Chapter 27:
Michael awoke and turned to the clock. He glanced at it and sat up.
"Sam! Rebecca!" he shouted, as he grabbed at the end table and picked up a piece of paper. "Oh, they're at breakfast. I'd better join them."
Suddenly a portal opened and Michael stepped back as a figure emerged from it.
"Who are you?" Michael asked.
"Right, we wiped your memory. Allow me to fix that." the figure said, holding a device up and it flashed, blinding Michael.
"What the?" Michael asked as the memory flooded back. "You..."
"Indeed." the figure said, stepping out of the shadows, revealing himself to be Michael's double.
"You and Tiberius have been tracking me!"
"Yes, we have. And you've done good. No progress on getting home, though."
"You bastards!"
"Calm down, I'm just here to assess your progress. Which is minimal."
"Fine then. Go away."
"Just one more thing left t do." he held the device up again. It flashed as Michael shut his eyes tightly.
"Ugh..." Michael held his head, stumbling back onto the bed.
"Imbecile..." his double said, opening a portal and walking into it.
"Check and mate..." Michael laughed.
Later, Sam and Rebecca sat on the bed as Michael finished his story.
"And that's what happened." Michael said.
"Why can't we remember?" Sam asked.
"I told you, they wiped it. But they restored mine." Michael replied.
"What do we do?" Rebecca asked.
"First, I remove the tracker." Michael started, as he grabbed the timer and began to take it apart. "Second, you slide without me."
"What?" Sam and Rebecca asked in unison.
"I think they might be tracking me as well." Michael replied.
"But we need you!" Rebecca shouted.
"I'm just keeping you in danger." Michael said. "Now hand me that pair of wire cutters. I'm getting that tracker out."
Later, Michael handed the timer to Sam. Michael stepped back, and sighed.
"Get her home safe." Michael said.
"I will, buddy." Sam said.
"Isn't there any way you can stay with us?" Rebecca asked.
"No. I'm content to live my life here, where I'm not endangering you two. This world seems normal enough." Michael replied.
"Since we might not see each other again..." Rebecca leaned in and kissed Michael on the lips.
"We have to go." Sam said.
"Goodbye." Michael said, as the portal opened.
"Bye." Sam said, jumping into the portal.
"I'm going to miss you." Rebecca said.
"I know." Michael said, as Rebecca followed Sam through the portal. Michael took the tracker out, dropped it on the floor and stepped on it.
Later, Michael sat on the bed, searching through the phone book. He sat up when a portal opened on the wall. His double walked out frowning.
"Tsk tsk. You shouldn't have done that. Now you're stranded here." his double said.
"You can't track them anymore. That's all that matters." Michael said.
"But you can't return to them. Doesn't that make you sad?" he asked.
"Yeah, but it was for the greater good." Michael said.
"You are aware that we're going to imprison you, right?"
"Yep. Arrest me right now."
"Really? You're coming quietly?"
"Sure, what do I have to lose?"
"Okay then..." his double walked up to him, as Michael held his hands out. As his double went to grab a pair of handcuffs from his pocket, Michael punched him in the face, as his double's timer flew across the room. Michael ran and picked it up.
"Did I say quietly? I meant loudly!" Michael shouted, tapping the timer's activation button.
"No! Stop! You'll glitch the timer out! And it'll lose it's home coordinates!" his double shouted.
"Doesn't matter to me!" Michael shouted and jumped through the portal.
He emerged in a hallway, slamming into a wall. He stood up and brushed himself off, and started running down the hallway, looking for a sign of where he was.
"Where am I?" he asked, as he looked at the timer. "Wherever it is, I'm stuck here for a week."
He continued walking forward, keeping his gaze fixed on the timer, when he bumped into a woman, knocking her papers to the floor.
"I am so sorry." Michael said, looking up at her. "Rebecca..."
"It's fine... Oh my god. You're Michael Josephson, right?" Rebecca's double asked.
"I am... how do you know who I am?" Michael replied.
"You disappeared a few months ago."
"I did?"
"Yeah, with that other guy, what's his name..." she started.
"Sam Evans."
"Yeah, that's it."
"What did they do when I disappeared?"
"There was a huge investigation. The FBI was involved, and they even had this special agent, who I thought looked like a total stoner checking out your dorm."
"Stoner?"
"Said his name was Agent Bennish."
"Wait, so I disappeared, with Sam, and the Golden Gate Bridge is orange?"
"Yes..."
"This is fantastic!" Michael smiled. "Did they give away my dorm?"
"Not yet, they're still investigating it."
"Perfect!" Michael ran down the hall and to his dorm room. He fit his key in the door and walked in, tossing away the police tape.
Michael went to the computer and started to do research. He tapped away at the keyboard and smiled as he looked around the web.
"I'm home..." Michael smiled, then frowned. "And Sam and Rebecca aren't..."
He stood up and grabbed the papers from the table and rifled through them.
"Timer, timer, timer, ah! Timer plans!" Michael shouted. "I'm going to need help with this. I have to make sure this will be Sam's ticket home."
Michael stood at the door to the Quantum Physics class as it let out. Rebecca's double left the room and Michael started walking beside her.
"Hey there." Michael said.
"Oh! Hi, Michael." she said.
"I need your help, you're good with math, right? And believe in parallel universes, maybe?"
"Yeah, I am and I do..."
"Good. I need an assistant to help me build something."
"No way, I don't want to end up like that Sam Evans guy."
"He's fine, we were separated but he's alive and well!"
"Whatever, I'm not doing it."
"Okay, thanks anyway."
"Wait... What is it you need?"
Meanwhile, Sam and Rebecca sat in a hotel room, moping around. Rebecca threw a pillow against the wall.
"We have to go back for him!" Rebecca shouted.
"He made it clear that we can't do that. Even if we wanted to, he wiped the coordinates for that world." Sam said. "I want him back too!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't really realize how much I really liked him, despite dragging me into this." Rebecca said.
"He was my best friend." Sam said. "But he made his choice. And now we have to go on without him."
"I just hope that he's safe..." Rebecca said.
Michael was running around his dorm, as he grabbed components from the table and threw them onto the bed.
"It's not working!" Michael shouted.
"Listen, Mike. It's been two days, we aren't getting anywhere with this stuff. We need a real lab if this is going to work." Rebecca's double said.
"No one is going to believe the theory. We won't be allowed into any lab." Michael said, running his hand through his hair.
"I'm not even sure I believe it anymore." Rebecca's double said
"You think I'm nuts..." Michael said. "I figured that'd happen sooner or later. It's fine if you want to get back to your life."
"I've been meaning to ask you, why did you choose me to help you?" Rebecca's double asked.
"I told you that I can travel to parallel dimensions. In one dimension, I met that world's version of you. Your double, she got dragged into our adventures. I could never admit this to her face, but, I think very highly of her." Michael said.
"Why can't you admit it to her?" Rebecca's double asked.
"She'd get too much of an ego." Michael replied, laughing.
"Sounds like you like her a lot." Rebecca's double said.
"At first, I didn't. But yeah, I think I do." Michael said, frowning. "And I might never see her again."
"Don't say that. You're going back to find them, right?"
"Yeah, but it's like a roulette wheel. You might never hit the same spot twice."
"But then there is the chance of hitting it twice. And I think I may have figured out what you're doing wrong."
"Huh?"
"You're working with the original plans you used, but you're attempting to use this other timer as a base, to decide what parts to use."
"And?"
"And, that means that you're using two conflicting blueprints. Pick one, and stick with it."
"Fine, we'll recreate the old one."
"Now maybe we can get some work done..."
Sam and Rebecca ran from the mob, hiding behind a wall.
"How much time do we have?" Sam asked.
"About a minute left." Rebecca replied.
"Good. I don't want to live the next thirty years in prison on a world where liking the Beatles is the equivalent of treason." Sam said. Rebecca chuckled. "What?"
"I was just thinking, if Michael was here, he'd of been the one arrested." Rebecca laughed.
"Yeah..." Sam said.
"Anyway, let's get out of here." Rebecca said, opening the portal.
Michael picked up his double's timer and looked at the display. He smiled and put it down.
"Finished with two minutes to spare!" Michael said.
"And what do I do, once you leave?" Rebecca's double asked.
"Go back to your life." Michael replied. "And if I return, you can share the credit for helping with the timer."
"What if they investigate again? Where do I tell them you've gone?"
"Back to the multiverse!" Michael said. "Thank you so much for all the help."
"Don't mention it."
"Oh, and if I come back, I'm going to ask you how the weather is, and I want you to tell me, despite the actual weather, that it's a torrential downpour."
"Why?"
"So I know I'm home."
"I hope you get back."
"Thanks." Michael said, aiming the timer towards the wall. "You're gonna love this part."
The portal opened and Michael jumped through as Rebecca's double watched on, mouth agape.
To Be Continued...