1/12/18

I'm pretty happy with this chapter. After having to rewrite it I wasn't sure if it'd come out okay, but surprisingly I think it came out better than the first one. Though, feel free to tell me how crap it is in a review. :)

When the boys got back to the treehouse it was nearly 4 o'clock in the afternoon. They'd rushed up the ladder as soon as they got to the backyard and were thankful to see that both of the cats remained covered.

The girl cat was awake again and greeted them with a curious look.

"Well?" She said, patiently waiting. Coop looked over to the other side of the room and saw Kat waiting for their answer. It wouldn't have struck him as odd if not for the lack of glaring, sneering, or dirty looks. Even now that they'd made eye contact he didn't look annoyed, just distracted.

"Well," Coop said hesitantly, expecting some snide remark. "When we got there, there wasn't a single piece of metal to be found. The whole place was empty."

"Not even a small scrap?" The girl said.

"No." Dennis answered. "In fact, the place was too clean. There wasn't a single blade of grass or rock in the area. The whole place looked like it'd been picked clean and buried over."

Dennis took out his phone and showed them the picture.

"There was fresh dirt and everything."

The girl moved to grab the phone and the boys turned their heads as her sheet slipped past her shoulders. She rolled her eyes and pulled it back up as she looked over the phone. Coop watched as Kat moved to look over her shoulder.

"This wasn't done manually," The girl said, mumbling to herself. "and the humans don't have the technology to do this so quickly, let alone so precisely."

She squinted at the phone screen and moved it closer to Kat.

"Aiden, what were the positions of the shield bots you placed around the ship?" She used her finger to trace the perimeter of the circle. "Is this it?"

Kat took the phone from her hands and nodded.

"Yes, it is." He held the phone, concentrating on the image, before handing it back to Dennis.

"So, this is the shape of your force field?" Dennis asked. Kat nodded.

"Yes, to the exact mark." Kat said, though he seemed to be talking to himself more than Dennis.

"So, what does it mean?" Coop asked.

"I don't know…" Kat drifted to the other side of the treehouse, his arms crossed as he stared off into space. "This could mean a couple of different things, none of which we have the tools to prove."

He stopped walking and paused to face them.

"This could mean the force field had contained the blast within itself, and as such the only area that would need to be covered up would be the landing site." He turned again, looking out the window with an annoyed look on his face. "But that doesn't make sense either, because none of us landed in the same place, which would mean we were blown outside the circle. If the shield had kept the blast in why not us?"

"And either way," The girl added. "That doesn't explain how someone else had gotten there and cleaned everything up so quickly. Not to mention who they are or what they want with our damaged equipment."

"The government is still an option." Dennis said, taking out his notepad and writing things down. "Who's to say they didn't take everything and cover up the field? There's probably a ton of new technology they have that us civilians don't know about."

"No, that wouldn't work." Kat said, surprisingly, without an ounce of distain. "We monitored your government's technology far in advance of sending anyone here. You're no where near ready to develop high speed equipment like this, let alone anything that can pick up on small trace metals that quickly."

"Yet, we were able to beat you. Maybe you don't know everything." Coop said. Kat glared and was going to say something until the girl interrupted. Without looking up from Dennis' notes, she put a hand on Kat's chest, stopping his response.

"So far, we know that whoever it is has not only access to advanced technology, but was quick enough to get everything before we had a chance to even see it. They also were able to detect the explosion even though no one else even knows it happened." Dennis said, pointing to what he'd written on his pad. The girl nodded, apparently satisfied with the notes.

"The only way for that to happen, and that's if the force field had contained it, would be if this person had an energy detector. A surge of energy like that would have caused a huge blimp on their radar." The girl said.

Kat tensed.

"Do you think it's the Irkens?" He said to the girl, ignoring the boys' confused glances. She paused, looking worried, but shook her head.

"No. It shouldn't be, anyway. Even if my contacts sold me out they wouldn't have been able to track me. All they'd know is who gave it to me, not who I am or where I went. Besides," She said, a panicked look in her eyes. "The Irkens would have found us by now and killed us."

She shivered, and Kat looked like he wanted to comfort her, but hesitated.

"What the hell are you two talking about?"

The cats looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation before answering them.

"To put it in short," The girls started. "The Irkens are a race of conquerors similar to the Catonians. Except not only are they more advanced-."

"Which the Emperor will never admit it." Kat cut in.

"They're also more viscous, and we happened to have stolen one of their energy cores to power our machine."

"Wait. There are more aliens like you out there? Is there anyone who doesn't want to take over a planet?" Dennis said.

"And what do you mean by more viscous?" said Coop.

"The last time someone had stolen from them all that was left was ashes." Kat said, looking over the notes.

"Which is why we know it isn't them." The girl said, moving to lay back in her corner of the room. "If the Irkens had been the ones to take everything we'd have been incinerated by one of their SIR bots by now."

"The tale of our scorched bodies used as a warning to all those who'd think to challenge the great and powerful blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…" Kat said snidely as he continued to write something on the pad. When he finished he nodded to himself and looked up into the horrified faces of Coop and Dennis.

"You've made enemies of some of the most dangerous people in the universe and you're not in any way worried?"

"Of course not." Kat said, rolling his eyes. "Because they don't know that we're the enemies."

"Besides," He continued. "I just did the math and judging by the normal speed of a SIR unit and the Irken's tracking technology they'd have found us no more than two days after knowing about our theft."

"And not only are we still alive," The girl added. "But none of my contacts have tried to contact me."

For a long moment the boys starred at them as though they'd grown extra heads. Finally, Coop let out a confused noise, somewhere between a 'what?' and a bird's squawk.

"One: How can you be so nonchalant about this?! And two: How would you know if they contacted you?! Your ship's blown to pieces and probably stowed away in some hidden lab!"

The girl shrugged and gave Kat an inquiring look. Kat nodded and gave her a 'go ahead' signal with his hand.

"There's a small light placed on Aiden's food bowl. It's set to blink if there's a message sent to his lab. Before we finished the machine, I put in a fail safe in my ship's communication system making it so if anything were to happen to my ship, incoming messages sent to me would be automatically diverted to his computer."

She paused to let that information set in.

"The light hasn't blinked once since we've been awake, meaning nothing's come in since before the ship blew up."

She pointed to the front windows of the treehouse and from there Coop could see the slight view of the kitchen. He could just make out the food bowl sitting on the kitchen floor.

"Just how long have you had a lab in my house?" Coop said, his voice coming out in a growl. Kat, unsurprisingly, was unaffected.

"Hmm," He said, finally going back to that annoying smirk. "Longer than you'd think?"

He gave Coop a fanged smile and chuckled as he clenched his fist.

"And before either of you ask, no, I can't access my lab anymore." He leaned back against the wall and covered his eyes with his arm dramatically. "Just another horrid displeasure thanks to your incompetence, I'm afraid."

Coop could feel his face turning red as the need to punch him raised, but instead he took a step back and started rubbing his knuckles against his temples.

"Okay… Well then," Coop said, counting to ten in his head. "Now that we've establish that the other aliens are probably not going to come and kill us all, what the hell do we do about the missing parts?"

Coop took a little pride when he saw Kat's disappointed expression. No doubt upset he hadn't taken the bait. Coop glanced over to Dennis who was giving him a thumbs up.

"Well," The girl said, "For now all we know is that someone with advanced technology, for a human, took all of our equipment and probably has the resources to track our energy outputs. That makes them a threat, especially since in order to rebuild our machine we'll need another energy core."

She let out a long sigh and wrapped herself more securely in her blanket pile.

"Even assuming I can get another Irken energy core whoever took our equipment will probably be able to track us as soon as we try to use it." She said, scowling. With her face buried snuggly between all those blankets she looked like a very annoyed burrito, but neither of the boys were going to point that out.

"That makes them dangerous." Kat said, a dark look on his face. "Right now it doesn't matter who it is; the Irkens, the human government, or even our people. We have to treat whoever this is like an enemy, one with a lot more resources than us."

The other three nodded.

"How are we going to fight someone we know nothing about?" Coop asked.

"Easy, we're not going to fight." Kat said, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

"What?"

"For now, we're going to gather information and lay low. This person could have just been out to find some free tech, but for all we know he's looking for us and we just got lucky. There's no reason to draw their attention any further."

"Then what are we going to do if you get this core thing? If they want to take it, it's not like we can stop them!"

"Easy. The first thing we're going to do is secure this shoddy little treehouse of yours. We'll have to build a sort of concealer shield to put around this room. As long as whatever we do stays within this area we shouldn't be protected."

"That's assuming whoever we're up against doesn't know a way past it." The girl added.

"Not if we use my new schematics." Kat said, smirking diabolically. He turned to the girl, who had an excited look on her face. "I didn't think I'd have to use it on Earth, so I put it off, but if I'm right even our mystery thief won't see past them."

"What are you talking about?" Dennis cut it. The girl turned to him with a bug grin.

"A concealer field is a device used to hide the energy output of whatever is within its perimeter. It's like a force shield but instead of protecting you from an attack it works like a camouflage." The girl babbled excitedly. "I've always wanted to put one on my ship."

She whispered the last part so dreamily Coop would have thought it was her boyfriend.

"Okay, so you're going to make a camouflage field or something. Are you sure the thief won't be able to see past it?" Coop asked.

"Yes. Concealer fields have been being made the same way for a long time, so he won't be expecting anything different from the norm. They're also hard to get, so they probably won't even expect us to have that. If I'm right, then he could scan this exact area and he won't find anything but this wooden dump!"

Coop glared but nodded his head, and Dennis continued to write everything down.

"Alright," Dennis said, his pen finally stopping. "There's still one problem. If your ship's gone and your lab unreachable, how are you going to get any of this stuff?"

"That's our top priority." The girl said as she let herself sink further into the blankets. Her eyes were starting to droop, and Coop could see the way she slouched in on herself.

"I plan to…" She yawned. "To get in contact with some of my associates. They can send us the things we need, but," She said, looking at them. "I'm going to need some things from you two."

"Us?"

"Yes, you. I need you two to find me some items. They should have the parts I need without them looking to suspicions." She held out her hand and Dennis passed her the notepad.

She started writing some strange symbols and shapes onto the paper. The boys opened their mouths to ask what she was doing but stopped when Kat placed a hand on her shoulder. He pointed down to the page and then up to the boys with an exasperated look. Apparently, she understood whatever he meant because she stopped writing then continued on a different page. This time in shaky English with Kat whispering instructions in her ear.

"As this right?" She whispered after a minute of writing.

"It should be good enough for these two." Kat handed the notepad back to them but pulled back right before it reached their hands.

"Be sure to tell us if you need smaller words." He said, flashing them a smile. Coop scowled and snatched the notepad from his hands.

The boys frowned at the strange list of electronics but nodded their heads anyway. Some of them Coop could find in his house, and with all the weird tech Dennis' dad collected he was sure he could find a lot of these things.

"Alright." Coop said with a nod.

"Is that it?" Dennis asked.

"For now..." The girl replied, her eyes starting to close. Dennis looked like he was going to ask something, but the girl had already laid down and rolled over to face the wall. He and Coop shared a look before shrugging and turning to Kat.

"Right now, our first objective is to get in contact with Megan's associates. After that everything else just depends on how well we can keep this quiet." He said, pointedly. Coop scoffed at him.

"We're not going to get caught. That is, as long as you stay put." Coop replied with a glare. Kat smiled at him and gave a little bow.

"And leave your lovely little treehouse? Now why would I do that?" He said sneering. Coop rolled his eyes and headed to the door. Dennis, just as they were out the door, turned back around.

"Just remember what I said about the walkie talkies." Dennis said, with a tight smile. Kat returned it and watched as they headed down the latter and back into the house. The clock on the wall had just struck 5, which means the dad and Millie should be coming back from the dentist soon.

Kat moved from the doorway and sat next to his sister on the floor. As if sensing him, she scooted herself closer and laid her head on his lap. Without realizing it he started softly petting her head, all the while listening closely to the cars that drove by and the chatter of people walking outside.

Somewhere along the way he had gotten used to the inane chatter of the humans living around him. He listened closely for any new voices or mechanical noises that could suggest the identity of their thief, but as expected, nothing stood out.

Kat sighed in annoyance.

First it was mutation, then a truce, then missing equipment, and now, an unknown thief.

He let himself lean more comfortably against the blankets as he brooded over his horrid luck.

He wasn't paid enough for this shit.