Work.

The bane of my existence. I mean really.what the heck am I supposed to do for 8 hours on a slow day like this? I work at a pawnshop. I've seen a LOT of interesting things and people, but not today. Today it's dry as a bone, no customers in sight. Even the crackheads aren't bothering us.

Might as well try to put a chapter away, right?

Side note: At the time of this writing. Alara-Sirinial-Amalon is responsible for one third of total reviews so far. Thanks a lot, Alara!

Chapter 5: Ryan's POV

George's goal had won us the game. It hadn't won us a championship or anything, but we were ecstatic just the same.

Afterwards, we did our usual team thing: Everyone thanked everyone else for doing their part. My personal thanks went to Carl, who was able to get the ball to me so I could set up George.

I may have thanked Carl, but I should have thanked that time warp thingy that had happened. Without it, I'd have shot at the goal, the keeper would catch it and we'd lose. It made me do the right thing, but it didn't make sense. Time doesn't just "stop".

Awww.forget it. I'm no astrophysicist. I'm just a kid.

My mom wasn't in the stands today. That's a shame.she only missed game when something really urgent came up.

Oh well.she'll explain it.she always does.

I took my cleats off, put my regular shoes on and walked home. I was quite tired, but it wasn't far.

I went inside. I threw my dirty "# 19" uniform in the laundry hamper, and took a quick shower. Afterwards, I still had about an hour and a half to kill before the Sharing thingy started. I put on some clean clothes, put some gloves over my "X"s, and got ready to rack my brain.

As I walked to my couch to start thinking, a note from my mom was on the end table.

Ryan,

Sorry, can't catch the game. Some guy awaiting trial escaped, and all hell broke loose at the office. I need to go sort it out, and it might take all night. Let me know how it ends up tomorrow.

Jen

P.S. Here's $20 for you to have fun with after your accident happens. Don't burn the city down.

Yeah, my mom's name is Jen. She always signs her notes like that.not "Jennifer", but "Jen".

Anyway, I left for the game an hour before my mom did, I had to be there early. She must've gotten a phone call after I left, and had to skip out.

Okay.I need to find a way to show up at this meeting (to make Chapman happy) and not show up at the same time.

After channel surfing for a while, an idea began taking shape.

Home Alone was on.you know.that Macaulay Culkin movie where he beats up on some crooks with the help of some useful household items? There's a scene where he has a gangster movie running when the crooks are outside. To make noise to scare the crooks off, he's got a batch of firecrackers. When the gangsters in the movie are about to shoot each other, he sets the firecrackers off. It sounds like gunshots.

After seeing that scene, I went to my ammo stockpile. All good pranksters have stockpiles of fun stuff. I had the right type of firecrackers.

On the Discovery channel, there was a little thing explaining the ventilation systems of buildings. Vents go everywhere in a building.

And they carry sound REAL well.

So here's the plan: Go to the Sharing meeting. Shake some hands, say hi to everyone, and make sure Chapman knows you came. Find a way to plant the firecrackers in one of the vents. Set the fuse, then get near the door. When it goes off, leave during the commotion.

There we go. That's how it's done.

I checked the paper for movie show times. I had to be at the meeting at 5:00, I'd set it off by 5:15, so I could get to the mall and catch the movie I wanted to see by 6:30.

Well, since my plan was all ready to go, I figured I might as well give Marco a call. What fun would it be to go to a movie alone?

* * * Marco's POV

I've been trying to find a good way to pull this off for quite some time now. Attacking the factory itself would be simple. Definitely not easy, but simple, as in "not complicated." Erek swiped the building plans, so we knew how the building was laid out.

But there's just going to be too many people around.

Try as I might, I couldn't think of a way around that.

Ring.

Phone call.this'll give me a few seconds to relax.

"Hello?"

"Can I speak to Marco, please?"

"Speaking."

"What's up, man? It's Ryan."

Hmmm.what did I need to remember about Ryan and today?

"Hey, X, how's life?"

"Taking forever. Anyway, you doing anything tonight? I've figured out a way to get around that Sharing meeting. I'm probably going to start something rather big, but I can get out fast enough. I was going to try to catch a movie afterward, wanna come with?"

Oh yeah.

Ryan's supposed to be taken by the Yeerks today. He's required to show up at that meeting. He'll be given immediate "full memebership".meaning he gets a slug in is head immediately.

Well.if he can find a way out, more power to him.I mean, after all, we WERE going to raid that place tonight.

"What's the master plan, X?"

"I'm going to plant some firecrackers in an air vent shortly after I show up. After Chapman notices that I came, it'll go off. It's gonna sound like a lot of loud gunshots. I figure it'll scare everyone, and I can slip out during the frenzy. Everyone will probably run out screaming. It'll be hilarious."

Wow. That's all I could say. Wow.

We, and when I say "We" I mean me, the other Animorphs, and the Chee, had been tearing our figurative (and in Tobias's case, probably literal) hair out with how to clear out the innocent people from that building.

When the "shots" go off, the normal people will run away, and the Controllers will hold their ground.

I guess you could say "We" just caught a break.

"Wow, man.that's gonna be great. When's it gonna happen?"

"I'm going to show up at five.the party should start around 5:15."

"Cool. When's the movie gonna start?"

"I'm shooting for 6:30. Meet me there?"

"All right, I'll try, X. I got a LOT of homework to do, but I'll do my best."

"Homework? You? Yeah, right. Real funny man. See ya later."

Click.

I was feeling pretty good about myself. It was about time to head to the meeting at Cassie's, so I started to fly there.

Too bad I overlooked something slightly relevant. A little voice of reason inside me spelled it out for my during the flight:

"Hey.did you ever think that maybe this firecracker thing just might put the guards on alert? Just might make them cranky? Just might make them ready to kill us?"

I hate that little voice, I really do.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, about the second I finished typing the note at the top, the customers flooded in. Speak of the devil and he appears. Anyway, now that I got this out of the way, I might as well go inflate Alara's review count over at fictionpress.com the same way she did mine. :o)

Also, I need to type up the next part of "The Corpse" tonight. It's WAY overdue. And since I'm going to be playing in the biggest poker tourney of my life on Saturday, I'm probably going to be writing during a free online practice tourney. My AIM name is "ASixHighStraight" if anyone wants to chat, ask about either story, or ask my why the heck I named myself "ASixHighStraight". See you tonight.