Disclaimer: I do not own Greek Mythology. I do not own Absolute Boyfriend. I do not own much. Hell, I don't even own my soul. That belongs to the highest bidder on EBay. So far, I'm up to twenty dollars and a used popsicle stick! Hurray!

Author's Note: The plotbunnies made me do it! I swear on my soul...oh wait, no...scratch that. Anyways, this story is a little...weird. I really don't expect it to go that far-but if you're really passionate about me continuing then please let me know. Either way, I'll just play this by ear and see how I'm feeling about it at the end of the chapter.

Yes, the concept of "Absolute Boyfriend" does come into play here. No, we don't get to see Night. Night is Riiko's. Not mine. If he was in this story anyways, his circuits (if he has any...I'm up to book three in the manga) would fry.

Later on, Kingdom Hearts the AU whore comes into the picture too. You may roast me over your open flames after you read this, alright?

Oh, by the way… The main character's thoughts are in italics.

Chapter One: Mission Impossible

"How much do you know about section twenty one, sub-section ninety-nine double A?"

She was back here again... How many times had she been here? Personally, she'd stopped counting awhile ago when her caseload was lighter and was only in the double digits. While that seemed harsh, compared to what she had to endure now it sounded like Heaven! And every day that went by brought in more work. Sometimes she wished she never went into this "career" of sorts. Why didn't she settle for social worker or business manager?

"...Not much. I've never been there before."

She never got a single, fucking vacation. Not one! When she'd signed up for this it was in her contract that she was guaranteed at least two weeks of paid TLC! Whatever happened to that? Did it just jump off the page to go visit all the other worker's rights that were obviously missing as well?!

"Perfect-

I'm going to pause this for a second. I kinda lept abit ahead and you're probably wondering what the hell is going on here. So, let's start over again, shall we? Hi! My name is Merle Tyrel Conlan and I'm here to tell you my story... Well, actually, it's a lot of people's stories. Life is one, big story and we are the words. Without the words, there is no story. Without the story, the words loose meaning. But really, I'm the only one left who remembers it.

I work for I.D.A.F.A. The Inter-Dimensional Administration of Foreign Affairs. It's purpose is to protect the interests of "underdeveloped worlds". This agency became necessary after the discovery of the "rabbit hole" (as we like to call it. It's basically a rip in time and space allowing one to travel freely between different worlds. Pretty nifty, huh?) and the connection of the worlds. With this discovery, many things have transpired. Many wonderful things...but for every wonderful thing, one just as bad. Now that the bonds of each dimension's walls no longer trap us, we are free. Sort of. There are rules as to where one can visit. Only those worlds within the "Worlds Alliance" may be visited. After a certain incident with a certain someone who went to a certain underdeveloped world and caused certain mayhem to ensue, the law now states that anyone found meddling in the affairs with a underdeveloped world will be punished severely.

I am the exception to that rule.

Within the Administration there exists a certain group called Section X. I'm not quite sure why...it probably has to do with the fact that they take away your identity upon initiation and give you a new ('more unique!' so says my co-worker) name. All they do is take the letters of your name and scramble them and then add an X. It's really not that creative at all. I happen to really hate the name that they came up for me. I sorta think it's Karma come to haunt me. So, if you're lucky enough to make it to Section X, you too can have those you hold dear ripped away from you, the life you knew torn in half, and every record that you ever existed erased forever. On the plus side, you get a cool, new name!

…No, I'm not bitter. I had nothing left to loose when I joined. I'm just stating a fact.

Section X is the work-horse of I.D.A.F.A. While they're eating fish eggs and drinking expensive champagne, we're saving worlds. While they're spending tax money on totally legitimate reasons like a weekend get away to some tropical paradise, we're traveling into the uncharted depths of an unknown world to prevent an apocalypse…without the hopes of a FUCKING VACTION! This is why I hate bureaucrats. This is also why I should've never taken this job.

With all this enthusiasm about my career choice, you can imagine how I felt when my boss did this-

"-then it's settled! Thanks Merxel, I don't know what I would've done without you!"

Her eyes narrowed just slightly "It's Merle. Just Merle. And what do you mean 'it's settled'?"

The man sitting opposite of her shuffled through a messy stack of folders that lay upon his desk and after a few minutes found what he was looking for. He leaned over and placed it in front of the girl.

"Your new assignment!" He said cheerfully, a smile spread wide across his face "The details are all in-don't look at me that way, think of it as an-"

"Yeah, yeah…I know. 'An adventure'"

Yeah… Emphasis on the adventure part. Sure…

She stood up, grabbing the wretched folder while grumbling as was about to turn to leave when the boss spoke up. His usual light-hearted tone was missing and was now replaced with a more dark, serious attitude. "You know, I understand that you're having a rough time. Given the things you've gone through, you're entitled to it…but don't overstress yourself and don't blame yourself for what happened. That's what starts burnout. You're one of the best we have. We don't want to loose you."

The girl's face contorted into what appeared to be half-way between a frown and a smirk. Of course, the man couldn't see it because her back was facing him.

"You've been reading those 'self-help' books again, haven't you?"

xXx

Merle walked with an air of gloom about her. You could almost see the cartoon storm cloud pouring a river of water down on her. A river of doom.

"'Don't overstress yourself' he says!" She exclaimed, mimicking her boss in an overly-exaggerated high-pitched voice. "'We don't want to loose you'! Stupid…little…"

After mumbling various death-threats under her breath and scaring the nice, new intern who had unfortunately chosen to get on the elevator with her, she made her way to the hangar-

We're stopping here too. The hangar is the designated "hang-out" area for Section X- although I.D.A.F.A. insists that we use the lounge room for our antics. It makes sense though. I mean, we all practically live in our ship being that most of the time we're off on missions and all.

And upon entering was tackled to the ground by…well, she couldn't tell seeing as how the impact on the cold, cement floor was making her see stars.

"Merxel!" exclaimed a cheery voice "You're back! How was that last mission? Did you kick some bad guy booty? Did you bring me back a present?"

Of all the Section X members, Xiagio is THE MOST carefree. Although it pisses me off, I have to admit that if we didn't have her the angst would swallow us whole. Most of the "antics" that happen in the hangar are instigated by her-like the teepeeing of all the ships that happened last month. There was so much toilet paper… To this day she still wont tell me how she got all of that toilet paper. I envy Xiagio a lot. Despite what's happened, she looks at life positively. And even if she does have her moments, she always seems to bounce right back from them. It's amazing…to me at least.

"Mrph, Mmrpph!"

"What?"

"Uh," interrupted a rather tall lad with long, silken hair "You might want to get off of her… I don't know but I think it'll help…"

That's Alxonn. He's our resident Mr. Brood-A-Lot. I bet that he could power a whole city with his brooding. We could use it as an alternative fuel…but then, it might release angst into the atmosphere-or lack of it-since you know, we're in outer space. Oh, wait! I never told you! I.D.A.F.A.'s main headquarters is in outer space above Medias, the home-planet of the "World's Alliance". It's kinda cool…if you're not afraid of heights-which I am!

The girl who was currently being smothered suddenly pushed off her offender. "No, I didn't."

The perky girl looked somewhat hurt but brightened back up again "Did you bring me a stuffed animal? Or maybe a relic of some sort? I like those-"

Xiagio collects curios. In fact, she has so many I think they gave her her own storage unit to house it all in. I don't know what the deal is with this obsessive collecting. I never really paid attention to it until she started annoying me about it.

"Listen. Use your listening ears, okay? I. Don't. Have. A. Present. Okay?"

"Why not!"

And some times, she acts like a child if she's not compensated for her services-although what exactly those "services" are is beyond me.

"BECAUSE I DON'T!" The other girl shouted angrily

"Well," Xiagio said in a quiet voice, bowing her head and laying on such a guilt trip that Merle felt somewhat guilty "I got you a present. I got you a big present."

Her "spidy senses" were tingling. Something was up. She regarded her suspiciously and asked "What kind of present?"

"The good kind!"

"Okay, that tells me nothing. Now what is it?"

"You're just going to have to open it and find out!"

"Well, where is it?"

The girl giggled, "You're going to have to look! It'll be like a treasure hunt!"

I usually try to stay away from getting angry at her. I mean, she's the only thing that keeps this Section from drowning in their own "tragic pasts" but…I couldn't help it…

"Ugh," Merle growled "I don't have time for this! I'll see you guys later. Bye."

And with that, the peeved female stormed off in the direction of a large, red ship, leaving the other two alone. Alxonn looked at his co-worker coolly and then to the angered girl who was now preparing the spacecraft for her newest mission.

"So, you think that this will work?" He said, his voice hushed a bit "I mean, she's been like this for…well, ever since we've known her."

The large, green eyes of the girl besides him seemed to stare right through anything presented to it; at the moment, it was Merle. She sighed, shaking her head "She's locked everything up so tight inside of her, she's about to break. The boss and I thought it would be good for her to go on a…vacation of sorts. It might help her, you know, feel again."

"And what about the present?"

"Oh," she replied "That will help too. I'm sure he'll be able to help…"

xXx

I never explained the term "underdeveloped world" did I? Well, allow me to elaborate. A world qualifies for the term underdeveloped when it's resident civilization is at the lower end of the "technologically advanced" scale. To put it simple, worlds that are too dumb to even BEGIN to consider the possibility of different realities as a serious issue earn the clever title "underdeveloped". These worlds are basically the Special Eds of the universe and it is I.D.A.F.A.s job to play their babysitter.

It's MY job to play their babysitter.

Some people look at these worlds as a sort of uncharted territory in which Manifest Destiny sings out a siren's call and beckons them to come and exploit a planet's natural resources for their own benifit. Some people regard them as a threat…even though it's people are probably still trying to event the wheel, they're somehow going to build a weapon of mass destruction and unleash it's nonexistent power on us. Some people think of them as a nuisance and couldn't care less whether they crash and burn, as long as it doesn't effect them, they're okay.

I'd probably be the last one. If it wasn't for I.D.A.F.A, I wouldn't give a crap. But since they pay me to care, I at least put up with them. Don't get me wrong though, they're as annoying as one of those digital pets.

The girl stared at the computer screen for a long time, reading the words over and over again. She thought that maybe if she read them enough times, she'd somehow come up with a different answer or that the words would magically rearrange themselves into something new. But…that wasn't the case. The words never moved and shifted into what she wanted to see. They just stood there mocking her with their existence. Merle sat in the pilot's seat in the bridge of her airship, the Ragnarok. All around her were computer screens that were inbuilt into the walls and holographic maps of different areas that were powered by the glowing crystal balls that hovered in midair. It was something you'd see out of an extreme sci-fi movie on a late Sunday night. She sat in shock. The source of this shock lay right there in front of her on the computer screen.

'Case File: 217,580,900

Section twenty-one, sub-section ninety-nine double A, area forty-six.

Mission assignment: Retrieve Apollo's Lyre.'

Her mission assignment was to waste precious airship fuel to obtain some random musical instrument from some random person! Her boss had sent her on a wild goose chase! A pointless search that was the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack! Just what did the boss need with a stupid musical instrument anyways? Was he taking up music lesions? Was this going to be like his bottle caps obsession in which I.D.A.F.A. went through a year's worth of crème soda in a week just so that the Boss could finish his collection and shut up about the whole thing? He had been known to assign missions for completely selfish reasons-like getting him lunch. Apparently the whole universe would explode if he didn't get a double cheese burger in a half an hour.

That's also his favorite game to play with newly initiated Section X members.

This WHOLE thing smelled fishy…but then, who was she to argue? She was assigned a mission and it was her job to carry it out to the best of her ability. It wasn't her place to ask questions but she still had to wonder: why did she feel so weird about the whole thing?

Merle grabbed the nearest floating crystal ball and tapped on it's surface lightly with her fingertips, causing the computer to scroll down a bit. At the same time, she leafed through the mass of papers in the folder her boss had given her, looking down occasionally and rereading certain parts over again. The information was vague. Apparently, this "Apollo" was the legendary god of the sun, healing, music, and prophesy who was featured in the ancient polytheistic religion of the Greeks, a civilization that lived a thousand years ago on the planet Earth. Of course, there were many "versions" of that particular planet and what little data she had said nothing about WHICH one it had originated from. After all, she was a former "Earthling" herself and she'd heard nothing about the ancient Greeks (although there once was a country on her planet NAMED Greece)-of course, she never really paid much attention in history class when she decided to attend.

Another major problem lay in the fact that no where in the information in the folder or on the computer even mentioned Apollo's lyre! There was nothing as to what it looked like or where to find it-just that it was supposedly enchanted and that he carried it around with him a lot. Not very reliable information considering it sounded more like an imaginative fairytale out of a kid's book. Because although many things existed in the universe, she refused to believe in a truly divine being. This "Apollo" was probably some over-glorified punk who had some psychic ability of sorts. And seeing as how this was an underdeveloped planet, it's dumb inhabitants probably worshipped this loser like he was something special. Well, thinking positively, she supposed that finding this idiot would be easy-just look for the guy with the biggest ego. That shouldn't be hard.

How hard would it be to steal a lyre anyways?

It was harder than I thought…

xXx

Well, I think it went okay. What about you? Tell me what you think. Review and I'll love you forever.