They didn’t hear the noise behind them over the sound of the crowd. The first notion they had that something was not as it seemed was when Taylor felt something touch his ankle. There was a groan, and suddenly they were no longer on stage.
They were in a field instead. No, a small dark room. No, wait, a bell tower. No… Numerous scenes went by, only seconds between them, until they finally settled in the middle of a battlefield.
“What the heck –” Isaac began.
“Aww man,” said a voice behind them. “I’m sorry. I’m soooo sorry. I didn’t mean to bring you along.”
They turned and saw a young boy, about early teens. He was dirty and tired and generally looked miserable. More would have been said, by they were interrupted by gunfire and the four boys made for the nearest hole in the ground. Isaac threw up his force fields to cover the entry.
“Just what is going on?” Zac demanded. “Who are you? Where are we?”
“I’m sorry,” the boy said woefully.
“You said that,” Taylor replied. “Would you care to fill us in?”
The boy swallowed and look at them. His eyes rested on Isaac holding up the force field.
“You’re anomalies?” he asked.
“Yes,” Taylor confirmed.
A look of relief appeared on the boys’ face.
“So am I,” he replied. “My name is Tristan.”
“Nice to meet you,” Taylor said. “I’m Taylor, this is Zac, and that Isaac.”
The boy stared.
“Hanson?” he asked.
“Yes…”
The boy started laughing. A partly relieved, partly hysterical laugh. Isaac, Taylor and Zac looked at each other. Okay… what was so funny?
“Have we missed something?” Zac asked.
“Sorry,” Tristan said, swallowing. “Sorry…”
“Is that your favourite word or something?” Zac asked.
“Sor- no,” he shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe it… the odds against it must be incredible…”
“Odd against what?” Isaac asked.
“I’m your son,” Tristan asked. “Well, I’m Zac’s son. From an alternate dimension.”
“Say what?” Zac said, staring.
“I’m Tristan Hanson.”
“Ookay…” Isaac said.
“Does your powers have something to do with this?” asked Taylor.
Tristan nodded.
“One of my powers is Inter-dimensional Teleportation,” he said. “It’s rather a nasty power to get, because the second sign of development is that anyone who has it starts randomly teleporting through space and time. Sometimes they never get back home. I never really understood why. I mean, all you have to do is try to control it. But…”
“But?”
“Nevermind… The point is that you guys better stay close to me at all times,” Tristan said. “If we get separated, and I have another spasm, you guys might get stuck in… wherever we are at the time. I will try to get you home. I will.”