Elise was very relieved to return home as the night ended. When the initial terror of Dan and Pinkie having children worked its way through Chris, he’d been able to point out the effect new parenthood tended to have on the sex life, which was all it took to convince Dan to reconsider his sudden drive towards parenthood for the moment, much as similar details had discouraged him and Pinkie from absconding permanently with Dennis when given the chance. Elise made a mental note to show Chris just how much she appreciated his skills at handling Dan, and everything else he’d done for all of them that had gone unsung. She wondered if Pinkie would help her compose a song praising Chris, that would surely blow his socks off.

She chuckled softly at the thought as she pulled the blanket further up Chris’ body as he snored away on the couch. They’d meant to finish off the night with their own movie night, but that could always wait for tomorrow. The terror from earlier had worn them both out, and Chris was out like a light, leaving her to flip the channels to find something to knock her out.

As she did so, however, her wrist unit beeped an alert. Seeing as Chris was already asleep, she simply put earmuffs over his ears before opening communications. “This is Dancing Shadow, go ahead.”

The TV screen promptly shifted to the black screen with the blue line tracing the speech of the one on the other end. “Dancing Shadow, we have...an unusual situation here.”

Elise raised an eyebrow. “Define unusual,” she requested.

“An unknown agent made her way past all of our security using your access codes,” the voice from the other end clarified. “Given you are a master of disguise, we weren’t even aware it wasn’t you until she made her way to my office and asked me to give you a message.”

Elise pursed her lips in confusion. That was certainly an unusual and unexpected situation. Someone with all her clearance codes and the training to pass through the entire facility...Elise herself didn’t even know where her contact’s office was! “What was the message?” she asked worriedly.

“It was a little unusual...give me a moment…” There was a shuffling of papers. “Here it is. Fractal Butterfly On the Half Shell, Rogue Apprentice, Familiar Strange, 10 minutes.” When Elise didn’t respond immediately, the voice continued. “Dancing Shadow, do you copy?”

“I copy,” Elise responded quickly. “Exactly how long ago did she leave?”

“...eight minutes, 37 seconds ago-”

“I need to see to this right away,” Elise interrupted. “Dancing Shadow out.” She quickly cut the connection and raced for the garage to open it.

She knew what those protocols meant, even if she’d never expected them to be used. And she knew what she needed to do. It would take quite a bit of paperwork shuffling, but she needed to get started on it before Chris woke up.

Less than a minute later, a company car drove up, coming to a halt right in front of the garage. Elise smiled at the jumpsuit-clad figure that exited the vehicle. “I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you tonight,” she offered playfully. “Miss Mandel.”

Last Laugh chuckled as she brushed her hair back. “I didn’t expect to see me tonight either. I thought for sure I was done for with my timeline. Teach me to underestimate myself...and my inheritance.”

“I’m sure you have quite the story for me, if you choose to tell me,” Elise confirmed. “For now...let’s see about a cover story, shall we?”

“Yeah,” Last Laugh confirmed as she took a seat. “It’ll be nice to finally have a name that isn’t a code name…”

End Guest Arc

Author's Notes:

Special thanks again to Tatsurou for writing this excited and epic guest arc for this story.

If you enjoy crossover work, be sure to check his stories out. He's got plenty crossover stuff to go around.