"Prepare to be amazed!" Joe grabbed the doorknob to the room containing the prototype, waiting for his guest's response.
"I was born ready!" Awesome Kick announced with a fist raised.
Without further ado, he twisted the knob and swung open the door with a swift motion, revealing the... machine? Awesome was staring at an empty wall, very confused while Joe smirked with his eyes closed.
She shoved the oblivious student, "Dude, open your eyes!"
He caught himself and stared at the empty wall before him, "Oh, oops. I left it hidden."
"Of course you did. Ten outta ten presenting skills," The guest joked.
Joe sauntered over to his laptop and typed on the keyboard. "Just gimme a second... and," with the final press of the Enter key, the wall beside the desk began to shift, startling Awesome slightly. But she watched in awe as the wall slid open, revealing what looked like, the portal machine! The majority of the structure is metal casing but there are some neatly bundled wires visible, connecting the separate structures. The most distinctive part of the machine is the hexagon-shaped structure. It has circle patterns lining the insides of it. She gasped at the sight.
"Behold! The- uh... what name did Issho come up with again?" He paused and scratched his head. Awesome's amazement was quickly replaced with un-amusement, "lol"
*flashback*
Issho, Joe and Awesome were hanging out at a cafe. They were whispering about Joe's secret project, despite Joe's concern of being overheard. During that, Issho suggested a name for the project, "The AU Project! The 'AU' stands for Alternate Universe. It's a fanfic term. Because from what I've heard from you two, this machine is basically a fanfic come to life!"
*end of flashback*
"Alright, that would make this prototype, The Alternate Universe Portal Generator!" Joe gestured towards the machine with open arms, prompting Awesome to give his presentation several claps.
"Made all this yourself, huh?" She examined the prototype from several angles. "As expected from a mad genius!"
"Hey, I'm not MAD. I'm a GENIUS." Joe sassed.
"Alright, SMART*SS. How does it work? And keep it in English please."
"The portal generator creates a portal to any digital world, like video games, cartoons, animes, and movies. But once you're inside, the digital content database is the one doing all the work. When you go through the portal, your physical being is transformed into a digital being, so you'll be a character in the database too. The opposite happens when you come back to reality. But don't worry! Digital beings can't come into our reality, 'cause they're not real. But that doesn't make it any less dangerous. We could get stuck in there if we're not careful."
"So, I can go into ANY cartoon?"
"As long as they have a database to load from, which most professionally produced digital content does."
"What about The Secret Trio? Did you find it's database?" Awesome asked with hopeful eyes.
"Sorry, that doesn't exist," Joe replied. Awesome let out a pouty sigh. "You can still go into all three cartoons, one at a time," Joe suggested.
"Yeah, I guess..." She sighed.
Joe grabbed his laptop and faced it towards her, "I've already loaded up the three cartoons. You can create portals to switch cartoons anytime." The laptop's screen displayed the logo of Danny Phantom with the 'launch' button below it. The other two cartoons are loaded at the side.
"Wait, how am I gonna do that when the laptop's out here? I'm not hauling around a laptop in there." Awesome questioned.
"Well, you see... I made a remote device for that but..." He scratched the back of his head.
"You lost it, didn't you?" Awesome's turn to smirk.
He chuckled nervously in response. Then sighed and shrugged. "One of the 'features' of a remote control, I guess... I'll make an app for it. For now, just use this walkie-talkie to tell me to create a portal. I'll be out here monitoring and fixing any bugs I find," Joe handed her a walkie-talkie that she attached to her belt. "Also, take this tracker so I can, you know... track you." He gave her a tiny microchip-looking thing.
"Alright, cool. But what if something goes wrong? Like, if I die in there?"
Joe lifted his index finger like a smart *ss and opened his mouth. There was silence for a moment. Then he finally let out a reply, "Uh..."
"Uh...!??"
"You should be brought back here... Or respawn if it's a video game... Just be careful, ok? It'll still hurt."
"It's a cartoon! Not a horror movie where everyone dies. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Awesome spoke seriously for once, giving him an assuring smile. He sighed in relief. "Mom." She added sarcastically. His relaxed expression quickly melted into an unamused look. She returned him a grin.
"Anyways... Which cartoon first?" He turned towards his laptop.
"SMOKE BOMB!" Awesome shouted as she posed like the Ninja. There was silence again.
"What?"
"Don't you watch 'Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja'? It's lit!" She did the bro hand gesture, or the shaka sign, if you will, with both hands.
"Seen it on tv once. It's about a ninja, right?"
"Abuden!?" (A/N: Malaysian slang for 'duh!')
Joe typed on his laptop. Shortly afterward, the circle patterns on the insides of the hexagon structure started glowing green. Then, they were like a bunch of lasers firing at the same time, creating a green swirling portal that faded into the landscapes of the cartoon.
"See you in a few hours?" Joe waved goodbye.
"Pssh! A few hours? I'll be in there for days!" She exclaimed.
YOU ARE READING
The AU Project: The Secret Trio
FanfictionThe Alternate Universe Project consists of a program and portal machine that leads to the digital world. It was prototyped by a mad genius who's also a university student, Joe. But since he's a total couch potato, he lets his close friends, Heck, an...
