Charmed and its characters are the property of Warner Bros. No infringement of these copyrights is intended. The story is not authorized by the copyright holder, and is totally non profit. The original characters, situations and storylines are the property of the authors. All other characters not from the original series are the intellectual property of the author of this story. This story is not to be archived elsewhere without the permission of the author.

PROLOGUE:

2003, somewhere in San Francisco.

Joey was turning in her bed. She couldn't sleep, again. It was so hot inside. She stood up and opened the window to get some fresh air. She settled herself in front of it, letting the wind touch her face and blow her hair in the air. It took her mind of al the thoughts that kept her awake. The wind did her good and finally her eyes closed.

The next day Michael found Joey in front of the window, fast asleep. "Wake up", the kid said as he grabbed Joey at her shoulders and gently tried to wake her. "Wazzup?", Joey said, still half asleep. Suddenly she remembered that tomorrow was a big day. The basketball match. Joey promised the kids from the orphan home she would train the entire day with them so they would be ready for the big game tomorrow.

"I'll be there in a sec", she said to Michael as she pushed him out of the room and got dressed in no time. She took on an oversized t-shirt with a logo of the Red Sox, old jeans, worn sneakers and a baseball cap. Downstairs she quickly grabbed a sandwich from the table and she run outside.

Meanwhile at the Halliwell Manor.

"Where the hell is Paige?", Chris asked angry at Piper. "You know we are never going to vanquish that demon if we don't have the power of three to help us. He already killed six witches in the last week alone, we have got to stop him." "Relax", Phoebe said. "We will. You can't blame Paige for wanting to have a life outside this manor."

Just then Paige orbed in. "So what is the big rush, I was in the middle of an important meeting." Chris looked at her from the edges of eyes. "Really? An important meeting at a temp job. How important can that be? Anyway I found the demon that killed all those witches. Ready?"

He orbed them to the place where he last traced the demon. But all they saw were dirty streets filled with trash. Old houses with broken windows and graffiti on the walls. "So where is the big bad guy?", Paige asked. "I swear this is the place", Chris said feeling uncomfortable. "Well maybe we should ask those kids over there", Paige said sarcastic pointing at a group of kids who were playing basketball a little further down the street. "Funny", Chris responded annoyed. "Guess you were wrong", Piper said calm. "Come one lets go back to the manor."

Joey felt something strange. Like someone was streaking over her back, only there was no one behind her. "C'mon", she said to the kids. "Lets eat lunch, aren't you all hungry?" They were, because the were all running back to the orphan home as fast as they could. Joey went to the other side of the field to get the basketball. This was no place to leave something behind.

She turned around to go back, but suddenly there stood a man in front of her, blocking her way to the exit of the field. "Excuse me", she said. "Can I pass?" The guy didn't a move an inch so she tried to make herself as thin as possible and go alongside the man. He grabbed her arm and tried to stop her. "Hey let me go", she shouted loud. Hoping the one of the kids would here her.

"What the hell do you want from me?", Joey said getting really panicked. "You look like one of those guys from Men in Black, well you know what? I am no alien." She kicked the guy on of his knees and felt he was losing his grip. But before she could ran away seven more 'men in black' materialized in front of her. "OMG… what... how...", she said. "Hold there miss", one of them -apparently the leader- said. "Our boss wants to ask you something."

Chris saw something was wrong. He immediately ran towards the scream for help and saw the men harassing Joey. "Let her go", he said, knowing it was no use. But he was only stretching time so the sisters would be there to help. After a few second he said to one of them "Look behind you". The guy didn't move an inch. "You know, if I were you I would have listened to him", Piper said who stood behind the man when she blow him up.

Paige threw one to the other end of the basketball field and Phoebe used her bare hands to take two of the men in black down. Chris went to take care of Joey but didn't notice one of the man trying to attack him from behind. Suddenly Chris heard a loud crack. When he turned around he saw the man laying unconscious on the field and the basketball silently bounced away from the body...

Chris didn't take the time to think of what just happened, he wanted to make sure the girl was alright. The sisters would take care of the rest. Joey was stunned of all the things that just happened in front of her. Men appearing, flying through the air and blown up into a zillion pieces. Not something you see every day. She didn't say a word when she saw Chris approaching.

"Hi", Chris said friendly when he walked towards her. "Are you okay? I know everything you saw must seem a little weird." Joey laughed when she looked Chris in the eyes. "You can say that again". Their eyes met and Chris got a strange feeling. He remembered those eyes, they looked so familiar, but he didn't know where he saw them before.

"So", he said. "I am Chris. And you are?" "I am Joey", she answered. "Do you know those guys who attacked me? Because the woman you came with are… well you know kinda weird too." "Hey we are not weird", Piper said who just blew up the last men and overheard Joeys question. "No", Paige added. "We are just witches."

"Witches huh", Joey said with disbelief. "So ya'll came here on your brooms?" Phoebe laughed: "No, of course not. It's nothing like that. We help the innocent, when they are attacked by demons, like what just happened to you." "And we just happen to have magical powers", Chris added.

Joey was astonished. "You are serious, aren't you? I really don't know what to say. You just… stay away from me, okay?" And she ran away before either one of them could answer.