The rain continued to poor outside under the dark, drizzly sky. It had extinguished most of the fires by now. Mordecai and Rigby listened to it pounding against the window and ceiling as they gathered their things together. They each had a back pack to carry their stuff in. Most of their stuff was just a few pairs of clothes, that they wore for emergencies and situations that required them, some pens, a few toys and knick-knacks, some snacks they were saving, their wallets, an address book, a few posters, the pieces of Rigby's trampoline bed, their toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, and razors, and the spartan helmet.

"I can't believe Benson actually fired us." Rigby said at last in a quiet, questioning tone, the kind of tone one speaks in at a funeral, though not on the verge of tears. It was not that sad of a moment for them. Neither of them have spoken since Benson sent them up to pack up.

"Yeah." Mordecai replied in just as gloomy a tone. "I guess he's said he'd fire us so many times, they just started feeling like empty threats at one point. We never thought he'd actually do it, you know?"

"Yeah. Hey, how long have we been working here now?"

"I'd say its been about... five months. I mean we started in spring, right? And now its in early august, right?"

"Wow, I didn't think it was that short a time."

"Well, I guess that's what happens when you lose a job you get attached to. You look back on all the time you've spent doing it, and wonder if you've accomplished anything, you know?"

"And, what have we accomplished?"

"Nothing." Mordecai's eyes and heart sank further to the floor.

At last, they stood up, both finished their packing, and headed for the door. Before leaving, they both turned around to give their room one last look over. It was completely empty now, save for the cabinet that they kept their stuff in, and Mordecai's bed. They remembered the first day they came to the park, the day before they started working, when Pops had shown them first the nicely kept house, and then their room here. Back then, the room was completely untouched and clean for them. They had done a lot of fun and stupid things in this room, just as they had done in the rest of the park pretty much. They also remembered from their first day how they were concerned with not causing any big problems and screwing things up for themselves, and then they ended up playing a dangerous game of Rock, Paper, Scissors that almost got them killed for a chair that they did not even want that much.

Both boys let out a sigh before heading downstairs. They stopped by the living room to grab a few of their video games that they had bought themselves. The system itself was park property, so they unfortunately could not take it. A shame, too. They loved all the games they had played there. Again, they had some fond memories in this room, and with these video games.

At last, they came out the door, and Benson was waiting for them in his golf cart. His face showed no signs of sympathy, or even of disliking or annoyance. He was giving them a look that displayed indifference. The rest of the gang was there as well. Skips had his usual look on his face that either expressed anger or indifference, though he looked slightly more disappointed than usual. Pops was holding his hat down over his chest, a sad gaze locked on Mordecai and Rigby. Muscle Man was chuckling to himself silently. Mr. Maellard simply frowned and shook his head. High Five Ghost also looked sad to see the boys off.

Slowly, Mordecai and Rigby marched down the porch, not very much bothered by the irritating, chilling pokes from the rain. They hopped into the back seats of the golf cart. Benson started the engine and began to drive off. The boys looked behind them, and watched as their friends shrank on the road behind them as they drove away. They all waved goodbye after them. Pops was on the verge of tears to see his dear friends leave.

The whole ride to the gate, no one said a word. Mordecai and Rigby knew this was no time to try to make friendly conversation with Benson.

At last, they arrived at the front gate to the park. Mordecai and Rigby got out of their seats, and slowly trotted toward the gate. However, when they reached the tip of the cart, Benson stopped them.

"Wait, guys." He said. "I have your final paychecks here." He held out two blue rectangular papers to them, which Mordecai took, and handed one to Rigby.

"Thanks, Benson." Mordecai said gratefully.

"Now, I don't want to see you guys around here ever again on business terms." Benson continued sternly.

"Can we still come here sometime as regular guests?" Rigby asked.

Benson thought for a second. "How about you guys just stay away from the park for the rest of the month. You can come in after that."

"Okay. Thanks."

"Good luck out there guys." And with that, Benson put the cart in reverse, and after turning around, he headed back along the path into the park.

Mordecai and Rigby almost immediatly started to shiver from the light, quick, and numerous pokes from the rain.

"We're going to stick together through this, right?" Rigby asked Mordecai as they slowly walked out of the park.

"Oh, yeah sure. Absolutely." Mordecai replied, still depressed. "We've been best pals since we decided not to go to college, -I mean after I dropped out and you didn't go at all. We're bros, partners! We got to stick together through stuff like this!"

"That's right. Besides. We got into this together, and now we're going to stay in it together!" Rigby held up his fist to his pal. Mordecai pumped it with his. His punches were still way stronger than Rigby's. "So, now what?"

"Let's head on over to the museum now and cash in that helmet."

"Yeah. Let's do that." And the duo headed into the city towards the museum.

"Aw! Are you freaking kidding me?" Mordecai nearly exploded. Same thing with Rigby. It just so happened that the museum was closed for the day.

"Come on!" Rigby impulsively kicked the locked revolving door of the museum, hurting his foot. He hopped around holding his foot whispering "Ow, Ow, Ow." For a few seconds. After that, they duo's anger and frustration quickly turned to despair.

What were they to do now? They had no where to stay, no food, and only about $50 to live off of. They were unemployed, unwanted, and unloved. The rain continued to pour, soaking and jabbing at them like needles. They sat down on the edge of the sidewalk to plan out their next move.

"Well, this is by far one of the worst days of my life." Rigby said at last glumly.

"Mine too." Mordecai pouted. "I loved working at that park. Everyone there was cool, and cool, fun things happened every day."

"Yeah. Now what are we going to do? Where are we going to work now?"

"...I don't know," Mordecai answered after a pause, "but I think the first thing we need to figure out is where we're going to stay tonight." Then suddenly, an lightbulb went off in his head to answer that question. "Hey, I know. Why don't we head on up to the other side of town where your brother, Don is, and ask if we can spend the night as his place?"

"Do we have to?" Rigby whined.

"Come on, man. I thought you and Don made up now and you don't get jealous of him that much anymore."

"We did. It's just that it's all the way on the other side of town. I don't want to walk all the way there in the rain!"

"Well, we don't have a better idea." Mordecai stood up with his back pack. "Come on dude. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can dry off."

With a few grunts, Rigby stood up and followed Mordecai. It was true. Don's house, which was just a few blocks away from the park, was a bit of a walk from where they were. They had already walked for about an hour in the rain to get to the museum, only to find it closed.

The city was seemed completely deserted. Mordecai and Rigby seemed to be the only people walking through the streets that dark, drizzly afternoon. There were not even any cars passing by to brighten the mood with their noises and lights. Most people were probably in their warm, dry homes, hanging out with friends and family, or just relaxing and enjoying the rain from indoors like some people liked to do. A few house lights could be seen through the window, but other than Mordecai and Rigby, those seemed to be the only signs of life. They continued to walk down the lonely sidewalk for just a few more minutes, when they finally ran into familiar robin at a pedestrian crossing.

"Hey Margaret." Mordecai exclaimed as he and Rigby approached her. He was slightly delighted to see his long-time crush, though still down about how the rest of this nasty day was going.

"Mordecai? Rigby? Hey guys." She replied cheerfully. She wore a grey hooded sweatshirt, though dark grey now because of the rain soaking it, and an equally soaked pair of short jeans. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the park? You guys aren't playing hooky again, are you?" She giggled at that last statement.

"Well, no we're not playing hooky." Mordecai stuttered. "We, umm... You see, we..."

"We got fired." Rigby interjected briefly. Mordecai still had a little trouble talking to Margaret, and here he did not really want her to know they got fired. But Rigby did not care.

"What?" Margaret's mouth dropped. "That sucks! I can't believe it. I didn't think you guys would ever get fired from there."

"Join the club, babe." Rigby said in a deadpan tone.

"Well, what are you guys going to do now?"

"We're going to have to look for a new job somewhere." Mordecai replied.

"Well, do you have a place to stay?"

"Well, we were going up to Rigby's brother's house and ask if we could spend the night there, then start a job hunt tomorrow."

"But Rigby, doesn't your brother live on the other side of town?"

"Yep." Rigby answered.

"Well, my apartment is just about another block away. You guys wanna come over and spend the night with me."

"Oh, thanks Margaret." Mordecai answered nervously. "That's okay, I'm sure Don won't mind having us."

"Wow, thanks Margaret." Rigby answered cheerfully, his attitude finally starting to lighten up. "We'd love to spend the night at your place."

"Alright. Cool. Come on." Margaret smiled and hurried across the walkway. Mordecai and Rigby followed just a short distance behind her.

"What is up with you man?" Mordecai whispered angrily to Rigby. "Why are you putting us up to this?"

"Come on dude! This way we don't have to walk the whole way over to Don's." And then a grin crept across Rigby's face. "Besides. The girl of your dreams is coming to help you after you got fired! She's offering for you to stay at your place. You don't say 'no' to that!"

"Oh, yeah. Good point." Mordecai chuckled when they were across the street. As they walked up next to Margaret, he turned his attention to her.

"So, what are you doing out here on this side of town today?"

"Well, I got a day off, so I decided why not come over and maybe check out the museum?"

"Oh, well, not a good day to got there. It's closed. We were just there."

"What? Damn it! I haven't been there in a while and I hear they've got a lot of cool new exhibits there."

"Well, good thing you ran into us or you would have gone the whole way for nothing." Rigby chuckled, and getting Margaret to do the same.

Soon, the three were in Margaret's warm, dry apartment. It was cozy little place with a green carpet floor and white plaster walls. In one corner of the room there was creme colored couch and armchair with cushions at the left of the entrance, facing a small TV up against the wall. At the right was a counter that led into the kitchen. At the far right, after the kitchen, was a door that led into Margaret's bedroom, and she said that the bathroom was just next door to that. Mordecai felt a little awkward at the thought of having to go through Margaret's bedroom to get to the bathroom. The lights in the bedroom were out, so they could not see inside.

"Again, thanks for staying letting us crash here, Margaret," Mordecai said awkwardly as they walked into the main room.

"Yeah. Nice place you got here too." Rigby followed up.

"No problem guys. I know you'd do the same for me if I got fired." Margeret replied as she hung up her sweatshirt on a coat rack, revealing a beige tank T-shirt underneath.

"Of course we would." said Mordecai.

"You guys want some towels?"

"Sure. Thanks."

Mordecai and Rigby stood at the entrance so as not to drip everywhere. Margaret continued talking as she walked into the bathroom to grab some towels. "Okay, so you guys can stay as long as you need to until you're all set up with some new jobs. Mordecai, you can sleep on the couch there. Rigby, you can have the armchair." She finally came out with two white bath towels and tossed them to Mordecai, which he caught and passed one to Rigby.

"I was going to order Chinese for dinner. You guys okay with that?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure. We love Chinese." Mordecai replied.

"Hm, Hm." Rigby nodded.

"Alright. Cool." Margaret strode on over to the counter and snatched the phone out of its holder there and started dialing the numbers for the Chinese restaurant.

As she did so, the boys finished drying off, and plopped down on the couch. Rigby wanted to turn the TV on, but Mordecai shook his head at him as he reached for the remote. He was trying not to do anything that Margaret might interpret as rude. Rigby thought at first he was just being overly cautious, but then he decided to respect his friend, so he sat down, arms crossed, bored.

"Okay, so that takes care of where we're going to stay," He muttered. "So, now we should probably start thinking about where we're going to work."

"You don't want to wait until tomorrow to do that?" Mordecai raised an eyebrow, surprised. He did not expect Rigby to be so anxious about getting a new job.

"Well, I know you want to try to get a new job so Margaret doesn't think your a lazy slacker." Rigby smirked and elbowed Mordecai in the arm.

"Yeah, that's true." Mordecai rolled his eyes. "We'll look at the paper or on the computer later." He perked up. "I'm sure we'll find something. There's bound to be something we can do. They might need frycooks, or janitors, or taxi drivers, bellhops, waiters, movie theatre workers, moving van guys, I'm sure we'll find something along those lines."

"Dude, why are you picking out all the lame jobs that only suckers go for?" Rigby pouted, "Come on! We can do better than that. Let's find an exciting job that pays well! Like astronauts, or doctors, or video game designers, or-or, cops! You know?"

"Rigby, look at us." Mordecai moaned. "Neither of us went to college, never went on any internships. Before groundskeepers, you didn't have a job, and I worked as a cashier at a fried chicken joint-"

"You know, I never thought about it, but that's kind of ironic, 'cause your a blue jay."

"-And forget about training and school," Mordecai continued, "no matter what job we get, we probably won't take it that seriously, and get fired within the first week." And then he started to lower his voice, as his next thought crossed his mind. "Benson had good reason to fire us. Let's face it Rigby, we're losers. We'll be lucky if we find a job within that range I just listed that we can stick with. No one is going to want to hire us to do big things." His eyes turned down to the floor.

"Mordecai! That's not true!" Rigby snapped. "Look at me!" Mordecai raised his eyes to Rigby. "You are not a loser! And neither am I! Just look at what we've accomplished while we were at the park. We saved the park from being obliterated by a fire-breathing satan head, we saved the universe from being unraveled by a space-time vortex, saved the park from being audited with Don, we beat a giant snow monster, and a demonic werewolf version of me, and a zombie army, and saved the inhabitants of viral videos from being trapped forever in a computer realm! The list of our accomplishments goes on and on! Now, you look me in the eye again and tell me that couple of losers could do all those things!"

"Rigby, you're forgetting that we caused most of those disasters, and if Benson, Pops, Skips, and admittingly Muscle Man and High Five, hadn't been there to bail us out, we probably wouldn't have been beat all those forces."

For second, Rigby stared at his pal, his eyes wide, Mordecai's droopy with disappointment. Mordecai was right about that point he just made. In the kitchen, they could hear Margaret talking on the phone, ordering their Chinese.

"So, you're just going to give up on us?" Rigby asked finally, breaking the silence. "You really don't think we can get decent jobs?"

Mordecai did not answer. He did not have to. He had made his point. He really did not think he and Rigby could find a better job. But suddenly, an idea struck him.

"Wait a minute," He exclaimed, "Doesn't your cousin work at that U.S. government secret agency?"

"Who? You mean RJ? He's the forensic specialist at TUFF," and in a dramtic, army-mimicing voice, he said "the Turbo, Undercover, Fighting Force!"

"Well, you want a cool job, why don't you give him a call? Maybe he can try to set us up with some jobs at TUFF."

"That's a great idea, dude!" Rigby exclaimed.

"YYEEEAH!" Mordecai raised his hand, Rigby high-fived him.

"Ooooooohhhhhhh!" They screamed at each other, the way they did whenever they got excited about something together.

And then, as if on cue, Margaret came up to them, off the phone. "Okay," She said, "I just ordered it. It's going to be here in about ten minutes."

"Alright. Cool. Thanks." Mordecai smiled back.

"Hey, Margaret, can I have the phone?" Rigby held out his hand for the phone.

Margaret handed him the phone. He he started dialing the number.

Meanwhile, at the TUFF autopsy lab, Professor RJ Maskers stood haunched over a gruesomely disfigured corpse. He was doing a little overtime tonight to try and finish this one case he was dealing with. He often stayed overtime to finish his work. It was good. He was paid more this way, but mostly, he just wanted to do his share of work at TUFF. He was using a pair of tongs to lift up some flesh and photograph the damage done by a bullet wound. There was a few cameras held on a post at the edge of the table. They were all focused on different parts of the body, some more magnified than others.

Suddenly, the metal door, the only one into and out of the white-tiled room, slowly opened, and in walked Percy Pica, RJ's little intern. "Your tea, Sir." He stated, carrying a large coffee mug in his left hand.

"Thanks Percy." RJ said without looking up. "Leave it on the counter there."

Percy did as he was told. He placed the cup on the counter near the door. "Say, sir." Percy said. "If you don't mind me asking, do you miss agents Fleece and Shellington?"

RJ set his tongs on the at his side for a moment, and turned to his intern. "Well, I never really knew either of them too well. Verne and I hung out sometimes, but rarely. It's always a sad thing when someone dies. It's equally sad, if not more so when a TUFF agent dies in the line of duty. It's a great honor to die serving your country."

He sighed to avoid the sadness he was bringing himself to. "Still, field agents come and go. Its a natural occurance to us lab boys. We stay here in the labs where its safe while the field agents face the real dangers out there. And that is why its important for us to do our job in here, to make sure that whatever our brave agents sacrifice is not in vein."

"Truer words have never been spoken, I'm sure sir." Percy replied.

RJ smiled. He was happy to have Percy for an intern. Percy, a seventeen-year-old pica, was short, about Keswick's size, had dark brown-grayish fur, and was often confused for a koala or mouse. He was a rather handsome boy, with no braces, glasses, acne, or piercings. He usually wore a green vest and some jean shorts that went to his knees. He was a junior in high school, going on his senior year, aiming to become a doctor, surgeon, nurse, or something in that area. Percy was very respectful to his superiors, and RJ had done his best to keep Percy busy.

"Hey, get a clean rag and wipe, will you?" RJ said at last, breaking into his own trail of thought.

"Okay." Percy grabbed up a clean paper towel from the role they had on the counter, and walked over to the tray, and started wiping up the dirty tools that RJ was not using, as RJ picked up the tongs again. If Percy was first starting, RJ would have said 'get a clean paper towel from the roll there and wipe the tools', but by now, they had done the drill many times, as they have done many other drills together, and now, most of RJ's commands were kept brief with fewer words, and Percy was able to carry them all out flawlessly. RJ was proud. He was thirty-seven, so he was also happy to know that he did not seem like a grumpy old man.

Suddenly, the jeopardy theme song started playing in the room. Both were startled at first at the silence being broken, but both of them knew the source.

"Percy, my phone." RJ said.

"Yep."

Percy put down the scalpel he was cleaning, and skipped on over to the counter. He dropped the used paper towel into the waste basket with one hand, and with the other, grabbed up RJ's smart phone from the counter. RJ tore the rubber glove off his right hand and Percy handed him his phone.

"Hello?" RJ said into the phone as he lifted it to his head.

"Hey RJ, how ya doing?" Rigby's voice replied.

"Oh, hey Rigby." RJ was happy to hear from his little cousin. "Everything's okay here. What's up?"

"Well, I kind of need a favor." Rigby started to sound more serious as he got to the point. "Mordecai and I got fired from the park, so do you think you can try to hook us up with some new jobs at TUFF?"

"Wow, I'm sorry to here that." RJ answered in an honest voice. "Well, actually, you called at a pretty good time. We just lost a couple of TUFF agents the line of duty just yesterday, and now their positions are open. We're going to be holding interviews tomorrow. I could check with the higher-ups to put your names up for consideration. Just give me a second."

"Alright cool, thanks." Rigby covered the speaker part. "He said he's going to check with the bosses," he whispered to Mordecai and Margaret.

"I'll be right back." RJ said to Percy. Still holding his phone, he walked for the door. Before leaving the room, he grabbed his tea cup, and took a sip as he walked through the hallways. Hot, green tea. One cup of sugar, just the way he liked it. It relaxed him as the warm, comforting liquid slipped down his throat, not that he was really stressed at the time or anything.

At last, he came to the Chief's office. He knocked on the door, and when the chief's gruff voice hollered "come in!", he let himself in. The cheif was sitting at his desk, with Keswick at the front. They must have been having a talk about something.

"Agent Maskers?" The chief exclaimed. "What is it?"

"I have a couple of applicants for the new open agent positions here." RJ announced.

"We already have app-app-app-applicants?" Keswick stuttered, "But I didn't post that on the website yet."

"Well, they didn't know. They were just looking for a new job." RJ replied. "Their names are Mordecai Feathers and Rigby Maskers."

"Maskers? Is the latter related to you, RJ?" the Chief asked.

"He's my little cousin."

Keswick made a note on his clipboard. "Okay then. I've put their names on the sign-up list. Tell them to come here for the interviews ta-ta-tomorrow morning at eleven."

"Okay. Thank you sir." RJ smiled.

"Dismissed." The Chief replied.

RJ headed out the office, and walked around the cubicles of the other TUFF agents. He lifted his phone to his head again to tell Rigby the good news.

"Rigby, you still there?"

"Yep. Still here." His excited cousin's voice replied.

"Alright. So we're starting interviews for new agents tomorrow at eleven. Be here by then, and DON'T be late.

Rigby felt his heart sore, but he held it in until this was over. "Alright. Thanks RJ. This is a big help to us."

"No problem, little cous'. Well, I gotta get back to work. I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck. And really, don't be late."

"Okay. See ya."

"Later." RJ hung up and continued on his way back to the lab.

Rigby pushed the hang-up button on the phone.

"So?" Mordecai demanded, "What did he say?"

Rigby glanced over to him and grinned. "Guess who's got an interview tomorrow!"

Mordecai's smile shot up even bigger than Rigby's grin. "Yeee-yaaaah!" He exclaimed. He jumped up from his seat, then grabbed his little buddy by the hips, and hugged him. Both were laughing and cheering.

"That's my little bro!" Modecai squeezed Rigby in one arm, and gave him a nougie with the other.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Margaret exclaimed.

"You see Mordo," Rigby said finally as their laughter died down, and Mordecai put him down, "There's always a way out of ruts like this. There's nothing ever wrong with trying."

"Don't get your hopes all the way up, dude." Mordecai replied, still happy but more serious. "We're not hired yet. It depends not if we can pass the interview."

"Relax!" Rigby hissed, "How hard can that be?"

"I'm sure you guys will be fine." Margaret added. Just then, the doorbell rang. "Oh, that's gotta be the chinese." She walked over o answer the door.

The depressing state that Mordecai and Rigby were in a second ago now seemed completely drained out of their heads. Now their minds were full of hope, and sweet thoughts about how their new career, their new journey, would turn out.

Author's Note: I finally got this done. Hope anyone who reads is willing to submit a review or subscribe. And thanks to anyone who already reviewed or subscribed. Thank you everyone.

Again, I'll be a bit busy with my other stories, but I'll definitely update when I can. Thank you.