Techno Heroes 5: Micromegas

We have our four heroes at last--if they can last.

Colt [coughing]: Your arrival fills me with joy and carbon dioxide. I don't suppose you brought something to clear the air, did you?
Tachyon: Basic survival equiment. Here, I'll set it up. Now, where are we?
Colt: Julian Krohn's guestroom. He doesn't like guests.
Micromegas: Mandar, I still disapprove of using future technology—
Tachyon: No one ever figured out where the Techno Heroes got their advanced technology, but now we know. Don't you see? Tachyon and Micromegas were beyond even Colt's genius, but not beyond our technology.
Micromegas: Did you bring what you'd need for localized time control?
Tachyon: Of course. And enough of the cruiser came through that the volumetric controls should be easy to rig. There seem to be a lot of suit parts here—primitive materials, but good enough for a start.
Micromegas: How long do we have?
Colt: Assuming your air purifier works, until we die of dehydration or starvation.
Micromegas: We might as well check our gear. I doubt it'll work, considering... Mandar! Our translators work!
Tachyon: Good thing, too. Otherwise our ancient friends might not doubt your sanity.
Micromegas: But all our technology is powered by Touchstone—and it won't exist for...
Tachyon: The anomaly must've pulled Touchstone back. Interesting. The implications for temporal physics—
Bragg [whistling]: Focus! We've got an evil genius to pound, and for once it isn't Colt.

We'll skip the suit-assembly montage. It's exciting with graphics but boring otherwise. Micromegas prepares to shrink down for the first time.

Titan: You're sure you don't want to try the vent?
Darklight: Too obvious. Krohn's probably got it thoroughly trapped.
Micromegas: I'll miniaturize enough to find a gap in the door. Then I'll have it release us so we can all leave.

All goes well until...

Micromegas: I'm under attack! He has an army of nanobots guarding the door!
Darklight: That's probably my cavalry coming to rescue me.
Micromegas: Well, they don't like me! I need a security code before they overrun me!
Darklight: Compromise my own security code?
Titan: Colt!
Darklight: All right, try this.
[mutters] I never said I wouldn't help...

They breach the door and encounter an unwelcoming committee.

Krohn: Very impressive, Mr. Bragg, but I am still lord of the titans!
Titan: Meet a titan who'll never call you "lord"!
Darklight: Tachyon, head for the back of his army. Micromegas, grow and scare the near ones. I'll get Krohn.
Micromegas: Have you no dramatic sense? Minions first, then boss.
Darklight: Great. They have cheesy comics in the far future as well.
Titan [over communicator]: Colt!
Darklight: Coming! I just have a little mutiny here... Our friends are chatting in their future language, which is rather rude if you ask me.

The battle montage follows. Again, it works better with illustrations, as Darklight deactivates a titan just before becoming visible and saying "Boo!" to its pilot, who tips over backward, and Micromegas does indeed grow and bat others around. Tachyon zips around disabling titans, but for some reason he also interferes with Titan's attempt to grab Krohn. Krohn escapes to a control center overlooking the battlefield.

Krohn: Surrender, or I shall kill you all! My hidden guns—
Tachyon: Have been disconnected. [He holds up an important-looking object.]
Krohn: You haven't heard the last of me!
Titan: Don't make me think there's no God!
Micromegas: Give up, Krohn! We have come back from the future to foil your plans!
Krohn: Time travel? Yes! I shall not be mere Kronos, Lord of the Titans; I shall be Chronos, God of Time itself!
Titan: God of Time? Allow me to clean your clock, Crow-Nose!
Chronos: We shall meet again—in my time!

Chronos flees in an escape pod.

Darklight: You idiots! Don't you know evil geniuses always have escape pods? And why did you tell him you were from the future?
Micromegas: It's a fact of history that Chronos escaped from you after your first encounter.
Titan: So we have to follow some plotline you guys brought back?
Tachyon: We aren't up on all the details, so we'll just spontaneously recreate the events as we go. It's already happened.
Darklight: For you, maybe. I don't believe in fate.
Micromegas: Neither do I, but I do believe in history. That's why I had to tell Krohn we were from the future: so that as Chronos he'll become obsessed with time travel and fulfill his role in history.
Darklight: So are you going to say what it is, or do I have to go to bed tonight curious and cranky?
Micromegas: Chronos louses up a time-travel experiment some years from now—something that you should sympathize with. In the process, he unleashes a force that won't be harnessed until much later—but he inadvertently shows the way, and he must live until then. You see, Chronos discovers Touchstone.

Tomorrow, a kind of epilog for the Techno Heroes origin series.