Version 2: The first one was a bit too crap for my liking. ;)

~In which a failed experiment paves the way for a new beginning.

~Part One: Pestilice~

In a brilliant flash of purple, the Golem was lifted high into the air, a look of pure terror etched across his stony face. A ruthless grin from the teenage girl sounded out the final command.

"Finish it, Espeon."

The enormous rock pokemon crashed into the dirt headfirst and when the dust cleared, the crowd roared with approval at this young trainer.

"Golem is unable to battle," the referee called, and the crowd went wild. "Espeon is the winner."

Gleeful and graceful, the sleek purple cat twisted and bounded back to her trainer, leaping into her arms with glittering eyes. They laughed and hugged each other. Victory at las-

"Kitty!"

Kitty leapt, jerking out of her daydream and realising that she had just been staring at the necklace in her hand for almost twenty minutes.

"What?" she yelled down the stairs.

"You had better be ready by now," her mother called up to her, impatience colouring her voice.

"Uh … yeah, nearly," she replied, pulling on her dress, sweeping the hair out of her face and clipping on jewellery all at once. She tripped down the stairs in her unnecessarily high heels and grinned at her unimpressed mother who was leaning against the front door and lighting a cigarette.

"You could have put in a little more effort than that," Marilyn said dully, pushing her teetering daughter out of the door.

"Yeah, well …" Kitty said, sliding into the passenger seat, trying to think of a witty comeback to explain her unbrushed hair and the ladder in her tights. "It's only for dad's presentation. It's not, like … the queen."

Marilyn rolled her eyes and blew smoke out of the window. Kitty sighed and sank into her chair. If she wanted her mother's approval she would have to try harder. It wasn't that difficult. She looked out the window, watching the fields roll by. The occasional cow dotted the landscape.

God, this place was boring.

It was lucky, then, that her father was a scientist; the famous inventor Samuel Prydeman. Sometimes he would gather the townspeople together at the town hall and show them all something nifty and exciting that would make their day.

And then they would all go off back to their boring lives again.

It was different this time, though. Kitty had been told that it was black tie, hence the ridiculous shoes and the dress. This time her father was going to show them what he had been working on for the past seventeen years. The reason that Kitty barely knew her own father, other than his bewildered and bespectacled face at dinner, and the endlessly annoying clanging in the basement.

This time what he wanted to show was apparently so exciting that there were important people who were going to come especially to see it. Her mother had stressed that there would be people present who weren't even from their town. Kitty could hardly contain her excitement. She sighed deeply.

She could only hope that nobody she knew would see her dressed like this, as she got out of the car and staggered towards the door. The shoes had been on for barely ten minutes and she could swear her feet were already bleeding.

"I don't think the person who made these shoes was familiar with a human foot," she informed her mother, who looked at her, and looked away again.

"Stop walking like that, Kitty. There are people here who might want to talk about your father with you."

"And if I let on that my shoes are uncomfortable it will nullify any credibility I have, gotcha."

"Kitty, what the hell are you doing?"

She froze, and looked up, mortified. Matthew. Crap! So much for going through this without being mercilessly mocked by any of her friends.

"Why on earth are you here?" she demanded. He feigned hurt.

"We're all here. What else do you think there was to do today?"

"I don't know, video games?" she asked, then leant on his shoulder as they went through the doors into the town hall. Her mother, predictably, made a beeline for the open bar.

"You look funny," he said, and smiled, his eyes twinkling as they usually did when he was making fun of her. She stood in the middle of the hall and crossed her arms at him as others filed in.

"Yeah well you're wearing a suit. And a tie and everything."

"My mum made me," he said, shrinking a little. She laughed at him.

"Help me walk," Kitty said, grabbing onto his arm again. He snorted at her, but guided her anyway to the edge of the medium-sized room. As always with these events, there was some sort of contraption on stage covered with the same old oil-stained blanket. When everyone had arrived, her father would reveal what was underneath with a flourish.

"Owowowow, stop stop stop!" Kitty said, flailing her arms about as Matthew tried to walk again.

"Why did you wear them then?"

She pouted and bended over to undo them. "I'm obviously a fan of self torture."

"Ah," he said, evidently seeing the chance for some kind of insult here. He searched for it. "That's probably why you …" He shook his head. "I got nothing."

"Doofus," she muttered, wrenching them off, and almost fainting with the immediate relief as she stood in her tights. A hand landed on her shoulder and she squeaked and wheeled around to become face to face with Scott.

Or, considering his unfair height, more like face to chest. She looked up at him and he grinned down at her.

"Hey, Kitty," he said happily.

"Hi," she said back, equally as happily. They smiled stupidly at each other for a while and then Matthew rolled his eyes.

"Dude, where's all the food?" he asked. Kitty looked over to him.

"This is a drinks only event."

"Ah, crap," he said cheerily, and went on his way, hands shoved securely in his trouser pockets, through the crowd of well-dressed townspeople.

"Look what I found," Scott said, leaning closer to her as he spoke, and then he took her hand and led her off.

"Wait, my shoes," she began, but trailed off, and then laughed. "Actually … never mind." She followed him through a door, and then down a corridor, and then through another door to the right.

Joy! A sofa! She leapt at it, and then looked to see where they were. There was a plate of glass in front of them instead of a wall, looking right onto the stage from the left. Scott sat next to her, his leg brushing firmly against hers. She thrilled inside.

"One-way glass," he said.

"Y'wot?" she replied attractively.

"This window. We can watch the speech from here, but no one out there can see us. Cool, right?" He grinned again.

"Alone for once?" Kitty asked, and after a pause she snuggled up to him. She couldn't remember the last time she had been alone with Scott. The rest of their group of friends weren't exactly very … respectful of personal space. "Very cool."

But the moment she rested her head against his shoulder the door burst open and the six other boys filed in.

"I … brought … popcorn!" Adam sang, thrusting the bag onto the table.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?" Matthew asked, his eyes sparkling. "Budge, Scotty." He sat down, ignoring Scott as he mouthed very rude things.

"Close the door, Elliot," Fred said. The other boy shut it, paused, and then locked it as well.

"Oh, good. Now we won't be disturbed by anyone," Matthew said with a smile, opening up the popcorn. Scott rolled his eyes dramatically and Kitty laughed as they all squished impossibly onto the sofa beside her. These were her best friends, and even at their most annoying, they were always very entertaining.

"Ssshhh, look, he's starting!"

"Ooh, what a perfect view."

Kitty's father had taken the stage and was standing pretty much in front of them, beside the unknown invention. He was mouthing something.

"What's under that yellow thing?"

"Shut up, we'll find out in a minute."

"Does Kitty know?" Adam asked, looking right at Kitty. She wasn't sure who he was talking to.

"What is up with that lady's hair?"

"I was just thinking that."

"Shush, he's … why can't we hear anything?"

"Oh, well done, Scott. Soundproof room."

"Hold on." Scott stood up, walked over to a small circular speaker-looking thing on the wall and pressed a button. The room was suddenly filled with the sound of Kitty's father's voice. He sat back down and they all listened quietly.

"… will put our town on the map forever! Something that scientists have only dreamt of since the beginning of time. Until now." Camera flashes went off, and in the corner of the room Kitty could see the important-looking men in official-looking clothes with expensive-looking camcorders. "Ladies and gentleman … I now present to you," he pulled a lever and the blanket was whipped off with a flourish, "my life's work!"

There was excited muttering from the crowd. Kitty held onto Scott's arm as he continued to speak.

"Up until now, it has been but a dream. A work of fiction; a tree sprouted from the seed of human imagination, but… I asked myself, why were we given such amazing and wonderful dreams if they could not be made reality?"

The cloth had been lifted to reveal a rather awkward contraption. It looked like the skeleton of some kind of deranged hare, with two large scissors for ears, and metal claws for a muzzle. Kitty frowned in uncertainty.

This was what he had missed out on her childhood for?

"I give you the Hyper Electromagnetic Particle Rift Detector 3000!" He paused. "Well, we just call it the Bunny." A few laughs from the crowd.

"What is it?" someone asked Kitty quietly.

"I really have no idea," she said, shaking her head.

"I'm turning it on," he said, pressing a large white button on the control panel. There was an excitable whirr sound that hurt Kitty's teeth, and then there was nothing but a delicate hum in the air.

He flicked three switches, one after the other. The excitement was obvious from their angle. His lips were quivering as he handled the controls, and he was blinking just a bit too much.

"Now for the electromagnetic field," he said, flicking the final switch. There was a gasp as some members of the crowd were yanked several inches forward. "Sorry." He twisted a dial. "Very magnetic."

He pulled a lever now and the clawed pincers of the muzzle began to spin, slowly at first, but then faster and faster until they were nothing but a blur that occasionally let out a spark of electric blue. Kitty's father flushed a little now, a smile on his face as he watched his creation buzz with energy and life.

There was a bang then, and the machine scooched forward a little, emitting something that looked like fireworks. There were more gasps from the crowd, but then cheers.

But Kitty was certain that something wasn't right. She gripped onto Scott's hand, and onto Adam's too, who was next to her. From their angle they had seen something that nobody else would have.

A look on her father's face of pure panic.

"Something's wrong," she said. "Press the button."

"What?" Scott said.

Nobody else moved. Unsure what exactly it would help, Kitty stood up and pressed the button. The room was soundproof again. She sat back down.

"What was the point in-?" someone started, but at that moment something flew off the machine and into the crowd. The people ducked and Kitty watched as they silently screamed. They all watched as her father tried to pull a lever to stop it, and they all saw as it came off in his hands.

He mouthed something to the people, waving his hands, and suddenly everyone in the room was on their knees, hands clamped to their ears.

"Kitty, what's … what's happening?" Elliot asked. She didn't answer, just pointed slowly at the machine.

The muzzle was still whizzing and sparking frantically. Kitty's dad had staggered back to the control panel and was pressing more buttons as quickly as he could. They watched as the scissor ears stretched open wider and wider, until there was a gap the size of a full grown man. He pressed more buttons, flicked more switches, pulled levers. Then he ducked behind the stage, hands over his head.

"Do you think it's making some kind of horrible noise?" Kitty asked.

"I don't know, but I'm glad you closed the-"

Then everyone stopped and looked at the machine. The muzzle had stopped spinning and had clamped shut. Then it sparked more and drooped. The people started to get up again, dusting themselves off and looking around. It looked like everyone was alright.

"What on earth was that?" Matthew asked, his face pale. Kitty's jaw dropped, and they all turned to see what she was looking at.

The scissors had cut a hole.

In the air.

There was a rip in the middle of the stage, hovering over the ground. All around it was the back of the hall, but through the rip she could see green. It looked like … it looked like trees, and a perfect blue sky. She swallowed, waiting like everyone else for an explanation.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said silently. Kitty squinted at his mouth and tried to decipher what he was saying. The boys all attempted to do the same, murmuring along with him.

"You have just become the first ever witnesses to this. You are looking, literally, into another universe. What we can see now is a rip in the time-space continuum. A hole in reality. A tear in mid-air!"

Kitty's eyes widened and she looked at Scott. His eyebrows were raised so high they could have touched the ceiling.

The crowd were silent, staring, in awe. But it was short-lived. The room suddenly became stale and dark, and something burst forth from the rip and tumbled into the town hall, leaving a trail of crimson and a heavy, impenetrable darkness that flickered and lifted after just a moment.

The creature bucked and reared its black head, hollow eyes set in a skeletal head fixing its gaze on the room, and screaming so deafeningly that they could just about hear it even through the soundproofing.

It looked almost like a horse, except colossal and winged. It was thrashing about madly, tearing its way through the walls and past the guests who screamed and ducked.

Its wings were nothing but charred bone with dark, leathery remnants of skin draped over them, the occasional feather dotted the surface. Tracks of scarlet blood leaked and dotted onto the floor, spraying out when it flailed wildly.

But these weren't the things that Kitty noticed. Kitty was drawn in by the colour of this horse. Black. So black that blackness as she had previously known it seemed like an impostor.

The wild eyes scanned the room, as if looking for something in particular as it thrashed around and flapped its leathery wings in desperation. Then she felt it fix its gaze onto her.

Or at least it felt like it, but it couldn't see her through the one-way glass.

Tag.

She looked around, certain that she had heard someone speak, but none of the boys had.

You're it.

Then there was a fantastic spray of glass that littered the floor as the windows smashed, and the horse creature was gone, half galloping, half flapping away through the town, leaving the bloodstained destruction in its wake.

Kitty sat and waited for the blood to return to her limbs, and the breath to return to her lungs. The guests all very slowly began to stir again. They weren't dead.

"Scott," she said suddenly, frantically, and felt two strong arms wrap themselves around her. She sank into them, feeling her pulse race through her entire body.

"We're ok, we're all ok," he said. She pulled out of his grip to his surprise, and tripped out of the room. Nobody moved to stop her, but for a few seconds nobody followed either, but then they all stepped out of the hallway and into the main room.

"Dad!" Kitty said, locating her father on the stage and running to kneel by his side. His eyes were flitting back and forth beneath their lids. "Dad, wake up." She shook him slightly. His eyes snapped open and he sat up, feeling around for his now cracked glasses.

"What happened?" he cried, putting them back on and pushing himself to his feet. Kitty looked up at him as he teetered a little. "Oh, God," he moaned as he saw the town hall, littered with guests, including the very important people in the corner, lying on the floor.

"They're ok!" Scott called, feeling someone's pulse. Kitty's father put his hand over his eyes and breathed with relief.

"Dad, what was that?" Kitty asked, putting her hand on his arm and pulling it away from his face so that he looked at her.

"God, I don't know. That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Of course it wasn't, you daft old man," Kitty said, fondness creeping out from under the fear in her voice.

"It's fading," he said quickly, referring to the rip. "No, no, no, it can't." He rushed back over to the control panel and ran his hand across the controls uncertainly.

"Dad…" Kitty said again, looking across at the guests who were beginning to stir.

"Kitty, I need a favour," her dad sad, and looked her in the eyes for the first time in too long. "A huge favour, actually, it's … life threatening." He paused and pushed his glasses up his nose. "So, erm, don't tell your mother."

"What is it?"

"That thing … obviously, we can't have it in our world. It's dangerous. It doesn't belong. We need to send it back."

"How?"

"Well … that's the thing; I don't know. I need someone to go through the portal to this other universe, find out as much as you can about what this creature is, and find out how to bring it back before things go out of control. Use this," he handed her something shaped like a BlackBerry, "to communicate with me. Quickly, Kitty. It's not safe here."

"Not safe here? That's where the thing came from!" she protested.

"Exactly, so it's not there anymore," her dad reasoned. "It's no longer safe in this world, Kitty. You need to go through the rip. I'll stay here and keep the portal up, and try to protect people in this world. I need you. I'm sorry, but you have to do this. Keep in contact." He tapped the phone object, and then kissed her on the top of the head. "Goodbye, sweetheart. And good luck."

Kitty blinked a few times, and the portal shrank a little in size.

"Now! Go!" he yelled, frantically tapping at the controls. It grew slightly again. Kitty looked over to her friends, and they all nodded. She swallowed hard. "GO!"

"Alright then," Kitty said to the boys. "Let's go, um, save the world." And she stepped through the portal, closely followed by seven boys.