The noise was invasive. Or pervasive. Or both. Whichever it was, it was like being up close with really loud machinery that was constantly running. The machinery in question seemed to be several circular rails on end with strange pieces moving around it. And in the middle is a giant glowing orb. In other words, a portal. And I just fell out of it.

The noise included beeps and zaps, and it was almost loud enough that I missed the klaxon going off. But the flashing lights started up and uniformed guys with tinkertech rifles pointed them at me. They were shouting something, but I couldn't hear it over the noise.

"What?" I shouted. I tried to raise my hands over my head while lying on the floor, but my right arm hurt too much to move. So I ended up just curling myself up around it.

They surrounded me, but there was too much pain for me to care. They brought a stretcher and goaded me onto it, but I was preoccupied trying to minimize my misery. It felt like forever before they had me in some sort of holding cell, but I'm sure it was only a couple minutes.

Three people walked in. I didn't pay any attention to them until my pain suddenly vanished. Then I sat up and took a look at my arm. It was as good as new. A bald man in a red suit was sitting at a table waiting for me. A guy in orange and black spandex leaned against the wall by the door. A woman in a flamboyantly colored bodysuit backed away from me.

"Hello. My name is Crimson. This is Castle. And that is Bright Spirit that just healed you. Thank you, Bright Spirit. You may go."

The woman who thought neon green and pink would go well together left while I was still exulting in being pain free.

"You, young lady, have just exited an undirected portal, apparently coming from dimension Upsilon Beta 9-6. Do you mind explaining yourself?"

"Um, what is Upsilon Beta 9-6?"

"It is better known as Praetorian Earth."

I gave the man in the red suit a blank stare. "I was just… I don't know what's going on. I was in a bathroom, then some crazy blonde woman starts torturing me, then I'm here."

"Okay. Let's start from the beginning? What is your name?"

"Taylor. Taylor Hebert."

"And where are you from?"

"Brockton Bay?"

"Any idea what dimension that is in?"

"Um, Earth Bet?"

"Your Earth has dimensional travel too?"

"Just to the one dimension. And it's pretty much just communication that we share. Professor Haywire's portal to Earth Aleph."

Crimson looked over at Castle, who shrugged. "All right, now we can work on that. Do you mind telling me your story from the beginning? You woke up this morning and…"

"Had breakfast." The man motioned for me to continue. "Then I went to school. It was a pretty ordinary school day until lunchtime. Then the three bitches. Er, sorry. That's just what I call the three girls that make my life miserable. I was eating lunch in the bathroom and they locked me in the stall and poured juice all over me. Then I got frustrated and tried to punch a mirror, but my hand went through. I think I made a portal. I think I have a superpower. Are you guys with the PRT?"

"No, we are not. Let's just say I'm with government intelligence and Castle here is a contracted hero on duty here at Portal Corps."

"Hi. Nice to meet you, Taylor." The man in orange waved at me and smiled.

"Um, hi."

"Back to the details of your story. You made a portal how?"

"Just gave in to the pressure that's been in my head and punched."

"Can anybody else make portals from your dimension?"

"I don't think so. Well, Professor Haywire. He was a tinker. But he's dead."

"So no invasions coming from your dimension. That's good to know. What happened when you made your portal?"

"Well, I was poking my arm into it to find out about it and something grabbed me and pulled. It was so strong. It was going to pull my arm off. So I made the portal bigger and fell through." Crimson showed no reaction to my words. He nodded me on. "When I came to, there was a guy in blue spandex with devices and a crazy blonde woman that started torturing me."

"Okay. Would you be willing to look through a book of villain photos to identify these two?"

"Um, sure, I guess."

"Good, so back to your story. The villain was going to torture you. What did she want to know?"

"She just asked where I was from."

"And what did you tell her?"

"I told her I was from Brockton Bay. She said she hadn't heard of it and put salt on the wound."

"Then what happened?"

"I freaked out and made a portal on the surface of my chair and fell through. Then I was here. Or in that loud room, I suppose."

"Okay. I assume you'll want to apply for dimensional refugee status?"

"That's a thing? I guess if you've got portals just up and running it is. Maybe. What I'd really like is to get back home. If I can." I already missed my afternoon classes. I wanted to be able to get home before Dad did so he wouldn't worry. "What time is it?"

"Two thirteen pm. What day was it on your earth?"

"Oh, April eighth." He kept waiting. "Twenty eleven?"

"That's the same date as here." He smiled. "One more question. What state is this Brockton Bay of yours in?"

"Rhode Island. Why?"

"Because you are now in Paragon City, Rhode Island, USA. Imagine that. Different dimensions but the same location. Here's what's going to happen next. Some technicians are going to run some scans on you to figure out what dimension you're from. Then you can take a shower and clean up if you'd like. After that we should have some pictures for you to look through. Meanwhile I'm going to be verifying everything I can about your story. If everything checks out, we'll see what we can do to help you get home."

The scans were annoying. They pointed all sorts of scanners at me. Thankfully, the most invasive of it was just drawing a little blood. And that wasn't even as painful as the needles they use back home, they had some tinkertech device that pulled the blood right through the skin. After that, they let me shower and gave me a new Portal Corp tee shirt and the pants from a set of scrubs.

They had a book of photos for me. I didn't recognize any of the heroes from my world. But I did find the two psychos that were torturing me. Castle explained after I identified them.

"Those two are Dominatrix and Neuron. They're from Praetorian Earth. It's kind of an opposite world to ours. Most of the same people, but people who are great heroes here turned into tyrannical villains there. And some of the people who are villains here are heroes there. I just mention this because there are counterparts of those two villains here. Ms. Liberty and Synapse. If you run into them don't freak out. Those are two of our greatest heroes."

"Oh. Well, it shouldn't be a problem. It's not like I'll just run into them on the street."

"You might. Synapse is stationed in Skyway City and Ms. Liberty is the trainer in Atlas Park. Especially because I'm going to recommend you get registered as a hero here, and Atlas is a good place to start your heroing career."

"Do I have to? I was hoping to go home."

"Well, that brings us to the results of the tests. The technicians have partially determined where you are from. Now, I'm not the best person to talk to on the technicalities of dimensional travel, well, actually, I might be. People who do this stuff for a living tend to devolve into technical jargon. But back to the point. We designate 'nearby' dimensions like Upsilon Delta 9-6." He made air quotes around the word nearby. "More 'distant' dimensions have longer names. But anything past four letters and four numbers tends to get strange, and rarely contains humans. Our portals can access dimensions designated by up to eight letters and eight numbers, but they tend to be strange or uninhabitable. Your dimension would be eighteen letters 'away'. We can get a portal to point you in the right direction, but you'd have to do most of the work with your power. That said, we're having the gurus at DATA recalibrate their portal in Atlas Park. They have said they can have the recalibration done by tonight."

"That's a lot to take in." They couldn't send me home. But maybe they could help me send myself home.

"Sorry."

"No. That's okay. I need to know this stuff."

"Do you think you can focus a portal toward your dimension? You already used a portal as your destination twice. How does your power feel to you?"

"I don't know if I can. My power… it was like looking at a star. I think the star, stars really, were the portals. Now when I focus I can feel the portal nearby. The one in the Praetorian dimension, I think. And… and I think I see another point there too. The place I left from? Maybe. Where is my home dimension? I don't see it. It would be so far away. But there should be a point there where I departed, shouldn't there?"

"Honestly, I don't know. It's your power. I have only ever heard of one person with a similar power, and I don't know how similar it is. DJ Zero. You might want to get registered as a hero and hang out in our world for a while. A lot of experienced heroes are friendly and glad to guide a newcomer into the world of heroism. And it would give the techs time to make their adjustments so you can get home."

"So how do I get to Atlas Park? It was Atlas Park that I was supposed to go to, right?"

"Yes. And while you're there, that's where you can register as a hero too. If you like. Anyway, to get there go to the other end of the island where there's a ferry to Talos Island. There you can board a tram to… No, you probably shouldn't even cross Peregrine Island on your own. Nemesis has snipers posted. I'll get a hero to escort you there." The halloween colored hero spoke into a microphone somewhere on his costume. "Hello, I've got a new hero that needs to be escorted from Portal Corp to Atlas Park for registration. Could I get a volunteer to show her around?"

"Does this happen often?"

"More often than you might think. Sometimes new heroes just can't wait to explore new dimensions and increase their security level. Interdimensional missions are not recommended for heroes below security level forty. Fortunately, lots of heroes in this city are friendly and are happy to help out new heroes." He paid attention to his earpiece for a moment. "Anyway, looks like we have a volunteer. Desdemona will take you to Atlas Park. She's only level 35. That's a bit low for Peregrine. Oh, she has recall friend so she's going to teleport you. Here, take this communicator. Accept the team request. Then let the teleport happen. Good luck."