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PRIME *SOLARBALLS MCU*
FRIDAY, 21 JUNE 2013:
15-year-old Randy Cunningham held out his hand as the guidebook underneath his fingertips glowed as bright as a red giant. He smiled reassuringly at Theresa Fowler’s tentative expression, goosebumps forming on her arms. She then smiled back and grabbed his palm, gently squeezing it.
“Ready?” he winked.
“Um…s-sure,” she stammered.
“Don’t worry. It’s gonna be a piece of cake,” the boy promised. “Trust me, I do this all the time.”
“How—how often is that?” his friend wondered.
Randy shrugged. “Depends—at least once a week. Probably everyday if I’m lucky.”
Theresa’s eyes widened. “Everyday?”
“Yep! And it gets even better!” He sat criss-cross applesauce and straightened his posture dramatically, trying to imitate a sophisticated American accent. “Now please come forth, Miss Fowler! We shall enter the Nomicon in style!”
She giggled in amusement before they both passed out, their bodies sprawled on the floor in slightly uncomfortable positions. But inside the book, they were wide awake, falling to the ground with a thud.
Randy gradually stood up and rubbed his head, groaning softly. “Okay…that part wasn’t fun. Not that it ever is, but anyway.”
Theresa nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”
She clung onto his arm as they followed the curved pathway, which lasted two kilometers. The purple-haired girl was in awe of the beautiful scenery surrounding them—a luscious landscape with pine trees, ice-capped mountain ranges and valleys, aquamarine rivers, colorful waterfalls, and never-ending forests where it frequently rained.
“Wow…this place is amazing,” Theresa exhaled.
Randy hummed thoughtfully. “It does have its perks. Apparently time works differently here.”
She blinked twice. “It does?”
“Nomicon sorta described it as an astral dimension, but our bodies age in real time. A week could pass, but in reality it’d only be a few minutes,” he explained. “See? I do know things. Take that, Principal Slimovitz and Mrs. Driscoll!”
“Because you actually studied for the final exams,” Theresa remembered.
“Yep! And I aced them, thanks to my awesome bro Levander Hart,” he slightly bragged before his smile faltered. “Howard didn’t though, and he got mad at me for it. I mean, it’s not my fault he didn’t study. So now he’s in summer school ‘till August.”
The girl was confused. “Why did he blame you?”
“I dunno, it’s been a whole week.” Randy flailed his hands. “And he’s still giving me the silent treatment!”
“Well that doesn’t seem fair,” Theresa presumed.
“Exactly! I’m the one who told him we needed to study, but he wanted to goof off and play video games!” he exclaimed before sighing helplessly. “Anyway, no point in dwelling on this. So let’s switch gears, shall we? See where the road takes us.”
“Good idea,” she agreed.
Eventually the road split, but there was a picket sign mounted between the Y-shape.
“Oh yeah! Here we go! Our first riddle!” Randy announced. “Check this out,” he whispered in her ear before kneeling in front of the sign, reading it out loud.
WHEN YOU’RE AFRAID OF THE DARK, LOOK TO THE LIGHT. IT IS THE SOURCE OF WARMTH TO ALL LIVING THINGS.
“Look to the light…” the ninja repeated. “But what is it?”
“Wait!” Theresa chimed in. “I know what it is!”
“Oh good!” Randy gave a thumbs up. “So…what is it?”
“A light that shines in darkness…but it’s also a natural source, so it can’t be artificial. Therefore…it’s the Sun,” she deduced, pointing to the left path.
Randy smacked his forehead. “Oh yeah! That makes sense. Dunno why I didn’t think of that. Nice job, Theresa. You’d make a killer kunoichi!”
Once again, the purple-haired girl ducked her head and blushed. “Thanks.”
The boy raised his fist in the air and grabbed her hand. “Let’s follow the Sun!”
Or according to my dad, the manifestation of it since we’re in another dimension. He figured.
Three kilometers later, they arrived at the second picket sign as Randall repeated his reading process.
BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO—THERE WERE THREE, THEN THERE WERE TWO, THEN FOUR, AND MUCH MORE IN BETWEEN.
Theresa furrowed her brows in confusion. “Is this another space-related question?”
“I don’t know, maybe…” Randy murmured in deep thought before suddenly remembering something his father told him when he was eight years old.
“But a lot of these planets didn’t last long. Orbits were messy and a lot of planets crossed paths with each other. So sooner or later, many planets just…”
“Crashed into each other…” the teen exhaled, stifling a gasp. “My dad mentioned planets that came before planets, which means…protoplanets!”
“Protoplanets?” Theresa asked curiously.
His face became serious. “Um…you know how I told you my dad’s an astronaut, right? And we used to live in Houston near NASA Headquarters for a couple of years before returning to Norrisville?”
She nodded. “Uh huh…?”
“Well he uh, there was this whole complicated consciousness transfer thing that happened for a few months. And he saw some—things in there,” he managed to squeeze out.
Theresa blinked twice. “Things?”
“Like um…talkingcelestialobjects,” he quickly stated.
Her eyes bulged. “Talking—what?”
Randall sighed. “Nevermind.” Looking forward, he chuckled nervously and grasped her hand again. “Oh look! Guess we have to go left again. Let’s go!”
He ran as fast as he could as Theresa grasped his hand, practically flying sideways at this point until they reached the third bifurcated point. This time, Theresa offered to read the message.
UNFORTUNATELY, THESE POOR SOULS PERISHED IN THE FIRES OF GAS AND LIGHT. BUT THE INCIDENT WAS UNINTENTIONAL AS WELL AS THE EJECTION OF ANOTHER INNOCENT SOUL.
“Are they—still referring to these so-called protoplanets? Or is it something else?” the girl wondered.
Randy instantly paled, immediately recalling another memory of his father’s inadvertently disturbing bedtime story. His mother asked who the mysterious ice giant was as her husband elaborated on the subject.
“Well this part of the story deals with a few theories regarding the formation of the Solar System as we know it today. One is the Grand Tack, and the other is the existence of a fifth giant—Planet X.”
“I think it’s still the protoplanets…and maybe some other objects,” he gulped softly.
Theresa stared at him. “Like what?”
“Well…the sign said gas and light, and we already know what the light represents,” he reminded her.
“The Sun,” she hummed.
“Yep. But we still don’t know the gas part…or the ejection part,” the ninja assumed before his jaw dropped in realization. “Unless…”
“Aaand that’s how Jupiter changed orbits to where he is now and caused the destruction of several rocky planets. This was the Grand Tack of Jupiter!”
“I know what it is,” he exhaled. “Gas stands for gas giant, which means it’s either Jupiter or Saturn. But my dad only mentioned one of them was involved, so it has to be Jupiter!”
“And the ejection?” Theresa frowned.
“It was Planet X,” Randy revealed.
The teen girl tapped her chin. “Planet X…I think I’ve heard of it.”
The boy scratched his left cheek. “Yeah. Remember my dad gave a lecture for our science class in 8th grade? He did bring it up.”
Theresa smirked. “Guess you have been paying attention in science.”
Randall rolled his eyes endearingly. “Oh stop.”
For this riddle, they both concluded that the perished souls were the early protoplanets, gas and light translated to Jupiter and the Sun, and the ejected soul was hypothetical Planet X. Yet the teens wondered why the Nomicon was so adamant on discussing celestial objects rather than Randy’s typical ninjutsu lessons.
But alas, they had to move forward, turning right instead of left. Arriving at the fourth intersection, the Norrisville Ninja knelt down and read the fourth riddle.
LONG AGO, SELENE WAS FORMED BY GEO’S ACCIDENTAL COLLISION WITH THE DECEASED TWIN OF ARES.
“Selene…where have I heard that term before?” Theresa pondered.
“The Goddess of Selene? I only remember that name from our history exam,” Randy recalled.
The purple-haired girl bobbed her head. “And she’s also the Greek Goddess of the Moon, so…”
“Selene is the Moon,” the boy disclosed. “And Geo is clearly Earth. It’s Ares that I’m stuck on…”
Theresa pursed her lips. “Ares was the Greek God of War…and Mars was named after him.”
Randy snapped his fingers. “So Ares is Mars, got it.”
“But the sign wants us to find out the twin of Ares, not Ares himself,” she reminded him before lifting her gaze. “Wait—didn’t he have a twin sister named Eris?”
Suddenly, the picket sign drew a bright red cross over the message, indicating that her guess was wrong.
Randy narrowed his eyebrows. “Okay, so it’s not Eris. Then who is it?”
“Maybe it’s related to his size?” his future girlfriend hoped.
Her crush whipped around to face her. “That’s it! Theresa, you’re a genius!”
She was genuinely surprised. “I am?”
“I knew listening to my dad’s astronomical lingo would come in handy someday! And today just happens to be that day!” Randy cheered. “Eris is a dwarf planet in the Scattered Disc, so it can’t be her!”
“Scattered Disc?” Theresa questioned.
“It’s a region beyond the Kuiper Belt,” he said casually. “Anyway, point is—my dad told me about a Mars-sized object crashing into Earth like four-and-a-half billion years ago, and that’s how the Moon was formed.”
The young woman chuckled. “I knew you were secretly a science geek.”
“Astronomy’s the only school subject I like—other than art and choir,” Randy confessed.
“Too bad it wasn’t available to freshmen,” Theresa sighed. “I would’ve taken it too.”
“Buuut we’re gonna be sophomores soon, so…sign me up!” he grinned before facing forward. “And by the way—the answer’s Theia.”
Theia…I’ve heard that name before, but where…?
Theresa’s thoughts were interrupted once the arrow pointed left. So the duo headed towards a five-story glass building with dozens of neon arrows pointing toward the single navy blue door entrance.
“I—guess we’ve reached our destination?” she presumed.
Randall stretched his arms. “Hopefully.”
They entered the front door and discovered an empty movie theater with luxurious velvet pink seats with designated cupholders and two free bowls of buttered popcorn.
Theresa surveyed the area. “We gonna watch a movie?”
Randy’s jaw dropped in excitement as he flopped down on his seat while his friend did the same on the opposite side.
“This is awesome! What’s on the menu, Nomicon?” he expressed.
The screen read: THIS IS A STORY THAT BEGAN LONG BEFORE HUMANITY EXISTED. IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT OCCURRED, REMIND YOURSELF THAT THERE IS A DISTINCTION BETWEEN SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE REALITY.
The teen’s eyes bulged out of his sockets. “Hold up! Is this related to the riddles we solved?”
Once again, Theresa was utterly confused. “Is that what we’re watching?”
Randy tilted his head. “I think so…?”
Only one way to find out…