Zack finally caught up with Sophie.

She'd come to a stop in the middle of a wooded park, and Zack, not wanting to scare her, approached her slowly and quietly from behind. He was aiming to gently tap her on the shoulder and talk to her about what had happened. What she did next completely surprised him.

Zack came up about a foot away from Sophie. He reached to tap on her shoulder. "Sophie--"

She whipped around and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing into his chest. Zack's cheeks flushed red, and he didn't know whether to hug her back or just stand there with his arms held up in awkwardness. He tentatively lowered his arms and put them around Sophie, his stomach flipping and doing all sorts of crap that he knew was a flirtatious reaction to Sophie.

"Hey...it's...it's okay," Zack stammered.

"No it's not!" Sophie bawled, her voice muffled by Zack's chest. Zack swallowed; his mouth had run dry, and it was getting drier every second Sophie kept her arms around him.

"Sophie," he said shakily, "I hate to be Norbert the Negative, but it's only going to get worse from here. You'll have to learn to...to...ah...to, you know, keep a calm...a calm air."

Sophie looked up at Zack, her large green eyes bloodshot and her cheeks red and wet from tears. She drew in a deep breath. "I'll...I'll try." Zack's cheeks burned even more. His heart fluttered when Sophie locked eyes with him; those huge orbs of green were easy to get lost in. Her voice, even though he'd heard it before, was melodious and addicting, and he longed to hear more of it. Her hair was wavy and blonde and it shined like pure gold when the light hit it just right. And her freckles...well, Zack thought they were the most adorable thing he'd ever laid eyes on.

Sophie's cheeks flushed and she looked down. She coughed awkwardly and hastily let go of Zack. Zack coughed into his hand and ran his hand through his hair. "Ahem...um...so..."

Sophie rubbed her arm and wiped away her tears. "Um...s-sorry," she mumbled.

"For what?" Zack asked incredulously.

Sophie looked up at him and her cheeks turned red again. "You...you didn't....you...for hugging you."

"You're sorry about that?"

"You didn't mind?"

"Of course not!" Zack cleared his throat. "Ahm...I mean...no, no I didn't. Um, because, you know, everyone needs a hug now and then." His ears burned.

Sophie managed a crooked grin, which made Zack's entire chest hurt. "Right," she scoffed, but good-naturedly. Zack couldn't resist the urge to smile. Then Sophie turned around and began walking.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Home! We wanna get this figured out, right?"

----

Zack sipped on the straw of his soda. He and Sophie sat at a table in a McDonald's. It was evening now, and they'd been searching various Mavian websites for help on "permanently disabling demon-possesed computers".

Well, actually, take it back when I say "he and Sophie", dear reader. Zack was sipping on a highly caffeinated soda while Sophie slept, her head on his shoulder. Zack had gotten used to her touching him by now, but still his heart would flutter every now and then.

Zack clicked on a link. Suddenly the lights in the McDonald's flickered. Zack looked up, and saw a dark shape shoot past the window. "Oh no...Sophie!" Zack hissed. He gently shook her shoulder. "Wake up!" Sophie mumbled something in her sleep. "Um, Sophie, seriously, you kinda need to wake up..." Sophie snored on, oblivious. Zack sighed angrily and rolled his eyes. Why me?! He waved a French fry under Sophie's nose. That woke her up.

"Mm...what? Zack, I had this weird dream...something about French fries...."

Just then a huge monster made entirely of shadows crashed through the wall, roaring at the top of its lungs. Restaurant workers screamed. Sophie looked at the creature blankly, then fainted, falling face first into Zack's burger. Zack slammed his hand into his face. The creature looked at him, its bulbous, milky white eyes looking over him. It growled.

Zack would have loved to describe the creature, but he couldn't for two very important reasons.

1: The creature was more of a giant amoeba, constantly changing shape and floating through tangible objects.

2: Zack was already running out the giant hole in the wall with Sophie in his arms, and so getting a close look at the thing was not on his schedule of things to do while being chased by bloodthirsty, man eating monsters bent on killing him specifically. Usually that schedule was entirely clogged by GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE!!!

Zack found Sophie's car, threw open the door, and laid her lengthwise across the middle row of seats. Then he slammed the door shut and hopped into the driver's seat. Things were going well until Zack realized that he needed a key to start the car.

He really wanted to kick himself right now.

He furiously dug through Sophie's bag and found her key ring.

Now for the somewhat important task of finding the car key.

By this time Zack had already mentally beaten himself to a pulp. He was not exactly having the greatest day. He shoved each key into the starter, looking out the window occasionally. The shadow-blob was slowly undulating its way through the sky toward Zack and Sophie like a floating mass of burned Jell-O.

Finally Zack found the key. He started the car and squealed out into the parking lot, the tires of the car burning rubber.

He'd been driving for about two minutes when a huge holographic dragon materialized in front of the car. Zack swerved it and kept on driving. Then another shadow-blob appeared, turned itself solid, and smashed the car from the front. Zack bailed out and grabbed Sophie, who was just starting to wake up. She caught a glimpse of the dragon and screamed as Zack pulled her out of the car just before the shadow-blob turned her into a Sophie-and-McDonald's-burger-and-marmalade-flavored pancake.

Zack and Sophie darted into the woods and ran through the brambles, tripping over logs that had magically appeared for the exact purpose of slowing the two down. Sophie looked at Zack while trying to avoid branches and monsters that popped up at random. "Well this sucks!"

Zack looked behind him, then gave Sophie a frantic and somewhat sheepish look. "This is kinda an off day for me; this doesn't usually happen!" he shouted back at her.

Sophie laughed in spite of herself. "You make this sound like an everyday occurrence!" she panted, punching another monster in the face as she ran.

"When you live on Mavia--" Zack grabbed a stick and stabbed a demon-thing in the eye. "--it is!"

Then a huge holographic dragon crashed through the trees in front of them and knocked Sophie to the ground, gashing her leg on a rock. Sophie cried out in pain and Zack leaped in front of her. "You're not killing any of my newly made friends today, you overgrown computer virus!" The dragon snarled and then flickered, folding its wings into a huge display that showed sound bars. A reedy voice echoed out of the screen--"Hahaha!"--and Zack stumbled backwards. Sophie shivered and struggled to get up. Pain flared up her leg and she yelped, falling down again. Zack caught her and she leaned against him.

The dragon-screen started talking again. "Zack Tsung, Sophie Carter," it chuckled. "What a lovely crossover! Two characters from different dimensions, joining together to defeat me! How sweet! And look at that...you two would make such a great pairing, too!" Sophie and Zack blushed in unison. The voice sighed. "Too bad the story isn't written that way."

"Shut up!" Zack yelled. "I rewrote my story!!!"

"Ah, but can you rewrite hers? I'd like to see you try. And I can tell you now: you can't save her and be with her in the end. I know you two are....mm, falling for each other. Ha! I'll write this the way I want, an alternate ending. I have a last message for you. Which is more important to you? Saving each other's planets, or falling in love and dying together while your entire worlds die too?"

The screen fizzeled out and the dragon disappeared. Sophie's stomach was turning. The...whatever that was, was telling her that she was going to fall in love with Zack.
Too late, it's already happened. And she suspected Zack felt the same way.

Sure enough: "She's right, Sophie. I...I do actually, um...I have a crush on you."

"Yeah, same here. High-five! We just sealed our certificate of death! Yay!" Sophie glared at the sky. I just met this guy and already I have a crush on him.

Zack shifted, then picked Sophie up in his arms. "Come on, we gotta get your leg bandaged," he said. "And let's try not to go beyond the friend zone so our end decision can be easier, alright?"

"Alright.... So I can't fall in love with you?"

"Nope."

"And you can't fall in love with me."

"Ditto."

"Okay then! Operation 'Save two dimensions and try not to fall in love and/or get killed' is under way!"

Zack laughed, carrying Sophie out of the woods. "I like your sense of humor," he commented. They stopped at the side of the road.

"Zack, you idiot, my car's destroyed!" Sophie laughed. "How am I gonna get home?!"

Zack pulled a box out of his bag and threw it onto the ground. It immediately transformed into a black Corvet. Zack loaded Sophie into the car and then got in himself before driving off.

"Nice ride," Sophie mumbled tiredly.

And then she fell asleep.