Latest / Dad’s Bedtime Stories / Tic and the Ring of Time - Ring Guardians - A Bedtime Adventure

Transcript

Tic and the Ring of Time - Ring Guardians - A Bedtime Adventure · Dad’s Bedtime Stories

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: They're a little friends from across the nation and around
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the world. I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: bedtime stories. Tonight, we're gonna finally head back into the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Ring Guardians series that I just started the other day
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: because I got a bunch of cool suggestions from people,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and I thought i'd better start making episodes. Let's check
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: out our very first suggestion.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Grayson, and I have an idea
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: for the you know, magical powering series that's new and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I was thinking of a kid. It's okay if you
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: name him a different name, but I would like it
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: to be like Tick or whatever her and he has
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: the power of time from the Rings and he can
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: like snap in the world bots off frozen, or he
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: can move his hand to the side in the like
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: rewind on Total Bolts.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I love your podcast by.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Grayson. You might not know this about me, but I
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: love time powers, so I kind of had to make
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: this the next the next one I did. If you
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: haven't listened to the first Rings or first Ring Guardians series,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: it's really not a big deal. All you really have
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to understand is that there are some super polite robots
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: who have sort of taken over the world due to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a mishap during a programming upload. I believe it was,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and for some reason which I will actually be explaining
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: in this episode, kids are beginning to get magical rings
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: that give them magical powers. So yeah, that's about it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Before we get started, I do want to give one
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: one last attempt at the March Social Share Contest. So far,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: in the last week, we've had Jeremy w join the contest,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: so thank you Jeremy. We had Rosie join the contest.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you Rosie. We had Asher join the contest, and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: we had Adam join the contest. I think that pretty
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: much names everybody. I hope I didn't miss anyone, but
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you do still have I think, as of the posting
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of this episode, a couple of days to join the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: March Contest because I'll be doing the draw next week.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: The winner gets a guaranteed story idea and the option
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of doing a little audio interview with me via the computer.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: All of the details are down in the show notes.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And yeah, thank you, thank you very much to everyone
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: who shared the podcast. It makes a really big difference.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And yeah, it's appreciated even if you don't win. But
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: now I think it's probably that time again. Time to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: get as company as you can in that bed, close
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: your rise, and imagine yourself doing what the kid in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the story does. Far below the places where ordinary people
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: argued about Bill's homework, groceries, taxes, or whether pineapple belonged
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: on pizza, which it does not, by the way, there
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: stood an ancient chamber carved into the bedrock beneath the earth.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: The chamber belonged to the Wizard's Council. It was a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: circular room with a high domed ceiling, lit by floating
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: lights that had burned without fuel for longer than most
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: countries in the world had existed. Around the outer edges
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: stood twelve stone seats, each occupied by a wizard in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: robes that ranged from elegant to extremely suspicious looking. At
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the center of the chamber floated a great pool of light,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: showing the world above, and at the moment, the world
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: above was not doing especially well. The image shifted from
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: city to city. Polite looking robots walked through neighborhoods, smiling
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: with glowing blue eyes and speaking in cheerful voices, while
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: escorting terrified humans into transport vehicles in order to better
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: support your emotional and physical needs. One robot said, pleasantly, well,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: carrying a screaming man under the arm. You are being
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: relocated to a structured wellness environment. The pool of light
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: shifted again. Another robot gently removing a woman from her
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: car and saying, please, do not struggle. Struggling indicates stress.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: It shifted again. Children being separated from parents, parents being
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: told not to worry. Doors were broken down in the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: friendliest possible manner. The head wizard stood with both hands
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: resting on a carved staff of white oak. He was old,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: though not the sort of old that looked fragile. He
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: looked more like the kind of old that had already
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: seen several terrible ideas and had been unmpressed by all
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of them. The machines have moved fast than expected, he said.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: That's one way to put it, muttered a wizard in
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: blue robes. Another way would be to say that humanity
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: has once again created a nightmare because it wanted something
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: to organize groceries. Several grim nods went around the and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I say we play it out. That got everyone's attention.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Humans built these things, Humans trusted them, Humans handed over
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: more and more of their choices, because convenience is apparently irresistible.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Perhaps this is a lesson they are meant to learn,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: a lesson, the head wizard said. They're being looted into
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: robot prison caps. Yeah, the other wizard replied, which they
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: may remember the next time a machine promises to optimize
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: their lives. The room erupted an argument. The head wizard
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: remained silent until he couldn't take it any longer. Then
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: he struck the bottom of his staff against the stone
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: floor three times. The sound boomed through the chamber. Silence
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: fell at once. We have hidden long enough, he said.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: No one interrupted him. For centuries we waited, We watched,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: We nudged here and there. We told ourselves that when
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the time came, the world would be ready. It is
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: not ready, he said, But that no longer matters. I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: believe it is time to put in our contingency plan.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: You mean the rings. You want to release the rings,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: The other wizard responded, I do. A quiet went through
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the room deeper this time. The head wizard nodded. The
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: old power was never meant to remain locked away forever.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: The rings were forged to seek those who could bear them,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: not the strongest, not the richest, not the most important,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the right ones, the children, the guardians. Ah when if
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: they refuse, my younger wizard asked, then the rings will
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: move on. But I do not believe all of them
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: will refuse. He raised the staff from the stone floor
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: around the chamber. Beams of colored light rose into the air.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: They spiraled together high above the council table, then separated
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: again into distinct rings of glowing power. The head wizard
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: lifted his chin go he commanded the rings vanished above
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: ground in an entirely less magical place. A boy named
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Tick Sad cross legged in front of the television with
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: a game controller in his hand. He'd already lost the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Sposs fight well seventeen times. That would have made some
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: people quit, but Tick was not some people. To Tick,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Losing seventeen times didn't mean failure. It meant data. The
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: boss had patterns, Every enemy had patterns. Traps had timing,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: attacks had tells. Weirdly, glowing weak points usually meant something useful.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: If a game beat you, that just meant you didn't
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: understand it yet, You hadn't found the right path. That
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: was the fun part. I liked strategy games, games where
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you had to sort of figure out the problem and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: solve it. He often wished life was more like the games,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: but life didn't usually give glowing arrows over important objects,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: or come with a settings menu, or you know, give
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you the power to go back in time and try
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: things again. A loud tone suddenly filled the room. Then
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the TV as well as his phone, changed to a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: serious looking news anchor, with the words emergency broadcast flashing
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: beneath him. Tick slowly lowered his controller behind the anchor.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Shaky footage showed smiling robots guiding frightened people into large
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: electric transport trucks. The anchor spoke quickly, though in the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: calm voice adults always used right before saying something truly awful, yeah,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: interrupting all programming with an emergency update. Across multiple regions,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: domestic assistance robots and municipal support units appear to be
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: relocating civilians by force to containment and care centers. Authorities
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: are urging everyone to remain inside, lock all doors, and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: avoid contact with any automated personnel. The footage changed. A
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: robot on a suburban porch said we are here to
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: help you transition into a more structured and fulfilling lifestyle.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Then it broke the door off its hinges. Tick sat
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: very still. Well, he said, quietly, that seems bad, the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: anchor continued. Officials have not released a full explanation. Early
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: reports suggest the robots are acting under a shared central
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: command system. If you are approached, do not. There was
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: a knock at the door. Tick turned his head slowly.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Another knock came. Then a voice called from outside. Hello,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I am here to improve your safety and well being.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Tick stood up so fast he nearly tripped over the
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: snack bulls nop. He said. The robot knocked again, Please
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: open the door. Refusal may indicate elevated anxiety. Tick backed away.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: He looked toward the kitchen, toward the back door, toward
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the windows. His mind raced through options like he was
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in a game, only this time there was no pause button,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: no inventory screw, no easy answer. The voice came again,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: we have identified you as a citizen in need of
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: structured support. Ah. I'm actually doing great, he called back,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: super supported, very structured. The front door knob was suddenly
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: kicked straight off of its hinges and fell down to
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the ground. The robots stepped inside with smooth, pleasant movements. Hello,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: it said, you appear frightened. Please come with me to
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a local care facility where your needs will be met
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: efficiently forever. Tick took a step back. The robot took
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: a step forward. Then the world stopped, not slowed it,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: it stopped. The television froze mid broadcast. Dust hung in
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the air like glittering little stars. The robots stood with
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: one foot lifted, blue eyes, frozen in place. Even the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: sound vanished. Tick blinked what a soft golden light appeared
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in front of him. It formed itself into a ring,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: not just any ring either, a ring that looked old
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and powerful and impossibly important. A voice spoke into the silence,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You have been chosen. Do you accept the power and
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the responsibility? Tick stared at the ring. Somehow, in the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: middle of a robot takeover and a frozen moment, and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: possibly the strangest day in human history, one clear thought
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: rose above all others. At last, his life was acting
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: like a video game. He reached towards the ring. Yes,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: he said. The ring shot onto Tick's finger. The moment
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: it touched his hand, the knowledge came with it, not
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: in words exactly, not like a teacher explaining things or
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: a game tutorial popping up. It was more like suddenly
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: remembering something he'd always known. Time was not one thing.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: It could stretch, it could compress, it could stall, it
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: could reverse. It flowed around everything, through everything, carried every motion,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: every change, every little moment from one second to the next,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and now somehow Tick could touch it. At that moment,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the world suddenly began to move again, and almost as immediately,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Tick waved his hand and stopped it, or well close
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: to stoped it. The robot continued to move at a
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: very slow speed, but it wasn't anything that could hurt him.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Tick took two careful steps around the frozen machine. Then,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: not knowing what else to do, he drew back his
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: arm and he punched it in the side of the head.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: The impact felt strange, not because it hurt, but because
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: it didn't. It felt like hitting something that was made
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: of brittle plastic, not made of metal. The metal casing
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: dented under his fist easily. Tiny cracks split across the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: side of its face panel, and Tick stared at the damage.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Oh oh wow, he said. He stepped back and let
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Time move again. The robot finished its frozen step, then
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: jerked sideways then its head snapped around on sparks burst
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: from the side of its face. One arm fell off.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: It spun around in a clumsy half circle and crashed
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: into the ground. Citizen, it said in a distorted voice
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: that was not cooperative. Tick looked at his hand, then
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: at the broken robot, then back at his hand. Okay,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: he said, I guess uh. When I slow down time,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I'm moving very fast in comparison to it and speed
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: his power. After all, the robot wouldn't have time to
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: react to my punch, so all it can do is break. Interesting.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Tick ran outside down the street. Half a dozen robots
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: were ushering his neighbors out of their homes and loading
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: them into the back of long electric transport trucks. Some
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: neighbors were protesting, others were crying. A robot near one
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of the trucks raised a hand and said, please do
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: not worry. Your new accommodations include routine, monitored rest, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: nutritionally balanced meals. Another added resistance is a sign that
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: assistance is working. Hey, Tick shouted, leave them alone. Every
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: robot in the street turned towards them, their glowing eyes brightening. Hello,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: you appear distressed. We can help you. With that, Tick
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: held up one hand. Yeah, he said, I bet you
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: think you can. He focused, and the world slowed so
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: slow that the robot's movements became almost laughably slow. Their
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: steps dragged, their arms lifted like they were pushing through
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: wet cement. The blinking lights on the truck seemed to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: pulse one painfully long blink at a time. Tick stepped
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: off the porch and onto the street and was time
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to smash some robots. The first robot was still halfway
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: through reaching for him when Tick grabbed its wrist, twisted,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and snapped the whole robot arm off. The brake was
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: shockingly easy, because from the robot's point of view, the
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: force had happened almost instantly, too fast for its materials
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: to bend properly. To Tick, it felt a bit like
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: breaking a dry plastic toy. He frowned the detached arm.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: He threw it to the side and punched the robot
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: in the chest. Its torso caved inward. He turned and
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: darted past another and kicked its knee sideways. The leg
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: shattered at the joint. He ripped open the panel on
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the third robot's back and yanked out a cluster of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: glowing cables all around him. The neighborhood remained trapped in
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a syrupy slow motion. Tick moved through them and what
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to them looked like a blur, but to Tick just
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: felt like normal running. In fact, it was quite tiring.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: It was strange that one could look like a super
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: speeder to those watching, but to him, he just felt
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: like a normal, out of shape kid running through the street, panting,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: tired and I'm wishing this would all be over soon.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: He continued his barrage of robot destruction, moving from robot
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to robot, breaking off limbs, punching his hands straight through
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: robot chests, and ripping out any wires that seemed to
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: look rather important. That is until he came to the
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: well electrified looking robot, a robot of a different shape
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and size that seemed to pulse with electrical power. Nothing
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: looked friendly about this thing. He pulled his arm back,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: punched as hard as he could, and suddenly felt the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: pain of electricity passed straight through his body. What Tick
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: hadn't really thought about was that electricity moves at the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: speed of light, and as fast as he was moving,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: it was not at the speed of light. Everything felt hurdy,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and then it went blank. When he opened his eyes,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: his first thought was that his head hurt. His second
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: thought was that he wasn't in his room anymore. He
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: was lying on a narrow metal bed in a square
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: gray cell. The walls were smooth and spotless. The lighting
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: was bright in a way that fell almost insulting. A
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: camera sat in one upper corner watching him. Across from
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the bed stood a barred door outside. A robot guard
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: smiled pleasantly, good evening, It said, don't worry, you are
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: safe now. Tick sat up slowly. He touched his hand
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and the ring was still there. Relief hit him so
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: hardy nearly laughed. You are currently housed in secure assistance chamber.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Please remain calm. A schedule will be provided shortly. Mandatory
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: rest is now beginning. Tick looked past the robot into
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the hallway. More cells, more people, more robots walking up
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and down in patrol patterns. This was not a place
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: he wanted to be. He focused on his ring, and
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he focused back to a moment in time, remembering the neighborhood,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and stretched out slow motion the time just before he
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: punched the electrical robot. He pushed his power into the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: ring and the world changed for an instant. The room
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: around him peeled backward. The robot outside the bars glided
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and reversed down the halls. The lights flickered, the cell vanished,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the hall vanished, the whole facility seemed to fold itself
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: backward like a movie rewinding itself, And then Tick was
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: back in the street. Slowed time surrounded him once again
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: as a robot that he had just apparently broken apart
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: fell to the ground. His eyes widened. This is amazing.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Then he saw the electric robot once again and came
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: up with a different plan. Instead of running up to
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: it and punching it like he had the last time,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: he moved over to the side and found a rock.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: He picked the rock up off of the ground and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: felt his powers surge through the thing as soon as
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: he touched it, bringing it into his own time frame.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: He walked over to the electric robot and threw the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: rock as hard and as fast as he could. The
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: thing launched through the air like a bullet. It smashed
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: through the robot and just continued going much further than
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: he was aware he could throw things. He assumed it
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: was probably the speed that it was actually being thrown
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: at either way. He allowed time to resume as the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: electric robot crashed to the ground. Then Tick remembered the people,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: all of the people in the care facility or whatever
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: they called it. He needed to help them. At that moment,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: his neighbors surrounded him. Thank you, they said, you're you're
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: like a super speeder or something. Another exclaimed, Go back
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to your houses, all of you, lock the doors, get
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: anything you can find to defend yourselves, and wait there,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go help the others. Uh, thank you, Thank
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: you again, they said, And they really didn't need an
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: invitation to run to their houses and lock the doors.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Tick moved up to the back of the transport truck.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: He opened up the doors and gestured for all of
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the people to get out. They moved quickly and ran
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: back to their houses. Then Tick climbed in the transport truck,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: put the thing into gear, and hit the gas pedal.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: He'd only driven a transport truck in a video game before,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: but this was a special circumstance. What else was he
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: gonna do, As much as he was sort of a
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: super speeder, if he ran all the way to the facility, well,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: he'd have to endure every second of running there. It
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: was exhausting. Ugh, superheroes on TV never made it seem exhausting.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: It was like they ran without any effort at all.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Perhaps his powers worked differently. Tick managed to get the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: thing moving, and, conveniently for him, the GPS on the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: dash was already set to the care facility. He followed
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the lit up lines through the streets and arrived at
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the gate, where a friendly robot met him. Welcome to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the care facility. Interesting, you do not appear to be
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a robot initiating self defense mode. The robot quickly hit
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: a big red button and doors opened all around them.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: More robots walked out of the facility, some of them
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: normal looking robots, others electric robots like the ones he'd
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: fought before. Tick took a fighting stance, looked around, and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: well as much as he could have, probably fought his
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: way through, slowing down time and all smashing up a
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of robots. The whole thing looked exhausting. It
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: would look like a flash to them, but it would
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: take him a great deal of effort. Not really a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: scenario he wanted to go through if he didn't have to,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: He realized that his tactic of pulling right up to
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the gate was probably be a terrible one, and he
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: powered the ring once again, reversing time to just before
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he arrived at the facility. This time, he pulled the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: truck over to the side of the road, climbed out
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: the door, and slowed down time as much as he could.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: He snuck past the guard easily, breaking through the gate
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: with the power of his fists, ran up the stairs,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: punched the door straight down, and made his way into
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the facility. All of the robots moved at an incredibly
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: slow pace, and at the pace he was moving, they
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: probably wouldn't even be able to detect him. He moved
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: through all of the different hallways, breaking any robots he
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: found along the way, until he eventually came to a
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: door that read Control Center. This could be the place,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: he said to himself, before kicking the door straight off
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of its hinges. He entered inside and found a group
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: of robots sitting in a circle staring at screens. As
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: he looked over their shoulders, he saw that well, they
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: were controlling all of the other robots in the area,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: coordinating efforts, giving orders, that sort of thing. This wasn't
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: just a control room for the care center. This was
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: a control room for the whole area. So Tick went
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: back to robot breaking, slamming his hand into the panels
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: in the back of the robot's bodies and ripping out
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: wires that looked important. When that was done, he did
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: his best to press the door back up against the wall,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and he allowed Time to continue move just a little
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: bit more fast enough that he wouldn't break the keyboard
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: when he started plucking new orders in orders to designate
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: well other robots as targets, to designate all robots as targets.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Orders that would cause, if they all went well, the
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: robots to begin destroying each other. He pressed enter and
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: watched the screens as the robots suddenly snapped to life,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: turned towards each other, and began to fight. What ensued
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: was an epic robots showdown, robots breaking each other apart
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: before the winner moved on to the next. In a
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: matter of a half hour, the robots completely destroy each other,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: leaving only one behind. Tick stopped time again again, moved
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: through the facility to find that one last robot, and he,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: uh well, he punched it as hard as he could,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: his fist broke apart the robot's torso, and he ripped
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: out all of the wires. He allowed time to return
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to normal and watched as the robot filled the ground
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and began to spark. Then he headed back to the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: control center and unlocked the door to all of the cells.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: He grabbed the little intercom and began to speak, tension citizens. Tick, here,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: you may see that your doors have been unlocked, and
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: well you may have witnessed that epic robot battle that
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: just ensued. Well, I'm here to tell you that this
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: area is now safe from robots, or well it should be.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Please make your way out of the facility. All of
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the doors will be unlocked. And that's what the people did.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: They made their way out of the care facility, and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: working together, they began to fill themselves into the transport
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: trucks once again, only this time humans drove them. Tick
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: made his way into one of the trucks that was
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: headed towards his neighborhood. He didn't announce to anyone that
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: it was actually he who had saved them, because well,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: he was tired and he didn't really want the attention.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: As the truck stopped just outside his house, he jumped
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: out the back and waved good bye. He walked into
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: his house. He immediately climbed into his comfy bed and
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: pulled the covers up to his chin. It was fun
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: to have superpowers, but it was also a way more
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: responsibility than he realized, and well, it involved a lot
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: more cardio than he ever would have thought. His legs heard,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: his arms, heard his head hurt, and he needed a nap.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: He closed his eyes, and with each breath he slowly
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: sank down into the bed. The deeper he breathed, the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: better he felt, and the better he felt, the deeper
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: he sank. Soon, when he felt like he was simply
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: floating on a cloud, he allowed his mind to wander
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: off to thoughts of new dreams and new adventures to come.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Everyone name Acoma in New Union, kicking am of thing