Jobs: First Shift

There aren't many places on Earth where the sound of minigun fire is considered blasé, but the people of Domino City had heard stranger sounds before. In fact, the battle in the streets at first seemed like one of the many that had occurred there in the past few years, leading to an unfortunate situation where a crowd had gathered before the bullets began to fly.

The strangest thing about the duel in the streets wasn't that a ghost was up against an anthropomorphic clock, it was that he seemed to be trying to talk with it at first. The ghost spoke Japanese with a clear American bent, and he seemed to occasionally emphasize pronouncing a word incorrectly as some sort of joke, and the crowd were quick to favor the clock in a cape and his little dragon friend. A few kids in the crowd were busy on their smartphones trying to identify the ghost, as they had never seen it in one of Domino City's street duels before, but before any answers could be found, the ghost pulled out his minigun and began to let the barrels spin.

"This is your last warning Time Wizard", Jumpropeman yelled out, tired of trying to speak the native language to a clock that he wasn't even sure was capable of speech. The Time Spirit didn't need to hear a single word from it to know that, with a name like Time Wizard, it was something that was bound to screw with the stability of time at some point.

The back of Jumpropeman's mind seemed elsewhere as he waited for a response, his eyes traveling to the small dragon that Wizard hovered protectively over. "Huh, that little dragon looks like one of Draco's kids." If anything, that similarity was what was staying him from just mowing down both Wizard and Baby Dragon and heading off with a job easily completed. The clock just keep bobbing through the air though, so with a sigh, Jumpropeman points his gun towards the wizard's face and opens fire.

In a battle between wielders of time, the speed of a bullet is nearly irrelevant. Right before the minigun begins to chew on its ammo, the Wizard's wand was hefted high, and when the gunshots began to ring out, they came with a quick curse from Jumpropeman.

 Time did not slow down or speed up. The common tricks of those who wield time were all to expected, but even Jumpropeman was surprised as a bubble of space around the wizard wide enough to envelope a house suddenly jumped forward in time one thousand years. The road below was now fractured and dusty, streetlights wilted like iron flowers. A few citizens who were too close were suddenly turned to dust, their bodies skipping past death and decay. They would not stay dead, Jumpropeman thought, but it would require some annoying after battle cleanup that he might just relegate to Tut-Tut. The citizens of Domino City were now fleeing in a panic from the fight, recognizing that it was far more real than the holographic battles of their favorite card-based sport. Their screams were hidden from the air only by the minigun's futile efforts to puncture this time bubble the wizard had created, but as bullet quickly became fine powder in the air at the edge of the magical sphere, Jumpropeman wound down his weapon and flew forward to try and enter the localized version of Domino City, 3016.

As soon as Jumpropeman entered the time displacement though, a great grunt of fire came up from below and scorched his entire frontside. Jumpropeman began to spiral down through the flames, unable to right himself as the heat began to singe his ectoplasm. With a small slap, Jumpropeman's body plopped down right on the source of the fire: the nose of an elderly dragon.

What was once a Baby Dragon was now the Thousand Dragon, an old but formidable creature. The fire from its nostrils died down as the ghost slapped into its snout, but an exhale of smoke quickly blew the ghost up and away before the now-ancient creature began to inhale again for another incendiary grunt. The Time Wizard spun and bounced around in the air above its enhanced ally, but the Time Spirit could not focus on his original quarry as the flames once more wrapped around the tiny little ghost.

Jumpropeman's gun was glowing red now, the metal softening in his grip as he's barely able to keep himself from turning to ash. The ghost decides to ditch his weapon for now, twirling around before he hurls the Iron Curtain up towards the Time Wizard. The Wizard was not expecting to be hit, it had fared well so far after all, so when the heated metal smashed into its clock face, it was no longer able to sustain its flight or the time sphere. However, 3016's section of Domino City was now firmly cemented in the present, leaving Jumpropeman still in the fiery breath of the aged dragon.

The Time Wizard hit the ground with a metallic crunch, the Thousand Dragon turning its attention away to make sure no trick was being pulled on it. The creature's mind was a strange mix between a child's and a geezer's, with no life between to hone it well. You could probably pull the "look over there!" trick on it a thousand times without it learning, and right now, its attention was over there, if "there" was where a Time Wizard had landed. With the dragon distracted, Jumpropeman expands slightly outward to get the ash off his body, but he could not grow to be giant after being burned so badly. Looking around for his tossed minigun, the small blue ghost instead takes note of the cracked tarmac beneath him and dives down, grabbing two chunks of broken asphalt and flying towards his opponent.

The Thousand Dragon exhales smoke as it turns back to Jumpropeman, but before it can breath in to ready another blast of fire, Jumpropeman lunges forward with the two black rocks and shoves them down the dragon' nostrils. The beast moans in a mix between a baby's whine and an elder's groan, falling back onto its hind feet as its front claws set to the task of dislodging the obstructions. Jumpropeman allows himself a grin, but as he turns his attention back to the Time Wizard, he hears the sound of the Iron Curtain revving up. The Wizard opens fire with the minigun briefly, the kick of the gun surprising it and causing it to fall back and drop the weapon, but not before a few holes are made in one of the ghost's arms.

"Damn! I really should just use the bells for this kind of shit..." The Time Spirit grabs his wounded arm and lifts it, only to let it flop. He knew editing time with his bells would not work on a fellow wielder of time, but at this point, yearning for his bells was just as common as any curse word for the ghost while on a job that was going poorly. Seeing that the limb is useless for now. Jumpropeman turns immaterial and dives into the ground, the dragon and wizard both losing track of their opponent as they collect themselves.

The clock's fingers drum nervously one his wand. Jumpropeman swims through the ground beneath them unseen, preparing to rise up and pull out some of the clock's gears from the inside, but the Wizard raises his staff again, and the hands on it begin to spin. The Time Spirit is unsure of what will happen next, so he flies up as quickly as he can, but the Time Wizard flies up into the air as it lets the roulette on its wand spin, four skulls and two engines serving as the potential landing spots. The Dragon sees Jumpropeman emerge from the ground and tries to smack him down, its hand passing through the immaterial ghost, but passing through the beast is distracting enough to throw JRM off course.

He's unable to reach the Time Wizard before the roulette stops. The hour and minute hands both land on... an engine. The Time Wizard cheers silently as it looks down at Jumpropeman, waiting for its magic to take effect. The ghost is briefly surrounded by magical energy, and Jumpropeman can feel the air around him turn a thousand years older. But 4016's air dissipated quickly, and Jumpropeman crossed his arms as he looked up at the Time Wizard.

"I'm completely exempt from time man. Your powers can't do jack to me!"

The Time Wizard's facial hands spin wildly and angrily, the Thousand Dragon recognizing that something went wrong and trying to take another swing at JRM. The Time Spirit quickly dives down and pulls up the Iron Curtain, the barrels spinning again as he prepares for a final stand...

RRRRRRRRRIP

Well, it wasn't that loud of a rip, but it certainly felt loud to the Time Wizard and Thousand Dragon. It was actually a quiet rip, one too small compared to the sounds of the gun, wizard, and dragon for Jumpropeman to even notice. It wasn't until the Time Wizard and Thousand Dragon abruptly dissolved in front of him that he realized anything had happened.

The scorched little ghost let himself fall to the ground in relief at first, but when he looked around for the reason the battle ended, he saw his little mummy assistant Tut-Tut approaching with something in his hand.

The second Time Spirit tossed two cards in front of Jumpropeman, both ripped down the center. "I didn't mean to interrupt the fun you were having sir, but I didn't want you wasting anymore of your energy on them. These are singular manifestations of ancient creatures, so we can't really take care of them or their time shenanigans without finding every card like these two and disposing of them."

Jumpropeman sits up and sighs, running his good arm across the two torn cards. "Thanks for the save I guess. Just wish I knew that before I went in."

"You can do the research beforehand you know..."

"That's the boring part though! ...Ugh, you're right, I know. Was just getting lazy on it again. Procedures, procedures... So, did you show up here just to save my bacon?"

"Unfortunately no. I found a special anomaly that I thought you should see before I purge it."

The ghost shoots up into the air quickly, enough to startle the mummified dodo. The shock was born more of his concern for Jumpropeman moving so quickly in his injured state than the suddenness though.

"Nice!" Jumpropeman exclaimed. "Well, guess I shouldn't say that before I see it, but hey, it's gotta be something good if you're calling me in, right?"

Tut-Tut averted his eyes from his superior, "I'm... not quite sure I would say that, Mr. Jumpropeman..."

----------------------------------------------------

The two Time Spirits reappeared far away from Domino City, Jumpropeman in far better condition than what the universe considered a mere second ago in the timeline. Jumpropeman didn't look good though, if only because he was wearing his disappointment quite clearly when he saw what Tut-Tut wanted to show him.

"A shed?" were the only two words the ghost had for it. A small shed sat in front of them... although it was certainly not meant to be small. The tiny shack was barely held together, its metals rusty and withered while its wood had long since become dust on its floor. It was unclear what it once housed, as the floor was now only home to the remains of the roof. It was clearly some other color once upon a time, but right now it wore a sickening white and lifeless brown on what pieces remained. It was almost a miracle JRM could identify it so easily.

The ghost prepares to hover over and get a closer look, perhaps hoping for something more interesting in what remained of its mess, but Tut-Tut delicately puts an arm in front of his employer. "Sorry sir... you don't want to get too close."

"Why?"

The question did not wait for words to be answered. The shed's pieces begin to knit themselves back together in a flash, color fading back into the structure as dust becomes wood and suddenly, a very plain and uninteresting shed was now sitting in front of the two.

Jumpropeman let out a long whistle, "Well, that is interesting... in a way."

"From what I can tell," Tut-Tut started, "the shed was abruptly pushed forward a thousand years in time and was now pulled back-"

"Oh great, is the Time Wizard here too?"

"No! I mean, no, not at all."

"Huh, so it's just a coincidence that time stuff favors the thousand year jump today."

"I-I guess... But, it's not like the Wizard's power at all! It seems this abnormality is caused by something called entropy."

"Oh great," Jumpropeman wished he could roll his eyes, "I thought we took care of Air. Is she really mucking about with sheds?"

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't her..."

"Well, she's the only one who calls this thing 'entropy' as far as I know. I sometimes wonder if kids with powers these days even bother to look up the fancy words they place on their powers..."

"...to be fair sir, entropy is probably just a word to encapsulate a difficult to describe ability. We can't really judge them for trying to qualify it when we use names like 'the Fabrics of Time'."

"Good point." Jumpropeman's eyes remained on the shed, but once again he let his mind wander, this time off into a place where he might just know what caused this abnormality... but soon he found a much more interesting thought. "SO! Can we get rid of it now?"

"I suppose... I take it you don't want to just excise it from time?" Tut-Tut asked hopefully.

"Of course not! Let's kill multiple thousand year old birds with one stone!"

Time did not stop, but a second later, Jumpropeman and Tut-Tut were standing far away from the shed, an enormous pile of cards spilling out the side of the entropy-afflicted structure. All around it where Time Wizards and Thousand Dragons, the Wizards waving their wands at the shed in what looked like a weird dance.

"DRAGONS AT THE READY!" Jumpropeman yelled, the dragons all grunting or puffing smoke in response.

"LET'S BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND!" And with that, fire roared out from the dragons, enveloping the shed, the cards, and many Time Wizards with it. Some of the clocks were quick enough to fly out of the way of the incoming fire, and some of the Thousand Dragons felt slow in their old age and hadn't even mustered the strength to lend their breath to the inferno, but soon the cards and shed were overwhelmed by the intensity of the attack, and as the cards burnt in the slowly dying shack, Time Wizards and Thousand Dragons began to pop and dissolve all throughout the small area. Tut-Tut watched calmly, but Jumpropeman laughed as the creature who gave him so much trouble earlier that day were now killing themselves by his command. The rogue versions of these monsters he fought earlier were a major pain in his ghostly ass, but now that he had summoned them from their cards, he could make them do whatever he liked...

When the fires died down, there was nothing left of the shed or the army called to destroy it but the scorch marks on the dirt.

"I'll get to cleaning up the temporal mess soon-" Tut-Tut said once Jumpropeman had calmed down, but as he looked at his fellow Time Spirit, he found his ear listening to a phone's speaker instead of him. The dodo felt cowed and stepped back, letting the ghost make his phone call.

"Hello?"

"Hi sweety~ I've just made quite a mess here Marina, and I couldn't help but think of you! Think you can send some guys to help clean it up?"

Tut-Tut had no trouble hearing his boss's daughter let out a long, exasperated sigh.