Doom Strikes Anew!

Ajax Stewart, Engineer of the Impossible
In
Ask not for whom the Wedding Bell tolls!

Part Two: Doom Strikes Anew!

by Bubblegum Tate

The Pyramid has hung above Rio de Janeiro for a little over a year and roughly five miles up. Easily several miles across at the base, it is a giant pyramid made of thousands, perhaps millions, of smaller interlocking pyramids and triangles. Its construction resembles clear PVC pipe threaded with purple neon tubes, although many have seen it withstand blows that would splinter such sundry materials. It looks like an advertisement from Blade Runner. Or a floating casino. Or an overindulged rich kid’s art project. It looks nothing like a time machine so, naturally, that’s what it is. Many would call it an affront to science and many more an affront to good taste. The city of Rio, where good taste is something that happens to other cities, has grown accustomed to the Pyramid. Even the weird attacks that come with hosting the Quantum Pharaoh seem normal to the average citizen of Rio. Even so, the boom of a massive explosion draws every eye upwards and familiarity is shot to hell. Giant, neon pyramids hanging five miles above your city aren’t supposed to flicker like that…are they?
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Some hours earlier…

Piloting his one-man mini gyro, Ajax rose slowly towards the Pyramid. Avel’s Something New was “something so new, it comes from the future.” Before he even read exactly what it was, Ajax knew he was going to have to deal with the Quantum Pharaoh. He had not been looking forward to it.

When the Pyramid first appeared over Stewart Heights five years ago, Ajax instantly went into panic mode. Although it didn’t look like anything Avel would have dreamed up, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going through a retro phase and 50s-style robots with death dealing laser blasts emitted from eye diodes weren’t going to suddenly erupt from the bottom of the neon construct. As five days passed with no change in position or response to any message sent to it, Ajax shifted from panic to worry and finally to annoyance. When every news agency in the world started showing up on the same day and telling Ajax’s employees they’d been invited to a press conference, Ajax’s annoyance reached epic proportions. At 9 am precisely, a man dressed like a Hollywood fever dream of an ancient Egyptian god-king, except with a lot more silver lame and purple neon, seemed to float down from the bottom of the Pyramid. The theatrical bastard had even brought his own podium, made from the same PVC and neon construction as the rest of the Pyramid. Resplendent and shiny, the man calling himself the Quantum Pharaoh began to speak to the citizens of the world. As he did so, the annoyance Ajax had felt up until that moment was a candle in the face of a million blazing suns.

The Quantum Pharaoh said he was from the future. He said he had fought untold menaces at the dawn of time and under the rays of a dying sun. He proved this by checking his watch and announcing an earthquake was about to occur in Croatia, blipping himself and the Pyramid out of existence, reappearing in Croatia and stopping the earthquake by pumping seismic waves into the ground that cancelled the tremors. After performing this miracle and rematerializing at Stewart Heights to massive applause, he said the only thing that could have gained him more notoriety. “I’ve been sent from the future by my father to aid his younger self in a time of terrible crisis,” the Pharaoh said as he smiled at the millions of viewers, “and that’s why I’ve parked my Pyramid over his building.” Ajax gripped the edge of his chair so hard the steel frame bent a little as the Pharaoh turned to him and said, “Dad, I’m here to help.”

Dealings between Ajax and the Pharaoh had been strained. After a couple of adventures, Ajax couldn’t deny the Pyramid was a time machine. Still, he refused to believe that this overly theatrical dilettante was his son from the future. And if he was Ajax’s son, had the future Ajax sent him back in time just to get rid of him?

Nearing the Pyramid, one of the triangular sections seemed to iris into itself and a bright white light emanated from within. Ajax angled towards the bright, triangular shape and the unmistakable silhouette cast by the master of the Pyramid. As he choppered in, Ajax was again amazed by the tesseract technology that allowed the interior of the Pyramid to be vastly larger than the exterior would suggest. Some theoretical physicist speculated that the interior was infinite, but those types of physicists will speculate anything just to get attention.

“Dad,” the Pharaoh beamed, “I knew you were coming” (Ajax couldn’t help rolling his eyes at this) “how can I help you?” “Shiarra has been kidnapped,” Ajax began, “by Dr. B’hadgai and he’s given me a list of things to collect to save her life. I’ve already got Something Old, and now he wants me to collect Something New.”

The Pharaoh nodded knowingly, “He wants something so new it’s from the future, doesn’t he? He wants the Celestial Stele.” Despite himself, Ajax was a little surprised by the Pharaoh’s insight. “He’s lusted after it ever since he helped us fight off the attack of the Tachyon Trapper. As the power source of the Pyramid and the basis of my time travel abilities, nothing else would ever be good enough.” Both men lapsed into a grim silence thinking of their arch enemy. An outside observer would be struck by how similar the men looked at that moment, despite their obvious difference in fashion sense.

Shaking himself from his reverie, Ajax said “I know we’ve had our differences, Pharaoh, but if you really believe what you say, you have to help me. It’s the only way to save your…mother.” Ajax nearly choked on the last word. The Pharaoh wordlessly turned and headed deeper into the Pyramid.

Ajax followed him through a plethora of twisting and turning routes that led further into the crystalline depths of the Pyramid. After what seemed hours, they finally reached a large, circular door. It was jarring; everything else in the Pyramid was built on triangular theme. The door irised open from the center and the two men walked across a long platform into the center of a spherical room so large that the Pyramid, at least as it appeared from the exterior, would fit with room to spare. Hanging at the end of the platform and in the center of the room, haloed by a purple nimbus of light, was the Celestial Stele. It was shaped and sized like a prop from the Ten Commandments and appeared to be made of a substance so black that it made areas between stars look bright in comparison. Worked into the black substance with such finesse as to make a grown man weep were hieroglyphics that seemed to be etched in violet neon. Ajax had once tried to decipher them, but he had slowly realized that, though the changes had been subtle, the message of the Stele changed over time.

Both men were mesmerized, but worry for his bride-to-be finally overcame Ajax and he cleared his throat before speaking. “Pharaoh, if this is the Pyramid’s power source, shouldn’t we land it somewhere before removing it?”

“Remove it?” the Pharaoh replied, spinning on Ajax wide-eyed and flummoxed. “We can’t give it to that madman! Dad, even if mom’s life is at stake, even if it creates a paradox where I don’t exist, we can’t just hand it over that villainous mastermind!”

Instantly, Ajax slumped. No matter how much he disliked the Pharaoh on a personal level and hated the fact that he just might be speaking with his own son as an adult without ever getting to know him as a child, he knew the Pharaoh to be a courageous man willing to do the right thing at great personal cost. What he feared was that the Pharaoh might be a more courageous man than Ajax himself, because Ajax was willing to trade all the items of power on Avel’s list to save the life of his one love. The look of sorrow appearing on his face was like a cloudburst out of a clear blue summer sky.

The Pharaoh put his hand on Ajax’s shoulder. “We’ll find her, dad. Look at me, I’m living proof that she doesn’t die, not for a long time!”

“I’m sorry,” Ajax whispered.

“You don’t have to be sorry, dad, I understand. Now isn’t the time to tell you all about her, but let’s just say that there’s a young lady in the future, the far, far future, that would certainly make me commit dangerous acts to save her. But this…this is just too dangerous, even for us, dad.”

It was at that moment that Ajax, for the first time, believed that this young man was his son. Did he hear himself in the Pharaoh’s voice or see Shiarra in his eyes? He couldn’t tell, but something about this moment swept all doubt from his mind. With eyes squeezed shut and fists clenched tightly he said,

“No, son, I’m sorry for this.”

Ajax brought an uppercut all the way from his toes and landed it squarely across the unsuspecting chin of his son. The Pharaoh was literally lifted from his feet as his shock-filled eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets. He fell backwards and landed on the platform with a dull thud, his headdress fell off and showed bright blond locks just like his mother’s. His head lolled to the side, eyes shut and mouth hanging slightly open. Ajax took a deep breath, stepped over his fallen form and grabbed the Stele from where it floated.

As soon as it left the nimbus of light that transfixed it, the entire Pyramid seemed to flicker like lights during a lightning storm. A cacophony of alarms and klaxons began to sing, chirp and wail. With a sickening, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Ajax felt the Pyramid list. He couldn’t tell which way he would fall in the topsy-turvy world that made up the Pyramid’s guts, but Ajax was certain that outside, in the world where physics worked, the Pyramid was dropping.

Ajax stooped, lifted the Pharaoh and threw him over his shoulder and ran for the circular door. With the Celestial Stele in his hand, the entire architecture of the Pyramid suddenly made sense to him. It was as though the Stele was singing in his head and, though the notes seemed strange and alien, they caused the world around him to come into a sharper focus. He thought of the mini-gyro and the triangular panels in the floor seemed to glow and he knew without knowing how he knew that, if followed, he would be led safely to the hangar. Without giving time to marvel at the miracle of technology or magic he held in his hand, he started to run.

As he followed the twisting and curving directions of the humming Stele in his hand, he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched or followed. Did the Pharaoh have companions in the Pyramid? He mentioned a girl, but could he also have servants living here? Had Ajax just doomed an untold number of people living within the tesseract to death? It was too late to figure it out now, he would just have to hope for the best.

He rounded the last corner and found himself in the cavernous hangar with several of the Pharaoh’s wondrous vehicles and his own mini-gyro. Suddenly, the feeling of being followed seemed to collapse in on him, as though he were a tiny man living in a house of cards he’d never noticed before. The Stele screamed in his mind and a blinding flash of light took his vision even as a concussive force blasted him off his feet. The Stele went one way, the Pharaoh the opposite and Ajax straight back.

Ajax, being a man of action who had found himself in plenty of tight scrapes, hit the ground rolling and came quickly to his feet. He fell into an easy fighting stance and begin to listen for sounds that would give away the location of his attackers to the blinded fighter. If he strained his ears he could hear tiny servos, but nothing else. As his vision returned, he began to wonder if his eyes had suffered permanent damage.

Surrounding him were a more than ten man-sized shapes. They seemed to either be men dressed in armor or automatons fashioned somewhat after a medieval knight. The armor appeared to be highly decorated, almost more suited to a parade or display than actual fighting. What’s more, the armor appeared to be almost clear or crystalline and filled with different shades of neon light, not unlike the Pyramid’s interior, though it was always the monochromatic purple of the exterior. Though the armor was beautiful, each of the shapes carried a wicked sword in both hands. The blades pulsed with the same neon energy as the armor. One of the shapes stepped forward and leveled its bright blade at Ajax.

“You have attacked a Paladin of the Knights Temporal,” it said in a voice that was deep and strong, but resonated with the same sing-song quality as the Stele, only from far away as though some distant voice sang accompaniment with his words. “You are also charged with the theft of a holy artifact of the Temporals. These crimes cannot be allowed! Give over the Stele and pray that the Quantum Pharaoh is not permanently harmed, Ajax Stewart!”

Ajax’s mind raced! Paladin? Knights Temporal? Even in all their adventures, the Pharaoh had never mentioned these things! And he was obviously highly regarded by these men, whoever they were. Regardless, he had to get the Stele and escape them. His eyes flickered to his left, glancing at the Stele.

“Do not move, Ajax Stewart! You are a great hero of your time and one day will be both the progenitor of the Pharaoh and the technology that birthed our holy order. Today, however, you are a criminal to us and if you force our hand, we will cut the evolution from you with our blades of pure Time. One good cut, and you will find yourself a monkey!”

Again Ajax’s mind was sent whirling. Progenitor of time travel, is that what they meant? Could it be possible, that HE would harness the Stele at some point in his own future and create the miraculous chrono-engine that was/is/would become the Pyramid? He was startled by a croaking, but familiar voice, from behind the Knights.

“Dad,” it said with great strain, “catch!”

From over the Knights, the Stele flew, singing its siren song of cosmic wisdom. Every helmeted head looked skyward and, although no face could be discerned, the horror was plain. Ajax caught the heavy tablet and it caused him to stumble backwards and fall, ass over teakettle, into the cockpit of his mini gyro.

The Knights spun on the Quantum Pharaoh, their horror turning to utter shock. Before they could say anything, Ajax was righting himself and could see the Pharaoh crackling with the same purple energy that coursed through the Pyramid!

“I’ve spent tens of thousands of years harnessing the Stele and I’ve learned to sing some of its celestial arias,” the Pharaoh intoned, the faraway accompaniment growing louder and stronger as he spoke. “Knights Temporal, I respect your holy Order and we have aided each other many times in the past. My bodily progenitor is your spiritual Progenitor, but I tell you now, no matter how close the ties that bind us, that man is flying out of here and I am taking you someplace where you will be unable to impede his plans!”

The Quantum Pharaoh’s voice was raised and he sang as the Stele had sung, great forks of purple lightning arcing from his body towards the walls. The voice was beautiful, enchanting, and it enraptured Ajax in the midst of firing up the mini-gyro.

The song broke for a split second, and with it went Ajax’s reverie. “Get gone, dad, these men won’t trouble you again!” The entire Pyramid seemed to flicker again and even the Pharaoh and the Knights seemed to go insubstantial for a moment.

Ajax threw the gyro in gear and cranked the stick, gaining altitude and spinning in place at the same time. He broke for the shimmering pyramidal door that had to be the way back into normal space. Straining the small craft to its limit, he sped towards it while the Pyramid’s flickering began to make it look like an old film about to break.

Ajax hit the hole into normal space at full speed and suddenly felt himself whipped around by the warm air of the southern hemisphere of earth, circa 2007. He was spun hard, just in time to see the Pyramid flicker out of existence, leaving a violet triangle-shaped burn in his retinas. He blinked back tears and hoped that he hadn’t sentenced his son to a death in some far reach of space and time. Tapping his ear bud, he spoke to his assistant, Julie.

“Jules,” he said with a throat suddenly sore and parched, “I’ve got the Cosmic Stele, start telling me about the Something Borrowed while I chopper back to the Rio office.”

“Boss, we just read a chronal energy shift that buried the needle! What happened?” Julie asked frantically.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Ajax replied, “My son gave me the Stele, saved my life and probably the entire timeline so that I could save his mother.” Ajax’s jaw tightened with new purpose, “He won’t be allowed to make that sacrifice in vain. It’s time to borrow the Borrowed and give that boy a future!”