Francis Short (Yellow)

Francis in "One Man's Rubbish"

**Francis "Zapmeister" Short** was the version of Francis from the Yellow World.

Francis was the first non-Guardian to enter a portal and travelled through the Parallax fairly constantly, in contrast to his Red World counterpart.

## Biography

Francis Zapmeister appeared to be the most outgoing and adventurous of the Francises.

His parents raised him under the name "Freedom." However, he disliked it by the time that he was a teenager and asked his mother not to call him by it anymore.

Francis discovered the Parallax after coming into the Blue World by accident. One day, he saw someone (possibly Veronica) slip through the portal to the Red World; he just followed them without getting a good look at their face. Francis began stealing various items from the Red and Blue Worlds (including his Red World counterpart's bike, Tiffany's Walkman and Ben's red sneakers) in order to trade them for things in his world, becoming known as the Werrinup Thief in the process. He referred to it as the redistribution of wealth.

Ben and Francis first met when Ben, intent on catching the Werrinup Thief and earning the $100 reward, tackled him. Ben was astonished to discover that the thief was (seemingly) his lifelong best friend. After being mistaken for the thief himself, Ben once again chased Francis and ended up in the Blue World, where Sgt. Garcia arrested him for jaywalking and ignoring police warnings to desist. Francis took pity on him and broke him out, calling it a one-time rescue. It was through Francis that Ben learned of the existence of the Parallax. Ben and Francis became friends after Ben bought aspirin for Francis' mother, which Francis had intended to steal from one of the other worlds. The two boys quickly bonded, with Francis coming to consider Ben his best friend. He once described him as his "coolest mate." Francis eventually gave up his criminal ways but remained very resourceful when it came to gathering information.

The more shy and introverted Francis of the Red World initially disliked Francis Zapmeister as his antics (such as stealing Martin's MP3 player) frequently landed him in trouble. He once claimed that "that dude has a very bad relationship with the truth." After the incident with the MP3 player, the Red World Francis' parents grounded him. Mrs. Dunkly threatened to report the incident to Constable Garcia if the player wasn't returned by five o'clock that day. The two Francises and Ben conspired to convince the adults that Martin had simply misplaced the player and at the same time make him look like an idiot. The three of them agreed that the best way to do it was with Tiffany's unwitting help. At exactly ten to five, the Francis of the Red World emptied a bin all over Martin. Simultaneously, Francis Zapmeister, posing as his counterpart, confessed his undying love to Tiffany, who later confirmed that Francis had been with her when he had supposedly dumped the rubbish over Martin. Mrs. Dunkly then arrived with the MP3 player which Francis Zapmeister had put back in his bedroom. Martin was humiliated and his mother chastised him for making her look foolish in front of the Shorts.

After he had been travelling through the Parallax for some time, Mrs. Short noticed that her son had changed. She thought that he had become more restless, as if he always wanted to be somewhere else. When his mother said that she and his father hoped that he would always run free as the wind to the rainbow's end, Francis told her that he was trying his best.

Francis was thrilled when he found the dump full of fully functioning camcorders, DVD players and Walkmans, among other things, in the Silver World and treated it as his own private supermarket. As he believed that the people of his world would take them if he just left them lying around, he stashed the items in Ben's bedroom without asking his permission first. His Red World counterpart was annoyed that it was once again looked as if he were the guilty party.

When he entered the Werrinup of the Silver World, Francis was intrigued by its high level of technology, especially compared to his own rundown Werrinup. He was immediately attracted to Una and happily accepted when she invited him for a milkshake. Una knew the Francis of her world well enough to be able to tell almost immediately that this Francis was not him. She jokingly asked him if he was her Francis' cousin, an impostor or an alien. The two of them soon began a relationship.

Una convinced Francis to show her and her younger sister Due around the Parallax. She did not think much of the Blue World with its more low-tech and uptight ethos and asked to be taken somewhere more exciting. This led Francis to describe her as "a top babe but full on hard to please" when telling Ben about her. He eventually took her to the Green World, which he had never before visited, on Ben's recommendation. Una had not expected much but, somewhat to her surprise, she thought that the extremely tall trees of the Green World were beautiful. While there, Francis, Una and Due helped Melinda and Mundi kill the Krellick swarm using Super Soakers in order to obtain the antidote for Ben's infection. Francis was pleasantly surprised that Una and Due had enjoyed themselves so much given the danger in the Green World and they became members of the Parallax gang.

Several days later, Una invited Francis to come to the Skinky Maze and see the DJ hologram Tangerine Alpha Man perform. When Due pointed out that the Francis of the Silver World would be there, Francis Zapmeister disguised himself as his counterpart so that he would blend in. It was then that he was approached by Betti's agent Spy Kid, who had observed him travelling across the Parallax. Betti offered him a Gemini 7 camcorder which was capable of communicating across the different worlds. She told him all that he had to do was record all of the worlds that he had visited so that she could get a taste of what it was like; her true goal was to locate Guardians. When Francis travelled to the Red World, Ben didn't believe his story and accused him of stealing the Gemini 7. Hurt and offended, Francis returned the Gemini 7 to Betti, who suggested that he bring Ben back to the Silver World so she could explain the situation to him and restore their friendship.

While waiting for Ben to arrive, Betti revealed her plan to Francis. Her goal was to put an end to conflict and confusion throughout the Parallax by eliminating aberrants, whom she claimed did nothing but cause trouble, using a substance which she added to water. The process was known as blandishing. She told Francis that, after being blandished, 91.3% of the population led better and more contented lives as their negative desires and impulses had been removed. However, the remaining 8.7% - namely, the aberrants - disappeared into water vapour. Francis was terrified when Betti told him that he was an aberrant and quite a dangerous one at that.

Shortly afterwards, Betti blandished the Francis of the Silver World after mistaking him for Francis Zapmeister, who was dressed identically when she last saw him. Francis observed his counterpart's blandishing and was very disturbed by it as he knew that it was meant for him. He then travelled to the Red World and explained everything to Ben. Having never met Ben's mother Veronica before, he assumed that she was Betti and ran away in fear. After catching up with Francis, Veronica explained to him and Ben that Betti was her twin sister.

The still spooked Francis returned to his own world and told his parents that he loved them. His mother thought that his plan to create a defensible position in case of invasion was "aggressively militaristic." To that end, he tried to convert his house into a fort. His efforts mostly consisted of nailing planks of wood over the windows. When Una arrived as she thought that he had stood her up, she noticed how scared and atypically subdued he was and he told her about what had happened to the Francis of her world. Although he was reluctant to use the Parallax again, he nevertheless travelled to the Blue World to warn Katherine and Melinda and to the Red World to get his counterpart to warn Ben.

After Veronica was taken prisoner by Betti, Ben requested Francis' help as he had all of the best contacts in the Parallax. Although he felt guilty about it, Francis refused as he did not want to run the risk of being blandished. However, Una would not let the matter rest. Having "borrowed" the Gemini 7 that Betti had originally given Francis, she bought four others from Dunkly's Techno-Porium in her world and had Martin set each of them to the same frequency. This allowed the Gemini 7s to communicate across the Parallax. They then recruited the Francis of the Red World and their Green World counterpart into the Francis Cam network, a way of sharing information from one world to another. Francis Zapmeister served as the facilitator and insisted on total vigilance, even going so far as to suggest that the Francis Cam be a 24/7 commitment. He became very annoyed whenever one of the other three was late for meetings. The experience of working together over the Francis Cam led to him becoming friendlier with his Red World counterpart.

Francis almost ruined his relationship with Una when she came to his world unannounced and saw him sharing an ice cream with her counterpart Fortuna. He tried to tell her that people shared everything in his world and that it meant nothing. She refused to listen and returned to the Silver World but not before smashing the ice cream cone down on his head. Putting his fear of the Parallax aside, Francis followed her to the Silver World and apologised profusely. He told her that he had never seriously looked at another girl since they met and had never felt the same way about anyone else. Una forgave him and suggested that they relocate to the Red World as she didn't think that it was likely that Betti would return there. Martin witnessed Francis talking to Una and Due and snitched to Enforcement Officer Garcia. Believing him to be his Silver World counterpart, Garcia was about to arrest Francis on the charge of being a truant minor and staging his own disappearance. However, Stefan Raddic and Jeremy Johnson intervened on his behalf and Francis was able to escape while they distracted Garcia.

Betti eventually discovered that Veronica had been using her stave to send coded messages and decided to set a trap. She hid her stave under her hat and told her sister of her plan to send the Krellicks to the Silver World as a prelude to blandishing it. Ben and Mundi heard Betti's plan over the stave and informed Katherine. In order to avoid being noticed, Francis travelled to the Silver World disguised as a girl, calling himself "Frances." Equipped with Super Soakers, he, Ben, Katherine, Una, Due, Melinda, Mundi, Jeremy and Stefan were able to defeat the Krellicks with the help of the Mr. Short of the Silver World. A senior municipial employee who worked in Werrinup's park, he turned on the sprinklers in the park at Ben's request and the water killed all the Krellicks. Although the Parallax gang had won the battle, Betti won the war as she enacted her plan to infect the Silver World Werrinup's entire water supply with the blandishing substance. Aberrants, including Mr. Short, began disappearing.

Una and Due were convinced that they were aberrants and worried that the same was true of their parents. Francis hoped that Una would be impressed and grateful that he had risked his life coming through the Parallax with a supply of uninfected drinking water so that they could avoid the effects of blandishing. However, as one barrel was leaky and he ended up spilling another, he only managed to bring them half a glass of water. He told the sisters that they needed to ration it and more was coming, only to learn that Melinda had already brought them a rucksack full of bottled water.

Melinda realised that the Mrs. Daweses were the keepers of the portals when she saw the Green World version maintaining the Parallax symbol in her world. Calling himself a man with a mission, Francis interviewed the Mrs. Daweses from various worlds to see if any of them knew the location of the Reading Room. Although none of them knew where it was, the Mrs. Dawes of the Blue World, a severe and temperamental librarian, was able to tell him that he was the fount of knowledge for the entire Parallax. She was initially reluctant to do so but Francis compelled her by threatening to start shouting and pull every book off the library shelves.

The gang determined that Betti must be holding Veronica prisoner on an island in the Silver World as she had a boat and neither of the two portals in that world could be accessed via the water. Due figured out that the island in question had to be Circe Island as it was the only one in the vicinity to which Betti could make a round trip without refueling. Francis, Una, Melinda and a reluctant Ben, who was afraid of the water, then travelled to the island on a sailboat in order to look for Veronica. While Ben and Melinda searched the house, Francis and Una kept a lookout. He soon spotted an oil slick on the shore, which meant that Betti had been on the island recently. Although Veronica was not present, Melinda found her wedding ring, which gave Ben some hope as it indicated that she had been there.

While returning home through the Red World, Francis spotted the Martin of the Blue World transporting three plastic bags full of devices from the Silver World dump in a wheelbarrow. While Martin was distracted by Tiffany, he took the bags, which he intended to trade for items in the Yellow World. Martin was furious when he returned to find them gone.

On another visit to the Red World several days later, Francis observed the Martins of the Red and Blue Worlds up to something. Shortly afterwards, he learned from his counterpart that he was competing in a triathlon consisting of running, cycling and paddleboarding against the Martin of the Red World to determine which of them would be President of the Surf Club. Having realised that the Martins intended to cheat, he suggested that they beat them at their own game but the Francis of the Red World refused. This led Francis Zapmeister to describe his counterpart as being too honest for his own good. However, Tiffany also realised what the two Martins had planned and threatened to tell everyone, citing a desire to protect their morals. The Martin of the Red World backed down and decided to do it all by himself, to his counterpart's annoyance and confusion. The other Francis eventually won and was declared President. Delighted by his own counterpart's victory, Francis taunted the losers by telling them that it would take more than two measly Martins to beat one Francis.

After Katherine fooled Betti into blandishing herself, Veronica and Otto were able to use the Reading Room to restore everyone that had been blandished throughout the Parallax, including the Francis of the Silver World and his father. Mrs. Short was overjoyed to see her husband and son again as she thought that she had lost both of them. Francis, Una and Due happily watched the family reunion.

## Appearances

* "One Big Happy Family"
* "A Rare Find"
* "The Artful Dodger"
* "Achey, Breaky Heart"
* "Lost in Paradise"
* "One Man's Rubbish"
* "The Battle of Mundi's World"
* "The Big Sleep-Over"
* "The Martin Crimes"
* "The World According to Betti"
* "The Curse of the Incredibly Bad News"
* "Decoy"
* "Too Many Chiefs"
* "Dad Meets Dad"
* "The Krellick War"
* "The Reluctant Guardian"
* "Seek and You Shall Find"
* "Sand Witch"
* "My Favourite Martin"
* "Cheats Never Prosper"
* "It Ain't Over"

## Behind the Scenes

All versions of Francis were played by David Richardson.

With 21 appearances, he is tied with his Red World counterpart for the most appearances of any version of Francis.