Four figures emerged from an alley, whispering among themselves. The quartet of shadows walked silently into the heart of the town, examining the odd creatures around them. So this is is what humans are like, Leo thought to himself. It may take us awhile to assimilate.

Aquarius walked over to an old, dark-skinned woman sitting hunched over on the sidewalk. "Are you alright? Why aren't you inside?" she pried. The woman raised her head just long enough to snarl,

"Don't you think I would be if I could?!" Aquarius backed away quickly into the street and crashed into a young man hailing a taxi. The cars around her stopped and honked their horns. One driver rolled down his window and shouted a string of curses at her. Aquarius, taken quite off-guard, apologized to the shaken young man and hurried back to join her fellow zodiacs.

"I don't like this place, guys. Not at all," she confessed. Virgo patted her on the back and reassured her friend,

"You'll get used to it. You'll have to." Aquarius nodded glumly and the foursome went on through the town.

After they had been walking long enough to get cold and grumpy, Scorpio noticed a merry-looking building with a creaky wooden sign that proclaimed it was called The Comet. "Look, everyone! Let's go in there!" he suggested brightly. Everyone nodded eagerly, and they all meandered inside and seated themselves comfortably at a table.

Virgo noticed two middle-aged men sitting at the table a few feet away from them, and shushed her fellow zodiacs and nodded her head in their direction. Everyone perked up and listened closely.

"...don't see how that could be possible, Liam! How do I know your schizophrenia isn't getting to you again?" one tall, bald man was yelling.

"I know what I heard, Owen! This has nothing to do with me and my condition. NASA satellites caught a weird-looking object entering the atmosphere! They think it might be an asteroid that could destroy Starlight Bay at any moment! It was on the radio. Look, they're playing it on that monitor over there," a shorter man with shaggy auburn hair and glasses gestured wildly toward an old television hanging over the bar. The zodiacs swiveled their heads to look, and saw that "Liam" was right. A news reporter was saying in a solemn tone,

"...and if it is an asteroid, then the whole of Starlight Bay is in grave danger, for it could touch down at any moment and easily blast away the whole town. NASA scientists are keeping tabs on it at this very moment, and the mayor, Anthony Goldman, has already issued an evacuation order. We recommend that you all hop into your cars and get out of Starlight Bay immediately, or else you run the risk of being hit by the asteroid. However, scouts did find an old man, Terry Whitman, fishing on the bay, who reported finding four teenagers about fifteen years of age, drowning in the cold water. He claimed he saw them 'fall out of the sky', but we were unable to determine whether he was delirious or not. And now for a description of these said teenagers. They were two boys and two girls. One of the boys was reported to have curly blonde hair, the other jet black. The taller and shorter girls had brown and black hair respectively. A more detailed description will be available soon, but in the meantime, anyone who finds these minors will be given a reward upon returning them to SBN headquarters, where they will likely be interrogated thoroughly so officials can determine whether or not they have anything to do with the possible asteroid. More after this quick break."

The screen faded to an advertisement for hamburgers, and the zodiacs were all on their feet before they could think, shoving aside waiters and civilians alike to reach the door as fast as possible. They all tumbled outside and sprinted frantically towards the beach. They broke through a thick layer of brush, all getting scratched quite a bit and covered in bugs until they finally made it into a small sandy clearing that lay just before the beach. They were concealed by all the plant growth around them, so the four sprawled out on the grass to recover their breathing.

Aquarius was the first to be on her feet, looking around frantically for signs of anyone chasing them. "What if they're after us right now? How did we even get into this mess?" she sobbed. Virgo hugged her and said,

"Aqua, get it together. If someone were chasing us, it would be pretty obvious, I think."

Aquarius took a deep breath and nodded, regaining her reasoning. Scorpio cleared his throat and the other three zodiacs looked at him questioningly.

"We do sort of have a problem with housing, though," he pointed out. "Where are we going to live? How will we get IDs?" Leo pondered this thoughtfully and responded,

"We will pretend to be from another state or even country, and we're just studying here for the time being. Surely one of these people would be willing to house us out of the kindness of their weak human hearts." Scorpio scoffed with scorn at the idea.

 "Sure, very believable. 'Oh yes, don't mind us, just four random teenagers from another country who have no idea how society functions and have never even seen a person before a few days ago.' Honestly, who do you think is going to buy it?" Leo glared at him, and Scorpio turned away. Aquarius, distressed by this small conflict, rushed in between her friends quickly.

"How about we rent a room? That way, we won't have to knock on people's doors and beg for them to take us in." She looked around at her three companions, and they all nodded.

"Great idea, Aqua. That'll totally work, we just have to find a way to obtain the money. Virgo, Scorpio--you guys okay with Aquarius' idea?" They both nodded. "Good," Leo continued. "Let's go find a house, but, uh, everyone--try to stay undercover. We really don't want to get caught."

The four explored the town, looking for a house that looked like it wasn't completely infested with bugs and vermin. Finally, on the outskirts of town, closer to the beach, they found a dilapidated, disintegrating townhouse with a crumpled and weatherworn scrap of paper taped crudely to the mailbox with "Rooms for rent" scrawled messily upon it. They walked slowly to the door, and Scorpio raised one pale hand to knock. An elderly, tough-looking woman with silvery hair in a long braid down her back answered it with one eyebrow raised. "Yes?" she demanded. Leo stepped forward hastily.

"Hello, kind missus. We are four classmates from another part of the country--er, the world--and we are currently studying abroad in your area. We would like to rent a room here if it's not too much trouble." The woman kept her eyebrow raised, surveying their striking physical features and lack of luggage. Finally, she sighed and whipped out a clipboard from behind her back, with the impression that she carried it wherever she went.

"Names?" she asked dully.

"I'm Leo Stuber, and this is my friend Sebastian Dangora. This over here is Vera Clower, and her cousin Aria Davisson."

"Okay, Leo, Ari, and co. A four-bed room is 350 dollars a month. You'll have to pay for the first month upfront, though."

"W-what?" Leo stammered, confused. The woman sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You must be from really far away, huh? I mean you have to pay 350 bucks now, right off the bat. Hand it over."

"Um... we just got here and we don't have the m-" Virgo clapped her hand over Leo's mouth and smiled sweetly at the lady before continuing,

"What my, er, classmate means to say is, we can't pay you right this second. Can we please have a few days to sort ourselves out and give you the money then?" The woman narrowed her eyes at them, clearly suspicious, but then sighed and gave in.

"Fine. You have five days! One moment longer, and I'll banish you to the streets." Virgo opened her mouth to thank the kind woman, but she had already turned away.

"Well, don't just stand there! Walk on in, I haven't got all day," she snapped, and the zodiacs quickly rushed inside. The house was small, with just one door off to the right and a dusty staircase going to the second story. Their now-renter shut the door behind them and disappeared into the door on the right, only to return a few moments later with a small key. She motioned for the zodiacs to follow her, so they followed the woman up the staircase and down a hallway, to the second-to-last door on the left side of the hall. "Enjoy," the lady said as she dropped the key into Leo's hand and walked back downstairs. Leo took a deep breath and turned the key in the lock, and then stepped inside, his three friends following.

The room was tiny and cramped. It had just one dusty window with no curtain, looking out over Starlight Bay, and two single cots and a double bed crammed together in front of a small closet. There was a light overhead, which provided little more than a dim glow when Virgo flicked it on. Everyone heaved a collective sigh, more likely out of despair than relief. "It's minuscule!" Aquarius exclaimed. "How are we going to fit in those beds?!"

"We'll figure it out; we have to," Leo replied firmly. They all turned simultaneously to the one window, where an apparent storm was forming over the lake and pouring down heavy rain. There was silence until Aquarius broke out with,

"You don't think..."

"No doubt about it," Leo replied grimly.

Virgo muttered something about how the shard reacting to the minerals in the earthen soil and the components in the water may be affecting the weather, and the zodiacs looked at each other in dismay. "Our time here may be limited," Virgo murmured. Scorpio rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and responded,

"We knew that long before we got down to this grimy world! Shut up with your nerd facts and let's just go find the dumb shard thingie."

~/SilverOwl125