Touched - Order of Odium: Book One

Together - 2

Michelle and Daniel arrived in U10 suddenly. They were standing on the ground of New York in the shadow of The Warehouse. Daniel looked at Michelle, double-checking to make sure she was okay. She was somewhat unsteady, so he grabbed her arm to help steady her.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. That was just a little weird. It didn't seem like we moved at all and then we're suddenly down on the ground. I just need a minute to wrap my head around it, that's all."

"Okay, just let me know if anything changes." Daniel looked around at their surroundings. Like the scientists had said, everything looked pretty much the same. The paint on the various ramshackle houses around them was different, as was the shape of The Warehouse. It was hard to tell from down here, but it looked like the pyramid was a little bigger, with more edges to the normally flat sides.

Daniel peered into the area underneath the building, but it was too dark to be able to discern any real differences. The community still had lights underneath to help everyone move around, but there seemed to be less of them than he remembered.

'It's been a couple of years since I've been here though, so it could be this new universe or something happened where they need fewer lights for some reason. Can't tell from here though...' he thought to himself.

"How you doing?" he asked Michelle. "Got your sea legs yet?"

"Yeah, I guess so. It's just weird. It's been so long since I've been down here. Are you sure we're in the alternate universe?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. See these shacks around us? Before I was picked up by the police, they looked different. Less ramshackle and different materials were used to make them. The main way I know is by looking up though," he pointed up at The Warehouse. "See how it looks now? The last time I saw it from the outside it was pretty much a pure pyramid shape, but now you can see parts of the building have been expanded. It's not exactly a pyramid shape anymore. If they had changed anything like that, I would assume Alek or Steven would have mentioned it, don't you think?"

Michelle stared at the building for a moment before replying, "Yeah, you're probably right. I don't think that's something they would overlook mentioning, especially knowing that we were going to be 'arriving' or whatever you want to call it, here at the outskirts of its shadow."

Michelle stopped talking and looked thoughtful.

"What's up?" Daniel asked.

Michelle turned to him, "Do you think we're here too? Like, there are alternate versions of us working for the Order? Maybe planning something similar to what we're doing right now?"

Daniel frowned, he hadn't thought of that before. "Sure, I guess so. This is only a few universes over, so we're probably up there somewhere. Might be working on a different project or something though."

"That's so weird. I never thought about it. I guess neither of us really had much of a chance to think about it much though, huh? Also, you saying 'this is only a few universes over' is fucking..." Michelle put her hands beside her head and pantomimed explosions.

"No shit, this is pretty fucking strange, isn't it? What do you want to do now? Look around a bit, or just go ahead and jump to U20?"

"No reason to look around I guess. We might as well get to U39, get the artifact and get it over with. One thing though, let me test out my ability. I want to make sure I can still summon stuff before we head off again."

"Good idea." Daniel pulled the cloth bag out of his pocket and held it out to Michelle, who took it.

"This is fucking strange, man. When I look at this without this bag around it, I see a box that's around 3-foot square. In the bag, it just feels like a small round thing." Michelle delicately removed the artifact from the bag and held it in her hands. She looked down at it, a large brown box that had somehow come out of the little bag she still held in her right hand.