Our hosts have arrived and it’s time for the final briefing before the departure.  Who are these people?  I believe I’ve said it two or three times, but once again, this is AB, Cici and Keb, the Asteroid Siblings.  You System fans should also recognize Mrs. Astro Bomber, Missy Millennia.  Do you like her new look?  For that matter, do you like everyone’s new look?  Then again, Cici is taking this retirement thing way too seriously.

    As the two hug, Cat must ask, “Grandma Cici, you don’t exactly look ready to go anywhere but back to the couch.”

    Shrugging, Cici defends herself by saying, “Hey, just be glad AB was able to pull me away from the house.  With all the Lightspeed Lab recorded, I can do whatever I want, and it’s awesome!”

    Having heard Duplica’s name for Cici, Paul asks for clarification.  “Lady Duplica, you called Lady Cici your grandma.  I thought Mr. AB was your grandfather.”

    The teacher laughs and explains.  “Don’t get confused, Paul.  Before the big Storyboard mashup, our Storyboard was a distant descendant of theirs, so far into their future that every of one of them can be considered a great-great-great-grandma or grandpa.  I just love calling them Granny and Grandpa since I’m technically several centuries older than them even though they’re my ancestors.  Ah, time travel.”

    Jo whispers to Mercy, “That’s what happens when you wait a millennium to have kids.”

    “I heard that,” retorts an annoyed Duplica.

    “So,” interrupts Cici, “if we’re through judging my life decisions, we should get started.”

    “Totally!” Missy agrees.  “Hurry up and tell about where y’all are going so you can leave and I can get back to making your return meal.”

    AB smiles at this thought.  “Okay, so let’s talk about what we’re doing so Miss can head off, because I’m really looking forward to her mac ‘n cheese masterpiece she has planned for when we get back.”  Everyone gathers around and AB continues.  “As you know, because we all live in the same universe now, the storyboards you have been learning about are all in the past.  Despite Lady Duplica’s teasing, my sisters, my wife and I are current-day folks, not from the past.  Our timelines just happened to coexist at the same time since our descendants went to a parallel storyboard that progresses more quickly in time than ours did, so now, our great-great-yadda-grandkids live at the same time as we do.

    “Now, last time, as you visited Storyboard XII, you met the heroes of that world while they were on their respective adventures, but that’s not what we have planned this time.  Do you remember how we handled the big fight against Ultimax and all that lot?  You were invisible to them and simply watched while select SGs popped up to teach you things.  Well, we are going to try the same thing but with the current versions of the people you’ll meet.  You will be invisible and watch their past lives while the present-day renditions pop up to teach you.”

    Keb nods and picks up the lesson.  “‘But AB, how will we learn lessons from people who are already dead?’ you might ask.  That’s because we are going to have a family reunion of the dead.”

    All the young eyes light up at this bold statement.

    Laughing, Keb explains, “As you may remember, as PACs, death is different for us.  Our programming goes into a database known as the Drawing Board, located in a special computer near our HQ.  In the Drawing Board, folks are all happy and live ‘life’ in peace and so forth.  In fact, things have been greatly upgraded to the point that the ‘deaders,’ as we call them, are able to walk around in our world, but only in a designated area known as the Juniper District.  So yeah, since we’re just computers anyway, there’s no point in being all bleh about dying like the real-world people.  All death does for us is result in a loss of some privileges until the System Director decides to reactivate us for a new task.  We don’t promote necromancy.  That’s evil.  Don’t do it.”

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