The world is ember. Fire. Flaming. The screams haunt me. I hope that it was a dream. A dream in which everything that could go wrong, did. In the dream, Harold survived. In the dream, I listened to him. In the dream, I didn’t see what I would become. But dreams are dreams. They never happen.
The world is ruin. All around me, I see statues of my failure. Houses, signs, buildings: destroyed. I walk for miles on end, till I find shelter. A man and his family give me food and water, and I leave shortly after. The fire haunts me still. The warp. My future. I walk to a nearby city, where I see a CNN report.
“What was the major nuclear surge in Cairo that killed millions? Who did this? We have just found out that acclaimed nuclear physicist Harold Craig was killed, with his family in the explosion. He was on a archaeological hunt with his childhood friend, Barry Thompson. Thompson is also presumed dead.”
I walk away from the TV screen, and find a telephone. I call my friend, my only other friend, William Heffern. He is a journalist who works for the Washington Post in DC.
“William. I need you to listen to me. I am alive. That’s all that matters. Call the Press, the Post, all of your friends. Get me on a plane from Giza. I was the one who-”
“Barry! You’re alive. Thank God. Yeah, I’ll call them up. You are coming home. We can talk about it then,” William exclaimed.
I travel to the airport with my limited money. I show them the ticket confirmation for the ticket William had bought for me. They check me in, and I proceed to security.
“Sir, do you have any metals with you that could be of harm to your fellow passengers?” The thickly accented security man says.
“No,” I reply gruffly.
He moves his metal detector around my body, and picks up high signals. The man winces, but I feel a sense of fear. When I feel it, the metal detector stops picking up the signals.
“Sorry sir, must have been a malfunction. Move along,” He says.
I proceed to the boarding area, where I feel a twinge of happiness, that I am finally going home. I get onto the plane, and I sit next to a burly man. He smiles, and reads a newspaper. I smile back, and look out the window.
“All passengers, please put on your seatbelts. We might be in for a bumpy ride….” He continues with the usual safety regulations.
We take off, and I see the decimated city of Cairo in the distance. Hundreds of helicopters surround us, filled with news reporters. I peer into the window, and see a frightening, but familiar sight. The blue warp. It appears, and swallows the helicopters. Once it finishes its task quickly, it capsizes into another blue orb. Mysteriously, it turns and almost looks at me. The orb then expands, and sends off another surge.
“EVERYONE GET DOWN!!” The captain yells over the intercom.
It was like time stopped. The wave came closer, closer, and closer. I detached my seatbelt, and lifted my hand to reach the oxygen mask. Instead, blue light shot out of my hand, opening a giant portal inside the plane. Everything was being sucked into the portal, including the people, when the surge hits the plane. The plane explodes, sending fire everywhere. I hear the screams of hundreds when I am lifted from my seat into the portal. I hold onto the burly man’s seatbelt to keep myself from entering the warp again. The fire gets closer, and closer. Inches away from me, I detach his seatbelt, sending both of us into the warp. I see the fire come into the warp, but it closes jarringly, washing the fire away.
“You will see the suffering. You will see what you will become. You are mine. I have seen your heart, and it is mine. Your friends. Your family. All of their deaths. You shall see them. You must not go back to America. Your end begins there.” The mysterious voice ominously tells me.
My mother. My father. I see them. I see them cry for me. I see them fall. I see William telling me to run. Telling me to hide. Telling me to leave. Finally, I see Harold. Harold, my childhood friend. The one who warned me. Who told me that I was going down the wrong path. I feel anger, pain, suffering. I will avenge Harold. I will seek justice for what he did.
“Why are you doing this! Killing him, showing me these terrible things!” I shout in disgust.
“Because you need to see this. The universe depends on this. My life depends on this. You must not go back to see William. You will destroy the universe. This is a mere way of showing you of the pain I will cause if you go forward with what William is planning,” The voice replies.
“What is William planning?” I shot back.
“You shall see,”
The world morphs again. I see the passengers, floating throughout the warp. They all are sucked into another portal, taking them back to the airport. Then, I realize that I am not in real time. I am being traveled through time. That is why the passengers are going back to the airport. I look at my palms, and raise them. The blue light takes me to where I want to go, William’s home. I am absorbed through it. An aura of purple, grey, and blue light surrounds a tunnel, propelling me through time. I see a plane landing, and William meeting me in the airport. I raise my hand again, to the height of my neck, and the tunnel stops suddenly. The warp morphs into itself, but  I try to climb out of the tunnel. I am stuck, and I try to move,  but a glue-like substance restricts me. I look behind me, and fire flows through the tunnel, and almost reaches me, but I break free. I turn around and raise my hand, and create a shield of sorts to block the fire. I close the warp, and find myself sleeping in a bed. I wake up suddenly, and I see my friend, William J. Heffern standing in front of me, smiling.
“Barry, you’re awake!”

“We have lots to talk about,” Will said, “But let’s get you all well and good,”
Will showed me to the kitchen, where he had breakfast made. My favorite meal, eggs sunnyside up was waiting for me.
“Barry, I know about your powers. I know you caused the explosion in Cairo.”
I almost choked on my eggs.
“How?”
He said, “I’m a journalist, I know that you were at the scene of the explosion’s origin. Also, I know you were on the plane that crashed in the Indian Ocean, where you were the only survivor,”
“The plane crashed? What happened to all of the people?” I said shockingly.
“Well, not technically. It exploded in midair. Something similar to the Cairo Disaster happened, so I know now that you are the cause for it. And as for the people, we don’t know. Something happened to them. Prevailing theory is that after the explosion, the people were vaporized. But its peculiar, the explosion only hit the south side of the plane,”
“William, I need to know that I can trust you with this information,”
“Of course,”
I took a deep breath, and told him the story of Harold, and his death.
“There was a voice. I felt like I recognized it. It showed me, terrible things. And it told me that yo-,”
“Barry. I want you to listen carefully,”
I nodded slightly.
“The FBI is coming. They want to know about how Harold died. But, I negotiated with them, and they said that as long as you submit yourself for experimentation, you are cleared for investigation,”
I slid my food away, and thought. The FBI? How would they know?
“You told them?! Why!”
“I was under oath. They had a warrant Barry. They were going to arrest me,”
I understood, but wanted more answers.
“Who wants me for experimentation?”
“Sentinel Labs,”
Sentinel Labs. The largest tech conglomerate on Earth. And the lab for which Harold worked for.
“It’s the only way,” Will said.
I nodded, but sighed. I needed to learn more about my powers. That would be the only way to honor Harold. I proceeded through the rest of the day normally, going to the grocery store, and just doing the usual things. I went to sleep, and was content with my life. Tomorrow, I would go to Sentinel, and they would find out who I truly am. Whatever I do with the rest of my life, this will define me. Whatever these powers are. Then, another blue orb appeared. It looked at me, and sucked me in.
“You didn’t listen to me. Sentinel. Those fools. Those imbeciles. Those villains. Don’t you understand? These people will destroy you. They will take whatever you feel is still you. The man who left for Cairo is gone. You must become whole, you must rebuild what was taken. YOUR POWERS MUST NOT LEAVE YOU! DO NOT LET THEM TAKE IT FROM YOU! WILLIAM MUST DIE!” The voice was back. Back with a vengeance.
“No! These powers have brought me nothing but pain. William will help me. Why are you doing this? I don’t want this suffering. I don’t want this future! Sentinel will help me. They will help me understand what happened,”
“This, is what will happen,” the voice said.
A pain coursed through my body, eating away my feet and legs. They were disintegrating. The pain was unbearable. My body was being ripped apart. I took one last breath, and descended into darkness.
At that moment, I woke up.

 The voice. Who is it? It seems familiar, but I cannot begin to think of a person like that. It’s voice haunts me. The images it showed me. The voice must be destroyed. The person behind the voice must be destroyed.
The next morning, William and I board a plane to San Francisco. I was scared after the incident in Cairo, but the flight went smoothly. Immediately after we left the plane, security detail was ready to take us to Sentinel Labs.
“Are you Bartholomew Joseph Thompson, of Alexandria, Virginia, age 33?” The security man inquired.
“Yes,”
We proceeded to an armada of black cars. They pointed me to the one in the middle. I sat in the soft, cushiony seats, and admired the advanced technology in the car.
“Barry Thompson? My name is Akenton, the artificial intelligence of Sentinel Labs. I will guide you on your journey with Sentinel. I request you to put on your seatbelt, so we start your experience,”
“Experience?” I replied.
Akenton did not reply, but the security man started the car. After 45 long minutes in the car, we arrived at the “Labs of the Future”. I marveled at the machinery that was inside. They had hover technology. One scientist was testing hover boots. These were the stuff of dreams. Then we passed the weapons division. Military men were testing plasma technology. A long rifle was being tested against a firing range.
“Sir, the plasma technology can be blinding. Please look away from the firing range,” The security man says.
I turn in the knick of time, and I hear a bellowing sound. It was like everything was being ripped apart. I turn after the shot was fired, and see that the firing range was blown to bits. I was in awe. Then, I saw where I would discover my powers. In big gold letters, a door said the words “Human Experimentation”. The detail opened the doors, and let William and I in.
“Sir, if it's ok with you, we would like to start the experimentation now,” The head of security said. His badge said his name was Marcus Henderson.
“Sure, I-,”
“Great, please follow me,”
William stopped me before I entered the experimentation room.
“Are you ready?” He said.
“Yeah. It can be that bad right?” I replied gleefully.
I was wrong.

The detail took me into a room filled with scientists, and giant sphere in the middle of the room, with a door, and a machine with clamps for my arms and legs.
“Mr. Thompson, if you could follow me into the Halo,”
“Halo?”
“The giant sphere,”
“Oh,” I felt embarrassed
The scientists disrobed me, and put me into the clamps. They hurt initially but the pain subsided.
“Ok, we are just going to inject some Thought Serum into you. If everything goes according to plan, we will be able to travel back into the Warp with you,” The scientist said.
“So that’s what we are calling it now? Thanks for taking my suggestion guys,” William interjected.
“What the heck are you talking about William?” I asked jokingly.
“I suggested the name, the Further. Guess they didn’t like it,” William replied.
The scientist ignored us, and asked, “Are you ready Barry?”
“Let’s get this over with. But do we really need to go back in there?” I pleaded.
“It’s necessary. Injecting in 3. 2. 1,”
“Wait, what’s this Thought Seru-,”
I was sucked back into the Warp, but this time I could move freely.
“Barry, can you hear us?” William says out of nowhere.
“Where are you Will?” I say.
“Up here, in the Halo.” He was interrupted by the scientist.
“Barry, we can see the Warp through the digital interface,” the scientist said, “Something, someone is interfering with this though,”
Right when he said that, a giant shadowy figure appeared in front of me. It was at least 70 feet tall.
“I told you Sentinel will destroy you. I told you that your life will be destroyed. Now you will see,” The voice ominously returned.
“GO AWAY!” I yelled.
“Barry, what’s happening? We can’t see anything,” The scientist said.
I let out a giant scream. Pain coursed through my body, I was going to die. It felt like someone had taken a knife and stabbed me repeatedly. I see the images from before. My parents dying. A woman I am marrying being shot in front of me.
“AHHHHH!” I drop to my knees hollering. The blue light releases from my hand. The warp disappears. I arrive back in the Halo.
“BARRY! What is happening!” William yells as the Warp energy surrounds the Halo.
The lab equipment bursts into flames, and the scientist dives to safety.
“BARRY, STOP THIS!” William repeats.
The power is no longer in my control. The glass breaks on the Halo’s walls. It swirls around. The retractable door opens, and William is let out. As he leaves, the blue energy comes towards him. I see the look of horror on his face, the fear. The fear of your best friend killing you. The energy hit his abdomen, and an explosion occurs. He sinks to the ground with a gaping hole in his chest. And then, I see Harold. Harold staring at me, and I kill him also with the blue light.
“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
I black out.
 

I wake up in a hospital bed. I look to my side and see an IV running through my forearm. It injects a strange green fluid into my body. The Thought Serum.
“You’ve woken up. Magnificent.” The scientist walks in with more of the green fluid.
“I want to leave. Now. William is dead. I need to be the one to tell his family-” I am interrupted by the scientist.
“Oh no. William is not dead. We merely put Thought Serum into you. It is an agent that gives a simulation of your worst fears. I had a hunch your powers were controlled your emotions. You see, when you are distressed, your powers are released. When you are happy your powers are controlled. We need to do more tests now,”
“No! You are monsters. I’m calling the police,” I reached for the phone on my side.
The scientist smirked, “If so, let me explain to them that you killed Harold Craig in cold blood. And you are probably wondering, how would you prove me guilty? Well, we have his body here, with a bullet going through his head, from a gun registered to you,” The scientist retrieves a body bag from under the bed, and zips it open. The rotting and mangled corpse of Harold Craig sits still.
I jump back, afraid of Sentinel. The voice was right. They were torturing me. As I was thinking of how I could break out of this place, Agent Henderson grabs me and hauls me to the Halo. When I arrive there, I see a horrifying site.
In a cell, hung by his arms, William stands scared and fearful.
“Help me Barry! I was wrong! I never should have brought you here!” He yells in anger and fear.
I couldn't help but rush to his cell to break him out, but Henderson sticks a pair of electrical binders on me.
“These binders will restrict your powers, so any plan you had of getting out is improbable,” He smirks.
They force me into the Halo, and stick me into the clamps. They stick an IV with a new fluid, and leave me in the room. I moan in pain, the unbearable pain. The world descends into shadows, though a figure appears. He walks toward me, slowly. I recognize him, but I cannot place the face. As he gets closer, I see who it is. Harold.
“They were my world. And you took them from me. All of them,” He said. Peering into my eyes, Harold takes out a revolver. He points it at my forehead. “Although you may be a nuisance, I have other plans for you,” Harold changes his tone suddenly. He laughs maniacally, and shoots me in the head.
I awaken in the Halo. The scientist smiles and laughs at me. He then pulls a remote out of his pocket and pushes a giant blue button. I hear the hums of electricity in the back of the clamps, and before I know it, I am fried by electricity. This pain was more than any other. It was real.
“Leave the room,” The scientist says ominously, “Look Barry. We have a lot to talk about. First, you must die. Second, you must die. Third, well, I think you get the point. Before I kill you, I think you must know the truth behind your powers. I-” The scientist is interrupted by a large rumble.
The security detail rushes into the room. Seconds later, they are hit by a plasma blast, and knocked to the side. I hear explosions and more people getting shot. The room shakes and parts of the ceiling come crashing down. Maybe Harold survived. Maybe he came back to save me. I hear sirens outside, but more Sentinel security rush in. They back away, towards me and the scientist. A barrage of plasma is fired into the room and hits everyone in security except Henderson, who kicks the door of the Halo and points his gun at me.
“Is this some kind of setup? Who are you working with?!” Henderson shouts accusingly.
“I don’t know what the heck is happening here also!” I retort.
Henderson raises his gun, and c***s it. His finger moves towards the trigger, when plasma blasts fire around the room. I hear footsteps coming closer. Smoke from the fire caused by the blasts clears, and I see a triumphant sight.
William, armed with the plasma gun we saw in the Weapons Testing Wing, fires at Henderson. The shot hits him in the abdomen, and he crumples to the ground.
“Come on, I’m not leaving you here. We have stuff to talk about,” William orders.
I follow him willingly, and I realize that the scientist disappeared. I keep walking, and pass the Weapons Testing Wing. I run through the doors of it and grab a repulsor gauntlet. It biometrically links itself to my hand and I let my powers consume me. A beam of blue light shoots out and hits the doors in front of me.
“Hey, why don’t you speed it up! We don’t got all day,” William yelled.
I run through the gaping hole in the door, and continue towards the exit with William.
“Look, we have to split up here. If we are going to expose these guys, we need evidence. Go to the Security Hub and get the CCTV footage of the experimentation. I will go get us the car outside. Meet at the East Exit in 5 minutes.
“Ok...I don’t know if I can take on these guys. I’m just an archaeologist,”
William smiles, “Look, Indiana Jones was an archaeologist. Look how he turned out,”
I let a small smirk out, and nod at William. He nods back, and I pace towards the Security Hub.
“Hold it right there. You have the right to remain silent!” A security guard sneaks up behind me.
He puts his gun to the back of my head, but I turn around and fire the gauntlet. The blue light hits his chest, and propels him against the wall. He falls unconscious. I run, as I see the Hub on the far right. 10 security guards surround me, and one holds a riot shield. I fire the gauntlet at the shield, sending the blue light bouncing around the room, striking every guard. The riot guard backs away scared, and I hit him in the head with the “Warp” energy. I run into the Security Hub and select the tape containing all the footage from the previous day. I glance at the cameras and see the scientist. I follow him on the cameras and see that he is creeping up on William. I gawk, and rush out of the room. I see William and let out a sigh of relief.
“William! BEHIND YOU!”
“Wha-” William is tossed to the side by the scientist. He disarms the gun and puts him in a headlock.
“Hello again Barry. You see, we weren’t finished. I hate to ask for favors, but could you please hand me that tape? I’d hate to see it get in the hands of people who don’t want it,”
“Let him go. Or you don’t get the tape. NOW,” I command.
“Alright, alright. If I’m being honest though, I don’t really want that tape that much. I’d much rather have William,” He replies sneeringly.
“What do you want with him?”
“Not so much him, but I want you to suffer. Your pain brings me happiness. And now, you will receive such pain,” The scientist reveals.
He take out the remote from earlier, and arms it. Electricity flows through me. The pain is unbearable. I crumple to the ground and moan in pain. Mysteriously, the scientist hands me the plasma gun. William awakes from the daze, due to the pain, and looks at me.
“Kill him. Or you will receive the treatment again,” The scientist says.
I am pulled back into the Warp and see the same vision I have been seeing for almost forever. Death. Pain. Destruction.
“NOW!” The scientist says.
“Barry, don’t do this. It’s me. Don’t. Please. Your friend,” William pleads.
“No! No! NOOO! Stop this! STOP THIS NOW!” I scream.
The gun raises of its own accord. My finger clasps the trigger.
“I think it’s time to get this show on the road,” The scientist says.
I take a look at William’s face. Tears stream down his face. They stream down my face. The pain continues.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry William. NO!” I release my hand on the trigger. The world morphs into a slow-motion state. The ball of plasma spins and reaches toward William. His face turns from fear to acceptance. He takes one last smile at me. The plasma hits him squarely in the chest and falls to the ground.
“Great, now. You must know something else,” The scientist says manically.
He takes his lab coat off. His glasses. A mask. A mask for failure. A mask of deceit. A mask of what I created. A monster.

Harold. 

My name is Harold Craig.

I am the founder of Sentinel Inc., the “Labs of Tomorrow” . Where human’s true potential comes out. If only the same could be said for everyone. In our world, no one reaches the true potential. And the ones who can, they perish. The ones who can make a difference. They leave our world. So we make do with what we have. But sometimes that leads us on a path of no return. Barry Thompson. My daughter, Elise Craig. One was a genius who led me on path. A path of misery. A path of enlightenment. Then, there was Elise. My beautiful Elise. She had the potential to be greater than I ever was. Of course, she had big shoes to fill. But she was……...taken from me. And I will set out on a path to avenge her. No, I WILL avenge her.

The day was Tuesday, April 22nd, 2016. I did my usual daily routine. Visited Elise at the hospital. Bought flowers from the florist and gave them to my wife, Margaret. She loves the flowers. At least, I hope she does. Everyday, I see her. No, I see where she was. Now all she is dirt. Barren. Gone. After visiting her, I drive to Sentinel Labs, my brainchild. My beautiful child. I walk through, saying hello to my staff. I see my best friend, Barry.
“Hey Harold! How are you?” Barry said with excitement.
“Fine. I saw Elise and Margaret today. Margaret, she was not talking. She wasn’t responding. I don’t know why,” I replied.
“Harold, she’s gone. She’s been gone for 6 months. You know that,” Barry said comfortingly.
“It’s hard. You know, with Elise. She’s not getting better. Any better,” I said morosely.
“I’ve been donating money. We will find a cure. I promise. Don’t think about it. It’s gonna be ok,” Barry smiled.
“So what do you have to show me this time?” I said, changing the subject.
Barry laughed, “You know me so well!”
“It’s called the Warp. I was building the Transporter again, and I thought I got it to work. But when I put everything together, it created this humming sound. So I rewired the capacitors, and it opened some kind of portal. And it's called the Warp because I thought it sounded cool,”
I paced around the room, and looked at the device. It seemed like it could do things beyond human sight,
“So, uh, what does it do?” I inquired.
“I have no idea. That’s why you are here. I need your “ok” to see if it works,” He said.
“Do it. But on one condition. I get to come also,” I smiled at Barry.
We had been friends since we were 8. Great memories. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I always resolved it. But he’s my best friend still.
Or he was.

The next day, I went through my routine again. Elise was getting worse; there’s no treatment. One day, there will be. Hopefully. For her life, and my sanity.
“Hey Harold, let's open the gates of heaven,” Barry exclaimed. He was always looking for something to excel in. A Rosetta Stone, A Holy Grail, Lucy. He always said that.
“Or Hell,” I replied sarcastically.
He turned on the capacitors, and the engines roared to life.
“Stand back,”
Both capacitors fired a blue beam at each other and were creating some sort of portal. It expanded by the millisecond, creating an oval shape. We put on our Hazmat suits, and waltzed in. The world morphed around us, showing us various points in our lives. I see Margaret’s hospital bed. I see Elise, the day she collapsed. The day we found out. Not we. Not then. Not anymore. I see Barry and I as kids. Having our first fight. Then laughing after.
“It’s showing us our past. Our worst memories. Our best times. Wait…….take my hand Barry,” I yell while the memories swirl around us. It was like a tornado of blue and purple light. I walk towards the memory of Margaret in the hospital bed. The day she died. I jump into the memory with Barry.
I arrive in the room. No one notices us. A tear flows down my cheek. I realize our Hazmat suits are gone, and we are in the clothes that we were in that day.
“Harold..come here,” A voice I’ve wanted to hear for ages now. The love of my life. Margaret.
“Go,” Barry says supportingly.
I walk towards her. I take her hand. It’s cold. She hands me a gift. A gift I haven’t since opened.
“I love you. Tell Elise I love her. Tell her that her mother went to a better place,” She said hoarsely.
“Marg, don’t leave me. I love you. I LOVE YOU! DON'T LEAVE US!” I started shouting.
“Harold, I think it’s time for you to leave,” Margaret’s father said.
“No! No! Marg!” I yelled, as I was gently shoved away.
“Goodbye Harold,” Margaret quietly said.
Barry and I backed away, leaving our bodies in this time period, and formed back into our Hazmat suits. Before the portal took us away, I heard the flatline. She was gone. The portal opened, and whisked us away, back to 2016. We jumped when we arrived back.
“Harold. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for taking you back,” Barry said sadly.
“No, thank you. I know how to save her. I know how to save Elise,”
“What? That’s not possible,” Barry said, surprised.
“Now it is,”

“You want to do what?” Barry said.
“I can fix her Barry. So I don’t have to go through with what’s going to happen again,” I replied forcefully.
“Harold, you know you can’t do this. The patent on the machine is in my name, it states that only I can use it for private use. You can use it for trial use, that's all,” Barry replied seriously.
“I know, that’s why I’m asking you about it. All I need you to do is to travel to the past with this drug,” I show him a syringe with a red liquid in it, “It’s a formula I synthesized using Elise’s blood. It can kill her cancer cells when they are maturing, but not now. Not when she’s about to-,”
“Harold, we can’t just change that. Time is a river. You cause a ripple, it changes. This is the ripple. You change Elise’s future, you change your future. My future. This whole company’s future. And there’s no telling that the cells will be gone forever. They can reappear. You can’t ask me to do this,” Barry replied.
“I’m not asking, I’m ordering,” I said controllingly.
“Fine. I’ll do it,” Barry said somberly.

The next week was spent perfecting the Warp. The machine, the suits, the inner workings. I went to the hospital to visit Elise again. She…..she has a few more days. She’s only 12. She doesn’t deserve this. Neither of us do. She has, or had so much potential.
“Barry, is it done?” I inquired, after asking many times.
“Yes,” he said, “Let’s do this,”
Barry put on his Hazmat suit and took the syringe. He also took one of our plasma guns from our Weapons Testing Facility. We turned on the machine and the blue beams struck each other as usual.
“You are going to go to Sherman’s Hospital on March 19, 2004. Find her in the waiting room and put on your lab coat. Put the syringe in her when you get to an appointment room. Then disappear using your remote. Got it?” I ordered.
“Sir yes sir!” He laughed.
Little did I know that this would be the last moment we would share that would be happy.

Barry walked into the Warp and did not disappear like usual. He looked puzzled, but kept going. The energy kept him stalled, and the machine stopped working. Everything was still, motionless.  The machine turned back on, but made a crackling sound. The crackling continued. Continued. And then stopped, only to hit Barry with the blue beams.
“AHHHHHHHH!” Barry screamed. The beams struck him in the brain and heart. The glass I was being protected by in the control room, shattered. The energy bounced around the room, hitting Barry multiple times. After it hit Barry, the energy hit me, sending me against the wall. Blue light flew throughout my body, and caused an explosion. The testing room’s ceilings fell to the ground, while explosions occurred throughout the room. The control room collapsed in on itself, and I blacked out.
I woke up back in the control room, covered in rubble from the ceiling. Barry was still being tortured by the blue beams, writhing in pain. He was shaking violently and sunk to the ground. A wave of blue light escapes his body, destroying everything in its path. The walls surrounding us were vaporized by the impact, leaving a gaping hole in the room. I hear the screams of all of the people around me. The wave continues to flow throughout the city. Then, I see a horrifying site. About a mile away, sits a hospital. A hospital in which my sanity is kept. Where it stays. Where it did stay. The wave hits the bottom floor of the hospital. The bottom floor is decimated. The building slowly fell to the ground, collapsing after its foundation broke.  My foundation was gone. There was no hope. No more hope in our world. Because of Barry. He killed her. He did this. If he will rip me of happiness, I will do the same to him. Barry Thompson. My friend. My closest ally. A person who never sought to give me pain, but to only give me light. He’s done that, for as long as we have known each other. We were meant to be friends for life. Until death. But the future can be changed. Barry showed me that. For the future is never truly set.

Barry passed out. After he destroyed who I was, I got a phone call, notifying me of what happened. I can’t say her name. Everything I loved was now gone. But I can honor my daughter by exacting vengeance on the man who did it. To make him pay, I won’t kill him immediately. No, I will make him suffer. But he must not know until the deed is done. I want to see the look of fear. The look of fright. The look of awe. Before he dies. And he will.
After the paramedics wheeled Barry away due to his injuries, I went back to our home. But now, it was just mine. I see the blue energy coursing through my veins at my home, and let go of my happiness. And let my rage out. The blue light emerges from my body, a result of the explosion earlier. It creates an oval-shaped portal, similar to the one created in Barry’s lab. I step into it, and see a hopeful sight. Standing in front of me, in the city of Cairo, sits my family, all together again. I smile, and realize something. We never went to Cairo. Never. That means…..it’s a different course of events. And the only thing that changes events is changing time. In that world, a different set of events set course to my family being in Cairo. It’s an alternate timeline. A timeline in which Barry Thompson exists. Elise will be truly honored when Barry Thompson never exists. Where he can never hurt anyone. Both Barry’s will die. And I will not stop until every one of them is dead, and suffers.
After rigorous days of planning, I had my plan to kill the “World-1” Barry, the one in the alternate timeline. In the other timeline, Barry is an archaeologist, looking for a find that will change his career. I am a nuclear physicist for my company, Sentinel Labs. Barry will take me to Cairo with my other self to find his discovery. In the present World-1 timeline, Barry finds an archaeological discovery that changes his career and makes him a millionaire. Since I am present when this happens, I will kill him after a boulder collapses us into the depths of the underground surface. This is where he will find this discovery, but I will kill him there. I will use the boulder crushing him into the ground as a cover for his death. Afterwards, I will return back to this World (World-2) and torture the present Barry till he suffers. Then I will do the deed, and Barry Thompson will be gone. While I am writing the final pieces of my plan, Barry knocks on my house door.
“Harold! We need to talk!” Barry shouts through the door.
I open the door sadly, and look at Barry’s injuries. He has a long running scar through his face, a metal plate covering his stomach, where he was hit with the blue beams, and a broken leg.
“I…..I’m sorry for what…...for what happened to Elise. I know this is my fault. I’m sorry…...I hate to ask this. But are you pressing charges?” Barry says mournfully.
“No. No I’m not. It’s ok. Elise will be honored in death, I’m sure of it,” I reply.
“Ok…..what are you planning there?” Barry inquires suspiciously.
I reply nervously, “Oh. Oh nothing. Nothing to be concerned about, “
I was lying. He had a lot to be concerned about.
Barry left soon after, and went back to his apartment. I decided that I will go to World-1 tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I will change history. Tomorrow, Elise will be honored. Tomorrow, Barry Thompson will die.
I awake at 5 o’clock in the morning, ready for my mission. I go to the remnants of Sentinel Labs, and retrieve all of my files, and inventions. My electrical binders, plasma gun, and my steel gloves. Most were sold to the military. I take them back to my house, and put them in my safe. I seal it, and see that someone had broken into the house upstairs. I climb up to my attic, where the sound was coming from, and take my plasma gun with me. I find Barry, standing with the plans that I was working on yesterday.
“Harold. What are these? Why are you trying to kill-,” I punched him in the face. He dropped to the ground and fell unconscious.
He awoke 2 hours later and was restricted by my electrical binders.
“You’re a monster! Harold, we’ve been friends for years! What are you doing!” Barry shouted with fear.
“I’m honoring Elise,” I replied.
I took my steel gloves out, and repeatedly punched him. He moaned in pain, trying to escape the binders. Blood spattered on the walls. His jaw was broken, his rib cage was breaking, and his vocal chords were crushed.
“Please,” Barry now had a hoarse, dark voice.
I took a look at him. He had blood all over his face. I unleashed another barrage of punches on him, and walked away.
“If I can’t save you…….I’ll save him. My counterpart,” Barry said, before blacking out.
“You can try,” I shot back.
I opened the Warp, and jumped into the World-1 Cairo “memory”, and saw the other Barry. He will die. And Elise will receive justice. The world swirled around me as I was transported to Cairo. I arrived in the consciousness of my counterpart and saw a giant rock crash on Barry. This was it. This is where it will happen. This is where Barry Thompson will die.

I see my family on the rocks up above. Elise. She’s alive. This is not the Elise I know though. My Elise is gone. And Margaret. She is still there. They are just shells though. Not my real family.
I improvise to act scared, “This isn’t safe Barry. Look, my family is here. Why do you want me here?”
He put his finger out, signaling me to stop. Then I heard the rumble. A boulder came rushing down the pathway. I sprint in front of Barry to make sure I don’t get hit. The ground collapses beneath us, and we fall underground. I clutch my pocket, to make sure the knife is still there. Barry is put in a daze after the fall, but I look up. No, it’s impossible. This wasn’t supposed to happen. According to the timeline, there should be a relic in front of us. Instead, stood a familiar sight.
A blue sphere of light sits in front of us. The Warp. How could it be? The Warp doesn’t exist on this World. Unless. Unless someone put it there. But the only two people who know how to control the Warp is Barry and I. Barry. My World Barry. He did this. But how?
World-1 Barry awoke, and peered into the Warp. He looked interested. Curious.
“Barry, this thing is sending off crazy radioactive spikes,” I said, in an event to stop him from getting near the Warp.
Barry retorts back with his Lucy, Rosetta Stone speech. I take out my knife and rush in for the kill, when he touches the Warp. It transports him away, and me to a blue, swirling world. The world spins and swishes. Then, I see Barry. World-2 Barry. His face is disfigured, with scars running throughout. But he looks older. Oddly old.
“Hello Harold. It’s been awhile. Well, not for you, but it's 30 years for me. Can you believe it? You left me to die. To rot. Just because your daughter died. You say I took away your sanity. You took away my soul. For 1 year, I stayed in that house, eating rats and bugs to stay alive. Everyone thought I was dead. You see, when you traveled to the other World, time still went on. You didn’t realize that, did you? Harold Craig is dead on our World. And so am I. I had 30 years to find you, and save this Barry. I found out how to distribute the Warp Energy. I know your backup plans. I know how to make sure this Barry survives. Whatever I have to do, I will, to make sure you don’t reach your happiness. And that’s a promise,” Barry finished.
I was awestruck. Awestruck that he could be so stupid. He will die, once I am finished with this plan. I still have a chance to kill him. The portal swished away, and I arrived back on the regular world. The rocks around me were gone, just gone. Only one thing could have done this. The Warp Energy. I climb up the rocks to find a horrible sight. A heartbreaking sight. No, not again.
Margaret and Elise laid mangled and crumpled, with a small hole in their abdomen. Barry. He took them away. This Barry. World-1 Barry. He killed them. Whether or not they were my family, from my World, they were still my family. He will pay. The fight will continue. My backup plan is still intact.
Barry climbed up the rocks to find them dead. I stared at him angrily, and spat out at him for what he did. He apologized, but to make my cover believable, I took our car and drove off into the distance. I searched through my car for a gun, and found one in my glove compartment. I c***ed it, and shot out the window, faking my suicide. I used my powers to open up a portal to Sentinel Labs and arrived there with the car. I took a look at a news screen in a bar nearby, and saw that Cairo had been decimated by a nuclear surge. I smiled, as my backup plan was set in motion. I went to a nearby store, and bought paint, glasses, a wig, and a lab coat. I dressed myself as a black haired scientist and applied for my own job at Sentinel Labs, as I was presumed dead. I was accepted with my outstanding (fake) resume, and got the job. And well, the rest is history. Elise will be honored. My work is almost finished. Barry will get the justice he deserves. Both Barry’s. Both, will die. Both, will perish. Both, will be tortured. And both, will kneel before me. 

It can’t be true. No. Harold….he couldn't have killed him. He couldn’t have done all of this. No.
“I understand this may be confusing, but all will be answered,” Harold replied, then telling me the story of his journey.
I was amazed, but puzzled. The Harold I’ve known is dead. This one is the only one left. This monster. I take out my repulsor, and aim it at Harold. It charges, and gets ready to fire. He grabs my hand, and the repulsor fires onto his hand. The energy is absorbed by him, and surges through his body. He smiles, and takes a gun. Not any regular gun, a special one. It has two canisters on the side, and a giant barrel on the front. He puts his hand on the trigger, and fires. The sound of the world fades away. My ears ring with pain that crumples me to the ground.
“This weapon stores your frequency. You see, everyone in any World has a frequency. But the same people in different Worlds have the same frequency. I am transmitting yours right now. I can use your frequency to track my Barry.  A frequency also has an opposite, that can kill the person’s brainwaves, rendering them dead. And the only way to find the opposite is to find the frequency,” Harold smirks, and continues to store my frequency. The pain continues, but then subsides, and Harold stops retrieving the frequency.
“Goodbye Barry, see you soon,” He smirks, and leaves William’s dead corpse with me, leaving through a Warp created by him. He killed William, and he is going to kill all the Barry’s on all the other World’s. I jump into the Warp, just before it closes, transporting me with Harold. I  see him controlling where we are going. He plugs a suction cup into his head, connected to the sonic gun. The Warp shakes, and moves swiftly to where the other Barry is. I turn my repulsor on, and aim at him. He notices me, and turns around. The blue swirling light around us clouds my vision. The repulsor shot misses Harold, but he loses his focus. The Warp shakes, and moves to and fro. With his palms, he conjures an orb with the Warp Energy, and fires it at me. The orb explodes in midair, throwing me to the shaking ground. The Warp stops suddenly, and dissipates. We arrive in a lab, dilapidated and old, with numerous instruments around us. Harold throws a pair of electrical binders onto my hands, which restricts my repulsor. He shoves me along, towards a wooden table filled with papers and equations. One of them shows a plan concerning World-1 and World-2: the same things Harold talked about. In front of us, we see a giant metal box, with a keypad lock. Harold sneers.
“Finally. The moment I have waited for so long,” Harold says dramatically.
He conjures another orb and fires it at the lock. The front half of the box is ripped open, leaving only a man in front of us. An old man. A man who has been through hell on Earth. A man who looks like me.
“Hello Harold. I see you brought “me” with you,” The other Barry says.
Harold appears amazed. He steps into the box, and punches Barry in the face. Barry reaches back and pulls a gun out of his drawer. A plasma gun. He shoots my binders, and they come off clean. I hit Harold with a repulsor blast, at the same time as Barry hits him with the plasma gun. He falls unconscious.
“Barry. I’m sorry about William. I-” I kick him in the shins, and elbow him with my gauntlet.
“You don’t have a right to speak! You have brought me pain, fear, and sadness for the past month. You killed a family! An innocent family! And hundreds of civilians in Giza are dead, not to mention the plane crash!” I shout back.
“I did that to protect you! To protect us! I gave you the powers to defend yourself! You had to experience sadness to stop you from going to Sentinel! I told you! And you didn’t listen. And William is dead because of that,” He replies offensively.
“Don’t….don’t you dare you him against me,”
I shoot my repulsor against Barry, and he crashes into the glass behind him. He aims his plasma gun at me and fires. Using the Warp Energy, I create a shield to block the blasts. The plasma is powerful, and my shield fails, hitting me with multiple bolts. Barry fires again with a poison barrage. I let my powers consume my body. Time slows for me, and I run towards a motionless Barry, staring at where I used to be, and punch him right in the jaw. Real Time kicks in, and Barry falls to the ground. I walk away, leaving him unconscious, when he speaks.
“Barry, you have to help me. I’ve seen what Harold is planning. He’s going to kill every one of us. On every World. You have to help me,” He says.
“Why would I help you? You tormented me for weeks, torturing me. And if he is going to kill us, then so be it. My life is gone. Everything I loved is gone,” I walk away.
“Fine. You’ll find him in 2166. He has the technology there to build the device that will wipe us all out. This Harold is merely a shell, the real Harold left through the Warp seconds ago. His consciousness at least. Goodbye Barry,” Barry says.
I walk away from him, and use my powers to create a Warp to 2016. I step into it, and arrive back at my home. At least where it used to be. My home is gone. Everything I built has fallen. And from the ashes of my world, Harold is building a better one. At least he thinks that. I must stop him. Harold killed William. No, I killed him. But Harold made me kill him. The only way to rectify what I have done and to honor William is to stop Harold.
I open a Warp to the address in 2166 that Barry gave me, but I face resistance. I jump into the Warp, but something restricts me. I feel a daze, something controlling me. I fall asleep, and the Warp swallows me, and takes me to 2166.

I use the Warp to transport myself from my unconscious body to 2166, where the Warp creates a new body. When I travel to a place I haven’t been to before, the Warp creates a new body for me. Almost like it is a human itself. I run to my lab, where I plug the sonic gun into the sonic amplifier device. Using the Warp Energy, the Amplifier can project someone’s frequency throughout all the World’s possible in the Warp. The only thing I need to complete the plan, now that I have both Barry’s frequency, is one of them to create a Warp to start the device. One of the Barry’s warps can see all the Barry’s in the Warp’s reach, and the amplifier can kill every single one of them once the frequency is released through the Warp. Then, Elise will not have died in vain.  Elise will have been honored in triumph.
I go back to World-2 Barry’s lab, where he lies unconscious. I assume the form of my body there, and I see that he is injured. The other Barry did this. I grab his leg and drag him to a table. I take out the sonic gun and fire it at his head. He awakes in pain, and screams.
“You are coming with me. Barry, you will finally receive justice. For what you did to me. All the things you did, they will mean nothing. Everything you built will fall,” I tell him, while looks in fear.
“Fine. Kill us. Nothing lives forever,” Barry replies.
I create a Warp to my lab in 2166, and take Barry with me. I throw him onto the ground, and enter the final sonic data into the Amplifier. The plan is complete. But I feel empty. I need to see both Barry’s suffer in front of me. That will bring me happiness. For the first time since Margaret. Since then, life has just gave me sadness and pain. No longer. I open a Warp to World-1 Barry’s location using the frequency of the other Barry, and pull him in. He also falls into a unconscious state. The machine is ready. Now, all I need to do is have one of them open a Warp into the different Worlds to their different consciousness. Finally. In mere minutes, the fight will be over.
Harold stands to the side near the sonic device. He calls it the Amplifier I think. Barry stands next to me unconscious. Harold thinks I am also. I crawl away, behind the table. He doesn’t notice. I turn my repulsor back on, and get it ready to fire.
I hear scuffling behind me. Probably a rat. I turn around to see, and I see that World-1 Barry is gone. Disappeared. I check for any signs of a Warp around me, and see none.
Harold looks around, and I see my chance to strike. I arm the repulsor and shoot a blast at the Amplifier. I slow down time, and I see that the blast is deflected by some sort of shield protecting the Amplifier. Made of Warp Energy. He notices, and conjures an orb with his hand. He fires, and I dodge to the side. The wall is destroyed behind me, and the other Barry disappears out of thin air. The coward.
World-1 Barry and I trade shots across the room, trying to end the fight.  The one who I thought was weak. Guess I was wrong. We continue to fire at each other, blasts hitting every side of the room. He shoots a fireball-like shot at me, but I deflect it with a shield, bouncing it back to him. Barry is hit squarely in the chest, and sinks to the ground. I pick up my plasma gun, and aim it at him. I don’t care if he dies now. All of them will die now. I charge the gun up, but something powers it down.
I brace myself for impact, but Barry disables the gun with the Warp Energy. He smacks Harold in the face with the gun. Harold falls to the ground, and Barry picks up the gun. He infuses the barrel with Warp Energy, thereby making all the shots made of it. Rushing to the computer, he tries to disable the Amplifier.
“Watch him, we can’t kill him now. Not yet,” Barry says quickly.
I arm my repulsor onto him, while Barry keeps trying to disable the device. Harold wakes, and grabs the repulsor, crushing the metal. I shoot it, throwing both of us against the wall. Barry plunges his fist into the computer for the Amplifier.
“It won’t work. There’s a firewall on it. Can you help me destroy it?” Barry shouts across the room.
“I’M A BIT BUSY!” I yell while trading punches with Harold. I kick his shin with my leg, and hit him with a repulsor shot to the chest. He blocks it with a shield, and absorbs it into his hand. He throws the shot at Barry. Barry falls to the ground, bleeding through his leg. I yell as I charge at Harold, hitting him with punches in every place he feels pain. I use an uppercut to the face to render him weak. I charge my repulsor for the final kill-shot, when he takes out the sonic gun, aiming it at my hand.
I hit World-1 Barry with the sonic gun. He yells in pain, writhing around to ease it. I turn it to the highest setting, giving him the most pain possible. I turn to see the other Barry aiming the plasma gun at me.
“Drop it. Or you die. Now. It’s over Harold,” He says commandingly.
Harold doesn’t drop the gun, even after Barry’s repeated warnings. This is how I die. By the worst pain possible. It feels like my brain is being compressed then ripped apart continuously. Barry shoots the weapon, and Harold drops the gun. The Warp Energy blasts spins toward Harold’s head, slowly, but steadily. He simply grabs the shot with his hand, and throws it back.
“NO!” I yell. Barry looks in a sight of fear. Although Barry tormented my life, he only did it to keep me safe. I slow down time again, and run to stop the blast from hitting him. Harold smiles at me.
“Did you really think that these tricks work on me?” Harold slows down time, putting both of us at the same speed. The blast continues spinning, but Harold grabs it in midair. He looks at me, and walks toward me. In one hand, he holds the plasma shot. With the other, he punches me squarely in the face, and flicks the blast at Barry. It hits him in the head, and he takes one last look at me. A look of hope. Hope that I could defeat Harold. I will honor him. Him and William. Both gave their lives to save me. But am I worth saving? Before Barry crumples to the ground, he tosses me a cybernetic chip. A small note on it reads “Harold’s frequency”. That’s what he was working on in his lab. He knew Harold’s plan all along. He knew that he wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. Harold will pay for the sadness he caused.  I run towards Harold, hitting him with a repulsor shot to the abdomen. I run to the Amplifier, and stick Harold’s frequency chip into the console. The console reads it, and I drag Harold to the WarpGate he built. A gate to house the Warp we were supposed to create. To kill us. I put my repulsor against his head.
“Open the gate, show me your other-selves. Or you die. Either way you do, just a matter of when you want to,” I say imperatively.
He nods scaredly, and opens the Warp that will kill him. I see all the other selves he had, one where he plays with his daughter for hours on end. Another where he wins the lottery and becomes a millionaire. And then I see one that breaks my heart, him, his wife, and daughter just eating dinner on a Sunday night. Such a regular thought. But one Harold never will experience. Ever. And I was becoming who he became. A psychopathic killer, fueled by death and loss. I can’t kill all of the other Harolds. No, I have to be the better man.
I destroy the machine for good, vaporizing it with my repulsor.  Harold looks on in amazement. The Warp stays open, while Harold looks at the dinner table with his family. I look at his happiness in seeing them. While he marvels at the thought of his family, I walk to the table near me, filled with Harold’s inventions. One was a syringe for the removal of one’s Warp powers. He was going to get rid of them after he killed us. They had brought him too much pain. I walk towards Harold, still looking at the Warp in front of him.
“I saved you. Your friend told me that you deserved to die. That you are a monster. I don’t believe that. I believe everyone deserves a second chance,” I stick the syringe into him, and blue light courses through his veins, eventually being sucked out by the Warp in front of us. He sighs in relief, “I will send you through this Warp, to that World, where you can live a happy life. If you ever act up, I swear, I will come and take you back here, where you will be forever removed from all the Worlds. Understand?”
He nodded quickly. I shoved him into the Warp, where he jumped into the World with his family.
He saved me. As much as I hated him, he provided me a better path to live. Now, I can live a happy life. In this world, I am the founder of Thompson Inc., an institution to preserve the influence of science in people’s lives.  Margaret is a doctor, she’s doing well, and is the same Margaret I met in my World. Elise, well she’s different. For the better. She is the youngest Nobel Prize Winner ever, to say the least. She starts high school tomorrow. Big day for the Craig’s. And every day, I remember the moment a person who I had taken everything from, saved me. Saved me from destroying myself. And for that, I have to thank him.
He killed my best friend. And my savior. But I still let him go. That decision will trouble me for the rest of my life. But I have to live with it. If not, I will turn into the person that he became. A killer. He was to live a happy life now. And I had to also. And that’s the hard part of this. After everything I’ve been through, I have to act like it never happened. For now, I am happy. As long as I live, I have to tell myself that. To keep myself sane. To keep myself from being the villain. I am happy. But something’s missing. Maybe I can finish what he started. Maybe I can fix who Harold and Barry became. They both were led down this path by one thing: Elise. Maybe I can change what happened. For Barry. For Elise. For Harold. The gift they gave me may be erased. The life they gave me might be gone. But with these powers, I can fix this with one change of a  decision. That’s how the Warp works. And how life works. One decision can change the tide of history. Forever. But I have the ability to change it now. Something neither of them could ever do. Their lives could be changed. All the Worlds could be changed.
For the future is never truly set.
End