AUTHOR NOTE

Okay, so Chapter 3. Thanks for the review by the way.

I have a good idea about where this story's going. I hope to get more reviews in the future.

I OWN NOTHING!

Operation: Guns

Rated: T

Chapter 3: Bathwater

The Clark siblings were at school the next day, getting their books out of their lockers. All four were excited about getting WOOHPed that day because they wanted to hear how Lacey's tests had been going.

Tony yawned and stretched his arms before he reached in to get his math book. His shoulders slumped and his eyes glazed over. "I'm sick of math," He sighed, "I can't wait till summer."

Marc patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay, Tone. There's only a couple more months- eight weeks or sixty days to be exact- of school left." His siblings stared at him. "What?"

"Oh, well if it isn't the boring siblings!" A nasally voice said from behind them. The Clarks turned, although they already knew whom it was.

The girl who stood behind them had her blonde hair pulled up into an obnoxious ponytail with big hairclips on the side. She was wearing pink and black clothes, which clashed horribly with her attitude.

"Oh hey Tammy," Megan said in a rather annoyed voice, "How's your ego?"

The blonde scrunched her nose up. "My what?"

The Clark siblings laughed and closed their lockers. They were walking away when a loud noise from their left side made them stop. The lockers they were standing next to opened and sucked them in before they knew what was going on.

"Yes! Saved by the bell!" Lee cheered as they were dumped onto the couch in Jerry's office.

"Ah, hello spies!" Jerry greeted them, watching the monitor on his computer with intense concentration.

"Hey, Jer! What's up?" Megan asked, getting up off the couch.

Jerry smiled. "I'm glad you asked," He said.

The old spy led them out of his office and down a hall. The walls were a dark gray color with many windows that, instead of looking out on the town, looked into white rooms with many different things. As the kids walked down the linoleum-floored hall, they looked into the many windows.

One room had a couple of people sitting in the middle meditating. Another had a few scientists watching from behind a glass screen as something blew up. There was another room that had a couple of scientists with remote controls and robots. The spies smiled widely and looked at all of the different rooms in awe. Jerry finally stopped at a door at the end of the hall. He opened the door for the kids and ushered them into the room.

The spies walked into what looked like a little lobby. The room was huge, except there was a glass wall separating the lobby from the other three quarters of the room. There was a huge counter with many buttons and monitors on it, and over in the corner there was a table with a few chairs next to the glass door that led into the other part of the room.

"Welcome to the simulation room spies! Well, at least one of them." Jerry announced with a smile.

The spies looked around wide-eyed. Everyone seemed impressed except for Marc.

"Wow, Jerry. I thought you might at least have some higher-tech gadgets in here. It just looks like a control station," he observed.

Jerry scoffed. "Quite the contrary, Marc. These devices trigger some of the most deadliest weapons every created."

Marc still didn't look interested, but he shrugged and said, "Okay."

Jerry waved his hand. "No matter. That's only half of what I pulled you in to show you," he said, leading them over to the glass.

The spies peered in and saw a white concrete room. They only saw that at first, but then they saw everything else.

Lacey was leaping from wall to wall, gasping and panting. Three killer robots were hot on her trail and laser guns on the walls were aiming and firing at her. She was just managing to dodge all of them while still running away from the robots.

Megan gasped as the robot in the middle closed in on her and slashed at her heels with a deadly looking knife. Lacey jumped up high, clearly seeing the attack and she scrambled up on top of the robot. She punched down with a ton of force and broke a hole in the robots head. Moments later she pulled out the power-source and brains of the robot and jumped off of it. The robot buzzed, and then it caught fire and exploded.

Lacey barely had time to wipe the sweat off of her forehead before the other robots turned and attacked. The spies could tell that the girl had had enough. She had a look on her face that was so intense it made Tony shiver. She ran towards the robots at full speed and when she was finally close enough, she pushed her fist full force into the robot on the left. She pulled out its power-source, and threw it down onto the ground. After that, she ran toward the wall, trying to attract the attention of the other robot. Her orange shirt and navy blue pinstriped vest were drenched with sweat, and her shoes looked slashed and holey like they were on the verge of falling apart.

When the girl had reached the wall, she reached out with her hands outstretched and pushed against the wall. She waited for the robot to get close enough, and then she lifted her feet up and kicked as hard as she could. The machine was pushed with so much force, that it skidded over to the other side of the room and was damaged badly as it was crushed against the wall. Lacey ran over and finished the job.

She smiled and breathed out heavily. She then noticed that the lasers on the wall were still intact. She didn't seem happy with that. She back-stepped and-still avoiding the lasers- ran back up to the wall full speed. She was able to get enough momentum so as to jump and climb her way up the concrete. She got to the first laser and ripped it out of place. She then quickly jumped to the next and did the same. Then she did it to the next one, and the next, and the next. Finally she was done.

Lacey slid down the wall and leaned against it, her body heaving, gasping, and sweating. She laughed a little hysterically, and then she made her way over to the door in the glass wall.

Jerry unlocked it when she approached and held it open for her. The girl gave him a grateful glance and she stomped into the room.

"Hey!" Megan greeted her as she slumped down into the nearest chair. "How did your training go?"

Lacey looked at her with an exhausted and feverish glaze over her eyes and she heaved a laugh. "I'm not dead, so I guess… good?"

Tony walked over and leaned on her with his arm on her shoulder. "It's fun, isn't it?" He prompted.

Lacey didn't answer his question. She grabbed his shoulder and flipped him onto his back on the ground with her foot on his chest.

"Easy, you're out of training, remember?" Lee said, gently pulling her arm off of Tony and helping him stand up.

The brunette glared at him. "Huh, that's like the first time I've heard you talk."

Lee scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, well uh…."

"Anywho," Jerry interrupted, coming over to the kids, "She's passed her training. I only need to run some paperwork on her. She is qualified to be a WOOHP spy, although you have to tell me whether you want her on your team or not."

Marc was scratching his chin. "From the way she was in there, I think we could use her," he murmured thoughtfully.

Lacey fixed him with a grateful look and he blushed.

She looked back to Jerry again. "Can I have my gun back now?"

Jerry laughed and pressed a button on the controls counter. A little compartment popped out which held her '22 pistol and all of its contents. She let out a happy squeal and began to load her pistol and magazine back into her back pocket.

"You sure like guns, don't you?" Megan thought out loud.

Lacey nodded enthusiastically. "They're like my babies! They were my dads babies too- well, except for me. I really was his baby," Her eyes darkened slightly, but it was almost unnoticeable. The only one who did notice it was Marc, and he looked at her quizzically, but didn't say anything.

Jerry nodded and scratched his head. "Spies, may I talk to you over here in the corner for a moment?"

The Clarks nodded and followed Jerry to the other side of the control lobby.

"Unfortunately, I cannot truly make her a spy without a background check. She won't really give us any details except for her father being in the military. She won't even tell us her last name. It's quite peculiar," Jerry said quietly.

Megan nodded, "She's really tough. She seems like she's been through a lot."

"Anyway, spies," Jerry began again, "I have no more housing available in the WOOHP headquarters. We've enrolled her in your school, and we're trying to find her family. I need her to stay at your house tonight."

The spies' faces became weary but optimistic.

"No problem, Jer!" Megan said with a smile, "I can just tell mom that my friend needs to spend the night because her parents are going out of town on a last minute business trip."

"Good thinking, Megan!" Lee whispered, and the two exchanged a high-five.

"Right," Jerry murmured, "I will send her over to the school at the end of the day. You can take it from there, and I will WOOHP all of you sometime tomorrow. Until she tells us her last name, it will temporarily be Martinez."

"Martinez?" Megan scoffed, "That's a great last name and all, Jer, but couldn't you have thought of something a little more original?"

Jerry smiled, and a hole opened up in the roof above the spies. They were all sucked up into the halls of their Junior High School again.

The day passed normally, and finally the last period bell rang. The siblings met up in the hall after classes as they walked to the front of the school.

"Alright guys, you know the story," Megan told her brothers as they approached the school doors.

"Right," Marc said, "She's your pen-pal from Florida and her family moved here."

Megan smiled and nodded. "Yeah. This might be a long night. Are you guys ready?"

The Clark boys nodded, and they pushed open the doors.

They didn't see Lacey at first, but Marc finally spotted her near the bottom of the stairs.

She was sitting on the bench hugging her legs to her body with her head resting on her knees. She had a somber look on her face and her multi-colored eyes seemed kind of defeated.

When the siblings walked up to her, she looked up and appeared to sort of cheer up a little bit.

"Hi!" She said, kind of too cheerful.

"Hey!" They greeted her back.

Lee slung his backpack off of his shoulder and plopped it down on the bench beside her. He casually lifted his foot up to tie his shoe, putting their faces a little too close together. He had decided it was time to make his move.

"What's up?" he asked.

Lacey leaned away from him, kind of aware of what he was doing. "Uh… not much. I was waiting for you guys." She pulled her hair back and slung it over her right shoulder.

Megan pulled her off the bench. "Well, come one lazy bones! Let's go. I already called my mom and she said you could come over for the night- the whole week if she liked you."

"Oh. Uh, well I guess that's good!" Lacey stammered, blushing a little bit at the thought of being welcome somewhere.

"Yeah!" Tony exclaimed, "Well, let's get going!"

Lee pulled his leg off of the bench and sat it down on the ground again, looking a little disappointed because his charm hadn't worked.

Tony began to run ahead and he pulled on Lacey's hand, tugging her after him.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming!" She growled.

Megan, Lee, and Marc followed.

When they arrived at the Clark's house, Lacey paused outside on the front lawn. She stared up at the blue paneled house and the look in her eyes confused the Clarks.

"What's wrong?" Marc prompted.

She shook her head and shrugged, "It's nothing. I just haven't really been with adults in a long time."

"So, where are you from anyway?" Lee prompted.

Her face became a cold, stone mask. "My dad was in the military," was all she said. Her tone made them not want to continue with that subject, so they dropped it and Megan dragged her into the house.

"Mom! We're home! My friend's here!" Megan shouted.

Karen Clark peered around the wall from the kitchen. "Oh!" She exclaimed, looking Lacey up and down. "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" Lacey blushed, "Well, anyway, come on in! I was just making cookies."

Tony and Megan pulled her into the kitchen and Marc and Lee trailed behind.

"So, is she just Megan's friend, or is she everyone's?" Karen said, looking at her kids and the new girl in the house.

"Uh… I can be everyone's I guess." Lacey said, trying to be cheerful.

"Oh! Well that's wonderful! What was your name again? Megan said it was…. Stacey right?"

"Lacey," the brunette corrected.

"Oh, that's right! Well, welcome to our home, Lacey."

"Thanks," She said with a smile.

Megan led her up to her room after that, and the night went on from there. The kids gave her a tour of the house, and after a while, their dad, Cal came home. Lacey was introduced to him, and after that, they all ate dinner.

At the table, Karen tried to make small talk.

"So, kiddo. What do your parents do?" She asked.

Lacey looked up with a stony look in her eyes again, and the kids were sure that she was going to say "my dad's in the military", but instead she gave a warm smile and said, "My dad's an attorney and my mom's a biologist."

Marc looked at her closely. At first he thought that she could've been telling the truth, but then he saw the flicker in her eyes and realized she was lying. She was good at it. How many other lies had she told?

Karen looked thoroughly impressed. "Oh!" She nearly squealed, "How long have they been at it? What colleges did they go to?"

Lacey's eye twitched like she was trying to think of what to say. "Harvard and uh… what's it called… Yale," She muttered.

Karen gasped and clapped. Cal just looked on. "Wow! What qualified people! Do you have any siblings?"

Marc continued to examine her closely.

"Yeah. I have an older brother named, Jared," Lacey replied. Marc cocked his head slightly to the side. She was telling the truth.

Karen glanced at Megan. "Oh! Is he nice? Good looking?"

Lacey shrugged, and she suddenly looked unsure for some reason. "I dunno, I guess."

Seeing that it was a dead end, Karen changed the subject. "Well… Marc wants to go to Harvard!"

All attention was focused on Marc but he didn't have his heart into explaining why he wanted to go to college and what courses he would take. He was still examining the peculiar girl sitting across the table from him with narrowed eyes. "Yea," he murmured, "I do."

With that, all conversations dropped.

After dinner, the boys stayed downstairs to wash dishes while Megan and Lacey went upstairs to Megan's room again.

Marc stared down into the sink as the suds soaked him from his elbows to his fingertips, deep in thought. Tony was babbling on and on about some subject and Lee was nodding and putting in comments every now and then. When it appeared the subject was coming to a close, Tony said, "So, what do you think about Lacey?"

Lee smiled dreamily, "Well, she's cool, and she knows how to kick some serious butt, so I think she would make a great addition to the team!"

Tony nodded enthusiastically. "I think so too! I want her to teach me more about guns!" He made a fake finger gun and pretended to shoot Marc, who still appeared deep in thought.

After a second, Marc looked up. "She's really strange. Like—secretive strange. She doesn't trust anyone," He said at last.

Lee finished putting up some plates in the cabinet on the top shelf before looking back at his younger brother. "Why do you say that?" He asked.

Marc gave him an astonished look, "She like- lies about everything!"

Tony and Lee shrugged. "If you say so."

Up in Megan's room, the girls were figuring out things to do. After looking through some gossip magazines and discussing different views on things, they decided to work on a puzzle.

They had finished, but then they noticed a strange puzzle piece that didn't fit in any holes they had.

"Hmm, seems it's out of place," Megan murmured to herself.

Lacey reached out and took it in her hand. She flipped it over and rubbed her thumb in a circular pattern on the front. She chewed her lip and appeared to be deep in thought. "Kind of like me," she whispered.

Megan looked at her strangely, "Huh?"

The brunette smiled and looked up at her with dangerous eyes. "Nothing."

A couple of hours later, Karen came into Megan's room and announced that it was lights out.

The girls got sleeping bags out and lay them on the floor. They turned the lights off and began to drift off—or at least one of them did.

Lacey stared at the wall with her eyes wide open. She listened intently, waiting for Megan's breathing to slow. As soon as the girl had gone into a deep sleep, Lacey slowly peeled back her sleeping bag. She silently got up and crept out of the room.

The girl crept down the red-carpeted hallway until she got to the bathroom. She quietly took in her surroundings: The pearly white bath/shower, the white porcelain sink with a silver faucet and handles, and the white and gray tile beneath her feet. She also noticed the toothbrush holder. It had a pink toothbrush, a red toothbrush, and a yellow toothbrush. Not thinking much of it, she looked around for more. Then she found what she was looking for: A window just big enough for her to crawl through right above the toilet.

She silently slipped over and climbed on top of the toilet lid. It squeaked slightly, and she winced. She was pretty sure that no one else was awake. She climbed on top of the toilet's water basin, and then she slowly slid open the window. It was about halfway open when someone spoke.

"There's a screen on that you know. Not to mention we're on the second story of the house."

Lacey froze and her head swiveled to the doorway, her hazel eyes wild.

Marc was leaning against the doorframe with a blue toothbrush in one hand and a book with a light attached in the other.

"Oh, hey! I just needed some fresh air," Lacey lied.

Marc already knew what she had been doing. He raised an eyebrow at the lie. "Megan has windows in her room."

"I didn't want to wake her."

Marc nodded behind him. "Mine and Tonys room is across the hall," he yawned, "Didn't you care about waking us?"

"It's not my fault, I didn't know."

Marc sighed and set his toothbrush down on the tan colored counter. He gripped the side of the counter and looked down in the sink, leaning on his hands. He looked up after a brief moment. "When are you gonna stop lying?"

Lacey closed her eyes and got off of the water basin, defeated. "I can't afford to."

"Why not?" Marc fired back, "What's so wrong with you that you've got to lie about everything? It's bad for a person's conscience, you know. It's scientifically proven. They just haven't proven if people have a conscience. It's usually just a matter of trusting your gut."

Lacey raised an eyebrow and bit her lip, not saying a word.

Marc sighed. "You're basically running away by lying. You're running away from the truth," he nodded towards the window, "You just proved it to me because I caught you trying to run out on us."

Lacey plopped down on the toilet seat and ran a hand through her long hair. She stared at her knees for a while before finally looking up to answer him.

"I don't know, Marc," She whimpered, "I've been running since I was ten." She sank down on to the floor and hugged her legs to her body. She buried her head in her hands and her body heaved, a sign that she was crying.

Marc blinked in surprise. He didn't think someone like her could cry.

He walked over to her and squatted down next to her. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" He said, his voice comforting, "You've got us now. We're gonna take good care of you."

Lacey looked up, and Marc realized that she was crying. Her green, amber, and yellow eyes were red and puffy. She sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "You promise?" She whispered.

Marc smirked and nodded. "We're here for you. If you become part of our team, you'll basically be like family to us."

Something dark flickered in her eyes, and Marc tried to place what it was but he couldn't.

Lacey heaved a deep sigh. "I haven't had a family in a long time."

"What? You said your dad's in the military, and you had a brother!"

She laughed bitterly. "I was telling the truth for once."

"You could tell me the whole story, you know. I could help," Marc offered hopefully. He wanted to get to know her a little better.

Lacey stood, and Marc followed suit. She was a little bit taller than him, but not by much. She fixed him with a grateful glance, but shook her head.

"You've helped enough," She whispered, "Thank you."

Then she did something Marc didn't expect at all. She hugged him. He just stood there dumbstruck as his cheeks turned bright red, and after a few seconds, he wrapped his arms around her too. She leaned back and smiled at him, and then she walked out of the bathroom and down the hall into Megan's room.

Marc stood there for a good five minutes, piecing together what had just happened and what he had done to get a hug. It was then that he noticed that Tony was standing in the doorway to their room with a smile on his face.

Marc walked toward him and Tony moved out of the way so his older brother could enter the room. Marc climbed up into the top bunk and lay down. Tony got into his own bed.

After a brief moment of silence, Tony began to sing quietly, "You like her! You like her! You really, really like her!"

Marc leaned down over the edge of his bunk so he could peer down at Tony. Tony noticed that Marc was blushing, even in the dark.

"I do not! And if you say that around anybody I will kill you. And there will be nothing Lee can do about it!" Marc whispered menacingly.

Tony just smiled. "Whatever you say!" He laughed.