"Dude, are you really sure this is the place?" A young man with sky blue eyes and loosely placed glasses looked at the large manor. The mighty wind howled and blew his golden blonde hair, knocking off the thin plastic glasses on his face. "Oh, come on! I can't even look at the place for a minute without the wind blowing my glasses off!" he was an American, often wore a leather bomber jacket with a fifty on the back. He was obnoxious and childish at times but he knew how to take things seriously when required. The American loved fast food and always seemed to be hungry. Yet no matter how much he ate, he never looked fat, but his weight seemed to tell a different story.

The mansion was a mess: the plants had died and the weeds took over the garden, the house needed cleaning and many, many repairs. It did look run down but it was truly a beautiful work of architecture. The manor looked to be in a French Gothic style despite being in England. You could see signs of the rest of the world while looking through the tall steel gate: a Greek statue greeted you in the entryway, along with a large pond bordered with some type of white stone. If you looked to the left, you could see exotic flowers along with an oddly placed Roman pillar in the middle of the garden. Most of the things in the yard looked very out of place.

"Oh, stop complaining! You are in front of a piece of history and you cannot even look at it without a little of respect?" a British man frowned "This has to be it, it even fits the description; white paint on the outside, a French Gothic style, fountain with a Greek statue. It all fits the description exactly!" He took a few keys out of his pants pocket. He scratched his messy blonde hair with one hand as he studied the large steel gate that protected the manor from the outside world.

As he took out a small notebook out of his jacket pocket, he stated "I remember when this manor was built; it was a long time ago. When I first laid eyes on the manor, I knew there was something terribly wrong with it". He usually wore a nice suit, but today he stuck with a nice, black fleece jacket with a white button up shirt and tie that resembled the British flag underneath the jacket. He wouldn't dare to put on jeans. No, not this gentleman, jeans were definitely not his thing; he would just wear a pair of black slacks unlike his American friend who wore a graphic t-shirt, jeans and a dark brown, leather bomber jacket.

"Monsieur, I knew you did magic and such, but you can sense danger too? It seems that our 'Ametuer Chef' has a new use in life, no?"Another man walked up next to where Arthur was standing. He was a French man, no mistaking it. He was quite attractive too (not that the others weren't), his long silky gold hair seemed to shimmer in the light with his bright violet eyes to complement it. This man could make you fall in love with only one wink and a flirty smile. Arthur always wondered how he was so popular with the ladies with what he called "a pathetic excuse for a beard". Arthur didn't like him-mostly because he was a Frenchman-but he was a member of a former alliance and he is has known him longer than anyone else in the group.

Arthur gave him a dirty look, "Bonnefoy! I am not paying you to insult my cooking!"

"Please call me Francis, you've known me long enough." The Frenchman smirked and winked at Arthur, "Unless we are now calling each other by nickname, right Iggy?"

"Do not call me such a foolish name Francis!" Arthur snapped at Francis, "Look, I am paying you and the only one who volunteered for this is Matthew, so I have to give up a lot of money. The least you can do is call me by my name".

"Dude, can we go in now? I really do not want to stay out here any longer!" the golden haired man exclaimed. It was rather cold outside so the American jogged in place to keep warm, "It's like forty degrees out here".

"Alfred F. Jones! Now haven't I told to not to call me that?!" Arthur also snapped at Alfred, "And it is not that cold, if it were it would be snowing and we wouldn't even be here right now".

"Dude, I was talking about fahrenheit, not that cilcus thing that you go by."

Francis gave a miffed expression, "You mean celsius, the measurement for temperature that everyone else in the world uses beside you."

Alfred shrugged, "Yeah, whatever, the point is it's freezing out here and we should just go inside now".

Arthur sighed, "We have to wait until Yao, Ivan, and Matthew get here."

"Hey, you guys, I've been here the whole time", a voice spoke very, very softly; almost a loud whisper "I was even in the car with you guys?"

"What? Now there are two Alfreds?" Arthur looked extremely confused then guilty after realizing his mistake.

"This is not Alfred; this is Matthew Williams, my little brother. Can't you tell by his golden silky hair that is much like my own?" Francis stood by Matthew who was a bit taller than he was, "Right Alfred? It's quite a shame that Iggy here can't tell the difference between you two brothers". Matthew had similar features that Alfred had, like the golden hair and blue eyes. He even had glasses like he did. But Arthur knew better than that. Matthew was quiet and most of the times he isn't even noticed and people often forget who he is. Unlike Alfred, Matthew was raised in Canada, so he seemed to have resistance to the cold. Especially with his warm, crimson sweater with a maple leaf on the front and a croquet beanie.

"I cannot believe that it is taking Ivan and Yao so long just to get here" Arthur set his luggage down next to him, "They should be here by now" Just after Arthur spoke an nice shiny, black Roewe 950 approached the mansion's gates.

"Well you wanted them here, non? Now they are here" Francis pointed out as a tall man with light beige hair and a long pinkish-white scarf stepped out of the passenger seat of the car.

This was Ivan Braginski, he always tried to be nice and he always seemed to smile, but most fear him for some reason. Ivan was a fairly nice person, he tries hard to make friends but he seems to be naturally scary (especially to his Baltic "friends"). He always wears a scarf that was made by his older sister and claims that his scarf was a part of his body and that he lives off vodka. "I apologize that we were late. Traffic was bad in London and Yao wouldn't stop yelling at every car that honked at us," Ivan sighed and started walking towards the mansion's gates.

When the car's engine stopped, the proud owner of the car stepped out of the driver's side of the car. Yao Wang was his name, was the shortest of the group, he was around five feet. He has long dark brown hair that goes a little below his shoulders and it's usually put into a ponytail. Yao's feminine looks and body often confuses people when it comes to his gender. Most of the time people mistaken him for a girl, and he has a short temper. Yao was stubborn too. Even though Francis tried to help him carry his bags, he rejected the help and carried them himself.

"Aiya! Wait up Ivan!", Yao eventually caught up to Ivan.

"Yao, why are you dressed up so lightly on such a cold morning?" Ivan looked at Yao's clothing choice, concerned if he was cold. He was wearing a silk Chinese shirt with thin panda hoodie. Yes, he had a pair of gloves on and a coat but he still looked cold.

"Bu shi, I'm not cold" Yao continued

"Do you want me to lend you my jacket? I have an extra in my bag."

"I do not need your jacket."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure! I'm just fine! Now stop asking!" Yao then stomped away to the gate. Ivan just shrugged and continued walking.

Arthur took out the key that opened the gate "Alright, time for count off! Is Alfred F. Jones here?"

"The Hero is here!"

Arthur smiled slightly," Is Francis Bonnefoy here also?"

"Présent"

Arthur sighed, "How unfortunate", Francis frowned, tempted to make a combat, but that would just hold up the group, "I assume that Yao Wang is here."

"Here"

"Matthew Williams?"

"I'm here"

"And last but certainly not least, "Arthur looked at Francis, "we already passed the least, Ivan Braginski?"

"I'm here too!"

"Alright now that we are all here", Arthur paused a moment to unlock the gate. Once he unlocked it, he pushed the door open and said "Welcome to the Hazel Wood Manor!"