ZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP!

Penn was wearing a gray shirt with black jeans, with boots and a beat-up old cap covering a mop of red hair. Boone looked about the same, though he was bald and didn't wear a hat. His flip flops were still there, but a pair of boots stood nearby. Penn gestured to them, and Boone grudgingly put them on instead of the flip flops.

Sashi, however, was nowhere to be seen. Confused, Penn looked around, but she didn't seem to be anywhere around. Then, something peculiar happened. He heard a buzz from the MUHU.

Boone frowned. "That can't be right," He said, reaching for the device. Penn batted his hand away and pulled it out of his pants pocket. He expected to see that it was his parents calling him, but instead, the MUHU showed the grim face of Sashi.

"Sashi!" He exclaimed, holding the hologram so it projects onto even ground. "Where are you?"

He couldn't see very much of the background, but he could tell Sashi wasn't wearing her usual clothes. She was decked out in a fancy sleek suit, with gadgets looped around her waist and an ammo belt slung across her shoulders. Her hair was tied in a tight ponytail, and she had a thick white choker around her neck. She looked uneasy, as if she had somewhere to be.

"Penn, I can't talk for long, but I'm not on your mission."

"What do you mean you're not on our mission?"

She fidgeted with her belt and looked warily over her shoulder. "I'm not. Look in your pockets; you should have the specs."

"What do you mean you're not on our mission?" He repeated again, looking at Boone. He shrugged, looking back at Penn.

"Look. I'm somewhere else, okay? I'll meet you in the Odyssey after work tomorrow," She snapped. Just before she ended the call, though, he heard something that made his already straight hair stand on end. "I hope," She whispered, just loud enough to hear, and the MUHU switched off, leaving Penn in the silence filled with Boone's loud breathing.

"Well, that was ominous," Boone finally remarked, dusting off his pants. "But we should get on with the mission."

Penn took a shuddering breath, then another, and finally dug the specs out of his pockets. He rubbed it with his sleeve and put it on. Immediately, he was bombarded with a multitude of colours and shapes. "Whoa," He said simply as the pictures jumbled his vision.

It took a while, but he finally found the specifics of the mission. "Boone, we have to –"

He paused, and Boone started shaking him by the shoulders. "What? WHAT? DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING! WHAT?" He screamed in Penn's ear. Penn fought him off and stood farther away, fully aware of the danger now.

"We have to steal a magic rock from a magician."

"Steal?" Boone echoed, suddenly looking behind him.

"Steal," Penn confimed. "I don't know why, but we have to get there before Rippen."

Boone shrugged. "Fine by me."

But it's not, Penn wanted to say. Sashi should be here. They both looked towards the spot where she would've stood, and he knew that Boone was thinking the same thing. Which prompted a new question, one more urgent than the magician's rock.

Where is Sashi?