Marli hit her head on the table groaning, "replace? You have to be kidding me Joey!" She looked at the other burnt microchips. "This will cost thousands of dollars just for materials, and it would take years to figure out the design again. Without any of my notes or the portal... I don't even want to think about it." She sighed. She tied her jacket around her waist and moved over. "Let me see." She reached for the microchip and Joey yelled, "Marli wait!" Marli touched it and it shocked her, causing her to unsheathe her claws. Her wings and horns also appeared. Luckily, the door was closed and Marli looked at him, "I can explain!" "N-No its ok." He went over to his drawer, and smiled. "Ah, it shall not cost thousands of dollars. But free. Just for you." He grinned, and pulled out some microchips. "This is why i spend all day in my room. I was hoping those would come in handy someday." He put the little box down, and accidently spilled the open pill bottle. "Damn it! Mom is going to kill me if i dont clean that up." He got on his knees, and picked the pill up one by one. "What are they for?" Marli looked down at him, and he sighed, blowing a bang out of his eyes. "Ya see, since i was a premature baby, i developed Autism and ADHD. So i have to take pills to control it. Thats why i can act like a normal teenager..." He grinned, and chuckled. "Or as normal as a teenage boy can get." "I know how you feel." She lowered her wings. "I mean i ran away when i was 9..." She passed out on the floor from the shock of the chip. Her body became room temperature. Joey looked at her, and set her on the bed. "I tried running away once too..." He whispered, and continued working.
An hour later, joey was really tired, when he heard chris' voice. "Joey!" "Y-Yes dad?" He gulped, and shoved the watch in his desk. "W-Did you sleep with that girl!" "No dad i didnt! She fell asleep, she needed rest. She... Uh... She wanted me to help her fix her watch." "Show me that watch." Joey looked at the drawer, then at chris. "No dad! Its her property! She wants it to remain a secret!" "Listen here boy! Im your father and if you dont listen to what i say, ill hit you with my belt!" "Your belt doesnt even scare me!" "Then ill hit you with your mother's belt! I know you hate it!" His eyes widened. He remembered the last time chris hit him with aviva's belt. He never had a A- after that. All that commotion made Marli awake slightly. Marli blinked her eyes open, her sight was blurry. She saw Chris and remained still. They didn't know that she was awake yet. "Give me the damn watch Joey!" Chris yelled, Marli sat up quickly. "If you lay one finger on my watch you will have one less leg to walk with!" She growled and they turned toward her. "I thought i told you to leave." Chris punched her chest and she fell back onto the bed. She held her chest, breathing heavily. She got up and looked at him in silence. "Marli, are you ok?" Joey asked, she nodded. Chris approached her, ready to punch. She disappeared and reappeared in the doorway. "huh?" Chris said in confusion. She ran and Joey chased after her, Chris close behind. "Marli wait!" Joey caught up to her, and saw chris growling. "Youre in big trouble young man!" Marli disappeared into the nearby cave, and left joey alone with his father. "Please dad!" He raised his gun, and unlocked the gun. "You're dead meat!" "CHRIS KRATT!" Before he had a chance to shoot, he was tackled by aviva, and she put the gun to his head. "I told you what would happen if you laid a single finger on my son!" Joey didnt want to get hurt, and ran into the cave, where he tripped accidently and landed on his creaturepod, which also fritzed out. "Oh great!" He sighed. Marli's eyes seemed to glow in the darkness of the cave. "Joey? Are you okay?" She walked over to him. "Marli, why'd you run again?" She looked toward the darkness. "I was scared... I have never been so scared before. I faced a lot of things that were scary, terrifying even. but..." Joey grabbed her and made her face him. "I experience this kind of stuff everyday. You need to be strong Marli, even when you're scared out of your mind." She looked outside and got up. She walked out of the cave, dragging Joey behind her. "Hey!" He laughed, and stopped laughing when he saw his parents in a full out fist fight. "We have to stop them!" He Marli looked at joey, who sighed. "I learned not to interfere... I tried stopping them once... Im still grounded." "Grounded?" "Why do you think chris treats me like trash? Come on, lets go back to the tortuga."
When they entered, martin was extremely worried. "Wheres your parents?" "You know where Martin." "Oh you poor boy." Koki hugged him, and joey smiled softly. "Im fine Auntie, i have to get back to working on our uh... Little project." "Joey you need to get out more!" "Dad doesnt let me." "Well im older than chris, so you can listen to me instead. Why dont you kids work on your project upstairs in the balcony?" Marli jumped up onto the balcony boosting herself with her wings. "Hey Marli! Wait up we need to get the chips and tools first!" Joey raced to his room and grabbed the stuff.
Marli sat next to him as she began changing the microchip to the right design. She looked inside and saw that Chris and Aviva were back. They were badly bruised though, Chris was worse than her. She prodded Joey and he looked at them. Joey set his tools down for a second, and over heard the crew's conversation. "You started it!" Chris pushed Aviva, and she landed against her desk. Blood streaked down her bruised face, and martin looked at chris. "Call an ambulance Chris! You could have killed her!" "And?" Chris shrugged, and walked away.
"I never wanted to be born..." He whispered, and picked up his screwdriver. He kept muttering to himself, and sighed. "How mamy chips are there?" "I dont know." Marli confessed, and joey grabbed the little pile. "Whoa... 50? This might take a while. Maybe a week. For now we have to make a logical reason so dad doesnt kill either of us." Marli frowned. "Okay, one. Don't say that you didn't want to be born. You're a great guy. Two, if Chris lays a finger on you, I will personally kill him. Three, this watch was very advanced so it's not my fault that I wanted it this way." Joey looked at her kindly. "Thanks," he chuckled and she laughed. She looked outside and watched the sunrise. She leaned on the railing and Joey came up to her. "I love to watch the sunrise and sunset. It makes me appreciate life. If I didn't have the sun and my brothers, I wouldn't be here right now." Joey watched the sunrise and asked, "What do you mean by that?" Marli's face darkened a bit. "I'd probably commit suicide. Without these things, I wouldn't be able to hold myself up." Her bangs fell onto her face as she looked down. Joey wanted to comfort her, but when he usually wanted to comfort a girl, shed push him away. He decided to comfort her, and wrapped his arm around her. "Ive tried a ton of things to kill myself. I was going to get a little sister a couple years back... But chris killed her before she was even born..." Joey remained silent, and sat down, bringing him down with her. "Sometimes the only way i can get free is by... Dreaming. Between school bullies and chris, ive got my hands full." He grasped the screwdriver, and began to clean up. "We should probably hit the sack. Dad gets mad if im not in bed by 7." "Why so early?" "He used to make me go to bed at 4pm." Joey smiled slyly, and marli smiled. "But if you want, i can ask Martin or Koki if i can stay awake later."