This is Version 2 of this chapter. There's nothing new, I just tidied it up a bit. Okay.

Hello again. Welcome to the start of the next Saga of stories.

If you haven't read any of my stories before, I seriously suggest you do, or you will be lost very quickly. I was planning to summarise all of them on my profile page (and I may have got round to doing that if you look,) but if I haven't, up can find a summary of the first three at the start of "Parallel Lives" (my fourth story.) Other then that, I don't have anything to suggest just yet.

For my regular readers, if you've forgotten everything about "Tangled Web," it might be worth re-reading it, quickly at least. It will help you work out what's going on before our heroes do.

One other note; this is my first story to be given a gene and it's a mystery, mainly because let it never be said that I'm afraid to try something new (and I can here my Brother laughing from here. Also, he'd like me to note that I have a bad record of not confusing people in this type of story, but I will do my best.)

So, if your one of those people moaning that no writes anything other than romance in this section of the site, this story may have something to offer you.

One last thing, if you do have any criticisms, please tell me, as that's the only way I can improve as a writer. Right, that's enough blab from me, lets get started.

1.

The mind started processing, for the very first time, in pain. It felt like the body was being crushed inside a balloon, which was slowly squeezing it tighter and tighter. It was especially painful around the fingers and the toes, as it forced it's was in between them.

Eventually, it breathed. A muffled yelp of delight came from somewhere, but it couldn't respond, as it was too busy trying to repeal the liquid it had just breathed in. It couldn't. Forcing its eyes open, it appeared to be in a vat of some sort of yellowing liquid, tubes attached to its body. There was no hope of survival. All its senses buzzed crazily in wild panic, relaying an unreasonable amount of information to the brain, in the vain hope that it would be able to save itself.

It couldn't, but it didn't die. Not this time. Suddenly, all the water drained away, and it fell, landing on its hand and knees, vomiting wildly, throwing up bile and blood from its lungs. Just in front of it, someone was studding it closely. Eventually the vomiting stopped, and the recently freed thing collapsed from exhaustion. But as it fell to the ground, the observer started speaking.

"At last, after six attempts, all my….

MJ woke up screaming. It was just a brief one though, before she gathered herself. It had just been a dream. A dream she'd had rather a lot recently, but still just a dream.

Okay then, a nightmare. She sat up in bed, and tried to clear her thoughts. Sure, it was gone now, but MJ was worried that if she when back to sleep, it would return. That awful felling, as if she was dying. The young Spider-Puff, just turned seven, switched the bedside light on. Maybe reading a bit would put her at ease.

She heard footsteps outside. Someone must have heard her scream. She waited for either her mum or dad to open the door, but to her surprise, it was neither.

"You alright?" asked Edward, her brother. He'd still led with the same opening line though.

"I'm alright," she replied, "just had a bad dream." Edward nodded.

"The same one?"
"Yes… err nearly." MJ shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"I… I think that I survived this time," MJ looked down. Edward put his hand on his sister's shoulder.

"Hey, that's a good thing! I once had a sequence of dreams like that, and they didn't stop until I'd… err survived. So maybe that's it."

"Really?" said MJ hopefully.

"Sure," said Edward, who also reckoned it would help if MJ didn't think the dream was going to come back. "You feeling any better now?"

"Yes thanks."

"No problem. Do you want a glass of water or something?"

"Err, no." MJ paused. "Why are you still up? Did I wake you?"

Edward shook is head. "Can't sleep," he said.

"Why, you too excited?"

"About what?"

"You know, starting High School," said MJ, "You must be really excited!"

Edward looked at MJ with a hint of contempt. "The start of a new Formula One season is something to be excited about sis, not starting high school."

"Why?" asked his confused sister. "I mean, you're not exactly a nerd, so you're going to be with the cool kids, right?"

Edward sighed. "You watch too much T.V."

"I didn't watch the entire Le Mans 24 hours live!" retorted MJ.

"Only because Mum sent you to bed!" said Edward. "No, what I mean is, that the 'cool' kids generally get crap marks and are often complete dicks, and the 'nerds' can be dicks too, but don't always get good marks."

"I don't get it," said MJ, "on T.V…"

"No ones going to make a television show – or write fan fiction for that matter – on what high school is really like. Yes, you will get eaten alive by the 'cool' people if you don't fit the mould, but just because they class you as a 'nerd' or 'geek' or in English, 'boffin,' doesn't mean you're intelligent, it just means that you stick out. No, most people fall in to the invisible category, and forget bulling and relationships crises, the battles we fight is a one personal against the school bell. Getting from one end of the day to the other with out making our selves a target for the preppies or the teachers. That's the real objective of High school. And it takes a lot to pull it off. The most intelligent person in a class is the person that everybody knows the name of and only a few people know anything else about, until they pop up in the top three of the school at the end of the year."

MJ was now confused. "Are you talking to me or yourself?" she asked eventually.

"So the trick is to work hard but not to show it off," Edward finished, answering MJ's question. "Do you think that's a good plan?" he asked nervously.

"I… err," MJ had no idea. "Why are you worried? I though you were going to be a rally driver or something?"

"Yes, but It's not that simple," Edward explained. "I mean, if it all goes down the pan, I'd like to be in a position to stay on and do A-levels."

MJ nodded. "You could be come a superhero instead," she suggested.

"Nah, that's your dream," said Edward dismissively. "Hang on a mo," he suddenly changed tone, and shot out. MJ sat up for a moment, and waited. Edward returned with a set of clothes.

"I stitched this for you while I was suspended from school." MJ scooped it up.

"You sowed?" she said.

"What's wrong with me sowing?" asked Edward indignantly. "I was bed ridden most of the time… and I liked pretending the pedal on the sowing machine was an accelerator."

MJ had a look at what Edward had given her. It nearly made her cry. "You did this yourself," she sniffed through happiness, "THANKS!" she grabbed him for a hug.

"You're crushing me!" said Edward. MJ released slightly, giggling delightedly. Edward composed himself, and got up to leave.

"Don't tell Mum or Dad 'cause they'll kill me," he said, and left. MJ picked up the clothes, and looked at them once more.

"Hehe, Spider-Puff," she said to herself.

Sonic was still up too. This was because he was on night duty. For the first time ever.

"Dammed Blossom," he said grumpily, "I should never have given her the right to set MY duty router." But he didn't really have much power over her anymore, so it was difficult to force her to give him nice shifts.

Still, it was bitterly cold as he plodded uncharacteristically slowly through the streets. Suddenly, something sped overhead. Sonic Jumped. He had no idea what it was, but a brief look might liven up his night.

Okay, I'm very sorry that that had none of the normal characters in it. This is not what I normally do. Okay? Please review and I'll sort it out in the next chapter. Thanks.