“...and that was when I invented it!”
Hong Kong stared warily at the little go-cart-like machine Korea was gesturing to. “Korea,” Hong Kong sighed, “You and I both know you didn’t invent this “time machine” you have.”
Korea drew back, indignant. “I did too, da ze! Everything originated in Korea, so why not this time machine?”
“I saw you borrow it from Norway’s garage.”
Korea sighed in defeat. “Anyhow, I still say we should use it to go back in time!”
“First of all, how do you know this thing even works?” Hong Kong asked simply. “Second of all, why would we need to go back in time? We’re all over, like, 200 years old at least.”
“So? We can revisit the good times, da ze!” Korea argued. “Hey, how about we do something nice for aniki and go back to Ancient China and prevent Chun Li from dying?”
Hong Kong considered that for a moment before common sense came back and he shook his head. “No. Terrible idea. What if living with Chun for the rest of his life, telling that Chinese dragons are immortal too, ends in, like, Japan never being born or found? Which would lead to us never coming to be? That’s technically suicide.”
“You and your common sense, da ze,” Korea mused, crossing his arms. “Fine, then. Let’s go back to a year ago and get back at Macau for that one game of Project Diva,” Korea said, climbing into the machine. “Come if you want!”
Hong Kong knew that the chances of something good coming from this venture would be a very definite 9941890 to 1, but he had nothing better to do. So he shrugged and climbed in next to Korea.
Korea turned a dial on the dashboard to “Last Year”. “To the past, da ze! uri nara mansae!”
With that, there was flash of hot pink light and they were gone.
One time journey later…
The time machine deposited them back in the same spot they had left. Hong Kong was drooped over the edge of the vehicle, the rides through time giving him a stomachache.
Meanwhile, Korea was celebrating. “MANSAE! We returned alive! Right, Hong Kong?” No answer. “Are you still nauseous, da ze?”
“No,” Hong Kong replied, “But we kind of have a situation.”
“What would that be, da ze?” Korea looked up. “WHAT THE HECK?!!”
China’s house, where they were supposed to be, was gone. Heck, not even the bamboo forest was there. It was all plum groves.
“Where are we?!” Korea was flipping out. “What happened?! Did we get dropped off in the middle of nowhere?! Oh my God, aniki is going to kill--”
“Hold that thought, Kimchi Lad,” Hong Kong interrupted, placing a hand on Korea’s shoulder to stop him from moving. “I think we got a bigger problem.”
Korea and Hong Kong looked towards the gray sky, where they found the glimmer of skylights.
“Come on,” Hong Kong said as he climbed out of the time machine. “Let’s go see what happened.”
Korea climbed out after them, and they scrambled out of the plum trees towards what they hoped was civilization.
Of course, they found just that. However, this definitely wasn’t the kind of civilization they hoped to see. Everything was grey, white, and red, with maple leaf flags everywhere and on every billboard. People walked around wearing tan coats, and a lot of them had baby polar bears in their arms.
“Holy…” Korea couldn’t even finish.
“I knew this time travel thing was a terrible idea,” Hong Kong deadpanned.
Just then, to confirm their fears, a TV screen next to a billboard turned on and revealed the gently smiling face of Canada. “Hello, this is your ruler Canada speaking,” said Canada, “The time is 9:45, and today, breakfast is pancakes with the best maple syrup around! If that’s OK with you, that is. Have a nice day!”
Korea was visibly trembling. “CANADA took over the world, da ze?!”
“Time to go back to the past again,” Hong Kong said just as flatly. Korea grabbed his collar and started dragging him in the direction of the time machine.
Another time journey later…
Korea opened his eyes, sat up, and looked around frantically.
Blue sky, bamboo, and China’s house. Everything was as it had been.
“YES!” Korea hollered in delight. “YES! WE SAVED THE PRESENT, DA ZE! URI NARA MANSAE!”
“Great,” Hong Kong deadpanned. “Can we take this thing back to Norway’s and go back in now?”
“What were you two up to, aru? And what in the name of Confucius is that?”
Korea watched China approach them, already feeling trouble was around the corner. “We went back in time, da ze! We just fixed a tiny detail, but when we came back, Canada had taken over the world! So we went back again and fixed it, da ze!”
China raised an eyebrow. “Hong Kong, is that true, aru?”
“Yes, and I need to lie down,” Hong Kong replied, still drooped over the side of the machine.
China rolled his eyes. “Well, after all the magic mishaps, dragons, and then the Jiangshi incident, I’m not surprised anymore, aru.” He went back into the house. “Come inside for lunch, aru.”
“Mansae!”
“Ugh.”