Nicolette was floating the Grasslands looking for a place to sleep for the day, it was already mid-morning and she was getting tired. She came across a small little shack. "Oh this'll work, no one will notice if I borrow a dump like this for the day." She thought as she mad her way down to the door and went to open it. But it was locked, "Weird, who'd lock up a dump like this?" She thought as she grabbed a hair pin from her hair and proceeded to pick the lock and get in, in no time at all. When she opened the door she was surprised by a spiral staircase that led deep underground, upon reaching the bottom she was welcomed by a foyer indicating the true entrance to the house.

She walked around the house finding it to contain two bedrooms, a study, a library, kitchen, a living room and a rather empty treasure room. The house was well furnished however, in fact there was a very large couch and a few chairs in the living room. "The only thing this living room is missing is a pinball machine." she thought and then she remembered she had one. She reached into her small purse and pulled out a pinball machine the size of her palm and set it on the ground. She then uttered a quick little spell and it grew in size reaching it's normal size in a few seconds. "That's better." She said with a yawn. "Guess I should probably get some sleep." She said to herself. She made her way to the smaller of the two bedroom but stopped by the treasure room on the way. There wasn't much in there, she assumed whomever owned this place spent a large sum of their treasure on the furnishings and construction of this shack. A small ornate jewelry box on the top shelf in the room caught her attention. She opened it up and saw a gold locket. She opened it up and saw a picture of a young woman, human, and her child. When Nicolette looked closer she was overcome with a mixture of sorrow and nostalgia. She recognized the woman, she was the granddaughter of an old friend of hers. "I haven't seen you in almost fifty years. And now you've grown up and had a kid of your own." She whispered to the locket before setting down on the shelf next to the jewelry box. She proceeded to the bed room and lay on the bed. Within minutes she was asleep.


While she slept, she dreamed.

She was talking with her sister. "Marcy we gotta go, Dad is calling us back to the Nightosphere." She said. "But we both know why he's calling us home and I don't wanna hear it. I'm staying here." Her sister replied. They argued back and forth for a few minutes and eventually Nicolette convinced her sister to accompany her.

They arrived in the Nightosphere and their father welcomed them. He told Marceline that she would accept the amulet and he was to retire. She argued with him and Nicolette just sat there, until Marceline suggested she lead, which their father very quickly responded with "Her? No, she can't do this job, you were the one I groomed for it Marceline and you'll do as I say." Before Nicolette could thinks he had transformed into her wolf form and attacked her father for his rude words. Violence was not uncommon in their family, but it was never bad enough for any serious harm to any of them, but her father didn't fight back. When she came to her senses, Marceline was gone. She went to check on her father - .

Nicolette awoke with a jolt. "That damn dream again, ugh I need to go play some music." she said as she got up and made the bed. She made her way back to the living room where she found an empty corner. She placed a small paino on the floor and uttered the same spell as before. Seconds later there was a beautiful baby grand piano in the once empty corner. "That'll do nicely." She said. Focusing on keeping a smile on her face she began to play the piano. She played so long she didn't even notice the time when she got around to looking at a clock it was around 6 in the evening. "Well I suppose I should take a shower." she thought and made her way to the bathroom. She turned on the water and was in the shower for quite some time. Spending as much time simply enjoying the water as anything else.

x

Diesel

ACHOO!
With that sneeze a small flame erupted from the red and black demon’s nose. “Grah! I hate this why am I Prince of the Fire Kingdom, stuck at a man’s bakery and for what to be used as a stove!?” Diesel sighed sitting on the crate with his chin resting in the palm of his hand. A bored expression was all you needed to know of the situation at its current state. Luckily the crate hadn’t burned to a crisp because of Diesels high body temperature but he managed to lower it enough so he wouldn’t get into more trouble than he already was.

And as always Smiley just floated about making faces at the baker whenever he turned his back on the two. Then a gruff voice crashed through his thoughts and along came a stinging pain at the back of his head. “Ouch! What was that for old man?” the baker simply glared at his temporary employer and waved his hand over to the fire Diesel was in charge of maintaining.

The fire had gone down considerably and in a rather uncharacteristic action on Diesels part he jumped in worry making the fire go back to how it had been before; the flames were of a different color than would be considered normal. Even though it made the baker nervous Diesels dark fire actually made the bread rise faster and apparently it the products of it tasted better too.

Realizing what he had done, Diesel glared at the oncoming customers scaring a child away with his glare. This earned him another whack to the head “stop trying to scare away my customer’s boy! You’re just making your sentence longer” he said with a smirk on his face and then turned back to kneading the dough. “No need to hit every time though stupid old man” muttering but then flinched expecting another blow to the head. Thankfully the old man’s ears weren’t very good as he didn’t hear a thing Diesel had said. Smiley then began to laugh manically which sent shivers down the baker’s spine but Diesel just smiled at the reaction and in turn got himself the whack he deserved not too long ago.

Smiley snickered at this as it was his intention to make life harder for his friend even if it meant said friend would get back at him. Diesel glared at Smiley but went back to maintain the fire eventually another customer came around this time it was a small family. One of the children fixated its attention on trying to grab Smiley much to his dismay. The two ran about in circles leaving the child tired and ready to cry if it weren’t for their sweet bread to have finished. While Smiley simply panted a black tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, “you have a tongue!? But you don’t even eat food so what the hell are you gonna taste you stupid fire ball?” Smiley simply stuck his tongue at Diesel and went back to making funny faces.

---

Finally after a few more hours of doing absolutely nothing the baker let Diesel go and gave him a bag of sweet bread as payment. Without a second glance from the young demon, Diesel went on his merry way and decided to cause some last minute mischief before he left the town. The two shared a cheeky smile and Diesel formed a small ball of dark fire in his palm and threw it at the bakers butt. Soon enough the baker was running around trying to put out the fire but failing too until finally all that was left was his baker’s hat which he used to hide everything else.

Blushing a bright tomato red the baker ran back inside yelling at Diesel to get lost and that he’ll pay for what he did. Of course Diesel thought nothing of it but instead went back to eating his sweet bread. After some time had passed Diesel across a large expanse of land with nothing but grass, forests and a few lakes, the two companions grinned at one another and began to run. Diesel laughed like one would expect from an evil person but to say Diesel was downright evil wasn’t even close to the truth. “MWHUAHAHAHA! Soon this land will all be mine Smiley just you wait, everyone back home will be jealous once they find out I, Diesel ruled the grasslands!” without realizing it Diesel had created a wall of flame to surround him making emphasis on his declaration and no doubt alerting those nearby of his presence.

And because of that wall of flame Smiley caught fire and began to run (if you could call it that) about yelling at the top of his lungs (does he have any?) Diesel ran after him trying to catch his poor companion until finally he managed to do so. Giant tear drops fell from Smileys eyes but he was still on fire and so Diesel ate his companion. But no worries about Smiley, Diesel soon spit him out the flames were put out with their makers spit. This made Diesel laugh again seeing Smiley all covered in spit, his own flaming body somewhat doused by the spit. The fire ball frowned but was still glad that he was no longer on fire.

There was a small boom as the shooting star streaked across the sky. As the small planet broke into Ooo's atmosphere, there was a stream of color through the sky. No one could see the small nymph riding on the cause of the catastrophe. She sat delicately on top of a small ringed planet flying down to the grounds of Ooo. The two landed without a sound in a field of grassy plains.

”Can you please remove your fat hams from the top of my head?” the small planet grumbled from underneath his mustache of small space rocks that made up his ring. Galexi payed him no mind, and began to fumble through her messenger bag. She pulled out a small notebook and began to jot down things she observed about this new and foreign world.

'It so far appears uninhabited, it smells sort of sweet and nature-y.'

”Galexi!” the planet grumbled. The white haired nymph rolled her dark eyes.

“Orion, you big whiner,” she sighed and hovered off of him.

”I don't get it,” he said moving his mustache in an irritated manner. ”You can fly on your own, why do you find the need to sit on me?”

Galexi ignored him and began to fly around taking small samples of the world around her and throwing them in her messenger bag. The sentient planet followed her, despite his displeasure with the situation. They traveled for quite sometime, then something amazing came into view.

There was a large pink city in the distance, the likes of which Galexi had never seen. She immediately began scribbling in her notebook. She did this everywhere she went, trying to learn as much as she could.

“Holy Macaroni!” Orion gasped. ”Is this where that sweet smell was coming from?” Orion was right, the smell was stronger now that this city was in view. Galexi floated above the wall, not even waiting for Orion to do the same. She knew by now that even if he acted like he hated being around her, he would follow her.

Curiously she broke a chunk of the wall off and stuck it to her tongue. This strange, brightly colored world was made of candy. She took the remaining part of the candy piece and stuck it in her messenger bag.

”Ewww” complained her planet friend. “You put your mouth on that... wierdo.” Galexi only rolled her eyes. It was about that time that a small gumdrop child crossed her path.

”Look at that Ori!” the nymph happily squealed. ”That candy can walk! Do you think they're sentient?” She straightened her purple hat and looked at the small gumdrop wearing a bow.

”Hello! We come from the sky!” she said things slowly and precisely so the candy could understand her. It made a small startled noise and took off through the Candy Kingdom. It took Lexi and Orion almost no time to catch up to the small child.

”I have so many question! I'm going to take you back to my bag...for science!” She snagged the little girl up and thew in the messenger bag without a second though.

“Hey! What do you think you are doing!” someone yelled. Lexi looked up to see two larger pieces of candy wearing armor.

“Now you've done it.” Galexi didn't say another word but quickly jumped on Orion's head and let him fly her off into the distance. It didn't take long before the guards were out of sight.

”Thank goodness for that!” Galexi sighed. “Let's find somewhere to park the old backpack for the night huh?” They flew for a while before they saw a nice brown tree outside of a sweet looking colorful barn. It looked pretty abandoned.

”Perfect,” She hung it in one of the higher branches. “Let's try and catch some sleep eh?” she picked Orion up and slid inside the bag.

It was way roomier on the inside than it looked from the outside. On the outside it was just a shoulder bag, on the inside it was a nice one roomed apartment. Galexi collapsed on her bed exhausted, unaware of the guards that were nearing the barn.

---

---

Jo-Jo woke as he usually did; with the sun. He yawned and stretched; his customary greeting to the morning. He smiled dully as he slid out of bed, his feet finding warm slippers. Normally, Jo-Jo would have ignored the slippers altogether, but one does not simply ignore the cold of wooden floorboards on his feet. Most especially if one lives underground. Yes, Jo-Jo was quite pleased with his new house, or so he thought to himself as he slipped on his bathrobe over his pajamas. The only thing he really didn't like was how cold the floors were in the morning. Otherwise it was perfect, his rooms were all completely furnished, though they lacked the cozy feeling of his old place. Jo-Jo suspected that it was because the house was new, therefore nothing had settled in quite right just yet. Jo-Jo padded through his house, making his way to the kitchen. Though the floors were cold, his central air system spewed warm air, heated by geothermal vents in the ground. Jo-Jo found the effect quite comfortable. Soon it would be just the right temperature and Jo-Jo could turn off the heat and enjoy the ambience of his new home. At least, that would do for lesser adventurers. Jo-Jo took two eggs, a potato, cheese, and an onion from his cellar and brought his supplies to the kitchen. There wasn't any meat in the house, or Jo-Jo would have loved to eat some ham with his breakfast, but that could get worked on later. Instead, Jo-Jo cracked the eggs into a large mixing bowl and began stirring them with a spoon. When the yolks and the whites were completely mixed, Jo-Jo sliced up the onion and potato and tossed them into the bowl as well. He grated some cheese next and put the mixture into a casserole dish. He then set it to bake while he put away his other supplies and clean up the mess he'd made. By the time he was done, his breakfast was finished and he slipped on an ovenmitt before opening his stove and removing the casserole. His egg bake was perfect. Jo-Jo brought his breakfast over to the counter and set his casserole down on a hot pad, so as to not damage the new marble counter tops. Jo-Jo smiled as he ate his breakfast, looking around at the kitchen. His stove, toaster, and cellar/freezer door were all stainless steel. His cabinets and other shelves were a fantastic dark wood. He believed it was called Mahoghany. His floors were a cream colored tile, and his marble counter tops sat on the same Mahoghany counters. The appliances surrounded a central island counter that held all his cooking utensils. The cabinets held all his silverware, and the general ambience was very cozy. The only room he liked better was his library. After cleaning up, Jo-Jo headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower before getting dressed in his usual garb for the day. He pulled on his gauntlet, his bracelet, his goggles and his back pack and headed out the door, making sure to lock the place up before he went his way. Though the entrance to his home appeared to be a dumpy old shack, it was actually a ruse. If people found out that the Falcon lived in the Grasslands, where anyone could come get him while he slept... well, Jo-Jo didn't like to think about it.

Jo-Jo made his way to the Candy Kingdom. He crossed the grasslands without incident, though he did notice the smoke of a small campfire, or so it seemed, Jo-Jo made a note to visit it later. There wasn't much time now. Jo-Jo had spent most of his treasure on his home, making a deal he wasn't the surest about with Tinrei, the Water Nymph. Jo-Jo liked the Nymph well enough, but he always felt just a little cheated whenever he left her place. Jo-Jo smiled as he made his way through the crowded streets of the Candy Kingdom. He didn't know why, but Jo-Jo always felt at home here. It was such a lively place, so bright and colorful. Soon enough, Jo-Jo had made his way to the Local quest board. Other adventurers were crowded around it as well, each considering the pros and cons of taking any of the quests. Jo-Jo smirked. "Alrighty Lightweights, move your hams!" Jo-Jo called out brazenly. He reached up with his gauntlet covered hand and took one of the harder quests. Something about Lub Glubs. Jo-Jo remembered he had something about them in his guidebook, but he'd have to read up about them when he got home, just to double check. As he took the piece of paper, some of the adventurers recognized him. They whispered to each other with bated breath. "It's him." Jo-Jo heard one say. "Jo-Jo the Falcon." Jo-Jo smirked his trademark smirk as he turned to the voice. It was a small candy child, he happened to be passing by with his mother. "Hey there little man." Jo-Jo said, as he walked over to the boy. He kneeled when he reached him. "What's your name champ?" Jo-Jo asked, a big smile on his face. "Gerald." The boy said shyly. Jo-Jo smiled, placing his gloved hand on top of his head and tousling his hair. "We'll Gerald, I'm sure you'll grow up to be an adventurer yourself one day, but you know what that means, right? It means you've got to eat all the food on your plate so you grow up big and strong. You've also gotta exercise lots too. It's a rough job, but if you really try, I promise you, there's nothing you can't do." Jo-Jo smiled as the little boy's eyes lit up. "Now run along champ, I'll bet your mommy's taking you somewhere important, yeah?" Jo-Jo said, and sent the boy back to his mother, who smiled at him and thanked him wordlessly. Jo-Jo nodded his head and smiled. He loved doing that. Little kids were the best, their eyes wide with wonder, their imaginations full to bursting. It was wonderful.

Jo-Jo left the quest board and started making his way back to the grasslands. He wanted to check on that fire and see what was up. After that, he'd probably head home and start reading up on Lub Glubs. Jo-Jo left the Candy kingdom with some hesitation. He always felt so sad when he was leaving. He didn't know why. There was something about the way that the Candy Palace seemed to look over him. It felt like it was begging him to stay. Jo-Jo turned and left, heading home. As he walked a ways, he looked at the quest paper he'd taken. It was rather simple really. Jo-Jo had to fight his way through Beautopia, watch out for whatever these Lub Glubs were, and relight the City's Heart with a flame. It'd be simple enough, once that heart was within 500 feet, Jo-Jo considered the Job done. As he came closer, roughly 100 yards or so from the fire, Jo-Jo stopped and climbed a tree. He then zoomed in with his goggles to see what was up. Jo-Jo almost wished he hadn't. Arcadia the Theif and Cantus Amator were the ones holding the party. Jo-Jo knew deep within his heart that they were up to no good, but Cantus was neutral. Unless he expressly saw Cantus doing something evil, Jo-Jo couldn't touch him. Arcadia, on the other hand, was another story. She was a known thief, and while Jo-Jo would have loved to shove her into the Candy Kingdom's prisons, he knew she'd be out again as soon as he turned around. Sighing, Jo-Jo instead took a minute to charge up his Gauntlet with icy and electrified energy and blasted the supercharged bolt up over the heads of Arcadia and Cantus, roughly 160 feet in the air. The result was a magnificent explosion that would put ordinary fireworks to shame. If Jo-Jo knew Cantus like he thought he did, Jo-Jo knew that he'd think twice about ripping someone off now. Not while Jo-Jo was watching. His warning sent, Jo-Jo hopped down from the tree and made his way back home.

Upon reaching the shack that served as his disguised entrance, Jo-Jo was shocked to find the door opened. He was one of, maybe, two people who knew about the place. Jo-Jo began charging a bolt with all three types of elemental energy. He didn't take kindly to intruders. Jo-Jo stepped gingerly inside and locked the door behind him. He threaded softly, his gauntlet held at face level. Jo-Jo didn't know who was here, but most inhabitants of Ooo didn't like it when you shot them between the eyes. Jo-Jo crept almost silently around the rooms of his house. He made his way through every room, finding a piano and a pinball machine that weren't there before. "I dunno who decided to move in, but I hope they know that breaking and entering is against the roommate agreement..." Jo-Jo quipped to himself. As he made his way through the house, he heard noises coming from the bathroom. Jo-Jo smirked. He was about to catch whoever was here with their pants down, quite literally. Jo-Jo waited for a second by the door. His back against the wall. He nodded to himself then pushed the door open, hard. "Hands in the air monkey-brain!" Jo-Jo yelled. "I dunno who you think you are but your hams are-" Jo-Jo cut himself off. Standing before him was a very pretty girl who was almost completely naked, besides of course, the towel wrapped around her body. "N-n-n-n-na-k-ked..." Jo-Jo stuttered. He slammed the door shut, himself back outside of the bathroom. Jo-Jo slapped himself on the face twice before starting up again. "Once you're d-d-decent, we'll have a chat, ok? Because this is my house." Jo-Jo stuttered and stumbled, bringing himself to the living room with much more difficulty than it used to take. His face was bright red.

Nicolette finished her shower and toweled herself off. When she was dry she looked around, "Crap." She muttered to herself realizing she had left her clothes in the guest bedroom. Even though she was fairly certain she was the only one in the house she thought it would be best if she covered herself and she wrapped her body in a towel. Mere seconds after the towel was covering her body she heard a voice from the other side of the door. ""Hands in the air monkey-brain!" the voice scream and the door flung open. There was a young boy, probably around 16 or 17 standing in the doorway, "I dunno who you think you are but your hams are-" the boy started to stay before blushing bright red and stuttering "N-n-n-n-na-k-ked..." and stumbling out of the bathroom and shutting the door behind himself. "How cute." Nicolette thought to herself, and then she heard the boys voice again, "Once you're d-d-decent, we'll have a chat, ok? Because this is my house." Nicolette smiled, "Well then you best walk away from the door, cause my clothes aren't in here. And we wouldn't want to embarrass you again now would we?" she said with a light chuckle. She grabbed her hair dryer, which she had remembered to bring with her and turned it on. She didnt wait for the boy to confirm if he was still there before opening the door and floating outside.

She frowned a fake frown as she noticed the boy wasn't there. "Oh well, I'll tease him more later I guess." She said quietly to herself as she made her way to the guest bedroom drying her hair and wrapped in only a towel. Once she made it to the bedroom she opened her purse, which thanks to her shrinking magic contained all of her clothes. "Now, what to wear." She thought out loud as she sifted through her purse, ultimately deciding to wear a black skirt, with red highlights, that was probably a touch shorter than it should be, but hey she thought it was cute, and a simple black tank. She then opened her purse back up and pulled out her red knee high boots that matched quite well with the skirt and tank. She took a quick glance at the mirror in the room and smiled, "This'll work." she thought with a smile gracing her face.

She floated through the house looking for the boy and found him, still red faced, in the living room. She sat down on one of the comfortable looking chairs, although she didn't sit in a traditional fashion, she sat with her legs over one arm of the chair and letting her head and hair flow back over the other. "So, let's start off with introductions, I'm Nicolette, and I'm a vampire. I was not breaking into your home, and I meant no harm, I just needed a place to sleep for the day. I have no home you see, I'm constantly traveling so I figure it'd be a waste if I bought a home I never used." She said explaining everything like it was all a misunderstanding and her being there was no big deal. "And you are a human, but that's all I can figure out, so tell me, who are you? You have a quite lovely home." she said buttering him up.