The hand of Time is a big steel bolt

[hasthatright]

Who: The Master and Byron Balaz.
What: Sniffing each other out outside the Halloween party.
When: Backdated to 31/10/2010 22:55:23:098 EST.
Where: Outside Ara.
Rating: M for moving it out of the party thread in case things get dicey and off topic.
Status: Complete.

Comments

[baronbalaz]

"Depends on what you call a costume." Byron shot back, still not sure if it was exactly wise to get any closer. There was something feral about this one, something that reminded him of facing some of the monsters typical to The Frontier.

And there was still the question of why Byron hadn't sensed him clearly right off the bat if he was genetically predisposed to. "I don't think I have your name yet, though, either. Baron Byron Balaz, Lord of the Sourthern Control Zone." He used his full (and not exactly accurate) title in presence of the Timelord because it seemed proper when greeting a natural mortal enemy.

[hasthatright]

The Master snorted. "I don't call a clown suit a costume. Unless you're going as a clown. Terribly sad creatures, clowns. Especially the ones with coulrophobia. Imagine, being afraid of yourself!" The Master flashed "Baron Byron Balaz, Lord of the Southern Control Zone" an incredulous grin.

[baronbalaz]

"Clo--?" Byron cut himself off, teeth gritting, blood red lips drawn to look more like a crimson gash below his nose. "Apparently the books were right about one thing, all Timelords having an incurable arrogance. You're nearly as arrogant as the other one was stupid." But what were the chances, two Timelords trapped by the same time/space anomaly?

"So much for being the Lords of Time if you can't figure out a way out of this place. I suppose you are without your ship as well?" Regardless, that was something that should have been evident when he first arrived, but Byron needed to make absolutely sure that this one didn't have any surprises laying in wait.

[hasthatright]

The Master's grin got wider, fixing itself on his face.

"The Web of Time is broken." He shrugged. "Where would I go? But I wouldn't need a ship, if I were to go."

[baronbalaz]

There was an unmistakably predatory edge to that grin, and perhaps subconsciously, Byron moved back, towards the doors of the club as though concerned not for himself, but someone within. The movement was a simple shifting of his weight, from defensive to offense, just like he's shown Alba during their dueling lessons. When facing an opponent, you presented as little of yourself as possible just before the moment of attack.

"Mad as well? Wonderful, seems like my father has impecable taste in random dimensions." Byron said under his breath, eyes leveled with the Timelord. "Here, perhaps it is, but not where you're from, I'm sure. And last time I checked, all Timelords needed a ship." Unless, for some reason this one could survive in the raw streams of time itself, in which case, Byron had a ver, very big problem.

[hasthatright]

"Look," the Master said, suddenly irritated. "Are you the Time Lord, or am I? Hmm, let's see. I have two hearts! You have...little sharp teeth. Let's think about this for a moment. Gosh. I'm the Time Lord! And when I say the Web of Time is broken, I mean that the Web of Time is broken. I don't mean that it is somewhat falling apart over here and needs to be reattached to the part that isn't broken over there with a bit of blu-tack. Ohh! Perhaps you don't understand? I'll explain it to you in shorter sentences, shall I?"

His face went angry as his attention focused in, painfully, on the horrible chaos that Time had become. "No Time Lords. No Web of Time. There's no one putting it in order! No one watching. Got it? You can do anything you like now!"

[baronbalaz]

What might have seemed like the ravings of an (obvious) lunatic actually made a fraction of sense to The Baron. The Nobility hadn't been at war with the Timelords as long as they had without figuring out a few things about how they operated--Nobility scholars who studied them had documented what little they'd learned about them. The Web of Time, if he remembered properly, was the Timlord's conception of history--the basis of their titles as 'Lords of Time.'

In fact, it was one of the reasons the Nobility had taken issue with them to begin with. The idea that a single race had claimed dominion over Time Itself had never quite sat right. Of course, the Timelord answer to that was that Nobility rule over humanity wasn't much better, in fact, it was worse. They's always had a thing for humans, apparently, some more than others, if history was to be believed.

Then, it clicked.

'Oh, this is priceless.'"How the mighty have fallen." Byron sneered. Obviously all that pride and arrogance of the Timelords had gotten them in the end. "And

[hasthatright]

The Master began to laugh, an hysterical low continuous snicker like the laughs he'd laughed in his best old days. "It's good, isn't it?" he asked, completely pleased.

[baronbalaz]

The Baron grit his teeth--there was a sort of self preservation that kicked in when dealing with the insane that Byron had learned while traveling The Frontier--a way to distinguish harmless madness from hurtful.

"Who are you?" He asked. He'd asked the same of The Doctor and it had been amazing really that the other Timelord had even bothered to reply. But it was obvious now he was looking at two very different ends of a spectrum here.

And his ancestors had written about those rare, mad Timelords, during the period of the war, all giving the same, susinct advise: RUN.

[hasthatright]

People were always asking him that. As though it mattered, as though it would make any difference to their limited little existences if they knew what he had chosen to call himself. As though knowing his name they would suddenly understand his millennium of travail, his life histories, his background, the deepest secrets of his very being

[baronbalaz]

The mad Timelord's motion didn't go unnoticed and before the rest of his mind quite caught up, Byron was moving, leaping fluidly back--springing close to nine feet in the air from a complete standstill while a thin arch of blue energy shot forward like a whip. It was impossible to fathom that something so small had allowed him to move like that, but it had.

Seconds later there was a soft creak as a nearby car settled on it's shocks, The Baron having landed squarely in the center of the roof. He waited to see the effect of the thread of energy, for the mad Timelord to fall in half, severed clean. The wait was longer than he would have wanted.

[hasthatright]

Mmm, tangy. The Master, in truth, had been exercising a great deal of self control in the months since coming to Canada. How many people had died mysteriously in Aternaville? How many smoking skeletons had been discovered

[baronbalaz]

From his perch, ultramarine eyes widened in a combination of disbelief and horror as, rather than doing any damage at all, The Baron's first line of defense seemed to absorb right into the mad Timelord's body.

'Impossible! It's just not possible!' But a thought had come to his mind: one that merged what The Baron knew of Timelords, of Nobility, and genetic experiments.

And his already chilly blood froze in his veins.

Willing the flow of energy from him to diminish wasn't easy, but if he didn't it would start to really slow him down, drain him of strength he would need to either put up either a terrifying fight or simply retreat.

'I can't leave Alba, what if this monster was drawn here by the volume of people at the party?!' Suddenly, the idea that Alba might be in danger blinded Byron to any other outcome but battle. Glancing down the street to where the carriage waited, Byron smiled tightly and left out a high, impossibly high whistle that at once set the steeds galloping in his direction

[hasthatright]

He almost moaned as the umbilical of energy withdrew itself. Perhaps he did. He bent in on himself, his arms around his chest.

But the power had filled him, however temporarily. It made him stronger than he had been in a long time.

And the little vampire was running at him with a sword.

Growling, the Master dropped his arms to his sides and let the energy spark between the fingers of his hand. It would be a waste, but this, too, would feel good.

Time subdivided itself. Subdivided itself again. The Master stepped out of the way of the sword, dancing around his attacker.

"You're nothing," he said as he did so, goading him. "You're insignificant. The diluted vestige of a mighty species long since brought to its knees and snuffed out. You think you could stop me. You think you could stand in the way of anything I wanted to do. You're wrong."

[baronbalaz]

The slight smirk that would have been one of triumphant first blood faltered as the mad Timelord flash-stepped out of the way of the blade--

'Timelord, right, even without a ship they can manipulate time in small areas.' But if he could get him to use up the energy he had absorbed in bursts as large as that one, he still had a chance. Whatever the monster's bizarre biology, he'd reveal his weaknesses the longer they fought, much like Alice had

[hasthatright]

The Master jumped out of the way, landing behind the belligerent baron. He reached out and made a grab for the strange humming whip of energy, snapping it to him with all the drive of his ravenous hunger.

He laughed, his voice seeming to echo around the alley. It felt so good; he'd missed the power, missed being more than a shadow hanging about back streets and dumpsters. The drums liked it too. They liked it more than they would have liked the dancing. Oh, yes.

He jumped again, this time up to the roof of the karaoke bar, looking down at the creature that was trying, oh so very hard, to hurt him.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked in a wheedle. "You attacked me! I wasn't doing anything. Do you remember? Can you wrap your small mind around that? You're the aggressor. You're doing this. I'm just defending myself."