Here's the next chapter. I do not own!


"Is Alister still on the roof?" Skye asked when Raphael came back down sometime later, sitting on the sofa with Jasper by her side.

"Yeah. As long as he doesn't fall or jump, though, I'm content to just let him be."

"I swear he's a monkey at times. Either that or a cat—though I hope not. If he is, we'll need the fire department to get him down."

Raphael chuckled and went over to his recliner, reaching for his book and beginning to read it. Skye wondered if he was going to say anything about what had happened in the kitchen earlier; when ten minutes passed and he still said nothing she decided that unless he brought it up she would not either.

After all, she'd just been shaken by the fall and must have been reading things too deeply. That look in Raphael's eyes when he'd gazed down on her had not been that look.

A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts, but before she could get up Valon slid down the banister on the stairs. "I got it!''

He opened the door and then blinked in surprise at the girl standing on their front porch. She had short orange hair with blonde streaks through it and she was wearing a red hoodie and black cropped jeans with a pair of Converse sneakers (which, incidentally, were being held together with safety pins and patches); she seemed to be about five foot three, but either way she was shorter than Valon.

Deciding to be polite to their guest, he greeted her with, "Wha's up?"

"You stole my cat!" she announced, narrowing her brown eyes and pointing at Valon.

He stared. "Huh? No I didn'."

"Why does my kitty tracker say he is in this very house?" she said, pointing to the little watch around her wrist.

Valon backed away from the (he now labeled crazy) girl. "We've got a girl kitty, not a guy kitty," he said, very much confused. "You sure that thing's workin' proper?"

Raphael and Skye came up behind Valon to see who was at the door and eyed their guest curiously. "Who are you?" asked Skye.

"I'm Ember, the crazy kid next door," she proclaimed proudly, beaming up at them. "And he is a cat thief!" she continued, directing a hostile glare at Valon.

Valon held his hands up defensively, looking at Raphael desperately. "I didn' take 'er cat! 'onest!"

From above them Alister's voice entered the conversation. "Is the cat in question orange?"

Ember peered up, shading her eyes to look at where Alister was still perched on the roof. "Yeah!"

"Our kitten's white with tiny black dots. Your cat just left our house through an open window and went into the house across the street not even five minutes ago; Valon, you left your window open and the cat must have stopped by earlier. Get your facts straight, you little weirdo."

"Look who's talking, she man," she shot back. "Your head looks like a mushroom!"

"Those are the best insults you can come up with? Ha. You look like a bleached version of Raggedy Ann."

Ember eyed him sourly. "At least I don't look like a she-male vampire. I think you're actually glittering up there."

Valon started roaring in laughter and Skye began giggling; Raphael looked as if he was trying to keep a straight face, but it didn't stop the smile from creeping onto his features.

Ember grinned in satisfaction when there was no reply. "Got him!" she announced cheerfully. "I better go get my cat before he gets into something else."

"Do you want to come in for a bit?" asked Skye. "We've got some left over pie if you want some."

Ember shrugged. "Sure. It's not like my cat's going anywhere any time soon; if he is, I'll just use my kitty tracker to find him again."

"Does tha' thing even work?" asked Valon skeptically as she entered the house.

"It lead me here, didn't it?" she countered.

Several minutes later Alister came downstairs and into the kitchen, apparently hungry; he had not eaten very much of his dinner when Kaiba had arrived and Skye had saved his meal for later. He stopped when he saw Ember and he scowled.

"Why is this carrot head in our house?" he asked.

Ember ignored him. "Why'd you guys move here?"

"We almost brought about the Apocalypse by resurrecting an ancient monster by stealing people's souls. Then our boss got defeated, taking everything down with it and we're here now to start over," Alister summarized as he got his dinner out from the fridge.

Ember was not phased at all by this explanation. "World conquerors, huh? Yeah, I just finished a gig a while ago with my friends. We were going to blow up the population of Europe, take over the continent and use its resources to battle other continents and then eventually rule the world. We didn't have the resources though."

There was an awkward silence until Valon started laughing. "'Tha's pure genius righ' there, fellas! Why didn' we ever think of tha'? Stealin' people's souls? Pegasus already did tha' earlier. Why wasn' Dartz more original?"

The older bikers stared at the Australian with wide eyes, realization sinking in shortly after he finished speaking.

"I can't believe it. You actually made sense. Are you really Valon?" asked Alister in feigned suspicion.

Ember chose to smack Alister over the head when he sat down and the red-haired man whirled on her. "Who the hell gave you the right to smack me?" he almost snarled.

"I gave myself the right, because I can," replied Ember cheerfully, taking another bite of her pie.

"'m 'eadin' up, fellas!" Valon declared, walking upstairs with his pie slice. If one looked closely they could see the evil look coming onto his face. "Call me if you need me!"

Ember caught on to Valon's "evil eye" and grinned. "Where can I find the bathroom?" she asked in deceptive innocence.

"Downstairs to your left," Raphael replied.

"Thank you," she replied, already disappearing upstairs.

Ember, however, followed Valon upstairs and walked into the bathroom up there in time to watch Valon putting hair dye in someone's shampoo. "You can do better than that, you know," she said conversationally, startling Valon.

Realizing she was a fellow prankster as well, Valon raised an eyebrow at her. "'ow?"

"By blowing it up," she said, reaching into the front pouch of her hoodie.

A loud explosion came from the upstairs bathroom, causing the three remaining bikers in the kitchen to jump in surprise. After exchanging alarmed glances, they dashed upstairs to find out what was going on.

Ember and Valon were sitting on the floor laughing, soot streaking their faces and the remains of several firecrackers on the floor; what was left of Alister's shampoo bottle was in a melted puddle at their feet and shampoo had been sprayed all around the little room.

"Who the hell gave Valon explosives?" Alister snapped.

"It's Fourth of July all over again," Raphael and Skye said in unison.


There you have it. Kok is the Best! =3