Flipside

Part 8, Part 3

They touched down on the ground outside of an uncared for building. The windows were brown. Moss was climbing the base of the building. The rusty door opened with a terrible noise. They walked into the building. A glass arch illuminated the middle of the hallway. It plastered with leaves, and bugs were clinging to the light. A few types of fungus grew here and there.

"So... where are they?" Aaron asked.

"Probably the basement. No stairs. At least not that I know of. We'll have to use the elevator." Charles answered.

"Are you blind? There's no electricity here, dude! We can't take an elevator!" Nevin groaned.

"Be more sensitive." Eric placed a hand on Genevieve's shoulder. She quickly slapped it away.

"I meant the elevator shaft, dummy." Charles rolled his eyes.

"Um... how long to the bottom?" Gemma asked.

"Maybe twenty feet? The ceilings are pretty tall there." Gemma paled.

"Alright! Let's do this thing! Ninja style or horror movie style?" Mallory asked.

"Not horror movie style. Anything but that." Michael paled. "I'm not riding a broken elevator."

"So how are we gonna get down there?" Pepper asked.

"First, we make a chain and ease Gregory, Dante, and Sasha down. They hold Gregory's net and we jump down." Charles explained.

"I didn't sign up for this!" Sasha's eyes widened.

Soon enough, they reached the shaft. The daylight poured into the opening, gradually fading. You couldn't see the bottom. Everyone grabbed each other's feet, easing the people down, Dante first.

"I found the bottom!" He called. There were two dull thumps, and Gregory's voice echoed up to them.

"You can jump now!"

"Cannonball!" Mallory screamed, jumping into the abyss.

"Next!"

Pepper hopped down. Then came Nevin, Marsha, Charles, Michael, Mina, Eric, Jaden, Genevieve, Aaron, and Gemma. Gemma took her time, due to a fear of heights. Eventually, Michael just telekinetically lifted her down. The bottom of the shaft was dark. And was far lower than twenty feet, because they then had to climb up. Dante hoisted people up, one by one, and then got pulled up by the others.

"I can't see anything." Pepper complained.

"Welcome to my world." Genevieve grumbled.

"I can see. Sorta. There's a door." Charles said.

"How can you see down here?" Nevin asked incredulously.

"Part cat, a small part snake, mostly human. Hybrid, remember? I have heightened vision." He opened the door and a warm but dim glow spread. They walked into the room. Most of the floor had deteriorated, exposing dirt. There were fires lit all over the large chamber, with hybrids and humans alike huddled around them.

"You're with the others?" A golem asked. She was more snake than cat. You could tell because her fangs were longer, and she had scaly patches all over her skin. Her hair was short.

"Are you the boss here?" Charles asked.

"I guess so." She shrugged. "We all work together. I just organize stuff."

"Okay. I'm Charles Johnson, and I'm here to ally you against the Aquian Empire." He introduced himself.

"Look, kid. That's all good but you're not allowed to kill anyone. Some of these prissies are afraid of blood." She rolled her eyes.

"What?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You know, your Aquian prisoner you're gonna make an example of or whatever?" She gestures to Gregory.

"Wha- he's not a prisoner!" Charles hissed.

"Get him out. We don't allow Aquians in here, much less Imperials." She growled.

"You don't know he's an Imperial!" Charles argued.

"Do you see what's in his pocket?" She exclaimed, pointing to a golden object. "Hand it over, Platt."

"He doesn't need to give you anything." He growled.

"Hand it over or I'll rip it from your dead body." She demanded.

"You can't touch it," Gregory said, clinging to Charles. "I can't, either."

"Can you not? I really am not in the mood for kicking ass right now." Mina sighed.

"Fine. Just- keep him over there." The girl pointed to a corner. "I'm Audrey Goldstein." She held out a hand. Charles shook it. He tried not to shy away from the scaly patch on her palm.

"Um, so. We would like to take down the Aquian Empire. The real Aquian Empire, mind you. Not my boyfriend." He told her.

"Do we look like we want another war? This is what remains of us after the last one. And that was just the humans. There's more Aquians, and they have the advantage of breathing underwater." Audrey gestured to the people sitting around the fires. "Yeah. We had nothing to do. Everyone ditched us. Andreas, Karan, Jada, Irene..." she listed off names.

"Oh, so now we're bringing my mom into this. Also Gregory's Gemma's, and Genevieve's moms." Marsha narrowed her eyes.

"Oh yeah, honey. Why do you think you know what any of this is? You're just a kid from the Flipside." Audrey sneered.

"You're right. I am just a kid from the Flipside. But you don't even know what it's like over there!" Marsha shouted, a hole ripping through spacetime in the floor in front of her. "Wanna learn? You can just go in there. Go on. Have fun talking about magic and Hybrids and scaly eczema in the Plane of Duty!" She snapped.

"Calm down, girl. That's the void." Audrey held up her hands in surrender.

"The void pulls you in. It is bleak, without gravity, without a sense of time. That's a Paradox Portal." Aaron explained.

"If you keep threatening us, we will go to war. But against you." Audrey warned.

"Go on! See if I care!" Charles rolled his eyes. Their guardians slowly stepped to the sides of those they protected.

"Charles, we currently have one alliance on our side." Michael whispered.

"Oh, have fun losing!" Audrey smirked.

"We still have another side to ally." Charles smiled knowingly.

"What? No we don't! Humans, Arachnae, Golems, and Aquians who we are not talking to!" Pepper listed.

"Have fun losing!" Charles mimicked. "We're recruiting the followers!"