~Meg asleep on couch, arms posed over laptop~

~A tall, blue haired girl wearing a short cream dress with teal additions that match her hair walks in and announces~

Hi everyone! My name is KittyKatLovesBooks, but you can call me Kitty! I shall be guest starring in this chappy's Author's note!

...Gag, that was too formal.

~Meg wakes up and jumps, shouting~

Meg: AAH! I'M UPDATING! I SWEAR I DIDN'T FALL ASLEEP INNTHE MIDDLE OF MY LONG-AWAITED MASS UPDATE! Oh... Oh, hey Kitty! I didn't know you were visiting!

Kitty: Yeah, Drew and the others were boring me so I decided to head to your place.

Meg: ~sits back down and motions for Kitty to sit~ Its nice to see I have such a compassionate friend...

Kitty: Yep!

Meg: Okay, just a heads up, I-

Kitty: Let us begin with the chappy! ~dramatically waves hands~

Meg: Actually, I think this is imp-

Kitty: Shussh! The readers and I are DYING to see what's coming up! ~slowly pulls a package out from behind her back~

Meg: Um... okay? Moving on, here's the next chapter- PUT THE POPCORN DOWN KITTY!

~Kitty sweatdrops and pulls down the screen~

"Misty Waterflower, welcome to The Free Men." Cilan stepped forward and shook her hand.

Ash blinked in surprise, not sure what had just happened. They were all pretty much collecting their wits, except for Cilan, who had been watching Misty with interest for some time.

His first thought was that she was the driving force to turn their little Friday afternoon get-together into a real force in the fight for the truth.

As the unofficial leader, that had been bothering him for some time, the fact that the guys just treated this like a get-together-talk-and-do-homework situation

For the first time in his life, Cilan had acted without thinking first (at the moment, at least. See previous- he had been thinking about doing this for a long time.)

"Hey!" Barry protested. "We don't want a GIRL in our-" this time, besides being silenced with the customary glare from Paul, he received one from Ash as well. There was something about this Misty that Ash thought was different than other girls. And he didn't want Barry spoiling this.

"That's all cool, I guess..." Misty began, pretending the youngest member of their group hadn't spoken up. "But what did I just get accepted to?"

It was several hours before they had swapped stories. The boys had explained themselves to Misty, and she had told them her side of the story.

It still seemed to Ash that she had been holding something back. Whenever anyone asked about Silver, she would give a vague, incomplete answer and change the subject without meeting their eyes.

"I told you, a friend!" Misty exclaimed, once again avoiding Paul's question about the boy who was outside with her. It was obvious she didn't want to talk about it.

For a minute, it almost looked to Ash like she was arguing with herself.

"So. Do you guys, like, sleep here?" She said suddenly, trying to change the subject. "Because you know it's almost one in the morning."

"Not generally," Ash informed. "Today, though."

"But you can sleep back there, in the ex-mechanic's cabin from the days the airport around here was up and running. " Cilan supplied. "Speaking of which, are you planning to stay here, permanently?"

"I guess?" Misty looked uncomfortable. "I haven't really planned that far ahead yet."

"What!" Ash shouted suddenly "You can't stay here, forever-like! There's no food, beds, or running water! You can stay with one of us!"

~The screen again lifts to see Meagan grinning sheepishly and Kitty shouting from inside the locked bathroom.

Meg: As I was saying, this is only a transition chapter and horrible at that. The next one will be better. ~gets up and frees Kitty from locked bathroom~

Kitty: THANK THE GODS! I REALLY need to use your bathroom Meg!

Meg: ~sweatdropping~ Anyway, owe more update coming up!