The thing about Sasha's apartment was that it was in fact quite small. Sasha figured for the rent he paid for his flat here, he could have easily had himself a house somewhere else, not that he was hurting for money. It was just that he could have thought of more effective ways to spread out his income then almost 3000 going to a decent apartment that he didn't have to worry about coming home and finding a body in it and all of his earthly possessions gone.

He tossed the briefcase onto the floor by his dining table as he thought about what to do. A part of him wanted to prove to Milla he was better-rounded than what she had suggested, but then again another part of him wanted to go 'I am free and over 21, I can do whatever I please.' Much like a small child would, but then again, a part of him wanted to please Milla. He wanted to prove to her that he was the best. Perhaps it was the competitive streak he knew and accepted he had.

Sasha mulled over this and wondered if he should nurture the idea of actually looking over the girl's comics and then emailing her about her picking them- or at least him mailing them to her. Perhaps he could see what the intrigue with those yellow-papers was, and why Lili and Razputin seemed to read them whenever they got the chance. Also, it would get them out of his briefcase and not take them to work by accident. He wondered also why that girl would just hand over a stack of comics suddenly for no other reason to 'discuss theories'. It made no sense, it made him curious. He sat down on his couch and stared at the briefcase, pondering what would be the harm.

In the end, curiosity won as he Tk'd the leather pack to him and he pulled out the comics. None of them were in order. They were issues 458, 476, 500 and 502, this only added to his personal theory that Luka was insane. Why would someone just hand over random comics and not entire arcs? Where was her sense of being respectful to the writers? He opened up the first one which had an over done, flat colored drawing of Milla dodging a box of fish being thrown at her. He knew what was going to happen next as he looked more over the artwork than at the words being said. This was obviously the issue where Sir Jonas was arrested before being shot. He skimmed to the end and saw the dramatic image of the man who was given a very pompous name falling onto the pavement after being shot by a cop who thought the man was going to attack them all and brain wash them into being drooling followers of Jonas' group, the 'Veil'.

The German agent hated how the Psychonauts would provide pictures of the scene so the comics could get it just right adding to the idea it was all a set up. Sasha tossed that issue onto the table and picked up the next one, 476- again nothing he didn't know as were the next two issues the girl had lent him. Until suddenly he looked at a panel in one of the pages that had a drawing of a newspaper clipping, that is. Sasha saw that behind Oleander was a man with orange skin and silver-blond hair. He paused for a moment wondering where he had seen that man before.

He looked down at the table, and issue 458 was still laying there on the last page. There. In the background again, the man with orange skin and silver-blond hair, two different artists drew the same background character. He went back to the other two issues and there he was again, in one of the pages that the Psychonauts would have provided photo documentation of. Sasha focused on the face wondering if the man was just an Easter-egg type character, but if he were why have him in only those pages. Why not as a random goon or a cabbage seller? Sasha brought his hand up to his mouth as he mulled over this as he decided to do a test. One that wouldn't require much time at all and sadly would have him needing to contact the odd girl again.

Mostly because he didn't want to sound vain for asking for comics starring himin it from Razputin or Lili.
He would also need to contact Milla just to see if she could send him the pictures that would have been used for the comic images. He got up and headed to his computer, turning it on, now wondering if he could just 'Google' the man and see if anyone else noticed this (or if they were all too busy having lives outside of over-analyzing things like he enjoyed doing.) Sasha opened up his 'civilian' email box, that he often let go neglected due to the fact people seemed to enjoy sending him spam-mail as he composed a letter to Luka.

Subject: Comics

Miss Luka;

Could I borrow a random selection of comics, perhaps three from each 'arc'? Ideally from the beginning, the middle and the last one?

Thank you;

Sasha

He sent the e-mail as he dialed up Milla and got her work voicebox.

"Milla, I have a request, could you perhaps send me the photographs we allow True Psychic Tales use?" he paused for a moment wondering if he should explain his actions now or when Milla was bound to go 'Why, Sasha? Do you want to see yourself in your finest moments?' of course it would be teasing but he never had any idea how to respond to such thing.

"I am comparing art styles and honestly, this is cheaper than going out of my way to buy different art books. If possible, please send the pictures by this afternoon." There we go, it had a reason that didn't seem to suspicious and proving that he really did need a hobby instead of a faux one just because he noticed a reoccurring trend in comic books of all things.

Sasha flipped through the comics again to see if the man was wearing the same thing. (Different things, but same jewelry), if he did appear in any other scenes (nope) and when it turned out to make it look like he really was there, Sasha decided he was going insane.

"Thus why I shouldn't listen to Milla." He said as he put the comics into a manila envelope to return to the girl. "I listen to her and I want to investigate something that will make it look like I spend too much time having to solve things. I should just get a Sudoku cube and work on that every day I have off."

He found nothing wrong with talking to himself. He knew other people did it and they were not insane. He saw a response from Luka. And he just stared at it.

"Who actually responds to an email that fast?"

He opened it up and saw the girl was more than willing to surrender a few more books, and the entire email talked about her 'theories' about what was bound to happen next. He was sure a few things she guessed would turn out to be true, only because if someone talks enough they are bound to get something right. She said that she can meet him tomorrow after church and to meet him in front of 'Our Lady of Angels'.

Really? He was supposed to find a teenager after church to get comic books from her, and what should he do in exchange, give her a McBurgerQueen gift card?

He responded back with a new location (the coffee place) and sighed. He really needed better things to do.

He went to his briefcase and pulled out the case file that he was planning on working on today (and now officially confirming Milla's statement about his life). He read over the file once more.

James Levi. Age: 34.

His hobbies include brainwashing people en masse to create the illusion of some sort of traumatic event happening then going in and using that as a way to get people to follow him for his cause, his cause being, from the looks of it, the normal world domination thing.

Besides the large gathering of people he didn't have a trend he followed. Sasha pulled out a map covered in notes about the events, the attendance rate, even what kind of food venues was there and so far it was all random. "He couldn't have simply pulled locations out of a hat." Then at that time, his phone rung.
Pros about being a psychic was that you were your own caller ID. "Hello Milla."

"Sasha, I got the pictures."

"Can you email them to me?" his life today seemed to be emails and coffee and it wasn't even noon yet. He heard a soft 'tsking' noise.

"Sorry darling, I can't you'll have to come pick them up."

Another bus ride, Sasha wished everything was like the comics for a moment so things could just suddenly appear in his hand when he needed them instead of having to spend more time on the bus than with said files. "We can meet at the sandwich shop and we can have a lunch date."

Sasha heard himself agreeing to it, while reminding himself it was on a merely professional level and nothing more.

"I'll be down there in 30 minutes, darling."

"I'll be there in 25."

"Of course you will." Milla said something about her tone made Sasha shiver just a little. A little sign he would only do in private. Sometimes Sasha wondered if in a past life if Milla was a succubus and it just carried over as he once more grabbed his jacket and headed out.

-

Sasha entered the restaurant and headed back to the spot where he and Milla would normally eat whenever they would work together, which was most of the time, but they were friends and there was no harm in eating a meal with them, correct? Correct. Sasha grabbed one of the menus already resting on the table and started to lazily flip through it. He already knew what he wanted and he knew he was fooling no one with the show of interest.

He would take a salad, mostly because the less number of steps a meal had there was less chances of the person making it messing up or someone else coming in and messing it up to help. It also took a lot of effort to add something to it which could possibly kill him. Being an International Super Agent did have a few of its downfalls, such as those leading to paranoia. But still, it never stopped him from looking through the menu in hopes something would interest him. To this date: Nothing else had interested him.

"You should quit teasing the waitresses like that. One day they might thing you're going to break from habit." Milla chided as she slid in to the booth as she grabbed her own menu.

Sasha just turned the page at that and scanned over the different kinds of soups being offered. "How has work been?"

"Well, we're out of Tennis Bars, so I am sure the White House will be upset." She said obviously teasing while tucking some hair behind her ear as a small group walked by their booth. "But overall, everything has been going smoothly, although we have no leads yet."

Sasha grimaced a little, he hated it when they were pretty much given a sheet of paper that said 'We have no evidence, but we think this guy did it because we said so.' which was exactly how the Levi case was turning out to be at the moment.

"And you? How are you enjoying your day off, I heard you had coffee with some woman." Milla kept on looking at the menu.

"It was a fan."

Milla peered over the menu with a skeptical look. "A fan? Really?"

"You just kicked me out of the headquarters and the bus didn't arrive yet, she stopped me and I saw no harm in paying for me a cup of coffee so she could talk about our mysterious adventures and talk about how she thinks Sir Jonas was a body surfer."

Milla put the menu down on the table. "You actually listened to her ramble on about some comic book theory? Do you have a fever?" She peeled off a white glove and brushed aside that bang that always seemed to fall into the middle of Sasha's face and placed a delicate hand on his forehead. Sasha leaned forward just a hair, just enough to prove he didn't have a fever.

"You told me I needed a hobby, so I decided to see what was so interesting about the Comics. So far I have only found one thing of value in them."

"I assume it isn't the astounding story telling?" Milla laughed a little, it was nice to see Sasha doing something out of the norm for him after all everyone needed a little spice to their lives and Sasha's lacked plenty of spice outside of work. Sasha shook his head.

"No, as I was flipping through the comics, I noticed a reoccurring character that would appear in each crowd scene we would provide pictures for." The waitress came by and they placed their orders. "Now, I figure it is most likely an Easter egg, but-"

"You wanted to find out for sure, so you fibbed over the phone to me." she placed the menu to the side, sounding both mildly annoyed and bemused at the entire situation.

Sasha mostly picked up on the annoyed and mentally cringed at that. "Now, I thought you would be glad I have a hobby."

"Even though it won't last long." Milla said pulling out the pictures for Sasha to look at. He flipped through looking for the ones in the issues he read.

"Actually, I think it might last a little longer than expected." He pulled the pictures out and laid them on the table and pointed to the man.

"Who is that?" he questioned as Milla picked up one of the images and studied the man's face.

"I don't know." She admitted, going through her mental registry of everyone she knew- which was a lot. "And he is in the photographs we took in 'restricted' areas." She kept on staring at him then at Sasha.

"That is a bit weird." And they both knew it was suspicious and she could already tell what Sasha was thinking. "Do you really want to spend your days off going through the Psychonauts registry seeing who this person is?"

Sasha was already pulling out photos with the man in them. "Yes, yes I do, Agent Vodello." He said more to himself then to her. Milla knew she was in a uphill battle then figured if he wanted to look at everyone registered to work for the Psychonauts, more power to him.

"Do you also want the non-Psychics?"

"Everyone from A to Z, including Admiral Cruller, Janitor Cruller and the much dreaded Zookeeper Cruller."

Milla laughed little at that, "It was a bit of a mistake taking him to the zoo with the children."

"I could have stayed at camp and kept an eye on everything."

"But then you would have missed the Flamingos."

"They smelled terrible."

"Oh darling, it seems like one of your favorite hobbies is complaining. Why don't you just relax a little."

"Remember, you said I didn't have hobbies so I am doing this." Sasha peered over the rim of his sunglasses, "Also, I am relaxing. I read some comic books and am now going to be playing a complex game of 'Guess Who?'"

Their food arrived and each started to pick at it, Milla cutting her sandwich in half while Sasha seemed to sort through his salad. "Besides, we should find them anyways."

Milla looked up from her meal, popping a chip into her mouth. "We should only if incase it turns out he is something more than a man who appears at the right place at the right time to get a picture taken." She added some ketchup onto her plate. "And if he is just that, we should find out just how he manages to be there at all the right times."

Sasha rested a hand on the table. "You think you can drop those off at my apartment this evening?" He knew he wouldn't get much sleep tonight. He was nothing if not obsessive once he got his mind focused on something. And because he couldn't work on his PROPER case because a certain woman sitting across from him deemed in necessary to make sure he didn't work this weekend, he had to do this.

Milla frowned a little, "I'll bring dinner by and we can look through them together."
"Now, I am sure you should be resting, after all, you got to go to work."

"Darling, you make it sound like I went to the circus or an amusement park while you were stuck at the dentist's office."

Sasha frowned a little, "With the cleanliness of both places, I would rather go to the dentist's office- yes even after what happened during the summer." He rolled a cherry tomato to the side of his plate. "And you should let me borrow your part of the Levi file."

"I already gave you everything I had." She said, "Relax, don't be a machine. Just play 'Guess Who?' with the comic fellow." She was looking at the pictures still. "And should I bring in our resident True Psychic Talesexperts to help wi-"

"No. I am not reading them for fun, this is serious business."

"Razputin and Lili find the comics to be serious business." The tanned woman laughed, less at the idea of reading the comics and more about how Sasha was treating them. "But, whatever makes you happy. Maybe I should pick you up your own issues so you don't have to borrow any more from the girl."

"She and I are meeting up tomorrow so she can lend me more."

"You do know this might be a ploy just to get your autograph right?"

Sasha blinked, honestly confused. "Why would she want that? She just likes the comics." Even with all evidence pointing to the fact that yes he was a hero to people and thus he had fans, he never would quite get it. Milla knew this and while she enjoyed the fans, because well, she always knew she had the potential to be famous. She also accepted that Sasha really didn't see anything outside of his own personal bubble besides facts and figures and that in his own way he had his head in the clouds about what all he could find out.

She looked outwards at people and he looked inwards at the facts. They balanced.

"Well, you are a hero."

"I just do my job." He said now folding pieces of lettuce over with his knife and fork before eating it. "From what I have read versus what I know about myself, I am not how the comics portray me. For one, I do not always have some sarcastic witty phrase ready for whenever a fight breaks out. I consider myself lucky if I can make a joke post fight that isn't laughed at because it is…how do you describe it?"

"Cheesier than Wisconsin. And that sentence."

"And that ended my career as a standup comedian."

"The world will miss and mourn your humor, Mr. Nein."

And the rest of the meal went like that.

"I'll be over at six." The woman said as they stood up, she hooked her arm with his.

"I'll expect you at six fifteen, Agent Vodello." With his free hand, Sasha pulled out his wallet to pay for their meals. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Now, you go home. It looks like the weather might get worse."

"If so, either you stay at work, or you'll stay at mine." Sasha said, seeing nothing wrong with a friend staying over the night, not like he and Milla hadn't shared a bed before even though Milla called him a 'tease' for it.

"We won't get snowed in." she deadpanned as she unhooked their arms so she could go back to work and he back home with a new bit of evidence for his new hobby. He opened up the folder and stared at the picture, trying to think of who it could be.

Maybe they could be someone from the FBI- no, very few agents from the FBI worked with the Psychonauts only because of security issues and he had all of those people listed in his cellphone as family members.

He couldn't be local police because they were all in different locations.

There had to be something connecting it all together.