"Wait, wait, wait... What did you just call him?" Peter grinned, tenting his fingers.
"I didn't call anyone anything."
"A few seconds ago, what did you call him?"
"I did not call him anything, Venkman," Egon hurried over to Ray who was retrieving his now occupied trap.
"You are a horrible liar, Egon... I just heard you call Ray 'cookie.'"
"I said no such thing. You obviously misheard me."
"Then what did you say?"
"Quickly. I said quickly."
"Now Egon, what did I just tell you about lying?"
"Looks like we're done here," Ray interrupted, weakly.
"Is that your pet name for him? A little Freudian slip during all the excitement?"
E
Part One: Lie of Convenience
"Um . . . he'll probably come off as really stiff and formal, but he's like that a lot when he first meets people. He'll probably call you Miss Yamamoto until you tell him to stop, too."
Julie smiled, as much as at Ben's nervousness as at the picture he was painting of his best friend. She twined her arm a little tighter through his, snuggling a bit closer on the chill autumn afternoon.
"And he won't shake hands. Don't even bother trying."
"All right," she promised mildly as he angled the umbrella he carried better to shield her from the gentle rain.
"And don't ask about his accent. He doesn't know he has one
Part Four: The Truth About Lies
He hesitated outside the bedroom door and then wondered why. It wasn't as if Dexter was going to bite him, though he had seen his friend snap often enough. Even if he did, Ben still had three years, seven inches, and at least thirty pounds on the redhead. Was he afraid? Perhaps a little, he reasoned. This was probably the most genuine friendship he'd ever had, and to have the admiration and respect of someone as brilliant as Dexter meant a lot to him. He didn't want to lose that connection or have their easy camaraderie change in any way. It had been a dramatic and emotionally traumatic day. His feelings had r
Five: Dexpertise
The meeting resumed but in twice the allotted time. It was General Shaan who caused the delay when he drew Dexter off to the side for a moment, and the Dex Luthor mode was switched off like a light. All the people attending the meeting save Ben saw fit to get coffee at that exact time so as to eavesdrop. Ben, already fortified with a fresh cup of coffee, continued with his appointed task of doodling, stealing Dexter's engineering pencil since it had a finer tip than the one he'd been issued. He dialed through the aliens in the Omnitrix, looking for inspiration, and had just started drawing a zombie Galvin when Dexter came bo
Kewel Off
One: Dex a la Mode
It was all Professor Utonium's fault. Of that there was no doubt. To his credit he never tried to deny the charge, but instead took smug pride in what he'd initiated.
It started innocently enough on Christmas morning almost four years prior. It was Dexter's first Christmas with the Utoniums and they all had a heightened sense of excitement with a new member of the family present. Utonium had been determined to make the holiday a memorable one for all the children and to include the boy genius in their traditions and maybe even to establish some new ones since Dexter was going to be a permanent member of the fam
Two: 126 Vs the Teacher from the Black Lagoon
Thought there was no way he could know it, Sergeant Charles Phillip "Chip" Morton, head of DexLabs Security, had served in the Kids Next Door with distinction and honor from the week he turned eight all the way up to the last hour before his thirteenth birthday. Promoted through the ranks until he was made second in command of Sector T, he had eventually been tapped to serve as KND Chief of Intelligence. His service was notable for having averted a disaster involving a bumper crop of Brussels sprouts being delivered to local schools, a herd of longhorn cattle, and twenty KND operatives with pea s
Three: Betrayed
"Everything all right, Professor?"
He didn't recognize his own voice as he softly said, "No."
Pressing his hands to his forehead, Utonium closed his eyes and tried to restore some semblance of order to the riot of thoughts and emotions coursing through him. Nausea gripped him at the thought of what Mandy had just told him.
"Sir?" pressed Morton. "What happened?"
"The Fusion Dexter. It tunneled under DexLabs and captured Dexter and DeeDee."
Morton paled. "Are they okay? Are they back home?"
He nodded, not opening his eyes as he tried to combat a headache. "Th-they're alive. Dexter . . . he almost didn't make it. Ben . .
The Atheist Ten Commandments
I. Thou shalt breathe to send oxygen to thy lungs, and thou shalt breathe repetitively for all of thy existence, except if thou beist underwater, or if thou beist in the presence of toxic gases, during which time thou shalt not breathe.
II. Thou shalt consume thy nutrition, doing so in the correct ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, and thou shalt not consume too many saturated fats, for lo, those who do shall be called obese.
III. When thou hast processed thy nutrition, thou shalt excrete the waste, be it of a solid or of a liquid nature, and thou shalt not do so in a way that i