The Agency Archives were located in the downtown core of the city, surrounded by government offices and the regional headquarters of four card companies. Wonder Corp. was notably missing, being heavily centralized. They didn’t have regional headquarters anywhere; all company decisions were made at global headquarters, and cards were distributed from heavily guarded repositories. No one ever went in or came out of the card repositories, which were just as mysterious as the Headquarters that ran them.
Jacob enjoyed the Agency Archives. He had spent a few months working in them during his third year at the Academy, when he utilized their records for his end of year investigative assignment. It was a short, five story building tucked amongst corporate skyscrapers and government centers in the heart of the city. Unlike the area he lived in, this part of the city was clean and well kept. City Watch officers wandered the streets frequently, chasing off the unhoused and apprehending criminals; the presence of multiple governmental offices meant there was a high concentration of Law enforcement Officers in the area at any given moment. This didn’t decrease the level of crime but rather migrated it from petty to white collar - a form of crime no government body had the time or manpower to investigate. These were the buildings where corruption ran rampant, a perfect setting for his third year project. He had proposed a unique solution to the unsolved Corporate Bombings 25 years earlier, which to this day had never been formally solved. His project got him a special cadet citation, and all of the research had been done in the archives.
Now however Jacob found himself trapped in the bowels of the building, following an elderly Archivist through a labyrinth of filing boxes and loose documents. Roughly 2 dozen federal officers were already making their way through the maze of records, with more arriving every few minutes from various government organizations. Despite this, the space felt empty and intimate, largely due to its massive size and even more massive collection. The sub-levels and special collections of the archives were notoriously dense and disorganized; they were a low priority item, and in a world where the government had its hands full of geopolitical tension and organized crime, the archives got few resources. Most of those who worked there were like the archivist guiding him to his terminal; an ancient man by the name of Frederickson, who couldn’t be any younger than 90. This was the final resting place of all government employees who refused to retire, as well as any who pre-dated the arrival of the cards. There was a small scandal 2-3 years ago when an independent news agency looked into it further; apparently several war heroes had been stationed here following their service, in order to avoid giving them their retirement pension. Jacob wouldn’t be surprised if Frederickson was one of them. He was certainly old enough to be.
“This is your station. I’ve set aside a series of records for you to start going through, but feel free to ask for more. We’ll pull what we can.” Fredrickson’s voice was soft and worn through; Jacob guessed he had already done this exact speech at least half a dozen times within the past hour. “Standard archival handling rules apply, you’re familiar with those. If you need something that cannot be handled normally, there’s a viewing room down the hall. Good to see you again, kid.”
Jacob nodded and settled into the mess, letting Frederickson return to his duties. His terminal station was a small desk with a built in screen for digital record access that was barely visible behind several archive boxes. Jacob moved the boxes to the ground next to his seat, stacking them neatly in two columns. He opened the first one and found a variety of investigation reports and news clippings from the very earliest days of the Cards. The papers inside were yellowing and brittle, with several marked with the distinctive brown spots of foxing. If they weren’t already digitized they would need to be soon in order to avoid being lost to time.
Mysterious Portals Open Around World. 4 dead in Underground Card Match. Government Declares State of Emergency, Martial Law in effect. President and Vice President Found Dead After Campaign Rally. War!
The headlines all came from papers long since defunct, describing things that were the basis of most modern history classes. For 37 seconds, the world saw through doorways to another dimension, as 27 portals opened across the world. At least, 27 the world knew about. There were always claimed sightings of more, but none had been proven. It was considered one of the most benign conspiracy theories to suspect there were more; records from that time were fragmentary at best. 27 doorways opened, showing monsters on the other side. 25 machines fell through, along with millions of cards. 20 of those machines were immediately seized by governments. 5 ended up with the corporations. Half the world devolved into vioence and panic, as groups and ideologies that had sat dormant saw their opportunity. Old rivalries flared to full on conflict as nations went to war over control of the machines. The balance of power changed overnight, as new superpowers emerged. All of this was well known. None of it would help the Agency.
Jacob dug further into the boxes, sorting through the documents within. Accounts of insurrection, political assassination, coups, wars, murders, bombings, chaos. All of things well known to the world. What was more conspicuous than anything however, was what was missing: Wonder Corp. For hours Jacob poured over the material that was available; countless documents, records, news reports, government files, none of which included any information about the company. Wonder Corp. was around during this time and were well known for their cards, but they had no appearances in the documentation. It was like their existence had been hidden from the record, with nothing present.
Just as he was about to give up and take a lunch break, he found something. It was in the final box he had been given, buried amongst a series of propaganda pieces created by the government during the insurrection. It was trapped between posters for national service and the postal agency, designed to inspire the loyal citizens into service and support. What he found was a small film canister, like the ones used in the wars of the historical past. It was labelled with a piece of blue tape, on which barely legible words were written: Wonder Corps. War Cards for War Heroes.
Jacob quickly moved down the hall in the direction of the viewing room, finding it wedged between stacks of paper being organized and reviewed by two employees of the Federal Investigative Service. While he had been buried in his files the archives had grown even busier; every government group had people digging through it. The nation was truly desperate at Wonder Corps.’s announcement. It was an unprecedented opportunity, and they were mobilizing everyone to take it.
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Unlike the unorganized mess of the special collections stacks, the viewing room was quiet and nearly empty. The only other person was the viewing room’s assigned archivist, who sat at a desk to the right side with a clear view of the door. He looked up from the weekly newspaper he was reading when Jacob entered, the same paper he had gotten for his grandfather the night before. The archivist was another older man, this one in his 60s, dressed loosely in a button down shirt, slacks, and a pastel tie. The man’s hair was thinning, and large wire rim glasses sat upon his head. Jacob held up the small film canister, and the man nodded. He folded the newspaper carefully without saying a word, placing it on the desk before standing slowly. He walked around the desk and reached for the canister, which Jacob handed to him. He looked at it for a moment, then looked at Jacob with an expression of mild interest.
“Haven’t seen this one before.” The man said softly. “Projection room is over here.”
The archivist led him over to door on the left side of the room, which opened to a space resembling a combination of a classroom and a small theatre. A large screen lined the wall next to the door, while across from it was a long desk with wooden chairs that ran the length of the room. Behind the desk along the back wall was a variety of projection and video equipment, designed to play basically every format possible - from small film stock like he had found, all the way to advanced card storage used by the major motion picture studios. The old man put on a pair of archival gloves and carefully opened the canister. Inside a thin reel of 8mm film was coiled up on a small reel. He wound the film into one of the older projectors - a model that Jacob was surprised to see still existed at all, let alone in working order - and flicked it on. There was a popping sound as the audio kicked in, and a light beeping as the film reel counted down to when it would start. The archivist dimmed the lights, and both of them settled into chairs to watch the short production.
Explosions. People ran as buildings crumbled. Gunfire. Short clips of soldiers fighting insurrectionists, while children cried in the foreground.
“Our Nation is at war.” A deep voice thundered over the speakers, as more footage of soldiers and revolutionaries fighting in the streets played. Most of the weapons they used were conventional. Automatic weapons, tanks, a variety of military equipment. Jets and helicopters flew overhead. Suddenly one of the soldiers cried out, a flaming lance appearing through him. He fell forward revealing a Minor Fire Lord like the one Jacob had faced earlier. An insurrectionist caster stepped into frame and yelled out an order, and the Fire Lord raised a hand. A burst of flames raged from it, engulfing a line of government troops. “A war unlike any our world has seen.”
The footage switched to soldiers and insurrectionists casting in the streets, summoning creatures and magical effects in the heat of battle. Massive walls of fire, water, earth, and other elements flashed back and forth on the screen, while giant creatures of every form fought ferociously. Buildings exploded from the fighting, while soldiers fought alongside them with conventional weaponry. A dramatic shot of a Insurrectionist helicopter being ripped out of the sky by a massive lizard was shown, before switching to generals and officers giving orders in battlefield command centers.
“In this time, our nation needs Cards.” The footage cut to a close up of cards coming out of a slot in a massive machine, with the Wonder Corp. logo emblazoned on its side. The majority of the machine was hidden from view, but it was still the most Jacob had ever seen of one. “We need security, and innovation. We need Wonder Corp.”
The footage changed again, showing a few employees in lab coats in a laboratory testing out various creature cards, while others sat taking notes at terminals. Above them a silhouette of a mysterious figure watched the process, wearing a long flowing overcoat. Their face was completely hidden in shadow, but they had two ominous figures besides them that appeared to be bodyguards.
“Wonder Corp. personnel work day and night to ensure that only the best and most innovative cards get into the hands of those who need them.” The shot cut again, turning to a massive casting facility with the Wonder Corp. logo over the playing field. Soldiers and Wonder Corp. employees were conducting a variety of matches while more scientists took notes, summoning creatures, snares and spells in a whirlwind of impressive movement. The mysterious figure was in the very edge of the shot again, hidden in shadow, looking down at the facility. A scientist ran up to him to discuss something just before the shot changed, giving a glimpse at the figure’s identity as their face came into the light. Jacob couldn’t make out any features - the figure was too far back and out of focus - but immediately saw potential. The shot switched to a plain shot of the Wonder Corp. logo, a futuristic looking W in an orange oval.
“Wonder Corp. War cards, for War Heroes.”
There was a short burst of patriotic sounding music, then the screen faded to black.
The projector played another series of beeps, and switched itself off.
“Huh.” The archivist grunted “That was interesting.”
The man got up and flicked a switch on the wall, returning the dim lighting to the room. They walked over to the projector and fiddled with it for a second, before a whirring sound filled the air. Jacob stood up and watched as the film rewound back onto its original reel; once it finished the archivist took it out of the projector, and placed it back into it’s original case.
“Do you have the facilities to digitize that for me?” Jacob asked quietly, his mind deep in thought.
“Sure, we can do that.” The archivist handed him the tin of film. Jacob looked at it for a moment, replaying in his mind the brief shot of the mysterious figure leaning into the light.
“When could you have that by?” Jacob followed the archivist out of the projection room, and back into the viewing area.
“Well that depends, what quality scan do you want?”
“As high as you can get.”
“That’ll take longer to run, but I could have that by tomorrow if we rush it. The film’s short enough.” The archivist sat at his desk and pulled up a window on the terminal “Do you want me to put in the scan order?”
“Yes, a rush order would be perfect.”
The archivist leaned back in his seat, and looked at Jacob with mild amusement. “It’s that important?”
“It is.” Jacob placed the tin on the desk. “This footage may contain the only shot of the CEO of Wonder Corp. on film; at least the only one I know of.”
The archivist raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and began typing the order into his terminal. He sent it, then grabbed the tin off the desk. He placed it in a small box on the floor underneath the desk, where Jacob noted it was the only item set for scanning. Jacob opened his mouth to say something, when the door to the viewing room flew open. One of the Agency interns rushed in, breathing heavily from exhaustion.
“Officer Olivier?” The intern sputtered out while looking at Jacob.
“Yeah that’s me.”
“They need you at the station. Someone in Europe found the first invite.”
The Hunt for Red October (which has it’s own archives scene), and The Man in the High Castle (which influenced the War Footage). I love world building, and sprinkling in as many details as I can about the world’s history. If you like that, please comment below the types of things you want to see more of or engage with the polls. I am using them as I write to tailor future episodes to what people want to see.
trust in the cards…
What parts of the world do you want to learn more about?
