I do not own.

Episode 11

"Walter!" Tuck exclaimed. "How have you been?" Tuck was thrilled to see his friend.

"Good, dude. It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, I haven't called. Been busy." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Come on in." He ushered them into his studio apartment. Cricket waved from the couch.

"Hey, Tuck. Doesn't Walter have a great place?" She asked.

Tuck looked at Circe, "Was this your plan?"

Circe smiled slyly. "He called the other day to say he was coming back so I asked if he could help us out. No one knows who he is, so it should be easy for him to slip in and pretend to be a jock."

"Or a wanna be jock." Walter smirked, "I gave him a sob story about my dad wanting me to make it on the team and I needed something to bulk me up. He bought it and…" Walter pulled the vial out of his pocket, "I snag myself one of these babies." He handed it to Circe.

"Nice, "Tuck grinned. Then he frowned. "Now what?"

"I'm going to bring this to Dr. Holiday. You guys need to monitor that corner and see who else shows up to purchase these things." Circe carefully put the vial away.

"Great, a stakeout." Tuck rolled his eyes.

"It's not so bad…" Cricket smiled shyly. "When there's company."

Tuck looked at her and smiled back.

Walter cleared his throat. "Hey, would you mind if I tag along?" He addressed Circe. "I haven't seen Rex in a while. Kinda wanna drop by and say hi." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

Circe nodded, "Sure. I know Rex would be happy to see you. He and Kenwyn should be back from their mission." When she mentioned Kenwyn's name, Walter's eyes lit up.

"Well, let's go." Walter said eagerly. "Don't want to keep my fans waiting."

Circe laughed and punched him in the arm. Walter draped his arm around her and they walked out together.

0o0

"Get some rest, Rex. We have a big day tomorrow." Just as Six had finish talking to Rex, Circe and Walter walked in.

"Dr. Holiday, we got a sample of the drug." Circe said excitedly. She handed the vial to Holiday who immediately uncorked it and prepped it for analysis.

Rex smiled when he saw Walter, "Dude, great to see you." He walked over to greet his friend. They gave each other a fist bump. "When did you get back and how come you didn't tell me?"

"Sorry, it was a last minute thing. It's actually a pretty cool reason but I'll tell you all about it later. It seems like you're in a middle of something." He nervously looked at Six who looked disapprovingly at Walter.

"Hey, don't sweat it. I'm done. Want to go a couple rounds of Summo Slammers?" Rex asked with a grin.

"Sure, but you're going down, as usual." Walter smirked.

"In your dreams." Rex scoffed as he walked toward the door.

"Rex, you need to rest up for tomorrow." Six reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, it'll only take a few minutes to wipe the floor with him." Rex said in his usual confident manner.

"Puh-leese." Walter snorted, "The day you can beat me is the day Bobo goes on a diet."

They were still smack talking when they left the room. Six shook his head in exasperation.

"Six, come look at this." Holiday called him over.

Six walked over to the computer terminal Holiday was working at.

"What am I looking at?" He asked a little overwhelmed by the data flashing on the screen.

"This sample is the exact same thing we confiscated at the amusement park." She said. "It proves that somehow the drug is slipping through the radar and getting to the street. We need to find out who's been taking this."

"Tuck and Cricket are monitoring the corner now." Circe said.

"Great, this should help us see how prevalent this is." Holiday replied. "Good job, Circe."

"If you don't need me anymore, I'm going to find Rex and Walter." Circe blushed from the praise.

"Of course." Holiday smiled warmly.

"Make sure they don't stay up all night playing video games." Six added as she left.

Holiday laughed. "You sound just like a father."

Six's jaw clenched. "I'm not sure I'm father material."

Rebecca got up and faced Six. "You'd be a great father. I know because you've been a great father to Rex." She tiptoed and lightly kissed him on the cheek. She turned to leave the room. "I need to show this to Caesar and Rylander and then I'm turning in for the night. Good night Six."

Six swallowed hard. "Good night, Rebecca." As he watched her leave, he decided he should follow his own advice and turn in for the night...

Except Six couldn't sleep. Tossing and turning all night, he kept going over tomorrow in his head. Several possibilities occurred to him: He takes her in the hot air balloon, she sees the message, and she agrees to marry him; or he takes her in the hot air balloon, she sees the message, and she rejects him. He wasn't sure which was worse. That's not to say he didn't want to be with her. He did. He absolutely knew he loved her. But marriage was not something to be taken lightly. In his fear that David would move in on his girlfriend he jumped to drastic measures. He glanced at his clock. It read 4:30. He knew sleep was a hopeless cause. He might as well get an early jump on the day.

0o0

When Beverly got up the next morning, she was surprised when she opened her door. On the floor she noticed a small white box. She picked it up and looked around. She cautiously opened the box. It was a simple gold chain with a diamond studded letter B attached.

"What's that?" Sarah materialized at her elbow.

Beverly looked up. "Do you know who left this here?"

Sarah looked at the necklace." Ohh pretty. I bet Dr. Salazar left it here."

"You mean Caesar?" Beverly asked startled.

Sarah nodded vigorously. Then in a low voice said, "Daddy, said he can't come around anymore but he still shows up sometimes. Something about being a kitchen destroying love-struck darn fool." Sarah skipped away.

Beverly's jaw dropped. She looked at the necklace. Caesar got it for her? He was love-struck? Suddenly, she felt like a heel for going out with Chad. The doorbell rang. Crap, he was here. It was too late to cancel. She decided she'd make it up to Caesar later. She put the necklace in her room before running to answer the door.

0o0

Six was exhausted and nervous… two bad combinations. Rebecca who was driving kept glancing worriedly at him. They were in an unmarked Providence vehicle. They didn't want to scare away any potential criminals. Six was in his usual suit but Rebecca was in some jeans and a white blouse. She was worried that her usual attire was a little too conspicuous. Calan was not far behind waiting just in case. Rebecca could sense that there was something different. Problem was she couldn't put her finger on it. Maybe it was the way he kept pushing his shades up or the way he was fiddling with something in his pocket.

"You okay Six?" She asked finally when he pushed his shades up for the umpteenth time.

"Fine." He said tersely.

Rebecca sighed. When he was like this there was no talking to him. So they maintained the awkward silence until she pulled into the parking lot of the County Fair.

"Do you see Rex or Circe?" Rebecca looked around.

Six did a quick scan. "No, but there's Kenwyn." Rebecca looked in Six's direction. Sure enough Kenwyn was there along with Noah, his mom, and Claire. She felt a sudden pang of sadness for Claire when she remembered her father was still in a coma in the hospital. She noted how pale she looked. No doubt Mrs. Nixon had insisted that she get out for some fresh air. Rebecca knew that was what she would have done.

"Come on." Six lightly grabbed her elbow and steered her through the entrance.

She wondered what the urgency was. She could feel the tenseness in Six's body. Looking around she spotted Rex, Circe, and Walter.

"Six," She started to say but he interrupted her.

"I see them." He stated. He checked his watch. To Rebecca's surprise he said, "Let's check things out from above."

"What do you mean?" She noticed that he hadn't let go of her arm and had been leading her purposefully somewhere.

"I mean get a bird's eye view." He stopped at the hot air balloons.

"Really?" Rebecca looked at Six oddly. "Why a hot air balloon?"

Six shrugged, "Well, we don't want to draw any attention and this will help us keep an eye out for suspicious activities."

Rebecca thought about it. She couldn't find the fault in the logic but somehow it still seemed strange. "Ok." She gave up trying to figure out what was wrong with Six.

0o0

"Oh, there they are." Circe said excitedly as Six and Rebecca headed for the hot air balloons. "Do you think they're ready with the message?"

Rex nodded, "Yeah, Beverly made me check this morning. It's all set."

Circe grinned until she noticed Rex looking at her. "What?"

"We're okay, then?" Rex asked softly.

Circe looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, Rex. I guess we should talk."

Rex agreed. "Yeah, we should."

"Walter said that I was…" Circe started.

"Wait, you talked to Walter and not me?" Rex frowned.

"Well, yeah, he asked how I was doing and I told him." Circe looked at Rex confused.

"But when I ask you, you give me the silent treatment." Rex said annoyed.

"That's because I was angry with you." Circe getting equally annoyed.

"Why? What did I do?" Rex asked angrily.

"Ohh, there's Kenwyn. " Walter said suddenly. "Catch you guys later." Walter stuck his hands in his pocket and ambled over to where Kenwyn was standing.

Rex and Circe were left alone.

"Well?" Rex asked not wanting to let her off the hook.

"Shouldn't we be looking for the drug dealers or something?" Circe tried to change the subject.

"Oh no you don't. You're always doing this. You don't tell me stuff and then you get all mad when I don't know what's going on." Rex said.

"I have told you Rex! You just don't get it."

"Well, then tell me again."

"Uh, guys, I hate to interrupt but I saw some strange people around the animal pens." Bobo's voice startled them. Rex pressed his comlink.

"Bobo, what are you doing here?" He furrowed his brow. "You're supposed to be back at base."

"Hey, there's fair food here." He snorted. "But it's a good thing I am here. With all your human drama you're missing the bad guys."

"Fine, I'll go check it out." Rex grumbled. He looked at Circe who was looking at the ground. In a gentler tone he said, "We'll talk later?"

Circe just nodded.

Rex wandered over to the animal pens. Bobo was right there were strange people skulking around. They all wore red flannel shirts and denim overalls. He supposed their clothes weren't that strange at a county fair. It was the overall vibes they were giving off. He followed them into a booth. Inside there were pigs of all shapes and sizes.

Rex looked at one called Cabbage who looked like it ate a lot of cabbages as well as some other things. Rex peered at the clipboard attached to the pen. It was up for 1st in show. He rubbed the pig's head.

"Good luck porker." He said. The pig grunted contently at him. Rex walked on to the next stall. Suddenly, Cabbage squealed. Rex looked back and it began transforming. Its snout elongated plus limbs grew out. Tusks shot out of its mouth. As it got larger it started to take the tent with it.

"Ay caramba!" Rex looked at the monstrosity. The EVO pig gave a roar and rush out toward the cornfield.

"No, no! Not that way!" Rex thought of Six and Rebecca.

Rex formed his boogie back and flew after it. He made his smack hands and hit the monster right in its nose. The EVO's eyes glowed and out of its snout flew a fireball… which much to Rex's chagrin landed right in the middle of the maze.

0o0

Six got Holiday into the balloon. The operator fired up the burner. The balloon slowly lifted. Six arms were folded across his chest and a fingered tapped impatiently. Holiday didn't seem to notice his agitation. She chatted with the operator asking him questions about the fair. He guessed it was to gather information. But that wasn't what he was thinking about. What was taking the balloon so long to get off the ground?

Finally, the balloon became buoyant. Slowly, it started to float up.

When they were high enough Six cleared his throat and asked Rebecca, "Do you see anything?"

"Oh my gosh!" Rebecca cried.

That was sort of a good sign. But what she said next wasn't.

"The maze is on fire."

"What?" Six peered over the side. Black smoke rose from the field. It obscured most of the view of the field. They couldn't see anything much less a certain proposal. Six clenched his jaw.

A pig-like EVO flew out of the smoke, followed by Rex with his smack hands. He punched the pig EVO who bounced a few times taking out several more booths. It then blew fireballs from its snout. Rex ducked but another part of the fair burst into flames. While Rex was distracted the EVO body slammed him into the ground.

The people around them were screaming and scrambling to get away. Circe pushed her way through the crowd to get to the fire. Concentrating she used her sonic blast to smother the fire. With the fire taken care of there was only the EVO to put down and Rex was currently squashed into the ground.

Six stood the edge of the basket. Blades shot out of his sleeves and he jumped from the balloon. As he plunged towards the EVO, he did a 360 degree flip and hit the monster with his feet first knocking it to the ground. He then jumped off and got into a fighting stance. The EVO rolled over and charged Six with its tusks. Six sidestepped it and jumped high enough to reach its head to knock the back of its head with the handle of his blade. THE EVO staggered and turned for another pass. Six easily avoided the attack. At last the EVO was exhausted. Six did one final round house kick to the head. It fell down with a weak roar. Rex stumbled over to Six after Circe had helped him out of the dirt. He put his hand on the EVO. Blue lines circumvented the monster and it slowly lost mass to turn back into a simple pig. When he was done, Rex dropped to his knees, exhausted. The pig came over and nuzzled him before wandering off.

"You need more training." Six said dryly.

"You need another proposal idea." Rex said looking at the burnt up field.

Six growled and Rex flinched.

0o0

Beverly and Chad had to take public transportation to the fair. But everyone and their grandmother seemed to be on their way to the fair. So it was slow going. Beverly checked her watch. Darn the traffic. She missed the proposal. She sighed.

"Sorry, about the ghetto transport." Chad apologized.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it. We'll get there eventually." She tried to be gracious.

"Any reason why you wanted to be there early?" He asked.

"No, not really. " Inside she was seething. Yes! I wanted to see my sister get proposed to.

"Well, we should be there soon." He said hopefully.

The bus they were riding on jolted to a stop. Beverly was thrown forward and fell into Chad's arms. When she realized her face was pressed against his chest, she quickly pulled away.

"What happened?" She turned her face so he wouldn't see how red her face was.

When she did, she gasped. There was thick black smoke rising from the county fair.

"Wow, looks like a war zone." Chad commented.

Beverly didn't answer. She bolted out of the bus not heeding Chad's call to come back.

She ran past the line of cars stuck in traffic. She didn't stop until she reached the entrance of the fair. People were running past her screaming but Beverly was only focused on finding her sister. Hands abruptly grabbed her shoulders. She was pulled out of the way of the stampeding people. She looked to see Kenwyn and a boy whose name escaped her. The boy held her fast.

"Beverly, get out of here. Before they see you." Kenwyn hissed.

"Becca," She managed to get out.

"Everyone's fine. Now get out." The boy who had an iron grip on her shoulder turned her around and shoved her into the sea of people running away from the fair.

As the crowd pushed Beverly along she spotted Chad who was fighting his way through to find her.

"Chad, over here." She called waving her hand.

Chad looked relieved as he made his way over. "You scared me. What were you thinking?"

"Oh, I just wanted to see what was going on. But they wouldn't let me in." She tried to sound sulky.

"You're crazy." But the words were said lightly.

"Yeah, I know." The crowd was starting to thin and they were not pushed along like they were.

"Well, I guess the fair is a bust but we can maybe catch a movie?" Chad suggested hopefully.

"I… I… should be getting home." Beverly stammered remembering the necklace at home.

"Oh," Chad looked crestfallen.

"Maybe next time." Beverly said consolingly.

"Actually, I was meaning to ask you if you'd go to the prom with me." Chad said.

Beverly paused and looked at him incredulously. "Prom."

Chad rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Yeah you know its kinda next week. I wasn't going to go originally because there wasn't anyone I wanted to take… until now."

Beverly felt her face flush. "Um… well… I… uh… Can I get back to you on that?" Beverly was at a lost as to how to answer.

"Well, it is on Friday." Chad said.

"I'll let you know before then." Beverly assured him.

"Okay." He smiled. "Let's get you home."

He called a cab to take them back.

0o0

Providence had their hands full cleaning up the mess.

Calan walked over to Six, "It was all a diversion. I found that several cargo crates shipped to the fair have mysteriously disappeared and this." Calan handed Six a dart. "Best guess is they injected the pig with N-juice to make it go EVO."

Six cursed under his breath.

"Yeah," He paused, "Sorry about the… you know…"

"We have bigger problem right now." Six said grimly.

Holiday walked over, "I heard." She said dismally. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, but we need to regroup and talk about our next move. They seem to be one step ahead of us." Six stated dourly.

The group went back to Providence. Since Kenwyn was technically undercover she had to go home with Noah. Walter went with them. Rex didn't even get a chance to talk to Noah to see how Claire's father was doing. They sat demoralized around the conference table.

"Wow, who died?" Bobo looked around the room. All eyes glared at Bobo. "Yeesh, sorry, I asked." He walked to the back of the room with the other grunts.

"So now what?" Calan asked the question no one wanted to.

Six was absent-mindedly fingering the box in his pocket. "We need another lead."

"Got that right here, sir." Tuck said walking in with a tablet tucked under his arm.

Everyone perked up. Tuck plugged the tablet into the large screen.

"You had us monitor who was buying at the corner and…" Tuck hit play.

They watched a stream of teenage boys come and go. "But do you know what the interesting thing is?"

"They all shop at the same store." Rex noted the outfits.

"Actually, that's not far off. They all go to East Side High School." Tuck said.

Rex blinked, "Wait, that's the school that Gabriel and Michael went to."

Everyone looked at Rex in confusion. "Remember? That time I went to Noah's school so I could play table tennis."

"Oh, yeah." Everyone nodded.

"Do you think that maybe the Coach has been getting his team to take these enhancement drugs?" Rex asked.

"It's possible." Six agreed.

Tuck continued, "Tomorrow afternoon East Side High School's soccer team is playing an exhibition game at the new stadium against Benjamin Franklin High School."

"We can check out the players discretely during the game." Calan said.

"Sounds good. Someone get word to Kenwyn about the plan." Six said. "Meeting tomorrow morning to run everything over. No mistakes this time."

With that everyone left.

Rebecca glanced at Six before leaving to run some tests on the pig. Six was left to his own thoughts. Of all the outcomes this was not what he was expecting.

His cell phone rang. He looked at it and almost groaned. It was Beverly.

"What happened?" She demanded.

"Hello, to you too." Six said flatly.

" Don't give me that. So?" Beverly waited.

Suppressing a sigh Six gave a quick version of what happened.

"Is everyone all right?" Beverly asked worried.

"There were no fatalities." Six answered.

" So what's the next step? Do I need to go back to look for more clues?" Beverly asked.

"No, we have another lead." He quickly told her about tomorrow.

"You'll be in the new stadium with that huge flat screen?" Six did not like how she sounded.

"I don't know. I've never been to it." Six stated.

"But it's been on the news. I have an idea." She said eagerly.

"Why do I have a feeling I won't like it?" Six muttered.

"Don't be silly. It's easy. During half time have the announcer ask Rebecca to marry you!"

"I guess that's fool proof." Six said uncertainly.

"Of course it is. Just write out the message and slip it to the guy in the announcer box." Beverly said.

"Fine." Six simply said and hung up. This would have been so much easier if no one had found out in the first place. He decided that now was a good time for that extra training with Rex.

0o0

Rex went looking for Caesar since he hadn't seen his brother for a while. He found Caesar face down alseep on his desk surrounded by empty smoothie containers.

"Bro, you okay?" Rex shook his shoulder.

"Mijo, is that you." Caesar looked at Rex with his blood shot eyes.

Rex wrinkled his nose, "Is that smell you? What have you been drinking?" He carefully sniffed one of the cups. He immediately moved the offensive item away.

"Oh you know mango smoothies, lots of mango smoothies." Caesar grabbed one that had a straw in it. His speech was slurred and he had trouble putting the straw in his mouth.

"Bro, this is not just a mango smoothie." Rex said guiding the straw to Caesar's mouth.

"I might have put some tequila into it." Caesar said after he swallowed.

"What?" Rex cried.

"Oww, not so loud, mijo. Mi cabeza is killing me." Caesar's head hit the desk again.

"Dude, you need to get to bed." Rex picked his brother up by the arm and pulled him up.

"Ooof, you're heavy." Rex was supporting all of his brother's weight. He slowly dragged him to his room.

"You know, I've never drank before."

"Yeah? No kidding." Rex grunted as he continued to haul his brother's dead weight down the hall.

"It doesn't make it hurt less." He mumbled.

"What hurt less?" Rex asked.

"Rejection. You know I've never had anyone reject me before. Sure they argued about my ideas and sanity but they never outright say you're a reject." He lunged forward and almost toppled both of them.

Rex readjusted and pulled him the last couple of feet to his room. He opened the door and dumped his brother into his bed.

"It's my fault really. I took too long." With that Caesar passed out.

Rex shook his head. He had no idea what that was about.

"Good night, bro." He shut off the lights and closed the door. When he turned around he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Six, what the…" Rex started.

"Training now!" Six gripped his shoulder and steered him to the training rooms.

"But…but… but…" Rex tried to protest.

"We've been slacking. No more excuses."

Rex had a feeling this was payback and he wasn't going to like it one bit.

So not sure if this is what you were expecting or if you even like the ideas. But believe it or not I've been working on this for months. I'm not sure if I'm totally satisfied with how it turned out but it's out. Yes, there will be some fails in the proposal department. Thanks for your comments. Let me know what you think.