As the four locked the place up for now and headed out of the caverns, Antonio, his uncle, and Mandy discussed what they should do during their break.

Tommy couldn’t think straight or pay attention to their conversation. All he could think about at the moment was the portal the scientists were making. If only he could make the process go faster.

What could be in it? How would they do it? What kind of portal could it have been?

All of those questions gnawed at his brain, and he didn’t know how to control it, let alone stop thinking about it.

“Hey, Antonio, how about eating with us?” Sam offered to his nephew.

“I don’t know...”

“If you’re worried about staying up late, then don’t worry. I’ll let them know you were with us the whole time. You can even bring your friend along.”

“Oh, sure thing, then!”

“I know some excellent places we can go to.”

“Cool! More stuff to see and know about in Aylont! Am I right?” Antonio glanced over at Tommy.

“Yeah, that’d be cool,” Tommy replied softly, still lost in thought.

As they continued to walk, Tommy looked over and spotted some patterns that had formed an arching pathway. His eyes fixated on following it, curious about where it could lead. He stopped following the others and noticed a shadow lurking on the ground behind some stalagmites and near an open passageway.

It looked more like a hole or a blemish on the floor; the shadow leaped off its hiding spot and climbed to a higher level. It rushed over toward the metallic doors in the opposite direction.

Whoa, what on—? Tommy shook his head, taken aback at the occurrence.

Antonio stopped walking and turned upon finding that his friend hadn’t been following them.

“Hey, Tommy, is there something wrong?” Antonio called out to him from a distance.

“Back there, I saw—”

“Man, you sure are strangely obsessed with- what the?” Antonio leaned over, adjusted his glasses, and noticed the shadow.

The shadow ran over to the door and whispered something to the monitor that extended from the door.

“Confirmed, you may enter.” It said before disappearing and opening the doors for the shadow to come inside.

“Wait up!” Antonio and Tommy cried out as they ran over to the doors as they slowly started closing.

They got through right before it shut tight. A loud thunk echoed through the cave, reaching Sam and Mandy’s eardrums.

“Boys?” The two scientists turned back to notice that Antonio and Tommy disappeared. They hurried back to their lab as soon as possible.