A/N: One of the reasons why I liked this chapter so much is because of a special crossover that happens here. Caleb's 'sons' arrive to help with the murder case half of Timmy's problems. This is also the last fully written chapter, as I started juggling a lot of other fics at about the time it was done and things kinda went downhill real-life wise from then on.
16
~Saturday, October 28th, Neogene Manor
Morning in the Neogene Manor was a small flurry of pre-Tower plotting and getting things organized to keep Timantha's cover story straight. Michael had returned from New York after a rather long debriefing with Caleb about the recent discovery that Timmy's death was a murder and not an accident, as the angelic android originally believed. And as Timantha suspected, the angel was very much not happy with the news; between the ranting, the cooking, and the random degeneration into raving in ancient languages, she was surprised to hear that he hadn't broken down into a mass of metal and red hair. Michael glared at her for that one, remarking in a rather snippy tone that Caleb was considered the pinnacle of prochaic technology and would take far more than her teenage recklessness to completely break him down.
She was tempted to remind him of the Dark Spire attacks earlier in the year that resulted in Caleb retreating for days on end to recover, but decided not to tick off the person posing as her boy self.
The Archive now had the copies of the Black Hound records and poured over them as thoroughly as they examined the Fairy Portal blueprints and the schematics for the older anti-magic devices. Progress on trying to unlock the secret to the nullification program was slow and difficult, with the mana field and mana shield generators the only current method of defending against their effects. On top of that, Caleb was still tending to Danny Phantom, refusing to leave New York until he knew for certain that the half-ghost was fully recovered and floating on his own power again.
Team Turner was still on its own, for the most part.
"Before we begin, Caleb has made it clear that any new developments of your murder case is to be brought to his attention immediately, so I will be reporting everything I learn on a regular basis." Michael pointed out flatly, opening a package on the table as Timantha and the anti-fairies had breakfast. Cosmo and Wanda sat on the opposite end of the table with the android, glaring at their anti-selves as they ate their own cereal with some amount of malice. Timantha was sure her godparents were the only people she knew who could make eating breakfast look like a declaration of war.
"Okay..." she sighed, dropping her chin into one hand, "What else?"
"Cosmo's replacement weapon is finished." Michael added, bringing a new scythe out of the package and holding it up for them all to see. It was the same black color as the Windcutter, but the head was split to support two curved blades, a smaller blade fanned out from the other end of the staff. "This would be called the Stormreaver. The blades here," he remarked, pointing at the dual scythe head, "can be collapsed into a single blade by twisting this dial just under them so it can act as the Windcutter originally did. Twist it again to split the blades back apart." He handed it to Cosmo, watching as the fairy immediately began testing the weight and balance of the weapon, taking to the air to give it a few practice slashes. "The blade at the end is for thrust attacks, just in case." the android added, "How do you like it?"
"Good." Cosmo returned shortly, poofing the weapon away, "It works." Michael and Timantha both gave him matching expressions of wariness, uncertain as to what to make of that remark before shrugging it off as another of Cosmo's quirks.
"Also, I've examined your Adventurer's Band." Michael went on, tapping at the white band that adorned his arm, loaned to him by Timantha to add to his cover, "Did you know that its processing power has deteriorated? Portions of its programming have also corrupted, so I had to isolate and diagnose the troubles." Timantha gave him a blank stare and the android rolled his eyes, "It's failing, okay?"
"Why?" the girl asked, pushing her now empty plate away. Michael shrugged.
"It's been failing for a while now, according to the diagnostics. It's currently stable, but I haven't been able to reliably calculate how long it'll stay that way." he replied and tapped his wrist as though indicating a watch, "We're expected at the Ivory Tower for me to give assignments on the party and rescue teams. What's your plan?"
"Okay, I'm on the rescue team, and I'll need Mark to act as my escort to Remy's party so we can keep things on the level there." Timantha checked off on her fingers, "We can't bring in Trixie because Remy's got a bit of a grudge against her now, Chip and Vicky are out because they need to be at the party with you. Elmer is the Stand-In Timmy, so he also has to be at the party." She paused and counted over her friends in her head quickly. " So... that leaves Chester, A.J and Apollo. Apollo's gonna have to stay with Trixie to keep the party protected in case your magic can't handle things, and Cosmo and Wanda can help with that. So, Chester and A.J. are on the rescue team with me, Mark and the anti-fairies." Michael raised an eyebrow at the allocation.
"Why take the alien?" he questioned, gesturing at one of the servants to come collect dishes as the fairies all polished off their meals. Timantha grinned broadly, her front teeth prominent in the smile.
"I'm going to need to get Romi and Tootie out of that room, right? And there are nullifiers in the way." she replied, "Alien technology won't get nullified so Mark's blasters can get rid of them no problem!" The android gave her a neutral expression before matching her grin.
"I like." he murmured.
Ivory Tower~
"...so A.J., Chester, Mark and Timantha will be entering Remy's party with Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda helping them out." Michael repeated Timantha's plan to the Others, paraphrasing so as to avoid sounding like he was just parroting the entire strategy, "They'll rescue Tootie and Romi while the rest of us keep up pretenses at our own Halloween party and defend it in case Remy tries to wish up any tricks to spoil the treats."
The room broke into soft murmurs as the teens and young adults chatted over the assignments they were given. A.J. seemed to look dreamy, hearts practically floating over his head as he gazed in Timantha's direction. The girl was oblivious, tapping away on her cellphone with a vague frown on her face. Chester nudged him, grinning.
"So you gonna ask her out to the party or not?" the blonde teased, tossing his head in Timantha's direction, "Even if it's for a rescue mission, you can still get a few chances in to cozy up and get to know her better." A.J. blinked at him in surprise, then gazed nervously back at the girl.
"You think I should try? I mean, we're already paired for it, what would be the point of asking?" he stammered and Chester rolled his eyes.
"It's the principle of the thing, A.J.; you gotta ask anyway to make it more like a real date." he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. The other boy winced.
"Maybe." he muttered, toying with his index fingers by pressing them together tightly, "I better get more flowers."
At the head of the table, Timantha continued frowning at the text messages being sent to her. Caleb wanted her in New York right away. Probably to fume at her over the whole murder case thing, though he should have already gotten it out of his system once he cooked everything in the Archives' kitchen and passed it out to the homeless as usual. But according to the text, there was an issue with her classification of power; Danni's report was really messing with the file for Timmy Turner and a retest needed to be taken, so Timantha would have to head over for the test.
"Couldn't he have picked a better time to do this?" Timantha grumbled under her breath, "I need to pick out a dress for the party and get Mark caught up on what exactly we're doing."
"Let me handle the team and their assignments." Michael murmured softly, bending to whisper to her while watching the Others haul out paper and scribble out haunted house ideas and other party favors, "You should see what Caleb wants and just get it over with. Besides, you can get a dress in New York just as easily as here in Dimmsdale." Timantha sighed, shrugging at the idea. It was a nuisance, but one she'd have to deal with.
"I hope Tootie and Romi are still okay." she sighed, texting one last time before clapping the phone shut and stuffing it into her purse, "Don't even know if they're getting food and water, and I don't think my mana crystals can take the place of meals."
Undisclosed location~
Tootie sighed, hugging her knees as she looked over the scraps of foil she had collected from each meal she had received so far. It would take a lot more before she could fashion anything resembling a weapon or focus from the foil. Arts and crafts weren't exactly her thing -she knew enough to get by with modifying things to fit her Goth style like Sam had taught her to do- but this was the first time she'd be using it to get herself out of trouble.
She had tried to conjure something for herself to use, like she had seen Timmy do with lots of things. But no matter how hard she tried and focused and pieced everything together in her head, Tootie just couldn't get the mana to act the way she wanted. It wouldn't form a knife or a dagger or even a spoon. She tried shifting the mana of her meal trays into something usable, but that didn't work either. When the frustration built up, she took it out on the door, kicking it in a fury and threatening all kinds of torments for Remy once she escaped.
"I don't get it." she muttered for the hundredth time, staring down at the foil, "Caleb said I've got higher intelligence than Timmy, so I can cast spells easier and better. So why can't I do the kind of magic Timmy can?" Romi picked up one scrap and carefully folded it into a neat little square, an odd expression on her face. "It's too bad you can't transform into something I can use as a focus." the Goth sighed, looking towards her fairy godmother.
"You can't mix magic." Romi muttered, a mantra of sorts that she began falling back on whenever the conversations wandered into the territories of Timmy's abilities, mana magic and fairy magic. She was a fairy, using magic from the ultra-mana end of the field, a higher plane than the mana used by Tootie for her spells. To try channeling that kind of magic through herself would result in the spell diffusing to nothing and Romi herself getting sick from the 'impurities' of normal mana.
Tootie returned to frowning down at her scraps of foil. Just a little more, then she could fashion a small rod, something, to use for a focus.
Fairy World~
A figure wrapped in the drab browns of a trench coat and fedora stood impassively in an alley, watching fairies flit about in their daily business as she touched up her lipstick. Waiting was the hardest part of their operation; everything else, by comparison, was easy as pie. The gathering of information over several years, the careful watching, subtle mentoring and manipulation, all of it. It had been so easy compared to just waiting, for the right moment, the right situation, the right people to be in the right places. The slightest mistake in timing, in placement, in wording anything to anyone, and everything would fall to pieces. The war they dreaded having would break out, and Earth would be dragged into it. Bring the Earth in, and Caleb would turn every Hero alive -and not- against them without a moment of hesitation. The sheer amount of power and fighting at that scale would destroy them all.
And all over a single boy.
There was a puff of smoke from nearby and the figure straightened, slipping away her lipstick.
"You're late." she informed the arriving agent curtly.
"It's hard getting away from people that know all the Halloween decorations they need can be wished up in a flash." Apollo returned grouchily. He bent backwards, a few pops sounding before he straightened with a sigh of relief. "Phew! I needed that!" the fairy exclaimed happily before giving a sharp salute to the figure in the coat, "Special Agent Apollo, reporting in!"
"So how are things going?" the taller figure purred, leaning against the wall of a building, features hidden by shadows and the hat and coat.
"No one suspects anything still." Apollo returned, "The kids are moving ahead with trying to get Timmy's case reopened as a homicide, but they can't figure out a motive that makes sense to adult humans without revealing us fairies being involved." The other figure jerked in shock.
"A fairy? A fairy was involved in the death of Timmy Turner?" she blurted out, one hand flying up to her shadowed mouth. Apollo gave a careless shrug, his hands shoved into his jacket pockets.
"The prime suspect in Timmy's murder is Remy Buxaplenty, godson of Juandissimo Magnifico." he returned flatly, "But in certain encounters with him, he shows signs of being unaware of Remy's true role in Timmy's death. A device found connected to the former foundation of the original jungle gym bears a corporate logo. Based on this..."
"We have someone else moving in on Timmy." the figure murmured in frustration, "Tch. And they struck when he was at the right age for development." She began pacing again, gesturing almost at random. "We've kept the information about him secret for nearly a decade! How did someone find out and act on it? And what of the Dark Spires?" she questioned rapidly, "They nullify magic, right? All that does is tip the scales of war away from us just a little. A little! There's no other benefit in them beyond denying us access to Dimmsdale!" Apollo raised an eyebrow at the mutterings.
"Ma'am? What information about Timmy are you talking about?" he asked in confusion, "I wasn't made aware that there was sensitive data about him that had been compromised." The other agent waved a hand airily at him.
"Never mind, never mind! It's not important anyway, now that he's untouchable to fairykind." she replied brightly, ignoring the scowl on the red-haired fairy's face that formed at her answer, "Let's just focus on getting justice out of Remy, Juandissimo recalled, and the Spires torn down. Anything else?"
"Yeah. I don't like the smell of this 'Timantha' deal." Apollo groused, arms folding over his chest, "Any idiot can see through that disguise in a heartbeat." The figure planted her hands on her hips.
"I happen to think it's a very cute disguise." she retorted haughtily, then sighed as a sudden alarm went off at one of her wrists. She lifted it to glare at the flashing light. "Oh, darn. I have to go." she muttered and lifted her gaze to the miffed fairy godfather, "I'll give your report over to Jorgen. Go and finish up the Halloween preparations -try not to blow Timmy's cover-, and for the love of Titania don't kill yourself trying to copy Cosmo's abilities!"
"You people are going to have to explain him to me eventually." Apollo pointed out dryly as the other agent whipped out her own wand to poof away, "I don't want to end up in the middle of some scandal like that big one that hit Fairy World."
"Depends on what you mean by 'that big one'. Bye!" the figure replied cheerfully and poofed away. Apollo growled under his breath before lifting his own wand to make his way back to Trixie's side.
Ivory Tower~
Timantha was a twitchy girl, for some reason. This was something A.J. learned fairly quickly. It wasn't like he was following her, nooooo. He was simply very good at guessing where she was at any given time and happened to remember that there was something there that urgently needed his attention and he happened to be rather quick on his feet. That's all. And it was then that he noticed just how twitchy Timantha could be.
"Oh, h-hiya, Timantha!" A.J. stammered out a greeting as he walked into the lab. The brunette jumped with a startled yelp, spinning around to blink at him with wide eyes.
"Geez! Don't do that!" she blurted out, one hand clapping over her heart before glancing down at it and yanking it behind her back, "What is it? Are you looking for something?" She glanced around herself nervously, as though searching out for anything that might be of interest to him. A.J. swallowed, trying to make the lump in his throat go away and let him speak again. She really had gotten prettier since he last saw her. He'd thought she was really cute, the little girl that walked into the mall one day, a faintly panicked expression on her face that quickly melted into confidence as she made her way straight for a comic book shop. Well, cute became pretty and A.J. fumbled his way through an attempt to ask her to the party on an 'official' date.
"Well, y'see. About that party at Remy's mansion. You know the one?" he asked lamely. Timantha gave him a strange expression, some mix of disbelief and exasperation.
"Yeah. The one we forced him in to having so we could rescue Tootie and Romi. What about it?" she questioned in return. The boy scientist fidgeted in place, looking around himself in an effort to hold himself together and perhaps draw some extra bravado from all his gadgets and inventions around him. The laptop that had run Timmy's death scenario in its simulator had finally been shut down, its ultimate task completed.
"Um, so, I was wondering..." he stammered out, then took a deep breath and blurted the rest in a rush, "?" His face flushed as he stared at the brunette, eyes wide with puppy dog hope that she understood him and accepted.
Timantha froze in place, eyes equally wide and looking as if someone had just revealed to her in front of a thousand broadcasting cameras that she had a wardrobe malfunction and someone failed to put up a censor bar for five minutes. After a moment or so, one eye twitched.
"Excuse me?" she squeaked, "Could you... repeat that?" A.J. laughed nervously, a high giggling sound that made her shudder involuntarily.
"Nothing!" he lied, waving his hands erratically before himself, "Just sayin' stuff! Y'know? Stuff?" Timantha relaxed, a tiny bit, peering at him askance with some amount of wariness, the same amount one would give a peeved lion tossed into a room with them.
"Okaaaay." she murmured, stretching the word to fill the awkward silence between them. She pointed at the teleporter disc behind her. "I'm just going to, you know, go here now. To this disc. So I can go to New York." she told the boy in short sentences, hoping that would make it easier for him to understand. A.J. nodded mutely, then looked puzzled.
"You're going to New York? Alone?" he asked and Timantha mentally clapped a hand over her face and pulled down, a silent groan issuing from her mouth.
"It's just the Archives. I'm going to go and see what Caleb wanted from me." the brunette sighed in exasperation, "And yeah, I'm going alone. I can take care of myself."
"Oh." A.J. looked fairly disheartened, almost disappointed, and Timantha winced at the expression. It wouldn't do for him to look like that on her account, so despite the dread feeling that this was going to be one of those bad ideas that started off as a good one, she gave another little sigh and stepped to one side a bit.
"Would you like to come with me, A.J.?" she asked dully, gesturing to the disc, "I was also going to pick out a dress for the party while I was there, so we can hang out after I'm done with Caleb." The boy lit up, smiling broadly at her.
"Really? Sure!" he exclaimed and scampered onto the disc eagerly, oblivious to Timantha's muttered 'I'm gonna regret this later.' as she joined him on the teleporter pad, the two of them vanishing in a beam of light.
Archives of the Twin Blades~
The two teens stepped down from the disc and entered the Archives properly, gazing around at the numerous people and androids bustling about the halls in even more activity than usual. Known androids, those based on the ancient Heroes Caleb had traveled with and guarded many millions of years ago, were stationed at points along the halls, directing the traffic and issuing out orders rapidly, first in English, then in a multitude of different languages. Costumed Heroes and plainclothes civilian Heroes moved about in near military form. This wasn't normal for the Archives, with the daily chaos and bedlam that Timantha had been used to for all the time she spent there growing up.
"What the heck's going on here?" she wondered aloud, pressing her back against the wall and yanking A.J. back beside her, the two of them watching a platinum blonde woman in a black cat costume hurry by with a fairly determined expression on her face.
"Rush hour in the Archives?" A.J. returned inanely, looking around himself in confusion. Timantha frowned, sensing something more lay under the oddly -and slightly disturbing- choreographed flow of activity. She darted into the rush of people, ignoring A.J.'s startled shout, and wove through and around the many different Heroes, striving to reach one of the androids directing them all.
The one she finally reached made her think she had come across Caleb himself, but the hair was too short and dark, the clothes all wrong for him; white shirt and long coat with black pants. Timantha reached out, snagged her fingers on his coat and gave it a hard tug to catch his attention. Behind her, A.J. huffed and puffed, running around to catch up and stumbling into safety beside her, as the platform the Hero stood on to be seen clearly provided a bit of a barrier for them.
"Hey. Hey!" Timantha called and the redhead blinked down at her, baffled by her appearance, "What's going on? Where's Caleb? He called me here and all I see is New York traffic running through the Archives!" The redhead scratched his head, seeming to think things over.
"He called for you, not the other kid. It's a private thing he wants to talk to you about." he finally returned and looked towards A.J., "Yo, kid. A.J., right? At least, that's what the file calls you..." A.J. gave him a startled look and the Hero rolled his eyes before pointing at himself. "Luke Von Fabre, just call me Luke. I'm one of Caleb's works; an android." he explained shortly, "You're the science nut, right? We could use your help in the lab on the third floor; something about updating the processing power of the mana field generator you guys have installed on the Ivory Tower."
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, if it's about that, then sure. I can help with that." A.J. agreed with vague uncertainty, "I mean, anything we can improve on to keep Timmy protected is number one priority." He glanced aside at Timantha, fidgeting. "Do I have to go by myself though?" he added petulantly. Luke frowned at him.
"I just said that Caleb had to talk to the girl alone, didn't I? What part of 'private matters' didn't you understand?" he argued and jerked his head aside, "Go on! Get outta here! Third floor lab room, got it?" A.J. jumped and hurried towards one of the elevators, looking back over his shoulder at Timantha with some regret. The brunette and redhead both watched him go before looking at one another. "You realize he's got the hots for you like this, right?" Luke pointed out flatly.
"What? Ew!" Timantha shuddered, face twisting in revulsion, "Geez! I may look like a girl and have a girly brain right now, but I'm still a boy deep down and that's just... ugh!" She shuddered again, shaking her head to dismiss the idea as fast as possible. "So where's Caleb? What did he need to talk to me about? I thought this was just about me retesting for my Level." she switched subjects, hoping to move directly to what the problem could be. She gestured around herself as well, "And what's with all this?"
"We've got a pair of advanced Level Fives in New York and Caleb's set the city on high alert until they leave." Luke explained, straightening up and directing the flow of Heroes again, "As far as I know, they were called in to help deal with your little murder case issue. As for the talk, that was just code for the testing. You didn't want that kid to know you're actually Timmy, right?" Timantha rubbed her head with a sigh.
"Yeah, you're right about... wait... Caleb's got a red alert out 'cause of a couple of Level Fives? They're weaker than me, then!" she exclaimed after her brain caught up with the words she'd been told, "How can they put the whole city on edge when they've got people like, say..." She looked around herself for an example. The crowd was beginning to thin, Heroes having been directed enough to their appointed sectors to get their necessary info and hit the streets. Timantha finally spotted a suitable Hero, grabbed him by the arm and hauled his shocked self back to Luke. "This guy! He could probably dish out more damage than a pair of dinky Level Fives!" she finished firmly, pointing at the costumed man before glaring up at him, "Who're you?"
"Nightwing?" the man replied uncertainly and Timantha nodded at Luke.
"Like Nightwing here!" she agreed and the android gave her a flat expression.
"He's Level Four. Strong, but not worth a high alert." Luke pointed out and wiggled his fingers at them as though shooing away a fly, "Let the guy get on his way, kid. He's got junk to do in the Ninth Sector." Timantha scowled, dropping her hand and letting the costumed man stomp away. The android shook her head. "The Level Fives are from out of the country, some Eastern foreigners. Something about them isn't normal for Level Five Heroes; Caleb knows it, but he doesn't talk about it. However, in everything else, they rank Level Five. It's just those one things for each of them that screws with the class some." he remarked, gesturing at a small group of costumed teens to pause and let another cluster of Heroes pass through the adjoining corridor. "Caleb's got them waiting in the break room on the seventh floor. You can find him in the Terrarium." he added and frowned, "Although, it's hard to find the Terrarium. Your best bet is to go to the break room too. He'll be heading there in a bit, since I've sent a signal to him that you're here." Timantha rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Fine. Which break room are these Level Five people in?" she asked dryly. Luke tilted his head upwards.
"Seventh floor, the Gem Room. Keeps them occupied while they wait. Well, one of them at least." the android returned. Timantha thanked him, then walked away with a short wave, heading for the elevator as well.
Once the doors closed on her and she hit the button for the appropriate floor, Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda both poofed free of their disguises and floated before her. Though Anti-Wanda looked perfectly content with her usual vacant stare, sucking on her big toe in comfort, Anti-Cosmo looked less than pleased with the whole situation.
"The more people outside our little circle gets brought in, the harder it will be to keep fairies a secret from the world." he growled softly, "What is that moronic metal madman thinking? Getting others involved... it was bad enough that you have two adults in Dimmsdale aware of the existence of fairies, now we're going to have foreign authorities in this?" Timantha sighed and lifted her hands helplessly.
"Luke said that they were going to be working on my murder case only. So maybe they won't even need to get the idea that fairies are involved." she tried to appease the anti-fairy. Anti-Cosmo scowled further at the word 'murder'. The brunette managed a weak smile, fidgeting with her fingertips and hoping to sway him out of lecturing her while they were trapped in the elevator. A few minutes passed before he finally gave a little sigh and shook his head.
"I'm growing soft because of you." Anti-Cosmo muttered, half-annoyed and half-amused. The bell dinged, signaling the end of the elevator ride and halting any attempts on Timantha's part to question those words. Both antis returned to their positions as her earrings just as she stepped out into the hallway.
The Archives had several floors to it, twelve floors in all if Caleb hadn't decided to add on in the months Timmy had been away. It also had three sub-floors, kept secret as per an agreement with the New York civil authorities. Each of the main floors had several break rooms to give the visiting Heroes places to rest and relax after wandering through the building for their personal reasons. Caleb decorated the rooms to be unique and relaxing, and each was named based on the theme of decoration.
Finding them was fairly easy. Caleb had the habit of setting engraved maps on the walls of the Archives just outside each elevator and had all doors labeled, save for certain rooms that were nearly inaccessible anyway. Timmy had once asked why he did that; Caleb's response was something along the lines of a mumble and a growl. Timmy didn't ask about it anymore.
"Gem Room, Gem Room..." Timantha murmured to herself as she passed down the hall, gazing at the many doors in search of the specific break room. The Gem Room was quite beautiful and littered with rare and exquisite jewels. Caleb never worried about them going missing on him; for one thing, his wealth was to the point where he could get new jewels in at any time to make up for missing ones; for another, Caleb despised that wealth, and anyone taking a few trinkets off his hands for him was welcome to it.
Timmy had found it a source of amusement to see how Caleb's face would scrunch up with irritation and frustration whenever police officers actually managed to recover and return stolen valuables to him.
"Ah, here it is." the brunette sighed in relief, smiling at the door with the label 'Gem Room' plastered onto it. She reached out, pushing open the door and stepping in.
The room always made her pause in wonder, no matter how many times she had entered it in the past. It was well lit from the corners using sconces, flames rising from them that weren't actual fires, but plumes of mana that were generated by gathering the ambient stuff surrounding the current occupants of the room. The plumes set off the softly colored silks draping on the walls, providing a way to hang the many gems and jewels from those walls. They dangled from gold chains attached to the ceiling, not too low so they wouldn't hit anyone on the head. Small glass bowls full of rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, all kinds of jewels, were set on tables, shelves, and several were even carefully spilled on a window ledge to look attractively messy.
Sitting at the central table in the room were two young men and a small boy with too-large glasses perched on his nose. The boy was standing on his chair, peering at the pile of gems that one of the men had assembled before himself. The second man, dark-skinned and looking bored, only watched them lazily before glancing up to take in Timantha's appearance. A quick glance over her, then he was back to watching his friends. The boy in glasses seemed intent on keeping his eyes on the gems, but he eventually glanced over at her as well, checking her out for a split second before returning to the pile. The one with the pile simply ignored her, poking at the gems with an annoyed expression that slowly grew more frustrated as he prodded harder, pushing gems around until they spread on the table.
"Iie. Iie. Iie. Iie!" he groused, punctuating each word with a jab at a gem. The boy sighed, pulling back from the scattered jewels to flop down in his seat and glare up at the older boy.
"Baka no Kaito." he groused in return. Timantha laughed nervously, rubbing her head at her situation. Okay, she had been warned that these people weren't locals. So they must be talking in their native language, whatever it was. She hoped they knew English.
"Um. Hi?" she began hesitantly.
"Hai." the youngest of them returned absently, nodding as kept his eyes on his companion. The one jabbing at gems glared back at him.
"IIE!" he growled and the dark-skinned one sighed and rolled his eyes.
"She was talking to us and saying hello, you idiots." he pointed out in perfect English. Timantha nearly burst into tears of relief. Yes! Somebody who spoke her language!
"Great! English!" she exclaimed, "You're the guys waiting for Caleb, right?"
"Depends." the now nonplussed young man flicking gems off the table like Skittles muttered, surprising Timantha with his own fluency in English, "You're the dead kid with the unsolved murder, right?" He propped a cheek on one hand, turning blue-violet eyes on the brunette with an impish smirk. "I can tell from the Threads of Fate all tangled up around you. You're supposed to be a boy, but you pulled a neat trick and got your Threads woven as a girl." he added. Timantha bristled, not liking the fact that someone could see through her disguise so easily. Threads of Fate? What kind of... ohhhh...
So that's why this was a Level Five that made Caleb twitchy.
"Are you the other one that put New York on alert?" Timantha demanded of the first young man that spoke, the dark one who now blinked at her in surprise.
"No. That would be me." the little boy muttered in irritation, a strange accent to his own English. He sat back and pulled his glasses off, pinching the bridge of his nose. Timantha burst into incredulous laughter. Him? An elementary school kid was the Level Five Hero that had Caleb running around and putting the whole city on high alert too?
The kid growled, sounding like an enraged puppy, and the dark-skinned young man reached out to grab the back of his shirt, keeping him in his seat.
"Oi, Kudo! Calm down! The girl doesn't know anything! Didn't Caleb-san say that he'd keep things under wraps for us all while we're here in America?" he pointed out in exasperation as the door behind Timantha opened a second time.
"Yes, he did." Caleb answered for himself, shutting the door with one foot as his hands were busy with holding various files and sheets of data up for examination, "I also said I was going to be keeping the entire city under watch while you're here, Kudo. I don't want what happened last time to repeat itself." The boy jumped to stand on his seat, pointing at him in annoyance.
"That subway shootout was not my fault!" he yelled, his companions leaning back in their seats with exasperated looks on their faces, "All I wanted was to get Ran a souvenir!" The android glared back at him flatly.
"And we ended up with a hostage situation that went sour. Do you know how hard it is for me to pick and choose who to resurrect and who to leave dead to smooth things over with the media and keep us all out of their eyes?" he asked scathingly as the boy harrumphed and flopped back down in his chair, arms folded over his chest, "I don't like playing God, Kudo; don't make me do it again." He turned to glare at the mess of gems on the table before directing it at the other pale-skinned young man. "How many times have I told you to clean up after you're done playing with those?" he added dryly.
"Meh." the man returned lazily, draped backwards over his chair to the point of facing the opposite wall. He managed a shrug in that position and Timantha turned her head to one side to see how he could have done that without jamming a part of the chair into himself. "Not what I was looking for anyway. I'll wait for the next batch."
"Um, Caleb?" she asked in an unsure tone, "Luke said you brought in some Level Fives to help with my murder case, and they put New York on alert. Are these guys those Heroes, and why the heck are they able to do that?" The android snorted, walking to the table and gently smacking the little boy on the top of the head with the stack of files.
"Only one of them has the city on alert, and that's this one." he pointed out in irritation, scowling down at the boy that glared back, rubbing the top of his head, "Let me introduce you to the brightest minds I know in Japan." He set the files down on the table and gave the little boy a more affectionate pat on the shoulder, which the boy seemed to accept as an apology. "This is Conan Edogawa, but his real name is Shinichi Kudo, which is only allowed behind Archive walls. Outside of here, refer to him as Conan only."
"Are you in a witness protection program or something?" Timantha asked of the boy in surprise. Conan smirked at her with eyes that seemed too old for his age.
"Something." he replied. The android rolled his eyes and moved to gesture towards the dark-skinned man chuckling by the boy.
"This would be Heiji Hattori, a good friend of Kudo's." Caleb explained to Timantha. "Kudo and Hattori are incredibly gifted detectives, specializing in murders. They'll be investigating your case with the evidence your team brings in and Michael transmits to me." he explained, "Since you're going to need a very tight case against Remy, all based on some good sound normal science, these guys are your best bet to do it."
"Oh joy." Timantha sighed morosely, "My murder case in the hands of the Hardy Boys. I feel so much better about all this." Caleb chuckled, surprising the brunette, and he gave her words a dismissive wave.
"Don't worry. They're Heroes in their own right; trust in their skills." he remarked, then gestured towards the last young man, "And last but not least, this is Kaito Kuroba, an up-and-coming magician who moonlights as a phantom thief. He's been following his father's legacy in trying to find a specific gem." Timantha blinked in surprise.
"A criminal? You let a criminal into the Archives?" she asked incredulously, and Kaito took on affronted expression, finally sitting properly in his chair. Caleb shook his head.
"He's a special case, and in his own way, he is also a Hero. His ability to see and manipulate the Threads of Fate cancels out Kudo's 'unique' trait... which helps to ensure that New York City won't be having mass funerals for the next few days." the android explained vaguely before murmuring something to the two young men and the small boy in their own language. After a few nods of agreement, Caleb straightened and headed over to join Timantha. "Let's go. I still need to talk to you about something else and it's best to let them work on this without us watching. They're good at masking, but I know that they're very unnerved about you being here in the room with them when they know that you're the murder victim." he whispered to her and gestured towards the door. Timantha flushed and nodded, turning to leave the room with the angelic android. She paused just before heading out, then turned back to look at the magician-thief, the one who could reweave Fate.
"Hey, um, Mr. Kuroba?" she called out uncertainly, "You can mess with Fate and all that junk, right? Could you... reweave my Threads to... make me alive again?" Kaito peered at her with narrowing eyes, almost considering the idea before shaking his head.
"Sorry. You're layered, and the Threads are still fraying between them." he returned, "Very cool, but very weird too. You're the first I've seen with that." He wiggled his fingers at her startled expression. "I mess with your Tapestries now, and you really won't like the results. But hey, on the bright side, it looks like a couple of them are already starting to pull away, so just keep doing what you're doing and that top layer's outta your hair." He grinned. "That bottom one's almost gone too. Don't worry about it."
Timantha left, worrying about it.
They walked the halls together, heading for one of Caleb's scattered offices. The android hadn't been too happy to learn that Anti-Cosmo had come along, and took a few minutes to seethe in silence before shoving it aside and returning to the task at hand.
"It turns out that I won't be able to have you tested to change your profile in terms of power level. You being a girl will throw off the sensors and give tainted results." he finally said, breaking that silence with a rather blunt sentence. Timantha blinked, then gaped at him.
"What? Then why have me come all this way?" she exclaimed and folded her arms over her chest, forgetting about her new figure as she scowled ahead of them both, "What a waste of time this was!"
"Not entirely a waste, no." Caleb corrected with some amount of annoyance before waving a hand in dismissal again, "I can't talk about it right now. Let's get to the Terrarium. I'll be better able to explain things at that point."
And with that they entered the room that was marked as Caleb's office, where Timantha discovered that it was actually another elevator, and the android hit a button for a floor that she never knew existed.
The elevator dropped Caleb and Timantha off in a vast room filled with all kinds of plants, vegetables, fruits, even small trees. The brunette looked around herself in awe as she followed behind the android, who led the way to the center of the lush garden. Had this always been down below the lowest levels of the Archives building?
"Don't get so overwhelmed by it." Caleb remarked suddenly, standing by a control stand in the midst of the garden. He grinned. "It's not real." he added and pressed something on the stand. The garden flickered and vanished, leaving behind several large glass tubes filling the room in rows, each one like a small little containment garden. Timantha jumped, hurrying to join the android and looking around a second time, this time in confusion. "This is the Terrarium. No one has ever set foot here, so you would be the first to see all of this." Caleb murmured with an almost wistful tone in his voice, "It's where I go to relax, calm myself, and..." He reached out to one of the glass columns, spreading his hand over it. "To be with those last bits of Symphonia that survived with me." he finished in a near whisper. Timantha peered into the columns with him, eyes wide at the plant life within each one.
Flowers and herbs, plants that she had never seen before in her entire life save for in pictures in the books Caleb wrote, grew within the protective environments of each column. In the back of the room was a large garden also full of unusual plants, growing in open air without the need for controlled weather. She jogged over to them, unaware of the android's small grin as she knelt in the soil, gazing at the plants with wide eyes.
"Wow... I thought these didn't exist anymore!" Timantha exclaimed, looking up when Caleb knelt by her, hand reaching out to stroke the rich crimson leaves of one particular plant.
"That's because they don't. Not in this world. The Terrarium is the only place in all of Earth where the satays from Symphonia's age grow. I use them in my cooking, remember?" he remarked softly. The brunette noticed the watery look to the angelic android's green eyes and felt a small twinge of sympathy. Cooking was a weakness of his -despite Caleb's constant reminders that his perfect neutrality meant he had none- since the act of preparing meals was associated with his memories of a friend long dead. A year or so before, Timmy had pointed it out to his older cousin after watching Caleb cook lunch for them one day with a near religious solemnity, curious about why he acted that way about cooking, of all things.
Danny had looked away from them both at that, swallowing hard before murmuring what he knew of the man that had once carried the fork that Caleb kept on him at all times. Timmy pointed out that he would also cook when annoyed or angry, and Danny looked at him for that one, a crooked grin on his face. He explained that it was because that same man would also annoy Caleb in that way only best friends could do and not get mauled over it. And then Caleb would tap on a dish loudly to show he had heard what they were talking about, and the halfa would shut up with a vaguely uncomfortable look on his face that vanished once the food was set down. The whole Wonder Chef thing seemed to be a touchy subject for both Danny and Caleb, so Timmy didn't pry any further.
"What about those other plants?" Timantha asked, curious about the ones that grew in the glass columns. She hopped up and darted towards one, pressing her nose and palms against the glass to peer into closed off chamber. Caleb joined her there, one hand resting delicately against the glass as well.
"These plants are all from Symphonia, and because they're Elemental, I have to keep them in highly controlled environments to make sure they grow and survive." he explained and looked in on the crystalline flowers sparkling in their snowy chamber, "This is Celsius Tear, a flower that grows in locations where Celsius, the Summon Spirit of Ice, lives. It can freeze anything it touches, so specially crafted gloves must be worn to handle the flower."
Timantha drifted from the glass towards another, gazing in at a cluster of red flowers growing from rock that was surrounded by what looked like churning lava.
"Those are Fireblossoms. Named them after someone I knew and cared very much about a long time ago. They grew where Ifrit's influence was felt most." the android remarked, sounding sad and nostalgic all at the same time.
"If I'm not here to do the retest," Timantha asked carefully, moving on to another capsule where flowers of an unknown color blossomed under a strange blue light, surrounded by otherwise untouchable darkness, "then why have me come to New York?" Caleb walked to join the brunette at the capsule, gazing into it as well.
"We finished our internal investigation about the stolen aionis, and discovered something unusual on our camera systems." the android murmured, reaching into his coat and bringing out a photo to pass to her, "The thieves look a great deal like fairies, but they didn't register as such on our scanners. I thought you might have an idea what they are." Timantha looked up at him, puzzled as she took the photo in hand, then looked down to study the image.
She uttered a sharp gasp, one hand rising to cover her mouth as her eyes widened in shock. She knew these creatures, knew them all too well. Caleb lifted an eyebrow, but waited patiently for an answer.
"Pixies..." Timantha breathed, stunned by her own admission, "Pixies stole the shipment."
"I've heard of them, but I'm still not very familiar with the term. What are pixies?" Caleb asked softly, gazing down at the photo of the short little men in sunglasses, drab gray suits and hats, and their squared-off wings. They were captured lifting the cargo crates with magic, holding up small cell phones instead of wands.
"They're called the opposites of fairies." Timantha explained, throat suddenly feeling dry as she passed the photo back. Her head seemed to swim, her heart pounded harder than the normal pace her tiny Lightning spell set, and everything seemed to swirl around her, like the whole world had just been dumped in the toilet and given a massive Swirlie. "Pixies find boring things to be fun; all work is their play. They've had their eyes set on taking over Fairy World and our world for the longest time. Had lots of plans for doing it too. Never quite pulled them off." She turned around and leaned back against the glass tube, just let her back thud against it as she lifted her hand to her forehead, trying to make sense of it.
"I've not seen any evidence of this." Caleb remarked in mild surprise and Timantha shook her head.
"They only try once every thirty years, and each time they fail to take over Fairy World. Then I got involved in their normal schemes and they decided to take over both worlds in their next big plan." she replied quietly, "They'd already had it in motion, just made last minute adjustments when I started screwing up their stuff. And the sad thing was that it was my fault their thirty-year plan that time actually worked." Timantha chuckled, a faintly sad tone to it, "Man, was I stupid. You remember a time the whole world was ruled by kids? Or made over to look like some clown-painted, office-supply prison camp?" She looked up at Caleb for his reaction; he merely gazed back in silence.
"Faintly." he murmured, "I recall seeing a wave of ultra-mana magic passing over the area I was in, a quick glimpse of children taking government office, and suddenly I was lying in a chamber in the lab here at the Archives. Whatever had occurred used incompatible magic with my systems at the time, and as a safety measure I was shut down until the level of mana in the world was stable again. I'm still not sure; I haven't asked my sister exactly what happened, but I mentioned it once and she looked rather displeased with just the mentioning." Timantha laughed, shaking her head. She had seen Martel before, a brief visit in the early days of her existence as Timothy Neogene, and imagining a scowl on that divinely serene face was just plain funny.
"Well, I managed to undo their plan and it severely ticked them off. Said that they'd get me in their next big plan." she mused, "But I don't know why they'd be interested in your aionis. We're nowhere near the thirty-year mark for their next takeover plot."
They stood in silence like that for a while, the android watching the young immortal as she just remained slumped against the glass. It was a bit eerie, knowing that pixies had just pinged into the Archives and taken off with a load of aionis. Timantha turned that over in her head; for some reason, it felt like something about that knowledge should hit harder than did.
"Has it ever occurred to you that these pixies may be working with Remy?" Caleb finally asked and Timantha jerked her head up to stare at him with wide eyes, baffled by his words. The redhead gave a light shrug, tilting his head as he seemed to consider things more deeply than the immortal. "The aionis that was stolen from here was turned into that device that siphoned your mana, and the remainder of that became the scepter that is currently causing you problems in Dimmsdale. Pixies stole that metal, and Remy somehow came into possession of it." he explained patiently, "That wouldn't be possible unless the two of them cooperated on the matter."
Timantha thought that through herself, eyebrows furrowed together in concentration even as the confused look stayed on her face. Remy and the pixies? Working together? No way; fairies despised pixies as much as the other way around, and Remy had Juandissimo with him. There wouldn't be any way the two races would ever set aside their differences for anything. And what would they gain from giving an aionis device to Remy in the first place?
"I don't see how they could work together. Remy's too interested in getting things his way, and the pixies won't do anything for anyone unless there's something in it for them that'll screw over everyone else in the end." she remarked at last. Caleb made some small sound of noncommittal, a neutral tone that was neither agreement or disagreement. A humming of sorts that seemed to annoy the heck out of Danny whenever Caleb did it; at the time, Timmy had no idea why it was that his older cousin would make such a face at the sound -he'd look like he caught someone painting his space shuttle model Barbie Doll Pink- and today, Timantha still didn't get it.
"Just keep an open mind about it. That's all." the redhead finally remarked and brushed his fingertips against the glass behind the brunette, "Lapis Lustrare Arcanum. It's a breed of flower that went extinct and I managed to recreate using a close relative of the original species. They grow in pitch black darkness, the tiniest photon of light will make them wither; luckily, the light of the blue candle is harmless to them. Very difficult to grow and maintain." Timantha blinked and looked over her shoulder through the glass, gazing at the cluster of flowers beyond it.
"They're pretty." she finally murmured, and Caleb hummed in appreciation. "I need to get a dress for the party. Anything good available?"
"I can get you access to Versace's latest designs." the android replied, stepping back and lifting his arms as his clothing shifted over his body, glowing white with the changes. It faded and settled into the familiar deep blue business suit and leather tie-strap that was normal wear for the identity of Hounder, billionaire philanthropist. "I think it's time the CEO of the Hounder Organization made an appearance anyway. Give the paparazzi something new to work on." He grinned and slipped his hands into his pockets as Timantha snickered and followed him out of the Terrarium.