Chapter 16

Ashton looked at the screen. Bill sat there on the floating throne that was pyramid with a large chair attached and a platform. However, there was something different about the former tag along to Jesse.

“Ashton, I know that you won’t trust me, but all I have planned is to get us back to 1984,” said Bill.

“That is why I had Circe gather the priests who brought us all to this time and place and create a reverse spell which will take us back there.”

Ashton looked at the Bill floating pyramid throne, and the two Machine men that stood there. One looked like the rest of the regular construction machine men, but the one that Jesse probably used still looked different that unnerved Ashton.

It was Mary who spoke up. “Are you serious, Bill?”

“Let me put it this way. Jesse, take out Joe now as we discussed.”

Suddenly as Joe machine turned not towards Jesse’s machine, four long hose like appendages shot out of the backpack. Two of them quickly turned on Joe’s machine as he tried to push his machine forward to get into a run. Only for the machine to open fire.

The other two that hovered to either side opened with fire immediately after the first barrage. The machine man’s armor cut to shreds in second. The right leg tourn asunder as the armor melted off, and the foot melted off. Even before the machine began to tumble, the left arm fell off and exploded on the ground. While the head exploded off, the fake Olmec head collapsed as the head exploded outward.

A huge piece of the armor smoldered on the left side as it fell over to the left. It exploded the moment that it hit the ground.

Ashton sat in silence watching this, and then he shouted which the radio heard. “Why did you kill him?”

Bill laughed. “Everything must be eliminated that might alter the timeline, Ashton.”

The machine man piloted by Jesse pointed its tentacle arms at Ashton. That made Ashton pushed the machine knight to prepare a different stance as he put the right leg forward. The sword shifted to a thrust position. “How do you know that this was not all supposed to happen?” stated Ashton

“I have calculated the results of this all, and if we continue this fight that it will drastically influence the outcome of the future that we come from,” said Bill nonchalantly.

“Calculated? How do you calculate future events? You aren’t Hari Seldon.”

That confused Bill on the radio. “Hari Seldon? I have no memory of such a man.”

Ashton chuckled. “That’s because all you have is your own mind, Chronos. Bill never read literature at all. He was always just a toady for Jesse. It’s kind of sad really that some sort of ancient intelligence could have taken the mind of anyone, and it took someone who barely could speak his name.”

And then Ashton thought he heard Bill as the radio spoke up while Ashton didn’t take his eyes off the Atlantean machine squid. “What do you know of the new combined me? You had no idea of the literature that I liked as just Bill. In my previous life, I cried during the events of Uncanny X-Men Number 137.”

Ashton looked confused as he scanned the destroyed machine man. For a moment, Ashton thought that he saw someone sneak out of the destroyed cockpit, but he couldn’t be sure. However, what confused him more than anything was discovering that Bill read X-Men. Ashton preferred Legion of Superheroes personally, but he knew the issue that he was talking about.

But Bill continued to speak. “Who are you to judge scion of Murau nobles? You don’t believe in order just your chaotic freedom. I am the one who will guide humanity forward now that I can once more feel.”

Ashton didn’t like where this was going. “It was due to your ancestors that wasted any final things left from Murau that created disasters at Babel and India. I almost at Babel united humanity as the Last Archon, but . . . you ancestors did something that even I can’t understand. You fragmented my evolved form and sowed confusion that resulted in further fragmentation, but that won’t work this time. At India, someone of your blood sat up a dynasty of false gods, and one of my fragments was able to bring down your Murau tyranny.”

“I don’t know even know much about Murau, so how can I be blamed for anything that they did. I just can control some of their equipment.”

Ashton could see the strange Atlantean altered machine with two of the tentacles point at him. Looking at Mary, Ashton wondered what was going on in her head. The problem was that their communication channels were probably all tapped.

“How little you know even with that fool teaching you? He gets a free ride to eternity while I am trapped in a degrading and fractured mind watching as the world gets worse. For untold time, I had to listen and watch the world around me with fading senses. So, I finally took a chance when Circe finally investigated a mistake that was killing me slowly.”

Ashton laughed. “So, you and this Circe brought people from the future to this time, so you could escape. Wow, it sounds like you were just trying to escape your prison Chronos Bill. Now, you are just trying to correct your mistakes.”

Bill shouted back at Ashton. “You have no idea what I have gone through for untold eternities. I am the last Archon of Atlantis, and I am offering a means to return home, Murau spawn. I am offering you a means to escape. That machine like all of these machines needs to be destroyed.”

Ashton smiled as he figured out what the real issue was. “So, what about that throne you are sitting on, Bill? Will you be destroying that floating pyramid throne?”

Bill didn’t answer. It was Mary that answered. “Ashton, shouldn’t we give Bill a chance. It’s a way home. I know that he isn’t who we knew, but we shouldn’t be here either. Merlin would agree with Bill now.”

“Would he?” asked Ashton. “I know that I haven’t talked about things with Merlin as much about why he disliked Atlantis, but it never seemed as bad listening to Bill. Or should I call him Bill Chronos?”

The young man added. “However, Atlantis destroyed an entire continent which was Merlin’s home. Bill Chronos declares himself a leader of Atlantis. So, he gets to our century, and suddenly he has access to nuclear weapons again. That sounds like I’d be cursing our time, Mary. We already have the Soviets- we don’t need Bill Chronos.”

Bill didn’t answer for a moment, and then Ashton heard laughter. “You think I need nuclear weapons. You limited fusion weaponry is unimportant to me. It might take decades to get back to the level that I need, but your pitiful nuclear weapons are so much like the Murau. They thought their weaponry was so powerful, but if the rest of the Archons had waited a single decade. I wouldn’t have been the only Archon that became immortal.”

Ashton didn’t like where this going.

Mary spoke up. “So how are you immortal if you are just using Bill’s body?”

Bill didn’t answer, and then the strange machine man moved forward a bit. Then Bill spoke again.

“I am not the Chronos that first became immortal. Each time, I transfer the essence- I become different. Each transfer is slightly different. However, the immortality that I now have allows me to escape the death of any form that you take.”

Ashton wanted to respond, but it was Mary that responded to the situation. “So, you need a sacrifice each time? What happened to my brother, Jesse?”

Bill spoke seriously. “He was banged up pretty roughly. It took much of what was left of Atlantean science to restore Jesse. However, he has been enhanced, and for once he has been brought to heel.”

Mary seemed to be upset by what Bill said. “What did you do to him specifically?” she asked again.

Bill answered. “Funny, it was you who helped poor Bill end up the way that he did, but now, he is a servant now. I turned him into a BioBorg. It took much of what was left of the technology that I had available to me. He is in control of the machine man modified that you see before you.”

Ashton spoke up. “Jesse, stand down. Let’s just all stand down.”

Suddenly, Jesse’s machine lifted its arms. All of the weapons were focused on Ashton, and Ashton made sure that the sword was out front still. Making sure that he was ready.

Bill spoke up. “You should listen to your own advice, Ashton. If Mary and you stand down, I’ll have Jesse stand down. It is a simple request.”

Ashton spoke up. “And what assurances, do we have if do stand out that you won’t do anything to us?”

Bill laughed. “You won’t. You would have to have a bit of faith.”

Mary didn’t listen to Bill.

She moved her machine man between Ashton and Jesse. Ashton couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Ashton spoke up. “Mary, what are you doing?”

Mary’s machine-man had its guns pointed at Ashton and Jesse. Ashton didn’t know what was going on. “Mary, you have to get out of the way.”

Mary suddenly yelled loudly. “Ashton, I can’t let you kill Jesse.”

And then Mary spoke up. “Brother, I can’t let you kill Ashton.”

It was a standoff. Ashton tried to watch was going on, but even with the zoom function on his main screen, he could just make out Bill smiling. Ashton watched as Bill rested his chin on his hands.

Joe had been running through the jungle. His foot hurt along with his left hand, but the fact that he had been betrayed was not lost on him. Nothing made sense. This was supposed to be a way home.

As he tried to walk through some vines, he suddenly saw obsidian tip spear tips. Then he heard a familiar voice. “The Aztec Emperor gave me the ability to decide who lives and dies, Joe.”

One of the Aztec Jaguar warriors brought Joe to his knees as Juan hovered over him. “I give you the biggest women just as you like them.”

“That wasn’t me. I didn’t care. That was the other guy who loved big women; I am not your friend that got killed by Merlin. You have made my life a living nightmare, but that Bill just tried to kill me.”

Juan looked at Joe as he loomed over the other man. “You tell me that Bill got you to do this to your brother.”

Joe laughed. “Brother, I went along because I had no choice the whole time that I have been in this time and place. All I wanted to do was go back to LA and redesign the transistors for the Amiga. Is that so wrong?”

Juan looked at Joe. “You never were part of the plans for making the world better.”

Joe laughed. “That was Bobby and Hector, Juan. Everything that you thought about me was Hector. Hell, Frank understood me better than you did, and you just went ahead and killed him leaving me with no choice but to join your little insane endeavor.”

“Insane,” muttered Juan. And then he shouted. “It is not insane! This is about justice.”

Joe laughed. “Justice? What is the justice in trying to destroy people’s life when you have no idea what the future holds? You don’t even have some sort of device that can tell you if your changes affected anything.”

Juan took an obsidian tipped spear and he jammed it next to the throat of Joe. The computer engineer gripped the wet dirt that felt like mud hoping that it was quick. “I should immediately execute you, but what did the bloated eunuch promise you?”

Joe didn’t shroud his words as he still faced the ground with the blade at his throat. “Simple, he wanted to go back to the future, and that was what he promised me. And then Bill had his pet robot destroyed my machine man. However, he apparently is assembling the priests to commit the spell in reverse one last time.”

Juan suddenly pulled the spear away and gave it back to the warrior. Talking to the warriors in the language of the Aztecs. Joe expected to be dead in a moment still. Instead, he was lifted by the clothes on his back.

Juan embraced him. “I appreciate honesty more than anything, and I will use what you told me, Joe. However, I will be sending you back to Tenochtitlan where the Emperor will take care of your fate.”

Joe felt a bit of relief because he would no longer have Juan deciding his fate, but then Juan said one more thing in the language. Suddenly an Aztec warrior slit both of his Achilles tendons.

“What the actually Hell, Juan?”

Juan nodded. “I don’t want you to escape my warriors. Don’t worry. They will carry you back to the Emperor who will decide your fate.”

Without a single further order, the guards picked up Joe and started to walk away. Others followed Juan.

The now near powerless leader had only one objective to kill Bill with his loyal Jaguar Warriors following him to where the priests had done the spell two times before. He would slaughter the priests, and then put an end to anyone trying to stop him.

Thankfully for Juan, the pool was close by, and Juan knew a way to get there quickly. Once there, he would kill all those teenagers who thought that they were smarter than him. Watching as the warriors with Joe was taken away, Juan laughed.

“And once I am done, no one will call me a Nazi again.”

Mary sat in her cockpit. She was trying desperately trying to find any sign of life in the machine with tentacles. Apparently, Merlin had put it in high powered sensors in the upgrades. However, whereas she could detect Ashton in his machine knight. There were no life signs in the modified machine man that was supposed to have Jesse in it.

She ran it repeatedly. Sure, she was not happy with Jesse trying to run with Juan and how unsettling the changes in Bill felt.

And then she noticed Bill contacted her directly. “Mary, I’ll be honest with you. Jesse didn’t come out of the surgery without changes. He is colder, but that’s to be expected when you lose an eye, a hand, and most of your right leg. He needs support and love that comes from a loved one.”

Mary felt her heart start to give out to hear that her brother had been hurt. She at first hadn’t cared if Jesse had lived or died after she had abandoned Juan’s group. However, she really just wanted to go home, and most likely Merlin had no way to get them home.

“If you power down your machine, we can defuse the situation. Ashton will never trust me. There is too much bad blood between us. If he understood that I was just as much bullied by Jesse as he was for liking some geeky things, I think that we could come to an equitable conclusion.”

Mary knew the truth that Bill loved comics and had an interest in electronics just like Ashton. However, unlike Ashton, he only had access to pawned shop electronics and figured out how they worked with his dad.

“And if I do power down my machine, what will happen next?”

Bill answered easily. “I’ll have Jesse collect you, and we will go back to where all of this began. Just turn your machine toward Jesse’s machine.”

Ashton was screaming at Mary on another channel, but she started the shutdown process and opened the cockpit. ‘I hope this works,’ thought Mary as she got out of her chair and took off the more tiara like command crown.

Ashton’s voice seemed to echo inside the machine as it still picked up his radio channel. “Mary, no.”

That was when Mary saw a figure at the gate of the machine. Lightning flashed, and for a moment, she saw her brother unharmed. But when the darkness ended with low lights returned in a flash, she saw glowing red eyes. “Come sister. The Archon insists.”

And before Mary could protest, he lifted his arms and shot her with some sort of dart that knocked her out along with the sounds of shots from the modified machine man with Atlantean technology.

Ashton kept screaming that something was wrong as Mary would not answer. And then then her machine man turned away from pointing its guns towards him. A storm was moving into the area.

Bill’s flying throne seemed to disappear at the same time, and then Ashton got one last message. “Well, I can’t help those who will not help themselves. Jesse and Mary open fire on the little prince.”

Jesse’s machine started to fire with the tentacles. Ashton blocked the shots with the sword. The simulator training had paid off as Ashton deflected the various shots of the Atlantean altered machine. It would have helped if the laser eyes worked.

Rushing forwards, Ashton pushed his machine to end Jesse’s machine. Passing by Mary’s machine, Ashton didn’t think something unusual as a figure carried out a pink clothed woman appeared for a moment on the screen on the other side of the cockpit. He didn’t even notice.

Ashton just thought about winning. Anger clouded his mind. Pushing the machine, he jumped, and he swiped down on one of the tentacles. It dropped to the ground as the sword sliced through the tentacle.

And then suddenly, Quetzalcoatl pushed forward after landing from explosions in the back. Damage indicators in the back appeared on the screen in front of Ashton. Repairs started to occur. However, another shot hit his left hand making him drop the grip of the sword.

Still gripping the sword with the right hand, Ashton tried to get the left hand to work correctly. Trying his best to try to figure out was going on, he used the vision showed that Mary’s machine had been the one who open firing on him. Oddly the chest was open, but the cockpit was dark as the chest closed.

“Mary,” Ashton said.

Rage and pain started to overwhelm as both machines were firing at him as he tried to parry. It was at that point that Ashton pressed several buttons on the consoles. The machine knight started to shift the arms which went wider after the right arm put the sword in the scabbard. The hands shifted once more to claws but, in the storm and darkness, they glowed red at the end. The face of the machine went behind a shield as the head transformed into longer snouted variation.

Red eyes blazed as the neck extended out. Wings spread wide from the machine as repairs happened as well while still being fired at. The sword and scabbard moved down the spine, and it became a tail that segmented out.

Fire erupted from the dragon’s mouth, and then quickly, the metallic dragon went into a fast run towards Jesse’s machine. The unfolded wings served as shields from Mary’s machine man shots. The metallic dragon went into a full attack on the Atlantean altered machine man.