Ash and Johnny had just finished another evening at the Moon Theater. They headed outside, and Johnny not having his truck this time, decided to walk their way home, his new home. On their way down started out decent, but Ash's mind kept going back to that peculiar server room within DT's apartment. Sure, Ash new what servers are, thanks to the geeks at her high school, but never really got into technology. Ash wandered to no end what could possibly be on those things. The thought drilled her head and kept pressing on and on, waiting her to act. Eventually the torture was enough to break her, her curiosity is peeked. They were half-way to the apartment when Ash suddenly turned to Johnny and looked up directly at him.
"Johnny?" She asked. "Remember the server room I told you about?"
Johnny scratched his neck for a moment, not exactly remembering all she said, but nodded and said "Yeah."
"Well, I'm getting really annoyed about what could be in there and I want to see if DT would…" She paused.
It hit her; If DT was so desperate to not have her go into the room, there was no way he was just going to gingerly let them in. She sighed and rubbed her temples, which to Johnny was a sign of a headache. Johnny hilarious kept insisting she take some medication, but Ash would brush it aside and say she's just tense. As Johnny turned away to face up ahead, a sudden yelp caught his attention. His head turned to Ash now fiddling to get her phone out of her pocket. She soon yanked it out and put it to her ear.
"Hello?" She said as calmly as she could.
"Hey, Ash?" A voice said.
"Yeah….?"
"Ok, good, It's Jonathon, we forgot to tell you we won't be home as we are…"
He paused and Ash could her indecisive monologuing on the other end.
"I guess we are just going around town. So, we are not at the apartment right now."
They soon ended the conversation, and Ash turned to Johnny with a smirk. Her mind now thinking of something well beyond the realm of innocence. With her curiosity peeked, and with the DT gang not being anywhere near the apartment, Ash contemplated her most deviant act yet. Johnny knowing Ash too well decided to try and stop her.
"Ash… no…" He said.
"Aw come on Johnny boy, aren't you wandering what's in that room yourself?"
"Not really, no."
Ash shook her head in a somewhat playful manner.
"It's not breaking in, it's using the key under DT's mat to get in."
Johnny still really did not want to do this.
"Please Johnny, we'll go in, check out the room, put the key back under the mat and be on our way."
Johnny fearing Ash would press more and more, gave in.
"Alright." He said. "Please, please, try not to touch anything."
With that, Ash jumped for joy, and clenched Johnny's hand and began to escalate their brisk walk into a mild jog to reach the apartment sooner. Johnny gulped down regretfully. Ash soon stepped up the small flight of stairs of the buildings front door and raced inside.
"Come on Johnny, ya slowpoke!" She teased.
Ash zoomed past her apartment and climbed right up the stairs to the second floor. She dropped to her knees and lowered her head just about eye level with the welcome mat placed in front of DT's door. She lifted it up and as expected a spare key was there. She grasped it and stood up. She smiled widely as she inserted it into the lock and twisted it. Then slowly opened the door. She hopped up to flip on the light switch. Johnny reluctantly followed her as she trudged inside. She pointed at the door, so Johnny could see. A label appeared to have been bolted to it. It simply stated.
"Server Room."
Ash tip-toed her way to it. She turned the handle but frowned; it was locked.
"Welp, nice try, let's go home before…"
Ash turned away defeated, however as she turned the corner of her eye caught sight of…
"Oh hey look, a keypad." She said, turning back.
Johnny groaned.
Ash just barely eye level with the keypad. She soon realized, she had no idea what the code.
Across town, in an ince cream shop, DT, Jon and Steve all sat around a table. DT was about to take in a spoonful of vanilla ice cream when his phone started beeping. He sat down the ice-cream bowl on the table with a groan and pulled out his phone.
"Intruder alert, server room." Was a message on the home screen.
DT grew wide eyed.
"What's wrong?" Steve said.
"Someone's breaking into the server room."
Then, in an instant all three jumped and ran outside, much to the shop owner's annoyance of their lack of payment. The DT mobile's engine roared to life and the vehicle took off down the road, well above the speed limit.
Ash punched in random numbers for what seemed to be the hundredth time. Ash was on the verge of giving up. Finally, Johnny noticed something taped to the door frame. It was an old, old piece of a newspaper. Ash took notice of Johnny's sudden movements and finally saw it too. She mumbled the head line.
"DT Science Research Center accident; 4 dead."
Johnny gazed at the headline, and his eyes slowly lowered down to the article. Ash read it before he could. She mumbled it softly, but kept noticing that 1985 was circled in red pen multiple times. She finally pieced it together, the article was taped to the door frame, of the server room, Ash saw the year 1985 circled multiple times, therefore, by chance that had to be the code. Ash pushed the buttons and hit 'enter'. A high pitch ding was heard and a heavily computerized voice stated, "Access Granted." The door opened itself. Ash's eyes grew into saucers, and her jaw practically fell through the earth. This wasn't just a room for servers, it was an entire server farm all squeezed into one tiny room. Servers racks were stacked on top of other server racks. Ash slowly stepped inside, taking it all in, soon followed by Johnny. They gazed back and forth in the dimly lit room. Johnny was amazed as Ash was, but was more cautious.
"Alright, we had our look, let's get out here before DT comes back."
Yet again, his attempt to skedaddle were crushed. Air hissed, which caused both of them to gasp then a whiteboard descended from the ceiling. Their eyes followed it on the way down until it stopped. Then, it turned on, a login window was open and was already filled out with Jonathon's information. Ash trembled slightly at the sight.
"I wander if its… touch screen?" She wandered.
And indeed, she was correct. She hovered her hand, unbeknownst to her, over the login button and pressed it. Upon discovering that the system was logging in under Jonathon's name she knew she was going to get at least a little trouble. What happened next, filled her with curiosity unlike anything she ever felt before. Johnny gasped too, at the awesome sight, of folder, upon folder upon folder of all sorts of data filled the screen. One was labeled, "Historic events" another, "incidents and accidents" but one caught their eye; "Research Notes and Data". Ash now knowing the screen was touch controlled, tapped her small paw on the folder. It opened only to show smaller sub-folders. She saw the top one.
"Experiment#257."
However, with Ash being "fun size" she couldn't reach the sub-folder. Johnny, now wanting to learn more, stepped in for Ash and pushed on the folder. It opened to two text files, "Experiment Description" and "Experiment Logs". Without saying a word, Johnny pressed on "Experiment Description". A long text file opened. They began to read it, silently.
"The study of alternate universes is an interesting one indeed. So many universes are out there, but we can only study a certain few. One such universe, identified as Universe:A37B is one that is occupied by anthropomorphic animals. This universe, unlike Universe:A36B is an exact replica of our universe but every single human is replaced with an animal of a random species. One major thing scientist wanted to find out is this universe's tolerance toward 'mixed relationships', more or less in this case; inter-species relationships. Our researcher pinpointed two completely different subjects; Ashlynn M. Porcupine, and Johnny F Gorilla. Both being the species of their last names (how convenient)…"
Ash and Johnny stopped dead in their tracks, their names, their full names, were on the board. They were test subjects of some inter-universal experiment. Against their better judgement they continued.
"… So a study on these two have been commenced, Experiment#257. Led by our very own Corporate Head, Dr. DT, his right-hand man, Jonathon Mackenzie, and third in command, Steve, this experiment uses the doctor's very own invention, the Time-Traveling, Teleporting Plane. With this device, DT is able to travel to this alternate universe and study the two in secret. The only danger of this method of transportation is that when teleporting to a different universe, it produces a massive, energetic explosion upon arrival."
Ash and Johnny faced each other in utter disbelief. It was only about a month or so ago, the massive explosion that rocked the city, jostled Ash's apartment, broke Becky's hip and cracked the tank at the Moon Theater, is was all the trio simply showing up in their teleporting plane. Johnny and Ash soon found that they had finished the description, only to be in utter shock. They were getting researched on! They were nothing but test subjects to these three! Both Ash and Johnny felt furious. All those acts of friendship, was it really all an act to cover this entire thing up? They soon realized they haven't read the experiment's log yet. So, they calmed down enough to view it. Johnny tapped the screen back to the text files and clicked "Experiment logs."
They then read it from top to bottom.
"1/25/2017: Experiment start. Monitoring subjects from low planetary orbit.
1/30/2017: Noticed it is Summer in this universe and its Winter in ours. We decided to go by our universe's date.
2/5/2017: Abnormalities spotted, they appear hostile to subjects, continuing to monitor.
2/10/2017: Hostiles are engaging test subjects, severe subject injury imminent. Resetting experiment. Time reverting to: 1/25/2017.
1/25/2017: Time revert successful, experiment restart. Ashlynn is sick, as in the last attempt, everything going normally…"
As Johnny and Ash read each and every detail of every single event during this experiment they had no idea they were a part of, they felt more and more lost, angry and just plain confused to no end. As rage filled their veins, they hastily read more.
"1/26/2017: Experiment insertion has been decided to be activated in order to protect subjects from any harm, therefore interrupting our research. Teleporting to Universe:A37B. … … Teleport successful.
1/27-31/2017: We begin to mingle among the locals, to get known and fit in. So far successful.
2/1-4/2017: We stopped the attack that jeopardized our last attempt flawlessly. We are now befriending test subjects.
2/6-8/2017: Found apartment above Ash's, perfect size for a small research station or laboratory. Moving in. Move in, successful.
3/29/2017: We noticed a slight change in Ash, in our last attempt, before the time reset, she could dance. However, it appears she strangely developed motion sickness, therefore not allowing her to dance. We also took notice that events recorded in our last attempt are somewhat different than our current one. It appears when time is reverted, some events don't play out exactly the same."
They read it all, every last entry. They felt dumbfounded, horrified, betrayed. They felt as though DT, John and Steve were all good friends, but that was all an illusion created by the three in order to gather their research they appear to desperately want. They backed away from the screen, their very breath was hard. Their veins pulsated with rage. DT betrayed them, tricked them even. Ash felt the tears sting her eyes, but would not let them through. Johnny made a fist with one hand and held Ash's with the other. They just couldn't believe a single word they read. Surely this couldn't be true! Ah, but it was.
Ash wanted to leave this place, run down to her apartment and just let everything out. However just as they started to turn around and simply leave they horrible place. They door was kicked open, a long polar bear leg had kicked in the door, breaking at least two of the three hinges. He was followed by two others. Ash and Johnny recognized them instantly; DT, Jon and Steve. They all ran in holding something they couldn't see at first, until they stopped in front of them and hoisted them up.
"FREEZE!" DT yelled as he held up a tazer of sorts.
He dropped it as soon as he saw who was in the server room. Ash and Johnny stared at him, paying no attention to the tazer as it fell to the floor. They stare immediately turned into a hostile look.
"You bloody wanker!" Johnny yelled.
This frightened DT. This surpassed his bubbly, friendly nature. Ash soon joined in.
"You prick!"
"Gu-Guys, allow me to explai-."
But DT was interrupted.
"You bloody used us, mate!"
"We're nothing but pawns to you!"
DT tried once more.
"Guys, please, it's not what it seems…"
"Oh yeah! Says you, the evidence is on that screen right there!" Ash yelled, pointing at the screen. Her heart was racing.
DT now knew; they had seen everything. He knew there was no going back now, they can't reset time again, not without causing universal-instability. Ash and Johnny kept yelling at the trio, calling them names, such a traitor. But most of it was focused on poor, DT the experiment's leader. They wouldn't give him a moment to explain things calmly.
"How could you do this to us!" Johnny asked.
"We thought you were friends!" Ash added on.
"Guys… please… stop…" Jon pleaded, a worried look on his face.
DT expression grew more and more downed, saddened, and frightened. He felt threatened, honestly. Ash and Johnny kept stepping closer and closer to the three, piling on the yelling.
"Are we nothing to you, DT!?" Ash asked, rage blowing out of her ears. "HUH!?"
"Yeah, what are we to you?" Johnny asked.
DT could no longer say a word. His face looked so troubled, so frightened. Johnny and Ash kept going.
"Guys, don't push this all on DT, we were in on it too!" Steve yelled.
But the two ignored him.
"What was this for? MONEY!?" Ash asked. "Huh DT, answer us darn it!"
It their somewhat hate fueled rage, and Jonathon and Steve's failed attempts to calm them down. Everyone failed to notice DT kept glancing to his side. Jonathon saw him, glancing to his left, then back at the still angry Ash and Johnny. Jon looked DT in the eyes and mouthed the words
"Don't. Do. It."
"I hate you!" Ash yelled. "I hate all three of you jerks!"
Ash tired from all the yelling looked down to the floor, Johnny looked to Jonathon in a distasteful glare. Ash was practically gasping for air. Johnny kind of was gasping too. They were all breathing heavily. They were all lost in their own bubble. They were only pulled back to their sense when a loud crash boomed through the apartment. Ash looked up dazed, Johnny turned to face ahead of him and Jon and Steve stared in the spot DT once was. Everyone in the room, all went wide eyed. DT was gone, and it only took a few seconds to realize, as evident by the broken and shattered glass, DT had jumped through the window, much to the horror of everyone inside.
Author's Notes:
Heya, it's me, Dr. DT. I hope you like this story so far. This is the chapter everything turns bad, really bad. This chapter took a while to write and a good bit of planning ahead. I'd like to take this moment to announce that I'll be on a hiatus for an undisclosed amount of time. I will, however, check in every so often to make sure everything is going good. Also, purposely left you guys quite the cliffhanger :P.
Toodles!
Dr. DT