The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 16: Merely a Flesh Wound

They all slowly opened their eyes. Everything was silent. Dead silent. They looked around. The left wing was still missing, the right wing was still on fire, and the console was still flashing red. The only thing was, they weren't moving. At all. Eventually, Andrew broke the silence.

"Are we dead?" he asked. "Because if this is death then I would feel gipped. It isn't so bad after all." Then, he realized that they were all still holding hands, and he let go. "Ew." he mumbled under his breath. James and Amber rather awkwardly let go of each other's hands, and Amber answered Andrew's question.

"No, we aren't. Look" said Amber, pointing outside the window. Their ship was hovering a few inches off the ground, surrounded by a softly glowing blue bubble. The Gal-Gatha was outside the bubble, and it look confused, not sure how they were still alive. Then again, so were they. Something (they didn't know what) had just saved their lives. Suddenly, they heard the radio crackling,

"H...H...ello? Are you alright in there? Did it work?" came a very familiar voice.

"Custodian!" exclaimed Amber.

"You're ok! " said Andrew, relieved, "I feel like we've said that far too many times today."

"How are you alive??? We saw you die! We saw you both die!" cried James.

"Replication fail-safe. If one or both copies are about to die, they get brought to the Paradox Corridor. It looks like dissolving, but it's actually a teleport. Handy, huh?"

"You could say that again. By the way, what is this thing?" asked James.

"This is a safety bubble. ("Creative name" muttered Andrew under his breath) It can be used to do many things, but I used it to stop your fall. It's not invincible, but it is very durable."

"How in the world did you make it around the ship so fast?" asked James.

"The Paradox Corridor." replied the custodian, once again without clarifying his mysterious statement.

"Really? That door thing?" asked Andrew, "All that thing can do is open and close and look cool! It's just a door!" Just then, the ship shuddered. The Gal-Gatha had just punched their bubble, and, emboldened by the lack of retaliation, began to hammer away.

"Alright! You only have a few seconds! All of you, get into the middle of the room, on the small panels!" commanded the custodian. They all scurried to do what he said.

"Alright! Hit the yellow buttons on the consoles that are rising up near you," he said. They did, and a humming sound began to emit from the panels. A countdown beginning at 20 began, each number bringing them one step closer to safety.

"These are teleportation panels. In twenty seconds, you will be teleported to the Paradox Corridor. It won't hurt a bit." The ship shuddered again, and they saw that the robot had almost broken through. The countdown was almost up when the robot decided to switch tactics; it fired its laser and punched at the same time. The combination of the intense heat and the power of the punch was enough to break their barrier where each one alone failed. The bubble didn't pop, however; rather, it kind of shattered into a million tiny pieces which disappeared when they struck the ground. The Gal-Gatha wasted no time in attacking them. It leapt and body-slammed its way into the cabin, bringing its hand down to crush them where they stood. They heard the computer say "Zero", and they felt a weird buzzing. It happened in a split second, but it felt like a minute to them. Their heartbeats slowed, and their bodies began to disintegrate, first their legs, then their arms, and then their bodies split apart. As it was happening, James looked up, very slowly. The robot's hand was right above them, almost touching his head. Then his head disintegrated, and they slowly spiraled in a column of atoms. They began to glow, and suddenly James "felt"(he couldn't really feel, but rather he sensed) like he was in two places at the same time. Sometimes, he felt that he was in the custodian's room, and sometimes he felt like he was in the cabin. His body (slowly, it seemed) began to reform. After a while, he felt that almost all of him was in the custodial room. Right as he was about to finalize the transition, however, he felt a chill, and then he "cried out" (he still didn't have a head, so he didn't actually scream) in pain as what felt like a metal pipe ran down his spine. His body tensed up, and the pain decreased, as if the source was fading away. Then, he felt a clench in his gut, and he fell unconscious.

He found himself sprawled out on a strange metal surface. He sat up in shock, realizing where he was. He was on the Gal-Gatha's hand. He saw that Andrew and Amber, too, were there as well. The only person who didn't see them was the robot. It had its other hand on its head, as if trying to block out a brain freeze. The three friends looked around in disbelief at the foreign surface they were on. They were now three holes in its hand, undeniably created when they attempted to teleport through it. Instead of the gears and gadgets, like before, underneath the metal skin there was just darkness, like living shadow. They all stepped back from the holes, slightly wary of the evil aura they gave off. The Gal-Gatha felt their movement, and took its hand off its head. It raised its hand in disbelief, trying, just like them, to figure out what had happened. They heard a crunch, and they turned around. The holes were covering themselves up, the metal skin fixing the damage they had done. The Gal-Gatha decided it had had had enough. It threw them off of itself, right toward the Mills. James heard Amber scream from somewhere behind him. He heard Andrew cry,

"I'm too young to die!" James saw that they were about to ram straight into the wall, which would undeniably kill them. As he steeled himself for death, the only thought that came to him was his mother sobbing at his grave.