I had a completely different story posted here for the past week, and it got ZERO replies. There were replies to other posts, however, and new posts, so by the time Sat afternoon rolled around I figured it was because nobody liked it and I deleted it. Actually, I didn't like how it was turning out much, either (originally it was supposed to have to do with St. Jude's and Chiaki but it wasn't working out well).

Meanwhile all Saturday I had the seed of an interesting idea in my head: What if the Lair Legion went broke? It didn't really gel until Sunday, when I wrote up the first chapter and posted it.

It was born of a few things: The question above; The expressed desire on the part of several characters in the past to have a life outside the Lair Mansion; The current recession; The tendency of governments now to drop backing of international alliances; and on my part in particular, seeing how two of my characters cope with it.

The point isn't to destroy the Lair Legion (for now) but I decided for the new year, it might be interesting to see how the Lair Legion operates if it's stripped down to a shoestring budget, and is not really secretive, but hard to find because it's decentralized.

This also makes it even more important that Liu Xi Xian has made a life for her own (Chiaki already had one) and makes things really tough for Anna, who now has to work harder to prove herself, and even Lara Night, who will have to depend on the charity of friends whenever she visits (or else run up huge hotel bills).

By the way, if your question is "What about the Lair Mansion?", that question is answered next time (but Flapjack provides a very minor clue).

As for Sir Mumphrey, he's part of the reason I made this a also budget issue and not simple destruction, or being on the run from the law, etc. The Lair Legion is on thin ice, but not criminal - they just have to make themselves *harder* to find and round up just in case. Even Sir Mumphrey is going to have a very hard time finding money, and even he doesn't have enough family money to fund the Lair Legion.

And I'm sure by this point, SPUD and H.E.R.P.E.S. have similar budget problems, so they probably won't be snagging the opportunity of a lifetime either.