Well, I had no idea where this little idea came from! I was going to do a Christian Bale crossover with just his characters together, but then I decided to add Sarah in it, and it just...evolved. And since I figured that most of the people in this fandom have seen more than one Christian Bale movie, why not combine them? Plus, I love SuperGenius!David. So, here's the introductory chapter...
It was a normal day in my life; there wasn't any particular reason to get up in the morning as usual. Well, of course there was Jack—but that goes without being said. It was about a year after the infamous strike, and my days consisted of sewing and sitting. Sounds boring, I know, but that's because it is. After all the pent-up excitement and thrill of beating Pulitzer, what was left for any of us to do?
David, apparently, had a lot on his plate. Papa's arm was healed properly, so he had to "suffer through school" as he dramatically put it. He's given up his day job and pushed it to the weekends only, much to his dismay. But he had promised our father, so he now he had all of these obligations for school stacked high.
Like today, for instance. He was holed up in his room while I was sitting in my favorite chair, making yet another doily. Any peace I might have had was constantly being overthrown by this incredibly loud noise that I assumed that David was making. It sounded like a saw or some strange other tool—which was odd, because there is usually just quiet around here. Not exactly being one to frequent lumberyards, I couldn't tell you what kind of tool it was. But it was earsplitting and really starting to irritate me.
I placed the doily on the nearest table and got up to check what he was doing that seemed to be more important than keeping my hearing perfect. I banged on his closed door; there was no answer. Trying the lock I realized that it was open, so I decided to just go in there.
No sooner had I twisted the handle and opened it an inch than it was thrown back closed again. I heard a muffled yell from the other side of the door, but I couldn't understand what David was saying over the din.
"What?" I screamed, glad that we were the only ones in the apartment so I wouldn't be reprimanded for shouting.
"APGASRLHNEN!" was all I made out, and I take it that that was NOT a word that Dave had learned in school and I just didn't know.
"Could you repeat that?" I screeched through the wood. Just turn the stupid thing off so you can hear me yell at you to turn it off! My wish was answered as the noise abruptly stopped and the door was thrust open.
"What could you possibly want at a time like this?" David asked me, filled with anger at the interruption. A pair of goggles was strapped to his face; complementing the chunks of metal I saw lying in his room. Now that was abnormal.
"Oh, I just wanted to tell you that you should be proud for successfully damaging everyone's hearing in the whole complex," I said dryly. Wow, I was possible at being sarcastic. Pretty good for my first time…
"It's a science experiment," he replied hotly. "Sorry to interrupt your doily-making, but some of us actually have things to accomplish.
"Can I see what you're doing?" I asked in compromise, wanting to know the cause of the hullabaloo. I had a right to, after all. I didn't know why, but I was sure given the correct period of time and the right situation that I could scrounge up a decent excuse. Fortunately he didn't demand one; he just shot down that idea right away.
"No, it's not done yet." He started to shut the door but I stopped it with my foot. Ouch—that hurt.
"Please?" I wheedled, bored out of my mind. Being a good and cooperative girl was dull.
"Perhaps you missed my emphatic 'no'," he said, pushing my foot away and almost succeeding in closing the door when all of a sudden…
There was a knock on the door. The unexpected noise caught us both so off-guard that we instantly stopped what we were doing and ran for the door. Please be Jack, please be Jack, please be Jack!
I got there first and turned the handle (David didn't seem to be having much luck with doors today), only to come face to face with a cowboy hat.
Okay, so there was a person wearing the cowboy hat. Someone named Jack Kelly! Of course, if we had to get technical about it, we would call him Francis, but Jack was how I met him and Jack he shall remain.
"Jack," I breathed happily, "hello."
"Hey, Sarah, hey Davey," he said, giving me a smile that made me melt into a puddle of Jack-y gooey goo…
Metaphorically, of course. Because we all know that people can't melt. Unless you're The Wicked Witch. But I think that that was only a one-time thing.
"Hi," I uttered dreamily.
"You said that already," David pointed out, shaking his head and taking a seat on the couch. Jack and I followed suit; I took the chair, and he took the couch with David.
"Anyway," Jack started, changing the subject before it became embarrassing for both of us, "What was that obnoxious noise that I heard from about two blocks away?"
"That would be David's new project," I answered in a tone suggesting that I was none too thrilled about it—which I clearly wasn't.
"Invention, Sarah, invention," he corrected.
"Sorry," I replied, not at all sorry.
"Ooh, an invention? Can I see?" Jack asked.
"No, he won't let anyone see—" but I was interrupted by David's answer of,
"Sure, Jack." Excuse me? 'Sure, Jack'? He could see and I couldn't? David must have seen the shocked look on my face, because he quickly gave me his excuse.
"Well…you're a girl." Brilliant deduction, really Dave—I'm proud to call you my brother.
"So?" I prodded.
"So, inventions are more of a guy thing." Like Jack would understand that came out of David's mouth when he slipped into Smart Mode any more than I would.
"You should let Sarah see it, Dave," he said, smiling in my direction again. Sigh.
"Fine," grumbled my eldest brother as he led us into his room. We came face to face with a huge contraption that looked like one of the machines you see at factories, except smaller.
"What is it?" Jack asked dumbly. I was right behind him; there was no indication from its appearance as to tell what on Earth it could be.
"It's not done yet, and I know it doesn't look like much, but it's a…" (And here he paused for suspense) "…time machine!"
"A what?" I was the first to ask after his little outburst.
"Well, I didn't know what to call it, so I just called it a time machine. I was having a discussion with Denton the other day about the New York Sun, and he was showing me the list of most popular stories that they've published or something along those lines; I wasn't really paying attention. But then he showed me this one short story; it was the title that sparked my interest. The Clock That Went Backward. So I started reading it and it gave me the idea—wouldn't it be exciting to travel through time? So because I didn't have any enchanted clocks or an Aunt Gertrude, I decided to try and make a time machine instead."
There was a long period of silence after that little speech before Jack spoke up.
"Oh." Well said, sweetie.
"Yeah, I thought it would be interesting," David continued. "All I had to do was connect the electromagnetic—"
"Spare me the details," Jack stopped him, raising a hand as if to prevent the flow of scientific words from flying out of David's mouth.
"Okay," David uttered sheepishly, turning back to the machine.
"What does that do?" I asked, noticing a purple button on the side and pointing at it.
"Oh, that starts it," my brother informed me. Interesting…
Jack leaned on a thinner, taller part of it. He probably decided to stay there seeing as how David wasn't protesting. It looked kind of comfortable, actually.
"And what about this little area here?" I asked, pointing to a tile-covered section of the floor connected to the outer edge of the machine.
"Well, if you stand there and press the button, something should happen. I'm just not sure it's traveling through time yet." Hmm, if I stood there…
I was inching over to the tile space, Jack still leaning on the piece of metal. I guess David noticed what I was doing, because he started to ask, but I gave him no time to. I wanted to time travel! It sounded fun and harmless, right? So I quickly stood and positioned my weight on the center of the medley of tiles, simultaneously hitting the purple button.
But the funniest thing happened then: the little button fell off. I caught it just in time, and suddenly I felt myself being hurled upwards.
The last thing I saw before I was flying through the air was Jack's astonished expression as a light was being focused on his entire body. I wondered what it was for, but I had no time to contemplate as I stopped moving and found myself in a small house with four girls all sitting around a fireplace.
Oh brother. Something tells me this wasn't supposed to happen.
I was doing some research about time travel and David wasn't making his little speech up; The Clock That Went Backward was really a short story by Edward Page Mitchell that was published in the New York Sun in 1881. It was supposedly the origin of the time travel concept--thank you Wikipedia. And although I did read the story, I'm sorry if I accidentally got some facts wrong. And if some parts were confusing.
Each chapter should be another CB movie, as far as I know so far. My planning always changes lol.