In his bed our protagonist is sleeping from a wild nigth, his alarm clock rings.
Fuck, why do i have to always to fuck up my sleep schedule.
He stands up still sleepy from his bed and goes to have breakfast, a sugary drink and some bread and butter from the fridge. He starts munching.
Not very tasty, but at least it's something.
He thinks to himself.
"Checks his phone to see whats up for today in his list".
Oh,today i have that really boring meeting about nuclear fusion or some shit, some guy at our workplace wants to demonstrate his brand new toy.
aghhh.
He says as he stands up from the table to brush his teeth get dressed and groom himself a bit to look at least presentable, after that he goes to the apartment door and before opening it he thinks.
Am i not forgetting anything? Oh rigth my pistol, can't be unsafe out there.
He retrieves his handgun from his nigthstand drawer hides it in the inside of the shirt.
Finally he opens the door of the apartment and goes down the stairs, a figure meets our protagonist.
Oh hey there neighbor, how's your science going?
Not now Fred, i have to arrive to work in time.
After the little interference he keeps going down the stairs until he arrives at the ground floor and keeps walking to his job at the lab.
As he walks he starts to analize.
Ok, so some guy wants to show us his new way of generating energy combining the nuclear fusion with, what was it? Some quantum shit from what i recall, he said also that it could be the gate to new worlds!?
What does he means, does he want to travel to another dimension?
Maybe, but how do we know that that "other" place isnt inhabited by dangerous inhabitants, from deadly predator or genocidal aliens that want earth for its resources and will enslave humanity forever, well, i wont be the cause of it in the history books for sure.
Before he notices (mostly because of being absorbed in his tougths) he arrives to the laboratory goes into reception, and speaks with the receptionist.
Hello again here are my credentials.
Of course, mr James.
Dont call me mister it makes me feel old, and im only 23, i barely finished my engineering major, so just call me James.
Ok, James.
The receptionist scans his credentials and directs him to the lab where the demonstrations are happening, he proceeds througth the door where the scientist is presenting his invention, James takes a seat and starts to listen, the interlocutor starts.
Hello everyone i will show all of you what I've been working on these past months.
He points to a portal shaped device connected to what seems to be a small fusion reactor.
The scientist start chatting and James asks:
Isn't this dangerous?
Not at all, in fact the portal isn't actually able to travel to other dimensions, it's still just onoy for collecting energy from the first source that it detects and using it to amplify the energy production of the reactor, in fact im gonna do a demonstration rigth now.
With that said, the scientist powers the reactor and portal, a distortion field surges between the circumference of the portal, powers the reactor and it soon starts humming and producing energy, noting that the inventor plugs his phone charger into the output of the reactor, pulls a thumbs up and says:
It works.
Everyone in the room cheers him including our protagonist wich jokes.
Very good portable quantum phone charger you developed.
The scientist answers:
Well, rigth now it migth not be that powerfull but the scañability of this projevt is infinity thanks to drawing energy from paralel universes.
That sounds unbelievable, how did you managed to do that.
Well young man tomorrow we will start giving conferences regarding exactly that, in the meantime you can be sure my system is efficient and reliable and fool proof, but in a future i actually still want to allow for interdimensional travel.
And why cant it do it rigth now what's the problem?
Well first things first, my invention for as complex as it may seem it's still only a client for the purposes of what it does, for now it can only receive signals from dimensional interference and transform them into electricity, if we were to create a system to connect both points we would first need a server to sinchronize the connection between both dimensions where we want to travel to and from, but that still consumes an insurmountable amount of energy, but for now my only hope to...
Suddenly the distortion field becomes clear and starts to show the image of other place and a humanoid figure behind it.
Oh, says the scientist, look, everyone, it seems that someone caugth the signal that our portal was sending!
Everyone stands from their seats including James and they come closer in order to meet the figure that is getting closer to the portal entrance. As the figure emerges they note something, the humanoid that comes out of the portal despite wearing a black cape has exactly the same a appearance as James.
James is the first to engage him:
Who are you, why do you look like me, are you like an evil version of me?
The man laughs a bit and answers:
No james, im not evil you, but im just you but from another dimension as you may infer by my appearance of course i didnt expected to find myself by inspecting a energy leak in the system.
He points to the scientist:
Mr it's not good education using energy from the system to charge phones,im in charge of monitoring the portal network and that's when i found out someone in an unknown dimension activated an improvised one, that's why i came here.
James asks:
So, anything else, you're just a portal technician?
Well, that was the original reason, but now that i have found you here i feel obliged to bring you to the other side, there's people in there that would be really interested in you.
James eagerly answers:
Well, if you wanted me you will have me, i mean it's another dimension, fuck this boring scientist life.
James obliges to cross the portal with his other version.
The other James says to the shocked scientist by the discovery:
Don't worry he's just excited, i was young like him too, and also, keep the portal open a interdimensional comission will come to assess the process of hooking you up to the dimensional portal network.
With that said both James cross the portal and find themselves in a plaza wich is used as a dimensional hub and market, creatures from all kind of species are walking in the streets and buying groceries and supplyes, sellers are offering all kinds of products, from food, to clothes to weird cibernetic implants installed by dubious doctors, to even guns and motorized armor, two guards walk along too wearing a very advanced armor and what seems to be some kind of coilgun in a form of assault rifle, their armor is all blue with a visor that displays an hud in their face where they assess the current situation in the enclave.
Alternate james says:
Hey buddy give me your gun.
James asks:
What gun?
You know, the one you always carry.
Oh shit, of course, you are me, why do you want it?
To give you a better one, you cant figth with a five-seven in here it won't cut it, here, take this one.
He goes to an arms dealer and buys a handgun, next he hands it to James.
This is a coilgun too, just like the ones the guards were carrying.
Uhmm, interesting, so you all mostly use these...
James inspects the gun:
Good construction, looks fairly simple, reliable and efective, here it says 1500 m/s. So, you have, heated encounters when going through dimensions?
The other James responds:
Well, of course, why do you think there were heavily armed guards, last week there was a terrorist attack in one of the office buildings, they try to kept it low but rumours spread fast, and that's only here, you never know what you can find in the dimensions, that thing i gave you can blow an arm or a leg of a human no problem, it's the same caliber of the one i took from you but it has very hig velocity, less recoil and more bullets per mag, but enougth gun talk, follow me.
James:
Ok but one last thing.
Alt James:
What is it?
James:
Let's call them gauss pistols better shall we.
Alt James:
Ok it fits better, induction pistols would be nice too, but people could think we use them to cook.
Both James let out a loud laugh at their nerdy joke and keep going towards a new adventure.