Sometimes the plans don't go as they should.
Or else, just maybe, it would all end. It had already been so long ... Even so, nobody cared. There were few questions about whether we would be living among other Universes.
Unravel the Multi-universe? Traces of coexisting universes. How to explain space-time and its infinite expansion? What if we started with the Big Bang theory? The universe was believed to have spread so fast with the explosion that it created bubbles. Independent, parallel universes, but not our reality.
To begin, it was necessary to understand what the Multi-universe was. It could be scary to imagine being trapped inside a space bubble. Imagine another one of you. The cosmic expansion continued inaction. Space grows faster than the speed of light.
Who knows, there would be, all kinds of the universe, perhaps even with laws and physical constants different or equal to ours. But there will also be all kinds of the similar universe. Some so similar that they will be exactly the same.
The absolute end? Cosmic catastrophes! So many scientists had discussed the subject! Global warming on the planet. Or a complete disaster. The Big Rip, the universe would have expanded so much, that even atoms that form planets and galaxies would start to disintegrate ... generating the biggest apocalypse of all. Dark energy accelerates the form of growth in an unknown way.
The acceleration of the universe could annihilate entire galaxies, destroy the structure of space-time.
If gravitational attraction curbs the attraction that makes the stars distance themselves from each other ... The Universe would then plunge into a dense state as if it were swallowed by a black hole. A cosmic collapse would occur until there was nothing left. It would be the end of absolutely everything we know.
The thoughts were not pleasant. Some people felt nauseous when travelling by car or bus. Angel de Ígnea suffered from space-time travel. It was cold, dark and scary to be moved in space.
It could be maybe another hundred years, and she wouldn't get used to it. She was almost two hundred.
Back there, just at that moment, was somewhat intimidating. The beginning of everything.
To be a dark matter particle, it must have a lot of mass, probably more than a neutron, and interact very weakly with normal matter, hardly reacting or producing light. She held structures in the universe, like galaxies and clusters, huge objects that she would not let go.
Angel shook her head, disconcerted as she crossed the material carrier and her feet tread the firm ground of Small Mountain again.
Sixteen was a frustrating age. So much nonsense and lack of judgment.
The temerity of age, thinking you know everything. She crossed the short space of sand, her eyes on the creature still motionless with the pistol firmly in her hand. And reflecting how she had done it. She couldn't remember anything more than the old fiction movies. Ah, the aliens ... just she had managed to have a nervous breakdown when she found one. And it wasn't even an insectoid.
It's all right. A normal person sometimes had overreactions. They reacted absurdly. At least at that moment, when she glimpsed herself, she almost imagined that she could have been simply human.
Not everything was always easy. Except that being an edriana had complicated a little. And being an Edrian with the latent powers of the Tower of Seven had made that situation out of control. She needed to reach her hysterical self before she did more nonsense.
"Stay where you are, Angie!" Angel shouted in concern. Do not do anything! Deliver the mallet.
The nervous girl waved her hands and it was a bad sign. Without knowing it, she was invoking unknown power. It was the problem with time travel.
Angel took off running at Spike's puzzled look, paying no attention to his youthful friend.
It was like entering a terribly strange dream, being awake. She and Zorack had discussed the matter several times. They needed to prevent ...
-Who are you? Angie shouted in shock.
Cold sweat now washed over her entire body. It was almost the image of a reflection in her mirror. Except for a few differences. Fear slowly began to penetrate her mind.
Was her?
Older?!
The floor seemed to be missing under her feet. It was a hallucination! Another one of those terrible and very real violent outbreaks of hallucination. The woman in front of her wore a face with strained expressions when she took a deep breath. That woman was not dressed like them there. The fabric of her clothes was something she had never seen. It practically stuck to the body like a second skin. And the hips? Mercy! Since when had she managed to keep her hips that wide?
-It's all right. Just breathe, okay? It is like those old movies at dawn on TV. Only that. - Angel searched for the first words that came to her penalized mind, holding out the hands in midair.
Perhaps Zorack's vision was not so bad at that moment.
Spike screamed as loud as he could, totally oblivious to monsters and ETs. His teeth chattered against each other and clinked so much it was fear.
-Who are you? - he asked the figure of the older woman and then turned to the young woman in shock: Do you want to explain to me how you managed to get so old? Wow!! I never thought those gym exercises would leave you with a body like that. Have you seen that ass?
Angel closed her mouth, swallowing plagues. Since when? Why? Since when was she so skinny and unattractive? If that girl still didn't have six graduates she would be able to accompany Spike in her screams.
- Can you not make noise? These creatures are quite helpless when they change their shell, but after they wake up their appetite is monstrous and they don't make a selection. Anything will do. - She asked, counting mentally.
The girl was totally embarrassed. And what careless hair! Bitten nails ... She contained even more pests, remembering an old, hateful habit. It was almost a miracle that Zorack looked at her with beautiful Scarlet like that parading around the ship.
-I'm just tired. Angie shook her head reasoning. - I'm hungry and thirsty. Sleep. A sleepless person can easily start delusional. Or else I got cold. I have a fever.
Angel took a deep breath. Was she that annoying at that age? Good, God! just needed to get the girl back to Spartackus' path and safety. It was supposed to be simple. Why did she start to doubt that it wasn't going to be easy?
-Look. I'm not a hallucination! You need to accept that. Things have changed. I really need you to take it and go back to the ship. You don't know what's going on!
Have they changed? That simple? A scorpion when big was maybe five or seven centimetres. Only that one was monstrous in size.
"I'm fine. Just scream. It's just a damn nightmare. Scream and wake up! The simple rule of cause and effect. You scream and wake up. WAKE UP!"
-You're just a nightmare. Fruit of my imagination. I am stressed because of the math test. - Angie spoke to herself aloud, rubbing her forehead.
-Stressed ?! Well, thankfully, it's not PMS, Angie. I told you we shouldn't leave the damn ship. DIDN'T I TELL THAT IT WAS NOT TO ESCAPE THE DAMNED SHIP? I SAID! Of course, I did! And did you hear? - Spike exploded.
-Shut up! - the two women shouted at the same time.
It was as if the air itself had frozen around. All two looked at each other in bewilderment.
- Have I always had my hair so dry and dull? - Angel asked himself. - Ah, forget the unfortunate hair! I want you to come back right now, girl. And it is an order.
Angel seemed very pleased with you. She could handle the situation. It was like dealing with children. She had a way with that at last. It was enough to show authority and a firm hand. Orders. And be authoritarian. The only problem was a very small detail. The eternal rebellion! The girl in front of her had shooting eyes.
-An order?! And since when do you give me orders? Who told you that you are in control of everything here?
The discussion finally sparked new attention. An anatomical vibration caused the two women to shut up in amazement. The ground shook as if it were an earthquake and at last the creature began to move, the tweezers moving threateningly cutting the air.
-She's definitely in control. - Spike shouted whiter than a statue. - She has a gun. And you haven't. Does that gun do anything to that thing? Tell me it does! Please! I don't have much meat. I will die!
Angel stared at Spike dumb and haunted, following the creature he indicated with his hand, his eyes stopping at the threat. hoped that Zorack would be luckier than she was. She was currently in serious trouble.
" This is not going to work!"
-Ah, don't worry. These things are not very demanding on the palate. - she replied grudgingly. - They really eat anything in front of them.
There was a force in time and space that struggled to keep events on course. Paradoxes were dangerous and disastrous. And worse than that was without a doubt, Multi-universes approaching the melting point.
- Damn, Angie! It is not the end of the world to find a boyfriend, even if he is not from this planet! Are you so afraid to admit that you have feelings? - she replied savagely. - You're not even Terran. Did you pay attention to that detail?
- Don't you dare psychoanalyze me! I'm normal! And that doesn't exist in a normal world! - Angie shouted with all her strength. - You don't exist! It's all Zorack's fault and his hallucinations!
It was to fall and submerge in a sea of unreality. The creature finally moved towards them. The laser shots ... Spike's screams ... Angie lost her dizziness, the images wavering in her mind, trying to get attached to anything real. Her hands slowly began to shine, emanating blue flames. There was a door! A door at the end of the hall. The sign was written in large letters with the word dressing.
-No, don't do that! - Angel pleaded, removing a compression grenade from his belt and threw it at the big scorpion, before running towards the girl. - The door ... drop the damn sphere. It is a time travel device!
The door at the end of the hall. It was the door to the school locker room. On that last day of school, she had almost taken too long and been stuck in the locker room with the cleaning ladies who were cleaning the place. It had been lucky. If she had stayed there, Zorack would never have found her. Not before the invasion started.
Angel looked at the girl, her mind making the connection. She could see it through the eyes of her younger self. The bewilderment and astonishment at the most unreal scene. It was reliving an old horror movie.
The scream of horror ... She had never screamed so loudly or so scared. She was standing, still and unresponsive to her own reflection, watching the image of her picking up the keys and locking the glass door.
All Angel could remember was screaming for hours. Her scream would be able to wake even the dead, only that they had not caught the attention of the cleaning ladies. Before the scene, she finally discovered the reason why they never opened that door during the weekend. Zorack in that reality had never met her.
The pale, staggering girl had lost all voice and gave in to panic. The lights went out ... as she retreated shaking until her shoulders were pressed against the cold wall and slid slowly across the floor, bending her shaky knees.
Cursing, she forced Angie back to reality, shaking her violently by the arms.
The effort took all the air out of the lungs. She fell to the floor, oblivious to the pathetic protests of the irresponsible girl, defending herself from nails and bites.
-Hey! Stop there, you two! Now! This is no joke! You won't want to call it any more, will you? a thick, authoritative voice roared impatiently.
Angie's and Angel's bulging eyes were fixed on the man before them. It was the figure of a guerrilla. Strong and determined. The muscles stood out in an athletic body with developed muscles.
Angel sighed miserably.
-He will kill me! - she managed to groan desolate.
Angie looked at her and swallowed, unable to find her voice for an instant.
-Spike ?!
- Welcome to the multi-universe! Or what remains of him. - Angel explained, waving a hand in the air. - Alternative realities, my dear. I think we just met Spike. He is the new captain of the Terran Resistance against the insectoid invasion. If you or I was a pest at that age, just wait to see our original version that you never knew. Zorack.
They were in tremendous trouble! Another universe merging and alternative realities colliding.
Angel desperately wanted Zorack there. Even Angie was beginning to believe that maybe knowing Zorack hadn't been that bad in the face of a version of a determined, determined, robust Spike with muscles.