Hi there! I'm sorry I didn't upload it ealier, and that it's rather short, but I an really having a difficult time with school. Even if it gets complicated, I'll try to finish this story before or shorly after the summer holidays (and then try to write the third and fourth sequel before I forget everything). Anyway, I hope you still like it, and remember I'm a big fan of ideas. If you have any good advice for me, please tell me, I'll credit you!
Now, this story will be complicated. I'm trying to explain everything I can by numerous flashbacks, but when you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'm happy to help you. If one question is asked many times, I'll answer it in the chapter I'll publish next.
But now, I'll leave you to reading my newest chapter, because I don't want to write anymore because my keyboard is being a d**k (sorry for swearing...ahrg! It's doing it again! :-) )
The plan
The brothers were running through the jungle. They were looking for a Bengal tiger, but, as the rumours said, they were very difficult to find. After some time, they decided to split up and look from different points of view. Martin took the glider and searched from the skies, and Chris used his jaguar-disk to comb the forest from top to bottom.
Some hours later, Martin's Creature-Pod beeped. He pushed the answering button and Chris' face showed as a hologram.
"Hey Martin. Did you find anything?"
"Nope" Martin answered.
"Me neither. These tigers sure are difficult to find." Chris said, and deactivated. "I've looked everywhere, but there is nothing, not even a single paw print."
"Perhaps we should contact the team." Martin proposed, a worried expression on his face.
Chris nodded. "OK. Let's meet at the Tortuga in ten minutes, we don't want the same thing to happen as last time."
"OK then. See you in ten minutes." Martin said, and stopped the call. He shivered as he thought about the time when they tried to find the lost Grizzlies. That time, he almost lost the two humans closest to him, and if it hadn't been for this dark figure that saved them that time, they would have probably all died. But this time, he would be more careful. He would protect them at any cost, every time they needed him.
Some minutes later, they both arrived at the Tortuga. Inside, Koki and Aviva were already looking for the tigers on the main computer. Martin send Chris an interrogating look.
"Yeah, I called them so they could already look for the tigers. I wanted to save some time." he answered.
The screen showed a big map where known tiger dens were marked by red spots. But there were no tigers roaming through the forest, or they would have been shown by moving blue spots.
"But that doesn't make sense!" Aviva mumbled. "Even if they are on the red list of endangered animals, there should be at least a hundred of them in this forest. And you guys are sure you didn't find anything?"
"Absolutely certain. We looked everywhere, but they disappeared without leaving a trace." Martin said, and sat down. "Isn't there any way to know where they went some days ago?"
"Yes, there is, but that would take a lot of time, and perhaps it will be too late then."
Suddenly, the picture on the main screen began to flicker and a high pitched voice was heard:
"That isn't necessary!"
They all instantly knew that voice. "Zach Varmitech!" Chris mumbled through his gritted teeth.
"That's right!" Zach said, as his face showed on the screen. "But is that a way to greet his guest? Especially when he has the answer to the tiger mystery?"
"What did you do to them?" Martin yelled, jumped up and showed his fist.
"Tatata, don't be so hasty!" Zach grinned, and mockingly shook his finger. "If you want to see them ever again, you'll have to do what I tell you, or I might want to sell their fur to make me even richer!"
Aviva narrowed her eyes. "You don't have the guts!"
His grin disappeared, and his look got even colder if that was even possible. "Oh yeah? Are you sure about that?" His eyes looked around the whole room, before they laid down on Martin.
The blonde-haired man gasped. That was the look he saw just before Zach and the others were ready to kill him and his friends.
"I give you three hours before I will call again. Then, you will tell me your answer. If you accept the challenge, you will perhaps be able to get the tigers back alive. But if you don't accept...it will be YOUR fault these cats disappeared from the face of the earth." Zach told them, and ended the call.
First, nobody said a word, they were all thinking about what just happened.
Finally, Koki spoke out everybody else's thoughts. "Do you really think he would go that far?"
All the others didn't answer, Martin just slowly sat down and stared in front of him, his eyes were darkened by worries. "Isn't that obvious? He was very close to kill me, Chris and Aviva last time, so what are a few tigers for him? He doesn't have any conscience, I think he would do anything without a guilty thought if it brought him profit."
"But Martin, what should we do?" Jimmy asked. "You heard him. If we don't do what he tells us, there will be even fewer tigers out there, and perhaps that will bring them to ex...ex... I can't pronounce that horrible word anymore."
"Yes, but who knows what will await us there? He is capable of anything!" Aviva almost yelled. "What can we..."
"SILENCE!" Martin yelled and held his ears. Instantly, everybody else stopped in their tracks. "Just repeating what is clear to all of us won't help in any way. We have to think of a way to get to the place where he keeps the tigers, without accepting or not accepting his challenge of any sort."
"I agree." Chris laid his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Just doing what he wants us to do means to walk right into the lion's den. When we free the tigers, it has to happen without him noticing. Aviva, how much time do we have?"
"Well, about two hours and fifty minutes until his next call." she answered.
"That's not much, we'll have to act fast. Koki, Aviva, can you try to locate him?"
"It won't be easy, but we will try everything we can." Koki said, and already started to work on the main computer.
"Great. Martin, Jimmy, we will work on a plan. In ten minutes, we discuss our strategy, OK?" Chris asked, and everybody nodded. "Good. Let's work, or we won't have enough time to free the tigers."
With these words, everybody went to do his task. But what they didn't know, was that there was somebody else listening to everything they said.
At the same time, in Zach's plane:
"Great idea, this virus you installed on their system!" Zach cheered. "So, as we can hear their plans and foresee their movements, are we finally getting rid of all of them?"
Yami turned around to face him. "No, not yet. You agreed to stick to our plan, so you will do what we agreed. They have to escape with the animals, and they have to be alive, but you have to make it as difficult for them as possible, so they don't suspect anything."
"But this is our chance! Why waiting so long if we can dispose of them now? This could be our only..." But Yami jumped up from her chair, grabbed his collar and pushed him against the wall.
"Didn't you understand me?" she hissed through her gritted teeth. "I developed this plan. I thought about every. Single. Detail. It can't fail, and it won't if you could just follow my orders!" There wasn't any anger in her eyes, they were cold and full of hatred. He tried to free himself, but she was too strong.
Then, she threw him on the floor. "And why am I telling you that? Because I watched you and your "colleagues" for some time. Your plans always fail. And why? Because you never think things through, because you don't have any patience, that's why! But now, if you don't do exactly what I say, you know that I could just dispose of you, here and now."
Zach tried to stand up, but she pushed him back. "B-but" he stammered "you can't do that! I would just call my Zachbots and they would stop you." He pressed a button on his remote and two Zachbots came in, but before they could do anything, Yami changed her left hand into a gun and blasted them apart. As he watched their parts falling to the floor, completely terrified, Yami bend down to him, grabbed his collar again and lifted him a foot into the air. Zach tried to release her hands from his throat and desperately tried to breathe. Just before he thought that it was over for him, she let him fall down. Instantly, he reached for his neck, gasping for air, as he heard her voice behind him:
"Did you get the message now?" It was almost a whisper. Even if he didn't know if she could see him, he nodded. "Good. Now, take notes of what they say. I want to know exactly when they will be here and what they will do here."
Shortly after she left the room, Zach grinned, even when he had just been as terrified as he has never been in his whole life. This was the perfect partner! He didn't doubt that she would finally be the key to destroy the Kratts for good.
Back in the Tortuga:
Chris stood in front of the table, where a plan of Zach's plane laid which Koki and Aviva just printed out. "OK, so everybody knows what he has to do. Martin and Jimmy?"
"We are infiltrating his plane, so Koki and Aviva can get to the control room." Martin answered. "Then, I'm working with you to disable all the Zachbots."
"Right. Koki, what are you doing?"
"I'm disabling the cameras and the alarm systems, so you will hopefully be unnoticed for the first part of our action."
"Very good. And Aviva and Jimmy, what do you have to do after we all got in?"
"We are looking for the tigers and will free them as fast as we can. If any Zachbots are coming, we will destroy them with our electromagnetic ray-guns."
"Great.". Chris checked his watch. "So, we have about two hours and forty minutes to put our plan into action. That isn't a lot, but it's our only chance to get in his plane without him expecting us. Let's go!"
They all went to the garage, where Aviva kept her inventions, inclusive her newest invention: a small capsule that could fly, swim and had the ability to become invisible. Aviva opened the door.
"OK, I already tested everything a few days ago, apart from the invisibility button, so it could be possible that we become visible again in mid-air but..."
"WHAT?! Why do you say this only now?" Martin yelled.
"Well sorry, but I was busy doing other things." she replied.
Chris sighed. "We'll just have to try to be fast. So everybody, get inside or we won't be able to even get to Zach's plane in time."
When everybody had a seat, Aviva opened the roof by remote control and they took off. After about ten minutes of flight, they could distinguish a dark spot in the clouds that came closer every second.
"OK everybody, I'll switch on the invisibility mode, but I have no idea what it will look like for us, so please don't panic." Aviva said, and pressed the button.
First, they didn't feel anything, but then, the whole ship suddenly disappeared!
"Uhh, Aviva? Is Zach able to see us?" Chris slowly asked, as he tried to free himself from Jimmy who had jumped into his arms.
"No, he shouldn't. We are still inside the ship, and everything here is invisible to the outside."
"Good, but could you perhaps fix this? Jimmy is getting heavy."
"OK, I'll try."
Two minutes later, the ship reappeared, just before they docked onto Zach's plane.
"Everybody, hold onto something. I don't know shaky it will be!" Aviva said. "Landing in three...two...one.." Then, everybody almost fell over.
"Martin, Jimmy, open a passage!" Chris ordered. The two men nodded and started to cut into the plane's exoskeleton. After they had cut a hole big enough for a grown-up to fit through, they lifted the metal and disappeared inside. Next, Aviva and Koki slipped through, and before Chris went inside he secured their ship and locked the door. Then, he too disappeared in the darkness.
In the control room:
"Good, they are in. Do you have enough Zachbots to hold them off?" Yami asked.
"Oh course! With your help, I managed to develop this new feature so they can fold down to the size of a small disc. I have THOUSANDS of them here, and they are all ready to attack."
"Great. But remember, only hold them off, do not hurt them, or you will get a taste of my fire-power, got it?!"
Zach backed down. "Yes, of course! I will do them no harm, pinkie promise!"
Yami lifted an eyebrow. "Pinkie promise? What is that?"
"Well, you make a promise, and you lift your pinkie so the one you make the promise to can hook it onto his pinkie"
"And what is it good for?"
"Uhh, I don't know exactly, you just do it so the other one knows you won't break your promise."
" I don't see how this can be a really good way to persuade someone, but whatever." she said, and Zach lifted his hand. Yami hesitated for a short time, but finally sealed the promise. 'Even if this seems to be useless, perhaps it can help me keep my sanity a bit longer, until I finish my mission.' she thought to herself.
Some minutes later, Zach called out to her. "Miss smarty-pants and miss computer-wizard are on their way here, what do we do?"
"We can't let them see us. Come with me, we have to hide." Yami whispered, and grabbed him by the hand. They both ran to a door and she pushed him inside. "You stay here and wait until Aviva is gone. Then, you activate your robots and send half of them to Chris' location. When Martin is there to help him, you send the other robots to the tigers. Aviva and Jimmy have electromagnetic ray-guns, so that they can disable any robots that stand in their way. But as soon as they are distracted, you send these little treasures" she held up two small metal-spheres "to their location. Understood?" Zach nodded. "Great. I have other things to do, so make sure they stay here for at least two hours!"
With these words, she left him, closed the door and ran to a side entrance. Just as she passed through and closed the door, she could hear two people come out of the ventilation shaft. She now had one minute to leave the plane before they would notice that one door opened, she had to act fast. After activating the gravity-shift, she ran along the ceiling until she reached a small flap that lead outside. She opened it and slipped trough, instantly holding onto the exoskeleton of the plane to avoid being blown off by the headwind. After she had closed the flap behind her, she pressed another button on her arm. Instantly, two glider-wings folded out of her back and she took off.
As she flew over the forest, she scanned the ground for the Tortuga. Some minutes later, she found it and started the approach, skilfully avoiding the trees that stood in her way. When she landed, she folded her wings again and made her way to the turtle-ship, trying to find a way in. But of course, there wasn't any. 'But if there was an entrance, where would the challenge be?' she thought. Again, there was a way to experiment if her technology was better and more sophisticated than anything else on earth. As soon as she had reached the ship, she looked around to make sure that no one was watching, and took a small device out of her pocket. With a swift movement, she locked it onto one of the engines and activated it. It instantly began to vibrate and send out its data into the ship's computer systems. The coded data scanned all the hardware and collected all the information it could get. Slowly, but steadily it copied data, passwords and , most important, the code to reverse lock down mode and open the doors when she wanted them to open for her.
But suddenly, as she waited for her device to finish it's work, she got a call on her communicator. When she pressed the answering button, Zach's face showed on the screen.
"Help, they are too strong! Miss Smarty-pants and Red-haired-guy already took out most of my robots, and soon, Green-guy and Blue-boy will have joined them! What do I do?" he yelled, completely panicked.
Yami looked onto her device. It still hasn't finished yet. "I need a bit more time. Did you already release the robots I gave you?"
"No, but how are they going to help me? The Wild Rats are almost taking my plane apart!"
"Don't ask, just do it! You'll see how they are going to help you." Then, she stopped the call and concentrated on her work. If Zach failed his task, it wouldn't be a catastrophe, but her plan would be much more difficult to finish. None of the Kratts were allowed to see her before she had finished it's first part, so she would have to stop in the middle of her current task, and that would make things so much more difficult.
Finally, the small scanner gave a beeping sound, showing that it had finished. Good. Now, all she had to do was wait for the right moment to absolve the second part of her plan. And when she had finished that, she would come to the last part: Destroying Martin Kratt.
So, that's for the first real chapter. I can feel that many questions will come now, but I think that I will be able to answer most of them in the next chapter.
I hope you liked it. Review to tell me your opinion and ideas to make it better (that includes the correction of grammar and spelling mistakes - really sorry if I made any). See you next chapter, which will be what exactly happened in the plane, and what these robots Yami gave Zach are doing.