Chapter Nine! Woot!

It's mainly filler. Kind of bored me. But it's getting something somewhere, and that's what matters, right?

Oh, and Douglas fixed the missile! Quick question: Will titanium protect them from nuclear missiles?

"LOL no. Titanium melts like steel. xD Unless it's several feet of solid lead, it won't protect squat. Wait, who is that? Is that Perry?"

Douglas? Where in the hell are you going?! Come shoot this thing off!

Damn it.

While I hunt him down, please enjoy these messages from our sponsors.

Thank you to all my reviewers and readers. And the people who seem to be with us against this army. If this siege doesn't end soon, we'll need to abandon the building and move to the safe house where no one will get to see us. :3

"But then we won't get to see the fans. :("

That's the way it goes, Chase. War destroys.

Shinxshinx1595: "Thanks for the faith. :("

Leo, you know no one's rooting for you. Sorry, man.

AllAmericanSlurp: Ysthry means nothing. Ysthry, Olyanaeci and Ajiiyahn are all just random jumbles of letters I pulled from my ass. :3 And, just for fun: Ysthry is pronounced Ease-Three.

Maeph93: I get really bored and really random. Now, as for not understanding, allow me to direct you to the disclaimer you should have come across in chapter one.

"…If you didn't read Hybrid or its sequel Hunter, don't expect to know what's going on. Also, don't expect me to explain it, either. You were warned…"

^ See why I put this in there, people? It's for your own sanity. Thanks for viewing, though. :3

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "I love how other me isn't doing a thing about his girl flirting with someone else. xD" *Changes into a cat* "Hug me now!"

"Chase is going to get us killed, isn't he?"

Yes, Adam. Chase is going to get us killed.

Gg180000: The answer is written into this chapter. :3

RissA15: "Zara, we should negotiate a truce with these people."

Tasha, you negotiate that. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be packing to abandon this joint and regroup at the safe house. We'll plot our next move from there.

Moonlit: "But…I'm so sad. :("

You'll be fine, Leo.

UnknownForNow: Well, the reason Leo's so important is explained here. As for the experiment mentioned in the last chapter, it gets extremely confusing when someone reads into it. It goes into quantum mechanics like crazy. :P So I'll explain the premise I was using. Inside a box was a sample of decaying radioactive material, a Geiger counter, a cat, and a vial of poison. When the material decayed fully, the poison was released, killing the cat inside the box. Now, until someone opened the box, it was unknowable if the cat was alive or dead. Therefore, hypothetically, it existed in a superposition of both states until the box was opened, collapsing the function. :3

DisneyXDGirl: If you can shoot that missile off, then come light it up. xD

j. liz. 8: "Ha ha, yes! My image is spreading! As for my wings, I like the feathers. However, since this thing is text-based and has no pictures, you can imagine anything you want. Free Internet, right?"

Adam, you got some –

"Creepy, obsessed love. I got it. Hi, person. :3 Love you, too."

Envy not my skill. Envy that of Jodi Picoult.

And if you are a creepy stalker now, don't worry. You're among friends here. :3

So, who wants to kick this off? Leo?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker."

Robert Downey, Jr.

"No pressure, no diamonds."

Thomas Carlyle

Chapter Nine – You Can't Act!

Douglas

"Convince me you're not a spy," Douglas said, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow at Leo.

Leo instantly messed it up. The kid had a dozen and one tells, but so did everyone else. Most were subtle and easily overlooked. One, however, was more noticeable than the rest: He didn't speak fluidly. It was totally unnatural. His emotional tone was all over the charts - mainly centering around nervous and shaky - and he often spoke too slow or too fast. That could be improved on, of course. It wasn't the end of the world. Douglas figured that putting a dog's shock collar around Leo's wrist that went off whenever he messed up would fix that problem fast. The other problem was that he appeared to be bad at choosing words when he was trying to talk.

It was weird; Douglas had watched Leo operate fairly well under pressure before. And there wasn't even pressure at the moment! What was the hang up?

"Hi," Leo was saying in a voice full of obviously-false enthusiasm. "Um...I'm Leo. So...how about Azazel's Bane? Anyone steal it lately?"

Douglas deadpanned at Leo. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm not a spy, if that's what you're thinking," Leo defended instantly, obviously beginning to freak out.

"This guy seems legit," Adam decided, leaning back in his chair. Yahn had decided to take a nap on the new couch with Tasha, Donnie and Leo to clear his head from Adam's charmer influence. It was strange to see one without the other. However, that wasn't the issue at the moment.

The issue was Leo's poor acting skills.

Why me? Douglas thought, running a hand over his face in frustration. How did he get stuck with this kid for one of the most important parts of the plan? He wasn't worried about Adam and Chase; they would spend their time cozying up to the demons that were summoned by the Councilors. If anyone had eyes and ears everywhere, it was demonic servants. Summoners tended to ignore them when talking, so demons often learned valuable details not meant for anyone to hear. However, as demons were mischievous little buggers, their words wasn't always reliable. As for the two speaking to Summoners, it probably wouldn't work out. They thought Chase was just a lowly djinni – a demon to be disdained – and they were usually not all that fond of Charmers.

Anyone that demons liked had to be someone untrustworthy, right? Because demons weren't usually fond of people.

So that left Leo and Douglas to confirm these things. Douglas could only learn so much, though. Many Councilors were loathe to let anyone like Douglas into their trusted circle of friends. He had a reputation of being a man of unknowable loyalties and intentions.

That meant that Leo as the main link in the information chain.

See, Leo was not only young; he already had a very basic education on summoning. And Councilors would love that. Nothing like an apprentice who you didn't have to teach every little thing to. He would likely be drawn into the plans of whoever was teaching him, meaning that he was the best bet for getting someone to openly divulge something useful as they tried to turn him into miniature copies of themselves. Also, Leo had never been presented as a prospective Summoner before. New blood always stirred interest.

Therefore, Leo had to learn how to act.

Yet he sucked at it.

"For the record, Leo," Douglas began, "I would shoot you for spying at this point. Just to keep my secrets safe. You can't act to save your life."

Leo frowned, furrowing his brow. "That's just because you already know I'm a spy. I can act!"

Douglas raised an eyebrow. He noticed Chase walking into the Lab, holding the circle of wall that Oly had been freed from. Oly was on his heels, looking relieved to be rid of the thing. Time for a humiliating lesson in listening. He leaned very close to Leo, his voice barely above a whisper so that Chase couldn't hear him….hopefully. When someone had bionic hearing, who knew what they could and couldn't hear? "Prove it. Convince Chase that you're terrified of him."

Leo was suddenly appalled. "I can't do that!" he hissed lowly. "It'll wreck his self-esteem."

Douglas smirked a bit. "Then admit that you can't act."

After an obvious internal debate, Leo sighed heavily as his pride won out. "I'm going to tell him that you made me do it, though," he huffed.

"I bet five dollars that you can't do it," Adam piped up from his seat, grinning.

"You're on," Leo growled.

"On for what? Is there a bet?" Chase looked thoughtful. He was most likely trying to think of a way to swing the odds into his favor. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Leo said, whirling around to face Chase with a deer-in-the-headlights kind of expression.

Chase perked his ears as Oly climbed onto his shoulder. "It didn't sound like nothing."

"It wasn't important," Leo insisted. "Get off my back."

Frowning, Chase took a step forward. "Just tell me already. You're going to crack eventually. You're you."

Leo took a step back, suddenly appearing nervous. "It's nothing."

Chase growled, frustrated. He started walking towards Leo, his ears pinned and his tail lashing a bit. He cut a menacing sight, to be honest. "For Christ's sake, Leo –"

Leo suddenly turned on his heel – his expression one of sheer terror - and bolted through the tunnel, screaming, "Don't eat me, Hellcat! I'm too young to die!"

And, for a split second, Douglas wondered if Leo actually was afraid of Chase.

More impressively, Chase totally bought it. His whole demeanor seemed to drop as a troubled look crossed his face as he stared at the spot where Leo had vanished from sight. He clutched the little wall-collar he held so hard that his knuckles began to turn white and cracks began to form in the material.

So Leo could act.

What the hell happened earlier, then?

As Chase started to leave, Douglas stopped him. "Hold up, Hellcat," he began, using the name Leo had inadvertently called Chase seconds ago. It was catchy. "Leo isn't afraid of you. I was trying to prove that he couldn't act. Little asshole proved me wrong."

"So he isn't afraid of me?" Chase asked slowly, perking up a bit.

"No, but I'm out five dollars," Adam sighed.

"Who cares if he is?" Oly growled. "I love scaring people."

"You love all kinds of crap," Chase countered. He began to count them off on his fingers. "Stealing, vandalism, arson, murder –"

"Because it's fun," Oly asserted, crossing her arms.

Douglas rolled his eyes and looked down the tunnel, wondering when Leo would come back. It was strange that he could suddenly act. Of course, money was at stake, and gambling always tended to add pressure.

So he should have done worse, right?

Maybe the kid was better under pressure? Having something to lose was a hell of a motivator.

Chase nudged Douglas with his elbow. "Is…is Leo going to stay upstairs, or…?"

Douglas shrugged. There was no indication that Leo was about to come back.

"Way to commit, Leo," Adam mused. "Think we should go find him?"

After a second of deliberation, Douglas shook his head. "He'll be back eventually."

"So how are you going to get him to act well all the time?" Oly asked, tilting her head.

"Easy. If he messes up, we might end up in trouble. I'm going to say that we'll get shot or something. Life or death should get him to step up," Douglas explained. Hey, it worked with a bet. Why not a threat against his family?

"Someone wants to shoot us?" Adam asked seriously, sitting up with his eyes wide.

"Not unless we mess this up," Chase answered. "Then, they might."

"Just Krane, I imagine," Douglas mused. "The Council might be pissed, but they wouldn't shoot us. They would feed us to an afrit or something."

"Reassuring," Oly muttered sarcastically.

Chase finally loosened his death grip on the little ring of wall he held, causing a sudden question to pop into Douglas' mind. "Is the hole still in the wall?"

"There's a lovely painting Mr. Davenport had in the storage area of his art vault of the shadow cast by an artist painting their own shadow at twilight," Chase answered, smirking. "I decided that everyone should be able to look at it. So it's in the living room now."

"Sounds lovely," Douglas commented cheekily.

Another minute or so passed in silence as they waited for Leo to return. Finally, Adam sighed and stood up. "I'm going to go get Leo." Without another word, he left down the tunnel to find the wayward kid.

Oly opened her mouth to speak only to be interrupted by a scream of horror from Adam. "Leo! Somebody, help!"

A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach heralded the next several seconds as he and Chase bolted into the tunnel. What was wrong?! Did someone successfully break in? Would they systematically pick them all off, one-by-one?

He slid around the corner on Chase's tail, mentally preparing himself for the worst possible scenarios that were about to play out. Various scenes of mutilation clogged his mind's eye, almost blinding him to the actual thing.

And, when he saw what was going on, Douglas was both confused and infuriated.

Leo and Adam both started cracking up from their hiding place around the corner. "You should've seen the looks on your faces!" Leo chortled. "I told you I could act."

Wordlessly, Chase snapped the ring of wall he had into two pieces and threw one piece each at Leo and Adam, pegging them both in the chest. "That wasn't funny, assholes."

Leo allowed the piece that hit him to fall to the floor. "Chill, Chase. It was just a joke."

"Seriously; lighten up," Adam added.

Chase crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, Oly gave them a thumbs up. "Nicely done."

Douglas tilted his head. "Why is it that you can act when you have something to lose, but suck when you don't?"

Leo shrugged. "Practice, I guess."

Adam nodded. "You should hear him lie his way out of trouble. He's good at it."

Douglas nodded slowly. That was a useful skill to have. "We'll be able to pull this off if you can just do that at the Council." Then, his expression darkened. "Because if you don't, and we get caught, you would have killed this entire family. Understand? I'm not even kidding."

Both Adam and Leo went quiet, paling as they nodded.

Oly barked out a laugh. "No pressure, guys."

Douglas narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, loudly whispering, "So much pressure."

Heh, Leo looked like he was going to piss himself. If that didn't work, nothing would.

So Leo might not mess it up after all.

Of course, I can again name a few of you who think otherwise. Who knows? You might be right.

On the bright side, we get to find out what security measures Team Donald is trying to come up with next time.

In the meantime, feel free to review. Or don't. You know I don't care. :3

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*