Bueno Dias Bueno Aires

"No I don't speak Spanish; do I look like I'm from here?" The situation already put Bliss in a poor mood and the constant questioning only further soured it. Putting her head back to the cell phone, Bliss tried to get back the signal she lost roaming through the back streets of Buenos Aires. "If I spoke Spanish I would know what those signs meant." The sun beat down upon the smooth part running down the middle of Bliss's head. A tight ponytail found itself accompanied by a dark pair of sunglasses. A bead of sweat ran from behind her ear and dropped onto the shoulder of the floral, sleeveless shirt she wore pulled down over the top of her jeans. Giving up on her phone, she tucked the phone into the back pocket of her jeans and shook her head towards a woman selling electronics. "You don't know what those signs mean."

"Que?"

"No, it's not okay. There's a million churches in this place and none of them are the one I want." Bliss ignored the interpolation of the locals and continued to walk loudly through the open air market surveying the skyline to find a steeple sticking above the horizon. What she lacked in subtlety, she more than made up for in confused looks and bad first impressions.

A few days ago, an anonymous contributer contacted Bliss on behalf of a client interested in an organization operating in Buenos Aires. None of the details came in very clearly, but from what Bliss could piece together, a very important power stone made its way from New York to Argentina. Even though collecting what was left of the Necrodium legacy didn't phase Bliss, finding out who else wanted it did spark her interest. Contrary to the belief of the men tailing her, Bliss long gave up on finding the meeting place, and now just hoped to cause so much of a distraction it found her.

"You make a lot of noise for such a little lady."

"First of all, step off, second of all, it took you long enough." Waiting to see which way the man would lead her, Bliss adjusted the shoulder strap around her bag. "Where are we meeting?"

"Police station." The sun glare from his widow's peak paled in comparison to the light beaming from his badge.

Bliss rolled the bottom of her lip against her front teeth without opening her mouth.

The slow hum of the air conditioner sounded out in the interrogation room Bliss found herself handcuffed in. Her new acquaintance gave her all the amenities a spoiled girl would find herself angry over and she returned the favor by rattling the chain between her cuffs against the metal of the interrogation table. "Now senorita, it seems you got yourself mixed up in a pickle."

"I don't have to talk if I don't want to right?"

"Of course not. You can just stay in a jail cell until your court date."

"I'm sorry, you haven't actually told me what I'm being charged with. Can I get a call to the US Embassy or..."

"You passed through with a forged passport and in possession of the phone number of wanted men in Argentina; we have enough to keep you for questioning and can get a trial for something that would stick..." He watched as Bliss's lip tucked back under her teeth as she thought of the compromise she could muster. "Or, you can tell us what we want to know."

"You know who I am right?"

"We do Ms. Fokukama."

"Good." Her rattling continued.

"We know everything."

Bliss ground her back teeth almost into her cheek.

Across the city, an office building held a meeting between men with a common interest. "Where's the girl?" Asked a very solemn man with fingers as crossed as his disposition for the nature of the meeting.

"She didn't  make it to the meetup spot, Mr. G." Speaking from a place of lower status, a long haired man spoke up about the complications in the meeting. "I heard the police may have taken her in for questioning."

Placing his right hand hard against the table, Mr. G tapped out his troubles while he let the anticipation linger in the air.  "I want you to get her here. It was torment just to get a hold of her, and I don't plan on letting the powersource of Dr. Necrodium's legacy slip by just like that."

Taking their leave to set out for their mission, a group of three men set out for the municipal police department to jail break Bliss.

The day began to wear out its welcome and so did any semblance of patience either Bliss or the police had for each other. No more could Bliss work her magic with ice, but she did find herself back in control of her old telekinetic powers. She felt it took her down from the absolute power she once commanded, but now she could use the utility of picking locks and infiltrating. Of course, she would need to make sure two Argentinian police officers weren't staring at her while she did it.

They found it difficult to once an explosion ripped off in the distance. Confusion swept over lifting Bliss's hopes of escape just in time for them to be dashed as the officer pushed her back down to the chair. "I figure this has something to do with you." He took out another pair of handcuffs and tethered the chain between her wrists to the rail of the metal table.

"This is leaving me in a helpless position during a dangerous time." Bliss tried to reason for a more reasonable escape plan.

"Don't worry.  We're locking you in." The door closed and the dead bolt slid into place.

Bliss drove her teeth into each other with absolute anger.

Somewhere in South America, someone who'd spent most of their life trying to stay out of police stations put a decent amount of effort into getting inside of one. That is if you consider as little as possible to be a decent about.

The combination of fake chest hair and cheap polyester made Clayton itch. The little amount of breathing room theses things have him also made the heat of the small station even worse. Sweat caused the glue that held his mustache to his face to slip. He adjusted it and his wig in the reflection he caught in the back of a squad car. It worried for the Beastie boys, why not him? Certain he looked fantastic, Clayton continued to the station.

Getting in was simple. He found security surprisingly lax for a police station. All it took was a quick flash of a badge, a smile and a few mumbles in what was probably Spanish, and even looking like the uncle from that indie movie about the nerd and his Mexican friend, he was given complete freedom to walk around the place.

The information G's man gave him said his target was taken in for questioning, which meant she was probably down the hall to his left. He couldn't be sure, though. He wasn't from around there, afterall, so how could he be expected to understand the signs? Still, left seemed as good an option as any. He made it half way down the hall, peering into each room as he walked. Each was without a single Asian girl in them.


An explosion shook the building. It initially set Clayton on edge. Once he realized he was fine, he picked up his pace. The explosion wasn't his doing. The station was just a popular place. Still, he found himself in even more of a hurry now
There was definitely no need to be there when that was happening.

The last door down the hall opened. An older gentleman with a high widows peak stepped out and hurried around the corner toward the explosion. He either didn't notice Clayton, or didn't care.

This one had to be it. He strolled up to the door and peered in through the window. Sure enough, there was a woman in there. Clayton tried the handle; of course the damn door needed a key. He produced a small blowtorch like instrument from his pocket. He was in within a second.

"Look, miss, we don't have much time. Mr. G doesn't like to be kept waiting and it looks like we're not  alone here so let's get going." He finally got a good look at the woman in the room.

Bliss Fokukama

"Oh, fuck me."[/color][/color]

A narrow slit of brown dug itself down beneath the dark pupil of Bliss' eye. With explosions sounding in the background and a hurried rescue attempt coming to her, Bliss found a negative disposition growing inside of her. "Aren't you a little short for an Argentinian policeman?" The return of her one time partner coming back to her filled her with a sense of impending doom. And not the good kind of doom she normally found impending; the kind you never saw coming, but always loved to watch leave. "How's you dad doing? Ever hear back from that Indian kid you left in Japan?"

Lifting her shackled hands, Bliss gave Clayton an open invitation to cut her lose. Of course, she would take her leave to do what she wanted regardless of what Clayton's idiotic plans happened to line up with. "I'm going to cut a deal with you." Bliss prodded a finger into Clayton's chest. "How about-"

Stepping into the door, a man towered over Bliss with a handle bar mustache and an open vest showing a line of tattoos adorned with skulls and rosaries. "Yo ese, you got the girl. Mr G said not to screw up so if you screwed up ese I'm going to mess you up okay."

"Why are you talking like a Mexican if you're-"

"I'm Mexican puta. Are you racist homes; you don't know an Argentinian from a Mexican chica?"

"You can't call me racist! This isn't Japan and to be honest you all talk-"

"Alright gringo, grab the girl. We gotta get her to Mr G. Don't mess around or I'll mess you up."

Clayton gave a sour expression from behind his yellow cop aviators. Not only was it the ice queen of all people, but she saw right through his clever disguise. If she could tell, any idiot probably could. He tore off his stache and tossed it onto the floor.

"Hopefully dead is how he's doing. But how are you? Couldn't you have just, you know, iced your way out of here, or whatever? Hold still. "

A quick cut from the same tool he'd used to break in was enough to set Bliss free, but whatever deal she had to offer him was interrupted by the arrival of "Hurricane" Hernandez.

"G sent you in already?"

"No, but he told me to make sure you hurried up, so I'm making sure, now andale. Let's get fucking moving."

"It's been like two minutes!" Clayton was practically astonished.

"Two minutes too long," Hernandez said over his shoulder, as he waked up to the far wall. He placed his hand on it, and an orange glow began to spread from his palm outward. The glow grew until it covered an area slightly larger than his imposing frame, "cover your eyes, Fuckers."

With a brought flash and a loud bang a way out appeared in the wall. Despite being in a hurry, Hernandez took a second to smugly admire his work.

"I didn't know you could do that. "

"You didn't ask."

"Why'd I even get sent here then?"

"You got me wondering the same thing, gringo," he said, tapping his earpiece, "around the side."

A sleek black BMW's tires squealed as it speed to the side to meet them. It's timing was matched by a group of officers coming in their the door behind them with guns drawn. They shouted something in Spanish.

The doors on the car opened themselves. To everyone's surprise the driver appeared to be a 12 year old girl, "Get in!" she commanded. It was a command Clayton obeyed without question.

Bullets began to fly. One caught Hernandez square in the back of the head. It only seemed to annoy him. He turned and scowled at the lucky officer before slamming his car door.

"I don't do ice anymore, maybe you should stay up on current affairs." Her handcuffs broke quickly, but not quick enough for Bliss. "Wow, could you take any longer to do your job. Who sent you any-" No fully realized question came out from Bliss before Hernando 'Hurricane' Hernandez broke a door under his foot and antagonized the duo into action. "I don't even know who you are..." Bliss stepped up to the mid section of Hurricane's chest and looked back to Clayton. "And I wish he was about five or six other people just off the top of my mind, so you better give me a good reason to go with..."

Hurricane grabbed a needle from his pocket and jammed it into Bliss' shoulder before slapping a bracelet on her. "Now you ain't got your little girly blasts, and if you get outside of fifty feet from this device, that bracelet blows." Not waiting for Bliss to comply with his actions, he grabbed her by the back of her thighs and threw her over his shoulder, holding her with just one hand. "We gotta make up some time. I ain't got time for diplomacy."

Uncomfortable with her situation and position, Bliss hung across Hurricane's back like a cape, not offering up resistance, but trying to fiddle with the device around her wrist. A technology wizard should never be threatened by bombs such as this, but bouncing against a mountain of a man took her focus away. A high voice broke with immaturity. Hurricane threw Bliss into the back of the car and waited for Clayton. "You ride in the back homes."

"Get in Seacrest!" Between puffs of smoke from a large cigar, a 12 year old wearing a soccer jersey over a long sleeve Baby Rinne shirt pushed her foot against a phone book resting on the gas pedal. "We're two minutes behind. Now I gotta make up two minutes."

"No smoking girl. I thought you quit last year?" Hurricane slammed the door behind himself before looking back to the backseat. "Don't try breaking out. I put the child lock on those doors. You know what that means?"

"A fully functioning adult can get out?"

A chuckle came from the small girl behind the wheel. A soft smack knocked up against her head from Hurricane. "It's mean you're going to see Mr. G. Try getting out and..."

"I blow up. I got it." Remembering her bracelet, Bliss started going back to trying to get the explosive under control. Her nails would be of no help, but the chain link of her cuffs could help out. Pushing the link against the bracelet, Bliss started trying to work her way into the innards of the device without drawing any attention from the others in the car.

Clayton eyed Bliss's new bracelet skeptically. G invited her down there only to strap explosives to her? "What's with the bracelet, Hernandez?"

"She's important to Mr. G."

"She's important, huh? Well what am I then? I'm the one who did all the digging getting to figure out what happened to that necro whatever."

"You're stupid is what you are, white boy. By the way, it's Hurricane- no, Mr. Hurricane to you. Unless you want a bracelet too."

"Oh, fuck you, Heriberto," the child behind the wheel piped up as she guided the vehicle through traffic at high speeds, "Quit being such a dick. She had to wear that until G knows she can be trusted. He knew you'd be easy to kill if you double crossed him. Guess you could say it means he finds you trustworthy."

"Gee, don't I feel special?" Clayton shrugged childishly, "Show you easy to kill..." he pouted to himself.

The two in the front seats continued bickering amongst themselves, and the car took a sharp turn down an alley. "Oh, and Bliss, Luke Skywalker was short for a storm trooper. Han was definitely not, and we both know who I am in this star war, Princess."

It was then he noticed what Bliss was doing with her hands. From what Hernandez said one slip up and she'd blow herself up and take the whole damn car with her. Clayton shoot her a look that he hoped begged her not to make that mistake, but it could have easily been read "I'm an idiot."

"Hey, check this out." the girl spoke to them through teeth clenched around her cigar. With the push off a button there was a flash of light, but from inside nothing noticeable change at all. "

"Heheh. Idiot kid, it only changes the outside." The Danny Trejo impersonator chuckled.

Soon, when the group got out at Mr. G's mansion, they could see that the black BMW that picked them up had become a pink Cadillac. They could also see that the young girls legs were robotic from the knees down. Clayton found it best not to ask.

They were greeted at the door by two asked guards in dark sunglassed and darker suits. How they stood the heart was anyone guess. They opened the giant double doors to the building and waved the group in.

"You're the walking carpet that needs to get out of my way." Keeping her heads down, Bliss toyed away with popping off the top of the mechanical bracelet on her wrist. "And who the Hell cares if this guy trusts me? He sent a dumb gorilla to put an explosive bracelet on me. We're all just going to overlook the fact your rescue mission looks more like a kidnapping every minute."

"It ain't a kidnapping if there ain't any duct tape. Now shut up before I have Clay make this a kidnapping."

"I'll turn off the child safety look with his face."

A distracted driver spoke from the driver's seat with no attention to the unfolding road. "You didn't knock off her powers Triple H?"

"I don't need them."

The pink Cadillac rolled into an extravagantly decorated mansion through a winding road crawling through the low hills around the villa. Away from the watchful eyes of the world, the guards of the villa met the quartet at the door with a particular interest in Bliss. Waving a wand over her form as they forced her to spin in a circle, two of the guards escorted Bliss away from the rest of the group for her own personal screening.

"Hey, I want that bomb back, homes." Hurricane fixed his belt buckle to show the burning skull in line with his hemline. "Man, that shit was expensive..." Before he could finish his tale, a bracelet hit him in the chest.

"I took the bomb apart. You're welcome." And with a flick of her wrist, Bliss disappeared with a team of guards off of the main pathway of the mansion's central atrium.

"Damn man. That shit was expensive." Hurricane brought the odd smelling bracelet up to his nose for further inspection. "She sprayed perfume in it. What kind of joke is that? Who uses perfume?"

"I hope she didn't make it blow up on a timer or something." A pair of robotic limbs walked up next to Hurricane, extending her limbs to stand shoulder to shoulder with the mountainous man.

"Aw, hallo dollies, how are you?" A stringy dark haired man closed in with both hands held in position up near his shoulders. "You are good? That is so good. I'm good too. Now, you need to say, "Don, what is it you are doing here?". Okay, are you asking? You need to ask. Oh hallo man, I don't know you. You know I'm Don, but I don't know who you are." After getting his name, Don would move out towards the offshoot of the mansion where the guards took Bliss. "I will see you later dollies. I will get the special out of the Blissy, okay? Okay. You say 'Okay Don' now."

"That guy makes my balls go inside." The normally stoic Hurricane watched with relief as the man named Don left. "Let's go see what Mr. G wants to give us for this job."

He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about Don bothered Clayton. There was something under the Brit's babbling; something that felt wrong. It was a feeling of sane, and very calculated violence behind his grin that made Clayton uncomfortable when it was aimed at him.
He involuntarily raised an eyebrow at Don for a moment before responding to his inquiry, "Clay."

Don nodded enthusiastically and patted him on the shoulder before carrying Bliss off to wherever.

"So what's his deal?" Clayton asked as soon as he felt like they were out of ear shot.

"You're better off not asking too many questions." Still, Hernandez seemed to be equally disturbed.

"Should I be worried?"

"What'd I say about asking questions?"

The two lead Clayton up a staircase and down a hallway. Now that he could get a better look at them it became clear that they were siblings, or already related in some capacity. It was either that our he inherited some of his father's best qualities and just made a racist assumption.

"So, how do you two know eachother." He decided not to ask directly out of fear that it was the latter.

"So damn curious. You're lucky you're not a cat." Hernandez apparently held an intense hatred for anyone who wanted to know anything.

"Berto is my uncle," His niece didn't appear to share that same hatred, "After what happened to me and my parents, Mr. G was the only one willing to help us. He gave me these legs and this cool new eye. There's a fucking computer in it!" She pointed to her eye and smiled widely. The time of her voice and the way she smiled made it clear that she was a still a child despite the profanity and cigar smoke.

At the end of the hall was a very large set of doors with a security camera hanging above them. As usual, they opened on their own, and the trio walked in.

What was probably thousands of books l and various trophies lined the walls of the room and the wood that made up the floor seemed to be of such high quality that you might almost fell bad for walking on it. At the far end of the room sat a man at a desk. Balding, bespectacled, and Tommy Bahama clad, he looked far from threatening, which made him living proof that looks could be deceiving. Mr. G carefully put his cigar out and paused the soccer feed he'd been watching with a click of his mouse.

"I trust you got her here no problem." He tapped his fingers against his desk in rhythm with his words as he spoke. It was an odd tick Clayton noticed during their last meeting.

"Of course. But I could've done that without these two and avoided the police entirely. " Clayton and Hernandez shot glasses at each other.

"The police... They were never a problem for me until that new Mayor showed up, but that's another matter. You see, Clay, the reason I sent them is actually what I want to talk about. Insurance. I couldn't be sure you were as good as your father so I sent my human tank to be sure I got what I wanted. I get what I wasn't thanks to the simple concept of insurance. Now I can see that even though you aren't quite there, you have the potential to be as good as , so I'm sending you after the power stone." He crossed his fingers this time, another odd tick.

Clayton felt the sting of insult at the comparison to his father. The asshole who's shadow href never escape. "Yeah, no thanks. I had to problem digging up that other stuff for you, but I thought the whole reason you were bringing Bliss on was to handle this Necrowhatever fetish you have. I don't even know the first thing about that guy, side from the whole thing with New Orleans."

The way Clayton spoke to Mr. G seemed to personally offend Hernandez. He placed a hand on his shoulder, ready to do to him what he did to the walls of the prison. Mr. G motion for him to calm down.

"New York, Clayton, Necrodium destroyed New York." For a moment he seemed almost angry with Clayton for getting the details. He took a deep breath and the heat that rose from his normally soft spoken voice cooled again "I think you misheard what I said about insurance. That's what I want you to be, and I'll pay you write well for it. Don't tell me you'd turn down double what I paid you and your father for the work you did once upon a time."

"Well if you take inflation and my expenses into account, I think I'm going to need triple that. It's been a long time, G." It was true that double the amount they recieved back when Clayton was a teenager would be enough for most people to retire on, but he decided to test the waters because he was not most people.

Mr. G have Clayton a look that said he almost appreciated his boldness. They sat in silence for a moment before he finally answered, "Consider it a deal." He extended a hand for Clayton to shake, which he did, gladly, "Now don't come back until you have it."

"I knew you were sensible, G. You won't be disappointed. "

"I'd better not be. Now get going before my study starts to smell like flowerbomb."

Hernandez looked sheepishly at his perfume soaked bracelet.

"Hallo Dally, are you? You are good. That is good. I am Don. Now you say, how are you Don? How are you Don? How are you Don?"

"Go. To. Hell. Fuck Boy." Tubes ran out of Bliss' arms into machines lining the walls. Leather straps kept Bliss secure in an examination chair while Don pulled out a giant needle and screwed a line into the back.

"No, dally, my name is Don. You silly Blissy, I'm going to jam this into your belly now. Okay, hold still." Don pushed Bliss' shirt up and forced the needle through her stomach, paralyzing Bliss in a perplexed grimace.

It took a few moments of pain before Bliss could release the tension building up in her torso. The needle sticking out from her gut reminded her of a bug in a display case. It felt better to think of it in those terms than what it actually was. "Find...what you're looking for...yet?"

"No, Dally, you don't need to tell me what to do. I am Don, remember? I know what to do." He pulled a slender, long needle out and broke the plastic seal. "This one goes between your fingers now Dally."

After running a number of tests on Bliss, Don only found one thing interesting about her. Walking to intercept Clayton before he left for the powerstone, Don slid out of a narrow hallway with a subtlety like knife. "Oh, Hallo, I was looking for you. You are looking for a stone yes? Yes. Yes you are. Okay, so when you find the stone, you are going to give it to me and only me. Okay? This is when you say 'okay Don'. Is that okay?" After waiting for some response from Clayton, Don would decide to give Clayton something to think about. "You are going to give me the stone, because if you don't, I will cut off the Blissy's head. Okay? I know you are thinking, 'Don, I am a good looking man in front of you, why would I care about one lady? It's not like it's the first lady you let die.'. Oh no, I am a silly Don. I went and said something bad. True. But, oh so bad and mean. Don't make kill anyone, okay? This is the part where you say okay. Okay? Okay."

"Yeah." Hurricane scratched the back of his head to get any excess energy moving. "I don't have any manhood on the outside anymore."

There were times weird thoughts crossed Clayton's mind in the face of threats. This time it was whether Don was British or Australian. He would have asked him if he hadn't been so sure Don would follow up on his threats if provoked. He decided to ask a different question, the one question sure to cut into anyone attempting to be imposing.

"What? "


Don tilted his head at Clayton, " What, mate? Nono, y'see, you don't say what here. You say 'okay, Don.' I'll tell you one more time to be sure this time. You say 'okay, Don'.  Now you handsome man, you, I'm going to let the Blissy go with you, but also I'm going to tell you what Don did here. Bad and mean things, to be sure. Insurance like the G says. When you were chatting it up with the boss, the Blissy took a couple injections. None of them the fun kind I'm afraid, but to be kind to me we have to be cruel to the dally."

He was surely someone the likes of which Clayton has never ever seen before, and hoped to never see again. He decided to drop some if the earlier macho posturing he clung to earlier, "Okay, Don. What did you do to her?"

Don grinned widely, "I thought you would never ask. I planted a few things in Blissy's blood stream. From right between her fingertips during our little check up. Now this could breach doctor patient confidentiality, but since you're her emergency contact I think we can let you know. The Dally's got robots in her blood, Clayton. Bad ones. Oh, so bad. Except if you're Don, and that's me, as you know I am Don."

"And if you-"

"Clever boy. I'll go get the dally now, and you just say 'okay, Don. I believe you, and just to remove all doubt from my handsome mind, I'll keep my eye on the cat when I get outside.' "

"Okay, Don."

"Oh okay. No heads off. Yay. I'll get the Blissy. She'll be excited." Pulling his arms up to his chest with his hands hanging limply, Don turned and walked towards the side antechambers leading into the bowels of the mansion. "And then, I will see you. And I will be very excited."

Stepping back in the hall with a swollen eye, Don escorted Bliss into the waiting room. "Alright, dally here is ready to go get the powerstone. But, if the dally is bad, Don will blow the dally up. Okay dally? Dally, you say 'okay'. Okay? Okay."

"I'm going to..."

"Dally, you do not need to talk anymore. I want to talk to the handsome man. Hello, Clayton. I brought you the dally; she will help you. You should bring her back, but I do not care if she is alive or dead. She isn't important."

"One of us won't be alive when..."

"Okay, you see?" Flicking Bliss' ear to draw out her ire, Don leaned in to stick his nose in her ear. "The dally does not want to come back alive. I need my special bots back. You know the bots?" With his face barely detached from Bliss, Don moved his face towards Clayton. "Aw, you want me to explain them? Do not worry. When I return, we can talk about it in the bath. You like the bath? Yes? Yes."

"I don't want to make it back from this trip alive anymore."

West of Buenos Aires

The village was called 'Nueva Esparanza' because even powerful nerds were still nerds. It was set up by an American company that needed to keep their work well hidden.

Originally the land had been occupied by farmers or something. Rich Franklin wasn't entirely sure, and nor did he care, but he was there when the Argentinian government forced the people out as per his employers request. He was also there when the builders hurried to put up the buildings he and the rest of his team would occupy until they finished their research. And he was there now, starting oddly at the screen as it flashed with data gathered from the large glowing rock in the middle of the room, which was at the very center of the complex that the village was built around.

Monster or not, Necrodium's technology was years ahead of anything he'd ever seem. He felt privileged to be anywhere near it, at least at first. Months had gone by and little progress had been made. He began to feel a mixture of boredom and frustration toward the rock and his resentment toward his employer for sticking him out there with it away from his family.

Those feeling were quickly replaced by fear. The screen in front of him crackled with electricity as smoke rose from the monitor. He jumped back away from the monitor just before it finally blew itself up with a bright flash.

"Oh, Jesus! I'm gonna get the axe for this one..."

"You know, they can't fire you if you're dead." a voice called from behind him with a chuckle.

He spun to face the voice, and found nothing but a first. He was out cold.

Nori stood triumphantly over the unconscious aging researcher. At that point they were completely contrasting. Nori was young, Japanese and wearing black tactical gear from his boots to his vest. Rich was pushing 50 and unconscious in his clean room clothing.

Nori pressed a finger to his ear piece, "All right, I'm in, but the wires were a bitch to navigate here... No, came through a computer monitor... You should have seen him, nearly pissed himself," He snickered, "Tell the crew to be ready."

Nori sat himself at a different computer at a desk across the room and began typing, "Now to shut everything down. "

--------------------------------

They would have been there much sooner if Bliss hadn't been so difficult about sitting in the trailer. Clayton went over the notes he took tracking necrodium's equipment one last time. The notebook read:

"ChenCorp - Silicon valley - nerds.

Nueva Esparanza. Where?

Probably central complex. Docking bay on the side?

Remember to buy beer and look into this necrodium guy."

Flawless research, really. He backed the truck up to the loading dock on the side of the building, and hopped out. He walked from the commandeered semi to a small door to the side of the dock and pressed the buzzer multiple times to be sure the security would rush to meet him. They didn't.

He found himself waiting for there minutes exactly before someone came to meet him.

"What's this? Grocery delivery already came yesterday and you're definitely not the usual guy." A security guard with short cropped hair reached for his pistol.

"Relax, man. There was a mix up, they sent me here to get the rest of these supplies to you today. " He pushed a clipboard at the man and let himself into the building.

"Sir, this is a secure building. I can't just allow you in without a badge. Even delivery needs to wear them. So if you could-"


"If you could just sign here and give me a hand with this, I can be on my way." Clayton interrupted as he pressed the button to open the garage door, "Look, pal, I threw my back out again yesterday, you mind helping me with the door? Dolly's in the back, I can handle the rest with that. "

There was a moment of hesitation as the guard to his hand back away from his gun. He sighed and handed the clipboard back to Clayton, "Alright, I guess I can do that for you. But then I'm gonna need to see your badge."

As soon as he opened the door he'd find the truck was empty except, of course, for Bliss and company.

Bliss could tell anyone about the physical relation of time and space, but she could not tell Clayton why she didn't want to sit in the trailer of this vehicle. Bad enough, both people sharing the trailer with her decided to ice her out once she told them since her inability to explain had no result upon her situation, it was not ironic.

The ride stayed quiet and even in the dark looked dangerous.

Once the trailer came to a stop, Clayton began blathering like a fourteen year old Chinese girl. Each one of his attempts only further delayed her ability to take control of the situation. If he could just get on with it, Bliss would step in and take care of everything, but each one of his stalls only further complicated her plan.

Seeing the only reasonable thing to do was to come up with a new plan involving undercutting Clayton's ability to inspire confidence in plans. Bliss grabbed a  crowbar and swung it around near her shoulder while walking towards the door. A bright light burst into the trailer just as Bliss stabbed the crowbar to hit Clayton square between the eyes. After her first blow, Bliss would focus more on the assignment and bring the metal bar down on the security guard's head. "Let's get this rock and get these robots out of me."

Bliss stepped off toward into the warehouse prepared to take charge. "Why would you tell them the dolly was in the back? If I ever hear you call me that again I'll bury this crow bar in your skull." Before Bliss could make her way any deeper in the warehouse, an odd specimen appeared. His hands were locked above a bowl cut hair cut. His mouth stayed just as open as his bulging eyes, possibly disorienting him enough to make his odd stature into the shambling movement seem in place.  

"You know. When you take a guy to the bar. You don't normally take the bar home and leave the guy behind." A laugh creaked out from his mouth, causing the duo of criminal crime fighters to break a laugh.

"I don't get it. It's just flailing movement and occasional word association. I like the guy with the puppets."

"You're the opposite of Batman, homes."

"Listen, I'm the Batman of this place, just ask Forcewave."

"Batman would've shot that creepy guy, yo. Just saying. Back in the 30s he shot everybody."

"I once tried to be a superhero..." The hyper man began bouncing his legs. "I had a secret identity. It was my grandfather's idea. Whenever I visited, I would tell people I was radioactive."

"See? It's funny. It's in the setup."

"I guess if you want something weird you can-"

"You're over thinking it, yo."

Clayton dodged the crowbar by a hair. "What was that for?!" He snapped. He bent down to use the guards own cuffs against him and borrowed the man's walkie talkie.

"Yeah. Not you, Princess. Dollies for moving things. You and Don can keep your gross pet names."

It wasn't long before they were interrupted by bugeyed bowlcut in a gaudy green tuxedo that had to have been already three sizes too big. If his appearance weren't enough to elicit a chuckle, he opened his mouth. Clayton began laughing almost immediately. The jokes and his laughter continued while Bliss and Hernandez argued. He noticed the little girl with the metal legs was laughing as hard as he was. Who decided she could come along was beyond him; at the moment all he could do was laugh. "The set- hahaha- the set up is great- bwahah-but the delivery- haha-it's killer!" He barely managed to speak.

Once he double over in his laughter he realized that his words might been literal. It was uncontrollable. He struggled to breathe from his position on the floor, and looked to the girl nearby on the floor now as well. Her eyes have a look of terror as she continued giggling with tears streaming down her face. They would both end up like that old Greek Chrysippus if something wasn't done soon.

Clayton struggled to grab his gun with trembling hands and fired a shot off toward the comedian. With tear filled eyes and laughter shaking him violently, he would likely miss. That was fine with him as long as it shut the guy up.

"I was hoping..." Another spastic movement came from the bowl haired man. "Someone would give me a shot, but..." A round hit struck through his chest. "Now, I'm hoping someone will give a politician a shot so I can get a hospital to take care of this shot."

"See homes, it's topical."

"I just don't like it. Okay. He flails and talks funny, but I just don't get how it's funny. Let me say the joke standing still and it's just."

"Just?" A giggle burst out as did blood. "If you want just, maybe you should talk to your friend about gun control." His body swung around with his head leading the action. "Keep, keep both hands on it."

"I bet you're going to complain about-"

"These jokes are cheap and easy to write." I take offense to that. "He just uses his body to...Wait, what was that?" A surge ran through the complex. The lights replaced with a billowing sound of reckless electricity.

"Oh, it's dark. When I was a little boy..." His voice groaned off into a high pitch, completely out of phase from the pain. "I used to hide in the dark, and I would jump out and say, 'You can't see me. I'm invisible'! And, all my friends would say 'Oh, we'll see when the lights come on.' So, I stabbed them in the eyes and said, 'yeah, you were right. But, I'm still invisible'."

"That one barely made sense. It's like he came up with an odd series of words and finished it off with violence. I've seen more attention given to balanced narratives from Robot Chicken." Fuck you Bliss.