The Scattered Archives

"It looks to be all clear!" Renegade Midnight Conductor thought to herself. She was flying on a patrol, with the full moon shining on her on a calm, fall night. A few clouds reflected the moonlight, but the sky was clear, and many stars were visible. She saw many more stars when she was flying far above the light pollution of the cities. No enemy airships, weaponized robots, or any enemy mages were in sight. Flights without a conflict were rare, and much cherished.

When the thunder was rolling in, Christina looked excited. "There's something I want to do. Can you get the camera?" She asked Aurora.

"Sure!" Aurora said, and she promptly left the room to get the camera from the lounge. She returned a couple of minutes later, and saw Christina standing in front of one of the windows with a smile. The sky was dark, but illuminated by flashes and bolts of lightning.

"I'm ready for it!" Christina said.

"Okay!" Aurora said, and pointed the camera at Christina.

Christina lifted her hands up and out, with her fingers curled but spread out from each other, her palms facing upwards, and she let out an evil laugh. Aurora took the photo, but it didn't turn out this well!

"You need to stay still!" Aurora said. "I didn't bring over instant photography!"

"Awwww!..." Christina said, annoyed. She had to keep the pose for 10 minutes, but the repeated flashes of lightning during the exposure time led to the photo being over-exposed.

"This potion isn't letting me cast fireballs, but it's making me feel awesome!..." Renegade Midnight Conductor exclaimed after drinking the potion she saved. She saved it in preparation for a fight when her weapon was low on power, and when she didn't have any superconductor crystals on hand.

Her fighting style changed. It was more fluid, but erratic...

"Midnight!"There was a mix-up!" One of her teammates exclaimed.

Meanwhile... Someone out there didn't get the drink they paid for, but can cast fireballs...

At a saloon, it was Susana's turn to step on stage and sing. She looked through the records to find a song to play, and looked for any of the songs from the 1980's that Aurora recommended. She chose Burning Down The House. When she was singing, she was enjoying the moment, but she heard something else other than the song...

Pop! Crash! A lightbulb fell from the chandelier, and a framed picture fell down from the wall behind her. She looked in stunned silence as more lightbulbs fell from the chandelier. Pieces of the ceiling were falling down!

A bright light flashed across the room. Her teammates had been listening to her singing, but they ran to the other side of the room. Christina briefly went outside. Susana ran off the stage to catch up with them, and looked out the window and saw a fire outside.

"Aww... Not this!" Aurora said. The Magical Renegades went to the saloon to take a break and celebrate the battle that they won. It was a steep challenge since there was a mix-up with the magic-boosting potion that Aurora, as Renegade Midnight Conductor used.

"Someone outside boasted that she can launch fireballs!" Christina told the team when she returned inside the saloon.

"Midnight! That's not your costume!" Renegade Blazing Supernova exclaimed. As the dust cleared from Renegade Midnight Conductor's transformation sequence, Blazing Supernova noticed that her costume wasn't what it should be.

Midnight Conductor glanced at her with a look of confusion.

"You'll see...Just look!" Blazing Supernova said. She attempted to sound restrained, but her facial expression was of someone trying to stifle her laughter.

"What does she think is so funny?" Midnight Conductor thought before she glanced back at her arms to see that her costume had no sleeves when it should have them. "This isn't right..." She thought, and she looked down at her costume to notice what she had been changed into.

"Oh my gosh, I'm a freaking cheeseburger!" She exclaimed!

Blazing Supernova couldn't hold back her laughter. Midnight Conductor was annoyed, but glanced towards the sky. "I'm going to try this again..."

"There isn't enough time! They're flying closer and--" Blazing Supernova began to explain, but a magic blast interrupted her, and she jumped out of the way to dodge it. Midnight Conductor jumped back, and looked towards the fight with unease. She didn't have enough time to change back to her normal self and back again, and she hadn't mastered the time-stopping spell she began to learn. She still had all of her powers as Renegade Midnight Conductor, but this was going to be a long battle...

"It's good to see you again!" One of Felicity's friends exclaimed.

"I missed you all too!" She said back.

"How was your trip?" Another asked.

"I'll show you!" Felicity cheerfully said. She brought out her smartphone...

Felicity showed her friends a vacation photo. "Wearing an oversized sweater isn't so practical here, but it was perfect at the ski resort I went to!"

Katt was so excited after she made a magic bottle. She needed Melody's help for it, but Katt was excited to see the process of how classical mages make them, and be able to take part in making this one. The bottle contained a powerful fireball magic spell, which Katt sought in case she needed to fight. The fireball glowed and shimmered in red and orange hues.

"This turned out great! I'll show Kayla, and she'll be jealous!"

...

"Hmm... The seal seems a bit loose, should I be worried?" Katt paused and thought to herself. "Nah, it'll be easier to use that way, and it's not leaking!"

One of the first rules of magic safety is to make sure that magic bottles are properly sealed until they need to be used, and strong offensive spells need stronger seals. Otherwise the magic can leak out, or spiral out of control and break the bottle.

There was another way Katt may be unlucky enough to have the bottle break on her, as she wasn't looking ahead.

...

...

"And that's why I ended up here this time, instead of the usual reason, Nurse Dilligaf!" Katt mused, in the school nurse office, and her arms covered in bandages from the magic-induced burns.

"Do I look I give -- uhhh... nevermind." Nurse Dilligaf muttered. "One of your friends, and your sister are here."

Melody and Kayla walked into the office.

"Uhh... I'm not jealous, Katt." Kayla said.

"I'm so sorry!" Melody said. "I should've said something when I noticed that the seal wasn't put around the bottle tightly enough, and saw some small cracks on the surface. I didn't, because I worried that your pride would be easily breakable!"

"Awww... I just got burned again!" Katt lamented.

Claire ran a cooking show when she wasn't teaching. The last episode didn't go over very well. It was meant to be simple. She was going to show how to bake an apple pie when it happened... When the time came to chop up the apples, they started floating, and Claire had to frantically chase them as she was trying to chop them!

"Get back here!" she shouted as she chopped one, unleashing the ghost that possessed it as the apple pieces fell to the floor. One down, and a few more to go. She chopped them down, picked up the apple pieces in triumph, but then realized it was a pointless victory even if the 5-second rule applied.

"After a long series of challenges, let's celebrate!" Camelia cheered.

"What better way to celebrate with slices of pumpkin pie, made from the pumpkins that Melody grew?" Claire said. "I was able to slice these without any problems this time. The ghosts who caused trouble on my show must've gotten bored!"

"I'll slice it!" Katt said.

Things went smoothly as Katt gave out slices of the pie. She got one for herself, but when she looked back at the pie to give out another slice, the one she got wasn't there!

"Hey, did anyone see where my slice went? This isn't adding up." Katt asked, and then she turned towards Kayla "You didn't take it, did you?" Katt asked.

"Me? But I already have one, and you gave it to me!" Kayla said. "I didn't cause trouble this time!" she snarked.

"Uhh..." Katt. I- I think I know what happened." Claire said nervously.

"What's wrong?" Katt asked. "Ugh, I feel a bit chilly now, but you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I'monly here to steal souls, not pie. I need to power my undead army." Kayla continued, in-character.

"You can't take mine!" Alicia remarked.

"Or mine!" Camelia joined in.

"Uhh... what are you dressed as again, Camelia?" Kayla asked.

"An Art Deco-style building. I like to get creative with my costumes."

"Could we go somewhere a little cheaper?" Claudia asked Chelsea. They were carrying bags of expensive designer clothes. Thousands of doubloons spent.

"Aww... Don't you want to spend a little more? You're in the millionaires club!" Chelsea asked.

Claudia sighed. "I joined it when I became eligible for it, because I'm looking for more friends. I've been lonely since I moved here." She said. "And when ..." She thought. She was telling Chelsea the truth in that she moved from another city, but preferred to not talk about how she also accidentally moved from another time period.

The wealth she gained from around 130 years of compound interest on the money she saved away before her disappearance was just a consolation prize, as no amount could buy back the friends, family and everything else familiar to her that she lost from being stuck in time.

"Okay. I'll show you some other shops I saw earlier that weren't so expensive. The magic armor store was passed is selling a set at a discount! It looked pretty, and looked like a good deal!" Chelsea said excitedly.

"Sure!" Claudia said, her eyes widened in excitement. "I've never heard of magic-blocking armor being sold to humans." She said curiously. "In my town, and many others like it, there was a problem with charlatans selling fake potions and fake cures for curses to bilk money out of us."

"You'll be able to protect yourself from those curses and protect your money in style!" Chelsea chuckled.

They arrived at the shop selling magic armor.

"Hello, we're here for the discount armor!" Claudia told the shop owner.

"Sure!" The shop owner said excitedly, and called a salesperson from upstairs to report to the first floor to meet a customer. Claudia followed the salesperson to the display showing the discount armor. Chelsea and the salesperson were excited, but Claudia was concerned.

"Could I try it on?" Claudia asked.

"It looks and feels like it's made out of cardboard." Claudia commented with concern and disappointment.

"If Claudia isn't sure, I'll buy it!" Chelsea offered. "I'll pay 10 times the retail price!"

"Huh? This isn't an auction." Claudia said, confused.

Chelsea left the shop with a new set of armor. She would've normally chosen a fancier set, but she liked the look and feel of the discount armor so much that she chose it. It was silver-painted and shiny, and easy to customize!

In this moment, Claudia realized that one of the things that stayed the same between time periods was the continued presence of scams, and people who fall for them!

Paige stepped into one of her favorite cafes; an Art Deco-inspired cafe with decor that was mostly black and white. Rows of lights from the ceiling dimly lit the tables, and neon signs highlighted sections of the wall. If not for her and the other visitors bringing laptops with them and sometimes wearing later fashions, the scene would've looked like it came right out of a film noir movie!

Most of the visitors had sleek laptops or small wrist-mounted computers with holographic keyboards and screens. Paige brought a folder of papers with her, and a "laptop" that caught most of the staff's and other visitors' attention for at least a moment; it was a historical curiosity. At 16 pounds, could this computer that she was confidently holding by the handle in one hand be considered a "laptop"?

That didn't worry her, and she found an empty booth to sit down and put her things on the table. Paige ordered a coffee, the server whom looked to be a new employee wrote down the order, but was curious about the computer that she brought.

"Oh, this? I believe if it isn't broke, don't fix it! The display on this is black and white, but it remains crisp after all of these years!" Paige confidently said. She still had this computer in a previous timeline and was confident it'd hypothetically last in a new timeline!

"You're in good company here!" The server said. "This is one of my first days on the job but I've already seen several people just show up here to read the newspapers, or watch the TVs. The TVs in the cafe were bulky and several decades old.

"Oh consarnit--" Paige grumbled in a minced oath and facepalmed. After she finished typing up her paper with the research notes she brought in, she wanted to install another application on her computer. She was initially in disbelief of the error message she saw when she ran the installer; it required a later version of the operating system than she was using! The version she was using could run the program, according to the help files, but what help is that when the installer won't work?

"The weather is perfect for this!" Katt said to Alicia, Melody, and Kayla. They were sitting in an old saloon. Wooden paneling lined the walls. Several pieces of old decor and large framed historical photographs from an earlier era hung from them.

Kayla was wearing a horizontal sky blue and white striped shirt with light blue shorts, a teal belt, sky blue socks and white sneakers. She was wearing her bandana like a headband with the tied ends sticking up. Melody was wearing a light blue blouse with a flowing, mid-calf length purple skirt with brown dress shoes. Katt was wearing light red overalls with a white T-shirt, and wore red and white sneakers. She decorated her hair with a pair of black and white star-patterned ribbons, and had a few snap bracelets with different colorful patterns.

Alicia dressed the most fancifully of the group; she was wearing a dark purple gothic dress with short puffy sleeves, and a knee-length skirt. She wore black gloves and boots, and wore magenta leggings with neon green stripes. Her dress also had magenta trim, and she wore a matching dark purple bow with magenta lace.

The group of friends were chatting over meals and fountain drinks. Katt looked out the window by their booth and pointed outside at the stage. Melody, Kayla and Alicia glanced through the window. Across the street from the saloon was a park area that had a wooden stage in the middle. Enough room surrounded the stage in each direction that a small but sizable crowd could bring their chairs and watch the performers in the area that'd often make their first gigs there.

"I'm not sure about that." Alicia nervously said. She loved to perform on poetry nights at this saloon and the other local dive bars, which had not too many people, but not too few for her. Not too crowded that she couldn't escape in an emergency.

"Are you afraid truant officers from your old school will be there and demand you return?" Melody whispered to her. Alicia nodded.

"Your old school sounds like the one I could've went to." Melody said nervously. Alicia never confirmed what her old school was, but it reminded Katt and Kayla of what they were told about Pretentia Academy, and Melody's own experiences with it.

"If you officially dropped out of that school, then their truant officers legally can't force you to return." Katt said, sounding angry. "If they show up, I'll kick their ***es!" She stood up and blurted, looking ready for a fight although her own thoughts warned her that'd be a bad idea! Her experience as a stunt performer was no guarantee that fighting would be a good idea!

Kayla looked excited, but Melody and Alicia were less enthused. "Careful, careful! Don't do something regretful!" Alicia nervously said. Katt's boast drew a lot of awkward looks from the surrounding visitors and servers.

"They're not here, but I'll keep my eyes out for them!" Katt said and nervously chuckled to the people who had their eyes on her. She glanced across the room in each direction and didn't see anyone in an officer uniform.

"Our policy prohibits disputes from being handled through fights on establishment grounds." A server sternly said.

"Are you saying to take it outside?" Kayla asked the server in a tone that sounded snarky but curious, but the server still looked unamused. Alicia facepalmed.

"You speak boldly and with much sass, but we can't always tell when you're a smart-***!" Alicia said to Kayla.

The server nodded in agreement with Alicia's rhyme. "Report any incidents on the establishment grounds to the staff, and we'll deal with it. When you go outside, you should also look out for each other." The server sternly said to everyone.

After the group finished their drinks, they went across the street to the stage. They stood in in the crowd, eating the food they took with them and enjoying other performers' acts.

"I think I'll be ready." Alicia said to her friends.

Soon, she had a chance to get on stage. No one else was stepping towards it, so she took her chance. She had memorized the latest poetry and song she wrote, and approached the stage.

"You'll do great!" Her friends cheered. She glanced around for a few moments in each direction. She thought about what Katt said a few minutes earlier. There was no one in uniform from Alicia's old school in the crowd. Her old school tried to bribe the local and national governments into allowing their truant officers to force students who left, but were not expelled, to return. That her old school tried couldn't assure her that their actions were still illegal, but she knew that it's illegal for the officers to do any duties when not in uniform. If they tried to sneak into the crowd, she'd have legal ground to stand on.

More people in the crowd looked towards Alicia with encouragement. She smiled and stepped onto the stage. It was showtime!

"This is Cam and I'm about to film something I never expected to see!" Camelia said after she successfully tested the sound and if she was in the picture. Her trusty camera was placed on a tripod, and she stood several feet away from it.

The view in the camera window captured her standing on the deck of an airship. Large metal cables connected the balloon of the airship to the decks. The sky was a bright blue with a few clouds! She posed in front of the camera was wearing a blue skydiving uniform with gray boots, gloves and a darker blue helmet and belt. Her parachute was in a backpack. She held her helmet in her right hand and posed in front of the camera to show off her hair, a brown bob cut, flowing in the wind.

"I took to the sea in an underwater play, and now to the sky as I'll go skydiving and I'll film it!" Camelia announced.

"Hey, Cam! You're going skydiving too?!" Katt asked excitedly and sounded surprised. She was also wearing a skydiving outfit but in shades of red and orange and walked over to the edge of the airship to see the sky in front of her and below. "This view is awesome and this is going to set my expectations sky high for that field trip!"

"The one to C Flats?" Camelia asked. She briefly ran back to her camera to pause the recording.

"Yeah. That sounds like it'll be fun, but the thrill of stunt performing can't be beat!" Katt said. She glanced at the camera and asked "Are you trying that live-streaming thing?" She asked. "My pun wasn't that bad..." She quietly grumbled.

"Oh gosh I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet. It's been so long since I was on the big screen!" Camelia said as she started to recount what it was like the last time she was. In an earlier timeline, the films of her time as a star were in black and white, they were silent; title cards were used for the dialogue, and the soundtracks were live music! The changes that this timeline introduced after a certain rogue time traveler went back to 1884 and created it introduced sound films to the masses several years sooner. Camelia adapted to these changes better than she did previously; the dominance of sound film or "talkies" tanked her career by 1931 in the previous timeline, but it was still the last year she starred in a film in this changed timeline.

"Well, it's not too late to start." Katt said. She looked back at the sky, her hands on the straps of her parachute, looking ready to take the jump. She looked back again and stepped towards the door at the back of the front deck. "I went here with Kayla but I don't know where she went. I wouldn't want her to miss this or to miss seeing her when she's ready to dive."

The door opened a few moments later, and Kayla stepped out of it with perfectly convenient timing! She waved to Katt and Camelia, who greeted her but also had a look of shock on their faces. Kayla was just wearing her regular clothes. What was she here for if not to skydive?

"You can dive without me, but I'd be ready next time. My copilot and instructor let me step away to take a short break to--" She cheerfully began to explain.

"Copilot? Instructor?!" Katt asked.

"You got it." Kayla nodded and grinned. "I'm taking the test to get my pilot's license, but I'm sure I'll be able to see you dive from my window!" She chuckled.

"I'll wish you luck with that test." Katt said. Camelia agreed.

"Thank you! I'll be heading back. I wish you both luck!" Kayla cheerfully said before she turned back, opened the door and returned to pilot the ship.

"No matter what, we going to have to take the air!" Camelia said after Kayla was out of earshot.

"Are you going to film your dive?" Katt asked.

"Absolutely! Let me put on my helmet and start recording!" Camelia put on her helmet, adjusted the visor, and brought over her camera. It was a smaller and more modern-looking camera than she usually used; its smaller size made it more practical to attach to the front of her outfit.

Camelia and Katt entered the door to go downstairs and to the door they'd jump from. "You both look ready!" One of Kayla's assistants told them. The door opened and they looked outside to the sky in front and below. Camelia resumed recording on her camera to record the view.

"Do you want to be filmed?" Camelia asked. Katt immediately looked excited and she was ready! Katt took a selfie with her own phone that showed she was in her skydiving outfit and on a plane. She put her phone away in one of the pouches on her outfit, and one of the skydiving assistants followed her when she made the jump. Camelia had started filming and caught these first few moments.

As the filming continued, Camelia pondered if skydiving would have the same thrill it would for most; would her ability to teleport, her nigh-immortality and nigh-invincibility undermine the thrill? The risks and dangers to humans are what make extreme sports extreme!

"Please don't mind me filming the view." She said after a minute of pondering. "I'm ready now." She said to one of the other skydiving assistants. "I've filmed on airships before, but never have I went skydiving. It's my turn to take the air and start filming!" She said again to the camera. In 3... 2... 1... they'd make the jump!

While the camera was recording and the land below started to become more detailed, Camelia was sure this was one of the most thrilling things she recorded. This set her expectations higher of the field trip she'd be going to, but it'd be harder yet to surpass this experience with filming!