This chapter is inspired by "Dopplerganger" from Earth Prime's Earth-210 Section.
Chapter 21:
The trio ran down a street, ducking into an alleyway. Michael took the timer out and handed it to Sam as he caught his breath.
"Wow..." Michael said, panting. "I wish I knew that our doubles were freedom fighters."
"So do I. And I wish we knew that this world has laser gun technology." Sam said. "Thankfully, we only have a minute left."
"There they are!" a voice shouted, and the sound of a gun charging up was heard.
"Duck!" Rebecca shouted.
"Wait!" Sam said holding the timer up defensively. A laser blast shot at the timer and it flew out of Sam's hand.
"I got it." Michael said, picking it up. "Now!" he aimed it at the wall, the portal opened, and the trio jumped through.
They fell out of the portal in the alleyway and stood up and brushed themselves off.
"Well then, how much time do we have?" Rebecca asked.
"I don't know..." Michael said.
"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked.
"The display is all wonky." Michael said. "We're going to need to replace some parts. Is there an electronics store around here?"
"I remember there was Doppler Electronics, back in the 90's, but they closed down years ago." Sam said.
"Worth a shot to look for it." Michael said as they walked out of the alley.
They walked up to a busy storefront, the sign on the building proudly exclaiming, "Doppler Electronics."
"Looks like it still exists here, let's see if they have someone who can help us." Michael said walking into the store.
"Let's ask that woman, looks like she works here." Sam said, pointing to the woman at the counter.
"Good idea." Rebecca said.
They walked up to the counter.
"Excuse us, miss." Michael started. The woman looked up, revealing a familiar face, that of Wade Welles.
"Wade!" Rebecca said.
"Yes, that's me, Wade Welles. You must recognize me from the commercials." Wade said. "What can I help you with?"
"Yeah, we have a... unique problem, that we're not sure that you have the tools to help with." Michael said.
"This is the largest electronics chain in the country, I'm sure we can help you." Wade said smiling.
"Do you know anything about... sliding?" Michael asked. Wade's eyes widened.
"Give me a moment." she said. She turned around and took out a phone. She dialed a number. "Are you busy? Good, I'm bringing someone to you now."
"Everything okay?" Rebecca asked.
"Yes, just come with me." Wade replied, leading the trio to an elevator.
"Where exactly are we going?" Michael asked.
"I'm taking you to the CEO." Wade replied.
"He's in the basement of this store? I thought it was the largest chain, why isn't he at corporate?" Rebecca asked.
"Quinn always wanted to stay at the first store. He's insane." Wade said. "Anyway, we're here."
They stepped out of the elevator and into a corridor. Wade led them down the hall until they reached a door only marked with a "Q". Wade knocked on the door and it opened.
"Come in." a voice said. They walked in and saw Quinn Mallory in a suit, sitting behind a desk. "Hello there. You must be the people Wade was talking about."
"We are. You're familiar with sliding?" Michael asked.
"Of course! Got my start with it. I wouldn't have had the funds to buy out Doppler and turn it into this without the first timer I built." Quinn replied.
"Wow. So, it didn't give you any problems?" Sam asked.
"Well, it was hard to control at first, but after I went to Professor Arturo, and we showed it off at a scientific conference, and patented it together, we made a lot of money." Quinn said.
"You didn't lose your coordinates?" Rebecca asked.
"Nope. We could have had a ton of problems though. Cause if we turned the power up too high, it could have dragged anyone in a two block radius into the vortex." Quinn said. "But we refined it, and here we are."
"Wow. Well, getting straight to the point, uh, on the last world we went to, our timer got hit by a laser, and now it's not working and if we don't get it working before the timer reaches zero, well you know." Michael said.
"You'll be stuck here for thirty years." Quinn said.
"Yep." Michael said.
"I can help. I just need to drag out the blueprints for my timer to see what you burned out." Quinn said.
"Great!" Michael said. "As long as we can fix it, we can hopefully get ourselves back on track."
"Okay, so Wade will take you to a hotel while I fix it up and I'll give it back to you when I'm done." Quinn said, smiling.
"Thanks!" Michael said.
"Should we trust him?" Rebecca asked.
"Come on, he's a billionaire, our timer means nothing to him." Michael said.
"Okay..." Rebecca said, unsure.
The trio walked into a dark hotel room and turned on the lights. The room was much larger than their regular room, and had three beds.
"Finally! My own bed!" Michael shouted.
"For one world." Rebecca said.
"Better than never." Sam said.
"Listen, Michael, do you trust this Quinn?" Rebecca asked.
"Sure I do. If I don't have to fix it myself it's for the better, considering Quinn could probably do it better than me." Michael replied.
"But we'll go back tomorrow, hopefully he'll have it fixed." Sam said.
"Yep!" Michael said. "And I am beat from that last world. I am going to bed."
The trio walked back into Doppler Electronics and walked up to Wade.
"Is Quinn done with our device yet?" Rebecca asked.
"He should be, I'll take you to his workshop." Wade replied.
They took the elevator down and exited into a corridor that led to a large room that looked vaguely like Quinn's room from Earth Prime. Quinn was sitting at a table with his head in his hands.
"Is something wrong?" Wade asked.
"I'm a fraud, Wade!" Quinn said. "I never invented sliding. The Professor did. I don't know the first thing about fixing one of these, all I know is that the Professor gave me enough money to make a name for myself in another field because I helped him, and he's off in another world or something."
"Stand back." Michael said. "I built that thing, I should be able to fix it."
Michael sat at the table and started putting together parts. After a couple of minutes, the timer hummed and the screen lit up.
"Success!" Michael shouted. "And we're tracking a wormhole!"
"Great!" Sam said.
"And we have less than a minute to slide." Michael said and quickly aimed the timer at the wall and jumped through.
"Thanks for at least giving us the parts to fix the timer." Rebecca said as she jumped into the portal.
"Good luck with your store." Sam said, leaping into the portal.
To Be Continued...