Episode #1: Back in Business!
Or, How I Spent My Weekend Doing Superhero Stuff
It was a bright and sunny day. And somewhere beneath that bright and sunny sky was a small patch of town nestled quietly in Pennsylvania somewhere, a town affectionately called Moadville by its residents. Well, at least the author called it Moadville, and that’s good enough to suffice. Anyway, in a small upper corner of Moadville, there was a college, and moving among the sprawled campus buildings was a red minivan, packed to the brim with clothing, CDs, small appliances, and other sundry items necessary for the survival of the typical college student. This van navigated to the back of Bricks Complex, where the side door of the van slid open and a certain girl jumped out.
"Okay," Jen said, looking at the piece of paper in her hand, "I should enter through this door." She propped said door open, leading her parents, who were struggling with loaded boxes. Halfway to her new room, however, she noticed someone standing in the hall, watching her, a huge grin on her face.
"BETH!!!!!" Jen exclaimed. Well, exclaiming is a bit of an understatement. "We’re going to be roommates this year! This is so cool!"
"Um, Jen," Beth said in a rare reversal of roles, "we arranged that last year, remember?"
"Oh, yeah . . ."
Anyway, after much confusion and unpacking, Jen shooed her parents from her new room, half of which was decorated with bright pastels and cheery colors, the other half of which was decorated in chartreuse and black. "Now, then," she muttered, "I have to contact the others and check in with the Dungeon as soon as possible—"
"What was that you were muttering nonsensically under your breath over there?" Beth asked.
"Uh, nothing, nothing at all." Jen sighed in relief. "I have to get used to having to conceal my true identity from a roommate who’s actually in the room."
"What?"
"Nothing."
* * *
Josh, meanwhile, had similarly initiated unpacking procedures, and was in a rather good mood. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he had arrived somewhere without a sense of relief at being alive. Because, for the first time in what seemed like forever, he actually had a new and decent car. It was shiny, dark teal, and what was more, it didn’t make funny noises! Pausing on his way to pick up more boxes, he admired the car as it sat quietly in the parking lot behind Catfish dorm, not threatening to blow up at any second. It was wonderful.
He picked up his new computer and lugged it into his new single in the basement of Catfish. It was much larger than other singles in the upper floors, and didn’t require him to crawl over his bed to get to the far side of the room. In fact, he thought as he observed its dimensions, there would probably even be enough room for a couch.
Within ten minutes of bringing his boxes to his room, the computer was up and humming, its speakers were attached, the stereo was up, and, more importantly, the coffee machine was running. Soon, the invigorating smell of coffee had suffused the room, and he was logged onto the Crime Computer, and had listings of all of his fellow Argonauts’ phone extensions and room numbers. Looks like it was back to business as usual.
* * *
Charlie, meanwhile, was moving into his own room on the other side of Catfish. Of course, he already knew what it would look like before he officially arrived: the previous night, as Flip, he had infiltrated the room and inspected it for any traps or intruders waiting for him. But now it was cleared, and he, too, was setting up his computer. Posters were already hung from the wall, depicting various anime characters, most notably from Evangelion and Rurouni Kenshin. On the bookshelf was his rapidly re-growing collection of Preacher and Batman comics, his former collection having been destroyed at the end of last season. He would have to contact the others, he knew that. Palmer was destroyed, so that meant that the Dungeon could probably be entered safely again. But just to be on the safe side (and, for that matter, just to be intelligent, because neither he nor Brian were in Schwartz this year), it would probably be better to move the entrance to another location. That would be the first item on their agendas.
Finishing his non-descript e-mail to the others, carefully avoiding any reference to their alternate identities, he hit the send key, sat back, and waited.
* * *
Keibert, having never left in the first place, was asleep in his bed.
* * *
Two hours later, Josh, accompanied by the tall form of Andy (an acquaintance of the Argonauts from last year, and making his first appearance in this story), were helping to bunk the beds in Jen’s room while she and Beth directed them. Soon, Charlie had also
arrived, and at this point, they stopped and stared at each other.
"Um, where’s Brian?" Jen asked.
"Yeah, classes start tomorrow," Charlie said. "If he’s not here, that would be a bad thing."
"Especially since he’s our leader—" Josh began.
"Civilians, civilians!" Jen hissed under her breath, nudging Josh in the ribs.
"—of ARPA, that is," Josh corrected. "Remember, last semester he was elected president of the role-playing group ARPA."
"Yeah!" Jen said.
"Do you guys know where he’s staying this year?" Andy asked.
"Not a clue," Charlie replied.
Jen frowned. "This sucks. If he doesn’t show up, it will be a really bad start for a new season."
"Well, Jen, I don’t know what to tell you about that," Andy said. "But—don’t you mean ‘semester’, and not ‘season’?"
"Um….yeah, Andy. That’s what I meant."
* * *
Josh headed back to his room. However, halfway through navigating the bowels of the Catfish basement, he slowed. There was someone—no, two someones—near his bedroom. Peering around the tight corner, his eyes narrowed. His bedroom door was slightly ajar. This was not good. Especially since he was unarmed.
Carefully, praying under his breath to the nearest handy deity, he pushed open his door the rest of the way, to find—
Keibert sitting on his chair. He was wearing his usual black t-shirt with a picture from some role-playing game or other, and his scruffy jeans. Josh blinked, wondering with what speed the townie had sensed the presence of his fellow Argonauts and tracked him down. But, what was more, Keibert was—was—shaven! And his thick, dark hair had grown down long enough to be pulled into a very small and curly inch-long ponytail.
"Hey, Josh!" Keibert said cheerily.
"That was quick," Josh replied. Then he noticed the other occupant of the room. Another member of ARPA from last year, not quite as tall as Andy but gangly and long-limbed, with slightly reddish, wavy hair, and a similar black RPG t-shirt, Mike Hatch stood next to Keibert, leaning slightly against the desk. Like most Mikes in the local geek community, he was known by his last name, Hatch.
"’ello, Josh," Hatch said. "How was your summer?"
"How did you get in here?" Josh asked, the question burning in his mind.
Keibert smiled mysteriously.
"Keibert…" Josh warned.
"I climbed in through the window," he said. When Josh stared, he added, "It’s not that hard. I did it all the time last year in your old room."
Josh face-faulted.
"Ah, well, that would explain the constant drafts around the edge of my window," he said after picking himself up off the floor, and hoping that Hatch wouldn’t ask exactly why Keibert would find the need to climb into Josh’s room. Hatch, as a fellow townie and ARPA member, knew a lot about Keibert, but Josh hoped that he hadn’t gone so far as to guess at their alternate identities as crime-fighters. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at his closet.
From where he stood, Hatch just smiled.
* * *
The next day, Jen was in her first class, computer science algorithms. Dr. Mugger, rambling on congenially in his Maine accent, was doing the roll call.
"Brian Hykes."
There was silence. Jen looked around, and watched the door, hoping that her puffy-jacket-clad fellow sophomore would come rushing in at any second.
"Brian Hykes?"
The door didn’t move. Jen stared at it for a moment longer, then sighed, her pencil tracing doodles listlessly in her notebook. Dr. Mugger continued his roll call.
After the class was over, Jen practically rushed out of the classroom and back to her room. On the way, she ran into Josh on the sidewalk. "He’s not in class!" she explained breathlessly, and led Josh back to her room, where she pulled out last year’s student directory and dialed up Brian’s home phone number near Pittsburgh.
"Is Brian there?"
"Yes, please hold." There was a long pause. Then, a familiar voice sounded distantly at the other end. "Hello?"
"BrianwheretheheckareyouclassesstartedtodayandIwaswonderingwhereyouwereandwhenareyoucomingup!"
There was an audible blink at the other end of the line.
"Um, according to the letter I got from the school, classes don’t start until next Monday. . ."
"No, they started today!" Jen exclaimed. "Your letter must’ve had a misprint or something."
"Oh really! Shoot. Well, I’ll try to be up there tonight." The phone clicked as he hung up.
"Well?" Josh asked.
"He’ll try to be up tonight," Jen relayed. "Apparently he was informed classes started Monday."
"Odd," Josh said. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Very odd. By the way, Jen, why don’t you come back to my room? There’s a problem with my computer, and I thought I could use your input."
"But it was working fine yesterday—"
"The big computer."
"Oh, that computer. Sure." After they left, shutting the door behind them, Beth blinked, then grinned.
"I’m in a room."
* * *
Back at Josh’s room, Charlie and Keibert were already there, waiting. When Josh and Jen arrived, the former turned and locked the door, pulling the blinds down and otherwise making sure they couldn’t be overheard.
"I’ve already checked the room," Charlie said. "It isn’t bugged. We’re safe."
"There is the matter, though, about changing access to the Dungeon. Isn’t it still in the Schwartz closet?"
"Actually," Josh said, "that’s already being taken care of." He walked over to his own closet, opening it up to reveal what appeared to be vacuum tubes. "Get in."
The other Argonauts blinked, and, one by one, stepped into the tubes, before a blast of air whipped them down into the depths of darkness, eventually dropping them onto a little platform.
"This is—this is the Dungeon!" Charlie said.
"Yup." Josh, brushing the dust off his shirt, led them towards the main doors of the Dungeon. "The previous entrance has been deactivated, and the new entrance is now accessible through my closet."
The doors slid open to reveal—Brian sitting casually in one of the chairs. He looked up at everyone’s faces. "Oh, come on," he said. "This really shouldn’t be that much of a surprise anymore."
"Point," Keibert said.
"Pull up a chair," Brian continued. "ARGO Headquarters has been hailing us for a few minutes."
Josh pushed the button to open up the communications line, and the screen blossomed into an inky square. There was a moment while the image cleared, and became the silhouetted figure of their Commissioner.
But…something was not right. It was not the familiarly rotund, cowboy-hatted form of Bill. The shadow was thinner, with a narrower face, curly hair and what appeared to be a goatee. There was a moment of silence as the Argonauts tried to absorb this information. It was broken suddenly when this figure cleared his throat and cut right to the punch.
"Good morning, Argonauts," the voice said. "In order to catch you up with what’s happened over the summer—"
"Wait a minute, where’s Bill?" Keibert demanded.
"Oh, well—" The new commissioner looked slightly disconcerted, then regained his composure. "He had to leave the organization for—personal reasons. I will be forwarding your assignments and instructing you from now on."
There was a moment while this sank in to the gathered superheroes’ minds. Then, Keibert broke in, "Hey, what do you mean by ‘instructing’ us—"
"The first item of importance is that you will be receiving an intern as a junior member of your group—"
"NANI?!?"
The Commissioner waited for the expected responses to this. He waited patiently, tapping his fingers as the Argonauts shot out questions and chatted among themselves. He would respond when they quieted down. He waited . . . and waited . . . and when no end to the chatting was in sight, he sighed. "A-HEM," he said rather loudly. "A-HEM!"
They turned and looked at him.
"You will be meeting this new intern at the bench at the bus station at the corner of North Main and Sixth Street, this afternoon at 1 o’clock. You will use the general use password. Any questions? Yes, Brian?"
"Why is my toaster broken?"
"That is covered in Article IV, Section 17, paragraph 5 of your handbook."
Brian blinked. "Wow, he’s good."
Not skipping a beat, the Commissioner continued, "There have also been some interesting fluctuations in the Crime Computer’s villainy-sensors. As there have been numerous attempts to claim Palmer’s position as chief villain of Moadville, you must be vigilant."
"Who have been the main candidates?" Josh asked.
"Let’s see… there’s the Dark Avenger, Mr. Evil, Cyberlord, Deathbringer Bloodblade Darkshadow—"
"What kind of cheesy supervillain name is Deathbringer Bloodblade Darkshadow?!" Brian exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Actually," the Commissioner said, "that’s the name he was born with."
There was a pause. Then, "That’s . . . really sad," Brian said, shaking his head.
"And one more; according to the engraved calling cards he leaves, he goes by the name of ‘The Baron AlVair’."
"Hmmm . . . we’ll have to get right on it, then," Josh said. "Thank you."
"Oh, by the way," Charlie said, "we always referred to our last Commissioner as Bill. What should we call you?"
The Commissioner thought for a moment. "They call me," he said after a significant pause, "Rurouni Kenneth."
"Um…who’s ‘they’?"
There was an even longer pause. "Myself," he finally finished.
::insert collective face-fault here::
"I am sending you a fax of the important information regarding the potential supervillains in the area, Argonauts," the Commissioner continued. "However, please don’t focus on just that information. Allow yourselves to be aware of other factors in the creation of supervillains, to avoid too narrow a focus."
They blinked. "Um, can do," Josh said. "Argonauts out."
The screen blinked out.
"That’s strange…" Jen said. "Normally Bill just adopted the ‘point us in the right direction and yell ‘Sic!’’ method. This new guy sounds like he’s assigning us an essay."
"His ideas won’t hurt," Josh said. "It’s never good to limit our focus."
"There’s no telling in what form villainy will show itself," Charlie intoned.
* * *
Somewhere in Bricks Complex, just down the hall from Jen’s room, a short girl with medium-length blonde hair, who was fumbling with her bags while trying to unlock her new room, paused for a second to sneeze.
* * *
Shortly after one o’clock, the Argonauts were standing near the bus station, trying to look as inconspicuous as a group of five college students might. Jen glanced at the occupants of the bus station: there was a 30-something man in a business suit, reading a newspaper; a housewife in a muumuu, with red hair reaching previously unseen heights, an angsty-looking teenage boy with black hair and a ‘Metallica’ t-shirt, and a girl with long brown hair, wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a cat on it, holding a floral-canvas bookbag on her lap.
"Okay," Jen said to the others, "my guess is the angsty boy or the girl."
"One way to find out," Josh said. "Here comes the bus."
The bus pulled up, and the 30-something got up and stepped in, followed—thankfully—by the housewife, who had to duck to get all of her hair into the door. The bus pulled away. The girl looked around, glancing at the Argonauts questioningly, then resumed scanning the street, occasionally reaching up to fiddle with her Oliver-type cap, which rested backwards on her head. Angst Boy didn’t lift his eyes from a crack in the pavement.
"Okay, now how do we proceed?" Josh asked.
But before anyone could come up with a more discreet method, Keibert stepped forward. "Leave this to me," he said. He walked up to Angst Boy, held his hands above his head like a Tuscan Raider, then began to growl, "Oouergh, oouergh!", the first half of the password.
The boy stared at Keibert as if he were some kind of mutant. "What the hell?!" he exclaimed.
Keibert continued to growl, "Oouergh! Oouergh! Oouergh!" When the boy stepped back, freaked out, Keibert got into his face, continuing the Tuscan Raider battle cry and waving his arms.
"What are you on, man?!?" the boy yelled, then ran away, thoroughly disturbed.
Keibert grinned and dropped his arms. The other Argonauts, torn between horror and laughter, could only stare.
The brown-haired girl stared after the retreating boy, wide-eyed, then looked at Keibert. Very timidly, she asked, "Carpe . . . bananium?"
Brian grinned. "Then you’re with us, then."
"Um, okay." The girl fiddled with her hat. "I’m Anne Moffa. I guess I’ll be interning with you."
"Well, then," Brian said, "let’s get started. How much information have they given you?"
"Um. . . none, really," Anne said. "The internship people asked me what my major was when I came to Algainy. I put ‘undecided’; so here I am. What is it that you do, anyway?"
Charlie blinked. "You . . . you have no idea?"
"No, that’s what I just said!" She fiddled with her hat some more, then got exasperated. "Hold on a second, will you?" She reached into her bookbag, and pulled out a pair of scissors.
Josh turned to the others. "This is surprising. You’d think they’d give her some idea of what she’s getting into—"
But at that point, all conversation stopped. For Anne had removed her hat, and was cutting two holes in the top. Two holes ... for the large, gray-and-black cat ears that stuck up on the top of her head. While the others just gawked, she finished cutting the holes out and fitted the hat onto her head again. Not really noticing the bewildered stares, Anne just looked at the Argonauts and said, "Sorry, that was getting annoying. Anyway, you were saying—?"
"Um," Jen said, trying to hide the fact that she was staring, "look, why don’t you come with us back to our—um, office. We can give you the run-down there."
"Sure." Anne stood up and slung her backpack on. Sticking out from the back of her pants was a gray-and-black striped tail.
With much blinkage, they led her back to Josh’s room. She raised an eyebrow, when she was led through the pipe-filled bowels of the Catfish basement. "Your office is in here?" she asked skeptically.
"Yeah, just through this door." Josh opened his room. Anne peeked in. But she didn’t say anything; being a freshman, she decided it was just better to go with the flow.
Josh opened up his closet to reveal . . . a Venitian gondola sitting patiently in water.
The others all looked at Anne, hoping she wouldn’t scream and run away. She just stared, a classic "What the heck?!" expression on her face.
"Um, you can just get in," Jen said. "This is how we get to our office."
"But—how—why—"
"Look," Brian said, "we don’t question it, and neither should you."
"Um, all right…" Anne said uneasily, and stepped into the boat. When all were safely aboard, Keibert picked up the long oar and navigated the boat through a long dark tunnel. Eventually they came to a dock on the far side, and they stepped off. Josh popped in the code for the main door, and they were admitted to the central Dungeon.
"Okay, Anne," Brian said, "let me start off by asking, what do you know about anime?"
"Um…" Anne sat down on a chair and placed her bookbag at her feet. "Well, it’s lots of pretty pictures…but there’s a lot of scantily clad women, and there’s something called Vampire Hunter D…they say it has a lot of swearing."
"That’s it?"
Anne thought for a moment. "Um, they have really big eyes . . ."
"Hmm…I see." Brian looked at the others, who just shrugged. "Well, then, I guess we’ll start at the beginning. Anne, the five of us here are the Argonauts, a group of crime-fighting superheroes. When evil is afoot, we transform into our alter egos and kick butt."
Anne just gave him an ‘uh-huh, sure’ look.
"No, really! We really do!" he insisted.
"Crime-fighting superheroes?" Anne seemed to be caught between skepticism and overwhelmed-freshman syndrome.
"Yeah! Watch, I’ll transform!" Brian pulled out his dragon sticker and stuck it onto his hat. "See? Now I’m Brian, leader of the Argonauts!"
"But you just put a sticker on your hat!" Anne said.
"Let me try . . ." Jen transformed next, into her shorts, tank top, and open short-sleeved shirt.
"And what are your powers?" Anne asked.
"Um . . . I yell at people and hit them with my umbrella?"
Anne was unconvinced; she had an old lady on her street who did the same thing. She started looking around, discreetly scouting for escape routes. She was only in college for a day, and already she was being freaked out.
"Here, let me try." Josh sighed, and transformed into Seeker, in the process pulling the Gensokaze out of mallet space. In a moment, he was standing in a blue-and-white mecha body suit.
Anne actually was surprised at this. "Okay," she said, "I believe you now."
"Good."
"So how exactly do you go about doing the things you do?"
"Well," Keibert said, "that’s where the anime part comes in. And it seems, my friend, that you are badly in need of a crash-course in the genre before we can put you out on the field."
At this point, a certain face of a certain Commissioner popped onto the main screen in the Dungeon. "Have you finished briefing the new member yet? Because we need you out on the street now. We have a confirmation that the Baron AlVair has made another appearance at the following location." In the corner of a screen, a map of Moadville appeared, along with a blinking red dot somewhere near the upper-class residential area.
"Hmm…I’ll check it out, guys," Keibert said. "Why don’t the rest of you give her the crash course in anime?"
"Sounds good."
Keibert transformed into Pouch and left the Dungeon. After the doors shut behind him, Charlie turned to the other Argonauts. "I’ve got exactly what we need for this crash course." He reached into his backpack and pulled out two tapes. "Prepare yourselves, guys, for a 13-hour marathon of the glory that is…Vision of Escaflowne!"
"Get the VCR!" "Who has a cable?" "Put the TV on channel 4!" Soon the Dungeon was filled with the sounds of otaku preparing for a showing. In a few moments, they were all seated on a couch in front of a big-screen TV, with Anne squeezed in the middle, looking around in amazement. Charlie just had a big grin on his face. When the opening sequence started up, showing a gray-haired man with a purple tattoo on his cheek, he could be heard to mutter in awed reverence, "Folken . . ."
Ne, Arishitae, dare mo ga konna, kodoku ni naru no…
Brian was standing to one side of the couch, looking up at the big-screened tv. Hanging above his head were the words "Argonauts R".
Ne, kurayami yori mo, fukai kurishimi…
Brian closed his eyes. Standing next to the TV was Josh; Charlie, his long hair flapping dramatically, was looking at the screen.
Dakishime teru no . . .
Anne closed her eyes briefly, crossing her arms across her chest as if hugging herself. Impressions of big eyes, mecha, and honkin’ big swords swept by her.
Nani mo, ka mo ga futari…
Jen looked at the screen. Pouch looked out over the city. Jen looked up. From where he was, outside in the city, Pouch looked up into the sky as well.
Kagayaku tame…Kitto…
Brian was sitting in space, fiddling with a remote control. Suddenly it gave out a burst of light, which formed itself into a dragon hanging in the sky, wings unfurled. "Wow, cool," he said.
Kimi wo, Kimi wo, aishiteru…
Somewhere, in a distant portion of Moadville, a man with fine Nordic features and long hair, wearing a trenchcoat, looked dramatic and practiced his sword forms. Another man, in another portion of Moadville, this one wearing a cape, was waving around what looked like a black-polished cane. Brian looked at the TV screen.
Kokoro de, mitsumete iru…
Standing out in a field near a portion of a fence, Hatch looked up at the sky for several seconds.
Kimi wo, Kimi wo, shinjiteru…
In the middle of campus, a short girl with blond hair pushed some stray locks behind her ear, staring off into the distance as the shadow of a cloud passed briefly over her.
Samui Yoru no.
Anne put her chin in her hands and stared up at the TV screen in the dark room, watching the images flicker by.
Aaaaaaah... The chorus sang.
A young man with slightly crazy eyes and a buzz cut that was starting to grow out in a frizzy hairstyle waved a sword around. There was a shot of some rocky outcrops in the New Mexico desert, just because. The trenchcoated man with nordic features—now identifiable as the mysterious Darth from first season—looked up, coolly, dramatically. The shot changed to a man with brown hair and goggles, a long cape flowing from behind him, as he stood up.
Aaaaaaah…
Two figures, silhouetted by sunset, both wearing trenchcoats now, were battling. One was swinging a large sword; the other was defending by way of a mallet. Suddenly, from the side of a cliff, rose a great dragon, its wings unfurled—oh, no, it was just Harvey Johnson, a small, nerdish student with oversized shoulderpads and a cape, being thrown, pathetically screaming, into the air.
Namida Derima yobi kakeru…
The man in goggles was flying in the air, encircled by people staring at him: a girl with two long, black ponytails; a man in a black cape; a big honkin’ brutish type; and a guy in quasi-medieval garb.
Yakusoku nado iranai …
The goggled young man was left alone, when a light from the corner made him look down. He faded and was replaced by Brian in a trenchcoat, who went flying into the air.
Kimi ga kureta taitsesiga …
From behind Brian, there appeared an image of Darth looking speculatively off into the distance, an image which faded and was replaced by the silhouette of the head of the new commissioner, complete with goatee. Brian opened his arms wide…
Tsuyosa dakara.
…and was dancing up the steps to a great city, filled with people who, despite the heat and light, were all wearing jackets, and waving mallets around.
* * *
The Baron AlVair, looking quite impressive in his tan suit and large, billowy cape, looked up from his latest acquisition. Someone was coming. Turning to the woman who was seated in her chair, who still looked slightly stunned, he bowed with a flourish and grinned. "I thank you, good madam, for your . . . generous donation. If you will excuse me, I must be going." Tossing back his head and letting loose a finely-polished and slightly maniacal laugh, he disappeared out a window, his latest trophy slung to his back.
* * *
Pouch arrived, about two minutes later, through that same window. The woman, a wealthy old dowager (you know the type), was still seated in her chair, eyes wide, a few stray gray hairs falling over her face.
"Are you all right, ma’am?" Pouch asked. In the distance, he could hear police sirens approaching. He was too late. Drat!
"He took it. . ." she muttered. Then, slowly coming out of her shock, she clarified, "He took my original Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’! I only had one of those!"
"Do you know what he looked like?" Pouch asked.
"Well . . ." She calmed down a bit, and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "I don’t remember. But he was certainly very polite..."
Author’s Notes
Well, here it is, the beginning of a new season! And to kick it off, we get our own theme song. For those of you completely baffled by the scene following the beginning of the Escaflowne marathon, I did a complete rip-off of the Escaflowne opening, using Argonauts characters. So maybe when you’ve finished reading this season, you can go back and finally realize who all these mysterious people are that haven’t been introduced yet. Just like any other anime opening :)
I’d like to bid a hearty welcome to our latest member, Anne Moffa! Hey, we had to get a cat-girl eventually. However, (as if you couldn’t tell by the opening), she is only one of many characters to be introduced in this season. And yes, when she came to us in real life, her induction into the group did consist of an Escaflowne marathon.
For those of you who were wondering about the characters who appeared briefly in first season: for more information on Darth and Harvey Johnson, I recommend checking out Argonauts Episode 9: Swords and Roses, from first season.