Haha! I'm FINALLY updating! And, yes…. We actually finished this story months ago :( I've just been very lazy with posting *laughs nervously* So now I'm going on an updating spree!
And, for the next (and final) two chapters of this story, Quanktumspirit and I each wrote half of it. I marked where the authors switch, but I think you should be able to tell the writing styles apart anyway ;)
Also, sorry about the long chapter xD
(Quantumspirit's half)
Leonardo and Lila woke up again the next morning. They stretched, and Lila heard keys being turned in the door. "That can't be Alexander or my parents, if your capture statement is true, Lila," Leo stated nervously, looking over at his mate.
Lila snatched Leonardo and shoved him into the bathroom. "Not a word," she hissed.
Leonardo nodded his head as the door closed, but a small slit was open for him to listen in to the conversation.
"Agent Lila, enjoying your new quarters?" the voice asked, which sounded like... No...
"Very much so, Dr. Diminutive. You were right, O.W.C.A. has some lovely homes," Lila replied, smiling at him.
Leonardo growled under his breath. So Dr Diminutive has taken O.W.C.A. captive to take over their HOUSES? And now all the Mr Fox Agents live there? Great. At least that's confirmed now.
"Indeed it is, my dear. Anyhow, the Mr. Fox agents are all having a meeting in twenty minutes in the meeting room. We need you to be there. Now that O.W.C.A. is under our controle, we can initiate phase three of the plan."
"Of course, sir," Lila smiled. "I will be sure to be there on time. Good day."
Dr Diminutive nodded his head and left the porch. Once he was out of the doorway, Lila closed the door and faced the bathroom.
Leonardo exited the room and faced his mate. "Did he just say: taking over O.W.C.A. was only phase two?"
Lila nodded. "Yes, and that was all the Mr. Fox agents were trained for. We have never discussed phase three in all these years. Leo, I have to help you get your family out of the prisons NOW."
"No, Lila, don't. If Dr. Diminutive knows that my family has escaped, he will straight away suspect you and know something is up," Leo pointed out. "We have to know what phase three is."
Just then the door was opened again. Leonardo didn't have time to hide as Ruby the badger walked into Lila's new living room.
"Lila, you ready for the me...meeting?!" Ruby's eyes narrowed as she spotted Leo. "What are you doing here?"
Lila and Leo glanced at each other before giving Ruby a quick explanation of everything. Ruby sighed and rubbed her head. "Oh, brother, you really got yourself into quite the mess this time, Lila," she moaned. "If Dr. Diminutive finds Leonardo out of the cell, he will have you captured and beaten in his replacement."
Lila hung her head and held Leonardo's paw as hard as she could, almost beginning to shake from tears. Leonardo hugged Lila to try and calm her down.
"Ruby... You... You know I love him," she whispered. "I don't want him to be sitting behind bars like the others... Please, you have to help me hide him from Dr. Diminutive..." Her voice cracked. "Please... I... I can't lose him again... Not that I'm... Y-You know." Lila began to shake harder, her sobs building up more.
Ruby blinked in realization and sighed sympathetically. "Oh, Lila, it... It's Leonardo's, isn't it?"
Lila nodded her head and squeezed her eyes shut, but Leo was none the wiser. "What's mine?" he asked, shooting Lila a confused glance.
"No time to explain," Ruby said firmly. "Lila, grab the duck-tape; Leo, we'll have to disguise you. If anyone finds out one of the four platypi has escaped, then we are in deep trouble."
Leonardo blinked as the two girls grabbed double sided tape and strapped a thick brown winter furred coat to Leonardo.. Once he was covered, Ruby placed his webbed and front paws into brown slippers and pulled a brown woolen hat over his head.
Lila giggled as she stared at him, and Ruby couldn't help but chuckle, herself. "What did you do?" Leo asked worriedly.
Lila pulled him in front of a mirror, and he blinked. "I... I look like a beaver," he complained.
Lila nodded slowly. "A beaver would work, won't it, Ruby?"
Ruby nodded back and snatched Leonardo's paw, dragging him out of the room.
"Hurry, you two, we have a meeting to get to," she said.
Lila snatched his paw back and held it hard, glaring at Ruby. "Leave my mate out of it."
"Sorry, Lila, but... 'Bob' here has to be at the meeting as well," Ruby explained, now getting behind Leonardo and pushing him forward.
"'Bob'?" Leonardo asked confusedly.
"You need a new disguise name," Ruby explained, as the three animals left the house and began walking back up to O.W.C.A's headquarters. "For now, your name is Bob the beaver, and you are my step-brother."
Lila nodded while Leo frowned. All three of the animals had now reached the O.W.C.A- now Mr. Fox- meeting room, and Ruby pulled Leonardo next to her in the seats provided.
(…)
Perry, Rosetta, and Alexander were almost literally twiddling their thumbs in their cell. All of the other O.W.C.A. members were also captured.
Alexander sighed suddenly. "Our only hope is Leonardo. He is the only one who can free...all of us. He may not be a O.W.C.A. member, but I'm sure he won't let the family down."
Perry sighed and nodded his head. His son was right: the entire O.W.C.A. was pinning their hopes on the only platypus who wasn't a O.W.C.A. member and who resented being one.
(...)
Leonardo- still disguised as Bob- was seated next to Lila and Ruby. Both Mr. Fox agents sat down straight as a lemur walked past them and placed a folded piece of paper in front of them.
Leonardo raised a confused eyebrow at the paper. The first thing drawn on it was "O.W.C.A.", then underneath it the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. symbol.
What has this got to do with anything? Leonardo asked himself.
After a while, more Mr. Fox agents entered and all took their places where O.W.C.A. members once sat. Dr. Diminutive sat at the very head of the table, along with sitting on three thick books so he could look over the top surface and face his organization.
"Greetings, Mr. Fox agents, I take it all of you have rested well?" he asked with a sinister smile.
A few mumbles shot through all the agents as they faced their leader. He nodded and smiled.
"Now that we have O.W.C.A. under our own command, we can proceed with phase two. Which is...to threaten the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. members with their own 'likable agents'."
The Mr. Fox agents raised a confused eyebrow.
"It's simple," Dr Diminutive explained. "The L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. members have to swear that the Mr. Fox agents are the better fighters, enemies, against the O.W.C.A. and promise to leave us alone once and for all, also letting me rejoin. If not, well... I hope they all know how to swim."
Leonardo blinked. This is making even less sense then the oddly constructed pamphlet he handed out. I need to know more.
He raised his paw, and the other Mr. Fox agents blinked in surprise and faced the...beaver? Even Dr Diminutive looked confused.
"Um... Yes, um... Beaver guy?" he asked.
"My name is Le-Bob the Beaver, sir," Leonardo said while facing the pamphlet. "But... What point is there to threaten the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. members with the O.W.C.A. members? How will they know about O.W.C.A's capture?"
Dr Diminutive gave him a look that seemed to say: "Have you even been paying attention at all?"
"Easy..." he hesitated, "Bob... I have all the email addresses of the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. members. We simply tie the O.W.C.A. agents up, point a gun at them, photograph it, send the image to L..O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N's email accounts, and write a threat message with it. Once the last L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. member has been informed, we wait for their responses."
"Bob" nodded in understanding and fell dead silent. All the Mr. Fox agents got up and walked in pairs downstairs, dragging one O.W.C.A. agent back up after the next. Leonardo/Bob stood next to Lila, who knew exactly which member she wanted to drag up.
As the two headed down to the cells, she walked with him right up to Leo's family's cell and the two overwhelmed poor Perry, trying to take him up.
"Dad, stop struggling," Leo hissed finally, ducking an attack his father gave. "We have to take you upstairs for a photo shoot."
With that, Perry immediately realized it was his son and began to fake his attacks.
"This is perfect. Your dad sure knows how to make it seem realistic," Lila commented.
But Perry "was no match" for either Lila or Leonardo. After "struggling" against them for four minutes, he gave up and Lila and Leo handcuffed him.
Perry blinked as he was taken upstairs, tied up even more, and a blade was held to his throat. After a flash of light he was let go again and Lila and 'Bob' dragged him back downstairs.
(...)
As Perry got back into his cell, he blinked confusedly, still counting stars. Rosetta and Alexander raced up to him and hugged him tightly.
"Oh, Perry, what did they do to you?" Rosetta asked, glaring at Lila. "If you've harmed my mate I'll make hot dogs out of your corp's-"
"Mom, calm down and shut up," Leonardo said firmly, revealing himself. "The Mr. Fox agents have only photographed all the top agents, and those photos are being sent to L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. as we speak."
Perry nodded his head slowly. "So the plan is: take over O.W.C.A, photograph all the top agents, and threaten L.O.V.E..M.U.F.F.I.N? Weird."
Lila and Leonardo nodded their heads in agreement. Weird indeed.
"We got a response." Suddenly, Dr. Diminutive's voice through the intercom. Leonardo and Lila left the cells again and went upstairs to see what the response was.
(My half)
When they made it back to the meeting room, most of the agents were already gathered there. Lila and Leo exchanged a glance before heading over to Ruby. "Oh, there you guys are."
Finally, the last few agents came into the room, and Dr. Diminutive began to play the video L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. had sent. Professor Rodney Von Rodenstein was the one who began to talk. "I must say, Dr. Diminutive, we are all impressed."
Leonardo glanced over at Dr. Diminutive and saw the evil scientist proudly puffing out his chest. "However," Rodney continued, "now you've painted yourself as more of a threat. We can't accept you back into our organization while you have a hundred powerful agents at your beck and call."
"What?" Dr. Diminutive frowned.
Rodney finished the short video with: "If you want to join us again, forget Mr. Fox." The screen flickered off.
"Uh, oh..." Ruby mumbled as the team stared at the evil scientist. "Now he's mad..."
"How dare they!" Dr. Diminutive scowled and began to pace back and forth. "I've spent years getting this together, and they want me to just DROP IT?! Absolutely not! I'm only giving this up if it's taken from me!"
Lila and Leo shared a smirk and nodded in agreement before slowly beginning to creep out the room. If he wouldn't give the organization up, then they had to free the O.W.C.A. agents.
Ruby saw the couple sneak off and groaned, burying her head in her paws as she realized what they were doing. " You guys..." she sighed. "Okay, you two aren't doing this by yourself," she muttered, racing after them.
(...)
When they made it downstairs, the group stopped at the corner of the hallway, peeking carefully into the prisons and coming up with an escape plan. "Only one guard?" Leo scoffed. "We can take him."
Lila gave him a cautious look. "Are you sure you can fight?"
"Lila, my entire family consists of spies.. I know more than you'd think."
The fox frowned. "Do you WANT to fight...?"
Leo exhaled. "It's to get my family back," he said firmly. "Yes." With that, he ripped off his "costume."
"Alright, then." Lila nodded slowly. "Let's do this."
(Lila's POV)
Ruby hesitated. "What about you, Lila? Ae you sure YOU can fight?" She glanced down at Lila's stomach.
Lila immediately placed a paw on it. "Not in front of Leo!" she hissed.
"Sorry." The badger raised her paws in defense. "But he deserves to know."
Leonardo cocked his head. "I deserve to know what?"
Lila inhaled shakily. "Not now," she said firmly, looking over at Ruby. She grabbed Leo's paw and met his eyes. "I'll tell you when this has all calmed down, okay?"
"O...kay..." Leo hesitated before clearing his throat. "Well, we should probably get to work freeing the agents, so we'll be ready when the meeting ends."
"Yeah." Lila nodded immediately, glad for the sudden change in subject. "Let's do this."
To take down the guard, they went with the classic "distraction" plan. Ruby walked up to the guard, clearing her throat. "Hey, could you let me in? I need to talk with one of the prisoners."
The guard, who was a big crocodile, frowned suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be in the meeting?"
"Shouldn't you?" Ruby shot back. "Dr. Diminutive assigned something different for each of us."
The crocodile didn't look convinced. "Listen, I'm not sure if this is okay. Just wait for the meeting to be done, and I can-"
That was when Lila popped up behind him and knocked him unconscious. "Sorry, we can't wait that long."
Leo chuckled and grabbed the keys. "That's how it's done," Lila grinned.
"I'll take careful notes," Leonardo promised jokingly. "For as soon as I join O.W.C.A. in a millennium."
Lila giggled as he unlocked the door to the hall of cells. "So you're still not planning on joining?" She looked him up and down. "You seem to be a natural."
Leonardo sighed. "Maybe I am, but... I like to avoid violence when possible. I know there are some jobs at O.W.C.A. that let you see the minimum amount of violence possible, but... I don't know... I just don't..." he buried his head in his paws.
Lila came forward and gave him a tight hug. "It's okay, Leo. I understand."
"Hey, lovebirds!" Ruby called, her voice breaking them apart. "The meeting won't last much longer!"
Leonardo nodded. "Right. Here." He opened up the keychain and tossed a key to each girl. "All three keys look exactly the same, so they SHOULD all work on each cell. We'll work faster separated.."
Lila caught her key with ease and raced down the hall to the next hall of cells around the bend. Immediately, she began to unlock the cells one by one; the key worked for each of them, just like Leonardo had said.
O.W.C.A. agents filed past her as she continued to run down the hallway. Finally, though, Lila reached the cell she had been looking for; the cell with Leo's family.
His mom was pacing the cell; apparently, none of them had noticed her freeing the other agents. She stopped as soon as she saw Lila. "Where's Leo?"
"He's freeing some of the other agents," Lila promised. "He's okay."
The female peach platypus exhaled in relief as Lila began to unlock the cell. "Thank goodness."
"All the O.W.C.A. agents are gathering right outside the prison section," Lila explained. "Mr. Fox is in a meeting right now, but they won't be much longer."
The three platypi nodded. Perry- the only one of them Lila knew the name of- and his mate raced off to join the other agents. Lila had expected Leo's twin brother to follow them, but he stopped next to her. "You and Leo are close, aren't you?"
Lila blushed and subconsciously placed a paw on her stomach. "U-Um, well..."
Leonardo's teal-colored twin noticed this and raised an eyebrow. "I'll...take that as a yes." He hesitated. "You know, he's really happy with you."
The fox could hear his unspoken sentence of, "So don't blow it." "I wouldn't hurt him," she reassured, deciding not to bring up how they first bonded. "I love him."
He nodded slowly. "Alright..." With that, he raced off after his parents.
Lila exhaled and rubbed her stomach. Oh, Leo... She swallowed. I wish we were a bit older, then this wouldn't be as big a deal.
(...)
Leonardo paced worriedly in the hall of cells. Where was his family? Where was Lila? He and Ruby were already done; was everything okay?
Luckily, though, that was when he saw his parents round the corner. "Mom! Dad!"
"Leo!" Perry and Rosetta rushed forward and gave him a tight hug.
While in their embrace, Leonardo also saw Lila and Alexander racing into the hall. Relief rushed through him; none of them had been hurt.
"So what do we do?" Leo heard Ethan the eagle ask as he and his parents broke apart.
All eyes ended up turning to Perry, which didn't surprise Leo. Perry just turned to his peach-colored son. "I think Leo knows this organization better than me."
As Leonardo looked for the right words to reply, Lila and Ruby came up and joined him. "We were part of Mr. Fox," Lila said slowly. "We could help."
Ruby glanced down at her watch. "The meeting's ending about now, I think. If we all go up as a group, we could try to reason with him."
"If they don't catch us off guard, they should be a lot easier to fight," Alexander pointed out. "We should be able to take them on."
Leo nodded slowly. "That sounds good."
"Alright," Perry nodded back. "It's settled, then."
Leonardo exhaled, grabbing Lila's paw. "Let's do this."
(...)
As a group, all of O.W.C.A. marched up to the meeting room; the doors were just opening. Several Mr. Fox agents froze when the door opened.
The wolf agent scowled. "Lila, Ruby, what are you doing?!"
"Can it, Wilfred," Lila muttered, shoving him against the wall. That was when words like "Traitors" began to be tossed around the room.
Dr. Diminutive scrambled his way around the table and to the front of the room. He gasped in shock, but before he could reply, Leo spoke up. "Please, wait."
The scientist scowled. "Why?"
"I want to talk," Leo replied. "Why are you doing this?"
"L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N," he mumbled. "They rejected my idea for this, but I started it anyway to prove them wrong."
"Okay, you did that. Now give it up."
"Absolutely not! I've worked too hard!"
Alexander, who was standing at the front next to Leo, got into a fighting pose. "Then we'll have to take it from you."
Dr. Diminutive bristled. "Agents, attack!"
With that, the fight began.
I'm too lazy to bother with the disclaimer this chapter or the next one xD Sorry, guys xD