I smiled, partly relieved and entirely satisfied. Not as flashy as anyone else's, but they'll thank me later. Seeing no further use for it at the moment, I dumped the rest of the water in the nearest plant and returned the vessel to its pouch. I wondered what we were going to do next, but since I wasn't too eager to move on, I kept it to myself.

"Thanks Booky" I said with a small smile, then I hooked it back on my belt "Now, lets get back to Ditto Town" I continued, afraid of what might lay in wait for us there "Before something really bad happens" I never thought I'd care out Ditto town this much, but it all seemed so real I couldn't help myself.

"Are you dweebs finished geeking out over your shiny superpowers yet?" Sylvia asked, flouncing back into the center of attention.

"Sylvia, all your faults aside, I can't deny that you truly excel at making it all about you," I commented.

"Well I'm quite done Sylvia, the sooner we get to Ditto Town the sooner I'll be happy" If my characters were going to die I wanted to be the one writing their deaths, so it would be good and dramatic. Until then I'd do anything to protect them.

---

VAC's looked up at Matthew "We do need the communications though, if I can't communicate with the Maximals or the elves, and if we can't get in contact with them we are pretty much screwed. Plus if the Maximals can’t communicate with themselves were in trouble"

Matthew looked down at the small maximal "True, we need to recover the communication; meanwhile we can send a few to Maximal city. Kale, Nathaniel and scrappy, you'll go to the Maximal city.

Kale looked up from her binoculars "But Master-"

Matthew cut her off "No Kale, I need you to go with the others, now Kevin, VAC's, Jasson. We have to figure out what's blocking our communications" he continued as the ones he had sent away left.

"VAC's we need you to get inside that ship, figure out who the boss is, how it works and if you can, figure out how they are blocking our radios" he said, when he comes back depending on his report we shall make our move" he said to Jasson and Kevin.

"But for now we shall attempt to guard the general population from the ships men" Matthew said "Jasson, Kevin, Give me some sniper nests, on either side of the square, thank you" they nodded and walked away.

I was still wondering how wings were going to help me when Kate disappeared from where she'd been sitting and ended up at my feet. I grinned slightly and helped her up. "Very cool."

I turned to the complaining Sylvia. "So, I guess I'm ready as well. You're the leader, Sylvia. Take us to Ditto Town, I guess."

-----

Le Loup Noir studied his Lieutenants for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "A good many young people have been spotted appearing near the fountain in such a way. Even now it has been brought to my attention that they pose a threat to my plans. I will question the girl in the cell personally." He stood and waited for the Lieutenants to step aside for him.

Valentina moved back a step to allow her Captain to pass. As he did she had to hide a smirk. It always amused her that the man she worked for was shorter than Jamison and most of the men under his command.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

I rubbed my cold arms and sat down on the floor, still keeping my back to the door. My long hair fell in my face. I searched my pockets for a rubberband but found nothing. I pushed my hair back and rubbed my arms again. Several thoughts danced around in my head as I tried to piece together the events of the morning and how to get myself out of the situation I was in.
Should I try the door? I wondered. Nah, there's no way I'd be able to break it down, and even if by some strange occurrence I did, I probably wouldn't be able to get off the ship without someone stopping me. I did not want to find out the consequences of attempting to escape.

"Oh, now you want to leave!" Sylvia said, flinging her hands up dramatically. "Okay, everyone gather around who's going. It'll make it less likely for little vital bits to be left behind. Unlike Drake, when I leave body parts behind, they stay behind. Oh, and if anyone tries to hold my hand, I will turn them into something unnatural. Believe it."

I moved relatively close to Sylvia but did not attempt to hold her hand. It was a good thing, too, because she then warned everyone not to do that very thing.

I let my thoughts drift while waiting for departure, and then something strange happened to me. I began to feel emotions. Not my own--they were too detached from me for that. It was almost as though I was looking at everyone in the room with a heat sensor--but it was an emotions sensor. I didn't see any weird colors, but I had the vague idea that the person next to me was nervous and another person was a little scared, among the myriad of emotions.

"Weird." I said under my breath. Did force-sensitives feel this regularly? It wasn't mind reading. More of a sensing. Maybe this explained what kind of a 'bad feeling' Star Wars characters often had; bad emotions.

Evory clumped close to Sylvia, next to Ryan.

------

Jamison stepped aside, saluting his Captain crisply. He had gotten used to the captain's height, but he did his best to not literally "look down" on Le Loup Noir.

After Sylvia's announcement that we would be leaving soon, I walked over to the group that was forming around the woman. I found myself standing with Sweeet on my left and Derran on my right. "So, you're coming along as well?" I asked the elf.

"Might as well. It's been awhile since I've been part of an adventure. Besides, you'll most likely need my assistance before your finished." Derran said with a slight smile.

"O.K... well, glad to have you along then." I said before looking around the room. The elfs last statement seemed strangely cryptic to me, but I quickly shrugged off the uneasy feeling as I waited for Sylvia to do whatever it was she was going to do.

It was absolutely absurd, but carrying the Staff of One and wearing an awesome Doctor-like jacket had made me just a little less scared. I was almost excited about going to face deadly danger and stuff. I'd always wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid and this was as close as I was ever going to get.

"Okay, Sylvia, we're ready. Get your divine show on the road," I said to the nature goddess.

Apparently Sylvia didn't feel the need to impress us this time, since she abstained from a showy transmat effect. Instead, the room surrounding us slowly faded away and then our arrival point in Ditto Town slowly appeared around us.

(Ryan, I'll let you pick where we teleported in)

I had quickly gotten over near Sylvia, preparing for whatever it was she was going to do, I prepared myself for the worst as she teleported us into ditto town, I hardly trusted the goddess. In fact I didn't trust her at all.

We appeared in an alleyway behind the Realms Bookstore. That was a good a place as any, I supposed, seeing as it was still a couple blocks away from the massive ship and we were hidden in shadow.

Soldiers had been through the streets, I could tell from the litter and debris they left behind as they stormed into houses, demanding . . . whatever it was they were looking for. There were no soldiers around now, but there could've been some nearby.

I turned to the others with my finger over my lips, indicating silence. Before I could say anything though, a grumpy looking house-elf, wearing a birthday hat and a carrying a piece of cake, Apparated in front of us with a CRACK. He promptly tossed another birthday hat on top of Nathanael's head.

"Happy birthday to you," he sang in a grumpy monotone while preforming and strange sort of dance that included a lot of shuffling back and forth and little hops. "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Bookwyrm-slash-Nathanael-slash-person who writes obnoxious characters who like to be loud and obnoxious around poor Grump in ways that makes his little head ache! Happy birthday to you!"

He abruptly stopped dancing and shoved the piece of cake at Nathanael, which promptly exploded into a thousand pieces of colorful confetti. Grump then brought out a party whistle and blew it half-heartedly in a way that made it sound extremely mournful. Then he glared at all around, stomped his foot, and Disapparated in another shower of confetti.

I blinked blankly. "That was . . . unexpected."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Rolling my eyes at Sylvia's apparent germaphobia (or fear of cooties), I stood where I was next to Ryan and awaited transportation. As we appeared behind the bookstore, I opened my mouth to ask something which was promptly forgotten as a house elf popped out of nowhere. Surprisingly, I managed not to shriek at the sudden, startling appearance and merely flinched.

He then proceeded to sing the longest version of 'Happy Birthday' that I had ever heard, in the most irritated voice that I had ever heard. He was so short and so wrinkled with large floppy ears, and he wore the most sour expression that the entire incident was quite comical. The more he sang, the more amusing the whole scene became and I rubbed at my nose to try and cover up a snicker.

It didn't work.

Next the cake blew up and there was confetti fluttering everywhere.

After Grump (I assumed it was no other house elf) had Disapparated, I turned to Nathanael and smirked freely. "Nice hat," I quipped, flicking the large colorful cone on his head with my finger.

VACs rolled out into the square, and up to the fountain where he leaned against the low wall to avoid being seen. "Sure" he said to himself, "Make the little guy do the dangerous stuff, while you go do whatever it is you jolly do when I'm not around"

He said this before taking a peek inside the fountain to see Bob Saget swimming away. To this he commented "Wish I could be in there with you bud, and its such a good day for a swim to."

As Kevin headed off to a different building, he walked through the alleyway next to the Realms Bookstore, normally he would have passed by the small group. However the exploding cake, the birthday song and the situation during which they had appered and the way they were dressed was enough to make him sucpect somthing.

"You all are from earth" he said pointedly.

I stopped laughing long enough to notice the character I had created to say "Oh crud"

(Absolutely hilarious post, Ryan! I love it. )

There is not exactly a lot that will leave me speechless, but Grump's random appearance, complete with dancing, small explosions, and a lot of confetti, had left me without even a snarky comment. I gingerly pulled the birthday hat off of my head after Kate commented on it and carefully examined it to make sure it wasn't going to kill me or something else equally unpleasant.

"Thanks, Kate! I could make us all hats just like it! It would be absolutely adorable," I exclaimed cheerfully, recovering my powers of speech. "I just wonder how he even knew it was my birthday."

"Ugh, this was a brand new dress too!" Sylvia yelped, barely refraining from shattering our eardrums.

I glanced over at Sylvia and spotted her glaring pointedly at clumps of confetti littering her dress.

"Sylvia, just brush it off. Stop being such a drama queen."

"You dust it off. It's your fault, you're the one that wrote me this way.

"No, actually I think you can blame Joss Whedon for that."