CHAPTER 16

Home

1

Ryan was flying through a whole cloudy area of blue and white. As he traveled through, he slowly closed his eyes, and then he was hit by a terrible fear!

2

Ryan snapped his eyes open like he just woke up from a nightmare. His mouth was hanging open and his gums and lips were bone-dry. He looked around and saw he was lying on the carpeted floor of his living room. The clothes he wore were the same as he remembered; his American digital-patterned army camouflage pants, black T-shirt, tan Bates boots, and his two holsters with his sidearm and knife.

Slowly, Ryan sat up and noticed the plasma television was still on, displaying the DVD Player's logo saying the tray is empty. He stood up and pressed the button on the television shutting it off, leaving a hint of the DVD logo burnt into the screen which will fade away soon. He looked around and noticed he was no longer in a cartoon world. Ryan was no longer on Mobius. He was back in good old Massachusetts. He must have fallen asleep watching television.

Ryan got up and started walking around the house. He stepped in the hallway and saw the two bedroom doors a crack open. He peeked in one of them to see an empty bed, and then he peeked in the other to see another empty bed. Quickly, he ran to the living room again and looked out the large window with the driveway in view. The driveway was empty, no cars in sight. He knew his motorcycle was in the garage. The house was empty all to himself.

With a sigh of relief, Ryan plopped himself down on the couch and placed his hands behind his back. He licked his mouth to get the saliva going again and all he could think about was that he had one bizarre nightmare. However, at the same time, he enjoyed it. Then, he suddenly realized something.

"Oh, shit! Roxy!" Ryan cried out to himself.

Ryan snapped off of the couch and ran through the kitchen where the door leads to the basement. The basement was Ryan's bedroom. Ryan quickly dashed himself down the short flight of stairs and jumped off the last few and looked around.

"Roxy?!" Ryan called out.

Immediately, Ryan saw movement from his small portable makeshift closet. A little spunky Shih Tzu dog jumped out of the closet and rushed to Ryan. It was Roxy and she was alright. She ran to Ryan, not in a glad-to-see-you mannor, but more like I-was-so-scared mannor. Ryan bent over and scooped the little dog in his arms and Roxy licked his face constantly like she always does.

"Oh, Roxy, I'm glad to see you," Ryan said sadly. "I was so scared. It felt like I was in a different world. This may sound stupid, but I thought Sleet and Dingo were in my house and, without knowing, I thought they grabbed you or something."

Roxy did not reply. She just looked up at Ryan with a panting tongue and a smile on her face. Ryan believed that look on Roxy's face was all he needed to feel better.

"Hey, want to watch TV with me?" Ryan asked her. Roxy gave Ryan a lick on the face under the chin. He chuckled and carried her off back to the living room.

Ryan sat back on the couch with Roxy in his arms. He grabbed the remote and turned on the plasma television. Then he noticed that the 'Sonic Underground' DVD was still in the open DVD tray. He used the remote to close the tray and waited for the program to start up. After a few seconds, he decided to play the episode 'Bug!' which was one of Ryan's favorites. In addition, this episode was the very first episode Ryan saw. In fact, he still has the video tape somewhere where he recorded the episode for the first time. The opening theme played.

"Triplet's born, the throne awaits, a seer warns of a deadly fate, give up your children, separate, bide your time, lie in wait," the announcer sung. "Sonic Underground! (Sonic) Sonic Underground! (Sonic) They made a vow their mother will be found!" Ryan sung along with it.

He watched as he saw each of the triplets as children, and turning into adults and blowing up a SWAT bot. He then saw the faces of Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo on the screen right before a dissolve of a large Sonic Underground concert.

"I long for my children but I have to wait, to act too soon could seal their fait," Aleena sung.

The final notes were sung and it displayed the episode title with a picture of the triplets standing side-by-side. Sonic ran across the screen with the word, 'Bug!' trailing behind him. The screen then showed Manic hover boarding through the sky.

Halfway through the episode, Ryan stopped paused the DVD and set Roxy down. He walked to the bathroom to freshen up. As he stepped in the bathroom, he looked in the mirror and caught a strange shock! His lip was bleeding like he was punched in the face, like how he got into the final fight with Sleet. He turned on the water and caught another shock. There was a smudged up 7-didget number written on the palm of his hand! He then finally noticed that some of his clothes are heavily wrinkled.

Ryan had to make sure what he had was a dream. He quickly whipped out his Heckler and Koch USP sidearm and removed the magazine. It was empty. He then slowly pulled back on the gun's slide and noticed there was one bullet still in the barrel. To top it off, Ryan sniffed his gun and smelt that it has been recently fired.

This was strange to Ryan. He snapped out of the bathroom and ran back in the living room, only to catch another shock. Ryan's olive-drab bag was laying right next to the couch. He holstered his gun and ran to it. After opening his bag, he realized his 'Endurance Techniques' book was missing, and everything else in the bag was there, such as handcuffs, his green beret, everything.

"Oh my God," Ryan whispered to himself. Roxy walked over the couch and stared at Ryan. Ryan looked at her and saw the confused expression on her face, asking if Ryan was okay.

Suddenly, Ryan remembered something. He was too nervous but he has to find out. Slowly, he reached in his pocket and felt something in there. He carefully pulled it out and it turned out to be a zip-drive disk. However, the disk did not even look real, it looked like a cartoon but felt real. If he closed his eyes and felt it, he would have mistaken it for a real disk. Printed on the disk in black marker said 'DMD' on the label.

Ryan thought to himself if he was really there or not. Soon, he realized that he did not care if it was real or not. He remembered the best parts, such as meeting the triplets and their mother. His favorite cartoon show seemed like reality to him.

Ryan then sat on the couch happily watching his episode. Roxy jumped in his lap.

"Hi, Rocker-roni," Ryan said to Roxy. He petted her happily knowing he was back home. Most of the time, he confessed himself that it was all real, and it made him happier all the time.

"Sonic, Sonia, Manic," Ryan began to say, "Thank you for a wonderful time on Mobius." Then Ryan slowly fell asleep on the couch with Roxy on his chest. She soon fell asleep on him too.

3

Later that day, Ryan was in his backyard with the butterfly garden. Slowly, he got on his knees in front of the chocolate lilacs with a spade in his hand. He dug a small hole in between a space between the flowers about six inches deep and the diameter of a compact disk.

Once he was done, Ryan stuck the blade of the shovel in the grass next to him. He them pulled out a small Ziploc plastic bag out of his pocket. Within the airtight bag was the Dimensional Matter Displacer disk. His computer did not have the hardware to operate such a disk, but he did sketch the disk's design earlier before coming out to his backyard. Ryan grinned as he slowly slid the disk in its little grave. The plastic bag would protect it from damage due to the dirt and the weather.

"Someday, I'll give it another try," Ryan said to himself as a tear dripped out of his eye.

Ryan was now completely convinced that his adventure really happened, but the house's calendars shown that the day was still the same since he was taken away. Slowly, he used his palm to sweep the dirt over the disk, burying it in its little grave. As soon as he filled the hole with dirt and covered it with the mulch, he looked up to the sky, somewhere Mobius was out there.

"But not yet," Ryan said to himself. "Not yet."

TO BE CONTINUED...