Breaking Time Page 7

  Younger Luke gently bumped his shoulder into his dad’s side. “Me too.”

  His mom finally caught up. “Wow, that’s beautiful!” she said, seeing the ocean far below and expanding out as far and wide as the eye could see. Sparkling, gently waving, constantly moving vast ocean. A rich deep blue color – very different than the somewhat polluted waters near Los Angeles.

  His dad leaned over and whispered something into his mom’s ear. She shook her head no.

  “Well,” said Luke’s dad after taking a deep, relaxing breath, “let’s get moving, shall we?”

  “One more minute,” said younger Luke.

  Present-day Luke began to tremble silently.

  “Alright,” said his dad. “One more minute.”

  Present-day Luke shook his head. “No,” he muttered. “Don’t. Don’t do it.” He watched as his younger self stepped down to a rocky ledge a little closer to the edge. “Don’t do it.”

  “I think I see a cave, I mean a lava tube, down there.”

  “Careful, Luke,” urged his mom.

  “Watch that ledge. Hey Luke, get back here.”

  “I’m good,” said younger Luke. “Really, see. It’s really solid.” He stomped hard three times onto the rocky edge. On the third stomp, something broke loose, and suddenly a huge chunk of rock slipped forward and fell down.

  Younger Luke lost his balance and fell down with it.

  “Wh-whoaaaa!!!”

  “LUKE!” his mom screamed, reaching after him.

  She missed.

  He dropped out of their sight instantly.

  “LUKE!” shouted his dad.

  His parents carefully crawled up to the edge, testing the stability of the ground with each inch closer. Got down on their bellies and laid flat to stretch out their weight. “Luke!” they both called again.

  They feared the worst. Waves crashed into large jagged rocks far below.

  “I’m okay!” said Luke, calling up. The sound of the ocean and his precarious position made it hard for him to hear them. He held on tightly to a small stoop on the side of the cliff. “Throw me a rope or something!”

  Up top, his dad called back, “We don’t have any rope!”

  “Hold on!” pleaded his mother. Her worst nightmare was coming true. She felt so helpless, so powerless. What could she do? “Just hold on, Luke! We’re coming!”

  The wind hit against the cliff fiercely. Strong gusts coming off a long travel across the ocean. Luke held on to his little ledge very tightly. He didn’t have much wiggle room, but for the moment, he appeared relatively safe.

  “Hurry up!” he called back.

  “Can you climb back up at all?” asked his dad.

  Luke looked around. Maybe. But he didn’t want to risk it. “No!” he said.

  “Okay,” said his dad to his mom, back at the top of the ledge. “You think you can reach him if I hold onto you?”

  Present-day Luke couldn’t bear to watch this. This was the moment. They died trying to save him.

  “Stop it, please!” present-day Luke shouted out loud. “Can anybody hear me? I don’t want to watch this!”

  In a few seconds, still clinging to the cliff’s side, younger Luke would see his mom fall over the edge – free fall right in front of his eyes, and plummet to her death in the rocky ocean below.

  A second after that, his dad would slip and fall after her.

  That day – and seeing their faces as they fell helplessly through the air to their watery graves – would haunt his dreams and riddle him with guilt for the rest of his life.

  It was all his fault.

  Present-day Luke was crying.

  Through his blurry tears, he saw his mom crawl closer to the edge. His dad anchored himself and held tight onto her ankles. She inched closer. “I can see him!” she said.

  Present-day Luke shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Mommy.”

  She reached out. “Almost there. Just a little bit more!” Her arms and hands stretching out as far as they could go.

  Too bad her super power wasn’t super stretching, like Mr. Fantastic. Or Plastic Man, DC Comics’ hero with a similar power. What good was reading minds to her now? Or super speed for his dad? He wasn’t fast enough to catch Luke before he fell. And… not strong enough to hold on…

  Any second now. She’d fall.

  Present-day Luke turned away. He couldn’t watch. But in turning away, he faced behind them. And he saw an unfamiliar man.

  “Lose something?” the mysterious man said to them.

  “Mastermind!” shouted Luke’s dad, after turning to see the owner of the voice. He still held onto his wife’s ankles as she dangled over the ledge.

  “Release your grip,” said Mastermind, eyes locked.

  It happened so fast.

  Luke’s dad couldn’t resist the mind control. Without even thinking, before he could even realize what would happen, his hands let go.

  Luke’s mom fell over the edge.

  She screamed. Younger Luke saw. She met her maker.

  Luke’s dad moved to the edge in a flash. He literally moved like a blur. Super speed. He reached out. But he was too late. He just wasn’t fast enough.

  He saw her just as her body hit the rocks below – and the ocean waves dragged her under. His mouth hung open. A silent scream that was felt throughout eternity. The loss of his beloved. Tears swelled in his eyes.

  In a flash, he was back on his feet and faced Mastermind – but Mastermind was ready. The instant Luke’s dad stood still, and it was only for a split second, but it was just long enough – Mastermind pushed Luke’s dad hard to the edge. Luke’s dad lost his balance. Mastermind gave a second, final push – knocking him over too.

  Mastermind watched the man fall. He waved. “Bye-bye.”

  Luke’s dad hit the rocky death below too, and joined his wife in the afterlife.

  Mastermind brushed off his hands and walked away. “Good ridden to you both.”

  Luke – that is, present-day Luke – saw the whole thing! He couldn’t believe it – as evidenced by his speechlessness and dropped jaw.

  “Oh my God!” present-day Luke exclaimed. He leaped after Mastermind, reached to grab and tackle him, but passed and stumbled right through him.

  Luke swung and punched at Mastermind nevertheless. Each pass went straight through him. Mastermind felt nothing, saw nothing, was aware of nothing.

  It was as if present-day Luke wasn’t really there. Just an unseen, unfelt, unheard observer.

  “DAMN YOU!!!” shouted Luke. “DAMN YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL!” he shouted some more, through a flood of tears.

  He couldn’t believe it!

  Mastermind actually killed both his parents!

  It wasn’t Luke’s fault after all.

  Present-day Luke stopped and watched as Mastermind walked away. “Oh my God,” he said, wiping his face. “You are going to pay for this.”

  Several minutes later, after younger Luke regained some temporary composure, he started to carefully and very slowly climb back up that cliff. It wasn’t easy. It took him nearly twenty minutes. His arm and leg muscles were spent after it. But no pain could compare to watching both his parents fall over a cliff, in an attempt to rescue him.

  Young Luke walked several miles back to where he finally found cell reception again. He called for help. But it was too late.

  Present-day Luke shook his head. “Wow.”

  And then the scene reset.

  He found himself standing on his couch again. His eight-month-younger self sat on the floor, eating popcorn, watching Back to the Future for the giga-zillionth time.

  His cell phone rang. It was his dad.

  Present-day Luke sighed. “Here we go again.”

  The whole story played out again, exactly as before. Luke could do nothing to stop it or change it.

  He watched Mastermind kill his parents and walk away again.

  And the story reset to the beginning again.

  Luke sighed. This might t
ake a while.

  What did his uncle say? He had to dig deep. Find an emotion, a need, a strong desire that would somehow manifest into a super power. How, exactly, was he supposed to do that?

  Meanwhile, back inside the mirror-walled, high-vaulted temple chamber, Dawn, Ray, and Uncle Charlie stood around waiting in awkward silence.

  “So,” said Dawn. “You’re Luke’s uncle?”

  “That’s right.”

  “He and Luke are pretty close,” explained Ray. “Much closer than I am to any of my aunts or uncles.”

  “I come from a fairly large family,” Dawn said. “My mom’s been pressuring me to meet and marry a nice Jewish boy. Start a family of my own. I think she just wants grandkids.”

  Ray laughed nervously.

  “But I’m not looking for any of that. At least not right now. I want a career. I’m going to be an A-list actress someday. Have an agent at William-Morris or CAA or something. Star in all the big blockbusters. And some indies. Gotta remember your roots. Even when I’m a big star, I wanna do some no or low budget films, to give back and inspire the next generation of actors, ya know?”

  “Cool,” said Ray.

  “How do you figure your powers fit into all that?” Uncle Charlie asked.

  “What do you mean?” asked Dawn.

  “Well, you both have powers now, right?”

  They both nodded.

  “That changes things.”

  Dawn suddenly lit up. “That’s right! I can be anything now! They want a blonde? No problem? Prefer a brunette or redhead? I can do that too! Too tall? Too short? No problem, I got this! Oh yeah, I totally got this!”

  Ray smiled. “I suppose shape-shifting is a great talent for an actress.”

  “What about you?” Charlie asked Ray.

  “Me? I dunno. I’m not even sure what I want to do yet. Have my own business, sure, but doing what? Beats me. Not that I see how, whatchamacallit…”

  “Telekinesis,” said Charlie.

  “Yeah, that one. Not sure how that really makes a difference. Unless I became a magician and did stage shows.” He laughed. “Not in a million years.”

  “What? Magicians are cool!” remarked Dawn.

  “I’m more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. I can run the show, market it, make it profitable. But be on stage… in front of all those people… I don’t know how you do it.”

  “I love it!” exclaimed Dawn.

  “Well, I can tell ya enhanced eyesight made finding archeological dig sites a little easier for me,” said Uncle Charlie. “After a while, people started calling me Lucky Charlie. They had no clue I could—”

  Just then, the door to their chamber rolled open.

  They all turned and looked.

  Uh-oh. It was Doctor Troyd, Shadow and the other mutants, and last but not least – the man himself, Mastermind.

  Doctor Troyd tugged on Mastermind’s sleeve and pointed at Ray, Dawn, and Charlie. As if Mastermind didn’t see them standing there in the middle of the room anyway.

  “Yes,” said Mastermind, shrugging off the scientist. “I see them.” He paused, staring at Charlie. He chuckled. “Could that be my dear old friend, the infamous ‘look what I can see’ Charlie?” And he recognized the other two, too. “And you,” he said a little less pleasantly, “what the hell are you two doing here?”

  Definitely uh-oh.

  “Mastermind! How did— Where did—?” Charlie couldn’t even finish his sentence. There was no explaining Mastermind being here. There was only one crystal. And Luke had it. The only way to access this planet and this pyramid was with a crystal. There was no way he could be here!

  And yet here he was.

  “You mean this?” Mastermind cockily said, holding up his own pink glowing crystal.

  “There’s two of them?” Charlie remarked in disbelief.

  “Give up, Chuck. You can’t stop me now.”

  Charlie hardly considered himself a super hero by any means, but he wasn’t about to let a madman like Mastermind continue on running loose in the world.

  Dawn and Ray hid behind Charlie.

  Mastermind laughed. “This is too precious. I’ll turn all three of you into my mutant slaves.” He turned to his mutants. “Get them!”

  Shadow leaped into the air with cat-like agility. Slimer slid across the floor straight at them. Arachnus crawled up the wall, higher and higher. Rhino-Man charged forward, big pointed horn ready to deal some massive pain. Kraken chaotically and wildly flapped his tentacle arms all around, racing toward them. Venom exposed her fangs, hissed, and moved in to strike.

  Doctor Troyd hid behind Mastermind.

  “Ray…” said Charlie. “Now would be a good time.”

  Right. This was it. Now or never. Time to put this new power to the test. He took one step forward, placed both hands forward, and suddenly all the mutants were blasted back by some invisible force.

  Ray smiled. That felt good.

  “Yeah!” cheered Dawn.

  Mastermind looked genuinely surprised. “Interesting.”

  The mutants rose to their feet, a little dazed and confused, but quickly returned to action. They charged in to surround Ray, Dawn, and Charlie.

  “Here comes round two!” shouted Charlie.

  “I got this,” said Dawn.

  She stepped back and focused hard. She was still new at this. She needed an emotion. Needed to feel what she was to become. And she needed to become something big, strong, and intimidating. Like a 600-pound gorilla.

  Her arms immediately grew hairy. The black furry hair rapidly spread across the rest of her body, as her muscles and size grew. It tore through her clothes. Her face and jaw transformed into the terrifying form of a ferocious gorilla. She bared her dominating teeth. Pounded and beat on her chest, giving out a loud gorilla-roar.

  It stopped the other mutants in the tracks.

  She charged after them. Picked up Shadow and tossed her half way across the room, screaming like a cat would in such a circumstance. Then Dawn sucker punched Venom, showing no fear against the snake-woman’s venomous fangs.

  Rhino-Man pounded Dawn from the side, which only made the massive gorilla girl more angry. In an instant, they were in a hand-to-hand brawl, raw muscle power against raw muscle power, struggling for dominance over the other.

  Arachnus, that sneaky spider-guy, dropped down from above, about to trap and bite Dawn. But Ray was alert. And he reflexively blasted the mutant spider across the room, where it crashed into the mirrored wall and fell dizzy to the floor.

  Doctor Troyd quietly stepped back and tip-toed away. Seeing Arachnus hit the ground like that was his cue to leave. The scientist ducked out the door.

  Mastermind stood there, arms crossed, watching everything. This was his mutants’ first true test. And how very, very interesting and intriguing. It seemed good old Charlie had given these two would-be slave mutants some powers of their own. Perhaps Charlie was recruiting new heroes to try – key word “try” – to stop him.

  They were too late. Soon the world would belong to Mastermind. And he would exact his revenge.

  Dawn finally overpowered and knocked Rhino-Man to the side and down onto the floor. She pounded and beat him a few more times.

  Ray telekinetically pushed Shadow back whenever the cat-girl leaped with extended claws toward the fray. Then he quickly turned and pushed Venom against the wall, where she could do no harm. Arachnus crawled after Ray, spitting a sticky web in his direction.

  Dawn raised her gorilla fist into the air, about to pound on Rhino-Man one more time, but a long slimy tentacle wrapped around her arm and pulled it back. More tentacles wrapped and twisted around her arms and legs, completely disabling her. Kraken snickered, which sounded more like a gargling sound.

  Ray pushed back Arachnus, but the sticky web covered him. Totally gross. And while he was distracted by that, for only a second, Slimer flung a massive wad of slimy goo out of her hands, covering Ray in the mucus.

  Dawn couldn’t bre
ak free. So she shape-shifted her way out of Kraken’s tentacle hold. Her arms and legs shrank and disappeared into her body. Her body became long and narrow – and green and scaly. She quickly shrank into a long boa constrictor snake. She traveled up his tentacles, slipping through his wobbling grasp as he tried to hold her – and wrapped herself around his body, tightening with each turn.

  Arachnus and Slimer worked together to cover and trap Ray in a thick layer of slime and web. He struggled to break free – but it was no use. It was too thick, too strong, too heavy. He couldn’t move!

  Venom approached the entangled man, lethal fangs exposed, thirsting for blood. A single bite would end any further interference from him. And then she’d bite Dawn next. Venom wasn’t too pleased the shape-shifter stole her animal type.

  Rhino-Man suddenly grabbed the boa constrictor and squeezed her tight. He was crushing Dawn! She loosened her grip around Kraken.

  Shadow brushed herself off, barely dazed from all the being tossed around. Noticing Ray in caught in a slimy web and Dawn squirming for life in Rhino-Man’s grip, Shadow leaped toward Charlie with her dangerous claws extended.

  Luke had re-lived this scene maybe a dozen times already. Maybe more. But he wasn’t counting.

  He was thinking.

  Thinking about how badly he wanted revenge on Mastermind. No, revenge was the wrong word. Vengeance. He would avenge his parents’ deaths. And yeah, he was human, there was a little revenge in there too.

  Mastermind’s heartless act cost more than just their lives. It wasn’t just Luke’s parents that this evil, evil man had killed. It was Luke’s life too. The future Luke would never have. The memories, the Christmases, the birthdays, the family time they’d never enjoy together again.

  A part of Luke died that day. Not just his future. Not just his lost time with his mom and dad. Something inside him died too. Seeing his parents fall. Thinking it was all his fault. Not knowing what really happened.

  Even now, knowing the truth, it still didn’t make anything better. He still hurt. He still mourned their loss. He still regretted begging his dad to take him with them to Maui. He still regretted being too curious and stepping too close to that ledge. He still regretted not having the courage to try to climb up on his own first, and instead made them try to reach down to him.