The Time Stone (44 page)

“
The Culto!!!” They
exclaimed simultaneously.

“
What the heck?” Asked
Drax rhetorically as the beast drove himself onto the platform with
a sudden halt and tremendous roar into the echoing cavern above
them.

“
Just FYI, the time stone
is glowing again” said James.

“
Thank God for small
favors” said Mercedes.

“
I will claim the Orgola
Golon!” He said in a crinkly voice as if communicating by some
electronic device hidden in his coat that translated his roars into
the English language.

“
Who are you?” Asked
Drax.

“
Capulow!” The beast
responded as he leaped up with amazing agility and hopped over the
pedestal as he reached for the light with his free hand and grabbed
a round jewel that faded once removed from the pedestal. Capulow
landed on his feet and ran back across the bridge at lightning
speed once possessing the item. The platform began to shake as did
the entire cavern with rocks crumbling downward in a sudden
avalanche of natural stone.

“
What the heck?” Said
Tina.

“
We got to go now” said
Drax and the four ran back across the bridge back to the platform
they came from.

“
Where did the Capulow guy
go off to?” Asked Tina.

“
How do we get out of
here?” Asked Mercedes as they looked about and saw no visible signs
of escape. James reached for the Time Stone and saw it was glowing
along with the five orbs at its center. In the distance, Mercedes
pointed out “look!”

There was Capulow running across the
stone walls vertically at lightning speed seeming like a blur
colored in blue and gold until he vanished into the rock’s many
caves above towards the central opening.

“
That’s amazing” Tine
said. The rocks began to snowball and come down in larger intervals
striking the bridge and the platforms, the bridge began to give way
and drop the multiple stories below.

“
Let’s get out of here the
only way we know how” said James as he held the Time Stone out and
turned it causing the temporal wormhole to appear as they have seen
it many times before.

“
Where will we go now?”
Screamed Mercedes.

“
Any place is better than
here” said James.

“
Ladies first” said
Drax.

“
Such a gentleman” said
Tina running first followed by Mercedes as they transformed into
balls of hot yellow energy being sucked in one by one. James and
Drax looked at one another as the rocks kept falling onto their
location and ran together transforming into balls of hot yellow
energy just as a giant boulder came crashing down on the spot where
they stood and then the balls of light were sucked into the roaring
vortex that quickly faded thereafter. The cavern collapsed onto
itself with continuing furiousness with not a soul remaining in the
caves.

The roar of the vortex was loudly
heard by the crew of the Doom ship Gorge Hunter. The captain and
first mate stood in awe at the unbelievable power before their
eyes; a light punctured itself into thin air and emitted four
projectiles that were transformed into people they never met. As
the light faded, Drax and his crew found themselves in the presence
of another crew onboard a tall ship with metallic underpinnings
decorating the wooden hull and tall masts made of the same material
with light diodes and beacons surrounding every yardarm, stern, and
port.

“
Ahoy Mate” said the long
winded captain whose long dark beard and hair, eye patch, long
coat, gold earring, and mechanical robotic parrot on his shoulder
made him fit the stereotypical pirate definition they were all
familiar with.

“
Ahoy yourself” said Tina
cavalierly receiving somewhat dirty looks from her
friends.

“
Uh, what she means is we
are lost.” Said Drax calmly. “We would like to know where we
are”

“
Or when” added
Mercedes.

“
Aboard ye are brigadier
freights of far log hanging and weaponry Gorge Hunter. I be Captain
Rigel Cutlass. We welcome you beings of far flung
places.”

“
Right” said James “we
be…”

“
Time jumpers are you”
said Captain Cutlass anticipating his answer. “We welcome you as
guests aboard the Gorge Hunter.”

“
Thanks” said
James.

In one of the many quarters below
deck, Drax sits on a bed with no feet.

“
This is pretty cool”
commented Mercedes.

“
It’s a flying bed, can’t
get much more high tech” said Tina.

“
Yeah” replied
James.

“
Who was that beast…?
Capulow?” Asked Drax muttering under his breath.

“
There was a legend
i
n Celtic mythology, a giant cat knows as
the ‘
Cath
Palug
’ is said to have terrorized the
Welsh island of Anglesy before being defeated by the legendary King
Arthur in the middle ages.”

“
So you think this Capulow
was the Cath Palug?” Asked Mercedes.

“
Anything is possible
now.” Said Drax.

“
But he just vanished. I
have never seen anyone that evolved and what was the red stone we
saw?” Tina muttered.

“
He was amazing. But this
is the future. We have to expect the unexpected.” Said
Mercedes.

“
I noticed strange writing
on that alter where the device was.” Said Drax. “It was a message
translated as ‘time waits for no one… the voyage is long … great
power awaits… let the light be your guide. The truth is your fate.”
Said Drax.

“
What does that mean?”
Asked Tina.

“
Some kind of treasure, a
weapon? The Dark Star?” Asked Mercedes reasoning it out.

“
It’s a treasure map to
find the dark star” said James “and we lost it.”

“
But we can get it back.
We got time on our side” Said Tina.

“
Yeah, it’s good we’re
still in the same time period, right?” Asked James.

“
More or less” added Tina,
“from what Captain Cutlass’s First Mate Kelron told us this is
4224.56 or in terms of our calendar way out there.”

“
The system changed some
time ago,” said Drax.

“
We’re like a fish out of
water here piecing things together bit by bit” said
Mercedes.

“
Any idea on the look of
things?” Asked Drax.

“
Look… yeah he looked real
good, cute but not my type. Kind of self-righteous.” Said
Tina.

“
Look of the situation, I
meant” said Drax sternly.

“
Oh well, we’re definitely
post ‘great conflict’” she replied “everyone seems to curse it as
the downfall of everything.”

“
Whatever the great
conflict was or caused by.” Commented Mercedes.

“
We can still investigate
and find the dark star. There are lives at stake here.” Said
Drax.

“
Or we could go home”
added James. “The Time Stone still has some life to it” he holds it
out and shows it is glowing with the five orbs at its
center.

“
Where’s your sense of
adventure, James?” Asked Tina rhetorically.

“
I left it back there with
my lunch” said James partly joking. “But we don’t belong here.
Let’s try to focus in the void to wind up back in 2012. We overshot
the mark before but if we all really concentrate…”

“
I don’t know about that
James, I think we were sent here for a reason, it explains why we
are still here even after going through the void again.” Said
Drax.

“
Don’t tell me your
turning religious on us” said James.

“
I was raised Roman
Catholic. I learned about the sacraments and the gospel and that
Christ died for our salvation.

Maybe the Virgin and the Saints are
leading us on a path.” Said Mercedes.

“
For what purpose?” Asked
Drax curiously.

“
I don’t know” said
Mercedes shaking her head “but it is worth finding out. There is
more out there for us to see and do.” She added.

“
We are natural born
adventurer explorers after all right James?” Asked Tina reminding
him of their earlier conversations.

“
We can ask Captain
Cutlass for help to get to where we need to be.” Said
Mercedes.

“
Well, let’s be careful
here. We don’t know what repercussions our actions would have.”
Cautioned James.

“
What about the Scorpion
car?” Asked Mercedes.

“
Is it still accessible?”
“Should be but needs to recharge before we can access it again but
there is no distance where it cannot be summoned when needed” said
Drax.

“
What Scorpion car?” Asked
Tina.

Drax looked up at James and Mercedes
and smirked. “We’ll show you later!”

“
The first mate told me
there is a story of something called the great island where
mysterious things have been known to happen and ships destroyed
when approaching. Chances are it’s where the map would have left us
or it’s a good place to start.” Said Tina.

“
Ships destroyed?” Echoed
Mercedes fearfully.

“
We have no choice” said
Drax. “Tell the Captain we have to go to the great
island.”

Standing on the deck of the Gorge
Hunter, Captain Cutlass and his crew, including his first mate
Ricon Kelron and cabin girl Yulelka Maken, were preparing for the
voyage.

“
We shall embark on a
quest of vision and courage.” Said Captain Cutlass. “We shall help
as we have been asked by our guests to find the legendary Dark
Star.” The voices from the large crowd of seafaring men and women
became loud and uncertain as they questioned the logic of this
task.

“
But no one has ever
returned from the quest for the dark star.” Yelled one brave
sailor. But Captain Cutlass was courageous and fierce and issued
orders commanding their obedience and they did obey.

“
Open the storm drains,
batten down the hatches, prepare the masts, and set hole-sail
rigged onward, engines and beacons adrift for full speed ahead. The
open waters promise to be rough surrounding the great island. But
we have proven rough situations before and we can prove prevalent
through this as well. Let us remember today we fight for our
culture and the culture of our neighbors on the mainland. While we
have never agreed much before, I admit, we must work with them and
with our time jumper allies for there is a greater threat to our
shores, a menace of evil whose armies threaten all we hold true and
dear. Together let us embark on our greatest journey.” The crowd
erupted in applause swallowing their senses of pride and
fear.

Within moments of the
captain’s orders the ship sailing preparations were underway and
the voyage was set for. The masts lit up with an explosion of light
from holographic generation that illuminated in air around the ship
in the form of sails. The weaponry was prepped from stern to stern
made of silver material and prepared to emit high pitched plasma
particles. The light beacons lit up with bright red amber shining
in the dawning sky. The triple decks with over 400 rooms were
battened down with metallic awnings and armor around the wooden
hull. Tina smiled when she saw the crew hustling about this amazing
marvel bestowed before her, a future pirate ship. The ship began
its magnificent voyage across the dark seas ahead at the break of
dawn with the wave of Cutlass’ large red flag in his hands
representing the old union prior to the great conflict.

“Let us
achieve true success!” The bright lights from the holographic sails
flowed in the winds and the tail of the vehicle emitted vapor
energy cleansed from the bowels of the ships core reactor and
emitting in trails of three pushing the ship along the mighty rough
seas’ crimson waves.

Tina approached James who had his eyes
closed on the starboard side of the ship facing the water tide.
“What are you doing buddy?” She said.

“
I think I can see it”
said James.

“
Huh?” Noted
Tina.

“
The stone from the cavern
of light, the one Capulow stole. It is nearby. I can sense it. I
don’t know how but I can sense it and see it close to this
place.”

“
Your powers must be
growing again” she added.

“
I can just reach out with
my mind” he continued speaking with his eyes closed and focusing on
the sight of the red lightless stone in his mind’s eye.

“
Concentrate dude” said
Tina wide eyed in shock.

“
Hmm” James focused on the
stone and felt his entire body shiver as he began to shake. His
eyes began to light up within a few moments. He felt the pull of
the object he sought and used all his might to focus on it and pull
it towards them. Several minutes would pass when one of the crew
would begin yelling at the top of his lungs that he saw something
“curses, curses, there be omens in the air” and as they all soon
looked up and all saw what appeared to be a red jewel flying above
them and drawing closer to the Gorge Hunter. The winds picked up as
the stone vibrated in the air tunneling to them like a torpedo in
the distance coming towards them and circling the port side of the
ship arriving in a full sweep into the air above James. Tina
reached up and grabbed it.