I wrote a crazy story. It's over 20 pages though, so it might take you a long time to read =O

But I'm proud of it. This was very heavily influenced by Fooly Cooly and to a lesser degree My Neighbor Totoro, so you can imagine it may be a bit... bizarre.



<font size=5>STAR GIRL YUMI</font></center>



"Hey Yumi, why do you ride that skateboard everywhere?"

Yumi looked up from the LEGO house she was constructing with a startled look. "Huh?" She turned to the skateboard, as though expecting it to reply for her. "Oh, this. Yeah, I don't know. I like it."

"I think it's because he gave it to you. You like him, don't you?"

"Shut up!" Yumi cried, terribly offended by the suggestion, even though it was true. She didn't have to listen to this, especially not so close to her own birthday. Then, she thought of a terrific way to turn the tables on her friend. "I think you like him and you're just trying to cover it up."

Mia gasped, and then made a horrible choking noise. "Like him? Eww, no way. He's gross. One time he rolled around in the dirt, and then rubbed it on my sweater. I hate him."

Yumi laughed. She didn't want to, because that would reinforce Mia's claim that she liked Tommy, but it was funny and she couldn't help it. Truth be told, she wasn't any more fond of dirt than Mia, but she wasn't so up tight about things like that either, and it always made her laugh to see Mia's reactions. Besides, all boys were like that. Why get mad at just him for it?

"See, you're laughing," Mia scowled. "I knew you liked him."

"Do not," Yumi persisted, and then she stood up, leaving her house half finished, and started to walk out of the play room. "I'm gonna go find Hiro," she said, "and ask him if he'll show me how to do something on my skateboard. If you're gonna be like that, you can just go home for all I care."

"Fine, maybe I will!"

She walked into the kitchen, where her mother was poring over a bunch of papers that looked much too official to be anything interesting. "Hey, mommy," she said. "Where's Hiro?"

"He's off playing soccer in the field with his friends,"
she replied, her eyes glued to what she was doing.

"'Kay," said Yumi, and ran outside.

Once out on the road, she threw her skateboard onto the pavement and started pushing forward, then, when she'd gained a little momentum, hopped on and rode for about two feet before she almost lost her balance and put her feet down again. She'd get the hang of it someday.

Yumi picked up the skateboard and ran the rest of the way to the field.

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Hiro and five of his pals were playing three on three soccer in the field just as Mommy had said, using rocks as goal posts. It was this kind of makeshift play that Hiro and his friends always seemed to get together, and that Yumi tried to emulate whenever she could. Most of the boys that were Hiro's age liked to play video games or go to the movies, but he wasn't like that. He prefered to think up his own games, create his own entertainment, and Yumi followed suit.

Yumi sat down out of the way to watch the boys playing soccer. She liked it much better this way than going to watch a professional game or seeing it on TV, because she knew all the people involved. "Go Kaneda!" she yelled as Hiro's best friend, Kaneda, wound up a kick and sent the ball sailing between the other team's "goal posts." Kaneda turned and waved to her in appreciation for the cheer, and she laughed good naturedly. Older boys were so much fun!

After ten minutes or so, Yumi grew a little bored of watching the boys play, and decided to create her own game. She got up and looked around through the field, trying to find something interesting. She noticed a small black spider crawling through the grass, and was repulsed, but morbidly fascinated at the same time. "Eww," she muttered to herself as she peered closer at it. "Spiders are so gross. I wonder if it bites? I wonder if it's poisounous?" She definately didn't want to find out, that was for sure!

She began to follow the spider as it meandered its way through the grass, wondering about its living habits. Was it a boy or a girl spider? Was it married? Did it have kids? If so, she hoped it loved them very much. Then she remembered hearing that some spiders have babies and then get eaten by them. Spiders were all the more gross for that.

Suddenly she lost sight of the little creature. Her first thought was to be freaked out, thinking it might be crawling on her somewhere, but she was soon intrigued by something else odd: The grass was gone. It was just dirt now. What was going on? She looked up and was surprised to see huge green stalks coming out of the ground all around her, bigger than most trees. Wait a second... it was grass! She was in the grass! Crawling through it... just... like... the spider...

She turned her face up to the sky, and there she saw eight gigantic red eyes glowing angrily in the sky, attatched to a body larger than life itself with enormous hairy legs, thicker than tree trunks, stretching out all around her. She opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could, sinking to her knees.

"Yumi! Yumi!" She opened her eyes to see Hiro's worried face staring into hers. "Yumi, what in the world is going on? What happened?"

She looked all around her. The field was normal again, and the spider was gone. What had happened?

"Spider," she muttered.

"Oh, she must have seen a really big spider that freaked her out," Kaneda muttered.

"Are you okay now, Yumi? There's no spiders around." Hiro's face was still full of concern. She didn't normally scream like that, even if she saw a scary bug.

"Yeah," she said quietly, not looking directly at him. She was still a bit traumatized...

"Come on, let's go home," said Hiro. "We've been playing long enough anyway. My mom will probably get mad if I don't get back and do some chores."

"Yeah, mine too," said Kaneda, then he turned back to the other guys, still on the field and waiting. "We're callin' it a game, guys!" he shouted. "Gotta get back!"

"Okay!" yelled a few of them, and they began to disperse.

"Hey, wanna come over for dinner?" Hiro asked his friend.

"Love to, but I shouldn't. Too much homework," Kaneda replied.

Hiro nodded. "Okay. See you round. Come on, Yumi, let's go."

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Yumi quickly forgot the incident as she walked home with her older brother, carrying her skateboard firmly at her side. "Hey, Hiro, can you show me a skateboard trick? I wanna learn a new one!"

"Another one?" Hiro laughed. "You still haven't got down any of the ones I've already shown you."

"I know, but maybe I just need to find the right one!" she reasoned.

Hiro laughed again. "Tell you what, you learn to ollie and I'll show you all the tricks you want after that."

"Okay!" It was definately a fair deal. Maybe in six more days, Yumi would be able to do an ollie. Afterall, at that point, she'd be nine years old. Nine was only one year away from ten, so it had to be special.

As they walked down the road heading home, Yumi looked up to see an unusual car coming down the road. It was jet black and very fancy looking; it was bulkier than most cars, and looked like it was built to be scary. It had a shining silver design at the front that Yumi didn't like the look of; it was a star, but it wasn't a very cute one; it had long, sharp points, and a lot of them. Yumi loved stars more than anything else, except possibly her brother and her skateboard, but she liked them to be nice, happy stars that looked warm and inviting. This one just looked mean.

The car parked on the side of the road right outside Mr. Mikowski's Luncheon, and a man stepped out, clad in a black suit and wearing dark shades. He looked like he was trying to appear tough and mean, but he actually looked kind of dorky, because he had messy red hair and a beard and moustache, which didn't go very well with the getup. He stood looking around at the town for a while.

"Hiro, who's that guy?" Yumi asked, tugging urgently at her brother's pant leg and holding her skateboard up for protection.

"I dunno, Yumi, but don't look at him or talk to him," Hiro whispered. "He looks like a businessman, and he probably doesn't want to be bothered."

"Okay," Yumi whispered. Hiro was really smart about stuff like that, so she'd listen to what he said.

The man, however, seemed to have other ideas, and when he saw them, he came toward them. "Excuse me, kids," he said. "I'm Mr. Potato from the FBI. If you don't know, that's a very important government organization that's kind of like the police except-"

Yumi couldn't stifle it any longer - she giggled. As soon as hers came out, Hiro let his out, too, and the kid erupted into open laughter.

"What - what's so funny, you stupid kids?!!" Mr. Potato became very red in the face.

"Mr. Potato!" Yumi yelled between bursts of laughter.

Mr. Potato looked very indignant. "Hey, you know what, you try going through life with a last name like Potato!" he yelled, turning away from them in an attempt to hide his furious blushing. "Anyway, forget about that. I want to ask you a few questions about-"

Yumi and Hiro were still laughing uncontrollably. Yumi wanted to stop, because she knew she was being rude, but the fact that the man looked so official made it ten times funnier that his name was Potato. Even for Brisk Woods, that was a weird name.

"Oh, forget you! Stupid kids," Mr. Potato mumbled. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tromped off past them.

"Oh, that was really rude of us," Hiro muttered when they managed to stop laughing, "but I guess it was okay. He doesn't seem like a very threatening guy. Come on, let's go home."

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Yumi and Hiro walked into the kitchen to the smell of freshly cooked chicken and excitedly ran to wash their hands for supper. Mommy's chicken was a delicacy, as far as they were concerned. The only drawback was that tonight they also had to eat brocolli, but it was a worthy sacrifice.

As Yumi munched happily on her chicken, putting off her brocolli for last, she listened to Hiro tell Mommy about the day's adventures.

"And then, this is the best part," he said, getting to the part Yumi had been waiting for. "As we were walking home, we saw this big black car pull up and park outside Mikowski's, and this guy in a suit got out. He came to talk to us, and said he was from the FBI, and then he said his name was Mr. Potato!" He and Yumi erupted into giggles again.

"The FBI?" Mommy frowned. She didn't seem to care much about his name. "What would a man from the FBI be doing in Brisk Woods?"

"What's FBI?" asked Yumi.

"It's a government organization that deals with crimes that are too big for the police."

Yumi's eyes went wide. Too big for the police? She knew some of the local police men, and as far as she was concerned, they were invincible warriors who knew everything. How could any job be too big for them? FBI seemed like a pretty stupid idea to her, especially since she doubted that Mr. Potato was as nice, strong, or knowledgable as Officer Jeff or Officer Neal. He definately wasn't as handsome, that was for sure.

"So does that mean some big crime was commited here?" Hiro asked excitedly. That's the kind of thing a boy would get excited about.

"I don't know," said Mommy. "I hope not, though. Brisk Woods is such a nice town, I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to it."

"It sure would be an exciting change of pace," Hiro said, then went back to stuffing chicken in his mouth.

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The next day, Yumi went outside to practice her skateboarding. The road outside her house was perfect for it - it was a small, quiet neighborhood, so very few cars drove by, and when they did, they were going slowly, so you could just quickly get out of their way. Mommy made her wear a helmet, though, which she hated; it wasn't that she thought it was uncool, as Yumi was entirely unconcerned with things like that, but she hated the way it felt on her head, and it made it hard for her to wear her hair in a pony tail, which was the only way she liked it. When in the presence of her girlfriends, she always said that wearing it down made her look slutty, and none of them knew what the word meant, so they all just thought it made her grown up to use it, and then they'd use it for things too. "Ow, I bit my tongue! It feels so slutty." "I hate that boy, he's so slutty!"

Allright, she thought to herself. This time, it's going to work. I'm going to ollie! She threw the skateboard down, leapt onto it, and pushed off. She lost her balance before she could even attempt the trick, though, and fell over backward onto the pavement. She kept her head up so that it didn't hit the pavement, though; what good was a stupid helmet when she could just do that anyway?

Yumi turned over to stand up and noticed, as she was rolling, something shining underneath a car nearby. She crawled over and reached underneath the car to grab the object, and when she'd gotten it out, she realized it was a rock, but a very strange one. There was a strange flourescent green light eminating from it. Was there a light bulb in it or something?

Yumi suddenly felt like someone was with her, and she looked up to see a tall dark form staring down at her. "Hello again," said the voice of Mr. Potato.

Yumi stood up suddenly, looking up at Mr. Potato with nervous eyes. "Hi, Mr. Potato," she said, not laughing this time. The joke had finally worn itself out yesterday.

"That thing you've just found is something I've been looking for," said Mr. Potato. "Do you think I could have it?"

"Hey, why should you get it? I found it!" Yumi said indignantly, pulling the rock away from him and taking a step or two back.

"Oh, it's not that I want to take it from you," said Mr. Potato. "It's just a favor I'm asking. I need it for my job. I'm trying to make sure everything is safe for everyone. You want that, right?"

Yumi didn't know what to say. She took a couple more steps back, then grabbed up her skateboard and ran into the house, leaving Mr. Potato behind. She wanted to ask Hiro, and maybe Mommy if she should give the rock to him.

Yumi came bursting through the door to the play room, and saw that Hiro was sitting on the couch watching an anime with Kaneda.

"Whatcha watching?" she asked, her report momentarily forgotten.

Hiro picked up the remote and paused the DVD. Yumi examined the still scene; it was a boy in a blue sweatshirt looking straight ahead with a determined expression on his face.

"Fooly Cooly," said Hiro. "Mom said you're not supposed to watch it, though."

"Oh," Yumi said disappointedly. "Well, guess what? I just saw Mr. Potato again."

"Mr. Potato?" Kaneda asked.

"Yeah, he's apparently an FBI agent," said Hiro. "He's kinda dorky looking."

"He'd have to be with a name like Mr. Potato," Kaneda chuckled.

"He wanted this rock I found," Yumi continued, trying to get the spotlight back. She held out the glowing green rock.

"Whoa, what is that?" Hiro asked in surprise. He took it from her outstretched hand.

"How's it glowing like that?" Kaneda asked in confusion.

"I dunno," said Hiro. He turned to Yumi. "Did Mr. Potato say anything about what it was?"

"Uh huh," Yumi replied. "He just said it was something he was looking for, and he needed it to make sure everyone was safe." She added in a very mature tone, "But, I don't know if I trust Mr. Potato."

"We better ask Mommy about it," said Hiro, and they all trooped into the kitchen.

"Hey Mommy!" Yumi threw the rock onto the kitchen table, next to where Mommy was reading official-looking papers again. "I found a weird rock. What is it?"

Mommy picked up the rock and looked it over. "My," she muttered, "isn't this a strange thing. I don't really know, honey. I don't know anything about rocks. Where did you find it?"

"Under a car," said Yumi.

"Very peculiar." Mommy turned the rock over a few more times, and then handed it back to Yumi. "I suggest you take it to Mr. Anderson's house and let him have a look at it," she said. "Geology is a hobby of his, and he'll be much better equipped to tell you about it than I."

"Oh," Yumi said, thinking of something about the Andersons.

"What's the matter?" asked Mommy.

"Uhh," Yumi wasn't sure if she should make a big deal of it; Mommy would probably scold her for being paranoid.

"She's probably afraid of Mr. Anderson's kid," Hiro intervened.

"Oh, yes, I forgot about Andy Anderson... I think he's harmless, though. He's just a little bit unusual."

"He's so weird," Yumi mumbled. "Why does he still live in his dad's basement? He's a grown-up."

Mommy smiled. "Some people just don't have the motivation to get out of their parents' houses," she said. "It's quite sad. But, if Mr. Anderson isn't there, just go away and come back some other time. You don't have to go in if just Andy is there. And if Mr. Anderson is there, I'm sure Andy won't bother you. I don't think he'd bother you anyway. I'm sure he's harmless, he's just a little funny looking."

"More than a little," Kaneda said, and he and Hiro laughed.

"I'll go if you guys will come with me," Yumi said to Hiro and Kaneda.

"Sure," said Hiro. "I wanna know about this rock, too."

"Okay," said Yumi. "Let's go!"

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The three of them trooped up to the front door of the Andersons', Yumi in the lead. "Okay," she said in a businesslike manner. "Let's hope Mr. Anderson is here."

"Man," muttered Kaneda, "who would name their kid 'Andy Anderson?' Mr. Anderson must be a little wierd too."

"He is," Hiro whispered back. "That's probably why Andy is such a kook."

Yumi reached up and managed to hit the doorbell. The kids waited a moment until finally the door came swinging open, and they were graced with the presence of Mr. Anderson's oddball son. He was quite tall and very muscular, and wore a vest that only covered about half his chest's real estate. His hair was styled in purple spikes that ran across the middle of his head, from the top of his forehead down to the top of his neck. Yumi had seen indians with hair kind of like that, but not as tall or spikey, and not purple. His cutoff shorts were large and baggy and went way past his knees, and his expression looked somehow bored and interested at the same time.

"Whatcha need?" he asked. His voice was high pitched and nasal.

"Uh..." Yumi was too scared to say anything, even though she'd prepared a speech in her mind before they arrived.

"We're looking for Mr. Anderson," Hiro explained.

"Whatcha need him for?" asked Andy.

"Uh, can we just see him?" asked Hiro. "We'd rather not take the time to explain..."

"Hey, it's my house. And my dad," Andy reasoned. "I wanna know what the deal is."

"Is he even there?" Hiro demanded.

"I won't answer any questions until I know what you want him for," Andy insisted.

"Okay, fine," Yumi interjected. "We need to show him a rock and ask him what it is." She was holding the rock firmly behind her back, afraid, for some reason, that he would try to take it from her.

"Oh, yeah?" said Andy. "Well, he's actually not in right now. But, I know quite a bit about rocks myself! Why don't you let me take a look at it?" he advanced a little. "C'mon, show it to me."

"No, that's okay," Yumi said. "We'll just wait for Mr. Anderson."

"Hey, c'mon kid," Andy was getting angry now, and coming closer.

"Hey, my sister said we'll wait for your dad, so we will," Hiro said angrily, stepping in front of Yumi. "Back off."

Andy's face took on a look of indignation. "Hey, cut it out, kid! Who do you think you are, anyway?!" he damanded, and shoved Hiro roughly to the side. Hiro landed hard on the driveway and cried out in pain.

Andy advanced on Yumi. "Come on, just let me see the rock!" Kaneda was backing off, too afraid of the huge man to do anything. Yumi screamed in fear, absent mindedly putting her hands up over her head in a last ditch effort to protect herself, and forgetting that the rock was in her hand.

"Aaaaah!" Andy cried out in fear as soon as he saw the glowing green rock. "N... no! Not one of those rocks!" He was beginning to glow green like the rock.

"Wha...?" Yumi could only stare, wide eyed in morbid fascination, as something strange began to happen to Andy. His skin began to take on the green color of the rock, and his muscles started bulging. His body was getting bigger, and growing warts and moles. His purple mohawk extended in length by a few inches and his eyes glowed red. When the transformation was done, he was a towering green behemoth with a purple mohawk. He raised his head to the sky and let out an earth-shattering roar of anger.

Yumi, Hiro, and Kaneda all screamed little girl screams simultaneously, but they were too dumbstruck to move. Suddenly, there was a voice from behind them.

"Stay back!" Yumi whirled around to see Mr. Potato running towards the strange new version of Andy Anderson, holding a gun out aimed directly at the creature. "Don't touch those kids or I fire!" he commanded.

The monster-Andy roared again, and made a flying leap way over all their heads. "Huh?" Mr. Potato looked up in the sky, but too late; the monster landed right behind him and roared again. He whirled around to face it, but it had already wound up a flying punch that sent Mr. Potato soaring across the road and into the bushes by the front door of the Andersons' house.

Some help he was, Yumi thought to herself, still scared out of her mind, but with her wits returning.

Now the monster turned his attention back to Yumi and roared again. She screamed, and turned to run, but it ran after her and leapt over her head, landing right in front of her. The force of the impact knocked her to her knees, and she landed hard on the pavement of the driveway, feeling her knees cut open on impact.

She looked up with wide tearful eyes at the creature, which was raising its fist over its head and drooling obcenely.

"Hey, ugly!"

This was yet another new voice, but it wasn't like Mr. Potato's. His voice was dorky. This voice, on the other hand, was smooth, flowing, and powerful. It was like a waterfall was yelling at the creature, ready to turn its full force loose.

Yumi turned around and the monster-Andy looked up to see who it was. She was standing at the head of the driveway in all her glory. She was so beautiful and perfect in every way that the sun was setting behind her, giving her appearance dramatic effect, even though it was not even dinner time yet. Her hair was a long, flowing stream of light brown that extended down just past her knees and ended in a fin shape, with an extra tuft of it playfully falling over the right side of her forehead and just barely into her eye. She wore jeans cut off just above the knees, a dirty white tank top, and a brown leather jacket, but for all the simplicity of her garb she was stunning. Most unusual of all, though, was the deep ruby color of her eyes, which were currently trained so hard and zealously on the monster that they could have been boring holes through its skull.

"Are you picking on that little girl?" the woman asked. Her voice was quiet but loud at the same time, and incredibly threatening, but in a protective way.

The monster just stood there staring at her, as though afraid of her beauty. But then its face grew angry again, and it hopped over Yumi, flexing its muscles and growling.

"Yeah, yeah. You're a big boy. That's very cute. I dare you to come try it over here."

The creature lifted its head to the sky and let out a thunderous roar, then charged forward at top speed, its fist pulled back. The woman did not move until the creature let its punch fly, and then she put her open palm up and calmly stopped the blow without flinching. The creature's fist, which was about three times as big as her hand, was just stopped against an impenatrable wall.

"Bye," said the woman. She shoved her palm forward, and the creature went flying backward, crashing against the wall of the Andersons' house. It got up again, slowly this time, looking warily at her. But she wasn't going to give it any more breaks, apparently.

"Go back where you came from!" she cried, and charged forward. Before the creature even had time to react, she'd aimed a flying kick at its chin, which sent it flying up through the sky in a soaring arch that took it all the way back to the street, where it landed with a huge, painful crack. Slowly, the monster seemed to deflate, and its green color washed away until it was the old freaky Anderson boy again. He sat up, his eyes rolling all about, holding his head. He did not look particularly concious.

"It's not my imagination, I've got a gun at my back... die for the government... it's in your head, filler... sk8ter boi..." he fell onto his back again and lay there, spread out as though trying to make a snow angel in the pavement.

Yumi laughed at the freak's misfortune, and ran to the nice pretty lady. "Thank you, miss!" she cried, latching onto the lady's leg.

The pretty lady leaned down and patted Yumi on the head. "It was the least I could do, sweetheart," she said good naturedly.

Hiro and Kaneda approached her as well. "Gee, thanks for saving my sister, miss," Hiro said in awe. He and Kaneda were staring at the lady in a way that Yumi thought was just silly.

"Oh, quit this 'miss' stuff," the pretty lady said. "My name's Tif. What are yours?"

"I'm Hiro, and this is my sister, Yumi. This is my best friend Kaneda."

"Nice to meet you all," said Tif. Then she turned to the bush where Mr. Potato was still sitting, staring wide-eyed at Tif as though in shock. "Who's that brave man?" she asked.

"That's Mr. Potato," Yumi said disdainfully. "He's not brave. He's a dork. He's in the FBI, which is the stupidest thing ever."

Tif smiled. "He was very brave to confront that thing and try to help you. You should thank him."

Yumi didn't see why she should thank Mr. Potato for messing up so badly, but if Tif said it would be the polite thing to do, she'd do it. She instantly trusted anything Tif said.

They all walked to the bush, and Tif helped Mr. Potato up. "Are you allright, sir?" she asked.

"Y- yes," said Mr. Potato. "Ow, my head... that was amazing, I must say, Miss, uh..."

"Just call me Tif," said Tif. "My friends here tell me you're Mr. Potato. What's your first name?"

Mr. Potato blushed, like he always did when his name was brought up, but Tif didn't laugh about it or make fun of him. "Err... uh, well, you can just call me-"

"Oh, come on, just tell me your first name. I hate using last ones."

"Idaho," muttered Mr. Potato.

"Your first name is Idaho?" Tif asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah."

Yumi, Hiro and Kaneda all burst into hysterics at the same time. His name was Idaho Potato!

Tif suddenly turned around. "Kids!" she barked, and they all immediately shut up and stared at her wide-eyed. "That's very rude!" she scolded them. "Now you all better behave yourselves when you're talking to a perfectly nice man like Idaho!"

"Yes m'am," Hiro said softy. If Tif said it, it better happen.

There was suddenly the sound of a car pulling in the driveway, and everyone turned to see Mr. Anderson arriving in his old pickup truck. He got out and looked at them in surprise. "Oh, visitors! Where's that idiot son of mine? Didn't he get the door?"

Yumi pointed to the road, where Andy was still lying. He was muttering softly to himself, indicating that he was not dead.

"Oh, smash my earlobes with a sledgehammer and shove a crowbar up my nose!" he howled in fury. "If that boy's been smoking the marijuana cigarettes again, I'm gonna kick his glue-spiked ass all the way to some really far away place, prepherably with a lot of dangerous animals!" He angrily opened the door of his truck, removed a baseball bat, and ran into the road, giving Andy a sharp thwack on the stomach with it. "Get up, you miserable chunk of moth excrement, before I put that stupid ass of yours in a blender and make you drink it!"

Andy leapt up in fear. "Ah! Whoa, hey, dad, it's not what it looks like!" he shouted as his dad chased him all over the road, swinging the baseball bat.

"You goddamn no-good son of mine! If you've been smoking the marijuana cigarettes again I'm gonna make you wish I'd never had premarital intercourse with your mother!"

"I think we should probably go inside until they get their business finished," said Tif, leading the way inside the house. "This fellow seems very hospitable, so I'm sure he won't mind."

They all followed her inside the house, leaving the angry screams of Mr. Anderson and the anguished cries of his son to be heard by Mrs. Lupert, an elderly woman who lived next door and was out watering her flowers without noticing much of the events that had occured.

Yumi wondered how long it would be before she got to have her rock examined.

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"Star!" Yumi exclaimed in delight.

"What?" asked Hiro, coming to stand next to her at the window.

"I saw a star fall from the sky!" she said. "It landed somewhere over that way." She pointed.

"There's no way a shooting star would hit the earth," Hiro scoffed.

"No," said Yumi. "It definitely landed! It made a big light when it hit the ground."

"Okay, sure Yumi," Hiro laughed, and went back to watching TV with Kaneda.

They were still in the Andersons' house. Mr. Anderson had finally finished disciplining Andy and then sent him off to his room (the basement) and they had shown him the green glowing rock, only to have him stare wide-eyed at it and ask to be allowed to study it. When they agreed, they hadn't counted on him shutting himself in his study for hours on end, emerging only to go to the bathroom and tell them what they could get for dinner. Yumi had enjoyed the spaghetti that Tif made for them, but she was still feeling very troubled. That rock didn't seem like such a great thing to her. Afterall, it had transformed Andy into a beast that almost killed her and hurt Mr. Potato very badly. She didn't care very much about Mr. Potato, but still. Hurting people in general was not very cool. And then there was the fact that Mr. Anderson was taking so long to study it. It must be very coplicated and important, and Yumi generally disliked complicated and important things.

The door to Mr. Anderson's study finally came bursting open, and he charged out, holding the rock in a pair of spaghetti tongs. "Great leaping lizards in limbo!" he shouted ecstatically. "It's just as I thought! This rock comes from my home planet of Yahka!"

Everyone just stared at him.

"What?"

Hiro raised his eyebrows. "Your home planet? What, you're an alien?"

"Yes, yes of course," said Mr. Anderson. Everyone was still staring at him. His face took on an annoyed expression and he put his hands on his hips. "Yes, I'm an 'alien'," he repeated. "So what? What's the big deal? Besides, Tif is too.."

The stares switched paths to face Tif. She shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's true. For the record, I don't come from the same place he does."

"Great," Hiro said, rolling his eyes and throwing his hands up. "We should have known better than to come here.

"It makes sense," Yumi piped up.

Hiro turned to her abruptly. "How so?"

"Well, duh," she said. "If Tif's not an alien, how could she have beat up that big green thing Andy turned into?"

"Wait a second," Mr. Anderson cut in before Hiro could reply. "Andy turned into a big green thing?"

"Yeah," said Yumi. "When he got near that rock."

Mr. Anderson turned to the rock and looked angrily at it. "Well throw me in the trash can and call me a used tissue," he growled. "This damn thing is causing a lot more trouble than it's worth!"

"Hey, watch your language around the children," Tif ordered.

"Whatever," mumbled Mr. Anderson. "The point is, this rock is evil."

"Do you think you could explain what it is, exactly?" asked Mr. Potato. He seemed completely unaffected by this whole thing, as if he already knew part of it. Maybe he did. Who knew what those FBI guys were involved in?

Mr. Anderson scratched his beard. "Well, here's what I can say," he began. "It comes from my planet, and it's been infused with the kind of magic used by Queen Misaki and her underlings. It's called Seketsu Misaki and it's very potent. The rock itself is some sort of an activation key, actually. It jump-starts spells that have been cast on people. Which means," his eyes shifted to the door and his expression took on a look of harsh disdain, "that my no-good son has been associating with their kind..."

"That explains a lot," Mr. Potato mused. "Mr. Anderson, the case I've been assigned to is all about that rock, and others like it. So far, we have found them in a lot of different places. Every single one of them has been in a small neighborhood, and has been found by a young girl of age eight. In every case so far, it's been only ten to five days until the girl's ninth birthday when she found it."

Everyone's gaze swung over to Yumi. She looked around at them all, annoyed by the silence. "Uhh.. what?"

"Yumi's birthday is coming up in five days," Kaneda said.

"We've got to keep that rock away from her," Tif muttered.

"Let me hold onto it," Mr. Anderson suggested. "I'll stick it in one of my 'special' jars. That should prevent it from radiating its magic. In the mean time, you kids get out of here. Tif, Potato... I recommend you keep a tight watch on these children."

"Already doing so," Mr. Potato replied.

"I still have a question," Tif broke in. "Idaho, did anything happen to any of the girls who found those rocks in the other cases you've seen?"

"No," said Mr. Potato, "we always took the rocks back for examination, so if they were going to affect the girls any way, we don't know about it."

Tif nodded. "Okay," she said. "Let's get going. You kids should be back before your mother starts to worry."

Everyone got up and started to head for the door. Mr. Anderson stopped Tif just as she was beginning to get up and follow.

"Yes?" she asked, turning around.

"Tif, what are you doing here? Bounty hunting is illegal on earth..."

Tif smiled. "I have special permission," she replied with a wink, and then turned and walked out the door.

---------------------------------

"Man, this is exciting!" Kaneda couldn't contain himself as the kids sat in the back yard of Yumi and Hiro's house.

"I don't see what's so exciting about it," Hiro muttered. "There's something fishy about it, if you ask me. I just don't know if I believe all this talk about aliens..."

"I don't really think it matters much," said Yumi. "I want to go to where that star landed."

"There was no star hitting the earth," Hiro replied angrily. He got up and stormed inside.

"What's wrong with him?" Yumi asked, annoyed. She'd never seen her older brother act like that before.

"I dunno," said Kaneda. "Come on, I'll go with you. Where did you say that star landed?"

"I'll show you!" Yumi exclaimed, and started running.

The kids were stopped at the head of the driveway by Mr. Potato and Tif, who were sitting on the hood of Mr. Potato's car and talking as they watched the house. "Hey, where do you two think you're going?" asked Mr. Potato.

"We're gonna go see a star that fell over there!" said Yumi.

"A star hit the earth? I doubt that," Mr. Potato replied. "There'd be quite a fuss about it if that happened."

"No, I saw it," Yumi argued. She was becoming frustrated with how no one believed her.

"I think we should go check it out," Tif said. She was staring straight ahead, and seemed to be lost in thought.

"Yeah!" cried Yumi. She liked Tif more every moment.

"Well, okay, if you say so," Mr. Potato said. His voice was full of hesitation. "Let's get in the car, then. I'll drive, and Yumi can direct us."

They all piled into Mr. Potato's big black car. Yumi had to admit, Mr. Potato was a nice man. He was still awfully dorky, though, and didn't seem to be good for anything.

"Hey, wait!" Everyone turned to the other side of the road, where they saw a tall form running toward the car. It was Andy.

Mr. Potato rolled down his window. "What is it?" he asked.

"I just wanted to catch up to you and apologize," he said, spreading his hands. "I totally didn't mean to go postal like that... it's just... that rock."

"We know," said Tif. "You're completely forgiven."

"So uh... where you guys going?" asked Andy.

"We're gonna go look at a star, apparently," said Mr. Potato.

"Mind if I come along?" asked Andy. Mr. Potato raised an eyebrow. "Come on, let me help. I've been such a nuisance, I wanna make it up somehow."

"I don't think-"

"Let him come," Tif cut in. "I don't see why not."

Mr. Potato shrugged. "Whatever."

"Thanks!" Andy exclaimed, and squeezed into the car.

-------------------------------------

"Here?" Kaneda asked in surprise. "The field? This is where we always play soccer."

"Look!" Yumi exclaimed, pointing to a spot in the distance. There seemed to be a light coming up from a hole in the ground over there.

"Very interesting," Tif muttered. "Let's go check it out."

"Hey," said Andy, "Tif, you don't suppose this is-"

"I don't think I know what it is, and you'd best just wait until we find out," Tif replied quickly.

They all got out of the car. Yumi started to run ahead, but Tif caught her by the shoulder. "I want you to say close to me, okay, Yumi?" she said.

"Why?" Yumi asked. She didn't mind, but was curious.

"Just because," Tif said with a smile. She unbuttoned her leather jacket. "Let's go."

They all walked over toward the place where the light was shining, and as they drew closer, they could see that it was not actually a hole in the ground so much as a large crater. "A star really did hit here," Mr. Potato muttered. "Or something of the sort."

They got to the edge of the crater and looked down at it, and Yumi gasped in surprise and delight when she saw it. It was a beautiful, glowing golden star, with five dull points and a warm, pudgy look to it. It was hovering a foot or so above the ground, gently rotating. Simply beautiful.

"Star!!" she exalted, and leapt for it, but Tif caught her shoulder and stopped her. She looked up questioningly.

"Wait," was all Tif said. She looked over at Mr. Potato. "Idaho. Please shoot it."

"Noo!" Yumi cried, and tried to run to the star to protect it, but Tif held her back again.

"Yumi!" Tif's voice was like a whip, and Yumi stopped, feeling guilty.

"What's the matter with it?" she whispered.

"Idaho, please."

Mr. Potato looked a little hesitant, but did as she asked. The shot was fired, and immediately the star dispersed into thousands of tiny points of green light, whizzing all around the spot where the star had hovered like a swarm of angry bees. After a couple seconds, they all reformed around the spot in a glowing green dome that covered the better portion of the inside of the crater.

Tif whirled around, pulling a strange looking gun out of the inside of her jacket and aiming it into the darkness. "You see, you would have been trapped in there if you'd touched it, Yumi," she whispered.

"I'm sorry," Yumi whispered back.

Everyone was silent. Tif kept moving the gun around, aiming it at random points in the darkness. "Come on," she muttered. Nothing. "Come on!" it was a scream into the night. "Show yourself, you devil! You didn't get her that way, so come try your luck against me!"

There was suddenly a bright flash of light across the field, and everyone turned their eyes away but Tif, who was still staring intently at it. When the light dulled and they all looked back, a strange looking woman stood about twenty yards in front of them. Her skin was extremely pale, and she wore a purple robe that covered her entire body. She looked like a face on top of a flowing purple tent.

"Misaki," Tif said the name as though stating a fact. "You've really stooped to a new low, haven't you?"

"Hardly," the woman replied, slowly drawing closer. "You, on the other hand, seem to have fallen to the level of a mere body guard."

"Perhaps it looks that way," Tif replied. "It doesn't really matter. You're history!" she pulled the trigger of her gun, and it erupted in a flash of bright blue light. A pulsating blue fireball went screaming through the night towards the lady, but she slipped one of her hands out of her robe, revealing that she was wearing a skin tight black jump suit underneath it, and raised her palm like a shield. The blue fireball halted just before her hand, and sat there like a tame puppy.

"What?" Tif started. "How..?"

"I made sure to study up on your particular brand of magic before coming here, Tif," Misaki said, a slight chuckle underlying her voice. "Really, you're getting predictable, honey. You and the queen, anyway. I knew she'd send you to protect the girl; she always sends you to do everything."

Tif smiled a little. "Hmph," she said. "You're right about all except one thing."

"Oh, and what's that?"

"She didn't send me here to protect the girl... I'm doing that out of the sweetness of my heart. My mission is to kill you!" And with that, she charged. Mr. Potato made a motion like to follow her, but Andy put his arm out to stop him. "Don't even think about it," he said. "That woman is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine. You know how strong Tif is? Even she doesn't stand a chance."

Mr. Potato turned in anger. "Well what do you propose we do?" he demanded.

"We get the hell out of here while we can!" Andy grabbed Yumi and Kaneda, one under each arm, and started running. "Come on, he yelled!" Yumi tried to squirm out of Andy's grasp, but he was far too strong, and she was scared practically out of her wits in the first place.

"D- don't swear in front of the kids," Mr. Potato said, and ran after him.

Meanwhile, Tif had launched a flying leap at Misaki, but the robed queen had sent her soaring in the opposite direction with a simple wave of her hand. She turned around to see the others getting to Mr. Potato's car, and, growling in frustration, waved her hands and chanted a few words.

Just as Mr. Potato and Andy were about to stuff everyone in the car, a wall of flowing green energy rose up in front of them, and began to encircle the entire field. "Shit!" Andy yelled, dropping Kaneda and Yumi. "We're trapped in here!"

"Misaki, ne saiko ne satsu!" Tif screamed, leaping again through the air, her fist pulled back, ready to strike. Misaki whirled around again, and this time a bolt of lighting erupted from her fingertips that struck Tif in midair, making a loud cracking noise and causing her to drop to the ground like a rock at Misaki's feet.

"Stupid girl," Misaki smirked. "You knew from the start you never had a chance against me."

Tif was too weak to reply; she might even be dead.

"That's it!" Mr. Potato cried. He pulled out his gun and charged at Misako. "Don't hurt my friends!" he cried, taking aim and pulling the trigger. He fired off ten shots in a row, and his aim was dead on, but Misaki just stood there looking at him. It was as though he was firing blanks.

"I do not fear your ridiculous weapon, earthling," she informed him, and let loose with another lightning bolt that dropped him instantly.

Misaki turned to face Andy, behind whom Yumi and Kaneda were now hiding. "Now then, Andy. Please just hand over the kids like a good boy."

Andy stood staring at her with a determined look in his eyes. "You wish," he replied. "I didn't want to have to do this, but it looks like I'm going to have to."

Misaki raised an eyebrow. "Boy, that is the worst bluff I have ever seen in my life, and I've lived an awfully long time."

"Fine." Andy's hand darted into his pocket, and from it he pulled a small object enclosed in his fist which could not be seen. "You will reap what you sow, you demon!" he screamed, and hurled the object against the earth at his feet with tremendous force.

It was glass, and it shattered across the ground. Yumi gasped in a combination of shock and fear when she saw what had been contained inside the jar: It was like the glowing green rock, but this one was red.

Andy began to scream, and his torso bent backward to a ridiculous angle as the red light from the rock permeated through his body and he began to change. His skin became red this time; his eyeballs became huge and bulged from their sockets and he grew a third one inbetween them, and his body grew even larger than it had when he had been affected by the green rock. He stood there, towering in fearsome, monstrous glory, facing down the enemy that had dropped Tif without batting an eyelash, and then he gave forth a ground-shaking roar, causing Yumi to scream and grab onto Kaneda's waste as tightly as she could.

Misaki only smirked at the transformation. "Tricky, boy, very tricky," she admitted. "But you are not going to defeat me just because you got big and stupid instead of average and stupid."

Andy-monster did not reply, but charge forward, its gigantic fist held in readiness to strike her. The moment he moved, she raised her hand and idly sent forth a lightning bolt, but as it enveloped the body of the charging mass, it had no visible affect. Misaki's face had only enough time to twist into an expression of surprise and alarm as the behemoth continued to charge her without even stumbling, and the fist connected with her face, sending her hurling backward through the air to land in a crumpled mess a good few meters away.

Misaki's body raised itself from the ground to face the creature again, her teeth clenched in an expression of open frustration. "My my, I seem to have underestimated your resourcefulness, Yahkan." The huge beast leapt into the air, barreling down at her in preparation for another attack. This time, Misaki joined the palms of her hands together and a tremendous wave of her lightning engulfed the beast's entire form, but still it was unnaffected, and its fist came crashing down on her head, knocking her to the ground. As soon as she was down, the beast kicked her up in the air in front of it, spinning around and in one fluid motion delivering a tremendous backhanded blow that sent her flying across the remainder of the field and crashing against her own magic barrier.

Now Misaki rose again in a fit of blazing green flames, her eyes glowing in anger and her mouth wide open. "You stupid, stupid child!" she screamed. "So you figured out how to counter my magic directly - fine! Don't think for a second I can't still hurt you indirectly!" Andy-monster, however, paid her no heed, and started another charge. This time, though, Misaki put her hands together and muttered a few magic words, and the earth in front of Andy-monster suddenly jutted upward, hurling him into the air. A few more magic words, and the ground opened up underneath the beast as it fell, and then, when it fell inbetween the wall of earth, snapped shut, crushing him between their mass. The beast screamed in pain, and laboriously pulled itself out of the place it was wedged into the ground, then stood on weak legs trying to face its enemy.

But Misaki was already prepared; she was now levitating several rocks from the surrounding area over her head, which she proceeded to hurl at screaming velocity toward the creature. Each rock that struck Andy-monster's massive frame burst into pieces and sprayed blood across the ground around the creature, and when the last had been flung, it slumped to its knees, then fell over face first. Slowly but surely, it shrank back to the form of Andy Anderson, lying in a torn and bruised heap on the blood-soaked patch of ground where he had made his last stand.

Yumi clutched Kaneda's leg even tighter as she cried in fear. Misaki was coming closer now, ever closer to where the two of them stood, too frozen in fear to attempt the escape they knew was in vain anyway. It was over, as far as they were concerned, and they were far too young to comprehend what that meant.

"Don't touch them, Misaki." The dark queen turned around slowly in a calm show of frustration, her hands on her hips.

"Dear girl, don't you ever give up?" she asked irritably. Tif was facing her again, as though never injured.

"No. That's why I'm the best."

Misaki crossed her arms and shook her head. "Well, your revitalization abilities are not overrated, I'll give you that," she said. "But I don't know what makes you think you'll fare any better this time."

Tif only smirked. "Try me, demon."

Yumi's eyes, though tear-stained, were now locked on Tif. She had seen Tif look like this before; there was something about her stance, something in her eyes when she was doing this.

Misaki's hands flew upward in a show of rage and impatience, and a storm of raging lightning screamed out of her palms in Tif's direction. Yumi's muscles clenched in subconcious preparation for the bounty hunter to fall again, but something was different this time.

Tif raised her hand, and the lightning crashed against it like waves against a dam, but they did not pass beyond that point, and as soon as the impact was made, it was Misaki who was affected. Screaming in pain and anger, the dark queen backed away, staring at her open palms in disbelief.

"You won't escape me this time!" Tif screamed, and charged forward. She aimed a flying kick at Misaki's head; the dark queen raised her palms and a magic shield appeared in front of her, but as soon as Tif's foot made contact with the shield, it was once again Misaki that was affected, and she ws hurled backward, clutching her face and shrieking.

"You win this time, bounty hunter!" she called, as a tornado began to form around her and carry her away, elevating itself higher and higher into the sky as it moved away from Tif's rigid form. "Don't think I won't be back!"

Tif relaxed her shoulders a bit, and came over to where Yumi and Kaneda stood. She crouched down to Yumi, who grabbed ahold of her neck and cried openly. "I'm sorry this happened, Yumi," Tif whispered. "I was not very responsible about it..."

-------------------------------------

Mr. Potato's car pulled up by the side of Yumi's house. She was feeling much better now that the danger was over and Tif had comforted her. Kaneda seemed to have recovered, too.

"Thank you," Yumi said as she jumped out of the car, waving to her friends. "Goodnight!"

"Goodnight, Yumi," Tif smiled as she waved her goodbye.

The car drove off to deliver Kaneda and Andy to their respective homes, and Yumi trotted up the driveway to return to her house. It was nearing eight o'clock, so it was a good thing she was back or Mommy would be mad.

Hiro ran out to meet her before she reached the back door. "Yumi, you've been gone a long time!" he exclaimed as he met her. "What were you doing over there?"

"It was so cool!" Yumi cried happily, spreading her arms out for emphasis. "This evil lady came, and she beat up Tif and of course Mr. Potato, and then Andy made himself turn into a monster again with a rock like the one I found, except it was red instead of green, and he started to beat up the lady but then the lady made the ground beat him up and then Tif got up again and did some magic thing and beat up the lady and she ran away!"

Hiro just stood there staring at her, scratching his head. "What?"

"Nevermind," Yumi shrugged. "It's one of those things where you'd have to be there!"

She ran past him into their house, giggling. Hiro shook his head. Whatever it was that had happened, Yumi had been in danger and he'd let her go to it. Next time, he'd be more careful. He'd have to make sure to ask Tif about it tomorrow. He turned around and followed Yumi back inside.

----------------------------------------

"So, uh, where should I drive you to?" asked Mr. Potato, after Andy had gotten out of the car and headed inside.

"Back to Yumi's house," Tif replied.

"You're going to watch it all night?"

"I have to." The bounty hunter was gazing steadily out the windows of the car, her eyes fixed on the sky.

"You need to sleep, too," Mr. Potato objected.

Tif smiled. "I can go months without sleep if I have to. A few days isn't going to kill me. I only have to be here until Yumi's birthday."

"What's the significance of that?" Mr. Potato asked as he started pull away from the Andersons' and heading back for Yumi's house.

"I wish I knew," Tif replied. "I don't even know what her significance is. The queen didn't tell me anything about that. All she said was that she wanted me to come here and kill Misaki, and that I'd do it by following the girl and waiting for the trap to spring." Her face took on a look of regret. "It's been so long since I've been around children, Idaho. I didn't even realize that she'd be in danger. It's like I've been doing this so long that it's the only thing I think about anymore."

"Don't get upset with yourself now," Mr. Potato replied. "You were absolutely brilliant tonight."

Tif gave a weak smile for a second, then stopped trying. "It's only temporary. Misaki will figure out the way around Asamita Moko without too much trouble. Next time, I doubt I'll even be able to get a word in before she's defeated me..."

"We'll all work together," Mr. Potato insisted, giving her a pat on the shoulder. She smiled again, more genuinely.

"Thanks, Idaho," she said, and the car pulled in next to Yumi's house. "Well, I guess we keep watch now."

"We sure do," Mr. Potato agreed.

"Feel free to get some sleep," Tif told him. "I don't expect you to be up all night as well. I can wake you up if there's any troube."

"If you're staying up, I'm staying up," Mr. Potato said adamantly. Tif shrugged and didn't argue. She turned to stare at the house, completely on alert but with thoughts drifting at the same time. Within a half hour Mr. Potato was fast asleep, but it was much better that way. He was only human, afterall.

---------------------------------

Her skateboard tucked firmly under her arm, Yumi stepped out of the house a mere four days away from being nine. But strangely, that wasn't really where her mind was at the moment. She wouldn't have thought that aliens landing in her neighborhood or titanic magical duels would be enough to tear her mind away from an event as important as her birthday, but for some reason, all she could think about was the strange things that had been happening lately.

"Heeeeeeeeeey!"

Yumi's head shot up, as she embarassedly realized that she had been standing at the edge of the road staring down at the pavement, lost in thought. Worse, it was a group of boys from her class who had seen her there.

All thoughts of embarassment at her odd situation deteriorated, however, when she saw that it was Tommy and his friends. Time to look like she didn't care that he was there!

Yumi threw her skateboard down and sort of fooled around with it, hopping on and off, looking very intent so that it would appear she was quite a capable skateboarder, so capable that she had to take a very long time to size up her surroundings so she'd get the trick she was about to do absolutely perfect.

She couldn't help but overhear the boys, though. "Hey, Tommy, it's your girlfriend!" "Yeah, why don't you go say hi?" "Kiss her! Kiss her!" "Tommy's got a girlfriend!"

Yumi gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to turn around and order them to shut up. She had to maintain the impression that she did not even know they were there.

"Hi."

"Ah!" Yumi cried, falling off her skateboard. It would have been quite a nasty fall if her helmet had not stood between her head and the pavement.

"Sorry," Tommy muttered, but he didn't help her up. Being a gentlemen would be way too uncool.

Yumi pulled herself up. "You should be more careful," she informed him. She was quite annoyed with him at the moment.

"You okay?" Tommy did look concerned, so she decided to forgive him, since he was the one who gave her the skateboard in the first place.

"Yeah," said Yumi.

"My mom said your birthday is coming up soon. Are you gonna have another party like last year?"

"Yeah, but this year, it's a girls-only sleepover party." Yumi felt quite big about that. It was the first year Mommy had decided she was big enough to have a sleepover.

"I guess I can't give you a present this year, then," Tommy replied with a shrug. He threw his own skateboard down to the pavement in preparation to go. Yumi wanted to stop him and say he could, but there was no way she could do that now that she had so hautily asserted the ban on boys at her party without looking bad. She had her pride to think about.

"Oh well." She mimicked his shrug.

"Let's go, guys!" Tommy yelled to his friends across the street, and he pushed off and started skating down the road without another word to Yumi.

She didn't know why, but the encounter with Tommy made her twice as mad as she had been before it. Maybe Mia had been right; maybe Tommy was just another pig of a boy. Maybe he'd only given her that skateboard to laugh at her about her inability to use it.

But then she got mad at Mia, too, for having accused her of liking him; it brought to her attention the fact that it was obvious she worshipped him for giving her a skateboard. What was so great about that stupid skateboard, anyway?

Yumi looked down at it again. It sat there under her foot, beligerantly ignoring her bad mood. Yes, he had definately given her this thing so that he and his friends could laugh at her. Well, there was no way she was going to put up with that. She looked up again. She could just barely still see the boys at the end of the road.

She wanted to catch them, to zoom past them on her skateboard. She wanted it to sprout wings and soar above the rooftops, right over their heads and all through the neighborhood, and she wanted to come back by them again and stick her tongue out at them. She wanted it so badly, she felt like she could make it happen, and she shoved the skateboard forward and stood on it as it picked up momentum. She did not stop to try to catch her balance, did not pause and think about what she was going to do; she knew only the desire to soar, and she didn't fall. The skateboard picked up speed as it rolled down the gradually sloping road, and still Yumi felt she would not fall.

I can do anything.

Huge eagle wings sprouted from the side of the skateboard, and it leapt into the air with a sudden jolt, but Yumi found staying on top of it easy. She was not taken aback by the suddenness of the transformation or by its supernatural properties, only by the fact that she had no trouble handling it. A sense of exileration passed through her as the skateboard rose higher. There was no fear of falling in her. She laughed and clapped her hands; it was too good to be true, but it wasn't a dream. It had a quality of realism that does not exist in dreams.

But then there was panic, because when she looked down again, she saw that the ground was farther down than she had imagined it could ever get - and she was still getting higher. She screamed, waving her hands about in the air, expecting to begin plummeting, but instead, she only tipped the front of the skateboard up to the sky, making it rise in altitude even faster. She screamed, violently twisting her body around in an attempt to take the thing backward, and it began to spin and twirl in circles throughout the sky.

"Stop!" she screamed in desperation, praying to whatever power had made the fantastic event occur in the first place. "I want it to stop!"

And it did stop. The wings were gone, and Yumi could no longer balance on the skateboard. She and the device began to fall from the sky, faster and faster toward the ground; it took nearly a minute before she could even see the ground through the clouds, and when she could, the rate at which it drew closer was terrifyingly slow. She screamed with all the might in her lungs and covered her eyes; there was a sharp thud and pain seared through her body, and then it was over.

The pain subsided gradually. There was still a slight aching in her back and her head was feeling a bit cloudy, but she was okay. After a few moments of lying there in fear, she removed her hands from her eyes and looked up at her surroundings.

She was in her front yard.

Yumi stood up and brushed herself off. Somehow, she must have dozed off here and dreamed the whole thing...

She turned around and looked into the road in front of her house, and then her heart sank. There were shards of wood all over the pavement. There could be no mistaking it from their color and the four rubber wheels scattered across the area: It was pieces of her skateboard.

She looked up into the sky and tried to imagine how far she'd fallen from. This was ridiculous. It was time to get some answers.

--------------------------------------

Yumi stormed into her house to find Mr. Potato and Tif sitting at the table talking to Mommy. She approached the table and burst into the conversation.

"Something really weird just happened!" she exclaimed.

Everyone turned to face her at once. "What?" asked Tif, looking concerned. Good, Tif would know what was happening.

"I was just riding my skateboard and it started flying and then I made it stop and I fell into the front yard from how high an airplane goes," Yumi explained.

Mommy just raised a couple of eyebrows, but Tif cocked her head to one side curiously. "And yet you're okay?"

"Yeah," said Yumi.

"That doesn't make much sense..." She paused, and said nothing else.

"You don't know what it was?" Yumi asked incredulously.

Tif smiled. "Yumi, to be entirely honest with you, I think all this excitement is getting to your head a little. I can't really think of any other logical explanation."

"Well maybe it was the bad lady trying to kill me!" Yumi cried.

"Yumi, you aren't hurt. There's not a bruise on you." Tif looked apolagetic, but it wasn't enough to calm Yumi's anger.

"Weird things happen sometimes when I'm thinking about them!" she screeched.

"What?" Tif looked concerned again.

"Like when I imagine things, sometimes they just happen! Or when I think about them they change, or get big or little or other wierd things happen..." she trailed off, realizing that everyone at the table, even her own mommy, was just staring at her with an expression of knowing sympathy.

"Yumi, honey," Mommy began, "I think it's like Tif said..."

"I can show you the pieces of my skateboard where it fell," Yumi argued, her arms crossed.

"I'll go," said Tif. "You two stay here."

Tif followed Yumi outside to the road where the the shattered pieces of wood lay. She folded her arms and stared intently at the shards.

"This is very strange," she muttered. "You say it started flying?"

"Yes," Yumi said, relieved that she was finally getting somewhere.

"I can't imagine what this means, Yumi."

"But you know all about this stuff."

Tif shook her head. "There's no explanation. If Misaki did this, you would have been hurt, and I would have known she was nearby. The only other thing I can think of is if you did it, and that's not possible."

"How do you know?" Yumi asked. "I told you, lots of wierd things happen when I think about them."

Tif began to study her intently. "Like what?"

"Well..." Yumi was trying to think of a good example when suddenly Tif's attention snapped away from her.

"She's here!" Tif exclaimed. "Anderson..." She turned to Yumi. "Yumi, get inside. Stay with your mother and Mr. Potato."

"But-"

"I promise we'll talk about this later, but I have to go, and you have to get inside!" Tif cut her off, already running across the street.

Yumi stamped her foot in frustration. She was going to get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing she did. Tif had said "Anderson" before leaving, so maybe she was going back to Mr. Anderson's home...

-------------------------------------

Mr. Anderson backed away from the form that had appeared in front of him, clasping the jar to his chest and holding a Yahkan weapon out in front of him. The rock glowed brighter than normal inside the jar, yearning to be united with the one who had come for it.

"Give me the stone, and I might spare you, Yahkan," Misaki said emotionlessly.

"I'll eat my beard and call it ice cream before I'll hand this thing over to the likes of you," Mr. Anderson replied, pulling the trigger of his weapon. A read fireball erupted from its barrel, but Misaki just continued to step closer to him, ignoring its impact.

"Or just die," Misaki replied. She opened her mouth wide and her tongue darted out like a whip, piercing straight through Mr. Anderson's throat and coming out the other side, only to return as quickly as it came, leaving Mr. Anderson's body to fall emptily to the floor. "Baka," Misaki muttered, opening the palm of her hand and levitating the jar up to rest in it. She opened it up and dumped the stone out into her palm, where it glowed even brighter.

Then there was a crash and Tif leapt through the window of Mr. Anderson's study, spraying glass across the floor.

"Misaki, Sata!" she cried, but the dark queen was gone before she had an opportunity to strike. Tif's shoulders slumped as she bent down to examine Mr. Anderson's lifeless form. "I'm sorry, old friend," she whispered, bowing her head. "We've all made sacrifices to stop that woman..."

She did not know how long she had sat there over his body before she heard the door opening and slamming, and the tapping of feet running into the house. She got up and walked slowly out of the study and into the kitchen, where she saw Yumi looking around bewildered.

"I told you to go inside," Tif said, lacking the emotional strength to be stern.

Yumi jumped a little at her voice and turned to face her. "I had to see what's going on!"

"Yumi, you've got to stay where it's safe..."

"Why?" Yumi asked indignantly. "She's after that rock, isn't she? She's not gonna try to hurt me if I don't have it anymore."

Tif looked like she was starting to say something, but paused, unsure of what to let out. There was a strange, sinking feeling in Yumi's stomach, but she brushed it off. It was not possible.

"What's going on?" She was quieter now, beginning to see that Tif was in pain. A strange sixth sense she'd always had but never noticed was starting to tell her what was happening. "Where's Mr. Anderson?"

"He... has gone home," Tif replied.

There was a pause. It was awkward and uncomfortable and Yumi hated it. She stared at Tif, this woman who had, until now, been the image of all that was great and powerful in her mind. Tif was weak right now. If Tif could ever be weak, then everything was wrong. Tif refused to return her gaze; she just stood there and stared at the floor off to the side, not moving a muscle in her body.

"I wanna know - I'm not just a little kid anymore! I'm almost nine!" Yumi cried, and charged past Tif, who was caught too off guard to stop her.

"No, wait Yumi-!" but Yumi had already entered the study and stopped in frozen terror at the site of Mr. Anderson's dead body and the pool of blood that had collected around his head. Tif leapt in front of her. "Yumi, I want you to stay away," she said, her voice beginning to waver. She was even weaker now. Tif was breaking apart.

Yumi backed away. "He's dead," she whispered. "That lady did it, didn't she?"

"I..." Tif turned her face away. Yumi knew that meant yes.

"So she's gone," Yumi stammered, knowing it was untrue as she said it. "The lady got the rock and she's gone now. She'll go away."

Tif said nothing.

"Well why wouldn't she!" Yumi screamed. "She got what she wants!"

"I... don't know," said Tif. She was crying.

"Well what else does she want?!"

"I don't... know...."

"Yes you do!" Yumi's breath was coming hot and fast now, and she was feeling a terror that was more real than anything that she'd ever felt in a nightmare; it was the most real terror of her life, and yet, it was familiar. "Why else did you want me to go home? You know what she wants! She wants me!" Yumi fell onto her knees and tears fell across her cheeks. She'd known it was true, but now it was real.

"I'll protect you," Tif said. It was weak.

"No!" Yumi jumped up. "Mr. Anderson died! You'll die too!"

"No, Yumi, I promise-"

Yumi wasn't hearing it. She turned around and bolted. Tif yelled after her but she ignored the cry; something was different inside her, something was awakening. She was afraid and confused; there were questions and problems in her mind now that didn't belong there, things she'd never had to deal with and never wanted to. They weren't things she could go ask Mommy or Hiro and get an answer, they weren't like math problems where she could just figure it out with logic; they had no answers, they had no solutions, and Yumi did not want to have anything to do with them. The world around her was a blur; she wasn't moving her legs anymore but she was moving faster, not recognizing her surroundings but going anyway. Tif was far behind her now, but she did not care. If Tif stayed with her, Misaki would come, and she would kill Tif just like she had killed Mr. Anderson, just so that she could get to Yumi.

Finally, her energy was gone, and she stopped, feeling grass beneath her. Her head was spinning, her eyes were aching with crying, her whole body was in pain from breathing so hard and so fast, and her mind was reeling back from the shock of feeling responsible for the death of another human being. Her world was over.

She looked up. She was in the field again. Not this place! Anywhere but here! This was the place where she'd first seen that terrible woman who had changed her life in one night. Was this what it was going to be like to be nine? Was the whole point of getting older just so that she could feel this pain, see these problems, ask these questions, and find no relief, think of no solution, and recieve no answers?

Then she remembered her experience here even before Misaki came; she remembered the spider, how it had loomed over her all of a sudden and taken up the whole sky with its blackness. She screamed, because she knew it was there again; its shadow was falling over her, and she could hear and feel the thunder of its steps on the ground around her. Why did her worst nightmares always seem to come true as she remembered them? She raised her face up to the sky and saw the giant arachnid's eight fiery eyes staring back at her, boring into her, as it raised one of its front legs, positioning it over her head, ready to crush her.

Yumi braced herself. She was too afraid and too miserable to do anything now. Let it come. Just let it come and it will be over.

But then there was screaming, and a presence; there was a feeling she knew better than any other, one of protection, one of admiration, one of love. She whirled around, her heart beating fast, as the only real hero of her life leapt over her head.

"Don't touch my sister!" Hiro screamed, his body soaring into the air, straight at the center of the cluster of burning red eyes.

Yumi leapt to her feet. "Hiro!" she cried, but he had already found his mark, and he burrowed deep into the head of the creature, and she could not see him anymore.

-------------------------------

Hiro landed in a room full of bright red light; the walls of the chamber were covered in replicas of the spider's giant eyes, glowing a hellish redness and filling the chamber with an atmosphere of evil. And there before him stood the center of the creature; it stood like a man, but eight spider-like arms protruded from its body and it had no head, only eight bright red eyes at the top of its torso. Its body was so completely pitch black that Hiro could not see the intricacies of it; it was like it was formed of an ink clot and given life.

"Don't touch my sister!" Hiro repeated. His heart beat fast, his mind raced; he did not understand, but he knew.

The creature screamed in defiance, so he told it again: "Don't touch my sister!" and he augmented it by leaping forward and driving his fist into the eyes of the creature. It fell back, screaming wretchedly.

"Don't touch my sister!"

It screamed again and lunged it him, but he threw his fist out again and knocked it even farther back.

"Don't touch my sister!"

It pulled itself up but he was already upon it, driving his fists through its eyes, right and left in turn; its howls grew in severity until the noise consumed Hiro's entire world, but still he attacked, refusing to hold back for a single moment.

"Dont... touch... my.... sister!" finally he threw his hand out with so much force that his whole body followed, and he found himself cutting all the way through the creature. Its final cry of anguish put out the light of the eyes that covered the walls of the chamber, and the floor gave way beneath him. He fell from it, his fury calmed, his senses dulling, his breath slowing, as he felt himself gently hit the ground in the center of the dissipating spider.

-----------------------------

The spider had collapsed and Hiro had fallen out of its underbelly; it fell to pieces all around him, decaying into the ground and not leaving a trace of its presence there. Yumi ran to where he knelt on the ground catching his breath and latched onto his arm, feeling that her security was comlete.

"I'm sorry, Yumi," said Hiro. "I'm sorry I've been acting like such a jerk lately..."

"I don't care," Yumi replied, still holding onto him tightly.

"I just didn't want it to be true..."

"What?"

"That Tif, and Mr. Anderson, and Andy... were aliens."

"Why?"

"I've been having strange dreams, Yumi."

"What were they about?"

"Running away. Running away from people who were after you. Trying to protect you from them. I never could... but I knew they weren't from here. I knew they came from some other place. I didn't want it to be true. I didn't want there to really be people from other places coming here."

"It's okay, Hiro. You saved me."

"I know."

They sat like that for a long time afterwards. Finally, Yumi felt herself completely calmed, and she let go of Hiro.

"Why'd you run off?" he asked.

"I got mad."

"Why?"

"No one knows the answers to my questions."

Hiro looked into the field for a moment before answering. "I think there's some kinds of questions that you have to answer yourself." he said.

"I hate that kind," Yumi replied bitterly.

"You didn't let me finish. Just because you have to find the answer doesn't mean people can't help you."

"But Mr. Anderson died."

"He's an adult."

Yumi looked up at her brother; there was something a little wiser in the way he was speaking. "So?" she asked.

"Adults know what they're getting into when they get into it," Hiro explained. "That's something I've learned about what it means to be a grown-up. They see things differently than us. We're kids, and we take life one thing at a time. Adults are always looking ahead, trying to solve problems..."

"I don't ever wanna be an adult," said Yumi.

"I didn't either." Hiro turned back to face her, smiling. "That was why I didn't want to accept that there were aliens in my neighborhood. Because that would mean my dreams were real... and I'd have to be an adult. But then you were in danger. Everything changed." Yumi was staring up at him in utter fascination. "I wanted to be there. I don't know how I did it. I just know that I had this incredible feeling like I had to be there for you, and I was. I had to act like a grown-up would... I had to act like Tif."

Yumi had never really looked at it that way before. Perhaps there really was a little more to life than she had previously thought.

Hiro stood up. "Come on, Yumi," he said. "We have to go home. Mr. Potato just found out that Mommy is a robot, and Tif needs to ask you about your skateboard."

"Mommy's a what?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of confused about it, but I guess we better go find out what's going on."

Yumi nodded. "Okay." She stood up and started to walk home next to Hiro. Strangely enough, she wasn't really alarmed at the thought.

She looked up at the sky, and began to remember strange things from long ago that she had somehow forgotten about.

"Michi miko sayo," she said.

Hiro nodded. "Ne te-Hiro kezu mikayo?" he said.

"Mikayo..."

----------------------------------

Yumi and Hiro walked into the living room a little bit wiser. Tif and Mr. Potato were standing by the table, and Mommy was sitting at it. The back of her head was open and there were a bunch of gears and glowing blue lights inside. Yumi would have expected to be disturbed by that, but she wasn't really.

Tif looked up at them and an expression of relief washed over her face. "I'm so glad you two are safe," she said, breathing a heavy sigh.

"Ke neme shoko," Yumi said, crossing her arms. [We are lost.]

Tif nodded. "Komimine." [I know.] "So am I, Yumi. When you took off from Mr. Anderson's home, you quite literally took off. As in, you were flying, and you were doing it at hyper sonic speed. You actually caused some pretty significant property damage with sonic booms."

"I'm sorry," Yumi said quietly, feeling guilty.

"It's not your fault," Hiro comforted her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"All this bad stuff is happening because of me."

"That's not true at all, Yumi," said Mr. Potato. "You may be what Queen Misaki is after, but it's not your fault she's after you. Never blame yourself for wrong things other people do to you."

That actually made sense. It was the first time Yumi ever liked something Mr. Potato said.

"We're remembering a lot of things that don't make any sense," said Hiro. He paused for a while before saying what came next. "We're not from around here, are we?"

Tif smiled. "Yiya meto Nansawa, mimiko katamina yiya seza miza Yakkan misaka shin-na, mikayo?" [If you are from earth, I cannot imagine why you know how to speak Yahkan all of a sudden, eh?]

"Mikayo."

Mr. Potato folded his arms. "Would you all stop doing that?" he asked.

"Sorry," said Tif. "It's hard not to lapse into Yahkan when I'm not the only one who speaks it anymore." She frowned, concentrating hard. "The question is, why would two Yahkan children be on earth under the supervision of a maternity robot? This doesn't make any sense. If the queen knew about this, she'd have told me about it before sending me here."

"Maybe they can shed some light on it?" Mr. Potato suggested, turning to Yumi and Hiro.

Yumi shrugged. "I don't remember anything... I just get this weird feeling when I look up at the sky."

"I've had dreams about running away," said Hiro. "I don't know from what, but I was trying to protect Yumi, I think."

Tif scratched her head. "I suppose it's possible that you were brought here to escape something... and I suppose that something would have to be Misaki. Why would Misaki want Yumi?"

She grew quiet then, lost in thought. There was an awkward silence and finally Yumi said, "So, who's my real mom?"

"I'm afraid I don't know," said Tif. "But I promise I'll work on finding out after this has all blown over."

"Uh, if you don't mind my asking, when exactly will that be?" asked Mr. Potato.

"Yumi's birthday, of course," Tif replied. "The significance is obviously there. Whatever Misaki is trying to do, Yumi's birthday is her deadline. If we can hold out until then, we should be okay."

"But that's not fair," Yumi protested. "What if you all... y'know..."

Tif came forward and knelt down in front of Yumi. "Listen, darling," she said, just as though she had always been Yumi's mother. "I don't want you to worry about that. We know the risks involved, but we think it's worth it to try to protect you."

Yumi bowed her head. She knew, in the end, that Tif was wiser than her, and was probably right, but it sill didn't seem like it was fair. But she nodded in compliance, and Tif went to make dinner while Mr. Potato did his best to keep Yumi and Hiro from dwelling on the mystery. He didn't do a very good job.

-------------------------------------

Yumi's breath was calm and paced, so Tif knew she was asleep. The bounty hunter was standing in the doorway of Yumi's room, quietly watching her as she slumbered. There were many thoughts in her that she was afraid of. She was not afraid of them if they were true; she was only afraid of believing that they were because they could not be.

Mr. Potato was behind her. "You've been here for half an hour," he whispered.

"I know," Tif whispered back. "There is something remarkable about this girl, and it's got me fascinated."

"I agree, she's wonderful," Mr. Potato replied, "but you staring at her like this has got me worried. Do you know something you're not telling us?"

"No," Tif said, and it was the truth; for she didn't know anything.

"But you think something."

"Maybe."

Mr. Potato sighed. "Well, I don't know, this whole thing is over my head, I suppose. But Tif, I have this funny feeling swishing around in my stomach, and I don't really know where it's coming from. It's really pretty crazy, but I can't help but believe it."

Tif turned her head away from Yumi to look at him, finally. "What's that?"

"I have this funny feeling like Yumi's right," Mr. Potato continued. "I mean, not that it's her fault all this is happening, but that we are only going to get killed and fail to protect her. I mean, last time we met that woman, you chased her off, yes - and I don't know a whole lot about people from your world, but she didn't strike me as the type to come back without a new strategy. Tif, whatever you did last time that beat her, it's not going to work twice. Do you have another trick to pull out of your sleeve after that?"

Tif didn't answer.

Mr. Potato shook his head. "And yet I know that we'll try." He chuckled very faintly under his breath. "I mean, what else can we do? What am I supposed to do, call for backup because a magic-wielding alien queen is going to try to kill some random girl?"

"Didn't you get assigned to this case?" Tif asked. "I thought the FBI took alien matters seriously."

Mr. Potato shook his head. "Are you kidding? They don't take it seriously for two seconds. They gave me this case because they think it's bogus. They give me the dumb cases. I'm a real-life Fox Mulder, except without the good looks or the detective skills." He sighed. "Tif, to help you fight the universe's most powerful sorceress, you have got the dregs of a pitifully uninformed earth organization."

Tif put a hand on his shoulder. "Idaho," she said, "I would rather have you by my side than a million other FBI agents, and that is not a lie."

Mr. Potato reluctantly let out a half-grin.

"Come on," said Tif. "We're going to wake up Yumi."

----------------------------------

It was strange to live life the next few days. Tif was not exactly a mother to them; she was wonderful, but she lacked the life-long familiarity of a mother. And Mr. Potato... well, he was anything but a father figure.

Still, it worked. Yumi and Hiro liked having them around, and Tif made them some very unusual meals that they'd never experienced before. They created a regular game out of frustrating Mr. Potato by speaking in Yahkan, and at night they would often sit on the roof together, and Tif would point to different stars and talk about who lived on them. Yumi was surprised to learn that they were all people just like the ones on earth - there were no bug-eyed greys anywhere in the universe, at least not that Tif knew of. Tif also said that the reason why earth was not aware of the civilization of the galaxy was because they were so technologically inferior to other planets; the civilized universe had established laws that forbade interferance in developing planets until they were technologically up to speed. In general, aliens were supposed to stay away from these planets, though they were allowed to live there under special circumstances and if they met the qualifications for a license.

The one thing that Yumi could never get out of Tif was an explanation of her own past. Tif always remained a mystery, but that was part of her charm. She was pretty much the ideal bounty hunter, but at the same time, there was a motherly side to her as well. Hiro theorized that she had once had a family, but didn't anymore, and that was why she turned to being a bounty hunter. Yumi tended to agree; there was no way that Tif could be so good at being a mother if she had not had some practical experience.

The only thing Tif would explain was her magic fighting art, Asamita Moko. It was based on the idea of reversing an enemy's own power back at them, and was developed so perfectly that it could basically be applied to anything, whether magic or physical, and in any quantity, no matter how powerful. It also took hundreds of years to master, said Tif, but inquiries into her age were met only with a knowing smile and a swift changing of the subject.

But no matter how interesting or fun those days were, there was always an undertone of fear - the fear that Misaki would come again any time, trying to take Yumi before her birthday could arrive.

------------------------------------

Yumi could only watch the clock by her bed tonight. She was trying to sleep, but her head would not turn away from those glowing red numbers. The exact moment of her birth was 12:39 A.M. Misaki only had an hour and thirty two minutes to get her. What was that stupid woman waiting for?

Perhaps she would not come at all. Perhaps she'd given up! And yet, Yumi knew, though she did not know how, that this could not be the case. She knew because in the deepest reaches of her brain, she knew Misaki. She did not remember any encounters with her in the past, but she knew now that she had seen that face before it had shown up here in Brisk Woods; she had seen it and feared it long ago. How young was she back then? She must have been a baby, no more than three years old, to have so little memory of that face.

Trying to sleep was ridiculous. She wanted to talk to Tif. She got out of bed and began to walk downstairs in her PJs. Tif and Mr. Potato were sitting on the couch; or rather, Tif was sitting on it, and Mr. Potato was sleeping on it.

"I can't sleep," she said.

Tif smiled. "I suppose that's understandable," she said. Yumi came over and sat next to her. "Tomorrow we're going to throw an awesome party for you," Tif informed her.

Yumi wanted to be excited about it, but she could not; there was only fear when she thought of being nine.

"Why hasn't the bad lady come yet?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think maybe she gave up?"

"That would be nice."

Yumi leaned on Tif, and began to realize how tired she was. "I wish I could just be a normal girl," she said.

"You're very special, and you ought to be proud of it," Tif replied, but Yumi was already asleep. Tif smiled down at her. She was adorable. So adorable, Tif almost wanted to be a mother again...

But damn it, where was Misaki? She had not given up. It was not possible. It would be too good to be true. But she would have come by now. Unless she had something else up her sleeve...

Tif's head suddenly snapped up as an insane idea came to her. The rock. Misaki had gotten the rock back. Yumi had found the rock. Girls Yumi's age everywhere were finding rocks like it.

Tif smacked herself in the forehead. How could she be so stupid? Misaki didn't care if she had Yumi; she cared if Yumi was near that rock when she turned nine.

Tif leapt up off the couch and ran to the phone, grabbing it up and hurriedly dialing a number. Yumi, awakened by the abrupt movement, followed her fearfully.

"What? What's going on?" she asked.

Tif responded by putting a finger to her lips. Yumi was silent. Tif held the phone to her ear a moment, and then finally said, "Hey, Andy? It's Tif. Listen, I know you're not well right now, but if you want to see your dad avenged, this is crucial. I need to know exactly how to find one of those rocks..."

------------------------------------

At 11:34, Andy walked in the front door carrying a briefcase. A little over an hour remained.

"That rock has got to be in this house somewhere," Tif said. "I'm absolutely sure of it."

"If it is, I'll find it," Andy said, "but it's going to take a while."

"How much is a while?" Tif asked nervously. "We're sort of short on time here."

"Will forty five minutes do?" Andy asked.

"That's pushing it, but yes."

"Okay," said Andy, and he set down his briefcase on the table, opened it up, and started to pull some equipment out.

"Uh, Tif... wouldn't it make more sense to just leave the house?" Mr. Potato asked.

Tif shook her head. "Misaki is undoubtedly waiting for us to do that. If we stay in here and contain the rock, there's a slight chance we might fake her out."

---------------------------------

Fifty two minutes later, Andy's cry of success was finally heard throughout the house "I got the little bastard!"

Everyone came rushing into the living room to find Andy completely tearing apart the floor and pulling a glass jar from it, inside of which was the green rock. "I even managed to contain it before I suffered any ill effects," he said proudly.

"Do not use dirty language in this house," Tif snapped at him. "And, thank you."

Andy smiled. "No problem, Tif," he replied, placing the jar inside his briefcase. "I guess that just about-"

Andy stopped suddenly, as though listening to something. "Hold on," he said. "Do you hear that?"

Everyone stopped immediately, and a faint sound could be heard, rising in volume; it was a roar.

Tif ran to the window, and everyone followed. The sound was now escalating to the level where it could be heard clearly, and it was not showing any signs of slowing down. As Yumi gazed out the window, she saw an undefined shape appear in the sky, drawing closer.

"That is not good," Tif whispered. "Everybody out!"

Yumi was being carried out the door by Tif before she had time to realize what was happening; Mr. Potato, Hiro, and Andy came running out after them as the shape finally stopped approaching and rested above the neighborhood, hovering gently. It was way bigger than the house, and had huge wings that stretched across the entire street.

"I'm old enough to run myself!" Yumi declared, pounding on Tif's back. Tif put her down, but probably not because she said so; the bounty hunter was now turning to face the starship.

"Misaki!" she cried. "Sata! se-Mik soya!" [Stop! Go back to space!]

A voice boomed out of the ship, over the entire neighborhood: "Shim sokumiko Tif!" [-- Cencored --]

A compartment on the bottom of the ship opened, and an almost blinding light poured forth; Yumi did not shield her eyes like she had when Misaki had first appeared in the field, but stood still, unbothered by the brightness. When the light cleared Misaki hovered underneath the ship, surrounding by a glowing green field of energy.

"Give me the girl, Tif," Misaki said, and it could be heard everywhere even though she was far off. "And you, boy, give me the rock, if you don't want to end up like your father."

"Shamizaka!" Andy screamed at her. Tif smacked him in the cheek. "Do not ever say that around children again," she commanded, then turned back to Misaki. "You're never getting either one! Time's almost up, demon; you might as well give up now."

There was a flash where Misaki hovered, and then in a second she was floating gently in front of them, still surrounded by her ball of energy. Tif was standing upright, her stance firm; Yumi could tell she was readying herself to use Asamita Moko again.

Misaki had a smirk on her face that Yumi did not like. Something was not the same as the last two times she had seen Tif do this.

"I'm giving you one last warning, Tif," Misaki called down. "You're not going to stop me. I've got plenty of time."

"Don't even think about it!" Mr. Potato cried, aiming his gun at her.

"Just go home, Misaki," Tif yelled back, standing her ground.

Misaki raised her palm and a lightning bolt cut through the air toward Tif; "No!" Yumi screamed, trying to tell Tif not to attempt to reverse the attack, but it was too late; Tif's outstretched hand collided with the attack, and in the same instant, Misaki had pulled a small pistol out of her robe and fired it. The lightning bolt was deflected back at Misaki, but scattered harmlessly around the protective bubble that surrounded her; the shot from the gun struck Tif immediately after she'd deflected the lightning. She had no time to react. She cried out and fell to her knees, grasping her shoulder, and soon she had collapsed onto the road in a crumpled heap.

"Dammit!" Yumi cried, thinking of how she'd never used language like that in her life. Mr. Potato screamed and fired his gun a few times, but Misaki waved her hand and he was thrown off to the side and knocked unconcious.

The bubble floated down to the street now, hovering only a few feet above the ground, and she sailed straight over Tif's motionless body, following Andy, Hiro, and Yumi as they backed away.

"No tricks this time, Andy?" Misaki asked. "How sad."

"I'm not letting you get through here without a fight, that's for sure," Andy snarled. He rushed at her, but crashed into the bubble like a wall, staggering back. Misaki laughed gleefully at his failure and fired her tongue out, wrapping it around his waist and using it to throw him violently off to the side. She extended her hand, and his briefcase floated into it, opening in midair. The glowing green rock floated out in front of her, and she continued to advance toward Yumi and Hiro.

Yumi kept backing off, but Hiro stopped, refusing to budge. "I'm not letting you touch her," he said. "There is no way you are getting past me."

Misaki's face did not waver from that amused smirk. "Oh, come on. You think that just because you saved her from a figment of her own overactive imagination that you can beat me?"

"That spider was real," Hiro replied.

Misaki shrugged. "Well, sure it was. Because she made it that way. Haven't you figured it out yet? Yumi can make all kinds of things happen. Her will is so powerful, it can cause all kinds of things to happen... she just hasn't learned to tame it yet."

"So that's why you want her, I guess?"

"Of course." Misaki folded her arms, enjoying her moment, because she knew that deep down, Hiro did not feel for a second that he could stop her.

"What's the rock going to do?"

"I'm bored of talking," said Misaki, and raised her palm, sending a blast of lightning straight for Hiro. Hiro shut his eyes, bracing for the impact, but it did not come.

"What...?" He opened his eyes to see the lightning collected in a ball, hovering tamely in front of his face. Misaki was wearing an expression of shock.

"Move, Hiro." It was Yumi. He looked behind him to see her staring straight past him at Misaki, and she was holding her own hand up. She had done it!

` "I-"

"Just move."

Misaki growled and hurled another lightning bolt, but this one was directed at Yumi. It veered off to the side and exploded in midair. Hiro backed off, watching his sister with fascination.

"Go away, Misaki," said Yumi.

Misaki seemed to have collected herself. She cocked her head to one side curiously. "Well, isn't that something," she mused. "You seem to be in control of your own will."

"Shut up," said Yumi. "I don't want to listen to you talk. I want you to go away."

Misaki grinned. "Oh, but Yumi, I can tell you so many things about where you come from."

Yumi's heart stopped when she heard this; yes, Misaki probably could tell her a lot of things about her past... but then again, how could she believe this woman? "No."

"Fine," Misaki said, rising into the air a little higher. "You can just come with me now, princess!"

Yumi felt herself enveloped in something she could not see. It was writhing, full of an invisible life, and it made her feel completely powerless. It lifted her into the air where she was level with Misaki, and she began to have trouble breathing. Misaki levitated the rock closer to her, and she tried to push it away with her mind, but it would not budge; the stuff she felt around her seemed to be getting in the way.

"You are a very powerful girl," Misaki said. "You are probably the most powerful magic user to have ever lived. But you are still no match for one who has spent thousands of years perfecting the art!"

"Put her down!" Hiro was screaming. Yumi knew that it was a matter of minutes until she would be exactly nine years old. She redoubled her efforts to push the rock away, but the harder she tried, the weaker she felt, and the harder it became to move, to breath, to see, to hear; whatever was around her was consuming everything.

This was not going to work. She shut her eyes and relaxed all her efforts. There was no use in struggling.

--------------------------------------------

Yumi had lost all sense of time and her surroundings. She was in silent blackness. Her thoughts were all that existed.

How long would it be now until the time came and that rock triggered the spell? What was the spell? Would it kill her? Would it do something worse? It was unbearable; the sensation of having no sensation was panicing, but she was unable to panic. There was nothing left to live for; she was powerless to defend herself, and everyone had fallen who had tried to do it for her. Except Hiro... he was still there, still holding on desperately.

With thoughts of Hiro, she could feel his calming presence. As long as Hiro was there, there was hope; as long as someone stood by her, there was a reason to go on.

Something was different now, and a question crept through her mind: What am I afraid of?

I can do anything.

--------------------------------------

"Just stop it!" Hiro screamed, unable to tear his eyes from the sight of his sister's body being held in the air and wrenched violently about. She looked like she was already dead, but he would not believe it. It was not possible.

"Not now," Misaki cackled, her mouth locked in a wide grin. "I will have this spell cast!"

Hiro looked down at his watch, and his heart sank. There was less than a minute left.

Misaki was howling with insane laughter at her triumph. "This child is mine in ten seconds! Five seconds! Two seconds..."

The world seemed to erupt. There was light everywhere, light so intense it was blinding. A deafening explosion rocked Hiro's brain, and he felt all hope drain from him in that moment. This was it; they had failed.

He scrunched himself up on the ground, tears flowing openly, sniveling miserably at the way things had turned out. I will never open my eyes again. I don't want to face the world anymore; not after the things I've seen, not after the things I've experienced. After everything good as failed, I have nothing left to believe in.

But then, a new sound filled his ears; it was a shriek so intense and so full of anger and hatred that he knew it could not be Yumi. It was Misaki; she was screaming in pain.

He pulled his head up into the world again, and saw that Yumi's body shone with life again; the bubble around Misaki had completely disappeared, and she lay on the road, clutching her head and screaming so harshly it was almost unbearable.

"How did you do that! You're just a little girl! You had no life left in you at all! How did you do that..."

"I told you to go away," said Yumi. "If you won't leave us alone, I'll make you!" she sweapt her arms outward and raised her face, as though shoving something off of her, and Misaki exploded in a blinding show of fire, light, and sparks, leaving a bright green stain on the ground where she had been, but no other trace of her ever having been there.

There was a moment of calm as Yumi slowly lowered to the ground, looking straight ahead without moving. Peace settled through the area; Hiro looked around to see that the little neighborhood had been utterly devastated by the force of what had happened here - it had created enormous earthquakes that had leveled every building as far as the eye could see.

He looked back at Yumi, who had turned to face him. "How did you do that?" he asked in wonder.

"I don't know," she replied. "It was like when I made my skateboard fly. I just... wanted it."

Hiro stood up and walked to her side. Andy and Mr. Potato were coming back to join them as well.

"I hardly believe it," Mr. Potato said, scratching his head. "You completely obliterated her, didn't you?"

"Yeah," said Yumi. "I think she kind of deserved it."

"You are one insane little chick," Andy muttered.

Yumi was mostly ignoring them, though; she was walking over to Tif's body. She knelt down before it and did not say anything. Mr. Potato came and turned her over to examine the wound.

"It was some kind of injection," he said, pulling a needle the blood-stained patch on Tif's shoulder. "Whatever it was, I don't... I..."

Yumi's eyes were shut. "I'm taking it out," she said. And sure enough, a strange green liquid was beginning to seep out of the wound.

"I don't believe it," Andy said, standing over the spectacle. "She's separating it from Tif's blood..."

Mr. Potato took Tif's wrist and felt the vein. "She's still got a pulse," he whispered. "Maybe there's still a chance..."

And then her eyes were open and blinking.

"Tif!" Yumi's face lit up, and she clapped her hands together. "I saved you!"

"Well, damn," said Andy.

"Don't... swear... around... the kids," said Tif, a weak smile spreading across her face.

---------------------------------------

Mr. Potato twiddled his thumbs and looked from side to side uneasily as his boss scanned the pages of his report, raising his eyebrows every now and then. He sighed heavily, closed the folder, and tossed it onto his desk with an air of disgust.

"Potato," he began, sighing heavily. "I know you feel like you get treated a bit... badly around here. But uh... this is going way too far."

"Sir, everything in there is absolutely true," Mr. Potato replied earnestly.

Boss chuckled a bit, and leaned forward. "Potato. What you are asking me to believe is that the little suburban town of Brisk Woods was completely destroyed because the princess of an alien planet called 'Yahka' was sent there six years ago to escape an alien queen sorceress demon thing who came there looking for her?"

"Pretty much, yes," Mr. Potato said.

Boss slammed his fist down on the desk, making Mr. Potato wince. "Potato, this is complete bullshit! If all this happened, why is Brisk Woods in completely impeccable condition now, only a week after it was supposedly destroyed?"

"I believe that's covered on page six, sir," Mr. Potato said.

Boss rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, right. I forgot. It turns out, Brisk Woods is actually an alien colony on earth and it was instantaneously restored by the Yahkan military so as to avoid suspicion! And yes, all of the people living there were robots! Oh, how terribly convenient. Potato, please, get the hell out of my office, get the hell out of this building, and never come back. You are out of the FBI."

Mr. Potato sighed, stood up, and headed for the door. "Oh, hey, Potato," Boss added as he was about the leave. Mr. Potato turned around.

"Yes?"

There was an amused twinkle in Boss's eye. "I'm not exactly sure why, but I have this morbid curiosity about what you'll say... what ever became of this 'princess,' anyway?"

Mr. Potato smiled. "She's still living in Brisk Woods, if you must know," he replied. "Tif said that she wasn't supposed to go back to Yahka until she was sixteen."

Boss laughed. "I'm sure that's exactly what Tif said. Go on, Potato, get out of here. You're such a big joke, I'm almost going to miss you."

Mr. Potato turned around and made his way out of the building. As he got in his car to drive home, he smiled slightly. There was something satisfactory about the way all this had turned out... something exclusive. It was kind of like having it good with the president. Perhaps getting fired from the FBI was not such a bad thing after all? Hell, maybe it was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Hmm, he thought to himself. I wonder if the Yahkan Galaxy Patrol is looking for any new agents...






<font size=10>the end.</font>

............until the sequel.</center>






And now, STAR GIRL YUMI special feature: Yahkan Language!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yahkan sounds like Japanese, but it's not. The phrase Tif yells at Misaki when they first fight, "ne saiko ne satsu!" is the battle cry of the Yakhan warriors, which translates to "you fall, you die!" "Ne" means "you," obviously. The second time Tif encounters Misaki, she says "Misaki, sata!" "Sata" literally means "stop," but it's an authoritative version of the word - kind of like if we were to use "halt" or "cease" rather than "stop."

When Yumi and Hiro converse in Yahkan for the first time, it's a little more in-depth. Yumi says "Michi miko sayo," which roughly translates to "see sky wonder." It's about the same as saying "I see the sky and wonder" in English. Yahkan doesn't have articles, though, so "the sky" is just said as "sky." In addition, Yakhan doesn't have an "I" pronoun; it's just understood that you are referring to yourself if you don't identify that it's someone else. So to just say "see the sky and wonder" would be understood as saying "I see the sky and wonder." (If you're curious, Yahkans do have a pronoun for "we.") The "and" is another thing that's understood; when listing something plural you simply state them in succession without any conjunction. There is no confusion whether it's the verb or noun form of "wonder" because Yahkan never has more than one part of speech for a single word - they'd have separate words for the act of wondering and the wonder itself.

Hiro's response, "Ne te-Hiro kezu mikayo?" is a bit more confusing. It basically comes to "you remember as well as me, yes?" The "te-Hiro" is the "as well as me." The "te" is added to words to basically mean "as well as," or "in addition to," (similar to saying "also" for us) and it's considered bad grammar to use pronouns with it (though a lot of Yahkans do - it's widely accepted slang.) (If you're curious, when you want to pluralize this, you would use "tetse," or "group," instead of your name.) "Kezu" means "remember." This word is pronounced like "ketsu" because in Yahkan, a "z" is pronounced like a "ts." The last part of the sentence, "mikayo," technically means "yes;" in this case, it is being used more like if you were to say "yeah" or "eh" in English after a question, kind of like "right?" It's like Hrio is saying, "You remember too, eh?" Yumi's reply, a repeat of "mikayo," is just like her saying "eh" in response to mean "yes."

Congratulations mate. I sat down and read the thing the whole way through, and it was well worth it. A beautifully crafted story, with realistic characters, and a brilliant name in Idaho Potato.

(Dunno why, I just liked that name.)

Keep up the good work, my friend.

wow, someone actually read it!

Thanks.

<font face="lucida calligraphy" size="2">Cute. ^_~

Little homage to a certain FF7 character there, huh?

It was interesting. Reminded me of a Miyazaki piece. . .the whole young child + new crazy world deal. .. you mentioned Totoro so I'm guessing that was intentional. However, it also read like a book version of a movie. A simple movie, not much to the characters or circumstances involved, and any sense of wonderment suffered in the telling as opposed to how It may have been on the screen. The amount of time the story took place in was not so great that this can be taken for granted. I liked the way the main character was handled early in the story(the end didn't give her too many moments, though the "go away" remarks seemed fitting) . . .but there wasn't much to anyone else and soon stuff was just happening with little regard to the people, but that may be a casualty of the medium.

Originally posted by Serienne


Little homage to a certain FF7 character there, huh?

Sssssshhhhh ; )


Interesting that you mentioned it possibly making a better movie, rezo... I always wanted it to be an anime instead of a story myself. If I was a production studio, it would have been =\

One thing:


I liked the way the main character was handled early in the story(the end didn't give her too many moments, though the "go away" remarks seemed fitting) . . .but there wasn't much to anyone else and soon stuff was just happening with little regard to the people, but that may be a casualty of the medium.

Could you clarify that statement a little? I'm not quite sure what you meant by "stuff was just happening with little regard to the people."

What I meant was that it seems like the people were just stuck in place to get the events going. The happenings had priority over the people involved in them to a pretty high degree as far as the telling went.


Interesting that you mentioned it possibly making a better movie, rezo... I always wanted it to be an anime instead of a story myself.

I figured. It read like a book release of a movie.

Very long, but enjoyable ^___^ finally finished the dang thing, lol :D I like!