Volunteer duty.

That generally wasn't a word you'd think about much when thinking about a big global evil underground organization like Shadowlaw.  Sorta like politics, socializing, and evil custodians.

Yet it was there.

Someone had to be nice enough to sign up some free time to chip in after all.  For Agent Juli, she might have been programmed to do it, what with her being a doll and all.  Or maybe she just was really bored and needed something to do, which was probably the case since it had been a while since Juli last found herself in the volunteer assignment office.

Open from 9 AM to 4 PM on Thursdays, it was always the primary hangout of agents who were workaholics or agents who just had nothing better to do.  In Juli's case, her partner Juni had run off to God knows where again for a bit and her best friend Bremare was gone off to where ever he could hope Shadowlaw would hopefully never find his defecting self again.  Thus Juli was sort of stuck in a finger twiddling rut, so she went here like she used to go to before she met Bremare and Juni.  In that sword girl with the short plain circular haircut's case, well... she was just a workaholic.  Agent Fenrir must have forcefully dragged Desire and Olvere there too, because neither the Native American girl with the vest nor the rough-haired African one seemed very happy to be there.

Couldn't blame them, really.  The volunteer office was a pretty boring place.  Some file cabinets, a desk with a computer and a plain-looking secretary with glasses, tick-tock clock ticking away the silence, paper lying all over the place... About the only half-interesting thing which stood out in the small room was that circle-framed picture of Lord Vega in all his unmasked long blonde-haired glory hanging on the wall.

The picture was interesting because most people usually didn't get to see Vega with his white "fancy hockey" mask off.  That was probably much to the dissappointment of Shadaloo female workers everywhere since he really was rather handsome, it seemed.  Not that Juli was interested in him.  She was too busy dealing with repressed feelings for large pleasantly chubby commanders in red or crazy gimp scientists who have nothing better to do but stand up and piss off their girlfriends all the time.

Wow, and Fenrir seemed really pissed off about Bremare that day.  What did he do, call her fat or something?

Juli figured she'd stop thinking about it, since what was done was done, anyway.  Too bad she didn't have anything else to think about.  The secretary sure was taking her time getting Agent Olvere an assignment.

It WAS a long time since she was last here, but apparently at least this was something for Juli which didn't change.  She was surprised, since she figured that Beatriz (if she remembered the secretary's name right) would have moved on by now from this simple duty for her Thursdays.  And of course Fenrir was here as always, waiting for yet another silly insignificant chance to do something.  Juli didn't really understand the workaholic mindset or why Fenrir would subject herself to something like this.

"What?!?"

Olvere, judging by her outburst after her reading of her assignment, certainly didn't like it, that's for sure.  Supposedly the agent data was run through a computer then the best fit extra lying-around assignment would be handed out.

Apparently that computer did not like Olvere very much.

"Let me get this straight,"  Olvere glared at Beatriz rather angrily.  "The artifact... that I'm supposed to retrieve... somehow got thrown away, passed through the sewer, and flowed down into a pollution radioactive waste dump?!?"

Beatriz didn't look intimidated at all.  She looked annoyed, in fact.  Not really annoyed with Olvere, but just the situation in general, or maybe something Juli didn't know about.  Sighful was probably a better word for it, if that was an actual word.

"Cristobol ran the analysis and chose the assignment."  She replied with a shrug.  "Take it or leave it."

Olvere's glance back at Fenrir was a pretty large indication that she didn't want to take it, but apparently Fenrir's gaze forced her to or something because she ended up taking it anyway, albeit with a big sigh.  Normally, Juli thought this was an indication of Fenrir forcing her silly workaholic habits on others, but in this case Olvere must have finally snapped or something because after she stood there seething for a bit, she practically crumpled the assignment paper then glared back at Fenrir and snapped at her.

"Cristobol!?  You know the truth, don't you?!?"  She shouted to the other agent as Desire read over the assignment.  "Why don't you report this to Lord Bison and can that loser's ass?!?"

Juli didn't know who "that loser" was.  It probably wasn't Cristobol since that was just the name for Beatriz's computer (exactly WHY Beatriz gave her computer a name was something Juli hoped could be explained off as a simple quirk).

"You can't always rely on others."  Fenrir calmly replied, or as calmly as one could get when they too seemed inwardly peeved about the assignment that popped out of ye ol' Cristobol.  "Hmm.  We'll handle this ourselves.  'That loser' is just jealous."

Quiet came back into the room as Beatriz resumed typing at her keyboard.  Perhaps there was a real reason to her running the volunteer office after all.  Ironic how Fenrir would talk about jealousy, since she was always so envious of Juli just because Juli had a higher efficiency rating.  Seventy-eight percent compared to Fenrir's sixty.  A pretty big jump but it wasn't like Juli ever bragged about it or anything unless Fenrir really asked for it, which actually was what she'd been doing pretty often, recently.

Juli glanced back at the framed photo of Vega at the wall.  Lord Vega, one of the four Lords of Shadowlaw... did they ever get their efficiency rated like the dolls did?  Well, most of them wouldn't have been applicable.  'Lord' Balrog seemed like a simple beat-'em-up buffoon, and Sagat was a rather public figure.  And no one would be crazy enough to "rate" Lord Bison.  Judge not lest thou be judged after all, and Bison was generally the type of guy most normal people would prefer not to be judged by, besides possibly his personal doll guard or other elite forces directly under his command.  Vega, however, was an assassin like the dolls.  So if he ever got an efficiency rating, Juli couldn't help but wonder what percentage it would have been.

"Eighty-five percent."

It would have been an odd site.  To see Vega, one of the four great Shadaloo lords, master head assassin of the global evil organization, and the feared El Serpiente of the bull-fighting arena using a calculator.  Such a small compact device, devoid of any inherent beauty with its grey neutral colors, simple black numbers, and dull rectangular shape, wouldn't have been fitting for one of such magnificence as the one known as Vega.

That's why he had his private head secretary Beatriz Cuello Alvarez handle it.  As well as other such menial devices which weren't worthy of his time.

"The efficiency rating came out to be eighty-five percent, Lord Vega."  Beatriz's voice repeated over the intercom.

Was there a beautiful enough word to describe it?  Damn?  Curses?  Even the ugly but powerful one that began with an F?  No, perhaps, strong emotions weren't meant to be expressed by one mere word.

"So that's it?"

Vega was not amused.  To be surpassed like this.  He needed it to be higher, because if even one doll surpassed him, then he and thus beauty wasn't at the top.  Even if that one doll was just the one with the mask who wasn't even grouped up with the other twelve.

"You're going after Fenrir again, Lord Vega?"

Inwardly, Vega sighed.  He wasn't going to be scoffed again by those silly girls who had no appreciation for the finer things.  It was obvious that they were beautiful, themselves, but their taste sadly left something to be desired.  Lord Bison was a powerful man.  One to repected.  But beautiful?

Most certainly not.

"Shall I prepare the..."

"Forget it, Alvarez."  The masked Spaniard replied over the intercom.  "I'll play it, myself."

"Yes, Lord Vega.  I'll make the preparations right away."

Why did he put up with it all?  Ugly people had their uses.  Again, Lord Bison was one to be respected.  Even Beatriz wasn't that attractive and all, though she was bearable enough, perhaps.

So long as Vega didn't have to actually look at them that much, he supposed.  Which was why the ones he was about to show up were such... tragic abominations.

It was time to get going.  Beatriz would probably have everything ready soon.  Vega was just on his way out the door to recieve it when a certain doll stood in his way.  The one that was different from all the others.  The one that was made up from scratch.  An attempt to see if it were possible to artificially create the perfect beauty.  Perhaps a statement that beautiful perfection couldn't be naturally obtained.  Which was silly, since Vega always thought himself to be a flawless example of natural beauty.

He took off his own mask so he could look at the masked girl and sigh.

"Do not go after me.  I will prove to you and to everyone that I will not be bested by these charlatons.  Stay here or go back to Lord Bison.  He is the one you're supposed to admire anyway, despite his inferior physical appearance."

With that, he walked past the doll.  He so wished he didn't give her that mask.  Why did he?  Was it possible for even him to make mistakes?  Perhaps he just felt sorry for her and hoped beauty like hers wouldn't get scarred like all the others did.

This, at the moment, was probably one of the greatest chances in Beatriz Cuello Alvarez's life.

Vega.

Mud-filled sewer complex.  Mud.  Mud that plasters.

And spandex.  Glorious, glorious spandex.  Spandex that molded. Glorious, glorious molding.  It would be black spandex too.  So svelt, so fitting, so perfectly perfect for her website... she'd have fifty thousand hits this year if it killed her.

Fifty-thousand hits would require something a little bit better than Vega in the leather jacket, though.  Fifty-thousand required the miracle with which she had just been presented.   Or maybe it would be more precise to say that in the midst of her "volunteer office" duty, it had been so kind as to crawl down from heaven and bite her in the ass.

But alas, this miracle would require a bit of convincing.  A bit of... conniving, as it where.  And when conniving was concerned, there was none better that the unofficial pet scientist of her dearly seksay Spanish employer - the one and only Erriol Ferrars.

The sacrifices she made for the common good...

"Allo allo, Beatriz!  How are you doing on this lovely fine day?  Of course it's raining but that's okay because rain makes the flowers grow!"  The bizzarely bouncy BBC accent was enough to make her cringe.  But Beatriz Cuello Alvarez, unlike most of the Shadowlaw, knew exactly what kind of game Erriol Ferrars was playing (well, not exactly.. but it sounded cool and damned if she was going to admit she couldn't find anything in his files). And that no, he really hadn't inhaled too many fumes.

"Ferrars," the curly-haired secretary regarded her paler colleague in evil stirring a mix of red... ummm... something.  She didn't really want to know.  Though if Erriol was expecting not to have his ass killed in the next month, it should be that kelp skin cream Vega hadn't stopped rambling about since he got back from Japan.  Stupid Erriol.  Never did anything useful when she needed him to.  Nope.  Just his stupid bombs and... where was he getting Tim Horton's brand doughnuts in the middle of Thailand anyways?

Stupid no-doughnuts Thailand.

Serruptitiously, Alvarex took the opportunity to nab the last chocolate cream while his hands were full.

"Hey!  That's my favoritest favorite flavor since it's so chocolatey and good!  Although I guess you can have it since friends share and all, and it's really great to make friends with new people!" Erriol chirped.

Sigh.

"Vega wants a protective suit.  He has to follow Fenrir on that mission I pawned off on the Dolls through the volunteer office."

"Fenrir?"  A single charcoal eyebrow was raised behind the impenetrable glass shield wared about his eyes.

"Yeah.  She's been mouthing off again.  Lord Vega doesn't like people calling him a loser. It's not very pretty at all."

Stupid Fenrir.  Making her job all annoying.....  Every single month, Vega had to go off on some stupid wild goose chase to show up Fenrir or Cammy or whatever stupid doll was making her do more stupid work when she could be posting more screencaps of Vega and catching up on her message-boards.  Arrrrg.  Stupid dolls didn't notice anyone who couldn't make shiny lights come from their fists or do psychic projections or whatever.

"Yeah.  That's really very mean and bad and not nice at all.  Poor Vega!  I'll get a parka together right away and..."

"A spandex wetsuit."

"Whaaaa?"

"Lord Vega wants a spandex wetsuit.  In black.  With easily attachable mini-camera loops so I can track him."

"Lord Vega wants this.  You're really really really sure that's 'Vega'?" Ferrars questioned, now gone with his... umm... goopy thing and munching happily on an eclair.  How did he never gain weight?  Stupid Erriol.

Evasive action.  The dougnut was quickly snatched away while Beatriz took to glaring.

"Yes, Lord 'Vega' wants a spandex wetsuit."

Glorious, glorious spandex.

"Well okay then!  I'll get to it in a jiffy once I'm done with my break with these yummy snack treats that are soooo good today!  Oh my goodness, yes.  And they even had this one that was shaped like a little bunny head and it was so cute and...:"

"Goodbye, Erriol."

And so she went, nerves more than a little taxed by talking to the science corps' Evil Serina (may they never reproduce).   Talking directly to Erriol was like getting an impacted tooth.  When the hell was Folken coming back?

Sigh.

Stupid Folken.

She wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be thankful or not.  Sure, Juli wasn't trudging off to the miracle fun adventures of sewage crawling, but she also... wasn't trudging off anywhere.  Which really defeated the whole purpose of going to the volunteer office to look for something to do.  Of course Beatriz and her computer spend a whole heck of a lot of time figuring out the mission assignment for Team Workalot, but all Juli got was a single sentence on a piece of paper telling her to go grocery shopping and a grocery list to go with it.

Considering Beatriz's suddenly distracted demeanor and the fact that she just quickly handed Juli the slip then dashed off, Juli wondered if she was going to be doing BEATRIZ's grocery shopping or whatnot.  That... was just annoying.

Still in the volunteer office, a while after Fenrir and her two flunkies had dashed off, Juli took the time to read over the list.  Milk, cookies, eggs, hot dogs...

A pause.

"Dammit..."  She muttered to herself upon the realization that she didn't have any money to go grocery shopping with.  Dolls weren't exactly paid after all.  Great.  She'd probably have to hit the blackmarkets and hope it was one that fell under Shadowlaw's iron hand and accepted Bison dollars. And if it wasn't, she'd probably have to take the even-more-boring-than-doing-nothing time and energy to file a report so Shadowlaw could MAKE it fall under Shadowlaw's iron hand and thus accept Bison dollars.

Yes, that was just annoying indeed.

Juli sighed again and looked back up, prepared to leave.  Until a newcomer coming from the back room of the volunteer office caught her eye.

Cammy.

What was she doing here?  The thought of Cammy coming to the volunteer's office was something Juli couldn't comprehend unless Bison sent her to do something here.  Wasn't she pre-occupied enough by being Lord Bison's most personal doll? After all, it probably took up a lot of Cammy's time following Bison's personal orders and... that... other stuff Bison did with her.

Juli took a brief second to shudder at the rumours before resuming her thought.

Anyway, why was Cammy wearing the generic agent uniform full body leotard?  Normally she wore that bright turqoise custom variation with the camoflauge paints on the revealed legs.  Maybe whatever volunteer mission Bison sent her on required some more dark clothing.  Which was odd, since Cammy was slightly stuck up to where not only did she not remain content with having a higher efficiency rating than the other dolls at the maximum one-hundred percent, she also did all her missions with that blindingly bright outfit which basically screamed "Hey look!  I'm so good I can wear this shiny thing and still be stealthy!"

Whatever.  Cammy even wore a black porcelain mask this time.  That was probably overkill in the dark department.  Ah well, it was probably none of Juli's business so she turned to leave.  A grab on her shoulder and a yank to make Juli turn around again spoke otherwise, though.

"We're going to save Vega now."

Eh?  Juli blinked in surprise at the other doll before replying rather incoherently.  "Hunh?"

"We'll take off at the airstrip in an hour."  Cammy stated matter of factly.  "You'll meet me there."

"Ummm..."  Juli stuttered.  This was really wierd.  "But..."

"You will prepare now, as shall I."  With that, Agent Cammy walked off, leaving Juli alone again.

She slowly stared at the empty spot where Cammy once stood.  "Ooooooh-kaaaaaay..."

Why was she there?  This was not Juli's assignment.  She was supposed to be groc... oh, that was probably it.  Juli looked around the airport hanger bay area and sighed.  She probably figured anything was better than grocery shopping.  Fenrir, however, was none too pleased to see her there.

"Juli, are you following us?"

"Yes, Fenrir.  I'm following you."  Juli sarcastically snapped as several Shadowlaw workers ran by to load up some crates into various transports.  "I'm worried about you and you are my idol for despite your inferior efficiency rating, your mad sword skillz continue to captivate me and make me want to see your workaholic stabberiffic moves in action!"

Annoyed, Fenrir reached for her sword but Desire quickly interrupted.  "Julia!  You didn't mean that, I hope?"

It seemed like there would be no sword stabbing at that moment since everyone was too busy glaring at the confused worried Native American girl.

"Hmph!"  Anger already morphed into a simple sulkiness, Fenrir leaned back with her arms crossed and gave Juli a rather annoyed glare.  "I'm not the one who failed to get a simple little amulet.  Or needed my partner to handle the aftermath explanations to avoid retribution."

An announcement boomed in the background asking Helijet #302 to move to hanger #096, but no one paid attention to it.  Fenrir had apparently pushed a button for Juli.  Which was good.  Stupid stubborn girl needed some discipline.

"What the hell would you know?!"  Juli finally snapped back.  "Our opposition was underestimated by the mission briefing.  She..."

"The one that defeated Shidoshi?  Oh?  You seem surprised that I know about her?"  Stupid Agent Juli.  Time for some payback.  "Juli, I will tell you now.  The difference between you and that Makoto Rindou girl is that Makoto actually TRIES."

"H... How dare you!"  Ooooo, she's almost spazzing.  Fenrir wondered if she should be prepared to block a bitch slap from that idiot.  "It wasn't even my fault!  Juni..."

The brunette paused.  That was odd.  What was that about Agent Juni?  Was she trying to pass the blame off to someone else?

Juli sighed.  "Nevermind.  I screwed up.  Made a mistake.  As it is, however, you still don't have the right to talk since you're the one with the failing efficiency rating, not me."

The god damn bitch grinned at Fenrir with that last remark.  And Fenrir was REALLY getting tired of it.  Ever since damn Bremare ran off, Juli stepped up on emphasizing that efficiency rating point and Fenrir was not amused.  Of course, whenever she would rant about that, Desire would remark how Fenrir seemed to up the aggressiveness meter, herself, but one good thing about THAT particular naive girl was that, like how Fenrir might not have had 'the right' to talk like that to Juli, Desire didn't need to be taken seriously since she was the one with the lowest efficiency rating out of all the dolls.

Junivelle was a lot more competent than Juli, anyway.  Before Juni came along, the only reason Juli was the third top doll below Avelle and Cammy was because Aurora didn't count and Olvere and Noelle weren't fully up to speed yet.

Desire worried about that little efficiency ratings chart that Fenrir had in her room, but Fenrir didn't care.  Juli at seventy percent jumping up to seventy-eight percent after Juni came along, Olvere and Noelle at seventy-two and seventy-three respectively...

Even Janet at sixty-two...

"No, that is NOT acceptable!"  Olvere's shout into a cellphone quickly snapped Fenrir back to reality.  "Tell the UN to take their stupid little proposal and shove it!  The world's environment will thank us for it.  Damn progress pushers..."

Agent Olvere quickly hung up the phone then looked at Fenrir.

"Can we get going yet?"

Fenrir slowly raised an eyebrow at the girl, as did everyone else except Desire who was busy playing around juggling her tomahawks to pass the time.  "What the hell was that?!"

"Wha?"  The girl stared in surprise.  "Oh!  I was just... throwing in my two cents to my environmental club I was in."

Since when did Environmental clubs wage deals with the United Nations?  Both Juli and Fenrir wanted to inquire further but Olvere's pet golden lion tamerine monkey ran up to her to bail her out or something.  The monkey quickly jumped up and down screeching and pointing to a watch on its wrist.  Where it got the watch, Fenrir had no idea.

"Oh, look at the time!"  Olvere happily remarked now that the pressure was gone.  "Agent Fenrir, our ride is about to leave."

That watch also just happened to be ten minutes fast, and ten minutes just happened to be the amount of time before their ride would be leaving.

That... was one smart monkey.

Ah well, let Olvere get away with that.  Fenrir would ask her what's going on, later.

"Agent Olvere, you can go ahead."  She rolled her eyes as she let Olvere have her silly excuse to leave.  She herself, though, still had to beat Juli at this silly little match.  Olvere quickly saluted and ran off as her pet monkey leaped onto her shoulder.  It was time to begin round two.  "So, Agent Juli, do YOU think you could beat the Rindou girl in a match?"

"Do I look like I don't have better things to do than spend all day gauging peoples' power levels?!?"  Juli snapped, getting really annoyed with Fenrir's pokes.  Her own damn fault for coming over.  What was she doing here, anyway?  "Can we stop talking about this?  I'm tired enough of Makoto's own toying around with me and inviting me to her dojo and all the humiliation I suffered back then."

Fenrir blinked.  "She invited you to her dojo?"

"Yea."  Juli angrily looked off to the side.  "That really aggravated me."

"I can imagine."

The brunette looked up at Fenrir.  Was Fenrir finally beginning to understand her?  "You can?"

"Yea."  Fenrir grinned.  "It must suck to have other people smack you with the reality that you're a damn worthless slacker who needs a dojo to train up in and actually get back into shape."

Ha, Juli looked really pissed.  She was probably about to attack Fenrir but another person broke in and interrupted things.  Probably for the best, since their ride was leaving soon.

"Ah, ladies, pardon me."  Catching them all off guard, a certain young man with white hair, only slightly older than all of the three girls, bowed down to them all.  "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

That idiot knew perfectly well that he was interrupting something.  Ah well, again, Fenrir didn't really mind since she had to be leaving soon anyway.  One of Desire's tomahawks that she was juggling thunked to the floor when her hand slipped, but no one really cared.  Who was it again?  Oh yea, Juli's partner or boyfriend Fokken or whatever his name was before Juli's sooooooulmate Juni came along and took his place.  No wonder why Desire seemed disturbed.  Crazy girl.

"Oh, you weren't interrupting."  Fenrir replied with a smirk.  "We were just talking about how someone was oh so nice enough to invite Juli to her dojo."

"A dojo, is it?"  Fokken put his hand to his chin and the other into the pocket of his red jacket.  "I suppose that Juli perhaps would appreciate a change of scenery for her pursuit of her abilities.  Training, even.  Heaven knows she could use the improvement.  Though I must admit that those people who are infatuated with basing their entire lives around a silly thing like a dojo tend to disturb me a bit."

Hmm.  Fenrir did not like Fokken.  It wasn't that bad though.  At least it was fun to see the look on Juli's face as she glared at Fokken with an expression of "Gee, thanks... I think."

"Anyway, Ophelia asked me to give you a message while I was here."  The young albino continued to Juli.  "She wants you to meet her at the second-hundredth and fifty-fourth airpad."

Desire and Juli both asked the next question at the same time, albeit with different tones as Juli's was matter of factly while Desire's seemed really worried.  "Who's Ophelia?"

"You don't know?  How odd."  Fokken shrugged.  "Ophelia is the name that Sir Vega gave her.  She said she saw you recently and just met you."

Juli paused for a moment to think, then looked back at Fokken.  "Her?  And Vega 'named' her Ophelia?  Huh?"

What the hell was going on?

"Oh nevermind."  Fokken snapped.  "I already did my duty here.  I must be off.  I had some other business to attend to and the Junivelle hunter group is expecting me back soon."

"Yea."  The brunnette snickered with a grin.  "You're worried that they'll tar and feather you again, huh?"

"Oh stop that."  Fokken frowned.  "Perhaps I am, but you should appreciate that mask I gave you, since I'm sure that if they knew who Bess was, they'd most certainly attempt to do the same to you.  It was hard for me to convince Sir Vega to let me have one, after all."

"I didn't need that mask last time."  Juli closed her eyes, still smiling, before she quickly opened them and looked surprised, as if she came across a revelation.  "Wait, the mask?  You got it from Vega?  Is that where Cammy..."

This was getting old.  Fenrir did not appreciate getting left in the dark.  They had to get going, anyway, and it looked like she was done here for the moment.

"Desire, come on.  It's time to leave."

"But...  But I need to find out who Ophelia is!!!!"  Desire whined as Fenrir dragged her away.

Bah.

This... was a lot more interesting than grocery shopping.  Or any other volunteer assignment Juli's ever been on.  Juli did not know why Cammy, who continually insisted that Juli call her Ophelia too, was taking this helijet to follow Vega.  She also didn't know why Lord Vega himself took a helijet to follow Fenrir.  Why did Beatriz make Fenrir's group trudge through the sewer?  And why was Fenrir so intent about this simple volunteer mission?  And why was Ophelia wearing the mask?  And why the bleepgot was Vega wearing black tight spandex?  (A question the look on Vega's face seemed to be asking, himself, as Juli and 'Ophelia' spied on him).

Lord Vega, however, probably ended up being thankful for it.  He seemed disgusted when he took a look at the running sludge going along in the river of the sewer, but that outfit he was wearing along with the customized pollution protection mask (which still managed to look just like his hockey-mask mask thing) probably adequately protected him from getting mud stains when a small incoming flood wave of sewage washed over everyone.

Still holding tightly onto a pillar and covered in sludge, Juli was slowly starting to realize why Cammy wore that mask, too.  Was she disgusted?  Annoyed?  It was impossible to tell behind the black porcelain circle.

Maybe that's why Cammy decided to go with the full body general agent ensemble, too.  It, being rather spandex itself, was fortunately really resilient to the trudge they were dealing with.  Not that that seemed to stop the loud whining from the adjacent tunnel.

"I hate this!"  Juli heard Olvere's voice echo in the distance.  "Hate hate hate hate hate!  He's doing this on purpose!"

"BE QUIET!"  Fenrir's voice soon followed.

What sewer system were they in, anyway?  Juli wasn't even really sure of the country.  Of course, it didn't really matter.  She had other things to think about anyway when Cammy... erm, 'Ophelia', put a small transceiver radio box onto the ground.

"Lord Vega,"  Beatriz's voice emanated from the device.  "I've got the signal on the location of the Colde Signet Ring.  You need to take the right path.  But I'm still trying to detect if the door is open."

"Beatriz?"  Juli blinked.  "What's she do..."

"Turn that valve."  Ophelia interrupted.

"Erm... okay?"

The brunette quickly grabbed the valve wheel and gave it a few turns as Beatriz's voice continued.

"According to our information, the official search from the family that accidentally lost it will begin in two hours.  It is recomended you find the ring and get out before then.  And... it would appear that someone just opened the gate.  Expect another wave in three seconds."

Ophelia quickly packed up the transciever into a water proof bag as Juli whiped her forehead from finishing the turning of the gate-opening valve.

"Whew."  Juli remarked right before she got washed over by another flood of sewage.

"OKAY!"  Olvere's now-angrier voice snapped in the distance.  "Who the HELL opened another sewage gate without warning me?!?"

"It wasn't me, this time!"  Desire replied with a shout as Ophelia unpacked the transceiver again.

Juli coughed as Beatriz's voice began again.

"By my calculations, Fenrir is ahead by three percent.  You can get past her significantly if you take the muddy route to the east."

"I am not interested in taking the muddy route, Alvarez."  Vega's voice replied rather matter of factly, though it still had some annoyed tones.

"I highly recomend it.  Or you can take the west route but I believe that that one is filled with green algae slime as well as is directly connected to a major rest room facility."

"Very well.  I shall take the muddy route."

Juli almost could have sworn she heard a sigh from Vega's end and a happy laugh of glee from Beatriz's.

"Go."  Ophelia commanded rather bluntly.  Soon Juli found herself dashing down the tunnels again with Cammy ahead of her.

At least Juli was sorta finally starting to figure out what was going on.  Beatriz taking the time to point out how far "ahead" Fenrir was indicated this was a race of sorts.  Exactly why the heck Vega was in a race to get the ring before Fenrir was beyond her, though.

Fortunately, Juli and Ophelia were able to keep their footsteps soft.  Fenrir obviously didn't bother though, as the echoing footsteps of Team Workalot could be heard in the distance whenever they moved.  Vega himself remained mostly quiet, although Fenrir indicated that she knew he was in the sewer somewhere when she mentioned that she wasn't going to lose to him.

Juli was panting heavily when they finally stopped for another break as Ophelia took out the transceiver again.

"Lord Vega, there's been a change in the situation."  Beatriz's voice spoke.  She was pretty calm but there was a little bit of nervousness in it.  "The search party has decided to start early.  I'll continue to monitor them so you can avoid them."

"Does Fenrir know?"  Vega's voice returned.

"No, she doesn't, but..."

"Forget it, Alvarez."

"Lord Vega?"

"I told you I'll play it, myself."

"Lord Vega, I must insist that..."

*click*

Juli blinked.  "Um... what the hell was that about?  Did she just..."

"Down."  Cammy snapped as much as one with such an emotionaless voice could snap.

Listening to her, Juli quickly ducked into an alcove as several men in blue uniforms went running by.  And they had guns.  Wow, when the Colde family wants their signet ring back, they really wanted their signet ring back.

Wait.... those weren't just police... they were wearing Interpol Uniforms.

Was Cammy shocked?  It was hard to tell behind the mask, but Juli definately was really worried.  Great, something happened.  Someone either tipped them off, got sloppy, or the international police just managed to get really lucky, this time.

"You shall inform Vega about this."  Cammyphelia stated.  "I shall handle the dolls."

"Wha?  Me?  But..."

But Cammy was already gone.  Juli stared around in panic, trying to figure out what the heck she was supposed to do and where she could find Fenrir.  However, a new revelation came to her mind about what Cammy had just said.

Cammy knew about the doll project.

Before Juli could ponder more on the connotations of it, she heard some gun fire in the distance, followed by a ton of punching and kicking noises.  Was that Cammy engaged with the Interpol troops?  Fenrir?   Did it matter?  Suddenly, Juli saw her solution.  Cammy left the transceiver behind.  Probably on purpose too.  Juli quickly grabbed it and tried to tune in some signals, but the signal to Vega's radio was blocked.  She quickly turned the dials a few more times.

"Hello?  Hello?"

"Lord Vega!"  Beatriz's voice snapped back.  "Lord Vega, I have to say that I'm... relieved that you decided to message back.  We have word that Interpol also found out about the Signet Ring and were on their way!  That isn't just a normal search party.  It's..."

"I know!"  Juli snapped.  "Beatriz!  I need you to tell me!  Where is Lord Vega?!"

"What?  Who is this?  A... Agent Juli?"  It took her a brief moment to recognize the voice, and another brief moment for Beatriz to regain her composure.  "Agent Juli, what are you doing at Lord Vega's position?"

"Look, Cammy dragged me here and I don't know why the hell she did!"  Juli snapped back.  "But that's not important.  Where is Lord Vega?"

Beatriz was fast to catch on.  "Lord Vega is in the northern tunnels along the abandoned station route.  Take a left, then go right at the third opening and follow the ladder down.  Thankfully he left my cameras on so I could still take pictures of him."

Juli raised an eyebrow at the transceiver.

"I mean track him.  Of course."

She quickly packed up the transceiver then heard footsteps and quickly ducked into the niche again as several more soldiers ran by.  After they were passed, she started running again and headed for the left tunnel.

A soldier was walking down it.  A quick sniping arrow kick to the back of his head took him out of the way without slowing Juli down.  Well, the brunette did take the time to pick up his gun.  She managed to avoid most of the other few soldiers in her way.  Fortunately, Beatriz's original warning was early enough for most of the Interpol troops to not be down there yet.  She only hoped it'd be possible to get out before all exits were closed off and it was too late.

Desire ducked back into the tunnel as more bullets whizzed by.  Things weren't looking good at all.

"Fenrir!!!"  She cried.  "For just a search party, these guys sure are over-compensating!!!"

"Look, they're not a search party, okay?!?"  Fenrir snapped back, then glanced at Cammy, whom was wearing a black mask for some strange reason.  "I don't know why you're here or why you're helping us, but do you really think we can take out all of these soldiers by ourselves?!?"

"We're stalling for Lord Vega."  Cammy replied.

Fenrir paused as Olvere's pet money, Tams, ran by while angrily firing a machine gun with a look of angry mad soldier determination on his face, complete with grimacing teeth and bloodshot eyes.

"Lord... Vega?"  Fenrir stuttered as she slowly came to a revelation.  "....Damn!  He's going to get there, first!"

"Fenrir!"  Olvere's shout barely was heard above the bullet fire as she held her bleeding arm and her monkey quickly filled another Interpol soldier with lead.  "We need to get out of here!  We can't hold out much longer!"

"We're leaving!"  Fenrir shouted.  The other two dolls looked at her and nodded, relieved, until Fenrir added, "To get the ring!"

Both Olvere and Desire sighed as more bullets flew by and Tams let out another war cry, his machine gun still blazing.

Juli found herself in the dark abandoned metro area tunnel, running across the tracks.  Besides her footsteps, it was rather quiet.  She didn't see Vega.  She didn't see Vega grab her from the air and quickly flip and slam her to the ground, hard.

The agent quickly leaped back to her feet then angrily glared at Vega, albeit rather dizzily.  "OW!  What the hell was that for?!?"

"I've come to learn to expect the unexpected.  I was definately not expecting to be pursued by one of Lord Bison's personal agents, however."  Was Vega embarassed behind the mask for attacking the wrong person, or was he grinning in mock fashion?  Juli was really beginning to feel tired of masks.

"Yea, yea, sure..."  Juli muttered to the side.  She didn't bother to salute, though.  The dolls only had to listen to Lord Bison, after all.  "Vega, are you aware that you have a ton of Interpol troops coming here to get you?"

"Interpol is it?"  The Spaniard in spandex put his clawed hand to his mask, then slowly chuckled.  "Why, I was told it was just a mere search party.  You realize this makes things interesting, right?"

"Whatever.  Look, we have to get going.  Come on."  Juli started to run back, prepared to hopefully lead Vega to an alternate exit.

"We do not leave until I get the ring."  Vega's words froze Juli in her tracks.  "None of the other 'agents' shall, and neither shall I."

What was with these people?  Even Fenrir would be smart enough to give it up, right?  It was just a volunteer assignment so it wasn't like it was imperative to get the ring.  Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious to Juli that she wouldn't be able to convince Vega to change his mind.

Juli sighed.  "Okay, okay.  So, where is it?"

"Agent... Juli, was it?"  Vega's claw fell to his side again.  "I don't need your help.  I'll..."

"Play it by yourself."  Juli finished.  She turned around to leave again.  "Fine, whatever.  You do that.  I'm getting out of here.  I did what Cammy wanted me to do and I don't know why I bothered, but I'm finished here."

"Cammy?"

Juli looked back at Vega again.  "Oh, that's right.  Do you want me to call her Ophelia, too?"

He took off the mask.

"Her, again."  His face revealed, Vega did not look very pleased as he slowly glared at Juli with a scowl, then sighed.  "I suppose no matter what I do, it won't matter.  There's nothing to prove to her, anyway.  She's not doing this because she's worried about me.  She's doing this because she is infatuated with me, isn't she?"

He looked off to the side, closed his eyes, and smiled.

"I suppose with beauty such as mine, I can't really blame her."  The mask went back on and turned towards Juli.  "Very well.  You're coming with me then."

Huzzah!  Juli so loved being dragged and bossed around by everyone but the kitchen sink!

Tan dirt walls surrounded them, and the only sounds that could be heard were those of dripping water.  It was probably an underground river.  And this was probably a rip off right out of a TV show, book, manga, or video game but Juli couldn't figure out exactly what.

"So, how are we going to find such a small ring in such a large underground river?"  Juli asked as Vega knelt by the riverbank and picked up the Colde signet ring.

She frowned as Vega eyed it inquizically behind the mask.

"Ah, magnificent.  It is finely crafted, of course.  This radiant red gem, shaped like a rose... finaly carved perfectly down to every minuite detail..."

"Vega, can we go yet?"  Juli was not in the mood to refer to him as Lord at the moment.

"Oh?  But of course.  I suppose there shall be time to admire beauty later."  The Spaniard let out a sigh.  "I only regret that something of such magnificence shall probably most likely be pawned off for cash.  A large sum of cash, perhaps, and rightfully so for it would be an atrocity if this were worth anything less, but it is still a tragedy, nonetheless.

ARGH, it made Juli's head hurt.

"Yea, yea, now I'll repeat myself.  Can we go yet?"

The masked man nodded, and the two turned to leave.

"FREEZE!"

Wow, what a coincidence.  The Interpol troops were there.  That was probably ripped directly from a story somewhere, too.

A quick tomahawk flying into his back before that soldier could say anything else while three other girls slashed the rest down with a sword, spear, and some powerful kicks, was probably not, though.

Oh, and ditto for the monkey with the machine gun.  That was definately something Juli didn't see everyday.

Cammy quickly saluted to Juli's magnificent beautiful pretty oh so pretty-witty companion.

"Lord Vega, I..."

"Yes, yes, I know."  The tone of Vega's voice indicated that he was rolling his eyes right then behind the mask.  "I suppose we should get going then."

Unfortunately, Fenrir had noticed what Vega was holding.  She pointed at the ring and glared at Vega.

"You know we're not leaving without that, right?"

"What are you talking about?"  Juli snapped back.  "Of course we aren't leaving without the ring.  We already have it, after all."

"Agent Juli, are you that dense?"  The girl drew her sword.  "We shall return the ring.  Not Vega.  I hope you understand why."

"Um... you realize this is a really messed up rivalry you two have here, right?"

"That's your problem, Juli."  Fenrir shook her head.  "You're never willing to go the extra distance for yourself."

With that, the agent motioned over to Desire, who quickly lashed out with one of her tomahawks, which flew outwards and towards Vega.  He was fast to parry it with his claw, but the fast motion sent the ring flying up into the air.  Desire let loose with another tomahawk upon which the ring caught onto the blade, then quickly reeled the two axes in using the ropes they were attached to that were tied around her wrists.

Vega slowly stared at his hand with the claw, taking note of the ring that wasn't there anymore.  Then he slowly chuckled.  "It might be hard for us to play this game under these circumstances.  I suggest you look behind you."

They didn't have to since Tam's insane machine gun fire that sent the soldiers behind them ducking for cover informed them of what was going on.  Everything sorta became a blur for Juli after that.  It's just really really hard to describe with words the scene of five girls and a masked Spaniard in spandex dashing through the sewers with interpol soldiers and a monkey with a machine gun firing bullets everywhere all the while grabbing the ring from each other and overall just heading for the nearest exit.

Juli could have sworn she heard a piano playing upbeat comedy music in the background.

Back at Secret Shadaloo Airbase #453, things had eased up a little.  Fortunately, Interpol forces couldn't possibly block off every sewer exit, so it was just a simple matter of finding the manhole where a bunch of soldiers weren't waiting to blow your brains out the minute you stuck out your head.

Okay, Beatriz helped.  Vega was practical enough to turn the transceiver back on at least, if only because Cammy insisted.  And who managed to make out with the ring?

Cammy did, of course.

Fenrir didn't say a word.  Olvere didn't looking very pleased, either.  Desire, however, was rather inquisitive.

"Agent Cammy, can we have it?"  The naive girl asked as outside the building in the window, another helijet landed to be loaded up for whatever destination it was going to.

Cammy turned to look at her but didn't say anything.  The mask wasn't revealing anything either.

"Forget it."  Fenrir muttered under her breath, with a hint of both anger and sadness in her voice.  "I don't know why she followed us in the first place, but Cammy will probably want to keep it for herself.  We all know that ever since she was appointed to be Lord Bison's personal bodyguard, she decided that despite how some of us worked just as hard as she did, she was better than the rest of us."

The workaholic sighed again.  Juli almost thought she seemed like she felt sorry about something.

"Isn't that right, Cammy?"  Fenrir continued, looking sadly at the masked girl.  "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about.  You're going to show this ring to Lord Bison, and you're going to laugh at us.  That's all you've ever been doing to me ever since you got appointed to be his personal bodyguard."

Cammy didn't say a word.  She didn't bother to respond.  But she did decide to give up the ring.  To Vega.

So much for Fenrir's depressed state.  Cammy's action was so ridiculously random that all the four agents could do was stare at her, wide-eyed in surprise.

"Hmm.  I appreciate your support."  Vega remarked as he pushed the ring back into Cammy's hands.  "Unfortunately, I can't accept this.  I believe this is a rather empty victory."

She insisted as she handed it to him again.  The man took off his mask and glanced at her, then shook his head.

"Is that it?  I suppose that it is true that perhaps beauty was proven right yet again."  The ring slid over his finger as Vega turned to the dolls and bowed.  "At least the one who emerged victorious was the one who realized who the truly beautiful was.  I suppose I won after all.  I bid you all a good day then."

With that, he flipped off as all the agents continued to stare, still completely shocked.

"Didn't Cammy hate Vega?"  Desire asked.

"I... thought she did."  Juli slowly replied, before turning to look at Cammy.  "What's going on?"

Cammy just stared back.

"Okay, look, 'Ophelia,'"  Juli remarked.  "I'm really getting tired of this lack of information.  Why did you take me along so you could follow after Vega anyway?  Does it have to do with that silly mask he gave you?"

Glaring at Cammy in surprise, Desire blurted out, "That's Ophelia?!?"

"'Ophelia', do you really like the mask that much?" Cammy stepped back a little as Juli stepped closer while grinning.  "What?  I heard about bad hair days but not bad face days.  This is like, really silly.  Here, let me just..."

She grabbed the mask off.

Nothing was wrong.  It was just Cammy behind it, just as Juli suspected.  Though... there seemed to be something missing from Cammy's face.  It took Juli a brief second to figure out that it was Cammy's scar, and she figured out just in time too because the face behind the mask was REALLY pissed off about being... well, maskless.

"HEIYAH!!!!!!"

Ophelia kicked Juli hard.  Though that wasn't just a normal kick.  And it wasn't to a place you'd normally think to hit someone in conventional fighting.  Well, not a girl, at least.

Desire stared wide-eyed as Juli kneeled back in pain (though not as much pain as if a man had been hit where she had just been), then angrily glared at Ophelia, whom already had her mask back on.

"OW!  What the HELL was THAT?!?!?  You just kicked me in the..."  Juli paused for a brief second, decided not to finish that sentence, then while still glaring at Ophelia shouted, "WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?!?!?!"

"It's MY mask!"  Ophelia snapped back with the hissy fit of a child.  "Mine mine mine!!!  My life, my self, MY mask!!!"

"You could have told me that before you gave me that ridiculously stupid kick."  Juli snapped, more surprised by the attack then hurt by it.  "It's a stupid mask, anyway!"

"It is not a stupid mask!!!"  That normal calm emotionless demeanor Ophelia had was quickly gone.  "Do you want me to kick you again?  Why aren't you reeling in pain?!  WHY ISN'T IT WORKING?!?"

"News flash, 'OPHELIA',"  The brunnette angrily glared at her.  "I am NOT a guy!"

"Juliaaaaa!!!!!"  Desire cried.  "I'm worried!  Ever since then, you haven't been.... thinking... any thoughts... ah, maybe I shouldn't press the issue."

Juli quickly glared at her, too. "'Ever since then' was ten seconds ago and NO, you should not!"

"Um.... oooookay,"  Fenrir commented.  "This just went from really dramatic to really fucked up.  And why are you calling Cammy, 'Ophelia'?"

Calmed down a little by now since it was mostly just surprise at the attack, Juli annoyedly replied, "I don't know why I'm calling her that.  That's what Vega named her or something, okay?"

"Wait,"  Fenrir paused.  "Vega NAMED Cammy Ophelia?"

"Erm... yea..."  Juli remarked, as she slowly started to finally realize the connotations of that statement.  In fact, all of the girls were slowly starting to figure out what was going on.  Cammy chasing after Vega, Cammy with the mask that Vega gave her, Cammy giving the ring to Vega, Vega in spandex... the naming of her to Ophelia was wierd but eventually the four other agents were able to simultaneously come to a conclusion of what that was probably about, too.  And it wasn't pretty.

The image of Vega in spandex once again creeped into their minds.  Vega in spandex... in bed.  Vega in spandex in bed motioning to Cammy then taunting.

Taunting about the mask.

"You are now no longer Cammy!  Put on this mask and become my Ophelia!!!"

"YES!!!!!!"  Cammy replied as she leaped into his arms.

There was a VERY disturbed look on all of their faces.  A very VERY disturbed look, indeed.

And thus, slowly among the dolls, the rumour spread that Cammy, the only one of them who was 'getting some', really wasn't 'getting some' at all.  Or perhaps she was, but not from Lord Bison.  Even if it was while she pretended her name was Ophelia.

"I do not underztand you!  Vhy do you not see zee way?!?  Zere is no other zat you must follow but zee auzority figure yet you continue to decide to go after zee one zat you are not under zee direct command of!!  Vhat, do you vant to be seen az a failed experiment?!?  Vhy are you alwayz szo sad?  Concentrate on what's important!  Concentrate on getting zee mate!  CONCZENTRATE ON ZEE AUZORITY FIGURE!!  I do not szee vhy you do not comprehend, vhy do you do zis?  And vhy do you continue to vear that szilly mask?  Who has given you zat mask anyway?!"

There she was.  Back in the lab that created her.  Back in the lab that gave her life.  Yet it didn't create her at all.  It wasn't really what gave her her true life.

Ophelia.  Not Cammy.  Not Shadaloo Cammy.  Just Ophelia.  That name.  That mask.  That man.  It was what truly made her alive.

And with her answer to Professor Irvine's question, he realized the truth of it.

"My daddy gave me this mask."

Irvine stared in shock, before a smile slowly appeared on his face, followed by a cheer.

"YES!!!!  FREUD IS PROVEN RIGHT YET AGAIN!!!"