RJ And Martin

by Emersonian

She wanted to be free from her sheltered life, so she ran away from home and joined HenchCo's Y.E.A.R.N Program. He had grown up training to follow his family legacy. Both live in the same evil community, something seems to grow, yet they seem to be unaware that they were meant to be enemies and that a bigger threat is coming to destroy what they always dreamed to achieve...as one.

11. Cuddle Buddies to Celebrate

RJ and Martin:

Chapter 11: Cuddle Buddies to Celebrate

RJ had taken her new all-terrain vehicle (courtesy of Edina) and drove her way to the address Camillo had given her. It felt good to be out in the open air, outside of the Minalshari dome, and drive on the highway with the wind blowing on her face. With her sweet ride being solar powered, she didn't even have to stop by the gas station to fill up her tank, though she did take some guilty stops to admire the scenery of the mountain ranges and flourishing forests.

After a long drive, she unfortunately found herself driving in the outskirts of Lowerton. The moment she spotted a house or people walking, she put her black goggles. Last thing she'd want was to stumble into her Grandma and get grounded permanently. Luckily for her, the address Camillo had given her was just at the end of Butch Street. She parked her vehicle right by the mailbox and removed her goggles to have a better view at the house.

It was by far, the brightest pink house she had ever seen. Aside from the creamy white wooden pillars and window frames, the dark chocolate roof tiles and patio, and the red cherry mahogany door, the entire house had pink walls, a pink chimney, pink window curtains, and even a pink mat by the front door. The front lawn was bright green, the bushes well trimmed, flowers were blooming, and birds twittered by the bird fountain. If RJ didn't know that this was, in Camillo's words, 'the house hosting the lamest of all girly villains', she'd have mistaken it for a human sized dollhouse that like the one she never got for Christmas when she was five.

RJ got off her vehicle and took the package she had brought with her. She made her way to the front door and wondered who were those pink villains that the male Fiskes seemed to fear so much. They must have been terrible enough to have Martin Fiske hide in a dressing cabinet, RJ recalled the first time she met Martin, back when he had tried to hide in the dressing room to avoid his stalker. Her foot landed on the pink WELCOME mat. "Well, there goes nothing," she sighed. Her finger pressed the door bell, unleashing the cheesiest sweet ringing that only fairy tales would possess. The door opened. A woman close to her late fifties or early sixties stood before her. Her messy black bob haircut had streaks of gray, her winter jersey shirt and dark pink pants looked tight on her skin, and her neck held an otterfly necklace. Her greasy, freckled, chubby face had a pouty nose holding up a pair of glasses, and when she smiled, a missing front tooth was evident.

"Well hello there, my little pumpkin!" She said with such a sugary tone as she clasped her hands together. "What brings you to our lovely home?"

RJ was temporarily frozen. The woman's sweetness creeped her out. She looked like one of those young grandmas that overly embarrass teenagers to the point of treating them like ten-years-olds.

"Hi!" RJ spoke as perky and joyful as she could. "I'm RJ and I'm new in the community. I thought I'd say hi to my friendly new peeps!" She held up the package. "I even brought a heart-warming gift!"

"Oh, aren't you the sweetest thing ever!" The old woman gave RJ a pinch on the cheek, making the latter grit her teeth to avoid screaming. The pink hag almost pulled of her skin until she let go and welcomed her inside the even-pinker living room. OK, now I'm terrified, RJ thought.

"Do sit down." The old woman guided RJ to the pink sofa. "By the way, my name is Mrs. Amy Hall, but you can call me Auntie Amy." She turned to the staircase, which was covered in a blue otterfly patterned carpet. "Amelia! We have a visitor!" She shouted. A serious of footsteps stomped their way down like an elephant stampede. The moment Amelia paused at the center of the staircase, RJ wanted to throw up. The kid was even perkier and pinker than Auntie Amy. A fourteen-year-old girl, making her hardly a couple years younger than RJ, bearing a youthful version of her mother's greasy, freckled white skin, gapped teeth, and sharp black hair that reached her shoulders. She wore a crazy pinkish shawl and magenta dress with designs of the otterfly Cuddle Buddy, pink-and-sickly turquoise boots with orange bows on them, a DNA-shaped barrette holding back her hair, and glasses.

"Yay! A new friend!" Amelia clapped her hands and raced to hug RJ in a suffocating manner similar to Auntie Amy's. RJ almost felt her bones crack. THAT's the snob's stalker? This had to be a nightmare. What the Hell did she get herself into?

"Say, RJ, how old are you?" Auntie Amy asked, popping RJ from her painful mental bubble.

"I'm turning sixteen next month..." RJ breathed deeply and stretched the moment Amelia let you go. "Man, what a hug!"

Amelia giggled. "How sweet! You two are almost the same age!" Auntie Amy said. RJ chuckled nervously and put the package on the coffee table. As if on cue, the Halls ripped up the package open like a bunch of little girls opening Christmas presents. RJ couldn't believe it, but she actually missed the crazy cat-lady.

"O...M...G!" Amelia shrieked while she and her mother freaked out at the sight of Chibi-eyed otterfly collectible figures that RJ had purchased. "The entire collection of the Around-The-World Otterfly figurines! There's even the Inuit Otterfly and the Parisian Mime Otterfly!"

"You are the sweetest, pumpkin!" Auntie Amy gave RJ another unbearable cheek pinch. "I still have to finish baking my ginger snaps cookies. Why don't you girls go play upstairs? Amelia, since RJ was such a sweetie, why don't you give her one of the old Cuddle Buddies that you don't use?"

"But mommy! There all collector's special!" Amelia whined.

"I can make it your while," RJ said before whispering in her ear, "you know, monkey-while."

Amelia squealed in excitement. "SUREMOMWELLBEUPSTAIRS!" Amelia dragged RJ by the arm and up the stairs. The latter didn't have much time to inspect the hallway, Amelia instantly tossed her inside the bedroom and locked the door behind her. "How'd you know about the love of my life?" She asked suspiciously.

"You make it obvious." RJ straightened herself. "Look, I know much you love Martin Fiske... and I want to help you."

Amelia blinked. "You do?"

"Yes!" RJ began to slowly pace. "I mean, it's clear that you two have it going, but he's doing it wrong! He's playing hard to get, and now he's trying to make you jealous by flirting with other girls!"

"WHAT?" Amelia exclaimed.

"I know, and it burns me because I hate to see a fellow girl friend getting scorned by a Casanova!" To add drama, RJ acted like she was stabbing herself on the chest. "That's why I want to help you! You need to go after him and say 'Now see there, Fiske! You are my man! You should be with me and not some frolicking mall girl! You are part of Team Amelia!"

"You're right!" Amelia said in admiration. "Wow, you're one heck of a motivation speaker!"

"Thanks." RJ nodded. "So here's the deal." She searched through her pocket and pulled out a gray microchip the size of a leech. "This tracking chip can allow you to track down Fiske from any computer as long as it has direct physical contact with his DNA."

"You built this yourself?" Amelia asked in awe as she took the chip. RJ nodded. Surprisingly enough, during her first few days at Y.E.A.R.N, she found out that the years of fixing by herself her apartment's broken circuits actually helped her with the technological lessons HenchCo and Buffy gave her. Humbly speaking, she knew that HenchCo's manufactured chip were more promising than the well-functioning ones she made, but because the microchip reserve was for clients only and that stealing would cost her to be kicked out, she went with following a complicated blueprint. "Last I heard, he was heading for Maori."

Amelia's eyes beamed at the chip. "You are such an angel," she said. "You know what? Mommy's right! You offered me so much, I think I can spare you at least one of my collections!"

"Oh, you don't have to!" RJ waved her hands while Amelia headed to this pink curtain hiding half of her room. "I offer so much and want little!"

"C'mon!" The pink girl insisted. "There's got to be at least one you like! I got Otterfly..."

"Obviously." RJ stared at a giant human-sized otterfly plush resting on the pink princess bed.

"Bunnacoon?"

"Eh. Cute, but I don't like the color." RJ shook her head while staring at the wardrobe with painted bunnacoons dancing on a green field full of smiling flowers.

"Pandaroo?"

RJ froze. She slowly turned clockwise and faced Amelia before gushing in excitement. "You...have...PANDAROO?"

"Your favorite, huh?" Amelia smirked before pulling the curtain aside. "THEN PREPARE TO BE JEALOUS!"

RJ instantly squealed in delight, not because she saw dozens of shelves full of Cuddle Buddy collections based in the hybrid species' alphabetical order, but because Amelia had at least two shelves full of nothing but collections of the panda and kangaroo hybrid. She found herself walking like a zombie toward it. "The plush toys, the tea set, the DVD specials, the accessories..." She froze when she saw one of the Pandaroo plush toys dressed as a British guard from the Cuddle-Buddies-Go-To-London edition. Her mind went back to her first years at the apartment. Because she was so unhappy and crying about why her parents didn't even show up for her fourth birthday, her grandma had consoled her by giving her the London Edition Pandaroo. Ever since then, when she wasn't playing with her other toys, she'd cuddle with the Pandaroo for comfort and still slept with the little guy when she was a teenager. When she yelled at her grandmother for putting it in the wash, the old woman muttering something 'like mother, like daughter'.

"I can't believe I left it back there," RJ sighed.

"Say what?" Amelia asked, popping RJ back to reality.

"Sorry. I was just... contemplating on how I had an exact toy like this and... I forgot to bring it with me when I joined the community."

"Aw." Amelia gave a genuine pout. "You can take it, if you want."

"Are you sure you won't miss it?" RJ asked.

"Nah, I got at least twenty in the basement. I can spare one." RJ's eyes beamed and she found herself hugging the plush in her arms.

"GIRLS!" Auntie Amy shouted from downstairs. "GINGER SNAPS ARE READY!"

"You like ginger snaps?" Amelia asked rather calmly.

"Eh, not really." RJ shook her hand in a 'so-so' manner. "I'm more of a chocolate pistachio kind of person."

"OK, don't tell her any of this, but I hate her ginger snaps!" Amelia shuddered. "Just bat your eyes and look pretty if they revolt you. And don't tell her that you gave me the microchip! Otherwise she'll think that I went to another one of HenchCo's conventions without her permission!"

"What's wrong with the conventions?" RJ asked as they got out of her bedroom.

"Let's just say they aren't as... flared up as they used to be."

Across the Pacific Ocean

Another sulfur gas steamed from in between the boulders that formed the walls of the underground mines underneath the Tama Lakes. As Martin cautiously walked down the mine, a pickax in and a gas mask covering his face, he began to understand why the mine was abandoned. With all the poisonous gas steaming underneath the lakes, whoever used to work here as miners had to be evacuated and the mine shut down from the public, leaving it abandoned and neglected. Negatively speaking, that meant that Martin had to breathe his own Early Grey scented breath with his mask covering his face, but positively speaking, he had zero chances of getting caught trying to find a poumanu stone.

He walked further down the mine, feeling the walls around him getting narrower and smaller. Finally, by the time he had to start crawling, he found the walls glowing with hidden green lights. He used his pickax to give small hits on one of the glowing green scraps neat. Eventually he had to hit harder, but the moment he gave the first hard blow on it, rock crumbles fell from the ceiling. Too many hard blows and the mine would crush upon him. Curses, he muttered.

He gave smaller hits. No effect. Sighing, he saw he had no choice. Like an insane man vandalizing a car window with a pry bar, Martin whacked on the wall. The ceiling shook harder as he continued until finally, a small poumanu stone the size of his fist appeared. He hit one last time. The stone fell off the wall and into the expecting hand.

Martin didn't wait another second and made a run for it. The mine collapsed behind him, threatening the young man to be crushed by the boulders. With luck on his side, Martin jumped out of the mine's entrance and rolled down the hill while the mine officially exploded into ruins.

"That was too close!" Martin sighed in relief as he managed to sit up on the bare ground. He looked at the poumanu stone in his hand and chuckled. "A few more things to do and then the vixen will be mine." He kept smirking to himself as he pulled a golden zodiac medallion from underneath his shirt, opened its locket, and placed the stone within it, thus keeping it in a safe place resting by his chest.

"Now, I've got to... GAAAH!" Something threw itself at him, pinning him to the earth. He was lucky to have not removed his gas mask yet, otherwise the Sugar Cuddle of Freakness would have made things worse.

"CUDDLE MONKEY!" Amelia Hall screamed at him, her hands hugging his neck so tightly while rubbing on his mask-covered face, was she trying to kill him? "I knew I'd find you!"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Martin tried to push her away from him.

"Not anymore, my love! You are my man and part of Team Amelia!" Amelia managed to shout at him like a stern schoolteacher while at the same time hugging him in her usual self. When the Hell did she become so assertive? Martin screamed mentally. "Now how about we remove that mask? You must be suffocating in it, I'll have to use CPR on you!"

That was the last straw for Martin. His etiquette might tell him to never assault women, but he needed to defend himself from the madwoman. Using one of his monkey feet, he pulled her away by the ankle and used his other foot to kick her in the stomach, sending her flying a good meter away from him. He took the opportunity to run away to the area where he hid his jet and took off .

The moment he was in the air, Martin sighed in relief until he screamed the moment his radar told him that Amelia was trailing him on a speedboat. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT FREAK?"

Little did he know, he had a microchip resting on the back of his neck.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, YET AGAIN

Sunday night finally came. RJ was meditating in her room, the lights turned off and her coffee table full of lit candles she had purchased. She was sitting on the floor in a Lotus position, facing her bed and her new Pandaroo plush as if she were having a meditation face-off.

"I'm serene..." RJ took slow deep breaths. "Tomorrow's the big day. I'll steal the Hope Diamond and succeed on my first heist. I am not stressed." As she breathed, the candles' flames moved as if to synchronize with her heartbeats. "I am in control. I managed to get Amelia to goose chase the snob. I won't lose his bet."

Do you really want to lose? Great. The power was talking to her again. "Go next door," RJ said undeterred. "You're not worth my time."

C'mon! It whined. You don't want to spend the rest of your life slaving off at HenchCo! Just forfeit and you can become powerful at Fiske's side!

"There's no crime in dream dating." A smirk appeared on RJ's face as she kept meditating. She was making fun of the power, which seemed to be taking quite the offense. "Besides, why are you so obsessed with shipping me with Fiske? We have nothing in common."

You have much in common! The power was getting angry. The power, the parental neglect, the potential...and a whole lot of the arrogance! Without each other, he isolates himself further and you lose control. Join him and you can get everything while he has the perfect consort.

"You're exhausting yourself for nothing." RJ calmly shook her head. "Go sleep. We'll talk about it after I win my bet." The power grumbled something and did as RJ asked. Feeling relieved, RJ got up and went to turn the lights back on right when a knocking came from the door.

"COMING!" She quickly hopped and ran to the door.

"SURPRISE!" Melgo, Buffy, Edina, and Gilliard shouted, nearly giving her a heart attack. "HAPPY BEFORE-FIRST-HEIST PARTY!"

"Aw, you guys didn't have to do that!" RJ said.

"Too late." Gilliard shook his head. "We already got the pizza and the soda."

RJ just shrugged and let them in. It was a good thing that she had kept her room clean earlier because a good hour later, the place was quite a mess. The teens were either devouring the pizza or laughing their heads off while gulping down soda or playing another round of MICHIE GHAN MYSTIC HUNTER. God knew how long they had fun until Melgo knocked on the coffee table like a judge in a courtroom, getting everyone's attention.

"Everyone!" She announced. "I thank you all for coming to this special occasion. RJ, our beloved new friend, is going on her very first heist tomorrow and we're all proud of her for being so daring and dangerously smart enough to decide on coming up with the greatest scheme ever! Stealing the Hope Diamond from the Smithsonian!" RJ blushed a bit while the others awed.

"Dude, you're gonna steal that diamond and pull the greatest, rocking crime ever! Seriously!" Edina punched RJ on the shoulder.

"With all the billions and carats in that thing, you'd have to be noticed!" Gilliard agreed.

"Thanks, you guys," RJ said. "Honestly, I wonder what I'm going to do with all that money!"

"Easy!" Melgo grabbed the last can of soda and gulped all of it. "Spend one third of it on whatever you want and save the remaining two thirds until you're rich enough to buy your own mansion."

"Ooh, maybe you could buy one of the islands neighboring Killigan's Island!" Buffy suggested. "We'll be neighbors!"

"You want to turn her into an old maiden playing golf and eating haggis until she reaches Señor Senior's age? Seriously?" Edina rolled her eyes and turned to RJ. "What if you used the cash to turn the oceans into the world's first watery race track? Seriously!"

"Are cars the only thing in your mind?" Buffy knocked on Edina's head. Ironically enough, a hollow sound echoed from it.

RJ laughed at the sight of her friends arguing over something as petty as money. "Easy guys, easy! Personally speaking, if I could spend the one third of my upcoming jackpot, I'd use it to celebrate my victory with my friends in one place out there." She grabbed her laptop and quickly started tapping. "Shout out a personal favorite activity that doesn't include something I already know!"

"A pool with a jacuzzi!" Gilliard shouted.

"Ooh, I want a casino with a bunch of first-person shooter video games!" Buffy added. The others looked blankly at her. "What? I like sports other than golf and mini golf!"

"I got dibs on X-Drivers on Ice!" Edina did an air-guitar. "Seriously!"

"X-Drivers on Ice?" RJ looked at Melgo.

"Edina's favorite ice show involving a bunch of super-powered drivers protecting the world of monster trucks from driving law capitalism." The latter rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'd like a spa and a suite."

RJ tapped and clicked. Her computer gave out a ding. "And we are celebrating my triumph party at the Bowie Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas! I'm finally gonna see Nevada!"

"Viva Las Vegas, hey!" Gilliard, Buffy and Edina started to conga together while singing. "Viva La RJ, hey! Viva La RJ, hey!" They continued to sing and laugh on with their party until Gilliard's mother, Secretary Magali, came in telling the Y.E.A.R.N students to go to bed and for Gilliard to go back home.

Meanwhile, in Washington DC

The alarms rang all over the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. While one guard was busy turning off the alarm, a couple others went to the Gemstone exhibit, where the alarm had been rigged. Yet after a good ten minutes of inspecting the place, they saw that everything was in place.

"No broken glass case, no clue, and none of the gemstones were stolen," one of the guards said. "You think the alarm's broken?"

"No, it's properly functioning." The other guard shook his head. He briefly walked over to the Hope Diamond, still protected by its glass case and shining as it spun. "Maybe it was just another one of those drills. The manager ain't stupid, you know? Unlike all those politicians and militaries worrying over alien invasions, he's cautious about criminals trying to steal them diamonds."

"Yeah, like what happened to that kid who became a millionaire? Funny story..." As the guards ranted off, they were unaware that they were being observed by a trio of upgraded and improved robots from the roof of the next building. Once they lost interest, they turned and kneeled before a shadowy figure that had come to rendezvous with him.

"Bebes have performed their task, master," the leading Bebe robot handed something in a plastic pouch to the figure. "Bebes have succeeded in replacing genuine Hope Diamond necklace with synthetic necklace wielding microchip, as master demanded."

"Your master is pleased," he sneered as he took the pouch. "And he no longer needs you." He grabbed the other two Bebes' heads and smashed them right into the middle one's, causing their bodies to malfunction and eventually lose power. "Frankly, I never needed you as much as I need Ronilda Stoppable to conquer this world." He wielded some sort of weapon at the robot debris and burned them on the spot before disappearing up in the dark sky.