The Time Detectives reappeared on a beautiful, highly advanced planet, with a cloudy blue sky that resembled that of Earth. They were escorted into the golden palace by the Sovereign welcoming committee. The people were all completely golden too, from their skin, eyes, and hair to every article of clothing they wore.

"Good day, your excellence." Mobius greeted. "I'm called Mr. Paradox, this is Mr. Ouroboros, and we're the Time Detectives."

"Yes, of course." The High Priestess replied. "Quite a pleasure, I'm sure."

"The pleasure is all ours." Loki responded.

"That's what I meant, of course it's yours." Ayesha haughtily assumed. "You've undoubtedly found our people and our world far more superior to any others you would have in your line of work."

The detectives did their best to ignore the apparent condescension as Loki prepared his smarm. "It's certainly a vast improvement to the last palace we visited, wouldn't you agree, Mr. Paradox?"

"Yeah, definitely, Mr. Ouroboros. Very lovely planet you've got here."

"As a matter of fact, it reminds me of my homeland." Loki added.

"Your homeland?" Ayesha frowned. "How conceited."

"No, it was a compliment, I assure you." Loki insisted. "The gold reminds me of the palace I grew up in."

The golden priestess looked closer at her royal hireling. "No, your ancestry is mixed, half primitive, from a world of icy wasteland and eternal winter. It doesn't begin to compare to our world."

Loki's expression became puzzled. "How do you know about my true ancestry? I didn't figure it out myself for... well, over a thousand years, most of my life so far!"

"Really? Your homeland must have extremely low standards if they consider you a detective."

Loki glared at her, biting his tongue for the moment. He took a deep breath and relaxed his expression, preparing to steer the conversation back on course. "Well, it's true that my people aren't known for their keen powers of deduction, or any sort of intellect in general, but my partner-in-crime-solving and I truly are the two greatest detectives in the multiverse, so you can rest assured that we will solve your murder mystery and restore peace to your golden paradise, as well as your peace of mind." Loki calmly promised.

Ayesha smiled. "Well said, Mr. Ouroboros. I wish you luck in your investigation."

"Thank you, High Priestess Ayesha." Loki slightly bowed his head, though merely out of royal protocol and etiquette.

Mobius nodded, relieved. "So, could you please show us to the scene of the crime?"

Ayesha nodded. "My chambermaid will show you the way. Go."

"We'd be more than happy to." Loki stated truthfully.

As they were led out of the palace, Loki whispered to Mobius. "You know, I'm beginning to see the futility of this disguise, since someone seems to figure out my real identity in every case we've undertaken."

"Me too. By the way, I saw how you were seething when the priestess mocked your deductive skills, but you were very professional in the way you handled it: I'm proud of you."

Loki beamed at the praise, but he quickly reminded his friend. "You've seen my life on Asgard, Mo: I've become accustomed. But thank you. Sad to say, you were most certainly right to not bring Syl, or we would likely have another string of murders to account for!"

"Yeah." Mobius nodded.

They followed the Sovereign servant outside into a long, rectangular building. There were a few machines inside, some with brushes and some containing various liquids.

"Wait right here, foreigners."

"Wait?" Mobius repeated. "Wait for what?"

"It's mandatory for all foreigners to be sanitized before walking around on our home world: don't take it personally." She explained.

"Sanitized? How dare you even suggest-you-" Loki fumed.

"Easy, easy." Mobius put a calming hand on Loki's back.

"Like I said, it's nothing personal: it's regular procedure." The handmaiden repeated.

"We're going to inspect a dead body; shouldn't we be sanitized after that, not before?" Mobius argued.

"A dead Sovereign body: a corpse of our kind is still much cleaner than the living of any other race. Remove your jackets and shoes please. And your hat."

Loki and Mobius glanced uncomfortably at each other. Mobius shrugged, and they reluctantly did as instructed.

"Now stand still. This won't hurt a bit."

She pressed a button, and one of the machines unleashed the liquid cleaners on the detective duo. The other type of machine followed up by brushing them with a very foamy soap, trying in vain not to chuckle as the cleansing brushes tickled them all over. They were subsequently rinsed with a douse of water, which was pleasantly warm, as if they were going through a carwash. A blast of hot air quickly dried them off, but they were also covered with a golden-tinted gas before they were approved to put on their shoes and coats again.

"Sanitation complete. The crime scene is this way." The maid beckoned them.

"Why do I smell like a new car?" Mobius wondered.

"Well, judging from our experience so far, if our killer is a foreigner, he or she has my sympathy." Loki quipped, fixing his own hair with magic.

The group soon reached the house the murder had taken place in, and the detectives noticed the golden corpse, hung by the neck by a thick rope from the ceiling.

"I thought you said this was a murder; this looks more like suicide." Mobius remarked during his inspection.

"No Sovereign has ever committed suicide: we're far too happy, too perfect. It had to be murder." The Sovereign inspector replied.

"Of course, what was I thinking?" Mobius replied sarcastically. "Well, there's no fingerprints, either from the victim or the killer, so I'm thinking whoever killed him wore gloves."

"Our fingers don't leave prints."

"Too perfectly clean?"

"Yes."

"Hm, maybe that could narrow things down for us. Maybe it was another Sovereign who killed him."

"One of us?! You must be joking!"

"Or, like I said, maybe it was an alien wearing gloves. It's too soon to say. But you're right about this being murder: you can see friction marks on his fingertips from when he fought the rope that strangled him, and the rope dug into his neck from the wrong direction for it to have been a hanging. What can you tell us about the victim?"

"Spadek? He was a cook, the owner of the restaurant Spadek's Sovereign Strudel and Soufflé Soirée."

"Ooh, that's a mouthful, no pun intended! And this restaurant, did it have any fierce competitors, critics, any sort of enemies to speak of?"

The Sovereign inspector shook her head. "No, their food is excellent, and the other restaurants are as well. They all get plenty of business, from people of all sorts. He was also a very kind, gentle man, and he was very popular. If he had any enemies, they wouldn't be our kind. One of the lesser species, out of jealousy, no doubt."

"Makes sense. And where do these 'lesser species' tend to stay during their visit here? Are there a great assortment of visitors here, or are only a select few allowed?" Loki questioned.

"We have quite a few foreigners visiting at the moment, and there are 3 grand hotels for them to choose from."

"Why don't we take a closer look around the crime scene first, see if we can find any clues as to what kind of person our killer was?" Mobius suggested. The detectives searched around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Hey, there's a note in one of his cookbooks!" Loki noticed. "It says, 'Prepare for Badoon arrival.' Do you suppose this was a warning?"

"Badoon, that's the name of a race of invading aliens! They're aggressive enough to kill under little to no provocation, depending on whether these are from the Brotherhood or the Sisterhood. Hey inspector, have any Badoon visited recently, just before the murder? Green, ugly reptilian creatures."

"Oh yes, a group of them came, but we didn't clock their arrival until 11:30 this morning."

"Do you think they might have snuck on the planet and landed in their ship later to avoid suspicion?" Mobius wondered.

"It sounds plausible. Could you please direct us to the hotel they're staying at? And the location of this restaurant?" Loki requested.

"The hotel is called Grand Golden Grazes and it's 43 kilometers to the northwest, past the coffee shop and the shuttle stop. The restaurant is to the right of the mall."

"Thank you." They took a ride to the huge, golden hotel and approached the lobby counter. "Hello. We're detectives on a murder case: I'm Mr. Ouroboros, this is Mr. Paradox. Could you please tell us in which room the Badoon guests are staying?"

"Badoon? Oh, right, the scaly green fellows!" The clerk flipped through his book. "It looks like they're in room 5E, but if I remember correctly, they just stepped out for their lunch reservation."

"Strudel and Soufflé Soirée?" Mobius clarified.

"That's the one!" The hotel clerk responded, with a snap of his fingers. "They just left less than 10 minutes ago, so you should have plenty of time to catch up to them before they're finished."

"Perfect! Thank you!"

Loki and Mobius easily reached the restaurant, following the Sovereign inspector's instructions. Unsurprisingly, it was a large, fancy, golden building with sparkling gold ornaments along the roof and windows. As they entered, they immediately spotted the green aliens, standing in a circle around the sous chef.

"Excuse us, Time Detectives!" Mobius interrupted them. "What exactly is going on here?"

"You're here to ask questions about Spadek's murder, no?" The sous chef asked. "It's been a disaster for all of us!"

"So true." The Badoon leader agreed. "Me and my friends here had a reservation for lunch. We heard the head chef takes requests from other planets, so I requested my favorite dessert from my home city. When we arrived here, we were shocked to find out he was dead. He was the only Sovereign who knew the recipe, so now we're telling the sous chef here how to make it. We waited 8 months to get in here, and we're not leaving until we get the meal we ordered!"

"Prepare... for Badoon arrival! Aha, he was preparing a meal for them!" Mobius exclaimed with a chuckle.

"So that was a false lead." Loki sighed. "Who should we interrogate next, the cooks and the rest of the staff?"

"Hm, that's a good question. His coworkers here would likely have information that would help us, but maybe we should wait until they're less busy. We should start by asking the closer people he usually came in contact with: family, friends, neighbors, see who saw him last and when, what he was doing, his mental state, if anything unusual was going on with him recently."

Loki nodded and faced the cooks and other culinary employees. "Chefs, could you tell us what you know about Mister Spadek when you get the time, maybe after your shifts end?" They all nodded and murmured in consensus. "Wonderful. For now, shall we visit his loved ones?"

"We shall." Mobius confirmed before they headed back to their rented ride. "Enjoy your meal, guys!"