Fiction Challenge #6:
Untitled
by Silver Age Fogey

MinuteMan raged in frustration at his situation, and yet he was completely immobile. Beads of sweat lay on his skin like jewels, cool and motionless. No gasping breath inflated his lungs, no gnashing of his teeth in a steely grimace flexed his face, and no strain of charging at his foe in a dynamic leap taxed his muscles.
        In his line of sight, he could see Eve, still and beautiful as a willow, and Bullet across a wide room in Mr. Mechanical's abandoned headquarters, about to execute a pincer movement with them, and just as unmoving as his comrades; a silver statue waiting to strike like a lightning bolt.
        The stranger stood, lowering his hand he had waved so casually at them, glistens of light still sparking about him. "That's better. Now, Freedom Force, as I was saying, I don't know how you found out about me being here now, but you will find a quick road to punishment by transgressing into the plans of Starion!" The tall man with the aquamarine tinted skin was clad entirely in black - almost a military uniform, with silver buckles holding his jacket closed, and silver piping around his neck and wrists, and highlighting his jet black boots.
        He turned to Patriot's Paladin, and spoke coldly with an almost echoing tone. "So you are the MinuteMan. How ironic. How delightfully ironic! And you bring your companion Eve. Ah, if you could only understand... it is delicious!" He roared with laughter, turning back to the image of the Earth that stood in the middle of the room. " I will control the minutes and the hours! I shall master the eve and the dawn!
        "These computers are childishly simple in design, but they are the best your time has to offer," Starion continued, waving a casual hand at the machinery. "Your ‘Mister Mechanical' certainly had a glimpse of the future. I find this hideout of his primitive, but not without its use.
        "But this is pointless without knowing your minds on the matter at hand," the giant bragged. He raised his hands to the silver band encircling his brow, and its sapphire gem burned ominously. A thin blade of light slowly emerged, aimed directly at MinuteMan's brow. He could actually see the photons cohering, approaching his forehead-
        Contact. A blue flame blazed through his mind, and behind his eyes. When it faded, he found that, although he was still immobile, he could voice himself. "You'll never get away with this, you fiend!" His mouth did not move, but the words rang out in his strident voice.
        "Oh, how dreadfully trite," the alien replied. "I had hoped for something clever, something original. I gave you credit for better than that, MinuteMan. I wonder if Eve or Bullet might be a bit more creative."
        "What do you want here?" MinuteMan projected.
        "Ah, that's the spirit! Get me to talk! Try to determine my plan! Attempt to buy some - some TIME!" Again, he roared in laughter, amusing himself mightily.
        When he composed himself again, he said, "I am Starion. I come from the year 2814 by your calendar. In that era, I am a chronologist, one who studies the nature of time. My studies have shown me a way to ‘see' through time, to determine events in the past, to locate chronal discontinuities, and other discoveries that your minds simply could not conceive of.
        "I was unable to resist traveling here when I found a chronal gate that led to this era, and then to the past, and from that era into a location even I could not follow... at least, I have not been able to follow YET."
        MinuteMan responded defiantly, "So you're another time traveler! We've beaten your kind before."
        The tall green alien strode over to the Sixty Second Sentinel and stared down contemptuously into steely blue eyes. "Yes, you have. You certainly have. And you speak even more truly than you can know.
        "Of course, time travel takes an enormous amount of energy. A trip from 2814 to this era... well, I had to destroy Japan. I triggered Mt. Fuji, and that empowered my chrono-ring to traverse the years, to this time. I arrived at this base, and examined the contents of these computers, and found more information that I was looking for. I learned about you, Freedom Force. I learned about Mister Mechanical. And I learned about the Timelord... oh, what I learned!" he said in almost insane glee.
        "I read about every mistake! Every misstep! I know what the Timelord did wrong the first time he attacked you!"
        "First time?" Frank Styles asked. "We only fought him once! And we beat him, the way we'll beat you!"
        "Oh, how wrong you are, MinuteMan! How very wrong you are! You have not faced Timemaster once, but a hundred times! A thousand! You cannot begin to conceive how many times your confrontation has occurred!
        "And I have found my power source. I would have had to blow up the Earth to achieve the power I need to traverse time at will, and that would have left me nothing to rule. Quite pointless."
        "Ah, but now I have the perfect source! Your old companion will do just fine. Once I have disposed of you, I go to bring him with me."
        MinuteMan felt a cold lash run through his mind. "You're talking about... about ManBot! You're going to kidnap ManBot again!"
        Suddenly, MinuteMan realized what he had said, and had he been capable of movement, he would have staggered with the knowledge.
        "You have figured it out, I see! Yes, MinuteMan! I am Timemaster!"

        Starion chuckled quietly. "Or at least, I will be. Now that I have learned all the details of your attack on ‘me', I know what to prepare for. I have learned of all that is to come. The lord of time, learning from the future - do you see the irony, MinuteMan? Do see the delicious humor in it? I have learned from my own future actions what I must do and what I must avoid!"
        He turned and strode back toward a small carrying case opened on top of one of Mechanicals' huge computer consoles. He began tapping on it as he continued, "But, that is of no concern to you now. Little more will be. Your doom approaches quickly.
        "Would you like to know how I trapped you? When you burst in, I triggered a warp field around each of you. You are now paralyzed in time; you cannot move, you cannot do anything. Your body does not continue to operate, save for thought. No one knows why there is no quantifiable relationship between thought and time, but again - that will never be your concern."
        He went to Bullet, and stared directly into the eyes of the Fastest Human Alive. "It's amusing. His speed is unparalleled, and yet - speed is a function of time. If no time passes - no movement can occur. How very droll...
        "But I digress. The time warp interface is not complete, else you three would not be able to see me, to hear me." He turned back to the case he had brought with him from the future. "What I am doing is changing your fields surrounding you, so that your internal organs will be able to move through time again - but the outer parts of your body will not. Your lungs will respirate - but you will not be able to inhale. Your blood will pulse - but not through time stopped cells that are harder than diamond. Shall you perish from asphyxiation, or stroke, or myocardial infarction? The thought will keep you occupied in your last moments."
        He finished typing, and the glow around the Freedom Force subtly started changing. "Goodbye, heroes. I will see you again... in the past!" With that, he moved purposefully into an adjoining chamber, as the heroes felt their bodies begin to start in time again... save for their skins and exterior parts, exactly as Starion had described.
        All three shared the thought that Mentor had backed them up, but contact with him had been lost when they had become trapped. And now that they could think actively again, there might be no time for him to arrive to save them.

        But the World's Quickest Man wasn't about to go gently into the darkness. ;Time is speed... he said time is speed... how can I use that? thought Dwight Arrow. Time to speed to motion... motion! If only I can get my molecules moving again, I can break out of this!
        He began concentrating on his extremities, focusing on vibrating them. The blood in his veins raced, his lungs started to burn, and he thought of nothing save moving his body from the inside out.
        ;I am coming, Freedom Force! rang Mentor's call in their minds. But even as they heard him, they could feel the horrible pain, as if they had been trapped in steel coatings. And still Bullet pushed harder and harder, desperately attempting to get his cells to move even the slightest bit...
        A low ringing started sounding through the room as Bullet's entire body began to vibrate... and as he moved, his skin began to slowly start in time again, and then his extremities began to tremble just the slightest amount... but enough to break the field.
        With a silent roar, the energy surrounding the three heroes dissipated, leaving them to collapse to the ground, gasping and crying out in agony. Dragging himself to his knees, MinuteMan harshly rasped, "Eve! Bullet! Are you okay?"
        "I... I yet... endure... MinuteMan," Eve gasped, pulling deep breaths in.
        "Yeah, I'm okay... just a little scorched," Bullet answered, looking at smoldering patches on his uniform. "A whole lot better than that time traveling scumbag is gonna be when I-"
        "No! It is not possible!" bellowed that alien voice. Starion had returned to the chamber, confidently entering and expecting to see his opponents dead, trapped in time shells. "You cannot be alive!"
        "Sorry to disappoint you, villain," MinuteMan responded, "but we make it a point of not doing what the villain expects!" He leapt up and flipped forward, swinging Patriot around in front of him as he landed. "For freedom!" he cried, and the mysterious white energy bolts issued from his staff and slammed into the futurian.
        As the villain spun, dazed, Eve gestured, arms moving gently like tree branches in a strong breeze, and in response, thin wooden limbs rose up seemingly out of the very floor, encircling and entangling the alien from the future. "Your nature must be defeated," she said.
        "No! I must not be trapped! I WILL not be trapped!" He reached for his headband before his arms were pinned, and a garish blue aura surround him. "Your wooden limbs will wither into dust before they can hold me, woman!"
        In response, Nature's Mistress smiled and watched as the branches did NOT shrink in the time field, but instead grew larger and stronger, firmer and even tighter. "You are a fool, Starion, to think you understand the nature of all. Your aging has only strengthened the net of redwoods that I have cast around you. Their lives are centuries, and they achieve their power in time."
        And as Eve described, the alien's arms were pinned against his side, his hands unable to move to reach his head band or any other part of his body. He stood struggling but most immobile, wrapped in a cocoon of redwood. Eve continued, "And now, how does it feel to YOU to be trapped and surrounded by that which time is?"
        "Well done, Eve!" MinuteMan commented. "And now, it's time we took this fellow in to custody."
        Mentor burst into the room, calling, "Do not panic Freedom Force - but then, I see there is no reason to," he said, slowing and looking at his teammates and friends. "Once again, I am amazed at the resourcefulness of you."
        "We do our best, Mentor," Bullet answered, slowly and painfully pulling himself to his feet. "Good t'see ya anyhow."
        The quartet of heroes surrounded Starion, and MinuteMan asked, "Well, Mentor, what do you think we should do with this character? Do we have a jail that will hold him?"
        "NEVER!" the alien bellowed. "I will not be incarcerated by the likes of you!" With a supreme effort, he slammed his head down into his hands, and they manipulated another part of the headband.
        "Suns of Shakar!" Mentor cried, as he focused his mental energies. "We must stop him from escaping, Freedom Force!" The Telepathic Titan drove his thoughts into Starion's mind, to remove his conscious thoughts.
        It seemed that he failed. Even as the blazing force of Mentor's mind reached that of the future villain, Starion began fading. "We... will... meet... again... Freedom... Force..." his voice echoed hollowly as he disappeared into time.
        Bullet cursed, "An' now we just have to deal with him again!"
        Mentor smiled and put a comforting hand on Dwight's shoulder. "No, we do not. For you see, we have already dealt with him. As the Timemaster, he did indeed return to confront us months ago... but it has already occurred. We have already beaten him, and Ted is already gone. I used my power to remove what he had learned of us after that time."
        "Of course," Eve said softly. "The past cannot be changed. He must journey on to the future, to become the Timemaster, and he must face us - because he has already done so. And he is destined to fail forever - because we have already defeated him."
        "All I know is that all this talk about past and future give me a headache," MinuteMan said. "Mentor, you say that he won't be back?"
        "He will be back in time, but we shall not face him again."
        MinuteMan put a hand on Eve's and Bullet's shoulders. "Then let's go file our report, and then the ice cream sodas are on me, team!"
        "You sure we can get the paperwork done in time, chief?" Bullet asked.
        The Sixty Second Sentinel looked around the once-again abandoned headquarters. "Bullet, I think that after today, there's nothing we can't get done... in time!"