Ha! Left you with a cliffie, didn't I? One person guessed who it was at the end of the last chapter! Cookies for you!
Now…onto the next chapter!
The Files of Kazdan Kalinkas
Book Two: After the Storm
Chapter Fourteen: Through the Window
"It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, and certainly not desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off." –Woody Allen
Someone was making a racket somewhere.
I rolled over onto my side, pulling the blanket over my head and willing the noise to stop. When it didn't, I rolled onto my back with a huff and glared at the ceiling. Didn't people appreciate that a psychologically traumatized teenager was trying to get a decent amount of sleep?
"What the heck…" I grumbled, sitting up and clambering out of bed. After pulling on some fresh clothes, I pushed the door open and headed down the hall. I listened, following the obnoxious, sleep-interrupting noise to a large back room where the door was slightly ajar. I slipped in without a sound.
Garv, Najarin, Tom, Sarah, and Peyton were all standing around what looked like a bookcase made out of metal. There was a hammering and fizzing noise coming from the spot where Garv, Tom, and Peyton were kneeling and blue light sparked too brightly to look at directly. Sarah was on the floor in front of large pieces of parchment that were spread across the cement rather haphazardly and Najarin was crouched almost behind the metal bookcase; I couldn't see what he was doing. The sparks stopped flying and Garv, Tom, and Peyton moved away from the shelves.
"Hey guys." I said and all of them jumped, spinning around to look at me.
"Geez Kaz!" Tom shouted, "Could you give us a little warning next time!? Sheesh, you're like a shadow!"
I didn't know whether I wanted to take that as a compliment or not.
"What's with the metal bookcase?" I asked, walking carefully around the piles of paper. I glanced at them as I passed. They were schematics, it looked like, detailed drawings of…, "Hold on a second…" I stared at the parchment, looked back at the 'bookcase', glanced at the drawing again and said, "It's like the inside of a Code Scanner."
"It's how we're getting you home!" Came an excited voice and then H'earring stuck his head out from behind the device.
My eyes widened. Of course! It had been H'earring I'd heard last night!
"H'earring!" I cried and ran forward, pulling him into a hug, "My gosh, you're alright! You're safe! You're alive! I'm so glad to see you alive!"
"Ow! Kaz—ow!" H'earring pushed at me and I released him. There were a few scrapes and bruises on him and there was a new hole through his left ear but he was alive. And that's what really counted.
"H'earring, why don't you take Kaz and get him something to eat." Garv suggested, "You can explain everything to him. And when he comes back, perhaps he would like to help us?"
"You bet I would!" My fingertips itched. I'd built something like this for my science fair project (that seemed like it was in someone else's lifetime now) and I couldn't wait to do it again. If there was one thing I loved more than Chaotic, it was science.
Well, had loved more than Chaotic.
I followed H'earring out of the room and into Garv's excuse for a kitchen. The place was a neat-freak's nightmare; plants and cutlery and bowls all over the place. You were lucky to find an empty bit of counter space. H'earring pushed a bunch of things into the sink and started looking around for something to eat.
"So come on," I said, practically punting Mich out of a seat. It squealed at me and flew up to nestle on top of a cupboard, "Tell me what happened to you and what's going on in that room?"
"I went into the UnderWorld."
"Details H'earring." I muttered, putting my chin in one hand and playing with a knobby fruit with the other.
"It's in an uproar down there. I'm not exactly sure what happened but I think it has something to do with your disappearance." H'earring explained, his back to me as he went about his work, "So it wasn't too difficult sneaking in because whatever was going on had everyone distracted."
"Where'd you go?"
"The palace; I figured your Code Scanner had to be somewhere Chaor could keep a close eye on it." He turned around and dropped a plate in front of me. There was some sort of salad thing on it; I didn't ask what, "And I was right. He had it locked underneath the palace in the vaults."
"Where the schematics in there too?" I asked between bites, "What are the for anyway?"
H'earring sniggered, "Noooo, they weren't in the vaults. They were in Ulmar's lab!" He laughed at the look on my face, "That stupid Creature had no idea what was going on! While he was distracted elsewhere, I snuck into his lab to destroy whatever it was he'd used to make the Instant Regeneration Armor." I stared at him but he only grinned mischievously, "I struck Mugic, Kaz! I broke into the safe where he keeps his plans and burned the ones detailing how to make the Armor. Then I destroyed the equipment used to make it. Without the plans, Ulmar can never make another and The Destiny Claw and The Ripper are useless without the IRA!"
"Excellent!" I held out my hand and H'earring slapped his own in it briefly, "Where those plans for…whatever it is they're building in that room—where they in the safe too?"
"Mm-hm." H'earring nodded, "I stole them and brought them back here." His gleeful expression fell, "I think I know most of what was going on in the UnderWorld, Kaz."
"What, tell me."
"Kaz, I think Chaor was trying to break out of Perim and into your world." I gave an involuntary shudder. My dream…so like my dream…
"Why…do you think that?" I asked, hesitant, not sure if I wanted to know.
"Because there was a Code Scanner in the safe with the plans, dismantled, there were pieces of it everywhere. I think what happened was that Ulmar had intended the machine he built—which I also destroyed, by the way—I think he meant for it to create a path from Perim into Earth. But it backfired somehow." H'earring scraped a claw across the counter top, not looking at me, "I guess they accidently pulled someone or something from Earth instead. Either way, it looked as though Ulmar had abandoned the project and started working on the IRA."
"But when he saw the opportunity it presented with me in the armor…" I trailed off, understanding. Ulmar had used that mockery of a Code Scanner to create a wormhole generator, pinpoint my location, and pull my Earth-self through to Perim. I could only guess that my Chaotic-self had either vanished or merged with my Earth-self after that.
"I guess dreams really do come true." I scowled. So physical travel between Earth and Perim was possible. And I hadn't been the one to discover how it worked. For some reason, it infuriated me. And made me insanely jealous. That discovery was supposed to have been mine.
"I'm finished eating." I said, standing up, "Let's go back and help, huh?" H'earring jumped up eagerly and as we walked back towards the room I couldn't help but notice the spring in my step and the bubbly feeling in my chest.
I was going home!
We created an involuntary system for working on the Generator (we really couldn't think of anything else to call it). Tom, Peyton, and Sarah ported in together at infrequent intervals so that people in the Port Court wouldn't get suspicious; their cover story, if anyone asked, was that they had started looking for Ghost again who had supposedly shown up in the OverWorld. Not quite the truth, but not quite a lie either.
I had become something of the director for the project. I'd never actually seen the inside of a Code Scanner and I was absolutely delighted to find out that my science fair project had been extremely close to the real thing with just a few minor flaws. Because I understood the mechanics and science behind its workings better than the others, I kept a tight hold on the plans and directed the group in the instructions. When I got to worn out, I took a short nap in the corner while the other kept working. My sleep was a clash of nightmares of murders and dreams of going home and I always woke up feeling dissatisfied and restless.
I wanted to be home so badly.
A week went by and we were only halfway finished. Frafdo's attack had made me extremely wary. I felt that Perim thought I had overstayed my welcome. Whenever Garv had visitors, all activity around the Generator ceased and I hid myself as best I could. As these interruptions were few and far between, our work was rarely interrupted.
But I was eager to get home and to me it felt as though the work wasn't going fast enough. I wore myself out trying hard to finish it, forcing myself to keep going even when I knew I should stop. I was berated by my friends and by Garv and Najarin but I was absolutely determined to finish it and go home and never come back.
"Kaz," Someone touched my shoulder and I jerked upright, looking around wildly. It was Peyton, "Dude, you're falling asleep on the job again."
"Huh?" So I had. I been slowly drifting off, slumped over a pile of wires and circuitry.
"Maybe you should go take a nap." Peyton suggested but I shrugged him off.
"I'm not tired, I can keep working." I insisted, grabbing a handful of wires.
"Kaz," Najarin this time, "Go get some rest before you make a mistake."
I glared at him, my pride stinging, but stood and stomped over to a corner. Once there, I sat down with my back in between the two walls and glared as everyone else kept on working.
At some point, I drifted off to sleep.
"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" H'earring was shouting, "Come on, Lazy Bones, wake up!"
'Mm—huh—what!?" I flew to my feet and H'earring tumbled off my lap where he'd been perched, shaking me, "Oh, sorry H'earring." I helped him back to his feet, "What's up?"
"We finished it!" Tom shouted, plowing into me. The next thing I knew, I was in the middle of a huge group hug that consisted of Sarah, Peyton, Tom, and H'earring who was dangling off my legs.
"It's done!? Completely!? All of it!?" I gasped, extracting myself from my friends and running up to the machine. I ran my hands over the steel and wires, tracing them, thinking in my head their purpose, and finally turned back to my friends, grinning. When I spoke, my words came out breathlessly, "I can go home…!"
"There's still one more thing." Garv held out his hand. My Code Scanner rested on it. I knew it was mine. I'd know my Code Scanner from anyone else's. I reached out and picked it up; it felt foreign to me, somehow. There was time when I was happy to have it. Now I could only think about how it had ruined my life.
"Put it in the cradle." Najarin pointed to a thing not unlike the dock in the Dromes that was hooked around to the massive wall of machinery.
"Hold on a second," Sarah interjected, stopping me as I approached the cradle, "Didn't you say that even though this thing was designed to break into our world, it backfired and only pulled things from Earth?"
I grinned at that, "I fixed the calculations that Ulmar messed up on. His problem is that if something doesn't work the first time, he gives up on it. I'd already figured out most of formulas for the wormholes and stuff, I just added on to what the little creep had already done."
"So we're absolutely sure this thing will send you home?" Tom asked, "To our home town, I mean. Couldn't it spit you out anywhere?"
"The Scanner will act as the anchor." Garv explained, "Kaz will have to take it with him as he goes through the wormhole it generates."
"That's the tricky part…" I sighed, "But I'll manage." I placed my Code Scanner in the cradle and took a couple of steps back.
"Ready?" Najarin asked, hand hovering over the switch to activate the whole thing.
"Yeah—no, wait." I turned back to my friends, knelt down, and pulled H'earring into a hug, "I'll miss you. Promise you won't go back to the UnderWorld."
"Not a chance." The little Creature laughed, "Garv's already said I could stay here with him."
"Take care of yourself." I muttered. My chest hurt. I wasn't ever coming back to Perim. I wouldn't ever see him again. I blinked rapidly, fighting back the tears. I was not going to cry.
"See you guys around." I said, holding out my hand to Peyton. He passed it up and hauled me into a giant, back-cracking hug that lifted me off the floor a little bit. Then he slapped my shoulder, grinning.
"You'll do good, Kazzudie!" He said.
I turned to Sarah and held out my hand. She rolled her eyes and gave me a hug. When she backed up she said, "Don't do anything else stupid, alright. I'm tired of having to save the day." She kissed my cheek and I felt my face burn.
"Uh, y-yeah. Sure." I looked away quickly and met Tom's gaze, "See you on the other side."
"I'll be waiting for you." He answered, crossing his arms.
I turned back to the machine and said to Najarin, "Make sure you destroy this thing when you're done."
"You needn't worry about that." Najarin responded and flipped the switch. The air in front of the Generator warped like a spiraling heat wave and pulled into a vortex that glowed brilliant gold. I sucked in a breath and said over the roar,
"Bye guys!"
Then I took off at a run, my bare feet churning into the cement floor. Some part of me realized that I was still in the blue pants and tunic of the OverWorld. It was too late to do something about it now.
It was weird.
At the moment, everything seemed to go to fast but now, looking back, it feels like everything happened in slow motion.
I could hear myself breathing harshly and my heart thudding loudly and my feet hitting the floor.
All I could see was that wormhole in front of me, my way home.
I saw my hand reach out for my Code Scanner as I ran by the cradle, felt my fingers curl around its familiar shape, felt a slight second of resistance and then it was free and in my hand.
I fell into the wormhole.
Everything became distorted after that.
There was no sense of direction; no up, no down, no left, no right, no nothing. I wasn't sure if I was spinning or if I was stable or if I was even moving at all.
All I could see was gold and white and red.
And then, just for a second, I saw stars. Not stars like when you hit your head really hard but stars like those in the sky. Only these stars were huge and very close and glowed eerie colors: crimsons and emerald greens and cerulean blues against a vast expanse of dark violet. It was just for a second but I think what I saw in that second was the multi-verse; the idea of multiple worlds all next to one another, all floating in a limbo that connected them all. Even if that's not what it was, I won't forget that sight. It was breath-taking.
Which was good, really, because as soon as I came out of the wormhole, I hit the ground so hard that it knocked the rest of wind out of me. I skidded across what could only be pavement on my stomach, my face against the hard surface, flipped head over heels a couple of times, and ended up in snow.
My head was spinning, my chest was on fire with pain, there was gravel stuck in the cuts on my face and other exposed bits of skin, and I'd bit the inside of my lip at some point and now there was blood leaking out the side of my mouth. I lay in the snow, trying to get my breath back, feeling heavy and light-headed. But I could still feel my Code Scanner in my hand.
A door slammed, I heard footsteps, and then someone was shouting for an ambulance. Hands rolled me gently onto my back and I groaned, looking up at an overcast, gray sky. A girl's face came into view,
"Are you alright!? What happened to you!?"
"Car…" I managed to squeeze out, the pain making it hard to get a proper breath it, "What…street?"
"What street is this? Is that what you want to know?"
I made a noise of consent, closing my eyes. My head was throbbing.
"No, don't close your eyes! I'm a med student! You need to keep your eyes open!" She sounded slightly panicked, "This is Billiard Road! Tell me your name! What's your name?"
I smiled a little. Billiard Road was two blocks down from my house.
I was home.
"I need you to tell me your name!"
I was finally home…
"What's your name!?"
Sirens blared in the distance.
"What! Is! Your! Name!?"
"It's Kaz…"
I'm home…
Friggen' awesome long chapter.
KAZ IS HOME! KAZ IS HOME! KAZZER IS HOOOOOMMMMMEEEEE!!!!!! I'm so happy! I finally got him home! Yyyyaaaaaayyyyyy! (hugs Kaz) This is so AWESOME! (hugs everybody)
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How do you like them Snickerdoodles?
