In a dark cave in the LaMistas, Dr. Carter was working on a device. He had heard of it in the comic books of his childhood, and was hoping he could test it out. But, mercenaries caught wind, and made him swear that only they would use it. Dr. Carter first tested this in the laboratory, and a portal opened. When he pressed the button, the portal closed. When the portal opened again, the circular black clouds got bigger, and Dr. Carter threw in an energy reader with a tracker to see where it was going. He closed the portal again. He tried turning on a computer where he could read the energies, but nothing came up.
He was tweaking the device when Tyler Mandrian, the mercenary, came down.
"Are you done with it yet?"
"No, I just need to figure out a way to control it so you can go to where you want to and come back here." Dr. Carter said, wiping sweat off his face, as being around Tyler made him nervous.
"Well, hurry up, there are artifacts around here worth my dime on the market." Tyler said, cleaning his gun so Dr. Carter could hear.
A portal opened up, then closed. Dr. Carter decided to put in a rat with a tracker, and see if the rat could return between. He opened the portal again. Dr. Carter threw the rat with the tracker in. A reading came up on the computer. Then, a tinier portal opened up and the rat was back on the table.
"Let me know when it's ready to be used by me." Tyler said, "it better be soon."
Dr. Carter kept working. He was able to project coordinates of longitude and latitude of specific locations and watched on a monitor where the portals opened up.
Sheena was walking through the jungle, visiting her animal friends. When she was near the base of the cave where she lived, she saw a black, spirling portal open up, then close. She went over to the space, and just saw a circle near where the portal was. She ran to Kali.
"Kali- I just saw a portal open near the cave."
"Was it magic?"
"No, but it was black, swirly, and then it disappeared."
"Must be science, see if Cutter knows."
Matt Cutter was reading about new car parts, and was looking to fix his Jeep with updated mechanics. Now that Cutter Unlimited was making good enough business, he figured a little splurge wouldn't hurt. After he called in the order, he decided to rest on the back porch sitting area of his business. He found a long chair, put his feet up, rested his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. As soon as he smiled under the sun's warm rays, a shadow stood over him. He kept his eyes closed.
"Sheena, what are you looking to suck me into this time?" Matt said.
"Nothing, I just saw a black, swirling portal open up near my cave and Kali thought I should talk to you because of the modernity of this science."
"Sheena, " Matt said, opening his eyes and sitting up on the side of the chair. "You've read about science, what do you think it was?"
"An experiment. Do you know anybody who would have this power? What have you read?"
"Nothing."
"I just have a feeling that its going to go into the wrong hands, and there will be great loss."
Dr. Carter saw the cave portal open and close, and he knew that near the ancient Kaia ruins, was a treasure Tyler wanted. He wanted to see if the portals could open away from actual sites, as he was working on a way of developing a point of return away from the scene should it appear. Within a days time, he was able to figure out a way to allow for point of return away, and also random locations as well. He tested it out, and made sure he did it in unpopulated places away from sight.
Tyler came in.
"Is it done?"
"Just about."
"I want to be the first to walk through, and the first to return, Doctor."
Tyler left.
Matt Cutter was walking in the jungle with a tourist group, of which he stayed behind just to make sure everyone else was going forward. In the middle of the field, he saw a black, swirling portal open up, and he remembered Sheena's story. He went about his way with the tourists, but as soon as he returned he would tell Sheena, because something did not seem right.
When the tourist trip ended, Matt drove to Kali's village. Sheena just exited out of Kali's hut.
"I saw a portal like the one you were talking about. It was in the field where I took tourists earlier today."
"Why are they randomly appearing?" Sheena said.
"I don't know, but I suggest we keep an eye out for them."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Sheena said, as Cutter tried to reassure her that it might not be that bad before driving back to Cutter Unlimited.
Dr. Carter's tests proved fruitful, as he was able to send to and from objects from the time dilation accelerator back to his lab. Tyler came in with a couple of his goons.
"Are you ready to test it with me?" Tyler said, pulling his gun from his holster.
"I think so."
"Okay, then let's do so."
Dr. Carter turned on the accelerator, and a black portal opened up in the lab. His goons were in awe of what they were seeing.
"This will take you to a location close to the first treasure. It will also open up a return."
"Do I take the accelerator with me?" Tyler said.
"Only if you want to, though it can operate from another location just fine."
"Let's test and see." Tyler said, walking through the portal.
Dr. Carter read and saw Tyler from the location on the screen. The accelerator then opened up another portal close to Tyler and Tyler walked through it. He was back in the lab.
"Is this good to go?" Tyler asked.
"I just need to figure out what to do if someone were to get lost and cannot return." Dr. Carter said.
"Rick, there is no need for that."
"Science of this nature requires it. You can use it as you please, but I am going to keep working." Dr. Carter said, writing down formulas in his notes.
"Goody!" one of Tyler's goons said. "Treasure time!"
It was peaceful around the Kaia ruins. Sheena was helping a farmer watch their flock. Though known for obscurity, the Kaian jewels were displayed in awe around the statue of an ancient king. There was a sudden wind, and Tyler emerged from a portal. Sheena saw him as he neared the jewels. She ran over, but by the time she got there, the jewels were gone and Tyler escaped into the portal.
In town, Matt Cutter was walking close to the museum, where ancient crowns of kings and queens of pre-colonial Africa were on display. He though he saw a spark in the distance on the inside of the museum. He saw a portal open up and saw a guy fight off a security guard and steal a crown. Just as Matt got into the museum, the portal closed and the man was no where to be seen.
Events like this kept happening, and treasures around the area were disappearing. Matt and Sheena decided to guard an ancient Kaia site with preserved riches.
In the meantime, Dr. Carter was getting ansy. Tyler came in.
"How many more riches do you need?"
"Enough to make me the richest man on the black market."
"I am wondering whether I should keep the time dilation accelerator for other research, and only have it be used for scientific exploration. I think we are close to done here, I want out."
Tyler grabbed his gun and pointed it to Dr. Carter's back.
"Listen, Mitch, you couldn't even get money for this experiment if it wasn't for me. I've stolen for you. I've killed for you, and if you think you have a say in this device, you are going to be dead. Now, open the device. My men and I are going to get more money for this experiment."
Tyler threw Dr. Carter against the table. A green button was pressed on the accelerator.
In the middle of the jungle, a portal opened up underneath an elephant. The elephant screamed in terror as it fell into the portal. The portal closed immediately after. Dr. Carter couldn't detect the portal opening. He did see the green light and turned it off.
Matt was getting tired. Sweat was dripping from his arms and the red, sleeveless shirt he was wearing was beginning to stick.
"Do you think its time to call it? No one seems to be coming."
"I just want to wait a little longer." Sheena said, scoping the parameters.
A portal was opening up behind Cutter.
"I just think that they would have been here by now."
"Don't think we weren't coming." Tyler said, grabbing Matt from the back and flipping him over.
Tyler's goons came out afterwards and Matt and Sheena fought them off as quick as they could. Matt punched Tyler, then dropkicked a goon. A piece of paper fell from anotber. The portal was getting wider behind them and there was a strong, sucking wind that blew little branches and dirt from the ground.
Tyler called- "get back into the portal!"
The men started running back in. Sheena was still fighting one, and dropkicked him in the portal. Matt got up from the ground to see the portal close. He found the piece of paper on the ground.
"What was that?" He said, looking at where the portal was.
"I don't know, but here is where they are operating from." Sheena said, handing the paper with the address was.
Matt looked at the address. He knew where it was. Sheena was already on her way.
Tyler and his goons returned.
"They are onto us."
"The only thing we can do to protect ourselves is to build a bomb and take it with us next time we go. No one has to see us to be witnesses." Tyler said.
"We are already building one." One of his goons said. "It's a time bomb."
"How can you risk my work?" Dr. Carter said. "We can use this for so much good."
"Shut up, Doctor."
"I haven't even begun to explore the variance of retrieval. I just started testing."
Tyler punched Dr. Carter and took the time dilation accelerator from him.
"We will put this by the bomb, and Dr. Carter, you will be prisoner until you behave."
Tyler locked Dr. Carter behind him.
Back at Cutter Unlimited, Matt Cutter pulled up information from the sheet that he and Sheena found. Sheena was with him. "Most wanted" pulled up. Also mention of a disappearance of a Dr. Mitch Carter, physicist.
"So, the person we saw is a notorious crime lord who may have kidnapped a scientist." Sheena said.
"Yes."
"That explains this Tyler's use of portals to steal."
"And why he would use them."
"I looked up the address, but it seems to be coordinates."
"It also seems to be in an abandoned construction site in the jungle."
"We need to stop him from stealing more. It seems that he is known for stealing valuables to sell on the black market."
Matt had a sinking feeling, but he prepared to go with Sheena around the site the next day.
In the meantime, Dr. Carter kept trying to get out and retrieve his time dilation accelerator. He went back to his research, but needed the device in order to test a retrieval strategy. One of his monitors popped up and he saw a large mass of matter travel a distance, but he didn't know where it was nor what it was since he didn't catch the initial reading. He checked the green light, which was the randomizer. He thought about detaching, but he was just exploring its use. He wondered what it would look like in the hands of a hardened criminal like Tyler, who needed him to tell him about the science. In bad hands, it would fall and there would be casualties.
Tyler was sitting on his station on top of a makeshift dirt mountain. He had the time dilation accelerator in his hands, and his goons were making a bomb to take with them the next round. Tyler insisted that it be a time bomb, in case he also had to get rid of things from the time dilation accelerator as well. He wondered if he could harness the full power of the time dilation accelerator, he could rule the world. He thought about punishing Dr. Carter with his own device if Dr. Carter spoke out of turn again.
Matt Cutter and Sheena arrived near the spot. There was a compound set up.
"I am going to see over the compound. Wait here." Sheena said.
Sheena saw a hawk and morphed into it and flew away. Matt waited a good long time, before grabbing his gun, and getting on his hands and knees near an opening in the wooden fence and crawling through it. He found crates to move around with, sight unseen. He eventually saw Sheena demorph and signaled to him. The two met up and saw a shaft to crawl through.
"I'll try to find Tyler this way," Sheena pointed to one path. "You go the other way."
Matt unbuttoned the top button on his sleeveless shirt.
"We will meet up later."
The two parted and Sheena went one way, and Matt the other.
Sheena crawled towards the right, and she heard pounding and computer technical noises. She saw a man in a lab coat.
"Please let me out!"
Sheena kicked open the shaft, and Dr. Carter noticed.
"Did you come to kill me?" backing off towards the corner close to the door.
"No, I am here to find Tyler and retrieve sacred objects stolen from the area. My name is Sheena."
"I am Doctor Mitch Carter, the creator of the time dilation accelerator. Tyler kidnapped me and blackmailed me into using my technology to steal. I had no funding, and I met Tyler, and he offered me money if I would go with him, what a mistake that was. He has the accelerator now, and he locked me in for questioning him."
"I can get you out. Tell me where Tyler is." Sheena said, looking at the door.
"Probably in the main room at the base of this dirt mountain."
Sheena kicked the door down and Dr. Carter followed her.
In the meantime, Cutter crawled through the shaft and came across the "break room" where Tyler's goons and heard them talking.
"With Dr. Carter imprisoned in his own lab, we will have free range to steal not just stuff for Tyler, but for ourselves." One of them said.
"Do you think that Tyler will punish Dr. Carter for challenging him?"
"He told me last night he is thinking about shoving Dr. Carter through a portal and letting it close."
Matt heard this and decided to try to turn around and get back to Sheena, but he thought he should try to find Tyler too. He heard a loud bend, and just like that- he fell through the shaft and onto some boxes. He wasn't hurt, but when he opened his eyes, Tyler's goons were surrounding him.
"Who are you?" One of them said.
"Matt Cutter," Matt said, getting up from the crushed boxes. "Can you take me to Tyler?"
"Tyler? No one is allowed to see Tyler."
"Oh, he asked me."
"Show me in writing."
Matt looked at the men, and he looked into his pocket, and the man in front of him looked to. Matt made a fist and punched him. The other goons held Matt down on the ground.
"A spy, or a government agent- search him and take away anything that would help him."
The goons took Matt's knife, pocket gun, and tore off his shirt. The man Matt punched walked over to him as the other ones held him down.
"Who do you work for?"
"Myself."
The man punched him in the stomach."
"Now, tell me who you work for."
"Myself."
The man punched him in the stomach again, twice this time.
"I don't want to bring you to Tyler, but if I have to."
"Take me to Tyler." Matt said, smiling amid the pain.
The man who punched Matt dragged him off and threw him in a dirt pile. He locked the door.
Sheena and Dr. Carter were running down the hall when the goons appeared. Sheena tried fighting them off, but they ganged up and captured them.
A goon came and opened up the door to Matt's dirt pile prison cell.
"You are coming with me." The goon said, picking Matt up, and dragging him out.
He saw Sheena and Dr. Carter as the goons walked down a damp hall.
"Tyler, we have Dr. Carter and some friends of his trying to get him out."
Tyler turned around and was holding the time dilation accelerator.
"I knew I shouldn't have given you all that technology doctor."
"They came through the shaft." Dr. Carter said.
"Bring him to me.
A couple of goons brought Dr. Carter to Tyler. Tyler slapped Dr. Carter across the face, then tied him up to a pillar.
"I know how your machine works, so much so that it will be your downfall. You're friends will enjoy this."
Tyler pressed a button on the time dilation accelerator and a portal opened up in front of the pillar.
"And, we have a bomb around here, that's ticking. There will be no witnesses."
Sheena threw the goons off her hands and Matt threw a goon onto another one and the two fought them off the best they could. Sheena fought enough off without throwing anyone near the portal. Matt found a wooden spear not artifact and swatted many of the goons, and knocked the doors open.
In the meantime, Dr. Carter was being pulled off the ground as the wind from the portal was getting stronger and the portal was getting bigger.
"Sheena!" Matt yelled after throwing a goon on the ground coming close.
"Cutter, don't!" Sheena said as she jumped in the air and knocked Tyler down from behind. The time dilation accelerator fell from his hand, and the drop turned off the portal, but turned on the randomizer button.
Tyler and Sheena fought and Matt ran to Dr. Carter and untied him from the pillar.
Sheena held Tyler's hands on the ground.
"You think you saved Dr. Carter, " Tyler smiled. "It's too late. This bomb will go off, and there is nothing you can do to save Dr. Carter." Tyler said.
Tyler's goons got up grabbed Sheena, Matt, and Dr. Carter. and were holding them.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to do this for science." Dr. Carter said, looking sad and suddenly shocked, "the actual bomb is beneath this dirt mountain."
"With ten seconds left, " Tyler said. "The time dilation accelerator will be officially be mine."
"No!" Sheena cried.
The second Sheena said that, an explosion and a mound of dirt arose from the ground and separated her and Cutter. The dirt from the explosion, along with the metal and bodies made it very hard to see the time dilation accelerator as it flew into the air and opened a portal. Before he could fall onto the ground, Matt Cutter fell into the portal. The portal closed as immediately as it opened.
When Sheena arose from the ground, she saw Dr. Carter, dead from the explosion. She surveyed the damage, looking for Cutter. She saw the time dilation accelerator on the ground, broken and dirty.
"Cutter?" Sheena cried. "Where are you?"
Matt opened his eyes. Around him he saw clouds of pink smoke. He could feel himself falling. He could see a twisted cycle of an otherworldly pink. He didn't know where he was. He then realized that in the explosion, a portal might have opened up when the bomb exploded from the time dilation accelerator. He must've fell in as everything flew into the air and in a cloud of metal and dirt, which was still on his sweaty, bare chest. The portal must've opened through the explosion from under him. He was traveling through an opening in time, with nothing but his muscles to protect him. Still he cried out:
"Sheena! SHEENA!" Matt yelled, falling through limbo.
To be continued...