There's nothing worse than falling asleep on a bus. Yes, I know what you're saying: "But Mr. Narrator, there's much worse things than that!", and that's quite true; murder, rape, New Jersey, these things are a lot worse than falling asleep on a bus! To the general public, if you fall asleep on a bus, then maybe you get lost at the edge of town or something, and that can be quite dangerous and frightening, but to me, it means much more.

    It was a normal night. I had just finished my shift at work, and I was taking the bus across Simcon City (my city) to my house. Tonight I had noticed that the little old lady who usually woke me up if I had happened to pass out wasn't around. This was very odd, because she was always around. This little old lady had become a close friend of mine, and I had been to her house, with her stuffing me with baked goods like she was my grandmother. Despite this fact, I didn't make too much of it, and assuming someone else would wake me up, I fell asleep. But they didn't. Jerks.

    Hours later I stumbled awake and started to make out my surroundings. I was alone on the bus, other than the bus driver. I saw the bus driver's eyes looking in my direction, and I heard his deep voice say, "I'm going to turn around, so I can take you to your bus stop. Just hold on while I find a place t- " but he was cut off by a crash. The back of the bus shot up and the entire vehicle flipped over on its side, and then proceeded to flip a few more times. My entire body hurt like hell (or New Jersey), and I found myself passing out once more.

    I came to a while later, with white all over my vision. Hospital curtains to my left, my right, and in front of me; hospital sheets covering me. Oh shit. My head suddenly burst with pain as I came to, fully.

    "AUUUUGGH!" I yelled, and after a few seconds, there was some shuffling outside of the curtains, and three people stormed in. A nurse dressed in white had come in with a blonde girl and a black haired boy, both of which whom I recognized instantly. The nurse pushed me back downed onto the bed and thrust a needle into the IV next to me. I shuffled a bit, and spoke:

    "Abe! Olive! What the hell happened? Where am I?" I said, with extreme panic in my eyes. Both of them looked taken aback.

    "How do you know our names?" Olivia asked, scared.

    "You're my best friends!" I exclaimed, "It's me, Jason!"

    Olivia and Abraham (those are their actual first names) looked at each other and then back at me in utter confusion.

    "We've never seen you in our lives." Abraham said, sounding very skeptical.

    "Neither of you?" I asked, looking at Olivia hopefully.

    "Neither of us" Olivia said.

    I shook my head. "No, you guys are shitting me! What the hell is going on?"

    I looked at the two of them and couldn't believe what I saw. Olivia and Abraham had changed. I had clearly been seeing them wrongly. Olivia's hair was now a similar colour to mine, and Abraham's jet black hair was now bright orange/red. At this moment, a sudden realization came to me.

    "I think I know what's going on here," I said, "This isn't my world, is it?"

    No, it's not," a disembodied voice said, which made me jump.

    An older man, with a large build, short brown hair, and a thick moustache walked into my makeshift curtain room. He had cold, stern eyes, which, along with his scars, suggested he had been through a lot.

    "I was informed that you has crossed over" he said, "My tech boys are very observant."

    He smiled as he saw the look on my face and said "Yes, this era seems medieval, but we do have computers. I'll explain this to you another time."

    This Alt-Olivia turned to the man and asked "General Edwards, who is this guy?" she pointed at me.

    "For now, a guest." General Edwards said. He then turned to me and said "Get dressed, boy, we've got to brief you. You two follow" he said to me and then to Alt-Olivia and Alt-Abraham.

    To my surprise, I had no problem getting dressed. Even after the alternate versions of my friends told me I had been healed by magic, I was still skeptical since I yelled out in pain when I came to. It turns out that the shot that the nurse gave me WAS the magic (Olivia explained this to me later). For a guy who had been in a horrible bus crash, I was insanely healthy. Olivia's magic really did the trick.

    I was led to a room with a long table, many chairs lined up at it, and a screen at the far end. I sat between my new friends and waited patiently for the General to begin speaking.

    "Good evening, everyone!" General Edwards said, "I'd like you all to meet our new guest, Jason Forrest." Men and women, young and old, leaned over or got up to shake my hand. I felt both honoured and confused. "Now, Jason here is a very important individual" he said.

    "Let me guess," I said, interrupting the General a bit, "There's a prophecy written about me by no one, and you brought me here so you can train me to defeat the Dark Lord?" I had heard this story too many times to think otherwise.

    "Well, no, not exactly." The General chuckled, "There's no prophecy, but there are similar things. There are things that we want you to collect. As for being "the chosen one", you were chosen by us, and it could've been anyone, really. We needed someone. It was hard to trust the people in this world, so we went to another. We scoured your globe in search of someone good enough to help fight the good fight. And then we found you. We studied you, and planned out your arrival here. We had some trouble getting your friends over here, so we located the versions of them over here, who just so happened to be a young man and a young lady whom I trust very much."

    "Well where's the version of me from this universe?" I asked, getting suspicious.

    The General sighed and said "Dead. He's dead."

    Out of the corners of my eyes, I saw both Abe and Olivia jolt their heads toward Edwards.

    "D-dead?" Abraham said, "I thought you said he was just unavailable!"

    "Yeah, me too!" Olivia added.

    "No," Edwards said, "He's dead."

2: Chapter Two

Chapter 2

    During the briefing, the General had explained to me and anyone who didn't know that this (not so) little group was a rebellion that he created within the army of the Queen, the rebellion being against the Queen. The rebellion would be formed in full in the near future. As Edwards said, "A group of us is one thing, but we need an army." He explained that the Queen (she'd by the Dark Lord in this scenario; Dark Lady) was very oppressive toward her subjects and he and many others considered her to be evil. Apparently she didn't think herself evil, which I guess would be good if this was all fiction since the antagonists shouldn't like being evil. But this is a real story, and her existence in general is really, really bad, but she totally was.

    The General also explained to me that another reason as to why they chose me was my expertise in martial arts and archery. They wouldn't have had time to fully train someone in multiple martial arts AND archery, it would take many years. Luckily for me, I had years of both under my (black) belt. But despite that, I was still instructed to train for a few weeks. That was fine, I could use the extra practice, and working out keeps me up on my game to fight and shoot arrows.

    The other two, Abraham and Olivia that is, were training as well, but not in archery. They were both practicing their hand-to-hand combat, and sometimes with me, but Abraham was using a sword and Olivia was using her magic via some kind of gauntlets. Abraham's sword fighting was nothing like I had ever seen (sword fighting in TV shows and movies isn't even close to real sword fighting), and Olivia's magic was, well, magical; I haven't seen magic before because, as far as I know, it's not real in my world.

    The place I stayed at during these weeks was a military base located in a city far away from the castle town. And this city was in fact Simcon. It was completely different but it was my city. This made me feel even more at home. The base itself was pretty cool. It had several hospital wings (one of which I had woke up in earlier), dormitories (for the soldiers being trained), training areas (archery, sword fighting, martial arts, regular body training, and magic), meeting rooms, common rooms, bathrooms [thank the gods (yes they have them here) for indoor plumbing], recreation rooms, and other various rooms of small significance to the residents of the base like the kitchens (we don't go into them). I felt at home quickly (with the base, in addition to Alt-Simcon City).

    During the weeks of my training, I shared a room with Abraham, Damian Davenport, Benjamin Hampton, and Calvin Adams. I hang out with these guys a lot, but my training was mostly with Abe and Damian. Damian was a fellow archer so I spent a lot of time with him in the archery range, shooting (I'm so funny) the shit and talking. He introduced me to the archery instructor and complimented my choice of bow and arrows (compound bare bow and aluminum arrows).

    "So, another universe, eh?" Damian asked, the first time we had met at the archery range (we became friends afterwards), "I wonder what it's like. This must be all so strange for you."

    "It is," I said, "One minute I fell asleep on a bus, and the next I wake up at the edge of town before passing out and waking up in a hospital bed with strange, alternate versions of my two best friends telling me about magic, and an old man telling me about an evil Queen and a rebellion!" I explained.

    "Yeah, I get it. I hear your world is a lot different. No magic, less swords and bows and more "guns", as well as something called Tumblr which I hear is the epitome of the "internet", great things and terrible thi—I'M JUST KIDDING WE HAVE THAT SHIT TOO AHAHAHAHAAAAA!" Damian said.

    "Ahaha ahahaha ahahaha hahahahahahaha! That's-that's funny! But in all seriousness, it is different. But that doesn't mean it's peaceful. Not by any means. There's been a hell of a lot of violence in my world. It's horrible. Horrible genocide, planes hitting buildings and... Horrible."

    The Sunday after the third week since I arrived in this other world (I arrived on a Tuesday) is when we all left on our journey. General Edwards gathered Abe, Olivia and I along with Ben and Calvin, plus Olivia's new friends Haley Hancock and Samantha Caldwell. We were very confused as to why there were so many of us.

    "Listen up all of you", the General said in his gruff, English accent, trying to get us to listen, "SHUT UP!" We stopped immediately. "Now, you're probably wondering why I didn't just call Jason, Abraham, and Olivia to me."

    "Yeah," Haley said in her much nicer sounding English accent, "I thought this quest was only for them; why the need for the rest of us?"

    "Well, Haley" Edwards said looking down at the beautiful, thin lipped girl, "You and the others are to do something else for me. Our kingdom needs nothing less than a revolution; you are to go with the three on their journey, but I need you to recruit people for our rebellion; except for Davenport. You should stick with Jason and the others more often. Of course, I'd suggest that you all stick together as much as you can, but you may need to separate at times. Good luck. Get your things together and leave. I'll be in touch."

    Within a few hours we were packed up and ready to go. We left the city, and the gates closed, cutting off any adult protection we may have needed. Despite being rushed into all of this, I felt ready. I felt like I had been waiting for this my entire life. We were all young, and we were ready for what would most likely be a life changing journey.

3: Chapter Three

Chapter 3

    "Alright, so before we go anywhere," I said after the gates of the city closed behind us "we may need to go back. I have thirty arrows, and making more isn't going to be an easy task in a pinch! Dammit, why didn't I think of that? I'm not used to needing my arrows for fight, obviously. Shit!"

    "Jason, Jason, calm down, I only have thirty arrows too, and that is a bummer, but I think one of our magical friends might have done something for us in this case," Damien said, and he looked at Olivia, Ben, and Sam. Those were the three of our group who used magic, while Calvin and Haley (not Hobbes) were the melee fighters along with Abraham, of course!
Olivia laughed, "Yeah, all three of us did that. It seems like only thirty, but go ahead and take one out! You'll be surprised!"
So, I did what Olivia asked of me and holy crap another arrow appeared in it.
    "Holy shit!" I said, pulling a few more out, "That is cool!" Then I had a theory. I began to put the arrows back in the quiver, and sure enough, the other arrows began to disappear. There were thirty again, without any out of the quiver.
    I positioned my quiver back to where it was and stretched. "Ahhhhhhh! Alright, well, let's go. Which direction are we headed?" I asked the group.
"South. Our first destination is the Southern Sea, so it's obviously south!" Olivia said, with a know-it-all tone in her voice.
"Well excuuuuse me, princess!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes "We could be south, east, or west of the Southern Sea, and then it wouldn't be south! I thought you were one of the smart ones!"
"Oh, haha, um, right," Olivia said, putting her head down in shame, "it's actually west, my bad."

    We set our course for west and we walked for a few hours before we came across our first battle. We went over a hill and came across a field where many skeletons were standing around. A few of us along with me yelled out in fear, which caused some of the skeletons to turn and see us.
    "Good job, idiots" Haley said, because she's so special. She then proceeded to roll down the hill, pull out her sword, and rip a couple of skeletons literally limb from limb. It was kind of hot to be honest. But anyways, Haley's badassery was followed by the rest of us running after her and scattering.
    "Stick to the plan!" Olivia shouted, as we all went in the positions we planned out. The plan was to have the archers, which would be Damien and I, spread out to attack the enemy (whatever it may be), protected by two mages, one each (in this case it was Olivia with me and Ben with Damien), while the rest of the team attacking head on.

    So I stood there back-to-back with Olivia, shooting arrows at skeletons, watching Abraham, Calvin, and Haley battle the skeletons with their swords and watching Sam shoot at the skeletons with her magic. Of course, I also watched Damien shoot skeletons with arrows and Ben protect him/fight the skeletons. A while into our battle both Damien and I got the idea to have our mage protectors light the tip of our arrows on fire for maximum power. It was a good idea. A lot of skeletons lit on fire and crumbled!

    I shot arrow after arrow at these things, almost dying many times in the process. Dozens upon dozens of skeletons had around us, and we had been hurt pretty badly. Abraham had a slash down his back, Haley had both her arms cut up, Calvin's legs were cut to shit, Sam was burned on her arms, legs, and back from the skeleton's own fire magic (some of them had fire magic it seemed), both Olivia and Ben got slashed on their arms and back, and Damien and I were slashed on our arms when Olivia and Ben couldn't protect us. For the most part, they protected us pretty well. We were the least hurt by the end of it.

    The battle was over. The skeletons had been defeated. There was fire and bones scattered all over the field. We were all clutching our wounds, stumbling to the west. Along the edge of the woods a short distance away, I saw a hooded figure sprinting away from the scene. The hood fell back and I saw blonde hair in a pony tail drop. It was clearly a young teenage girl. The girl made me think of Olivia, and I though back to the day I had arrived, when Olivia looked blonde for a short while. I shook it off, thinking myself mad, and pointed the girl out to the others.

    "Ughh, leave her. I'm sure we'll run into her again. She was clearly using her magic to bring those skeletons to life. She's trying to take us out. She'll be back," Sam said. "I have some experience with death magic. Or rather, life magic, if you will. Necromancy, I know necromancy! Let's go."

    We stumbled along until it started to get darker. We finally decided to setup camp. Because magic, we were able to pack the one tent and all of our stuff into one bag. If this was a fictional story, which it definitely isn't, you'd probably accuse me of copying Harry Potter. But guess what dick-bags?! It was in Halloween Town 2! And it was also in Mary Poppins! And Greek mythology for fuck sakes! Perseus keeps Medusa's head, and other stuff. And plus, bigger-on-the-inside technology is obviously in Doctor Who. So just in case anyone thinks I'm lying about my adventures, which I'm not, objects that are bigger on the inside are not just in Harry Potter! Anyways, moving on!

    Because of our injuries, we decided to have the mages in our groups create a protective force field around the campsite and then they tended to everyone and each other's injuries. Their magic isn't powerful enough to completely heal wounds, but they're able to make them bearable, depending on how serious the injury is. If someone is close to death, then there's not much one mage can do. Multiple may be able to something, but it's not certain.

    Our tent was very nice. And yes, it was very similar to the one in the fourth Harry Potter movie! We all like the franchise, and they did exist in this universe so we used that as inspiration. Anyways, we had beds set up, bunk beds, and there was also a fridge and an oven, powered by magic. We decided not to bring a lot of electronics because we were on a fantastical journey, and we didn't want to screw it up with electronics. We had our phones, and some other equipment, but no video games. We sat around the tent and talked before we were too tired to go on.

    I had a dream that night about the alternate versions of these alternate versions of my friends. The black haired Abraham and the blonde Olivia were talking to someone who I couldn't see.

    "They managed to take down the skeletons, sir. We need to up our game if we want to take those meddling kids!" blonde Olivia said to the unknown person.

    "Olivia, they're the same age as use! They're not kids to us!" black haired Abe said to Olivia, "You're such an idiot!"

    "Oh, just shut up, the both of you!" The hidden person said. It was definitely a dude, and his voice sounded so familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it. The hidden guy continued speaking, "I suspect the group is going to split up soon. Such a large group to find the gems doesn't make that much sense. And plus, they want to take down the Queen. We need to ambush the rebel group. Tail them all, and when they split, split up yourselves or send spies. They won't know what him them!" He clenched his fist and walk out of the shadows, and I only just saw his face before I was shaken awake by Olivia.