[Time Warp] Time Means Nothing (Dynamo)

[Dr Archeville]

It was a curious thing, time. You always know it exists, but it never seems to flow uniformly. For a particular blonde haired hero, that sentiment was carried to extremes in even normal circumstances. Today would turn those circumstances completely on their head.

Dynamo was on his morning patrol throughout the city, when the portals started showing up. Like everyone else he had no idea what was going on at first, and just like everyone else, he didn’t have much of a say in the matter either. No sooner did he turn to investigate than did a portal open up at his feet, swallowing him whole as he fell into its depths.

He was spat out on the other side several thousand feet into the air in a city whose buildings reached high into the heavens. Thankfully for him, there was a nearby building as he was able to use his mastery of electricity to create a charge on his feet to drag him to range of the building which he then used to get back onto solid ground. The immediate danger of splatting now passed, Dynamo could really take in his surroundings. “I have no idea where the heck I am…” mused Dynamo after a moment. There wasn’t a single landmark he could recognize, but judging from the people driving flying cars, he had to guess that he was in the future. While pondering his next move, there was an explosion way off in the distance, and that was never a good sign, in any time.

When Dynamo arrived on scene there was a fire fight between what appeared to be the police and some sort of criminal organization, a well-organized one judging by the level of their equipment and matching uniforms. Dynamo dashed into action, dodging laser fire before laying a good old fashioned 21st century beat down on some unsuspecting goons. As the last goon crumbled to the ground, the police warily approached. “Thanks for the help, but who are you?” asked the man in the fanciest looking uniform. “Dynamo. I’m one of the good guys. And this is going to sound really crazy, but uh… where the heck am I? And more specifically when?”

Before the officer had a chance to answer however, several more people arrived on the scene by air, and judging by their appearance, Dynamo figured them to be local super heroes. “Looks like the Gang has been taken care of.” “They had help.” “Who is that? He looks familiar…” they muttered to one another as they came in for their landing. They exchanged a few words with the officer Dynamo had been addressing before they showed up. He couldn’t quite catch what they were saying as the gang members would now being round up into transports of some kind and weren’t exactly being quiet about it. Though the word “Legion” came up quite a few times.

Dynamo hung around while this was going on as he wanted to make sure the bad guys didn’t try to make a break for it, and he figured this was his opportunity to get some answers, and it’s not like he had anywhere to be. Eventually his patience rewarded him and the trio of heroes made their way over to Dynamo. It was two woman and a man, though none appeared to be older than 40. They all were wearing blue and gold colored costumes, of a similar design. The man spoke first.

"Hello. The officers have informed me that you helped in their arrest of these dangerous criminals. On behalf of the Legion, I thank you for your contribution." he said as he extended his hand to Dynamo.

"Anytime." says Dynamo as he shakes the man's hand.

"I am called Power Man, and these are fellow heroes of the Legion: Amber Starr and Mercury. If I may ask, who are you?"

"The name's Dynamo, pleasure to meet you. ... So uh... odd question: where am I and uhh, more specifically when?" he asked for the second time today.

Amber Starr and Power Man turned to look at Mercury at this question. "Time travel right?" she says with a shrug of her shoulders, and looks at Dynamo for a nod to the affirmative, though it seems like she was expected it. "There's been some temporal anomalies recently, though you're the first we've personally encountered. We've yet to determine a cause, but maybe we can get to the bottom of it with your help. And to answer your question, this is Freedom City, in the year 3025." she explained calmly.

"Woof. A little out of my jurisdiction. I'm from Freedom City 2011."

"Wow, okay then. Guess you're taken aback by the technology we've got here."

"Ehh, not really, I knew Dr. Archeville."

"That does explain things." muttered Amber.

"Indeed." continued Mercury, "His theories formed the basis for many of our technologies."

"Heh, figured he'd be remembered after this long. So uh, you guys got a base of operations or are we going to talk on the street all day?"

After a quick jaunt through the city, and some rather bizarre architecture, Dynamo found himself at the headquarters of the Freedom Legion. Dynamo let out a long whistle as he took in the scale of the place. "Amber and I will inform the Legion of what's going on. You accompany Mercury to her lab, to see if we can get to the bottom of why you're here and to see if we can send you back."

"Sounds like a plan."

...

"...and if all goes according to plan, I should be able to use that frequency to send you back." concluded Mercury as they arrived at the lab.

"Alright, so now we just need to figure out if any of that mess you just said is actually possible."

"Basically." snorted Mercury. Throwing the door open she continued "Hey, we've got a visitor, act all prim and proper." she called to the room at large

"You offend me! When am I ever not prim and proper?" answered a voice from seemingly the walls itself. A familiar voice.

"Dude...? VINCE?!" yelped Dynamo startled.

"ELI!?" exclaimed the equally started AI as the monitors on the wall popped into life, revealing the familiar image of the Artificial Interceptor.

"How the heck did you wind up here?" asked Eli incredulously, peeling off his mask to get a better look at his comrade in arms.

"I took the long way. I guess this is where you popped out that day huh?" answered Vince, as the date "April 15th, 2011" flashed across the bottom on the screen.

"Wait wait wait. Eli? Eli East? The scientist?" asked Mercury looking from Vince to Eli and back again. "You didn't say he was a super hero too!" cried Mercury to Vince, somewhat accusatory. Vince just shrugged "Whatreyougondo?"

Before the issue could be pressed any further however, alarms started to blare. "Good to see some things never change..." muttered Eli under his breath as Mercury started clacking away on the keyboard.

...

Dynamo accompanied Mercury to the scene of the crime. Lord Graviton was enacting one more in his long line of doomsday plots. Just one problem: this one was working. When they arrived on scene, Graviton had already been taken care of by the rest of the Legion, but his weapon was still working, despite being in pieces. The Legion was gathered ontop of a nearby building, overlooking what appeared to be a large orange crack in reality.

"It's an antigravity machine." explained Mercury to the gathered members of the Legion. "That doesn't seem so bad-" "Anti-gravity as in it is designed to destroy gravity." cut in Mercury. "And its a self perpetuating process, like a black hole. And without gravity, the whole universe will be undone." "Is there anyway to stop it?" "Theoretically, yes. Right now its weak and unstable. If we were to overfeed it, it would collapse in on itself. But, according to my calculations, the amount of gravity that would need to be in effect around the crack would prevent any of us from moving. I'm afraid its not physically possible to stop."

"Not quite." spoke up Dynamo, breaking the silence. "The force of gravity exerted by an object is proportional to its mass. And as an object approaches the speed of light, its mass becomes infinite. Wish me luck."

"No! Don't do it!" cried Mercury just a fraction of a second too late, Dynamo was already well outside of the city limits.

Gotta go faster. Can't let it all end like this. Faster. Faster. Faster. Thought Eli as buildings, then cities, then nations and finally continents became nothing but blurs to him. At this speed he could see the smallest, individual beams of light from the sun strike the targets, as if they were arrows. When he entered Freedom City limits for the 53rd time, he passed them. It was a sensation mortals were not meant to understand. At this impossible speed, Dynamo ran head first into the crack in the universe.

There was no flash of light, no explosion, no massive display of force. Just stillness. From their vantage point, the Legion could see that the crack had disappeared, and where it once stood, there was now Dynamo, frozen unmoving in midstride, a smile on his face. "What... what happened to him?" "He absorbed the nature of the portal into himself. He has contained, and he uses his speed to feed it. But by doing so, he is removed from time. He'll stay frozen like that... forever." reported Mercury solemnly.

...

"Nnnn...oooo...tttt......qqq...uuu...iii...ttt...eee..." spoke Eli ever so softly, as he ever so slowly inched along in his "run".

"It's not possible! No one is that fast, not even him! How did he do it?" questioned Mercury in disbelief. It was about that time, that she noticed the strange glass cylinder in his hand. "Time in a bottle." she gasped breathlessly. "The stories were true, he really did make them. And he used it to surpass the limitations on speed. That extra boost gave him enough to contain the anti gravity, and still have some speed left over. And as it collapses fully, he'll be able to return to full speed, I estimate it'll take him..." Mercury paused as she did some calculations, but then her face fell. "...500 years. He'll never reach his full speed again..."

...

"Www...ooo...rrr...ttt...hhh......iii...ttt."

It took Dynamo over a week to complete the step he was frozen in. It took another 5 months for him to be at normal human speed. More than 3 years later, when the portal that originally took Dynamo to this century opened up again, he still hadn't achieved 1% of his former top speed.

Pulling away from a passionate kiss with Mercury, Eli looked deep into her eyes. "Everything I've been through... because I was with you, it was worth it. I love you." "I love you too." And with that tearful farewell, Eli stepped back into his own time.

Three days later, when Mercury was working on a project in her lab, a familiar voice called out to her "You always did throw yourself into your work when you were upset." turning around to look at the monitors, she didn't see Vince, but rather Eli in his place. "I downloaded a subprogram of my mind into Vince's program in my time. One day I knew it would reach you."

Eli East, proof that to some, time is no obstacle.