The blue-tinged lab hummed with a distorted symphony of sounds - the whirring of machinery slowed and warped, the murmurs of phantom scientists stretched into low drones, the rhythmic beeping of equipment fragmented and stuttered. ten seconds.
That's all the time Samuel had before the world around him would reset, the loop tightening its grip with each passing iteration.
He scanned the lab, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against his ribs. His eyes fell upon a technician hunched over a console, his fingers a blur as he typed commands into the system.
"Hey, Craig," Samuel called out, his voice a low, urgent whisper that seemed to cut through the distorted soundscape. This was his only chance, his one and only opportunity to interact with Craig before the loop reset and locked him out of speaking with Craig ever again.
This happened with all of them. Goddamn every person he interacted with would lock into talking to something that wasn't there. always resetting to some time during 2:00 AM, reducing with every move he made.
Craig turned, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Yeah?"
"I need you to keep this on the downlow," Samuel said, leaning closer, his voice barely audible above the distorted hum of machinery. "But there's been a threat against the time experiment. I need you to bring me to Doctor… whatever his name is. Just hurry. The perp’s in the facility, but I gotta get him out quiet, with nobody freaking out."
Craig nodded, his eyes widening slightly. "Doctor Hark's is in the -"
He paused, his gaze flickering to the side, back onto the console and then moving to where he was just a moment ago.
As if listening to someone, his eyes widened again.
He continued, "Doctor Hark's is in the -"
"Doctor Hark's is in the -"
Eight seconds, that was all he had.
"Doctor Hark's is in the -"
The same words, the same pause, the same flickering gaze and widened eyes, directed at a phantom that only he could perceive.
Eight seconds and he was as equally dead as everyone in this facility, Samuel instinctively knew that he was dead. That everyone was dead.
He was talking to echoes.
"Doctor Hark's is in the -" The loop repeated, a broken record of a conversation that had already happened, a ghost of an interaction trapped in time.
Eight seconds passed and Samuel moved on.
Samuel felt a cold dread grip his heart. Craig, like everyone else in the lab, was trapped, replaying the same decreasing loop over and over again, his memories resetting with each iteration. Craig's actions would now be stuck in the same loop forever and so would everyone else. Samuel needed to fix this, he was the only one who wasn't reset.
He was the only one who remembered, the only one who could see the terrifying truth of their existence.
Samuel moved on, a new sense of urgency propelling him forward. He had a name: Doctor Hark. And a rapidly shrinking window of opportunity. Eight seconds. That’s all he had before the loop reset.
The decreasing loop didn't give him any good feelings.
He needed to find Doctor Hark, and he needed to find him now.
Instead of engaging in further futile conversations, he made a beeline for a nearby security terminal. He swiped his badge, the holographic display flickering to life. He entered his clearance code, followed by a rarely used emergency escape code – a risky gamble, but one he was willing to take in this increasingly bizarre situation.
The system granted him access to the employee directory. He quickly typed in “Hark” and hit enter.
The search results returned a single entry: Doctor Alistair Hark. Lab 2227-0. Second floor, back of the building.
Samuel didn't waste any time. He raced towards the stairwell, his boots pounding on the metal steps as he ascended to the second floor. He didn't bother with subtlety anymore. He had a name, a location, and a rapidly dwindling amount of time.
He burst through the door of Lab 2227-0, his heart pounding in his chest. The lab was a chaotic mess of wires, blinking lights, and strange, humming machines. In the center of the room, a portal shimmered, its edges crackling with an unstable energy.
And standing before the portal, his face flushed with manic glee, was Doctor Hark.
“And time, my friends, is now our goddamn bitch!” Doctor Hark shouted, his voice echoing in the lab. He held a live grenade in his hand, his arm cocked back, ready to throw it through the swirling vortex.
On the other side of the portal, Samuel saw a figure that made his blood run cold: a man in elaborate armor, his face stern and regal. It was Emperor Alexander the Great, a figure ripped from the pages of history and thrust into this chaotic present. Except, as Samuel distinctly recalled, Alexander the Great had never been an Emperor. History was being rewritten, right before his very eyes.
"Whaddya say we toss in a bullet to Hitler’s head next?" a voice from the other side of the room called out, its tone laced with a chilling amusement.
"Sounds good," Doctor Hark replied, a manic grin spreading across his face.
The world dissolved around Samuel. Seven seconds. The loop reset.
"And time, my friends, is now our goddamn bitch!” Doctor Hark shouted again, his voice echoing in the lab. This time, the figure on the other side of the portal was different: a man in flowing robes, his beard long and white, a crown perched upon his head. King Solomon, another figure yanked from the past.
Samuel's mind raced. He couldn't let Doctor Hark continue this madness. He had to stop him, even if it meant taking a life.
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Before Doctor Hark could toss the grenade, Samuel drew his sidearm, his finger tightening on the trigger. He fired, six shots echoing in the lab, each bullet finding its mark. Doctor Hark's head snapped back, his eyes widening in surprise, his body collapsing to the floor, his skull a bloody ruin.
As Doctor Hark’s lifeless eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling, reality itself seemed to shudder. The blue tinge vanished, the distorted sounds fading into a familiar silence. The lab around Samuel dissolved into a blinding white void.
A disembodied voice, cold and mechanical, echoed in the emptiness.
[Time Terrorist Eliminated.]
[System Initiated. Welcome, Time-Enforcer Samuel.]
----------------------------------------
Samuel looked up, his heart pounding in his chest. A massive face, vaguely humanoid but impossibly large, materialized before him, its eyes burning with an ancient wisdom.
“Pretty sure I don’t want to deal with any morphin’ grid, Zordon,” he muttered, his voice a shaky whisper.
“This unit is not the fictional construct known as Zordon. No such being exists. Calibrating...”
As ten seconds stretched into an eternity while he thought about reasons why 'zordon''s voice seemed to need additional pylons, then as Samuel stood in the white void, the disembodied face hovering before him and his actual words registered-. He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment. Time-Ranger did have a certain ring to it. He could totally rock the silver suit, be the badass latecomer who saved the day with some cool time-bending powers.
His fantasies of superheroic spandex and epic battles against temporal villains while controlling a giant mega-mech thing were abruptly interrupted as the face spoke again, its voice deep and resonant, devoid of any emotion.
“Enforcer Unit 177-B12-78, Timeline-1 variant, reporting. Welcome to the Time Enforcers. I am your designated enforcer unit and will receive your automated mental debriefing. I am required to brief you on your new duties. Upon your return, you may use your personalized mental construct to create a new identity, purchase enhancements, Mirage manuals, Mirage knowledge downloads, and other items.”
Another moment as his hours in a certain space-based strategy game involving pylons bit him in the ass and extended his state of shock with repression his mind snapped to reality.
“Wait!” Samuel protested, his brow furrowing in confusion. “But I already have an identity, don’t I? I’m Samuel Grain. Security guard. Experimental Zone 6.”
The Enforcer Unit’s expression remained unchanged, its features as impassive as a statue.
“Negative. All beings that were involved in that incident were violently erased from existence. The epicenter and the enforcer were the only ones with enough temporal stability to survive. As you neutralized the epicenter and corrected the anomaly, according to reality, you are the only one who has known you were alive for the past twelve years.You worked at that facility, yes, but no one else worked at a facility that never existed in this timeline. Due to changes in the timestream and the bounceback of reality upon time ceasing to be repeatedly violated, you were technically reported missing eleven years ago. Appearing eleven years after being assumed dead will cause an inability to perform time enforcement duties.”
Samuel’s stomach dropped.
He had stopped a temporal apocalypse, but at what cost? His life, his identity, his entire past – it was all gone, wiped clean by the very forces he had sought to contain. He was a stranger in his own world, a ghost returned from a forgotten past.
The fact that he even understood that diatribe of time nonsense was a goddamn miracle.
He stared at the Enforcer Unit, his mind reeling. “So, what now? What am I supposed to do?!”
“You can decide upon a variety of comfortable identities that can be written into reality as having always existed via points upon return,” the Enforcer Unit stated, its voice as emotionless as a text-to-speech program. “Do you have any additional questions? Note: questions can only be asked of the Enforcement Unit during briefing and debriefing, before and after missions.”
Samuel grimaced, the weight of his newfound reality—or lack thereof—settling heavily upon him. “First off, how can you add an identity to reality? Didn’t we just stop something like that?”
“Time has reasonable give before problems occur,” the Enforcement Unit responded, its tone unchanging. “The larger the change and the earlier it is made will increase the likelihood of one of the classes of time problems occurring.”
“Alright, two more questions,” Samuel pressed, his mind swirling with confusion and a growing sense of unease. “What the hell is Mirage, and what are the ‘classes of time problems’?”
“Understood. Mirage, known as ‘magic’ in ancient times, is the hidden method that those in power gain physical and destructive, as well as defensive might. It is hidden from all in plain sight. After all, ‘Mirage’ sounds very benign to those looking for ‘magic’ on the internet.” The Enforcement Unit paused, its massive face flickering slightly, as if processing the request. “Your second question is restricted. You may only learn about time problems at the levels you have eliminated.”
A holographic menu materialized in front of Samuel’s face, the blue light illuminating his bewildered expression.
Time Problem Classifications:
1. Time Snap: A large enough change has been made at an epicenter that will likely fix itself within the hour. These are monitored but not interfered with due to a lack of manpower.
2. Time Crack: A Time Crack is a Time Snap that has expanded due to a mistake in a time-based Mirage ritual or similar dangerous experiment. A Class-1 (beginner) Enforcer is sent to end the anomaly.
3. Time Tear: A Time Tear occurs when an opening to different timelines has been torn open, creating vestigial timelines that technically only exist for a maximum of a year. This is effectively the stealing of souls and lives on a large scale, as the death toll of permanent and non-permanent lives is significant. An Enforcer team numbering three to five Class-1 (beginner) Enforcers are sent. Completed missions: 1.
4. Classified
5. Classified
6. Top Secret
7. Top Secret
8. Eyes Only Secret
9. Maximum Security, Time-King and Team Only
Then there was a flash of light.
Apparently, the Enforcement Unit had taken ‘two more questions’ a little too literally.
Samuel found himself standing in a crater the size of the entire facility, its edges shrouded in shadow. The ground beneath his feet was a jumble of broken concrete and twisted, rusted metal, the remnants of what had once been Experimental Zone 6- or at least a really old construction zone that was abandoned.
He grimaced. This wasn't how he envisioned a triumphant return. Digging himself out of a derelict construction zone, or being stuck at the bottom of a giant, square-fence-sized hole, wasn't exactly his idea of a good time.
He pulled out his phone, hoping to call for help. The screen flickered to life, displaying a message that made his stomach sink: “Unregistered device. Please purchase membership at your local Newrizong provider.”
He grimaced again, this time mixed with an ugly scowl. Of course. His phone, like his entire life, was a relic of a timeline that no longer existed.
He started walking towards the edge of the crater, his boots crunching on the debris. He figured he could climb out, find a working phone, and try to piece together what the hell had happened to his life.
Halfway there, a holographic screen materialized before him, its blue light piercing the gloom. He instinctively jumped back, startled by the sudden appearance of the display.
[Enforcer Registration Complete]
[Calculating point rewards...]
[Activating store.]
[Welcome, Beginner Enforcer (2) Samuel. You may choose one enhancement category and purchase an identity that can be modified temporally at a later date.]
[You have 2844 EP.]
[Would you like an itemized report of your previous mission?]
Blowing dust out of his hair, he sighed. There was no point in delaying the inevitable. He had a feeling that ignoring this ‘Enforcer’ business was something that didn't end until you were dead.
He reached out and tapped the screen. “Yea, fuck it. Itemized report. Let’s see what the hell I’ve earned from saving the goddamned world.”