Prelude—Aren't We Lucky

Mushra: …What sorta title is that?!
Me: Short, sweet, and to the point. Kinda like you, minus the sweet.
Mushra: SAY THAT TO MY FACE.
Me: I just did XD
Mushra: BUT YOU WON'T DO IT AGAIN, WILL YOU?
Me: Wow. Very anger, much scared.
Mushra: ….
Me: now that he's confused and silent, hello *smirk* I have returned, you ready for me? Thanks to some talking with MushraTheEnterran, you will be getting a retelling (with far better writing and less cringe-worthy marysue-ness(though its gonna be there, I mean, this is a fangirl-tumble-into-anime world)) of what once was Shinzo Date! All Three Stories! Cause it's not fun as just one, ya know? It just got better X3
Mushra: Much Fan. So not good.
Me: Shut up, you can't do it right. Anyways, I will be doing my best to keep the good bits from the original story, but it's of course gonna be changed up to fit both my writing now as well as my state of mind, and that of my readers~ I do hope I'll have some people enjoying these, but hell, I'll be good with just Heather-chan reading if nothing else, but uploading anyways just in case!
Mushra: *folds his arms* It's about time, with the creeps and drama queens and just queens you've been hanging out with since you LEFT US ALL ALONE.
Me: *rolls eyes*Hey, everyone grows up. You're lucky I still kept y'all around, because I still have a soft spot for you.
Sago: *comes and wraps his arm around Mushra's neck trapping him*By you, you mean me?
Me: *winks* not just you, pretty boy
Sago and Mushra: ….She's evolved….RUN.
Me: Here we go again~ I do not own the show referenced in this fanfiction, nor its characters, only my own. Some characters belong either to themselves, or to other people in this story (some are re-inspired by more than one person), I'm only borrowing. This story is purely for fan-pleasure. As always, ENJOY!

We were just your average otaku-to-nerds-to-schoolstressed-to-grownupish young women, really. Three girls, living in a two-story home we would be paying off for forever. Two of us siblings, but all three of us close friends. Living off of separate sources; one of us off ice-skating winnings and costume/gown making, one off two jobs, animation and a position at Wal-Mart, and another up at Wal-Mart and with a job at Barnes&Noble. Surviving, but not fully living, because whoever is unless they're rich or carefree?

We try to be carefree in out adult lives, but that's just nostalgia of the childish years masquerading as carefree activities (I.E. old show marathons, trivia battles, reliving old silly stories, etc.). That carefree yearning didn't really last, though. Stable as we were, and confident as we'd become in who'd we'd grown to be with varying styles, looks, histories, sexualities and gender ID's and the like, it was still a tiring life. I know what you're thinking. Already? You're only in your early twenties! Suck it up!

And that's what we kept striving to do. That was, until we went on another nostalgia trip that took us to the abandoned old mansion. For just a few reasons, it reminded us of younger years. Because of scary stories, scare dares, and references to moments and places in one of our favorite shows, we were DYING to go in it. Of course, it would have been trespassing.

So we trespassed.

"This place is very sneeze and cringe worthy, guys." my sister had uttered, taking the tail of our trek through the house, as we'd already been through the main room and some of the lower rooms that had been filled with old furniture, none with the white blankets over them that we COULD have had fun with. Blonde with hair to her chin, she looked a lot like me, but with subtle differences, like wider more naturally happy looking eyes where mine were a sleepy eyed look, almost, and my face was thicker, as was my body, but only by a slight bit. Her hair was blond and in a cute style to her chin, bright green eyes, where mine were dark in their greenness, and my brunette hair was in a Viking style Mohawk, tied back or hanging to one side but shaved on both. She was picturesque, though, always had been. Obvious beauty, and just a sweet but strong air about her.

Of course, as she had been looking around the room with her nose scrunched in disapproval, our friend Heather was coming from a corner she'd scurried off to, only to scurry right back. Shortest of us, she had quite the energy, and wasn't one to be messed with. She'd kick your butt, and act like a dork during and after so you feared her even more. Dark hair, in a short cut, and usually wearing glasses because contacts can be annoyed, she was almost always smiles. What you had to worry about was what sort of smile. "Aw, Winter, what's to cringe about?" she'd asked, before tossing a cob web on Winter.

"AAAAGgggh! HEATHER!" Winter exclaimed, brushing it off her face quickly, sputtering as she might have gotten something in her mouth, before she started sneezing. "Ugh, I TOLD you!"

Heather only giggled with a very devilish grin. Winter came closer to me, glaring at Heather until we were delving into the halls, deeper into the old place. It was freaky, and old, dusty, rusty, and decaying. And I loved it, though I had that paranoia that some scary movie creep was going to put us into a situation that tested how reasonable and witty we were. But anyways.

"So….what was the story with this place again?" Winter had asked as we looked into the many rooms that lacked doors, only poking our heads in those with doors. "I mean, we didn't come here to steal any antiques."

"Ooohoho, it's a good one." Heather had spoken in a voice meant to be spooky, but Winter just gave her a look. Laughing, I decided to start it off.

"Well, years ago, there were rumors of a medical epidemic—everyone said a deadly virus was spreading here in our little slice of Georgia." I'd begun, strolling behind the other two as we made it up the wide stairs that over-looked the great hall of this place, which led to so many halls for us to search. "Scared of the threat, a local occult took it upon themselves to find their own answers to face the epidemic. They believed they could find an answer in these mightier beings they'd read of—great creatures, humanoid but…something else. One of their members, a scientist, believed their immune systems and healing were far greater than that of our human race. So they planned…to summon one of them."

Winter was really intrigued, and Heather as well, though she was preoccupied with the place. I would have been too, and it seemed as if I was, but I was mainly acting for effect of storytelling because I was that much of a dork so I wasn't really seeing anything I looked at.

"So…did they succeed…?" Winter asked as Heather decided to slide down the railing with yelp and woop.

"Yup…but it wasn't what they thought." I told her, and followed Heathers lead, only to almost trip upon reaching the bottom, steadying myself. "Jeeez….that was close. Come on, sis!" I waved Winter to follow, as Heather ran down a hall and I followed, hearing Winter racing down the stairs after us.

Heather took the liberty of leading, and continuing the story, peaking in doors suspiciously as we went. "So…their scientist had a theory about how to reach the beings, as there were no sources for how to summon one to them…she suggested they go seek one out for themselves. And she knew just—" door opened, "how…" Heather slipped inside. "Basement this way, come on~."

Me and Winter looked at each other, our adventurous natures halting with discomfort of basements, but we knew we wouldn't hear the end of it from Heather if we didn't go, plus curiosity was winning out over reason (we'd so die in our horror film at this rate). Catching up to Heathers trek deeper, she continued when we were in ear-shot, while we were winding down a swirl of stairs.

"She had a theory, something that came to her in a daydream and she developed into scientific possibility."

"Is there really a need for dramatic story-telling delay? How were they gonna get to the creature?" Winter interrupted. Sour sport. Then again, we had torn her away from her currently cosplay creating tasks to come out with us, so maybe it was warranted.

"A portal. They were going to use a portal to the creatures' home world. They worked tirelessly, day and night, striving to develop that gate way, the threat of the virus growing worse and worse. They were at the end of their ropes, but the scientist wasn't giving up. Even as the rest of the occult were growing sick themselves, and her too, she didn't stop."

But we did then. Door in our way, and as Heather tried to turn the nob, we realized it was locked.

"Aw, maaaan…" she whined, her epic story telling tone stopping abruptly.

"Locked? Seriously?" I joined her, jiggling the nob, even pushing on the door. "We'd have the kick it down…"

"Forget the door! Did she make the portal or not?!" Winter asked, hugging her arms, as it was weirdly cold down there.

I grumbled a response. "No one knows, they say she and the others died before she could finish it." I shoved a bit on the door. "Ugh, it's not gonna budge…"

"We'll have to bust it down. But hey, no, that was just one of the theories. They also say she made it, and asked one of the beings to cure her home and they did, remember?" Heather had corrected me.

"Well, yeah, but obviously they didn't really make a portal." I'd said as I'd backed up to observe the door, to consider how long it would hold up against us assaulting it if we chose to.

"You don't know that for sure." Winter piped up, and we looked at her. I noticed there was a belief in her eyes, and it reminded me of years of believing the impossible and fantastical myself. Sometimes little folk lore, sometimes made up stories, and then there was the longer lasting belief that a show could be real and waiting for us to reach it. Of course, that was just adolescent belief.

"Only one way to find out. This is where they were said to have made it." Heather wiggled her brows. "So…gonna help us bust into the basement? It's gonna take all of us." She had a point, just one push, shove or kick wasn't going to do much other than give us sprained ankles or bruises.

Winter had to take a minute to consider it, as there was still that little uneasiness she'd held the entire time we were here, but as she looked to both of us, she seemed to decide. She stared down the door and nodded. "Lets do it."

We nodded back to her and we all stepped back and huddled together, apparently getting the same idea, without speaking, of ramming it simultaneously. Taking hands, we prepared ourselves.

"On three…" I started. "…One."

"Two…!" Heather was giddy.

"…Three!" Winter yelped, leading us by the middle and with a strange sort of scared battle cry, we slammed ourselves right into the old wooden door, and took it right off the hinges-which was very awesome, but only in retrospect, as the immediate pain from impact was a little distracting.

"Aaaahahahahooow….!" I whined, rubbing my shoulder intensely with the theory that pressure on the wounded area would take away from the pain. It was mixed results. Though I was suddenly alerted to the fact that I'd landed on something. Actually, someone.

"Can't…breath….get…off!" Heather wheezed.

"Whoops, sorry!" I scooted off, and she wheezed harder, rolling on her side. "Though, thanks for breaking my fall~!" that just earned a look, which I could only laugh at.

"…Guys…"

We looked to Winter, who was on her hands and knees on top of the door. She looked freaked, yet in awe. Confused, I followed her gaze, barely muttering out a 'what' and wondering if we'd stumble upon a horror antagonists victim stash before I saw the answer.

"No. Way." Heather muttered in awe, crawling beside me until we were all sitting or crawling in the floor.

Ahead of us, in a crack in the basement wall and floor…was a strange, pulsating source of some sort of energy, flowing, almost swirling, and in the shape of a cats pupil, though a little thicker. I admit, I'd been in denial. It seemed too impossible to me. Then I tried to reason it could be some left over energy…thing created by the scientists work. No matter what it was, it couldn't be a portal, much less one to another WORLD. A world no one even knows about? Too crazy and childish for my matured mind to be willing to believe.

And then Winter stood and headed for it.

"What the hell—Winter!" I leapt up and grasped her hand to stop her, turning her around before she pulled her hand free. "What're you doing?!"

"It's the portal! Come on, we gotta see what's on the other side!" She said, looking so excited, like this was the greatest thing to happen in our lives for a long time.

"Winter, we—we don't know if she really even succeeded! And if that's even possible, which I highly doubt, who knows where it would lead, if anywhere! That could have killed them all. We can't risk it!" I urged her, for fear of her well-being and our own, but I'm beginning to believe it was fear mixed with unwillingness to believe something I'd been told too often when I was younger was impossible.

"So you just brought me here for scary stories and dusty rooms?!" she accused. "No, we came here for fun…and we've found something no one's had the guts to find! Something that could be amazing! It COULD lead to another world, and you can't say for sure that it can't. Come on, I can't really be the ONLY one wanting to see..?!" she looked to us both.

I bit my lip and said nothing. And expected my friend to do the same, but the traitor turned on me.

"…I kinda wanna see, too." Heather spoke up and I just gave her a very extreme 'how could you' look, which earned a sheepish grin. "I can't help it…but she has a point. It would be…so freaking awesome!" she laughed with excitement.

"See!" Winter exclaimed.

I sighed, shaking my head, taking a step back, though the turn in my stomach I felt then seem to want to roll me towards that pulsating thing as it stay there, shimmering blues, purples, and greens, a noise like a storm sounding from it. "I don't know…"

"Come on!" Winter seemed to become very annoyed then, which surprised me. "We do this, every month; find something to do to make us feel something again! To feel like there's enjoyment in life again, like when we were kids; the world was full of possibilities, of fun, of adventure waiting to whisk us away. All our poor excuses of trying to bring that feeling back and you KNOW that's what it's all been…and here we are. And you don't even want to try?"

There was that spark in my chest, that started a burning ache then, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to turn away from this and quench the fire. Though I did try. "…Yeah, and what if this ends up being lethal? We could die, if we're wrong. Our lives can end, just like that." I tried to argue. "No future anymore."

"Come on, Jaden…" Heather spoke then, her spunkiness wavering then. "…right now, we really don't have much of any futures, do we?"

I didn't know what to say to that, if it was my shock that she felt that way, or realization of how we'd all been feeling but burying that same feeling. As I thought about it, it made sense. I blame our age, that turning point in our lives when we're no longer carefree children, but we're not adults with our lives fully decided and our purposes found, balance achieved. Yeah, we had drives, we had lives (somewhat), and we had responsibilities. But when I considered it, I really only felt like we just…lived on…we didn't actually…LIVE. None of us had ever found a purpose, a calling in life; I know I've never had that moment where I realized what I was brought into this world for. I thought it was writing, but there's only so far fanfiction can go.

I was silent for some time, before I'd finally sighed. "…Fine…what the hell."

Winter made some happy noise and took my hand excitedly. "This is what we've been looking for, I can feel it, sis! I really feel it…that adventure we've been living to find…" she urged me to believe her, and I couldn't help doing so, with that earnest belief in her eyes, her eyes showing a souring spirit.

We both looked to Heather, and I would have expected that movie-moment 'let's all look happily and dramatically because we're all feeling the same important feelings'. No, she robbed us of that moment. How?

By racing straight for the portal. "Last ones a rotten egg, mwahaha!" she called, laugh as she leapt right in—and she was gone with a flash that turned my stomach.

"Cheater!" Winter complained, only to laugh, racing after and pulling me after her and I felt really reluctant, not sure of how it would feel. I think I made a drawn out noise as I was being pulled, but I can't remember.

And suddenly she threw us through. Blinded, I found we were floating. We could move, like we were swimming, or more accurately (and uncomfortably for me), free-falling. I thought I was going to puke from the flips my stomach was making, and I did the most undignified scream when Heather decided to crash into my back making air-plane noises that soon turned into unending laughter.

"This is crazy, hahaha!" Winter called, floating away of me, smiling and floating gracefully, while I had the dork on my back.

"This is uncomfortable!" I complained.

"Scaredy-cat, you'll land on your feet, don't worr—what's that?" Heather said, but the light ahead of us distracted us all, until it felt like we'd just been tossed out of a swing, very strongly it felt like…and I landed flat on my face, taking a nose-full of dirt, and a Heather to the back.

"Thanks for breaking my fall~." She mimicked as she climbed off, though helped me to stand as I groaned and then coughed.

"Bleeeegh…that was fun." I stated sarcastically, though Winter believed it apparently.

"Yeah it was! Now….where are we?" she was practically scurrying around, the three of us looking around at our own speed.

"Well, toto—"

"Shut up."

It looked like a clearing, where we were. Behind us, in a bush, was I guess the other end of the portal, looking just the same. The clearing didn't seem too weird, or different than what we might see on Earth, so this obviously wasn't another planet. Unless there's another planet with dirt that looks (and tastes) the same, trees, and shrubberies, and cities included.

Well, city. We noticed it was down below, and it was pretty huge.

"Whoa…weird…it looks like…like one of our cities, just…older, like some of its withered." Winter pointed out as I was noticing, though they seemed to have built newer, better buildings and such, or touched up some of the older, leaning buildings.

"Maybe the beings here lived similarly to us..?" I offered.

"Or the occult was brought over and they shared culture…?" Heather offered.

"Eeeh, I'd say maybe, but this stuffs' too old to have been created after the occult came through. We were little kiddies when that drama happened, but that wasn't enough time…"

"Good point…"

"Well, let's not just stand here talking about the scenery, let's go discover it!" Winter encouraged, and raced ahead of us.

"Agh, wait up!" I called, racing after with Heather at my side.

It was a quick-paced downward trek the further we went. We were nearly to the bottom, and it was like the side of a hill, that you'd run down until the bottom because at the angle you couldn't stop moving for fear of falling. We were nearly there, when…

"Ay! Where'd'ya think YOU'RE going!?"

The voice was female, it sounded like, and almost familiar, which was impossible. I tripped and luckily turned just right that instead of falling on my face, I fell on my butt as the other two stopped. I saw the source then, and was very confused…and decently freaked out. As it was a young woman with what looked like…a bazooka? She wore a pink tank top and an army green jacket, baggy blue pants and purple boots. Her light brown hair was back in a ponytail, tied back in red with two locks falling on either side of her face. And the hell? She was standing on something that looked like a mechanical…turtle…? What was this… I thought.

I raised my hands quickly. "We didn't do nothing!"

"Sounds like you're trying to clear your name too quickly, to me… You trying to cause trouble?" she asked, that dang thing still aimed, she wasn't lowering it and I was sure I was starting to sweat, my heart was racing.

"No, not at all! We're just came here, you see, an—" Winter began to explain, but wasn't able to continue.

"Intruders, huh! Not in might city…" she seemed to narrow her gaze, and suddenly a smirk. "We don't allow visitors lightly…too many threats out there…and I'm not taking ANY risks!"

"But we're not a threat, we promise!" I exclaimed. What was this chicks deal?! I felt someone pulling me up, Heather, and followed her lead as she was tugging me backwards, away from the chick.

"Promises, shromises!" she took aim again, and that's when Heather cried, "Run from the bazooka psycho!"

Well, of course, when you call someone with a weapon a psycho, you really have no choice, now do you? See we booked it. And with the laughing we heard behind us that following, we ran harder.

"I told you this would be dangerous!" I yelled to the other two.

"Save it for later, 'kay!?" Winter called, before squealing, "SHE'S GAINING!" and nearly tripping to get away faster, us following her as we just made it to the bottom of the hill and we ran straight for the city edge. Which, given the situation at the time, was ill thought out because the chick had been threatening us for being a 'threat' to said city so she wasn't going to stop chasing us there, but it was the nearest place with cover of course, so.

We didn't waste time looking behind us, and it helped that her little floating turtle gave off a distinct hovering sputter and she sounded far behind us, but that didn't mean she'd stay that way. We finally reached a few small houses and raced harder until we found an ally and hid there, catching our breath.

"What…the…hell…" I huffed, swallowing and trying to wet my suddenly dry mouth. "She's…crazy!"

"Yeah, she is….maybe she's…gone…some kooky local…?" Heather offered.

"Hopefully…I'd hate to…meet more like her…" Winter stated.

"More like who?" we heard what sounded like an older man with a British like accent. What we looked up and saw was…not a man. Exactly. Unbelievable, actually.

Increasingly unbelievable.

A heavy-set yellow creature it seemed at first, dressed in pinks and blues. The longer we looked, we noticed the yellow was fur. Hands were…claws…and he seemed to be…an over-grown feline.

Initial reaction? Freaking out, because it was freaking weird. Disbelief, because it was A WALKING TALKING FELINE. And then, it was extreme disbelief as we all looked to each other, shaking our heads.

"Might I be of assistance? Are any of you hungry by chance, I can surely solve that problem for you!" he told us proudly with a shut-eye smile. "I must say, I don't believe I've met any of you, are you new? We've not had new comers for some time! Pardon me, I should introduce myself! Kutaal! High Chef of New Yora, and one of its proud three protectors as well. I welcome you!"

I let out a breath of disbelief as I repeated his name. "Kutaal…"

He nodded enthusiastically. "And you three are?"

"…Dreaming." Heather said, brows furrowed and we all seemed to have that weird confused look that was growing into something else.

"Well, that's not quite a name, is it..?" he seemed confused. That's when we heard his name called from afar and he turned his attention away. "If you'll excuse me, one momeeent~." He walked off then, talking with someone else.

We all looked at each other then.

"No."

"Freaking."

"Way."

"Binka says she scared some newcomers, have you seen them around?" the voice asked, and we all scurried into the side of the wall, against each other as we listened to the conversation.

"I believe I might have—scared them, you say?"

"Yeah—says she was being a little over dramatic and playful. She was aiming the bazooka at them." The other guy said that like it was a reoccurring thing.

"I say…you and Sago aren't the best influence on her. She's become wilder because of you two!"

"You say it like it's a bad thing!"

"If she's terrifying innocent young lady's with that weapon of her, it is!"

"So, where are they? She said she wants to apologize."

I rolled my eyes at the idea, but then realized they were coming this way. Was this really happening? Were we about to see who I thought we were? I looked to Heather and Winter, my eyes questioning before my mouth did.

"This can't be real. It was just a…a show.." Winter commented, and I nodded, then shook my head confused, adding to the disbelief by asking, "God, was I knocked out when we hit that door?!" and pinched myself (yes, cheesy, but hell, what would you do if you were slowly considering if you just stumbled into an old, cheesy, classically animated but secretly epic anime you hadn't watched in years, eh?). Yup, pinch hurt, especially being the arm I'd rammed the door with.

Now, while me and Winter were sitting in disbelief, Heather took it upon herself to walk towards the steps coming our way, ignoring us telling her to wait until we had to go out with her to meet whoever it was waiting. And who we met was exactly who I was expecting, yet not completely WHAT I was expecting…

It was Mushra, though with how his voice had sounded, I'd expected his Hyper Form. No…it was somewhere in between that and his normal form. The longer I stared and realized he must have…aged past what we'd seen of the show, I realized it WAS his normal form, just older. His uniform had updated a lot, more design to it, better armor, not too confined, but not lacking. Still orange and black, with the purple jewels. And his physique was very near that of his Hyper Form, though, there was still that boyish look in his face, and most definitely his eyes. But his muscles were lean, he had actually gained more height than he'd had before, and there was that manly definition to his features, especially in his jaw.

It was WEIRD, yet that younger part of me was stoked and thought it was cool. Of course, Heather and Winter were in awe just a bit more than me, but I'm not gonna lie, we were all extremely in awe at this point with two of our favorite anime warriors in front of us.

He had his hands on his hips. Classic Mushra.

"Not even any packs, armor or weapons. Did you leave anything at a camp before Binka found ya?" he asked, judging our strange attire by the look in his eyes.

"We weren't camping." Heather answered quickly, her eyes never leaving him, and I notice her footsteps, small but never stopping, as she was moving slowly closer to the purple haired Enterran.

He raised a brow. "Oh? Traveling, then?"

"Surely hungry." Kutaal offered, though we didn't answer right away.

"You could…say that." Winter answered with a laugh and Mushra's attention turned to her. "You could also say we're…not from around here. Very far away, actually…"

"Kansas…" I whispered to myself as I looked around. Now, it was really weird, almost freaky, and then really cool looking at all the other Enterran's around us, with a few humans here and there. We spent years seeing classic but…somewhat terrible (at times) animation of these beings, these people; reptile, animal, and bug humanoid creatures. But seeing it in person, true humanoid bug like creatures (unnerving), and reptilian and feline and canine (cooler), it was really distracting me for the moment as Mushra continued questioning my sister.

"Where exactly? You don't look like you're from Zortown… You from Mechano City?" he asked, leaning forward a bit to look at the three of us, more directly in the eyes I guess looking for any shiny light-like eyes. His eyes lingered on Heather, in confusion, as she'd gotten two steps closer, but he looked back to Winter as she spoke.

"N-no. Um, it's hard to explain. And I'm worried what weapons will be aimed at us next, depending on our answer."

"We don't attack unless others attack first. Binka didn't shoot, did she…?" his eyes narrowed.

"Thankfully, no." I answered that time. "Though with how trigger happy she can be, I'm surprised she d-" crap, that wasn't good, acting like I knew her and her habits when we technically just met her…ish. Mushra noticed and his eyes questioned me. Until they looked back at Heather, who was just a few feet from his face now. Her head just about reached his chin, a little past, but either way, she had to look up to his eyes.

"Excuse me, ever heard of personal space?" he asked in a complaining tone, backing up.

Heather just moved closer, and then she stood on her tippy-toes as he watched her like she was a personal-space-disrespecting loony. And then she stood normal again. "…You're supposed to be a shrimp, hot-head, what the heck happened?"

He made a face, offended, almost like he was taken back to a dark place, and when he spoke again, his older and semi-manly voice broke. "Shrimp?!"

"Ohoho, it has been some years since we've heard that, eh, Mushra?!" Kutaal hit him on the back in cheery remembrance. "Ohaha—ah, shrimp! Just the thing—Oh!" of course, he just realized what his smack on the back had just caused.

He'd bumped Mushra so hard that his face landed right against Heather's as she still stood so close. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing though. It was a really hilarious bump…their lips had landed on each other's.

Mushra grabbed Heather's shoulder and pulled away quickly, making a noise and the two of them backed away with classic faint blushes of embarrassed discomfort at the accidental lip contact with a stranger, the both of them mirroring each other in an attempt to wipe the contact from their lips. Before Mushra turned on Kutaal's retreating figure as the feline laughed and raced off. Where, I don't know, but Mushra was briefly distracted by repaying the favor of that slap on the back.

"M-Mushra, wait..!" Winter called, racing after him and I followed, passing Heather and smirking at her, earning a stuck-out tongue.

Mushra stopped with a sigh and turned back. "…Sorry about that. Uh, you were saying?"

We were all silent, Winter unsure how to go further, but having no idea what to say, nor Heather it seemed. What could we say? We came through a portal from another world into yours, you can totally trust us? Well, I mean…depending on what timeline, it might be believable…if this world was after season two, then surely they'd experienced two timelines and remembered, plus Mushra is combination of his Enterran and Guardian self maybe?

…What was this even. I mean, REALLY! I was yelling internally, my head aching in a back and forth of how could it be, but it is, but how, and why, and WHAT?! Then that fantasy-logic part of my mind that works on stories and books tells me it's a 'stuff happens for a reason' thing. Either way, my mind kept almost wrapping around this whole situation, but it just kept losing its grip.

"…Okay, you girls must still be freaked from you're, uh….welcoming community… Why don't you come eat..?" he offered, scratching the back of his head. He didn't seem as if he were willing to let us alone; whether it was out of duty, or the curiosity and suspicion he surely felt by now, it didn't matter, we wouldn't be able to just leave now, I had a feeling.

"..Yeah, lets…do that." I finally spoke up, looking to my sister and my friend and they both nodded. Soon enough, Mushra was leading us the rest of the way, us following after him walking close together as we mutter briefly to ourselves hoping he wouldn't hear, avoiding the glances and very close stares of the people here.

"Okay, we're apparently in Shinzo—I mean, on Enterra." I began in a whisper, getting na-duh's in response that I ignored. "I don't know if…I don't understand if this followed the show; if so, if it's after the first season, minus the second? But no, Binka's here, so after the second…? What all happen, what do they know, who all is still here?" I went on.

"Still here…?" Winter looked confused.

"Yakumo died at the end of the second season, remember?" Heather reminded her considerately.

"Oh, yeah….that was so sad." She looked ahead at our 'guide'. "Poor Mushra…"

"Yeah.." Heather agreed a bit. "But yeah, no idea, we'll just have to find out from them what all is real and not, right?"

"Yeah, I just…I'm scared we'll freak them out, seem a threat if we show we know about their experiences, or things about them, and we've already slipped up twice. We gotta be careful, until we can really explain where we're from. Everything about it… Agreed?"

"Agreed." Winter nodded, Heather doing the same. "Yeah."

It wasn't long and finally we arrived at the refurbished wreckage of what seemed to be an old air-port. But it had been updated, majorly and it seemed over and over again. But the desks where you might ask about flights, over to the corner, had been elongated and now worked as a bar and register, even another to the other end was one for cooking done in front of you like in certain Asian restaurants. And ahead, it seemed like one of those stalls for reservations, but it didn't seem so pompous and strict. And then there were the escalators, that are still working, and past there it seemed to be one of those small little food court areas, perhaps from the original air-port layout, of course I could imagine there were no Chik-fa-la's or Taco Bells, or any of that. Up the escalator, the further we walked in, I saw chairs and with the registry being set in between the up and down escalator, I imagine that was for the reservations.

Short version of this place? It was a futuristic, messy, wild, and cool food court. And I'm guessing, by the posters hanging around, Kutaal must run the place.

"Do they have Jack in the box?" Heather muttered as she went off ahead of us.

"Heatheerrrr, wait!" Winter after her, but I was too busy watching Mushra as he watched them leave. He looked back to me then.

"You gonna go eat with them?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just…" I watched him for a while, and I looked away, observing the many people, Enterran's and what I wondered were humans.

As the silence went on, he suddenly pat my upper arm. "Look, I don't know where you guys came from, but this is a safe place, nothing to be scared of. Especially with me around, one of three sole protectors, and the strongest of course~." He told me, ending with confidence, hands on his hips and head held high. I could almost see his arms flex a bit. Well, he was still an idiot.

I laughed. "I don't doubt that. Thank you, Mushra. We'll, uh…look for you once we eat, promise." I told him with a thumbs-up and made a run after the other two (I was about tired of running, so I'm lying—I was speed walking).

I finally caught up to them as Heather was talking to all these different species of Enterran's and Winter was in awe of this spider Enterran that happened to have a gown made out of web and such that actually looked pretty cool, and she looked fabulous, for a spider…

"O-m-g, what are we gonna do here, how long are we staying? This place is awesome!" Heather stated as she saw me coming over.

"Staying? I don't know about—"

"Know about what?" Heather raised a brow, like I was crazy not to agree. "Jaden, this is one of the world's we wanted so much to be real! How many times did we look for the gang? Wait to see the bugs out in our backyards start to act differently? How many times did we want to beat the butts of those jerks in the show, and end up beating the butts of jerks at school, mimicking the moves?! Getting made fun of for calling out the attacks…?"

I watched her as she spoke, and she was so intense. Of course, her brand of expressing herself can tend to be intense, or at least extreme, with her excitement and silliness and personality. But there was serious emotion here, and I knew how she felt, what she was talking about.

"I know, I know. I just don't know if this is where we're supposed to be. What, we just leave our lives behind? All our friends in our world, our families?" I offered what was on my mind.

"We barely speak to our families, and you know, other than each other, we really don't have any friends." Heather challenged immediately, and I couldn't say anything.

"You two are so dramatic…" Winter spoke up then, behind me before she came to stand between us. "As far as we know, we can go back and forth. I mean, we'd have to try the portal back, but I can only assume, if it works one way, it's gotta work the other. It's not a pick and choose situation. And if we have to, we can just keep everything secret from them while we hang here. And decided for ourselves, if this place is real, true, and a place we want to involve ourselves in. Okay?"

I sighed and nodded. My mind was just so logical, annoyingly so, when I was offered such good things—like when you see that book you've been pinning for, and you want to get it, but it's so much freaking money that you need for more important things it feels like, but you might be able to manage to pay those things even after you buy the book but you can be sure (translation; too good to be true, too good to be allowed it, so I have to deny and disprove). Then that had me thinking about my job at Barnes&Nobles. "What about our jobs, guys, we—"

"Jaden!" they grumbled in unison and I grumbled, "Okay, okay! Ok…maybe we should…eat. That's what Heather's boyfriend thinks we're doing, anyways."

"YOU LIL—l"

And after the ensuing chase, we did settle on something to eat. It was some sort of meat, chunky meat, with tentacle things…? Whatever, I pretended it was meat and noodles, and it tasted good, so who cares. Heather just got a big thing of the same meat, and Winter got a balance of meat and some leafy soup that reminded me of what Kutaal was making in the Kiri episode…

"…I just thought, if Mushra and Kutaal are still around, is Sago, too? Where's he?" Winter suddenly asked then thoughtfully, before taking a spoonful of the soup.

Of course, hearing his name again and with my mind working and actually processing what and who that name meant, my mind suddenly remembering what he looked like, sounded like, acted like, and the immensely strong crush I'd had on the blue-haired devil when I was younger… Well, let's just say I didn't finish my food. Not that I was going to vomit, but it's hard to eat when the butterflies in your stomach are increasing into dagum birds.

"Jaden? You okay?" Winter asked, and I realized I made a low whining noise.

"…Dunno….gimme a sec…" I told her. This was embarrassing, and I hoped the blush I was imagining my younger self having every time the damn character uttered a single syllable was not returning to my cheeks in that moment, I'd mature past that crap... I was in denial, really. Because for all my years of forgetting my youthful imagination and beliefs, I'd forgotten how strong this had felt. Was this how strong it felt, or is it growing right now? Oh, god, it's growing in its return, it's gonna feel worse.

This is what you get for falling in love with an animated character at the age of….1..5…7… Age of 7 years old that you held up until age 15 more or less. Oh my god, this was stupid. I'd told myself this so many times when I was younger, and crying over it (yes, crying, like a child being told their favorite fairy tale is only a tale). I remember telling myself, even if he was real which he couldn't be, how can I even say I would really care for him the same? And I surely wouldn't be lucky enough to be cared about by him. Teen years are awesome on the self-confidence.

Suddenly, there was a hand on my knee, and I looked up to see Heather watching me, and I saw in her eyes, she knew. No, I don't mean she just knew what was on my mind. She knew that, and knew exactly how I must be feeling. I mean, we feel things a bit differently, but… I wasn't the only one who latched onto a fictional character strongly when I was younger. We just dealt with it differently.

I gave her a weak smile, then mouthed 'I'm good' and she nodded.

"Oh, there they are—yes, okay, I'm going!"

Oh god, she's back.

I slipped out of me chair and hid behind it, dramatically yes, but also just in case. A chair could be a good weapon.

Binka was accompanied by Mushra and Kutaal, who seemed to be pushing her on. She did seem to have a regretful, sheepish look on her face, so maybe she was safe to be around. They finally reached us, and with her arms behind her back, and rocking on her heels, she finally spoke. "Sorry about that, guys. It was a good day, I was feeling a little wild, I thought you guys actually came through the town maybe and had heard of me. I didn't meant to scare ya so bad. Forgive me?" she offered her hand.

I stayed where I was for a moment of course, the birds in my stomach nesting again as I stood and pushed the chair out of the way. I took her hand and shook it with a sigh. "It's alright, I guess. I'm just glad you didn't shoot, we can't exactly come back from a card form."

Shoot. God, Jaden shut up—no wait, there's humans in this timeline, so that's reasonable to say…I think? Or are they humanoid Enterrans…? THIS WAS SO CONFUSING AND FRUSTRATING.

"I told you, Mushra, they had to be humans."

Did my blood just freeze over?

"You hadn't even seen them yet!" Mushra turned.

"Intuition, my friend—I always had more of that than you." and coming from behind him and Kutaal, between them, was… Sago. And now my blood was on fire. I could only stare, and I feared I was stunned into place, but I couldn't care, I was just taking him all in.

He was taller than Mushra still, and taller than me of course. Hair blue and long. The helmet was gone (thank GOD), though he had something like a crown, different from the one Mushra still of course had. Sago's was attached to his horns (like, his Hyper Form horns, just smaller, they hadn't grown as much). It fell to just on his forehead, over and under his blue locks, and it held the blue jewels. His eyes, blue, though his pupil was a little wider. Of course, he'd been 18 more or less in the show, so he was closer to looking like his Hyper Form now, but even he still had some of that…whatever it was, playful look in his face. His uniform looked like a perfect, and pleasing, mesh of his normal form I'd gotten so used to, and his power form. The blues and gold from Hyper, a uniform that looked full body, but blue shades, and just a few golden designs like scales in interesting spots. Then there was the cape. He had to have the cape. This one was still blue, but the collar keeping it around his neck seemed golden now, and the blue had dark blue and gold accented designs to make out the look of bat wings in a clever little design. I settled on his eyes, again, though. They were so like those of his Hyper Form—that I'd studied, drawn, wanted to look into for so many years. And here I was.

"Jay…" I felt Winter nudge me and I shook my head, and looked at her, swallowing.

"W-what?"

"Let go of Binka's hand."

And I did so quickly. "Sorry."

She shook her head as to say it was nothing, though she did seem a little confused as to what all that was about, as everyone else did, but thankfully for the sake of my sanity, they didn't seem to be staring like I, or we, were freaks.

"Well, welcome to New Yora. Are you guys staying, or passing through?" he asked me then, bringing those wings in my stomach to beat around hard.

I looked to the others in consideration. I mean, for the years we'd been so close, and then growing up, leaving together, we'd become a unit, that's how we worked, that's what we were like. So there were a lot of things we needed to decide together. And this was one of those things.

"We, uh… Don't know yet." Heather answered first.

"We didn't totally plan this." Winter added, both of them making it sound like we were leaning towards no, so I gave a final answer.

"…But we'd like to stay, to see if…this is a place for us."

I could feel their smiles, and I couldn't help smiling myself. And the boys seemed pleased, Kutaal the most, the big fluffy kitten he was, he just seemed excited to have new people to possible give a tour to, or to taste test the food that was his passion. Mushra looked all for it, like it would be an adventure of an experience, welcoming us and showing us the ropes, and maybe he already felt that. Sago, I…I couldn't tell. He had a curiosity as he stared at us. At me. And I could only stare back, like I'd known the face for years, but was seeing and would be learning all over again. This would be an adventure. I was so scared for some reason to experience it.

But I was so ready to.

Mushra: *hands me a picture*
Me: *takes, and sees a picture of me and Sago, with some random stick figure shoving our faces together with a Now Kiss caption* ….Really.
Mushra: *smiles proudly*
Me: shoulda made one for you and Heather, shrimp~
Mushra: WHY I OUTTA-
Me: *shoves the paper in his face* And there we are~ Nice little prelude story. Y'all up for a return? You strapped in tight? Let's see if I can make this more of a ride than before X3 if you read this far, thank you, and comment if you wish~! It is appreciated, but not demanded XD *is suddenly yanked toward my laptop*
Mushra: *points to a line* LOOK AT THAT. TALLER. TALLER THAN HEATHER NOW, YOU CAN'T CALL ME SHRIMP ANYMORE, YOU HAVE TO TAKE ME SERIOU—