Gamer4 in. Well, I'm updating this much later than I initially intended to. There are a few reasons for this, but they're largely irrelevant, and I'd rather just jump ahead to the chapter, so... here we go! 1995

Disclaimer: If you want one of these, refer to the first chapter. It's not getting repeated.

Chapter II

The Gathering

"All the leaves are brown, and the skies are grey," Ness sang out as he and Akane continued their trek through the strange city. "Goin' for a walk, on a Winter day!"

Akane grumbled as she raised a hand to her head. "Could you shut up already?!"

Heedless of the blue-haired girl's irritation, Ness continued with his odd rendition- "I'd be safe and warm, if I were in LA- California dreamin' on a Winter's day!"

Akane wasn't sure- she'd never heard the song before- but she was fairly certain that wasn't how the song went. She was starting to have second thoughts about her choice of companion- while he had yet to show any signs of betraying her, he was so annoying...

"Shouldn't we be keeping an eye out for anyone else?" she finally spoke up, interrupting him mid-verse.

"Walked into a church, that I- oh, come on, we won't miss anyone," Ness shrugged, turning to face her and beginning to walk backwards. "You've got the world's greatest detective with you!"

"I'll believe that when I see it," Akane muttered.

"You better believe it," Ness grinned. "See? I've already found a vital clue to where we are!" With this, he produced a large metal box.

"What's that?" Akane asked, her eyes lowering halfway.

"A big, metal box! I don't know, it looks like a battery of some kind."

"Uh, huh. Well, two questions, great detective," Akane spoke, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "First, where did you find it?"

"Oh, I found it in a trash can!"

"And you were looking through the trash because...?"

"I was looking for burgers!"

Akane blinked, but decided not to follow this line of questioning any further. "Alright, second question: where do you think we'll need it?"

"I don't know, but I'm sharp, I'm on it! I've got the eyes of a hawk, the ears of a fox, the eye of the tiger, the heart of a lion, and a lifetime ban from the zoo!" Satisfied with his somewhat grim joke, he turned- and found himself face-to-face with an arrow, readied in a bow, and currently pointed directly between his eyes. "Oh!" he yelped, jumping back a bit. "Hey, buddy, how's it going?"

The man holding the bow took a step forward, prompting the boy he was aiming at to take a step back. He was tall, dressed in a green tunic over what appeared to be chain mail, as well as green boots and a floppy green hat. He had messy blond hair over light blue eyes that darted between the two he was approaching. Finally, he spoke, addressing Akane. "Your companion was so loud I could have shot him in the dark."

"You're telling me," Akane grumbled, hands raising over her head.

"So, can I assume that you two are the demons who brought me here?" the young man asked, tightening the arrow threateningly.

"Nah, brah, nah, that wasn't us, man!" Ness said quickly, trying to keep his usual cheerful demeanor despite going cross-eyed to keep the arrow in view.

"We were both brought here against our wills!" Akane objected. A suspicion occurring to her, she continued the story. "I don't know about this guy, but I was visiting a friend of mine in the doctor's office when the floor turned black- I fell into it, and woke up here!"

"Pretty much the same story!" Ness put in, speaking rapidly. "Just walking around, minding my own business, this big ol' black vortex opened up and brought me here!"

The young man seemed to loosen the arrow, ever so slightly, though he showed no signs of lowering the bow. "Is that true?"

"True! True as true can be! Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a thousand needles in my eye!" Ness gulped. "Now, can you put the bow down already?"

Slowly, Link acquiesced, lowering the bow and returning the arrow to a quiver slung on his back. "Forgive me," he said slowly. "But I need to be sure that I can trust you."

His cheeriness returning now that his life was no longer in immediate peril, Ness grinned. "Hey, no prob, man! This girl tried to karate flip me when we first met!"

"'Prob?'" the man repeated, looking at Ness with a blank expression.

"Yeah, you know, like a problem!" Ness nodded. "Anyways... introductions! I'm Ness!"

"Akane," Akane said shortly, keeping an eye on the bow even as it was returned to its former position over the young man's shoulder.

"Link," the young man introduced himself. "Link Faron, warrior of Hyrule."

"'Hyrule?'" Akane repeated. "Where's that?"

"The kingdom in the mountains, blessed by the golden goddesses," Link explained. "Surely, you've heard of it?"

Ness and Akane exchanged a bemused look with each other. Each look said something similar- What's this guy talking about?

"Er... Ness, you think we can be sure about this guy?" Akane asked.

Ness turned to Link and closed his eyes, allowing the young man's thoughts and memories to wash over him. Opening his eyes, he stepped back in amazement. "Wow, this guy- he's awesome! A real 'strike-fear-into-the-heart-of-evil' type! Taking down all those demons and warlords- this guy puts Chuck Norris to shame!" Abruptly, Ness looked around. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean that, Chuck, of course nobody holds a candle to you- but if they did, this guy would be the one!"

Both Akane and Link stared as Ness got further and further sidetracked in his odd fantasy. Finally, Akane cleared her throat.

"And furthermore- huh?" Ness asked, turning to see Akane looking impatient and tapping her foot. "Oh, sorry about that."

"Can we trust him?"

"Oh, definitely!" Ness smiled. "This guy's like a superhero! Still not sure where Hyrule is, but..."

"What's wrong with him?" Link asked.

"He's a psychic," Akane explained roughly. "Or that's what he says, anyway- and he certainly knows things I couldn't really attribute to anything else."

"But the real thing that throws me off," Ness continued rambling, having missed everything the others said about him, "is that you were using a sword! Don't they have anything more... you know... contemporary, in Hyrule?"

"Contemporary?" Link repeated. "This blade was crafted by the finest blacksmith in Hyrule!"

"Hyrule... kingdom... swords..." Ness muttered to himself. Suddenly, he looked up, snapping his fingers. "I think... he's from the past!"

"Past?" Akane repeated, staring.

"Is it really that hard to believe?" Ness shrugged. "I mean, you and I are from different countries, why not throw time difference in, too?"

"You mean... you claim you're from the future?" Link asked, looking at the boy, not (Akane noted with surprise) with skepticism, but with thoughtfulness. "You know... that wouldn't be the furthest thing from my experience..."

"You mean, you've traveled in time before?" Akane asked, looking at him skeptically.

"Let's just say that if I've been thrown into the future, it wouldn't be an entirely foreign experience to me," Link affirmed. "And it would explain the architecture of this city- it's like nothing I've ever seen before..."

The group's ruminations were cut short when there was a sudden whistling noise, followed by a loud cracking. The three looked about for the source, and spied a fountain of red light in the sky, not unlike a firework. "Balls!" Ness called out excitedly. "Big, red balls!"

"You think there will be some more people over there?" Akane asked.

"That would be the likely explanation," Link nodded, leading the charge as the three began their run towards the light.

XXXX

Shinji opened his mouth in surprise as the other boy raised his stick into the air and shouted a strange word he'd never heard before. At first, he'd been wondering if he'd had the misfortune of being stuck in this city with a psycho, but then a jet of red light had fired from the wand, exploding up in the stratosphere.

This done, Harry lowered the stick and turned to look at Shinji, who was still opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish out of water. "How... wha... how..."

"Are you okay?" Harry asked, showing some genuine concern.

"What... what are you?" Shinji finally managed to stutter out.

Harry sighed- he didn't exactly want to explain himself in great detail, especially with the statute of secrecy lingering over his mind, but he was starting to think he may have to use yet more magic before the two boys got out of this crisis- it was almost certain that he'd have to explain himself at some point. "Well, long story short- I'm what you'd call a wizard."

"W-w-wizard?" Shinji stammered. "You mean like... Gandalf, and Oz, and all them?"

"Sort of," Harry sighed. "Look, you've heard about medieval witch burnings, right?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Well, there were real witches and wizards around at the time, and when they saw the conflict between them and muggles rising to that point, they decided it would be better to go into hiding than risk anything like that happening again," Harry explained. "So, to this day, they're still living in hiding all over the world."

"Even in Japan?" Shinji asked, his eyes widening.

"Well... I've never met any from Japan, but I would assume so," Harry nodded.

Shinji sat down, putting his head down between his knees. "I... I think I need to breath for a bit."

Harry nodded, taking a seat nearby. It had been a very strange day so far. "So," he asked, "what's your story? What's all this about... about second impact, and Tokyo-3? None of it's anything I've heard of."

"Fifteen years ago..." Shinji began, only to choke on his words. Slowly, he swallowed, then began to speak again. "Fifteen years ago, a meteor crashed down in the antarctic, causing the polar ice caps to melt, destroying more than half the world's population." He knew, of course, that this wasn't strictly the truth, but he was bound by his own code of secrecy about Second Impact's true cause. "On top of that, when it came down, these giant monsters started invading earth- we call them angels. I work for NERV- an organization that uses giant robots called Evangelions to fight the angels off and prevent Third Impact."

Harry shook his head. "Well, I definitely missed the memo on all of that."

"So, I guess the wizards had some way of keeping themselves alive?" Shinji asked, unable to keep a note of accusation out of his voice. "Keeping themselves so safe that you didn't need to worry about what was going on in the rest of the world?"

Harry blinked- this was the most assertive Shinji had been since they woke up. "No, nothing like that," he said. "The thing is... I'm a wizard-in-training. I spend the summer with my muggle family- muggles are people who don't have magic powers- and I still never heard about anything like that. As far as I know, there's never been any sort of... Second Impact."

Now Shinji was truly confused- how could anybody be oblivious to Armageddon?

He was on the point of speaking again when the doors to the roof opened and two people made themselves known- a young woman in a blue dress with short hair of a deeper blue, alongside a young man dressed entirely in green. As they approached, Harry leapt to his feet, drawing his wand on instinct, as Shinji gave a yelp and collapsed to the ground.

In response to Harry drawing his wand, Link reached for his sword, hand stopping on the handle, looking tense. "So, you want to fight, do you?" he asked. "I'm ready when you are!"

"Not exactly a fair fight," Harry noted. Glancing around and seeing Shinji rapidly trying to get as far away from the conflict as possible, he focused again on Link. "Two against one?"

"Three," Akane objected.

"Sorry?"

"Three against one."

"There are only two of you."

Akane and Link glanced behind them, only to see that Harry spoke true- Ness had vanished somewhere along the line. "Where could that idiot possibly have gone?!" Akane scoffed.

XXXX

Ness was running rapidly after Link and Akane, but was starting to fall behind, gasping for breath. He hadn't been the most physically fit before he set out on his journey to fight Giygas, and while he liked to think his cardio had improved somewhat in the meantime, he still had trouble sprinting over long times or distances. Looking up, he saw that the red jet seemed to not be fading as readily as most fireworks. Deciding it would still be there if he rested up a bit, he called after the others, "Alright, you guys go on ahead, I'll just... rest a while..." before collapsing next to a nearby building, gasping. They'd probably been out of earshot when he called out, but he really needed a breather. He leaned back against the building, taking in deep breaths of precious oxygen, when his head suddenly perked up. He thought he heard a rustling nearby. And small thuds that sounded like... footsteps. Very, very, very light footsteps, granted, but footsteps nonetheless. Perking his ears, he strained to catch the sound again. Closing his eyes, he reached out with his hearing and his secret sixth sense, listening for the steps and trying to sense the thoughts and emotions of whoever it was. Finally, he managed to single out a direction from which thoughts of fear and confusion were emanating, leading him to turn his head around to an alley near where he'd chosen to collapse. A very brief flash of bright orange graced his vision, leading him to blink. Putting on a strange voice, he spoke: "I taught I taw a putty tad!"

Moving slowly, he approached the alley, and blinked as the flash of orange made itself seen once more. "I did! I did! I did tee a putty tad!"

To anyone besides Ness, the sighting of a cat lurking in a city's streets might be completely innocuous, but despite the way he normally acted, he was, beneath the surface, a thoughtful, intelligent young man- not as intelligent as Jeff, to be sure, but he had, at the very least, been taking notes about the city ever since his initial arrival- prior to meeting up with Akane, the city had been entirely empty. No signs of life of any kind- not even a stray cat. Which made the appearance of this cat, in particular, somewhat jarring. He knew it seemed unimportant- and for all he knew, it was- but it was enough to catch his interest.

Raising his voice, he began letting out soft cooing and clicking noises of the type that his family usually used to call in pets. Abruptly, he remembered himself and shook his head. What am I doing? he wondered- he was a psychic, for crying out loud, he could talk to animals!

"Hey, cat?" he asked tentatively. "Cat? Are you there? Hey... I'm not a bad guy, I'm just a kid, I just wanna talk, I don't wanna hurt you..."

Straining, allowing his psychic powers to do their thing, he heard a voice speaking to him. "I can understand him- how can I understand him?"

"Easy- I'm a psychic! I can talk to animals!"

The voice froze. Ness circled around the corner to see a cat with a bright orange pelt looking up at him, eyes wide and backing away slowly. "A twoleg... that can talk to cats?" the cat spoke, eyes never flitting away. "Well, I guess I can say I've seen everything now..."

"Caught me by surprise, too," Ness nodded, raising his hands and trying to seem as non-threatening as possible. "I mean, when I was younger, and I suddenly heard my dog talking, it took me a while to understand what was going on-"

As he spoke, he attempted to approach, only for the cat to hiss and retreat several paces. "Stay away from me, twoleg!" he growled. "I know what you want- you want to keep me as a pet, take me to the cutter, keep me as your plaything!"

Ness shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that!"

"You're probably the one who brought me here to begin with!"

"No, nothing like that at all!" Ness chuckled. "I don't know how I got here myself- like I keep saying, I just fell into the ground when it turned black, and woke up here!"

The cat eyed him up and down. "You mean... you, too?"

"Yeah," Ness nodded. "I met up with some other people- er, twolegs- and they got brought here the same way, so we were going to meet up and try to find a way back home. I'm sure we could include you, too."

"I don't deal with twolegs," the cat hissed.

"Well, hate to say it, but I haven't seen any other cats around this city," Ness shrugged. "I think, if you want to get home, you might have to bend on that rule a bit."

The cat still seemed distrustful, but slowly nodded. "Alright, I'll join you... for now. But I don't want you treating me like a kittypet, understand?"

"Scout's honor," Ness smiled, placing his right hand over his heart and raising his left in a sort of salute. "I won't even touch you without permission."

"Good."

For a moment, the two stood there, as if unsure what to do next. "So, umm... what's your name? I'm Ness."

"Fireheart," the cat spoke, standing up straight as he spoke the next portion. "Warrior of Thunderclan."

XXXX

"It's just as well- he was just hindering us," Link shrugged off the disappearance of their companion.

Akane wasn't as certain- the boy had, at least, spoken true when he'd noted power in numbers- but, for the moment, she brushed it aside.

Harry, meanwhile, wasn't certain what these people wanted, but if he could avoid a conflict, that would be for the best. "Look, we don't have to fight- there's no reason for it," he said quickly. "This boy and I just woke up in this city, we have no idea how we got here, and we're just looking for a way to get back home."

Akane cast her eyes over to the boy on the ground- he looked sad, scared, and pathetic as he eyed the tension apprehensively. Her heart went out to him- if he really was in the same boat as they were...

"Forgive me if I don't trust you so readily," Link growled. "I see what happened to the last person who trusted you too quickly."

"What do you mean?" Akane asked, perking up at these words and glancing at the swordsman in confusion.

"The girl," Link muttered, indicating an area of the roof they stood on with his head so that he could keep his eyes on Harry. "You don't think she collapsed like that without reason, do you?"

Akane looked at the corner of the roof he'd indicated, and gasped as she saw a young woman with light blue hair slumped against the wall, unconscious. She turned her attention back to the two boys. Perhaps she had been too quick to judge- either that boy was putting on an act, or was just as much a victim of the one with the glasses as the girl was...

"Hey, guys!" came a voice from the door leading back down, and everyone turned to see Ness arriving. "You'll never guess what I- what's going on?" the boy asked, blinking at the open shows of hostility on all sides.

"Is this your third friend?" Harry asked.

"I am he!" Ness nodded, grinning widely. "What's going on, peoples? Link, what's with the sword?"

"We can't trust this guy, Ness," Akane muttered warningly. "They've already caught one girl..."

"What?" Harry asked, looking from her to where KOS-MOS lay. Suddenly, comprehension lit up his face. "Oh, you think- no! No, it's not like that at all! We found her like that!"

"You expect us to believe that?" Link growled, grip tightening on his blade. "At least own up to your crimes!"

"It's true!" Shinji joined in, backing Harry up. "She's some sort of robot- when we found her, she activated, but then powered down- something about needing to find another power source..."

As Shinji spoke, Ness's eyes lit up, and he dashed across the roof to where the robot herself lay.

"Robot?" Link asked confusedly. "What do you mean by that?"

"He's lying," Akane hissed- and to think she'd been pitying this boy before! "Robots don't exist except in stories!"

"That's what I thought, too," Harry agreed, "but that's the only thing she could be- go over and feel her!"

Wrong choice of words. "Why, you'd like that, wouldn't you, you-" Akane started, rage filling her up, only for Ness to interrupt.

"Whoa, buddy!" he called out, and everyone turned to see him kneeling down next to the girl, who was beginning to vibrate. Slowly, her eyes opened, and she spoke.

"Identifying," she spoke out. "Matching historical records... Ness Locke, Onette, Eagleland." For a moment, she looked around, and, seeing nobody else in her immediate line of sight, spoke again. "Self-identification- KOS-MOS. Acronym- Kosmos Obey Strategic Multiple Operations System. I am happy to be of service."

Slowly, seeing that there might be some merit to Shinji's exclamation after all, Akane lowered her defenses, approaching the strange young woman. Link, seeing Akane do this, followed suit. Everyone was so distracted that they didn't even notice Fireheart arriving on the scene as well.

KOS-MOS tilted her head as she saw the others approaching. "Identifying," she spoke. "Matching historical records... Akane Tendo, Nerima, Japan." Turning to Link, she tilted her head, as though in confusion. "Unable to identify. Bears strong resemblance to Link Faron, in Hyrulian lore." And, finally, becoming the first to notice the seventh arrival, she added, "Species identification- Felis Catus, also known as a common house cat."

Fireheart let out a hiss at being addressed as such. Ness spoke up. "Yeah, about that- he doesn't exactly like being called that- he'd prefer to be addressed as a 'Warrior of Thunderclan,'" he explained.

Everyone turned to stare at him. Akane raised a hand to her face. "Ness... don't tell me..."

"What? I speak cat."

"Of course you do," she muttered. Things just kept getting crazier and crazier.

XXXX

Abruptly, in her darkened room, the figure in blue robes looked up. "So, they've finally gathered together," she muttered. This was her last chance- if she failed this time, then she'd failed altogether. She'd failed in their worlds, but here, she had the home field advantage. If, even here, she failed to prove her point...

She didn't like to think what that might mean for her.

XXXX

Sorry if it seems like I'm cutting this chapter suddenly, but this scene could have gone on for a while longer, and probably will in the next chapter. For now, the chapter's a decent length, and I've got even more writing to do before I go to bed- and it's getting late as is- so I thought this would be a decent place to stop. Hopefully, you agree, but whether you do or don't, to let me know, please R&R, constructive criticism embraced, as my quest is, eternally, to become the best writer I can be, flames will not be nearly helpful in that quest, Gamer4 out!