It had been a few days after Mike and Robin’s somewhat less then successful attempt at dimension jumping. After looking at the gun it appeared it wasn’t quite as ‘precise’ as one hoped. The ‘home’ function appeared to always work as intended, at least as far as they could tell… but travelling to ‘other’ worlds appeared to be slightly haphazard even with a programmed destination in mind.
“How’s your hand?” Robin asked concerned.
Mike gave his hand a rub in response. “They said it was just a scratch. They gave me some antibiotics just in case. I feel fine though.” Mike wasn’t entirely sure what to think of what happened. The wound was a lot smaller than he must have initially thought, there was barely a trace of him getting bitten. Maybe it just grazed him, and he panicked. He felt stupid now thinking about it.
“We should stick to safer worlds. Towns… you know- civilisation.” Robin wasn’t sure he could handle another outdoor style dimension.
“Even people can be dangerous,” Michael reminded. “People are sometimes even more dangerous then nature.”
That might be a good point as well. Just going to any other dimension was a risky prospect… more so then they ever thought possible. Though the hope of meeting alien life forms or even sexy elves was a tantalising possibility despite all the dangers.
“… Hmm… something doesn’t make… sense.” Mike realised.
“You mean jumping through dimensions infinitely?”
“Infinity is a problem…” The taller teen rubbed at his hand as they inspected the gun. It was lying on Robin’s desk. “Did you see anything else with the gun?”
“Just some random junk.”
“I see.” Michael wasn’t sure if that was a clue on how the gun worked but he was starting to theorise something. “I have been reading up on multiverse theory. There are … different kinds of infinity. Some more infinite than others. I don’t see how the gun can possibly work to find another dimension it’s been to without… some way of recognising it.”
“Does it matter?” Robin shrugged. “A mad genius built it… and we have it as a key to anything.”
“I guess… maybe I’m worried too much. Like- are we sure that this is our home dimension?” His mom and dad were here… his teachers… nothing was out of place. Yet that constant ‘nagging’ feeling that there was ‘something’ possibly out of place. Maybe one person was not here that should be, and out of eight billion people would he even notice?
“The gun says it is,” Robin took out the zapper tapping at the screen. It clearly said ‘home’ on it.
“Given we crossed dimensions… I’m not sure we can ever be one hundred percent sure anymore-“ Then Mike stopped and stared as he saw something poking out from Robin’s closet wrapped in old T-shirts. “You- You brought the egg with you?!” He gasped.
“Well- yeah…” Robin took it out sheepishly. He held it rather carefully, setting it down on his bed on a pillow. “I um- I just felt it… it was safer with us.”
“Dude! You can’t just take wild animals like that. What if it hatched in the middle of the night and ate you up?”
“She wouldn’t do that!” Robin held the egg tighter.
Mike looked at Robin like he was crazy. “ … ‘She’?”
“Um- I’m… I’m pretty sure it’s a girl-“ He said leaning his head into the egg as if it was somehow ‘talking’ to him. “You want to meet your Uncle Mike?” He grinned.
“Don’t get me involved in this,” Mike suddenly reached for the dimensional gun on the desk. “Let’s just send it bac-“
“NO!” Robin suddenly took the dimensional zapper and threw it- very hard on the ground. The Machine gave a sudden spark of energy as the screen cracked. The two stared at the gun… then at each other. “W-what the… what did I just-“
“What did you do!” Mike stared at the machine exasperated. “What the hell-“ He picked it up and heard it ‘rattling’ a bit inside. “Why did you do that!”
Robin stared at his hands and the egg… then back to Mike and the dimensional gun. “I- I’m sorry I- I don’t know what came over me. I just… I just didn’t want the egg to be sent away-“ he grimaced a bit with confusion. “What the heck is wrong with me… I just …”
Mike sighed. “Well… maybe I can fix it…” He gingerly examined all the pieces and strange circuits that were now exposed. The battery had also come out with haphazard metal contacts exposed and seemed to now be ‘leaking’ a bit. He connected as much of it as he could and pushed the button but… nothing appeared. “Well I guess we’re stuck with the egg then. We can’t dimension travel either…”
Robin nodded but… part of him couldn’t be happier. “That’s fine. I’ll take good care of her. She just needs to be kept warm- Oh Crap the hot water bottle!” Robin quickly took a bottle of lukewarm water and re-filled it in the bathroom. He set it under the egg. “There there… feeling better now?” He asked. The teenager felt the hard shell, a little concerned as he wrapped his covers all around the egg. “Just um- needs some fresh air too-“ He opened the window a small crack while Mike watched him a little dubiously.
“…you sure that egg isn’t turning you into Golem or something?”
Robin tried not to look insulted. “No- I- I just have to keep it safe. You know… for research. I want to know what it will hatch into.” It wasn’t anything more then that! … right? It was such a cute egg though! So precious and-
“Uh… huh.” Mike shook his head in disbelief. “Well, you’ll have to tell your parents not to throw it away-“
Robin suddenly grabbed hold of the pile of covers that hid the egg. “Never! I won’t let anyone hurt my egg-“ for a short guy he looked like he really meant business. He covered it in a protective way holding it firmly.
“…okay, yeah, something ‘weird’ has clearly happened to you. Why don’t we go for a walk- leave the egg alone!” Mike tried to drag his friend away and with some reluctance he managed it… more or less. But Robin still had this ‘urge’ to be near the egg… he couldn’t just ‘abandon’ it… it needed- ‘she’ needed warmth… looking after… he needed to take care of her. It felt right. It just… it just felt…
Mike in the end had to give up. Robin was too ‘attached’ to the strange egg. It was getting late and he wanted to see what he could do to fix the gun. “You gonna be okay?” He asked his friend concerned.
“Yeah- I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” He nodded. “Sorry for… breaking it- but you were able to fix it in another reality! I think you can fix it again.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Mike sighed.
Robin waved Mike away… then returned to the egg.
The next few days were ‘mostly’ normal. Robin and Mike went to class, studied though Robin seemed ‘very’ distracted.
Robin kept on having this ‘strange’ dream. He dreamt how he made a nest for the egg… as if the dreams were showing him ‘how’. Picking up pieces of sticks, measuring them by the simple weight of them… noting if they were dry enough. Everything was so strangely logical and made sense. How could a dream convey ‘actual’ information though? Maybe it was stuff he read in a book a long time ago or… he was just very imaginative. Still from straight twigs he had this ‘idea’ on how to build it to the right shape. Impressive given Robin had never built ‘anything’ in his life.
Robin even understood the best tree to consider.
Silly dreams… just silly. Still, he couldn’t help but look for twigs in the park. He found some leaves and seemed to be ‘trying’ to build it with his hands… weighing it with his arms… but even so it just didn’t ‘feel’ right. Like his hands were not up to the task of what he wanted to do… and that thought was confusing all the more-
“Hey what you got there?”
Robin glanced up. It was another student in his class called Adrian. He was… brash, and your typical jock. Very broad shouldered and tall at over six feet. “None of your business-“ Robin stated as he picked up another dirty twig. ‘yes- I need- this.’ He flicked off some of the dirt with a vague smile.
Adrian shrugged. “Heh just wondering what a nerd like you us doing with all this crap-“
Robin suddenly pushed Adrian with such force that he was thrown into the ground. “She’s-not-crap!” Then he realised what he had just done and stared. “Oh... crap…”
Adrian looked surprised and dusted himself off. “Whoa- someone just grew a big set of balls… You’re dead now.”
Robin started to run. He had no idea he could even run that fast, but he had little choice. ‘Predators- have to hurry-‘ he ran quickly, knowing the urgency of needing to get back to the egg- it needed to be protected it needed- needed-
Adrian was just as surprised at how fast Robin ran. “Where are you running you know I’ll see you in class anyway!” He growled. “Stupid nerd…” He was the one who picked the fight not him! “When I see him…”
At one of his classes, Mike started to feel a bit uncomfortable… unwell even. He had to go see the school nurse in the end. He rubbed his stomach a bit not quite sure what was wrong. Still hopefully he would feel better once he got home.
The nurse, Alura Smither was an older, middle-aged woman with light greying hair. She had some blonde streaks and for some reason never dyed it. She had few wrinkles though her lips were a little on the thin side. She was surprisingly still very quick on her feet and was not at all overweight. She looked at Michael in concern. “So, tell me, did you eat anything wrong?”
Mike groaned a little. “No… just feeling off the last day or so. I think I also got a rash-“ he squirmed a bit.
“Oh? let’s have a look, shall we?”
Mike seemed a bit reluctant but undid his shirt. He didn’t have to pull it up very far when the nurse could see the strange rash he had got. They appeared to be tender looking spots, just under his navel area. He looked down at them and gave it a slight scratch.
“Oh dear, that does seem severe… hm..” She shook her head. “I can’t really give you any creams for it, but I would suggest a warm bath when you get home. That will probably help. If it gets worse, you can go to the doctors. It doesn’t look infected to me, so that’s a good sign. Probably a simple allergic reaction. Have you been anywhere new?”
“Uh… not in a while…” Mike grimaced a bit thinking of the dimensional gun.
“Hm… well just keep an eye on it for now.”
“Yeah… okay.” Mike agreed pulling his shirt back on.
It was probably nothing…
