• Published 22nd Dec 2015
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FireStarter - Cereal-Killer



Have you ever had a building collapse on top of you? It hurts a lot. Now imagine it's on fire.

  • ...
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Chapter XIV: Chronos

As consciousness returned to me, I shook off the haze of fever dreams that bloke with the tranquilizer had dosed me up with. As the room came into focus, the figure of a man, and after that I could deduce I was in one of those police interrogation rooms, the ones with the one way glass, no windows, that kind of shit. All in all, it looked like Lavan had fucked us up real nicely while I was out.

The anonymous man made his presence known, emotionlessly asking a simple question.

"What are you doing, Chronos?" I recalled the nóm de guerre from when Mr.'Tranqs first, questions later' shot me.

"..." something about this guy's voice irked me, maybe it was its monotonous and non-emotive tone. As he drawled on about some ridiculousy long list of crimes I had commited, my mind was abuzz with entirely different inner conversations

Chronos...God of Time? Does this mean I time travel more in the future, what if that future is no longer possible now that I know I will?

'Are you seriously trying to bootstrap paradox yourself right now? We're hidden away in some facility in the middle of London, I overheard these guys calling it M.I.6, and all you can think about is some doctor who timey wimey bullshit!?'

Yep, that is about the sum of it.

'I'm really starting to regret latching onto you.'

That was only like six months ago...

'Nope it's been a year and a bit. The writer is just lazy.'

Ok, L. Have fun with your crackpot tinfoil hat 'Writer watches all' theories.

'Listen to this fucker again, and dont call me L again, or I'll write your name in the death note.'

"Right... Subject is unresponsive. Give him a shock. That should wake him up."

A dull electrical tingle ran through me, "Are you ready to talk?" I'm not sure if he knows his electric shock thingy isnt working alright...

"Mmmh." I mumbled.

"What?" The agent guy was clearly shocked by me actually speaking to him.

"What?" I mimicked mockingly.

"Right, so you do talk, interesting... this must be one of your first jumps. You refused to talk before." Okay... The man in the suit appeared to take some photographs out of his pocket. The furthest back these dates go is... 1769!? An old photo of what looks to be a couple is in the black and white photograph, with a figure off to the left, circled in red. It's difficult to make out but it's most likely me. This one is in better condition and now in colour, November 1963. Shit, did I kill JFK? That would be funny as fuck, considering I had to write essays on that shit. My history teacher can official shove those 10 pages of: 'Was Lee Harvey Oswald the main suspect?' Right up his-

'Yawn. Stop blathering on.'

Wait. Do you hear that? It sounds like someone whispering 'Lavan, shut the fuck up, nobody cares'.

Third and finally we have 10th of July, 1969, and if I remember correctly that is... 6 days before the launch date of Apollo 11. Don't even know where I am in this one, just got a more detailed frame of me dropping down on fire like a meteor. Considering the date, probably the Kennedy Space Centre or somewhere important to the launch.0

"So, do I get to go now or...?"

"No." The suit flatly told me. "You are to be contained here until further notice."

"Well shit." As the cuffs finished melting, I smacked both fists into either side of his head, concussing him, then I kicked over the table, nailing him in his kneecaps and sending him, the table and the chair falling back."for a second there I thought we could be somewhat civil with this."

'John, I'm sorry but I have to do this. I'm going to accelerate the rate you gain magic for a while, it'll sting for a bit, and drain me, but it should mean you can melt the door open and shrug off anything they hit you with.'

"How much will this hu- HOLY FUCK YOUR NAN'S SHIT WITH A CUNT UP HER ASS! YOU FUCK, YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE- Oh hey, it doesn't hurt anymore." My arms lit up with an intense white fire, while my arms grayed and cracks began to appear on the palms of my hands, revealing lava flowing through most of my arms. A few droplets trickling out every so often. "This shit is siiiick."

With my new strength available, the door was quickly reduced to a pile of scrap, molten metal seeping onto the floorand quickly cooling. The instant I walked out of the room, I was pelted with tranquilizers from four soldiers , each sat behind riot shelds held by other combatants. The darts stuck to me melted, and I grinned at the group amassed at the end of the corridor.

"You guys have watched Star Wars right?" None of them made a sound. "Going to have to force choke a bitch if you don't get out of my way." Another round of shots hit me, the soldiers were still attempting to put me to sleep. "Eh, your loss." I proceeded to shove them all against the wall, melting the muzzles of each rifle.

Need to find a way up. Stairs? Oh. They have an elevator, how convenient.

Pressing the button to open said elevator, it pinged open on its own, revealing some juggernaut motherfucker with a shotgun.

My eyes barely had time ro widen before the loud shot echoed and I felt heavy impacts into my chest, knocking me over from the sheer force of the pellets flying through me.

Winded, I tried breathing only to take in small gulps of air before I had to exhale.

My vision clearing i could see the juggernaut looming, as he cocked the barrel and proceed to shoot into me multiple times.

It put its hand to it's ear and grunted out, "Sir, the target has been neutralized. Yes, he's still breathing. 4 rounds sir CO2 gas shots like you asked for. He's still burning though, shouldn't that be impossible, I mean I ain't a science major or anything but even I know that fire doesn't go to well with that stuff. Yes Sir, I'll take him back to the cell immediately." He looked down to me again, "C'mon ya sack of shit. Get up and don't try anything funny."

"Forgot one thing though. I have all the pins on your grenades ready to be pulled. Now here's what you're going to do. Give me all your armour and your gun. Simple, right?" I gasped out, still trying to get rid of the wonded felling that shotgun left me with. Staggering, he fell backwards. "Shit." A group of grenade pins were floating inside a fiery aura. "..." he didnt even notice.

Tick.

Tick. he took off the main vest of his suit.

Tick, he threw me the gun.

Tick. "I am so very sorry for this." I whispered.

Boom. His silhouette was outlined by the explosive blasts until one shoved his body into the wall. His flesh now riddled with varies cuts and shrapnel wounds, as well as harsh burns from the explosion. He was most definitely dead...

I just killed a man.

I looked at my palm, a splatter of blood dripped down my index finger, there was no shaking. No feeling of sorrow or regret for it.

I didn't feel anything about it.

I just gave a man a bloody, unnecessary death. And... I dont feel numb or...

Am I a murderer now? I don't feel different at all.

Grabbing the bottom of his suit off of him, I slowly walked into the elevator and went for the ground floor, putting on the heavy flak armour on as passed each floor.

The fuck is wrong with me?

----

After 10 minutes of waiting as I passed at least twenty underground floors, stopping at practically every floor, I finally arrived at the front office of the building. The circular room housed a front desk with several elevators and stairs framing the walls, while the front of the building looked to have a glass door. The entire place had the vibrant colour scheme of edgy teenage grunge; dark grey with normal grey and some slightly lighter gray on bits of it.

"Chronos! Stop where you are." I kept moving. "God damn it, you little shit! Stop where you are. I've waited fourty years for you to pop up again and you will not walk out of this fuckin' building without answering the question."

I paused, "What question would this be, person of whom I have no history with." I scanned the guy with my eyeballs, noting his scraggy hair, that of a man in his 60's: he was starting to grey, and a frame that had seen better days. He probably smelt like prune juice and farts, but I wasn't smelling the guy, because that's weird as shit.

"You know very well, Chronos I'm talking abou

The bottom of the page looks uneven and scruffy, as if parts have been torn out.

Walking out of the imposing building, I realised that I'd been kept in the MI6 Facility in London. I slipped in to the crowd as soon as possible. Trying to make sure I wasn't followed.

After a moment of pondering, I set off to Paddington Station, to ride a train back home.

----

"Excuse me?" I blinked, tearing myself from a long strain of thought to answer the woman in front of me. "Would you be alright with us sitting here? The carriage is full." I nodded my head in affirmation, 'us'? I notied a child slide into the opposite seat: so that was what she meant. "Thanks."

"No problem." I leaned back against the window and the chair, feeling the vibration of the engine and the wheels through my left temple. I closed my eyes, slowly dropping into unconsciousness.

'John...'

Took your sweet ass time to get back.

'I saw the situation with that soldier.'

I'm not sure what's worse: I killed someone who had offered a surrender, or that I didn't know whar I felt about it.

'You seem like you're feeling remorse right now.'

I feel remorse for not feeling remorse.

'Well that's just fucked: if your feeling remorse over not feeling remorse, then you clearly are remorseful, dipshit.' I've noticed Lavan has been using more of my colourful vocabulary lately, and referencing more shit he has no context for: he was humming along to Hakuna Matata one day, just out of the blue.

Something odd is going on there. But enough post-event conjecture and thoughts.

...You don't understand, Lavan.

'Don't try and say that destruction has never coincided with death. I have killed many, and i have seen many die. I am there every time a soul slips into oblivion, I am there every time a ruin crumbles, I was there when the first star was born, and i will be there when the last one flickers and dies. '

...

At my silence, Lavan replied with an innocent sounding 'What?'.

...Where the fuck did that shit come from!?

Lavan didn't reply.

Ok, then. Lavan's creepy shit aside, we're nearing the station.

The train station in my home town was small, mainly used for cargo trains, rather than passenger. As such, it was fairly long compared to most, as we approached, the gridlock pattern of tracks pointing from various directions coalesced into two rails, by the time we were stopped.

Hands on knees, I pushed myself up, clicking a few joints on my ascent to...standingness? Standinghood? Erectness (Oi, cheeky)? Nevermind. Basically, I stood up and made my way to the doors, both of which were opening as I walked through. On the platform, you could smell a mixture of pleasant smells from one of the local chippies. If you ever come around there at night or when the guy who runs it isn't in, there's a slight whiff of weed that comes down from a bridge just up the hill.

It was early winter then, so there was still a crunch of dead leaves underfoot, and the temperature was somewhere between mildly chilling and rather brisk. Good for that time of year.

First order of business was family, as it should be. Thankfully, I knew my town like the back of my hand. I caught a few looks from various people around, of course I was most likely reported missing. It had been almost a year since I was taken.

A small drizzle started coming down as I strolleed up the pavement. The few droplets that hit my sizzled off into steam on impact.

Look, I know this scene is pretty short but I really cannot, for the life of me, be bothered to regale you with the tale of my silent walk home.

----

Rapping my knuckles on the front door, I waited to be let in. Muted footsteps could be heard coming from through the door and seconds later, it opened. On the other side was my brother, Joe, and upon seeing me practically had a heart attack before giving me one of the tightest hugs I had been given in a long time. By the end of it, we both had a few tears in our eyes. He immidiately ushered me inside.

After a round of coffee had been prepared, we sat down. "I'd imagine you have questions." I prepared myself for an onslaught.

"Yeah, but only one." I was surprised. "Where were you the last eleven months?"

"Just had to hit the nail on the head, didn't you?" I smirked. He didn't. I carried on. "In a land of magcal fucking ponies, freaky bug horses, Dragons and minotaurs."

Then my brother made like the spanish inqusition, and did the unexpected he. shin-kicked me.

"Fuck sake! Be serious with me right now, man!" He growled.

"I am." I lifted both hands. And magic began to crackle around my fingertips as Joe stared on in awe. A few seconds later, I lifted his arm and made him slap himself in the face. He was not amused.

"So you're a Jedi now?"

"Pff, I wish. I'm an avatar for some freaky magic shit at the moment."

'Did you just refer to me as, 'some freaky magic shit?'

Yeah. What are you gonna do about it?

'Not sure...' He mumbled, I could feel him move around and then become agitated.

I decided to continue on with the conversation as my brother asked me something.

"Hm? Sorry, I wasn't listening for a second there."

He sighed before repeating himself, "I said: What freaky magic shit?" I mumbled an answer, "Stop mumbling."

"Spirit of destruction..."

"That sounds badass."

"It is. I am capable of magic that would make Gandalf, Merlin and Dumbledore jealous."

"I'm kind of jealous myself, actually..." he smirked. I wagged a finger.

"Not a chance." I stated bluntly.

Joe harrumphed before his face turned more grim. "Right, I've been dodging the subject, but I might as well just get this over with. John," he put a hand in my shoulder. "Dad died last month."

...

"Thank fuck for that. The old man hated me anyway." A mixture of emotions crowded my brother's face in the few seconds after I made that statement, but the most prominent was outrage. And he funneled that into his next action.

It was obvious what he planned when his arm coiled back, but I felt like he needed otherwise he'd be more pissed off with me.

Joe has a hell of an arm, by the way. Which is why it actually hurt when he punched me.

"Yeah, I deserved that. Doesn't change things though. Fucker forgot my birthday a few times, but he always remembered to tell me I would fail. Which I didn't in the end. Hell, I could of finished my PhD before this shitshow pony time travel bullshit."

"John. He's our father..."

"Enough. Where's Em." I wanted to move off the subject of our father, and onto someone I actually cared about.

"She moved out with her boyfriend 3 months after you left. She tried to hide it but she was really distraught with you disappearing."

"What about Mum? Where's she?"

"Oh, she just went to the dentist. You just missed her, in fact." Joe replied nonchalantly.

"Daxter?" That was my dog's name by the way, and totally wasn't influenced by a game trilogy at all.

"Em' took Daxter with her, good thing too. He'd never get walked if he stayed here, while you were gone."

"Sweet. My room still got my stuff in it?" I questioned, walking away.

"Same as you left it, John."

Stopping at the doorway out into the hall, I called back, "Thanks Joe, that means a lot to me."

I was unsurprised to find that my room hadn't changed a bit, aside from the cobwebs over in the corner of the room had finally been gotten rid of.

My phone was even on the same spot I left it a few months ago. I picked up the old Android and swept a hand over the screen, clearing the dust.

Holding in the power button, a little green robot appeared in the middle of the screen. Smiling, I opened my phone to find that I had received dozens of messages, missed calls, close to about three thousand people had viewed my profile, a few old friends sent some sort of condolences to my family and had posted a large collection of photos most of which were just me making stupid faces, there one or two of me passed out, drunk as hell from a party back when I was seventeen, maybe eighteen? Not sure.

I swiftly magicked my room clean, dispelling cobwebs closing windows, folding clothes and packing other stuff away. All this took about half a minute.

"Hey Joe, you there?"

Silence.

"Answer me, you lazy git!"

No response again.

"Oh for fu-, are you even here!?" I blinked out of my room, into the living room.

The old man from the facility was there. "Well."he smiled, as if victorious in his own mind. "It's taken a long, long, time but-" he interrupted himself with a cough, that soon bevame wheezing and gasping. He righted himself before continuing, "I- I finally have a name for the face."

"Who are you, old man? Why are you after me?"

The smile he had previously been sporting widened, "Now that would be telling," he remarked, almost chuckling as he did so.

A light breeze was gathering around me. "Where is my brother?" My arm lit up, flames coiling like snakes up my arm, a few molten drops coming from my fingers were searing the tiled floor.

He'll be dead if you don't calm yourself, boy."

I pulled back the flames. The wind was still flowing, stronger now than it was before. A few sparks were flying through the air.

"I told you. Enough." The old geezer lost his smile.

"Not me, Jackass. I ain't doing shit right now."

Walking towards me he found a spherical barrier was covering me. Realising what this meant, I decided to grab as many necessary items as possible so I was running through the house to find everything. If I was out of time, I'd make damn sure I only had one reason to come back, and that would be kicking this guys false teeth out and saving Joe's arse.

With an armful of items, and my near lifeless phone, I felt the sharp tug of the contract pulling me back through, and heard the old man yelling his throat out.

The short trip felt more unstable than it was on the way to 2016, it felt as if the strong bridge between time had become a rickedy old rope with a few slabs of wood hanging off one side. Shades of all colours flew around me as I caught glimpses of possible futures, pasts and eventualities.

All in all, it was trippy as shit.

The first thing to assault me was not the somewhat broght colours of the castle, but a pink abomination tackling me to the floor.

"Hiya!"

"Ow..." I think that hurt more than the shotgun, if I'm being honest.

"Wow Johnny you were gone for like a week! But then it was like a year and a bit, because some lazy bones was being lazy, and now you're here again! ISN'T THIS AMAZING!!???"

"Yeah, I guess." Honestly, that mare vexes me in ways unfathomable to anyone who hasn't met her directly.

'John, I think I need to get out of your body for a while.' A few seconds after, a pile of molten sludge came seeping out of my mouth, making me look like I'd just puked lava on Twilight's floor.

'Ah,thats be-tter, now I don't have to hear all the bullshit tangents you go off on whenever anyone so much as looks at you." The spirit nagged.

"Wait, since when do I go off on tangents?"

"You do, and you do it a lot. Nearly as much
much as you swear."

"The swearing thing is mainly down to the fact that, maybe, just maybe, I'm kind of freaked out that the world I live in is now inhabited by SOME WEIRD ASS HORSES, BIRD LIONS, BIG HORSES, COW MEN, FLYING LIZARDS AND ALL THE OTHER WEIRD MAGICAL RAINBOW BULLSHIT THAT ONLY A DERANGED ULTRA FANTASY FAN COULD COME UP WITH!" I breathed, "and the only consulation is that I get is magic, along with a few friends on the side. That's probably a valid reason, as well." I ranted rather loudly in front of a shocked Lavan and a Pinkie that was trying to scoop up the sludge with a spoon, only for it to melt and sink into the shiny grimer wannabe. I sighed, "Alright, I just needed to get that out of my system. I'm ok now."

"Jonny, why did a red goopy thing come through your face?" Pinkie asked, inspecting Lavan with a magnifying glass.

"First of all you spelt my name wrong, and second of all, this is Lavan spirit of destruction, other dastardly sounding titles, and as he has never failed to remind me, Celestia's professional sex toy."

Lavan began morphing himself into a more anthropomorphic form, until he made something that, if you looked real close, was slightly similar to me, except made of lava, with yellow blobs instead of eyes.

He turned his head around to face Pinkie without shifting his sludgy form, "Hi."

He turned back to me, "I'm pretty sure that prolonged exposure to your memories and thoughts was manipulating my personality and mindset to mimic yours. And I have been proved right, as I feel less like an edgy teenager with daddy issues."

"I'm not a teenager and my dad was a right prick."

"Meh, I don't care too much to remember things like ages anyway." He shrugged, eyeing the room.

Does you not being in me mean I lose the magic stuff?"

"Yep. Well, most of it anyway." He poked some machinery lying around the room.

"So what do I get?"

You can channel energy into your hands, mold it into... what ever you want, I guess. Heat up your body a fair bit too." He coughed, muffling another bit of information.

"What was that? Couldn't hear you."

"A longer lifespan."

"Oh. Sweet. How much longer?"

"As long as there is still something to destroy. You are effectively ageless. You are taking this better than I thought you would."

"Still killable though?"

"A toaster in the tub wouldn't kill you anymore but a bullet to the head probably would, although it depends where in the head you got shot."

"Hey, I exist ya know!" Pinkie grumbled.

"Be silent pink one! now as I was-"

"JOHN!" I was suddenly attacked by a purple thing, which wrapped it's hooves around me. Twilight was soon levitating me onto the air, babbling about finally being able to send a letter to Princess Celestia.

After an ear scratch and sufficient hugs, she calmed down enough to actually notice Lavan.

I also noticed that Pinkie had disappeared leaving a cupcake with my face on it. A small note read: "If you don't eat this I'll hunt you down." Why isn't this girl in a mental asylum already?

After a long introduction filled with sample taking and magical scans, Twilight yanked Spike from... I don't actually know, he just appeared from somewhere.

"Hi." The dragon said, hanging upside down by his purple spiked tail, encased in Twilight's magical grip.

"Hey, bud. Twilight working you hard?" He huffed, crossing his arms while Twilight forced a quill into his claws.

"You wouldn't beli-"

"Spike! Take a note..." She began monologuing as a quill scraped along parchment.

"-So as I was sayi-"

"Concentrate, Spike." Twilight reminded, causing a wisp of fire to burn through his nostrils, a common bit of dragon body language to show anger or displeasure. He quickly scribbled down the letter before poofing it away.

"She's been a reaaaal slave driver." He huffed

"I can tell." Shifting my attention to Twilight, I continued, "So I'm guessing I didn't come back a few seconds after I left?"

"You've been gone for 3 weeks, and there have been real problems we've found while you were gone, as the contract seemed to have been tampered with."

Twilight's more serious tone had me interested, if not a tiny bit worried, "What was the backlash?"

Twilight levitated a parchment and quill towards us, holding the blank page vertically.

"This is you going there." A single hole pierced the centre of the paper. "And this is what happened when you were on your way back." The quill jabbed at the parchment, creating a pattern not dissimilar to a shotgun spread.

"Oh."

Twilight continued, We've found something too, and I was hoping you could tell us what it is." She motioned me forward, bringing out an extremely familiar object. "When we found it, it seemed to have displaced a perfectly spherical area of space, taking along a piece of wooden flooring and a box.

"No way... You found a Gameboy Colour?" I fiddled around and saw that the batteries had died while inside, and fried most of the electronics. "Well shit, thats useless." There was no game in there either.

"Is it dangerous?" I gave Sparky a flat look.

"No. It's perfectly safe. It's in horrible condition though." I tossed her the worn-down handheld, which she quickly caught with her magic. "If you had a good enough look at it, you might be able to salvage something." Spike nabbed the Gameboy out of Twilight's grip. "Is it possible that things might come back from different times as well?"

"Probably a temporal radius of 3000 years."

"So 1000BC till 5000AD?" I mumble to myself, forgeting Twilight had a lot stronger semse of hearing than me.

Twilight gasped, "Oooh, is that your
Species' calender?" What does BC and AD stand for? Does that mean you're from 2000AD or are there different ages than those two?"

"Yeah, BC is 'Before Christ' , and AD is 'Anno Domini'. It means 'In the year of our lord'."

"What is Christ?"

"Some magic bloke who died."

"Oh. Why is he important then?"

"It would take way long to explain so I'll just say that people thought he was some kind of deity, like how people treat Celestia." As a scientist, religion was not my forté. Mythology was always interesting though.

At this point a return letter was burped out of Spike who had been quietly listening and fiddling with the gameboy the entire time.

Twilight quickly unfurled it, looking at it quizzically before turning to the main door and opening it, only for a very pissed Celestia to come stalking through.

"WHERE IS HE!??"

Her rainbow-like mane was starting to sizzle, sparks licking froming the tips of the flowing follicles. It was actually starting to get a bit warm for me, while Twilight was starting to pant and sweat. Spike didn't seem to notice the change in temperature.

Lavan drifted through a door, and his glowing eyes widened.

"Hello Celly."

She went snout to face with the spirit, seemingly not caring about the magma dripping onto her nose.

"Why, I- Grrrrrr. You...!" Her mane was starting to fade into an orangy red.

"I know, you're too stunned by my handsomeness for words." Lavan proudly proclaimed.

"Why are you here?" Celestia spoke through gritted teeth, while the little embers left her mane, cooling the room immensely.

"Well that's a very long story." Lavan crossed his arms.

"I have time."

The Lava blob sighed, turning around. "So you remember the day I was imprisoned in the mountain?"

"Yes. I do remember sealing you away to protect Equestria. It was one of my many great regrets, but of course it had to be done."

"Well, it turns out the Canterlot actually rests on a volcano, not a mountain. Which meant I could slowly trickle through small pockets until one of them led outside." He turned around to face us and his eyes narrowed. "Every year I inched closer to freedom one crack in the mountain at a time until one day, I finally made it. I had expended nearly all of my energy and I was coming close to cooling, which turns me solid, reducing me to a stony prison." He looked directly at me. "And who else should I find but you, unconscious in an unknown building."

"Is that how the building caught on fire?" I asked.

"Of course. It wasn't easy getting into you the first time, as your mental defences were rather formidable."

The bonding process required for me to leech strength from you was violent to say the least, and it took away most of what I had left."

I contemplated this. "And then you became lucid a couple days later and began the long process of regenerating yourself."

"Regenerating myself would've been easy. It was the fact that I couldn't kill you that made it difficult."

"Why? Why not kill me?"

"It didn't seem right."

"So my life rested on whether you were in a shit mood or not?" I asked, only mildly irritated.

"Pretty much." He confirmed.

"Some days, I just really don't get you."

Celestia butted in "You still haven't answered the second most important question."

"What would that be?"

"How come you didn't start razing villages as soon as you had become strong enough?"

"I think we have Johnny boy to thank for that. Being in his mind has affected me, to say the least." Closing the distance between him and Celestia, he leaned up to her. "His personality began to shift my own. I'm still me, but there's just a tiny bit of someone else in there too."

Celestia's breath hitched, "Now there's just one more answer I need."

What is it, Sunshine?" They were so close now that they were exchanging each breath.

"D-Do you still love me?"

Neither of them needed to speak another word.

...*flash*...

The two ancient beings turned to see a rectangular object held in John's left hand, pressed against his eye.

Lavan looked furious. "Why, you little shi-"

Author's Note:

It Lives...