Chapter 95

Karate Master, John Kreese was frustrated as he got nowhere with Santini-Hawke Air after his visit. He waited for his students to file into the dojo after school as they were practicing for the tournament. He spied Johnny walk in with his friends. He called to the boy.

"Johnny!" he motioned.

Johnny immediately went to his teacher. "Yes Sensei." He wanted to please his teacher and prove that he was a good student and yet feared what task he would be given after Kreese kept the disk and player for himself.

"That girl on the tape." he began. "Sam! I want you to bring in her to see me."

He grew wary. "But…she could say no and not want to."

"I don't care how you get her in here. Offer her a free class. Just get her in here." he instructed.

"I'll offer her a free class but…" he tailed a bit concerned.

He pressed, "But what?"

"She says she already knows it and I don't think she's interested." he excused.

"Just tell her that I want to meet her." he instructed. "That I saw the tape and I want to offer her a free lesson for her safety."

"You think she could be in danger?" he asked alarmed.

Kreese leveraged the fear against his student. "If she has a time machine…she could be. The money! That disk, the player. Those movies all with future copyright dates. And then there is that top secret chopper, Airwolf. Come on, Johnny. I know you want to help her. I want to help her too. Bring her to see me after school tomorrow. Can you do that for me?" he pleaded in a soothing tone.

"Yeah, I will." he agreed worried for her safety and health.

Meanwhile

After school Mr. Hinkley's class decided to go to for a bite to eat. Instead of the normal pizza place, Tony had the class meet at a local diner he would frequent in the future.

Jose sat stunned as his class sat in a booth and all but him ordered coffee to drink. He looked upon Sam and Rhonda who decided to share a large cinnamon roll as well. He looked to Karl who sat drinking black coffee with two sugars and complained about how sweet soda pop was and wanted only something light to eat and thus ordered an appetizer to share with the class. Jose sat nursing his coke and feeling like the odd man out as his class became imprinted with memories of the future.

Sam glanced about at the décor of the family owned diner. "This is a nice place, Tony." she mentioned.

He agreed, "I work on their vehicles. I go here everyday for breakfast. Well, I will…" he corrected.

Karl agreed, "Nice to have something other than pizza after school. Boy, did we eat a lot of pizza, huh guys!" he laughed.

Rhonda agreed, "Amazing we didn't have heart attacks at thirty."

Jose pouted, "I want my class back. You guys sound old."

Karl suggested, "Just ask to have the nanites imprint ya. Then you will fit right in."

Tony shook his head, "He doesn't want to remember the last few days." He knew Jose would sufferer from cancer in the end.

"Can't they imprint him with memories prior to that?" Karl suggested.

All eyes fell on Sam.

She squinted, "Why are you all looking at me?"

"You control the nanites." Karl reminded her. "Have them imprint Jose with his life too. Just tell them to not let him remember the last few days when he was real sick."

"I don't know what command to give for that. The nanites for very fussy." she explained.

Rhonda sighed, "I hate to say this but I think we need the whole class on the same page. Maybe Jose needs to be brought up to speed too." She looked at her friend. "I promise, it's painless. You don't really feel anything. Just a little foggy for a moment as the imprint sets in."

"Gee, that's reassuring." he miffed.

Sam stated, "I won't give the command unless Jose is comfortable with it and ask for it himself."

Jose stated, "I hate being the odd man out like this. I do kind of wonder what my life will be like." He gave a heavy sigh, "Well…here goes nothing. Sam, have them little robots do to me what they did to Karl."

"You sure?" she asked concerned for him.

"Yes. I'm sure. It's okay if I remember the last few days of my life. Maybe I can make it better if I know what is to come." he told her.

"Okay." she winced. "Nanites…imprint Jose with his future memories."

Jose closed his eyes and sat back against the booth and waited. He soon felt a tingling feeling overcome him. Then his future memories started to imprint onto his young mind. For just a moment he felt a bit of a buzz and a little light headed. Then those memories took hold as he began to recall memories of events that had not happened to him yet. He recalled meeting his wife, his children, his work for Tony and the day he was told he had cancer. He realized he had ignored the early warning signs of the cancer and what he would need to do to save his own life. He opened his eyes and sat beside himself for just a moment in silence.

Tony asked concerned, "You okay, Jose?"

He nodded, "I'm fine." He cocked his head to the side, "Now I know what to do to prevent me getting cancer in the first place. I ignored all the early warning signs thinking it was nothing to worry about. I know exactly what kind of cancer it is and how to prevent it, what to avoid eating, what chemicals to avoid and what I should eat to fight off the caner cells before they take hold. Damn!" He looked to Sam, "You just gave me the information I needed to save my own life. I'll see you in 2022." he promised.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Seriously!" he agreed. He looked at the cola sitting before him. "Waitress!" he called the server. "Can I get a coffee instead?"

Daniel's mother, Lucille LaRusso, was the waitress for the teens. She found it odd they were drinking coffee and had recognized Sam from the tape that was passed around. Wearing a pink uniform she came to the table, "You want a coffee too?" she asked wondering why the teens were all drinking coffee.

Jose nodded, "Please. With cream and sugar. And a salad for me as well."

"Okaay," she found the request odd coming from teenagers.

Rhoda noticed the name, "Are you Danny's mom?"

"I am! Daniel is my son." she told the group. "Are you friends with him?"

"We are." Rhonda agreed.

Tony told her, "Daniel is a good man. One of the most honest car dealers around. He will eat the cost of a lemon to make it right."

"Um…" she cocked an eye, "My son is a student in high school."

Sam stated, "In the future he will be a car dealer. Whole chain of dealerships. My dad will only buy from LaRusso Cars."

"You are the girl from the tape." she stated to Sam.

She nodded, "That's me."

"I saw that tape." she informed. "It was very interesting." She glanced about and then kept her voice low, "Rumor around town is you are a time traveler."

"I know." Sam gave a sigh.

Tony stated, "Sam traveled through time and all of us were given our memories from the future."

"Um…" she had no idea what to make of the claim.

Tony told her, "Daniel wins that championship."

"The karate thing?" she wondered.

He confirmed, "The karate thing."

"Well, if what you say is true then it's good to know my son is a successful businessman in the future and he wins the karate thing." she told the group. She took one more look at Sam, "Is that helicopter on that tape real?"

"Airwolf is real." she confirmed.

She stated a bit confused, "What air show is it at?"

"Right now it's not in any air show. It's still top secret and does CIA missions. That tape is from the future. It's the 80's now." she explained.

Mrs. LaRusso asked, "So the tape is from the future?"

"The original is. It's a shiny disk. If you see it by some chance, I need to get it back. It was stolen from me." she informed. "I brought the disk back to show it to my friends." she motioned towards her classmates. "The disk was copied onto those tapes and the tapes were passed around. The original is on a small round, plastic disk. It's clearly labeled Airwolf Air Show 2018. It's laser engraved."

"I'll keep an eye out for it, Miss Hawke." she told her.

"Call me, Sam." she requested.

"Sam." she nodded. "I'll get that coffee then." She still felt strange about serving coffee to teens as she left the table to get the pot.

Meanwhile

Sinjin Hawke forgot how long it took to win Jo Santini's heart the first time around. They had known one another since they were children but Jo always thought of Sinjin and String as family. Jo was well aware of the tape and of Sam and the claims of her future to be a wife and mother. She wasn't sure if she actually believed it and resisted Sinjin's attempts at a date.

String, Singin, Caitlin and Jo were all in the hangar going over Airwolf and the plan to take Sinjin and Jo up in the bird for an initial flight. For Sinjin, in his mind he flew Airwolf for years at air shows and had already accomplished the flights for the FIRM. In his mind, Jo was his wife and there was no reason for her to flatly refuse an suggestion for dinner.

"How about we go to that fancy steakhouse place for dinner tonight, Jo?" Sinjin offered offhand.

Sitting at the table in the rear of the hangar Jo gave him a funny look. "What?"

"Dinner!" he reminded her. "I thought we would try that new steakhouse. It has a salad bar." he added the temptation.

Caitlin smiled, "Steak and salad sounds good."

Jo smirked, "Great…you can go with him."

Sinjin asked, "Where do you want to go then?" He assumed she didn't want to go to the restaurant.

Jo stated, "You just suggested we go to dinner like…it's an everyday thing. Like were some old married couple."

"We are some old married couple." he miffed.

"Not for me." she reminded him.

His head rolled back, "You don't want me to ask you out like we are dating again?"

"That would be nice." she smirked.

He rolled his eyes.

Caitlin came up with a suggestion, "How about all four of us go to that new steak house for dinner tonight." She looked to String for agreement.

"I wouldn't mind it." he agreed. "Salad bar does sound nice." He looked to Jo, "How about all four of us go to that steakhouse?"

"That sounds good." she agreed feeling less pressured.

Sinjin crossed his arms and seemed to nearly pout.

Caitlin asked, "What is it?"

"Nothing." he miffed. He had all his memories and knew Jo like the back of his own hand. He knew her likes, dislikes and her dreams. And yet, he was demoted to potential boyfriend status by the orb imprinting his younger self with his life memories. Jo simply had not experienced the relationship as of yet and for her Sinjin was not her husband.

Jo spoke to Sinjin. "I saw that tape and I know an older version of me is on it with you and that woman, Sam. I know that we are married according to the tape and we fly Airwolf at air shows in some distant future. I was an old woman on that tape. But none of that has happened for me yet."

"I know." he agreed. "I suppose I forgot what it's like for you. Me coming back after being missing for so long, being recruited to fly Airwolf and knowing there is a wormhole in the corner of this hangar that connect to the future and you are sitting on the other end of that wormhole with an older version of me."

"Maybe it would be easier if the orbs had imprinted me too." she suggested. "But they did not so…I'm still processing all this."

"I know. Give it some time." he figured.

"Please." she pleaded.

The table fell silent for a moment.

Caitlin pondered out loud, "I wonder what I would do if the orbs or those nanites had imprinted me with my older self."

A smirk crept across Sinjin's face. "Let's see, if you were imprinted with everything you know you would be on String's ass to make sure he doesn't get hurt. You would be a bit more brash and not take crap from anyone."

"I don't take crap from anyone now." she insisted.

He chuckled, "But future you takes even less. And you would be trolling Sam with pink all day long." he assumed.

String agreed, "I can see you doing that, Cait."

"Trolling with pink?" Jo asked confused.

String stated, "Sam hates the color pink. So, Cait would lend her pink jackets, outfits and even bought her a pink flannel shirt just to get a reaction. They call it 'trolling' in the future."

Jo wondered, "Why does my future daughter hate the color pink?"

Sinjin explained, "When she was little she was our little baby girl so everything was pink. I painted her room pink with white trim. She had pink clothes, little pink dresses, pink stuffed animals, a pink BB gun." He thought back on the memory.

Caitlin chirped, "She gave me the pink BB gun."

Sinjin pondered "Perhaps, we over did the ink a little bit. She was always kind of a tomboy. She wanted to do sports and play in the mud."

Jo suggested, "Maybe we should go not overboard on the pink then."

"It won't matter." Sting told her. "Sam is on the first timeline. So is Sinjin. She will always remember pink…everything." He looked at his brother, "Lay off the pink."

He shrugged, "Girls like pink. She looks good in pink."

Caitlin stated, "Sam does look good in pink but not all girls like pink. The same way not all boys like blue."

Sinjin confessed, "My favorite color was yellow as a kid."

"I remember that." String agreed. "Mine was red." His mind went back in time, "Remember that red scooter?"

"I remember it." Sinjin agreed. "You scooted yourself all around on that little red kick scooter and I rode the bike."

"Aw," Caitlin imagined what the pair must of looked like as kids playing. "I bet you two were cutest little kids."

Sinjin bragged amused, "I was adorable."

String rolled his eye and laughed a bit to himself. "Yeah, you were adorable."