Zak managed to return to the Company before his coating ran out, but not by much. He'd barely arrived before his watch alarm beeped, and he was transported back to the Real World.

He woke in a strange bedroom. It looked similar to his room but not. Zak expected the cold, concrete floor of the abandoned factory he and his friends used as a base; instead he lay on a soft bed. A strange book-like object lay next to him and he could feel a heavy visor over his face. Zak could also feel some kind of padding or armor covering him.

When Zak, or other Zappers, make a jump, their bodies are left in the place they are jumping from. This is done so that there isn't a sudden drop in matter in one realm, which is also why Zappers are covered in a quantum coating. You can't add or subtract normal matter from a universe without dire consequences.

Zappers are given special authority to do their work and their jumps are monitored. But there are certain rouge elements out there, such as the Shadow Men (aka the Dark Guild), who don't obey the rules and try to cause as much chaos as they can. There are also those, like Zak and his friends, who come across the ZAP accidently. They are soon recruited by the Company.

One day, Zak asked why they needed the coating if their bodies were left behind. Wouldn't they technically be much ethereal, like an idea? The answer was yes. But, as an idea they couldn't interact with the world. They needed a physical form, so they used the Protagonists. But the Supervisors felt that possessing the bodies of residents of a realm was wrong, so a kind of loophole was made.

The Zapper is coated in "unused/won't be missed for the short period of time they are there" matter from that realm and shaped to look like the Protagonist they are filling in for. So while the Protagonist is recuperating, on vacation, or whatever, the Zapper can replace them. And since the Zapper isn't an exact double (if you look close enough, you'll see a difference), there is none of that pesky "you can't be in two places at once" stuff going on.

Zak groaned slightly as he moved his head to get a better look at the strange book. He noticed a blue wireless signal light. Zak also spotted digital words on the book's screen, like a title. "ZAP Guild," Zak whispered.

"Time for breakfast," said a voice that sounded much like his mother's.

Then this strange place was gone and Zak felt the warehouse concrete like he expected. Normally, Jess or Marty would have moved his body to the couch, but Zak had come here by himself tonight. It was another sleepless night and he craved action.

The Gate powered down as Zak sat up. Once he'd escaped the Cube and explained everything to his friends—and was recruited by the Company—he, Jess, and Marty moved the gate Marty made to an old factory. It wasn't as powerful as the ones the Company used, but it got the job done.

Zak shuffled his way over to the kitchen area and grabbed a candy bar. For some reason after a ZAP, he'll crave chocolate, especially mint chocolate. After some inquires, he found that he wasn't alone in this; every Zapper went through this. So some of his Zapper wages went into keeping a stock of candy at the ready, jokingly called after ZAP mints. Sometimes Jess and Marty would go so far as to leave one on a pillow for after he returned, snickering as they did it.

***

Zak barely got any sleep before the wake-up call from his parents. Being retired Zappers themselves, they knew a few tricks and sometimes would let Zak sleep in, but Zak still had school this morning. At times, Zak would whine about going to school because in the Cube, he had graduated high school and had a couple of college degrees, including a Bachelor's.

"That was in that other world," his mom would say. "Here you're still 14."

Zak would then grumble and grab his sack lunch. Sometimes throwing in a comment about having to go through puberty twice. A few times he'd been tempted to tell his parents that his "Real World" was just another "fictional" realm and not the Earth of legend, but always decided against it.

Marty and Jess, Marty on his scooter and Jess wearing roller blades, soon met up with Zak on his trek to the school.

"I'm really disappointed in you," said Jess. "You went into the Core without us last night. I thought we agreed never to do it alone."

Zak ran his fingers through his white hair, though six months after escaping the Cube, bits of a bright purple were creeping though—Zak had no idea why his hair would be an almost pink-purple.

"Same dream from the Cube?" asked Jess, her face full of concern.

Zak nodded. "I feel like I'm missing something. There has to be more to that world than just them torturing people."

Zak recently learned that not all of the pain and suffering from that realm was created by the Shadow Men. Some of it was caused by that universe trying to get rid of him. Even though he ate the food of that realm, over time his true frequency began to break through—kind of like building a resistance to an allergy. The more he remembered and the more he became Zak instead of William, the more the universe tried to remove him. Near the end, he was like a poison to those around him. It was kind of like the universe's antibodies knew there was a "virus" but didn't know who the virus was, so it attacked everyone in that area.

You can only fool Mother Nature for so long.

Marty used his foot to propel his scooter in time with the others. "According to lore, the Dark Guild either is or worships the Destroyers. All they want is to eliminate all life in the Omniverse. I don't think they need much reason to do anything."

***

Even though Zak has the mind of a 40-year-old, he still has the body of a teenager. So, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that by third period he was in a foul mood. He was tired from the nightmares and from the guild missions, not to mention worrying about what the Dark Guild might be planning. To make matters worse, he received a text message from the Company; he was needed.

Like dreams and ideas, cyberspace exists in that strange land of ethereal matter, so texts and other cyber activities can traverse the realms.

"Zak, can you tell us the answer to the question on the board?" The teacher's bad-timing made for a perfect target for Zak's frustration and need to leave for the Core.

"Why?" said Zak. "Math doesn't matter. When do we use it other than to do taxes or pay bills?...And most people use computers anyway." Zak then stood. "How much of this will we actually remember? And we just search for whatever we need to know anyway. Why do we even need to come to school? The Internet tells us everything we need to know."

Zak got some applause while the teacher glared at him.

Zak gave a smart aleck shrug. "I'm not planning on becoming an accountant. If I ever need one, I'll just hire one."

The class began to cheer and the instructor began to steam. Finally he said with a point towards the door, "Report to the principal."

Zak folded his arms. "That seems a bit extreme."

"Welcome to the real world," huffed the instructor.