Get Your Grind On

[Cole Evans]

Cole grunted as he opened his eyes, waking up from what seemed like a weird dream. He was in a black void, like outer space, when this all-white, humanoid-looking thing started talking to him, something about him being pulled into some kind of world called the Omniverse. He remembered other details, but they were pushed to the back of his mind as he started to focus on his immediate surroundings.

“What the heck is this place?” Cole said as he sat up and started looking around confused. He saw a few different archways off in the distance, a fountain not far from where he was, and nothing else. Everything else was just a large expanse of white. He was inclined to think that he was just sleeping and this was just a dream within a dream or something like that. But, since when was he thinking this clearly in a dream? He didn’t really remember going to sleep recently. In fact, he didn’t remember much of what happened to him very recently.

Well, just sitting here won’t get me anywhere. Let’s ride this out and see where it goes. Cole thought.

As he stood up, Cole looked down to check himself. “Where’d my stuff go?” he asked. He saw that some of his equipment was missing. He still had some of it but everything else was gone. He looked around again and didn’t see anyone else near him. If anyone saw fit to steal some of his gear, they left a long time ago. Though, why they wouldn’t take all of it, he couldn’t guess to. He was grateful he still had what he did, but this didn’t help how confused he was at what was going on.

“First thing I need to do is get out of here… before all this nothing drives me crazy,” he said, looking at the almost completely blank area around him. He looked around at the archways again. From what he could tell, they looked like they led to different places, some looking more inviting than others. Eventually, he decided he would probably get the most help by walking to the steel-looking gate that looked like it had people in armor standing next to it. It looked like it was far away, all of the archways did, but the only other option was sitting by the fountain and doing nothing, so Cole started walking toward the chosen archway.

[Cole Evans]

“If I’m dreaming, shouldn’t my mind just fast-forward through parts like this or something?” Cole asked. He had been walking close to an hour now and the gate he decided to walk towards still looked a far way away. He was still willing to believe that he was dreaming, but the longer he spent walking, the more he thought that maybe this wasn’t a dream. He decided to switch his mind to other things, like how much easier it would be to get to the gate if there was a bus to it or something. It was right then that something occurred to Cole.

”Wait, if this is a dream, then I can make anything happen that I want right?” he thought out loud. He tried to imagine a motorcycle appearing in front of him. If this was a dream, then one was likely to appear in front of him right away. So, when it didn’t, the feeling in the back of his head that this was really happening to him resurfaced. He briefly remembered something that all-white figure from the dream talking about something called Omnilium and using it to make your desires come to life, or something to that effect. He closed his eyes and focused on a picture of a motorcycle, then about thirty seconds later he opened his eyes.

“Nothing,” he said. He tried focusing on it for a minute this time, but when he opened his eyes he still found nothing. With a sigh, he said, “You know what? I’ll figure it out later. Right now, just keep it movin’.”

So, he continued walking and as he did, the thought that he may really have been taken out of his world and placed somewhere else eventually worked its way back to the front of his mind. If it really did happen, what should he do? He may not have talked to his parents much these days, but he still did. And what’s more, Grind City needed him. He and the other Revolutionaries had done so well, getting the gangs of the city locked up and making the streets safer. He was sure the others were doing well enough on their own that he didn't necessarily have to be there, but still, he saw progress being made and he felt like he played a large part in making it happen.

Well, if this turned out to not be a dream, Plan A would be to figure out a way to get back to Grind City. If a Plan B is necessary, he would think of that when the time comes.

[Cole Evans]

“I’m finally here. Thank goodness,” Cole said. It took a long time but he finally made it to the archway and passed through it. He had to have spent at least a couple of hours just walking, but since he didn’t normally wear a watch, he couldn’t tell for sure. When he walked up to the archway, he saw the guards standing next to the gateway, wearing what looked like space-age armor. As he walked up to the gate, one of the guards approached him, holding out his hand and motioning for him to stop.

“State your name and business,” one of the guards said, his voice coming out of a speaker on the helmet.

“What? What’s going on?” Cole asked.

“It’s a standard security check. Now please answer the questions.”

“Okay, okay. My name is Cole Evans and I just wanna know what the heck is going on. At first, I thought I was dreaming when I woke up by that fountain, but you don’t spend hours just walking from point A to point B in a dream.”

“Did you say you woke up by that fountain out there?” the guard asked.

“Yeah, why?” Cole asked. “What kinda place is this anyway?”

The guards looked over Cole. Despite the weapons visible on his utility belt, he looked reasonable compared to some of the lunatics that came by earlier. One of the guards then answered his questions.

“Behind this gate is the city of Coruscant, the capital of the Empire. The most advanced realm of the Omniverse and one of the largest.”

“You can move on ahead. Any more information you need can be found on one of the public Dataverse terminals around Tier 1. Welcome to the Omniverse,” the other guard said. After Cole walked past them and through the gate, one of the guards radioed ahead. “Be advised. We have a new Prime approaching the checkpoint.”