Paraworld Zero (6 page)

    “I can’t believe this is happening,” Simon yelled as the cop blew his
whistle. “We have to hide!”

    “I don’t understand,” Tonya said, gawking at the tall buildings. “Professor
Gwyn said this civilization lived mostly underground. This is Marsupia, isn’t it?”

    “What?” Simon asked, looking for cover.

    “Marsupia? Paraworld 1423?”

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

    He dragged her to the entrance of a narrow alley between two small buildings.
Abandoned shopping carts, large beat-up dumpsters, and homeless people filled the sidewalks. At
the end of the street, a never-ending parade of cars zoomed by, traveling perpendicular to the
alley.

    “
Freeze!
” shouted the policeman.

    Tonya continued her babbling. “So if this isn’t Paraworld 1423, then that
means I’m gonna miss my test! I can’t believe I got lost on my very first field trip—Professor
Gwyn will be so upset with me. I won’t even be able to see the twin moons of Marsupia. Oh, and I
heard they’re so lovely this time of year.”

    “You’re going to see the inside of a prison cell in a moment unless you do
something quick.”

    “Oh, my goodness,” she gasped, finally realizing the situation they were in.
The girl waved her wand in a quick circle, and everything went black.

    “Well, this isn’t what I meant,” she scolded her wand. From the smell of old
fish and rotten eggs, Simon knew exactly where they had been transported to: the inside of a
dumpster.

    “Quiet,” he whispered.

    For about a good minute, Tonya held her tongue, but then, as if receiving an
epiphany, she blurted, “Wait a second! You’re not an old man. You’re just a little runt!”

    “I’m twelve years old,” Simon said. “You can’t be much older than me.”

    “I’m almost fourteen years old—thank you very much. What’s your name,
anyway?”

    “Simon Kent.”

    “Wow, you have two names?”

    “Actually, I have three: Simon Theo—”

    “Huh, you must be important. In my paraworld we only have one name. Well,
unless you’re a duke, or a lord, or a cleric—nobility sometimes have three names, unless, of
course, you’re a—”

    “What do you mean by
paraworld?
”

    “Parallel worlds,” she said bluntly, as if that was all the explanation
needed.

    “What do you mean by
parallel worlds?
” he asked.

    “You know!
Paa-raaa-llel wor-lds
,” she said, breaking the words up slowly. “Maybe my translation
spell is wearing off. It’s supposed to be permanent.”

    Simon sighed. The reality of what had just happened was starting to sink
in.

    “Let me get some light in here,” she said. Just then, radiant beams of light
shot out of her fingertips and flooded the inside of the smelly dumpster.

    “Turn it off! Turn it off!”

    “Sorry,” Tonya said, clenching her fist. She opened her hand, and a faint
luminescent glow emitted from the tip of her forefinger. “I’m not very good at magic yet.”

    “That was some pretty amazing stuff you did back there.”

    “Well, I don’t know how that happened. All I meant to do was flash that boy
in the eyes with some light, and the next thing I knew, I was casting spells like I was a super—”
She paused. “No—an
ultramage
. You know, after three weeks of school, about the most I’ve ever been able to do
was turn on my nightlight… Strange… I’ve never felt such power before.”

    “How did you get here?” Simon asked.

    “With a paratransmitter, silly!” She laughed. “You’re a funny little boy. You
act as if you’ve never seen one before.” She patted the book-shaped device in her hand. “This
isn’t one of those retarded paraworlds, is it? Where everyone has the IQ of a slug.”

    “This is Earth,” Simon answered, exasperated.

    “Earth? Earth? Never heard of it. Book, show me the coordinates of Earth.”
The paratransmitter groaned as if it had just busted a sprocket. Rows of lights flickered on and
off, and then the whole thing went dead. “This thing’s defective! I really… I real… I…
ACHOO!
” As Tonya let out a huge sneeze, she blew a large hole in the side of the dumpster.
Trash flew into the air like feathers blowing in a windstorm. “Ah,
nuts,
” she cried.

    “We better get out of here!” Simon shouted.

    

    

    After seeing the explosion, a homeless man took a long swig from his bottle
and watched the two children crawl out of the gaping hole. The old man took another gulp of
whisky while Simon and Tonya ran down the alley.

    A black shadow emerged from behind the dumpster and gazed at the torn metal
in awe. The exit wound looked like some ferocious creature had ripped itself from the confines of
the dumpster. The young man caressed his ivory-handled knife as he admired the damage. He turned
and followed after Simon and Tonya.

    

    

    Simon spotted a yellow taxicab parked at the side of the road. He opened the
car door, and they both jumped in.

    “Take us anywhere!” he said.

    “Hold your horses, little boy. Let me see your money first,” the taxi driver
said in an Indian accent. No glass or metal partition separated the driver side from the
passenger side; instead, the vehicle was equipped with a digital security camera.

    Simon looked at the cab driver’s name badge and said, “Come on, Abu. Help us
out.”

    Peering out the window, Tonya saw two policemen run by. The officers both
headed down the alley where the deformed dumpster lay.

    “No can do. I have seven children, three cats, two goldfish, and a fat wife
to feed. Now run along before I get nasty.”

    Simon opened his fanny pack and took out two crumpled dollar bills. “How far
will this take us?”

    “
Ohhh, my golly-golly!
” Abu squealed, looking at the small video game that had fallen out
of Simon’s pouch. “My kids just love those things! Tell me, do you have Space Goobers?”

    “Well, uh…” Simon fumbled in his fanny pack. “No, but I do have Alien
Combat.”

    “
Oooooh
, I tell you what. I’m going to Central Park to have lunch with my wife. For your
Alien Combat, I take you with me. Deal?”

    Simon struggled in his seat. He didn’t want to give up his game.

    Still looking out the window, Tonya saw the two policemen emerge from the
alley and start to walk in their direction. A homeless man trailed behind them, gesturing wildly
with his hands. Suddenly, the old man stopped and pointed towards the cab.

    Without hesitation, Tonya snatched the video game out of Simon’s hand and
threw it to Abu, yelling, “Deal! Now drive!”

    “Okey-dokey,” the cabdriver said, pressing his foot on the gas.

    Both kids fell back into their seats as Abu swerved into the onslaught of
traffic like a madman. Within a second, the vehicle was swallowed up by a river of yellow
taxicabs.

Chapter 4
    

    

    Tonya looked out the cab window in amazement. “This is fantastic!” she
exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. What do you call this?”

    “Danger,” Simon said, snapping on his seat belt.

    “I think some of the paraworlds with limited E.M. waves have motorized
contraptions like this, but why—”

    “Excuse me for listening to your conversation,” Abu interrupted, “but what
are E.M. waves?”

    “Electro-magical waves of energy. You know—the power source for magic.”

    “Oh, how interesting. Please continue.”

    Simon shot him a dirty look for interrupting their conversation.

    “Are you telling me you’ve never heard of electro-magical waves?” Tonya said
with obvious disbelief in her voice.

    “Yes,” Simon and Abu both replied.

    “Abu, keep your eyes on the road,” Simon warned as the cab veered sharply
into the next lane.

    Tonya looked dumbfounded. “This world is
full
of E.M. waves, and you’re not even aware of magic?”

    “I’ve never heard of these ‘E.M. waves,’ and I doubt anyone else has
either.”

    At that moment, Tonya’s book gave five sharp beeps. A row of lights on the
top of the device lit up. “Impossible,” she said. “There’s no way this could be charged
already.”

    “What do you mean?” Simon asked.

    “Well, normally my paratransmitter takes all day to recharge itself, but it
looks like it’s already fully charged.” A bewildered expression formed on Simon’s face. Tonya
gasped. “Oh, come on! You know what a paratransmitter is, don’t you?”

    Simon shrugged. He wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

    “When transporting to an alternate dimension, you can’t just snap your
fingers and find your way to the correct parallel world. And even if you could, you’d probably
end up in an ocean somewhere, or even worse… you could emerge right in the middle of a solid
object. That’s where a mobile paratransmitter comes in handy. They’ve been around for a couple
years now. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them.”

    “What do they do?”

    “This little magical device stores up a ton of E.M. energy so it can
transport you to the correct coordinates in the paraverse. The downside is that you then have to
wait for it to collect enough E.M. energy to transport you back. But, hey, it’s much faster than
the old way of paratravel.”

    “Oh,” Simon said, furling his eyebrows. “So what exactly are these ‘parallel
worlds’ you’re talking about?”

    “‘Parallel worlds?’ You’re not pulling my leg, are you?”

    “There will be no leg pulling in this car, thank you,” Abu informed her,
misunderstanding the idiomatic expression.

    Simon ignored the driver and said, “Tonya, listen to me. We don’t have magic
on Earth, and we don’t travel to other worlds. Most people would think you’re nuts for even
suggesting such a thing.”

    Frustrated, Tonya spoke to her paratransmitter. “Book, give me the definition
of parallel worlds.”

    The book moaned for a brief second, and then strange words appeared on the
little screen. A voice sounded from the book.

    

    
“Parallel Worlds: Unique, alternate worlds that share the same location in space and time.
Each parallel world is linked to the other worlds by an electro-magical force that acts like a
conduit from one dimension to the next. Consequently, this electro-magical energy can also be
tapped into for the use of magical spells and for transportation between other parallel worlds.
See also paraverse.”

    

    Simon rubbed his eyes. “Wow, now I’m really confused.”

    Tonya retorted, “Look, Simon, think of it as the road we’re on right now. We
have a lane to our left and a lane to our right. Each lane is like a parallel universe. We’re all
driving on the same road and going in the same direction, so each lane is parallel with the
other. Now imagine that our car represents Earth. Let’s just say that the car to our right is my
paraworld, Chamel. For you to go from Earth to Chamel, you’d have to jump from this lane to the
next lane. And like I said earlier, without the help from a paratransmitter, there’s no way you
could make the jump.”

    “Okay, I think I understand,” Simon said. “It’s almost like a video
game.”

    “It would also be a good idea for a book,” Abu added thoughtfully.

    “Abu, we’re trying to have a private conversation here,” Simon scolded.

    “Alrighty, I will not be listening anymore,” the cabdriver said. “No
listening from me. Nope! Not at all. My ears are shut.”

    Simon turned to Tonya. “How did all of this happen?”

    “Well, after creating the original world, God got bored and thought to
himself: ‘I wonder what would have happened if I had done this?’ So he started experimenting and
then boom, boom, boom—tons of parallel worlds were born.”

    “Really?”

    “No, I’m just pulling your leg,” she teased.

    Abu reacted. “I thought I said there will be no leg pulling in my—”

    “Sorry!” she interrupted with a smile. “To tell you the truth, Simon, I don’t
know how it happened. It’s the same thing with magic: Nobody knows where the E.M. waves come
from.”

    Simon sighed deeply. This was a lot to take in. If he hadn’t seen her magic
firsthand, he would have dropped her off at the nearest looney bin. He looked over at the girl
and noticed that her hair was slowly fading to a dark brown color. “Tonya, what’s happening to
your hair?”