Heh, betcha thought I forgot to update this weekend! I didn't, I promise. Mom just decided she wanted to eat lunch in a city like thirty minutes to an hour away, so that took up a crap-ton of time. Then there was church, and the fact that Mom likes to talk. A lot.

A whole lot.

But now that I have recorded a song and almost finished making the lyric video for it, and I have practiced for the upcoming Talent Show auditions, and I have made sure all homework is done, and I have downloaded unnecessary apps on the Google Play store, I am ready to write. :D

Except Lucy took my notebook with her accidentally when she left on Thursday for a two-day trip, so I won't get it back 'till tomorrow, so I can't access the half chapter I wrote in it. Rawr. So I'm making all this up – it'll probably be pretty stupid, but it'll move the plot forward at least a little.

En-juh-hoy, my be-ay-yoo-tiful Rulers! :)

Forget Me

Ch 20: The Wet Dog Smell (or "Mitch and His Extremely Specific Glares")

Mitch's POV

"Uh, where are we going, exactly?" I ask as Alesa pulls me down the hall with Jerome.

"The control room," Alesa answers patiently, "so we can shut this place down."

"Now, please," Jerome groans, "use your freaking legs!"

"Alright, alright," I reply, rolling my eyes as I start to actually make an effort to walk. "Where's the control room?"

"Well, if the convenient zoo-style map I found on one of the walls was at all accurate, it should be just around this next corner," Alesa responds, and, sure enough, our next turn plants us right in front of a door labeled "Control Room."

"Well, then."

Jerome snorts when the door opens easily with a bit of pressure. "These squids really need to work on their security. Although, I have to admit that they did a really good job of repairing the huge hole that the giant spinney chair left."

"Oh, right! I'd forgotten about that," I say as Alesa and I follow him into the room. The walls are lined with black desk-type thingies, and there are buttons everywhere; it looks vaguely like the room where Jerome and I had our Button-Mashing contest. "So, anyone know what all these buttons do? I don't wanna just press them randomly and without warning, because-"

"Pushy pushy button, pushing all the buttons, all day long! All day long!"

"JEROME, STEP AWAY FROM THE FREAKING BUTTONS," I command, grabbing him by one of his furry ears and yanking him towards the center of the room. "Geez! Have you learned nothing from our past experiences?"

He looks down, guilty.

"You aren't supposed to start without me! Notch, you'd think you would've gotten that through your thick head by now," I huff. Then a smile sprouts across my face, and I dart back towards the buttons. "BUTTON-MASHING CONTEST NUMBER TWO! READY, SET, GO GO GO!"

Jerome's eyes widen, and then he jumps forward and starts pounding on the buttons as I lean over an entire set of them. The lights flicker, a weird whirring noise starts and stops and then starts again, and I think Alesa may be screaming, but I can't really be sure since button mashing is far more important than Alesa's well-being and I am, therefore, paying her no attention. "Holy crap, Biggums, look!" Jerome shouts excitedly. "It's like a light show!"

I nod with wide, happy eyes. "And look at this one, buddy! Disco lights!"

"You idiots! Cut it out, you're gonna get us killed somehow!" Alesa yells with a panicked tone as she tugs on my hoodie, trying to get my attention. I continue ignoring her. I'm quite good at that, I've noticed.

"OmiNotch, Jerome, this button has a fish on it!"

"Whaddaya think it does?"

"I dunno. Wanna find out?"

"This is not how this mission was supposed to go!" Alesa panics more. I laugh.

"Three... two... one..."

I make a bunch of explosion noises while Jerome shouts "BLAST OFF!" and punches the button. Oh, my. Button abuse. Jerome had better be careful, or else he might get arrested for item/block violence and bad things like that. I don't wanna have to break my biggums out of jail again – last time I did that, I accidentally made Seto blow up a house on the western side of the city. My bad.*shrugs*

I mean, how was I supposed to know that Seto was allergic to peanuts? I just needed a distraction!

"Guys, what did you do!?" Alesa screeches as water pours through a couple of vents near the ceiling. "Notch, it's gonna flood the whole place!"

My eyes light up. "So that's what the fish button does!"

"Augh, my fur is all wet!" Jerome complains loudly. I give him my 'shut-up-Jerome-you're-not-the-one-who-has-to-deal-with-the-wet-dog-smell' glare, and he shuts up because he's not the one who has to deal with the wet dog smell.

"How do we stop it?" Alesa asks while frantically pushing more buttons. "There isn't a draining symbol on any of these buttons!"

"Well, I haven't found a draining symbol, but this button has a picture of an electrical outlet with zaps of electricity coming out of it. Maybe that will help?" I wonder aloud as my hand hovers over the button.

"NO!" Alesa screams, tackling me to the ground. "You idiot, do you want to electrocute us all!?"

"Oh. Uh, no. Well, maybe the squids-"

"No! That is the-" She pauses. "You know, actually..." She shrugs. "That could actually work. If we can get the rest of Team Crafted to safety, we can just zap all the squids."

"Ha, see! I'm smart!"

"Sure, you're smart."

My eyes widen. "I'm smart? You admit it? Holy crap, no one's ever admitted that! Hear that, Biggums? I'm smart!"

"And I smell like a wet dog," Jerome sighs, but he still manages to send me a smile that says he is proud of me. We're such good friends.

"Whatever, just deal with it. And don't you dare shake out your fur while we're near you," Alesa tells him. "Now, we have to go find the others... Can I trust you guys to find them and then tell me when they're safe so I can push the shock button?"

"Yeah, sure!" I reply, smiling. "We'll be back in ten to twenty minutes. Depending on how often we get lost."

"We won't get lost, I saw another zoo map thingy right outside the Control Room," Jerome informs me.

"Ah, good. Well, let's go, then!" I grab his damp paw and lead him out of the room (which, by now, is practically a swimming pool. Wait, how does Alesa expect not to drown?) and towards the Weapons Room. "Hey, uh, Biggums, can you swim well?"

He raises an eyebrow. "'Course, why do you ask?"

"Oh, just curious," I laugh nervously because I am now wondering how he would react to being used as a life raft in times of distress. Probably not very well.

"Mitch, wrong way," the bacca says, pulling me in the opposite direction. I mouth a surprised "oh" when I see the "Pit of Death (Warning: Not Very Effective)" that I was about to guide us into while distracted by thoughts of furry life rafts. Oops. Note to self: Pay more attention during missions.

"Right, heh, sorry," I reply, smiling apologetically as Jerome and I run down the correct hallway. It isn't long before our five friends and the multitude of squids come into view. Ty is apologizing profusely to Quentin while Seto holds off literally all of the squids and Ian tries to murder Jason. Geez. We left them for, how long, ten minutes?

Time to fix everything with our Benja-Bacca magic.