“God, it’s so boring in here!” Justin mumbled, while he was playing sluggish with his paddle ball.

It was a hot summer day in Orlando Florida. The guys from *NSYNC were all in their house not knowing what to do. For most activities it was just too hot and for the rest they either had no chance to do so or they had to go outside.

But even at this hot July day the fans of the famous boy group were sitting in the sun in front of their house, screaming their names and waiting for their idols.

When the guys bought their dream house in the best place of Orlando, they forgot to think of a pool. It had everything: A basketball court, a little movie theatre, a room full of pillows, but no pool.

Furthermore the air conditioner broke in the morning and all the guys could do to cool them were the ice cubes and some cool drinks.

If they would go to the beach they wouldn’t have the time to go swim and they really didn’t have the energy to work today.

“And what do you want to do?” Chris asked lying half naked on the couch with closed eyes sticking his tongue out like a dog.

“You know that just dogs stick out their tongue to cool down, don’t you?” Lance asked giggling, but stopped quickly to drink his cold water.

“Why is it so hot in here?” Justin whimpered again.

“Because it’s summer” Joey answered grinning at Justin.

“Ha ha Joey, that was really funny” Justin replied sarcastically. “But seriously guys, can’t we just go swimming?”

“If you want to give autographs the whole day you can do that” JC answered.

The guys were all spread in the living room. Lance sat at the dining table with his fifth glass of cold water in his hands, Joey sat in the corner with a little fan in his hands, waving cool air into his face, Chris lied on the couch and Justin sat at the wall to be completely in the shadow of it.

Justin stood up and looked down at JC. “Anyways, why are you lying on the ground?”

“Don’t know… the floor is cooler than the couch and I don’t sweat that fast.”

“You are sweating anyways… you look like a wet dog.” Chris chuckled standing up to get himself a drink.

“Can you get me some ice cubes?” Justin looked with his puppy eyes at Chris.

“Get yourself some.”

Lance and Joey were laughing, when they saw Justin pouting.

“You are an idiot, Chris.” Justin stood up and went to the freezer. He pulled some ice cubes out of it. One he put directly into his mouth, sucking it delightfully. The others he put into his boxers. It didn’t take a long time, until he realized what kind of bad idea that was. He was running into the living room screaming: “Damn that’s cold” and jumped up and down until the ice cubes fell down on the floor.

“You can be happy that you just wear your boxers J, otherwise we could have seen you dancing a little longer.” Joey laughed with half closed eyes.

All of the guys didn’t wear many clothes this day. Justin was the only one in boxers, but the others didn’t wear much either. Joey just wore his bathing trunks, Lance short pants and a muscle shirt in black, what he regretted, but he was too lazy to stand up, JC wore also just short pants and had an accumulator on his chest, which they normally used to cool burns and other stuff and Chris wore his bathing trunks too.

“I wish you would wear more Fat-One.”

“Aww, that was pretty mean, Baby J.” Joey teased him.

“We should get us a pool.” Lance finally said, before Joey and Justin were about to fight again. It was just too hot to suffer a discussion.

JC hummed approving.

“We should make holidays at the South Pole… there it is wonderful cold.” Chris said with a straw in his mouth. He just came out of the kitchen and held a drink in his hands. He had one ice cube in his hands, which he swept over his body, groaning relieved.

“Hey Chris, please get your orgasm in another room.” Joey quipped.

Chris just groaned louder and overstated.

“I always knew you would get an orgasm, when you see Joey shirtless.”

Suddenly everyone got quiet and starred at JC.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“This is really a bad day, if JC makes a good joke…” Justin let himself fall on the couch, where Chris laid before.

“Hey” JC protested and crossed his arms over his chest. He wanted to add something, but at the end the others just would make fun of him, so he just sighed and closed his eyes again.

“Does anyone know how hot it is in here?”

“How about a million degrees?”

Justin sighed. “I wish I had no hair… I’m sure it would feel so much better without these curls.”

“Don’t even think about cutting them.” JC stood up and laid himself next to Justin on the couch.

“Why?” Justin raised an eyebrow.

“Because you look so damn cute with them.” JC started to cuddle Justin and stroke the curls on Justin’s head.

Like a trapped puppy Justin tried to escape the cuddling attack until he gave up.

JC kept going cuddling Justin, while Chris complained that Justin and JC are lying at his place.

“We should do something…” Finally everyone starred at Lance waiting for a suggestion. “Beach?”

“Too much sand”

“Zoo?”

“Too many animals and too little cold places”

“Movie Theatre?”

“Too hot in there”

“Refrigerator?”

Justin released himself from JC’s hug and looked at Lance with a smile on his face. “That’s a good idea!”

Before he could stand up, JC pulled him back into a hug mumbling: “That’s consumptive of electric current“

“Spoilsport”

“Live with it.”

Finally Joey stood up and was going to leave the living room.

“Where are you going?” Chris asked.

“I’m getting dressed. I want to go to the beach with Lance now. I really need the cool water of the sea.”

“Yay” Lance said his voice full of glee and both went up the stairs.

After a few minutes JC and Chris stood up too and went out of the living room too.

“Seriously? You all want to leave me now?”

“You were crying like a Baby that you are bored.” Chris chuckled.

Justin rolled his eyes and went finally p to his room too.

When they met at the living room again, all were dressed.

Chris wore some long black pants and a dark blue muscle shirt. He read one time that dark clothes are protecting the skin of sunburns. His shoes were black sneakers.

Justin wore short black pants and a blue bandana to get the hair out of his face. Shirtless his tattoo on the arm was seen the best anyways he thought. He put on light blue shoes fitting to his bandana and decided to wear sunglasses too.

JC never went out of the house without a shirt. He wore white short pants and a light pink shirt with white flip flops.

Joey wore a yellow cap, a red shirt and short black pants with black boots.

Lance just wore a jeans and a black shirt with black shoes.

Justin looked confused at the others. “You don’t look like you were going to the beach…”

Confused the others looked down at themselves.

“I know, but I had the feeling this was the right outfit.” JC tried to explain himself.

Justin shook his head laughing and left the house, when the others heard a loud reverberating scream.

Shocked all ran out of the house, when they saw a giant black whole under their house. The complete neighborhood was gone. Everything was muffled in a black-purple fog. A dark voice grounded: “There is no escape!” Then the whole began to draw them down. They all tried to hold on their house, but the gravity of the black whole was too strong and all five guys were absorbed by the black whole.

When Chris woke up, he was standing on the sidewalk in front of a big wall. The house behind looked like a monastery or something like that. Next to this weird house decorated with papers, which should work as defensive magic, were multistory buildings. On the opposite were some little supermarkets as he has seen in some Japanese comics. They were little and just had the main stuff to buy. On the signboard stood “Supermarket” but in Japanese. Since when could Chris read the Japanese language? That was really weird.

He heard some noises from the monastery like building.

“Goodbye Rin.”

“We will miss you”

“Become a good exorcist”

A young boy came out of the building. He wasn’t older than 15 and wasn’t taller than 1,70 meters. He had black hair and blue eyes, a skinny face and his fangs were obviously longer than the other ones. His ears were more prick than normal ones. He wore a blue shirt and a white jacket over it. He had black gloves on and black pants. In his hands he held an item wrapped in white fabric and a backpack. Just now Chris was seeing his long tail.

The boy the voices called ‘Rin’ came towards Chris and smiled at him. Then he plant on the sidewalk and looked down the street. Chris looked confused at the boy. He had never seen someone with a long black tail.

The boy turned around, looking at Chris. “Is something wrong?” Chris shook his head. The boy raised an eyebrow and looked away again.

Ok, this boy is weird, but before I ask myself who that guy is, I should find out, where I am. And why the hell can I read Japanese?

Unobtrusive Chris moved in the boy’s direction, until he stood right behind him.

“Excuse me?”

The boy turned surprised around and fell down on the street. Sitting in the middle of the lane he was breathing hard and looked angrily at Chris.

“How can you dare to scare the shit out of me?”

“Ehmm… I’m sorry I guess…”

“You guess?!” The boy sighed and stood up still standing on the street. “You wanted to ask me something?”

Chris hesitated for a second, before he asked his question. “Where am I?”

“What?! You don’t know where you are? What kind of freak are you?!”

“Freak? I’m not a freak!”

“Then why the hell don’t you know, where you are?”

“If I would tell you, you would definitely see me as a freak. So please just answer my question.”

“Sure, you are in my hometown Nikkou.”

“And where is it?”

The boy raised an eyebrow. “… Japan?”

“Holy shit! How did I come to Japan… Five hours ago I was in Florida!”

“Florida? You mean America?”

“Yeah, surely America… and I want to come back to my lovely home.”

“If you love your home so much, then why did you come to Japan?”

“I never did!” Chris broke on the sidewalk not knowing what to do now.

“You are really weird… Anyways, where is Mephisto… He wanted to come five minutes ago and where is Yukio?”

“Mephisto? Yukio? Who is that?”

“I don’t know why I tell you, but Yukio is my younger twin brother and Mephisto is a good friend of my dad. He wanted to pick me up here.”

“And your name is Rin, right?”

“Where do you know my name?!”

“I heard some guys saying Goodbye to you. There they also named you.”

“Oh, then you stand here a little longer, don’t you?”

Chris sighed. “Yes, I would love to tell you the whole story, but you won’t believe me anyways.”

“Try to.” Rin smiled at Chris.

“Ok, my name is Chris Kirkpatrick, I guess that explains, who I am.”

Rin raised an eyebrow. “Are you famous or something?”

Confused Chris looked at Rin. “I’m a musician. I’m working in a pop group called *NSYNC. Typical, everyone just knows Justin…”

“Never heard of *NSYNC…”

Chris looked up. “Ehmm… ok… Shortly said, I am working with four other guys in a pop group in America, but I thought we were famous in Japan too. Anyways, I was sitting with the other members in our house in Orlando and we decided to go to the beach, when a giant black whole drew us inside of it. And when I woke up again, I was here.”

Rin started laughing. “Sure, and my mom was a firebird.”

Chris sighed. “I told you, you won’t believe me.”

“Wait… you are serious?”

“Yes, I am. I really don’t know what to do. And I don’t know where I am and I don’t know where to go.”

“Maybe you can come with me.”

Chris looked confused at Rin.

“Yes, I want to become an exorcist, maybe you can join me.”

“An exorcist? Do you believe that shit?”

Suddenly Rin got sad and looked down. “Unfortunately I have some experiences with demons.”

“So they really exist?”

Rin nodded.

“Oh my God… that’s so cool!”

“Cool?” Rin raised an eyebrow again. “You are really weird.”

When Rin looked down at the street again, he saw a big pink limousine coming closer really fast. Just now he realizes he was still standing on the street. He jumped on the sidewalk, when the car retarded hardly in front of them. Rin stood up and screamed angrily: “Can’t you watch out where you are driving?!”

Immediately the car door opened and a weird looking guy came out of it. He was about 2 meters tall and looked like he was around thirty something. He had a white top hat with purple and pink stripes at the bases, blue hair, green eyes and some weird teeth just as Rin had. He also had a blue goatee just as Chris had. He wore a white suit with a pink scarf and purple gloves. In his hands he held a walking stick.

He smiled at Rin ignoring the comment before and asked: “I love this sunny weather. Isn’t this a beautiful day? It’s the perfect weather for a new beginning, isn’t it?”

“What? That’s a weird car and where are we going to drive with it?”

“To the True Cross Academy.”

“The True Cross Academy?”

“Yes, it’s the school where you, my dear Rin, are starting to study. You still want to become an exorcist, don’t you?”

“Ehmm… sure.”

“And as destiny has a finger in the pie I am the principal of the True Cross Academy.”

“What?” Rin was starring stunned at the guy, who had to be this Mephisto.

Now Mephisto recognized Chris, who was still sitting on the sidewalk. “Who is your friend?”

“Ehmm… that’s Chris. He wants to become an exorcist too.”

Confused Chris looked up at Rin. “When did I say that?”

Mephisto ignored both and bend over double down to Chris. “You aren’t from here, are you?”

Chris just shook his head. “But you aren’t a demon either… what are you?”

“A human!” Chris said angrily.

Mephisto laughed and stood up again. “I guess you are from a different universe my friend.”

“A different universe?” Rin asked confused. “I thought there are just the universes Assiah and Gehenna.”

Mephisto laughed. “No. That are just the universes we know. We just talk about Assiah and Gehenna, because this both universes are the only ones, who can be connected in normal case.”

“And why am I here now in whatever universe?” Chris stood up too looking interested at Mephisto.

“Assiah. You are in Assiah. But I tell you everything later. We shouldn’t talk about such important things in public. But you should come with us. You have to tell me, how your universe is like.”

Chris swallowed but nodded. He had no plan what he could do next to following them. That’s why Chris agreed.

“Thanks for waiting” another voice said. All three were turning around and saw a young boy coming down the street.

He had the same stature as Rin and had some similarities, but some little things were different. He had brown hair, blue eyes and wore some plain glasses. He had two nevi on the left side of his face and was smiling. He wore something like a uniform in black and carried a blue bag.

“I am happy that I don’t have to say goodbye to my brother.”

“Yukio?”

“Thank you for that, principal Faust.”

“What? Faust? I thought your name was Mephisto” Rin said confused.

Mephisto grinned. “That’s my official name. You know, as disguise.”

“I don’t get it.”

Yukio chuckled and looked then curious at Chris. “Who is that?”

“Oh that’s Chris” Mephisto answered before Chris could do. “ I tell you everything later. Let’s go to the True Cross Academy…” He turned around and put on a kind of scary and weird smile. “…where all your wishes come true.”

Chris and Rin looked speechless at Mephisto and just nodded. Yukio laughed and entered the car right after Mephisto did.

They already drove half an hour, when Mephisto started to speak again. “So Chris… tell me something about you.”

“Ehmm… what do you want to know?”

“Where are you from? Tell me everything about your life! Is it exciting?”

Chris grinned. “Yeah pretty.”

“Oh I am so nervous about it… Tell me everything!”

“Ok…” Chris cleared his throat, before he started to relate everything. “My name is Chris Kirkpatrick and I’m from Orlando Florida.”

“Isn’t that in America?” Yukio asked.

Chris nodded. “I am part of a pop group called *NSYNC. We are touring through the whole world and see many different cities all over it. It is really exciting.”

When Chris looked at Mephisto again, he could see the disappointment in his face. “That’s everything?” He sighed.

“Everything?”

“Yeah, I thought you would start to tell me something about monsters and other stuff. Something dangerous and thrilling.”

“Ehmm… no, I’m sorry. In our world doesn’t exist something like monsters.”

Mephisto rolled his eyes. “Then your universe is boring.”

Yukio raised an eyebrow. “Your universe? Principal Faust, what are you talking about?”

Mephisto smiled again. “Our dear Chris came from a different universe in our world. You should’ve seen his face, when I came out of the car. It was fabulous.”

“Are you gay or something?”

Mephisto chuckled about Chris’ comment. “Not gay, just classy.”

“Sure.” Chris started to look out of the window. “And do you know how I can come back to my universe?”

Mephisto put on a thoughtful facial expression. Then he smiled again and took a deep breath for his answer. Eager Yukio, Rin and Chris were waiting for it. “I have no idea.”

All three groaned, when they heard that answer.

Then it was quiet for some like ten minutes again. Then Rin broke the silence.

“Yukio, where were you this morning? “

“I was at our dad’s grave. Have you been there too?”

“No, see…”

“You are just incorrigible.” Yukio said with a weak smile on his face.

It took another two hours, when Mephisto stopped whistling, as he did the whole journey after the conversation with Chris. “In a few minutes we arrive the central of the college town True Cross.”

Rin and Chris were looking out of the window and saw a hill built up with houses, bridges and streets. In between them, were a few trees. It all looked like a giant castle. Just when you took a second view, you saw the outlines of the particular buildings. A train was driving through the town.

It looked impressive to Rin and Chris. Yukio seemed like he knew it already and as the principal Mephisto knew it anyways. All the more ridiculous was it that he was as impressed as the other both guys. He had to be really proud of his school.

“Welcome to the True Cross Academy” Mephisto said full of glee.

“Really cool” Rin said.

“This is the college town with the most students in whole Japan. We have all kinds of courses here. Make use of the offer and study whatever you want to.”

The limousine drove into the city and stopped in front of a big building, where many students were standing.

“Now it’s time to put on your uniforms.” Mephisto told Chris and Rin.

“Couldn’t you tell us, before we arrived?” Rin asked annoyed. Mephisto ignored the comment and let Chris and Rin change their outfits.

The uniform consisted of a white shirt, a striped tie in black and red and a black suit.

Amused Mephisto looked at both guys. “Have fun at your first day at the True Cross Academy.”

Yukio, Rin and Chris left the car and watched Mephisto driving away. Without even waiting for the guys Yukio went towards the building. When Rin recognized that Yukio was about to go, he ran after him and shouted: “Wait for me.” Chris ran right behind Rin.

What am I doing here? I wanted to go home and now I am a student in a weird world, where demons and ghosts are existing? On the other hand I really don’t know where to go. Let’s see what this is about.

Slowly Justin sat up. Suddenly he felt a strong pain at his head. He put his right hand at that place and groaned quietly.

“Fuck… what happened?”

He looked around. He saw nothing than sand. Everywhere was sand lying around. He was in a desert… A DESERT? How the hell did I come into a desert? And where am I? Is this the Sahara? No, that can’t be. I was in Orlando. We wanted to go to the beach and then… the black whole. Fuck. The black whole drew him there.

Slowly he stood up. When he took another look, he saw a little town in the very near of him. “There I will get some information” Justin said to himself and started to walk towards the city.

It didn’t take a long time, and then he broke down again. “Damn, I hurt myself and I’m hungry and thirsty. I can’t come to this town without eating anything…”

Justin sighed and buried his fingers into the sand. There he felt a soft, weird thing in the sand. Curiously he dug out the thing. At the end he held a weird fruit in his hands. The skin had many grooves and waves in it and it was purple. A few seconds Justin thought about, if this fruit was maybe poisoned, but on the other hand he would die in the desert, if he didn’t eat it now.

“Ok, I try it…” Justin told himself and started to peel the fruit. He looked surprised at the fruit pulp. Now he had some doubts, if he really should eat it. The fruit pulp was black.

“If I eat it I could die in a few seconds or hours and if I don’t eat it, I die of thirsty. Or the fruit is ok.” Justin mused a bit until he decided to eat it.

He closed his eyes and ate a big piece of the fruit. He chewed it and swallowed. Just now he recognized how bad this fruit tasted. He started coughing and wasn’t sure, if this fruit was going to kill him. On the other side he felt a bit stronger. Then the fruit couldn’t be bad.

Justin closed his eyes and ate the rest of the disgusting fruit.

When he ate everything he stood up and went to the town he saw. When he arrived he asked the first person, who came his way: “Excuse me, can you please tell me, where I am and where I can get some water and something to eat?”

The person smiled friendly at Justin. “You are in Nanohana in Alabasta and right over there is a tavern, where you can get something to eat.”

“Thank you” Justin mumbled and went into the tavern’s direction.

“Nanohana? Alabasta? What is that? I never heard of these places. Maybe a little country in Asia? Or Africa… Whatever, I should get something to eat, before I think of the rest.”

He went down the street and saw a big round building. It was white with a red roof. On the sign in front of the house stood in big letters “SPICE BEAN”. “This must be the tavern” Justin thought and moved faster. When he stood in front of it, many people were standing in front of it, starring inside the tavern.

Just barely Justin could go through all the people and enter the tavern. He stumbled into it and looked up to see, why everyone was starring.

At the counter of the tavern he saw a man sitting there with his head in his food. He wore an orange head and had black hair. He had a red necklace on and was shirtless just as Justin was. On his back was a giant purple tattoo showing a cross with a skull in the middle.

“What happened?” asked one of the people behind Justin.

“This man died while he was eating.”

Confused Justin turned around to listen to the conversation.

“Died while he was eating?”

“Yes, he talked to the landlord and chewed and then his head just fell down into his food.”

Another voice joined into the conversation. “This man is a stranger. I guess he ate a desert berry without knowing that it is toxic.”

Justin swallowed. He also ate a fruit, which he found in the desert… maybe that was a desert berry too.

“Excuse me?” All three men turned around and faced Justin. “Can you tell me how a desert fruit looks like?”

“Sure” one of the men replied. “It is a tiny red berry. It looks a bit like a currant, but is pinker. If you are a stranger, you can’t difference them.”

Relieved Justin exhaled. “The fruit I ate wasn’t that toxic desert fruit. I’m so thankful.”

“When you eat it you are dying in a few days.” One of the men continued their conversation. “The poison stays in your body for more than three days after you died. That’s why nobody wants to touch the corpse.”

Justin raised an eyebrow. “Poor guy” he thought.

“Now you see how dangerous the desert can be”

“Anyways you should never eat something you don’t know.”

Justin swallowed again. Maybe the fruit he ate was toxic… damn, why didn’t he think of it, before he ate it…

Suddenly the ‘dead’ guy pulled his head out of is plate and continued chewing like nothing happened. All the people in the tavern were screaming either of fear or of astonishment. Justin got a little scared too, but it didn’t even take a second, when he acted like nothing happened. He tried to be cool and watched how the situation changed.

Confused the ‘dead’ man was looking around. It seemed like he didn’t know what happened.

A woman, who stood next to him asked: “Are you ok?”

The man looked a second at her. Then he grabbed her skirt and pulled it up to his face to clean his face.

The woman was screaming and tried to pull the skirt down again. When the man didn’t let the skirt fall, she ran away from him.

He just let the ‘napkin’ fall and gave attention to the food in front of him. He sighed. “Oh no… I fell asleep.”

All the people in the tavern looked shocked at him and screamed: “What?! You fell asleep?!”

The young man didn’t care about them and continued eating his meal. Justin was kind of relieved that this young man was healthy and sat down at the counter too, two chairs away from the ‘dead’ man.

“Are you kidding?” a man said angrily. “Right in between eating and having a conversation you fell asleep?”

“And look, he is chewing again!” another one screamed stunned.

The man turned around now and looked at the screaming people behind him. “Why do you all scream like weirdoes?”

The people screamed back at him: “We were worried about you!”

The man turned around again and asked the landlord confused: “What is wrong with them?”

“Nothing. The main thing is you are ok.”

Before the man could answer he let his face fall on the plate again.

“What?! He fell asleep again?!” The people screamed together.

Now where all people knew that he wasn’t dead the tavern got slowly empty until just a few others were sitting in there.

The landlord came to Justin with a smile and asked: “What can I do for you?”

“How much does a plate of the food costs that the young man next to me is eating. It seems to be very delicious.”

The landlord smiled and answered “250 Berry.”

Confused Justin looked at the landlord. “Berry?”

“Yes… you don’t know Berry? From which secluded place are you?”

“Orlando, Florida…”

“Never heard of that.”

Justin raised an eyebrow. A man who didn’t know Orlando? And Justin came from a secluded place? Whatever.

“Do you know how much 250 Berry is in dollars?”

“Dollars?”

Justin sighed. “I’m sorry. I guess when you don’t take dollar; I don’t have the money to pay the meal.” Disappointed Justin looked at the counter. He was so happy that he found a tavern and now he couldn’t pay the meal. And to cap it all his stomach growled. With a paint expression Justin was about to go, when the landlord said: “It’s ok. You seem to be very hungry. This meal is for free.”

Excited Justin turned around. “Seriously?”

The landlord laughed and nodded, while he put some of the egg fried rice on a plate.

While the landlord was about to get Justin a meal the man next to him woke up again and continued eating.

Justin looked at him for a second. Then he paid attention to his coming meal again. Anyways this guy was weird. Justin had to watch out who he was. Maybe he was a thief and about to kidnap Justin. No, that couldn’t be… No one in this town spotted him as Justin Timberlake. He was sure that no one here knew *NSYNC.

When he got his meal he thanked the landlord again and continued eating. A few minutes later the man next to him finished eating and sighed satisfied. “Now I am stuffed. That was a real good meal. Hey landlord, I have a question. Did you see this man?” He pulled out a wanted poster of a guy with a straw hat. The landlord looked at the picture but had to tell him that he had never seen this guy before.

Right in that moment another man entered the tavern. He had two cigars in his mouth and looked angrily at the man next to Justin.

“It’s an insolence what this guy is doing there. How can he dare to eat calmly in public? That is Whitebeard’s commandant of the second division Puma D’ Ace.”

The man next to Justin began to smile.

The landlord turned directly pale and stammered afraid: “What? You are one of Whitebeard’s men?”

Confused Justin looked up. He had no idea, why all in the tavern were immediately scared of this weird young man.

“Who is whitebeard?” he just asked.

All were looking shocked at Justin.

“You are really from a secluded place, huh?” The landlord said. “Whitebeard is one of the most dangerous pirates on the sea. Everyone is afraid of him and his band.”

“Pirates? In which weird world did I came?” Justin asked himself.

“Wow, it’s… funny to meet a person, who never heard of the pirate Whitebeard.” The man next to him said with a grin on his face.

“I’m not so into pirates…” Justin replied.

Ace raised an eyebrow. “That’s rarely, now where the era of pirates begun.”

“The era of pirates?” Now Justin was totally confused. Ace looked directly into his face. He knew something wasn’t normal about Justin. It could be that some people didn’t know Whitebeard, but someone who never heard of the era of pirates after Goldroger’s death? That wasn’t possible.

“Why is such a famous pirate in such a peaceful harbor town?” the man with the two cigars asked. It was the first time Justin really looked at him. He was really tall. Definitely taller than 2 meters. He had light green hair and dark eyes. He wore just a white open jacket without a shirt under it. On his jacket was a sign which showed a seagull. Under the seagull stood “navy”. This man was from the military. He wore blue jeans and black shoes. In his hands he held something which looked like a mixture of sword and spear. Justin had never seen such a weapon before.

Ace turned around and looked directly into the navy man’s face. Grinning he answered: “I’m searching for my little brother.”

Both men were staring at each other. The situation was strained. Nobody knew what both men were going to do next.

After a minute Ace broke the silence, which filled the tavern. “Now, where do we go from here?” Ace had a cocky smile on his lips. He seemed to be pretty sure about his skills Justin thought.

“Very simple. You are certainly arrested.

“Caveat.” Ace grinned even more. It seemed like both men were ready to fight. But the navy guy had a weapon and Ace was totally vulnerable. How should he win this fight? “That doesn’t fit to my plans.”

“To be honest it doesn’t fit to my plans too. I don’t have time to waste it for you. I’m searching for another pirate. Actually I am not really interested in arresting you.”

“Then leave me in peace.”

“That’s impossible.” The navy guy pressed his fingers into a fist and his arm began to smolder. Justin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His arm was solving into smoke. That was unbelievable. He rubbed his eyes, but he saw the same thing.

“As long as I am at the navy and you stay a pirate, it’s impossible to let you go.”

“Damn, you are an abject stiff, but if you really want a fight…” Ace went slowly into a fighting position, just as the navy guy did.

Right before both started fighting another man jumped into the tavern. He had so much speed that he kicked the 2 meters tall navy guy into Ace’s direction. Ace ripped his eyes open, but before he could avoid, the navy guy stroke him and both men were flying through the wall of the tavern.

Shocked Justin fell down from his chair. He couldn’t believe what he has seen there.

The guy he came into the tavern sat on the counter and acted like nothing happened. With a bright smile on his face he screamed full of joy: “Finally I found a place to eat! I want the whole menu! With appetizer, salad and dessert. I am hungry, hungry, hungry!”

The landlord starred shocked at the guy. At least this wasn’t normal in this weird world too.

“Hungry, hungry, hungry!” The young man continued screaming.

Justin couldn’t explain it, but this guy seemed to look familiar. He had black hair, a scar under his right eye, a red vest and blue short pants. And he wore a straw hat… a straw hat… damn! That was the man from the wanted poster.

Slowly Justin stood up and sat back to his seat again. Shocked he starred at the young man. So he was wanted by the navy… but actually he didn’t look that dangerous. He looked more like… a playful kid.

The landlord brought that guy all the stuff he ordered and he directly started to eat everything. Justin couldn’t believe how fast and how much this guy was eating.

“Oh my God, this food is awesome! It tastes delicious! I love it!” the man screamed with a full mouth.

The landlord stumbled: “Ehmm… that is really nice, but… shouldn’t you go away really fast?”

The guy looked confused up. “Why should I?”

“Who do you think was the guy you slogged through the wall a few minutes ago?”

“Who slogged who through the wall?”

“You did… a few minutes ago.”

“What? I did?”

The landlord nodded and pointed at the big hole in the wall. Justin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The guy didn’t just slogged both men through this one wall, there were more than ten walls broken, because of him. The guys couldn’t survive that. They had to be dead. Definitely. Damn. Then this guy was really that dangerous, even if he didn’t look like.

“Why is there a hole?” The guy asked. “That doesn’t look good. Is that purposed to be there?”

Angrily the landlord screamed with a few of the guests: “You made this hole!”

“What? When did I do that?”

Justin couldn’t stand but giggled quietly. He knew he shouldn’t especially, because this guy was dangerous, but he was too funny.

Before the landlord could scream at the guy again, Ace came through the holes in the wall back. Angrily he mumbled: “I want to see that guy, who is doing that shit.” When the people in the tavern saw Ace coming they ran quickly away, afraid of his reaction.

Justin couldn’t move. He couldn’t believe that Ace survived this without a noteworthy scratch.

When Ace noticed the guy sitting at the counter his facial expression changed directly and he looked full of glee at the young man. “Hey Ruf…!” Ace was about to scream the young man’s name, when the navy guy shoved him away.

“There you are!” He screamed.

The guy noticed the navy man, but didn’t stop eating. “He must be really hungry” Justin thought.

“I know I would catch you, straw hat. You are in Alabasta, as I expected it.

The guy just listened to the navy man’s words, but stood himself silent. Instead of answering he continued eating.

“Stop eating, idiot!” the navy guy screamed madly.

It took a few more moments, until the guy realized who was standing in front of him. He spitted out the food directly into the navy guy’s face and screamed: “Captain Smoker! What the hell are you doing here?”

Captain Smoker brushed the food disgusted out of his face. The guy with the straw hat used this situation and ran out of the tavern.

Captain Smoker looked angrily at the guy and was about to follow him, when he bowled a couple of plates over into Justin’s direction. Justin threw his arms jumpily forward, to protect his face, when he heard a loud bang. When the plates didn’t catch him, he looked carefully up. Right in the direction he threw his arms, a giant rock, which wasn’t there before, looked out of the ground. Shocked Justin starred at the rock.

“This stranger… the stranger who doesn’t know what a Berry is has devil powers.”

Justin looked up at them. All of them screamed and pushed each other’s into the corner. Justin didn’t know what happened and the guys were afraid of him. Nice…

When Captain Smoker stood up, he looked angrily at Justin and said: “You should run now.”

He didn’t have to tell it twice. Justin jumped up and ran out of the tavern. He looked for the guy with the straw hat. Captain Smoker wanted to catch him, so if he had to decide who he is following, he would take him. He saw how the guy with the straw hat was running straight down the street. Immediately Justin started to run right behind him. A few seconds later Captain Smoker followed them screaming: “Stand still! Both of you!” And right behind Captain Smoker Ace ran out of the tavern screaming: “Hey, wait for me Ruffy! It’s me!”

Quickly Ruffy ran down the street. Justin had to run as fast as he could to keep up with him.

“Tashigi!” Captain Smoker screamed. A young girl with red glasses and blue hair turned around and asked smiling: “What is it Captain Smoker? Do you need a towel? It’s pretty hot today isn’t it?”

“Tashigi” Captain Smoker screamed again. “Detain the straw hat and the guy with the blue bandana!”

Directly the girl ran towards both men and drew a sword. She jumped towards Ruffy and lunged out with the sword, when Ruffy stretched his arm. He grabbed the roof of a house and pulled himself up. Unbelieving Justin looked up. How could a man stretch his arm like that? How could a man’s arm become smoke?

While Justin was distracted the girl called Tashigi ran towards Justin and lunged out with her sword again. Shocked Justin was thinking about what to do. When he was at the bar there was a rock right in the place, where he stretched his arms and the people said he had devil powers.

 Justin had no idea what a devil power should be, but he could try it. He threw his right hand up and pointed with it at the roof of the house, where Ruffy disappeared. Immediately the ground under his feed started to shake and a giant rock pillar came out of the ground.

 Shocked Justin stared at down. He couldn’t believe that this was happening. He didn’t watch out for a second and the pillar became too high. He pulled down his hand and the pillar stopped growing. Carefully he jumped on the roof and followed Ruffy.

Captain Smoker ran to Tashigi. Before she could ask, why Justin behaved that stupidly, Captain Smoker answered: “I’m pretty sure this devil powers are new. He just has them since a few hours and can’t control it yet. Tashigi, I want you to search for Monkey D’ Ruffy and the other straw hat pirates!” Tashigi saluted, while Captain Smoker shot himself with the smoke up to that building.

On the roof Justin managed it to run directly next to Ruffy. Confused Ruffy looked over to him. “Aren’t you the guy from the bar?” Justin nodded.

“Captain Smoker wants to catch you too?”

Justin nodded again.

“Are you a pirate?”

“No, I don’t know how this can be, but I kicked Captain Smoker with a giant rock and now he is mad at me.”

“Oh cool, so you have devil powers too?”

“Seems like!” Justin screamed.

“So cool! Do you want to join my crew? I’m sure we need a person like you. What can you do pretty well?”

“I’m musician…”

“Seriously? Now you have to be part of my crew!”

“So you are part of the straw hat pirates too?!” Both guys were looking behind them and saw Captain Smoker coming closer and closer. His arm became smoke again and the smoke flew towards both of them. Justin didn’t know what happened, when the smoke arrived him, but at least at Ruffy’s reaction in running even faster, he could think that it couldn’t be good. Justin started to run faster too over the roofs of the houses and wished secretly, he would wake up from this nightmare.

“What the hell are you doing in Alabasta?” Smoker screamed.

“I want to fight against Sir Crocodile!” Ruffy screamed back still running away from Smoker. Suddenly Justin and Ruffy disappeared. Captain Smoker stopped running immediately and looked around, asking himself where both men went.

Down between two houses Justin and Ruffy laid in a big vehicular full of fruits, which looked like yellow melons. Justin used the situation and took some deep breaths. Suddenly Ruffy jumped up and grabbed Justin’s arm. Laughing Ruffy ran in the other direction away from Smoker and trailed Justin.

Smoker heard the laugh and looked down, seeing both guys running away.

Angrily he jumped down and started to follow them again.

It didn’t take a long time until not only Captain Smoker was trying to catch them. The whole navy was right behind them. Ruffy was laughing, while he was running away, while Justin was wondering, why Ruffy seemed to have fun in getting hunted.

When both men were running down the street they heard a few voices screaming: “Ruffy?!”

Both looked up while they kept running. Ruffy smiled brightly and screamed: “Hey Zorro! Oh, you all are there?!” Ruffy ran towards a half broken wall. Right behind there were standing a handful guys and two girls. All were screaming: “Did you really have to show the navy, where we are?!”

Ruffy just laughed and kept running away, Justin still behind.

One of the navy soldiers, who were following them screamed: There is the whole crew of the straw hat! Catch them all!”

The guys darned Ruffy and ran away with him.

“Where shall we go?” a guy with a long nose asked.

“Back to our ship!” The others answered.

A blonde guy was running directly next to Justin with a barrel under his arms. He looked confused at Justin and asked Ruffy: “Who is that guy?”

“That’s our new crew member!” Ruffy said laughing.

Justin wanted to protest, because he never said he wanted to become a pirate, but in this situation he just ignored it. The most important thing was to escape right now.

“Let me through!” a familiar voice screamed. Captain Smoker ran in the first row behind the straw hats and tried to catch them with his smoke again. He was about to catch Justin and Ruffy, when someone screamed: “Fireball!”

A giant sphere of fire was running into Smokers direction and pushed the smoke back. All guys stopped running and looked shocked at the scenario behind them.

Smoker hid his face behind his arms until the fire stopped. When he looked up again, he saw a man encased in fire. All of the pirate crew was staring at the man until the fire was getting smaller and they could see, who was standing in the inside of the flame. Justin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He saw this Ace standing there, fighting against Smoker.

It seemed like he had devil powers too. He controlled fire or could make fire with his body.

“It’s you again” Smoker growled angrily.

“Break it up.” Ace said in a calm voice, having his cocky grin on his lips. “Your smoke can’t beat my fire. So just let it go and stop to bore me with your lazy smoke attacks.”

Another crew member of the straw hat pirates with green hair said: One thing is obvious. The guy has devil powers!”

“But who is that guy and why is he helping us?” The guy with the long nose asked.

“Ace, is it you?” Ruffy asked.

Ace turned around and said smiling: “You didn’t change a bit Ruffy.”

“Hey Ace, nice to see you!”

“Captains Smoker? We are ready for your instructions!” A navy soldier said who was standing behind him.

“You can’t talk calmly here. The best thing is you are going and I’m following you, when I’m done here.” Ace said, paying his attention back to Smoker.

“Let’s go” Ruffy said and pulled Justin right behind him.

A girl with red hair asked: “Ruffy, who is that?” and Ruffy answered proudly: “That is my older brother Ace.”

Slowly Lance opened his eyes. He heard some voices talking to him, but they didn’t sound familiar. First the light was too bright and he just could see the outlines of a few persons, bending over his face, to look for his condition.

But after a few seconds his eyes accustomed to the light and he could discern the persons around him.

The first one was a young, beautiful girl. She had long brown hair and blue eyes. She had a worried facial expression and was talking to Lance. She moved her lips, but Lance couldn’t understand a word. She wore a purple dress and some light purple gloves.

The second person was an older man about forty something. He had short brown hair, black eyes and a little beard over his upper lip. He wore a blue suit with a black tie and a white shirt under the jacket.

The third person was in the same age as the young girl as Lance could see it. He had a darker skin than the others, but had the same hair and eye color as the girl. He was dressed in a black suit with a tie.

And the last person Lance saw was a little boy. He was about 10 years old, but his behavior was pretty adult. He had short brown hair and blue eyes. He wore glasses and a blue jacket. He talked to Lance like the others did, but in contrast to the other persons, he seemed to be calmed. He had the situation under control. No, that wasn’t a normal 10 years old boy.

Slowly the voices of the people around him got louder and finally Lance could understand what they were saying.

“He woke up” the girl said. Her voice sounded like she was happy, but why? What happened?

“Young man, can you hear me?” the young man in the suit asked.

Slowly Lance nodded and tried to stay up. All four persons pushed him carefully back.

“You can’t stay up now. You are hurt. You must go into hospital…” the other man said.

Lance nodded and closed his eyes again. It took him a few seconds to remember what actually happened. He was in Orlando with the guys. They all dressed up to go to the beach. When Justin went out, they heard a scream. They all ran out to see what happened and then they heard this dark voice saying “There is no escape!” and then they all fell into the deep black whole.

Suddenly Lance jumped up on his feet, bathed in sweat, and gasped desperately, like this were the last few breaths he could take, before he was going to get drawn into the black whole again.

All four jumped away from him, when he did so. They just didn’t expect this reaction.

Both men went pretty fast at Lance’s side and tried to calm him down, but all Lance could think of, was this scary voice in his head.

Finally the paramedics came and gave Lance a sedative shot. He started to breath normal again and let the paramedics doing their job.

“Is he in a good condition?” the young man asked after ten seconds.

One of the paramedics smiled. “He has just a few bruises and the shock. That’s everything. He can go home today.”

The man nodded and sat next to Lance. He gave him his hand and started to talk. “Good morning, my name is Heiji Hattori and I’m the best detective you can find in Tokyo. I have to ask you some questions. Do you feel in the condition to answer them?”

In the background Lance heard, how the other man was protesting against the statement of Heiji.

Confused Lance looked first at the older men than at Heiji. “Actually I have some questions, too. First did you say Tokyo?”

Heiji nodded and looked a bit confused at Lance. In contrast Lance buried his face into his hands and mumbled “Tokyo” into them.

When Heiji wanted to ask his first question, Lance raised his head again and asked himself: “How the hell did I come to Tokyo?”

“You aren’t from here?” Heiji tried to be calm, so Lance wouldn’t be too upset.

“No… I’m from Orlando.”

“Orlando…?” it took Heiji a few seconds until he realized which Orlando Lance was talking about. Shocked he said loudly: “You don’t mean Orlando Florida, do you?!”

All persons who stood around them were facing both men now. That was the first time Lance started to take a look. He was outside, it was night and all people around him wore evening dresses. It seemed like an opening party was celebrated. Lance felt kind of guilty that he ruined the event.

The crowed started to whisper and got unsettled. They talked about Lance that was sure.

“When did you come from America to Japan?” Heiji ripped Lance out of his thoughts.

“Ehmm… When? Actually I even don’t know how I came from America to Japan.”

“What?” Heiji looked even more shocked than he did before.

The other man Lance saw, when he woke up whispered in the Inspectors ear: “I’m sure this guy is crazy. Maybe he ran away from a mental hospital.”

“Mouri, you can’t say that…”

“Why? It’s the only logical explanation.”

Lance sighed quietly. One thing was sure. No one of them would believe him, if he would tell the story.

Now where both adults where talking besides the little boy came and asked in an innocent voice: “Hey you… can I ask you a question?”

This boy again. Lance looked directly in the boys eyes. No, he was definitely not a normal 10 years old boy.

“Sure, just ask me.” Lance put on a smile. Maybe he just fancied it.

“You say you don’t know how you came into Japan. What was the last thing you remember, before you woke up here?”

Lance looked shocked at the little boy. Now he was sure that he wasn’t a normal kid.

“Why are you asking?”

“I’m just curious.”

Lance thought about what he was going to say next a few seconds, before he started to speak again. “How about we stop this little game? You aren’t a normal ten years old boy, so you can stop talking like one.”

The boy ripped his eyes open and froze for a few moments like he couldn’t believe what Lance just said. “I… I don’t know what you are talking about” he tried to talk his way out, but Lance already figured this little game out.

“Stop it. I know that you aren’t a normal guy. But I have no idea who you are. You seem to be really smart and I have a big problem here. One of my big problems is that the story I have to tell is implausible. No one would believe me and I need someone, who can help me.”

The little boy thought about it for a few seconds, before he took Lance’s hand and pulled him apart of the crowd.

“Here we can talk better.”

Lance nodded.

“How did you figured it out?”

Lance smiled. “Your behavior. I have a good insight into human nature and you didn’t act like a ten years old boy.”

The boy smiled weakly. “And are you going to kill me now?”

Confused Lance looked at the boy. “What?”

“The men in black. Aren’t you a part of their organization?”

Lance laughed quietly. “I actually have no idea what you are talking about… let me introduce myself first. My name is Lance Bass. I’m a member of an American boy group called *NSYNC. And you are?”

The boy looked warily at Lance. At the end he sighed and started talking. “My name is Conan Edogawa and I’m a detective.”

“A detective?”

Conan smiled confident at Lance. “When you tell me your story, I tell you mine.”

“Sounds like a deal.” Lance smiled and started to explain the whole story from their plans to go to the beach to the thing with the black whole.

Conan listened carefully until Lance ended his story.

“You know what doesn’t fit into this story? You said you are from America, but you speak the Japanese language like a native. Something’s wrong with your story.”

Lance sighed. “I know it sounds really weird. But I told you the true story. I am confused myself that I can speak Japanese, I know how unrealistic my story is. But that’s why I didn’t want to talk to a normal adult.”

Conan nodded. “No matter if you are saying the truth or not, you are in Japan now and you don’t know where to go, am I right?”

Lance nodded.

“Let’s do it like this. You just say that you lost your memories and I will ask the professor, if you can stay at his place the first time.”

Lance smiled. “Thank you, Conan. Do you like to tell me your story too?”

“Conan? Conan where are you?” Ran screamed out of the crowed. Both men looked up and saw here searching for the little boy.

“Maybe later. Now we have to go I guess.”

Lance smiled at Conan and followed him to the crowed again.

“Where were you? I was worried about you Conan!” Ran said in a punitive way.

Conan apologized and went back to the place, where they found Lance on the floor. Lance followed them unobtrusive. Ran took out a walki-talkie. She talked over it with a man with an American accent.

In the building in front of him stood in big letters ‘K3 OPENING’. That was the reason for the crowd here. They were all celebrating the grand opening of the hotel. Via the walki-talkie Ran told three different men, which rooms should be lighted and at the end the lights built a big ‘K’.

Heiji was standing next to Conan again and said with a big smile on his face: “Now I know what the guys are planning… they want to make a K out of the lights. Really smart.”

A girl next to Heiji, who seemed to be part of the group said confused: “But the employees of the hotel could’ve done that too. I don’t understand why they are doing it on their own.”

Confused Lance looked at the girl. Conan looked up at Lance and poked into Lance’s leg to get his attention.

Lance went down to Conan with a smile.

“You have no idea what they are talking about, are you?”

“Not really” Lance laughed.

“To make it short, there are three real famous sportsmen, who are celebrating the opening of their first hotel here. They are a big wheel here in Japan.”

Lance smiled at Conan and thanked him for the explanation. Then he stood up again.

“Kazuha, they planned it together and now they want to do it together too.” Ran explained to her. Kazuha just shrugged and looked up at the hotel again.

Then a voice came out of the walki-talkie. “How is it Ran? Did we turn on all the lights, we need for our K?”

Ran looked up in the sky and answered: “No there is missing a room on the first floor on the right.

“Ok, I’m on the way.” The voice answered.

“Mike, could you draw the curtain aside?”

Lance saw how a man pulled the curtain away on the third floor.

“Yeah that’s perfect like this.” Ran said smiling. “Ricardo, is everything fine?”

A simple “yeah came out of the walki-talkie and a light in the topmost floor went off.

“Did you mean this room?” The first voice asked and turned on the light in the room.

“Yeah right. Now it’s perfect.”

The crowed was enthusiastic about it and also Lance had to smile about this good idea, when a gunshot interrupted the laughing and talking. Suddenly all were looking up and looked shocked at the window with which broke.

Immediately Conan and Heiji ran into the hotel. Ran, Kazuha and Kogoro followed them asking for Conan to wait. Lance followed them too. He wanted to know what happened and he didn’t want to stay alone outside. Conan was the only person he could trust right now and who would give him a home. They all ran to the third floor and opened the room. It was hard to see something in the darkness, but when they turned on the light they saw a dead person lying on the floor of the hotel room.

Joey awoke on what appeared to be a beach.

“What the hell happened?” Joey moaned. He didn’t know where he was but judging by the fact that there was sand and the smell of sea water, he assumed that he and the other guys arrived at their destination, but where were those bastards and why didn’t he remember the trip getting here.

Joey shook off all the sand that covered a portion of his body and gazed in all directions for any signs of his bandmates. “Chris! Lance! Get your asses over here! This isn’t funny!”

When no one answered, Joey rolled his eyes and started searching. He went the whole beach along, looked under every rock to find the guys. He screamed their names and that they should come out. But there was no response.

Finally Joey gave up. He was wondering where he was. He has never seen this place, but there are hundreds of places in the whole world he had never seen before. Even if he was a superstar and even if he toured all over the world with the guys... But how could he come from his house in Orlando to this beach. This wasn’t the one in Florida that was sure.

Maybe the guys tricked him. They gave him soporific and Joey dreamed this black whole shit. That would explain everything. And then they brought him to this unknown beach part. These idiots…

“Justin? Josh?! I found out which game you are playing… Come out!” Joey waited 5 more minutes but again there was no answer.

Fine, these boys liked playing jokes on him but he wasn’t going to let it get in the way of him enjoying the feel of cool water washing away the hours of perspiration from his body. He removed his boots and cap and made his way to the calm water, spattering it on himself without getting drenched.

The cool water was just what he needed. After the stress with searching the guys and this weird nightmare. Joey moaned quietly, when he felt the cool water at his body. Yep, this was definitely a good idea!

It was there that he felt something brushing against his leg, startling Joey from his moment of relaxation. A rather large orange fish was swimming around him. But it had a weird form. It looked like a Siamese fighting fish with white fins and… a yellow mustache?

Anyways, as long as the fish didn’t do anything to Joey, it was fine that he was there.

“Oh, hey little fishy fishy.” The fish’s face emerged from the surface and discharged a stream of water into Joey’s eyes. Joey lost his balance because first the fish attacked him surprisingly and second, even if just a fish discharged a stream of water, this stream was pretty vigorous.

“Fuck! That’s worse than Chris’s super soaker gun. You’re gonna get it! It’s been three hours since I had anything to eat and I’m itching for some seafood. Would you like to become my fish sandwich or fish burger?”

He trotted in the direction of the pesky fish, trying to get a grasp of it but failing as its tail smacked him in the face and its scaly body slipped through his fingers. Argh, this was futile. Frustrated, he threw a nearby rock at it and gave up his efforts at catching his meal, but not before the fish began illuminating a strange glow and grew two… four… more than ten times its original size.

“Okay, I apologize, Mr. Fish. I’ll be leaving now to be on the lookout for my friends.” He sprinted as quickly as one could through the half meter high water to get back to shore, gazing back for a second to behold an enormous blue dragon making its way towards him. “Help! Someone! Shit!”

Before the dragon could swallow him whole, Joey heard a kid yelling, “Get out of the water, mister. I’ll help you.” Joey saw that the boy was accompanied by a redheaded girl, some other dude, and a large yellow, uh, rodent? Joey’s foot made it onto sand, prompting the kid to command his creature, “Pikachu, use your thunder shock at the Gyarados!”

“Piiikaaa-CHUUUUU!!!” a shining bolt of electricity emanated from the rodent’s body in the direction of the sea creature which was only magnified by the water conducting the electrical charge, scaring the dragon off into the depths of the ocean.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he approached the three strangers, “Uh, thanks kid. My ass owes you one.”

Now Joey took his time to look particularly at the three kids. The one, who’s Chinchilla helped him was about 1,65 meters tall and looked pretty young. Maybe the puberty took it’s time with the poor guy. He had a red cap and short black hair under it. He wore a black shirt with an open blue vest and a jeans completed the outfit with white shoes.

The second guy had darker skin and looked older. He was about 1,75 meters tall. He had brown hair and a yellow shirt with a green vest. He wore grey jeans and blue shoes.

And there was a third person, a girl. She had red hair and blue eyes and actually she had a beautiful smile… if she wasn’t 12 years old? She wore a yellow shirt and hot pants in jeans-blue.

“Hi, I’m Ash Ketchum, these are my pals Misty and Brock, and this little guy is my trusty companion, Pikachu.”

Joey took a few more breaths to relax from his shock with this dragon-fish thing.

 “Hey, I’m Joey. Nice to meet you. Can you tell me what this giant fish wanted from me? First it was red and had these creepy big eyes, then it attacked me and when I defended myself it grew and wanted to eat me! This is so creepy!”

”Ehmm… that was a Gyarados.” Brock said.

“Gyros? Oh I love gyros…”

“No” Ash said laughing. “A Gyarados. That’s a Pokémon.”

“A Poké-what?”

“You have never heard of Pokémon? Where did you grow up? On a lonely island?” Misty said.

“Ehmm… no I grew up in Brooklyn.”

“Is that in Jotho?”

Joey looked confused at Brock. “Why the hell should I live in a Yoyo?”

Ash started to laugh and Misty joined him pretty fast. Brock shook his head with a big smile on his face and sat down on the sand. “We should make a break and Joey can tell us, what happened to him.”

“Maybe he lost his memories…” Ash whispered into Brock's ear.

“I can hear you Cash and no I didn’t lose my memories. Everything is still in here.” Joey pointed at his head and laughed together with Ash.

“I like you” Ash said and Pikachu sat right next to Ash down.

“Actually I was worried I wouldn’t find anyone in these parts. Have any of you seen four guys around? They should be around here, unless they left me here alone and drove off somewhere. They’re all around my age, well, except Chris. He’s the old man of the group but you wouldn’t tell if you hung around him for more than a minute.”

“No I’m sorry” Misty replied. “We just came out of the forest and the first person we saw was you.”

“Oh ok… Speaking of age, how old are you fellas?”

“Uh, ten years old”, Ash replied.

“Ten? Shouldn’t you be in school or something? Where are your parents?”

“School? What’s that? Listen, Mister, I’m scouring the region to become the number one ranked Pokémon master and I’m not getting back home until I come home with the Indigo Pokémon League trophy. I only need few more badges to qualify for the upcoming tournament. Now, if you excuse me, we’re headed to Saffron City to get my Marsh Badge.”

 “Oh really? Can I come with? Maybe I’ll find my friends along the way or at least find a phone to find my way home.”

“Ash, we wanted to make a break, did you forget that? We are hungry and the Pokémon need a break. Look at Pikachu.”

“Yeah you are right. We make a little break and then we can all go together to Saffron City.”

Misty was apprehensive of letting this older stranger tag along with them. Sure, he had a benign smile, but they couldn’t trust anyone these days. What if he were a Pokémon poacher or a flunky from Team Rocket. “Ash, can we really trust this guy?”

“Don’t be uptight, Misty.  Keep this up and no guy will ever want to marry you.”

“What did you say?! I swear, when you pay me back for my bike that you destroyed, I’m heading back to join my sisters at the Cerulean gym.”

“Okay, lovebirds. Break it up you two. We better hurry with eating and get to the nearest city by sundown. This guy seems nice enough. He doesn’t appear to have anything but clothes on his back. We’ll just take him to the Pokémon station and be on our way”, Brock seemed to be the mediator of the bickering pair.

“You’re welcome to follow us, Joey. I know you’ll find someone you recognize there.”

“Lead the way, kiddo. I’m not familiar at all with this turf.” Joey and the others started to cook some stuff from the food Brock had in his bag pack. “So, can anyone tell me what the hell that creature was? One moment, it was a stupid fish and the next it morphed into some big-ass sea dragon. And how’d you teach your chinchilla to do that trick with the zapping? Dude, that was awesome.”

Ash turned around in confusion, “Huh, Chinchilla? Pikachu’s a mouse-type Pokémon. As for the Pokémon you were being chased by back there, I’ll look it up on my Pokédex.” He took out a little electronic booklet from his pocket, pressed a few buttons till it showed a picture of the menacing dragon and spoke in a monotonous prerecorded voice, “Gyarados, water-type, also known as the Atrocious Pokémon. It evolves from Magikarp and attacks with “Dragonbreath and Dragon Rage.”

“Does that answer your question, Joey?” Ash looked up to the taller man.

“Oh is that what that thing was. Yeah, that’s what I thought it was”, Joey fibbed. He didn’t want to pester the gang with any more questions after realizing how ridiculous he was sounding to them. He had strong inkling that he wasn’t in Florida anymore. The last thing he’d want was to be ditched by Ash’s group and lost in the middle of this strange place. 

“It seems like you really have no idea of Pokémon…” Misty said quietly.

“How should I? This was the first time I saw one.”

“But how could you live without seeing any Pokémon?” Brock asked friendly.

“Actually, when I tell you my story, you will think I’m crazy… it’s too distracting to understand.”

“Try to” Ash said with a big smile on his face.

“Ehmm, ok.” Joey told the guys all what happened. Some background stuff like the *NSYNC thing and that black whole thing.

“So... you fell into a black whole and now you are here?” Misty raised an eyebrow.

Joey sighed. He knew they wouldn’t believe him. He watched the Pikachu thing and the other Pokémon, while they were playing on the grass.

“I think you say the truth.” Ash said.

“WHAT?” Misty couldn’t believe what Ash just said. She made a real funny face, when she heard it.

“Sure. In this world nothing is impossible. I trust Joey and I’m sure he told the truth.”

“Thanks” Joey said smiling.

“But how do you want to come into your own universe?”

Joey sighed. “I have no idea.”

Before all four guys could think of a solution a thick mist of gas appeared and encased the guys. All had to cuff because of the gas and closed their eyes.

When the mist was away, they saw a man, a girl and a cat standing there with the Pikachu in their arms.

“Prepare for trouble/and make it double/to protect the world from devastation/to unite all people within our nation/to denounce the evil of truth and love/to extend our reach to the stars above..."

“JESSE”, a lady showing herself whom Joey thought could be hot if she didn’t have ridiculously long red hair.

“JAMES”, a young blue-haired man approached from the other side.

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light! Surrender now or prepare to fight”, the two aggressors finishing their bizarre speech.

“Meowth, that’s right! Now hand over your Pikachu”, the talking cat appeared alongside the two campy weirdoes. “Looks like the twerps have company.”

“Who are they? Some traveling circus act”, Joey asked Brock.

“That’s Team Rocket. They’re always up to no good.”

“You’re not getting your sticky hands anywhere near my Pikachu!”

“We already have it. And you won’t get it back.” Jessie laughed out loud, still holding the Pikachu in her arms.

“Hey Cash” Joey said. “Can’t you do that electric trick with this Pikachu again?”

Ash smiled brightly. “Sure. Pikachu, Thunder Shock Attack!”

“Piiiiiikaaaaachuuuuuuuu.”

The guys all got a shock by Pikachu and let it fall.

Out of nowhere, a round pink creature with pointed ears popped out of nowhere and began singing.

“Oh no, it’s a Jigglypuff! Let’s get outta here!,” yelled Meowth. The other members of Team Rocket also panicked at the sight of it. 

“Why are those guys freaking out? Is that another one of those Polka-mon? Is it dangerous?”

“Cover your ears, Joey. Don’t listen to its lullaby”, Misty warned.

Then Jigglypuff started to sing. Even if Misty warned them, all guys were about to sleep.

When they woke up it was already night. Joey opened his eyes and looked around him. When he saw the faces of the others, he had to laugh pretty loudly.

The others woke up too and looked confused at Joey. “Why are you laughing so loud?” Ash said still tired.

“You should see your faces!” Joey said grinning.

“Yours is colored too…”

“What?” Joey jumped up and tried to get the black color away from his face.

“We can do that later guys. We wanted to reach the next city, before its night and now it’s dark. We should go on. We aren’t safe in nature by night.”

All agreed. Quietly they went away, letting Team Rocket sleep, and walked along the beach to reach the next city.

JC slowly opened his eyes. He sat up and held his head. It was hurting. When the pain left slowly away, he started to look around where he was. He was sitting on the top of a skyscraper. He was wondering, how he came up to on the building.

He stood up and looked down on the city. This definitely didn’t look like Orlando. The whole town was built up. There were just a few trees, but no real green flats. JC rubbed his eyes. Maybe this was a bad dream.

He pinched himself and opened his eyes again, but he was still there. JC sighed. It didn’t make any sense to stay there, so he decided to go downstairs and to look at the town.

When he came down on the street, it was a little alley not far away from the main street, when a boy in the age of 16 came his way. He had such a weird thing in his hands.

“Damn, why am I always losing?” he mumbled to himself. JC raised an eyebrow. The guy looked at him and saw the confused sight in JC’s face.

Angrily he screamed: “I know that I’m a loser!” and threw the weird thing in his hands fitful into JC’s direction.

JC caught the thing and looked confused at it. It was something like a bangle to put on your hand, but what he should do exactly with that thing… he had no idea.

He decided to search for other people to ask where he was. He came to the main street and saw a couple of people, having the same weird thing on their hands. It had a round basement, it was white with blue glass in the middle, and it had to trapezoid tiling mounted. In the round basement was a rectangular whole, where all of them put cards into it.

JC looked at his one and saw that there were also cards in there. But he had no idea what to do. He stuck this thing at his arm, like the others did and looked for a nice guy to ask, what he was going to do with it.

When he made his way, he ran accidently into a big guy. He fell on the ground groaning out of the little pain he felt and looked if something fell on the floor.

The guy he ran into turned around and looked angrily at him.

“Hey you, watch out where you are going!”

“I’m sorry” JC said and stood up.

The guy felt kind of provoked and grabbed JC’s shirt. “Do you want to get cheeky?”

JC raised an eyebrow. “Ehmm… no, I…”

The guy threw him on the ground again. “It’s time to teach you a lesson, idiot.” He put his arm in front of his chest and said “It’s time for a duel!”

The weird thing on his arm activated. The blue glass started to glow and the tiling carted out. It shined and on a little display appeared the number 4000.

JC still lied on the floor, not knowing what to do.

“What are you waiting for?” The guy asked.

JC was about to stay up, when a smaller guy with purple hair and blond highlights ran to him and helped him to stay up.

“Thank you” JC mumbled.

The guy smiled at JC and said: “It’s ok. My name is Yugi.”

“My name is JC. Listen. This guy said it’s time for a duel, but to be honest, I have no idea what he meant.”

“He wants to play duel monsters with you.”

“Duel Monsters?”

Surprised Yugi looked at JC. “You don’t know Duel Monsters?”

JC shook his head. The guy JC ran into laughed out loud and screamed: “This idiot has a duel disc and isn’t able to play Duel Monsters.”

Some other people around laughed loud. Slowly a whole bunch of people were staying around them to watch the duel.

“And how should I play, when I’m not able to play it?”

Yugi smiled. “I will play this game for you…”

“No you won’t!” The guy said madly. “But I’m a nice person… the dwarf is allowed to help you.”

“Hey” Yugi protested, but the guy just laughed.

JC put a hand on Yugi’s shoulder and said: “Calm down… I need your help with this weird game…”

Yugi nodded and went with JC to the opposite side of the guy.

Yugi helped JC to activate his Duel Disc and his opposite screamed directly: “My Turn!”

“You have to draft five cards at the beginning.” JC nodded and pulled out five cards. He looked at them. He had three cards with weird monsters on it, one green card with a blue cross on it and one purple card which showed a woman with purple skin and blue hair and she had something weird in her hands.

“That are good cards for the beginning” Yugi whispered. JC smiled, but wasn’t sure, what he should think of this weird world.

“Did you finish your coffee party? I make my first move now!” The guy pulled out a sixth card and smiled brightly. “That’s an awesome start. I play the Red Archery Girl in attack mode and two hidden cards. That’s it.”

JC frightened, when he saw a real monster coming out of the ground. It was a giant mussel with eyes. It opened its mouth and a mermaid with green hair and bow appeared.

“What the hell is that?”

The guy on the other side laughed loudly. “This idiot is afraid of the hologram!”

Defensive Yugi screamed: “Stop laughing. It’s ok if you’ve never seen a projection of a monster!”

“Whatever… instead of giving me advices, you should make your move!”

JC starred at his cards, not knowing what to do. Yugi smiled at him and began to explain. He pointed at a monster. “This is a monster card. You can call it up and it appears on your field in front of you, like the Red Archery Girl did. These monsters have attack and defend points. Your aim is it to get a stronger monster than your opposing player. In Attack mode you can assail the opposing monster, in defending mode you can protect your life points. The life points are the 4000 points, which are shown on the duel disc. The duel ends, when one of both players doesn’t have any life points.”

JC nodded. “Sounds logical.”

Yugi smiled. “Yes” then he pointed at the green card with the cross on it. “This is a magic card. There are different types of it. Some amplify your monsters, some give your life points back. You can read down there what each card can do.” At least Yugi pointed at the purple card. “This is a trap card. Most of them activate, when the oppose monsters are attacking you. Some of them protect your monsters, some protect your life points. How each one is working is standing on each card too. If you want to play a magic or trap card directly, you play it open, otherwise you hide it. If it’s a trap card, which is destroying the attacking monster, you hid it, so your oppose enemy doesn’t know what is under the card. Same with the magic card. You can also play a monster card hidden, but just in defending mode. You can’t attack with a hidden monster. At least there is one rule you have to think of, when you want to play monster cards. Monster with 4 stars or less can be played without restrictions. But if a monster has five or six stars you have to offer up a monster to play it and monsters with 7 stars and more need two offers. Anyways I’m at your side the whole game. If there are still questions, I can answer them during the match.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Now drag your first card.”

JC nodded and pulled out the card on the top of the deck of cards. It was a monster card. Summoned Skull stood on the top of the card.

“This is a real good card!” Yugi said smiling.

His attacking points were about 2500 and his defending points about 1200.

“Yes, but it has 6 stars…” JC said disappointed.

“That’s ok” Yugi said smiling. “In your first move you mostly play a monster with four stars or less. Like this one.” Yugi pointed on another monster card in JC’s hands. It said ‘Obnoxious Celtic Guard’.

“That’s a good card to start with” Yugi said. “Play it in attack mode.”

JC nodded and played the card. Now on his side the monster appeared as a hologram. It was an elf in a green and brown armor and he held a big sword in his both hands. His attack points were about 1400, just like the points of the Red Archery Girl.

Yugi pointed on the trap card in JC’s hands. “Play it hidden and finish your move.”

JC nodded and did how Yugi said.

“Have you finally done your move? God, you are annoying me. I will conquer you as fast as possible.” He said with an evil grin on his face.

“I finished my move” JC said and the guy took a new card into his hands.

“My Grandma plays faster than you do” the guy laughed and looked at his new card. “Nice. I’m sacrificing my Red Archery Girl and play Jinzo!”

JC looked confused at the monster. It looked like a tall, baldness cyborg. His eyes, nose and mouth were hidden behind a green mask and he wore something like a robe.

“You think he is strong with his 2600 attack points? Then see his effect! As long as Jinzo is on my field, you can’t play any trap cards!”

JC swallowed.

“Suddenly Yugi seemed to change. From one to the other second he appeared with much more confidence and he had this look in his eyes, that both are going to make it, even if the situation right at the beginning was bad for them.

“Jinzo destroy the Obnoxious Celtic Guard!” the guy said and Jinzo attacked.

Desperately JC looked at his life point counter. Now he just had 2600 life points. One attack from this Jinzo thing and it was over…

“I finished my move.”

JC drew a new card. It said pot of greed. Unsure JC looked over to Yugi. He nodded. “Ehmm… I play Pot of Greed. Now I can draw two more cards.”

“Wow… that was the first of your moves that made sense.”

JC ignored the comment and took the two more cards into his hands. One of them was the Dark Magician and the other one Graceful Charity. JC looked at his cards and saw the card Monster Reborn.

“I hope this is working…” JC said. “I play Graceful Charity. I put two of my cards to the graveyard and can draw three more cards.”

“Your cards have to suck, if you need to draw so many new cards”

Again JC just ignored the comment. He took the Dark Magician and another monster and put it on the graveyard. Then he drew three new cards.

“Ehmm… now I play… Monster Reborn. And I want my Dark Magician to come back.”

Yugi smiled. “That was an awesome move.”

JC blushed a bit and took the card Dark Magician from the graveyard and played it in attack mode.

“Wait… you just had the Obnoxious Celtic Guard. When did your Dark Magician come to your graveyard?”

“When I played Graceful Charity.” JC answered confused.

“Whatever. Your magician is not strong enough to beat my Jinzo.”

“It doesn’t have to…” JC said hesitantly.

“What? Why?!”

JC showed Yugi one of his new drawn cards which said ‘Soul Taker’. “Can I play this card now?”

Surprised Yugi looked at JC. “Are you sure that you play this game the first time?”

JC nodded.

“You have a talent for this game. Yes you can play it.”

JC smiled. “Ok, I play Soul Taker. I can pick one of your monsters and destroy it and you lose 1000 life points.”

“That… that can’t be!”

JC played the card and the guy had to watch desperately, how his loving Jinzo got destroyed.

“Now I play the second of my three drawn cards Giant Trunade. Now all of our trap and magic cards go back in our hands.”

The guy just stared at JC, not knowing what to do.

“Now you definitely have no trap card on your side. Ehmm Yugi… can I attack his…”

“Yes you can. You can attack his life points directly.”

“Ok… yeah Dark Magician. Attack him.”

The guy had to watch how his life points dropped to 1500 points.

“Ehmm Yugi, Can I tribute the Dark Magician to play the Summoned Skull now?”

“No!” the guy screamed. “You just can play one monster per move!”

Yugi laughed. “But he never played a monster from his hand in this move.”

“What?”

“Yes, he played Monster Reborn to play the Dark Magician, so yes, he can do that.”

“Ok… Then I tribute my Dark Magician and play the Summoned Skull. He has 2500 attack points and you have no cards on your field. That means…”

“I lost this game” His opposite said shocked.

The hologram of the Summoned Skull, which looked like a demon who was just made of bones and muscles, attacked the guy, who sank on his knees, and the opposite life points went down on zero.

“You made it!” Yugi said happily. Now he seemed to be normal again. JC wondered, but didn’t ask for it.

The crowed started to whisper and JC just got a few words like “Awesome” and “No duel with him”.

Yugi went to the guy. “The Battle City Rules say that you must give JC your most rarely card and your Locator Card.”

The guy gave them to Yugi, when he heard someone screaming behind him. Yugi and JC turned around and saw how a tall blond guy with brown eyes ran in their direction, screaming: “He has stolen my Jinzo card!”

The guy used the situation, when Yugi didn’t pay attention and just ran away.

“Joey, what is wrong?” Yugi asked worried and went towards Joey, who was breathing hard.

“This guy has stolen my Jinzo and my Locator Card!”

Joey looked on Yugi’s hands and asked confused: “Hey, where did you get them?”

Yugi smiled. “JC won them for you”

“JC?”

Yugi pointed on JC and JC just winked shyly.

“Oh, ok.”

“When these are your cards, then take them back.”

“Thanks” Joey said smiling.

“What are these Locator Cards?”

Confused Joey looked at JC.

“Wait, you don’t have any of these?” Yugi asked.

JC shook his head. “Like I said this was my first game. And I actually just have this Duel Disc thing and the cards, because a little boy came into my direction, screamed at me that he was such a bad player and gave it to me.”

Joey raised an eyebrow. “Show me the cards.”

JC gave him the cards and was smiling, when he heard Joey fangirling about all these cards.

Yugi watched with him. “I don’t know what the guy’s problem was. This is a real good deck.”

“Yeah and so many rarely cards in there. Even the Black Magician and the Magician of Black Chaos!”

“What?” Yugi asked surprised and watched the card with Joey.

“JC came to both guys and looked with them. “Is that a good card?”

“A good card?” Joey asked surprised. “This is the card Yugi used to beat Pegasus!”

“Who is that?” JC asked.

“Ehmm… just the inventor of Duel Monsters?” Joey went down to Yugi. “Where did you drag up this guy?”

Yugi laughed. “But Joey is right, I don’t know much about you JC. Tell us something.”

“If I would tell you, you won’t believe me anyways…”

Joey and Yugi raised an eyebrow.

“Try to…”

“Ehmm… ok. Please try to believe me, even if it sounds unbelievable.”

Joey and Yugi nodded. All three guys went into a side street and when nobody could listen, JC started to tell the whole story.

Yugi and Joey both looked at each other with a serious expression on their face.

“Sounds like this weird realm of the shades, if you ask me.”

Yugi nodded. “This was Marik’s work. But why did he take a guy from another place?”

JC sighed. “Actually I have another theory. You said this Duel Monsters game is popular on the whole world, but I have never heard of this. Maybe we should think of that I am not in a different place, maybe I am in another dimension… Like this realm of the shades is another dimension too as you said.”

“That could be… but how can we get you back?”

JC sighed. “I have no idea… I guess I have to find this Marik and ask him for letting me go back to my universe.”

“Yes” Yugi said. “And we want to find this Marik too. So you are not alone.”

JC smiled. “Thank you guys.”

“What are friends for?” Yugi said smiling.