Chapter 9 - The Second that Lasts an Eternity

JOURNEY TO OUTPOST

"How much further?" Axxel tried not the let the exhaustion be heard in his voice, but it was uncontainable when he felt as if he had been walking for months.

Outpost was not that far, but in The Speed Force, could anything be considered close? A second in his mind could well be a couple of seconds to everyone else in the Expedition group.

A quick glance around told Axxel that there were a few members of the Expedition Group just as confused as he was, if not a bit more. A sudden steep decline caused Axxel's steps to falter, and he realized a bit late that he had somehow stepped over the horizon.

But as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared just as fast.

He glanced back and could see a line of Expeditionary Group Members stretching to the great beyond, taking steps as if a blur that caused them to arrive at his side. It was his first time witnessing the phenomenon, but nobody else took note of it.

'I guess its normal for them.' He concluded.

After all, everything inside The Speed Force tended to be as tangible as the mind made it. A distraction could lead to rough terrain, so everyone was focused on getting to where they needed to go – Outpost.

A strong mind went a long way inside The Speed Force.

And everyone tended to have a mentality to spare considering nobody could die from old age in The Savage World. Axxel was careful not to step on anyone's toes since it could very well lead to Eternal Enemies.

"We'll get there when we get there…" Stewart's shout echoed from behind. "Every single second you guys ask me the same damn question!"

The guy was always grumpy.

"It feels like months," Axxel grumbled back a reply that was lost in the array of murmuring voices.

Everyone was getting impatient since Stewart was an untested navigator – the one who led the Expedition Group from one place to the next. Stewart was the next newest thing compared to an infinitely more interesting Axxel.

Stewart navigated using a constantly shifting compass – something or not about Speed Force Math and Shift Times, Dimensional Waves, and a bunch of other things Axxel couldn't understand.

Axxel sniffed a bit of salt in the air and began to wonder.

'It couldn't be, right?' He was doubtful.

The Speed Force was beyond vast so the possibility of an Ocean inside The Speed Force was not that farfetched… was it?

It was hard to limit the imagination in an environment that seemed filled with the unimaginable.

"We have been walking for maybe a couple of days…" Jerico opened his mouth and a sharp sensation rippled through the air, causing a cessation of all other voices. "Every day, I touch my swords once, and I touched them three times already, hence it has been three days."

There were murmurs of agreement.

It basically meant the navigator was fucking up.

'Logical conclusion…' Axxel thought, feeling a bit saddened that he had started to genuinely listen to a swordsman who couldn't use a sword.

The Speed Force made people find logic in the weirdest thing.

Axxel was sure that very soon, he would start talking to rocks and laughing as Jules often did.

"Exactly one month…" Anissa offered her own estimate of the time, citing a plant as her reference. "This plant grows one inch in one month, and it just grew an inch, hence one month."

'Even more logical…' Axxel had to admit, but equally mystified by the fact that Anissa was still alive.

Since joining the Exploration Group, Axxel could swear that he had seen no less than a dozen carnivorous plants eat the redheaded woman. There had been bones and all so unless she was immortal, Axxel was definitely losing his mind otherwise.

"Obviously it has been a million years," Thomas grumbled.

Axxel sighed since that particular muscular man didn't like him too much, and that became even more apparent when Thomas finished his statement.

"Jules would have to spend a million years going crazy before she decided to date a weakling," The Muscular Man continued, a smug smile on his face.

Axxel was aware that a brawl between himself and Thomas was inevitable, but he would prolong that brawl as much as possible cause there was no way he could win against whatever species Thomas was.

"I am still fucking her," Axxel scoffed while taking a couple of steps away from Thomas because he was not stupid enough to mock a giant and stay within squashing range.

"Shut the hell up, let me concentrate," Stewart yelled, once again reminding everyone that he was the reason they had yet to get home.

And as if to add to his downfall, Stewart tossed away the compass in his hands, and immediately pulled another compass from his left pocket. His hands were sweating like a cartoon character's.

Axxel had long since noticed that each compass Steve tossed away was identical to the one he would retrieve from his left pocket. The Aspiring Speedster was sure that Einstein said something about this matter.

"Oh yeah… I just remembered…" Anissa smacked her head as if only now realizing something. "Stewart… I just remembered that you can't read, and you have reverse-vision?"

"Reverse what?" Axxel questioned, but his voice was far from the only one to have a tone of discontent.

"Reverse-Vision… it's like a temporal disease kind of… causes someone to see the world in reverse," Anissa explained, and everyone's faces scrunched up. "Other temporal effects include temporal dysplasia, temporal HIV/AIDS, and death…" Anissa concluded, looking smug because she knew something everyone else didn't.

It was just like The Red Head to say something smart and then follow it up with something absurd but probably true. Axxel's eyes scanned around, keeping the matter of Reverse-Vision in mind, and to his surprise, the information was news to Thomas and Jerico as well.

It did dampen everyone's hope quite a bit – the realization that they had been following a madman for the past who-knows-how-long. A blind man could tell his left foot from his right foot, but here they had Stewart, who thought left was right, and right was left.

"I'll kill him," Thomas dashed forward, searching for the short man.

Alas, Stewart was one step ahead.

The Small Man hid behind Jules in a blur of speed.

And then, there was no one to blame.

Knowing that the matter would not be settled without someone being right, Jules was in an awkward position to decide who was right. Anywhere else, this would not have been a big deal, but on The Savage World – where grudges could last a literal eternity – she had to trudge very carefully,

Honestly, Jules found the entire matter a bit frustrating.

This was Savage World – distance and time could be considered a thing of the past, but still, many people clung to such concepts. Jules had been trapped on the island so long that she had invented a new unit of measurement altogether.

Her status as Lead Explorer was due to one reason and one reason only - She was not only the oldest but also the only person on the entire Savage World that could accurately keep track of time – not that she needed to.

"If I answer you guys, I get to push my favorite dildo up your asses," Jules decided to compromise, or rather, seemingly compromise.

This was Jules's strategy to deal with dissidents – ensure the cost of the answer was more than they could bear.

"Ooooohhh~" Anissa cheered. "Will you use the pink one or the blue one?" The Red Head inquired, roundly admitting that Jules had pumped her full of those abnormally sized dildos before.

Cough

Cough

Cough

To hide her embarrassment from that scathing comment, Jules coughed and quickly answered the earlier question.

"We have been walking for about five seconds, so we haven't gone anywhere as yet."

"What?" Axxel, Thomas, Anissa, Jerico, and Stewart were stunned.

Jules sighed, remembering a time when she was similarly confused.

"The Savage World is constantly moving and evolving… there is no set structure but if you are here long enough, you will eventually be able to feel the directions… even shorten them a bit."

"Like Space Manipulation?" Axxel inquired a bit excited.

It was a new concept, after all.

Axxel knew he may not be able to become a Speedster like he initially wanted, but he was desperate for any power at this time that he would even accept Mineta's 'Pop Off' Quirk from My Hero Academia.

'Well… maybe I am not that desperate yet…' Axxel mused internally.

Everyone started to pay attention to what Jules would say next. The woman usually kept information about Savage World close to her chest so Axxel was determined to take full advantage when she was feeling chatty.

Seeing everyone's expectant gazes, Jules sighed. "How do you think time works on Savage World?" she asked, and everyone was left in a bit of a daze.

"Isn't that the point…" Jerico muttered, brushing his hands against the swords on his back. "Savage World is Eternal… time doesn't pass here."

Jules shook her head in disagreement. "The Speed Force literally pushes all other Forces in the Universe – it is movement and progress, itself… hence, how can a force based on movement stop time for everyone on this island?"

"It doesn't," Axxel responded, using all the wiki and tv-show knowledge at his disposal "The Speed Force can't stop time, but it can get infinitely close to stopping time so it's indistinguishable."

Jules nodded, feeling a bit proud of this boyfriend of hers… she thought he was only gifted below, but obviously, he was gifted above as well – both heads were a blessing that she would utilize to their full potential.

"Savage World is not technically a place where time does not pass…" Jules revealed, pointing at approaching train tracks in the ground. "Savage World is an island inside the Speed Force that forever remains trapped in a single second, and it always moves things around."

Everyone was relieved upon seeing the tracks that would guide them home.

"You're saying?" Thomas frowned, continuing the conversation since the tracks were still a bit of a distance away. "I can't understand exactly."

'Muscular and dumb,' Axxel concluded, determining how to use to that his advantage in the brawl to come.

"She's saying that from the beginning of Savage World to its eventual end, only one second would have passed inside the Speed Force, but as we approach the limit of that one second, time becomes infinitely closer to the upper limit without reaching the endpoint," Axxel explained, shocking everyone with his mathematical knowledge. "To summarize – Savage World is an eternity in a single second."

"What a wonderful name for my next sword art – an eternity in a single second," Jerico muttered, already planning the several sword stances for his millionth sword art.

He may never be able to wield a sword in his life, but Jerico was a genius in every other aspect of the sword – cleaning, polishing, crafting, forging, sharpening… the only thing the swordsman could not do was… well, cut something.

"But-"

"Let's go…" Jules interrupted before any more questions could be asked.

Without any hesitation, she hopped onto the train tracks, and the next moment, she had departed, carried away by the magnetic force of the tracks.

Everyone else from the Expedition Group similarly walked forward and hopped on the train tracks, departing the location and heading back to Outpost. Even Axxel had used the train tracks for transportation before, but he wasn't aware of how it moved around Savage World.

'Don't ask too many questions – you'll go crazy.'

Jerico, Anissa, Thomas, and Stewart left next.

Finally, Axxel was the only person remaining.

"The Speed Force is truly something," he whispered, leaping onto the train tracks, relaxing his body as he was carried towards Outpost by the amazing futuristic technology.