Beastfire: Hi! Here I am with chapter 9!

Chapter 9- Out

Ivy was starting to get worried. It'd been 24 hours since she'd sent that message and it didn't seem as if anyone had received it. She glanced over at Tony, who was still trying to get the monitors working. He didn't have any electrical skills at all.

"Dude, that's not how ya do that," Ivy said, the very picture of complete boredom.

"Really?" he exploded. "Then enlighten me, princess!"

"Bite me! It ain't my fault the only thing you can do with electronics is steal 'em!"

"I've had it with your attitude! But I know of a way to dispose of that problem."

He left the room and came back with some sort of clipper. As he approached Ivy, she realized what he wanted to do. There was no way shed allow Tony to cut her tongue out! Just as he reached her and tried to force her mouth open, a sound distracted him. It sounded like the beating of wings. Tony decided to go outside to investigate. The next things Ivy heard were his screams and a few crashes…okay, more like a lot of crashes. What she saw was…

"Ygrene? Aw, MAN am I glad to see you!"

The dragon grinned at her and bit into one link of the chain with the precision and accuracy of a neurosurgeon. The chain fell to the floor and she got up off the chair, rubbing the indentations that had been made in her arms.

"Are you okay, Ivy?" he asked.

"Yeah, but if we don't get movin', Frus and our kids won't be."

"Kids, huh? You mean Frus is a father? When did this happen?"

"Not too long ago. Look, I'll explain on the way."

Ygrene allowed the mutant to climb onto his back and they took off. The reason that she wasn't using her own flight ability, by the way, was because she could cover more ground with Ygrene.

In Shuggazoom, the Monkey Team, minus Nova and Otto, was joined back together.

"We didn't find anything," said Gibson. "Well, Sprx did, but it wasn't relevant."

"Whaddya mean, Dr. Brainstrain? It's PLENTY relevant!"

"It's the hundredth issue of Playmonkey. It's irrelevant and-"

Otto and Nova burst in.

"Guys! We found something!" Nova yelled.

All turned their attention toward them. Otto held in his hands a pretty good sized snakeskin. Gibson rushed over to take a look.

"Come, Otto," he instructed.

When in the lab, Gibson ran…you guessed it…MORE tests (GOD! He's worse than a teacher!). His tests helped the team to piece together what had happened…well, roughly. They didn't know who had who or where they went. Chiro stayed in the Super Robot as sort of Mission Control, while the monkeys each went in a different general direction to search.

Back with Frus, the lack of food had caused him to black out a couple of times. He was beginning to go through hallucinations and the growling of his stomach was highly audible. This, paired with the worry and uncertainty of the state of his family made the already bad situation of being caught by a mutant hunter that could disable his powers even more unbearable. He mulled over the irony of the situation, as he'd wanted to live to see his children, but could die anyway.

His thoughts were interrupted when Lorena approached the cage again. She didn't look very pleased. Apparently, she'd tried to reach Tony by phone but she got no answer.

"What's your problem?" Frus asked as sardonically as he possibly could. "Has your exorcism been cancelled?"

"No," she hissed. "But if you don't shut it now, your funeral will come ahead of schedule. Understand?"

"Nope!" he said with a grin, hoping to irk her even further.

If she were to get annoyed enough, she might shoot at him with the laser gun again and it would just be a simple matter of him using the chain as a shield, the laser burning through it, and him jumping out of the cage and making a break for it. Instead, she put a microchip in the collar.

"What's the point of th-" Frus began, being cut off by a small electrical shock.

"It'll teach you not to be so vocal, freak."

Since he wasn't technically a mutant, she began to refer to him as a freak. At the moment, he wanted nothing more than to make this woman suffer, but couldn't. 'One day, Lorena. One day,' he told himself.

Meanwhile, Mandarin was still unconscious and Tyr was taking the monkey's tail and sticking it up his own nose (or at least trying to). He looked up when he heard a voice.

"Tyr?"

"Mommy?" he replied.

He looked up to see his mother and he also looked outside to see Ygrene.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"That's Ygrene. He's a friend of your dad's."

Ivy picked Tyr up off of the ground and grinned evilly as she got a look at Mandarin. She took her son out to Ygrene and pulled out a bunch of random things to put on the orange monkey. She superglued a wig, mini skirt, halter top, and high heels to him, put makeup all over his face, and took pictures to use as blackmail material. She joined Tyr and Ygrene outside.

"Okay, so that's one down, three to go," said Ivy as she scooped Tyr up in her arms and got back onto Ygrene's back.

In the meantime, Bloodstone was trying to get Dylan to quit whining about being hungry. Nothing seemed to work. The monkey tried EVERYTHING to shut the kid up, and the one he decided to stick with was duct tape. However, the kid used his power over metal to hopefully rip the tape off. Instead, it pounded Bloodstone into the ground.

As soon as he was down, his mother rushed in. She located her second son quickly. She picked him up and tore the tape off.

"Mommy!" Dylan announced happily, giving her a hug.

Returning his hug, she replied, "That's right, Dylan. Mommy's here."

She took him over to his brother and Ygrene. The dragon was laughing as they came out.

"What's so funny?" Ivy asked.

"This boy is so much like his father!" he chuckled. "He's been asking me about everything!"

"Yeah? Well, here's another."

"Is he as much of a talker as his brother?"

"Probably. Now let's go find-"

before she was able to finish, Naithair slithered toward them. Ivy ducked under Ygrene's wing with Tyr and Dylan, cowering in fear.

"I think I made a mistake in taking your child, miss!" Naithair said hurriedly. "I'm sorry! Now please take him whilst I go hang myself with a shoelace!"

He picked Seamus up from behind him (for he'd been messing with his tail some more) with his tail and pitched him into the air, slithering away. Ivy saw her airborne son and made a dive to catch him. It was as if things were going in slow motion as she made the catch. She pulled Seamus in close to her.

"Seamus, are you okay?" she asked as any concerned mother would.

"Yeah, mommy!" he announced happily.

Ivy brought Seamus up with his brothers. Ygrene grinned at all three boys.

"Do you know your names yet?" he asked.

"Tyr."

"Dylan."

"Seamus."

Then, to Ivy, Ygrene asked, "How are you ever going to tell Tyr and Dylan apart? Uh…they are the same color, right?"

Ivy paused. "Hmmm…I haven't really put that into consideration."

She thought for a moment, then inspiration stuck.

"I GOT IT!" she shouted. "We'll need to stop over in Shuggazoom for a little bit, and pick up a few things."

"But what about Frus?"

"This'll help him too. Trust me."

Beastfire: That was chapter 9! Next time, they find Frus. And just what is Ivy thinking about getting? Find out in chapter 10!

Frus: Good…my children are okay…BUT WHAT ABOUT ME? YOU GOT A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO, WOMAN!

Ivy: (holding the triplets, and hands Tyr to Frus) Can you hold one of the boys for me, Frus?

Frus: No problem. (holds Tyr in his arms)

Ivy: (to Ygrene) Hey, Ygrene, can you keep an eye on Dylan?

Ygrene: Sure. (Dylan is set in front of him)

Ivy: (turns to the door with Seamus) Yeah, Shay's got an appointment with a therapist. Apparently, you messed up his mind, boss!

Seamus: Mommy, my brain hurts.

Ivy: (glares at Beastfire)

Beastfire: I'm sorry! Oh, and please review!