JACKIE:

I woke up in crushing blackness. This void felt damp. I heard a faint water drip in the distance, but my concept of distance seemed warped. The amount of space around me could have been the size of a cage or infinitely large. I couldn’t grasp onto any details. My five senses gave me zero information to process, and the nothingness made me panic. I hyperventilated. My head spun, dizzy with a profound uncertainty.

“Relax!” The rigid male voice startled me at first, but I was glad I wasn’t alone.

“Where are you?” I asked. “Who are you? Am I dead?”

“We’re in the slipstream,” he said.

“What’s the slipstream?”

“Before you ask a million annoying questions, just do what I say and everything will work out. We don’t have a lot of time, okay?”

“Excuse me, annoying? Like you wouldn’t have a million questions right now? Tell me who you are or I won’t comply with anything you say.”

“Call me Firestorm, alright?”

“Firestorm? Okay…”

“You know, when I first came here, I figured it out on my own. Unless you have a plan, listen and take notes.”

It was a rude way to start, but I didn’t have a choice if I wanted answers. I blindly hoped this mystery voice named Firestorm had answers to the nagging questions spinning in my head.

“Alright,” Firestorm started. “Now… settle. Quiet your mind. Leave yourself open to the probabilities.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but I instinctively took a few deep breaths to compose myself.

As I relaxed, little sparks of light rained down around me and illuminated the cavernous slipstream. Electrical pulses connected the sparks in what looked like a mind map inside a brain. The sparks created fire portals that swirled open, teasing me with their mysterious contents.

“Woah. What is this place?”

I focused on the spark closest to me and saw the moment my mother left me. The memory streamed inside the fire portal like a movie on a screen. The details of my mother’s face were still fuzzy and out of focus. I sensed she was crying behind her blonde hair. There I was in her arms as a toddler, also crying. The heart wrenching goodbye sent a chill through me. I wanted to learn more, so I moved toward it. The stream drew me in, poised to engulf me.

Until Firestorm interjected. “The key to stopping Life Rite isn’t in that stream.”

I looked toward his voice and saw his shadow move behind another fire portal. I didn’t catch details, except that he was extremely tall.

“I know you want to explore, but we have to move fast. Come on, over here,” Firestorm said bluntly.

“But my mom is in there. I saw her. I felt her.”

“If you want to help your mother, the answer is this way.”

I turned toward his voice and came face to face with another portal. Inside this one, the painful new memory of my rushed goodbye to Pops unfolded in front of me. His wound looked critical but maybe…

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“Is Baxter still alive?”

I moved toward this stream to get a closer look, and it too, was ready to engulf me.

“Does this place allow me to step back into these moments?” It felt so real and yet ethereal at the same time.

“Come on, Jackie. Follow me. This way.”

“Pops is in there,” I said. “I want to save him.”

“Time is tight. Don’t you want to take down Life Rite? Don’t you want to save your mother?” Firestorm asked.

“Is it even possible to stop Life Rite? Let’s be real. They practically own the world.”

“Yes, but…”

“And sure, I’ve always wondered what happened to my mom, but she left me. Pops was always there for me, so I need to be there for him, too. I need to make sure he’s okay before I do anything else.”

Firestorm sighed with disappointment. “Following my plan will save Baxter, too. First, you need to see the bigger picture. The probabilities will fall into place. I promise.”

“I’m gonna need details of this plan of yours.” I was sick of people telling me what to do. See how far compliance got me so far? I knew I had to switch gears.

“I’ll explain things in time. Come.”

“Who put you in charge?”

I heard Firestorm moving away, so I followed him.

“Get on with it, oh wise one,” I said sarcastically.

“It’s easier if I show you.”

I didn’t like his tone.

Firestorm added, “You’re going to have to ride my slipstream.”

“Whatever that means,” I retorted. I didn’t like his cryptic responses, either. How could I trust someone I couldn’t even see?

“Follow me, over here.” Firestorm hurried through the slipstream, past portals of memories that all demanded my attention.

“You might get further with me if you say please once in a while,” I said. This Firestorm character was rubbing me the wrong way.

Firestorm sighed and explained, “Settle. Listen. Keep breathing. Don’t focus on any ol’ portal. Stay open to all the probabilities.”

“Probabilities?” That was the second time he used that word, so it must have some significance. I remembered Beatrice Claudi saying something about probabilities in the lab, too.

“Never mind. Just keep yourself open…”

“How?” I snapped. I didn’t like his dismissiveness, either. I needed to gather facts about this weird place, so I was willing to listen, but so far, he wasn’t telling me anything useful.

“I should have brought training wheels,” Firestorm mumbled impatiently.

“All I need is a wise teacher,” I shot back.

“Settle… Jackie. Stay calm, and I’ll guide you toward my streams. When I zone in on one, give all your focus to that portal. Then it’s easy to enter. Got it?”

“I… I guess.”

Exhaling slowly, I tried to take it all in. This astonishing place was so expansive. The fire portals felt limitless, expanded in every direction. I breathed in millions of sparks.

“You've been attracted to fire your whole life,” Firestorm said.

“Yeah. How do you know?”

“I’ve been watching you from the shadows.”

I looked closely at the flames in the nearest spark, and the flickering fire took me into my happy place. I zoned out and felt as though I was floating, dancing, capable of exploring all the slipstreams at once.

“Excellent,” Firestorm whispered. “You’re a natural. This way…”

His looming shadow guided me through the sea of streams. The portals whipped past in a fiery blur, creating a corridor of bioluminescence.

Whatever this slipstream place was, it was beautiful, majestic, and therefore powerful. For the first time in my life, I felt like the possibilities were endless.

“Jackie, over here…”

Where was he taking me? Firestorm seemed to know a path through it all. I caught the glimpse of his sizable shadow as he entered a stream.

I followed him toward the twinkling spark and examined it. The portal slowly opened itself to me like a blooming flower, showcasing a scene.

“That’s it. Follow me to Bennu Island,” Firestorm said.

“Where is this place?”

The portal of Bennu Island grew in front of me. I focused all my attention on this stream until it locked onto me like a magnet. It painted a picture of a small but impressive island. The Grid reflected in the clear water surrounding the island. Its beauty took my breath away.

The postcard-worthy scene became closer and sharper until it swallowed me. Birds called in the distance. A volcano nestled in the lush green forest.

Suspended in air, the stream soared over to a concrete complex. Its large balcony sat on the lip of the volcano. An additional castle-like tower was under construction. Who would go to the effort of building such a monstrosity? The endeavor felt significant.

A teenage girl with blonde hair stood on the balcony overlooking a volcano. Her pensive face mirrored my own. Who was she was and what role did she play in Firestorm’s plan to destroy Life Rite?