Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.


Once they got everybody settled, Marv prowled the alleys and back doors of Sin City, searching for information about the Roarke and generally letting the populace know he was back. The only useful thing he learned was where the freighter was going to dock when it arrived. The man who finally told him the location held out long enough for Marv to have a little fun. The big man was almost disappointed when the man finally babbled the location, before passing out. Marv wanted to do more, but didn't. He had what he was looking for and this was strictly business. God help those bastards when they get here, Marv thought, 'cause I'm gonna work out my frustrations on them.

He made his way back to Old Town, to Kadie's. There, he sat at he bar and drank a few beers, watching Nancy do her third set of the night. She smiled at him, sauntered over and leaned down, whispering in his ear, "the boys are upstairs, tucked in for the night. Room 213." She kissed his cheek then stood back up, an impish grin on her face. All the other mooks in the joint whooped and hollered at the special attention Marv got. He just smiled as he got up and walked upstairs to the cheers of the other patrons, who had totally misunderstood what just transpired.

When Marv got up to room 213, he found one French detective and three French kids all passed out, sleeping off jet lag. Marv was feeling pretty lagged himself, but he sat down and drank the beer he got from Kadie before coming upstairs. He managed to finish it before the trip finally caught up with him.


The next morning, after sleeping off his jet lag, Detective Hubert Fiorentini, Paris Metropolitan Police Department, went to the headquarters of the Basin City Police Department to officially request their assistance on behalf of the Paris Metropolitan Police Department. After talking for an hour, he looked at the man sitting across from him and realized that what Marv told him about the Basin City Police Department was absolutely correct.

Commissioner Lebowitz sat behind his desk and smiled as he said he would extend all of the courtesy and assistance to the detective that he could offer. "However," he said, "I have direct knowledge that the Pride of Roarke is currently rounding the Cape of Good Hope en route to Thailand. I also have direct knowledge that the freighter is carrying humanitarian supplies for relief work in the region. Now, I don't know where you got your information from, sir, but it's bogus. I was even able to speak to the captain of the Pride, and able to confirm what I just said. Now, I would suggest you go back to your hotel room, get some rest, then go out and see the sights. Then, after a couple of days, you can go back to Paris and tell your superiors that your information didn't pan out. You get a nice vacation, the local economy gets a boost, and your boss can close his file on this. Everybody wins."

"Yes, everybody but the thirty French citizens who were taken," Hubert said, "thank you for your time, Commissioner, but I must be on my way. As you just said, I need to get back to my hotel room and rest."

Hubert was fuming as he walked out of the police department. What he dearly wanted to do at that moment was beat the smarmy smile off the Commissioner's face.

Well, we'll just have to do it Marv's way, Fiorentini thought to himself, and that really doesn't bother me all that much, come to think of it.


Ulrich woke up to Yumi shaking him. He fussed a moment, then opened his eyes and saw the girl, and almost threw himself in her arms, thinking she had somehow magically escaped. Then reality set in and he saw that it was Miho, one of the ladies he met yesterday. She had a look on her face that said, get up and be glad you didn't do what you almost did. The boy grinned sheepishly, scratched his hair, and got up for the day. Gail, one of the other ladies, was leaning against the far wall, smiling at what almost happened. They had stopped by after finishing up for the night to check up on the boys.

"Better watch it, Miho, I think you've got a boyfriend," she said. Miho shot her friend a look that said, yeah, right.

Once they were sure that everyone was alright, Gail and Miho left. Marv said he had to go out and see some people, and Hubert said he needed to go out and meet with the local police. Jeremie sat at his computer cruising the 'net for any thing more he could find out about the girls. That left Odd and Ulrich to their own devices.

The only problem with staying in Old Town was that there was nothing to do during the day, since the entertainment was geared to the nightlife. So they went downstairs and saw the barkeep, Kadie, cleaning up after the night's business.

"Hello, boys," she said in tired greeting, "how do you like the U S of A so far?"

Ulrich grinned, "what little we've seen is nice. I'll have to say, the girls sure are pretty."

Kadie laughed, "you know, word about you three has already gotten around Old Town. A lot of the girls wanted to have a peek at you last night. Gail just about had to knock some heads together to keep 'em in line."

"Well, what do you expect when it's us?" Odd said with a smile, "we're just babe magnets!"

The barkeep gave Odd a wicked grin. "Well, more than a couple of the male hookers were interested especially in you, cutie pie, so I'd watch my back, if you catch my drift."

The look on Odd's face was priceless. Both Ulrich and Kadie laughed at the boy's embarrassment.

"Now, you two look like you're looking for some mischief to get into," Kadie declared, "rather than giving everybody a case of heartburn, why don't you make yourselves useful and help me clean up."

With that, she gave Odd a rag and Ulrich a mop and set them to cleaning. After Odd wiped down the bar and the tables, she had him start doing dishes in the back. Ulrich mopped the floor, then vacuumed the carpeted areas. After that, she gave him some brass polish and had him cleaning the brass fixtures.

While taking a break from polishing, Ulrich asked, "do girls really dance naked up on that stage?"

Kadie smiled and replied, "they don't start out that way, but the do end up that way. But to answer your question, yes they do, every night."

"Why?"

Kadie then got serious. "A lot of reasons, son. As many reasons as there are girls who dance. Take Nancy, for instance. You've met her, she's beautiful, and she's smart. She's studying to be a lawyer, going to school full time. But she comes here almost every night and dances. I'm not complaining, she's the best girl I've got, but she doesn't need to do it. And I have no reason why she does. There's only one thing I can think of."

"What's that?"

"She's got somethin' in mind. Somthin' that she needs contacts for. Contacts that would frequent places like this."

"Wow, I wonder what it is?"

"So do I, kid, so do I. Now get yourself back to work."

The boys finished cleaning up just before noon. Kadie gave them both fifty dollars for their trouble. When they protested, she said a workman was worth his hire, and wouldn't hear anything else. This was the fastest she had the place cleaned up in a long time, and was grateful for the help.


That afternoon, Gail and Miho came by to visit.

"Anything new?" Gail asked.

"Nothing," Hubert replied, "I haven't heard from Marv all day. Is that normal?"

"There's two places Marv probably went to," Gail said, "one was his mother's place. He worries about her as much as she worries about him, so he drops by when he can. Given the way he just up and left, she's probably been worried sick about him."

"And the other place?" the detective asked.

"His parole officer," was the reply, "hopefully he didn't get his ass thrown in jail."

"Nah, Lucille ain't that way," Marv said as he entered, smiling to all in greeting, "still, I had to go by and see her. I didn't want her to get in trouble just because I was stupid. I also needed to refill my prescription."

Ulrich, in the meantime, was looking at Miho, fascinated. Miho noticed his stare and got a perturbed look on her face, one that said, and just what do you want?

Ulrich understood the message and blushed. Then he asked, "ah, are those real?"

Miho's look now became, I can't believe you just said that! She started to walk menacingly towards the hapless boy.

"The swords," Ulrich quickly said in clarification, "are those swords real?"

The pint sized assissin's body language changed, but not her course. She walked up to the boy, then reached back and drew one of her katanas. Gail tensed up, thinking Miho might hurt the boy, but eased up when she instead handed it to him, then took a step back.

Ulrich accepted the weapon and carefully held it. He look closely at the blade, careful not to let his breath sully its perfection, then realized that it came from Japan, not Spain. He turned to the side, so as not to hurt anybody, and raised the sword up. He then slowly went through the motions of a kata he had practiced once, long ago, then suddenly turned about and blocked the sword strike that Miho had launched while his back was turned. People scattered as their swordplay advanced up and down the room. The scene finally stopped when Miho's blade touched Ulrich's neck. She smiled at him. He returned her smile with one of his own, then motioned with his eyes. She looked down and saw that Ulrich's blade was just touching her side. If it had been a real fight, he would have eviscerated her just as she beheaded him. She drew her blade away from him as he drew his blade away from her. They then saluted each other with their swords, then Ulrich returned the blade to its proper owner.

"Well Miho, maybe you have a playmate after all," Gail said.


The next morning, Odd and Ulrich went downstairs and helped Kadie clean up again. They had decided to help the barkeep clean up in the mornings after closing, then help in the afternoons when she opened. They both liked the old woman as almost a surrogate grandmother, so it surprised them when Marv told them that Kadie used to be a man.

Jeremie also sat with Kadie for part of the day, looking over her computer setup. The computer she used to maintain the bar business was old, but adequate. However, Kadie had another computer in her apartment, that was much more sophisticated. Jeremie looked it over, poked around a bit, and made some recommendations to the woman for upgrades that would improve her performance. He never inquired too closely as to why she needed such a powerful system.

That afternoon, Ulrich didn't join Odd downstairs. Miho came by, and brought two wooden practice swords with her. She gave one to Ulrich, then pointed at the door. The two disappeared.

"Guys, I think I just found something," Jeremie suddenly said.

"What?"Marv asked.

Jeremie replied, "a ship, marked the Pride of Roarke, entered the Panama Canal this morning. The ship in the canal matches your description of it, Marv. They must be using a ship with a false electronic signature to throw off casual inquiries. I'm lucky I got this; it came from an unusual source."

"Where?" Hubert asked.

"From surveillance cameras posted along the canal. Those cameras aren't accessible from the 'net however."

"And that bastard at the police station just sat across from me and lied like I couldn't tell the difference," Hubert said, "he even told me he spoke to the captain and confirmed the ship's position."

"He may well have," Jeremie said, "I did some checking, and it seems that a transponder belonging to the Pride of Roarke passed around the Cape of Good Hope yesterday morning. But just now, I came across this."

Jeremie typed something, and a picture displayed. It was a picture of the deck of the Roarke. On the deck stood four figures, two large ones and two smaller ones, flanked by what looked like four armed guards. Jeremie clicked his mouse and the picture zoomed in on the four figures. The picture fuzzed out as the frame expanded, then resolved into a clearer shot. There, standing on the deck, looking out at the shore, almost directly into the camera, was Aelita, Yumi, Milly and Tamiya. All of the men in the room smiled. The girls were alive and relatively unharmed. And they were coming to Sin City.

"How did you get access to this?" Marv asked.

"XANA," was the reply.

"Well," said Marv, "we'll just have to throw them a welcoming party, won't we? And we'll have to do something extra special for the people who made the trip possible."

Miho smiled an ugly smile, matching Marv's. That smile, like laughter, was contagious. Quickly, everyone in the room was smiling the same, ugly smile.


The next morning, Odd and Ulrich were preparing to go downstairs and help Kadie clean up. Marv and Hubert just sat and waited. Jeremie was sweeping the 'net for anything on the girls. His vigilance paid off.

"Jackpot!" the genius suddenly hollered, pointing at the computer. Everyone walked over.

On his screen was a picture of Aelita, in full color. The picture he showed them just showed her face and head, but there were other pictures of her, pictures he wouldn't show anyone. Along with the picture was an announcement. Aelita and a bunch of other girls and children would be auctioned to the highest bidder tomorrow night, one day before the ship would dock.

"They're still going to be out at sea!" Odd said, "we'll never get to them in time!"

"This changes everything," Marv said, "I don't know how we're gonna get out there."

"Yes, it does change things," Hubert said. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. After a moment, he spoke.

"Momo, Hubert. Drop what you're doing and get to Basin City, Washington as fast as you can. We need to crash a party at sea, so keep that in mind when you pack."

After he hung up, he said, "now we know when the sale is taking place. We now need to find out who is going and how they are getting there."


Marv and Hubert drove out to Sacred Oaks that evening to meet Hubert's friend, Momo. The man had called about an hour out to let them know he was arriving and where the plane would be.

"Hubert! Hubert! It's good to see you again!" exclaimed a small, mole-ish looking man as he got off the plane.

"Momo, it's good to see you too," Hubert replied, "and how is Tokyo?"

"Same as always. How's Yumi?"

"Fine. She's taken to Paris like a duck to water. I have to constantly watch her to make sure she doesn't buy everything in the stores."

Momo laughed. "Say, what are we going to do here? Is it gonna be like Tokyo was when you visited?"

"No, my friend, it will be much better. This time you get to blow things up."