The real world returned to Scott with all of the grace and dignity of a tired walrus. He groaned out his dismay at the arrival of a new day on Earth, and spent several minutes collapsed in his bed. Part of him wished to remain in bed for the rest of the day, but he knew that eventually he would need to go to work.

Morning rituals took place. Scott showered, shaved, and performed other s-word related activities until he was ready to take on his day.

He spent the better part of an hour online looking through various bits of information on the dream world then opted to practice his movement drills. Skill levels or not, they were simple enough that there was no reason not to work on them.

Two hours and another shower later, he collapsed onto his couch with a banana in hand and turned on his television in an effort to relax and learn a little more about the world that he despised. The noise might help him relax if nothing else.

Scott flipped through the channels for a while until he discovered a new presidential address about the dream world and tax reforms. He pointed his half-eaten banana at the screen. "Seriously, it hasn't even been a month! It's bad enough you asshats tax citizens working in foreign countries, but now you want to tax our dreams, too?"

His blood pressure rose a bit, but soon the moron-in-chief left the podium. The newscasters babbled on for a moment while they tried to hype the speech which was made. "Always the same. News has to be sensational or they just won't tell it."

One would think that a presidential address to the nation would be newsworthy in and of itself, but no. The mainstream media needed a play-by-play with stats and guest stars discussing the speech in order for it to be newsworthy.

"Just one time I'd like to see something on the news that isn't expected," muttered Scott.

Almost as though life decided to answer his bitching mannerisms, the newscaster in charge of babbling about the presidential address left the screen and a news anchor appeared. They spoke briefly about the speech then moved on to a new topic.

Scott tilted his head slightly as the silhouette of an incredibly well-toned and buxom woman appeared onscreen. The news anchor spoke up, "Recently in a small North Carolina town a rash of criminal activities has been thwarted by the timely arrival of a mysterious woman clad in red."

He snickered a little when a man with a shaggy beard appeared onscreen to speak on the matter. The shaggy-bearded man said, "Was the *bleep*-est thing I ever saw. There I was walking home from work last night and a couple of guys wearing bandanas on their faces attacked me. Thought I was dead, but then she popped up..."

"Did she give you a name?" asked the reporter in a slightly aggressive manner.

"No, she beat the ever-loving snot out of those guys then told me 'Never fear citizen! I have arrived!'" said the man.

"She said that?" asked the reporter in a slightly incredulous manner. "What did you say?"

"Man, I couldn't say anything. She wore this skin tight red outfit and bounced all over the place doing back flips and acting like some sort of ninja. There were no words to really say to any of it..." said the shaggy man.

"Can you describe your savior?" pressed the reporter.

"Well, it was dark and she was sort of covered head to toe... all in red with a mask that looked a little like a bird," said the man. "Oh and she was fit, man, like one of them comic book super girls."

"So, she was fit?" asked the reporter. "You seem pretty sure she was a woman."

"If you'd seen her you wouldn't doubt it, either!" exclaimed the man, his eyes widening as he spoke. "She was like pow, and bam, and a-wooo!"

"A-wooo?" asked the reporter with a slight laugh.

"Yeah, made me want to howl a little when I saw her... Don't ask me why," said the shaggy man, his lips split in a wide grin.

The shaggy man threw back his head and howled, "A-wooo!" before he laughed uproariously. It was obvious that he would never forget his encounter.

"There you have it. She made him want to howl a little," said the reporter to the camera while he attempted to maintain a serious expression. He babbled something about his name and the news station that Scott cared nothing about and then the topic of the morning changed to something far less interesting.

Scott rubbed his nose a little then laughed in spite of himself. "This world gets stranger by the day."

Thoughts of an overly busty costumed super hero made him think of something else, his own frequent nocturnal visitor of unusually delightful proportions. "Right, my neighbor... Needed to go see if they like to bake cookies."

He dressed for work then headed out the door and over to the house next door. He rang the doorbell a few times but no one answered. Unsurprised by the turn of events, Scott said, "Well that's a mystery that won't be resolved, yet."

Back at his house, Scott sat down with the intent to spend a few hours trolling the Internet forums. There was no sign of information regarding his current location, even now. However, he did learn a bit about synergy. It seemed to be a rare skill, despite its usefulness.

"So, need to boost charisma to have better utility with it," he said. "Makes sense then that it's so useful for me. Charisma's one of my highest stats."

He shut down his computer and started to make a little more breakfast as he was quite hungry for some reason. While he got his bacon and eggs ready his phone rang. He turned toward the sound then stared at the phone in a belligerent manner. “I turned you off. I know I turned you off...”

Scott sighed loudly then walked over and picked it up. He looked at the caller ID then groaned loudly. “Dammit...”

“Hello?” asked Scott in a tired voice.

“Hey! Scott... This is Ashton, you know from Archer’s?” spoke the upwardly inflected voice of his store team leader.

“Yes, I know of your works.” he replied in a mildly amused sounding bit of sarcasm.

Ashton laughed politely then said, “I know you weren't supposed to be here yet, and I hate to ask this... But we’ve had a call out.”

“Right...” he replied in a non-committal tone.

The STL made a cutesy noise then sweetly asked, “Do you think you could come in and takeover her shift? It’s only four hours...”

“Can I get Saturday off?” he asked. He knew damn well what her answer would be.

“Well, no... I don’t think so, but we could maybe let you go home early...” said the woman.

Scott frowned. He knew that meant that he would probably be asked to stay later just for asking. He hated that damned job. “Who called out?”

“Look, Scott... I know this is a problem... I’m sure you had plans, but I like... really need you,” she said in a cutesy and somewhat whiny tone.

He sighed. Honestly, he did not have much else to do today other than rest. Why did he not have other things to do, dammit? If only he had not just woken up.

“Fine, but you owe me...” he said in a tone that made it clear that he was not kidding.

“Ha. Ha. Of course! I’ll hook you up,” she replied in a perky and upwardly inflected voice.

“What am I doing, anyway?” he asked.

“Oh, just helping with a store walk-through and um... Oh! That new guest services team member I mentioned a while back will need to be trained on the register since she's taking over for someone else who called out...” she said.

“Ah, no problem then.” If that was what his day would be, then he no longer felt annoyed by the situation. It would be like being paid to do nothing but sit at the food court and eat overpriced snacks, or chat and walk around. It was almost like he was real management for a day... Which meant that he now knew exactly who called out. He grunted at the realization that the store's Front-End manager was foisting her work load off on him again. How a manager can get away with such things was beyond him, but that was the case.

“Really?” she asked with growing excitement.

“Yeah, but I am not going to stay late,” he replied.

“No. No. No! You won’t. Thank you for this,” said Ashton quickly. She followed it up with a slightly breathy sigh. "You're always there for me..."

“No problem, but I really do want to talk with you about getting off Saturday...” said Scott, his eyelid twitching slightly at the strangeness of her words.

“G-getting off...” she made a strange noise then cleared her throat that sounded strangely intriguing. “Uh, we can discuss Saturday later if you like...”

Scott’s left eyebrow rose in a confused arch. “Sure, we’ll discuss Saturday later...”

“Right, Saturday...” she said in a tone that was slightly more subdued.

There was an odd and awkward pause for a moment then Scott asked, “So, when should I come?”

Ashton coughed once then briefly spoke in a slightly high-pitched tone, “C-come? Uh! Oh yes... You’ll.. Yeah, you'll be scheduled from noon to four.”

“Are you alright?” asked Scott. She was coughing a lot, and had started to act a little odd even for her. Perhaps the way she spoke with him had something to do with her douchebag of a boyfriend and their recent altercation? Something had clearly happened since that time, as she acted quite strange throughout their conversation.

“Oh yeah, I’m totally fine. Just some recent... changes,” she said slowly.

"Changes?" he asked her curiously. "How recent?"

She laughed in a slightly nervous manner. "Overnight, it's nothing to worry about. I'm just a little fuzzy, I guess..."

"Fuzzy?" he asked.

She laughed nervously once more and released a strangled whimper that sounded akin to a strangely animalistic whine, much like one that a small puppy might give during a moment of discomfort. "Just a little..."

“Right then... So I’ll be there at noon,” he said.

“Great, I’ll see you soon,” she said in a far perkier tone.

“Sure...” said Scott in an awkward manner which lead to an equally awkward pause.

Eventually that moment passed. “Bye, Scott...” said Ashton in a slightly lonesome voice.

Scott’s face contorted a little as the awkwardness continued, “Bye...”

The call ended. Scott pulled the cell away from his ear and he stared at it for a moment. He tilted his head to the side then squinted one eye. “..The hell was with that conversation?”

He set his phone down then sighed. He might as well go ahead and get ready. He needed to be at work as soon as possible to pick up the slack. The only good thing about this turn of events was that he would definitely be sleepy enough to stay in the dream world for a while upon his return.

About an hour later he stood at the guest services desk at Archers. Bigness was on duty, but they had scheduled her team member to be off thirty minutes before the new girl was meant to come on duty. It was a typical, bullshit, scheduling oversight. So, he was forced to endure the constant complaints of store guests.

Scott did not mind people with legitimate questions and realistic complaints. However, he drew the line when he was forced to deal with someone who demanded a refund for an item purchased eight months prior. He had not been impressed with her excuse that it was a birthday present purchased and held aside till it was time to give it. How was that the store’s fault?

There was a forty-five day return policy with a receipt available. If no receipt was available the buyer might still get money back if they used a debit card that could be tracked in the system, and the item had not been completely removed from the shelves.

He called Bigness over to deal with the woman, and after a few minutes she passed it up to the Front-End team leader. As luck would have it, she gave the job back to Scott since the front-end manager was who he replaced during those few hours. Either way, the end result was that after eight months the item was not even stocked in the store anymore.

Eventually, everything settled down and the new girl arrived. Scott blinked when she made her presence known. He had never seen a girl who looked that pretty before. Even Jackie might not manage to outdo the new girl in raw prettiness and that was a hard pill to swallow. The warrior chef was without a doubt the most stunning woman he'd ever met in his life, until now. Her beauty, when he admitted it honestly, would shame all of Hollywood.

Scott shook his head slowly to try and get his brain to reboot. When real life girls looked better than fantasy warrior maidens, something was definitely odd about the world. He wouldn’t claim to have fallen in love at first sight or anything, but he would readily admit to himself that he had to fight hard to keep himself from blushing upon seeing her.

“Hello! My name is Shara.” The absurdly pretty red-haired girl stuck out her hand, and offered him a heartfelt smile.

Scott fought down an urge to kiss her finger and swear his undying fealty. It was a truly surreal moment. He did manage to get ahold of himself after a sincere struggle, however. He swallowed hard and then coughed once. “Yes... Nice to meet you, I’m Scott.”

She smiled once again then placed a finger up to her fashionable glasses and pressed them back slightly. “It is really nice to see you, Scott.”

“Thanks...” he said softly. He blinked twice then shook his head. He had to stop staring, dammit. He was being ridiculous.

Shara tilted her head to the side then slipped over and stood next to him. “So. What do we do now, Scott?”

He looked up and noticed that five male team members were peeking at them from around the dollar aisle. The dollar aisle, as the name stated, was a section of the store where items were sold for one dollar each. It was an impulse buy section, but it constantly needed maintenance so there was usually at least one person assigned to straighten it every few hours.

“We need to learn you how to use a cash register,” he said while attempting to sound managerial. It was a hard thing to accomplish at the moment.

She giggled gently then nodded. “Learn me then, Scott.”

Scott started to laugh at his own poor grammar then blinked. He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eyes. Her giggle had a strangely familiar quality, but he was not certain why. In fact, she was quite familiar in other ways as well. She reminded him of someone, but unfortunately her overall presence caused his brain to go blank whenever he tried to figure out who that might be.

“Right...” he said in a noncommittal manner.

After Bigness came back around to man the desk, he took Shara over to one of the back registers in order to train. The peeking team members rotated so that they could watch. He could hear them gossiping and making comments that were not entirely appropriate in the work place. Scott did not blame them, though. Shara was not exactly within the boundaries of the normal new team member.

“Alright... We have a training manual here.” He pulled the training manual for the cash register out then started to show her various things.

Roughly ten minutes later she had somehow mastered the basics of being a cashier. Scott nodded at her as her hands moved steadily through the process of scanning, bagging, and totaling items. It was easy work, but he usually needed to repeat himself several times and let the new team member read the book for half an hour before they were comfortable. Shara was a first time, go.

“So. Is this all I do, Scott?” she asked him gently.

“No, you have to learn the guest services desk, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. We had a cashier call-out, so you’ll be over here ringing up guests for the rest of your shift,” said Scott.

She nodded lightly then smiled at him in a casual and friendly manner. Her smile was both pleasant and unnerving to Scott. It was overly familiar, like the sort of smile that only old friends would share with each other. “OK, I can do that, Scott.”

He smiled at her tentatively then said, “You like to say my name, a lot.”

She smiled brightly at him then leaned forward to invade his personal space a little. “Yes. It's my favorite thing.”

He fought down a blush once more and cursed himself internally. He had not had reactions like that in longer than he could remember. What was with this girl? Scott forced himself to try to at least pretend to be professional. “Do you have any questions?”

She tilted her head to the side then narrowed her eyes. She gazed at him intensely for a moment then asked, “Does your family have a history of heart disease, Scott?”

He blinked at her then laughed a little. “Well, that was a bit random... No, not that I know of...”

Her smile brightened considerably and she pressed her glasses back once more. “That’s good to know.”

“Why would you even want to know that?” Scott asked her nervously. He hated what this weirdly beautiful girl was doing to him. Why did she act so familiar with him?

She giggled once more then shook her head. “It’s not that important.... Say, Scott, can I ask another question?”

“Is it about being a cashier?” he asked her.

Shara shook her head slowly. Her ponytail slipped from side to side.

“Uh... We should keep questions related to work stuff...” said Scott with great effort.

She pouted at him slightly. “I suppose...”

“Why do you want to ask me things like that?” He immediately felt like a jerk for making her seem sad. Once he realized that fact he wanted to slap himself and calm his hormones or whatever was making him act like a fourteen year old boy around this girl.

“An innocent mild-mannered shop keeper should get to know her co-workers,” replied Shara.

Scott laughed at her answer. “That’s a good reason, I guess.”

Shara stepped closer to him and smiled sweetly. “Yes, very good...”

“I... I’ve never heard someone refer to themselves as mild-mannered like that,” said Scott. He was reaching for any sort of avenue to get out of this situation without sounding like a jerk. The girl was far too familiar and intense with him. It was unnerving.

Shara laughed gently then casually said, “Proper early characterization of recurring characters is important for any good storyline, especially when they are meant to be one of the romantic leads.”

“Is it?” Scott laughed softly in response as well. He then took a fairly obvious and lengthy step back from the girl. She was certainly beautiful, but something about her seemed a bit off.

Shara pressed her glasses back once more then bit her lower lip. She acquired a sweet and slightly nervous expression. “Oh yes, Scott... I think so.”

His left eyelid began to twitch a little and he made a short yelping noise when she stepped closer and smiled at him once more. What was up with this girl? She was... He did not even know what to think of her. This was a situation outside of his life experience and it showed.

He chose to look anywhere but at her, and could not help but notice that six male employees had gathered near one of the back cash registers. "What's all this then?" asked Scott to the gathered group.

The employees turned to him with sour expressions, and more than one seemed like they wanted to say something. Thankfully, the backroom department manager arrived not long after Scott did.

The balding older man took in the sight of the new arrival then shook his head to clear his mind a bit then called out to his team. "We have a truck."

For a moment, it seemed like the employees would refuse to leave, but reluctantly they began to peel off one by one and head to the back. Left alone with the new girl, Scott offered her a warm approximation of a smile. "We're a friendly lot..."

"Well, I do like making friends..." said the girl. She offered him a warm smile and leaned in close to him in such a way that nearly caused him to take another step back. There was something about the girl that was completely disarming and yet alarming at the same time.

"That's good..." he said, "I look forward to working with you."

Her smile never wavered. "My name is Shara..."

"Shara?" asked Scott. Didn't he already know that?

Something about the name seemed familiar, but not as familiar as she appeared. Even so, it did not matter. She pressed in closer, her body lightly pressed to his and then nodded. "I'm new here, so please take care of me, Scott..."

"Ah... yes," he said with a slight nod of his head. The scent of her perfume caused him to breathe heavily due to its intoxicating effect.

Whatever he might had said after that was ruined by a sudden influx of hateful commentary inside his mind.

One voice called out, "Degenerate low life. Stop groping her with your eyes. She only wants to make new friends."

"She smells like my kind of rape," muttered another hateful voice.

Scott closed his eyes tightly and fought the voices for a moment. When he opened them, Shara remained in place only a hair's breadth from his face.

"Uh, hey..." said Scott awkwardly.

"Hi..." said Shara with a soft little giggle. However, she refused to back away in the slightest.