The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)
Chapter 80

The foursome, James, Tina, Mercedes, and Drax landed together on their bottoms, rolling onto the grassy hill by a mighty oak tree overlooking the plains below, the scorpion car soaring over them and crashing to the lawn nearby as the portal vanished slowly into its subspace dominion. They rolled down the hill until they came to a grassy precipice overlooking a cliff to the valley below with a series of small platforms in the rock face. A small tree stripped of most of its leaves has branched out over the cliff. As they had rolled down, Tina grabbed ahold of the strongest tree limbs rooted near the trunk of the tree and held on for dear life; James subsequently grabbed her legs as he rolled downward and felt himself pulled upward. With his free hand, he reached out and grabbed Mercedes’ arm and pulled her up. Drax felt himself head face down over the cliff as Tina let go of the time stone in her attempt to hold on to the tree, causing it to tumble down the hill and over the cliff moving past Drax as he felt himself pulled upward as Mercedes grabbed his leg with her free arm. Being the end of the elongated human chain, Drax grabbed the time stone by reaching out with both hands and gripping it tightly. The limb that Tina held broke off and the four fell down a couple of feet to the second grassy platform overlooking the valley below.

“Ouch, I’ll never get used to that!” shouted Tina.

“It’s the damn wormhole, keeps on shifting the event horizon.” Drax adds.

“Actually, it’s the frequency of spatial elevation and land topography that is affected by changes in time, sometimes over thousands of years. Since the wormhole is generally quasi-fixed in space and time, its position will appear to shift and deposit us at a different location when it’s the same, but in fact it’s the environment that has changed from one Time to another.” Mercedes explained to her stunned comrades.

“Well said, professor” joked James. “You sure know a lot.”

”Too bad the creators of the stone couldn’t fix that little mishap,” says Drax. “Suppose we land in a body of water one time or an uninhabitable region like a snow covered peak or dead space?” he finished with his hands on his hips.

Mercedes gulped.

“Oh my God, we’re together again.” says Tina.

“Awesome” screams Mercedes.

“Yes” says James.

“Oh crap, great, I missed you guys,” says Drax.

The four ran to one another and embraced and as they did, the time stone in Drax’s and Mercedes’ hands merged together as one and became one stone.

“We’re reunited and it feels so good...” sang Tina.

“Where we now or when are we?” asks Mercedes.

James looks down the hill at the town in the valley below. “And about the time stone, I’m sure that there are probably safety measures we haven’t learned about yet, but for now it’s dead. So, let’s get moving.” They sigh and walk through a valley to the town below. Drax clicks a button on the pocket beeper for the scorpion car, and the vehicle fades out and vanishes, blending into the surroundings, “It’s in stealth mode,” he winks and the others smile, impressed. They head down happy that for the moment at least they are together again. Drax smirks and asks, “Did I ever tell you guys how much I love each and every one of you? You’re awesome!”

In solitude in the well lit room of Valandir Mansion in the far end of the small town below, an isolated house that loomed like a monolith, a lonely figure sits in a large chair in a room adorned by the candlelight of multiple candelabra and a mantelpiece with a bust of Shakespeare, amongst a scattering of old world relics and artifacts. The elderly gentleman has a balding hair line, grayish hair, and dark pupils as large as olives. He sits curled up, a thin skeleton of a man, shivering no matter how hot it was indoors. He wore a red velvet robe and held a pipe on which he was puffing away. “Soon the time will come.” He says to himself over and over every night as he waited to fall asleep.

“Well, according to the local newspaper, ‘the Flintown Gazette’ the date is March 18, 1947,” says Drax, reading the headlines, “Local affiliate buys out town treasurer. There’s something you don’t hear about every day.”

“Maybe there is something there that can help us get home,” says James.

“And clear our names,” says Tina.

“That will be two cents please,” says a young woman approaching; she has chestnut brown hair and smiles at the foursome.

“Oh sorry,” says Drax putting the paper back.

“Yeah, we’re still flat broke” says James as they all walk away together. Then suddenly a swift movement stirred the wind before them. “What the …?” asks James. And suddenly standing before them is a young woman with an adventurous and grungy outfit.

“Who are you people?” asks the woman authoritatively, her slender form and athletic build making her seem energetic, and her determined air and hardnosed personality made her seem dangerous. She wore a white twill shirt and vest, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and a brown fedora decorated her blonde locks. She exhibited a primary virtue of never showing fatigue and maintaining courage in her pursuits. She has clear skin, a smooth complexion, and ears that extended slightly upward and to the side, with her hair curling about them. “I am Eugenia Smack, Female Bounty Hunter.”

“We are travelers just passing through,” says Drax.

“I am the law in this town. Do not let me catch you up to no good.” she stirred around with a jerking motion and stiffness about her as her words came out clumsily with a strong Latin American accent.

“I think we can manage fine.” says Drax.

“Make sure that you do as I will always have my eye out for you.” She twirled away and is gone in an instant.

“Weird chick.” says Mercedes.

“Interesting personality for sure.” says Drax.

“Did you notice anything about the way she moved and her ears?” questioned Drax.

“Yeah” says Tina. “What is up with that?”

“She is a human-beast hybrid” says Drax reading the output on his wrist device. “Her DNA is a mix of different species.”

“What? Is that possible?” asks Mercedes.

“Yes, sometime after the initial encounter, the Machination began experimenting with the idea to clone a beast and someone suggested combining human DNA to accelerate the transfiguration process. I didn’t think it is successful until now.”

“Look at those people” says Tina. The four gaze about as they walk further into town, and see people in routine activity: a postman making deliveries, a paperboy on his bike, a grocer carrying bags, and a milkman making his rounds. Each of them and others has strange features of their faces and bodies. One has extra hair on his face near his eyes, another with a wrinkled extra limb on her body, another with small blue orbs on his face and bear arms and legs, and yet another exhibited superior agility and speed in his rounds as he has a long furry tail curved around his right leg.

“They are all human-beast hybrids,” says Drax with a shock.

“This whole town is apparently,” says Mercedes.