Heroes in Time

For Jane

In the sea of books, you are a raft.

Thank you for devoting a lot of time to find me

a good book, now it is my turn.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro VT

2017

Chapter 1

As my father stepped out of the oval office he said, “Xavier, get up, we are going to the living room, sorry, by the way” wherever that was. He was an intimidating man, but very kind and a good president. We walked and walked through the maze of halls that is the White House.

When we finally got there, my sister Ulysses was already sitting, playing the exact game I had been playing when my father got me off of that uncomfortable bench outside the oval office, Heroes In Time. Heroes In Time was a game where you are a lone soldier and you have to go back in time to monumental moments and save the world from all sorts of invaders, aliens, British, pirates, Indians, you name it. You have to save the world with your future technology and make sure you don’t come back to a completely different world. If you win, then you are one of the few people to beat the game. If you lose, you have to replay every single mission to get another chance at victory.

The minute I sat down, my chair extended a pair of virtual reality glasses, and a highly advanced controller. This controller was a special prototype, with fifty buttons and each one has it’s own awesome purpose. As I put on my glasses, I remembered that my mom loved this game, that is, before she died in that horrible car accident 8 years ago, right after the spelling bee, the final school event she would ever go to.

A vision of my mother's funeral flashed before me. I could hear the organs playing, the clock striking 11. I looked at the scene in front of me, I was sobbing, sobbing and sobbing. I saw a ghost writing something. ¨Play the game¨ wrote the ghost. I started to sob. Although I needed this time, because in the morning, I had school, also known as the worst place ever. Since my dad was president. The worst of the worst, Eric, teased me all the time. He was always picking on me for no reason whatsoever. I had only beaten him in the spelling bee 5 years ago. When we were eight. He couldn't have held his grudge for 5 years, could he?

I sprinted as fast as possible through the labyrinth of halls until, after an hour of searching, I finally reached the door, I ran out, the light was almost blinding, because when you are in the White House, there are so many fluorescent lights, that the sunshine is almost blinding.

When I got through the bush maze, I finally made it to the street, I hailed a cab at an incredible speed, probably because I am Xavier Ember Campbell, son of the president, famous among the common folk. When the cab driver saw me, he probably thought, ooh, celebrity, great. I got in the cab, and the driver said “Where are you going today?”

“Seaton Elementary.”

“13.56,” said the driver. On the drive, I played my mobile version of Heroes In Time. In that version, I was only at the aliens stage. It was one of the first stages, but it was hard to play two dimensional.

As we pulled into the school, I killed one more Seonomittil alien and completed the stage! “Yay!” I said. As I walked into the parking lot, I saw Eric.

“Hey idiot,” said Eric.

“Hi jerkface.” I said. He had brought backup, Jack and Zeus, the kids with huge mustaches and sharp tools from woodshop at school.

“I hate you, you stupid idiot.” Said Eric. But before I had time to come up with a response, a heavily armed hover tank appeared out of the sky, it was the exact same tank from Heroes In Time. Out of it stepped a man wearing a red and orange uniform with the Time Defense Association logo stitched right above a embroidered name reading: John Thomas, General.

“I am looking for Xavier Ember Campbell. Xavier, please step forward, it is a matter of galactic security.¨ Everybody stepped away leaving me a clear path right toward the hover tank.

“I am Xavier.” I said in an extremely stunned manner.

“Well son, we have come to recruit you because, even though it doesn’t show global best scores, we have access to the scores, you are our best player, and we need you to help defend us from the Seonomittil, we have data that shows that in an alternate universe back in time, the Seonomittil attacked and the humans lost the war, we need you to go back and help us with our modern technology, because of course, it is 2750, we need to help.”

“I don’t know what to say, when will I have time to study? Uh, uh… Yeah, totally.” I said

“Good, you have done your world proud.” Said the general. “Your father has been our main help. I know you have been lied to, but please forgive him. You need to hop into the tank teleporter, and we will take you to another dimension, and we will go to Techno Jamestown. the Seonomittil have teamed up with the Powhatans and are trying to take it over.

“Oh my gosh, Techno Jamestown is real? I thought it was just a game that had no effect in the real world!!!” I said

All of the sudden, with the stunning information and the stress, everything went black.

As I awoke in the dimension jumping teleportation tank, I noticed how bouncy it is, it seemed really bouncy, I guess that if you are bouncing around about to jump a dimension, you might not want to hit your head on a titanium pillar, instead a piece of rubber. As me and the general hopped in, the tank started shaking, rattle rattle rattle fwing, and when the sound ended, we got out and we were in Las Vegas

Chapter 2

When I stepped out and into Las Vegas, it looked different than usual, it was deserted. “This place was ravaged with disease and abandoned years ago” said the general. “So we turned it into a base” he added. As we walked in, we started to finally find more people, all of them were in their Time Defense Association uniform, all with a different name stitched on. When we got to the Bellagio, or as they call it, Vegas Base Omega, it looked funny, it was completely titanium and there were transport tubes all over the place.

When we entered, I saw that all of the tubes went down, on the way to the tubes, but there was a security checkpoint between us and the tubes.

He stopped us and gave me 4 little cylinders, he said “If you throw these up in the air, they form a holographic information pad and it also doubles as a phone, it has already synced to your phone. If you touch one of the lines to another, it adds that person as a contact.

“Cool!” I said. As I walked, I tapped my cylinder to the general’s cylinder.

He said “ This is not called an information pad, it is called an Hpad, Hpad stands for Hydrogen Pad, it harnesses every hydrogen molecule in the universe to send a signal. The Hpad gets signal everywhere, even on Jupiter, you need to go, Commander Jack wants to see you.”

When I entered his office, he was waiting right there, Commander Jack, he was a stout man, and very intimidating. “Hello Xavier” said the Commander. “Are you well?” asked the Commander.

“Yeah, I just can’t believe this is real.”

“Yes, it is crazy, but I must say, we were reluctant to recruit you, we were reluctant, because your grades are what we in the buisness like to call, sub-optimal, I mean your grades are bad because your mom died all those years ago.

“How did you know that?” I asked

“We know everything.” Said Jack. “Here is a dossier on everything at Techno Jamestown, you are being stationed in another dimension..” Said Jack as he handed me a dossier.

“Who is my commanding officer?” I asked

“Your Mom.” Replied Jack.

“My mom? I thought she died 3 years ago in the car crash,” I said.

“Yes, she is alive, we had to fake her death for confidentiality”

¨Ouch, you shot me.¨ I said as a small little dart, all of the sudden, everything was spinning.

¨Sorry, you need to sleep, otherwise, this could damage your head, so we tranquilized you.¨

As I was carried toward the tubes, I looked sleepily around for the one that said “Shuttle to Techno Jamestown.” When I finally found it, I told them to run straight toward it. It sucked me up like a string of spaghetti, fwoop, I felt an intense rush of air while I quickly elevated to the shuttle.

When I got to the top, I was pushed back right into a seat where I was instantly strapped in. rattle rattle rattle fwoop. When I stepped out, I was in the Techno Jamestown hangar.

I stepped out and I was suddenly barraged by the full force of Techno Jamestown, the spires made entirely out of motherboards, the protective firewall, even the repulsor beam that protected us. Even though there was only 5 people, I only cared about my mother. “Where is she?” I asked.

“Command Central,” Said a German man through his translator.

“Take me there,” I screamed. As we ran through the maze of halls, I had a serious moment of deja vu, it was just like in the White House this morning. But, my little moment was ended, for we were at command central. I walked in and saw a lone woman sitting in a chair

“Mom?” I asked

“Yes Xavier,” replied the woman who I had missed for the past 8 years. I ran to her, and we collided into a huge hug that seemed to last an eternity.

When we had finished hugging, we heard a loud alarm, the Seonomittil were attacking.

“Battle stations everybody!” screamed my mom. On the huge screen in front of us, we saw 15 Seonomittil fighters approaching

Chapter 3

Rhee Rhee Rhee Rhee Rhee, we were under attack. The alarm blared, my Hpad suddenly formed, but when it formed, it showed me a three dimensional map of the base, it also showed the fastest route to my hangar.

When I reached my hangar, I ran to my fighter, with my name etched into the fighter, and I hopped in as fast as I could, I started the engine, what a purr, I thought. Vrmmmmmmmrmmm, the noise was so loud, I could taste my thoughts. I fired the throttle, and shot out of the hanger so fast, my face was almost sucked inside out.

I saw 15 Seonomittil fighters swooping in perfect formation, aliens, I thought, always perfect.