Time Flux: Welcome to the New World

Omen

Clock watched in slow motion as her hand whistled through the air and passed his right temple. He watched as she recoiled to take another strike, this time aimed at his sternum. As her hand approached him he placed his hand palm down deftly upon the back of her fist and pushed it down and away from him, spinning around and behind her in one swift motion. She smirked, she had preempted that Clock would make this movement and with almost lightning reflexes, moved her left arm up and into the right side of Clock's chin.

"Son of a bitch!" Clock shouted, rubbing his bearded chin

"Ha! Gotcha!" Hannah said, still holding her fists in the air

Clock had been running extensive combat training routines with his team in preparation for their mission into the organisation's maw. Oz had shown a remarkable aptitude for long-range firearms whereas Hannah, much like Clock, had been excelling in hand to hand combat techniques. The team had not left the safety of the cottage for almost 6 months, formulating their plans to think of each and every positive or negative outcome. One was an enemy who simply could not be underestimated.

They had heard nor seen anything regarding One or the organisation since they went into hiding, no sign of being pursued or watched in any way. It was as if they were no longer on his radar or they had simply deemed them unimportant. This made Clock feel very uncomfortable. He knew that One must know there was a likely chance he would survive his impaling, meaning One knew that he and his team were out there and he was letting that happen. One didn't care about them anymore and that was more demoralising than anything.

"Yeah..." Clock said, still rubbing his chin and ego "... Nice work"

"You remember what you said. If I hit you, you make dinner" Hannah said, smirking

"Shit."

The team had retrofitted a room inside of Ernest's cottage basement to use as a training room, whether that be combat or firearm training. It was nothing special and it was no bigger than a 21st-century garage. They both picked up a towel and began wiping the sweat from their brows. Clock was wearing a dirty white sleeveless vest top where you could clearly see his scar, now nearly completely healed underneath. Hannah looked down at it which did not go unnoticed by Clock.

"Think you will ever not see it anymore?" Clock asked

"It's a cruel joke that you lost the picture that you had here, close to your heart..." She said, placing her hand on the scar "...and you are now left with this in its place." Hannah said, moving her eyes up to Clocks face

"Listen, Hannah, this scar reminds me every day that we cannot and will not underestimate him. He will not ever take another thing from us, not my picture, not your finger, nothing! The next thing that's taken will be that fuckers life" Clock said with a determined frown

Hannah nodded and gestured that they leave and head out to the Lab to see how the team was getting on.

They left the room and immediately went to the laboratory section of the basement. Rutherford was leaned over a table making notes whilst Oz was in the corner of the room, building some kind of contraption. Lila was sat next to him with her arm around his shoulder offering encouragement.

"So how's it going?" Clock asked

"Hello there, comrades! Your chin is a little bruised James?" Asked Ernest

"Shut up..." James said, looking away as Hannah sniggered

"I'm nearly done fashioning the housing mechanism for the new time engine, we should just be able to place the new element inside and it will act as a battery for the vessel" Oz said, now with a small pistol strapped to his belt