It was a quiet winter type day in the town of Durham following the defeat of the force of evil called the Wind Princess, who was plotting an eternal winter to fall upon the Earth. Alexander West was sitting in his dorm room, not really paying attention to the outside world as he studied his heart out to get caught up on everything he had missed due to having to save the world. Around mid afternoon he decided it was time for a break and decided a little video game action was called for.
     From his not so vast library of video games he selected one from the Final Fantasy series, namely Final Fantasy VIII. As he booted up the first disc and watched the opening sequences once again he sighed, since he knew it would be a short time in playing with Seifer Almasy in the party, and a longer time until he could use Irvine Kinneas as a character
     “What a boring existence,” he sighed as he looked out his window at the sunlight streaming down upon the dorm. The sudden shift of light to pitch darkness startled him to the point that he fell off of his bed. The power went out a moment later, leaving him to curse the fates who controlled the weather.
     “What in the nine hells is going on here?” he asked nobody in particular as he stood.
     ‘You wished for something, and you shall receive your wish,’ a mysterious voice said as a dimensional vortex opened in the center of his room, Lewinsky-ing in everything around it. Alex clung to his bed frame, then reached across the small expanse of space in his room to clutch to the desk. As he reached for the door his grip failed him and he sailed backwards, catching his bed frame once again. He reached into his pocket and drew forth his Warrior pen, which he held aloft.
     “Saturn Star Power...” he said, the gem in the head beginning to glow. Unfortunately he didn’t a chance to shout the last part of his henshin phrase since some of the clothes in his closet decided they were going to release, catching him in the face to propel him into the vortex. Several more things fell into the vortex, mainly his laptop computer, a small jewelry box, and a few other small items. The vortex then stabilized, remaining as a wormhole until somebody got near, then it resumed being a vacuum.

     Outside of the dorm a small group of intrepid adventurers were returning from a long day of class, and were on their way to visit Alex. The minute their so called leader touched the entrance she froze, a surge of residual mystic energy nearly throwing her onto her ass. As is she lost her grip and was tossed into her tall, blond, and somewhat dumb companion.
     “Lina, are you all right?” Gourry Gabriev asked as he lifted the sorceress off of his chest.
     “Yeah Gourry, I’m fine,” Lina Inverse replied, brushing dust from her clothes, “Something around her just doesn’t feel right.”
     “So you’re sensing it too Lina,” Zelgadis Greywords said, giving the building a questioning glance.
     “Yeah Zel, I’m sensing it, and that thing I’m sensing is STRONG,” Lina replied, running her fingers through her flame red hair. “It almost has the same harmonics as...”
     “Sylphiel’s teleport bubble,” Celia Chere Briggs said as she poofed in near them, “either that or the bubble I cast around myself for my little trips between here and there.” Lina and Zel nodded.
     “So... what does this mean?” Amelia Will Tesela Seyruun asked, looking from one person to the next.
     “It means that something has manifested nearby, possibly within the building, and that something has great power,” Lina said as she hurled the door open, hustling the other members of her group inside. The five quickly descended to the first floor, made their way across the lounge area, and entered the hallway where Alex’s room was. Lina and Zel stopped in their tracks, looking around in a confused manner.
     “Where is that energy coming from?” Lina asked as she looked to the opposite side of the hall, then to the side where Alex’s room was located. An energy surge hit her, and she zeroed in on Alex’s door. “Ahhh.... there it is.”
     “Alex’s room?” Celia and Amelia said in unison.
     “Yep, Alex’s room,” Lina said, satisfied with herself, “and now to wake our sleeping spell caster.”
     The five slowly moved up to the door, and Lina knocked on it. A moment later rays of light came from around the door, which began to vibrate from the vacuum within. Lina went to use the doorknob, but was stopped by Zelgadis.
     “Don’t open it,” Zelgadis said, “we have no idea what’s in there, and by the sounds of it...”
     “It’s an intergalactic wormhole,” Celia said, “and chances are it’s got no true ending...”
     “Which means that whatever gets sucked in winds up being lost in there or belched out at random,” Lina said, finishing Celia’s thought. The vampyress nodded. The sorceress sighed. “Just peachy.”
     “Well, the only thing we can do right now is put up a lot of caution tape,” Amelia said as she reached into her school bag to draw out several rolls of yellow caution tape. She took a stapler from her bag as well and began to tack it up, along with a sign that said “under threat of grievous bodily injury do NOT open this door.”
     “Very quaint Amelia,” Lina sighed once the princess was done.
     “Well, at least it gets the point across,” Amelia said, “And now we can go and get started on our school work and later on maybe, perhaps, try to find some way to bring Mister Alex home.”
     Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, and Celia all sighed, since Amelia had her priorities straight, but not in a way they liked.

     Across the ocean of time and space, on a mid sized continent on another planet, near a large building that resembled something out of a science fiction novel, a portal opened out of subspace and belched forth a single unconscious body and a large amount of clothing and other things. At that same time, all over the continent, smaller portals were opening and belching out other objects.
     At that hour of the night there weren’t very many people on duty, but a person by the name of Seifer Almasy was creeping his way through the halls with his shoes in his hand. As he passed a window he looked out to witness the brilliant flash of light the portal gave off, and also witness the body being dropped to the ground. Not wishing to alarm anybody, since most of the people in that hallway were full fledged SeeDs or upper class men, he made for one of the side entrances to Balamb Garden and stepped into the chill night air, pausing to pull his boots on before setting off across the grass.
     When he reached the body he stared at it in awe, since it was human, with a trace of dark elf in the complexion and in the shape of the ears. The person he was gazing upon was a male of approximately 22 years of age, with short brown hair and longer bangs of a lighter shade of brown. When he turned the body over he noted that the person also had a long ponytail, and wore clothes that were somewhat stylish, but not suited for being out at that hour.
     “Well, looks like you came a long way ill equipped,” he said as he picked the person up and slung him over his shoulder. He sighed and said, “Though I can’t say you’re light, you’re not nearly as heavy as some of the people I know and some I used to hang with. I just wish I knew where you came from. Oh well, I’ll find out everything later. Right now I need to get you to the med. bay.”
     The trip back to Garden was a slow one, since he needed to stop and rest and adjust his grip on his passenger every twenty steps or so. Soon enough they were inside and on their way up to the med. bay, where one of the night nurses was on duty.
     “Excuse me,” he said, loud enough for the nurse to hear, but not loud enough to wake anybody, “I have an injured person who’s not from Garden.”
     “Well, bring them in,” the nurse said from the recuperation room. Seifer did as he was bid, and with some little trouble managed to get his passenger into the room. The two of them managed to get him onto the bed, get his wet clothes off of him, and then get him covered in warm blankets.
     With all of this done Seifer made a request - to stay with the patient until he regained consciousness. The nurse explained it was an odd request, but since he was the one to find the person then she could allow it. Seifer took a seat by the bed, gazing at the person in it with a mix of curiosity and compassion.
     ‘I wish I knew more about you,’ he thought as he performed his watch, ‘you seem like an O.K. person, and maybe you’ll make a fine SeeD like Squall and Irvine and the others. Hopefully you don’t turn out like me... a complete screw up for a few years until you find that one person who turns your life around...’

     The sun was just beginning to come through the window when Seifer opened his eyes, and found he was looking into the deepest brown eyes he had ever seen. He sat up quickly, nearly tipping the chair over in the process. The person on the bed also looked a little startled, since he pulled the covers tighter around his body.
     “Who.... who the hell are you?!” he demanded, “Where the hell am I?!”
     “Calm down,” Seifer said, “you’re in Balamb Garden’s recovery room. And to answer your first question, I’m Seifer... Seifer Almasy. With whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”
     “A.... Alex..... Alexander Mathias West the first,” the person said, stumbling over his name. He smiled weakly before saying, “You can just call me Alex.”
     “Well Alex, can you explain why you were laying outside in the early hours of the morning? And what was that brilliant light that I saw before you appeared?”
     Alex looked a little confused as he tried to clear the fog from his mind. “I... I was sitting in my dorm room.... at the university I attend.... and I was playing a video game. Then a voice said something about.... getting my fondest wish, and a vortex into subspace opened and sucked me in. After that was just a blur of bright colors and swirling lights and I must have blacked out.”
     Seifer looked at him, wide eyed in awe. “Is that all?” he asked.
     “Yeah, but I have a question.”
     “Shoot.”
     “Where are my clothes? I don’t feel comfortable sitting around under all of these blankets at this hour.... and I’m really not wearing all that much under here.”
     Seifer blushed. A moment later the nurse entered with a bundle of clothes that turned out to be Alex’s, minus all of the grass stains and dew spots from when he had fallen. Alex stepped behind a dressing screen and emerged a moment later wearing a pair of tight blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and a dragon print shirt of red, blue, and yellow with white Chinese symbols.
     “That’s much better,” Alex said, running his fingers through his hair. A moment later his stomach grumbled, and he sighed. “And now I’m hungry.”
     “I’ll treat you to breakfast,” Seifer said, putting an arm over Alex’s shoulders, “and I’ll introduce you to Squall, Irvine, Rinoa, and all the others. Then after breakfast I’ll take you to see Headmaster Cid... maybe he can help you out until we can find a way to get you home.”
     “I can return home right now,” Alex said, closing his eyes, a magic circle forming around his feet. He levitated into the air, and was immediately dropped onto his ass when the power back lashed. He stood up, rubbing his ass. “Damn.... that really frickin HURT!”
     “I guess you need some time to recover,” the nurse said, “come back later and we’ll give you a full examination and try to determine why your power isn’t working.”
     Alex looked about on the verge of tears, but he sighed, swallowed his sadness, and said, “OK. I’ll come back later. But I get the feeling I’m going to be here for a while so I should make friends while I can, and maybe try to fit in the best I can.”
     Seifer smiled at him and led him off towards the cafeteria. Alex looked up at Seifer and smiled back before saying, “This looks like the start of a beautiful friendship.”