Bright. Rays of sunshine. All else is blurry.

Then slowly, all begins to focus. The bright dims. Green rushes up, up...

Kari shortly discovered that green had not been rushing up and up. She had been falling down and down. Flat on her face, in fact. How graceful.

Arriving at the first stage of the game- completely- was like waking up from sleep. Kari rolled over pushed herself up onto her knees. She was in one piece, thank goodness. The others seemed to be all there and in one piece as well, in various positions. It looked -so far- like she was the only one fortunate enough to fall on her face. Ah, well. Such was life.

All of them were in a green meadow, in what felt like summertime. A serene river flowed by, but further upstream a waterfall poured over the edge of a tall cliff. The meadow -or valley, perhaps?- was large, and on the far edge of it she could see a range of mountains, ice capped and large.

But where were they? And more to the point, what did they have to do to leave? Besides finding out the duplicate, that is. Kari wondered idly who it was. It certainly wasn't her, she knew.

Bobby did not have time to shake Sammy off his arm before he was falling (or was he ascending? No, no it was definitely falling) into the room of the Mansion. He landed on his feet and stumbled slightly, automatically grabbing onto Sammy to steady himself. He then realized he was doing it and pulled away. She could be the duplicate for all he knew.

He looked around the meadow curiously, wondering if this had already been a room in the Mansion or if the Game Keeper had created it.

Simon landed gracefully on his feet. Brushing off his clothes, he looked around him with mild interest.

"That was certainly . . . exhilarating," he said wryly.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A scream suddenly rent the air, followed by a blood-curdling roar. Running towards the players from across the field was a young woman, dressed in pastel blues and violets. She was running as fast as her shot legs would carry her, her short hair standing on end in sheer terror. The cause of her fright was close behind her, snapping its huge, tooth-filled maw at her as it got closer with each thundering footstep. The bulky creature was hideous, with green, scaly skin, red and white striped horns bristling from its back, and bloodshot eyes flashing with hunger. It chased gained on the poor girl with each step of its two massive legs, and its powerful forearms stretched out to snatch her up.

"HEEEELLLLLP MEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" the woman screamed as she caught sight of the players.

Xerec had landed lightly on her feet and seemed to be listening to something far away. Suddenly she snapped her head around and saw the woman- and the monster following her. In one smooth movement she unsheathed her mini-crossbow and dropped into a self-propelled roll. Her object was, of course, to shoot the monster and spare the woman.

She let off two bolts of concentrated energy. One missed the monster by a few inches. The other hit its side with a gratifying hiss.

Kari took an involuntary step backwards at the appearance of the monster and the woman. Then she pulled her pistol out of her wrist holster and carefully aimed.

The monster bellowed in pain as the energy bolt struck its side. It staggered, but continued to run. As it ran, the creature's uppermost horn began to glow with a red light. When it seemed like it couldn't get any brighter, a fireball the size of a motorcycle launched from the horn and careened towards the Dittotopians.

Matt had held kept himself up with the force so he was a bit more prepared than the rest of them. Thinking quickly he threw up force shield around the group; the energy ball hit the shield and was stopped cold. Then he drew his lightsaber, running forward he put himself inbetween the young woman and the monster. Shono had activated his jetpack and landed smoothly on the ground, lifting his handblaster he fired and hit the thing in the back before Matthew pulled up the shield.

The monster again roared in pain as Shono's blast hit it. The wound smoked profusely, and it stopped in its tracks momentarily, giving the woman a chance to increase her lead. With an angry below, the creature swatted Matt aside with its forearm and lunged towards the woman with jaws snapping.

Or so the monster thought; Matt grabbed one of the horns and swung himself onto the things back. He pulled his Lightsaber above his head to plunge it into the monsters back.

Sylvia raised a hand and the grasses of the meadow surged up around the monster, coiling around its legs and looping up around its neck. Then vines and huge roots shot up and also wrapped around the monster's legs.

Desdemona ignored the screaming woman and the running monster. Instead she stared up at the sky, almost hypnotized by the sun. As a vampire, she wasn't used to seeing the sun. Back in Ditto Town, if she had been transported to a sunlit meadow, screams, flames, and ashes would have followed quickly afterward.

"Simon, I feel warm. I forgot what warm feels like."

Matt stabbed the monster in the back of the head; killing it. He rolled free as it came crashing down. Matt stood up and turned off his lightsaber "Complete with friendly neighborhood wildlife how cute" grumbled Shono. "Well thats that" said Matthew

Sammy was shaken from Bobby's arm effectively and landed flat on her bottom, wincing as she did, then froze stiff when she saw the monster coming toward them. Only when it was surely dead did she fall over and faint.

Cosmi managed to land on his feet, despite the dizzyness that resulted from the unusual method of transportation. He bristled at the sight of the monster, but once the situation was taken care of, he shook himself off and washed his face. Tomas scurried over to the woman and offered her a hand. "Are you hurt?" he asked.

The woman collapsed in a shuddering heap beside the Dittotopians. She gasped for breath, not even having the strength to look up at her rescuers yet. When she looked up at Tomas, though, the last thing she was expecting was a talking rodent. She managed to find another scream to use as she scrambled backwards in surprise.

She looked around at the others frantically, and saw that they were not bothered in the least by Tomas. Cautiously, she looked back at Tomas and finally spoke.

"S-sorry, about that," she said shakily. Her voice was light and pleasant, with no distinguishable accent. "I'm fine... I just wasn't expecting a talking animal." She stood up, swaying unsteadily as her legs shook with fatigue. She cast an appreciative glance at Matt and Shono.

"Thank you so much," she said. "That Sni would have got me for sure. But..." she looked around at the entire group.

"Who are you people? And how did you get here? You certainly don't look like you're from Lyolen."

Shono hit his head "That would explain it then! We aren’t" he mumbled. Matt replied to Shono "Shut up" then turning to the young woman. "As you have noticed we are not from around here, we're from a place called Dittotopia and were tricked into coming here by an unknown person with a sick sense of humor. I'm Matt” he said pointing at himself “This is Shono, Kari and that’s Bobby. The cat and mouse duo is Cosmi and Tomas, here’s Sammy, Simon and Sylvia. The vamp is Desdemona, this is Xerec and the three star defenders are… are whats your name again? He said, taking a deep breath between each name.