A Funny Thing Happened

I jumped off from the Fountain and hurried away from it after a somewhat scary thought occurred to me.

"Y'all might not want to sit right there," I warned. "I haven't written it yet, but there's someone really nasty trapped inside the Fountain. She's scheduled to get out sometime after Crisis and if Maria's running around, we're probably around that time. I'd rather not accidentally set her loose. Let's go to the Cup & Platter or something. Somewhere safer than out in the open like this."

I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid. I'd never gotten into so much as a pushing match back home on Earth and I'd already played a minor part in a scuffle here in Ditto Town. Who knew what was lurking around the corner, just waiting to slaughter a trio of humans? I was really hoping to run into one of my characters, one I hadn't inflicted a brutal childhood on. If they found out who I was, I didn't want to be around a character that would have reason to resent my writing.

Hamelin

Olivia stared at the boy. "How did you know my name? Who -- who are you?" Her eyes widened as a faint memory stirred. "Caden? Wha -- how -- " All the questions she wanted to ask him jammed together somewhere in her mind, and all she could do was stare blankly.

A Funny Thing Happened

"I hope we're not here to beat them. I have horrible hand-eye coordination," I commented idly, still trying to process all of this. I was almost done, but then Booky made his announcement and I hopped off the Fountain quickly, making an awkward sort of twist in mid-air as I attempted to avoid ramming into Eyrie. I succeeded, but ran into something else. Thankfully it was just a grumpy looking house-elf who glared at me and then hurried away, muttering under his breath about clumsy humans.

I stared after him, suddenly realizing who that was. I noticed Sweeet pinching herself and tried it myself. Nope, still here. Only now with a self-inflicted bruise on my arm. I walked over to stand next to Booky.

"That would be just our luck," I said to him about the evil creature in the Fountain that I hoped to high Heaven would not come out and attack us. I turned then to Eyrie.

"And no, those men weren't our friends. And yes we're new. I'm Ryan." I waved vaguely and braced myself for the inevitable question . . . but then maybe boy names were common for girls in Ditto Town.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Time Rift
As Zacce waited for the others to leave the lab, he had a brief moment with Solarflare.

"So Solarflare, what are your plans?"

"Business as usual, I suppose," Solarflare replied noncommittally. He was silent for a moment, and then spoke again.

"I'm gonna try to find Mek, though. I was the last friend he ever had. I've gotta help him if I can."

Zacce nodded approvingly. "I'll be praying for you both," he said.

"Thanks," Solarflare said surprisingly.

"Well, I better get Burnrubber to the City. Catch ya later, Nalum." And with that, he transformed, placing Burnrubber's body inside his cargo hold and rocketed off into the sky.

((Did you miss my (Slightly) Less post on the last post of page 4, Zack? ))

Time Rift

Once Maria left the lab and stepped out into the sunlight, she simply stood a moment, head tilted up to the sun, soaking in the feeling of simply being alive.

Thank you, Natanel.

Hello again Maria. Did you miss me?

Maria started. The entire time she was in the alternate universe she had not heard anything from Tomas. Now that she was back . . .

This is really you, isn't it? I'm not crazy.

There was no answer for a long moment.

Perceptive girl.

Maria shivered. That did not exactly answer her question, but suddenly she worried. Was her connection with Tomas that strong? Or was he just extremely skilled at telepathy? She was not sure which answer frightened her more.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

((Nope, I didn't miss it, I just didn't have time to write a response. ))

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life
Nessie was so confused by what she didn't see, but thought she had, that her little crush on Jakov was completely forgotten (which was probably for the better anyway). She cast a curious, and somewhat uncertain, frown at the man.

"I'm, uh... nine... Why?" She looked at her uncle, wanting reassurance that everything was alright.

Chase would have been concerned, but he was too wrapped up in three of Jakov's words: "I knew Cei". He could not believe his luck! Here he was with someone who actually knew someone connected in some way to the Fountain Fellowship! He was practically bouncing in his seat.

"Quite right, quite right," he answered distractedly to Jakov's question. "Do you know where Cei is? Could you introduce me? What's he like? Do you think you could get me an interview with Jedi Sanchez? I've heard she's from Ditto Metru, and I'm doing some historical research on the place, and I was hoping that maybe she could tell me some interesting facts, though anything she'd have to say would be very interesting, no doubt, I mean she was the apprentice of Master Joey of all people! Do you think maybe..."

...You get the idea. And so we shall set our attentions back to outer space, to where Space Case and the Autobot maintenance crew was just finishing up the upkeep of the space bridge.

"Alright, everything looks good!" Space Case said approvingly as the crew finished buttoning up the access panels on the bridge generators. "I'll radio the city and have them fire it up, make sure it's working at optimum efficiency!"

"We wouldn't have to make sure if we were using modern equipment," Skydive grumbled as they floated to a safe distance from the bridge.

"Hey Skydive, could you do me a favor?" Space Case asked pleasantly.

"Yeah, what?"

"Shut up." He then signaled Ditto Autobot City.

"All set! Fire her up!"

"Acknowledged," came the reply. "Activating primary space bridge control."

Space Case watched in satisfaction as each module of the space bridge came to life. The four units synced together with energon bonds and the transwarp generators began to glow with a greenish-blue light. Suddenly, a beam of the same light lanced out to the opposite generator, meeting in the middle. The beams melded together and soon a portal hovered before them large enough for a capital star cruiser to fly through.

"All systems are go and at maximum efficiency!" Space Case said, quite pleased. He congratulated the maintenance crew (yes, even Skydive), and tucked away his datapad.

"Let's head home," he said. But no sooner had the words been broadcast from his audio amplifier then three fifteen-foot long black objects burst from the space bridge, rocketed past the Autobots and careened towards Dittotopia.

"Oh for booting up cold," Space Case muttered.

))

Restart

Scott opened his mouth as if to give a smart remark, but apparently thought better of it. Frowning, he turned and left the hallway, heading toward the room his sister was in.

Jonathan turned to Nickolas and cocked his head, curls shaking. "So, where were you anyway, bro? And how do you know Scott's sister?"

Nickolas watched Scott take his leave with a grim satisfaction that he had done what Candice had asked. It was a small comfort to him that maybe now things can go back to normal. But when Jonathan spoke it just brought back the stinging reminder that things will never be the same ever again.

His teeth grounded together as he turned back to Jonathan, trying to hold back a snarl. "I can say the same thing about you," he said, glaring at the boy accusingly.

"Nick—"

"The both of you," Nickolas added with a snap, flicking his gaze at Roxanne with the same intensity.

Roxanne flinched with a jolt at venomous with which her brother had addressed her. He never spoke so harshly to her—ever. "I can explain," she offered quickly, although afraid that her words would be salt on an open wound.

~~~~~~

"That's why I wanted you to look at the picture, since I figured you'd be able to tell better than me. Her face isn't showing in the picture and I've had more experience with that than anything else, considering all those times she's bad mouthed and/or threatened me." Alyson rolled her eyes.

The line on Nate's end was silent for several long minutes before finally he sighed deeply, dismally. "All right," he conceded for the sake of the argument. "But I know it just can't be her."

An hour later, Nate met Alyson at a coffee shop that held a familiar atmosphere for him. This was the place where Alyson and he had their first "date." Despite the circumstances of how they were forcibly met, he saw this place as turning points in his life: where he met the woman he was crazy about and now where he was going crazy over the girl that made it all happen.

Crazy did not seem like an adequate word to describe how he felt as he stared down at the blurry photograph of the girl who was supposedly his foster sister, but he was at a loss for words. The picture that was worth a thousand words stolen them all right out from under him. Setting the newspaper down, Nate rubbed his eyes to the point where they could have almost been plucked out.

~~~~~~

Chase glanced over at Mary Jane quizzically. "Alley? Who said anything about an alley? Come on, the truck's this way," he nodded toward the front door of the building and led her outside to where a very pathetic and junkyard looking truck stood.

Chase ran his hand over the rusted hood with a beaming grin. "Saved all my money from middle school to know to buy this thing," he said. "Finally did last week. She needs a paint job, but she runs smoothly enough. It helps when your big brother knows his way around cars." He opened the passenger's side door. "Get in," he said with another grin.

Mary Jane's steps faltered as they approached a beaten up truck, surprised to see that it was parked in their condo's parking lot. Security was picky about what was allowed to take up their space. Her shock furthered, however, when Chase approached it and she realized he was claiming it.

Knowing she would be stepping on a proud boy's toes if she said anything about his precious vehicle, she smiled in appreciation of his hard work and climbed in silently. Closing the door herself, she winced as the rickety thing slammed and clunked as it secured itself shut, reminding herself as she opened her eyes again carefully to not say anything, to not say anything, to not say anything.

A Funny Thing Happened

Eyrie inclined his head to Ryan. "Charmed."

"Sounds good to me." I affirmed at Booky's suggestion to go to the Cup & Platter. "I wonder if it looks like how I imagined it." I hopped off the fountain, ignoring Eyrie's proffered hand.

"You've heard of the Cup & Platter from out of town?" Eyrie asked politely.

Oh. Oops. "Kind of."

A funny thing
At that moment Matthew ran up "Darn Maria beat me to it!" Kale helped me up and we walked out into the street when I saw "Ryan? Sweet? Booky?" I asked; dumbstruck. "No way..." Kale asked "You know these people?" and I replied "Well sort of"
(Slightly
"Me? part of a cult?" he asked "The Jedi are not a cult and your the one thats part of a cult!
---
Shono picked up something on his radar and contacted space case "Hey case I'm picking up some strange readings whats going on up there?"

A Funny Thing Happened

I looked around and waited for the falling feeling of a dream ending before you wake up. Except there was no falling feeling. No dream ending. Which meant... there was no waking up. I looked back at the platypus. No way.

"Bob-- er, Mr. Saget?" I said softly, so if anyone was around they wouldn't think I was weird talking to a, well, PLATYPUS. With GLASSES. He stopped and looked at me. Hey, he knows English! "Are we in---" but I stopped and didn't bother. Because I totally knew where we were. I heard voices, which sounded pretty human to me. And with a sinking feeling I realized I wasn't a fountain-er. I was a Sunrise-of-Life-er.

I walked carefully towards the voices and saw a girl. A boy. Another boy. And a Jedi girl. And another girl.

"Excuse me?" I tried. "Is--uh-- I'm lost, see, and---" But I didn't finish. Because that looked like Rising_Star, narnianerd, and Bookywyrm.

"Ryan?" I squeaked, and already a "Sorry, I though you were someone else" was out of my mouth, prepared. "Booky?" I tried again.

((OOC: Sorry it took so long for me to post - I was unexpectedly absent yesterday))

Funny Thing

Hurry up! Dumb laptop... I wanted to say, but of course everyone else was still sleeping, so I simply glared daggers and shook the mouse. I flipped over to Narniaweb (Ben and Skander fighting??? What?!?), and consequently to the forum. Except it wasn't loading.

Then I blinked. A wierd blueish swirly thing was all over the screen. Some strange impulse (probably inherited from waaaaay too many movies) made me touch it.

After a dizzying display of magical whatnot, I was surprised to discover that my cappuccino was still safely (and unspiltly) in my hand. I took a sip and looked around. There wasn't much to see, but from what I did see, I began to develop a sinking feeling.

Where am I? I wondered. For a moment I just sat there, but I eventually got up the courage to poke around. Soon enough, I found myself magically tumbling into a different place, the cappuccino still safely in my hand.

This must be a dream, I thought. I looked up, thinking that I might as well know as much as possible so that I could have a good laugh about my unusual dream in the morning. I didn't recognize anything at first. Fountain...mansion...platypus...cafe - wait, platypus?!? I looked at the cafe again.

Sure enough, it was the Cup and Platter. I looked across the fountain and saw several other humans dressed like...well, humans. I vaguely realized that I knew them from somewhere. This is new.

A Funny Thing Happened
I asked her "Were's Scrappy?" and she replied "How do you know about Scrappy" I fumbled for words.

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life
"I wish I knew," Space Case replied to Shono. The others he shouted, "Come on! We've got to stop those things!" The Autobots transformed into their respective vehicle modes and rocketed after the objects.

"Those are stasis pods!" Skydive said suddenly as they gained on the objects.

"What? Impossible, they're far too small!"

"Not really. Remember what I told you was gonna happen on Cybertron?"

"What, that? Don't yank my crankshaft. That's impossible."

"Don't be too sure, old timer," Skydive said ominously. "The future may be sooner than you think."

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Katie blinked at Scrappy. "'ow d'you know she's part o' a cult?" she asked, glancing over at the old woman. "Looks plain an' normal t'me." Grinning slightly, she stepped toward Miss Lucinda and turned to look at Scrappy, hands on hips.

"I dunno wot you are. Ain't seen nothing like you afore."

----

Jakov shook his head slightly. She was eight, he reminded himself. And besides, she would have been much, much older now. Unless . . . His thoughts were interrupted by Chase's continued stream of questions. He put a hand up abruptly to cut off the man, frowning more intently now.

"I don't know Maria," he said. "And I have not see Cei since . . . not in a long while."

----

A Funny Thing Happened

((narnianerd, Maria has already returned to the Cup and Platter. And Maria is not one to argue with anyone, especially not a fellow Jedi. A slight disagreement would never get "nasty." Besides, Maria doesn't even know Matthew. ))

"Yes!" I stepped in to save Sweeet. "Um, the Cup and Platter is very . . . popular. We hear a lot of people talk about it." I hoped that would suffice as I had nothing else. I noticed more and more people were gathering around the Fountain. Apparently one of them recognized us, even though I had no idea who she was. Going out on a limb, I asked,

"Don't tell me . . . you're from NarniaWeb too. Great. Just great." I shook my head and realized we still had not moved toward the Cup and Platter. We were still out in the open. Rather stupid.

"Okay ya'll, let's go," I said, gesturing for them to follow me as I grabbed Sweeet's wrist and pulled her along with me just so I could be walking with someone. We entered the Cup and Platter a little ahead of everyone else and I quickly commandeered a large table.

----

Restart

Jonathan shook his head, curls flying every which way. "Dude, I never said I knew her. I've kinda seen her around and stuff. But I don't know her enough to visit her in the hospital." He frowned slightly. "I have no idea how Roxanne knows either of them." He glanced quizzically at his girlfriend.

----

Alyson tapped her chin lightly with her pencil, staring over at the almost comatose Nate. Finally she figured that was enough time to give him and reached over, snapping her fingers in his face.

"Hey you," she said. "I have Ty's number. He seems to know her pretty well." She jabbed the picture with the pencil. "Why don't I give him a call?"

----

Chase whistled a song he did not know as he got into the truck and backed out of the parking space. He drove out and down several blocks before he reached a row of nice houses. He parked then and got out, moving to the back of the truck. He lifted off the tarp that covered it, revealing a dozen or so bowling balls. He picked two up and walked around to the passenger's side of the van. Opening the door awkwardly, he handed her a bowling ball and grinned mischievously.

"Time to go bowling," he said, turning and making his way up the driveway of the nearest house.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

"Oh," Chase seemed a bit crestfallen at this revelation, but he soon returned to his cheery mood.

"Ah, sorry, I've been rambling, haven't I? Sorry, I tend to get like that when talking about the Fountain Fellowship."

"No kidding," Nessie mumbled. Their meal arrived just then.

"Well, you'll have to excuse me," Chase said with a grin. "It was nice meeting you, uh..." he paused expectantly, waiting for Jakov to fill in the gap with his name.