Author's Note: If you are unfamiliar with the "Animax" franchise I highly recommend looking up Mel Birnkrant's website (Mel Birnkrant dot com) and Linkara's review on Atop the Fourth Wall.

There was a burst of light and a sudden feeling of disorientation. As it passed Glimmer shivered and rubbed her arms as she felt a sudden chill.

"How did it get so cold all of a sudden?" she wondered. Then her vision cleared and she looked around in astonishment.

She was now standing in the middle of an empty grassy field. The sky was covered completely by a thick blanket of grey clouds and in the distance she could hear rumbles of thunder. There was no sign of She-Ra, the other rebels, the Horde or even the village of Alwyn itself.

"W, where is everyone? Wait, where am I?" Then she remembered what had happened. "That Horde weapon, it must have teleported me here. How am I going to get back?"

Before she could ponder her dilemma further Glimmer heard familiar sounds. The roaring of engines, the crackle of electricity and hum of laser fire, angry shouts. There was a battle raging nearby.

Glimmer started running. She followed the sounds until she came upon a bizarre sight. In front of her was a vast fissure so big it seemed to divide the planet in two. On the far side she could make out a barren rocky landscape without even a hint of vegetation. A single bridge spanned the gorge. It consisted of nothing more than a wide platform of grey rock with a stone archway at either end. The far archway was carved to resemble a goat-like skull with curled horns while the near archway was sculpted into the head of a roaring lion.

The battle she had heard was taking place on the bridge. The combatants were like nothing she had ever seen before. On one side were four male humans wearing brightly coloured body armour and open-faced helmets designed to look like animal heads. On the other was a mob of beast-like humanoids. Both sides wielded odd-looking laser rifles. The strangest thing by far however were the vehicles they were driving.

At first glance she assumed that the vehicles had been designed to resemble animals. A closer look showed that they had actual living animal heads fused directly to their chassis. Their eyes looked around, their mouths opened, they snarled and growled at each other. The animal-vehicles on the humans side were a lion, tiger, rhino and horse, with each driver's helmet fitting their animal. On the inhuman side were a buffalo, a warthog, a dragon-like creature and a skeletal goat.

What are those things? Glimmer crept closer until she could make out voices.

"Give up Road Tamers! The Liteside will fall!" yelled the driver of the skeletal goat-thing. He was a tall, emaciated figure with red skin and leathery wings.

"Forget it X-Tinctor! We'll never let you harm innocent people" the driver of the lion-vehicle called back.

X-Tinctor pointed a weapon at two of the Road Tamers, the lion and the horse, and fired a bolt of lightning. They swerved out of the way but the horse-vehicle was then blindsided by the buffalo ramming straight into it.

WHAM!

The horse-vehicle was bowled over onto its side and the driver was thrown from his seat. He tumbled over the side of the bridge, barely managing to catch hold of the edge with his fingers in time to keep from falling.

"Tarmac!" the man in the lion helmet yelled.

"I… I can't hold on" he gasped, his hands trembling as he struggled to keep his hold.

X-Tinctor laughed cruelly. "Yes Road Tamers, watch helplessly as your comrade falls to his doom!"

"Not if I can help it!" Glimmer teleported herself onto the bridge just as Tarmac's grip gave way. She grabbed both his wrists and teleported them both back to solid ground.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine" Tarmac replied unsteadily as he tried to process what had just happened. "Wait, who are…?"

"I'll explain later" said Glimmer. She took aim at the creatures and began firing energy beams from her hands at them. Even as she did so a seam appeared in the middle of the bridge. It split into two halves which began to retract back into either side of the cliff face.

"Retreat!" X-Tinctor howled. He and his followers turned and sped off, disappearing into the darkness. The human drivers brought their animal-vehicles over to where Glimmer and Tarmac were standing and came to a stop.

"Thank you for saving Tarmac, Miss" said the lion-driver.

"Yes, I'd have been Crevitor chow without you" Tarmac agreed.

"What was with those energy beams? That was amazing" said the rhino-driver.

"Uh, thanks" Glimmer said unsurely. "Oh, I'm Glimmer, princess of Bright Moon."

They all looked at her blankly for a moment before the lion-driver replied, "I'm Max Action, leader of the Road Tamers. This is Tiger Trakker, Rhinox and you've met Tarmac. Our Animax are Jungle Max, Turbo Tiger, Rhino Rammer and Power Horse."

"Animax? What are those things?"

All of the Road Tamers frowned at that and the Animax growled. Rhinox stepped forwards. "We appreciate your help but don't talk that way about our partners" he said gruffly.

"I'm very sorry" said Glimmer. "I didn't mean to offend you. I've just never heard of anything like them before."

"Wait, you've never heard of the Animax?" Tiger Trakker asked.

"Come to think of it I've never heard of anywhere called Bright Moon either" Tarmac commented.

"Wait, what world is this?" Glimmer asked.

They looked at each other in bewilderment for a moment before Max Action replied, "This is Earth."

"Earth! How am I going to get back?"

Now the Road Tamers looked even more confused. Max exchanged more puzzled looks with his comrades and then turned back to Glimmer.

"It seems we have quite a lot to discuss. Why don't you come with us to Peopleopolis and we can talk there."

"Any excuse to visit Heater huh Max?" Rhinox said with a grin.

Max's face flushed slightly but he didn't reply. "Glimmer, will you be okay to ride with Tarmac on Power Horse?"

"Of course."

"Then let's go."