I'm happy that everybody has liked the past two chapters of What If? It pleases me to no end, and I'm glad that I'm being told that I'm keeping Zak in character in this story. Please read the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Secret Saturdays

Chapter 3

"What do you want with me?" Maddie was doing her best to stay strong, but she knew her façade was faltering. The man was surely able to tell she was scared out of her wits by now.

She had been running down an aisle in the green house. Making sure all the plants were there when she had run into the man. The man had surprised her, seeing as she hadn't expected anybody to be in the green house besides her, Zak, and Jordan. Well… not in this green house, anyways. She had expected the intruder to be in one of the green houses, anyways.

The man, seeing her clipboard, had automatically assumed she knew what he would be looking for, and pointed a strange weapon on his wrist at her and told her to help or else.

She had refused, said no, and the man went and it looked like he had shot at her, so she screamed, but he didn't shoot at her at all. It had been a scare tactic. And it had worked on her.

The man was more than likely a mercenary, Maddie assumed, as by his outfit as well as his mask. He wore a yellow mask that covered his whole face, and it had a weird crack on it for some reason.

"You are going to find something for me, you little brat." The man said in a heavy accent. Maddie didn't recognize the accent, but it didn't sound French.

"What?" She asked, uncertain. Really, what was there of worth in the green houses? Unless…

Was he talking about that experiment her and the boys had seen earlier that day? But why would he want that? It didn't seem of worth, unless he wanted to get it for his girlfriend because of the colors, assuming he had a girlfriend anyways.

"A plant, what else you brat?" The man sneered, pushing her along. Maddie stalled, trying to buy some time.

"What type of plant?" She asked. "I can't read your mind and assume I know what plant you want." The man didn't seem amused.

"You'll know it when you see it." The man growled, and Maddie smirked to herself, another idea to buy some time appearing in her head.

Maddie led the man down the aisles, before stopping in front of one of the plants.

"There you go!" Maddie was trying her hardest not to laugh. "Blood roses, bred from normal roses and Venus Fly traps. These should be perfect for your girlfriend mister! Though, next time, you should probably knock on the door and ask for the flowers instead of breaking in to get what you want." If Maddie could have seen the man's eyebrow, she would have burst out laughing as it twitched spastically.

The man was furious; this girl who was way younger than him was mocking him! Who did she think he was?

"You little brat!" The man growled, preparing to fire at the girl for real. Maddie let out a shriek of terror, and then from behind one of the aisles a figure leaped at him, followed by another.

It was Zak and Jordan, with metal poles that Maddie could only assume were taken from support bars underneath the tables the plants were on.

Jordan's pole didn't make contact with the man, but Zak's did, making contact with the man's arm. Maddie took this chance while the man grabbed his arm to aim for a sweet spot that she knew would cause even more pain.

Maddie made contact, and Zak and Jordan couldn't help but grimacing while being thankful that they weren't in the man's spot.

"You little brat!" The man growled furiously. However, before the man could do anything, the sound of sirens filled the air.

The police had arrived.

"So, want to stay?" Maddie smirked. "Or do you want to go to jail like you deserve?" The man scoffed.

"Jail?" Maddie smirked.

"Boys," She said, and the boys swung their poles out at the man's knees.

However, the man was quicker than them and evaded the poles. The next thing any of the kids saw the man flying off with a jet pack on his back.

The boys and Maddie looked up at the hole in the green house ceiling, baffled. The boys held the poles slack in their hands, all three kids mouths open.

This day was just getting weirder.

And it didn't help much when the police shot the door to the green house down, causing the three kids to jump.

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"Mo-om!" The three kids whined in unison as their respective mothers fussed over them after they told their tale for what seemed to be the fifth. "We're fine!" Of course, the mothers didn't believe it one bit.

"You could have been seriously hurt!" A woman with white hair scolded. This woman was Drew Saturday, Zak's mother. "Really, what were you thinking?"

"I'll tell you what they were thinking," A second mother reprimanded. "They weren't!" This mother had tan hair and angry gray eyes that looked like thunder heads getting ready to let loose a hurricane. Her name was Alicia Reich, Jordan's mother.

"Seriously boys," The third mother sighed, "And Madeline," She tacked on as well. "That was completely stupid and idiotic of you! One of you could've been killed! Or worse!" This woman was Maddie's mother. She had bright red hair and furious emerald eyes and she glared at Maddie the most. She was Shannon Finch.

"But we weren't hurt!" Zak protested. The other two nodded.

"And we were thinking!" Jordan added. Maddie nodded.

"We were thinking about the plants!" Maddie agreed. "Besides, I thought-" She emphasized the word 'thought' "-that it was really brave and heroic that the boys came to save me!" If anybody had seen Maddie blushing, they took no concern.

"You're still grounded!" The mother's said firmly in unison. "One Month!" The kids whined and groaned at the unfairness of it.

Now they were going to have to stay at the dumb school dorms when their parents were away, for one whole month!

"But Mo-om!" The kids whined again, but to no avail. Their mothers would not be deterred from their punishments.

"Madeline, go to your room now." Shannon ordered her daughter. A heated look of fury was present in Maddie's eyes and Jordan and Zak subconsciously took a step away from their red head friend.

"It's Maddie," She snarled, glaring furiously at her mother before turning on her heel and storming out of the green house.

Right before she left the green house she screamed back to them,

"I hate you!" And the green house door was slammed shut.

Jordan and Zak sighed.

Maddie wasn't going to be in a good mood on Monday.

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I hope you guys liked the third chapter of the story! Oh, and if you like this AU story, I have another one I'm waiting on publishing with the description lurking on my profile. It's called The Animal Whisperer and that's all I'm going to tell you! ^-^

Please Read and Review!

-Scarpaw Signing Out-