Mik sighed as she ducked under another large leaf. In front of her, Kim was tromping through the jungle with a silent determination that kept the other three following at a good distance behind her. Whatever conversation the redhead and leader of FUED had talked about, it didn't seemingly have a good affect. The redhead had become silent and taciturn, while the dark haired woman had withdrawn into herself, preoccupied with her own thoughts.

Usually, that wouldn't bother Mik. However, her current "mission", and how unsavory most of it seemed, when her two role models were so serious, it didn't bode well… for anyone. Either they were hiding something from her, or she wasn't seeing what the problem was. Either way, it was frustrating her to no end. Shego, still fuming over her beating at the hands of an irate redhead, was ignoring everyone. Every so often the black haired woman muttered a string of curses, but they were so soft that you couldn't decipher them. Both Kim and Shaundra chose to "not hear" the outbursts, and proceeded as if there wasn't a giant elephant standing over them.

After several moments of silent debate, Mik growled to herself and kicked a branch so hard it snapped.

The loud noise got everyone's immediate attention.

"I know that you're all pissed off or in your own little world, but we have a serious issue at hand and nobody is addressing it!" she roared, throwing her hands up in agitation.

Shego snorted. "Yeah, kill me or drag me kicking and screaming to GJ to do the job."

Mik shot her a withering glare. "That subject is already on the table. YOU are the only one keeping it unresolved. I'm talking about whatever secret those two are keeping. Obviously something is bothering them, but they haven't had the decency to tell the rest of the class." If it was one thing Mik hated most, it was secrets. Her entire existence was a secret, and she had no other option but to keep it that way unless she wanted to be destroyed or dissected. Because everything she was revolved around said secret, she severely disliked having any others hanging over her. It was unnerving and made her edgy. "I understand you two might have your reasons, but I'm not fond of being in the dark."

She said it roughly, hoping they understood the meaning behind her words.

Luckily, Kim ducked her head in shame and Shaundra had the decency to shift uncomfortably.

"It's not like that," Kim finally admitted, letting loose a heavy sigh. "We were debating what we'd do if people realized that… that you were my clone. Plus, I was scolding Shaundra for teaching you…certain things." She gave the taller woman a notable glare.

Shaundra chuckled uneasily. "Yeah, and somehow she thinks I'm the only one to blame for that."

Mik immediately feigned innocence. "What do you mean?"

Shaundra gave Mik a sharp look when Kim smacked the older woman on the arm.

Mik smirked behind the redheads back, earning a similar one from Shego.

"Well, that solves that," comments Mik, quickly dousing the smirk when Kim turns around. "That still doesn't solve the problem of finding this last person. We're running out of time. If you two haven't seen this other person, it means something bad could have happened to them."

Kim frowned and cupped her chin in her hand. "That's true. Though this environment isn't that dangerous for us, someone inexperienced would have a difficult time surviving here for any extended period of time."

Shego snorted, but remained silent.

Shaundra sighed and looked up into the canopy of trees spread overhead. She was starting to miss the sky. "Well, let's review. We've been going in a rough spiral motion since we all got together. We, unfortunately, didn't start that pattern at the edge of the dome where we should have. That means we've a lot of uncovered ground that we're going to have to check if we don't find the person in our narrowing uncovered area."

"That's also assuming this person isn't moving around and has made a camp somewhere," reminded Kim. She frowned. "And there's been no tell-tale signs of an encampment anywhere." She glanced at Shego and Shaundra. "Did you guys wander around this entire time?"

Shego huffed. "Yeah right. It rains here. A lot." She sneered up at the canopy overhead.

Shaundra shrugged. "She's right. It does rain a lot. I've created several small shelters though. I've been traveling around in hopes of bumping into someone, so I haven't made anything permanent. Most of the time I destroyed whatever I made." She grinned. "Old habits die hard, ya' know?"

The three, minus the green skinned thief, shared a quick smile.

"Okay, Shego, was yours more permanent?"

"Doy! I wouldn't be caught dead here for months without someplace comfortable to sleep."

Mik grinned. "Doy."

Shego sneered at her. "Shut up."

Kim rolled her eyes. "In any case, that means Shego's is well hidden and won't be easily found. So, unless this other person is very experienced, we should be finding their shelter somewhere obvious."

"If they aren't collecting rain water like I have been, they would probably camp near the river," commented Mik. She frowned. "Do either of you two know the layout of this place well enough to find it?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "I explored, but I didn't want to run into any unwanted trouble. I stuck to my portion of this place."

"I haven't been here long enough to get a good enough idea how things are situated." The brown haired woman shrugged.

Mik nodded absently, as if she'd already expected this. "That means we might have to backtrack. I can get us back to the river, but we're going to lose several days of travel."

Kim looked a little hesitant. "Do we have enough time to backtrack? I wasn't there for the original briefing. How long were you given to complete this mission?"

Mik shrugged. "Fifty days. We should be fine, but we've already spent six days in here. Most of our travel has been aimless. That means that we have forty four days to find the last person."

"Did you get any ideas on how large this place is?" asked Shaundra. "I was blindfolded when they brought me."

Mik shrugged. "They kept me in the cargo area, away from windows and such. I have no idea how big the place is."

Kim grinned. "It's big, but not that big. It's a typical small island. Forty four days should be plenty of time to restart our search from scratch."

Mik frowned slightly. "We need a way to track our movements though. With the canopy of branches overhead, it's impossible to judge our location by stars or even by the sun."

Kim's grin only widened. "I figured we'd be in this type of situation. That's why I brought this!" She whipped out something from her pocket.

Mik squealed. "My GPS!" She snatched it out of Kim's hands before the redhead could protest. "Oh, how I've missed you!" Mik snuggled the palm sized object, earning several disturbed looks.

"I missed you too," intoned a robotic voice, causing the other three to leap back in alarm.

Mik giggled happily. "I can't believe I didn't think of taking you on that mission! I bet I could have snuck you in here if I had!"

"It is all right," answered that robotic voice. "From what I have heard, they would have scanned you for any objects other than the knife."

Shaundra looked at the blond warily, obviously unnerved. "Mik, exactly when did you get a talking GPS?"

Mik grinned widely, missing the looks of alarm from her traveling companions. "When the Tweebs put that AI in Kim's car, I took the base code and made an AI for myself. I thought it would be fun to have a GPS that argued back when it gave faulty directions and I cursed at it!"

Shego burst out laughing, startling everyone but Mik. Shaundra looked caught between being amused and disgruntled. Kim… well, all Kim heard was the cursing part. She stalked right up to Mik and bonked her upside the head.

"Cursing at it?" she said darkly.

Mik looked sheepish. "Well, mostly just back talking. It was really funny to see that pilots face when we were headed to Spain!" She started snickering. "He was white as a ghost when GP started commenting on how it would be shorter to travel via jet than charter plane."

Kim sighed and shook her head. She shot Shaundra a glare. "I blame you."

"WHAT?" blurted the brown haired woman. "Why? I didn't do anything to get such an idea stuck in her head!"

Kim snorted. "Yeah right. You're always yelling at your GPS."

"That doesn't mean I want it arguing back!" protested the older woman. "I hate the thing enough already!"

"Right, like that day it said to turn and you did and drove us into a lake," remarked Kim dryly.

"It said turn!" defended Shaundra.

"And you were foolish enough to listen, even though it was obvious there was a lake," responded Kim.

"I would not make such a rudimentary mistake," intoned the GPS in Mik's hand, sounding surprisingly haughty for a machine.

"Can it you stupid computer! I bet you'd do the same damned thing! Like that dirt road that didn't exist in Singapore!" Shaundra growled threateningly at it.

"Quite the contrary. I would give perfect directions. It would be faulty driving that lead to disaster." The robotic voice sounded smug now.

"Don't you take that tone with me!" roared Shaundra. "You contraptions always lead me to the wrong damned place!"

The verbal war continued between the two, even as Mik started leading them back the way they'd come.

Shego was laughing so hard she was starting to worry she'd have to go take a dive behind the bushes. Maybe it wasn't so bad to hang around these three for a while longer.


-Continued Omake!-

Mik was staring unabashed at the twitching form of Shego. After Kim had chased them all down and gave them "just" punishment, Shego had been the one to get the brunt of it. After all, once all the green skinned woman's comments were explained, which mostly consisted of outlining what innuendo was, Kim made sure to make up for lost time.

Boo, being the cute adorable and curious creature she was, was poking the twitching woman with a long stick. The creature knew instinctively that the woman disliked her and didn't want to get hurt by getting too close. That, however, didn't save the green skinned woman from being prodded with said stick. It made the random twitching more prominent, and Boo found it entertaining.

Mik grinned, ignoring the sting of her bruised cheek and split lip. She'd managed to cool Kim down after begging for forgiveness, and no, she wouldn't deny that she was begging. Kim pissed off was a scary thing, and she knew that she would have to deal with the brunt of Kim's irritation once home if Kim's bad mood persisted. Luckily, her begging won out and Kim had stalked off while dragging Shaudra by the ear behind her. This left Mik alone with the unconscious form of Shego, who had yet to awaken after the traumatic event.

Mik snickered, remembering the look of pure horror that crossed Shego's face when Kim had upturned her hiding spot. Let it be said, no place was safe to hide once Kimmie was pissed off, even for professional thieves.

Having rooted around in Kim's bag of tricks, Mik had found several fun toys that weren't exactly useful for much out here in the jungle. Taking advantage of that, Mik pulled out the black Sharpie and grinned wickedly as she hovered over Shego's prone form.

After several minutes of long tedious work, Mik sat back with a satisfied sigh, wiping the sweat from her brow. Smirking, she clicked the lid back in place and dug around in Kim's bag once more. She pulled out the Kimmunicator with a sinister smirk.

Shego vaguely saw two flashes of light with her blurred vision as she started coming to consciousness. In the distance, she heard the sound of Kim and Shaundra returning. Silently, she hoped the redhead had finally calmed down. She couldn't believe the petite cheerleader had packed such a wallop. After all, they were usually tied in their fights. To lose so easily, without any sort of retaliation, well it was quite a blow to her ego.

She was just sitting up when the two walked into the clearing Shego lay sprawled in. She looked at them right as they looked at her.

And they burst out laughing.

Startled, Shego blinked a few times before growling at them. "What? What is it? Why the hell are you laughing?"

Shaundra pointed a shaky finger at a puddle. Shego darted for it.

Only to stare at her swollen face riddled with inky black designs that looked tribal. In bold letters on her forehead it read, "Firecracker".

"YOUR DEAD!" roared Shego as Mik took off laughing through the trees.