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Description
This is Paradox Action News 5, bringing you all the news all the time! I'm Brenda Gillingham, your anchor this morning...

Charlotte looked up from her homework to watch the news. She always watched at least the morning headlines: she had what she called a "Thirst for Knowledge." Others migh call her a gossip, but she tried not to pay too much attention to them.

Today's headline: Terrorists hiding in Paradox? It's more likely than you'd think, according to the PPD.

"Breakfast is served, Cherie!"

Charlotte's father poked his head into her room, holding a large breakfast plate.

"Eggs Benedict," he proudly proclaimed. "Your favorite!"

Charlotte giggled, getting up and taking the plate, kissing him on the cheek. "You say that about everything, Dad."

"C'est vrai, non? Everything I make is your favorite!"

Gerard Beauregarde was a tall, wiry sort of person with an ever-cheerful personality. He came from France, and spoke with a thick accent, which he had, somewhat, passed down to his daughter. He was perpetually optimistic to cope with a painful divorce: years ago, when Charlotte was just a little girl, his wife had left him, taking everything he owned in a legal whirlwind. But she had made no attempt to take custody of Charlotte, and so Gerard had made the best of it. The two of them had moved to a little apartment downtown--it wasn't the nicest place, but it was their home.

The suspects have been seen entering the condemned Materas Laboratories for weeks. However, today, an infiltration of the Labs is planned and will be executed by the Paradox S.W.A.T. team.

"Sounds serious," mused Gerard. "Don't you pass by the Labs on your way to school?"

"Y-yeah, but I never saw anyone go through the gates."

The suspects are considered armed and extremely dangerous. The Paradox Police Department asserts that the recent increase in crime may be due to these outlaws.

Charlotte chuckled darkly at that thought. "That's not true. All of that crime's from the silly little 'gang' that's been growing in our school."

"Really? A gang?"

"Don't worry, Dad. They just shoplift and vandalize stuff. Nothing dangerous."

These terrorists are suspected to be students at Paradox High. Neither has been identified, so students are encouraged to view the following composite sketches carefully...

Charlotte looked up from her eggs, and her jaw dropped. There, staring at her from the television, were rough sketches of Weiss and the girl he had been with when she saw him just weeks before.

"Oh my God," she muttered, dropping her fork.

"Cherie? Something wrong?"

"I... I need to go."

"Excuse me? You don't know those terrorists, do you?"

"They're not terrorists, Dad, I... I have to warn them."

Charlotte got up, put her plate down, and started out the door.  "I'll be back."

"Charlotte, you will do no such thing! Charlotte!"

It was too late. The girl was running down the street, in far better shape than her father. He had no chance to catch up with her, and she was gone within seconds.

.   .   .

The first light of the morning filtered in through the high windows of the Materas Laboratories, gently dancing across the faces of Weiss and Penelope, who had their arms gently around each other. The light woke Penelope up, and she smiled as she saw Weiss beside her.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she whispered. "Did you sleep well?"

He rubbed his eyes and groaned. It was too early for him.

"Slept like a baby. I still am, come to think of it."

"C'mon, I'm not going to be able to wake you up every single morning. Get up and greet the new day! Who knows what adventures it will bring?"

Weiss gave her an incredulous stare.

"Penelope, you are the single cheesiest person I have ever met."

She gave him a squeeze, and sat up. "I'm sorry. Can I help it if I'm in a good mood? I just woke up on a beautiful morning snuggled next to a handsome young man who, only yesterday, saved my life."

Weiss turned red and stared down at his feet. "Come on, Penny, you don't have to tease me like that..."

"Oh, you're such a baby. Besides... I'm not teasing. I mean it, Weiss." Penelope's voice became low, and she crept in close to Weiss's face.

"You've really done a lot for me," she cooed. "I owe you my life a couple of times over. So, you know... I think I'd like to stay with you for a while. I mean, if that would be okay with you."

"I... Of course. I mean... You want us to be together, right?"

Penelope nodded with a bit of a laugh, and then, Weiss nodded too. With another hug, she lay back down, grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank you," she said.

"Hey," a voice called from the window. "Getting lucky, Weiss? Good to see; I didn't think you had it in you."

The two looked up to see a pigtailed silhouette waving at them from the window. Penelope stood up and stormed over, embarrassed and angry at the intruder.

"He wasn't getting anything, thank you!"

"Sure." The girl flipped herself into the window, dangled from the sill, and dropped to the floor.

"Who are you," demanded Penelope with a firy look in her eyes, "And what the Hell do you think you're doing here?"

"Hey, calm down. Sorry I had to walk in on you like that, I had to get in somehow. I didn't know this was your room. I'm Charlotte, by the way. We met on the street, remember?"

"Oh," said Penelope, calming somewhat. "You're Weiss's friend, right?"

"Right. And you're Penelope Materas, aren't you?"

"Wh... No, I told you..."

"And you were awfully convincing with that hoodie on. But, look at you. You're the spitting image of your mom, and that arm with the Materas logo all over it is kind of a dead giveaway."

"D...did you know my mom?"

"No. Did a big research project on her Freshman year, though. The theme was Triumph and Tragedy... I got an A on that one."

Charlotte frowned and looked to the floor. "Now, what was I doing?"

"That's a good question," said Weiss, now standing beside Penelope. "It's not often we get visitors. Why would you come here?"

"Hey, mister, I've got plenty of questions for you, too. But I'm going to skip them for now. You both need to follow me."

"What?" asked Penelope. "Why?"

"You two are in quite a bit of trouble, and I'm going to get you out of it."

"What kind of trouble could we possibly be in? Nobody knows that either of us exist!"

"Well, the Paradox Police Department does. They seem to think you're terrorists, and are going to send in a SWAT team to arrest you today. Luckily, they were stupid enough to say so on the news this morning. Now I knew my little Weiss wouldn't be smart enough to be a terrorist AND evade the government for this long, so I figured you must be innocent and came to get you. Now, they've got sentries around the front, but I don't think they're expecting an escape from the rear, considering they think you're not expecting them. So let's go!"

Weiss and Penelope exchanged a glance of disbelief.

"Charlotte..." Weiss knew that his friend was prone to exaggeration. "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"Wait, Weiss." Penelope pulled him aside and started to whisper in his ear. "Does it matter? We have to leave this morning anyway. If she's right, we don't want to risk being caught by the police. Something tells me that You-Know-Who wouldn't like that very much. And if she's wrong, what's the harm? Climbing out the back shouldn't be too tough."

Weiss sighed, and turned back to Charlotte. "Alright," he said. "We'll go. Lead the way."

Charlotte smiled triumphantly, and scrambled back out the window. Penelope smiled at Weiss.

"See? I told you we were having fun. We can finish this conversation later," she added with a wink.

She grabbed a coat from her closet, threw it on, and ran out after Charlotte. Weiss followed reluctantly.

.   .   .

"Alright," said Charlotte as the three of them sat, exhausted, on a park bench on the outskirts of town. "Now can you do a bit of explaining?"

"Well," said Penelope, "It is a long story."
"We've been all over the place," Weiss added. "It would take forever to try to explain it."

"Oh, really? Well, then, I suppose danger and excitement are great catalysts for a relationship..."

"Danger? Charlotte, where did you get that idea?"

"You just got chased out of your home--I assume that was your home--by a SWAT team without breaking a sweat. It makes sense that that sort of thing would follow you around. Facing danger alongside a man like Weiss for months..."

Penelope smiled. "She's awfully perceptive, Weiss."

"Don't I know it."

"Come on, guys," Charlotte laughed. "It doesn't take a whole lot of perception to see two people in bed together."

"H-hey!"

"But seriously," she said, her voice turning somber. "There's been a lot going on since you two disappeared-Reapers, for instance. And there are people who've reported that they saw into 'another world-all right when you left. That's too much of a coincidence for my tastes, Wakefield."

The park was silent for a moment, save for the chirping of birds above them and the angry protesters a few hundred feet away. Weiss cleared his throat and began to tell his story.

He told Charlotte about going to the Dark Realm and meeting Anemonae and Manfred. He talked about the Museum, and of Samaiel, the man who thought himself Death. He described how he had lost May, and how he had found Penelope. She jumped in then, giving Charlotte a small taste of what it was like to live in her bleak home and how she had found herself there. Finally, they told her how they escaped and wound up back in the Labs.

She stared back at them, speechless.

"Yeah," said Weiss, chuckling awkwardly. "Pretty crazy, isn't it?"

"Crazy doesn't begin to describe it…" Charlotte sighed and stared at the protesters. Reaper worshippers, it seemed. "To be honest, Weiss, I have a hard time believing a lot of that. I mean, you're telling me that you just flipped a switch on P.Ene.Lo.P.E. and it started right away?"

"Pulled a lever," corrected Weiss.

"Whatever. It took them weeks to warm it up before they tried to run it. And there was a huge movement to recover the reactor after the incident… and they couldn't recover anything."

Penelope gave Weiss a curious glance.

"She's right, you know. That part of the story always did bother me. Either the reactor was already warmed up or-"

-She wants to touch me, wo-oah, she wants to love me, wo-oah-

Blushing hotly, Charlotte took a cellphone out of her purse, looked at the screen, and answered it.

"Papa? Yes, it's me!" She gasped. "Oh, God… I'll be right there, Papa!" She flipped the phone shut. "I have to go," she said, panicking.

"What's wrong?" asked Weiss as he got up to follow her.

"Nothing! Don't even think about following me, comprenez-vous?" Charlotte hesitated for a moment, then ran off, leaving Weiss and Penelope behind.

"Sh-should we go after her?" Penelope said, apprehensive.

"No," said Weiss, helping her up from the bench. "She does this sort of thing a lot. It seems to happen conveniently when she finds herself in an uncomfortable situation. That girl has more family emergencies than the Sopranos…"

"What?"

"Never mind. Let's go home, Penny."

"Home? We can't go there! It was just surrounded by the police!"

Weiss just winked at her as he led her out of the park.

.   .   .

"Your house? Weiss, that's insane! If they found us at the Labs, what makes you think we're any safer at your own home?"

"Calm down, Penny," said Weiss as he pulled a key from underneath his doormat and unlocked the door. "We'll be just fine. This house doesn't have any official connection with me-just the child service agency who used to deal with me-and I don't think the police actually know anything about us, anyway."

"Famous last words," muttered Penelope, walking through the door. "So this is where you live…"

"Yeah. It's not much, but I guess I like it enough."

Penelope picked up a picture sitting on an end table. In it, Weiss stood with an arm around May in front of a patch of trees. She looked at it, then at him.

"You look a lot different."

"Really? That's odd, that picture was taken just before I left here…"

"It's been almost a year now, hasn't it?"

Weiss stood behind Penelope and looked down at the picture.

"Do I really look that much different?"

"Yeah. You look more… mature." She handed the picture to him. "Hey, can you point me towards the bathroom?"

Weiss jerked a thumb at the hallway. "Up there, at the top of the stairs."

"Thanks."

Weiss stared at the photograph for a moment, as Penelope climbed the stairs. He looked at May, expecting to feel terribly lonely-but he didn't. He thought to himself that he must be letting go. The Weiss in the picture would have never let go of the girl he held in his arms. Penelope was right-he had changed.

As he put the picture down, a scream came from upstairs.

"Weiss! Help!"

He stormed up the stairs, to see Penelope held in a headlock by a strange man, a twisted, demonic blade at her throat.

The blade was the Scythe of Death.

Description
This is Paradox Action News 5, bringing you all the news all the time! I'm Brenda Gillingham, your anchor this morning...

Charlotte looked up from her homework to watch the news. She always watched at least the morning headlines: she had what she called a "Thirst for Knowledge." Others migh call her a gossip, but she tried not to pay too much attention to them.

Today's headline: Terrorists hiding in Paradox? It's more likely than you'd think, according to the PPD.

"Breakfast is served, Cherie!"

Charlotte's father poked his head into her room, holding a large breakfast plate.

"Eggs Benedict," he proudly proclaimed. "Your favorite!"

Charlotte giggled, getting up and taking the plate, kissing him on the cheek. "You say that about everything, Dad."

"C'est vrai, non? Everything I make is your favorite!"

Gerard Beauregarde was a tall, wiry sort of person with an ever-cheerful personality. He came from France, and spoke with a thick accent, which he had, somewhat, passed down to his daughter. He was perpetually optimistic to cope with a painful divorce: years ago, when Charlotte was just a little girl, his wife had left him, taking everything he owned in a legal whirlwind. But she had made no attempt to take custody of Charlotte, and so Gerard had made the best of it. The two of them had moved to a little apartment downtown--it wasn't the nicest place, but it was their home.

The suspects have been seen entering the condemned Materas Laboratories for weeks. However, today, an infiltration of the Labs is planned and will be executed by the Paradox S.W.A.T. team.

"Sounds serious," mused Gerard. "Don't you pass by the Labs on your way to school?"

"Y-yeah, but I never saw anyone go through the gates."

The suspects are considered armed and extremely dangerous. The Paradox Police Department asserts that the recent increase in crime may be due to these outlaws.

Charlotte chuckled darkly at that thought. "That's not true. All of that crime's from the silly little 'gang' that's been growing in our school."

"Really? A gang?"

"Don't worry, Dad. They just shoplift and vandalize stuff. Nothing dangerous."

These terrorists are suspected to be students at Paradox High. Neither has been identified, so students are encouraged to view the following composite sketches carefully...

Charlotte looked up from her eggs, and her jaw dropped. There, staring at her from the television, were rough sketches of Weiss and the girl he had been with when she saw him just weeks before.

"Oh my God," she muttered, dropping her fork.

"Cherie? Something wrong?"

"I... I need to go."

"Excuse me? You don't know those terrorists, do you?"

"They're not terrorists, Dad, I... I have to warn them."

Charlotte got up, put her plate down, and started out the door.  "I'll be back."

"Charlotte, you will do no such thing! Charlotte!"

It was too late. The girl was running down the street, in far better shape than her father. He had no chance to catch up with her, and she was gone within seconds.

.   .   .

The first light of the morning filtered in through the high windows of the Materas Laboratories, gently dancing across the faces of Weiss and Penelope, who had their arms gently around each other. The light woke Penelope up, and she smiled as she saw Weiss beside her.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she whispered. "Did you sleep well?"

He rubbed his eyes and groaned. It was too early for him.

"Slept like a baby. I still am, come to think of it."

"C'mon, I'm not going to be able to wake you up every single morning. Get up and greet the new day! Who knows what adventures it will bring?"

Weiss gave her an incredulous stare.

"Penelope, you are the single cheesiest person I have ever met."

She gave him a squeeze, and sat up. "I'm sorry. Can I help it if I'm in a good mood? I just woke up on a beautiful morning snuggled next to a handsome young man who, only yesterday, saved my life."

Weiss turned red and stared down at his feet. "Come on, Penny, you don't have to tease me like that..."

"Oh, you're such a baby. Besides... I'm not teasing. I mean it, Weiss." Penelope's voice became low, and she crept in close to Weiss's face.

"You've really done a lot for me," she cooed. "I owe you my life a couple of times over. So, you know... I think I'd like to stay with you for a while. I mean, if that would be okay with you."

"I... Of course. I mean... You want us to be together, right?"

Penelope nodded with a bit of a laugh, and then, Weiss nodded too. With another hug, she lay back down, grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank you," she said.

"Hey," a voice called from the window. "Getting lucky, Weiss? Good to see; I didn't think you had it in you."

The two looked up to see a pigtailed silhouette waving at them from the window. Penelope stood up and stormed over, embarrassed and angry at the intruder.

"He wasn't getting anything, thank you!"

"Sure." The girl flipped herself into the window, dangled from the sill, and dropped to the floor.

"Who are you," demanded Penelope with a firy look in her eyes, "And what the Hell do you think you're doing here?"

"Hey, calm down. Sorry I had to walk in on you like that, I had to get in somehow. I didn't know this was your room. I'm Charlotte, by the way. We met on the street, remember?"

"Oh," said Penelope, calming somewhat. "You're Weiss's friend, right?"

"Right. And you're Penelope Materas, aren't you?"

"Wh... No, I told you..."

"And you were awfully convincing with that hoodie on. But, look at you. You're the spitting image of your mom, and that arm with the Materas logo all over it is kind of a dead giveaway."

"D...did you know my mom?"

"No. Did a big research project on her Freshman year, though. The theme was Triumph and Tragedy... I got an A on that one."

Charlotte frowned and looked to the floor. "Now, what was I doing?"

"That's a good question," said Weiss, now standing beside Penelope. "It's not often we get visitors. Why would you come here?"

"Hey, mister, I've got plenty of questions for you, too. But I'm going to skip them for now. You both need to follow me."

"What?" asked Penelope. "Why?"

"You two are in quite a bit of trouble, and I'm going to get you out of it."

"What kind of trouble could we possibly be in? Nobody knows that either of us exist!"

"Well, the Paradox Police Department does. They seem to think you're terrorists, and are going to send in a SWAT team to arrest you today. Luckily, they were stupid enough to say so on the news this morning. Now I knew my little Weiss wouldn't be smart enough to be a terrorist AND evade the government for this long, so I figured you must be innocent and came to get you. Now, they've got sentries around the front, but I don't think they're expecting an escape from the rear, considering they think you're not expecting them. So let's go!"

Weiss and Penelope exchanged a glance of disbelief.

"Charlotte..." Weiss knew that his friend was prone to exaggeration. "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"Wait, Weiss." Penelope pulled him aside and started to whisper in his ear. "Does it matter? We have to leave this morning anyway. If she's right, we don't want to risk being caught by the police. Something tells me that You-Know-Who wouldn't like that very much. And if she's wrong, what's the harm? Climbing out the back shouldn't be too tough."

Weiss sighed, and turned back to Charlotte. "Alright," he said. "We'll go. Lead the way."

Charlotte smiled triumphantly, and scrambled back out the window. Penelope smiled at Weiss.

"See? I told you we were having fun. We can finish this conversation later," she added with a wink.

She grabbed a coat from her closet, threw it on, and ran out after Charlotte. Weiss followed reluctantly.

.   .   .

"Alright," said Charlotte as the three of them sat, exhausted, on a park bench on the outskirts of town. "Now can you do a bit of explaining?"

"Well," said Penelope, "It is a long story."
"We've been all over the place," Weiss added. "It would take forever to try to explain it."

"Oh, really? Well, then, I suppose danger and excitement are great catalysts for a relationship..."

"Danger? Charlotte, where did you get that idea?"

"You just got chased out of your home--I assume that was your home--by a SWAT team without breaking a sweat. It makes sense that that sort of thing would follow you around. Facing danger alongside a man like Weiss for months..."

Penelope smiled. "She's awfully perceptive, Weiss."

"Don't I know it."

"Come on, guys," Charlotte laughed. "It doesn't take a whole lot of perception to see two people in bed together."

"H-hey!"

"But seriously," she said, her voice turning somber. "There's been a lot going on since you two disappeared-Reapers, for instance. And there are people who've reported that they saw into 'another world-all right when you left. That's too much of a coincidence for my tastes, Wakefield."

The park was silent for a moment, save for the chirping of birds above them and the angry protesters a few hundred feet away. Weiss cleared his throat and began to tell his story.

He told Charlotte about going to the Dark Realm and meeting Anemonae and Manfred. He talked about the Museum, and of Samaiel, the man who thought himself Death. He described how he had lost May, and how he had found Penelope. She jumped in then, giving Charlotte a small taste of what it was like to live in her bleak home and how she had found herself there. Finally, they told her how they escaped and wound up back in the Labs.

She stared back at them, speechless.

"Yeah," said Weiss, chuckling awkwardly. "Pretty crazy, isn't it?"

"Crazy doesn't begin to describe it…" Charlotte sighed and stared at the protesters. Reaper worshippers, it seemed. "To be honest, Weiss, I have a hard time believing a lot of that. I mean, you're telling me that you just flipped a switch on P.Ene.Lo.P.E. and it started right away?"

"Pulled a lever," corrected Weiss.

"Whatever. It took them weeks to warm it up before they tried to run it. And there was a huge movement to recover the reactor after the incident… and they couldn't recover anything."

Penelope gave Weiss a curious glance.

"She's right, you know. That part of the story always did bother me. Either the reactor was already warmed up or-"

-She wants to touch me, wo-oah, she wants to love me, wo-oah-

Blushing hotly, Charlotte took a cellphone out of her purse, looked at the screen, and answered it.

"Papa? Yes, it's me!" She gasped. "Oh, God… I'll be right there, Papa!" She flipped the phone shut. "I have to go," she said, panicking.

"What's wrong?" asked Weiss as he got up to follow her.

"Nothing! Don't even think about following me, comprenez-vous?" Charlotte hesitated for a moment, then ran off, leaving Weiss and Penelope behind.

"Sh-should we go after her?" Penelope said, apprehensive.

"No," said Weiss, helping her up from the bench. "She does this sort of thing a lot. It seems to happen conveniently when she finds herself in an uncomfortable situation. That girl has more family emergencies than the Sopranos…"

"What?"

"Never mind. Let's go home, Penny."

"Home? We can't go there! It was just surrounded by the police!"

Weiss just winked at her as he led her out of the park.

.   .   .

"Your house? Weiss, that's insane! If they found us at the Labs, what makes you think we're any safer at your own home?"

"Calm down, Penny," said Weiss as he pulled a key from underneath his doormat and unlocked the door. "We'll be just fine. This house doesn't have any official connection with me-just the child service agency who used to deal with me-and I don't think the police actually know anything about us, anyway."

"Famous last words," muttered Penelope, walking through the door. "So this is where you live…"

"Yeah. It's not much, but I guess I like it enough."

Penelope picked up a picture sitting on an end table. In it, Weiss stood with an arm around May in front of a patch of trees. She looked at it, then at him.

"You look a lot different."

"Really? That's odd, that picture was taken just before I left here…"

"It's been almost a year now, hasn't it?"

Weiss stood behind Penelope and looked down at the picture.

"Do I really look that much different?"

"Yeah. You look more… mature." She handed the picture to him. "Hey, can you point me towards the bathroom?"

Weiss jerked a thumb at the hallway. "Up there, at the top of the stairs."

"Thanks."

Weiss stared at the photograph for a moment, as Penelope climbed the stairs. He looked at May, expecting to feel terribly lonely-but he didn't. He thought to himself that he must be letting go. The Weiss in the picture would have never let go of the girl he held in his arms. Penelope was right-he had changed.

As he put the picture down, a scream came from upstairs.

"Weiss! Help!"

He stormed up the stairs, to see Penelope held in a headlock by a strange man, a twisted, demonic blade at her throat.

The blade was the Scythe of Death.