You and your team have finally done it! Your science team has finally completed a teleport to a different universe. You and your team have got the green light from the government to test it out your experimental teleport in your New York lab. Late at night you and your team that is: You, Sara (Age 26), Rick (Age 30) and Tom (Age 19). The four of you start the machine. There is twisting of gears and pumping of fluids. But the team doesn't know that the universe is filled with tera sized giants! 1 millimeter for their size was 1 kilometer easily! But you and your young team of scientist don't know this yet!

"All systems check sir" Tom said gazing at a large computer screen not once look away from it. There was you in delight as this would make you and you team world famous and into every history book for decades as the 'first inter-universal explorers' you dream to yourself but where awoken by the whole lab flashing red and sirens going off and red warning sign flashing all around the lab. Your young team panic as mechanical pieces fly and scenes all around the room explode and graphs go off the charts in every level. Then you and the team gaze at a large blue sphere at the center of the room. It has worked! The team rejoice and steer in awe at the colorful sphere floats in the center of the lab but suddenly your dreams are shattered as the orb starts to expand rapidly.

Your team is covered in a blue gel as the orb expands more and more. Your team is frozen in the gel and you don't know what’s happening outside. Meanwhile the blob had expanded to the whole of New York and the world watched in horror and then anything inside the blob disappeared! The entire island of Manhattan had suddenly vanished as if the island was cut from the earth itself. Family separated; 20 million people suddenly are wiped of the face of the planet. The residents of Manhattan awoke as there were in shock as their massive city was teleport to somewhere much different. The 20 million New Yorkers gaze at their new surroundings...

It was Thursday and a couple of hours after school ended when Zach started thinking about what else he would bring to school on Friday. In his science class, they were going to do an activity, and students were asked to bring in anything interesting if they wanted extra points on their assignment. The teacher had a variety of things already (mainly water, plants, and other biological or natural things, since they were in their biology unit), and the students would inspect them using the magnifying glasses in the classroom (which had a very high magnification) to see if they could find any features more easily and write down any observations. Then, for the second half, they would look at the objects under the microscopes they had, and once again write down observations (and draw pictures). Zach wanted to bring something, and when he asked if what he brought had to relate to the unit, the teacher said that it didn't have to, but it would be preferable.

He was happy about that, since he wanted extra points since they would improve his grade (he was already doing well in the class, but he still wanted to do even better), but didn't want to spend hours looking for something interesting outside. At most, he would pick up some leaves or rocks. And that's exactly what he did when he got home. It took just a minute, and after he put them in his bag, he decided to rest before looking for more things. He went to get something from the kitchen and brought it to his room, where he would play one of his favorite games on his computer before doing a couple of other things. He didn't even think about the assignment for around 3 hours. After his break, he decided to look around the house for more objects. As he entered one of the rooms, grabbed a few things, and put them in his bag, he didn't notice the blue index card near his foot.

Meanwhile, you and your team were looking at what a highly-advanced, telescopic device you created months ago was displaying on the screen. It gave you a much better view of what this place looked like, and you were all instantly confused and intrigued by this new world. Instead of ending up anywhere that looked familiar, you ended up on an incredibly vast, blue landscape. It looked like it had a different texture than any type of land on Earth, and the structures were very bizarre.

Tom nervously said, "What...what is this place?" He thought it was fascinating, but also ominous. It just felt like there was something almost threatening about it. Maybe it was perfectly safe, but it was still unsettling. "Hmm, my device says it's supposed to be an alternate version of Earth..." you replied. You definitely weren't expecting it to look like this, but its uniqueness made you more determined to study it.

"Well, it sure doesn't look anything like our Earth," Sara said as she adjusted the settings on the device, causing it to zoom out even further. As it scanned the immense plain, it couldn't detect anything different. Just more of that strange blue land, completely devoid of life, with the exception of very simple organisms. "Okay, was there some world-ending event that happened here, or did this place just never have any complex life?" she asked. "We can't be sure yet. Maybe it's just this area that's like this..." you replied.

What the four you were about to find out was that this Earth was almost exactly like yours. This place had the same features and significant locations. The history of this place wasn't much different.The people looked and acted the same. The one major difference was that everything here was much bigger than their counterparts in your world.

Before you could do anything else, you and the rest of the city felt powerful tremors in the ground. Each one was more powerful and terrifying than the last. "W-What's happening?!" Tom asked in fear. He's experienced earthquakes before, but not one like this. Then, to the horror of everyone in the city, an absolutely enormous object landed right next to the blue landscape, generating extremely powerful winds that devastated the closest part of the city to it. The terrified citizens immediately tried to evacuate and look for a safer place. They had no idea where they were, but whatever this....thing was could easily destroy all of them.

After recovering from the earthquakes, the four of you stared at whatever this object was. It was by far the largest thing any of you have ever seen. "Okay....we need to find out what's going on in this place," you said. You were actually just as scared as the others, but were trying to remain calm. You had the device zoom out even more until you could see what the object was. Your entire team was frozen in shock and horror as the object was revealed to be a gigantic foot, resting right in front of the vast landscape, which you could see was paper. You realized the reality of this situation. The city wasn't teleported to some alien dimension or some insanely warped version of Earth. It was teleported to a normal Earth, except you were insignificant microbes to the inhabitants of this version. That was much more existentially terrifying. You stared at the foot, which occasionally shifted, throwing the city into more chaos. You couldn't help but be amazed at its size. Just one of his toes was unfathomably gigantic. In fact, just the ridges of it could easily hold the entire city.

You zoomed out further to see the owner of the giant foot. He didn't look like some godlike being. He looked like an average kid, and would have seemed completely non-threatening if it wasn't for the fact that he was larger than your Earth.

"We...we need to get out of here now!" Tom said as he ran towards the teleportation machine and frantically tried to activate it. Unfortunately, nothing happened. "No, no, no, no, no! It's not working!" Tom said as he desperately continued to try to get it to work. "We...we need to wait a while for it to charge. I know this is bad, but we all need to stay calm, alright?" you told the others. The four of you then tried to think of a way to stay safe as the teleporter recharged.

Unfortunately, you couldn't come up with any good solutions. The feeling of dread and hopelessness was too much for Tom to handle. "We...we won't make it...We won't get out...we're going to die here...." Tom said quietly as he sat down. He felt too weak to stand up. Then, Sara remembered something. She looked at you and asked, "Didn't you say you made some kind of device that we could use to communicate with people from other worlds if they couldn't understand us? Can't we use that? " That would have been a great idea, but there was one problem. You said, "Unfortunately, I designed it as more of a translator. Like, if they spoke a different language, even one that wasn't like anything on Earth, we could still communicate. I could try to add a function that would allow us to contact people in this universe, but that would take a little while, and I don't think we have that much time...."

Far above, Zach was about to start walking around the room again, when one of his friends texted him, asking him what he was doing.

"Trying to find stuff to bring tomorrow. Don't know if anything I have is 'interesting'." Zach answered. His friend completely forgot that the teacher talked about that. He never really cared about getting extra points anyway, so he typed another message.

"Ohhhh I forgot about that. Hey after school do u want to come over to my house???? I have something to show you!!!!!"

Zach laughed at his friend's excessive use of exclamation points and replied "U sound really excited. I'll ask my parents :)"

After he finished talking to his friend, he started thinking about where he would look next, oblivious to the fact that there was a very tiny object right in front of him that might be far more interesting than anything else.

Zach briefly looked down and noticed the index card. Since that was the closest thing to him, he decided to pick it up and bring it to his room. He was done collecting stuff and now wanted to inspect them more closely to see which one he thought would interest the class the most.

Fortunately for the city, the bag Zach was using to carry stuff was full of large items, so he didn't shove the card (and all of them) inside. Instead, he just picked it up, which, while better, was still a chaotic experience for them. Your team, being able to see everything more clearly, watched as the young teen's hand lowered, grabbed the end of the card, and lifted it up at an impossibly fast speed. Then, the entire landscape tilted very slightly, which of course was another disaster. Luckily, this nightmare was a few seconds away from ending.

Zach walked into his room and placed his bag on the table next to the microscope his dad let him borrow. Since the card was the only thing that wasn't in the bag, he decided to look at it first. He placed it under the device and focused on it. He did think it was fascinating that the texture started to look completely different. And as he magnified it further, he noticed something that stood out.

The entire city was relieved as it was placed down and things started to seem more calm. You and the rest of your team could see what the kid was doing, and it gave you some form of hope.

"What the...?" the boy whispered in shock as he zoomed in a little on the tiny object. At first, the only things that made it stand out from the rest of the stuff on the card were its color and shape. Now, it looked like there were...very small buildings or structures. But that couldn't have been possible. They had to have just been strange particles or something. Still, as much as he doubted it, the shape of some of the smaller things did remind him of buildings he's seen before. "That's so weird..." he said to himself as he focused on the little object and adjusted the settings. Once it was magnified enough, he couldn't believe what he was looking at. It really was an incredibly tiny city. There was a variety of buildings and he could even see little specks moving around quickly, which he assumed to be vehicles. He backed away from the table and just stood there in stunned silence for a minute, trying to process this situation.

"Did...did he see us?!" Tom asked excitedly. "I...I think he did! Did you see how surprised he looked?!" It looked like he did, but you couldn't be completely sure. It was possible that he saw some other fascinating thing. But then again, what else would make him move back and freeze like that?

Zach walked back to the table and looked at the object again. This insignificantly small speck must have been populated by millions of people. He was full of questions as he continued to scan it. He thought it was so amazing, but then he looked at the state of the city. Even though some areas were fine, large sections of it were completely destroyed. He realized that he must have caused this. He didn't pick up the card they were on very gently, and not only that, but since it was next to him and on the floor, his footsteps as he walked over to it probably caused earthquakes that resulted in even more damage. He was really worried that he killed or seriously injured a lot of people. Even if everyone survived, he still destroyed many of their homes and put them through what was likely the most horrifying thing they've ever experienced. The whole thing made him feel awful, and now, he knew he had to do something to help them.

He wished had some way of communicating with them and letting them know that he didn't want to hurt anyone. Unfortunately, that would be very difficult. If he tried to talk to them, they likely wouldn't be able to understand a thing he said. His voice would probably just be some loud, incomprehensible noise to them. Even if they somehow could understand him perfectly, he still wouldn't be able to hear them. He also couldn't just contact any specific person or something. So, he really had no way of....wait. Actually, he did. Kind of. He didn't know if he would ever be able to actually contact them, but he could show them that he was trying to help. If he covered the city and kept it protected, they would hopefully realize that he wasn't going to do anything to them.

But then he considered something. He literally needed a microscope to even see the city itself, with the people being much smaller. So, because of how absolutely tiny they were, they might not be able to process what he was doing. Everything was just so big compared to them, that his actions must have seemed like forces of nature that drastically altered their world. They probably didn't even recognize him as a person, since he was the size of an entire planet to them. But, maybe they were able to understand what was happening. Even if just one of them was able to because of some technology or ability they had, they could inform other people and calm them down. Still, whether anyone realized what he was doing or not, he had to keep them safe, and this was the best option right now.

He left his room and ran downstairs to look for something useful. As he searched, he heard someone giggling behind him. He turned around to see Alan, his younger brother, watching him.

(Oh no. Not now....) Zach thought to himself. Alan wasn't mean to him or anything, but he often bothered him when he was trying to rest, when he was working on something, and at various other moments. Usually, when Alan wanted Zach's attention, he wouldn't leave him alone until Zach agreed to do whatever he wanted, or he just got tired of waiting and went to do something else.

"What are you doing?" Alan asked his brother as smiled widely at him. He saw Zach "acting weird" (in his opinion) by moving stuff around and looking in random cabinets, so he wanted to find out exactly what was going on. "Oh, um, I'm trying to find something for a project," Zach told him. "If you want me to do something, can it wait until later?"

"Okay," Alan said with the same silly grin. Then, he went back to the living room. Zach was really glad that ended quickly. A minute later, he found a small plastic container with a few tiny holes in it. As he started to leave, Nathan, his older brother came in, also looking for something. Fortunately, he didn't interact with his younger brother beyond briefly waving at him. Nathan was more focused on getting what he needed. So, Zach ran upstairs and entered his room before approaching the index card.

Covering the city meant he had to pick it up and move it again. Even though he was going to be way more careful than he was earlier, they probably still weren't going to like being moved around again. He really didn't want to terrify them again, but he couldn't leave them like this. He very gently grabbed the card and lifted it up. He could see how the edges bent slightly, which was probably another huge event to the tiny people. "Sorry about that, little guys. It'll be over in just a second," he said quietly as he slowly walked over to the other side of the table and lowered the card onto it. Then, he grabbed the container and turned it upside down as he carefully placed it right on top of the card. "There. That should keep you safe right now," he smiled, feeling happy that he was actually able to save them

He would only keep them in his room temporarily. Tomorrow, he would get others involved. People who had way more resources than him, and could use those to keep them happy and protected for the rest of their lives. His parents could probably help, and they knew other people that could as well. Also, he remembered that his friend's brother was part of a team of scientists and researchers, who also had many resources.

Back in the tiny city, you watched as the container was placed over the immense, blue plain. "I think he's trying to help us! It definitely looked like he saw us, then he picked us up very carefully, and now he just did this! We're actually going to be fine!" Tom yelled in excitement after seeing everything Zach just did. He's never felt this relieved in his life, since, well, he was never this close to dying before.

"Or, he wants to keep us as pets! I'm not so sure he has any intention of helping us. He'll probably keep us trapped in his room forever!" Rick said as he looked down with a both angry and worried expression, still not convinced that their problem got any better.

The older teen stared at his teammate in disbelief before saying, "....Can you not, Rick?! I'm trying to stay positive here! Don't make me more stressed than I already am!"

"I'm just giving you my honest opinion," Rick said. He was often distrustful of new people and would make negative assumptions about them.

"But..But I really think it'll be better if we still had hope that..."

Before Tom could finish, Rick said, "Weren't you the one who said we were all going to die a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah, but that was before all this happened!" Tom tried to explain.

"Guys, this fighting is completely pointless. I personally think Tom's right, but we should wait and see what happens," Sara said.

You said, "Alright, now that we're most likely safe, you all can rest as the teleporter finishes charging. I'll still work on the communicator, just in case something happens."

Meanwhile, Zach finally found something that he could bring to school tomorrow. The literal tiny city would be far more interesting, but he was definitely not going to bring it. With his homework now done and his new discovery kept in a safe place, he decided to follow his usual night routine before climbing into his bed.

The next day, Zach went to school, making sure to close the door to his room before he left. The teleporter was still charging, so you would still be here for a while.

Then, a few hours later, Everything seemed to be going well for you, your team, and the city itself. You were in a much safer location, so you would likely have plenty of time to wait for the portal to recharge and upgrade the communication device, just in case you needed to attempt to contact the inhabitants of this universe. No one disturbed the city for a while. Zach's parents were both busy, and his older brother went back to his own house (he actually moved out a year ago, but still likes to visit). However, Alan, Zach's younger brother, got out of school early today. Since it was Friday, he didn't have any homework. He threw his backpack down and excitedly ran to his room to play some of his games.

Fortunately for the city, Alan never approached the desk. He remembered that his headphones were actually in a different room...probably, so he left his brother's room and closed the door.

So, you and your team went back to doing various things. Tom was listening to calming music and reading a book. That way, he wouldn't spend hours dreading any potential horrible events that could happen. He was definitely calmer than before, since he was convinced the kid who originally found the city wasn't going to hurt anyone, but he didn't know what any of the other people in this house would do. Both you and Sara were working on your own personal machines. Sara was taking her time, while you were trying to finish upgrading the device more quickly, even though you knew you probably had plenty of time. And Rick was pacing around and grumbling about how he still didn't trust the kid. He still felt like his teammates were too trusting, and unless he got undeniable proof that this person would actually help them, he wouldn't change his mind.

Meanwhile, Nate showed Zach and Daniel the exciting thing he was talking about, and a few hours later, they all agreed to go to Zach's house. Zach decided that he would get their help, especially since Nate's brother was one of the people who could likely keep them in a safer place. All of their parents were fine with this, so, the three young teens started walking to his house. Zach didn't tell them what he wanted to show them. There was no way they would believe him until he actually had them look at it.

Soon, they got to the house, went inside, and walked upstairs to his room. Zach said, "Give me a second. I'll come out when I'm done," He then opened the door and entered his room, leaving Daniel and Nate wondering just what his friend wanted to show him.
Nate wanted to peek inside so badly, but he was able to restrain himself and wait.

Zach walked over to the index card on his desk. He still couldn't stop thinking about how incredible it was that such an impossibly tiny area of it was actually populated by an extremely high amount of people. He still had a bunch of questions, but he doubted he would get many answers. He then removed the container, reached for the card again, and started to lift it up. He knew this would cause yet another world-altering event for the tiny population, and he hoped that they would only have to be moved around just a couple of more times after this. He walked over to the microscope (which he still had to return to his dad later) and gently placed the card under it. He then focused on the tiny city before leaving his room.

"Okay, guys. I'm done. Now, just follow me," Zach told his friends. Nate eagerly followed Zach, with Daniel following behind both of them. He pointed to the device on the table and said, "Look through that."

The four of you saw the original kid return, move the city again, then leave. Then, he came back, followed by two others. Most of you figured that this was safer than when the younger one came in earlier, since now at least one of them could tell the others about your existence and make sure you were safe. But, of course, Rick said, "Wonderful! Now there's even more of them! Who knows what they'll do to us!" Sara replied, "Stop making these assumptions and just wait!"

Meanwhile, Daniel asked, "Wait, is this something you wanted to bring to school, but couldn't for...uh...reasons?" He remembered that Zach showed him things related to school at random times before.

"No. Just look," Zach said.

"Can I look first?!" Nate asked excitedly.

"I don't care. Just be careful, please," Zach told him. Nate then stared at Daniel and repeated, "Soooo, can I look first?"

"Sure," Daniel replied, causing Nate to run over to the microscope and look through it. Immediately, he saw the strange object and increased the magnification. He was completely shocked by what he saw. He stared at it for a minute before turning to Daniel and saying, ".....Dude, you need to see this". Daniel, now even more intrigued by Nate's astonishment, walked over to observe it. Much like Zach and Nate, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He could clearly see entire buildings and even tiny specks moving around...

Daniel looked at Zach and said, "Is that....Is that real? Are there real people in there? But..how is that even possible? I..." Daniel and Nate both had just as many, if not more questions than Zach. Their friend replied, "Yeah, I don't know exactly who they are or how they got here. I found them when I was looking at stuff I wanted to bring to school, and I knew I had to help them,"

"....Zach, buddy,..... this is amazing! I seriously can't believe that you have something like this in your room!" Daniel said, fascinated by seeing something that he thought couldn't exist. "Yeah! This is way cooler than what I showed you guys!" Nate added.

"Yeah, it's cool. But guys, can you not talk so loudly, so you don't destroy their ears, and maybe even the whole city?" Zach said. "Oh, yeah, you're right. Sorry, little guys," Nate laughed awkwardly before approaching Zach and continuing, "But, really. This is insane! Like, I have way too many questions."

"Yeah, me too," Zach said, "But, we need to help them first. I was wondering if your brother could come. Since you said he was in some kind of science group, he'd probably be able to keep them in a much better place than this. Daniel, do you know anyone that could help with all of this?"

"I think..." Daniel replied.

You and your team were watching the three giant boys as they appeared to be talking about something. The excited responses of the new ones damaged the city a few minutes ago, further convincing Rick that they were planning to do something terrible. The rest of you assumed they had no malicious intent and just got a bit too excited (you were right). Still, you hoped that no further damage would be done and you could soon go home safely.

"Okay, the devices should be at least close to being ready, right?" Tom asked. "I'm almost done with upgrading the communicator and the teleporter will take another 3 hours to charge," you told him. "Well, that's something..." Tom said.

After thinking about and discussing it for a few minutes, Zach and his friends decided on who they would try to contact first.

As you continued to work on the device, Tom and Sara kept looking at the screen. They were interested in seeing what the kids would do next. Rick sat in the back of the room and said, "I think it's pretty obvious that they're going t..."

"Shut up!" Sara exclaimed before he could finish. She tried being more polite earlier, but this was getting frustrating, annoying, and ridiculous. Rick just sighed and shook his head in response. Tom said, "Really, I don't understand why you think they're evil. They...seem nice." Of course, it was possible they were just pretending to be nice, but right now, it seemed like that was very, very unlikely. Now, what he didn't know is that Rick was so distrustful because there were several people who manipulated or betrayed him before. But he didn't want to talk about that, so he just sat there as you kept working and the others kept looking at the screen.

Nate just finished trying to call his brother who, unfortunately, didn't answer. The kid sighed in disappointment, "Looks like he's busy again." Zach said, "Well, maybe he'll call back later. But until then, d..."

Before the 13 year old could even finish his sentence, he was startled by sudden, intense bangs on his door. And, of course, you and your team heard and felt it too. The rapid, thunderous banging, despite coming from a far away source, was still painfully loud. It even felt like some kind of earthquake was occurring as well.

"What...what's happening now?!" Tom asked fearfully. He was so hopeful that no more terrifying, life-threatening things would happen. That they would all be safe and back home soon. "Okay, just calm down. I think it's just someone knocking," you reassured him while pointing at the screen, which was displaying the kids looking at the door. "I hope you're right....And Rick, don't even think about making any comments," Tom said.

Zach quickly opened the door and what he saw was exactly what he was expecting. It was just his younger brother looking at him, his expression clearly signifying that he wanted something. "Alan, what do you want? We're kind of busy right now," Zach said quietly in a slightly annoyed tone. Alan replied with, "I can't find my charger! Can I look for it in here?!"

Zach wasn't surprised. Alan has searched his room many times when he couldn't find something he wanted. He already searched his brother's room for his headphones , Sometimes, Zach didn't really care, but other times, he definitely didn't want his brother in here. This was one of those times.

"Not now. We can look for it later, okay?" Zach told him, hoping he would leave soon.

In response, Alan started begging even more. "Please? Please, please, please, pleeeeaaaaase?! My phone is at 9% and I looked in a bunch of other places already! I won't take more than 10 minutes!" Zach wasn't sure about that. Sometimes, according to Alan, "2 minutes" was actually 30 minutes. One time, Zach asked him for something, and he said he would give it to him in "15 minutes." It actually took him over an hour to finish what he was doing and give his brother what he wanted. And similar things happened many other times. He usually didn't take quite as long to search one room, but there have been a couple of times where he took 30 minutes after saying he would only take 5. And when he searched rooms, he didn't carefully go through things. He would carelessly throw things everywhere.

"Alan, no. I know how long '10 minutes' is according to you. Did you actually search every other room in the house?" Zach said.

"Well, no. But I looked in a lot of them!" Alan said as he continued to stare at his older brother with sad, pleading eyes.

"Then go look in the other rooms you missed," Zach told him, "If you still can't find it, I'll look for it in here, but you can't come in right now. Seriously, I have something really important in here and I can't let you touch it. And also, talk quietly. Your screaming might break it."

Alan was instantly intrigued by his brother's mention of this " important" thing. "Really important? Ooohhhh, what is it? I want to see it! I promise I won't break it!" Alan said enthusiastically. Still, despite being extremely excited, the kid actually listened and wasn't talking as loud. He didn't want to break...whatever Zach had in his room.

"No. I'm not sure you'll be careful enough around it," Zach said, causing his brother to complain even more. "You never let me look at your things!"

Then, Daniel realized something and walked up to the door. "Give us a second," he told Alan, who refused to move. "Come on, Alan. We'll be back in a minute," Daniel said, causing the younger boy to reluctantly move away.

After closing the door, Daniel looked at his friend. "Maybe we should just let him in," he suggested.

"What? Why?" Zach asked in confusion. Daniel explained, "If we show him what it is, he'll probably be more careful. Or he'll just leave us alone after he sees it."

"Y-yeah, but....but you've seen how he gets when he's excited. He might hurt them accidentally," Zach told him, although he was starting to consider his friend's suggestion.

"Eh, maybe Daniel has a point....but I get what you're saying too. Ugh, why does this have to be so difficult?!" Nate stated in frustration.

So, the three of them spent the next couple of minutes discussing what they should do before finally coming to an agreement.

"Alright, fine," Zach said, "We'll let him in." He walked up to the door, still questioning if this was the right choice. Something could easily go wrong. But, then again, if they kept trying to hide the city from Alan, there was a good possibility that he wouldn't leave them alone for at least another hour, and he might even try to sneak in the room and mess with stuff, which could result in him accidentally destroying it.

So, Zach opened the door and sighed, "Okay, Alan. You can come in. But when we show you this, you have to promise to be really, really, really careful, okay?"

"Yes, yes! I already said I won't break it! Let me in!" Alan said excitedly as he tried to rush into the room, but Zach was still blocking him as he continued, "No, really. This thing might break very easily. Even moving too fast without even touching it is too risky. So, go up to it slowly. And when you actually see it, stay calm. I don't care if you think it's the most amazing thing ever, don't start doing.... what you usually do when you get excited."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Alan said. Zach still doubted that he listened, so he asked, "What did I just say, then?"

"Something about being careful and not moving and stuff, even if it's really cool, because then it'll break, right?" Alan said as he looked up at his brother, desperately waiting for him to just let him in.

"Wow, you actually listened," Zach commented as he moved out of the way, allowing Alan to enter the room. Finally, he could see this "absolutely fascinating thing" Zach and his friends were looking at.

"Alan, buddy!" Nate said happily, though still quietly enough to not break the city. "We're so happy you could join us. Today, a great discovery has been made. A true moment in history. And now, you have the honor of looking into the...the.... uh...glass and seeing a piece of a world outside of ours. A land full of wonder beyond anything you could imagine! Something that only.... lived in..... our minds for so long has finally come to us. Are you ready to see it?" He decided to deliberately talk like...that in order to make the city seem even more mysterious (he also just thought it was funny). But all that did was confuse Alan.

"Huh? Why are you talking weird? Can you tell me what it is already?" Alan complained.

"If we told you, I'm, like, 95% sure you wouldn't believe us. I know I wouldn't have believed Zach if he never actually showed it to me. What about you, Dan?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't either,” Dan responded.

“I’d believe it. I know I would!” Alan stated in response to both of the older boys.

"So, if I told you that we had a magic crystal that was bringing everything in here to life and spitting out a bunch of copies of your favorite thing ever, you would believe me?” Nate asked with amusement.

"Um, well, I... no. Maybe? If...if you could really show it to me, then I guess. Wait, are you saying you have magic now?” Alan asked, his eyes once again widening in excitement, though he remembered his brother’s instructions to restrain himself.

“Eh, I wouldn’t call it ‘magic,’ but it’s still not…um…normal. It’s very weird, but in a good way,” Dan explained.

“Ooooh, that sounds fun! Where is it?” Alan asked as his eyes continued to dart around the room.

“Look through that,” Daniel said as he pointed to the microscope, so Alan started to approach it.

“Alan, wait,” Zach said as he remembered one more important thing he had to tell his brother.

“What now?” Alan groaned in annoyance, wondering what Zach was going to tell him not to do this time.

“Try not to touch the blue card. If you really have to touch it for whatever reason, then only touch the edges very lightly,” Zach said, and Alan agreed to follow those instructions. Then, he reached the microscope and started to look through it.

“Yes, child! Gaze upon the brilliance of the-” Nate started to say enthusiastically.

“Seriously, why are you talking like that?” Dan asked before Nate could even finish.

“It’s fun. Is there a problem?” Nate asked, smirking playfully at his friend.

“I…whatever,” Dan replied.

As Alan stared through the lens of the device, he was immediately surprised to see what looked like a miniature city in the center of the vast landscape of the index card.

“Wooow, there’s, like, a…a bunch of little buildings. And…. oh, I see something moving!” Alan said. He turned to look at the others and asked, “Did you guys make this? How did you do it? It looks awesome! But isn’t it too small to play with?” He thought it was some kind of toy city that Zach somehow made that tiny. He assumed the things that were moving were also toys that were powered by batteries.

“No, Alan, it’s not a toy,” Zach told him, “It looks way too real. And the way people in there moved looked…um…. natural? I don’t know if I’m explaining it in a way that makes sense, but I’ve never seen toys move or act like that. And no, we didn’t make it. I just found it.”

“Wait, you’re saying it’s real?” Alan asked in shock. “Yes,” Zach replied, “That’s why I kept telling you to be careful.”

Alan looked through the microscope again, examining every detail of the city. How could something like this be real? It was so hard for him to understand, and he was amazed by it. The others watched with varying degrees of amusement as the younger kid remained utterly transfixed by this new discovery for the next few minutes. Zach himself was calmer, since Alan wasn’t doing anything that could potentially destroy the tiny civilization. In fact, like the others, he thought the way Alan was just standing almost completely still and staring at the mysterious thing with extremely wide eyes was rather funny.

Meanwhile, back in the city, your team watched the kid inspect everything. Sara thought it was kind of adorable, while Rick, as usual, was annoyed. He complained, “Even if they aren’t dangerous, they’re still bothering me! Especially this one!”

“Come on, Rick. They’re a just bunch of kids who have never seen anything like us before. Of course, they’re going to be fascinated and want to observe us for a while. At least it really looks like they’re trying to help us,” Sara told him.

“Yeah, and if you’re really so annoyed by all this, then, if everything goes well, the teleporter will be ready in a few hours. So, you won’t have to suffer forever,” you told him. You were starting to get just as annoyed by his comments as Sara was.

Tom was helping you finish the communication device. You wanted to finish it so that you could let the kids know that you were leaving. You didn’t want to just suddenly disappear. That might make them think something awful happened and they were responsible for it.

Finally, Alan turned his attention back to the others. “Zach, I love this! How did you get it?” Alan asked as he ran over to where Zach was standing.

“Oh, well, I was trying to find stuff for a project and was thinking of using this card. Some stuff happened, and then I found it,” Zach explained.

“Yeah, good thing Zach’s obsessed with getting extra credit,” Nate giggled slightly, “Otherwise, I don’t know what would happen to them. Like, imagine if they appeared in my room. I definitely wouldn’t have noticed them…. Wow, that’s kind of scary to think about.” Nate started imagining how terrifying the world must have looked to them. What did he and his friends look like to them? Could they even comprehend them at all? And then more questions filled his brain. What if everyone in his world was microscopically tiny compared to the inhabitants of another universe? And what if those inhabitants were tiny compared to the people in a different world? And what if….. No, he didn’t want to keep thinking about it for too long right now. It was hurting his brain.

What Nate just said made Zach realize just how incredibly lucky the little guys were. First, if he didn’t care about getting a few extra points, he wouldn’t have found them. But not just that. If his bag wasn’t full when he was collecting items for that extra assignment, he probably would have shoved the card into it, destroying the whole city, or at least most of it. And even if he didn’t do that, him picking up the card or even walking near the city could have potentially decimated a lot more than just some sections of it. He also could have stepped on the card if it was just a little closer, considering how close to it he already was when he first found it on the floor.

But thinking about the negative outcomes that could have happened in some alternate timeline wasn’t important right now. What was important was that he was actually able to help them in some way and he fully intended to get them to a safer place than this.

Looking back at Alan, Zach said, “So, we showed it to you. Will you leave us alone now? Please?”

“Can I look for my charger first?” Alan asked.

“Ugh, fine, fine. I’ll look for it,” Zach told him. He spent the next few minutes searching his room, but he couldn’t find anything. He walked up to his brother and said, “I don’t see it in here. Check some of the other rooms. I’ll help you later if you can’t find it there.”

“Okay! Thanks for showing me all this!” Alan said happily as he ran out of the room.

Finally, Zach thought to himself before saying, “Okay, so, Daniel, you were going to try to call someone, right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Daniel said as he started calling his parents, hoping they knew someone who could solve everything.

Meanwhile, you were still working on the device and checking the teleporter to see if it was still charging and not malfunctioning or something. So far, everything looked alright. You could only hope that nothing went horribly wrong for just a few more hours.

What the young teens didn't know is that Alan was, in fact, looking for an index card just like the one holding the city, and taking off his socks, he checked his barefoot soles for a moment before taking off a very small piece of lint from under his toes. Indeed, the kid waited for a bit, but once the teens walked out of the room in search for something to drink, he hurried inside it, carefully taking the card down the microscope and putting his own card in its place, leaving the piece of lint where the city was supposed to lay. He carefully ran back to his room with the card and city on his hand, not even noticing that the lint he had gotten from his feet was actually bigger than the city it was supposed to act as, but he doubted anyone else would notice it. Indeed, he locked his room's door from the inside, and looked close as the speck of a city on top of the card with a grin on his face, saying "I have so much fun planned with you" as he thought of ways to tease the microscopic people looking at him in pure terror.

Rick had a shit eating grin on his face as he kept shouting "I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU GUYS! YOU NEVER LISTENED TO MY WARNINGS, BUT I TOLD YOU!" as everyone in the city ran away in panic, their sky completely covered by the kid's grinning face, something Sara would still find cute if he wasn't completely able to kill everyone without even trying. Just as you tried to calm people down, you felt everything tremble as Alan lowered down the card you were on, leaving the millions of panicking people on his desk. "How about" he said before pressing his index finger against the index card, slowly sliding it across the blue surface, stopping just short of the tiny speck he had to recognize as an entire city. The fingertip completely dwarfed the city, its shadow consuming it as it stood before them, towering high above any of their skyscrapers, serving as a symbol of how powerless they were against just a simple kid.

"O-Okay, don't...don't worry, everyone. The teleporter should be ready in....." you started to say, trying to calm the rest of your team down, but Rick interrupted you. "In how long? 3 hours?! Isn't that what you said?! You think we'll last that long now?!" he yelled, now totally convinced that absolutely nothing would go well for them for at least a few hours. Either this kid would kill them all or torture them until they finally fixed the teleporter. And he might even do something that resulted in the teleporter being severely damaged, preventing them from leaving for an even longer period of time.

"Y-Yes, I know it looks bad. But we just have to stay-" You were once again interrupted, this time by a massive earthquake that shook the entire city. And then another one. And another one. Alan was simply poking various sections of the card, making sure his finger landed near the area he remembered the city was in. He started tapping on the paper rapidly, just to terrify the countless civilians even more. Eventually, he slid his finger back to where it originally was as he thought about what he wanted to do next. Meanwhile, you recovered from the violent tremors and looked up at the kid's fingertip looking even more ominous than earlier as it loomed over some of the now ruined buildings. Then, he withdrew it and it disappeared from the city's view. 

Alan looked for something else to tease the city with. Soon, he spotted some dirt on the floor and decided to use that. He scooped up some of the dirt and sprinkled it onto the card, with several pieces landing dangerously close to the city. The citizens were still rushing to get to safety as they saw the gigantic objects descend from the sky, each one large enough to cover the entire city. They were relieved that none of them landed directly on them, but now they were staring at a new, horrifying mass. This was a literal tiny piece of dirt to the inhabitants of this universe that really made the citizens understand how small they were.

Alan giggled as he compared the specks of dirt to the city. He still absolutely loved how tiny they were. He was wrong about these little guys earlier. They weren’t too small for him to play with at all. He was still having a lot of fun teasing them like this. He wasn’t sure how long he’d be entertained by them, but he certainly wasn’t going to stop playing with them yet. And of course, his brother wanted to keep all of this to himself. Zach rarely shared his things with Alan (because Alan ended up breaking some of them), which often upset him. But finally, he managed to get one of the several amazing things his brother had. In fact, this was the most amazing of them all. And now it was his. He could do whatever he wanted to it. And so, he started thinking of the next “game” he wanted to play with them.