***

A mid-town Parrodipolis apartment building that is home to dozens of people. Three such tenants are Ronald Arnold Gerrimoto Beeslyhuxtoy, Chadwick L. Swiss & Catherine Gillespie. Today is the day The Lair Legion, their Mansion, the island it was on, various S.P.U.D. agents & their Helicarrier disappeared. Now no one outside of a handful of people even knew that Chad & Ronnie were there at the time. Even less people know how they got there.

Catherine decked out in her normal clothes, started from the ground up: a new pair of navy blue Chuck Taylor All-Star high tops. On her feet were argyle socks. Her pants are a well worn & ripped in places pair of blue jeans. She wore a greying black Hoodie. Slung over her right shoulder was her olive drag colored messenger bag. On her wrists were a few too many bracelets & a couple of wrist bands. A few of her fingers had some rings on them. Her black nail polish was cracked & chipped in places. In her right hand was one of large white plastic Mondo Gulp cups. Catherine had just returned from a trip to her local Gulp 'N Go location: She was stocking up on an afternoon in. 84 ounces of grape soda, 10 bucks worth of candy, a few Hostess fruit pies (either Apple or Blackberry flavored), an egg salad sandwich on flax seed bread & the third series of Doctor Who dvd box set.

It was to be the perfect geeky afternoon but alas it won't be. All because the front door of Chad & Ronnie's apartment was open. Now Catherine has to pass by the guys' apartment to get to hers & normally the door is shut & locked. But today it was open, not wide out so you could see into the apartment as you walked by but open enough.

Catherine found this odd, plus there was an odd noise coming from inside. It wasn't the normally odd noises, this one was different. The sound was all swirly.

So, Catherine walked in & there wasn't anything out the ordinary about the apartment. It was like it's always been. Catherine takes off her bag & puts down her drink on a side table near the door. As she walks around the living room, she notices that Little Cat is still in his cage. If the Guys' aren't there, why is Little Cat? They hardly ever go anywhere without him. The Hamster also appears to be freaking out about something.

These were the first clues that something was wrong: Door a jar, swirly noise, Little Cat but no Chad or Ronnie. She could hear the noise but couldn't see what was making it. But as she made her way around the room, it became clear: the noise was centered around the couch. There an almost invisible swirling vortex centered directly over the couch.

She walked around the couch & it's vortex. "whoa." she said.

"Where's Quinn Mallory when I need him?" She thought out loud.

As she was inspecting the vortex, Little Cat made a screeching noise which made Catherine turn around to she what was wrong. She did this to fast as she lost her footing & fell into the vortex. As she fell, everything went white. Then, everything became wet.

***

Catherine wasn't sure what had happened but she was somewhere in a body of water. She began to flail about, not know which way was up & which way was down.

This course of action was useless beyond it alerted a group of Scuba divers to her location. They swam over to her, noticing that she was not dressed for the water, they took her to the surface & their ship. Catherine struggled a bit but once he saw who they were she stopped.

Once they had gotten her aboard their ship, gotten her out a few layers of wet clothing & wrapped her up in a blanket they began to question her.

The captain of the ship asked. "Where are the Lair Legion?"

"What?"

"Where are the Lair Legion?"

Catherine just looked at him for a moment. Then again asked "What?"

"Do you have water in your ears?"

"No."

"Then I'll ask again: Where are the Lair Legion?"

"How should I know?"

"You Don't know where you are, do you?" one of the Divers asked.

"no."

"We just fished you out of Parrodipolis Sound around where Parody Island use to stand."

"oh." Catherine said now knowing where the the vortex lead to.

"Were you with the Legion when they disappeared?" another diver asked.

"No. I've never meet the Legion. I've meet a few members but never the whole team."

"How did you end up underwater?" a third diver asked.

"I fell into a vortex in a friend of mines' apartment."

"There is a vortex in an apartment that lead to where Parody Island use to be?" The captain asked.

"That's how it looks."

"Where is this apartment?" one of the diver asked.

"Mid-Town."

"Mid-Town Parrodipolis?" another asked.

"Yeah."

Then the three Divers & the Captain walked a few feet from her. They began discussing something. Catherine couldn't quite make out what they were saying. This goes on for a few minutes. Every so often they look over at her & then go back to their conversation. There is some pointing, too.

"Um.." Catherine says as she raises her slowly drying out arm. She then waves it back & forth a bit. They don't see it.

"Hello?" she says with more arm waving. Still nothing.

"Excuse me?" she says. They she her this time.

The Captain walks over & says. "Yes?"

"Am I in trouble?" Catherine asked as she tired to look as innocent as she could in her dampened state.

"Why would you think that?" He said with a smile that kind of creeped Catherine out.

"Well.." Catherine said trying to come up with what to say.

"Your not in trouble at the moment." a diver said.

"at the moment?" Catherine said a bit puzzled about what that meant.

"Yes." The Captain said sternly.

"Is there a way we could contact you later if we need to?" one of the diver asked.

"Sure."

Catherine then gave them all her contact info.

"all right, Miss Gillespie. We'll be in touch." The Captain said. He then began to turn away but stopped when Catherine asked something.

"Can I get a ride back to the shore? The waters' kind of cold plus I'm not sure the portal I took to get here is a two way portal."

***

TO BE CONTINUED

And thanks!

I wrote this part to:
1. Include Catherine in this Rotund Pigeon (they are like Round Robins but better!)
2. Show people Little Cat is ok for the most part.
3. Start in on a explanation of how Chad & Ronnie ended up at the Mansion.

Well, I suppose that explains how Chad and Ronnie got into the basement... Sort of. There are probably a few unanswered questions when one finds a mysterious swirling vortex over a couch.

In any event, Catherine is exceptionally brave to enter that apartment willingly. I do hope she goes back to feed Little Cat though.

It's starts to. But if you pair this with what Ronnie tried to explain on how they got there you start to get a partial picture of what happened.


When Chad & Ronnie sat down on the couch, the vortex wasn't there.


I know but to her it's just a friends' apartment & nothing more.


Maybe. She did leave some of her stuff there, too.

How did they get in the Lair Mansion was answered. Where that portal came from isn't.

~Hat~

A full answer to the first is forth coming but the answer to the second has been revealed partly.