Nyx started up the stairs to an upstairs room in the "Otaku no Mori." 'Who was that strange woman in the trench coat and REALLY REALLY high-heeled boots? And how could she walk in those damn things?' These and many other thoughts jumbled in her mind. Nyx tossed he keys on the side table and stared out the window.

Konan country spread bofore her like a scene out of "Seven Years in Tibet"-how she hated that movie- or something out of "Kung Fu: the Legend Continues." Was this really ancient China? Where was MSMC? Where the *hell* was L.A.?!? Her world had vanished in a matter of seconds, blending into the ether of this other, newly found territory.

She couldn't think. She DIDN'T WANT TO THINK. She NEEDED HER COFFEE!!!

"Coffee....need...must have....COFFEE."

"Here you go." A familliar male voice spoke up kindly.

Nyx jumped from the suprise and landed on her side, totally missing the bed by a mere two inches. "Where? Who? What now?!?" Her eyes trained down to the floor, to a steaming cup of hot java. Speedily she crawled over to it and gulped it down--fast.

"Better now?" the other, seemingly disembodied voice spoke again.

"Chia?"

The little kitty had materialized and was sitting on the floor wehre the coffee had been.

Nyx scrambled to her feet. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your guide. You've met Celeste, I see."

"Celeste?" Nyx thought of the black-haired girl in the trenchcoat. "Oh her. Well, yeah. She freaked me out."

"You have to go follow her."

"Why for?"

"She is an Otaku, like yourself."

"You mean I have to fight her? The nut case? Yeah right. Anyways, I don't know where she ran off to. And I don't care, either. I just want to go back home."

Chia jumped onto the bed. "Come on, follow me." Chia waved his paw and a door way opened up.

"What the--?"

"It's the Mobuis Continum."

But all Nyx culd say was, "Duh?"

Chia rolled his eyes at her. "Teleportation? I'm sure you've heard of it. Now step through."

Nyx was hesitant.

"Come on. It won't eat you up."

"If I end up in the middle of WWII or somethin' you're gonna loose one of your lives, kitty-cat." With that, Nyx clenched her fists and squinted her eyes at the brightness of the pale-blue light.

London.

The traffic noise boomed from the other end of the doorway. Nyx had stepped out into an alley.

"That was fast." She waved her hand just as Chia had and the doorway vanished. "Hope nobody saw that," she said under breath. "Now to find that nut-case."

Nyx needn't have looked far. The black-haired girl and her little buddy were crossing the street. Celeste looked to be upbraiding her coleage about something, but Nyx could not hear what it was she was going on and on about.

Nyx wondered whether she should go after her incognito, or jump her. "Oh what the hell." she shrugged. "Hey! Hey you, chica!"

The black-haired girl stopped dead in her tracks. The girl's meet eye to eye. They were within five yeard from each other.

Nyx felt a strange "buzz" - like a really bad cramp, but it ran through her entire body. She saw that the girl felt the same thing.

"Kuso!" said Nyx, realizing that she had spoken in another language. Nyx caught a glimpse of something flaming reeling towards her. She dodged it and rolled to the ground. When she recovered she saw the black-haired girl holding a flaming baseball bat! "What the hell are you doing?"

But the girl seemed to be on a rampage.

"Baka, I don't want to fight you!"

"Face me in battle!" Celeste cried, she was swing that bat like deranged looney.

Nyx had to think fast, or she was going to be crispy around the edges. What to do? What to do? She had nothing on her. Then her eye spotted the lid of a trash can, one of those steel ones. A glimmer of maliciousness flashed in her eye. It wasn't a shield, but it would have to do.

Celeste charged at her in full speed, clutching her flamming base ball bat. Nyx jumped out of her way, leaping over Celeste's head, but the other girl was able to singe the tail end of Nyx's trench coat.

Nyx grabbed her trench coat to examine the damage. The fire in her eyes grew stronger and her eyes glowed an ominous yellow.

Celeste stood her ground.

"You nuked my coat," said Nyx, her anger rising. "You f---ing nuked my coat!!!" Nyx threw the trash lid like a discus. Both she and Celeste watched as it crshed into Bob, who had been minding his own business, standing at the mouth of the alley. Bob dropped like a stone--dead. Celeste ran to him.

"Bob!" Celeste was towering over her dead friend. "Aw, poor Bob."

Nyx walked over to them, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry....I....I didn't mean it for him. Is he?"

Celeste shrugged. "Oh yeah. He's dead." She said casually. Bob's body meshed back into the background.

Celeste reached into her HammerSpace and pulled out another Bob.

"Wha--what?"

"Oh, it's my HammerSpace. You've got one."

"I do?"

"Yeah, it's a rule. We all do."

"What's a HammerSpace?"

Celly thought for a moment of how to explain it. "Well you know how in movies people just seem to have things in their hand one minute and it wasn't there a second before?"

Nyx noded.

"Well, that's where the Hammerspace comes in."

"Oh, I see." Nyx extends her hand. "I'm Vi--uh...Nyx." They shake hands, Greek-style, hand to arm.

"You're new at this, kid. I can see that." Celeste glanced at Nyx's pale-blue aura. Celly placed her arm around Nyx's shoulder. "Stick with me, kid. You've got a lot to learn."

to be continued...