San Diego
Present Day
Hours passed. Law enforcement officers, detectives, and crime-scene analysts had all vacated the neighborhood after collecting a lot of evidence and statements. Now with them gone, people were still outside on their porches and front lawns. Everyone was staring over at Frank and the mysterious person who was next to him.
Frank stopped talking as he realized that the entire neighborhood was staring at him and Shockwave. Confused, curious, and frightened the witnesses were.
"Why's everyone staring?" Shockwave asked.
"You tell me," Frank responded.
Shockwave took a good look around the neighborhood. The curious, frightened children. The worried, shooken-up parents. Some were making their way back into their homes, locking the doors shut.
By now, law enforcement had vacated the neighborhood. No ambulances, patrol cars, or fire trucks. Everything went back to normal for the most part; besides the damage dealt to Frank's house, the charred spots where the lightning bolts struck, and damaged front lawns.
"Shockwave, right?" Frank questioned as he glanced over to his left with a slight turn of his head. "Who the hell were those people?"
Shockwave took a short sigh of frustration. He shrugged his shoulders, lying to Frank. Not because he wanted to, but because he needed to keep them safe.
"What if they come back? They had a clear goal in mind!" Frank argued. "My boys! Are we in danger?"
"No!" Shockwave answered. "I'm the protector of Earth. Wherever, whenever, I'll only be minutes away."
"Like Superman?" Frank joked.
Shockwave scratched his head and scoffed with a smile. "Who's Super—man?"
Blip! A bright flash of light shined throughout the sky; although brief. Everyone who bore witness to what happened, were now safe. Danger was gone…for now.
"Come back to HQ," a talking bird said, "we have what we want. Emma requests your presence."
"Who's Emma?" Frank asked.
"A friend."
Another yellow lightning bolt struck the ground behind Shockwave. It was orange like the other ones, which Frank found to be surprising. There was a woman standing behind him now.
"Sir," she said, "you've had your fun. It's time to come back."
"Well…that was quick. Send a bird, then you just travel here? If I recall ...."
"You're the boss, I know," Emma said, "but it's urgent you return with me."
"Shockwave?" Frank asked, "I'm confused? Is this—?"
"Emma," she told him.
Emma took her hands out from behind her back. She was holding a helmet and mask. It was black, with the front goggles being black. Shockwave looked down at it, but hesitated for a moment.
"You're no hero," Frank said. "Are you?"
Shockwave sighed. He knew he was made at this point. No fooling a cop, right? Much less a government agent like Frank. He grabbed the helmet and mask from Emma, turning around to face him.
"You're smart Frank," Shockwave said as he lifted the helmet up onto his head, putting it on. Putting the goggles over his eyes made him look more like a villain than a hero.
When he did this, the red and green and yellow parts of his suit began losing their color. The red turned to black. The green turned to a dark velvet-red, and the yellow turned to a dark gray. His cape turned black. Whoever this entity was, it was NOT a hero.
"Shockwave," Frank said, "you brought a friend back to life. Why? Why would you do that if you're the villain?"
Shockwave scoffed and chuckled. "Doesn't hurt to play both, does it?"
Immediately after saying this, he grabbed Emma's hand. Another orange lightning bolt struck, striking the ground with a thunderous boom. And just like that, he and Emma were gone.
"What the hell?" He questioned.
Suddenly, a woman was thrown outside of his house and onto the front lawn. This startled him. When he turned around, he saw a hooded figure standing outside on the front porch.
"Get out of this timeline," the figure shouted. It was a female voice shouting. She held her left hand out in front of her, aiming it over at the unconscious woman lying on his front lawn.
He jogged back over to his house, standing over by Amy's car which was still parked in the driveway. As he stood behind the trunk of the car, kneeled down so he wouldn't be spotted, he heard the woman talking.
The woman on the ground in the yard groaned and ached with pain. Whoever this hooded woman was, she seemed to have beat the woman on the ground.
Should Frank do something? Or should he just stay put?
"You're hereby banished from this time. Now I will return you to your time," the woman said.
Without further procrastination, she raised her left hand. On her finger was a silver ring. Just like the one Amy had as a necklace from her grandmother Susie. It glowed a bright green, which he'd never seen before. Amy's ring never did that.
Then, after carefully aiming her ring, a green transparent burst shot out from her hand. It looked like a wind tunnel. When the green energy got to the woman on the ground, her skin began burning up and flaking. Her eyes turned red, her hair burned off, her clothes erupted in a green fire. POOF!
Gone. One second she was there, the next, gone.
"I know you're there young man," the woman said as she lowered her hand. The ring stopped glowing. "No worry, I'm not the bad guy. I'm here…well.."
Frank was confused. What did she mean? Who is she? Is she lying to him to fool him into coming out? What if she did the same thing to him like she did with the woman?
"Franklin, come out dear," the woman said.
She reached for her hood, fluffing it out and then…then slowly pulling it back.
"Does it help if I reveal myself?" She asked.
Frank peaked around the corner of the car, looking directly over at her. He slowly reached behind his back to grab his gun, but nothing was there.
"Shit," he mumbled.
"Language," she said.
"Who are you?" He asked only because he couldn't make out her face from a short distance.
"My name's Suzanne," she finally revealed, "from the past. You need to come with me if you want to be safe."
Suzanne? He thought.
"Susie?" He mumbled as he stood up. When he did this, she smiled and scoffed.
"For being a government agent, you sure act like a pussy," Suzanne jokes. "Anyway, Egor would like to see you."
"Not our Susie. Got it," he mumbled as he looked up and over at her. "Who's Egor?"
Suzanne rolled her eyes and scoffed with frustration. "Oh for heaven's sake."
She snapped her fingers, which in turn made a door appear behind her. CRACK, CRACK, CRACK! Three orange lightning bolts struck the ground. And those could only mean one thing: they're back.
"Persistent fucks," Suzanne said, "hurry. Come. You have what they want."
Have what they want? He thought. Something heavy was in his back pocket. He reached behind him into his back pocket, only to pull out the camera. The very camera he'd found in his attic earlier.
Suzanne was growing ever more frustrated. She raised her left hand, forming a fist and aiming straight ahead at him…but he wasn't her target.
"Stop them!" The man leading the group of six people running toward Frank and Suzanne, shouted.
Frank put the camera back into his back pocket. He ran over to Suzanne. Just as he ran in front of her, a transparent green whip shot out of the ring. She raised her hand, then threw it downward motion. The rope flung up into the air, then slammed down onto the ground; thus creating a loud whiplash. BOOM! When the whiplash came down on the ground, a green burst of energy was expelled. It threw two people into the air.
"Ahhh," one screamed.
"Well…shit," another man said as he went flying into a tree, rustling the leaves then falling to the ground. The other one went flying into a portal. Suzanne had opened it with her right hand. He went flying right into it. When he was gone, she clenched and then twisted her right hand. That closed the portal.
"Go! I'll be right behind you," Suzanne shouted over her right shoulder.
Frank was so frightened, he'd thought he had shit his pants. Did he? No time to check. As he walked over to the door, it opened. An old man's arm came through, grabbing his shirt and pulling him through. Once he was through, the door closed.
Frank fell to the floor after taking a misstep and tripping over his own foot. Clumsy. He massaged his forehead and rubbed his eyes. Was he dreaming? There's no way magic exists in this world. Not like what he just bore witness to. When he opened his eyes, there he was: Egor himself.
An older man. Gray curly hair, circle wire glasses (not of this time era), a green turtleneck sweater, khaki dress pants, and black slip on shoes. He has a gray mustache, and even has a pleasant warm welcoming attitude.
"You sir…..oh you," Egor said as he lent Frank a hand.
"Woah..where am I? Where's Suzanne? They're coming for me."
"Correction," Egor said as he pulled Frank back up onto his feet. He then patted him on the shoulder and smiled. "Not for you, but the camera. That's what they want."
"Am I dreaming?" Frank asked.
"Are you?" Egor asked.
"I don't know," Frank said.
"Well then..it's settled. You're not dreaming. Now come. Follow me. We have lots to discuss, you and I."
"What do you mean?"
Egor stopped walking and turned around. He put his hands behind his back, and even maintained a serious look on his face.
"Amy is her name, correct?" Egor asked.
"Uh…yeah…um."
"She's in danger. And you're in possession of the only thing to get her back safely," Egor said.
"She's in danger?" He asked. "Where? How? With who?"
"1942," Egor answered.