//------------------------------// // Chapter One: In the Beginning. (revised) // Story: Black Fury, Red Logic // by Inazuma //------------------------------// 'Cause I wanna be famous! na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous. I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous! 4:00 am. 'I hate non-weekend mornings. Ah well, time to get into character.' Lori's hand reached over and hit the alarm snooze button as hard as possible. Which wasn't very hard since she didn't want to break the thing. After all, this was a custom alarm clock Lori practically had to sell her soul to Dormammu to get it. She got up from the comfortable carpet on the floor and stood up to her full 5' 5'' height and yawned a yawn that would make Big Paw jealous. Lori looked around and spotted her custom calendar, it had a picture of the five Green Lanterns of Earth, Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner on it. Out of Kyle's ring was the stylized word March and beneath the picture was the 31 days of March with the number 7 circled. She looked at the number for a minute before realizing what it meant. She closed her eyes and folded her hands, "Happy Birthday Grandmother." she said softly and somberly. The ritual completed, Lori got ready for the day. 'Man, I have been waiting for a long time for this and at last the day has arrived. The day of WonderCon. But first I must complete the first phase of the worst part of my day.' She grabbed two orange bottles from the top of the TV and a can of Root Beer from the mini-fridge. She opened the two bottles and poured out four pills. Three from one bottle, one from the other. The woman popped open the can of Root Beer and shoved the pills in my mouth and quickly downed them with the contents of the Root Beer. After shuddering for a few seconds she head into the bathroom to prepare. After exiting the Bathroom the Lori noticed it was already 7:00 am. "Shit! I had promised myself to be quicker this time. Damn it! Well it can't be helped. My breakfast will just have to be smaller this time....And I need to stop talking to myself." After finishing up her meal it was time for the next phase of this special day: Putting on the outfit of the character she would be cosplayng as part of her group. Lori was going as a lesser-known character from DC comics: Black Alice. After getting dressed she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Time to see if my idea for this year's theme will workout. I really hope it does because I have got a lot more great ideas. Who knows if it goes well enough they'll let me pick the theme for ComicCon. Now remember, you are Lori Zechlin. Lori Zechlin, Earth's Mightiest Goth-Chick" Lori waited outside for her friends Zigfried Lloyd who would be dressed as Leon S. Kennedy (Resident Evil 4 version) and Matt who would be a version of Superman. It wasn't too long until Zigfried’s car pulled up near her drive way. "Hey Ziggy. Hey Matt. You guys ready for today?" She asked them after buckling up. "Hey T-Lori, looking good. And yes I'm ready." Matt responded her friend by her character's real name. "So what's the dealio? Do we have a plan Ziggy? I kind of forgot." "I would prefer it if you refrained from calling me Ziggy, please. And no not really, outside of the usual of me covering the hotel and major food expenses." Zigfried replied in his hot German accent. They felt they were lucky to have Zigfried in their group, as he was in a nutshell "Richer beyond the wildest dreams of Avarice" (as Matt so eloquently put it) as such Zigfried always paid for major things like tickets, food and hotel rooms despite our group's protests that we should split the bills between us. He politely pointed out that if we did that, not many of us would be able to afford decent costumes let alone be able to buy things at the Con which defeated the entire purpose of going to a Con. Such a nice and generous guy. "Awww, you know you like it." Black Alice said teasingly while kissing him on the cheek. Zigfried blushed, mumbled something about "Women" and continued driving. An hour and fifteen minutes later we arrived at the convention center. As soon as Black Alice got out she began stretching. "Ugh. I swear Ziggy your car seats maybe the comfiest thing ever. My ass is totally asleep." Lori complained/complimented. Zigfried ignored Lori's comment and promptly tossed her her pass. She caught it and immediately zoomed off. "Wow. That chick is fast when she wants to be." Matt observed. "Mmhmm." Zigfried agreed. ___________________________________________ Lori always got goosebumps whenever she was at a Con, though she is not entirely certain why. After staring at everyone and everything, Lori armed herself with her trusty camera and began a spree of picture taking and shopping the likes that won't be seen until ComicCon. Lori soon noticed a particular shop that had a ton of books with the shop keeper dressed as a Monitor from DC comics. Among his books she noticed two significant titles "The Complete Encyclopedia of the DC Multiverse" and "The Complete Encyclopedia of the MARVEL Multiverse". She went wide eyed and demanded the price. The Monitor pointed to a label marked $20.00. "Twenty bucks for both?" Black Alice asked. The Monitor nodded. "And these are up to date right?" She asked again barely able to contain her excitement. The Monitor nodded again in confirmation. "That's a steal you may as well be giving them to me for free, hee." Lori giggled, pulling out one of her wallets and handing a twenty dollar bill to him then grabbed the two books. "For such a beautiful young lady I'll also include this," The Monitor handed me a much smaller book. She looked at it closely, it looked like a Death Note. "Thanks. I---" Lori wasn't able to finish that sentence. Because everything suddenly went Dark. ___________________________________________ *Gasp* Lori awoke with a start in the middle of a field. "What the Fuck is going on?" were the first words that came out her mouth. Lori stood up and looked around, trying to get her bearings. She tried to think about what happened, but all that came was the Con, the books then nothing. Somehow she had wound up outside, in a place she had never seen but also seemed very familiar. "What happened to me? Where am I?!!!!" Lori shouted to the heavens. No one answered. She was all alone in this strange new place.