"I'm not going to do it," said Cross as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. The box in front of him remained half opened with the content’s half-spilled out across the table.

"What's wrong, dressing up is fun!" Romeo said as he pulled on the long black jacket, whipping his hips back and forth to make the tails wave. "This is a classy event Cross, you can't just walk in dressed… well, dressed like you."

Cross reached out and disdainfully lifted up the tie off the table, holding it up between two fingers. He looked at Lexi and scowled. "Lexi."

Lexi put down her mission briefing and gave Cross her full attention, lifting up one eyebrow.

Cross spun the tie around. "Please explain to me how I went almost my entire life without have to wear a tie, yet almost immediately after agreeing to join your team I end up having to wear one for seemingly every job."

"Oh, I can answer that," Romeo said as he continued to adjust his clothes, nudging Banksy out of the way so he could admire himself in the mirror.

"Please don't," Cross sighed in unison with Banksy. Romeo was undeterred, even as Banksy gave him a sharp jab to the side to knock him away again so he could return to tying his tie.

"See, it's like this Cross," Romeo allowed Banksy to shoo him away and he moved to where Cross was sitting. He bent down and threw his arm around Cross's shoulder. "It's pretty simple, yeah?"

Cross blinked. "You haven't explained anything."

"Right, right, sorry, seems too obvious to me." Romeo waved his hand. "Look at me. What do you see?"

"An idiot?" said Cross.

"First of all, rude," Romeo said, straightening up and adjusting his tie. "Second of all, what you see is a man of class and confidence. The kind of man that men want to be and women want to be with."

"Please, someone kill me," Banksy breathed as he continued to struggle with his tie. Lexi noticed his distress and quickly crossed the room. With a deft hand she adjusted his tie to the appropriate length. "Thanks, Lexi."

"See, right there, Banksy has the same problem," Romeo said, pointing. "Just like you, Cross, Banksy rarely wears a tie. Doesn't even know how to tie one. I'm guessing you don't either."

Cross would have argued that point, but with Lexi in the room watching the exchange with an amused glint in her eye he decided against it. Sighing, he drummed his fingers on the table.

"Your point, Romeo?" he said, resisting the urge to fire off a flashbang as Romeo adjusted his tie again even though it was already perfectly positioned.

"My point is that you and Banksy don't date," Romeo said with a small shrug.

Cross's eyebrow went up. He had expected many unintelligible things to come out of Romeo's mouth, but that had not been one of them. "What?"

"Yeah, I'd like to try and understand that line of reasoning as well," Banksy said.

"Look, it's like this," said Romeo. "You guys don't ever go on any dates. Don't know why you don't Cross, you're a good-looking dude, a little rough around the edges and you've got a terrible attitude, but still not hopeless. Banksy, you are… yeah. Anyways, you don't go on dates and that's your problem. You've never had to dress up to impress. That's why you went most of your life without wearing a tie."

Romeo grinned down at Cross. Cross slowly turned his head to Banksy who returned his stare with a blank one of his own. After a moment Banksy gave his head a small shake and shrugged.

"I don't even want to deal with it right now," Banksy said, leaving Cross to fend for himself.

"Romeo that is just so…" Cross started before giving up and shaking his head, following Banksy's example. Slouching over in his chair, he gave the fine clothing a rueful look. "Lex, is it really necessary?"

Lexi pondered that for a moment, her head tilting as though she were deep in thought. Finally, she shook her head. "No, you don't have to wear the tie if you really don't want to."

Cross mulled over the offer. He didn't really want to wear the jacket either, but he doubted he could talk Lexi out of that as well. His thoughts were interrupted as Lexi pulled something from her bag and held it up.

"No, you don't have to wear the tie," Lexi said with a completely straight face as she held up a long strip of blue fabric. "If you prefer, Servilia foresaw this problem and also helpfully supplied a cravat for you."

Cross stared at her for a long time before raising up his hands in surrender. "Fine, tie it is."

"Don't worry Cross, these ties are really nice. Quality material," Romeo said, plucking Cross's tie from his hand and holding it up. "Servilia did a good oops…"

The smell of burning fabric filled the room as lightning ran along Romeo's fingers and ignited the tie. In a moment nothing remaining but ash. From his chair Cross stared up at Romeo, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Well... at least you still have the cravat, yeah?" Romeo gave Cross a weak smile.

The other two occupants in the room quickly turned, averting their eyes and covering their ears as Cross swung his arm up and discharged a flashbang directly between Romeo's eyes. The room was filled with a blinding white light. When the light finally subsided Cross was standing over a fallen Romeo with Romeo's tie held tightly in his hand. He gave Romeo a weak kick to the side.

"Lex," Cross said as he glanced at his Leader. "Romeo has kindly offered to wear the cravat and give me his tie. Right, Romeo?"

"Murgh…." Romeo coughed weakly and curled up into a ball.

"Don't worry," Banksy cackled as he pulled the cravat free form Lexi's hand and dropped it on Romeo. "Cravats are cool."

Romeo didn't rise up from the floor as he affixed the fabric around his neck. "You're both just mad that I'm still going to make this look better than either of you ever could."

Lexi returned to the table and motioned for the others to join her. It took Romeo a few minutes to actually work up the strength to get up, but he finally did, dramatically pulling himself up to the table and joining the others. With a groan he looked around the room, a thought suddenly occurring to him.

"Where is Makina?"

"Getting something to eat," said Cross.

"For all of us?" Romeo said hopefully.

Cross made a face. "Considering the amount of gold she took from me, she better."

"You know she didn't," Banksy said.

Cross's face fell and he rested his chin on his hand. "I know."

Lexi slapped her mission briefing down on the table, ending the conversation and sending the boys into a subdued silence. When she was satisfied with their level of interest, she drew out a photo of an extremely attractive older woman. Romeo let out a low whistle and received a nudge in the ribs from Banksy. "This is Lilith Black, also known as the Widow Black since the death of her husband five years ago. With his passing she became one of the largest private landowners in the Kingdoms. The land her manor sits on is so large that it actually spans both Voy and Dumas."

Lexi pulled out a map and placed it on the table. Banksy leaned forward to get a closer look.

"That's big," Banksy said softly. His fingers twitched slightly. "Old money. Lots of… things in that house I bet."

"Calm down Banksy," Romeo said, though he was clearly interested as well.

"Yeah, great advice from the klepto.”

"So, what's the mark? Someone want us to steal something from her?" Cross said, steering the conversation back towards a safe direction as Lexi's eyes began to narrow in annoyance.

"Not steal, find." Lexi corrected. She produced a series of papers filled with her small, neat writing.

"Find," Cross nodded as he scanned the document. "Ten disappearance on her land in less than a month?"

"Ten that have been officially reported. It's completely possible there are many more.”

"The land is big though. I bet a lot of people try to travel through as a shortcut between these two cities" Romeo reached out and tapped the map. "We've got a river here and a wooded area there… it would be easy for someone to get lost. I speak from experience."

Lexi nodded. "That is possible, but they are not the ones we have been hired to find. Of course, I still want you to keep a look out for them."

"Of course," Banksy nodded as he finished reading the briefing. "Alright, so we have ten random missing persons in the area, and a handful of extremely eligible bachelors from multiple kingdoms that have all suddenly decided to stay at the Widow Black's manor."

"With that face, who wouldn't stay?" Romeo said and was promptly ignored.

"They also all sent almost the exact same letter back to their families," Cross read with a small frown. "After that they cut off contact completely. Some families tried to go to the manor, but were turned away."

"Exactly, which is why…" Lexi leaned over and quickly tied Cross's tie into place before he could change his mind or argue, "Why you are going to be visiting the manor tonight. The Widow Black is holding her monthly gala. If we miss this opportunity, we won't get another one for another month at the very least."

"Why don't you have a dress on then?" Banksy said, glancing at Lexi's regular attire.

"The Widow Black does not invite women," said Lexi as her brow furrowed with displeasure at the situation.

"Only men?" Romeo said with slight dejection. "Guess I'll have some competition."

"She's looking for a new husband?" Cross said.

"Or many husbands," Romeo said. "I'll have to step up my game tonight. What do you guys think about the name Lilith Lovejoy? I think it's got a nice ring to it. Then again, I wouldn't mind being called Romeo Black. Secret agent Romeo Black in service of her Majesty, the Queen of Dumas!"

"As such," Lexi cut into Romeo's annoying musing. "Neither myself nor Makina will be able to attend. I will be advising you from afar via your Phoenix Stones-”

“Oh you mean the Fones?” Romeo cut in.

“What?”

“Fones. You know, ‘F’ from Fenix. ‘ones’ from Stones. Fones.”

“Romeo…” Banksy let out a very tired sigh. “Phoenix is spelled with a Ph.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very.”

“Oh…. Well that’s Phucking stupid and so is this language. Fine. Phone. ‘Ph’ from Phoenix and ‘one’ from Stone. Better?”

Banksy threw up a hand. “I guess?”

Romeo turned back towards Lexi. “Alright, so anyway, we will have our phones.”

“I’m not calling it that,” Lexi said shortly.

“Fine. But it’s gonna catch on. Mark my words.”

Lexi cleared her throat. “As I was saying. I will be advising you from afar via your Phoenix Stones, though I will leave most of your decisions to your own…" Lexi looked squarely at Romeo and reluctantly finished her sentence "...to your own discretion."

"Hey, I know how to handle myself. It's Cross and Banksy you need to worry about," Romeo protested. "I grew up in a freakin' castle hanging out with other aristocrats."

"That's exactly what worries us," Cross breathed before looking at Lexi. "So, what's the plan? We can't just go in and grab the guys who don't want to leave and unless we actually find one of the missing people, we don't have much to go on. It could be some of these guys are just sticking around to try and grab her fortune."

"As far as we have been able to find out all of the men in the manor are staying willingly, or at least it seems to be that way," Lexi said. "Your job is to collect information. Get yourself invited to stay in the manor by the Widow Black and find out just what exactly is going on. If there is nothing amiss, then we will simply pull out and report that to our client."

"So, we're pretty much flying blind again," said Banksy. He fiddled with his necklace of rings. "Well, at least this time I'm not working for anyone and I probably won't get attacked by a succubus."

"Let's not rule anything out just yet," Romeo said. "Don't forget when you all were off fighting sexy succubae, I was stuck in a classroom learning how to control my magic."

"Yeah, I feel real sorry for you.”

"Romeo is correct, even if his reasoning is… poor," Lexi said diplomatically. "Don't rule out any possibilities. Stay sharp, keep an eye on each other and keep in contact."

As Romeo and Banksy nodded Cross could hear the frustration in Lexi's voice. He could already tell this mission was going to be hard on her. It wasn't in Lexi's nature to stand back while others worked. She needed to be in the center of the action. Her mind excelled when she was placed under stress. Having to watch from afar, especially if anything dangerous could happen, was just about the worst situation Lexi could be put in.

Cross reached out and gave Lexi a small squeeze on the arm. She gave him a strained smile as Romeo and Banksy began to bicker again, but they both knew that was a good sign. Things were only bad if they weren't arguing.

"I'll keep an eye on them," Cross said softly.

"Then who will keep an eye on you?" Lexi asked with a slightly worried smile.

Cross glanced at the door as the knob began to turn and the door to the room opened. Makina entered holding an impressive assortment of pastries along with a large cookie held neatly between her teeth. She dropped the pastries onto the table and turned to Cross.

"This is only half of what I wanted," Makina between bites of the cookie. She held out her free hand. "I will need more money before you go."

Cross looked around her to Lexi and sighed. "I think can manage on my own for a few days, so long as you can keep an eye on her for me."