A Defense:
Hello there. Now, I'm going to tell you this right off the bat. This is a very self-indulgant piece of fiction. I'm doing several things with this that a lot of people think are dumb at the least, and a crime against literature at the most. Everything branches from the fact that yes, this is a self insertion fic.
Indeed, I'm putting myself into another world's story. And yes, most likely there will be a love interest with a major character from the show. And again yes, I will be giving myself various abilities that make me stronger than your average man.
Despite all this, I don't think I'm going to make a fool of myself or of the world I am working with. I have reasons. I'm going to try not to make myself a superman. I'm not going to pretend I could be someone I'm not in another world. The version of me in this is going to be very much like the real me, personality wise. I'm not going to suddenly turn into some suave ladies man, able to save the world while simultaneously beating off hordes of women with a stick.
The abilities I'm giving myself are given for practical reasons. Everything will work for the story in the end. I'm not going to make myself better than the main characters of the show. To do that would take the magic from the original work. I'm going to add myself, most likely manipulating things so that there will be some problem that I have to deal with, or that I will insist I deal with, due to my unique state.
So bear with me, I think you'll enjoy the ride, even though I'm breaking several cardinal rules of fanfiction. Sit back, relax, and unplug the cynical portion of your brain temporarily.
Also, Italics mean thinking, though that's pretty obvious.
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I sat up and looked around, dazed. I was in what looked like a hotel room, fairly large, with a bank of windows on one wall, a sizeable TV on another, and not much on the third. The fourth side of the room was only half filled with wall; the rest was a short hallway that presumably led to the bathroom. The bed I was on was king sized, and softer than air.
I threw back the covers and scratched my stomach, yawning. I stopped mid-yawn. Looking down, I realized a good portion of my stomach was missing. Confused, I rose and found a folded set of clothes on the chair beside the bed; a pair of jeans, a solid red t-shirt and a blue and white checkered button up shirt. I grabbed them and stumbled sleepily to the bathroom. As I passed the mirror, I stopped and stared at myself.
Definitely thinner, I thought. Where I remembered a slight potbelly, now there was a fairly flat expanse of stomach. I was slightly more muscled than I remembered, too. Just a wiry sort of muscle, more like a runner than a weight lifter. I shook my head, then got dressed.
A couple minutes later I left the bathroom, having used the facilities and brushed my teeth with the hotels complimentary toothbrush. I looked closer at the room I was in, noticing a backpack sitting against the dresser. On the table next to the window was a sheet of paper with a fair amount written on it. I walked over and picked it up, reading quickly.
Jeffrey,
You're confused. I know that. I can't tell you everything you want to know, but I can tell you that eventually you'll know. No time soon, but eventually. For now, I'm just going to tell you to go to Orange Star High school. Be there by 8 AM. You're enrolled there under the name Gabriel Gray. The room you are in is paid up through the end of the week. I can't help you after that, you'll have to find something to do from there. You've probably noticed you've changed a bit. In time you'll find that more than just your physique has changed. But, knowing you, I'm sure the item I put beside this note will tip you off as to your new condition. Use it how you will, and use all you know.
The note ended with no signature. I looked down at the item on the table. I picked it up. It was a metal cylinder, about 6 to 8 inches long, maybe an inch thick. It had a small opening on one end, and a switch and a button on the side. I stared at it for a few moments, thinking about how the note had said I'd understand "my condition" from this. Then it hit me. My arm stretched straight out in surprise.
I tilted the cylinder so the open end faced up, then, taking a deep breath, I hit the switch. The room was filled with a loud humming, sounding like a hive full of angry bees. An emerald green glow filled the semi-dark room.
I was holding a lightsaber. Of all the things to find in a hotel room, I thought, stunned. The implications of the note slowly came to me. If I'm holding a lightsaber, can I…?
I switched off the blade, and then dropped it back on the table. Backing up, feeling rather foolish, I reached out my hand toward the inert cylinder and concentrated. I didn't know what I expected, but when the cylinder twitched violently on the table I nearly jumped across the room.
Hell, I thought, amused at my own skittishness. I reached out again and, without thinking about it, made the saber rise off the table. I cocked my head to the side and thought about it.
OK, so I can use the Force. Interesting. But how? Maybe he, whoever he is, made it a subconscious thing. He obviously knew I'd think of this, so he made it easy for me to access it.
I dropped my hand and the saber clattered to the table top. I shook my head and decided to let it drop there, not think about it for a while. I'd go a bit nuts trying to work out what all this meant right now. I raised the note and read part of it again. Orange Star…I should know that. It's familiar. I shrugged, deciding to figure it out later.
I sat on the bed and pulled the pair of shoes sitting against the dresser over to me with my feet. I pulled on the socks that were inside each shoe, then the shoes. Standing, I grabbed the backpack and the wallet that was sitting on the dresser above it. I flipped through the wallet and saw a fair amount of unfamiliar looking bills, a hotel key, and what looked like an inactivated debit card. I shrugged, closed the wallet, slid it in my pocket and walked from the room.
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In the lobby I stopped and looked around. It seemed like every other hotel I'd ever been to; a lowered area with a TV, several couches and chairs, and a counter where they'd lay out breakfast in the morning. There was a sign in front of a hallway pointing to rooms, the exercise room, and the pool. On my left was the check in counter.
I walked over to the counter, stopping when the woman standing behind it looked up. She smiled at me and I returned it a little shakily. It had suddenly occurred to me that I didn't know what language they spoke here. I went ahead anyway, figuring there was nothing else I could do.
"Hi, do you know where Orange Star High school is?"
The woman nodded, and I breathed an internal sigh of relief. She smiled reassuringly at me and raised her arm to point out the door. On her wrist dangled a pair of thick bracelets, one gold and one silver. "Yeah, go outside, and it's only about a block or so to the left."
I smiled again. "Thanks."
She nodded to me and I turned to go.
Outside the day was sunny and clear. Cars of various sizes passed by on the street, all of them floating about a foot above the ground. I took all this in as I was turning to the left. I started walking, looking around as I went. The block passed quickly, and there was the school.
It was a large brick and concrete building. It looked to be 2 stories, taking up about a fourth of the block I was on. There were a few offshoot buildings, probably a gym complex. It was big, larger than I was used to.
High school…man, I'm in college. I thought I was done with this. Well, at least it should be easy.
I walked to the door and went inside. Down the hall on my left was a pair of double doors, with a sign that read Office above. I went in the office and was greeted by a woman sitting behind the desk looking up at me. Her jaw stopped moving, the gum she was probably chewing pushed to the side so she could talk. I stepped up and spoke.
"Hi. My name's Gabriel Gray, I was just enrolled here and don't know where to go."
"Well, let's fix that," she said amicably. She reached over to the computer and typed away for a few seconds. "Let's see…ah, yes, Gabriel Gray, here we are. You're in room 125. Go out the door, down the hall to the right, it's the third door on the left."
I smiled at her. "Thanks." I turned and left, following the directions she'd given me. I passed by the cafeteria on the way, glancing in and seeing a janitor mopping the floor, a pair of headphones glued securely in his ears. I counted the numbers on the doors as I walked, reaching 125 before I knew it.
I went into the classroom the woman had told me to go to and looked around. It was a stadium style room, rows of long tables rising in steps up to the back of the room. At the front was a triplet of blackboards. Off to the side was a desk, and behind it sat a middle aged man. He was average height, had dark hair and glasses. He was dressed in khaki pants and a blue dress shirt. He looked up at me and stood.
"Hello," he started. "You must be the new student I was told about. I'm Mr. Silvers. Gabriel, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, that's me." I glanced around a little nervously. "Uh, I'm not from around here, so I don't know how this works."
"Yeah, I figured you for an exchange student. Don't worry, it's pretty easy. The class you're in stays together through the entire day. This is just homeroom. You'll move around, but just pick someone out and follow them to the next room. Now then, you'll be needing this." He turned and picked up a thin packet of papers from his desk and handed them to me. I looked at the top sheet. "It's your schedule and some general information. Hmm…" He looked up at the rows of tables. "You can have the third row, third seat from the right."
I nodded and walked up to the indicated seat and sat down, dropping my bag on the table in front of me and unzipping it. I smiled as I pulled out one of the books inside. It was obviously a novel, though I'd never heard of it. Well, whoever packed this bag definitely knew me. I opened the book and started reading to pass the time.
Slowly the room began to fill. People glanced at me as they filed in, then went to their seats and talked with each other, seeming to forget about me for a little. Just before the class started a pair of girls walked in the room, talking animatedly with each other. Both were about five and a half feet tall, one with black hair one with blue, which raised my eyebrow. The blue haired girl was wearing a red skirt and matching long-sleeved blouse. The black haired girl was wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt. Both were attractive, the blue haired girl almost strikingly so. The black haired girl was plainer, but not in a bad way.
They walked up to the row in front of me, and then down to sit directly ahead of where I was. I overheard them talking, and what I heard made me look up sharply.
"Oh, come on Pan," the blue haired girl said, "you know you would've gotten mad too."
Pan snorted. "Bra, I don't know what you think of me, but I don't get mad at people over clothes."
Before Bra could come up with a comeback, the teacher stood and the low rumble of conversations ceased. He smiled at the class and cleared his throat. "Morning class. We've got a new student today. Gabriel, give a wave for us."
I grinned nervously and raised a hand. All eyes turned toward me for just a second. I looked down and locked eyes with Pan for half a second. She smiled at me before turning back to face front. I sat and listened to Mr. Silvers tell the class some announcements.
My thoughts turned to the two in front of me, and the meaning behind them being there. I knew I recognized the name of this place. DBZ? Definitely the strangest thing to happen to me in…well, in forever. If they're in high school, this must be after the series.
After about ten minutes the bell rang and people got up to go. I ended up behind Pan and Bra. They were talking again, but I couldn't hear them over the din in the hall. They turned into a room and I stopped and leaned against the wall for a bit. I chewed my bottom lip, thinking hard. After a bit I shrugged and resigned myself to being confused for a while. I pushed off from the wall and headed into the room.
It was lunch time. I walked into the cafeteria, hefting my backpack, which was filled with textbooks after having been to half of my classes. I looked at the food line, realized I had no idea exactly how much money was in my pocket, and just walked over to a table. The table was one of the long metal types that seemed to be a staple of every high school everywhere. The seat was basically a lower version of the table top, bolted onto the metal frame. I sat down, dropping my bag next to me. I opened the bag and pulled out the physics book I had been given earlier. I flipped it open and skimmed through the pages. I smiled a little at the familiar material.
"Hey," a voice spoke from in front of me. I looked up, surprised, to find Pan and Bra standing on the other side of the table, trays in hand. Pan shot me a friendly smile. "Anyone sitting here?"
I shook my head and the two of them sat down. Bra started eating while Pan spoke. "You're Gabriel, right?" I nodded again. Pan arched an eyebrow at me. "You don't talk much, do you?"
I smiled. "Sorry. I'm afraid you've decided to talk to one of the rare few quiet males." Bra snorted softly.
"Ain't that the truth," she mumbled through a mouthful of chicken. Pan ignored her.
"Why aren't you eating?"
I felt the familiar upwelling of embarrassment, but pushed it down. "I wasn't sure how it worked here, so I just figured I'd watch for a little. Also, I don't really know how much money I have." She arched her eyebrow again, prompting me to explain. "I, ah, just got here late yesterday and found some cash waiting for me at the place I'm staying." It sounded like a pretty dumb excuse to me, but she just shrugged and dug into her lunch.
After a little she spoke again. "So, where are you from?" I breathed my second internal sigh of relief of the day. We had history earlier, and the map on the wall showed that this earth looked like the one I knew. That actually confused me, since I had thought the earth from the show was different.
"America."
"Well, yeah, that's pretty obvious. Where specifically?"
I grinned sheepishly. "South Carolina."
"Ah, a southern gentleman. I expect my doors held for me."
I smirked. "Only if you also expect them to hit you in the ass on your way through." Bra coughed out a laugh and Pan grinned.
"We've known you for less than 20 minutes and you're already trying to choke Bra. I think we're gonna get along fine." I smiled to myself as she went back to eating. I sat for a second and then started flipping through my book again.
"Man, we're only a week in and we've already got homework in that." I looked up to see Bra looking at my book with a vague look of disgust on her face. Pan swallowed.
"You think it's gonna be hard?" She was looking at me as she asked that.
"Nah," I responded.
"How do you figure?" I pulled a sheet of paper out from closer to the front of the book and handed it to her. She looked at it for a second, then up at me incredulously. "You already did it?"
I shrugged. "It wasn't hard, I figured I'd get it out of the way now."
Pan slid the paper back onto my book. "So that's what you were scribbling at all class. I didn't think he was saying enough to take that many notes. I guess you're just quicker on the uptake then I am."
"Well, I've got a confession. This isn't the first time I've taken this sort of class. And physics is…sort of a hobby for me." That wasn't quite the truth. Back where I was from, I had been a physics major in college. Bra was still staring at me.
"You're an odd one," she said. I smiled, embarrassed. She shook her head and went back to eating.
"Don't mind her," Pan started, "she's just uncultured." Bra grunted. When the bell rang we got up and walked together to our next class.
The end of the day found the three of us standing on the street outside the school. Pan turned to me.
"We're gonna go do some shopping, you wanna come?"
I looked at her. "Go shopping with two teenage girls? That sounds like a lot of fun."
Pan smirked. "Uh huh. Don't worry, I'll keep Bra from going too far off the deep end. We're mostly just going for a couple CDs I want."
I shrugged and nodded. Pan nodded sharply and spun on her heel, as if the subject was never up for question. We set off, heading in the opposite direction from my hotel. After a couple blocks they turned into the store next to us.
It was a full media store, cds, movies, a small bookstore. Pan and Bra moved directly into the cd section. I milled about the movies, glancing and titles and recognizing none. After a while I moved into the cds. I picked up a few, again not recognizing any of the band names. However, when I glanced at the back of one of the cds I realized I recognized every song name on it. Confused, I moved to one of the sample kiosks and ran the barcode under the sensor. When I put on the headphones I heard a familiar guitar riff, followed by a vaguely familiar voice. Huh, I thought, the singer's different, but it's still pretty close to the version I know. I took off the headphones and wandered about, picking up one or two more cds.
"Finding something you like?"
I turned my head to see Pan looking over my shoulder. "Yeah, I think." I stopped, and looked down, feeling embarrassed again. "Um, can I ask you a favor?"
She looked at me quizzically. "I'm not gonna buy 'em for you, if that's what you're asking."
I shook my head and pulled out my wallet. "This is really gonna sound dumb, but can you tell me how much money I have?" I handed my wallet to her. She looked at me, down at the wallet in her hand, and back to me.
"You were serious when you said you didn't know what you had?" I nodded, feeling extraordinarily stupid. She opened the wallet and looked inside. Her eyes widened slightly and she whistled softly. "Man, you've got a few hundred Zenni in here, at least."
"I take it from your reaction that that's a lot?"
She looked up at me with a small grimace. "Lemme put it this way; I should be asking you to buy my cds." She closed the wallet and handed it back. "But yeah, you've got plenty. You should also check out that card, see how much is on there. I dunno what exchange group you're with, but they sent you here in style."
I looked down at the ground again, unable to come up with a response. Just then Bra came bouncing over to show Pan something, to which Pan giggled and started talking a mile a minute. Soon after we bought our things and headed outside. We parted ways, me heading back to my hotel, them off to wherever.
"See you tomorrow Gabe," Pan shouted as she waved. I watched them for a few moments until they turned a corner. I smiled a little and turned back to my new home, however temporary it might be.
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That night I lay in bed staring vacantly at the TV, thinking about the day and my situation. While taking a shower I had realized that I had no idea what I was going to do once the time was up on my room. Shortly after having that thought I decided to not think about it for at least a few days, let myself get settled in to this world before I worried about anything else. The TV was full of shows I didn't recognize, and yet seemed oddly familiar, like they were a degree or two off from shows I knew back home.
I grabbed the remote and shut the TV off. I rolled onto my side, facing the window. I smiled at the thought of the unlikely friends I had made that day. I shook my head when I realized the path my thoughts were taking concerning a certain raven haired young woman. Uh uh, you don't want to be thinking that. You've just met the girl, and you know what kind of shenanigans her family gets into. I smiled again. I slowly fell asleep, marveling at how my life had changed in a day.
