Emily put on a yellow hazardous suit and chemical gas mask. The smell of fresh plastic filled her nose. The blue gloves and yellow plastic hoodie reminded her of a tv show that involved narcotics and a high school drug dealer.

"Alright Clank," Edwin said in his own hazardous materials gear, "time for your portal gun." He unzipped his backpack. Clank hopped out onto the ground. "Set the dilation to normal. We don't wanna get distracted in there."

"Affirmative." Clank unlocked his chest to reveal a glowing power source inside. The blue energy glowed at the wall in front of him, and lit into a laser at the wall's surface. The laser quickly grew into a blue outline of a portal, looking like a mirror from their point of view.

Emily's eyes widened. This was why Sabrina could never find his lab. Edwin simply carried the gatekey wherever he went. Clank hid in the school backpack he always carried casually, all he had to do was ask Clank to open the portal in whatever surface was nearby.

"Alright Emily," Edwin put on his gas mask. "Normally I set it so that a few days in there, equals a few hours out here. But since I we're only doing one thing, I'd rather not risk spending too much time in there."

"Risks?" Emily asked in a hesitant voice. "Is it dangerous if we stay there for too long?"

Edwin lifted a hand up in defense, "er, not really dangerous. Just… bad..."

Emily stayed quiet, wondering what sort of risks could lie for her on the other side.

Edwin shook his head, "what I mean is, tinkering takes a lot of time. Our inventions might look impressive, but it actually takes a lot of work and supplies to get projects into gear. So Vivan suggested I make a pocket dimension, one where one year in there could equate to one day out here. That way, projects that would normally take months to make can take hours in real time. The only problem is, Tinkers tend to lose track of time when they're obsessing over tinkering. Sort of like..." Edwin wanted to give a relatable example, but he wasn't sure if Emily would get it.

Emily snapped her fingers, "like playing video games all night, and forgetting what the time is."

Edwin snapped back at her, "bingo. We lose track of time easily, could you imagine if I went in there and came out looking like I'm forty?"

"So you set the clock on normal, so that someone can get you if you stay for too long?"

Edwin nodded, "Clank normally chooses the best time dilation for me, depending on the project. I've also got several alarms in there as a precaution. I never bring food or sleeping gear to avoid staying longer than a day. But the best reminder for me is to put the time dilation to normal, so that I don't think I've got all the time in the world."

Emily looked over to the portal. She stepped closer, and tapped at its surface. The mirror wobbled upon touch, making it look and feel like she was tapping on floating water. "Incredible."

Edwin grinned, glad to have another person to be impressed by his inventions, "you ain't seen nothing yet."

They walked into the portal. When Clank stepped through, the portal closed behind them, cutting off the only entry point.

Inside, the tunnel was thin. About three meters tall and three meters wide. The surrounding edges were an alternating pinkish purple color, shifting warm colors as they crossed an interdimensional bridge to the lab. The temperature was fresh, like wildlife of a rainforest made the air delicious to breathe. Emily was awestruck by what was around her. Edwin mentioned, "this tunnel determines the time speed for the pocket dimension. The colors were Aryana's idea…It's more for fun than for anything else."

They walked another ten minutes before reaching the other side of the tunnel. Another portal was already established there. It was orange instead of blue. "Are there chemicals inside that I can't breathe?" Emily asked, with some last minute anxieties. "Is it dangerous if I take off this mask?"

"Er, no, I just felt like cosplaying like Breaking Bad."

Stepping through, Emily was awestruck by the sight of another earth. It was hill over a meadow that stretched on for miles. There were no buildings or people, just pure, safe, nature. Edwin had an entire planet to himself. The flowers were completely untouched, mountains overlooked from the distance. A spring chill blew at the meadow grass. The sky was so earthly, Emily thought the pollution free air was an improvement from where she'd just been.

"It's beautiful here." Emily looked within the grass. She noticed the miniature, human like creatures with plants on their heads frolicking across the grass. Her eyes widened, "are those… Pikmin!?"

She gleed in excitement. She loved the game growing up, but she never expected to see living, colorful creatures running around in front of her.

"Life-tinkering is my gold," Edwin explained. "Or anything that can grow itself. I've even got a few farm animals that produce flesh for biology tinkering. The pikmin here are plant tinkering. They grow and pollinate like real plants. Except they aren't really intelligent like animals, they just mimic consciousness like they did in the game. You can gesture for them to follow you, except they can't attack anything."

Edwin gestured for Emily to walk forward a little. Emily was still grinning at the sight of the adorable creatures. Up ahead, there was a metal shed at the top of the hill. "That's my lab," he explained. "I make everything in there. The pikmin was Vivan's idea, we're gonna have to catch some for what Robert needs."

"You don't have to tell me twice, bro," Emily happily began picking up a dozen yellow colored pikmin she passed by.

Edwin shook his head. "You… Probably shouldn't get too attached."

"Why not?"

"We're going to put them in a blender."

"What?"

XXX

Emily wanted to cry. She could hardly watch as Edwin smashed them with blunt objects to crush them into powder. "For the last time," Edwin explained, "they're plants, not animals! They've got as much feeling as sunflowers!"

The lab was as mixture of high tech circuitry, and regular tools that could be found in a tool shed. The large lab was divided into subsections, each for Leet's specific types of tinkering. There was a long steel work bench for blunt mechanical creations. A fish aquarium labelled 'babel fish' hung from the ceiling. A large 'darkspore' cloning machine took up space in the corner of the room, with a computer to design monsters for Leet to experiment on. A microscope desk for molecular tinkering, plants and mice for life tinkering.

At the moment, Edwin was working in front of the chemical tinkering lab, watching a recording as he smashed the Pikimin into dust. "I like sunflowers," Emily said quietly, hearing another pikmin die. "I even like Dandelions, even though they're weeds…. I hate picking flowers, because it's still the same as killing them."

"Look Emily," Edwin said, not taking his eyes off the monitor screen in front of him. "This is a two person job. I brought you here because each of us needs to know how to use my tinker inventions. We make a lot of money through these ingredients, so you've gotta learn to do this so that you can use my lab if I die, or something."

Emily looked over at the screen, "you need to use the instruction videos to make this stuff? I thought since you're a tinker you wouldn't need the help."

"I can't tinker the same thing twice," he said. "Or I kind of can, but it's always harder to make the same thing a second time. It's like my mind forgets. When Aryana and Vivan first joined us, the first thing they made me do was make a bionic eye for myself. Now I can record everything I tinker. In the case of chemical mixing, I can create thousands of different tinker formulas through these Pikmin, but I'll forget them once I do it once. So I record the ingredients, and Marvin designs these videos so that anyone can follow the instructions… And that includes for myself, later."

Edwin smashed another pikmin, to which Emily winced. "So… That's how you replicate your tinkering? Through your videos?"

"Not quite," Edwin admitted. "I also sell these videos to Toy Box for them to recreate. They get schematics for my inventions and can sell them to whoever they want. In exchange they let me buy back my inventions for a discounted price. It's a pretty good deal since I get to use my inventions again. Pikmin formulas like these are easy, but I need Toy Box for bigger projects. Like robots, nanobots, or teleporters. Youtube videos aren't enough for anyone to make those on their own."

Edwin crushed the head of another pikmin, and Emily couldn't help but imagine it screaming. She turned around in her chair to stop watching. "This is so cruel…"

"Emily," Edwin groaned, "you have to learn how to do this. They're just flowers, they're not animals, or-"

"Edwin," Emily glared at the wall, "I liked that game. It's the reason I got into botany in the first place. On days I'd get sad, I sit down and talk to my flowers. I still take care of flowers I've had for years. So don't tell me they're flowers like they mean nothing."

Edwin's mouth shrunk, he didn't know he was being inconsiderate. Trying to better relate to her, he pointed to a pikmin in the corner of the room, "see that purple one?"

Emily looked over, it was the biggest pikmin in the room. It stayed there quietly watching Edwin as he worked. "That's the first pikmin I ever made. I keep it because it's special. So I guess I can get where you're coming from, but try not to think of them as sentient beings. Think of them like... medical ingredients. Some flowers are used for personal reasons, others are used for medicine."

Emily slouched, she looked over to him and said, "Edwin. We're making drugs, not medicine."

Edwin sighed, "help me out here Emily, I don't want you to be upset over this."

She hated that he was right. The plant medicine analogy had already won her over. She swallowed her pride, and began smashing the friendly looking creatures into highly potent narcotics.

XXX

Emily and Edwin walked back through to tunnel home. She was less amazed than she was before she entered. Whereas before she was excited, this time she was upset at herself for crushing such life like creatures. She was fully aware that her emotions were irrational, but the awareness did nothing to quell them.

"Uh, Emily." She turned to him, and saw him handing a young, albino colored pikmin with red eyes and red wings. "This for you."

Emily tilted her head, the little pikmin flew onto her shoulder like it knew her. He said, "I figured since I have one I always keep, you should have one too. This one won't pollinate, so don't worry about it reproducing on earth. I added wings so that it can stay safe. Just… Make sure you don't squish it… Or something."

Emily smiled in excitement, she held the tiny creature in the palm of her hands. "Thank you, Edwin."