A/N: So, for those readers who have actually watched The Secret Saturdays… the Owlman episode is really good, huh? It would be a shame if that episode were to have unintended consequences.

"This is the best view in the airship," Zak said with a flourish. He pressed the large red button labeled "OPEN HANGAR" and a huge portion of the floor sectioned off by guard rails began peeling back.

Ben watched with a grin on his face. He had noticed that the Saturdays had a submarine and a fighter jet in their hangar (both of which, Zak assured were kept for field research purposes only), and seeing the hangar bay doors open up made him itch for a free fall. They were enormous, covering the space of a large house.

"How big even is this airship?" Ben wondered aloud. They were high up enough that the bottom of the cloud layer caressed the airship's stomach, making for perfect camouflage, despite the fact that the Saturdays' airship was massive and painted bright orange and yellow.

"I'm sure dad has the specs somewhere," Zak answered. He wandered over to where Ben was leaning against the railing, Fisk at his side. He pulled out his handheld — which Ben learned was called a CP, for Cryptidpedia — and pulled up the map displaying the satellite-tracking real-time locations for all the chupacabras that the Saturdays had tagged. "All we have to do now is wait for one of these dots to go offline, get down there, find Munya tearing through the forest, and lay down the law." He chuckled. "Easy."

Amused, Ben arched an eyebrow. "Uh, I hope by "we," you mean me and Rook, because you're still a civilian and a target for this dude's misplaced aggression. Not to be that guy, but I think your parents were right when they said that you should stay out of this."

"Are you serious?" Zak crossed his arms over his chest, scowling. "People have been saying that since I was eleven! I know how to fight, I can take care of myself in a fight."

Feeling helpless, Ben turned to Fisk for help and noticed that he was pointedly looking away, pretending to be interested in something through the wispy cloud layer and trying to look as innocent as possible. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Fisk must have been one of the "people" doing the babying.

"It's not that I don't think you can fight," Ben said with a sigh. "It's just that… You're human." He shrugged, managing a smile. "You're, like, fifteen and you don't have any body armor or mutated abilities to make you better in a fight. I know you can hold your own, but Munya is eight feet tall and has muscles bigger than me, and you're his target for revenge right now. It's going to be a lot harder to do my job if I'm worried about him grabbing you. He could do some serious damage." Ben tried to laugh and it sounded strained. "Trust me. I'm still human a lot of the time. It's no fun getting caught like that. If it helps, I don't want Fisk fighting this guy, either."

Zak still seemed annoyed, but he was smart enough to recognize when an argument was pointless because he sighed. Ignoring Fisk's indignant complaints, he nodded. "I… guess that's fair," he conceded. "I'll leave your investigation alone."

"Thanks," Ben said gratefully, relaxing. "Not that I can't use help sometimes, and you and your family have been really helpful, there's just no reason to complicate things with grudges and revenge."

With a grunt of acknowledgment, Zak pushed away from the railing. He sat down on the metal floor a good distance away from the still-open hangar hatch. "No, it's fine. I get it. So, you were going to teach us about good stake-outs, right?" He pressed.

Ben nodded and walked over to him with a smile. Fisk sat down next to Zak, both of them looking up at Ben eagerly. "The first step to any good stake-out is staying awake," Ben began. "Sometimes people will suggest drinking soda or coffee so you stay awake longer, but in my experience, the sugar crash will only make you more drowsy than you were before, so your reaction time and attentiveness drops. Your best bet is to take it in shifts: one person sleeps for an hour and a half, then the other person wakes them up and they switch. This should work no matter how big your group is because you want everyone to be rested up for a fight and it only takes one person to be on lookout duty."

Before Ben could go on, about to start listing all of the best ways to keep yourself awake without losing focus, the door to the hangar opened. Rook, having finally caught up with them, stalked over to their group with a scowl on his face.

"Hey, partner." Ben greeted him with a casual wave. "Nice of you to show up. We were just talking about some pointers for a good stake-out. Care to share with the class?"

Sometimes, Rook would indulge Ben's silly tendencies, but he appeared to be in a very bad mood because he barely even reacted to the request. "Ben, I would like to speak with you. There is a matter which we must discuss privately." The way that he shot a glare in Zak's direction made Ben pretty sure what the conversation was going to be about.

Still, there was no point in delaying it. Ben shrugged. "Sure," he agreed. Then, to Zak and Fisk, "I'll be right back. Don't get the party started without me."

"We'll make sure you're back here before we blow out the candles," Zak quipped back.

There was an impatient groan from Rook, who took Ben by the arm and steered him away. He was still chuckling under his breath when Rook led the way out of the hangar and the door shut behind them, although Ben's laughter didn't last for long after that.

They walked further than was probably necessary before Rook turned, opened a door at random, and gestured Ben inside. He complied, but not without an eye roll. The room, as it turned out, was some sort of medical examination room probably designed for injured cryptids and other animals. At the very least, it was filled with heavy and expensive-looking machinery and none of it seemed suitable for humans.

"You do not find anything here remotely suspicious?" Rook snapped as soon as the door was shut, not even waiting for Ben to turn around and face him. "You have not questioned for even a moment how cryptozoologists can afford such expensive equipment? It has not struck you as odd that they are obviously lying to us and avoiding answering questions directly? It seems awfully coincidental that Zak is a fan of yours. Quite an easy way to squeeze information out of you."

Ben whirled around and threw his hands up in the air with a groan. "Dude, what is your problem with Zak? He's a good guy!" Rook went to open his mouth, but Ben cut him off. "Uh-uh, don't start with that, Rook. Just admit you don't like him! Look, who cares if they've got some things that they want to keep to themselves? Our job is to catch Animo, not go nosing about people's personal business. Some of this stuff is obviously super touchy." He sighed. "It's not like secrets are a crime."

Rook pressed his lips into a thin line, his nose scrunched up in the way that he did it when he was upset. "Actually," he said softly, "I took the liberty of running a background check on their entire family." As soon as he heard "background check," Ben was bristling with indignation, but Rook continued. "I know what you are going to say, but I did turn something up. They all have a criminal record, Ben."

"Oh." That took some of the wind out of Ben's sails. He thought for a moment. "What did they do, then?"

The question made Rook hesitate but, after a moment, he admitted, "About four years ago, the entire family was arrested in a small village in southern England named Monnen. I managed to find the incident report." Pulling out his Plumber badge, Rook turned it on and swiped through a few options before showing Ben and holographic rendering of a piece of paper, about half-way filled with cramped, neat writing. "Apparently, they were charged with disturbance of the peace." Rook made a face. "The details say that they harassed an elderly man on the street by holding him upside down and threatened to put a concussion grenade down his pants. When the constable told them to stop and insisted that they leave, they took his hat, baton, and whistle, then proceeded to mock him. After that, he issued the arrest."

There was a pause while Ben waited for Rook to continue. When he didn't, Ben raised an eyebrow. "Is that it?"

"Should there be any more?" Rook asked defensively. "They assaulted an officer!"

Turning faintly red, Ben gave a helpless gesture. "Yeah, but you were working this up to be some huge thing! I mean, I've watched Kevin kill someone and he's my best friend! You bought some car parts off of him last week!" He ran a hand over his face with a weary sigh. "Look, I'm sure that there's a story to it, so I can ask Zak if you really want me to. But, seriously, Rook. Is that all you have? Because you're starting to sound like a hypocrite."

He hated to say it, though it was true. Ben had been hoping that it would blow over, but he couldn't just pretend that Rook hadn't been unfairly angry with Zak since they met. He had no idea why, still, Ben wasn't about to let Rook criminalize his new friends over something so small when he had no problem being friends with Kevin.

It was Rook's turn to be embarrassed and he scowled. But then he took a deep breath and huffed softly. "As a matter of fact, I did notice something peculiar," he admitted. "The incident report describes four people and a rather large gorilla-type creature. You may have noticed that there are only three human members of the Saturday family."

Ben frowned thoughtfully. "I guess that's kind of odd," he admitted carefully, "but they could've just been traveling with a friend. Does it list a name?"

"It does," Rook confirmed with a nod. "A man by the name of Jerald Stephens. They did not take a mugshot or, at least, they do not have one on file, but the report describes a man with red hair, tall and muscularly built. I did a search on the name." He paused. "Jerald Stephens does not exist."

That was not a turn that Ben was expecting Rook's story to take. He opened his mouth and then closed it. After a moment, Ben settled on, "What do you mean he doesn't exist? Like, the guy was using a fake I.D.?"

Another nod. "Definitely." Rook pressed another button on his Plumber badge and it brought up a digital print of a U.S. passport. Ben didn't recognize the man in the photo, but he had the red hair that Rook mentioned and the name clearly said Jerald Stephens. "This is all that I could find on him. There is no birth certificate or social security number or any bank records for this man. If I had to guess, I would say that he often travels under fake names. This passport is remarkably well forged," Rook explained. "Likely expensive, too."

Grappling for an excuse, Ben came up empty. He bit his lower lip, concerned. "Okay, yeah, that's pretty suspicious. Do you know who this guy really is?"

Rook turned his Plumber badge off and put it away. "Not yet. I have been running a search through every criminal database that I have access to. I cannot think of another reason why only he would have a fake I.D. when the rest of the family does not." He shook his head.

Much as Ben wanted to give Zak and his family the benefit of the doubt, as kind as they had been, he couldn't ignore criminal behavior like that. Whoever they had been traveling with, maybe he was reformed. Ben was hoping that it was the case, but if it wasn't... He sighed. "Tell me when you get any results. But no matter what you find out about him, we leave this alone until after we've gotten Animo back behind bars. One criminal at a time. Deal?" To seal their agreement, Ben stuck his hand out to shake.

There was a pause while Rook stared at his outstretched hand, unsure, but then he sighed and took it. "Deal." Rook gave one, firm shake and that was that.

They walked back to the hangar in silence, although it wasn't awkward. There just wasn't much to say between them. Ben was preparing what he was going to say to Zak and Fisk, some sort of explanation that he could offer to ease the tension that Rook insisted on bringing everywhere, but it turned out that there was no need. When they reentered the hangar, it was to see Fisk crouched next to Zak, peering over his shoulder as they muttered about something they were looking at on his CP.

"Something wrong?" Ben asked reflexively. He was familiar with that worried expression.

"Hm?" Zak looked up and seemed surprised to see Ben there, blinking owlishly for a moment. "Oh, uh, no. Maybe. We aren't sure yet." He held up the Cryptidpedia for Ben to get a look at as he walked over to the two of them. "One of the chupacabras is moving really fast, but its tracker is still online. It could be hunting, but…" Zak made a face.

Ben nodded in understanding. "Yeah. You don't want to hunt it down if nothing's wrong. It could just be a distraction. That's the second lesson for a good stake-out, by the way," he said with a grin. "Knowing when to jump out. Timing is everything."

Zak started to reply but was cut off when his handheld began beeping sharply. All amusement vanished from his face as he turned frantically back to the CP, pushing himself up onto his feet. "It's the chupacabra we were following," he said in a rush before Ben could ask what happened. "It just went offline. We have to get down there!"

Before Rook could cut in, Ben took lead. "You and Fisk stay here," he said firmly, pointing to them both. "Your parents will be here in a minute, then you can go with them if they let you. But we need to go, now. Tell us where we're heading." He jogged over to the railing over the open hangar doors, hand hovering over the Omnitrix. Jetray ought to be more than fast enough to catch an overgrown spider.

There was a moment where Zak visibly struggled, obviously unhappy with being reduced to the sidelines, but then Fisk nudged him and muttered something, snapping him out of his daze. "To the west," he said, pointing. "About two miles. You can't miss it — Munya wasn't built to be subtle."

Shooting him a grin, Ben tossed in a thumbs up for good measure. "Don't worry. We'll bring Munya in and save that cryptid for you. Ready, partner?" Ben turned to Rook.

Sparing a glance at Zak, Rook nodded and managed to look only a little bit smug while doing it. "Always," he quipped back.

Hefting himself up over the side of the railing, Ben let himself drop out of the airship in a freefall, indulging in the familiar rush of adrenaline as his hair whipped painfully into his face. He used to worry about hitting the ground but, anymore, he had very few aliens who couldn't walk away from a collision like that.

He popped open the Omnitrix's dial and quickly found who he was looking for. Ben pressed down and squeezed his eyes shut as his skin began to ripple and harden. In half-a-second, his legs had shortened and snapped into their new place, a membrane latched itself between his arms and his sides, and Ben felt his back muscles grow thicker to support wings, his bones hollowing and his lungs expanding as the gill slits on his sides flared in the rushing wind. He tumbled for a moment, then tucked his wings close to his body and snapped them out again with a powerful flap.

When Jetray opened his slanted eyes, he couldn't feel the sting of the wind, and the world had been bent into perfect clarity. He could see for miles in either direction, despite the moon and stars being his only light. It was easy to spot where the trees were shaking and being knocked out of the way as Munya forced his way through the forest.

He glanced up and another flap of his wings brought him level to Rook, the Saturdays' airship dangling like a toy far above their heads. "Hold on!" Jetray shouted to be heard over the wind as his talons closed around Rook's shoulders, quickly adjusting to the added weight. He felt Rook reach up to grab his ankles for added support and, finding their balance, Jetray propelled them forward at an incredible speed.

Munya was coming into view quickly. He had a squirming bundle of web over one shoulder and was stealing glances back at them with an ugly snarl on his face. Jetray felt his facial muscles twitch into a loose approximation of a grin.

Without needing to say a word, Rook knew what to do. He let go of Jetray's ankles at the same time that his talons released. Whipping out his Proto-Tool, Rook extended it into a staff and slammed the end of it into Munya's back as they collided, hard enough that Munya went tumbling over. Rook pushed off of him at the last second, doing a neat backflip and landing gracefully in a crouch as Munya growled, face-down in the dirt. The chupacabra had gone flying, landing in the bushes and only getting more tangled up in the foliage as it thrashed against its web bindings, whimpering.

As Rook straightened up, Jetray swooped down and landed at his side. "You get that chupacabra free while I handle this bad Spiderman cosplay," he said. Rook glanced over, only to quickly look away again as Jetray pressed the Omnitrix symbol protruding from his chest and a flash of green light lit up the area. It was Four Arms who smirked when the light died down, cracking all four sets of his knuckles, and finished with, "He owes me a rematch."

Rook nodded. He didn't need to be told twice. Munya had just gotten back to his feet when Four Arms took a running start at him, cupping his two lower sets of hands and slamming his fists into Munya's jaw. He went flying, sent slamming into trees and skipping over the ground like a stone over a pond. The crashing noise that was made as Munya tore through trunks almost as big as he was, was unholy. Still, Rook kept a passive expression, watching as Four Arms jumped into the air with his powerful legs and went pounding through the remaining trees after him.

Once Ben was gone, Rook turned to the writhing pile of webbing and knelt down next to it with his Proto-Tool in hand. If it kept struggling in its blind panic, the chupacabra was going to end up unable to breathe when the webs inevitably began suffocating it or even cutting off blood circulation.

After a moment of thought, Rook switched his Proto-Tool into laser mode and set a hand on the chupacabra's bound chest. As soon as he touched it, though, it began to snarl and thrash even harder than it had been before. Rook immediately pulled back, startled. He didn't want to hurt the poor thing, but he had no idea how long it would take for it to tire itself out and Rook wasn't going to leave Ben in a fight alone, even if he could probably handle it.

A shout and a rustle in the leaves above his head caught his attention and, without a second thought, Rook aimed above him and fired. There was another yell, this one clearer, and then a grunt as Zak Saturday fell from the tree and hit the ground on his stomach, letting out a groan of pain.

Immediately, Rook bristled. "What do you think you are doing?" He snapped. "How did you even—?" He cut himself off, taking in the tattered parachute pack still clinging to Zak's back and finally noticing the wisps of a fabric left caught in the branches. Rook felt his anger go from fiery to very, very calm. "You were to stay put," he said flatly.

Completely unconcerned with his tone, Zak gave a one-armed shrug as he pushed himself up. "I jump out of the airship all the time. I mean, it usually goes better when Zon is there to catch me, but we own parachutes for a reason." He grinned at Rook, only somewhat mockingly. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, at least Fisk decided to stay back and wait for mom and dad."

Rook felt his eyebrow twitch and his grip on the Proto-Tool had begun to shake. "This is not your job," he continued, still speaking evenly. "You were told to stay out of the way for your own protection."

"Yeah, like that's ever stopped me before." Zak rolled his eyes. He ignored Rook, still choking on his indignation, and moved to the other side of the chupacabra. Rook hadn't noticed, absorbed in their conversation, but at some point, it had stopped struggling. Unlike when Rook had put a hand on its side, it seemed to lean into Zak's touch. "There, there," Zak cooed as if Rook wasn't even there. "I know you must be scared… This stuff is tough, huh? Let's see what we can do about getting you out of there."

Stunned, all Rook could do was watch as Zak used his weapon — the bird claw at the end of his staff — to cut through the web while the chupacabra remained relaxed for him. Zak kept speaking to it, stroking down its side, and only paused periodically to remove the webbing that had clumped up between his claw's talons before continuing.

Despite himself, a part of Rook couldn't help but be… amazed. He knew that some people were naturally good with animals, but it seemed like Zak just being close had a calming effect on the chupacabra.

When he had all of the webbing tossed to the side, Zak ran a finger along the spine protruding from the top of the chupacabra's head. It made a noise like a growl, though it didn't sound aggressive. It blinked at Zak with its huge eyes before turning away from him and darting away, quickly getting lost between the trees.

Once it was gone, reality set in. Rook felt his ears burning hot beneath his fur and there was a surge of frustration in his chest. He had just been shown up by a child. Ben had been counting on him and, honestly, if Zak hadn't been there then Rook knew the task wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly.

He got to his feet, shifting his Proto-Tool back into a default blaster and holding it at the ready. It was pitch-black in the forest, but Rook could dimly see Munya and Four Arms jostling trees in the distance with their fight and occasionally was able to make out the sound of one of them crashing. "Now that that is out of the way, you must leave immediately. I need to assist Ben in fighting Munya and you are a liability."

Zak had been trying to pick away the remaining bits of web still clinging to his weapon but, upon hearing Rook's statement, he bristled and looked up with a scowl. "A liability?" He repeated, incredulous. "You're the one with the badge and you can't even handle some sticky webs! Between the two of us, I don't think you have any room to talk."

"I did not realize that we were basing "usefulness" on menial tasks that any creature functioning above the mental capacity of a jellyfish could perform," Rook shot back.

"If that's how low the bar is, then I guess it makes sense that you couldn't do something so menial," said Zak with a sneer. He stepped closer and Rook was intensely aware of Zak's hands clenching around his weapon, of his own grip on the Proto-Tool turning so tight that it was nearly painful.

Movement out of the corner of his eye spurred Rook into motion. He grabbed Zak by the shirt collar and threw him to the ground, landing hard above him on his forearms as Rook shielded Zak's body with his own. It was an instinct from working with someone who refused to wear armor. His reaction was right on time too, as Rook felt Four Arms' foot brush the edge of his fur as Ben went sailing over their heads and slammed with a thunderous snap into a tree bigger than he was.

"Woah," Zak said softly, still pinned beneath Rook.

He was stunned, but not for long. As soon as Zak started trying to move, Rook pushed himself up and swung around. Jogging over to his partner, Rook was greeted by the sound of the Omnitrix powering down and a flash of green light as the powerful body of a Tetramand collapsed back to that of a normal human.

"Ben!" Rook came to stand at his side, holding the Proto-Tool up and looking around for any sign of Munya. Had he given up? "Are you alright? Where is—?"

Groaning, Ben climbed to his feet, ignoring Rook to focus on Zak with panic in his eyes. "What are you doing here? You're a target, Zak!" He shouted.

A split-second to be surprised was the only preparation that Rook got as Munya landed hard between them, splitting the dirt and forming a crater as the resulting shockwave sent Rook to his knees. He tried to bring his Proto-Tool up to get a good shot, but Rook lost it when he began violently coughing. There was so much dust kicked up into the air that his eyes were beginning to water.

All of that faded from Rook's mind when someone screamed. He was quickly on his feet, feeling Ben right next to him. The cloud of dust faded quickly and Rook got a good view of Munya's hand wrapped around Zak's torso, lifting him off of the ground and squeezing. There was another scream — not from fear but, rather, out of pain.

"Zak!" Ben darted forward, hitting the Omnitrix mid-stride. His next step shook the ground and Humungousaur drove his fist into Munya's gut. It didn't make him drop Zak, but Munya's grip slackened enough for Humungousaur to force his hand open and allow Zak to collapse to the ground.

Moving quickly, Rook flipped his Proto-Tool into a tether line and aimed it at Zak, firing and watching the end wrap around his ankle. He wasn't immediately moving, which was a bad sign. Rook yanked him out of the way of the two fighting giants, pulling Zak toward him and shielding them both behind a gathering of trees. He could still hear Humungousaur and Munya exchanging blows, but Rook wasn't focusing on that anymore.

He snapped his fingers above Zak's head, which got him a groan and coaxed Zak into opening his eyes. "Follow my finger," Rook instructed, and Zak surprisingly managed to do so without any sarcastic remark. He noticed Zak clutching at his stomach and Rook set a hand on his shoulder, just in case Zak tried to curl up. "Are you feeling nauseous or having trouble breathing at all?"

After a moment, Zak nodded. "Y-Yeah. I can't… catch my breath." He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, blinking rapidly. "Damn, did that hurt…"

Rook hummed clinically. "Yes. Blunt force trauma to the abdomen tends to feel like that."

He helped Zak sit up, pressing experimentally along his spine to see if it garnered any pained reaction. When Zak merely batted his hands away and propped himself up against a tree, Rook let him. Other than the bruising that would no doubt develop, merely being out of breath for a few minutes was the best outcome for the way that Munya had been squeezing him. Any harder, and…

Well. Rook didn't really want to think about what a bloody picture that would have made. As much as he disliked Zak, Rook didn't want to see him dead. Or popped like a grape.

He was about to go rejoin Ben but didn't get the chance. A flash of green light through the leaves announced his arrival and Ben stopped next to Rook, looking down at Zak with a concerned frown.

"He is alright," Rook said before Ben could ask. "Merely winded."

A part of Rook was waiting for Ben to lecture Zak on disobeying him, on how it would have turned out fine if he had just stayed on the airship, but it didn't come. Of course it didn't.

To Rook's confusion, though, Ben suddenly looked guilty, turning away from Zak to look at the ground. "I…" He took a deep breath, then stepped closer and crouched to be at Zak's level. "Sorry," he said honestly. "Not just for letting you get hurt, although obviously I wish I had done a better job at that. And I know, you don't need protection," Ben continued just as Zak was opening his mouth to protest, "but it is my job. The thing is…" He closed his eyes. "You dropped your Claw when Munya let go of you. I was so busy trying to fight him off that I didn't even notice he had grabbed it at first, but…" Ben held his hands up helplessly. "I'm sorry. He took it."

It took a moment to set in. Zak merely stared for a moment, his mouth opening and closing uselessly, and then he let out a strangled noise. Eyes widening, he began patting himself down and, when that didn't turn up any results, ran his fingers over the ground around them. "No, no, no, no…" He chanted under his breath, a desperate whisper.

"I'm sorry," Ben said again. He straightened up, biting his lip. "Do you know why Munya would have wanted it?"

"No!" Zak slammed his fists into the dirt, shaking and hunching in on himself. "No, it's completely useless to him. It's just for me, it's supposed to… Help me with…" He cut himself off, sitting back on his knees and clutching at his hair. The look on Zak's face was frenzied. "I can't believe I lost it," he muttered, horrified.

Zak kept looking between the two of them as if they would have any answers. They didn't, obviously. No more words were said between them after that.

Frankly, Rook was just wondering what any of it had to do with Dr. Animo.

A/N: If anyone thinks Zak is out of character, I'd like to remind you that fifteen is still a child and then direct you to literally every time he's ever spoken to Francis. Zak's pettiness knows no bounds, he will hold a grudge for years.