DISCLAIMER: **forces Marco to wear a thong and shoves a plate with a piece of mango into his hands** Allright, Marky-O you know the plan. Go! **Marco shimmies seductively in front of KA. Applegate**
K.A. - Ewww! Oh hey, a mango! **gets up to retrieve the piece of mango**
Me - **gets net ready**
Marco - **stops belly-dancing** What the - hey, why am I doing this? Freak Apple doesn't own me! **storms off**
K. A. - Awww, no mango. . .**goes back into the safety of her own home**
Me - **drops net** CRAAAAAAAAAP!!!
NOTE: Okay, so ya'll know about me issues with Miss Isabel right? In case you don't, I left the note up in the previous chapter with my obscenely long explanation. Okay, this chapter may seem kinda floopy and uh, shortish. That would be because I got discouraged after all my stuff was deleted. You know how it is, you really don't feel like doing it anymore. But I forced myself to write it over. This really wasn't as good as the one that was deleted though. Not that I'm trying to make excuses, hehe :P Hope you guys don't hate it too much.
F-RECAP-LE - Marco and Rachel race back to Rachel's house after picking up Jordan and Sara (and rescuing a horrified Erek). Weird lock-picking and wackiness ensues. Yada yada yada, you guys remember, right? Anyway, Onward!
Cassie -
"So then, Rachel tosses her little sister over the 8 foot fence and they open the locked gate with a SHOELACE! And Jordan freakin picked the lock of their back door with a bent piece of wire by sticking it under and picking it from the INSIDE! I'm telling you, the whole family's a bunch of whackos!!"
Then we hear someone coming, so I dive behind a movie display but Jake grabs Cassie and MAKES OUT with her right in front of the poor guy. Which of course drives the guy away.
Marco stopped, stared, blinked, and laughed. "Okay, Tobias. You're story beats mine."
I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed and sighed loudly. Jake blushed, but did the same. We were all gathering for your basic Animorph meeting in my barn. All of us were tired from last night, but duty called so we were all dragged back here at 9 in the morning on a beautiful Saturday. We were waiting for Rachel, who was running late, and Erek, who was doing whatever androids do. To make our wait more pleasant, Tobias and Marco decided to swap stories about the previous night. It turned out Marco and Rachel had it almost as hard as we did. Well, except me of course.
When I came home last I almost had a heart attack. First I thanked God for letting my parents not be there. Then I thought quite sinful thoughts about how I was going to strangle Rachel next time I saw her. But I had managed to clean up the mess and chase the pidgeons away. There was no real harm done. Until of course, my mom found out all her makeup was empty.
"I have no story to swap. Swapuh. Puh." Ax said crossly in his human form. My parents were home, so we couldn't take any chances. "I was not allowed to be near the food. Though I still do not see why. Eyye. Yuh."
Here she comes. Tobias announced. A couple seconds later Rachel walked in holding a cheesecake. Ax's eyes widened.
"Rachel? Why are you holding a cheesecake?" I asked.
She scowled, then glared at Marco. "My mother told me to give this to Marco. It's for him and his dad."
Marco brightened. "Awesome!"
Rachel put the cheesecake down on the table my dad uses to suture wounded animals.
"Rach, can you not set it on the animal gore table?" Marco asked. Rachel glared. "Oh fine. I'll eat it anyway."
"Pig,"
"I'm whatever you want me to be, baby."
"Moving on. . ."Jake said, interrupting a possible nuclear war between Rachel and Marco. Erek suddenly appeared next to me. I yelped.
"Hi guys." He greeted us with a holographic grin. "Well, whatever you did last night worked. They had to close it for the night. They don't suspect any Andalite bandit activity at all. They just think it was a deranged teenage prank."
"Well they were right about the deranged part." Marco quipped.
"Hee. Ha." Jake muttered.
"We still have no information on why it was built. Visser Three is really keeping it under wraps. Only the highest ranking yeerks have an idea what's going on. Unfortunately none of our people are that high up on the yeerk hierarchy."
"So we find out for ourselves." Rachel said.
"Erek, do you know when the theater is reopening?"
"Supposedly tonight, at 8. I'm sorry our people can't give you any more information."
"That's fine Erek, thanks. We should probably get there before it opens. So in case something happens, innocent people don't get caught in the middle." I said. "I'm assuming this time we won't just be smashing movie projectors."
"What? Smashing… Oh last night! How'd you guys do that?" Rachel asked.
Marco winked at me. "We-ell, you see. . ."
Before Marco could launch into a very exaggerated version of Jake's distracting the guy looking for the bathroom, Jake spoke up.
"It went fine. We smashed some cameras, in, out, no big deal."
"Tobias seems to remember it differently."
Tobias shuffled uncomfortably from the rafters. Um. . .
"Jake snatched Cassie in his arms, ravaged her lips, then they ripped off each others - "
"MARCO!" Jake, Tobias, and I cried. Rachel and Erek looked mildly amused. Ax just stood there, looking smug.
"Just trying to lighten the mood, jeez." Marco held up his hands.
"Right, okay, let's ignore the little dipstick now." Rachel looked away from Marco, but met my eyes. I knew she would be pumping me for information as soon as we were alone.
"Well they've got the place surrounded by their Gleet Biofilters, so getting in will be a real problem. And they've got whatever they're hiding guarded by human controllers toting dracon beams. This is going to be difficult." Erek said. "Inside the facility and outside. If you have to go in as human I'm afraid I don't know how you're going to pull this off."
"We'll have to shut down the filters then. . ." Jake started pacing.
"All BioFilters have a central generator. I can disable one easily." Ax said proudly.
"But wouldn't it be in the place that's guarded?" I pointed out.
We pondered for a moment.
"How bout we take out one of the guards? Lure them away somehow, knock 'em out, morph them, get access to the room and disable the generator. Then we wreak some havoc." Rachel suggested. Then she non-discreetly turned to me, no doubt waiting for my input. So did everyone else.
Morphing humans always distressed me, but at this point it didn't look like we had much of a choice. I pressed my lips in a tight line and raised my eyebrow at her. The others took it as approval and continued.
"How exactly do we lure a ray-gun carrying alien away from what it's guarding?" Marco asked skeptically.
"Some of us create a distraction that makes one of the guards have to come out. " Rachel said. Then she added a condescending "Duh."
"Alright, so we need Ax as human and least two other people with him." Jake said, trying his best not to offend poor Ax. Ax looked indignant, but said nothing. "The rest of us go in and wander as backup."
"I'll go with Ax." Rachel said. "I missed out last time. And besides I have one of the most powerful morphs, just in case we have some trouble after we disable the Filter."
"Me too!" Marco interjected.
"No way." Rachel glared at him. "You can't go."
"Why do you get to go and not me??"
"Because you're a weenie!"
"What?!"
They both turned to Jake and yelled at the same time.
"TELL HIM!"
"TELL HER!"
Jake looked cornered. He shot desperate glances at Ax, Erek, Tobias and I.
I spoke up. "Well, they should try and learn to work together. . ."
"NO!" Rachel and Marco cried simultaneously.
I don't think we should risk a mission over this right now. Tobias said softly.
"Exactly!" Marco and Rachel agreed at the same time. Then they turned to each other.
"STOP IT!" they ordered each other perfectly in sync.
"Both of you, just shut up!" Jake said exasperatedly. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "If you two can't do it together you're going to have to decide which one of you will go with Ax."
"I want to go." Rachel said firmly.
"So do I." Marco said just as firmly.
They both stared stonily at the floor. I had a feeling that Rachel was just being this immature to get on Marco's nerves. And Marco was doing the same. They were always at each other's throats, but it usually wasn't this explosive. Neither of them seemed to be in a joking mood.
"Oh please, will you two just grow up for a second? We can't talk argue about this all day." I tried to reason. Marco mumbled something.
"What was that?" Jake asked.
"I'll go. . .with her. . .no fighting."
"You mean 'no trying to start with me'" Rachel sneered.
"You're the one who's all PMSing over - "
You guy STOP! Tobias cut in. Are you guys going to be civil or not?
Rachel sighed. "Fine. Whatever."
"Yeah whatever."
"I do not believe we can complete the mission with the current state of their morale." Ax said.
Jake leaned in to talk to me. "Think they can pull it off?"
It was a long shot, but Rachel and Marco really needed to fix whatever it was between them that was making them act like this. And we had to trust they could do that.
"I think so." I nodded.
"Tobias?"
I. . .well I guess, I mean we'll be around for backup right?
Ax looked hesitant. "The situation may pose some problems-zuh, but I think Marco and Rachel must learn to work together civilly, eventually. Otherwise these problems may become worse on later missions. . ."
I nodded. "My thoughts exactly."
"Alright" Jake said. "It's decided, Marco Rachel, and Ax go in. Cassie, Tobias and I will make a distraction somehow when we get there and back you guys up."
Erek had been standing by the door, listening to our somewhat dysfunctional meeting. He had a half-amused and half-terrified look on his face.
"Okay, well, good luck you guys. You're going to need it. I'll be in touch if something else comes up." Then he left.
Anyone else get that feeling that darkness has consumed your soul or something? Tobias asked.
I raised my hand.
"Well we should probably all meet back here around 6:30 or so tonight. We have the rest of the day to chill." Jake said. "I have to go help my dad with something. Bye." He waved and let himself out. Tobias and Ax both had a cartoon they wanted to catch, so they left too. Leaving me with Marco and Rachel. I swallowed.
"You guys wanna hang out?" I asked, trying to relieve some of this tension.
"I'm gonna go home and eat my cheesecake." Marco snatched it up and walked away. Okay, good. No fighting. I could relax.
Rachel practically pounced. "So what happened with Jake?"
- - - Okey-doke that's all for now. Short I know. . .but I love you. . .I still have to rewrite that Ax in Halloween fic **sobs over lost fic** WHHHHHYYYYY??!! I want to get it done in time for Halloween (duh. LoL.) And as for that slash fic that was swiped away by Isabel. . .maybe it was best that one was lost in the storm. . .hehehe. . .hmm. . .And hey, jeez, it took me forever to respond to all the previous reviews. Serves me right for waiting so long, LoL. I had to keep most of them short, I didn't want to rant on too long. Anywhoo, review please! And please be specific in telling me which parts sucked monkey, thank you!
THE HAPPY KORNER (w00t w00t!) -
Amy Angelblade - When it happened I thought the world had gone mad too. But I didn't cry. I was brave. **my dog tugs on my pant leg, begging to differ. I kick him away** Anywhoo I'll meet you at Shawnie's house with a pound of stinky carrots!!
Senydegger - Yeas, poor me **sniff**. That's exactly what I was thinking in those dark hours! "Go to Hell Izzy!!" Thank you for not throwing stuff at me. . .
Pixie13 - I will NEVER forgive for not reviewing my stories!! NEVER!!! Hee hee hee, just playin. Glad you liked all of them. And yeah I know what you mean about the cursing thing. . .I'm 15 and my parents still force me to have a 9 PM curfew. Anyway yeah I hope you keep reading my crap! I won't make you review but it's nice to get some constructive criticism and stuff once in a while. Laders!
Prue Halliwll - Yes, he did! I saw a picture and I spazzed til my eyes were permanently crossed and I could feel my toes. It's evil!!
Myst4 - I know I promised!! I'm so sorry!! **grabs at Myst's pants leg** pleeeaaaase forgive me!!!!!! **sobs into leg** Pleeeeeeaaaasssseee!!! And yeah I got grounded. They still think 15 is a little kid **rolls eyes** I hated writing it over. I loved it the first time, but the second time it was like. . .I can't explain it. I didn't want to write it over. I wanted to move on to the next chapter, but I couldn't. I love writing. . .but I dunno maybe I'm just being weird **shrug**. As for my teachers, they are all spawns of Satan, so no luck there either. . .
*ROGUE* - No, you have every right to be pissed off. I promised it and I didn't do it. But hey you could always be pissed at me AND sorry for me at the same time, hee hee. So does that quote mean it's gonna get WORSE?? O0o0o I hope not LoL.
Chelz-Aelle - That review thing happens to me a lot too. I hate it with a passion, hee hee. Thanklyou for forgiving me! I bestow upon you many soft fluffy things!! And it's funny how almost everyone expressed their sympathy over Shawnie's new facial hair. But it is a shame **sobs**.
SurrealSerpent - **sigh** I'm a growing girl. I need to try everything, LoL. Anyway, It wasn't that serious. It wasn't all that romantic. It was more. . .uh. . .mind-numbingly insane and funny. Well, it was supposed to be. I'm almost glad it's gone. . .but I can't help but have this urge to write it again. . .This is all Jinako-chan's fault!!!
Philip (triple Point) - Yes, the bitterness is strong. . .I think I will still be pissed about this at Christmas. I have to write it all over. . .**cries**. Oh yeah, my English essay! No wonder my teacher was so pissed at me!
BlackOpal - LoL, apparently we aren't the only ones mourning over Shawnie's facial hair. Over half my reviews were trying to console me. Did I mention I love you guys?
Freak show - My story makes you high? AWESOME!!! LoL. I hope this crappy chapter will keep you satisfied enough. . .LoL and the last chapter was supposed to make everyone wonder. Jordan and Sara are just little freaks of nature.
Misstress of madness - Yes you are talented!! **sneaks into other room and calls the nuthouse** Hee hee, just ordering some pizza! LoL. O0o0o gimme some cheese! Gimmie Gimmie!! Hehe. Actually I'm starting to think Marco is straying from his usual character, but I think he has good reason. . .
Lady Evils - Trust me, there will be more Tobias in this. More than you all probably think. It's not all only gonna be about Marco and Rachel.
Jinako-chan - You know what, I'm going to name a controller Izzy, then kill her off! Thanks for the Idea, Jinako-chan!! Wow I feel a lot better. . .And the Halloween fic I'm planning on rewriting (the slash one too, but SHHH don't tell anyone!!). Paulo Constanzo is hot? Hmm. . .Uhhh. . .I guess he can be. . .**quickly changes subject** Um, Cheese is cool! Anyway, I never completely confirmed whether this was a M/R fic or not. . . but I'm not going to tell you, hehe. My exact words were "Oh, now I haven't really confirmed that theres gonna be R/M, now did I? Hee hee. Aw, heck. Y'all read me like a book. Ain't no surprising any of you. Or so you think. . .**wink**" Hee hee! I think half of you guys WANT M/R and the other half hates it. I'll guaruntee you one thing though: half of you will be disappointed.
Kristen Goddess - I'm planning something with the Nartecs, but I really don't wanna tell you yet, LoL. It's top secret. Only me and my stuffed penguin know what's going on.
Salazarslytherin - LoL yeah, Hi! I think I remember that sn, did you have a different pen name before?
Simply Sara - Thank you!
D.H. L'Orange - Wow, thanks! This chapter might've lacked some funny (unless you got one of those weird senses of humor like me) but I hope you read more! No comment on Rachel's 'tude yet. . .hee hee.
Dslguy - **dances around cuz she got a 8** Go me! Go me!! Oh, I'm dreading to see what this chapter got. . .**crosses fingers for at least a 6**
Oedipal Kat - LoL. I love when I get other people to look weird in front of their friends. Not that I do that a lot **looks innocently at the sky** Thanks for pointing out the comma stuff. I might reupload all of my stories and fix them all up. I make lots of grammar mistakes and psst here's little secret: I hate spellchecking. It's like every other word is spelled wrong. Like they try to substitute "Year" for "yeerk". It annoys me so I usually just give up on that.
Jack Ichijouji - You've seen door slamming somewhere?
DawnOfEast - You got more! Woo-hoo! Or "aw crap", depending if you liked this or not. . .Please don't hate me!