George turned back to the balcony, which looked like something seen through a sheen of water. It definitely didn’t seem like a safe place to go right then, but George walked out onto the wavy, bouncy surface of the balcony floor, still holding hands with Mothball behind him, reaching out with his other hand to grab the railing. It was as shifty and rippling as everything else, but it had to be better than nothing.
When he touched the railing and took hold of it, an odd thing happened. Beginning at his hand, a distinct bulge of warped Reality shot up his arm and through his body like a wave of energy. It went down his other arm then hit Mothball, doing the same thing to her. The ball of power proceeded to go through every single Realitant like a snake swallowing a baseball until it passed through Sofia and shot up Paul’s arm. He almost let go of Sofia’s hand but didn’t. He felt nothing more than a tickle and a surge of static electricity along his skin, his hair shooting up on end. But then the energy traveled down his other arm and disappeared.
Master George was still clasping the rail of the balcony, and even that was a weird sight. The rail was moving, wavering like a mirage, but the old man’s arm seemed to be solid. Two things happening at once? That wasn’t possible. George faced the open air of the canyon, and looks of confusion passed down the Realitants. Clearly no one understood the anomaly that had passed through their bodies.
“Everyone!” George snapped, his voice muted against the awful noises that still haunted the air. “Everyone up here to have a look! Quickly, now!”
The motion of the room—the entire building, in fact—was still intense, jumping and rippling, an earthquake mixed with hallucination. But Paul and the other Realitants fought against it and surged forward, through the open door to the balcony. They crowded close, maneuvering so that each person could look over the railing and see what Master George saw.
Two seconds earlier, Paul had thought there was no way things could get worse. But he’d been terribly wrong. He stared out at the valley of the Grand Canyon and forgot all about the rocking movement around him.
Slicing its way through midair, running between the tall, rocky walls, was a floating river. Just a hundred feet or so above the raging waters of the Colorado River, there was a wide, bright gap of intense blueness. It was long and stretched in both directions, as if a giant knife had cut through Reality and the wound bled glowing blue blood. It was the same blue glow that Sato had described dropping the centipede into.
“The Fourth Dimension has ripped open into this Reality!” George shouted.
People started falling from the rent in the air.
Chapter 50
Odd Couple
There’d been a very long talk.
Tick lay there awkwardly, feeling like a spectator at a silent film, as Jane and Chu whispered with each other. His face was tense, and hers—the mask—showed no expression at all. On and on they talked, but Tick couldn’t hear a word they said. He was getting closer and closer to giving in to his instincts and just unleashing his Chi’karda with every bit of strength he had. How could it be any worse than letting Chu do whatever he wanted with him?
Finally, Tick couldn’t take it anymore.
“You two need to listen to me,” he said, trying to sound more patient and reasonable than he felt. “Bad things are going on, and we all know they’re getting worse. It’s just like in the Nonex. We can’t fight each other until we make things right again in the Realities. I promise not to fight if you will.”
Tick didn’t like saying the words; he didn’t want to work with Jane or Chu, but maybe he had no other choice. He wished he could find a way to get out of his restraints so he could use his Chi’karda again.
Both Jane and Chu looked over at him. Jane’s mask actually pulled up into a slight grin.
“Let me go,” Tick pleaded. “I swear on my family I won’t try anything. I won’t hurt anybody. And I’ll stay here while we talk everything out.” He winced at that last sentence. Now he was trying too hard.
“Pipe down while the adults talk,” Chu said. If he’d said it angrily, or meanly, Tick would’ve been okay with it. But he said it like he actually thought of Tick like a child, and that boiled his insides. He almost felt steam coming out of his ears.
“Please,” Tick said. “You know I can help.”
Chu looked back at Jane as if he hadn’t heard him. “Ever since this . . . opportunity presented itself in your Thirteenth Reality, my people have been working on a device that can harness the power of the Void, adapting it. We can do it, Mistress Jane. We can become one with it. We can meld ourselves to Reality. Just like we discussed. Things have come to fruition faster than we could’ve ever dreamed.”
Jane nodded her head slowly. “Don’t double cross me, Chu. I’m warning you.”