He casually sauntered up to one of the bookcases that was against the far wall. He knew that the librarian would start getting suspicious if he began snooping around the bookshelves for too long. He could always pretend to be looking for a book...
"Can I help you?" the librarian asked, walking over to him.
Damn!
"Uh, I'm...just...browsing." Fitcher lied. The librarian nodded.
"I see. Are you looking for anything in particular?" she asked.
"Just.....a book..." Fitcher said dully. If he couldn't even fool a librarian, he'd never make it as a secret agent!
The librarian gave him a quizzical look, and then returned to her desk. Fitcher resumed his search among the shelves. After a few minutes, he came to shelf in the far back corner, hidden by its own little alcove. Fitcher examined the titles of the books on the shelf---they almost always had to do with opening any secret entrances. He finally found what he wanted: a book titled The Entrance.
But, that might be too obvious, to someone looking for an entrance. So, Fitcher instead grabbed a book called Raising Your Own Kittens and pulled. A neat little trapdoor popped open.
Fitcher had to use all his willpower to keep from clapping his hands girlishly. He had found the secret entrance! He slid down into it and closed it behind him.
I'm in! Oh yeah!!
"Greetings, Mr. Fitcher. Glad to see you're on time...early, even." Agent T said, walking toward him as he entered the underground cavern. Nora was right behind him, followed by a short, stout little man in a top hat, with squinty eyes.
"Hello, Fitcher." said the little man. "I am Agent Nok-Nok, in charge of orientation and weapons selection. Please follow me." He began walking toward a very uniteresting-looking section of the complex, and Fitcher had no choice but to follow him. They entered a drab, gray, boring room through an ordinary door, but what was inside was anything but ordinary. Weapons of every type lined the walls, and stood in shiny display cases around the room. Nok-Nok squinted at him, and smiled jovially.
"So, Fitcher, what shall it be?" Nok-Nok said, gesturing to the display cases.
"You mean.....I can pick whatever I want? As a weapon?" Fitcher asked, awestruck.
"Yes. Some people have trained with a certain type of weapon for years, and we don't want to deprive our agents of that training, so we have a wide selection. Do you have a preference?" Nok-Nok explained. Fitcher walked slowly, gazing at all the different weapons as he went. Then he spotted something he couldn't resist, for reasons he didn't know.
"Ooh! Tonfa!" he cried, picking up the instruments. As he did, Nora and T walked in, and Nok-Nok backed up a step.
"Sir, um...the use of tonfa requires years of disciplined training! Are you sure---" he began.
"Yee-hah!" Fitcher cried, swinging the tonfa around and around. This was great! He could almost hear the baddies being smacked upside the head with these already!
Wait.....someone really was being smacked!
Fitcher immediately stopped swinging the tonfa around, and glanced around him. T was rubbing his elbow, and Nok-Nok was nursing a bloody nose. Nora was trying her hardest to keep from laughing.
"M-maybe not the tonfa, then..." Fitcher said quietly, acting as if nothing had happened. He could feel his neck burning.
"I guess not...." Nora giggled, attempting to conceal her mirth. Fitcher casually walked over to a polished, gleaming, spiked mace.
"Ooh!" he said. He tried to ignore the whimper that came from Nok-Nok.
"Um, Fitcher, that weapon is very---" Nora began. Fitcher heaved it up, and then dropped it with a crash onto the floor, narrowly missing his own feet. It sat there, embedded in the floor.
"...Heavy..." she said, sighing.
"Of course it is! I....was just testing. I'm not up to full strength, you know. That might destroy this very room, if I was." Fitcher said, staring at the mace on the floor. He looked around the room, looking for something that he couldn't break or lose control of. Then he spotted a nice long staff, with silver tipped ends.
"This will do nicely, I think..." he said. He took the staff and ran his hands down it.
"You are a stickfighter?" T inquired admirably.
"Well.....not quite, but if I practice, at full strength....then maybe I could be!" Fitcher said regrettably, and he smiled at Nok-Nok.
"I have my weapon now. How's your nose?" he asked. Nok-Nok kept holding the bloodstained cloth up to his nose, and gestured that he was fine.
"Fitcher, do you wish to be fitted with a Rune? Or do you already have one?" Nora asked. Fitcher was surprised, now. A rune AND a weapon! He gave T a quizzical look.
"Are you guys this nice to all your agents?" he asked incredulously. No one was ever nice to him, and they certainly didn't hand him weapons and runes as if they were candy.
"Nice!" T laughed. "Most of this is standard procedure. Of course, you ARE a top level agent, so you do have some benefits that others do not." Fitcher nodded, almost suspicious of just what those benefits might be.
"Uh, no rune. Not just yet." Fitcher said, though he was sorely tempted.
Nora cleared her throat, and they all turned to face her. She adjusted her glasses, and pointed to her clipboard.
"Now then, you need an agent name." she said matter-of-factly.
"Agent name?" Fitcher said curiously. "What's wrong with my regular one?" T came up and patted him on the shoulder.
"Nothing, but for undercover situations, you might need a different identity. Like initials, or a codename, or an animal name, whatever you like." T explained. Fitcher nodded. He understood now.
"What about, like, Agent Fitcher: Undercover?" Fitcher suggested. It sounded snazzy to him.
"Agent F-U?" Nok-Nok said. Nora began giggling again. T arched an eyebrow.
"That might not sit so well..." he said, covering a smirk.
Ouch! Wrong choice!
"Okay then....." Fitcher said, thinking hard. What was a better secret agent name?
Wild Fox? Crimson Bolt? Mr. Cool? Green Fire?
"What about Flaming Duck?" Nok-Nok suggested. Fitcher glared at him. He wanted a cool name, not something that made him sound like he was a dying animal!
"I don't need an agent name, it's a waste of time!" he finally decided. "If I think of one, I'll tell you, but for now I'm just Fitcher!" He got a look of absolute finality on his face. The trouble with his looks of finality were, they never convinced anyone that his word was final. People just stared at him funny.
"Very well." T said. "Come with me, then. Time for your mission." Anticipation grew in Fitcher. Mission!! He was finally on his way to be a true secret agent. He followed T back out the door of the weapons room, and through the main complex. They finally entered a large, conference-like room. The walls were lined with charts and maps, most of which Fitcher didn't have time to look at. T sat down in a large comfortable chair, and Fitcher did the same.
"Agent Fitcher, your first mission is rather simple one. Investigate the recent crime wave in Muse, and report your findings to me. Use special caution not to reveal this mission to anyone, and especially do not tell anyone that you are a MSSA agent."
"Not even c---" Fitcher began.
"Not even chicks." T said sternly. Fitcher mentally kicked him. What kind of a cruel man wouldn't even let him use his new secret agent status as a way to get women??
"Of course." Fitcher agreed sourly. "Is that all?"
"Be careful not to stumble into anything you can't handle. Oh, and remember---criminals or enemy agents could be anywhere, so be careful what you say. Good luck." T said, standing to shake his hand. Fitcher took it and shook it, and then he left the room.
"My first mission, and I can't even talk to chicks!" Fitcher said grumpily. "Oh well, I'll find some way around it." He walked back over to the complex entrance. The guards tipped their hats to him, and he went back up the passage.
******
Fitcher walked out into the streets of Muse. Everything seemed well, but then again, everything always did. Anabelle had a way of making everyone think that it was peaceful even if it wasn't. Of course, if it wasn't for MSSA he wouldn't have known any better, so he couldn't blame Anabelle for making Muse seem nice. Fitcher knew where he should look first---the "slum" area of town. If any crime was happening, it would be happening there.
As Fitcher entered the gloomy back-alley area, which smelled of grime, gloom, and utter ickiness, something dawned on him. He had just entered the most dangerous area in Muse, armed with nothing but a large pole. Was he crazy? What happened if someone tried to kill him? He could always clonk him or her, but that might be less effective on humans than on spider robots.
"Maybe I should have chosen the spiked mace after all..." he murmured to himself, clutching his staff tightly as he walked slowly, checking any alcoves and corners for unsolved crimes. He carefully peeked around every corner, praying that there were no angry, muscular criminals waiting to beat him to a pulp. Of course, a small part of him wished that he would find something so he could stop worrying and complete his mission.
Suddenly, Fitcher heard a blood-curdling scream come from above. His gaze snapped upward, to the second-story window from which the scream had come. Nothing seemed to be up there, but a few seconds later the window broke and a woman fell out of it, shrieking. Fitcher quickly dropped his staff and ran under her to catch her. He caught her, all right, but her weight knocked him to the ground as she landed in his arms. He blinked, stunned, and then got a good look at her. She was wearing a tattered fur coat over the top of a skimpy low-cut pink dress. Her clothing was torn and askew, and the fur hung limply off of one shoulder. She had long, curly locks of blonde hair that draped around her shoulders like honey. She had innocent blue eyes, filled with fright, and she had her arms wrapped tightly around him. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind.
Fitcher had found a babe.
"Oh, please, save me!" she pleaded. "They're after me!" Now Fitcher was concerned, and he snapped out of his daze.
"Who's after you, and why?" he asked, glancing nervously at the broken window on the second floor. The fact that there was no one up there surely meant that they were racing down to nab the girl, and then Fitcher would be in big trouble. "They" meant more than one person, which he wasn't sure he could handle---he wasn't at full strength, anyway.
"The bad men are after me! All I did was accidentally witness a few murders, and now they want to kill me!" she cried. Fitcher was suspicious.
"Is that it?" Murder was common among thieves, it didn't seem like they would care who witnessed what. She shifted her gaze off of him.
"Not quite..." she said quietly. "I....mistakenly....made off with some sort of vital blueprints."
That would do it. Fitcher concluded. Just then he heard angry yells, and crashing coming from the first floor of the building.
"Um, just how many men are there?" he asked nervously.
"Only six or seven trained fighters..." the girl said innocently. She batted her eyelashes in true maiden style. "Surely a big strong man like YOU can handle them!" She quickly jumped up out of his lap and hid behind an outcropping of stone, making Fitcher realize that he was still sitting on the ground without a weapon, in a dark alley, where six or seven angry men were likely to appear in a moment. He scrambled for his staff, grabbed it, and jumped to his feet just as two men came out a side door.
"Hey! You seen a girl?!" one demanded gruffly. Fitcher realized that now, like in so many other situations in his life, it might be better to play dumb.
"Nope, no girls here." Fitcher said dully, shrugging.
"But I'm right here, silly!!" the girl whispered loudly, waving her arms so that Fitcher could find her in case he had missed her.
So much for playing dumb. Now that his cover was blown he had nothing to lose. He whipped out the staff and clonked one of the men over the head.
"RUN!!!" he shouted to the woman. She nodded, and dashed into full view.
"The other way!!" he clarified, and she ran as fast as was possible in a fur coat, skirt and high heels, which is actually not very fast.
The other man angrily pulled out a knife and lunged at Fitcher, but he dodged sideways---just barely, for the knife slashed open his shirt. Fitcher thanked all available gods that he was slim, clonked the man and ran after the woman. He could hear sounds of pursuit behind him, and angry ones at that. He was barely keeping ahead of his pursuers.
He wheeled around the corner, only to find the woman in the clutches of two armed men.
"Hey!" he said loudly. "Let her go!" The two men turned to him slowly, glaring angrily. He raised up his staff in an almost feeble gesture; the men were nearly twice his height.
"Please...?" he added timidly.
"Save me, please, sir!" the woman begged tearfully. It was about that time when the other three men came around the corner behind Fitcher; he had knocked out at least one. But now he and the girl were surrounded. At times like this, Fitcher wished that he had a cute talking animal sidekick to assist him and maybe even filch some keys off of these ruffians. For he was sure that they were going to locked up, or worse. The men grabbed Fitcher roughly and dragged him along into an abandoned building. Then they entered a hole in the wall and began descending down a long flight of stairs.
Where can these stairs go? he thought, How many underground caverns can Muse possibly have???
They were eventually brought down into an unusally expansive cavern. How far did it go? If it went far enough, Fitcher could dig through to MSSA headquarters! But what about the girl? Scratch that plan. The men shoved them roughly into a cell, and tied both their wrists to hooks on the wall.
Fitcher turned to the woman.
"Sorry I couldn't save you. I guess I can't do anything right..." he said, eyes downcast.
"You were wonderful!" she breathed, inhaling and making Fitcher's eyes not so downcast anymore. It would be a lie to say that she wasn't well-endowed.
"I'm Pearl Lione. Thanks for your help." she said.
"Oh, I'm Fitcher, and...." Fitcher said. "Well, I guess we're stuck here."
"That's right, we're stuck here..." she said, scooting a little closer.
"All....alone...." he said quietly, turning to face her.
"Alone..." she breathed, leaning in towards him.
"Hey jailbirds, time to meet the master!" came a gruff voice, interrupting what Fitcher was sure would have become an extremely romantic moment. He vowed to kill whoever had just spoken. Damn him! A beefy man walked into their view, smirking at them through the bars.
"That is, in a minute." he said, walking back the way he had come. It seemed that he hadn't come for anything except to ruin Fitcher's chances with this babe. He reviewed his situation. He was a secret agent, locked in a jail cell, with an astoundingly beautiful woman. If he couldn't get lucky under these circumstances, then he probably couldn't anywhere!! Also, there was his mission. How could he investigate crime if he was locked up underground? Although, he had a nagging feeling that this was probably the source of the crime around Muse, or else just a very violent trading post or something. He turned to Pearl, who looked as if her mind was elsewhere.
"Pearl..." he began, "can I see your---"
"I'm too cold, and I'm not taking off my coat right now." she said.
"I meant the blueprints!" Fitcher said quickly. If this was how she interpreted everything...
"Oh, of course you did." she said, flashing him a friendly smile. She reached inside the fur coat and pulled out a rolled-up paper. She was about to hand it to him, but footfalls told them that the beefy guard was returning, so she stuffed it back into her coat. He opened the cell door, and roughly led them along a narrow corridor into another room. This one was massively expansive; Fitcher didn't see how it and MSSA HQ could fit under Muse. But, contrasting with the mostly dirt walls of previous rooms they had been in, this one was made of mostly metal. A chilly air seemed to inhabit it, blowing around and making everything cold. Fitcher shivered. He looked around for some sort of important looking man, who would probably be the boss of this place. Instead, the room was mostly filled with gruff, beefy-looking men like those he had fought and been captured by.
"Who are you people anyway?" he demanded. They all perked up, standing at attention.
"We are the Thugs Of Muse!" they chorused in unison. Fitcher strongly felt a song-and-dance number coming on, and vowed to do anything in his power to stop it.
"That's okay, never mind!" he shouted. "Who is the boss here?!"
"So glad you asked!" came a thin voice from the end of the room. Near the far wall, on a slightly raised platform, was an ominous swivel chair, facing away of course. It slowly turned around to face them, revealing the owner of the voice. It was a thin, bald man, wearing a black robe and cloak, with a black eye patch on his left eye. He cackled diabolically.
"So! You have stumbled onto my evil organization!" he said with a particularly evil smile. Fitcher cringed; so this was what evil crime bosses were like!
"What are you going to do with us?" he asked cautiously. The bald man laughed again, he seemed to enjoy doing that a lot.
"I am going to strap you to cold steel slabs, and fry you with my Rune Ray device! Diabolical, isn't it? I've been waiting to test my Rune Ray machine out, and you two just fell into my clutches!" the bald man said, throwing back his head for another maniacal laugh.
Just my luck, thought Fitcher, that I would be the one to fall into his clutches. Why can't I ever fall into the clutches of someone not wanting to kill me?
"Who are you?" Pearl asked innocently. The evil man looked at her evilly with his right eye.
"I thought you'd never ask. I'm the greatest runemaster scientist to ever live! Doctor Badnooz!" he said with a dramatic swoosh of his black robes, and Fitcher swore he heard thunder and lightning for a moment. With that, he went into another laugh, and two Thugs grabbed Fitcher and Pearl roughly and tied them to conveniently located steel slabs, which were vertical and facing the mad doctor.
With his hands tied, Fitcher was helpless. But, if he had enough time, he was sure he could untie the clumsy knots. But first, he needed a sufficient distraction. He knew that there were certain phrases that captive secret agents could say that villains couldn't resist, but none came to mind. Luckily, Pearl came through.
"You'll never get away with this!!" she cried defiantly, managing to look defiant and angry and helpless and beautiful all at the same time, as only captive maidens could. Fitcher fervently hoped that the doctor would then go into a lengthy and evil-laugh-filled explaination of exactly why he could get away with it, and his luck succeeded.
"Oh yes, I can." he began. Fitcher worked at the ropes. He just needed a little more...
"No you can't! You'll never get away with this evil plan!" Pearl insisted. A little more...
"Why not?" Badnooz demanded.
"Fitcher will save us all!" Pearl insisted. Badnooz whirled around to face him. Uh-oh! Now the attention was back on him again. He was going to have to risk something, and it would only work if he and Pearl could get away after he got loose.
"Um, doesn't Pearl have something you want? Some ruby shoes, or a secret document, or your favorite hairpiece or something??" Fitcher said, hoping all of these choices would cause a sufficient distraction.
Badnooz whirled around again, intent on finding just what it was that Pearl had.
"Oh, yes, Miss Lione! I had been expecting you, but I didn't recognize you at first. Give me the blueprints you stole from me." Badnooz said sternly. Pearl was at a loss, unsure of what to do.
"I don't have any blueprints. Are you sure you aren't looking for a hairpiece?" she said, giggling. Badnooz self-consciously flipped his hood up to cover his bald head.
"I'm naturally bald, you twit! Give me the blueprints!" he demanded, turning red. By now, Fitcher had untied his hands, and could now go free, but he kept quiet.
Unfortunately, Pearl did not.
"Fitcher!" she cried with glee. "You're free! You can escape!!!" Badnooz now noticed this detail as well. Fitcher was unarmed, but not stupid. He shot past the doctor and ran out into the middle of the room, where a giant metallic device stood, most likely the Rune Ray. Doctor Badnooz wasted no time getting oriented. He held up his right palm, which Fitcher could now see had a lightning bolt insignia on it---he had a rune!
"You can't escape!" Badnooz cried. "Angry Blow!"
Wind blew through the chamber, and a blue bolt of pure light shot out of nowhere. Fortunately for Fitcher, the doctor's aim was off, and his blast hit the Rune Ray instead.
"Curses! Oh, go get him! Don't let him escape!!!" the doctor cursed, motioning to his cronies to chase him. Several Thugs of Muse charged at him, blades flashing. Fitcher realized that he probably wasn't going to win a fight against many armed men, so he ran back toward Pearl. He jumped up onto the back of her steel slab, and started untying her. Several more shots of lightning whizzed past him.
"Hurry!" Pearl said desperately. He untied her all except for her left arm, which he couldn't get before the Thugs arrived. He wildly kicked one, and punched another in the face.
Ow! His face is like a rock! Fitcher reminded himself not to do that again. Well, he did know the fastest way to take a man down, regardless of training. He commenced his "kicking them where it counts" move, and Pearl tugged at the remaining ropes, in which the sleeve of her fur coat was caught.
"Leave the coat!" Fitcher urged, fending off another assailant. Pearl pulled the blueprints out of her coat and handed them to Fitcher.
"Keep these safe!" she cried, slipping out of her fur coat. It was about then that a large, angry thug decided to start choking Fitcher to death, which he couldn't truthfully say that he really enjoyed. Pearl screamed in utter horror, and looked around for a way to help. She scrambled over to Dr. Badnooz, who was surveying the proceedings with increasing nervousness.
"Oh, mister evil madman!" she said tearfully. "I give up! I'll give you the blueprints if you give me a crowbar!" Badnooz cackled evilly.
"I knew you'd see reason!" he said triumphantly. He grabbed a crowbar from a nearby table and handed it to her. She kicked him between the legs and ran back over to Fitcher, who was turning purple. She delivered a good "clank" to the thug's head, and he collapsed onto the ground. The mad doctor was writhing in pain.
"How...dare...you.....double....cross....me......" he gasped. By now, more thugs were headed toward Fitcher and Pearl.
"What do we do now?" Pearl asked worriedly. Now that Fitcher wasn't in mortal danger, she reverted to her normal, helpless self. Fitcher thought fast, and saw a hanging rope.
"I have an idea!" he cried, climbing up onto a raised platform. He gripped the rope in one hand, and wrapped his other arm around Pearl's slender waist.
"Hold on!" he shouted, grinning. "I've always wanted to do this!!" With that, he jumped off the platform and swung out across the room. But seconds after he left the platform, it occured to Fitcher that his arms were not as strong as conventional heroes' arms, and something unexpected happened.
He dropped Pearl. Right on top of Badnooz. They were sprawled out on the floor, Badnooz had the wind knocked out of him. Fitcher tried to swing back and grab Pearl. He did partway, but there wasn't enough momentum, so he dropped her on the doctor again. Badnooz held up his glowing hand, and shot a lightning bolt at Fitcher. It severed the rope, and Fitcher fell onto the doctor as Pearl scrambled out of the way.
At this point, the Thugs were no longer pursuing, but merely watching with interest as to what their boss would do.
"Run for the exit!" Fitcher urged. Pearl nodded, and they ran as fast as they could for the doorway. Pearl dashed through, but Fitcher paused, realizing that it was the obligation of the secret agent to fire off a witty, snappy one-liner at the bad guy, and THEN make his escape.
"Doctor Badnooz!" he called. The doctor was stumbling to his feet.
"What?!" he screeched.
"Uhh...you lose.....loser." Fitcher said lamely, turning tail and running out the door as Thugs and lightning bolts sailed after him.
"Come on, Fitcher!" Pearl gasped, panting prettily. He took the lead and dashed down the corridor. He could hear the now-familar angry sounds of pursuit behind him, but then they came to a fork in the road. Due to his prior luck with forks, Fitcher was reluctant to make a snap decision.
"Hurry!" Pearl cried, nervously glancing behind them.
Right or left? Colossus or mutant beast? Jeweled crown or porcupine? There were too many choices in his life! Why couldn't something be easy for once?
"After them! They ruined my evil scheme, don't let them escape!" Badnooz's voice echoed up the corridor. Fitcher ran blindly to the left, and Pearl followed. Luckily, they found a staircase leading upwards, and ran up it with all speed. They were gaining ground ahead of their pursuers, and they were about to escape out the exit.
Then, of course, Pearl tripped.
"Fitcher! Help!" she gasped, extending her hand slowly, as if it weighed 10 tons. She had a look of absolute desperation on her face, as she laid there, sprawled out on the stairway. The Thugs swarmed up the stairs and stopped, ready to capture them.
"Well, well, well..." Badnooz cackled, pushing his way to the top. "Leaving so soon?" Fitcher couldn't believe the man had just asked this, it was obvious why they were getting the hell out of there.
"Yes, that's right." Fitcher snapped. "I didn't plan on getting captured by a megalomaniac today!"
Pearl put her hand to her mouth, gasping daintily.
"Megalomaniac? That sounds very high in calories..." she murmured. Badnooz glared at her.
"Megalomaniac isn't a food, you stupid girl!" he cried. She glared back at him.
"I'm not stupid, you big ugly-head-face-man!" she cried, kicking him in the shin. She jumped to her feet with surprising speed. Fitcher grabbed her hand and they ran out the exit.
"Get them! Right now!!! What are you waiting for?!!" Badnooz screamed. The Thugs shrugged and charged after them, trampling their boss in the process.
Fitcher ran as fast as he could away from the slums, not even sure that Pearl was still keeping pace with him. He ran around a corner and knocked down---
"Nora!" he gasped.
"Ouch!" she cried, adjusting her glasses. "Fitcher!" Then she noticed Pearl, gasping and panting cutely, clad in her skimpy pink dress.
"Who's THIS?" she asked, somewhat distastefully.
"Pearl Lione." Pearl said, instantly regaining her composure and managing to look dazzlingly beautiful again, even though she had just been running.
"I'm Nora Kiell. Nice to meet you." Nora said shortly. She turned to Fitcher. "What's going on? You were gone so long that T sent me to find you."
"...There's a whole huge organization of crime...underground! And this evil guy with a rune machine, and there's these thugs, I tried to stop them, of course, but they overwhelmed me despite my massive strength and---" Fitcher cried, rambling.
"Slow down! There's a crime organization??" Nora said, holding up her hand. Fitcher nodded. She shook her head.
"We were afraid of this. Good thing we came prepared..." she said, gesturing to the alleyways, which were already full of soldiers.
"What the...?" Fitcher exclaimed.
"Fitcher, we had suspected that some such organization existed, and when we sent you to investigate, Nok-Nok found out something startling, and so T went to the government to request formal help. That's the State Army, they'll take care of the thugs and such." Nora explained. Fitcher relaxed---he had worked with the Army briefly before, at his old job, and knew they were reliable.
"We can return to headquarters now, Fitcher." Nora said. Pearl flashed a look of helpless sorrow.
"But what about me?" she cried. "What do I do?" Nora silently wished that she herself could manage such looks, but it seemed that Pearl had practiced for years. Fitcher seemed quite smitten, too.
"Yeah, what about Pearl?" he echoed.
"Just bring her too." Nora said as sounds of a fight echoed from the alleyways. They turned quickly and left.
******
"Very interesting," T said admiringly after Fitcher had told the whole story to them, as they stood intently listening in the conference room. Well, almost the whole story. He had left out the part where he and Pearl had almost kissed in the jail cell, because Nora was present. Though he couldn't figure out why that would have bothered him, it just did.
"Sounds pretty far-fetched..." Nok-Nok remarked skeptically. Fitcher glared at him scornfully, and stood up.
"It's all true, every word of it! Every word was true, and I assure you that I was every bit as macho and muscular there as I am in real life!" he shouted.
"Scrawny, then?" Nok-Nok said with a smirk. Fitcher kicked him.
"Just kidding, Flaming Duck ol' boy. You've got the agent thing down pretty well, I'd say." Fitcher wasn't sure whether or not to take this as a compliment, especially the Flaming Duck part, so he sat down.
"And now for the business at hand. Miss Lione, we assure you that you will be kept safe from harm." T said gracefully.
"I'm carrying some precious cargo...." she said uneasily, pulling out the rolled-up blueprints. She didn't unfold them.
"What's that?" Nok-Nok asked.
"It's the blueprints that I accidentally...okay, I stole them back. But Badnooz stole them first! I had to get them back---to save my people!" Pearl cried, standing up, and looking determined, lovely, desperate, helpless, independent, scantily-clad, and.....Fitcher wondered why the room had suddenly gotten so hot. Or was it just him?
"Hey, Nok-Nok....just what was the 'important discovery' that prompted you guys to seek government help?" Fitcher asked curiously. To his surprise, Nok-Nok began to blush.
"Well, uhh, I accidentally....found their underground hideout today, kinda..."
"What?" Fitcher exclaimed. "Where at? If we had known, we could have escaped easier! Though I assure you, with my strength I had no trouble escaping the way that we did!"
"There was a sealed passageway between the MSSA complex and their hideout." T explained.
"Where at?" Fitcher asked, and Nok-Nok turned even more red.
"From the MSSA mens' bathroom......to the female barracks on the other side...." he said. Everyone laughed at this.
"Well, Pearl, what are you going to do?" T asked her.
"I must protect my people! But I don't know if I could make it alone..." she said. She glanced tearfully at Fitcher, and Nora rolled her eyes and stopped herself from making a loud gagging sound.
"Make it to where alone?" T asked. "We need to get the details straight..."
At that moment, a messenger entered the room.
"Agent T!" he cried, saluting. "The State Army told me to inform you, that they have secured the hideout, and locked up the criminals....however, one man has escaped. They think it was the ringleader."
"What?" Nora gasped.
"He was last seen heading east, toward Toto Village, sir." the messenger said. "I'm sorry, sir."
He left quietly. T turned to the others.
"This is----" he began.
"Wonderful!" Pearl cried, flinging her arms around Fitcher.
"W-what?" Fitcher asked, quite shocked at this sudden outburst.
"While that bad man is occupied in the east, we can head south, toward the Scarlet Moon Empire! That's where I need to go, anyway!" she said happily. Fitcher nodded slowly.
"O-okay..."
"It seems you have a new mission, Fitcher. Escort Pearl Lione to the border, and protect her from harm. Do you accept?" T said.
"Uh, of course." Fitcher said. What luck! Nora rolled her eyes again. Pearl released him.
"We can head south to Coronet first, and sail across the lake!" she said gleefully. "This will be fun!"
Fun. Well, it was a mixed blessing. He had a woman who liked him now, and though she was an airhead, she certainly wasn't as scatter-brained as Leknaat. Now he just had to survive the next hurdle of his journey: Coronet, his home town.
"Good luck, Flaming Duck!" Nok-Nok said with a wink.
"You'll need it," Nora said sourly.
