"Remind me again why I'm helping you in your childish behavior, because all I remember is making a suggestion for a possible revenge, not agreeing to help you carry it out." Carson whispered as he and Rodney quietly made their way through the hallways of Atlantis headed towards the sleeping quarters.

"Because." Rodney whispered back as they entered John's room.

"That's not an answer."

"It is to me. Now be quiet before you wake the major up."

Setting down the bag he'd been carrying Rodney pulled out a jar with a substance they'd found on one of the plants on the mainland, which had the odd effect of temporarily dying skin a blue-ish color. Looking like a kid in a candy store Rodney pulled on some latex gloves and carefully started applying the stuff to John's skin.

"I sill think this is a bad idea." A nervous Carson stood watch by the door making sure no one caught them.

"Oh quit being so jumpy." Rodney briefly stopped what he was doing, reached back into the bag and pulled out a second pair of gloves and another jar, handing them to Carson. "Here make yourself useful and go across the hall to Ford's room."

Mumbling something under his breath and swearing in Scottish Carson took the jar, and headed for Aiden's room. When both were finished, they quickly cleaned up all evidence they'd been there at all and quietly went their own ways.

In the morning both John and Aiden woke up oblivious to what had been done to them. Both men, none the wiser, went about their morning routines. It wasn't until they got a look at themselves in their bathroom mirrors that they noticed anything wrong.

Shocked at seeing that some time during the night most of their skin had turned blue, both John and Aiden rushed out of their rooms only to be greeted with the sight of the other being just as blue. After seeing each other it didn't take long for the two to figure out who was behind their new skin color.

"RODNEY!!!!"

Feeling quite smug with himself Rodney entered the control room, nodding his greetings to the others in the room. Elizabeth could tell something was up Rodney was never this cheerful first thing in the morning; in fact he could be down right nasty some mornings.

"What'd you do this time Rodney?" Elizabeth questioned. Seeing the self-satisfied look on Rodney's face Elizabeth had a sinking feeling her life was about to get that much more hectic.

Before Rodney could answer two very loud, very angry voices could be heard hollering his name from down the hall. Recognizing who the voices belonged to Rodney, knowing he would be outnumbered at the moment, went to make a hasty retreat, but was stopped when Elizabeth, who also recognized the voices, grabbed his arm.

At that moment two very blue and very angry officers burst into the room. Getting her first look at a blue John and Aiden, Elizabeth couldn't help the burst of laughter that escaped. She'd known Rodney was upset with the two officers, but she'd had no idea he'd go so far in order to get revenge.

When Elizabeth had started laughing her grip on Rodney's arm loosened and Rodney took that as his chance to flee. While John and Aiden briefly turned their attention towards Elizabeth, Rodney quickly and quietly slipped out of the room and on to the nearest transporter.

"We'll deal with you later." John assured Elizabeth as he caught Rodney's flight out of the corner of his eye. "But at the moment we have some scientist hunting to do." With that the two men left the control room in search of Rodney.

By noon John and Aiden still hadn't had any luck in finding Rodney. Deciding to take a brief lunch break the two, much to their humiliation, entered the commissary, grabbed some food and then left again, wanting to find some place they could eat in peace.

"I can't believe McKay actually had the guts to pull this on us." Aiden stated as the two sat on one of the balconies eating their lunch. "I mean he must've known we'd retaliate."

"Yeah no kidding." John agreed. "But you know I've been thinking about it and I'm positive Rodney didn't come up with and pull this off on all on his own."

"How do you figure that sir?"

"Because I know for a fact that Rodney hasn't been to the mainland for over a week and the only other place he could have gotten that plant substance stuff was from one of the medical lockers which only Carson has access to."

"So we've basically been looking for the wrong guy all morning."

"And you know what that means?"

"It means war."

"Exactly."

John and Aiden spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work out several different revenge plots they could pull on Rodney and Carson. It wasn't easy, having no way to get many of the things they would have needed and not wanting to waste any of the few needed supplies they had on Atlantis, the two had, had to do a lot of improvising, but by the end of the day they felt they'd come up with a nice workable idea.