Mikey was bored. He was SO bored. There was nothing good on TV, he'd already played all his video games half to death, and he hadn't had enough money to buy any new comics in weeks. He had literally nothing to do.
He tossed a ball absently up in the air and caught it. Hey, that was kind of fun, actually. He tossed it again, and caught it again. Maybe he could make a game out of this! With an eager swing of his arm, he tossed the ball as high as he could without it hitting the ceiling. Then he stretched out his hands...
...and the ball dropped right past them and smacked him on the head with a THUD.
"Ow," he said, rubbing his forehead. Okay, this game sucked.
Mikey was so, SO bored.
At last he pushed himself up from his bed and headed out into the hallway. Maybe one of his friends was up to something cool. He decided to grab his skateboard and head out to see.
As he walked down the hall, though, Mikey was stopped as a loud voice croaked, "PLEASE INPUT" from the other side of Jon's door. That wasn't Jon's voice, or Karyn's... and Jon didn't hvae a TV in his room. I didn't sound like a radio. So what was it? For a second Mikey wondered if he should leave well enough alone... after all, Jon had been kind of... well... weird lately. Really secretive, and a little crazy. A couple of days ago Jon had claimed that Mikey had once been his older sister Michelle, not his younger brother, and the day before that he had asked Zoe, who had been a goth for as long as Mikey could remember, why she was dressed in a black corset instead of her usual pink t-shirts and miniskirts.
Still, Mikey was curious. He seriously wanted to know what was going on with Jon. So, opening Jon's door as quietly as he could, he crept inside.
As soon as he crawled into the room, the same voice Mikey had heard a moment before boomed out again, louder this time, "INPUT ACCEPTED. PLEASE ENTER THE MACHINE." What in the world?
Craning his neck around the edge of Jon's dresser, Mikey looked in and saw Jon and Karyn, holding hands, walk into... his closet? Oh man, were they going to make out? Mom would SO flip out if she knew about this. Mikey was tempted to run and grab his camera, for blackmail purposes... but then he noticed a hissing and a faint glow coming from the closet. Stretching his neck still further, Mikey could see...
...oh wow. Oh wow. The machine in Jon's closet, whatever it was, looked like something straight out of one of his comic books. With its steel panels and its giant glass tube, and its colorful array of LED lights, it looked like it belonged in a mad scientist's lab, not in his stupid brother's room. And were Jon and Karyn were arranging themselves in the glass tube?
Mikey had planned to keep his mouth shut, but this was too, too bizarre. Leaping to his feet, he rushed over to Jon and grabbed him by the arm. Before he could ask what in Spiderman's name was going on, thought, the glass tube was awash in a brilliant flash of light. Mikey tried to pull his arm away in horror, but it was too late... his hand, then his arm, then his whole body was swallowed up by the light, and before Mikey could think another thought, the world disappeared from around him.
