The keys jingled in the old man’s quaking hand. The source of his unease was clear. Two armed men stood behind him as he opened the back entrance of his jewelry store. Their identities were secure enough with their fedoras tilted forward and bandanas covering the lower halves of their faces. All you could see were their cold, desperate eyes.

 Jeremy stood in the middle of his room and looked around again. He thought about just what to do now. The others had split off to do there own things and didn't seem interested in training right now. He looked for a computer terminal or a monitor. He could still learn more about Zen and the Harmony One.

Cold starlight filtered through the enormous glass wall, illuminating the room in in luminous silver tones. The enormous bed, the shelving unit and octagonal armoire. And across from the bed a workstation - no chair, just one of the console's that he'd seen on the bridge, rising up like a sleek black glassine mushroom. 

If the robot thought anything of the Fool's crazy antics, it said nothing. The journey through the ships corridors, (all octagonal, all well lit), took only a minute or so, and ended in a medium sized hexagonal room with a dark blue floor. "This lift will take you to the crew quarters," the little bot said, Zen's voice sounding a little tinny in the confines of the chamber. There was a feeling of weightlessness, followed by a sensation of rapid movement during which various floors flickered past the the open 'doorway' they'd just come through, followed by a sensation of weightlessness again.

They'd passed through several corridors and T-intersections along the way, following the phosphorous glow of hexagonal tiles that Zen lit for them. They'd also passed several doors, all closed save those that opened along their route. The lighting remained pleasant, the temperature cool. The air was beginning to lose that stale smell as well, and Jeremy could detect the tiniest traces of air flow - eddies of fresh air amongst the flat - as they moved deeper into this mystery that they'd all found themselves in.

Whatever this place was, it wasn't small. It took ten minutes before they arrived at their destination.

As quickly as it had begun, it was over. Each of the five heroes, (prospective), found themselves standing on a black, mirrored floor that appeared to be tiled in tightly packed hexagons, roughly an inch across. The wall behind them also was tiled the same way, and having looked at the wall, they all saw each other:

A beautiful woman in a bathing suit, hair still damp from her swim.
A middle-aged man holding a beer can.
An athletic man, face flushed with either cold or excitement.
What for all intents an purposes appeared to be a man made entirely of plants.
Another middle aged man, in good shape and with an expression of surprise on his face.

“So what do you do,” Stephanie, a gym-toned thirty-something faux blonde with eyes like dark chocolate and a heaped mass of black hair asked him as she sipped on her chocolate martini. Stephanie had followed him from “Fadaux’s”, a bar that catered mainly to up and coming corporate types, to their current location of “Made Men”, which catered to just about any damn body regardless of bank account or job type.

White spots danced before her eyes as Nikki fought for breath. Her body screamed to fight or take flight and adrenaline coursed through her madly. It took a moment for her mind to consciously override instinctive emotion, then she felt herself relax on the cool mat beneath her and breath flowed unrestricted. Her dark eyes found their focus once again, and she blinked as she sat up and looked around.

"You must learn how to fall correctly, and practice!" said her tiny instructor, Anna, as she held out a strong brown hand. Taking that hand, Nikki slowly got to her feet and ruefully muttered "I think you've almost beaten it into me." Sharp of hearing despite her age, Anna chuckled at her young students complaint.

Aaron LLewelyn worked through lunch so he could get off work a little early. He wanted to get to the park before the late afternoon strollers and joggers got there. It was better when there were no witnesses. He got caught a few times in the past but he always managed to keep his identity secret. Even that video of him that was making the rounds on Youtube was unrevealing, too distant and too fuzzy. That, like many things, made Aaron laugh. He especially liked the comments that the video was 'so fake'.