[Marvel] Mutant Chronomancer with a Social Link System

Coach Logan blew his whistle, compelling Kurt to finally reveal his skillset to me. His body turned to black smoke before reappearing at the center of the court by the end of the same second. Having beaten the entire other team to the punch, he tossed the dodgeballs toward us, his teammates, giving us an early advantage. 

Holding the red ball in my fingertips, I hesitated. Meanwhile, the rest of my comrades showed off their abilities, leaving me awestruck. Roberto was unrecognizable, transforming himself into a creature with skin blacker than a black hole; yet, somehow, his skin emanated warm light, its rays enveloping me like the sun. Booby also transformed, turning himself into a sculpture of ice, its chillness somehow untouched by Roberto's intense heat. 

They both enveloped their dodgeballs with their respective elements before hurling them at our enemies. Ty and Tandy were their targets, but the two of them acted fast, embracing each other before fading into darkness, allowing the flaming and icy dodgeballs to pass through them. 

Roberto clicked his tongue and I could hear Bobby curse under his breath. Laura was next, holding a ball in each hand. Kurt teleported beside her before disappearing and reappearing with her in his arms. Then, like bullets, Laura threw both balls at the goth blondie, taking her out of the battle quickly due to their unpredictable curve and velocity. I figured some sort of super strength must've been her power. 

Last up was me, compelling my teammates to turn toward me, waiting for me to show off my abilities. Panicked and nervous about being put on the spot, I threw the ball across the court as if I were a mere normal human, failing to even come close to hitting anyone on the other team.

Roberto looked embarrassed on my behalf, while the others looked irritated. 

"Sorry!" I muttered as I sensed danger in the air. I glanced toward our enemies, seeing a ball shrouded in pink energy aimed straight at me. My body acted on its own, and my body was pulled backward in time, effectively teleporting me to the side, just narrowly avoiding being eliminated. 

Ms. Yellow Jacket groaned through clenched teeth before shouting, "I almost had him!" 

I realized then that the others were looking at me, each holding a ball in their hand. Without exchanging words, they'd all decided on the same target: me, the weakest link. I started to run side to side, knowing that I needed to keep moving if I wanted to use my power.

You see, wherever I go, a past version of myself follows me like a ghost. If I willed it, I could send my true form back in time, replacing that ghostly afterimage. And so, that's what I planned on doing.

Ty and Tandy enveloped their projectiles in light and darkness, throwing both at me simultaneously. Before they could hit me, I replaced my ghostly image, appearing as if I teleported.

"New kid's got the same power as Kurt!" Ty announced; he was confident but mistaken. However, his incorrect deduction would benefit me. If they'd known that the range in which could send my physical form through time was limited, they could abuse that knowledge and formulate a plan to beat me.

Neena, the pale-skinned girl, attacked me next, throwing a poorly aimed shot at me. I didn't even dodge it, watching it as it soared past me. It ended up hitting the basketball rim behind us, changing its trajectory toward me. 

Like a missile, the red projectile flew toward my face. My body acted on its own, phasing in and out of time to avoid the ball. I realized then that this must've been what Roberto meant when he said that her power was luck. 

As luck would have it, after a long, grueling war between both teams, we were the final two contestants. A chronomancer against the luckiest girl in the world. 

She'd eliminated everyone else, but for some strange reason, her luck-based abilities had no effect on me. My theory was that luck cannot transcend time as I do and I planned on testing that hypothesis.

For a while, she and I would play this game of cat and mouse where I'd throw a ball as fast as I could, but she would dodge it with ease. Inversely, she'd bounce the ball off walls, and the basketball rim, and I believe her powers made me slip on my own sweat. Lucky for me, sending my body to a previous state would save me.

The crowd was getting restless. Apparently, this was the longest anyone could last against the lucky girl. I couldn't comprehend why, but that fact made me want to win this bout tenfold. I saw myself gaining popularity amongst my peers and most embarrassingly, I fantasized about the goth chick approaching me, so impressed that she took a romantic interest in me. 

I wiped those thoughts from my mind, focusing on the task at hand. You see, Neena had her own patterns, as anyone would. If you've played a fighting game before, you'd know about mind games and mix-ups, conditioning your opponent to make a certain move. Unbeknownst to Neena, I'd been conditioning her for the last five minutes until I discovered a quirk.

I would purposely curve the ball left with each toss, compelling her to dodge right. If I were anyone else, this knowledge would be useless. Her luck powers would just cause some bullshit to overwrite the mixup. 

However, if my theory was correct, I could bypass that.

I started sprinting like a madman, holding two dodgeballs, one in each hand. Neena stood in place, her hands in her pants pockets. She was confident that whatever I had planned wouldn't have worked out. 

I stopped in my tracks, throwing one of the dodgeballs at her. As I predicted, she started dodging to the right. That same instant, I threw myself back in time and threw another ball, this one intercepting her path.

Neena hesitated, seeing that no matter where she'd run, a dodgeball would make contact with her. Perhaps if she did any sort of conditioning rather than relying on her luck abilities, she could lept over them or perhaps contorted her body to avoid them.

Unfortunately for her, a dodgeball struck her beautiful face, knocking her to the ground. The crowd was stunned, and silent as they watched Neena rub her nose in pain. I was so caught up in the game, that I didn't even consider that I would harm her. Unlike the others, she lacked any sort of super strength to take a hit. I believe this was the first time she'd taken a hit in her life.

I trotted over to her and crouched to her level, meeting her gaze between her fingers. Before I could ask if she was okay, she spoke.

"Nice throw. You got lucky."

How ironic. 

"Are you good? I didn't mean to throw it that hard," I told her.

"I'm fine. I'm just not used to getting hit in the face." 

My hand was already extended. Neena grabbed it and let me pull her to her feet. Seeing that she was okay, the crowd cheered and my teammates crowed me. 

As they congratulated me for a job well done, the world around me came to a standstill. Everyone's voices and footsteps were muted, but I could hear someone clapping their hands together, slowly and somewhat mockingly. 

"Well, well, well. Looks like the newest Chronomancer is quite the problem solver."

I reared my head, seeing the figure of a genderless being. They had no face, just a mouth that was too big for their head. Their skin looked like outer space, stars and all, and when they would move, I could see the universe inside of their body moving alongside them. 

"Wh-" I started to speak, but I was interrupted by the strange being.

"Who am I? Why, I am none other than Chronos. The God of Time. What do I want with you? Well, I thought now was the perfect time to tell you about the origins of your powers." Their voice sounded as multiple men and women were speaking simultaneously, reverberating around the frozen gymnasium.

Chronos was floating with their legs crossed and their arms behind their head as if lounging next to a pool. For a god, they seemed rather unserious. It made me hesitant to blindly believe their words.

"So you're the reason I'm a-"

"A monster? That's what you think of yourself, right?" Chronos chuckled. "I shouldn't laugh, but I find it funny how you humans operate. Those with godly powers such as yourself are discriminated against... You know, things weren't always like this. Humans worshipped me when I lived on Earth."

"You used to be a human?" I asked them.

"Or rather, a mutant," they answered. "One of the first mutants of the Earth... However, I soon transcended mutanthood and became a god. Every one hundred years, I am reincarnated as a mutant baby. You're one of them."

"If I'm you, then how can you and I exist simultaneously?" 

"I, or rather, we are the God of Time. Therefore, we can exist everywhere, anywhere, anytime, and anyway. I am your past, present, and future. As you are mine."

"So those voices that I'm hearing... are those all the different incarnations of us?"

"Correct," they answered.

"This is a lot to take in..."

That was an understatement. A week ago, I was just some normal seventeen-year-old kid, going to high school and wondering what I would do in the future. I planned on working an office job and starting a family one day; I just wanted a quiet life...

Now I was being told that I was a god. The God of Time.

"I understand, Shai. Those who've come before you have all experienced the same shock. There's much to learn about us -- about you. But as time can unravel, so will the truth. We will speak again."

Chronos faded away, but their voice remained. 

"I am thou, thou art I… Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall become the iron fists that slice through thy chains of injustice. With the birth of the Fool Arcana, may the time tell your tale and guide you to a new power..."

These words were accompanied by a visual, a videogame-esque screen that appeared before me. 

"Psychometry... Touch any object or person to peer into their past experiences..." I read aloud before the screen disappeared and time resumed.