Welcome to Gaia! ::

Where is she? Sixteen-year-old Riku thought. He was starting to get worried before checking the surrounding area, and sighed, taking his blue En V3 phone out of his jacket pocket. He opened his contact list and went through it until he had highlighted the name of one of his friends. He pressed Send. It rang a couple of times before the voice of a female teen spoke.
“Hello?”

“Kristal,” hissed Riku.

“Riku? What’s up?”

“Where are you?” He snapped.

“I’m at- Oh, crap… I was supposed to meet you in the park, wasn’t I?”

“Yes, yes, you were.”

“Damn it! Riku, I’m so sorry!”

“So you’re coming, then?”

“Yeah, I’m on my-” Kristal’s voice was cut off.

“Kristal? Are you-” Riku’s words stopped abruptly as the line was overrun with static and then went dead. “Oh, crap! Please let her be all right!” He prayed, starting to run out of the park and towards Kristal’s home.

*****

“Riku?” Kristal said worriedly. His phone must have died, She thought with a shrug and hung up the phone and started out of the living room.
“Hello, Kristal,”
“Huh?” Kristal turned around to see her father, who, appeared to have been sitting in his recliner for a while, but, how could that be? She just walked by it and he hadn’t been there. “Oh, hey Dad,” she said, “I’m just heading out to meet Riku,” she said, “I’ll be back later, see ya!”
Her father smiled, and it wasn’t a nice smile that he usually had, but a demonic grin. That’s Kristal knew, right off the bat that something wasn’t right…
“D-Dad?” She asked, getting frightened when his eyes rolled back into his head for a few seconds. When they came back, the pupils in her father’s eyes were a dark red, almost the color of fresh blood. “Oh, God…!” She exclaimed and started to run, but didn’t get far before her father leaped over Kristal’s head and landing in front of her. She gasped and he grabbed her arms. He had a good grip on her and she couldn’t move her arms at all. “Ow! What the Hell is wrong with you?! You’re hurting me!” She cried.
“No one can help you now, Little Angel!” Her father laughed as a shadowy door appeared behind him and it opened a few seconds later.
Suddenly, the front door was kicked open. “Hey you!” Someone yelled. It was Riku and he had what looked to be a pebble in his hand.
Kristal’s father turned around to see Riku. “Go away, boy, you can’t do anything to stop me! If you think you can, then prove it!” Bellowed the older man.
Riku ignored his statement. “Think fast!” He exclaimed and threw the rock at Kristal’s father- Direct hit to the middle of his forehead.
Kristal’s father dropped her and fell to his knees, writhing in pain. “Damn you!” He shrieked and his skin seemed to melt off of him, revealing blackened scales, at least, that’s what they looked like. He also had two crimson horns on both sides his head, blackened, bat-like wings and a dark, crocodile-like tail.
Wh-What is that?! Kristal thought, getting up and hurrying over to Riku. Once she had, the creature had gotten to its feet and removed the glasses it was wearing. Behind the glasses, both of the irises were crimson and except for the thin copper-colored line around the eyes and the small, bull’s-eye-like pupils, both eyes were a dark red color.
It glared at Riku, the look in its blood red eyes made Kristal shudder.
Then, it spoke in a voice that sounded something like a cross between a growl and a low screech. “How dare you interrupt!” It roared and with lightning speed, threw a claw-like fist at Riku, its arm extending past its length. In the blink of an eye, it had Riku held up by his neck.
“Riku!” Kristal screamed. She was frightened, and she had questions. What was this thing? What did it want with Kristal? And most importantly, if that thing was an impersonator of her father, where was her real father?
Riku was gasping for breath now as the creature tightened its hold on Riku’s neck, was this thing trying to kill him?
“Kr-Kristal,” Riku managed to say, “You need to get yourself out of here!”
Kristal looked at him like he was crazy. “What?! No! I can’t leave you here with this thing!”
“I don’t want you to die,” Riku choked out.
Kristal could see tears forming in his eyes. She also tried to blink back her own tears.
“Now… please, go!” He exclaimed and as Kristal was going to reply back to him, he added with anger “Fine! If you want to die, go ahead and stay, I don’t care anymore!” He yelled and instantly regretted it.
Kristal started to cry and ran out of the door, not bothering to say anymore. The last thing he heard before she slammed the door was “Burn in Hell.”

*****

Two weeks had passed since Kristal had spoken to Riku. She hadn’t even been to her own home since he told her he didn’t care, but right now, she didn’t care whether he was dead or not. She was staying at another friend’s house, but was refusing to tell Clarissa Valentine what was wrong. Clarissa was two years older than Kristal and she had already graduated high school.
“C’mon, Crisi, tell me what’s wrong,” Clarissa said taking her guitar out of its case. She liked to call Kristal by her name in Italian, seeing as she was part Italian.
“Look, I just don’t want to talk about it!” Kristal snarled.
“All right, all right, I won’t ask again! Jeez, someone’s pretty pissed off!”
Kristal sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, I just… I’m just under a lot of pressure right now.”
“Don’t worry about it, Crisi, tomorrow’s the first day of school, it will be a whole a new year for you!” Clarissa said with a smile and pulled her into a hug. “Besides, there might even be a few cute guys for you,” She added after not getting a reaction.
This made Kristal’s face heat up. “Shut up,” she said jokingly. “What time is it?” She asked looking around for a clock. She didn’t see one.
“Oh, sorry,” started Clarissa as she looked away. “I haven’t had a chance to go and buy a clock just yet.” She said and Kristal gave her a bored look.
“Then how do you know what time it is?”
She held up her wrist, which had a watch on it. “This has an alarm built in, and much to my dismay, it’s pretty loud when it goes off.”
“That's probably a good thing, then, considering how hard of a sleeper you are!” Kristal said with a laugh. “So what time is it?”
“Umm… It’s around eleven, I guess,” Clarissa replied, ignoring her friend’s comment. “You look tired; you should get some sleep,”
“Yeah, I guess I probably should…” She was right, Kristal was tired, and it was the night before school started. “Do you have another bed or something for me to sleep on?” She asked looking around again.
“Eh, just use my bed, I’ve got the futon I can use, and it’s pretty comfortable for someone who’s used to using it.” Clarissa said smiling.
Kristal walked over to the bed and laid down on it. “Are you sure?” She asked.
“Oh, yeah, its fine, I know you have a lot on your mind right now, so the least I can do is to give you somewhere comfortable to sleep.” Clarissa said grabbing her coat and heading towards the door.
“Wait, where are you going?” Kristal asked sitting up again.
She stopped as her hand touched the door and turned her head. “Huh? Oh, I’m just going to meet with a couple friends of mine that I’ve known for several years,” she explained. Kristal just looked at her. “Don’t worry; I’ll be back in the morning!” She reassured her friend.
“Whatever you say,” Kristal said with a yawn lying down on her side on the bed. Clarissa waved and dimmed the lights, and closed the door gently behind her.

*****

Clarissa walked out of the apartment, down the steps and into the night, stopping to look around to make sure no one was following her, but then again, why would anyone be out this late? “All right,” She muttered letting out her held breath. She then looked at her watch under a streetlight. It’s 10:45, and, it’s a full moon. I’d better hurry… She thought starting to walk again, quickening her pace.

*****

A female figure stood in the darkness, looking at the clock above her head and tapping one of her feet impatiently. Dónde el Infierno es ella?! She thought, groaning. Clarissa walked to the figure and the moonlight revealed her face, a seemingly normal young woman. “Chingado Clarissa, qué mal contigo? Por qué are usted siempre retrasado?!” The woman snarled.
Clarissa just looked at her blankly. “Speak English, Amanda!”
Amanda sighed. “I said, ‘What’s wrong with you? Why are you always late?!’ …Where’s Leila?”
Clarissa shrugged. “I have a reason for being late,”
“Shoot,”
“Kristal Smith is living with me right now, she won’t go home.”

*****

Kristal started to doze off, and before she knew it, she was asleep…

Kristal walked into the school and stopped to look around. Where was everyone? She started to walk again, and after a few seconds, she started to hear faint cries, as she got further into the school, the cries got louder and they made Kristal want to cry herself. She started to run down the hall, trying to locate the source of the cries. As the cries got louder, she heard a loud growling noise. Where did that come from? She thought stopping and looking around. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something ran past her. She looked around, but saw nothing she just shrugged it off as she continued to walk until she saw something running on all-fours, but was it human? Kristal couldn’t tell, but she wanted to find out so she sped up the pace.
As she looked around for whatever it was she saw, she noticed bloodstains on the floor and the walls. “Whoa, this doesn’t look good…” She whispered, just in case there was someone or something in the building causing this. Then, as she went around the corner, she saw someone, but they didn’t look exactly human. It was of human shape, but it had wings, and it had gray skin, making it look like a gargoyle that you would find on the top of a Catholic church. She gasped when it turned around- It was Riku! What was going on here?!

Kristal gasped as she sat up and looked around. It was…only a dream? She thought, wondering what time it was. “Ugh… I couldn’t have been asleep for very long,” She muttered, noticing it was still dark out.

*****

“She just showed up without warning?”
“Pretty much, yeah, but she was pretty upset, she looked like she had been crying for a few hours, it was dark when she showed up at my apartment and her mascara was running down her cheeks.” Clarissa said with a sigh. Amanda was about to speak, but Clarissa spoke first. “No, I don’t know why she was so upset, so don’t ask.”
“Riku made her cry, that’s why she’s so upset,” A voice from deep in the shadows muttered. It was more of a growl at first, but as the speaker went on, the voice became more human. The voice startled the two women and they turned around to see another young woman, who looked like she had been in a fight with some animal with sharp claws. She was limping, when she almost fell, Amanda, in the blink of an eye, had caught her.
“Good, God, Leila! What happened to you?!” Clarissa exclaimed, rushing to her side.
“You didn’t actually do it, did you?”
Clarissa looked at her confused. “Amanda, what are you talking about?”
“Yeah… I did it, I’m the Leader now…” Leila muttered wincing.
“Lead… Oh, my God, I didn’t think you were serious about that!” She exclaimed while looking at Leila’s wounded body. “Is that why you’re all beat up?!”
Leila nodded. “Of course, I had to kill him! He was a major pain in the a** when it came to proper burials,”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is he never gives a proper burial! I was third-in-command the day before he came into power over the Pack. The rule of our Pack were, and I quote ‘Whoever falls behind is to be left behind’ and he was second-in-command Katie was killed-Well, we left her to die, which wouldn’t have happened if I was in charge.” Leila reminded them.
“Oh, my Go-” Amanda started to choke on her words, she had been a vampire for a few years now, so you’d think she would have remembered she couldn’t say the Lord’s name without feeling like her throat was on fire. After she stopped choking, she added “You need to stop dwelling on that! What’s done is done and you can’t change it! She was shot with a damned silver bullet!”
“Shut up, Vampire.” Leila growled glaring at Amanda.
“Why the Hell should I, estúpido werewolf?” Amanda snarled glaring back.
Clarissa looked worried. “Uh… Leila, you said you knew why Kristal has been so upset?” She asked trying to change the subject.
“Yeah, I know why,” she said pausing.
Amanda crossed her arms before speaking. “…You gonna tell us or what?”
“I was getting to that.” Leila’s voice came out as more of a growl. “Anyway,” she started, her voice normal again, “I was outside Kristal’s house a couple of weeks ago and I looked inside, saw an actual Demon had hold of Riku by his neck and I saw that he had yelled something at her, I couldn’t tell what he had said, but Kristal had burst into tears and ran out. She called back to him ‘Burn in Hell’ before she slammed the door.” She explained and Clarissa was speechless. Amanda just shook her head.
“I knew Riku can be heartless sometimes, but I’ve never seen him be cruel enough to Kristal to actually make her cry!” She said.

*****

There was a loud growling sound coming from outside. It sounded close by, but at this hour, what could be outside? Kristal had to find out so she got up off the bed and peeked through the closed blinds. She gasped in fear at what she saw: there was, what looked like a man, and he was standing over something. He had oil-colored hair and his skin was so pale, it looked as though he was glowing in the moonlight. He also had fangs coming down from his upper jaw.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered. Then she heard him speak, but because of the window, it was faint.
“Stupid mutt,” he said picking whatever he was standing over up off the ground- it was a small dog.
He looks like a Vampire…but they aren’t real, are they? Kristal thought as the man outside picked up the dog and put it to his lips, biting into it a few seconds later. Kristal tried to hold back a scream by putting her hand over her mouth, but it didn’t do much good, it was almost as loud as normal… the man dropped the dog and in a split second, was facing the window Kristal was looking out of. She gasped and moved back from the window, hoping that he hadn’t seen her.

*****

“Well, I think that’s the first time it’s happened,” Leila said, not appearing to be angry anymore. “Clare, you said that Kristal is at your apartment, right?” She added.
“Yes, I did, why?” The other girl replied.
“I went by there and I saw something alarming stalking around the area.”
“What exactly did you see?” Amanda chimed in.
“One of your Vampire buddies was hanging around,”
“Who was it? My Clan knows that that area is out-of-bounds!” She said with her anger rising. Leila thought for a moment.
“I’m not sure, he was quite tall and thin, he had dark blue eyes, and his hair was as dark as the sky is at midnight.”
Amanda let out an exasperated sigh. “Drake, I should have known,” she muttered.
“What’s wrong with Drake?” Clarissa asked.
“He’s the troublemaker of our Clan, never following the rules; he lies to us, he feeds whenever he feels like it. He just gets on my nerves!” Amanda was practically yelling now.
“Would he hurt Kristal in any way?”
“He might, if he gets the chance,” Amanda said starting to walk away.
“Hey! Where are you off to now?!” Leila called to her after she was a few feet away.
“I have to go warn Zephyr about this! You go stall Drake and hope to you-know-who that she isn’t in any danger!” She then jumped to top of a small nearby building and starting running. Leila sighed, shaking her head.
“C’mon, Leila!” Clarissa called back to Leila.
Said girl looked at her friend and nodded, running to catch up with her.

*****

Kristal looked for a phone as there was a pounding sound on the door. Where is it, where the Hell is it?! She thought, scurrying around the small room.
“Open the damn door!” Someone said loudly through the door. It was the same voice she had heard from outside. “Open it or I’ll tear this door off of its hinges!” He said sounding quite angry. Kristal said nothing; she just continued searching for a phone.
“That’s it!” He yelled and just after his words, the door knob was pulled out of the door.
Kristal screamed and went to hide in the closet as the door opened.
“Come out, human! I know you’re in here!” He yelled, but Kristal kept quiet.
Drake looked around and his eyes eventually fell to the closet. He noticed the door was slightly ajar. He smirked as he went towards it.
Oh, no! I’m screwed! Kristal thought wondering what would happen to her.

*****

Leila and Clarissa arrived at the apartment building to find the door wide open. “Crap, we’re too late!” Clarissa said starting to lose hope.
“Not yet!” Leila’s voice called. Clarissa looked around. She hadn’t even noticed that the Werewolf was already halfway to the open door. “C’mon, Clare, we need to help her now!”
Clarissa was almost amazed at how quickly and quietly Leila had moved. She nodded and hurried up the stairs to help. As soon as they got there, they looked inside and saw Drake moving towards the closet. “When should we-” Clarissa’s gasp cut her words off. She looked at her shoulder and there was a pale hand on it.
“Shh! We’re to help!” The owner of the hand whispered. It was a female vampire.
“Who are-?”
“We’ll talk later, right now, we need to take care of Drake,” She said and like a shroud, quietly crept into the room.
“Finally, it’s time for a little late-night snack!” Drake exclaimed as Kristal closed her eyes and backed up into the wall. Just then, a figure grabbed Drake and pulled him back.
“Where did he…?” Kristal said when she opened one eye and saw that the vampire was gone.
“Nice try, Drake old pal,” the male vampire who had pulled him back said. “Kristal, move!” He added and Kristal did when Drake tried to throw the other vampire off of him.
“How did you know I was here, Arcane?” He said throwing the vampire into the wall.
“Come now, Drake,” a deep voice said, “Did you honestly believe we wouldn’t find out?” The voice said with a laugh.
“Zephyr,” Drake growled. “Show yourself, you bloody coward!” He yelled sending a glare around the room.
“Hey, Drake, guess who!” A female voice said and in the blink of an eye, there was a girl standing in front of Drake, her fist in his stomach. Drake was bent over the girl’s arm and wasn’t moving. “How’d that feel, bro?” She said laughing.
Drake suddenly grabbed the girl’s wrist. “You little b***h…!” He exclaimed and swung the girl away from him and into a wall.
“Yo, Drake!” Another voice yelled. “Is that any way to treat your little sister?!”
“Well, what d’you know, you seem to have brought them all here!” Drake laughed and dodged when another figure tried to tackle him to the ground.
“C’mon, Drake, if you don’t put up too much of a fight, we’ll go easy on you!”
“Now, do you really think I really care about your mercy, Razi? Vampires should be going out to kill their opponent, no matter what!”
“Really? I’m pretty sure that that’s your philosophy, Drake!” Razi stated getting up from the floor and brushing himself off. Shortly after, Drake disappeared for a few seconds, reappearing in front of the other Vampire and punching him in the face. Razi stumbled back.
“You will all die!” Drake sounded angry as he pulled out a glove and slid it on to his right hand.
“You…you stole the Angel’s Blade?!” The female vampire had gotten up and looked terrified when Drake pulled a small dagger from a holster on his pants.
“Damn right,” he said with a smirk and the other vampires started to back away. All of them backed away except Amanda.
“All of you go!” She ordered. “I’ll hold him off, I don’t care if he kills me, just get yourselves out!”
“Right,” Most of them said in unison.
The younger female vampire looked at Amanda with worry clearly in her eyes. “Amanda, I won’t-”
“Amaranth, just go, I won’t allow you to be killed!” Amanda interrupted the younger vampire when Drake charged at them.
Amaranth reluctantly nodded and went out the door.
“Leila, make sure no one comes back in here,” Amanda was determined to defeat Drake. “Kristal, Clarissa, you need to get out as well,”
“Die!” Drake roared and attempted to stab the other vampire with the Blade, Amanda caught his arm before it touched her.
“Go!” She yelled and as Amaranth had, the two girls reluctantly ran out of the apartment.
“Are we really going to just leave her in there with that maniac?” Kristal asked with worry stamped clearly on her face.
A taller vampire appeared in front of Kristal. “She wasn’t asking us to go,” he said “She’s of her own will, she won’t be told what to do and actually do it, not easily, that is,” he sighed. Leila glared at him.
“And you’re not going to even try and help her? For God’s sake, Zephyr, you’re the Leader of the Striga Clan!” She snarled.
“You think I don’t know that, werewolf?” Zephyr growled, and then sighed. “Look, I know she’s your friend, but…” His speech trailed off.
“But what?”
“She won’t listen to me, you know how she is, and she won’t listen to reason,” he groaned. “She’s a noble young woman; she wants to protect as many people as possible and she will die for her family and friends,”
Leila’s features became more human-like again as she calmed down. “You’re right…but there must be something we can do…!”
Zephyr placed a hand on Leila’s shoulder. “If there is, I don’t know what it would be,” he muttered “the only thing we can do for her is hope for her safety,”
“So what do we do now?”
“Hope that if Drake does somehow defeat Amanda, it won’t be until morning when the sun comes out,”
“How about we go back to the Clan’s Home?” Zephyr suggested.
“I suppose I would need to return to my Pack?” Leila asked. “I’m sure that the rest of your Clan won’t appreciate me being there…”
“That would be true; at least a third of the Clan has no tolerance for werewolves,”
“I see, well, I’d best be off, then.” She said beginning to walk off with a small limp. She stopped and turned around for a minute. “See you later, Clare,” she waved. “And Kristal, please be careful from now on, okay?” Clarissa waved and Kristal nodded as the werewolf walked off.
“All right, let’s get going, Striga’s building is near the outskirts of town, and we’re almost in the middle.” Zephyr began to walk away, as did the other vampires that were behind him.
“So are you all right?” Amaranth asked when Kristal was closer to her.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine; I just didn’t expect him to attack like that…”
Amaranth smiled, her fangs showing. “Yeah, that’s my brother for you,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I’m sorry he scared you, has no tolerance for the living. He hasn’t for about a century now and I don’t think that that’s gonna change anytime soon…” She explained.
Kristal smiled back uneasily at the vampire. “It’s all right; I’m just not used to the complexity of the world yet…”
“What do you mean?”
“There are so many things that I’ve yet to understand about this world that we live in, the living beings, to be specific. Like vampires and werewolves, until tonight, I thought that they only existed in books, like Twilight,” Kristal explained.
“Ah, I see your point,” the vampire said. She then added “I’m not sure if you completely understood what Miss Leila had said, but this world is no longer safe, not for any of us…there are demons lurking everywhere, watching, waiting…waiting for the opportune moment to strike their target,” She sounding quite ominous at this point. Then she noticed that Kristal was looking around. “Er…Sorry, don’t mind what I say, most of it is just memories come back to haunt me…when I first became a vampire, the world was not in good shape, not at all, Demons were everywhere, my parents, who had become vampires at about the same time that I had, had died because they drank Demon blood, not that they had known this at the time, but some Demon blood is toxic to vampires, almost like a powerful, corrosive acid that eats away at the vampire’s body until there’s left, and then, you would just die. You see, the heart of vampires, even though it does not beat, it is still a heart, and destroying it, or if it’s cut out from inside the chest cavity, it will kill the vampire almost instantly.” Amaranth explained.
“How much longer until we get there?” Clarissa blurted out.
“Shouldn’t be too much longer, Zephyr left one of our commands in charge, her name is Violet, and once she is given a command from Zephyr, then she won’t let her guard down until he’s returned.” Amaranth explained.
“There she is!” Razi exclaimed “Home sweet home, and not a moment too soon, I’d say, sunrise will be in about fifteen minutes.”
“It’s a broken-down, old apartment building…?” Clarissa wondered if they were joking.
“What did you expect, a mansion?” Someone asked with a laugh. Everyone turned around to see a young woman, maybe in her early twenties.
“Oh, hey Violet,” Amaranth said coolly.
“Everything handle all right?” Razi asked. Violet nodded in reply.
“We had a couple hobos trying to get in, but we had Jet dress up as a construction worker to tell them that this place’s gonna get torn down. Weren’t the smartest couple of guys, he actually had to explain the term to them two or three times!” She said with a laugh. “So what’s with the two mundane humans?”
Zephyr cleared his throat. “Drake got into the place they were staying at, coulda killed this one,” he said motioning to Kristal. “Amanda’s holding him off for a while.”
“Idiot,” Violet muttered referring to Drake “I hope Amanda can knock some sense into ‘im.”
“All right, all right, enough with the introductions-Sun’s trying to come out now,” One of the vampires that had been with them said.
“Yeah, yeah, Arcane, you’re just too damn impatient!” Violet joked.
“Well, excuse me for not wanting to fry!” Arcane replied, not seeming to think Violet’s comment was a joke.
That’s when she took a step closer to him, looking annoyed. Zephyr, in an instant, had smacked the backsides of their heads. “Enough, we have guests! And as much as I don’t like it, Arcane’s right, we really should get inside now.”
“As much as you-”
“Kidding,”
Arcane didn’t look like he fully believed that. “Oh, all right, let’s go, then,” He said and started towards the door. The rest of the vampires followed Arcane, except Amaranth, who looked back at Kristal and Clarissa.
“C’mon, I’ll show you where you two can sleep,” she said with a smile, but this time, her fangs couldn’t be seen. She then started towards the door, and motioned for them to follow. The two girls nodded and followed the vampire inside.

Once they got inside, the female vampire looked around. “All right…Uh…Hey, Zephyr?” She called.
“Yeah?” He replied after coming from around the corner.
“Where can we have these two go for some rest?”
He thought about it for a few seconds. “Well, what about your room, I mean, you’ve got three beds, right?” He suggested.
“Good point, yeah, that’ll work,” she agreed “Thanks, Zephyr,” she said then turned to the two girls. “C’mon you two, you need to get some rest,” she began to walk down the hall.
“Good night, you two,” Zephyr said with a smile and walked off. Kristal and Clarissa followed after the Clan Leader was gone.

Once in Amaranth’s room, the vampire explained what would happen later, seeing that Kristal would start school in the morning. “Does that make sense, Kristal?”
“Yeah, Clarissa and I will head back over to get her car, she’ll drive me over to the school, and Clare will talk to Riku, right?”
“Yep, looks like you’ve got it,” Amaranth laughed after speaking.
“All right, let’s get some sleep.” Clarissa reminded her friend. “Good night!”
“Yep, good night!” Kristal said and yawned, wondering what would happen the next day.

NOTE: THIS IS THE VERY FIRST VERSION, AND I DID NOT FEEL LIKE PUTTING IN EVERY ONE OF THE ITALICS!!!