Adventure Contest Entry: Gold Fever

Timebender arrived at the site of the Leprechaun's lair with his collected gold and his camera.  He was a Photographer in daily life, so getting pictures for his paper was half the reason he was here.

He had come to Ireland at the first rumor of the Leprechaun and had been seeking to photograph him, though he had found a number of coins in the search even before he was ordered to collect as many as he could find and try to return them to the pot of gold.  

Something was wrong with the situation, he knew it.  Every hero he met had almost the same amount of coins.  Ordinary People he met seemed to not want to part with the coins, even at above fair market value.  Discovering that a huge crowd was gathering where the coins were to be delivered made his bad feeling even worse.

An explosion revealed the Leprechaun's home, and the Leprechaun also.  Timebender began snapping pictures as the tiny man rose to his feet and dusted himself off.

The Leprechaun spoke, demanding his coins be returned and promising gifts to those who aided him.  Timebender realized: The Leprechaun is trying to cause a riot...intentionally.

Quickly calling upon his horde of time clones, Timebender began attempting to restore order.  When the crowd of ordinary people started adding to the confusion by rushing in to try to grab the coins the heroes are placing into the crock of gold, things just for worse.  Even though there are possibly a thousand Timebenders, they can not be everywhere at once.

All of his selves were hit by the mystical explosion, though all but the original vanished back into the timestream.

It took a few moments for him to recover, and he watched as the hooded man appeared and gloated over
tricking the Leprechaun into releasing his power so he could take it before vanishing.  This can not be good.  The last time they faced him, he was tough but they beat him quickly.  With the power stolen from the Leprechaun added, it may be much harder to win.

Well, at the least he got his pictures for the paper.  He will be paid for his time and effort.  It is better than nothing.