The Odyssey

Alpha:
You used to have a mission. Now you have a special sauce?

Alpha:
I could've had whatever I wanted! Forever!

Jay:
Dead is forever.

Jay:
It's blood.

Flash:
Ew... Who drinks blood?

Jay, Flash:
VAMPIRES!

Jay Ziegler:
Who can tell me where the secret checkpoint is?

Frances X:
Beats me. But if anyone does know, it's gonna cost you.

Jay Ziegler:
Why? It's just directions.

Frances X:
Information is a commodity, did you know? If you want something, you gotta cough up. I mean, you can't get something for nothing. Not here.

Jay Ziegler:
But checkpoint aren't just for the rich. They're so kids can earn their way to the Tower. I thought that was Brad's law.

Frances X:
Before, maybe. Now the market's the law.

Medea:
You just let the Wrecker right into the Tower! Who knows what he could destroy in there? He could change everything!

Frances X:
Let's hope so.

Frances X:
[about the third checkpoint] The door's been here long before the Brad Exchange, and Jay's the first kid to make it in ages. Spoiled, greedy Tower kids like Medea have purposely stopped kids.

Frances X:
You trade Brad's things, but you don't even know why they're valuable. You worship his image, but you ignore his ideas. Brad made the checkpoints so that ordinary people who really wanted it, and who really tried hard, could get to be Tower people. They could learn stuff in the Tower. Then go back outside and help others. That's the way it's supposed to be.

Medea:
What do you know about it, lizard lips?

Frances X:
Because I am Francis X, Brad's checkpoint keeper. He told me to make sure the checkpoints are done right, and Jay has done them right.

Brad:
Yes. I'm Brad. Talk quietly. There's Monitors right outside. I'm proud of you, Jay. For getting here and for not giving in to Macro.

Jay Ziegler:
It really is you. But... but you're just a kid.

Brad:
What were you expecting?

Jay Ziegler:
My dad.

Brad:
What's a dad?

Jay Ziegler:
He's a guy who cares about you. Because he gave you life. He shows you what to do, how to be.

Brad:
A leader.

Jay Ziegler:
Sort of. YOu're my dad. Brad Ziegler.

Brad:
Ziegler? That's how you pronounce it. The Vest of Power belongs to you.

Jay:
Thanks, Keith.

Flash:
What did you call me?

Alpha:
Who's Keith?

Jay:
I don't know. Someone important.

Tower Council Member:
His name is Jay. He's traveling with two companions who are here with him. He's the first kid in living memory to gain access to the Tower by passing Brad's three checkpoints. The result of this success, which was as unlikely as it was... unwanted, and I think I speak for the group, is that hordes of outside kids now wanna pass the checkpoints and get into the Tower. They wanna see Brad, who's more popular than ever. This Jay has become a call-to-you to the masses. In sum, our world is sliding into chaos.

[looking at images from Jay's world]

Medea:
Brad comes from this place, too? Who is Brad to you, anyway?

Jay Ziegler:
My father.

Jay Ziegler:
I know you've got Brad locked up. I've got to see him. Right now.

Macro:
Right now's not a good time for Brad. He's... busy. Thinking about his future.

Alpha:
But people still want Brad.

Jay Ziegler:
If they find out what you've done, they'll throw you out.

Macro:
You're right. The people are always right. That's why we're gonna make you the new leader

Medea:
What?

Fractal:
You want to know what we should do with this kid? We should study him. I've seen what's in his head. Now, you may find these results "stunning," even "groundbreaking," but I believe this Jay kid is from... someplace else. A different dimension, if you will. We must analyze his mind if we are to understand the mystery of our own existence. Where did we come from, Macro? Where are we going?

Macro:
You lost me. [to boy giving him a manicure] Buff that one more.

Medea:
Analyze...? Analyze him? He's bringing our world to an end! We gotta maroon him on an iceberg or something!

Macro:
[Macro bangs his gong] Those ideas don't work for me. What does work for me is using this "problem" to our advantage.

Medea:
I thought Jay was the wrecker.

Fractal:
It's within the statistical sphere of probabilities.

Medea:
But we got rid of him. Now this?

Fractal:
See, the trouble with the unscientific method is it's nonspecificity. What's important is not your ouija board. What's important is A. hypothesis, B. antithesis and C. synthesis.

Medea:
I knew that.

Fractal:
Thesis: Jay by his very presence will wreck the world.

Medea:
I already said that.

Fractal:
Antithesis: Jay by his very presence will not wreck the world. Neither the antithesis nor the thesis concur with the empirical realities of observation. Jay was in the world a long time without it getting wrecked. However, there does appear to be a link between him and the world falling apart. Synthesis: Jay wrecks the world when he leaves it.

Medea:
Oh. Of course. Everything started to fall apart when he left. And the grownups?

Fractal:
To restate the obvious, stories of the grownups only became rampant only after the world started to fall apart.

Medea:
[groans] I've been trying to get rid of him when all along I should've been trying to lock him up here forever.

Fractal:
If you can lock up someone who just disappears.

Medea:
Well, then, we'll just have to convince him that it's in everybody's best interest for him to stay.

Fractal:
First, you have to get him to come back.