Pre-Teenage Revelations
Epic Eight
Written by Cartman's Girl and Poe

And so the deception went on, or at least it seemed to. One day, Vist and Athra were seated on a park bench, maybe talking, maybe just staring at the sky, it was hard to tell. Ivy appeared in the distance; Athra'd been becoming increasingly difficult to find, she and Vist were about as scarce as her brother and his human friend these days. Vist noticed Ivy before she spotted them, nudging Athra and pointing; and before she could do anything about it, wrapped his arms around her and dipped her onto her back, down against the bench. He was suppose to be looming over her threateningly, but the overall affect pointed somewhat in the other direction.

"What'd you call me?!" He shouted, loud enough for Ivy to hear, drawing her attention to the bench.. she groaned.

"Not again.." Athra blinked before Vist dipped her onto her back, then shot her hands up to his shoulders snapping into the act quickly.

"I called you a slorbies slime licking smort-crab and you know it's true!" she snarled back, hearing Ivy approaching.

"Bah!" He stuck his tongue out at her, "Foo don't fee any schlime on dis! Ivy blinked, watching their body language from a distance; it looked a bit odd to her.

"Of course I do and get that out of my face before you slime me!" Athra eyed his tongue, looking slightly disgusted but we all know what she usually does with it. Or do we wanna know? Eic.

"Hah!" Vist started to forget he was suppose to be acting and dragged the tip of his tongue along her cheek, "Dak DAT!" Ivy looked downright nauseated at this,

"I better go pull that little pervert off of her.." Ivy sighed, often relegated to the role of breaking up fights nowadays, as she strode up to the bench. Athra shrieked and tried to conceal laughing, or turning her head to meet his tongue at least. Heck both were hard to conceal by this time, but then Ivy arrived and grabbed Vist by the back of the shirt and with a quick yank he was off.  He yelped in surprise as he was lifted, Ivy holding him up with one arm and weilding the claws of the other one threateningly,

"Stay away from my aunt, you.. eh.. whatever she called you!" Ivy waved a claw in frustration, tossing Vist down the dirt path none-too-nicely, so he landed in a dusty, stripey heap. He blinked and coughed, hacking up some dust, scowling genuinely at Ivy.  Athra sat up and wiped her cheek,

"Icck." she just said simply before scooting over on her seat. "Hi Ivy." she just grinned up at Ivy, crossing her legs.

"Yeah, well, I'll be back!" Vist stood up, shaking his fist, then ran off. Ivy looked rather troubled by the whole thing,

"Huh? Oh, hi, Athra." She glanced down at her aunt with a worried expression, "Why are you grinning? That horrible little Reject spawn just got his drool on you!"

"Oh I know, I'm grinning since you got here before he could get his drool on me more, that's all." Athra replied, "So! What ya up to today?"

"Just.. wandering around looking for people. Ragde is off with that pet stink of his and you're.. always off fighting with Vist." She furrowed her brow, "If I didn't know better I'd say you must be enjoying it."

"Yeah well..." she shrugged, "What else can I do with him? Can't put up with him..." Athra sighed and wiped her cheek again. "What, Ragde goes off with the human meat bag more now a days or what?"

"He's always with her. He even goes over to her house sometimes. Next he'll be inviting her to our home," She snorted somehow, folding her arms. "Seems like he's succumbed to the stupid love virus, even if he doesn't know it yet."

"Ahh, let him figure it out on his own... unless you wanna spook him so he'd never see her again." Athra said, then blinked. Well, the whole family (minus his parents) were worried about him spending so much time with a human. Her Dad once said he'd try anything to get the human away from them before she found out too much.

"I've tried, that's when he decides to go and grow a backbone!" She spread her arms in exasperation, nearly whacking her aunt in the process; she never had been very careful about those things. "Vist's probably been a bad influence on him." Athra luckily ducked, she was used to this sort of thing around Ivy and with being so short.

"Man, so what can you do then?"

"I don't know, he can go end up on the next Alien Autopsy video for all I care." She folded her arms tightly and huffed, disguising some other emotion like worry or jealousy.

"Hmm.... but really, you do care about him." Ivy glared at her aunt, balling her fists. "Hey it's true, you always turn up and help him out when Allison isn't around, right?" Athra frowned back, "And I'm sure if you were in trouble he'd help you back."

"Well.. yeah.. but he's my brother, I have to." She scowled, explaining it as though it were as plain as the blue in the sky, despite how forgien a concept siblings might be to Irkens.

"If you say so." Athra shrugged back, looking down at the floor. "Me and Zib... I don't even see him as a brother." she frowned slightly, "Mom says she'd like another kid one day, Dad always changes the subject."

"Be glad you don't have one! Little brothers are annoying and always getting themselves into trouble. Or befriending trouble," she snorted, and whether she was talking about Allison or Vist who knew, "And then you gotta go save them. It gets old."

"Then stop saving him. You won't always be around." sure she felt bad for Ragde herself, never showing signs of being a 'true' Irken, but heck he was part human. Perhaps that caused him to be the way he was.

"But if I don't.." She trailed off and set her hands on her knees, scowling at the ground, "Daddy wouldn't be happy with me. Mom even less so."

"Ah." Ivy was always up for making her Daddy proud of her, even if she was tough around everyone else she was her Daddy's 'little angel' no matter how old she was. "That stinks."

"I guess Vist found someone else to bother though, since he hasn't been around Ragde in a while, which is fine by me." She genuinely disliked her uncle, not that she could be blamed for considering how he acted around most people. Athra just nodded, before Ivy's wrist watch beeped. Curfew time for her. Enid had grown to prefer both Ivy and Ragde would be home by a specific time for lunch on Sundays, being the only day Zib was home all day.

"Bah," She glared down at the watch, standing up, "I gotta go, but before I do, tell me one thing, Athra.."

"Shoot."

"I wasn't really hearing you giggle when Vist put his tongue on you, was I?" She made a disgusted face.

"What?!" Athra looked up at her, then scoffed. "Please... must have been some pathetic human larva laughing around here somewhere..." she glanced around, seeing bushes behind her. "Like hiding in bushes or something."

"Yeah.. I guess so." Ivy still gave her an odd look, like she was still confused over the whole incident, then shook her head and started down the dirt path back home. Vist, meanwhile, had done a U-turn and was slinking around in those very bushes,

"..she gone yet?"

"Shh." she waved a hand at him secretly, Ivy tuned back to her. Athra waved, as did Ivy. She then turned and left the park all together. Athra turned around and looked at the bushes, smirking. "You could have eased up on the tongue, you know." she smirked.

"Slipped," he made crawled out of the bushes and stood up, dusting himself off and pulling a twig out of his wig, "Don't accuse me 'f being a licking anything next time." He stuck the tip of his tongue out at her again, straightening his shirt.

"Aw I'm sorry.. it was the first thing that came to mind." Athra grinned, standing on the seat so she was bending over to talk to him face to face. She leaned forward and pulled another twig out. "C'mon, let's split."

"Where to?" He looked around, "I'd say we got, what, a half hour 'fore she shows up again?" He rubbed the friction burn on his chin, "Preferably some place safter.."

"Aw poor Vist." Athra took his head into her hands and kissed him quickly on the lips. "Why don't we head to the mall then, been ages since we've been there." He immediately grinned crookedly,

"Heh, why not?" He suddenly picked her up from the chair and looked around, "Now, what direction was the mall in.."

"That a way." she pointed in the opposite direction Ivy had went, "Luckily." He started carting her off in his arms, but eventually let her down not too far along the way.

Meanwhile, Ivy was still looking puzzled over how Athra and Vist had been, er, interacting, and needless to say not paying attention to the fact she was wandering through a more seedy part of town on her way home. She also didn't notice as hands suddenly appeared from a darkened allyway, but she did realise when she suddenly felt the hands grab her by the arms and roughly yank her back into the darkness. Before she could react, she was hit up the head with some blunt object - so she didn't even get a chance to cry for help either. Two men were there, obviously hard on luck if they were now robbing girls, but up to something seeing her age and all. One man pulled what looked like a wallet from her and looked through it.

"Trust us to get one who's more broke then we are..." he muttered.

"She's gotta have somethin on her worth stealin.. What's with the green skin?" The other mugger wondered, then shrugged, "Don't suppose it matters much since she's still female afterall.."

"Ahhh go ahead then... not like anyone this side of town would notice." the other replied, throwing the wallet to the ground. But, unbeknownst to both of them someone had seen it, technically. Ragde had been walking home as well, when he suddenly had the feeling that he had to take a different route home. He shrugged, and continued on his way. He had just been turning the corner when he saw the some shadows casting out from the ally way, since the sun was moving along.

"What the.." he thought.

"Yeah, really, lookit how she's dressed any-" The other mugger froze when he heard Ragde's footsteps, "You hear that?" He hissed to his companion.

"U-huh." the other mugger replied in a hushed tone. Before he got to the end of the ally way, Ragde stepped out looking at the two. He blinked, before seeing the figure of his sister on the ground.

"Ivy!" he gasped, looking genuinly shocked at this.

"Dammit," Mugger 2 grunted, then noticed Ragde's diminuative stature and glasses and snorted, "Ah, don't worry about it, it's just a short little geek who knows Mizz green'n'ugly here, 'parently." Ragde's mind was too busy at the moment. He closed his eyes tightly, feeling the first mugger approaching him either way with the same object that had knocked Ivy out raised, he brought it down but was shocked to find Ragde's hand shoot up and grab it in mid air, and his green claws dig into his hand. Ragde opened his eyes, looking up at the mugger and now the usual timid Ragde seemed to have melted away. He snarled violently, his long tounge sliding from his mouth. Before the mugger could at leat make a jab at him with his fist, Ragde leapt up and clawed the mugger's face. The force sending the mugger onto the ground, once he hit, Ragde let out a tidal wave of attacks drawing blood.

"What the--" The other mugger dropped Ivy, lifting his hands up and trying to back away, groping the ground and picking up a piece of an old pipe to defend himself with, "What the hell are you freaks?!" The first mugger now unconcious, Ragde lifted his gaze to the other one. He grinned in a very evil way now, his pod suddenly opening up and his spider legs folding out. To say the least, they weren't the normal type. Seemed he had inheritited Poe's mechanical legs. Black, thick and powerful legs unfolded quickly and ripped into the ground lifting Ragde off the ground and high above the muggers face. Before he attacked, he whispered quietly.

"…I'd watch who you're calling a freak."

[To be continued – short I know, blah!]