The three of us walked in and I was utterly amazed by the condition of the place.

It was beautiful! And the only reason I said that, is because it…the place reminded me of the kitchen and dining room back home. The rug on the floor, the walls being covered with random paints, the smell of curry always drifting into your nose. Or sometimes pasta. Pasta sounded good right about then. "Nat." I said aloud, reaching for a chair.

"I want to eat pasta!"

Nat smiled and clapped his hands, "Right away Mika!" Immediately, I heard sounds coming from the kitchen, and I saw people wearing the funny chef hats working elegantly to make delicious wonders. "Ah." I sighed happily. I sat myself by a table that sat four. "So, why are we here again?" I asked. Nat sat on one side of me, and Dan on the other.

"Well," Nathaniel started. "I wanted to ask you something Mika." I raised an eyebrow at him, and shared a glance with Dan. Shrugging, I asked, "Well, spill it out stupid."

"I want you to work for me."

There was a silence for a moment, before my brain processed that he just asked me to work for him. My cousin, asked me, to work for him, which means being a secret agent spy person. I slammed my hand on the table, startling the guys. I grinned madly, "Of course!" Dan grinned, but a look of insecurity came over him. "Hey, Mika are you sure? One time, I nearly got shot down, another I was almost eaten alive. By a shark. A huge one."

I laughed at Dan. "Well, I suppose I could feel a little sorry for you about that, but Nat," I said turning to my smiling cousin. "I will work for you. I'll be one of your spies." Nat laughed his stupid laugh and patted me on my head. I didn't feel any need to smack him to Jupiter at that moment, as I was feeling terrific. "Brilliant Mika!" he announced. "I already have two jobs for you. But it seems you've already accepted one."

"Hmmn?" I asked, a question mark clearly floating over my head. "You don't mean…!" Dan exclaimed, standing up. He placed his hands on the table. "Nat, are you serious?" Nat smiled and nodded. The usual. "Dead serious Dan," he said, drooling at the smell of pasta. A vein bulged, and I rubbed my temple.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on now?" I mumbled angrily. Dan looked over to me with a smile. "You're my partner Mika!" he stuck out his hand in front of him. I looked at him, then to his hand, over to Nat, and back to Dan. "Y-You're…partner?" I asked. "As in, for our jobs…?"

Dan and Nat nodded simultaneously, saying, "Yup!" Scary. Oh god, I hope they don't ever do that again. I took Dan's hand in mine, and felt a warm feeling spread all over me. Hey, looks like this trip has paid off so far. I got a job working as a spy for my cousin, made two new friends, and one of which just happens to be my partner in, uh, not-crime? That didn't work. Oh well, I even met my grandmother after so long! This is brilliant!

Dan and I shook hands, then I hugged him. "H-Hey!" I laughed and pulled away from him, my hands on his shoulders. Smiling deviously, I laughed, "Oh, our adventures are gonna be fun!" Dan sweatdropped. "That scares me a little…" But before Nat or I could say anything, the smell of pasta and cheese occupied me as a chef came to place three plates of steaming, fresh, pasta in front of us.

I drooled and sat back down, digging into the cheesy goodness. We ate and talked like that for a while, talking about my new job and trying to find out what my code name was gonna be. "Hmmn…" Dan mumbled while slurping up a spaghetti noodle. I looked over at him. "You got a suggestion? Hopefully it'll be better then 'Mika the Mad'." I glared daggers at Nat.

Dan relaxed in his chair, and placed his arms behind his head. Closing his eyes, he said, "Golden Sword." Nat and I looked at each other, and Nat said, "That fits her perfectly, Dan."

"Yeah, yeah it does."

"How, may I ask?"

Dan smiled at me. "Heh, a golden sword-everyone's savior. It may kill, and it may do wrong at times, but it's used for good, and knows only to help." Nat said, looking out the window to watch the sun set. "To save. Just like you Mika. All today, you were focused on helping all those people in the village of Early Poptropica." Dan finished. I looked at the guys, blushing. "R-Really? Gee, thanks guys, but ain't it a bit wordy? I mean I do like it!" I said, looking down at my plate.

"Then the shortened version will be G.S." Dan said, grinning madly. I laughed. "It'll work, now I believe we have a job to do. Bye Nat." I got up, hugged my cousin, and walked out of the restaurant, Dan behind me.

"So, G.S." Dan began, as I stretched myself out. "Shall we get going?" He grabbed me by the waist-something this pervert has a habit of doing-and jumped off the roof. Another one of his stupid habits, randomly jumping from places. But anyway, I didn't scream my lungs out, but I did grab onto him. "Hey Dan!" I asked as he grabbed a clothes' line. We swung around a little bit, then he let go and we went soaring, landing on a window sill.

I let go of him as he asked, "Yes?"

"What's your code name?" Dan's eyes opened wide, and he turned red. "I-It's nothing! N-Now let's get going! We have something to find!" he stuttered, slowly walking away. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back over to me, feeling my heart thump as the fact that we could fall to our deaths at any minute just reached my mind.

"Tell me!" I whined. Dan shook his head. I raised an eyebrow, and looked down to the ledge. Dan, apparently, saw this. "Mika…" he said slowly. "Don't do that!" I smirked, edging closer to the edge. Me and my stupid plans. "Then tell me your code name!"

"No!"

"Bye." Stupidly, I fell back off the ledge, and I was falling through the sky, about to splatter against the floor at any moment. "Mika!" My heart was racing, but I was still smiling. Boy oh boy, that was gonna be in the record of stupidest stunts ever. But for some reason, I knew I was gonna live. And I was right. Dan jumped after me, quickly nearing with the way he fell. He grabbed my arm, pulled me close, and grabbed another clothes' line.

We just hung there like that for a while, until Dan yelled at me, "Mika! Why the hell did you do that! You friggen scared me to death!" My nails dug into his skin, but he didn't mind. I looked away to a window that didn't have people staring at us and said, "Sorry." It became silent after that again. Some of the people went away, some of 'em stayed expecting something cool to happen.

I loved how they disregarded the fact that we were two teenagers hanging from a clothes' line together. Hmph.

"C.T."

I looked up at Dan. "What does it stand for?" I asked quietly. Dan blushed, and looked away from my green eyes. "C-Cute Turtle." I started at him a moment, then realized he was actually telling the truth. I smiled and let go of Dan, of course, putting my hands on the clothes' line first. I swung a bit, and said, "Let's go, C.T!" I jumped off, and landed on a nearby window, scaring the guy that was watching us. Dan jumped after me, and as we scaled downward, he asked me, "Y-You didn't make fun of it?"

I shook my head. "Why would I? I can see why you got the name anyway." I grinned, blushing a little. I looked behind me, and saw Dan accidently send three flower pots down. Poor random people. "R-Really?" he asked, becoming flustered. "H-Hey, it's not like I l-like you or anything! As a friend-sure! But the other way? No!" I said, dropping to the ground.

Dan plopped down next to me, and we started walking in silence. "I meant, you're like that. You're a little shy on the inside, and I can see it. So, that makes you a turtle. But I'll only call you by C.T. or your name, Dan." I muttered to him. He looked at me and smiled, "What a relief. Thanks for not making fun of it."

Our conversation would have gone on longer than that, but I had tripped over a man hole. Of which, I fell into. Luckily, I landed on my feet, but when I looked around, all I saw was pure darkness. "Whoa. Hey C.T! Come down here!" I called up to Dan. I heard a sound next to me, and saw him holding the glow stick. I facepalmed.

"What?" he asked. "I didn't think you'd be right about the glow stick." He laughed. "Hardy har har," I mocked him. "Let's just look around for a while. If we bump into anything, we'll call Nat. okay?" I asked.

Hey, I had to make sure he was okay with it. He was my partner after all.

He nodded. "Let's go." We started 'investigating' the abandoned man hole, and found that there were ropes almost everywhere so we could get across gaps in the flooring. There were a lot of dead ends, but we also found writing on the walls. Like "are you afraid of the dark?" and "dead end". There was also some other stuff, but they was just…wrong.

Anyway, I was starting to get tired. From the immense walking to the fact it was dark, I couldn't help it. "Dan…" I yawned. "Hmn?"

"I'm tire-!" I stopped dead in my tracks. In front Dan and I was a large, golden egg. Already, I heard him calling Nat. "Hello?" C.T. spoke into the phone as I circled the thing. "Yes?" Nat said from the other side of the conversation. "Nat…Mika and I found a huge golden egg." Dan explained.

There was a pause, in which Nathaniel laughed. "Ha, that was a good one Dan!" I could imagine him wiping away fake tears. "No," I said. "Nat, we're dead serious. Listen, you're gonna get down here with a way for us to bring it to the surface." I tried to pick it up, but the damned thing was heavy. I rolled my eyes and yelled at Dan, "Get your ass over here C.T. and try to pick it up!"

Dan walked over to me and the egg, handed me the phone, and tried lifting the egg. He made some grunting sounds, which I presumed meant that was a little hard for him. But he managed to lift it just about a centimeter off the ground before he had to set it down again. "Hmph." Nat said. "Where are you guys exactly?"

"Uh, we're in the man hole a few buildings from the restaurant. It's dark in here, so you gotta be careful. Call out to us when you get here." Dan explained, then hung up. Sitting down, he shoved the phone in his pocket and sighed. I stared at him. "What? Come and sit, it's gonna take a while for Nat to get some people to lift this thing," he said to me.

I shrugged and sat next to him, bringing my knees to my chest. Okay, so I had nothing to talk about. So what? There was another of those awkward silences that keep occurring in this day. Then it ended with Dan saying, "Thanks for the hug earlier."

Oh thanks Dan, you really were making some conversation! Not.

"You're welcome. It's cool, ya know. Being your partner and all. I never expected any of this to happen when I got to Poptropica, and look at me now! Heh, it's only been two days. I can't wait to travel all around Poptropica to help people. It's just-!"

"Awesome? Yeah, it really is." Dan smiled at me. I smiled back, and laughed for no reason at all. What made it even better was that he joined in with me. We went on like that for a minute until we got tired of laughing. "Ah." Dan sighed. I rested my head on his shoulder, and felt him tense a little. "You okay?" I asked. "Hmn? Oh, yeah!" he rushed. I snickered and stayed like that for a while. I moved my head back when my eyelids started to droop, and Nat called out from the beginning of the sewer, "WE'RE HERE!"

I facepalmed and immediately stood up. "Hey, Mika, don't you think it's gonna take Nat of all people a while to get here?" Dan asked, looking up at me from his seat. I thought about that for a while, and it made perfect sense. I shrugged and sat back down next to him asked, "Can I have the glow stick?" Dan looked at me, puzzled. Then he shrugged. Digging into his back pocket, he pulled it out and handed the glow stick to me.

I rolled it around in my hands for a while, feeling the warmth spread over me. That was when I realized how cold I actually was. Dammit, I was shivering! I wrapped my arms around myself and cursed, "I'm cold." Dan laughed at me and took off his jacket. He held it out to me with a smile. "Here," he said. "I don't need it." I slowly went for the jacket, and wrapped it around myself. I tilted my head against Dan, and again I felt him tense up, but he calmed back down after a minute.

Smiling, I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I don't know what time it was when I woke up, but we were at the hotel again, and Dan and Nat were looking at the egg. I sat up from my bench and looked around groggily. "How the hell…?" I muttered. I got up and trudged over to the guys, and leaned on Nat for some support. "Oh, did you have a good sleep Mika?" he asked me. I nodded, and Dan started blushing. I raised an eyebrow at him, but shrugged it off.

I was brought a glass of soda, and I gulped it down quickly. Feeling reenergized, I put my hand on the egg and asked, "What do we do with it?" Nat looked down at me and smiled. Uh oh. "Well, you know how there's that rope outside, reaching into the clouds?" he asked me and Dan.

"No." was our combined response.

"Anyway, if you climb up that, you're going to meet this giant. He wants the egg. So, just give it to him, and he'll let you pass. If you get to pass, you'll be able to find some of the missing things!" he told us.

Dan and I stared at my cousin. "What?" he asked innocently. I facepalmed and ignored him, turning to Dan I said, "I want to go up." Dan gave me a bewildered look. "What? Mika it could be dangerous!" he exclaimed. I nodded in a calm way. "That's why I'm going. I need to be able to sharpen my skills now that I have a somewhat dangerous job," I smirked. Nat laughed and patted my head, and I kicked him in the shin. Dan looked at me, but finally sighed, "Fine. But if you get hurt Matthews, someone's gonna have to see my fury."

I laughed and looked at the egg. "So," I started. "How the hell do I get this thing outside?"

Okay, so Nat got some of his 'goons' to carry the egg up for me, which I appreciated very much. Once they were up, I was signaled to go. I waved to Nat and Dan, and climbed up the rope. Quickly, I reached the top. I was standing on cloud with the egg, goons, and a giant who was staring down at me. I ordered the goons back to the surface, and they went down gladly.

"Hello Mr. Giant!" I called up to him, cupping my hands around my mouth. The giant bellowed, "Hello, human. What would be your business with me?" I pointed to the golden egg. "I've come to return the golden egg in exchange for me to get to the other side of your club." I yelled back up at him. He had this huge club with spikes and such planted on the cloud, and unfortunately, there was no damned way I could get past the thing without getting myself hurt.

The giant was silent for a moment, and then he lifted his club. I smiled. "Thank you!" I ran past the club, and was amazed by what I saw. There was this huge bucket thing that had vines stretching out from it. "Whoa!"