Closing their eyes, the twins expected a sudden jarring impact when they fell. However, feeling none, they slowly opened their eyes.
All they could see was darkness. They were still suspended in the air, as they could feel nothing below their feet. Looking up, Matthew could see the portal they had fallen through. However, as soon as he spotted it, a good twelve meters above them, it closed and they were plunged into total darkness.
Matthew jumped slightly when he felt something squeeze his hand, but calmed down remembering he still had America's hand in his. He smiled knowing there was at least someone else there and he wasn't completely alone.
They didn't say anything. There was no noise in their new environment. None of the normal background noise of traffic or the hum of electronics. No breeze or birds. Complete silence.
And it was deafening.
Why didn't they speak? Both felt that if they breathed a sound, it would shatter everything completely. Like how in a silent classroom no one wants to be the first to say something.
Suddenly, out of the never ending darkness, came a light. A soft glowing orb came closer to the twins. Even though it did not appear to be hostile, they tensed up. Alfred and Matthew tried to move into a defensive position, but discovered, yet again, they were not allowed to move. They did notice that they were able to move a tiny bit. Enough to know that they were both shaking slightly.
The orb came up to them and circled around a few times. If it had a face, it would have been laughing at them as they struggled to move.
"I already told you, there is no need to be that scared." The twins stopped when they heard The Omni's voice. Twirling around a few more times, the glowing orb came to a stop in front of the boys.
"Why should we not be scared?" Alfred asked, internally cursing himself for sounding helpless. "You kidnapped us and sent us to the middle of nowhere."
The Omni chuckled. "That is a very accurate description of where you are." Matthew deducted that the Omni's voice was coming from the orb in front of them.
"So where is here?" Matthew asked.
"The middle of nowhere, according to your little brother." Alfred bristled at that remark. "You are in what an old friend of mine calls 'The Void'. The space in between the different parallel Universes. From here, you can access any of the infinite Universes, but only if you know how. Luckily for you, I do know," The Omni chuckled, as if it was a wonderful stroke of luck. As if it had not kidnapped them and forced them there.
"You said you were going to send us somewhere," America said, cautiously. "Is that somewhere, by any chance, home?"
"Now why would I do that?" The Omni asked teasingly, the orb circling around his head. He tried to follow it with his eyes to the best of ability. "There are so many more interesting places to go, people to meet, and things to see."
The orb stopped again in front of them. "No," The Omni sighed. "I'm afraid you are not going home for a long while." It laughed at the boys' expressions, shock and fear evident on their faces.
Matthew was mad. They had finally gotten everyone on good terms with one another, he was finally noticed and remembered by everyone, and they were getting along as a family. But now, this stupid thing had to come along and kidnap his brother and him. And now they weren't even going to go home until maple knows how long.
Trying, and failing, to lunge at the orb, Canada started yelling. "Why!?" he screamed. "Why did you kidnap us!? What did we do to deserve this!? Where are you sending us!?" Even though he couldn't reach the orb, Alfred could tell that Matthew had scared the orb with his sudden out burst.
"Well," The Omni started slowly. "Why I did what I did is complicated." The twins each gave the orb a dubious look. "Very complicated," it continued.
"As for what you did, well, that's simple. You exist!" The Omni said enthusiastically.
"And where are you going? Also complicated. But I will say this." They boys waited as The Omni gave them a pause for dramatic effect.
"You will go many places. Many different places. And for some of these places, you will need to... how should I say... adapt to different things," it explained.
"What do you mean, 'adapt'?" Alfred asked, alarm bells ringing clearly in his head.
"Well," The Omni started. "It's complicated to define it without context, as the meaning tends to 'adapt' to the sentence." There was a pause and The Omni sighed at the boys' lack of response to the pun. "Basically, the only way to explain is to show you."
"I'm beginning to notice that this entire situation is supposedly 'too complicated' for us, and yet here we are," Matthew muttered bitterly.
"How to do this...?" The Omni started mumbling to its self, obviously trying to make up its mind.
As the orb floated away a little bit, Alfred and Matthew locked eyes. Their message to each other was clear: get out as fast as possible. The two tried to move, again being blocked if they tried to move more than a few inches. However, Alfred did discover that if he tried to move with the intention of getting closer to his brother, it did let him move.
The orb, apparently making up its mind, decided to float back over. "I know you were trying to escape," it started. The boys tensed up yet again. Seeing this, The Omni laughed. "Oh, no, I'm not going to hurt you for that! No. What's going to happen to you was going to happen no matter how much you fought, screamed, or struggled."
"Then what's going to happen?" Matthew asked, exasperated at the orb's stalling.
"I will show you your first adaptation, then I will send you along to your first Universe!" The Omni said excitedly.
"Dude, I don't think I can even handle doing this once!" Alfred exclaimed.
Before Matthew could give his similar response, two trails of light slowly crept out of the orb and toward them. The two trails split into four and started heading to their feet. Both boys were frozen in fear as the light started to wrap its self around their feet. Their only show of emotion was the terrified look on their faces. The light worked its way up their legs and torso very slowly, as if taunting the powerless twins.
As it made its way to their chest, the light did something different. Before, it had been following the shape of their bodies. Instead, it followed its own path off their backs. It looped around in this foreign pattern before coming back and wrapping around the rest of their body. As the light reached his face, Matthew squeezed his eyes shut, hoping this bad dream would go away.
The second the light had reached the top of their heads and covered them entirely, it broke off them like shattered glass. The light drifted down, but something did not feel right.
Alfred could feel the light carving a foreign design on his back. However when the light vanished, the feeling of something new was still there. Glancing at his brother, he choked on air.
There, on Matthew's back, were a pair of light grey wings with white streaks folded neatly against his back. They looked like those of a bird, but not one he could remember off the top of his head.
Worried, Canada turned to his brother, only to have a similar reaction. Alfred had dark grey wings with black flecks on his back as well.
The brothers gaped at each other, utterly amazed at the new limb on the other, before realizing simultaneously that they had one as well. Alfred couldn't help grinning, excited that he had the possibility of flight. However, much to Alfred's disappointment, the rule of no movement was still in place, so he couldn't spread his wings.
"So was that the 'adaptation' you were talking about?" Matthew asked, still thrown off by the wings. He offhandedly wondered what England and France would think. Then he remembered he wasn't going to see them for a long time.
"That was one of them, yes," The Omni replied.
"What do you mean one?" Alfred asked, tearing his gaze away from the wings and toward the orb.
"After every Universe, you will end up back in The Void," The Omni explained. "Before you go to the next Universe, you will lose the adaptation from the previous Universe and receive a new one for the next Universe."
"So where are we going where we will need wings?" Matthew asked, trying to think of different worlds where there was no ground or other scenarios where wings were required.
The Omni chuckled. "No, it's not going to be too different for you. It will actually feel very close to home."
Alfred opened his mouth to question how a different Universe could be 'close to home', but The Omni cut him off. "Now, I believe that's it!" it said cheerfully. The orb started floating away, back into the darkness. "Have fun and try not to die!"
Nerves shaken, the boys failed to respond out of sheer shock and fear. But they wouldn't have had much of a chance to respond. As soon as the orb was out of view, another portal opened below them and they fell, once again, into the unknown.
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Author's Note
Hey guys! In case you couldn't tell, the first dimension is going to be the one of Maximum Ride and the Flock.
Please Vote and Comment!
Grazie~!