D/c: If I owned Tin Man, especially the characters, you would know.

"May I ask where you're going, DG?" Ahamo bent down so he could look straight into his daughter's eyes.

Dorothy Gale, or as everyone called her, DG, and her boyfriend of eighteen months, Jeb Cain were sitting in DG's automobile, which had been a gift from her friend Wyatt Cain, who was the father of Jeb, for her twenty-first birthday. The sleek black vehicle was kept in a garage which had been erected near the stables.

DG sighed in slight exasperation. "Dad, I'm twenty-two."

Ahamo grinned at his daughter and leaned forward until his face was inches from hers. "I don't know any place called 'I'm twenty-two.' Is it in the Outer Zone?"

DG laughed and gave her father a playful shove. "You know what I mean!"

"So does that mean you're not going to tell me where you're going?"

DG threw him her sweetest, most innocent smile. "We're going to a calcio match at the Emerald Stadium! Right, Jeb?"

Jeb nodded, enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear. "Garland Wanderers are playing Culver Forest!"

This time, it was Ahamo's turn to smile as he leaned forward again, until his forehead was practically touching DG's. "Nice try," he said, "but the Wanderers don't play until three days from now. Besides they're playing Kinland United, not Culver Forest. See, I'm quite familiar with the Premier League as well; I've been a Wanderers fan ever since I met your mother." DG's mother, Galina, Queen of the Outer Zone, had always had a warm and gentle air about her, but, unknown to most who didn't know her, she was also an avid sports enthusiast, and it was not uncommon for her to get very animated, to say the least, when watching her favorite calcio club.

DG and Jeb could only grin sheepishly in stunned silence. Ahamo started tapping the roof, still grinning at the cheeky pair. Jeb sneezed.

"Okay, okay," said DG, giving in, "we're going to Hick's Sports Grille & Karaoke Bar, a couple of blocks down from the Mystic Man's old place in Central City."

Ahamo's grin disappeared and was quickly replaced with a severe, scolding demeanor. "Why did you lie to me?" he demanded. "You could've easily told me you were going to the bar. Instead, you lied. Why?"

DG and Jeb's smiles evaporated almost as instantly as Ahamo's had, and DG avoided her father's eyes, while Jeb searched vainly for an escape – one for the both of them. Perhaps they could simply drive off? But then they'd get in big, BIG trouble. Not only would DG have to regain her parents' trust, and Jeb, his father's, but they'd probably also be forbidden to see each other. And that wouldn't be any fun. No, sir.

"Uh... because...um...well..." DG mumbled, feeling uncomfortable under her father's infamous stern stare.

Seizing his chance, Jeb leaped on the opportunity for a quip to lighten the mood. "Because we were waylaid by space aliens who forced us to lie to you under pain of radioactive death!"

Instead of having the desired effect, the joke backfired completely. Ahamo eyed Cain's son coldly, and spoke in a low, dangerous voice. "If I were your father," he said, "I would place you under house arrest for twenty-eight days for sassing the King of the Outer Zone!"

Scarcely daring to move, Jeb turned his head slowly, oh so slowly, toward DG. "Is... he always... like... this?" he asked carefully.

"Not... usually..." came the wary response. DG never took her eyes off her father, who clearly was in no mood for nonsense. She decided to make a gamble. Or was it a leap of faith?

"Have you been drinking, Dad?" she asked outright.

It was the wrong thing to ask at this moment. Because Ahamo's expression darkened, to an almost hypnotic glower that promised harsh discipline.

"Get out of the car, DG," he rumbled. Turning to Jeb, he added, "You too, Mr. Cain."

Without another word, the two young adults did as they were told, never once taking their eyes off Ahamo. Jeb fought the urge to lock his hands behind his head like a hostage would, or put his hands on the roof expecting to be frisked. DG just hoped her father wouldn't get her mother and/or Wyatt Cain involved in this little affair, and save her from any extra humiliation.

Then, to their extreme confusion, Ahamo got into the car's driver seat and revved up the engine, hands on the steering wheel. His impish grin came flooding back as he looked at the bewildered pair, rascality twinkling in his eyes.

"Did I fool you?" he asked mischievously.

Realization washed over DG like a bucket of warm water, and she shrieked in delighted and amused relief.

Jeb, having just realized that it was all a joke, threw back his head and burst out laughing, clutching at his sides and nearly doubling over. "You had me fooled from the start!" he managed to force out between guffaws. "You're good!"

"That's my Dad!" said DG, wiping tears of merriment from her eyes. "Thirty years of practical jokes and you still never see them coming!"

Ahamo put on his proudest, cheekiest smile, and revved the engine some more. "So how's this baby been running?" he asked, "Been doing okay with the oil and gasoline?"

"Oh, the gas is practically free! It's like a dream! I only have to pay about an eighth of what I would on Earth. As for the oil, well, Cain always changes the oil for me, which is nice even though I'm perfectly capable of changing my own oil," DG replied, leaning in the passenger window. "I love Cain," she sighed, with a smile, "he's like a third father."

"Third?" Jeb asked, confused. DG and her older sister Azkadelia both thought Jeb looked positively adorable when he was confused.

"Yeah, Galina and I had a pair of androids take care of DG while she had to be away," Ahamo explained, getting out of the driver's seat, "and they became her surrogate parents. After everything was, ahem, cleared up and taken care of, DG came back home and they went back to Milltown, where they originally came from. DG still goes to visit them regularly."

"Oh yeah, of course." Jeb chuckled in spite of himself. "Silly me."

DG gave Jeb an affectionate squeeze, and the latter blushed slightly.

"Well, don't let me hold you folks up," Ahamo said, abruptly, stepping away from the car. "Go on and have your fun-filled evening."

DG started in mock surprise. "You mean you're letting us go?" she gasped, her eyes wide.

Once again, that same scapegrace grin dominated Ahamo's face as he opened the car door for his daughter.

"Actually," he said craftily, "I'm going to punish you for lying to me by letting you go to the Sports Grille & Karaoke Bar!"

"Ummmm, how is that a punishment for us?" DG had to ask. But, oddly, she practically regretted as soon as it left her lips.

Ahamo's grin was cryptic, his face alight with roguery. "Life is full of mysteries," he intoned. Neither his daughter, nor Jeb had anything to say to that. Maybe he was just a long-blond-haired practical-joking weirdo with a pie grin.

Speechless, DG and Jeb got into the car once again and drove off.

Ahamo looked after them, chuckling evilly. "You two have no idea what you just got yourselves into!"

To be continued

A/n: Okay, nobody actually sings anything in this chapter, but this is the set-up. The next chapter will have singing. I guarantee it!