At the tipping point
The backyard — 20 years in the future
Xavier snapped an optical fibre into place and a final access panel slid shut over it.
"Okay that's one done," he said stepping back from the somewhat surreal version of a bumper car, "and when it moves in five dimensions …"
Fred stepped forward and pressed a large button at the top of the dashboard. The bumper car hummed, shimmered and "… there might be one sitting next to it," he concluded as the car split into two.
Quickly the boys hopped into the waiting vehicles. "I'm sitting on the left," noted Fred as he strapped himself in.
"And I'm sitting on the right" added Xavier from the other car, and activated the display console on the steering control, "we should show those kids how we've mixed it up."
Fred's console also hummed to life as its chronal sensor found the strong trans-temporal wake of a time machine.
"I guess they came from the museum," Xavier concluded grabbing the wheel, "let's go."
Fred pushed another button on the console and grabbed his own wheel. The cars slid together, bumped and with a soft hissing pop and a dull flash both disappeared.
A second later the back door slid up and an annoyed Amanda looked out at the yard. Xavier and Fred stared back vacantly from under the digital tree.
"Ooh — they never do anything!" She glared at them for a moment in frustration, then stamped back inside. As the door closed, the tree, Xavier and Fred flickered briefly.
Danville Museum of Natural History — Elsewhen
In the gloom under a blanket of perpetual smog, a lab-coated work-crew laboured singlemindedly, knocking down walls and tearing tiles up from the building's dirt strewn floor. Most of them studiously avoided any eye-contact as they pried, chipped and hammered at anything too large to haul to their truck by hand. To one side, leaning on a thick cane by the remains of a wall a young blonde woman, also in the obligatory buttonless lab-coat, surveyed the scene smiling blankly. A moment later the space immediately to her left pulsed with an unusual display of colour and a large ornate chair-like mechanism appeared.
"Great Vespers Luminous! I've done it! I, Professor Onassis, have invented a time machine!" exclaimed the device's excited occupant, then his face fell as he looked around. Catching sight of the nearby blonde he ventured rather hesitantly, "Excuse me, future female of the species, have corn dogs been invented yet …?"
Ignoring the immediate question she stared at him for a moment, then pointed her cane at his chest, "Aren't you a bit Victorian to be inventing a time machine, Joe?"
"Yes," he agreed timidly, "yes I am. How did you … ?"
"I think you've overshot your mark by a dozen years or so" she said, then leaning close and whispering quietly she added, "You probably won't like it here … now."
He glanced around the remains of the room nervously. "P'rhaps you're right …" he agreed. All the workers in sight continued their destructive mission while studiously ignoring him and his new acquaintance — who had taken the moment's distraction to seat herself next to him. She crossed her legs, covered in a sheer, dark, skin-tight material, and pouted at him with sad expectation.
"Ma'am!" he managed as a bead of sweat ran down the side of his face, 'I think I need to depart now."
She smiled sweetly at him, but gave no hint of moving as he reached for the control lever.
There was a faint magenta ripple around the machine and it vanished, causing the nearest workman to mutter, "what do I care — one less piece of junk to haul away." But to his annoyance, a moment later it reappeared with a new, more cheerful occupant.
"Ah, thank goodness, it's great to be back … home?"
The museum — start of summer
Fred and Xavier wandered past the fossil wing of the Danville museum.
"I don't get it Fred — there should be something here, but the signal's gotten all fuzzy and messed up."
"I'm hungry."
"We did put lunch into the power converter," Xavier agreed, "but you never know what's in local food."
"Hey, look! A Slushy Dawg stand! Those haven't changed in a century!"
"Well, right now it's only been about eighty years, but I guess that'll do."
Together they trotted up to the stand just as the young attendant turned to greet them.
"Hey little fellas, welcome to the Museum Slushy Dawg's Grand Opening! What can I get you — everything's on special today."
"Two, uh two jumbo Slushy corn-dogs, please, uh …" Xavier stammered.
"Yeah, yeah, me too …" Fred agreed in shock.
"Okay. four jumbo corn-dogs coming up — you guys are definitely going to ruin your dinner, but I won't tell your Mom if you won't, right?"
"We won't tell Mom," the boys quickly said in unison.
"Well here you go then," he said, setting the purported food in front of them.
The boys looked at each other nervously, then Fred reluctantly held up a mondex card.
"Aren't you boys a little young to be using credit cards?"
They glanced at each other again, "May-be?"
"Ha, well, it's the end of the day on our Grand Opening, so I'll give you guys a break — least I can do for our future customers, right?"
The boys nodded in synch like a pair of bobble heads.
"Okay I gotta close up now, so you guys run along and enjoy. And I'll see you again later."
Quickly grabbing the massive corn-dogs the boys hurried back to their bumper car.
"We won't tell Mom," said Xavier.
"Not anyone."
"We'll never speak of this again."
"I like that idea," Fred said. A few minutes later he added, "I'm full. Why did we get four jumbo corn-dogs?"
"Never. Speak. Of. It. Again." The boys looked at each other and put their spare dogs into side pockets of the car, then turned to the tracking display over the wheel. A 3D video image sprang up.
"Oh, there they are. And there's Mom with them," Xavier said.
"There's Mom standing next to her," added Fred.
"Hey what are you kids doing here?" yelled an old man in a janitor's uniform.
"Nothing," both replied at once.
"This section's closed for the n…" Before he could finish there was a soft pop and the car flickered, bounced and disappeared in two directions simultaneously. "Right — I'm outta here — let the new guy go nuts."
The backyard redux
"Phineas we're from the future." Candace explained, "two alternative futures — one that's good …"
"And one that's terrible," continued her doppelgänger in a lab coat.
"Someone should really fix that," Phineas said.
"We did," the Candaces replied together.
Phineas looked perplexed, "So the bad future no longer exists."
"Right."
"Well if it doesn't exist shouldn't the Candace from the bad future cease to exist too?" he asked.
"Oh darn…" The lab-coated Candace slumped forward and disappeared with a hissing pop and dull flash.
Swirling lack of reality
«Wow, there's a lot more to not existing than I was expecting…» Candace thought as she stared into the swirling maelstrom of random vibrant hues. «And it's solider than it looks too.»
Her hand ran over the hard smooth surface she was seated on. «I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this…»
She turned and looked into the horn of a small satellite dish pointed at her face. Then she looked down.
"Fred! What are you doing here?" She knew it was the wrong question even as it left her lips — she already knew the answer.
"Nothing."
Candace sighed and took a deep breath — for a moment she wondered what exactly she was breathing, but with the whole ceasing-to-exist issue still fresh in her mind she decided she had better things to worry about — the world didn't seem nearly as solid as it had a few seconds earlier. She grasped the top of the dashboard tightly.
"Where's Xavier?"
At that moment a number of things seemed to happen at once. She felt a button release under her fingers, Fred responded, "Sitting next to me," — and suddenly he was — and the bumper car lived up to it's name, bucking and spinning wildly. Candace' grip on the car, and possibly reality, was shaken free, and she had a vague impression of it whirling away in some undefinable direction. «At least the boys have their seat-belts on,» she thought.
After falling — or maybe it was floating — for a long time it occurred to her that given where she was, and where she'd been, that she might actually be falling through time itself, so a "long time" might not make as much sense as it seemed to. That idea made the swirling around her worse, so she decided that if reality still existed she might be asleep — or if not she could use some — with luck she might wake up yesterday morning and just stay in bed. She closed her eyes hopefully and waited, «Of course, luck has never been very coöperative before.»
Reality seemed to quiver with anticipation, then shook faintly. It seemed quite bumpy for a lack of anything, but she kept her eyes tightly shut — she was starting to feel a bit nauseous, and the visuals wouldn't help.
"Love the lab coat, Kevin."
She didn't bother to open her eyes.
"You know, if you're not going to say anything useful you could just let me cease to exist in peace."
She tried to relax, and not see what she knew was there, but then again at least it would be a familiar face. Or maybe proof it was all a dream? A sharp tug on the lab coat caught her attention.
"Yes, yes, love the lab coat, I got it," she started to rant and opened her eyes.
The street was drab and poorly lit — late evening and overcast. The houses were dull, dark and boxlike. Her jaw dropped and she looked down. A small chihuahua in a fedora was chewing on the bottom of her coat, shaking it violently. With a yelp she jumped to the left and it let go dropping gracefully to the sidewalk. For a moment their eyes met, then the tiny dog gave a surprised yip and took off down the street with amazing speed. Candace stared after it astounded, her mouth still hanging open. From somewhere she thought she heard a faint whisper, "oh it gets much stranger."
A/N
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. And note that the "Backyard Redux" scene is just a verbatim reminder of a critical event.
I started this story under a different name, but apparently you can't change the story's name once you start, and things went so quickly in a totally different that I've deleted it and restarted — if you're one of the 2 or 3 people who read that start, you won't find a lot different here although I did take the chance to make a few minor edits and add to the first chapter.
This story is about situations and events following "Quantum Bugaloo" — there's really no specific character that it's all about, although the focus is on characters at the centre of things at any given time. Candace (from the future) is a major one of those, but initially at least her sons will get more time (apparently). And be warned: this is a story involving 5 dimensional travel, so any scene change can involve changing more than just the spatial location — and the characters will often be just as confused as you.
It helps if you're familiar with the stories in general of course, and obviously Quantum Bugaloo in particular is the starting point, but there will be specific references to numerous others as well — some for minor but important details, others for general information, and a few for major plot points. I'm not really trying to keep track, but a few that immediately spring to mind are It's about Time, Bully Code, Across the Second Dimension, Temple of Sap,Fireside Girls Jamboree, and Doonkleberry Imperative, but there's lots of others. I have no interest in beating you over the head with any references, or even pointing them out — if you miss them just go with it and you should be fine (which is pretty much true of the show in general).
I won't beat you over the head with jokes, puns, relationships or even who people are either, with essentially the same reasoning. I expect to keep as close to 100% consistent with canon as possible. so don't expect many new characters, although I may use quite obscure ones when the context demands, like Leif, who is necessary in a connect the dots sort of way — so I gave him a name and fleshed him out a bit since he only gets a cameo & mention in the actual show.