Lucca was in her living room, trying to finish her telepod for what seemed to be the millionth time. She removed her green helmet and wiped her forehead. Then she pushed her thick glasses back up on her nose and screwed in the last four pieces. "There!" she exclaimed, sighing with relief. "Maybe it'll work this time!"
Lucca was a genius when it came to anything relating to science that needed to be done. However, her inventions had a tendency not to work quite the way she'd originally intended them to. The most famous one, the telepod, was first displayed during the Millennial Fair three years ago, and the ensuing disaster ended up sending her, Crono, and Nadia, who was at the time going by the alias of Marle, on a trek through time that turned them and four other beings into heroes.
The telepod consisted of two metallic platforms that were mirror images of each other. The metal extended up the back and formed a sort of suction funnel ten feet above each pod. Each pod had attached to it a console covered with buttons and levers to activate its functions. The telepod was supposed to be a teleportation device that would send someone or something from one pod to the other via a meltdown into component molecules.
But this time, she had a feeling that nothing could go wrong, as she did the last six times she'd tried it, and failed. She called in her father, Taban, who was an inventor, too.
Taban, a plump man with a booming voice and a mustache, came into the room where Lucca was working. At that moment, she was setting one of her cats onto the left telepod. "Ready, Lucca?"
She nodded. "Let's try it out."
Taban went over to the console connected to the left pod and started pressing buttons. "All systems on!" he called out.
Lucca ran to the right pod and pulled a lever. "Beginning energy transfer!" she cried.
The cat on the machine disintegrated with a meow into molecules that were sucked into the mechanism at the top as lights turned on around the two pods. A moment later, the molecules reappeared on the pod on the right and came together to re-form the cat, who seemed to be unharmed from the experiment. It meowed and began licking its paw contently.
"Success!" Taban was the first to look up and see the normal result of the experiment. Relieved, he went into the kitchen to get some lemonade.
"It worked!" Lucca exclaimed happily as she twirled around on one foot. She scooped up the cat in delight, and accidentally bumped into the telepod. She turned to see if she had damaged her invention and, not seeing anything wrong, went to check the data on the attached computer's screen. She took out her inventor's journal and jotted down several sentences.
As she closed her journal, a knock came at the door. She opened the door and found Crono and Nadia standing there, surrounded by a suitcase and several bags. "Great! You're just in time! I just tested the telepod, and it worked! Now, I need to use one of you two to be the first human to try…"
"Oh, all right," Crono sighed with mock resignation.
Lucca was relieved. Crono was used to being a guinea pig for her inventions, ever since they were children. Both only children, they were like siblings to each other, and the bond between them had grown strong over the years.
"Well," Nadia said, "if you don't mind, I'm going to bring my stuff upstairs while you two test it out." She picked up some of the bags she'd brought along and went upstairs to Lucca's bedroom.
Meanwhile, Crono got onto the left telepod. As she called Taban into the room again, Lucca was filled with a sensation of deja vu. The situation before her seemed so similar to the first trial at the Millennial Fair. She could almost hear her father's showman-like spiel that he'd given there, announcing the first trial of the telepod there.
Taban carried his glass of lemonade into the living room, set it down on a table, and stood ready at the console next to the left pod. "All systems on!" he said, pressing the familiar pattern of buttons.
Lucca yanked at her switch on the right console. "Begin energy transfer!" She was so excited, she did another twirl.
Crono, as did the cat before him, was reduced to his component molecules which were absorbed into the suction at the top. Lucca and Taban waited with held breaths for him to reappear on the right platform, but there was no response from the right suction mechanism. They stood waiting in silence for a few moments, and then Lucca became antsy. "What happened? Where is he?"
"He didn't… get stuck inside, did he?" Taban questioned his daughter nervously.
Lucca swallowed. "I, I don't think so… but I'll check." With that, she ran over to the computer and quickly scanned the new data that appeared. "According to the computer, everything went normally, and Crono was sent… somewhere." She thought for a moment. "But there was no Gate that appeared, so where could he have gone?"
Just then, Nadia came through the door to get the rest of her things and observed the two people staring at the telepod in confusion. "So, how did the test go?" She giggled. "Did Crono run home so he wouldn't have to do it again?"
I really don't want to tell her this, but… Lucca prepared herself inwardly for what was going to be a very emotional reaction. "Um, Nadia, I don't know how to say this, but… Crono never made it…"
"WHAT?!!!!!" Nadia shrieked before Lucca had a chance to finish her sentence. "What did you DO to him? You didn't send him through time again, did you?"
"No!" Lucca answered. "There was no Gate. But we don't know what happened."
"Well, I'm going after him!"
"I don't think that's a good idea," Taban spoke up. "We don't know where this is going to send you."
"But we have to get him back!" Nadia protested desperately. "Please, Lucca! I'll go myself."
Lucca thought about it as rationally as possible. "Well, I suppose so. Find him quickly, and then both of you hurry to wherever you arrive. I'll turn the machine on, and hopefully it will bring both of you back."
Taban and Nadia nodded. Then the princess got on the left pod, carrying her crossbow and quiver. "Wait a minute," she said just as Taban was about to start his button sequence. "What about this?" She indicated the pendant around her neck, for it was that pendant plus the energy of the telepod which had sent them through time in the first place.
"Don't worry about it," Lucca said. "I revamped the energy of the telepod so it can't open a Gate anymore." She turned to her father. "Ready, Dad?"
The father and daughter went through the motions that were like second nature to them by this point, but the machine started shaking. Before they could stop it, Nadia, too, was reduced to molecular pieces and entered the suction mechanism. They waited to see if perhaps she would return immediately in the right pod, but nothing happened.
"Well," Taban said, "I guess we wait."
An hour had passed, and Lucca and Taban had restarted the telepod every five minutes since Nadia entered it, but neither she nor Crono had ever reappeared. The only result they'd ever gotten had been a short spell of shaking, followed by a soft groan.
"There's only one thing I can do," Lucca said determinedly. "I have to go and find them."
"But, Lucca…," said Taban, giving his daughter a hug, "I don't want to lose you in this machine."
She looked up at him and smiled bravely. "I'll be okay," she promised. "Let's go get Mom. She needs to take my place. But first…" She went to the computer, which was still reading the same data as it had when the cat had passed safely through the teleportation. "I'm going to save this information so I can study it more closely when I get back." She continued before he could interject. "I'm not doing it now because my friends could be in trouble, and I need to rescue them now. They could be in big trouble!"
Taban nodded, then ran upstairs to the room he shared with his wife, Lara, while Lucca saved the data. A moment later, he returned with the blue-haired woman, who had a terrified expression on her face. "Honey, be careful, okay?"
"I will," Lucca responded. She hugged both of her parents tightly and climbed on the left pod. "Keep activating the telepod every day until I come back through it with Crono and Nadia." She was putting on a brave face for the sake of her parents, but inside, she was just as nervous as they were. I'll come back all right. She promised herself.
Her parents activated the telepod, and she felt herself falling apart. Then she felt the pull of the suction above her yank her inside. Then she lost consciousness...