45 Spirited Away (2/2)

Every scientists do.

”We believe that the people are displaced in time, either to the past or to the future. We won't know until we do more measurements and experiments. Is it not possible to use your ability to see where those people are?”

Hammond suggests.

Everyone in Hydra knows about my ability by now.

It is not really a secret.

The top scientists have tried to research my ability with my expressed permission, but there is a reason why time travel has not been invented even in the 31st century.

They did conclude that my power is not technological. As they are men of science, they don't want to say it is magical or spiritual. They eventually decided that it is just another mystery of the universe like dark matter and dark energy.

”It is not that easy, Mr. Washer. With the distortion in place, it is very difficult to navigate through the timeline and lock onto a certain instant in time.”

I point out.

”Oh. Okay. This might take a while, Lord Maxwell, so you might have something else better to do than to watch over us. We will do our best to give you a satisfying answer.”

I suppose he is right. I do have better things to do. I have a multi-millions dollar company to run and a lot of people to crush in the future.

How did Henry do all of that and still have time for his family?

I already know the answer to that.

I didn't attend the funeral of one Marian Oxford but I did send my condolences in form of an expensive bouquet.

If I didn't send my condolence, Hydra and Shield might think that they should be getting ready to take down Henry and his family.

No one from Hydra attended the funeral on the account I did have her killed. Only the higher ups from Shield did, but they are long time friends with Henry.

They wouldn't dare if I am actually at odd with Henry.

”Keep me updated, Mr. Washer. Bring in more hands if you have to. Also, find out of this phenomenon is happening elsewhere.”

It takes a full day for Hammond to report back to me with his findings.

The first line on the report confirms my fear.

It is not an isolated incident.

More than a dozens temporal distortions are located throughout the United States.

They're all started on that particular Monday around 8am.

Hundreds of Shield personnel and vehicles are scrambled to those locations, getting the handle on the whole situation.

Luckily, the temporal distortions there are not as severe as the one in the apartment.

News all around the globes tells me that it is not restricted to the United States either. Missing reports are found in China, India, and Japan. People just vanishes without a trace.

Hydra has sends teams flying across the globe with temporal detectors to secure those sites. I cannot allow this to spread and cause mass hysteria.

It seems like Marian has forced me to open the Pandora's box.

The timeline is destabilizing.

Even jumping to the past will not prevent this from happening.

And the future shows me a world full of temporal rifts.

The rifts are tearing the planet apart, scattering people through time and space.

”Call Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gate that I will have to reschedule my meeting with them tomorrow. Something very important has come up. I will be away for a week, maybe longer. Just follow the schedule I have planned. Everyone should know what they have to do.”

I left several more messages before bringing Antigone to massive Shield Headquarter in orbit.

My daughter is much safer there than on Earth.

If I cannot stop a temporal rift from forming, the headquarter will propel itself away from the planet along with some of the brightest minds of the human race.

It is built like a generation ship to ensure that humanity will never be able to destroy themselves.

The only way to do that is spread humanity amongst the stars and across to the infinite universe.

Unfortunately, the universe cannot protect humanity from the destruction of the timeline.