AN: Craaaaaap. It's been what now? A little over two months? Sorry for the very long delay but I've been working on some other stories which have kept me busy along with the end of a school year which meant finals. Thanks again to Ms. Brown for betaing, and all my reviewers for reviewing. Please R&R and feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Rating: T

Chapter 17

Pechvogel

TIME: 01:20 UTC-6

LOCATION: Somewhere over Illinois

"Nova?"

The yellow simian sat on the cold metal floor of the plane's cargo hold, holding her legs up against herself along with her tail. She barely even looked up at the whispered voice, which she had trouble making out over the dull roar of the jet engines that penetrated the metal hull.

It was Chiro; the boy was standing in front of her, smiling sadly.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" She mumbled bitterly; before looking back down at the grated floor again, doing her best to ignore Chiro as he continued to stand in front of her.

"I couldn't fall asleep."

Nova knew this was a lie; the dark bags under Chiro's eyes were visible even in the poor lighting of the cargo hold, he probably hadn't slept in at least a day.

She didn't bother to point any of this out though, instead she just continued to disregard his presence in hopes that he would do the same.

Such was not her luck, as evidenced by the 14-year-old choosing to sit down next to her.

The young boy sighed awkwardly, apparently unsure how to start, "You… haven't said a word since back at that clearing where we found you, is there anything you wanna talk about?"

Nova decided to answer with a question of her own, "Isn't Antauri the one who's supposed to be doing this? Or did he decide to delegate team therapist to you for once?"

Chiro laughed nervously, "Um, I told Antauri that I wanted to talk to you. He said it was a good idea seeing as he can't always be the one to do it and how I have to be the leader of the team and…." Chiro trailed off as he realized that he was; A) rambling, and B) really not helping..

Chiro rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Look; Nova, we're really worried about you. Otto can't sleep, Antauri can't meditate, and Sprx is ready to bite all our heads off."

Nova gave no response aside from her continued dead stare at the ground.

"Nova, please! We all have no idea what's going on. Did something happen with you and Mandarin? Are you sad that you had to leave friends behind like the rest of the team? Please, say something!" He was whispering hysterically, trying his hardest not to shout and worry the team or give away their presence.

"I'm going to kill him."

"What?"

Nova silently cursed herself as she felt hot tears trickle down her face.

"Nova, what are you talking about?"

Nova breathed in sharply, her voice coming out a mix of anger and grief. "What I'm talking about, is how I'm going to kill Mandarin the next time I see him. I'm not going to talk to him, I'm not going to try and restrain him, and I'm not going to hold back, I'm going to kill him."

Chiro didn't answer.

"Please just… go away Chiro, we'll both need our sleep if we're going to find Gibson." Nova curled further into a ball.

"I…" Chiro did what he figured he would want in Nova's place, he hugged her. "Nova please, just tell me. What did Mandarin do? One thing Antauri's taught me, the longer you keep something bottled up the more it'll hurt."

"Please just… just…" Nova trailed off as she began to sob into Chiro's shirt.

Chiro ignored the wetness that leaked from the creases in Nova's lenses, soaking his shirt, as he was more shocked by the fact that Nova was crying. None of the team ever cried, at least not in front of him.

As Nova's sobs began to taper away, the yellow monkey's exhaustion finally catching up with her, Chiro could only try to guess what had caused this.

Nova, what did he do to you?

TIME: 07:25 UTC+1

LOCATION: Munich, Germany

It was an unusually hot summer in Munich; even this early in the morning, temperatures had already hit what one would expect for midday. However, temperature was the last thing on one man's mind as his bed was jostled.

It's too early.

That was Marcell's first thought as he entered the waking realm. He felt stiffer than a sheet of steel, and he was so exhausted that you would think he had gotten one hour of sleep instead of six. His head was pounding like several tactical nukes had been set off inside his skull, his mouth felt like it was padded with cotton that was laced with crap, and his stomach felt like a miniature martial artist was trying to punch his way out.

In other words? A classic hangover.

"Wake up." A foggy voice commanded, no doubt the evil force that had awoken him. The blond, blue eyed, bespectacled force that he had the wonderful pleasure of calling his roommate.

"Unn… go away Gib." The brown haired boy moaned, and buried his head in the pillow.

"It's Gibson, and you're going to miss class if you don't start getting ready immediately." To reiterate his point, the twenty something year old tossed the covers back.

"AH!" He screamed, covering his eyes as he stumbled back, trying not to trip over the messy floor that comprised Marcell's side of the room.

Huh? Marcell was baffled by Gibson reactio- Oh. Wow. I sure don't remember that happening last night. I wonder what happened to my clothes.

He quickly threw the covers back on. "It's safe now, you prude." He muttered into the sheets.

Gibson sighed in resignation as he dropped his hand away from his eyes, thinking that he should really be expecting this kind of behavior by now, "If you don't hurry and get dressed you'll miss your Calculus class."

"Have pity on me, I'm hungover."

Gibson snorted as he looked about for suitable clothing for his roommate, "I stop pitying people when they overimbue themselves with alcohol to the point of veisalgia biweekly. Besides, you know that as long as you show up to the class, Mr. Biermann couldn't care less if you sleep through it."

Marcell tired to crawl under the sheets, away from the piercing light. "Why do you even care?"

"To be honest, I haven't the slightest clue Sprx." Gibson sighed as he plucked a shirt off the floor, inspecting it to see if it was suitable.

Marcell sat up puzzled, ignoring his blaring headache "Who?"

Gibson glanced over at him as he discarded the shirt, "Who what?"

"Who's Sprx?"

"Sprx?" Gibson tilted his head in confusion.

"Yeah, you just said that instead of my name."

Gibson stood there, pondering this for a moment. "Strange." He mumbled.

Marcell snorted as he dived under the covers, finally having found a pair of briefs. "Yeah maybe it has something to do with your amnesia." He said, putting a mocking undertone on the word 'amnesia'.

Gibson narrowed his eyes in annoyance, "For the last time. I am not faking it!"

Marcell rolled his eyes as he got out of his bed to find a shirt. "Yeah whatever."

In all honesty, Marcell really was unsure about Gibson. The man was definitely strange enough that actually having amnesia would hardly make him any more unique.

The nineteen year old knew hardly a thing about his roommate, but he did know a little.

'Gibson', as he called himself, was found passed out and nude in Olympiapark sometime in the spring. After waking up in the hospital, the young man claimed to know nothing except his name, and a search for any kind of missing person reports or anything of the sort turned up nothing.

For some reason (Marcell didn't pretend to understand what went through his roommate's head for a second) Gibson then decided he wanted to enroll in the university. Apparently he was some kind of super genius; and the university was more than happy to give him a scholarship, hoping to 'enrich the life of an ill-fated young man', or to translate, PR opportunity!

I suppose I should just be glad that by this point he isn't raving about how it was aliens that did this to him like those conspiracy nuts.

TIME: 17:30 UTC+12

LOCATION: Wellington, New Zealand

Christ, it's like my life has become a conspiracy nut's wet dream.

Jeff massaged his forehead in an attempt to ward off his ever growing headache.

I need some damn coffee. That was his only thought as he trudged over to the front counter. Well that and, Why do we keep the coffee maker up front?

The bald young man poured the grounds and then the water in before flipping the switch and plopping himself down on a seat.

He soon found himself staring at the moldy ceiling as he waited for the coffee, his thoughts beginning to wander as he went over everything that had happened in the last few hours.

"Jeff?"

"Huh?" He quickly looked towards the source of the noise. "Ally!"

The young girl smiled coyly, "Yeah, sorry I'm late. There was this huge sale down at the boutiques and me and Olly just couldn't resist ourselves."

Jeff stood up, "Your cell phone was off."

"Um; sorry about that, it ran out of power."

Ally was usually treated at this point to a lecture about how she should have come home right away or used a payphone or something like that, so she was surprised when her brother just shook his head in dismissal of the situation.

"Jeff? Is everything okay?" She asked cautiously.

"Ye- Well…" He sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Just come on back okay? It'll be easier to show you then to explain."

As Jeff made his way towards the back of the shop Ally ran to catch up with him, talking as she walked alongside him. "It's not Mom is it? I mean the doctors said there was a chance-"

"It's not Mom."

"Then what is it? Is it Otto?" She gasped without receiving any form of conformation, "Oh my god it is, isn't it?"

"Well sort of." Jeff indecisively said as he twisted the doorknob.

"What do you mean sort of?"

Jeff expected that Ally would have continued with her rapid interrogation, but she stopped upon seeing that they had guests in their spacious back room.

Jeff made a motion to present his sister, "My sister Alice, Ally this is Hyun Jae and Jinmay… at least that's what she says her name is." He added the last part quite bitterly.

"Wait what?" was Ally's understandably confused response.

Their two guests were two girls. The one called Jinmay was about her age, probably a little older, with strikingly vivid pink hair. The other looked a little younger than Jeff, and seemed to be of East Asian ethnicity. As Ally took in their appearances, Hyun Jae got up from the folding chairs that Jeff had taken out of a closet and shook Ally's hand.

"Hello, it is nice to meet you." She had a very thick accent, and Jeff honestly had a little trouble making out a few words she had said.

The pink haired girl remained seated in the pale brown chair, and judging by body language, she was extremely nervous and uncomfortable.

Ally looked to her brother, a look of perplextion still fixed upon her face.

The young man made his way over to the ugly dirty-green sofa they kept back in the room, inviting Ally to sit next to him.

Ally shook her head in disbelief at how calm Jeff was acting, "Tell me what in the hell is going on!" She exclaimed before pointing at the two girls, "Why are they here anyway? What does this have to do with Otto?"

Jinmay suddenly lost her subdued demeanor, jumping up from her chair and speaking for the first time to Ally, "You know Otto too? Was he okay? Was any of the rest of the team with him?"

Ally was too stunned to speak; Jeff however, was not "Sit the hell down Sheila! We aren't done questioning you yet."

The neon pink haired girl quietly trudged back to her seat in uncomfortable silence, before muttering "My name's Jinmay." as she sat down.

"Yeah whatever." Jeff said dismissively before turning his attention back to Ally. "Hyun Jae here is in the same boat as us Ally. I would let her tell us all about it but…"

Hyun Jae continued, "As you heard, my English is not the best. And I do not trust her to translating." She gazed at Jinmay as she said the last sentence.

Jeff carried on. "Hyun Jae had a friend named Antauri, disappeared without a trace, just like Otto."

"Okay well, I'm really sorry for you but-" Ally started.

"I'm not done yet o' little sister of mine. Antauri also had total amnesia, no history to speak of, and was first found naked and unconscious. Sound familiar?"

"Wait, you mean that they were connected?"

Hyun Jae nodded, "Yes, I was very sure when I came here. And now I am certain."

"What do you mean certain?" Ally asked.

"Do you remember Chiro?" Jeff smirked

Ally nodded, "Why?"

Hyun Jae sighed, "Right before Antauri went away, I see Chiro. Antauri was gone that night."

Ally slowly sat down, shocked "So wait, does this mean this is like a conspiracy or something? And what do you have to do with any of this?"

Jinmay squirmed, uncomfortable from the questioning. "Chiro is-"

Jeff loudly interrupted her, "I thought I told you-!"

Jinmay quickly stood up, her chair squeaking back across the floor, "No! I'm just as involved as- No! More involved than you guys! And I have every right to talk!"

For the next few seconds the room was silent, the only noise being the hum of the florescent lights.

Jeff eventually broke the silence with a bitter, "Fine! But let us finish first."

Jinmay nodded angrily before sitting back down.

Jeff sighed before continuing, "Now then; assuming what she says is true, we know two important things about Jinmay: 1) That she is apparently Chiro's girlfriend, which is why she's here, and 2) the unrelated but still important fact that Missy over here is somehow able to speak so that anyone can understand her."

"Huh?"

Hyun Jae answered the unspoken question, "When you hear her speak, Jinmay has perfect English yes?"

"Yeah… Why?" Ally asked.

"When I hear her speak, I hear her talking perfect Korean."

Ally looked over at Jinmay in disbelief. "How?"

"That's what we've been trying to find out." Jeff frowned and rubbed his temples, "That's it; I need that coffee now, maybe with a shot of whiskey. Excuse me."

Jeff left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Um…" Jinmay started, "What's whiskey?"