Hey, everyone, just didn't want to keep you waiting. I just though to myself "I have time, why not make my readers happy and just start chapter 10 without their reviews urging me to do it!" So that's what I'm doing. No songfic this time, just Rina's biggest decision in her 1,300 years and the fate of the world! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I'm running out of ideas here! You don't honestly think a thirteen-year-old girl living in Colorado would be lucky enough to have written one of the most amazing series known to mankind, do you? Nah, I'm not that good! If I am good, that is.
Chapter 10: Rina's Choice
POV Iggy
Well, we were pretty much screwed. Angel could hear the scientists thinking of how to kill us, and they hardly fed us enough to fight. Not that I ate too much of what they gave us anyways, but still. It was clear that no one was going to save us, no kind scientist willing to free us and take us to an E-shaped house, no genie girlfriend unlocking us, not even a Max ready to pounce the second the scientists opened her crate. We may as well write our wills, which was exactly what I was doing at the moment. Rina wouldn't want any of my stuff, but she got it anyways, plus a last kiss, as a reminder of what she did to us. And Fang got the iPod in the hopes that someone will catch him dancing and singing along while listening to it.
"Hey, Gazzy?" I asked the crate next to me."
"Yeah?"
"Just wanted to let you know that when I die, you get my gunpowder."
"Thanks, man. You're getting my left shoe."
"How much powder in it?"
"It's all hidden under a compartment in the sole. That enough?"
"Yeah. And who gets your right shoe?"
"Me. And I get the powder in it too so I can avenge his death." Nudge whispered from the same crate.
"Gazzy teach you bombs?" I asked.
"Yeah, and the powder in his shoe is just right for the one I have in mind."
"Max, when I die, will you take Celeste?" Angel held up her toy bear to Max a few crates over.
"Guys, will you stop writing your wills? You're influencing everyone else!" Max yelled over to us.
"Oh, so you don't want what I have for you?" Fang asked Max.
"Depends what you've got for me." She responded. But before he could answer, the lab door opened. It was probably some scientist here to announce lights out, but instead, the whitecoat walked over and stood in the middle of our circle of crates. Looking up, I saw a small, middle-aged woman with blonde hair in a bun, a slim figure, and a clipboard in her left hand.
"What do you want?" Max snarled. She didn't have nearly as much energy to make the woman scared, but it still sounded pretty mean all the same.
"Well, it's worse than I thought. You all have such little energy. You can't even pose a simple threat." She shook her head.
"Well, maybe if you'd feed us a lot more than you do, maybe we could tear your eyes out, you nasty, vile-"
"You don't want to talk to me like that, Maximum." she interrupted.
"Why shouldn't we?" Fang snarled.
"Because then I might not free you." And then we all hit the ceiling as the whitecoats face morphed into none other than Rina! After two weeks, she finally decided to come back and help us! Relief filled my every molecule, and all I could see was Rina as she morphed from the lab coat into cargo pants and a sleeveless hoodie.
"Sorry about the voice change and costume, but the whitecoats might think I'm an intruder. But it really is worse than I thought. You all look so underfed and weak and dirty!" We heard a creak as our doors sprung open at the same time. Rina's doing, definitely. As we crawled out and stretched, Rina provided bags for each of us.
"Okay, guys, these bags have food, a change of clothes, and some new shoes for each of you. I was watching you guys make your wills, and Gazzy, that was very sweet of you, but I think I'll just take those shoes for you and you can have these. And yes, they have compartments complete with gunpowder, and they're actually quite plentiful stores, but I still wouldn't mind if you only used it in an emergency. And I want to see everyone eating once you've changed, especially you, Iggy." She gave me a smile that melted my heart like it had done so many times. "You haven't been eating enough, and you really need to get your strength back." She provided changing rooms for us, and we lined up and took the bags from her. We also hugged her us we got them, and we said various phrases like "We missed you." and "We don't know what we would have done without you." Even Fang gave the smallest hug and said "Thanks. We need you." If it weren't for all those years of being blind and relying on my hearing, I would never have heard him.
But because fate is so cruel and nice at the same time, I was at the back of the line, which was bad because I had to wait for everyone else to hug her, but nice because we were alone by the time it was my turn. We were silent for a moment.
"Did you make those changing rooms soundproof?" I asked.
"Now I did." She didn't even flinch, but I believed her anyways. "That was very funny when you wrote your will, by the way. But I really don't want your underwear."
"Too bad. Was there anything on that will you do want?"
"Well, I wouldn't mind that kiss, and your pink t-shirt that says 'All my other shirts were dirty' would be nice."
"Well, the t-shirt is busy, but I think I can provide one of those right now." And before I knew it, we were kissing. Oh, God, it was so perfect. I never realized I missed them that much. I put everything into that kiss, my sadness that she left, my joy that she returned, my happiness that we were busting out of there, everything. We broke apart when Rina realized that Angel would be coming out momentarily and I wasn't even dressed yet.
"Angel's coming. Better go change, and when you come out, you better be eating! There's no need to starve yourself, I honestly don't know what you were thinking. If I hadn't whispered to you to eat you never would." She muttered as she pushed me towards the remaining stall.
"That was you? I thought you didn't care what happened to me!"
"Why wouldn't I? The greatest, funniest, sweetest, most thoughtful guy I've ever met in all my years, and I'm going to let him starve on my behalf? Not gonna happen!" She sounded cross, but she was smiling as she said it.
"I missed you, Rina." I kissed her on the head and went to go change right as Angel came out for one more hug.
Changing was very interesting. The room was actually about the size of a master bedroom, complete with carpeting, mirror, chair, and a bathroom, which I gladly used to wash my face a bit. I ignored the shower, seeing as it would take forever and I would be wet for a while. And then there were the clothes. It turns out that Rina gave me a dark green T-shirt, jeans, and socks, which all fit me perfectly, thanks to her powers. The shoes were sneakers, and when I checked the sides of the relatively thin soles, I saw a door about the size of my thumb, which led to a large supply of powder, and even a few matches. I got dressed, and since Rina was here, and she would probably kill me if I didn't eat, I managed to take a few bites of the breakfast bar she gave me.
I came out to meet the entire flock in new clothes munching on various travel foods. They were all sitting and waiting for me, with Rina standing in front of them.
"Ah, good, you're out. I'll take that bag, you don't need it anymore." Rina said. The bag floated out of my hand and in hers, where it burst into blue flames.
"You forgot to take out the gunpowder in your shoes, which is why it's blue." She explained.
"I knew I forgot something!" I exclaimed and had a seat on the floor behind Gazzy.
"Okay, everyone, here's the plan." Suddenly a large White-Erase board was behind Rina, and it had a map of the layout of the School on it. "We are right here, in the holding facility. If we take this hallway to the other end and take a left, past the maze room, we should get to the computer room. This isn't just where the whitecoats store the data from the experiments, this is also where they're going to send the signal to start the By-Half Plan. If we hack into the system and do some typing and switching, we should be able to make it so that no computer except one of these can send the signal. Then we'll need to send a virus through to the main system over here so then the computers will do nothing but freeze, and just to be safe, we better bomb the School so then they can't get any replacements. Any questions?" Bomb, huh? Oh, this was going to get good!
"Yeah, me." Max raised her hand. "What exactly will this do?"
"Max, this is what you have to do to save the world. Without the computer that stores all the plans and data, they're powerless. The plan will figuratively explode, or in the case of this building, literally, and they can't do anything." I think Max was grateful that this was all she had to do.
"Won't they have a backup program for this situation?" Fang asked.
"Good call, Fang. Luckily, I know where it is. Angel, Gazzy, would you be willing to go retrieve it and bring it back to us so we can take care of it?"
"We'll try." Gazzy responded, suddenly the tough little trooper.
"Actually, you'll try and succeed." She told them with a small smile. It must be a comfort to know that you're going to be a success. "Good. Max, Nudge, you'll be doing the hacking. Nudge, get Max into the system, and she can take it from there. I'll provide help if necessary, but for the most part, this is your job, Max." They both nodded vigorously.
"I'll be the mental works. Physically, I'll be with Max to help in case they need it, but mentally I'll be everywhere. I'm the lookout for any guards, I'm watching Angel and Gazzy to make sure they get the backup, I'm the person who sends the signals and moves the plan along. I don't want to make myself more important, but I don't think anyone else is up to it." We all nodded. I don't think even Max could do that, she can't be everywhere at once."
"And that leaves Iggy and Fang. Since I'll be too busy in my mind to watch out for my physical self, I need you guys to do it. You need to be my bodyguards. If anyone tries to hurt me, Nudge, or Max, I need you to protect us. Especially me, because I can't fight flyboys and watch Gazzy and Angel at the same time. And if Max or Nudge needs me, shake my shoulder or something, because I can't exactly hear you guys. Got it?" We nodded again. I was going to protect her with my life.
"Yes, Iggy, I thought you might like this job." Everyone turned to me as Rina answered my mental comment. I forgot how annoying it was for her to answer stuff I though, but it was still nice to have her here to do it.
"Okay, everyone, we're going to the computer room, and I'll tell you what to do from there. Let's go!" We started towards the door, but first she said "Oh, wait, I need to free the experiments." Abruptly the cages were all empty. "I sent them to their parents, or relatives, in the case of the orphans. This should make things easier when we blow this place up. Gazzy, Iggy, think about how you'll do that and what you'll need." Both our faces lightened considerably at the prospect of the School blown sky-high.
We hurried through the long hallway with Rina at the lead, flanked by me and Fang. We reached the computer room to see maybe forty computers sitting on rows of metal tables. One computer had its own table, and it seemed to be the biggest, and that was the one Rina pointed to.
"That's the computer that stores the data for the By-Half Plan. There are a lot of passwords; apparently, Itex hardly trusts its own employees. This is where you come in, Nudge." She nodded, sat down, and started to hack into the system with Max behind her. Rina turned to Gazzy and Angel.
"Okay guys. This is a map of Itex. The program is in this room, in the right desk drawer. It's a CD disk labeled 'Itex plans'. You may have to dig a bit. Wear the gloves you found in your bags." They took two sets of gloves out of their pockets and put them on as Rina continued. "There will be lasers on the floors of these two hallways," she pointed to two halls near the office. " So I'd suggest flying through. When you get to the doorway, they're going to ask for voice recognition." Lasers? Voice recognition? I bet those whitecoats eat gourmet, first class meals while they hardly feed us at all! "Gazzy, when they ask for that, say the following in this voice. 'Of course it's me, let me in!'" She spoke with a deep, booming, impatient man's voice.
"Of course it's me, let me in!" Gazzy matched the tone perfectly, and Angel let out a little giggle at the sentence.
"I know, the guy who works in that office has a little problem with temper. He's made it part of his lifestyle. But can you do it?"
"Yes, mam." They replied in unison.
"Good. And good luck!" Rina called after them as they ran off. Then she turned to us.
"And now for you two. It works like this. I sit on the floor over there, you stand next to me, and if someone tries to attack me, you attack them first. Shake me or something if Max or Nudge needs me." Well, that didn't sound too hard. She walked over and sat cross-legged on the white tile. "And your job starts now." With that, she closed her eyes and looked like she was either thinking, concentrating, or meditating.
It was all pretty quiet, with Rina sitting like a statue, Nudge typing like crazy, and Max and Fang watching the computer screen flicker with different windows. I took a moment to think. I couldn't believe this was happening. Rina was back, we were all free, and we were saving the world. I thought we would be dead or doing late experiments or something. I didn't think I would be standing here well fed and in new clothes, watching Rina meditate next to me, and imagining how to blow up the accursed School so the evil scientists wouldn't start the By-Half Plan. Incredible what happens when you live my life.
Nudge stood up. "I'm in." She claimed. "Now you can crash the system, Max." Max looked a bit insecure, but Nudge had done so well that all she had to do was type a few commands. She took the chair and got to work.
"Flyboys coming." Rina said in a dreamy state unlike her usual energetic self. "Twenty one of them from the left. I'd get ready to fight if I were you. They're after me and Max." Immediately Nudge, Fang, and I assumed fighting positions. No one was getting Rina or Max! Not if I had anything to say about it!
They swarmed through the doorway and tried to make a beeline for Rina and Max. We were faster. I started with the one closest to Rina and punched him across his jaw. While he tried to hold in the circuits and wires, I went around him and kicked the base in his spine. He crumpled immediately, and I got to work on the next one. By the time Max was almost done spreading the virus, we had gotten rid of almost all of them. We just saw one more to get rid of. But that one was the strangest one.
From memories of Ari, this was a grown up version of him. He looked like crap, his face stretched and spreaded to cover his eraser build, his awkward muscles too large for a seven-year old build, a pair of large wings grafted clumsily onto his back. But there was one technical difficulty: he died in the fight at the Itex in Germany. His expiration date caught up with him right as he killed some flyboy. How could it be?
"Hello, Ari, or should I call you Ari 2?" Rina said in the same dreamy state. "Were you trying to capture me?" Oh. He's a clone. Go figure.
"Ari 2. And yes. I'm giving you one chance. Come quietly and no one gets hurt." He snarled. Yep, that's Ari's clone all right.
"She's not going anywhere." I snarled right back from behind him. Then I kicked him in the base of his spine, and Nudge got him in the groin from the front. He crumpled like all the other flyboys. Apparently those whitecoats were too busy planning to kill the world to fix the glitches in their law enforcement.
"Great job, guys!" Rina sprang up from her spot on the floor, her voice back to its normal excited tone. "Sorry I sounded so weird earlier, but that happens when my mind is everywhere at once. I have to divide my energy."
"That would explain it." I commented. "But why did you come back all of a sudden?" My question was answered two seconds later, when Gazzy and Angel blasted through the doors.
"We got it! We got it!" They sounded pretty proud of themselves. Rina beamed.
"Great job, you guys! Have you been thinking of a bomb to explode the School with?"
Gazzy stopped eyeing the dead flyboys enough to answer. "How about another Big Papa, Ig?"
"I was just thinking the same thing, Gazzy."
"Okay, so that's one Big Papa, and you're going to need-" Rina said. She knew everything we would need, and it appeared next to us as she listed it, but I'm not going to tell you every little detail, for once. Even if I told you what we used, you still might be able to figure out how to make it work, and I don't want that on my hands. So suck it up and keep reading.
We were almost done with the bomb, and I was just about to connect the red wire with the green wire, when Rina interjected.
"Uh, Iggy, it'll be a more destructive boom if you connect the blue wire with the green, instead of red." I looked at her inquisitively. "Well, the blue wire holds more power than this red one, but only if you connect it with the green wire. There'll be more electricity zooming through it, and the bomb will have more power." She explained. "It also wouldn't hurt if you added a bit more powder to the bomb, with the current supply, you'll only blow up this and the offices." Whoa. Rina is a bomb expert?
"Wow, Rina. You're pretty, smart, powerful, talented, and a bomb expert?! You better watch out, or Iggy's going to marry you on the spot!" Gazzy declared. Rina blushed, and a shocked Nudge elbowed him in the gut.
"What? I was just saying what Iggy was thinking, right, Ig?" Gazzy said while massaging his new sore spot.
"Well, you're mostly right, but you missed funny and sweet. And she's not pretty, she's at least gorgeous." I missed the blush she always wore whenever I complimented her.
"Okay, everyone, let's clear out of the building we're going to blow this place sky-high!" Rina yelled, trying to ignore my comment. I could tell she was pleased, though. Everyone ran out of the room, except for me and Rina (surprise). She was about to follow them, but something made her stop and crumple next to Ari 2. I ran over to her and picked her up in my arms. She was unconscious, and the only movement I saw from her was her breath and Ari 2 stirring. Wait, Ari 2?
Sure enough, Ari 2 was getting up right next to me, holding a needle filled halfway with a green liquid in his hand. Something told me that needle made her unconscious. Rage filled me, but only for a few seconds.
"I told you someone would get hurt. Better take you too, you may be of some use to me." Then that evil Ari 2 stuck the same needle into my hand, and I fell asleep instantly.
Buh buh BUH! Sorry for the evil cliffie, I just had to end it there, and a cliffie was just too dang irresistible! Just as Rina is so irresistible to Iggy and vice versa. Hope you like this chapter. I will admit that Rina coming back was kinda obvious, but I bet you didn't see that last part coming!
And please tell me, in a review, if you would want a third Our Genie, Rina. If the vast majority of you say yes, not only would you get a third one, but a lot of extra details and twists in the sequel's plot to make the third one make sense. Basically if you ask for a third one, you get a lot of bonus features and extra stuff. But if you all say no, you just get a sequel that's a lot simpler and less detailed. Either way I'm doing a third fanfic, I just might make that third fanfic another OGR story. Except it's not so much about Rina…
Oh, and DarkBlade98 raised a very good question. Yes, Rina will pretty much be human if she looses her powers. And ghj1, I'm sorry. I'm not telling everyone what for, I'm just saying sorry.
Please review! They make me do my happy blinkie bounce, which means I'm very happy!