MidReal Story
Time's Edge: The Ten Missions
Scenario: Yuro agent of the time police and surnaturel accomplish need to accomplish 10 mission
Create my version of this story
I was given ten missions.
Ten missions to save my world from destruction.
I have no idea what will happen if I fail, but I know it won’t be good.
My first mission is to prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
If he dies, World War I will begin, and millions of people will die.
I can’t let that happen.
I have to stop it at all costs.
The first thing I do is go to the Time Police headquarters and get my mission briefing from the boss.
He tells me that I have to go back in time to June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That’s the day that Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated by a group of Serbian nationalists called the Black Hand.
If I can stop them from killing him, then World War I will never happen, and everything will be fine.
The boss gives me a time machine and sends me on my way.
I look at the time machine to see how much time I have left.
It says that the assassination is going to happen in two minutes.
I don’t have time to wait for it to start working again, so I’ll just have to do this the old-fashioned way.
I look around at the crowd, trying to find the Black Hand members.
They’re a group of Serbians who are known for their violence and brutal tactics.
They’ve done some pretty terrible things in the past, including killing innocent children.
I don’t think they’ll have any qualms about killing the Archduke and his wife, either.
I notice a group of men standing near the edge of the crowd, and I think they might be the assassins.
They’re all dressed in black suits and hats, and they look like they’re trying to blend in with the people around them.
The problem is that I can’t tell for sure if they’re the ones I’m looking for or not.
I need to get a better look at them, but there are too many people in the way.
I start pushing my way through the crowd, trying to get closer to them so I can see their faces.
The time machine says I only have thirty seconds left, so I need to hurry.
I finally get close enough that I can see them clearly, and I realize that one of them is the assassin.
He’s taller than the others, with a thin build and dark hair.
He’s holding a small pistol in his hand, and he keeps looking around nervously, like he’s afraid someone is going to catch him before he can do it.
I know what that feels like—I’ve been in his shoes more times than I can count.
But this is different.
This isn’t some random person he’s going to kill.
This is a man who is going to spark a war that will kill millions of people if he dies.
And I’m not going to let that happen.
I take a deep breath and focus on what I need to do.
I close my eyes and concentrate on my power, feeling it surge through me as I prepare to use it.
Then I take one step forward and reach out my hand, knowing that everything is riding on what happens next.
The street is crowded with people, and everyone is straining to get a better view of the Archduke and his wife as they pass by.
The car is moving slowly through the throng, so everyone has a chance to see them as they go by.
They look happy and relaxed as they wave to the people around them, like they have no idea that anything is wrong.
Like they’re completely oblivious to the danger that’s looming all around them.
But they’re not oblivious, not really.
They know that their lives are in danger, but there’s nothing they can do about it.
There are too many people here who want them dead, and eventually one of them will succeed.
But then I see a flash of black and silver in the corner of my eye, and I know that he’s here.
There’s a group of men standing on the sidewalk a few yards away from us, and one of them is reaching into his jacket.
He pulls out a pistol and points it at the car as he takes aim.
My heart starts to race, knowing that he’s going to do it, that he’s going to kill them.
And there’s nothing I can do to stop him—there are too many people in the way.
But then there’s a blur of movement as a man in a black suit comes rushing out of the crowd.
He moves so fast that he’s just a streak of color as he slams into the assassin and sends him flying to the ground.
The other men start to move forward to help him, but then he’s on top of them too, moving like a whirlwind as he takes them down one by one.
They don’t stand a chance against him—he’s faster and stronger than anyone I’ve ever seen before.
And then he turns his attention back to the man with the gun.
But by this time Gavrilo has already raised his gun and fired several shots into the car.
Sophie screams as she throws herself on top of her husband to shield him from the bullets, but I can already see the blood spreading on his shirt.
He’s been hit.
He’s been shot.
This can’t be happening—it can’t be real.
I don’t know what to do or how to react as everything starts to fall apart around me.
The man in black is moving toward Gavrilo now, his face set in a grim expression as he prepares to take him down.
He’s almost close enough to stop him when Gavrilo suddenly looks up and sees him coming.
Their eyes meet for just a moment before Gavrilo turns his attention back to the car, aiming his gun at it one more time.
But then something happens that I wasn’t expecting.
The man moves so fast that he’s just a blur as he crosses the distance between them in less than a second.
He reaches out his hand and catches the bullet between his fingers before it can hit its target.
I can’t believe what I’ve just seen.
It’s impossible—it should be impossible.
But there he is, standing in front of Gavrilo with the bullet still clutched in his hand.
Gavrilo starts to back away from him as he raises his gun again, but the man doesn’t give him a chance to fire.
He throws the bullet aside and then punches Gavrilo with enough force to send him flying across the street.
Gavrilo lands on the ground with a thud and doesn’t get up.
Meanwhile, the man is already moving on to the other assassins and taking them down one by one.
They never had a chance against him.
And then he turns his attention back to the car and starts moving toward it, like he’s going to attack the Archduke and his wife too.
I don’t know what he’s planning or why he’s doing this.
With a roar of rage—or maybe it’s fear—I launch myself at him and use my powers to bring him down before he can reach them.
We crash into the car and then hit the ground together.
He tries to fight me off at first but then stops when he sees who I am.
“You’re one of us,” he says as he finally recognizes me.
And then everything goes black.
It only takes me a few minutes to get things under control after that.
With all the other assassins down and the man unconscious, there isn’t much left for me to do.
The police have already arrived on the scene and are busy rounding up everyone who was involved in this mess.
Meanwhile an ambulance has just pulled up to take care of the people who were hurt.
The Archduke’s wife is still on top of him as they help them out of the car, but at least she seems all right for now.
But despite everything that’s happening around me, I can’t seem to pull my eyes away from her husband as they start to carry him away on a stretcher.
His face is so pale against the white sheets that it looks like he’s already dead.
But then he opens his eyes and looks over at me.
“Don’t worry, Tenshi,” he says with a small smile.
“I’m not that easy to get rid of.”
And then he’s gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
The first thing I do after that is make sure everyone else is all right before I finally start heading back toward the Time Police headquarters.
But I don’t even make it out of the square before I run into my boss, who’s been waiting for me all along.
“Yuro, what the hell have you done now?”
he demands as soon as I walk up to him, his face twisted into an expression of rage that doesn’t suit him at all.
“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused by interfering with this mission?And in such a public place too!”
“I had no other choice,” I tell him as I try to explain what happened back there, but he doesn’t want to hear it.
“This was Piotr’s mission, not yours.He was the one who was supposed to take care of things here, while you stayed behind and kept an eye on the rest of the team.”
I know that, but Piotr wasn’t here when I needed him, so I had no other choice but to step in and take over for him.
“He was supposed to be on standby in case of an emergency,” my boss points out, “but he never got the chance to do his job because you interfered with the mission first.Now we’ll never know if he would have been able to do it or not.”
“I’m sorry,” I start to say, but he doesn’t let me finish before he cuts me off again.
“No, you’re not,” he says with a sigh, “and you shouldn’t be either, because you saved their lives today.But don’t think that means I’m going to let you off the hook for this.You know the rules as well as anyone else, Yuro—no public displays of power or heroism while you’re on duty.You need to learn to control yourself—or at least your temper—and follow the mission protocols more closely from now on.”
But I won’t apologize for what I did today, even if it means changing the timeline slightly in order to save those people who would have died otherwise.
And this time I stick to my guns and tell him so, even though I know it won’t make any difference to him now.
