Chapter 1

2020

Retired teacher, Ralph Hinckley spent his days and nights chasing lights in the sky. No one recognized his name or his face anymore. No one recalled the man in the red suit who could fly through the sky like Superman and bust bad guys back in the 1980's. No one remembered him. The aliens wiped every trace of Ralph's days as a super hero clean.

His old friend, FBI Agent, Bill Maxwell had long passed and more recently his wife had also passed away. He found himself rather alone as the only other two people in the entire world who had memory of his days as a super hero were now gone.

Wearing tan cargo pants, a cargo style jacket, brown boots and large hat he staked out his campsite for the night in the desert. His jeep and camper were parked nearby. He looked about for his helper.

A young woman of about twenty years old with brown hair and sporting tan hiking pants and a matching jacket emerged from behind the vehicle. She walked over to his. "Make camp here, Dad?" she asked.

He gave a nod. "This should do, Billie." he motioned, "Let's get unpacked."

She followed him to help set up the camp. Billie Hinckley knew her father had some sort of encounter as her mother and would occasionally speak of the event. And being a UFO enthusiast she was eager to document proof space ships. She was not aware of his super hero past or how the whole world was robbed of the memory.

Billie suggested, "Let drive up the overlook tonight. The weather is supposed to be overcast. Might get a better view up there."

"Sounds good." he agreed. Ralph retired from teaching and now was a full time researcher of UFO's with his grown daughter. He wanted answers. Why him? Why did they choose him, give him a super suit to go fight bad guys and then take the suit and everyone's memory? At first he thought it was for the best as he grown famous. But now, the world seemed worse off than ever before. It didn't seem fair. Matter of fact, it seemed more like a cruel joke to Ralph. He looked over at his daughter as she started to set up the stakes for the canopy. He was grateful he had her in his life. Though he became a father late in life, he found she was the only inspiration he had. His days of saving the world were long behind him. His only concern was keeping Billie safe and sound as he entered his golden years.

He smiled to himself as he continued to work on setting up camp knowing his daughter was a cynic at heart and if the aliens ever tried to saddle her with a super suit she tell them where to shove it for sure.

Later That Evening

Ralph drove the jeep as Billie rose shotgun to the overlook. Night had fallen and the sky was overcast. They chatted about the recent UFO sightings in the area.

"I can't wait to try out that new camera, Dad." Billie grinned eager.

"You are my tech guy." Ralph chuckled. Billie was a computer natural and was fascinated by all things science.

"Full spectrum. If the aliens are using a clock, this camera should be able to see right through it." she nodded confident. She then wondered, "What do you think the aliens look like? You think we are dealing with the Grays, the Reptiles, the Aryans?"

"Who knows." he shrugged. "If ancient gods were based on aliens, I bet we're dealing with Loki."

She grinned. "Could be! I love these camping trips we take, Dad."

Amused he asked, "Why don't you ever go camping with your friends?"

She balked. "Are you kidding? All they do is talk about nonsense stuff."

"Such as?" he laughed for he was certain UFO chasing seemed like nonsense to most people.

"It's all about sports, makeup, who they want to screw and what meds the doctor has you on." she shook her head.

"Sounds like most teens." he remarked.

"How about what furry you are today?" she smirked.

He paused, "Furry?"

"What animal you are." she clarified. "And if you are cis or queer." she added with a smirk.

"What is cis?" he wondered.

She laughed, "See! Chasing lights in the sky looking for a UFO is more sane." She then added, "Not to mention nice and quiet. So peaceful out here."

"It is." he agreed.

Half way to the overlook and his jeep suddenly stalled out. He paused in thought as the jeep also lost the electrical system and his headlights dimmed.

Billie sat befuddled. "We just stalled out. This had to be battery or something."

"Or something." Ralph gulped. The radio came to live. A familiar changing of the dial occurred as it started scanning through the stations and playing just one word at a time.

Billie gasped. "This is contact."

"I know." he nodded as he recalled the first time.

The ship the appeared above them and descended around them. Washing the jeep in a bright white light.

"I need to record this." Billie grabbed her cell phone and found it would not turn on. She then went for her camera and discovered that too would not turn on.

Ralph told her. "They have total control over the electronics."

"Damn!" she huffed. She looked up at the underbelly of the ship floating above her. "What do you want?".

Ralph expected to see a something or someone beam down. Instead, he and his daughter were beamed up into the ship. The ship then shot up to the sky and disappeared.

Later

Ralph woke up in a dimly lit room. He face down on the floor. He slowly regained consciousness. He pushed himself up and looked about. The room was dark and he could not see any walls The lighting was very dim and his daughter was on the floor near him. She too was face down and unconscious.

He went to her side. "Billie." he pushed her awake.

She slowly woke back up. "Are we home, Dad?"

"No," he shook his head unsure where they were. "We're been abducted." He helped her sit up. He looked about and found a bench seat on a dark wall. He helped Billie up and the pair sat down on the bench.

Billie looked about the darkened room. "They are keeping us in the dark."

"Yeah." he agreed.

A door slide open and for a moment they were blinded by the bright light from a hallway. A being walked into the room.

Ralph could not believe his eyes. The being looked just like his deceased friend, Bill Maxwell. But Bill died of old age and this version looked like Bill from the 80's. He was dressed in slack, brown shoes and a white shirt. A seat emerged from the wall behind him. The being took a seat across from Ralph and Billie.

"What do you guys want now?" he nearly barked.

"Forgive me." the being stated. "I thought a familiar face would be best to greet you with."

"I know you are not Bill." he stated. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize for the mistake we made when you were young." the being began. "We found after we took the suit and removed the memory that your world suffered greater than had we left the memory."

"Thanks for the apology. Now let us go!" he declared.

"We cannot do that." he shook his head. "We picked you up to save you from nuclear war. You society degraded beyond repair. We saved you and your daughter as a favor."

Billie asked, "What favor? What suit?"

Ralph explained. "Back in the 80's these guys gave me a super suit to go fly around and fight crime with. I lost the instruction book and had to wing it. Then after a few years, I got real famous. So, they took back the suit and wiped everyone's memory of it. They left my memory, your mother's and your god father's memory intact. So, we could talk about it amongst ourselves."

The being spoke. "We had intervened as you were very close to nuclear annihilation. Then your cold war ended and you no longer needed a super hero. But removing the memory was a mistake. We did it so you could live a normal life. The world degraded and now, that annihilation has occurred."

Ralph asked, "You mean we just nuked ourselves?"

"Yes." the being agreed. "There are two options for you. Return to our planet with us and assimilate to our culture and society or go back to a later date and prevent the annihilation. The later is more difficult. It would take both of you to accomplish."

Billie asked, "You mean we can go live on another planet with you guys or go back in time and do what? How could we stop it?"

"You would be given technology to assist." he informed.

Ralph rolled his eyes. "Another red set of pajamas to fly around in?"

"Nano technology." the being told them.

Ralph looked at his daughter. "What's that?"

"Microscopic tech." she told him.

"If you choose the later we suggest you use a disguise as we cannot remove the memory this time." the being instructed. "The nanites would be infused into your bodies and would be around you at all times. You would be given a controller to assist until you no longer needed such an aid to control the nanites." he stated.

Ralph looked at his daughter. "What do you say? We go back and save the world together?"

"How far back do we have to go?" she wondered.

The being spoke. "We determined the date to return would be 1983."

Billie gasped, "What! That was decades ago. Are you serious? Why so far back?"

"You will need the years to convince the people of your planet to destroy the weapons that will destroy them." he answered.

"Shit, my life is over." Billie figured.

Ralph told her. "1983 wasn't that bad."

"It's gonna suck." she figured. She drew in a breath. "But if you are going to do this, Dad then so am I."

"Okay." Ralph agreed. "But you can't just drop us off in the middle of nowhere. And we will need to set up a new life."

"The nanites will provide everything you need." the being assured them.