Told you the title was prone to change!

Oh, wow, where has this been? Hm, hm…Writer's Block, I think? Yeah, definitely Writer's Block. I've got a bad case of it for everything right now and I'm sick of it. Ahg, the clichés! That and my dual-enrollment class has been keeping me busy! Gosh, freaking, English class!

3: Something on the Horizon


"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." –Joshua J. Marine


"What happened?"

"It stabilized? For how long?"

"Twenty seconds."

"Did anything get through?"

"No. But we saw…something."

"Something? A Creature?"

"No, it wasn't from Perim. It was black, all black, with yellow eyes."

"Do you think it will stabilize again?"

"I don't know."

"How is our Generator linking to another world? It's specifically coordinated so that it will open only to Chaotic and Perim?"

"Izaak thought that, well, you tell them, Izaak."

"Someone's trying to open it from the other side."

"What!?"

"No way!? That's possible!?"

"What do we do!?"

"We wait, for now. We don't know if this will pan out to be anything at all."

"But what about the kids…they can't stay here if—."

"I can't go back on my word, Joseph! If something dangerous happens we'll send them straight home but, so help me, I can't take this chance away from them!"

"None of them know anything anyway. They're all under the impression that Chaotic's closed down due to construction, like something's broken. No harm done."

"Right. So we keep our mouths shut, act like nothing's wrong, and continue to monitor this…anomaly. Clear?"

"Crystal."

In the back of his head, Kaz wondered if his jaw was going to fall off for how many times it'd dropped in awe all in one day. He'd opened up his cabin door to find himself in a cavernous living room with a thick, cream carpet, taupe walls, and a dark wood ceiling. An open door across the room led into a small kitchen with a black and white tiled floor, black walls, and a white ceiling lit by a huge, rectangular overhead florescent light. To the right of the door was a spiraling wooden staircase that led to the second floor.

Against the wall to his right was a huge plasma screen TV almost as big as he was, with a U-shaped, black fabric couch in front of it. Between the couch and the TV was a glass-topped coffee table that was being supported by a stalking stone dragon. Half-circle glass cases stuck out of the wall, displaying at least one hundred DVDs alone.

Behind the couch on the opposite wall was yet another plasma screen TV with giant, black beanbags, humongous, black pillows, and squat little, black chairs scattered in front of it. Set neatly on the floor in front of the second television were a Wii, a Play Station 3, an Xbox 360, and a Gamecube. Two shelves were set up on either side of the TV screen, groaning under stacks of video games.

Kaz wandered down the middle of the room and up the spiral stair case which led him to a square landing with squishy dark brown carpet. To his right was a wooden door stained with black and to his left was a mahogany door. Kaz pushed open the door to his right first and swallowed another gasp.

Shiny pearl white marble coated the floor, the walls were a dark, royal violet, and the ceiling was a midnight black flecked with silver dots that shone like stars when Kaz turned on the first set of lights; four small, white circles in each of the four corners of the room that gave the feeling of being outside under a clear, night sky. The second set of lights; a circular disc that looked to Kaz like a UFO; lit the room better. On the left wall was a deep, black tub that looked to be made out of marble with silver taps and jets, a shower stood next to it, made of misted glass and silver, that looked big enough to hold at least ten people comfortably, and a rack of large, fluffy dark blue towels sat on a glass and silver shelf above the tub. On the wall opposite Kaz was a floor to ceiling mirror set in a highly wrought, black stone, frame of flowers and thorny vines. To his right was a black toilet with a silver handle, a black sink, also with silver taps and handles, and a cupboard that held, when Kaz opened it, more towels, washcloths, stacks of toilet paper, and bars of scented soap.

Kaz closed the bathroom door, wondering if he was still dreaming, and turned to the second door, the one that was probably the bedroom. Taking a deep breath and trying to brace himself for anything, he twisted the handle and stepped in.

Soft, dark red carpet sank beneath his shoes as he walked forward, gazing around. The walls were off-white and the ceiling was a sort of white-green. A window at the other side of the room let in a little light through the heavy taupe curtains. Kaz walked over and pulled them apart with a flourish, turning around to examine the room further. A large bed with a canopy and drapes around it took up most of the space in the room, tucked to the middle of the wall to his left, across from the bed was a dresser with four drawers and his luggage stacked neatly next to it. On the other side of the dresser was a sliding door that probably led to a closet. There was a bed side stand with a lamp resting on it and a desk to the left of the door with a computer sitting on its wooden surface.

"This place is nuts." The boy muttered, making his way towards his luggage so he could start unpacking, "It's way to awesome to belong to a company!"

After everything was put in its proper place (he got lost in the walk in closet), Kaz fell back onto the bed with a sigh and tugged his Code Scanner out of his pocket to stare at it rather mournfully. Levi had told them that there were problems with Chaotic and that no one could port there. But he wanted to try anyway. Kaz crossed his fingers briefly, closed his eyes, and pressed the button.

"Please, please, please, please, please!" He whispered, cracking one eye open to peer at the red device in his hand, "Please!?" Something like static on a radio rang in his ears and he saw explosions of black and blue-white in his mind's eye, "OW!" The Code Scanner dropped to the floor as Kaz buried his face in his hands, pushing his glasses up to his forehead with a groan, "Alright, Note To Self, never do that again…!" Kaz massaged his temples with a sigh, "Great now I've got a headache…"

He glanced at the digital clock provided on the bedside stand; the glowing red numbers stated the time to be 11:15 am. There was enough time for a shower.

"Kaz! Kaz, open up, huh! Come on! Kaz!" Tom pounded a fist on the front door of Kaz's cabin for the third time, having given up on the knocker after five tries, "Man, this thing needs a doorbell!"

"It's open!" Shouted a voice from the upstairs and Tom looked up to see Kaz leaning out the window with a towel around his shoulders. Then his friend vanished back inside. Tom shrugged, twisted the handle, and stepped into the spacious lounge that was an exact replica of the one in his own cabin.

"Sorry Tom, I was in the shower!" Kaz came jogging down the steps, tousling his damp orange hair with a puffy towel, "What's up?"

"Is this place amazing or what!?" Tom shouted, falling back onto one of the couches as Kaz ran his fingers through his hair to get the tangles out and keep it out of his face.

"You're telling me!" Kaz dropped the towel around his bare shoulders, grinning, and sat down beside his best friend, "When Peyton and Sarah hear about this, they're gonna explode!"

"Put a shirt on, Kaz." Tom half-laughed as Kaz's face turned a furious red color that was brighter than his hair.

"Hey, give me a break! I was in the shower when you started hammering on the door!" Kaz crossed his arms, faking a pout, "I barely had enough time to get my pants on!"

"Yeah, sure you did!" Tom chuckled, leaning back on the couch, "You remember when we were younger and I used to do…THIS!" Tom jumped forward and snatched Kaz's glasses off the boy's face.

"Tom, darn it!" Kaz attempted to grab them back but without his glasses his vision was a smear of colors and he fell to the floor, squinting, "That's not funny! Give 'em back and quit acting like a five year old! Tom!"

Tom danced away, Kaz's glasses in hand, and sat down on one of the chairs across the room. Kaz scowled as he heard the fabric rustle and felt his way over carefully. Soon, he was standing over Tom with an angry frown and his fists clenched.

"Tom…give…them…back…!"

"Here, geez, I was just messin'!" Tom handed his red haired friend the glasses as the smile slipped from his face, "But seriously, something's eating you. What's up?"

Kaz flopped into a poof next to his best friend, adjusting his glasses with a troubled expression, "It's the whole business with our Code Scanners not working. I mean, the wormhole created in our minds through the Scanners is supposed to transport a mental project; what we call Code; into Chaotic, right?"

Tom's expression was totally blank, "You've completely lost me, man."

"Look, Tom, it's not magic, it's simple science." Tom raised an eyebrow, "Okay, not simple science maybe but it's still science." Kaz tugged his Code Scanner from his pocket, "Look, each of our Scanners is tuned in so that it works only for us, right? Only we can use it to port to Chaotic and Perim and back again. The most anyone else can do with it is go through our decks. Am I right?"

"Yeah, sure, but—."

"Each Code Scanner is like a mini-wormhole generator. Remember my science fair project? It's sort of like that." Kaz tossed his Code Scanner from one hand to the other, watching its progress while continuing his lecture, "Now this generator in the Scanner is linked into our minds. When we type in the specific code that allows us to port to Chaotic, it opens up a hole between the Real World and Chaotic in our minds and pulls our Code through." Kaz stopped tossing his Code Scanner around for a second, "This is all my own theory, by the way." He started tossing again, "So anyway, our Code goes through to Chaotic and then from there we can send it on into Perim or back here to our minds. See, in Chaotic, we're basically collecting memories. Get it?" Kaz looked over at Tom.

"Noooo…" Tom moaned, shoving his fingers through his black hair and making it stand on end, "Theory, right? Then stop giving me a headache."

It was Kaz's turn to laugh. Kaz had always been the smart one and if he could figure out how the Code Scanners worked, that was fine with Tom. Tom himself just didn't want to get a headache trying to learn about it from his best friend.

It was twilight.

The sun was perched just on the horizon, sending golden and red rays flaming through the sky to change the colors of the clouds into blaring shades of pink, orange, yellow, and red and cast every corner into deep shadow.

At the edge of the sky, just past the top of the hill, a line of dark clouds boiled.

A storm was coming.

His vibrant blue eyes flashed as he stared at the storm line. Maybe he was reading too much into it but it seemed like a really ominous sign.

"Hey," Came a voice behind him, "What'cha doin'?"

"Look," He pointed to the horizon, "There's a storm coming."

"Yep," The second person sighed, crossing their arms over their chest, "And it's gonna be one heck of a storm by the looks of things. You-Know-Who's got it all planned out and ready to go. If things play out the way they're supposed to, we won't have to worry about anyone getting hurt."

"I still get a nasty taste in my mouth from all of this." He replied, grumbling slightly as he turned away from the looming storm, "I just know something's going to—." He stopped talking and sunk farther into the shadows as a trio of friends walked past, laughing together, and finally vanished around a corner.

"What's with that expression?" Asked the second figure in a teasing voice.

"I…" He stopped and scowled, brushing past his companion without another word, "It doesn't matter. Let's go back, I want some ice cream."

"Whatever." The second person muttered but trailed after him into the tunnel.

A rumble of thunder rolled over the top of the hill like dark laughter.

Aw, gee-freaking-whiz! I'm sorry for not updating this sooner but my computer was being really, really stupid and the old piece of junk that it is and my thumb drive got all screwed up from the computers at my high school and I've been super busy. To make up for it, I tried to make this chapter a little longer than usual. Um…yeah…that really worked!

So, I gave you a little inside peek at something at the end there. And had fun playing with Kaz's logic. Mm, I guess I strayed from the show a little bit in the fact that the characters seem a little more realistic to me. But, hey, that's me.

Thanks for reading, please review, and good-bye!