The Magitrix: A Flame Awakens

Chapter 4: A Little Cross-Dimensional Travel

Chris was laying on his bed when Ace appeared.

He almost jumped out of his skin, but instead, Chris fell off the bed. "Ow," he groaned, "What was THAT for?"

He could almost feel Ace rolling his eyes at him. "Get up," they snapped at Chris. "Today's the first day of training."

"But-" Chris began to protest.

"You sound fine." Sure enough, his throat didn't hurt nearly as much as it did before, probably due to the many cups of honeyed tea he'd been drinking for the past few days. The bruises still hadn't healed, so he was still using the concealer. At least his dad hadn't noticed it. "Besides, You're grounded, so you have nothing else to do. Let's get out of here."

Chris sat up. When he had explained his "I burned a paper in Science Class" thing to his dad, he just sighed and extended Chris's punishment by a week. But, hey, it wasn't as bad as the time his dad literally took away his phone for a year. In fact, he still hadn't gotten it back. "How did you know that?"

"I just do." Chris stared at them until they sighed. "My grandfather told me. I have no clue how, either. Just trust it."

"Fine," Chris mumbled, standing up. "What are you doing?"

Ace seemed to think for a moment. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "I could just take us to Magiria, but-"

"What's Magiria?" Chris cut in, earning him a frustrated sigh from Ace. "Is that the Magi home world or something?"

"It's an alternate dimension. And yes, It's where the Magi live. Now, as I was saying-" they glared at Chris- "all Magi can travel through Rips. Before you ask, a Rip is like it sounds: A hole in between our dimensions. Humans occasionally get sucked in, but only Magi can actually use them. That's the first thing I'm going to teach you: how to go through a Rip. Luckily, there's one right in your bedroom, so we don't have to go anywhere."

Wow, I'm going to travel through dimensions! Excitement filled him, but then it struck him. Wait, so they can just pop into my bedroom whenever they want? Chris cringed at the thought. Oh cheese bread, that's... not okay. "How do I do that?"

Ace's eyes brightened and they said, "it's quite easy, once you get the hang of it. So, you'll have to close your eyes first." Chris shut his eyes. "Now, reach out with your mind and poke around. You should feel something there. That's the Rip."

Chris did that, despite not knowing exactly how to "feel around" with his mind. After poking around for a bit, he muttered, "It's not working." To that, Ace simply snapped, "Try harder."

So he did, skeptical, until finally, he found something. He couldn't really describe it, but it felt like the color red, oozing from a crack in between worlds. The energy that assailed his mind was so intense he nearly lost his mental grip, but kept ahold of it. "I think I've found it," Chris said.

"Ok, now, grab ahold of it with your mind, and pull yourself towards it. I'll latch myself onto you mentally. That's a skill you'll learn later. When I count to three, pull. 1... 2... 3!"

Chris somehow latched onto it pulled with his mind. Suddenly, it felt as if he was being sucked through a tube, and then he was falling. He opened his eyes, shocked. It seemed like a tunnel, but with a silvery rainbow color. It also seemed to be alive, pulsing as if it were a heart. The sight and sensation of falling made him nauseous, so he quickly shut his eyes again and let himself be tugged along.

Chris could tell he was out when he felt cold air against his skin and heat push against him. He didn't realize the tunnel nulled his senses until they were almost overwhelmed with new input. Phew. But he was still moving...

He opened his eyes again with a jolt. He realized the portal had opened up midair when he saw the gaping chasm between him and the ground. Panic overtook him as he realized that he was falling head first. "AAAAAAH!" He screamed. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE! HELP ME!"

Sure enough, right before he hit the ground, he abruptly stopped falling. His head dangled perilously close to the ground, his brain felt fried, and he was wondering why he hadn't been pulverized yet as he took in an upside down mass of green and night blue. Ow.

Ace slowly lowered themself to the ground, air going up in plumes as their feet touched down. "We need to work on that," he mumbled. He did a swooping gesture with his fingers, and Chris was let go, gently landing on his head and sprawling on his stomach. "Ow," he grumbled, rubbing his head and standing up. He was about to snap at Ace about being more careful- and then he really saw it.

"Wow," he whispered. "This place is beautiful." He was standing on a sloping, grassy meadow dotted with flowers of several different colors. North, in the distance, was an absolutely enormous mountain. Or was it a volcano? It was nighttime in Magiria, so he couldn't really tell. Behind it, even farther in the distance, was a long mountain range. He could barely see the white on their peaks. Without the city lights to cover the sky, the stars shone brightly. And... there were two moons?

"What?" He tilted his head at the sky. "Why are there two moons?"

"Why, in your world, is there only one?" Ace responded, looking at the sky along with Chris. He seemed at peace, something that Chris had already inferred from his short time spent with Ace that it wasn't something that happened often.

"It's just... weird!

"Having only one moon is weird, too," Ace responded.

He opened his mouth to fire another retort, but closed it after realizing he had none. "I guess. It's... new." Chris sighed. "It makes the sky brighter, anyway. You know?" Wow, that sounds really stupid, he thought, annoyed with himself. He turned to look at Ace. "Is it... always like this? Peaceful? Not light polluted?"
Ace sighed. "No." The ninja dude just looked sad. "I mean, the environmental crisis is much less significant here than on Earth. We haven't quite gotten to that point where we'd need to cut back yet. But..." They trailed off and shook their head. "We..."

Chris frowned. "What?"

Ace turned to face him, their expression even more shadowed than it was before. "The entire world is at war."