Leah woke up as her alarm went off and she started getting ready for work. Ella was sleeping in her dog bed, which really surprised her, as Ella usually stayed downstairs with Erik, the Giver of Treats (also known as the sucker who can't resist puppy eyes).
"Maybe he's out grabbing coffee?" She didn't think much more about it and got on with her morning routine. When she got downstairs, she saw Josie sitting at the kitchen table, playing a game of solitaire and drinking her morning tea.
"Has Erik been upstairs yet?"
Josie was about to reply, when the subject in question burst into the house with a giant grin on his face.
"You have to see this!" he said, doubled over and wheezing for air.
"Why are you wearing all that gear? What were you doing out there long enough for Ella to give up and come upstairs? And see what? I have to get to work!" Leah looked annoyed but somehow concerned at the same time.
"I've found something, you're not going to believe it if I tell you, you'll have to see it for yourself!" Then he stopped and thought about it for a second. Right, bills and rent and responsibilities don't stop just because you've found something amazing. He scowled and said "ok, but as soon as you get home from work, we're going out!"
After Leah left, Erik tried to go grab some sleep but his mind was racing from what he had seen. He knew he'd be much better off rested, as opposed to running on adrenaline and coffee. He forced himself to blank out his mind and then relaxed each muscle, one by one. The trick worked and the next thing he knew, Leah was waking him up.
"That was a very long day, thanks for that! Now what is it that's so great?" Leah said grumpily.
Erik practically jumped out of bed and got dressed in a flash. He told her to grab the bat and put the jacket on, then grabbed the shield and knife for himself.
"Follow me!"
They had to go down the block to get into the back area, down a path that led into the field; preparation for a future development. Leah wasn't about to be hopping any fences without a good reason. She had never had the best balance or coordination, so chances were decent she'd twist her ankle or something when landing. She had also injured her knee last year and was still less than fully mobile to begin with! She stared doubtfully at the overgrown field, but Erik dragged her towards the trees. There weren't any mobs around that they could see, so the trip was uneventful. As she entered the group of trees, she stopped and said "What's that?" Erik had previously felt it, so he knew what she was experiencing and had forgotten to tell her.
"It's some sort of field that tells you when you're near something important I think? It happened when I was near that dead glowing beaver on the first day and then last night when I was here." He knew he was in a bit of trouble when her face darkened.
"You were out, in this field, in the middle of the night?"
"Um, yes? I was chasing a…..never mind. Anyways, check this out!" He didn't finish the sentence that would complete his journey into the doghouse. He strode over to the middle where the goblin had vanished the night before and waited for her to come over. She appeared to be letting him off the hook, or at least storing the hook for later, as she felt the pull get stronger.
'Ok, do what I do, and be prepared to be amazed! Oh, and don't worry, we can get back!" Erik said with the grin creeping back.
"O…k. Wait, back? What do you mean ba…" She trailed off as Erik raised his hand and vanished!
She growled, then looked around at the darkening sky and the gloomy trees and quickly raised her hand.
WELCOME TO THE HUB.
Leah stared in wonder at an enormous cavern that stretched as far as she could see. It was hundreds of feet wide, with the ceiling barely visible above her. She turned around and noticed that the cavern also continued the other way, again with no end visible. Looking back, she saw that they had emerged from a glowing circle of distorted air, and she could see the trees through it. The same glowing circles were spaced every 20 feet or so all the way down both directions.
"Where are we?" she asked, not actually expecting Erik to know. It was still a question that one asks in these situations.
"I don't know," he confirmed, "however you should take a look at the other portals!"
She started to wander over to the next one but stopped suddenly as she saw a small figure in the distance.
"It's a goblin and as far as I can tell, they aren't hostile here. I was in here for nearly 5 hours and saw plenty of them, but not one came near me. Well, I say I was in here, but uh, just go over and look at the portal!" Erik urged.
Warily continuing forward, she walked up to the next portal and gasped! "Is that the CN Tower? Can we go through this and get there?" She couldn't believe it, but she also couldn't think of any reason why a portal showing a location wouldn't take her there. They had seen and heard some ridiculous things recently, so why not?
"Yes and yes! And of course I tried it, after first making sure that I could also get back through our portal. The neat thing is, I don't think it lets you go through if anyone is watching! The first time I tried going through, it resisted, and I couldn't push through. Then someone walked through the portal, or rather I saw them walking away from it as if they had walked through, but for some reason they didn't notice it at all! I spent a while watching where the portal was and not one person felt the pull that we both did. I have no idea why yet, but I'm going to try to figure it out. It was early in the morning and there weren't many people walking around, but I can't imagine that we're the only two people that can use these. There's got to be a reason."
"Giant glowing circle and he has no idea if it'll let him come back, but sure, full steam ahead!" Leah sighed.
"Yeah, patience and being extra cautious aren't really my thing? It worked though, right?" he grinned. He was annoyingly able to get away with this stuff. Sure, he got himself into trouble constantly, but nobody ever seemed to stay mad at him for long. "Anyway, want to try it?"
"Ok, let's go. Guess it's safe enough now that the guinea pig has gone through. You go first though! Make sure it's safe!" It was dusk on the other side of the portal and the streetlights were on. After Erik stepped through with no issues, she steeled herself and went through. It was just like entering another room, although the temperature was quite a bit cooler than the Hub, which felt almost neutral. Leah could see a restaurant nearby, with a few people milling about outside, but the streets were mostly empty. It was a bit of a darker street, and the portal was off to the side, covering a recess in the building's exterior. Someone must have come out of the door in that recess just as Erik had been trying to go through the portal the first time. The sidewalk went right by it however and she agreed that people would have felt the pull of the portal if they could actually do so. The portal itself wasn't visible on this side, but she could easily feel where it was.
"Alright, not feeling overly safe here, let's go back for now." She didn't want to tempt fate, being unprepared and in a city she really didn't know. Erik nodded and they both turned to the portal. She raised her hand towards it, but nothing happened. Glancing over, one of the people at the entrance to the restaurant was facing their direction. He didn't appear to be staring at them, just gazing down the street while smoking a cigarette. The darkness of the street and the alcove they were in helped with hiding the fact that they were standing on a city street with various weapons and a shield.
"Uh, I guess we'll have to hang out until he's done." Erik realized at that point that if someone was coming after them for any reason, they'd likely have to lose that person in order to go back through the portal. That was a problem. Potentially a very significant problem.
Once the man was done, he headed back into the restaurant and Erik motioned for Leah to hurry and try to go through the portal again. She raised her hand vanished, as did he shortly after. When he got to the other side, he saw that Leah didn't look very happy. He expected her to berate him for almost getting them stranded, but she surprised him by saying "We'll need a backup plan for when that happens again. We don't want to constantly be hanging around the portals, waiting for a clear moment. We might even be stuck during busy times of the day."
"So you're willing to try it again?" He asked happily.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I want to go see the world for free? Assuming those other portals do what I hope they do?"
"Can confirm or at least make a reasonable assumption! I've been down the hall a way, made it all the way to San Francisco, although I didn't recognize where a lot of the others went. There was a nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge in that one, kind of made it easy to recognize! This one happened to have a recognizable landmark attached, but not too many do. We're going to have to be very careful to always have something to translate and something to navigate with. And we need to take pictures of the street signs nearest to each portal to make sure we can find them again! Then there's the currency problem, but we'll work on that. The weird thing about this is that it doesn't appear to go by time zone only, but by country and then time zone from what I can tell. I'm not sure what country was on the other side of British Columbia, but I'm guessing probably Russia? But then, do we go by latitude and New Zealand is next? Or do the towns in French Polynesia get a portal? A portal to Bora Bora would be nice in December! Can't wait to find out! But for now, forget about all that and come with me, there's more to show you!"
"Easy to say to just forget about what we've just been through, but sure! No problem!" Leah rolled her eyes and followed Erik. He led her down the enormous hallway to a circle on the floor that she hadn't noticed before. It was also glowing, but not nearly as bright as the portals were. There were words surrounding the circle. "C5 to Main Facilities".
"I think the C5 means 5th Canadian Province maybe? It's near what looks to be the Ontario city portals, so that's the best guess I have. I didn't see one in front of Manitoba though."
"Manitoba only has a couple of cities and one barely qualifies." Leah said, "so if there is another of whatever this is back that way, it probably combines a few of the prairie provinces."
"Makes sense. Alright, follow me to the really interesting stuff!" He stepped into the circle and vanished. She stepped onto the platform and was suddenly in a very large circular room with the same walls as the hallways they had been in. There were square buildings against the walls and she could also see what appeared to be a market, with stalls. There were 5 large hallways leading out from the room in a spoke pattern. On the floor in front of each of the spokes, she could see writing, but from this angle, couldn't make out what they said. The area was deserted just like the hallways had been and while there were lights in the various buildings, she couldn't see anyone moving around in them.
Erik pointed at one of the buildings and said, "That's where we need to go first." It was the largest building visible, with a large fountain in front and several rows of trees and gardens. As they got closer, they noticed that the fountain wasn't running, the trees were sickly, and the gardens were full of weeds and dying flowers. There were leaves all over the path and the whole area just looked like it had been abandoned, despite the lights inside.
Erik cracked open the door, which despite his expectations at this point, didn't creak. He peered inside and saw that the interior was a large room with a desk on the other side. There were benches along the sides of the room, making it appear to be a waiting room. But nobody was waiting, nor was anyone behind the desk.
"More mysteries." Erik sighed. "First we have a system that doesn't do anything, and now we have a reception area with nobody receiving."
"At least there aren't any rotting bodies!" Leah mused. "So whoever was here left instead of dying mysteriously! That's a silver lining at least!"
"Sure, but it depends on why they left. Or if anyone was even here to begin with. The monsters all popped out from thin air, so maybe this place did too!" Erik was looking around, trying to figure out what to do next, when his gaze fell upon the words behind the desk. They hadn't been visible when they had first entered the room, but now it looked like they had been carved into the wall when the building was built or possibly created. Erik's eye went wide when he read the words:
SYSTEM ADMIN