The Ether..

[Carthrat]

Kaoru felt the calling of Order, the tugging on her body, mind and soul as a gap between worlds came to swallow her up..

Then a sudden, biting pain! It was like being impaled by a spear in the middle of a searing furnace and harrassed by a horde of flesh-eating wasps while immersed in a tank of pirahnas..

Kaoru blacked out.

<->

When she woke up, she was laying face-up on a patch of grass.

A patch of grass on a floating island in the sky, mind. All around her was fog and clouds, and she could only see a few feet in any direction.

Yahiko was nowhere to be seen, but her recently-acquired sword was in her grasp..

[Bean Bandit]

Bean groaned as she opened her eyes, then looked around, blinking. "What...Oh great. What now?" she sat up, wincing at the protest of her muscles, still recovering from the agony previously and looked around.

"A floating island in the clouds." She murmured, her eye beginning to twitch. "I don't think we're in Toto anymore, Kansas."

[Carthrat]

As Kaoru awoke, the fog seemed to clear...

She was indeed on a floating island, and the grassy spot she was in was in fact a mere five-metre by five-metre bit of land in the middle of the sky.

However, nearby, just within jumping distance, were two other islands; one which was lower than the one she was on, and one higher. Looking further, she could see many, many more patches, as if she was on some kind of giant staircase..

[Bean Bandit]

"Kami-sama..." She looked down. "No, I'm still Kaoru...So why the hell am I in the middle of a fucking Mario Brothers game?"

She sighed, and set her jaw. "Stop swearing...keep your cool...Argh." She pushed herself to her feet, and straightened her clothing. "Up or down..." she mused, clutching her sword.

"Well, I'll go up until it gets hard to breathe, I guess..." she decided, walking to the edge, gathering her legs under her and leaped up to the next little island. Tucking her sword into her obi, she prepared to repeat the process...

[Carthrat]

A few jumps, and Kaoru transcended the sky..

Against the stars and blackness of space, she saw, stretched before her.. an amusement park.

A great sign, with 'Space Land' printed on it in big bold letters stood in the distance. But the amusement park seemed dead; no lights were flashing, no rides were moving, nothing was happening.

Kaoru was standing on a high, high summit; the topmost patch of green. But from there, it was a straight stretch of rocky mountain. However, a short once-over confirmed that is was merely an angled surface painted to look like a mountain; she could probably climb down it and not fall down, if she was careful about it.

[Bean Bandit]

Bean glared at the sight before her, sighing. "Okay, maybe it's a Douglas Adams' novel. Well, no sense wasting time whining...someone is busily yanking my chain...I guess I should find out who..."

Carefully, she began easing her way down the painted surface, muttering about Alice in Wonderland.

[Carthrat]

Kaoru made her way down the mountain, eventually ending up in...

..what appeared to be a train station. A futuristic train station. There was some kind of rollercoaster set up on it, but no visible tracks. From what she could see in the station, she was in some kind of amusement park.

Near the station was obviously a queue line, leading up onto a platform which she could easily hop onto. There was a ticket booth near the entrance to the line.

The eerie silence seemed louder than a truck..

[Bean Bandit]

Bean stared at the setup, feeling oddly unnerved by the whole situation. "Well...It can't be leading to doom, 'cause if they the power to nab me and bring me here, all this effort to kill me seems unlikely." She said to herself as she walked up to the ticket booth and peered inside.

"Yeah, right. How often does anyone do things the logical way?" She murmured. "What I really need, is someone to come here and tell me I can't go on the train because I have no money." She mused.

[Carthrat]

The ticket booth was empty of life. It had been collecting dust; there were numerous inconsequential theme-park related posters (Ride the Crashing Sattelite today! Sick bags provided!), and perhaps more importantly, a broken till. There was a dent in it, and it was open. It was mostly empty, but there were a few coins and a note floating around in there. They were all marked with a W with two horizontal strokes through it.

Added all up, there was exactly 2900 units of currency there.

After she checked all this, Kaoru saw, in the night sky, what appeared to be a kind of plane landing somewhere to the north, about a half a kilometre away..

[Bean Bandit]

Bean sweatdropped, as she recognized the symbol. "I have such a bad feeling about this..." she mused and sighed, lifting the money from the till.

Sparing a glance up at the plane, she frowned, staring for a moment as she weaved her way up the queue line, trying to make out anything recognizable...

[Carthrat]

The place was a typical amusement park. It seemed to have a mascot in form of a 'Space Dog' which looked a fair bit like Goofy.

The place contained one giant rollercoaster which encircled the entire area and started from her position, along with very numerous sideshows and stalls.

One of the stalls was selling clothing; general things, like jeans and shirts, typically with a 'Space Land' logo on them.

<->



Abruptly, lights started flashing, fireworks blasted off, and everything in the park seemed to turn on at once.

"It's Showtime!" a chillingly voice bellowed out, and Kaoru started to hear gunshots coming from near where the plane landed. Thankfully, they weren't directed at her. The rollercoaster behind her started up, and rides all around followed suit..

[Bean Bandit]

Bean had hesitated in front of the clothing stall, debating the merits of changing out of her Kimono. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, but it was a bit limiting, and she really did desperately want a pair of pants.

However, the loud bellow startled her out of her thoughts, and she hesitated another brief second, then snatched a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from the stall racks, wrapping her sword in them quickly, then bolted for the roller coaster.

I could be wrong, but if it's going without me, then I probably want to be on it. If it waits for me. then I should avoid it...

Going as quickly as she could, she attempted to board the ride, and began nervously looking around for a seat belt, remembering a particularly bad experience...

[Carthrat]

Kaoru rushed towards the rollercoaster as quickly as she could.. but navigating the queue line wasn't exactly easy to do in such a short time, and the 'coaster left without her.

More gunshots could be heard, and what's more, they were getting closer.

[Bean Bandit]

Bean growled softly to herself. "Damn. Yeah, I bet I wanted to be on that..."

She whirled, and began scanning her surrounding for shelter, looking for a basement, or really thick walls...

[Carthrat]

A basement wasn't around in plain sight, but there was a nearby ride, called the 'Hypertron' that looked fairly thick. It was basically an enclosed, spherical room, with a radius of about 5 metres. . The door was open and it wasn't moving.