"OW! Hey, watch it!" I brushed myself off after the train booted us all out. Sure, things were extremely weird right now, and I had just escaped an empty town full of monsters, but that didn't mean some creepy train got to kick me into the dust.

The train sped off, blowing its whistle and leaving a puff of rainbow smoke. I stuck my tongue out at it, but stopped when I heard the sounds of whimpering behind me.

One of the smaller girls in our group, named Onxen (Xen for short) was holding a pack of cards. Her head hung down while she sat on her white and gold backpack, and her shoulders shook. "I can't get rid of them!" she said. She tossed the cards a little ways in front of her, near my feet. Without a sound, they were whisked back to her hands. Her green blue eyes looked up at me. "Hossy, I can't get rid of them!"

I let out a long sigh and walked over to her, than kneeled beside her. "Its ok, Xen, its ok. Its not..." but there wasn't much I could say. We had no idea what was happening to our families, we had just basically been run out of our town, and these past few weeks had been ridden with strange dreams.

I gave her a small hug and looked up to Pax, whose eyes were filled with confusion. He looked like he needed to scream. "Pax, seriously, if you need to release any anger...now's a good time."

Pax has that problem. He always tries to look calm and cool, but when he gets stressed, there's no way he can hide it. But he clenched those two key things and said, "No, no, I'm fine. I'm composed, I'm ready for..." his grip grew tighter. He swung the two keyblades at the nearest tree, sinking a substantial blow into both sides of the trunk. "Anything."

Baxcian (Bax) stood up, her short silver bob swaying as she did. "Alright, everyone, right now is not the time to lose it. Our first priority is to make sure that we are all alright. And then, we figure out where we are." I started to say something, but the smile on her face said, "Contradict me, and I'll make sure it's the last thing you do, Hospiax." So I didn't. No one ever really wants to cause trouble with Bax, considering she's sort of our leader. We call her the Superior, partly because she's the one best suited for the job, and partly because she'd kick our ass if she didn't. Those innocent orange eyes and small body frame hide a much darker mind. I have no doubt that if given the chance to rule the world, she would take it. Who knows? Maybe she's already planning something like that.

Xen sniffled, shuffling the cards. She's tiny, with long blonde hair always in a low ponytail. It keeps the hair out of her face when she gambles. At the age of fourteen, Xen has already been banned from the two casinos in Twilight Town...just as a precaution. She's willing to gamble on anything, and has probably staked her life savings on one roll of the dice more than twenty times. But she always wins. She can be a bit sensitive at times, considering she's a bit younger than some of the others, but she's usually quite the little bitch. She can't stand being beaten, or backing down from a challenge. All together, definitely an interesting thing to keep your eye on.

"Alright, so, does anyone have any injuries? Anyone at all?" Bax looked around with a quiet authority, scanning everyone. All of us shook our heads no. Except Wellfrex.

"Look, Bax, I'm the last guy to fight this, but come on! We kind of just got kicked out of our town! Everyone was gone! How do we know this Heartless invasion was contained in Twilight? What if we're the last people on earth?"

I grinned. When any of us are too tired to bring up an argumentive point, Frex does it for us. You remember that weird kid on the playground who always wore an eye patch and ran around shooting people with his gigantic nerf gun? Yeah, that's Frex. He knows more about firearms than anyone else in the tri-state area. At 14, he had already made a fake i.d. and grabbed an old-fashioned pistol. But he only shot at targets. He wasn't gonna shoot at any animals till his old man took him hunting. He gets mixed up in some illegal stuff sometimes, but don't we all? Frex is a fun loving, kind guy with better aim than a sniper could ever hope for. Only fitting that he be holding a really dangerous-looking gun in his right hand.

"Frex, maybe we should talk about this when all of us are in better states. When we get somewhere safe." She raised her eyebrows, still with a small smile. Bax's way of saying, "Don't friggin' cross me, Frex, or I'll tear that gun out of your hand and shoot you with it."

Frex grumbled and picked up his black and orange duffel. "Fine. Let's get moving, shall we?" His one exposed brown eye winked at us.

We picked up our stuff and walked to the large mass that must have been two miles away. All of us groaned, except Bax and maybe Slaysax. That loser walked straight over to Bax and said, "Mistress Baxcian, might I request something?"

Now before we get any farther, I just want to explain to you what a FREAK this guy Slay is. Don't let the pretty boy look fool you, he can kick your ass in a matter of seconds. He held a gigantic Claymore in hand. He is DEVOTED to Bax. Most of the girls at our old school were all in love with him, with those pointed ears and long blue hair, but they had no chance. His love all went to Bax. If she asked him to swim an ocean to bring her authentic Chinese food, he would...and pitch in his own money for extra egg rolls. That kind of obedience reeeally grosses me out...which means I totally despise the guy. So I ruin the lovey-dovey devotion vibe between them any chance I get.

"Of course, Slay."

"Would the mistress prefer if she was carried to the town?"

"Oh no, Slay, I'm fine, thank you. But..." Bax looked into his eyes and smiled charmingly, "It was a very nice offer."

Slay returned the smile. "It was my pleasure, Mistress."

I snorted, and then elbowed Zox and Pax. "Hey, watch this." I walked ahead and jumped between Slay and Bax. I swung my arms over their necks and said, "Buddies! How's the Superior doing? And Slay, my man! How's life?"

Slay's eyes went afire. He knew I had just purposely ruined his romantic time with the Superior, like I always did. Luckily, Bax never tried to stop me.

"Hello again, Hossy!" She smiled. So did I. Bax may be a totally biotch sometimes, but she was like family all the same. "SO, Bax, would you like to skip off into the distance together? Just you and me, into the wild, dusty yonder?"

"I would love to!"

So we linked arms and started skipping to the town, me singing, "Tra-lala-lala-lala-la!" and Bax giggling, probably thinking I was the biggest idiot ever.

We reached the town in half speed, mostly because everyone else either joined into the skipping and tra-la-la-ing or they were forced to. At the opening door of it were two guards, dressed in regular garb...I suppose.

"HALT! Who goes there?" The fatter one waved his club around, and I'm guessing he wasn't afraid to do any damage with it.

"Um..." I started, "13 hungry teenagers with no place to stay?" I mumbled to Pax, "How does one answer a question like that?" He snorted and shrugged.

"THIRTEEN? THIRTEEN?! Do you have any idea how unlucky that number is?" The other guard, much skinnier than the other, waved his club around like an idiot.

"Ugh, step aside, amateurs." Bax made her way to the front of the group and shook her hair. Then, in her sweetest voice possible, she made the fake tears appear in the corner of her eyes and said, "Please sir, we're ever so cold and hungry! We haven't come across a town for days, and we just need a place to rest!" She clasped her hands in front of her, on the verge of fake tears. Pax had to hit me and Zox on the back to keep us from laughing.

"Um...al-alright, young lady. I suppose you and your friends can come in." Bax grinned and wiped her eyes. "Thank you ever so much!" She skipped through the open gates, the rest of us following, but me and Zox and Pax at the back.

"So, dude, just a question...whats the name of this place?" I eyed the fat man. He laughed snottily and said, "Why, Traverse Town! Ha, ignorant children."

As we walked through, Zox turned and said just loud enough for the guard to hear, "I thought fat people were supposed to be jolly."

He and I laughed and high-fives, and Pax held in giggles. He tries to place himself above such mean jokes, but he totally loves them. We know he does.

Zox (short for Hayzox) on the other hand, is what one might call a total idiot class clown. He has the sweetest disposition of anyone I know, and let me tell you, he's got the voice and face of angel. He can play every single type of instrument there is (along with the totally girly sitar that he has for a weapon) and can rock out to any type of music. He's not exactly the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but the happy-go-lucky attitude makes up for it. He would be every girl's dream if not for two things: One, his hair. We've tried telling him it's not the eighties, brown short-ish mullets are not in style, but he loves his hair so much, we don't have the heart to be brutal. And two, he came out two years ago. It rocks having a gay best friend, by the way. And the great thing is, Pax (who you would expect to be a total gay-hater because his parents are so religious and crap) totally rebels against his weird parents and is still best friends with Zox. Oh yeah.

All in all, Traverse was a pretty small place. But it was full of neon signs that lit up the night, and sort of looked like a happy place. One neon sign clearly said, "Inn, Vacancy!!" So that's where we headed.

"Dang and boy howdy!" said the blonde man handling the counter. As soon as we walked in, he snatched up the last four keys hanging on the rack behind him and said, "Well, y'all came just in time!"

"And how do you know we wanted a room?" said Frex, leaning casually against the wall, almost as if he'd lived here all his life.

"When thirteen kids walk in, there's bound to be need for a room, kiddo." The man grinned. "Though I can only sell you four, so y'all gotta split into groups."

Quickly doing the math, I grabbed Zox and Pax and said, "Room buddies!" Zox smiled and nodded, while Pax only shrugged.

The team quickly divided into 4 groups, three groups of three and one of four. One of those groups of three was mine. We quickly payed the fare (we had to talk Bax out of another cry-fest, because we had a feeling this guy wouldn't fall for it) and were about to be led upstairs when Pax stopped.

"Hey, who's this guy?" He tapped a framed, old picture on the wall. It had a blonde man, almost the spitting image of the innkeeper. He was smiling in a way only a satisfied country man could.

"That's my great grand-daddy, old grampa Cid! He founded this here in!" All of us stopped...in mild recognition. "Cid?" Xen asked. "Don't we know him from somewhere?"

"Couldn't!" laughed the innkeeper. "He died ages ago! No come on, up to your rooms!"

Alright...this was getting weird.