Chapter One

Chapter One


"C'mon, c'mon..." Trinculo Sagasha growled. He clicked the mouse furiously as he watched the screen in front of him. His efforts were rewarded by a series of beeps, before his computer shut down.

"Awww crap!" the eighteen year-old ferret threw his head back in frusteration. His computer, or his paperweight with a screensaver, as he referred to it as, had just decided it didn't like him and didn't want to work today.

Trin ran a paw through his red bangs. The rest of his hair, situated under a backwards black cap, was kept up in a loose ponytail. He had calm red eyes that peered out behind small round glasses and light tan fur. He wore a grey t-shirt with the words 'Just RAVE' on it and long dark blue jeans. He chewed thoughtfully on his necklace, a silver ring on a chain, and glared at the blank screen.

"You'd better leave it for later..." his mother said, walking through the doorway, "There's still a lot of work to do, you know."

Trin sighed and looked around the room. His college dorm was admittingly a bit smaller than he had hoped, but otherwise okay. Everything had moved in smoothly, and all that was left was to set things up as he so desired. Of course the first thing he decided to set up was his computer, which apparently was cursed. His roomate, a sophomore named Sterling, had yet to show up, and Trin was a little hesitant to remodel the room until he had his roomate's approval.

"I'm not gonna set up the room until my roomate gets here, Mom. I wanna be sure he's okay with the layout first."

"Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that you haven't been online yet all day, right?" his mother smirked, knowingly. Her son was an internet addict, and spent hours on end surfing the net and chatting, which neither her nor his father could understand. As far as the two were concerned, there were plenty of people to talk to around here, without sitting in front of a computer all day.

"Excuse me..." a voice from the doorway spoke up. Trin and his mother turned to see a white mouse standing there, holding a grey suitcase. He had short green hair, with the bangs a darker shade than the rest, and pink eyes. He wore a faded green t-shirt with a blue collar and a blue stripe along the center with dark brown khakis.

Trin jumped off his chair, tripping over his pantsleg in the process and falling to the floor. "Hey..."

"Nice trick," the boy grinned, "I'm Sterling Karameshi."

"Trinculo Sagasha," the ferret replied, standing up.

"Well, there you go. Get your room set up then. I'll see you later on, okay?" Trin's mother kissed her son on the forehead and exited the room.

"Umm...yeah. I didn't set up much yet. I didn't wanna take over the room or anything..." Trin smiled sheepishly, "Need any help with your stuff?"

Sterling threw his suitcase on the empty bed. "Uh yeah, if you want. There's another bag in the hallway."

"I got it." Trin walked outside the door to collect the luggage. As soon as he picked up the bag, he felt someone crash into him, knocking him onto the floor again. "GAH!!!"

"SQUEEEEE!!!!" a female voice squealed, perched on top of him.

Trin looked up and sighed. "You know...I'm spending entirely too much time on the ground here..."

The girl, a raccoon with pright pink hair that fell to her waist, eeped as she looked at him. She scrambled to her feet, and helped Trin up. "Oh jeez! I'm sorry! I thought you were someone else! I could've sworn this was Cas' room!"

She has purple eyes and patches of grey fur on her otherwise white coat. She had a long white braid, which made Trin question what color it really was. She wore a light blue collared t-shirt and light kahakis. Her wrists were adorned with different colored plastic braclets and she wore a cross necklace. Blinking, she poked him on the shoulder. "You okay?"

"Fine. But I don't know any Cas." he shrugged and picked up the suitcase again.

The door next to them opened, and a blue-haired boy's head popped out. "Someone say 'Cas'?"

The raccoon squealed again and launched herself at him, knocking the door open fully. Soon he was on the floor with the hyper girl sitting on him. "CAS!!"

"Hey...Miro..." Cas sat up, "Um...how much sugar have you had today?"

"Oh I lost count after awhile," she grinned absently.

Trin blinked then shrugged. "One room over. Close."

"Yeah, sorry about that again."

"Dare I ask what you did to him?" Cas looked at his friend. He was a badger, and had short blue hair and brown eyes, behind glasses. He had a combination of white, brown and grey fur, and wore a bright green long-sleeved shirt under a dark green vest and dark grey jeans. Miro winced, embarassed.

"She just mistook me for someone else and ran into me. No biggie," Trin smiled, "I'm your neighbor I guess. I'm Trin."

"Caspian. But please call me Cas. And this..um...excitable one here is Miroku."

"Excitable? What's THAT supposed to mean?" she grinned.

"What? Would you rather I said clinically insane? Or mentaly unstable?"

She stuck her tongue out. Trin laughed and went back inside the dorm, suitcase in hand.

"What was all the noise outside?" Sterling asked, in process of transferring clothes from suitcase to dresser.

Trin shrugged. "Fun neighbors. Sorta."

"Right. Whatever. Hey, you get your ID yet?"

"Umm yeah. Why?" Trin sat back at the computer, determined to get the stupid thing to work.

"Well, you wanna grab something to eat after we get done?" the mouse stuffed the suitcase under the bed, pulling the new one in its place.

"Sure..." Trin clicked at the keys some more, eyes locked on the screen.

~*~

Half an hour later, the room was filled with the light sound of high-beat techno music played at low volume. Trin had managed to get his MP3 list to work, and that had lightened his mood considerably. Whether or not Sterling liked the music was unclear, but he didn't say anything against it.

"Aren't you going to unpack?" the mouse asked after awhile.

"'M gonna yeah-yeah...Huh? What?" Trin looked at his roomate, head still bobbing to the music.

"I asked if you're going to unpack. All you've done is work at your computer."

The ferret blinked. "Priorities..." he smiled, "This thing is gonna be the most used out of everything in this room, bed included. It has to be in working order before I can move on to the lesser things."

Sterling tilted his head. "Interesting..."

Trin's only reply was to sing to the music again. "Gonna eat you up..."

"You do realize what that song is about, don't you?" Sterling asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah..."

The mouse grabbed his jacket, signaling Trin that he was ready to go. The other nodded and closed the music player, hopping off the chair once again. The two walked along the hall to the cafeteria.

Sterling looked at him quizzically. "And...you like it?"

Trin shrugged. "It's got a good beat. And it tells people off. What about it?"

The green-haired boy shook his head. "Nothing."

Trin smirked. "You think that's weird. Before my old comp screwed up, I had this one about a transvestite. That one was strange."

Sterling suddenly got the urdge to ask a very serious question of the shorter boy, but before he could, a pair of arms snaked around his waist, pulling him into a hug.

"Ster!" the mouse already knew who it was. He turned to see a yellow-furred cat, with dark blond hair and green eyes. She had one black ear, and wore all black, a bell-sleeved shirt and a long skirt. She had three loop earrings, one in her left ear and two more in her right.

"Hey Nis." Sterling smiled warmly. The cat grinned, letting go of the boy. She fell into step with the two, before another girl ran down the hall to them.

"Nis! Wait up!" she gasped.

"Oooh sorry. My bad. Ster, this is my roomate, Lar."

"Larna Roose," the girl smiled. She was a wolf, with red-brown fur and short silver hair. She had silver marks in the fur around her eyes, which her orange. She wore a red striped shirt with light blue capri pants and a dark blue fleece overshirt. She had a black choker around her neck with a small ruby on it. She smiled and nodded.

"Hi. This is Trin, my roomate." Sterling pointed to the ferret, who sill managed to be the shortest of the entire group.

"Yo." Trin flashed a peace sign.

The four made it to the cafeteria, and after showing thier IDs, went through the line. Once they had their meal, they looked for a place to sit. Apparently most of the other students had the same idea they did, as the cafe was very crowded.

"Hey!!" a familiar squeaky voice yelled to them. Trin looked around until he found Miro, who was sitting at a table with Cas and another boy and girl. There was a bunch of empty seats at the table, so the ferret motioned for the rest of his group to sit by them.

Trin took a seat next to the boy he hadn't met, and Sterling sat on the other side of him. Nis sat next to Miro, with Lar on her other side. Miro smiled at them.

"Heya! Glad you could make it," she giggled, "Cas tells me the crowds here are notorious for killing the poor freshmen."

"Good thing I hang around with a sophomore then," he smiled, "So you're a freshman too?"

Miro nodded. "Yeah. So's Kiwi, here, my roomie." she moved her head in the direction of the girl next to her. She was a grey squirrel, with light brown hair pulled into two ponytails. She was dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt, grey-purple striped lounge pants and a piece of purple fabric wrapped around her left shoulder to her waist.

Trin blinked. "K-Kiwi? Linner?"

Kiwi looked at him, slightly surprised. "Yeah. Who're you?"

"Trinculo." he grinned.

Kiwi opened her mouth in shock. "Trin! I don't believe it! You're a student here too?!"

"You two know each other?" Cas asked.

Trin nodded. "She's my cousin. I haven't seen her since we were babies almost!"

Kiwi clapped happily. "This is so great! It's totally destiny, I mean, what are the odds that we'd both be at the same college!"

"Well, sounds like everyone's all friendly now...so how about letting me in on it, hmm?" the boy next to Trin smirked. He was an orange fox with black hair the came down to his shoulders and brown eyes. He had on a dark red shirt with slits at the sleeves, held together by twin pieces of string, and blue jeans with a rip at the left leg. A small chain went from the left pocket around to the back pocket. He grinned winningly at the smaller boy next to him, and Trin adjusted his glasses. Something odd in the way he looked at him like that made the ferret nervous.

"Sorry," Cas spoke up, "Guys, this is Tyru. He's my roomate."

"Hey," Tyru waved a hand. "Nice group ya got here."

Once everyone was introduced to one another, the eight of them spent the rest of the meal getting to know each other and the school. After their lunch, it was decided to take the new freshman, Trin, Miro and Kiwi, on a tour of the campus. Class didn't start for a few more days, so they had the evening to themselves.

It was getting darker as the group walked along the sidewalks connecting the different buildings along the campus. They had spent the last hour just walking, not really en route to anywhere in particular.

"So then, just as the guy's sure he's gotten rid of the killer...." Nis leaned in closer to the others, pausing suspensefully in her story, "...There's a thump right behind him. He whirls around, only to find the body of his poor dead wife! And standing above her is..."

"Is who?!" Kiwi sqeaked, eyes wide with anticipation.

"It's the cop." Sterling said dully, before he caught himself, "Oops."

"Aww Ster! You ruined it!!" Nis mock-pouted.

"Baka..." Trin smiled at his roomate.

"Whoa..." Miro and Kiwi whispered simultaniously.

"Erm...hate to interrupt, but I think we should be getting back now..."Cas looked around almost nervously.

"What for? It's just getting nice out!" Miro grinned. She was obviously a night person.

"Well, this isn't exactly the safest place to be at night," Larna said uncomfortably, "Lately there's been a bit of a problem with a gang around here."

"And they didn't meantion this at oreintation why?" Trin blurted out.

"Actually, they don't really know. Only certain people have been attacked, and it was never anything really serious. Just enough to mess em up for a bit, ua know? So it's just easier not to loiter around here. Just go to where you're going and nothing bothers you." Tyru shrugged, not as uncomfortable with the subject as the others were.

"Unless of course, we hear ourselves mentioned..." a harsh voice spoke up behind them. Everyone whirled around to see a group of about ten or more students, all in a range of ages, genders and clothing.

"We were just leaving," Tyru smiled, motioning for the others to go ahead.

"Wait a minute," the first one, apparently the leader of the group, grinned, "We're just here to meet the new freshmen!"

Instinctively, Tyru and Cas moved up in front to block the three. "Why don't you just leave them alone? We don't want any trouble," Nis said, voice worried but unfaltering.

"But you know it's tradition! Hazing and all that," the leader smirked.

"Go have your 'tradition' somewhere else. You're not gonna touch these guys." Tyru spat out.

The group leader stepped up to him. The was only a bit taller than the fox, who wasn't intimidated by the move. "Are you challenging me?"

"Maybe. Like she said, we don't want trouble. But I'm sure as hell not gonna let you mess with these kids." He looked the other directly in the eyes.

The two stood there for a moment. No one on either side dared to move, some not even breathe. Suddenly, the leader broke his contact with Tyru, and reached out to grab at Miro. She yelped and backed up into Kiwi and Trin. Before the leader could do anything else, Tyru's fist collided with his face, hitting him solely in the mouth.

"Shit..." Tyru gasped, realizing what he'd done, "Everyone, RUN!!"

The group took off towards the nearest building. The leader stood for a second in disbelief, while his followers looked on, dumbstruck. Finally, he yelled. "What the hell's wrong with you all?! Get the freaks!!"

Reminded of their place, the gang ran after the students.

Cas rounded the corner hard, followed closely by Miro and Kiwi, with everyone else relatively close together. Finding a brick wall greeting them, the badger skidded to a halt. This caused the two girls to crash into him. Everyone else managed to stop in time, preventing a huge mess.

"What do we do now?!" Miro squeaked.

"I think we may have time to backtrack. We don't know if they followed us or not..." Sterling started back the way they came, only to run right back, eyes wide, "I think it's safe to say they did..."

Tyru and Cas took up the front again, with Sterling, Nis and Larna on the sides, blocking access to the freshmen.

"This is not how I imagined spending my first day of college," Trin frowned.

"Umm...I dunno if they're still wanting us..." Kiwi pointed out, "Tyru did punch him."

"Good point..." the fox thought about this.

"Too late," the leader's voice silenced them. The group had closed in, blocking any exit by the students.

"Sorry guys..." Tyru sighed. The gang leader walked up to him, fist rearing back to punch. Tyru shut his eyes tight, waiting for the impact.

Then everything was filled with a blinding flash of white light. The wind, which had been merely a small breeze before, picked up speed, becoming harsh gusts. No one could see anything over the light; their eyes were squeezed shut instinctively from the white-hot glare.

"What's going on?!" Larna shouted to be heard over the wind.

"I don't know! Everyone hold onto each other!" Cas yelled.

Everyone grabbed frantically for a hand, piece of clothing, something that they could latch onto. No one knew what wind this intensity could do, and none of them wanted to be blown away. Many of them were screaming, from both the students and the gang.

Then as suddenly as it began, the wind settled down to nothing. Th light faded back into the normal sunset. Just as if nothing had happened.

"What the hell was that?!" the gang leader gaped, looking at his followers, who were all as confused as he was. He turned back to the students to confront them about it.

All eight of them were gone.



~TBC...





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