“No. Fucking. Way.” Zac’s voice was almost as high as Mico’s when he finally spoke. It left no room for compromise. “I am not going through some portal that leads who-knows-where and getting killed just because you don't like doing homework, Jack.”

“It's not about homework!” Jack couldn't understand why they weren't more excited. What else was there to say? Didn’t they get it? There was another world out there. One that promised adventure, fame, and riches. One filled with wonders. What more did they want?

And what choice did he have? No matter what, he had to go. His stomach tumbled over itself.

“Look. I thought you guys would be excited. I thought you'd want to go with me. But I'm going whether you do or not.” He couldn't tell them the reason he had to go. Telling that sob-story would make everything ten times worse.

“Acceptance one.”

The creature’s purple eyes finally broke their intense observation of Jack and drifted over Jack’s friends, as if waiting for another declaration of intent.

“Jack... I need to think about this,” Steve said. “What will Zoe say?”

“What're a few dimensions between friends?” Oh yeah, keep up the lame jokes, Jack told himself. Like that’s helping.

Jack grimaced at the look on Steve’s face. “Sorry. But, honestly, it's only a year. That’s nothing.”

Steve nodded, but his face was somber and stiff. Not like Steve at all.

“Nothing, huh? Is that what you're going to tell your mother?”

“Uh...” Jack rocked on his heels, clasping his hands behind his back. “Well, as far as my mother knows I'm about to start an internship in South Africa.”

Daiki snorted. He’d slipped behind the couch, his head directly behind Mico, his dark eyes fixed on the little cyborg. A small camera was in his hands and he was fiddling with the settings.

“You're telling me Jean bought that?” he said. “She knows what you’re like.”

“As a matter of fact, she did.” Jack shrugged, trying to keep his voice light. “Mostly because I actually, really got into an internship in South Africa.”

His mother had been so proud once he’d convinced her it was for real. Jack hated lying to her. As if he would go to South Africa for a piddling internship at a time like this. The only reason he’d even applied for the position in the first place was to appease the school guidance counselor.

“Jack, you’re out of your mind,” Zac said. “If you’ve got an internship in South Africa, then just bloody go South Africa.”

Now that they were talking and Mico had spent several minutes without making any sudden moves, Zac had relaxed a little. He resumed his usual tapping, bouncing one foot rapidly off the floor. Mico appeared to be listening to the beat with his small head cocked to the side, but his eyes were still wandering the room.

Daiki inched closer to the little creature, bringing his camera up slowly.

“Daiki, that's not a good idea...”

Snap!

Mico's head darted around, twisting a full 180 degrees almost quicker than Jack could follow, and bit the camera, yanking it from Daiki's hand. Before anyone could react, the claws on the tip of his metal wing had torn through the plastic silver casing, shredding it like tissue paper. Within moments, the camera was broken beyond repair.

Dangling the mess of glass, metal, and plastic from his other wing, Mico considered it for a moment without blinking. His metal fingers probed the wreckage. The SD card was uncovered and pierced by a single claw.

Reaching out his cyborg wing, Mico offered the ruined card to Daiki.

“That was so cool.” Jack leaned in to examine the demolished camera. “He completely totaled it!”

Daiki stared at the proffered card for a long moment without touching it. His face had drained of color.

“I had stuff on there that wasn't backed up...”

“I'm sorry, Daiki, but- the letter did say no recordings-”

Jack tried to make himself sound sorry. He wasn’t happy because it was Daiki’s camera. That would make him a bad person. He was just thrilled to see what Mico could do.

And so what? Daiki already said he wasn’t coming. And he could afford a dozen new cameras with all that grant money he had won.

“It’s not a good idea to piss off a cyborg...”

“I don't fucking need this,” Daiki said. Jack flinched at the icy fury in his friend’s voice. Daiki’s hands clenched into fists, trembling with anger.

“I have a scholarship. I'm going to New York. You lot can do whatever you fucking want.”

Without another word, Daiki pushed past Steve and Zac. He stomped down the stairs and slammed the front door so hard the sound vibrated throughout the house.

If there had been any chance of getting Daiki into the boat, Jack had just ruined it. His stomach clenched, his glee over the camera mishap shriveled to nothing.

Mico blinked his big, round eyes and shook off the SD card onto the rest of the camera wreckage, piled behind the couch. He began to pick plastic slivers of the casing from his wing with his long beak, dropping them after the card, one by one.

“Zac, what about you?”

“What about me?” Zac was holding onto the door frame, his usually neat hair sticking in clumps to the sweat on his face. Jack eyed him and gradually realized it was a miracle that Zac had stayed in the room that long, particularly after Daiki had stormed out.

“I want you to come with me, Zac.” Jack tried to soften his voice. “Come on, you'd get away from your parents. Have an adventure. This is the chance of a lifetime!”

Zac opened his mouth to say something, but Jack rode over him.

“Just look at this guy. Look at his wing.” Jack spread his hands to frame the cybernetic limb. “Do you know what it means? Someone over there is a master musician and a computer scientist. How else could they get this to work?”

“Robotics and computer science aren't exactly the same thing...” Zac said, but he took a step back into the room. Music was his weakness and always had been.

“The Alchemist is a musician,” Mico informed them helpfully.

“That is pretty cool,” Zac admitted, leaning around Steve to take a closer look at the waving wing (if five feet away could be called close).

“Pretty cool? It's amazing! Just think what you'd be able to do if you spent a year studying that kind of technology...”

“Jack. I already told you. No fucking way,” Zac said as he edged back to the door. “My parents would never allow me to...”

“Not even if you told them you got an internship in South Africa?”

Zac shot Jack an incredulous look, then exchanged a glance with Steve.

“You're kidding me, right?”

“Well, you can just use all the stuff they sent me. That ought to convince your parents.” Jack shrugged, trying hard not to sound defensive. It was never good when they started giving each other those glances. Those “what the hell is he thinking and how can we get out of it” glances.

“Heck, they'll believe anything you tell them. As long as you don't mention my name...”

Zac opened his mouth, then shut it again. He frowned. “What kind of internship is it?”

“What kind do you want it to be?”

Jack let his expansive smile fade as Zac glared at him. “OK, OK. It's in communications and media.”

Jack bundled up a pile of brochures and papers that had been scattered on his desk and trotted over to thrust them into Zac's arms. “You could easily tailor it to sound like it was something to do with programming.”

Zac glanced down at the brochures, then scrutinized the little cyborg again. Mico had finished preening and was gently waving his wing back and forth, emitting a sweet, quiet hum, like the fading note of a bell. Zac licked his lips and looked almost wistful for a few seconds, but then he shook his head.

“No- no. Daiki isn't going. Steve isn't going...”

“I didn't say that,” Steve said, quietly, but Zac ignored him.

“I- I'd better get home, Jack. I’m late. My parents are going to be mad enough as it is.”

“Just think about it, Zac. It wouldn't be the same without you.” Jack patted his friend awkwardly on the shoulder and watched him go, still clutching the internship papers, and with one last glance at Mico.

“So what am I going to tell my parents, Jack? Got another internship up your sleeve for me?” Steve smiled, but there wasn't much humor in his face.

“Steve, you should be doing more with your life than working on that boat.”

Two years ago Steve had blown off his last year of high school to start in the family business. It paid a lot, but it was rough and difficult work and Steve had the scars to prove it. Worst of all, Jack knew that Steve hated the job. If nothing else, Jack wanted his friend- his best friend- to get away from that life.

“I am.” Steve folded his arms defensively. “I've been taking a few night courses at the Polytechnic.”

“What, in nursing?”

Zoe was taking night courses in nursing. Jack didn't know where the pair of them found the time to sleep.

“No.” Steve inspected his feet and Jack wondered if he was prying too much. He exchanged a puzzled glance with the dinosaur. At any rate, Jack’s glance was puzzled. Mico's was as coolly reptilian as ever.

“No, I've been taking courses in animal care. You know- husbandry and management. Stuff like that.”

“That's awesome!” Jack didn't miss the look of relief on Steve's face. He suppressed an exasperated sigh.

As if I’d think he was fooling himself or something. Steve was far too humble. It was a strange quality in combination with his large frame and blunt face.

“You're wonderful with animals, Steve. You should be a vet.”

“Oh, I couldn't be a vet. But Zoe thinks I might be able to find work on.. on a farm or something...”

Jack heard the yearning buried in that “or something” but he ignored it to focus on a different part of the sentence.

“Zoe.” Jack hadn’t seen it coming. But he should have. “You won’t leave Zoe, will you?”

It wasn't exactly a question.

“Jack... you know I’m always up for your… plans. Your adventures. But I… I don’t think I could just skip out for a whole year. She's… she’s my family.”

Steve looked absolutely miserable as he said it. Jack realized it was the most unhappy he had seen Steve in a while.

“Yeah. Yeah, I get it.”

Jack did get it. Unlike Jack and Daiki, Steve had both parents at home. A fat lot of good it had done him. Neither of them was exactly stellar examples of parenthood. Steve had basically been raised by one of his older sisters, and she had left for university as soon as she was old enough.

In spite of his upbringing, Steve had turned out OK. He had a big heart. And Zoe seemed like a decent girl. They deserved each other. Jack was happy his friend had found someone who made him so happy.

It still hurt.

Jack had been sure the one person he could count on for this was Steve.

“Don't worry about it.” Jack swallowed the lump in his throat. It descended to join the pile in his stomach. He tried to sound nonchalant. “I'll just go by myself. I'll be fine.”

Jack contemplated the gleaming cyborg, still perched on the back of his tattered green couch, in the middle of his shabby little room. Who needs friends anyway? He’d just spent an entire year without them. He could survive another one.

“Jack... don't go,” Steve said and squeezed Jack’s arm. “You don't have to say ‘yes’. I know this is exciting and all but...”

“Exciting?” Jack forced a laugh. “This is way past exciting.” Shrugging off Steve’s hand, Jack gripped the couch until his fingers hurt. “Don't you get it? This changes everything.” He waved a hand at the dinosaur. “This is proof of... of... everything! There are other dimensions and magic and wizards and dragons. There could be Gods out there. There could be a panacea.”

Steve mouthed the unfamiliar word, his brows drawn. Jack rushed ahead with his argument.

“This means there’s something to believe in. Wishes can come true.”

“Mico is not a dragon.”

“Jack this isn’t a fantasy…”

Jack waved his hands wildly, indicating the little cyborg. “Um, hello? Have you seen this guy right here? He just flew in a few minutes ago… through a portal of fire.”

“He’s not proof that this is magic.” It was Steve’s turn to sound exasperated. “It’s more like something out of a science fiction movie.”

“What difference does it make? I'm not going to say no. I'm sorry.” The pitch of his voice was getting too high, but adrenaline was pumping through Jack and he couldn’t stop. “I'm not going to stay here and safe and boring when I can take this dinosaur-cyborg by the claw, jump into his fiery portal and have a real adventure.”

Jack paused for breath as Mico carefully tucked his claws against his scaly body. It made him look particularly awkward, and slurred his words somewhat when he vibrated his wing.

“You may not jump through the portal today.”

Jack threw his hands up. “I was making a point!”

Steve set his lips and closed his eyes for a moment. “I guess...” He opened them again. “I mean- well, I still don't like it, Jack. But…”

He stared hard at Mico and apparently decided the tiny creature wasn’t a threat to his friend. “I really have to go see Zoe now. I'll talk to you about it soon. Just be careful.”

Steve walked through the doorway, then paused. “And don't go anywhere before then, OK?”

“Departure is in ten days.”

“Yeah. I won't go anywhere.”

Steve left. Jack listened to him thump down the stairs and out the front door. It closed with a barely audible snick. A few seconds later the motorcycle started, a dull roar through the window that faded as Steve drove down the street. He turned the corner and he was gone. They were all gone.

Jack sagged onto the couch. He was spent. Tired and sad and utterly alone.

All that stuff about wizards and dragons. That was a good reason to go if Jack did say so himself. Compelling even.

But it wasn't the reason Jack had to go to the other world. Steve thought his friend had a choice, but he didn’t. Not really.

Jack reached out a slow and careful finger. When the little creature didn’t move away he gently rubbed his fingertip on its skull. Mico’s scaly head was about the same size as a ping-pong ball. The dinosaur's skin was softer than Jack expected. It felt a bit like his mother's faux leather handbag.

Mico crouched under the stroking and his eyelids drifted down until there was only a fragment of purple visible under each one. A low hum issued from his quivering wing.

“You're purring, aren't you? I have so many things I want to ask you.” Jack sighed and leaned back. He flinched only slightly as the dinosaur scrambled down off the back of the couch and curled up in his lap. The small, half-metal creature was surprisingly warm.

“One acceptance?”

Jack stared into the middle distance, turning the day over in his mind, trying to think of another argument, of one more way to convince his friends. It couldn’t be over. Not yet.

“No. They're coming with me. I don't know how. But they're definitely coming.”

“Acceptance two through four.”

“Yeah.... what?” Jack’s gaze snapped down as the tiny dinosaur rubbed its head affectionately against his hand, then thrust its feet against his lap. Mico launched into the middle of the room and vanished in an abrupt blaze of green light.

The burning after-image of a portal lingered in Jack's sight for a long time.