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

Ariac sighed and looked up at the setting sun. The sky was awash with color. The rim of the horizon was a deep orange, which faded into a yellow as it traversed upwards. From there the vibrant color stretched up, slowly fading to a musty gray. This turned into a sky blue as it neared the highest point of the sky, and then it darkened slowly as it reached the eastern horizon. Tenchi and Sasami, with Nat'retak and Ryo-Ohki, were yet to return. She, Kiyone, and Ayeka had escaped from the living room incident unhurt, thanks to an emergency shield erected by the Jurai-an Princess herself. Mihoshi was flung into a tree, however. Funny, she didn't wake up immediately, though. When she fell back down she did. Heavy sleeper. Washu had managed to contain Tsaraara, who mercilessly assaulted Ryoko, who had been injured in the blast. Tsaraara sulked, her sword sheathed, silently cursing the scientist. Washu, however, was busy tending to her daughter. A gasp, a cry, and two startled 'miya's' roused Ariac. She spun her head to the right, where Tenchi and Sasami were standing in the path, staring at the house. Half of which had been blown away. Sasami dropped her carrots. Nat looked at Ariac questioningly.

"Miya?"

Ariac gestured for him to come over, and began to explain.

"Lord Tenchi!" Ayeka called, peeking around the back of the house.

Tenchi rushed over, his jaw agape in disbelief. "Did you and Ryoko do this Ayeka?" he asked sternly.

Ayeka shook her head and motioned for him to follow. "No, it was that new girl, Tsaraara, and Ryoko. Washu's contained her and helping Ryoko now."

"What happened?"

"She was caught in the blast. Don't worry about her, Lord Tenchi, Washu can take care of it."

On the other side of the house, Mihoshi was sitting in a lawn chair, snoring. Kiyone was sitting next to her, a look of sheer depression on her face, and Washu was bandaging Ryoko's head, who was protesting.

"Washu -ouch!- Stoppit! I'm okay, really! Besides -ow!-since when did you -ouch!- use gauze?"

"Hush now, and call me Mom! I can't get in my lab right now, so we'll have to do with what we've got. Now hold still, here comes the knot."

Tsaraara was contained in a semi-transparent, yellow force field. She was scowling, but when she saw Tenchi and Ayeka, she grinned insanely and waved.

"Hey... uhh... Ayeka told me what happened... and... Well, what do you think we should do Washu?"

Washu gave the bandage a final jerk and Ryoko twitched. The mad scientist then turned to Tenchi.

"Well, since most of the bedrooms and the living room were destroyed, we'll just have to camp out tonight. It won't be so bad... I'm sure we have some sleeping bags somewhere.." she ambled off, towards the burnt end of the house.

Sasami and Ryo-Ohki came around the house, followed by Nat and Ariac. Tsaraara again gave an insane grin and waved, which Ariac duplicated. Sasami walked over Ayeka.

"Are you okay, Ayeka?" she asked worriedly. "Of course, Sasami." Ayeka said as she embraced her sister.

Tenchi walked over to sit down; Ryoko phased in beside him. "Hi, Tenchi!" she called cheerfully. Tenchi smiled, and sat down.

This promised to be a long night. *******************************************************************

The pastel light of dawn shone merrily upon the charred house. The previous night had been mercifully cool, and the camping went without any major hitches. Sasami was bustling over a fire, roasting a fish. Not exactly a perfect breakfast, but good enough. Ariac was out by the pond to see if she could catch anything. Tsaraara was still asleep, as with Mihoshi and Kiyone. Tenchi was in the house, taking care of early-morning matters, and Ayeka and Ryoko were... well, off somewhere. Ariac didn't care. Washu was on her holo-console, trying to find a way to re-open a doorway to her lab. Ariac stared out over the glittering water. So calm, so peaceful, so-

"NO YOU WON'T, YOU MONSTER!"

-Ayeka. No doubt about that.

"Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do, Princess? We're not on Jurai, you know. Tenchi deserves a good morning kiss!"

Ariac grinned at the squabbling pair. Washu looked up and shook her head.

"Those two are impossible. Really."

Ariac laughed and nodded. "Really. Other than that, sure is peaceful, neh?"

A sudden crack of thunder split the air. All heads turned up to the clear sky, puzzled. A flash of lightening Appeared out of nowhere, shooting off at an upward angle. An area of sky swirled and distorted, darkening to a deep purple mixed with black. More lightening shot around the ridges. The thundering sound grew louder. The portal widened, and shrieking creature hurtled out. It appeared to be an enormous, solid-white eagle with a serpentine tail. Even it's beak and talons were white. It glared down upon the humans with a golden eye. Giving an avian cry, it plummeted strait for Ariac. Ariac stared for a moment in shock, then scrambled away, her fishing line forgotten. Hurtling headfirst in-for a plane-what would have been a kamikaze move, the creature hit the bank where she had been standing a moment before, and mud and water exploded into the air. Ayeka, Washu, and Ryoko until this moment had been in stunned shock, but Ariac's cry galvanized them into action.

"HELP!"

Immediately Washu typed away on her holo-console, and several screen popped up in front of her. Ayeka's log army appeared behind her, and Ryoko shot a blast of golden energy towards the creature's eye. The creature, obviously, rose into the air, and Ryoko missed her target, but not the creature itself.

"That's a Drayke!" Washu exclaimed, "It comes from the planet Pterra IIII, It's weak against electricity and fire... We might be able to force it back into it's portal; it's very resilient and tough to kill."

Ariac coughed and stood up. The Drayke whirled in the air and shrieked again. It dived, this time, in a predatory matter. In one split second, it turned down upon her, half-folded its wings, dove, and struck out with its taloned feet. Ariac jumped again, but this time a single feather from the Drakye sheared her left arm.

"Its feathers are sharp!" Washu's voice came from what seemed to be far away.

Suddenly the Drayke drew its head back and cried, a cry mingling fur and pain. Ryoko was blasting it with thousands of tiny energy missiles, while Ayeka was shocking it with all the force she had. It rose once again, and the portal widened to allow escape. The missiles and electricity ceased once the serpentine tail had disappeared beyond the brink. The portal shrunk to about the size of a fist, then floated down to Washu. She was typing rapidly, and the portal formed a door.

"Thanks to that Drayke, I can get back to my lab. All I had to do was recalibrate the destination of the portal, then allow it to let oxygen-breathing life forms enter!"

Ariac stood up, grasping her arm with her free hand. Washu opened the door, and motioned for Ryoko to enter. Ariac walked over, her face pale with pain.

"It.. uh... got me." She said numbly. Washu just nodded and ushered her in.

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

"*Are you sure you're okay?*" Nat asked worriedly, sitting in Ariac's lap on the sleeping bag.

Ariac nodded and patted him on the head.

"'Course I'm okay. It was just a scratch!" she said. Almost everyone else was asleep. Washu was in her lab, and Tsaraara was still in the force field. Nat purred and stretched out. Ariac yawned and slid down into her sleeping bag.

"'Night Nat."

***

Washu typed excitedly on her holo-console. Since Ariac had been bleeding, Washu had discreetly drawn blood while Ariac was under the influences of morphine. Primitive drug, but effective. Since Ariac knew nothing of her heritage, Washu planned to run a bio-scan on every known life form in the universe, hoping for a match. This also may help with that Drayke. Why did it come to earth? Why would it concentrate on Ariac? Would it come back? There were more questions than answers. Washu absentmindedly took a sip of green tea as the computer searched the database. Pictures of people flashed by at an amazing rate, turning them into flashes of colors. She took a deeper drink when the computer beeped. Match found. Washu looked at the computer. Her eyes grew wide, she cried in horror, and stood up. Her teacup smashed on the floor. "That's impossible!" she cried.

*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*>*<*

Closing Note: AAAAAK! I forgot to put the itles on each of the chappiterrahs! AAAAAHHH! Here they are:

Tenchi Muyo! Enter the Players: Ch. 1- Crash Landing!

Tenchi Muyo! Enter the Players: Ch. 2- Meet the Masaki's!

Tenchi Muyo! Enter the Players: Ch.3- Carrots, Cabbits, and Chaos!

Tenchi Muyo! Enter the Players: Ch. 4- Drayke Problems...

(A break from all those exclamation points...)

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