Papers were stacked high on the desk of Prince Odysseus Eu Britannia, the beloved and well-renowned First Prince of the Empire. He looked over the various reports coming in with concerned eyes, which certainly made sense. There was a lot of concerning to do. For one thing, the reports seemed to be presenting information that was mutually exclusive; one report claimed that of the terrorists apprehended, the majority were Arab; another claimed that they were all Elevens. Still another would have him believe that there were in fact no terrorists at all. Sorting fact from fiction was apparently to be the task here... As was so often the case with Britannian intelligence. Odysseus sighed.

"That was a pretty audible sigh, brother. You should be careful... Loud sounds can mask your enemy's movement."

Odysseus spun around to see the source of the voice he had just heard; it was his sister Cornelia Li Britannia. She was... um, hanging from the ceiling. Her face was inches from his, and he thought it pretty likely that she had knives in more than four different locations on her person. Oh, this was too much of a joke... Cornelia was scary enough even when she wasn't sneaking up on you like batman.

"Cornelia! I...er, didn't expect you there. How did you get in here?"

She walked around to the front of his desk and dropped another piece of paper on it. "If I told you, it wouldn't be special. The Emperor wants to see you, by the way."

Odysseus, still reeling from the shock, grabbed the piece of paper. He'd have another ten gray hairs after that, but that's just how Cornelia was. Always.

"What... Immediately? I thought we were supposed to get these requests in advance..." He frowned, but there was the Emperor's trademark handwriting. All caps, two-inch high letters. Like he was shouting at the page as he was writing it.

"Do you think he cares about giving appropriate notice?" asked Cornelia, looking off to the side. "He doesn't. Now come on, let's go."

It wasn't smart to keep the Emperor waiting, much less Cornelia, so Odysseus agreed. He'd have to get back to trying to take care of that intelligence nonsense later.

The siblings arrived in the Emperor's imperial announcing room rather quickly, despite the absurd size of the Pendragon palace. It helped if you cut through the kitchen. The room was as it usually was; unnecessarily large, dark, and with a couple of guys in silly outfits standing over in the corner. Odysseus always felt bad for those guys. They probably got paid minimum wage, had to remain upright for hours on end, and got no opportunity for advancement. And that was Britannian minimum wage, by the way. Which means, nothing.

The Emperor himself seemed to be out. This was rather strange, as he was the one who had demanded their presence. Maybe he forgot... he tended to do that sometimes.

"MAKE WAY!" said the Emperor from off-screen. "MOVE IT, FATHEAD! BEAT IT, HEADFACE!"

He made his way from backstage onto the throne in a matter of minutes. The narration here makes it sound like it happened quicker than it did, but he kept stopping to look at stuff and pick up the model of Jupiter he was balancing on his head. In the end he decided to screw it and just kick it around instead.

"A little late, aren't you, father?" asked Cornelia, who was visibly annoyed.

"YES, YES, I'M DEADER THAN I WAS YESTERDAY." said the Emperor. "WHAT OF IT?"

That shut her up.

"ODYSSEUS! WE HAVE A SITUATION!" he said, looking at Cornelia.

"Yes, it seems so. I'm afraid our intelligence is quite patchy at the moment, however. I would suggest we avoid taking action until new information is available, your highness."

The Emperor now looked at Odysseus, and he seemed to at least match up the face with the name. This was an improvement.

"NONSENSE! WE MUST TAKE VENGEANCE FOR THIS OFFENSE COMMITTED AGAINST US!"

"An imprudent act may cause us only further harm, your majesty. Regardless, we've still no confirmation of the identities of those responsible. And of course, disaster control must come first."

"IT WAS THE ELEVENS." said the Emperor. "I KNOW IT WAS THEM!"

Odysseus frowned. He was pretty good at that. "Elevens? How can your majesty be sure?"

"JUPITER TOLD ME!"

Okay, this was one of those moments where things were a little bit awkward. The Emperor had this thing about Jupiter. He was pretty knowledgeable about it, but he also seemed to think it was a person or something; it wasn't always clear exactly what was going on there. Odysseus also wasn't sure if the Emperor really thought that Jupiter was talking to him, or if he was just screwing with them; given how the Emperor got his kicks, it was hard to say.

"Very well, father." said Cornelia, who was always happy to help when killing elevens was involved. "Shall I take a regiment over to punish those stupid elevens?"

"AT ONCE. WE CANNOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS ANY LONGER."

"Yes, your majesty." said Cornelia, who then turned and left at quite the pace. Normally you're not supposed to turn your back on a reigning monarch while in their throne room, but Cornelia was badass.

Odysseus really wished that they would stop being so cartoonishly evil whenever some plot contrivance would occur, and he was about to voice these concerns; however, before he realized it, the meeting was over. That was quick.

He went back to his office, and it turned out that it actually was the elevens. Huh, go figure.