Post by Myrdraxxis on Jun 29, 2013 1:59:45 GMT -5
~ Part 1 ~
Dace, Director of DCI and Awesome Land Intelligence, once again found himself glaring across his office at nothing in particular. It had become his favorite pastime as of late. At least, once his secretary had convinced him to stop bashing his head against his desk.
He could probably have been doing some sort of work, but honestly he was beginning to think it was all futile. Limiting the chaos of Awesome Land was a fulltime job, and even the activity in Dynasty City alone was becoming hard to manage. Hopefully the cosmic irony that guided the universe would wait until the repairs to the city had finished before unleashing some new destructive force to try and bring Awesome Land down.
Dace was pretty sure that the supernova that currently threatened the world wasn’t going to end up being much of a problem in the end. After all, he’d never heard of anything like Awesome Land getting destroyed by something like a supernova back in his time.
But then, Dace had to remind himself that this wasn’t necessarily his timeline. Dace was a time traveler from the distant future, with a mission.
One that he had been forgetting lately.
Zais. The Immortal of Darkness.
A being that had caused such destruction in the future that Dace had come to the past to destroy him. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but so far Dace hadn’t been very successful And somewhere along the way his priorities had apparently shifted because the time traveler now found himself working as a civil servant in the Awesome Land of the past.
Well, his priorities had certainly returned to their rightful order now that the bane of his existence was his freaking boss.
Why Aurora had decided that Zais would make a good Director of Homeland Security, Dace would never be able to fathom. Though he had a strong hunch this action had long-reaching consequences into Awesome Land’s bleak future.
“Not if I can help it.” Dace declared. He made up his mind and abruptly stood, making his way to a safe in the corner of his office.
He’d wasted enough time here as it was. Dace opened up the lockbox and withdrew a small device; a time-machine in the form of an intricate wristwatch. His power. In a universe of superpowered freaks and magical superpowers, Dace had only his wits, his gun and this.
While Dace took pride in his ability to succeed under these handicaps, he also realized that it wouldn’t get him far in assassinating the Immortal of Darkness. A practical demigod. He couldn’t rely on slinging around destructive forces left and right. So he’d have to be clever instead. A plan came to mind. It was risky, and the moral implications nearly made Dace drop it all together.
No. It had to be done.
Dace walked back over to his desk and opened a drawer, withdrawing a pistol and holstering in his coat.
“If I can go back further in time,” he muttered to himself as he left his office. “I can stop that monster before he even becomes an Immortal.”
“Sir?” Dace realized his secretary was looking at him. He cleared his throat
“Kara, can you tell me if the HS Director is in?” he asked. The woman nodded and reached for her phone, dialing a number and listening for a few moments. “He’s not currently in, sir. Something about a disturbance in Gamma District.”
Dace nodded, hiding a smirk. “Very well. I’ll be out of the office for a little while, Kara. Take my calls and head home a little early. I probably won’t be back today.”
“Yes sir.”
Dace left the building, crossing the street (which was still being repaired) and headed for the large, ominous fortress that hovered a short distance away.
Zais’ fortress of Darkness.
~][~
Getting into the fortress had been surprisingly easy. His authority allowed him entrance to the Fortress itself, and some quick time-jumps had gotten him past patrols into the areas that it didn’t. Soon Dace came upon a large set of double-doors. Zais personal quarters.
Dace inhaled deeply and shoved the doors opened. He waited a beat and when nothing happened went inside. It was different from what Dace expected. In that, there weren’t any cages full of skeletons hanging from the ceiling or a pit of lava in the middle of the room.
It was a large room, rather simple in design. Almost rustic. The walls were decorated with an assortment of murals and weapons of exotic origin. A fire burned in the nearby fireplace. A gleam drew Dace’s eyes to the sword hanging across the mantle. It was…rather nice-looking. Oddly lacking in shadowy-symbols or menacing craftsmanship that was more Zais’ style.
Dace shook his head and went to the center of the room. He began to fiddle with the time-machine on his wrist. Being here, in the center of Zais’ power would help with the transition. Not the time-travel itself, but Dace would be more likely to end up near Zais’ location in the past here where his essence lingered.
Or something like that. Dace wasn’t actually sure how time travel worked. That fact didn’t even mildly concern him as he set the time-machine and prepared to launch.
“This has to work. It has to, this time.” He reached to activate the machine, when the doors to the room suddenly creaked open.
“What are you doing in here?” Sindri hissed, standing in the doorway. Sindri, the Shadow Sorcerer and Zais’ right hand man. Dace swore and quickly pressed the button.
“Oh no you don’t!” Sindri moved across the room with startling speed and grabbed Dace by the wrist, dark power racing from Sindri’s hand as it connected. Dace let out a yell and threw a punch at Sindri as the dark magic surged across his arm….and the time-machine.
The room suddenly filled with a loud humming sound and a bright flash of light. Sindri yelled something, but Dace couldn’t hear it over the sound of the sudden storm of energy.
The room became unbearably bright and Dace quickly shut his eyes. The noise grew louder and louder until Dace’s brain couldn’t take the stimuli anymore and he promptly passed out.