"Neeheehee," Shifty bent over the table and stared at a light blue haired male across from him. He smirked when he saw him fidget and fix his glasses, this clearly wasn't what he was used to. "You do know who you're doing business with, right nerd boy?"

Sniffles wiped his sweaty hands on his lab coat and nodded nervously. He had heard that the twins had access to some high quality plutonium for a cheap price, but when he had asked to purchase it they had bumped it up so it was out of his budget. Desperate, he had asked if there was any way they'd give it to him, and they had replied with two words.

A trade.

So now he was in their dimly lit, dusty basement seated at an old poker table, waiting for Shifty to give the word. He didn't know how trading went, but he was afraid that they would take what he had and give him an imitation of the real thing.

Lifty sat down on a crate and asked in a bored tone, "And what did you bring to trade off?"

"O-oh! Y-yes," Sniffles stammered and reached into his deep pocket to search around before pulling out something and setting it on the table. "This," he took out a controller and flipped a switch on the side to on, "is M.A.C." The thing which was originally in a box shape shuddered, parts shifting around and locking into place, and raised up so it was standing vertically, eyes an eerily solid white.

Shifty rubbed his chin and raised an eyebrow, waving his hand in front of it. "Yeah, and what does it do? What does 'M.A.C' stand for?"

"M.A.C stands for Mechanically Automated Crook," the science loving male visibly sat up straighter in the foldable chair, proud of his creation. "As it implies in his name, he was programmed to know nothing but who is his master, obey their commands, and steal anything he can." His eyes took on an eviler shine, "He's virtually indestructible, not even Splendid's powers are a match to his defense mode! He's built out of the lightest but most deflective metal, so if you're ever in the middle of a getaway, he's off in a flash! He also has the strength of that surpasses any muscle builder and the ability to easily pick up anything up to three hundred times his weight! And lastly, his six bionic arms make a robbery a breeze!—"

Lifty held up his hand for him to stop, "So what you're saying, is, he's a mini robot who steals junk easily?"

Sniffles frowned at his explanation of it, "If you want to dumb it down, then yes, it's a robot thief."

"And," Shifty got up and walked around the table, seeing it from every angle, "does it work?" Even if they weren't ones for all that sciency crap, they knew that inventions usually had a few bugs in them, especially if it was Sniffle's inventions.

"Yes, of course it does!" Even if he had never really tested it out, how many problems could it have?

The oldest boy rubbed his chin again, thinking, but then he made up his mind and pointed at Lifty. "Give him the stuff."

Lifty reached behind his crate and lifted up a tightly chained jewelry box, a thick lock keeping it shut. He tossed it at Sniffles and said, "Now get out of here before that thing opens, we just finished repairing our house from last time."

It bounced in his arms dangerously before he clamped his hand down on it and sighed in relief, getting up. "If you don't choose the auto thief setting, the controls are very simple, not even you two should have no problem with it." Was that an insult? "There's a gaming stick on it and you just push it forward, backwards, or side to side to move, and twist the knob to turn it around. I already wired him to obey one of your voices, and even if you are twins, he'll pick up who's who." He was already walking up the grimy steps to leave, "You just need to decide who his master is." Then he ducked out and left the premises quickly.

The two twins stood over M.A.C and looked at each other, asking who was going to control it.

"Well I'm oldest so I say I'm in charge~" Lifty was about to argue back, but then his brother told him to shut up so he could talk into the control without interruptions.

"Heh," Shifty took the control and guessed that he was supposed to speak into a little antenna sticking out of it. "Hello M.A.C. My name is Shifty, and from now on, I'm your new master. You're going to listen to everything I say."

They both took a step back for safety as the robot spoke, its voice edgy and digital sounding. "Hel-lo Shift-ty. I am M.A.C. I am read-dy to take on my first task, Shift-ty."

Shifty's smirk grew as he glanced at his brother, "Alright. For your first job, how 'bout you take Lifty's watch."

"Hey! Why me!?" He covered his watch with a hand and glared at the robot warningly. "Don't you fucking think about—" Grunting in surprise when one of its arms came out, grabbed his face with its tri-clawed hand, and pushed him back roughly, he didn't feel when it unstrapped his watch and retracted it back itself.

Impressed, Shifty held his hand out for the watch and put it in his pocket when it dropped in his hand. "Nice."

Lifty got up off the floor where he had been pushed and scowled, "What the hell Shifty!? Why did I have to be the first test subject?! And give me back my damn watch!"

"Get out."

Stopping at the words, he narrowed his eyes, "What?"

"I said get out, as in, leave," Shifty chuckled. "I don't think that I'll be needing you anymore since I have this thing, so I want you to leave. Like right now."

"But this is my house too!" What was he talking about, leave? Never come back leave? Was his brother abandoning him? "T-that's not fair!"

Tired of this conversation, Shifty shooed him away with his hand, "M.A.C, can you escort my idiot twin out of here. And make sure he doesn't step one foot back in his house." And in less than two minutes flat, Lifty was shoved out of their rundown house and sent stumbling onto the dead grass.

Scowling, he couldn't stop the feeling of being betrayed and abandoned from filling him. Shifty was the only family he had, the person he considered to be the closest to him, and to be disowned, it hurt. He sat on the grass wondering what to do now. No one really liked him, so where would he go? Well, anywhere was better than in front of where he had just been kicked out of.

xXx

Three hours later, Lifty found himself sitting on a park bench starting to worry more. The forecast for that day had called for thunderstorms and the sky overhead was dense with black clouds, thunder booming in the distance. What if he was caught in the rain? Where would he head to for cover, where could he head to?

He sighed and, since there was no one else in park at the time, hit his fist down on the bench. "Dammit Shifty, what's your problem!? Did you want me to be out here not knowing what to do?! Huh!? You fucking dick! Replacing me with a stupid piece of metal . ." Growling, he dug his nails into the wood. "Could this get any worse . ." Before he could close his mouth in hopes of not jinxing it, God parted the clouds to look down on him and say, 'Lifty, I hate you.' Then the rain poured down, soaking him to the bone.

"That's just so fucking fantastic," Lifty hugged his arms to himself in an attempt of keeping his body heat and searched for any tree that would give him some shelter from the rain. It was cold, it kept trickling down his shirt, his clothes were stuck to his body, and—it went away?

No, it didn't, he saw the rain still coming down everywhere else but the circle he was in. "What . ." Looking up, he saw the red umbrella being held over him to stop the pounding rain from hitting him. "Who . ." He turned around in his seat to see who his rescuer was.

"Hi Lifty."

So it's kinda obvi who they are xD but yeah, my lame attempt at a cliffhanger. Yes! Another LiftyxFlaky because I'm loving those two right now :3 I hope this isn't too bad, not bad enough so you won't review anyways~