Words go here' Thought communication.

"Words still go here!" Spoken communication

( NOTE! The chapters that are in rotating first person are the second half of the story! They will continue on in the same order as they are first written- Lauren, Jaimee, Alyssa, Ian, Jacob, Rhett, and last but most definitely not least- Sara. This is how it will be until others are found and or added to the group. :) Thanks!)

Jacob- First Person- NOT JOURNAL

This trip is stupid- who steals from people who need it more? Sure I'd love to eat something other than fucking leaves, but I don't see the point in stealing. I'm not always a good guy, but the whole point of our job is to help these people, not steal from them! If we should steal anything, we should steal their weapons! Rhett and Alyssa agree with me, but I guess my opinion doesn't matter that much.

Ian's still rambling on about how Alyssa and Sara need the food, and why we need them.

'Excuse me! Hey over here, prick! We wouldn't need food if they weren't tagging along with us!' That earned me some nasty looks.I roll my eyes as Ian starts up again, and massage my side where one of the girls elbowed me.

'What if we get stuck somewhere without it...' blah, blah, blah. I don't want to do it, but I don't say anything. Alyssa convinced Lauren to speak to Ian about it, because she didn't want to argue with him. And yet, we're still going.

Sara surprises all by making an announcement using our language.'When we get in there, we need to take as much as we can. Food packets here are like currency, and the richer you are the longer you live. The people who control food rationing are like government officials, but they're sleaze-balls. Easily bought out, but the people who work there aren't. They stick to protocol no matter what.'

As we're sneaking past the sleeping sentry- Lauren and Jaimee have been literally forcing all of us to read (EWW!)- I spot something huddled behind him. I see right away that it is a small dog, but from the way its trembling lip is twitching, I can tell its a nasty one.

'Stop, you guys!' I shout, my inner voice harsh and angry at their stupidity. First rule of training, always survey your surroundings.

Sara walks on oblivious to my shout, her language skills still rusty. Lauren hastily grabs her shoulder, and clamps a hand over her mouth to keep Sara from shouting out. Sara goes limp when she realizes its Lauren, and Lauren lets her go. I can see red marks on Sara's face where Lauren's hand had grabbed her to keep her quiet. She'd tried to scream, apparently. Lauren had to scream sorry in our language before Sara finally heard it. She just nodded, and looked away angrily, and Lauren practically wilted.

Rhett makes his way over to the guard and his faithful companion, who surprisingly isn't even on a leash. He carefully gives the dog a swift kick to the temple, but only hard enough to knock the little beast out. It's a bit annoying- he doesn't like hurting people, but I love it! I have to have a reason of course, otherwise the rest of the team won't talk to me, but still...

Rhett knocks the guard out completely as well, and then we carefully tiptoe by. As we do, I make a wisecrack about the fat guards weight, and the girls all shoot me mean looks even though they giggle anyway. What is it with women and fat jokes? I crack another, and then giggle to myself as we continue on. I've been making an effort to be all happy-go-lucky like before, and I've been cracking a lot of jokes lately.

The ladies- oh yeah, them of all people- say I've been acting all pissy since I hurt my arm. They threatened to force feed me anti-depressants if I didn't cheer up, and I hate taking medicine. I'd rather be sick than take that nasty shit! Speaking of shit- Sara just missed stepping in a huge pile! Oh gross, it's still almost fresh! Haha! We're all laughing at her until we get to the door, and then its silent again.

We're tip-toeing, something I haven't actually had to do since we were sneaking out a long time ago. I'm sick of this job we have to perform, but I know I can't give up if I ever want to see my best friends again. I can feel my heart thudding in my chest at the thought of seeing my friends again. I'm best friends with my teammates now,but I still miss my old friends like crazy. I haven't talked to a normal male in forever. Ian and Rhett are a little weird, but not too weird. They're funnier than my old friends, though...

At some point, Lauren almost trips over Sara who stops short. I can only just hear her swearing Sara out, but no one else seems to notice. I repress a smile and wonder if Sara even heard it. Nope! Rhett- what the hell, man? He's humming something, but I don't know what it is. Lauren, being the music freak she is, had to ask him where he heard it.

'I don't know. I mean, I'm actually hearing it right now. . .' And so Rhett tunes us out and focuses on the sound. He leads us to a small room in the cabin, where there is a trap door. It leads us down into the ground, and we all jump when it swings downward quickly. It slows just before it has a chance to slam shut, and then softly clicks shut. I let out a sigh of relief, and follow Rhett's lead closely.

As I ponder the correct way that I would enter into the mandatory 'man-hug' I notice we're slowly moving downward under the ground. The halls aren't quite so rustic, and they're beginning to look sickeningly like the simulated prison-like rooms we'd inhabited for what had seemed like months.

My heart stops for a second and then starts to beat too fast when I see someone standing at a table sorting through packets. Rhett holds out his hands, and then slowly raises his hand to his throat and bleeds his suit together to cover his head completely. The suit melds together, and surges over his features, even his eyes. The rest of us follow his example and cover up the rest of the way. I shiver a little as the cool fabric creeps across my skin, and I can see the others do the same through the fabric that appears to not even be there. My breath doesn't even feel warm on my face, the suit sucks it up and hides my body temperature, mimicking its surroundings.

One of the girl forms nods, and I hear Jaimee's thoughts clearly. 'Let's do this.'

We order out suits to do as their told, and we suddenly begin to flicker. I can see Sara and Alyssa, their scaly suits flickering and shimmering as the scales change. They don't have heat shields, but they've got to make do with what they have. Our suits are ever changing, and always camouflaging us, but only on our command do they render us completely invisible. I nod, and think to everyone: 'Alright, let's kick some ass!' At last everyone is invisible, and for a moment I long to escape. I could just disappear, right now, and now would even know.

Out of nowhere, music begins to play from unseen speakers. It's some kind of wangy-tangy music that reminds me of the beach, and I can hear drums, but they don't' sound like the pounding beats I'm used to; they're mellow and happy, and I can't quite pin the emotion it gives reminds me of... swimming, yeah I swimming I guess.

I laugh inside my head as Rhett almost trips over someone who stops in front of him, and he glares at me, so I drop it. This may be wrong, but at least I'm getting a laugh out of it.

Everyone activates the silent suction cups on our fingertips and hands, and we crawl around on the walls and ceiling. We collect the unsupervised objects, then slip them into our bags when no one's looking. The dimension cubes are full, and Jaimee doesn't want to take the chance that we break them. Lauren said we should kick it old school, and it wasn't even supposed to be funny, but somehow it was to Alyssa. She almost dropped her food- plus, that wasn't even what Lauren said, exactly. It was something dorky and stupid- apparently so stupid it was funny.

I'm grabbing the last of what I need to get when I see a flickering. Shit! Sara and Alyssa's suits are powering down- Jaimee freezes, and I can hear her mentally screaming for them to get out of sight. They're in the middle of the room, but are luckily surrounded by enough to junk to have a place to hide. Sara's features slam into overdrive as she dives silently behind a huge column of boxes, and her mouths slams shut when she lands safely behind it. Alyssa, however, panic, and reaches up to grab a metal beam to pull herself into the wooden ceiling composed of the cabin's floor. The young girl is looking up, and I can see her eyes as they look in the direction of Alyssa's foot as it disappears into the ceiling. Her eyes flash, and I want to throw up.

Of course- why use thieving humans when you can use robots who have no use for the food?! Apparently, the guard is a robot too, because fat as he is, he's here in a second. Rhett must've knocked a wire loose, but the auto-re-boot brought him back. FUCK! Here comes the little bitch of a dog.

Our body is heat is blocked by our suits- I don't know about Alyssa and Sara, but we're safe- but unfortunately our scents aren't protected. 'We took baths yesterday...'I think to myself. I have to admit, I think I smell good- but I'd give anything to smell like a dog right now. I'm almost sure they don't use soap, let alone shampoo out here, but ours can break down anything we put into it to make shampoo and soap for us. Yay technology- can't live with it, can't live without it.

Alyssa's leg has long been hidden by now, but the dog is already humping up and down, growling at the air where it had been. It can't reach any higher than two feet off the ground, it's so small. The lady-bot moves so fast towards the dog she seems to have tele-ported, and she looks up to where Alyssa is hiding. Her eyes flash, and then seemed to shake as they look around very quickly. I can hear Alyssa's thoughts, and I can hear Lauren and Jaimee begging her to stay still. Lauren even tells her to hold breath for as long as she can and breath as quietly as possible. Demanding much?

The lady-bot turns away, and I know what's coming, but I can't stop exhales when the lady-bot turns away, and the lady-bot turns around so fast its insane. She snatches Alyssa by the leg, and yanks her from the ceiling.

Jaimee and Lauren-of course- jump down the help their friend, and Ian goes,too. Little fucker is in love- he's so annoying! All you hear about it is Alyssa. Rhett, Sara, and I are the only ones left standing, and if we don't help then we'll look like assholes, so of course- now we are in the scuffle too.

I swing out at the fat-man-bot, and I connect with something invisible six inches in front of his face. OW! I hear someone yell.

"Go visible, dammit! " Snaps Ian aloud, and I realize I'd hit him.

"Sorry, dude, I didn't mean too!" I whisper as I visualize. Ian just shrugs his slowly visualizing shoulders, and then zips off to help Alyssa. This is all happening so fast, I don't even know who to help. Alyssa dangles dangerously from a hook where her suit has caught, and Ian is trying to get her down without compromising the suit. I dodge a crazy, wild punch from Jaimee, and the sound of air rushing by me is overwhelming.

I look to see who she is punching at, and I can see that the crazy old man- yes man he's bleeding apparently-has his hands wrapped around her waist and is trying to pull her away from everyone else. Even though she's my cousin, I feel like a brother to her, and seeing some pervy creep doing something like that does not bode well with me. I aim a punch at his face and throw myself into it as hard as I can, and only graze his head when he ducks down.

Apparently Lauren had been preparing to punt-kick him where women love to kick men. I ended up hitting her full force across the face- and I do the only sensible thing I can do- grab Jaimee free from creepy, old guy run for my life. She doesn't follow me but actually starts to cry because I hit her so hard.

I hear someone else who's generally far away from Lauren and I head over that way. Sara is struggling with the little dog who has decided to clamp itself around her ankle, though I can only thank our sheer luck that it didn't break through Sara's suit. that little beast won' let go- not even after I punch him full in the face as hard as I'd hit Lauren. It hurts my hand to do so, and I realize the dog has been enhanced.

And so I only have option left- I break its neck. Sara freezes, and even pets the dog a little before jumping up to help Alyssa and Ian. Crazy lady is flipping out or something because her beloved do died. This surprises me because I had thought that it was the man's dog. Sara is running on angry, and Jaimee and Lauren on revenge. Jaimee's giving the fat old man a titty-twister marathon and Lauren's replaying the punt-kick over and over. She shoots me a dirty look, and I unconsciously cross my legs as I dodge a frying pan that seemed to have come out of nowhere.

I laugh when Rhett trips over the fallen fat man, and then help him up. I brace myself for the blow that he seems ready to deliver to my face only to have him punch someone behind me. I turn around to see 'lady' fall, and that seems to be the end of it. I stay as far away from Lauren and the homicidal thouhts I can hear and I know are directed toward me- she's still crying, even its mostly sniffles, but damn! I don't hit that hard do I? I smile a little at that thought and then space out. We've got to clean them up and then we can leave. they're still unconcious- we didn't murder them or anything though I'm sure the guard is sterile by now!

When this is all over I'm back to the city, finding a place, and getting a job. And I'm pretty sure muder won't look good on a resume.

Author's note- Sorry for the delay, I have been busy with soccer and track, and school. Woohoo. Eight grd. panoramic pictures tomorow! :) ANYWHOOOOO! More soon, Rhett next, then Sara. After that we start all over again! :D So reviews are awesome. Ideas or critique are good, too. :)

Lauren/Mellokai