Tim's Adventures:

007: Another Side to Darius

Tim slowly opened his eyes, light filling them and causing him to close them again. Over the next few minutes he gradually was able to open his eyes to a squint. He looked around the dimly lit room he was in. Around him, in what he felt to be a cave, were large machines and their hum. He then looked at his chest as best he could, as his body still felt weak. There was a burn mark in his gray shirt, but the skin under it appeared to have been healed. He heard a voice begin to speak.

"I am sorry that I hurt you, my dear Tim."

"Darius..." Tim moaned as he tried to move his head, a pain beginning to throb in his chest.

"Yes, Tim. I am afraid that you will be bedridden for about a week while my machines help rebuild your body better. Your heart was nearly destroyed and was just about two hours ago partially reconstructed so you could be allowed consciousness and non-mechanical blood flow again."

Tim relaxed his head back down on the cushioned medical bed that he not realized that he was on. "So where am I?"

"You're in my video game, Tim."

"What?" asked Tim, finding this response strange.

"I programmed this game. I feel more at home here than I ever did on Earth or any other video game. I sometimes wonder if I somehow came from this game, somehow avoiding the need of a connection. If that is so I believe you came from this world also."

Tim thought about this. "What do you call your game?"

Darius smiled as the words came forth from his lips. "Gamer."

Tim nodded and closed his eyes, falling back into sleep. Darius got up and walked over to him slowly, moving a machine over the injured Gamemaster's chest. He turned it on and slowly walked out of the room. "Good luck, Tim. You will survive but your injuries are great. Your heart is still barely functioning. I am sorry that I cannot help you more."

A week slowly passed, Tim and Darius talking sometimes for hours upon end. After over eight days in the medical bed, his heart slowly being regenerated, he placed his feet again on the floor, Darius supporting him with an arm and a smile.

"You're doing quite well," he smiled. "I hit you pretty bad."

Tim nodded slightly. "Yeah."

Darius helped Tim sit down as they reached a chair.

Tim spoke again. "I understand why you left the league - boredom with their assignments for you - but why do you now be a villain in the games?"

Darius nodded. "A valid question. But first I must mention that I did not leave only due to boredom. I left because they wanted to withhold the knowledge of the games' existences to the world. I did not agree with that. I feel that, although it should not happen yet, Earth should someday know about the games."

Tim nodded. "I was never told about that."

"I am not surprised, for I am not something that they like to mention at all, much less my reasons for leaving the League." He smiled again. "I play more of a villain as, even though it is not the best way to exist, it allows me to challenge myself against the League and allows me to distract them from what I do. The only reason I allowed myself to appear dead for so long was because of my finishing of programming two games."

"Two?" asked Tim, curiosity in his mind. "This game and which other?"

"You probably have heard of Jenkins' claim that he went to a place that does not exist in the games, or so it is believed.

"You mean?" asked Tim again, thinking he knew what Darius was hinting.

"The existence of a game shows a path to its world from ours, nothing more. The game creates the pathway. Without the game the world still exists, but also does not as we cannot reach it."

Tim smiled widely. "You created a game of Captain N."

Darius nodded. "Correct. I believe that Jenkins teleported just as I finished compiling the first alpha version of the game. These two incidents I believe were what caused him to enter the game of Captain N."

Tim nodded. "Intriguing."

"Indeed."

Soon another four days had passed and Tim was once again walking on his own. He walked over and sat down in front of a computer and pressed a few buttons. Displays began changing the data that they showed and Tim began to watch the data closely.

Darius put a hand on Tim's shoulder. "I do need an answer."

Tim nodded and sighed. "If now then I must say no. I will not be going back to the League, but I feel that I also do not belong here."

Darius nodded. "Then come with me, if you will."

Tim nodded again and followed Darius as he walked into a room that Tim had not looked in before. As he walked in he saw the sudden difference from a more cave-like environment to a more lab-like environment. As Darius motioned for him to go to a side of a table he spoke to his nurturer. "What is it here you are planning to show me?"

Darius smiled and handed Tim a small device. "This, Tim, is an upgraded version of my prototype teleporter. It will work for you and you alone. It already has a large array of games programmed into it, but you can search for new ones with the random command."

Tim smiled as he removed his old teleporter and put on the new one. "Thanks."

Darius nodded and put Tim's old teleporter into a waste bin. "Also, if you are ever hurt badly, it will automatically teleport you back to a place that you program it to."

"Anything else?" asked Tim.

"Yes, actually," said Darius with a frown. "It may glitch once in awhile and send you to a game that you have not specified it to. Do not worry, for it will not hurt you. This is a mild inconvenience, nothing more."

Tim nodded. "Understood."

Darius picked up another object and handed it to Tim. "A holster for your Zapper."

"Thanks." He said as he looked around the room he was in, attaching the holster to his suit. "I feel that I should go now. I don't know what I'm going to do but I will do something, I know that much."

Darius nodded back. "A good place to start, at least. I will not keep you longer, but I do recommend that you do not work your heart very hard for the next week or two as it is still just beginning to become accustomed to your body."

Tim nodded again. "Of course." He pressed the random command on his new teleporter and disappeared into the air, teleporting someplace although he did not know where.