On a big blue rock, sitting third from the sun, there is a house in the suburbs, with a young boy, no; a teenager. His name was Warin, and he was currently pacing around his room in excitement for the day. Today was the day he would finally get to go to the water park, while this would be exciting on its own it was also the first time he would be able to go down all the slides, finally being tall enough for them all. He was sick of being restricted like that, especially there, watching his parents or cousins saying, “Sorry shorty.” Before going down the slide without him.

This time he would ride them all, and the absolute best thing about this all was his best friends would all be there, including Alessia. Warin had been crushing on her all year and thought he missed his chance with school being let out, and her living across town, but Warin saw this as the perfect opportunity. He could feel butterflies every time he thought about talking to her.

He couldn’t hold it in his excitement anymore letting out a squeal of joy.

“You don't need to scream, but, yes, we're going to the water park. Grab your trunks and rash guard.” Warin’s dad yelled up to his son, as he was packing up for the trip.

“Aw, but I don't want to wear it,” Warin whined. He was not a fan of the rash guard. He thought it would hide his abs, and the guard was essentially just a stretchy shirt, that covered them up. How else could he show off for Alessia? Standing in front of the mirror Waring flexed, admiring, what his father would say, was his non-existent abs and scrawny body.

“You’re fourteen, and skinny. Trust me, it will look better than nothing.” His father said through the door.

Taking a hit to his confidence, Warin groaned, “Fine.” Grabbing his blue rash guard that matched his trunks. Putting on the shirt, he had to admit it did make him look more, filled out than he really was.

This only served to heighten his anticipation, when he realized he was missing something important. Needing to rectify the issue Warin went out of his room to find his father. He found him packing their SUV with towels, sunscreen, and snacks. “Dad, can I have some money?”

“I'm not going in the water so just ask for money when you see something.”

“But dad.”

The man stopped packing, “Look, it's simpler this way. I'll give it to you, on the sly, so you can look good.”

Warin thought he had a point, and he wouldn’t have to care anything or worry about it getting wet. The more he thought about it the better it sounded. He gave his father a hug, especially since he had agreed to help him impress Alessia. His father thought it was cute and was more than willing to help.

“This is going to be a great day.” Warin declared.

——

A man, two teen boys, and three teen girls pulled up into a water park's parking lot. Warin and Alessia are among them.

“Everyone got sunscreen on?” Warin’s dad asked.

“Yes, dad,” Warin answered rolling his eyes. His dad on the other hand looked in the back to the rest until each one of them nodded in affirmation. He did not want to bring back five teens, redder than they needed to be.

The little group was happy and excited, all for their own reasons. The teens walked ahead of Warin’s father, just out of earshot, and two of the teens huddled close, flirting with each other. Warin was nervous and clumsy in all of his actions, all the while, Alessia smiled, enjoying even these clumsy attempts to woo her. She had been aware of his crush for the last semester of school and was just waiting for him to ask her out, though, at the time, she didn’t know if she would say yes. As time went on and nothing happened she began to wonder if she had misread the whole thing and found she was quite disappointed, when the year ended without being asked out. So when he reached out to her for this trip, she was elated, even with everyone else going. The trip had not disappointed Allesia or Warin as, even they with their inexperience, could feel a budding romance, awkward and confusing for them both. The two spent the entire day locked at the hips, growing closer, creating bonds different from before.

After a fun time, the entire group is together eating at one of the food stands. Warin’s father looked over the group, seeing them all a little crispy, knowing not one of them put on a second coat of sunscreen the entire time they had been there. “You’re all looking a little burnt.” he commented, to the group before asking, “You all ready to go home?”

“Not yet,” Warin said, not quite ready for the day to be over, he hadn’t quite worked up the courage to ask Alessia out yet.

“Yeah, there's one more to try.” One of the girls said, looking over to the largest and most twisty slide. They had gone, down each slide in the park, pretty quickly but had all agreed to wait to do the big one last. So for most of the day, they found themselves drifting in the lazy river.

Seeing, it was just one more slide, Warin’s father, didn’t see a reason not to let them go, “Alright, one more before everyone gets too red.” The man said.

The entire group rushed to stand in line for the five-story, twisting tube ride that ends in an open-air drain, that you spun around before one final drop.

The group of teens reached the top of a slide with an inflatable raft large enough for all five of them. They all stand at the top, looking over the side next in line, excited and nervous. It was during their wait that Warin finally got the courage and blurted out, “We should date.”

Alessia and her friends all giggled, as Warin looked away in embarrassment. At least until she grabbed his hand, saying “About time.”

For the rest of their wait, their friends teased them playfully, as they were also excited for them, having known about their mutual crush for a while.

The group all entered the raft, and Warin and Alessia were forced to let go of each other's hands for safety. Each of them grabbed onto the rope as they stared, at the red light waiting for it to change. Alessia not as nervous was sitting there just relaxing and giving Warin a little wink from across the tube, making him blush.

The light turned green, and the lifeguard pushed them into the tunnel. They slip and slide through a twisting tunnel, lights from the outside world giving an unearthly air to the slide.

Then Warin saw a strange blue arc ahead of him. Was that a spark? It was so fast Warin dismissed it as a trick of the light. Then they were plunged into darkness, a sliver of fear slipping into the group. What is coming? Will we get out? What if we get stuck? This is a wild ride. All these thoughts ran through their minds, if only for a moment.

Light returns and the fear leaves them, now that they can see they let out a nervous giggle, at least until they noticed Alessia was missing.

Filled with panic, and fear for Alessia, Warin jumped out of the massive inner tube, into the rapid waters before he could think, his instincts taking over, as he began making his way up the slide. The raft disappeared deeper down the slide, Warin only had one thought on his mind, Is she safe?

Warin moved through the water, where he was barely able to keep his footing, the waters a lot stronger than he expected, but he was determined to help Alessia, pushing hard against the falling current, putting one foot in front of the other. He entered the dark, moving at a snail's pace to his new love; young, fresh, and just blossoming.

Warin moved for, to him, what feels like hours, but only seconds had passed. He was sure he should have passed the black-out section already, or at the very least seen Alessia, his fear for her only growing afraid she was stuck under the water somehow.

He kept moving through the dark, screaming her name, only for his words to be drowned by the rushing water. Warin was terrified, and scared, knowing he shouldn’t be doing this, and that it was dangerous, but the thought of her being stuck and alone pushed him forward, deeper until the darkness was complete. It was only then did he see hope. Just ahead, there was a small, dim, light, right ahead of him in the water.

She must have fallen through here. I have to help her. Warin thought right before jumping into the light.

Warin landed feet first into the hole, water surrounding him completely, then suddenly it wasn’t and he felt a jolt run through his entire body, as he impacted a metallic floor. Water dripped all around him, as he laid on the ground, his body not wanting to move. Remembering why he had done this, Warin felt a surge of adrenaline and forced himself to stand and take in his surroundings. He found himself in a long, narrow room, that looked to be made of metal, the room was dim so it took a moment to find Alessia, sitting curled up, frantically looking about.

“Alessia!” Warin shouted, before bolting over to Alessia, as relief filled him seeing her a little shaken but none the worse for wear.

Alessia looked up, seeing Warin moving towards her, she launched herself into him, “I was so scared. I thought I was alone.”

“Never” Warin whispered into her ear. He would never let her feel like she was alone. Not when he was around. The two hugged each other tightly, feeling like everything was going to be alright, when they pulled back a little Warin looked around confused, "Where are we?" The place was just like a big empty metal container, and Warin didn’t remember seeing anything like that near the ride. When he thought back to it the only thing under the slide was a bunch of scaffolding holding up the slide.

“Oh come on. Now I got two, dammit.” Warin’s thoughts were interrupted by an annoyed man’s voice. Turning towards the sound, he saw a man in a raincoat, doing something to the air. “Stupid Inter-dimensional leaks.” The man cursed, looking through his toolbox. “Where is that stupid wrench? I need to close that before I get more.”

The man looked towards the two cold and wet teens, holding up a finger, “I'll be with you in a minute.” And turned to pull a wrench-like object from his toolbox, before standing back up to work on something overhead, all the while he grumbled about worlds springing leaks and taking people it shouldn't.

Warin and Alessia, watched the man work, on something they couldn’t see, in the dark room, no actual light source to be seen, just a dim illumination of the space.

Quickly, their confusion turned to anger as Warin yelled, "Why did you take her?"

The man didn’t even pause as he kept working, “I didn't. You fell through a hole in the slide.”

The tension that seemed to be building, in the two lessened somewhat as they both had the same thought. This must be an area below the ride. While neither of them could remember seeing such a thing, it only stood to reason that, especially if one of the employees was already working to fix the issue. Someone could really get hurt falling through a hole like that. They were more surprised the slide wasn’t shut down if they already knew about it.

Alessia was still freaked out by the whole mess but decided to speak up, “So there's a hole on the slide? That’s a big hole if two people can fall through.”

The man rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, I'm surprised more people haven't fallen through. I don't even know how long this has been here.”

“Well, it is a tube ride. So they probably just went right over it.” Alessia commented, wondering, How many people just skipped over a hole like that? Surely, they would have to notice a bunch of water disappearing. That's when she noticed the lack of water inside the room. Where is all the water?

“Ah...wait...” The man stopped what he was doing and took a look at the two teens. Really take them in this time. “This... is gonna be a weird one.” The man commented offhandedly, then asked. “So, it’s a water park up there?”

Warin was taken aback by the man’s strange behavior. Of course it is. Where else would a water-slide be? Warin thought but instead said, "Yeah. We were going down and we went through the dark section, and when it lit up she was gone.”

Looking at the two teens staring at the man, blinked slowly, “That would explain a few things. Let me just finish here and we'll go from there.” A rush of hope shot through them both, believing they were just in an old work shed and would be able to leave.

Alessia though wasn’t keen on waiting, eager to just leave, "If you could just point us to the exit, we can walk."

The man held up a finger for them to wait while he pulled on something, yanking hard down lifting himself in the air for a second, "Almost done, just one more turn."

Seeing that he wasn’t going to just tell the where the exit was, Warin opened his mouth to insist when he saw the spot the man was "fixing" and saw that there was nothing there. The man's hands were gone like they were reaching into nothing, but he was clearly working on something. That’s when it was Warin’s turn to realize, besides the man's rain gear, that the room was completely dry.

Warin’s heart began to race, with all the oddities and strangeness. He looked back at Alessia and could see the panic in her eyes as well as she stared at the man's hands.

Warin was frozen and lost not knowing what to do or say. Alessia on the other hand found her courage, and demanded, "Where are we?" The girl asked, being the braver of the two.

“Aw hell.” The man groaned, “At least this is fixed.” He let out a sigh, putting his tool back into its box, "Was wondering when you would notice."

Hearing his answer, Warin back up closer to Alessia putting himself in between the man and her “Where the hell are we?” The boy yelled, demanding answers. “What is this place? And who are you?”

Holding up his hands in surrender, the man took a few steps back before answering, “I’m just a driver, and this is where it gets very complicated.”

“Look, you can just let us go? We won't say anything.” Alessia pleaded as she looked around the room, for an exit, or some way out. Of course, she was lying, she was going to blab to everyone about this as soon as they were free. People can’t get away with things like this.

“It's more complicated than that.” The man said, chagrined.

“So that hole was a trap, and you're here for some sick fantasy.” Warin accused, never taking his eyes away from the man. He was building himself up, to push the man out of the way letting Alessia go free. If he could distract him for long enough she could bring help.

That was until he felt her hand on her shoulder, her voice filled with fear, “There is no exit to this place.”

Not understanding what she mean, Warin could only stare at her, “What?”

“Look around.” She gestured to the room.

Warin followed her motion finding, to his horror, she was right. Without thinking he ran up to the man, grabbed his raincoat, and yelled, “Get us the hell out of here, you bastard!"

“I'm sorry, it's too late.” The man said sadly.

Seeing the sad reluctance, from the man filled her with true dread. Why would he say something like that if he was going to let us go? She pleaded, as her body started to feel heavy, “We won't say anything, we swear.”

“It's not that, it's...I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen and you shouldn't have to go through this.” The man sounded truly regretful for what was happening.

That’s when the boy started to feel heavy, as all his energy drained away. He couldn’t even hold on to the man anymore, “What is this place?”

Warin hear a thunking sound from behind, knowing what he would see he turned to see Alessia collapsed on the ground.

"You bastard..." Were the last words he said before the rest of his energy left Warin, and he fell to the ground.

——

Standing in a room with no exits, Del looked down sadly at two unconscious teenagers. Knowing that this should never have happened to them. He could only do his best to make sure they became Heroes. He looked up and off into the distance feeling a familiar pull, but this time it felt wrong. He reached deep following the sensation, his gaze distant, until he blinked, and gave the two one last look. “I will do what I can.”

The room opened revealing an exit that was always there and yet not, he jumped out landing on the hard earth, in a realm between. No sign of a water park anywhere, only infinity, and the bubble of reality surrounding the truck. Taking off his raincoat, Del walked to the driver's side door, opened it, and sat in his driver's seat.

Hearing the door open, Ge, who was rifling through a bed in the back of the cabin, asked casually, “Did you fix the leak?”

Del let out a long sigh. “Yeah.”

Hearing the tiredness in his voice, she knew something had gone wrong, so Ge made her way to the passenger seat. Seeing his face she figured they had taken on some unexpected cargo, he always got like this when that happened. Though this was the first time when they didn’t have an order waiting. Instead of asking about the new Heroes, she decided to ask about something else, “How does something like that happen?”

Leaning his head on the wheel, he answered, “It's a natural rift to the chaos between realms.”

“That's possible on a world like Earth?”

“Oh yeah, it's kinda how worlds like Earth end up getting mana.” Leaning back in his seat, Del took a deep breath, “It leaks through those holes.”

“How do they open?” Ge wondered. Since something like a portal would require mana to open, then where did the original power come from. Especially, in a mana desert-like Earth.

“Sometimes, it's other Gods, forgetting to close doors. Other times, there's just a build-up of magic on the other side. But it's natural. It’s mainly caused by people with heightened emotions passing an area, over and over. Those people subconsciously stroke the fabric, and over time...”

“Like a really worn piece of fabric, holes open.” She finished for him, which begged the question, “So what was that place?”

“A water park,” Del said, exhausted.

Del started up the truck, and Ge asked, “Now where to?”

“We have a delivery.”

Hearing his answer she looked at him confused, “Don't we need an order first?”

“We're going to fix another leak.”

Confused the woman frowned as they drove out through and into the place between worlds.