Oswald arrived late for the meeting. He trudged slowly across the room as the others stared at him.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I had a really rough night."

"Uh, yeah," Omar stared. "What's with the chipmunk suit?"

"Huh?" Oswald looked and realized he was wearing a full chipmunk costume, complete with oversized plastic head. "Oh. Sorry. I must've put it on instead of my uniform by mistake."

Opal blinked. "How do you put on a chipmunk costume by mistake?"

"No idea," Oswald shrugged, sliding wearily into the booth. "Ask the idiot writing this thing."

Opal sighed. "I thought you were over this problem you have about that guy... And he's asleep."

Quite true. Oswald had fallen soundly asleep, his head in the chipmunk mask resting on the table in front of him. Orla selected a gadget from the rotating rack behind her and zapped him with it, changing the costume to his regular OSMU uniform and jolting him awake.

"Thanks!" He adjusted his outfit. "I'm really sorry, guys. I kept having these awful dreams all night." The others gathered around him. "I kept getting chased by monsters! Dragons, trolls, giants... Even this weird part lion, part bird thing..."

"That is a griffin," Orla explained. "I must confess, my sleep was also troubled. I had strange, disturbing nocturnal visions in which I was gorging myself with pastries and sweets. By the time I awoke, I was positively nauseous!"

"No kidding!" Omar smiled. "I love that dream! But the one I kept having last night," He shook his head sadly. "Not so great. I was singing at Carnegie Hall. And you know I'm not a big singer. I was so freaked out..."

"Sounds like we all had crazy dreams," Opal observed. "I dreamed I had this REALLY boring job sorting through stuff at a... museum..."

They all looked at each other, then huddled together, touching foreheads. There was a chorus of 'dings' as each dream returned to its proper owner.

"Well," Opal sighed. "That's taken care of."

"What was even the point of that?" Oswald whined. "He KNOWS that bit won't work with just four people! And is he just assuming everyone is familiar with all his other stories?"

"Oswald, will you come on? You never act like this on the show!"

"That's because they don't do stuff like this to me on the show!" Oswald responded to Opal. "I was wearing a chipmunk costume! He doesn't do that to any of you guys!"

"Yeah, and you saved the day last chapter, remember?" Omar pointed out. "He's trying to balance it out, alright?"

"And I have been seriously wounded in the course of this fanfiction at least twice," Orla frowned. "I hardly think being asked to dress like a rodent is that bad in comparison."

"Look, let's move on," Opal urged her teammates. "Come on, let's get a good plot going before everyone stops reading."

"Yeah," Omar scratched his neck. "Did anyone even start?"

"That's the whole point!" Opal continued. "If we can just get some good fanfiction going..."

Oswald sighed. "Look. It's over, alright? Can't you tell? He's winding this up. The Munsters showed up last chapter. He's trying to end this thing."

Omar blinked. "Oh, that's who those guys were..."

"We're not done!" Opal insisted. "We're not! We just have to find a new plotline to get him interested! Or maybe we can snag some other writer..."

"Perhaps that Alpha-Dipity person might turn her hand to it..."

"I dunno," Omar shrugged. "I kinda think if someone's gonna write about us, they're gonna wanna come up with their own ideas..."

"No, wait! Look!" Racing over to a nearby door, Opal reached in and produced a huge canvas bag stuffed with letters. "We've got all this fanmail!"

Opal dumped the sack on the table, letters spilling out in all directions.

Oswald was bewildered. "People sent letters to a fanfic story?"

"Would not people who wished to comment on this work simply use their computers to send an... e-mail, you called it?"

"Yeah!" Omar stared at the mail. "Nobody mails letters anymore!"

Agent Oyster entered through a side-door. "Please keep that to yourself! I love my job!" He tossed a few more letters onto the pile and left the same way he came.

Oswald shrugged. "Well, you know, the idiot writing this thing hasn't really paid attention to the outside world since 1998..."

"He's THAT old?" Omar shook his head. "Why does he even watch the show?"

"Never mind that! Our fans await!" Beaming with glee, Opal selected a letter at random. She skimmed over it, then crumpled it up and threw it away.

Orla retrieved the letter, unfolded it, and read it. "Who are this Olive and Otto?"

Oswald sighed. "Long story."

"It seems this person misses them."

"Well, they can keep missing them!" Opal insisted. "This is our fanfic! If people miss Olive and Otto so much, let them go read the Olive and Otto fanfics!"

There was a scuffling sound and a loud commotion just out of sight. The agents looked around.

Oswald leaned back. "Well, that emptied the room..."

Orla sat down. "Should we wait for them to return or...?"

"No!" Opal dug into the pile of letters with renewed vigor. "We'll find a great idea! I know it!"

#

An hour later, they were still digging.

Oswald consulted his notepad. "Okay, so far that's fifty-nine requests for Olive and Otto to come back, fifty-three for Otis and Olympia to come back, and fourteen requests to see Orla's feet, all from the same person."

"There was also that lady who said you're cute," Omar reminded him.

"That one doesn't count," Oswald blushed. "I'm pretty sure it's my mom. Honestly, didn't ANYONE say ANYTHING about the STORY?"

"Oh, here's one!" Omar skimmed over another missive. "I really liked that story where Oswald was teleported from the shower..."

"Of course they did..." Oswald put his head on the table and whimpered.

"Could you do another story like that, only with Omar this time?" Omar smiled tightly. "No. No, we can't. Ever. Sorry."

"Not so funny now, is it?" Oswald smirked.

"Here's something from someone who wants Jamie Jam to win once in a while."

"Indeed!" Orla sniffed. "Who sent that letter?"

Opal checked the envelope. "Jamie Jam." She pulled out another letter. "And this guy wants a story where Ohlm destroys Odd Squad."

"From Ohlm, no doubt."

Opal consulted the envelope. "Well, he tried. He gives his name as Holm Mohl." She sighed. "What's really sad is that they put their return addresses on these things..."

"What's this?" Oswald grabbed another letter. "Dear Odd Squad. I love your show. My favorite is Glee." He paused, musing. "Yeah. That was a cute show. Was a little too busy being a Library-Museum Person to watch it but I think Octavius had a couple of the cast albums..."

"Hey, that's an idea!" Opal brightened. "We could do a musical fanfic!"

Omar looked around. "Uh, we're in print. We can't really sing."

Opal slumped. "Oh yeah. Well, maybe if we end the chapter, we can come up with something before he gets back..."

#

TO BE CONTINUED...