DUKE HYPER — STUCK BETWEEN SECONDS
Written by Charles Ransom III
Duke Mercer was never chasing destiny.
He was chasing time.
Once an elite runner with a future measured in medals and finish lines, Duke’s life shattered the moment his body failed him. Doctors said he’d never run again. What they didn’t understand was that speed was never just in his legs—it was in his soul.
When a dangerous experiment involving SplitFrame time-energy rewired his broken body, Duke didn’t just regain the ability to run. He broke past it. Past seconds. Past moments. Past history itself.
Duke became Duke Hyper—the quickest man alive.
But his power came with a cost no one warned him about.
Every time Duke runs through time, time runs through him. Each jump ages his body. Each correction fractures reality. Every attempt to fix what was lost pushes his family further out of reach. His wife waits in a timeline he can’t stay in. His children grow older in futures where he’s only a memory.
Still, Duke runs.
Not for fame.
Not to save the world.
But to save moments.
On his first night as a hero, Duke outruns a bullet to stop a bank robbery—learning firsthand that heroism isn’t about speed, but about sacrifice. With every life he saves, he feels something taken back. Time always collects.
As the timestream destabilizes, Duke comes face to face with SplitFrame—a living fracture of time itself. Not just an enemy, but a warning. SplitFrame tells Duke the truth no one else will: if he keeps running through time, he won’t just lose his future—he’ll erase it.
Knowing he may never return, Duke records a holographic message for his children. To them, he is still Duke Mercer. Their father. The man who taught them to ride a bike. But he asks that they also know the man he became—the hero who kept running so love wouldn’t disappear.
“I am Duke Hyper—the quickest man alive,” he says.
“And one day… I will run back to you.”
This is not a story about outrunning villains.
It’s about outrunning regret.
About choosing love over certainty.
About a man trapped between seconds, too human to stop, and too fast to stay.
Duke Hyper isn’t trying to save everything.
He’s trying to save one moment—
before time takes it forever.
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Almighty Ransom Joined: Dec-25-2025 |
