Just then, the remote started to shake. It rattled on the shelf for a few seconds emitting a soft hum, which gradually grew louder. A glow started to emanate from every seam and button in the remote. Then the rattling stopped. The remote had levitated off of the shelf by several inches and hung in the air, still shaking and glowing, the hum growing louder and lower in pitch.
Tim and Mark were still unconscious and did not see it when a glowing white globe grew out of the remote and slowly expanded to fill the whole room, swallowing both of them up and then spreading out through the walls of the house like a ghostly bubble into the surrounding neighborhood, expanding like an atom bomb explosion in super slow motion.
***
"Uh oh," Todd said looking up at the screen.
"'Uh oh' what?" Carrie asked.
"Well," Todd said, sounding guardedly optimistic and worried all at once. "There's good news and bad news."
"Good news first."
"The good news is that we found the remote. I can have you rig up a device that will lead us right to it."
"Okay," Carrie said, unimpressed. "And the bad news...?"
"The bad news is that... um, well, you know that whole scenario about the remote leaking and the white hole tearing apart the universe?"
"Yes."
"Well, you see, apparently the battery did run out and..." Todd's little paws wrung over each other nervously.
"It's leaking?"
The hamster nodded.
"Well," Carrie said, trying to find the right reaction. "That's bad."
"Yes."
"Are we doomed?"
"Not exactly."
"'Not exactly?'"
"No, we may have lucked out. It looks like the remote is only slowly leaking raw transformative energy in a bubble around it, kind of like a slowly expanding event horizon."
Carried leaned back in her chair. "Okay, so then...?"
"So then, all we have to do is go into the bubble and find the remote and then put a new containment field around the white hole in it again."
"And if we don't...?"
Todd sighed. "The bubble will keep growing and probably swallow up the whole state... maybe the whole planet if my calculations are incorrect."
"The whole planet?"
"At most," he said optimistically. "It probably won't expand outside of our solar system."
"Holy shit!"
"...or at least not outside of our galaxy."
Carrie looked pale. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Don't worry," Todd said with forced cheerfulness. "If we get in there and contain the white hole before the energy bubble spreads too far, everything should work out okay."
Carrie sighed. "Okay, so we do this or else the planet gets warped into oblivion? Do I understand you correctly?"
"Yes."
"Well then," Carrie said. She stood up, stretched out her long arms above her, balanced up on her tip toes, and groaned. She relaxed, and a look of determination entered her eyes as she leaned in closer to the hamster. She smiled. "Let's get started."