Insert Careless Victim of Murder Here (part 2 of 2)

It has been widely disputed what is the most appropriate range of time within which to consume breakfast. On one extreme, some people would say that it is impossible to develop an appetite as early as 6 am; on the other, there are those who would argue that past 9 am breakfast is no longer considered "breakfast" but rather "brunch". In any case, not once between 6 am and 9 am did John Boddy make an appearance downstairs to partake of sustenance.

He could not have been dreading the meal itself, because the vittles were quite good. A 'Full English Fry-Up' lay sprawled across the dining room table, consisting of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and mushrooms. At first Boddy's absence meant nothing to his guests, other than "More for me, less for you."

Only after Karissa had polished off several helpings of fried bread doused in syrup, in her seat next to Lily, whose plate displayed more variety – and remarkably more restraint – did she hear someone off to her side remark innocently, "Oh dear, where is Boddy this morning?"

It was Iris's voice that spoke, but nonetheless the entire breakfast tableau came to a halt, Agents and Sues alike.

The first to recover was Kelly. He resumed movement of his right hand to spread butter over the remainder of his rye toast. However, he said nothing.

"Perhaps he's feeling unwell," Rufous suggested in a snide tone. Once again he looked utterly flawless, although his alcoholism was still fresh in the Agents' memories of the night before.

"Spare me the theatrics! I don't buy the innocent act. What have you done with him?" Stephen resented the apathy that was so apparent on the Stu's features. More to the point, it was written clearly across his face how well-rested he was. How dare he flaunt the spectre of sleep before a man whose eye bags were so pronounced that, at the moment, even Lil' C would probably run from the sight!

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Rufous replied blandly.

Kyle's fist clenched, jerked forward, and then retreated, thankfully beneath the cover of the table the entire time. The Stu's smirk was damn smug – and it irked him – yet it suited Rufous well. Likely he wore that expression always, regardless of whether he was in the middle of a lie or not. His arrogance was not nearly a reliable indicator of guilt.

Meanwhile, Karissa was having similar difficulties in determining whether the Sues' reactions were, in fact, just an act. Remembering the first fundamental error she'd committed after yesterday's dinner, she'd since succumbed to doubt that she had the mindset necessary of a good detective. Moreover, when had she been pronounced capable of recognizing guilt in another person? She could detect Sueishness, yes, but not innocence or lack thereof. Tiffany and Amber certainly looked clueless. If she had to hazard a guess, she would say that those two weren't involved in this murder... if indeed murder had already been done.

Lily couldn't help but notice the instant that her teammates began to grow more hostile in their demeanours. With the idea of diffusing the enmity in the room, she prepared a kick under the table to draw any – or all – attention to herself, but Karissa beat her to the goal and with different methods. Her friend abruptly pushed her chair back with a harsh shriek of wood on wood, and without a word, she dashed from the Dining Room. Lily thought she might be headed upstairs.

Unaccountably worried by this turn of events, she pushed against her own chair carefully, so as not to recreate the same discordant noise. "Please excuse me from the table," she said quietly. Kelly made to rise from his seat too, in an antiquated but charming gesture of respect, but she insisted against it. "There's no need for that. Not from you, at least," she added, as the other Agents stood to leave the table after her.

"Don't mind us. Of course we'll stay put right here while you go off and hold your conference," Iris simpered

Kyle said boldly, "Yes, you will." In reality, he had no method of enforcing his statement – not with all his weapons confiscated, and he'd only thrown a steak knife into his Astral Vault when no one was looking – but Iris didn't need to know that. For all she knew, he had a gadget that would stop her time. Charis was always churning out new devices.

Lily examined the Sues' still-full plates and decided that Kyle didn't need to bluff quite so forcefully. They might really continue to hang about the table if only to finish their breakfasts.

In any case, the Agents put some distance between themselves and the Dining Room, until they were all gathered in a huddle before the house's grand stairs. "Déjà vu," Lily murmured imperceptibly. No one really took notice of her utterance.

"If the fall of her steps is anything to go by, she ran all the way up to the third floor," Stephen suggested to the group. "She's stopped running now."

"Let's follow her."

Kyle had led the charge just past the second floor when all of a sudden the Agents heard a loud crashing sound from above. "Karissa!" They picked up their pace and rounded the curve of the banister to come in sight of the third floor. Front and centre in their line of vision was the master bedroom that occupied most of the floor. However, in the space where Boddy's bedroom door must once have been, there was no longer a door anymore. That piece was on the floor, minus part of the lock that had come unattached from the door. As well, a long piece of the door frame around the lock area had almost completely splintered off. It seemed clear that the door had been kicked in with quite tremendous force.

"Karissa?" Lily looked into the room and spotted her friend standing stock-still in the middle of a carpeted expanse. "Are you okay? This is your handiwork, isn't it? Why did you break down Boddy's door?"

"It was locked," Karissa replied, her posture barely changing as viewed from behind. "I'm sure that there were neater ways to remove the door, but I was in a hurry." She finally turned to face them, and she looked devastated. "Guys, Boddy's not here. Is he still among the living or isn't he?"

Kyle moved into the room to join the others. "It doesn't appear that Boddy's bed was slept in," he observed. "The covers still have their hospital corners and the top sheet was never folded up. See?" He demonstrated. "In the general area, there's an absence of the items that I would expect to see a man use prior to turning in for the night. Also, I would point out that his dressing gown hangs untouched on its hook, and his carpet slippers sit undisturbed under that shelf."

As Kyle was speaking, Stephen had gravitated towards a solid wooden wardrobe that sat in the corner of the room. Grabbing hold of its handles, he took a quick look inside. "His dinner clothes aren't present anywhere among these coat hangers," he reported.

Kyle took a deep breath and asked them all to account for their movements between twilight and the present hour.

Karissa offered to speak first. "After turning Kelly over to your care, I was just around the corner and out in the hallway all night. I only budged once past dawn, to take advantage of the amenities offered by the washroom. That break took me half an hour."

"Was showering for half an hour really necessary?" Kyle asked, bemused.

"Well, I had to change my clothes too!" In expressing exasperation, Karissa lost some of her despondency. "Was I the only one unable to determine how to unequip my dressphere? I guess so."

Lily was embarrassed to admit that she'd actually benefited from the comfort of her bed during the night. However, she still made a contribution to the discussion. "Occasionally I'm an early riser, and this morning I woke and was going to head below prematurely. I must have stepped into the hall only a minute after Karissa left, but instinct told me to linger, and so I was on guard until she came back. The hallway couldn't have been unattended for very long."

Kyle and Stephen were able to verify each other's alibis down to the last second, and they'd both seen the Stus go down to breakfast before themselves. Karissa had seen Amber walk down ahead of herself, and Lily had herded her neighbours Tiffany and Iris down the steps. "It's getting to be annoying that this place has so many staircases," Lily complained. "Karissa and I were going to descend together, but our 'charges' chose to go their separate ways. Imagine if the Sues got into the house's secret passages! We haven't accounted for those exits, and they'd be like mice in the woodwork."

This verbal reminder of the manor's not-so-secret passages visibly disturbed Kyle. "Isn't there also a servant's staircase somewhere hereabout? We should have been monitoring every possible route in and out of the more notable rooms from the start."

"Speaking of servants, who prepared the food earlier? Are there more flesh and blood bodies inside the house?" Stephen became overly excited at the idea that they might have overlooked something so important.

"Let me stop you right there," Karissa spoke slowly as she deliberated. "Seeing as Mrs. White is dead, such details as cooked food, clean linens and made-up beds can most likely be attributed to ordinary plotholes. Sorry, Stephen, but I wouldn't bother looking into the matter."

If they were to work from the assumption that Boddy had, by now, been killed then the logical next step would be to split up in a search for his corpse, which would provide irrefutable evidence of the fact. Together they checked what was left of the third floor. Besides Boddy's room, there were women's baths down one corridor and men's baths down another. Karissa could not shake the feeling that something terrible would happen as she and Lily investigated the showers, but no horror movie clichés came to life in that time, and so they left the space unharmed.

With the search of the third floor done, Lily and Stephen separated from the group with the intent to ransack the downstairs rooms, even the unnamed ones. They noted with no little concern that the Sues seemed somewhat smug whenever they would catch a glimpse of the Dining Room in passing. Simultaneously, Karissa and Kyle made reasonably thorough inspections of each of the second floor rooms, all of which now boasted free entry.

Karissa stuck her head past the jamb of one of the doors that had troubled her the night before. She saw the shape of a dressphere sitting on the bedside table, and beside it – looking quite incongruous – a Nintendo DS plugged in to charge. So this room, which had previously been locked, had been Lily's. That meant that the formerly locked room sandwiched between her own room and this one must have belonged to Iris. She didn't know how relevant these details might prove to be, but she mapped them to her memory all the same. Once she had ascertained that no clear cadaver lay in the vicinity, Karissa withdrew. She met Kyle coming out of Stephen's room with a grim visage. "Have you found something?" she asked him.

All of a sudden he was eying her warily. "Are you sure that Boddy had the opportunity to return to his room after pouring drinks for everyone in the Study?"

"What do you mean? I heard his voice issue from inside his room. I-I spoke to him, and he spoke back to me!" Karissa was bewildered by this line of questioning. What was Kyle trying to get at? "He inhabited his bedroom at least as early as five past twelve, and within the few minutes following that we had each and every Sue accounted for."

Kyle regarded her silently, but he did not behave as if he had been satisfied by her responses. "Let's survey the hidden passageways and then reconvene with the others."

T_T_T_T_T

Lily passed by the Library for the second time as she patrolled the ground floor of Tudor Mansion looking for a corpse. On her last circuit all five Sues had still been in the Dining Room. Now she came up against Kelly in the hall, with Iris and Rufous at his back.

The younger Stu flashed a smile at her, as he approached sedately. "There you are, miss. If you're done with the third floor, I was wondering if I could be allowed use of the bathroom."

Lily waited pointedly, but it appeared that Iris and Rufous were not going to ask permission for themselves. "All three of you would like to go upstairs then?"

"Yes, please."

"I suppose that would be fine. We found nothing up there, anyway." Lily stared narrowly at each of the Sues, looking for some expression of conscience in the eyes of the guilty party, but either none of these three were the killer or else the corpse really wasn't hidden on the third floor.

At that moment Stephen joined up with them, leaving off his counterclockwise tour of the house, whereas Lily had been patrolling in a clockwise direction. He warned the Sues, "Don't stray from your path to the showers, or else Karissa and Kyle will catch you. They're still prowling the second floor."

"Will do." Kelly's smile had taken on a mocking aspect. He really disliked the presence of the guys, Lily realized. As the Sues ascended the stairs, she and Stephen shared an unspoken thought, and they both cut behind the foot of the staircase to reach the Dining Room sooner. Tiffany and Amber were still inside. She began to breathe a sigh of relief, until she noticed that everyone's dishes were gone and the two Sues had switched seats with each other. Had they left the room once before she and Stephen arrived, during the time that their elders were providing the Agents with a distraction?

"I'm sorry that you all left food on your plates, but I prescribe to the notion that once a person has departed from the table, they are not only done eating but they are done dining as well."

Lily whirled around to face Iris. "I thought you were showering–?"

"Assumptions are dangerous things to make. I merely felt the need to cleanse my hands after breakfast."

"If that was all, why not do that downstairs?" Stephen demanded furiously.

"I didn't care to."

Before Stephen could further engage Iris in a verbal sparring match, the sound of sliding wood drew everyone's attention to one of the room's two doors. The open door lined up with another leading into the Lounge, and those with the best view could witness Karissa and Kyle climb up out of the floor, having pushed aside a trapdoor to make room for their heads.

"Hel-lo! Have you made any deductions yet, Sherlocks?" Stephen's tone was chipper, but he was envious that he'd not had the chance to explore beneath the mansion himself.

"I'm pretty sure that Boddy is dead," Kyle said, as they drew closer.

"How can you be sure? We found no body."

"We found no Boddy," Kyle quipped back effortlessly.

"Har de har har." Now Stephen's voice let on that he was most unamused. "If that is truly your opinion, then what shall be our next course of action?"

"I haven't thought of it yet."

"I've had an idea. Let's make a Suggestion to the Sues."

Iris arched an incredulous brow. "Are we beginning this already? You just confessed that you've not even found a body yet. Playing by the rules is too hard for you? How pathetic."

"I think that the pot is calling the kettle black," Kyle began, but Stephen cut him short.

"I don't care what you think, Iris! I just want to get this over with." With a sneaky grin, he pushed past Kyle and Karissa to step foot in the Lounge from which they'd left. He rushed, "I suggest that Tiffany killed Boddy in the Lounge with a Knife!" Although the girls looked at him expectantly, it seemed that something – apart from their reactions – had disappointed him. "I thought that Tiffany might be teleported to this spot instantly," he explained, with some lingering hope that the phenomenon would yet occur.

"I think that would be asking for too much," Lily broke it to him gently.

"The fandom's struggling to retain some sense of realism. We can summon the Sues to different rooms, but we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, that's all," Karissa added.

Despite their reassurances, Stephen was well put-out as he returned to the room. His behaviour caused Iris to laugh out loud, sounding very much like the repeated peals of a delicate silver bell. "Oh, that was most amusing, Agent. For that reason alone, I will offer you a throwaway. There won't be any penalties for this one guess you've made. However, beyond this point, remember the counsel that I gave you – 'I wouldn't recommend guessing blindly until you think you can eliminate us all, because I warn you that there will be consequences.'"

Yes, Karissa thought, she had emphatically warned them against pointing fingers too freely. The longer she thought about that fact, the more inclined she was to acknowledge a nagging suspicion at the periphery of her consciousness. Simply put, she was unconvinced that the rules of the board game were being strictly enforced within the fandom. According to the instruction manual, the only consequence of posing a Suggestion was that the other players must then disprove the Suggestion, if they can. If the players had anything to be wary of, it was rather more likely to be the undertaking of an Accusation. Yet Iris's threats were only valid if the rules had been altered...

"Did we miss anything?" The rearrival of Kelly and Rufous broke Karissa's train of thought.

"The Agents have given in and are making Suggestions," Amber informed them. She reminded Karissa of a student who had just answered a question posed by a teacher and expected due reward.

The incoming Sues entered the Dining Room and made for their previous seats, but Karissa stubbornly put a hand over the back of Kelly's chair before he could reach it. She put her other hand on top of the cleared table and brought her hands together, bringing the chair flush against the table's edge. Perhaps she thought that refusing the Stu his seat would cause him some discomfort, but he only smiled at her. Of course. Overly perfect beings would not be defeated by the mere task of being asked to stand on their feet, even if the chore required the entire day.

"Will they guess again then?"

"Don't mind if I do. I suggest that Tiffany killed Boddy in the Lounge with a Knife, same as before," Stephen declared. "Iris, you laughed at me, but you refused to tell me if I was right or wrong in any of my facts. My intuition tells me that I've struck a nerve with you."

"What foolishness. A man's intuition counts for nothing. Why would you choose–?"

"Why Tiffany?" Surprisingly, Karissa found herself finishing Iris's statement of disbelief. "I thought it improbable that the girls were responsible for this event." She wasn't consciously aware if she was playing the Devil's advocate or simply expressing an opinion.

Stephen frowned in an indistinct manner. "Did the feminist movement never happen?"

"Oh, I know that females are as capable of murder as males. I only meant that Tiffany is one of the weakest Sues–"

"Ergo, disposable."

"–and she was drunk."

"Could it be that she's an actress?"

"Our drunkard slept pretty soundly," Kyle interjected. "Suppose that she wasn't faking it. How could she move about in her condition?"

"If her state of intoxication was slightly less than we suspected, she still would have been able to navigate the house – even stumbling – by virtue of her unlocked door."

"An inebriated Sue sounds like a noisy one. I thought Karissa was guarding that branch of the hallway. She'd look into any disturbances."

"I went to the washroom at daybreak," Karissa reminded Kyle hesitantly, albeit without any shame on her part.

"Aha!" Stephen added quite unnecessarily.

As if he were refereeing a sports match, Kelly said aloud, "Point." The other Sues had been keeping pace with every exchange of arguments – heads whipping back and forth much like the spectators at a game of tennis – so perhaps the metaphor was accurate.

Lily asked with total sincerity, "Why the Lounge? Its distance from the Study is the entire width of the house. It's not impossible that Boddy was killed there, but there are many rooms that are equally likely."

"Since we haven't found a body aboveground, it must be hidden in one of the hidden passageways belowground. There are secret passages connecting the Lounge to the Conservatory and the Study to the Kitchen, but obviously the murder could not have been committed in the Study because the majority of us were inside it for a time."

"Obviously, if there was a corpse in the secret passage, Karissa and I would have found it when we were wandering beneath the floor, don't you think?" Kyle reminded Stephen patiently.

"Point," Kelly intoned a second time.

"Why the Knife?"

"Aren't knives considered a woman's weapon?"

"Whom did you hear that from, Stephen?" Karissa asked in astonishment. "It's much too easy for a physically dominant man to wrench a knife away from a woman. Most homicides committed by women involve a gun – if possible, she'll use the man's own gun for the irony of it."

Tiffany glanced at her with delight. "Are you unhappy with someone at home then?" she asked, borderline maliciously.

Karissa stiffened, but she did not flush, and she snapped, "I read a lot," with barely a pause. In the course of looking away from Tiffany, her eyes swung round and caught Kelly's by accident, just as he smiled a third time.

"Point."

"I'm afraid that you lose, 'Detective Inspector' Agent. None of your guesses were at all correct." Iris gloated as if she'd invented the action herself.

"What? Your man there awarded me three points," Stephen yelled in indignation. "I heard each one of his words directed at me."

"Sorry, they were meant to be thrown in my direction." Iris pouted at Kelly. "Although your speculations were logical enough, none were the truth. And in the eyes of the law, I would say that constitutes slander. All in all, I think this situation calls for some Karma."

Bright, violet light erupted around Stephen – briefly casting him a second shadow – and though it pained them to look away from their friend, the other Agents felt that they had to raise various barriers in order to shield their eyes, or else be blinded. When next they looked upon the spot where Stephen had stood, he'd vanished.

"Iris, what have you done with him?" Kyle reacted angrily.

"'If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?'" When he gave no response, Iris elaborated on her use of quotation. "Thomas Carlyle. Are none of you familiar with him? I quite enjoyed his essay 'Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question'. If we had been able to commission him for a paper on Mary-Sues, I've no doubt we could have distributed pamphlets with the end product."

"Again, I will ask you: What. Have. You. Done. With. Stephen."

"Whenever you Agents attempt to target one of us with the exploit of lies, Karma will deliver the appropriate retribution." Iris held up an object that was not unlike a teapot in description – that is, it too was short and stout – but there any further similarity ended. "I'm not at all sure that we have the proper name for this device, but you must understand that our communications with Sirahc were broken off after your worthless Society destroyed the much worthier Pro-Cliché and Mary-Sue Protection Society."

"What effect does Karma have?" Lily was adamant that they be told.

"As per Buddhist teachings, 'for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first.' The Agent's dialogue was motivated by a desire to apprehend one or all of us without cause, so for him an unpleasant consequence was due." Rufous's voice remained totally level as he spoke, belying the fact that he might have disliked Stephen every bit as much as the Agent had disliked him. "He will doubtless be reliving one of his worst experiences even as we speak."

T_T_T_T_T

"HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE."

T_T_T_T_T

Karissa couldn't type fast enough as she dialled the numbers leading to the Society Leader's extension on her Communicator. After three rings, she was met with voicemail. She frowned. "Hello, Tash? This is Karissa. I need you to run a Search and Rescue routine for Stephen using your Plot Summary. I'm afraid that he might have landed in the Twilight fandom again. Or else... he may have resumed his travels with Fred. Please call me back when you get this message." As soon as she hung up, Karissa attempted to contact Tash in another way. She sent her a text with much the same body of words. A few seconds later, her Communicator started to vibrate, indicating she'd received a response:

"Out-of-office auto reply: Thank you for submitting your request at this time. We at the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society are currently unable to deal with you because we've suddenly sighted a Sovereign in another fandom. Someone in the Monitor Room may still be monitoring your own mission, but no guarantees. We promise to move you up in the queue when we're able."

Having read the text twice – and still she couldn't hide her surprise – Karissa passed her Communicator to Lily, who in turn passed it to Kyle after she'd done, in the manner of a literal game of telephone. "Automatic replies? We've sunk to a new low," the latter Agent had to say. "If the others are too busy to keep tabs on our mission, I don't suppose they have anyone to spare who would be able to play back footage of this morning and simply tell us who the murderer is."

"No," Karissa and Kelly both responded to the rhetorical question at the same time.

"That's a pity."

Karissa also attempted to call her sister, but the busy signal that she heard on the other end seemed to indicate that Charis had since become involved in the big emergency as well. She hung up on the call only to return to a situation that could best be described as a Mexican standoff.

"Well, Agents? Would another one of you like to try your hand at defeating Karma?" Iris preened, holding the PCMSPS gadget like a trophy she was prepared to pose with.

"If Stephen's reasoning was sound in suggesting why Tiffany was a likely candidate for the murder, then Amber had equal access–" Kyle's confidence wavered when Lily began to shake her head dispiritedly.

"Amber is not at all assertive," she said plainly.

Tiffany scowled and linked hands with said Sue, who was given no chance to suffer injury before her self-esteem was buoyed up by the positive reassurance of her friend.

"We have to find the body then," Kyle exclaimed decisively. With a furtive movement in Karissa's direction, he added, "Only once we've found the body will we be able to efficiently estimate a time of death."

Iris tittered. "'Genius is the ability to evade work by doing something right the first time.' I expect that doesn't apply to you, Agents! We'll see you again later at lunch. Au revoir!"

"She only steals other people's quotes because she has nothing exceptional to say herself," Karissa opined. It was the nastiest thing she could think of to say before they had to leave the room, to contemplate where they might have gone wrong in their reconstruction of events. The Sues remained inside the Dining Room to further the illusion that the Agents were being sent in disgrace to banishment.

Insert Careless Victim of Murder Here (part 1 of 2)

The hits registered all at once.

"What the hell!"

In a tone as annoying as that used by any instant messaging program, the ACMSES surveillance system let the currently active Agents know that Sues had been found inside one or more fandoms.

Inara was one of the Agents on monitor duty tonight, and with her was the slightly more senior Charis (this was true in terms of age as well as experience). Ever since Charis had begun accepting missions, she'd also been added to the rotations for watch of the Society's computers (on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10pm to 12am PDT) and guarding the basement (every weekend, from 1pm to 5pm PDT). Nowadays she had much to occupy her time with, outside of her lab, and she'd been trying to slowly build up a resistance to her claustrophobia in order that she could move around in the Library with less difficulty.

In line with this effort, she'd been putting herself through breathing retraining. She'd been reclined in a half-lying position, trying not to move as she alternated between breathing in and out – with short pauses in between – when the sudden disturbance caused by the computers made her eyes fairly fly open in alarm. Inara was quick on her feet, and she silenced the noise coming through the speakers straight away. As Charis took a moment to reclaim her dignity, Inara's fingers flew over the nearest keyboard in a time-saving pattern that the head technician had shown her just earlier.

"I've got this," Inara said confidently. In response to the commands she keyed in, white windows appeared and fought for space within the confines of the screen, until they were tiled in a rough 3 by 2 line-up. There were five Sues, all in the same fandom.

"The fandom's name is Clue." Inara abandoned the computer to Charis as she pulled out her communicator to reach Michael. "Michael, this is Inara calling from the monitor room. We've Sues loose in Clue."

"...try saying that ten times fast."

T_T_T_T_T

The exterior of the Boddy mansion was that of your typical English country house - which should mean nothing to the readers. After all, the term can encompass vast country palaces and comparatively small country houses, as well as anything in between the two extremes.

Using superior description, the appearance of the Boddy mansion could be better described in one word: eerie. Of no concern to the Agents were the style of architecture, the size, the number of various bay and picture windows, or the impressively tall hedges surrounding the habitation. What did matter were the weather (a fine mist of rain), the near-complete darkness that had accompanied nightfall, and the shadows that the house lights created on all sides of the garden.

After a long trek in the dark, you would think that a lit-up home would seem welcoming. Instead, the sight of Tudor Mansion made one aware that its lights were the only illumination for miles around. Once the Agents entered, they would surely be cut off from any outside help. The group – four of them – hesitated before the grand front doors, but after one look of false confidence led to another, bolstering everyone's spirits collectively, the first of them grabbed the ring of the door knocker and let it swing.

T_T_T_T_T

It was Karissa who stood directly in front of the door, and so it was her who John Boddy – known by the locals as Dr. Black – immediately addressed.

"Welcome, my dear guests, to Tudor Mansion. I was almost afraid you wouldn't be joining us tonight."

Karissa's mouth dropped open, and then it closed. She opened it again to reply, "Well, here we are now." So Boddy had been expecting them. That was unusual. The Agents had expected that they'd have to provide a cover story, something like a car that had broken down on the road, in order to be let inside.

"This is horrible weather, isn't it? I almost prefer it whenever we're told to expect a drought." Boddy smiled crookedly. "Won't you please come in from the rain? Your friends should like that too." He stepped back from the doorway to admit them, and a bemused Karissa moved forward; after her followed Lily, Stephen and Kyle.

Earlier in the Library – once he'd ceased all silliness – Michael had attempted to run an advanced search for 'Clue' in the list of fandoms that certain Agents claimed comprehensive knowledge of. He'd hit a dead end with that. He'd known he didn't have the time to be picky in the choice of team, given the number of Sues to deal with, but he hadn't exactly wanted to pick Agents off a directory at random. Just as he'd been resigned to do just that, he'd remembered a day when all the power had gone out in the Library. Don't ask how. In the spirit of a blackout, work was abandoned, candles had been lit, and boardgames had been excavated from the backs of closets. One group of Agents had been coerced into playing Cluedo (as it's known outside of North America). It had turned out that... Karissa, yes, her, she was singularly talented at the game, but she'd deceived three others by pretending she'd never played before. Her competitors had been... Lily... Stephen... and... Kyle. In that order, he'd called the others to his office; by that method, he'd chosen the Agents for this mission.

Karissa was no stranger to working with her friend Lily, but this would be first time she'd worked closely with either Stephen or Kyle. The group shuffled in their shoes over the doormat, shook some of the moisture from their coats, and then proceeded to stare as soon as they were able. Boddy was perfectly content to let them gawk for a moment or two.

They presently stood inside the Hall.

In anyone else's house, such a room would make up a living area. An electric fire burned artificially against the wall to their left, and other items in the room included some decorative plants, a tall grandfather clock, a table for the post, two china cabinets, and several marvellous paintings. Chairs were scattered about the room, and lamps or smaller tables stood by their sides like sentries. The rug on the floor was purple on blue in a design of repeated squares. Three doors – one single and one set – led from the room, and only these made clear that the Hall was decidedly a hall, as through the open doors the Agents could see...a lot of hallway. At least six other rooms. Stairs leading to another floor, and others possibly leading to a basement. A lot of hallway – sorry, was that already stated?

Kyle muttered something about rich people and lack of common sense.

Boddy acted as if he hadn't heard.

They were asked to leave their coats on a long wooden table that seemed unsuitable for the task – "They'll be put away later," – and in the absence of further instructions, Karissa began a path towards one of the doors.

"I'm sorry. There is one more thing I require of you." The Agents turned around at the clear, ringing words from Boddy's mouth. These two sentences had come out far more forcefully than anything he'd said before. "I must ask you to hand over every weapon that you might be carrying upon your persons." At the reaction displayed across each of their faces, he added hastily, "It would not be the first time that my guests have mistakenly overlooked the postscript on my letters. I ask people not to bring weapons so that it would become less likely for violence to be committed in this house." Boddy struggled to conceal a wry grin. "People feel surer of their personal safety if they are armed, but in my experience, a group of people all armed will tend to misunderstand each other. What was once the potential threat of physical harm is escalated to– well, the threat of murder. You wouldn't believe the events that occurred at my last little gathering."

In fact, after reading an insert included with most Clue games – on top of the instruction manual – the Agents were positive that they could believe an account of the tragedy that struck Boddy's last party. He'd died (for a short period of time).

They pulled out their weapons one at a time, according to the degree with which they had nothing to lose. Lily placed down a purely ornamental knife, knowing that the Pins on her bracelet wouldn't register as weapons unless she deliberately activated the psychs they contained. Stephen laid down a sword – a big sword – that Karissa had once teased him mercilessly about, but neither was he worried, because his secret psychic skills did not leave him defenceless. Karissa dithered for a long while, but eventually she removed Gekkou from its place inside her sash, albeit with obvious reluctance. Only Kyle made no discernable movement.

"I find it hard to believe that you're not holding out on me." Boddy met Kyle's stare with his own, and raised a sceptical brow.

Did he think that Boddy could detect the dozen plus weapons hiding inside his Astral Vault? No, Kyle didn't think so. His gaze deepened into an intimidating glare.

"Come now. Don't be like this. I can't let you proceed any farther until I know you're unarmed. I don't want any harm to come to my distinguished guests!" Boddy was well on his way to becoming agitated.

"I think he's let slip that – in his eyes – his other guests are more important than we are," Lily whispered in an aside to Karissa.

"If they're Sues, no doubt they easily made him believe that they are. But that doesn't make them any better than us in reality," Karissa said brightly. "Please, Kyle, could you relinquish your guns to the nice man? Not only those, of course, but also...anything else that you're keeping back." Kyle's philosophy spoke that power was only as versatile as the imagination of the user, and so he might have prepared armaments more exotic than firearms for this mission. She didn't want to offend him.

For a brief moment she was afraid that she'd aggrieved him nonetheless, but then he heaved a sigh. "You guys go on without me. This is going to take a while." Oh. He'd brought along that many weapons.

"I will stay with him," Boddy agreed. "If you'll just step through the doors and turn to the room on your left, perhaps you'll spend a few minutes mingling with my foreign guests in the Lounge." He was dropping hints left and right. Reading between the lines, not only did the Sues possess influence that could excite a rich man, but they'd also purported to come from overseas.

T_T_T_T_T

As soon as the Agents walked into the Lounge, they were made to feel underdressed. This was a fact, rather than an impression caused by the Sues' glamour.

Karissa was wearing her regular black on black overall outfit, on top of which she tied a red silk sash. Lily was wearing a dress shirt – which was acceptable – but she also wore a miniskirt and had sneakers on her feet. Stephen was wearing his blue tee, khaki shorts and orange hat ensemble. They hadn't looked so odd when they'd walked into the house draped in ubiquitous raincoats, but among the rich furnishings of the mansion they stood out like funeral guests wearing all white.

Red. Yellow. Green. Blue. Purple. The Sues were assembled against the opposite wall, nearly forming a rainbow with the colours of their dress, but at least their evening clothes appeared properly sumptuous and rich. Karissa would bet that the Sues' names were derived from the colours they preferred, just as Boddy's canonical guests' had always been. Two of the Sues were male – Stus, in fact – and the other three were female. Regardless of gender, they were all breathtakingly beautiful. On the whole, they possessed very light hair, blue eyes, a straight nose, and pale skin that demonstrated the absence of toil in the sun. It was a pity that the women were short, or else their group could have posed for a poster depicting the Homo Europaeus (or Nordic) race.

Only the male clad in green and the female clad in purple paid them much attention. After a cursory once-over, the other three pointedly resumed looking out one of the windows at the moon in the sky above. The purple Sue strutted forward in a catwalk stride. She might have been the oldest of them, but she couldn't have been a day over thirty. She was very well-groomed.

"Greetings, Agents of the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society." Somehow, articulating the entirety of the ACMSES title benefited her; she came across as delicate and aloof and ironical, all at the same time. "I am Lady Iris. There stand Lady Tiffany and Lady Amber, Lord Rufous and Lord Kelly." From her impersonal introduction of the others, Karissa understood that maybe the Sues were unrelated, after all. It was something other than blood that tied them together. "We have been expecting you. We've been kept amused by Boddy's distress when he thought that he would be unable to bring you here on time, yet we're glad that you've finally arrived."

"Most Sues aren't glad to see us. That's a big mistake on your part." Stephen bridled.

"Yes, Iris, I have to agree with Stephen. What exactly do you want? And where are the game's usual cast of characters?"

Tiffany's gaze cut sharply to Karissa. She spun around from facing the window. "You will address us with the respect we're due!"

"Shove it, Tiffany. I'm not Cristoph. 'Lord' and 'Lady' don't just trip off my tongue, and I would consider none of you as friends anyhow. Iris, I'll say it again – what are you Sues up to?"

Lily had stepped forward to keep the furious Tiffany in her sight, and now she thought to seek Amber and Rufous too. For some reason, Kelly was restraining them so that they wouldn't attack. She saw Kelly place a conciliatory hand on Rufous's arm and whisper something into his ear. The Stu relaxed, and Amber followed his example. Karissa had hardly noticed. She was wholly concentrated on Iris.

"Well, which question should I answer first?" The coiffed Sue wound a loose strand of hair around her finger, coiling it into a perfect curl to match all the others on her head. Studying this piece intently, she lilted, "Boddy's previous guests were no fun to play with. Every time I employed the slightest bit of suergy on the man, the rest threw off our thrall and would begin to squabble. They trusted none of us, because they could never trust each other." Iris sniffed, affronted. "Puppets that won't yield to the pull of their strings should have said strings severed."

Murderess! None of Boddy's friends or associates had been particularly agreeable, but according to the "sanctity of life" principle every human life deserved to be preserved and protected, whatever the individual's qualities or characteristics.

Disregarding the Agents' rising fury – or perhaps relishing it – Iris continued to speak with the expectation of their absolute attention. "As for your second question, what we'd like to do is play a game with you. One of us will slay Boddy – he has served his principal purpose, next best to dying – and you will have to guess who did the deed, with what, and where." This would explain the locale, if nothing else would. Either the Sues had originated from this fandom or else they'd picked this board game precisely for its method of play. "I wouldn't recommend guessing blindly until you think you can eliminate us all, because I warn you that there will be consequences."

"What a time that took!"

Into the midst of this confrontation, Boddy intruded with the ease afforded by ignorance. "You must know each other well enough, after that long while. May I suggest that you next proceed upstairs to make your preparations for dinner?" Boddy peered at Karissa, Lily and Stephen. "Your luggage didn't arrive with you. I'm not sure how you'll manage. My friends–" This to the Sues. "Do you wish to change your attire as well? My Lady Iris, you are already so beautiful." He kissed her hand. Stephen gagged.

By this point Kyle had rejoined his fellow Agents, and he spoke on behalf of them. "Expect us in the Dining Room in ten minutes."

T_T_T_T_T

"Kyle! How are we going to get dressed in ten minutes? Oh my god, if this is a formal dinner then I'll need makeup! I hate makeup. It will take me forever to put on makeup." Out of the presence of the Sues, it was as if a switch had flipped in Karissa's brain. She was wringing her hands anxiously, and even Lily was caught up in the worry of what appearance she should put forth at an important sit-down dinner.

"Calm down, Karissa. First of all, tell me what I missed." After being informed of the Sues' challenge, Kyle leaned back against a chair in his guest room, and closed his eyes to think. Karissa began to fidget again. The bed on which she and Lily were sitting bounced perceptibly. Without opening his eyes, Kyle said aloud, "Why don't we just leave?"

"What?" Thinking of the deal he'd made with Tash and Adrian, which was contingent on bringing in at least three Level Four Sues, Stephen was resistant to this idea. With the capture of Fey Tale and Evelynn Lanseal, he only needed to subdue one more Sue, and he would bet that every Sue in this company hovered around Level Five. They'd broken loose of their Author's control, for sure, even if they lacked the power to do anything with their freedom.

"We can call their bluff. It's not like they're doing any harm here. If we leave, they'll enjoy one night's free stay courtesy of Boddy, but they won't have a reason to toy with him any longer."

"And what if they do murder him, like they murdered all the rest of the characters? How can you say they've done no harm when six lives have been extinguished since their arrival?"

"The fandom will take care of any fallout. It might be revealed that the lack of breath attributed to Boddy's death was in fact a result of sleep apnea, and as such he'll be released from the care of the coroner before he's been halfway transported to the morgue." Stranger explanations had been made to account for Boddy's continued existence. "No corpse remains dead in this game for long. The others will come back to life sooner or later – like zombies." Kyle attempted to introduce some humour to the situation, but no one else laughed.

"I don't think we should rely on the fandom clearing things up for us. It's our duty to Prohibit all of these Sues if possible. In the novel series, Boddy was only revealed to be alive after every instance that his killers were captured." Karissa spoke at last.

"I don't want to be held responsible for another fandom being sealed off," Lily added. Only recently – with the arrest of Matthew Slaymaker – had Avalon Code and Aria of Sorrow been restored to their original states.

"Let's vote on it then," Kyle conceded grudgingly. Unsurprisingly, the number of hands up exceeded Kyle's own, left down, meaning that favour ran with those who would rather stay and investigate.

Karissa peeked at the alarm clock on top of the bed stand and gasped. "Five minutes! We have five minutes left!" None of them had thought to visit the Automatic Tailorisation Machine before they'd left. What would they wear?

At that moment, her Communicator chirruped to indicate an incoming call. "Karissa, are you alright?" It was Charis. "I've been following your mission in the monitor room, and it looks like you're in the middle of a fashion crisis." Oh, that sister of hers! You could almost hear her wicked smirk over the airwaves. "I believe I've devised a solution for your little dilemma. It should suit all of you."

"Thank you, Charis," Lily replied politely, since it didn't seem that Karissa was going to.

T_T_T_T_T

Charis's contributions could essentially be called dresspheres. Like the items from Final Fantasy X-2 with the same name, each dressphere basically changed the wielder's appearance (this was no video game, so changes to weapons and stats were nonexistent). A small Plothole had been sufficient for her toss the dresspheres one by one through to them. Karissa and Lily had received modified versions of the Lady Luck dressphere. Yes, their outfits were tighter than they would usually be comfortable with; however, they were greatly relieved that all the formerly cut-out panels which would have exposed skin had been stitched shut. Revealing, these dresses were not.

Karissa's dress was bright red, reminiscent of the uniform she'd worn when first joining the Society. The form-fitting sheath terminated just above her knees, and it left her shoulders bare. Her short inky hair had grown to the length that Lily's had reached before – it just barely grazed her collarbone when let down. After unfolding the sash that was kept around her waist, it was revealed to the others what a truly large piece of silk it was. Karissa knotted two ends together just underneath her bust line, and so the silk became a sort of train that swept around her feet gently. She wore her black ribbon choker and black heels, and red gloves no higher than her wrist.

Lily had expected that her dress would be green, but Charis sent a black gown that ran down to her ankles. It was slim and simple, and ran in a halter style around her neck. It complemented her dyed hair so well that she looked as brunette as Karissa if they weren't standing side-by-side. She wore longer black gloves that went past her elbows, and for once she had the opportunity to display her Pin-studded jewellery openly, for she wore both her bracelets on top of the gloves. You could hardly see her shoes past the cut of her skirt, but she wore emerald pumps of an average height. She didn't look too short next to Karissa, but her feet were more likely to thank her at the end of the day for sparing them that extra inch.

Stephen and Kyle had received modified versions of the Psychic dressphere. The former wore a long-sleeved dinner jacket in bronze over pants of the same colour. The latter wore much the same thing, but in white. Their shoes were made of brown tooled leather. There was some questionable ornamentation on the cuffs of their sleeves, but nothing in particular gave away the futuristic origins of the outfits. By mutual agreement the two had divested themselves of the mirrored goggles that were the most characteristic feature of Psychic. Stephen carefully folded the arms on his pair and set them upon the folded pile of the clothes he'd came in. Kyle carelessly tossed his pair into the depths of his Astral Vault. He might like to find them again someday, or on the other hand, he might not.

The dresspheres were easy to equip, thank goodness, so Kyle's hasty promise that they would show up in the Dining Room before the start of dinner held true. The men helped all the women into their chairs, and then the arrival of appetizers signalled the beginning of what was sure to be a tense dinner. It was a five course meal. French onion soup followed the appetizers of cold cut meat and cheese; then came individual garden salads. The main course was a venison and mushroom terrine, marinated in port and spices to lend it extra flavour and moisture. Dessert was served in the form of a decadent chocolate soufflé. None of the Agents took wine with their food, invariably asking for water or juice instead; conversely, all the Sues – and their host – indulged in the alcohol with apparent delight.

At the conclusion of the meal, Boddy invited them all into the Study for nightcaps. Feeling a little braver, Karissa accepted the offer of a drink the second time she was asked. Boddy poured out a cream-based liqueur into a shot glass for her. "Karissa!" Lily scolded, when she saw what her friend held in hand. "We're not of the legal age to drink!"

"It's funny that you should say that. In the United Kingdom it is permissible to give children aged 5 or older a small quantity of alcohol to experiment with, provided it's done in private. Youths aged 16 or 17 are allowed to consume alcohol at the table with their meals." Kelly had sidled up to them and overheard the tail end of their conversation. "I'd wager that both you and your friend here are 16 at the very least. Therefore, no worries. Would you like a glass for yourself, miss?"

Lily shot Kelly a horrified expression before she could stop herself. "You leave us alone," she told the Stu, walking away with Karissa.

Some of the Sues who had already reached their limit declined further beverages. Nevertheless, everyone filed into the Study at Boddy's behest. For lack of anything better to do, Kyle moved with the crowd. Inside the room, he spotted a gramophone in pristine condition under its glass case. He put on a disc of jazzy classical remixes in short order. The music receded behind Stephen as he drifted to the Library across the corridor and pulled a book off the shelf to read. Ignoring the hostile glances that Lily continued to send him, Kelly reclaimed his spot in between the girls and proceeded to chat them up. Karissa tried hard to keep the topic to the weather.

At long last the clock struck midnight.

T_T_T_T_T

"Somewhere, Cinderella's coach has turned into a pumpkin," Kelly teased. He had an uncommonly pleasant voice. Karissa was poised to make another banal comment about the beauty of the night's stars when, abruptly, a horrible realization came upon her.

People had gradually been leaving for bed for all of the last fifteen minutes. She had no certainty about the order in which the others had left. She didn't know if Boddy had left already, and she had no idea if he was still alive. She broke off on what she'd been about to say to Kelly, and after a silent communication with Lily, took off across the room in a great swish of silk. They wasted precious minutes searching for Stephen and Kyle, until finally the collected Agents stood in a huddle at the foot of the stairs – in the precise centre of the house.

"What kind of detectives are we?" Karissa agonized.

"We aren't," Kyle replied brusquely.

"We have to find them!" Stephen declared, and that they could agree upon, but it might be easier said than done. They hashed out a plan and hurriedly went about their separate ways.

Karissa was appointed with the task of checking up on Boddy, if indeed he was in his room. She rounded a corner on the upstairs landing and was puzzled to see Kelly coming up the stairway that was twin to hers. They met outside Boddy's bedroom door. "I came to wish our host a good night," Kelly explained himself.

Karissa nodded. That was reasonable. She set her clenched fist against the closed door and performed a light knock. "Dr. Black? I was terribly rude, I'm sure, but I forgot to bid you goodnight before you retired." She waited with bated breath, unsure if she would obtain an answer.

"That's very kind of you. Goodnight," a muffled voice returned.

"Goodnight, Dr. Black," Kelly offered from over her shoulder.

Again, a curt goodnight was echoed.

In any case, Boddy was lively enough to be surly. That was a small victory.

T_T_T_T_T

None of the women had gone to bed. Lily didn't know whether to be happy or dismayed with this finding. With little effort, she'd discovered that Iris, Tiffany and Amber had merely moved into the Billiard Room to prolong the night's merriment. Tiffany and Amber were very definitely merry. They hadn't stopped drinking until they'd been forced to. Iris supervised them with a critical eye, but she looked much more interested in Lily's entrance.

"Don't I know you?"

Lily froze in place. She'd been dreading this. She'd thought herself lucky when Karissa and Stephen's antagonism towards Iris had cut short the incomplete round of introductions yesterday. The Agents hadn't had the chance to throw their respective names out. True, Karissa had let Stephen's slip carelessly from her tongue; and then Kelly had gleaned hers from Lily's lips. But it had been feasible that she wouldn't be required to disclose her own identity. Not so, now.

Well, what did she have to be afraid of? Lily forced her spine to straighten out, and at her full height, she looked down her nose at Iris. With a surge of pride that had carried over from her past life, she stated openly, "My name is Lily Adamson. You might have known me as Bella Aubrey."

Iris looked as if she were fascinated. "I've heard of you. How is life on the other side?" she added contemptuously.

Lily donned her best poker face. "I couldn't be happier. I've got a boyfriend who loves me. I've got friends. I belong."

Suddenly Amber and Tiffany burst into the chorus of a song –

I couldn't be happier
Because happy is what happens
When all your dreams come true
Well, isn't it?
Happy is what happens
When your dreams come true!

– and they were able to hold the last note for a whole beat before collapsing into a drunken sprawl.

Iris shook her head in disbelief, either at Lily's words or else at the antics of the Sues a level beneath her, but she put down her wineglass and pronounced mockingly, "It's time to call it a day, I think."

T_T_T_T_T

Not soon after departing from Karissa and Lily, Stephen and Kyle came upon Rufous lounging against the doorway of the Study. He held the bottle from which Boddy had served their nightcaps tightly in one hand. Stephen assessed the scenario summarily. "Time to go, sir," he huffed as he forcibly pried the liqueur from the Stu's grasp. "Kyle, grab his other arm," Stephen directed, and together the two of them managed to frogmarch Rufous up the stairs and into his room.

"Stay inside!" Kyle slammed the door shut in Rufous's face. Belatedly, he decided to assume that the Stu had retained enough dexterity to be able to undress himself.

Stephen looked wearily over at the other Agent. "I shouldn't even think longingly of the bed in my own room, should I? We'll have to guard his door all night."

After thinking it through, Kyle nodded sympathetically.

"Oh great."

The sound of footsteps heading in their direction had the two of them on alert once more.

"Good evening, gentlemen," Iris trilled as she passed them. It looked as if she was allowing Lily to escort her to her room. The men decided not to comment on the unconscious forms of Tiffany and Amber, whom Iris carried on her shoulders, one to each side. The added weight put no apparent strain on the Sue. Those two were dropped off – so to speak – in their rooms, which came first in the women's passageway. Presently unencumbered, Iris smiled at Lily before stepping past the corner that separated the final three guest rooms from the rest.

"Your room is closest, but I think you'd like to watch me walk into mine, and moreover lock the door behind me." Iris leered at Lily, and in response to her disagreeable manner the former Sue nearly retorted that she wanted no such thing. Only, of course she did.

Iris did as she was told, sashaying past the threshold with one, two, three steps. As soon as her door closed, the sound of the lock being employed came loud and clear. Lily ducked into her room, sticking her head out to check on the corridor at intervals. After repeating this procedure for three times or more – and not once did she hear a scrabble to indicate that Iris's lock was about to twitch back – Lily decided that things were settled enough to warrant her going to bed.

T_T_T_T_T

No sooner had Lily and Iris disappeared from Stephen and Kyle's line of sight than Karissa and Kelly walked into view. The girl flashed them a quick thumbs up to signify that Boddy was alive and well, and then she turned to the Stu beside her and said rather sternly, "This is where I leave you. You will go inside your room and consent to be watched over for the remainder of twilight. Do you understand?"

"I am not hard of hearing, nor am I simple," Kelly said with dignity.

"That wasn't what she was accusing you of. We know that those traits would be impossible in a Stu," Kyle interjected. "Now move."

Kelly winked impertinently at Karissa before he went to comply with Kyle's demand. He blew a kiss aimed at all the occupants of the hallway before locking himself in, and the male Agents shuddered. Karissa didn't know what to feel – there was an odd sensation in her stomach that she couldn't accurately identify as nausea.

Stephen moved to form a human barricade blocking Kelly's door, and Kyle rearranged himself in front of Rufous's door in order to maximize his comfort. Seeing that the guys looked to be spending the rest of the night out in the hall, Karissa decided that it would only be fair if she were to do the same in the women's hallway. Testing the knobs on the first two doors, she determined that the locks were not engaged. She was not happy with the fact, but it would be impossible for her to act upon it. The next two doors that she attempted were locked, but Karissa stared at them apprehensively all the same. Who was behind each door? She supposed that the empty room at the end was meant to be hers.

She reversed until the solid presence of the wall made itself evident behind her back, and then she slid all the way down to the floor. She paid no mind to the inevitable damage that she must be causing to her skirt. With two doors in the left of her peripheral vision, and two doors in the right of it, Karissa also took up "night watch".

Insert Assassins in Italy Here

(Note: There will be some dialog in Danish in this fic, with translations into English after the * symbols.)

Pete and Joe were standing in front of each other, in one of the Society's training rooms, getting ready for some morning combat training. They had a bamboo sword in each hand, kendo helmets on their heads and they were dressed in black training pants "Okay let's go over this one more time just so we're clear, first one to get hit on the upper body loses." Pete said.

"Exactly, now let's get started." Joe said and immediately used his force jump to propel him into the air, his swords raised and ready to strike. Pete crossed his swords in an effort to block Joe's obvious attack. What he didn't count on, was that Joe only used one sword to hit the block, before landing and using his other sword to swipe at Pete.

Pete quickly caught on to Joe's strategy and jumped to the side, dodging Joes attack in the process. He quickly got to his feet and said "Nice move Joe, but I'm not letting you win that easily." Pete tossed one of his swords into the air, before throwing the other one directly at Joe. He started running towards Joe, catching the sword as he ran, the 'blade' pointing downwards.

Joe deflected the thrown sword, and was ready to do the same to Pete. But instead of going for the obvious slash, Pete switched direction and headed for his discarded sword instead "What the hell." Joe said, and without thinking, he used his force jump to reach the sword first.

Pete saw Joe landing, and made a quick decision to keep running, and see what happened. Joe raised his swords to swing at his opponents' side. Pete raised his own sword and blocked the slash, he then slid down the 'blades' and delivered a hit to Joes side, and thus ending the fight "Nice tactic there, making me go for you, so you could hit me." Joe said and touched knuckles with Pete.

"What tactic, I just wanted my sword back." Pete said as he picked up his own sword.

"Well, I guess that was pretty idiotic of me." Joe said, tapping one of his swords against the floor, thinking about what to do next. He put the sword over his shoulder, and held up the other one, ready to attack, and asked "Rematch?".

Pete held up his own swords and said "You're on." He then ran up to Joe and started exchanging sword blows with him.

The two continued fighting for another half hour (Insert training montage and music here), before they sat down and had a drink of water. They then went to the kitchen to get some breakfast, but they had hardly filled their bowls with cereal and milk, when the door was opened by Michael, who was carrying a mission file under his arm "Hey guys, sorry to disturb you during breakfast, but we got an urgent mission for you in the Assassin's creed fandom."

Joe took a spoonful of cereal and asked "Which of the games is it?" He then put the spoon in his mouth and started chewing.

Michael quickly opened the file and said "It's the one called 'Brotherhood', and the Sue is one you've met before, Joe."

Joe almost choked on the cereal, but managed to swallow it, before he said the name of the Sue, who beat him in the 'Fantastic four' fandom "Devlina."

"Exactly, and it seems she's found a partner in crime, a level 5 Sue, Two levels lower than herself. Also we've detected some weird readings all over Rome."

"Weird. How are the readings weird?" Pete asked.

"We don't know. They look like some sort characters, but they seem incomplete, and there's two with a completely different signature from anything else inside the fandom, it's really weird.".

"Yeah, that really sounds weird." Joe said before taking another spoonful of his cereal. After accepting the mission, Michael left the room, leaving the two agents to finish their breakfast. Joe turned to his friend and asked "Could it be that Devlina is in possession of the ideas, that was stolen from our author?"

"It is a possibility, but I wonder what was up with those two unknown signatures." Pete said. The two finished their breakfast, and then went to their rooms to get their gear, and they were soon on their way to begin their mission.

O-O-O

The two agents screamed as they fell out of the plothole and into the river that surrounded the Tiber Island. Joe was the first to resurface, followed closely by Pete. He spit out the water he had gotten in his mouth and said "I'm starting to hate water, I mean, first World of warcraft and now this."

Pete did the same as his partner and said "Me too, I hope our next mission is in a desert." The agents swam to Tiber Island, where they took a moment on the small dock, to see what roles they had been assigned this time around, and were pleasantly surprised to see that they had become assassin novices. They looked at their left wrists and smiles spread across their faces, because on their wrists, a hidden blade was mounted "This is gonna the best mission ever." Pete said as he flicked his wrist, to make the blade spring forth.

"Yeah, I'm just wondering if we could smuggle these out of the fandom." Joe said as he too admired the small mechanical device on his wrist.

"Well, we should be able to, since it's never explained where the novices get them from." Pete said and retracted the blade with another flick of his wrist. The agents climbed the docks stairs to street level, where they started walking towards one of the bridges that lead into the actual city of Rome "So, where should we start looking for our Sueish foes?" Pete asked as they walked through the city, trying their best not to attract attention.

"Well, if I was a Mary Sue, in a world more or less controlled by the church, I would try to become the highest ranking of said church, even though it makes absolutely no sense in actual history. So I'd say we should try the Vatican first." Joe said as he stopped to look at some weapons that were on sale in one of the shops.

"Right, we'll start there then." Pete said as he looked out for any guards. He suddenly noticed something that totally didn't fit into the world. The something turned out to be a man, dressed as a mad scientist, and a person draped in a green cloak, which looked like something from the middle ages. Pete tapped Joe on the shoulder, all the while all the while keeping an eye on the two mysterious persons, and asked "Do you see, what I see, Joe?"

Joe looked up from a display of knives and looked in the direction; his partner was looking, all the while getting a confused expression on his face "Well, if you're seeing doctor Insano, who's armed to the teeth and the green version of Raven from teen titans, then I'm seeing exactly what you're seeing." Joe said as he rolled up his sleeve to expose the biosuit containment unit.

"I guess I'm not crazy after all. You think that could be the two signals, they couldn't identify?" Pete asked as he summoned his rider belt, ready to activate it if something went wrong.

"I'm pretty much convinced that it is." Joe said and pulled his badge out of his item pouch and started walking towards the two. Pete got his own badge out and walked after his partner.

O-O-O

"Ooooh look at this, Doctor." Ashlin said as she held up a picture of a demon and an angel, fighting one another.

Neosano looked up from a collection of small metal figurines in the stall next to the one with the paintings, and said "That is very nice indeed; it would look good on one of the walls in your room." He reached into one of his coats pockets and found a small pouch with small gold discs in it, and started negotiating with the seller.

They had just gotten to an agreement, and Neosano had just paid for the painting, when a voice spoke up behind the two "You two, turn around.".

The two companions turned around to see a pair of young men dressed in white, standing behind them, holding a badge out at them in their right hand "Whoa, I didn't know that art critics needed badges to identify themselves.".

"We're not art critics…" One of the men said, who was wearing a strange bracelet on his right wrist "We are the Anti-cliché and Mary Sue elimination society; we are arresting you on suspicion of fandom manipulation. Now, are you going to follow us, or do we have to get rough?" The man held up, what looked like a pair of silver bracelets.

"And please say you'll follow us; I'm a bit tired today." The other man said, he was wearing a weird ornamental belt.

The doctor and troll looked at each other, both raising an eyebrow. Ashlin then looked at the two men and asked "What are you guys talking about?"

Now it was the two men's turn to look at each other, and the man with the belt asked "You haven't heard of us?"

"Never before in our lives." Ashlin said, folding her arms over her chest.

Neosano was thinking about what the man with the bracelet had said, and it finally dawned to him "Eureka!" He yelled.

"What's up Doc?" Ashlin asked, interested in what her companion had found out.

"I've just figured out what is going on here. Ashlin, we are in a dimension, consisting of two worlds, the normal planet Earth, and a world where games, movies and literature in all its forms come to life, and where authors can either enter themselves, or send in their own constructs…" Neosano said, clapping his hands out of pure giddiness "And some of these constructs and authors has banded together and formed some sort of police force to take down unfriendly elements in the fictional world, oh my god it's so awesome."

"Yes, that is very awesome." Ashlin said, a brief smile coming to her lips, before she became serious again and asked "But what do you suggest that we do about our current situation."

"Oh right." Neosano turned to the two agents and said "I think an introduction is in order, I'm Dr. Neosano, or as I'm known in my home dimension, Dr. Felix Nielsen; and this is my companion, the beautiful Ashlin of Jutland…" He gestured to the troll, who smiled and bowed her head to greet the agents, before he continued "And we are dimensional travelers; now, may I ask who you are?"

The two men looked at each other of a moment, before they turned around and started whispering, apparently they were deciding what to do about the situation; after a minute or so of whispering, they turned around and the man with the bracelet said "My name is Joe Andersen."

"And I'm Pete Jackson." The man with the belt said; there was a moment of silence, before Pete asked "So, if you're not here cause trouble, what are you here to do?"

"We're just here to travel a bit, maybe pick up a few souvenirs, and then jump on to the next dimension, that's all." Neosano said, putting the pouch back in his pocket, as he had been distracted by the agents that he first now remembered that he was holding it.

Pete and Joe looked at each other for a moment, making a silent decision on what to do about the situation. Joe then looked at the duo while Pete started to walk away, pulling something out of his pocket "Just remember, if you try to change anything in this world, no matter how good an idea it seems to be, we'll come and arrest you." Joe said, making sure that the duo understood that he was serious about his threat.

Neosano nodded; he knew from his exploits of the multiverse that you often had to follow certain rules, or else you could end up in prison, or worse, dead "We understand, don't we Ashlin?" He asked his companion.

"Of course, this is your world after all." Ashlin said and gave the agent a small nod along with a small smile.

"Good then, have a nice trip through our universe." Joe said and shook hands with the doctor and the troll, before hurrying to Pete's side, listening to him finishing off his live report to the observation room.

"Yes I'm serious, they were actual dimensional travelers." Pete said into his communicator.

"Are they gonna be a problem for us?" The voice of Michael asked at the other end.

"They said that they were here to do some sightseeing around the multiverse, and they haven't done anything so far to corrupt the fandom in any way, so I think we should leave them alone for now, but if they do something that corrupts a fandom, we'll prohibit them and bring them in for questioning."

"Okay, I just hope it's the right decision on your part, it wouldn't be good if it turned out that they were out to take over a fandom, and you could have stopped them before they did any damage."

"I wouldn't worry about it, they seemed pretty friendly, and all they've done so far is buying a picture as a souvenir, and that's it, and if all goes well, that'll be all we hear from them."

"Okay then, over and out." Michael said and got off the channel.

"Over and out." Pete said and put the communicator back in his pocket. He turned to Joe and said "Well, let's go find our actual problems." Joe nodded and the two continued their walk through the city.

O-O-O

"You know, I've just remembered something." Joe said as they passed the 'Rosa in fiore' brothel on their way to the Vatican.

"And that is?" Pete asked.

"It's been more than 2 years since we were created." Joe said and smiled.

Pete thought it over and realized that his friend was right "Yeah, you're right, but a lot has happened after we were created." He said with the same smile as Joe.

"Yeah, me disappearing into the multiverse, the whole Anus Weedy affair, and you getting together with Charis." Joes smile became a bit smugger at the last statement.

Pete shaked his head, he had known for some time that most, if not all, of the Society knew about his and Charis' relationship, but luckily, no one had found out about how far the relationship had progressed. He chuckled briefly and asked "Where did you hear it from?".

"All around the library, but nobody seems to know how far the two of you are, relationship wise." Joe said as he sat down on a bench, Pete doing the same.

"Good, that's how we want it for the moment, but would you mind if we spoke Danish for the rest of this conversation? Just in case they're listening in on our conversation in the observation room." Pete asked and looked up slightly as a small army of guards started to pass them.

"Selvfølgelig ikke, det her er jo rimelig personligt for dig."* Joe said and as the guards passed them, the two got up and started tailing them, their guts telling them that they might find Devlina if they did. (*Of course not, it is pretty personal for you.)

"Tak; nåh, hvad var det du ville vide?"* Pete asked. One of the guards looked back at them and they stopped, and blended into the crowd by sitting down on another bench to avoid an unnecessary fight. After a moment, the guard turned back and the two agents got back up and continued their tailing of the guards. (*Thanks; well, what was it you wanted to know.)

"Jeg ville gerne vide hvor I egentlig er i jeres forhold.".* (*I wanted to know how far you actually are in your relationship.)

Pete looked a little uncomfortable at the request and said "Det, det kan jeg ikke fortælle dig Joe.".* (*I, I can't tell you that Joe.)

"Årh kom nu, hvor langt er I, går I i seng med hinanden eller hvad."* Joe asked, giving his friend a pleading look. (*Oh come on, how far are you guys, are you sleeping with each other or what.)

Pete's gaze fell to the ground and he said "Joe, jeg, jeg er ked af det, men jeg har lovet Charis at holde kæft om det indtil vi begge føler os klar til at fortælle de andre om det. Men, jeg kan fortælle dig at jeg personligt føler mig klar til at tage vores forhold et skridt længere."*. (*Joe, I, I'm sorry, but I've promised Charis that I'd shut up about it until we both feel ready to tell the others about it. But, I can tell you that I personally feel ready to take our relationship a step further.)

"Kunne det tænkes at det skridt involverer en ring af en art?"* Joe asked with a grin on his face. (*Could it be that said step involved a ring of some kind?)

Pete blushed a tiny bit, before he sighed and said "Ja det gør, men hvis du siger det til nogen, så slår jeg dig ihjel, forstået." (Yes it does, but if you tell anyone, I'm gonna kill you, got it.)

"Klart og tydeligt."* Joe said with a friendly smile, which soon turned wicked as he turned his attention to the guard and asked "Ready to raise hell?". (*loud and clear.)

"Always." Pete said with an equally wicked grin as the guards came to a stop and started fanning out in front of the bridge that lead to the Vatican.

"What do you think is going to happen here?" Joe asked as he watched more people gathering behind the guards, who were whispering excitedly amongst each other.

Pete looked around and suddenly spotted a woman dressed a lot like he and Joe were; he let his gaze drift to the roofs and spotted other people in similar clothing. He tapped Joe on the shoulder, and he looked in the same direction as Pete "My guess would be that it has something to do with Ezio, and possibly the piece of Eden."

Joe nodded and looked back in the direction of the Vatican as the mumbling of the gathered people became louder; down the bridge came Devlina, dressed in a long, flowing, purple dress with lots of golden markings on it, and on her head was beautiful headdress made out of gold with a purple veil which was decorated with pearls, all of which looked amazingly gorgeous on her. Alongside her walked what looked like a little girl, probably the second Sue, as she looked impossibly cute and was dressed similar to Devlina, only her dress and veil was red and her headdress was adorned with rubies; she had big, blue eyes that looked as innocent as a puppy, and her hair was a beautiful platinum blonde. Behind them was a group of fourteen shadowy beings, who were probably the missing ideas that Pete and Joes author had been talking about. They dressed in renaissance clothing, both female and male; they were walking obediently after the two sues in two neat lines. And finally at the back were a squad of ten guards surrounding Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who was still dressed in his assassins gear, though without any of his weapons, and he was I chains "I don't like where this is going." Joe said as the procession came to a stop in front of the bridge, the ideas stepping to the side, making room for the guards to step behind Devlina and the little girl Sue.

The two agents suddenly heard a low beeping noise coming from their personas; Joe reached into his item pouch and Pete into one of the pocket like pouches on his belt, and pulled out the silver sphere they had received from their author; it stopped beeping as soon as their fingers touched them. They pulled the spheres out and they opened up, revealing a blue lens. They looked through the spheres like they were small binoculars and the assumed ideas lit up with a blue outline, confirming their suspicion. Pete and Joe replaced the spheres and went back to see how things went with Ezio and the Sue "You think Devlina has the piece of Eden?" He asked to his former statement.

"I sure as hell hope she doesn't, but with our luck, she probably has it…" Joe said, flexing his fingers in eagerness to fight the hated Sue once again "But we could hope that she has left it in the citadel.".

"By all that is holy, let's hope so, because I have no intention of dying today." Pete agreed.

Devlina stepped forward and spread her arms out to silence the crowd, which by now consisted of half the people in the area, probably even some from other areas of the city; the crowd immediately went silent and she started speaking in a very dramatic tone of voice, along with a stereotypical Italian accent "People of Roma, after months of searching, I have finally and personally captured the most dangerous man in all of Italy, Ezio Auditore…" She gestured to the chained up man behind her. She turned back to the crowd and continued even more dramatically "Who has been sentenced to death by crucifixion by our high lord himself.".

"That really doesn't sound good, if Ezio dies, Desmond will die and then the series ends right then and there." Joe said, rolling up his sleeve so he could easily get to the biosuit.

"Yeah, and I think now is a good time to interfere." Pete said as he and Joe made their way through the crowd; they punched the guards that was blocking their way and stepped out onto the small square.

"Assasino, how dare you show yourself here?" Devlina yelled in a perfect hysterical tone and drew a pair of small swords that she had mounted to her lower back. Pete and Joe didn't say anything but kept walking until they were right in front of her; they smiled under their hoods when they heard what sounded like an eagle and several of the guards fell limply to the ground; behind them stood the assassin recruits with blades, axes and hidden blades drawn, the crowd behind them fleeing out of fear that they would get the same treatment as the guards.

"Guess you haven't been here very long since the brotherhood is still willing to go against you." Joe said and he and Pete pulled down their hoods.

"You." Devlina said, her voice dripping venom; she turned to the guards who were holding Ezio and said "Two of you stay with the prisoner, everyone else, kill the assassins." The guards did as they were told and went to try and kill the assassins. She turned to the little girl and said "Anna, take 2 of the ideas and get rid of the blond one, I'll personally take care of the other one.".

Anna nodded and waved 2 of the male ideas over and they advanced on Pete, drawing swords and guns as they did so "You are dead now agent." Anna said and lashed out with her small swords as she talked.

"We'll see about that. Henshin, darkness." Pete said as he dodged the little Sues attack, the buckle on his belt opened and released the nanobots inside it, and soon after, he was in his upgraded Darkhopper suit; he unsheathed the swords on his back and blocked the 2 ideas follow-up attack. He kicked them away, and went back into defense as Anna jumped over the ideas, and lashed out at him; he caught her swords and for a short time they were locked in a battle for dominance, which Anna held up in very well "So, is Anna all there is to your name?" Pete asked, wanting to probe pint sized Sue for information, and gave a hard push, which made the little Sue jump back, but he didn't get any time to rest, as the ideas came at him right after the Sue was out of his reach.

"Of course there is." Anna said snobbishly and grinned as she went in for another attack "My full name is Anna Hannah Maria Conda the 69th." She said, emphasizing every word with a slash. Pete was lucky that the swords were bade to cut humans and not something stronger, because the slashes just bounced off his armor, leaving a trail of sparks in their wake, but otherwise he wasn't hurt.

Pete kicked the legs out from under one of the ideas and impaled it through the stomach, nailing it to the ground; it moaned and thrashed around for a moment, before its arms fell to its side, the only indication that it was still alive was the constant flexing of its gloved fingers. Pete turned and the other idea caught him square in the face with a very hard punch which managed to send him flying, and landing a few meters away, making him drop his sword as he did so. Anna jumped on top of Pete, attempting to stab him through the 'eyes' of his helmet; panicking, Pete lifted his right arm and blocked the blades "So your name would essentially be Anna Conda?" He asked, actually fighting to keep the mini Sue from stabbing him.

"Yes, and?" Anna asked in an irritated tone.

Pete then started to laugh hysterically, both at the fact that Anna wasn't very tall, and at the sexual undertones associated with the name. Pete's outbreak of laughter confused the Sue long enough for him to push her off him, hard. He retrieved his sword and started a one on one fight with the idea.

While this was happening, Joe was in combat with Devlina; Joe using his biosuit and force lightning and Devlina her swords and her divine light. At some point, Joe blocked both of Devlina's swords and tried to force her back, but the Sue was still quite a bit stronger than him, but she held back a little to make some conversation with her enemy "You've learned some new tricks since we last met.".

"Well, you have to, to defeat guys like you." Joe said and dropped to the ground, performing a sweeping kick, that sent her crashing to the ground; he quickly got up and reshaped his claws into shields, and started punching at the Sue, but due to her Sueish luck, she avoided every single punch he threw at her, and when she got up, she didn't have anything resembling a scratch, and her dress didn't have a speck of dust on it.

"But you're still no match for me." Devlina said smirked at the agent who slowly retracted the claws into his suit.

Joe moved closer to the docks while concentrating his force powers into the water, slowly creating a sphere out of it. As he did this, he noticed that two of the assassin recruits had broken through the guards and was heading towards their leader "I think you're about to lose what you have been working so hard to accomplish." He said as he lifted the water sphere up.

"What?" Devlina asked and looked in the direction that Joe had, to see the two guards who were holding Ezio being cut down by the recruits, who immediately started freeing their leader.

The distraction was just what Joe needed. He hurled the water at the Sue, releasing it and thus leaving a trail all the way to the Sue, the last of it splashing against her dress and pooling around her "Gotcha." Joe said and smiled evilly.

Devlina turned back as soon as she felt the water on her; it had been cold, but otherwise there had been nothing special about the attack "What are you trying to do, give me a cold?" She asked mockingly.

"No, I'm trying to make you dance." Joe said before quickly sliding his claws out and sticking them into the water; he released his force lightning into the water in an attempt to electrocute the purple clad Sue. The novices finally freed their leader, and helped him across the small square; Ezio was amazed at the two novices that had shown abilities that only the apple of Eden could surpass.

Devlina screamed as she was zapped by the powerful lightning, and in pure Sueish reflex she released an orb of her divine light, which happened to fly directly at Joe. The blast hit him right in the chest and made him stumble back and fall into the harbor. Devlina turned to Anna, who had gotten up and was fighting Pete, who was having a hard time holding up against her and the idea "Anna, let the idea take care of him, we're leaving!" Devlina yelled to the little Sue.

"Why? We're winning." Anna yelled back as she lashed out at Pete, making him dodge, right into a bullet from the idea's gun.

"They know where we are, and if we defeat these 2 they'll send more to take care of us; it's better if we run now and find another place to take over, rather than staying here and get caught." Devlina said and started running towards the citadel, the remaining ideas following her obediently.

Anna huffed and looked at Pete, who was occupied by the idea, and against her wanting to fight Pete some more, she sheathed her swords and started running after Devlina. She stopped briefly at the bridge, turned back to Pete and said in her cutest possible voice "Goodbye mister agent, hope you die in horrible agony." She then took off after the older Sue and her posse of ideas.

"What a horrible child." Pete said, he gave the idea a punch with his armored arm, before tackling the idea to the ground; the idea punched him hard a couple of times in the side, before Pete had enough and head-butted the idea in the head, stunning it long enough for him to get up and nailing it to the ground with his other sword, its reaction the same as with the other idea, a long moan and a few moments of thrashing, followed by it laying still and flexing its fingers.

"I hate that Sue." Joe said as he hauled himself up over the edge of the dock; once up, he deactivated the biosuit and walked over to Pete and asked "Is it dead?".

"I don't think so; they seem to go into some kind of hibernation when they get seriously injured." Pete said as he studied the idea.

"Well, I guess we better send it back to our author." Joe said and pulled the silver sphere out of his pocket and pressed the lens to the idea's forehead. The idea reached up and pulled the sword out of its stomach before standing up, its clothes peeling off to reveal a white leather jacket, white jeans, a dark red T-shirt with a faded band logo on it, a pair of fingerless gloves and a pair of red and black shoes; the idea walked over to the bridge and a plothole opened for it to walk through, which it quickly did, the hole closing behind it. They did the same with the other idea and the same thing happened, the only difference being that that idea was wearing a grey trench coat, a black beanie, torn blue jeans, a black T-shirt and black shoes.

Once the idea had disappeared, Joe gave a sigh of relief and said "Well, we better get back so the Society can send in a cleaning crew and get this place back to normal."

"Agreed." Pete said, they drew their plothole generators to get back to the library.

O-O-O

After writing their reports and delivered them to Michael, Pete and Joe went their separate ways. Joe went to the kitchen to whip up a meal for them to eat for their 'creation day' party, while Pete went off to their authors mind world to get a gift for Joe. Two hours later, the two was sitting in Pete's room, eating a curry dish with garlic bread on the side, and making small talk. After they were done eating, Joe brought in a nice, heavy chocolate cake, along with some vanilla ice-cream; they cut some cake and scooped some ice-cream up on their plates, but before they even thought about eating the dessert, they both got out the gifts they had for each other as they had agreed to exchange their gifts before they ate their dessert.

Joe opened his gift and was very pleased to find a copy of 'The troll hunter' on Blu-ray under the paper "Thanks Pete, I've been looking for this for a long time." He said as he opened the case to take a look at the disk.

"Well, I guess I was just lucky that I found it in that store then." Pete said as he opened his own gift, which contained a small blaster from the 'Star wars' fandom "Nice." He said and held it up and aimed it around the room, keeping his finger off the trigger so he wouldn't accidentally destroy something in the room.

"I know how you and Himuro like little gadgets, so I thought that was a fitting present." Joe said and put the Blu-ray down beside his, before clapping his hands together once and said "Well, let's get some cake.".

"Indeed." Pete said and put the blaster down on the table and the two dug into the cake.

After they were done with the cake, they said goodbye to each other; Joe was just about to leave the room, but turned in the doorway and asked "So, can we maybe expect a third person to join us next year?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Pete said with a grin on his face, his voice not letting Joe know if he meant yes or no.

"You really won't tell me much about this, will you?" Joe asked and sighed in defeat.

"Nope. Besides, as I said, I promised Charis that I wouldn't, even if you are my best friend." Pete said as he walked over to a shelf, where the hidden blade he had been wearing was sitting, along with Himuro's battle gadgets.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped, see ya tomorrow." Joe said and closed the door behind him.

"Yeah, we'll do that." Pete said, more to himself than Joe. He set the small blaster down on the shelf, before walking over to one of his bookcases, where he pulled out a large, old looking book; he opened it to reveal that the book was hollow, a small jewelry box laying inside. He took the box out and closed the book, putting it back and went over to his couch to sit down.

He opened the box to reveal two small rings of the kind that you usually wear on your pinkie, one a little thicker than the other; they were made out of platinum and at the top, they seemed to split in two and cross over under the small, round ruby that was set in the middle of both rings, and then come together again on the other side. He had brought the rings because of something Charis had told him a few weeks ago; they had been having lunch at a café, and Charis had told him about that in Japan, many people believe that people who are destined to be married, has a red string attached to their pinkies by the gods to signify that they would be together at some point; and when he later that week had seen the rings in a shop, he had decided to buy them, as they reminded him of what Charis had told him, and he had wanted to ask Charis if she'd want to be his fiancé some time before that. However, after he had bought the rings, he had been nervous about asking her, but the conversation he had had with Joe in Assassin's creed had given him the courage to ask her back, and while he had been in town for Joe's gift, he had thought out a plan and now all he had to do was to set it in motion.

He looked at the rings one last time, before he closed the box and said to himself "I sure hope she'll say yes."