~8~
Time seemed to stand still around him. The edges of reality took on a deep red pulse at the edges of his eyes. A bird in flight just above the landing outside the window had stopped motionless in thin air. Captain Future turned as a shimmering shadow grew more solid right before him.

“Cat got his tongue?” asked Doc Tyger as he appeared suddenly out of nowhere to stand by Captain Future's side. “I brought you some toast...rye bread, your favorite.” He slid the 4th dimensional toaster that had brought him along with the toast, down onto a chair. The toaster seemed to be glowing a shinyl green and the air felt suddenly thick around them.

 
(original sketch of Super Dimensional Toaster: 
contents kept secret or swallowed whole- 
archives, Crumb Stoppers Hideout
)

“Tsk, Tsk. You missed breakfast this morning.” Doc palmed two slices of hot buttered toast into Captain Future's waiting hand and leaned over to sit on the edge of the ornately carved desk while chewing on the end of his pipe. “About time.” grinned Captain Future.

“Yes, it is.” smiled Doc Tyger in return. “We're now in a time capsule shunt containing both past and future entropy warped in around themselves; tied into a knot if you will ... I created a time bubble...time is standing still around us, or so it seems...” 

They both stared uneasily at the still world around them as Doc took a deep breath, “I've been doing a bit of detective work in the recent past with the aid of our 4th dimensional toaster. I found out how Sci-Fye set up the withdrawals and emptied Hannah Taylor's account.”

He struck a match against the living statue of Mr. Munay's pug nose and lit his pipe. He puffed away comfortably until smoke signals rose slowly up into the air to confirm his message. Captain Future munched on a piece of rye toast and waited for Doc to explain further. He knew asking questions only tended to distract his friend into lengthy sidetracks that were always amazing, but usually incomprehensible to anyone except another inventor.

“Several months ago, the evil visionary, Sci-Fye, became fascinated by a new form of computer virus that was discovered by AT&T in Hong Kong. It's called the Hong Kong flu, by the way. He modified it to infiltrate the banking system of Privy Ledged Town. It's not just one bank he's syphoning funds from ... practically every single one of them is currently contributing financially towards some grand evil plot.”

“What about that tricky little machine I brought you? How does it fit into all this?” asked the super hero. 

“The little device that you found was just the egg that hatched the initial virus and then self destructed. Sci-Fye used it to gain entrance into the bank's computer system, but once it was seeded, the thing self-destructed. I couldn't reconstruct the insides to figure out how it had done that. Sci-Fye was at his secretive best when he dreamed up that little trick.” 

Doc Tyger smiled thinly as he remembered the sleepless days and nights in his laboratory. “I finally had to add a power booster to the framcanister unit in the 4th dimensional toaster and send myself back to see the thing before it deactivated itself.”

“I overshot my time period by several years at first, until I got the hang of it.” He blinked through his glasses at Captain Future. “Sci-Fye didn't look any better when he was younger, I might add.” 

Doc smoothed a hand through his thatch of black hair and leaned back to look at the bank president's mask of a face with its frozen scowl set in place, still frozen in a timeless moment. “Takes his job seriously, don't he?” Doc fumbled in the great man's vest pocket and flipped a stomach acid tablet into the open waiting mouth. 

Doc Tyger was a self-made man without any fancy degrees, but he was rarely intimidated by the trappings of power and was always happy to help a man in need. Captain Future listened in amusement as Doc unraveled his story. 

“I was afraid to play around with the time nexus to prevent the disturbances in the banking system that had already happened up to date. Who knows how that would have changed the future ... so I mutated the virus a little to kinda switch things back in the next week or so.” Doc stared down at the bowl of his pipe in studied concentration.

“You've done well, Doc,” smiled Captain future, “but that still doesn't give us a handle on what kind of evil master plot is brewing, though it will give us some much needed breathing space! This ought to entertain Ace Britely a bit too ... listening to Sci-Fye explain what went wrong with his moneymaking virus. Be kinda' interesting when money starts flowing the other direction ... making deposits from their accounts to the bank's instead of the other way around. All nice and legal too.” 


Chapter 1
 
 
 
 

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

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