AL1321: Hello again, it's that time of day!

do0m: We're going to crush the hopes and dreams of people we genuinely respect by mocking their grammatical abilities. (Don't worry, we really love you all!)

AL1321: That's right! Once again from HailsStorm:

XDDDDD Oh my, gosh. You had no idea how this hard this made me laugh. Cole... Cooking because Alexia lied to him. It kills someone with a straight face. Perfect! That was brilliant!

Update soon, or else I will STAB each of you, multiple times with a wickedly sharp shanking knife. THEN, I will cut you into little, tiny bits, and if it's not animal abuse, I will FEED those bits to ravenous and rabid dogs. If that is case of animal abuse, then maybe give an attempt at cooking, and feed those bits to my brothers. I will be laughing manaically the ENTIRE TIME! Because they won't know they just became cannibals... Or is that child abuse?

AL1321: Though there are mistakes in the beginning, I'm not grading that since that's not part of the actual threat. However, you should have either put a comma after, 'multiple times' or taken out the comma after 'each of you'. I don't think feeding human bits to animals is animal abuse, though I commend you for thinking of the poor dogs. It should be, 'that is a case', not 'that is case', and there needs to be a subject and verb between, 'maybe' and, 'give', preferrably 'I' and 'will' or 'would'. 'Maniacally' is misspelled as 'manaically', but other than your grammar and spelling mistakes, I can't really find fault in your threats! All of this is attainable within the confines of physics, and the only reason I'm not giving you points for creativity is because I've seen, in real life, people who have tried to feed others the remains of someone they killed (look up Katherine Knight if you can stomach it, it's gross). Taking all of this into account... I'd say B.

do0m: The threats here are fabulous, and address pretty much every concern we have shown for other threats. I also want to congratulate you on tour correct use of "it's", as well as your tasteful application of capslock. I think that you may need to pay more attention to your use of commas in the beginning, possibly substituting "Oh my gosh," for "Oh my, gosh.". You may also be overdoing it on the use of fragmented sentences for emphasis, however, they are allowable by our current standards of language. I am mildly concerned for your emoticon character (How did that poor soul acquire so many mouths?), but have been assured that the use is for emphasis. I am also concerned about the fragmented sentence at the bottom beginning with "because". You know better than to start a sentence with a conjunction, you were doing so well too! Overall, I think I'd give you a B-.

There were not many times Lane disagreed with Alexia. Normally, while they might argue and debate things like time travel, suspension of disbelief, and politics, the two respected each other enough to not disagree.

Today, however, was a time when the two were vehemently arguing with no wish to lose to the other person.

"Dangit, Alexia, this is a huge event! You can slide with jeans, they're semi-formal, but we're doing your hair whether you like it or not!" Lane shouted, holding a curling iron in her hand.

"OVER MY DEAD BODY," Alexia retorted, hiding in the bathroom.

"I can pick this lock any time I want, just make this easier on yourself!"

"Go ahead and try, you'll get a face full of lotion!"

Lane groaned. "Moppet, get the chair ready, I'm about to go in."

"Yes Lane." Though Moppet didn't get the point in forcing Alexia into this, Moppet had to admit it was amusing to see her older sister and her older sister's best friend duke it out over what was, in Moppet's opinion, a trivial issue.

Already the shouting had gotten the attention from the others on the ship (mainly Zane and Nya, as Cole and Lloyd were training, and Kai was getting last-minute advice from Jay), but a glare from Lane had told them all they needed to know. Now, Lane was prepared to end the fight in the only way she knew how; bribery.

"What do I have to do to get you out without sedatives?" Lane questioned, though she had plenty ready.

There was a pause before Alexia responded. "I get to force you to do something. And you have to do it without a resistance."

"Define 'anything'," Lane demanded.

"Anything with the exception of serious injury. Humiliation, favors, etc. are fair game."

"Fine, just get out here."

Alexia grumbled but unlocked the door, looking like a prisoner about to go off to execution with Lane being the one holding the axe. "If you make me look like a frilly idiot, I will peel your skin with a vegetable peeler..."

Later...

"OW! Stop pulling!" Alexia grunted.

"I'm not the reason your hair is so tangled! Putting in a ponytail everyday is not healthy!" Lane argued. "Moppet, hand me the hair spray."

Moppet dutifully did so, giving Alexia a pat on the back and an aspirin just in case of headache. "I'm sure you'll like it when we're finished."

Alexia just snorted in response. "More likely I'll chase you two around the ship with my sword when this is over."

Lane shrugged, "Probably, but you'll have fabulous hair while doing it."

"Just finish up so I can see the mess you got me into..." Alexia grumbled.

Lane sighed, but did as she was told, "Just a second... hold still... no, turn left, not right... and I'm done."

Moppet handed Alexia a mirror, then promptly ducked for fear of reprisal. "...You live another day," Alexia grunted, getting up and leaving the bathroom.

Lane and Moppet carefully waited until Alexia had left the bathroom before breaking out into their happy dances. "Six months of trial and error finally paid off!" Lane whispered excitedly.

An hour later...

Kai sighed, looking at the girls' room door. Even with the bits of advice Jay'd given him, he still had absolutely no idea what he was getting himself into. He was in jeans, his favorite red shirt, and a red jacket since while it was hot outside now, it would probably get colder in the evening.

Finally, figuring Alexia was likely just waiting inside, he knocked on the door. "Just a second..." Alexia called before shouting to someone else, "NO, I'm NOT wearing that!"

"But it becomes you!" Lane insisted.

"You already did one thing, back off!"

"But-"

"I WILL PUNT YOU OFF THE SHIP IF YOU KEEP DOING THIS."

"...okay."

Alexia opened the door before immediately slamming it behind her, keeping Lane in the room to prevent her best friend from trying to 'improve' Alexia's appearance further. Kai smiled weakly; while he was normally used to Alexia losing her temper, he was incredibly nervous, and was sincerely hoping that he didn't screw up tonight. "You look great."

Alexia blushed before sighing. "Thanks, sorry for yelling, Lane's been on my ass all day about not looking proper."

"Why did she want you to look proper?"

"She has some crazy idea about how one must look for certain events, so even though Lane has never been on a date, she is convinced I am not in 'proper-first-date-attire'," Alexia snorted.

Kai smirked before slipping his hand into hers. "C'mon, you hungry?"

"Starving."

Twenty minutes later...

"Zane, for pete's sake, keep up!" Lane whispered, peeking out from behind a street corner. Zane strode calmly past her in full view, causing Lane to groan. "I didn't mean that way!"

"But you requested that I move forward, correct?" Zane asked, confused.

"Yes, but not like that! Are you actively trying to be spotted?"

Zane sighed, "Why must we do this?"

Lane grumbled argumentatively, "All evidence to date indicates that this, following those you care about around on their first date, is both completely proper, and in fact, expected."

Though confused, Zane could find no fault in her logic as he had done the same act once before (it wasn't like he and Kai and Cole had intended to follow Nya and Jay on their first date, it had just happened that the fang blade was there). "But what are we to do if something happens?"

"Um... it never said anything about that. We're just supposed to... be there, I think." Lane remarked before pulling Zane back by the collar. "So we stay out of sight. Capice?"

With Kai and Alexia...

Alexia frowned. looking behind her. "Something wrong?" Kai asked.

"Thought I saw something," Alexia shrugged. Her stomach then growled, causing Kai to chuckle.

"Let's get some food." As they walked, Kai noticed something move out of the corner of his eye, and made a mental note to look around when they left the restaurant.

Aaaaaaand back with Lane...

After watching the pair from a booth of their own (watching people made Lane hungry, so she'd ordered a burger while she listened to Kai and Alexia's conversation), Lane was happy to see that Kai and Alexia seemed to be doing well for a first date. She took note of when Alexia responded well to one of Kai's jokes and when the pair seemed silent, though that was likely a side-effect of eating.

"Must we watch them for the entire duration of their date?" Zane asked quietly.

"All the study material that I've found has indicated that it is... unusual... to make it this far without being caught. I suppose we will have to keep following them until they do notice us."

"...So I should be more obvious?"

"No, we're supposed to be as incognito as we can manage."

"This is a very strange activity."

"Yes, it is," Lane agreed emphatically.

Later...

"Crap!" Alexia swore as she lost her last continue. "Good grief, I know arcade games are made to steal your money, but sheesh!"

Kai smirked; he was busy with an old pac-man arcade cabinet while Alexia was trying, in vain, to beat the high score on the Donkey Kong cabinet. "You might want to try and dodge instead of going straight into a barrel."

"Yeah, but I prefer to find the hammers," Alexia paused, rummaging through her pockets for change when she turned around. "..."

"Something wrong?" Kai asked.

"...I'll explain later," Alexia replied, going back to her game.

With Lane and Zane...

Lane groaned. She knew how to complete a covert op. She could avoid direct line-of-sight, blend into groups, and follow at variable distances (staying too constant makes you suspicious), but Zane was hopeless.

"What are you doing?" Lane hissed, hauling Zane to the side of the arcade room, "At least look like you want to be here, do you have no stealth training?"

"Our stealth tactics have always seemed to work before," mused Zane, "Then again, Serpentine seem quite oblivious to their surroundings."

Lane shook her head, "You all need remedial stealth lessons. I'm sure that kindergarten class over there could help you."

Aaaaaaand later still...

"That was nice." Alexia murmured. She was tired, but in a good way, and leaning on Kai's shoulder.

"We'd better head back. I wouldn't be surprised if Sensei Wu used a louder gong than usual since we've had a few days off." Kai remarked.

"Hmm... you did notice how Zane was following us, right?"

Kai snorted with laughter. "I think most people did. He stuck out like sore thumb."

"That means Lane was with him; she's the only one who could convince him to do something like this."

"I think I saw her once, dragging Zane off so he wasn't as obvious."

"So, what should we do? I can handle Lane, but honestly I don't think Zane knew what they were doing."

"I'll talk to him, for now let's get back."

Back at the Bounty...

Lane sat on her bunk, exhausted. Why on earth did people follow their friends on dates? She wasn't even caught or confronted; all she discovered was Zane was worse at stealthiness than a sugar-high three-year-old (though the brilliantly white uniform probably should have tipped her off). She heard someone in the hallway, and dove under her blankets, pretending to be asleep.

"Night." Lane heard Alexia whisper. There was a sound which Lane decided was likely a good- night kiss before Alexia entered the room, smiling.

"Hey Lane. You know, next time you follow me on a date, could you lend me some quarters? I almost ran out while in the arcade," Alexia stated, brushing out her hair.

Lane shot out of bed, shocked, "I thought I did everything right, how did you see me?"

"I didn't. Both of us saw Zane, and Kai saw you drag him out of eyesight once. Lane, normally I get that you do weird stuff, but this... this was borderline stalking!"

Lane blinked, "But... Moppet said this was expected social behaviour!"

"Then Moppet played a very cruel joke, because that is the opposite of typical social behavior."

"Moppet wouldn't do that!" Lane protested.

Alexia rolled her eyes, leaving the room and returning with a confused Moppet. "Do you want to explain why your sister thought stalking me on a date was normal?"

"What!"

"You told me those nineties sitcoms were a good example of human social behavior. On every sitcom, someone attends every first date."

"Lane, that was a joke! I thought you knew those were extremely exaggerated!"

"...Really?" Lane said confusedly. "I'm sorry, I promise I won't do anymore observations like that..."

There was a moment of tense silence before Alexia sighed. "Alright, next time, run it by Moppet before you decide to do it."

Lane nodded, still unsure. She had been sure that she had finally worked out an acceptable behaviour pattern.