I cannot believe I'm here! Right in front of the stage to see KISS at one of the biggest music festivals in the country. So many people and bands many of them favorites of mine. It was dark as the clock on my phone showed it was 9:40. The show was about to start. Movement could be seen behind the massive KISS curtain as a hush fell over the crowd. Suddenly the fast-paced thrum of a guitar broke the silence as the curtain rose to reveal the hottest band in the world. a scream of joy erupted from my throat like it did for many in the crowd as Detroit Rock City tore through the night. My eyes were bright with excitement as the bass of Gene's bass and Eric's bass drum pounded around me. But my eyes couldn't leave Paul as his incredible voice filled the air. I even almost swooned when he pointed in the direction of the part of the crowd, I was in.

"He's amazing!" I screamed throwing my hands in the air with my middle and ring fingers tucked under my thumb in the universal rock symbol. 

"I know right?!" a girl next to me shouted as Tommy began his guitar solo. I was seriously waiting to see Tommy start floating and glowing like he does in Scooby-Doo Rock and Roll Mystery.

     I knew the band didn't have powers, but my inner child couldn't help but hope they did. After their opening song, Paul talked to the crowd and riled us up before the band jumped into Shout It Out Loud and everyone went wild. For a band that has been around since the 70s, they are still really loved and adored. By the fourth song, the crowd surfers started up. One of the was dressed as The Spaceman and I had to double-take to make sure it wasn't actually Tommy Thayer. That was how impressive the costume was. Chaos was increasing and I started to worry that a full on mosh pit was going to form. At one point the crowd called for a pause as someone had fallen but because of the music, unfortunately the band couldn't hear but the issue was soon resolved.

"This is so fucking insane!" the girl from earlier exclaimed after we helped another surfer to security. I nodded in agreement and turned back to the concert in time to see Paul ride a zipline to a small stage in the center of the crowd.

     After Paul came back to the main stage, Gene did his blood spitting show and fire breathing trick before playing God of Thunder. It was just as thrilling as I had seen them back in 2019 at Indianapolis. As the show progressed so did the frequency of the crowd surfers. There were many times I was either kicked in the head or elbowed in the face. Bruises would surely form soon, and I was growing irritated at the crowd. It grew worse as the finale drew closer. 

     Between the press of the bodies around me, the loud music, the warm September air, the confetti, and the surfers I was starting to become disoriented and short of breath. Many people around me asked if I was okay and I waved them off as fine, not wanting to have to leave the show early. But unfortunately, it only got worse as the finale played. Cannons shot of copious amounts of confetti and streamers, the crowd lost its mind, and the surfers became endless. One surfer began to flail, and they ended up kicking me hard in the back of the head causing me to slam it into the barricade before crumpling to the ground. Feet began to trample all over me, and I barely caught a glimpse of a boot before it connected with my head. Stars exploded in my vision as the noise around me took on an echo. I tried and failed to raise my arms before another foot connected with my head again this time it felt like everything was shut off like someone flipped a switch as I couldn't see or hear anything. The only thing that told me I was still alive was the pain in my head and all over by body, but even that started to ebb and fade away until I was stuck in darkness feeling like I'm floating in nothing. Slowly I tried moving my arms and it felt like I was stuck in mud and very sluggish.

"What is going on? Am I in a coma? Dead?" I said aloud.

     The reply I got was silence as I floated in the darkness trapped with my own thoughts. Of course, I meet my end at one of my favorite band's last concerts. Tears filled my eyes as I curled up into myself as best as I could and began to sob. What would my family think, my friends? Work? I'm not even a Christian, is this my afterlife? Perpetual darkness and silence? Is this my punishment? I continued to cry my heart out not paying attention to glow that was forming behind me.

"When do you think she'll wake up? " a gruff voice asked with an echo. Hearing it startled me out of my pity party as I uncurled sluggishly and started looking around.

"I have no idea, Gene. She just appeared out of nowhere! " Came another voice. It was familiar sounding.

"H-hello?" I sniffled turning to look for the source and finally noticed the light behind me.

"I found her ID in her bag. But it's confusing as Hell as according to it, she shouldn't even be born yet." a third voice stated.

"Don't go through my shit!" I shouted as my despair change to anger as I strained to reach into the light.

"Well, even if she isn't born yet, I gotta say. She has a lot going for her in the beauty department." Laughed a fourth voice. That laugh was unmistakable and annoying.

     I scowled and just as my outstretched hand touched the light, it exploded and enveloped me making me gasp and shout in surprise. As the light faded into a dull orange, and I could feel something like leather under my hands. Feeling slowly came back to my body as I suddenly gasped and bolted upright, only for my forehead to connect with something hard causing a resounding thud before I cried out in pain with someone else. Clutching my head where the pain was, I hissed lowly and whimpered as I slowly opened my eyes to see what I collided with. My hair and hand obscured my vision, but after lowering my hand and lifting my head to look for the source of my pain, I saw four men looking at me with ranging emotions and one had a hand covering his own forehead. Analyzing the men before me, I slowly felt the gears in my head click into place as the faces matched up with names from my memories of looking at old pictures.

     Adrenaline began coursing through my veins as I scrambled back on the couch, I was on with a shriek escaping me making the four men flinch. My breathing quickened as I looked around in a panic to see I was on a luxury bus of some sort. Turing my gaze back to the four very young members of KISS before me, I tried to think of every possible solution as to why I was seeing them before me, it's obvious I'm not dreaming as the pain in my forehead and the ache all over my body where I could see bruises had formed on my arms and legs.

"Hey, easy. We aren't going to hurt you." young Paul Stanley lowered his hand from his forehead and made the universal 'calm down' motion with both his hands.

"W-where am I? How did I get here?" I pressed even further away from them.

"You just appeared out of thin air. Looking very beat up." Paul explained. "You're on our tour bus."

"What year is it?" I gasped trying to get my breathing under control.

"1975." Gene scowled leaning back on his heels. I swallowed thickly.

"What? That's not possible. It was 2022 before I was knocked out." I could feel panic try and set back in. Suddenly a ringing filled the air as Paul pulled out a very modern looking cell phone.

"Yeah, it's all good. Our guest woke up and panicked." he replied to the person on the other end of the line.

     No, no way. Cell phones shouldn't exist in the 1970s. Only land lines. I stared wide-eyed at the small device in shock. A snort came from my right, and I looked over to see Ace Frehley and Peter Criss looking amused. Pressing even more against the couch, I wished that I could turn invisible and disappear right in this moment. After Paul hung up and put his phone away, he got back to his feet and walked over to a kitchenette and grabbed a paper cup before filling it up with water from a dispenser. He came back over to me and held out the cup. I eyed it warily before looking at the others. Cautiously, I took the cup from him and slowly lifted it to my dry and probably cracked lips. As soon as the cool liquid touched my mouth, I began drinking in earnest.

"Woah, easy. You don't want to make yourself sick." Paul gently lowered my arm.

"Jeez Paul, you don't have to baby her." Ace scoffed getting up and move to a couch across from the one I was on.

"Back off Ace. She's obviously terrified and confused." Peter glared at the guitarist before also moving to the couch. Gene ended up taking a chair at the table in the kitchenette. 

"Care to tell us your name, sweet cheeks?" Ace asked.

"Avalon Ryder-Potter, born 26 May, 1999." I carefully replied. "I'm twenty-three years old."

"Same age as Paulie here!" Ace laughed. "I'm twenty-four, Peter is thirty, and Gene over there is twenty-six."

"Fucking Hell." I breathed lifting the cup back to my lips and taking a slow draw of the cool water. "This can't be real. I have to be in a coma or something."

"I don't know, your pained hiss sounded very real." Paul joked making me scowl at him slightly. 

"So, what now? The next city you guys arrive in I am sent on my merry way?" I asked spotting my bag on the floor next to the couch. Reaching down, I grabbed my phone from the front pocket and turned it on seeing a notification saying my bank account was invalid. "Cause I literally have no money or a home to go to."

"We... haven't actually gotten very far in that thought." Peter admitted.

"You got any skills?" Ace mused wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"None that you're thinking of." I snapped. "My skills lie in cooking, I know how to clean, and music."

I couldn't exactly tell them I'm a witch, it would break the Statute of Secrecy, even if it didn't exist here.

"Music? Like what? Reading it, writing it, playing an instrument, singing?" Gene glared at me.

"Singing and I can play guitar, woodwinds, piano, and harp." I looked down at my phone sadly. "No doubt my family and friends think I'm dead."

"What's that stick poking out of your bag?" Peter asked pointing at my wand.

"Just a trinket." I lied. Until I knew for sure if this was the actual past or an alternate timeline akin to the scooby-doo universe, I was going to have to keep my magic under wraps. "Umm, I do have a question."

"What kind of question?" Peter asked growing serious.

"Just a question about a city. Does Crystal Cove exist?" I looked down and avoided eye contact.

"Yeah, we were there last week. Heard there's a talking dog there." Ace said lowly. "Why do you ask."

"It confirms something for me. Crystal Cove was a fictional city part of a franchise I love. Which brings about my next question. If Crystal Cove exists, then that leads me to my next suspicion that might get me into serious trouble with you guys." I looked up and swept my gaze over them.

"What kind of trouble." Gene growled. I could have sworn I saw smoke curling from the corner of his lips.

"Intergalactic most likely. In exchange for this last question, I'll share classified information about me with you all." I sighed. Some way to make an impression.

"What could you, a random stranger know about us?" Gene snapped. Yup definitely smoke.

"I know normal people don't have smoke streaming from their mouths." I pierced him with my sapphire gaze. "You guys are KISSterians. Aren't you."

It suddenly became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"How..." Paul's voice was quiet.

"When you confirmed about Crystal Cove, it really brought some things to focus. And by Mr. Stanley's quiet statement also confirms that you are not human like I am not." I rubbed my face with one hand and reached into my bag to grab my wand. "Since that was confirmed for me, I'll share my secret."

They all looked at me as I brought out my wand.

"This isn't just a trinket. It's a foci. More specifically, a wand." I explained while flicking my wrist and casting a silent Lumos. "I'm a witch, but a good one. That I can promise you. As well as I promise to keep your secret, so long as you keep mine."

"Are you blackmailing us?" Ace jumped to his feet.

"On the contrary. I want to help you guys. It's not like I have a place to go." I canceled the spell and placed my wand at my side. "Let me work as a housekeeper for you guys. I'll cook, clean, and do whatever is necessary to keep you guys as Number One."

     I was met with silence as the band looked at one another before all getting up and walking past me to one of the back rooms. As soon as I heard the door close, muffled arguing could be heard. A heavy sigh escaped me as I tucked my cup between my thighs and picked up my bag to dig out what looked like a dice bag, but it held everything I owned. I had packed up all of my belongings and was going to move to LA to try and become a singer. There was another pouch that had everything from my Gringotts vault as I was going to open one in California to prevent my less than savory brother from accessing the family fortune and artifacts. As I had been willed everything when our parents died. He went insane when he found out, considering my brother was a registered psychopath and had been in and out of treatment for his whole life. Maybe being in this world would be safer for me. I was snapped out of my thought and rummaging through my dice bag by the door opening and the band coming back out. Lowering my bag, I tied it closed and looked up. They stood in front of me in a line with their arms crossed and looked down at me.

"So, witch burning or just disappearing all together?" I asked with a resigned look.

"We'll hire you, but one mistake and you're gone." Gene growled. 

"Since we weren't expecting another passenger, you'll have to sleep on the couch." Paul said. "When we get to our next stop, I'll give you a little bit of money to buy some clothes..."

"I have my belongings." I interrupted him lifting the small bag. "My plan was to go to the airport after the concert I was at and fly to California. I just don't have any cash and I don't know if goblin gold would actually be worth anything here."

"Goblin gold?" Peter asked. I reached into my normal bag and brought out the coin purse I had and opened it to pull out a few galleons. 

"I don't have mundane money, just magic money. When I said I don't have money, I meant in non-magical means." I explained. "This stuff is enchanted to where it can't be sold to a mundane buyer for cash."

"Well shit." Ace muttered as I dropped the gold back into my coin purse and snapped it shut.

"My family's entire magical fortune and artefacts are in this coin purse. I was going to deposit it with another branch of the magical bank to protect it from bad people in my family." I dropped the purse back into my backpack and leaned against the couch.

"So, you have money, but it can't be converted into cash because of magic." Paul rationalized. "Because of that, you offered to work for us to earn a small living. But what about documents?"

"I don't know." I looked at my wallet poking out of my bag. "Considering I shouldn't even be born yet."

     I grabbed my wallet and looked at my driver's license. My family was purely magical but worked closely with non-magicals and we lived a mundane lifestyle. College, cars, electronics with special runes to prevent any bad interaction that magic normally causes with tech, and even summer school for a mundane education. As I stared at my license, a shimmer overtook it, and I dropped it in surprise. New information appeared, changing my birthdate and the address changed to accommodate that I was a nomad of sorts. Gene picked up my ID and grunted.

"Looks like that problem is solved. No home address though. Guess we're stuck with you." Gene grunted tossing my ID back to me. "One mistake, I'm telling you. And you're gone."

"I understand." I nodded solemnly. 

"Listen, it's late. You need to rest anyway. Tomorrow is when you can start. We usually get up around eight depending on plans for the day." Paul said.

"I'll set an alarm and have breakfast ready." I nodded as Ace, Peter, and Gene stalked off to where their rooms were.

"Do you need any pillows or blankets?" Paul asked.

"I have some." I replied. Paul nodded and went off to his room. The lights in the bus dimmed and I sat there in partial darkness trying to process all that's happened. I broke a magical law, called KISS out on their biggest secret, and I'm stuck in a parallel world. "What has my life come too."

     Sighing, I finished my water and got up using my wand as a light and decided to go ahead and do some cleaning magically so as not to wake the guys. I have a long road ahead of me to earn their trust. The kitchenette was small, so it was easy to learn my way around. Casting a silencing charm, I started on the dishes piled in the sink. Sleep would come to me eventually. It was nearly midnight by the time I finished in the common area of the bus, well trailer as it turned out. I was still wearing my clothes from the concert, and they were filthy from sweat and gravel dust. Reaching into my dice bag, I thought of my favorite pajamas and once I had them in hand, used Point Me to locate a communal bathroom. Sure, enough I found it and I was quite grossed out. Looks like I'll have to clean this before I can change. With a wave of my wand, I set about cleaning after using another silencing charm. Once the bathroom practically sparkled, I closed and locked the door and finally got a look at myself in the mirror. My hair was a wild and frizzy mess, and I was covered in bruises. Reaching into my backpack, I brought out my makeup wipes and cleaned off my smudged makeup before wrangling my hair into a bun on top of my head. With a wave of my wand, I cleaned off the dirt and grime of the festival before doing my business and changing into my pjs.