All Jake could remember was being slammed into a brick wall and feeling a sharp wind tearing at him while tumbling through space.
Heard a soft voice whisper something, then slowly came to.

"Ugh... Ah!"

As Jake rubbed the side of his face, a jolt of pain forced his hand to withdraw, revealing a oozing gash down his left cheek.

"Oh fu... Someone? Can someone give me a bandage or something, I just--!"

He gazed upwards and noticed his alien surroundings. For once in his life, he was out of Jersey. For once on his life, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be."

"I dunno, I really shouldn't say out here... but, it involves bending the laws of time and space for financial gain and power over the world. My world is their priority, I'm not sure about any others, maybe they're even planning for this place... It's sort of hard to explain. Come over here a sec..." Jacob runs into the nearby alleyway and gestures for Molly to follow. As she steps into the dark hall, Jacob tells his tale.

"Okay, here's the skinny - I worked for a mining company, Irrigiate Corporation. They hire lazy teens with no interest in a career to help them mine the greatest rare metal found on my Earth, Atignus - it can be molded into most any shape with ease, can be used as a sealant, armor plating, gunmetal, hell - even new age medication in small doses. I was 16 when I signed up; my parents thought I'd never find a career with my failing grades and they planned to move me out. I got wise, packed my things and seeked employment and living at Irrigate's local facility. It was great! I made a lot of friends, fat paychecks, and great career experience. But then, when I was working the floor last night, I discovered a board meeting going on behind closed doors. Some idiot forgot to lock the room, so I peeked in and listened. Apparently, Atignus supply was dropping massively, so they planned on importing Atignus from other countries - only problem was, Northern Canada was the only part of North America that naturally produced the stuff, and stock was dropping rapidly. Then, the slide changed and I saw that it wasn't a slide, but a window; and behind it was a... door. Just standing in the center of the room, no walls around it. Just a door. That's what I thought, until a saw our CEO Tetsuo Iwata open the door, revealing Feudal Japan. He closed it and opened it again, this time showing 1910-era America. He kept on opening and closing, all the while a man fiddled with a remote at the table behind him, continuously opening new doorways..."

Jacob slid to the ground.

"I couldn't believe my eyes... they were planning on stealing Atignus from other worlds, or even... dimensions. They revealed their gameplan in a bulleted list: Open doorway, find source of Atignus or similar rare metal, take it by whatever means necessary as long as it does not negatively affect our dimension. I was seriously freaked, so I ran to call 911, but they heard me run and called security. They grabbed me and hurriedly opened the door, tossing me into this dimension. And now I'm here, that's my story, not much else to tell."

"Yeah, I think so..." Jacob stood up tentatively, looking about just in case another goon was on his way.

Jacob noticed the lady's gun and shivered in a panic. "L-l-look, what are you--"

"The name's Rosemary, you can call me Rosie, and I think I just saved your skin! Pleasure to meet you."

"I would say the same, but you just killed a man in front of me! Are you insane, I mean I wanted help but--!"

The man stirred on the ground, through the bullet holes in his coat Jacob saw the shimmer of armor.

"You know what? Thanks a ton! Let's get out of here!!!" Jacob told Rosie, then grabbed her by the wrist to lead her and then ran off down the alleyway, but not before kicking the agent in the back of the head to buy them more time.

"WAIT A TICK!" Rosie yelled back at Jacob "There's something in his pocket... glowing!"

Jacob ran back, kneeled down and searched the fink's pocket, pulling out an industrial glass vial containing a glowing red serum; the bottle also had a syringe attached to it. Some type of drug... but what kind?

"Good eye, now let's get a move on!" Jacob said, but before leaving, remembering he left his gun back down the alley, swiped the agent's revolver; a Webley Mark VI.

"Alright, I think that's enough, let's go!!! The cops could get here at any moment!"

Right, Jacob thought, it's time to beat it. Jacob ran with this Rosie character back down the street, encountering Joe and Molly at the next block. ("Only two hours in another universe and I've already made three friends? Must be a lucky night...") After making some brief introductions, Jacob asked "Rosie, do you know a place the three of us could hide out for the time being?"