Inner Man Theatre

    “Now, I’ll remind you,” says AB, “we had teams that were basically System Guards in XL, but we could never get anything officially established, especially not by name.  This generation changed all of that, and we were super excited.  As the System Guards of XL expanded over the next few decades, SG Dan encountered the genocidal Delivery whom he was able to lead to the side of good.  The redemption story of Delivery, renamed Salina Tarsus, is a classic!  Their grandkids were a part of a planet colonization program, and it was on this planet that Elena and her crew met four ordinary college students.  This begins a time-travelling dynasty that ends up in an abandoned, underwater city that turned out to have been built on the back of a large, amphibious creature.  The city, and the creature, were tamed and claimed by the newly forming society, and before you know it, the Time Unit was born.  The Sea Critter was well cared for and happy, but eventually grew old and died, so they replaced it with something artificial, but that’s basically the whole shebang.”

    “Wow,” says Duplica, “I feel like most of what you said could’ve totally been skipped, since only the last thirty seconds involved the Time Unit.”

    “Nah,” insists AB, “Alios and Tiza, as well as Misa, needed some shine in the halls of history.  I couldn’t just let them fade away without some acknowledgement.”

    Laughing, Cat says, “Well, what about the actual people that built Interval City, both the original inhabitants AND the ones that rebuilt it, huh?”

    “Well, you did ask.” AB says with a devious grin.

    “And if you continue, I’ll take off my boot and throw it at you,” is Cat’s answer.

    “Wait, wait, wait, Cat!” Michael realizes a terrible thing.  “Didn’t you say that our rabbit chase started when your forgotten mime nemesis freaked out over you going to the angel era?  And when you got there, you found nothing significant, except for a suggestion to look into the Lost Angel.  Next, we go looking in Alios Crucian’s time period and find no clues, but end up being led to this present age, to Interval City.  Does that not bother you?  Someone went to great lengths to make sure we couldn’t connect the dots between the Lost Angel and Interval City.”

    “Aha!” announces Duplica, “Since the large critter died, this new host for the city is a giant Powered!  Poor fellow.”

    “Somehow, I doubt that,” submits AB.

    The time for guesses has ended.  The Baylor Boys and the Scotts of LX have been marching in this underground facility for quite some time now.  “Why is it always an underground facility?” asks Michael.  “The aliens from Axer’s day, the base Tiza’s daughter found, and even the lab that belonged to—” and that’s when the nightmarish final piece clicks in Michael’s detective mind, but he cannot finish this statement, because the answer is ready to introduce himself.

-Next Chapter-

-Previous Page-