As the world ends In Five Days, how will these heroes cope with not being able to stop it? Read on to find out.
Day 5
It’s March 27th, 2013. In five days the world is going to end and the only person who could do anything to stop it is dead.
She sits with her knees pulled tight to her chest, back against the wall as she stares out onto the streets below her loft. Panic and chaos fill the streets as rioters react to the news of their impending doom.
At any other point in time she’d be out on those streets, facing down bullet fire and mania in an attempt to quell the danger, but today she knows there’s no point in trying. Her name is Sara Thunder, superheroine by trade, and she is afraid of dying again.
For people in her line of work death is a two-way street, a right of passage that most of the big named “supes” have to go through to gain notoriety. However this time doesn’t feel like the last time she died. There’s no Lord of Time attempting to undo the time-stream, there’s no virulent strain of disease that she and her team can shrink down to fight, there’s no maniac threatening to blow up the earth’s core. In just five days their universe will collapse into a quantum singularity and cause a new big bang. There’s no way to escape it and many of earth’s heroes are powerless.
She’s done the math, ran the numbers till she could memorize the equations to the infinite decimal place. She’s one of the smartest women on earth and for the first time since she got her powers she’s scared.
Looking out at the people below, she thinks of the days when she was always on the frontlines of this chaos. The memory causes her shed a tear as the helplessness overwhelms her. She's drowning in a room full of air.
“Hey.”, says a voice from the door frame behind her. It’s Steven Thunder, husband, Army General, and superhero. She knew he was there, recognized his heartbeat and the scrape of his footsteps before he even got off the elevator.
“Did you...did you ever think it would end like this?” Choking back tears, she asks him. She wants to look at him, see his eyes and hear him reassure her that everything will be ok but her body won’t allow her to turn.
There’s a silence in the room as he crosses the distance between them, sitting beside her as the tension hung in the air.
“I’m sorry...you know? For everything...” Eye contact is avoided as he tries to plead for forgiveness. He fights back his own tears as he recalls betraying their vows on the day he slept with the super villainness Temptress.
These two hold a long and sordid history between them. They were adventurers who sought to breach the fabric of reality. Instead of traveling between dimensions they ended up with a failed experiment and super powers. They’ve fought crime as a team, fallen in love, and tried to start a family. Too soon as the couple are now discovering. The pain of adultery cuts both ways.
She wants to look at him, tell him that she forgives him in these last moments but she finds it futile in the end. She can’t even tell him the good news that they’re family is growing. She just clutches her stomach and lets the tears fall. The end is nigh.
Day 4
He’s flying fast, faster than he’s ever flown. Faster than any superhuman has ever flown out of fear of ruining the Earth’s ecosystem. He’s never done anything like this before but with the world ending in 4 days it’s ecosystem matters so little.
They call him Captain Nova, the only name he’s ever taken to heart. He was born to a distant planet, razed by war and strife. His world was destroyed. He was sent to Earth in his planet’s final days, found by an elderly farming couple who discovered his wreckage. He was raised to be the prodigal son, learning everything his hardworking farming parents had to teach him, the crash landing hindering his learning capacity. He was always so kind, a naive child who grew up to be one of Earth’s mightiest heroes. Today is the day he truly proves himself. He’s flying fast in hopes that he can prevent his home-world from being destroyed once more.
His spandex costume catches flame first as he tries his hardest to reverse the Earth’s rotation. Somewhere deep down he hopes time will follow suit.
Spandex turns to ash and tears crystallize in the cold of space as he defies science and logic. He’s nigh invulnerable but the extremes he’s pushing himself to are taking their toll. He won’t stop though, he can’t stop.
“For Ma and Pa.” he repeats to himself over and over again. “I can’t stop. I won’t let it end like this. I can save everyone, I will save everyone.”
Words are lost in the vacuum of space but his determination alone speaks volumes. He fears what is to come but not for the pain. He knows that in the final throngs of life he will be all that remains. He can’t let humanity fall.
“I can do this.” he says as he accelerates more, noticing the earth’s motion skewing slightly before it begins to slowly spin in the direction of his flight path. He smiles, he’s done it. As he remembers all of the impossible battles he’s faced, all of the world conquerors he’s thwarted, he reassures himself that he won’t fail.
He dreams of what his fans will say when he flies down to see the rescued populace, the accolades he will receive. This is quite possibly his greatest achievement. An innocent grin stretches across his face as he flies back down to earth.
“Ma and Pa are going to be so proud of me.” he says to himself as he descends into the atmosphere, an atmosphere that has been disrupted by his well meaning attempt. Earthquakes riddle the earth’s surface, roaring through newly formed faultlines created by the sudden reverse of the planet’s rotation. Much of America is gone, chunks broken off and crashed into other countries. He just floats there in the sky above everything as he witnesses a massive tidal wave crash into Africa. He’s mortified. Nothing can be done to stop their destruction and even worse he’s just sped up the process.
“What have I done?”
Day 3
A young family huddles together, cowering under some makeshift cover as flaming debris fall from the sky. The world has been torn asunder by a stupid mistake and note hiding is all anyone can do. The father kisses the mother once more as he squeezes his children tight. He knows this is the end for them. The children's cries are drowned out as a large chunk of wall comes crashing down on them.
It stops, freezing in midair and leaving them all in complete shock as it seems to fall backwards back onto the roof of the building it fell from.
“Are you okay?!”
Above them a figure in black leather covering all but his head descends into view, eyes aglow with eldritch energy. He is the Timekeeper, the chrono crusader, and he is here to save what days they have left.
The family hurriedly evacuate the area with Timekeeper’s escort but not much thanks is given. There’s no point to any of this. The inevitable has just been delayed slightly.
He doesn’t show it till they’re just out of range but he’s tired. He comes crashing down to the ground on his feet, stumbling slightly due to fatigue. He’s been working nonstop since this all begun and even worse he’s been carrying a monumental burden.
“That the last of them in this area?”
The voice appears before he does, the fastest man still alive, Crimson Bolt. He’s slightly winded too, a fact that should scare the average person. This man could circle the earth at least a dozen times without so much as breaking a sweat but now he’s running on fumes, trying to save as many as he can.
“The last I found alive....”
Timekeeper’s voice is heavy with sorrow as regret rushes over him. This is all his fault.
“Don’t do that, Tk. I need you focused and at the ready. This is nobody’s fault and we still have time to fix this. I mean come on, all those big brains are meeting in Washington soon to fix this. It’s not over yet!”
The Bolt rattles on, speaking faster than the average human can comprehend, more-so for his own reassurance. He’s scared. But Timekeeper’s tired and the guilt is just too much.
“Just stop it!” he screams finally, “Just stop it, ok?! You don’t even know anything and yet you carry on like this!! This is--” He’s shaking at this point, unable to contain himself and yet unable to express what he’s feeling. He’s scared to admit this, he’s scared to take this weight upon himself.
“Tk...?” The Bolt is confused and the air between them grows cold as a silence finds it’s way into the conversation.
“This is....all my fault.” Timekeeper finally chokes out the words, staring at the ground as his body refuses to stay upright.
“What....do you mean?” Expectedly, Bolt is flabbergasted.
“I’ve never told anyone this but I don’t just manipulate localized time fields. I can see the future. I’ve been able to see the future since day one. I knew this was going to happen and I didn’t want to stop it.”
For the first time in his life The Crimson Bolt has been frozen in place by words alone. Timekeeper’s hyperventilating as the pressure of his admission weighs down on his chest. Suddenly he’s floored, a sharp pain shooting through his jaw just seconds after he blinks. Looking up he sees nothing but fury in his former friend’s eyes.
“Fix it.” he growls out in a guttural tone, “Fix it now! Fix it now so I can kill you!”
Timekeeper doesn’t dare to look up. He’s lost the right to do so and there’s no need for shock in any case.
“I can’t.” says Timekeeper after he spits out several teeth that were dislodged from the punch.
He soon covers his ears as the bolt screams at a sonic pace, shattering the windows of several office buildings behind him.
“I can’t do it! I don’t have the power any more! No one does!”
The screaming subsides as Bolt listens on.
“What are you talking about?!” He’s juggling between anger and confusion, two emotions that feed each other every time Timekeeper opens his mouth.
“The event horizon. It’s been sending out disturbance waves since day one. Anybody with extradimensional powers will soon completely lose the link to their source.”
“Liar!”
“You feel it too, don’t you?” he pauses for a second as recognition flashes across the Bolt’s face, “You’re getting slower and soon you’ll be normal.”
The Bolt pauses once again, teeth gritting as he mulls over everything he’s hearing.
“Why? Why would you do this?”
Once again they’re silent. For what feels like an eternity for Bolt they both just sit there in silence.
“I just....I just wanted to die.....And before you say anything don’t judge me. I’ve already sold my soul to the devil in this matter. You don’t know what it’s like to keep coming back from the dead, a slave to the time stream. I have lived for over 700 years, lost ten wives to old age, watched fifteen of my children get killed in wars, and countless grandchildren have been wracked with disease. I’m tired, so very tired of living.”
“AND SO YOU THINK THAT GIVES YOU A RIGHT TO TAKE US WITH YOU?!”
“NO! I never said that! That wasn’t the plan. That was never the plan! I was supposed to fly into the corona of the black hole and use my powers to erase it’s existence, finally dying in the process. I just didn’t know....I didn’t know I’d be too weak to make it there by the time it progressed this far.”
They both just stare at the ground, completely at a loss for words, the bolt shaking more and more as the anger eats away at him.
“For what it’s worth....I’m sor--”
CRACK!!
Timekeeper’s eyes shoot open a split second before his neck snaps.
“No, you don’t get to say that.”
With that he goes off running full speed screaming, nopthing but a Crimson blur in the night.
Day 2
The air is tense on the steps of the Capitol building, it’s location conscripted for what could quite possibly be the most important meeting on earth. Among these walls of government are seated both costumed crusaders and menacing madmen alike. They have come together under this tenuous truce in hopes of saving their world.
It’s like a powderkeg just seconds from falling into a volcano. Both sides look on in disgust at the other. Many of these men and women have destroyed the lives of the other but with just two days left till certain doom they have but little choice to work together.
“Ahem.”
Seated at the podium is one of earth's finest, The Captain, sitting amongst The Scourge and Bane. At any other point he would have been glowing like a star, pummeling the two villains at his side as he led his team to victory against what ever dastardly plan they were enacting. But now, now the glow was faint, waxing and waining as the connection between him and the galaxy he received his powers from was being severed.
“Heroes and Villains of Earth, you have all been gathered here for just one reason. You are bastions of your individual causes. Some of the most powerful amongst our kind. As you all know, our world is quickly coming to an end and we are all gathered here to save it.”
The room explodes in roars as each group looks on at the other, shifty-eyed, conspiring against themselves. This isn’t the time for this pettiness, the three gathered at the front and center know this. Nevertheless the arguments begin. There’s decades of bad blood here and rather than let it escalate The Scourge rams his fist through the desk in front of himself as he screams for everyone to shut up.
“Are you people mad?!...No, forget I asked that. Some of you are. There is no time for any of this! You people will shut the hell up and start working together or I will personally start killing every single one of you till you get the message. None of this petty squabbling matters. We are all doomed unless we do this together!”
The room fell silent, all but for a lone snicker in the background of the villain side. It’s Baldroc the demon and as everyone turns to see him his laughter increases.
“You find this comical in some way?” Bane looks on in disgust as the demon prince laughs maniacally.
“Pitiful fools. Baldroc is eternal. When you mere mortals are long and gone I shall be here. I don’t fear destruction. I can simply leave here at my leisure.”
The Captain looks on from the stage in mild annoyance as the demon prince’s laughter fills the room.
“Is that so?” he asks as he crosses his hands. “You think you can leave this dimension? Then go, leave now. We’ll all stay quiet and give you time to try just that.”
Baldroc stares back at the The Captain before he tries to ascend from the mortal plane. Several aborted attempts later and he’s leaking what could only be considered sweat from a demon.
“I--Ican’t! What have you mortals done?!”
He’s sneering before he jumps up from his seat, claws glistening and fangs bared as he charges The Captain. The Scourge bats him away before he even gets in spitting distance.
“In case you haven’t noticed, any of you noticed, anyone with extradimensional abilities are slowly losing them as our links are severed. Our wold is being cut off from the multiverse at a steady rate.” The Captain’s voice cracks slowly as he spreads this news. Groans fill the room as different people try only to see The Captain proven right.
“There’s very little time left but we have to try. We have to try anything.”
The Captain coughs violently as the room silences once again. There are so very few options left.
Day 1
This is it, the final day as this reality knows it. All across the world churches are spilling over with people. New members and old alike are praying to their individual gods, prayers that will never reach their pantheons.
Families are joined together, reminiscing about their collective histories as they feast for the last time.
Countless tears have been shed and lives have been loss due to fear. No one can believe this day is happening and everyone is frightened of what comes next.
Their only glimmer of hope went out yesterday as the super-powered populace of earth attempted to stop their doom. They were powerless against the collapse of their reality. With no options left, The Captain used the last ounce of his power, the collective energy of a massive star, to try and barrel into the core of this phenomena. It was to no avail and his life was lost in the process.
Now all that remains is time. How everyone spends it is up to them but one person on earth isn’t the least bit phased by this. He’s know as The Herald but beyond that he is a mystery to all, including himself. He came to our earth long ago, claiming to be the messenger of a long dead society who had forgotten his true purpose on our planet. He fought alongside the heroes of earth, hoping to some day recover his memories. Today is that day.
It all comes rushing back to him, like an ocean dammed by toothpicks finally breaking through, memories come flooding endlessly. Not just his memories, no, but the collective memories of his entire world. He writhes in agony as the pain makes him think his brain is splitting but soon the pain subsides and everything becomes crystal clear to him. This earth is his home world.
His name is Thomas Thunder and he is a time traveller. There are memories on top of memories but for whatever reason he can sort through them. This is his gift, one of his gifts. He came back to save the world, not from the collapse but from itself.
He’s flying off before he even realises it. His mind reaches out instinctively, touching on the thoughts of everyone on earth. He feels their collective pain, the cries of a dying planet. It’s almost too much to bear but he knows he has too or else everything will be lost.
“Hello Earth.” , His thoughts touch the world and he feels the brunt of their collective confusion.
”Um....I’m not sure how to go about doing this but here goes. My name is Thomas Thunder and I cam back in time to see this world end.” Confusion turns to unrest but he knows the truth needs to be said.
“Please, just listen. I came back from a future where this has already happened. Your world is dying and in it’s place will be born a new Earth.”
The shock is universal and Thomas relishes in the moment as he ascends into the stratosphere.
“I know you’re all frightened, you have every reason to be but I’m here to tell you that in the end, everything will be okay. I came back just to make sure of that. I am a byproduct of my parents, sort of a Noah’s Ark if you will. Within me lies everything, every person, every animal. Every single life you all live is alive inside of me, a complete recreation. Right now I’m flying into space, heading to the edge of our universe where I will become the next big bang when our universe collapses, recreating everything you know now. Everything you are.”
His thoughts are calm and collected, they have to be, but inside he’s nervous. He has already accepted his fate but now it’s up to the world to agree to this.
“I’ve known this would happen since I was a young boy. I was born for just this task. My parents....” For the first time his thoughts stutter as memories of his parents flash by in his mind, the images being transferred to everyone. “My parents loved me a lot, more than i can quantify, but there was no other option. I’ve accepted my fate, all I ask is that these final moments you all cherish what you have and do not be afraid. There is no reason to fear death, it is an eventuality for us all. But this is not death. No one will feel any pain. Just know that this isn’t the end for any of you because you’ll all be on the other side waiting. When this is all done, you will just wake up from this dream.”
Thoughts turn to feelings as the world reaches out to him. They’re wary, unsure of what’s to come but at this point they know there’s no more point in crying. Their thoughts disappear one by one as the universe folds in on itself, a silence filling his mind as their presences fades. Thomas lets loose a cascade of emotion as the earth fades away.
“Thank you, thank you all and I’m so sorry for this.”
Existence folds in around him at the edge of space and everything goes white, leaving behind nothing but the collective feelings of earth.
Mere pico-seconds pass in the silence of nullspace........and then a new world is born in it’s wake.
In Five Days
Day 5
It’s March 27th, 2013. In five days the world is going to end and the only person who could do anything to stop it is dead.
She sits with her knees pulled tight to her chest, back against the wall as she stares out onto the streets below her loft. Panic and chaos fill the streets as rioters react to the news of their impending doom.
At any other point in time she’d be out on those streets, facing down bullet fire and mania in an attempt to quell the danger, but today she knows there’s no point in trying. Her name is Sara Thunder, superheroine by trade, and she is afraid of dying again.
For people in her line of work death is a two-way street, a right of passage that most of the big named “supes” have to go through to gain notoriety. However this time doesn’t feel like the last time she died. There’s no Lord of Time attempting to undo the time-stream, there’s no virulent strain of disease that she and her team can shrink down to fight, there’s no maniac threatening to blow up the earth’s core. In just five days their universe will collapse into a quantum singularity and cause a new big bang. There’s no way to escape it and many of earth’s heroes are powerless.
She’s done the math, ran the numbers till she could memorize the equations to the infinite decimal place. She’s one of the smartest women on earth and for the first time since she got her powers she’s scared.
Looking out at the people below, she thinks of the days when she was always on the frontlines of this chaos. The memory causes her shed a tear as the helplessness overwhelms her. She's drowning in a room full of air.
“Hey.”, says a voice from the door frame behind her. It’s Steven Thunder, husband, Army General, and superhero. She knew he was there, recognized his heartbeat and the scrape of his footsteps before he even got off the elevator.
“Did you...did you ever think it would end like this?” Choking back tears, she asks him. She wants to look at him, see his eyes and hear him reassure her that everything will be ok but her body won’t allow her to turn.
There’s a silence in the room as he crosses the distance between them, sitting beside her as the tension hung in the air.
“I’m sorry...you know? For everything...” Eye contact is avoided as he tries to plead for forgiveness. He fights back his own tears as he recalls betraying their vows on the day he slept with the super villainness Temptress.
These two hold a long and sordid history between them. They were adventurers who sought to breach the fabric of reality. Instead of traveling between dimensions they ended up with a failed experiment and super powers. They’ve fought crime as a team, fallen in love, and tried to start a family. Too soon as the couple are now discovering. The pain of adultery cuts both ways.
She wants to look at him, tell him that she forgives him in these last moments but she finds it futile in the end. She can’t even tell him the good news that they’re family is growing. She just clutches her stomach and lets the tears fall. The end is nigh.
Day 4
He’s flying fast, faster than he’s ever flown. Faster than any superhuman has ever flown out of fear of ruining the Earth’s ecosystem. He’s never done anything like this before but with the world ending in 4 days it’s ecosystem matters so little.
They call him Captain Nova, the only name he’s ever taken to heart. He was born to a distant planet, razed by war and strife. His world was destroyed. He was sent to Earth in his planet’s final days, found by an elderly farming couple who discovered his wreckage. He was raised to be the prodigal son, learning everything his hardworking farming parents had to teach him, the crash landing hindering his learning capacity. He was always so kind, a naive child who grew up to be one of Earth’s mightiest heroes. Today is the day he truly proves himself. He’s flying fast in hopes that he can prevent his home-world from being destroyed once more.
His spandex costume catches flame first as he tries his hardest to reverse the Earth’s rotation. Somewhere deep down he hopes time will follow suit.
Spandex turns to ash and tears crystallize in the cold of space as he defies science and logic. He’s nigh invulnerable but the extremes he’s pushing himself to are taking their toll. He won’t stop though, he can’t stop.
“For Ma and Pa.” he repeats to himself over and over again. “I can’t stop. I won’t let it end like this. I can save everyone, I will save everyone.”
Words are lost in the vacuum of space but his determination alone speaks volumes. He fears what is to come but not for the pain. He knows that in the final throngs of life he will be all that remains. He can’t let humanity fall.
“I can do this.” he says as he accelerates more, noticing the earth’s motion skewing slightly before it begins to slowly spin in the direction of his flight path. He smiles, he’s done it. As he remembers all of the impossible battles he’s faced, all of the world conquerors he’s thwarted, he reassures himself that he won’t fail.
He dreams of what his fans will say when he flies down to see the rescued populace, the accolades he will receive. This is quite possibly his greatest achievement. An innocent grin stretches across his face as he flies back down to earth.
“Ma and Pa are going to be so proud of me.” he says to himself as he descends into the atmosphere, an atmosphere that has been disrupted by his well meaning attempt. Earthquakes riddle the earth’s surface, roaring through newly formed faultlines created by the sudden reverse of the planet’s rotation. Much of America is gone, chunks broken off and crashed into other countries. He just floats there in the sky above everything as he witnesses a massive tidal wave crash into Africa. He’s mortified. Nothing can be done to stop their destruction and even worse he’s just sped up the process.
“What have I done?”
Day 3
A young family huddles together, cowering under some makeshift cover as flaming debris fall from the sky. The world has been torn asunder by a stupid mistake and note hiding is all anyone can do. The father kisses the mother once more as he squeezes his children tight. He knows this is the end for them. The children's cries are drowned out as a large chunk of wall comes crashing down on them.
It stops, freezing in midair and leaving them all in complete shock as it seems to fall backwards back onto the roof of the building it fell from.
“Are you okay?!”
Above them a figure in black leather covering all but his head descends into view, eyes aglow with eldritch energy. He is the Timekeeper, the chrono crusader, and he is here to save what days they have left.
The family hurriedly evacuate the area with Timekeeper’s escort but not much thanks is given. There’s no point to any of this. The inevitable has just been delayed slightly.
He doesn’t show it till they’re just out of range but he’s tired. He comes crashing down to the ground on his feet, stumbling slightly due to fatigue. He’s been working nonstop since this all begun and even worse he’s been carrying a monumental burden.
“That the last of them in this area?”
The voice appears before he does, the fastest man still alive, Crimson Bolt. He’s slightly winded too, a fact that should scare the average person. This man could circle the earth at least a dozen times without so much as breaking a sweat but now he’s running on fumes, trying to save as many as he can.
“The last I found alive....”
Timekeeper’s voice is heavy with sorrow as regret rushes over him. This is all his fault.
“Don’t do that, Tk. I need you focused and at the ready. This is nobody’s fault and we still have time to fix this. I mean come on, all those big brains are meeting in Washington soon to fix this. It’s not over yet!”
The Bolt rattles on, speaking faster than the average human can comprehend, more-so for his own reassurance. He’s scared. But Timekeeper’s tired and the guilt is just too much.
“Just stop it!” he screams finally, “Just stop it, ok?! You don’t even know anything and yet you carry on like this!! This is--” He’s shaking at this point, unable to contain himself and yet unable to express what he’s feeling. He’s scared to admit this, he’s scared to take this weight upon himself.
“Tk...?” The Bolt is confused and the air between them grows cold as a silence finds it’s way into the conversation.
“This is....all my fault.” Timekeeper finally chokes out the words, staring at the ground as his body refuses to stay upright.
“What....do you mean?” Expectedly, Bolt is flabbergasted.
“I’ve never told anyone this but I don’t just manipulate localized time fields. I can see the future. I’ve been able to see the future since day one. I knew this was going to happen and I didn’t want to stop it.”
For the first time in his life The Crimson Bolt has been frozen in place by words alone. Timekeeper’s hyperventilating as the pressure of his admission weighs down on his chest. Suddenly he’s floored, a sharp pain shooting through his jaw just seconds after he blinks. Looking up he sees nothing but fury in his former friend’s eyes.
“Fix it.” he growls out in a guttural tone, “Fix it now! Fix it now so I can kill you!”
Timekeeper doesn’t dare to look up. He’s lost the right to do so and there’s no need for shock in any case.
“I can’t.” says Timekeeper after he spits out several teeth that were dislodged from the punch.
He soon covers his ears as the bolt screams at a sonic pace, shattering the windows of several office buildings behind him.
“I can’t do it! I don’t have the power any more! No one does!”
The screaming subsides as Bolt listens on.
“What are you talking about?!” He’s juggling between anger and confusion, two emotions that feed each other every time Timekeeper opens his mouth.
“The event horizon. It’s been sending out disturbance waves since day one. Anybody with extradimensional powers will soon completely lose the link to their source.”
“Liar!”
“You feel it too, don’t you?” he pauses for a second as recognition flashes across the Bolt’s face, “You’re getting slower and soon you’ll be normal.”
The Bolt pauses once again, teeth gritting as he mulls over everything he’s hearing.
“Why? Why would you do this?”
Once again they’re silent. For what feels like an eternity for Bolt they both just sit there in silence.
“I just....I just wanted to die.....And before you say anything don’t judge me. I’ve already sold my soul to the devil in this matter. You don’t know what it’s like to keep coming back from the dead, a slave to the time stream. I have lived for over 700 years, lost ten wives to old age, watched fifteen of my children get killed in wars, and countless grandchildren have been wracked with disease. I’m tired, so very tired of living.”
“AND SO YOU THINK THAT GIVES YOU A RIGHT TO TAKE US WITH YOU?!”
“NO! I never said that! That wasn’t the plan. That was never the plan! I was supposed to fly into the corona of the black hole and use my powers to erase it’s existence, finally dying in the process. I just didn’t know....I didn’t know I’d be too weak to make it there by the time it progressed this far.”
They both just stare at the ground, completely at a loss for words, the bolt shaking more and more as the anger eats away at him.
“For what it’s worth....I’m sor--”
CRACK!!
Timekeeper’s eyes shoot open a split second before his neck snaps.
“No, you don’t get to say that.”
With that he goes off running full speed screaming, nopthing but a Crimson blur in the night.
Day 2
The air is tense on the steps of the Capitol building, it’s location conscripted for what could quite possibly be the most important meeting on earth. Among these walls of government are seated both costumed crusaders and menacing madmen alike. They have come together under this tenuous truce in hopes of saving their world.
It’s like a powderkeg just seconds from falling into a volcano. Both sides look on in disgust at the other. Many of these men and women have destroyed the lives of the other but with just two days left till certain doom they have but little choice to work together.
“Ahem.”
Seated at the podium is one of earth's finest, The Captain, sitting amongst The Scourge and Bane. At any other point he would have been glowing like a star, pummeling the two villains at his side as he led his team to victory against what ever dastardly plan they were enacting. But now, now the glow was faint, waxing and waining as the connection between him and the galaxy he received his powers from was being severed.
“Heroes and Villains of Earth, you have all been gathered here for just one reason. You are bastions of your individual causes. Some of the most powerful amongst our kind. As you all know, our world is quickly coming to an end and we are all gathered here to save it.”
The room explodes in roars as each group looks on at the other, shifty-eyed, conspiring against themselves. This isn’t the time for this pettiness, the three gathered at the front and center know this. Nevertheless the arguments begin. There’s decades of bad blood here and rather than let it escalate The Scourge rams his fist through the desk in front of himself as he screams for everyone to shut up.
“Are you people mad?!...No, forget I asked that. Some of you are. There is no time for any of this! You people will shut the hell up and start working together or I will personally start killing every single one of you till you get the message. None of this petty squabbling matters. We are all doomed unless we do this together!”
The room fell silent, all but for a lone snicker in the background of the villain side. It’s Baldroc the demon and as everyone turns to see him his laughter increases.
“You find this comical in some way?” Bane looks on in disgust as the demon prince laughs maniacally.
“Pitiful fools. Baldroc is eternal. When you mere mortals are long and gone I shall be here. I don’t fear destruction. I can simply leave here at my leisure.”
The Captain looks on from the stage in mild annoyance as the demon prince’s laughter fills the room.
“Is that so?” he asks as he crosses his hands. “You think you can leave this dimension? Then go, leave now. We’ll all stay quiet and give you time to try just that.”
Baldroc stares back at the The Captain before he tries to ascend from the mortal plane. Several aborted attempts later and he’s leaking what could only be considered sweat from a demon.
“I--Ican’t! What have you mortals done?!”
He’s sneering before he jumps up from his seat, claws glistening and fangs bared as he charges The Captain. The Scourge bats him away before he even gets in spitting distance.
“In case you haven’t noticed, any of you noticed, anyone with extradimensional abilities are slowly losing them as our links are severed. Our wold is being cut off from the multiverse at a steady rate.” The Captain’s voice cracks slowly as he spreads this news. Groans fill the room as different people try only to see The Captain proven right.
“There’s very little time left but we have to try. We have to try anything.”
The Captain coughs violently as the room silences once again. There are so very few options left.
Day 1
This is it, the final day as this reality knows it. All across the world churches are spilling over with people. New members and old alike are praying to their individual gods, prayers that will never reach their pantheons.
Families are joined together, reminiscing about their collective histories as they feast for the last time.
Countless tears have been shed and lives have been loss due to fear. No one can believe this day is happening and everyone is frightened of what comes next.
Their only glimmer of hope went out yesterday as the super-powered populace of earth attempted to stop their doom. They were powerless against the collapse of their reality. With no options left, The Captain used the last ounce of his power, the collective energy of a massive star, to try and barrel into the core of this phenomena. It was to no avail and his life was lost in the process.
Now all that remains is time. How everyone spends it is up to them but one person on earth isn’t the least bit phased by this. He’s know as The Herald but beyond that he is a mystery to all, including himself. He came to our earth long ago, claiming to be the messenger of a long dead society who had forgotten his true purpose on our planet. He fought alongside the heroes of earth, hoping to some day recover his memories. Today is that day.
It all comes rushing back to him, like an ocean dammed by toothpicks finally breaking through, memories come flooding endlessly. Not just his memories, no, but the collective memories of his entire world. He writhes in agony as the pain makes him think his brain is splitting but soon the pain subsides and everything becomes crystal clear to him. This earth is his home world.
His name is Thomas Thunder and he is a time traveller. There are memories on top of memories but for whatever reason he can sort through them. This is his gift, one of his gifts. He came back to save the world, not from the collapse but from itself.
He’s flying off before he even realises it. His mind reaches out instinctively, touching on the thoughts of everyone on earth. He feels their collective pain, the cries of a dying planet. It’s almost too much to bear but he knows he has too or else everything will be lost.
“Hello Earth.” , His thoughts touch the world and he feels the brunt of their collective confusion.
”Um....I’m not sure how to go about doing this but here goes. My name is Thomas Thunder and I cam back in time to see this world end.” Confusion turns to unrest but he knows the truth needs to be said.
“Please, just listen. I came back from a future where this has already happened. Your world is dying and in it’s place will be born a new Earth.”
The shock is universal and Thomas relishes in the moment as he ascends into the stratosphere.
“I know you’re all frightened, you have every reason to be but I’m here to tell you that in the end, everything will be okay. I came back just to make sure of that. I am a byproduct of my parents, sort of a Noah’s Ark if you will. Within me lies everything, every person, every animal. Every single life you all live is alive inside of me, a complete recreation. Right now I’m flying into space, heading to the edge of our universe where I will become the next big bang when our universe collapses, recreating everything you know now. Everything you are.”
His thoughts are calm and collected, they have to be, but inside he’s nervous. He has already accepted his fate but now it’s up to the world to agree to this.
“I’ve known this would happen since I was a young boy. I was born for just this task. My parents....” For the first time his thoughts stutter as memories of his parents flash by in his mind, the images being transferred to everyone. “My parents loved me a lot, more than i can quantify, but there was no other option. I’ve accepted my fate, all I ask is that these final moments you all cherish what you have and do not be afraid. There is no reason to fear death, it is an eventuality for us all. But this is not death. No one will feel any pain. Just know that this isn’t the end for any of you because you’ll all be on the other side waiting. When this is all done, you will just wake up from this dream.”
Thoughts turn to feelings as the world reaches out to him. They’re wary, unsure of what’s to come but at this point they know there’s no more point in crying. Their thoughts disappear one by one as the universe folds in on itself, a silence filling his mind as their presences fades. Thomas lets loose a cascade of emotion as the earth fades away.
“Thank you, thank you all and I’m so sorry for this.”
Existence folds in around him at the edge of space and everything goes white, leaving behind nothing but the collective feelings of earth.
Mere pico-seconds pass in the silence of nullspace........and then a new world is born in it’s wake.
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