The night was still young. The rain still poured, lightning struck and thunder cracked and rumbled. Egor and Susie, along with a team of Tinkerers, are now outside of the Jumpers' compound. The squad consisted of Egor and Susie, Leonard, Todd, Dane, and Stewart.
To keep the element of surprise, they split up into two teams of three. Egor, Susie, and Leonard on one team and Todd, Dane, and Stewart on the other team. The mission is simple, but complex in many ways.
Egor, Susie, and Leonard would go around back and enter through there while Todd, Dane, and Stewart would enter through the front.
"Element of surprise," Egor mumbled to Suzanne and Leonard, while also talking into his ring like a walkie. "Element of surprise. Got it," Todd responded.
By entering through the front and back, they'd trap the enemy inside, with nowhere to go. This is the most important mission of the Tinkerers' existence. By saving Amy, they'd take the lead in this never-ending rivalry. She's the key to ending all of this. She can save the world. But that won't happen if this mission fails.
"Portal open," Todd told Egor, "entering now."
"On my word," Egor said.
Egor turned right to continue down the alley to the back door to the warehouse. Susie and Leonard followed cautiously behind him as he led the way.
"Approaching the back door," Egor whispered over his shoulder to them.
"Waiting on your word," Todd informed.
Egor walked over to the door; his back resting up against the wall. Susie and Leonard waited in motivated anticipation.
"Leo, open a portal," Egor said.
Raising his arm, and clenching his fist. His ring began glowing its bright green. Recruited only a few months prior to tonight, he's retained a lot in little time. Fast learner.
He opened a portal. The other side was inside the hallway just behind the door.
"Go!" Egor told everyone as he was the first to step, "move in!"
Inside, there was no cause for alarm. Amy was tied down to a chair that was bolted to the floor. Emma had revealed her true intentions to Amy. She only did because the Tinkerers were planning an attack and to rescue Amy.
"Leave her alone!" A woman yelled from her cage. She was holding onto the bars, watching Emma and Shockwave work their magic. By that, I mean they're going to turn her into one of them; a Jumper.
Doing so requires a memory wipe. Any memory left untouched meant she could potentially turn against them. This would prevent that. Any and everything she's ever learned of the Tinkerers would be wiped clean. Only then, will she become a true Jumper.
Shockwave flew over to the cage. The woman let go of the bars and backed away. But she wasn't out of the wind nor was she safe. He simply phased through the cage, grabbing the woman by her throat and lifting her up.
"Go…ahead," she told him. "Kill me. It won't…stop…them."
He tightened his grip on her throat, making her gag and cough and gasp for air. Lifting her up, she began flailing her legs. She grabbed him to try and break free.
"Countdown to memory wipe: ten minutes until initiation," Emma said, "machine charging, power levels rising steadily."
Amy was dumbfounded. Restrained to the chair, she could break free. Emma walked over to her, putting her hands on Amy's shoulders. She leaned over with a sinister smile on her face.
"This isn't what I had in mind, but it'll have to do," she told Amy. "Don't worry. This'll only sting a lot."
Amy was breathing heavily, panicking on the inside. But she wasn't about to give in and reveal her feelings to Emm. Grabbing the necklace on Amy's neck, Julia yanked it and broke the chain necklace. She dropped the ring into her hand. Throwing the chain necklace because it was of no use to her.
"Another one down, only a dozen more to go," Emma mumbled with a scoff. She then put it into her dress pocket. "Get comfortable. It'll be awhile. So sit tight."
Shockwave had choked the woman, starving her body of air. He let go and her body collapsed onto the floor. THUD! Suddenly, the lights went out. The memory wipe machine began winding down from the loss of a power source.
"It's them!" Emma shouted, "they're here! Stop them."
"I'll do more than that," Shockwave responded. He pressed a button on an earpiece he was wearing. His signature helmet and mask formed over his head and face. He flew towards a wall, phasing through it.
"They're here to rescue us!" A caged Tinkerer called out with joy.
"Who's here?" Amy asked.
"The Tinkerers!" The caged Tinkerer responded.
SLAP! Emma backhanded Amy across the face with painful force.
"We don't talk to the captives!" Emma yelled in Amy's face.
"Bitch!" Amy yelled and she spit in Julia's face. Emma froze and wiped the saliva off her cheek and nose.
"Maybe I'll just kill you instead," Emma told Amy, "Might recant my generosity."
Elsewhere, Egor leapt through the portal and into the hallway on the other side. Susie and Leonard followed suit. Once they were all through, Egor had closed the portal.
Nothing but darkness surrounded them. It's so dark that it was impossible to see anything in front, behind, or to their sides. Practically blind.
"Watch your nine and three," Egor said, "I'll watch our twelve and six."
Egor raised his fist out in front of him. His ring began glowing like a flashlight. It was this that would light their way through the chaos of darkness. The three of them continued trekking forward, but stopped when Egor raised his left hand fist.
"Come to watch the show, have we?" Shockwave announced in a deep, whispery-toned voice.
"No," Egor said, "we've come to crash it."
"You're too late," Shockwave told him, "she's already turned. She chose her path."
"You chose her path," Egor replied.
"All this talk is exhausting," Shockwave said as he emerged into the path of light from Egor's ring. Before Egor could act, Shockwave flew into him. He continued flying until he flew directly into the wall at the end of the hallway.
"EGOR!" Suzanne yelled.
Shockwave phased through the wall, but Egor didn't. He slammed back first into it, falling to the floor with a loud thud.
"I'm–I'm okay!" He shouted, "find Amy! I'll keep him occupied."
Susie and Leonard ran the opposite way, their rings glowing to light their way. Once Egor couldn't see their light anymore, he groaned and got back up.
Shockwave phased back through the wall, picking Egor up by the collar of his shirt. Lifting him up, he then swung his arm. Doing that flung Egor across the hallway, slamming head first into the wall this time. CRACK! The force of hitting the wall snapped his neck, killing him. His body fell to the floor, lying on its stomach.
"Hm," Shockwave mumbled.
As he gazed upon the dead body, he didn't react fast enough to a hand that appeared out of a portal behind him. The hand grabbed him by his cape, pulling him in. On the other side was Egor.
"My turn," Egor said as he made direct eye contact with Shockwave. He had a serious, mischievous smile on his face.
They were in a tunnel of some sort. It looked like the inside of a tornado or a vortex.
"Relax body," Egor said as he swung his arm with force, lunging Shockwave forward. As Shockwave tried to stop his out of control movement, Egor blasted him with an energy burst from his ring, sending him flying faster.
"Welcome to the Tunnel of Time," Egor yelled.
Shockwave, for a moment, thought he'd killed Egor once and for all. But little did he know, was that Egor has mirror remnants of himself spread throughout all of time. Kill one, another one will take its place. That ability was unknown to him up until that moment.
As Egor flew towards Shockwave, he held his fist out to open another portal. When he did, Shockwave flew right into it, like a dart hitting the bullseye. Egor followed after.
When they emerged on the other side they were in the middle of the ocean. Two battleships were in the middle of an all-out gun battle.
"Battle of the Denmark-Strait?" Shockwave questioned.
The two of them were free-falling down towards the Atlantic. Egor eventually caught up to Shockwave's falling velocity speed. Egor grabbed a hold of Shockwave's collar strap on his suit.
Continuing downward, Egor changed their trajectory to where they were now flying towards the Bismarck. Shockwave had managed to land a punch to Egor. But when he punched back, his blow shattered Shockwave's goggles lenses. Shockwave now has a bruised and swollen eye, and a broken nose.
As they neared the Bismarck, and Shockwave still having the wind knocked out of him, Egor launched Shockwave in a forward momentum. He went flying right into the side of the ship, causing a massive explosion to expel from the Bismarck. Her now began going down as her upper decks burned in powerful flames of fire. The rear guns continued shooting.
Egor stopped flying, now hovering a short ways away from the sinking Bismarck. He waited for Shockwave to emerge from the mushroom cloud of smoke and fire. There's no way he'd allow himself to go down like this.
Waiting for him to resurface, Egor anticipated. But what he wasn't prepared for was Shockwave flying up out of the water directly beneath him.
Shockwave blasted Egor with a beam of energy expelled from his fist. Flying in a upward velocity, he was phased by the blast. But he still somehow managed to open another portal. He didn't have time to think of a specific location to travel to. Anywhere but here.
As he blipped through the portal, he emerged on the other side. This time, it was night. No moon, only stars lit the sky.
Beneath him was the Atlantic Ocean.
"Again?" He questioned. "Really?"
It was cold. Icebergs littered the oceans surface. As he continued plummeting downward, he looked back up at the portal just in time to see Shockwave burst through, racing towards him.
Egor turned over in midair and held his arms and legs out to slow his descent, but not by much. Lights could be seen getting brighter and brighter. It was a ship! Four massive funnels, with only three expelling smoke into the air.
Amongst the howling wind, he heard the sound of a bell being rung three times. When he looked ahead of where the ship was sailing, he saw a towering iceberg directly in their path.
April 14, 1912, he remembered, the night the Titanic sink.
"Iceberg–right–?" a lookout said, but stopped as he laid eyes upon Egor and Shockwave. The two lookouts watched as Shockwave blasted Egor off his collision course with slamming onto the bow.
"Say again?"
"Uh–, what in bloody hell are those? You see that?"
"What are they?"
Egor flew right into the iceberg, fragmenting it into smaller chunks. Iceberg no more. Growlers, yes.
"Disregard," the looks outs said as they hung up the phone and rang the bell once.
"All clear," the lookouts shouted.
Shockwave splashed into the water, breaking up what remained of the underwater part of the berg. When the two of them resurfaced, the Captain and an Officer watched from the Bridge Wing as they flew upward, eventually fading away and out of sight.
"What was that Mr. Murdoch?" The Captain asked.
"My guess is as good as yours, sir."
"I need sleep. Sleep is good, yes." Captain Smith said as he and Officer Murdoch walked back into the heated Bridge, closing the door behind them.
One choice changed their lives, and many others.
"Why won't you just die and stay dead?" Shockwave said, gritting his teeth.
His right eye was swollen to the size of a gum ball and was puffy and red and black. Shockwave delivered punch after punch, eventually killing Egor again by severe head trauma.
"Ha, ya bastard," Shockwave shouted in celebration, "now stay dead!"
But then he realized what he'd just done. By killing Egor's remnant, he severed his chance at returning to 1942. Every time a remnant of Egor dies, the ring vanishes from the hand of that version of Egor.
"Well…shit," Shockwave sighed and shook his head.
Going back to 1942, another remnant of Egor emerged from a portal in the same hallway where a previous remnant was killed. It's body still in the same position from when it was killed. Todd was standing over the body, but wasn't mourning like one would when someone they love dies.
"Oh good, you're back," Todd whispered as the lights finally turned back on. "I was getting worried."
"Any updates? Where's the others?" Egor asked Todd.
He rubbed the back of his head as he answered the question with hesitation.
"That's the thing," Todd said, "you see…they're being held hostage by Emma."