The Masters of Time
The room was dark, lit only by the myriads of screens. Some showed scenes of places, some of things and some showed whole countries. Though, most showed single furs. Two cunning eyes wandered over the screens, checking every single of them.
A normal fur would have been totally overwhelmed by this chaos of visual input, but the one the eyes belonged to was no normal fur. He was old. Very old. So old, there where only three things in the entire cosmos that where equally old.
Every few seconds a orange furred paw moved to a keyboard and then a scenes on one of the screens would change. And so it went one for an impossible to determine amount of time.
Then suddenly something changed. The brown eyes narrowed and fixated on one of the screens. It showed a female skunk in the middle ages. While she looked like 29 it was no secret for him that she was 38. The orange paw again moved to the keyboard and the screen grew till it dominated the room. The skunk stood in the middle of a street. A car was approaching her, but the driver would see her in a moment and stop the car just in time.
However, it wasn’t the crude violation of the traffic laws that stirred him; it was the skunk itself. He knew that she wasn’t supposed to be here. She was a disturbance and had to be removed.
The paw moved to the keyboard one more time and the flow of things changed. The driver of the car turned his attention to the radio and didn’t see the skunk in time to stop that car. However, he still saw her and pushed the brakes down. The car slid a bit and didn’t hit the skunk completely. She was thrown across the street and hit the walkway with her head. However, she survived.
The eyes of the fur widened in surprise. That had never happened before. He lifted a paw and all of the screens came to an abrupt halt. The fur leaned forward, closer to the big screen. The glowing illuminated the face of a young orange tabby cat. His brown eyes narrowed as he took a closer look at the skunk. After a time that could have been an eternity or mere seconds he reached for the keyboard and entered a command. It was time to call the others.
At the wall to his left suddenly something appeared that looked like a medieval castle. The drawbridge was lowered and a fox walked out of the gate. He wore a light leather armor that was reinforced with metal plates in various areas.
At the other side of the room something similar happened, but here it was a huge metal wall that appeared. It featured a large double door, like the hangar doors in a spaceship. A loud hissing sounded up and then, producing a low rumbling, the doors parted, letting a large big cat enter the room. He was a tiger-lion hybrid and wore a simple gray uniform. Some electronic device was attached to the right side of his head.
Both figures walked towards the orange tabby cat, who was still sitting in his comfy chair in the middle of the room. He looked at his brothers that where so similar and yet so different from him.
It was an extremely rare event when these three met. Every single of the was more powerful the all gods together, everyone of them as old as time itself, because it was the time they where guarding. These three where the Masters of Time.
The hybrid didn’t waste any time. “What do you want Maxx?” he asked, bluntly.
Maxx, the Master of the Presence, just pointed to the screen that showed the femme skunk.
“What do you dare to interfere in my matters!?” The big cat asked.
“Your matters? Your matters?!? Dear Tygon, I believe your matter is to prevent such things from happening, isn’t it?”
“She somehow escaped me, but that doesn’t matter now,” Tygon said. “I’ll take care of her immediately.”
“No, you won’t,” said Maxx.
“What did you say?”
“You understood me very well. You won’t take care of her. I will.”
“You can’t! Tygon shouted in rage. “She is from the Future and so she’s mine to take care of.”
“But she’s in the Presence and that makes her my matter.”
“You can’t do that,” Tygon growled low.
“Oh yeah?” asked Maxx, challenging. “And how exactly are you going to stop me?”
Tygon just growled, baring his teeth and clenching his paws to fists. Suddenly small red lights at the attachment to his head came to life. Metal plates grew out of his sleeves, covering the backs of his paws, enforcing his knuckles. He unclenched his paw and unsheathed razor-sharp, metallic claws. The uniform at his right shoulder was torn apart as a laser gun extended from his back and fixated itself on the shoulder, the barrel pointing to Maxx.
As Tygon made a step forward Maxx sprang into action too and pulled his arms up, holding submachine guns in both paws, more than prepared to fight his brother.
Just as the Master of the Presence and the Master of the Future were about to start the fight something flashed between them. Then a loud ‘Clang!’ and a sword stood between them. Both cats turned their respective head to the fox who had thrown the sword.
“Are you finished?” he asked, his voice without any trace of sarcasm.
Maxx and Tygon first looked at the fox and then at each other. It seemed like they just now realized what they where about to do. It was Maxx who dropped his weapons first. Then Tygon also let his arms sink down and the gun at his shoulder disappeared.
Josh sighed. “I’d wish you two would stop that. Remember what happened the last time you fought each other? It nearly wiped out the life on Earth. Why can’t you two just learn from your mistakes?”
“Because it’s your task to learn from what happened,” Tygon replied sarcastically.
The Fox sighed again. “Okay, let me get this clear. Even if Tygon has an infinite length of time to guard he for now made a great job in preventing any disturbances in the stream of time. That it happened now should alarm all of us. And Maxx was doing right in trying to kill her. That she was in the Presence made her his to take care of,” he added, turning to Tygon. “Now the question is: Why was she able to escape your control?”
Tygon grumbled. “I don’t know!”
“Then how will that all start in the first place?”
The striped lion sighed. “In the year 2029 this skunk will be one of the leading heads is a time travel project. I already tried to prevent it from happening but the generator I will blow up will only do minor damage.”
“Why didn’t you just try something else.”
“Because they would have grown suspicious,” Tygon groaned. “You know how paranoid the furs are. And besides, I have to watch over the stream of the WHOLE Future. I can’t just blow buildings apart like I want to.”
“Okay, okay Tygon. We know how difficult your task is. But you surely tried something else,” said Josh, trying to prevent another confrontation of his two brothers before it happened.
“Of course! I planned to let their time machine blow up in the moment they make the first jump. But something fend me of and I only managed to disturb the time myself, what twisted the time machine’s setting. The skunk originally wanted to go back into the year 2011, but because of my interference she landed in the Presence.”
“That only tells me that you’re growing too lazy,” Maxx accused Tygon.
“I don’t agree there Maxx!” Josh interfered before Tygon could spring into action himself. “Not considering that you where unsuccessfully with killing her yourself.”
“Where do you know that?” Maxx asked, his eyes wide in surprise.
“Well, that happened roughly 0.28549 seconds BEFORE you froze the time,” Josh ginned. Maxx’ only reply was a groan.
“Maxx couldn’t kill her?” Tygon asked, though it was a rhetorical question. “That makes the things much more complicated.”
“I agree,” said Josh. “Can you see what she will do next?”
“No,” Tygon replied. “Something is hiding her Future from me. The time is roused right now.”
“So could it be that he furs have developed a technology that defies even our powers?” Maxx asked.
“That would be a catastrophe. They could do unthinkable things to the time and we wouldn’t be able to prevent them from doing so.”
“That indeed states our problem very well.” Josh said.
“What you think? Shall I try to kill her again?” Maxx asked.
“No, I think we should stay back for now and see what happens.”
“I agree,” Tygon said. “As long as I can’t see what she’ll do for the Future I wouldn’t dare to interfere in the things. It could make things even worse.”
“Allright.” Maxx lifted a paw and the scenes in the screens came back to life. Several furs ran to the skunk that was lying like dead on the walkway.
“From now, Miss Mustelidae,” the Master of the Presence said. “We’ll keep a close eyes on you.”
The End for now