Author's Note: Yup, stuff's coming together nicely!

Nips raised a thin eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Yes, it's true," added Zephari, standing up to pair with her counterpart. "They come from a parallel dimension to ours. A... boy version, to be precise."

"Zeph, do you really believe us to swallow that tall tale?" scoffed Nips.

Sips groaned to himself. "Out of all the parallel dimensions we had to end up in, we got one with the WOMEN of ourselves?"

Nips hurled a two-inch fingernail at him. "Shut your mouth, you doppleganger!"

"Hey, there's only one Sips here, and that's ME!" retorted Sips.

"OKAY!" screamed Zephari. "Okay..." she said again, calmly.

"Guys, it's all true," continued Xephos. "Lalna, the boy version of who you know as TwistedTeacup, made a portal he found in one of his computer files. Honeydew - " At this point a venemous glare was shot at said dwarf " - decided to push us in. Now, we have no way of getting back... unless you have sufficient glowstone."

At this, Xephos looked hopefully in Talna's direction. The scientist shrugged helplessly.

"Sorry, Ze- um, Xephos, but I don't have enough," replied Twisted sadly.

"Well, we go to the Nether and get some more, then!" exclaimed Nips. "How hard could it be?"

"But I want to see the boy version of me!" cut in Twisted.

"And we'd like to get to know each other better," added Jacin. Sjin nodded.

"And Lalna would be livid - heh, LividCoffee - if he found out his portal WORKED and he didn't end up seeing the dimension on the other side," finished Honeydew.

Xephos and Zephari looked at each other, then to each of their friends, male and female alike. As one, they sighed, and uttered in true Xephos-and-Zephari style...

"This is a disaster!"


Elsewhere, a certain scientist was tossing and turning. He was having a very hard time dozing back off into dreamland, because something was nagging him.

Niggling at the back of his advanced, genius, metaphorically-the-size-of-Cthulu brain, head, mental state, was a teeny tiny voice. And it was whispering something very, very, VERY annoying.

Lalna...

"Shut up," murmured the scientist, burying his blue-eyed head with its mop of fair hair deeper into the pillow. Which, as weird as it sounds, smelt different. Huh. Xephos had probably washed it earlier on without his knowing. Sometimes the scientist could be such a neat freak.

Livid...

Gritting his teeth, Lalna hit the side of his head continuously with his pillow. Apart from a slight ringing in his ears, nothing else had changed. In fact, the voice was louder than ever.

Lalna... LividCoffee...

"Ssssshhh," hissed Livid angrily. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?!"

NOTCH DAMMIT, LALNA!

"HOLY SHI-" began Livid, then stopped and swore even more venemously as his head hit the back of the bed. Hissing and spitting and generally uttering things not exactly child-friendly, the scientist whirled around, trying to pinpoint the offender, the person of whom this annoying, sonofabitch voice belonged to.

Hai, Lalna! said the voice.

"Wait a second," murmured Lalna, massaging his temple. "Isn't this...?"

Yeah, um, hi, said another voice. It's Xephos here. Um... you know that mental communication thing you managed to invent?

Groping at the back of his neck, Livid's fingers brushed up against a plastic-coated small black detachable nub. He quickly twisted it to one side and withdrew it.

"Um, yeah?" he said out into the open, feeling extremely foolish.

Well, first off thanks for that, said Xephos. Second... you might want to take a look outside.

The scientist did so, leaping to his feet and peering out. He saw the Factory, Xephos, Honeydew, and the Sips Co-ians. All perfectly normal. But what made him swear in shock then let a broad grin break out all over his otherwise resigned, sometimes tired face was none of these.

No, it was the female versions of his friends lingering in the background.


"This... is... so... COOL!" exclaimed Lalna, quite unprofessionally.

"Oh my Score, it's true!" squealed Twisted excitedly. "It's... it's..."

"It's pret-ty cool," whispered Livid, uncontrollably beaming.

"Amazing!" continued Twisted, as the two scientists began circling each other. "So... it... you really are from another dimension?"

"I can't believe this!" uttered Livid happily. "I... I mean... WOW! This... oh Notch... so your god - ahem, goddess - is called Score?"

"And yours is Notch?"

"And you still produce jaffa cakes?"

"And your names are different?"

"And the machines haven't differed?"

"And your personalities have retained?"

"And the Tekkit War still happened?"

"And there still is some sort of rivalry going on between the scientists and the mages?"

The others watched the scientists rapid-fire questions at each other, barely drawing a breath, and none of them being answered. Well, to the bystanders. In reality, the lab-coat-clad counterparts could see their own unconscious body replies, a twitch of the hand or a double-blink of the left eye.

"Well," said Xephos while the scientist counterparts interrogated each other, "this is interesting."

"Very," agreed Zephari.

Sips and Nips surveyed the two scientists with dismay.

"So they're still unconceivable scientific babbies?" remarked Sips.

"Funny I was just about to say the same thing..." muttered Nips, shooting her counterpart a vicious, icy glare.

Meanwhile, Sjin and Jacin were trying to answer questions being fired at them. Specifically, the dwarven reasoning of Honeydew and Honeysuckle.

"So," said Honeydew triumphantly, "if Jacinta is Jacin's REAL name, does that mean that Sjin is just a shortening?"

"N-no," stammered Sjin, his hands twitching.

"We can tell that you're lying," remarked Honeysuckle.

"How?" demanded Jacin, folding her arms.

The two dwarves pointed at Sjin and Jacin's hands.

"They twitch when - " began Honeydew.

" - you lie," finished Honeysuckle.

"No they don't!" exclaimed Jacin, colouring furiously as she tried to still her jerking palms.

"Told - " started Honeydew.

" - you!" finished Honeysuckle.

The two space-hailers turned around curiously.

"Um, why are you finishing each other's sentences?" asked Zephari worriedly.

"We can't - " began Honeydew.

" - help it!" concluded Honeysuckle.

Xephos, Zephari, Sjin and Jacin looked at each other and sighed. What a dilemma they had gotten into.