The Tin Man series and all characters withal belong to the marvelous people at SciFi . . . and not me. :(

"Glitch?" DG roamed the castle searching for her half-brained friend. He was supposed to be in preparation for his surgery today. When she had checked his room, Glitch wasn't there. In fact, he hadn't been in any of his favorite spots. After searching for an hour, DG had asked Cain to help find the Queen's old advisor.

"Princess!" Cain walked down the hall towards DG, who stopped and grimaced internally. She hated to be called princess. It sounded too . . . girly. She let it go anyway, and listened to what he had to say, "I can't find Glitch anywhere in the castle or grounds." DG sighed; he must have run off from fear.

"Any ideas where he might have gone, Mr Cain?"

Glitch wandered around an open field just outside the palace boundaries, marveling at the soft glow of the sunset. Just a moment ago he had been terribly worried about . . . well, something or other. He couldn't quite remember anymore. There was this nagging feeling that he wasn't in the place he should have been. Also, the Queen had said something . . . there was a bug in some thing that . . . and the traveling . . . it was long gone before Glitch could remember why he had been in to see the Queen in the first place.

At that same moment, the Queen was in conference with some of her recovered advisors. They were having problems trying to shut down the Travel Storms. Recently, they had become erratic and led to any place on the Other Side.

"Until we have Ambrose back, I don't know how we can fully shut them down," she said for the tenth time that day, "He was the only one who really knew how to operate the system, and any others who might have had knowledge have been dead for many years." She was losing hope for her old friend; the still hadn't found where he had gone.

The Queen dismissed her advisors and sat near the window, absentmindedly following the rogue travel storm in the distant field. There had been a lot of those recently, especially with the virus going around the systems. In fact, every system in the O.Z. had been experience the same sort of glitches recently. At least they had been able to isolate the travel storms, and they had posted notices around Central City that the field was officially banned from public use. So why was she so anxious today?

"Mother!" DG burst into the room. The Queen smiled at her youngest daughter, but it was quickly replaced by a replica of DG's expression.

"What's wrong?" Quickly, DG explained that Glitch was in the field where they had isolated the Travel Storms. As they walked down the hall, the Queen spotted Cain and had him take a handful of Tin Men to the field. They were to retrieve Ambrose ("Glitch, mother," DG sighed) as quickly as possible, so he would not be lost in the storm.

Glitch walked along, rather bouncily, until he noticed a strong wind coming from behind him. He turned and gaped in horror at the oncoming Travel Storm. Now he remembered why he wasn't supposed to be there. If only he had his old memory . . . that also just occurred to him. He was going to get his brain back today. For a moment Glitch danced a little happy jig before remembering that he was about to get transported to some place on the Other Side.

"Glitch!" DG yelled, running towards her friend. He turned, exasperated, and stared at his friend. The last thing DG saw before he vanished into the storm was his vacant, pleasant smile.