Fire. That was all Raphael could see. Flames engulfing the room and licking his skin. Was the hotel on fire? He thought. He got up quickly and searched for Cleo and Charisma, then he saw them. Both dead, and their bodies were being held by a mysterious woman.

"Cleo?! Charisma?! No…..No! NO!" He kneeled down and started crying. Both his friends were now dead and there was no way to get them back.

The woman kicked him in the head and paralyzed him. Then she left out the window. Raphael called out for Fondue, anyone, to come and save him. But nobody came, and he was left to burn alive in the flaming hotel. He screamed.

"Raphael?!" He didn't take notice of the voice he kept screaming his lungs out.

"Raphael are you okay?" He was starting to cry now, his screams came out as nothing more than hurt sobs.

"HEY!" A male voice shouted. Raphael opened his eyes and sat up quickly. He was in the hotel room but…..it wasn't on fire? He looked at the people surrounding him. There was Cleo and Charisma, very much alive. But there was…...a man in the room with him, a man he had never seen before.

He had blonde hair that was sticking up and small blue eyes with square black glasses, making him look as geeky as Emile. He wore a grey sweater vest with a black tie and a white shirt underneath. The trousers were the same grey colour and his shoes were black and formal looking. He must be rich if he was dressing this formally.

The man checked Raphael, studying his face and everything. "I think he just had a nightmare."

"He's going to be okay isn't he?" Cleo said.

"Should be, dreams are just dreams." The man got off the bed.

Charisma took Raphael's cheeks. "Awww, poor Raphael." She rubbed them with her hands.

Raphael pushed her away. "Don't do that."

The man was about to leave but he stopped and turned around. "Excuse me, but did I overhear you talking about some pendants?"

Cleo nodded. Yeah, why? Is it important?"

"It most certainly is, young lady. I've been looking for something to study for months now!" He stretched. "I've come here from Sweden, my home country, to study the Sistine Chapel. Though, to be honest, it doesn't look that interesting."

Charisma got out the pendant of Pride from her pocket. "We're looking for these pendants. They're supposed to represent the seven deadly sins."

The man took it into his hands and looked at it. "I'm guessing this represents Vanity or Pride as it's most commonly known. Interesting…" He gave it back to Charisma. "If you don't mind, I'd like to join your search for these pendants. I'm quite brainy and I've invented a few things with my own hands." He showed two robotic bracelets on each of his wrists. He pressed a button on both of them and they expanded onto his hands, creating slightly bigger robot hands. "I use these whenever someone tries to pick a fight with me, they can be loaded with bullets too."

Cleo touched the hands in shock. "These look so awesome!" She squealed. "And you invented these?!"

"Yep, all by myself. I'm pretty clever like that." He said.

Raphael got out of the bed, he had recovered from the nightmare now. Without anyone looking, he slipped into the bathroom to get dressed.

Charisma leapt forward and took the man's hand. "Oh please come with us! We could use someone like you on our side!"

The man smiled and nodded. "I will certainly join you. I'm intrigued by these pendants myself."

"Hold up." Cleo came up to the man. "What's your name?"

"Do you want my full name or my first name?" He asked.

"First name." Cleo replied.

"Hans." He said.

Charisma cuddled him. "Hans…...what a wonderful name."

Hans laughed nervously. "T-Thank you. What's your name?"

"I'm Charisma, and this is Cleo." She pointed to Cleo.

"Sup?" Cleo said.

"What about that man in the bed? What was his name?" Hans looked around for Raphael.

Suddenly, the bathroom door was kicked open. A huge smog of steam came piling out. A mysterious figure came out and was masked by the fog. "If you want my real name, then it's Raphael." A dog came out and barked at Hans. "But…..if you want my professional name.." He stepped out of the steam revealing himself in his Phantom R suit. Fondue followed him. "Then it's Phantom R."

Hans stared at the man in the suit in front of him. "Y-You're Phantom R? You mean that Phantom R?"

"Yep." Phantom R smirked at Hans.

Han gulped. "Well h-hello there Phantom R. I-It's nice to meet you." He backed away a little bit.

Phantom R laughed. He loved it when people were afraid of him or expecting him to capture them and take them back to his 'secret hideout'. "Hey come on, there's no need to be afraid of me."

Hans kept his distance. "You'd kidnap me if I went to report the police about you."

"Nah. I might try to persuade you not to but if it comes to it then…..yeah, I would knock you out and then kidnap you." Phantom R flexed his muscles. "But it won't get to that point now, will it?"

Hans shook his head. "No no of course not. I'm trying to find the pendants with you anyway. So I won't go to the polizia"

"The what now?" Phantom R cocked his head.

"It's Italian for police." Hans said. His glasses were falling off so he pushed them back up to his eyes.

Cleo rubbed her hands together in a 'I'm ready' way. "So, shall we be off then?"

"But what about breakfast?" Charisma said.

Hans opened up a map on his phone. "We can grab something to eat as we walk through Rome. There's plenty of food shops."

"Sounds like my kind of plan!" Then Cleo paused. "Hold on, where are we going?"

"We could start at The Sistine Chapel. I'm supposed to be studying it for a college project." Hans brought up The Sistine Chapel on his phone. Phantom R wished he could do that. He wanted a cool phone where he could see where he was and show off fancy pictures of places to everyone. You could say that Phantom R was envious, so envious that he might try to get rid of Hans, but no. There was someone in the group who was so green with envy that you could see it on their face. And that person wanted to be the most important part of Phantom R's life.

Hans was about to put his phone away when suddenly it started to ring. The contact was a blocked number so Hans didn't know who it was, but he answered it anyway. "Hello?" He said to the phone. The rest of the group could only hear murmuring from the other end of the line. Hans nodded and then turned to Phantom R. "It's for you. The girl says she knows you."

Phantom R took the phone and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Raphael! Oh my gosh I was worried about you!" It was Josette, Marie's closest friend.

"Josette? Is that you?" Phantom R expected Marie to be on the phone, not Josette.

"Yeah yeah, it's me." She cleared her throat. "Listen Raphael, I heard that you're currently looking for the cure for...uhh..Marie. Is that right?"

"Yeah that's right. Why are you wondering?"

"Okay. And you're going to have it here by next month right?"

"Next month? I don't know if I could…"

Josette went silent on the phone. Then a loud crashing noise emitted in the background followed by Josette's agitated screams. "YOU LISTEN HERE!" She yelled, it was like a banshee was talking to him. "YOU'D BETTER HAVE IT IN BY NEXT MONTH OR I'LL TEAR YOU APART!"

Phantom R took his ear away from the phone. "Calm down!" He shouted. "I don't KNOW where the cure is okay?! It's going to take a while for me to find it!"

Josette started crying on the other end of the line. "Don't you know how much she means to me?!" She was sobbing. "She's like a big sister to me! She may be my friend but I like her more than that."

"Josette I-" He stopped. "Wait, what are you implying Josette?"

She sniffled loudly. "I-I….I love her…"

Phantom R froze. Was he hearing this right? Josette 'loves' Marie? He thought Josette liked Marie as only a friend, not as a lover. Josette was more than met the eye, it just took a while for it to show. He breathed in and slowly breathed out. "Okay, I'll look harder for you."

Josette seized her sniffling. "Wait...what?"

"I understand how much she means to you. I…...I love her too…"

"Y-You do?"

"Yeah."

"You mean….girlfriend and boyfriend love?"

"Yeah."

"...But….we can't both have her, can we?"

"That's why I'm letting her be yours."

"R-Really?!"

"You've been with Marie longer than me, you deserve her more."

Josette squealed which made Phantom R take his ear away from the phone again. "Thank you so much! I'll repay you, I swear!" Josette let out a sigh of happiness. "This is great. I might go and-" Suddenly there was banging in the background. Phantom R could hear Josette start to panic.

"Josette? Are you okay?" Phantom R asked.

"I-I think it's them…" She said. Josette was breathing in and out frantically. "I….I think it's them!" She shouted.

Now Phantom R was deeply worried for her. "Who Josette?! Who is it?!"

The sound of a door bursting open echoed down the phone and Josette screamed. "NOOO! LEAVE ME ALONE! AHHHHHH!" Chairs were being knocked over and Josette continued to scream.

"Josette?! JOSETTE?!" Phantom R desperately called out to her.

Her screams were all he could hear. Suddenly a gunshot sounded and Josette went silent. Phantom R was about to call for her again but then someone picked up the phone and an eerily familiar voice spoke to him. "...I will catch you, Phantom R…" The phone was cut off and Phantom R was left, dazed and shocked.

He started shaking. Two friends were now gone, one a close friend of his and another a secret admirer of Marie. How many more were going to lose their lives?! He was starting to go insane.

"Are you okay?" Hans put his hand on Phantom R's shoulder. "We heard a lot of screaming coming from that phone."

Phantom R looked up at Hans with the eyes of someone who was in pain. "S-She….something happened to Josette.."

"What? What happened to Josette?" Hans asked.

Phantom R swallowed. "I-I…..I think she's dead.."

Silence spread across the room when he said this. Everyone staring at him, and blinking frantically. "D-Dead…? Why do you think that?" Hans broke the silence.

"I heard Josette scream. And then I heard a gunshot and Josette went silent." Phantom R held his arm.

Hans nodded. "I-I see. Who in their right mind would do that?"

"Inspector Vergier." Phantom R answered.

Hans stared at him. "The inspector?" He laughed nervously. "S-Surely the inspector wouldn't murder a citizen….right?"

"He murdered Michel..." Cleo looked pained as she remembered that dizzy haze of running and wheezing.

Hans looked confused. "But he's the inspector! He would never murder anyone unless it was in the name of progress!"

"His 'name of progress' is to get to me." Phantom R cut in. "He's been meaning to catch me for a long time now, I have yet to know the reason why."

Hans shook his head in disbelief. "If you're telling the truth, then what they've been saying about him in the news is a lie."

"It's not really surprising to me. They make me out like a ruffian when I'm really stealing the artworks for a different reason." Phantom R held his fedora on his head. "I hate the constabulary."

Cleo put her arm around his shoulders in a comforting way. "I think we all hate the constabulary."

Once again, the deadly silence spread across the room. Making the sounds outside the only ones to hear.

Charisma broke it. "Anyway, we need to head off to The Sistine Chapel." Everyone looked at her. "Hopefully we'll find one of the pendants." She walked out the door.

"She doesn't seem to care does she?" Cleo said. "Even when we were running away from the constables back in Greece she showed no signs of fear or remorse at all."

"Probably got nerves of steel." Hans spoke with the voice of a bold, brave man.

Phantom R shook his head. "Either way, we need to get these pendants. And the cure for Marie.." He gave Han's phone back to him. "I won't let Josette's death go in vain."

He swore this under the name of 'Phantom's Honor'. Which meant he would never let go of this promise until it was fulfilled, he had done the same when Marie and Elizabeth were kidnapped many months back, now he was promising a dead friend the safety of her crush, he couldn't fail her.

The shining light of the Italian sun blinded them for a few seconds but after they got used to it they headed off to The Sistine Chapel. Phantom R was in a melancholy mood for most of the way there, he kept looking around with a hurt expression on his face. Josette's death had really hit him where it hurt most, and he knew that.

"Hey come on Raphael, cheer up." Cleo nudged him.

Phantom R only silently sighed and continued walking.

Hans was looking around Rome. At all the gorgeous buildings, the mouth watering shops and the soothing perfume that dominated the air with it's sweet scent. "Hey…..have you ever seen Bugsy Malone?" Hans asked Phantom R

Phantom R looked up at him, his face still full of emotionless pain. "..Yeah...I've seen it. I loved it as a kid."

"All of us here as a group reminds me of Fat Sam's gang. You know the ones right?" Hans turned to Cleo and Charisma.

Cleo nodded. "Yep, I remember them. Though I don't remember their names."

"Look can we just stop talking about it!" Phantom R said in an annoyed tone. "We've just lost a friend and I don't know about you but I'm not in the mood for nostalgia."

Hans scoffed. "Well excuse me your highness."

"Oh so you just think you can go on and be happy after a friend of yours has just died?!" Phantom R calmed himself down. "You know what? If you love the movie that much then why don't you just go and reenact a scene from it?"

The three of them looked at each other and smirked. "Oh don't tell me…" Phantom R shook his head.

Hans took a black fedora off of someone's head and Charisma took a green fedora the same way. They both put them on their heads. "Yay! Now we're a fedora club!" Cleo put her arms around both of them.

Hans tapped his foot. "~We could have been anything that we wanted to be~" He sang.

Cleo knew this song, it was her favourite. "~But don't it make your heart glad~"

Charisma joined in as well. "~That we decided, a fact we take pride in~"

"~We became the best at being bad!~" They all sang together with their fedoras held high.

Phantom R didn't like this, at all. "Guys I-"

Cleo grabbed him. "~We could have been anything that we wanted to be~" She tossed him over to Charisma.

"~With all the talent we had~" Charisma pushed him into Hans.

"~No doubt about it, we fight and we tout it~" Hans went to his ear. "Come on Raphael, join in. For Marie."

He couldn't argue with that. This trip around Europe was for Marie, to find a cure for her. He wouldn't find it if he moped and sulked all the time. "...~We're the very best at being bad guys!~" He blushed with embarrassment at first but Hans gave him a pat on the shoulder to assure him of a good singing voice.

They danced around the street. "~We're rotten to the core~" Charisma spun around.

Cleo put her elbow on her shoulder. "~My congratulations, no one likes you anymore~"

"~Bad guys!~" They were all having a good time with this song.

Phantom R twirled while holding his fedora. "~We're the very worst, each of us contemptible, we're criticised and cursed~"

They all took their fedoras off their heads and waved them while walking down the street, just like in the movie. "~We made the big time, malicious and mad. We're the very best at being bad~"

Cleo danced with a couple and secretly stole a golden pocket from them. "Hey, look at me! I'm dancing!"

While holding their fedoras they pranced up the streets. "~We could have been anything that we wanted to be, we took the easy way out~"

They put one foot over the other and put their fedoras back on their heads. "~With little training, we mastered complaining. Manners seemed unnecessary, we're so rude it's almost scary~"

A giant cake came up the street and went round a corner, Cleo chased after it with a drooling mouth. The others followed her. "~We could have been anything we wanted to be, with all the talent we had~"

After a ruckus they came out with a giant cake in their arms. Cleo took a scoop of the icing with her finger and ate it. "~With little practice, we made every blacklist~" They gave it to a man with a cart, so he would take the blame.

"~We're the very best at being bad~" They danced away before the bakers could come out from the corner. "~We're the very best at being bad~" The Sistine Chapel was in view now. "~We're the very best at being bad!~" They finished and then burst out laughing. Cleo hadn't noticed how nice Phantom R's laugh sounded. He had never laughed that way before. It wasn't a normal man's laugh, it was a sweet and lovely sounding laugh that made your heart melt when you heard it.

After they had dried their tears of joy they went into the chapel, hand in hand. But, what they didn't see was a red haired gentleman watching them from a distance. A tear crawled down his face but he brushed it away quickly. "Please Raphael…...don't make the same mistake your mother did... " He whispered.

End of Chapter 10