Clockwork Chronicles Book I: Fractured

For Eighteen year old Matthew Griffin life is fairly normal until he discovers a time machine. Now that time is broken Matthew and his friends must solve a conspiracy years in the making.

The alarmed blared, as Matthew rushed to the shower, quickly washing his hair and putting on deodorant before slipping in to a pair of jeans, plain t-shirt and brown jacket. He ran to where he left his bike in the front yard and pedaled to school. As he raced to the building he passed an abandoned factory and thought that it might be a cool place to get some shots for the short movie he was working on for his photography class, but that would have to wait until he had time, so he pedaled on past. When he finally got to the school, he was greeted by his friends, Aiden and Tera.

“Hey guys and gals, how are you?” He asked

“I am just great, can you believe we are graduating in just a few days, all that school lead to this.” Tera responded.

“Yeah, that is a surreal feeling, soon we will be off to college and pursuing a career.” Aiden added.

‘Well at least we will still be in contact with each other, no matter what college we’re off to. Now let’s get to class before the bell, I don’t want to be late again.”

Matthew had known Tera and Aiden for as long as he could remember and was determined to keep their friendship alive after they graduated. As the day moved along, Matthew kept thinking back to the abandoned factory he saw on his way to school. He was always interested in old places and could not wait to get to explore it. Matthew had an interesting life, living with his father who was barley ever home and his mother had left years ago, after his sister was kidnapped at two years old. This was the past however and Matthew was not the type of person to look back, he was always striving to push his life further.

“So, Matthew, you have any ideas how to finish the movie?” Aiden asked

“Well, I thought that after school we could get some shots at the abandoned factory down the road.”

“You’ll have to go with Tera, I have to work today and I don’t get off till eight.”

“Your old man changed the hours for you?”

“No, I asked for more hours, working is literally the most fun I’ve had in ages. It also gives me something to do so there’s that.”

“Not metaphorically the most fun you’ve had?”

“Matthew, you know that I hate it when you do that?”

“That’s exactly why I do it.”

“Well, enjoy filming with Tera, alone, where no one can see you, where you could hypothetically ask someone out and not worry about anyone getting in the way.”

“Look, I really like her Aiden, but I don’t need you pressuring me to ask her out. I’ll do it on my own time.”

“Just trying to help.”

“Whatever, see you later Aids.”

“huuu…. yeah, see you Matt.”

Matthew did not want to admit it, but he knew Aiden was right. He may have always messed with him, but Matthew and Aiden were actually close friends. Aiden was the type of guy to always try to help someone out. Even if they did not necessarily need it. Matthew also knew that he would enjoy having some one on one time with Tera, who he had a crush on for almost three months now, even though he has known her for a lot longer. Tera was the perfect match for Matthew, they both had a sarcastic attitude, but underneath were attentive and willing to always listen to the needs of their friends.

“Hey Tera, are you free this afternoon?” he asked

“Yeah, why? Are you finally going to ask me on a date?”

“Wait, you know I like you?”

“Well, if I didn’t, I do now, but yeah it was kinda obvious.”

“Oh, well what I was asking was if you would mind filming some of the shots for the movie project with me at the abandoned factory?”

“Is Aiden joining us?”

“No, why do you like him or something?”

“I mean he is kinda cute, but I like you more Matthew. I would love to help, even though filming for a photography project at an abandoned building is not how I imagined our first date.”

“Hey, we could get a bite to eat after?”

“I would love to.”

Matthew was not sure if he knew what exactly was going on, but he was happy. As the school day ended, he biked home and gathered his gear for the photo shoot and grabbed some extra cash for dinner. With that he headed towards the factory. It only took Matthew a few minutes to get to the factory, he took the time to look around the place, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, it was just an old rundown building, the blackened edges of the roof made it seem that there was possible a fire, which Matthew thought could have been the reason it was abandoned. The inside of the building also had a bit of a charred texture, due to the overgrowth over the windows, a weird light was cast over hallway, he approached the door at the end and slowly pushed it open, the hinges creaking as he did. The room Matthew was now in was dark, with no widows allowing in light, using the light from his camera, he could make out the outline of row of computers. He walked towards one, noting how the model was from the late 80’s. As he made it to the back of the room, he noticed that the wall in front belonged to a smaller room with in the large one he was in. the sides of the smaller room were covered in all sorts of cables and cords, all leading back into the computers. As he felt the walls of the room, searching for an entrance, he discovered a breaker box, sliding the latch open, he saw that all the switches were flipped to the off position, carefully he pushed each to on. As he continued to flip the switches, a slow electric hum began to emit from the room. About half way through the switches, the lights began to flicker back to life. As he was about to flip the last switch to on, a voice stopped him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The voice said

“Who are you?” Matthew asked.

“My name is Omicron, and I’m here to help you Matthew.”

“Wait, how do you know who I am?”

“Well, I know quite a lot about you, for example I know that fourteen years ago your sister was kidnapped and that you would do almost anything to find her.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Look Matthew, if I told you how I know about your life, you’d never believe me and I don’t need the person about to turn this machine on to never believe me.”

“Ok, how about this, you tell me where my sister is and I won’t flip this switch.”

“I don’t know that Matthew.” Omicron said starting to look nervous. “I know you want answers and I will be willing to help you get some, but first you need to let go of the switch.”

“Why should I do that, tell me how you know about my sister now!” Matthew demanded.

“Ok, years ago I worked with your father, we were close friends, but something happened, I got sick so to say. He tried to help me but it didn’t work and I did something very bad to him. I did something that is unforgivable, but he still tried to help me. He knew that the sickness I had made me do things I would never do, it allowed me to see things too. That is how I found you, I had a vision of a boy trying to reactivate this machine.”

“What happens if I do, if I flip the switch?”

“If you flip that switch, the sickness that I had will return, this time with more power and will want to destroy everything. It will kill everyone you love.” Omicron said, now approaching Matthew.

“Answer this question Omicron, did you kidnap her?”

“Look, Matthew I would never, but the sickness…”

“Did you do it!”

“Yes, but it wasn’t up to me to decide.”

“Like I’m really going to believe that.” Matthew said as he flipped the switch. The machine began humming with an increasingly loud tone. Matthew saw flashes from many of the computers as Omicron rushed over to one and began frantically typing.

“Matthew, why would you do that, you doomed us all!” he cried as the miniature room began to emit a blinding light.

“You could have stopped me, you could have tried a lot harder, but you didn’t. Why is that?”

“Because I need the sickness to keep my visions.” Omicron said, laughing.

Matthew noticed two figures run into the room, they were Aiden and Tera.

“What on Earth is going on, half the town is in a total blackout?” Aiden asked Matthew.

“And what is that noise?” Tera added.

Another two figures entered the room and ran over to Omicron, they both were wearing similar outfits with different patches on their chest, one was the letter Sigma and the other Eta.

“Omicron, did the boy activate it, you said he wouldn’t?” Eta asked

“Hello Eta, so nice to see you”

“Eta, the magnet, it can hold the thing back.” Sigma shouted.

“You can’t stop me.” Omicron said, his voice distorting as the hum of the machine became louder. Eta quickly pulled a large magnet out of a case and attached it to the center of Omicron’s suit.

“Eta, Sigma I need you to take them back to the time safe, we can work things out from there, as for me, do not let me back in, now that the continuum is shattered, he’ll be able to get back into my mind.” Omicron said, sounding out of breath.

“The magnet should keep it out, you’re safe now.” Eta said

“This magnet may work now, but it won’t hold it back forever. Please take my watch and get them to the time safe, Harbinger is not safe anymore.”

“Omicron, what about the girl, where is she?” Eta asked.

“Aiden knows. Now go, I’ll try to hold it back for as long as I can.”

The two ran over to Matthew, Aiden, and Tera and told them to follow closely. Eta and Sigma both twisted the watches on their arms and attached the time pieces to the corners of a glass window. The glass shattered, but remained floating in the frame.

“Jump through, quickly!” they shouted. Each of them entered the window, then both the time pieces faded and the glass pieced back together. The humming in the room stopped and the machine released a wave of energy then all the power turned off. The room was empty, all the computers gone as well as the small room. All that remained was Omicron.

The others all arrived at the place Omicron had called the time safe, the building looked a conference area with upper floor living quarters. In the middle of the room was a round table with many chairs around it. There were also small benches around the room, giving it an almost food court appearance. As everyone regained their bearings, Sigma announced that this would be their new home until they could stop the time fracture.

“What did Omicron mean when he said that it’ll get back in his mind? Who was he talking about?” Matthew asked.

“The being that he was referring to does not really have a name, but it is evil, it wants the destruction of our worlds, years ago, the Coalition, led by Omicron, trapped it outside of time, repairing the first fracture, unfortunately, someone had to activate that damned device.” Sigma replied.

“Sorry about that, anyway, what was that device anyway?”

“That device is called a Clockwork which is basically a time machine. The problem is that it was just a prototype and is very unstable. A few weeks before you had to snoop around, we located it in that factory, Omicron told us to not destroy it because he had a vision of meeting someone very important at it, I guess that person was you.”

“So, let’s just trust the vision of a man who was once possessed by an evil time demon bent on destroying everything.”

“Don’t you dare call Omicron out, he is the one person who can fix all of this and now he’s evil because your sorry a*s had to ruin everything.” Eta yelled.

“Well, it seemed to me that he wanted me to flip the switch, he didn’t try really hard to stop me. Plus, if you think for a second I was going to trust the man who kidnapped my sister, you are foolish.”

“He didn’t kidnap your sister a*****e, the thing you let out did. Omicron is a kind person who would never do something like that. He has suffered every single day since then because he thinks it was his fault when it wasn’t.”

“Eta, why don’t you go check the life support, make sure everything is functioning properly.” Sigma suggested.

“Why do you let him talk about Oliver like that?” she said as she stormed off.

“Wait who’s Oliver? Is he the demon thing?” Aiden asked.

“Don’t worry about it, she’s just upset she and Omicron are very close. Now listen, Omicron isn’t evil, he is trying real hard to fix the mess created many years ago. Now you guys should pick your rooms and let me and Eta work things out.”

“Wait, what about Markus, we can’t just live him while that thing that controls your friend is on the loose.” Tera pleaded.

“Oh my god, Riley is all alone too, I have to go back and get her.” Aiden added.

“Aiden, what name did you just say?” Matthew asked.

“Oh, Riley, she is one of the new girls transferred to the orpahnage.”

“Aiden, Riley was the name of my sister. How old is she?”

“Oh, she’s sixteen but she’s an orphan and I’m pretty sure that your father is still alive at this point.”

“Aiden, she was kidnapped when she was two, there is no way she remembers our parents and that was fourteen years ago now, making her sixteen.”

“Well, I don’t know, she does have a necklace similar to yours.”

“Can you open the locket on the end?” Matthew said showing Aiden his locket.

“I’ve never really asked her. She only arrived two weeks ago. She seems very nice though and to be honest, I kinda like her.”

“Aiden, why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Well, I thought that you were tired of hearing my stories about work and was giving you a break.”

“Aiden, if my sister showed up at your orphanage, I think I could let it slide that you are bugging me about your work.”

“Well, we don’t know for certain that she is your sister, there are a lot of girls named Riley in the world.”

“Aiden, it has to be. My dad made only two of these necklaces and the fact that a sixteen-year-old girl named Riley, who has a heart locket necklace and doesn’t know her parents shows up in Harbinger the same time the person who kidnapped her does is no coincidence.”

Suddenly, Sigma came over and interrupted the conversation.

“Where is she Aiden, I need to know now!” he demanded.

“Well, Riley is with Markus back at the orphanage where I work, I was…”

“Eta and I are going to go get her.”

“Wait, what about Markus, you can’t leave without him.” Tera added.

“Okay, we will get both, but you three will stay here, we can’t let Omicron get his hands on you.”

“Why are we so important Sigma?” Matthew asked.

“Look I don’t know yet, but Omicron had spent so long looking for you so there is obviously something to that. Where is the orphanage Aiden?”

“Oh, it’s just off Beach, a road called Newell, big white building with the blue Brax Corp sign on it, you can’t miss it.”

“Ok, I’ll go get Eta and we will be leaving now.”

Matthew was still not one hundred percent sure that Sigma was trustworthy, but he was short on other options at the moment. He planned to use the time that Eta and Sigma were away to search the time safe. He knew that there had to be answers somewhere in the weird place. Sigma and Eta appeared back in the main room and used their watch device to open a gateway back to Harbinger, as they disappeared through the portal Matthew snuck off to the front of the safe. He proceeded down a hallway to what looked like the control room. As he looked through the different compartments, he noticed a picture of a young man and women wearing 80’s clothing. Matthew wondered who they were, but noticed a diagram underneath the picture, the diagram had the specs of a small room and heavy magnets around it. As he looked over the image, he realized that it was of the Clockwork. In the corner of the image was the name Ashton Peirce.  Matthew wondered who this was and how he could solve all the questions he had. He put the picture back in the drawer and began to walk out but he noticed a tape recorder on the desk. He rewound the tape and pressed play.

“Entry one. Hello, this is Dr. Ashton Peirce and my assistant Oliver Orwell. It is currently March 8^th, 1981 and we are commencing project Clockwork. The objective of this project is to determine how interdimensional travel can affect a person as well as how it can influence the time stream. The first subject is Mr. Orwell and the test shall begin when construction of the chamber is finished.” The tape went to static and Matthew pressed the forward button for a few seconds.

“…we are currently unable to determine how the entity has manifested within Oliver. This thing has taken a hold on his mind after it escaped, but its origins are unknown. It could be the fracture, but at this point, all this is just speculation.” Again, the tape began playing static, and again Matthew pressed the forward button.

“…we were able to mend the fracture at the cost of permanent damage to Oliver’s mind. He has told me that ever since the entity left him, he has had visions of a boy, returning to the site of the first activation. I feel that the damage caused is more extensive then I first conceived.”

“The boy is you, isn’t it Matthew?” Tera asked, walking into the room.

“You followed me?”

“Well, I heard a sound coming from the room and decided to see what was happening.”

“I found this tape recorder that belongs to a man named Dr. Ashton Peirce.”

“Final entry. It is currently December 15, 1997 and although I was twenty-three in 1981, I have only aged five years since. I believe that this is due to prolonged exposure to the time stream.  A similar effect has happened to Mr. Orwell for he has also maintained a youthful appearance.” The tape continued.

“So, this doctor dude created time travel, but it went wrong and made him immortal?” Tera asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know, let’s put this away and go make sure Aiden hasn’t accidently opened a portal to this void place.” 

The two made their way back to the main room and found Aiden sitting on one of the benches reading a newspaper from 1985.

“Hey guys, where were you? You weren’t off making out, somewhere were you?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.

“No, that was yesterday.” Tera said back. Tera and Aiden had an interesting relationship. A few years back they tried dating, but it never seemed to work out although they both really did like each other. They both were sarcastic and both had a lot in common, but they just weren’t meant to be, possible because Tera was blunt while Aiden was the type of person that just wanted peace.

“In all seriousness, where were you guys?”

“Well, I was trying to figure out who these people are.” Matthew answered.

“And I was wondering what he was doing.” Tera added. 

The three decided to look around the place, Sigma and Eta had said that there were rooms for each of them so the all claimed a room. After that they found the kitchen area and grabbed a bite to eat. They all hung out in the main room and waited for Sigma and Eta to return with Markus and Riley. Matthew went back to his room and lied on the bed wondering how he ended up in all this. Suddenly they was a humming noise in the main room and Matthew ran to check out what it was. He saw the mirror begin to shatter and suddenly Riley and Markus jumped through. The pieces of glass slowly formed back together and the portal closed. Aiden came running into the main room and, after seeing Riley, ran over and kissed her.

“I am so happy that you are safe Riley, I was so worried.” Aiden said tearing up.

“I’m so happy to see you to Aiden, who were those people though and why did they say that we needed to find a doctor?” Riley replied.

“Wait, Riley what was the doctor’s name?’ Matthew asked.

“Wait, who are you and how do you know my…” She cut off when she noticed the necklace Matthew was wearing.” You’re my brother?” she said, her voice shaking.

“Yes, I’m your brother Riley, my name is Matthew.”

“Aiden, was this the surprise you told me about?”

“Well, actually I had bought a very powerful telescope for are little observatory, but that’s nothing compared to finding your brother.” Aiden replied.

“I love you Aiden!” she said hugging him. 

While Aiden and Riley were embracing each other, Markus came over to Matthew and told him what Eta and Sigma wanted.

“So, let me get this straight, they want us to activate another Clockwork? How is that supposed to fix things, activating the first one didn’t turn out so well.”

“Yes, I know it sounds weird, but they said it would allow us to find Dr. Peirce.”

“Are we sure that this Dr. Peirce guy is all that he says he is? What if he doesn’t know how fix all this, what will happen to spacetime?”

“Well, if we don’t find him, Omicron will take over all of spacetime, and seeing that he is currently under the influence of so out of time demon, I think we are better off with the mystery doctor.”

“Well then, how do we do this?”

“Sigma told me that we should split into two groups, Aiden and Tera, and me, you, and Riley.”

“Good luck getting Aiden to agree to that, I don’t think he will ever leave that girl again.”

“Matthew, that girl is your sister, you have the right to determine what she does.”

“Well, I’ll try, but after that what do we need to do?”

“We will each arrive at the determined Clockworks then we activate them, easy as that.”

“Do you know where the second Clockwork is Markus? And the first, last time I checked, it looked like it was about to be consumed by a giant ball of energy.”

“The first one, the one you turned on doesn’t matter. The other two however, are located at the Harbinger Observatory and the Harbinger Central Hospital.”

“Well Markus, you’ve seem to answer all my questions so, how do we get out of here, wherever or whenever here is?”

“With these.” Markus said showing Matthew four watches,” They are programed to take us to the two Clockworks.”

“Ok Markus, let’s go then.” 

Matthew brought everyone in the main room to tell them the plan and as he thought Aiden objected to not being with Riley, but Riley convinced him that it would be okay and that she wanted to get to know her brother better. Matthew decided to also play the tape he found for everyone to understand the severity of the situation. They broke up into the teams Markus suggested and activated the watches. Slowly the surface that they put them on began to shatter and form the portal that would bring them to the Clockworks.

“See you on the other side.” Aiden said jumping through the portal. Tera followed him through giving Matthew a shrug as if meaning to say what could go wrong. Markus and Riley jumped through the other portal and Matthew followed. As Matthew made his way through, the glass on which the portal was made mended back together. The three found themselves in a janitor’s closet meaning that they were most likely in the hospital. The door opened and in stepped Eta.

“Good job you two, you did as we instructed, now we just need to get to the Clockwork and end all of this.” She said.

“How did you get in here without anyone noticing?” Riley asked.

“Well, Harbinger isn’t exactly in the best of shape right now.”

“What do you mean?” Matthew asked, pushing open the door. The hallway seemed normal, but everyone in it as still, frozen in time. To make things worse, all the glass and mirrors were in a permanent shattered state. 

“What did all this?”

“Well, that thing inside my friend’s mind is more powerful then we could have ever imagined. It has started to unwind the fabric that holds time together. In the most basic terms, Omicron is pulling Harbinger out of time.”

“What happens if we can’t stop him?” Matthew asked.

“Well, if all of the Clockworks are activated outside of time, the effects could destroy everything.”

“That is not going to happen though, we are going to fix this.”

 And with that Matthew, Eta, Markus, and Riley made their way through the distorted version of their home to the Clockwork. The door that lead to it was rusty and appeared to not have been opened in ages. On the door, under the rusty surface was a logo of stylized timepiece with an atom behind it. Under the logo was the word ‘Coalition’.

“So, I’m guessing that you have been here before?” Matthew inquired.

“Project Coalition, the group I was on, was tasked with researching temporal energy and how to contain it.”

“And you designed your own version of the Clockwork Dr. Peirce had made?”

“Yes, we implemented what we had discovered to improve upon Dr. Peirce’s original design, but may I ask you about how you know of Dr. Peirce’s research Matthew?”

“There was a tape recorder and some schematics in the time safe.”

“So, you went through Omicron’s room while we were gone?”

“Well, do you blame me, I was trapped in some place outside of time. Can I be a little bit curious to how exactly that worked?”

“Dr. Ashton Peirce used the funding he had received from Brax Corp to build his first version of the Clockwork, the one that you activated and started all of this.”

“I really don’t think that Aiden’s father would have funded a mad man.” Riley added.

“Wait, Braxton Lawrence is Aiden’s father, I should have known. That is why Omicron had me locate him.” Eta said in a shocked tone.

“Why me and Riley then, how are we important?” Matthew asked.

“Well, my assistant and very close friend just so happened to be Franklin Griffin, not to mention that our lab technician was Maria Crane.”

“My parents were members of the Coalition?”

“Yes Matthew, your mom and dad weren’t only Coalition members, they were my best friends.”

“What about Tera and me, how are we connected to this conspiracy?” Markus asked.

“You and your cousin were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t think Omicron even has a file on you two.” Eta answered to Markus’s dismay,” well, we are in, let’s finish this once and for all.”

Eta began to power up the device telling Matthew to contact Aiden so that they could activate the Clockworks. Matthew dialed Aiden’s number and waited for him to answer, but it just made a beeping tone.

“I guess the temporal shifts have blocked cellphone signals, we can try the spotlight. Matthew go up to the roof and try to get it to work.”

Matthew made his way back out the door to the elevator and pressed the button, nothing happened. He realized that time was frozen and made his way to the stairs. As he climbed the flight of stairs he thought about all that had happened, how differently things could have gone, to think, all he wanted was to get a good backdrop to his movie project and now he was trying to contact his friend with a spotlight while time was frozen. He made it to the top of the stairs and switched on the light, but again nothing happened why would Eta want him to come all the way up here just to find that the spotlight didn’t wok he thought. It was as if she wanted him to leave the Clockwork. Suddenly he realized that something was off and began running down the stairs back to the Coalition room. As he entered he saw Markus just standing there, as if frozen light everyone else. He noticed that his watch was gone as well. As he turned around he saw Riley lying on the ground unconscious. As he ran over to her he was stopped by some invisible force.

“Hello there Matthew, it’s been a while.” Omicron said, stepping out from behind the desk. “I thought you were smarter than that, falling for the whole leave the room trick. Well, it looks like you lose, there is no one left to activate this Clockwork and your friends will soon activate theirs’s and put the final crack in time, allowing me to control it all.”

“You underestimate my friends Oliver.”

“Don’t you dare call me that, Oliver is gone.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t like that name Mr. Orwell.” Matthew said as he slowly turned the front of the watch.

“I will end you if you don’t stop, Oliver Orwell died long ago, I am all that is left of him.” Matthew laughed at this. “Why are you laughing, you lost?”

“Did I?” Matthew said as he threw his phone to the ground under Omicron shattering the screen.

“You thought that throwing your phone would distract m? You must be very ignorant to think that such a foolish thing would stop my plan.”

“That wasn’t the plan, Matthew said as the broken glass formed back together and opened a portal.

“See you in the time safe Oliver he said as he slid the top of the watch over to the portal. Omicron fell through the opening and Matthew ran over to the Clockwork. “This better work.” He mumbled as he flipped the switch. The machine began to hum slowly the speeding up, began to release a light. As Matthew covered his eyes, the window in the back shattered and began to form a portal. “Hurry up you damn machine.” He yelled as Omicron reappeared at the window. A glowing ball of energy was forming in his hand.

“You should not have done that boy.” Omicron yelled as he threw the ball of energy. He watched as it collided with the opposite wall of the room, which was completely empty of everything except Omicron. When Matthew opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that he was in the middle of a construction site. He looked over to Markus who was now looking around with a confused expression on his face. Suddenly he remembered Riley and ran over to her. She was still unconscious, but alive. A young woman ran over to where they were and asked what happened.

“Well, we were just riding our bikes and my sister slid on the bank and fell down here, I think she knocked herself out.” Matthew lied.

“I’ll go get my boyfriend, he is a doctor, he can help your sister.” The woman said. “What is your name?”

“My name is Matthew and this is my friend Markus and my sister Riley.”

“Those are such beautiful names, I’ve always wanted to name my children those names one day. Oh, and my name is Maria Crane.” 

At this Matthew did not know how to respond. A truck pulled up around the corner and a man stepped out and made his way over to Maria. 

“Ashton this boy’s sister slid off her bike and knocked herself out, can you help her?”

“Sure, I’ll help, but I need some help getting her into my truck.” Another person exited the truck, he looked like he was in his early twenties, and walked over to Ashton. 

“Franklin can you help me lift this young lady into the backseat, she knocked herself out with a fall.”

“Right away Dr. Peirce.” He said

“Oh, and Franklin, can you bring these kids in your car, this is her brother and his friend.” After lifting Riley into the backseat Ashton drove off and Franklin went to get his car.

“Matthew, I think that that was Ashton Peirce.” Markus said.

“That’s not what worries me Markus, it’s that Ashton’s girlfriend is a younger version of my mother and that the man getting the car for us is my father.” Matthew replied.

“Where do you think we are Matthew?”

“I think the more important question is when, and judging by the outfits and cars, I think we are in the eighties Markus.”

………………

Without a second thought, Aiden jumped through the rift, appearing in the corner of the observatory. Shortly after, Tera appeared next to him.

“You remember this place Tera, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, this is where we kissed for the first time, before we broke up.”

“You know my dad owns this place.”

“So, is your dad actually Braxton Lawrence? I always thought that was just a joke with you.”

“So, you guys actually made it, good job!” Sigma exclaimed from next to the telescope in the center of the room.

“Sigma, your alive?” Aiden asked.

“you guys thought I was dead, me and Eta just had some prep work to do before activating the Clockworks.” He replied,” Anyway I believe I owe you an explanation. This observatory was built buy Braxton Lawrence, the owner of Brax Corp and a major subsidiary of Project Coalition and subsequently Project Clockwork.”

“My dad is part of you group, did not see that coming.”

“Wait, so you actually are Aiden Lawrence, when Omicron said your name was Aiden, I didn’t think he was referring to Braxton’s son.”

“Wait, you know me?”

“Well, I don’t but Omicron does, do you ever remember an uncle Oliver?”

“Wait, you don’t mean to say that Omicron is my uncle?”

“No, he isn’t your actually uncle, that’s just what your dad called him when around you.”

“Ahh, he is just a friend of my father. That makes sense now, and yeah, I think I do remember and Uncle Oliver. So that is who Omicron was all along?”

“Yeah, and Eta is his girlfriend, Liz Moore and my name is Marvin Tyler. Now let me show you your father’s Clockwork, I’m sure you’ll like it.” 

Sigma took Aiden and Tera down a long hallway to a door with a logo of a timepiece over an atom and the word ‘Coalition’ written under it. On the other side of the door there was a small room similar to the one in the abandoned factory. The room had wires coming out of one wall that led to a row of computers, Sigma started to activate the computers.

“Now, the reason that these are not effect by the temporal shifts occurring all around Harbinger is that there are super strong magnets surrounding these walls. Now once Eta calls us over my beacon, we will activate the two Clockworks and fix all of this. Unfortunately, the magnets protecting this room are interfering with my transceiver so I will have to wait outside and won’t be protected from Omicron.”

“Wait, he can’t get in here?” Aiden asked.

“No, your father’s team was focused on the research of defense against the thing that infected Oliver. That’s why it can’t get in here, we know that it’s composition is affected be the magnets, when the Clockworks are activated, the magnetic field created can trap the entity inside Oliver and send it back outside of time.”

“I’m sorry Marvin, but I don’t think I understood any of what you just said.” Tera commented.

“I did.” Aiden added.

“Well, I’m going to go out there and wait to hear from Eta.”

“Ok, just call us when we need to pull the lever.”

Aiden sat down at one of the rolling chairs and pushed himself in circles while waiting for Sigma, suddenly there was a loud boom from outside the room. Aiden heard something running towards the room. He looked down the hall and saw Sigma yelling for him to flip the switch. Right as he was about to reach the door, Omicron sent a metal pipe through his chest. As his body hit the ground, a loud humming began to emit from the machine and suddenly the whole room was engulfed in a bright light. Omicron sent a metal pipe flying into the room, but it just bounced off the opposite wall.

Aiden and Tera opened their eyes and were in a torn down building. Aiden looked around and noticed a girl sitting outside crying, he walked over to the girl and asked her why she was crying.

“My boyfriend broke up with me, because she liked my best friend more.” The girl said.

“That sucks, I’m sorry, by the way my name is Aiden.”

“My name is April, April Peirce.”

“By any chance is your father Dr. Ashton Peirce?”

“You have heard of him?” April replied, perking up,” Not many people know him, that’s cool that you have heard of his work.”

“Yeah, he’s a very interesting guy, he used to work with my father, Braxton Lawrence.”

“Wait, your Braxton’s son, Aiden, you are a bit of a legend around here. Where have you been all these years?”

“What do you mean, I’ve always been here?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Twenty-four years ago, you went missing without a trace. Your father spent tons of research grants on finding you, but there was no trace. Unfortunately, he took his own life a few years back.”

“No, this can’t be true, my dad would never kill himself, what is this?” Aiden said, tears filling his eyes.

“I’m so sorry Aiden, it was my dad’s machine, wasn’t it? It disappeared the same day you did.” Tera came over and stated yelling at the girl for making Aiden cry.

“What did you do to him?” She screamed.

“He didn’t know about his father, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t let him not know the truth.”

“What do you mean, where are we, when are we?”

“Welcome to Harbinger, May 18, 2041, you time traveled.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Looking for constructive criticism

Reviews

[ThyFilthyNoob]

Interesting so far just a few points I'd like to hit.
Your texts and paragraphs are hard to follow, you should make it easier for your readers to follow. I was a bit skeptical to read from the intimidating paragraphs of text.
The stories plot is good but the introduction of Omicron and the conversation seems very rushed, and the MC personality lacks a bit of emotion to me personally. Ex. He mentions the disappearance of his sister and he immediately asks why he should trust him. you should show his skepticism a bit more it'll make the meeting more convincing.
Also if such an evil threat against the world was present why let him flip the switch, i think Omicron should have explained the situation better.
Also the friendship between Aiden and Matthew is said to be close yet he didn't know he was dating his missing sister that a very big plot-hole i think personally, the realism of that is very unlikely in reality. Think about it wouldn't you know your best friends girlfriend?
It just feels a little rushed but the plot of the story is definitely good keep up the work man!

[Jacob Meyer]

Thanks for the review. I do want to go back and flush out some of the conversations more because, as you said, they do seem a bit rushed. I also want to add a bit more character development and work on the overall organization.