Note: I hope there aren't too many errors, I kind of rushed this into production. I've been working on too many things at once. Adventures In Parodyverse - The Awakening Part 1 (UT#273 tie-in)     Liu Xi woke up in what was unmistakably a dorm room in a boarding school. It reminded her a lot of the Harry Potter movies - small window, and two bunk beds, one at each end of the room. But the similarity ended there, because there were no other guests.          Or so she thought. As she sat up slowly she could see a woman she didn't recognize sitting in a chair facing away from the window, looking through an old textbook. "How did I get here?" was the first question Liu Xi thought to ask.          The woman looked up slowly. "Some of your friends from the Lair Legion brought you here," she replied, her voice sounding friendly enough. "It wasn't safe at the mansion anymore."          "Oh." Liu Xi didn't argue that point. It was something she knew would happen at some point.          "I'm Beth Shellett," the woman told her. "Mumphrey asked me to keep an eye on you. And he asked me to contact a couple friends of yours, they should be along shortly."          "Who?" Liu Xi asked as she tried to slide out of the bed. She suddenly stopped. "I feel...strange," she whispered.          "Well, you were found unconcious," Beth laughed.          "No." Liu Xi shook her head. "I feel like--" She sighed as the words failed her, and looked down at her hands. "--like nothing is real. Because I can...change it."          "If you think you're dreaming I can pinch you."          "Not dreaming," Liu Xi replied calmly. She finally stood and looked out the window. "Awake. I feel like I am awake for the first time."          Beth's smile disappeared. She wished Liu Xi's two friends would hurry up and get there already, she was beginning to worry about the young Chinese girl. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean."          "Something that I touched in the Lair Mansion basement." Liu Xi closed her eyes, and in an instant the room was no longer a dingy, cramped boarding school quarters, but a large mansion-style bedroom with a single, huge bed. "Everything feels so simple now. I feel like...I touched a soul. A strong soul. And...I'm a little afraid."          "That's perfectly normal," Cleone Swanmay said as she glided through the doorway with Lara Night behind her. "Every mage sooner or later has an awakening. You have just experienced yours."     "I don't understand," Liu Xi whispered quietly.          "It's easy," Lara Night explained enthusiastically with her usual smile, "You were working too hard to do simple things with your power, it should have always come naturally to you. You were working hard because you were afraid of what would happen. Now that you're not afraid anymore--"          "I am still afraid," she said. "I mean...not...it's all so confusing."          "You're afraid of what you might be able to do now, which is natural," Lara continued to explain. "It's good for you to set limits on yourself. But now you're not afraid to do what you already knew how--"     "Because it seems like nothing after what I touched," Liu Xi finished.     "Exactly." Lara looked at Cleone, who nodded in agreement. "As for what you touched...the mansion, it has a consciousness. It's a very, very deep consciousness, like...I dunno how to explain it."          "Like a thousand year old mage passing his knowledge to you in a mere instant," Cleone clarified.          "Yes, kinda like that." Lara nodded. "Only you don't really understand what it tells you until you discover it for yourself. I guess that puts you one step ahead of me, Liu Xi, because you discovered some of it."          "Yes." Liu Xi smiled slighly and stared absent-mindedly out the window. "I did. It was amazing. Painful, but amazing. And very frightening."     "What we're saying is, you got a free jump-start," Lara continued on. "You've gone beyond where we can really really be of any help to you. We'll still support you but we're totally lost as to what you can do."          Liu Xi nodded. "Okay. So why am I here?" ---     "It's one of the advantages of being located on a rough side of town," Beth Shellett told the trio of Liu Xi Xian, Lara Night, and Cleone. "Nobody wants to come out here and check on us." She pointed into another room as they passed.          Some of the rooms were filled with fairly standard underpriveledged children without homes. But others contained what could only be described as refugees from the recent unofficial attacks and official roundups due to SR 1066.          "Even cops are afraid to come out here. The neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone," Beth noted again. "The only thing that keeps this place safe from it these days is the Zoot Suit Gang. They offered to protect us for free as long as we don't ask questions."          Liu Xi looked at Lara and smiled, trying not to laugh. "That sounds like one of Yuki's ideas."          "If it is, tell her she has my thanks," Beth told her. She continued walking, headed toward an eventual destination, the kitchen. "We have little money," she continued, "it's a struggle just feeding all these people. But we can't turn them away."          Liu Xi looked at the kitchen and sighed. "I'm very sorry," she whispered, "I don't have money either."     "Sadly, those with the biggest hearts have the emptiest wallets," Beth told her. "Look, to be blunt...I know that something big is coming. Something that'll change the world forever. Sure this place is on a rough side of town, but obscurity and the Zoot Suit Gang can only protect us for so long. And these days we can't exactly ask Hatman to look after all the refugees here."          A dark glance was cast Lara's way by Liu Xi as she Chinese elementalist began to sense a setup. "Why can't you...?" she asked Lara, trying to redirect the focus of the discussion.          "It isn't my place," Lara pointed out calmly. "I don't even live here. What would the people here do if something happened at home and I was forced to abandon them?"          "What if the Parody Master comes for me and I'm forced to leave?" Liu Xi asked.          "Then...I guess I'd have to back you up." Lara smiled at her. "But meanwhile you're a much more...permanent choice."          Liu Xi brushed her hair behind her ear and looked up at Lara with pleading eyes. "I don't think I can handle this right now," she whispered, sounding almost panicked. "I still don't know what has happened to me yet."          Lara offered her a hug, which was quickly accepted. Just as she hugged Liu Xi she whispered to her, "I can fill in for you till you figure it out." She let go and looked the Chinese girl in the eyes. "But I'm sure you can handle this. Hell, you're stronger and smarter than I am."          She nodded, and then glanced at Beth. "Show me the rest of the building, please," she spoke softly. "I need to know what I will be looking after."          Once Beth and Liu Xi left the kitchen, Lara noted an approving smile from Cleone. "What?" Lara asked.          "You seem to be an excellent motivator," Cleone said. "First Hatman and now Liu Xi."          "Hatman?" Lara asked. "All I did was hang out with him for a while."          "Before you did he was quite close to being overwhelmed by his responsibilities. Between the interviews for an assistant, the impending SR 1066, the Parody Master, the internal squabbles...after he returned with you he seemed much happier. His aura much calmer."          "I guess I try to get people to have fun around me." Lara shrugged. She then looked suspiciously at Cleone. "Did I really have that big of an effect on him?"          Cleone nodded. "You allowed him to forget his troubles for a few hours, to go out and and do what he likes best." ---     "That's...not bad," Beth Shellett mumbled to herself as she looked around the main hall she and Liu Xi just entered. She had just finished telling Liu Xi about peeling paint, mold, and water leaking from the roof...and while she spoke, the room seemed to revitalize all by itself until it was as clean and new as the day it was built. "Did it take much for you to do that?"          Liu Xi shook her head and smiled. "It was very easy." She giggled when she noted the lost look Beth gave her, and easily anticipated her thoughts. "I could do this to other rooms," she said, "Not all at once, I am not that good yet. I have to see what I do."          "I was...I couldn't help but worry that it's too much to ask," Beth told her. "We can't afford the maintenance here--"          "It will not be a problem," Liu Xi interrupted her. She lowered her voice to a near whisper as she added, "I fear I can't do as much as you ask for this place, but I do wish to help a little."     "It's okay," Beth reassured her. "Seems your friends have been coming out of the woodwork to help out."          Her timing always perfect, the Psychic Samurai strode calmly and confidently into the main hall from one of the hallways. She bowed slightly to Liu Xi, who did the same in return, and then Chiaki gave Beth an unreturned bow.          "She dropped by and said she was a friend of yours and she seemed to know you were here."          "You're not hiding here?" Liu Xi asked Chiaki Bushido. "I haven't seen you in a little while."          "The biggest battles must be fought on many fronts," Chiaki explained cryptically. "I have been everywhere," she clarified.          "Is everyone here?" Liu Xi asked.          Chiaki shook her head. "Not everyone. But this orphanage is the only place in Paradopolis which has escaped official scrutiny. Possibly because I politely sent home the officers ordered to enforce SR 1066 here."          "Sent home?" Beth asked.          "They wished to disturb a home for lost children," Chiaki explained. "I simply reminded them that they had lost children at home worrying if their parents would return alive in these dangerous days."          "And they actually left?"          Liu Xi giggled at that. "Chiaki has a way of convincing people of things."          "They're all out of contact," Lara Night interrupted the conversation with as she suddenly approached from one of the hallways. "Hatman, Mumph, even Al B Harper." She sounded a little worried.          Chiaki frowned and gave the blonde a calm yet determined glance. "Then we must assume we're all that's left."          "Of the whole Lair Legion?" Liu Xi asked.          Lara frowned too. "That's a bit pessimistic. Maybe they're all just busy."          "Nevertheless," Chiaki emphasized, "That may mean we're the only remaining protection this city has for the time being."          "And the only protection the refugees here have," Beth added hopefully.          "Yes," Chiaki confirmed. "Many of the people we must protect are within these walls." She looked directly at Lara. "But there are those outside these walls who may require help."          "Me?" Lara asked, sounding worried again.          "It's possible for you to help around the city and still retain relative anonymity," Chiaki pointed out. "In fact, it's very important you do so."     Lara suddenly looked at Cleone curiously. "Is that why you brought me to Xander's shop while the mansion was under siege?"          "Have you ever heard of the expression 'never keep all your eggs in one basket'?" Cleone asked.          "Good point." Lara nodded, and then sighed deeply, slouching a little as she finally accepted the burden which had been placed upon her. "I guess I could help out around town a bit," she conceded. "But I still have to try and keep a low profile."          "Excellent. I have work for you." The Psychic Samurai urged Lara to follow her.          Cleone nodded at Lara as she walked past. "Good luck."      TO BE CONTINUED? -- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, and may not be -- reprinted without permission. -- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow -- Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin -- Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

To the Spirit of the Night, I surrender...