Woot, Hostile 19! Yay!

Who wants to find out what happens?

First, though, I know I haven't done this in a while. I felt it was understood at this point. But I do still thank you guys for reading and stuff. Warms my icy heart just a little bit.

Mia Teresa Davenport: "Whoa, hold up. They aren't even the biggest threats."

ShyMusic: You actually understood the question perfectly. Not only that, but you're actually very right. (::) Have a cookie. :3

Let's get on with it! Bree?

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

"I like to think of it as a Cosmic Spanking Spoon. For example, you decide to drive drunk, then out comes the Spoon and BAM! You're in jail."

Ra'Zara (In a conversation with her dad)

"Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories."

John Wilmot

Leo

The car ride home was tense.

Leo kept his eyes fixed on his lap, the necklace – complete with the crucifix pendant – weighing heavily on his neck. While he knew he should tell everyone about the jewelry they had marked him with, he couldn't quite find his voice. It probably had something to do with how hard Mr. Davenport was clutching the steering wheel as he drove, his jaw set and fury etched across his face. And, even though Leo knew it was born from fear about what could have happened, he still couldn't help but feel that Mr. Davenport was angry just because Leo had been the one to do it. Had Bree, Adam, or even Chase been the one who had been there instead of Leo, Mr. Davenport would likely be much, much calmer.

After a second, Leo managed to speak. "Mr. Davenport, I almost had-"

"You had shit all!" Mr. Davenport snapped, silencing Leo effectively with the highly unexpected cussing. "Honestly, you voluntarily walk into so many dangerous situations that I sometimes think you have a death wish of some kind!"

Leo flinched and looked back at his lap again, letting the silence return. He was just trying to help. It didn't have to do with any kind of death wish. He watched as Ysthry crawled out of his pocket and turned back into her dragon self, nudging her way under Leo's hands.

"You took Ysthry?" Mr. Davenport practically growled. "Some of them can see demons!" He pulled into the driveway, going through the gate. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry," Leo mumbled, rubbing Ysthry's head as Mr. Davenport parked in the garage. "I didn't think-"

"No, you didn't," Mr. Davenport interrupted. He rubbed his eyes and sighed heavily. "Leo, you're smart enough not to walk right into a trap. What happened? Why did you even try to get involved when I already told you not to?"

"Because everyone is doing something but me!" Leo huffed defensively.

"Chase, Douglas and Kevin are the only ones doing any kind of fighting. If it were up to me, no one would be involved."

"But I'm not content with that," Leo growled. "I don't want to sit back and just let these Hunter guys attack everybody. I can't."

"It's easy. Just stay out of the way."

"Mortal nature seems to be to protect their pack," Ysthry cut in.

Mr. Davenport raised his eyebrow at that. "Their pack?"

"Family," Leo explained.

"That thing," Ysthry confirmed. "Anyways, you mortals all separate into little packs that seem to guard one another, even if it's a stupid idea."

"It was your idea," Leo huffed indignantly.

"This wasn't my idea," Ysthry protested. "Weren't you telling me how much better at this you would be than that Kevin person?"

"That sounds like you, Leo," Mr. Davenport confirmed. "Don't blame Ysthry to save yourself."

"But-"

"This almost got you killed. Did I not tell you no?"

"Mr. Davenport-"

"You make my blood pressure soar into dangerous ranges," Mr. Davenport continued. "Do you see this?" He pointed at his hair. "This one strand is turning gray. Gray, Leo!"

"I -"

"Am grounded," Mr. Davenport interrupted. "Two months. Understand?"

Leo wanted to protest, but he knew it was useless. Instead, he just nodded. "I understand."

"Good." With that curt response, Mr. Davenport left the car. When he stormed into the house proper, Leo glared at Ysthry. "It was your idea! What the hell?"

Ysthry fixed her green-brown eyes on him. "Remember when you told me that I couldn't sleep on your favorite pillow a few weeks ago?"

Leo sighed heavily. "I remember."

"Well...what is it you mortals say?" She trailed off for several seconds before perking up again, grinning. "Ah, it's that payback is a bitch."

"It seems excessive to almost get me killed for not wanting you to drool acid on my pillow," Leo reasoned irritably.

Ysthry snorted. "It says 'payback is a bitch,' not 'payback is proportional.'"

Leo pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes and counting down from ten before reminding himself - for the first time in a long time - that Ysthry, though his friend, was still a cunning, mischievous imp.

"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

"The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one."

Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Bree

"Varmint, I'm a-gonna b-b-b-bloooow yah t'smithereenies!"

Bree wanted to break Douglas' short wave radio transmitter. The sentence it was repeating had become annoying quite a while ago. She hadn't really been entertained by cartoons with Yosemite Sam in it. They were never appealing to her. Tiny cowboys shooting rabbits? It made no sense. Couldn't he just call someone to get Bugs Bunny out of his way instead of putting himself through so much crap?

"Varmint, I'm a-gonna b-b-b-bloooow yah t'smithereenies!"

"Do you have to listen to that down here?" Bree huffed at anyone who would listen.

Not that anyone was listening to her. Tasha was anxiously patting Oly's head, not even bothering to shoo the recovering imp off of the kitchen counter like she usually did. Adam was having a conversation with Yahn on the couch about any and everything that crossed their minds. As for Kevin, Douglas, and Chase, they were sitting around the offending radio, staring at it intensely. Bree wondered if they were even aware of anything else. Hell, Eddy could pop up, and Kevin would likely ignore him.

Mr. Davenport stormed into the living room, wearing a scowl. "He's going to get himself killed someday."

"So Leo's fine?" Tasha asked anxiously, her hand going still on Oly. Oly raised her head a bit, frowning with disappointment.

"He's fine," Mr. Davenport responded. "He's sulking in the car."

Tasha visibly relaxed, scrambling to the garage. "Thank God."

Bree watched her until a startling flurry of activity started around the radio, which suddenly started spewing random numbers.

"Quick! Write it down!" Douglas demanded.

Kevin patted his pockets frantically, jumping up. "I don't have a pen!"

"Hellcat -"

Chase lowered his ears. "I don't have a pen, either."

Douglas pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. "Why the hell didn't anyone-"

Kevin snorted while he scrambled into the kitchen. "You said you'd find a pen, Dougie!"

"I told you-"

"To get paper, which I did."

"Damn it, how are we supposed to translate this if we don't write it down?"

Chase hissed, interrupting their equivalent of a marital spat. "Who the hell cares? I have an eidetic memory. I already know the numbers."

Douglas nodded slowly. "Oh, right. Kevin, why are you digging through the kitchen drawers?"

Kevin shuffled contents noisily in a drawer, metallic clangs baring testament to his almost-constantly shaking hands. "Still looking for a pen. There aren't any in here."

Chase sighed. "Because that's the silverware drawer. Besides, we don't need one anymore."

"We need to write down the numbers you remember," Douglas pointed out.

Mr. Davenport rolled his eyes, pulled a pen out of his pocket, and pegged Kevin in the chest with it. Bree blinked, a bit surprised that he hadn't thrown it at Douglas instead.

Looks like someone doesn't approve of his little brother's boyfriend, Bree thought. Maybe it was a sibling thing, though, because she couldn't think of a boyfriend she had that her own brothers had approved of.

Kevin shot Mr. Davenport a look before trotting back to the table, giving the pen to Chase. As Chase started scribbling the numbers down, Kevin tilted his head. "It's amazing that you can remember the numbers. I wonder if eidetic memories have a genetic trigger." Then, he gasped. "Oh, can I-"

"I'd rather not be a genetic experiment," Chase growled firmly, pinning his ears.

Kevin sighed. "No one whose genes matter ever does. It would be nice to figure out why it's almost like you have a computer in your head, though."

Although there was no need for it, Bree felt the tension in the room rise. Technically, there was a computer of sorts in Chase's head.

Not that Kevin knew that, thankfully. If he had a problem with Eddy, who knew how he'd react to bionic kids?

"Too bad," Chase huffed, sliding the paper towards Douglas.

While Douglas translated the numbers, Tasha came back into the living room with an obviously upset Leo. Ysthry was perched serenely on his shoulder, like she had just woken up from a nap instead of being saved from being killed. Leo pulled a crucifix off from around his neck and practically threw it at Douglas. "The power of Christ compels you!"

Douglas glared at the little symbol with disgust, flicking it towards Chase irritably. "Keep that thing away from me. It burns my soul or something stupid like that."

Chase hissed, catching the thing. "I don't want it!"

Leo's eyes widened. "Shouldn't that hurt?"

Chase shrugged. "It's nickel, not silver. Harmless."

Leo frowned. "But-"

"No one's going to give you a necklace worth a hundred or so dollars when you're going to get your throat cut," Kevin interrupted, rolling his eyes. "When you get in, you have to buy your own crucifix."

"I thought there were stores of silver at Hunter bases," Adam responded, startling Bree. She hadn't thought that he was paying attention in the least.

"For knives and bullets," Kevin answered. "They'll provide silver, but you pay to get your weapons made. My pocket knife, for example, set me back about $250."

"Yet you claim not to hate demons," Oly muttered.

"I'm not above stabbing one if it's trying to tear out my throat," Kevin responded. "Self-defense and all that."

"Everyone shut up, because I have the translation," Douglas declared loudly, throwing the pen at Mr. Davenport. "Long story short, there's some useless crap about embezzling money and silver, moving the main operation to a different house, and - my personal favorite - a bounty on Kevin's head for being a sympathizer to Summoners."

Kevin paled.

"Now that he can't spy for us, can I claw his eyes out?" Yahn asked casually.

"No," Douglas huffed. "He still knows more about the Hunters than we do."

"Not for long," Mr. Davenport pointed out.

"How did they even know?" Bree asked, confused.

"Because James was one of the men pointing a gun at the kids when I let them go at the junkyard," Kevin mumbled. "I guess he recognized Leo and did the math."

"Great," Chase hissed. "Now what?"

Everyone was silent for several moments before Tasha cleared her throat. "If someone's embezzling money, shouldn't there be a paper trail somewhere?"

Mr. Davenport suddenly grinned. "That's brilliant! Get everyone embezzling caught somehow! If we stop the money that's funding them, it'll be crippling!"

Douglas nodded thoughtfully. "That means that we need to set up a spying mission."

Bree rolled her eyes. She had a feeling that said spy mission would have a lot to do with her climbing on walls and clinging to ceilings that night while somehow keeping Kevin snowed about the whole thing. What fun!

So, Kevin has been flushed out and is no longer able to spy. Sad day.

So how's this gonna turn out?

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

So, until then, feel free to review. Or don't. Meh.

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*