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The Parrodipolis Waterfront.
Midday.

A taxi pulls up & drops off a their passenger. As she got out, Abdul Hassan asked "Are you sure what to get out here?"

"Yeah." she replied. But the sounds of how she said that words, she wasn't so sure.

"Are they expecting you?"

"I think so." she said as she handed him the fare.

"Keep the change." She said as she turned around & headed towards the gilded gate.

As Abdul drove away he said a small prayer for her.

The woman just stood in front of the double gates, starting up at the fancy iron work on it. It's sort of reminded her of the Gate that stood in front of the Avengers' mansion. She was dressed, starting from the ground up: a 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 had a grey short sleeved T-Shirt on. Under that shirt was a red & black long sleeved shirt. Over the T-Shirt was an unzipped well worn, greying black hoodie with the sleeves pushed up. 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. She had short sandy blond which was pulled back & into two small ponytails, one on each side of the back of her head. She had somewhat pale skin & was also wearing a pair of black plastic glasses. Slung over right shoulder was olive drag colored messenger bag.

Catherine sighed. She was trying to psych herself up mentally. She was going to go the Lair Mansion (a place she has never been) to get meet with Lee Bookman, The Librarian (a guy she has only meet twice) to talk about Mr. Spooky (a guy she has met many times but know very little about).

"Ok, Catherine. You can do this. You've been invited. They should be expecting you. They won't kill you." This among other thoughts were running through her mind.

A new thought ran through her mind "How do I get past the gate?"

Catherine looked it over a bit & then remembered what her grandfather had said that sometimes the direct method is the best method so she went to see if the gates were locked or not. They weren't. She walked through them & before her was a paved bridge. At the end of the long bridge, Catherine could just make out the Mansion. Catherine closed the gate & started walking.

At was seemed like forever but was probably just twenty, thirty minutes: Catherine stepped off the bridge & onto the island. Off to her left down the coast was small lighthouse. Catherine walked up a small path up towards the Mansion, it was surround by a rod iron fence, Catherine open that gate & walked up the path some more.

As she did, she looked over the Mansion's landscaping: it was all nicely kept up & look vaguely victorian to her. Before she walked up a small flight of stairs to the front door, she noticed there was a man in pruning one off the bushes.

Once Catherine had gotten to the doorstep she noticed that something a bit odd. There was a large burn mark directly in front of the door, on top of that burn mark was a welcome matt that was also slightly burnt it's self.

To the left of the large metal Doors, was a plaque:


The Lair Mansion
Home of the World Famous Lair Legion
Available for Parties, Bar Mitzvahs & Interstellar Conflagrations
Reasonable Rates
No Soliciting


Below that was a door bell which Catherine then promptly pressed. With the accompanying normal chimes, she could hear slowly mounting buzzing noise. There was also the sound of running.

The doors were thrown up & Catherine was grabbed & pulled into the house. Not more then thirty seconds later, two laser beams from either side of the doorway fired, burning the doormat & the flooring below it. The man who had pulled her in started to stamp out the flames with his foot. As he did so he mumbled something to himself as "Stunulators", what ever they were.

Once the fire was out, he turned to Catherine. The man was what Catherine could have only assumed was a hunchback. He looked to be if Marty Feldmen, Rif Raff from Rock Horror & Quasimodo had some sort of love child. She didn't really like the way he was starting at her, it made her feel dirty.

"Welcome to the Mansion... May I take your Clothes?" He said with a crooked smile. He then paused for a second & then continued on. "Er.. Coat, Of Course. I meant Coat. How Silly of me."

Catherine gave a weak smile & a small laugh, then said. "No. I think I'll keep it. If that's ok."

"All right." he said. Catherine could tell he was undressing her with his eyes.

The too of them stood there in the foyer. He leering at her, she trying to avoid his gaze.

"May I ask who you are her to see?" He asked. But before Catherine could reply, he said. "Foxglove."

Catherine wasn't sure who that was.

"From the look of you, miss. I'd say your here for Foxglove & his wife's afternoon sexual encounter." He said & then pulled a pocket watch of his vest. "Which according to my clock is about to commence in five minutes."

"No. I'm.. uh.. here.. to see.. Lee Bookman." Catherine said nervously. She really didn't want to be there. Her eyes darted around looking all possible ways of except. She thinks that she could make it out the door before the lasers went off again.

"Oh." the man said. "Your here to see Bookman, eh?"

He then winked suggestively.

Catherine was trying to resist the urge to throw up.

"Let's me ring him up. "The man turned to a small out cove behind him, it held telephone. As he picked up the receiver & was about to dial a number, he stopped when he heard someone coming down the stairs.

"That won't be necessary, Flapjack."

He turned around to see who it was & descending the stair case was a man who wearing a long beige trench coat, the ends of the coat were frayed, dirty & a bit burnt. Under his coat, he had on a blue jumpsuit with gunmetal black leather belt. He had stylized yellow "L" on his silver belt buckle. On his hands is a pair of dark brown, well wore, gloves; the fingertips of the gloves are cut off exposing his fingertips. He also wore a pair of gunmetal black leather boots, that matched his belt, with dark brown leather straps. He had mid neck length brown hair which was slightly messed, his skin was a bit pale & he wore frame less glasses.

"Bookman! What were you doing upstairs?"

"I was up in my room."

"You have a room? I thought you just lived in the file room?" Flapjack said puzzled.

"Yes, I know one would think that but when I came on to the team I was given a room to use. It's just that I've found it was easier to camp out there." Lee said. He then turned his attention to the other person in the foyer.

"Hello, Catherine. I'm glad you could make it. I hope Flapjack wasn't too much of a bother."

"No." Catherine lied.

"good. Let's go find some place quite to talk." Lee said as he took Catherine down the hallway.

Flapjack glared at the two of them for a few minutes but stopped when he heard some noises coming from upstairs which caused him to run & check on it.

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TO BE CONTINUED...

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