Harry B

The Panic Portal

Prologue

Mike is a soaring, lanky Zurbogian male. He lives on the planet Zurboge in a monstrosity of a house. The house is nearly a kilometer tall with 46 floors. It is fitted with all the latest technology, for example, an endless food supply with an auto sprinkler which sprays a frosty, refreshing liquid in a mesmerizing, nearly hypnotic spiral pattern, and a high tech super computer which controls the whole house. Mike has heard rumours about his long lost parents. But he has never heard the real story in any elaborate detail. His parents had died an excruciatingly brutal death. They were murdered ferociously by the night-crawler. The night-crawler is a mutant worm, with may fearsome abilities Most of this species are nice, friendly, affectionate, loyal and harmless, and so was this one, until it went rogue.

Chapter 1 Awoken

Mike awoke, startled, in his super king size bed. He had just had a horrid nightmare about the lower half of his house blowing up. Even though he cherished sleep, and had just been awoken, he was effervescent, that he had woken up from the horror that lurked in the dream.

He hopped out of bed and trotted into the elevator that would take him down to the bottom floor of his colossal mansion. Mike slouched down on the amazingly comfortable roll out bed that lay in the corner of the large, circular, elevator. It was a long trip down. The buzzing and the rumbling of the elevator rapidly slowing down soothed him, and Mike fell into a light, and peaceful nap. Until a thin, rose gold panel emerged from an air vent. The panel made a loud “BING!” And showed a video of a cat playing a piano with its feet. I know, weird, but Mike likes these kind of things.

Mike strolled out of the elevator into the breakfast room very much looking forward to his fried egg, expensive bacon and baked beans with edible gold flakes freshly harvested from the mines 45 minutes west from Mike’s house. Mike joyfully bounced up onto his wooden stool and quickly started to devour his lovely meal. The egg yolk trickled through Mike’s mouth like a warm river. The bacon was thin, and had no fat. It was chewy and cooked to perfection. The baked beans were scrumptious, and were at just the right temperature for Mike’s liking. And the final touch, the enormously expensive gold flakes added an amazing touch to this truly magnificat meal.

Chapter 2 The Portal

After speedily devouring this overwhelmingly appetizing meal, Mike picked up his metal axe and walked promptly out of the automatic door into the cold, brisk summer air (Mike works in Zurbogian lumber). The beautiful sunrise collided with the fog that was emerging from the swampy river bank made a bright salmon colour which surrounded Mike, and the tranquil green leaves in an unspeakably mesmerizing and heartwarming way.

He was walking through the tranquil forests, searching for a tall tree (these tall trees made him a truckload of money when he sold them at the paper market near the mines). Mike was confused by the baffling fact that that there might be none left. Mike sprinted further and further through the forest. The further he went, the trees became more and more dense. The morning sun and the bright salmon clouds weren’t visible anymore, by his perspective. Mike started to feel unnaturally nervous.

Mike saw a glimpse of a violet shine, out of the corner of his eye. He blinked, and slowly twisted his body around the corner of the tree stump so he had a perfectly straight view of the unknown mechanism. Mike gasped, it was a portal! Suddenly his curiosity took over his actions and his whole body. He curiously walked into the unknown metallic portal. His eyes were paralyzed and his legs and arms flapped around like they were extremely dislocated. Mike had lost control of his whole body. His eyes blacked out and he fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 3 A Foreign Land

Mike opened his drowsy eyes. He was amazed that he had control over his body again, but still felt perplexed, because he found himself in a strange place. This place, that baffled him was filled with with many bizarre, unknown things. The main thing he saw was a strange species, overpopulating this strange place. He also saw many other species, there ones with wings, and sharp beaks. And ones that had four legs, a long nose, and floppy ears. But there was also things that were familiar to Mike, like buildings, the place was full of them. There was tall ones, and long ones, and small, stubby ones that were only around the height of Mike on his tippy-toes.

Mike explored this perplexing place in astonishing wonder. While exploring, he came across a sign, that completely baffled his brain. It wasn’t the fact that it was painted an ugly maroon colour, it wasn’t the word barbers, (they have those in Zurboge). The thing that bewildered Mike the most was the writing, just above the word, barbers. It read New York.

This insanely discombobulated Mike, because he had studied extremely hard in the subject, geography, at West Zurbogian High. Mike knew that New York must be a place, it was obvious because of the way it was used in the name. The baffling part was that Mike had never heard of it. The fact that Mike had never heard of it sent a terrifying shiver down his spine. This was because if Mike hasn’t heard of this place, it is probably very far away from his home, in Zurboge.

Chapter 4 Stevan

Mike was wandering the streets, alleyways and parks of this vast unknown city, New York. It was when he perched down by a tall, tree, with bright lime green leaves, he met his first native. This native New Yorker was sympathetic, and considerate to Mike. He didn’t tease him or make fun of his extensive story. In fact this native was very smart. After he heard the story he introduced himself. He said “Hello, my name is Stevan. Fortunately I have the skill to build a portal that could take you back to Zurboge. If you would be happy for me to come with you, I can assist you on this remarkably phenomenal journey.” After hearing this Mike was thrilled. He was skipped around the collosal park, screaming at the top of his lungs, “I have a chance!” In an overjoyed manner.

That night, Mike and Stevan had no place to sleep. So they each took their own branch of a new, larger tree, and slept there. This tall tree reminded him of home and that wasn’t a sad subject anymore. He looked over at Stevan, in such gratefulness. Mike was thrilled that he might have a chance of getting back to his home, and getting to reunite with all the memories that lay memories that lay in the marvelous monstrosity of a house .

Chapter 5 An Engineering Mishap

They drifted over to a slightly deserted corner of this strange park that goes by the strange name, Central Park in an even stranger place, New York. Stevan set up his tools and his gear. As Stevan started to build, an extremely thankful thought, danced through his somewhat baffled brain. Building this portal would have been unquestionably difficult, if it weren't for his new friend, Stevan.

They were welding, screwing and drilling the metallic outer rim of portal until it was complete. Then the two of them wired up the complicated contraption with a wide variety of wires. There were red ones, orange ones, light, dark, and sky blue ones and many more. The sizes of the wires varied too. The widest one was around 10cm wide and the thinnest was only about half a centimeter wide.

After wiring up the what soon will be a portal they just needed to add a couple of switches, an electric circuit, poor the potion into the outer rim, and they obviously needed to plug the wires into the electric circuit. And after doing all those things, they were ready to go.

Mike was bracing, and preparing himself in a calm yet stressful manner, to jump through the large, circular portal. And reunite with his home, his pet rataboa (an animal that looks like a rat and a boa constrictor), and his human-microwave 9001. Stevan was typing in the coordinates to get Mike to Zurboge. When he was doing this, Mike suddenly asked an extremely complicated question, “Hey Steve, what the coordinates to Zurboge”. This question reminded Stevan to turn the electricity on. Stevan rushed to do this. In the process he accidentally bumped a circular jar off the edge of a high up metal rail. The nasty concoction, which fell on both, Mike and Stevan. Mike and Stevan lay, stunned on the cold tranquil grass. Birds lay on their peaceful bodys. The due from the grass soaked into their cloths, but nobody saw the two, large teenagers, that lay, soaked in the corner of the park. This was probably because they looked dead, and people tried to avoid dead people, or maybe it was the fact that they disappeared, five minutes after the, what everybody thought to be a dreadful accident.

Chapter 6 A Change Of Scenery

They woke on a warm sandy road, sweat trickling down their blood-read faces. Mike looked up and saw mountains, sand, four hot gleaming suns, that boiled his eyes to jelly. Not too long after Stevan woke up. His face was as crispy as burnt bacon, and as red as a squashed tomato.

Their hearts were pounding like a hungry child slamming their fork on the table and shouting DINNER! But they were resilient. Mike and Stevan stood up. The heat drained their energy. The two of them walked slowly, but surely towards a distant cave, on top of the sand dune, hoping that it will give them decent shelter, and shade.

Eventually they reached the cave. The shade cooled their, red, inflamed skin, their eyes stopped boiling like hot miso soup and they lay down at the back of the cave like they hadn’t slept in many days.

This time waking up was not caused by the extreme heat or an intense nightmare. They just woke up normally. Stevan walked to the door of the dark, cold, mysterious cave, scanning the area for any sight of what could be danger. Stevan could see none, so he replied “No sign.” Mike loudly trotted up to the opening of the cave that they were temporarily staying in. He peeked out of the door curiously. But heard a rumbling from below, a disturbance from underneath the cold, hard, ground. This shocked Mike and Stevan. They ran. They ran, panting. Their feet scraped, and slipped across the rough, sandy landscape. A thought crossed Mike's mind, maybe they won’t survive, a huge colossal creature of any kind, could burst out of the rough terrain. And gobble them up at rapid speeds. The terror overwhelmed Mike, he was too young to die, and he had so many memories that he couldn't lose. Mike suddenly had a burst of speed, his legs moved faster than they ever have before, but it wasn’t good enough.

Chapter 7 It Wasn’t Good Enough

A colossal, perplexing, creature emerged from the dry soil. Blood trickling from its face, an enormous circular mouth opened, it had millions of sharp, blade like fangs, spinning in a spiral, similar to his sprinkler at home.

This beast squirmed up to Mike and Stevan like an oversized worm, about to slaughter its unlucky victim. The creatures gargantuan, pale white eyes gleamed and sparkled in the hot summer sun. “Mike, we meet again, I was the one who killed your parents many years ago. I know you’ve heard some crazy rumors, but this is true”. It croaked in an unexpectedly deep voice that sounded like an old-fashioned teacher scraping their long, sharp fingernails down a blackboard. Then it croaked in its terrifying, deep accent, ”If you want to survive and not die the same death your parents did, you will have to complete three trials tomorrow, we will meet at this very spot. And if you don’t come, I will find you, and hunt you down.” After saying this it slithered about five meters until it jumped into the air and then turned and dug underground.

Stevan was rocking in the corner of the cave, thinking about what the trials could be. On the other hand, Mike was trying to decide if he was going to go, and do what the ‘mutant worm’ said. Mike came to the conclusion that he would go to the spot the next day. Mike thought about the creature saying that he would brutally murder him if he didn’t go, and the fact that this creature had killed his long lost parents. Mike had to avenge them

Chapter 8 A Pleasant Ride

Mike reunited with the mysterious beast at the crack of dawn, very close to the place that the strange beast instructed him to go. Its pale eyes scared him, but he was silent. The creature croaked again with its unforgettable, deep voice. “Oh, you came. You will start your first trial four kilometers west from here. I will take you… come on, at this rate we will never get there.”

After hearing this, Mike leaped onto the back of the worm like-creature, baffled by the fact that it was four kilometers away, and how would they get there. At this point Mike noticed a large, red gem, implanted into the beast. Mike also noticed the wings that were slowly expanding, like an eagle, stretching its wings before flight. Now he knew.

Then lift off. The creature was soaring through the air at rapid speeds, Mike's arms were stretched out, he felt amazing, like he was the person controlling the creature's movements and it’s flight. The beast’s limbs were all working together to form prodigious beauty. Mike did not feel scared of this creature now. Streams of dust was flying of the sides of this majestic beast. Soon after taking off, they landed.

As soon as they landed the creature started to be unkind again, Mike was slightly scared again and it was back to normal. The two of them walked into a colossal temple made mostly out of solid sandstone. They walked through the wooden, arched doorway. That door led them to a room. This room had had five doors and they were labeled, trial one, trial two, trial three, spectator space, and living quarters.

The beast told Mike to go through the trial one door, and so he did. The creature squeezed through the spectator space door and Mike was ready to start his first trial.

Chapter 9 Trials Starting

Mike entered the room and to his surprise it was basically a jungle. Towering, slender trees surrounded him and this room reminded him of home. The trees sent flashbacks through his mind of his job. Mike was completely focused on these heartwarming memories, until a deep, croaky voice said, “Ok Mike, in this time you will have to chop down all these trees with that axe beside you. For you to survive this round, you will have to complete the task in under five minutes and I will be your timer. THREE! TWO! ONE! GO!”

Mike rushed to start. He was swinging the heavy metal axe around him at a rapid pace. The trees were falling down like mad. After only three minutes, Mike was done. “WOW!” Boomed the same voice, sounding very impressed. Mike felt good that he could move onto the next trial. And that is what he did.

The next test that this terrifying beast set him was a swimming test. Mike could see this from the fifty metre swimming pool. But Mike was confused because there was a basketball hoop.“ For this one, all you have to do is swim two laps, there and back. And then shoot four basketballs in this hoop. You will have five minutes for this one. THREE! TWO! ONE! GO!” the voice boomed from overhead.

And Mike was off. He dived into the cool water making a big splash. The water sprayed everywhere as he kicked his feet not even bothering to take his shoes off before jumping in. The timer read two minutes and Mike was only on his second lap. After finishing his second lap Mike jumped out of the water soaked. He was slipping all over the hard concrete floor. He picked up a basketball and chucked at the hoop. It bounced off the rim into the air and it started its descent, falling faster, and faster, eventually going into the hoop. Somehow Mike learned very quickly and easily got the other three shots.

Chapter 10 Fatality?

It was time and Mike walked into the last door and it lead to a race track. After hearing the creatures brief he fell to his knees in desperate hope of change. But after hearing nothing would change, he was ready to go.

Mike hopped into the small car, getting ready for his death. Until he saw something out of the corner of his eye an instruction manual. The creature looked the timer and to his surprise Mike wasn’t moving. He took thirty seconds of the one minute briefly reading the manual. Then he took off, rapidly speeding up. He drifted around the corner, and another, and a small round about until he had finished his first lap. The timer went down quickly. Mike was on the start of his last lap. He felt relieved until he looked at the timer and had five seconds left.

Mike sped down the flat part of the track and closely missed the edge while going around the bend. Then another flat part, Mike put all his weight on the acceleration and sped down the track. He spun the vehicle around the turn and then around the roundabout. Mike glanced at the timer and he had one second left when he passed the finish line. Mike was one second away from being murdered.

Chapter 11 Reuniting

Mike reunited with Stevan at the cave. Stevan had explored the village and found an old trader. Apparently he will sell a teleporting device for a large gem. They both headed to this place to find out more.

It was a small tribal hut covered in finger paintings. It has a large arched opening. Inside they met a small turtle. This turtle stands on two legs with mini jetpacks on them. It has a large green army hat, which has a thin pipe on the top with smoke flowing smoothly out of it.

The strange turtle offered the teleporting device for a large precious ruby. It is said to be found on the back of the night-crawler. Mike explained what the night-crawler was and discussed a plan to get the gem from its back. Conveniently this plan only involves one tool, but inconveniently, that tool is a sword. And they don’t have a sword.

Mike was searching for a sword. He asked if he could borrow one off the turtle and checked the town for any blacksmiths. Mike came out with no sword or anything similar. Mike walked back over to the cave to think. When he got there he slumped into a dark corner. While sitting down Mike felt a sharp pain coming from his upper thigh. His instincts brought him to check his pocket. As he reached down into the pocket he felt a long wooden stick with a very sharp on one end. Now he remembered he had picked this up as a substitute for a sword from the first trial in case he lost a trial and had to fight back. Mike gripped the stick in his hand and it was about the size of an average dagger. It would have to do.

Chapter 12 Back To The Temple

Mike and Stevan headed off to the temple of the night-crawler. It was a long hike through sand dunes, hills, mountains and rocky terrain. It took them just under an hour to get to their destination. Mike remembered all the bad things that had happened there last time. And this trip could turn out even worse. They walked through the arched doorway. And into the same room as last time through the new door that was labeled living quarters.

It was a large room but seemed very small. It had a large bed, a small, old-fashioned television with wires placed of the top. And surprisingly many posters of a common theme, a certain rock band. The creature lay on the large bed. It was snuggled up with the red cloth blanket and its skinny head lay on a pillow, hard as a rock.

Mike started his plan. Stevan gathered a bag from the corner of the room. This bag would be used to put the gem in. While Stevan was doing this Mike tried to extract the gem from the creatures back. It was stiff and wouldn’t budge. Mike scraped at the cold, hard skin. The beast was in a deep sleep and probably wouldn’t wake up. Mike kept on scraping with the substitute sword. The gem started to come out. Blood trickled from the gash that Mike had dug. The pain rushed into the creature’s brain. It was starting to wake up. Its pale eyes opened and glared at Mike in shock and anger. Mike quickly ripped the gem out of its back and ran to Stevan who put it in the bag. And they ran away, like their life depended on it.

Chapter 13 Trading

Mike and Stevan reached the village. They were exhausted. Mike wiped sweat of his forehead and walked into the trading center. The turtle was excited to see that they had came out alive and with the gem.

So they sat down for tea and the turtle made them a scrumptious meal which they devoured quickly. It was a roast chicken with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and gravy. After finishing this divine meal they offered to trade. Mike handed over the bag with the gem in it. And the turtle gave them the teleporting device. It was a small, metallic device that looked like a walky-talky. It had two wires coming out of the top and a panel to two type in the coordinates.

Mike prepared himself. After this insane journey he had learned a lot including many physical skills and others like engineering and the meaning of friendship. Mike and Stevan had gone through a lot together like the time they tried to rebuild the portal, but were accidentally sent to the planet Cufu. Mike was ready. He took hold of the device and typed in the coordinates. His body floated up like a mini tornado. Mike could not see anything. When he came down he was in Zurboge. He was back alone again. Mike first thoughts were that he was really going to miss Stevan.

Epilogue: 20 Years Later

Now Mike is old, and crippled. He doesn’t wear his cap anymore. Now he had almost forgotten the memories from the unique, wonderful journey that had happened twenty years ago. Mike heard a loud gust of wind

coming from outside his front door. He looked out and Mike smiled because his old friend Stevan had come to visit him. From that day on, Stevan lived with Mike and neither of them were lonely ever again.