Time for Time Puns

  Mason would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed the branch earlier, but still.
  He had stepped on it while trying to make his escape, having gotten video documentation of a couple jewelry thieves plotting their escape from the country after robbing a prominent store. Millions of dollars in silver and diamonds had been stolen, more than enough to get them houses in a country out of US jurisdiction, and they were finally going to be able to leave the next morning on a ship smuggling other illegal cargo to South America. Everything had gone according to plan for them, except for the teenage sleuth who was now trying to pull off his stealthy escape. Everything had gone according to plan for him, too, except the branch. That’s when both parties involved realized just how screwed their plans might be.
  The thieves weren’t much bigger than Mason, but they were much quicker and stronger and easily dragged him back inside, quickly finding a roll of duct tape and binding him to a support beam. Still, the amateur detective wasn’t too worried; after all, their ship wouldn’t leave for a few hours, and he’d left bread crumbs leading to where he was now. All that needed to happen was for a certain superhero to follow them-
  “Clay says we can leave in an hour.”
  … or not.
 Mason was fairly certain he’d been threatened with concrete shoes in a deep body of water before, but as he bounced around the trunk of a car, bags of jewelry blocking any kicks against the taillights, he was pretty sure they had never gone this far. At least, that’s where he assumed this was going; after all, a bag of cement powder had been dumped in after him, and they were ocean-bound. He’d been counting on enough time for the Timer to find him in case he was kidnapped (as was often the case), but there was no way. Even with powers like his, there had simply not been enough time. But that didn’t mean he’d go down without a fight.
  “Stop that,” one of the thieves hissed as he threw the struggling captive over his shoulder, carrying one of the bags of stolen jewels under his other arm. “If you didn’t want to get caught, you should’ve looked where you were stepping.” Mason had a few choice words in response to that, but they were lost behind the duct tape gag that refused to slip off his cheeks. The captain of the ship, this Clay, met his accomplices at a dock, regarding their captive with a look of relative disinterest before showing them to the more secret of the cargo holds. It was hidden under what had appeared to be a solid plate of steel flooring, and after dumping him in the dark with nothing but the jewelry and the bag of cement to keep him company, Mason could only assume his captors slid it into place until it blended in just as perfectly as before.
  The illegal cargo hold was big. Like, much bigger than you ever could have thought it would be, and definitely too big for the sleuth to investigate tied up as he was. The various bags of contraband were spread out, and with no light it was impossible to find them, much less try and get one open and use whatever was inside to try and free himself. But Mason tried. He finally came across something shortly after the shuddering of the ship clued him into its departure, and he frantically tried to open it before his captors returned to finish him off. Those three words played on repeat in his head; finish me off, finish me off.
  Speaking of, the bag he had found was the one holding the cement. He released a frustrated, anguished cry, but it wasn’t like anyone outside the cargo hold could hear it.

  So this was new. The Timer had long wondered if he’d be able to do something like this, but never got around to trying it. Even now it worried him; if his powers gave out on him too far out from the shore, he was dead.
  But if the footage from Mason’s recently un-stomped phone (courtesy of his rewind powers) was right, he was dead too if something wasn’t done, so he had to try.
  Like I said, he had thought about this before. Theoretically, it would work, he just had to move fast. Luckily the superhero was something of a track star in his civilian life; all he had to do was slow down the water and run, keep pace, don’t panic, go fast but keep his heart rate down-
  He had started doing it without even realizing it. When the Timer looked down again, he saw his feet sprinting across the water, its surface tension slow to break due to his powers. He almost lost his concentration at the sight, which would have been disastrous; he was a much better swimmer than he was a runner, and he didn’t think he’d be able to restart his watery jog if he sunk now. Instead, he kept his eyes focused on the only ship to have left the harbor that night. It had to be the one carrying Mason and all the jewelry that had been stolen a few days prior, and if the Timer couldn’t reach it now, he didn’t want to think about what would happen to his frequent, if not incredibly helpful, damsel.
  Thanks to the hours he had previously devoted to running, focusing solely on getting one foot in front of the other, he managed to reach the ship much faster than he thought he would. Using the last of his momentum, the hero jumped off the surface of the water, able to feel the tension break as he grabbed onto the deck railing. He swung up and over with surprising grace, almost all of which was lost when he collapsed, breathing deeply in an attempt to replenish his lungs with air. In the moment, the run hadn’t seemed so bad, but sprinting and using his powers at the same time was an exhausting combination. He just… needed a minute.
  “Hey!” He didn’t really get one.
  Luckily, the thief didn’t realize that getting close was a bad idea. The Timer managed to slow him down, enjoying a few more moments of rest before hopping up and delivering a solid punch to the man’s jaw. He released him from his power’s hold as he fell, quickly grabbing his collar and shaking him.
  “Where’s Mason?” the hero demanded, trying his best not to sound as tired as he was. Dazed, the thief pointed to a door to their right.
  “You have to unscrew the top left screw,” he answered. There were at least two more people on this ship; if he was lying, the Timer could interrogate one of them. That’s why he didn’t feel bad delivering another punch, this one knocking the man out. He dragged him inside and found a steel plate that looked solidly bolted into place, and with some doubt followed the instructions. To his surprise, it swung open, and the Timer wasted no time jumping inside.
  He couldn’t help but chuckle upon seeing Mason. He was securely bound and gagged with duct tape, per usual, but in addition a thin layer of grey dust had settled on him and much of the floor. It took a moment for the bound teenager’s eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did, his face lit up.
  “Tmmmph!”
  “Hey.” The hero approached and reached up to remove the tape from his lips, but decided that maybe he should try and wipe some of the dust from his face first. It probably wasn’t good for digestion. It wasn’t until he’d already taken Mason’s glasses off and cleared at least half the powder that the Timer realized how tender a gesture this was, an idea reinforced by the bound boy’s blush. T-That was enough. Swiftly tucking his glasses back behind his ears, the hero ripped the tape off as gently as he could, though both knew how hard it was to be gentle with the substance. He let Mason take some deep breaths of his own, some of which resulted in a coughing fit from the dust residue in the air, before questioning him. “What is this stuff?”
  “Oh, um…” The Timer noticed the slight look of fear that remained on his accomplice’s face. “Concrete powder.” Ohhhhh. It was as he thought; the sleuth surely would have died had he not arrived. “I thought I’d make it difficult for them by getting it everywhere, but…” He chuckled, which was good. “It got everywhere.”
  “Want to know what’s not everywhere?” Mason looked up, his eyes widening upon seeing the snapped branch in his hero’s hands. “For shame. I thought you were better than this. In fact…” It was the Timer’s turn to chuckle. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you stepped on it on purpose.” The blush from before intensified.
  “I-I didn’t think you’d get here in time,” Mason admitted, clearly trying to change the subject. Something dawned on him, though. “How did you figure it out so quickly? You would have had to notice the clues I left almost as soon as I put them on the website-“ As he said it, it occurred to the sleuth that perhaps the Timer had done just that. Which would imply that he looked at the site Mason had set up for him often. Which meant-
  “I-I-I just happened to be checking in,” the hero replied, though now he was blushing, too. “You’re lucky I did, too.” Mason grinned.
  “Maybe I can be lucky for other reasons too.”
  “What are you talking about?” The amateur detective leaned in, his face suddenly dangerously close to the Timer’s, and the hero’s blush deepened.
  “How about we

  ”Hey!” Sushi stormed into the room, yanking her Mac from her friend’s hands. “What the heck, dude?! I try and write a cute fanfic for your characters and here you are, tainting it with your yaoi crap, geez Louise.” The grin remained on jonesmason’s face as he leaned back in Sue’s favorite red chair.
  “Tainted, huh?” he replied. “I’d say your computer was already tainted with, what was it called, Time to Play? That one was steamy. Oh, or Mason’s Time Out, that one had some serious detail. Or-“
  “Stop looking through my laptop, oh my God! I’m better than that.”
  “Really? Then what did you just drag to the Trash Bin?”
  “Get out of my room, how did you even get in?!"