Been a while, I know, but at least I can't say I HAVE NOT done anything to help keep this going . . .heh. Well, here's the next part to the mystery. Also, next chapter, there's an offering bet . . . Whoever can guess what happened to the next victim, will get a secret hint to the killer. I only own my own chracters. Please read, review, and enjoy!

The next morning was damp, fogged, and dark as the night beforehand. Thunder was booming in the distance, small raindroplets forming outside. The night before had left quite a number on the ground, leaving muddy puddles, flooded patches, and the few cars and flying vehicles used covered and buried in mud and muck. There was a rooster crowing a mile away, signaling it was already way past dawn, since the thunder was drowning the sounds of the flightless bird.

Steps echoed on the staircase as someone walked down, holding onto the railing. It was easy to see, but faded the colors to a muted prospect. Lighter colors, like yellow and red, were now dark browns and oranges. The person then tripped over a spot, falling down a few steps and let loose a " Jesus Christ!" in anger. He steadied himself and got down the rest of the way, cracking his neck. He sat down and rubbed his ankle quickly before standing back up and walking into the dining hall, and-

" OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

The lights came on.

Thunder boomed.

It was Ranger.

XXXXX

A few of the others, still in pajamas, were standing in the dining hall as D-Dude examined the scene where the body of X once laid. The team members were either shaking, halfway awake, or in Lunatic's case, asleep in the armchairs in the den, drooling. Others who hadn't heard the message were asleep upstairs or avoiding the attention. DP was holding onto HIkari, who was shaking out of fear. Advent was in a chair as Tanuki was fanning him from freaking about his older brother. TL was nearby as D-Dude scraped up some blood and borrowed a camera from Kiva to take a picture of something odd in the long since-been dried blood: there was a crust uprooted, creating a footprint partial. He smirked and stood back upright.

" Looks like someone really did take his body," he said.

" Yeah, or he became a zombie and walked outside," Ranger said sarcastically, still hiding a hint of fear. " Yes you living large lizard we KNOW someone took his damn body out of here."

" But why? A-And when?" Mirasuka freaked, her flanel purple pajamas flapping with her arms and her frizzed hair.

" You're the Psychic one," Haru told her in a midyawn.

" Yeah, but you of all people know I can't activate the powers I have in a FREAKED STATE!" she yelled.

" She's right," D-Dude said, " I don't think even my sight seeing powers can work with this kind of stress . . . plus, I can't smell anything."

" Huh?" TL asked.

" I can't smell the scent of whoever moved his body . . . it's like . . ." Big Double D sniffed twice. " it's like . . . they don't even have one, or they removed it. Whoever moved it was smart: they removed their scent, covered the blood, but the footprint's only the heel . . . "

" We can try to match it up," King said. " Check everyone's feet."

" What if it was a girl? There would be more than one shoe," Banjomaru said rolling his eyes.

Every girl glared at the bowlcut nerd wearing an X-Files shirt. He gulped and said," I'll just . . . be . . . hittin' that ole' Dusty Trail . . ." He walked back outside of the room, walking backwards the whole time, then was gone.

" He does have a point," TL said. " Everyone could have more than one pair of shoes on their hands."

" Right," DP said. " Even I have two pairs of boots, but I was asleep last night. I didn't come down here."

" Neither did I," King said," and I can TELL that's not my foot."

" Yeah, I've SEEN your feet," D-Dude said. " It's a small heel, so the male or female has feet from size nine to size six."

" That's practically half and a quarter of everyone!" Haru yelled, then yawned saying," Sorry, rain kept me awake . . ."

On cue, rain drizzled down as Haru groaned. " See? Rains hate me . . ."

" Obviously . . ." DP said mockingly and rolled his eyes. Hikari laughed to his side.

" Well, I'll analyze the heelprint and see if I can find an exact size, then we'll start matching," D-Dude said. " Whoever did this was pretty strong to have taken his body outside . . . and in the rain no less . . . hmm the rain . . ."

D-Dude felt a small bell ring in his head, as if a certain spelling mistake on a prize-winning essay would determine the error. He sniffed the air and walked into the kitchen, clean as a whistle. He smirked and looked around the door, the doormat which read "Backways Door of God", then he checked the doorknob, the window on the white door and as such, everything. Haru, King, TL, and DP walked in after. TL was the first one to notice the bizarreness of his brother as he tried to look under the rug.

" D, what in God's name are you doing?" he asked annoyed.

D-Dude looked back both upset and excited. An odd combination for a dragonsaur.

" It's been raining for two days, so why's there no mud?"

" Huh?" Haru asked.

" Aspies," King groaned.

" He means . . . there's no mud around here . . ." DP noticed the clean floors.

TL gasped. He scanned the area, free of debrees and dust and clumps of wet, slopping and coppertoned mud, and nodded.

" Dang it. There's no mud on the floor, no mud on the carpet, no fingerprints on the doorknob or window . . . someone was quick."

" That, or they couldn't touch the ground," King said.

Dp taped the floor twice and whistled. " No signs of cleaning products, no signs of smears or anything . . . "

" Cre-epy," haru shivered, then yawned. " Yo, I'm gonna go back to catch some Z's, so once you find the killer, tell me. I wanna film the arresting scene and send it to the guys who make Cops."

The others glared at him.

" wHAT?" Haru asked. " You look me in the eye and tell me you didn't wanna do the same to another Author you hate when they got busted for being drunk or something like that! Best. Blackmail. Material. Ever."

" You're as dumb as Tucker man," King said.

" You're as gay as Ricky Martin," Haru shot back.

" And HE'S their leader?" D-Dude asked looking at TL, who had the same blank expression.

DP pierced his temple as he saw the two glaring at each other. He sighed and said," NOW I have seen everything."

A loud and shrilly scream echoed from the upstairs to the downstairs area. At the same time, the five boys froze. The others in the living room and other rooms of the house froze as another clap of thunder cascaded over the house and rattled it to the core. The boys ran into the foyer as the others came in. Lunatic was yawning and shaking from both morning tiredness and a slight tinge of fear. Standing at the foot of the steps of the foyer was Dawn, hands bloodied and Jiro holding onto her. Hikari walked to her and patted her shoulder twice.

" Dawn what happened?"

" Hi-Hi-blo-bloo-o-o-o . . ."

" Dawn? Calm down," HIkari said soothingly.

" What is going on?" Roscoso asked walking forward.

Dawn kept stuttering the "bloo-ha-ha-hall . . ." syllables and finally grasped into Jiro's arms, crying. The blood on her hands smeared onto her face and his shirt. He looked as distressed as her, but also showed a small glint of happiness in his eyes. Rain was still pouring, despite a small crack in the clouds outside showing a blue sky behind the clouds ready to appear. The others in the foyer, pajama cladded and fearstruck as the boys from that British Academy about the time of WWII about the Beastie, all had one thing on their minds.

What what caused Dawn to crack?

" Jiro, explain what happened," DP said.

" Okay," Jiro said as he also began to shake," Dawn and I found something . . . in the closet upstairs . . . boys' hallway . . . come on . . ."

Jiro carefully led the crying Dawn up the stairs as the group walked up as well. Mirasuka was grabbing the tired Haru for dear life, Lunatic and Tl keeping close behind their older brother, King acting as the shepard for the other remaining team members that were awake at the moment. Ranger had a gun ready, loading more bullets into it. Ross got a Life Aura set. DP pulled out his staff as Hikari grasped a small item inside her pocket of her nightgown. Phoenix, who was also halfway awake, was slugging it upstairs, but a fully awake Mora was pulling her up as the main portion of the group walked around the corner then.

" Huh?" she asked with a yawn.

" I don't sleep." Mora said emotionlessly, pulling her along. " I can just say- OH MY GOD IT'S-!"

The group was now in the hallway, eyes all wide as dinner plates. DP and HIkari were at the front with DW and Lunatic. D-Dude poked his head, and soon wished he hadn't. Rook was on the other end with Wandrex and Trisha, Kiva starting to tear up. Ookami was crying silently with Tanuki. Scorpion looked hard, but on the inside was bawling as much as Dawn was. Lilly sighed as she looked on. They all drew their eyes to a large blood pool leading from an open closet to the cream colored floors, which were now a bloody red. They saw a large black sword, deathly and insensitive. There was no sense of comedy now . . . like, no one funny joke could be said without a punchline being interrupted . . .

It was stabbed inside of Nukid.

His face looked like he was going to say something sincere, or insulting, and the blood coming from his mouth was dried and crusted. His body was sprawled on the floor from someone previously having opened it. Dawn was now bawling on Jiro's shoulder. Hikari cried on DP's shoulder. MIrasuka looked away as Lunatic bit his lower lip. D-Dude bowed his head in respect, and Ranger put his gun back.

" Damn it . . . the bastard got Nukid . . ." he said low and angrily. " That son of a bitch got Nukid . . ."

Trisha bent down and closed Nukid's now souless eyes. She then shut his chin, which make a sickening click from rigor-mortis. Kiva gagged and ran off yelling "BATHROOM!"

" Dawn opened the closet and Nukid's body fell out," Jiro said, looking down. " I wanted him to suffer one way or another, but this was not what I had in mind . . . oh God forgive mne for wanting him to suffer . . . "

" Oh man, Nukid . . ." DP wiped an eye. " May God have mercy on his poor soul . . ."

" Amen," D-Dude, TL, and Lunatic said at once, their crosses out.

Scorpion pricked up his pointed ears.

" Scorpion, what's up?" King wiped an eye.

Scorpion moved his head from left to right. " Anyone . . .does . . . does anyone hear that? Sounds like . . .like when . . .hang on, trying to catch where it's coming from . . ."

He moved past Rook, and then weasled through the crowd, accidentally stepping on HIkari's small foot, Haru's shin, which gave Rook a reason to laugh, and then walked sideways past Dawn and Jiro. He walked down the hallway and was soon stopping by a few doors, and finally, he hit a door. He heard small noises behind it as King followed mouthing angrish. He stopped Scorpion from opening the door and said, " Dude, you do NOT do that. Remember what happened in Hong Kong?"

" First, yes, and secondly, someone'e behind that door, and I wanna see who it is!" Scorpion said.

" Dang it man . . ." King groaned.

Scorpion turned the doorknob as other people were now walking over.

" Yo, what's going on he-WHODAFLIBERFLABERHOOSEN?" Scorpion yelled.

" Scorp, we agreed on not speaking German unless necessar-OH MY JESUS KITTEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" King yelled.

There were two people making out on the bedpost at that moment.

Marcus and Kitten.

Silence.

Thunder clap.

" Well, who saw THIS coming?" Haru asked looking in.

To be continued!