Do they ever say for sure why Modo's eye glows in the show? All of the stories I've read just say that it's bionic, but none of the episodes I've seen say for sure and he has the same unusual shaped pupils before and after they're captured by Karbunkle so I went with a different theory.

"I still don't like this," Courtney said, glancing around cautiously as she followed Stephanie. Although it had been so long since she had seen that mischievous grin that she just couldn't bring herself to stop her.

"It's a nice bike, looks like he takes really good care of it," Courtney said as she admired the motorcycle.

"Yeah, looks a lot better than your pile of junk in the barn," Stephanie said as she reached out to take the helmet.

Before Courtney could reply a loud siren started to go off and the bike suddenly pulled away from them, causing both of them to scream and jump away from it.

"Uh, Steph, I'm starting to think this may not be the best idea," Courtney said as they backed away from the motorcycle which was doing a good job of revving it's engine in such a way as to make it sound more like a growl.

"Okay, we'll forget about the helmet," Stephanie said, "but I'm still not giving his clothes back until we find out what he is."

They had just ducked behind a large rock when Dannie came running through the woods so fast that she barely managed to stop before she ran into them, "He's a mouse, he's a great big giant mouse, and I think he's a pirate, he's got an eye patch just like pirates do," she told them breathlessly.

"A mouse?" Stephanie asked in disbelief.

"Well it would explain the tail and fur," Courtney said then fell silent when she heard someone running through the water.

Courtney slowly peeked over the top of the rock they were behind and was amazed to find that Dannie had been right. Standing there at the waters edge was a gray furred mouse, with a mechanical right arm, an eye patch and, luckily he was wearing black swim trunks, because really, aside from his head, tail and fur he seemed to be built like a human. He was also very tall, very muscular and then there was his mechanical arm that Dannie had said had a gun in it, all of which began to make her worry about just how badly he wanted to keep his identity a secret and what he would do to keep that secret.

"Hey Lil' Darlin, what's wrong, what's got you so riled up?" he asked the bike.

Courtney ducked down as the bike revved it's engine and turned towards the rock they were hiding behind.

"Now where are my clothes, I was sure I left them right here," they heard him say, followed by another revving of the bikes engine as it sounded like it was getting closer to their hiding spot.

"Okay Steph, this was your brilliant idea, what are we going to do now?" Courtney asked.

"You could start by telling me where you've hidden my clothes," Modo said.

The girls looked up to find him leaning over the rock they were hiding behind, Stephanie and Courtney quickly jumped to their feet and took several steps back. Courtney tried to grab Dannie to pull her back with them, but she slipped out of her grasp and climbed up onto the rock so she was at eye level with Modo.

"You have an eye patch, are you a pirate?" Dannie asked him.

Modo chuckled, "No, I lost my eye the same time I lost my arm. Now do you know where these two hid my clothes?" he asked.

"Maybe. If you get your clothes back are you going to leave and not let us see you again? It's not very nice to run off every time we get near you, I really wanted to see you again," Dannie told him.

"I'm sorry about that, just have to be careful about letting too many people know about me, but as long as you promise not to tell anyone else about me then I guess I could come back and visit you," he told her.

"Good," Dannie said before suddenly jumping off the rock at Modo and hugging him, then she said, "I don't know where you're clothes are, but Steph said she was taking them."

"So where did you hide my clothes?" Modo asked Stephanie.

Courtney and Stephanie had both relaxed a great deal after seeing how he interacted with Dannie and realized he wasn't going to hurt them, but Courtney was still shocked when Stephanie's mischievous grin returned.

"Somewhere, but I'm not taking any chances of you running off, I want to know what you are and where you came from before I'm giving them back," Stephanie told him.

"Stephanie stop being a brat," Dannie said.

Stephanie just crossed her arms stubbornly and waited, looking quite confident until Dannie started to whisper something to Modo.

"Are you sure?" Modo asked her.

Dannie just grinned and nodded her head before finally letting him put her down. A second later he grabbed Stephanie, threw her over his shoulder and started to head up the path Dannie had come down a little while earlier.

"Dannie what did you tell him to do?" Courtney asked as they followed him.

"You'll see," she replied, her grin beginning to look like a perfect replica of Stephanie's.

A moment later they came to a clearing at the edge of the river on top of a cliff that dropped straight down about ten feet to the deepest spot in the river.

"You wouldn't dare," Stephanie said as she realized where they were.

"The little lady said it would be good for you," Modo replied before tossing her into the water.

Stephanie screamed until she hit the water, when she resurfaced she glared up at him, although the corners of her mouth kept twitching as if she was trying not to smile as she said, "Now you're never going to get your clothes back."

Modo just shrugged, "It's too hot out for clothes anyways," he said.

By then Dannie had stripped down to her swimsuit and ran up to Modo, "Throw me in too," she begged.

"I don't know, the water is pretty deep down there," Modo told her.

"She'll be fine, she could swim before she could walk, sometimes I think she's part mermaid," Courtney told him.

"Alright then," he said scooping her up into his arms, "you ready?"

"Yep," Dannie said grinning.

A moment later she was flying through the air, squealing excitedly until she hit the water then resurfaced a second later giggling, "You're coming in too aren't you?" Dannie called up after swimming over to Stephanie.

Modo took several steps back then ran and jumped off the cliff, as soon as he surfaced in the water Dannie swam over to him. Courtney watched them for a long moment, amazed at how quickly her plain boring life had gotten so crazy. She certainly never would have imagined that she'd be standing there watching her cousins play with a giant talking mouse, but she certainly couldn't complain, she hadn't seen either of them smiling or having so much fun since before their parents had died.

Deciding to worry about the dozens of questions that were racing through her head later, she took off the t-shirt and shorts she had had on over her swimsuit then finally jumped in and joined them.

Well over an hour later Courtney left the girls still playing with Modo while she went to retrieve everyone's clothes. When she got back Modo was just coming out and she handed him his clothes, "I'm really sorry about letting Stephanie take your clothes, she's just been so serious since her parents died. She use to be so happy and mischievous. Seeing that side of her finally starting to come back, I couldn't bring myself to stop her," she told him.

"Then I'm glad you didn't stop her. I've seen a lot of kids lose their families and you do whatever it takes to help them recover and smile again," he said as he sat down on his beach towel and watched Stephanie and Dannie as they continued to play in the river.

"So where did you come from?" Courtney asked as she spread out her own beach towel and sat down next to him.

"Mars," Modo replied.

"Really, there's life on mars?" Courtney asked.

"Barely, it use to be beautiful like earth is, forests and rivers, huge cities and countless miles of farmland. Now there's almost nothing but deserts and rock, there's one small garden that's barely kept alive with constant care. The people didn't fare any better, probably only a few thousand left struggling to survive," Modo told her.

"How did it end up like that?" Courtney asked.

"The Plutarkians showed up and started buying up large amounts of land then they started stripping the land, taking everything, the trees, the water, even the dirt, they stripped it right down to the bedrock. Eventually we found out that they had used up all the natural resources on their own planet and started going around taking everything they could from other planets. When no one would sell them the land they started taking it by force, it turned out they already had a large army on Mars and a full war broke out. By the time the war ended they had stripped most of the planet and the handful of survivors were living in hiding in caves. I'm not sure if we won the war or if they just decided there wasn't enough left to be worth fighting for," he explained.

"That's horrible; what do these Plutarkians look like and do you have any idea where they went after they left Mars?" Courtney asked.

"They're sort of fish like," Modo started to tell her, "I could show you," he told her.

"How?" Courtney asked.

Modo pointed to his antennas which started to glow slightly, "I can show you my memories of them," he told her.

"Okay," Courtney said a little hesitantly, "Are you sure it'll work with a human?" she asked.

"Yeah, Throttle's done it a couple of times to show Charley stuff," he told her, then before she could ask added, "I'll show you who they are too. Now just close your eyes."

Courtney closed her eyes, a second later she felt Modo's antennas touch her head and she began to see images of huge bladed machines cutting down several trees at a time and digging machines stripping the land down to bare rock and the Plutarkians who ran them. Mice fighting the Plutarkians, a city being destroyed in a single blast, a mouse who looked a lot like Modo with pale tan fur fighting with a Plutarkian when another creature approached from behind and shot him, leaving a smoking hole through his chest. A smiling tan mouse with long blond hair, wearing a long pale pink dress, standing at the end of long chamber with tables and dozens of mice lining the sides of the room. They all seemed to be celebrating until the large doors at the end of the chamber were blasted open and Plutarkians as well as some of the other creatures began to attack.

Modo suddenly pulled back and took a deep breath, "Are you alright?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah, I'm just not as good at controlling the memories as Throttle is, he's always been better at it. When he first joined the Freedom Fighters he was a messenger, so he got a lot of practice. Drove the Plutarkians crazy that we could just transfer battle plans and messages from one mind to another and never had to put it into writing or any form that they could easily get access to," Modo told her.

"That would certainly be quite an advantage," Courtney said then asked, "What were those other things that were fighting alongside the Plutakians?"

"Rats, they switched sides more times than I can count during the war and were responsible for a whole lot of innocent people dieing every time they joined the Plutarkians," Modo said, his eye beginning to glow red.

"Do all Martian mice's eyes glow like that?" Courtney asked, a little shocked.

"No, it's a targeting lens for the laser cannon in my arm, I can shoot just fine without it, but the way it's implanted over my eye I'm not sure if it can safely be removed. Not sure why it glows like that, but it seems to be triggered by anger," he told her.

"You couldn't ask the person who put it in if it could be removed?" Courtney asked.

"It wasn't something I was given a choice about," he replied, "Now I still need to tell you about Throttle, Vinnie, Charley and where the Plutarkians are," he said then began to tell her about how they had ended up on earth, how they had met Charley and about Limburger.

When he finished Courtney said, "I knew it."

"Knew what?" Modo asked.

"That Limburger had something to do with them. My grandma has some friends who had to go into a nursing home, they didn't have any kids or family left so they had to sell their farm. It had been in their family for over two hundred years, the house was built on around the original log cabin that was built back when the area was first being settled. Limburger promised them that it would be well taken care of, now there's nothing left of it but a hole in the ground," Courtney told him.

"I can't believe we didn't think of that, they did that on Mars, even after we realized what they were doing and refused to sell any more land to them they still managed to get more land by using disguises and buying from people who were already trying to sell land. It would explain why he hasn't been replaced, we may have stopped his bigger plans, but he's still managing to send small amounts of resources back to Plutark,"

"From what you've told me I'd say you're still doing pretty good for there only being the four of you against him and all the goons he can hire," Courtney said.

"I know, I just don't want to see them destroy Earth the way they did Mars," Modo said.

"Who's going to destroy Earth and what about Mars?" Stephanie asked as she walked up to them, then got a mischievous grin as she added, "And did I see you two making out while ago?"

"What? Of course not, why would you even think that?" Courtney asked.

"Well I looked up here and it looked like you two had your faces pretty close together and I couldn't think of anything else you could have been doing like that," Stephanie replied.

"I was showing her what Plutarkians look like. I can share memories with my antennas," Modo told her.

"What are Plutarkians?" Stephanie asked.

A little while later after Modo had told her everything he had told Courtney she asked, "So can see what they look like too?"

"No, I'll let Throttle show you when you meet him," Modo told her.

"But you showed Courtney, why can't you show me?" Stephanie asked.

"Because I can't control the memories as well, especially when it comes to the war, you're just a kid and shouldn't be exposed to that," Modo replied.

"I'm not a kid, I'm sixteen," Stephanie told him.

"And in such a hurry to prove you're already an adult, just like my nephew Rimfire was at your age. You're still going to have to wait until you meet Throttle to have him show you what the Plutarkians look like," Modo told her.

Before Stephanie could argue any further Dannie started screaming and they all three shot up and ran for the river's edge where she had been playing.

"What's wrong?" Courtney and Stephanie both asked at the same time.

"My foot is bleeding," Dannie replied between near hysterical sobs as she held her foot up so they could see the blood running down from the ball of her foot.

"It's alright, I don't think it's that bad, we just need to get you home and clean it up," Courtney told her as she picked her up.

"No, I'm going to bleed to death before we get home," Dannie sobbed, burying her face in Courtney's shoulder.

"You're not going to bleed to death, just like you didn't bleed to death from the paper cut you got last week, sometimes you can be such a baby," Stephanie said.

"Come with me, I've got a first aid kit in my bike," Modo told them.

After Modo had pulled the first aid kit out from under the seat of his bike he said, "Sit down and hold her while I clean her foot up."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? It didn't seem to like me very much last time I got near it," Courtney said looking uncertainly at the motorcycle.

"Don't worry, she just knew Stephanie was up to no good earlier, she'll be fine now," Modo assured her.

Courtney sat down sideways on the bike and held Dannie in her lap, making failed attempts to calm her down while Modo started to clean up her foot.

A moment later, when the cut had been cleaned up enough to get a good look at it Stephanie said, "Dannie, calm down, it's just a tiny scratch, not even a quarter of an inch long and not very deep," but Dannie still continued to crying about bleeding to death.

"Has she always reacted like this to getting hurt?" Modo asked.

"No, just since-" Stephanie hesitated a moment, realization hitting her, then finished, "just since our parents died."

"That's what I suspected," Modo said as he finished putting a Band-Aid on Dannie's foot, "Okay, you're foot isn't bleeding anymore, now can you tell me why you're so afraid that you're going to bleed to death?" he asked her.

"When the police woman was taking me outside after mommy and daddy got hurt I heard one of the ambulance people say mommy lost too much blood and then she died," Dannie told him between sniffling and hiccupping.

"Oh Dannie, I'm so sorry I called you a baby, but I promise you, you won't bleed to death from little cuts like that," Stephanie said scooping Dannie out of Courtney's lap and into her arms then carried her back to where they had left their towels.

"How did you know why she was getting so upset?" Courtney asked.

"I knew a couple kids back on Mars who were about Dannie's age or younger who had heard that their parent's had bled to death and they had the same fear of bleeding. Mama volunteered to help out at an orphanage, always took my big sister, little brother and I along with her. Even after we were all old enough to stay home alone I still kept going with her right up until I joined the Freedom Fighters. Met a lot of kids who survived things they never should have had to see. It wasn't until later on that mama admitted the reason she always made us go with her was so we'd have friends there if anything ever happened to her, but we were lucky, she's still alive and still looking after orphans back on Mars," Modo told her, a note of sadness in his voice.

"You must miss her a lot, being so far away," Courtney said.

"Yeah, haven't seen her in years, I miss Mars too, it's not much now, but it's home and maybe someday we'll find a way to make it beautiful again, after we deal with the Plutarkians," Modo told her.

"Courtney, do you think Modo could come home with us for dinner and to meet grandma?" Dannie asked as she ran back over to Courtney.

"I don't see why not, if he want's to," Courtney replied.

"You're grandma wouldn't have a heart attack seeing a giant alien mouse?" Modo asked.

"I don't think so, we could tell her about you before we actually introduce you," Courtney said.

"Why don't you tell her about me today and I'll come back for dinner later?" Modo suggested, "Anyways if I don't get home soon my bro's are going to start wondering where I've been."

"You promise you'll really come back?" Dannie asked staring up at him with huge eyes.

Modo knelt down so he could look her in the eyes and said, "I promise, I'll come back within the next couple of days."

"Okay, I guess I can let you leave then," Dannie said hugging him