- "Your own personal time machines. Who's ready to go back to high school?"
- ―Chase Stein to the Runaways[src]
Chase Stein's Time Machine was a watch-based device designed by a future Chase Stein from 2028, using knowledge from the Abstract. It could be used to create a closed timelike curve that would allow the time-traveler go to the past or the future.
History[]
- "I'm going to save Gert. That was always the plan, my entire purpose behind building the time machine."
- ―Chase Stein[src]
Chase Stein, blaming himself for the death of Gert Yorkes during the Battle at the Hostel against Morgan le Fay, began working on the development of a time-machine which would enable him to return into the past and prevent his girlfriend's fate. To that end, Stein used the knowledge contained in the Abstract and enlisted Alex Wilder's assistance as well.
Chase Stein gets ready to travel back in time
It took years for Stein to fully develop the device, distancing himself from every other source of distraction, including his friends. Finally, in 2028, Stein completed his work and prepared to return into the past. Having recorded a message to explain his motives, he then jumped into the past. However, Wilder used his own time machine to go into the past as well, as he intended to murder the Runaways due to believing one of them had tried to kill him.
Wilder used his time machine to escape from the Runaways after they stopped him from harming Julie, Karolina Dean's girlfriend. Stein used his own time machine to track him down through time, and figured out that Wilder had returned to the day before their group reassembled on the day they discovered PRIDE's nefarious activities. Stein gave the other Runaways time machines for them to accompany him further into the past.
Once the 2028 version of Wilder was captured by the other Runaways, his 2021 self, who had helped the other teenagers so far, was sent back into his time to avoid too many interactions between the two different versions of Wilder. The group then used the time machine once again to return to the night of the battle at the Hostel, taking the future Wilder with them as Stein had not enough charges on the machine to bring Wilder back before going to save Yorkes.
All the time machines eventually disappeared after the Runaways were able to reverse Yorkes' death, thus altering the timeline and causing their future versions of themselves to fade out.[1]
Design and Capabilities[]
- "I feel nauseous."
"Well, that's because you just went in reverse around a donut-shaped vacuum where spacetime can get bent upon itself using focused gravitational fields to form a closed timelike curve." - ―Alex Wilder and Chase Stein[src]
The time machine created by Chase Stein appears as a watch-like device. Like his father's time machine, it is based on a theory according to which gravitational fields can be used to bend spacetime, but unlike this former model, it actually enables its user to move through time and space. The device can only work with a limited number of charges, meaning that its user can find themselves stranded in a different time than their own should they run out of charges. The time machine affects its user and everything they touch at the moment of the activation, including their clothes or any other object or person they are simply touching. Once activated, it creates a small portal in which the user is sucked into before being transported to the selected destination, which can leave the user quite nauseated.
As demonstrated by Stein, the time machine can also be used to track down another user of the device by following a quantum trail.[1]
