The Time Shifter (Update)

A Story by Jordan S

Nearly done, ideas are at a stand still though.

                 The Time Shifter

   They say I am not human, that I was created out a strange material found in a UFO crash. Of coarse this is just what I’m told. To be honest I don’t know exactly what I am if I did I’d tell you, but then they’d probably send me or HADES after you, or worse yet ZEUS. So to answer the question probably on all your minds now I am KROUNUS. Bioengineered mercenary, but as I said that’s only what I’m told. I’m getting ahead of myself here lets start at the beginning.

   Since my first memory it had been training. Training, training, training every day for then years. Hand to hand, guns of all kinds, blades of all sizes. Then came my first assignment, they say the first kill is the hardest.

I suddenly awoke from my daydream and found myself in a small snowy valley high in the Himalayas. The cold bit my skin the way a bee would, a small dot lands on your skin then the icy sting. I treaded down to the hill towards the base in the valley when I tripped on the steep incline and rolled my way down. A few familiar chuckles and a giggle or two came in over the radio ear peace.

“Way to trip up on your first job for the company KROUNUS, not even a day out of training and you’re already making mistakes.” A deep voice boomed over the ear peace.

“Alright three things, one you guys can see me?...”

“A high pitched ecstatic girl’s voice chimed in “Yea company let us watch on the satellite and everything I even got popcorn.”

“Perfect” I said sarcastically. “Two shut up ZEUS you don’t need to speak into the microphone so dam close.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Said ZEUS. “Is this better!” he said screaming into it. I recoiled tearing the device from my ear and stumbling to the ground with a thud. I suddenly the sound of footsteps came in earshot. Placing it back in his ear he whispered scolding

“ZEUS you alerted the guards.”

“Well time to see what your made of. The first kill is the hardest after all." The guard turned the corner his entire outfit white to blend into the snow, a white MP5 cradled in his arms coming to see what the noise was. Seeing nothing he turned around and left back to his patrol. Not even daring to breath till he knew the guard was gone KROUNUS dug himself out from the snow. Completely ignoring the voices from the earphone he made his way stealthy made his way to the building's elevator.

"Nice and stealthy, I would complement you but that's my thing." Said a new voice.

"Yea, Yea, I'd like to see your patent on it HADES." I said.

"He is just to scared to kill someone." ZEUS taunted

"Nothing wrong with that, plenty are scared on there first time I know I was" Chimed in the high pitched girl's voice again.

"Thanks APHRODITE, that helps a lot." I said sighing with relief. The elevator dinged and the doors opened, the room was set like a place unlike the soulless concrete the rest of it was made of. The walls held velvet and silk as well as art of all kinds. Sitting in a undoubted oak desk riled with papers sat a very busy weapons dealer. On each side of him were three guards each holding a gun now pointed at the open elevator.

"Am I expecting anyone?" the man sitting at the desk asked the intercom, a heavy rushen accent hung heavy in his voice.

"No sir." Said the intercom "Not till tomorrow."

"Thank you Pocah." Said the man looking into the intercom and without even looking up he said casually "Shoot him." I concentrated hard and time crawled slowly along. You see the stuff they made me...well us out of. It gave us what you could call superpowers. Mine just happened to be what you would say super speed, but when I am going that fast it seems to me like I am just slowing down time. As I walked through the bullets as casually as someone would walk around a pole. I drew a knife and ripped the guns out of the men's hands. Taking a deep breath I plunged the knife deep into the man, but the shock of what I just did made me lose focus and time resumed at it's normal speed. Everyone but me looked around confused.

"I knew Olympus industries hired some freaks but not one that fast. Hey how would you like to work for me, I'll triple whatever there paying." He may as well have not even said anything, I was sill holding the knife, the blood dripping from it slowly so very slowly. My mind was unable to focus on anything else, the smell it was the smell of the blood. It was intoxicating. My body betrayed me attacking the guards plunging the knife into them over and over with a inhuman rage. Seeing red I stood over they bodies each rittled with knife wounds I slowly calmed down my mind returning to it's natural state I breathed heavily panting in disbelief of what just happened.

"Consider this a warning, never cross Olympus industries or else." I said and walked over the man and buried the knife in his desk going through the signature of a paper. I walked away not looking back. I was never stopped on my way passing guards, he had obviously told them not to probly fearing I would return if I got trouble. I went out of the compound and stepped into a helicopter seeming to wait for me. The white helicopter flew away and took me to an airfield. I stepped into a plane as instructed over my earpiece as I stepped into the plane I spotted a golden mountain the top covered by clouds painted on the side of plane, the only thing underneath it was in bold black letters was 'Olympus Industries'. I feel asleep in the plane the inside plush and conferrable like something out of a billionaire's fantasy. I awoke with a start, my skin tingled with a cold sweat as I panted my brain coming to back into play to figure out why I awoke. I began to rember my dream the nightmare I called a dream. I rembered a teenage boy, 15, 16 perhaps his s**t gone and his upper body covered in blood. What was left of his pants were torn to peaces clinging to him drenched with blood. The short black hair on his head was wild and matted. In his hand was a sword, on the sword was the bodies of people that he had never met. The city behind him was a sea of fire and rubble and on the boy's face was a smile. A pleasure fueled by bloodlust. His eyes glowed red with the furry deep within. I realized that he looked just like me, the only difference was my eyes were black.

"Prepare for landing" a voice said over the intercom bringing me back to the real world. I stepped into the skyscraper it was isolated, surrounded by nothingness, hidden in the middle of a wasteland. The inside was nice, inviting, and I was welcomed and helloed by everyone I passed. I stepped into a steal box labeled elevator and pressed ground floor.

"Um sir," the man next to me said, "we are on the ground floor." I helled the door open and my finger continued to press on ground floor.

"It be best if you take the next one." I assured him.

"What are you..."

"Now!" I screamed cutting him off and as the doors closed I heard the man start complaining to the lady next to him how he was just kicked off the elevator by an obnoxious teenager. The elevator hit the basement on the little electronic display then it flashed now changing to 'Welcome, please insert password'. A small opening appeared were the buttons once were and a keyboard emerged. I punched in KROUNOS into it the key board and the keys flashed slightly every time he touched one scanning his fingerprint. Knowing if he had typed anything but the name of one of his 'relatives' into the keyboard he would find himself in the matnace room, but the elevator kept going. A few moments later the elevator slid open to a large room filled with people. The majority were nameless employees all dressed in uniform, a brown jumpsuit along with a belt holding a baton and tazer on it. The occasional white lab coated scientists strolled through the room passing through one door to the other. The ones I was really interested in were my relatives, Olympus industry's special projects. When a company gets as big as this one, they need people to 'take care of' rivals, annoying people, noisy journalists, ect. That's were we come in. My train of though was interrupted as my shadow grew upwards gaining dimension and the shape of another. I turned to greet the man, he was dressed in all black that completely counteracted his pale as death white skin and red eyes.

"HADES how many times have I told you not to do that!" I scolded then paused for a moment "It freaks me out"

"I'm sorry" he said in a raspy voice with a huge smile on his face "couldn't help but mess with the youngest of us"

"Shut up HADES" I said walking away, but only made it a few inches before literally bumping into ZEUS and was into a head lock for one of his static noggins the electricity running through his hand messing up my hair.

"Look who got his first kill, the little wimps growing up" He said mockingly. I resisted the urge to gut punch him instead screaming complaints into his arm but they only came out as muffled whispers. After another few doesen bolts later he released me and my hair become a mess standing on end. His wife HERA came and fixed my hair, I never really mined being a teenager she was like a mother to me. Her brown hair rolled like curves and complemented her lightly tanned skin. As to her power I don't know, no one is really sure, perhaps she doesn't have one. She fixed my hair and gave me a smile when suddenly I had my face crushed between a pair of breasts and I turned red as a apple.

"You did soooooo good!" squealed APHRODITE as she hugged me tight. I struggled to breath and nearly passed out before she let me go. Her blond hair reached her waist and her blue eyes stood out agents her porcelain skin, there's a reason she was named after the goddess of beauty and its not the fact that she had the ability to control people's mind. I smiled nervously and thanked her, but stumbled over my words. On my way to my room I passed POSEIDON's room to see him doing laps in his pool. Once I was in my room I shut the door soundproofing my room and I threw my shirt over the camera not liking to be watched in my sleep. Once my head hit the pillow I was out since I hadn’t slept well on the plane. I wasn’t able to sleep, every time I closed my eyes images flashed, people dead by my hand, dozens, then hundreds, then thousands all sent to the reaper by me. I wasn’t cut out to be a killer, I knew this now but I couldn’t just say that and Olympus will say “ok there’s the exit have a nice day.” They would kill me. I knew what I had to do, I needed to escape this place before the monster inside of me was released again. I got dressed and opened my door hoping this would be easy, if years of training has taught me anything its that nothing is ever easy. Just as I opened my door a guard was passing by.

“KROUNUS, what are you doing out?” he asked.

“I…..well…..” I tried to come up with and excuse but knew it was useless now. “I am leaving.” The guard simply chuckled only infuriating me.

“KROUNUS you’re a freak, and experiment, were would you go?”

“Anywhere but here” I said trying to pass him, but he blocked my path.

“I can’t let you do that” he said his tazer already out.

“Listen,” I looked at his nametag “Dave is it? You do not want to do this I have been trained for years, just put it down I’ll knock you out and you won’t feel a thing. I get to leave and you keep your job, we all leave happy.” I smiled but the fact he wasn’t putting it down showing me his intent. “Fine be that way.” I raised my hands over my head and Dave came in to send a few hundred volts of electricity into me when I shot one arm under his and the other above then brought them together snapping bone in two. As Dave screamed in agony I dashed past down the hall towards the elevator before they shut it down. Unfortunately it seemed Dave had called it in and I was meet by six or seven guards. All there tazers went off at once sending them strait at him. Concentrating I slowed it down so I could avoid them and began to run again, but I cannot do the two at the same time. I want to say I stayed, kicked the crap out of all of them, but I would be lying. I ran, I didn’t know were I was going I just ran. I took a sharp corner and panted heavily having sprinted for who knows how long.

“Why did they,” my arms fell to my legs and I slouched panting still harder “half to make this place so dam big.” Suddenly an plan popped into my mind and I dashed for the cafeteria. As I practly jumped through the doors everyone was startled and most of the scientist scared. In one motion as fluid as water I grabbed a knife from someone’s plate and grabbed the nearest scientist holding the blade agents the man’s thought.

“Back!” I screamed holding him hostage as men pored into the food court. I pressed myself up agent the wall. Within moments I was surrounded by guards this time with guns not a few feet pointed directly at my head. I began to inch my way towards the door, then the exit the entire time fallowed by these men.

“Can’t we just get a headshot on this kid?” I overheard one of the guards ask.

“No point, kids to dam fast.” replied another.

“Well can’t we just shoot the dam hostage? I mean its not like we can’t replace him, right?”

When he said that I felt the man I was holding gulp agenst the knife.

“No he is the head of the Olympians program. The only one who really understand how they work.” I backed up till I hit the elevator.

“Open it or the janitor is going to have a lot to clean up!” I screamed. They were hollow threats but worked and the doors opened. Stepping in I waited for the doors to close and jumped to smash the camera. I had the man type in the override and the steel box began to fly to ground level.

“KROUNOS, come now, lets just go back and we can work this out. I mean were will you go, don’t you think we could find you?” It was the first time I really saw who I had grabbed, a man who I had been watched over all my life. The white lab coat, old wrinkled skin hanging like flaps over each other, glasses magnifying his eyes to twice normal size like in a bad cartoon, and of course the white Einstein hair.

“I…I..I can’t I’m a monster. I….” I was cut off as the elevator chimed and the doors opened to the ground level. Instantly and almost instinctually I put the man back agents the knife and inched my way to the door. A few people screamed and I was soon surrounded once again by armed security, non daring to fire, but not a single one lowering there weapon. Once my back was agents the door I pushed the scientist into the mass of guard and sprinted in the other direction to the nearest car. I slammed my fist through the window and got lucky for a man was inside and just turned the car on. He looked at me stupidly before I yanked him out, tossed him aside, jumped in, and gunned it just as bullets began to fly. I drove and drove and drove till the car came to a halt. Lady luck seemed to be on my side that day since it seemed I had left before they could get in pursuit. I checked the car for anything useful any only found a water bottle. Sighing I began to push the car through the desert landscape I found myself in. I left the thing in the first parking spot I could find and left the keys in the ignition. They had trained me for practly this exact scenario…well minus the escape from them. Leave the car somewhere legal so not to get towed, because then they could get an idea were you were. Leave the keys in so someone can steal it and send them off track. I began my trip down the road and managed to hitchhike onto a tour bus for some boy band I had never heard of but clamed I was a huge fan. They took me to the next city and I had plans to disappear to a small town till I saw where we were Las Vegas.

Chris got up and begin the daily routine, brush teeth, eat bedfast, get dressed and so on. The only new thing was this wasn’t his room he had rented from his previous roommate Frank. Chris had just moved in with his girlfriend Samantha. Chris looked around absorbing his girly surroundings really for the first time. The black haired beauty he called a girlfriend was still asleep and Chris got off to his dead-end job waiting tables. Chris sighed and got the order for table six this already his 11^th hour, but he needed the overtime. Chris brought it and seated another table, but something felt off about this one. There was a man there, white hair, wrinkly skin, and glasses. Chris has seen the face before and knew he was a bad man, but he couldn’t remember from where, it is like he was from a different life, a dream perhaps. The man looked at me for a moment with the same look I had given him and began to type furiously into his phone. I managed to finish my shift as they left and just as I was on my way out the old man stopped me.

“Excuse me, what is your name?” the man asked and I told him then his phone range and he answered it and a moment later his eyes went wide as saucers. I looked at him for a moment before heading back to Samantha’s house, or well my new house. Something in my gut didn’t sit well that night as I drove home, there was something about that man that I couldn’t shake, something familiar. I drove home and knew something was wrong once I saw the lights off. I slowly opened the door to see a horrific sight, Samantha tied up in the middle of the room. I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and began to cut at the ropes telling her to stay still. She mumbled into the gag before removed it nearly through the ropes.

“Chris we need to get out of here” she whispered. “There are men looking for you just in the next room.” Agents the please of Samantha I slowly crept inside knife ready. Inside were men that resembled special forces tearing the room apart lead by the old man from my job. Dumbstruck I simply stared for a moment or two before being discovered. I was jumped at by the men and quickly unarmed having never been in a fight, little long a knife fight. I struggled agents them before they injected something into my neck and the world slowly faded to black.

I awoke in a small metal room similar to what I thought a police interrogation room would look like, steal wall, one door, and a single window that I was sure was one sided glass. I began to go for the door when I realized my arms were bound to the chair. My mind began to race with questions, where was I, where was Samantha, who are these people the list goes on and on. I began to panic jerking my arms and clawing at anything I could. I began to beg for someone to let me out for what felt like hours, then began to scream my lungs out for someone to answer me. Someone finally came in and I looked up, panting from the screaming. The woman was a tall procaine skinned blond, I was dumbstruck and would have called beautiful, if I wasn’t restrained to a chair in a interrogation room.

“Shhhhh.” She said conferring me as her hands traced my arm almost seductively. “Just relax and….” I realized something was off when she places her hands on my temples. “…let me in!” I screamed as a white hot knife went flying through my skull. Another and another came in maddening persition causing a never-ending hell that existed only in my head.

“What is your name?” A voice said over an intercom.

“Chris….Christopher Ohnus” I said panting. Another sharp pain by her.

“Do you recall anyone by the name of KROUNUS?”

"What? No I have never heard of him. Who the hell are you people? What do you want with me?” More pains, worse this time

“I think he has suppressed the memory and made this one to replace it.” said the woman behind me. I barely heard her, something felt different, like she had somehow awakened something. My head dropped as alien memories flooded my head. The only clear thought in there thoughts, no my thoughts were that I needed to get out of here. I concentrated all my effort and pulled agents my restraints for what felt like hours. When I finally stopped my head was spinning. I looked around and was horrified by what I saw. Everywhere was blood, the floor was a pool of it, the walls were painted with it, and so was I.