"For Washuu"

[For Washuu]

As many of you know, I happen to be in the process of writing a self-insertion fanfiction.  Since I have been posting it on Fanfiction.net and DeviantArt, as well as the TenchiForum, I figured "what the hey, may as well raise my post-count on this site, too!"
And so I bring to you "For Washuu", by For Washuu. 

[For Washuu]

Pre-story note:
Tell me, reader, what would be the true result of one run-of-the-mill person being forcefully taken from this world and deposited within another?  A world that he knew (and knew well) as fiction?  One must consider that "status quo is god", as the tropers say, and therefore the one who can change and control the status quo in that different reality can easily play god with the whole of existence.
To simplify, if you were to be sent into your favorite book, movie, TV show, anime, cartoon, or game, you would quickly find out that opening your mouth at all spells BIG change.  Not only for the story, but also for you.

=+=====================+=


0: Prelude

   There is a laboratory out there in distant space. Such a place; such a vast laboratory that would put any mad scientist's workshop to shame. A person entering it for the first time could find them self distracted for hours by the many wonders within its countless walls. There were five whole planets to explore, every one of them filled with the most advanced technology known to any and all races in the universe. Here and there, scattered like trivial and infantile toys, lay great machines of war and devices of the most ingenious crafting, and yet no attention was being paid to such inventions now.
   At the moment, the only thing that concerned the mastermind of this technological fortress was a plain metal table.  A table placed so conspicuously in the middle of the floor that an on-looker would most likely pass by it without even realizing it was there.
   A table, or really what was on that table.  Something more advanced and prized than the total of everything else to be seen, a certain something that no amount of time or money or knowledge or expertise could create: A human life.
   A dull hum of machinery hung filled the otherwise-silent room as the greatest scientific genius in the universe gazed down upon the mutilated form of the boy laying below her.  She tucked a wayward strand of long, red hair back into place and rested her head on her hand.  She glanced up at a terminal as various colors and shapes flickered across it, and began to question to herself, almost aloud.
   "What is it about this boy...  numbers don't usually lie, and besides... nobody can make that happen," she pondered as the data continued to be reported by the computers.
   "Unless..."
   
   She paused for a minute and looked back down at the body on the table. 
   "How DID you get here, boy?" She asked aloud.
   The scientist turned back to the computer console as if she had figured out how to answer her question, and began typing rapidly.


   SET            :SUB-CONSCIENCE ANALYSIS PROGRAM
   -   
   QUERY         :ORIGIN
   SYSTEM         :CHRON. RECALL
   PROGRAM VISUAL   :NAJA
   OBSCURE PROG VIS   :TRUE
   NON-C AWARE      :TRUE
   SUB-C AWARE      :TRUE
   C AWARE         :FALSE [REPORT]
   DISPLAY         :SCENARIO
   -

   "And...execute program." Her words rang out.
   The screen flickered, and the form of a young girl with silvery-blue hair appeared on it. The girl turned to face its creator and spoke in a voice that seemed to waft out of the computer's speakers with an almost childish softness.
   "Shall I bring in the mist now, master?"
   The scientist shook her head. "Not yet."  She tapped out a command on her keypad, and, when she had finished, a visual copy of the boy on the table formed on the screen.  The girl turned toward it.
   "Is this the subject, then?"
   "Yes, he is. Still..."
   The girl looked up at the scientist genius.
   "Master, what is it?"
   "He shouldn't understand this on his own, but try not to let on to what's happening, alright?" the genius said.  "I'm not sure how his sub-conscious mind would react." concluded the scientist.  "Or if there would be any left." She murmured, mainly to herself.
   The girl on the screen nodded knowingly, and, with a toss of her head, a mist came and obscured her features like a silvern shroud.
   "Begin." Washu commanded.
   The boy's mind began to react to the program as it assumed its visage.  Every word would scroll across the screen and be logged in the computer's database, but the greatest genius scientist in the universe wanted to see and hear personally everything as it happened in the boy's mind.  She leaned toward her screen expectantly.

   And within his mind...

[Washu Student]

Ooh, not a bad start!

[For Washuu]

1: Within His Mind


   Mist.  And wonder.  Peace.  Quiet. 
   But not too quiet.  Like being next to a shallow waterfall as it lands on a shallow rock with a shallow, pattering noise.  All the rest of the world is so deep and distant...far out in the mist.
   In such a place a person doesn't bother to think much.  One would much rather just be, and be without worrying about petty logic and complex thought.

But he'd still hear if someone said "Hello, there."

   "What? Oh, hello."

   "What's your name?"

   "Me? My... my name's Elliot."

   "How are you doing?"

   "Oh, I guess I'm doing well enough.  The scenery here kind of puts me out of it, but I'm fine. And you?"

   The misty figure tilted her head (though that might not have been noticed).
   "I-"  It stopped for a second and formed an answer.

   "I'm fine."

   A minute passed.
   'Such a peaceful silence.' the boy thought to himself.  'No, not silence.  Silence is madness.  Stillness- a peaceful stillness.  Not silence.'

   The silver haze came closer to him and, if he had paid attention, he would have guessed that it sat down next to him.  But he wasn't paying attention to that.  He wasn't really paying attention to anything.

   "So, what have you been up to lately?" The mist asked.

   "I'm not really sure.  It's not something I'm too worried about."
   "Could you tell me, please?  I don't get to talk to people often here."

   Compassion. For once the boy actually looked at the being next to him.  He could tell that it was a girl from its voice, and after a minute of staring into the mist around her, he could make out that it was a young girl.  Maybe six or seven years old.
   He thought for a minute that something looked familiar to him, but the mist shifted and the thought was lost.

   "Uh, well, I guess I could."
   Somehow he could tell that the girl had a big smile on under that mist, and he smiled back.

   "Let me think for a minute, first." he said as he laid back in the... grass?  It wasn't grass.  It wasn't rock, like the noise of the waterfall made it sound, either.  It just... was.

   The misty figure descended by him.  She didn't seem to recline, she just hovered next to the boy, waiting for him to start.
   "Actually, there's a LOT that could use explaining..." he trailed off.
   The mist shifted, waiting for him to begin, but the boy looked hesitant.
   "You seem understanding. Do you mind if I ramble for a minute?"
   The girl shook her head in approval, but quickly realized that the boy couldn't see her clearly.
   "Go ahead.  I'll listen." She spoke.
   "Well, okay."
   The boy closed his eyes and began.

   "This past school year... Yeah, I'll start there.  This year has been my senior year of high school, and it has probably been the most disturbing and painful school-year to date.  It's not really anyone's fault but mine.  You see, I've grown tired of the world," He waved his hand around at nothing in particular.  "This reality, if you will."
   'Oh, the irony,' The girl thought to herself.
   "I've come to understand that there is nothing in the reality I inhabit that is not corrupt, and that nearly all the people around me haven't the slightest clue as to how the world works.  They simply don't understand the workings of life." He paused.
   "Then again... maybe I'm just talking about my peers." Another pause.
   'Well, if the Wall Street Journal is any example, the rest of the world is just like them.' he thought to himself with a sense of annoyance.
   "Anyways, I've grown tired of the world, and one thing that didn't help this at all was my latest obsession with a certain anime: Tenchi Muyo.  An amusement of sorts. I had long since stopped reading fantasy novels by the time I started watching Tenchi Muyo, mainly for the same reason that the anime has become my ruin.  Novels, especially fantasy novels, are nearly impossible for me to put up with because they portray a world or reality that reflects how the world was meant to be, and should be.  I hate reading about that because no matter how much I may want such a reality (like Tenchi Muyo), it will never exist.  So I'd read more fantsy or watch more of the videos until it affected me nearly like a drug."
   He glanced over at the clouded face of the girl.  Was it getting his drift? He was pretty sure she had a blank stare, but, again, he was only guessing.
   "Aww, never mind.  Let me back up to a few days ago, at-" he thought for a minute "the concert."
   "Okay," The girl in the mist agreed.  "What happened there?"
   
   "I had spent the whole day volunteering in setting up and tearing down a concert at a local concert hall that I hang around, so I was totally spent When I got home.  You see, I had gotten up at seven o'clock to arrive early, and ended up getting home at half past one. That is to say, AFTER midnight.
   "Pretty much the whole next morning as I made my way to school I was both half-asleep from staying up so late, and terribly depressed and grumpy from my wishes for a better world to live in.  Again, it was -no, it IS- my fetish, and it naggs at me the worst when I'm fatigued like I was then.  Sleepiness wasn't new, but on that day I felt an aching hunger, as if something was continuously imploding in my stomach, pulling on my insides like a vacuum.
   "At school I pretty much slept with my eyes open for the first two periods, unable to handle both the over-bearing aching and my nearly surreal mental state.  By the time third period ended, however, the drowsiness and hunger were totally gone, replaced by ubiquitous pain, an uncanny alertness, and a burning energy from inside.  It seemed like everywhere that I could, I ached, and yet...  it all felt so real.  And I felt so... powerful..."
   The mist shifted uneasily.
   "Anyway, as the day progressed, the aching and intense energy became overwhelming, and I had no trouble checking out of school on the convincingly real excuse of a fever.
   "As I got in my '96 Ford Ranger -gosh,I love that truck- my seemingly never-ceasing mental jukebox suddenly stopped what it had been playing and jumped to a different song all together."
   The girl in the mist suddenly could hear a song float by her like the waving tail-end of a kite.

   I am the fever that burns your skin
   The addiction, the ancient sin

   "I found it ironic that-"
   "Hold on a minute,"  The misty girl cut him off.  "What music?"
   "Hmm?  Oh, you mean my 'Mental Jukebox'?" He asked, embarrassed.
   "Yes, what's that supposed to be?"
   "Umm, how do I say this?" he started, then thought for a bit.
"People crack jokes that I live and breathe music. In truth, it IS always in my head, and I don't always have control over what song is playing, especially since I have so much music to listen to.  Because I know most of it by heart (and head, obviously), you could ask me at pretty much any time of the day what's playing in my head and I'd have an answer for you."
   He paused again and looked down.  "Usually it reflects my mood, so sometimes it just makes things worse."
   "How sad." the girl thought aloud, and the mist shimmered and shook for the slightest moment.  "As you were saying-"
   "Uh, yea. Right." The boy cut in.  "So, as I was saying, I found it ironic that my obsession would be so decimating to me as to bring to mind a song about drunkenness."
   "Think about that moment for me, okay?" the girl asked.
   The boy nodded, and the song returned.  The girl could make out a high tenor voice roughly wailing along with an 80's-sounding track.

   I am the reputation that makes you loose face
   I am the fear that presents no case

   She could see in the boy's mind as he tried to make his mind 'play' a different song while driving home on that day.  He had been so frustrated, trying for once to counter his sadness and despair.
   "I kept trying to distract myself, to switch what song I was thinking of, but whenever I would..."
   Another song floated through the mist.  The same singer, the girl concluded.

   I'm standing on the sword of the dragon
   He can't pull it from beneath my feat

   "It didn't really help the situation much.  Every song I ended up hearing in my head was some sort of song of fantasy."
   Again, the song changed.

Where will you be when the moon turns to blood?
When the sun won't shine, and the stars fall from above?

   "What did you do then?" The misty figure asked.
   The boy shook his head. "I started running through all the songs I had in my head, wondering just why the only ones coming up were songs of fantasy." The boy looked up with annoyance. "Really, fantasy! Of all things..." He continued to glare at nothing in particular.
   "What was so bad with that?" asked the mist.
   "All of those songs reflect those realities I can't have, that's why."
   The boy suddenly seemed to get a thought, but again the mist shifted and the expression of thought passed from the boy's face.
   'Let's keep you non-lucid right now, okay?' The thought the girl in the mist.

   "Uh, well, either way.  I fumbled around in my head, trying to find the song I was looking for. It wasn't the safest thing to be doing, distracting myself that much, but then again I don't know why it was so distracting.  Come to think of it, I was distracting myself so much that I almost missed a turn and I had to brake hard and swing the wheel around quick." An extremely annoyed expression crossed the boy's face as he added "I hit the horn by accident, which almost made me run off the road, because I always jump back when I do that. I HATE it when-"
   The boy's reiteration suddenly stopped and he put a hand to his head.  Back in the lab, the genious also had an annoyed expression plastered on her face as she practically threw her fingers across her translucent keyboard.  She swore at the screen.
   "Can't you just stop thinking long enough to finish?!?" She scolded.  Her fingers stopped on a key and she waited for the boy's memories to start telling themselves again.
   On the screen, the boy relaxed.  Reluctantly, the scientist did as well.

   Close the hatches and lower the sails
   The storm is whipping great balls of hail

   "I had almost reached the gravel road to my house when that happened, and from that point on, I seemed to grow more and more agitated and broody."
   "Broody? You?" The misty girl giggled. "Really, now.  What do you mean by that?"  The boy considered for a minute before replying.
   "I'm not really sure.  Something just didn't feel right.  Heck, nothing felt right, from then up till-"
   "So, what happened next?" the mist cut him off.

   Tempest is raging, pulling us down
   Time to learn to swim, boy, or time to drown.

   "Right about then I hit the gravel.  Nothing new to me, just another part of my route home: 'Out of the city to Ellis Boulevard, a paved road, down that until the pavement turns to gravel, and then a mile past Ramelsburg Hill with all the trees.' (Thanks, mom.) Every day of the week."  The boy remembered something chucked.  "Everyone else in my family gets so annoyed that we live west of town, because it means that the sun is in our eyes both going into town in the morning and coming home in the evening.  I don't care-I like it.  I've always liked the sight of the rising sun and the feel of the sun shining through my windshield, and I often look up toward it."
   'Even if mom does say I'll go blind from doing that.' The boy added silently.
   "Interesting."
   "It is!" the boy agreed.  "Especially on that day."  He added almost proudly.
   "Oh?  How so?"
   "Well, it was only just nearing noon, so the sun should have been directly above me, and yet... behind the hill, there was-"

   Oars have broke, your time to kneel
   This storm is screaming with the vengeance to KILL

   "I gunned the gutless engine in my truck to get up Ramelsburg hill, like I usually do when I get to that spot in the rout home, and I looked up, and..."
   The girl was becoming a little impatient.  "And?  And what?"
   "Well, I saw the hill, and the road, and the forest on the left, and... a light shining over from the other side of the hill? It was like an oncoming car at night, but brighter, even brighter than that.  It was as if the sun was directly behind the hill!  And it was the middle of the day!"
   The boy turned to the mist for a second. "How the heck is that supposed to happen when it's not dark?  How could that happen?"
   "I don't know." The mist replied blankly. "Some odd things...happen, you know."
   "But it had been bright as day one minute-"
   The boy stopped altogether, his memory lost.

   The redhead back in the lab held her finger on one key as it glowed red, her fierce glare leveled at the screen and the boy on it.  Slowly, she turned where she sat.  Her finger never left the key it was on as her gaze shifted to the boy on the table.  The genius's eyes narrowed as she made a very rare gut decision and lifted her finger. She spun back and continued watching.

   Faith is plunged into the sea beneath
   The waves beat the ship with iron fists to sink

-+----------------------------

[For Washuu]

In case anyone was wondering, the songs quoted/"listened to" in the previous section are by Bride (or Matrix):
"Whiskey Seed"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRKnwTbvlFo&t=1m44s
"Heroes"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsTbGUMYTkE&t=45
"The First Will Be Last"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxW3Nu70kcs&t=18s
"Hell No"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn0czITfa88

[For Washuu]

Note:
Transfer:   To convey from one person, place, or situation to another. [move, shift]
      To cause to pass from one to another. [transmit, transform, change]
      To make over the possession or control of. [convey]
      To print or otherwise copy from one surface to another by contact.
      To move to a different place, region, or situation.

   Consider what transfer looks like.  Consider this: the greater distance transferred in a set amount of time, the greater the effect is on the subject transferred.  This is why people go "Oooh!" when they are in a plane taking off.
   Now tell me what it looks like to be transferred from one reality to another.


2: Transfer


   The boy's hands were shaking slightly as he continued where he had left off.
   "That's right.  I was going up the hill.  Ramulsburg Hill, as it's called by some in the area, and the light... I don't know.  It was just there, and I can't figure out why I could see it. It was still midday, and I could see the tree-line going up and stopping at the top of the hill, and then... light?"
   "What was happening?" asked the voice in the mist.
   "I was getting really scared of whatever it was, and I started all-out panicking when my foot wouldn't come off the gas.  It was like it was stuck there, driving me up the hill towards that... thing.
   "When I looked up again -it felt like minutes but it must have been as little as seconds- I saw the sky growing dim as I watched."
   The girl started. "Say what?"
   "No, really!  Just looking at the sky, I could see it going dark... like a storm was rolling in at an incredible speed.  Like... like a tornado had come there in a matter of seconds."

   Sky grew black, and like an engine humming,
   I could tell it was my time

   "Wow.  I've never heard of something like that happening. Even on-" The girl stopped herself, but the boy didn't even notice.
   "I was just cresting the hill when the light hit me.  It didn't blind me, but it seemed to shine everything else into their own shadows.  It totally blocked any view down the road, and it took me a minute to realize that it was because the source of the light itself was wider than the road itself!  It was directly in front of me, and wasn't moving at all...  Come to think of it, neither was I."
   The girl looked at him oddly.
   "It felt like time had... No, time hadn't slowed.  It had stopped moving.  It was like everything-me, my truck, the trees, and the... the 'thing'-all were suspended in the moment.

   I could hear the sound of my heartbeat thumping
   And it echoes in my mind

   "I could still move, and the light still shimmered.  The light... it was all from one lamp on the front of the thing and-"
   The boy stopped again, scared of his memories.
   "It had gone red.  The whole scene had gone red with the light from the lamp.  Blood red and cold.  It felt so empty and-"
   "What happened next?" the misty figure cut him off."
   "More light appeared, engulfing the scene, and my truck and everything surrounding it was seemingly blasting to pieces as a massive, robed and angelic figure burst into view between my truck and the... thing bearing down on me."

   Fear is the driver, we fight for our lives
   We're not afraid of death, but we don't want to die

   "Behind the sudden shining figure I could still easily make out the wavering image of the hulk that had been bearing down on me.  It appeared the be some sort of space ship, but above all else, it reminded me of the Phantom Train with a most wicked and menacing sort of iron mouth pasted on the front of it.  Or of a carnivore whale, come to tear me to shreds.  Erie, tentacle-like tubes were slowly, slowly sliding out from between the gaping jaws like snakes' tongues."

   Prayed out loud and clung to the deck
   No glory for sailors when they've been ship-wrecked

   "Slowly my focus shifted to the angelic figure hovering between me and the demonic-looking ship.  Its face was obscured by the overwhelming light it radiated, but I could tell that its form rose far above the ship behind it and sank far below the grade of the road.  Its white and blue robes billowed as a beam of hideous black light burst from the mouth of the ship, heading straight toward me.  The beam inched its way on and on, bearing down on me... but before the beam could reach me, the shining figure raised its arms outward and the sinister light hit it and shot away.  Kind of like a waterfall hitting the ground, but a lot more intimidating." The boy grimaced.  "Intimidating, Hah! More like 'pants-wetting scary'".
   The girl smiled from within the mist.  The boy was getting tired.  'Perhaps this will all work out, master' she pondered.
   "For a moment, it was very quiet.  I hung there, dazed in the darkness and void.  There was nothing else, until..."  The boy took a moment and collected his thoughts.  "The figure's eyes shot open with a roll of thunder, and before I even had the chance to try to look at the figure's face, time was unceremoniously snapped back to its normal rate.  The truck, which I was one again in, hit the ground and it skidded off into the woods as I uselessly jerked the wheel back and forth trying to regain control!"
   The scientist's head hit her desk and snapped back up to glare at the screen in disbelief.
   "Gaah!  Couldn't you just settle down for a minute?" she yelled at the unhearing boy.  And then she realized something.
   "Wait, now that's not consistent."  She looked to a different screed and checked a line of data on it before reluctantly typing another command into in console.  And another.  And another.

   The boy had stopped talking and held a thoughtful look for a short minute.
   "Wait a second," he started.  "What woods?  There aren't woods-"
   "Forget the woods, I want to hear what happened next," The girl cut in. "What happened?"
   "Well, I..." The boy looked very embarrassed.  "I went right into a tree.  The whole front end of the truck had been totally ruined, and the windshield had a hole in it where a tree limb had punched through the safety glass.  And that's... that's how it was. I kept thinking...  and I KEEP thinking... I don't know what I hit, because I know that the tree-line ended, or ends, at the top of the hill.
   The boy looked lost in a daze for a minute until he suddenly perked up.
   "So! What do you think of that?" He asked the misty girl.  She considered quickly, computing a sedating answer.  A boring answer.
   "I think it's remarkable!  I like how you set a backing tone with the music in your head as well as-" and she continued on. One genius scientist tapped a button and got up to strech a little, until...

   Don't be deceived by what you might see,
   As it was for me every day

   The boy spontaneously shot upright.  "I remember now! I was surprised while looking out the splintered glass."
   
   "Huh?" the red-haired genius' head spun back to the screen showing the scene with the boy.
     "That's right, the tree I'd hit wasn't any kind that grows in Iowa..." the boy continued

   "He shouldn't be able to remember anything now!" she yelled and ducked back over to her console.
   
     "And that house?  I know I've seen it before.  With that lake... and that deck..."

   "What's happening?" the scientist once again typing like mad.

     "And there was that boy of to the left, too.  I recognized him, too!"

   "Not good!"  Red hair seemed to fly from one screen to another, and back to the keyboard. 

     "Tenchi? Was that his name?"

   The girl appeared on an isolated screen in the scientist's lab.  "What the heck is he doing?" The genius asked 'her'.  What let him slip loose?"
   "I don't know.  I just did what you programmed me to!  How would I know what went wrong?"

     "And the guy seemed surprised to hear his name."

   The scientist went back to hammering at her keyboard. "Not now, not now... No! He's going to break through to consciousness!" She growled.

     "Of course, I was like 'Yeah right', sarcastically to myself, and..."

   "YOU CAN'T DIE ON ME YET!"

     "I guess I just passed out on the horn and..."

   'Forget it.' she thought to herself with resignation. She turned to face the boy's body.

     "...then where am I now?  I must be dreaming.  Shouldn't I wake-"


   Red hair obscured a shaky finger as it flipped a switch on the side of the table.  Just as consciousness started to break even, just as the boy's eyes started to crack open, they fell heavily shut again.  His mind once again entrapped itself.
   
   Because the Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe didn't know what else she could do.

[For Washuu]

3: The Dormant Mind

   "Miss Washu?  Miss Washu?" Echoed a blond voice through the cavernous laboratory. The genius tensed.
   "Huh? Mihoshi? Say back! I told you-"
   "It's alright, Washu. I'm here." Cut in a third voice, as its owner walked into the dim lighting of the scientist's inner sanctum.  Ayeka, the crown princess of Jurai, was the speaker, and it told the petite, red-headed scientist that she needn't worry for her lab.
   However, Washu still couldn't let them see what had kept her shut up in her lab for the last four days.  Not quite yet.
   "No, Ayeka, Mihoshi, whatever it is, I can't help you.  I'm still busy."
   "Aww, aren't you ever going to get done with that, Washu?  Say, just what is it that's kept you all cooped up in here?" Mihoshi was about to start looking around, but Ayeka knew better.
   "Come along, miss Mihoshi." She retorted. "I'm not about to leave you in this lab to wreak havoc on... whatever it is Washu is working on now, so we'll just have to wait to see what she's up to."
   Washu smiled behind their backs as Ayeka half-dragged the protesting blond up the steps to the door. "Oh, you'll see, that's for sure."
   Ayeka stopped just short of opening the subspace-portal door to leave. "Did you say something?"
   "Oh, nothing Ayeka, nothing at all!" the scientist replied with a grin.
   The princess looked befuddled. "Ah- well... If you say so, miss Washu." she agreed and stepped through the doorway, through millions of light-years, and into the Masaki home.
   Chagrin covered the redhead's face. "LITTLE Washu!  I told you to call me LITTLE Washu!"
   She sighed and grudgingly returned to the console giving read-outs on the boy.
   The boy she couldn't explain.  The boy who, for once, presented a challenge to the greatest genus scientist in the universe.
   Washu chuckled at the thought and leaned against the table.
   "It would seem that you'll just have to decide to wake up on your own."  She said to the comatose 17-year-old.
   'But who knows when that will happen?  Even I can't say for certain if the layers of his mind will re-align.'  Washu thought to herself.  She had flipped the switch on the bindings she placed to hold his conscious and sub-conscious together, keeping him from awakening when his body was too weak to fully function.
   "But even when your body heals, no outside stimulus will be able to wake you.  You'll have to want to... Elliot."  Her finger traced a meaningless pattern on the boy's forehead.   She sighed.
   "I have got to get some sleep," The scientist said and got up from the table.  "Tomorrow.  I'll worry more about all this tomorrow."  Content to wait, she turned and walked through a door that hadn't been there before.  The door closed, faded, and the room was still.


   "Washu.  Was that... Washu?"  The boy saw a scene.  A scene of him, dying and bloodied, at the wheel.  As he gazed down upon himself, a blurry form approached and circled his truck.  It left, and something in the sky cast a shadow over the area.  The shadow hazed, and then he, the truck, and tree that had lodged itself into the engine...  were gone.  A dull shadow of their image remained for a short moment, and then melted and sank out of sight.
   "What?  Where am I?" The boy cried out.  He felt himself being pulled away from the scene, but he didn't move.  He hung there, pulled on and pulled on, until the scene faded to black.
   He couldn't see, and yet... he liked it.  Nothing to hear, nothing to see, nothing to know, but-
   "Where am I?  WHERE AM I?!?"  He cried out before blanking, before contentedness enveloped him.

[For Washuu]

4: "He?"

   "Everybody, I have an announcement to make."
   It was dinner time at the Masaki house, and its various inhabitants had gathered to eat.
   After a week of absence, they hadn't expected Washu to show up for dinner...
   "It's about my latest work."
   ...Much less for her to have news about what had been keeping her busy for so long.
   All eyes were on the scientist now, even Ryoko, who had been planning to have a good time with her saké.  Miso and rice now set aside, everybody waited for the genius to continue.
   "You all know I've been busy for a while now,"
   "You have?" piped up a tanned GP detective.  Ryoko and Ayeka face-vaulted.
   "Of COURSE she has, you nitwit!" the pirate shot back.
   "Really, now, Mihoshi, where HAVE you been the past week?" Ayeka added.
   "I- I didn't know, I just-" Mihoshi began to reply, but Ryoko and Ayeka were already on her again.
   Washu looked at the situation with annoyance.  Even after twenty thousand years, she was still irritated to no end by certain things.
   "LISTEN UP, WILL YOU?!" She shouted at the bickering "adults".  They quickly sat back down, but two continued to glare at the ditsy blond across the table.
   "Now that I have your attention AGAIN, I have a little something to show you: the subject of my latest work."


   "Uhhmm...  Whaere aem... Ai?"  The boy looked around the lab in disbelief.  He looked, or tried to look, turning his head from side to side as he lay on the cold, metal examination table.
   "Th- This isss..." He began to say, but- "Ohhhhh, my head."
   He wasn't really up to processing his surroundings at that point.  Right then he just wanted to know what had happened and why he couldn't move, especially since he wasn't in any way restrained.
   'Wait, Elliot, your head moved.  Do that again.'  He shook his head no, telling himself that he was too weak to start moving again.
   'Good!  So you can move your head.  Now lift a finger.'  His mind continued.
   'Now listen here!' he thought back.  He shoved a finger in his own face accusingly.  'You're getting a bit to cocky, ordering me around like-'
   'Good!  You got your whole arm off the table! Nice work, Elliot.'
   The boy's mind was quiet as he stared at the finger he had pointed at himself.  A slow minute passed.
   'Really?'  The boy thought to himself in the flattest tone he could imagine.   
   'I guess we'd better be getting up now, shouldn't we?' His thoughts hinted to him.
   'Sure.  Whatever.'  He conceded.  Pain returned to his body as he rolled and pushed, clumsily rising from the table.  'Anything to get you to shut up.'


   "And here he is!" Washu said with a final keystroke. She snapped her fingers and a holo-screen appeared next to the table.
   "He?" Ayeka wondered.  The screen came to life and a view of the genius' lab came up.  In view was a tall console, an examination table, and-
   "What?  Where is he?!?" Washu exclaimed.  Her finger traced the laptop's screen, panning the view of her laboratory back and forth.  She squinted at the screed and pondered. "How did he-"
   "You keep saying 'he', Little Washu." Tenchi noted, confused.
   "Yeah, is it someone we're supposed to meet?" Nobuyuke added.
   "As if you'd care much about guys." Ryoko said.   
   "What's that supposed to mean?" Tenchi's father shot back.
   "Settle down, will you!" Washu commanded.


   Elliot had known pain in his life, in fact he and pain were pretty good acquaintances.  He couldn't remember when he didn't have abrasions and cuts from the various activities and games he'd play, mostly on his own.  He never cared to bandage them, though; He knew that they would heal in time.
   He counted as he walked across the lab.
   "One: arm.  Two: foot.  Three: hand.  Four: shoulder. Five: foot...again. Six:..." He stopped at the door of the laboratory and looked, but he couldn't see through the hazy glass in front of him. "...skull.  Gosh I've broken a lot of bones in my time." he thought to himself with a dry tone.
   Yes, the boy had been a knowing host of pain for years.
   He pushed open the door and pivoted. 'Left.' the boy thought to himself.  He kept walking because he knew that the second he stopped, he would have time to think too much about all the pain he was feeling.
   He mused about it anyways.
   'Gosh.  I don't think I've ever been so intimate with pain before.  It's so cozy I could puke.'  The boy smirked as he walked and limped and thought.  He wondered if he'd recognize the people he'd seen clustered around a TV screen when he exited the lab.  They had seemed familiar, but they had slipped out of his line of sight when he turned.  'And then I walked through a... a kitchen?'  He asked himself as he walked.   He turned and plodded in a different direction.
   'Um... I think so.' his mind replied.
   'Some help you are.  Why don't you tell me which way to go next, mister brains?'  He didn't even notice his unintentional pun.
   'Turn left again.'  He did.
   'Wait, I turned left a minute ago?'
   'That would be right,' His memory noted.
   'No, he turned left,' he himself shot back.
   'I'm not saying that. I mean that he turned the right way,' Memory retorted.
   'As in to the right?  I don't think so!'
   'I didn't say that I said that you were correct in saying-'
   'That's it! Everybody -strike that- any part of my mind that is communicating with me, quit it!' the boy ordered, and there was (finally) quiet in his head.
   He plodded on, and limped, and turned, and limped, and plodded on.


   Washu rose from where she sat. "Never mind.  I'll just go and find him."
   "Miss Washu, who is this person you keep referring to?" Ayeka inquired.
   "Yeah, who are you talking about?" Mihoshi added.
   "I told you," the genus scientist spat back from the lab door "NOT to call me MISS!"
   The door slammed, and a truly awkward moment ensued as everyone in turn looked to the others and continued to stare at the door to Washu's lab.
   "More miso?" Sasami offered, timidly.
   Five bowls slid toward the center of the table and Sasami reached for the ladle, but it didn't feel like it was scooping up anything.  Upon actually looking at the center bowl, she realized that it was completely empty.
   "Oops!" The others at the table looked as well, and Sasami blushed.  "I'll get it."
   The young girl went off to the kitchen to retrieve some more soup, only to come back a minute later empty-handed.
   "Tenchi, I think something's been in the kitchen while we were eating."
   "Really? What's wrong?"
   "There's... umm..." Sasami trailed off.
   "Well, whatever it is, I'll take care of it." Nobuyuke chimed in.  He got up and was in the doorway to the kitchen when he quickly stopped, his mouth open.
   "Gaaa!  Blood!  What's THAT doing there?" He cried out.  Everybody was up and at the door then, staring at the drips that lined from one side of the kitchen to the other.
   "Oh, my goodness!." Mihoshi exclaimed.
   "What in the world is going on?" Tenchi asked, looking at the rest of them.  They all wore the same expression he had, so he looked back at the kitchen, trying to find the source of this new... development.
   "I think," a voice behind them drawled.  Six heads spun back to eye the source of the voice.
   "That would be me."

[For Washuu]

(Time for a new character!)

5: Stowaway to the Tree Planet


   Shayne.  His name is Shayne.
   'W- what am I doing?'
   Lying on a warm stone.  He bolted upright only to clutch his head.
   'Oh, God, that hurts.  What happened?'
   His vision was too hazy to discern much clearly, but he noticed a shaded area of his vision.
   'Looks like shade, and... a tree?  Good, I'm gettin' over there.'  Shayne rose and stumbled toward the darker area only to trip over a high, sharp curb and fall flat on his face.  He cursed aloud.
   'God, I hate this!'  Again, he rose and made his way toward the nearby tree.  Unfortunatly , his blurry eyesight didn't see the branch stretched out right in line with his nose until it was two inches away.
   "Holy-!"  Shayne dropped, and the branch missed, flipping his hat off.
   Shayne stared at where he though the branch must be before putting his back to the tree.  His eyesight gradually cleared, as did his very befuddled mind.
   He took a deep breath and looked over at his fallen hat.
   "Huh.  Cardinals."  He grinned and chuckled.  "Well, at least there's something good in this world."  He looked down at himself.
   "Yeah, so I'm clothed.  Body is... okay."  He jammed the hat back on his head and looked around.
   "This place... does NOT look familiar at all."

//-//-//

  Cedar Vale Christian School.
   'Hey, that's that one brat's truck, isn't it?  Yeah that's him gettin' in...'
  After the third bell.
   'He always seems to have something weird going on, like he's special or something.'
  Red truck.
   'Always thinking.  Always listening to that crappy old MP3 player.'
  Going to the red Ranger with his backpack.
   'Does that kid do anything but think and doodle and write?  Wait.  Why would he have his backpack with him?'
  Getting in his red truck.  And starting it.  Shayne cursed.
   "He's leavin' early!  That little-"  'He must be up to something weird'
  The red truck moved back toward Shayne, and he jumped-litterally-at the chance.
  Before Elliot had even shifted back into first to leave, his classmate had stowed away in his truck bed.

//-//-//

   "Hey!" Shayne jerked awake, still bathed in the friendly shade of the tree.  'I was asleep? Weird.'
   "What's with you?"  Shayne looked up at the voice.
   Before him stood a young boy maybe ten years of age, blond, dressed like nobody he had ever seen before in his life, and carrying an oddly warped staff.  Shayne spoke his mind.
   "Kid, I'll be honest. I have never seen anyone looking quite as weird as you are right now."
   "Yeah?  Well, you're wearing pretty odd clothes yourself, you know."
   "Hey! Who are you to call a good old T-shirt 'odd'?" the indignant Shayne retorted.  The boy's staff leveled between Shayne's eyes.
   "I'll have you know I'm a lot older than I look, you know."
   Shayne looked at the boy suspiciously, leaned back, and... batted the staff away.  He stood and began to walk away.
   "Kid, you're no more than eleven years old, and I don't care what I look like, 'cause you look- YEAAAOUCH!" He fell.  And swore.
   "What was THAT for?!?"  Shayne yelled up at the boy standing over him, staff extended.
   "I'm not joking!  I've been state-frozen for milennia (do to familial disputes), so I'm really quite a bit your elder!"
   Shayne shook his head and turned to the boy.  "Kid, that doesn't even make sense!  Even if you were... whatever, for the past however-many years, you weren't doing anything, were you?  So you're no smarter than you were before."
   The (sort of) younger boy stopped short and thought.
   "Ohhh...  I guess.  You're right?"
   Shayne got back to his feet and stared at the confounded boy for a minute before turning and gazing at the city they were in.  Now that he had a minute to stare at its tilted architecture and towers and many, MANY trees it seemed that-
   "Hey." A hand tapped him on the shoulder.  Shayne turned back to the younger boy and was forced into a handshake.
   "Mikumo"
   "Uh, yeah.  Mikumo.  I'm Shayne."
   "Shayne?!  Oh, you do have a silly name!"  the boy giggled and lightly knocked the older boy in the head with his staff.
   "Hey, Shayne!"
   "What." Came the exasperated reply.
   "Why don't you come over to my house for the day?  I haven't had friends over in a while, and we could have all sorts of fun!"
   This wasn't new to Shayne.  He had been a favorite of the young, a bane to the old, and cursed by his peers for as long as he could remember.
   'Oh, why not?' He thought to himself wearily and shrugged.
   "Come on, let's go!" The all-too-enthusiastic Mikumo spouted.
   Unfortunately, Shayne hadn't taken been pulled more than two steps by the young boy before collapsing, asleep, on the grass.

//-//-//

  Riding.
  Riding, stowed away.
  In a red truck.
  And it hits the gravel.
   'what the-?  Why's the sky gotten so dark all the sudden?' Shayne wondered.  He carefully raised his head over the side of the truck bed.  And then he bolted up right.
  Light.
   'That...'
  Light, over the hill.
   '...is so...'
  They sky grew dark, and the engine hummed, and it was time.
  Shayne swore, and swore, and swore.  He nearly stood and lashed out obscenities like the wind lashed back at his face.  Because he had absolutely no clue what was going on.
   'Oh, Christ!  I knew that guy was up to something!'
  And under the dark sky, a bright light, and within the light, a darkness, and within that darkness...
   'I'm dead.  I'm so dead.  I'm not even an adult, and some screwed-up supernatural experience is going to send me straight to Hell.  I am so DEAD!'
   "Why did I get out of bed today?!?"  Shayne screamed into the wind as it pulled at him, trying to tip him off his feet.
  The different lights shimmered and pulsed, blasting away everything in sight.
   'Th- the light... is...'

//-//-//

   "Oh, GOD!" Shayne swore, bolting upright.  On a bed.  In a house.
   "Eh?  What's that?" Mikumo retorted, a hand on his ear. He sat by a low table, cross-legged, with his staff across his lap.
   "I- Was I dreaming?"
   Mikumo Smacked himself in the forehead.  "Well, DUH!  How else would you become fearful in your sleep?  Amnesia?"
   "Uh, amnesia! Right." The older boy fibbed. "That's why everything seemes so familiar."  He grinned at Mikumo.  Who glared back.
   "Hey, you were frozen or something for- however long it was.  What's so weird about me losing a little bit of memory?"
   The younger boy tapped the table with his staff and looked the other way.
   "Ah, okay.  You win." Mikumo conceded.
   Shayned sighed and relaxed. 'God, this is weird.'
   He rose from the bed carefully, recalling what had happened the last time he got up too quickly.
   "Hey, how did you get me back h-"
   "Well, then!  How about you come visit Lady Seto at the palace with me tomorrow?" Mikumo cut Shayne off.
   "Seto?" he replied with surprise.  The name sounded familiar.
   "...That's an interesting name."
   "You're not nervous?" Mikumo asked with concern.
   "Hey, for all I know I'm dead or having a really screwed-up dream right now, so I'm not too worried about anything but getting rid of this headache." Shayne retorted snobbishly.  "Oh, Chri-" He clutched his head and ducked as another wave of 'ouch' hit his head.
   "Well, I hope that attitude changes soon, stranger." Mikumo warned.
   Shayne looked up at the boy.  "Yeah, why's that?"
   "Because if you keep up that attitude around me, Lady Seto will doubtless become quite interested in you."

[For Washuu]

6: Contact

   It's a weird feeling when a person realizes that they have no clue what to say.  It's an even weirder feeling when they happen to be surrounded by other people who haven't the slightest idea what to say.  And they're all stuttering and gaping at one thing.
   A thing such as a boy in his later teens his left arm laid in a cast, his whole right leg braced in steel and pivoted at the knee.
   A thing with a black eye.  Or two.
   A thing that looks like he got in a jousting match with a tree and lost.  Badly.
   A thing with a blatant gash running down the whole length of his right arm, and what might be described as a dent rendered in his right shoulder.
   A thing that had just unknowingly dripped blood from one end of the Masaki's kitchen to the other, and who was now leaning against the open door across the dining area.  None of the others had even heard or noticed when he slid the door open; they were too perplexed over the sudden appearance of BLOOD in the kitchen.
   That was until he spoke.  His croaking words had pulled their attention away from that ghastly sight and straight onto another: himself.
   "What the-" Nobuyuke began to exclaim, but Ryoko was ahead of him.
   "Hey, who are you?" She demanded of the boy. "And what makes you think you can just come in and start bleeding all over the place, anyways?" The pirate advanced on the boy, but Tenchi held her back.
   "You're one to be talking, Ryoko." The bleeding teen shot back at her.
   "You've made a great imposition on us, whoever you are, so why don't you just-" Ayeka cut her sentence short.
   "W-What did you just say?" Tenchi, Ryoko and Ayeka asked simultaneously.
   "Oh, nothing important." The boy replied, brushing the question of names off.  "Y'know, I was hoping that a home like this one would have a bit more hospitality for someone in this... condition" He gestured to his various injuries.
   An awkward moment passed as the various members of the Masaki home stared at their intruder and murmured back and forth to each other, trying to decide what to do about this development.  The said person just leaned against the sliding glass door and sighed.
   Sasami hadn't bothered to talk with the others.  She left the group and approached the boy, much to the surprise of the rest of the group.  He was taken aback when Sasami suddenly grabbed his good hand and pulled him over to the low table and made him sit in her place at the table.  She then picked up the miso bowl and rushed off to the kitchen to fill it again.  The others parted and watched as she passed.
   "Hmm.  She doesn't seem to mind blood being there anymore."  Ryoko noted.
   "Still," Ayeka added, and she glared at the boy, drawing the gaze of everyone else to him as well.  The boy blanched and grinned nervously at them.
   "Uh, hi, ther-" his voice cracked and he coughed. "Hi there. Oh, and I didn't mean to... you know.  On the kitchen."
   Five faces still looked at him apprehensively.  He stared back at the table.
   "Aww, great.  I've gotten everybody mad at me." He paused. "Now what?"
   "Rest!" Sasami's voice carried from the kitchen.  "You're hurt and you shouldn't be standing around," She continued, and then poked her head around the kitchen door.  "So just rest there until Washu can come and take a look at you!"  She ducked back into the kitchen.
   The boy chuckled and shook his head.  "Trust Sasami to be the most level-headed of you all. Hah!"
   "Yeah, well that still doesn't tell us how you know our names." Ryoko warned the boy.
   "He does seem to know a lot about us." Nobuyuke agreed.
   "Um, I just-"
   "Just how much do you know about us, anyways?" Ayeka cut off the boy's apology.
   "Ayeka, Ryoko! Don't be so hard on him." Tenchi chided. "There's got to be some reason for... hm?"  He stopped when he noticed the stranger's finger pointed at him.
   "Tenchi Masaki,"
   "Uh, yes?"
   "Age seventeen." He continued.  "You recently blew up your high school with a lot of help from-" His finger strayed to Ryoko, "Ryoko Hakubi, notorious space pirate of the past five thousand years under Kagato's-.
   "Kagato's DEAD." Ryoko replied sternly.
   "Well.  It's good to know when I am." The boy replied with an oversized grin.  "Anyways, you were recently released from Yosho's seal by Tenchi and have spent most of the time since then bickering with a certain crown princess of Jurai." His finger now pointed at an aghast Ayeka.
   "Ayeka Masaki Jurai. Who is currently re-growing her spaceship, Ryo-oh."
   Sasami returned from the kitchen with a cup of steaming tea and set it down in front of their mysterious guest.
   "Ayeka, I don't understand it, what's going on?" Mihoshi whispered.
   "And this," Elliot said, placing his hand on Sasami's head, "Is her younger sister, Sasami.  The only person in the house who can cook, except possibly Tenchi's father." Again his finger moved, now to "Nobuyuke."
   There was a stunned silence as the strange boy took a drink.
   "Well, now. That's what I call a good cup of t-"
   "Heeeeeyyy!" His compliment was over-ridden by a certain blond.
   "Oh, yes!  That's right." Elliot joked, grinning again.  "Mihoshi Kuramistu," He tilted his head and looked at the tall character.  "First-class detective with the GP,"
   "Yes, that's me!" Mihoshi added happily.
   "...and the resident genius ditz in this house." The boy added through another drink of tea.
   The silence continued, further agitating the boy.
   "Oh, come on!  As if there's nothing any of you have to say?  Normally you guys can't stop!"
   "Well then," Tenchi stepped forward and extended a hand to his visitor. "Welcome to the Masaki house!" They shook hands awkwardly.
   "Yeah, and by the way, why DO you know so much about us?" Tenchi added more quietly.
   "What do you mean?" the boy retorted. "I'm just an ordinary seventeen-year-old high school student like you, Tenchi!"  Elliot instantly burst out laughing. "Oh, MAN, that's a good one! I can't believ- OW! Oh, ooch- my... Arrrh, that hurts."  Some blood began to drip onto the carpet and the boy clutched his gashed arm.
   "Oh, not again!" Sasami complained.  "Where's Washu?"
   "Yeah, get the redhead in here," Elliot added. "I've got a score to settle with-"
   Just then the door opposite of the table opened and Washu emerged.  She had an almost confused expression as she closed the door.
   "I don't get it," Washu commented. "He was just there, Tenchi, and then- HEY!"
   "Looking for me, Little Washu?" The stranger quipped and smirked.
   "Hey! Ah- you're here!" She stuttered back.
   Ryoko wss indignant.   "What?! Your telling me that this kid is what's had you cooped up so secretly for the past week?"
   "Hush, Ryoko.  And, Elliot- you're coming with me."  Washu commanded and pulled Elliot up from where he was sitting.
   "Wait, how do you know my name?" The boy asked as Washu began dragging him back toward her massive laboratory.
   "THAT'S WHAT WE'D LIKE TO KNOW!" Several voices shot back.
   Washu stopped and turned to the stranger of the house.  "Well, Elliot?  Why not tell them how?  I think they can take it."
   An uncaring expression came to the boy's face.  "Alright, then.  I'm dreaming"
   Washu smacked her forehead. "Aww, that idiot!"
   "And if I'm dreaming, I should be able to breathe even if my nose is plugged."  He pinched his nose and jerked as failed to draw breath.  "Wait, I-"
   With a thud, he hit the floor, unconscious.
   At that point, everyone's voice could be heard, commenting left and right, as Washu hoisted the unconscious boy up under the arms and kicked open the door to her lab.
   "Everybody, I'm-  just... SHUT UP, will you?!"
   They did.
   "I don't know how long he's going to be out," She continued, "but for NOW you're going to have to wait for the answers to your questions, ALRIGHT?"
   Six heads nodded.
   "Good!" And the scientist dragged Elliot through the door and slammed it behind her.

   "I knew I should have strapped him to the operation table..." Washu grumbled as she returned to her console.