Washington, DC, 1914
It was a cool autumn day in the capital city of the United States. Lots of people walked down the streets to wherever they needed to go, but most were gathering at a local museum in order to study and admire the artifacts, as well as learn from lecturers. For two of the museum's employees, this would be a day they would never forget.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen!" a young man's voice said, "First off, I would like to thank this board for taking the time to hear my proposal. Now, we've all heard the legend of Atlantis, a continent somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, that was home to an advanced civilization, possessing technology far beyond our own."
As we take a closer look, the voice belonged to a young man in his early thirties; he had blondish-brown hair, brown eyes, glasses, and attire for a college professor. This man was named Milo Thatch, and he was busy giving a lecture about the legendary lost continent of Atlantis.

Off to Milo's right side was a tall, newspaper-figured woman with chestnut brown hair tied back in two working braids, sky blue eyes, thick eyebrows, and light skin; she was Milo's older sister, Julia, and she was wearing a white shirt under a forest green dress, gray stockings, and brown shoes. While Milo talked, Julia was spreading a few materials out to assist her brother.
Milo pointed to a bust of Plato and continued, "That, according to our friend Plato, here, was struck by some cataclysmic event that sank it beneath the sea!" He tapped a fishbowl with his pointer, which scared the resident goldfish inside. Then, Milo put his pointer away and pulled out a card entitled "Atlantis" as he said, "Now, some of you may ask, 'Why Atlantis? It's just a myth, isn't it? Pure fantasy!' Well, that is where you'd be wrong."
Julia nodded and grinned as Milo showed a picture of Ancient Egyptian pyramids and continued, "Ten thousand years before the Egyptians built the pyramids, Atlantis had electricity, advanced medicine, even the power of flight! Impossible, you say? Well, no! No, not for them." He flipped through various pictures of ancient artifacts and continued, "Numerous ancient cultures all over the globe agree that Atlantis had a power source of some kind. More powerful than steam, than-than coal, more powerful than our other modern internal combustion engines! Gentlemen, I propose that we find Atlantis, find that power source, and bring it back to the surface."
The young man then flipped over to a particularly important photograph and said, "Now this – is a page from an illuminated text that describes a book called the Shepherd's Journal, said to have been a first-hand account of Atlantis, and its exact whereabouts!"
Milo squeezed his way past the podium and over to a chalkboard with ancient Atlantean writing and a translation written below it. "Now, based on a centuries-old translation of a Norse text," Milo continued, "Historians have believed that the Journal resides in Ireland." He picked up a very heavy shield and grunted, "But after… comparing the text… to the runes on this Viking shield… I found that one of the letters has been mistranslated!"
"Milo, be careful with that!" Julia whispered to her brother with caution.
Milo nodded with assurance to his sister, and then continued lecturing as he wiped the letter "R" off with his sleeve, "So, by changing the letter, and inserting the correct one, we find that the Shepherd's Journal, the key to Atlantis, lies not in I-Ireland, gentlemen…" He wrote a letter "C" in place of the "R", and then finished, "But in Iceland!" He then smiled with pride and whispered to himself, "Pause for effect." He put the shield down and concluded, "Gentlemen, I'll take your questions now."

Milo's "audience" was just made up of some masks with hats on top of them. Julia just raised her hand and smiled, "I would like to make a compliment… you did a great job, little brother! I'm sure everyone in the museum would be proud."
"Thank you, my dear Julia," Milo said, pretending to be a gentleman as he prepared to kiss her hand. But just then, the phone rang. "Um, would you gentlemen please excuse me for a minute?" Milo asked his "audience." He leaned over the turning chalkboard to reach for the phone and then answered, "Cartography and linguistics, Milo Thatch speaking."
An angry spew was heard on the other side of the line as Milo's expression turned to disappointment and he said, "Hmmm, mmm-hmm… Yeah, um… just-just a second."
Putting the call on hold, Milo got off the chalkboard and turned the light back on. "Pardon me, Mr. Hickenbottom," Milo said to a mask as he put it aside in order to reach his boiler. He turned a few dials, making the boiler hiss. "Julia, can you come and help me for a minute?" the young man called to his sister.
"Sure," Julia answered as she walked over to the boiler. As she looked at it, she noticed a wrench hanging nearby, and then whacked the boiler with it, making it rumble back to life. "You know, Milo," Julia stated, "What we need is a real mechanic around here."
"What're you talking about?" Milo asked, "You did great! Look, the thing's back to normal now." Then he went back to the phone to continue answering the call. "There, how's that?" he said into the phone, "Is that better?"
More angry gibberish.
"Uh-huh, yeah," said Milo, "You're welcome… alright… bye."
As the young man hung up the phone, the worker on the other line yelled, "And don't let it happen again!"

Milo got back on his feet and continued his lecture. "Now, as you can see by-by this, um…" He looked down and saw that he ended up getting chalk smeared onto his vest, making Julia giggle.
"Milo Thatch, you really need to watch where you're going and what you plant yourself on!" Julia giggled.
Milo blushed in embarrassment before he cleared his throat and continued, "M-map that… I have drawn…" He went over to the spot that was missing and stood in place with the chalky mess still on his vest as he continued, "I've plotted a route that would take myself, my sister Julia, and a crew to the southern coast of Iceland to retrieve the journal."
Just then, a cuckoo clock chimed four. Milo dusted the chalk off of himself and smiled as he gathered his maps and books, "Ah, showtime! Well, this is it! I'm finally getting out of the dungeon!"
"I'm proud of you, Milo!" Julia beamed with pride as she and her brother walked over to a flight of stairs, "And don't forget – I'm always here for you if you need any help!"
"Aw, shucks, Julia!" Milo chuckled with a blush.

Now, Milo and Julia Thatch were like peas in a pod. Julia was there for her brother whenever he had great ideas to present to people in Washington, DC, and Milo was always there for Julia for her health. Julia was born with type one diabetes, and she needed special care at all times; every day, she had to inject insulin into her body to avoid death, test her blood sugar, and avoid as much fattening foods as possible. She also sometimes got infections if any of her feet or legs were injured, but whenever that happened, Milo was there to do something about it until doctors arrived.
The Thatch siblings' parents died when they were both very young, but Milo and Julia's grandfather, Thaddeus, raised them and taught them well about history and languages.
Milo picked a photograph up from a desk and smiled at it. It was a picture of Milo and Julia as kids, along with their grandfather.
Julia looked at the photo and thought of a fond memory of Thaddeus taking her and her brother onto his lap; Milo reached for his grandfather's exploration hat, and Thaddeus happily put his hat onto Milo's head, but the hat was too big! Thaddeus and Julia both laughed at the sight.
In the current time, Julia smiled and sighed, "Grandfather sure would be proud of you, too."
Milo looked at his sister and grinned sweetly, "Hey, he'd smile with pride at you, too."
Julia chuckled gleefully and agreed. She worked in the museum's archives as a librarian, and she also enjoyed studying ancient history; after all, she was fluent in Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Russian, Japanese, and Arabic. And it was Julia's biggest dream to open up her own museum conjoined with a library.

Milo soon opened up a little shrine dedicated to Thaddeus and found the explorer's hat from the photograph. He put it on his head, hoping he'd grown into it, but the hat slid down and covered his eyes again. He and Julia laughed, and Julia remarked, "Some things just never change, do they?"
Just then, a canister arrived in the mail chute. "Oh, mail call!" Julia said as she took notice.
Peeking up from his hat, Milo took the canister and opened it to find a letter. This is what it read:
Dear Mr. Thatch,
This is to inform you that your meeting today has been moved up from 4:30 PM to 3:30 PM.
"Wait, what?" Milo asked with shock; it was now 4:05. Why had this note come to him so late?
"What's going on?" Julia asked. Another canister appeared in the mail chute. The chestnut-haired woman looked at the letter that was inside it and shrieked with disgust, "You've gotta be kidding me!"
"Julia, what's wrong?" asked Milo
Julia just frowned and gave the letter to Milo. It read:
Dear Mr. Thatch,
Due to your absence, the board has voted to reject your proposal.
Have a nice day!
Mr. Hartcourt's Office
"They can't do this to me!" Milo yelled with anger.
"Oh, the nerve of those fools!" Julia growled.