The Power of Science (Chapter 2) – Evan Makes a Breakthrough

Previously:

Evan Weiss started attending Excelsior, a fancy private School after he made a scientific breakthrough, proving his genius. He recently looked through one of his old notebooks and discovered one of his old ideas about time travel or time manipulation. He decided to try it out in hopes that it might work.

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Evan spent most of his Saturday at the school’s lab doing research. He was planning on building a machine that would allow him to manipulate time. It was crazy, but Evan decided he had nothing better to do.

In order to achieve his goal of manipulating time, he researched quantum mechanics and space-time. He soon got an idea for how he could make it work. By the time he finished his research, it was already night time. Evan needed to head back to his dorm. He would build the machine tomorrow.

The next morning, Evan went straight to the lab. He could barely sleep through the night, since he was fantasizing about everything that he could do if he were able to achieve his goal.

Evan ran into the lab, bursting the door open and running right to one of the tables. He put his stuff down and rushed over to the large closet to get some materials. He rolled a small metal cart in front of the closet and loaded it with all sorts of chemicals and tools. He wheeled the cart to the lab table and moved everything out of the way. He took out his notebook and flipped through all the pages of his research. He landed on the page he was looking for. The page summarized everything that he had to do to put together a device that could manipulate time.

“All right, this is it,” Evan couldn’t his excitement. As he was putting the machine together, his hands were shaking so much from nervousness and anxiousness that it took him several hours longer than he expected. Evan lost track of time and ended up staying at the lab well past sunset. He felt like he was going crazy, but he kept pushing himself to finish his project.

Evan shakily put one last piece onto the device and leaned back. His neck was sore and his fingers were very tired. He got up to stretch his legs, and almost fell down. Evan slowly walked over to the sink and washed his hands thoroughly. Then he splashed some cold water on his face. Evan turned around to face the lab table once more. He walked to the table and sat down. The place was a mess. There were metal parts, tools, chemicals, and beakers everywhere.

It didn’t matter though. The only thing that mattered was Evan’s device. It ended up being smaller than Evan originally thought. He was able to hold it in his hand, and it wasn’t heavy. There was a small button on it that would activate it. Once the button was pressed, a reaction would occur. This reaction should cause every molecule in the universe to instantaneously stop, except for any biological material that was in direct contact with the device. So, in theory, as long as Evan held the device, everything else would stop, but he would still be able to move.

“I really, really, hope this works,” Evan thought. Evan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He waited a few seconds, then firmly pushed the button on the device. He waited a few moments. Then he slowly opened his eyes. Evan looked around.

“Holy shit,” Evan was in complete shock, “It… it… worked. IT ACTUALLY WORKED!”

Just moments before, Evan could hear the clock ticking, the crickets chirping, and the trees outside rustling in the wind. Now, there was silence. No hum of electronics and no voices of rowdy kids from elsewhere in the building.

Evan was laughing, crying, and screaming at the satisfaction of having this power. No one could hear him, so he didn’t care. He realized that he was still gripping tightly onto the device. His hand had turned white, so he loosened up his grip a bit. He just had to make sure he was touching the device at all times. Evan pressed the button again. The crickets resumed chirping, the trees continued rustling, and the clock began ticking again.

Evan cleaned the room quickly and packed his things. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and proudly left the lab. Evan would have a lot of fun with his new device. He went to his dorm and put his things away. Looking through his roommate Ben’s room, he found a package of arm bands. Ben used to run a lot, so there was a lot of running equipment in the dorm. Evan picked a black arm band and tried it on. It fit perfectly. The band went around his bicep to hold a phone while running. Evan slipped the device into it, and was glad to see that it was a pretty good fit. Evan slid the band up his right arm and rolled down his sleeve to cover it. Evan could press the button through his shirt and it would still be in contact with his skin.

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It was about 10:00 pm when Evan left his dorm to test out his new toy. As he was about to head out of the dorm building, a group a people stopped him. As soon as he heard their voices around the corner, he knew who it was.

David Harker. As well as his gang of rebellious teens. David came from a rich family, that has supported Excelsior for decades. He was on good terms with the school board, so he could get away with anything. He was also quite smart, but obviously not as smart as Evan. David tried to compete with Evan, as he was clearly not used to someone being better than him. David spread rumors and talked shit about him, making sure everyone in the school knew his opinion on Evan.

David was with two of his friends, Cory and Tristan, as well as his girlfriend, Claire Ross. She was arguably the most popular girl in Excelsior. Claire also came from a rich family, so her and David seemed to be a perfect match. They both loved to torment people and they were both spoiled to the point that they would probably have someone else eat and breath for them if it was possible. David and Claire were the reasons Evan had essentially no friends at the school. Evan came close to getting attacked by David and his group of thugs many times, but always got out of it. This time would be different, though. He knew exactly how he could get retribution for everything this couple did.

“What are you doing out here, Ev?” David obnoxiously asked.

“Oh, I’m just hanging out, it’s a Sunday, so I decided I would take a break,” Evan replied.

“I thought you’d be in the lab studying or something,” Claire responded, clearly trying to piss him off.

Evan just looked at them calmly. They made a few more jokes about Evan, then asked him to go to the city with them.