We're nearly there guys, hang on.

"Don, do you know how ridiculous you sound? Is this some wild excuse on how you lost Mia?" says the Professor, high-strung and visibly perturbed after telling her everything that happened. The lab makes beeping and ringing noises endlessly as I try to persuade the Professor about what truly happened.

"I know how ridiculous it sounds," I say embarrassingly. Telling the Professor about the supernatural things is like spraying a cockroach with perfume to kill it. "But that's what happened."

"Seriously what happened to her?" insists the Professor impatiently, refusing to believe my wild story. "She gave you the slip huh? I'm not that surprised, that girl is harboring all sorts of power inside her."

"That I find that difficult to believe," I reject her idea with a snort. If that girl had any kind of strength she could have fought off that dark man. Whenever I find her she's either staring apprehensively at the floor or is unconscious. "Anyway the man got away with her and I have no idea where they went."

"It's not like you to come up with such wild stories, you're no creative thinker. It's a good time to test out one of my inventions made in light of Mia, pun intended."

"Right."

When we reach the eighth floor, she almost drops the heavy piece of machinery in her hands. "Why did you go to the eighth floor of all the floors to have a fight in? Why my sanctuary?" Ignoring her trivial question, she curses to herself when she sees the broken sliding doors, the broken pool stick Mia threw at the dark man, and the state of the kitchen. All I did was kick down a door, I'm not sure how the refrigerator got smashed in. Only the library is in a good state-it's not like I was paying attention to desks I jumped over and some of the books knocked down. In the emergency staircase, she asks me for the exact spot of where they disappeared to. "What does it matter?"

"Exactly! It's all about matter."

"I don't follow you."

"If what I've calculated from Mia's test results are correct, then this might work. Now show me." She starts turning the switches on for her heavy piece of machinery. Not the strangest invention I've seen but still very odd looking-a platinum built antenna that looks like a special kind of fan without blades that blows cool air that the Professor saw on TV juts out, while the bottom looks like a life-size Walkman with a bright, touch screen. "Right here," I mutter, remembering being face-planted into wall while being strangled. I'm still seething over how I almost fell asleep when that dark man made my own shadow strangle me. I turn around to scrutinize it, as I've done all day. That's what he meant when he said I would be betrayed, by my shadow that follows me around everywhere.

"If what you're saying is true, then this invention will work." She bends down and puts the invention on the floor. The inside of the antenna glows bright blue, making a whirring noise as it rotates three sixty. Then it turns to the spot where the dark man left and on the screen in dark yellow caps it reads: Analyzing…wait. After a good two minutes, the inside of the antenna turns purple and something pops up on the screen. The Professor gets up from the step and peers over it.

"It says unreadable data," I read first disappointedly but Professor grins widely.

"Guess you weren't lying," she gets on her knees to touch the screen and pushes buttons automatically. When I first worked for the Professor I was mesmerized with how her hands would move when she would type on that huge keyboard of hers and the way she would brush things away on touch screens. As she chews on some sugary candy, I notice that her eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep and beneath them are dark bags. "Tell me Don, do you remember when you went to retrieve that Chaos Emerald months ago and it burst into purple matter when you held it?"

"Yes," I fold my arms. "What of it?"

"On my screen it came up as unreadable data and I used that data to attempt to create a negative world."

"Negative world?"

"It's only a theory but I'm assuming that the data that surrounded the girls when they crashed here is similar to the data that brought them here. I'm sure the dark man you spoke of is using the same thing. By decoding part of the data, I can manipulate the data to create a 'negative world', a temporary, unstable world with a provisional plane of time and space that should bring others to other worlds."

"All that you got out of Mia?"

"She still has traces of the negative world, very faint traces, along with unreadable data I still can't crack. If this machine works, well let's just say this might change everything we know about our universe." So that girl is filled with unreadable data is she? She is Luke's sister and he had some kind of uncanny energy about him that I couldn't understand so it's possible she could possess something strange. The Professor's never been wrong about anything before. She was born a genius and taught at University of Pitzer, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and her alma mater. Unlike me, she had her head on her shoulders ever since she was young and could've made it big but every genius is twisted in some way. She couldn't handle not being in the public while her brother, Dr. Robotnik, was broadcasted on every station daily for doing destructive to the neighboring city where Sonic and the others are. She hung up the teacher's lab coat and when she decided to make a bomb that destroyed a chunk of the city, she became like me, an outcast and a menace to society. "You're going to help me in my experiments and help me get my name out there. I promise you everything you need if you do whatever I ask of you."

"Anything I need?"

"And more," she replied enticingly.

"Why are you staring at me?" the Professor asks, suddenly self-conscious as she catches me staring at me in her peripheral vision as she uses her fingers to make circles on the screen. "Is there something on my face? You better tell me."

"Nothing."

"Do you miss Mia?"

"No. I feel bad at being beaten so easily."

"To think none of this would have ever happened if those girls never came here. That night when they crashed here, I've wondered this many times before, why here? What are the odds that they land here, out of the thousands of planets and galaxies, it had to be this one? Maybe the solution would to see what their worlds looked like." Professor is seldom a daydreamer but when she is, I find it easier to talk to her. When she's head deep in her work I leave her be and do what I can to help her out because I have to. "I don't know," I hesitantly remark.

"Finally I can test this out, get back, get back," she orders excitedly, already pushing me up the stairs. "Oops." She runs back down to turn the antenna to the other side and sprints up the top steps in her slippers. The reverse side of the inside of the antenna turns dark red this time and the ceiling lights flicker profusely-a deep violet plasma shoots from the antenna to the wall and jiggles as it spreads upward to the ceiling and then down to cover the floor. Layers build upon each other and then it resembles a cavern mouth. "It works! It works! It's not too unstable," she examines when she looks at the screen. "Am I a genius or what? Let's see my brother top this!" She jumps up and down like a squealing child on Christmas morning and then stares at me expectantly. "What're you still doing here, get in there."

"Where exactly, I'm lost."

"I'll explain it later, you got your watch right?"

"Yes."

"Then get going already, our dame needs her knight to save her!"

J.G.P.