Prologue
The Message
I had just started restoring the city of Nashville when I noticed something in the building debris. There, sitting in a pile of flying rubble, was a brochure for a city, a place so incredible. The city was for Telaville. I threw the article in the trash once I was done, it was completely and totally useless. Telaville was destroyed a long time ago, nobody knows how. In 20 A.T. or 2013. Telaville, more or less, laid in ruins ever since. A man walked up to me and shook my hand, it was Stormchaser’s secretary, Joseph Black.
“Timestance, it’s great to have the city restored, again. What would we do without you?”
“Not sure, try to find another time manipulator?” Those were my abilities, time manipulation. Scoffing, Joseph ran off with no other words, which left me alone.
I ran through the list of survivors of the Monster of 2013 in my head, stopping and skipping over the ones that I either forgot or just didn’t want to say. Billy Brockner, Rachel Simmons, Lance Springer, Jack Newman… I felt, in my heart, that I could maybe bring Telaville back, but my brain told me that it was utterly hopeless. Telaville was formerly known as St. Louis before 1977, when Shedletsky took the city for his own. Telaville hit its golden age in 19 A.T. when the population surged from 319 thousand to 532 thousand. In March of 20 M.T., It became one of the most densely populated cities in America. On the early morning of October 19, 2013, a blood moon was hanging in the sky, throwing a dark, ominous red aura onto the city. The following morning, at 9:00, the city was gone, replaced with a rusted, abandoned wasteland. The arch, which once stood as a symbol of unity and dreams, was bent and broken. Today, nobody lives in Telaville; some try to survive, and some visit, but none genuinely live there. There were connections to other cities destroyed by the blood moon, but not all were as big or as popular as Telaville. Some of those cities were Portland, Oregon; Detroit, Michigan; and Toledo, Ohio. Supposedly, in 27 M.T., Portland was set on fire, burning slowly to the ground while volcanoes and lava floods killed everyone; well, almost everyone. Detroit experienced a watery fate when in 25 M.T., the city drowned in rapidly rising lake waters. Chicago would’ve met the same fate had someone not frozen lake Michigan entirely. And finally, Toledo. Nobody knows what happened, people claim that a Titan named “Pure Insanity” simply melted the city. Some people believe that there is some evil force that destroys cities. Others think the “Titans”, people who carry the load of enhanced abilities, are to blame. Being a Titan myself, I think that we are to blame for some of the chaos that occurs in the world. My wristwatch buzzed, a voice said on the other side of the line. It was Joseph Black.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Sorry I forgot to tell you, but I have those files you requested, why do you want to leave Nashville?” He said unnaturally loudly.
“I want to take a vacation, do something, go somewhere! I can’t just be confined to Nashville for all my life!”
“Look, I know how much you’ve wanted to leave, but are you sure this is what you want?”
“I’m positive.” I spoke under my breath.
“Alright, I’ll have the concierge pack your bags–”
“I’ll pack my bags myself.” I tapped a button and the call cut off. I sighed and, as my ride pulled up, I pulled off my purple suit jacket and got into the sedan. I turned up the A/C and sat back, reading texts on my phone. I hit one that was sent from an unknown number. All phone lines in Nashville were extremely secure, arguably more secure than the Pentagon’s firewall. The text read: Meet me at Centennial Park, 6:30 AM. Don’t be late, make sure you’re not followed. I reclined the chair and read and reread the text until it burned into my brain.