Author's note: Thanks for all the awesome reviews! I bring you this wonderful update so I hope you enjoy! So glad the first week of going back to school is done. The first week is always the longest, you know? But we did have a lot of late starts and one snow day, so I can't really complain. Anyways, happy readings!

Warnings: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the sandbox. I just jump the fence to play in it.

"GET HER! Bring ME THAT LITTLE GIRL NOW! GET THAT BRAT!

Never before in my life had I run as fast as I was running right now. From over my shoulders, I could hear curses coming from four different languages. I ducked behind one of the taller crates, pressing my body against it and tried to control my breathing.

"What do I do?" I asked myself, panic continuing to rise. "Daddy only told me to kick and run! He never said anything about them running after me!"

I peered out from over the edge of the box and quickly pulled back when two Russian soldiers ran by. I shivered, drawing my knees up and praying to God that they did not find me. I let out another breath, standing up a little. I know I couldn't stay in this spot for long, so leaving would probably be a good idea.

"Did you see where she went?"

"I thought I just saw her!"

"Thought you did? Either you saw her or you didn't."

My eyes went wide at the sound of Napoleon and Al Capone arguing. From what I could hear, they were standing right in front of my box! Not enough to notice me, but if they took a few steps forward they would probably see me.

"You stupide American! If you're so clever, why haven't you found her?"

"Why haven't you, shorty?" I could practically hear the smugness in Capone's voice. "I think a small person like you could have found a small kid."

Small kid? I will have you know that I am at least 4'5! I rolled my eyes in annoyance, trying to lower my breathing and melt into the box so they wouldn't find me. I wasn't especially worried; all they were doing was arguing, but it was kind of amusing to listen in on.

"It ez not my fault she is small!" the French was becoming very prominent in Napoleon's voice. "She could be anywhere by now!"

"And whose fault is that?"

"Why you!"

They continued to argue, my amusement only growing. The way they interacted almost made them sound like an old married couple. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but Mom says that two of her friends argue like that. This is strange because she and Daddy hardly ever argue.

"Alright, you can do this," I tried to assure myself, my conscious trying to speak comforting words to me. "Just don't draw any attention to yourself and you will be fine."

"ACHOO!"

I clapped my hands over my mouth, light brown eyes widening to the size of golf balls as they grew quiet. For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence. I could hear their footsteps walking away, their voices turning into whispers. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it sounded like they thought I was somewhere in the opposite direction.

"Good," I whispered to myself. "Morons!"

I dashed out from the crate, only to run into a short Frenchman.

Immediately the Italian Mobster grabbed me, holding me tightly by the shoulders as the Frenchman smirked down at me. "So, the tiny mouse runs into the giant claws of the cat! By which of course I am the cat and you are the mouse!"

I struggled against Capone. "Let me go! Now!"

"Sorry kid, not going to happen," he picked me up, tossing me over his shoulders and started back towards where Kahmunrah was. Napoleon trailed after, looking haughty and quite pleased with himself for catching me.

Well, I certainly couldn't have that. So I did the most mature thing I could think of. I stuck my tongue out.

He narrowed his eyes, not at all amused. "Why do you do that?" he asked. "It is very immature!"

"Says the short man who tries to make himself look taller!"

Capone chuckled a little, shaking his head. "That was a good one," he said, not flinching as Napoleon glared daggers into his back. "That was a good description of you, Little Nippy."

"You little brat!" Napoleon walked even quicker, trying to keep up with Capone's long strides. "You ignorant American! And I am not Little Nippy!"

The rest of the trip resulted in Napoleon spouting off curses, Capone laughing at him, and me trying to get lose. By the time we got to where Kahmunrah was, I was already tired. Kahmunrah sat in some giant living chair, observing some trinkets he had managed to collect. When he saw Capone enter the room with me over his shoulder, he grinned and stepped down. "Ah, Mr. Capone, Monsieur Bonaparte. You have succeeded in bringing me….bringing me…." He looked confused. "Ah sorry, what's your name? I don't think you ever told us."

I huffed; finally glad when Capone put me down. I crossed my arms over my T-shirt. "Ava," I replied shortly. "Ava Woods."

"Well Ms. Woods, my shin is extremely sore from the kicking I received," he moved out his leg, showing the rather nasty bruise that was forming. I instantly grinned, which wasn't the reaction he was wanting. "I should kill you, but you might prove to be useful later on and-"

"Hold on a sec," Capone interrupted. "I don't know you all that well, but I don't kill kids."

"Moi non plus," Napoleon agreed, crossing his arms. "I do not murder children."

"If they do not give me reason," both Napoleon and Capone gave Ivan a look. The Russian Tsar only shrugged. "What?"

"As I was saying," Kahmunrah continued. "You might be useful in getting me that tablet. Monsieur Bonaparte, take your men and find Mr. Daley. I'm sure someone of your high standards could do it."

Napoleon nodded once. "Oui."

I wanted to sneak out with the French exhibits, but with all three pairs of eyes on me, that was not going to happen. Kahmunrah sat back down in his chair, lounging as he picked up something. Capone picked me up again, setting me down in front of him on a box. "Sit here and don't do anything," he ordered, picking up his Tommy gun to start cleaning it. "And I mean it."

"What if I have to pee?"

He lifted his head, not sure of how to answer that. "What?"

"What if I have to go pee? Do you want me to ruin my pants?"

He sighed. "Then I'll have one of my boys take you to the bathroom. So, you're not going anywhere."

"Dang it," I grumbled, crossing my arms in annoyance. "You sound like my Uncle Charlie. He never lets me do anything."

"Sounds like a swell guy," Capone smirked, not looking up from his gun. "You should listen to him more often."

"Haha, very funny."

He shook his head, still not looking from his gun. "You sound like my son, Sonny. He was a rambunctious little scamp like you when he was you're age."

I raised my eyebrow. "You had a song? I figured you were some old greasy thug."

"You sure do have a way with words," he voice dripped with sarcasm. "Yeah, back in 1918 Mae and I had a boy, Albert. We called him Sonny for the most part. He liked to talk a lot, like most kids I guess. Ended up having four daughters, heh."

"Four daughters? I would love to have sisters! All I got stuck with was two older brothers."

"What's wrong with having brothers? I had six of them."

I made a face at the thought of having six other smelly brothers. "I would still rather have six sisters. Boys stink. And they eat everything in the house."

Capone shook his head. "Well girls spray gross perfume everywhere. They nag all the time, and they always think they're right about everything."

"That's because we are."

"Uh-huh," he set his gun down. "And girls can act real catty. Especially once a month."

"What does that mean?" I asked, not at all understanding what he was saying. "How do we act catty once a month?"

"Never mind," he said quickly, bringing his gun back into his lap. "So, what do your brothers do that is so annoying?"

I let out a loud sigh, more than happy to vent. "They smell all the time! They workout and then walk around the house in their smelly clothes. And their noisy; they bring their friends over and I can hear them from my room upstairs. Their music is loud, they eat almost everything in sight, and they make fun of-"

"Make fun of what?"

"Nothing," I quickly ended. "Did your brothers ever annoy you?"

He didn't even get a chance to answer the question, for one of his men walked into the room carrying a birdcage. Kahmunrah didn't even look up until he had tossed a pair of ruby encrusted shoes over the couch. "Hey boss, caught this one trying to escape from the rust hole in the crate. One of his little friends got away."

Kahmunrah just smiled. "Oh please, what damage could they possibly do? Why, they're no bigger than a little grain of koothkooth, aren't you?"

I peered forward, narrowing my eyes to peer inside the cage. A tiny little man was inside, dressed up as a cowboy, arms crossed as if he were trying to appear tough. "You know there's two words that come to mind when I hear you talk. Delusional and weirdo. And if I had to pick a third, goofy, just plain goofy."

I smiled, liking this tiny guy. The little man leaned forward, trying to appear threatening. "Now you let old Jedidiah out of here or he's going to get real angry."

Kahmunrah laughed, tears practically welling up in his eyes as he stared at the figure. "I just can't take you seriously, you're just adorable! Even when you're threatening me it's hilarious. Now is it just me, or are these guys unbelievably cute."

Jedidiah obviously did not like that. "Now hold it a second there! You have a right to keep me as your captive; torture me, but don't call me cute! I aint cute!"

"Nous lui avons capture!"

Everyone turned their heads around as Napoleon walked back in, leading a man dressed up in a night guard suit carrying a tablet. Kahmunrah rose from his throne, the others following in pursuit. Capone took my hand, dragging me to where Kahmunrah was, hand clenched firmly on my wrist.

"Hello Mr. Daley," Kahmunrah began. "Nice to see you again. Now if you don't mind, I shall take that from you, thank you."

He took the tablet from the man, smiling like a kid on Christmas morning as he looked at the tablet. "Finally, finally!" he exclaimed, walking towards a pair of Ancient black gates and set the tablet in, pressing a combination in. "After three thousand years, my evil army of the damned, my beautiful, beautiful army shall be UNLEASHED!"

He stepped away from it, arms wide open for the hoard that was about to come. We all looked around, waiting for something big to happen. I stared at Mr. Daley, hoping to catch his attention by staring at him. However, his attention was more focused on the nutty Egyptian Pharaoh. Kahmunrah sighed, clapping his hands together apologetically. "Ah, I'm afraid that Mother and Father may have slightly altered the combination on me."

Mr. Daley shrugged, swinging his arms a little as he spoke. "Wow, guess this whole, uh, unleashing the underworld isn't really working out for you, huh? Just must be really frustrating cause you've waited thousands of years just to come back from the dead and everything and now you can't get it open."

I grinned, though still a little worried on how the Egyptian would take his lack of disrespect. Kahmunrah didn't lose fazed, much to my surprise. "Fear not, because I will wait a thousand more if I must."

"Good, cause in a few hours you'll just be standing here in a frustrated position, frozen, and I'll walk out of here with my buddies and that will be that, so I got all night." Larry said nonchalantly, not looking very worried at all.

Kahmunrah lifted his head, not at all mused. "Really, all night? Well, they don't."

"They?"

He pointed towards Jedidiah and me, not cracking a smile. Mr. Daley turned his head towards the man holding the bird cage, his eyes dropping the amused glimmer. When he finally noticed me, he looked even angrier. "A kid? You're holding a kid hostage? Let her go!"

Kahmunrah only stared, walking toward the monochromatic man. "Open that cage," he ordered, ignoring the cowboy's protest about being manhandled or something. "Oh look!" he grinned, pointing. "He's having a tiny little tantrum. Na-ah, don't squirm, don't you squirm, I shan't hurt you oops. I lied."

He placed the cowboy in an hour glass, turning it over so that sand was piling up all around him slowly. "Uh-oh, I don't think he has all night at all Mr. Daley. I'd say he has little more than an hour," he sauntered over to the tablet. "You were the guardian, you know all about this tablet. You're obviously much cleverer than the rest of us. You may or may not know the combination but I am going to give you exactly one hour to figure it out. If you do not, I shall kill your little friend and Ms. Ava Woods. And please don't think about escaping for I shall be watching you!"

Mr. Daley looked helpless, lost even. "Look, I don't even know how to begin to decipher this thing!" he complained. "Really!"

"Oh, what a pity. You're little cowboy friend seemed like such a charming little fellow. I could care less about the little brat over there, but ah well. Tick tock, Mr. Daley. Your hour has begun."

"Hey!" Jedidiah or Jed as I heard the man say once. "You got this partner. I know you do!"

Kahmunrah waved his hand. "Shoo!"

Jed spread out his hands, shouting as loud as he could. "YOU GOT THIS!"

The Egyptian returned to his throne, sitting down comfortably in his chair. Capone put me back on my box, scanning over me with narrowed eyes. "You were saying something earlier," he started. "And so you should finish it."

"I don't really want to."

"It's only fair, kid. I asked you a question, you should answer it."

I crossed my arms. "Maybe I don't want to."

Napoleon glanced over at me, not at all amused by my behavior. "Maybe I do not want to see you act like a gosse culotté."

"Maybe I do not want to hear you call me names in French!"

Capone shook his head. "Nippy is right, you really don't need to be acting like a…whatever he said," he grinned a little. "And the kid here has a point, Nippy; you really need to work on your English."

"That is not my name! Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"Why do you insist on starting fights every time someone makes you mad?"

"Why do you have to be such a cretín?"

I sighed rather loudly, repeating something my older brother once told his friend. "Why don't you two go make-out with each already?" They looked at me rather strangely, probably wondering if I even knew what that meant. "What?"

"Humph, I've had enough of you two," Napoleon marched over to the window, drawing out his telescope and peering out of it. "Naïve Americans!" he grumbled, refusing to look at us.

Capone shook his head, watching as Ivan began to leave with his knights. "Nippy sure does get his knickers in a twist," he smiled a little as Napoleon grumbled something to his soldiers. "Especially if you say short."

"He's not that short," I grumbled. "It's not like it's going to prevent him from doing things."

"What do you mean?"

I smacked myself on the forehead for saying that out loud. "I mean like, well, you know, doing everyday things."

"What are you getting at?"

Some people are really persistent, you know? I sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll tell you since you won't leave me alone about it," I noticed the others glancing curiously at me as well. "Since you want to know so badly here it is. I'm going to be blind before I turn thirty."

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