"What did I do wrong in my life to get to this point..." Daquan wondered aloud to himself as he sat back in a large room, locked off by bright blue beams of a strange liquid laser substance, preventing their escape.
Daquan and Keenan Quantum were imprisoned in a space prison aboard a space station made to mimic the appearance of the sun and moon. Robots surveyed the place, and, imprisoned alongside Daquan and Keenan, was Amber Velo, mayor of Velo City, a floating island once called San Francisco, and also, a hairless talking cat, suspended by many colorful balloons, called Kidd Nottacattington.
Also inside this large prison room was the Hot Air Ba-Boat - the mode of transportation that the Quantum Brothers and friends used to discover the many floating islands that made up the world of a twisted experiment called The Exquisite Quantum Showdown.
Standing before the prison cell on this space station, was the surprise culprit of this charade: Johnathan Quantum.
Keenan briefly looked off to a random spot in the room and mumbled, "Hey, listen, so, the vibe I get that someone's watching me can vary in intensity, and, I kinda get the vibe that this story is sometimes told as one continuous story, and sometimes as a series of flashbacks... And, well, the last time I felt a flashbacky vibe was a while ago, so you're probably wondering how the hell we got into this situation, and well..." Keenan thought about it for a second. "It doesn't really matter, just go with it." Keenan turned his attention to his older brother. "How could you do this?" he asked.
Johnathan stood close to the lasers, waiting for Keenan to continue.
Keenan stood up and approached the lasers. "You stole a bunch of bits of land... Put them into a self contained atmospheric approximation in the middle of space... and then broadcast it as a reality competition TV show style thing? Where none of the participants know that they're participants... And then... The world just lets you do that? Watches the show? Doesn't try to stop you?"
"Oh..." Johnathan was taken aback slightly. "I thought you were about to go on a 'how could you do this' type of like, family betrayal, personal rant, but you meant like..."
"Yeah, no, actually how could you do this. How did you pull this off? I have no questions about how could you do this to us, because I know the answer."
"What is it?" Johnathan asked.
"You're a selfish dickwad jerkface, always have been."
Daquan nodded at the back of the prison cell.
"Damn." Kidd Nottacattington's collar blared a robotic voice through its speakers.
Johnathan chuckled. "Yeah, no surprises there." He paced in front of the cell. He slowly retrieved the object that allowed him to pull off this stunt, showing off to Keenan a small glowing orange cube.
"Ohhh..." Keenan nodded, understanding. "A magical McGuffin. That explains it."
"It chose me. It showed up to me, in the woods. Gave me all the solutions to finally become the Quantum brother. When the Quantum family name is uttered, people will think of me."
"Nuh uh." Keenan argued. "They'll think of me."
"Why's that? Because of your stupid boat?"
"Yeah. That and my mustache and my top hat and my generally silly wacky attitude. Spot on, bro. You get it."
Johnathan fumed. He stormed away, strengthening the laser prison wall. The blue beams warbled with a liquid like surface. Keenan stepped back and admired the large prison room they were trapped in.
"Now what?" Velo asked. "I didn't sign up for this. I signed up for hacking and slashing," she said, gesturing to her axe.
"Yeah, so get to hacking and slashing," Keenan said, gesturing to the walls.
"Wait, what's your plan?" Daquan asked.
Keenan admired the room. The walls of black metal, the air ventilation system on the ceiling, painted in yellow and gray - and the large size, accommodating even the vehicle they were detained in.
"Johnathan is so incredibly stupid," Keenan said.
"I can vouch for that," Kidd agreed.
Daquan realized all at once Keenan's idea. "He gave us everything we needed to escape..."
"He left the boat with us when he turned our home into an island..." Keenan nodded.
"And he imprisoned us, inventors, in a way too tech-filled room..." Daquan stood up, smiling.
"Okay but where does the hacking and slashing come in?" Velo asked.
Keenan looked over at her. "Tear these walls down. We're upgrading our ticket out of here."
In a loud and productive montage of hacking, slashing, tinkering, and modifying, somehow the Quantum Brothers and friends were allowed, without intervention, to work all day and night on their ticket out of that space prison.
Maybe it was Johnathan's overconfidence, maybe it was his incompetence, probably it was both, but either way, Keenan and Daquan were able to build something incredible.
Sleek black metal cased the outside of their Dad's old rowboat. The yellow ventilation was repurposed as an engine case at the back of the boat. Steel reinforced beams connected the structure together. Wings fanned out at the sides of the boat. The balloon's tarp was repurposed as upholstery for the comfy red seating. Pieces of the bike were used to manipulate the machinery in the console and engine. Keenan studied the molecular structure of the strange liquid-like blue lasers, imprisoning them, and was able to use them as a reference point to create liquid forming glass. A canopy of blue liquid formed like a bubble over the boat, sealing it shut as it solidified into a sturdy glass.
The Quantum Brothers tinkered away refining and shaping a brand new vessel. It started with a rumble, a low guttural roar like an old engine sputtering to life after years of disuse.
"A spaceship..." Daquan smiled as he stepped back, admiring their work.
"No." Keenan smiled a stupid smile beneath his dumb mustache. "The Mach Ba-Boat..."
"The WHAT?" Daquan yelled.