Two pairs of eyes peered out the tinted windows of a dark green mini van parked on the street of a run down residential neighborhood. Both heads disappeared from view as the owners of the heads, two girls, turned and leaned back against the inside wall of the van, whose back seats had been removed. Agent 00Assassin pushed her long black hair behind her ears before turning to Agent 00Omega.
“This surveillance thing is so boring!! I need some action!” she exclaimed.
Omega turned to her associate, brushing her short blond hair out of her eyes. “We’ve only been here 5 minutes,” she said. “We haven’t even determined if this is the right place.”
Assassin scowled at her. “Of course it’s the right place! This is the address Agent 00Thursday gave us. You know she can always trace something, if it’s on the computer. She’s our hacker extrordinaire.” I hope Omega doesn’t wait too long, Assassin thought gleefully, or else the others might get bored and give us away. Luckily, Omega’s patience wasn’t much greater then Assassin’s was.
Ten minutes later, Omega finally got bored. “All right,” she gave in. “Let’s take the house. Got your weapon?” Assassin pulled out her handgun and nodded. Omega picked up a small crossbow that had been lying unnoticed on the floor next to her. She grabbed 6 of the poison-tipped shafts that went with it and opened the van door. “Let’s go!” she commanded.
The two girls slid out of the van and quickly dashed for cover near the house on the other side of the street. Omega spoke into her wrist communicator. “How should we go in?”
A moment passed before Assassin responded, “I’ll take the back, you take the front. Give me two minutes to get into place.”
Omega felt two minutes was too long, but she trusted her associate’s instincts. “Ok,” Omega responded, not knowing that Assassin was already slipping in the back door to join the others.
Two minutes later, Omega ran to the front door, crossbow at the ready, tripping and rolling once on the way, and kicked in the front door, yelling, “Freeze!” She skidded to a halt as a group of seven people facing her yelled, “Surprise!” Her confusion showed on her face as she tried to figure out what was going on. Her head swiveled as she took in the scene and looked for an exit to escape this embarrassment. “What’s going on here? Where are the bad guys? What are you all doing here?” she questioned wildly.
Agent 00Forty-Two stepped up to her and pointed out a big banner that read, “Happy 20th Birthday, Agent Omega!” Agent 00Dragon laughed at Omega’s embarrassment as Agent 00Iruka, Ruka for short, squealed happily, “It’s your birthday, Omega!” Omega looked puzzled.
“But guys, my birthday isn’t until December. It’s only June.” The girls, with the exception of Thursday, all looked at their wrist communicator/watch/calendar/day planners.
“My watch says it’s December third,” Agent 00Renaissance, Renn for short, stated. “Mine too,” the other girls agreed.
Thursday waved her hand as if to wave away the confusion. “I changed your watches, she said dismissively. “It’s been at least a month since we had a really good party, and I figured it was time for one.”
Agent 00Pixy shrugged. “Ok, let’s party!”
* * * * *
Five hours after the group had surprised Omega in the abandoned house, all eight girls were sprawled out around Omega’s spacious living room in her eighth floor apartment. Forty-Two sighed in contentment as she pushed her long blond curly hair back behind her shoulders and adjusted her glasses before settling down into the big cushy couch. “That was fun,” she said, “but I still think we should have dressed up.”
“We dressed up last time,” Renn countered, absently twirling one of her long black braids before deciding she was too warm and shrugging off her purple jacket.
“Yeah,” Dragon agreed. “We said we would only dress up every other time.” She frowned at Forty-Two, who had reached over and was now tugging on Dragon’s blond ponytail. “Besides, the manager doesn’t like it when we dress up. He says it attracts too much attention.”
Assassin blinked. You mean we didn’t attract attention with Pixy and Ruka jumping around like monkeys?” She glanced at Ruka and Pixy, who were lying on the rug, bound and gagged. “I knew we shouldn’t have given them Pixie sticks.”
“Mmbfmfmwbhumbfw,” mumbled Ruka from beneath the gag.
“What did she say?” asked Thursday, who looked exhausted from the five hours the group had just spent bowling.
Renn looked up from the book she had grabbed off the end table. “She said, ‘The purple ones are best,’” translated Renn.
Omega grinned. “There’s a reason you’re our translator,” she told Renn, then bent down to untie the two on the floor. When she finished Ruka and Pixy stood, rubbing their wrists. Ruka threw back her hip length hair before turning to face Assassin, hands on hips.
“It’s not my fault, Assassin,” she started to complain. Ruka was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass as something crashed through the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony. Dragon and Assassin were on the balcony before anyone else could move, looking for any sign of the person who had thrown the object.
“See anything?” Dragon asked. Assassin shook her head. When they came back in, they found Renn and Thursday kneeling beside the object, a gray plastic cube, about 4 inches on each side, with a button that read, “Push me” on the side and what looked like a light switch on top. Omega, Ruka, and Pixy were cleaning up the broken glass while Forty-Two fluttered around aimlessly. Seeing something that caught her attention, she stopped her fluttering and leaned over Renn’s shoulder to get a closer look at the cube.
“What does this do?” she asked, reaching down to push the button.
“No!” exclaimed Thursday, but it was too late, the button had been pressed. A small rectangle slid out. By then, everyone was gathered around the mysterious box.
“What’s that?” asked Pixy.
“Looks like a drawer,” commented Ruka. “What’s in it?” Renn pulled out one of the objects and held it up so everyone could see it.
“Poker chips?” they all exclaimed.
“There’s eight of them,” said Thursday, pulling the rest of the bright yellow poker chip-like thingies out. She passed one to each girl so everyone could examine them.
“Can I see the box?” asked Ruka. She then yanked it from Renn’s careful grasp, sending it flying across the room. It whacked into the wall with a loud thunk. The girls and the box vanished into thin air.
Suddenly, all eight girls were in the middle of a graveyard. Although it was night, they could hear what sounded like a fight on the other side of the large mausoleum they had appeared next to.
“Is everyone ok?” Omega asked quietly after a quick head count. After affirmative responses from the entire group, she asked, “What happened?” Renn retrieved the box, which was against the side of the mausoleum, and was the first to realize what had transpired.
“Of course!” she exclaimed. “A transdimensional hopper!” Seeing the blank looks all around her, she elaborated, “The box. It’s a transdimensional hopper. See, normally you would flick the switch on top and it will hop you to another dimension, as long as you have one of those poker chip thingies on you.” All the girls looked at the poker chips they still held. Renn continued as she tried flicking the switch on top of the box.
“Normally, if you flick it back you’ll return to your dimension. However, I think Ruka broke it when she flung it across the room.” Everyone turned to glare at Ruka, who seemed to shrink under their gaze.
“Ummm, guys? What’s that noise?” Ruka asked, desperately trying to get the attention off of her. They all turned their attention toward the sounds of fighting still audible on the other side of the mausoleum.
Creeping forward as a unit, the group peered out from the shadows at a most remarkable sight. A young woman, around 20 years old, blond, dressed in a red tank top and black pants was holding her own in a fight against two large men. To the right were several others, another young woman with short red hair and a tall young man with longish dark brown hair, both also appearing around 20 years old. Those two were fighting against a third large man. Within the next 30 seconds, all three of the large men had had wooden stakes jammed through their hearts and had turned to dust.
“Woah,” Omega heard Pixy whisper. Suddenly a small figure tore free of the group and ran towards the boy.
“Xander!!!!!” shrieked Forty-Two, rushing to wrap her arms around the boy’s waist. Xander looked down at the small blond girl wrapped around his waist, then at his blond companion, who had struck a defensive pose the moment Forty-Two flew from the shadows.
“Buffy?” he questioned nervously. Seven more girls emerging from the shadows further startled the small group of vampire fighters. Buffy Summers, Xander Harris, and Willow Rosenberg watched warily as the girl appearing to be the leader stepped forward to pull the small blond from Xander’s waist.
“Forty-Two!” the leader admonished the girl at Xander’s waist. The girl let go of Xander and stepped away from him, head down.
“I’m sorry, Omega” the girl started. “But, it’s Xander!”
Buffy and Xander exchanged a glance. Who was this girl, and how did she know Xander? The leader stepped up to Buffy, hand extended. Buffy shook her hand as the leader introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Agent 00Omega, from Super Spiffy Agency 918.” Buffy gave Omega a blank stare as Omega continued. “My agents”-she gestured to the group of girls behind her-“and I seem to have entered your universe accidentally.” She paused, waiting for a response.
Buffy, Willow and Xander stared at the agents incredulously. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” said Willow. “You’re from a different universe?”
“Actually,” stepped in Renn, “it’s a different dimension. We still live on earth and all. We even live in California, same as you. But in our dimension-” She was interrupted by Forty-Two, who took the opportunity to clutch Xander again and gaze up at him.
“You’re a TV show!” Forty-Two exclaimed. “Buffy’s the vampire slayer, and you two have been helping her since you all were sophomores in high school.” She gazed lovingly up at Xander again. “I’ve watched every episode. You’ve always been my favorite,” she whispered to Xander. Xander looked at her strangely.
“At any rate,” Omega said, “we should probably go see Giles. He might know something that could help us, since our transdimensional hopper is broken.”
A short time later, the eight agents, three vampire fighters, Giles, the shop owner, and the cashier, Anya, also Xander’s girlfriend, were gathered around the large round table towards the back of the shop. Anya was clinging to Xander’s left arm, glaring at Forty-Two, who was clinging to Xander’s right arm, oblivious to Anya’s glare. Omega had just finished explaining the situation to Giles, who was staring at them in a rather peculiar fashion.
“So,” Giles said slowly, “you are secret agents from another dimension, and you have a hopper thing-“
“Transdimensional hopper,” supplied Ruka helpfully.
“And this transdimensional hopper is broken,” Giles finished. “And you came to me because…?” The agents looked at each other. Wasn’t it obvious?
“Well,” Assassin said hesitantly, “we were hoping you might be able to help us fix it.” Thursday plopped it down in the middle of the table.
“How does it work?” asked Willow.
“Well, everyone in our group has one of these poker chip thingies,” explained Thursday, pulling hers out of her pocket and holding it up. “Supposedly when you flip the switch on top, it moves everyone with one of these to another dimension.” As she spoke, Xander reached for the device.
“So you are telling us this doesn’t work?” Xander asked, flipping the switch on the transdimensional hopper.
An instant later the agents found themselves in a grassy square in the center of a small town.
“Ok, that time it worked,” commented Pixy.
“Obviously it didn’t work correctly,” said Ruka. “Where are we now?”
“I wonder if Xander will remember me,” swooned Forty-Two.
Assassin rolled her eyes as they took in their surroundings. Renn commented, “I wonder where we are now.” Suddenly Omega squealed.
“Look!” she cried, pointing at a sign on a building facing the town square. The other agents turned to look as Ruka took the opportunity to be useful and read the sign aloud.
“First National Bank of Bayport.” She paused a moment, not quite getting what had Omega so excited. “Does that mean anything to you guys, ‘cause I’m drawing a blank.”
“Bayport!” Omega said excitedly. Noticing the blank looks, she sighed. “Am I the only one who has ever read…” She trailed off as something across the square caught her attention. The agents followed her gaze and found her to be staring at two handsome young men walking down the street. One was muscular, around six feet tall, with wavy, almost curly, blond hair. The other was slightly taller, but leaner, with straight brown hair. Both appeared to be in their late teens. Before anyone could ask who they were, Omega exclaimed, “The Hardy boys!”, squealed again and took off, walking at a fast pace.
The other girls looked to Assassin, who shrugged and said, “Let’s follow her.” They caught up to her just as Omega walked up behind the two teens and tapped both of them on their shoulders. Startled, the two boys spun around to see a girl at least six inches shorter then either of them gazing up at them with a look that could only be described as adoration.
“Hi!” the girl bubbled cheerfully. “You’re the Hardy boys!”
Dark-haired Frank Hardy looked at his blond younger brother, Joe, silently asking him who this strange girl was. Joe shrugged. Both Hardys turned their attention back towards the girl, not noticing the group of seven girls ten feet away who were observing the exchange. “Umm, yeah,” Frank stammered. “I’m-“
“Frank,” the girl interrupted. “And that,” she said gesturing at Joe, “is your brother, Joe.”
Joe was getting impatient with this girl’s interruption. “Who are you?” he demanded, more sharply then he had intended. Frank shot him a warning look, but the girl was unfazed by his reaction, almost as if she had expected it.
“Oh, I’m Agent 00Omega, but my friends call me Omega,” she giggled. “I investigate things, kinda like you guys, only I’m not a detective.” Frank glanced at Joe again. Agent? What is up with this girl, anyway? he wondered. Omega continued babbling happily.
“Yup, you guys are detectives, just like your father, Fenton, even though Laura, your mother, doesn’t like it. She’s always afraid you’ll get hurt. If she knew even half the things you guys have been through, she would have forbidden you from detective work at all a long time ago. And your Aunt Gertrude, she always makes disparaging comments about your abilities, but secretly she’s very proud of you, she just doesn’t want you to think she’s a softy. And your friends…”
Frank tuned her out as his mind shifted into gear. Who is this girl? he wondered again. And how does she know so much about his family? It would have been easy enough to learn his parents’ and aunt’s names from newspaper articles, but the way his mother and aunt felt about he and Joe’s detective work was known only to immediate family and a few close friends. He tuned back in to Omega’s yammering again just in time to hear her say, “And you guys started working for the Network, unofficially of course, after Joe’s girlfriend, Iola Morton, was killed-“
“How do you know about that?” Frank cut in sharply. No one was supposed to know about their work with the Network, not even their parents. Omega looked up at him, her cheerful grin faltering under his piercing gaze.
“Well, I read the books over and over…” she trailed off. His gaze softened under the obvious admiration this girl had for him and his brother. “Come on,” he said, offering her his arm. “Let’s find some place we can talk privately.” Omega’s eyes lit up as she linked arms with him, then she reached over and grabbed Joe too.
“You guys have no idea how long I’ve wanted to meet you,” she said happily as they headed for the mall and Mr. Pizza, the local pizza place.
Assassin watched as the leader of their agency walked off, dwarfed between the two boys. She was confused and a little angry at Omega’s apparent abandonment of the agents. “What was that all about?” she asked angrily, turning to face the remaining six agents.
Ruka, Pixy, Forty-Two, and Dragon had apparently had apparently grown tired of observing the interaction between Omega and the Hardy boys and were now frolicking in the grass, attempting cartwheels and backflips and chasing each other. Renn was staring at some unknown point, which Assassin knew meant she was looking for any information she could find regarding the Hardy boys in her extensive photographic memory. Thursday had whipped out her state-of-the-art palmtop computer and was searching the internet for any mention of these so-called “Hardy boys.” Although annoyed by everyone’s ignoring of her first question, Assassin held her temper in check as she asked of the two researchers, “So, anything?”
After a moment, Renn and Thursday both shook their heads. “Nothing,” they sighed in unison. Forty-Two wandered over, having left Pixy and Ruka in a heap, complete with eye swirlies in both girls’ eyes. Forty-Two had been pretending to be both of them and had confused both girls rather severely.
“So, how are things going?” Forty-Two asked as she reached over to play with Renn’s hair.
Thursday answered, “We can’t find anything on these Hardy boys. We have no idea how Omega knows so much about them, or where she knows them from, or anything.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Forty-Two replied as she continued playing with Renn’s hair. “The Hardy Boys book series. Omega has most of them and has read them all like 4 times.”
Assassin’s eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?” she growled in a low voice.
Forty-Two looked up and sweat dropped. “Uh…” she started, looking around frantically for some way to escape, “I forgot?” She shrieked and darted away as Assassin lunged at her, claws extended. Just at that moment, Dragon stumbled in between them, resulting in a tangle of arms and legs on the floor. As they untangled themselves, shrieks could be heard from Pixy and Ruka. Assassin’s head whipped around as she tried to determine why the girls were shrieking when suddenly the shrieking stopped. Pixy and Ruka were gone, leaving behind the two brightly colored discs.
* * * * * *
“Where did Ruka and Pixy go?” asked Renn uncertainly.
“I don’t know,” Assassin replied. She lifted her wristcom to her lips. “Agents Ruka and Pixy, please report in,” she commanded, her words being sent to the earpieces of all eight agents. There was silence for a moment, then a voice came to the agents ears.
“Assassin?” It was Omega. “What’s going on down there?”
“Without your leadership, we seem to be losing people,” Assassin responded sarcastically, still angry at Omega. There was a pause before Omega responded with a sigh.
“Sarcasm duly noted. Why don’t the rest of you come down to the mall and meet me at Mr. Pizza. Maybe the Hardys can help.”
If looks could kill, Thursday thought, looking at Assassin. Assassin looked ready to explode. Dropping her arm back to her side, Assassin sputtered in angry disbelief, “The Hardys? She thinks we need help from a couple of boys?!” Thursday tried to soothe her friend.
“You know she doesn’t think that. She’s probably just looking for a way to get them involved. You saw how smitten she was with them.” After a moment Assassin visibly calmed.
“You’re right,” she admitted. “Let’s go.”
Back at Mr. Pizza, Omega had finished her explanation of how she knew so much about the Hardys and their friends and family.
“So what you’re saying is that you are from a different dimension?” Joe asked incredulously. Omega nodded, glancing around the room.
“The rest of my agents should be here shortly,” she said, “except whoever is missing.”
“So, tell us about this agency of yours,” said Frank. Before Omega could explain the agency, they were interrupted by the arrival of Thursday, Assassin, Renn, Dragon, and a mud covered Forty-Two.
“What happened to you?” Omega asked, eyeing Forty-Two’s mud splattered form. Forty-Two opened her mouth to answer, but Assassin answered first.
“She tripped.” When Forty-Two started to protest, Assassin glared at her, as though daring her to say something different.
“I tripped,” Forty-Two stated meekly. It was obvious to Omega that there was more to Forty-Two’s “trip” then they were letting on, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
“Guys,” Omega addressed the Hardys, “I’d like you to meet my agents.” She quickly introduced each of the girls standing before the table. “Girls,” she concluded, “meet Frank and Joe, the Hardy boys.” Now that introductions were complete, the girls grabbed chairs and generally squished around the small table, with the exception of Forty-Two, who went to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
“Have some pizza,” Joe offered, looking a bit in awe at all the girls around him. Seeing as how he was between girlfriends right now and he always seemed to pick up a new girl on a case, this case looked promising. It was the blond leader of the group, though, who had caught his eye and it appeared that he had caught her eye as well. He noticed that she kept glancing at him, quickly averting her eyes and blushing a bit when she noticed him looking at her. She was cute, he decided, and obviously a fan of theirs. Frank interrupted his thoughts.
“Now tell me,” Frank addressed the group, “how do you know about us?” Omega eagerly spoke up.
“You guys are a book series!” Silence and blank looks followed Omega’s statement. She sighed before elaborating. “Am I the only one who reads? Actually you guys are five book series. The first series started in 1927. It went through 40 books before the second series-“
“Wait a second!” Joe interrupted. “That was 74 years ago! We aren’t 74 years old.”
“I know,” Omega said. “I’ll get to that.” I’ll get to that? she thought in a panic. I don’t even know how that is supposed to work in this dimension! Breathe, Omega, breathe. She continued with what she knew. “Anyway, the second series revised the first and continued to well over 100 books. In fact,” she added, “they’re still writing them.” This time, Thursday interrupted.
“Wait a minute,” Thursday said, sounding confused. “What are the ones I always see you reading?” Omega grinned.
“My favorite series. The third series is the Casefile series. They are much more exciting than the first two series.” She glanced at Joe. “Those are the ones I know the best.”
“You haven’t explained how stories about us have been around so much longer than we have,” Frank reminded.
“Well, I’m not exactly certain,” Omega admitted shyly, blushing furiously. “In 1927, you guys were 15 and 16. You inexplicably became 17 and 18 in 19??. Although you change with the times, you never age.” Both boys looked stunned. Thankfully, the conversation was abruptly halted by the return of Forty-Two, now clean and mud-free.
The subject was dropped as Forty-Two took a seat and dug into the pizza. Omega decided now was the time to get down to business and figure out what had happened to Ruka and Pixy.
“Ok guys,” Omega said, “we need to figure out what we’re gonna do about Ruka and Pixy’s disappearance. We need to find them before we jump again. What do we know?”
“Ruka and Pixy disappeared from the town square, leaving behind only their poker chips,” Dragon offered as Thursday took notes on her hand-held computer.
Do you guys have any enemies here?” Joe asked.
“Enemies?” Assassin scoffed. “We’ve been in your dimension less than an hour. Who could we have made enemies with?” Joe blushed angrily, but was interrupted by a hand on his arm and Omega’s voice.
“Wait a minute, what about your enemies?” Omega asked the Hardys. “What if there was someone else, probably two someone else’s, in the square? If they saw us appear and saw me talking to you, they may have thought we know each other already, and kidnapped my agents to get to you!”
There was silence for a moment as this idea worked its way through everyone’s brains. The brothers exchanged a glance. “We are working on a case right now,” Frank admitted.
“Spill it already!” Assassin was impatient and ready for action. Frank glanced around before responding.
“Not here,” he said, standing. Everyone else also rose and they headed for the front door. Frank stopped at the counter to pay for the pizza and sodas before dashing after the rest of the group.
“Thanks Tony,” he called over his shoulder to the teen behind the counter.
“No problem, Frank,” the dark-skinned Italian called back. As Frank exited the pizza place, he heard Tony call, “You will tell me what this is all about when it’s over, won’t you?” Frank smiled to himself as he caught up with the others, noting that Omega had taken Joe’s arm again. What a story this would be, he thought. Eight teenage girls from another dimension dropping into the middle of Bayport. That certainly doesn’t happen every day.
Meanwhile…
Ruka and Pixy surveyed their prison for the tenth time since they had been hustled into the small room. The windowless room was about nine feet by nine feet and contained two wooden chairs and a twin sized bed.
After being taken in the town square, the two girls had been hustled into a waiting car and brought into a large mansion on the outskirts of the town. Since the girls hadn’t put up much of a fight, the kidnappers hadn’t bothered to tie or gag them, which was fine with the girls, who still had rope burns from being tied and gagged in their own dimension.
“I’m bored,” Ruka whined. Pixy rolled her eyes.
“Ruka, I don’t think being kidnapped is supposed to be fun,” Pixy said. Ruka thought about that for a moment.
“I guess you’re right,” she admitted. Ruka suddenly brightened. “I’ve got an idea! Let’s think up a plan to escape! That ought to be fun.”
Pixy shook her head. It seemed like Ruka was always on a quest for fun. Pixy watched as Ruka walked to the door, reaching for the handle.
“That won’t work,” Pixy said. “They wouldn’t be stupid enough to-“ She stopped as Ruka easily turned the handle and the door swung open. The pony-tailed girl shook her head in amazement as she quickly stood and joined Ruka at the doorway.
Seeing no one around, the girls quickly exited the room and found themselves in a narrow hallway with several closed doors on either side. At the end of the hallway, there appeared to be a second hallway, perpendicular to the hallway they were presently in.
“Which way, oh brilliant planmaker?” Pixy asked.
“That way!” Ruka said dramatically, placing one hand on her hip and pointing to the left with the other hand. She stayed in that position for a few moments before realizing that Pixy had already taken off in the direction she had indicated. “Hey, wait for me!” she squealed, dashing down the hall in pursuit of her friend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The remaining six agents and the Hardy boys were now arranged around the Hardys’ living room.
“Anybody want something to drink?” Joe offered. Everyone nodded and Joe stood and headed for the kitchen.
“Let me help you!” Omega exclaimed, scrambling to her feet and dashing into the kitchen after Joe. Forty-Two, Dragon, Renn, and Thursday snickered while Frank and Assassin exchanged a bemused glance.
“Sorry about her,” Assassin apologized to Frank. “We have been trying to teach her to be a little less obvious, but it doesn’t seem to be working.” Frank smiled.
“Joe does seem to fall for a new girl every case, and I’m sure Omega knows that.” Frank laughed. “It looks like they both want her to be the girl for this case,” he said slyly. The agents looked at each other and laughed. At that moment, Joe and Omega appeared at the doorway, each carrying a tray with four glasses of lemonade.
“What’s so funny?” they asked in unison, causing fresh peals of laughter to sweep through the room. They looked at each other and Omega shrugged.
“They’re weird,” she said, hoping to excuse the group’s odd behavior. Joe smiled at her. They quickly passed out the lemonade and sat on the couch-right next to each, both Frank and Assassin noted.
“So, tell us about this case you’re on,” Thursday prodded.
“Well, we’ve been tracking a small group of smugglers,” Frank started.
“Stupid smugglers,” Joe interrupted. “There are five men in the ring. We’ve been on the case for two days and we’ve caught three of them already.”
“At any rate,” Frank interjected, “the two remaining guys probably have your agents. We’ll probably get a ransom call-“ He was interrupted by the ring of the phone.
“You’re good,” Assassin complimented Frank as he stood to answer the phone. He grinned at her as he reached for the receiver.
“Hello?” he said into the receiver before pressing a button to put the call on the speaker. A menacing voice filled the room.
“Hardys,” it growled. “We have your friends. Drop the case and we’ll release them.” Frank winked at Joe, indicating that he had a plan.
“Actually, they aren’t our friends. We’ve never met them before-“
“But we saw you talking with one of them!” The man sounded a bit stunned and worried.
“We just met them,” Joe joined in, seeing where Frank was going with this. He glanced at Omega, surprised to see that she appeared to be calm and relaxed. He had expected to see some display of emotion on her face, anger tension, something. Wait a sec, he thought. There it was. Her eyes spoke of a smoldering rage inside her, the thought that these men might hurt her agents, her friends, feeding the rage. He turned his attention back to the phone call as the man spoke again.
“Who cares if you know them or not. Drop the case or else!” The caller seemed to have his thoughts back in order, but Renn quickly derailed them again.
“Or else what?” she asked cautiously.
“Ummm, uh…” the man floundered, sounding flustered as he spoke. He obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead. Suddenly a second voice could be heard.
“Hey, Arthur, the girls escaped!” the second voice shouted, sounding breathless. Arthur cursed before abruptly hanging up the phone. The dial tone sounded and Frank hung up the phone. Silence reigned for about three seconds before Forty-Two spoke up.
“At least we know they’re alive and well,” she said cheerfully. Every head in the room swiveled to look at Forty-Two. “Well, there is a bright side to everything,” she said defensively.
Frank Hardy glanced around the room, watching the girls’ reactions to the phone call. His gaze stopped on Assassin who, contrary to the others’ relieved chatter, looked just about ready to put her skills to use. He was about to say something to her when she abruptly spoke.
“They’re still in danger,” Assassin tersely reminded everyone. The chatter halted and everyone stared at Assassin. She continued, “We need to go rescue them!” She turned towards Omega to see her reaction. Omega stood grimly.
“Assassin’s right,” Omega said. “We need to go get our agents back. And to do that, we need a plan. Any ideas?” The group began tossing around ideas and slowly a plan began to take form.
Ruka and Pixy were creeping down what felt to Ruka like the 100th corridor when they spotted an open door. A man’s voice could be heard, and from the one-way conversation, Pixy quickly surmised that he was talking on the phone. She grabbed Ruka’s arm and pulled her into the room next to the one the man occupied. After a whispered warning to Ruka to remain silent, she went to the wall shared by the two rooms.
Ruka watched as her companion put her ear against the wall and listened for a moment, then leaned back and pulled a slender leather case from her pocket. Extracting a quarter-size machine on a long wire, Pixy scanned the wall. There it was, she thought, the convenient hole in the wall connecting the two rooms.
Pixy quickly slipped the “bug” through the hole and inserted the accompanying earpiece into her ear. She had just enough time to catch the tail end of the conversation.
“But we saw you talking with one of them!” the man exclaimed angrily. “Who cares if you know them or not. Drop the case or else!” He must be talking to the girls, Pixy surmised. Then the man spoke again. “Ummm, uh…” he floundered. I wonder what who said, Pixy thought.
Suddenly there was the sound of running feet in hall, then a breathless voice shouting in the other room.
“Hey, Arthur, the girls escaped!” the second man shouted, loud enough that Ruka could hear him without the listening device. Ruka could barely contain her snicker as Pixy heard the first man curse, then the distinctive *click* of the telephone being hung up. There was a rush of footsteps as the two kidnappers ran from the room.
Pixy pulled the bug back through the hole and quickly returned it to its place in the leather case. As she did this, she whispered to Ruka.
“I think they just called the girls,” Pixy said. “There’s a phone in there and we can probably use it to…” She trailed off. “We don’t know any phone numbers in this dimension.” Pixy sounded worried.
“We could hit redial,” Ruka offered helpfully. Pixy shrugged.
“It couldn’t hurt.”
Back at the Hardys’ house, things were progressing rapidly.
“I think this is gonna work,” Omega said approvingly. “The only problem is that we don’t know where they are.”
“We may be able to narrow it down some,” Joe said, glancing at Omega. She smiled shyly at him as he continued, “There are -“ He was interrupted by the ring of the phone. “I wonder who that could be,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“I can do that too!” Forty-Two said excitedly, then proceeded to go into her whole eyebrow routine as Frank answered the phone.
“Hardy residence.”
Pixy bit her lip. She hadn’t been expecting the male voice on the other end of the line.
“Hello?” Frank asked. Finally a voice spoke.
“I’m looking for Omega,” the girl on the other end said nervously.
“Ok,” Frank said cautiously. “She’s right here.” He handed the phone to Omega, telling her, “I think it’s one of your agents.” Omega took the phone.
“Hello?” Pixy was relieved to hear the voice of their leader.
“Omega!” Pixy exclaimed. Ruka pounced on her and wrestled the phone away from her friend.
“Omega! Omega!” Ruka practically shrieked. Omega giggled, causing everyone in the living room to look at her.
“Ruka, are you guys okay?” she asked.
“I don’t like it here,” Ruka whined. “Come get us.”
“Where are your wrist comms?” Omega asked. At that moment, Pixy, who had been rooting through the desk the phone was sitting on, gave a cry of delight.
“Our wrist comms!” she exclaimed. Pixy handed Ruka hers and snapped her own on her wrist.
“Pixy just found ‘em,” Ruka told Omega.
“Well turn ‘em on,” Omega instructed Ruka. “That way we can use the locator signals to find you.” Ruka did as she was told.
“Now what?”
“Find a safe place to hide. We’re coming to get you.”
“One more question,” Pixy said after grabbing the phone back from Ruka. “Who was that guy who answered the phone?”
“Oh, him,” Omega giggled again. “That was Frank Hardy. You’ll meet him and his brother, Joe, when we rescue you.” Omega paused. “Now go hide!”
“’K. Bye!” Pixy hung up the phone and turned to Ruka. “Omega says we need to hide.”
“Ok,” Ruka said cheerfully. “Let’s go!” The two girls crept into the hallway, looked down both sides, looked at each other, and took off running down the corridor.
After she hung up the phone, Omega turned to the group in the Hardy’s living room.
“They’ve got the wrist comms on now. We should be able to find them.” Thursday immediately turned to her wrist comm and started pushing buttons. Joe looked perplexed.
“How are your communicators gonna help you find them?” Joe asked.
“They’re more than just communicators,” Renn explained distractedly. “Our wrist comms are wrist watches, calendars, day planners, and communicators all rolled into one. Each of us has a tiny undetectable receiver implanted in our ears. The wrist comms just transmit.”
“To make a long story short,” Dragon interjected, “the wrist comms have tracers. As long as they’re on, any of us can find the location of another agent.”
“Cool” was Joe’s only comment. However, Frank perked up immediately.
“Do you think I could examine one of those after we’ve gotten your agents back?” Frank asked eagerly.
“I don’t know,” Omega said hesitantly. “They’re supposed to be top-secret devices…”
“But only in our dimension,” Assassin jumped in. “Of course you can look at them.” Omega glanced sharply at her second-in-command. What was Assassin thinking, Omega wondered.
“After we rescue Pixy and Ruka,” Omega said firmly.
“I’ve got a fix on their location,” Thursday announced. “They’re at 1794 Shore Road.”
“That’s the old Rambler place. It’s supposed to be vacant right now,” Frank said thoughtfully. “Let’s go. We can park a little ways from the mansion and case the place before we go in.”
“Remember,” Omega reminded everyone as they headed out the door, “top priority is to get the girls their poker chip thingies. Forty-Two, Renn, you got the chips?” Both girls nodded, holding up the extra chips belonging to the missing agents. “Good. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do?”
By this time, everyone else was packed in the Hardys’ van, with the exception of Omega. She was still standing on the porch.
“Yes!” everyone shouted from the van as it started backing down the driveway.
“Hey, wait for me!” squealed Omega, racing to the van and scrambling in.
As they headed for Shore Road, Omega took note of the seating arrangements. Frank was driving, Assassin had snagged the front seat, and Dragon, Renn, Forty-Two, and Thursday had abandoned the idea of seats in favor of sprawling in the carpeted back of the van. That left Omega next to Joe on the middle bench seat. Not that she was complaining.
Frank parked the boys’ van on a small side road about a quarter mile from the mansion. Everyone piled out and stealthily made their way to the mansion. Frank, Assassin, Renn, and Forty-Two crept toward the front of the house, keeping to the shadows and peering in windows, looking for any signs of the kidnappers or the missing agents. Joe, Omega, and Dragon headed for the back of the house, casing the place in the same manner as the other group. Assassin’s voice came over the comm units.
“We should probably enter quietly,” she suggested. “We don’t want to alert the kidnappers to our presence here.” The locks at both the front door and back door were quietly picked and seven teenagers silently crept into the old mansion.
Within five minutes after hanging up with Omega, Pixy and Ruka were congratulating themselves on finding a great hiding place. Or, rather, places. Ruka had decided that they should follow the kidnappers as they searched for the escapees, figuring that if they stayed on the move and hid in rooms that had already been searched, there was less of a chance that they would be found. Pixy wasn’t so sure that the idea was a good one, but she shrugged and went along with it.
Unfortunately for them, Pixy and Ruka had not counted on the erratic searching pattern of the two kidnappers. As the Hardys and the unkidnapped agents were entering the house, Pixy and Ruka crept down a hallway on the third floor.
“Maybe we should hide somewhere downstairs,” Pixy suggested a bit nervously.
“Oh, no,” Ruka reassured her nonchalantly. “This is the best way to keep them from finding us.” Just then, one of the doors lining the long hallway swung open and one of the kidnappers stepped out. All three froze for a long second.
Then the man shouted, “Hey, Arthur, I found them!” Another door opened and Arthur stumbled into the hall, tripping over the carpet in his haste to catch the girls. Pixy and Ruka looked at the two men, looked at each other, then turned and fled down the hall, shrieking all the way.
Down in the kitchen, Joe, Omega, and Dragon were caught off guard by the sudden loud, continuous shrieking. All three stared at the ceiling for a few moments, trying to ascertain where the screams were coming from. Moving as one, the three dashed up the back stairs.
At the same time in the front room, Frank, Forty-Two, and Renn were dashing up the stairs in pursuit of Assassin, who had taken off up the front stairs at the first shriek. The agents all recognized Ruka’s shriek and assumed Pixy’s was the other, less noticeable one.
Assassin reached the top of the stairs first, and was nearly run over by Ruka and Pixy. The two men were lumbering far behind them. Frank, Renn, and Forty-Two appeared behind Assassin, just as Assassin spotted Joe, Omega, and Dragon at the other end of the hall, behind the two men.
“Pixy, Ruka, here!” shouted Renn and Forty-Two in unison, tossing the spare chips to the two chipless agents. Pixy caught hers and slipped it in her pocket, while Ruka fumbled hers and dropped it on the floor. Seeing an opening, the man called Arthur dove for the chip.
“I dropped it!” Ruka wailed.
“Well, pick it up!” Omega shrieked back as she grappled with the second man. Chaos reigned in the hallway during the scuffle as Ruka, Renn, Assassin, and Arthur fought for the remaining chip. As Arthur made a grab for it, Forty-Two joined the fray, latching her teeth onto Arthur’s muscular arm.
“I got it!” Ruka crowed triumphantly, holding the prized chip in the air. Right then the agents disappeared, leaving Frank, Joe, and the two smugglers/kidnappers alone in the hallway.
Ruka glanced around, still kneeling and holding up her poker chip. They had been deposited in the lobby of a large hotel. About twenty feet in front of them was the grand entrance, complete with glass doors leading to the night outside and two large staircases on wither side of the entrance. Twenty feet to their left was the front desk. All the girls had frozen in the positions they had been in at the time of the jump, which meant most of them were on the floor on their hands and knees. Dragon was in a karate stance and Omega was sprawled on her back on the floor, arms protectively locked around her head.
Omega slowly untangled her arms from around her head. "Well, that was interesting," she commented. "Who touched the hopper?" Her question was met with quick denials. It seemed the hopper had activated of its own free will this time.
"Um, hi guys," a tentative voice spoke up. "It’s nice to see you all again, but where are we?" All eight agents moved at the sound of the voice, spinning around to see if it was who they hoped it was. A ninth teenage girl was in the otherwise seemingly empty lobby with the agents.
"Kaiki!" the eight agents screamed in unison, tackling the poor girl. The small blond was quickly buried under eight excited girls, thrilled to see their friend for the first time in nearly a year.
"Can’t…breathe…" she managed to sputter after a minute, causing the others to back off. Former Agent 00Kaiki of Oakville, Canada, was immediately bombarded with questions.
"How did you…where did you…how are…chips…Hardy boys …Xander…dimension hopper…" Kaiki shook her head at the confusion.
"Hold it guys, I can’t answer all your questions at once. Let me explain-" Kaiki was interrupted by a new voice.
"Can I help you?" a young woman’s voice called from across the lobby. Behind the front desk, a young woman had appeared, probably from the now open office door behind her. She was tall and slim, with chin-length brown hair which was pulled up at the sides. Omega walked towards her, the other agents trailing after her.
"Actually, Cordelia, I’m not sure if there’s anything you guys can do for us. We probably won’t be here long anyway," Omega said brightly. The young woman tensed at Omega’s casual use of her name. Just then another voice sounded, this time from the stairs.
"Cordelia?" The agents turned to see a tall, dark, handsome man dressed mostly in black standing on the stairs. He appeared to be in his mid-20’s, although some of the agents knew that was not the case. The man descended the stairs and crossed the lobby to stand in front of the desk. Cordelia Chase came around the desk to stand beside him.
"Angel," Ruka whispered gleefully.
"Stay!" Omega growled at her, causing her to shrink back a tad. Omega then turned to face Angel with a smile. "Hi! Sorry for suddenly appearing like this." The agents behind her, save for Kaiki who was still unaware of what was going on, giggled while Angel and Cordy exchanged a glance, not realizing the truth to Omega’s statement.
"And you are…?" Angel let the question hang in the air.
"Oh, we’re the agents from Super Spiffy Agency 918," Omega chattered. "You’re the third dimension we’ve visited today. At least, I think it’s the same day. Didja know we saw Buffy earlier today? Except it was night, so it might not have been the same day there. It was day with the Hardy’s, until it turned night, and now it’s night here-" She was interrupted by a hand suddenly clamped over her mouth. Omega glared at Assassin, who appeared beside her, arm firmly attached to the hand clamped over the blond girl’s mouth.
"Sorry about her," Assassin apologized with a grin. It seemed like she was always making apologies for Omega’s weird behavior. How Omega ever got the job as leader was beyond her. Luckily, Assassin noted, Angel and Cordy appeared amused.
At that point, the meeting was interrupted by the somewhat noisy arrival of two men. One was tall and black, with a shaved head, while the other had brown hair, glasses, and spoke with a noticeably British accent. They came through the front doors, talking loudly about some recent beheading. The talk halted abruptly as they stopped dead in their tracks, stunned by the sight of nine teenage girls before them. Omega’s eyes grew wide.
"Wmphmph vmph vphnnm!" she exclaimed loudly but unintelligibly from behind Assassin’s hand.
"Huh?" Kaiki asked.
"She said, ‘Wesley and Gunn,’" Renn translated.
"Hey man, what’s goin’ on here?" Charles Gunn questioned, removing his bandanna from his bald head.
"Good question," Cordy muttered. The lobby was growing noisy as the agents began chattering excitedly amongst themselves. Omega finally freed herself from Assassin’s grip and turned to Angel again.
"Is there anyplace we can get something to eat?"
Later, over deli sandwiches, the story of the agents and the transdimensional hopper came out, as well as the two dimensions previously visited.
"So Ruka managed to grab her poker chip thingy-" Renn concluded.
"And we landed her," Ruka finished for her, gazing dreamily-obsessively at the hunk of her dreams, otherwise known as Angel. He squirmed a bit uncomfortably under her gaze.
"So, how long will you be here with us?" Wesley asked. He seemed a bit flustered, but then, Omega remembered, Wesley was always flustered by a pretty girl and now he was surrounded by them.
"We don’t know," Dragon offered cheerfully.
"This is only our third dimension on this trip," Renn said thoughtfully. "We haven’t gathered enough data to determine the average stay." She went into expert mode, muttering to her self, "We were in the first dimension about one-and-a-half hours, the second dimension about eight or nine hours…" Omega grinned.
"Well, figuring out how long we’ll be here is all well and good, but what I want to know is how Kaiki got here." Everyone turned to Kaiki expectantly.
"I don’t know," Kaiki stated bluntly. There was silence for a minute before she sighed and elaborated. "I was at school-do you believe they make me go to school up there?-and then I was here. I don’t know what happened." There was silence again as the group contemplated Kaiki’s words. Then Renn spoke.
"Do you have one of these?" Renn asked, pulling out her poker chip thingy.
"Yes!" Kaiki exclaimed, pulling an identical chip out of her pocket. "I found it in my locker. My friends all denied putting it there, and I guess I slipped it into my pocket and forgot about it. What is it, and why do you have one?"
"All of us have them," Thursday explained. "The chips are what allow us to jump."
"Do we still have the hopper?" Pixy asked worriedly.
Thursday pulled the transdimensional hopper out of nowhere and held it up, carefully balanced on her hand. Pixy took it from her and experimentally flicked the switch. Nothing happened.
"May I see that?" Wesley asked, reaching out a hand for the hopper. Pixy handed it over and everyone watched as he also tried flicking the switch. Still nothing happened.
"What’s the switch supposed to do?" Cordy questioned.
"It’s supposed to activate the hopper, but it doesn’t work," Renn explained. "It got broken when someone flung it across the room." The agents all turned to glare at Ruka, who seemed to shrink in her seat and threw her arms over her head.
"I said I was sorry!!" Ruka wailed loudly. As this exchange was going on, Cordy was reaching to take the box from Wesley. The moment her fingers touched it, the agents and the box disappeared.
Suddenly, the agents found themselves standing in a wheat field.
“Awww,” Ruka complained. “I wanted to stay there longer! I like Angel!” Omega rolled her eyes.
“Um, where are we?” Dragon asked worriedly. Before anyone could answer her, Kaiki interrupted.
“Hey, what are they doing?” Kaiki pointed to four men standing about fifty yards away. Two appeared to be filming the other two, a distinguished looking older man, bald on top with a white fringe of hair, and a curly haired man who looked to be around thirty.
“That younger guy looks like that guy from Growing Pains,” Forty-Two remarked, sounding surprised. A moment later, the agents and the men turned at the sound of airplanes, then watched in fascination as hundreds of fighter jets roared across the sky. The two men being filmed spoke for a moment, then started running for a building about a hundred yards away, cameramen close behind, as the jets started dropping bombs.
The agents fell to the ground as the ground started to shake with the impact of the bombs being dropped. Forty-Two suddenly pointed in the air and screamed, “Look!” Dragon was the first to realize what was happening in the sky.
“The jets are self-destructing!” she hollered in astonishment. Omega instantly realized where they were.
“Don’t worry,” she yelled at the terrified agents. “It won’t hurt us.” We better get out of here soon, she thought worriedly. If we stay around much longer, some of us will disappear right out of our clothes. Although Omega knew she was ready, she didn’t want her agents left without the truth.
“Get us out of here!” Ruka shrieked. Thursday grabbed the dimension hopper and experimentally flicked the switch.
Just as suddenly as they had arrived, the girls vanished from the wheat field. They found themselves standing on what appeared to be a tropical beach. “Where were we?” Ruka asked, sounding a bit panicked.
“In Israel,” Omega replied tersely.
“But we were in a wheat field,” Renn said in disbelief. “Israel is a desert. What time period were we in?”
“Sometime in the not too distant future,” Omega replied, looking distracted as she took in their new surroundings. “I’ll explain more later.”
“Where are we now?” Thursday wondered.
“On a beach?” Dragon guessed. Leave it to Dragon to state the obvious, Omega thought wryly. They were definitely on a beach, but not one in southern California. No one else could be seen on the beach, no sign of human habitation. The beach was bordered by a jungle, complete with vines and other assorted tropical plants.
“Hey, what’s that?” Pixy asked, pointing towards the ocean. The other agents shielded their eyes and looked out to where she was pointing. A crudely built raft floated on the water, rocking gently with the waves. A young man stood on the raft, though it wasn’t clear from their vantage point what he was doing.
“Looks like a raft,” Dragon suggested helpfully. Assassin rolled her eyes.
“What do you suppose that guy is doing?” Kaiki wondered. As she spoke, the guy dove into the water. The girls watched and waited for him to resurface. Less than a minute after he disappeared, a huge rainbow erupted from the water. The agents watched in awe, mouths agape.
“Umm, do rainbows usually come from the water?” asked Ruka uncertainly.
“Not usually,” Renn answered absently.
“Ow!” Everyone turned to look at Thursday, who was rubbing the top of her head. Noticing their looks, she explained, “Something hit me.” A moment later, colorful little round pebbles began falling from the sky.
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Ruka shrieked gleefully, running in circles around the group. Renn was already kneeling, examining a few of the pebbles. Omega leaned over her shoulder.
“What are they?” she inquired. Renn sniffed one, then proceeded to pop it into her mouth.
“Skittles,” Renn proclaimed. “It’s raining Skittles.” Assassin snorted.
“We’re in a Skittles commercial?” Assassin grinned. “Cool.” It wasn’t long before the girls had stuffed their faces, hands, and pockets full of the fruity candy. Eventually they all plopped down in the sand.
“Where do you suppose we’ll end up next?” Kaiki asked. Omega stretched out in the sand before groaning, “Who knows.” The crackle of thunder brought the entire group to their feet.
“Great, a tropical storm,” Forty-Two complained. “I hope that stupid hopper thing gets us out of here soon.” No sooner were the words out of her mouth then the agents found themselves outdoors in a clearing amongst huge boulders, dirt under their feet.
“Where are we now?” whined Ruka. Then, looking around and searching her pockets frantically, “What happened to all the Skittles?”
“I dunno, we must have jumped again,” Thursday answered, distracted. “I have a better question: Why are we in black and white?”
The girls looked at each other, their surroundings, and finally themselves. Thursday’s observation had been correct. They were in black and white.
“Uh, guys,” Dragon spoke up. The agents turned to see what she wanted and found themselves staring at two men in front of Dragon.
The taller one was pretty cute, with blond or maybe light brown hair (it was hard to tell) and wearing what appeared to be a 1940’s era bomber jacket and light colored pants. He was conversing quietly with a slightly shorter stockier man. The second man had Chinese features and appeared to be somewhat younger than the first man. He was also dressed 40’s style, in a medium colored button down shirt and light colored pants.
Lieutenant Tom Paris had been playing the latest chapter of his favorite holonovel, Captain Proton, with his best friend Ensign Harry Kim when nine teenage girls had suddenly appeared amongst the boulder fields of Planet X. They were dressed strangely, in clothes that he correctly identified as belonging to the turn of the twenty-first century, jeans and T-shirts, with the exception of one girl with curly brown hair who wore a sweater with her jeans. The girls looked confused and Paris assumed they were from another holodeck program, which meant there was a malfunction in the holodeck controls- again, he inwardly groaned.
“Tom,” Harry said softly, “where did those girls come from?”
“I don’t know,” Tom answered back. “Must be a computer malfunction. We should shut it down and ask B’Elanna to take a look at it. Maybe it’s a problem with…” He trailed off as one of the girls called out to the others and they all turned to face Tom and Harry.
“Computer, end program,” Harry ordered hastily. The boulder field vanished, but the girls remained, now in color. Harry took quick stock of the group before him. Four blondes, three brunettes, two with black hair. Nice mix, he thought to himself. Tom interrupted his thoughts.
“Something’s really wrong,” muttered Tom. “Computer, delete all holograms remaining in holodeck two.”
“There are no holograms remaining in Holodeck two,” came the computer’s always calm female voice. Tom gave up.
“We will definitely have to have to have B’Elanna take a look at the holoemitters,” he said to Harry. He would never have admitted it, but Tom was starting to get a little nervous about the girls who were gazing at him so intently. As he and Harry exited the holodeck, he heard one girl say to the others, “Let’s follow them!” Uh oh, he thought, tapping his combadge.
“Paris to Tuvok, intruder alert, holodeck two!”
Omega heard Tom call for security and got worried. The last thing they needed was to be thrown in the brig. By then, the entire gang had moved into the corridor. Omega stepped in front of the agents and faced the two Starfleet officers.
“Tom, Harry,” she addressed them. “I need to speak to the Captain. And maybe B’Elanna,” she added as an afterthought. Omega had a hunch that B’Elanna might be able to help them. The two officers visibly tensed when she said their names. How did she know who they were? Tom wondered.
Security teams dressed in yellow-topped uniforms appeared at the end of the corridor behind Tom and Harry. Omega could sense her agents tensing up behind her and knew there was a security team at the other end of the corridor too. A tall dark-skinned man with pointy ears appeared behind Tom and Harry, holding a phaser in one hand. Omega did not fail to notice that he kept the phaser pointed at her. She shifted uncomfortably.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Lieutenant Commander Tuvok asked in a neutral voice. Omega smiled to herself as Tom rolled his eyes before answering the Vulcan security chief.
“These girls suddenly appeared while Harry and I were running a Captain Proton holonovel,” Tom said, referring to the black and white 1940’s style adventure program he and Harry had been playing. Omega tugged on her shirt in an unconscious replica of the jokingly nicknamed “Picard Maneuver,” named after the Captain of the USS Enterprise-D, who had a habit of tugging on his waistline every time he moved.
“Tuvok,” she pleaded, “I need to see the Captain. I think you guys can help us get home.” Tuvok lifted one eyebrow in typical Vulcan fashion, but nodded his consent. Five minutes later, the group of nine agents, four security guards armed with phasers, Tuvok, Harry, and Tom were joining the rest of the senior staff in the briefing room off the bridge.
“This is better than getting arrested!” Ruka exclaimed gleefully. Pixy elbowed her in an effort to quiet her. “Hey! That hurt!” A glance from Assassin was enough to quiet her. Omega noted, bemused, that Dragon hadn’t taken her eyes off a certain someone since they met him. They found Captain Kathryn Janeway, Commander Chakotay, Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres, the Doctor, Seven of Nine, and Neelix waiting for them in the conference room. Omega decided diplomacy was in order.
“Captain Janeway,” she said stepping towards the petite woman. “I am Agent 00Omega. I am sorry for our sudden and unexpected arrival. It was somewhat…unexpected for us too.” Ruka, Pixy, and Dragon giggled, but Omega ignored them. Captain Janeway looked a little less perturbed, amused even, and Omega was certain she had seen Chakotay hide a smile. “I can explain what is happening and I think B’Elanna and Seven could be of use.”
After Omega had finished explaining the agents’ predicament, Tom Paris was the first to speak.
“You’re telling us,” he said incredulously, “that we are a television show?” That our missions and adventures are aren’t real, but are staged?”
“We seem to get that reaction a lot,” Pixy muttered in Ruka’s ear. Ruka giggled, causing everyone in the room to look at her.
“Sorry,” she murmured, blushing. Omega and Assassin narrowed their eyes at her, causing her to shrink back a bit.
“All right,” Captain Janeway said, brining the attention in the room back to her. “B’Elanna and Seven, take the transdimensional hopper down to engineering. Run some scans on it and see what you can do to help our friends here.” At the mention of being a friend, Omega beamed, which several of the Voyager crew noted with amusement.
Omega turned to her agents to give them assignments. “Kaiki, Thursday, the two of you will work with Seven and B’Elanna.” Turning to the captain, she added, “Thank you, Captain, for your help.” Captain Janeway smiled, then ended the meeting.
“Dismissed.”
A few hours later, the agents had dispersed. Kaiki and Thursday were in engineering with Seven and B’Elanna, working to fix the hopper. After a quick tour of the ship and being shown their temporary quarters (Captain Janeway had apologized for having only one available unit, but Omega had assured her that they probably wouldn’t be around long enough to use the it), Assassin, Forty-Two, Pixy, Dragon, Ruka and Renn had gone to the holodeck with Naomi Wildman, who was excited about having a group of girls closer to her age onboard. Omega dreaded the results of that trip; the girls had promised to try to show Naomi some of their favorite animes.
Omega had retreated to the messhall, where she now held court with Neelix and Harry, talking about the Super Spiffy Agency and agents over cups of hot chocolate.
“Teenagers?” Harry asked. “You’re all teenagers?”
“Yup,” Omega said proudly. “I’m the oldest at 19, Dragon is the youngest at 14. The others cover most of the years in-between.”
“Wow,” Neelix said. “You know, Tom is quite interested in the 20th century. From what he’s told me, I wouldn’t think the government of your time would allow teens to work for them.”
“Well,” Omega replied, “our commander hand picked each of us while we were in elementary school.” Harry started to interrupt, but Omega held up a hand. “Hold on, let me explain-“ She was interrupted by the swish of the doors, then a voice calling, “Omega!”
Omega turned her head to see her computer expert half dragging her technician into the room. Kaiki looked kind of dazed, her eyes glazed over and a huge grin on her face. Thursday finished dragging her over to their leader, then positioned Kaiki so that she collapsed into a chair. Omega, Neelix, and Harry stared at Kaiki, wondering what was wrong with her.
“B’Elanna tactfully suggested we take a break after Kaiki here nearly caused some kind of overload,” Thursday explained with a frown. At the mention of B’Elanna, Kaiki snapped out of her trance.
“Isn’t she great?” asked Kaiki excitedly. All heads whirled towards her. Omega asked, “Who?”
“B’Elanna. She’s wonderful.” Omega rolled her eyes.
“Oh geez.” Changing the subject, Omega asked Thursday, “Did you make any progress?”
“Well, Kaiki wasn’t any help. She kept staring at B’Elanna and Seven, then started running around engineering, pressing buttons and just generally wrecking havoc. B’Elanna said she had some ideas though.” Thursday frowned again, adding, “We can’t seem to get it open to look and the insides, and Seven called it a primitive machine.”
“Don’t mind Seven,” Harry told her dryly. “She doesn’t really understand tact.”
“She’s kinda like Cordelia,” Omega said knowingly, referring to the character from one of her favorite TV shows. “’Tact is just not saying true stuff. I’ll pass.’ Episode 2.18, Killed By Death. I loved that episode.” Neelix, Harry, Thursday, and even Kaiki stared at Omega, who was now staring out into space with a weirdly happy look on her face. Neelix stood slowly, then headed for the galley.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Neelix said, “but it’s lunch time. Maybe you,” he gestured towards Omega, who was now listening to him, “would like get the rest of your group and join us?” Omega positively beamed at that suggestion.
“Oh, definitely!” Omega trotted off to find the other six agents.
An hour later, the agents were finishing up an interesting lunch of deviled throk, feragoit goulasah, and leola root soup, washed down with glasses of hot pejuta with lemon slices.
“Wow, that was really good, Neelix,” Forty-Two complimented him. If Forty-Two had enjoyed the meal, then it must have been good, considering she was one of the pickiest eaters.
“We had better get back to work,” Omega said reluctantly. “Thursday and Renn, come with me to engineering. The rest of you-“ she fixed them with a stern look- “stay out of trouble!” With that, she turned and practically skipped out of the mess hall, followed by Thursday and Renn.
Down in engineering, B’Elanna had managed to open the transdimensional hopper. She and Seven peered at the mess of wires and circuitry inside, trying to make sense of it. The swish of the doors and the sound of cheerful chatter announced the arrival of a few of the teenagers they were helping. B’Elanna looked disdainfully at the girls, one of whom had worked with earlier, and the other two of whom she recognized from the earlier encounter in the briefing room.
“Hi!” the blond leader greeted cheerfully. “Any progress?”
“Not really,” the half-Klingon engineer grunted. She glanced up from the hopper. “We got it open, but the circuits in here-“
“I have identified the problem,” Seven interjected emotionlessly. She pointed to a cracked circuit board she had removed while they had been talking. Several wires had come loose, and one seemed to be snapped in half. Ruka had sure caused a lot of damage when she sent the hopper flying.
Omega’s eyes lit up as she got an idea. “Ooh, I wonder what would happen if...” She trailed off as she grabbed the ends of the wire that had snapped, then touched them together. With a bright flash of light, the three agents in engineering disappeared.
Omega felt disoriented after the jump from Voyager. This jump had been different than the others, starting with the bright light. Omega worried about what that meant, then realized she didn’t know who all had jumped. She turned to find all eight of her agents behind her, shaking their heads as if to clear the daze and disorientation caused by the jump.
“Wha-what happened?” Ruka managed to stammer in confusion.
“Well, we obviously jumped again,” Forty-Two said, a note of hesitation evident in her voice. Thursday, who had been searching for something, suddenly looked up, panicked.
“The hopper,” she moaned. “We lost the hopper.” The agents looked at each other worriedly. Without the hopper, they had no chance of getting home. However, there was nothing they could do about it. Pixy changed the subject.
“And now we are…where?”
“I dunno,” Thursday replied. “What fictional place do you suppose we’re in now? Does anyone recognize this place, or anyone in it?” The agents fanned out to explore their newest environment. They seemed to be on a good-sized junior high school campus, behind what must have been the gym. Pre-teens, both boys and girls, stood around, talking in small groups. As the agents looked around, they peered at the kids’ faces, hoping to see someone they recognized. Suddenly a shout came.
“Hey, over here!” came Kaiki’s voice. The other agents trotted over to find her squatting next to a young girl who was sitting on the grass, reading a book. The girl had short curly almost black hair and glasses and was wearing the same PE uniform as all the other pre-teens. All nine of the agents squatted around her, peering unnoticed into her face.
“It’s Renn!” Ruka exclaimed. Renn peered dubiously at her much younger double.
“I dunno,” she said skeptically. “She doesn’t look much like me.” They other agents stared at her incredulously, since the girl before them was quite obviously a younger Renn. Before anyone could respond, they were startled by footsteps from behind, followed by a cheerful, “Hi!”
Fearing they had been seen, the agents whirled to face the newcomer, with most of them landing on their rear ends, since it is difficult to whirl from a squatting position. The newcomer, though, was completely focused on the younger Renn. The new girl was also young, with shoulder-length curly blond hair and tinted glasses. She was skinny and kinda short, clad in the same PE uniform as everyone else. The agents stared at the small blond, immediately recognizing her as a much younger Forty-Two.
Forty-Two’s younger double walked over and plopped down next to Renn’s younger double, who regarded the new arrival warily.
“Do you know anyone here?” the blond asked cheerfully.
“Umm…well…not really. I kinda know a few people,” Renn’s double stammered.
“Me neither,” Forty-Two’s counterpart said. “Hey, whatcha readin’?” The agents moved away as the two girls began talking about the author of the book Renn’s counterpart had been reading.
“Wow,” Forty-Two said gleefully, “looks like Renn and I are friends in this dimension too.” She punctuated this revelation by tackling Renn in a hug that left both girls sprawled on the ground.
Omega closed her eyes and lowered her head, shaking her head in amusement. Those two are so funny…, she thought. When she opened her eyes, they were in yet another scene.
A man in a black suit and funny Disney tie was tuning a group of about 25 young musicians in maroon shirts and black pants or skirts. As the agents gazed at the sight before them, he gestured to a group standing in the back of the room. Suddenly Dragon gasped.
“Omega! That’s me and you!” Indeed it was. Both girls were dressed in white shirts, Omega pairing hers with black dress pants and boots, Dragon in a long black skirt and sandals. They were each holding a trumpet.
Omega scratched her head, confused. “These don’t seem to be alternate dimensions,” she said.
“I’d be willing to bet we are hopping the timeline of an alternate reality,” Renn suggested. Gazing around, she added, “We also appear to be invisible.”
“I concur,” Thursday said in a very official tone of voice. Omega squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose as the other girls, Thursday included, giggled. She opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Thursday, who had turned her attention back to the musicians and the counterparts of Omega and Dragon.
“What are you guys doing?” Thursday asked.
“Beats me,” Omega replied, puzzled. “I don’t play trumpet.” Just then, the black-suited man spoke.
“Megan,” he said, indicating Omega’s counterpart, “give me a concert B flat.” Omega’s counterpart lifted the instrument to her lips and played a long steady tone. The man nodded his approval. “Stacy, match that.” Dragon’s counterpart added her sound to the mix and was soon joined by a third girl on trumpet, addressed as Betsy, and two boys on trombone, called Alvin and John by the black-suited man.
A moment later, the bright light now associated with jumps filled the room, and sure enough, the agents soon disappeared from the room, leaving behind the musicians, the black-suited man, and Omega and Dragon counterparts.
This time, the agents found themselves in a nice hotel room. Sitting on the floor on either side of a low coffee table were doubles of Omega and Forty-Two. They were quite engrossed in some kind of card game.
“Negative six,” Omega’s counterpart announced gleefully.
“Twelve,” Forty-Two’s counterpart groaned. “You win.”
“Looks like you guys might be sisters,” Kaiki observed. Omega and Forty-Two looked at each other skeptically.
“Us?” they questioned in unison. “No way.” The other agents giggled at the two, then turned back to the counterparts.
As the agents observed the interaction between the counterparts of Forty-Two and Omega, a boy approached the two girls.
“Hey guys, whatcha up to?” he asked them.
Ruka nudged Omega. “Hey,” she whispered, “isn’t that-“
“Omicron,” Omega said tightly. It appeared her meddlesome little brother was her meddlesome little brother in this universe as well. Tall but skinny, with dirty blond hair, Omicron’s counterpart looked every bit the awkward teen he was back home in Ventura.
Omicron’s counterpart walked up behind Omega’s counterpart and tugged on her hair. She put down her cards and turned to face him, an evil smirk on her face.
“I‘ve warned you before,” she reminded him. “Now I’m gonna have to hurt you.” She slowly stood as he backed away, hands held in front of him as though trying to ward her off. In a second, she had her arm around his neck, trying to wrestle him to the ground. Despite the violent look of the act, both siblings had smiles on their faces and were laughing.
“Mom!” the boy hollered, laughter in his voice. “Megan’s trying to kill me!”
“Am not!” Megan/Omega hollered back.
“Weird,” Assassin commented as they watched Megan/Omega wrestle her brother to the floor, then sit on him, thus effectively immobilizing him. “You and her have almost the same names.”
“Coincidence,” Omega said brushing it off.
In a flash, the agents found themselves in yet another place.
“Where are we now?” Forty-Two asked with a slight whine in her voice.
“A school?” Renn guessed. They were standing next to a green picnic table and a large tan metal box with an open door. Inside the box were games, art supplies, and playground toys.
“Whose counterpart are we visiting now?” Dragon wondered. Their attention was turned to the table at the sound of a child’s voice.
“Megan,” a small Chinese girl whined. “Megan. Megan. Megan. Megan. Meg-“ A double of Omega came into view.
“Keep it up, Michelle,” Megan/Omega warned with a slight grin, “and I’m gonna change my name again.” The girl grinned back, leaving the agents puzzled as to what kind of game was being played. A shout brought the agents attention back behind them.
“Hey, Megan!” a boy shouted. He was dark haired, dressed like a typical elementary school boy, and holding a red bounce ball in his hands. He threw Megan/Omega a mischievous grin, then dropped the ball. “You’re it!” he hollered, sprinting for the playground. All the other children sprinted for the playground as well, about 6 or 7 in all. Megan/Omega smiled, picked up the ball, then headed for the playground as well. The agents followed at a distance, discussing amongst themselves. Omega was the first to speak up.
“Probably somewhere between third and sixth grade,” she commented, observing the kids with a practiced eye. “Am I a day care provider?” she wondered.
“I dunno, but it sure looks like you’re having fun,” Pixy commented, watching as Megan/Omega ran around, leaping, jumping, and otherwise cavorting with the kids as they played a rousing game of…well, the agents weren’t quite sure what the where playing. Another flash of light, and the agents were in a new and different place.
This time the agents were squished into a small dorm room. Two beds were in the room, and doubles of both Renn and Forty-Two were sitting on one of the beds, arguing.
“Is not!” Forty-Two’s double, Rachel, exclaimed.
“Is too!” Renn’s double, Layah, exclaimed back.
“Is not is not is not!”
“Is too is too is too!”
“Not not not not not!”
“Too too too too too too!”
“Is not to infinity!”
“Is too to infinity times infinity!”
“Is not times infinity to the infinity power!” Rachel/Forty-Two exclaimed smugly.
An evilly satisfied look came over Layah’s/Renn’s face as she responded, “Is too infinity factorial.” A shocked look crossed Rachel/Forty-Two’s face.
“Hey, no fair!”
Layah/Renn continued to look smug as she explained, “That’s what you get for arguing with a math major.” The agents looked at each, less than surprised.
“I guess Renn is just as talented at math in this dimension too,” Thursday commented. The argument between the doubles continued.
“Is not as not approaches infinity at an infinite rate,” Rachel/Forty-Two attempted. Layah/Renn just looked at her oddly.
“My infinity is bigger than your infinity,” she said with a huge grin.
“You can’t have bigger infinity, it’s just infinity!” Rachel/Forty-Two argued.
“Sure you can,” Layah/Renn told her, looking slightly perturbed, but with a glint in her eye. “If my ‘k’ is approaching infinity at a faster rate than yours, my ‘k’ is bigger at infinity.” Assassin noted worriedly that eye swirlies of confusion were starting to appear in the eyes of several agents, including Omega. Rachel/Forty-Two seemed unfazed by this explanation.
“Well,” she started confidently, “pppppttttthhhhhbbbttttt!” The razz made both girls burst into laughter, as the agents looked confusedly at each other.
“I wonder what that was all about,” Dragon pondered. Forty-Two grabbed Renn around the waist gleefully.
“Look, we’re still friends after all this time!” she exclaimed joyfully. “Isn’t that great?” Before Renn could answer, a bright light signaled another jump.
Meanwhile, back on Voyager, an hour had passed since the sudden disappearance of the nine 20th century teenage secret agents. B’Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine were still hard at work on the transdimensional hopper. When the three girls who had been working in engineering with them had disappeared, B’Elanna had immediately notified the Captain. The Captain seemed dismayed at the disappearances, but had instructed B’Elanna and Seven to continue working on the hopper.
“I believe we are almost finished,” Seven intoned in her almost monotone voice.
”Yep,” B’Elanna agreed. “It should just be a matter of attaching this wire here and-“ She froze, surprised as the hopper suddenly vanished. Seven lifted one eyebrow, almost Vulcan-like and clasped her hands behind her back as B’Elanna sighed in deafeat and tapped her commbadge.
“Torres to the Captain.”
Captain Janeway was on the bridge when Torres called. She tapped her own badge to answer. “Yes, B’Elanna. How is your work with the transdimensional hopper going?”
Down in engineering, B’Elanna rubbed her forehead ridges and sigfhed. “It was going fine, Captain, until we ran into a problem.”
Captain Janeway exchanged a glance with Commander Chakotay before replying. “A problem?”
“The hopper vanished.”
Janeway dropped her head and sighed, putting a hand to her head. “Well…continue with whatever you had been working on before our visitors arrived. Janeway out.” She glanced over at Chakotay again. “I wonder if they made it home.”
Once again, the agents were disoriented by the jump. When the fog cleared, they looked around, taking in their new surroundings.
“Whoa! We’re back home!” someone exclaimed. Sure enough, they were back in Omega’s living room. Pixy and Ruka were lying bound and gagged on the floor. As they had been a few minutes prior to the arrival of the transdimensional hopper.
“The dimension hopper!” Dragon and Assassin exclaimed in unison. They bolted out the door, presumably to search for the soon-to-be thrower of the hopper. Renn and Forty-Two knelt to free Pixy and Ruka from their bindings.
Someone cleared her throat, then a voice asked, “Hey, guys?” The girls still in the room turned to see Kaiki standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Omega’s eyes grew wide.
“Kaiki!” she exclaimed, surprise evident in her voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Kaiki answered, sounding troubled. Before Omega could ask what was wrong, Kaiki wailed, “My parents are gonna kill me! I’m supposed to be at home, having dinner, how am I supposed to explain to my family my disappearing from the dinner table?”
“We’ll figure out something,” Thursday answered cheerfully. “We’ll tell them…well, not the truth, but something.” Ruka stood, rubbing her wrists.
“Ya know, I really think I could go without being tied up again,” she commented. Pixy was about to add her own two cents when the front door burst open. Dragon and Assassin entered, dragging a third person between them. Omega scowled as she recognized the person between the two agents. Assassin and Dragon pushed him forward, allowing everyone to get a good look at him.
The teenage boy standing before them was tall, with dirty-blond hair in desperate need of a trim. He was clad in jeans and a torn T-shirt, topped with a long black cape and a black fedora with a blue feather stuck in the band. Omega stalked forward and grabbed him in a chokehold.
“Omicron! What do you think you are doing?!” Omega demanded. Omicron was flailing about under her grip and managed to squeak out, “Can’t…breathe…” Omega released her grip on her little brother, who fell to the floor and started gasping in large breaths. Omega nudged him with her foot. “Well?”
Omicron regained his breath and stood, not too happy about facing his older sister’s wrath. “Well…I…” he stammered. A look from his sister shocked him into spilling his reasons. “I wanted to have some fun, and I thought you needed to have some fun, and I…wanted…to…bug…you…” He trailed off, dreading his sister’s reaction to his confession. In the meantime, Assassin and Dragon had searched Omicron, coming up with the transdimensional hopper and a small box.
Curiosity got the best of Dragon and she gingerly shook the box. She started to pull the top off, but was startled by shrieks from Omicron and Omega.
“Don’t open that!” they shrieked in unison, causing Dragon to drop the box, which opened, spilling its contents onto the floor. Unfortunately, the contents of the box happened to be a dozen tiny men, each no more than an inch high, who began running willy nilly in every direction. Assassin picked one up between her thumb and forefinger. His tiny mouth appeared to be moving, but he could not be heard until he was at eye level with the agents.
“You can’t stop us!” he screamed, his heavily accented voice barely understandable. “We are mercenaries from Peru and…” His voice became unintelligible again as Assassin put him down. Omega shook her head, disgusted.
“You and your stupid midget Peruvian mercenaries,” she muttered to her brother. She closed her eyes for a moment, then told Omicron, “Gather up your midget Peruvian mercenaries and go.” Omicron could scarcely believe his ears.
“You mean you’re not going to kill me?” he asked, not believing that his sister would let him off so easy.
“Not this time,” she responded, “but make sure you get all of them back. I don’t want them multiplying and infesting the building.” Omicron began scurrying around, trying to gather up the mercenaries, but paused for a moment, looking at Omega.
”What about the hopper?” He asked sweetly, giving her his best sweet-and-innocent-little-brother smile.
“Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “There’s no way you’re getting that back. It’s against government regulations.” Omega paused as Omicron began rounding up the mercenaries again. “By the way,” she added, “where did you get that thing, anyway?”
He paused and looked at her again, this time displaying a proud grin. “Ebay. Where else?”
After Omicron had left, taking the midget Peruvian mercenaries with him, the nine agents sprawled on the couches and floor of Omega’s living room. All were silent, deep in their own thoughts. Eventually most of them dragged themselves to their own apartments, Kaiki with Ruka, exhausted from all the traveling they had done. Soon only Assassin and Omega were left. Assassin gave a deep sigh.
“Now what?” she asked, turning to Omega. Omega didn’t move, except for the slow smile spreading across her face. She suddenly leaped to her feet, eyeing the hopper, which had been left on her kitchen table.
“I’ve got an idea,” she said with a grin. “I wonder how our new friends are doing?” Assassin stared at her friend for a moment, then grinned when she realized what Omega meant.
“Let’s do it!” she cheered gleefully.
There was silence in the Magic Box for a brief moment after the eight agents disappeared. Buffy was the first to regain her voice.
“Xander!” she exclaimed.
“Hey, I was just trying to help,” he defended himself, holding his hands up in front of him. Anya, still locked onto Xander’s left arm, snuggled closer to him before indignantly adding her two cents.
“Well, I’m glad they’re gone. I didn’t like the little blond one.” Pouting, she continued, “All curly and pink…”
“I wish I could have gotten a chance to study that transdimensional hopper.” Willow sounded disappointed. “I could have learned a lot from it.” The group fell silent again, then Giles removed his glasses and began cleaning them with a handkerchief from his pocket.
“Well, that was certainly interesting,” Giles said thoughtfully. Placing his glasses back on his nose, he continued, “You have to wonder how truthful they were being with us though.”
“Yeah, I mean, a TV show?” Xander scoffed. “C’mon, who would watch a show about us?”
“It’s not like our lives are so interesting and unusual,” Buffy agreed. The rest of the group stared at her. Shrugging in response to their stares, Buffy protested, “Hey, I like living in denial here!”
On the other side of the country, two teenage boys sat somewhat collapsed on the couch in their living room. The younger blond one was the first to speak.
“What a day,” Joe Hardy groaned. “Meet beautiful girls, get in an adventure with said girls, then girls disappear. Literally.”
“You’re forgetting that we caught our smugglers too. Joe’s older brother, Frank, looked equally exhausted. Frank ran a hand through his dark brown hair.
“Are they going to be charged with kidnapping those two girls?” Joe asked.
“Nope,” Frank responded. “As far as the police are concerned, it didn’t happen.” Joe started to protest, but Frank held up a hand and continued. “No victims, remember? They disappeared with the others.”
“Oh yeah.” Joe sounded glum. “I sure did like their leader though. Omega. She was my kind of chick.” As he said her name, Joe got a dreamy far-away look in his eyes. Frank laughed.
“You always have preferred blondes, haven’t you, little brother. She was too abstract for me though. Now, if you were talking about Assassin…” This time, Joe had to laugh.
“Hey, you have a girl, remember?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Assassin,” Joe mused. “I wonder if she really assassinates people.” The boys sat in silence for a moment. A bright light suddenly filled the room, then disappeared in a flash, leaving behind two teenage girls.
“Omega! Assassin!” Joe exclaimed, startled. Both he and Frank rose to their feet and approached the agents. “What are you doing here?” The two girls looked at each other and giggled.
“Well, we got the hopper fixed-“ Omega started, gesturing with the device in her hands.
“And we decided we should come and thank you,” Assassin finished with a grin.
“Thank us? For what?” Joe asked, bewildered.
“Helping us rescue our agents. Being so accommodating while we were here.” Omega smiled shyly at Joe. She then glanced at Assassin, who grinned again and gave a slight nod.
In perfect synchrony, each girl threw her arms around a boy, Omega with Joe, Assassin with Frank. The Hardys seemed in shock as they each received a kiss on the cheek, a squeeze around the neck, then were released.
“Thanks again!” the agents chorused before Omega flicked the switch on the hopper. She looked wistfully at Joe, who looked wistfully back at her. It was obvious both wished that they could have more time together. The bright light filled the room again, then vanished with a flash, along with the two agents.
Frank and Joe stood rooted to the carpet for nearly a minute before recovering enough from the shock to retreat back to the couch. They collapsed onto the couch again, several minutes passing before either boy spoke again.
Joe shook his head in disbelief. “This has been one weird day.”
Back in LA, Cordy broke the silence following the agents’ disappearance.
“I didn’t do it!” she exclaimed, holding up her hands. No one responded to her, so she put her hands down, leaning back in her chair. Wesley was the next to find his voice.
“Well, that was certainly…interesting,” he tried. Angel and Gunn still seemed too stunned by the weird occurrence to say anything.
“Did that really happen?” Cordy asked. Everyone turned to look at her. “Maybe it was a hallucination,” she continued, basking under everyone’s looks and attention. “It could be that we all hallucinated the whole thing and they were never really here.”
“Highly unlikely,” Wesley said dismissively. “Mass hallucinations are quite rare, usually only taking place when the victims are under the effects of psycho-somatic drugs.”
“Unh, whatever,” Cordy sighed, standing. “Let’s get back to work. I’m sure we’ll be able to find some evil to fight.” At that, the entire group stood and parted, heading for their various workspaces within the huge hotel.
And back in Ventura, the Super Spiffy agents of Super Spiffy Agency 918 continued doing what it is that Super Spiffy agents do, which of course is classified, just like all interesting stuff that goes on in the government.