Chapter 1—The ARK—

It had been a few days since we had finally secured peace… the Vorticians had fought until their extinction to stop us, but we had finally managed to successfully wipe them out. At last, the enemy my people had fought for my whole life had been defeated…

Following our victory, I reported to the commander to receive my new orders. I entered our military fortress in the district I had been assigned to before I entered the chamber he was in and stood before Commander Herman…

He was facing the wall, but the silver space armor he wore over his torso, arms and legs was very impressive. But then, that was standard attire for our army. He had short black hair and a beard on his cheeks and chin. He was tall and had brown eyes. "Reporting in, Commander Herman, sir." I said before he turned to me and said: "Ah, Major Hendrick. Hello. It's good to see you're as prompt as ever." And then he went on: "How exciting it is to be at the end of this 25-year campaign. You must be especially pleased to have achieved victory, after over 10 years of fighting." "Yes sir. After what happened before I joined… at last, my parents can rest easy." I said before Commander Herman said: "Exactly… but at least you really came a long way since the day you joined us, Major. We were indeed right to add you to this army, because you've done an exceptional job." "Thank you, sir. But now that we've defeated the Vorticians… I'm assuming our next order of business is to stop those monsters that are still roaming the world?" I asked. "Yes, those experiments of theirs… they're still quite troublesome." Commander Herman said before I said: "Indeed… my unit is still keeping busy with so many of them running loose."

And then I went on: "By the way sir, if I may ask… what became of that artifact that the Vorticians were guarding?" "Yes, that strange relic they called the 'ARK'… apparently it has great power, but the Vorticians never used it. The researchers are conducting experiments on it as we speak, but do keep that to yourself, Major." Commander Herman said before I said: "Yes sir, I understand." "Good. Now then, for your next order, there have been a large number of Voxorts spotted to the north. Take your soldiers and wipe them out." Commander Herman said. "Yes sir. We will depart immediately." I said before Commander Herman said: "Good. I look forward to hearing from you, Major."

And then I gathered my soldiers before we left the roads of the city and marched north to the nearby mountains the coordinates specified… going from the giant, chrome towers and metal roads with advanced airships flying above us to the rocky, dirt-covered trails ahead of the mountain range… it was quite the contrast. Yet as we got close, we saw something strange in the horizon: a giant yellowish-white light was emerging from the capital, far in the distance! It was quickly surging forward in all directions, as though it was swallowing our whole world up… my soldiers started to panic before I said: "Everyone, take cover!" And we all attempted to flee, but the light moved much faster than us and soon swallowed us up completely… as I was swallowed up by light, it didn't hurt a bit, but I lost consciousness…

Eventually, I awoke and got up, but when I did, I was in for a shock: I was in front of a primitive city that was completely different than the one I had come from! The city had buildings of varying sizes (the biggest ones were quite large) that were made of metal in the distance, but they were nothing like the giant, shining chrome towers back from home… there were brick fences and a lot more trees and grass than I was used to seeing. There weren't any airships in the sky and they had primitive vehicles that traveled on the ground, but that weren't capable of hovering. They had streetlights that were attached to the ground (but none of them could fly, like the ones I knew) and simple signs, but nothing truly advanced… all of this technology was outdated by about three centuries. "Is this… for real?" I said as I looked around, but no one responded… I decided to survey the surrounding area, in hopes of finding my soldiers…

I searched around the city; there were a lot of people I didn't know, but I saw none of my soldiers. At least there were other humans here, but I was getting discouraged… I sighed as I finally stopped. If I truly was alone in a strange world, cut off from my soldiers, then this was going to be a truly miserable experience… the sun was starting to set, too. I didn't want to search the city, so I prepared to leave… but then I heard a scream nearby! I didn't know what was happening, but I decided to investigate.

I followed the scream to a field where I saw six people being threatened by a Voxort! The people were mostly teens, although two of them looked like kids… one of them was a teenage girl with very long hair… she wore a gray sleeveless dress that was black near the bottom with a teal rim at the bottom. She had long dark gray boots that completely covered her legs and had black bell sleeves on her forearms. She had teal hair that was in pigtails that fell to her knees and she had sky blue eyes. And yet, the oddest thing about her was that she wore a teal necktie…

The next was a young girl who looked like a preteen… she wore a white shirt and black hotpants, as well as white shoes. She had black bell sleeves on her forearms and medium length blonde hair that fell to the bottom of her neck and blue eyes. And yet, her bangs were pinned so they'd be out of the way of her eyes, but they were very long… the bangs on the right side of her head almost reached her ear…

There was also a preteen boy next to her who looked a little older than she did… he wore a white shirt with a yellow necktie and black shorts with a yellow line on each side that was at the bottom of his thighs. He had white shoes and black bell sleeves on his forearms. He had short, spiky blonde hair and blue eyes.

And then there was another teenage girl who wore a black shirt with a gold line down the middle and had a long black skirt that went down to her knees that had a gold rim at the bottom. She had tan laced-up boots that went up to her knees and a tan bell sleeve on her left arm, but not her right… she had pink hair that went a little below her waist and blue eyes.

A young woman was also with them who wore a red vest and a black tube top beneath it and a red skirt. She had black leather boots and black wristbands too. She had medium-length brown hair that went to the bottom of her neck and she had brown eyes.

And the last one was a young man who was fairly tall… he wore an unusual white coat that had blue edges at the bottom and blue cuffs and looked like it zipped from the top down. He had purple pants and a black belt with a silver belt buckle too. He had a black shirt under his coat, black long boots that went up to his knees and a long blue scarf. He had short blue hair and blue eyes too.

And then there was the Voxort… it was a mutant that was created by the Vorticians with the intention of being used as a weapon. They were made by implanting special chips into the heads of Vortician corpses, which revived them and turned them into monsters… the chips interacted with dead Vortician brain cells in a way that made them act in whatever manner was programmed into the chips… in other words, they could reanimate a dead member of their kind and control their behavior. The Voxort were originally the product of an experiment done by the Vorticians that they did to try and reanimate their dead when they were losing the war, but it didn't go as planned. However, it still ended up being an effective method to add extra soldiers to their army.

We had destroyed countless of these terrible creatures in the war, but they were dangerous adversaries… they were humanoid and were very tall. They had purple, scaly skin with peach-colored skin on the backs of their elbows, knees and on the bottom of their feet. Their hands consisted of three wide claws and their feet had five toes with long toenails… they had cilia on their cheeks and antennae coming out of their foreheads. The top of their heads weren't made of bone and instead had a protective layer of fluid that was less protective than a skull (but still better than you'd think) and contained a big, clear, gem-like brain… that was what happened to their brain when the chip was implanted into it.

The Voxort hissed at them before the blonde girl screamed and said: "What is that thing?! It's horrifying!" And then the young man said: "It looks too dangerous for any of us to confront… there's no way we'd survive!" These people all looked defenseless… if the Voxort used its power against them, they'd never survive. I couldn't stand the thought of that happening… I knew it was time to get in there! I wouldn't be much of a soldier if I couldn't protect the weak… that's just what a soldier does! Besides… as someone who knew how to fight a Voxort, I felt like I had a duty to protect them.

I ran in (and it seemed they noticed me, because they turned to me) and I got in front of them before the girl with the teal hair said: "What are you doing?!" "Run… while you still can." I replied before I took grabbed a round ball with a red upper half and a white lower half before I said: "Go, Girafarig!" And called out the Pokemon contained within it!

Pokemon were special creatures that lived in my world with unusual powers—some could breathe fire, fly or even generate their own electricity! There were 18 types of Pokemon and every Pokemon had one or two types that defined what kind of powers they had. People usually kept Pokemon inside ball-shaped storage devices for convenience. These were known as "Poke balls" which carried them until they were called out, as I had done with Girafarig. Back at home, Pokemon were commonly used by soldiers as weapons, who fought alongside them in battle, though civilians usually raised them for self-defense too. Perhaps that's why it was no surprise that Pokemon are usually treated better by civilians than soldiers… I was an anomaly, because I always tried to be kind to my Pokemon. That was one of the values my parents taught me while they still walked the world…

Girafarig were giraffe-like Pokemon, only their tails were like a second head that had a weaker brain inside as well… the front of their bodies were colored yellow with brown spots down their neck and the back of their bodies were colored dark brown and had yellow spots on their hips. They had pink spines down their backs and white, swab-like antennae on top of their heads. They had pink noses and white eyes with black irises and white pupils. They were pretty tall... when she saw the Voxort, she assumed a serious stance and I said: "Girafarig, attack! Psychic!" And she said: "Giraf!" And she made waves of gray psychic energy crash into the Voxort! Psychic was an attack move that Girafarig knew—all Pokemon knew various moves that they could learn by growing up through battle or other means. The selection differed from species to species, but most Pokemon had a great variety of moves they could learn. The Voxort recovered before it lumbered over to her and swiped her with its claws, which she recovered from after a pause. I had Girafarig attack with another psychic and then the Voxort drained energy from Girafarig before the brain in its head turned a hot pink color, signifying that it had become psychic typed… Voxort don't have types, so in this case, they get it from Pokemon and other organisms by copying theirs—and they can do it more than once. In the event a creature had two types—like Girafarig—the type they copied was determined at random. But even so, this was good—Girafarig had a way to take advantage of it copying her psychic type! But I didn't want to reveal Girafarig was dangerous to it too soon…

"Girafarig, use earthquake!" I said before Girafarig said: "Gira!" And she stomped her feet before the ground at the Voxort's feet started to shake intensely! The Voxort fell down before it got up and then it ran forward and grabbed Girafarig (and I saw green energy come out of Girafarig and into its arm) and it looked a little revitalized. "Girafarig, zap 'em with thunderbolt!" I said before she generated electricity in between her two antennae and zapped him with it! The Voxort roared before it was surrounded with red energy that soon dispersed. It had powered itself up, but that wasn't a problem—now it was hurt enough so it was finally time! "You've got 'em now, Girafarig! Crunch! Attack its head!" I said before Girafarig charged into the Voxort to stun it, then she spun around and the head on her tail reached out and bit the Voxort in the head! It was much more suited for biting with its sharp fangs than Girafarig's front head was, which had herbivorous teeth. The Voxort hissed before its brain lost its color and it fell forward! It was finished! I turned to Girafarig and said: "Great job, Girafarig. You really handled yourself like a heroine today!" "Girafarig!" Girafarig said happily before I said: "You did wonderfully. Now come back and get some rest—we don't know how many more of those things there are." And I called her back to her Poke ball and I heard a boy's voice say: "That was awesome!"

And I turned my head to see those six people were still there! "You! What were you doing? You should have run!" I said before I shook my head and said: "Well, no matter. You are all unharmed, I hope?" "We are, thanks to you. Thank you so much for your help—you were so brave." The girl with the teal hair said before she went on: "You're really an impressive guy. What's your name?" "I'm Lucas. Lucas Hendrick. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Who are all of you?" I asked. "Who are we? Ahaha! That's terrible. But I guess it makes sense—we did become performers only recently." The girl with the teal hair said before she went on: "It's not a problem. We'll all introduce ourselves to you, our rescuer. I'm Miku Hatsune. Pleased to meet you!" And then the preteen girl said: "I am Rin Kagamine. Nice to meetcha!" And the preteen boy said: "My name's Len Kagamine. It's really nice to meet you." "My name is Luka Megurine. It's an honor." The pink-haired girl said. "You can call me Meiko. It's nice to meet you, Lucas." The brown-haired young woman said before the man with blue hair said: "And my name is Kaito. It's a pleasure."

"Miku, Rin, Len, Luka, Meiko and Kaito… you all seem like a great bunch." I said before I turned to Rin and Len and said: "But Rin and Len Kagamine, you say? Does that make you siblings?" "That's right. We got involved in performing together." Rin said before I said: "How nice. It must be nice to have family you can rely on in such a difficult profession." "It definitely can be hard work… but it's worth it to inspire and uplift the minds of our audiences. That's what leads us to travel all over Gaia and reach as many audiences as possible." Miku said.

I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but I decided to keep my mouth shut for now. And then Miku went on: "But Lucas… you seem to know about that gross monster that attacked us. What was that thing?" I was shocked when I heard this before I finally said: "…You don't know what those are?" "Of course not. They appeared today." Miku said before I said: "One of those things is called a 'Voxort'. It's a corpse that has been made into a monster by experimentation." "Eww!" Rin said before Len said: "That's pretty gross… but if you know what those were, Lucas, then…" And I looked at him and he said: "What was that thing you summoned out of that ball? It was really cool!" "…You don't know what that is, either?" I asked before Meiko said: "No. Those things only came into our world today too." "They're called 'Pokemon'. They're not like the Voxort—they can be reasoned with and even domesticated. You can contain a Pokemon in a device like the one I used. It's called a Poke ball." I said before Rin said: "Oh, okay. I was wondering why there was such a difference in how aggressive the Pokemon were compared to those horrible monsters." And Miku said: "Voxort and Pokemon… all these weird creatures are showing up all of a sudden… what could this mean?" And Kaito said: "And Someone's experimenting on the dead to make the Voxort? How atrocious. Who would do something like that?" I was shocked again when he said that, but luckily Luka said: "We'll have to alert the police that someone's doing that, then. But before any of that…" And then she turned to me and said: "Lucas… we really are grateful to you. You saved our lives and we want to make good on that debt. Would you come with us?" "Sure. It's not like I have anywhere else I need to be." I said before Luka said: "Thank you. Then please, come along."

And they led me to the city outskirts, where I saw a giant tent set up… they took me to it before I stopped and they all looked back at me before Kaito said: "Lucas? Are you alright?" "Oh, wow… I know you said you were performers, but I never expected to see anything like this… what kind of show do you work for? A circus?" I asked. And they all laughed before Miku said: "Well, since you haven't heard of us, it's fine. We're actually musical actors. We sing and perform onstage. This is where our group—The Elysian Opera—is currently stationed." "Wow… that's amazing…" I said before Miku giggled and said: "Well thank you. In all seriousness though, you're pretty amazing yourself. To think you could jump right into a dangerous situation like that and not lose your cool… it's hard for me to imagine fighting a monster like that Voxort…" "Perhaps you're right. Everyone has things they can and can't imagine doing. Variety is the spice of life. And it makes things better." I said before Luka said: "Yes, that is true. That way we can all work together." And then she went on: "Anyway, we'll get you in now. Come on."

And then we got next to the tent before some people next to it saw us and a man said: "Miku, Rin, Len, Luka, Meiko, Kaito! You've returned!" "That's right. It's good to be back—there was a while there where we thought we'd never see the stage again!" Miku said before the man said: "How terrible. It's such a relief to see you back." And then he turned to me and said: "Who is this?" "This is our rescuer. He saved us from a monster and personally escorted us back here." Miku said before the man said: "Huh? But what about the contracted guards we hired?" And Meiko looked sad as she said: "They… didn't make it." Before the man said: "Oh…" And then Len said: "But we wanted to reward him for saving us. Can we see Mr. Victor?" "Of course. Come in, come in." The man said before he turned to me and said: "And thank you for saving our performers. Considering we didn't even hire you to do it, you're really an impressive person." "You're welcome. It's just what I do." I said before Rin said: "Hey come on! Are you coming?" And I turned to see them by the entrance before I said: "Yes! Hold on!" And we all headed in the tent…

Inside, I saw they had a big room with a stage set up and branching paths all over. They took me to an office before Miku knocked on the door and said: "Mr. Victor? It's Miku. We've returned. May we enter?" And then I heard a man's voice say: "Miku? Are the others with you?" "Yes, we all made it back." Miku said before the man said: "Thank goodness! Alright, come in!" And then Miku opened the door before she gestured at me to follow and we all went in one at a time. When we were inside, I saw a tall man there… he wore a white shirt and a beige suit, as well as beige slacks and black shoes. He had short brown hair, hazel eyes and a beard on his cheeks and chin.

When we all arrived, the man said: "Thank goodness you've all returned! We all were worried when you were gone for so long!" And then he suddenly eyed me and said: "Wait a minute… who's this?" "This is our rescuer, sir. He saved us from one of those mysterious monsters that was trying to attack us." Miku said before the man said: "Hm? But what about the bodyguards we hired?" "They didn't survive, sir. They were killed by the monster…" Rin said before the man said: "Four guards couldn't kill one beast, but this one man could?" "Yes sir. He had help from one of the monsters—not the kind that attacked us. It turns out those monsters aren't evil." Len said before the man said: "Wahahaha! How excellent! It never ceases to amaze me how innovative some people can be!"

And then he turned to me and said: "Brave one, I am George Victor, the owner of this group of traveling performers you see before you—The Elysian Opera. On behalf of my group, thank you so much for rescuing our performers. They all are valued members of our group and we would have been in a very dire position without them." "Oh, it was nothing, really. I'm used to this sort of thing by now." I said before George said: "Strong and modest, I see! What's your name, my friend?" "Lucas. Lucas Hendrick. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Victor." I said before George said: "The pleasure is all mine, Lucas! Now then, in order to properly compensate you, I will go and collect your reward. Stay here in the meantime, okay?" "As you wish." I said before George left the office…

And then I turned to Miku, Rin, Len, Luka, Meiko and Kaito before I said: "So this is where you all live… it looks like a very different lifestyle." "It probably looks that way to you, but to us, it seems normal. We've gotten accustomed to travel and performing." Luka said before I said: "That's amazing… though to me, the performing part looks like the harder one of the two." And Rin giggled and said: "I'd say most people would agree! But when you love getting up onstage, it's really not so bad." "So where's your next big performance after this one is over? I'd like to see you all onstage." I asked. And they all looked happy before Meiko said: "We're moving to Garrows next. It's a suburb in the plains, so it's a fairly pretty place." "Sounds nice. If I can, I'll swing by and watch your performance. I hope you all have the best of luck out there." I said before Miku said: "Thank you. But Lucas—"

And then we heard a: "Sorry to keep you waiting!" It was George. We all turned to see him enter the room with a big brown sack before I said: "Hello again, Mr. Victor. That was certainly quick." "Ha ha! Punctuality is a skill you learn again and again on the job. I'm sure you'd agree?" He asked. "Yes. That has proven true… time and time again." I said before George said: "Anyway, here's your reward! Thanks again for helping us, Lucas!" And he handed me the sack… I paused before I looked inside… and saw a bunch of little, metal circular objects in there… I had never seen anything like these… "I—what is this?" I asked before they all looked dumbfounded and Luka said: "What do you mean? It's money." "You use these things as currency?" I asked before Kaito said: "Yup. They're coins of varying alloys… each kind is worth a different amount." And then he went on: "Hey, are you okay? Did you hit your head on your way to us?" "…Perhaps I did." I said before I went on: "But don't get me wrong. This is a very generous gift and I appreciate it. It'll come in handy, I know."

And then I went on: "Well, I guess I'd better show myself out then. It was wonderful getting to meet all of you—" And then Miku said: "Wait!" And she ran over before I was truly surprised and she said: "Lucas… there was something I wanted to ask you before you left." "Let's hear it, then." I said before she said: "It's just… I remember you saying you didn't have anywhere else you needed to be… if that's true, then do you even have a place where you can stay after this is all over?" And I paused before I remembered my situation… I had been having so much fun with them, I had forgotten how bleak things had become. "…No. I don't." I said before Miku said: "I thought not. But as long as that's the case, would you like to join our group? To be clear, I'm not asking you to be a performer—I'm sure there are lots of other things you can do to be helpful too." And Rin said: "Ooh, that's a great idea! I'm sure he can do all kinds of helpful things, including keeping us safe!" And Len said: "And he was so cool with that monster of his, that… Pokemon? Well, it'd be really neat to have someone like him along!" "He has such a nice temperament too. He'd fit right in with us." Meiko said before Kaito said: "That's right. And even if you aren't cut out for the stage, I think there's a lot you'd like about being here." "And it wouldn't all be on you, either. We'd really like to have you with us—you've been a good addition already." Luka said.

"Well, these are pretty solid endorsements from my employees! Looks like you really are a charmer, Lucas!" George said before he went on: "Alright, then what is your area of expertise? What can you do for our group?" And yet, thinking about how unfamiliar they were with things I recognized… I thought it best not to mention my history as a soldier, lest I should be asked for my previous employer, only to have him not recognize them… "Given what I've done, you can consider me an effective bodyguard. I also am an experienced chef, I can handle heavy lifting and I have some experience as a tailor." I answered before Rin said: "A tailor? You can make clothes?" "All the time. Why, the clothes I'm wearing underneath my armor right now are ones I made myself." I said back before George said: "Those are all skills we can use around here. Miku was right—you are someone who can help."

And then he went on: "Alright, then I'll hire you on with a starting salary of 500 VP a month. Sound good?" At this moment, my mind was racing… I wasn't expecting to be scouted by these performers. But this world clearly had things in it I didn't understand—the coins I had been offered were proof of that. But having people who knew this world who could help me get used to it until I knew what was going on would be very beneficial. And as long as they were a travelling group, it would be easier for me to investigate and figure out what was going on. And besides… I was already growing fond of these people. I was already starting to like them! "I have no idea how much that is, but that's fine. As long as you'd be willing to pay my living expenses, I could handle anything. In fact, I'd be happy to work here without any other pay at all." I said before George said: "Ha ha ha! Such enthusiasm! Alright, Lucas, you're hired!" "Thank you, sir. I guess that makes you my boss now, huh?" I said before George said: "That is does! And you'd better be ready to work hard with that said, Lucas!" "Count on it, sir." I said before he said: "I like your attitude! We'll start preparing an extra room for you, then."

And then he turned to Miku and said: "Miku, would you show him to it? It should be ready in 45 minutes." "Yes, Mr. Victor. We'll welcome him in until it's ready. I won't forget to show him when we're done, I promise." She replied before George said: "Alright, but don't you keep our new employee up too long, now. He'll still need to be ready to get up on time for tomorrow morning. And you all will too, for that matter." "We know, Mr. Victor, sir! Don't worry!" Len said before George said: "Good. Then I'd say that's enough for one night. You're all dismissed!" And then we all left his office.

When we were back outside, they took me to an empty set where Miku said: "Alright, we can chat without anyone getting in our way in here. It may not be very fancy, but it should get the job done." And then she turned to me and said: "Thank you for joining us, Lucas. It was nice of you to come with us, especially when it happened so suddenly." "You're welcome, but you shouldn't be discounting how nice you all were too. After all, I had nowhere else to go and you took me in just like that. That was very kind. It shows how charitable you all are." I said before they looked happy and Len said: "So Lucas, where did you come from?" "Before I came here, I was in Auruno City." I said before they all looked at each other and Kaito finally said: "It looks like he could use a rest after hitting his head… I think we should stop asking him questions like that." And then he went on: "What's something you like to do in your free time, Lucas?" "I like training with my Pokemon." I said before Meiko said: "So you do strength training with her? I never would have guessed." "Kinda." I said back before Rin said: "Well I'm curious about your tailor abilities, Lucas! When did you start learning to make clothes?" "About 8 years ago. It remains a little difficult for me, but I like to do it." I said before Rin said: "Wow, you've had a lot of time to practice! That's neat."

"What are some of your favorite foods, Lucas? You must have something you like." Luka asked before I said: "I'm partial to breads, fruit, good meat and of course, dessert!" And we all laughed before Luka said: "Aren't we all." And then Miku said: "Now that you're working here, what are you looking forward to doing the most while you're here, Lucas?" "That's a tough question…" I said before I said: "Using all of my talents in one job, getting to work in a different environment than I'm used to, getting exposed to fine theater, having an ongoing chance to keep busy… I don't know, there's so much I'm excited about here…"

And we talked a little more before I said: "Thank you so much for being so welcoming, everyone. You really are a kind bunch." "You're welcome. Besides, it's nice having someone we can talk to who sees us as normal people, not performers…" Meiko said before Miku said: "Anyway, your room should be ready by now, Lucas. Are you ready to go?" "Yes, I think that's a great idea. Besides, I don't want to wake up late on my first day at this job!" I said before Miku said: "Alright! Then I'll show you to it." And I said goodbye to everyone before I went off with Miku.

She took me down a hall until we arrived at a small room before Miku said: "It's in here. Take a look." And I opened the door to see some small, studio-sized living quarters had been set up… there was enough in here to get me started anyway. And yet… I felt really happy to see it.

I smiled and said: "This is wonderful! I look forward to getting settled in here!" "I'm glad you think so, even though it's so small… it's clearly a makeshift room, but you really are a good sport." Miku said before I said: "Nonsense! It has most of what I need. Besides, getting to live in a place like this has meaning and dignity." And Miku giggled before she said: "You really appreciate everything you get, don't you? Still, I'm glad you're happy." And then she went back to the door and said: "Well I'd better go. Goodnight, Lucas. See you tomorrow." "Yes, you can count on it. Goodnight, Miku." I said as she left and closed the door.

From there, I decided to go to bed immediately. I removed my armor before I lied down in a small bed I had been provided in this room and got ready to go to sleep… in the moments I was conscious before falling asleep, I felt thankful for finding these people… and curious about what had happened. Vanishing from my world and appearing in this one… none of it really made sense, but I did have some theories… this world had outdated technology, but also things I didn't recognize, so it couldn't be I had been sent back into the past… this had to be a new world, with its own people, places and things. Even so, it was amazing that these people spoke our language and looked like us, with that said… the other thing that bothered me was how I had been transported here. I had only one hypothesis as to how it happened: if the ARK had great power and the officials had been experimenting on it not too long before that disaster happened… perhaps that light sending me here was the ARK's doing, as though it was a built-in defense mechanism to being tampered with, albeit a strange one… soon I felt exhaustion coming to me as I fell asleep for the night…