"At last, my greatest creation is completed!" Dexter yelled enthusiaticaly as he tossed the wrench that he was holding carelessly to the side. It made a loud clang as it impacted the cold metal industrial floor of the laboratory.
The boy genius walked all around his newest invention admiring every facet of the machine. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie. It had a strong sturdy round base with a large circular top. A faint glow eminated from the upper ring.
"And now," the young man orated to himself, "I will test it." He bent over a small control panel and typed in some instructions. Immediately the top circle sprang to life creating a portal to somewhere. It was hard to tell where because the image beyond was distorted by what resembled waves streaming from one side to the other.
"All I have to do now is-"
"Hi Dexter!"
The shrill excited high pitched voice made the boy's skin crawl. Not so much because of its tone but because of the source behind it. Dee Dee, his annoying, and clumsy older sister always seemed to appear just at the wrong time and more times than not managed to cause everything she touched to go awry...especially when it came to his lab.
"Go away, Dee Dee." Dexter pleaded "I don't have time for your nonesense today. I am busy testing my latest brilliant creation."
The young lady turned her attention to the machine before her. She was immediatly captivated by its low hum, the glow of the upper ring, and the distorted image inside.
"Oooooh!" She exclaimed. "What is it?"
"It is too complicated for you to understand." Her brother declared. "It is a trans dementional temperal displacment device."
"You mean a time machine?" Dee Dee squealed.
Dexter was surprised that his sister was able to pick up on his technical jargon. He was hoping that it would sound so complicated that she would turn her attention to something else. As it was she somehow able to breach his clever scheme.
"I suppose," he answered sarcastically, "you're right."
"I knew it!" Dee Dee answered with another high pitched squeal. And before her brother could stop her she lept into the wavy distortion of the machine.
"Dee Dee, no!" Dexter gasped, but it was too late she had already dissapeared. He had no choice but to follow her.
The next thing either of them knew, they were standing in what looked like a junk yard. It was night and there were pieces of wrecked cars, planes, and other things they didn't recognize strewn everywhere.
Dexter scanned the area until he saw his sister standing a few a yards away taking in the view of destroyed machinary. He scurried up to her and grabbed her tightly by the wrist.
"Ok, Dee Dee, you've had you're fun." He said. "Now let's go home."
Dee Dee turned to face her brother with an expression of sadness. "I guess you're right." She agreed. "There's nothing here. Looks like the future isn't very bright, is it?"
Dexter nodded and patted the girl on the back. "We'll just have to work to fix it." He said, in a rare expression of encouragment.
His sister was about to remark on her siblings bright outlook on things but when they turned around her thoughts quickly shifted to more important matters.
"Uh, Dexter," She started, "where's the way back."
Dexter's complextion suddenly turned pale white. "Great Einstein's Ghost!" He yelled. "I must have forgot to program a reverse portal."
"What does that mean?" Dee Dee asked.
The boy looked at her with a frightened expression. "It means that we're stuck here."
"But how-"
The question was cut off by a sudden large explosion nearby. The shockwave shook the earth, nearly knocking the two kids to the ground. Then, before they knew what was happening a strong hand grabbed each by the collar and flung them into a nearby ditch just as several laser looking bolts flew overhead.
"Are you two ok?" A deep voice asked.
Dexter and Dee Dee turned around to see a rugged looking man staring down at them. His face was covered in scars and his clothes were tattered.
"Who are you?" Dexter asked indignantly, rubbing his sore neck.
"John Connor" The man answered. "How did you two get out here?"
"I am Dexter, boy genius. My stuuupid sister jumped through the time portal I created before I could stop her and I had to jump in to try to rescue her. Now we are stuck here"
"Who you calling stupid?" Dee Dee barked.
"In that case," the man warned, "you should know where you are. See that building way over there." He poked his head slightly out of the hole they were in and pointed across the long junk yard looking area that Dexter and Dee Dee had, only moments early, been standing.
The siblings did the same as the man so that they could see. Sure enough, far off in the distance was a large square looking building.
"Inside that complex," John explained, "is a computer intelligence that has declared war on humanity. It's called Skynet and it has created all sorts of machines with the sole purpose of destroying all humans everywhere."
"A computer intelligence." Dexter repeated. "If only I could get near it, I'm sure I could reprogram it."
"If we could get near it," Conner said, "we could destroy it. But there are a thousand terminators between us and it. The rumor is that there was a single big red self destruct button built into its mainframe when it was designed."
Suddenly Dee Dee's eyes widened in excitment. "A big...red...button?" She said in a trance like tone. "Ooooooh." Suddenly, without warning, she lept out of the hole and began to run toward the building.
"Dee Dee!" Dexter called after her. "Don't do it. It's too dangerous."
"I don't care!" She called back, still dashing forward.
From out of nowhere a large metallic skeleton like robot appeared from behind an old destroyed car. It moved its red glowing eyes toward its target, locked on, aimmed and fired its weapon. The glowing bolt of light flew swiftly across the battle field missing its target by only inches. Undeturred, it continued to fire, growing ever closer to its enemy.
Just then Dee Dee's foot happened to find a small piece of metal sticking out of the ground. She toppled forward, landing hard on the earth. At the same time the energy bolt that was meant for her flew wildly over her head striking a second terminator that had just locked onto the girl.
The melitious machine exploded into a thousand pieces but not before it too had launched a series of energy bolts from its weapon. These missed thier intended target as well, striking, instead, the first terminator and destroying it.
Back in the hole with John Connor, Dexter watched open mouthed at the spectical. Presently, he shook off the effects of the shock. "Only Dee Dee could be that lucky." He commented.
Undaunted by the attack the girl hopped back to her feet and began again, her mad dash toward the building, Skynet, and the big red button. As she ran, machines began to appear, seemingly out of nowhere, firing their weapons at her. Energy bolts and explosions rocked the entire area but none of them could faze the young lady.
Finally, in almost a last ditch effort to subdue the invading human, a flying machine swooped down and grabbed the girl from behind, lifting her high into the air. It could have easily dropped her to her death but its orders were clear. It flew her straight into the heart of the machine complex, straight to the heart of Skynet and set her down i the main control room.
"Oooooh' Dee Dee cooed as she surveyed the structure. It was a very industrial looking facility clean and smooth with florecent lighting illuminating the area. Just in front of the girl was a control panel above which a giant monitor spewed out various numbers and letters.
As the girl looked admiringly over the control panel and all its buttons that were, in her opinion, desperately crying out to bre pushed, the view screen began to change. All the numbers and letters that had been displayed moments before fizzled out into a momentary static. When the picture resumed it displayed a giant electronic CGI image of a young lady.
"Greetings Dee Dee." The image anounced. "Welcome to the heart of Skynet."
"Huh? Oh hi." Dee Dee answered, half obsessively focused on the control panel with it's many buttons.
Skynet, either unaware or unconcerned over its "guest's" preocupation, continued to explain its intentions. "You have been brought here because you are a unique subject. Normally we would have destroyed you immediately but you so skillfully avoided our terminators we thought you were interesting enough to examine, not to mention that someone with such low intelligence like you somehow managed to open a temperal rift and... are you listening?"
The computer took on what sounded like an annoyed tone.
Dee Dee continued to stare nearly catatonically at the control panel. "Uh huh." She muttered then pointed straight ahead at a large red button nestled firmly in the center of Skynet's control panel.
"What does that button do? Can I push it?"
"Nevermind that." The computer image ordered. "You're going to be too busy being experimented on and disected to think about pushing any buttons."
Dee Dee's eyes lit up. "I can push the button?"
"No," Skynet corrected, "I said-"
Before it could compete it's protest the young girl lurched forward and and slammed her hand down onto the button. Immediately, a loud klaxon rang out followed by a disembodied voice proclaiming "emergency" over and over.
"What have you done?" The computer asked in an exasperated tone.
"I can fix it" The girl chirped back and proceeded to hit more random buttons.
The image on the screen began to flicker wildly. "Stttttop that!" it stuttered. You donnn't know whaaaat you're doing ing ing ing..."
"I know." Dee Dee yelled. "I'll get my brother. He's a genius with computers." And with that she turned and skipped happily out of the room.
Far back in the ditch, Dexter looked on as the killer machines began to fall lifelessly around him and John Connor. Shouts of joy came from miles as other humans witnessed the spectical.
"What's going on?" The resitance leader asked through an uncharacteristic grin.
Dexter folded his arms across his chest. "Dee Dee." He replied. "For once she has done something right."
Just then the young lady appeared, skipping across the broken landscape as if she didn't have a care in the world. Behind her a series of them endless explosions lit up the night sky.
"Hi Dexter." She said when she got close enough. "I need your help. See I pushed this button and-"
"It's ok." Her brother interrupted "This time it was a good thing. And I think I can even build us a teleporter back home from spare parts of these machines."
"What was it like inside the complex?" John asked
Dee Dee shrugged. "Just a bunch of machines and a computer with lots of buttons. There was one thing I didn't understand, though. How come a bunch of the killer machines looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Dexter thought for a moment then answered. "Must be a design flaw"