Lanie walked in and took a seat diagonal to the group. She tried not to look to conspicuous, she figited nervously in her seat praying she could leave soon.

"Aw, Tinker, yea all bruised up" said Kid Blink examining her arm. "You did this all fer me?"

Tinker pulled away "It's not just about you! It's the principal of the thing!" she stated.

"Hey, are we evah gonna get this meetin started?" Mush asked "I'd really like tah get outta here, I got some , uh, important business." he added eyeing Quipster who was smiling devilishly at him.

"Keep it in yer pants Mush, we're waitin for Jake and Quirky" commanded Jack.

Mush shut up. They all sat around talking about nothing in particular for a couple of minutes until Jake and Quirky showed up.

"Finally" sighed Mush

Jack shot him a glance as if to day 'shut up or i'll soak ya.' Mush shut up once again and continued staring at Quipster.

"so what makes you kids so late to our little get together?" asked Kid Blink winking (with his good eye of course).

"Shut up" laughed Jake "Let's just get this thing started."

They got into an intense conversation, replaying all the events of last night. Lanie listened intently from her booth. Jack finally spoke up.

"Well, all I know is I don't want you goils gettin in no moah fights wit dem oddah goils!"

The rest of the guys nodded in agreement while the girls gasped in anger and disbelief.

"What?! Do you think we can't handle ourselves? Didja even see us last night?!" Stress said with fury in her voice.

Jack sighed "I know you goils can hold yer own, but that was an organized fight, and we was dere in case anything got outta hand, next time you may not be so lucky."

"Fine" started Quirky " we won't provoke them, but whatta we gonna do if they sneak up on us?"

"Yea, we can't predict when dey'se gonna surprise us." agreed Tinker.

Jack thought about this for a minute.

"Fine" he said "but come to out lodgin house in about an hour."

"For what Jack?" asked Stress curiously.

"I'm gonna give you all a little protection" he answered.

"Oh, don't worry about dat Jack" said Mush pointing to him and Quipster "We already gots it."

Everyone gave Mush a look but decided to ignore his extremely stupid comment.

"C'mon boys, come wit me" Jack commanded.

All the guys, knowing they had to obey their leader, gave their girls a quick kiss and hurriedly followed Jack out of the restaurant.

"Of course they leave without paying the bill" sighed Tinker reaching into the pocket of her pants.

"Don't worry, I got it" said Quipster plopping 75 cents down on the table.

"Oh yea, I forgot, yer rich" stated Tunes bitterly

"Whoa! whats wrong wit you?" asked Quipster.

"Sorry, just really sore from last night" apologized Tunes.

"What, Skittery go to rough on ya?" asked Quipster laughing with delight.

Tunes just rolled her eyes and laughed with her.

"But on a more serious note" said Quirky returning to the topic at hand "What are we going to do about Briars group?"

Finally! thought Lanie, they're getting to the stuff I need.

"Simple" said Stress "Whenever they start something, we'll finish it, we need to show 'em whos boss, no matter how much it hurts them!"

Lanie choked on her water, what if they find out i'm with that group? she thought franticly, no doubt they've seen me out selling before. Lanie panicked and ran out of Tibbys.