"Tracy!" I cried.
"What?" she asked again, still airily.
"Are you OK?" I asked.
She shook out of the trance she seemed to be in.
"What do you mean?" she shot back.
I motioned towards the street. People were milling around, looking at where we were.
"Explain. I don't understand."
"You went into a trance, and began to walk into traffic. I tried to save you, but then..."
"Then what?" she asked.
"We were thrown by the wind."
"Thrown by the wind?" she once more inquired.
"I don't know. I was running, then I felt myself lifted by the wind, and then I was over here. And you were too," I replied.
"Odd."
She turned back to the scanning software, and began to once more look for Paula.
What could have thrown us? If it had been the wind, it wouldn't have been just us... I thought, then decided to ask Paula a few questions once Tracy found her.
"She's right around here," Tracy mused. "But the software isn't being any more accurate. Great."
"Paula!" I cried. "If you can hear me, try to help me find you."
A garbage dumpster suddenly shook. And I knew.
I ran over to the dumpster and lifted the lid. There, gagged, tied and blindfolded, was Paula. I jumped in.
"Yes, Paula, that's BJ," Tracy said.
I pulled out my pocketknife and cut off the gag, blindfold and knots.
"Thank you, BJ," Paula cried.
"Don't thank me," I retorted. "Tracy was the one who found you."
"Stop being so modest, BJ," Tracy muttered. "You were the one who did everything after I pinpointed her general location."
I climbed out of the dumpster and helped Paula down.
"Where am I, anyways?" Paula asked. "I know we're in Fourside, but I don't know just where in Fourside."
Tracy looked around. "This alley seems kind of familiar. Like I've seen it before. Oh, I know!"
"Where are we, then?" Picky inquired. He, Tony and Ñrutas were just entering the alleyway.
"In the alley off the Euphronic Tarocchi Society's building," Tracy answered triumphantly.
"The what?" I asked.
"The Euphronic Tarocchi Society," Paula said. "It's basically a sort of cult where people believe that tarot cards actually do predict the future."
"Like in Visions of Escaflowne?" Tony asked.
"That's not a very exact mirroring of the Society's beliefs," Paula noted. "They're pretty much all zealous, from what I saw."
"You went in?" Picky inquired, astonished.
"We did," Tracy confirmed. "But that was to look for Paul. And we failed miserably."
"Doesn't sound right!" Ñrutas exclaimed, speaking up again.
"You bet your bow it doesn't sound right," I muttered.
"Don't do anything brash," Tracy said. I pretended not to hear her.

I walked into the ETS building.
"What are you doing back here?" a voice I'd never heard before asked.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Dusty," the woman asked, "what are you doing back here? Mr. Desrochers banned you for life from the Euphronic Tarocchi Society."
"Who are you talking to?" I demanded angrily.
"You, of course," the woman stated bluntly. "As I said, and as you know, Mr. Desrochers, after I lodged my fifth complaint about your inability or unwillingness to convince visitors to join our society, decided to censure permanently from all branch offices."
"I'm telling you, I have no idea who you are!" I pleaded.
"Thalia, what's this ruckus about?" another person asked, with what sounded like a French accent. He appeared, and said, "Oh, it's you. Mr. Takeuchi, if you would care to remember, your membership in this society has been revoked as of three hours ago. Our books have also been recorded as giving you a permanent censure from any and all branch offices of the Euphronic Tarocchi Society."
Takeuchi? I wondered. Why is everyone confusing me with someone I'm clearly not?
"However," the Frenchman [as I now assumed him to be] continued, "I assume you've returned because in your forced departure, you were unable to gather everything of yours. The couriers at Escargo Express have returned most of the items in your room except for your encyclopaedia. If you wish, I'll give it to you now. But you can never return to the Society after this."
He dodged into an office and came out with a rather thin-looking encyclopaedia. After that, the woman kindly showed me out.
Once outside, I returned to the alley. But no one was there; there was only a note. I read it.
"'BJ, if you're reading this, we went to the Topolla Theatre to catch a Venus performance. --Paula.'"
I grumbled, and sat down beside the dumpster that Paula had been dropped in. If I was going to find this Dusty kid, I'd need to learn about him. And why people confused me for him. I opened the encyclopaedia to the page "Dusty" had bookmarked.
"Barometer... barracuda... basal metabolism rate... basalt... base... basil... bass... basswood..." My reading stopped as I noticed the topic he had circled. "...bat."
I turned to the inside cover. There was nothing that could help me identify him, but that didn't help at all: he hadn't signed it or anything.
"Great," I muttered. I might as well try and catch the end of Venus' performance, I thought.

"BJ, where were you?" Picky asked. "You missed an amazing performance. The Runaway Five returned to the Topolla to aid Venus for her 24th birthday performance."
"I kind of got tied up in the ETS. I suffered a case of mistaken identity." We started to walk.
"Let me guess," Tracy said. "A woman in strange clothing thought you were someone named Dusty."
I suddenly stopped walking. "How did you know?"
"He's the only sane person in that entire Society," Tracy said. "And unless he was only pretending to be nice to get my guard down -- which I doubt, he could be the only good person there."
Then I heard someone yell, "Field of View!" And suddenly I was the only one of my friends still in view.
"Hand it over," a voice demanded.
"Hand over what?" I shot back.
"You know exactly what I want. My encyclopaedia."

Ñrutas
"...where we?" I asked.
"We were teleported again," Picky said.
"Where's BJ?" Paula asked.
"BJ?" asked I. "Bee?"
"He didn't get teleported..." Tony said. "How could that have happened?"
"Where we again?" I asked.
"Summers," Paula replied. "I once came here with Ness and Jeff. It wasn't exactly my favourite place to be, though."
"BJ, where he?" I asked again.
"He didn't come with us," Tracy noted. "It's like someone wanted us out of the way just so they could get to BJ."
"But why would someone do that?" Picky asked. "There's no one that would want to do this. Except Dusty, perhaps."
"It couldn't be Dusty!" Tracy yelled. "He's nice. He wouldn't have done that to us!"
"First impressions can deceive, Tracy," Tony said. "Remember, you only saw him once. He could have pretended to be nice to perhaps learn your secrets. And he could be allied with those aliens who keep trying to conquer us."
"I know what Dusty's like," Tracy said, "and even though I've only talked with him once, I'm sure that he wouldn't serve Giogas. He couldn't."
"I trust what BJ says," I said. "He doesn't trust Society. I don't trust it either. Dusty part of Society; I don't trust Society; so I don't trust Dusty."
"You and BJ make me sick at times," Tracy muttered, and marched off.
"I don't know if you've ever been told this before, Ñrutas," Tony said, "but you have a problem with being too tact."
"What's the problem?"
"You come across as being too mean at times," Paula explained, "though it's not your fault."
"Still say Dusty's bad news."
"Fine, believe that," Picky said, "however, we have to find a way back to Fourside before BJ gets into real trouble."
"We still have the scanning software," Tony noted. "We can use it to hopefully find Ness and get us there."
"First let me try to contact Ness telepathically." Paula closed her eyes, began to talk but not be heard.
She opened her eyes.
"I can't find him."
"How about if I try to do something?" Tony offered.
"What?" Paula asked.
He ran into a store. He came out a few minutes later.
"Dr. Andonuts is sending another Sky Runner. Just give him a few hours and it'll be on its way."
"But who's going to man it?" Picky asked. "Dr. Andonuts can't leave his lab, can he? His Cave Boy helper is too dimwitted to control it, right? And it might miss us on autopilot."
"There's nothing to worry about, Picky," Tony said. "He's getting a few of the Tessie Watchers to pilot."
"And what about crashes?" Paula asked. "I was in one, and witnessed another. I know the Sky Runner classes are predisposed to constantly crashing."
Tony hesitated. "Well... erm... uh... Dr. Andonuts said that... he said that the Sky Runner would not land, but that it will maintain a specified altitude in a position from which entrance and exit would be facilitated."
"Translated to English we can understand?" Paula pressed. "Because that sounds suspiciously like 'crash' -- but said as a euphemism that could lead us to believe it's going to hover while we get on."
"He didn't exactly clarify what he meant," Tony admitted. Paula groaned.
"Wonderful. We're trusting second-hand relayed information about a class of transit vehicles that have predispositions towards crashes," she muttered.
"...where's Tracy?" Picky asked.
I hopped. "She lost herself because she loves an evil guy."
"Don't you dare say that about Tracy again!" Picky spazzed.
"See? That's what I mean by tact," Tony said.
"Meant Dusty, not you."
"I knew you meant Dusty, you armless freak."
"Looks like BJ serves as a calming agent for Ñrutas. Without BJ, Ñrutas incites arguments," Paula muttered.
"What are you talking about?" Tracy asked.
"Be careful, Tracy," Tony warned. "Picky and Ñrutas are in an argument."
I stopped insulting Picky.
"What? No argument here."
"You just stopped!" Picky cried.
Something honked behind me. A taxi. It began to drive towards me.
"Great. A fight," Tony muttered.
Tracy and Paula pulled out frying pans and smacked the taxi a few times. Tony fired a bottle rocket.
I leapt. "PSI Fire Alpha!" I cried. I landed on the taxi.
"Be careful!" Picky cried. "PSI Beam Alpha!"
A flash of light shot from Picky's hand and hit the taxi, which crashed and broke apart.
"That was a weak enemy," Tony noted. "But what was that PSI attack? I've never seen it before."
"Neither have I," Paula said. "But I've read about something that looks like that... About ten years ago, maybe a little more, strange happenings began to take place in a faraway country called America. There were kidnappings and strange animal possessions everywhere; it didn't matter where in 'America' you were: you probably were around where something weird happened. Not long after that, surveillance recordings from a zoo near a town called Podunk revealed a fight between a young boy and a strange Starman-like figure. The Starman-like figure, well, it seemed smaller and less senior than the Starmen--"
"Like a Starman Junior?" Picky suggested.
"Exactly!" Paula said, then continued. "Anyway, it seemed smaller than the Starmen I've seen; and it used a power that looked exactly like that PSI Beam Picky just used."

Half an hour passed.
"You know," Tracy said, "when I stormed off, I found a branch of the Euphronic Tarocchi Society."
"Did you--"
"Shut up, Ñrutas," Tony said, clasping his hand over my mouth.
"Mrf!"
"I went in, just interested as to whether it was like the Society in Fourside. And I found something very interesting about the founder of the Society."
"What?" Picky asked.
"His name's C.M. Desrochers, but there's not much given about his name beyond that. He founded the Society about two years ago, not long after Giygas was defeated. Its first branch was here, in Summers; but soon it expanded to Fourside and Dalaam. And they're just as zealous here as they were in Fourside; except, of course, for the exception of Dusty."
Dusty. Bah.