The four boys were shocked at what they saw. The shadowy figure that had had kidnapped them was actually the founders of the ConjoinVerse version of their high school. Their two heads and shared body matched the school's statue perfectly. As the pair lay unconscious on the floor, the Ryans and Bradleys changed out of their ConjoinVerse costume. After balling up the large shirt and pants, ConjoinVerse Ryan and Bradley sat the founders down on the couch and tied them up with the same rope.
After shutting and bolting the sliding doors to the dining room, the four stepped out into the hallway, locking the door behind them. Suddenly, they bumped into another figure--there were three heads, all male. When the boys saw another figure with only one head appear behind them, they realized who these four guys were.
"Thatcher!" Bradley said as he embraced his older brother.
"It's good to see you, too," Thatcher said.
"Are you guys okay?" asked ConjoinVerse Ryan.
"We're fine," said Dylan.
"Where are Derek and Eli?" asked Terry.
"And NormVerse Derek?" added ConjoinVerse Thatcher.
"We don't know," Ryan replied. "We just escaped from those guys."
"The kidnappers? Who were they?" Thatcher asked.
The boys caught their brothers up with what they had just learned, then went upstairs to find Derek and Eli. They bumped into them in the upstairs hallway the same way they had bumped into the others. After another reunion and recap, the boys gathered downstairs in the library. It was dusty, the curtains drawn, and filled with old furniture covered in cloth.
"What do we do now?" Ryan asked.
"What do you mean?" ConjoinVerse Thatcher asked.
"Those two kidnapped us, but it must have been for a reason," Ryan answered.
"Yeah, so?" replied Terry.
"Is it possible that they knew about us?" Ryan asked his fellow Normies.
"Well, there were a few stares when we first arrived here in ConjoinVerse," Bradley answered.
"Same with us in ConjoinVerse," added ConjoinVerse Ryan as he gestured to himself and ConjoinVerse Bradley.
NormVerse Thatcher leaned back against one of the bookcases, and suddenly one of the books went further into the shelf. Not surprisingly, the bookcase opened a crack, revealing itself to be a hidden door. Opening the door, Ryan and Bradley led the others down a flight of spiral stairs into what seemed to be a basement room. It was filled with boxes of old photographs, drawings, video tapes, a TV with a VCR, toys--it was like the whole room was a shrine to someone's childhood.
Thatcher noticed a framed photo hanging on the wall. It was a young boy, probably younger than ten, in purple pants and a short-sleeved red shirt with yellow stripes--actually, it was more like two young boys, since the body had two heads. One was wearing a baseball cap that matched the shirt, the other had his frizzy red hair showing. They were holding a baseball bat and catcher's mitt. After a few seconds, ConjoinVerse Eli realized that the two-headed boy in the photo was the school founders--Walter and Dash Dicephalus.
Looking through the photos, the Ryans and Bradleys discovered other childhood photos of the two. They apparently lived many happy years with their mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles--all with two heads, hence the family name.
"Wow, they used to be so nice," ConjoinVerse Ryan said to his brother.
"But, that's not how we knew them," ConjoinVerse Bradley replied. "What happened to them?"
"Maybe this could explain it," Bradley said as he held up a VHS tape. The label said "One-headed universe."
"Could that be our world?" Derek asked.
"One way to find out," Eli replied.
ConjoinVerse Derek put the tape into the VCR as his brother turned on the TV. Sitting down on the floor, the ten teens watched the tape on the screen. It was something like a home movie, and judging by the opening it was being filmed by the young Dicephalus boys. They looked as though they were a bit older than the picture, but still wearing the red shirt with yellow stripes. Their moms and dads were with them
"Alright, everybody," said one of the two dads. "We're here."
The twins turned the camera around, revealing a place that everyone in the room recognized: the ConjoinVerse laboratory of Doctor Parker and Dr. Parker.
"Time to see what the docs are working on today," Dash said.
The two in the video went inside the lab, and made their way to the docs inside the lab. The docs looked younger, probably in their late twenties, and they were putting together the same portal machine that now linked ConjoinVerse and NormVerse.
"Hello, everyone," announced the left head.
"How's the portal coming, docs?" the dads asked.
"Well, it is still gonna be a while," said the second head. "We told you that we'd let you know when the portal is working properly."
"And maybe someday," the left head said to the boys," maybe you two will get to go through it."
The boys then left the lab, and suddenly the tape cut to another date. Walter and Dash were now Ryan and Bradley's age, and were heading back to the lab. They found the docs again, this time in their thirties. The portal was opened, and Walter and Dash were eager to go through it. The docs wanted the teens to wait, but as soon as the docs left for the other room, the teens rushed into the portal anyway. The tape continued playing while the camera when through the portal with the teens, and they arrived in NormVerse. The NormVerse Doctor Parker was not there either, so the twins went outside. There were a few snippets and excerpts of their time in NormVerse, and it seemed as though they were not exactly welcome or liked there. It seemed to Ryan, Bradley, and the others that this was breeding a certain hatred of NormVerse people. The snippet that showed Walter and Dash rushing back in the portal and shoving the ConjoinVerse docs aside seemed to support this theory. Next came a segment showing the pair getting dressed--they were putting on the same clothing they wore at the opening of the high school, the same clothes they were wearing in that statue of themselves.
"Feeling good today, Dash?" Walter asked while tying his tie.
"Very dood, Walter," Dash smiled as he combed his hair.
"To think we're doing this on the anniversary of our first visit to that horrible world," Walter said disgusted.
"Our world," Ryan whispered.
"At least we're the only ones who actually know about it," Dash replied. "Can you imagine if the docs or anyone else found out about what we did with those one-headed freaks who came to our world?"
"They certainly didn't talk about that long," Walter said.
"At least, not as long as they talked about missing people that had at least two heads," Dash added.
"Now we're opening a school to celebrate those of us who actually have more than one head," Walter smiled as he picked up his fez.
"Yeah, and we had to let a few one-headers from our own world in so that we wouldn't rouse suspicion," Dash added as he donned his cap.
"Well, what can you do?" Walter replied while straightening his fez.
"All that we can and will do, brother," Dash answered. "And nobody here or there will ever know."
The tape went black after that. The teens were baffled and amazed at what they had seen.
"What does all that mean?" Derek asked.
"The doc back home said that he had been researching the portal for a long time," said Ryan. " Maybe that meant sending others through over the years."
"And based on what the tape showed us," Bradley added, "Walter and Dash have done something to all those people."
"Now that you mention it, I remember hearing several stories about people who have gone into the doc's lab," Thatcher said.
"Yeah, that some came out with two or more heads," Derek added. "And when they went back again, they were never seen again afterwards."
"We've heard the same stories here about humans with one head," said Terry.
"And I remember our dads saying that even though they were friends with the docs, they never took part in the doc's experiments or even wanted to know what they were," Dylan added.
"Our dads had the same relationship with the doc back home," Thatcher replied.
"So I think I know how these things are connected," Ryan explained. "Walter and Dash's parents were friends with the docs here, and when the two were older they went through the portal to our world. But while they were there, that uncomfortable experience became trauma that when they came back grew into hatred of our world. So whenever anyone here switched places with their counterpart in our world through the portal, Walter and Dash did something to them--probably kidnapping--to keep them from going back and rejoining our world. And when the ConjoinVerse version of that person came back, they would do the same to them because they also knew about our world. After all these years, I think our town's big mystery may have been solved."
"That sounds about right," Bradley agreed, "but we still don't know what exactly those two did with all these people."
"Maybe there's something here in this room that can help us," Derek said.
With that, the ten teens split up to search the room. Perhaps there was some journal or hidden switch that would reveal something about the fate of the people that Walter and Dash had kidnapped.