Dominion (Futuristic Four)

"Oh yeah, that's worse."

"Hiro!"

Hiro groaned and turned his head. Everything was throbbing.

"Hiro!"

The voice was back, more insistent this time. Why couldn't the speaker just go away? All Hiro wanted to do was sleep . . .

"Wake up!"

Hiro's eyes snapped open. He was surrounded by darkness and dust. For some unknown reason he was strapped in a seat which had toppled sideways. His face was pressed against something hard that rippled with purple light. He shook his head slowly to clear it and glanced around.

Violet stood in the middle of a purple sphere of energy. She looked like Violet, but something wasn't right. She looked years younger, closer to fourteen years old. Her arms were trembling, strained outwards as if to hold the purple energy at bay. She grimaced.

"About time, Hiro." A strand of hair fell into her mouth, which she spit back out. "I need your help getting us out of here so I can put down the forcefield."

"What do I need to do?"

"Just roll the forcefield by pushing on the wall. I can't move while I'm making it, and if I put it down then the storage containers are going to crush us."

Hiro glanced beyond the field and gasped. No less than three solid shipping containers leaned haphazardly on the shield. If Violet hadn't made it when she had . . . Hiro didn't want to think about it.

"I've got to get out of this seat first," Hiro said as he struggled with the latch. The button seemed to be stuck. Apparently in the future there were still defective seatbelts. "Where are Wilbur and Penny?"

"Unlatched seatbelts and jumped," Violet responded. As she said it the memory came creeping back. They had been seconds from impact when Wilbur yelled for everyone to undo their seatbelts and jump. But Hiro's seatbelt hadn't unlatched and he'd braced himself for death.

"You saved my life," he realized.

"Just doing my part," she said. "Hurry up."

There was a click and Hiro was free. He crawled free from the seat and leaned against the forcefield. It gradually began to roll free. The shipping containers clattered to the ground. Once the forcefield was free from danger Violet allowed it to dissipate. She was breathing hard.

"Hiro! Violet!"

Hiro glanced up. Wilbur and Penny were dodging twisted sheets of metal as they hurried closer. Both of then looked like they had aged backwards. Hiro couldn't help but stop and stare.

"Why do you guys all look younger?" Hiro asked.

"You do too," Wilbur pointed out. "I think the windshield may have cracked when we got hit. Some of the past leaked into the capsule and we . . . got younger.  The same age as the first time we all met, in fact."

"Aunt Cass is going to freak," Hiro moaned.

"And what's worse, we're a couple days early," Wilbur added.

"Oh yeah, that's worse," Violet said.

"What do we do now?" Penny asked.

"We're stuck here until I can fix the time machine, which might take a long time," Wilbur explained.  "So that means we just have to do this the old fashioned way."

"Which is?"

"We lay low and wait."