~A Different Dimension and What Lies Ahead. ~

The sun peeked its way through the leaves above, casting a small ray of light upon a female figure that lay on the ground. Being covered by a stained stitched up lab coat to keep her warm. Stein hadn't returned from his little walk after he successfully managed to stitch her wounds closed. This place was filled with unidentified creatures and Stein simply couldn't hold back his urge to study them. Typical for a mad scientist like him but he controlled his urge to capture and dissect them.

Stein adjusted his glasses whilst he observed a winged pig snout flying across the trees. A sigh escaped his lips. Walking away from the rocky wall he was leaning onto and made his way back. He shoved his hands into his pockets while walking along the grassy trail.

Alice's eyes cracked open before her face scrunched up slightly from the harsh light that was invading her eyes. Her vision soon became clear, staring at the trees above her. Alice's mind was in shambles and couldn't remember what happened. As she tried to sit up, an immense pain welcomed throughout her body. Alice gritted her teeth and she slowly sat up, much to her discomfort. Alice took a deep breath, glancing down at her torn sweater.

She frowned deeply. It was her favorite sweater and now it was torn. Her eyes landed on a stitched-up lab coat which had dried blood stains. This wasn't here before. What happened to her? Almost immediately, memories from Sacramento flooded her mind. The battle with her father was clear now, and she had been paralyzed by fear. She feared him, after what he had done to her, there was only fear, and she almost died because of it.

'I'm such a failure…' tears began to pour down her cheeks and she silently sobbed.

Alice gripped the stained lab coat tightly. 'What use can I really do? I only end up being petrified...' the droplets of her tears fell down her chin, landing on the lab coat. Alice continued to sob, not realizing that a certain professor was watching her, and made his way over to her.

Stein stood beside the girl whose head was lowered, hearing her hiccup softly. He furrowed his brow in worry; he reached out to cup her cheek with his hand. Alice froze in place, feeling a hand cup her right cheek. Did she dare to look who it was? She raised her head and followed the person's hand. Her eyes landed on none other than Stein. His expression was filled with worry. Alice's eyes widen and her cheeks began to tingle from his touch.

They stared at each other. Her cheeks turning a shade of pink while her tears kept falling, landing on his fingers. Then he gently wiped away her tears with his thumb which caused her to slightly lean onto his hand. Stein wasn't certain if she was crying because of the pain, but looking at her this way was simply too much for him to bear. He could feel his chest tighten in discomfort. These strange feelings had been upsetting him for a while now, and yet, all he ever did to make these feelings disappear was to simply be by her side. As a professor, he had to reassure his student was safe from harm. Though, here she was, covered in bruises and with a stitched-up wound. Her hair was a mess, and her braided hair was loose with strands of hair poking out in various places. She looked awful.

This world thankfully had a few things that proved to be useful. With these items he possessed, he disinfected her bruises and cleaned off the dried blood from her face, legs, and stomach. Still, he did the best he could to attend to her as much as he could. But without the proper tools, and medicine, he was unable to ease her pain. The surgery he performed on her was without anesthesia, which was unnerving for him to do. He may have a fixation in dissecting things, but he knew his limits than to be carried away by his own twisted tendencies. He swore to never put her in harm's way, especially from himself.

That day where she willingly invited him into her home confused him. Why would a girl so blindly invite him, a monster, inside her home and knowing full well what he was capable of? He remembered asking the girl if she was afraid of being dissected by him, and her response was a simple shake of her head horizontally.

Stein was soon snapped back into reality by Alice squeezing his hand, which was still cupping her right cheek. She gazed at him worriedly, though the glare from his glasses made it difficult for her to see his eyes. A sigh escaped his lips, the glare disappearing from his glasses and he softened his gaze.

"You should be lucky you're still breathing." A relieved smile formed on his lips. "If I didn't follow you down the vortex…you could have died from your injury." Stein lowered his eyes to stare right at her abdomen that was wrapped in bandages with dried blood stains on the white silk. "The damage was severe; though I managed to properly clean the area and stitch them closed. I'm surprised none of your organs gushed out like I thought they would."

The statement made her blood run cold. Her face became as pale as snow and was staring at her professor with wide eyes. He raised his gaze towards her, noticing the horrified look plastered across her face. A giant sweatdrop appeared on his head, forming a wry grin.

"Heh, heh. Sorry about that." he apologized, in a way, as he removed his hand from her cheek. To her disappointment, "But I'm glad you're still breathing." Stein placed his hand on her head causing her curly strand of hair to twitch. "I almost lost my dearest student."

Her face became a red mess, and her eyes were swirling which resulted in her making incoherent and cute noises. The scene was amusing for him to watch, he cracked a playful grin. Alice hid her face with both hands, which added more to her cute meltdown, now embarrassed to look at him. He laughed, but this only made her more of a flustered mess.

What she did next was something he did not expect. Suddenly, Alice held onto his arm, which was the one that was on her head, and she proceeded to bite him hard on the head. Stein was caught off guard by her attack and yelped in pain. He pleaded for her to kindly get off of him, but she wouldn't budge. The girls' immense strength prevented him from escaping her grasp, she held onto his arm tight and the other on his shoulder. Though, what she didn't realize was that her knees were awfully close to his crotch. The sudden movement of her keeping him in place caused a few yet harsh amount of friction, and this provoked him to bring forth an unwanted bulge.

His cheeks were tinted in pink, and he grunted softly whilst being bitten down by Alice. There was the pain, yet there was also pleasure feeding inside him. Maybe teasing her wasn't such a good idea. Now, look at where he was now. Stein was being bitten by his own student which was not pleasant, whilst she was completely oblivious to her actions she was making him feel. Stein once again pleaded for her to stop, this time it earned him a strong bite from her. Feeling her teeth penetrate his skin making him wail in pain.

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Alice was kneeled down on both knees and was in front of a crystal clear river where she had Stein's stained lab coat as she washed it under the water. Behind her was Stein sitting on a rock where he was hunched forward with one arm on his leg, and the other one rubbing his head. The professor had a rounded lump on his head with a bandage, which was when Alice finally released him from her mighty bite.

After the little incident, she's' been ignoring him. He deserves it, besides the injury wasn't that serious, to begin with. It was the bulge that irritated him, and it still hadn't left. Thinking that by sitting down it wouldn't be too noticeable, he immediately regretted the decision. This made it more noticeable and standing up was not an option. The only thing that kept it hidden from view was him slouching forward as he was now. Maybe it was a good thing she was ignoring him, but on the other side, he wanted to just stare at her violet orbs. He cursed under his breath, glaring down at his pants.

Alice hummed softly whilst finishing scrubbing off the last blood stain from the lab coat. A smile graced her lips; she stood up from the ground and walked over to Professor Stein. She now stood in front of him holding onto the wet lab coat in her grasp. Stein raised his gaze at Alice, the glare from his glasses disappeared, and she was now able to see his green eyes. She stared blankly at him. Stein rubbed his head, holding back a look of guilt. Wait, guilt? Since when did he ever felt guilty for teasing her? He let out a soft chuckle, a quirky smile appearing on his lips.

"Are you still mad?" her response to his question was a slight frown forming on her brows. He tilted his head to the side while shrugging lightly. "I figured you'd still be that way. Besides, I was only telling the truth."

Alice closed her eyes letting out a soft sigh. She handed over his drenched lab coat. Stein reached out to take his coat only for Alice to smack it onto his face. Now his entire head was soaked, as well as, his stitched pattern turtleneck shirt and his glasses. He could hear Alice giggle softly before walking away, leaving him in a dripping state. Stein removed the lab coat from his head, and his neutral gaze followed the girl whose back was turned.

"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny." Stein mocked the girls' actions. "You know if you planned on cleaning me with my lab coat you should have just said so." he looked down his coat and sighed. "How am I supposed to wear this," he said, muttering under his breath in displeasure.

Alice glanced over at the now disgruntled professor. She smiled to herself and shook her head at the same time. She continued to walk away, and Professor Stein silently followed behind with his damp lab coat over his shoulder.

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Both walked alongside a mossy pathway which leads to a mossy forest. As the two of them went further in they came across a female statue which was carved alongside the rocks. The statue was crying, oozing an odd black liquid from her eyes. Her hands were underneath her eyelids in which the strange liquid trailed onto her hands, cheeks, and down her arms. The unpleasant drainage was splattered everywhere. It almost looked like someone had murdered an unfortunate someone in front of her. Though, that wasn't in this case.

"Odd. Why would a statue be carved in a place like this?" Stein spoke aloud.

Alice nodded in response and proceeded to near the odd substance.

"It appears to be that of black blood, but why on earth would be here of all places?"

She crouched down, staring at the sluggish liquid in front of her. Tilting her head to the side, and curiously outstretched her hand to touch it. Though she instantly stopped her tracks when a gruff voice spoke to her, the man's voice echoed throughout the area.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

Alice instantly stood up but stumbled to stay upright and accidentally fell. Luckily, Stein rushed to her side and caught her in his arms. Alice was startled and was searching for the culprit who spoke, but nobody was here except for her and Stein.

Soon enough, a man appeared out of thin air: He appeared to be in his mid-forties, with black messy hair and pale skin that was covered with ebony colored tribal tattoos. The man looks awfully underweight. He wore a black, long-sleeved, buttoned-up shirt which was halfway open, which was showing off his cleavage and parts of his chest, along with some black skinny jeans and was barefooted. But the eerie part of this man was his cat-like chrome colored eyes which appeared to be glowing, and he had a sinister smile plastered on his lips that could send shivers down to the very bone. Yet the most baffling of all was his big pointed gray cat ears which had a silver hoop earring in his left ear, along with his long tail that had a tuft of fur in the end.

"Touching the black liquid will only suck the life out of you in a matter of minutes. You should be lucky I intervened or else you would have been devoured of your precious life," he stated, swinging his tail back and forth.

Stein moved Alice behind him with his arm outstretched behind her and was standing in front of her protectively. This caused her to blush lightly and began to fiddle with her fingers. "Who the hell are you?" Stein questioned the newcomer.

The man simply tilted his head to the side. "Aren't you the rude one? Hasn't anyone taught you manners? That is no way to treat a stranger if no harm has ever been done."

The man disappeared and then reappeared beside Alice, snatching a strand of her hair and sniffed it. She was frozen in place which left her extremely flustered and a little uncomfortable at the moment. Stein swiftly turned around and glared at the man in shock.

"My, what lovely hair you have." he complimented Alice. "Such a beautiful maiden like you are very rare in this world. Allow me to introduce myself." he bowed to Alice before glancing up at her flustered face.

"The names Lynx, and yours is Alice, correct?" She slowly nodded. "It is an honor to finally meet you, and I see you brought along a special guest." he glanced over to Stein who was certainly ticked off.

"I'm not a 'special guest'. To put it lightly, I'm her professor." he glared at Lynx. "Now, would you please, and kindly step away from my student or else I will not have a problem dissecting you." Stein lips formed into a sadistic smile as his eyes gave off an eerie vibe to it, which made Alice shiver at the sight. "A unique specimen you are deserves to be studied, thoroughly."

Stein now stood in front of Lynx, towering over the humanoid - felines' short height. Lynx didn't flinch by his threat and only stared at him with his own unwavering smile. Poor Alice was in the middle of it. All she could do was watch and hope the two men wouldn't try to kill each other. It would only make matters worse and consider the fact that she and Stein were currently stuck in this unknown world.

"Your statement is noted." Lynx stepped away from her, shoving his hands into his jeans. "But, as I said before, I am no threat to you. In fact, you need me." he motioned both hands to his chest, his tail twitching slightly.

Stein narrowed his eyes at him. "Tsk, as if we need you to guide us. We are perfectly fine without your help."

Lynx shook his head. "On the contrary, you will only get yourself killed. This isn't like your dimension and it is far from being safe. Nothing is safe here."

Alice stood next to Stein, both looking at each other with questionable looks at each other before they turned their gaze back to Lynx. "What do you mean by that? And why isn't it safe?" Stein asked the feline, whose gaze darkened yet he kept smiling.

"A new law reigns in this world, and frankly I am not here to pat you on the back when something dire happens to the both of you." he continued. "Insidious creatures run amuck this world, excluding me, of course. This place will always be corrupted."

Lynx suddenly cackled, covering his mouth with his hand, before staring directly at them. His smile suddenly grew, forming into a wide grin and a crazed look in his eyes.

"Welcome to Eufarland."