Chapter 4

Wow, he must've been pretty fragile, to faint like that. But then again, we pulled him out of a very large fall. When Daniel woke up (again), he seemed sad and broken for some reason. When I put two-and-two together, I decided to keep quiet except wait for Daniel to speak.

He looked at me for a few moments, then immediately went out of the hospital bed. I knew what he was planning to do since he had confirmation he was alive (he probably thought this was a dream before)-and so I snapped my fingers. The power of that snap was enough to make his legs go back into the bed and put a blanket up to his chin (oh, wait, sorry, forgot that you guys don't know what just happened. Keep reading and you'll find out). For the second time in my life, I saw Daniel look at me with shock, the first being, well…

Then he fainted. Again.

When he finally came to (which was actually just a few minutes later), he just laid there for a few minutes, trying to get his bearings, and then he spoke again.

"How am I still alive?"

"I'll leave that to Link when we get to that roadblock. For now, let's just start with names. My name's Aileen, you can call me Al. Yours?" (We never EVER call Aileen "Al", though)

I'm talkative. Remember that.

"I-I'm Daniel Richards. Just call me Daniel."

"Well, Just-call-me-Daniel, I'm pleased to meet you. Should we go now, or should we talk some more?"

He looked confused as if he didn't know what language I was speaking. But then again, he just woke up from a t- you know what? I'm not going to spoil it for the audience. I've already said too much. But then, he looked determined, as if somebody was racing him. I remembered him before all this, he was so at ease with everyone…

Oops, getting off track. Sorry.

"I think I'm ready to talk to Link, or whatever his name was."

Yeah, I can see the old Daniel's determination in him. (Dang it! I cannot stop with breaking my own rules! Oh, wait, is the fourth wall broken already? Oh, well. Hello, readers!)

When we managed to get out of the room-me holding Daniel up-he instantly awed at the skyscrapers out of the window we were in. I really couldn't criticize him. Not the fact that his life before this was in a horrific school with a cruel life, but the sheer grand scale of the buildings. Each one had to be over 1,000 stories tall, with artwork worthy of Da Vinci or Michelangelo decorating the sides. Floating vehicles, built to hover (duh), which minimized air resistance, zoomed around on the roads outside, and a sky train floated just above the building, making its daily routines.

"Wow," Daniel began, "This is-"

"Divine?" I suggested for him.

"Yeah, divine".

At that moment, we both looked at each other for a bit too long for each other's comfort, and we both looked away, embarrassed.

"Should we go now?" he asked.

"Yeah, definitely," I replied, and we went forward. But at that moment, before we looked away, I thought I saw a spark between us.

When we managed to get to the "Space Base" as I called it via floating train, he was talking about all the things we saw. Wow, did he have a mouth!

"Oh my gosh, did you remember the floating train-"

"Yep." (We were just on it!)

"And the skyscrapers-"

"Yep" (They were everywhere! How could I miss them?)

"And the size of the windows?"

"Wait, what?"

"Um… Let's just say that I never saw windows of that scale."

"Okay then, well, you'll be able to see them constantly, then."

"Yay!"

I'm not sure if he was kidding or not.

Thankfully, we were interrupted by Link, who was waiting for us at the door.

"Ah, there you guys are! I was wondering where you were!"

Daniel looked at him, surprised. "Wait, you're the one who's going to brief us? You're only a teenager!

It was true, Link was a teen. At five foot five, he was probably the shortest of us, but yet he was the smartest. He had dressed in a black shirt with white stripes and gray denim pants. A bad match, except that Link didn't care about his looks. That didn't explain the hundreds of his female fans jumping him one time…

I was snapped back to reality when Link said "To be fair, you are, too" then cleared his throat. He had an uncanny ability to see when I was losing track of myself, and often cleared his throat when he caught me fantasizing (And, no, I don't have a dirty mind, people. Just saying). I looked at him, determined to smack him in the face. I had told him to switch the way to get me back into reality-in fact, I had smacked it into his face once.

"I told you to not do that!"

"Hey, it was a last resort," he said. "I tried snapping my fingers, but you didn't notice! Daniel, you know it's true! Tell her before she kills me!"

Daniel was about to answer until he said, "Kills me". Whatever he was trying to say was abruptly changed. He refused to say anything.

After a moment, Link teased, "Oof, what happened? You look like you saw someone commit suicide!"

The looks on both of our faces confirmed his worst fears-or his sarcasm, I'm not sure.

"Oh, crap, you're that kid who-oh, I'm so sorry," he began, but Daniel shut him off.

"Please, no apologies, it just caught me by surprise. Just don't speak of that around me anymore, okay?" With that, he went inside the building, and with no choice (it was raining, and that was unintentionally formal), we followed him.

"So, what were you going to brief us about?" Daniel asked once we were inside.

"Not now, Daniel. Not until the rest of the team is here." Link replied.

"Team? What do you mean,-"

"Yes, team," I said. "The same team who's coming through the door right now."