There was a tickling sensation that brought Doppler out of his nap.
The initial waking was slow, the child blinking at the ground floor ceiling, before realizing that his hand was unusually wet, and sitting up with a start, thinking that was no ordinary itch, and certainly no leak or rain could be heard.

"Pop Rocks?" he said, smiling until his eyes met that of a very, VERY big...dogthing.
Doppler blinked at it in confusion.
Now, he wasn't much into the supernatural -- not like he was with the paranormal -- and despite his mind now being focused sooooort of on survival, his thoughts still turned to the possibility of werewolves.
The creature certainly was very big and did look a lot like a wolf, but it was standing down on all fours, and had yet to maul his face off, either.

Any fear the child could have had regarding the strange animal was pretty much dashed by that turn of mind alone, the disappearance only aided by his experience with a dopey dog of his own; if it wasn't eating him now, after he'd given such a start, then it probably wasn't going to.
Probably just some stray mutt that wandered in.
In any case, it was better than the alternative -- military, robbers, and all the like.

Doppler swung his legs around and stood up with a restrained stretch, watching the wolf-dog out the corner of his eye.
Although he wasn't fearful, he still felt it might be a good idea to err on the side of caution, just in case.
(Who knows how long that thought would be kept in mind.)

With a cursory glance to the wolf-dog, the child decided to hold off on the shooing motion with his hand, and instead began to try and sidle his way around the canine, so that he could make his way over to a double set of stairs -- one going up, one going down.
Last he remembered, the basement was where it was.

Doppler glared and grimaced on his way over to the stairs, his arms gradually becoming more spread apart as the wolf-dog continued to wind all around him, pressing close to his heels, his legs, his EVERYTHING.
Not even his own dog was this annoying; the child was practically clawing at his face and hair by the time he made it over to the stairs, before grabbing hold-- the rails weren't there.

Eyes widened as he managed to trip over both the canine and himself, tumbling halfway down the stairs before managing to catch himself.
His heart pounding, but keeping his breath steady, he crawled down the rest of the way, sidling along the wall until he made it to the landing, whereupon he stood and hopped off down to the basement floor.

He could hear a familiar dripping sound, cold stone meeting his palms as he slid them along the walls, trying to find the switch.
Sure, he found it, all right, but did the lights come on?
Nope.

The child wasn't entirely sure what to do now.
The stray dog was still practically clinging to him -- or, if not, would surely be doing so very soon again -- and he didn't exactly want to risk climbing up, falling again, and then cracking his head.
At the same time, stumbling around in the dark with that mutt at his heels wasn't such a good idea, either....

In the end, he settled for the latter, deciding that he was just SO CLOSE and still too tired; if his machine was down here, then surely its lights would be working.
If not?
Well, then it just meant more stumbling around until he made it back to the stairs.

Doppler carefully began to thread his way through the dark, dank room that made up the small basement.
He could remember precisely what corner it last was -- the far one, of course, inset into the wall where its position had displaced some soil behind the stone (in addition the stone itself)...he immediately headed for that one.

"Come on...," he grumbled, blinking and squinting, trying to will his eyes to adjust, while wiping at-- ah, there!
...Was a hole.
His heart skipped a beat.
An empty hole?

Hands moved frantically in search, feeling nothing but displaced air, a cavern, no metal in sight-- er, touch.
This would seem to suggest that the time machine hadn't been moved elsewhere by its own technology (which would have returned the soil to its original place), but rather manually instead -- pulled, pushed, or whatever'ed elsewhere.

Then he tripped on something else and fell face-first into the icy floor, bones burning, skin tingling, ankle aching.
"Sunnuva--!"
His growl echoed in the darkness, as he lifted himself back to his feet, now moving with a slight limp.
His hands shot out and he felt the walls closing in -- no, wait...he'd fallen in the hole where the machine should have been, hadn't he?

And-- what was this?
The hole...went on?
There was no back wall that he could feel.

Doppler blinked and rubbed his eyes, to no avail on the part of seeing anything more than black fuzz.
"Wish I had my goggles," he mumbled, pausing to listen for the mutt's position, before shrugging and continuing on down the tunnel.
Hey, he'd made it this far--so why not?

For all he knew, he'd split his head when last he fell, and was now stuck in some fever dream just before his final croak.
What with everything that had happened up to this point, it sure did feel that way.

A bark sounded off behind him, echoing in the cavern.
For a second, Doppler thought to ignore it; it was just the mutt, and he was already so far in....
Then again, he knew nothing about the mutt -- it could be important!

With a sigh, the child began to shuffle his way back on down the tunnel, shuffling along the wall until he found himself bumping into a mass of flesh and fur.
Hearing a snuffling noise, Doppler crouched down, figuring something must have been found, and wiped his hands along the cool stone until he felt plasticine metal beneath.
Fingers wrapping around it, standing back up, he discovered a button and pressed it.

"GAH!" he yelped, hands flying over eyes slapping shut, the object clattering to the floor.
He rubbed his eyes vigorously, bright spots littering his vision for a while, before looking back around for the item.
The beam flung far along one of the walls, illuminating the gray, brick-laid rock, and a pieced-together metal shelf tucked along it.
Picking up the flashlight, he shone it around the rest of the room, revealing an altogether empty area, with only some stray boxes, tools, and piles of bricks, before letting it rest on a deep, dark, tall hole in the corner opposite the stairs, which stretched from floor to ceiling, the entire opening about as wide as three adults, and the space inside just a mite bigger.
Yep, that's where it SHOULD have been.

Doppler glanced down at the dog, careful not to shine the light in its eyes.
"Uh...good job, dog," he said, offering a strained smile.
If he had a treat, he would have given it to the canine, but, alas, not even a single Pop Rocks lay in his tattered pockets.
Fingers tapping at the emptiness therein, he let one hand rest in said pocket before moving back over to the hole, shining it down there.
Ah, so there was an end-- well, a turn, to be more precise.
That was just weird -- had that tunnel always been there?
Did his uncle dig out a secret passage, knowing that Doppler's time machine would fill up the space to hide it.

No way...but, then again, maybe that's where his uncle could be now.
Would be a bit of a disappointment, really -- besides what was going on around here, one question in particular still burned in his mind: had his uncle outright abandoned him?
He surely hoped not, but at the same time...could he blame the guy?
After all, he'd opted to go looking for his time machine, rather than his uncle, back when he woke up in that school's (he assumed it was a school, for it had looked like some fancy-schmancy one -- it could have really been a Cabela's, for all he knew) courtyard...parking lot...whatever-thing.

But that was different!
His intentions were to reverse the effects, thus preventing their separation in the first place!
Not abandonment!

Glancing back at the wolf-dog, Doppler hastily began to make his way to the back wall at the end of the tunnel, where, as he thought, there was a sharp ninety-degree turn, leading off the other way, a gentle slope heading down, deeper into the earth.
He followed it down to one more turn, this next tunnel shorter, the slope steeper, before it leveled out, a very small room opening up, ending with what appeared to be a solid iron door on the farthest wall.
Clearly, this wasn't JUST an alternate timeline: it was a whole other universe!

Darkness fully enclosing the narrow tunnel, Doppler shone the light over the door, patting at it with his hands.
This had to be some future stuff -- where was the handle, even?
"Yo, mutt," he said, turning back around, shining the light in search of the stray, assuming it had even continued following him at all.
"Wouldn't happen to have any other cards up your sleeve, would you?"
Silly, Doppler: of course not; after all...dogs don't HAVE sleeves!

Doppler stared at the wolf-dog for up to a minute.
Apparently, there were no other genius moves this stray could make.
Seemed he was stuck with yet another dumb and useless (and sleeveless) mutt.
He frowned.
The flashlight must have been a fluke; it had probably just thought it was some sort of sausage packaging, which he needed a human to help him open up.
Well, sorry, bud, but batteries don't taste no better than the metal shell.

With a sigh, Doppler tossed the flashlight into his left hand, which he then used to pull the ragged remains of a glove off his right.
He couldn't think of much else to do, save for looking for a secret switch that might not even be there, or some special code panel-- eh, whatever it was, he just wanted to hurry up and get this over with.
Find his time machine, get back, and be done with everything.
Besides which...the only person around wouldn't be able to tell on him.

Doppler turned his hand over, looking at the indented ring-shaped marking in the palm.
He waited, and in a moment a soft glow was cast over his features, that blinked in time with the ring.
Nice to know at least something still worked.

Hopefully there weren't any hidden cameras, either....

He then flattened the palm to the smooth metal of the door, wincing at the chill that was sent up through his skin, and waited.
The blue glow soon faded into green, and before long the metal was being disintegrated.
Starting from his fingertips and extending outwards first in a straight line, then in a counterclockwise motion, the door began to disappear.
More darkness from beyond met his eyes, the beam of his flashlight cutting a narrow glow into the tunnel.

As it disappeared, at the same time it was reappearing elsewhere in the chamber, the pieces falling into place opposite to the direction with which it was disappearing.
It all ended with the very last piece, a hole in the center where his palm was, which popped into place where the rest of the door lay leaning halfway against the cavern walls.

Carefully, Doppler slipped his glove back on, the light from his palm disappearing, and hefted his flashlight back on over to his good hand.
Stepping through the doorway, he shone the light around.
For a few more steps, it was good, narrow, and dark, all soil, but very soon that soil was turning to rock, and the cave rock into smooth off-white blocks and bricks of stone, the tunnel itself widening and opening up into a neat, clearly carved-out corridor.

Man, when he got back, he'd just have to check and see if this stuff had always existed, even in the past.

The white began to fade, smoothly transitioning to sleek obsidian.
The lights dimmed and switched hue, their sources finally visible as small globules alcoved along the top of the walls; the long black tunnel became filled with the glow of blues and reds, and before long it was finally opening up into an enormous chamber at the end.

The bulbs rose high, leaving the walls cast in darkness, though the center of the room remained bright and clear from the light of...something.
Doppler scratched his head, both at the size of the chamber, and the sight of the thing at the core -- a big, tall, wide tube of glowing cyan liquid, framed by thick metal at the bottom and top.
Lining the area around it were various pieces of equipment that he could not identify.

How in the heck was this thing even here?
How deep into the Earth had he gone?

Doppler began to circle around through the chamber, sticking to the dull shadows between the mechanisms and walls.
Though his eyes were mostly focused on the central tube-thing, he gave the occasional glance to the wall, where he noticed rectangular lines notched into the black stone.
Could be more doors, maybe closets, beds, or something along those lines.
Reaching the opposite side, there was an even bigger -- practically the size of the door to a hangar -- that he was sure must be the portal to the world of ghosts.
Probably.
Would make about as much sense as anything else here.

The sudden sound of growling had Doppler spinning round on his heels, whereupon his eyes squinted near to the point of nonexistence.
--' in the hell...there was a big metal square at the base of the giant glowing column on this side; to either side of it sat two stone statues carved into the shape of pointy-eared (probably) jackals, and between them there stood a very tall humanoid silhouette -- there was a brief flash of light behind the figure, a line being pinched back together like the two sides of a sliding glass door.

Doppler rubbed his eyes, then gave himself a pinch on the wrist -- and then another on the eyelid, just in case.
His memory briefly flashed back to a time, way back when, some other kid his age (at the time) had mentioned watching his dad being abducted by aliens, and that was the reason why the dude was never around anymore; Doppler had scoffed at the other and called him crazy; but looking at the domed shape of the chamber now, with its giant tube, and the weird metal boxes surrounding it...sure did seem like this place could be the inside of a flying saucer.

The two "statues" beside the could-be-a-human-alien-hybrid rose to their feet, narrow eyes flashing red, and there was a dull thunk as Doppler's back hit the wall behind him; apparently, he'd been backing up the whole time.
He began to knock on the stone with a fist, loudly, trying to discern from the ensuing sound whether or not it was hollow.
Not that he'd have time to teleport the substance away and dash through.
That guy was already charging right at him.

"UHUHUH" was all Doppler could stammer, before finally getting the idea that he should probably be getting out of the way now.
His feet skidded on the slick floor, footsteps echoing around him as he scrambled to make a break for it.

Doppler half-slid across the floor as he first fell forward in his awkward dodge from the stranger's pair of long sweeping arms, then began crawling and scrambling haphazardly on all fours, before finally managing to hop back to his feet and kick it back into gear.

A backwards glance showed him that one of the stone dogs had reared back in response to the wolf-dog attempting to latch onto its throat, its body preparing a vigorous flail should the grip not be released, while the other seemed to have vanished.
Well, bye mutt, nice knowin' ya, ran the child's thoughts, though his eyes told him he probably wasn't too far behind himself.
Sure, he was tall for his age, but it was nothing compared to the man closing in on his heels, each stride bringing him practically a foot closer.

Doppler barley had time to glimpse the open corridor from which he had arrived before he found himself being enclosed in a great, big, spindly-armed bear hug.
A piercing sound rattled his ears, a moment later realizing that was his voice rising in a long-winded, loud yell (IT WASN'T A SCREAM).
He began flailing wildly, and one "oompf" and faceplant later he was free --for about zero-point-two seconds.
The second red-eyed dog converged on him, planting a heat-radiating maw inches from his nose when he tried to lift his head.
He couldn't help but notice that the jaws, which remained forever half-open in a grimace, held the same malicious red glow deep inside the throat, the entire inside of which was lined with razor-sharp metal prongs, like a meat grinder, and he froze at the sight of them.
With the proximity, he could see now that it wasn't stone, but metal painted in the same glossy black that mimicked the obsidian (well, he now wondered if that was stone at all) around them, with some sort of bolts or screws carefully hidden amongst the paint.

The dog lifted its head with a metallic snarl; its body convulsed, and Doppler squeezed his eyes shut, muscles tensing as he, failingly he would think, attempted to throw himself out of the way, to keep himself from being yanked to a bloody pulp.
Instead, he managed to roll into what felt like a pile of garbage bags, while something warm and wet dropped onto his head.

Doppler, lying on his side, opened his eyes to see that the dog had sat down, while something hung from his forehead.
Three blinks, pulling the object from his face, he found that it was nothing more than one toasty grilled cheese sandwich -- seeing the item seemed to blast the familiar smell into his nasal passages.
Swiftly, he skidded up onto his knees, away from whatever he'd bumped into, and whirled around to see...two kids.
Lanky arms, lanky legs.
One donned a black trench coat far too big for even the average adult, while the other was slowly pulling himself out from underneath it, wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and scruffy blue jeans.

A bark sounded off to the side of him, and Doppler turned to see that the second robot dog was loping their way, before planting itself neatly down beside the first.
Carefully pushing himself back to his feet, when Doppler looked back at the duo he found himself face-to-face with the blue jeans kid, the brow of his short, rough-and-tumble hairdo scratching up his own forehead.
The face was awfully familiar, but he couldn't quite place it, least not before a rough, angry voice was being shoved down his ears.

"What 'ave we seid 'bout trespassing, dickweed?"

Doppler squinted, putting a finger to one of his ears as he stepped away from the kid, who now stood with arms crossed while the second slowly stood himself back up, the trench coat falling from his shoulders.
That one wore slightly more formal attire, if a simple black button-down shirt with a polka-dotted red-and-white bowtie could ever count as such; if nothing else, he held himself like he was attending some fancy party.
Other than the clothes and the slicked-down shining hair, his appearance was very much akin to the t-shirt one.

"Language," this other child chided, t-shirt kid simply rolling his eyes out of view.

Doppler was more sure than ever that he was stuck in some near-death-experience dream.
Did the man disintegrate into these two children?
Had the other dog been killed by the robot one?
Was he being possessed by a ghost?
How long before his consciousness finally blinked away?

His arms hung limply to his sides while he tried to process just what in the high-flying halibut was going on --the sandwich dangling precariously from his fingers.