A little girl and a little boy were playing tag in and around the jungle gym at the park. She got him, and he chased her up the stairs and down the slide, and over again. Each time they took a step on the playground, a medium-sized hologram would appear floating in the form of a gummy bear just above their heads saying, “When you’re done playing, how about you head to Happytime Fun Show with Freddy on vybespace and continue the fun!”
The kids did not consciously pay any attention to this advertisement in the slightest, having seen it so many times, but instead felt the visceral joy of running around and playing with their fellow human being. They had not a care in the world. Their parents on the other hand, who were sitting, watching at the benches encircling the play area, had opposite expressions. They mildly spoke to each other and evidently seemed to be concerned about something.
“I just haven’t seen something like that in years!” One of the mothers whispered.
“I’m sure it was some sort of weather phenomenon, or maybe a gas leak.” The man next to her, her husband, said.
On the other bench, the husband of the other couple replied, “I don’t know, it was pretty high up, and it looked like it had a trail to me…”
His wife spoke up, “There’s just no way someone would be crazy enough to fire another missile at us after everything that’s happened.”
“True, and I’m only seeing local reports of explosions in the sky, nothing on national media.” The other wife agreed, shifting her eyes, and looking in the vicinity of the park, “I wonder where they are? I sent out a request fifteen minutes ago…”
Off in the distance, coming over the rolling green hills of the park, two figures headed straight towards them. One wearing boots, jeans, a jacket, and a black mask, and the other, a young lady with dark hair, violet attire, bandit mask, and a cape. They greeted them cordially.
“Good evening. One of you wouldn’t happened to be Alyssa S., would you?”
One of the mothers raised her hand, “That would be me. We’re glad you came.” She looked at her husband and their friends.
“Can you tell us what happened?”
The other mother answered, “Ooh, didn’t you see? It was plain as day in the sky. I haven’t felt that much fear in decades!”
Her husband continued, “Well, what it was, had to have been something other than a bomb or else we would have heard some–“
Just then, the boy who was playing yelled and pointed, “Look, in the sky!”
Above the dwellers in the park, in the twilight sky, a skinny white stream of clouds arching across into a dazzling turquoise blaze that kept climbing towards the heavens. When reaching its zenith, the flare intensified and grew into an amazing display of plasmic-looking discharges that rippled into a huge cone, appearing as if it was altering the very fabric of spacetime around it.
“Is that what you were talking about?” Plain-Man asked the parents, who had become noticeably frightened of what was occurring.
Only one of the husbands was able to speak, “Yes…! No!” he said, “It was sort of like that… but not that intense!”
The kids rushed to their parents, looking up at their worried faces.
“Mom, Dad, what’s going on?”
No one replied as they continued watching the mysterious phenomenon in the sky until Gloom Girl went up to the little girl.
“Don’t worry, everything will be alright. It looks like its dying out now…” And just as she said, the incendiary object in the sky faded into a miniscule spark that arched down, faintly heading back to Earth.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Suddenly, the falling object twisted, and moved in a direction that looked like it was headed straight at them. The parents, seeing this, began screaming, grabbing their kids and headed somewhere as far as way as possible from Pittsford park as they could without saying a word to Plain-Man and Gloom Girl, who didn’t move. They continued observing the sky watching the object get closer and closer until it undramatically seem to have fallen off in the distance.
“Well, that was weird.” Gloom Girl said.
Plain-Man began walking forward, “Come on, it looks like it landed somewhere pretty close, let’s go check it out.”
She put her wrists on her hips, “Are you sure? What if it’s something we can’t handle?”
“Well, if it’s something we can’t handle, then that’s that. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t check it out...” And as if the decision was already made, Plain-Man continued walking off.
“Okay… but if I get killed, I’m blaming you…”
At another suburban park not that far away, smoke rose from the ground and returned to the sky from where it had came. It was not only dark out now, but there weren’t any functioning outdoor lighting and the only things visible were the still-lit embers scattered across the grass. The sprinklers came on automatically and instantly put them out with a sizzle.
Running over, out of breath, Plain-Man and Gloom Girl came upon the scene, and tried to find what was causing all the smoke through the darkness. They came to edge of a small crater where what appeared to be a big glowing egg was nestled in the middle. They looked at each other for an explanation, but remained speechless from their confusion, until one of them was able to finally speak.
“What do you think this possibly could be?”
Suddenly, a man lurched up on the other side of the crater and started groaning. Our two heroes rushed over and squatted down to attend to the man.
“Are you okay, sir?” Plain-Man asked the oldish looking man who closed his eyes and rubbed his head. He opened them and had a surprised, almost childlike expression on his face with wide eyes gawking, until reaching for his chest and bringing out a pair of Windsor glasses.
“Ah, hello.” The man said cheerfully, “Why, I’m alright, how about yourself?”
“I’m doing fine as well, sir.” He looked at the smiling old with a crown of white hour pouring around the sides of his head, “Do you know what happened here?”
“Certainly.” The old man began slowly picking himself up until Gloom Girl assisted fully to his feet. “I can tell you exactly what happened.” he said, brushing the dirt and debris all over a buttoned up lab coat.
“What’s your name, sir?” Gloom Girl asked, “Do you know what that thing is down there in the crater?”
“My name is Doctor Fredrick Periwinkle, at your service.” He stuck out his hand shook both of their hands, “That down there is one of my own personal inventions. I was testing it out this evening when I ran into some difficulties, as you can see.”
“What is it?” Plain-Man asked, “Was is it that thing that fell from the sky?”
“Yep. Uh, I haven’t a name for it yet, but essentially it’s one of the smallest ion engine in existence, meant to transport one human being safely from one place to the other. As you can see though, there are still a few faults that need to be worked out.”
“Wait, you’re saying you were up in the sky with that thing?”
“Well, of course, dear. I wouldn’t allow someone else be the first to test out one of my greatest inventions that I spent the last ten years perfecting, well, eleven now.”
Both of the heroes looked at the man and then down at the smoldering device below in disbelief.
“Next time, however, I think I got it. I know exactly what went wrong with this one.” Doctor Periwinkle said, stepping down slowly into the crater.
“Do you need any help, Doctor?”
“No, no. I’ll handle all this. It’s my responsibility. It’s nice of you to offer, though.” He took out thick, orange gloves from his lab coat and put them on, before turning to face them, “Say, how about you two come visit my lab sometime, I can show you around and you can see all my inventions. It isn’t often I run into other people, being so busy at my work and all. And I sure would like to help out the young people.”
“Sure that sounds great, Doc.”
“Excellent. I’ll send you the address… Oh, you might want to step back while I open this, you could get hit with a peripheral charge.” He squatted down next to the egg and began opening it at the top. White light exploded in all directions as Gloom Girl and Plain-Man fell back.
When their vision returned and they could make out their surroundings, our two heroes looked through the smoke to see what of the Doctor. Emerging from the fume, he lumbered out, coughing, his lab coat now completely black from soot. He took off his glasses and rubbed them with his undershirt.
“I’m sorry about that… but like I was saying, come over anytime and see my inventions, I’m sure you’ll think they’re great!”
Plain-Man and Gloom Girl looked at each other.