Quick note: So this chapter will feature a little bit of backstory again, so I'm sorry if it is slow...don't worry ;) exciting stuff coming soon, especially in the note at the end!

Lewis' POV

Uncertainly, Lewis taps his aching, overworked fingers on the cold wooden surface of his desk. Hooking his feet under one of his desk drawers, he pulls himself to the left on his wheeled desk chair, which squeaks loudly in protest. Fumbling with an ever growing pile of papers, he thumbs through them to find the right one.

"Are you sure this is ready to go public?" He didn't try to hide the unsure tone of his voice, tugging the set of papers he was trying to find out of the rest of the pile.

"Positive" the testificate answers, bobbing its unnaturally weird head. "We've been testing it for months now without any problems and it has just been gathering dust."

Hesitating, Lewis glances down to the portal gun blueprints in his hand. Yoglabs had been steadily distributing the odd trinket or two over the years, but nothing like this. This enterprise is his pride and joy; if the portal gun product backfires...

"Just bloody release it already!"

Lewis pinches his nose, having completely forgotten about the dwarf in the room. Turning in his chair smoothly, he faces the ginger bearded man.

"Friend, if this goes wrong, it could mean the end of the company."

"Nothing will go wrong! If we don't release something big like this-and soon-the company will collapse anyway." Simon huffs in his direction, muttering "scrub lord" under his breath which Lewis does not miss, but refuses to comment on.

Lewis sighs, turning back to the blueprints as the testificate cuts in. "Releasing it would make room for new prototypes, we could start making something else whilst we distribute it to our customers-"

Lewis cuts him off with a slight wave of his hand, and he groans in defeat, running a hand through his black hair and dislodging his thickly rimmed glasses in the process. "Fine! Release it to the public." Quickly correcting his glasses, he stands and shoots a glare at his best friend and co-worker. "But don't blame me if it goes wrong."

Lewis leaves abruptly, his lab coat swirling out behind him in his wake. He had never understood how Duncan had managed to keep his so clean. Clenching his fists, Lewis thinks back to his old best friend; he had been so sure that Duncan would join his company as the man was obsessed with science. But instead, he had taken on Kim as an apprentice, and gone off with her to make another castle.

Betrayed. Confused. Angry. Lewis had gone through all the stages. He has Simon, of course, but his dwarven friend is more interested in making the lab look nicer and testing out experiments; he lacks the enthusiasm for science, and sometimes this annoys Lewis. He never voices his annoyance, and he tries to bottle up his frustration by throwing it into his work; but at night, when he is alone in bed in pitch blackness, he thinks back to how life was like, before the bomb. Simon adored the company, Honeydew inc. and he was always passionate about creating new mechanisms for the factory-now it was a dilapidated wreck after a second, smaller, accidentally activated bomb. Duncan would always be by Lewis' side whilst working, and when time was short and stress took him over, Duncan was always there to comfort him, reassure him. And Hannah...

Quietly, Lewis shuts his bedroom door behind him and claps quickly, signalling for the lights to come on. He gets changed out of his lab coat, hanging it delicately on a hanger on the back of the door, before tugging on a simple top and shorts and clambering into bed. Clapping again, the lights turn off, and he glances at the clock. 11:53pm.

Thoughts of Hannah, with her bright blue eyes and flowing blonde hair always sent a pang of regret through his heart. He misses his ex-girlfriend terribly, now more than ever. Before the little family had parted ways from the camp in the wood, she had promised to stay in touch...but Lewis had not seen her in over a year.

With a yawn, Lewis rolls over onto his side. Tomorrow, he will be congratulated on the release of the portal gun. And Duncan would be first in the line; not smiling, not congratulating him. No. He would look at the floor, shake his hand limply, get his portal gun and leave as quickly as he came.

Maybe it's for the best, Lewis thinks, before fatigue takes him over, and he falls into a dreamless sleep.

Duncan's POV

Snap.

Kim jumps as Duncan tugs his white plastic gloves over his fingers, wriggling his fingers experimentally. She fidgets on the table in front of him, her small legs swaying under the table. Innocent purple eyes meet his, and the scientist smiles at her reassuringly, trying to hide his shaking limbs. She still trusted him, even after the flux incident.

"Are you sure you are okay with this?"

"I trust you Lalna." His eyes soften at his nickname. "Besides, it can't get any worse, right?"

Duncan laughs nervously. "As long as I wear these gloves, I will be fine" he says, more to himself than Kim.

The flux had been spreading.

Before, only half of her face had been infected. Now, her face, left arm and neck had turned purple, and Duncan prays to whatever gods there are above that it is not too late.

Delicately, he unscrews the cork off the bottle on the table next to him, and the choking stench of lavender consumes his nose. Coughing, he wrenches his head away. He had purchased this concoction from William Strife and Parvis, who claimed it had a 99% change of working.

"Not good?" Kim grins, and Duncan rolls his eyes, wrinkling his nose as he pours some onto a ball of cotton wool.

"Hopefully it works better than it smells" Duncan jokes, before reaching out a hand to softly swipe Kim's short ebony hair behind her shoulders. She blushes at the contact. "Stay still, okay?"

She nods slowly, her eyes on Duncan as he slowly places the cotton wool on her cheek.

Kim hisses and recoils so violently, she kicks Duncan in the process. The place he has touched her smoulders and sizzles, like an egg in a frying pan. But the flux did not disappear as promised. Kim cries out in pain, reaching up her one remaining pale skinned hand.

"No!" he yells, trying to stop her. But she touches the bubbling skin with her finger, and the purple tinge invades her hand in a heartbeat. Thinking quickly, Duncan grabs a towel and ties it at the bottom of the crook of her elbow tightly.

The flux stops advancing, and Duncan regards her in horror as she shudders once, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she slumps lifelessly onto the table.

Note: Yay! Don't you just love exciting cliff hangers? :D Don't worry! The infamous dog will be coming soon...but enough of the plot! In the description, I put something about a band of strangers...that will obviously include me and a few others...but we need two more people.

That's right! IT'S OC CONTEST TIME!

You guys know the drill (if you have read my book before) but I'll explain the rules/information stuff anyway!

For those who don't know, OC stands for "Own Character" so you guys get a chance to be in the book by entering your own character into the competition!

We will be picking a grand total of 2 characters! Yes, picking! This time, it's not going to be random, we (and by we I mean myself and the two other MYSTERIOUS OC PEOPLE who SHALL NOT BE NAMED *cough Liam and someone else cough*) will be personally picking two people who we think will fit into the story!

The entry for the competition will close by the time I update Chapter 4, so you all have a while to get your characters sorted. The rules are pretty self explanatory...

1) No rude comments to other readers/commenters about their character choices!

2) No racism, sexism, homophobia etc...don't start abusing someone because their character is a certain gender/race/sexual orientation-and this also means that whatever you want your character to be, go for it-we won't judge based on the above things!

3) Uh...enjoy it?

Here is the fill-out form. Post it in the comments, and I will announce the winners in Chapter 4! Happy reading, everyone!

Name of character (Full):

Nickname (Optional):

Age (Doesn't need to be specific...e.g. adult? teenager?):

Gender:

Hair colour/length/style:

Eye colour:

Body (skin colour/height/scars etc...Optional):

Magic/Science/Both/Other? (Specify for each one, for example Magic-Blood magic? Dark magic? etc...):

Choice of weapon:

Good/Neutral/Evil:

Personality:

Partner (Romantic-choose who you want apart from the following: Ridgedog, Ross, Martyn, Hannah, Lewis, Duncan, Kim):

Friends (Optional-include why you are friends with them):

Enemies (Optional-include why you are enemies with them):

Any special talent/power? (E.g. Mage, vampire etc...Optional):

Anything else? (E.g. History? Optional):

Have fun!