movie.act3p1

scenes xliv-lii

The Future of Television

           “Have you broken into an apartment before?” were Lucy’s first words as she got out of the passenger seat of Wes’ car, with Jace and Laurie disembarking from the back.

           “Actually… kind of, once. Last time, it was Millie’s place.” Wes put a few quarters into the nearby meter, figuring this would be a brief stop. “We’re not really breaking in, though. If he’s not there, it’s not like December has the authority to, er… give us the authority to bust down the door. Even if past mayors may have done so.”

           “So we’ve learned that Hadron might’ve been even more dubious during his tenure than we already thought—doesn’t mean every Royal Valley leader is corrupt.”

           “That’s a tall apartment building,” Jace said as he looked straight up at the residents’ lights in the night. “I don’t remember being out this way very much.”

           “Fourth tallest tower in the city, bud,” Wes replied and held open the main entrance’s glass door. “Meadow Valley’s mostly retiree communities, country clubs, that sort of thing. Our dad definitely would’ve moved here if he didn’t leave town instead.”

           Lucy asked by the buzzer, “Can I do the honors? He did call me a ‘pretty lady.’”

           Jace winced. “Mom… I do not want a guy named ‘Mr. 90s’ to be my stepdad…”

           “Oh, hush,” she said with a laugh, and hit the button for Mr. Suto’s apartment.

           “Hello!” his response came in surprisingly quickly, and like at the mall, it sounded like he was smiling as he spoke. “This is Mr. 90s. How can I help you this evening?”

           “Um… H-hi, Mr. Su… I mean, Mr. Satoro? I was at the signing yesterday, and you really inspired me to want to interview you for my podcast. I’m pretty influential.”

           Wes laughed. “Uh. Exactly how much did you think about this, Lucy?”

           Kiza replied, “Oh! That sounds wonderful. Come right up. I look forward to it!”

           The buzzer went off and the inner door audibly unlocked.

           “That was… strangely easy,” Laurie remarked as they headed to the elevator.

           Wes sighed. “He’s desperate to make his revival. He’ll take any shot at relevance.”

           The elevator shot up and stopped at Kiza’s floor without the team seeing anyone else. The hallway was simple, modern, free of any decorations or personality, and unit number 2806 was a short walk away. Wes keeping himself and the kids out of view of the peephole, he let Lucy take the lead. She gave the door a knock. And then another.

           “Mr. Satoro?” she piped. “Are you in there?” She looked at Wes and shrugged.

           Wes took a step forward, then stopped and instead advised, “Try the door?”

           She did so, and—also very unexpectedly—it opened. Cautiously, she went inside, and the others followed, Laurie the most hesitant to do so. She was the one to close the door behind everyone, and the last to get a good view of the small apartment. The sight made her legs lock up immediately. Something really wasn’t right.

           “What in the… Why is the apartment completely empty?!” she almost gasped.

           “This is the right unit, isn’t it?” Jace said and looked at his worried uncle.

           “Yeah, but…” Wes realized there was no good explanation, and reached for the door. “We’re leaving,” he ordered and tried the handle. It didn’t budge. “Ah… crap.”

           “Wes…?” Lucy murmured. “You hear that? The vents are… hissing. I… feel…”

           He looked up at the two air vents above, and saw a faint rippling in the low light.

           “Oh… come on…” he grumbled. “There’s no way… that…” he suddenly felt very sleepy as his legs grew weak, “someone called… Mr. 90s… gassed…” he faded.

           Some indeterminate time later, Wes jolted awake. The first thing he noticed, other than the pain in his neck, were the bright lights glaring down from above.

           “Ugh… What the hell…” he groaned and felt the rug under him.

           His vision gradually recovering from its Vaseline-on-the-lens blur, he looked around to figure out where he was, and if the others were nearby. All things considered, the side effects of whatever had knocked them out weren’t that bad. He could remember what happened, and he seemed to be shaking off any delirium pretty quickly.

           When he could focus again, he saw that he was on the floor between a coffee table and a vaguely familiar couch, but couldn’t place its origin. Jace was already waking up as well along with Laurie, both of them having been placed on the room’s cushy armchairs. Once Wes had enough strength to sit up, he found Lucy, curled up on the sofa and also waking up. She murmured quietly, yawned, and then… stretched.

           “Ah…” she said with contentment. “I haven’t gotten a night’s sleep like that in years.” She rolled over, and spotted Wes. “Oh. Hey, bro, what’r’ya doing down there?”

           “How can you feel good about what just happened? We were drugged, Luce!”

           “Yeah, maybe, but… you’re on the floor, so it probably wasn’t as comfy, huh?”

           “I feel pretty good, too,” Laurie let out a pleasing sigh. “Really… relaxed.”

           “Wouldn’t mind going to bed like that before a big test,” Jace added.

           “Guys, maybe we should take this seriously?” Wes muttered. “… Where are we?”

           “Looks like… someone’s living room?” Lucy replied and looked around. She was the first to discover something that should’ve been immediately noticeable. “Um, is the stuff still wearing off, or does this room really have three walls and no ceiling? Huh. Are we… Yeah… Everyone, think back. Where do you remember seeing this place?”

           It took a few moments, but it steadily came to the others at about the same time, with Laurie being the one to comment, “We must still be on drugs, because… this can’t be the No it All! set, right? Hold on… No way… It’s… It really is a perfect replica!”

           As if someone unseen was watching them, the show’s theme song then suddenly began playing through speakers that were stationed in the audience seating area.

           “Aw, hell…” Wes got up on his wobbly legs and surveyed the ‘room’ from higher up. “He must’ve dragged us into some bizarre… I don’t know, sitcom dungeon!”

           “Well, we’re not trapped, are we?” Jace stated. “Not with an entire wall missing.”

           “Uh, hm, good point…” Wes murmured, and the others watched him slowly and carefully leave the stage, keeping his head on a swivel as he went to meet the spectators. His shape was barely visible in the dark as he studied the silhouettes of the crowd. He soon shouted over the music, “Luce, I don’t know how to tell you this, but your beloved show’s ‘live’ audience were just a bunch of mannequins dressed in 90s clothes.”

           “Come on, Wes,” Lucy muttered as he hopped back onto the stage. “It’s obviously not the actual soundstage. A good recreation, but I’ve seen all the episodes enough times to spot the little mistakes. Still… this is either a mega-fan’s passion project, or…”

           Things began to truly go off the rails when the theme song ended with a light applause and the front door opened after the opening guitar riff. The four abductees turned sitcom guest stars watched with some amazement as the family patriarch of the show stepped onto the set, looking not a day older than cancellation.

           “Honey, you’ll never guess what happened at work—gah! Who are you people?” he exclaimed, and some realistic audience laughter played. He put his hands on his hips to look assertive, and asked, “Dear, are these new neighbors, or did I walk into the wrong house again?” More laughter. “Well? Do you have names?”

           After several seconds went by of nothing happening, Jace whispered to his mom, “Is he… waiting for us to say something? Mom, what… what is this?”

           “Maybe it’s some twisted game?” Wes postulated. “Oh, I know. Maybe. In the book version of Ready Player One, there’s a part where the hero has to reenact all of WarGames, line by line. It’s completely absurd, but could this be like that?”

           “Hey, yeah,” Laurie added. “Is this one of the episodes, or… something?”

           Her mind working overtime to understand the puzzle, Lucy thoughtfully replied, “No, it’s not… But I wonder…” She got close to the working dad and said, “George?”

           Like a video game character leaving its idle animation, Kaito’s pop “woke” back up, closing the door behind him in a huff and staring at Lucy in an almost uncanny way.

           “Now, listen, only my wife gets to call me by my first name, and ‘George’ isn’t it!” Laughter. “But if you want to play One Hundred Guesses, it’s my turn… Nichole?”

           “What the heck is ‘One Hundred Guesses?’ A game on the show?” Jace asked.

           “Not one that ever popped up, no…” Lucy waved her hand in front of George’s character, noticing how his eyes tracked movement. “He did have all these other random ‘dad games,’ though… Maybe he’s a robot? But he doesn’t respond to everything.”

           “Talk like you’re in the show,” Wes suggested. “Maybe it detects ‘meta’ stuff.”

           “Yeah, okay, um… I took theater in high school, so…” Lucy straightened up and invented her own character. “Uh… Good guess, but no!” she replied and forced out a laugh. “I’d love to play, but I think the game would take a while… Mr. Donelly.”

           He reacted with an overly-expressive ‘you’re right’ look and responded, “True. I never can win my own games, anyway.” Which got more chuckles from the audience.

           “It’s definitely some form of generative AI,” Wes told everyone. “Ah, that’s right. It’s like that YouTube thing, where people were using AI tools trained off an old show to create ‘infinite’ new episodes of it. Interesting… I hate it, but curious where this goes.”

           Whatever program was managing the “episode” moved things along by bringing out Mrs. Donelly from the kitchen entrance, who beamed brightly as she cleaned a plate.

           “Honey, this is the family I told you about, that just moved in across the street. The Robertsons. That’s Jerry and his wife, Martha,” she said, gesturing to Wes and Lucy.

           Wes’ reactive cringe was visibly painful, and he spat out, “Gross…”

           “And these are their kids, Billy and Julia!” she continued, and Jace and Laurie looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Mom then went over to her husband, gave him a nudge, and ‘whispered’ in his ear, “I think Kaito’s got a little crush on Julia.”

           Now it was Laurie who grimaced, and said over audience ‘ooo’s, “Really gross!”

           Jace couldn’t help but chortle, then both nudged her and played along. “What’s wrong, sis? Afraid he’ll break your heart like all those other girls? Tell him how you feel!”

           Trying to block out the laughter, Laurie scowled and raised a fist. “Shut up. Billy.” She gasped lightly and told Jace, “I don’t know what happened. It just came out.”

           “Did I hear that right?” Alicia scoffed and walked through the door to the also non-existent dining room. “Don’t get involved with my brother, new girl! You don’t want to be roped into his crazy schemes. The last girl changed her name and moved away!”

           “Guys, I know how storytelling AI works,” Laurie confided with her fellow guest stars. “Can we steer this in another direction before a robot, like, caresses my cheek?”

           “I don’t think these are robots,” Wes said. “There’s no weight to them—no footsteps. And their movements are too fluid. But they’re not people either, so…”

           Not knowing what to expect, Wes held his breath and put his hand on Daddy Donelly’s shoulder—and it clearly passed right through solid, projected light.

           “Hey, now!” the AI responded. “Jerry, I don’t know how they do things where you’re from, but around here, two guys say hi for the first time with a handshake!”

           “Holograms,” Wes inferred. “Thought so. Maybe they’re emitted from the studio lights?” He went to the front door, pulled it open, and quickly spotted and pointed out a mechanism. “Yeah, see that? A robotic arm does it, since they can’t touch anything.”

           “Wow…” Lucy murmured. “This must all be expensive…” She got back into her character and asked, “Mrs. Donelly, are you participating in the school bake sale?”

           With impressive reaction speed only high-end AI hardware could deliver, Kaito’s mom smiled and replied, “Certainly! I just baked a fresh batch of my famous brownies!”

           Wes sighed, “Sis, let’s stop entertaining the job-killers, and find out where we are.”

           “But it’s kind of fun, and…” She finally realized something. “Wait. We don’t quite have tech like this yet. Unless Suto’s a billionaire with access to cutting-edge stuff…”

           “Exactly. The only true holograms we have so far rely on spinning fan things, and I don’t feel a breeze in here. So… This technology has to be from… the future.”

            The system must’ve had a response wait time that reached zero, as Alicia came back to life and continued the ‘story’ by saying, “Hey, has anyone seen my hairbrush?”

           “That’s enough, Alicia,” a fourth voice said from the audience. “Pause program.”

           The three holograms froze completely and dimmed into barely visible light in an assumed power-saving mode. The set’s organic actors turned toward the audience to look for the likely mastermind of a very elaborate shrine to a sitcom, but it was too dark.

           “I’m sorry about all of that,” he continued, his voice somewhat familiar. “You’re all the first I’ve shown this to, and I saw a good opportunity for a blind reaction test. So, having woken up knowing nothing about the experience… what did you think?”

           Taking the lead as she held up a hand to keep the studio lights out of her eyes, Lucy replied, “Um… Very realistic. If we hadn’t been gassed first, I would’ve been more into it. Is that you out there, Mr. Suto? Please tell me you’re not, you know… disturbed.”

           He let out the first real, though mild, laugh from the crowd. “I do apologize, but you spoke to an AI-generated voice at the apartment and fell into a trap on your own. I was out at dinner at the time. No need to be afraid. I am, in fact, not at all… disturbed.”

           The studio lights all shut off at once, and regular ceiling lights took their place right away, revealing the larger room that the set mostly took up. There were only two rows of mannequin-filled seats; past them was the rest of a modern living room, albeit one that now took up maybe a fifth of the original open space and was little more than a coffee table, some floor lamps, and a couple of couches shoved into a corner.

           “The gas is perfectly safe, I assure you. It is used to keep people in a restful sleep on long voyages in space,” Mr. Suto said as four sets of eyes landed on him, standing in the aisle between the crowd seating and looking quite different than he had back at the signing. “I could have given you one of two antidotes. One type, I’ve given to a pizza delivery boy who went into the wrong apartment. It wipes the last hour of memories. The second kind does not. This is what you received when I recognized Mr. Colton.”

           “You mean from the mall?” Wes asked, now quite confused.

           “Well, yes, but… I will get to it.”

           “And… you dragged all of us onto your… set here?”

           “Carried you, actually. My work benefits from enhanced limbs,” he explained and pulled back his business casual sleeves to reveal augmented, partially metal arms.

           Jace looked up at Lucy and grumbled. “Ew, Mom! Are you blushing again?”

           “Hush!” she said for the second time. “I guess that proves you’re a time-traveler, then. Wes told me about the future… What year are you from? The ‘ticking’ present?”

           “And how did you end up here?” Laurie asked. “When did you first time travel?”

           Wes groaned. “This is getting confusing. Let’s just start with: where are we?”

           “It would be faster if I show you…” Kiza put his arm out and made a gesture with his hands, which must’ve been for his apartment’s AI system.

           It turned out that one of the larger room’s walls was not a wall at all, but an array of dimmable glass. It quickly went from being solid black to opaque, and continued to lose its tint as the guests left the stage and walked over for a closer look.

           The view was breathtaking, yes, but Lucy was the only one who hadn’t seen it before, making it a familiar sight to the others. Not that the sheer surprise of where they had been taken didn’t come with some shock value all on its own.

           “Is… is this Royal Valley?” Lucy said breathlessly. “It’s… like a sci-fi movie.”

           With Laurie and Jace at his sides, Wes stepped up to the glass with her and gazed out at the many mega-skyscrapers and rooftop parks, the delivery drones and vehicles flying effortlessly via direct gravity manipulation, and of course, the most impressive sights like the half-pyramid police headquarters and crazy-tall spaceport mass-driver.

           “Yep,” Wes revealed matter-of-factly. “Circa… I guess it must be 2886.”

           “Um…” Laurie murmured, “it doesn’t look quite the same as last time…”

           Lucy’s amazement soon turned into minor disgust, when she realized that all of the thousands of pretty bright colors and shapes floating in front of and over buildings were actually advertisements, mostly for products and services not around in 2024.

           “Oh. Great,” she said snidely. “So, the future really is destined to be a corporate hellscape. Okay, Mr. Suto, which of these companies own entire countries or wage wars?”

           “Luce, chill,” Wes said. “Nyra told us about this last time we were here—when these ads weren’t being displayed. This must be the one weekend of the month they’re visible.” He turned to Kiza and nonetheless asked, “… Are there mega-corporations?”

           “Eh,” he shrugged, “there are some big ones. But they’re controlled. This is not the cyberpunk dystopia that is popular in the media of your era. And I would know.”

           “Why’s that?” Lucy wondered, with her eyes still stuck on the futuristic skyline.

           Kiza leaned against a particular spot on the glass, and his guests turned to him to see what he was trying to convey. It took him a moment, but Wes eventually noticed one of the bright holo-signs running along a certain tower, just over Kiza’s shoulder.

           “Suto Dynamics…” Wes remarked. “Guys, see that building? Looks like our boy here is, what, the owner of a major company? How’d you go from sitcom to syndicate?”

           “Nice play on words, Mr. Colton, but not really a ‘syndicate,’” Kiza replied. “And I’m not actually your ‘boy,’ either. I think this would be best explained over some tea.”

           “Yeah. I’m sensing some incoming revelations.”

           “Ah… But where to drink?” Kiza looked at Lucy. “Why don’t we let the ‘pretty lady’ decide? Do we have tea on my furniture and look upon this metropolis of the future… or should we speak and sip on the remade set of an ancient TV show?”

           Weighing the options, Lucy looked back and forth at both locations a few times.

           Five minutes later, Kiza brought a fancy Japanese tea set with gold rims over to the Donelly living room, the holograms now deactivated entirely. Naturally, he served Lucy first, on the couch next to Wes. The kids were back in their armchairs from before, while the host drank as he meandered about; maybe he kept on the move at work.

           “Oh…” Lucy cooed after her first sip of the steaming beverage. “You won’t appreciate it, Wes, but… that is from some top-quality leaves.” She surveyed the set again as another thought occurred to her. “Mr. Suto? How come Kaito didn’t appear?”

           He answered as he ran a finger along the open doorway to the kitchen he had yet to create, “I haven’t programed him. I… did not really see a need to.”

           “I’d understand, if it’d be a little strange to script your own character.”

           Kiza sighed, drank from his little cup, and at last revealed what he’d so far been keeping from the visitors, “I did not play Kaito. That casting credit goes to my son.”

           “Your… son played Kaito? Whoa, wait a minute…” Lucy, like the other guests, needed a moment to ponder the implications. “Then… that means… You clearly have an established company here, so this must be your native era. Is his mom from the past?”

           “I would be less ashamed if that were the case. No. I inherited this company from my father, but it was smaller back then. The competition in Japan was too fierce. So, about twenty years ago, I moved it from Osaka to Royal Valley, where there is more of a regional market for time-travel-focused innovations and equipment.”

           “Osaka… Heh…” Wes looked at Jace. “Emiko really is good.”

           “He called himself Izuki, but his real name is Yosuke. Common… Old.”

           “And is his mother…” Lucy said quietly, fearing the worst.

           “On a scientific expedition on Triton. Neptune’s moon. Year three of a five-year enterprise. And even with fusion rockets, it takes two months each way. Also Japanese, but native to Royal Valley. We are not married. People of this era see that as an outdated custom; maybe one out of ten do it. We respect each other and enjoy our company, and Yosuke adores her, but she sold her home when she left and won’t have a new one until she returns. So, he began living here full-time, but never took to this penthouse. Which shares space with my empty apartment in 2024, if… you were curious.” He finished his tea and set the cup on the coffee table as he passed by. “Of course, work keeps me busy. I can be gone for long periods. And I am in one of the few industries that requires me to time-travel. By law, non-governmental travelers must also add hours spent in the past to our return time; we are not allowed to come back to the point in which we left.”

           “I can see where this is going,” Wes said, his cup joining Kiza’s. “I know what it’s like to have a bit of a rebellious kid, and he’s not even on his own that much. But a man like you? Tale as old as time. A tight schedule, you find it hard to connect, the years slip by and before you know it, the two of you are distant. I also have some experience.”

           “Yes… At first, I never took him for a boy that would run away. With as many face-matching cameras as we have, that is a simple thing and often quickly resolved. But when the child steals a quartz and disappears into history… Infinitely more complex.”

           “I can imagine,” Lucy replied. “But why the late 90s? Why star in a sitcom?”

           “It was a surprise to me, as well. The TMB takes rogue travel seriously of course, and was investigating for months. But, only recently did I finally do what I should have from the start. I used a company computer to break into his tablet, and looked at his history. He had been talking with LumnaCore since his mother departed.”

           “Lumna… Core?” Wes replied. “I would guess… another AI?”

           “Indeed. A very old, non-centralized, super-intelligent net daemon. It is a cultural curator, with knowledge of nearly every book, game, show, album, and movie that was produced over nearly one thousand years. Whatever it was Yosuke was feeling, some… empty or longing in his heart… LumnaCore suggested that he try sitcoms. They haven’t been made since the 22^nd century, and yet, something about them really did appeal to his needs. After he finished one, he’d watch an older series. Further, and further back.”

           “He fell into escapism…” Lucy surmised.

           “It seems that way. We rarely spoke, and I cannot tell you what he was thinking, but out of some dream he had to make an impact, or play pretend with a television family of his own creation, he made the bold choice to steal from my company and run off into 1996. To begin making a show. I am not certain why he chose this year. He may have had a particular interest in the time’s… that word is… Ah, zeitgeist. Or, it was close to the horizon; as far from here as possible. He likely also saw an opportunity to use the newly-opened amusement park’s soundstage, giving him a chance to remain in the city.”

           Wes, whose agitation had clearly been rising over the past few minutes—as was evident by his restless leg—suddenly shot up and could no longer contain it. “Okay, Mr. Suto, two things. One, how the hell does an eleven or twelve-year-old make his own TV show? Second… and I’ve been wanting to say this for a while… said show was the result of time travel! You of all people have to know how dangerous that is!”

           “Wes, settle down,” Lucy asked of him. “Is it that big of a deal?”

           “Luce, I get that you’re new to all this, but yes, it is. An entire TV show—and it doesn’t matter how long it ran or how many people watched it—is a major… let’s call it a butterfly factor. Unintended consequences. Think of all those people, going places they didn’t before, having jobs they originally didn’t. You and Lex watched it, and liked it! That could’ve easily changed how you and Conrad got together. Maybe prevented it entirely.” He looked at Jace and Laurie, both now a little scared after realizing the full risks for themselves. “Either one of them could’ve stopped existing, or at best, be entirely different people. And, the worst part? We wouldn’t even know. Think hard about chaos theory.”

           “I… I, um…” Lucy took a deep breath. “I get what you’re saying now, Wes. I really do. Now that I’m putting it all together… I guess it kind of puts Yosuke in a bad light. What he did was stupid, selfish, and reckless. But, even so… he is just a kid.”

           “We have to talk to the TMB about this…” Jace spoke up. “They have those quantum computers that record timeline changes, remember? If anything bad happened because of the show, they’d know… Unless… Did you already do that, Mr. Suto?”

           “No. And I have a reason. But, yes, maybe it is time to talk to them. We can take my personal skycar after we’re done here. Hawthorn always makes time for me.”

           Wes asked, “What about the funding? The missing bonds were involved, right?”

           “They were. Or, are. That is also my fault, and I will tell you why soon. At some point, he found the fortune’s completely missing half, and retrieved the half at the manor, then cashed them to fund a revival. But he still has to wait until he’s older to star in it. Remember, he needs universal time to actually grow up. I used face and voice changing tech from this era to blend in with a retrieval team, to try and keep one half out of his grasp… but I was too late. They were already not in the McMare manor as expected.”

           Laurie explained, “Actually, I guess he got them originally, then you did before he could. But we went back and took them a few days before either of you did. It’s… a lot.”

           “Ah. That would explain the scattered boards we saw. After you kept half from both of us, I put my own five million into the fund Yosuke had started, as an additional effort to lure him out of hiding. That is what all of this is about. When I discovered he made a TV show in 1997—by seeing him in it, imagine my surprise—I had this studio built in hopes he’d come home, see a gift, and decide to stay. I rented the apartment in the past and put it in my name for him to find. Finally… I grew desperate enough to create the ridiculous ‘Mr. 90s’ persona for him to notice should he return to your idea of the present. Either to get him to think it could be a team effort, or… just to make him mad that I was ‘stealing’ his idea. His… ‘thunder,’ I believe the old slang goes.”

           “Aw…” Lucy crooned. “You’re just a dad trying to find his son. Did you look in the 90s? What if he’s not visiting other years, or stopping in when you’re not watching?”

           “Yes, I did. But a show needs time to earn a following and find relevance again. Around 2024 is when it will soon have its ‘peak rediscovery’ phase, however small. That is likely why it is the year he chose to turn in the treasure and try and revive it. Oh, and as to how he made himself some shadowy mastermind of its creation? You’d have to ask him, but I think it would not be difficult to fake public interest, move money, and create non-existent but approving parents using our modern technology in the past. Taking gold bars from the family safe would have helped with the initial funding, of course.”

           “Maybe… we could see his room?” Lucy suggested. “Get an idea of what he’s like, his interests? Would he happen to have old TV show décor, anything like that?”

           Kiza frowned. “He… has chosen to keep his room here bare, worryingly.”

           That story also familiar, Lucy looked over at Wes, who gazed knowingly back.

           “There are things you still haven’t told us yet, Mr. Suto,” Lucy said a few minutes later and a few floors down, in an open-air garage on the twentieth floor that was full of flight-capable vehicles. “Like how Yosuke was able to find the bonds in the first place.”

           “That discussion, I’d be having twice if we don’t share it with Chief Hawthorn,” Kiza said and unlocked a shiny black shuttle-like luxury vehicle. “And I want only to suffer what is to be a shameful admittance but once, if I can help it.”

           “I see that the Japanese still value their sense of honor after all these centuries,” Wes remarked and got into one of the plush seats of the craft, there being six total and facing each other. “But is this about pushing your son away, or… something else?”

           “You will see,” Kiza said with a huff. After everyone was buckled in, he tapped on a navigation screen, and the gravity engine quietly fired up. As the car silently lifted into the air a few inches and smoothly left the garage, he added, “Mistakes were made.”

           Lucy again found herself absorbed by the sights of modern ad-infested buildings while they flew between them, merged into a skylane, and headed towards the large and glassy structure in the distance, which sat where King Arcade used to be centuries ago.

           A long-antiquated ringtone suddenly filled the cabin, startling Jace. He needed a few seconds to realize where it was coming from, at which point he took out the phone Nyra lent him and had yet to retrieve, and answered it with the usual, “H-hello?”

           “Jace! What’s going on, bud?” Nyra said from the other end. “I’m with Millie, over at the spaceport about to start the second half of our vacation, and I just now saw that the phone I gave you is pinging. What are you doing in the 29^th again?”

           “Uh, so… Long story,” Jace squeaked, feeling nervous with all eyes on him. “We met Mr. Suto, of Suto Dynamics, because his son is the one who took the bonds, and it’s this whole mess, and we’re going to the TMB now, but, heh, it’s okay! You don’t have to worry about it. We’re taking care of it,” he said as Wes nodded at him. “Enjoy your trip!”

           “Suto Dynamics…? Aw, crap… This must have to do with… Sorry, Millie, slight delay. Jace, we’ll meet you there. I should really be in the room with you guys. See-soon.”

           “… She hung up,” Jace muttered. “This all started out so small, and now look.”

           Following somewhere around ten minutes of flight time, Kiza’s skycar touched down on one of the foliage and bird-filled police building’s open aeropads.

           When Wes stepped out, he observed, “Oh, good. Looks like the repairs are done.”

           Local Time Police Chief Wisence Hawthorn, who looked like she had aged more than the two years since Wes and Jace last saw her, sat quietly but impatiently behind her office desk, tapping her fingers on the holographic glass panel that made up its surface.

           “So…” Wes broke the awkward silence. “How much longer, do you think?”

           “It takes a while. Even though they’re quantum supercomputers, they need time to analyze every consequence,” she explained and surveyed her five guests. “Mr. Colton, I’ll be honest, even though we made you a standby provisional agent of your era, I never thought I’d be seeing you again. Especially not while riding along with more family.”

           “Just a misunderstanding,” Lucy nervously tried to shrug it off. “But I’d maybe consider it as, like… Wes bringing in a field expert? Given what this case is about?”

           Hawthorn opened her mouth to respond, but her door opened first, and Nyra and Millie walked in—wearing never-out-of-style shorts and t-shirt vacation clothes.

           “Nice threads, guys,” Lucy said. “Sorry we’re screwing up your plans, though.”

           “We’ll just have to catch the evening flight to Belize now,” Nyra replied. “Trust me, I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think this was important. Boss, keeping busy?”

           “Headquarters should be just about done writing a report about the effects of Mr. Suto’s son’s little foray into TV. We’re about to see if he gets to keep it or not.”

           “If…?” Wes questioned. “There’s an option here?”

           Hawthorn clasped her hands together and spoke candidly, “The TMB has a dirty little secret, Colton. The rules of time travel are not set in a stone monolith. We closely track every change made to the timeline too big for the daemons to correct on their own, and decide what to do with said alterations. There are instances where, if a change results in a net benefit, we simply keep it in place. If no deaths result, and no births are undone, it is usually simply… easier, and cleaner for us to ‘canonize’ the event.”

           “Huh. Really?” Wes fell back into his chair and pondered. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that since I got my memories back. From everything I’ve seen so far, you have kind of been playing fast and loose with the dings and dents we put on history.”

           Nyra added, “There’s also new babies to consider, Wes. Would it be right to undo someone’s existence, just because it didn’t happen originally? Always another ethical debate… Officially, the TMB has never acknowledged this code, but… people know, and there exists groups that see the timeline as sanctified, to various degrees.”

           “Some say change nothing, undo everything,” Kiza added. “They might support time travel only as an instrument to study history. More extremist groups seek to outlaw it entirely, or reset time to some original state that is now long gone, even if it means their families are wiped from existence.” A beep sounded from the chief’s desk. “Is that it?”

           “Let’s see the damage…” Hawthorn said and opened up a floating holo-screen. As she read the small text of a detailed report, the atmosphere in the room grew tense and a little nerve-racking for everyone. But it dissipated the moment she leaned back with a faint smile. “Mr. Suto, I think Yosuke will get to keep his show. It resulted in zero casualties, zero ‘unbirths,’ and… five births. I can also say that none of those babies go onto become monsters. Seems No it All! brought a little love into the world.”

           “Chief Hawthorn…” Jace murmured, deep in thought. He spoke up, “The whole reason December is our mayor, is from something I said to her, a long time ago. Did… you already see those results? I didn’t think about it back when I put her on that track, but it would seem to me that getting her that role… could’ve changed a lot of things.”

           “That’s insightful, Mr. Baker. And, yes, I did approve of her permanence in the position. The man who originally held it accomplished so little for this city, that any improvement for 2020 through 2028 was welcomed. In fact, should she now lose the election, the winning candidate deals more damage than what we saw in original history. Funny… how it works out sometimes. Now, Mr. Suto, what was it you need to tell us?”

           Kiza let out a sigh and stepped away from the wall where he was flowering to explain bluntly, “I will not hide this any longer. I am at fault for this entire incident.” He looked at Wes. “When we met in the mall, I nearly broke character, since I recognized you. You made quite a name for yourself in this industry, at my company especially.”

           “I did?” Wes said, looking confused. “Is… is that because of what happened?”

           “Vague, but… yes. Lucy, when your brother and nephew were here, they caused an event that resulted in, for the first time, people breaking through the time horizon.”

           “He told me about that, yeah,” Lucy said and gazed at Millie, now staring rather solemnly at the floor. “A black and white world past where a quartz can go, where no one sees you and you can’t interact with anything. It sounds… like an eerie place.”

           “It is. And my company was tasked with creating a device that can do it again. What I have not yet told the TMB, is that we… created two working prototypes.”

           “You what?!” Hawthorn finally lost her cool and snapped. “You kept telling us that you were always months away! When did this happen? Why keep it a secret?”

           “Sixteen months ago. We hadn’t yet field tested; stability was uncertain… Then Yosuke snuck into the office, stole one, and went further back than anyone has before, without realizing the danger. That, too, is my fault. He learned of the city’s unclaimed ‘mythical treasure,’ after I took him to the history museum… and must have, at some point, used the instrument to discover where it was hidden. I feel he would have used it to fund the original show into existence if he couldn’t find an interested producer.”

           Wes muttered, “Which he inexplicably did. So now, he’d save them for a revival. And only sixteen months? He must’ve skipped around the ‘boring parts’ of making TV.”

           “What a mess,” Millie summarized. “And here I kind of liked the show, too.”

           “I know, right?” Lucy fawned. “Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s so comfily subversive!”

           “I had tried to resolve this on my own so that Yosuke would not have to be dealt with by the TMB. He is shy, sensitive…” Kiza explained. “But we also cannot continue our work on the gizmo… name pending… until we retrieve the data from the one he used. I ask you to give us a chance to bring him home before cyborg officers get involved. I picture a scenario where we scare him, he escapes through time, and… escalation.”

           “I’m sure we can find him,” Lucy tried to convince the worried dad. “Do you think if we tell him that we liked his show… He’d realize he wasn’t in too much trouble?”

           “I don’t know if I can fake that, Luce…” Wes said. When she glared at him, he threw up his hands and added, “But I do know how to talk to scared kids, so, let’s do it.”

           “Fine,” Hawthorn agreed. “You have twelve universal hours to resolve this, and then I make a call. That means son and prototype, back in this century by midnight.”

           “… I mean, I could still help, just a little…” Nyra offered anxiously.

           This time, it was Laurie who replied, “No, Nyra! We got this! You’re on vacation!”

           After being dismissed, Kiza took a needed breather by the railing outside of the department, where he looked plaintively at the atrium’s indoor mini-forest below.

           “All right, Mr. Suto, so how are we going to find your kid?” Wes asked.

           “You will not like my idea, but I see no other way, given our short time,” he said. “But, before I tell you… I think a trip to the Royal Valley History Museum is in order.”

           “Sounds… informative. When was that created?” Lucy wondered.

           After Kiza’s vehicle took to the sky autonomously to locate a nearby mid-tower garage to park itself into, the 21^st century visitors looked up near the museum entrance keystone, reading that it was indeed established in 2677, at least in whatever form it may have taken about a couple centuries ago. The lobby past the glass doors was crowded.

           Kiza explained, “Museums are popular escapes during ad weekend. Not everyone appreciates being flooded by corporate imagery. Our destination is on the fifth floor.”

           “I’m already wishing I had a moment to check this out last time I was here,” Wes said. “I’d expect that most of the stuff in there is still our future. Uh, actually, before we go in… there’s nothing about me, right? Or, you know, my game company?”

           “Wow, Wes. Self-aggrandize much?” Lucy scoffed, but playfully.

           “I only want to be sure! Being remembered is a mixed blessing, in my opinion. You saw how much I freaked when I learned I was just in the running for that award.”

           “The only section of note concerning your era is the one for King Arcade,” Kiza said. “Even in a large history museum, there is often too little room to not distill and compact an entire generation’s experience… into but a few singular moments.”

           “Something both sad and poetic about that, I feel like,” Laurie remarked.

           They went into the building, Kiza paid for tickets, and the group took the elevator up to the fifth floor, which was dedicated to photographic prints and also had a few encased objects relating to the curated images. It was a quiet place compared to the ground floor, and the few people that were milling about were respectful.

           “Guys, look at this…” Lucy said next to the nearest series of photos, to the left of the elevator. “These pictures are of soldiers stationed in Royal Valley, in 2201. I don’t recognize any of the buildings, but I can still kind of tell where in the city it was shot.”

           “Taken during the Second Resource War,” Kiza started a guided tour. “The battles of the first never reached California, but the second, much worse war almost did. Our city became something of a bastion for infantry, tank operators, and pilots. This is a famous photograph of soldiers practicing response drills on Main Street.”

           “Depressing…” Laurie murmured. “War is just the worst, no matter the reason.”

           “Agreed. Although both wars were fought mostly with drones and remote-operated machinery, they cannot operate everywhere. And the level of utter destruction suffered in some areas has left scars even still just barely visible today.”

           “Sorry, Mr. Suto,” Lucy said and tore herself away from the impactful imagery. “I know we’re on a time crunch. Should we go straight to what you want us to see?”

           “Ah, well, a few minutes to go around the room should be fine. Yosuke spent at least an hour in here himself, so maybe it will help you feel what he did. This museum was one of the few places I ever took him. Ever found the time to, regretfully.”

           “Hey, check it out,” Wes said at the section’s display case, which held a worn artifact in a nitrogen-filled box that preserved it. “It’s a patch for the city’s regiment.”

           “So… soldiers wore this on their uniforms?” Jace asked. “It’s kind of… funny.”

           Lucy summarized what she could make out from the centuries-old relic. “Coyote, knife in mouth, wearing dog tags and a crown, and… Castle Hill in the background?”

           “You got it,” Kiza said. “The region was especially known for its armor—in the last years tanks were used, in fact. It would’ve been a common sight, seeing them patrol the valley. Back then, it wasn’t as lush as it is now yet; think savannah and wildflowers.”

           Wes stepped back and shook his head. “I don’t know… Maybe the less we know about some horrible future war and the geopolitics around it, the better. Just because not even our great-grandkids might fight in it, doesn’t make it less… existential.”

           “Understandable. Perhaps this section is more to your liking.” Kiza led them over to a spot that instantly stood out, even though it only had a half-dozen photographs and two display cases. “Your beloved amusement park. Immortalized for all time.”

           “Wes, look!” Lucy said and pointed to one of the images that he hadn’t realized existed. “The opening day crowd at the entrance. The quality… This was no point-and-shoot 4 x 6 print kind of camera. We were both there, remember? Can you spot us?”

           Also curious, Jace leaned in for a close look with Wes and replied, “I was there, too, Mom. In fact… originally, you weren’t. We kept you from losing a new shoe, which would’ve upset you so much that you’d stay home. Then you played Area 51 with Wes.”

           Lucy raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what shoe you’re talking about.”

           “Well, we were there that day a lot more recently than you were, sis,” Wes said, still scanning the picture. “Hm, dunno. A sea of heads and smiling faces. We could be in there, but I’d need a magnifying glass to be sure. What else do we got?”

           “A nice pic of the Red Demon.” Laurie pointed out a saturated image of the rollercoaster at sunset. “A few of the crowds over the years. One of AquaZone. And…”

           “Oh, no…” Lucy gasped when she saw the last picture, capturing the park closed and in rough shape, with the drop tower having collapsed, and the nearby Red Demon with a large segment of its track missing and the rest of it rusting. “The park really was destroyed. Or, will be. Taken in 2039… Hm. Four years after the quake?”

           “When its permanent closure was formally announced,” Kiza informed them. “The park creator, Mr. Bartles, died in 2030, so he never had to learn what happened. They finally finished tearing down the wreck sometime in the 2050s. Parts of the water park were incorporated into the green space that replaced everything, I believe.”

           “It’s crazy that we only have eleven years left of the place,” Laurie lamented. “It’s always been there for us. But there’s no stopping an earthquake, huh? That day will suck.”

           “This is a pretty cool artifact, though,” Wes said, pointing to a small plastic square holding a piece of metal that had decayed to the point of near-unrecognizability. “Says it was the starter key for the Red Demon. I must’ve passed by it a hundred times.”

           “Wasn’t Arthur’s dad the head electrician?” Lucy asked. “There’s a tiny chance he had this at some point and it got passed down for a while. But who knows for sure.”

           “Really-faded map of the park here, too,” Laurie added as she studied one of the larger protective cases. “I recognize it—I think they began using this one in 2020.”

           After taking in the park’s “memorial” for a few more minutes, everyone followed Kiza to the segment to the right of the elevator, where guests were meant to start.

           “Now these are really ancient,” Lucy quickly surmised. “They must be preserved somewhere already in 2024, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them. Look—this is a map of Royal Valley from 1920, just before it became a city. See?” She pointed out the names across the landscape on the old-timey hand drawn chart. “Kettlebrook, Meadow Valley, San Baro, and the mountain village of Castle Hill. And by it is the official town charter that unified them, signed by Hadron, when he was a young entrepreneur.”

           “I swear I’ve seen this before, but just as a copy,” Wes said. “Who had this?”

           “The McMares themselves,” Kiza explained as everyone began to skim the array of black and white photographs that showed Royal Valley’s early development over the next decades, and the modernization that it rapidly underwent in the 1940s. “Hadron’s great-grandson, when he was eighty years old in 2056, finally opened the family vault to the world on the anniversary of the famous casino game. He was tired of the secrets.”

           Kiza stopped and turned to the tourists upon reaching two particular photos, signifying their importance. One was the picture of the casino December had shown them. The other, however, was unfamiliar and already felt somehow… revealing.

           “This photograph is from a negative found deep inside the vault, thought to be involved in a blackmail scheme. It had never been printed before 2056; it’s impossible that anyone outside of the family would have seen it back in your time. And I believe it also must be the source of our problems. Could any of you tell me why?”

           Noticing the brittle and chipped poker chip in a nearby display, Laurie answered, “It’s the famous card game, isn’t it? But if the picture was kept a secret for so long…”

           “Is there a hint in it?” Jace wondered. “What are they playing? Poker?”

           “A game called baccarat,” Kiza replied. “Hadron considered it more ‘elegant.’ It is all the same to me; gambling is a dirty waste of money. If you put your cash into a pile and set it on fire, at least you would be warm for a moment. But I ramble. The men you see at the table give this moment an exact date, where one did not exist before; there were always estimates about when it happened, but no one knew the day for certain.” He pointed out the players. “That is McMare. At his side is Sherman Miller, designer of the Desert Tree neighborhood. And playing with them are Bill Baunder and one of his associates. There was only one date in which all four could have met at the casino, and it was quickly discerned by local historians shortly after this image got published.”

           “Bill Baunder…” Lucy murmured. “I’m vaguely familiar with that name.”

           “A mobster who earned the moniker Bill Blunder for mistakes that got him kicked out of Los Angeles. He was declared missing a few days after the game, and Miller went into hiding for six years starting the next morning, likely out of his own fear of criminal organizations at the time. Months later, witnesses described the mayor shouting that Bill would ‘never find his fortune,’ but by then circumstances and timing were fuzzy, as was the reason the stakes were raised so absurdly high. But Yosuke may have found out.”

           “You’re saying he went that far? To a mobbed-up casino in 1956?!” Wes blurted.

           “Naïve child that he is… he must have seen a lost treasure within reach.”

           “It always leads back to me,” Wes groaned. “There’s still a direct line back to my time traveling that keeps going. I caused the time horizon discovery in the first place.”

           “You could say that. It was a remarkable, if accidental achievement nonetheless.”

           “What’s the plan, then? Do you think we can just use your invention to go back to this moment, as well? See if Yosuke is there? If this technology even lets us…”

           “That is the problem. If the past beyond the horizon cannot be changed, would he actually exist there? But, if not, we could always follow the prize and find its hiding place. If he found it, then at some point, Yosuke should also be wherever it is hidden.” Kiza faced the group again. “I will need about an hour to prepare for this at my office, which is a short walk away. You can spend it here, I suppose… or I can program my vehicle to bring you to Castle Hill Overlook. The view there is still quite lovely.”

           The four visitors looked at one another and quietly weighed their options. Should they see more history they wouldn’t remember, or a scenic vista they’d also forget?

           Without giving it any input of their own, Kiza’s luxury sky-limo settled down at a parking spot on the familiar overlook that offered the best view of Royal Valley, and the pairs of half-siblings and best friends hopped out to see how the place had changed.

           Of course, now it was all green. The shifted climate patterns brought moisture, and over centuries, layers of fertile soil that gave life to vibrant grass and trees similar to what was once only seen in the northern part of the state. Today, several families were at the overlook, and young kids in their futuristic clothes were running around the area, a couple of them apparently racing drone-guided kites. The city’s dense cluster of towers were lit up like Christmas trees; only the holiday bulbs were instead hundreds of colorful holographic advertisements of various sizes and complexity, competing for attention.

           “I would never get used to this…” Lucy murmured nearly breathlessly as she and Wes went to the guardrail, and Jace and Laurie wandered about—both of them looking a little more intrigued by the kids’ kites. “The environment, the city… all of it.”

           “I know,” Wes agreed, “it’s worth a visit, but I couldn’t imagine living here. Even though Millie somehow seems to, part-time. And this is coming from a sci-fi guy.”

           Lucy watched as a shuttle was propelled up the mass-driver in the distance, firing its rockets when it was much higher up in the sky. “Between this and the museum… It all makes you really think about everyone’s tiny little place in history.”

           “It got more complicated than I expected it to, but we might actually be near the end of this little adventure. Hey, would you have stayed two years in the past, like I did?”

           “Are you kidding?” Lucy groaned. “No! I’d miss all the modern amenities, for starters. But it was fun. I’d stay maybe a week; see more sights, find forgotten stories.”

           Wes leaned back against the railing. “So, ‘Martha,’ what’s been your favorite part?”

           “That’s easy, ‘Jerry.’ Our lunch at Wendy’s, where I got to try their old salad bar again.” She laughed a little when Wes gave her the ‘not buying it’ face. “Actually? I think just being in Desert Tree. It was simple. Not that much had changed, sure, but… enough had. Trees were shorter, the sidewalks and roads hadn’t been updated and fixed up yet, Mansion Street and its cottages were still around… It was subtle, but felt… Halcyon.”

           “Mm. Vanni once told us that she loved that word. Gotta say, it’s a good one.”

           “I used to be jealous, of how effortlessly you made friends, you know. A teenager like Vanni would’ve intimidated me, but also just the number of buddies you were able to make and hold onto always amazed me. My first ‘friends’ were… terrible, looking back. And when Lex actually started hanging out, sometimes I felt like I was close to getting way too clingy and driving them away. I bet you never worried about that.”

           “Nah, I was scared of having some big fight and losing even one of ’em. And as much as I loved my room, I was jealous of your house. And having two parents full-time, at least when they were around. On the other hand, I didn’t grow up with all the rules.”

           “I’d have traded the house for friends like yours, and you still have no idea. You being there every other weekend just gave you a taste. I hate the parenting style Dad used with us, treating us like ‘little adults.’ Kids need guidance and structure, but that degree of…” She shook off bad memories of feeling constrained. “Now we’d call it helicopter parenting, and I always told myself if I had a kid, they wouldn’t be raised like that.”

           “You sure swung that pendulum hard the other way when picking the dad…”

           Lucy lightly glared at Wes. “You’re not dragging that old stuff back to the surface again, are you? A view and a sight like this, and you want to talk about Conrad?”

           “No, Luce…” Wes sighed. “I’ve said everything I can about him over the years.”

           “Y-yeah… I think you have. So… why bring him up?”

           “I don’t hate him anymore, or want to be hard on you for going after and being with the guy for five years. He did give us Jace.” Wes looked at his nephew and Laurie, now also admiring the view nearby and trading smiles and laughter as they chatted about something. He gathered his thoughts for a few moments and enjoyed the crisp air.

           “Lucy, I don’t need to have all my memories to remember that he picked Charlie, who gave his job to Zach, who picked Lex to… Usually I’d just say to ‘lead the school’s secret club,’ but it was always more than that. Those guys were a grade’s little hero, a kid to look up to. In a chain of events way, he’s responsible for those two being close today.”

           “You’ll tolerate him because of the things he did… regardless of his personality?”

           “Eh. Maybe it took time-traveling to put it in perspective, but, yeah, something like that. It’s hard to change people, but getting multiple chances to look at, really… all of our lives over the years, helped me see the impacts we made, the roles we have.”

           “That’s, um… Introspective, Wes. Now I feel bad for being mad at you sometimes. I’ve never admitted this, but in elementary school, it felt like I was invisible next to you.”

           “Aw, really? I never meant for you to feel that way, sis.”

           “Even Ms. Porter told me about you a few too many times! But… there was one moment in fifth grade where I felt like I made a difference and had a voice. When Lex was scouting for a successor, I suggested this boy named Ben who no one but me really noticed. He was softspoken, but had so many cool ideas for the club if he was ever put in charge. Like Lex, he wasn’t the typical choice; he didn’t spend his days showing how cool and confident he was, or ‘lord over’ recess. I got them to meet, and when he was eventually chosen, I was… shocked. It felt like I had finally left my own mark on DTE.”

           “That’s really awesome—I don’t think I’ve ever heard that story. What happened to him after that? Any idea? Did you ever, you know, almost choose him over Conrad?”

           Lucy smiled wistfully. “I know you’re joking, but I actually almost did ask him out when I was a senior and he was a smart, likable junior. But only almost. He left town for college, then started a family elsewhere. It’s one of those what might’ve been things.”

           “Don’t get too hung up on regrets. I’m not sure why I still remember the big, final fight with my older self, and regrets are what drove him. I can’t let myself become that guy again. Know what might be a nice change of pace, though, by the end of all this?”

           “Hm, what’s that?”

           “Not having to do some ‘big bad boss battle’ that involves guns this time! Kinda like what Leonard Nimoy wanted to do differently with the Star Trek whale movie.”

           “It’s worrying that you’re used to that. But don’t let your guard down yet.” Lucy put on a serious face. “Don’t forget. Yosuke has assertive ways of saying ‘no.’”