"Heeeey! Neuman! Lookie, lookie! It's a hot dog vender out in the middle of the forest!"

This is Ariel. Blue haired, blue eyed, and bursting with an inexhaustible energy and sense of adventure. She was the first friend I met upon coming to this world, and currently my travelling companion. Her power is the ability to create bubbles of all sorts. Small, numerous soap bubbles. Large, seemingly unpoppable bubbles. I half expect her to sneeze out bubbles or to erupt with bubbles from her ears whenever she gets angry. I guess she's just an airhead that happens to be coated in soap.

As we spoke we were floating on some such bubbles specifically made for air travel. They might be slow, but at least I don't have to go through a multi-layered security to get on board. We had no goal, no needs, no worries. We were just drifting above the treetops heading wherever the wind takes us. It's more fun that way.

"What are you talking about? Who in the right mind would put up a hot dog stand in the middle of a forest in a world where eating isn't necessary?"

Ariel got that look in her eyes.

"Time to find out!" The bubbles underneath us popped, and we were sent falling to the planet beneath. Just when I thought I was going to collide with the ground, a bubble appeared right beneath me, and bouncing me away. Just when I thought I was safe, I had actually landed off center and was sent flying head-first into a tree trunk. Ariel landed gracefully as ever. "Ahhh, come on. You can do better than that!"

I sat up, dizzy, and patted my injured head. "I wouldn't have to if you landed us properly. I might start preferring airplane travel if you keep it up." I stood up. These new bodies of ours seemed to be able to take more of a beating than our previous ones.

"Liiieeees! Come on now, you're not that hurt. Heeeey! Mr. Vendor Man! We'll take two!"

She's lost it. I looked up, only to find exactly what she said was there. There was tattooed, black mohawked punk guy standing underneath an umbrella which was attached to oh would you look at that. A vending cart. In normal circumstances this would have rendered me speechless, but everything in this world is anything but normal. Sighing, I walked over to them.

"Oh, well I'll be--... customers! Two hot dogs coming right up! It's been so long since I've seen someone else! No one ever bothers coming by my shop..."

You're in the middle of a forest, what do you expect?!

"Here you are, two fresh hot dogs. Enjoy." The man let out an almost maniacal laugh.

"Yeah, thanks!" said Ariel, already sinking her teeth into her prey. "Here's yours."

I looked down at the morsel. Are we really going to trust this man?! He looks so sketchy, and that laugh right there was...

"Hey, it's rude to not eat what you're given. Eat it already!"

Fearing the worst, I carefully bit into the meat. My teeth hit something thin and hard, and I immediately spit it out.

"What's wrong, are my hot dogs really that bad?"

I pulled out what appeared to be a needle from the object that could no longer be considered food. "What's the big idea?! Are you trying to kill me?! I knew you were sketchy looking!!!"

The man turned around and hid behind his cart. "...I can't wear a hairnet with this hairstyle..."

"What does that have to do anything?!"

"Calm down Neuman, it was obviously an accident!"

The man's entire countenance shifted to a more light hearted one. "That's right young miss! Oh! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Buddy, and my power is all about spiky hair! It appears that one of my hairs found its way into your food! I am terribly sorry about that."

That name doesn't fit his face at all... wait was that about his power?

"Nice to meet you Buddy! My name is Ariel. My power is bubbles! This rude man here is Neuman. He doesn't know what his power is yet."

"I can speak for myself you know," I said, still bitter about almost having an extra hole in my mouth.

"Nice to meet both of you... want another hot dog?"

"No way."

"Ruuuude!"

"Quiet Ariel!"

"Oh I know! I feel bad about you having a hair in your food and you losing your appetite because of it, how about you guys come with me to my home so we have a nice place to rest while the blightmares are out?"

Ariel thought it was a perfect idea, so naturally I had to come along too. I suppose it couldn't have been helped though. We walked for a little bit before I was missing a critical piece of information.

"Hey Ariel, what's a blightmare?"

She looked over and gave me a puzzled look, but I could see the little LED light flash on in her head. "Oh that's right, you haven't seen one yet! In certain areas of Insomnia Wake, evil creatures will come out at night! Scary right? They say that these creatures are likely the people of Earth's nightmares put into form. Of course there is no way of knowing, but that's at least the logic of those old geezers who have been around for thousands of years or whatever..."

Man this world sure is strange. Monsters, shattered time, dream powers. This place is showing to more and more of a dream world each day.

-----

"Here we are, this is my humble abode!"

All I see is an empty cave...

"It's wonderful Buddy! You keep it so clean!"

There's nothing to make it dirty...

"Thanks. I try my best to keep it from getting cluttered."

He took it as a compliment!

"Oops," said Buddy, "I forgot to bring out the furniture! Where will we sit if I don't do that?" He walked over to his cart and pressed a button. Suddenly, his cart started to change shape. Its parts started to violently swing around it. I was surprised it didn't tear itself apart from the sheer force involved. After twisting and turning for a few seconds to cart had taken a new shape: a metal couch complete with cup holders. It didn't take long for Ariel to make herself at home and plop down on the couch--if it can truly be called that. Buddy promptly removed a burner that was probably part of the internal workings of the hot dog part of the machine and placed it down in front of us. He turned it on and a bright red flame came from it, lighting up the nearby area and giving off a slight warmth.

"We'll be safe here. Only the biggest and baddest blightmares would dare venture into here."

That doesn't sound very reassuring...

"All right! Sounds good to me! So Buddy, what's up with your power anyways?"

"Well it's a long story... but I'll tell you it anyways." He sat back and took a deep breath. "Back on Earth, my mother was strictly against any sort of self expression, especially when hair was concerned. 'No one will hire you with crazy hair' she'd say, 'how will you work as a chef when you can't even wear a hairnet' she'd say. Well I really wanted a new hairstyle, because my old one was so nooormal, and I was willing to go against my mother to get it. One day I came back home with a ponytail, oh man it was so great. My mother hated it though, and took me to the bathroom and cut all of my hair off, right then and there." He looked as though on the brink of crying. "It was a scarring experience. I imagine this power is just a manifestation of my resentment and desire for freedom. FREEDOM!!!" He broke out into tears.

Is that seriously his backstory? The source of his dreams?

"That's so touching Buddy." Ariel proceeded to break into tears as well.

I sighed. "You would've liked my country and time." I decided I didn't want to listen to this any longer and brought up a new point. "Hey... err... Buddy..." Such an awkward name. "So what can your power do anyways?"

Without warning, a roar came from deep within the cave.

"How about I just show you" he said with a huge grin.

"Yay! Action!" yelled Ariel, both of them running deeper into the cave.

"For crying out loud! I thought we were supposed to be safe!" Even I knew it wasn't a time to complain though, so I picked up the burner and ran after them with it held above my head.

"Good idea Neuman! We can't see in the dark after all!"

"You would be so dead without me..."

"There it is!"

We all skidded to a stop. In front of us was a giant spider. It must have been at least ten of Buddy's hairstyles tall.

"Watch and learn--hairnet!"

Buddy's shirt's threads instantly unraveled, formed a net, and flung itself onto the monster. The spider quickly broke free, however, and the threads wrapped back around Buddy's body.

"Dang it, now my shirt is all frayed! You'll pay for this!"

"Get its legs!"

Ariel jumped forward, launching a bubble towards the spider. The bubble hit it directly in the head, and encapsulated it. It looked like the spider was about to go land on the moon.

As if they had actually planned anything, heaven forbid, Buddy seemed to understand perfectly. His sleeves unraveled and the new thread flung itself around the spider's legs, then tightened, and made the spider topple over. The beast struggled, but was unable to break free, and within a few moments suffocated inside the bubble.

"All right! New meat for my cart!"

"We'll be eating like kings!"

"I can't believe you guys plan on eating that thing."

"I can't believe you're such a jerk!"

"Whatever, whatever."

-----

"Well, the night is over. I think we should head out guys" said Ariel.

"Guys?" we said simultaneously.

"Yep! You're coming with us, right Buddy?"

He gave it little thought before agreeing. "You bet I am!"

"All right! Let's get ready! You'll have to be quick about jumping on my bubbles, they'll rise soon as I create them!"

"She's too dim to consider a different method" I whispered.

Buddy laughed. "I might be willing to leave my house, but forget about me leaving my cart! Come on and sit down and I'll show you guys how we'll get around from now on." We all obeyed and sat down on the couch. At the press of a button, the coach sprouted rocket boosters and wings. "You didn't think I walked everywhere did you?" He pressed yet another button and the cupholders next to the "driver's" seat turned into what looked like a joystick and two pedals shot out from under him. "Hold on tight! Goodbye my home of one day!"

I knew he didn't actually live there...

"Yeah! Goodbye home of one day!"

Wait, it was our "home" too?!

The coach rocketed off and out of the cave. It was a little shaky at first, but he seemed to know what he was doing and before we knew it were soaring at a far faster rate than Bubble Airlines.

"Say, you said your power was stiff hair. How was that just stiff hair?" I asked.

"I can choose exactly where I want my hair the stiffen and where to get flimsy of course!"

"But isn't your shirt animal hair or something?"

"Nope! I made it from the hair on the sides of my head!"

Ariel suddenly looked like she was going the throw up, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Looks like we found Ms. Anything-goes's weak point!"

That's when I realized something as I flew around on a coach that would've never been able to exist back in Earth. I may have been dropped off into a new world suddenly and without my consent, and I may have been stuck into some really crazy circumstances with some really crazy people, but I knew one thing for sure: I was really going to enjoy my time here.

***

A/N: Confused? Don't worry, you should be :P Explanations in chapter 2!... Probably should've warned people how crazy this story can be at times XD It's not always this crazy!