SYOL (Take 2)

“You know, I’m actually pretty excited!” Aedi admitted, looking like she was using every muscle in her body to keep herself from bouncing around. “I did a lot of thinking about it yesterday, and I think it’s actually gonna be really cool! I mean, dangerous, probably, but the cool kind of dangerous where we’ll probably end up totally fine in the end! Y’know?”

Aedi had been rambling their entire walk over to the station. He wondered if it was a nervous tic of hers or if she really was feeling better about their imminent adventure. Maybe a little bit of both.

“Yeah, same! I mean, it’s a pretty strange situation, but I don’t think either of us can deny that hanging out with Representatives is a cool opportunity! Probably good for our jobs, too. I mean, as long as we don’t mess anything up…”

“Well, let’s not think of that possibility!” Aedi hastily interrupted. “Let’s just focus on having fun!”

With a smile, the pair boarded the public transportation vehicle to another dimension that he had very recently learned was usually referred to as a “dimentrain”. The security guard who had been trailing them stayed behind as they showed their IDs to the familiar eyeball-covered driver, who nodded and allowed them through the door.

Sitting there before them were the four Representatives they had been assigned to go on the mission with: LeFleuris, Loligo, Mariellu, and Venith. Each of the four looked at them with varying degrees of interest and patience, Loligo being particularly low on both ends.

“About damn time!” she called out further back on the dimentrain, evidently having claimed a number of seats for herself. “We’ve been waiting forever!”

“You only got here a minute before them. They’re perfectly on time.” Sighed Venith, sipping from a cup of tea.

Loligo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, lying flat across her designated seats like a bed. All of them could have done the same: with the exception of their group and the driver, the dimentrain was completely empty. There wasn’t even a guard on board like there had been every other time Orange had boarded the dimentrain, though he supposed the Representatives were their own protection.

“Honestly, Loligo. Stop making us look bad in front of the interns…” Venith mumbled to herself from her window seat, sitting in a seat facing ahead rather than inward. Neither of the two bothered to bicker with each other further, only adding to the fact that it was painfully obvious that their arguments were regular events. Orange hoped that maybe they’d just avoid each other the entire time; he really hated when people fought with each other, especially when they were fighting about nothing in particular (which made any attempts at mediation all the more difficult).

“Oh, I’m sure we won’t leave too poor of an impression on them.” LeFleuris assured her, eyeing Orange and Aedi with anticipation. He and Mariellu occupied the two front-most seats, so it wasn’t a gaze he could have avoided if he tried. “I promise we don’t bite. Often.”

“Sounds good to me!” Aedi growled (much to Orange’s concern), seating herself a seat away from LeFleuris without any subtlety whatsoever. Orange silently took the seat across from Aedi, almost relieved for a moment before realizing that now he was right in prime staring territory rather than merely LeFleuris’ peripheral vision. He adjusted his tie and tried to keep his face frozen in a smile as usual, not entirely why he felt so unnerved.

The dimentrain left the station, its occupants silent. Orange wasn’t sure if it was an awkward silence or one he should have been relieved for; he was too occupied with staring out the window and trying not to look at LeFleuris. There wasn’t much to see, honestly; outside was a blank whiteness with an occasional colorful blur that passed too quickly to identify. It didn’t take terribly long for world around them to go black, small bulbs throughout the interior of the dimentrain lighting up in response.

“Is this normal?” Orange asked, not recalling such an occurrence on any of his previous rides.

“For Scarambo? Absolutely. The entrance is through a tunnel.” LeFleuris explained, sounding amused with Orange’s inquiry as if it were a common sense question asked by a child.

“We’re here already?” he thought out loud. They had only been on the train for maybe a minute or two, and his dimentrain ride from Terre to the overlord’s dimension had lasted at least the length of one of Aedi’s ambassadorial ramblings.

“The dimentrain travels between dimensions at varying speeds depending on a number of factors.” LeFleuris spoke up again, his tone dulled. “Distance, how many times it’s been traveled to in the past, and a number of other things you and I couldn’t hope to understand.”

“Neat!” Aedi commented eagerly, looking like she was going through withdrawal for not speaking enough. Definitely a nervous tic.

As quickly as the darkness had arrived, it gave way to light. Outside of the windows now lied a vibrant, lush scene. Exotic plants surrounded them on all sides, colored so vividly that Orange wondered for a moment if he had found himself in another storybook.

“Whoa, cool! This place is really pretty!” Aedi admired, taking the words out of Orange’s mouth.

“Yes, it is rather admirable, isn’t it?” Venith agreed, glancing out the window herself. “It’s a bit on the haphazard side, but the overall aesthetic is lovely. Sort of an overgrown garden charm to it.”

“Meh.” Loligo shrugged, evidently not one for overgrown gardens.

Orange continued staring out of the window, suddenly feeling eager to go outside. He had a feeling all of the flora here was either carnivorous or poisonous, but the view was so stunning that he couldn’t bring himself to care.

As such, for a moment he almost didn’t notice the horrible screeching noise that echoed throughout the dimentrain and the crash that followed it.

“Orange? Hey, Orange! Are you okay?! Orange?!”

Orange’s eyes fluttered open. It was dark, Aedi’s face above illuminated by only the lights on the ground. It was hard to focus on her worried expression; he was flopping around like a fish on the shore.

“I would advise against shaking him. If it does anything, it’ll make things worse.” He heard LeFleuris’ voice. The world went still as he appeared next to Aedi, finally giving him the chance to stagger to his feet. His head hurt like hell, prompting him to clutch it immediately.

“What the hell just happened?!” Loligo shouted from the back, Orange once again having the words taken out of his mouth.

“I suspect we crashed.” Mariellu answered as Loligo and Venith joined them near the front of the dimentrain.

Loligo rolled her eyes. “Well no shit we crashed! But into what?! Didn’t Drew say everything was clear now?!”

“An animal, maybe?” Venith suggested, biting her thumb.

“What, like a fucking steel elephant?” Loligo snorted, gesturing to the front of the train. Orange looked behind him and noticed that, well, the front of the dimentrain looked precisely like it would have if it had crashed into a steel elephant. In fact, they weren’t quite in the front of the dimentrain: now they were closer to the middle.

“Don’t be such a…” Venith bit her lip, stopping herself. “Let’s just get outside.”

“Is there another exit?” Orange asked, trying to distract himself from the blood on his hand.

“Yeah, there’s always an emergency door, right?” Aedi echoed, Orange taking a moment to notice that she was supporting him.

“Plenty of side doors, but they won’t function without electricity.” Mariellu answered, already standing in front of one of the aforementioned side doors.

“Not a problem. Let’s get outta this trainwreck!” Loligo grinned, cracking her knuckles as she approached the door, and began kicking it repeatedly. It refused to give way.

“A train designed to travel through dimensions isn’t going to have its door kicked down so easily.” LeFleuris sighed as he brushed past Loligo. With another roll of her eyes she stepped back, allowing LeFleuris to begin tracing the sides of the door with his fingers.

“What are you doing?” Aedi asked for him. Orange began to wonder if everyone except him had telepathy.

“Just something to weaken it.” He spoke as he began kicking the door; after about three kicks it gave way, popping out of the frame LeFleuris had traced like a window pane. He stepped aside, allowing the others through first.

“I happen to know a few things about opening doors not meant to be opened.”

Not doubting him in the slightest, Orange proceeded through the door, mostly forced along by Aedi. The light outside was almost blinding now, partially thanks to his aching head. Unsurprisingly he didn’t have time to adjust before Aedi shrieked.

“Oh my God! Are you okay?! Oh shit oh shit oh jeez oh jeez oh God don’t die don’t die don’t die…” Aedi panicked, running her hands down her face.

“Oh, dear. That does look rather unpleasant…” Venith frowned.

“Is… is it really that bad?” Orange asked nervously as he felt his injury, throat dry. He honestly wasn’t sure what he was doing; he couldn’t feel anything in his hands, so he was probably just stabbing his brain and making everything worse or something.

“I doubt it. Head injuries always tend to look worse than they actually are, at least in your species.” LeFleuris assured him, taking his head in his hands without warning. Orange flinched as LeFleuris brought his face closer, turning his head to check the wound.

“Nothing particularly serious-looking. Bloody, certainly, but nothing a little first aid can’t fix.” He concluded, giving Orange room to breathe again as he reached into his backpack.