iNCOGNiTO rose groggily off of the cement sidewalk. "Where… did I go?" he looked around. This couldn't be the limbo he heard so much about. It was much too bright and… real. Everybody around him was staring and muttering and he rose and ran down the street, trying to collect his scattered thoughts. "VOiD… what did you do?"

Confused, he ran down alley after alley, and then paused, hearing a guitar softly strum and a woman's voice ring out.

"Sitting on a rock beneath a strange and empty sky, Just me and my splingtwanger, I sit and wonder why. Why I have to live here in this silent loneliness? Why I had to play the songs that got me in this mess? Living… living on the run… Living… 90 light-years from the sun."

After searching for the music for about fifteen minutes, he finally found it- coming from a lavender echidna playing around with an acoustic guitar. "Damn it." She mumbled as she messed up another chord and started over.

"Excuse me…" he asked, hoping he didn't interrupt her. "I apologize for my intrusion on your musical meditation, but… where am I?"

She sighed and looked up. "What the hell's wrong with…" she paused as she saw him. "HOLY SHIT!" she leapt to her feet. "What… what are you?"

"My name is iNCOGNiTO and I am a being from an alternate dimension ruled by a cruel tyrant. I used to be second-in-command to a resistance until I was finally caught and condemned to death. Fortunately, a companion in the resistance opened the portal before the final blow and I ended up here. The only problem is… well, I don't exactly know where "here" is."

The echidna groaned. "Not another weirdo. How come I can't meet any normal people in front of the shop? First it was the thief, and now you. Well, it'd be impolite to leave you out here, so I'll invite you in."

He bowed cordially. "Many thanks, Miss… what's your name?"

"Xenia. My name's Xenia." She said, holding her hand out. After Xenia realized that iNCOGNiTO wasn't familiar with the gesture, she said, "You shake it. It's a common greeting here."

"Oh." iNCOGNiTO looked down, slightly embarrassed, before taking the echidna's hand and shaking it energetically. "A pleasure to meet you, Xenia."

"A pleasure to meet you as well, iNCOGNiTO." She said, flexing her hand a bit after it was released. "Well, we'd better get you inside, dude." She opened the door and iNCOGNiTO seemed to enter a new world. Shelves after shelf were overflowing with records and any wallspace was taken up by posters. Music blasted from a speaker system that was wired up all over the room. "Welcome to The Mesh." Xenia proudly stated with a sweep of her hand.

"The Mesh." iNCOGNiTO repeated in awe. He had never seen such a place in his life. Then again, he's never really been out of Nightopia.

Xenia smiled. He had a lot to learn about this place. "Yep. We're proud to boast the largest metal collection in Station Square, 'If we don't have, we'll order it'- that's our motto."

"We have a customer already?" a voice shouted from the back room. "But we aren't even open yet!" A green hedgehog came out from the door behind the counter.

"No, Keith. Just another person in front of the shop with nowhere to go."

"That basement's gonna be full if you keep letting people in. What now?" the hedgehog looked iNCOGNiTO over. "We have aliens? Are you being hunted by the government?" he asked with shifty eyes.

iNCOGNiTO was very confused. "The government thinks I'm dead. How could they hunt me?"

Keith sighed. "Good. I mean, detectives come by this place so much it makes me uncomfortable. I don't wanna see any MIB coming around too."

"M…I…B?" iNCOGNiTO looked around nervously.

Xenia glared at Keith. "Shut up! Can't you see that he's confused enough? How about you go back and make sure all the orders are here?" Keith grumbled something unintelligible and went back behind the counter again. "Now- I can only guess that you don't have a place to stay."

"I do not." He replied, still glancing around the shop and wondering what these "MIB" were.

"Well, you can stay in the basement if you don't mind having a roommate, okay?" she said, going through the back door. "Come on." He followed behind, nervously looking at the green hedgehog. "Don't mind Keith. He can be a bit of an ass sometimes." She opened another door hidden by a large tapestry. "Down here." She went down the stairs.

The basement was well furnished, with a small television and all the things necessary for living. There was a huge lump on a small cot in the corner. Xenia walked over and gave it a shove. "Five more minutes." It mumbled.

"I gave you fifteen, Endymion. It's time for you to get up and meet your new roommate." The lump stirred and was revealed to be a grey wolf in a brown trench coat and fedora. "I'll go and get that washed if you want me to. I don't want the basement smelling funny and that detective getting suspicious."

The wolf ignored everything that Xenia said and looked at iNCOGNiTO. "So… welcome to the basement and enjoy your stay. I'm Endymion, and you are?"

"I… I'm iNCOGNiTO." He repeated his story to Endymion, who stared in awe.

"So… I'm not the only one hiding from a higher power here. You'll have an easier time hiding, though, being from a different dimension and all." By this time, Xenia had left for them to get to know each other better. Ares stared around nervously and told his story.

"Y'see, when I was little I became the apprentice of Ares, a man who called himself the king of thieves. I found I quite liked the rogue business and stayed with Ares for a very long time… until the day he betrayed me." He stopped.

iNCOGNiTO understood his pause. This was most likely the moment that changed the wolf's life forever. "Go on." He urged.

Endymion sighed. "It was going to be the largest heist we had ever pulled off. We were planning to steal a set of emeralds from the science museum, when the police caught us. Ares dashed off, leaving me in front of the open case. Of course, I was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for it. The first year I expected Ares to bust me out, but he never came. When I realized this, I broke myself out and went to find the one I had called master for so many years. I was bent on killing him for leaving me to rot."

"Did you do it?"

"No. I failed, and barely got away with my own life. If it wasn't for Xenia up there, I would either be dead or in prison now. I'm actually amazed with how well she is at covering up the fact that I'm here and how much she's risking her own life to hide me." He sniffed his coat. "I'd better take up her offer to get this thing washed." He chuckled. "She may not look it, but she must be some sorta angel sent to earth to look out for us types."

"Us types?"

"Yeah," Endymion stood up. "The runaways who have nowhere else to go. I mean, you don't have any friends on this planet, and anybody who has aided me has been killed by Ares. I mean, we're lucky, iNCOGNiTO."

Xenia thundered down the stairs. "I'm glad you guys are so lucky, but we'll all be in trouble if you don't be quiet. Dirk's back."

iNCOGNiTO was confused once again. "Dirk? Who's-"

Endymion clapped a hand over iNCOGNiTO's mouth. "We'll explain later, but now you have to be quiet." iNCOGNiTO nodded and Xenia ran back upstairs. Waiting for her was a Phoenix in a dark suit. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and stuck it in his mouth. Before he could light it, though, Xenia grabbed the lighter out of his hand. "Didn't you see the 'No Smoking' sign on the door, Dirk?"

Dirk grumbled. "Very well."

She smirked. "This is a record for you, Dirk. Twice in one week? You never appear this often!" she chuckled as she said this.

"I'm here to question you again. I'll find that thief here, even if I have to burn this place down!"

Xenia's joking mask was thrown off and she gave the detective a poisonous glare. "Don't you dare. This shop has been around since the creation of vinyl, and I won't have you destroying it."

"You know I was joking, Xenia. I would never result to arson." he put the cigarette back in his pocket. "A month after the escape of Endymion Jaraquille, I saw somebody who looked very much like him walk out of this shop. Now tell me… who was that man?"

Xenia shook her head. "I've told you time and time again- he was a customer coming to pick up an album- rare import of Brian Eno's 'Here Come the Warm Jets'- not a master thief."

Dirk growled. "I know you're lying, Xenia Renaii. Now tell me the truth!" He was shouting now and grabbing the Echidna by the shirt when he suddenly let go, grabbing the left side of his face.

Keith was standing there, his fist up. "Don't you dare touch my boss, or else I'll hurt you even more."

Dirk glared at the hedgehog. "This is bringing your criminal record to a new high. Assaulting an officer? You're in big trouble now, Keith Avel." He walked out, his cheek already developing a large red welt.

Xenia stared wide-eyed at her employee. "You didn't have to do that, Keith."

"What? If you died I'd have to find a new job… and not many places take me in so quickly… because of my record." he looked down, embarrassed.

"What? It was only a few shoplifting cases and a fistfight that resulted in guys in body casts. Not that bad." Xenia smirked. "If I can accept Endymion in this place, I can sure as hell accept you."

Keith smiled. "Thanks, Xenn."

The moment was broken up by a grey rabbit in a frilly black dress walked in, her platform Mary Janes thudding on the wood floor. On her shoulder was a black parasol with white lace trim. "Xenia? Why was that detective back again?"

"He still thinks I'm hiding that thief, May. Now how about you go sort orders with Keith while I head down to the basement to get a few more Offspring CDs?"

May nodded. "Okay." Xeia went down the stairs to the basement.

"He's gone, you two." she said. Endymion sighed with relief, and iNCOGNiTO was still kind of confused.

"Who's Dirk? Must we hide from him?"

Endymion looked over at him. "Dirk Fenix is the detective that was assigned to hunting me down when I first escaped. He saw me walk out one day to get something, and he's been coming back, swearing that I'm still here."

Xenia nodded. "That's about it. Now- a few rules. We all have to be quiet down here. Not all of my employees know you two are down here. Next- if you want anything, just ask me. I can't risk the two of you being caught."

iNCOGNiTO looked around. "My enemies are all very far from here. Why do I have to worry about going outside?"

Endymion gave him an unbelieving glance. "You don't exactly look normal. You'd be caught by MIB before you could cough."

iNCOGNiTO shuddered. Not these mysterious MIB again. "What are M…I…B?"

Xenia glared at Endymion. "They don't exist, iNCOGNiTO. They're a purely fictional group invented by a movie studio." incognito sighed with relief. Then Xenia paused in thought. "That's really it for rules, guys. If you need me, just knock and Keith will hear it."

"Many thanks for your hospitality, Xenia." iNCOGNiTO bowed courteously.

"Alright, you guys, I'll see you in a few hours at closing time." she walked up to the stairs back to her shop as Endymion and iNCOGNiTO looked around in slience.

"Endymion?"

"What is it, iNCOGNiTO?"

"You called Xenia an Angel. What is that?"

"An angel? Well, an angel's a being that is sent to earth to watch over people and make sure they stay safe. Some are less obvious than others, though.

"You're right, Xenia is an Angel."