Ice Lord reclined into the office chair letting her dark hair dig into the feather filled chair. The soft hiss of the doors opening was enough to pull her away from her thoughts, but she choose to keep her back to the entering party.

"It's been sent Ice Lord," Sea Serpent called to her sister moving towards her, the irritation in her voice was palpable.

"Is this general anger or is it specific?"

"Wolf stopped me in the hall…"

"And he wants us to strike right away instead of waiting," matter-of-factly.

"That and we're out of condors," a hint of laughter in her sisters voice.

Ice Lord could only groan as she gripped the bridge of her nose, "if I remember the last time my host was here I think Aviarius had a horde of combat flamingos a level below the condor room."

"We already found it, he refuses to eat anything pink that's not flesh or blood stained," rolling her eyes, "and he keeps looking at my osprey."

Growling various words under her breath before spinning her chair to look her sister in the face, "then tell him to go a few more levels down and eat the stupid torpedo penguins in the arctic habitat, it's not like their going to be good for anything."

"Found that room to, he says he refuses to go into your domain."

Running her fingers through her hair, unsure if she should be frustrated or laughing at the absurdity of the situation. "Tell him we have eighteen levels of bird habitats, there has got to be a bird other than candor and osprey he likes the taste of here, so find it," her body trembling in rage.

Serpent bowed her head and turned to leave.

"Wait," Ice Lord growled regaining her composure, "what is it you really want?"

Serpent hesitated for a brief moment then turned her head, "we're both wondering what's going on, he's growing impatient, and while I trust you know what your doing, I'd still like to actually know what your planning."

Ice Lord exhaled angrily, "this is a different time, our old methods won't work here and with out the resources Lightning Bat provided we must move with caution."

"I understand that, but why did we involve the Senior's we can deal with the Knights alone."

Rising to her feet, "my plan requires equipment Aviarius did not leave in this base, and we need money to buy it." Raising her hand halting the question forming on Serpents lips, "and before you ask I'm fully aware we could steal the money or simply take the equipment, but that would negate the anonymity I'm trying to create. Obtaining the virus and it's cure, could have compromised us, only my hosts skills allowed us to obtain it without detection. I…. my host knew if we infected the old man or his son they would go to great lengths to find a cure and spend anything for the chance of finding it. It was simple enough to give him numerous online consultations that yielded quite a hefty profit and the footage of the Knights training, and the," looking for the right words, "slightly altered information surrounding their weapons abilities, also provided a monetary benefit, enough to justify sending him the cure."

"But why?"

"Simple, Junior has great potential, and as misguided as his father is, his gives his son focus, something I may need later. And beside Junior is horrible with money, and you never know we might need so more funds in the future. But in any case for the moment they've severed their primary purpose and provided us with enough so to progress to the next stage of my plan."

"Which is?"

"Something that should end the Knights once and for all."

"That's not and answer," frustration in her voice.

"I know but if I told you that would ruin the surprise, and in truth I'm not completely sure," flipping a switch on the wall, the screen above it coming to life, footage of the Knights and Juniors men fighting filling the monitor, the battle recorded thanks to a few mechanical surveillance birds Aviarius had left at the base. "I underestimated the Knights once and that cost me," her hands igniting in green flame, "I won't do so again. I need to know what they're capable of, I needed to test them. The Seniors provided me with such a test, and something more. After Fisk betrayed us I realized something, people are no different today than the ones from our time, they are greedy and underhanded. If you give them the hint of power they will do anything to keep it and increase it, I needed to make sure that was true of all those who might be a threat to us."

"So you purposely created that threat?" her voice angry.

"Who says they're a threat? If anything they may be allies in the coming fight and failing that cannon fodder, and if they're not worthy of that task a single bump in the road, to our ultimate victory, whatever their future holds they've served their propose and now I must analyze the results of that propose before I make my next step. Depending on what I find our actions will take one of many paths, but for the moment I'm not sure what we're going to do."

"Then how do you know we need this equipment?"

"I said we couldn't strike at the Knights directly, I said nothing about our brother, what we're collecting is to fore and fore most to strike at Lightning Bat and Tyrune," a smile on her lips. "Speaking of which how are the special birds we sent out?"

In a questioning tone, "the robotic humming bird drones," the look on Ice Lords face was enough to let her know, that was what she meant. "One of them returned earlier along with the ones that carried this footage, the sample it carried is secured and in stasis, but we're still waiting for the other one to return."

For a moment Ice Lord's face filled with displeasure then returned to it's pervious look, "ah well, we have time and the sample we have will provide a perfect template for the future," a small chuckle burning in the throat, "your dismissed Serpent, go deal with our brother before he tries eating something that might be important to the future."

Authors note- yep that's it, as a great bunny once said, "Aint I a stinker." Yep this whole story is the result of Ice Lord, and triple SSS may not be dead in his later appearances (provided he has any, I'm not sure if I want to keep him alive it can go either way). Expect Ice Lords plan to make more sense later as it is revealed in future stories in the saga. Not sure when the next story is coming out, probably soon, expect certain things from this story to be picked up in the next one casue this one is done

Please R & R