Time Flux: Welcome to the New World

Abject Failure

The transport was cold, dingey and due to recent events absolutely brimming with rage, confusion, and outright shock. The team were handcuffed and beaten. Clock was in the far corner with a large bruise below his right eye and blood pouring slowly from his nose. Oz was sat in the opposite corner, his hands in a similar binding device which had been magnetically fastened to the metal walls of the transport.

"James... I..." Oz said quietly

"Don't fuckin' open your mouth" James said, shooting a steaming look Oz's way before looking away once again.

Oz opened his mouth but could not bring himself to speak again, no good would come of it. They had been inside the transport for around 20 minutes in complete silence. He had no idea where Hannah was, only that she had been taken personally away. Oz wondered if he could have done things differently or whether it had been an elaborate trick. His mind drifted back to moments ago inside the small shop.

Clocks pistol rested mere millimeters from Ones temple. One was wide-eyed in shock; he had finally miscalculated. There was never a time in this horrible series of events that One had looked like the one who was about to lose. He had been 5 or even 6 steps ahead of them every time. Maybe that's why he slipped up, maybe he had begun to underestimate the travelers or maybe he simply was overcome with arrogance. Clock was filled with a mixture of rage and pleasure at the thought of ending his foe once and for all. Hannah watched on as she saw the man she had come to respect about to indulge in murder. Lila waited in the doorway unsure of how her simple life had become so complicated. But Oz, he only thought of the warning left by the clouded figure, knowing in his heart that the moment they had warned him about was about to come to pass.

Clock gritted his teeth, placed his finger firmly upon the trigger of his ancient weapon, and pulled. Nothing. No loud bang, no reverberating gunshot, no pain in the teams' ears from the immense wave of sound that should have come. Clock first looked at the gun and then at Oz. Oz stood there, Tech-Man in hand with 2 fingers rested upon its screen. Oz had used the Tech-Man to jam clocks gun mere milliseconds before he could end the life of One.

"Oz... why?" Clock asked, almost sad

"Fool!" One said as he twisted around.

Before Clock could react, One had thrust a full elbow into his right cheek with a loud audible crack. Blood from his mouth and nose sprayed in the air and onto Hannah's face. Clock completely out cold, fell to the floor with a deafening thud as his head crashed to the hard tiled floor below. Hannah began to run toward him before she was caught by her collar by One.

"You are coming with us. Don't worry, so are your little friends."

"Help him!" She shouted, pointing at Clock in a panic

Clock hearing her cry awoke from his painful slumber. He slowly rose onto his hands in a limp stance before pushing himself up and onto his rickety feet. He leaned down slowly to grab his weapon. A few more members of the organization had begun to enter the shop and stand on either side of One. One pushed Hannah into the arms of one of the men to his right side.

"Take this one, I want her up the front with us. The rest, take them into the hold" One said as he walked towards Clock

Clock placed fingers onto his weapon and tried to lift, dropping the gun the first time before painfully and successfully attempting it again. He lifted it up slowly before the gun was pointed steadfastly towards One. He pulled the trigger again. It was still jammed.

"Still a fool..." One said, grabbing the hand that was holding the gun and twisting it sideways almost snapping Clocks wrist.

"Agggh!" Clock let out a sickening scream, falling to one tired knee.

"You do not seem to get it do you, James?" One said, pulling the gun from his hand "You can never beat me, you can never win. I am simultaneously before you and after you. I have more knowledge and power than you will ever attain. I am better than you in every single way and I have more resources and manpower than you could amass in 10 lifetimes. I will commend you however on a fight well fought, even if it was a fruitless endeavor. Under normal circumstances, I may have invited you to join me."

One let go of One as he fell onto his other knee. He was now knelt before him, head down toward the ground defeated. One held the gun out pointing it at the top of Clock's head.

"I have learned one very important detail about you though, James Clock. You do not fear death. You go into it headlong over and over as if something were driving you to suicide. So I will not kill you this day for you would welcome it, you would embrace the end. However, I do not think your team believe in the same philosophy." One said as he swiftly lifted the gun, fiddling with its mechanisms with his other hand.

The sound, the one that had been missing moments ago when the war could have been over rung out within the shop. The organization members did not flinch as the team did. Clock looked up and over to Oz, he was placing his hands upon his own chest frantically.

"I'm fine? I'm okay? I don't see any blood, I don't see any..." Oz stopped dead, eyes wide as he ran toward the door.

All around the door frame of the shop entrance was now crimson splattered. On the ground, a few feet from the entrance lay more blood, some pink brain matter, and a few strands of long hair.

She was still stood, a look of shock still spread across her face. Her pink lips quivered ever so slightly as she began to fall backward. Oz jumped behind her as her lifeless body crashed down upon him. He completely ignored the pain as he tried desperately to rouse her.

"Lila!! Lila please!" Oz shouted, shaking Lila's face.

As he shook her face, her hair moved away from her right eye that was no longer there. One had shot true and the bullet carried straight through her right eye and out of the back of her head.

"Oh my god, Oh my god, oh my god! Lila please no... please don't go!" Oz said as tears began to drench his freckled face.

Clock looked on in despair. One did not even look at Lila, he remained to stare down at Clock, enjoying the despondency in Clocks eyes. One let a small grin crease his foul lips before kneeling in front of Clock, blocking his vision of Oz and Lila. Clock looked at him as he also stared back in his eyes.

"Listen and listen well, soldier. You will go quietly with my men, you will sit still and shut the fuck up as we take you to one of our facilities and you will watch on as I change the world. You want to know why, because I want you to witness it. I think you deserve at least that much. But beware, if you even think about doing anything that would get in the way I will do much worse than shoot Hannah in the head, are we clear?"

"Yes." Clock muttered

"I didn't hear you. Can you repeat that, loud enough for your idiot friends to hear?"

"Yes, we will not interfere."

"Grand! Men, take them away" One said as he stood up and walked swiftly out of the entrance, stepping over Oz and Lila's corpse as if they were rubbish on the floor. He did not even look down.

Men and women in black suits much like One's moved toward Clock on the floor and grabbed him underneath the armpits and pulled him to his feet. Clock did not resist as they dragged him out of the room. Another 2 men grabbed Oz as he fought to get back to Lila's body before being smashed in the head with the butt of a rifle, rendering him unconscious.

Three who had managed to get herself to her feet in the meantime gestured to 3 other individuals, 1 woman and 2 men to help her to the doorway.

"Make sure to come back and dispose of this mess" Three said, spitting blood.

"Absolutely Superior. We will incinerate the body" One of the men said.

"Perfect. Let's get out of this shit hole."