A/N: I'm not sure why, but the idea of alternate universes has always just intrigued me. I suppose I find it kind of fascinating, how one decision can have a ripple effect that changes how the whole thing turns out. So, I decided that it had to be written. Well...I didn't decide. The fandom tied me to a chair and said 'type it or we throw you through the anomaly'... Needless to say, I chose Door A. I promise I'm not that crazy. I'm only this crazy. That? Ha, that is all them.
The team knew the moment that they stepped out of the Hilux that this was not a normal anomaly. A "normal anomaly" was a bit of a oxymoron, but they knew that this one was different from the others. An anomaly usually looked like a tiny sun, a shimmering orb of gold-white light surrounded by a rotating cloud of what looked like broken glass yet had no substance to it. The 'glass' surrounding this one was sparking and glinting as they whirled abnormally fast. Thin cords of lightning darted throughout it, and its colour was not the usual soft golden/ivory; nope, this anomaly glowed in hues of rose and pale violet, bathing them all in surreal light. "Well that is certainly new," said Cutter as he approached the temporal gateway, his boots sinking slightly into the rain-soft ground with each step. "Connor?"
The student was holding his old, slightly tarnished compass in one gloved hand, tipping his fedora back to scratch his head. "It's an anomaly, all right, but I never seen one that colour before, Prof." Both men hopped back a step as a particularly bright tongue of lightning crackled from the anomaly. "Or seen one do that either. What do you think's wrong with it?"
Cutter took a slow step forward, intrigued by this odd anomaly but cautious about approaching; of course it did help that Jenny Lewis stood a step behind him, keeping a firm hold on his jacket and shirt collar with one manicured hand. "I wonder what causes the lightning. Perhaps some form of electrical discharge caused by the rapid shifting of the magnetic field? Hm..." he murmured to himself.
Jenny kept her hand secure on his collar as she instructed the Special Forces team to set a perimeter around the site and keep a sharp eye out for any creature activity or witnesses. As the soldiers moved off to obey, she gave Cutter's shirt a tug, forcing him to back up a step. "Don't get too close to it. I'd rather not have to do a stack of paperwork because you got electrocuted by a purple anomaly," she said firmly, but there was a faint note of concern in her voice. She didn't like how the professor seemed to attract dangerous situations simply by breathing in the vicinity of an anomaly, and she had no intention of attending a funeral anytime soon.
"Yeah..." Cutter's gaze remained fastened on the anomaly, almost longingly, like he was aching to just dive headfirst through and into the arms—or teeth—of whatever waited on the other side.
Stephen was walking around with slow, measured steps, bent at the waist as he studied the ground. "I'm not seeing any kind of tracks, Cutter. I really don't think anything's come through, unless it can fly," he announced and straightened up.
Abby took a step forward, standing at the tracker's elbow like a pale blond wraith. "It's such a pretty colour. I wonder what makes it look like that," she said quietly, watching the red-violet light shimmer and dance. The soft illumination made her near-white hair appear the same colour of the anomaly, and her eyes looked so blue they were nearly purple, much like Stephen's. Nobody else seemed to notice it, but that same flicker of longing passed through their eyes, much like Cutter, as if they wanted nothing more than to run through the temporal gateway to see what was on the other side. Even Jenny felt this strange sort of allure, a pull in her chest that seemed to whisper just walk through. Just three steps, and you're on the other side. Three little steps is all.... She shook her head as if to physically dislodge such thoughts. After what'd happened with the Silurian anomaly, she never wanted to see another team member step through an anomaly.
"I think it's closing, Prof," said Connor, and they all turned to look. The anomaly was starting to spin faster, lightning sparking off it faster as it pulsated. And all of them, inwardly, felt a surge of that painful longing once more, like it was begging them to come with before it closed. The gate began to close, but instead of collapsing in on itself and disappearing, the anomaly seemed to explode outwards in a huge flash of blinding white light. When the soldiers blinked the stars from their eyes, rubbing vigorously at their faces to clear their sight. The anomaly was gone.
So were the five core members of the team.