1Flash Fiction Friday prompt 217: Portal Fiction. 538 words
Brains was always inventing. Cutting edge tech was the great and butter of International Rescue, and kept the Tracy family alive, even if not always in one piece.
There were limits to what he would invent, though, as Jeff had found out early on in their friendship.
Time travel was a no.
Crossing dimensions absolutely not.
Tampering with the fabric of reality - hell no.
So if Brains wasn't responsible for the hole in the kitchen wall who was?
Scott regarded it suspiciously. In the darkness of the villa the light coming from the edges of the hole - portal his brain wanted to say but he balked at calling it that - was vivid and all colours of the spectrum, a tiny sparkling light show.
'John?'
But the comms merely crackled with static.
The other side of the … portal … was brilliantly white, like the light playing of snow could be. There was no form or definition to anything, just blinding light.
Well, there was no way he was going through that, and the absence of John was of greater concern, and Scott too a step back and made to turn.
An arm shot out and grabbed him, pulling him almost into the portal. As he opened his mouth to yell another hand clamped over him and pulled harder.
Scott tried to get purchase on the rim of the portal, but as he was dragged through the hole began to close, and with an almost ear-splitting 'pop' it was gone, leaving Scott being restrained who knew where.
Gordon wondered into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of his favourite soda and closed the door.
He frowned. The soda was warm. It shouldn't be warm. Gordon opened the fridge and checked. Everything was warm - far warmer than it should be. What the hell? He perched on the table while he called his brother.
'John?'
'Gordon. You alright?'
'I dunno. The fridge is hot.'
'That's weird.'
Gordon nodded as he watched his brother flicking his fingers out, knowing that on Five those fingers were dancing over computers and holograms and all kinds of information.
'Huh. There was an energy spike just before you came into the kitchen.'
'What kind of energy?'
I'm - I'm not sure. Hang on.'
John not being sure was worrisome, and Gordon's Squid sense suddenly ramped up to maximum.
A gasp from John had him on his feet.
'What? What is it?'
'I'm getting everyone together. Meet at the command centre.'
With that the emergency klaxon sounded.
Gordon got there first and watched as everyone gathered. Everyone except Scott. Gordon now felt sick to his stomach, his Squid Sense was so strong.
'Where's Scott?'
'You need to watch this.'
John's tone of voice washed away any residual sleep and they all watched the video feed of what happened in the kitchen.
There was silence when it finished.
'What the hell did we just see, John?'
'It looks like Scott was pulled through a portal.'
'But surely that's just science fiction?'
'N-n-not really.'
They all turned to Brains.
'The kn-kn-knowledge is there, the t-t-technology almost.'
'So I guess the billion dollar question is who created portal travel and what do the want with Scott?'