The Never-Never

*

IV - Precocious Isn't Precious, Ry!

*

"What?" he asked innocently.

"What did you do now, Bucky?" Jennifer sighed.

"Nothing!" he defended quickly. As an afterthought, he added, "How was I to know mixing those certain chemicals was highly dangerous? Besides, I'd never get anywhere if I didn't blow a few things up! By accident, of course."

"Bucky," Jennifer began sweetly, "you do realize this is the third time in the past two days that you've had a lab accident, right? Which means..."

"Grounded," he sighed.

Ry had been hiding behind Jennifer and, shyly, she peeked around the taller woman to look at Bucky.

Flicking a piece of the green gunk off his nose, he busied himself with getting off all traces of the lab explosion in a futile hope that the director wouldn't notice it. Much as he enjoyed his room and net-surfing, he had been making rather excellent progress in his latest experiment and thusly he was loathe to have to abandon them at this point in time.

Bending over to untie his shoes, he noticed an extra pair of sneakers with legs attached to them move out from behind Jennifer.

"Ro?" he blinked. "What the he...," he hastily changed the original word, "heck happened to you? Why're you here? Where's Zeta?"

"I'm not Ro," Ry shuffled her feet, rubbing her clothed arm with one hand, "my name is Ry. I'm a clone of Rosalie Rowan."

Bucky lunged at her and Jennifer yelped, moving away from the preteen boy and the green goop he was trailing along with his labcoat.

"A clone?! Are you a complete genetic copy of her? You look it, but looks aren't everything...do you have the same blood type? Same brain wave-frequencies? Where'd you come from? Ha-"

"Cool your jets," Jennifer interrupted. "She's here to offer you a proposition."

"Oh." He considered this. "But then can I run some tests on her?"

"Why are you asking me?" demanded Jennifer. "She's sentient! Why don't you ask her!"

"Can I run some experiments on you?"

"Bucky!"

"What? You told me to ask her!"

"Excuse me-"

"It was a rhetorical question! You weren't supposed to actually ask her!"

"Why not?"

"Um, excu-"

"It's rude!"

"So?"

"HEY!!! I'm trying to talk to you!"

Jennifer and Bucky froze, ceasing their arguing as Ry scowled evilly at the two.

"Thank-you. I've been sent by the NSA," Ry smiled, her long blonde hair pulled back in a braid that dangled over her shoulder, "to bargain with you."

"For what?" Bucky questioned, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Your services in assisting the development of NSA equipment," Ry spread her hands out, "and I have been given permission to tell you what the NSA can offer." She took a deep breath and continued, reciting from memory, "You will receive unlimited funding for three years following the end of the contract and will be permitted to work in any NSA facilities. During the time of the contract, you will have access to any and all schematics and be able to alter them as you see fit if alterations will improve the design, as well as having the ability to practice individual experiments in a personal laboratory." Ry stopped, gazing steadily at Bucky, who was clearly interested.

"Unlimited funding? ALL schematics? How long is the contract?" Bucky shot rapidly, wiping his sleeve over his face in a useless attempt to clean it. His sleeve was dirty itself, so all he did was smudge the ash.

"The contract is for one year. You may have time to think over your decis-"

"Could we go now?" he interjected eagerly.

"Now? But don't you have t-"

"Bucky!" barked another woman's voice from the other end of the lengthy hallway.

He turned to Jennifer. "Send the data in my lab to my Net address!"

Grabbing Ry's arm, he ran down the hall, yelling a, " 'Bye!"

"Bucky!" roared the pudgy other woman and he nearly dislocated Ry's arm from her shoulder socket he pulled her along so fast.

The next moment, he found himself being carried by Ry, traveling at a bounding, blurring speed.

"Wow," he gaped.

Felipe blinked and missed them.

*****

Hmm. Maybe I could compact II through IV into one chapter...nah. I'm too lazy. All right, II, III, and IV were all written on Thursday, May 31, 2001, but I couldn't get on-line at the time, so I've posted 'em on Sunday, June 3, 2001. Okay? Great! Remember to review!

*****