Lori Starrett looked up at the sound of klaxons. "What's going on?" she demanded. "Did Mandy pull the fire alarm again?"
Her husband Bill shook his head. "That's not what the fire alarm sounds like," he pointed out. "Maybe Helen or Niamh will have more information."
The door to the De-Glitterifier room (with said De-Glitterifier still under repairs) opened and Dr Niamh Tran came running out, blonde and panicking. "Something's happened -- all the test subjects have disappeared!"
Lori blinked. "Disappeared?" she echoed.
"Vanished in puffs of Urple smoke," clarified Niamh. Her phone suddenly rang. "Hold on, lemme get this."
Bill and Lori exchanged a look. "So the Suvians have vanished," said Bill, just as a nearby console pinged with a message. "Scratch that, apparently all Suvians have vanished."
"Isn't that a good thing?" wondered Lori. "This whole organisation is dedicated to eradicating them, and if they've all just vanished..."
"Would sorta put us out of a job," Bill pointed out. "And it's not like anyone back home will believe us anymore when we tell them what we've been up to for more than a decade."
"We'd probably end up transferred to the MRD or something," said Lori, "though that's not exactly a difficult change. But if Sues are gone, then what's the point of a De-Glitterifier?"
Bill sighed. "And DMS agents would probably have to transfer out to other departments."
Lori's phone then vibrated with a message. She pulled it out. "It's from Liam," she reported, as Niamh strode back into the room. "Anything, Niamh?"
"Apparently there's a party in the Cafeteria," reported Niamh, "celebrating the vanishing of all Suvians. What's Liam saying?"
"I haven't read it yet," said Lori. But when she did, her heart began to sank:
Something's happened
A bunch of my classmates just disappeared
Did you and dad do something?
"Some of Liam's classmates are also gone," Lori announced. "He's wondering if we did anything."
"Nothing beyond what we usually do," said Niamh, crossing her arms. "Does he know which kids?"
Lori texted the question to Liam. Bill's own phone rang, too, and he sighed when he saw the caller ID. "It's Christianne and Eledhwen."
Lori groaned. "We need to stop taking their calls. They just keep using us for stuff."
"This could be serious, though," Bill pointed out. "We should at least make sure they haven't vanished, right?"
Lori snorted at the implication that Christianne and Eledhwen were of Suvian origin. "You talk to them," she said, just as Liam messaged back with a list of names. "Oh, no."
"Oh, no?" echoed Bill and Niamh.
"Most of the kids on the list are badfic rescues," said Lori. "That, plus the Sues in our experiment room --"
Bill frowned, and put his phone on speaker. A panicked scream rang out, causing the three scientists to wince.
"--I LOOKED AWAY FROM MURIEL FOR JUST ONE SECOND AND THEN SHE'S GONE!" shrieked Christianne's voice. "I tried calling John, too, but he's not picking up his phone, and neither are his friends --"
"He has friends?" wondered Bill.
"Yeah, I don't know how that happened, but I guess when you get in trouble for opening a plothole to Rollercoaster Tycoon together you end up becoming friends." Christianne's sigh rustled like static. "I'll call Jacques."
"Isn't Agent Bonnefoy a badfic rescue, too?" asked Lori, in spite of herself.
"I'll call Jacques," repeated Christianne in a voice of increased panic before hanging up the call. Bill looked over at Lori, his eyebrows raised.
Lori groaned. "Fine. We'll go help them look for their missing children. But we're picking up Liam first."
Also fascinated by the concept. Also an AU!
