Primary Universe Earth

United States of America

Lypicayle, Oregon

November 19, 2015 A.D.

"Morbius, have you seen the laundry detergent? I can't find it anywhere."

"No, I-! Oh wait a minute, I'll be right there!"

Fifteen year old Morbius Astro Greene put down his Xbox One controller and went to the garage to help his mom. The young teenager was standard height and weight for someone his age, about five foot seven inches and a little less than 150 pounds. He had brown hair that barely reached his shoulders which he always kept combed back. He had blue eyes as well. He also wore no rimmed transition lenses which he pushed up as he reached the garage where his mother was.

"Sorry Mom, I put it in a different spot on accident," he said as he reached up and pulled the bottle from a shelf.

His mother chuckled. "Oh Morbius, you know I can't reach up there."

"I know Mom. Sorry. Force of habit I guess. When you were on that vacation last summer I would place it up there so the cats wouldn't knock it over."

His mom smiled. "Just try and remember to put it on the lower shelf where it belongs, ok?"

Morbius rolled his eyes. "Yes mom," he said. He headed back inside, but his mom wasn't finished.

"Morbius, wait a minute, could you go down the street to the store and get a few things for me? I have a meeting at work later."

"Sure mom," Morbius replied, "What do you need?"

"I have a small list on the kitchen counter as well as some money. I don't need much, but I need it for the potluck this Sunday."

Morbius looked around. Sure enough, there was a sticky note on the kitchen counter. He picked it up and read it. After reading it he put it in his pocket

"Ok, I'll leave in a bit Mom," he said as he headed back into the living room to save his game. After turning off his console he grabbed his keys, iPhone and wallet.

"Ok Mom, I'm off. Want me to get some takeout?"

She smiled at him. "No, when I get back I'll be too tired. You can get something for yourself if you want."

"You sure, Mom?"

"I'm sure honey. Just be sure to use cash and not your debit card."

"I know Mom, I'm always careful."

"See you later tonight, sweetie," his mom said as she closed the washing machine lid. Morbius grabbed his backpack and began to head to the nearby convenience store. As he headed down, clouds began to move in. He took a quick glance at his iPhone weather app.

"Snow showers?" he said to himself. "Well, it has been nippy. Better not stay too long." He pulled into the parking lot, locked up his bike and proceeded to enter the store.

"Now, let's see," he said to himself, pulling out the list. "Ok, shouldn't be too hard." He grabbed a small cart and began walking up and down the aisles. He put on his music so he wouldn't be too bored. It began to play, mostly drowning out everything around him, so he turned down the volume so he would be aware of everything around him.

Halfway through the store, he was browsing the cereal aisle. He wasn't paying attention and nearly hit another cart.

"Oh woops, sorry," he said as he move his cart out of the way and continued. The other person looked up and gasped.

"Morbius?"

He knew that voice.

The owner of that voice removed her hood, revealing long blonde hair and bright blue eyes behind a pair of prescription pink-rimmed eyeglasses.

"Liz? Well, this is a surprise. Fancy meeting you here."

Elizabeth Alice Randall, his best and only friend giggled. "I was about to say the same. Doing some shopping for your mom, I see."

Morbius shrugged. "Yea, well, she's busy."

"My mom said the same thing. Well, I shouldn't be surprised. Our moms do work at the same company."

Morbius chuckled. "Yea."

Morbius and Elizabeth had been friends for their entire lives. They had known each other since they were children. Their parents had been co-founders of a very successful business. Both of their families were really multi-billionaires. However, their fathers had been killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a meeting they had in one of the towers. In order to avoid a media storm, the recently widowed mothers of the three year old children moved silently, keeping their names but making new lives for themselves in the small central Oregon town of Lypicayle.

Morbius and Elizabeth looked at each other for a few seconds silently, smiling, slightly nervous.

"So…" Morbius began, then trailed off.

"Yea…" Elizabeth replied, giggling nervously.

An alarm on his phone caused Morbius to jump. He took out his phone and looked at it.

"Oh damn, there's a new anime I wanna see scheduled to start in a half hour. I think it's called Tokyo Hunt."

"Wait, it's tonight?" Elizabeth asked, suddenly excited.

"Yep," Morbius said.

"Well, our internet's been down, so I've been taking a short break from certain electronics and reading some manga I haven't read yet. I guess I lost track of time."

"Nice. What manga?"

"The World God Only Knows."

"I love that manga, and the anime is awesome! Where are you in the manga?"

"I'm at the part where Keima is switched with his ten year old self," Liz replied.

"Oh that part is awesome. No spoilers but I'm sure you'll like the ending."

The two best friends looked at each other and smiled.

"Hey, can I come over and watch Tokyo Hunt with you?" Elizabeth asked, looking about ready to bounce off the walls.

Morbius pretended to mull it over in his mind, although he had already decided what to do. "Well, I don't know…"

"Morb!"

Morbius blushed. No one but her and his mom called him by that nickname. "Of course you can come over. Want to buy a pizza and some sodas to eat while we watch?"

"You know it!" The smile on her face made Morbius happy.

"Great, meet you back at my house when you're done, unless…hey, did you bike here?"

Elizabeth nodded.

"Damn, I didn't. I wasn't planning on buying too much stuff. Wanna head home together?"

She beamed. "Yep! Hey, look at that!" she said, pointing out the windows. Snow had just begun to fall.

"Cool. It's gonna be a cold Thanksgiving. Meet you at the entrance to the store later."

Both teenagers were finished in record time. Morbius bought a pizza and some sodas as well, and then met Elizabeth at the entrance.

"Brrrr! It's cold out here," she said as she shivered. Without even thinking Morbius took off his black overcoat and draped it over his best friend. She blushed and smiled at that.

"Thank you, Morb."

"You're welcome. Here, let me help with your bags."

After helping Elizabeth with her groceries and after putting his in the backpack as well (they hadn't gotten much), Liz unlocked her bike, which was already coated with a light dusting of snow and they walked out of the parking lot.

As they were biking down the street, Morbius suddenly felt very strange. He made a face. Elizabeth noticed and looked over at him, concerned.

"Morb, what's wrong? Are you cold? Do you want your coat back?" She began to take off his coat, but he waved it away.

"No I'm okay, I just feel something…strange. I'm not sure how to-"

"-like something's about to happen?" she interrupted, suddenly feeling the same feeling that Morbius had.

"You too, huh?" She nodded. "Well, it's probably nothing."

"Yea, probably." Morbius reached into his pocket and put his iPhone on speaker then hit the shuffle button.

"There's a place in my mind, no one knows where it hides, and my fantasy is flying, it's a castle in the sky! It's a world of our past, where the legend still lasts, and the king wears the crown, but the magic spell is law! Take your sword and your shield, there's a battle on the field, you're a knight and you're right, so with dragons now you'll fight! And my fancy is flying, it's a castle in the sky, or there's nothing out there, these are castles in the air! Fairytales live in me, fables coming from my memory, fantasy is not a crime, find your castle in the sky!"

"Huh, weird," Morbius said.

"Yeah." Elizabeth asked.

"That song sounds…oddly appropriate for some reason."

"You felt that too?" she asked. He nodded

The rest of the bike home was spent in silence while they listened to Morbius' music. In just a few minutes they arrived back home. They lived right next to each other, which was really convenient. Morbius helped Liz carry her groceries inside, and then carried his own in to his house, while also carrying some of Elizabeth's computer equipment, as they were going to work on their computers later for homework and possibly gaming.

After putting everything away, he set up the pizza and soda on the coffee table in the living room. He grabbed two plates and two glasses, and then turned on the TV.

"We made it with ten minutes to spare," Morbius said as the ending credits to the anime before ran. Morbius jumped onto the couch, now wearing the coat he had gotten back from Elizabeth, pulled the lever on the side and propped his feet up. Elizabeth sat next to him and did the same.

"Excited for the trip to Mt. Hood?" she asked, indicating the packed luggage on the floor.

"You bet I am. I'm so glad both our families can get to get away for the weekend next week." Morbius sighed. "It should help keep their mind off of the fact that it's so near to their anniversaries."

"Yea, it should," Elizabeth said, looking sad.

Morbius put a comforting hand on his friends shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Liz, we'll distract them and try and give them a good time."

She smiled. "Thanks." They returned their attention back to the TV when the announcer came back on.

"Up next, the first episode of Tokyo Hunt." The announcer said. Both fifteen year olds clapped happily and waited. At that moment, the lights in the room went out, plunging the room in total darkness.

"Morb, what's going on?" Elizabeth asked, a bit of a tremor in her voice.

"I don't-" Morbius was interrupted by the TV turning back on. At first, it was nothing but snow.

"Timmy is an average kid, that no one understands," the TV began to play the Fairly Odd Parent's theme.

The hell…? Morbius thought, picking up the remote and trying to change the channel. "Must need new batteries," he commented as he went up to change the channel manually. Nothing. "Maybe the button needs to be fixed. It has been a bit wonky…" he said to himself. A few seconds later the song ended and the screen went back to snow.

That was weird, Morbius thought, but before he could say what he was going to say, the screen came back to life.

"He's a phantom," the song began. Morbius, startled, fell back and watched the Danny Phantom theme play. As soon as it was over, the screen went blank again.

"Morb…? What's going on?" Elizabeth asked again.

"I don't know. Lemme get a flashlight." Morbius crawled to where he though the kitchen was, but instead ran into Elizabeth. Both of them fell, Elizabeth landing on top of her best friend.

"Sorry, Liz," Morbius said, gingerly helping her up. As soon as they were standing, a blinding bright light flooded the room. Both teens covered their eyes and turned away. A few seconds later, the light seemed to dim.

Morbius was the first to open his eyes. He looked around, and saw that the light came from the TV. He looked. It resembled a vortex.

"What the-?" he noticed the wind at that point, which was blowing towards the TV.

"We should get out of here," Elizabeth said, echoing Morbius' thoughts.

"Agreed," Morbius replied and without a second thought, took Elizabeth's hand and headed for the door. However, the wind increased so suddenly that it felt like they were being sucked into the TV. He felt a tugging on his hand.

"Morb! Help!"

Morbius turned to see Elizabeth starting to get dragged towards the TV. He pulled her towards him whilst simultaneously grabbing onto the nearest door frame. Elizabeth clung to him as the wind increased. As Morbius looked around he saw paper flying in as well as lighter objects, but the wind increased, and soon other things began moving towards the TV. The temperature was also decreasing rapidly.

"Morbius! Don't let go!"

"I won't!" he shouted back, clinging to the door and to his friend's hand. However, the ice cold began to affect him. He began to lose his grip on the wall.

"LIZ! I CAN'T HOLD ON MUCH LONGER!" he shouted. He clenched his fingers tighter around the wall, but he was beginning to weaken. Finally he managed succumb to the cold and wind as well, releasing his grip. He wrapped his arms around Liz as he was dragged to the TV. For a brief moment time stopped. All around, debris hovered in the air, then time sped up and he lost consciousness.

Enjoy!

morbiusgreen