Bye!

“Wow! Keyblade’s even shorter than usual!” Mithos laughed as the Quidditch players landed their brooms. “I told you, Presea. They’re all smaller…” Before he could continue to laugh at the height difference, he was punched by an auto-mail arm and knocked unconscious.
“I am not small! And I’m not a pipsqueak! And I’m not a runty little dwarf!” Ed yelled, even though Mithos hadn’t said all those things. He turned to Bookworm, who had just landed. “Give me the Aging Potion! NOW!”
“Okay, okay!” Bookworm raised her wand and yelled, “Accio Potion!” A cauldron flew towards her from the direction of the castle. Bookworm would have liked to brag about this spell for a while, but Ed looked so impatient that she didn’t dare. Everyone who had been affected by Shade’s spell drank some of the Aging Potion and immediately returned to their normal age.
“I’m taller now, right, Al? Right?” Ed asked.
“Umm… yeah… I think you’ve gotten a lot taller, Big Brother,” Al lied. He did not sound very convincing, but Ed was too happy to care.
“What is going on?” Kratos asked, confused.
“Shade cast a spell that made us all eleven years old…” Lloyd started to explain.
“She was trying to curse an adorable doggy we found! He was so cute! I named him Fluffy!” Colette interrupted.
“Yeah, and then Ed got really mad because he wants to be tall and he attacked Shade with a spear, but he didn’t get to kill her. And then we all enrolled at Hogwarts (that’s the school’s name) and tried to learn magic, but I fell asleep in class, so I don’t remember any spells,” Lloyd continued.
Kratos looked very confused, but before he could ask what Lloyd was talking about, Raine interrupted. “Oh no! Not again! RESURRECTION!” She raised her staff and colorful light surrounded the unconscious Mithos. He stood up, fully healed.
“What do you mean ‘not again’?” Keyblade asked, confused.
“She means this is the second time Mithos was knocked unconscious. The last time was when the DDR machine exploded. Mithos was too busy crying to get out of the way,” Presea explained.
“Why was he crying?” Bookworm said. She was trying not to laugh at the look on Mithos’s face, but she wasn’t doing a very good job.
“He lost a DDR game to Sesshomaru,” Presea explained.
“Why did you have to tell them that?” Mithos asked irritably.
Presea looked at him in surprise. “I was answering their questions. Was that bad?”
“Yes! You could’ve just ignored them!” Mithos said.
“Wait a minute… Did you just say Mithos played DDR with Sesshomaru?” Shade asked, glaring at Mithos.
Presea glanced at Mithos uncertainly. “Yes…”
“You met Sesshomaru without me!” Shade screamed at Mithos. (Sesshomaru is Shade’s favorite anime character.)
“Yeah, but you went to a bunch of anime worlds without me!” Mithos retorted.
“If you hadn’t been three hours late for DDR at the mall, you could have come too!” Shade yelled.
“Hang on… Did you say the DDR machine exploded?” Keyblade asked in horror. She had apparently been ignoring Shade and Mithos’s argument.
“Yes, Raine tried to examine the DDR machine and it exploded before I even finished,” Kratos said, glaring at Raine.
“Then stop fighting everyone! We need to go fix the DDR machine NOW!” Keyblade did not even wait for a reply before activating the Sorcerer’s Ring, which she had somehow kept safe from Tas the whole time they were at Hogwarts. Instantly, they left the Quidditch pitch and arrived in Derris-Kharlan.
“Now where are we going?” Lloyd asked excitedly. Because of his short attention span, he was not aware of the DDR machine crisis.
“You’re going back to Iselia,” Kratos said sternly. “And everyone else is going home too.”
“Send Tas home first! Otherwise, he’ll probably steal everything in Derris-Kharlan,” Shade said. She was getting very annoyed at the kender and was still mad about his part in her recent Quidditch loss.
“Mithos, take us to Tas’s world,” Kratos ordered, giving Tas a death glare.
“Wow! That was a really scary look! For a second, you looked even scarier than Raistlin! Can you teach me how to glare at people like that?” Tas asked, making ridiculous faces that looked nothing like Kratos’s death glare. Before Kratos could respond, Shade pointed out the correct device and Mithos sent them all to Krynn.
“Wow! We’re in Palanthas again! And there’s Caramon!” Tas waved enthusiastically at a big warrior. “Hi Caramon! Did you miss me?”
“Miss you?” Caramon looked very confused. “But I just saw you yesterday… Don’t tell me you were in jail again?”
“No! I was somewhere even better!” Tas started to explain, but Caramon interrupted.
“This sounds like a long story. Why don’t you tell me on the way back to Solace?” he suggested.
“Okay! And when we get there I’ll tell Tika and Tanis and Laurana and…” Tas continued to list everyone he knew. Mithos activated the Mage’s Ring and returned to Derris-Kharlan.
“Can we go home now?” Ed asked. He was looking forward to doing some transmutations with his new Philosopher’s Stone.
“Sure,” Mithos said, changing the ring’s function again. They arrived in Central HQ. Luckily, a few days had gone by since the last time they were here and the homunculi were gone. Unfortunately for Ed and Al, Lust and Gluttony had been replaced by two other people.
“Edward Elric! Where have you been? We’ve all been so worried!” Major Armstrong said. He gave Ed a hug that crushed most of his bones.
“Al! Have you seen these pictures of Elicia? Isn’t she the cutest, most adorable angel you’ve ever seen?” Lieutenant-colonel Hughes showed Al a pile of pictures of his daughter.
Everyone else decided to leave fast before Armstrong and Hughes could notice them. When they arrived in Derris-Kharlan, they were greeted by Noishe. He was whining and growling urgently.
“WHAT!?! That’s impossible! Yuan couldn’t have broken through Cruxis’s defenses so quickly!” Kratos protested. His denials were quickly proven wrong when one of Yuan’s Renegade soldiers poked his head though the door.
“Lord Yuan! They’re in here!” the Renegade yelled. Kratos stabbed him, but was too late. Yuan and many other Renegades rushed into the hallway outside the small room.
“We just want Mithos. Don’t be unreasonable, Kratos…” Yuan said, but was interrupted when Kratos waved his sword at him.
“No! I told you this is not Mithos Yggdrasill! And if you don’t get out of Derris-Kharlan now, you will die!” Kratos yelled furiously. Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Presea, Regal, Sheena, and Zelos immediately joined him in the fight against the Renegades. Bookworm, Keyblade, Mithos, and Shade watched.
“Do you think we should help?” Bookworm asked eventually.
“No! We should go home and save the DDR machine! I need to play DDR now!” Keyblade said, trying to remember which device would lead them home. Meanwhile, the Renegades had managed to get some archers out of Kratos’s sword range. Many arrows suddenly flew towards Mithos, narrowly missing him.
“We have to get out of here!” Mithos shouted, running towards one of the devices.
“Mithos, I don’t think that one leads to the DDR machine…” Keyblade said.
“Who cares where it leads?! They’re trying to kill me!” he screamed. Another arrow hit the wall an inch away from his head. Using the randomly selected device, he changed the Mage’s Ring’s function and activated it.
A moment later, Mithos, Keyblade, Shade, and Bookworm were standing in a strange world.
“Where are we?” Bookworm looked around. Nothing looked particularly familiar. They were near some kind of village… There was definitely something familiar in that village.
“I don’t care where we are!” Keyblade screamed in excitement and ran towards a machine in the village. “This world has DDR!”