Unsustainable Time Loop
The first rule of time travel is to never change anything in the past for fear that the slightest change could be catastrophic on the future. Cody knew this, as did Harold. As far as the latter was concerned, as a matter of fact, the rule was so important that it must be ingrained in the mind of his shorter companion every day they spent working on their model. Harold blueprinted every step, with many drafts, including several dozen crumpled blueprints thrown in the waste bin. Cody sweated and toiled, at building the machine, constantly debugging and checking on the formulas, looking for mistakes. Finally, their machine was completed. The two stood and admired their work.
"She's a beauty, isn't she?" Cody asked.
"She sure is," Harold replied.
The machine was large enough to contain two thin people, or a fat or large person, up to seven feet in height. It was designed with a safety lock that required a passkey to open. In case of passkey failure, there was always the auxiliary pass code: HMCATM08120302. It was easy enough for Cody and Harold to remember, but cryptic enough that the average passerby would not be able to crack it. In case of emergency, each agreed to hand the auxiliary pass code to one trusted individual.
Harold knew that he wanted to hand the pass code to LeShawna in case of emergency, but Cody was having trouble deciding. He was contending two people: his best friend, Noah, and his crush, Gwen. He weighed his options. He knew Noah would be more reliable to help, but would probably be less help assuming he arrived. It would be easier for him to remember the pass code, for sure. However, there was a good chance he would forget what it meant unless there was an imminent emergency—which Cody sincerely hoped there would not be—or someone reminding him, or he actually decided to write down what it meant. Then of course, there was the obvious issue of Gwen refusing to take the pass code, assuming perhaps that it was some sort of cryptic come-on.
Eventually Cody decided that Noah was a better choice overall, but reinstated several times the importance of remembering what the code meant, and insisted that Noah write it down. Noah refused several times.
"Cody, if I write down the pass code, it won't be confidential anymore. What if someone finds it?" Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They won't find it if you hide it," Cody answered.
Noah shrugged. "If I hide it, I'll just lose it. And then… what would be the point of writing it down?"
"It helps with memorization if you write it down," Cody responded, "Please, just write it down, one time."
He did. He scrawled in miniscule handwriting, "HMCATM08120302, for HMCATM".
"Trust me, Cody," Noah responded, "I will not forget what this code means."
Looking over what Noah had written, Cody decided that was probably true.
However, not all was well that day. Noah's notebook had slipped out of his bag, and had impacted the ground with such a soft force that it was virtually inaudible. The second rule of time travel is never give access to time travel to a person who is unfamiliar with rule number one. And Noah had, inadvertently, just broken it. Duncan walked by the place where he had dropped his notebook, and picked it up with devilish intent. First assuming it was some sort of diary, he was disappointed when all he found were writing exercises, unfinished short stories, and a random poem about perennial flowers sending apathetic people to an early grave. However, a certain page caught his attention. This was a page that was almost totally blank beyond the first line, which read, "HMCATM08120302 for HMCATM."
The initials did not mean much to Duncan, with the exception of the first letters, "HM". Duncan knew exactly what those initials stood for. And now that he knew that, he would stop at nothing to make his life a living hell. Courtney was right around the corner, and Duncan had to ask her a favor. "Hey, Courtney?" Duncan asked, "You're really smart. Do you think you could crack this code for me?"
"Of course, Duncan," Courtney replied sweetly. She then made the devilish look that Duncan loved so much. She looked at it, and then broke the six initials into three chunks of two letters each. "Well, what are your assumptions?" she asked.
"My assumption is that HM stands for Dorkface," Duncan responded.
"You mean, Harold McGrady?" Courtney asked, waiting for clarification.
"I do," Duncan responded.
"Well, then let's assume also that CA is one of the Total Drama contestants. I'll say immediately that it isn't me, and besides me there is only one contestant whose first initial is C—it can't be Chris because he would be CM, and assuming Chef Hatchet was going by Chef, he would still be CH. Therefore, we can conclude with relative certainty that if the initials do indeed stand for the name of a contestant, that contestant must be Cody," Courtney answered, "Who, if I recall correctly, has the surname Anderson."
"Whoa," Duncan said, impressed, "Does that mean TM also stands for one of us?"
"Doubtful," Courtney responded, "If it was only names, what would be the purpose of the code?"
"Then what does it stand for?" Duncan asked, getting impatient.
"It probably stands for whatever the code is needed for," Courtney said, and then slumped down when she could not figure it out at that moment. "Listen, Duncan, I'll think about it, and give you the answer as soon as I can."
"Oh, alright," Duncan said, blatantly disappointed, but willing to cooperate. After all, it was better to get it later than never.
Harold and Cody both looked eagerly at their machine. Harold turned to his shorter companion and asked, "Are you ready to experience the future that we will have?"
"Of course," Cody responded, "It can't be terrible!"
Harold swiped his passkey, and Cody did so as well. The internal computer read "This Operation Is Read Only; Enjoy Your Visit".
"Nice," Cody said, noting the computer's manners. The operation was read only, meaning that theoretically if all went as planned, no matter what Harold or Cody did in the past, it would not affect the future. This was moot for their planned visit to the future, but would be helpful later on. Setting the coordinates for twenty years into the future, Harold and Cody both prepared to be taken from their current time into what they were going to anticipate.