Sakura's POV:

"This land is your land, this land is my land, from the redwood forests, to the New York highland! From California to the Gulfstream waters, this land was made for you and me!" I sing at the top of my lungs as we (Meta Knight and I) fly high enough over the city that we can't be seen.

I woke up this morning feeling more like myself than I have in a really long time. Meta Knight had dozed off next to the brick wall that he had sat down against, and so I left him alone and listened to some music on my old portable CD player for awhile. (Mostly Owl City. His music reminds me of home. He sings about flying, and being able to stay under water for a really long time without breathing, and about strawberry avalanches, and it's awesome.)

Once Meta Knight woke up we talked for awhile, then I checked in on all of the kids. Most of them were actually born here, but we've got about fifteen that showed up here by themselves without family, so I've kinda taken them under my wing, no pun intended.

Kirby seems to have fit right in with the group here, which doesn't surprise me. He's Kirby, as long as you're nice to him and occasionally share a snack with him, he loves you forever. Bandana on the other hand, I'm a little bit worried about. I don't have Waddle Dee abilities out here, even the ones that don't rely on magic, so I can't talk to him. He seemed so lonely, though. Maybe he'll find a friend or two among the other Waddle Dee, but I told him to keep an eye on Kirby so he might not have the time today. Oh well, I'll make it up to him somehow and somewhen.

Anyway, we all felt another new arrival about an hour ago, which is just about insane. This is arrival number three in the same number of days. We found online reports of sightings of a mushroom person in the Trenton, New Jersey area, and I can tell that they're just a kid. So of course I said I was going to go get them, and since it's just over in New Jersey, I can just fly there in a couple of hours.

Per the norm, Geo volunteered to come with me and I was about to say 'yes,' but then Meta said he wanted to come. Geo said he shouldn't since he hadn't had any training in Home Dimension protocol yet, but I said he could come. Training in the field is just as effective as training at home, and besides, he's Meta Knight. He'll be fine.

Sighing, Meta Knight suddenly interrupts my thoughts and singing and wonders, "Is there a reason why you are singing patriotic songs so loudly about a country that is not even your own?"

Shrugging, I reply, "Well, I have lived here for two decades now. If I wasn't an alien, (no pun intended) I would probably have applied for citizenship a long time ago. And for another thing, I love this holiday. It's this country's birthday, sort of like Dream Day* in Dreamland."

"I see," he murmurs thoughtfully in reply. "Fascinating."

"All right, Mister Spock," I laugh back. "Let's just go find this Toad kid and get them home so he/she can join in the festivities."

After a couple of hours, we've arrived in Trenton. It takes awhile, but we finally find the Toad kid just in time to watch him get put in the back of a police car.

"All right, then," I sigh, while Meta Knight stands behind me. "Well, since you're technically the trainee here, what do you suggest we do?"

Rolling his eyes, he replies, "Follow the car at a distance, remaining unseen, then save the child without getting captured ourselves. Simple enough."

Chuckling, I do as he suggests. Not the easiest way in the world to do this, we could have just flown right to the police station, but this works. I'm gonna let him do this himself for the most part. Besides, it's nice to go back to following him instead of the other way around.

Once there, we sneak inside just as I sneaked into the Tokyo police station the other day. "Now what do we do?" I ask him with a grin.

Again, he thinks for a moment. "I am assuming that you would prefer it if we did not just go in, swords drawn, and take the child?"

Laughing quietly, I nod and reply, "Yeah, I'm not too eager to get in a fight with a Human if I can help it. We could always use my method from the other day, you know."

Looking at me in irritation, he sighs, "We could. But I have no interest in play-acting as a monster."

After a moment of thought, I get an idea. Pulling a blanket out of my satchel, I climb up on his head and wrap it around us like a cloak.

"And what exactly is the purpose of this exercise, other than to render me unable to see?" he grumps in a slightly-muffled manner.

Giggling, I reply, "Vhy, ve are now a small wampire child, darlink. My face is Human colored, even if my eyes are shaped wrong, and vith me on your head, ve are almost four feet tall. So ve can go in, scare the Human, get the Toad child, and go back to the shelter!"

Sighing, he mutters, "Why a vampire?"

"Because wampires are cool," I reply with a snicker. "Or at least I think so, anyvay, darlink."

"Quit calling me that," he huffs, making me laugh again. "You are getting to be as bad as Solar."

I fall silent for a moment, but then switch voices to a British accent and declare, "Oh no, my dear, this is Solar. If I wanted to be Solar, I would be much more annoying, as demonstrated, love."

Growing very irritated with me, he growls, "Stop."

"All right," I agree, resuming my vampire voice. "Now valk forvard vithout running into the vall, darlink."

Muttering something about how that is easier said than done, he begins walking and I somehow steer him to the jail room without raising anybody's suspicions. Once there, I 'bleh bleh bleh' at the Human for a few minutes, giving the kid a wink in the process, and when the Human runs off I climb off of Meta Knight's head and help the Toad out of his cell.

"Hi. I'm Sakura, I'm a Star Warrior, and I'm here to help you," I smile at him as I put the blanket back in my satchel. "What's your name, sweetie?"

Grinning back, he replies, "I'm just Toad still, because I haven't found what I'm good at yet."

Nodding, I tell him, "Well, Toad, me and Meta Knight here are going to take you to the place where all of the creatures like us live. All of the Toads, and Star Warriors, and Elves, and Manga-Heads, and the others."

"Okay," he replies eagerly. I'm guessing he's about six or seven. He's at the age where all of this is just a big, heroic adventure, not anything scary. That's good, 'cause a freaked-out kid, whether they're a Toad or any other species, is pretty hard to carry safely while flying.

Taking off through the nearest window, Meta Knight silently following right behind, I smile to myself. Maybe sleeping well isn't a curse, after all. I mean, that rescue actually went very smoothly.

Suddenly, the kid pipes up, "I knew you were gonna help me as soon as I saw you, right before I got put in the great big moving thing."

Surprised, I question, "Really? How's that? Have you seen a Star Warrior before?"

Shaking his head, he answers, "No, but I've heard of angels before. My mom said that everyone has an angel that watches over them. And I guess you're my angel."

Touched, I grin to myself while Meta Knight asks him in amusement, "Well then, what does that make me?"

Glancing over at him, the kid goes on, "Oh, you're the super awesome warrior angel that came along to protect her."

"That's actually a fairly accurate description of you," I laugh at him, and I have a feeling that if his eyes still glowed, they'd be light green at the moment. With a mischievous grin, I go on, "Meta Knight: hoshi no senshi, tenshi no senshi, leader of the mighty Meta-Knights, and captain of the not-so-mighty Halberd." ('Hoshi no senshi' means 'Star Warrior,' and 'tenshi no senshi' means 'angel warrior.')

Glaring at me, he huffs, "Oh, shut up."

Turning back to the kid as best I can while carrying him, I ask, "Do you know what year you came from, Toad?"

Nodding, he agrees, "Yeah, I came from 537. Why?"

"Because people come here from everywhere in time so far, except for from the future," I answer, not mentioning that that probably means that there is no future. Meta Knight, though, figures it out. Although I'm not looking at him, I can sense his concerned glance. "I'm from the 830's, for example, and so is Meta Knight, but I got here a long time ago and he only showed up a day or two ago."

"Okay," he replies, then dozes off in my paws. What a sweetheart.

Suddenly, I feel yet another new arrival. No more than five minutes later, the old Nokia ringtone starts playing from inside my satchel. "Nee nee-nee NEE, nee nee-nee NEE, nee nee-nee nee NEEEE!"

"What in Dreamland is that annoying noise?" Meta Knight mutters, glaring at my bag. Poor inanimate object, what'd it ever do to him?

Handing him Toad, opening my satchel, and digging through it in mid-flight in an attempt to find the noisemaker, I reply, "It's a cell phone. The device that's been driving people crazy and possessing their lives since the mid 90's."

As I finally find it and go to answer it, Meta Knight wonders, "Then why do you carry one?"

Rolling my eyes, I reply, "Because having an ancient TracFone with about thirty minutes of talk-time on it is a good idea when you and your allies are often split up all over the world." Answering the phone, I say to the person on the other end, "I don't care who you are, you've got a wrong number. And no, this is not Dominoes Pizza."

"What?" Meta Knight murmurs as I hang up, only to have the phone begin ringing again only ten seconds later.

"Nee nee-nee NEE, nee nee-nee NEE-"

"Who is it?" I sigh. If they call back, then they're usually someone I actually need to talk to.

Sounding urgent, the voice on the other end (which is kinda fuzzy) answers, "It's Geo. You felt the new arrival a few minutes ago?"

"Yes, I did," I agree with a nod (even though he can't see it) as I put the phone on speaker. "Smile, you're on speaker. Now what about the new arrival?"

"Well, um, we've got four approximately three-foot tall crimson dragons running rampart through Central Park on a day when the park is even more crowded than usual," he answers anxiously.

Groaning, I reply, "Shotzo."

"Why is Landia here?" Meta Knight says in worry. "We have to save those dragons, their magic is what keeps Halcandra alive even through all that Nightmare has done to it!"

"You hear that, Geo? We've now got a name for these dragons, and it's apparently a hero of some sort," I say to him.

Sounding even more worried, Geo replies, "Roger that. Any instructions?"

Rubbing my forehead, I say, "Have some of the Elves direct them towards the empty subway tunnels that we've prepared as a secondary shelter, and try to keep them quiet. I'll be there to offer backup ASAP."

"10/4," he agrees, and I go to hang up, but that's when Terra's voice appears on the other end of the line.

Urgently, she yells, "Let me talk to her before you hang up!"

Terra's always calm, unless something really bad is happening. Feeling a bad feeling grow from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, I gulp, "Make it fast, Terra. This phone only has so many minutes on it."

Still sounding upset, she tells me, "It's really bad, Sakura. This is really bad."

"Spit it out, Terra!" I shout, growing snappy in my distress. "What's really bad?"

She answers, "I can't find Kirby. I saw Bandana, and I thought he was with him, but he's not. Bandana went off to hang out with the Waddle Dee, and Kirby stayed with the other kids, but now he's nowhere to be found."

In shock, I can't answer for a second, but then hang up as Terra asks, "Sakura? Are you still there? Sak-"

"Kirby's missing," I whisper to myself. "Oh, Shotzo. I've lost the Warrior of the Stars. This is just brilliant."

Trying to sound reassuring, Meta Knight points out, "You did not lose him, he lost himself. He is Kirby, I am sure he is fine. He is a hero, after all."

Shaking my head, I sigh, "Yeah, in the Other Dimension. We're not heroes here."

"What?" he frowns, but I don't answer. It's not worth it.

Instead, I shout out after about ten minutes, "Can this day get any worse?!?" Of course, rain starts pouring down just then. As Meta Knight gives me a glare, I sigh, "Of course. I jinxed it, didn't I?" Suddenly glaring back at Meta Knight, I yell loud enough to wake up poor Toad, "I told you! I'm cursed! C-u-r-s-e-d! I sleep, bad things happen. Look at this. Yesterday, things were fine. And now-"

"Nee nee-nee NEE, nee nee-nee-"

Growing even more upset, I grab the phone up, almost dropping it through the clouds in the process, and answer, "What now?!?"

Blizzard replies this time. "The Elves have mostly directed the dragons out of the way, and they told anyone who asked that it's just a fancy stunt for a new movie. But some of their ears were seen as they headed back toward the shelter, and people are suspicious, even if it got them off of our tail for the time being. We're gonna have to move again."

"But we've only been here three months," I almost sob. "Well, send the scouts out to find us a place. Preferably somewhere rural, so the kids can go outside and so we have a place to keep four dragons."

"One more thing," Blizzard goes on, sounding exhausted. "Research team says that the Humans have discovered that the way they were going to teleport things is impossible."

"So we're back to the sixties?" I sigh, feeling ready to either cry or laugh like an idiot. What a joke.

Sadly, he answers, "No, farther. They're gonna have to change the whole way they look at physics and chemistry and everything. We're gonna go home in about nine hundred years, at our earliest estimations."

"Argh," I moan, then hang the phone up, pull the SD card out so it can't be traced back to me, and then chuck it down towards the ground. Then I realize that a cell phone falling this far down out of the sky onto someone's head could kill them, so I nosedive and grab it, then pull back up and join Meta again.

"Everything that can go wrong will go wrong," I sigh morosely, putting the phone back together and slipping it back into my shelter, hoping that it won't go off again.

Sadly, Meta Knight says to me, "I am sure everything will work out."

Shaking my head, I grump, "Easy for you to say. You're not gonna have to go back and tell everyone that we have to pack up everything and move it all, along with all over a hundred of us, all in one night so that we're not seen. You're not gonna have to tell anyone that we're all gonna have gotten old and died by the time our one possible way home is discovered. You're not gonna have to feel responsible if we never find Kirby. This is just brilliant."

The rain just keeps getting heavier. My wings aren't waterproof, so my feathers are starting to stick together, which is never safe. "Let's find someplace to land," I sigh, then groan as Toad coughs. "Great. Now I'm gonna have a sick little kid on my hands among everything else. Now do you understand what I meant by 'war stories' the other night?"

"Yes," he nods, looking at me in concern. "Is it always this hectic here?"

"No," I admit. "This is the most that's ever happened at once." Taking a deep breath, I spot a dry cave in the landscape below. "That'll work, for now."

Inside, I give Toad a bottle of water and a granola bar, wrapping him up snugly in the blanket, earning myself a grateful grin. That makes me feel a little bit better, but I'm still upset. "Happy Independence Day to me," I sigh as I sit down not far from him and shiver, my wings offering no warmth since they're soaking.

Meta comes over and sits down next to me. "I promise you, Sakura, that I will do whatever I can to help you."

Smiling weakly, I reply, "Thanks, Meta. But like I said earlier, we're not heroes here."

"I do not know why you think that," he sighs, watching the rain outside the cave as thunder crashes. He's tense. He loves rain, but thunderstorms have always made him nervous. I first noticed that during the month that the Monstrous Lightning kept sending storms, and was actually told so by him during my years in River Village. It's funny how even warriors like Meta Knight have something little that they're scared of or that makes them nervous. I guess my silliest fear is of one day waking up to find my wings have somehow turned back into a cape, rendering me practically helpless.

Sighing, I answer, "Because it's true. We don't have magic here. We can't just solve every problem by running out, swords drawn, and eliminating whatever gets in the way. We can't just solve the puzzle dungeons and collect the items, defeat the turtle king, or collect all of the crystal shards or ship parts or whatever else. We can't just play a little flute song to move time around, or fly around through space with the help of a puffy living star, or suck up everything that gives us trouble. It just doesn't work that way here." Turning to him, I go on, "Will you help me with everything over the next few days? Once we get back after the storm's ended, it's basically going to be chaos. Will you be my backup?"

Fondly, he agrees, "Of course."

"Thanks," I murmur back with a sigh of relief. "At least you're all here again. I guess that's the silver lining in this gray cloud." A boom of thunder agrees with me.

"Indeed," he nods, a smile in his voice. We're all going to be okay, it's all going to be all right.

Yawning, I close my eyes and lean against the wall. Things are already as bad as they get, so taking a nap won't make anything worse. "Wake me when the rain's over, please."

"I will," Meta Knight replies, and I allow myself to doze off.

About an hour later, Meta wakes me back up. Toad also took a nap and seems to be fine now. The sun is shining again, and no one's called us about anything else. I guess no news is good news, right? I feel a little bit more optimistic than I did when I fell asleep.

As soon as we get back to the shelter, I'm greeted by a dusty Kirby falling out of an air shaft onto my head along with a couple of other Star Warrior kids. Coughing, he tells me, "That was fun!"

"Kirby!" I shout in relief, giving the creampuff a huge hug. "Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? What on earth were you doing up there?"

"It's a long story," one of the other kids, a yellow boy with blue eyes and the childhood name of Topaz explains with a giggle. "We saw a mouse, and we wanted to catch it!" (He's one of the kids I mentioned earlier that needs me to take care of him. He got here last year, and he's only nine years old now.)

Grinning, Kirby informs me, "If we caught it, I was gonna name it Daroach!"

"Who's 'Daroach?'" I wonder with a frown.

After glancing at each other, Meta Knight and Kirby both chuckle at me, "A long story."

Laughing in relief, I sigh, "All right then."

In the main room, everyone's busy packing stuff up. No one's reading or playing games or anything, not right now. Right now, we need to move.

"Somewhere rural?" I ask Geo affirmatively as he comes over to me, looking like he bears good news.

Nodding, he agrees, "Wyoming, in an unpopulated area. The winter'll be miserable, but it's months from now, and besides, you love snow. Internet might be rocky, but we'll make do. At least we'll all be able to go outside freely."

Relaxing some, I reply, "Good. Thanks, Geo. And the dragons?"

"Currently hiding safely in a subway tunnel, along with a few Elves and Manga-Heads to keep an eye on them," he replies, and I nod at him.

Moments later, Blizzard comes over. "I'm sorry about the teleportation thing."

Growing determined, I reply, "We need to fly to Washington state and get into NoA. Maybe they've left us a clue or two if we actually look in their stuff. Better than nothing, right? Let's look at that before making everyone feel hopeless, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan to me. Let's go once we've moved, though, all right?" he requests, and I nod in agreement.

"Who is Noah?" Meta wonders, and you can just tell that he's wearing a thoughtful frown.

"Not 'Noah,' 'NoA,'" I explain. "It's our abbreviation for Nintendo of America. It's the national HQ for the Hall of Entrusting Heaven. It'll be fun to get back into the breaking-and-entering business," I wisecrack, grinning deviously at Kirby's resulting nervous frown and Meta Knight's resulting disapproving glare. "Oh, don't worry, I always give back whatever I steal to whoever it actually belongs to." The frowning and glaring intensifies, making me laugh lightly and turn away.

That's when I notice that Clerk seems upset, standing over in a corner by himself. "Clerk? What's wrong?"

With a jump at being suddenly addressed and then a shake of his head, he assures me, "Oh, nothing. I'm just not sure whether moving is a good thing or not."

Giving him a small smile, I say compassionately, "I know. It'll work out, it always has."

"Yeah," he nods once, then heads off to help pack somewhere.

Maybe I'm not cursed, after all. This doesn't seem quite as unmanageable now that the crisis stage is over.

Taking a deep breath, I clear my head. Before I leave the rest of the group to help pack, I grin wickedly at Meta Knight. "I'm still making you jump off of the Empire State Building before we leave."

Growing irritated, he sighs, "Oh, joy," while Kirby giggles.

"You, mister, need to go take a bath," I giggle at the pink puffball. "You little dust bunny. You look like you've just discovered a new Copy Ability." Copying Meta Knight's accent, I wrap my wings around myself like a cloak and declare, "It appears that he has become... Dust Bunny Kirby!"

Laughing, Kirby agrees, "Yeah," and then wanders off while Meta Knight rolls his eyes at me, mildly amused.

I see Bandana glancing over at me sheepishly from another corner of the room. After giving him a glare, I sigh and murmur to myself, "I'll talk to him later."

This isn't too much to handle. This is fine.

*******************************************************************************************

*Dream Day is a holiday celebrated every year in Dreamland around harvest time, in the late part of the month of Early Autumn. It was created by the Cappies in the 230's. The Cappies came from a piece of Dreamland that was once lush and beautiful, but absolutely ruined by Nightmare during a major battle during the First Star Warriors' War. Nightmare filled the whole region with Dark Matter, which was destroying everything. After the battle, the Star Warriors called upon their allies on Ripple Star to place a spell on the region, preventing the Dark Matter from getting out into the rest of Dreamland. However, the Cappies found themselves without a home. They moved to the area that we all now think of as Dreamland, where Cappy Town and Castle Dedede are. When they had their first harvest, they celebrated the first Dream Day, remembering the nightmarish place they had left behind and being thankful for their bright new home. As time has gone on, though, the 'remembering' aspect of the holiday has been dumbed down more and more, until nowadays when the holiday is only a jubilee over Dreamland's beauty. The Nightmarish Region, as it is called, still exists. It is uninhabited by anything except the Dark Matter, and was so carefully avoided for so many centuries that hardly anyone even knows of its existence anymore. This dark piece of Dreamland is separated from the rest of the fair country by the fairies' spell, but the charm has been weakening more and more as the years have gone past, leading to the occasional spatter of Dark Matter getting out and wreaking havoc, like what happened to the hero Kirby in his quest to collect the Crystal Shards.