The Guardians - Space and Time

Copyright ©2022 by CaptainSupreme

All Rights Reserved

DISCLAIMER
This is a work of fiction. Names, people, places, incidents etc. are product of the author's imagination, and if real, are used fictiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental and should be treated as such.

Modified: Novel title had been changed.

PROLOGUE

It all started at the gate of the school. Max carefully took out a
brand-new iPhone 7 from the shopping bag. He bought it online a few days ago and it was delivered to him yesterday. He He held it in his hands,
smiling goofily.
"Happy Birthday, Linlin!" Max said.
It had always been Linda's dream to own an
iPhone, but she was now gazing
at it in disdain.
"I'm not going to accept this
shitty phone, I'm breaking up
with you!" Linda said.
Boom!!
Max felt like thunder had struck
him. His mind went blank. He could
not believe that the girl standing
in front of him was his girlfriend
Since 11th grade. Max came from an average home, his parent are not rich nor poor. At least they are what you call the middle class in the society. In order to get the iphone for his girlfriend on her birthday, he had started saving 3months prior. He never
expected to be met by this kind
of response.
"Why?!" Max asked, furious.
"Because you are poor!" Linda
said. She held up the phone in her hand and said sarcastically, "This is the latest IPhone, 12 Pro max. I could
buy a hundred of you with this.
And I can easily get this, and many more goodies - as much as
I'd like - because my new
boyfriend will pay for it! Is that
reason good enough?"
"I never would have taken you
for this kind of girl!" Max said
angrily.
"Don't be silly! This is the reality
of life," she continued, her tone
condescending, "Blame your self. You were
born of poor donkey parents, you
have always been destined to
have a crappy future. I will never
be with someone like you. I knew you had to save for good 3months before you can get this trash. What about next time? And the one after?"
"Woman, you can lay it on me, but you have no right to talk about my parents like that", Max glared
so intently at her that he could
have fired lasers out of his eyes.
"You… What's with that look? Are
you going to beat me up in
public?" Linda was frightened. This
was her first time seeing Max's
knife-like stare.

"No, no. I'm not going to beat you
up. There's no need for me to do that. But let me tell you something, i promise you that one day you will come down to your knees and beg me for forgiveness by the time you regret your decision" Max smiled sadly.

"Are you in a trance? From this
moment onwards, till the day I
die, you are a foreign existence
that will have nothing to do with
me," Linda huffed and started to
walk towards a Benz GLE that was
parked quite a distance from
where they were. The car door opened, and a guy
pulled her into the car, and
grabbed her thigh.

"David?!"

Max's eyes turned into blazing
charcoals. He never expected
Linda's new boyfriend to be Dave.
That guy is Max's classmate, a yahoo boy. Rumours had it that he went awol for a few months during the break. And when he came back from break, he brought a lexus 350 2018 on the first day. And now he had just robbed him of his girlfriend.
Things had escalated to a whole
new level.

"F*ck this! I will have my
revenge!", Max said angrily,
clenching a fist.

"You are just a broke nigga, you dont have the right to be competing with me. Hmph!! Iphone 7??", David said provocatively.

"David! You f*cking pig!" Max was
so angry that he almost flung the
new phone at him.

Ding!
Right at that moment, the brand-
new iPhone screen lit up. "Do
iPhones normally turn themselves
on? Could it be a replica?" Max
frowned.

That was when it happened, Max was focused on the phone that he didn't see the truck speeding towards where he and some stood, the driver was probably drunk or fallen asleep on the wheel. People were shouting at him, but it was too late the moment he raised his head up, the truck was already a few meters away from him. He could make out the horror in the driver's face. The impact sent him flying into the air, he landed hard on the asphalt road, the phone, surprisingly still in his hand.

Hiss....
It hurts...
Am I dying?
The strong smell and taste of
blood could be felt in the nose
and mouth. Max could
not move even his fingers, and it
was total darkness. He tried to
move his neck, but there was no
reaction. He finally mustered all
his strength to open his eyes, but
he could only open a slit. He could
make out a blurry vision of an
overloaded truck. Beside
him, there was an old man in his
70s or lying in a pool of
blood motionless. There was a
crowd of onlookers. David and Linda had ran over. From their
mouth movements, they seem to
be shouting something. However, he could not here them.
Regrets.
Max had never
regretted so much in his life.
If he noticed the out-
of-control truck earlier he would have escape.
But now.... It was too late.
Max could feel his
eyelids getting heavier and
heavier. He could no longer bear
to see the twisted bodies of the old man. He
shut his eyes and waited for his
time to be up.


Kaboom!!!

There was a loud thunderclap. It
was so loud that it could shatter
someone’s soul.
The next moment, Max
felt his vision blurred, and he blacked out

Max could feel his
strength, and senses returning back to him. He was in a
dazed and looked around him. He
noticed that he was all fine and
standing in front of the school gate. Around him was the
traffic. Vehicles were zooming past him. People were walking
as if nothing had happened.

“You are just a broke nigga, you don't have the right to be competing with me... Hmph!! Iphone 7??"

Max look forward
towards the voice in shock. A
grinning David was standing with Linda not far away. An old man walked passed him with a walking stick. The old man who passed away.

“Ah.... Yeah....” Max was looking around him
and answered unconsciously. He
was still trying to figure out what
had happened.
What happened? I am not dead? The old
man was also not dead?
Max slowly lifted his
hand up and opened his palm. He
clenches his fist and then opened
it up again. There was no blood or
wounds.
Was he dreaming? There was no
accident? Everything was only a
hallucination?
Ding!
The phone in his hand lit up.
This was familiar.
This was a very familiar scene.
Suddenly, there was the roar of
an engine, and
instantly turned towards the
engine sound. A truck was moving
on the right turning lane from
another road. The truck was
overloaded with gravels and was
not traveling very fast, at about
40 Km/h or 50 Km/h.
Max rubbed his eyes. He
was shocked. Wasn’t this the
scene before the accident?
What was happening? Time had
rewinded? That was not a
hallucination?
Max had no time to
think and immediately shouted,
“Stop, look out for that truck!”
Everyone paused for a while and
started looking around them.
“What truck?”
“Where’s the truck?”
Linda saw the truck and
turn to Max “Why are
you shouting? The man is not crossing"

The old man also felt there was
nothing to be worried about. That
truck was turning and would not
affect him anyway.
Max knew that this
truck will not slow down and will
be knocking them down. He
immediately ran over while
shouting, "Sir, move! Move
away from there!”
The man paused for a while
and smile, “Young man, what’s
wrong with you? That truck is ……”
Before he could finish, the truck
had crossed the road towards them, and
there was no indication of the
truck slowing down.

“Ahhhhhh!”
“Run…...”
“It’s going to knock someone
down!”
People were shouting.
The man was stunned. When
he finally came back to his
senses, he yelled at Max “Hurry up. Run!”
“Leave me and run by yourself.”
Max reached the man in time, he could save them both. He grabbed the man and made to dash away. Just then the man tripped on the walking stick and the both fell.
"F*ck!!, Max cursed.
There was not enough time. The
sounds of the roaring engine
were getting nearer.

4 meters……

3 meters……

The old man
had given up hope.
Everyone there thought
the both of them would be killed.

“Shit!”
“They are going to die!”
Many of the more timid
bystanders closed their eyes.
Zoomed…… The truck brushed just
Max’s leg with only
centimeters to spare.
At the last seconds, he had kicked the man with all is strength to the side while borrowing the force to slide the other way.
The old man was sent sliding on
the road forward for 5 meter.

Max fell the worst. He
was gasping for air while lying on
his side in the middle of the road.
He could feel the pain in his waist
and legs.
Time seems to be frozen for a
while and then there were cheers.
“Two of them are still alive!”
“Young man, you are so brave!”
It was not sure who started
clapping and soon everyone was
clapping and cheering for Max.

From where the stood, Linda and David where shocked at what happened. How was he able to know that the truck will lost control. Linda consoled herself. She had nothing to do with him again.

Nice one

CHAPTER 1


Max was still in shocked over his death experience that afternoon. If time had not miraculously rewind, he would not
be alive by now or probably be hospitalised for months if he's lucky. This was the first
time he was grateful for being alive. He got home disoriented, things were going through his
mind. When he checked the time again it was 5 in the evening. He got up from the sofa and headed to the bathroom. He washed his face and yawned.

His mind drifted back to the accident. Did time really rewind or he looked into the future? Did he by luck, got some superpowers like those in the sci-fi movies?

The moment before the accident, the new phone had turned on itself. He remembered not even removing the transparent film on the phone. After getting hit by the truck, the phone was still in his hand. Then the thunderclap, was it lightening or both?

Sigh…… how good will it be if I really have supernatural powers?
But I had tried so many times in the afternoon and did not succeed even once.
Shall I try again? Or is there some codewords, activating mechanism?

His mind drifted to the phone, he have not checked it since he came back. He remember the phone switching itself on moment before the accidents.
He ran to the small sitting room he shared with his 2 other course mate. He picked up the phone and inspected it. Nothing strange. Hmmm.... Just then he noticed a thunderbolt shaped logo just beneath the inscription on the phone.
That's strange.....

He pressed the power button, the phone screen lit up, dimmed and went off.

Huh?? It's really a replica??

He the phone to the pc in the room, same thing, just the screen backlight turning on, dimming and turning off.

"f*ck", Max cursed, "it's really a replica, a broken one"

In frustration he slammed the phone on the tiles. The iphone bodycase and screen came off to reveal a watch without the straps.

Is this all a prank? An expensive prank? He picked up the watch and observed it closely. Stainless steel back. With the same thunderbolt logo on the watch face. What surprised him was that the watch has two different 12hrs dials, the lower dial had a single hand in shape of thunderbolt.

Is this relating to the rewinding of time before?

He turned the watch over and saw two inscription "stop" and "back" on the left and right edge on the back of the watch. He looked the sides, sure enough, there are two buttons corresponding to the two inscriptions.

He couldn't control his excitment. Did he just got his hand on a futuristic super high tech gadgets that have the ability to manipulate time?

He pressed the "STOP" button.

Max did not notice
anything unusual.
Was his guess wrong?
He looked outside through the window and immediately—he could sense that
something was off.
The surroundings—it was too quiet.
Evenings like this were especially full with activities: the shouts of children playing, the flies droning tiresomely at people’s ears, the traffics just opposite,
the barking of dogs.

All of it was gone. The whole world suddenly lost its sounds, and became
unprecedentedly, and eerily silent.

He checked the watch the upper dial seconds hand had stop moving, stopping at 5:42:35, he checked the pc time, same thing. He opend a webpage and search the current time, same again, the seconds digits not changing.

He still couldnt believe it. He oppened the door and stepped out. Everywhere was in a standstill like someone pressed the pause button on a tv remote. The motorists speeding, the pedestrian going home, everything were in a stand still. A man was huffing away with a beer in his hands. The sparks from the cigarette butt were clear as stars but they were not spreading, and the smoke the person exhaled from the corner of his mouth was suspended in the air. Max could not help but take out his phone and took a
picture of this magical scene.
When he was clicking on the camera shutter, he made another interesting discovery—in this
world where the time had stopped moving, it was not only the people who were on pause, the things all around also remained in the state it was.
Just like the
electric fan in standstill, and now,
this cigarette that never burns out.
But there were also exceptions. To test his theory, Max plucked the cigarette out from between the person’s fingers.
When the tab was tucked in
between his fingers, it began to
continue burning.
So that was how it was. In this space of time, where he
was the only one who could move
about, anything that he touches
would continue to function as usual, just like this cigarette, and his cell phone and computer The only thing was that the time displayed on the screens remained unchanged.

7:40pm

Max Bestfriends and coursemates, Matt and Leo were back from lectures and were having dinner together in the sitting room.
Max had wanted to tell them about the secrets but kicked against it, he trusted his friends, but humans are humans.

"Max, how'd go with your date with babe? You did not even gist us.", Leo said.

"Yeah, even me forgot" Matt added. He was scrolling on his facebook feeds when a post caught his eyes.

"Huhn? You even organised a birthday party for her? Its on facebook. How come we were not aware?"

Leo also came over to
his side. He too was shocked.

"Third brother, this is unfair..... Wait!! It's live.... And it's not third brother, What's going on?"

"Let me see", Max said as he took the phone.


It was post from their
university's page on facebook. The title was, "Davids's luxurious birthday party for his girlfriend." It was
live. There were a lot of pictures uploaded in the post. Pictures like intimate moments between David and Linda, blowing candles, cutting the cake and others, were all over the page.
They seemed really happy in the picture.

Max silently returned the phone and went to sit down.


"Third brother, please don't be upset...." Leo was saying.

"Let's take from a different perspective. This b*tch is a waste of your time."

"Max, hang on! Please
don't hurt yourself or commit suicide."

Max smiled bitterly, he had good and caring friends. "Why will i commit suicide over a girl? Let her go if she want"

"Yeah, she ain't worthy of our third brother", Matt agreed.

"I need to use the toilet, i'd back soon".....

As Max was doing his business in the toilet, he was thinking on how to get revenge back now that he had this new ability. He looked down into the toilet bowl, an idea popped in his head.
Smiling evily, he went to his room to take some things, quickly ready his plan, packaged it in the phone cartoon and come outside to the parlour.

"Guys, let's go to the party", Max smiled at them.

"Which party? Are you kidding"

"I'm not.... Let's go and wish them a happy relationship and offer them this gift", Max said pointing to the phone cartoon.

"Sure", Matt and Leo both replied and went to get dressed.


It all happened at the Trident Hotel club, one of the best and most expensive in the state. It was Linda's birthday. David had organized a super
luxurious celebration for her. He had invited some friends and school mates to join the celebration. The air was full of excitement.

"Give her a kiss! Give her a kiss!"

Having consumed some alcohol, the crowd had started to get really high. They were egging David and Linda on. Right at that
moment, the door of the club opened. In came Max and his friends.

"Why the hell are you here? You're not welcome here!" Linda
snapped coldly.

"Max, have you not given up? I'm the one who Linda loves.
Please stop bringing shame to yourself by trying to make a scene here!" David drawled lazily.


Max shook his head and said calmly, "Please don't misunderstand my intentions. It has come to my realization that
Linda and I are not meant to be together. We are of different
worlds. There will be no happiness if I force her to be with
me. I'm here to wish you and Linda a happy relationship. Also, to witness your happy moment."


"I'm glad that you know your place. If you have come here to make a mess, I will make your life difficult!" David huffed, a slap-worthy smirk plastered on his face.

"Oh, where were we? Let's continue!"

"A kiss! A kiss!"

"Dave! Give her a kiss!"

"Hold the kiss for three minutes long!"

People around them were getting more and more excited. They
took out their phones already prepared to record this moment.

David walked towards Linda with a "wannabe-cool-guy" face. He
used his left hand to hold Linda's waist and his right hand to lift
her chin up. Then, he proceeded to deliver a passionate French
kiss. At the same time, Max held the watch in his hands and pressed the "Stop" button.

Everything froze in place. The music stopped, everywhere was dead silent. Max could only hear the beating of his heart. He opened the phone cartoon and brought out a nylon-packaged feaces. He carefully made his way to where Dave and Linda stood. He was tempted to give David a hot slap. He opened David's mouth and pour the content in. Holding his own nose from the smell, he closed the mouth, dropped the nylon where their drinks were and made way back to his original position. He pressed the stop button and everything resumed.

"Dave, what's in your
mouth?" Linda asked and her eyes almost popping out of their
sockets.

"Erm...."

David felt his own mouth filling up with something horrifying. His cheeks puffed up.

Blargh!

David puked out a stream of diluted, stinky, yellowish sh*t, smack on Linda's face.
All his classmates were stunned.

They were frozen on the spot.

"What the f*ck! David! Did you just sh*t from your mouth?!"

Max cleared his throat and took out his phone to take pictures of this hardcore, intense moment.

"Sh*t? He barfed shit!

Blargh!

I can't take it anymore. I'm gonna throw up!"


"What the f*ck! How is it possible for him to vomit sh*t? It's too
d*mn disgusting!"


"Let me out! I'm gonna die!"

David looked like a
total idiot. He smacked his lips to
make sure that it was sh*t. He opened up his eyes wide and
looked at his startled girlfriend. Both of them keeled over and
started to vomit at the same time.

"Hope you guys are recording it?" Max said to his friends.

"yeah!! Wtf just happened!!!"

Max grinned evily. This is just the beginning. He pressed the stop button again.

Again, time stopped and everything paused. He brought out a disposable gloves and wore it. He walked over to David, held his face with one hand and used the other hands to deliver a resounding slap to his cheek.
Now, for the main setup, he took Linda's hand and placed it on David's face.

He grinned. It was perfect. He went back to his position and pressed the stop button. Everything resumed. In the chaos, there was a loud sound of a slap.
Silence.
Everyone paused and looked at the two lovers direction. David was holding his face glaring angrily at Linda, while she was looking at her hand in shock.
Weren't they vomitting just now. How come her hand was on his face? Did she just slapped him? How? When? From David's expressions she did.

"i'm sorry... I...", she muttered, her face was still covered in shit.

"You f*cking bitch!", David roared as he gave her two electric slap in succession. Linda staggered and fell, tears flowing from her eyes, mixing with the shit.

"Dave?", she said amidst tears.

"Shut up!!". David couldn't take it anymore. It was just a birthday party, he was even about to kiss her publicly. Then everything went south, his mouth suddenly became filled with shit, he could even taste it in his mouth. The humilation was too much. Now the b*tch still have to slap him in front of everyone. He directed all his frustration and depression at her, raining blows and kicks at her while she just curled up crying.

Some guys had wanted to stop and hold him back. But seeing the shits and puke, the stopped in their track.

"so violent"

"who beats a lady this way"

"You are going to return everything i bought for you and the money i've spent for you, you b*tch" David spat, breathing heavily, while linda continue to cry in pain.


Matt and Leo glanced at Max, expecting him to do something.

He only looked at Linda bitterly and said to his friends, "lets go"....