8 Chapter 8

Krystian is currently sitting on the edge of the bed and staring at the red apple he was turning in his hands while thinking.

His power, the welde of his own understanding, was literally total control of time.

His basic technique, which he understood the most, was the "power to stop time". Of course, limited by the timer, which currently allowed him to stop time for an period of 5 minutes and 55 seconds. During this period, Krystian knew that he could interact with anything what he wants.

He also tried to break down this thread into its prime factors. The basic principle of stopping time should be to freeze everything, even the sun's rays, so that his eyesight should not work. However, this power is not strictly scientific but mystical. Krystian remembered his thoughts while on the beach. He also knew that he could interact with anything he wanted as if time was not stopped. Although not entirely. In the example, holding a firearm in his hand, he could easily pull out the magazine or even take the weapon apart.

However, if, for example, he threw the magazine over his head, the magazine would stop less than 50 centimeters above his head. Krystian confirmed these theories by throwing an apple over his head while activating the skill.

However, the same principle does not apply when an object is thrown by its own body. In such a case, if a third person standing very close to Krystian threw the magazine into the air, the magazine, even if it was located a few meters from his skin, would be frozen in time. Krystian to test these theories, or rather to test the aspect that came to his mind. He recalled the times when the fragments of the walls of his previous hiding place stopped when he activated his power for the second time while staying in the burning building. He did it because he ran out of time to collect the cash and his belongings. And he had a clear image in his mind of a wooden fragment that appeared in his field of vision when he turned his face in a different direction at that moment.

Mechanical objects when used while the time stop power is active. They don't show anything unusual, they are more like an extension of his body. And that doesn't mean he has any control over them. Rather, a given vehicle is just as efficient as if the power was not active. However, when he leaves the vehicle, the vehicle freezes and stops in time.

This analysis is confirmed by a small accident while parking the car in its previous hiding place. Well, while parking the car, Krystian didn't quite stop the car before leaving the vehicle. The result was the noisy sound of the car hitting the garage wall. When he was already in the bedroom, he deactivated the power, and the sound almost caused him to have a heart attack.

The last aspect of "stopping time" that Krystian analyzed at this moment was the impact on living beings, specifically the impact on people. Krystian tested this aspect on the beach and was sure about a few things. When touching, kissing, hitting or otherwise interfering with the body of another a human while time stopped. Krystian could integrate with another human's body in almost any way. This included hitting the body with an effect almost identical to that in which the power would not be used.

However, it also has its strangeness. If, for example, he hit a person in the back of the head and said person would just stand up straight and be just an ordinary person. This blow would cause the same damage as if he had received the blow without activating the power. However, when activating his power, the effect of the said strike would only be visible until the opponent's body was moved 50 centimeters away, which is not an exact measure. This is more of a guess distance and Krystian was largely guessing. However, if Krystian held the opponent's body with one hand and performed swings and punches with the other. He could see the effects of his blows while time stopped. However, if he only performed a punch and moved away from the person, this effect would only appear after the power was deactivated.

This conclusion was made when Krystian had a memory of Bill, one of the members of H.I.V.E. who had the power to replicate himself. And a memory in which he insulted one of the clones attached to See-More and those who were standing at the right distance from the two.

Krystian understands this aspect too well and it makes him laugh a lot. An image of Gizmo running so that the effect would appear after some time and when Krystian deactivates the power and sees how the unsuspecting Gizmo suddenly receives serious injuries during a monologue. This fantasy made him think of doing some pranks if he had the chance. After all, teasing Jinx turned out to be really fun for Krystian.

A newly discovered or rather put to use aspect of his power was the slowing down of time. Specifically, slowing down the entire world's time while its time remains intact.

Krystian understood that for third parties or specifically for Mamooth, his person during the fight. She seemed to have super speed. Krystian was amused by this thesis, although it was absolutely true. Because theoretically, if he slowed down the world's time to the appropriate speed, he could race against the Flash on equal terms. Although if his time slowdown was equal to Flash's speed, Flash would be able to overtake him based on his own physical strength. While this theory seemed truly beyond Krystian's understanding, if he slowed down time more than the Flash's speed would theoretically increase from the perspective of those with the appropriate recording devices, Krystian would move faster than the Flash, the supposed second fastest man in the world.

Krystian did not intend to test speeding up time, which is in fact the opposite aspect of "slowing down time". He decided to first analyze and experiment with a completely new aspect of its power. Which, compared to stopping time, may have more combat and defensive applications.

The aspect of the degree of slowing down of time initially seemed very simple to Krystian. He simply tossed an apple in his hand and, using his thoughts, almost instinctively slowed down time. And he played with the apple for a long time until a thought appeared in his head. What if someone shoots him with a gun when he isn't expecting it? After all, there are many characters in the DC universe that fit into these categories. And in Jump City, the most popular one is Slade. For whom using the Sniper Rifle should not be a major challenge. This thought really scared Krystian and made him think.

The first idea was to slow down the time of an object heading towards him before hitting his body. This took quite a long time because the process of training this aspect was too difficult. Krystian was throwing an apple over his head and trying to slow down the apple before it hit his head.

Krystian was hit in the head a dozen times before the apple slowed down so much that he was able to catch it before it hit him. And during the first successful test of slowing down the object, Krystian noticed that he did not feel the momentum of the object when he simply caught it in his hands. Theoretically, he should have felt a slight bump or something on his hands, after all, it was the laws of physics. However, in this case, the mystical nature of his power apparently violated the above-mentioned laws.

However, once he mastered this minor bump, it was to a satisfactory level that the irritating training turned into fun. Krystian realized that slowing down the object he sees and knows about its existence was not what he wanted to achieve.

Although slowing down objects was still fun and interesting. First of all, the goal that Krystian wanted to achieve was protection against bullets without his knowledge. And rather stopping time was a better direction in this aspect than slowing down time.

However, before he started trying to use stopping time, he decided to test slowing down time. Or rather, the time of objects slowed down, so he went to the window and looked at the image of the busy parking lot in front of the Motel.

In the mentioned parking lot, Krystian noticed a rather strange situation: two passenger cars, a black one driven by a bearded man in a shaggy jacket and a red one driven by a woman whose outfit suggested work in the oldest profession in the world. And both mentioned cars wanted to park in the only available parking space. And because both cars had just entered the parking lot and they were both at the same distance from the parking space. It seemed that both cars were racing to be the first to take the parking space. Krystian decided to support the bearded merchant because he liked the leather jacket the guy was wearing. So by focusing on the woman's car, he slowed down the time of the car, not the woman. Only the car and surprisingly the distance didn't matter. And although at first the woman was also moving in slow motion after less than a few seconds, only the car was moving slower. And the irritation on the woman's face and the smoke that was coming out of the vehicle's exhaust pipe meant that the woman's irritation resulted in her pressing the gas pedal too hard. So when the bearded guy with a strange expression on his face was looking at the woman, he parked his car.

Something funny happened for Krystian, the guy was confused and the woman seemed to be having a hysterical attack. When Krystian deactivated the power to slow down time and the car returned to full strength, as a result of the woman pressing full gas, the car hit the side of one of the trucks, fortunately the distance was too small for the woman to be injured. However, her car now needs repairs.

Krystian took abnormal joy from the situation and laughed as he thought about the potential results of speeding up the car's time. Although the image of a completely demolished car in his mind did not stop his amusement, Krystian decided to return to the bed and grab the apple again and check how it works first.

Well, Krystian was throwing an apple straight into one of the walls, having little sense of how to control the time of the apple. Krystian managed to speed up the apple's time without any problems. However, from his perspective, the apple simply flew onto the wall in the blink of an eye and he couldn't really see anything. However, the apple itself was only slightly crushed, Krystian did not throw it with all his strength, but with a force that allowed the apple to fly a given distance.

Based on the damage to the apple, Krystian guessed that he simply accelerated its flight, but the result he received was damage to the apple. It did not change compared to the apple thrown without using the time acceleration power. Although the effect was not intensified, that is, the apple did not explode when confronted with the wall. However, this aspect itself would be really useful if Krystian used a firearm and was able to accelerate the speed of the bullets, and the destructive power of the bullet itself is satisfactory. Krystian was really interested in this idea and decided to find a policeman tomorrow and, while the time stopped, steal the mentioned firearm.

After this test, when Krystian repeatedly picked up the bruised apple, he came up with the idea to test another aspect of his powers. Specifically, the power of "rewinding time", the most dangerous and fascinating aspect of his power. There were at least several ideas for combat applications in Krystian's head. For example, rewinding in time one particular organ in the opponent's body, specifically the heart. What would happen if in the body Beast Boy was shaped by the previously mentioned variable. If his 21-year-old heart (he is currently that old, Krystian saw it in one of the magazines lying on his window sill.) was rejuvenated, the heart he had at the age of 3. Krystian guessed that the hero could die within minutes because his heart was unable to pump enough blood, or the amount of blood his body would pump into his rejuvenated heart would result in the heart rupturing due to the excess blood.

Rewinding time, this power required much greater concentration than the previously mentioned aspects of his power. He didn't quite know why, but he felt a mental pressure when using this aspect of his power. However, watching the apple return to its previous form was truly endearing. So much so that Krystian decided to test this power in a slightly more daring experiment.

Krystian bit into the apple, but he did not swallow the bitten fragment, but spit it out and put it next to the rest of the apple. Krystian was curious whether the apple would return to its original form and the bit that had been bitten off would remain in its place. And in effect he would have the whole apple and the piece he bit off. If this theory were true, Krystian speculated that he could spend $100,000 on a car and then rewind the time of his backpack to the moment when the said backpack contained the said cash.

However, the reality turned out to be painful, really painful. It is true that the apple returned to its former form, but the bitten off part disappeared and returned to the apple. What added to the pain was the fact that the apple juice that remained in Krystian's mouth and the juice that managed to flow into his stomach. Suddenly, an unpleasant pain caused a rather strange and unpleasant sensation in his body. Which, despite a successful experiment, did not have a positive impact on the desire to further experiment with turning back time. So Krystian decided to leave this aspect for another time. And now focus on developing the passive aspect of its power.

In particular, Krystian intends to develop a passive power to stop time when any object that threatens his life or damages his body is heading towards him.

Krystian didn't want the time-stopping power to activate when a hot woman jumped into his arms or something similar.

Krystian decided to work on a more complicated defense system. Krystian wanted his power to detect harmful objects without his knowledge and stop time, thus giving him time and a signal that something was threatening him and required changing his position.

For this purpose, Krystian plans to go tomorrow to the store where a few hours earlier he bought a leather jacket, because he clearly remembered that the mentioned store offered a device that shoots balls for people practicing baseball. And the mentioned device seems to be perfect for testing and training its power. And currently, Krystian decided to try to develop the mentioned passive power by throwing an apple over his head.