"Corner of Welldocks and Falcon, she said?"
"Y-Yes sir! Near the docks," Agent Melody chirped nervously in his ear. "She said she got Lung and the Undersiders contained just behind the warehouse there."
Colin struggled to stifle a sigh. "Acknowledged, Control," he said instead, signing off the channel brusquely as he leaned forward on the throttle.
"You think it's a prank?" Dragon asked quietly. She had remained on the line with him since they were interrupted by the call.
This time Colin sighed audibly. "Melody is new. While I appreciate her cautiousness, there's been no other reports of any disturbances around the docks. And the Undersiders have proven themselves to be very wily."
"In other words, you think it's a prank." Dragon finished for him, chuckling "Escalation is normal protocol, especially if some new parahuman is claiming they've captured Lung. You're just grumpy about having our research interrupted."
Colin didn't bother to respond as he turned a dark corner. GPS was still showing him a couple of miles away from his destination, but he knew several shortcuts between the narrow alleyways.
The docks were dead quiet at night. Streetlights, where they were still unbroken, cast steeper shadows around the buildings. A man, unkempt and huddled beneath a cardboard blanket, watched silently as Colin came to a rolling stop at the corner of Welldocks and Falcon.
He stepped off, making sure to lock his motorcycle with a loud electronic beep as he stared at the strange, homeless man in suspicion. The man ignored him, peering at the gleaming blue machine with undisguised fascination. For a moment, Colin wondered if this was some kind of trap. His hand moved to his halberd.
Dragon's soft laugh broke his mood. "I can keep an eye out on your bike for you, if you want."
"You know, you could have ended the call an hour ago," Colin scoffed, relaxing his stance before striding forward.
"I couldn't let our tinker night just be cut short like that," she said. "I admit, I am also curious about what could have possibly taken down Lung."
It's fake, Colin thought irritably, and he made sure his silence conveyed the message well enough. The alleyway around the warehouse was narrow and filthy, with broken cartons stacked by the wall and a dumpster upended and open on its side, blocking off most of the path. Colin went around it, keeping his face impassive as he stepped into something soft. He could see bright, white light curling around from the back and the whine of its electric illumination but otherwise, the night was curiously quiet.
Colin walked out around the corner to see Lung standing completely frozen. He was monochrome, his skin just barely gleaming. Behind him was a group of ABB men. Just ahead of them, the Undersiders looked like they were about to run off, the monstrous beasts they were on half-turned in mid-stride. They too were still and monochrome.
"Finally! You're here!" a voice piped up from behind.
Colin whirled around, his halberd fully extended. It was a girl. Young. She was tall and lanky, with long, messy curls tumbling around her beaming face and a dark pair of goggles perched on the top of her head. Her suit looked vaguely steampunk — all leather and gleaming bronze trim, covered by a web of clockwork gears ticking along. It was ostentatious tinkerwork; he couldn't make out how the parts stayed attached or their immediate function.
His curiosity was easily tempered by wariness. "You're the parahuman who called in claiming to have captured Lung and the Undersiders?" he asked curtly.
The parahuman laughed. "I thought the frozen statues behind you would be self-evident." She held her hand out. "I'm Toki, Time Tinker!"
Colin didn't take her hand. "Time Tinker? Are you implying you froze them in time?"
His grip on the halberd tightened as he tried to keep his voice level. Toki was a Japanese word; he'd heard the ABB got a new tinker recently. Was this the same person? Colin shifted slightly as he tried to remember the tinker's rumoured specialty. Was this a coup?
"Yes, hence the name," Toki nodded, smoothly withdrawing her hand. She continued to smile, seemingly oblivious to his thoughts. "And no, not connected to the ABB. I just liked the alliteration."
Colin stiffened. It was a convenient answer to his unspoken question. "So that's your power? You can make devices that freeze time?" he prodded as he carefully looked for an opening. Her body language looked open and guileless, but he couldn't be sure. His lie-detector was still calibrating.
"Freezing time is easy," a second voice piped up from his left, and Colin flinched. He whirled around, but there was already a large gun in his face.
"Time travel's where it gets tricky," the second Toki shrugged a little while keeping her gun trained steadily on him.
"C'mon! That was going well!" Colin heard the first copy complain. It felt distant in his ears as he examined the gun on him. It looked like a blunderbuss. Like her outfit, it was excessively ornate, with a polished wood stock and burnished bronze gears half-embedded in a massive barrel.
"Sorry," she said, but her face remained impassive. "You were going to attack from the right side. It wouldn't have worked but would have really dragged this meeting out."
Her goggles, gleaming and dark, looked bottomless as she stared at him. Colin didn't move.
"Your point is acknowledged," he replied carefully. In a blink, the second Toki was a step back, sitting on the ground, gun nowhere in sight. Colin turned slightly to look back; the first Toki was gone.
"She's gone to propagate the loop. Minimize the paradox and all that," Toki explained, unprompted; in some ways, Colin could almost understand that statement. "And to answer your 'unspoken' question again, yes, I explained myself to head off your suspicions about the name." She looked wry as she spoke. "That seemed to just make things worse, so I thought a direct approach might be better this time."
Then she pulled her goggles off, carefully tugging her curly hair free from the straps. She offered a light smile. "Taylor, Time Tinker. Sorry for pointing a gun in your face. Do you mind if we try this again?"
Colin forced himself to relax. "Taylor. Is that your real name?"
"Yes," Taylor said. She tilted her head, a soft smile crossing her lips for a second. "To be honest, that was my first choice. The alliteration just seems to flow better, you know? But Armsmaster — you, that is — told me it was a bad idea and I should reconsider, so! Here we are."
The silence felt loud as Colin tried to parse through her explanation. "What do you want?" he finally asked.
"Well, I did call in to report a crime," Taylor teased, gesturing to the frozen villains.
Colin peered closer at Lung. He appeared hunched, his skin silverish with the faint impression of scales. It was hard to tell with him in black and white. Taylor had apparently caught him at the exact moment his power was kicking in.
Just a coincidence, or a calculated move? He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She appeared calm and completely unruffled. Not an easy read.
He turned towards the Undersiders. They looked mid-flight, facing away from Lung. One of Hellhound's dogs looked almost floating with its paws frozen in a lunge forward. He could make out wispy black smoke trailing around them.
Lung ambushed the Undersiders. They had started to run away, and Lung was ramping up to chase them. Grue was releasing his smoke to cover their escape, but Taylor caught him in the exact moment before it billowed out, just like Lung.
"Dragon, are you still there?" he said lowly, glancing behind to make sure he was far enough from the other tinker.
"Yes." There was a short pause. "I think you made the right call, standing down. If her powers are as she says..."
"So she claims," Colin said, without heat. "My lie-detector hasn't been responding properly. She must be blocking it somehow. We can't verify anything she says."
"Lung and the Undersiders are trapped in time," Dragon pointed out reasonably. "You can't always rely on your lie-detector, Colin."
Colin sighed after a moment. "Something just feels wrong."
"Yes," Dragon agreed, "but I don't think it's her, specifically. It's more of how she controlled the entire encounter. I suspect that is how many interactions with her will feel like. But she also caught Lung and the Undersiders tonight. Take the win. One step at a time."
A ghost of a grimace flitted across his face. "Yes, you're right. I just—" he cut himself off, exhaling loudly as he closed his eyes. "Yes. I'm sorry, I'll have to end our call now. The matter has been officially confirmed, and I'll need—."
"—need to follow up accordingly with the proper procedures." Dragon finished, her tone warm. "I'll check in with you tomorrow. Remember to rest, Colin."
He nodded absently as he hung up. Then he placed the call. Melody picked up almost immediately.
"Sir?"
"This is Armsmaster. I need transport for Lung and the Undersiders. They're behind the warehouse at the corner of Welldocks and Falcon."
"Wait, it was real?" Melody half-shouted. "What happened? Is the parahuman still there?"
"Send me their ETA when they're out," Colin spoke forcefully, ignoring her questions. "The parahuman rogue will be accompanying me back to HQ. Armsmaster out."
Taylor was still sitting in the same position as he left her, fiddling with an oversized device clasped on her wrist. It looked both old and new, with multiple rotary knobs around a sleek screen. She looked up as he approached her.
"A transport is on the way to pick them up. You can give your full statement at the PRT HQ," he started without preamble.
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I don't think I agreed to go with you yet, so far."
"I assumed you'd have the time."
"Hah!" Taylor laughed, a sharp bark as she threw her head back. "I liked that," she said as she stood, dusting her pants off and stretching side to side. "You know, I can just teleport all of us into the atrium."
"That can be taken as an attack by way of parahuman force on the PRT," Colin replied, his voice flat.
"It would be instantaneous." Taylor snapped her fingers. "Just like that, you know?"
"No, I do not want to 'know'." Colin found himself gripping his halberd again as he took a step forward. "Do not attempt—"
Fingers snapped, and the sound crashed into him, ringing in his head. He slammed his weapon down on the atrium floor, staggering against it. He could feel nausea in his stomach, just bubbling up in his chest and he squeezed his fists hard, trying to force it down.
It felt like a long minute before he found himself breathing normally again.
Lung and the Undersiders stood silently behind the reception desk, just beneath the PRT logo. The desk was pushed far forward to accommodate them and Taylor was sitting on it, cycling her legs in the air while looking supremely satisfied. "The first time's always rough," she faux-whispered in commiseration.
A notification chimed up at the corner of his HUD.
Agent Melody: Help OTW! ETA 20 minutes!
Colin was tempted to arrest her. "Wait here," he growled instead, whirling around and calling Melody again. "Belay that," he barked before she could even say hello. "The rogue teleported us to the atrium. I need a team here now. Code Kasper. Armsmaster out."
Melody started to reply, but Colin already hung up. He took a moment to calm himself. Did Taylor literally move them here while time was frozen? Or did her mastery over time allow her some sort of control over space as well? He could feel a familiar ache throb behind his eyes again.
The PRT troopers took a minute to reach the atrium. They stepped in cautiously, hands near their holstered weapons as they looked at Taylor and the frozen villains.
Colin gave them a curt nod. He also made a note to talk to Calvert about their response time. "They'll be moving Lung and the Undersiders to the holding cells below," he spoke, turning to Taylor. "You can reverse the time stop there."
The girl jumped off the desk. "They'll be unfrozen in exactly 2 hours and 43 minutes then. So, interview now?"
Colin blinked, nonplussed, before setting off into the main building. Behind them, the troopers approached the 'statues' gingerly.
They found a small room, bare except for a table and two dingy chairs. The light flickered, on, off, on, before settling down with a low buzzing whine.
Taylor set herself on one cold metal seat and watched as Armsmaster sat opposite her. Behind him, she could see her reflection warped on the dark glass.
There was a camera in the corner of the room, trained on her with a beady red light.
"State your name for the record," Armsmaster started. The words grounded him and helped to brush off any lingering feelings of unsettlement.
"Taylor," Taylor said. "Time Tinker," she added after a moment's silence.
"This isn't a game," Armsmaster leaned back, crossing his arms. "Despite what you may have heard, people would kill and have killed for secret identities. Your family will be put in unnecessary danger."
"I know," Taylor agreed readily. She laid her left arm out on the table and nodded to the oversized device strapped around her wrist. "And I've built alarms for that. Anything attacks my house or my parents, I'll know about it before it happens right here on this screen."
Armsmaster looked at the screen. It was filled with strange scribbles, flashing so rapidly they looked superimposed on each other. The device itself was like a metal bracer, made of a jumble of pipes that looped up and around her arm, covering a series of moving gears that ticked backwards soundlessly.
"How many times have we done this now?" He tried a different tack.
"This is the first time. Really!" she laughed at the frown on his face. "Kinda why I wanted to teleport. Trying to maneuver the Undersiders and Lung was really tedious, I'd have you know."
"They weren't supposed to clash?" Armsmaster asked.
"Oh, they were, just not today," Taylor waved him off, leaning forward a little excitedly. "Backstory is, the Undersiders robbed one of Lung's casinos last week. Lung was supposed to track them down and attack them in 2 days. But— wait. Do you need to write this down? I can go slower."
"No, my helmet has been recording." Armsmaster motioned her to continue. "Why didn't you keep to the original events?"
"The first problem was apparently the person on duty that day just didn't believe me when I said I'd captured Lung. In fact, only the officer today believed me so that really narrowed down my options," she said, counting off her list on her fingers. "The next problem was then trying to speed up Lung's timetable, but not too much so that it would fall on the exact time tonight."
Colin closed his eyes. Of course. "Alright," he said, cutting Taylor off. She looked like she was about to go into an unnecessary tirade. "Why? Why go to such lengths?"
She looked surprised at his question. "I wanted to meet the PRT of course."
Armsmaster shook his head. "You could have made an appointment any time."
"I wanted to make a good impression," Taylor said.
He didn't relent. "Lung and the Undersiders. You could have captured them separately and brought them here yourself. Instead, you chose to engage in a long, arduous process to set up a chain of events to bring me there so that I could bring you here."
"Yes, and it's impressive, isn't it?" she smiled. "You don't want to admit it, you probably don't want to believe it until you've interviewed the villains yourself, but you're impressed."
"I—" Colin felt a vein throb dangerously beneath his left brow. "You did all this just to impress me?"
"Oh, not just you. Everyone!" Taylor exclaimed, throwing her arms out wide. "I really, really, wanted to make a good first impression."
Before he could say anything to that, a shrill beep cut through the nasal fluorescent whine in the room.
Taylor looked at her bracer, her bright grin slipping off. "This can't be right," she muttered, her fingernails tick-tapping quickly over the screen. It was flashing red, a thousand tiny lines running through the screen, and it cast an ominous pall over her face as she grew more and more frantic.
Colin straightened up as he watched her. "What's wrong?"
She stood up abruptly. "My parents are being attacked. I have to go."
"Wait!" He reached out for her, almost on reflex, and the world disappeared from under him.
An hour-long second passed (or was it a second-long hour?), and he crashed onto a cool, wet lawn. He groaned, pushing his helmet against the ground as he tried to pull himself together. It was still nighttime, but he could see the green on the grass as bright as day.
He looked up.
Scion was there, just above the trees. His hand was lazily outstretched, and at his fingertips was a miniature sun. Colin could see the fire, ebbing across the surface in quick, hopping waves. He could almost hear the heat, crackling and burning, and he could feel the weight of it all, just hanging precariously at the tip of a golden finger.
"What are you doing?!" Taylor was shouting.
They were on the small lawn of a quaint house. There was a tall tree hanging over the property, brushing up against the edge of the roof, and the lawn sprinklers were still dripping.
He saw two people standing at the door, seemingly frozen as Scion looked down on them imperiously.
"MOM! DAD!" Taylor started running but only the ground moved as the world yawned the length of the horizon. Her suit shimmered and steamed as she pressed forward. Every step sparked off a little jolt of lightning across the ground.
She screamed as Scion flicked his wrist and the molten star descended onto the house.
The gears on her suit spun white-hot as she advanced. Colin tried to stand, to follow her somehow, but everything felt sluggish as he strained against his body to just move.
And slowly, as the roof burned to ash, Taylor got through. The world snapped back in place as she punched through it, landing and stumbling over the second step of her porch. Colin lurched forward, scrabbling on his knees as the house was suddenly back in front of him.
Above, Scion turned to look at them. Immediately Colin felt suffocated, as if a great weight was resting on his chest. He couldn't move. Only his suit kept him upright, palms beside his knees, in supplication before a shining god.
Taylor stood up, gritting her teeth as she grabbed the banister for balance. The screen on her wrist was shattered. A gear spun off in a flurry of sparks, cutting a thin red line across her cheek. She could feel Scion's gaze on her but she ignored it. She shoved herself against the invisible current and took one step forward.
The second floor was swept away in a blitz of flame.
It should be hot, Taylor thought as she took a second step. But it wasn't. In the flapping wind and crackling fire, she only saw her parents, frozen in the foyer.
She thought she saw them mouth something, just as they disappeared behind a blazing light.
"NO!" she screamed, reaching into the sun.
Colin could only close his eyes as the world went white. Like that moment before a pin drops, there was no force, no movement, only a stillness that grew into a deafening shriek before—
Something shrill and tiny rang out, and the world returned to him. He blinked, shaking his head. The house was gone. Only the floor was left, its tiles black with soot. He grasped for his halberd but there was only air — he'd set it down in the investigation room.
The moon was grey, Colin suddenly realized. He whirled around. The neighbours had all gathered outside, gawking in fear and stupefaction, and they all stood unnaturally still in the soft grey light pouring out from their homes.
"Time's stopped," Taylor said from beside him. Her voice was raw, guttural, and her nose sounded stuffed as she stood next to him, staring defiantly at the first parahuman.
Scion descended. Bits of debris and ash parted before him as he hovered over the charred floor towards a square hole in the center.
"What?" Colin said. A thousand questions were running through his mind, but the words failed him.
"We should be safe for now. I managed to shield us," Taylor pointed to the shining circle around them and the house, neatly dividing the world into the grey and the living.
Scion was floating motionlessly before the hole in the ground. His fingers twitched, just slightly, and slowly, with a low rumble, the floor crumbled apart.
"Why did he—?" Colin started.
"That's not the right question," Taylor corrected him. "You should be asking how."
"How?"
"How I kill him," she snarled, her voice breaking on the last word, and then she disappeared, like a light breeze. Colin instinctively glanced at Scion again, just to see Taylor burst out above him, burying a knife in his eye.
The golden man barely twitched. He only looked back, and twin torrents of sizzling energy burst out of his eyes. The knife evaporated, but Taylor was already gone. She appeared behind him, up on one knee and eyes behind a long brass rifle.
She fired.
Each shot was like thunder, crackling in the little space they were in. This time Scion did stagger — he shifted his arms out as if to steady himself as large, gaping holes bloomed across his back, up to his head.
A twisting shudder went through him, his elbows and knees contorting backwards, and suddenly he was facing Taylor. The left side of his face was blown off, but within moments it was already filling in.
He glided forward. Colin felt useless as he watched Scion bear down on the girl, but she didn't look fazed. Her face was perfectly blank as she slapped a new magazine in, releasing the bolt and firing again.
One shot blew off Scion's shoulder entirely; another at his left leg. But he didn't stagger this time. His face showed no pain, only absolute indifference as his body reformed, again and again, while he drew closer to Taylor.
She blasted her last shot straight into his face before he grabbed her rifle. His eyes regenerated immediately, searing a straight line into the lawn as the gun burned and melted in his hand.
Scion turned. Colin ducked as the beam sliced over him, pressing down to the ground to avoid the burning plasma as it blistered against the grey bubble around them. Taylor was darting around Scion, loading up a large blunderbuss. Scion turned his head in a full rotation as he tried to follow her but she weaved and rolled around it, diving to the ground before whipping up for a single shot.
Sparks burst out of the barrel like a calamitous bouquet as the bullet fired. Scion raised his arm to block it. The bullet exploded against his hand, carving it off into a neat stump. There was no flesh beneath it; the arm terminated mid-forearm in a perfect, crystalline slate.
Taylor smiled viciously when his hand did not regrow.
Scion stepped down to the ground; immediately the lawn died. The grass turned to ash as Scion stepped out of the smoke. His eyes were blank, black orbs, but Taylor knew he was focused on her. She could feel it as she met his gaze fiercely, snapping her gun open to pop out the steaming shell.
His lips curled, baring just a hint of teeth.
Then he raised his other arm, fingers outstretched, and five thin, shining beams shot out. Each zipped erratically, like strange perpendicular snakes circling their prey. Colin watched powerlessly as Taylor leaped away, narrowing missing the first beam and ducking under the second. She fired off another shot, but it only grazed Scion, leaving a glossy line cutting into his side.
The third beam caught her, slicing across her back and she stumbled straight into the fourth. Colin shouted as Taylor teetered backwards, clutching the tiny hole in her chest before she suddenly froze up.
A second Taylor dropped to the ground, shimmering into existence just behind herself. She rolled forward and whipped up for a second shot. Scion staggered slightly as his knee exploded. His leg fell away but he remained standing, as if on invisible supports. He glared at her, and the last beam whirled around, splitting itself into ten before diving for Taylor.
She ducked and weaved but another one hit her, this time blowing her arm off. She flailed sideways and froze, before blinking into existence again. She rolled under herself and shot a chunk off his other leg before another laser pierced her heart.
And as she fell back, Taylor ducked out from her shadow and ran.
Scion remained still, only turning his head to track her as his beams dogged her path, but every time she was struck, she simply came back, firing hot.
Slowly, Taylor cut out glassy holes in Scion. His right arm fell off as his shoulder disappeared; his left flank was torn off; an empty circle punched through his chest, leaving his head connected just by a sliver of neck; but through this Taylor died and died again. She left a line of herself, like stills on a reel, petrified in death.
The last beam took her head off. Taylor felt her neck snap, her body whipping sideways from the impact, and then she was tumbling onto the ground, scrambling for another bullet. Scion silently regarded her, still standing somehow. He didn't move as Taylor raised her gun and lined the sights straight at his head.
She took a long breath, steadied her hand, and pulled the trigger.
The shot thundered in the bubble; Scion's head jerked back as the top half evaporated. Taylor thought she saw his lips smirk, just as his body burst into glittering, floating lights.
She dropped to the ground, sinking her hands into the soft soil. Her eyes squeezed shut and she could feel the wetness in them. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Her body trembled as she rested her head against the ground. She wanted to stop time, just for a while, to retreat into the tranquil second between seconds, but time was already stopped, wasn't it?
Taylor opened her eyes and blinked away her tears. First, she needed to undo whatever Scion did and save her parents. She might have to use Armsmaster's armour for parts. Where was he now?
She found Armsmaster running towards her, shouting inaudibly.
Wait, my lawn isn't this big, she thought, just as a golden fist punched through her chest.
She gasped, stumbling back into the world a few feet away. Scion stood, whole again as he flung her antecedent body off his arm. Her blood boiled and faded from his naked skin.
Taylor dived to the side, scrambling for her gun as Scion pounced. He slammed a foot down where she was, sending shockwaves through the ground. She lurched forward, trying to use her arms to balance herself before something massive wrapped around her shoulder and threw her back.
She crashed into the earth facefirst. She wheezed as she tried to push herself up. Her vision was blurry and there was mud in her mouth. Taylor spat, tasting blood, her teeth ringing with pain, and wiped her face. Scion walked calmly towards her.
Taylor fumbled through her pouches, her fingers feeling numb and rubbery against the bullets. She could feel every ponderous step, rattling her bones. Two bullets fell out before she managed to grab the third. She brought it to the gun, pushing futilely at the chamber; it felt too big somehow.
She couldn't get them lined up right.
Armsmaster came barrelling in, a small knife in his hand. He jumped at Scion, but the golden man simply brushed him aside without a glance.
He crashed behind Scion in a crumpled mess.
Calm, Taylor exhaled, slowly lining the bullet against the chamber and slotting it in.
Then she whipped it up, straight at Scion, and pulled the trigger.
Instantly he was in front of her, bending down. He grasped her hand and gun, twisting her arm away from him as the shot went off, and crushed them effortlessly. The bullet smashed against the dome of the bubble in a dazzle of colourful sparks as Taylor screamed, wrenching a bloodied stump from his grasp. She frantically swiped at him with a knife in her uninjured hand, but he ignored it and slapped her to the ground.
The knife flew out of her hand.
Taylor rolled as he stomped down again. She pressed her bloody wrist to the ground, nearly buckling as white agony lanced through her arm. She leaped forward as Scion slammed his fist down. His arm was stuck midway into the ground but he looked up, eyes burning and Taylor could feel the searing heat on her back. She glanced down; her suit was in tatters but it still looked alright for one last jump.
She didn't have a choice anyway.
She blinked out of existence again just as the laser hit.
Colin pulled himself up. His suit groaned and sparked with every little movement, the HUD in his visor a constant flashing red. He watched as Scion stood calmly, pulling his hand out of the ground. It was undirtied. The golden man turned slightly, scanning.
It was like a thunderclap, an instant where the world turned inside out and leftways right. Scion moved, his hand shooting up and pulled. There was a superposition of light and shadow, like a negative flash, and Taylor yelped as she smashed into the dirt, jerked back into reality.
She coughed violently, blood dripping out of her mouth. She clutched her bare arm to her chest; her hand was restored, at least. Scion was moving, dragging her by her foot across the ashes. Something hard dug into her back but she only felt it distantly, like a stranger in her body. Her head pounded fiercely, and she heaved, spitting blood from an empty stomach.
As she slid across the ground, the gears on her outfit fell off, leaving a line of tinkling gold in the blackened sand.
They stopped at the charred remains of her house. Scion waved a finger, and what was left of the floor crumbled away. A tall clockwork instrument rose from the smoking embers, floating languidly before Scion. It was a massive slab of gleaming metal with multiple pipes curling out from the top. The surface was serrated, with the lines swirling around a blank dial in the middle. The clock had multiple hands, each moving at a different speed; when one hand passed 12, hot steam billowed out from the pipes.
Her time machine, Colin realized grimly as he struggled to stand. Taylor was on her back, spent and motionless, one leg still in Scion's grasp. He was glowing brightly, head tilted as he peered closely at the machine.
The golden shine poured forward, sliding over the machine, creeping upon Taylor. Then the clock spun dizzily and Taylor screamed, clutching her head. Scion ignored it.
"STOP!" Her voice was hoarse. She tried to sit up, reaching futilely for Scion. "You're going to destroy—"
The clockwork machine shone incandescently, the hands on its face a black whirl, and then it exploded.
In that moment when time hung still for a second and an eternity, Colin saw Taylor turn to him. Her face was tear-streaked, her eyes were shining, and she was mouthing something.
"Run!"
Then time caught up to him the next second, and everything went gray.