The next day, the agents prepared for takeoff.

Alph had fixed up the ship the day before, and it ran a lot smoother.

All of the agents stepped into their pipes and went down to the previous level, which held their costumes. Their regal costumes weren't there yet, so they had to wear their normal outfits.

The next level was the garage, where the ship sat, awaiting a driver.

The captain placed himself in the driver's seat and turned around.

"Comms check, can everybody hear me?"

Everybody nodded, including Alph, who was not in the ship, but staring at the computer in the main room.

"Good. You know how we used to do, it's just like that. Split up and find the agent, take whatever intel you can find. You got that?"

Alph watched from the cameras as the ship jumped, leaving him alone.

The agents could not land directly in the Gamma port, so they turned on the cloaking device and went in via the ship port.

The captain said it, so they split up, in groups of one.

L traversed the halls, a gun in his hand and a defensive stance taken.

The rooms were neat, and the halls were clean.

The other agents tuned into comms to hear L say something.

"I found a room. It's filled with stolen artifacts. They're everywhere. It seems as if they've been taking stuff. What? There's a list- OH NO."

The guards walked in and polished a power star in it's glass chamber.

L, who had safely ensconced himself in a box, turned on his recorder.

"So, Boss wants to take something . You have any idea what that is?"

The other guard laughed a little. "It's gotta be something good, if THE Omega drafted Green to get it."

"Green. He's cool. His universe calls him a serial killer. Did you see him jack up that mannequin?"

"Yeah, he knows a thing or two about killing people mercilessly. Maybe we should ask him for advice."

"Hey, boss wants us out on the field again. Some MVPs showed up. Let's go."

"Gotcha."

L exited the box and turned off his recorder, before snapping a picture of the list and leaving.

Billy strapped the agent into the mind wiping machine, which looked and acted a lot like an electric chair, just without the high voltage, and excluding killing them.

Billy had tried to get the agent to take out his earphones, but he refused, so Billy left it alone.

Right as Billy turned on the device, he heard something behind him. He hit the switch to turn on the device and turned around, just to lock eyes with 3, who kicked Billy across the room.

3 went to pick up Billy, but stopped when she noticed the agent in the chair, who was unnaturally twitching and yelling.

3 ran over and hit the off switch, turning off the machine, and ending the agent's pain.

"Hey, hey, you okay?"

The agent shook himself, before standing up. "Yeah, I'm good. Just a headache."

3 trotted over to Billy, who was knocked out, and turned on comms.

"Hey, guys? I found our guy, and we have a prisoner.

The captain replied.

"Good! Now, choice: we could leave these guys alone and leave, or we could-"

L threw threw on his comms, panting heavily. "GUYS, I GOT CAUGHT!"

"Never mind."

3 picked up Billy with one arm, and helped the agent with the other.

The captain and S had caught the two guards in the hall, and were fighting with them.

The captain fought with extreme speed, while using the act of momentum to attack with the hammer as fast as he did.

In time, the guards had been knocked out.

The agents took the guards and Billy to the ship, as well as the scout.

Back at base, the agents had locked up the guards, the toad, and gave the scout a chair.

Simon sat down near the scout.

"Are you okay?"

The scout looked up, shivering.

"Yes. I am fine, just a headache."

"What's your name?"

"My name? My name is Janet. Janet Smith."

Janet fiddled with the food he was supplied with. "I'm not hungry. You can have that, if you want."

"Say… could you describe some of the people that put you in the cell?"

Janet was quiet for a moment.

"I don't remember which one put me in there, but that BLASTED green toad helped. There was a green inkling. I don't remember what his name was. They all had names. The green one was drafted to execute some prisoners. Of course, I have no idea why, but he did this right in front of me. He's a psychopath. I think he's gone now, but he's heartless. I've never seen that. I wish I was there to help them, but he was fast. He stabbed them eighteen times. The others said he does that like a sport. Apparently, he did it yesterday, to an ex of his."

Simon had written that down.

"Huh. That's weird. Anyway, I'll go question the toad. You get some rest."

Simon proceeded to the cells, where Billy was held.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Why should I tell you? All I'm gonna get is killed by your 'leader' anyway."

"It may spare you to give us helpful enough info, you know."

"And I don't like liars."

"If you want to play it that way, I'll make the cook skip your dinner."

"I think you're angry. Are you angry?"

"That is none of your concern. I want to know. Who do you work with, who do you work for, and why are you doing this?"

"Ahem. That is none of your concern."

"It isn't, but we kinda need you to speak, or you and I both have a chance to suffer violent deaths by the hands of your colleagues."

Billy smugly smiled. "It pains me to say this, but they won't kill me. Even if they wanted to, I'm important."

Alph was in the kitchen, making a fruit salad, when Simon walked in, clearly annoyed.

"Dangit. The toad won't speak."

Alph sat at the table with a bowl of fruit.

"He sounded angry. Maybe you should approach this differently. Make him tell you something you didn't want to know." Alph said, winking on the last part.

Simon completely ignored Alph's advice and walked away.

Billy looked up at the camera watching him.

It's currently being operated.

The camera stopped moving and the red light indicator went off.

Hm…

Billy turned around and pulled out a makeshift bomb from a soda he asked for.

"I hate glass walls."

The agents had just set out for new lands they had been assigned to explore, leaving Alph to watch the prisoners.

Alph regretted being left behind when he heard a loud explosion from the cells, cutting on the loud alarm the escaped prisoner had no intention of

Alph slammed into Billy, who screamed something loud and incomprehensible.

Billy ran the other way, looking for an exit.

Alph tried chasing Billy, Billy almost making it away, if it weren't for him tripping and falling over. Alph tripped over Billy and then they were both on the ground.

Alph pulled out his security taser and Billy's eyes went big, as he mouthed the words, "Please don't…"

Billy blacked out as Alph jabbed the taser into his leg.

"I'm hungry."

Luigi groaned as their friend repeatedly whined about food.

"3, didn't you pack snacks?"

"Yeah, but I left them on the ship."

Luigi and 3 noticed that Simon had walked far ahead of them.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Simon stopped and pointed up. "There. A department store. It's got to have food. Content?"

3 stared at the sign for a moment. "Exactly WHERE are we again?"

The captain switched on his comm. "You fellas are scouting the new terrain. It's called… what's it called again? Oh, it's called Fourside."

3 was already on her way inside the shop.

5 minutes later, Luigi walked out, carrying several bags of fast food, 3 following, chewing what seemed to be fried fish. Simon was grumbling and putting away his wallet.

"My paycheck can never stay in my wallet before the next…"

The agents patrolled for some time, occasionally speaking to some city folk, until they reached another place 3 found interesting. This time, it was a large building labelled Topolla theater.

Of course, Simon paid for the tickets for them to see inside of it.

The show that played was a lady wearing a slick, black dress strutting up and downstage, singing a tune until something happened, like a sweaty old man trying to hop onstage and do something very illegal.

3 walked out with a smile. "The best part was when the fat old guy got taken away."

Luigi followed, nodding in somewhat agreement. "Yeah, maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the man hadn't tried to... ruin the show…"

Simon followed, not at all amused. "Waste of money, waste of time. Not very amusing toward me. At least it benefits you."

The crew looked up at the sky when they got outside. "Well, we've patrolled the city. Wasn't this one out of… seven? Six? It may have been six." Simon tried to remember the entire way back, but didn't.

Alph had a hard time explaining the what happened while they had left.

"What? Did he escape or not?"

Alph stuttered. "Y-yes, he did, but I stopped him."

"Escape. Escape, meaning, got out of the complex."

"OH, ok. No. He didn't."

Billy groaned from the cell.

"And I may have electrocuted him."

The agents (excluding the captain,) exchanged glances back and forth.

"Yeah… we've done that ourselves a few times… no need for sorrow." Simon mumbled, adding something else under his breath that nobody could hear, but included the words, "long" and "death."

Alph felt less sorry when they all mentioned tasing a prisoner.

Not a minute later, the captain trotted in, a paper in his hand.

"Okay fellas, apparently we have some movement detected nearby our base. One of us will have to keep watch. It went under cloaking an hour ago, it could be anything…"

Alph and Luigi shivered a little bit upon thinking about staying up all night.

Simon raised his hand. "I'll do it."

The captain shrugged. "Ok. You know the drill. If anything sus happens, wake me up or hit the alarm."

Two hours into Simon's watch, he had drunk his third cup of coffee.

I WILL stay awake. I WILL NOT fall asleep. I… won't…

Simon woke when his head hit the counter beside the coffee machine.

Dangit! thought Simon as he chugged the entire coffee pot.

Simon woke up thirty minutes later, his head on the counter again.

Alph walked in. "You've been asleep for a while now. I thought I'd help."

It took no more than an hour before Alph had gotten too comfortable and fallen asleep on the recliner, while Simon fell asleep on the counter again.

Simon woke to 3 slapping his face.

"WAKE UP! Captain didn't tell you to fall asleep!"

Simon groaned. "Maybe doing this was a mistake…"

3 sat down beside him. "Well, here. I'll make sure you don't fall asleep again."

Thirty minutes later, Simon felt as if 3 had upheld her word. She was asleep, but snored loudly and kept Alph and Simon up.

"At least L and the captain are sleeping well…"

Mario turned to (double)Luigi, Toad and Peach.

"Today, friends, we chase our first lead. A denizen of this here town was captured by MVPs. How we know this? Camera footage. It's time for it. The MVPs hunt."

The four raced to the hunters van, which was just a minivan but with MVP hunters sprayed with a spray can on the side.

On the way, Double Luigi texted the original.

"Mario's not giving up. Today we got a lead on his MVPs deal."

Luigi trotted into the room, dark rings around his eyes.

"Oh, Luigi. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

Luigi yawned and sat down. "My bro… he's so smart, it's a curse. He's finding LEADS!"

Simon slammed his fist on the counter. "Dangit. I'm regretting telling him anything."

Luigi turned to Simon and Alph. "Well, it's not your fault… actually it is. I can't sugarcoat it, I hate the drawbacks of this job. Like, you can't tell anybody, but while you're on the field, you have bragging rights?"

"Just another day for us, right?" Simon said, with a sigh at the end.

Two hours of conversing later, all of them had moved to the couch, and were all asleep on it.

Simon woke up and felt a small hand yank him forward. "SIMON!"

All of the agents had mini heart attacks when they woke to the voice they feared.

"All of you fell asleep?! I mean, I appreciate the attempt to help each other, but, really! You guys should have told me you couldn't last the night."

"I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again." Simon apologized many times after that, but it takes too much effort to write seventeen of "Sorry, sir."

3 just shrugged and walked away, as if she hadn't done anything wrong.

Alph joined the sorry train, as did Luigi.

"No need for all that, I would have slapped all of you if something had happened, but do not worry, the prisoners are all still there. Next time, I'm doing watch. You guys aren't ready for that, it seems."

3 returned with an apple.

The captain led them to the scanning table, showing a blinking sign.

"See that? That's Gamma's distress beacon. They crashed. If we could get to them first, we could see what they think they're doing nearby. Get ready the patrol runner. We move after lunch."

Mario heard a knock on the door, and was very surprised when he saw Bowser in front of it.

"Mario. I understand that we are rivals and that we totally hate each other, but- uhh-"

Mario knew what Bowser wanted. "You wanna help me find the MVPs?"

"Yes. That."

Mario smiled a little. "Good! Come in, I'm going over some evidence we found. We checked a nearby camera system, a small, green toad was leaving from his house."

Bowser tilted his head, Mario noticed. "Let me add more color to that. A little, green toad was leaving his house an unnatural way. I think he's got something to do with our guys."

Bowser looked back and forth, before presenting a tape.

"I have camera footage of what happened last month. The MVPs are real."

Mario's eyes lit up. "OH MIO DIO! We've hit the jackpot!"

Mario looked to Bowser. "Ok. I'll get the crew. We're getting closer, I can smell it!"

When the others arrived, Mario played the tape Bowser brought.

"So, we're looking at proof that what we've been looking for for about… a month now. Why can't we show the public?" Toad queried.

"I'm not showing it yet. When we've got it all together, I'll give the public what they want. For now, we're gonna try as hard as we can to get our hands on anything we can find."

Toad and Peach had so many arguments, until Mario repeated his words. "Anything we can find that is relevant."

Toad and Peach let Mario have that line and left him alone.

Oh hey, it's me again :)

This one's a little bit shorter by a few thousand words, comparing it to the first chapter which was, like, 4,500 words, this one is 2,000 less.

Billy seems bent on getting out. What's this about a Green fellow? Seems familiar.

What's Mario getting into... is it safe? no :)

Today's lesson has been learned. Never trust these guys to keep watch. They all end up asleep, including the one who is supposed to watch. Well, see you in the next chapter, when I find out where the (excuse my language) heck Travis went.