The members of UKISS sighed in contentment. To celebrate their first win, they had been told that they were going to take vacation for a few days. They had been even more pleasantly surprised when Alexander and Kibum had been there, waiting for them. The O brothers had reunited happily, while Hoon and AJ stood aside, a bit nervous about the meeting. Their nerves evaporated quickly though, as Xander pulled them into a huge hug and Kibum had spoken to them for a bit, getting to know them. By the end of the first day, the nine were laughing, playing and relaxing as though UKISS had never been less than nine.

                The next day, the nine of them had decided to go the beach. The manor they’d been given for their relaxation sat on 200 acres of deep woods, green plains and even had a private beach blocked off on both sides by large rock formations. They’d spent the morning playing the surf, stalking the tide pools in the rocks, and building sand castles, only to have the O brothers come tearing through them, yelling something about Godzilla and downtown Tokyo. What they didn’t realize is that they were being watched from high above.

                Standing on a rainbow, a brilliant white horse with a rainbow mane and tail and his rider, a little blonde girl, watched the nine play.

                “They’ll do,” said the girl.

                “I’m not so sure, Rainbow. They seem a bit…hyperactive. And they’re all boys. What do boys know about color?” The horse replied, shaking his head a bit.

                “They’ll have to do. I don’t have time to find anyone else.”

                “But there’re nine of them. There’ll be one left over.”

                The girl smiled. “They’ll need someone to pull the chariot. They can’t use the flyer so often.”

                The horse chuckled. “Well, if you think it’s wise…”

                “It’ll have to be. We don’t have a choice, Starlight.” At that, the small blonde girl urged the horse onward, down the rainbow toward the unsuspecting males.

                It was Kevin who first noticed the rainbow bearing down on their position. “Um…hey guys? Does that look normal to you?”

                The others looked up and stood silently as the rainbow stopped, hovering a couple inches from the sand. Their eyes widened as the horse and rider leapt gracefully from the rainbow, landing quietly on the beach. The group bunched up behind Eli, pushing him forward slightly. He glared back at them before stepping a little closer to the horse. “Um…hello?”

                The girl smiled reassuringly. “Hello. My name is Rainbow Brite, and I’m here to ask you for your assistance.”

                Kevin blinked. He remembered that name from a show he’d been forced to watch by a friend’s older sister. He moved up next to Eli. “But…I thought you were just a TV show.”

                Rainbow laughed, a bright sound, but it was Starlight who answered. “Almost everything imagined in this universe has a grain of truth somewhere.”

                Kevin thought about that for a second and nodded. “You said something about needing our help.”

                Rainbow nodded and pushed the star on her color belt. A piece of opaque rainbow the size of a large area rug popped into existence and slid under the group, knocking them all down on top of it. Eli grabbed Kevin as he teetered toward the edge. “There’s no time to explain here. I’ll tell you everything when we arrive.”

                Kevin’s eyes widened and he looked back at the group. Their expressions mirrored his own. Xander moved forward a bit to whisper in his ear. “Did we just get kidnapped by a children’s cartoon character and her talking horse?”

                Kevin nodded, dazed. “Yup, I think that about covers it. Why?”

                Xander blinked back at him. “Just making sure. Now I know that if this is some sort of acid trip, it’s not just me.” He looked down at the side dish he was still holding. “Think the manager spiked the kimchi?”

               The rest of the trip was spent chittering amongst themselves in little groups, confused, working out plans of escape, worrying about what was going to happen to them. The only person who didn’t participate was AJ, who sat in a corner of the rainbow, staring at the horse and rider ahead of them, cat-like eyes narrowed in an expression of deep concentration.

                After a bit, the clouds they were traveling through broke, and a small land was laid out before them. Eight areas of differing colors surrounded a tall mountain in the center. One of the areas held a yellow castle and little houses. It was filled with flowers and bright colors. Each of the others was a different color, and a path wound through all of them. Off in the distance to one side, however, directly away from the mountain and castle stood another mountain, this one black and dark. The bright colors of the land faded until only grey and black remained around the dark mountain. Kevin pointed to it.

                “Those are The Pits. That’s where Murky Dismal and his assistant Lurky live. They’re trying to rid the world of all color.”

                No one said anything. Usually, knowledge of this type would be teasing fodder for ages, but the other eight didn’t feel like teasing him. Things were already strange enough.

                The rainbow set down just outside the castle and UKISS clambered off. Seven kids were waiting for them. Each one represented a color, from their hair to their clothing. They looked at the nine boys then to Rainbow.

                Rainbow got down off of Starlight and turned to UKISS. “Alright, here’s the deal. First off, every planet that has color in this universe has its own Color World. This one is Earth’s. It’s called Rainbow Land. Unfortunately, each Color World also has its own enemies. I heard one of you mention Murky Dismal. He is this Color World’s enemy. The Color Worlds rely on the balance between their Color Kids and the Dark Kids. The Color Kids want everything bright and happy, the Dark Kids want everything to be colorless. So long as the Dark Kids and the Color Kids are intact, the world remains balanced. Unfortunately, one of the other world’s Dark Kids are waging war against the Color Kids and the battle is not going well.” The Color Kids looked solemn. “Now, if the Dark Kids kill the Color Kids, that world will be thrown into darkness and chaos. If the Color Kids kill the Dark Kids, the world will be thrown into color and chaos. Either way, it’s bad. If the Dark Kids win and the world dies, EVERY Dark Kid grows stronger, including ours. We’ve been asked to go and help the fight.” Rainbow looked up at them. “We need you to take over here while we’re gone.”

                All of the Color Kids, Starlight and Rainbow were now looking at UKISS. “We need you to become Color Kids.”

[Hello, everyone!! Sorry about the lack of updates, but it seems that as Korea gets closer, I get more of an urge to write! I lost my notes for Instincts for a while, but now that I've found them, I'll work on that too. ^_^]