THE MOMENT
"All is usual."
"Huh?" Molly recognized the voice. She took a quick look around Turbo's garage but saw no sign of the speaker. She and Turbo were the only people she could see. "Was that Chronos?" she asked. Chronos was Turbo's A.I. assistant. Molly had only met him in passing; but, his distinguished, mechanical voice was easy to remember. Molly knew several A.I.s; but, Chronos was the one that behaved most like a machine.
"Yeah," Turbo looked up and nodded. Then, he turned he focused on the colored cubes in front of him again. The pair of friends were on their way to derby practice but Turbo needed to pick something up. At the moment he was deciding what gear to bring.
"All is usual," Chronos repeated.
"What's he doing?" Molly asked.
"He's scanning universes," Turbo answered. "Looking for differences."
"Between universes?" Molly tilted her head at him. Her blonde curls shifted to the side and she locked her blue eyes on him. "Why?"
"Not between universes," Turbo chuckled. He grabbed a couple of colored cubes from the table, then turned around and walked to a red filing cabinet in the far corner.
"All is usual." Molly was already starting to ignore the comment.
"Between versions of the universe," he answered while walking. "Helios was able to give Chronos access to an old Sharp database. It's outdated, but it's something," he said.
"What do you mean, 'versions of the universe'?" Molly asked.
"What it sounds like," Turbo nodded. He pulled two clear nodes out of the filing cabinet, then closed it and faced Molly again. "This universe, this reality that's happening now...," he spread his arms to gesture at the garage around them. "This isn't the first version," he said. As he spoke, he manipulated the colored cubes in one hand and the nodes in the other. When he had things right, he brought his hands together. He pushed one cube against a node and it sunk into it completely. The clear node changed color and turned gold; then, he pushed the other cube and card together to make another golden glass card.
"All is usual," Chronos said in the background.
"Okay...," Molly gave him a confused nod. She had plenty of experience in the AlterNet and knew how to take things in stride. "...so why is Chronos scanning universes?" she asked. "I mean.. what is he checking?"
"He scans the timeline of each Earth and compares it to the records Sharp Development has. For the most part, things have been happening the way they usually do."
"Why?" Molly asked. "What are you looking for?"
"I don't know yet," Turbo shook his head.
"All is usual."
"But, there has to be a way to stop Ms. Sharp," Turbo answered. "The more information I have, the better."
"I hope so...," Molly nodded. She opened a black portal in the air next to them. "...but, we also need to beat Spider," she added to rush him to practice.
"Yeah, we do," he nodded and stepped into the portal.
"Something is different," Chronos said.
"He found something!" Molly was surprised and excited to know what was different. But, she quickly noticed that Turbo seemed to be waiting on her. "Aren't you going to check??" she asked. Turbo shook his head with a grin.
"Nah," he said. "That's not even the first difference he's found today."
"Huh?" Molly said.
"It's almost impossible for things to happen exactly the same way every time," Turbo shrugged. "Even if Ms. Sharp wasn't playing with the universe, there would still be differences. He's just identifying them for me, I'll take a closer look later. We gotta practice now, right?" he asked.
"Yeah," Molly nodded. She expected more enthusiasm from him. "...are you sure, though?"
"Yeah," Turbo nodded. "Listen...," he said. Molly went quiet expecting him to say something; but, he was also quiet for almost a minute before he made his point.
"All is usual," Chronos said.
"See?" Turbo grinned. "It'll be fine."