And we are back!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I'm really sorry that this took so long; I've been really busy with school. Not to mention that over the last couple months or so I've finished Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward, as well as the new Legend of Zelda and the 3DS version of Metal Gear Solid 3. "Time of the Doctor" was pretty good too.

But enough about all of that. It's time to get back to the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, The World Ends With You, any other Disney movie, TV Show, Square Enix game, etc.

Chapter 5: The Excalibur

Location: Unknown

The Chief Scientist observed the large mirror, carefully studying the scene it depicted.

That's definitely him, he thought. All I have to do is wait for the opportunity to present itself…

At that moment, a Corridor of Darkness opened behind him, and Malfria stepped out of it.

The Scientist turned to face her. "The plan failed," he said. "You barely accomplished anything."

Malfria paused, and took a moment to observe the mirror herself. "It would seem to me that we succeeded in our main objectives-"

"All you did was release Number XIII!" he snapped back. "We needed far more than that. What about Naminé, hmm? What about the others in Sora's heart? What else do you have, if anything?"

He practically spat the last words, his face contorted into a condescending sneer. Malfria frowned, and reached into her cloak.

"I have this."

From within the folds of her robes she withdrew a glowing sphere of light.

The Chief Scientist stepped forward and took the sphere. Its green glow lit up his features, and inside it he could make out streams of numbers and letters that wouldn't make sense to most people, but he understood them perfectly.

"T-this was in the boy's heart?" he said in shock.

Malfria nodded, and continued. "I copied everything that I found. It's all that I could retrieve in what little time I had, but I think that you'll be satisfied."

The Scientist looked it over carefully. "The project…I didn't even realize that I needed this. I never would have thought that the soul would be there of all of places." He smirked. "It looks like we'll need to contact the rabbit soon."

He looked up and put away the sphere. "Of course, this doesn't solve my problems with the product's stability."

Malfria grinned. "I've already put the plan into motion. Another thing that I did actually succeed in. All we need now is a distraction. And luckily for you, we happen to have a man on the inside."

"Does he know who he's working for?" asked the Scientist.

"Not at all," Malfria responded. "But he should give you all the time that you need. Distractions are what he's best at."

He nodded. "So who is this guy?"

Malfria suddenly looked embarrassed. She snapped her fingers, and piece of paper appeared out of thin air.

"Here's his résumé," she said, handing the paper to him while trying not to meet his eyes.

"Hmm," said the Scientist as he looked it over. "Typical mad scientist stuff, should be alright. Schemes are a bit petty, though…. Wait," He paused, then scanned the paper again. "Raised by ocelots? Lawn gnome experience?" Malfria just nodded, her face in her hands.

He turned to her. "Just how did you find this guy?" he asked.

Malfria groaned. "Look, I needed something that would draw their attention away from us just for a bit, at a critical moment. But we were really busy so I had to do it on short notice. I just went to the first world that I could find and had someone put an ad in a magazine for mad scientists."

She suddenly tensed up. "But the IDIOT that I got to do it went to the wrong address! Instead of Evil Scientists Monthly, he went next door to Hamster Helper Weekly! Don't even ask me how the hell he screwed THAT up!"

She sat down morosely. "Anyway, he was the only one who responded – God knows what he was doing reading it in the first place – so I gave him the assignment."

The Scientist looked down at the résumé, then back at Malfria. "Does he even understand what exactly you asked him to do in the first place?"

"He doesn't have a clue."

XXX

Radiant Garden, Merlin's House

Everyone stared at Roxas, very surprised at the sudden appearance of a boy who shouldn't even be able to exist at the moment.

After a full minute had passed, Even began to speak.

"As I thought," he muttered. "As the most recent one to take residence in Sora's heart, he was naturally the first to be expelled. If the process had continued…"

"But I don't understand," said Kairi, who crept closer to Roxas to examine him for herself. "How can he… be here?"

"It certainly is paradoxical," replied Even. "Of course, Roxas is something of an anomaly. Normally a Nobody should not be able to exist while its other half is in physical form; indeed, the Nobody is in fact the body, so it should theoretically be impossible. But Roxas is a special case, as Sora was restored to physical form while still a Heartless. This led to both of them existing at the same time, while retaining their own separate identities. This is quite possibly unique!"

"Um, not quite," said Lea. "Remember, the same is true of Naminé."

"I suppose so," said Even, "Although I never had the chance to study Naminé for an extensive period of time. I was very busy with the Replica project…"

He glared at Lea. "And then somebody decided to burn me alive!"

"Hey! I-" Lea tried continue, but found that he couldn't. It was very difficult to persuade someone to forget about you effectively killing them.

"Wait," said Roxas, edging away from Kairi, whose staring was starting to creep him out. "You just said that you didn't have much time to study Naminé. Are you saying that you were studying ME?"

Even blinked, and turned towards him. "Well, yes. You were a rather unique subject, being both independent of your other half and wielding the Keyblade, either of which would merit extensive examination on their own. You spent most of your first week as a Nobody being examined by me –or rather, Vexen- and Zexion. Usually, we would only spent a day or two conducting what amounted to medical tests, to make sure that the subject had manifested properly, but with you, we spent a good deal longer. Of course, you don't remember that early period. Most don't. I theorize that this is most likely due to-"

"Okay," interrupted Riku. "I don't think we need to hear all of the technical stuff. So what you're saying is that whatever that woman did to Sora brought Roxas back?"

"Actually, that's not at all what I was saying, but yes, that is the most likely explanation."

"But why would she do that?" asked Goofy.

Even shrugged. "There, I'm afraid your guess is as good as mine."

Lea went over to where Roxas was lying. He knelt down next to him and smiled.

"Well, Roxas," he said with a smirk. "Looks like you finally managed to make it back to us."

Roxas grinned back at him. "You're one to talk. You really don't know how to stay dead, do you?"

Lea looked shocked for a moment, but then laughed. "Welcome back! Looks like you've finally got a sense of humor too!"

"What, and I didn't before?"

Riku turned to Even. "Does he have a Heart of his own?" he asked him.

Even reached into his lab coat and took out a miniature scanner. He knelt next to Roxas and waved it in front of his chest. After a few seconds, it gave a sharp ding!

"He most certainly does," Even responded, studying the scanner's small blue screen. "Perhaps Sora's simultaneous existence helped increased the rate at which a new heart grew. The same was probably true of Naminé, and Lea's interactions with Roxas as Axel might have encouraged similar growth as well."

"Wait," said Roxas. "A heart? I thought that Nobodies weren't supposed to have those."

"Actually," said Lea, "That's not quite true."

Lea, with the help of Sora and Riku, quickly explained what Sora had learned about Xehanort's plans to turn the original Organization XIII into his own vessels of darkness.

"I sent a message to Even about it right before I left to head back here," Lea finished.

"Yes, although Ienzo was already beginning to have similar suspicions," said Even. "Your message merely served as confirmation."

"Hang on," said Kairi, who had already learned this bit of information from Riku.

Turning to Roxas, she asked, "Shouldn't you have known about this already? I mean, you are Sora's Nobody – wouldn't that have given you this information?"

"To be honest, our connection hasn't been that strong," Sora told her. "I would get flashes of emotion every now and then, but I only started to hear his thoughts, well, earlier today I guess?"

Kairi looked astonished. "Well, I haven't had those problems with Naminé. We've been talking to each other for about 5 months now."

Everyone stared at her.

"I, um, thought it was…normal," Kairi said sheepishly.

Even stroked his chin.

"That's certainly…odd. Perhaps the two of you share similarities in personality that Sora and Roxas lack, which led to a stronger connection. Or maybe it's the opposite, and your personalities were more distinct while Sora's and Roxas' blended together. Both are perfectly possible, I suppose. Either way, it's most unusual."

But very convenient! Naminé cheerfully said to Kairi.

"Yeah, I guess," said Kairi absentmindedly. "But I really wish that you would stop critiquing me in art cla-"

She stopped suddenly. "Did I just say that aloud?"

Even raised an eyebrow at her. "Hm. Most interesting."

He whipped out a pen and notebook, and began jotting down observations. Lea snatched the notebook out of his hands.

"Later, Einstein," he said.

Rinoa turned to Aerith. "Okay," she said, "I'm a little lost right now."

Aerith shrugged. "I don't pretend to understand much myself, but Even's pretty knowledgeable about this sort of thing, so we're willing to defer to him on this."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get that," said Leon.

He opened the door to reveal a young woman. As she walked into the room, Sora saw she had purple hair and wore large glasses and a hat with an antenna on it. Her clothes and face were stained with oil, which along with a tool belt that she wore around her waist, suggested that she was a mechanic of some sort.

"Um, Cid sent me," she said looking around. "Am I interrupting?"
"Don't worry, you're fine," said Leon, motioning for her to come in.

"Everyone," he said. "This is Cid's assistant. Well, one of them, anyway."

"Nice to meet you," the girl said, extending a hand to Sora. "I'm Lucca."

"Nice to meet you too," responded Sora. "I'm Sora, and that's Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, and Roxas."

He indicated each of the others in turn.

Lucca gave everyone a polite bow. Then as she raised her head, her face lit up. "Oh, so you're the Keyblade Wielders that just arrived! That's great! Cid told me to find you, so I came over here to ask Merlin if he knew where you were."

"What does he need us for?" asked Riku.

"Well… maybe it's best if you come and see," Lucca told him. "Right now, he's in the hangar, on the other side of town. I'll take you there, if you'd like."

"Alright," said Roxas, getting up. "Let's go."

All of the sudden, he collapsed. Lea rushed over to him as parts of his body looked as though they were fading in and out of existence.

"Roxas, are you alright?" asked Lea as he helped Roxas to his feet.

"I-I'm fine," Roxas responded, but just then he gave a sharp cry of pain, and grasped his head in agony.

"I assure you, you are not," said Even. "You are still unstable due recently returning to physical form. You should recover in due time, but until then you mustn't over-exert yourself."

"No, I don't need to-"

Roxas didn't have time to finish the sentence before Lea cut him off.

"Believe me, you do. I'm not going to stand by and let you go running around when you're this close to a full recovery."

"Although he wouldn't get far," observed Aerith. "He can hardly stand."

"Garwsh, they're right, Roxas," said Goofy. "We don't want ya to disappear after you just came back."

Roxas started to protest again, but another stab of pain stopped him. He was going to have to give into their pleas for now.

"Fine."

"Great," said Lea. "Now, where are we going to put you?"

"He can have this bed," said Sora. "I'm done with it."

"Are you sure?" asked Kairi. "You're not suffering from the same thing he is?"

"That shouldn't be a problem," responded Even. "This process should only have such an effect on the Nobody. Nevertheless, if he starts exhibiting the same symptoms, bring him to me immediately."

"Well," said Lucca, "I think Cid would have preferred that more of you come, but I guess it can't be helped. Who else is coming, besides Sora?"

"I'll go," said Mickey, "And I'm sure that Donald and Goofy will too."

"You've got it, Your Majesty!" said Donald.

"Riku and I will come too," Kairi told her. "I still haven't had much of an opportunity to look around."

Cloud and Rinoa offered to come as well, but when Lucca turned to Lea, he shook his head.

"I'm going to stay here with Roxas and make sure that he's okay."

"And to make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid," he muttered as he helped Roxas to the bed.

"I must return to my lab," said Even, patting his coat pocket as he headed for the door. "There I'll be able to analyze the data I've collected from this scanner. With luck, I may be able to come up with a way to restore Roxas to full health ahead of schedule."

He turned to Yuffie. "Would you be so kind to come by in an hour with some more sea-salt ice cream? I'm nearly out."

"Um, sure?" said Yuffie, somewhat baffled by such an odd request coming from Even.

"Splendid." And with that, he was gone.

"Okay then," said Lucca. "Shall we?"

XXX

"I don't think that I've ever been to the hangar before," Sora said to Cloud as they walked through the street.

"That's because it's brand new," he answered. "Gestahl ordered it built soon after he was appointed governor. Surprisingly, it didn't take much time, and since then they've been building Gummi ships. In case there's a Heartless attack that we can't fight off, we can use the ships to evacuate and seek shelter elsewhere."

"Um, what are the odds of that happening?" Donald asked nervously.

"Well, now that you're here, we have five – make that six Keyblade Wielders, counting Roxas. So to be honest, I can't really see us losing to the Heartless, even with Xehanort forming a new Organization."

Sora was glad that Cloud had confidence in them, but privately he was worried. Sure, more Keyblade Wielders was great, but that seemed to be just what Xehanort wanted. Furthermore, one Xehanort was already a big threat, but if his plans came to fruition, they would end up having to face thirteen of him, and who knows how many others he would bring with him! Kairi still needed training, and so did Lea for that matter. As for himself, Sora was worried that his experiences in the dream worlds might have drained his strength considerably, or else he might have been able to handle the thief who ambushed them by himself.

Which led to another question: just who was that thief? Where did she come from, and what did she want? If Even and the others were right, than she had deliberately tried to extract Roxas from him, which she had definitely succeeded in doing. Was it part of the whole "seven lights" thing, or was there more to it?

Sora was suddenly snapped out of his reverie when Goofy asked Cloud, "So, how did your fight with Sephiroth go? Did ya win?"

"Um…not exactly," Cloud replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I think you guys saw how the two of us disappeared. After that-" Cloud paused for a moment, as if wondering if he should tell them anymore. "After that we went someplace that I don't think I can describe. You would have had to have been there. We dueled for…I don't know how long. Hours, days, weeks, years – it might have been a century for all I know. But we both fought with the ferocity a wolf backed into a corner."

Sora could see it in his mind's eye: two mortal enemies, locked in a life-or-death struggle for who knows how long, neither giving the other any quarter. He had been in some grueling battles before, but he could tell from the look in Cloud's eyes that even if this battle was dwarfed by Sora's own in scale, it made up for it in sheer brutality.

For a moment, Cloud seemed lost in his memories, but then he roused himself, and continued the story.

"Anyway, just as our battle reached its height, something seemed to shift."

"Shift?"

"There was some sort of disturbance where we were fighting, an enormous quake that shook its very foundations."

Sora pondered this for a moment. A quake? Maybe…

He turned to Donald and Goofy.

"Do you think it was when Ansem's machine exploded? Releasing all of those hearts at once might have affected wherever they were."

"Could be," said Goofy. "But for all we know, it could've been something else."

"What else could have caused that sort of thing?" asked Donald. Goofy just shrugged.

"So after that," Cloud continued, "Sephiroth and the place we were fighting in disappeared, and I wound up back here. When I met up with the others, I found out that only a few days had passed. Maybe time flows differently where we were, but it definitely felt a lot longer than that."

"And Sephiroth? Do you think that you'll run into him again?"

Cloud's eyes narrowed, and his face darkened with anger. "I know I will. He's a manifestation of the darkness inside of me. Even if I accept that it's there, Sephiroth represents everything that I hate; he won't just disappear, not that kind of darkness. I won't be rid of him until I can defeat him myself."

Sora nervously eyed Cloud. While he could understand his commitment to this fight, Cloud seemed to be consumed by a hatred of Sephiroth, a hatred that Sora couldn't explain.

"Cloud?" Sora asked. "Is Sephiroth a real person?"

"Yeah. At least, he was."

"'Was'? You mean he's dead?"

"Couldn't say. I don't know myself."

If that was the case, then…

"Then what did he-"

"We're here!"

Lucca had finally spoken up from the front of their group. Sora decided not to press the issue any further. It would probably just upset Cloud anyway.

In front of them was a large steel door in the side of the city wall. There didn't appear to be any way to open it from the outside; clearly, whatever was inside was too important for just anyone to come in.

Lucca walked over to the side of the door. Attached to the wall was small intercom with a red button just below the speaker. Lucca reached out and pressed the button.

"Okay, I'm back," she enunciated clearly into a small receiver.

"Who is it?" replied a gruff voice not unlike Cid's, although it clearly wasn't him; for one thing, the voice was far too young.

"It's me," said Lucca.

"'Me' who?"

Lucca paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Buford. You can see me. It's me, Lucca. Open up!"

See her? Sora thought. That's when he noticed a small camera right above the intercom's speaker. Clearly, this was so whoever was in charge of opening the door could see who wanted to get in.

"How do I know you are some crazy shapeshifting Heartless or something?"

Lucca began to grind her teeth in frustration. "I highly doubt that we'll have to worry about something like that. I don't know how many times we have to do this, but I'm right in front of the camera, and you can plainly see that it's me. Now open the door!"

"Oh yeah? Then who are all the people with ya, huh? Who're they?"

Buford, whoever he was, seemed to be quite caught up in the whole security business.

"They are the people who Cid asked me to get. Now could you kindly-"

"Yeah, I don't think so. I think I'm gonna have to call this one in."

"I HAVE LITERALLY COME THROUGH HERE ONE HUNDRED TIMES, AND YOU HAVE ALWAYS RAISED THE STUPIDEST OBJECTIONS! I WORK HERE, FOR GOD'S SAKE! NOW OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!"

For a brief moment, there was silence, punctuated only by the sounds of a red-faced Lucca's heavy breathing. Then…

"No."

That did it. Lucca swiftly reached into her belt and pulled out a blaster. She pointed it at the intercom, but before she could pull the trigger, Rinoa put her hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa there, calm down, hon. I'll handle this," she told Lucca, who reluctantly holstered her blaster again.

Rinoa stuck her face in front of the camera, and gave a big smile.

"Hi Buford! Mind if we come in?"

"I don't think so, you – wait. Is that Rinoa?"

"Yup," said Rinoa, giving the camera a wink. "So can we-"

There was a loud, metallic clank, and the door slowly slid open. Behind it was a set of stairs that stretched down into a dimly lit corridor.

"I swear, every time…" Lucca muttered to herself as she walked in, Rinoa following after her cheerfully. The others paused and looked at each other briefly, then went after them.

XXX

"So wait, we're under the town now, right?" asked Riku.

"That's right," said Lucca. "There wasn't really any room aboveground, so they decided to head below and convert one of the caverns into a hangar."

As she spoke, the walls along the sides gradually went from walls of a building to those of a cave.

"Um, is it safe here?" asked Donald nervously.

"Don't worry," responded Lucca. "We've taken all of the necessary precautions. It would take an army to cause this place to cave in."

They continued down the dark passage, the end still swallowed up by the darkness. After several minutes had passed, Rinoa turned to Kairi.

"So," she said, "Aerith said that you were pretty good with magic back at that fight you had earlier."

"Oh, that?" said Kairi, her face flushed with embarrassment. "That wasn't much."

Rinoa gave a knowing nod. "Uh huh. You know, I actually know a bit of magic myself."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's not much, but it's something."

Kairi frowned, then looked at Rinoa. "D-do you think that you could teach me?"

Rinoa laughed and shook her head. "I don't think you'd want me as a teacher. I don't have nearly enough experience."

Then Rinoa's face lit up. "On the other hand, Aerith is something of an expert at healing magic, and of course Merlin knows tons about the stuff. You could always ask them."

Learning magic, huh?

The thought began to take root in Kairi's head. There was no denying it; when she had activated Wisdom Form, she had felt something stir inside her. It felt… right. No, more than right; for a moment, it had felt as though there was no limit to what she could do. If she really did have that much potential inside her…

XXX

At the end of the hallway was another door, much smaller than the one they had already come through. Next to it was a keypad with ten numbered buttons on it. Lucca walked up to it and punched in several digits. With a click, the door unlocked.

"After you," said Lucca.

They all walked in, only to be greeted by the sight of the cavern that made up the hangar. It was truly enormous, easily several hundred feet wide. At the end was the mouth of the cave, big enough for several Gummi ships to fit through. Scattered all over the room were various tools and gadgets, the precise functions of which were not apparent; at least at first glance.

What dominated the view of the hangar, however, was a ship much larger than any previous Gummi Ship that Sora had used. Colored gold and white, it sported everything that a ship might require: cannons, armor, rockets, the works. The light shining through the mouth of the cave glanced off the metal plating, allowing the ship to shine majestically in the daylight.

Cid walked over to them, his face beaming with pride.

"Well, what'd you think? Not bad, huh?"

No one said anything. They just stared at the ship in awe.

Goofy was the first to speak. "Um, where's the cockpit?"

"It doesn't have one," answered Lucca.

"See those windows in the front?" Cid said, pointing at the place he indicated. "That's the bridge."

A bridge. Not a cockpit, but a bridge.

"Well, that's, um, definitely a step up from our first ship," Sora said, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Come on," said Cid, motioning for them to follow him. "I'll introduce you to the others?"

"Others?" asked Kairi.

Cid gave a whistle, and from inside the ship emerged a group of kids.

"Oh, you guys must be the ones Cid was talking about," said a short red-haired boy. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Phineas."

Sora shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, Phineas." Phineas grinned.

"Let me introduce you to the others," Phineas told him, pointing to the other kids behind him. There was a taller boy with green hair and a stoic, unblinking expression; a girl with long black hair wearing a pink dress and bow; a scrawny, timid looking boy; and a heavyset boy with a thuggish look on his face.

"That's my step-brother Ferb-"(the green-haired boy gave a short nod) "-and our friends Isabella,-" ("Hi," said the black-haired girl with a wave) "-Baljeet,-" ("Hello," said the short boy nervously) "-and Buford." ("Hey," said the thuggish looking boy)

"You were the guy on the intercom, weren't you?" Sora asked Buford.

"Yeah sure was," Buford confirmed.
"Regrettably," Lucca muttered."

"It's nice to meet all of you," said Kairi.

"Wait a minute," Riku said. "You're Cid's assistants?"

"That's right."

"Aren't you a little young to be buildin' Gummi Ships?" asked Goofy.

"Why yes," Phineas replied. "Yes we are."

"Despite their age, Phineas and the others have been a big help with the Excalibur," Lucca told them.

"The what?"

"That's the name of the ship."

"Huh," said Sora. "I like it."

"Hey, what's that thing?" asked Donald, pointing at a blue animal that Ferb was holding that looked like a cross between a duck and a beaver.

"Oh, that's Perry," said Phineas. "He's our pet platypus."

"Hello there, Perry," Kairi said to the platypus.

"Ctrtrtrtrtr..." gurgled Perry, with not a hint of intellect in his eyes.

"Um, he seems kind of…" Riku struggled to find a good word.

"Stupid?" suggested Cloud.

"I was going to go with dull; that's true in a few different ways."

"Well he is a platypus," responded Phineas as Ferb set Perry on the ground. "They don't do much."

Suddenly, there was a sudden shout of "PHINEEAAASSS!"

Everyone turned to see a tall girl with long, red hair walked briskly towards them, with another, black-haired girl trailing along behind her.

"Are you guys working on the ship thing again?" the red headed girl asked accusingly.

"Everyone," Phineas said. "This is our older sister, Candace, and her friend Stacy."

"Hey," said Stacy sheepishly, cleared not thrilled with her friend's behavior.

"Oh, when we get back to Danville, you guys are so busted!" Candace said with vibrant glee.

"I'm sorry, what's the problem here?" Mickey asked.

"They're too young to be building spaceships to other dimensions, or whatever the heck they're doing! They could get hurt!" Candace said – or rather, shouted frantically.

"Cid's with them though, so they should be alright if they're used to this sort of thing, which I assume they are, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…" Candace paused for a moment, clearly struggling with this line of thinking. "Uggh, I don't have anything else to do! Come on, Stacy!"

"Coming," Stacy said as Candace stomped away. Sorry, she mouthed to the others, and then ran after Candace.

"Poor girl," Rinoa said. "She's stuck in a rut."

"Anyway," said Phineas, turning to Sora. "We're almost done with the ship, but we're missing a few key parts. Without them, we won't be able to get the ship to travel to other worlds."

"We'll help you, if we can," Sora volunteered.

"Great!" Phineas exclaimed. "Now here's what we - hey, where's Perry?"

Everyone looked around, but the platypus had vanished.

XXX

Perry stealthily walked over to the mouth of the cave. Once he was hidden from sight, he stood up on his hind legs, his eyes suddenly gleaming with intelligence. From behind a nearby boulder he removed a brown fedora and a communicator. He placed the fedora on his head and the communicator on his wrist. The watch shaped device beeped as a miniature screen lit up. A white-haired, serious-looking man with a mustache appeared.

"Good morning, Agent P," the man said. "As you know, we have been tracking Dr. Doofenshmirtz ever since he arrived here in Radiant Garden with us, and-"

"Major Monogram, sir?" interrupted a nasally voice from off-screen. "Why are you telling Agent P stuff that he already knows?"

"What did I tell you about interrupting my exposition, Carl?"

"Sorry, sir."

"Anyway," continued Monogram, "We've had Doofenshmirtz under heavy surveillance ever since the incident that brought us to this world. We recently spotted his daughter down in the local market, buying several highly suspicious looking items, such as light bulbs, electric fans, milk, a freezer-"

"Sir, those aren't that suspicious."

"Carl, she's an evil scientist's daughter. Anything that she buys is automatically Class-B contraband."

"Right, sir."

"Right then, where was I?" Monogram said as he turned back to Perry. "Ah, yes. Doofenshmirtz is currently living in a formerly abandoned house on the north side of town. Go find out whatever he's doing, and put a stop to it!"

Perry gave his superior a quick salute, and then dashed off.

To Be Continued

Next Time: Without a Tri-State Area to conquer, he's at a bit of a loss…

Once again, I'm really sorry that this took so long; it's way overdue! I was kind of struggling with this chapter, and school's been taking its toll. Fortunately, I have some good ideas coming, especially in another two chapters. I'm not giving up yet!

Edit: By the way, Lucca is from the Square Enix game Chrono Trigger, which you must track down and play RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

*ahem*

Please review!