believing the world to be corrupt, the secret organization across plans to conquer the world. the first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. across consists of the leader of the organization, il palazzo, and his young adult officers: the enthusiastic and energetically devoted excel and the soft-spoken and prone to spitting out lots of blood and fainting hyatt. excel and hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dog menchi, who they have deemed their emergency food supply. excel and hyatt are later joined by a snobbish but equally clueless rival officer of across named elgala.