FIDDLEFORD APPRECIATION MONTH. Week one- parallel Fiddleford

Day 2

This wasn't the plan, not at all. It was just supposed to be one simple dimension hop to retrieve some supplies but no, things always had to go wrong.

It started like this.   

Fiddleford and a team of his top researchers were going on a simple mission to a parallel dimension to retrieve some supplies. His team were hand chosen. Five people, three men and two women. The best his department had offer. Usually Stanford would come along with him but he was in a rather important meeting and Fiddleford was confident he could handle the trip.

He and his team were walking down the road when one of his members got distracted and strayed from the group. Fiddleford noticed his absence and looked up to see him crew member walking toward someone familiar. Fiddleford squinted to get a better look at the mystery person that had caught his attention. The cogs in his mind where clicking and whirling to figure out this persons identity. The mystery figure turned slightly and locked eyes with the crew member. Fiddleford's eyes widened, it was the same person. He began to philosophise what would happen it two identical people of a different plane of existence collided. Calculations and theories entered and exited his mind in the few minutes he was given before the men began to reach out for each other. Fearing the worst Fiddleford called out to stop the man but he was too late. Their fingered seemed to have fused together at the contact. The universe began to crackle and whirl. Fiddleford began to panic, he was in an unfamiliar situation, he was uncertain as to why and what was going to happen. No. He wasn't going to panic. He was going to keep his crew safe and return home to his family. He took charge of the situation and analysed his surroundings.

During his mini panic the identical men had began to blur, stuck in a frozen stance and looked like they were on the verge of disappearing all together. Near by buildings were beginning to fold in on themselves, blurring like a fading picture. This world was collapsing. It was was going to fall and trap them in it. His mind began to race to construct a plan. His team members were panicking now, yelling at Fiddleford for a solution. He ignored them to think of a plan. Once he was slightly confident in a solution he pulled out a prototype machine he called a portal gun from his lab coat. He had the idea for it when Stanley's boyfriend got drunk and started blabbing about it to him.

Fiddleford hadn't really gotten the chance to test it yet but no time like the present. He entered the coordinates as fast as he could and pointed it as the most solid surface he could find. A green circle appeared on the surface, swirling around as it ripped a hole in the fabric of space.
"Go!" He screamed at his remaining team members. They all followed his orders and all hesitantly jumped through the portal. One by one he watched them leap into the unknown, hopefully to the right dimension. As the last person jumped through the portal he looked back at his lost member. Standing in the frozen gaze of this identical counterpart. The world was now making a loud hissing noise.

Now here he was, standing in a collapsing universe, watching a man he had picked to come on this mission fading out of existence. This man had a family. A family. Wait he had a family. Stanford, Tate and Stanley. He needed to get to his family. How would Stanford feel? Or How would Tate feel growing up with out his father. He swallowed hard and tried to stop the tears from forming in his eyes and focused back on reality. The buzzing in the atmosphere was growing louder with every passing second. He closed his eyes, grabbed a fistful of hair and bit his lip. He then leapt into the shrinking portal, leaving the collapsing reality and his dying employee behind. He wasn't even sure where he was going to land but at least he knew he wasn't going to die in that reality.

He suddenly fell from the portal onto the tile floor of the engineering lab. His spectacles flew off his face and he bit his tongue as his face landed on the floor. Fiddleford looked up to see the familiar faces of his crew and other members of the institute crowed around him.
"Fidd?" Stanford's voice came from above him. Fidd looked up to see Stanford hovering over him, tear stains on his cheeks. He'd been crying. Suddenly he dropped to his knees and pulled Fidd into a hug. They held each other for a while, tears fell from both of them.
"I thought I'd lost you" Stanford whispered and held him closer.
"Me too" Fiddleford whispered back.

The members of the institute waited in silence as they hugged on the floor. They stayed there for a while before breaking apart and drying their tears.
"Sir...what happened and where's David?" One of the staff piped up. Fidd looked up at them and then at  all of the staff. He paused to think, what did happen?
"I have no idea but at least we now know not to touch your parallel self in a different dimension" he concluded before getting up.
"David will be missed and our respects will be given to his family but we cannot let this accident set back our work, we are scientists and we must keep looking forward" Stanford stated before making the crowd disperse. Fiddleford was then left thinking of David's poor family. What if it was him that was given the awful fate? At that moment he decided to always be more careful with dimensional traveling and travellers.