UC Berkeley physics professor John O’Halleran, PhD read a story one day in the East Bay Times. It was about a local man, Matt Dragon, who believed he had slipped dimensions from another version of Earth.

Dragon was the author who had helped me find Kitty, soon after I had become a Thunderbird. Hot off the heels of the Letterman story’s success, the North Star editor was looking for the next article from this reporter. And to be honest, I had drawn a blank. Reporters will tell you there are a million ways to find a story. Some fall into your lap. You catch wind of others through word-of-mouth of your sources. When all those channels run dry, I took to surfing the movierain—the downpour of all possible worlds precipitating in the multiverse. I let my mind clear, as the Dew whisked by my helmet at the speed of thought. I must have become slightly entangled with the author, Dragon, who had helped me those moons ago, as I felt a slight tug pulling me toward his Earth. There seemed to be something unique to his version of the planet. Dragon wasn’t the only one who had spontaneously stumbled upon inter-dimensional travel.

I dropped down from superposition into Dragon’s Earth. As my feet set in the soil of nearby Berkeley, where Dragon lived, I immediately sensed a story brewing. I quickly located Dragon, in his quaint 2-bedroom on Durant Street, where he caught me up to speed over a cup of coffee.

Dragon told me that O’Halleran read the article three times before calling the local man. The professor wished to invite this unique individual to his weekly support group, on campus, a community of initial strangers. The doctor of physics had been collecting subjects like Dragon himself, he said, who had all experienced similar inter-dimensional phenomena, yet had never met. Nothing tied these unique individuals together, save one common denominator: by various means, they had all either left this Earth version and returned or weren’t from this version to begin with and had one day found themselves here.

After having now met with Dragon and the professor, I concluded there was something very special about this Earth version—it seemed to produce dimensional leapers spontaneously. I had to know how and why this was happening.

Prof. O’Halleran invited me to attend one of his on-campus sessions in Birge Hall, with fellow dimensional leapers. He advised it was probably best not to divulge to them that I was also a dimension-leaping Thunderbird.

“OK, everybody,” O’Halleran addressed his small student body of a half dozen inter-dimensionals, “I’d like you all to welcome Bill, here, who’s a physics colleague of mine. He’s just here to observe.”

O’Halleran stood in front of a huge whiteboard, while his students sat in the first few rows. Dragon and I hung back like a couple of delinquents. We didn’t want to disturb the class.

“Before we get into today’s topic,” he continued, “let’s just go around the room and introduce yourself and how you came to dimensional leaping for our guest here.”

“Well, you all know how I got here,” Dragon broke the ice. “It’s published in the Times.”

“Right,” O’Halleran said. “OK, Janice, would you like to go first?”

Janice was one of O’Halleran’s physics students, perhaps his star pupil. She also appeared to be one of the youngest in the room, and one of the only actual Berkeley students O’Halleran had collected. The others had arrived in the professor’s classroom by other means.

“My name is Janice,” she said. “I decided to enroll in Berkeley’s physics program after, as a young girl, I developed the ability to leap out of this local 3rd-dimensional space. I had to know how this was possible in today’s scientific terms.”

“Great, Janice,” O’Halleran said. “Can you tell Bill how you discovered this profound ability?”

“Sure,” she said. “Ever since like puberty, I’ve been able to astrally leap out of my body. It just happened one afternoon. I was laying on the couch. It was midday. I was nodding off for a nap and I could feel my brain hit those theta wave patterns necessary for sleep. But instead of drifting off to slumber, my energetic body leapt out of my physical shell. Instantly, I knew I could fly. As I floated above the couch, I could see my earthly body below. The next thing I knew, I had permeated through my roof and was flying at high speeds above my town. I suspected, even then, that I could have left this Earth and explored distant realities, but was afraid that I wouldn’t find my way back. Prof. O’Halleran has been working with me on controlling my abilities, and I’ve since visited some interesting realms.”

“Very cool,” I said. “And how did you know that the professor here would be able to help or even understand your predicament?”

“I can answer that,” O’Halleran said. “I published an article in the American Journal of Physics about the human brain’s latent ability to perceive and even leap to other worlds.”

“Yes,” Janice corroborrated her professor. “His account was so close to what I had personally experienced, very much more so than anything in my internet research. I knew I had to meet him.”

“Thank you, Janice,” O’Halleran said. “Next, we have Arnold.”

The professor gestured to a middle-aged man sitting next to Janice.

“Thanks, prof,” Arnold said. “My grades weren’t good enough to attend Berkeley like Janice here. But, like Mr. Dragon, teach found me after some local news coverage. I’m from Marin County. I love to hike and, more importantly, meditate under giant redwoods, up in Muir Woods. When I was 23, I’ll never forget the day I realized the rather large conifers vastly augmented my abilities to channel far-flung frequencies. That day, I walked into one version of Muir Woods and emerged from the forest in an entirely different Earth, albeit similar to my home world. When I finally made it back to my Muir Woods of origin, I contacted the Marin Independent Journal who published a profile on me. My hope was that, if someone who had experienced similar phenomena in the area read it, I could meet them. That’s when Professor O’Halleran reached out to me.”

O’Halleran nodded and added, “Arnold’s profile in the local journal triggered a Google alert I had set up. We’ve been meeting once a week ever since.”

Before the professor could move onto to his next pupil’s introduction, I had already begun to connect the dots.

“Wait,” I said. “Are all of you originally from the Bay Area?”

A resounding “yes” was returned from the room.

“There appears to be a correlation with dimensional leaping and the drastic topographical landscape,” O’Halleran said.

It was as if this Earth version—and particularly the Greater Bay Area—was fine-tuned to naturally produce dimensional leapers. I sensed there was a certain vibe or breeze in the air that cleared the path for these unique individuals to emerge. My curiosity piqued.

O’Halleran introduced the other three, who all had arrived at the doorstep of other dimensions by unique but similar means. Another man, Ziggy was his name, had stumbled upon extra-dimensional leaping hill bombing down Dolores Street in San Francisco.

“As my board picked up speed, I just remember my mind going hella zen,” Ziggy said. “The next thing I know: a white light. And I ollied up into what felt like a higher plane. When I touched back down I quickly realized I had landed in an alternate Earth.”

At this point, four of O’Halleran’s pupils—including the author Dragon—had divulged their techniques. The remaining two students sat in the classroom were a couple, Sven and Jen.

“We’ve always had insane chemistry,” Sven said.

“Sparks flew when we met, and it has only escalated from there,” Jen added.

The couple would go on to explain that their dynamic dialogue seemed to be the culprit for producing a vortex into higher planes.

“We live together,” Sven said. “One night, after dinner, we engaged in our normal nightly conversation. After a glass of wine or two, the subject matter got hella existential. We ping-ponged topics back and forth that probed at the very nature of our being.”

“And an orb of ball lightning formed between us, spontaneously,” Jen said. “We held onto each other and leapt up into the grander plane. When we found our way back to our little Berkeley bungalow, we reached out to O’Halleran, who had placed a Craigslist ad for anyone who had experienced dimensional leaping.”

“I’ve since taken that ad down,” O’Halleran said. “Sven and Jen were the only two legitimate leapers to respond. The rest were a bunch of kooks.”

Then, the focus shifted to the nature of this Earth Herself. Why had Earth_Berkeley created this Goldilocks Zone of inter-dimensional gateways?

The professor saw me after class, once the last student left. Dragon and I hung back for a post-session chat. O’Halleran shared with us his theory that we—the people of Berkeley and the Greater Bay Area—were ensnared in some kind of hyper-dimensional field. His students and Dragon had tapped into it somehow. Upon further investigation of my own, I concurred.

I dropped into O’Halleran’s office the next day to reveal my 5th-dimensional findings (a purview reserved only for the initiated… like Thunderbirds).

“You were right, professor,” I said. “The Earth version appears to be special. It’s set on a 5th-dimensional quadrangle overlapping with other Earths. This planetary concentration has elevated the Bay Area into a semi-superposition, so to speak. The veil is thin, you see. And talented leapers, like your pupils, have found their own ways to tap into this otherworldly activity.”

“Fascinating,” the professor said. “So what now?”

“Keep your weekly meeting with them,” I said. “Continue to coach them as they explore higher dimensions. But I would also advise you keep this taboo practice under wraps. It’s unfortunate that you had to discover the majority of them publicly, via the local periodicals, but I can work a little magic to dispel any unwanted attention that may result from the various coverage.”

“Under wraps?” he said. “My group represents an evolution in humanity. We need to shout to the rooftops that this is possible!”

“I agree with the first part of what you said, and vehemently disagree with the second. The general state of this Earth is not ready for dimensional travel, at least on a large scale. Leaping dimensions is not like accessing the internet, where anyone can log on. No, you need to treat such abilities with extreme caution. Otherwise, you could encounter undesirable ripple effects.”

I could sense the professor comprehending the gravity of what he had uncovered, but I continued to further drive home my point…

“If news that leaping dimensions was possible for the mainstream, we would witness mass drop-offs in commitment to this reality. People would stop showing up for work. Society would ultimately unravel on this Earth.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” O’Halleran said.

“Certainly not,” I said. “This is probably a good time to admit that my purpose for being here is twofold. Yes, I’m here to cover the story of this remarkable Earth for my 5th-dimensional newspaper the North Star. But I was also sent here by the Thunderbird Order to ensure no ripple effect into adjacent realities would result from your otherworldly classroom meetings on this Berkeley campus.”

“I see,” he said.

“We’ll keep an eye on this Earth from afar. Here’s a way to reach me, should your students have any questions on extra-dimensional travel.” I handed the professor a tiny piece of paper with a phone number written on it. “Just call this number and leave a message. I’ll return to your Earth when I receive it.”

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After I departed Earth_Berkeley, it sort felt like I had been talking out of both sides of my mouth with Prof. O’Halleran. Here I was filing a story about this extraordinary Earth for my 5th-dimensional newspaper (for enlightened beings), while simultaneously telling the terrestrials down on the ground to keep their mouths shut. The subtleties of higher travel required such discretion.

Perhaps that’s why I made Dragon the main character in my story that I filed with the North Star; even if the coverage was technically outside of O’Halleran’s reality, the good professor had enough heat to deal with down on the ground.

I submitted this draft to the editor:

Spontaneous Leaping Occurs on Earth_Berkeley

Thunderbirds are used to reducing ripple effects while leaping dimensions. But on a planetary scale?

That’s what happened when this reporter uncovered an Earth that could produce dimensional leapers organically. In my own dimensional travels, I had become entangled with an author from this version of Earth, which I would later coin “Earth_Berkeley.”

His name is Matt Dragon, and he had been writing about me while I leapt through the movierain multiverse.

The local author Dragon, who had been profiled in the East Bay Times upon returning from our multiversal excursions, as he liked to remind people, had this to say about dimensional leaping, since that’s what his book was about:

“I was writing what I thought was a fictional account of interdimensional travel,” Dragon said, as we sat in his kitchen. “The next thing I know, you, Bill Thunderbird materialized in my study from thin air. The Big Cat appeared in the flesh exactly as I had written you, only a few moments before. It was then that I realized I was writing a work of non-fiction.”

Nearby Berkeley physics professor John O’Halleran then reached out to Dragon, he said, once the professor saw the Times‘ article. O’Halleran had already been meeting weekly with several subjects, like Dragon, on the Cal university campus to discuss and workshop the intricacies of leaping in and out of their local reality.

“I’ve attended several of Professor O’Halleran’s support groups now with the other dimensional leapers,” Dragon said. “Each has found their way to this miraculous practice by methods fascinatingly personal to them. Mine was by writing about it.”

O’Halleran’s dimensional leapers support group still meets regularly, but have been instructed by the Thunderbird Order to keep their sacred research private from the general planetary public.

“Ripple effects on a planetary scale are not something the Order generally allocates the capacity to address,” said a spokesperson for the Thunderbird Order.

The anomaly is fascinating to say the least. This reporter will continue to monitor Earth_Berkeley and O’Halleran’s progress with his pupils. To now know that an Earth version exists capable of spontaneously producing the fundamental ingredients for a dimension-leaping Thunderbird leaves much to the imagination. In studying this 4th-dimensional planet, perhaps we can learn more about our own higher dimesions—5, 6 and beyond.

There was certainly an electricity among the air of Earth_Berkeley, which resonated with a mysterious and inviting vibe. It’s as if the answer to our own existence was blowing in the wind.

Furthermore, in a Thunderbird’s line of work, one occupational hazard is getting wiped from existence. If this has happened to a fellow T-Bird of yours, might I recommend checking if they wound up reincarnated on Earth_Berkeley.

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This tale emerged from the universe of Big Cat.

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