A/N;

Thanks to all those who reviewed :)

I'm gonna work on this quick, 'cos I'm babysitting later. Hope you enjoy mucho-ness.

R & R.

Iggy

"So, we just wire it to the input and-"

"What are you two doing?" Ella's amused voice startled me, and I dropped the make-shift timer bomb we were working on. I heard Gaz scoop it up and shove it under his shirt. Smart boy.

"Nothing." I said hastily, looking in the direction of Ella's voice. She had a nice voice.

Well, praise the Lord that Angel wasn't around to hear that.

"Uhuh, I'm sure." Ella continued, "Well-"

"MAX!" Nudge's voice practically blasted my eardrums to bits. Sometimes it was nice having awesome hearing, other times... not so much. Like now, for example. Gaz and I leapt to our feet, and I let the sound of Ella's light but swift footsteps guide me down the corridor and up the stairs. "MAAAAAAAX!" Apparently Nudge wasn't done screaming.

"Nudge, what's wrong?" Max's calm but strained voice met us as we came to a stop outside Nudge and Angel's room. From the sound of the breathing, everyone had come running when Nudge's terrified screams started.

This had better be important- Gaz and I had things to do, and stuff to blow up.

"There's a family of rats under my bed!" she shrieked, and suddenly I heard Gazzy's well-concealed laughter. Oh boy, that kid was in for it.

"Nudge," Max said, and I could tell she was struggling to keep a level voice, "Out of all the stuff we've dealt with, you're worried about a rat?"

"A family of rats! And I don't like rats!" Nudge protested. I was laughing now- what with the images of Gazzy catching rats and putting them under Nudge's bed running through my mind.

"Don't rat me out," Gazzy muttered, and then we were laughing all over again.

"That was lame." I chuckled, "Tell me later how you did it."

"Gazzy!"

Oh damn, I guess we forgot that the mind-reader happened to share a room with Nudge, and wasn't happy about the rats being in there either. We were idiots.

"What?" the Gasman asked, feigning surprise.

"Don't pretend! Get those rats out of here!" Angel cried angrily. Gazzy sighed.

"I'm not even going to ask." Fang said in his few-word-Fang-ish way, and he left. Max sighed.

"Gaz, get the rodents out of there." She said, and from her tone I guessed she was grinning. Gazzy left my side and trudged into the room. Everyone eventually filed out, but I leant against the door frame.

"Why rats?" I asked.

"'Cos Nudge told me how much she hates them." Gazzy laughed.

"Ah." I replied, like it was obvious or something.

"Well once I release these guys, we've got business to attend to."

I crossed the room, and we slapped high-fives. I didn't miss- damn, I'm awesome.

Max

I knew Nudge hated rats, but a reaction like that? Weird. I wondered if they'd come up with the categories for our game yet. So long as I wasn't put in any embarrassing situations with Fang, they could do whatever they wanted.

But of course, karma hates me, and Nudge and Ella would take this opportunity to make it as uncomfortable for me as they could. It was their way of 'helping' our relationship. Yeah right.

So that night, I was unsurprised when the categories were announced.

"Ready guys?" Nudge beamed, her hands clasping a few sheets of paper. There was a chorus of 'yes', and then they began.

"So, we'll give you the categories tonight, and then tomorrow night we'll announce the winners. We've changed the game a little bit, too. Whenever the audience sees fit, they can force the winner of the award to demonstrate what got them the award in the first place." Ella grinned excitedly. I shot her and Nudge a warning glare. I knew they were planning something! Those devious little-

"So, the categories are..." Nudge cut off my angry stream of thought with a single sentence. Well, if I was facing imminent doom tomorrow night, I guess I'd better know what we were up against...

"Most Likely to... Take Over the World, Get Married First, Have a Secret Agenda, Remain Clueless about Crushes, Bring about World Peace, Get Arrested, Get Kidnapped, Kick Jeb in the butt, Wear Glasses, Say Embarrassing things when on Valium, and suck at Dancing." Nudge told us. Well, some of them were obvious, but I'd like to know who wins 'Get Arrested' and 'Have a Secret Agenda'. And, did she say Valium? How did they know about that!?

"Take a sheet- they've got the categories on them, and write down who you want to win each category. No cheating." Iggy raised his hand. Ella blushed furiously- she'd forgotten, apparently.

"I'll write out your answers." Gazzy grinned, and Iggy smiled.

"Cool."

"Okay guys, no peeking. And Angel, no mind-reading." Nudge said warningly. We all scribbled down our answers and passed back the sheets. Good luck to Ella and Nudge- they had to read the terribly spelled out words and messy-beyond-belief handwriting. Have fun, girls. Fang's arm creeped around my waist, and I looked at him with a smile.

"They're excited." He murmured. I nodded.

"Scheming little devils." I replied. He smirked.

"This should be fun."

A/N;

Sorry for the shortness. I've gotta get this out of the way before the real chapters start.

IMPORTANT NOTICE;

Okay, you all get to vote :D Vote for the characters you want to win each category. I've already got people in mind for some of them, but vote away :)

Please vote :D

-Rain