DISCAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS OF THE SECOND DIMENSION. THE STORY LINE YES, THEIR PERSONALITIES MAYBE, BUT THE CHARACTERS ARE FULLY AND 100% UNDER THE OWNERSHIP OF DISNEY.

Stacy was amazed; the building that the boy had passed earlier and had taken them to was still in one piece and undamaged in any way. Almost irritated, the girl shoved at the boy and demanded to be put down; considering the girl had been like this the entire time the teen carried her, Stacy was surprised when he did set her down, it was gently. "Better?" The girl shot him an annoyed look as she stared at the building for a moment longer. "This is where my family got Perry…" she trailed off as her stare became a blank one. Stacy stared at the building and noticed inside it were a few animals in cages sleeping or looking around confused. The building was a pet shop. Looking back at the teen, Stacy realized with a start that he was gone. Running towards the door, she pulled at the handles but it was in vain. They were locked out, alone, in a robot-invested town that would kill them. Suddenly the door opened into the store and Stacy stumbled in. Looking up, she saw the boy looking down at her; the lights were still off in the pet shop so she still couldn't see his face. "How did you get in? The doors were locked." The boy looked away "I, uh crawled in threw an open window…come inside and get comfortable while I go get your friend." "But she's not my fri-" But the teen had already moved past her and was making his way towards the girl. Stacy stayed put for a moment before shrugging and heading into the pet shop. It didn't really matter what he thought she supposed…he had after all taken them to a safe, still standing building.

Running her hands along the walls, Stacy looked for a light switch, it was really dark in the pet shop, especially since it was getting dark outside as well. Finding one at last, Stacy flipped the switch and welcomed the light. With the lights on, she could pretend everything was still as it was this morning, no robots, no fires, no girls looking like they'd been dragged through a hiking trail. Just an ordinary day in Danville in a normal pet shop. A bit of movement caught her eye as she walked past a few of the cages. Turning around enough to see what had caught her attention, Stacy found herself eye to eye with a white rabbit. Casting a quick look behind her to see if the boy had come in yet, Stacy fiddled with the door to the rabbit's cage and found to her joy it was unlocked. Carefully, she opened the cage and picked up the rabbit and held it to her face. It was so soft…and warm…and…suddenly the pet shop became dark again as behind her she heard a voice behind her. " What. Are. You. Doing. With. THAT?" Fearfully, Stacy tightened her grip on the rabbit as she slowly turned around.

The rest of the school day couldn't go by fast enough. Albert wouldn't say any more about his plan until then since their ten minutes of 'lunch' (if you could call a single stale roll lunch) passed and they had to return to class. On the upside, Candace seemed a bit more alive after lunch. Not her usual writing and planning that would give anyone watching a headache, but at least she wasn't staring at her desk like a zombie.

When at last the final goozim roar echoed through the halls and the class had exited the school in an orderly fashion, Stacy sprinted over to where Candace was impatiently waiting.

In the four years Stacy had known her, she had yet to figure out how Candace got out of the school so fast.

"Hirano, any idea of how long it it'll take him to get out?"

Stacy shrugged. Albert would get out when he got out, she wasn't in charge of where he was every moment of the day. Why would Candace even think she would have any idea?

Candace scowled a little as she leaned back against the wall of the school building. "Whatever he's planning better be good or I'm personally escorting him to the goozim pit in Doofensmirtz's weird building"

Stacy gave her friend a doubtful look. "Really? You'd watch him be eaten by a goozim because his plan stinks? I know the two of you don't get along but that sounds like more of an exaggeration than you normally make when ticked"

Candace shrugged a little as she looked up a bit.

Stacy bit her lip a little. "…Wanna talk non-resistance-planning-stuff?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno, what normal teens talk about when not leading a resistance…wanna try talking about boys?"

Candace shrugged. Deciding to take that as a positive response, Stacy smiled and continued "Sooo are you crushing on any of the guys in the resistance. Or even in class?"

"No. I don't have time for that. I've got a resistance to run, a family to protect, and a dictator to take down. Maybe after…" Candace frowned a little. "You and Albert?"

Stacy blinked and felt her face grow warm a little. "What about us? We're just friends, you know that. Heck the whole resistance knows we're just friends"

"Mmhm"

"What?"

"Stace-"

"Great! You guys waited for me!"

Whatever Candace had been going to say, she wasn't going to say it now. Stacy could tell that much from her commander's now scowling expression…she'd try asking her later, it seemed important if Candace was referring to her by first name.

"Of course we waited for you, you've got that plan you wanted to tell us. Though don't tell me it now, wait till we get down to base."

Albert waited till she was a little ways ahead of them before turning to Stacy with a small grin. "Nice to see her gruff-let's get things done attitude back"

"Yeah, it kinda is."

.

.

.

.

.

"Well, What exactly is this brilliant plan of yours solider?"

Albert gave her a nervous smile. "Well, you see Candace, I know how Karl's tracking us…those nanites Baljeet gave you were faulty and work two ways. As long as we can track him, he can track us through the person who gave him the nanites in the first place…you"

"Then remove them. Or deactivate them. Something. As obviously things aren't working to plan."

Albert ran a hand through his hair "That's where things get complicated. Deactivating the nanites would alert Karl that something's up and he probably send too many Normbots for us to defeat to various locations where the signal they gave off last. Removing them would cause the same result"

Candace frowned and tapped her fingers against her desk. "So what do you propose Albert? You're not giving me anymore options than Karl already has"

"We transfer them to someone else. Someone high enough to give him satisfactory information, but not enough to fully blow back up on us. And since he's known for killing resistance leaders and their families, it'd have to be someone who doesn't have much of a family to return to or even a family at all…someone like…"

"Me."

Both Candace and Albert turned to face her surprised.

"Stace-"

"You said so yourself Albert, someone who doesn't have family and high enough to give him believable information. Candace?"

All the color seemed to have gone out of her friend's face as she tore her gaze away from her to face Albert again.

"She's got a point, soldier"

"But-"

"No buts. As leader of this resistance, I make the choices. Hirano volunteered and she's got the less to lose from this if things go sour. End of story. We'll send a message to Karl tomorrow. In the meantime, I want you to transfer those blasted nanites"

A/N Any guesses on who this mysterious teen in the flashbacks are? No? Well fine. What? Don't look at me, I'm not gonna tell you, you have to figure it out yourselves…Any ways, I for one am liking how the flashbacks and main story are going along…though it does occur to me I could have very well done a separate story for the flashbacks…ah well live and let learn. Maybe I'll end up writing one fully in the past where Stacy and Candace are kids creating the resistance…depending how far this story goes and how far along I get in flashback land…then again maybe not…hmmm :/

Also, if you think about it, the entire Danville of the second dimension had different architecture than the first…and when Doof-2 came to the first dimension, what were his robots doing? Throwing cars into buildings and blasting things...

….Read. Review. Reviews make me happy and help me not feel like I'm a wasting my time writing when I could be wasting my time on TVTropes…ALL HAIL TVTROPES!