Emma glanced over at the machine's charging dial. The power level continued rising slowly, and was about to surpass the ninety-percent mark.
"Almost," Emma said as she turned around to look at Amy. "In the next few minutes, everything you've ever loved, ever cherished, and worshiped will be gone!"
"Nothing lasts forever," Amy responded with a devious smile. She thought that by saying that, it would deter Emma from continuing with her plan, whatever that may be.
Emma waved her hands and pretended to act intimidated. "Ooo," she sounded, "your pathetic tactic doesn't intimidate me."
"It should!"
Leonard, Susie, Dane, and Stewart had been tied up and confined to a corner in the room. She's taken their rings away, leaving them without a way to retaliate.
"It doesn't," Emma reminded Amy, "now you're probably wondering why it has to be you, yes?"
"Oh now you want me to talk?" Amy questioned with a dramatic eye roll.
"Only when you're being talked to!" Emma replied. "This world you call home…will end in a finger snap. And you, Amy, are the key…or should I say: power source. From the moment we restrained you in that charge, you've acted as a battery for the machine."
"Cause that makes a whole lot of sense," Amy said.
"Ever since you sat in that chair, you kicked off a series of events. The thunderstorm outside…well that's only the start. It's only going to get worse from that. If this were any different, you'd be dead by now," Emma threatened.
"Then do it!" Amy yelled, "do it! Show me the real you."
Emma put her hand over her heart and gasped, acting like that comment actually hurt her feelings.
"Tempting, but no."
Egor and Todd were closing in on the location of where Amy and the others were being held. But they were beginning to get overwhelmed by the Jumpers surrounding them. It's like the entirety of the Jumpers were pressuring them into surrendering. If that's what they were trying to accomplish, Egor and Todd won't give up without putting up a fight.
"We need reinforcements, Egor!" Todd shouted as he ducked to avoid being punched by Bernard. When he was ducked, he extended his leg, he slid foot into Bernard's leg. He stumbled and fell flat onto the floor; his face pounding so hard on the floor that he broke his nose.
Todd leapt back up onto his feet, leaning over to take Bernard's ring off. He was knocked out; his nose and mouth were bleeding.
"Reinforcements, Egor!" Todd yelled, "Like now!"
"I'm a little busy at the moment," Egor replied as he jumped into the air, aiming his ring down at the floor. By the way of how they were acting and fighting, they have the slightest clue as to what they're actually capable of.
"Grab onto something!" Egor shouted, "it's about to get very windy!"
As the portal opened, it began sucking everyone who didn't grab something sturdy, into it. Todd had made a shield bubble around him with the ring's energy. As long as it was protecting him, he wouldn't be going anywhere. Egor had grabbed hold onto a metal beam on the ceiling.
"What's you do?" Todd asked as he talked into his ring.
"Opened a portal to a place where they won't be of any further troubles for us," Egor explained, "sent them to Sagittarius A; our galaxy's Supermassive–"
"Black hole!" Todd said as he smiled and looked up at Egor. "That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?"
The portal acted as a vacuum when cleaning floors. By sucking everyone and everything nearby into it, they'd died a quick death. Bye bye Jumpers.
"Still think we need reinforcements?" Egor asked Todd now that their enemy was no more.
"First you tricked Shockwave, and now you just practically killed every last Jumper. How do you do it?"
"Practice my boy, practice," he told Todd as the portal quickly shrank and closed. "You'll learn what I know…in time."
Todd took down the protective force field around him. Egor jumped off the beam from above and fell back down to the floor. He landed on one knee and one knuckle, with his head facing the floor.
Todd ran over to him to lend him a hand. He held his hand out. Egor looked up and grabbed it, accepting Todd's generosity.
"Still have enough fight left in you, old man?"
"Plenty," Egor said, "come on. I've located the room where they're being held. It's down this hallway and to our left."
"We're coming!" Egor muttered.
Emma walked over to the chair, standing behind it with her hands on Amy's shoulders. She was massaging them with little care. Emma taped Amy's mouth shut so she wouldn't have to hear being called those hateful, rude words.
"It's quiet," Emma said, "wouldn't you agree?"
Amy ignored her. Refusing to make eye contact. Instead she closed her eyes and began counting down to the machine's initiation. The power level was now sitting at ninety-six percent.
"Two minutes," Emma whispered into Amy's ear. "The very fabric of reality–."
As she continued talking to Amy, Emma hadn't noticed the sand coming into the room under the crevice under the door, or the water dripping from the ceiling, or the metal wall beginning to glow as it became hot. It didn't take long for the metal to surpass its melting point. When it did, it turned to liquid and began oozing and dripping onto the floor.
Stewart began moaning as he began scooting away from the hot liquid slowly cooling down as it spread on the floor. An ally to the Tinkerers stepped through the hole he'd created with his bare hands.
His entire body was made up of molten lava, retaining its heat and not cooling down like it would after spewing out from a volcano. He turned and looked over at the four in the corner. He put his finger up to his mouth to signal to them to remain quiet.
His eyes glew a scorching hot yellow. The lava flowed throughout his litter body, retaining his human-like physique. As he walked over to them, he cooled himself down. As the lava cooled on him, he transformed back into his human form.
"This is gonna be a gas," Emma told Amy. "By the time Shockwave returns, we'll be entering the final phase of my plan."
"Shh, everything's fine," he told Susie, Stewart, Dane, and Leonard. "I'm with Egor."
"As am I," another voice whispered.
Susie smiled with a huge sense of relief. She began squirming her hands behind her back, while looking down at the floor.
"Still looking fine as always, Suzanne," he whispered into her ear. As he touched the rope with his hands, he burnt it…freeing her.
"Taken," she mumbled, "not for sale!"
"Maybe not now. In the future? Perhaps."
"How about never?" Susie told Devan.
Emma smiled as she heard the bickering going on from behind her. She whispered into Amy's ear again before turning around.
"It appears we have visitors," she mumbled as she turned to greet the three gentlemen.
"Devan, still scorching hot as always."
"Fuck off," he replied. "Laying eyes on you is like looking at a cow's ass. Ugly!"
Magma is his superhero name, but Devan is his actual name. After an accident on an expedition to Mt. Vesuvius, he fell into the still-active volcano, thus becoming the hero he is today. Instead of going down the path to becoming a villain, he chose to do good with his newfound abilities. He couldn't easily chose the other path.
Devan burned the other ropes tying Stewart, Leonard, and Dane down. They all pulled the clothes off of their mouths. Emma looked over to her right at the machine again; the power level now passed ninety-eight percent.
"It seems you're in a bit of a pickle," Emma told Devan as a puddle of water began turning into a human-form, as did the sand that crept in under the door.
"Hydro and Quicksand," Emma said with excitement. She clapped her hands together once with a huge, sarcastic smile. "The gang's all here," she told them, "but I'm afraid you're out of time. Any second now, and my machine powers on."
A portal suddenly opened up. Frank, Amy's husband, was the first to come through. He charged towards Emma, leaning forward. He picked her up, then threw her onto the floor back-first. She began moaning, unable to move a single arm or leg.
"Stay down, bitch!" Frank pointed and yelled at her. "That's for abducting my wife!"
"Shut it down!" Egor shouted to Hydro as he walked over to Suzanne. She ran over to him with arms out wide. She leapt into his embrace and the two hugged. "Unrestrain her. Lewis, free the others."
"That should be me," Devan said as he crossed his arms.
Stewart walked over to Emma, kneeling down to take back the rings she had taken from them. He also took her ring, deeming her powerless. Without it, she's nothing.
"What–did you do–to Shockwave?" Emma asked, still reeling from the knockout blow.
"If we told you, you'd find a way to bring him back," Egor answered.
Hydro dropped back into a puddle and slithered across the floor over to the machine. Just as the power dial was about to reach one-hundred percent, Hydro splashed the machine with water; it then shorted out and destroyed itself from the inside out.
Emma had the strength to finally sit up. Just in time to witness her defeat. How embarrassing this must feel. Everything she and Shockwave built over the years, now gone. This wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't supposed to end like this.
"What am I feeling right now?" Emma asked, "I've–I've never felt this way before."
Egor and Suzanne finished hugging. "Hold on," he said as he looked over at Emma. "What do you mean?"
Emma began clenching her hands and examining the dress, leggings, and shoes she had on.
"My name isn't Emma," she told Egor, "I have these–these memories of being someone else. I think my name is–is Julia."
"Fascinating!" Egor said with curiosity. "It must've been your ring."
Frank had helped Amy up out of the chair by wrapping her arm around the back of his neck. She was weak. Her legs were wobbly and her body shook.
"Machine destroyed," Hydro informed Egor.
"Good," Egor replied.
Lewis continued freeing the caged Tinkerers one by one. A remnant of Egor and Todd barged into the room, only to find that Emma had been defeated and Amy saved.
"A little late to the party," Egor told his remnant and Todd. "Missed all the fun."
"Did we win?" Todd asked.
"No, you're just dreaming," Dane told Todd, "what does it look like, dumbass?"
Stewart walked over to Egor, handing the ring Julia had worn when she was her split self; Emma.
"Where's John?" Julia asked as she carefully got back up onto her feet. She glanced over at Frank and Amy, but couldn't find the proper words to say to them.
"Whatever my other half did, I'm terribly sorry," she told Amy.
Amy lifted her head and looked over at her. Still regaining her strength, she faintly smiled at Julia.
"If that's true, and it was the ring making you do those things, then you have nothing to be sorry about," Amy explained. "Let's forget this ever happened, yes?"
"I'd like that," Julia said with a faint pleased smile.
"What are we going to do with her?" Susie asked Egor as she put her arm around his back, holding him close. He put the orange and silver ring in his pocket, then he looked down at her.
"I think we should take her in," Egor told Susie, "train her to be one of us, and better understand what that ring is capable of."
Lewis had freed the last of the caged-up Tinkerers. Being free at last, things finally started looking up. But now that the Jumpers are no more, now what?
"What do we do now?" Frank asked.
"First, we return you and Amy back to 2023," Egor said, "from there, we will rebuild. There's more threats out there that we haven't experienced yet, and I fear our next encounter won't be any less easier."
"Sounds like you know more than what you're telling us," Frank told him.
"That's because it's true," Egor said, "I have many mistakes I have to fix, and I could use all the help I can get."
Frank looked down at Amy. "What do you want?"
"To go home and see my boys," Amy answered as she then looked up and over at Egor. "But I'm keeping the ring. If what you said is true, then I want in."
Egor tilted his head slightly and smiled. Susie smiled too as she wrapped both arms around Egor now.
"Then it's official then," Egor said, "you're now a Tinkerer."
THE END