A/N Saw Trials and Tubulations the other day. Awesome episode, even if it totally discredited my OlivexOscar ship... lol oh well. So before I forget to mention this, I realized that I won't have room in the next two chapters to explain every single anagram I wrote about in the story, so if any of you readers can't figure out certain anagrams on your own and want to know what they are, feel free to message me about it and I'll tell you.
Alright, guess that's all I have to say. Only one more chapter to go, so stay tuned! :D

Chapter 10b

There are two things you should never do when you are cornered. One is give in to your panic and let it control you. The other is act on impulse and hope for the best. Unfortunately, no one had ever told either piece of advice to Otto.

Which is why he found himself charging at top speed at a dangerous madwoman with a gun, screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.

Luckily, for a split second Mariana Mag seemed caught off guard. Surprised, she instinctively lowered the gun and took a step back, giving Otto the perfect opportunity to make a lunge for her belt. By that time she was recovered enough from the initial shock to shove him away, but not before he had made a wild grab at her keyboard.

And it just so happened that his pinky barely pressed 'Backspace'.

Behind Otto, the basket of kittens lit up with an orange glow. With a loud zap! the glow turned into a white-hot beam that shot back into the Anagraminator. When the light cleared, a dazed-looking Agent Oscar was plopped on the floor right where the kittens had been.

Otto broke out grinning. "The backspace key! It reverses the last anagram made!" He breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad you're back, Oscar!"

The scientist slowly made it to his feet and brushed some stray cat hair off his lab coat. "Back and informed," he corrected, returning the grin awkwardly. "You'd be surprised how good cats' hearing is." He narrowed his eyes at Mariana Mag. "Quite a story, Agent Ocean. Afraid I can't sympathize, though."

The rogue agent stamped her foot and growled in frustration. "No one's ever reversed my anagrams before. Great, now I have two of you to deal with!" Then a sly grin crept across her face. "No matter. I'll finish both of you off soon enough." And in the blink of an eye, she had her stun gun up and pulled the trigger.

But Otto and Oscar were one step ahead of her. "Shields up!" they called out in unison, whipping out their bronze shields. "For Odd Squad! ! !"

Over the next several minutes, Carlos watched anxiously as the battle unfolded. Mariana Mag fired her stun gun at the two boys relentlessly, yet somehow they managed to block every shot. But it wouldn't be too long before one of them was going to tire, and then both of them would be stunned soon after. Meanwhile, Carlos was torn. For thirty years, his loyalties had lain unquestionably with Ocean, agent or not. But watching her mercilessly attack two innocent boys like this…?

And it was about to get worse. Sure enough, after blocking a shot at his head, Oscar forgot to bring the shield back down to watch for the gun. Immediately there was a sharp pain in his left foot and it gave out under him. "Gaah!" he cried out, dropping the shield as he stumbled backward.

"Oscar, look out—!" Otto began, but it was too late. In a flash of blue, Oscar was blasted again and went perfectly still, his eyes frozen open in horror. Distracted, Otto didn't notice that he'd lowered his shield just a little too much.

Nor did he hear the click of a trigger.

Suddenly there was a searing pain shooting down the entire right side of his body, followed by an incredible numbness and limpness. Otto collapsed, the shield dropping from his arm and rolling off the platform. He heard the stun gun clatter to the floor, followed by briskly approaching footsteps. Next thing he knew, he was being hoisted up by two strong, lithe arms. Mariana Mag's long and slender fingers—obvious now that their quick and adept movements came from constant typing and gadget repair—grabbed his frozen head by the jaw and turned it to face her.

"Now let's see..." she murmured with a dangerous smile, "how should I anagram you? 'Agent Otto' doesn't have very many good options to choose from. Not like with your friends. Hmm, maybe if I did 'Stunned Agent Otto', what would that give me…? Aha! 'Tungsten Toad Note', now that would be interesting! I could make you into a little notepad with a toad made of tungsten on it." She let out a harsh laugh. "Maybe I won't feel so sorry for anagramming you, after all. Say goodbye to life as you knew it, Stunned Agent Otto!" And her fingers began to type.

"Ocean, stop! ! !"

Mariana Mag froze. "Carlos?" She turned to face the Language Room. "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"That doesn't matter, Ocean. Don't you know what you're doing?" Different from his miserableness of before, Carlos actually sounded close to tears. "This isn't who you are. Remember when you used to visit me all those years ago? You were so happy, so hopeful, so young, so...innocent. Where did you go?"

The woman who was once Agent Ocean blinked, her wicked demeanor gone. "But—Carlos, it's me! I'm right here! I came back, like I always said I would."

"But at what cost?"

"Cost?" She faltered. "What do you mean?"

Meanwhile, the immobilized Otto seemed to have been forgotten. Mentally he grimaced. Although he appreciated Carlos's last minute efforts to reform his onetime friend, all it would end up amounting to would be delaying the inevitable. The thought made him sick with worry. It didn't help that his left arm, crushed against Mariana Mag's side, was developing an uncomfortable cramp, and his hand was starting to itch—

Hang on. The only way I could get a cramp or an itch...is if that arm wasn't stunned!

He wiggled his fingers to make sure, and just as he suspected, they could move. Even mostly immobilized, Otto could barely contain his excitement as his mind started formulating a plan.

Carlos sighed. "You've taken the livelihoods of dozens of innocent people, all to get revenge on just one person. And even then, why revenge?"

"Because she ruined my career!" Mariana Mag protested. "I thought Ms. O wanted me on the squad for who I was, not for someone I could never be. And she wouldn't listen no matter what I did!"

Now I just have to figure out her name, Otto thought as he stealthily pulled his left hand out of his pocket, mirror in hand. Something Ocean Flounder, and the something starts with M. He recalled her anagrammed fingers. What if her name was used in that anagram? Let's see, put together 'eggs' and 'magnifiers' and you get…

"Ocean, I understand. I've never trusted Ms. O, remember? She's always disrespected me as long as I can remember. But she has her reasons, and we'd never know because we've never bothered to ask. And I have a twin sister, don't I? Carol could have been our go-between for your problems with Ms. O."

Mariana Mag bit her lip. "I never knew," she said quietly. "I never visited the Math Room."

If 'Backspace' reverses the anagram, then which key creates it?

"It doesn't matter now," Carlos told her gently. "What does matter is that you stop this and set things right. Please? For my sake?"

Here goes. Slowly, carefully, Otto began to type in her name.

"For your sake," she repeated. "Oh, Carlos...my dearest friend..." Her eyes filled and her lip trembled. For one brief, shining moment, the villain faded away and left behind a bright-eyed, eager ten-year-old girl, with hopes, dreams, and not a care in the world. For one shining moment…

And then the moment passed, and Mariana Mag was back. Her eyes turned hard as flint, and she set her jaw defiantly. "It's too late for that, Carlos," she said coldly. "I have to finish what I started. I'm never going back now." She looked down at Otto—just in time to see him press the 'Enter' key on her belt. "What—but you're—" She gasped. "Nodon'ttouchthat!"

But Otto had already hit the center orange button.

A white-hot orange-tinged beam shot out and hit Otto's mirror, bouncing back to zap Mariana Mag squarely in the chest. "NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo..." she screamed, her cry dwindling away as the beam enveloped her and she began to shrink. Her grip released, and Otto slipped out of her disappearing arms and crashed to the floor, hitting his head hard. Everything went dark.

"...Otto…! ...Otto…! ...OTTO!"

Otto's eyes, glazed over from unconsciousness, brightened as everything came into focus again. One of Carlos's paper figures was peering down at him anxiously. "Agent Otto, thank goodness you're awake!"

Otto tried to speak, but his mouth was still frozen shut.

"Don't worry, you've only been out for a few minutes," Carlos went on, all of the drone and miserableness gone from his voice. Otto had the whimsical notion that it now sounded kind of like C-3PO from Star Wars. "Oh, and you might want to unfreeze yourself. The stun gun is over to your right, above your head. I think you can still reach it with your left arm, though."

Only one way to find out, Otto thought wryly. With an effort he managed to flop his left arm across his chest and fumble it around to find the stun gun. Eventually his hand closed on the hilt, and he brought it up to his face and examined it.

"There's a little green switch on the side," Carlos explained. "Flip that, and it'll set to 'unstun' mode."

Otto did as Carlos instructed, then aimed the gun at his chest and fired. Immediately the numbness disappeared, and he could move again. Slowly and shakily, Otto stood up. "Thanks, Carlos," he managed with a small smile. "For everything."

"It was what had to be done," Carlos merely said. "For my sake, for your sake, and for Ocean's sake, too."

"Right." That said, Otto turned to Oscar and unfroze him, then helped the scientist to his feet. "You alright?"

Oscar drew in a shaky breath. "Fine, fine, great, heh heh." Adjusting his spectacles, his eyes fell on an object resting on the floor a little ways off. "Is that her?"

"Mm-hmm." The object in question happened to be a small maroon floor rug. It had no designs on it except for a pitcher of lemonade in the center and four figs, one in each corner. Next to the rug was Mariana Mag's belt and Anagraminator.

Oscar shook his head in amazement. "How did you know what to anagram her into?"

Otto smiled. All he said was, "Her real name is Maggie Flounder."