<span style="color: #0080FF">Asterous was late...again! It wasn't that he hadn't heard the alarm, it was ringing loud and clear in his ear, but when eight people share one house it can get a little chaotic. Rushing down the stairs, he nearly tripped over the shoes scattered all over. Seriously? We have a shoe rack for a reason! Not having time for the usual hot chocolate and toast combo, Asterous grabbed a couple granola bars, hoping they would hold him until after class. It was only fifty minutes, but was also one of two courses he actually liked, and what he was majoring in.<br/>"Shoot, shoot, shoot!" Became the mantra as Asterous pulled on his shoes while moving out of the way of both the bathroom and the stairs. Finally ready, he checked his bag for the third time to ensure his keys and wallet were there, a bad habit, before rushing out the door.<br/><br/>Being in the third parking lot meant he had a long way to go to the Academic Building. Asterous pulled his cracked Ipod from his pocket, checking the time and continuing the mantra again. <br/>"I'm screwed." Asterous said, shoving the device back in his pocket and starting to run. Clutching his bag to his chest to stop it from bouncing around, he narrowly avoided being hit by a car as he crossed the crosswalk without looking.<br/>"Damn drivers." As he neared the building, Asterous put on a burst of speed from seemingly nowhere and dashed to the side door as it was closer to where he had to be. Flinging the door open, Asterous rushed into the building, but instead of the usual Commons, the surroundings were blurred.<br/>"What the hell?" Asterous asked, continuing to run even in this new environment. It didn't last long though as the force of literally hitting a brick wall stopped his process, knocking him out cold.</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #00BF00">“Do we wake him up?” a voice asked as the unknown person in the room stirred.<br/><br/>“I say we knock ‘im out again, and see how long it takes for ‘im to-”<br/><br/>“Silence. I recognise his insignia. We are of the same Origin Universe.” a commanding voice said as the Overseer walked up to the other two.<br/><br/>“Ah! Come on! I would’a at least enjoyed knockin’ ‘im around a bit!” the regenerator known as Alexander Anderson smirked showing his pointed teeth. The Overseer snapped, and the Regenerator was soon covered in a block of cement up to his waist.<br/><br/>“Wally? I assume you are alright by now?” the Overseer turned to the youth. “It’s Firestorm. I would ask you if you had questions, but it seems the more pressing issue is your head injury.” he spoke as though meeting a friend for the first time in a while. Ulquiorra, the first to have spoken, shrugged and left, finding no interest in what was going on.<br/>Anderson sighed and asked, “Can ye at least free me from this stone, ya heathenistic bastard?”<br/><br/>“With an attitude like that I am inclined to bury you in it.” Firestorm said, turning back to Wally and asking. “Can you walk?”</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">The world came back in bits and pieces, but the first thing Asterous was aware of was there were other people around him. Great, now I'll be the laughing stock on campus for running into a wall. With a groan, Asterous moved to sit up but regretted that decision as his headache flared.<br/>"Bad idea, bad idea." Curling in on himself, Asterous clutched his head and froze. That's not my voice. And this isn't my hair. And what the hell are these things on my ears? Freaking out, Asterous opened his eyes and looked around the room, actually seeing it for the first time. Not recognizing anyone he zeroed in on the one who was speaking.<br/>"What did you call me?" Seriously, what is going on? Last I checked I didn't have a cold. "And of course I can walk...I just need a minute." Asterous had tried to stand up, resulting in the room spinning and his stomach ready to go with it. Stumbling, he closed his eyes and willed the pain away. This is all a dream, heck you probably didn't even get up this morning. You're just sick again.</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #00BF00">“Let the boy rest... in pieces. He doesn’t know who the hell we are, and he sure as hell won’t be able to fight back!” Anderson smirked, still buried in cement up to his waist. Firestorm frowned. “Do I need to remind you who you are defying?” He said coldly, forgetting Wally for the moment.<br/><br/>“O’ course not ya’ heathenistic bastard! I just ain’t afraid is all!” Anderson said, soon finding the cement grow up to his neck. Firestorm turned to Wally/Asterous and smiled. “Come on, I will help you to your room.” He said kindly. Grabbing Wally and supporting him on his shoulder, Firestorm led him to a room that resembled one of the Happy Harbor rooms, complete with several “souvenirs” minus Dr. Fate’s helmet. Firestorm was far from an idiot, and had that tucked away somewhere else.<br/><br/>“I will have someone come by later with a medical kit.” Firestorm said kindly.</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">Asterous could finally see straight, though he still wondered if this was a dream. Though it didn't really make sense as he didn't exactly know who these characters were. Feeling someone supporting him and leading him away, Asterous was reluctant to follow but had little choice in the matter. As the two entered the room, Asterous raised his gaze from the floor to take in the new surroundings. <br/><br/>Immediately recognizing the room as one from Young Justice,he couldn't help but grin. If this was a dream, it had just gotten better. It even had souvenirs! Score! Taking in the room, still with a stupid grin on his face, Asterous' attention was once more called back to the man who was still with him.<br/><br/>"Whoa, wait a minute. What the heck is going on? Last I checked, dreams didn't result in pain. And they're usually made up of at least something familiar!" Asterous asked, his brain trying to come up with some sort of explanation. Raising a hand to point at the man and continue with his train of thought on how dreams incorporated aspects of the life of the host, he was stopped by the red glove, and bright yellow sleeve. Trailing his eyes down his arm, and finally looking down at himself, Asterous froze. <br/><br/>"This dream just got a lot better." The grin returned as Asterous realized that he were Kid Flash. "This is awesome!"</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #00BF00">Firestorm smiled at Kid Flash’s realization of who he now was. This would make things easier… he seemed to know about his new body’s identity. Some of the others didn’t, which made it far more complicated. “I assure you this is no dream Wally! If it were a dream, you wouldn’t be injured at the very beginning of it, and you would be able to wake up...”<br/><br/>Now came the hard part. “Wally… I need your assistance with something… There is a man somewhere in this world that I need to stop from destroying both this world of fiction… and reality itself. I need you to go find a man… a contact of mine by the name of Junichiro. He may be a hopeless Otaku, but he has managed to hack the GM’s- that’s the man I mentioned attempting to destroy reality and fiction- servers. Junichiro knows how to get into GM’s database… he may be the key to returning to the real world, and I can’t find out where he is… can you do that for me?”<br/><br/>Why the Overseer was actually telling Asterous this was probably because of their mutual Origin Universe. Everyone else assumed he wanted to rule in the GM’s stead, when he was trying to save those trapped here. Then again, he had every resource to rule… minus the GM’s abilities. Maybe with Wally as an ally instead of an underling… they would stand a chance.</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">Asterous was busy looking over his new self and thinking of all the things he could do now that he was one of his favourite fictitious characters. He could feel the excitement buzzing in his system...or maybe that was just the after effects of knocking yourself out. Snapped out of this by the man's comment on this not being a dream, Asterous' amazement didn't falter. He was just pleased he was KF, heck, this was like a dream come true!<br/><br/>Facing the man, he listened to what he had to say - trying his best to ignore the combined buzzing and dull throb in the back of his skull. <br/>"First mission, cool!" As the man explained further, the coolness factor seemed to leave. Holding a hand up to stop the onslaught of information, Asterous tried to understand it all.<br/><br/>"So, this is a completely different world with a bad guy that is somehow threatening the real world all without the knowledge of the real world that anything is going on? And you want me to find this guy, Juni--whatever, who can get into the bad guy's base and shut him down while somehow returning to the real world where all of this would seem like a dream, though it's really not a dream?" Asterous hadn't realized he had been speaking faster than normal until he stopped and actually considered what he had said. "That was a lot." He said, taking a breath. Thinking all this over again, Asterous came to another question.<br/><br/>"How am I supposed to find this guy if you don't even know where he is? And I gotta sit down --" Asterous pressed a hand to his temple, feeling the headache spike once more.</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #00BF00">Firestorm smiled. “I DO know where he is… I just can’t go there myself, and my… associates are likely to kill him due to the lies GM has fed the general populace. The fact is you are the only one I have told this because you were brought here to my abode away from GM’s influence, and I can only keep them away from him as their “boss” to keep Junichiro under the radar. No one else knows any of this. I am asking you as a friend. Go here, I implore you. Find Junichiro, and tell him I sent you.”<br/><br/>Firestorm handed a small device to Asterous that resembled a Titan Communicator for ease of recognition. “Head toward the marker on this and wait for a man with strikingly red/pink hair in a lab coat. That’s who you’re after.” Firestorm said. There was a knock on the door and his personality changed to a commanding tone, “Come in!”<br/><br/>A lean girl with blood red irises walked in, her sclera were jet black, and she seemed… a bit off from a normal girl. “Here. I brought a med kit. Don’t make me regret it.” she said uncaringly. Firestorm smiled, “Thank you Touka.”<br/><br/>“Whatever. I am starving. Why didn’t you just let me eat the idiot?” she shot back. Firestorm frowned, “Coffee not doing it for you, then?”<br/><br/>“NO it ISN’T! I need flesh and you know that!” Touka spat. Firestorm sighed. “Go find Ulquiorra. He doesn’t seem to care when you eat his flesh… high speed regeneration, remember?”<br/><br/>Touka nodded. Treating Asterous, she smiled as though she wasn’t an abnormal flesh eating ghoul at all. “Hold still, this might sting.” she said before putting the medicine on his head. When she was done and gone, Firestorm turned to Kid Flash and said, “She is surprisingly docile for a ghoul. Most of the people who turn into a Ghoul when appearing here are quite hostile. I’ll... leave you to your own devices for now. Just don’t go getting yourself killed.” he warned before leaving.</span><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">Asterous listened to what the man was saying with his eyes on the floor. Wasn't he lucky. And to think this had all started as a normal, though running late, day of classes. All in all, this not-a-dream was turning into more of a nightmare. Crazed power hungry GM's, worlds of fiction...looking up from his thoughts, Asterous accepted the communicator with a small smirk at the design. <br/><br/>"Sort of like a recon mission, nice." His examination of the device was interrupted by the knocking on the door. Watching the girl who entered, Asterous' eyes flickered between her and the man. He wanted nothing to do with this 'flesh-eater'. Remaining as still as he could, which seemed to be much more difficult in this body, Asterous kept his gaze forward while Touka treated him. Before he could say anything, a slight sting arose from where the medicine had been placed. Wincing slightly, Asterous watched the ghoul leave, grateful for the limited time spent with her.<br/><br/>When the door closed, he once more turned his attention to the only other person in the room. Asterous opened his mouth to comment on the other people turning into ghouls bit, but closed it without a word as the man left him alone. <br/><br/>"Great, just fantastic." He said when he was alone. Holding up the communicator and looking at where the marker was, Asterous let out a sigh. Stretching his arms over his head and hearing his elbow pop, he made the decision that sooner was better than later. Hesitantly opening the door, Asterous looked down either side of the hall for anyone who may be coming before choosing a direction at random and hoping it would lead out.</span>