The P.I.E Rises (Venturiantale)

Chapter 14: Rekindled Hopes

“What on earth is this?”, Jordan asked, as he looked around at all the characters.

“I'm not sure…”, replied Sally. “I just want some waffles.” Jordan couldn't believe what had happened. What were all his characters doing here? He could faintly see another member of the Acachalla family lying on a table in a far corner.

“Sue?”, Jordan wondered. “What's he doing here?”

“I thought he was off at his Beauty Camp,” Sally said.

“Well, he sure isn't,” Jordan stated. “I wonder what happened…”

For a while, the two were silent. The immense craziness of it all was unbelievable.

“I think I understand all those ‘missing’ reports on TV,” Sally said. “The missing people must've been taken here.”

“I guess so,” Jordan muttered. “The real question is, how do we get out of…. Wherever the heck this is?”

“Why don't we just look around?”, Sally suggested.

“Good idea,” Jordan agreed. The two began searching the room. They discovered the door to be locked, and they were, at first, the only ones awake, but soon, the room was alive with nervous chatter as more of the characters woke up. None of them knew what to do. This was bad.

***

Jordan's computer fizzed to life,sputtering.Toast had devised a way to open up the portal's history, showing them the last place it had opened to.

“Ok, it's working,” Toast announced. “Do we have everything we need?”

“Yep,” The others said in unison.

“Let's go!”, Ghost cheered. Toast nodded, and pressed some keys on the interdimensional control panel, firing up the system. Everyone felt the sudden rush of air as the portal opened, glowing with a purple, unearthly light. They felt the wind pick up even more, and soon all of them were sucked into the portal. But they didn't appear out the other side.

“What's happening?!”, Ghost cried. They were floating through what looked like an empty space, except for a few bright lights that looked almost like stars.

“Something went wrong!”, Toast called back. “The portal must've broken the connection at the last second.”

“Well, how the Sam heck are we gon’ get out of here?!”, Papa roared, angrily.

“I'm… not sure,” Toast said. “But we'll figure out something. We have to!” They heard screams behind them, and whirled around to see Cierra and Bethany bumping into each other. Meanwhile, Isaac was trying to figure out how to spin around. Toast couldn't help but laugh.

“Even in the most scary situations, they're so happy,” he chuckled. He kicked his legs, and discovered he could launch himself a good distance across the vast, cosmic world. It was like swimming, only without the water.

“Wanna play tag, sir?”, he called back to his friend.

“Of course I do, Johnny,” Ghost laughed, and began chasing him.

“I'm gonna catch you, Johnny!”, Ghost giggled. Soon, the sound of laughter filled the air. Even Papa and William joined in on the fun. For a while, they laughed, and messed around in the space, but eventually, they came to their senses, and tried to figure a way out.

“Ok, seriously. What should we do?”, Toast stopped in the middle of tagging Ghost. Ghost caught a last laugh and held it back. It was time to get serious. The whole team began looking around.

“Wait,” Isaac pointed at something. “What's that?” His finger was aligned with what looked like a small, glowing, blue dot. It seemed to shimmer, and the space around it looked warped, as if it were a black hole. A small alarm went off in Toast's pocket.

“There's definitely some paranormal readings coming from it,” the British man observed. Bethany casually floated closer to it, almost ghost-like.

“Looks like some kind of portal,” she noted. “But not a normal interdimensional gate. It looks….more ominous.”

“Should we risk going in?”, Cierra questioned.

“If it's the only way out, then yes,” Ghost replied with determination. “Now, I don't know where it leads, or what we'll find on the other side, but I do know is that Jordan Frye- Venturian- is out there somewhere. He might be here, or he might not, but it's our duty to get him back.” For a while, no one spoke, as the adventurers pondered those words.

“Seriously, sir,” Toast finally piped up. “You really should be a motivational speaker. I'm in.” The others nodded in agreement.

One by one, everyone's faces began to seem less long.They gathered in front of the portal, nervous, but full of a new courage. A light flashed, though Toast wasn't even holding the control panel, as if the portal had expected them. The aperture opened, and there was the familiar gust of wind that carried them into it. But the light was irregular, as if it were flickering. The wind was stronger than usual. Even as they were pushed into the new dimension, Ghost had a feeling something bad was going to happen.