WAIT!

There was someone else coming...  When people are just a bit - or alot - afraid and they're listening VERY carefully for signs of something ordinary or OUT of the ordinary, they tend to pick up on things pretty quickly.  To wit, there was a [i]sound[/i] that was coming closer.  It was definitely the footsteps of another person, although in [i]this place[/i], you only HOPE it's a person...and not a creature.  This was not normal London they found themselves in.  This was some bizarre twist on the thing, and they didn't even know how they got here, when just a moment ago, they'd been walking into a normal alley.

Just like those footsteps were about to.  There's no doubt that they were being followed.

They were coming closer, closer...

Hold on, [i]that's[/i] no creature, there, and he certainly wasn't a serial killer or alley grifter either.  It was just...

[center][h1][color=00a651][b]Hakuro Kuroda[/b][/color][/h1][/center]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[b][i]A Few Minutes Ago...[/i][/b]

Freedom!

The last class of the day had spent itself, and he could finally relax!  Well...he could [i]almost[/i] relax.  There were a couple things on his mind, right now.  One was his earlier encounter with Mikhail.  If he could find out which one was Merja or Philip, or anyone else in the boy's Chemistry class, he could try to confer what he thought the guy was up to.  If it was as he suspected, the Russian boy was gonna need some help getting his life together before he did something that landed him in jail.  Can't have [i]that[/i].

The second thing, he just remembered as he saw two figures moving rather quickly.  Well, hey!  Just the people he wanted to see, the people he met at the tree!  Hakuro had lately been getting this weird feeling of deja vu around them, but it wasn't a good time to talk about it, because he was pretty sure it was about this dream he had about a train with them on it...  The whole feeling was kind of vague and he didn't remember it all.  Well, he remembered that Alex had a better attitude [i]there[/i] than at the tree, but then again he'd been talking to someone and...

[i][color=00a651]Hey, where'd they go?[/color][/i]

Hakuro had been following them, but then around a corner...nothing!  Actually, first he'd been distracted by something he [i]thought[/i] he saw - a flicker of motion on the walls - but then when he couldn't fiind a trace of it, he noticed that Alex and Ava were gone and...what the hell?  So, he walked into the alley-

Everything flickered with a sudden change of light and surroundings, to the point where he had to guard his eyes, and then...it was all [i]different[/i].  He almost felt...like he'd been pushing against something, something that then POPPED, and here he was...looking at a hazy green sky and an alleyway just [i]slghtly[/i] on wrong angles.  You could just about see it, the changes...  Oh, and Alex and Ava were here too.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[b][i]NOW...[/i][/b]

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzAlJHU2Fsg[/youtube][/center]

This was not the world as they knew it.

It had to be some kind of [i]other place[/i].  Everything was just a bit off.  There were twists and oddities in the walls.  The ground seemed almost to slope, thanks to the surrounding buildings, even though it didn't.  The buildings seemed imposing and...was that one [i]drifting[/i] in the distance?  Was Big Ben [i]TILTED[/i] at an angle?!  Hakuro shook his head.  He'd been to some strange places before, but never somewhere that was trying to fool the very sense of his surroundings.  How did this happen?  How did it come to be like this, so suddenly?

Did he eat some bad pie?

[color=00a651][i]No!  Bad Hakuro!  You NEVER blame the pie![/i][/color]

In any case, he was heading over to where Alex and Ava were now.  The look on their faces told him everything: This wasn't a hallucination, not unless they were all having it.  This was real, and [i]really weird[/i].

[color=00a651]"Guessing this isn't normal London weather we're having.  I'm glad I caught up with you two, but..."[/color]

Wait, hold on...  There was something he remembered, about Big Ben...  Nah, he couldn't place it.

[color=00a651]"...this isn't where we were a second ago, right?"[/color]

Oh yeah.  They were in the thick of it, now.