Once Upon A Fran Fran

Franny shot up in bed and gasped. She also hit her head on the bunk above her, but that's a (rather painful) detail. She walked quietly to the bathroom, being careful as to not wake her roomate, a nun named Ted. (She didn't realize that Ted wasn't there at all, he was with a fellow Nun named Marina and they were bonding over Abbey stories while handing out flyers at the local Presbyterian church)...

She didn't want to wake Sister Ted because she had some rather dastardly plans of her own... which included (dum dum dum....) a multicolored bandwagon!!!!

So after getting dressed in her drab black & white clothing (drat, thought she, 'why can't we wear some bright colors once in awhile?'), she ran outside and behind the Abbey, where she was supposed to have met Marina an hour ago, to finish planning on how to trick Ted into the 'Multicolored Bandwagon Plan' as they were now calling it. Marina had mentioned something about candy & adoring fans... and Franny was starting to get inspired. Damn! I missed her, she must've thought I couldn't get away without Ted knowing, and left. Ooh, I hope she left a message in the birds nest (like we planned too if something happened). Franny checked the aforementioned birds nest, and found a note from... Becky? "Whats up with that?" Thought Franny. Hmm... I better read it and find out.

Franny, I just heard from Victor that Ryland was shot by Dan F, and is now in the hospital. Fiona & Ali seem to be with him, but he left word that Ted was supposed to carry out the 2^nd part of his evil plans of total world domination. (if your wondering how I know all of this, Kathleen has been spying on Ryland and his nuns lately). The time has come to strike. We must carry out our plan to capture Ted and....well, we'll figure out what exactly to do with him once we've got him. So it's up to you, since Marina is slightly hysterical right now (long story I'll tell ya later). You've got to find a way to lure Ted into the porta pottie at the circus (the one thats painted bright blue) at exactly 1pm thursday. Once there, you'll be met by another member of our band who'll have further instructions Good luck! ~Becky

Franny looked confusedly at the note, wondering if anybody else would think it odd that Becky was helping her try to knock off Ted when she herself was one of his nuns. Franny missed the good ol' days when there were no plots, no Ted against Ryland, no spies and allies. Having to be forced to only be friends with people who were on your side. And all sides were corrupted, too, there was no clean way to get out of it. You couldn't be neutral either, unless you moved to Ireland. Franny missed being able to talk to Fiona and Ali all night long, instead of just visiting them on the pretence of talking to them all night, when really she was just trying to get some information out of them, and vice versa, she was sure. No more innocent conversations, no more giggling at random little sentences, now it was all fake, all just to trying to know something that the other side didn't. Frankly, it sucked, and she was sick of it.

She sighed. "When did the NBTSC community go bad?" she wondered aloud.

Suddenly a figure stepped out from behind the tree. "I'll tell you when" the figure growled.

Franny gasped, and took a step back.

"Oh, sorry," the voice continued, losing it's harshness. "It's one of those darth vader voice changer things. got it for my birthday. it's a trip, you should try one."

"Uhm" said franny, "Uhm, could you get rid of that hood thing so i could, uhm, see you, maybe?"

The person reached up slowly, franny held her breath.

"Grace???" Franny cried, in relief. "oh thank goodness. I thought you were a nun, or something..." Grace raised her hand to silence Franny.

"You asked when nbtsc went wrong" she said. "I'm going to tell you. It started in the year 2001. Camp was going wonderfully. There were a few problems of course, the foosball table got so heated it just up and walked away one day, there were a problem with some long distance rrelationships and people blowing up, but hey, nothing's perfect. We were handling everything fine. Until one day..one day a girl appeared on wiki. She looked harmless enough. She already knew a few people. But then she sent in her paperwork, and the computers went haywire. Every person she emailed started going more insane than they already were. I don't know how to explain it, but, people just started going BAD. Kim broke down over a bowl of macaroni and cheese one day. Ryland just snapped. Ted tried to strangle himself with his diabolo, and Marina recited poetry twenty four hours a day. it was a sad, sad time for not back to school campers."

"but who?" whispered franny, horrifically entraced. "who was she?"

"her name," Grace said, milking the suspense for all it was worth, "her name is... Roya."

"Ooooh," Franny said, nodding slowly. "I've heard of her."

Grace shook her head despondently. "Franny," she said slowly. "You're the only one who can stop her. You and..." Grace paused. "The vampires."

"WHAT???" Franny took two involuntary steps back. "Grace? Are you sure you're feeling youself?"

"No one is feeling themself, don't you SEE Franny!" Grace cried suddenly in a fit of passion. "And everyone just follows Roya around like puppies, they can't see her for the...demon-spawn...that she is. But you," Grace paused meaningfully, "you Franny, are my only hope."

Franny was stricken. The very founder of NBTSC was asking for HER help. And yet...Roya seemed an intimidating person, and there was the bit about vampires. But in the end, her loyalty to Grace won, and she said softly "Ok. I'll do whatever you need me to do to help take down Roya."

Grace smiled toothily. "Excellent." She turned to the side slightly and snapped her fingers twice, at which a lanky figure cloaked in black emerged from the nearby bushes. "In that case," continued Grace, "I'd like you to meet Edgar."

"Pleased to meet you my dear." Edgar said, his voice tinged with a strange accent, extending a paper-white hand to Franny.

Franny eyed him suspiciously, she didn't particularly like being called "dear" by a total stranger, but then she shook his hand anyway.

"Good." Said Grace, heaving a sigh. "Then let's get down to business."

Franny followed Grace around for over an hour as she and her pale friend Edgar planned. Every time she tried to suggest something, Grace would snap out of her trance and tell her to be quiet.

After a few hundred "be QUIET already!" 's, Franny got quite fed up. So when Grace and Edgar were going to cross the street to go to the NBTSC headquarters, Franny rounded a corner and shot down a side alley. She didn't stop running until she reached the Abbey where she started out. There she found Marina standing around, looking nervous.

"Franny!" she called out. She rushed over to where Franny stood. "I've some news!"

"What?" Franny asked rather nervously. She wasn't sure what to expect anymore, and she was actually wondering why Marina wasn't speaking in poetry. That alone seemed kind of fishy.

"Come with me. I'll show you." Marina grabbed Franny's hand and ran as fast as she could, practically dragging Franny behind her. When they got to the middle of the forest behind the abbey, she stopped and turned around. "Stop." she said. Franny gave her a look, because obviously she should stop. She (Franny) could hardly breathe from being half-dragged through the abbey and into the forest.

"What is it?" she asked impatiently. All of a sudden, before her very eyes, Marina grabbed near her hairline and pulled, and she turned into Roya! "Roya?" Franny exclaimed, torn between being scared and confused and excited. "I have heard so much about you... and your poetry and your.. everything. You're the one who-"

"Silence, mortal" said Roya demonically. "Let me speak. You are the one we have staked out to help us. We've been watching you."

"Uh oh" thought Franny "I wonder if they saw all of my journal entries. That would be embarassing" "Um... what?" she said to Roya.

"We've been watching you. We need you to help us hide starving poet types. The nuns are after all the poets, you see, and they're starting to get scared. You seem like a normal person, even though you write poetry. I love your work, by the way."

Franny just stared at her. "Um... okay. I guess... but where would they stay? I don't have any room in my house..."

Roya quickly assured her that that would be okay. "Oh, and I have one more thing to tell you-" but all of a sudden, they were interrupted by a loud bang and a whizzing figure flying by them...

Again she marveled speechlessly at the next overwhelming thing to happen Something, or someone, had crashed through a nearby window and onto the floor. Whatever it was stood up quickly and dusted off itself indignantly. "Now what?" Franny mumbled to herself.

Roya was calm. "Don't worry, it's only Landis."

"Landis flies through windows now?" She thought to herself doubtfully.

Landis was standing straight now, looking wizardly and mysterious in her long dark cloak. She adjusted the folds of the cloak.

"Sorry about the window. My landings aren't steady yet. Roya! How's your ankle?"

Roya glanced at the cast on her left ankle. "Getting better, thanks. What brings you here?"

"Venus gave me a day off from Sorceress Training. My owl told me that Franny was here, so I wanted to drop in and see her!" The sorceress-in-training said. She turned her gaze to Franny. "You look beautiful, darling. Yet...perplexed? Exhausted?"

Franny touched her cloak to see if it was as soft as it looked.

"It's been a long day. You have no idea...Do you have something to do with all of this chaos?"

Landis considered this for a few minutes. Roya and Franny waited.

She finally spoke. "Well. Actually, I'm here to help bring the poets and artistic-types to safety."

"I hope she doesn't try to fly us anywhere." Franny thought nervously.

Landis glared at her, apparently reading her mind with her new Mind-Reading 101 skills she had attained last week. "No, I've only got room for two anyway. Instead, I've brought Zloo powder."

Roya spoke up. "Like the stuff in Harry Potter books"

"No, that's Floo powder. Similar, but this is more advanced. It's only for older wizards and sorceresses."

Franny was beginning to get into the adventuresome quality of this day. "Let's go then!"

Roya and Franny drew in closer to examine Landis' bag of Zloo powder, when suddenly...... add more!