Holy hell, this chapter is late, Zara!

Why, you ask?

Well, to begin with, I had a tad of writer's block. Usually, I can work through that, but couple it with the general discontent of losing the water in your house for four days, and the want to do anything productive kind of dies.

For the record, they fixed it, and I have never been so damned happy to flush a toilet, brush my teeth and take a shower in my life!

Then, this was supposed to be up hours ago, but Microsoft Word kicked the document into the abyss, forever losing it and forcing me to rewrite everything.

Anyway, enough about me. I would like to thank my readers and reviewers for sticking around. Oh, and I would like to note the general relief we all feel now that the fangirl army is distracted for a moment.

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "According to you, it hasn't calmed them down. Also, I have a question: Why is no one talking to me about this? Just you?"

RissA15: "Yes! I win!"

Douglas, she doesn't feel like answering your question.

"Oh, like you know the answer."

I don't. Some information is missing. Was the tree on my property? Was my neighbor hurt when it fell? That shit, dumbass. Also, I feel like unleashing my inner smartass tonight. For someone who is so secretive, why in the hell are you asking me to break a secret code of yours? It seems…counter-productive. (Pretty sure it means "fuckers," by the way. No real work went into that. It's more of a hunch.)

DarkestKing: The guy might be.

UnknownForNow: The Davenport brothers' problems go a bit deeper than the fence, mind you. :3 And Chase isn't all that used to listening to instinct, so he kind of reacts without being able to process it until later.

DisneyXDGirl: Maybe.

j. liz. 8: "First, I challenge you to walk up to a random drunk guy, contest his opinion and come out unscathed. Second, not much will happen. I'll just lose interest eventually. :3"

AllAmericanSlurp: Chase has always had vampire-like fangs. O.o Also, I'm not fond of Owen. Friggin' poser. And he might be able to.

Got some good theories about who that man was, but who is right? We'll see. Douglas?

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

"…But you? You're not allowed. You're uninvited; an unfortunate slight…."

Alanis Morissette

"You never know what you have till you've lost it."

Alyson Noel, Evermore

Chapter Sixteen - Unrest and Doubt

Bree

Chase had a problem.

He wouldn't admit it, but he was definitely worried about something.

Twice a day for the past two days, Chase waited by the fence as a cat for a man to walk by. Bree figured that it was someone who must have just moved into the neighborhood or something, because she didn't recognize him. However, every morning he passed by their house going into town, and every evening saw him passing by in the other direction.

And Chase trotted alongside him, his fur on end and tail lashing as he hissed and let out threatening yowls until he reached the end of the fence and had to stop. Even then, he would glare after the guy until he passed from view.

It was odd. Chase had never openly threatened a complete stranger before. So what was up with the new guy?

Presently, Bree was watching Chase follow the man along the fence from the porch. Beside her, Douglas was frowning, his brow furrowed thoughtfully. She had decided to drag Douglas out to watch the performance rather than Mr. Davenport. It seemed like a possible demon problem, which Douglas would understand better. However, Bree herself couldn't see the problem. She had checked the planes she could see, and nothing was amiss. He was definitely human. But Chase seemed to think otherwise, so Bree and Douglas watched the stranger silently as the setting sun created the illusion of a light halo around him.

"Didn't think he hated that guy that much," Douglas mused aloud as Chase reached the end of the fence and stopped, still glaring at the man.

"Why would he hate anyone at all?" Bree asked, tilting her head a bit.

Douglas shrugged. "Intuition? Who knows? All I know is that Hellcat has pretty sound judgment. Something isn't setting right with him about that guy, and there's probably a reason for it."

"It doesn't look like he's suspicious," Bree pointed out. "It looks like he wants to tear the guy a new one."

"I've noticed," he responded casually as he leaned on the railing. "I'm sure that he has a good reason for doing this."

"Seriously?" Bree raised an eyebrow, gesturing at cat-Chase. "Are you suggesting that we just ignore this?"

Douglas shook his head. "I didn't say that, did I?"

"We can't just let him attack random people," Bree huffed.

Douglas shot her an annoyed look. "How about this: Instead of acting like Hellcat's the bad guy, we focus on the person who's bothering him? We both know that this wouldn't be happening without a good reason."

"We don't even know the guy!" Bree countered incredulously. Was Douglas really not seeing a problem with Chase's behavior?

Douglas shot her a look. "You've never just hated a random person in your school? For no reason at all?"

Bree opened her mouth to offer an example, but – after a moment – she had to close her mouth again. She could list a couple of people she couldn't stand without her ever having spoken to them. After a second, she sighed. "Fine. Then what do we do?"

"We do have a couple of imps lying around. We could make them actually do something for once," Douglas pointed out. "Oly's getting lazy, anyways."

Bree nodded, turning her attention back to Chase, who was pacing along the fence. Hopefully, Oly found something soon. Either that, or Chase needed a lesson in etiquette. Well, while she had Douglas alone, she felt the need to ask a question that had been bothering her. Before she did, though, she punched his shoulder.

Douglas jumped a bit, rubbing his arm dramatically. "What was that for?"

"For messing with my boyfriend. Why did you do that?"

Douglas shrugged. "I didn't tell him anything that wasn't true."

Bree rolled her eyes. "Don't do it again, asshole."

Douglas chuckled a bit. "No promises."

Bree sighed and turned on her heel and strode toward the door. As Douglas turned his attention back to Chase, Bree found herself bothered by a question that she had been wanting to ask for about a week. "Douglas?" When he looked back at her, she took a deep breath and asked, "Do you ever miss Marcus?"

He smiled a bit as melancholy laced his expression. "Sometimes."

Although Bree wanted to follow up with some other questions, Douglas turned around again. Seeing that he was obviously done talking about the situation, Bree opened the door and went inside to find her phone, barely sparing Leo and glance as he sat on the couch, reading a book that could rival one of Chase's in thickness. However, when she turned to the counter – the last place she had left her phone - she was met with the horrifying sight of Ysthry sitting on the counter, swallowing said phone whole.

If Leo wasn't so fond of Ysthry, she would have killed the little imp then and there. However, she sped to the counter and caught Ysthry by her long neck. "You're not leaving until you spit that up."

Ysthry squirmed and squeaked in protest. "Let go!"

"Again, not until you spit my phone up," Bree snarled, sitting at the counter. "I can wait. I have all day."

"Doubt is a lot like faith; A mustard's seed worth changes everything."

Donna Johnson, Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir

"'May as well have ox blood running through those veins,' I added, 'You're as stubborn as one.'"

Katherine McIntyre, An Airship Named Desire

Chase

With that asshole successfully chased off, I trotted back towards the house. Stupid guy, existing and all. Who the hell did he think he was?

I still say that you should incinerate him.

If he comes along at night, I'll incinerate him, I retorted. However, cats shooting fireballs in broad daylight is going to catch someone's attention.

As I hopped onto the porch, Douglas scooped me up. Damn it; maybe I should have changed into a more human form before approaching Douglas. I squirmed a bit. "Put me down."

"Not until we get something straight," Douglas began. "I get that you don't like that guy, and that's fine. However, you're freaking Bree out by following him along the fence, which means that everybody else is going to catch on."

"So?" I countered as he balanced me against him on his forearm. "That asshole needs to stay away."

"That's just it: He's not going to," Douglas pointed out. "Obviously, he has a job in town. So he's going to be passing the fence every day, whether you like it or not."

I pinned my ears and tucked my paws close to me. "Then what am I supposed to do? I don't like that guy. He rubs me wrong."

"No, this is rubbing you wrong." Douglas ran his hand along my back from near my tail up to my neck, messing up all of my fur. For the record, having a smartass rub your fur against the grain sucked. I clawed his arm a bit and hissed while he went on. "Anyways, I'm not saying that we should let this go. I'm going to get Oly to spy on this guy."

"I want to go, too," I said instantly. I wanted to know this guy's game.

"No," Douglas denied instantly.

"Why not?" I instantly protested.

"Because I don't trust you not to attack the guy," Douglas hissed. "You just chased him along the fence as the most threatening guard cat in the world!"

"Because he's no good," I huffed.

"Which is why you can't go. I'm sure Donnie would be pissed if he had to bail you out of jail for assault or show up at a murder trial."

"Do you think I can't do it? That I can't control myself?" I huffed. Was he worried that my demon half would take over and that I would tear the guy apart? I could control myself! Where was all of this doubt coming from? It stung, honestly.

After a moment, Douglas sighed heavily. "It's just not a chance I want to take, kid."

I felt myself bristle, which meant that I spoke before I could think. "You can't stop me from going with Oly."

However, as this was Douglas, he didn't like being challenged much. "Want to bet on that?" he growled ominously.

Well, since I was already in trouble, I figured that I might as well go all the way with it. "I do. There's not a damn thing you can do to stop me from going."

Douglas narrowed his eyes and put me down on the porch. "We'll see."

I shook my fur out and changed back into my glorious self, brushing the imaginary dust off of my shirt. I prepared to counter his threat, but he was already going through the back door, closing it behind him. Therefore, I was standing on the porch with a finger raised and my mouth open like an idiot. After a second, I snapped my jaw shut. He wasn't going to stop me. I was going with Oly. Although I had a feeling that I would have to evade a dozen and one more-than-creative traps and tactics that he could employ to actually keep me around. I let out a heavy sigh and entered the house. Douglas was nowhere to be seen, no doubt already putting whatever plan he had into action. Honestly, I kind of wanted to talk to him. Maybe I could make him see this my way if I just threw a logical argument at him enough times.

Why are you trying to make him see reason? He is an idiot, and you have free will! He can't control you.

True, but I still wanted to try and resolve this first. So that meant that I had to appeal to Douglas' sense of reason.

However, the general atmosphere surrounding Bree and Ysthry in the living room captured my interest before I could ask where Douglas was. Bree had the imp pinned to the counter, fury on her face. "Cough it up, already!"

Ysthry hissed a bit, squirming. "Let go! My belly hurts!"

"Cough up what?" I asked, finally deciding to lean on the back of the couch near Leo.

"This little runt ate my phone," Bree huffed.

Huh, so Ysthry decided to eat a phone. Whatever worked, I guessed. "She was probably just curious," I defended.

"She needs to cough it up," Bree snapped, glaring at Ysthry.

"Cough up the phone, Ysthry," Leo drawled absently, turning the page in his book.

"It'll take a minute," Ysthry answered with a wince.

Well, since we had a minute, I decided to start a conversation. "So, Leo: Find anything with Hall?"

Leo shook his head and sighed. "Nothing. No evil plots, no evidence that Krane has ever contacted him, no anything yet. Either he's not involved, or he's hiding it well."

I shrugged. "You have to spend time building trust, man. What about snooping? Have you tried digging through his desk?"

"We can't," Leo answered unhappily. "He has demons everywhere. We're never alone."

"The guy might be nice, but he's watching us close," Ysthry continued. "He won't –" Ysthry broke off to gag a bit. After a couple of dry heaves, she finally spat the phone onto the counter. Bree wrinkled her nose at the smoldering, hissing mess of parts that were still dissolving due to the acid in Ysthry's stomach and mouth. Ysthry, however, shook her scales out as Bree released her. "I feel better now."

"Probably," I responded, grinning. "So…anyone see where Douglas went?"

"Down to the Lab," Bree responded with a sigh. "He didn't look happy, either. What did you do?"

"Nothing wrong," I huffed defensively, pushing myself upright and lowered my ears before I started towards the elevator. I was going to make him see reason.

Because I was going to find out what that weird guy was hiding.

And it would be nice if I didn't have to fight tooth and nail through safety measures to do so.

Hmm, Chase really hates that guy. And he and Douglas aren't on the same page for once! Gasp! I wonder how that will play out?

And poor Leo: He's so bored! xD Aren't spy missions supposed to be fun?

Anyways, feel free to review. Or don't. I don't care. :3

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*