Mist billowed from behind the smashed souvenir cabinet. A figure vaguely resembling a long-armed, hirsute thing in a tattered robe could be glimpsed through the haze.

Oswald was trying and failing to stay calm. "If anyone... Has any idea... Of anything we can do... PLEASE DO IT!"

More in desperation than anything, Omar grabbed a souvenir baseball from the litter of wrecked trinkets on the floor and hurled it into the fog. It bounced off something solid and they heard a grunt.

"I... Oh dear..." Octavius licked his lips. "I might have an idea... If we..."

"Don't say it!" Omar shouted. "If you say what you're planning, it'll hear you! Just do it!"

"Yeah!" Oswald reached behind his back and pulled out his tablet. "Just be careful, guys!"

"I'll do my best..." Octavius groped his way over to the kitchen nook and started pressing buttons. "But it's so difficult to see anything..."

The fog was impenetrable. Oswald looked around desperately but he couldn't see Octavius or Omar.

"Guys?"

Nor could he hear them. All he heard was a strange churning, like water in his ears.

The mist completely swallowed him, then seemed to recede.

Then he heard... a shower running?

"What? What's going...?"

He was cold, really cold. He suddenly realized he was dripping wet. And completely naked. And back in the lab at 13579 again.

"...oh no..."

The other agents were all around him now, Olympia and Oona and Oksana and Otto and Olive and The Big O and Octavius and everyone. Oscar, Owen and Oren were there too, this time fully clothed and standing with the other agents. The only one naked was him.

"...ohhhh..."

He tried his best to cover himself as they all laughed and jeered. Looking around in a panic, he saw his friends smirking in utter disgust.

"Such a pathetic little worm!" Orla all but spat the words. "Cringing and whimpering, always afraid of his own shadow!"

Opal sneered and shook her head. "Can you believe he thought he could be part of OUR team?" She glared at the naked boy in utter disdain."Like he could ever keep up with us!"

Omar let loose a loud, braying horse-laugh. "What a loser!"

Slipping, Oswald fell to the ground. He rolled himself into a ball, arms over his head, trying not to cry too obviously as he heard every Odd Squad agent he'd ever met all laughing and pointing and mocking him.

#

Omar tried to stay calm.

"Okay," he said to himself as the mist swirled around him. "It's just fog. I'm still in the van. Everything's cool..."

There was a strange churning sound like water in his eyes. The mist swallowed him, then seemed to recede.

"Omar?"

It was Opal's voice, ragged and scared. He saw her a ways off, lying broken on the floor, covered in blood.

"Omar, where are you?" She reached out to him, groping at the air. Her eyes were wide and sightless.

"Omar, why aren't you here? We need you, Omar..."

Past her, Omar saw the shattered bodies of Oswald, Orla, and Octavius, pale and lifeless.

"Omar, we're supposed to be partners... Why didn't you help us?"

Opal's face contorted in agony. Omar tried to run to her but his feet were stuck to the ground. He found himself unable to move a muscle.

He felt the thing descending on Opal again, ready to tear her to pieces. He had to do something.

"Omar!" Opal's voice pleaded. "Omar, save us!"

Omar struggled to move but he couldn't. He was frozen in place, unable to even utter a sound.

#

Octavius was running. He ran frantically through the streets of a city he'd never seen before but which seemed oddly familiar as a furious mob of people in hoods and robes chased after him.

"THERE HE IS!"

He felt a gunshot tear a hole in his sweater. Terrified and exhausted, he stumbled across the broken sidewalks, struggling to keep his balance.

"FILTHY LITTLE PERVERT! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?"

Suddenly, he felt hands grab him, dragging him across the street to a town square where bonfires of burning books illuminated the darkness.

"SAYS HE'S IN ODD SQUAD! SAYS HE FIGHTS ODD! WELL, THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN BEING ODD..." The leader of the hooded mob tore off his mask. It was Xavier, his dark, cold eyes reflecting the dancing flames around him. "... Is being Queer."

The struggling librarian found himself being dragged up the steps of a scaffold. Behind the grim Judge Xavier, Octavius saw the bodies of OSMU and his other friends, hanging from nooses and swaying in the wind.

"It's a new world now, Gay boy. And your kind is no longer allowed."

He felt his head being thrust through a noose.

#

"What's going on out there?"

Opal listened at the door of the bedroom, longing to check on the boys but needing to keep an eye on Orla, who was attempting once again to get out of bed.

"The boys are in danger... I must help them..."

"You can't help them if you kill yourself!" Opal hurried back over to restrain the warrior agent. "They'll handle it! I'm sure they're..."

A curl of mist seeped under the door.

"...Okay?"

A figure emerged from the mist, a small girl in a black cloak and a mask. Opal glanced over at Orla, who had passed out again.

"The Shadow!"

She waited but the caped girl didn't say anything. Instead, she reached up and pulled her hood back from her face.

Then she started to remove her mask...

#

The mist containing the beast swirled around the Book of Ashes, howling triumphantly, clawing with its tendrils at the minds of the terrified agents.

Then the timer Octavius set on the microwave went off.

DING! DING! DING!

There was an awful shriek and the mists retreated. Oswald, Omar, and Octavius found themselves back on the van.

"Oh... Oh thank goodness..."

DING! DING! DING!

"It was just a... dream?" Octavius examined the fresh bullet hole in his sweater.

The mists billowed and shifted, the beast inside screeching in agony at the ringing timer.

DING! DING! DING!

Omar smiled at Octavius. "You set the microwave to go off! Pretty smart!"

Oswald gasped, finding himself curled up on the floor clutching his tablet. "Yeah! Now let's finish the job!" His fingers flew over the keyboard.

Baleful eyes gleamed inside the cloud of mist, focusing on him. He tried to ignore them and finished typing.

"Oh please, let this work..." He whispered under his breath. He turned the volume up as high as it would go and pointed the computer at the mist.

A YouTube video of a church cathedral played on its screen, its bells chiming the hour.

Screaming with pain and rage, the mist-creature billowed back into the Book of Ashes, the book slamming shut behind it.

Grabbing a souvenir shoelace from the ground, Omar tied the book shut.

"Okay," he gasped. "Let's get this thing to The Super-Saferoom."

"Yeah," Oswald swallowed hard. "Then the Odd Squad Cursed Book Vault. And make sure the girls are all right." He sighed. "And then I think I'm going to faint."

"I believe I might join you." Octavius followed the OSMU agents down the hall. "Though I might want to cry first."

#

"Reversinator gadget."

The Big O pointed the gadget at the rubble in one corner of the van. Instantly, Omar's destroyed souvenirs flew up from the floor, un-smashing themselves and returning to their proper positions on the restored shelves. There was a blink of light and the souvenir collection was good as new.

"Oh, thank you!" Omar rushed over and hugged the shelves. "I missed you guys!"

"Glad I was able to help," The Big O smiled. "Sometimes it doesn't work if it's been too long."

"And here is The Book of Ashes," Octavius carried the book, now sealed in a demon-proof bag, into the bullpen. "I'll be getting off here to make certain it's stored and cataloged properly."

"A safe journey to you, young librarian!" Orla said from her wheelchair. "I hope you have enjoyed your brush with adventure!"

"Ummm, yes..." He adjusted his glasses. "It was... interesting. But if it's all the same to you, I believe I'll be quite content watching over non-daemonic books from now on."

"Yeah, well, you've earned a rest!" Opal smiled at Oswald. "Both of you have! That was really great work stopping that thing. This team is really lucky to have you, Oswald!"

A blushing Oswald was about to thank her when they heard a banging on their van door. A bewildered Omar hurried over to see who it was.

"OH my..."

"Oh, hello my good fellow," the towering Frankenstein Monster smiled pleasantly down at him.

"Wow! Is this really the Odd Squad Mobile Unit Van?" The green-skinned, pointy-eared boy in the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit peered out from behind his father. "Boss!"

"We're sorry to trouble you," an attractive if green woman in a lavender shroud put a restraining arm around her child. "But we heard you have a storage vault for cursed objects."

"Yes," the Frankenstein Monster rummaged through his pockets. "So we were hoping you could take a few items off our hands, if you'd be so kind..."

Oswald stared, then shook his head, scowling. "I knew it! I knew they'd turn up!"

Sighing, the Big O held out her hand and the Monster dropped a series of gemstones into her palm.

"Let's see, here's the Fregosi Emerald... And the Nathanson Ruby... The Volstock Diamond... The Bartlett Sapphire..."

#