Virgil walked back through the streets towards the high-school, trying to sort out his situation. Could Gear find a way to get them home? What would happen here? Could they fix everything? Would he have to live his life like this? With the other Virgil wrecking his own rep? He sighed.

"'Sup, hero?" Ivin's low voice hit him from a shadow.

"Cloak?" Virgil looked up.

"Still trying to prove yourself?" the dark figure asked, separating himself from the wall's shadow.

Virgil sighed. "I still don't know what I need," he said, before Cloak could say anything else. "I can't tell you what I need help with, when I don't know myself. I should know by tomorrow." Well, he hoped in any case.

"Alright, Hero," Ivin crossed his arms. "Just don't slip up. I'm still watching you." With that, the super-hero disappeared.

"Yeah," Virgil muttered to himself. "I bet you are."

"Please tell me you have something," Virgil begged Richie that night after he'd arrived home from the counselor's. "After I got back to school, I had to sort out the mess of the century. I save a girl's life, and everyone is avoiding me worse than before, and the office took forever to check the authenticity of the note..." he growled. "I really hate it here, except for mom." He glanced over at her figure moving around in the kitchen. "And don't let me get started on the crap I had to do for probation today. 'Just because you save lives doesn't mean that you're healed,'" he mocked.

"Sorry, V-man," Richie's voice cut through the static. "Well...I do have something...but..."

"But what?"

Virgil heard Richie sigh. "You're not gonna like it, Virg."

"Why not?" Virgil asked slowly.

"Dimensions exist kind of like they're next to each other at any given moment in time, right?" Virgil sat back. This would get long.

"Um..."

Richie continued. "Kind of like they're on a tree that is time. When any choice is made, the path splits...like a branch."

"Okay," Virgil nodded, despite the fact that Richie couldn't see him.

"Well, if my calculations are correct, she shouldn't have been able to take herself, let alone you to a dimension so different, without draining you permanently." Virgil shook his head.

"But–"he started, but Richie cut him off.

"I know, V, I know."

Virgil rubbed his head, glad that Richie was using power on his "dimension" so he didn't have to keep it up.

"Then what?" Virgil finally asked. A long pause followed before his best friend answered.

"Um...You're not gonna like this either, V...but I don't think you're in a dimension at all." Richie had been right, Virgil didn't like it.

"WHAT!" The super-hero jumped up, knocking his shin on the coffee table. "OW!" He yelped and found himself hopping around like a lunatic when his mother walked in worriedly.

"Virgil!" She exclaimed. "What's wrong?"

"Um...nothing moms," he plastered a grin onto his face and put his foot down. "Just knocked my shin on the table. She nodded and returned to the kitchen, and Virgil went back to his conversation.

"What do you mean not in another dimension?"

Richie hesitated again. "I didn't say that," he said finally. "You're not in any dimension...the only thing that's keeping that existence stable is you. You and Stock when she's there. The rest of it is kind of like a copy of our world that must have been influenced by someone's thoughts. I would guess that the "reality" you're in would be practically non-existent if it wasn't directly connected from you to the real world."

"But then what...?" Virgil knew he'd need a vew Advil after this one.

"I think it's the Shock Vox, V," Richie replied. "Otherwise, you would have actually been taken out of time...maybe with Stock. And I don't think I could have known where you went to get you back. I think she created those little pockets...and when she absorbed all the power around her (which I'm assuming she did because it's the only theory that makes sense), she made an imaginary pocket...kind of like borrowed time...a stasis field of sorts. But because she took you there, and Shock Vox with you, time had to keep going...but you're still borrowing time. A lot more time. If my theory is correct, she doesn't have enough power to sustain it, which is why she keeps getting sucked back and forth without control. It'll kill her eventually...and when she dies..."

"What?" Virgil prompted.

"She's the link that's keeping everything existing. If she dies, the immediate chaos from the time lines colliding could destroy this world...and you're existence will...cease to exist."

"But..." Virgil sat back in shock.

"I know," he could picture Richie shaking his head. "We need to get you both back...and I need to examine Stock."

"Oh," Virgil sighed. "Well, she's in the hospital room 310."

The signal faded out for a few minutes before Richie came back on. "Right, I'll be there...er...here, to see if my theory that she will end up in the exact same place she was when she left your pocket, is right." He sighed. "If it is...then the rest of my theories..." He didn't finish the sentence...he didn't need to.

"I'll go and tell her then," Virgil sighed and shut the Vox down. Then he went in to ask his mother's permission to leave. Why did he feel that this would be such a long night?

Okay, I'll answer questions and stuff later...I'm kind of in a hurry. Please reply. Thanx guys.