One day later...
It was a new day, and the bright sky and chirping birds provided an eerie contrast to the anguish of the day before. 25 people, including world famous Paula Polestar, had died in the mysterious accident.
And even with the broken railing confirming this was not some horrible nightmare, the people of Fourside had to go about their daily lives. One such person went by the name of Anthony Williams. He is of no consequence to this story.
On the other hand, a teenager by the name of Dan does become somewhat entangled in the plot. At this very moment he was racing towards school, his 50 pound bookbag slowing him as he darted across the congested streets of Fourside. Along the way, he had to pass the place where 25 people died. A ragged pink bow fluttered by, nearly hitting him. Why did that seem familiar...?

Meanwhile, at a small boarding school on the south bank of Lake Tess...
**FWAP**
"LUNA. WAKE UP!" bellowed Ms. Tillow, glaring at Luna out of the corner of one of her beady bespectacled eyes, with metrestick ruler in hand.
"Gyaaaah!! I'mawakeI'mawake!" gasped Luna, sitting straight up in her chair, while titters of laughter rippled through the group of girls. "..oh, Ms. Tillow! I-I didn't see you come over!"
"That could be because you were ASLEEP!" The aged teacher bellowed again, slapping the ruler down on Luna's desk again. "I suggest you improve your skills for staying awake, or you will be paying a visit to the detention hall! That is your 5th warning, Luna! Class dismissed!"
Luna grumbled, and casually loaded her bookbag, and headed into the hall. Boarding school teachers were a drag.
"Hey! Luna! Wait up!" laughed a puffy, long-haired girl from behind Luna. "Hahah, Ms. Tallow really gave it to you!"
"Mrrgh. It's not MY fault I can't sleep at night!" Luna grumbled.
"Mmm. Strange dreams again?" nodded the girl sympatheticly.
"Strange is not the word. These are beyond strange."
"...have you been using your..."powers" again?" the girl asked quietly.
Luna slammed her hand againest the girl's mouth. "S-s-s-s-hhh!! What if someone hears?"
"They'll think we're weirdos!" laughed the girl. "Let's go to lunch."
"..Okay.." Luna grinned. Boarding school wasn't TOO bad.

The High class UFO, Nath, looked at the paper. "Well, this appears to be the location." He looked around, on the top of a giant cloud in Fourside.
The Beautiful UFO, Nual, snickered. "What a load of junk!"
Eon, the Cute Little UFO, nodded. "So, whom are we supposed to off in this dank?"
The Lil' UFO, Nayc, sighed. "We aren't supposed to OFF anyone! Just finish the job quickly!"
The four UFO's flew off for the center castle of Altus.

Once inside, the Leader, Nath, split them up. "You take the king, I'll get the queen, and you two girls can take the kids. Got it?"
Nual and Eon nodded, and Nath and Nayc flew off.

Nath reached the center chamber, with Nayc hot on his heels. With a slight bump, the doors were knocked open. Nath flew into the room, and Landed next to the snoring king. He snickered, and created a small ball of PSI energy. He set it on the king’s clock, and floated out of the room. Nayc looked around. "Where's the queen?" Before he left the room, he noticed a large oil painting on the wall. He read what the plaque at the bottom said with a quick glance. Cirra I, first Queen of Altus. Had 2 children, Twins: Nimba and Than (Painted year 99X).
He stared at the painting. "What a load of junk." As he muttered, he heard footsteps down the hall; he was sure of it. He hovered into the hall, and saw a tall woman holding a candle. "Here we are!"
Suddenly, a small explosion rocked the doors to the king’s chamber, and Nath flew up beside Nayc. "He’s dead; PSI time bomb."
The queen looked up, started. When she saw the two UFO's grinning at her, she screamed and dropped the candle. She began to run, and made it as far as the Princesses' room. She slammed her hand on the door, but to no avail. Nayc shot her down in a moment.

The two twin princesses awoke in their beds. The eldest twin, Strata, leapt out of the bed when she heard the noise. However, the younger, Cirra, stayed in the bed, rubbing her eyes. Quickly, strata threw a lamp at Cirra, and she bolted out of the bed. "What is it?"
Strata pointed ahead into the dark room. Two pairs of red eyes flashed.
Cirra gasped, and screamed, Strata, however, flicked on a flashlight, and saw the UFO's.
"An assassination! I should have been prepared!" strata cursed herself, and quickly dodged as a beam was fired. She grabbed Cirra, and threw her out the doors; the two UFOs followed.
"You've got nowhere to run!" The smaller one yelled. "Wherever you go, we can track you!"
Strata widened her eyes, and ran faster. Suddenly, she remembered: "Our families treasure!" She looked down to the end of the hall, and saw the two rods hanging in the case: The Niveous Rod and the Gelid Rod.
Strata threw herself into a dive, and grabbed for the case, smashing the glass with her fist. The Gelid Rod dropped into her hand, destroying the balance of the rods.

Nual and Eon looked on at the girl at the end of the hall. "Look!" Nual cried. "She’s.... imploding!"

When Strata touched the wand, light coursed through her body, piercing every open crack. Cirra covered her eyes, and when she moved her hand, Strata was gone.
"NOOO!"
Cirra hit her hand against the case; the Niveous rod fell into her hand. She felt the light penetrate her as the UFO's cackled. "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE US!"
In her last fleeting moments, Cirra saw the UFO's meet up with another pair; they mentioned 'Mani Mani'.

Light...pain...it was all coming so clear now. A figure was set down in the center of fourside, and she collapsed in the soft city rubbish. In a few seconds, however, she awoke. "I didn't die!"
Cirra looked down at herself. "But...everyone else did!" She was still clutching the Niveous rod, and she let it go in a horrified glare. On a second thought, she picked it up. "Perhaps I will need this...when I start a new life in fourside." As she sat herself up, she looked at her watch. "I haven't moved in time at all...that's helpful."
Thinking to herself, she sighed. What had happened to Strata? Was she in another world? Was she even alive?

Yet again, Kyle was having family problems at home. And yet again, Kyle decided to just up and leave the house until he forgets how much he hates his staying home. He didn't know where to go, so he just walked north to the nearest town, Threed.
While trudging along the streets of Threed, Kyle saw a newspaper lying on the ground. The headlines read, "25 Killed in Fourside Bus Accident."
Then Kyle picked up the paper to read more. Although he wasn't normally one to sense things, Kyle sensed that something just wasn't right about the accident. Sure, it seemed like a perfectly normal tragic accident: bus driving into the ocean at night, but Kyle felt compelled to check it out. Besides, he had nowhere else to go. So, Kyle left for Fourside, knowing nothing about what he was getting himself involved in.

Cirra stumbled around, unused to a large metropolis such as Fourside.
She eventually tripped near the Topolla and sat down, her head laying on her legs.
She closed her eyes, wishing this could all have been negated. But she realised that was impossible. There was nothing left for her. They were all dead. Everyone she knew.
She sat in silence for about five minutes, when she felt a gentle nudging at her shoulders.
Cirra looked up.
"Who... who are you?" she asked politely. She quickly wiped a rising tear from her eyes.
Venus hunched down beside her.
"What's wrong?" Venus inquired.
"N... nothing," Cirra quickly replied.
Venus stared Cirra in the eyes.
"I know that's not true. Your eyes look sad. Something horrible happened to you, right?"
Cirra gave the slightest nod in the affirmative.
"I'm kind of new here, too..." she added meekly as an afterthought.
Venus' eyes widened visibly.
"You poor girl," she mused. She quickly thrust a ticket into Cirra's hands.
"What's this?" Cirra asked Venus kindly.
"It's a free admissions ticket for the museum. Lucretia, Miss Fake... she runs the Topolla... has an arrangement with the curator of the Fourside Museum, Mr. Spoon. The performers get free admission to the museum. The museum staff get free front row tickets to the performance of their choice.
"Use my free admissions ticket. It's not much, but it could help you get used to Fourside."
Cirra's eyes glittered.
"Thank you... Miss..."
"Venus." Venus placed two fingers on the tip of Cirra's nose.
"Thank you, Miss Venus."

Cirra entered the museum and showed the admissions ticket to the secretary.
"Oh, wait a second!" the secretary warned Cirra.
"What?" Cirra shivered.
"We recently built an annex to the museum. We're no longer just a dinosaur museum. We now have a Foggyland Natural History annex. Just follow the door on your left when you arrive, and go up the stairs."

Cirra did as the secretary suggested, somehow thinking she had to do this.
She entered the one room.
It showed a young man, barely older than she, in a statue formed of diamond.
She read the inscription. "'This statue was found in a Druid temple southwest of Stonehenge, in Winters. Diaries found near here suggest that this statue is actually a man, although modern science has debunked such a possibility.'"
Cirra perked her ears up, having heard an odd creaking.
She looked up at the statue. She gasped in horror as she realised that the diamonds were.... shattering!

Cirra fell down, her bottom hitting the ground hard.
The statue revealed a man with green eyes and black hair.
"Who are you?" Cirra asked, shocked.
"My name," the man replied, "is Harsemhin Aberfydd."

In downtown Fourside there was a short flash behind the Museum. With the disappearance of the light came the arrival of a traveler, landing softly on the grass.
Where am I this time? he wondered to himself as he looked around quickly.
The light hadn't drawn any attention, forunately for him. His eyes quickly caught the museum and the tall buildings, and he immediately recognised the location.
So I'm back in Fourside again. Knowing Anthadd, the reason I wound up here is he's in the museum. I wonder what he's here for. I guess I'll go find out. He pulled something out of his pocket. At least I have these to remember my friends by, and to prove to Anth I'm not completely insane. He put them away and walked around to the front of the Museum.
Having long since grown accustomed to walking around this world wearing his armour and attracting weird stares, Cyan calmaly walked into the museum and succeeded in being completely oblivious to the secretary's reaction to seeing him walk in.
"What is the admission?" he asked.
"It's ... uh, $20 per person," she managed to get out.
Cyan fished around in his pockets for the bits of money he had picked up during his previous adventures. "Here you are."
"Uh, thank you ... Be sure to check out the Foggyland Natural History annex. It's brand new."
"Oh, thank you kindly."
Cyan turned and entered the museum. I guess that's why Anthadd is here. He walked towards the new annex.

It was 12 PM.
In his rather paltry fourside apartment, Skulryk looked at the clock which had managed to become unplugged during the night, looked outside, and screamed.
He was supposed to have been down at the Numbers Bridge at 4 AM this morning to do a breaking news report on the recent crash.
Getting up in the mess of his apartment, Skulryk already knew he no longer had a job. Well then, Skulryk thought. I guess I'll have to make my own news reports!
An empty soda can crunched as he accidentally stepped on it. Once he got to his camera, however, messiness was not a problem. There was an aura of cleanliness around the camera table. He carefully checked his camera case to make sure he had everything and the battery was fully charged. "All the big news channels will have the same old stuff; I'm going to get the good stuff that people go for! I can find my way past what other people call the front lines! Lets see... I think I might be able to talk the manager of the new Fourside marina to let me borrow one of his boats... I'm sure I can get connections somewhere!"
After packing in his camera and getting ready, he ran down the stairs of his apartment building. He paused after opening the doors to feel a blast of city air.
"Alright, Fourside! Look out for Skulryk, freelance reporter!"
The superintendent gave him an odd look as he scrambled out the door and caught a taxi.

A boy with messy black hair lay in bed. A strange mood had been hovering over him ever since he had heard the news. He had thought at first that he wasn't reading the words correctly, so he read them again. And again. And again.
And so he laid in bed now, trying to come to terms with the fact. Slowly, as he got sick of thinking, he drifted off.
Heh heh heh heh heh.....
The boy broke out of his daze, and formed a sweat. Wh.. what was that? I'm sure that wasn't a dream.... He sat in bed, waiting to hear it again, but nothing came.

---

FLASHBACK

---

Two boys who looked almost completely alike were sitting in a living room, talking to each other. The one wearing a midnight blue cape was speaking. "It seemed odd to me... but, the mutant problem was over, so everyone celebrated, and there was a big parade. After spending a little time talking to Ness and Paula and the others, I left."
The other one, wearing a plain shirt with small stripes, grinned. "So, it looks like they kind of reconciled with you." The caped one shrugged. The plain one continued. "Well, anyways, that's another adventure we've had. Maybe I should tell the others about that one."
The caped kid rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. Tell them your other-dimensional twin was in the EarthBound universe. You know nobody believed the story you told about the Imbuing. It's fanfic stuff, Tsurami. Nobody at that site really believes that you've been to Cartame."
Tsurami grumbled. "Well, I just wonder what will happen next time I go there. I wonder if it'll be another alternate dimension."
The caped one shrugged. "Who knows? Look, I'm going back to my dimension now. You can send e-mails, or post on IF, or whatever. But no one will believe you. If you're lucky, he'll try to start an IF using the idea."
Tsurami frowned. "You're so pessimistic." Then he brightened. "Well, goodbye then. I'm going to.."
"Lie down and not get anything done?" The caped kid had teleported away before Tsurami could hit him.

---

Mike awoke promptly at 6 AM. He yawned, and with a casual movement of the arm, lifted the remote control to his television. He turned to the news, and began to listen to the latest top stories.
"Authorities still haven't been able to discern the reason for the bus crash that killed 25 people. They've yet to recover the remains of a number of people. The Fourside police have denied to comment on the situation."
Mike shrugged. Oh well. I'm sure that the authorities will find something. The anchorperson continued with the top stories.
"Also, just last night, an armed mercenary broke into they Mayor's office in Onett. Apparently some valuable information was taken from the records department. When asked about the situation, Mayor B. H. Pirkle refused to comment." Mike switched off the TV.
Hmm hmm hmm... they're talking about me. At least they got the mercenary part right. Now, about those papers... The mercenary picked up his backpack and produced a number of sensitive documents. He laid them out and took a good look at them. Wow, seems as if Pirkle is making loads of money off of his citizens...
Mike slowly walked over to the phone, and picked up the handset. He dialed a number, and a voice responded on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Yes, this is Mike. I've got what you want. Now, about the rest of my payment..."
"Right, right. Look, get to Fourside. At the park, you'll see a number of trees. Under one, you'll see one of my men standing there. He'll be holding a shabby black briefcase."
"Right."
"Talk with him, and he'll say 'nice weather'. You'll respond by saying 'yes, but it looks like rain. I'm glad that my coat has a liner.'"
"Got it."
"Be there in an hour. My man should also provide you information and a down payment for your... next mission. Tata." *Click*. He hung up the phone and went to his closet. He put on a coat, and into the pocket of his coat placed a 9mm handgun. Another 9mm was hidden in the small of his back. He then put the papers that he received on his mission from the other night into his briefcase. He also hid a kabar in his sleeve.
Satisfied and confident that he was ready to take on any unseen occurence, he left his apartment. He walked down onto the curb, and waited for a bus to Fourside, which was due to arrive soon.

Dan shrugged off whatever had come to his mind about the bow. It was probably some sort of coincidence. He didn't exactly have time to think much, anyway, as he was late for school, which as everyone knows is the worst POSSIBLE place to think.
Five minutes later, ten minutes late he was there. He noticed the happy looks on his classmates' faces. "Oh no, someone finally snapped on the teacher, didn't they!" He panicked. As someone who spends much of his time playing video games, he would be suspected, even if he wasn't there. (Such was the school's sytem of logic.)
"No, it isn't THAT good. We get a field trip to the Museum to see the new exhibit!"
Dan smiled slyly. He loved going to the museum, for a few reasons. For one thing, the exhibits were quite a tad more interesting than lectures on "Life of the Deep Darkness Swamp"; He also had a fun game he "played" every year with his still-unsuspecting class.In first grade he had discovered a small vent directly above a stall in the men's bathroom. Once he got inside he was able to look at all of the secret items they had in their possession, not to mention scare the begeezus out of the rest of his class. So for the next 10 years he had done the same, still managing to fit inside the vent. He had lost weight; It would be easier this year.

20 minutes later, the school's bright colored bus reached the museum. He got out, and immediately asked to be excused. he snickered happily when the teacher consented. No one would notice he was gone...
The vent was harder to get inside than it was in first grade, but once he was completely inside it was a simple crawl to wherever in the museum he wanted to go. He decided to check out the new exhibit; It would be an hour before his teacher stopped lecturing the class on proper behavior. Grabbing his GameGenie and Zapper, which he had left there after scaring his class by firing lasers through a skeleton, Dan carefully pushed the vent on the other side open.
"Holy cow!" He said in as much of a whisper as someone can make while watching someone come out of a statue. Alas, that involves a slight yelp and a jump, which happened to land him head first on the floor.
"Hello..." He smiled weakly. He seemed to have a habit of dropping in at inopportune moments.
Harsemhin glared. "Hello. My name is Harsemhin Aberfydd."
"Harse-what? Can I just call you Harsy?"
"No, you may not."
"I'm Ci--Rita." She stifled a laugh at this strange person who had fallen out of the vent, along with the rest of this crazy situation, and attempted to be courteous. "Pleased to meet you."