Author's Note: Yay fun fanfiction of happiness. This story is purely for fun, posted up on fanfiction so some friends can read it. Any flames about the suckiness and how crappy my OCs are will get deleted. So, um, yes. Story.
Chapter One – Piper
My name is Piper. Man, I've always wanted to say that. It's such an awesome opening, isn't it? Remains classic, no matter how many times it's used. Or by how many different people. It's kind of cool that I'm one of the ones who uses it now. Even if it may or may not be a lie. Piper might not actually be my real name. It's a cool name, though. It may be the Charmed fan in me, but I've just always loved the name Piper. But you'll never know whether or not the whole Charmed Piper thing is just a coincidence or if it's actually the reason why I decided to use Piper as a codename.
Because I can't ever tell you my real name. It didn't used to be like that. There was a time when I was just a normal kid. A regular high school student, with regular things to worry about. But that was a different universe. And I'm not even just using that as a metaphor for how different my life is now. It was actually another universe. Well, I suppose I was normal here, once, but those are only memories for me. I didn't actually live through them. Okay, I did, but not really. It wasn't really me. And even then, I wasn't exactly normal. Normal girls generally aren't able to conjure up flaming tennis balls, after all.
Confused yet? Yeah, imagine having to live through this. I am quite possibly the least normal person I know. And that's really saying something, given the people I'm friends with. Actually, on second thought…Maybe I'm not the least normal person I know. But I'm definitely up there on the list. That probably isn't helping the confusion, is it? Plus, somehow I doubt telling you that I'm friends with a bunch of freaks and I'm one of the freakiest is really going to convince you of my sanity. And, well, what I'm going to say next isn't going to help much, either.
You see, the reason for all of the secrecy is that Earth is under attack. And me and my friends? We're the only things standing in the way. The only things between the human race and the Yeerks. I didn't used to have to worry about Yeerks. They just used to be something someone made up, a race of villains to give the heroes something to fight. But not here. No, the Yeerks are very real in this universe. Just as real as the threat they pose to us. Because they're trying to take over the world. Not by force, no, they're more sneaky than that. The Yeerks are taking over the world by taking over our bodies. They can enter your head, crawl in through your ear and flatten their slug-like bodies across your brain. And then they control you. Every part of you, until you're just a prisoner inside your own body. You can think, you can see what you're doing, but you can't stop it. You can't stop yourself as you lure the people you care about into traps, giving them over to the things that are holding you hostage.
Sounds fun, doesn't it? That's what we're fighting against. What I've been fighting pretty much since I came to this world. You're probably wondering about that, why I've been going on about different dimensions and stuff. I guess I got a little ahead of myself. So I'll get on with the story. Grab yourself a seat and listen up, because the fate of the world may depend on what we have to tell you.
That morning, the day everything started, was relatively normal. I woke up in enough time to get dressed and run out the door to catch the bus. I was almost late, but that didn't matter. It meant I had an excuse to not talk to my parents before school. I got to the bus on time, anyway, so I made it to my first period without being late. Which is always a good thing, because being late meant I didn't get detention. I listened to my math teacher babble on for awhile, and then things started getting weird.
For starters, I fell asleep. Yeah, okay, that may not be a weird thing for most people, but it was for me. I never fell asleep in class. Or, at least, I hadn't before that day. Not even when I was up really late the night before watching tennis. But that day, I was completely out. And when I woke up, I felt a bit funny. Disoriented, slightly, and I had a bit of a headache. Both things only lasted for a few moments, and then I was fine again, but it was still strange.
And then I looked around and realized I was in the wrong class. It wasn't math anymore, it was chemistry. And that was my chemistry teacher writing formulas on the board, because I had chemistry first period. Except…I didn't. I had math. Okay, that didn't make sense at all. It was like I had memories of two different classes at the same time. And then I realized it wasn't just the classes. I had memories of two different lives. One where I was Piper, and one where I was who I used to be.
Wait. I was Piper? I looked over myself briefly. Blue eyes, very light brown hair streaked with bright, fire red, high school body…Okay, not Charmed Piper. Besides, I remembered being an only child, and my parents weren't divorced. Although they were dead. Ow. Oh, wow. That hurt. Remembering that brought tears to my eyes. I had been close to my parents, here. I had told them everything, before they died a year ago. I lived in a foster home now.
So…obviously I had done some dimension hopping or something. Well, hell. This was a dream come true. I had read enough fanfiction to think a lot about wanting to fall into some other world than my own. I just, uh, never thought it would really happen. Because, really, who does? For a moment, I wondered how I had gotten here, then I decided I didn't care. I was here. In another world. Why poke holes at that? I was just happy to be…where ever I was.
Yeah, I should probably figure out where I was. It might be helpful to know what world I was in. I thought about it, concentrating only on the memories I had of Piper. That was kind of confusing. The memories I had from the other world kept popping up. Eventually, I got frustrated and shoved them away as hard as I could. To my surprise, it worked. They sort of faded away. They were still there, but now the Piper memories were dominant.
They weren't much help, though. I didn't really know where I was. This world seemed to be pretty much the same as my own world. Except for one thing. I had a power. I could create flaming tennis balls. Just visualizing those memories made my palm itch. I wanted to do that, see it happen, not just remember it. So I raised my hand, and asked if I could go to the restroom.
As soon as I was out of class, I made a bee-line for the bathroom. There was another girl in there, washing her hands, but I just glared at her until she hurried out. Then, after double checking that I was alone, I held up my hand and concentrated. My palm began itching again, and a few seconds later a flaming tennis ball popped into existence. It hovered above my hand, as if waiting for me to do something. So I chucked it at a wall. Which turned out to be a bad idea, since it slammed into the wall and exploded, leaving a large hole.
Oops. I quickly ducked out of the bathroom before anyone could run in to see what the sound was. Fortunately, everyone had been in class, and the bathroom was pretty far away from any rooms. It didn't look like anyone had heard the mini explosion. I breathed a sigh of relief, then went back to my class. I could figure out where I was later. Now, there was still the matter of passing chemistry.