"Bored. Bored. Bored."
It became a chant. Kay Smith was bored out of her mind, and all her siblings wanted to do was-
"What's next on the watch list?"
Troy, Elyse, and Ann were on their 5th show of the day. Kay loved tv as much as the next guy, but not all at once! She tried to give suggestions about other things to do, but they all shrugged her off. Suddenly, Kay saw a flash of lightning outside in the stormy sky, and the thunder that rumbled several seconds later brought Kay an idea.
"Its raining outside!"
"Cool," Elyse said distractedly. Kay rolled her eyes.
"I mean, we should go outside and play in it. We live in Arizona. We can't pass up this opportunity."
That almost got their attention - Troy even said, "You right." - but apparently Jurassic Park was more interesting than the rain outside.
Kay gave a heavy sigh. So much for that idea. She was tempted to go out anyway and see if they would follow when there was another flash of lightning - this time inseparable from the rumble of thunder. The lights in the house flickered, and the tv turned to static.
"Everyone okay?" checked Ann, the oldest of the four siblings.
Everyone nodded, but Elyse groaned as she did so.
"Now we can't watch anymore tv until Mom comes home!" she complained.
Kay smiled - a broken tv was better than she could have hoped for. Elyse saw Kay's smile and stuck her tongue out at her.
Determined to watch more tv despite Kay's nagging, Elyse walked up to the television and tried shaking it.
"What if we just give it a little whack-" Elyse says. But as she says "whack," she hits the television screen - and disappears.
Ann blinked. "Did you guys see that, too?"
"If you mean Elyse being eaten by our television, then yeah," replied Troy.
Suddenly, Elyse's form walked across the static - on the other side of the television screen.
"Dang," Kay said in awe, and she hesitantly reached towards the screen - and promptly gets sucked in as well.
A smile spread across Troy's face, and he was more than excited to jump in after them. Ann shrugged and - never one to be left out - hopped in after them.
All four of them found themselves in a room about the size of a living room, with a few major differences: 1.) the only pieces of furniture were an office desk with an oversized tv screen; and 2.) all the walls were nothing but static.
"This place is crazy," Troy breathed.
As the siblings took a closer look at the screen on the desk, they realized the scene on the other side was their tv room.
Ann was the first to get weirded out. "Okay, so anyway! It's probably best to get out of here. I suppose we'll just go out the way we came…"
They all agreed it sounded good in theory - but it didn't work in practice. Ann tried touching the screen, and even pushing on it, but it didn't even budge, not even when everyone tried it. Elyse was starting to get impatient - and honestly slightly worried. "Let's bang harder."
So they did. And that was the first mistake.
After a few bangs and yells for help, the screen suddenly shattered into more pieces than should have been possible.
"Welp, um that worked," Elyse observed. She bent down to try and pick up a shard - and the floor started moving.
"Earthquake!?" Troy exclaimed, more confused than worried. The shards started to glow, and then to float up in the air. The siblings stared in confusion and wonder - and then the shards started flying.
"Get down!" Kay yelled, which was unnecessary, since the shaking floor had already brought them to their hands and knees and the best they could do was put their hands over their heads.
It was like a tornado mixed with an earthquake, all in technicolor and surround sound. Kay peeked out between her arms to see doorways now covering every square inch of the walls and even the ceilings. The doors were there and gone before she could see into them very well, but she caught glimpses of lightsabers, talking animals, and people dancing in the middle of the street. The shards would fly into the doorway before the door closed with a loud bang, and the images came with sound blasted to full volume, all happening at once.
And then as quickly as it started, it ended. There was a final thud as the remaining doors closed, then silence. The static was back on the walls, but there was a new color, a dull glow coming from the center of the room. The screen on the desk no longer showed the Smith's tv room, but instead blinked a message: "Welcome to the Static Room."
Kay and her siblings were all breathing heavily as they walked towards the screen and the glow.
"The Static Room?" Troy questioned out loud.
In response, the screen blinked a new message, that was read in a voice that sounded like Siri's.
"The Static Room will be your new headquarters as you search for the Shards."
That just made them all the more confused.
"The Shards?" This time it was Elyse's turn.
The computer replied, "Yes, the Shards from the screen must all be retrieved and replaced before you can all return home."
"I saw them fly into all those doorways," Kay explained what had happened to the others, who obviously hadn't peeked. "There had to be hundreds, not to mention all the doorways are gone now."
"So how are we supposed to retrieve them?" Zach wondered.
Unfortunately, the Smiths had more questions than answers.
"Got any ideas for us, Siri?" Elyse jokingly asked the computer screen.
The computer responded, causing the siblings to jump. "Chances of success rest at seventy five percent if users solve the riddle and stay alive. I am here to help, though my name is not Siri. I am Michael Telenovus Volrini."
"Sounds like Mike Teevee!" mentioned Troy. "From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!"
"Can we call you Teevee for short?" asked Ann.
"Teevee is fine," replied Teevee.
Meanwhile, Elyse had gone over to check out the glow in the middle of the room. "Come look at this."
The glow was being cast by four gemstones. They looked more like the Infinity Stones from the Avengers than ones you would dig up from the ground, and they were beautiful. Elyse picked up the turquoise blue one, and the gemstone grew a long chain.
"That one is yours," Teevee stated.
Elyse looked up. "What do they do?" she asked as she strung it around her neck.
"They will disguise you and guide you in your quest for the shards. They will also be like a two way communication between us," Teevee explained.
Ann, Troy, and Kay made their way over to where Elyse was and chose a gemstone. Troy picked up the orange one, which transformed into a dog tag. Ann's purple one became a choker, and the watch Kay now wore on her wrist had a yellow gemstone face.
"Why would we need disguises?" Kay questioned. In response, a single doorway opened on the opposite side of the room as Teevee.
"There is your first doorway," Teevee said. Then the screen returned to its previous welcome message. The gemstones they now wore glowed brighter for a brief moment and then went dark as well.
"Guess that means we're on our own," Troy concluded.
"Not quite." Kay was pointing to words written above the door frame.
To find what you're looking for, return to the start
A travel through time like a walk in the park
Back through the danger will be quite a schlep
So please, be careful, and watch your step.
"At least Teevee and his mysterious friends care about our safety," Elyse conceded.
The siblings looked back into the Static Room. There were no other doorways, and the screen that should have led home still only welcomed them to their prison.
"Well safe or not, we really don't have much of a choice," said Ann.
With a shrug, Troy was the first to walk through the doorway, with the only thing visible on the other side being dense, leafy foliage.