[center][img=http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i374/bensundeitestutho/raptor-man_zps06c95bcc.png][/center]
[center][b]Zac Wilson[/b] | [b]Zac Wilson (Dreamverse)[/b] | [b]Aubrey Adkins (Dreamverse)[/b][/center]
[center][b]August: 5 Months Before Concurrent Posts[/b][/center]
“And here is our training facility. It’s pretty state-of-the-art, if I say so myself!”

After the medical staff had mended Zac’s wounds and bruises, Zac’s alternate-self started giving him a tour of the premise. Before them stood a large, metallic door, similar to the one in the original Star Wars movie where the (unusually) tall Stormtrooper accidentally hit his head on top of the door. However, instead of heading through those doors, Raptor-Man led Zac up a set of stairs that was placed directly next to the massive doors. Once they reached the top, Zac discovered that at the end of the stairs was a control room, filled with different panels and computers.

“This here is where we control the conditions of our training facility. By using different combinations of advanced robotics and life-like holograms and imagery, we can almost reproduce any condition or terrain so that we can get the most out of our exercise sessions.”

“So,” Zac started to speak, “This is kind of like the Danger Room from the X-Men?”

Raptor-Man paused for a second, thinking about his answer. “Well, I guess so.”

The two men walked over to the glass windows on the far side of the room so that they might see the current training session. Zac was surprised at how realistic the inside of the training room appeared. The forest contained within the room looked as if it was somehow transplanted inside the building, rather than being a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
	
At the bottom of the room, Zac saw one of Raptor-Man’s fellow teammates. She too was wearing a costume made out of the same material as Raptor-Man’s, but hers was colored dark pink and blue. From her hips up, she looked pretty normal, as far as superheroes go, but everything else was a whole different ballgame. Her lower half of her body was replaced by the abdomen of a spider, along with four pairs of spider legs.

	Several assailants surrounded her, lunging forward in an attempt to attack her. However, although one might think that she might be less mobile and agile than the average spider-themed hero, she gracefully leapt onto one of the ancient ruins imbedded within the forest, incapacitating her assailants with webbing shot form her wrists. And whenever a handful of them managed to dodge her web barrage, her front legs would push them back, as if they were arms.

	She continued to leap between the several ruins within the training room, until she reached one that was booby-trapped. However, she was already aware of the danger before she landed, since something along the lines of a sixth sense alerted her to it. Above the ruins, a giant stone began to fall, large enough to squash a normal person. As soon as the heroine landed on the ruins, the stone was already almost on top of her.

	“Is she going to be squashed like a...” Zac began to say, but Raptor-Man cut in.

	“She has what is supposedly the proportional strength of a spider. And since female spiders are almost always significantly larger than their male counterparts, I would put my money on her surviving. Also, if you were going to say “squashed like a bug”, spiders are arachnids. She and her husband always complain about people messing that up.”

	They glanced back towards the training room, discovering that she had indeed stabilized the giant stone and thrown it aside. She then continued defending herself from her opponents, who probably were shocked that she survived, if the opponents were living, that is.

	“Let’s head downstairs. I know that Aubrey can mop up the rest of those villains. After she is done, we can give you a short lesson on Super-Heroics 101.”

	“Aubrey?”

	“Oh, that her name. We usually stick with our super-hero handles when outsiders are around, but since you’re me, I think it is fine.”

	Zac and Raptor-Man loitered outside the training room’s entrance (and, hence, the exit), waiting for Aubrey to exit from her training session. Finally, the metal doors slid open and the sound of multiple feet clicking on the ground started to approach them. Aubrey walked out of the room, but when she saw both her own universe’s Raptor-Man and Zac, she quickly rubbed her eyes.

	“Am I seeing double of you?”

	“No, um, I mean Yes.” Raptor-Man began, “There are two of us, but it is not due to your senses. Also, would you mind if we gave [i]this[/i] Zac a quick less in Super-Heroics?”

“I don’t know Zac,” Aubrey replied, “I just finished a rigorous training session, I need to hit the showers, and I have a dinner date with my husband in an hour. Anyways, wouldn’t we be breaking the whole “Space and Time Continuum” thing by teaching him anything?”

“I am pretty sure that time-traveling only creates alternate universes and never changes the events of one’s present timeline. While I am not one-hundred percent sure on this one, I do remember reading about it somewhere. Maybe it was that Super-Hero physics book that one professor from the University of Minnesota wrote?”

“Zac,” Aubrey said, placing her hand on Zac’s shoulder, “While I don’t have any ill-feeling towards you, I just don’t think...” However, before Aubrey could finish her sentence, both Aubrey and Zac blinked out of existence, leaving nothing behind.

“Um, what just happened?” Raptor-Man said, being left behind. “Better call her husband to cancel the reservation, if they had one. I just hope he doesn’t take this one out on me.”

----

Zac suddenly found himself in a dark, misty cavern. Several feet ahead, he saw two large arches, each one made out of different materials. Through one gate, the cavern continued, with fire clinging to the walls, and green smoke billowing through the cracks on the ground. Through the other gate, the floors were tiled with marble, with tables filled with all sorts of food, and there was a commotion of a party coming from the end of that path. And before these two gates, stood an old man, leaning on his a wood stick that was probably as old or even older than he was.

“Halt, stranger,” the old man said, “You must pick to cross the threshold of one of these gates. To my left is the Gate of Horn, while to my right is the Gate of Ivory. But be careful, while one gate, where true dreams depart, will set you free, the wrong decision will condemn you to live in the dream world forever, wondering the shadowy plains of Erebus for eternity. Pick carefully, stranger”.

Zac thought this out in his head. He vaguely remembered the Gates of Horn and Ivory from his Freshmen English Class in high school, but he could not recall the details of which one was truth and which one was lies. However, a different idea appeared in his head. He remembered in the third Indiana Jones movie, the false cup was the extravagant cup, while the real one was the small, wooden cup. Therefore, applying that logic, Zac crossed the threshold of the Gate of Horn. Turning around, he expected the old man to say something (in a similar way as the old knight did in the Indiana Jones movie). And he wasn’t disappointed.

“You have chosen wisely”.

Then everything went black, until he found himself in a chamber, similar to the one he found Kelly in, although it was lit better than the last one he was in. His shoulder ached; he assumed that when he somehow got teleported or whatever to this room, his momentum from the teleportation (or whatever brought him to this room) continued, smashing into the wall.

“What the [explicit] is that?” shouted someone in the room, “Fire at will! Fire at will!”

Zac quickly ducked behind a large column that was right next to him. However, he noticed that not a single bullet was flying towards him. Once the deafening gun fight had ended, Zac peaked out from behind. Several men, dressed in black, armed with military grade arms, were all covered with webbing and knocked out. Suddenly something dropped from the ceiling, suspended from a webline, causing him to let out a shout of terror.

“Hey there,” the female voice said, “Do you know where we are?”

“Um, your guess is as good as mine.”

“I’ll just call Zac and tell him to track the signal and pick us up.” But after she pulled out her cell phone from the sack that she had slug on her back, Zac felt his phone ring in his pocket. He pulled it out and showed it to Aubrey.

“Are we in your universe?”

“Well, it looks like it.”

“Well then, wait for me outside and give an anonymous tip to the police that there are a bunch of men in possession with illegal-grade firearms. I need to change so that I don’t stick out like a sore thumb.” Before Zac could turn to walk out, Aubrey tossed a small, elastic wristband. “Put this on. It’ll negate your powers so you aren’t walking around with a tail”.

Zac walked outside, recognizing the road that appeared in front of him. He and Kelly drove on this road while heading for his parents’ house. After he dialed called the police and gave the tip, he heard Aubrey walking out from the chamber.

“So, where to next?”