Benni Chaser's Story

Chapter One

The room had no walls. No ceiling could be seen either, but perhaps it existed above the floating darkness. A pink fog rests near the ground, at least, where the ground should be. Simple movements send swirls through the wisps, shapes created and destroyed every second. Silence settles over four bodies, all collapsed and unconscious.

It is an in-between, the place before the start. The prologue.

The fog slowly turns blue, then a deep turquoise. Seven seconds pass, and the bodies stir.

Consciousness returns.

"Oh god, what happened to my head?" Molly sits up feeling a huge headache coming on. She looks all around her and sees beautiful turquoise fog. "Oooooo YAY! This is such a picture perfect moment! Pun intended!" She screams with delight even though she has a headache. She takes out her camera and starts snapping it every five seconds continuously shouting "Whoa look at that!" She hadn't even noticed the others.

Ardie woke after the screaming.

Groggily, he looked around, eyes squinting. He couldn't see anything, just a melting of various different colors. Especially a dark blue-green.

Turquoise was his first thought. Where are my glasses? was the second.

Hands crawling about blindly, his fingers finally found the familiar thick frames, and he propped them onto his nose, tucking the legs behind his ears. Blinking, the world became much, much clearer. Surprisingly, the turquoise was actually from a strange fog. Wasn't there a phenomenon for this? Maybe it was a strange mutation of Aurora Borealis? And who was that girl with the camera? And who were these other people? Were they dead???

He saw one breathe, and he himself breathed from relief. Nope. Just sleeping. His attention switched back to where they were. Which...he didn't know. At all. The most he knew was that he was most likely not in Manhattan.

So what happened?!?

Asher stirred. "Ungh... My head..." Asher groaned and held his head as he got up from the ground. "Where am I...?" He looked around, and saw he wasn't in the Do Jang (another term for Do Jo in Korean) anymore. He looked around, and he saw many more bodies on the ground. Wha...? Asher thought. Are they dead?

"Whoa look at that!" A shout of excitement was heard. Asher turned around and saw multiple flashes. He sees a girl in-between the flashes and decides to go walk up to her, since she was probably the only one conscious. "Um... Excuse me?" Asher asked, tapping her on the shoulder with one hand while shielding his eyes with the other.

"Um... Excuse me?" Molly heard someone say something behind her and felt a tap on her shoulder. "Ahhhhh!" She jumped in fear and confusion turning around quickly and pressing the flash button trying to blind her antagonist. Much to her surprise when she stopped pressing the button she saw a normal person not some crazy ax murderer. "Oh, hehehe, SORRY! I thought you were going to chop me up, and then put me in a pot, boil me at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and then feed me to your cat. By the way I made some awesome soup like that once. Only I didn't feed it to my cat because I don't have one and I chopped up carrots and chicken not myself. I am not a cannibal! Although I have always wondered what humans taste like..." She helps him up finally realizing in the time she was trying to blind him he had fell to the ground. "So, did you have a question for me? My name is Molly, just for future reference. Reference..." Molly takes a long pause and then says, "...that's a weird word." She smiles widely staring at her new nameless friend.

Benni's head was throbbing, and someone, somewhere, was talking way too loud and way too fast. It was like taking an order for a mother with six kids, and if she didn't spew out what everyone wanted in the next five seconds, the Earth would implode.

Finally, accepting that she had to get up, she slowly opened her eyes. She was immediately met with fog. Blue fog. Sitting up quickly, she ran a hand through her hair, and easily spotted the source of the fast paced squealing.

A bubbly red head, with a camera in hand, was speaking with a white haired teen. Although, he looked as confused as Benni felt annoyed. Mainly about being woken up from her nap, and then to find herself in this awkward space. Although, she was sure that wasn't the red head's fault.

Finally, she pushed herself to her feet, and brushed invisible dust from her jeans. She spotted another figure, looking confused, as he glanced around the space, trying to make heads or tails of the situation. He was probably the best bet to get answers. Speaking to the red head wasn't going to help her headache, and the white haired kid seemed trapped. He was on his own now.

Stepping over to the kid with glasses, Benni bent down to his position still on the floor. "Do you know what's going on here?"

The turquoise smoke sensed them, the bodies, the foreign objects disturbing its dance. Many instructions needed to be followed. Kept. Order meant balance. Circling the bodies, the smoke cleared from the center of the room and rose up in a cylinder around them. Their confusion fueled it on, emotions being a delectable source of energy.

Closing in around them, the turquoise darkened, light fading. Their fear charged its anger.

Ardie looked up at the girl, confused. She was asking him what they were doing here? What made her think he knew? Was it the glasses? A lot of people tended to ask him things just because he wore glasses...

"I don't know," he said, "I bet no one knows." Suddenly his face brightened, "Hey! What if we're in a video game? Like, we're at the start menu, and the game is about to start. What if we were all already part of the game, but no one turned on the TV yet, and now they have so we're jolted here and they're playing as us already. I mean, it wouldn't be impossible....just...highly improbable....."

"Yeah... I have a question... Do you know where we are?" Molly looked around and saw the two others. "No! But its so cool here right? I got some cool pictures!" She walked over the others motioning to the guy to follow her. She heard the boy taking about video games and got excited again. "Oooo! I love video games! That would be awesome!"

Ardie withdrew immediately from the combined positive and negative responses he received to his suggestion. Besides, the programming argument made a lot of sense.

He muttered something inaudible and picked at his shoelaces. The next question confused him as he didn't know if it was directed at him or not. Maybe he should wait to see if anyone would answer. Or maybe he should just answer?

"I'm Butowski," he blurted out finally, "Gerard Butowski. But everyone calls me Ardie. Well, at least my parents do...and my family and...well, not all of them, but....uh...I don't know where we are."

"Butowski... Butowski and Gerard. Ardie? Hehe funny. My name is Molly! My favorite color is purple... soooo what do you guys wanna do? I know this really fun game we can pl..." Molly stopped talking as she saw the fog growing bigger and bigger. She got out her camera took a quick picture of all her new friends and then started shooting the fog. "Look you guys! It is getting bigger..." Her eyes widened as it got big enough to be completely surrounding her and the air became hard to see through. "Guys?! Where did ya go?"

Asher sighed again. "My name is Asher. Nice to meet you." He was closing his eyes to shake off Molly's comment about his name and held out his hand. When he held out a hand for a hand shake, he opened his eyes, only to shake the fog. "What the...?" He looked around. "Guys?!" Well crap... Now I'm alone... In an unknown place... Not good at all... Asher thought. "Guys...?" Asher called out again. He didn't dare move in fear of getting lost.

"I'm Butowski, Gerard Butowski. But everyone calls me Ardie. Well, at least my parents do...and my family and...well, not all of them, but....uh...I don't know where we are."

Benni stared at the bumbling nerd, still caught on the fact that his last name was Butowski. "Wait, you're seriously saying that you're last name is Butowski. Like, in all seriousness?"

He didn't have time to respond, when the red head introduced herself as Molly, and the white haired youth as Asher. "I'm Benni." She quickly chimed, but her words quickly trailed away as she noticed the spinning fog. Fear of the unknown grabbed a hold of her heart, but she hid it well.

She was snapped back to reality when she heard Molly calling out, wondering where everyone had gone. Then Asher as well. Benni noticed that they had disappeared, and even though she didn't know them, she was still afraid for them. They didn't know what this fog was, and now two of them had gone missing, although their voices were still clearly audible.

"Well, Kick-Butowski..." She began, but trailed off when she noticed that he wasn't sitting by her anymore. "Well, shit..."

Molly looked around still seeing nothing but the turquoise air, she stiffed a little and her eyes widened again smelling nothing but blood, or was it honey? No it was whipped cream... She heard Asher calling and Bennie introduced herself, but Molly was to scared to talk, she was to scared to move. She felt like any move she made would make the ground drop from beneath her and she would be swallowed into a deep turquoise abyss. However instead of doing nothing and being a huge wimp like her mother always called her she would prove her wrong, she would prove both her parents wrong. She wasn't worthless or good for nothing, she was unique, she was important in her own special way. Her parents didn't rule her life anymore. She could be her own person, so with that in mind, she said, "Hey guys I'm going to go explore." and she took a step forward.

She wasn't falling, or floating, or dying. The fog was actually beginning to clear. "Hey, guys I started walking forward and I can start to see now!" Getting excited to see again she took another step, and then another, and another. By the time she stopped walking she could see completely again. She noticed her neon green and white leggings had turned neon green and turquoise, maybe the fog was absorbed a little. She didn't care it looked pretty cool. She quickly turned towards the fog again wanting her hair and tongue to turn turquoise. She stuck her tongue out and waved her hair around but nothing happened. Oh well... Hey, whats over there?!

She turned around again seeing she was in what looked like a forest. It wasn't any normal forest though. The trees were all in knots. Molly, thinking this was the coolest thing she had ever seen, ran over to a tree and took at least one hundred pictures in all of ten seconds. Pleased with her pictures, for now, she climbed the tree and sat on the big knotted part.

She felt something fall on her head, or was it thrown at her head? She looked up to see a squirrel looking at her quite rudely holding acorns and throwing them down at her. "Hey! Stop that squirrel! What did I ever do to you? Don't waste your acorns! Aren't those things hard to find anyway?" She stopped talking as it motioned her to follow it higher into the tree, she did and when she got to where it was she saw a huge stash of acorns. Well assuming now that it had enough to waste she quickly jumped down from the tree not wanting to get them thrown at her an longer. She sat on the ground sighing. "Well, a squirrel threw acorns at me and kicked me out of a tree and now I am sitting on the ground, how are you guys doing?!" Molly knew they probably wouldn't believe her and just think she was completely insane, but it was true!

"Ardie," he laughed, shaking his hand. "Grass does die. Very easily. Don't be so foolish. And of course the squirrels don't like Molly. Look at her hair? It's much too ostentatious for their fashion styles."

The next questions he enjoyed and poked Ardie right on the nose. "Very good, Not Apple. You are in a place you've obviously never been before and therefore that should have been your first question." He thought a moment. "Which I believe it was. Congratulations, now!" Clapping his hands together, he dove back into the turquoise fog, immediately finding another young lady and another young man. By then it was easy, the smoke thinning. He wondered how they would get home, where they came from, but none of that matter now.

Pulling the other two with the rest of the group, he positioned them all in a line. He analyzed them quickly. "Quite the bunch of bananas you are." Chuckling, he tapped all their heads and faced the two new faces. "Now what are your names? Asparagus and Bungee cord?" He pointed at them both.

"...of course the squirrels don't like Molly. Look at her hair? It's much too ostentatious for their fashion styles." "They don't like my hair? Aww, I was trying to make it turquoise before with the fog because it made my leggings turquoise, but it didn't work." She tried to look up at her head not realizing it was physically impossible, instead she just pulled it out of her messy pony-tail and took out a brush from her camera bag, she had almost anything in that bag. Hopefully the squirrels will like it more if it is brushed.

The man went back over to the fog and pulled out Asher and Bennie, Molly was very excited to see them all again. "Hi guys! Look, my hair is brushed!" The man put everyone in a line and Molly was standing on the side next to Bennie. "Quite the bunch of bananas you are." "Bananas? We're bananas? Well, now that explains everything. No wonder I was feeling so yellow before. Now I feel green but before I was definitely yellow."

Molly laughed at the names the man called Bennie and Asher. "Hahah, i'm gonna call you guys that now!" Molly started bouncing up and down excited about there new names. "Hey, can I get a cool name too?!"

"But your name is cool," he laughed. "Molly Taylor. Like a superhero. The best kind of hero in fact."

He faced the other two, who were probably ignoring him or still had travelling sickness. This concerned him. "You aren't sick are you? You can't be sick. We have too much to do."

Again he clapped his hands. He rather liked the idea of becoming the 'clapping hands' guy. "Ignoring the squirrels for a moment, I suggest we leave the forest. If I'm not mistaken, your foggy cloudy smoke was protecting you four from danger. And now, that protection is gone leaving you vulnerable and weak. Very weak," he added, glancing over them all again.

"Follow me!" he announced, starting back the way he came.

Asher heard the voices and followed them, until he had been pulled into a group with the other three from before. He had heard the newcomer's words, and was very suspicious about how he knew the group's names-or at least something close to them. As he heard himself being called Asparagus, Asher raised an eyebrow. "Now I am some kind of vegetable disliked by most children?" He asked. Numerous times had Asher's name been associated with an object. The first thing that came to mind was the word "ashes". His friends called Asher that for about 10 times, then gave up because the nickname didn't-and could never- stick. The second name was "Ash", the protagonist of Pokemon. The name stuck around for longer. But now I'm a vegetable? Asher thought.

Then, the stranger said "You aren't sick, are you? You can't be sick. We have much to do." Asher was confused. Sick from what? The cloud? As if on cue, the stranger said "Ignoring the squirrels for a moment, I suggest we leave the forest. If I'm not mistaken, your foggy cloudy smoke was protecting you four from danger. And now, that protection is gone leaving you vulnerable and weak. Very weak. Follow me!" The stranger began to walk in a certain direction.

Asher was the first to answer. "Protecting us from what? And no, I am not sick." He said as he walked with the stranger, still suspicious. "And my third, and my last, question is where are we going?"

Molly smiles as the strange ma says her name is cool. "Why thank you! It would be so much fun to be a super hero! I'd want to be able to turn any food into cake. Then i'd always have cake!" She follows along as the man leads them off somewhere. "So, what is your name? Are you a super hero?!"

They had questions, listing them off seemingly at once and he couldn't handle it. Not with the town in the state that it was. And in the middle of the day too.

Straightening his collar, he turned about sharply. "I have bad news. We're being watched." Of course they looked, and he waved his arm. "No! No, no, don't look. We need to...need to...hide. Like hide and seek, though...I've never played. You'll teach me sometime," he added, looking at Ardie knowingly. "Until then, I must bid you ado. And beg of you to run. The Emperor is looking for you. All of us anyway. So with that..."

And he vanished.

-.-.-

Pleasant's days saw no awake bodies, most efficient work accomplished during the night, naturally. So to see two squads of men marching down the main street toward the Knotted Forest was a sight. Not that anyone saw. Everyone's eyelids remained quite shut. No one in Pleasant is a light sleeper.

It didn't take long to spot them, the aliens, the ones that came from the turquoise smoke. Prophecy knew of them, spoke of them, cackled and writhed with fear and anxiety. One command was given and the men charged with spears at the ready.

The four Earthlings has little choice.