Prologue to Frogs

Silence stood in horror as the horrid reptilian beast flew off into the scarlet horizon. He couldn't believe the audacity of Shade, coming into HIS house, kicking HIS shin, and worst of all, stealing lil owie (the Wii) from right beneath his nose. If he had not been so shocked at the sudden appearance of his old time friend, she never would have gotten her scaly claws on it. This could not go unpunished. Shade had to pay. Silence was returning to his hometown.

Shade Goes Home

Shade walked away from her house. She had greeted her parents and explained why she had been missing for the past three days. No one doubted her honesty, especially since she had turned a nearby squirrel into a pile of goo. She was wondering what to do with the rest of her day, when she felt someone poke her.
“Bother!” her friend Fates yelled. “Where have you been, Shade? I thought you got kidnapped by Russian spies again!” When Shade had missed a Chess Club meeting once, Keyblade told the teacher that she had gone to Russia to stop a war. After many retellings, this story involved Shade being kidnapped by Russian spies.
“No, not today,” Shade grinned. “I’ve just been traveling to anime and fantasy book worlds to learn magic and turn annoyances into goo.”
“Oh my god! Have you met Neji?” Fates gasped. She was a Neji fangirl.
“No, no we haven’t been to Naruto world yet,” Shade said. “Maybe we’ll go there sometime. If you meet us at the mall later, we’ll take you with us.”
“Okay! I can’t believe I’m gonna actually meet my Neji!” Fates jumped up and down like a spastic fangirl, which she was.
Shade grinned at her friend’s excitement. Then she shifted into full-drake form. Her conversation with Fates had given her an idea for what to do today… After a few hours and many fireball spells, Shade had conquered Russia. There wouldn’t be any more spies coming after her. And since she had some spare time, she took over Australia too. Then she decided to return home. World domination could wait until the next time she came home.
When she arrived back in the U.S., Shade came up with a brilliant evil idea. She went to her friend Silence’s house. He was on his computer, IMing Bookworm, when she arrived.
“Shade! What the heck are you doing here?” he screamed. He had thought he had escaped from his slightly crazy friends when he moved to another town and didn’t tell them his address. He had underestimated Shade.
“Greetings Silence,” Shade grinned evilly. She walked up to him, kicked him in the shin, and stole his Wii. After stopping home again to drop off her new video game system, Shade decided to head back to the mall.

Bookworm Goes Home

Bookworm had not thought things through very well. It is really not a good idea to bring a dragon to a gathering of teenagers at a public library without giving any warning whatsoever. However, Bookworm was too excited about going to the TAG meeting for this to occur to her.
“Hi everyone! Sorry I’m late!” she said as she entered the meeting room, followed by Indigo. The result was complete chaos. Everyone started talking at once.
“Haha! Bookworm’s got a dragon! Why am I not surprised? Cool dragon!” Auzzy gave her a high five.
“Umm… nice dragon…” Pumpkin Queen smiled uncertainly at Bookworm.
“Is that a real dragon?” Shadowhunter asked, his eyes widening.
Aztek just stared in amazement. A lot of other people talked too, but most of their conversations had nothing to do with dragons. They were just looking for an excuse to chat.
Shadowhunter’s younger brother, Thorax, yelled, “Can I touch it? And we’re still gonna beat you at book trivia!” Without waiting for Bookworm’s answer, he poked Indigo.
Indigo did not like it when a small person poked her. She also sensed Bookworm’s irritation at his comment about the trivia. This added to her own annoyance. She reacted instinctively and bit Thorax’s hand. Aztek finally stopped staring and ran away screaming.
“Did you have to feed him to your dragon?” Shadowhunter asked.
“Indigo, let go of him,” Bookworm said sternly, but Indigo could tell she was not really angry at all.
“This meeting is over,” the librarian said wearily. Previously, no one had thought it possible for a TAG meeting to be more chaotic than usual. This assumption had just been proven wrong.
As they left the library, Indigo asked, “So are we going after Mithos now?”
“No way! I’ve been away from my computer for three whole days! I’m gonna start suffering withdrawal symptoms soon!” Bookworm shifted into drake form and flew towards her house. Indigo sighed and followed her. Soon they reached Bookworm’s house. They entered through the front door, hurried up the stairs, and shut themselves in Bookworm’s room.
As Bookworm sat on her bed and set up her laptop, they heard a loud barking noise downstairs. “Indigo, can you take care of that? Please? And take care of any other annoying creatures you encounter too.” The mental link alerted Indigo to the fact that her Rider’s family had been bothering her a lot before she went world-hopping. And that barking thing sounded delicious…
While Indigo was away, Bookworm checked My Own Café (best website ever) and sent an instant message to her cousin, hpfan. The conversation went something like this:
Bookworm: hpfan! I met harry potter and u didn’t! lol
Hpfan: wtf?
Bookworm: i beat shade at quidditch
Hpfan: u r insane
hpfan has signed off
Bored, Bookworm observed that another friend was online. So she IMed Silence. The conversation went something like this:
Bookworm: hi silence
Silence: hey wazzup
Bookworm: i got a dragon
Silence: …
Bookworm: beware of shade
Bookworm: she can turn u into goo
Bookworm: it’s not fun
Silence: ok…
Bookworm: and I made her turn into a squirrel
Silence: how u do that?
Bookworm: she was drunk
Silence: lol
Bookworm: g2g bye
Silence: peace
Bookworm has signed off
The reason that Bookworm had to leave instant messenger so urgently was she suddenly had a brilliant idea. If she could find her microphone, she could record it if/when Shade turned into a squirrel again! It was the best blackmail opportunity ever!
Indigo returned a short time later. The other inhabitants of the house were quiet now. “Ready to go yet?”
“Yeah, yeah, I just finished,” Bookworm stuffed the microphone in the pouch with her kunai.
“What is that?” Indigo asked suspiciously. “And why do I have a feeling Shade wouldn’t want you to bring it?”
“She doesn’t have to find out,” Bookworm grinned. “Come on! Let’s go look for everyone back at the mall!”

Keyblade Goes Home

Keyblade walked down her street, wondering how she was going to explain her disappearance to her parents. Would they really believe that she had accidentally activated a magic ring and traveled to different worlds? As she was pondering this, she noticed some people walking from the opposite direction. As they approached, she recognized them. They were the girls on her bus who had been giving her a hard time recently. One of them had even followed her all the way to her house, yelling at her to talk to them. A huge grin spread across Keyblade’s face. This was the perfect opportunity to get revenge!
When the girls got close enough to recognize Keyblade, they starting yelling at her again. Ignoring their rude words, she clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade. They stared at her in surprise and confusion. She shifted into drake form. As the gold wings and tail appeared, their expressions changed from confusion to fear.
A little while later, Keyblade stood on top of a pile of badly beaten girls. Occasionally, a faint groan would come from the pile, showing that they were still conscious and in great pain.
“Yes! I rule!” Keyblade did a victory dance on their heads. Then she hopped off the pile and continued to walk to her house.
As soon as they were capable of standing, the girls tried to run home. This did not work very well and they ended up tripping several times, falling flat on their faces, and looking very silly. When the girls finally reached their houses, they screamed something along the lines of “Keyblade turned into a dragon thing and almost beat us to death with a giant key!” The average adult is unlikely to believe that someone who recently vanished will suddenly appear, turn into a dragon, and attack their daughter with a giant key. As a result, all the girls ended up in an insane asylum, where they spent the rest of their lives.
“Hi everyone! I’m home!” Keyblade walked in her house. Her younger brother screamed when he saw her. At first she thought he was just being weird, but when her parents had similar reactions, she realized she had forgotten to shift back into human form. She quickly did so and proceeded to explain what had happened in the last few days. The fact that their daughter had just turned into a drake made her parents a lot more willing to believe her story.
When she finally finished, her brother asked, “Can I use your video games while you’re going to other worlds?”
This gave Keyblade another brilliant idea. She ran downstairs to her video game area. She clapped her hands and alchemified another DDR machine. This kept her entertained for hours, but eventually she got so tired she couldn’t even move her legs. She looked for another video game to play. This is when she had yet another great idea. She clapped her hands again and alchemified a video game. But it wasn’t just any video game. It was Kingdom Hearts 3! After doing another victory dance, she tried playing it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work because the game had not yet been created. This made her feel very depressed. She sighed and decided she should probably go find Mithos now.

Back Home

“Waaah! It’s broken!” Mithos wailed as he stared at the remains of the DDR machine.
Keyblade was just as upset about the DDR machine’s fate as he was, although she didn’t wail about it. Instead, she clapped her hands and transmuted the demolished DDR machine, returning it to its original form.
“Ooooh! Shiny!” Mithos hugged the DDR machine. “Wanna play? I saw how Other Mithos plays this and it looks like fun!”
“You saw his memories?” Shade asked curiously, wondering if this included the memory of her turning him into banana-scented goo.
“Uh-huh. You and Keyblade are good at DDR. But you suck, Bookworm!” Mithos grinned.
“You are dead!” Bookworm screamed at him, grabbing her kunai.
“No! Don’t kill him!” Keyblade tried to stop Bookworm.
“At least wait until we leave the mall!” Shade said as she tried to take the kunai away from Bookworm.
“Meep!” Mithos ran away from where they were attempting to restrain Bookworm. He remembered something else from the other Mithos’s memories. “I’m gonna go get some pocky!” He ran away to a nearby FYE store.
After much fighting and threatening, Bookworm promised not to kill Mithos, at least, not yet. They followed Mithos into FYE, where he was eating pocky and drinking from his water bottle. Unknown to them, his water bottle was still full of cactus juice. By drinking from it, he was prolonging his drunkenness.
He looked up as they approached. “Hi everyone! How are you?” Before anyone could answer, he started jumping up and down and pointing at something behind them. “Look! Look! The loud box thingy is talking about me!” They turned around and discovered that the “loud box thingy” was a TV. The news was on and it was indeed talking about Mithos. In fact, pictures of all four of them appeared on the TV screen as the reporter talked.
“They have been missing for three days now. Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade met at the mall in the morning. Witnesses saw them spending a lot of time in the arcade. Three hours after their arrival, a disturbance occurred in the arcade. It is estimated that Mithos arrived at approximately this time. Police suspect that all four left the mall shortly after. None of them have been seen since. Various people were shown these pictures and asked about their experiences at the mall on the day of the disappearances. Their answers were… interesting.”
A scared-looking woman appeared on the screen. “I was going to pick my kids up from the arcade. When I entered, I heard a loud noise, like an explosion. Angels were attacking one of the games. I didn’t see any of the girls, but I think I remember that boy talking to the angels. The angels are kidnapping people and destroying our machines! They’re trying to destroy the world! We’re all doomed!” By now, she was panicking and screaming.
The next witness appeared. He was a little boy who looked about elementary school-aged. “I was gonna play in the arcade, but there was a really creepy guy there. He looked at me scary and I ran away. I think he was a monster or something. My big brother says monsters eat people. Do you think that guy ate the missing people?”
The final witness was a security guard. “I remember yelling at those girls for sitting on the railing. Later, I heard a loud noise coming from the arcade. I went to investigate and discovered that the Dance Dance Revolution machine had been destroyed. Many people were rioting. A silver-haired boy was telling my colleagues that his friends had accidentally broken the machine because they were from very far away and were unfamiliar with that technology. He heard his friends outside, so he went away to find them. After the riot calmed down, things were mostly peaceful for a few hours. Then I received reports of thefts all over the mall. We managed to apprehend the thief, a very short person carrying several pouches filled with stolen items. We were then interrupted by a large group of people, including the silver-haired kid. I think the three missing girls might have been in the group too, but they were wearing very outlandish clothing so it’s hard to tell. One of my colleagues recognized two of their companions as the people responsible for the disturbance in the arcade earlier. Before we could arrest them, a girl resembling Keyblade took a ring from the pile of stolen goods. We are not sure exactly what happened, but they somehow managed to escape. Not long after, a man was said to be frightening children near the arcade. When we went to find out more, we saw a group of people explode the DDR machine again. They vanished shortly after, carrying an unconscious boy who may have been Mithos.”
The reporter appeared back on screen. “If anyone has more information on the disappearances of Keyblade, Shade, Bookworm, and Mithos, we urge you to please contact the police. And in other news…”
Everyone stared at the TV. They were completely stunned. Eventually, Mithos broke the silence by saying, “Do you think the unconscious guy got kidnapped by the midget? Or did he get eaten by the monster?” He paused and thought for a second. “I’m gonna go fight the angels before they destroy the world. And I’ll use my shiny sword! Shiny!” Silver angel wings appeared on his back and he flew out of the mall, waving his sword excitedly.
Bookworm, Shade, and Keyblade stared at where he had been. “I guess we should go after him before he does any damage,” Keyblade said.
“Yeah,” Bookworm said. “We need to find him really fast. And we should just focus on that and wait until later to do DDR and stuff like that.”
“Wow… I can’t believe it’s been only three days. We were in the other worlds for months,” Shade said.
“Wait a minute… Three days… That means today’s Wednesday! There’s a Teen Advisory Group meeting at the library today!” Bookworm gasped. All thoughts of focusing on finding Mithos fast left her mind as she ran to the mall exit.
Shade shook her head at Bookworm’s behavior. “I’m going to visit my parents before we go after Mithos. If we’ve been away for three days, they must be worried.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll go home for a while too,” Keyblade shrugged. She hoped Mithos wouldn’t cause too much chaos in the meantime.

Same Hair? (Cat)

Ed, Al, and Netto (still crossfused) looked at this reunion (which would had been touching if not for the fact that the guy that Lloyd called "Dad" had just tried to kill Cat) with absolute shock. Their shock increased even more when the man returned Lloyd's embrace saying, "I missed you as well...my son." Cat, who had been healed by Sora at this time, was also silenced by shock. She attempted to get up, but found it was futile, as she knelt and was hunched over in pain. Sora put a hand on her shoulder, " I wasn't able to heal your wounds-just your exhaustion. Sorry." Cat would have grunted in frustration, but was overcome with fear as she saw the man who had attacked her now standing directly over her. Cat squinted, bracing for some sort of impact of some kind. When nothing happened she opened her eyes. She noticed he seemed to concentrate for a second, the shouted, "First Aid!" Cat saw a green light surround her body, and felt the pain leave her body. Standing up cautiously (and taking a few steps back for good measure). Posing in many different karate-like positions she threatened, moving away as she did so, "l-listen you....you...elf..man..person...thing! I'm a certified ninja, so you watch it. Or I'll...umm...throw kunai at you. So, yeah...you..watch it..yeah..." Lloyd's father seemed to look at her again with pity (and confusion), also thinking of how weird she acted. Sighing, he apologized, "Excuse me, um..."

"Cat."

"Yes, I sincerely apologize for attacking you. I though you might have been a remininemt of one of the desians experiments." Cat cocked her head to the side in a somewhat annoyed manner. "And you're name?"

"I am Kratos."

"And me?" Netto asked irritably. Kratos seemed to stare blankly at the irritated Netto, "And you...?" Netto snorted. "Baka! Why'd you attack me when I was trying to protect Cat-chan?" Kratos blinked, the answered "You were in the way. And what does this word, 'baka' mean?" Netto (uncrossfused) had now realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to tell the guy who had almost killed him (and Cat) that he was an idiot. "....so you're Lloyd's dad, huh?"

"Yes. I am indeed Lloyd's blood-father." Cat took a look at Kratos, the at Lloyd, then back again. "Oh! You both have the same eyes!" Lloyd grinned. "That's not all that's similar. Watch this!" he then proceeded to style his hair until it was styled exactly how Kratos' hair was. Cat gaped. They looked almost the same. Then, curious, she asked, "Does it work the other way around?" Kratos considered this, then attempted to style his hair the same way Lloyd's was. It also looked similar. "That's so neat! Oh! I'll try it now!" unfortunately for Cat, her hair was much too strait and long, and after five failed attempts, she sighed and gave up.

Meanies

Mithos looked around in confusion. This place seemed very familiar… But more importantly, it was shiny! Mithos’s eyes widened as he saw all the amazing shiny things that filled the room. He ran up to one and poked it with his shiny ring. There was a flash of bright light and it was even shinier than before!
“Yippee! It’s shiny!” Mithos cheered. He finally turned away from the shiny devices and noticed the other people in the room. They were all staring at him. He stared back for a moment. Then a huge grin spread across his face. “Marty! I missed you so much!” He had somehow mistaken Colette for Martel. Poor confused Colette soon found herself being hugged by her enemy.
“Get away from her!” Lloyd yelled and whacked Mithos with one of his swords.
“Waaah! That hurt! You’re meanies! Just like Mr. Cactus!” he wailed as tears flowed from his eyes.
“Mr. …Cactus?” Lloyd repeated in disbelief. Noishe whined. (Kratos was the only one who understood that this meant something like “What the heck is wrong with him?”)
“Yeah! Mr. Cactus hurt me when I gave him a hug too! You’re all meanies! And I’ll never share my shiny ring with you!” He held up the ring, accidentally activating it and traveling to an unknown world.
As soon as he vanished, Keyblade, Bookworm, Indigo, and Shade appeared. (Shade’s minions decided to stay behind.) Of course, Shade was still drunk. She looked around the room. Her eyes widened. “Shiny!”
“Why is everyone so acting weird today?” Lloyd asked.
“Explain. Now.” Kratos pointed his sword at Keyblade and Bookworm.
Keyblade ignored him. “Where’s Mithos?”
“He went to another world. And you are not going anywhere until you explain,” Kratos said threateningly.
“Umm… well… It’s kind of a long story…” Bookworm began. Noticing Kratos’s death glare, she decided to make the story short. “I accidentally erased Shade’s memory. And she and Mithos drank some cactus juice that made them act a little weirder than usual.” She glanced at Shade, who was now trying to pat Noishe, the “cute puppy dog”.
“Is this cactus juice a kind of poison?” Raine asked.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Keyblade said, hoping she would not be required to give the curious professor a detailed description of the properties of cactus juice.
“Then do you think this could help?” Raine held out a Panacea Bottle.
“That’s a good idea. Let’s try it!” Keyblade took the Panacea Bottle from Raine.
“Noooo! Shade will kill me when she’s back to normal! If you give her that, you’ll be shortening my life!” Bookworm protested.
“Just give her the Panacea Bottle! She’s scaring Noishe!” Lloyd said irritably. Shade was now trying to find out if the “cute puppy dog” liked being hit with a fireball. Noishe was cowering behind Kratos.
“Here you go, Shade!” Keyblade gave her the Panacea Bottle, despite Bookworm’s desperate pleas.
For a moment, Shade just stared blankly at everyone. She didn’t look so drunk anymore, but she didn’t look particularly sober either. Bookworm started to wonder if the Panacea Bottle did not affect cactus juice. Or maybe the Memory Charm was still in effect. She sighed in relief. Unfortunately, Bookworm’s theories were incorrect. The Panacea Bottle just took a little while to take effect. And the Memory Charm had worn off by now. Shade remembered everything that had happened recently. And she remembered who she wanted revenge against.
“Meep!” Bookworm ducked behind Keyblade. “Stay still! You’re my human shield!”
“You. Are. GOO!” Shade screamed at Bookworm.
Keyblade did not like being a human shield. She quickly moved out of the way, leaving Bookworm unprotected. Keyblade, Indigo, and the Symphonians watched Shade get her revenge against Bookworm. (Indigo really should have been helping Bookworm, but unlike her Rider, she actually did have some sense of self-preservation.) There were a lot of magical explosions, making it difficult to see exactly what was going on. Bookworm kept screaming in pain. Shade appeared to be pummeling her. Eventually, Shade yelled “FIREBALL!” The magical fireball hit Bookworm in the face, reducing her to a pile of potato-scented goo. (Bookworm absolutely detests potatoes.)
“Shade! That wasn’t nice!” Colette had apparently recovered enough from the shock of Mithos’s hug to scold Shade.
“She erased my memory after I saved her life. Then she let me get drunk on cactus juice, tried to blackmail me, almost let me hug a cactus, and then let me drink more cactus juice. She even made me turn into a fuzzy rodent! She’s lucky to even be alive!” Shade poked the Bookworm-goo.
“You were a fuzzy rodent?!” Lloyd laughed.
“So where did Mithos go?” Keyblade decided to change the subject quickly before Lloyd could anger Shade.
“He used that function-changing device,” Sheena pointed to the “shiny” device.
As Keyblade changed the Sorcerer’s Ring’s function, Lloyd said, “Umm… You might want to change Bookworm back now… Noishe likes potatoes…” The large green-and-white dog was sniffing curiously at Bookworm-goo.
When Shade continued to show no signs of turning Bookworm back into non-goo, Raine held up her staff. A magic circle appeared beneath her as she said, “Bring this soul back from purgatory! RESURRECTION!” A bright, multicolored light surrounded Bookworm-goo. When the light faded, she had returned to her human form. She no longer smelled like potatoes, but she was still badly bruised from being pummeled by Shade. Bookworm glared at Shade. She was definitely not going to let her get away with this, but she decided now was not the time for revenge.
“Everybody ready?” Keyblade asked. Bookworm, Shade, and Indigo nodded. Keyblade activated the Sorcerer’s Ring…
A moment later, they stood in the middle of a mall. Mithos was staring at the exploded remains of a DDR machine. Still possessed and drunk, he had accidentally gone home.

Self-preservation or Fun?

“Look Bookworm! It’s shiny!” Mithos showed her the silver sphere on his sword. This was approximately the hundredth time he’d pointed out its shininess.
No, Bookworm. Don’t kill him. Indigo told her irritated Rider. This was approximately the thousandth time Bookworm had gotten annoyed enough to try to strangle Mithos. (At least, it felt like a thousand times.)
“Mine’s shinier!” Shade yelled, holding up her multi-colored sphere. “Bow before the awesome shininess, mortal fools!” When no one bowed, she glared at them and muttered something that sounded threatening.
“No! Mine’s shinier! Are you gonna bow for mine?” Mithos whined. When everyone ignored him, he wailed, “I hate you humans! You’re all meanies!”
“Who said we’re humans?” Keyblade grinned and shifted into drake form.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! The lizard thingy ate Keyblade!” Mithos screamed. Keyblade rolled her eyes and shifted back into human form.
“How did you do that?” Ty Lee asked curiously.
“I have the essence of a drake in my sphere, so I can turn into a drake whenever I want,” Keyblade explained.
Somehow, Shade managed to understand this explanation. “Can I turn into a shiny flying lizard?”
“Umm… yeah, I guess so…” Bookworm said, hoping Shade did not decide to try it. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Shade did.
“Hey! I look like Keyblade! …Now I’m purple! …And blue! …And green! …Now I’m like Mithos’s not-shiny marble!” Shade seemed to be enjoying herself as she shifted into various drake forms.
Bookworm had a sudden idea. “Hey Shade! Do you think you can shift into something else? Is there another essence in your sphere?”
Keyblade guessed what Bookworm was thinking. “If this is about the squirrel again…”
“What squirrel?” Bookworm tried to look innocent, but as usual, she failed miserably.
“Wow… You must really want Shade to kill you later,” Keyblade shook her head in amazement at Bookworm’s complete lack of self-preservation.
“Well, I figure she’s probably going to kill me anyway, so I might as well have some fun first,” Bookworm grinned. Keyblade did not think this was a good way of thinking, but was interrupted before she could say so.
“Ooooh! There is another essence in here! You were right Bookworm! You’re smart!” Shade said happily.
“She is definitely drunk,” Keyblade said in amazement. Shade calling Bookworm smart was almost as weird as Mithos calling Keyblade tall.
“YES!!!” Bookworm cheered as Shade finally shapeshifted into a squirrel. Unfortunately, her excitement was short-lived. She stared in horror at the giant squirrel that now towered over her. She really should not have been so surprised. Why would evil Shade have settled for a small, harmless squirrel when she could be a giant one, big enough to squash a certain very annoying friend?
Shade’s transformation distracted Bookworm and Keyblade. They did not notice Mithos playing with the Mage’s Ring. “Shiny! Oooh! What does this do?” He accidentally activated the ring and vanished to Derris-Kharlan.
Shade returned to human form, looked around in confusion for a moment, and decided to try setting a cactus on fire. She missed, of course, and hit Bookworm instead. Poor Bookworm had just been crushed by a giant squirrel and then hit with a fireball. So now she just lay on the ground in extreme pain, listening to Indigo mentally lecture her about why self-preservation is important.
Keyblade glanced uncertainly at her companions. They would probably face a battle with Kratos and the Symphonians when they returned to Derris-Kharlan. And they were definitely not ready for a battle. But Kratos would try to kill Mithos as soon as he appeared. There was no way he would wait to discover that Mithos was drunk and (relatively) harmless. Keyblade decided she couldn’t just abandon him. She activated the Sorcerer’s Ring.

Derris Kharlan! (Cat)

Cat woke up with a mild headache after the gummy ship had been crashed by none other than Sora. She woke up, finding herself being watched over by Netto, Ed, and Al.
"Jeez...did we crash..?"
"No Cat, we just so happened to fall asleep while driving, OF COURSE WE CRASHED!!" was Ed's abrupt and waking response. After Cat removed her hands from her ears to shield herself from Ed's rant, she now just noticed their surroundings. They seemed to be standing on a platform....except it seemed to be suspended in the atmosphere, which was basically a swirling purplish-black mass.
"Whoa...where ARE we?" Cat asked now wanting to know just what this place was. It looked like some other dimension she had seen in sci-fi movies. Netto, deciding he'd rather find a way out "Rockman, can you maybe find out just what this place is? Or if we can find a way to get out of here?"
"Give me a minute to analyze the area..." While Rockman was looking for a way out, Ed was observing this very strange, very new world that was much different from his own, taking occasional notes in his "Traveler's log". I wonder why he takes so many notes.... Netto's thoughts were interrupted by a beeping from his PET.
"Rockman?"
"Netto-kun, it seems that there's a path that will take us to a portal that will take us out of this part of the world, but the only problem is that I'm not entirely sure where it will lead."
"Well, it's better then just staying here, right?"
"You're right, Al. Rockman, take us to where that portal is."
"Right." Following Rockman's directions, the group arrived at the portal Rockman had described.
"A-are you sure we have to go through this one, Rockman?" Netto asked unsteadily.
"Don't worry, Netto-kun, there's no ghosts or anything, I checked."
"Rockman, I wasn't talking about ghosts. I'm just...a little uneasy about going in, that's all." "Well, forget about it. It's probably nothing." Ed was too curious to be cautious, which dismayed Al because this always got him and Ed (and anyone who was unlucky enough to be with them at the time) into trouble. But Cat seemed to be the most uneasy of them all. Her drake senses were telling her that there was something in there.....she wasn't sure what it was, or who it was, but there was definitely something powerful. We'd best be on our guard came Goldd's voice, echoing inside Cat's head. Cat decided to repeat this warning to her friends. "You guys, Goldd sa-" She then realized that Ed and Netto had already gone through the portal, not even paying attention. Al was the only one who was still there with Cat, and gave her a "I couldn't stop them, I'm sorry" look. Cat sighed. "I guess we should just go in after them so they don't get killed." "Yeah. Why does this always have to happen to me." Al wondered as he and Cat went through the portal with the exasperated Al.
To Cat's surprise (and to Al's) the portal seemed to lead into some kind of forest. "Just what IS this place?" Cat asked aloud. "First we're on some random platform, now we're in a forest??" "Yeah, it's pretty weird...we'd better find Netto and brother before they get attacked by heartless or something." Al responded. Cat decided, as they were walking to find the troublesome two, to see if Goldd knew about this place. So...where are we exactly?
I believe this place may be a reminet of an evlen colony. came Goldd's response and if I remember correctly, they don't take kindly to humans walking around on their sacred ground. Well, what about drakes? Was Cat's response They take even less kindly to drakes because they believe we are not human at all, merely dragons in human skin. "Cat?" Al's voice had interrupted Cat and Goldd's mental conversation. "They're over there, in that clearing." Cat noticed Netto and Ed sitting on a fairly large rock. Be wary, little one. That presence I was talking about? It's very close by. So be aware.
You know Goldd, if this were Ed you were talking too, he'd be punching your sphere.
CAT!
Sorry, I'll be aware... Cat went to sit on the rock with her companions, when there was a rustle in the bushes. This immediately made Cat jump to her senses, only to find that it was....a squirrel. Oh yes Goldd, this SQUIRREL is defiantly going to kill us.
Not the squirrel, little one, the man standing BEHIND the squirrel. Cat now noticed the man who was standing in the clearing, who seemed to be eying these intruders with a stare that seemed to be piercing into their very souls. He was in a purple mercenary outfit, with a sword hanging by his side, and a shield on his lower arm. But at the same time, he seemed...somewhat familiar in a way, however which way Cat was not able to clearly grasp at this time.

He doesn't seem dangerous. He's just observing us. And he looks human to me. Cat, wanting to make a good impression, strode over and said, "Hi there! We kinda got lost so if you could-" Cat was now looking at the tip of the swordsman's blade. "Eep!" It seems that we will have to fight...there is no way I can manage a full shift, and I'm not certain if the half shift will be sufficient.
Well, it'll have to do! was Cat's answering thought. Gold light surrounded her body, and when it cleared she charged at this new enemy. In response, the man held up his shield, which Cat collided into face-first. The man seemed to watch her with pity as her face oh-so-slowly peeled itself off from the shield. Cat heard Ed matter something like, "We're doomed." but did not let this stop her from taking this chance to swipe her tail from behind his feet in a attempt to trip him and gain the advantage. He seemed to anticipated this, and attempted to jump out of the way, but Cat managed to wrap the end of her tail around his ankle. Smirking, she started to fly very high into the air, planning to drop him if he did not agree to leave her and her friends alone. This plan never went into effect, however, when she dropped him, he seemed to.....float. Cat spun around, and noticed that he seemed to have wings. Wings that looked very similar, to, say, a certain brown-haired swordsman Cat knew. ....He can fly..?
Apparently so. This will make our fight much harder.
Whatever. let's just kick his butt.
Must you put it into such barbarous terms, Cat? Cat decided to try to stab him using her tail, thrusting it forward so fast it could barely be seen. Cat's enemy seemed to effortlessly dodge her stabs with an even faster speed. He eventually got tired of dodging and grabbed Cat's tail. Cat yelped as he swung her and threw her toward the ground. She was barely able to stop herself from making a collision with the ground, which would have been very nasty (and a pain to clean up). Shoot, it's like this guy predicts every move we make! How do we counter that? We may need to use the Drake Cry, but...
Am I gonna pass out for another month or not? Cat mentally asked in a mix of annoyance and rudeness. Well, no...maybe we- Cat had had enough of waiting. A sound wave seemed to bubble up from her throat, and the cry was unleashed on Cat's unsuspecting foe. When Cat had completed her attack, a straight line seemed to be made in the forest. Many of the trees had been snapped in half, and where now leaning on (what was left) of their sides. Cat closed her mouth, which was now quite sore. She fell to one knee, and started to feel her vision slip from fuzzy to black. "I...is...he..gone?" Cat managed to gasp out with what little remaining strength she had. Ed, Al, and Netto looked at the area (because Cat was incapable of doing so). A couple of yards or so away from the source of the attack, Netto found a purple boot sticking out of the debris. Out of his, "curiosity", he grabbed a fallen tree branch and started to poke the boot. Rockman hated it when Netto got curious. "Netto-kun stop it! You'll wake him up!" Rockman's whisper hissed. Netto cast an almost bored glance at Rockman, "What're you freaking out about Rockman? Cat's last attacks probably knocked him out for a week-" his sentence was interrupted when the auburn-haired swordsman burst from his spot, and with almost lightning speed, raced to where Cat had collapsed. "CAT-CHAN!!" Netto seemed to pull off crossfusion within seconds, also racing to get to Cat before her attacker did. Netto managed to position himself between Cat and the attacker, but came to a horrible realization: he wouldn't be able to block the attack without taking damage."Get out..of the way..id..iot..."
"No way! you can't even stand! Let alone defend yourself!" Netto braced for impact when a desperate cry stopped the attack. "STOP!" Cat was awakened momentarily to see that this cry came from Lloyd. The others (takes too long to type their names) were also behind him. "Cat!" Sora immediately ran over to his half conscious friend. The man who had attacked them in the first place seemed to have frozen, staring directly at Lloyd. "...Dad..?" Lloyd's question seemed to hang in the air for a minute. Eyes full of unshed tears, Lloyd rushed to the man and hugged him tightly. "I missed you...Dad."

The New Adventure Begins... (Cat)

"Woah..."
This was the reaction when everyone had entered the gummi ship. Sure, it hadn't looked like much on the outside, but on the inside... It was HUGE! (it had to be as there's what? eight people??)
"H-how is this even possible?" Ed asked, his once genius brain being fried by all this alien technology.
Netto, noticing this, muttered, "Ne, don't make your brain explode from thinking, Ed-kun, like I do."
"Oh, is that why you don't think, Netto-kun?"
Netto took out his PET, now glaring at the small figure inside it and retorted, "No, I was speaking in Ed-kun's case. Sometimes I wonder why Papa didn't install you with and obedience program in you. It's not like I can."
Rockman chuckled, "Well... We both know that after Papa found out that you reprogrammed me, he put encryption codes that only he could crack." The only thing Netto could do was stick out his tongue, which he did.
Cat thought this would be as good a time as any to find out where her room was. She wanted to ask now, as she didn't want to bunk with one of the guys, so she asked, "Hey Riku, what about rooms? I'm not gonna have to sleep in the same room as one of the guys?"
Sora, who was somewhat offended, inquired "...Hey, what's wrong with guys? Do we smell? It's definitely the smell. I smell like a nobody. What do you all smell like?"
Although they seemed somewhat offended, the other guys smelled themselves and answered, (in the order of Riku, Ed, Lloyd, and Netto)
"Darkness."
"Auto-mail."
"Dwarf."
"Umm... Dimensional Area?"
Colette decided to see what she smelled like, and pronounced loudly "Oh! I smell like flowers! And bunnies!"
Cat sweatdropped. This wasn't exactly what she meant. She knew in her gut that this would be a verrry long journey. A verrry long journey in which she would learn fascinating things that would boggle her mind... and other things that were not even useful and she would probably be better off not knowing.
Sora, deciding it was time to go, announced, "Okay everyone! Take a seat in the cockpit, and we'll be off! And of course, yours truly will pilot!"
Just after he said that, a coyote howled, (with an ominous silence) Riku bluntly stated, "No."
"But why not??"
"Because you always crash, and I'd like to at least arrive at the world fully intact!"
"...Still wanna drive..." Sora pouted, as everyone took their seats.
Riku started the liftoff countdown, "Liftoff in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one-"
"Riku-kun!"
Riku nearly fell out of his chair. "What?!" he asked irritably.
"Can I say it? Please?"
Riku smacked his forehead with his hand. "Fine...."
"KICK IT BROTHER!"
"Say it right!!!"
"Blast off." Inside the PET Rockman sighed, also sharing in Cat's discontent that this would be a long journey.
Everyone wondered why the ship wasn't going straight, and why there was a big arrow pointing toward the ground. This didn't last long, as the floor seemed to open up under them, and the gummi ship seemed to fall into a hole into the ground! Everyone except for Riku and Sora screamed as they fell through the hole and out into the vastness of space. The gummi ship soon disappeared into a speck of light, and the new adventure of Cat and her friends began.