Today we present Part 2 of Caines Adventures of the Golden Age hero The Clock! You can read part one here.When the clock inside the Brunswick Towers struck 10:00 a white cloaked figure entered through the front doors. Locking them, the woman moved to the desk. Lifting up the security guard's head a quick inspection was performed to ensure man was unconscious. Once satisfied, the new visitor dropped the guards head back down on the desk with a soft ka-plunk.
As the guards head plunked down on the front desk, the woman removed the key ring from his belt. Within a few seconds she had indentified the elevator access key, called an elevator and was traveling up to the top of the building.
As the elevator rumbled up to the penthouse, the woman unlocked the access hatch at the top of the elevator car and launched up through it with the grace of a world class gymnast. Quickly, as the car was nearing the end of its journey, she produced a small container and squirted the control box of the elevator car. For a minute or more nothing happened.
Hoping her calculations were correct, she held her breath as the elevator continued to travel towards the top of the shaft. If she had miscalculated, she knew she would be crushed flat by the roof of the building. As the hard steel outcroppings loomed ever nearer, the elevator control box began to spark and smoke. Slowly the car ground to a silent stop six inches below elevator doors that led to the penthouse floor.
"Perfect." The woman stated in a nearly inaudible voice. Removing tools from beneath the cloak, the woman pried the elevator door shaft doors open and entered the penthouse suite. Moving with firsthand knowledge of the layout the woman passed by the display case that was built to display the Onyx Amulet, currently empty, and exposed the safe sunk into the hard floor and covered only by an expensive rug.
The Clock, who stood silently in the shadows, noticed that the woman didn't even attempt to bypass the safe's security. The figure kneeling over the safe knew the combination. With a creek of the hinge the safe was open. As the woman reached into it, The Clock flipped on the lights with a hiss catching the mysteriously cloaked woman by surprise.
"Given time, all things are revealed." The Cloak shouted - his cane and .45 at the ready. He lunged into action from the now nonexistent shadows. Caught off guard, the mysterious woman rolled backwards, retreating behind the heavy safe's door, now standing upright from the floor. A moment later the woman peeked out from behind her cover as she threw three matte black objects that sliced the air on their way to The Clock. The Clock stabbed his cane between the heavy oak floor panels and used the safe door to alter his trajectory in a downward direction firing two shots from the big .45 as he hit the floor.
"KROONG, KROONG,"
From the concussive force of the shots the big heavy safe door crashed to the floor. The Clock spun around, removing his cane from the floor, and getting a fix on his adversary, found her lunging through the air boot first. Deflecting with his left forearm he punched at her with his right, only to have the woman grapple his right arm with hers and pull him so hard that she was able to flip his mass over her and on to the floor. Hard.
"Unfortunately time only flows in one direction." The woman stated politely with a smile.
The Clock couldn't help but notice her incredible beauty as she removed the hood covering her head just long enough to unclasp the Onyx Amulet and slip it around her neck. Immediately her jade green eyes went black as she spun and left the room with a speed The Clock had never seen.
"Wait!" The Clock shouted, getting to his feet.
He marked her entering the stairwell and was there before the big door had a chance to close half way. Taking the stairs two at a time The Clock caught site of most of the woman as she made the next landing around the next set of stairs. As The Clock reached that very landing he saw even less of the woman as she rounded yet another set of stairs. Again, at the bottom The Clock saw little more than moving shadows. It would seem that time was no longer on his side.
At the bottom of the fourth landing The Clock leaped out into the hollow area between the stair cases and dropped to the sub basement into a rolling fall. Righted, with his .45 out, fired two more times toward his target, which was now little more than a blur in the darkness.
"Eeiiyyee!" The woman screamed as she crashed into the staircase's cement wall. The Clock ran over the sound and found the woman sitting on the floor holding her shoulder. He extended a hand to help her up, only to have her knee him in the face. Bounding back The Clock deflected another kick and three quick punches.
Before The Clock could strategize further the woman attacked again. Leading with a round house, He ducked back into the stairwell and then shoved her off balance. The woman used the momentum to push off the wall and swing back around with a back fist that The Clock caught with his big gloved fist.
From under her cloak, the woman whipped out an angled dagger and sliced at The Clock. He brought up his cane, parried and with the flick of his wrist smashed the bulbous head of the cane on her slicing hand. Stepping back the woman jabbed at his neck. The Clock took a step back and she cart wheeled backwards to the staircase railing. Leaping up on the railing, she waved at The Clock.
"Time's up," The woman spoke softly and jumped off the railing as if a pool of water awaited her at the bottom. The Clock ran over the rail and looked over. He expected to see the woman lying dead on the floor, but instead she was waving at him. He stared in disbelief. Apparently, the rumors of the strength-giving Onyx Amulet were true. No normal person could have survived such a fall.
"That's my line!" The Clock grumbled, collecting his pistol and cane, he began taking the stairs two at a time again in hopes of catching up to her.
By the time he reached the street, he saw the angelic woman reach a white sedan, its front passenger door hanging open. The Clock scanned for an accomplice. Finding none he turned his attention to the injured woman and her getaway car. She climbed behind the wheel and the car's ignition rumbled to life as the woman reached over and pulled the passenger door shut before blasting off like a rocket leaving two rubber trails on the street behind her.
The Clock ran out into the street, gun hand extended, he hoped the Onyx Amulet's effects didn't extend so far from the wearer that the sedan was in its range and he'd know in a second. Taking a knee he watched as the woman turned the car east, which brought it's drivers side directly in The Clock's line of sight as she skidded through the turn. Reaching deep, to secret knowledge that Brian O'Brien had discovered in his Naval tour in the Orient, The Clock grasped time itself and held on to it for a mere second as he fired the .45 two more times.
The Clock heard the sedan screech to a halt and crash. Catching up to it he found the woman, thrown clear, unconscious a few feet from the sedan which had impacted with Baron's department store. A few inches from the woman lay the Onyx Amulet, much more powerful than even he understood before tonight.
A few blocks away the Justice building's big clocked chimed that it was midnight.
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