OSA Reimeiki

Sometime far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, yet not that far into the future, two devious minds began plotting... Let's start at the beginning of their story, shall we?

"I've done it! Hahaha!" the 11-year-old girl crows, dragging her 15-year-old brother down the stairs into the basement.

Stumbling behind her, having his arm pulled (more like yanked out of its socket) by his sister, the boy sighs, "What did you do this time? Mother would kill you if she found out."The girl gave the boy a scathing glare that would have melted the feathers off a dove. "Don't be stupid."The boy snatches his arm back and shouts, "Shut up, stupid sister! Jeez, I need to go work on my project and if you're just wasting my time here--"

"Ok, ok, calm down! You know, Dad was right when he said you should work on your temper. Go listen to some calming Beethoven or something.""I refuse to listen to a composer who has a dog named after him."

"You're being irrational."

"So what if I am?"

"You know what... never mind."

"No! No, you started saying something so go on and finish it," the boy leaned back against the stair banister and glared at his sister.

Suddenly, a weird purplish glow came from the cracks of closed door right beside them.The boy gives a start, "What was-- Hey! That's your laboratory! I knew it! You're dealing in illicit chemicals!"

"No! Stop jumping to conclusions about my stuff! Come on, I blow up the house just once and everyone's on my case? I was just trying to create a robotic orchestra that could create its own music based on baton movements," the girl snaps back."And you managed to blow up the house... how?" the boy rolls his eyes."You know what-- Never mind. Let me just show you this piece of junk I fixed up," the girl unlocks the door with a retina, fingerprint, and voice scan.

Inside the room, was a giant machine with all sorts of gauges, pipes, tubes, screens, the works."Whoa... where the heck did you dig this up from?!" the boy runs his fingers over a still slightly-rusted pipe, seemingly awestruck.The girl grins triumphantly, folding her arms in a smug manner, "I found it in the third level of our basement, where mom and dad keep their old junk. I hauled it up to my lab and fixed it up. It's really quite interesting.""Ok, sounds good," says the boy, tapping a screen lightly with his fingertip, and adds, "But do you have any idea what this is used for?""Nope, not a clue. All I know is that mom and dad were keeping this in their third floor secured closet, and while I was working on it, I found the initials A.C. were on the back. Probably the initials of the scientist who made this."

The boy gasps, "A.C? That can't be mom's friend, the one who lives in a mental asylum, can it?""No, don't be ridiculous. I remember meeting her once before, when Dad forced you to Carnegie Hall with him. Her name was... Anne, or Annette, or Anana... something like that. I strongly doubt that she was interested in something like this... she looked more interested in the cookies on the table than our paintings on the walls."

"And how do we know this isn't some sort of a giant oven for baking cookies?" the boy counters.

"Oh come on, have you ever seen an oven give off flashes of purple light?" the girl retorts, crossing her arms again."Hey, anything is possible. Just look at our parents."

"True, true..."

"Oh hey, what's this star shaped indent doing on the machine?"

"Ehh, I don't know yet, but I'm working on manufacturing a replacement for it. I believe it's some sort of a key to unlocking the inside of this machine."

At that moment, two voices from upstairs called to the kids:"Dinner! Come eat, you maggots! Before the food gets cold and moldy!"

The girl rolls her eyes, "Tch, Mom. Always so loving."

The boy chuckles a bit and claps her on the shoulder, "Hey, you know that Mother loves us. She's just a bit weird at how she shows it. If she really didn't care, she would have poisoned our food a long time ago just to see the effects of her experiments on live human beings."A slightly higher-pitched voice sing-songs, "Commmmme! Chooose the music toniiight with me, my dear children!"The boy sighs and yells back, "Can't you just choose yourself, Father? We really don't ca-- mmph!"

The girl claps her hand over his mouth, "Shut up! I love choosing music with Dad! I'm heading up."

"Fine, fine! Oy vey... I can't believe you're actually my sister. I can't stand you sometimes."

"And vice versa," came the snappy reply. The two left the lab for dinner.

Midway up the spiral staircase, the boy suddenly remembers something. "Oh uhh, hey, I forgot to do something, tell everyone not to wait for me."

"Wait! Where are you going--" the girl turns around. Too late. Her brother was gone.

She scratches her head, "Sometimes, I just don't understand him. Oh well. More food for me."

In the meantime, the boy had returned to his room via secret passageway. "Damn it! I can't believe she found out about the dimension-travelling machine! I had been working on that for years! It took me months just to figure out what it was! Arrrgh," the boy paces furiously, burning a ring into his carpet. Coming to a sudden halt, he realizes something, "But wait! She can't possibly duplicate the star key, so my secret is safe... But I should not underestimate her... after all, she shares most of my DNA..."

Beep! Beep! Ding! A small red light on a panel flickers on. The boy snaps his head around, "What?! Now?! This is terrible timing! Ugh!" The boy grabs his cloak and his voice-deepener device and slides open a hidden door under his bookshelf. He slips in and closes it behind him leaving nothing out of place.

There is a flash of purple light.----Back at the present time period in the dimension of the human-wolf-hawks, everyone (Emily, Kyna, Nicole, Catherine, Maria, Anna, Diya, Aaron, Jessica and John, Rosita, Mitchell, and Wenhao) had finally arrived at the Sector Base. Rachel invited everyone into the room, and closed the door behind them with a swish of her tail."Now, down to business, I--"

Rachel is interrupted by a deep, gravelly voice."Why are their intruders in the Sector C Base, Squad Leader Rachel?"Rachel gasps and whirls around, startled. "I-I'm sorry, Elder Wenrin, but I deemed the action prudent at the time."Uhh, sorry to interrupt, but who are you talking to?" Nicole scratches her head.

A light turns on overhead, revealing an electronic screen. On it, the image of a cloaked figure, whose face was obscured by the shadows. "She is speaking to me, High Elder of the Pack. I am known as Wenrin the Great!"

"Wenrin? What kind of a stupid name is that? Who in their right mind would name their offspring 'Wenrin'?" Catherine snorts, displaying her usual lack of respect.

Wenrin growls, "I know, I think it's stupid too. My name is supposed to be a portmanteau of my parents' names. My father thought it was cute."

Staring dreamily off into space, Wenhao squeals and says, "That really is so cute! When I have a child, I'm going to name him or her after my beautiful wife and myself." Catherine laughs mockingly, "Oh? And what kind of a fool would EVER marry you?"

Diya steps between them, "Ok guys, stop fighting like a married couple." Catherine punches Diya in the head. Acting as if nothing had happened, Diya goes on, "So, Elder Wenrin, tell us more about this place and how we came to be here." Wenrin scratches his chin. "To tell the truth, I have no idea how you intruders stumbled upon my land either. How about you tell me your story, and I'll try to help you."

Secretly, in his head, Wenrin had his suspicions of the travellers, especially of the three who were just talking. Two of them seemed oddly familiar, and the third, the one who had demanded that he figure out their predicament was slightly scrambling his electronic signals. Perhaps a magnetic resonance field of some sort? Hmm. This calls for further observation.

The person had just finished telling her story when Wenrin tuned in on two key words.He snaps to attention, "Wait, star key? Star key box? Where did you get that?" Aaron steps forward and shows him the box, holding the star pieces in his other hand. "These. I am the scientist who invented this. However, since stepping foot on your land, these mutants have been claiming that the star key belongs to them. I ask you though, how can it? I invented this with my own two hands."

Wenrin frowns. "What is your name, scientist?"

"Aaron. Aaron Chan. You can call me Channie. But why do you care?" With a 'blip' sound effect, the screen went black."What the hell? What was that all about?" Aaron wonders.

---

Wenrin returns from this hidden room, the sound of his own breathing thundering in his ears."Aaron Chan. A.C. I found him... I found the scientist! All my questions will be answered now, once I kidnap that guy!"

A voice interrupts from his doorway. "What's this about kidnapping people? Are you scheming again?"

Wenrin glances up to find his sister leaning on his door frame, with a Cheshire cat grin on her face."Shut up, Cathow. You're stupid."