"Why Ying-Ying, what a pleasant surprise!"

The bird dropped the amulet in front of Hannibal and cawed, lighting on the back of the throne.

"And even after you took down Chase's little spy!" the evil plant cooed, rubbing his greasy little vines together. "Someone wants a cracker."

He turned a malicious glare to the cage not far from him. The small feline inside was battered and beaten, barely able to lift its head to snarl at him.

"Well, what're you waiting for?" Hannibal asked Ying-Ying. "Go get it."

The lion tired to push itself away as Ying-Ying cawed and flew through the bars. Hannibal's grin widened as the cat's cries rang through his castle; he looked away only to examine the amulet, the third piece of his twisted puzzle.

******JP******

"You really don't like Zephyr do you?"

Stryker looked up from the workbench and shushed Jack, his eyes darting around to be sure the kid wasn't in the room.

"He's upstairs, don't worry," Jack told him, coming over and leaning against the table.

One of the Jackbots that they'd modded floated over and handed him a drink. Stryker had spray painted the letter U under its eye, since it was in charge of updating the others with their new technology.

"He's new, that's all," Stryker said with a shrug. "Don't got anything against him."

"Sure," Jack said, a grin on his face as he sipped from his cup. "'Cause glaring and ignoring someone is not having a problem with them."

Stryker rolled his eyes and turned back to the workbench.

"Yeah, well, he urkes me a little too."

He looked up at Jack in surprise.

"You? Why?"

"Oh, yeah," Jack said, sipping his drink thoughtfully. "You weren't in the room when...my mom's offering to train Zephyr to make Wu."

He gave Stryker a sideways glance.

"So my mom is going to be spending more time with a kid she's just met than she ever has her own son."

"...Oh..."

"I'm giving her credit, she's trying harder to reach out now. But it still kinda...stings...you know?"

Stryker nodded slowly. His own mother had taken him to his uncle so she wouldn't ever have to see him. He knew how Jack felt.

"But hey, if her training him helps us out, then I guess I'm okay with that," Jack said. "Take one for team, you know?"

"You don't have to," Stryker muttered.

Jack smirked.

"Then you'd better tell Zephy Boy how you feel. I'm gonna go set up another update."

Stryker watched him go out of the corner of his eye, then sighed. Jack had a point, it'd be best if he just told Zephyr straight out that they had a problem. After all they had somethings in common, like how their families didn't want them, and how they'd had to leave to feel even an ounce of freedom. That wasn't a simple thing for him, he couldn't imagine it being any different for Zephyr.

"Hey, Jack!"

He turned at the Brazilian's voice and watched him run up to Jack. The redhead looked up from his computer.

"Yeah?"

"Enny told me you had Goo Zombies 4," Zephyr told him; this big grin was on his face. "I was wondering, if you weren't doing anything, would you mind showing it to me?"

"Uh..."

Jack and Stryker met eyes, and Stryker turned to hide the scowl on his face. He waved a hand at him, signaling that it was fine.

"...Yeah, I guess that's cool," Jack answered, getting up and following Zephyr to the TV.

As they set up the game, Stryker touched his Mind Reader Conch. With a quick look at the other two, he pulled it out and set it on the workbench. He watched them play for a moment, then went out to the jet hanger and sat on one of the railings. It had been forever since he felt left out, and now it was like a knife in the chest.

He shook his head. He was acting stupid. The same thing happened when Cinder and Entropy joined; Zephyr was probably just trying to adjust. Still...something about this was different.

He jumped when the blaring of their Wu tracker went off. He sighed and jumped off, heading back to the lab to tell the others. Whatever was bugging him would just have to wait.