Part 2: Mr Crane

“Mr Crane, I’d like you to meet Mark Edwards, our resident spy,” Lieutenant Burns said, chuckling a little to himself as the tall, broad man entered the room. Mark Edwards was just about six feet in height, with a sharp jaw that looked as if it had seen many punches and cold blue eyes, piercing and cautious by nature.

“Well, I don’t know about spy,” Edwards said as he leaned against the edge of the reception desk. Sitting across from him was another man, only about average in height with dark hair that had some thin silver streaks beginning to run through them. “Now what’s all this about anyways?” Mark asked, wondering why he’d been disturbed from the nap in his office.

“Mr Crane here is a professor of, what was it again?”

“Metaphysics,” Crane interjected.

“Right, right, metaphysics, he has some interesting theories on fortune telling,” Burns snickered to himself. Mark raised an eyebrow, almost in annoyance to Burns.
“Stop joking with me Burns, I’m not really in the mood,” Edwards said coldly. Crane snapped his head around, glaring at Burns.

“Yes, stop making a mockery of me! Now is this man going to take me seriously or not?” Crane demanded.

“Calm down, calm down,” Mark said, looking to Crane. “Perhaps you tell me these theories of yours then and I can figure out why the hell you called me out here,” Edwards give a short, yet deathly glance to Burns.

“Well, it starts with a short experiment I started about six months ago, something to do with the passage of time, really unimportant, but was the catalyst for the next set of ideas,” Crane started, suddenly interrupted by Edwards holding up his hand.
“If it starts six months ago, I better sit down!” Edwards said, grabbing a chair from the other side of the counter and swinging it over the edge, finally resting himself, leaning forward with the chair spun around. “Ok, continue.”

Crane looking slightly annoyed, took in a breath before continuing. “Anyways, as I said, I began by trying a simple experiment about the relativity and fluidity of time and more specifically how we move through it and to see if we could move in and out of it. Like I said, none of that was really important, I suppose you’d call it time travel but it was just a tinkering curiosity I had which didn’t really prove to do anything other than waste my time.” Crane looked over at Burns, who already had his chair pushed onto the rear legs and was fast asleep. Crane looked back at Mark, irritation on his face. “I take this as a sign to get to my point.”

“You could,” Mark casually replied.

“Right, well, the experiment was the catalyst as I mentioned before. Now being a professor of metaphysics, a certain amount of, shall I say, spirituality becomes involved. Once called magic, now a form of science, think of it what you will, but it’s a vital part of all this.”

Mark glanced out the large glass windows that surrounded the station. The bright noon sun seemed to quickly be disappearing and the room had a certain chill about it. Mark caught Crane staring at it too, an almost unnatural darkness. Mark looked at Crane who seemed lost in a trance.

“Mr Crane?”

“What’s that?” Crane said, jumping a little in his chair.

“You drifted off there, you were talking about magic.”

“Yes, yes that’s right. So as I was saying, an element of the supernatural becomes involved. I began mixing my experiment of time with black magic of sorts. I don’t know why really, it seemed to draw me, almost control me. But what I found... extraordinary.”

Mark glanced at the window again, the darkness surrounding the building as if it were a conscious entity. Mark crossed his arms, the room feeling cooler than even a minute before. “So what was it?” Mark asked.

“I found a gateway, I caught a glimpse, a glimpse of the future Mr Edwards!”

Burns jolted awake as his chair came crashing forwards. Mark jumped. He quickly collected himself, only just becoming aware of how tense and quiet everything had gotten.

“What I miss?” Burns asked, glancing back and forth at Crane and Edwards.

“Nothing you’d be interested in,” Mark said coldly. Mark looked to Crane who seemed pale all of a sudden. “So why did you think you had to come tell us? What does this have to do with cops?”

Crane glanced around, suddenly anxious.

“It’s happening!” Crane said, barely audible.

“Mr Crane!” Mark snapped, becoming impatient. Crane looked over at him.

“Because Mr Edwards, you were in it, you were in the future that I saw! One bullet for me and another...another for you!” Crane raised his hand and pointed a finger out the window. Mark spun around. Outside, it was pitch black.

woah... this is so cool, im guessing the rest is what led up to part 1?my only problem with it is crane using the word "anyways" it doesnt sound very scienty....

Just because he is "scienty" doesn't mean he obligated to use "scienty" words

i guess you're right on that, but it still quirks me, but its only minor, with only parts i still find myself enjoying this

Deoran Drages wrote:woah... this is so cool, im guessing the rest is what led up to part 1?my only problem with it is crane using the word "anyways" it doesnt sound very scienty....

As you'll find out, Part 1 is only about the middle-3/4 of the overall story