Chapter 15
Seeking Truth
It had been a week since Draconia and the Werewolves fell. Lupe, over a short period of time had gotten well again and was ready for the journey to finally step outside of the Bloody Country and into the unknown Mobius. She was lucky. She was the first to use the spell she did to live, much less to be able to walk still.
After they had left the Bloody Country their were signs of greenery life but not much. Most of it was flat gravel plains, but it still was alot more pleasing to the eyes then the red stained countryside behind them. Eventually, they had found an old shack of a house in the middle of nowhere. They had followed the smoke coming from the chimeny that lead them there. They approached the old complex. The windows were dusty and no light was coming from inside. But Sally knocked anyway.
" Hello? Is anybody home? "
The door then popped open making a groaning sound sound as if awoken from a deep slumber. As Sally, Lupe and Bunnie slowly opened the rickety old door there was a strong smell of sulfur in the air. It was dimly lit inside and all around them were piles of books and papers stacked sloppily collecting dust. Some papers were so old they had turned yellow and brown. As Sally looked for a light switch she accidentally bumped a beaker and it fell to the ground smashing to the floor. A voice perked up out of the dark and a figure moved.
" Huh? Who goes there! " the voice said.
" Hello? We cant see you " Sally said.
" Eh...oh! One second! "
A dry switch was flicked as the lights came on. The stranger stepped out from behind the wall of the next room brushing off his hands. He was a human or at least something that looked close enough to one. His body had a unusual perfectly round beach ball shape supported by a pair of tall thin legs. His feet were very long, almost like clown feet. He had very broad shoulders and very long arms with overly large hands. He wore a dirty old white lab coat with a red turtleneck underneath. He wore odd looking glasses with a pair of over sized black goggles that looked heavy. But what stuck out the most about his cartoonish appearance was his faded grayish orange mustache. It stuck out and the hairs looked like they had been zapped repeatedly and then stayed fixed in that unnatural position. He reminded her of how Robotnik looked, slightly. Perhaps a distant relative, perhaps?
" It isn't too often I get visitors around these parts. What can I do you for miss uh... "
" Sally. Sally Acorn. "
" Aaah, quite a lovely name. I like those acorns too. I am Dr Luthengrad Ivan Eggman " he said extending his long arm to shake Sally's hand.
She shook back and smiled. He seemed like a nice person. Weird looking, but nice.
" I am looking for someone named Antoine. Did he by chance come by here? " she asked.
The doctor scrunched his face and placed his hand on his chin and began to think hard. " Hmmmm...Antoine...Antoine...nope! Can't say I have! Sorry."
" Oh, well thank you anyways. Sorry to disturb you " Sally said as she departed towards the exit.
"Now wait a minute there! Your not leaving so soon are you? " he said rushing up to them.
" You are all welcome to stay here as long as you like! In fact, it just so happens that I am needing a helper in this experiment I am about to do " he said with a giddy grin.
Sally looked at him strangely. " What did you say you did again? "
" Well, you could say that I'm a doctor of some sorts...a doctor of science and exploring new and undiscovered truths! "
Lupe was not impressed by this ' Eggman ' one bit. In her mind he looked like some crazy old fool but she kept her mouth shut for the time being and let Sally handle the talking as she and Bunnie half listened while they looked at what was laying around them.
" Please! " he pleaded. " I could really use your help on what I am about to do but don't worry, I will be doing pretty much all of the work. "
Sally nodded in agreement. " Alright. "
The good doctor took them into a room and gave them some food he prepared. Although, the only thing he ever ate was eggs so for Lupe, sunny side up, Sally, scrambled, and Bunnie, well Bunnie didn't need to eat. Eggman looked oddly at Bunnie.
" Might I ask what you are my dear? You look like a machine but you certainly are much more than that! "
" Err...well,ah'm still trying to figure that out " she said sheepishly looking at her robotics. Eggman placed his hand on her shoulder.
" Ah,so I am not the only one on the journey of truth of ourselves and where we come from! " he said beaming with pride. " You are quite the Pinocchio, my dear. "
" Pinocchio? " she asked. " Wussat? "
" It's an old old children's fairytale our kind used to tell our children for amusement. Of a wooden puppet that comes to life that wishes to be human. "
" Well, actually on full moons ah do seem to become flesh and blood. That's why I'm kinda not sure about if I'm this or that. "
" Intriguing...very intriguing. I would love to study you but that would be treating you like a lab rat and not a beautiful woman. "
Bunnie giggled. " Well ya'll say just the sweetest things. "
Lupe finally spoke up breaking her vow of silence. " What exactly is this experiment you are performing, doctor? "
" I'm glad you asked that! " he said fixing his glasses. He looked around trying to find where to begin.
" According to human science their are three proven dimensions that are the building blocks of reality. Some wondered if a 4th dimension could exist but after multiple attempts to even grasp a theory on what the 4th dimension would be if it existed they could not come up with an answer and therefore became a myth. I plan to prove all those stuffed shirts right here and now that that myth is real! " he said puffing his chest out proudly.
" How? " asked Bunnie.
He gave a dark chuckle, pulling out a large metal dish made for someones head. " With this! "
They didn't seem to know what to make of it. It was an odd bowl shaped helmet with lights and wires running along it attached to many tubes.
" Let me explain what it does... " he said sweetly. " I have found that the fourth dimension is not a place of the body but of the mind! With this dish, it taps into the hidden ' strings ' as I'd like to call them that exist inside the atoms around us. Within these strings lie connecting two way cords to...beyond! With this simple head gear, once properly used will be able to send my mind through the bridge onto the other side! "
They were stunned by this. He went silent and waited for one to speak up. Sally gathered words in her mouth and spoke. " Um, if your theory is true what will we see when this happens to you? "
Eggman smiled. " Nothing. Positively nothing at all. "
" Then what do you need us for? "
" One of you will write down exactly what I say as I describe what I am seeing on the experience so that once I come back to this dimension any lost memories of that place will be recorded on paper and that I can continue my work even further! And if it so happens that I begin to look like I'm in physical pain or agony I want you to shake me until I snap out of it. "
" Sounds fair enough but let me warn you, doctor. When you poke your head out into places you were never supposed to go to, then you play a dangerous game " said Lupe.
He shrugged, blowing it off. " Someone has to make the risk. I need to know! Someone must make the next step. "
He gathered a ballpoint pen from his drawer and a sheet of paper and handed it to Sally. He sat in the middle of the room onto his chair, putting the head gear on as the machines fired to life with a loud humm, the lights blinking sporadically.
" Please be sure to take all notes no matter how weird they might sound " he reminded them.
Sally nodded feeling this stone in the pit of her stomach. This didn't feel like it was going to end well but she did as he said. Bunnie fidgeted in her seat, anticipating something horrible like a seizure or a stroke or an explosion.
" I...I see things are getting darker...I am passing through a dark and black tunnel. I can still see your faces but their so small...so far...getting blurry. "
For two minutes he was silent.
" Now I seem to be passing through this odd shape tunnel. It feels warm, yet familiar. Is this the womb? " he asked himself. He began to continue, describing his ' visions '.
" I am looking to the side of me and I am looking at golden winged angels. They are so beautiful! They are smiling and waving at me. Oh, I am beginning to see the end of this tunnel. Their is this light coming up. "
Suddenly his body sprang to its feet and he had a mesmerized look on his face.
" No way! I don't believe this! "
" What is it! " Sally asked, alarmed.
" I..am back on Earth and am playing baseball with a little boy. Now I am that boy who is catching the ball. Now I am a Indian who is bowing giving thanks to the goddess, Shiva. Now, I am back in the early days of Egypt and am witnessing the pyramids being built brick by brick. Oh my! It's all so clear! All this is happening at once, as if time does not exist. The future, the past, and the present are all coinciding at once. "
Lupe's face began to grow abit concerned. " Careful " she murmured.
" I am living the lives of different people at once. I see what they see and feel what they feel.I...I think I understand now! The fourth dimension! You become one with all living things of the universe. You are everyone all at once and they are you all at once and no amount of time and space could logically crunch a perfect number for this to happen on the third dimension! "
Sally was starting to get more and more worried. He seemed completely into it and didn't show any signs of slowing down.
" Do you want us to pull you out? " she asked.
" No! Not quite! " he said, quickly with a pleased grin.
" I can move forward and backwards through time! I'm going back now! Back before their was a Mobius, a planet Earth...to where Mobians, Humans, and animals are not born yet. I see the legendary dinosaurs now tromping about the earth battling each other over king of the earth but wait...I am still going back...further...further...there is no longer land but a vast endless marsh soup that covers everything. I am now going back before the birth of planets...this is incredible...! "
Lupe felt the hairs raise up on her neck. Eggman's eyes were glazed over in a film of awe. He had forgotten they were there and now seemed to be talking to himself. Eggman's body suddenly jerked and then relaxed. Bunnie jumped up rushing to his aid ready to shake him out of his trance.
" Wait! I just passed through the big bang and am now before time and space were even invented...things are slowing down...everything is becoming more heavy...I see a light ahead of me but...what is that...? " he asked, distantly.
" Doctor! Do not go any further! " Lupe yelled. She knew from the teachings of her ancestors on how the time before time was a place considered forbidden in astral travels. Eggman's face suddenly twisted into utter fear and repulse.
" Oh...oh my god...G-god no...! "
" Doctor! " Sally cried shaking him trying to snap him out of his trance.
" This...I've gone too far...this was not meant to be known...oh god...I..I feel so cold...but...what is that inside...oh god...help! Help me, please! " he screamed, tearing at the hairs of his mustache. Sally reached to turn the machine off but was zapped by a feedback as it was now running itself. The machine overloading with energy that was coming from somewhere. Energy surged into Eggmans head as his brain was zapped by volts of energy, his body frozen in place. Bunnie attempted to yank the cords from the wall but was hit with an electrical shock too. Lupe hurled her hammer, smashing the damned thing as it powered down with a sickly humm. Sally grabbed Dr Eggman and shook him, trying to snap him back to reality. His body broke out into a violent seizure and was throwing up blood.
Slowly, Dr Eggman's mind returned to the here and now. Tears had formed around his glasses, his face filled with a cold sweat and he looked like he had aged 20 years.
" Water...water... " he whispered through his cracked throat. Lupe brought him water and poured it down his throat. He swallowed almost choking on it and rose wrapping a blanket about himself shivering.
" My, my...that was truly frightening...I never imagined such things...I don't think I should have done that. It was truly unwise, indeed. "
" What was it? What did you see? " asked Sally.
He took a shaking hand to his face wiping the drool off the edge of lip and fixed his glasses.
" I had passed into this black fog that I suppose the only way to describe it would be chaos...but not the kind of chaos that we would think wasn't like something so simple how we see it. What I felt from it was pure terror. It was like a night terror breaking away from the mind. It was...cold. I'm sorry but there seems to be no proper word to describe it but whatever was in there saw me...! Machines...or were they? They...they know where I am now! Please! You must stay and help me prepare! Yes...! Maybe I can go back in and see what is at the end now that I saw the begining. Yes...that is only logical. Chaos in the equation. "
Eggman's mind was unhinged from what he saw and from the damage of the electrical feedback. He was much different now. All rational thought he once had began to slip away. Sally got to her feet and looked at the poor doctor. He was so concentrated on learning the truth he didn't take into consideration what the side effects would do to his mind. Lupe only shook her Eggman started laughing maniacally, his broken mind telling him to commit strange things and build even stranger. He was going to go back into that dimension where things beyond life and death waited.
As his mind race, he fiddled around the room, knocking over furniture breaking everything around him in childish fits of rage as he seemed to have completely forgotten they were there.
Lupe grabbed Sally's arm. " We shouldn't be here anymore. This man is not only a potential danger to himself but us as well now. "
Sally looked remorsefully at the once kind hearted old man to now the insane cackling psychopath madman running rampant destroying his home. Sally shut the door behind her leaving him to rot in the truth and madness he so longed for. That night when they slept Sally could have sworn she saw the stars shudder just before a massive earthquake shook making at least a few miles of ground inches away from where they layed just collapsed into the earth.
