Episode Three: Welcome to the Modern World

"This is a strange world," Nash mused. The world Willamina had sent the Five Heroes and former goddess into a world filled with tall buildings, strange wagons that moved without horses, and women wearing incredibly revealing clothing. "If we aren't going to get killed, maybe I should trying to look for the others."

Nash, who'd been sitting on a stoop, stood up and brushed off the pants he'd been given. He frowned. These jeans were a little tighter than the loose baggy pants he wore with his apprentice tunics and the T-shirt was just. . . odd looking, but lots of people seemed to be wearing them. He started walking along a slightly elevated cement platform that some people were calling the "sidewalk", which seemed like a good idea. The "cars" were going very fast and it looked like getting hit by one of the would be painful.

"Nash! Over here!"

Nash looked up and smiled to see Jessica running towards him. She looked a little different, her ears being much shorter than they had been, and the two marks under her cheeks missing. She had been dressed in a sleeveless purple shirt, a pair of jeans shorts, and a sweater tied around her waist. "Jessica! Good to see somebody I know!"

"You look weird without your usual ensemble, but luckily I saw your hair in the crowd," said Jessica.

"Cute," said the mage. "Look, if it was THIS easy to find just one of us, then it all we have to do is find the others!"

"Yeah, that WAS pathetically easy. You'd think Willamina would throw in a challenge," said Jessica.'

Nash shook his head. "Just being in another world should be challenging enough. Plus, she's counting on us to get the crystals back."

"Then why threaten to kill us?" asked Jessica. Nash shrugged in response. "No matter, all we have to do is find the others, find the crystal, and get our butts out of here." The excited priestess grabbed Nash by the wrist and dragged him through the crowd.

"This certainly is an interesting world, isn't it, Mia?" asked Luna. Mia and Luna had been lucky enough to find each other early on, and the only task that remained was hunting down the others and the crystal piece.

"Yes, it is," said Mia. "You look, weird, with red hair."

Luna sighed. "Willamina got carried away with trying different colors on me and settled on this," said Luna, fingering the red strands of hair between her fingers. "Good thing I spotted YOU, or else we would've walked right past each other."

"I know," said Mia. The dark haired mage sighed. She'd been given a pair of tight fitting bell bottom jeans and a pink T-shirt. Mia didn't like the shirt; it was tight and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull it down far enough to cover her exposed midriff. Luna was wearing a jean skirt and a blue T-shirt that did a better job at covering her.

"So, Mia, do you have any ideas on what we do next?" asked Luna.

"Well, I'd suggest leaving this park bench, for starters," said Mia. "Let's walk around. We'll hopefully run into one of them."

"Hopefully," said Luna. She stood up, brushed off her skirt, and started walking down the sidewalk, Mia in tow. "This is an interesting place, huh?"

"Yes, it is," said Mia. "But it's so much more crowded than-"

"Yeah, that too, but think of how helpful everyone back home is! I bet everyone here is just as friendly!" said Luna. She then looked across the street to see a rather large, rather nasty fight involving brass knuckles, knives, and big sticks.

Mia's eyes widened. "Uh, maybe not."

"Yes, I'll agree with that," said Luna. "Let's. . . keep walking."

"Should we run before someone brings it on this side of the street?" asked Mia, watching as one of the fighters was tossed into a wall. He didn't get back up after the impact.

"You know, Mia, that sounds like a really good idea," said Luna.

"So we're going to run?" said Mia.

"I think so," said Luna. "I would help them, but, we've got an important job to do. That, and I enjoy having both of my eyes."

"I don't like this place," said Kyle. "It's crawling with creeps even shadier than I am."

Alex had to agree with Kyle. They'd wandered into a tough part of town while looking for the others. "It seems as if there's a lot of gangs and violence in this part of town."

"The docks. Even Meribia has a few shady characters at the docks," said Kyle. "See the water and all the boat houses?"

"I see them," said Alex. "Think we'll find them here?"

"I hope not, but we MIGHT find the crystal particle in this part of town. Any thief would jump at the chance to get something like that," said Kyle. "It's shiny, it's hard, so, in essence, it's valuable."

Alex just nodded. "So, where do we start looking?"

Kyle shrugged, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. "I'd guess that we should look for Nash or Mia, since they're the ones who can sense that kind of stuff."

"Unless we find it on accident," said Alex.

Kyle laughed. "Yeah right- WHOA!" said Kyle, falling backwards.

"Kyle, you tripped over the crystal!" said Alex, picking up the small, milky white crystal ball. "Good job!"

"Ow, my butt hurts," said Kyle.

Alex reached down to help Kyle up. "Are you okay?"

"I don't think I'll be able to sit down for a while, but aside from that, just fine," said Kyle. "Ow. . ."

"Come on, we've got six days to find the others," said Alex. "And find out how Willamina expects us to get back to here."

"Rats, forgot about that," said Kyle. "She'll probably just zap us back once she sees we have her crystal."

Alex shrugged. "Look, it's getting late, we should probably hit the hay."

"Sure," said Kyle. "I can lay on my stomach so my butt doesn't hurt."

"Thanks for sharing," said Alex. "Maybe we'll find an empty boathouse or something."

"That sounds good," said Kyle. "Let's go."

"It was really nice of those guys to let us spend the night at their warehouse," said Jessica. A group of men had found her and Nash late at night, still lingering on streets, and offered them a room. The room had been an office of some sort, Jessica taking the old couch while Nash slept on the floor.

"Yeah, but it seems kind of. . . suspicious," said Nash. "Why would someone just give you a free room without even knowing you?"

"Well, lot's of people gave us rooms on our quest," said Jessica.

"Well, that was different," said Nash. "Everyone already knew who a lot of us were because of who your parents are or because of Kyle's odd and unusual friends."

The priestess smiled, then frowned. "That reminds me. My father isn't going to be happy if half of Reza shows up for the wedding," said Jessica.

"Then have it in Nanza," said Nash. "Kyle's men can easily take care of the thieves. And it's a beautiful mountain view."

Jessica smiled. "That does sound nice."

"But back to the subject," said Nash, sitting up. "Why did those guys, just out of no where, let us stay with them? No one here knows who Hell Mel is. No one knows about any Goddess Althena. No one knows about the Magic Guild. So, why were they being nice to us?"

Jessica sat up as well. "Yeah, it was kind of. . . spontaneous. "Maybe we should check this place out and see about what the heck is going on."

Nash nodded, standing up. "Agreed. But we have to be quiet if they're just nice or if they're up to something," he said. Jessica stood up and slowly crept over to the door with her friend. The mage placed his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. They both nearly jumped at the click, but kept calm. Slowly, Nash opened the door and they quietly crept out and ducked behind a stack of boxes, as their hosts were still up.

The group of men that had been so generous to them were now standing around in red, hooded robes, chanting around a strange black fire. They were chanting some sort of a dark spell, causing the fire to flicker every so often.

"We've got to get out of here," said Nash. "I feel a ton of evil magic here. This is almost as bad as Ghaleon's experiments."

"That bad?' said Jessica.

"Maybe worse."

"Hey! The sacrifices woke up!" said one of the men.

"Sacrifices?!?" Jessica and Nash said at once. "Let's get out of here! AHH!"

"Not so fast!" said one of the men, holding up his hand. Suddenly, Nash and Jessica were surrounded by a wall of flames. Jessica yelped and instinctively clung to the closest object, namely Nash. "You two have been selected to be sacrificed to the Black Fire. Accept your fate."

"No way!" said Nash. After getting Jessica' iron grip off, Nash raised his hand. "Check this out!" A few sparks escaped his fingers, but aside from that, nothing. "Uh oh, I forgot. I'm out of MP!"

"Whatever, you both belong to the Black Fire, now!" said a figure in a white and red robe they hadn't seen before. This figure was, different. Once the hood was removed, they saw a woman with dark hair and red streaks throughout.

"Who are you?" asked Jessica. "What do you want with us?!"

The woman grinned. "All though it won't matter once our preparations have been made, we are the Disciples of the Black Fire. The Black Fire makes us immortal. Immortals to forever serve its needs. And the Black Fire grows hungrier by the day. That's why we needed you two. It craves young blood."

Nash growled. "You're not getting it!"

"Well, not tonight. There are still several preparation that need to be made before we actually sacrifice you," she said. "Dispel the fire and have the girl brought to me and my female disciples. Men, take care of the young man. You know the proper preparations that need to be taken place."

Once the fire was dispelled, Jessica and Nash were overpowered by the Disciples and dragged away to different parts of the warehouse.

Luna and Mia had ended up rather lucky as far as finding a place to sleep. They'd found a homeless shelter and spent the night there. The bunk beds weren't exactly comfortable, but it was better than a garbage can or worse. "Sleep good?" asked Mia, peeking over the top bunk at Luna, who was still getting up.

"All right," she said, holding back a yawn. "Let's get up, eat, and start looking for Alex and the others."

"You think they've gotten in trouble?" asked Mia.

"I don't think so. At least Alex hasn't," said Luna. "I don't know about Nash, Jess, and Kyle, though."

Mia smiled. "You have a keen lock on Alex, don't you?"

Luna nodded. "Of course! He's the last Dragonmaster and, in essence, I'm the Goddess Althena."

"So, how exactly do you plan on finding them?" asked Mia.

"I'm hoping Alex will smarten up and play his ocarina. I can hear it from anywhere!" said Luna. "Then tracking him- Good, he finally did smarten up. I can hear him."

"Well then let's go and follow!" said Mia, pulling her sneakers on and quickly lacing them up. Luna was walking out the door already, so the smaller mage had to rush to catch up to her friend. "Luna! Wait up!"

"This way, he's close by," said Luna. "Very close."

Mia sighed heavily. No use in trying to get her slow down. She'd just have to run to catch up. Trouble was, she wasn't very fast on her feet and despite her light weight, she couldn't go very far at a time. "Luna. . ."

"There! Alex! Kyle!" cried Luna, darting across the street. Several cars had to jam on their breaks to keep from hitting the excited girl. Several gave her "advice". Mia groaned and saw than, indeed, Alex and Kyle were across the street, Alex playing his ocarina. Luna rushed into him, catching the former Dragonmaster by surprise. Once traffic slowed down, Mia carefully crossed to join her friends.

"Hey, glad to see you kids all right," said Kyle. "Now we just gotta find Sparky and my fiancé."

"Sparky? Oh, I get it," said Luna. "You're awful to him, sometimes."

"Luna, he blew up an airship and betrayed us to Ghaleon," said Kyle. "Of course I'm going to be rotten to him for a while! But I'm starting to like the guy!"

"What's with the red hair, Luna?" asked Alex, fingering Luna's flowing red locks.

"Oh. Willamina decided to experiment with different colors. Like it?" asked Luna.

Alex blushed. "Uh. . . yeah. . ."

"You don't know like?"

"That's not what I said!" said Alex.

"Alex, Luna, please stop arguing. We need to find Nash, Jessica, and- the crystal!" said Mia, her eyes widening as she saw Kyle reveal the crystal from her pocket. "You've found it already?"

"Yes, I tripped on it and Alex pointed it out," said Kyle.

Luna laughed. "Then that makes our job that much easier!"

"Good, so now all we have to do is consider where we'd find Nash and Jessica," said Mia. "If I were Nash, where would I be?"

"Your underwear drawer," said Kyle.

SMACK!

"Ow!" said Kyle.

"So, aside from my underwear drawer, where would Nash be?"
"In trouble?" asked Kyle. "Maybe at a place where they sell chicken costumes? Or what about a hair salon?"

Mia frowned. "Better guesses, but no. The library!"

"The library?" asked Alex. "Why would someone want to- oh yeah, Nash is a little bit of a bookworm, isn't he?"

"Exactly," said Mia. "That, and he might want to learn about this place before he begins his personal search for the rest of us. I don't get it, but Nash loves research. He's really going to make a great teacher at the Guild someday, but back to the point. Now, where would we find Jessica?"

"Heh, MY underwear drawer," said Kyle.

SMACK!

"Now at least his face is symmetrical. Seriously, where would se be?" said Mia.

"Maybe they ran into each other," said Luna. "We just have to hope they're both alive when we find them."

Alex sighed. Jessica and Nash usually weren't a good combination. In fact, it was usually a screaming contest. Occasionally it got psychically with Jessica smacking Nash with one of her maces so he was either knocked unconscious or confused so he started sparking thunder bombs everywhere in the party. There was one time he hit Kyle-

Not important. We'll tell you later.

"Well, we've still got five and a half days left to find them," said Mia. "But that doesn't mean we should take our time."

"Mia's right, we have to hurry if we're going to find them before the week is up," said Alex. "So, do we try the library or what?"

"I think we should go and find a map, first. That way we won't get lost," said Kyle.

"You know, he's actually thought of some intelligent ideas," said Luna. "I thought Jessica said he was a dumb bastard."

"That's because I can be a dumb bastard. And Mia? Please stick to hitting Nash!" said Kyle, rubbing his sore cheeks.

"You deserved it," said Mia. Kyle's eyes widened at Mia's retort, and he frowned. "Oh, don't be a cry-baby, Kyle. After all, you're getting married. If you say you're a man, than act like one, and not like an immature teenage boy!"

Luna clapped in approval, and Mia laughed while Kyle and Alex groaned. "Can we please just go to the stupid library and see if Nash went there or not?" said Alex.

"Alex is right, we're wasting valuable time, and we don't know how long it's going to take to hunt them both down," said Kyle. "So, let's get going already."

With that final comment, the four began the search for their final two members.

Two days passed without any sign that Nash and Jessica had been seen or heard off. Alex and Luna could see worry deeply furrowed within Mia and Kyle alike, the latter seeming the most timid. Kyle had grown oddly quiet during their fruitless search. He didn't joke, complain about the drinking age being twenty-one, or call Nash "Sparky".

Mia was worried, too, but not so much as Kyle. The group knew that ever since the Magic Masher incident, Nash's way too obvious feelings for Mia were being returned. Mia was beside her self, which definitely caused some concern within the group. But this seemed normal for Mia. Being quiet when she was worried. Kyle normally made jokes to hide his nervousness, but not this time.

But then again, where was Jessica to hear his jokes?

All right, so Nash and Jessica are captured by a group of evil cult people and the others have found the crystal. Think things look bad? They'll get worse. MUCH worse, trust me on that!