It must be my turn.
There are five young people in my living room: a tall, very solidly built young man with dark blonde hair and wearing a red shirt, two black guys, one of which is lazing on the couch and wearing blue, the other, slightly asian-looking, is disassembling the universal remote. He's wearing green. Two girls. One girl, taller than me, with long blonde hair, in pink, the other, a bit shorter than me, with hints of hispanic ancestry, in yellow.
My Rangers. My second-generation Rangers. Lucas, Forrest, Ian, Cecelia, and Teresa.
Forrest notices me first, nudges Lucas. About the same time Cecelia looks over, followed by Teresa, who nudges Ian. The five of them stare at me. I don't blame them. I'm staring back.
"Who are you, and why did you bring us here?" Lucas demands. He crosses his arms, not a good sign.
"I didn't bring you here!" I say, and hope that really wasn't a squeak. My fault for making Lucas look fairly intimidating. "I don't know why you're here."
Forrest gets up, places a hand on Lucas' arm. Lucas swings around to look at him, and then calms down a bit. Forrest turns to me. "Sorry about that. He looks more intimidating than he is. I'm Forrest. That's Lucas."
"Selma," I manage to say.
Teresa speaks next. "I'm Teresa, this is Cecelia next to me, and the guy sitting down there is Ian."
"So, anybody have any ideas on why we're here, wherever here is?" Lucas asks, looking expectantly at me.
"Oh, goodness," I say, half to myself. "I think I know why you're here. My luck."
"Your luck?" Ian asks, putting down the disassembled remote. The others look quite startled, as if they forgot he was there.
"Something like this happened to me a couple of months back," I say. "I got pulled into someone else's universe. Must be my turn to play host."
Lucas sits down. "Do you remember how you got back?"
"I got back. I don't know how, but I did, and you will, too."
"So, what have we, you, and whoever ended up with have in common?" Cecelia asks.
"I think I know," I say, dreading this part from last time this had happened. This is not the crowd I desire to explain author/character relationships to. "But you've got to promise not to skewer me."
I sit down in one of the chairs. The Rangers sit down variously on the rocking chair, the sofa, and Cecelia even attempts to sit down on the footstool. It collapsed under her weight. I wonder how I am going to explain that to my aunt. "I should have warned you about that," I say apologetically. "It's not meant to sit on. The only one that does is one of my cats."
"That's okay, my fault," Cecelia says. She turns the footstool over, as if trying to see if she can repair it.
"Before we start, could you direct me to the bathroom?" Forest asks. "I need to go."
I direct Forrest to the bathroom. Ian, Lucas, and Teresa are still staring at me. Cecelia is still trying to fix the footstool. "Anybody want a drink of water while we're at it?"
A couple of glasses of water, a few chocolate chip cookies, and a request for superglue later, I finally have them settled down. I finally am able to settle down in the chair. I just hope they won't strangle me.
"I'm an author," I say. "I write all sorts of things, and one of the things I write is a very specialized, very weird form known as fanfic."
"You mean, where you take characters from a series and write your own adventures? I read a lot of those," Lucas says.
I don't know how I manage to keep my jaw from dropping. Sometimes characters surprise you. Lucas and Teresa are notorious for that. "Yeah. That's what I mean."
"Are we fiction in this universe?" Ian asks quietly.
"Yes, and no," I say. "Your parents, at least some of them, are established television characters. You're not. In this world, you're my characters. I tell stories about you to anyone who wants to read them. I think, somehow, each world has an influence on the other. Your stories are very much your own - but the fact that they happened may very well be my influence."
Forrest whistles. "That seems pretty well thought out."
I smile. "Yeah, well I had a bit of time to think about it after I ended up in Greer's living room. She's another one of my characters."
Lucas nods. Good. I was worried. Greer is fairly predictable, while Lucas and Teresa certainly are not.
"So, why are we here?" Teresa asks.
"I don't know. I still don't know why I ended up with poor Greer. Maybe someone is trying to give me a message."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. I'm a writer, not a goddess. If someone is trying to send a message, then I'm not getting it."
Forrest get up and came over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Weird things happen. Some things you just can't control."
"We have to find out what brought us to Selma's universe," Lucas says firmly.
"Probably whenever we get done talking, you'll disappear, no problems. You don't have to worry. Maybe we should stop talking now, so you can get home."
"That won't solve the problem of why us and why we were snatched," Lucas replies.
"Because you're the main bunch that I'm working with at the moment?" I ask. "It could also be that they chose the most stubborn characters I've got. And Lucas, have you ever noticed that you're intimidating to look at?"
"Yeah," Lucas says. "So, you think you know why we're here?"
"To stand here and look stubborn and try to convince me of who knows what," I say. "I wrote you this way."
"Couldn't this be one of Regina's plots?" Ian asks suddenly.
"Ian's right," Lucas says. "Selma, you might just be unfortunate enough to be a magnet. Regina found a way to get us out. That must be why she's been so quiet for the last three weeks! This was a major plan. We'll just have to figure out a way to get back."
"Or hope that Dimitria and Alpha figure out how to get us back," Cecelia says.
The Rangers start discussing out how to get home. I try to figure out how to get them to quit while not telling them that Regina's plans won't come into fruition for another month or so. First, however, I have to get their attention. "GUYS!"
Five pairs of eyes look at me, and I blink. "Wow. It worked. Okay, you have to listen to me. I have been through this before. You will get home. All you have to do is shut up. Got it?"
The Rangers look at each other. Lucas opens his mouth, but I beat him to it. "Lucas, shut up. For once."
They look shocked, but all shut up. Several minutes pass, with Lucas glaring at me the whole time. I hope I'm right. I don't want to be on the end of a Lucas lecture.
But finally, they fade away. I don't know if I learned anything, but they're gone. They've left behind several glasses of water, a plate, and a semi-repaired footstool. I guess they've gone home, back to fight the evil of that world.
Back where they belong.
-the end