Zoe’s head span; she wasn’t really sure where she was. The last thing she could remember was falling onto hard concrete and blacking out. Her eyes were shut, her ears rang and her arms and back ached. She was exhausted. Then she noticed a strange sound in amongst the high-pitched tone of her eardrums.

“Papa!” said a young girl in a Texan accent. “Are you sure this is alright? You really shouldn’t be grabbin’ half-topless girls you find knockin’ at our door and bringin’ ‘em into our home.”

“Hold your horses now sweetie” replied a man whose voice sounded almost mechanical. “You make it sound as if I have poor intentions. I merely wanted to help her. She was knocking at our door; I simply went to see who was there. It isn’t my fault that she fell and hit the ground”.

“I s’pose; but how can we help her?”

“You could put your medical skills to use. She hit her head on concrete, remember? Surely a medic-in-training is just what she needs right about now.”

“Oh. I haven’t practised on a proper person yet, only you and Theo, but I s’pose it’s worth a try.”

“That’s the spirit.” Zoe heard the metallic ‘Bu-bump’ start again. “Well, I’ll go and find some of your old clothes for her to change into when she wakes, and you can make sure she isn’t in too much of a state.” The banging sound faded away. Zoe’s hearing was now much better and her eyes finally felt like they were able to open. Then she heard another sound, a person walking towards her, and assumed it was the girl. Zoe slowly opened her eyes and tilted her head towards the sound of footsteps. The girl stopped and gasped.

“You’re awake? Oh, this is great!” Before Zoe stood a skinny girl with short, messy, light blue hair and tall black boots. She wore short shorts, a white cropped t-shirt and had an eye-patch covering her left eye. She smiled at Zoe keenly. “Howdy! I’m Lexi, nice to meet you!”

Zoe smiled back. “Hi” she replied meekly, “My name’s Zoe.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Zoe.” Lexi took a chair from a nearby desk and sat down back-to-front facing Zoe.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Zoe sat up; she lay on a colourful futon that matched many of the items in the small, cramped room she and Lexi were currently in. She looked around, intrigued by the room’s decorations. The walls were covered in posters and there were tonnes of stuffed animals scattered around on the carpet.

“I should probably get to work. How’re you feelin’?”

“I’m fine, I think. My head hurts but I don’t think it’s anything too serious.”

Lexi inspected Zoe, checking for bumps and bruises. “I might not look like it but I’m trainin’ to be a medic for the King’s Royal Guard, though it probably won’t happen.”

Zoe was puzzled. “The Royal Guard? What’s that?”

Lexi seemed shocked. “You haven’t heard of the Royal Guard? Are you sure you didn’t lose a few brain cells when you bumped your head? Where’re you from then? It must be pretty far away if you don’t know nothin’ about the Guard.”

“I’m from Brighton.”

Lexi thought for a moment. “Nope. Never heard of it.”

“What about England?”

“Sorry, don’t have a clue where that is either.”

Zoe was confused. She had had her suspicions but was now confident that the metal object, or rather the purple mist inside of it, had transported her to another world. “So where are we now then?”

“We’re in one of the lower levels of the city at the moment. It’s deserted for the most part, but there are a couple of people scattered throughout. Most people only come here to use the river as transport; it’s always night, seein’ as it’s underground and all, so it’s not much of a tourist spot.”

“One of the lower levels? How many levels does the city have then?”

“We’re on the fifth floor of the seventh level right now. Each level has ten floors, and there’s ten levels total, unless you include the Core and Surface levels, that makes one hundred and twenty floors in all. The levels are split into six groups; the poorest sector consists of levels nine through six, middle class live on levels five to three and the wealthier folk live on levels one and two. Level ten’s a maximum security prison, the Core is where all the city’s power comes from and the Surface is where the King lives.” Lexi looked up at the ceiling and smiled. “I’d give anything to live up there. They’re all fancy and rich and can have anything they wanna have.” Lexi sniffed and wiped a small tear from her eye.

“Is that why you want to be part of the Royal Guard?”

Lexi smiled again. “Oh yes, it is. Anyone who works for the King gets to live on the second level by default. And you can take anyone up there with you.” She glanced at the doorway. “Papa’s done so much for me; I think it’s only right for me to do the same for him too.”

“Was that your father then? I heard you two speaking before I fully regained consciousness.”

“Technically he’s not my real dad. He found me one day, aged five, wanderin’ around in the street. I don’t remember what happened to my parents, or anything about them for that matter. Regardless, he took me in and raised me as his own.”

Suddenly, Zoe heard barking come from outside the room, followed by the voice of Lexi’s foster-father. “Theo! Be careful with those, and pipe down, we don’t know if the girl’s awake yet!” A small brown dog, who Zoe assumed was Theo, came bounding through the doorway carrying a red flannel shirt, black jeans and a black zip-up hoodie with white accents in his mouth. He ran across the room, jumped up onto the futon and dropped the mass of clothing into Zoe’s lap. Then he looked over at Lexi feeling very pleased with himself.

She laughed. “You dumb dog, come here.” She reached out an arm and petted Theo who, unsurprisingly, barked with glee.

Zoe looked up at the door; there, in the doorway, stood a large, four-legged, cybernetic man with grey hair, green eyes, big, rounded goggles and folded arms. He walked over to the futon and offered one of his hands to Zoe. “Hello there, nice to meet you. My name’s Merlin, Merlin Kobayashi.”

Zoe reached out and shook Merlin’s hand. “Hello. I’m Zoe Sasaki. Nice to meet you too.”

Merlin’s eyes widened. “Sasaki? Hmm; you wouldn’t happen to know Bertram Sasaki, would you?”

Zoe was shocked. “Bertram? He’s my grandfather. But how do you know him?”

Merlin smiled. “We have lot’s to talk about, Zoe Sasaki.”