joy. 

 

And with that, it whipped around Velocity, barely brushing her, leaving a trail of broken and shredded vegetation, and launched itself into the sky, curling and bending time and space, right towards Hronos. 

 

Around the spot where Velocity and the Anomaly had tussled, the ground and flora showed signs of Velocities super speeding destruction. And cracks were appearing in the Null Dome...

[Vahnyu]

The Dinosaur didn't seem phased from the attack Hronos delivered to it, and the manifestation of Collapse was closing in on him rapidly. Hronos attempted some evasive maneouvers as he tried to shake the entity off, and headed towards the ground. If he had teeth, Hronos would no doubt be gritting them right now, seeing as he was fervently trying to keep the Stopwatch away from its would be owner. There must be a reasonable course of action for me to take, in order to prevent Collapse from aqcuiring the Stopwatch... Hronos thought to himself, but try as he might, he could not come up with a satisfactory answer, even with all the time in the world. Then... this means that I must seek an answer in more unreasonable means... Pushing his thinking process to its limits, Hronos, frantically searched and searched for a solution, until one revealed its ugly face to him, in the form of a violent spark errupting from within his chest.

 

The sudden realisation led Hronos to reconfigure his chest in order to open it up, similar to how it did in order for Hronos to unleash the powers of the Essence of Time in a great expanse. This time, however, Hronos wasn't aiming on firing anything, but instead, he took the Stopwatch, and placed inside his chest, right next to the Essense of Time. Needless to say, the reaction from the Essense and the device was a violent one, sparks of chronal energy flying around wildly out of control, and Hronos convulsing in pain, as a surge of energy ran through every inch of his body like an electric volt. "GrRrrrRAAAAaaaAAAAGGGGghhhh!!!" How he managed to seal the compartment in his chest through all the pain was nothing sort of a miracle.

[Thevshi]

Even as the anomaly moved towards her to attack, Velocity was moving so fast that she was already moving away by the time it reached where she had been, as it had failed to fully account for her movement. But she could only watch as it flew up into the air towards Hronos, who apparently had the Stopwatch now.

The yellow clad speedster skid to a halt for a moment, unsure what she was going to do if they remained in the air. But the Hronos flew down and placed the Stopwatch inside his android body and cried out in pain.

"Hronos!" Velocity cried out as the second T-Rex started charging towards him.

In a flash, she was between him and the charging dinosaur, ready to dodge any attack from the massive creature to try to buy the android more time to recover from whatever happened to him.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The strange anomaly, the projection of Collapses will, was driven by a single minded purpose. To retrieve the stopwatch. Whilst his "mother", at least loosely speaking, may have distracted him, the anomaly was still of singular focus. 

 

Again whipping through time and space, swimming through the dimensions as if they were water, the anomaly glided down towards the helpless Hronos, enveloping him in a crackling distortion, as energy and matter flew this way and that, seeking to bend, crush, and rend the artificial hero. 

 

"Hurts don't it" said John from across the jungle, exhausted. His call was half groan, half shout. Despite his own pain and fatigue, he couldn't resist the wise crack to the metal man who had destroyed his own dream. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile, the enraged T-Rex, its cybernetic implant beeping all the faster, its screaming alarm pitch higher and louder, almost ultrasonic, stomped through the jungle and rain as fast as it could - hurtling along, smashing trees, bracken and undergrowth as it went without a pause. Its sheer power and size drove through the strange menagerie of flora in the Null Zone like a tank. 

 

Up above, the breach flared, the absence of dimensions beyond was truly mind bending, beyond human comprehension. And then, a crack...another...

 

The breach was widening. 

 

The winds whipped up, the rain lashed down harder. Lightning bolts coursed the sky, and the coldness ramped up, beyond mere bitterness. John Smith, in his shredded clothes, shuddered, pale, and fell to the ground blue of skin. 

 

And that was not all...the ground seemed to shift, everyone felt lighter, as if the Breach was sucking more and more into that hole that was not a hole, including gravity. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity's long brown wig whipped around behind her in the wind and storm that was swirling in the Null Zone.  She would have put up a hand to shield her face from the beating rain, if her goggles did not stop it already.  For the moment Hronos seemed unaffected by the anomaly, although he was still not moving for some reason. 

The T-Rex was heading towards them, but still some distance away.  The devastation being caused by the breach was one of their biggest concerns at the moment, as she could not try to go after the anomaly again with Hronos so close. 

 

Looking back over to the dome, she saw Robert and started towards him, something made a bit easier by the reduced gravity caused by the breach.  She hoped he was recovering more from the procedure he had gone through, as she really needed his physics knowledge right now.

 

In a flash, the yellow clad speedster was next to Robert.

 

"Robert, please tell my your thinking clearer.  How do we close that breach?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

Robert winced, closing his blurred eyes and opening them again, trying to focus. 

 

"What? Breach?" he said, pressing his fingers to his temple in effort. At least he wasn't rambling so much now. 

 

"I feel lighter...cold...." he muttered, before looking up at the Null Zone Breach. 

 

"What is that? It hurts to look at it...some kind of...I don't know...I can't think...if the Null Zone is outside of normal space time, then the breach must be like a crack in the shell. The Null Zone is collapsing in on itself...." he frowned. 

 

"That's bad, isn't it? We have to stop it, suture it or something, but...I don't know how...maybe the Caretaker does...." he said, bumbling along his words. "The zone must be maintained by something...must be inside the dome..." he speculated. 

 

Meanwhile, Hronos was crunched by the Anomaly, who spun around the robot, changing form into something even more bizzare, the light and physical dimensions distorting wildly...

[Thevshi]

Velocity was relieved that Robert appeared to be a bit more clear in the head, though still not completely himself.  Though whether that was from the procedure or the breech in the Null Zone was hard to tell.

 

The yellow clad speedster saw John Smith collapse some distance away (a rather trivial distance to her) and anomaly shift itself so that it was able to harm Hronos.  She was torn.  Hronos needed her help.  But at the moment, the only thing she could really do against the anomaly would also potentially cause him harm.  John Smith also needed help. 

 

For the moment, she would have to trust that Hronos could hold out for a few more seconds.  "I'll be right back."  She said to Robert, before she was gone in a blur of yellow.

 

She covered the distance to John Smith in the blink of an eye, scooping him up off the ground and then returning back to where Robert was.

 

"Here, get him inside and try to find the Caretaker or any of the other people in the dome and see what you might be able to do to help them stabilize the Null Zone.  I need to help Hronos.  Be safe."

 

After handing Smith off to Robert, she was gone again, moving close to where Hronos was.

"Hronos!  Try to get clear of the anomaly!"  She shouted over the storm.