Well, we started listening to music as we write(thanks to a suggestion from Fire Ninja, formerly Pink Wildfire/Dazzling Silver Mist) so, it's optional to listen to the music, but it's not nessecary. If anything, it's easier to read without music, BUT we'll list the music we listened to!

Aviva drives home: While the City Sleeps, by Paul Collier

Meet Allison: Behold, I send you as sheep among the wolves, Paul Collier

Plus some nice natural rain music by the clouds over head!

Aviva frowned when she drove home that night, noticing a large black cloud building up over head, lit up from behind by the shining half-moon. She just hoped she could get home before the storm started up. It was dangerous to drive in the parking lots built around the apartment buildings in the rain, especially for her since she had a top floor house.

She bit her lip as the rain began to patter down softly, slowly building as she drove higher and higher until she reached her parking spot. She paused before turning the black car off, sighing. She never did like the rain.

By then the rain was coming down in torrents and she slipped her high heels off to make a mad dash for her door, getting soaked as she fought for her keys.

She grunted as they fell on the floor, the water rushing down the sidewalk engulfing them. She grabbed them before they were dragged away and managed to open her door and slammed it shut behind her as she rushed in her house. She sighed in relief to be inside, and sent a wary glance to her hair, knowing it was already beginning to curl into it's little winds and bends. She sighed, throwing her shoes into the nearby closet and pulled her jacket off.

What she needed now was a nice hot shower, she told herself as she walked into the bathroom, tiredly dumping her clothes into the hamper and slipping into the shower. Aviva hummed in relief as the hot water ran down her body, warming her, soothing her aches. This was one thing that she could allow herself to indulge in without guilt. She turned, letting her already soaked hair get the warming bath, and dumped a handful of shampoo on her hair – biodegradable of course, and worked it into her curly hair.

It wasn't that she had bad hair. She actually had nice curls, that formed cute ringlets at the ends; not even all her hair had curl. She simply preferred to have straight hair with a slight wave in it.

The shampoo, now washed out, was replaced by several liberal handfuls of conditioner, making her hair soft, silky, and mostly straight. After rinsing that out, she reluctantly turned the water off and stepped out, wrapping a large white towel around herself and wrapping her hair up in another. She walked into her bedroom, collapsing on her large bed. A large, plush comforter draped elegantly over the top as the neatly arranged pillows sat on the head of the bed, sitting primly like well groomed school girls.

She stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, thinking over the day.

A part of her couldn't believe that she had actually gotten the funding. Or that Donita had wanted to come along, volunteering her chief photographer, Dabio – That was his only name, they maintained - to be her photographer, free of charge.

Frankly, Aviva wondered how the huge man could find the brain cells to run the equipment...Not to judge...

With a yawn, she curled up, one hand under her head and her legs crossed over themselves, slipping into a restless sleep.

It seemed that she hadn't more than drifted away and her alarm was beeping. She moaned, and sat up, running a hand through her still slightly moist hair, as she turned to the screeching purple alarm.

8:27

She jumped out of bed, practically flying into her bathroom to frantically brush her hair into place and get dressed.

"I'm late!"

Aviva ran back out, slipping on a purple jacket over her white blouse, her legs flying forward in gray business pants, her hair put up in a messy bun. She grabbed her keys on the way out, almost forgetting her shoes in her mad dash to get out.

Amelia rubbed her dark brown eyes tiredly as she skimmed through another report, typing up a "summary", as Aviva had put it, with her other hand.

It wasn't exactly her first choice to become a secretary, but it payed well. And she never really expected to become the secretary for one of the world's leading enterprises, or to work for one of the richest men alive, but hey, there she was.

She sighed, placing the papers down and burying her face in her hands, her heavy, chocolate brown bun bobbing with the movement.

"Amelia!"

Her head jerked up, and she stared at Zach as he walked up to her.

"Crazy guy makes me stay up all night doing something as simple as researching jungles," she mumbled to herself, earning herself a glare from her boss.

"Yes, sir?"

"Where's the research I asked you to do?"

She pulled a stack of papers out from a drawer in her huge, mahogany desk, placing them in his hands.

"There, and you're welcome."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks and whatever," he sauntered into his office, while she yawned. Suddenly her intercom beeped, and she groaned.

"Yeah?"

"Aviva hasn't shown up for the meeting yet!"

Amelia sighed, recognizing the voice as Allison, Aviva's younger sister, who had joined her sister's department last year.

"And you call me why?"

"You're the only other person who has a copy of the reports!"

"Oh, you've got to be-" she sighed, shaking her head, "Fine, I'll send someone down with it, 'kay?"

"Ay, gracias, mi amiga!"

"De nada, y no te conozco, asi que no eres mi amiga, pero alla tu," she grumpily shoved the gray intercom slightly, pushing a button or two accidentally, "Aviva had better have a better excuse than she slept in or got stuck in traffic..."

Aviva sunk in her chair slightly, shamed that she had missed another meeting. At least she'd be gone in a day or two, doing her own thing for a while before coming back to all this hustle and bustle.

Allison knocked on the glass door to her office, causing the young woman to sit up straight.

"Come in."

Her sister walked in, her short colorful dress hugging her shapely torso, and flaring around her long, slender legs. A teasing smile lifted the pink lips as she twirled a curl of her bangs, a common habit of hers. Her green eyes, the only trait she shared in common with her older sister, twinkled as she shook her head, causing her hair, curly and black, coating her shoulders and cascading down her back, to bounce.

"Ay, ay, ay, Hermana."

"I know, I know," Aviva sighed, resting her cheek resignedly on her hand, "Who took my place?"

"Guess.," Allison smirked confidently, yet playfully.

"You've been taking my place a lot lately," Aviva noted, not a little sadly.

"Aw, sis," her sister sat on the desk, "I could never truly take your place."

She thrust her arms in the air, causing the colorful bracelets on her wrists to rattle and chime, "You're practically legend here!"

Aviva shook her head, poking her sister playfully, causing her to laugh in response.

"Anyway, just don't miss the next one, that secretary of Robo-Boss up there is getting angry," Allison crossed her legs delicately, grinning widely as she used the nickname that a grand majority of the Varmitech employes used in reference to their boss, referring to his huge robotics department, which was really his main pillar. It also alluded to the rumor circulating about his bodyguards being the robots that he manufactured for security purposes. Supposedly some of them could "shape-shift" into human forms.

Aviva rolled her eyes when the secretary was brought up, pulling out her mirror to check her make up real quick. Something about the young woman just didn't sit right with her.

"Well, I won't be around next week..."

Her sister's smile fell, and she gave her a questioning look, "Where are you going?"

Aviva grinned this time, standing up and with one swift yank, sent the curtain gliding shut over the glass walls, and grabbed a small remote. With a click, her glass windows looking down from the fifth floor were covered by silver colored blindfolds, and she proudly pushed a button on her intercom. Suddenly, the walls lit up with three dimensional images of trees, as though they had suddenly been transported outside the fences, outside the walls.

Allison stared, "Wow...so this is what you do in your free time, huh?"

Aviva grinned, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear, her mind turning to a particular set of vests and gloves, "Among other things..."

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Allison turned to her, glaring in an accusatory way, "You're going out to the boonies?"

Aviva blinked at the slang, "The what?"

Allison groaned, letting her head fall into her hands, "No, no, no...What are Mama and Papa going to say?"

The older woman rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"And what about your work?"

"Robo-Boss got that taken care of..."

Allison's head jerked up, causing the curly black hair to bounce and tumble around, finding their places among themselves, shock covering her face.

"You went up? To him? For-"

"I wouldn't have gone any other way!" Aviva huffed, crossing her arms. Oh, how she hated whenever they fought, which was happening more often than she'd like, "Look, I really, really want to do this."

Allison scoffed.

"You knows what diseases you could pick up out there. Or, what about the farming complexes. You know how desperate those men-I mean people get! They could kidnap you and hold you for ransom."

"Oh, please, I have the trip all planned. I'll have two experienced guides the whole way..."

Her thoughts turned towards the farming complexes, as they were officially called. Street slang for them was Blood Farms, since it was rumored that any people trying to escape were killed on the spot.

She didn't quite believe that, although a journalist for the newspaper that was also under her department had gone out to one to write a story and had come back without a single word written down.

Because, he said, his voice uncharacteristically soft and subdued, no one would want to know. What was the point, if everyone would turn a blind eye? No one cared about the everyday deaths of far away people.

After a week, he was back to normal, the same joking laughing person as before, but she couldn't help but wonder what he had meant.

Farming complexes were established places outside of the cities, where a group of "farmers" would grow the food and meat and fish for the nearby cities. Mass production often meant that the land that was allowed to them was farmed until it was barren, then the manure of the animals raised would be spread across the land, in half baked attempts to repair the damage down. Trees were planted and everyone was evacuated into a new area. From the little bit of information she had milked out of the journalist, they cycled around every decade, moving into an area that had been farmed two decades before, and slash and burn techniques were used on the half grown trees there and another cycle of intensive farming started.

Blinking, she realized she had missed everything of what Allison had said.

"Sis, just don't worry, okay? I'll be back in three weeks-"

"Three weeks!" Allison huffed, "And who's running the department, may I ask?"

"You, I guess..."

Allison muttered something to herself, although Aviva saw her eyes light up slightly.

"Have you seen Manny recently?" Allison changed the subject, blinking her olive eyes.

"Um...no," Aviva confessed, pushing the button again, causing the walls to go back to their plain gray colors. The blinds slowly opened and she frowned, "I haven't seen Manuel...well, any of our brothers lately."

Allison shook her head, "Did you hear what happened to Jose?"

"No, what happened?"

"His wife died."

Aviva stared for a few seconds, "...The black girl? That Mama didn't like?"

"No, that's Manny's wife," Allison sighed, "You don't even know who your sister-in-laws are!"

"Let's not talk about that," Aviva forced out, glaring at Allison. Funny how fast a fun talk with her quickly turned into an argument.

"Wouldn't have brought it up, si tu hubieras estado en mejor contacto con tu familia..." the younger woman muttered, before sighing and talking a little louder, "She was in a car crash day before yesterday, taking their daughter to school. The front part of the car was completely crushed."

"Oh, poor Chloe!" Aviva shook her head. Too many people died because of car accidents in the cities, "What about their girl?"

"She's fine, but shaken up. Anyone would be after seeing their mom die like that..."

Aviva nodded silently.

"Chelsea, right?"

"Yup," Allison nodded somberly. A knock sounded on the glass walls and Aviva opened the curtains.

"And so ends our talk," muttered the unhappy younger sister as she walked out.

Koki bit her lip, looking out at the dirt road. The rain last night would make it a little more precarious to drive on, as soil drenched in water often gave way under the road. Above her, Laura quietly glided on an air current, wearing the suit that they had brought in yesterday.

What a way to wake up, she thought, remembering the gallons of water (or so it had seemed, just waking up) that had poured down onto her and her bed that morning, through a broken tarp hanging over the broken roof.

Laura had volunteered to check out the scope of the road, to see how bad it was to go on it. Koki thought it was just another excuse to use the brightly colored suits and goof off in the air. Not that Laura goofed off much...

"Did you know that peregrine falcons have some of the best long range eyesight in the animal kingdom?" Misty walked up behind her, pulling her suit over her head.

"Nope. I've only been told five times in the last two days," Koki smiled gently to show she was only teasing, although it was partly true. The girls had gotten all excited about the suits and all the possibilities it opened up, and had begun spouting animal information this way and that. Not that she minded much.

"Um...Have you seen that feather we used yesterday?"

"What feather?"

"The one to activate the suits...You can only activate them if they have a DNA sample to build off of, apparently."

Koki shook her head, wondering if she had seen wrong when Kitty – Laura's nickname – had walked out empty handed and activated the suit with a laugh in front of her.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll see if I can find Surveillance," Misty turned, smiling as her brown hair bounced with her every step. Surveillance was a peregrine falcon that they had found just outside the Fence, apparently having flown into the nearby barbed wire. After nursing him back to health, he hung around the building, bringing his mate over to nest on their building, and exhibiting the odd habit of going out and flying around the center, every single hour, therefore his name, Surveillance.

Jimmy ran out, holding the joy stick for his video game close to him and looking slightly disturbed, "That family's kid wants my controller!"

Koki rolled her eyes, ignoring his problem, "Think we should still take them out on that tour?"

Jimmy hid his controller in his pocket, looking out at the road with a shrewd look. Koki looked at it as well, and wondered, for an instant, what it would look like to an outsider. The road was set on a gentle slope, which, if you went on the upper road at the first Y, would get steeper and steeper as you went on. The lower road continued on a gentle, curving downward slope, heading towards the very bottom of the valley of what was formerly the Adirondack State Park. Tall, slender trees allowed a little of the bright, direct sunlight to filter down and a breeze slowly filtered through the trees, slowed by the thick canopies of leaves from the different trees of the temperate forest. Beautiful conifers fought their way up through the long, thick branches of their broad leaf neighbors, creating a mingled united forest standing guard outside the city limits. Koki loved it, the smells of the slowly decomposing leaves and the fresh water that constantly flowed though out the entire park, much smaller than it's predecessor. Canadian lynxes, moose and American martens lived here, among much other fauna.

If one followed the upper road, it would lead to the mountain range, and to the alpine tundras, where the air was incredibly thin from its high elevation, and plants grew small and close to the ground.

"I, uh, well...Er...Ah..." Jimmy's hands clenched around the controller and Koki listened patiently to his mumbling. She wasn't exactly sure why, but Jimmy often had trouble having responsibility of any sort placed on him. Not that he couldn't do what he was asked to, but he got incredibly nervous and slightly high strung.

"M...Maybe we could?"

"I think you can!" Laura swooped down, landing in front of them. Jimmy yelped at her sudden appearance and ducked behind Koki, dropping his hat on the ground.

Laura laughed, "Sorry, JZ, didn't mean to scare you!"

Jimmy stood up straight, puffing out his chest self-consciously and putting on his baseball cap backwards, "Oh, uh...You didn't scare me! I was just, uh...Practicing escape tactics!"

He jumped into a karate like pose, wobbling as he stood on one leg. Koki, grinning playfully, poked his shoulder.

"AHH!" he jumped and collapsed on the ground, his skinny legs sticking up in the air, "Hey, no fair!"

Don't own Wild Kratts, gratefully. If we did, the series would never have been aired, lol! Hope you enjoyed, please tell us what you think!