Chronos - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 3 – Threat Assessment

It was very hard to keep a straight face at that. However, some of my emotions must have slipped through, because the three superheroes frowned slightly. With a sigh, I managed to get control of my emotions again, and shook my head.

“Let me get this straight, you want me to help you take down someone who fancies himself the God of Time? Do you have any idea of what you are asking?” I waved a hand to silence them. “No, of course you don’t, or you wouldn’t be here.”

I leaned back in my chair, fixing my gaze on each of them in turn. “You know that superhumans are classified roughly into a few basic categories, yes? You have your Mutants, Mages, Martial Artists, Science or Technology types, Alien DNA types, and Divinely Powered. There’s some wiggle room and crossover, naturally, but those are the basic types, yes?”

They all nodded, since this was basic knowledge of the superhuman world. “Well, from what you’re telling me, there is not enough data to know whether this Chronos is a Mutant, Mage, Alien DNA, or Divinely Powered. At the very least I have not heard of any Martial Artist ability that allows you to alter the flow of time, and if there was technology involved, the technical members of your organizations would have figured something out by now. Am I right?”

Tessa was the one that answered, with a nod. “You are correct that we have eliminated technology as a potential source of Chronos’s abilities. We believe that they are magic-focused, since the few times he has been within range of magic users, they have detected magic for the brief instant before and after his attacks.”

“Yes, I felt the same at the bank this afternoon.” I noticed Tessa’s cheeks go red at that, but decided not to tease her too much right now. “The problem is that magic may be the ‘effect’, but that might not be the ‘source’. A Mutant may gain a mutation that allows them to access magical power. Same with Alien DNA. And a Mage and a Priest slinging magic will feel much the same if all you have is the time between one breath and the next to analyze it.

“The source is important, because to contain this Chronos, you must first find a way to nullify his abilities. And since you have no idea what he looks like, or where he is at any given point in time, you would have to put a blanket nullification down, covering the entire city. The power levels required to create and sustain that field are not something to take lightly, even if you discount how it would affect everyday people.”

Skye frowned. “Would it be possible to limit the scope of the nullification? Cover less sources?”

“Yes, it is possible. However, you would need to know the exact power source used. You could limit the nullification to mages only, for instance, but that would be like cutting power to six city blocks in order to catch one hacker. Overkill is putting it lightly.”

I paused, taking a deep breath, and said, “There is a possibility that you could single out Time powers alone, which would affect any kind of time-based ability, regardless of source. However, there are so many potential hazards with something like that. Enough that I would like to be informed before you turn something like that on, so I could be on another continent, if not another planet entirely.”

Lawson’s face grew hard. “That dangerous?”

“Yes,” I nodded, emphatically. “Messing about with time goes way past even playing with primal forces like gravity. Time is inherently linked with space, forming the underlying fabric of reality. The amount of damage someone can do with time manipulation if they are being malicious is incalculable.”

Skye frowned, puzzled. “How so?”

I took a breath, and said, “The Earth spins at a rate of roughly one thousand miles per hour. It also revolves around the sun at a rate of almost sixty-seven thousand miles per hour. Everything on Earth is held in place by gravity and other forces, as we twirl about on the fabric of space and time.

“But what happens if, say, someone were to lock a building in space-time? That building would not spin with the rest of the earth, so you would have collisions between skyscrapers at one thousand miles per hour. And if the building was kept intact, then it would scrape across the ground until the Earth threw it off, where it would be left, drifting in space. Enough of that, and Earth could easily be thrown off its axis, or lose its rotation, or even change its orbit of the sun.

“That, of course, is the low end, with just a single skyscraper being tossed about. What if someone waited for the moon to be in the Earth’s path and then locked it in time and space? The whole world would have a scant three and a half hours or so to make their peace with their loved ones before Earth received the mother of all extinction level events.”

I could see that I was getting through to them, with how pale they looked, so I pressed on. “That is just ONE aspect of time magic, taken to unfortunate ends. I have not even touched on the possibility of what might happen if someone without the proper knowledge, skill, and temperament goes back in time and changes things. There is enough fiction on the subject for you to understand the dangers there, I’m sure.

“So, with that being said, under no circumstance will I design, or help design, any item or magic which disrupts Time magics, because the chance that something goes wrong is far too high. The slightest mishap in the construction of the ritual, and we could literally end the world. And that is if we are lucky.”

Lawson nodded. “Then how would you go about catching Chronos?”

“Well, if he was using some advanced version of the Haste spell, to speed himself up to insane levels, you could just use the same kinds of traps and tactics you use against speedsters. However, that seems unlikely, given the evidence I saw at the bank. So, my guess is that he is actually stopping time in a limited area. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about such an individual, because by the time you realize that something is going on, it is already over. The only good news is that, according to some sources I have, the Pulse may have weakened Chronos substantially.”

“Wait a minute,” Tessa interjected. “You mean to tell me that what we’ve seen of this monster is a WEAKENED form? How do you figure that?”

“Well, as you know, the Pulse imposed a form of System on the world. This strengthened some people, and gave others room for advancement. However, it also weakened others.

“Back in the fifteenth century, in Japan, there was an assassin named Shinokage, or Death’s Shadow, who was reported to have time-stopping abilities. His powers allowed him to stop a target in the middle of a word, and the next instant the target’s head would be held in his own hands, jaw moving to try and finish what he was saying, and only then would the blood start spraying from the target’s arteries as the body fell to the floor. And not a soul knew he was there until he was already gone.

“Since the Pulse, however, there have been restrictions placed on time magic, according to those who study the field. It is no longer possible to physically damage people or objects when their time is stopped. Small comfort, considering what else this Chronos has already shown himself to do, but it does mean that he would need to have time moving to try and kill you.”

Lawson grunted. “Well, that’s disturbing as hell. How common are time powers like this?”

“I do not know exact numbers, especially not for fields beyond the magical, but any mage or priest can learn haste magic easily enough. Being able to learn true time magic, though? That’s rare. Maybe one percent has any training in it, and maybe one percent of that are able to use it for more than divinations or the like.”

I paused, considering how much to lay out there. “You are probably looking for a specialized mage. One who was either born with the talent, or spent a lot of time working on their studies. This means you are not likely to deal with fireballs or lightning bolts from him, unless he uses some kind of external source, but there would likely be few who could match his mastery over time.”

“Damn,” the captain swore. “So, back to the subject, how would you deal with Chronos?”

“Well, ideally, you would deal with him the same way that Shinokage was eventually defeated. He had a mistress, and one of the powers that be managed to turn her into a spy. She poisoned the sake they shared, having drank an antidote hours before. The assassin did not realize he had been betrayed until it was too late.

“If you were to discover Chronos’s identity, then you might be able to sway someone he trusts. A potion that worked as a poison, rendering him unconscious, or preventing him from using magic, would enable you to capture him quite neatly. And that kind of potion I would gladly concoct for you, as the dangers to the world are far less if it should fail.”

Tessa growled. “Except we don’t know who he is. We don’t even know what costume he might wear, if he even has one. He’s never even been caught on camera! We can’t get a potion to him if we don’t know who he is!”

“Or when he is,” Skye grumbled. When she noticed all our eyes on her, she shrugged. “Well, if he’s got mastery over time, he could be spending his time in another era of time entirely, right? So long as he makes sure not to go changing the past?”

I nodded. “Yes, that is correct. Past or future would easily accommodate someone like this Chronos. If he went to the past, then he would likely know what actions he could and couldn’t take without changing things. If he went to the future, then any changes he made there wouldn’t matter. I have also heard of mages who cause their sanctums to form their own pocket dimension, outside of space and time.”

Lawson shook his head. “This is giving me a headache. So, other than putting down a city-wide dampening field that would cause all kinds of hell with the populace and still wouldn’t reveal our culprit or hoping that he slips up somehow and reveals his identity to someone who turns state’s evidence on him, what can we do about Chronos?”

“Honestly? With the kind of powers he displays? He may not be overwhelmingly powerful like Atomsmasher or Volcano, but you should consider him on the same level of threat. If all he does is the occasional theft from thieves and assaulting female supers, then it may be best to let sleeping dragons lie.

“However,” I held up a hand to cut off the two women who were not happy with what I just said, “if you want to take him down, then you would need to first find some way to get him to open up. You could try coopting him, by hiring him, or finding something that he wants. Then, once you have more knowledge about who he is, and what he does, you can revisit other plans. That would, at least, allow you to perhaps get someone inside his inner circle, if he has one.”

Skye shook her head. “So, the best choices are either getting lucky and hoping someone betrays him, or finding a way to get him to open up to us? Neither one of those sounds all that hopeful. If he’s half as clever as he seems, then he’s got to be expecting something like that.”

“I don’t like it,” Tessa sighed, “But it looks like we don’t have much choice. Can you fashion some sort of device that will keep him under control once we finally do capture him, Doctor?”

“I believe that I could create a restraint collar of some sort, yes. However, it would only work so long as it was attached, and undamaged. But it could be done.”

“Then the only question is what bait can we use to lure him out into the open.”