Somewhere in Time (Part 2)

“Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.”

― Homer, The Odyssey

Keya walked into the kitchen of the wealthy high-rise suite to find Rosa absent, instead one of the idols was there squinting at an ugly toad balancing on his hand. He kissed it and rubbed his cheeks against it, calling out its name in a playful tone. "Rosa, such a sweet girl. You missed your oppa, didn't you?"  

"You turned my friend into a frog!" shrieked Keya which made him flinch and almost drop his bulging-eyed pet. "How could you!" her voice held a bitterness as she snapped at him. She reached over and snatched the amphibian from his palms before he could say anything. "Rosa, can you hear me? Do you still understand human?"

"Hey! Be careful with her. Don't squish her, she's one of the few organic toads still around today.", the pop idol sounded irritable and tried to grab his pet back from her.  

Ulyssa ran into the kitchen with the other pop star by her side and watched as Keya cried her heart out to the animal. 

"What's wrong Keya?" Everyone turned to Keya eager for an explanation.

Keya tuned them out. She whispered to the toad instead as it croaked back to her. 

Ulyssa leaned in and patted her on the shoulders. "Focus, girl. What is it?"

"He turned Rosa into a frog with his freaky tech Sci-Fi wizardry! You bastard!" She jabbed daggers to him with her piercing eyes. Her infatuation for them had dissolved at that very moment.

"Wait. Wait. Hold up. Did you think...?" the Idol paused for a moment. Then suddenly went into a fit of laughter tossing his head back and tapping his hand against the kitchen counter. The rest of his other friends joined in with his amusement. Ulyssa was more transfixed to hear what caused Keya to become so delusional but she understood her frustration, entering a new world in the future hadn't been easy. She could see the hopelessness painted on her face. Any stretch of the imagination she conjured up at this moment had been probable given the circumstances. The two of them were now like their grandparents always felt, out of touch with technology and the changing world that seemed to spiral on its axis a little too quickly.

"Keya...I don't think that's Rosa"  

"Yes, it is!" she pulled the Toad closer to her chest in a sort of motherly embrace.

"Well, I don't think that's our Rosa".

The pop idol finally cleared things up, and admitted to the whereabouts of their friend. He told them she had run off to the street and had been interested in the large Weinberg skyscraper in the middle of the city. He had also been a little upset she had borrowed a device from him thinking it was a flashlight.

Keya turned the same color of a tomato when she found out. "Oh God..." she felt defeated, almost generating a panic attack as she cupped her hands against her face like she wanted to disappear "I'm an idiot. I've just read "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" recently and got carried away. I swear to God I'm not usually this naive or on drugs or something.". 

"No, you're not insane." said Ulyssa. She quickly turned angry at Rosa having previously demanded they all stay together in this strange city. The idol had pointed them to his private elevator. The two girls quickly hurried to follow her trail.

*****

The two of them found themselves by the food district again. After a short walk wandering around, Rosa had alerted them from up above a 14-foot-tall billboard. She pointed down with a strange flashlight shining a blue hued beam to signal them.

"Guys! Uly! Keya! The view from up here's insane!" She pointed to the building with the giant neon-lit "W" logo.

"For someone whose terrified of everything, you have balls to be up there" said Keya. "Get your ass down here, scaredy-cat."

"What about that building, Rosie?! What's so special about it?!" screamed Ulyssa.

"It's the Weinberg's building. Remember that snot-nose genius from our school? I think what ever is going on right now is probably connected. We were stuck in his lab, weren't we? This can't be coincidence" she continued pointing the device with the blue light at them without realizing it.

Keya had a phone in her pocket that began to overheat. She felt the burning on her upper thigh and quickly pulled it out and saw the flames smoldering and the phone bloated and expanding.  

"Ahhhh!" she launched it over and it exploded like a firecracker.

"What was that?!" yelled Ulyssa. Rosa quickly shut her flashlight off.

"Don't point that thing at me again!" screamed Keya.

"Oops. I'm sorry..." Rosa said. She quickly climbed down from the ladder.

"Where did you get that anyways?"

"I forgot to give it back to Jin, the singer. it's a Weinberg antique from so long ago. I took it because I thought inside the elevator was too dark..."

"Ok, alright. Too many things happening at once. It's such a weird coincidence about Ted Weinberg though, there's no way he would even be alive today."

"We need to find out" said Ulyssa. She looked around concerned that it was too dangerous for three 17-year-old girls to be walking around at night in an unfamiliar city with nothing to protect themselves with. The city seemed so desolate too after the concert crowd had dispersed and there was barely anyone left outside. All that remained were the crowds of machines in the air. The skies had been populated by drones, and the sounds they emitted was reminiscent of the buzzing sounds that telephone lines made. The red flickering lights on them reminded them of the aircraft warning lights on tall buildings.

Ulyssa stopped to admire the scenery of the breathing city. In the distance she observed larger drones carrying containers and pallets as they soared above rooftops of a building under construction. The three girls noticed a parade of advertisements trying to clamor for everyone's attention. They pointed at those large invasive augmented billboards that seemed to change rapidly. The high-rise apartments had most of their lights illuminating from the windows. Most people seemed to congregate in their homes more than on the streets where the three of them walked.

Then a loud obnoxious siren alerted them from afar. A patrol vehicle drove by hovering from the street. "Stop right where you are. You're under violation of strict curfew laws." The officer inside shined a blinding light that made them look like deer caught in the headlights.

"Oh crap. We're sorry!" said Ulyssa still walking. "It won't happen again, sir. Our home is close by" She pointed to one of the apartment buildings in the vicinity. 

"We should have stayed with those stupid sexy singers" whispered Keya. "Rosa, why the hell did you have to go out like that?". She nudged Rosa who was clutching to her arm likely intimidated from the aggressive authority figure.

The officer inside lowered his tinted windows and spoke through the police amplifier. "You'll be penalized for this infraction. It'll show on your social citizen score. There's no congregating after hours in the city, you know that. Are you guys trying to get yourself temporary banned? Do you want me to limit your Net Signals at home?". The officer lowered the window a little more and pulled out a device that he used to scan faces. "There seems to be an obstruction. Please remove all accessories from your heads and faces" said the device in a monotone computerized voice. 

The three girls stood silent for a moment.

"We're just going to head on back home now. Ok? We're not from around here" said Ulyssa trying to usher the girls back to the building where the idols lived, it was familiar enough to run back to.

The officer raised his windows up and pushed the door open while his vehicle stood stationary still hovering in midair. He slammed his heavy boots down to the street and came out of the vehicle. He was peculiar looking, with metallic-skin and an uncanny large red cybernetic eye in the middle of his face. "Stay right there you three. Do not move, I'll need to scan your prints if your facial recognition won't compute". 

Ulyssa and the girls all gasped after seeing the android officer's face.

"It looks like Cyclops" whispered Rosa. "I'm scared". 

"Ok, look. We're not the bad guys here, I'm only concerned for your well-being. We'll just give you a verbal warning this time. I'll need to fix my damn scanners anyways. Get inside the vehicle. I'll take you to your homes. Where is it?".

"We were going to...um... the Weinberg building..." mumbled Rosa.

"Where?" 

Keya nudged Rosa. "Shut up".

"We might as well get to the building, it looks far enough" whispered Ulyssa. "Yes, the Weinberg building" she repeated. 

"Of course, please get into the vehicle. I'll drive you right away". 

The trio looked hesitant and nervous but ultimately felt they didn't have a choice.

They entered the vehicle while it drove automatically. The police officer had been typing on the computer using the vehicle's dashboard.

*****

Finally they came to a halt, they found themselves in the VIP parking area of the Weinberg skyscraper besides a beautiful fountain and transparent walls that showed a a large spacious lobby. There was a statue in the center of a man who most likely was the titular owner of the company, Ted Weinberg. The pretentious lovable brat they knew from Josephine H.S.. They hoped to find some clues in his building and an answer to how they ended up in this strange predicament, traveling somewhere in time. 

The door to the patrol vehicle suddenly opened. There was a small valet-bot that rode over to the door, it looked like a squared monitor connected to a board and a single-wheeled electric skateboard.

"Welcome to Weinberg Industries! Hotel and Technology Center where we aim to seek the simplest solutions to the most complex questions. My name is Alfred. Please

allow me to take your bag." The small robot released his metal appendage from a compartment and moved the tongs on its articulating hand. His voice sounded like an oddly-pitched pseudo-posh accent.

Ulyssa wanted it to shut up. She knew she wasn't too good at fabricating a lie. "Oh, we don't have any" she said. "We're just-"

"Certainly. Please note my max carry weight is 300 pounds or 136.078 kilograms!" 

Ulyssa turned to Keya and Rosa who gawked at it like it was a cute mechanized puppy. "We're just going inside. And no, we don't have any I said. Stupidass thing. Get out of our way"

"Certainly! Would you like to begin the check-in process or I can scan your employee badges to speed things up!"

"Ok, we're just going to get warmed up inside first."

"Of course! Will you be requiring twin-beds or a Queen?" 

The officer raised his hand over. "Wait. Scan your reservations right here or present them with your badges".

"Yeah, OK, but we left it inside actually" said Rosa.

"Will you be requiring any additional amenities?" said the valet-bot.

The cop turned around to see the three of the girls had nothing to show the valet. He knew then something suspicious was going on with them. Facial and fingerprints weren't in his system among the most serious of their violations. It had been a Federal crime to go under the radar without a system trace to identify them.

"That's it. You three are going to the station". The officer pressed a button and shut the door of his vehicle. Rosa started shaking as the doors had now been locked inside preventing the three of them from escaping. Rosa remembered the flashlight she had where she almost blew Keya's pockets out. She pulled it out and shined it into the Android's eye. It seemed to cause it to malfunction right away deteriorating his system as if it were hacked. The android started to spark electricity and convulse.

"You're under.... You're under... Under... Arrest for....Obstruction.... of Ju-Ju-Justice... Ta-Ta-Tampering with... Operating...System....Se-Se-Section Three Po-Point Forty-Five Pe-Pe-Penal...Code....Anything y-you say....Or Or...In Th-The Court of Law."

Rosa continued flashing her blue flashlight at him then onto the side of the vehicle door's touchpad. As expected it left it inoperable and the doors unlocked, unable to close again. Rosa had pushed the door hard and slammed it across the little valet-bot, cracking its monitor and denting its wheel.

"Sorry for the inconvenience. If you'd like to speak with a Human Receptionist please don't hesitate to ask!"

All three of them ran out as far as they could in search of a safe place.

The officer continued to stammer but ultimately drove in pursuit with its door flailing open. The three girls ran around the block and stumbled into a designated street filled with people living in tents and makeshift houses made of cardboard boxes.

"That was too close" said Ulyssa. "Rosa. I gotta say I'm surprised. You were kind of badass back there. Super courageous. You practically saved us."

"Thank you..." she smiled.

"Ok, we need to find somewhere fast. Let's go inside one of these" Keya pointed to an empty tent she had found. The three of the girls quickly huddled inside. They peeked through the slit of the tent's opening to see if the patrol vehicle had passed by.

A grumpy homeless man quickly approached them. "Hey! What are you three doing in there?!" he barked.

The girls were startled and exhausted. "Please." pleaded Keya. "We're in trouble let us stay for just 30 minutes", she had been like the phone that nearly exploded in her pocket, near to reaching her thermal runway point and break down.

The police vehicle came by with faulty sirens blaring and in search of the teenage fugitives. The homeless man had noticed the car speeding by and turned back to the girls. He knew now they were in trouble with the law something he had been too familiar with. 

"Ok. Ok, but once my neighbor Jean gets back from the Weinberg building, you three better skedaddle. Oh, and don't steal anything!".

"We will. I mean we won't, we promise" said Keya.

"Wait. What do you mean the Weinberg building?" asked Ulyssa.

"The company likes to take a select few of us for a real meal once in a while from the banquet hall's leftovers after they have a party."

"Oh! What do we need to do to get inside?" asked Rosa.

"You three shouldn't take advantage of their good will. There's people here who really need a warm meal. You three look well fed and well dressed."

"What makes you so sure, we're not hungry!" said Keya. "Stupid idiot!".

"Keya! Sorry she's a little grumpy. We're really hungry and really really need to get inside that building" said Ulyssa.

Rosa held out her Weinberg flashlight hinting for a trade in exchange for his help.

"Where did you get that?", his eyes widened and he tried to reach over for it to inspect it. "I've seen blueprints of this device. Ted Weinberg was a genius, but this thing wasn't released to the public. In fact, it's kind of illegal to own"

"Will you help us or not?" said Ulyssa holding it back to Rosa's hand.

The homeless man offered his tattered jacket and beanie.

"Wait here" he said. "I'll get more clothes for you three to blend in. The hotel shuttle will be by in a few minutes. I'll make sure you get on that bus."