Oops, I fell into the Time Machine. *Winners Announced*

[SalixTree]

Trapping, yes, that is the correct time. 11 pm YOUR time (Central European Summer Time), Saturday night. One hour before Sunday. ;-)

[Rabbitmancer]

As much as I hate to say this, I think I missed the deadline. I spent forever trying to decide what I wanted to do and I didn't get anything done at all. :'( I really enjoyed this contest and everybody's done some awesome things. I can't wait to see who wins! 

[Algaliarept]

I feel really embarrased.

I am sorry to say that my computer went poof. I'm on my parents' PC to write this as the Sims is installing again on the Windows partition (which I had to re-do this morning).

I've managed to get my computer working again, but I had massive hard drive failure so everything is gone, I'm having to reinstall the Sims (thank goodness I have my downloads folder backed up week by week).

I thought I would get the entry re-done on time but I have to go now to a family dinner and won't be back till after 10... and I haven't even finished installing the game again.

I'm so sorry that I asked for the deadline to be extended only to do this. It's sod's law really, if I hadn't asked I probably would have gone an entry in.

I can't believe it. I even fiddled with a skin tone to do this one!! Grrr
 
*insert appropriate crying frustrated smilie here*

I feel like a noob and a fool.

PS The entries I've seen have been amazing! I loved them.

[ColdFire278]

I'm hoping that since jenfold hasn't closed the round that I still have time, so here's my entry.

-------------------------------------------------

Archie felt a hard floor beneath his feet, and a creeping cold in the atmosphere. He tentatively opened his eyes and looked around.



It seemed to be a warehouse, the walls were dank and gray, and he was in a long line of youngish-looking men...who were all in their underwear. What in the hell is going on here? he thought. Then he heard a sharp, angry voice.
"Now if you'll kindly keep the line moving, boy, we don't exactly have all the time in the world for you to play with your hair. It's not as if you'll have it much longer, anyway."



The man in front of Archie had a short ponytail, but was absent-mindedly twirling it between his fingers. In front of him sat a stern-looking bald man in a uniform, crossly motioning for the line to continue. The man had a strange-looking tattoo on his face, black lines that shifted and rotated occasionally. Archie wondered if this was some kind of military, the place sure was minimalistic enough to be a military.
The ponytail'd man stepped forward and announced his name as Delta, and the bald man made a mark on his ledger, then shoved Delta to his left, yelling, "Next!"



Archie stood before the man, nervous. "Excuse me, sir, but I don't think - "
"I don't want your life story, boy, just your name!"
"...Archie," he managed to say.
The man looked up suddenly. "What the hell kind of name is that? That doesn't sound regulation to me..." he paused, thinking. "You're Alpha." He marked on his ledger again, and shoved Archie out of the way.
He was led into a narrow corridor and made to change into a uniform along the way, as well as a 10-second haircut with some evil-looking mechanical clippers. It all happened so fast that he barely had time to say, "Buh?"



Finally the line made its way through a larger hallway surrounded by pillars, Archie examined the bare, sloping walls while following behind Delta, who was rather forlorn about the loss of his hair. Eventually he spotted the bald man again, who was reviewing the line with his arms crossed and another stern expression on his face. Figuring he must be in charge, Archie made his way toward the man.



"Excuse me, sir, I keep trying to tell you -"
"What are you doing out of the line?!" he shouted. "You are supposed to move forward with the other soldiers, do you understand me or are you some kind of fuck-all dimwit?"
Archie was shaken. "I, it's just, I'm not from here, I don't know what's going on, and, well, I - "
"What do you mean you don't know what's going on? We're in the middle of a fucking  Earth particle war."
Archie blinked a few times, then thought. Though he was an advanced physics student, he'd never heard of Earth particles...maybe he was in the future? He decided to gamble for a moment.
"What if I told you that I was from the past?"



This seemed to anger the man. "Who are you? he demanded. "Are you in any way affiliated with the Network? Why are you here?"
"I don't know anything about a Network," Archie began. "I was...in an accident, I ended up in that line before I knew what was going on. What's the year?"
The man was silent, for once. "It's the year 2900. Where is it that your'e from?"
"2009, sir."
The man was stunned, he seemed at a loss for words. The dark lines on his cheek moved strangely, changing colors in the light. "Come with me," he said, leading Archie back to the room with the desk and ledger. He stood near the shelf with his arms crossed.



"You are telling the truth," he started, "and so you really do not know the circumstances of this world." He looked at Archie. "I am Roh, commander of the United Army."
Archie hesitated. "I have a few questions..." Roh nodded. "How did the war start? How long has it been going on?"
Roh sighed. "The war has been going on for as long as anyone alive can remember, it began long before we were born, but we continue it. It started when the government formulated into a new organization called the Network. The Network was intended to be a community-run structure founded in equality and democracy."
He began pacing the length of the floor. "The Network soon became power-hungry, and in order to accumulate more strength, they enlisted the help of scientific institutions. There was a rumor of a device which emitted Earth particles, a previously unknown substance that had the potential for enormous energy. In an attempt to harness it, the Network found the remnants of the device beneath an ancient university building, and it had been emitting Earth particles as a source of radiation.
"With tests being done it was determined that the Earth particles could also be used for extremely advanced weaponry. It was soon developed into the updated version of an atomic bomb, and any nations which opposed the Network were threatened with an Earth particle bomb." His face grew strained. "For the past 400 years, there has been an uprising against the Network, called the United. We slowly gained power and formally revolted against the Network, starting the war. We've been amassing our own nuclear weapons to combat the threat of the Earth particle bomb, but little ground has been gained or lost. The Network has detonated many of their bombs in "testing sites" of United-sponsored shelters and hospitals, but we have taken out their smaller bases along the coast."
Roh looked at Archie. "You landed in the middle of an informal draft, where all members of the United send their able-bodied sons and daughters to fight in this war."



Archie was stunned, and frightened. An active nuclear war, right in front of him, was almost impossible to comprehend. He remembered what Roh had said about the device being found in a university building...it couldn't be the time machine, could it? Archie racked his brain, trying to remember exactly what Sienna had nicked from the physics lab to build the machine, and her saying, "oh, it's nothing dangerous, why would I put something dangerous in the machine?" with a little wink. It was possible that the machine could become radioactive over time...Shit, he thought.
Roh continued. "This war has torn the world apart, bisected into two opposing entities bent on the other's destruction." He looked at Archie again. "We're well-aware that the only way to end the Network would also end the United, but there is nothing else we can do."
"That's insane!" Archie cried. "If you both know you're going to die, why are you continuing the war? You're fucked either way!" Roh started to say something, when suddenly Archie felt the characteristic green light near his shoulder.



Roh seemed to think it was related to the weapons, he stood at attention and began barking orders that Archie couldn't hear, he was on his way to being fully blacked out.



"Archie!"
With his head and back sore, Archie opened his eyes and put a hand to his neck. Sienna was rushing toward him frantically.
"Where were you? What happened? Oh God, I didn't know what to think, you just disappeared, and the machine was going crazy, I - "
"Sienna." Archie stopped her, slowly standing. "I'll tell you what happened, but first, I really think we should find a way to destroy this machine."

[Trapping]

The air was full of dirt and he could smell something burning.
Archie opened his eyes and looked around. He was suprised to find that he wasn't lying down on the ground even tho his legs felt a bit numb. The feeling of dizzines that had become so familiar to him was now gone. He couldn't feel anything except from dissapointment for the time being - looking around he quickly realised that he wasn't home. And because of the fact that there were old, rusting cars standing by the sideway he came to the conclusion that he wasn't in the past anymore.
Oh no, the thought shaking his head. I'm in the future.
That was when he looked down and a blush quickly covered his cheeks - he was wearing nothing but his boxers. At first he couldn't for his life understand why and then he realised that the same thing had happened when he travelled from the sixties to the victorian ages - he had lost the coat at that time. He couldn't bring anything from one time to another unless it was from his own. In the store in 1888 he had left everything except from his boxers. Now he was paying the price for his own stupidity.


Everything around him looked old and runned down as if it had been like this for several hundred years (which Archie guessed was the matter). The walls belonging to the houses around him was falling appart and several of the blocks that they consisted of had been taken away so that you could see right into the room behind it.
Just a couple of metres away from him a little group of poeple that (by the way they were dressed) kind of reminded him of the homeless people he had seen in movies were standing by a table on top of which they seemed to be playing a game of cards. They all seemed to be too into the game to even notice Archie.
Except from them, Archie could only see two more people. One was a little boy who was sitting on the stairs right outside of a door which looked as it would fall down at him at any second. The other one was a woman standing in the shadows between two houses. Archie barely noticed her at the first glance, but when he looked back his eyes saw the darker shades of black against the wall where she was standing. It looked as if she was trying to hide but didn't succed that well.
Everywhere around him lay trash and plants were growing in huge cracks which appeared in the asphalt below him.
That was all Archie had time to see before something much bigger caught his attention.


About one hundred metres away from where he stood there was a white line drawn on the ground. It was so white that it appeared to be shining. On his side of the line everything looked old and dirty, but on the other side it was quite the opposit.
For the first time in what had to be hours Archie finally felt truly relieved. The world on the other side of the line looked just like home with the big supermarkets, cleans streets, people wearing normal clothes, doing normal things... Everything was there. Archie didn't understand how the world around him could suddenly turn into the world which he knew on the other side of a simple line but it most sertenly did. He was seeing it. And seeing was believing.
Archie started walking towards the line. He had forgotten everything around him and therefore he didn't see or hear the woman standing in the shadows turn around and call for someone.
Archie wanted to come home. Home was the only though that circulated in his mind. Got to come home, need to see Sienna again. Want to go home.
Eighty metres away from the line Archie started to run. In his mind a voice called out the distance between him and what looked like safety: Fifty metres, forty, thirty...
Then another voice abruptly silenced the one in his head at the same time as something big hit him in the back and made him loose his balance. He fell forward towards the ground with the words that the stranger had screamed at him ringing in his ears: "Don't you dare to get closer to the movie, you idiot. Do you want to die?"
Then his whole world turned black.


Something cold was running down his neck and making him grasp for air. Next to him he could hear someone laugh in a tone that sounded relieved.
"Hey there" a woman said. "Are you ready to wake up now?"
Archie opened his eyes. At first, everything was just a blurr around him but it became clearer rather quickly. The woman next to him was the one he recognised from the shadows. Tho he hadn't seen her clearly while she stood there he was almost positive that it was her. The short hair was what he used to recognise her.
"Yeah" he said in a wisper and then started to coff. The air around him was so overwhelmingly hot that it was hard to breathe.
"Here" the woman said and as he turned his head towards her once again she was handing him a glass of water. Altho the glass looked kind of old and overused the water looked clean. Archie grabbed it and started drinking. He hadn't realised how thirsty he was.
Something was moving behind him and the sudden sound made him spit out everything he had in his mouth and turn around. His earlier travels trough time hadn't been what he would call dangerous in any way but that could be because he knew what would happen in those times before it really happened. Now, the luck had turned. He knew nothing and someone sneaking up on him from the back could be a very bad thing.
"Oh" a man said with a voice that he quickly recognised as the one which had told him to not get closer to the movie. "I didn't mean to startle you. I was just going to see how you recovered. I didn't mean to run you down like that, but you see, I didn't want you to die either. To many people have taken the easy way out during the last couple of months..." He stopped talking and his eyes suddenly turned suspicious. "You look like one of them." He said with a low voice that almost wasn't more then a wisper. "You look like one of the guys from the movie. Who are you?"
Archie swallowed. Despite of the water his throat still felt uncomfortably dry.
He considered many answers in his head in the time of about two seconds before he descided to stick to the truth. If he told the truth he guessed that the man would when he himself started asking questions which he knew he would do as soon as he got time to.
"I'm Archie" he said. "And I'm from the past."


Niether the man or the woman looked suprised. For some reason that didn't come as a surprise for Archie. By all means, this was the future. And it would be stupid of him to think that such things as time travelling which wouldn't be very belivable to exist in his own time probably wasn't as unbeliavable in this time. Both the man and the woman looked as if they undestood something.
"I knew it was you" the woman said right away. "From the moment I saw you appear on the street I knew it was you. Didn't I tell you he would come today, Ronald? Didn't I? And here he is: The first and last timetraveller. I wish you knew how much I've read about you. I know everything..."
"Aideen." The man who's name seemed to be Ronald interrupted her. "Don't you understand that he doesn't have any idea what you're talking about? He just came from the victorian ages. Man, he doesn't even know what year it is. Now, let's do what the stories he will write when he gets back says we'll do and then leave it to that."
"The man smiled at him. It was a kind smile, but also a smile that said the same thing as the woman just had out loud: Archie guessed that this man also had read a lot about him.
"Please, Aideen" the man continued. "Pass him the clothing on the chair. If were're going out later today we don't want people to notice him the way you did. That could leed to trouble with the gouvernment." He shook his head.
That was what made it pass a certain line for Archie. He had to many questions that waited for an answer. As soon as he had pulled the trashed clothing over his body (which was drenched sweat - it seemed to be about fifty degress celcius in the air) he turned to the man.
"Which year is it and what was all that talk about a movie?"
The man smiled again.
"I knew you would ask that" he said. "And to answer your questions: The year is 2309 and for the movie I bet you'll undertstand it yourself if you get some time to watch it. I guess you probably thought it was the world as you know it behind the white line, didn't you? Well, you couldn't be more wrong. That's just a trick that the gouvernment descided to play just to keep the civilians in check. They place huge screens at random places which all shows the same street as the one they're placed by. Well, it doesn't really show the same street since the street that is shown on the screen is about 200 years younger then the one you can see here now, but I bet you understand what I mean without me having to get closer into the subject. The main thing is that the screen isn't really a normal screen. There are no more screens as the ones that used to be at cinemas when I was little. They all dissapeared mysteriously a couple for years ago. These screens are only made of radioactive atoms. It's a new substance which you don't have back in the 21th century. To make it simple I'll just say that if you touch the screen or (as you were about to do) walk straight trough it, you die emideately. The reason why they put the screens up in the first place is, like I said, a trick to keep the civilians in check. No one has any dreams these days. No one has a goal what so ever. To watch the goals and dreams which they had in the past makes people dream again and keeps them from going crazy."
A chill moved along Archie's spine when he thoght about how close he was to death without even realising it.
"But how do you know which time I come from?" he asked. "I didn't tell you that. And how come you seem to have read about me?"
The man simptly shook his head at these questions.
"The answer to those questions are were simple, Arch. You're a legend here. Everyone knows about your time travels. Even tho no one in you own time except from your buddy believed you your stories lived on. It wasn't until 2096 when a proffesor found the remaninings of the time machine which you trashed as soon as you got back from the future that people started believing that time traveling was possible. No one except from you has ever travelled trough time and noone probably ever will ever again..."
Archie held up a hand in front of him to make him stop. He could feel a headache begging to take place in the back of his head. He wasn't sure that this was information that he wanted to know.
The man opened his mouth to say something more but was suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking on the door.


Both the woman and the man stood up and the chair which the woman had been sitting on fell to the floor with a mild crash. They both looked terrified.
"Oh no, it's them" the woman said. "Ronald, what are we supposed to do? This time they'll probably take us in. They must have heard the rumors. They..."
"Open this door now or we'll kick it down."
The voice coming from the other side of the door sounded strangely dark and somehow dry. It make goosebumps appear on Archies arms but not in the pleasent way as in the 19th century when he met Susan but in a horrible, scared way.
"What's going on" he wispered.
Both the woman and the man turned towards him in the exactly same moment as if they had both forgotten that he was still in the room. If it had happened under other circumstances Archie would even had found their suprised looks rather funny. Now, he was to busy trying to make a pussle out of every little piece he had got so far to make this world seem atleast a bit more understandable.
"Hide" Ronald said quickly. "Hide somewhere and don't you dare to come out. I don't want to harm anyone, just so you know that. And if you don't get back to your own time before I detonate it I want everyone to know that it wasn't my fault."
Archie looked at him. Stared, eyes widened.
"What the heck are you talking about?" he asked in a low voice.
He didn't get any answer. The next second the door was pushed down and an army of people came walking in.


"Well, well, if if isn't Ronald and Aideen themselves."
The same man which has threttened to kick down the door was talking. He looked form the man's face to the woman's with a big grin covering his own.
"This time I finally got you, you stinking criminals. But do you know what, it kind of hurts me to know that you both havn't killed yourselfs yet. Because that is what you want, right? To kill yourselves?" The grin became wider. "Now" he continued "where is the nuclear bomb?"


The man didn't seem to notice Archie but one of the men whom had followed him through the door did. He was now looking at him with eyes that clearly said that the man was trying to place Archies familiar face somewhere. It wouldn't suprise Archie if the man soon would say the same thing as Ronald and Aideen had. It wouldn't be long before he recognised him from the historybooks. Atleast Archie guessed that there was where the two people that apparently had saved his life had read about him.
"The nuclear bomb?" Archie could hear Ronald say in an innocent tone. Which nuclear bomb?"
Archie's heart almost jumped over a beat when he saw Ronald grab something in his pocket. He didn't know what was in that pocket and his guts told him that he didn't want to know.
"The nuclear bomb that you and your sister have been working on for the last couple of weeks" the man said with a tone that clearly made people know that he was running out of patience. "I'm not stupid, Ronald and I hear what people are saying. Now, I'm asking you not as a police but as a human and a friend - don't destroy the world and kill the human kind.


Everything that followed those words happened so fast that Archie never actually would be able to make up exactly what happened when.
His reasonable mind told him that Ronald couldn't have set of the nuclear bomb until he was already travelling though time but still he could remember the exact moment that Ronald pulled the detonator from his pocket and pushed the button. He even remembered the white light exploding around him at the same time as the familiar hand grabbed his skin and started pulling him backwards.
He could even see the last expressions which the people in the room were wearing. The man with the dark voice was still smiling, Ronald still looked innocent, Aideen looked totaly neutral and the man whom had noticed Archie looked as if he finally understood who the man standing in front of him apperently was.
As he hit the ground his first thought was that the explosion hadn't been as big as he first thoguth it had and that he was still in the future. Then he recognised the floor beneath him.


"Archie!"
Her hug was breathtaking and Archie had to pull her away from him in order to breath properly.
"Oh you have no idea how worried I've been for you" Sienna almost screamed at him in relief. "I had no idea what to do when you got sucked into the time machine so I tried to push some buttons. I have no idea where you've been so please tell me everything. First of all: Did it really work or were you just stuck in another dimension the whole time? Just kidding, but seriously. What happened?" She sat down next to him, suddenly conserned. "You look as if you've been the victim of something really horrifying. Archie, are you okay?"
Archie wasn't able to answer. Tears were falling down his cheeks as the feeling of relief finally grabbed him with it's full force.
"Sienna" he wispered grabbing her hand, pulling it towards his mouth and smoothly kissing it. "I love you and I'm so glad to finally be home."

[Dr Jenfold]

Round three is closed, judges will be wrangled ASAP.

[Dr Jenfold]

Final Scores

SalixTree

Make Over - 24
Story - 23
Total - 47

"A very psychedelic vision of the future which gives off a 1960s vibe. I'm thinking The Jetsons? Sort of? And I like the way you've linked back to the previous bits of the story."

Grand Total - 139


Ruruoni Idoru

Make Over - 18
Story - 24
Total - 42

"While the story for this round of interesting, I found some of the pictures a bit bland. They could have benefitted from some more action, or varied CC."

"The ending of the story was very Bill and Ted, me likes."

Grand Total - 128


ColdFire

Make Over - 26
Story - 29
Total - 55

"Ooh, dystopian. I like the Orwellniess of it all."
"A fantasticly inventive entry, with some really clever story telling (causal loops! I love causal loops!)."

Grand Total - 148


Trapping

Make Over - 20
Story - 24
Total - 44

" I thought your story for this round was really good, if completely confusing (I plead lack of sleep), but was let down a little by the pictures, which didn't support what was going on in the plot as well as they could have."

Grand Total - 128

Which means the overall winner is:

1) Coldfire
2) SalixTree
=3) Trapping
=3) Ruruoni Idoru

But all of you who survived to the third round did brilliantly! Congratulations. Prizes will be sent out on Saturday, I apologise it's not immediately but extending the contest pushed me to the limit in regards of free time, I'm in the middle of packing as it is, I just didn't want to leave you guys hanging and waiting for judgement.

I would like to thank everyone who entered the contest, those who contributed prizes and of course the judges. 

[SalixTree]

Congrats, Coldfire! Awesome stories.
Wish there would have been a few more round 3s, too bad so many dropped out.