The country of France was enjoying a beautiful late Saturday morning. The sun was overhead, birds chirped and a gentle breeze blew through the land. The city was alive with activity as every shop and restaurant was filled with customers eager to enjoy the day to its fullest and move the economy through the art of shopping. Those who chose not to shop were milling around the city either on foot or with a bicycle. All in all, a very normal weekend was underway.
In a small two-story house in the middle of the city, a Japanese family was going through their usual weekend routine. The mother, Akiko Ishiyama, was busy tending to a flower vase while the father, Takeo,was busy reading the business section of the daily newspaper. Their son, Hiroki, was sitting on the couch playing with his video game system. Yumi was about to turn her door knob when she stopped mid-turn. She felt something strange, as if she had all done this just a few moments ago. The feeling of deja vu was unmistakable but she didn't know why it was occurring. She decided to ignore it and emerged from her room.
"I'm going to be out with my friends," she announced as she stopped to fix her hair one last time.
Takeo folded the corner of the news paper to get a better view of his daughter. "Friends or just one friend?" he asked.
"Takeo!" his wife snapped back.
He looked at her with mock surprise. "I just want to know whether or not she's going to be with her boyfriend today," he reasoned.
Yumi knew it. She did just have this very same conversation a few moments ago. This feeling of deja vu came from having a 'return to the past' just happen. While that would explain everything, it was still impossible. The supercomputer and everything associated with it was shut down six months ago. No one else new about it's existence and even if they did, the command to execute a 'return to the past' doesn't just consist of a simple click of the mouse. Yumi needed to contact her friends and quick. The first order of business, however, was to get out of the house. To do that, she would have to end the conversation quickly.
"Ulrich and I are just going to the movies," she answered.
Takeo glared at his daughter. "It better be a good movie. In a dark theater like that, I don't trust that boy not to try something funny."
"Honestly, Takeo," his wife responded. "I think Ulrich would behave like a gentleman in such a public place."
Takeo frowned. "When I was his age, I would always try to take a girl to the movies so I could make out with them."
Akiko folded her arms. "Oh really?" she asked. "And just who did you do this with?"
"Well, I... um..." he fumbled as he went back to his paper. Yumi saw this as her chance to escape the house without further interrogation. As she closed the door behind her, she puled out her phone and used her speed dial function to call up one of her friends.
Ulrich stood in front of the theater looking at the selection of movies offered. While there were plenty of movies to choose from, it still wasn't easy to pick the right one. If he and Yumi were actually dating, then the easy choice would be a romantic movie. However, since they were just good friends, that same romantic movie would not only be a bad idea, it would also send her the wrong message. While he did want to get together with her, he didn't want to push the issue or lose her as a friend. As he scanned the rest of the movie selection, he received a phone call.
"Hey, Yumi," he answered.
"Ulrich, where are you?" she asked.
"I'm at the movie theater," he said. "I haven't bought the tickets yet."
"Did you ever notice anything strange happen to you today?"
Ulrich thought about that for a bit. Ever since the day started, all he could think about was what kind of movie he should recommend they go see. While he did think that he was doing this for quite a long time, he didn't feel that it was unusual. "I didn't notice anything," he answered. "Why do you ask?"
Yumi sighed. "I just have this bad feeling of deja vu, like I talked to my parents twice about the same thing already. It just felt weird." There was a brief moment of silence before she spoke again. "Listen, meet me in Jeremie's room. Hopefully he'll have some answers for us."
Ulrich ended the call and looked up at the box office of the theater one last time. While he had a feeling that he wouldn't end up seeing a movie that day, he was glad he didn't have to pick one out this time around. He put the phone back in his pocket and headed back to campus.
Jeremie opened his closet and began to rummage through his box of miscellaneous parts. While people have often told him he was a pack rat, he felt that keeping around anything and everything he used in his life was beneficial, especially if he could use spare parts from old projects for new ones. As he dug through the box, he found something that caught his eye. A minute later he pulled out a small robot with a camera eye and wheels for legs. Jeremie remembered this robot very well. Earlier ago, he had taken this robot out of the box and placed it on the shelf near his Kiwi-2 robot. He looked at the shelf and noticed that the basketball playing robot stood on the shelf alone. As he began to wonder what had just happened, he heard a knock on the door. He opened it and found Odd on the other side.
"Let me guess," Jeremie began. "You want to use my computer to find some musical beats for your film. You only did one scene but you want to find the music for that scene anyway."
Odd's jaw dropped as he raised his arm and pointed at his friend. "So I did talk to you earlier. You don't think that..."
"Someone initiated a 'return to the past?'" he finished the sentence. "Possible, but I doubt that anyone from the construction company would suddenly turn on the supercomputer and know the command to initiate a return."
Odd thought about it for a bit. "Wait, if we just did a return, then shouldn't the factory still be scheduled for demolition?"
Jeremie snapped his fingers. "Good call on that one." He turned on his monitor and quickly opened up his web browser to find the article about the demolition of the factory that was going to happen late that day. To his surprise, he found that the article had changed. Instead of announcing that the factory was going to be destroyed, the website announced that the destruction of the facility was postponed due to lack of funding from the investors for the new mall. Now he knew for certain that something was amiss.
"Odd, call up Yumi and Ulrich and tell them to head for the factory," Jeremie said as he reached for his own phone and tried to contact Aelita. After reaching her voice mail box, he closed his phone and headed for the door. "I'll grab Aelita and meet you guys there. Whatever you do, don't go inside the factory until we're all there. Who knows if the online report is wrong and whether or not they still plan on destroying the factory." While Odd started to dial some numbers, Jeremie left his room.
Aelita set up her two turntables in her room. Standing next to her collection of record crates, she put on a pair of sound-proof headphones and began to mix. Her first official public performance with the Subdigitals turned out nicely and she started to get some nice reviews for her performance that night. While she did do some other concerts after that one, they were at smaller venues, which helped with her fight against stage fright. She noticed that she improved over time with her DJ skills and figured that constant practice on the wheels of steel would help her continue to wow audiences every time she performed. Aelita would normally practice in the gymnasium since the acoustics there matched up with a small concert hall size nicely. Since it was being used for basketball practice, however, her dorm room would have to do.
Jeremie knocked on the door to Aelita's dorm room. He knocked again after receiving no answer the first time. When there was no response again, he tried turning the knob and was surprised to learn that the door was unlocked. He pushed the door slowly, calling out Aelita's name in case he was going to enter her room at the wrong time. As the door opened, he noticed that she was practicing her mixing and had on the headphones he bought for her a few months back. Jeremie approached her and slowly pulled away one of the headphone cups so as not to startle her.
Aelita noticed the absence of sound from one ear and turned to find him next to her. "Sorry, Jeremie, I didn't notice you come in," she said.
"It's OK," he said, "but we need you at the factory. Something weird is going on."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Like that deja vu feeling you get when you experience a 'return to the past.'" Aelita had a stunned and confused look on her face. "Come on," he said, "I'll explain on the way there."