June 20, 1986

Abby woke up to find herself surrounded by not only Beth and David, but also all her other friends from around the country- Emily, Shannon, Alayna, Chris, Annie, Alicia, Matt, Carla, Danny, Hallie, Kaelin, Cole, A.J., and even Cassandra. She frowned upon seeing Cassandra, then became curious as to how all of them ended up in the same room.

The room itself was sparsely furnished, holding only a hideous gray sectional couch and an ancient looking television set sitting on a wooden table. The rug was the same gray color as the couch and was a far cry from the fluffy blue shag carpet that Abby had laid out on her bedroom floor.

She had a pounding headache. "Man, what a trip," she mumbled as she rubbed her head.

"What the hell happened?" Abby turned and saw Danny waking up and rubbing his head.

"That's a good question," Abby said. "I was hoping you had the answer."

"Abby?" he asked incredulously. He looked around the room and saw the other kids around him as well. "How'd we all get here?"

"I don't know. Last thing I remember, Beth, David, and I were about to go swimming in the pool at my house to celebrate surviving our last final exam," Abby told him.

"Cole, Kaelin, Chris, Alayna, Shannon, and I were having a picnic in the woods by Chris and Alayna's house when we were attacked by some guys in masks. The last thing I remember seeing was this weird burst of white light," Danny told her.

"White light?" A.J. said. "I saw that too. But I was in a park near the casting agency I had my audition at today."

"I was helping an old man with his groceries and he pushed some button on a pen he was trying to give me when I had a light flash in my face," Emily cut in.

Cassandra cut in as well. "I was walking through the woods at Andover when an unfamiliar man walked straight at me and flashed a light in my eyes."

"Well, Hallie and I got zapped in an alleyway in Quincy Market," Carla told them.

"So wait a second," Kaelin said. "I see a pattern here. All of us saw some strange light before passing out and ending up here."

"Wherever 'here' is," Dave said.

"Well, I guess we should leave this gross room and find out exactly where we are," Shannon said to them.

The kids all nodded in agreement and quietly tiptoed to the door, which to their surprise was unlocked. "Well, we're not locked in. That's a good start," Annie said.

Danny led them all outside the door and down a long hallway. "Everyone stay together and stay quiet," he instructed them. "I don't want us to arouse any unnecessary attention."

They all crept quietly down the hallway, peeking inside any empty rooms they came across to gain clues to their whereabouts. It was Cassandra who got the first clue.

"Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news…"

"You're always the bearer of bad news," Annie said sarcastically. "You revel in it."

Cassandra shot her a dirty look and thrust a newspaper into Annie's hands. "Read the date on the top of that, Anna Lisa."

Annie was about to give her a lecture about not calling her by her full name when she noticed what Cassandra was talking about. "Holy… shit," she said slowly.

"What is it Annie?" Matt asked curiously.

"Well, if this newspaper is right, which I sure hope it isn't, but I have a bad feeling it is, then we've just gone back in time."

"What are you talking about, back in time?" Shannon asked. "It's physically impossible."

Annie looked around at her friends, her normally smiling face instead looking gravely serious. "According to the cover of this paper, today's date is June 20, 1986. Twenty years to the day in the past."

"None of us are even supposed to be alive yet," Alayna noted.

"God, I hope this isn't true," Hallie said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's like my worst nightmare," Matt said.

"Pinch me, I have to be dreaming," Cole said.

"Let's keep going," Danny said. He was trying to remain composed for everyone else, but the truth was he was just as shocked as the rest of his friends.

The arrived at a T-intersection which offered them the chance to go to the left, the right, or go straight. If they went straight, they'd be going through double doors that led outside the building they were in. "Anybody have a preference as to which way we go?" Danny asked everyone.

Before they could answer, they heard voices coming from behind them.

"Shipwreck, Beach Head is in charge of tonight's duty shift. And I would much rather be five minutes early with him than five minutes late. So would you just stop screwing around and-"

The kids turned around at the same time to observe a dark-haired sailor and an auburn-haired woman with tan coveralls and a brown jacket coming down the hallway towards them. They stopped in their tracks about twenty feet away from the kids and gave them a funny look. Both of them looked very familiar to all of them but it was Abby that gave the first indication that she knew them.

"Oh. My. God," she said, her face registering shock and disbelief.

"Shipwreck, I think we need to get General Hawk," the woman said.

The man nodded and ran back the way he came, presumably to get the person known as "General Hawk." Abby watched his retreating form, recalling all the pictures she had in her house. "Beth," she hissed to her best friend. "Call me crazy, but wasn't that my dad?"

"Call me crazier, but I can swear that woman is my mom," Beth whispered back.

"This property is controlled by the federal government," the woman told them. "So all of you had better have a good excuse as to why you're here or I'm going to have to make sure you're all escorted off this base in handcuffs."

Danny stepped forward to speak on behalf of his friends. "Look, I don't know exactly how to explain this so I'll just tell you the truth. None of us are entirely sure of how we got here but we believe that we may have traveled back in time-"

"Don't be ridiculous," the woman said. "Our CO is on the way down here and the truth better come out with him."

Three men were coming down the hallway right then, walking briskly towards the group of teenage friends. One man was the sailor they had seen before, the one that Abby believed was her father. The other two men appeared to be figures of authority. The man in the center had blonde-hair, blue eyes and stood about six-foot-two. The other man was wearing a blue beret, but some wisps of brown hair could be seen from under it. He also stood over six feet tall and had brown eyes. Both of them looked very familiar.

Danny couldn't believe what he was seeing. The blonde-man walking towards him- it looked just like his dad, only younger. Shannon stepped forward and stood next to him and a quick glance in her direction showed that her jaw was hanging open and her eyes were firmly affixed on the same man that Danny had been staring at. "Danny?" she whispered. "Is that-?"

"My name is Duke," the blonde man said to them as he stopped in front of the children. "I'm second-in-command of the GI Joe team. Our CO is off base right now so all of you will deal with me. This man to the right of me-" he pointed to the man in the beret- "Is Flint. The two of us are going to have to ask all of you some questions as to how you arrived and we'll have to call your parents to get you out of here," he told them.

"Duke? Flint? What, are those code names or something?" Chris asked them.

"Yes, they are," Flint told him. "Our names are classified."

Cassandra suddenly got a very strange smirk on her face. "Let me try something," she whispered to Danny.

"Cassandra," he hissed frantically. It was too late though. She'd already stepped forward and stood right in front of Flint.

"Your real name wouldn't happen to be Dashiell Fairborne, would it?" she asked confidently.

Flint looked dumbstruck at the girl before him. She seemed to remind him of someone he knew, but he couldn't quite place it. "What if it is?" he asked her.

"I'm Cassandra Fairborne," she introduced. "I'm your daughter."

!!!!!!!!