"Oi, boy, tell me something about yourself. I'll get bored for three hours if the only living being for another five kilometres is sitting beside me and trembling for his loss." I couldn't stop shivering no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I wanted to be strong I just couldn't stop my racing heart or my hyperventilating lungs. All I felt was guilt that I was the only one who she saved, the only one who survived and almost felt like I would die out of my trauma. In came a slap on the back of my neck. "Ow!". "I hope that shall calm you for a while now, I ought to talk to the HQ about this. I won't go after first-timers anymore. You're all so annoying." She exclaimed with a hint of aggression and frustration in her sweet yet rugged voice. It was the voice of a woman who has seen both highs and lows of life.
But not going to lie, that did help me come out of the shock. "I'm just a regular guy who goes to college." "Ah, well I already know that." she exhaled in the same tone as before. "Who do you think you are talking to thinking I can't even deduce even that much on my own''. "I didn't know what else to say!" I said somewhat apologetically even when I am the one getting taunted here. "Humph, Just tell me something like your hobbies or interests." She said. But before I told her anything about me, I wanted to know what was going on around us for the past hour. "First tell me what in the world just happened?" I asked. She just gave me a dead stare and said. "Just hold your horses, you shall come to know of it soon. Let's start with what you have experienced for the past three days."
I tried to recollect as to what had happened. "Nothing much for the past two days except today, I was at the bus stop at the front of my dorm, then the next thing I knew I was on the bus with jo.." the mention of the name strung me but I continued anyway. "reached my university unexpectedly quickly, felt drowsy and went to wash my face....". I was just going through the series of events and I just got bombarded with the thoughts and memory of the incident. I got trapped in the loop of negativity and guilt hit me back. "Oi boy, why did ya stop? Are you beginning to understand what happened or do you have a small brain that can't remember anything at all." I just felt so bad as if it was me that had caused the whole calamity. I started to panic and just couldn't stop shivering, again.
But then I felt a temporal imbalance as if time was starting to flow gradually, which made me notice the literal quantification of the imbalance. "What is this, how is this happening? This isn't supposed to happen!" She exclaimed. "What's the matter?" I quaked and asked. "Nothing, we need to leave" She replied. But then I saw an evil grin on her face which got me even more scared and anxious than before, thoughts like me being kidnapped manifested in me, but I soon debunked that with the previous instance of her bravery and with the realization that she generally gave off a positive vibe.
"Now I don't have to spend time on finding out what type of a bender you are, which would have taken a lot longer". After what she said the situation got even more complex for me to even ask her anything back. "I think let's skip the first few steps as everything is clear, from now on you aren't an ordinary human anymore. You are a Time-Bender, a being capable of manipulating the flow of time." "Wha...what?, I am a what? I can manipulate what? " I was dazzled by what I had heard and could not make head and toe of it. "Don't worry everything will be explained in detail later as of now we shall go to the headquarters before time completely starts flowing normally". She grabbed my hoodie and dragged me just as fast as last time.
Soon she started leaping, but this time I could feel the movement, unlike last time because I had a better understanding of my senses and surrounding this time due to the relatively less effect of shock which grasped me now. But somehow I didn't feel that way anymore. Man, we jumped at least from country to country, coast to coast, until we reached a dwarf island. "Welcome to the HQ, the home of the time-benders." Now for real, I started feeling like I was lured into a trap and was kidnapped or about to be held hostage. A shady island in the middle of nowhere felt kind of malicious. "Don't worry, no one is going to kidnap you stupid. As if anyone would benefit from that anyway". She then walked further into the island where after a point she glitched out and vanished. She poked out her head and said "Are you coming, or do you want more people to die?". Without a second thought, I went towards the barrier and barged in.
My eyes glitched for a second as what had unfolded in front of my very eyes was unbelievable! I had never seen anything like this before, it felt as if I was in a place that mankind could only have imagined of. A whole; very advanced city that was bigger than the island itself was in front of me. I understood that this might just be some cloaking technology, which I had an idea about since I researched it during my free time. But it all still seemed impossible. "How did you cloak this entire place? I thought cloaking was just still in the development stage." "The HQ is 50 years ahead in technology, thanks to the time-bending ability we can see a maximum of 50 years ahead for now. You'll get all your answers once we head in." She replied as calmly as she ever could have been.
We soon walked into the main facility and it had people rushing all around; it felt like a very busy office. Strange computers everywhere, and tech I couldn't understand even after being a geek myself. While looking around and being fascinated by the surroundings a stern voice interrupted "I don't think the buffer time protocol was followed, SuperiorScout-006". "Yes, it wasn't followed because it wasn't needed. He is from the most useless domain; the Time-Accelerator. He accelerated time just after the First-Step". "Oh that's quite interesting to see the manifestation happen so fast, let me introduce myself kid, I am the SupremeScout, the head of the scouts and a fellow time-bender."
The person who was talking approached from the shadows and he looked like a very buff man with a Freddie Mercury moustache. He seemed relatively mature and old, but it felt like someone attached his head to another body as they didn't match at all. He stared at me and then said: "My friend, Welcome to the beginning of The-End".