The plot of Sam Squared and Widget is roughly divided into three parts, or acts, with each act in turn divided into three basic parts (nine parts total). What follows is a very brief, bare-bones, and to-the-point outline of the story. A five-page plot synopsis is also available; this outline fleshes out the following much more fully and gives a more detailed explanation of the plot twists, turns, how’s, and why’s. It is available upon request.
Brief background: Sam Lewis and Widget are seemingly kidnapped by 3 little robots (Cam, Obby, and 24) out of near-future Chicago setting. Sam and Widget wake up to find that they’ve actually been recruited by the Royal Army, a galactic force run by the Composer King, the benevolent creator of the universe. They are told that the 27 Royal Alphabet Letters, by which the universe was originally created, have been stolen by a rebel star, code-named “Mr. Evans” due to his unspeakable evil and power. The heist was botched, however, and the letters were scattered and lost across the universe. Now, the Composer King has decreed that whoever can find, master, and utilize the 27 magical letters will be promoted to Chief-in-Command of the Royal Army. Mr. Evans and his rebel Dark Army are out to find the letters themselves, and the race is on to save the universe.
Act 1, Part 1
The recruitment of Sam and Widget is thwarted by an Anti-Note. Instead of warping back to Royal Army Headquarters, Sam and Co. wind up stranded in Rogue City, a rebel cast-off city located in the outer fringes of space and time. Sally Sherman and four other little robots (fractoids) also join Sam and Co.; Sally was recruited in Chicago concurrently with Sam, and both missions were botched. Sally is marked as a “Red Code” “Sub-Unit” recruit for an unknown purpose. Rogue City is operated by Anti-Orange, a color incarnate that rebelled years before. Prisoners of Rogue City must enter and survive a gladiatorial comet-surfing race in order to leave. Sam enters and wins the race, and Sam and Co. escape.
Act 1, Part 2
The warp-operator fractoid Obby messes up their escape from Rogue City, and the group arrives at Tartarus, a maximum-security prison that houses the Anti-Colors (see character pages on this website). Tartarus is designed so that no one can leave once they are inside. Sam and Co. travel the horrific halls of Tartarus, battle the Anti-Colors, and escape when part of the prison is destroyed by the vicious battle. The Anti-Colors escape a short while afterwards as well.
Act 1, Part 3
Sam and Co. escape and warp to a time fractal (see character pages). The time fractal is under attack from the Dark Army, making it the highest priority for the group. Sam and Co. battle Accidentals and an Anti-Note and, in the process, end up falling though one of the massive time fractal holes into 1942 Chicago.
Act 2, Part 1
The mafia in Chicago have been taken over by the Accidentals (a musical term; see character pages). Sally is stripped from the group upon arrival and held captive. Sam and Co. suspect an information leak within their group. Mr. N confesses to aiding the Dark Army with info, which explains several harrowing encounters in the first act of the story. Mr. N confesses that he was once Sally’s fractoid (as Widget is Sam’s robot). He was put on earth to look like a toy, as was Widget, to help the Royal Army probe possible locations, or possessors, of the letters. Mr. N tells the group that Sally is being kept in an asylum in downtown Chicago.
Act 2, Part 2
The asylum is headquartered in a skyscraper run by Accidental/human-halfbreeds in the mafia. Sam and Co. find a way to penetrate the mafia-infested city and make it into the asylum. Sam, in rage, unwisely uses the powers of one of the royal letters they have found to break into the asylum and rescue Sally.
Act 2, Part 3
The activation of the letter alerts much of the Dark Army around the universe to Sam and Co.’s location. Sam (with Sally now) and Co. race the Accidental mafia in an auto-street battle to Obby’s warp zone which is programmed for Stalingrad, Russia. Information has just surfaced leading the group to believe that the rest of the letters are actually on earth, perhaps in Russia.
Act 3, Part 1
Both the Royal Army and the Dark Army make a beeline for earth. Sam and Co. trace the lingering activation harmonics from the alphabet to a Nazi stronghold in German-controlled Russia (see Lanz von List on the character pages). Sam infiltrates the stronghold, battles Von List, and rescues a Jewish prisoner named Peter Solomon. Peter Solomon leads the group to his home, where the letters have been planted in the ground. Solomon and his family have been the keeper of the letters for hundreds of years.
Act 3, Part 2
Letter one–the King of the Letters–is missing. It is the tiniest letter yet also the most powerful. Sam and Co., with the Dark Army closing in on their location on earth, use their final warp equipment to travel to what will be the final battle arena in space. Mr. N repays his debt by secretly leaving Sam and Co., activating fake harmonics, and sacrificing himself as a small diversion to the Dark Army.
Act 3, Part 3
The Royal Army faces off against the Dark Army in the final battle for the letters, which are now in the possession of Sam and Co. Sam battles Mr. Evans, revealed as Abbadon, using the powers of the 26 letters he currently has. Sally starts to feel sick, and Peter Solomon realized the truth: Sam and Sally’s ancestors were Jews living in Russia. Sam is the great-great-great grandson of himself (Peter), and Sally is the great-great-great grandaughter of friends, the Levys. Sally’s father, a doctor, had stitched the tiny letter #1 into the infant Sally’s heart after birth. The letter is activating for the first time, and Sally is getting sick. Sally tries to kill herself for Sam in order that she might release the letter. Sam attempts to sacrifice himself for Sally by fighting off a rapidly approaching Abbadon. Widget, thinking that all is lost, (and thinking that Sam has totally forgotten him for Sally now) tries to sacrifice himself to allow Sam to fight Mr. Evans one last time. Quirky Widget makes the wrong weaponry combination, and the result whiplashes Sam, Widget, and Sally back-to-back-to-back. A projectile from Abbadon pierces their hearts at the same time, freeing the letter and thus uniting the 27 letters of the alphabet into a single unified power whole. This destroys Abbadon and the Dark Army and instantly heals Sam, Widget, and Sally. Sam meets the Composer King and is appointed Chief-in-Command of the Royal Army. Sam and Sally are married by the King with “best bot” Widget. Sally was marked as a “Sub-Unit” recruit because Sam and Sally were intended to marry each other, and she was marked “Red Code” (high-priority) because the both of them together were the key to finding the alphabet and, thus, saving the universe.
