THEME SONG: "Mystic Eyes" - Tenkuu No Escaflowne, ending theme
Nine sets of large female eyes peered down into the red and green duffelbag as Ash slowly pulled down the zip. Immediately, Erin and Karlie fell to their knees and pulled the sides of the bag apart to get a better look.
Sarah, the new arrival, stood apart from the group, looking slightly frantic, and kept both of her hands occupied by fiddling with both her mysterious pendant, and her own beaded necklace that had remained around her neck. From time to time, Tracey sent her a cautious glance, and Karlie could be heard fizzing somewhere in the background.
Trish stood at the back of the group of girls, having no problem with looking over the tops of their heads. Delia Ketchum had been kind enough to provide her with clothes, and Delia was slender enough so that her own clothes were a perfect fit on Trish. Currently, she was dressed in a vibrant blue knee length skirt and a white blouse. The skirt was livable in, but the frilly white blouse was going as soon as possible.
Carefully, Erin and Karlie extracted eight reasonably sized, but empty backpacks. They were all in the same style, but were in an assortment of colours. Wordlessly, the seven girls picked up the backpack corresponding to their pendant colour. Michelle eyed the remaining eighth backpack.
"I guess we still have someone to come…" she commented, raising her eyebrow as she gazed warily at the crimson red backpack, whilst clutching the neon pink one to her chest with obvious distaste. The others murmured in apprehensive agreement.
"Why do we have backpacks?" asked Rachel, suddenly, flicking a stray strand of blonde hair from her cheek. "It's not like we have anything to put in them…"
"Think again…" interrupted Misty, as she and Ash delved further into the bag. Mia giggled to herself as she saw to her approval that Todd and Duplica were apart from the group, leaning against the wall by the kitchen and talking in intimate, quiet tones. She nudged Michelle, and the two brunettes shared a conspiratory grin.
"Wow! There's a whole load of stuff in here!" came Ash's muffled excited voice from the far regions of the bag. "What's this?" he asked, lifting his head and arm and dangling an object that was obviously foreign to him from the string that was conveniently attached to it. Rachel smiled to herself as she felt Richie, standing beside her, sway slightly. Gary guffawed with laughter from where he was standing between Michelle and Tracey and Brock looked simply horrified.
"Ash! Put that down!" he yelped in terror as he smacked the female utensil out of his younger friend's grip. Ash looked up at Brock in confusion. Brock sweatdropped. "Maybe we should leave the girls to sort out what belongs to who, hey guys?" Ash nodded slowly, still not quite understanding why Misty was sniggering into her palm.
"Okay! All guys outside!" ordered Trish, taking pity on Brock's obvious discomfort. The boys shrugged, and five of them walked out, notably followed by the less than sociable Duplica. There was silence in the room for a second as all eyes fell on the daydreaming person still standing next to Rachel.
"Richie!" chorused at least four of the girls.
"Wa? Oh sorry!" Richie blushed, more directed at Rachel than anyone else, and practically sprinted out the door.
Erin got to her feet, as Karlie and Mia had decided to take everything out of the 'Mary Poppins Bag' at it was instantaneously and affectionately now known before sorting the items out. Erin smiled as she saw, in typical anime style, Karlie seemingly being swallowed to the waist by the bag, and Mia calmly pulling her back out by the hem of her teeshirt. Of course, then Karlie realised that she had dropped her glasses somewhere in there, and had to go back in…
Erin crossed the room, pausing slightly to whisper 'What shall we call this then? Richelshipping?' in her innocent tone in the blushing blonde's ear, before walking up to Sarah, who was staring out of the sunny window, clutching the violet backpack to her like a lifejacket.
"Escaflowne fan, huh?" Erin remarked cheerfully, noticing the younger girls beaded necklace. Sarah looked at her in confusion.
"What?" Erin gestured to the necklace.
"Your beads. The swirls on the beads read H I T O M I; that's a character from Esca-" Erin hadn't finished her sentence before Sarah had rushed to the hall mirror. She shrugged and followed her. Having dropped the backpack to her feet, Sarah was now staring at the reflected letters in her necklace in disbelief.
"It shouldn't have letters on it… I'm sure they never had before…" she fussed, still in the 'I-don't-believe-this-I'm-in-the-Pokémon-world-aaaaaah' mode. Erin and Karlie, having spent almost four days in the Pokémon world now, were way over this stage. Rachel was over it too, and Mia seemed to have been totally unaffected by the change over to being a part of a favourite television show.
Michelle had been hit hard by the mode, and even though she had been here for about 2 days, she was still rather inclined to think she was dreaming, or even a rather elaborate joke that someone was putting on. Trish had been affected by a difference crisis; she felt… responsible. Not for what was happening to these FanFiction.net authors, but… responsible for their safeties. And for the safety of Ash and the others as well. She was about ten years older than any of them, Delia exempt, and was more worried with the practical problem of how to get home than concerned about how they got here.
However, that WASN'T going to stop her from having some fun! She was going to ask Ash if he would give her the phone numbers of Danny, the Naval Island GymLeader or even Drake, the Leader of the Orange Crew himself, which was more unlikely however. She, Riny and Rachel had plans to prank phone-call quite a few people.
"Okay you lot!" yelled Karlie, and instantly, the other five were lined up near to where she, Mia and Misty had been sorting through the bag. Karlie grinned at her power in spite of herself.
"Okay first up," began Misty, gesturing towards a pile to the left of her, "is what appears to be a supply of clean underwear." The five girls who were standing up sweatdropped, which by now was an occurrence they were familiar with. But what they weren't expecting was for their faces to go flat around the chin and for their eyes to turn to dots. They all gasped in shock, returning to normal instantly.
"We did that five minutes ago," chanted Mia and Karlie, with matching mischievous grins.
"Oh, it appears that we're still expected to continue our fics whilst on our little vacation…" commented Trish with obvious distaste as she noted the eight matching jotter pads, complete with average looking fountain pens. Suddenly, there was an excited squeal and Erin skidded to her knees, bumping Mia unceremoniously out of the way as she scooped a tattered looking teddy-bear up in her arms and fell into a series of contented coos.
Mia blinked as she turned herself the right way up again.
"I'mmmmmmm…guessing that's hers…" she muttered. Erin abruptly looked away from the bear cradled in the cross of her arms and swept the floor with her gaze as if she was expecting something else to be there, and her eyes fell, unhappily as she didn't see what she was searching for.
Soon, the seven girls had packed their bags, each having a notepad, necessities, the pad and pen, a comfort item, a personal CD player or walkman, and now sat staring at the four mysterious bundles left on the floor. Misty on the other hand was completely fascinated with Erin's MP3 player, and was blissfully listening to 'Only One' from CardCaptor Sakura, sighing happily as she seemed to be able to understand the Japanese words of the love song perfectly.
"You people have video-phones and you're obsessed with an MP3 player!" Michelle screeched in disbelief, pacing around the room in an irritated way.
"What are those?" Sarah asked carefully, nudging one of the tightly wrapped bundles with her toe cautiously. Rachel picked it up in her hands; it was deceptively light. She ran her hands over the pink and white canvas, and then tugged on a thick piece of string protruding from the folds.
There was a short sharp sound like a vacuum as the canvas exploded into life. Rachel squealed in shock as the bundle seemed to magically transform into a tent that landed gracefully on top of her.
"I guess someone thinks we're doing some traveling," murmured Karlie, sniggering to herself as she saw Erin try to pull Rachel out from underneath, but only succeeding in falling backwards herself.
"Hey! They're colour-coded; guess me and you are bunking up together Michelle!" Rachel smiled, struggling underneath the tent. Michelle shot her a lazy thumbs up from where she was half dozing in a chair nearby – her anxious walk around the living room having totally tired her out.
"Me and Sarah…" noted Mia, seeing that another bundle was green and purple.
"Me and Mysterious Person Number Eight Who Will Have A Red Pendant," chanted Trish, spotting the yellow and red bundle. Karlie eyed the remaining bundle with distaste.
"Heh, bad luck Kaz! You've got Ms Fidget!" snickered Michelle, earning a couch cushion in the face from a glaring Erin.
"What dya mean 'fidget'?" asked Karlie in alarm. Michelle grinned.
"She never shuts up, mumbling and singing in her sleep, and she trashes around like she's fighting someone or something – oh, and if you so much as touch her hair or her feet she goes ballistic." Karlie sweatdropped.
"I talk in my sleep and stuff too…" she murmured slowly. Trish laughed as she tugged another cord now visible on the constructed tent which made it shrink down with a dissatisfying whistling sound into its bundle form.
"That's going to be a very noisy te-" she stopped mid word as a yawn coursed through her body. Misty looked around in alarm as the seven authors all yawned unanimously.
"Jeez, do all girls yawn at the same time on your world?" she asked.
The girls looked around at each other warily.
~*~
Author thrashed around in her bed as she attempted to sleep.
Those pendants… what was going on with those pendants?
She had fashioned them as a way of keeping things orderly in her story; so, as Mia had said, she could colour-code their belongings. But these pendants… they seemed to hold way more power and influence than they should.
And why had her story, her perfect story, why had it made up a new character? Who was the author with the crimson pendant? If Author didn't know, then who would?
Finally, she fell into a restless sleep, but it was deep enough for her not to notice a brief flicker of light, as a thin chain of gold fashioned itself around her neck, and the deep red stone attached to it glowed…
The glow took a shadowy form of a woman. She stood alone in the bedroom, staring in wonder at her arm for a few seconds, before walking over to Author's desk. She placed her hand on top of the ordinary looking sheet of A4 paper there.
The paper absorbed the glow; once again the room was left empty save for the slumbering figure of Author.
~*~
Ash and Gary surveyed the scene in the room, sweatdropping slightly. Misty was sitting in the middle of the room, with dotted eyes. The seven girls were all asleep, sprawled across each other or across the couches; a few delicately snoring ever-so-slightly.
Sure enough, both Erin and Karlie were mumbling to themselves; but whereas Karlie looked peaceful, Erin looked troubled as she slept, and her eyebrow kept twitching. Suddenly, her mouth opened wide, and she thrashed out with all her limbs at once.
She screamed, sending both Michelle and Karlie, who were leaning against her, practically flying across the room. Neither of them stirred.
~*~
Erin was standing in what appeared to be her garden. Opposite her stood a figure, draped in various shades of purple velvet. The robes flowed to her feet, and sported a wide, high collar that obscured all of her face except for large, uncompassionate eyes.
She had long, wavy hair that flowed almost as long as the dress, and was a deep crimson in colour, with thin, barely noticeable streaks of dark brown. Before Erin could move, a voice came out from behind the collar.
"Hello Erin." The voice immediately struck Erin as familiar; horribly familiar. She had heard that voice many, many times before. She gazed up at the woman with obvious scrutiny. She seemed to falter under the gaze of the short girl, and for the shortest of moments, her blood red eyes flickered dark. She shook her head, and when she reopened her eyes, they were the same hideous colour as before.
"Are you the other author?" Erin asked, carefully. The woman laughed mockingly.
"The other author isn't coming," she snapped. "There is no one else. My name," she continued, her eyes twitching slightly, "is Velve. And I am your sporting chance."
"My what?" asked Erin.
"Irrelevant," she said, flippantly, beginning to pace around Erin in a circle. As she paced, the background of the garden seemed to melt, into nothing but the ghastly red of Velve's eyes. I'm here to warn you, no TELL you," she continued. "That you're all here to die! You're all going to die! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"
As the woman's musical laughter echoed around her, Erin fell to her knees, clutching her cool pendant in her burning hand. Velve spun around, laughing and laughing.
"And you-" Velve snapped, coming to a halt in front of the terrified girl, pointing accusingly. "Are going to burn…" She erupted into screeching, hideous laughter again. "MOERO, MOERO!" she practically cackled.
Erin wrenched open her eyes, her cries hoarse in her throat, but found only cooling darkness; but still Velve's voice found her, as she felt the beginnings of waking up.
"Sincerity… don't you understand that?" she jeered. "Oh, and watch the others… watch your partners… or they die too… One tip. Never let your guard down…"
~*~
Erin felt nothing but relief as she felt light pierce the darkness of her dream, and her eyes flew open to see a worried looking Brock and an angry looking Karlie.
"You kicked me across the room!" she squealed. Erin sat up in alarm, gazing around the sitting room as the others began to stretch and rouse.
"Hitomi! Iris! Eyes!" she said in excitement. A freshly awoken Mia stared across at Karlie, who shrugged and made a twirling motion with her index finger pointing at her head. "We're going to die!" Erin announced, slightly hysterically, summoning the rest of the boys in from the garden, and even Delia stuck her head curiously out of the kitchen as she whisked batter in a bowl. "We're all going to die!"
"Now look at who's being Hitomi," Karlie murmured, her voice slightly tinged with fear, although she said it sarcastically. Rachel and Mia let out nervous giggles. Brock approached the frantic girl, as if he wished to calm her, but she latched on to his arm, worthy of Karlie latching on to Tracey.
"I have to protect you Brock," she cried. "But how can I protect you when I can't even protect myself?" Brock didn't know what to say for once, so just looked awkwardly at where her tears had stained dots of darker orange onto his teeshirt. Orange like fire. "I'm going to burn…" she mumbled, seemingly half out of it. She gazed around at the faces in the room; they all looked worried, but Trish looked absolutely horrified.
Oh my God, she thought to herself… if we have to protect our partners… I've ran away from Jesse and James! Does that mean they're going to die?
Tracey looked at the back of Sarah's head, and wondered how she was supposed to protect him, and how he was supposed to protect her. Suddenly, she spoke up, startling everyone in the room out of their silence. Karlie pulled the trembling Erin into an awkward hug before nudging her towards a distraught looking Rachel.
"I had a weird dream as well…" Sarah said, confidently. "But it wasn't anything about dying…" She gulped, and continued. "I think I know where we're supposed to be traveling…"