CHAPTER 1

Travis' life flashed before his eyes. He's a little kid and his older sister is being a dick. He's in detention doodling on the homework he's supposed to be doing. Between memory reels, he could see an assortment of snacks. Chips, cookies, peanuts, gum. His first girlfriend kisses him by his locker. His first job. The day he graduated from high school. Getting into his first choice college. Finding Diana with his former best friend, Moving away from home for the first time. Burning all of Diana's pictures. Was that a honey bun? Brownies, too. His first day of college classes. He's so nervous, like he's back in elementary school and doesn't know anybody yet. First college party. The cute girl that just smiled at him a few minutes ago.

A loud thump sounded out as students screamed around the fallen vending machine. It was flat on the ground, glass and snacks littering the floor. A few people could have sworn that it had fallen on someone, but there wasn't a body. Campus security would later deduce that someone had hit it, knocking it back, only for it to come back forward and tip over. It would be a few days before a replacement could be delivered. Luckily the insurance covered what the janitor was able to describe as 'accidental breakage'. He couldn't, however, explain the few flecks of blood mixed in with the glass.

Travis had his hands out in front of him, his eyes shut tight. He was leaning back, somehow hoping the vending machine would just stop if he went back far enough. He fell immediately on his ass, his eyes opening. "Huh...?" The machine was gone. In fact, he wasn't even on campus anymore. He was now in what seemed to be an apartment. This would probably be the living room if there was any furniture. Unless the large black sphere was some weird sort of chair. Swedish, maybe? "What the fuck...?" He scooted over to a wall and spread his arms out, palms pressed to the cold dry wall, hoping to stop his mind from breaking. How could he be somewhere else so quickly? Did he teleport? Was he Nightcrawler now? He drew his arms back in and clasped his hands together, squeezing them as tightly as possible, teeth gritted. Slowly, after a few minutes, Travis slowly unclenched his hands, breathing out what felt like all the air in his body. His eyes darted around, noting that he was alone. Windows let in the waning sunlight and let him know that he was several stories up, but based on the fact that he could see his college, he knew he hadn't traveled all that far. "What the fucking fuck...?" He finally stood up and walked around, inspecting each room. The sphere sat at the end of the room. To its right was a wall that was mostly window including two doors that led out to a balcony. To the left was a door that Travis could not manage to open. Next he tried the balcony doors, but to no avail. "Goddammit..." He found the front door but couldn't open that one either. He punched the door in frustration. And then again. And then he kept going until the skin on his knuckles was split and blood smeared his hands and the door. "Let me out! Let me the fuck out! Fuck! Fucking fuck fuck!" He fell to his knees, head down, hands shaking. He probably would have started crying if not for the noise he heard from the ball-room.

He ran back in, almost tripping over his own feet. "Is someone there!?" He fell back again as he saw a pair of legs in the middle of the room. There were faint beams shooting from the ball, adding more and more to the legs. They were bare with black boots and and he could see the hem of a black skirt appearing. As the torso began, he realized he could see the person's innards. How were they still alive? Finally, another person was fully in the room. It was a girl, probably around Travis' age. Along with the boots and skirt, she wore a white t-shirt and held a handbag. Travis figured the look on her face must have matched his when he showed up.

"Whoa, what the fuck!? Who are you!?" She exclaimed, raising her fists.

"What? Who're you!?" Travis demanded, taken aback by the girl's attitude. "You just like, teleported in! It was really gross."

"Huh?" She glared at him. "Did you drug me or something? I'll cut your fuckin' dick off, asshole!"

"Jesus Christ, lady! I didn't do a goddamn thing! I just ended up here a few minutes ago! I have no clue what's going on. Why don't you just calm down, huh!?"

"You calm down..." The girl muttered defiantly.

"Okay...we cool now?"

"Fuck, no. How did I get here, then? Unless I've got a brain tumor or something, I don't think people just appear in different places with no interim of transport. Dick."

"Same thing happened to me, okay? I can't even get the fucking doors open."

The two paced around the room, staring each other down. "What's with the ball?" she asked.

"Dunno. Fancy chair?" Travis said sarcastically. "I'm Travis, by the way."

"Diana."

"Fuck off."

"What!?"

"Sorry, sorry." Travis covered his face with his hand and held the other one out. "Had a bad experience with a Diana before. That's sort of my natural reaction to the name."

"Shit, you must hate Wonder Woman then, huh?"

"Ha. Good reference."

"So, what now? And if you suggest fucking I'm gonna burn your hair and make you snort the remains."

"Fuck." Travis looked out the window, hoping that sounded like profanity and not a suggestion. "Dunno. Wait and see, I guess. Not much of anything we can do."

Over the course of about an hour, four more people showed up, all with similar reactions. They were Andrew, a middle school kid, Felicity, a doctor, Frank, a middle-aged construction worker, and Wade, a guy who didn't really seem surprised by what was happening. He pretty much kept to himself, deciding to sit quietly against a wall. Travis felt that his large jacket was a bit weird for early October. Soon, two people showed up at the same time. They introduced themselves as Liam and Gwen. Oddly enough, Travis thought that he knew Gwen from somewhere. However, he kept it to himself. Everyone was still talking, wondering what they were doing here and when people would stop showing up. Travis watched as Liam nodded at Wade. Wade stood up now.

"Okay, everyone! We're all here for a reason and if you don't listen up, you're gonna die horribly!"