X-Book 6: Introduction to the Underground

Prologue:

New York City.

The Big Apple.

The City that Never Sleeps...

For some reason, it had been haunting Mary Sloane's dreams tonight.

It was May, and the weather had been quickly getting warmer. So, Mary had taken to sleeping with her bedroom windows open. That was why, when she awoke the first time to the sound of screeching tires, she figured the noise must have come from outside.

The second time she woke up, her dream had been more vivid. She had been standing among a long stretch of trees, staring up at the sky...and the stars had seemed very close. She realized quickly she was looking up at a city skyline, and she once again could hear the sounds of traffic nearby. Then, a sound like a deep growl had made her jerk awake.

Mary had frowned as she sat motionless in her bed, almost expecting to see some large animal in her room...or the sneering face of a formless demon. However, the mansion around her had been quiet, and she had no sense of danger in the waking world. She had laid her head back on her pillow, and decided she must be having some kind of strange nightmares instead of a true vision. After all, the images did not make any sense.

Trees...skyscrapers...flashing lights...shoes...a mutli-colored dance floor...

She had shaken her head and sighed with strange amusement as she fell back to sleep. Even the danger in the dream felt almost...well...not dangerous...

Now, she sat in her bed again, wide awake for a third time, and tried to decipher what these dreams meant...if they meant anything at all.

Her last dream of the night had been the most confusing of all. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, attempting to see the vision in her head again, and hopefully be able to understand it.

There were trees...and that strange grumbling, growling voice...

There were shoes...piles of them...plundered but not worn...

There was the sound of traffic humming through a darkened city...

The lights of the buildings twinkling like stars fallen to earth...

There was horrible, gleeful laughter...there was the sound of applause...

There were flashing lights...moving feet...and that sound...

...a strange sound...among the traffic...among the terrible laughing, growling voices...

...it was hard to hear...

... it was becoming clearer...

...it was...

...it was...

Mary opened her eyes wide, and spoke aloud.

"...Disco?"

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Author's note: Welcome to book 6. :-) Once again this story will be filled with lots of crossovers, lots of strange music, and, this time, lots of the Brotherhood. I'll throw in notes about crossover characters when they come along. (Hint: Villian; Hint: 10th Kingdom; Hint: BeeGees) For now, it's really late and the disco is starting to get to me... %-P