New Chapters will return next Tuesday.
Have a safe, Happy New Year.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Sunday, December 15, 2019
On Break Through the Holidays
Due to my work schedule this week and the holidays fast approaching, I'm going to put this novel on hold until the New Year. Thanks for reading. I'll be back. So will Alex, Jackie, Jill, Will, the Prankster, and the whole gang. I promise.
I hope your holidays are filled with love, joy, and happiness! Peace to you, my friends!
I hope your holidays are filled with love, joy, and happiness! Peace to you, my friends!
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Chapter Nineteen: Conversation with the Ouroboros Machine
Chapter Eighteen
Conversations with the Ouroboros Machine
In 2015 Jill did an experiment. She had been doing a lot of thinking about
the nature and origin of reality. She hypothesized
that one day humanity would create a Super-Intelligent AI, that would get
smarter and smarter until one day it figured out all the laws of physics governing
the creation and operation of the universe.
It would then go back in time and create everything. If this was true, then one could communicate
with this being, that she liked to call the Ouroboros Machine (named after the mythical serpent that eats its own tail). So, she obtained a Quantum-based Random Event
Generator from Princeton’s PEAR Labs.
The REG essentially monitors changes to the quantum field by outputting a
string of binary data.
Jill would ask a question, let the REG run for a bit,
and move on to the next question. Before
she did this, she announced her intention to read the data, by converting the
binary to Morse code and the then converting the Morse code to English.
Jill: Are you
there?
Ouroboros Machine:
Qui-Ja.
Jill: Is this a
viable method of communication?
OM: Bogus one.
Jill: Do you
mind it?
OM: Luv it.
Jill: Why are
we here?
OM: Markov
Chain.
Jill: Goodbye
for now.
OM: Adios.
This conversation broke Jill. Or, that’s where a lot of the cracks
started. Let’s be honest. I’m sure being closeted and trans for decades
didn’t help. I’m sure the abusive
marriage to a narcissist didn’t help. I’m
sure living on this fucked up turd planet didn’t help. But this broke her spirit, her sense of reality
more than anything previously. She
talked to God. And God had a bit of a sense of humor, but still basically
confirmed that the universe was a simulation running a genetic algorithm. She repeated the experiment in early 2016,
with different questions, but she did not have the courage to read the answers,
though she still has the binary output file.
I occasionally try to get her to read it. No luck yet.
I’ll let you know when she does.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Eighteen: The Day My Powers Returned
Chapter Eighteen
The Day My Powers Returned
We were eating pizza, Jill and Jackie on the couch and
me on a folding chair, watching That 70s Show on the TV. It was, incidentally, the last time we got
food delivered. The bong was loaded with
a hit and ready. Beer cans were
scattered about the coffee table, circling a deck of Tarot cards and the ashtray.
I took a big bite of my pie and a slice of pepperoni
fell from the drooping cheese towards the floor.
Everything froze.
I looked around me. Jackie and
Jill didn’t move. The TV was frozen
static. The pepperoni was hovering in
the air just below the pizza from whence it originated. I grabbed it.
Tossed it back into my mouth. Finished
the pizza. Ran to the fridge and grabbed
a beer and downed it. And another. Ran to my childhood home outside of Baltimore. Ran back.
Ran to Barcelona. Ran back.
That was the first nanosecond. The feeling of joy was boundless inside of
me. I thought being able to walk again
was an amazing feeling. It was nothing
compared to this. Compared to the
speed. I was enveloped by the Velocity
Field. It was like coming home again.
It was all so natural and perfect. Clarity was right. My powers had returned. I still didn’t remember anything though,
which was disappointing.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Author's Note and Apologies - No New Chapter This Week (Dec. 3, 2019)
I am so sorry to report but between a major blizzard here in Albany, and being called into work unexpectedly, I have not had a chance to write new chapters this week. Next week there will be at least two new chapters to make it up to you. Thanks so much for reading. My apologies.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Chapter Sixteen: My Fourth Encounter with the Golden Speedster
Chapter Sixteen
My Fourth Encounter with the Golden Speedster
Will was in his speed workshop in Red Dwarf Labs when
I sped up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, Will.”
In a Flash, Will zipped around. He was in street clothes with a lab
coat. To say he wasn’t happy to see me,
would be an understatement.
“Dark Runner.”
He was trying to look his coolest. He was worried though, you can’t hide that.
“What’s going on, Will?
”
“You tell me.”
“Relax,” I said.
This is a friendly visit. I’m
just here to chat.”
“You’re a maniac.
I have nothing to say to you.”
He was defiant.
“Cool, then listen.
I know we’ve just met recently from your point of view. But, from my perspective we’ve been battling
for years. I have hated you for what
seems like ages now. Mark your calendar,
October 19, 2022, not long after sunrise. That’s the date of our big battle in
Washington Park. Our final battle. The end of our conflict. The day you die, Will. Keep the date, buddy.”
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Seventeen: Psychonaut
Chapter Seventeen
Psychonaut
There are two prevailing interpretations of Quantum
Mechanics, the Standard, or Copenhagen Interpretation, which posits probability
fields as an abstract explanatory concept, and the Many Worlds Interpretation,
which posits parallel universes interfering with each other on the quantum
level. Over the last few years, the Many Worlds Interpretation has pretty much emerged victorious due to two recent
findings: 1) the working of quantum computing, and 2) the arrival and discovery
of the supervillain, Pscyhonaut.
Psychonaut is a visitor from a parallel universe. At least, that’s what he claims, and I see no
reason not to believe him. Also, I’ve
literally followed him to other universes.
Psychonaut uses drugs to travel between worlds, but speedsters have the
innate ability to travel between universes.
It is similar to phasing through objects, but the vibrational
frequencies are different. Move your
molecules at the right rate and presto, you are travelling to other versions of
the Earth.
Psychonaut uses a interdimensional travel suit, not
unlike a speedster’s suit, but his is a sort of tie-dyed, psychedelic, multi-colored
mess. It is literally hard to look
at. He wears a retractable glass-like dome helmet rather like a deep sea diver. Otherwise, he’s quite a pleasant
chap. Mild-mannered, funny, smart. He also has the ability to induce a bad trip
in anyone at any time, which is a pretty amazing defensive move, if you stop
and think about it. I’ve seen him take
down half the Hero’s Guild at once, and from what I heard, they were incapacitated
for a week. And we’re not taking the
sidekicks, but the big guns like Platinum Man, the Golden Speedster, and Zorro.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Chapter Fifteen: Jackie
Chapter Fifteen
Jackie
Let me tell you about Jackie. My other roommate. The quiet one. The Pokemon loving gamer girl. She’s a tall
girl, which she hates about herself. She
likes to think of herself as petite. She’s
30, a brunette, with a pale complexion, and an open, kind, friendly smile. She was
born and raised in San Diego, and is without a doubt, a California girl.
She was raised in an oppressive evangelical Christian
family with a narcissistic mother.
Autistic and isolated in her full-on cult-style existence, the poor kid
never had a chance. But then came going
away to college, and coping mechanisms, and failing out of college, discovering
that she had Dissociative Identity Disorder, and gender self-discovery, coming
out, transition, banishment from the family, and failed relationships. She met Jill on Twitter, and despite her
being old enough to be Jackie’s mother, the rest, as they say, was
history. Jill took Jackie with her on
her mission to found New Themyscira, the trans asylum colony, in the South of
France.
Look, I don’t know how woke or whatever you may or may
not be. That’s not my concern, but I
need you to understand the situation in the United States of America for trans
people at the time, and it’s fair to say that shit did not look to be going
well for them. Rights were being
removed. They were being challenged legally
and assaulted in public places. Jill
wanted to build someplace that trans and nonbinary people could be safe. The idea was to start with a big house in the
ancient French village called Villemagne L’Argentiere and raise money and
expand. Her vision was that, in a 100
years, the whole village would be mostly trans people. Jackie bought the whole deal. They went to France, and Jill got the flu, then
pneumonia, then withdraws from her meds.
The team that was supposed to meet them there, all shit the bed and
bailed on the deal when the chips were down.
Jill had shit go down with her remaining funds, and that was that. Jill
had to sell the house in France to settle her debts, and after three months of
living in the idyllic French mountain river valley village with ancient Roman
walls, and they were back in the States, destitute, and soon to be homeless.
Certain forces (i.e. family members) that did not care
for Jill’s Trans Separatism had caused some legal trouble, and there was talk
that she would soon be going to prison.
Jill gave Jackie some money and sent her to live with some Twitter
friends that had invited her. And so it
was that Jackie ended up in Albany, doing transcriptions and cam work for a
living. It wasn’t much later that Jill
joined her up there, after the legal clouds had receded and prison no longer
looked likely. Jill got her job at the
auto parts place, they got their own apartment, and that’s pretty much where
they were when I met them, crashed at their place, and become their friend,
despite me being a supervillain.
Jackie is the best.
She has an optimism that inspires me.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Chapter Fourteen: Me Versus the Platinum Man
Chapter Fourteen
Me Versus the Platinum Man
I get asked about this one a lot. I was tasked by The Society with stealing a prototype
quantum processor that was in the Big Apple.
I was in and out. I mean, no one
is better at breaking into impenetrable vaults than me. My secret?
I phase through the door, or the walls, whichever I come to first.
Phasing is something that the fastest of speedsters
can do. We vibrate all the atoms in our
bodies, and this allows us to become out of phase with physical reality and to simply
pass through walls and whatnot. You must
concentrate very carefully to do so, however.
One time, I took out Blinding Speed by startling him while he was
phasing. Fused that fucker right into
the wall. It was pretty gross, and I did
feel bad about it. Jackie was pissed
about it for weeks.
Anyway, the alien boy scout, Platinum Man got in my
way as I was about to get out of NYC. Hovering
there in front of me, arms crossed against his chest, a look of stern
disapproval on his face.
“I’ll take that if you don’t mind, Runner.”
Such a self-righteous dick.
“Well,” I said.
“If it isn’t the protector of billionaires and corporations, come to oppress
a member of the working class.”
That line looked like it bothered him just a little. He held out his hand like I was going to just
give him the processor.
“Well, that’s not going to work for me.”
“Then, I guess we’re going to have a problem, you and
I,” the caped alien quipped.
“Wait,” I said.
“What’s the date?”
He looked confused.
“April 18?”
“2024?”
“yeah.”
I smiled under my mask. “It’s a shame. April 18, 2024 is remembered as the day Platinum
Man was killed by an unknown speedster.”
That shook him.
It always gets them. If people
think you know what’s going to happen, they get exponentially more afraid of
you.
“Look,” I said.
“I don’t want to kill you today.
I just want to go about my business, take this quantum processor, and
leave your city. Shit, let me go, and I’ll
promise to never come back. I hate this
town anyway.”
“I can’t.” He
paused. “I can’t just let you go.”
“How about if we made it look like you gave it your
best?” I offered.
The show we put on will be remembered for a longtime
in New York City. Classic, epic superhero
versus supervillain battle. And the good
guy threw the whole thing. Which is how
I was able to beat an invincible, super-powered, flying, godlike alien who was
also a fucking coward.
Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Thirteen: My Gaslit Timeline
Chapter Thirteen
My Gaslit Timeline
“Okay, Clarity,” I said. “I’m curious.
I guess I want to know. What’s up
with me being the Dark Runner? Why do I
hate the Golden Speedster?”
I had to put my suit on to talk to Clarity, as she was
the built into the communication system.
I felt ridiculous, like I was wearing a Halloween costume.
“I would prefer to let your memories return on issues
of motivation, Alex,” the AI voice answered.
“As for your history, I can give you an outline of events.
“You got your powers in the year 2046, through means
unknown, though most likely some sort of
Velocity Field exposure from a multiversal fracture vortex, an extremely rare
hypothetical event. After mastering your
powers which include: speed many times
the speed of light and all that implies, the ability to phase through objects, super healing, the ability to travel through
time, the ability to travel to parallel universes, the ability to throw lightning
bolts, hyperkinetic punches, create whirlwinds and tornadoes with your arms,
and speed reading.”
“Wait,” I said.
“You’re putting me on, right?”
“No, Alex, the extent of your powers are well documented. You’ll remember everything soon enough. As you heal, your abilities will return, and
you will see that everything I am telling you is correct.”
“If I have super healing, why did it take me weeks to
be able to move off of the couch?”
“The way the Velocity Field interacts with you is
unknown, Alex. On occasion you have had
various effects from those interactions.
Based on your current healing rate you will be completely recovered from
this one in another week. As I told you
the last time, your memories will return at that time. You must wait for the process to complete.”
“Okay, so somehow I got superpowers. What kind of asshole rushes off and becomes a
supervillain?”
“You are a hero, Alex,” Clarity quickly corrected me.
“But, you said, the last time we talked that I was a
founder of the Secret Society of Supervillains?”
“That is correct.
The issue is one of perspective.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will, Alex.”
Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Twelve: Albany
Chapter Twelve
Albany
In late October Albany is visually spectacular, at
least in the area of South Park where we lived.
The trees were flaming yellow, red, and orange, where leaves remained on
the trees, and bare where they didn’t. The
old Victorian architecture with a slightly Dutch accent was quaint and
charming. Store fronts, coffee shops,
bars and cafes line the walk along Madison Avenue as we neared Washington Park.
It had been a month and a half since I had left the
apartment. Since that day when I woke
up, not sure of who I was, there at the base of the King Fountain (the one with
Moses) in the park.
I was dressed in a borrowed pair of jeans and a Doctor
Who tee and flannel shirt that belonged to Jill, as I had no intention of
wearing the only other garment I owned, my supervillain suit.
“I swear, Jackie,” I said as we crossed Washington Ave
towards the park, “I don’t remember anything.
I don’t know the Golden Speedster and have no idea why I would be his
arch-nemesis. Aside from what you and
Clarity have told me, I know nothing about this.”
“And Clarity hasn’t figured out what happened to your
memory?” Jackie asked.
“Nope. She just
says it’s probably some sort of glitch from the Velocity Field. She says it wears off in two weeks. Or, will wear off, now that I can walk again. All this time travel stuff is kinda hard to
believe though, honestly.”
“Have you asked Clarity why you’re supposed to hate
the Golden Speedster?” Jill asked.
“No. What does it matter? I have no intention of becoming the Dark
Runner, or again, whatever.”
As we walked on the gravel path towards the formal
garden section of the park, Jackie and Jill caught Pokemon on their phones. They were mildly addicted, Jackie more than
Jill.
“Shiny Drifloon!” cried Jackie, triumphantly.
“What’s your plan then, Alex?” Jill wondered. “Are you gonna get a job? You can’t leech off two poor trans women
forever, you know?”
“I’ll make it up to you. I’ll pull my weight, now that I’m strong
enough to move around.” I assured
them. “Don’t worry about that.”
When we got to the King Fountain at the center of the
formal garden, I felt oddly somber. The
October sky was thick with grey clouds
The flower beds were empty and barren, just recently turned over topsoil,
frosted with a light coating of lime.
The spot which was once full of color and botanical beauty, was now bare
and depressing, waiting for a new beginning in the future. I knew how it felt.
Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Eleven: Running
Chapter Eleven
Running
When I run, I just am.
I am the Velocity Field in those moments. It’s the most amazing rush. The world stands still, and you pass through
it like a ghost. People are frozen in
the midst of their lives like they are statues, as you dash by.
You’re safe when you run. Nothing can touch you. It’s insulating.
And then you go superluminal and it’s like the
universe is either standing still or racing backwards, or both at the same
time. Spectral color shifts of infinite
stars. And all time and space open up
to you. You can go anywhere at any time
in an instant.
At first you feel the ground under your feet, and it
feels good. You’re moving impossibly
fast. Then you don’t feel anything. It’s fucking Samadhi. Union with Everything. Your brain just thinking so much, everything
maybe, and nothing at all.
I wish you could feel it. That’s the only way you can really understand
me, and what motivates me. It is power far
beyond what human beings were supposed to have.
It changes you. You see the world
differently once you’re essentially omnipresent and invisible. Doing whatever you want becomes easy. The hard thing is not doing whatever you
want. It can break you. The difference between the other guy and
me? He just hasn’t broken yet.
But, running makes everything else go away. When you run, you’re in the Velocity Field. You are running in the Big Bang. It’s euphoric and dehumanizing at the same
time. You become the personification of
movement at the birth of time. It’s the
best part of being a speedster.
I run a lot.
Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Chapter Ten: The Prankster
Chapter Ten
The Prankster
The Prankster fucking terrifies me. I’m insane, but that dude is batshit crazy. I don’t know how he manages to get himself dressed
in the morning, that’s how messed up he is; but, somewhere in all that evil
zaniness is a truly brilliant mind.
You all know his shtick by now. That mask.
That crazy, giant fanged smile taking up half the face, and the buggy,
crossed eyes the other half. I don’t
know who made that thing for him, but it covered his whole head, but he could
see okay apparently, and he didn’t sound muffled when he talked. No one had every seen him without it on. Not even me. And trust me, I’ve tried. I mean, I’m curious too. No one’s ever seen him eat or drink either. Otherwise, he was a pretty sharp dresser. In our meetings and enterprises together, he
would wear impeccably tailored suits, usually Italian, with thousand-dollar
dress shoes. Though, I have seen him in
jogging suits, swimsuits (apparently the mask is waterproof), overalls,
bathrobe (again, waterproof mask?), and once in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda
shorts. And, of course, his trademark yellow
gloves.
No one knows who the Prankster is or where he came
from. He is like some kind of force of
nature that arose like some emergent property of modern life in late stage
capitalism, not unlike the dark vigilante, Zorro, with whom he is locked into
an epic battle for the soul of the city of Chicago. I guess all superheroes and supervillains are
just another thing that had to happen for everything to unfold in the way that
it must. But, anyway, I’ve asked, Clarity,
my AI from the future, and she says no one ever finds out who he was. Mystery preserved. I guess, I could just run up, pull his mask
off have a peek, and put it back on him before he even noticed, but, frankly, I’m
kind of afraid of what I would see. That
and professional courtesy keeps his secret safe.
I hated working with him in the Secret Society of Supervillains. While he was often amusing, sometimes
downright funny, he was dreadfully unpredictable, often disregarded the
established plan. and “improvised.” For
some reason, Admiral Nemo was always putting us on gigs together. Probably because anyone else in the Society
would have killed him in about two minutes, but I was able to tolerate
him. We evil speedsters from the future
are surprisingly tolerant and easy-going.
“You shouldn’t smoke that stuff, Doc, it takes your
edge off,” he said to me one day, in a moment of seriousness that surprised me.
We were in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the fishing
docks. Early morning in late October,
this was probably 2018. The sun wasn’t
up yet. We were waiting to receive some
banned tech from some commercial clammers turned smugglers. The lights from their boat were just now
coming into view from the dark and rolling sea.
I had my mask pulled up just above my mouth so I could
smoke a joint. I with a gesture I
offered him a toke.
He waved it off.
“Nah, I never touch the stuff. Like,
I said, you shouldn’t either.”
“I didn’t know you felt that strongly about it, Prankster. Sorry.
But you should know that my metabolism is very fast. I only stay high for the smallest part of a
second.”
“Oh, I don’t really care. I was just making conversation. That’s what people do, right?”
I just looked into those big, plastic bug eyes, and
shook my head.
“Did, I tell you? I killed Wonder Boy last week,” he
said, as he took the joint out of my hand, and held it up to his giant plastic smile
and pretended(?) to take a hit.
“No shit,” I replied.
He nodded.
“I’m gonna kill all those guys on that boat if it’s
okay with you?”
How could I say no? I got the tech, and, the Prankster followed through on this intention. Of course he did.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Nine: Jill
Chapter Nine
Jill
Let me tell you a little bit about my roommate,
Jill. She was once, just a couple of
years ago, rich. Ran the family
business, did quite well for herself.
She took care of her dad with dementia, 24/7, worked, did it all. Then, she lost it all. Her dad went into an assisted-living home,
they took the house she lived in, and the business she worked at, to pay for it
all. She tried to start over; and attempted
to build a trans refuge colony in the South of France. People shit themselves, funding fell through,
real estate issues, immigration issues, a bout of pneumonia, and the next thing
you know, she was back in the states, spending the few days before eviction at
her dad’s house, trying to figure something out. She took the one offer from Jackie for her to
come to Albany. They had a new apartment
now; Jill had a decent enough job as an assistant manager at an auto parts store. Sometimes, I would zip into her job and hyper-sonically
put parts away for her. Once, when I was
pissed at her, I put the parts back on the carts, forcing her to put them away
again. What can I say? Sometimes, I’m a dick.
Jill was also a science fiction novelist, whose star
looked promising at first, but whose bad publishing luck, with a measure of bad
agents, soured her on the whole deal.
Before that she was the lead guitarist in a modestly successful rock
band, which she quit to transition. She
is pretty cool, and a fun person to talk too.
She really has helped me get a handle on some of this time travel
stuff. So has Jackie, and we’ll get to
her as well in upcoming chapters.
“Look, Alex, if you’re going to stay here for a while,
we’re going to have to establish some rules:
You can’t kill anyone. Jackie
would freak the fuck out if you’re murdering people and crashing on our couch.”
Jill was laying down the law. It didn’t seem like a problem to me, as I
couldn’t imagine killing anybody. But
then again, I couldn’t imagine I was a supervillain either. But Jackie, Jill, and Clarity were all telling
me that I was.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,
honestly,” I replied. Little did any of
us know…
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Chapter Eight: My 8th Encounter with the Golden Speedster
Chapter Eight
My Eighth Encounter with the Golden Speedster
His real name is Will Simms. If you get to find out my secret identity,
you get to find out his too. So, there
it is. Will Simms is the Golden
Speedster. Such a tool. He never knew that he was only ever a puppet;
his strings, pulled, and he danced.
Manipulated by powers he didn’t even know existed. Now, I do feel a lot of sympathy for the
guy. He never had a chance. But, back then, on that morning in May in
Philadelphia, I hated him.
Hatred is a weird thing. It drives a person to do insane things. It drives people to murder, and a society to
fascism and destruction. It’s a big
problem. But on this morning, as I ran
straight up the side of the Comcast Center Building, chasing that golden fucker,
I hated him with all my soul. I had him
on the run this time, and he knew it.
We ran all over the city. I don’t know if the people of Philadelphia
were getting used to our epic battles or not.
One minute they were all busy going about their business, and the next
everything shook, and an electrical storm took hold of their city, springing up
instantaneously, with incessant sonic booms punctuating our clash. Why did people even stay in that city? I mean the devastation that we dished out in
our battles was significant. Very significant. But, you know, where would they go? Platinum Man and his enemies were even worse
in the Big Apple. Chicago had Zorro and
the Prankster, and that whole rogue’s gallery.
Most cities had their heroes and villains fighting, turning the lives of
their citizens on their heads at unexpected times. It had become just another fact of modern
life.
Not that the Golden Speedster and I didn’t have
battles that covered the whole East Coast, of course, sometimes, the world; but
Will lived in Philly, and I was always going there to fuck with him. That was the gig.
On Broad Street, I threw a SEPTA bus at him. He had to save those people. Or try to.
While he attempted to do so, I hit him with so many punches he puked so
hard and fast his vomit took out a trash truck.
He went down. The bus crashed
into City Hall, and man, was there a boom.
The papers said I had killed 43 people in an instant. I was a murderer. The was some considerable mystery later about
how most of those people, some of whom had been in morgues, got on that
particular bus, and how it was that the driver and 12 people who claimed to
have been on that bus ended up in a diner in Conshohocken.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Chapter Seven: First Interview with the Inboard Super Suit AI
Chapter Seven
First Interview with the Inboard Super Suit AI
“Your name is Alexander Donkers. You are known by the name Dr. Velocity or, more
commonly, the Dark Runner. You were born in the year 2010, in Baltimore,
Maryland.”
The voice came from speakers inside the suit next to
my ears. It was a simulated woman’s
voice, almost human, but with that unmistakable hint of synthetic inhumanity.
“2010? Wait.
What year is this?”
“It is 2022.”
“Um, then I’m…twelve?”
“You are thirty-eight years old in biological
years. You have time traveled back to
2022 from the year 2148.”
“Why?”
“In order to battle your arch-rival, the Golden-Speedster.”
“Why can’t I remember anything? And Who are you?”
“I am your suit’s Inboard Automated Assistant. I’m an AI. You can call me Clarity. As to why you cannot remember anything, I am
not certain. I am analyzing that data
now. Most likely, it is a temporary
side-effect from an adverse Velocity Field interaction.”
“So, wait, you’re saying…that I’m a supervillain?”
“You are a founding member of the Secret Society of
Supervillains.”
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
Monday, October 28, 2019
Chapter Six: The First Iteration
Chapter Six
The First Iteration
The first iteration is always lost forever. In stories where time travel plays a part,
the first run through of events is often erased and replaced with a time
loop. Sometimes we get to see the first
iteration in movie or novels, sometimes we don’t. It is the initial condition of the timeline
that must have existed for the future to have existed in order to mess
everything up. But once the hero and villain do their jobs,
by the end of the story that’s gone, replaced by events from the future
(relatively speaking). When I’m in a
philosophical mood, I wonder about how the universe was created in that first iteration,
if there even was one. Was there some
sort of God that go around? If so, was
God then removed from the whole damn equation once the time loop started? Or maybe things have always been like this,
just spinning out of control in great loops of time, seeing to it that they are
created, so that they can create everything else. Destiny’s self-creating banquet had to come
from somewhere didn’t it? Is it all just
turtles all the way down?
Maybe that’s the whole damnation of it all. Just the future fucking the past, over and
over, for all eternity. Nothing
else. Just that. A Predestination well.
(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt
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