Day 250

[from Electron]

Mere minutes ago, the blazing wreck in front of Electron had been a vibrant cruise ship, filled with hundreds of holidaymakers excitedly looking forward to a fortnight drifting through the Caribbean. Now, the ship's fiercely-burning remains were sinking rapidly into the harbour, taking those who had survived the initial explosion with it. A few had managed to escape and swim to safety, or float away among the wreckage, but Electron knew that hundreds, if not thousands of people had perished in the disaster, and he hadn't even had the chance to save them.

The words of his handler echoed in his head once more: “You can't save everyone. Maybe something happened that you didn't know about… but whatever the reason, someday somebody's gonna look you in the eye and ask you where you were when they needed you.” I guess that day is today, Electron thought to himself. I don't know what happened here, but a whole lot of people are going to be pointing their fingers at me and saying it's my fault these people died. I guess I'll just have to cope with that.

As more and more survivors began to flee the wreckage, Electron began assisting the rescue effort as best he could, saving as many survivors as possible. By the time the ship's wreckage had submerged completely, almost 200 people had been carried to safety, but that still left almost a thousand people unaccounted for. A thousand people who, most likely, had all gone down with the ship. It was an incredible death toll, and the more the number floated around Electron's head, the worse it made him feel.

Then the crime scene investigators arrived, and their immediate conclusion made the disaster seem even worse: it had been deliberate. Somebody, they said, had planted a bomb on board the vessel; the resulting explosion had torn right through the ship, causing it to sink within minutes. With the final death toll estimated at 937, it was the biggest loss of life on American soil since 9/11, and it had all happened under Electron's watch. It was too much for him to take. He sat down on the edge of the docks, staring blankly out into the blue-grey waters as he tried to make sense of it all.

He didn't know how long he had been sat there when he heard a sudden voice from behind him. “Hey. You're Electron, right?”

Electron nodded solemnly, but didn't feel up to speaking quite yet. The man duly continued: “I can't believe something like this would happen here. What kind of a person would just blow up a cruise ship like this? All those innocent lives...”

Electron let out a heavy sigh. “You know, you're not really making me feel any better,” he said.

“Sorry,” said the man. “But what if I told you there was a way to undo all this? To stop the bomb from going off, and save all these people? What if I told you that was possible?”

Electron turned to look at the man, and to his surprise he saw that he was another super. He was a tall, dark-haired man in a crimson bodysuit, with a white fast-forward icon emblazoned on the front. His words sounded almost too good to be true, but if they were true… “Who are you?” asked Electron.

“My name is Fast-Forward,” said the man. “SHRED heard about what happened here, and they sent me along to prevent it from ever happening. I have the ability to alter the speed of my passage through time, just like a DVD remote; I can pause, rewind, or even fast-forward into the future. And I can bring other people with me as well, so long as they’re holding onto me while I do it. So, what do you say?” Fast-Forward held out his hand. “How about we travel back in time together and erase this tragedy from the history books?”

It still seemed a little too good to be true, but Electron had no reason to doubt the man, and certainly nothing to lose by choosing to go along with him. He therefore nodded and took Fast-Forward's hand. “Sounds good to me,” he said. Fast-Forward pulled Electron back to his feet, and together the two turned their attention back to where the cruise ship had been just a few hours earlier, a few pieces of debris still drifting between the recovery vessels.

“This might be a bit disorienting,” said Fast-Forward. “Feel free to close your eyes, but whatever you do, don't let go of my hand until I tell you. Got it?”

“What happens if I do?” asked Electron.

The question seemed to give Fast-Forward pause for thought. “You know… I'm not actually sure,” he admitted. “It's never happened before. But it's not worth finding out now. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I'll ever be,” said Electron.

“Alright then,” said Fast-Forward. “Let's go stop a bomb.”

Fast-Forward took a deep breath, and suddenly the world around Electron grew eerily still and silent. The waters below them froze, and the air grew deathly calm. With no movement at all around them, the silence was so great that Electron could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, the sound of his breathing amplified a hundredfold. This wasn't just disorienting: it was downright unreal. Thankfully, this state of frozen time lasted only a moment, but what happened next was just as disconcerting.

The world around them now began to play out in reverse. The waves raced back out towards the ocean, the gulls overhead flew backwards through the sky at alarming speed, and the clouds rushed across the horizon as though whipped up by an almighty hurricane. Then, as Electron watched on in astonishment, the carcass of the cruise ship rose from the water, the rescued civilians zooming one by one back into it as it slowly righted and reassembled itself. The rescue crews and emergency response teams retreated from the scene in a flurry of lights and sirens. Finally, the debris scattered all over the harbour rushed back into pace as the almighty explosion played itself out in reverse, the massive fireball rapidly retreating back into the hull as the damage miraculously repaired itself. The cruise ship now stood before them in all its original glory, its white paintwork gleaming in the Florida sunlight.

Fast-Forward was not done yet, however. “We gotta go back far enough to give us time to search for the bomb, but not so far back that it hasn't been planted yet,” he said. “Of course, I don't know when it was planted, but I'm guessing probably some time last night, while everybody was asleep. So I'm taking us back to 8am, and that gives us… just over six hours, I think, until the bomb explodes. That should be more than enough time to evacuate the ship and have a good old search. You feeling alright, by the way?” he added. “I'm sure this must be pretty weird for you.”

“Well, you're right about that,” said Electron. “This just might be the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But… I gotta admit, it's also pretty damn amazing.”

Fast-Forward smiled. “Thanks,” he said. “Almost there.” A few moments later, the world snapped back into normal speed, and the pair found themselves standing before the unblemished cruise ship at precisely eight o'clock. “There we go,” said Fast-Forward, letting go of Electron's hand. “8am, give or take a few minutes. Ready to stop that bomb?”

Electron nodded. “Let's do this,” he said.