“What happens if we get stranded there?” Kiyan's stomach felt worse.
“Your gift is unique as well as powerful. You are able to return to an exact moment in time and space. If the link is severed, return to when it wasn't and we can guide you back.” Theo hoped that Kiyan's powers were enough to survive on a fading island universe.
“What happens if I succeed?”
“You won't notice it but the universes will merge and become one. The past will flow into the future and they will become one again. If you are successful we will know before you do. Theo motioned to Ray and told Kiyan that he was ready. After asking both of them if they were ready he connected with Kiyan. “Open your senses, feel the flow around you. Let go and become one with the flow.” Kiyan felt Theo guiding his senses toward a point. The point was different than when he had used his senses to look around him. The point hadn't happened yet. Kiyan felt the familiar sensations of temporal distortion only this time it was blue light that was the last to fade. When everything was dark Kiyan realized the difference between going back into his own past and traveling through time. The burning sensation was absent, he felt.... untethered, like he could be anywhere any time. He caught his mind wandering when he saw glimpses of earth engulfed in dense radioactive clouds. His senses were heightened but even so he couldn't sense a single life form under the clouds. There was a nudge from Theo towards the point so Kiyan focused on it. He felt ages pass around him as he moved. A sensation unlike any he had ever felt. It was like watching a video in high speed but still seeing it like at normal speed. Reaching the point in time he looked at a landscape ravaged by time. At first thinking himself on the moon from the looks of the landscape he realized his error when he looked up and saw a similar object shining brightly in the black sky. Earth was dead. “Let go, find the light.” Kiyan decided that he was in the right time but the wrong place. Focusing on the point Kiyan felt it drawing nearer but it felt like swimming from water into air. Substance but less than before. “Let go, the words” felt distant as Theo spoke through the link. Releasing his grip on space he felt a sensation of drifting. Focusing on the point he felt it drawing him like a magnet. After what seemed like an eternity Kiyan sensed a change in the flow. It was weaker here, much weaker. Time was dying here and with it space. Kiyan felt the light before he opened his eyes.
Tall plants surrounded him on all sides. Hearing a rustle behind him Kiyan turned and found Ray. “I was worried I had lost you.”
“And miss out on this?” Ray's last scales disappeared and holographic hair shimmered into place revealing the face of a young man. “Actually I was more like an anchor behind a boat. Our telepathic connection pulled me through after you. It was a strange sensation seeing or feeling, whatever it was, the death of earth.”
Kiyan smiled at Ray's joke even as the complete devastation haunted him. “This is corn.” Kiyan's HUD gave a detailed description of the plant. “It went extinct on earth in the Mesopotamian Empire. Yet here is a whole field of it.”
“I dare say that we will find many strange things on this world.” Ray took an ear and sampled it. “It is even good for food. Humans should not have let it go extinct.”
Kiyan laughed. “The timeline we lived in should not have happened. It was the result of the drakken killing Merlin.”
“I like this world. Come on let's save Merlin.” Ray began looking around in an attempt to find out where he was. “By the way how are we supposed to know who he is?
“We find the drakken. Their only purpose here is to kill Merlin. We find them we find Merlin.” Kiyan accessed his implants and found several signals being propagated around him. Upon accessing several of the signals he was nearly overwhelmed by the voices of millions of people. Making a note of that frequency range he scanned other frequencies. Finding a faint one he discovered that it was connected to billions of linked systems. Scanning the systems he discovered what was known as the internet. The amount of data being stored on the web of connected devices was astonishing. Detailed information about weather and the surface of the earth. Global positioning satellites were the next thing he found. Tuning his implants to the GPS frequencies and storing the information about the earth Kiyan glanced up at a few clouds forming in the sky. It is going to rain soon.
Ray widened his eyes when Kiyan showed him the information he had gathered. “Where do we start?”
“Let's see if we can get the drakken to do the heavy lifting and let them find us.” Kiyan had a look that Ray decided he didn't like. “The drakken are sure to have an intelligence network here and they tracked Merlin to this time. They should at least have a good idea of where Merlin is. If we start making a scene someone is sure to come deal with us. The information I downloaded would seem to indicate that there is a city near here. We might start there.”
“So let's get moving.” Ray began to move off in a direction but accessed Kiyan's map and made a correction. “Well we could always fly.”
“I want it to be strange enough for the drakken to investigate but not so strange as to make the world investigate. I think a dragon flying into town would raise a few eyebrows.” Kiyan stifled a few giggles at the thought.
“Your loss, flying is a lot faster.” Ray parted the corn to reveal a road traveling in the direction of the city. “Can you hyper speed?”
“You mean enhance my body to move at high speeds? Ya, Corban has been training me on how to use it.” It is some sort of advanced fire bender trick. Kiyan thought back to when he had accessed it accidentally in a mock battle with Corban. Fred had said that they had been moving so fast that it sounded like thunder. Kiyan had not noticed until he had beat Corban. Corban had been moving fast also but not as fast as Kiyan. “You want to race?” It had come as no surprise that Ray was a firebender in his dragon forms. “Try not to go sonic.” Everything began to stand still as if frozen in place as their reactions grew faster. The miles to the city sped by like they were nothing. The occasional farmer made them detour into the fields but that hardly slowed them.
“Wow, I never saw a human city that looked like this.” Ray stopped at the crest of the hill overlooking the city. Tall metal buildings covered the valley bottom.
“That arch by the river, this must be Saint Louis. I was there in the other earth but it didn't look like this.” Kiyan joined him and gazed at the view.
“How do you plan on us getting the drakken's attention?” Ray turned from the view to look at Kiyan
“So the drakken are looking for a kid that hasn't ascended yet. From what I know descended sometimes begin to manifest powers before they ascend.” Kiyan stopped as he thought.
“Like Corban, so you want to do something that someone about to ascend might do in order to get their attention.” Ray picked up on Kiyan's line of thought.
“I could burst into flames or miraculously survive some accident. I might do a lot of things but I want something subtle.” Kiyan was still lost in thought.
“Oh I don't know, bursting into flames and miraculously surviving that might be subtle if done in front of the right people.” Ray brought a smile to Kiyan's face. But it soon faded as he returned to thought.
“Ray, you are a genius. That's it. The drakken probably are using the criminal element as spies. What if a group of them were to attack a defenseless boy and report that they had been defeated by said boy with the use of "magic”? Kiyan knew that his powers could be mistaken for magic by someone that didn't understand.
“That just might work. The criminals would never tell the law abiding people about the incident so the timeline would be preserved. Now we just have to find the right criminals.” Ray began to mutter as details of the plan formed in his mind. Comparison with Kiyan's plan and improvement on both plans left one carefully thought out plan.
Execution of the plan took hours longer to implement that Kiyan had thought. It wasn't until he was crawling over an alley that he touched the minds of some gang members that knew of strange mysterious people that wanted to kn
ow about anything strange things happening. It only took a few minutes for Kiyan to discover what they would have planned for the evening. It is amazing how much drugs can mess up how someone's mind operates. The rest fell into place easily. Kiyan adjusted his hologram emitter to replicate a computer pad like what a few people he had seen were carrying. Dropping to the ground around the corner from the gang he waited patiently. Kiyan was soon rewarded by feeling the dopy minds approaching his location. The drugged minds were not difficult to manipulate and he replace the image that they were seeing of him with the image of a young boy no more than twelve years old.
“Hey boy. What ya doin here with that fancy computer. Ya want someone to take it away from you?” The leader of the gang seemed to think his speech hilarious as he and half the gang burst into laughter.
“Leave me alone, I just want to go home.” Clutching his holographic computer to his chest Kiyan sounded like a scared little kid.
“Does da wittle kiddy want his mummy?” More laughter followed the latest attempt at comedy.
Kiyan had chosen a blind alley so he had nowhere to run, not that he had any plans of running. “Go away or I'll scream.”
“Who is gona to hear you? In fact I'm going to make you scream.” The leader seemed to have given up a career in comedy much to Kiyan's satisfaction. There was a click as a switch blade snapped open. Approaching the cowering kid the leader grabbed at the computer. Kiyan twisted aside and dropped the computer which shattered and went dark. “You little brat. I'm gonna make you pay for that.” Kiyan felt the cold metal at his throat as the leader grabbed his shirt and tried to hoist Kiyan up in front of him. Kiyan had to make the druggy not notice the fact that the twelve year old weighed far too much. “Come on boys, let's have some fun with this one. Kiyan grabbed the wrist holding the knife and channeled heat into his hands. “BUGGERS, that little brat burnt me.” The leader was staggering backwards holding his blistered hand. “KILL him.”
Ah the rush of battle. Kiyan bent a couple of fireballs into the ground behind the gang. The flash of fire and smoke billowed up at the entrance to the alley blocking all escape.” FLAMA,” humans thought that magic required incantations and magic words so Kiyan decided to oblige.
“Shoot the little turd.” The gang leader forgot his wrist as he pulled a gun.
“METALLICA FLUIDIC.” Kiyan metal bent each of the weapons being drawn on him. The gang charged on him all at once instead of shouting names at Kiyan anymore. “ICE FIRE,” the blue flames curled out from Kiyan's hand and flowed across the ground, freezing the first couple thug's legs. “VAPOR SWORD,” the blast of air knocked out a couple more. The ice blades were in Kiyan's hand when the first thug reached him. “TIME SLOW.” They slowed to nearly a stop as Kiyan sped up. A quick slash left a frozen cut on one leg as a stab left the other leg useless. A spin and a roll with a couple slashes left months of weight lifting in ribbons. Dodging the slow punch of the next thug was easy. A blade in the right spot left paralysis in the outstretched arm. A few years and it would probably heal. Click. Missed one of the guns. Kiyan saw the flames blow out of the barrel and a bullet spun out of the flames. One thing I have to say is that despite the drugs the gang leader had good aim or it could have been luck. Bad luck.
Space seemed to move slower as the bullet approached. Kiyan reached up and caught the bullet in his hand. There was a blue flash as the bullet's energy was spent into Kiyan's shields. There was another long click as the trigger was pulled again. Kiyan didn't wait to see the bullet. Kiyan's eyes flashed as the blue arc extended from his hand and connected with the leader's chest. The bullet slammed into Kiyan's hand as the leader landed twenty feet farther away. Kiyan glanced around at the screaming guys laying around him. A quick scan indicated that two of them were already planning on calling the contractor and telling him about the sorcerer. Mission successful. Kiyan walked into the wall of flames and was soon lost from sight.
“Hey this is one of the boys from Saint Louis, you wanted us to call you if anything strange happened?” The gang leader was unable to walk and had some pretty bad burns but he was making the call.
“My clients tell me that they found the boy that they want but tell me about this strange thing.” The voice on the other end of the phone had a honey smooth irritating quality to it. Kiyan scowled from his hiding spot on the roof. He had isolated the cell signal being used by the gang leader
“My boys and I were walking along and we found this kid. We was just joshin around with him and he went like crazy. He just started screaming things at us then he started using magic and slinging fire and ice at us.” It wasn't exactly like Kiyan remembered it but close enough for his purposes.
“My, my, quite the story. Are you sure you didn't just dream it all up with the help of some drugs?” The man's voice on the other end made Kiyan's skin crawl.
“Hey punk, I don't make stuff like this up. I have pictures.” The glowing runic symbols Kiyan had left in the alley were proving useful.
“Send me the pictures and any other information you have and I will let my clients know. If they like it you will be rewarded.” The new steely tone of the voice sounded interested. Kiyan had been able to track the phone call to one of the buildings down town.
“What about a reward. The turd cut my guys to ribbons. I need some recompense.” The gang leader was getting mad.
“Don't worry, I'm sure you will be more than happy with what I have planned for a reward.” The silky smooth tones were back as Kiyan located the exact origin of the call.
Turning off his implants Kiyan spoke to Ray. “He said that they have already found the boy. I found the location of one of their contacts.” Ray didn't hesitate after Kiyan gave him the location. They soon arrived at a dingy building in the poorer part of town. Activating their cloaks the both of them walked into the building unnoticed. Kiyan scanned the building before he found the man they were looking for. Forcing the man to not notice they opened the door. Kiyan paused for a moment when he saw the biggest person of his life. He closed the door as he heard footsteps on the stairs. Ray and Kiyan found a corner of the room as half a dozen people entered the room.
“There you are. I called you ten minutes ago. What took so long? Never mind don't answer that. I have a task for you. There are some low lifes over on the other side of town and I need you to go and collect some pictures from them. After that I need them liquidated.” The steely tone was back in the big man's voice.
“Liquidated?” The burly thug asked.
“Do I have to spell everything out for you? Do it where they won't be found. Get my meaning, capish?” There was an edge that the burly man understood in the big man's voice.
Kiyan decided that it had gone on far enough. It only took a second or two before all six of the men were laying on the floor. Turning to the big man Kiyan deactivated his cloak. The flabby face was a few shades paler than it had been before.
“So, they weren't lying. I'm sure we can come to an understanding, I'm a reasonable man.” There was a glimmer in the big man's eye as Kiyan look back at the door in time to see three more guys disabled by Ray.
“Tell me who your clients are.” Kiyan took the chair on the other side of the table.
“My clients are good upstanding citizens.” There was a quiver in the voice now.
“Good upstanding people need people killed for them? I want to know about any particularly scaly ones.” Kiyan noted the still paler shade that washed over the big man's face.
“I know my rights. You need a search warrant. Only the city security has anything remotely as fancy as you do in the way of toys.” There was a certain note of triumph in the voice.
Kiyan put his hands on the table and let the ice fire play around his fingers. Frost began growing across the polished table top. “I'm not in law enforcement, I'm more of a freelancer.”
“C.C.Cold fire? They would kill me if I told you.” There was real fear in the voice now. “Just leave me alone. You don’t know what you are gettin
g into.”
“So you could kill more helpless criminals? I called city security to their address. After all they did help me find you and if I was so nice to them how do you think I will be treating you? Now if you tell me what I want to know, all you have to do is confess your crimes to the law enforcement and I will let you live. Besides they might kill me and the whole thing might end with that.” The big man was watching the frost grow across the table towards him as Kiyan planted the idea.
“It’s a dead drop, my guy just leaves stuff there and then I get a call.” There was a flicker of hope in the big man's eyes as he spoke.
“Tell me you know where it is and that I don't have to interrogate someone else and I will leave a few fingers.” Kiyan put his hand under his jacket as he grew an ice blade. He got the desired wilting action when he stabbed the ice blade into the table.
“It’s an abandoned property on the edge of town. I think they own it. Please you promised.” The big man looked like he was close to blubbering. “We delivered the other boy there just a few hours ago.”
“I said I would let you live. Nothing about fingers. Kiyan gave the glittering blade a spin. Now I am feeling generous today so if you call the law and confess to them here in this room I will let you keep your fingers. I will be right here watching you so be good now or I might get the notion to start on toes. And I mean really confess, not just some little things.” Kiyan reactivated his cloak and took a position at the door.
“Would you have really done it? I mean the fingers.” There was a curious tone to Ray’s telepathic question.
“Of course not. Who do you think I am?” Kiyan had to laugh silently.
“You were pretty convincing.” Ray joined into the silent laughter.
The big man looked around the room as he dialed the phone. Not seeing anything he hung the phone up. Kiyan took his ice blade and flung it at the desk in front of the big man. There was a flurry of dialing as he stared at the blade embedded in the middle of the table.