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"Does it seem wrong to anyone else that we could have Alderaan, Coruscant, Corellian, or any other world's cuisine... and we're eating Chinese take-out?"
Mika snickered at Priire's comment as she reached for some sweet and sour pork. "I'd like to have heard that conversation... 'and wonton soup, please. Deliver that to Coruscant, we'll pick it up at the hangar. Would you happen to take JediMasterCard?' "
Laughing so hard she almost dropped her box of mu gu gai pan, Ippin shook her head. "It was nothing like that!" she protested.
"What - you walked in and said -" Mika did her best to imitate Ippin over everyone's laughter. "- 'Give me your wantons, or I'll send you to BarneyLand!"
Schylar rolled her eyes as she looked up from her lo mein. "I most certainly hope you did not."
Ippin looked innocent... until she stabbed Priire with a chopstick for trying to sneak a water chestnut.
Laughing as she put duck sauce on the egg roll in front of her, Shina tried to reason with her cousins. "Priire! Keep your fingers out of Ippin's food!"
"Then give me back my egg roll!" the blonde responded.
Everyone laughed even more. Starr was playfully batting around a half dozen fortune cookies. "Wha' are dese?" the kitten asked. She stopped batting the cookies to pounce on Eriya's tail.
Mika understood her through her lisp. "There are fortune cookies," the blonde explained. "You break them open, and there's a fortune inside."
"You mea' i' pre'ic's your life?" Starr looked terrified. "I don' wanna know!"
Mika huggled the kitten. "No, silly, fortune cookies are always wrong!"
"Kendren," the red-eyed cat warned, "don't say anything."
The green-haired boy looked confused.
"Because," the cat explained before Kendren could speak, "when that blaster shot richoetted off the Dreamer and hit you, it threw your magic out of sync. Now, I'm working on getting it fixed, but in the mean time, don't say anything!" He sighed. "Good thing it wasn't on a level higher than 'stun'. Now, I'd put a silence spell on you, but it might not work. So just be quiet."
Kendren nodded, miserably.
" 'You will find true love,' " Ippin read.
Priire looked excited. "And dump that Riku jerk?"
Ippin bounced a fortune cookie off Priire's head.
"Listen to mine!" Kirana giggled. " 'Someone can read your mind.' Creepy!"
The purple kitten was still hiding under her paws. "I don' wan' one!" she wailed. "Scary!"
Mika picked up the kitten and hugged her. "Starr... fortune cookies are just for fun. They aren't real. They're never right. See? Mine says, 'You are the only flower of meditation in the wilderness.' That's not me, is it?" The kitten started to purr.
From where he was sitting next to Nom, Akki couldn't see her face, but he could read her fortune. He snickered.
Nom raised an eyebrow at him. "I do not understand these fortune cookies," she announced.
"Well," Eriya said, waving around a piece of sweet and sour chicken. "You break them open and you look inside and you get out the paper and then you read it. And they say things. Like mine says..." She held it up for Chrone to read it.
"It says, 'You may have to repeat yourself to be understood,' " Chrone read.
"Uh huh!" Eriya grinned. "And see? They're supposed to tell you what your fortune is. But they never get it right."
Nom nodded. "I understand, I believe. Mine reads, 'You will emerge victorious from the maze you've been traveling in.' "
" 'A new wardrobe brings great change in your life.' " Priire snickered. "I like my old wardrobe."
Annika held up hers. It had a little piece of cabbage stuck on it, but she cleaned it off. " 'You will be free of the heavy burdens you have been carrying.' "
" 'Your ability to juggle many tasks will take you far,' " Mori read. "Very cool. Too bad they aren't true."
Unfortunately, Kendren had been listening and forgot Yume's command. "Fortune cookies are sometimes right!" he declared, then slapped a hand over his mouth as various senshi disappeared in a puff of green energy. "Oops."
"Nom! Noooom!" Akki yelled, looking panicked. "Nom!"
"You must cease your shouting!" Nom yelled. "I am right here!"
Akki blushed. "Sorry. Where are we?"
The warrior witch looked around. "I do not know." She looked at the cold gray corridors and began walking. As the pair turned the corner, she nodded. There were many more such turns ahead and several choices for paths. "We are in a maze."
Mika looked around. She felt a little funny. Literally. Starr?
"Waaaah!" the kitten cried. "Whe'e's Mi'a?" She looked scared. "Whe'e am I?"
Starr! I'm right here! Mika shouted. She tried to wave her hands, but nothing happened.
The lavender feline looked confused. "A f'ower is tal'ing to me." She leaned down and sniffed at the pink flower. "A f'ower is tal'ing to me."
I'm not a flower! Mika protested, putting her hands on her hips. She looked down at herself. Funny. I don't *remember* wearing all green this morning...
"Mi'a's a f'ower!" Starr giggled. "You' for'une came tu'e!"
Ahhh!!
"Mommy?" Eriya said, looking around for the people who weren't there any more. "Where'd they go?"
Chrone looked down at her daughter. "Eriya, you need to talk plainer. Say it again, slower."
"Where'd all the people go?"
"I don't know," the woman replied. "They all went away after Kendren said, 'Fortune cookies are sometimes right.' "
"You didn't!" Yume groaned as he flew in. "Kendren! I told you not to say anything!"
Kendren looked embarrassed.
"What happened?" Yume demanded.
Von smiled at the annoyed cat. "Everyone was reading their fortunes, and Mika was trying to convince Starr that fortunes weren't true. Then Kendren said that fortunes could be true."
Yume did not look like a happy, red-eyed, flying cat. As a matter of fact, he looked downright angry. "Kendren! Now we've got to figure out where each person is and I have to bring them back." He glared at him. "Don't say anything!"
Ippin was hard at work searching for something. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she was looking. "Oh where oh where has... uh, whatever... gone..." she hummed to herself. "And why am I doing this?"
A few minutes later, Ippin chanced upon a pink-haired ondago atama. "Found it!" the redhead exclaimed.
"What were you looking for?" Annika asked, confused.
Ippin started to giggle. "Apparently," she informed the other girl, holding up her fortune cookie paper, "I was looking for true love."
Annika giggled too. "True love? And you found me!" She paused. "Where are we, anyway?"
"I don't know. I think that somehow our fortune cookies came to life."
Annika giggled again. "You know what... I feel so light! As if the weight of the world's been lifted off my shoulders!"
"You would," Ippin said, indicating Annika's fortune. " 'You will be free of the heavy burdens you have been carrying.' "
"Oh. That would explain the heavy pack."
Ippin shook her head. "I bet Aster has something to do with this." The senshi produced her Time Staff. "Let's get out of here."
"ARG!" Priire growled. "I'll kill them."
"Them who?" Mori asked. She had several brightly-colored balls as she watched Priire. "Uh, Priire... you're wearing Annika's pink 'I *Heart* Bunnies' shirt."
"I know," Priire growled. "All of my clothes are... PINK!"
Mori disagreed. "There's a yellow one in there, too." The balls that she had been juggling suddenly turned into sharp knives. Mori didn't even pause.
I have a bad feeling about this, Kirana thought to herself.
"You can say that again," Shina sighed.
Everyone looked at the girl in surprise. "Uh... Shina, no one said anything," Von offered.
"What?" Shina asked. "But Kirana just said, 'I have a bad feeling about this.' "
"No I didn't," Kirana replied. Weird.
"There!" Shina pointed at her. "You just said 'weird'!"
The purple-skinned girl looked confused. "Um..."
"What did your fortune say?" Yume asked. After looking at the paper, the cat sighed. " 'Someone can read your mind.' Apparently, Shina can read your mind."
"Oh no...!"
"You can say that again," Shina laughed. Then she paused. "You did say it, didn't you?"
There wasn't any time to reply, because a very annoyed Time Guardian appeared. "All right. What baka did this?" Ippin demanded.
Kendren sheepishly raised his hand.
"Why!"
Yume answered for the boy. "He didn't mean to. Priire was helping Annika practice on the blaster range and a freak shot richotted off the hull of the Dreamer - and several other things along the way - and hit him. It threw his magic out of sync, and he accidentally cast a spell."
Shina snickered at the shocked look on her cousin's face.
"So... what do we do to get everyone back?" Ippin sighed.
"I think you've gotten a good start on it," Yume responded. "You rescue the senshi, and I'll reverse the spells on them."
Nom raised one eyebrow. To Kendren, that was the sign of impending death. At least, that's what Falcon told him. "I am so sorry!" the green-haired boy apologized. Yume had fixed his magic and taken the spells off the other people so Kendren was free to talk.
"Dye-boy," Priire growled. "You are going to die. D-I-E."
With the two senshi most feared by any normal person advancing on him, Kendren did the only logical thing. He ran.
Starr licked her shoulder. "No mo'e for'une coo'ies!" she declared.
Everyone else just laughed.
