Running and Fuel

I made my way out of the bathroom and into the hallway after washing my hands, thoughts not stopping for a moment. All I knew about these Timepieces was that they could stop time for anyone who didn't have one, or something like that. Clocks worked like normal until the Timepiece stopped influencing things, and then they fixed themselves, going back to whatever time they were at before time stopped.

It was all so confusing and annoying, and it made no sense, but I was forced to stop thinking about it when I reached my classroom once more. I caught a few gazes when I entered, but Rosaline in particular seemed to be concerned. Quickly, I turned my eyes from her and got to my seat before Mrs. Hughes could say anything about me loitering.

Hearing the final bell of the day, I felt like I could finally breathe. Having a parasitic watch strapped to my arm and being unsure of whether it would suck my blood up at any moment was a surprisingly suffocating feeling. Like I was cuffed to myself.

Sounds of bags zipping open and closed, and screens being turned on and off, among other things, were calmingly normal. Life was still going on as usual.

Before I could get caught up in any conversations, I left the classroom. Getting home as quickly as possible was the only thing on my mind now. Once I was home, I could figure out what exactly to do about the whole "Timepiece" situation.

For the moment, I glanced down at my wrist, half past three. Kiara was probably getting bored alone and I wouldn't be home for another thirty to forty minutes if I didn't take the scenic route. So, for her sake, I sucked it up and made my way to the station. The train left at 3:45 every day, with no time for delays and no stopping the sky train for a single person. The walk from school to the station was relatively short, only about five to ten minutes at a moderate pace. If you left school on time, you'd pretty much never miss the sky train. That's why when I arrived at the station with only two minutes to spare, I was surprised to see it empty.

It was then that I noticed the monotone state of the world and the slowly expanding colors radiating from the sky train tunnel. Two individuals sped out of the tunnel, fighting all the while. Throwing projectiles at each other that stopped in front of the other, never getting more than a few inches close to them.

In my dazed state, I hadn't noticed the lack of sound or grey tones of the world. The route was a familiar one, and it was the type of thing you went on autopilot to do. The fight in front of me, however, was far from familiar.

The two, one male, one female, both wearing watches that shone with more color than anything. moved at speeds faster than any human could hope to achieve. Taking a glance at my Timepiece I realized that about a tenth of the watch had its crimson lining drained from it. It was likely that it was using my blood to fuel its protective measures against the temporal distortion or whatever it was called.

Knowing what would happen if the watch became empty, I started to take my leave, moving slowly to not draw any attention in the frozen world, but that was when one of the two people fighting landed a hit, launching their opponent into the wall not too far from me.

The man of the two audibly groaned as the impact made a sizable crater in the wall, but I could see all his injuries and the damage to his suit getting fixed up in an instant like they were never there. The best thing I could think of was that he healed himself by reversing time, but my thoughts were cut out when the woman who had punched him over, came flying by, leg out in a kick.

She was accelerating more with each passing millisecond and the man seemed like he feared whatever was coming. To stop himself from getting hit, he pressed a button on his watch, the design of it was different from mine, but it maintained its silver lining from what I could tell, no red in it at all. Whatever button he pressed accelerated his movements many times over, allowing him to just barely evade the foot that planted itself into the wall.

This woman, whoever she was, was going for the kill. Her red hair fell across her shoulders elegantly, somehow looking unperturbed even after her high-speed escapades. She wore a white blazer over a green shirt and some jeans. Somehow, she was fighting in heeled boots, and she slipped into a fighting style effortlessly, watching her escaped prey with sharp eyes.

I wanted to move, to run away, but I had the sinking feeling that the second I did, I'd be noticed. Looking down at my watch I saw that the red had receded almost halfway through the watch.

"Fuel capacity at 50%, estimated five minutes left until refueling is needed."

I was thankful that I knew how much time I had left to get out of there before more blood was forcefully taken from me, but I had no idea if I'd get the chance to run away. Even if I did, I didn't know the range that the time distortion worked in, did it stop time everywhere? The whole planet? If it was more than a mile then even at a full sprint, I wouldn't be able to make it out of the range, I'd just have to hope that either they stopped in the next five minutes, or that the range was small enough for me to escape.

There finally looked to be an opening when the lady in the blazer launched away from my area, apparently not seeing me or the fact that color was leaking from my watch. I bolted to the entrance, the way I came from, but my lucky break was cut off when…

"Hey! Did you bring some random civilian into your Timezone?!"

The man's voice almost made me stop dead in my tracks, but my survival instinct powered through the reflex.

A thought popped into my head, something to help me escape into the crowds outside before either the lady or the dude decided to chase me. In a desperate but quiet plea, I asked my Timepiece a question, hoping this wasn't something it needed the Timewire or whatever it was called for.

"Timepiece, can you make us faster?!"

My hushed voice managed to reach the watch and I got a reply promptly.

"Using the Time Acceleration function will consume twice the fuel used in normal functions, would you like to proceed?"

"Yes!"

In an instant, I sped up, or to be exact the world rushed past me faster. My limbs and mind felt like they were working on overdrive and adrenaline rushed through my body. I took a glance at my watch and the crimson was draining from it fast. Risking a glance behind, the lady from before hadn't pursued me, instead, she looked on with what was almost indifference. I could tell that there was something else there, but it was minuscule in the grand scheme of things. That and I got out of there before anything worse could happen.

Once I was out of the station and in an alley, I ordered my watch to turn off the Time Acceleration, bringing things back to normal. My thoughts slowed down and I felt as if I had just run a marathon.

"Fuel capacity below 10%, power saving mode will be initiated. Forced activation below 10% will cause emergency refueling."

Checking the Timepiece, the clock already read 3:40, the time had normalized from the distortion earlier. I had been in the distortion for three minutes before I noticed anything. But now that things were back to normal if I just walked with the crowd, I wouldn't be at risk, right?

Doing just that, I got back to the station, this time things were normal. The crater in the wall from earlier was gone but I'd figure out exactly how this whole, time distortion thing worked later. For now, I just wanted to get home.