Disclaimer: I don't own WordGirl. This story doesn't reflect the thoughts or ideas of the Soup2Nuts creators.

He watched the man cradle the baby for one second more; tears flooded the man's eyes and spilled onto the tiny bundle.

"With your life," the child was handed over to him. "Protect her."

He received the tiny infant in his arms. What comfort could he give? He gave his word; this child would live.

Through the small opening he went, two young boys close behind being encouraged by their mother to follow deep into the wall, too small for any adult figure.

It was dark; very little could be seen. One almost could not recognize their own hand in front of their face. Holding the baby as close to himself as possible, he stretched his free hand out to feel his way through the darkness.

The oldest of the boys spoke up. He was about six. He was a bright child, filled with many dreams. He would spend long afternoons telling stories to his brothers; stories of heroes and battles of wit.

"I'm scared. I want to go back to mommy."

Those heroes being only fiction from his mind, his true fearful self quivered in the darkness.

He turned to look at the boy but could only hear the child's soft whimper. Nothing could be done to console the child; fate had dealt the boy a very bad hand.

Balancing the baby in his arms, he turned forward and proceeded back down the darkened escape route.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Gun shots rang through the air; his ear drums felt like they had split in two. The younger of the boys, about age three, began to cry at the noise. Despite his attempts to hush the boy he continued to scream.

Bang. . .Bang.

The gun sounded again; this time their sound was too much for the oldest to bear.

"Mommy!"

The oldest could be heard running back to the comfort of his mother's arms; a mother the boy could not understand was dead.

Laying the baby down in the darkness, he quickly ran after the boy. Unfortunately he ran into the back of the three year old, knocking the little boy to the ground. He cried out; he wanted the oldest to return to him.

Bang.

That moment. . . the six year had exited the small opening, he was . . .

A voice came bellowing down the escape route.

"There are more of them behind this wall; After them!"

The enemy began knocking down the wall. The light flickered in; and in that moment he realized that he still had two lives to save.

He quickly got to his feet and grabbed up the baby girl. He then reached behind himself and snatched the arm of the three year old and began to run; run like never before.

Gun shots struck the walls beside him and the sound of marching echoed everywhere. He would never make it to the escape pod with these two children in tow.

But suddenly, the gun fire stopped. He didn't care to see what had stopped them. All he cared about was reaching that door at the end of this hall, and getting these two children as far away from this place as possible.

The closer and closer he got to the end, the heavier and heavier the boy became in his hand. He would not stop, even if he had to drag that child.

The door.

He released the child's hand to enter the password to unlock the door.

Plop. The child's hand went plop on the ground.

He looked down.

There was no time to morn.

"There! He has the little girl!"

When he looked up a solider stood before him; a gun aimed at her head.

The door opened behind him, but he couldn't move. He had failed his promise. The boys were dead.

There was no way he'd let it happen to her; he would defend her with his life as his contract said. He would . . .

"Becky! Time to get up!"

Sally Botsford's voice broke the morning silence and woke Bob from a rather disturbing dream, or memory to be more precise.

Becky slowly opened her eyes.

Tuesday. Not as bad as Monday, but defiantly not the best day of the week.

As Becky sat up she was relieved to find that her wrist didn't hurt as much as yesterday. Her head was feeling better as well. Now if only she could get her conscience to feel as good, she'd be set.

"Morning Bob." Becky yawned as she slid out of bed.

Bob didn't respond.

"Bob?"

Becky knelt by her dear friend's bed.

"Bob you look sick. Are you okay?"

Bob nodded with a chirp and then smiled at Becky. This was nothing she needed to worry about.

"How's your leg feeling?"

Becky removed the sheet from his bed and looked at the afflicted ankle.

"The swelling has gone down that's for sure. . . Maybe you should rest for one more day."

Bob crossed his arms. She thought he was well enough to fly around last night; Becky was overreacting by having him take a week off. Then again, it was nice to take a break.

"Why don't you start work on mending my usual costume; I want to get back in red as soon as possible."

With that Becky headed out the door to beat her brother to the bathroom. Bob only sighed as he slowly pulled himself out of bed. He then retrieved the WordGirl costume from the place Becky had hid it last night; the bottom dresser drawer.

"You Better Not Use Up All The Hot Water Again Becky!"

T.J.'s screaming startled Bob and he quickly shoved the outfit back into hiding. Perhaps it would be best to wait until a majority of the family left before he started to work on that.

Bob went back to his bed and sat. Unfortunately, not having anything to do would force him to think about that dream.

Becky finished up her shower and got dressed. The cut on her face didn't seem as pronounced today, but she decided to apply a new bandage anyway.

She wanted to leave a bit early so she could once again look for Two-Brains. Odds were she wouldn't find him before school started, but one never could be sure.

Becky ran past her brother and down the stairs. She grabbed a few pieces of toast and was halfway out the door when her father's voice caught her ear.

"Why are you in such a hurry, hon?"

"Oh, I. . ." Becky turned around and stood in the door frame. She didn't really expect her father to be at the table. On Tuesday her mother left almost immediately after waking her and T.J. up, so the family didn't have breakfast together.

"Trying to get a jump start on your science project?" Mr. Botsford smiled.

"Science project?" Becky raised an eye brow. What was he talking about?

"Yeah, the one you cut your face on." Mr. Botsford looked concerned. It was then Becky remembered.

"Oh, right, my science project. Yeah, I wanted to get to school early to, um, research some, things, about science."

"They sure do give you kids a lot of science projects."

"Well you know how it is dad; no child left behind. Well, see-ya."

Becky dashed from the door and soon took to the skies.

She spent half an hour following clues, but Dr. Two-Brains couldn't be found. He hadn't even returned to his usual lair, or had he? WordGirl's final stop was the doctor's lair and she did find some evidence that he had at least visited the place since his break out.

"His cheese vaults have been emptied and it looked like several of his inventions are missing too."

WordGirl examined the few remaining items; none of which yielded any clues to where the doctor had gone. He had even taken the time to erase his chalkboard. And judging by the length of the smeared chalk dust, his plan was going to be very elaborate.

"Where could he have gone?"

He didn't have any other hiding places that she knew of.

"Maybe he's changing locations." That could explain why he was seen at the bridge and then wasn't there when she arrived. "He's moving around to hide his evil plot."

This would be so much easier if a little birdie could tell her where the doctor was hiding. But alas, that was not an option at this point. Stupid Sixty-Minutes audition. She would have to rely on her own tracking skills. But she needed to find him fast. She only had till Sunday, if even that.

WordGirl glanced down at her watch.

7:57

It was bad enough she'd be arriving without her homework, she couldn't afford another late day.

Homework!

It was then she remembered her "family" project instructions were also in her book bag. Oh well, she could always just ask the teacher for another instruction sheet after school; that project wasn't due until Friday. Right now she needed to hurry to school.

Without a second to spare, Becky opened the door to her class. She received an agitated glare from her teacher, but, being she was in the doorway at the sound of the bell, she wasn't late.

"Take your seat Miss. Botsford we have a lot to cover today and no time to waste." The teacher pointed to Becky's empty chair and then went about setting up the day's math lesson.

Math; could there be any subject in school more boring? Becky didn't hate math. In fact she was quite good at it, well most of the time. It was just that some math problems were hard and some were easy, and no matter how hard one might try to get better at math, the fact still stood that you either understood it or you didn't. Today, Becky didn't. Fractions always seemed to elude her.

Yawn.

Becky rested her head in her hand. She tried to focus on the board, really she did, but at that moment something passed by the window. Several students noticed. A small finch had landed on the window sill, and while many of the kids in Becky's class let out a collective "aww," Becky's attention was taken elsewhere.

Beyond the bird, on the school's side lawn, was the man Becky had run into yesterday. This was her second time seeing him, so he must work for the school. It was just odd that she couldn't remember seeing him in any of the other classes.

He looked confused as if in search of something.

Why wasn't he coming into the school through the main door? Why would he sneak around the side of the school?

Becky didn't have any more time to ponder her questions as the student in front of her once again turned around and handed her a paper. It was a fraction drill sheet. Oh goody.

The class went well until recess. At this time a few storm clouds were moving in. Many students refused to go outside remembering yesterday's bad rain storm. Little did they know, to what extent that storm had reached.

Becky and Violet, however, decided to brave the outdoors along with a few other kids.

"It's nice to get away from the class isn't it Becky?"

"Yep."

Violet was really excited about helping her friend. All night long she had thought about ways she could figure out if Becky was WordGirl. Then she could let Becky know that she didn't have to carry the burden alone, or an alien parasite either.

"So, I bet you were really busy last night." Violet sat on one of the swings as her friend joined her.

"Uh, not really."

Becky pushed off and was swinging. Violet remained still to ask her questions.

"So, did you watch T.V. last night?"

"No," Becky passed by. "Not really." Pass again. "Why. . . What was on?"

"Oh nothing, it's just, the news said Two-Brains escaped again."

"Well that's…no good."

She wasn't going to find anything out this way.

Scoops had told her to write down any suspicious behavior. Maybe she should try to get Becky to do something she would normally only do if she were WordGirl.

"Hey Becky!" Violet waved her hands for her friend to stop. "Let's pretend we're superheroes."

Becky stopped the swing, tilting her head in confusion.

"Why? We've never done that before."

"I wanna try something new."

Becky shrugged; why not. It might be fun, or really annoying, one of the two. Violet clapped her hands in excitement. This game would defiantly tell if Becky were WordGirl. Violet would know in an instant being she had met WordGirl on several occasions.

"I'll be the 'Framer' since I know all about her because I am her and you can be . . ."

"GeographyGirl!" Becky smiled.

"What?" Violet was confused. That wasn't the response she would have expected from WordGirl. Why didn't she pick her own super self to imitate? Becky saw the confusion on Violet's face.

"Well, if I'm going to 'play' superhero, I want to choose a super identity I don't get to use . . . see every day."

"Yeah but, why not WordGirl?"

"Like I said, we see WordGirl all the time, plus I really like geography."

"But I thought you really liked words."

"Oh I love words, but I also like geography."

Oh well, that plan went bust. Playing superheroes still sounded fun though. Violet could worry about WordGirl's secret identity later. Violet started the game.

"Let's stop the evil Dr. Two-Brains from um . . .from,"

"From destroying the whole city over a plethora of cheese!" Becky followed suit.

Funny that Becky knew exactly what Two-Brains had said last night even thought she had said she hadn't watched T.V. She was a good guesser.

Scoops also took a risk in going outside, but he was on a mission. An investigative reporter was always looking for clues; stopping for nothing; trusting no one. He was going to keep a close eye on Becky whenever he could.

(A/N) Thanks for the reviews. The next update might be a while because I want to see the next new episodes before I write another chapter. Thanks for your patience.