Marc & Megan walked back into WOOHP without their siblings. "What's this all about?" Megan asked.
Marc shrugged. "I haven't a clue."
"Well, maybe we'll get an answer when we're there." Megan hoped. They opened the doors to Jerry's office & saw their old friends, Flannery & Aquanette Tuskino, & the Moore twins.
"Jerry, what the hell was that all about?" Aria yelled, stomping in behind the Clarks. Her hair & clothes were soaking wet. "You pulled me through a Goddamn fountain."
"There's that Aria charm." Aqua commented.
Aria's expression brightened when she saw the other twins. "Hey, twins, I can't believe you're back." She ran over & gave them a hug.
"And you're ruining our clothes. Let go!" Flannery told her after a minute.
Aria laughed & stepped back. "That's the only reason I even gave you a hug in the first place. I knew you would freak."
"You are evil." Flannery stated, looking at her now wet clothes.
"And yet you love me anyway." Aria laughed again, smiling brightly. She turned to Jerry & grabbed a change of clothes from the desk. "We'll talk about that stunt of yours later." She hissed to him.
Jerry sighed & shuddered. He got up from his desk & walked over to a box in the wall. "She is utterly terrifying." He lifted the cover & pulled out a large needle.
"Jerry, don't you dare stick me with that thing." Griffon yelled at him. She didn't move from her seat, however. She hit a button under the chair & it turned into a wheelchair. "I won't let you do that!"
Kari sighed & went to stand next to the Clarks. "I should probably explain this. She can't walk without these special shots, but she only trusts certain people to give her them. She's too afraid to give them to herself."
Flannery nodded & pulled off her jacket. "Mainly, Thatch & Zach, but sometimes she lets one of us do it. Lord knows, she's terrified of needles."
Marc & Megan looked at each other & shrugged. Megan stopped Griffon's wheelchair & Marc swiped the needle from Jerry, poking it into Griffon's leg. The girl screamed in pain for a second & stood up after a few minutes. "Wow, it normally takes hours for the meds to kick in. Thanks, dude & dudette!"
"Not a problem." Marc answered with a shrug.
Griffon glared at Jerry. "Why are we here? Where are the rest of our teams?"
The door opened again as Aria walked in. She had changed into purple plaid pajama pants, a red fitted-tee that read 'Someone has to be a Bad Example' in purple letters & purple slippers. Her black hair was rolled up in a lavender towel. "And why did you give me pajamas to change in to?"
"You seven are on lockdown. None of you leaving this floor of WOOHP HQ." Jerry ordered. "Is that understood?"
"Can we at least get an explanation?" Griffon wondered. "Or would you like to tell us why I saw my parents in that lab? You said they were gone."
"And I saw our mom in the halls of the building. She was there. How is that possible?" Kari asked, interrupting her sister.
Jerry slammed his hands against his desk. "That is none of your concern! Get to your room & initiate the expansion procedure to make room for the others."
Griffon & Kari grumbled words of complaint, but they walked out of the room. "God, Jerry has no right to keep us from knowing the truth about our parents." Griffon yelled, walking into the hidden room.
"We have to find out." Kari agreed, picking a blue laptop decorated with yellow stars. "And we will."
After setting up the room to fit seven people & changing into pajamas, they walked back out to lead the other five to the area. "Marc must be awkward, being the only guy."
"He'll get over it. He's surrounded by girls." Kari laughed lightly. "Aw, Tony has my MPCom. How am I gonna get it back if they're not allowed in?"
Tony, Lee & the other two were standing in front of a fountain. "Well, now that's usual & unusual at the same time." Zach commented.
"Why only Aria?" Lee wondered. "And how come we were locked out of WOOHP?"
"Something is not right." Tony mumbled.
"Kari! Hey, Kari!" The MPCom in Tony's hand emitted a holograph of a young girl. "Hey, you're not Kari, you're the kid who crashed the mini-jet."
"I said I was sorry!" Tony yelled, earning looks from others in the park. "Who are you?"
"Scarlet, Scarlet Letter. No relation to the book or the movie." The girl answered with a wink. "And how are you on the outside when WOOHP is on lockdown? How do you have Kari's MPCom?"
"Why are you calling Kari if she's on lockdown?" Tony retorted, avoiding the questions asked by Scarlet.
"I'm the head of WOOHP security & Kari's MPCom tracker said she wasn't in WOOHP when security cameras show she is. It's called investigating." Scarlet answered, annoyed by the 11-year-old. "I don't care how you got her MPCom, I'm sending an agent to get it."
Later that night, back in WOOHP, Griffon, Marc & Kari were looking through the recently hacked into WOOHP database. "This is the case my parents were working on before they disappeared." Griffon announced, opening a file. "They were tracking down the leader of an organization known as the Gem Society. They disappeared shortly after contacting Jerry to say they had infiltrated the group's headquarters."
"See what else you can find on the Gem Society." Aria suggested, sitting on Kari's bed with a McDonald's bag. "Food's here, by the way!"
Griffon dragged the mouse over to the file. As soon as she clicked the link, her screen flickered & shut down. "Ah! My baby got French fried!"
Aria dropped her bag of French fries & jumped up to check. "Did it overheat or something?"
Griffon lifted the laptop to show her friend the cooling pad. "Everything was fully functional as far as I can tell."
"Someone must really not want you to find out about the Gem Society if they went to the effort of making a virus that'll make your computer fizzle out like a can of shaken pop." Aqua commented, digging into her food.
Griffon's head slammed against her desk. "My poor baby. He never hurt anyone, so why should someone hurt him?"
"Because you were about to find out something someone didn't want you finding out." Aria stated. She rubbed her hands together & smiled evilly. "When we find out who, you'll be able to avenge your precious baby."
"If I find out Jerry set this up, he's a dead man." Griffon growled.
"Wow, pretty kitty's having a hissy fit." A voice called.
"First off, Scarlett, no one calls me 'pretty kitty.'" Griffon told the girl at the door.
"Thatch does." Aria reminded her. "He calls you 'pretty kitty' all the time."
Marc looked down at the ground.
Scarlett walked in & sat down beside Aqua, her scarlet red hair swaying from side to side with each step. "Well, I guess you don't want to know why you've been put on lockdown."
The seven detainees jumped up & crowded around her. "Why?"
"The Gem Society is looking for new recruits." Scarlet answered, a short pause following. "According to our sources, they want people who are not only skilled fighters, but also brainiacs. So, we gathered you seven, seeing as how the recruits are always selected from WOOHP."
"Then, why's Aqua here?" Aria asked, snickering.
"She has her moments." Scarlet sighed. "Until this is taken care of, you guys are gonna be holed up in this joint."
"Ah, dammit!" Aria cursed. "I hate being here."
Scarlet sighed. "Whatever, just letting you guys know. You're stuck here."
Kari groaned. "That's go great to know, Scarlet. Don't come back unless you have some good news, okay?"
Scarlett stood up. "Fine, be that way." She huffed.
As soon as the door closed, Scarlet made a call on her phone. "Oh, yes, daddy. Em, Sapph, & Am have done an excellent job of recruiting their kids. And now that the other four are gathered, I can deal with them tonight. They'll never see it coming."
"Please, tell me you're not talking to your father." Jerry said, standing in front of the girl.
Scarlet scoffed. "Oh please! I'm talking to my friend about her brothers' surprise parties."
Jerry nodded, but kept quiet, not really trusting the girl. He walked away, turning to look at her once more. "You do realize you're going to have to remain in lockdown until we have everything settled out?"
"Well, duh. Jerry, I may not be as smart as Marc or Griffon, but I'm not Aqua." Scarlet replied.
Jerry yawned. "Well, I'm off then."
Scarlet let out a breath she had been holding & turned back to the room. In a few hours, it would be empty. "No one will beat me this time." She hissed, an evil look growing in her eyes.
Tony sat & fiddled with Kari's MPCom - still waiting for someone to pick it up & return it to her - looking at all the extra applications it had compared to his own. "This is way better than ours." He told Lee.
"Not surprised." Zach yawned. "That little woman is always bored during missions, so she updates her MPCom with a bunch of useless features."
"Hey, she has PacMan." Lee stated, pointing to one of the buttons.
Thatch shrugged. "Like we said, useless features."
"I think it's pretty cool, having the brains to do this." Tony commented. "How can you say it's useless if it's a learning opportunity as well?" The others stared at him. "Did I really just say all that?"
Lee pressed a hand against Tony's forehead. "Are you sick or something?"
"No, there's a message on here that says 'Why do you always add useless crap to your MPCom?' & the reply was 'It's a learning opportunity.'" Tony explained, holding the device out to where the others could see it.
"O-kay then." Zach mumbled. He stood up & pulled Thatch to his feet beside him. "We have to get going. Tammy will freak out & Tacey, Tadeu & Tailyn won't go to bed unless we're there."
"Huh?" Tony asked.
Thatch shrugged. "Our big sister, little sisters & little brother are a little attached to us. They get over-worked if we're late getting home."
"I know they love us, but they can get just a tad bit clingy." Zach commented, talking more to his brother than the Clark brothers.
"Sometimes they're even worse than our mom." Thatch continued, laughing. He looked over his shoulder at Tony & Lee. "Hey, I would get home, too, if I were you. You never know what could be waiting for us tomorrow."
I have a few things to say here, you'll want to read it.
1) I know this sucks, but I want to hurry & get this done in about five chapters.
2) I tried as best I could to avoid putting Flannery & Aquanette in this, but I ran out of my own OCs & was too lazy to make new ones.
3) I did have chapter 3 near completion, but when I saved it, this is what came up when I opened it again:
CHNKWKS Ss o kkot ire ,
snrSor Sl nef. tnhs
ytydp h l
skh rtpK e ohieIrhfhwyr
RÒ(R˜I
Read & Review if you want. Please flame. Not something you hear everyday, but I'm actually sick of hearing how 'good' my writing is. I need some constructive criticism.
