Enter a strange and amazing new world you've never seen before, but you most likely already live inside. Follow Theodore, a lonely kid who has to Travel through the 7 Layers of Space in order to find a brick and probably save the universe. Unfortuna...
There is an adage that states that the 1st step is the hardest. While this is often true, it is equally often true that the 45th step or 119th step is the hardest.
Statistically speaking (at least according to Professor Hero's data), in a series of controlled systems, the 23,432nd step is the most commonly hard step in all journeys across time, space, and Layers.
Relative to stepping through the door to Gup, Theodore was about to take his 23,400th.
***
"I guess you're stuck with me for a while," he said to the little automaton. Theodore and The Buddy Bot stood before Professor Hero's Laboratory, ready to depart. The Professor's sad history had been his last words of goodbye.
"Affirmative. Though if I'm honest, which I'm incapable of being otherwise, it's all exactly the same to me."
"Right. Well thanks for the company, anyways. Let's go find a a lens and a Brick!" he said, straightening out his lightly toasted red hoody and backpack. Theodore felt good to have a clear goal in sight. "Do you know where this Rogue Assistant would have gotten to with you all's stolen lens?"
"The Convex Concavity Matrix. I have approximate coordinates. We will travel to the west entrance of the Caves of Spelunk, that is the Rogue Assistant's last-known whereabouts. The Rogue Assistant's signal fades once it enters the underground chambers, but it has not re-emerged, so the logical conclusion is that our quarry will still be found underground, although other possibilities exist."
"Our quarry? What went down with this Rogue Assistant?"
"As near as I could calculate, the Assistant and The Professor and myself had established an effective working relationship when, unexpectedly, the theft and subsequent escape occurred. At the time Professor Hero was visibly distressed by the matter."
"Did you know this Rogue?"
"Certainly, we worked on many projects, campaigns, and controversial investigations together."
"So were you upset that your trusted companion up and stole your lens?"
"Notions of anger, irritation, frustration, sadness are all outside of my programming."
"Then how do you know about them?"
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They set off in silence and carried on down the jagged path for the remainder of the morning. In the daylight, Theodore was able to take in some more of the strange splendor of Gup as they walked. Its wildness held beauty – the rolling hills of lavender grasses touched softly against a crimson and delf sky that was filled with the iridescent criss-crossing lines of the Grid, but its wild danger felt palpable in the thick morning air.
He marveled at the idea that not so long ago all of it had been an industrialized paradise. Certain features made more sense, he spotted a jagged rock formation over the horizon, but as he peered closer he could see that what first looked like rocks were in fact broken down walls now covered in more moss and ivy, the long-lost foundation of a giant building from another time.
