Nita sat down and pulled a waffle towards her from a stack at the center of the kitchen table. It tasted like cardboard but at the moment she was just too bored to care.

Since her last assignment to save the universe and help the Hesper come into her full power, she hadn't been assigned anything at all. All her days had taken on a pattern: get up, take a shower, eat, talk to Kit about being bored, stare out the window, maybe eat something, watch TV, talk to Kit again, eat, and go to sleep. This had been going on for three months. Nothing had changed.

Right on queue, Kit appeared in the kitchen with a loud crack just as Nita took a second bit of the waffle.

"You on assignment?" he asked, not even bothering to say hello.

"No," said Nita. She offered him a waffle.

Kit took the waffle and bit into it. "This is terrible," he said, taking another bite. "I'm not on assignment either."

"Big surprise," Nita thought. "Oh," she said.

"Carmella said she'd be over for the Big Fun in around ten minutes. Any idea what that is?" asked Kit.

Nita shook her head. "No," she said.

"Well you should find out soon. It starts in ten minutes," Kit said obviously.

"Oh, okay," said Nita. She finished her waffle and reached for another.

Just then, Dairine raced into the kitchen with a big smile on her face. "Hey guys!" she said. "Has the doorbell ringed?"

Nita and Kit shook their heads. "No," they both said at once.

"Okay," said Dairine. She skipped off into the hall.

"I wonder what she did," Kit wondered.

"No idea," said Nita.

Then, the doorbell rang. Nita and Kit looked at the hallway to see who was there. Carmella, followed by her 'favorite Christmas tree' entered the room.

"Right this way," Dairine was saying. "The party's in the back yard."

"Party?" Kit mouthed to Nita and she shrugged.

"Kit, Nita?" Dairine said. "Could you go answer the door and direct all the guests towards to the back yard?"

Kit shrugged. "Sure," he said. He and Nita made their way to the front door. Kit pulled it open. There stood Tom and Carl.

"Dairine wanted you to go through to the back yard. That's where the party is," Nita said mechanically. Kit nodded.

Tom looked at Nita as though she was sick. "Are you okay, Nita?" he asked.

"Chronic BOREDOM!!!" Kit shouted suddenly. Nita nodded.

"Well that should end today," Carl muttered. "Dairine has told me something about who she's invited."

At that, Nita came slightly out of her stupor. "Who did she invite?" she asked. She had a great sense of foreboding building in her gut.

Tom smiled. "A few old friends," he said. Then he left for the back yard before they could ask any more questions.

Nita and Kit were now feeling marginally more awake and marginally more worried.

"What do you think that meant?" Nita asked Kit.

"I just hope she didn't invite everyone we know." Kit said.

Just then, the doorbell rang again. Holding her breath, Nita opened it. A pretty young woman stood there. When she saw them she screamed "Nita! Kit" and hugged them so hard Kit thought that his lungs might burst. When she finally drew away, still grinning, Kit asked "Who are you?"

"The Hesper!" Nita realized suddenly. "Uh, how did Dairine invite you?"

The Hesper shrugged. "I'm so happy to see you!" she stepped in for another hug and they involuntarily stepped back. "Dairine said to tell you to go straight through to the back yard," Kit said quickly.

"Okay," the Hesper said. She waltzed down the hall calling "Dairine!"

"I don't envy Dairine her hug," Nita said, rubbing her ribs.

"Me either," said Kit. "I never realized that answering a door could be so perilous."

Then, the door bell rang.

This time, Kit reached it first and opened it quickly before jumping back quickly incase the guest wanted to hug him.

Without waiting for an invitation, the Lone Power entered the hall way.

Nita's mouth fell open. "I thought Tom said old friends?" Nita muttered to kit.

"I heard that," the Lone Power said.

"Hey I'm here too," the Winged Defender entered the hall. "I'm your friend, aren't I?" she asked, worried.

"Uhhh…" said Nita and Kit together.

Someone knocked on the door frame. A teenaged girl with red-gold hair, grey eyes, and pale skin entered the hall where everyone was. "We could all establish who was whose friend later," she said.

"Who are you?" asked Nita.

The girl glowered at her. "I'm the author of this fan fic," she said. "Dairine was nice enough to invite me… after I told her to."

"You're the author of what?" asked Kit.

"This Fanfic," the girl said. "Oh never mind," she was about to walk away into the house when she turned. "Oh and I'm Kat by the way."

Nita rubbed her head. "That was weird," she said. "What's a fan fic?" she asked.

Kit was looking disturbed. "Carmella told me about them," he said. "It's when fans write about the characters in books and put them in all sorts of disgusting pairings," he said.

Nita was looking seriously disturbed. "So I could be paired with like… Sker'ret?" she asked.

"Is there something wrong with me?" asked Sker'ret.

"Um no," said Kit quickly. "But now that that evil author's here we can't tell what's going to happen!"
The Lone Power turned back towards them from where he had been arguing with the Defender about why he had no friends. "That sounds more evil than me on my bad days," He said.

"Exactly," Kit said.

Nita groaned.