HISTE Companion Book

Catch Up

(( Author's Note:
This mini story takes place between Chapter 5 [Come on DOWN to Baby Bulk Buy!] and Chapter 7 [I'm Sorry... You're Shrinking]. It picks up a few minutes after Chapter 5 ends, and ends off directly before Chapter 7 starts.
This is how Mark caught Tyler up on the events of the story so far, during the drive between the Baby Bulk Buy and Dr. Iplier's office. ))

Amy sat down in the driver seat, staring down at Mark as Tyler settled in the passenger seat beside her. "So, explanation?" Tyler asked, smiling nervously.

"Well-" Mark started, but was cut off by Amy.

"Tyler, would you mind holding onto him? I can't drive with him in my hands." Amy explained.

Tyler's eyes widened and he stared down at the doll-sized man, then slowly nodded, and gently picked Mark up.

"Hey! Easy..." Mark muttered, squirming in Tyler's hold.

Shaking his head, Tyler swallowed hard. "This is... this is not ok. It's not ok! I think I'm going to be sick..."

Mark shrugged. "It's a lot. Just... put me down." Tyler hesitated, but sat Mark on his leg, still watching him intently. "I think we're good Amy..." Mark glanced over at her and she nodded, backing out of the parking space and began to drive. Slowly Mark turned his attention back to Tyler. "Are you ready for the explanation?"

Tyler shook his head. "No... but... give it to me anyway. I don't think I'll ever be ready for it."

With a shrug, Mark took a deep breath. "Not that we can really explain it anyway." Mark laughed. "So you know how much of a pain in the ass the egos are?" Tyler simply nodded in response.

"Hey! I think I'm a god damn fucking delight!" Ed Edgar called out.

"No need to get upset over the opinion of a human, Ed. They will not be around forever." Google Blue pointed out.

Ed grunted. "I won't be around forever! I don't think anyway... my legend will be though..."

"Shut up!" Mark screamed. "Just shut up for once!"

Tyler sighed. "Just keep talking Mark, I can barely hear them back there anyway."

With a heavy sigh, Mark closed his eyes and nodded, then opened them again and smiled up at Tyler. "So... pain in the ass. Then this guy contacted me and said he knew they were real, and he knew Sean's were real, and he could help. I mean, of course I thought he was nuts, and then I found out he'd actually contacted Sean too. It's pretty impressive for someone to get both of our private phone numbers, you know? We talked about it... Sean and I, and we did a little digging on the guy... turns out that he's really got degrees in physics, chemistry and biology and he's worked for several high profile labs. So the two of us really started talking about hearing this guy out, so we contacted him and got him to tell us more. He told us he's been studying parallel dimensions for years." Tyler opened his mouth to interject, but Mark continued to talk, barely even taking a breath and Tyler decided to wait till he was finished. "He explained to us how he thought the egos were versions of us from parallel dimensions, and they'd managed to cross over. He said sending them back would be too expensive and tricky, but we could at least get rid of them here."

Kathryn watched as the Googles all went incredibly still and Ed's eyes widened. The tiny cowboy placed his hands on his hips, shaking his head as he began to pace around the box, Dirty Jim following him around diligently.

"There was a time where I never would have believed something like that, but I mean... the egos exist somehow. So Sean and I spent a few weeks talking about it, and then we called this guy again and got him to explain the whole process to us. We talked this thing to death, I mean, we had to be thorough, and in the end... we decided to try it." As Tyler cringed, Mark chuckled. "I know, it sounds insane... but you don't know what it's like having them in your life the way we do. These fucked up doppelgangers running around with your face, causing all kinds of trouble and doing weird paranormal things." He shook his head. "We wanted to do this. I'm not joking, we really debated it first." Mark took a deep breath, shifting on Tyler's leg before he continued. "Sean made the flight with his egos and we went over there alone, just he and I, to check this out and make sure it was real. I was kind of worried it was some government sting operation to out the egos..."

"What?" Amy gasped. "You never brought that up once!"

Mark shrugged. "It sounded ridiculous." He mumbled, waving his hand in the air. "Anyway, we went down there and saw his facility and the lasers, and made him explain it all to us... again. It seemed so perfect." He bit his lip, shaking his head. "We were... so desperate to get back to normal lives." He stared up at Tyler, swallowing hard. "We took them down there, we all got in this glass cylinder and then he shot us with lasers." Mark closed his eyes, leaning his head down. "I think that's when I realized it was a mistake... you couldn't see anything, the light was blinding, and all you could smell was... burning flesh." He cringed, shaking his head. "The pain though! Oh... the pain. Like your entire body got ripped in half and then stitched back together..."

Amy frowned, grinding her teeth slightly, before letting out a whimper. "Mark..."

Inhaling sharply, Mark sat up, opening his eyes, like he just remembered that he was saying all of this out loud. "So that went on for awhile-"

"Instant. The lasers were instant." Amy cringed. "It didn't last more than five seconds."

"Really?" Mark gasped, looking over to her, and she nodded, still focused on the road. "Strange..." Mark looked back up at Tyler, who's face was contorted in confusion, with a hint of horror. "Anyway, when I woke up, everyone else was knocked out, but no one was gone. I thought everything was fine... but I had this gut feeling it wasn't. Then I woke up today and started shrinking." He shrugged, leaning back to relax on Tyler's leg.

Ed stopped pacing, shaking his head, and puffed up his chest, taking a deep breath as he fumed, while the Googles remained unnaturally still. Dirty Jim scampered away from Ed when he had finally stopped pacing, and the critter made the rounds to check on the androids.