Beyond the Bubble

Professors Schultz and his entire team had reunited the night their space probe The Nautilus, was floating towards a landmark, it has gone farther than any other space probe. Oh what wonderful things they would discover from that point onward. Each had their own ideals of what they would find and prove that there might be more than what others in their field so strongly believed.

For the deeply religious young man, Geralds, who entered the program through luck and his computer skills at twenty-four, he thought that they would find God.

Schultz mocked such an idea. He and the majority of the team believed that such more galaxies would be found, hopefully they would include inhabited planets that they could attempt to contact.

But one amongst them was nervous. George Sunderland, an old resident of Portland Rhode Island, he was an astro-nut like the rest of them, but on the side, it was revealed some time after their project jettisoned into space, that during down times in one field, he worked in another. And his other, strange field was the occult.

"Fhtagn," He breathed under his breath. "Fhtagn, fhtagn, fhtagn."

He chanted, hoping that it would protect him. Granted, he reminded himself prior to this that The Nautilus did not go between Hydra and Argo Navis, but the thought still scared him.

On the machines before them, it showed exactly where it was. When it reached the landmark, were there cheers, the sounds of champagne popping, and congratulations were shared once more.

On the large monitors before them, stars were few and far in between that it was as if they were traveling away from them and not moving towards anymore after them.

Geralds was the first to point this out. He was also the first to see the mult-colored aurora that one would never expect to see in space.

"It's like the surface of a bubble," Andrea, second oldest member to Schultz stated.

Schultz scoffed and was beginning his rant against her, when The Nautilus floated past the aurora and found darkness. A void darker than space itself, yet just light enough due to iridescent orbs that floated in a semi-orderly orbital around an unknown object.

"What is this place?" Andrea asked.

"Not what, Andrea," A voice grated through nowhere. "But who?"

A giant glowing bubble appeared before the camera. Geralds stood up, overjoyed; he exclaimed his love for God and happiness at finding him. But the grating voice merely chuckled.

"No, Geralds," It said, sounding like a six year old and twenty year old and sixty year old man speaking together. "Not God; at least, not your Christian god. I am, and Sunderland will confirm this," The man shivered at his name. "Yog-Sothoth; past, present, future…Time itself, is all within me."

"But what is this?" Andrea asked.

"This is me." The multi-layered voice said. "What you see is a form of mine. The Gate; right Sunderland."

All eyes turned to their cowering companion. With a few inhales of the nose, he nodded, a whimper escaping him.

"And within each bubble is a plain; a piece of the bigger picture."

"And what's that?" Schultz asked.

"That your universe; your world; your reality is expanding and shrinking in what-for your mental stability-we'll say random order."

"Preposterous!" Schultz snapped.

Yog-Sothoth chuckled, the intertwined voices sounding exotic over the speakers. It was not malignant-it sounded good natured compared to what Sunderland had expected.

"You see those two bubbles sticking together?"

No one spoke, but there was a sense that there did not have to be. That he could see them as well as hear them. Unsettling though it was, the information presented to them was to the same effect. Poor Sunderland seemed to have already cracked under the circumstances; cowering under a desk.

"They are other universes. Other galaxies; some inhabited, some not. But when they intertwine like that, the barrier of the bubble fades, allowing them to seemingly overlap. Like a continuation of itself. Your own has done so with many of them and has been one of a few to be graced with the central hub, so to speak."

Schultz was finding this hard to swallow. Being a man of science; something like this was a freak accident not hard fact…Until now, since it was 'staring' them in the face. Leaving skepticism behind; he found infinite possibilities. Keeping his mind wide open seemed to help a little, though. After all, science was still discovering new things almost everyday.

"What's in the central hub?" Geralds asked.

"R'lyeh," Came the instant reply.

At that, Sunderland let out a scream. No one paid him any mind, though, for they were, for a brief second that in the scheme of things that could be said that it did not happen, overcome with primal urges and long lost images transmitted thousands upon thousands of generations before themselves.

"Sunderland," Yog-Sothoth said. "Do not be frightened. Nothing can hurt you right now."

Sunderland laughed long and hard. Everyone became uneasy except their translucent, shining friend.

"'Right now' he says." Sunderland cracked up, stuttering phrases together in a jumble of unheard sentences.

"If you wish to know more, Schultz, may I ask that you turn The Nautilus in that direction." The bubble seemed to turn to the right. "There's someone who will do a better job at explaining things in a-and don't be offended by this-leman's terms."

Goaded on by what the bubble said, the satellite took off to the right. Everyone but Sunderland waited in bated breath at the edge of their seat. Then an insane, cacophonous symphony of flutes was heard.

Sunderland snapped out of his babbling mess and stood abruptly, dashing towards Schultz.

"We have to stop this!"

"We can't," Geralds began.

"The Nautilus moves according to projection, we didn't have the financial ability to control it back when we made it." Andrea finished.

Sunderland made a warrior cry as he ran towards the screen. He beat at it, breaking it in places, but the image still shown through.

"No! No! No!" He said between beatings. But the image never disappeared, but was, thankfully, distorted.

There came a sound of bumping into something beneath the louder cacophony flutes. Sunderland saw an eye open. An eye that was never supposed to open. The Nautilus turned away due to impact, but the damage was done. Sunderland was in a fit of hysterics, writhing on the floor, laughing as his mouth foamed.

He looked into the eye of chaos and it stared back with a mind blowing intensity. The distorted image shown next was of bubbles stacking upon themselves and became a vertical line orbiting around the central hub. But they popped.

The media was in a frenzy. Children were amazed at seeing real life Pokémon in their back yard. Three teens who broke down in the middle of nowhere found a camp that was not there before and were killed by a man in a hockey mask. Teens who lived on Elm Street started to die in their dreams. A couple were eaten by a giant white worm in Perfection, Nevada. Reports of Batman fighting the Joker were rampant in New York. In Louisiana, there was a report of a man covered in moss and roots walking in the swamp.

In London, there were sightings of a man in a Guy Fawkes mask walking around in shadows and on roofs.

In the Middle East there were reports of Orcs raiding caves.(1) But Japan had gotten it worst. Godzilla attacks, a strange yet beautiful rider on a mechanical horse, an orange clad ninja, and giant robot fights became an everyday event.

"The world as we knew it is gone!" Sunderland screamed in his padded cell in Arkham Asylum. "It popped! Just like a bubble!"

- End-

If you are in the Middle East, please don't be offended. I was thinking Middle Earth-Middle East. Get it? Bad joke, I know.

This is a rather positive possibility of what would happen if Azathoth opened his eye(s). And since it's in fanfiction, what better way than to combine our lovable fandoms with our world?