*Tricity covered his mouth with her hand so she could hear better. It wasn't easy trying to hear Whitmore in a room full of loud children and then Mike going off at the mouth. And although the conversation was completely one sided on Whitmore's end, Tricity made sure she remembered everything he said...she didn't really have much to say in return. Tricity closed the phone and took her hand away from Cass's mouth, her eyes tearing up.*
"Whitmore says he's going after the stone in two days. He...he said he's going to bring Orion with him, along with the other mutants he's implanted with a green stone. Mike, what if he gets the stone before us? If Daria and Kaine come with us and Whitmore gets the stone before us..."

Mike was quiet for a minute.

"He might be lying. Think about it... why would he tell us exactly when he was doing this? So we knew when to stop him?"

"On the other hand, maybe he WANTS us to try to stop him... that option is a little more disturbing to me. I just wish we knew what he wanted."

"If you want my oppinion, though... we get everyone together, get them ready, and we get our asses in there and take that stone TONIGHT. Then we drop the damned thing in any convenient volcano."

"HE WANTS US TO GO AFTER HIM! He's going to use Daria, Kaine, and Orion against us!!"
*The room became dead quiet and Tricity couldn't hold her fear inside anymore. She quickly stormed out into the pantry, the whole of the kitchen's eletric appliances going on and off.*

Michael frowned, waving a hand across the room, taking this little outburst out of the childrens' minds before following her.

"What I mean," he said quietly, "Is that for him to do that, he doesn't NEED us to come to him. Daria and Kaine are already here, he could go in, take that red stone, and use them against us without us ever seeing him. Orion mgiht be a little tougher, but he could just show up at the school with him like he's done a number of times."

"There's something we're not seeing... but I don't think that's important. We need to go in and get that stone, and we need to do it before two days from now. As soon as possible."

he watched her, trying to guage her reaction.

*Tricity turned around to face him letting the tears flow, but calming a bit and letting the appliances shut down and go back to normal.*
"He's probably expecting that. I don't know what to do, Mike."
*She leaned against the food on the shelves of the pantry, gazing out of the window and at the lawn.*

"We go and we do what we need to do. We get the team ready, we go and take care of the plan, and as soon as we have that red stone we bug the hell out of there as fast as we can."

He looked at her for a moment, almost hesitantly. "Or rather, I get the team ready, go, and take care of the plan. I think you should protect the mansion while we go, in case he tries anything stupid here instead."

He clearly didn't like saying this.

*She quickly looked back at Mike.*
"You're joking. I'm not NOT going, Cass. I have to go...especially if Orion is there. There's no way that..."
*Suddenly Tricity grabbed her stomach and collapsed agains the shelves of food, in pain. She tried to stand, but Tricity suddenly fainted.*

As always seemed to be the case, Mike caught her as she fell. "And now I get to edit more out of the minds of small children," he sighed as he carried her quickly through the kitchen and up to the infirmary.

"This palce is huge!" Jamal exclaimed as he followed Ruby into the kitchen. "I can't belive you live in a mansion." he said shaking his head. "Daria lives here too?"

Ruby laughed as she searched through the fridge. "yep. Its really nice here, especially since my big sis is around. She and I really look up to Daria like she's part of the family." Ruby found a frozen pizza in the freezer. Jamal smiled as she had to stand on her tippy toes just to see inside, she was so cute and tiny. "Pizza?" she asked.

"Yes please." he smiled at her as she put it in the oven. Ruby was aware of his eyes on her back as she moved. She still didn't quite remember him but on the way he had shown her pictures of Daria that, even though they were taken before her mutation, were unmistakably her. Ruby came to sit across from Jamal on a stool near the island.

Ruby's tail wagged back and forth underneath her oversized t shirt. Her fox ear's perked up as she looked at Jamal, "So Why were you sleeping on a Old matress in that alley?" Ruby asked.

"Because i was trying to find Daria and I didnt know where to look." Jamal laughed.

"Couldnt you have gotten a hotel?" Ruby asked curiosly, tail wagging.

"Because I dont have enough money to get a hotel room in new york." Jamal replied with a smile.

RUby walked over to the oven and grabbed the pizza and gave Jamal a slice. Her slice on the other hand had Slices of fish on it. "Dont laugh, I love fish on pizza. I love fishsticks the best though."

Jamal only smiled slightly as he bit into his slice. "Its cool. Daria loves fish, anchovies, sushi, salmon, fishsticks...evryfish possible except for tuna. Even before the whole cat thing. I wonder if it was just a very small part of her mutation that was evident before the ears and tail."

Ruby smiled again, this time at her food! "Yeah...fish is great. Why did you live with Daria? Where are your parents?"

"Huh? Oh." Jamal laughed. "Well she's not really my cousin. All the kids of the people who worked in her parents restarant would stay in Daria's grandparents house. We used to call them aunt and uncle just to make the place more homey."

"Oh." Ruby said.

"But my mother died a long time ago from cancer and my father used to be the head cook. But...he's dead now too." Jamal said. It was obvious he would say no more on the subject; it was too depressing.

Ruby nodded. "You want some juice? We have fruit punch." she said excitedly, as if punch were the best thing in the world. This made Jamal smile as he nodded. She got them drinks and sat back down finishing her pizza and reaching for another slice.

"What about your parents?"

"Shouldn't you already know?" Ruby siad testing him.

"I was six. I don' remember everything. Just a pretty little fox girl who was kidnapped by some crazy bastard scientist."

Ruby blushed.

Ruby felt a flury of emotions streak through her as she looked at Jamal. She was blushing furiosly beefore she managed to tone it down to a light pink.

"When Me And My sisters were taken from our home I remember seeing daddy get shot in the stomach and after they pried me away from Mommy they put me in a bag but I heard her screaming...I dont know if they are still alive or not." Ruby sighed, fox ears flattening.

Jamal reached out from across the table and Placed his hand on hers. He began smiling as he squeezed it reasuringly. "Im sure they are alive, you will see one of these days you will find them." Jamal grinned at the little fox girl who was blushing once again.

((Tag your turn for adorable fluffy moment))

Jamal laughed. "You look like a red tomato when you do that." he teased.

"I can't help it!" Ruby giggled.

"Oh?Do I make you nervous?" he asked moving closer so that his face was about six inches from hers. he didn't want to get too close just close enough...

Ruby jumped, tiny sparks flew from her ear as she fell off of her stool. "I...Uh.."

Jamal laughed and held out a hand to help her up. "You're so jumpy. Its fine. I'm not going to hurt you."

"I just thought.." Ruby blushed deeply again and looked down at her sneakers. "Sorry."

"No its fine, I just think its cute. We should go out some time, Ruby."

"Out?" the fox girl's ears twitched "...like on a date?"

"Only if you want to." Jamal said. 'No pressure. I mean, we don't even have to call it a date..it could just be us hanging out. Other people can come.." it was his turn to babble.

"We...We could call it a date." Ruby said with a small smile on her face. She couldnt believe it she was having better luck with boys than Emerald. She was tempted to rub it in her older sisters face but that would be mean.

Jamal stopped rambling for a moment and looked at Ruby. "Really?" He asked the fox girl who was nodding eagerly.

"Really,Really." Ruby grinned as she took another bite of pizza cheese dribling down her mouth before she whiped it up with a napkin.

Jamal laughed at the fox girl with his own cheese dribling from his chin. Ruby laughed at him before handing him a napikin, tail wagging back and forth.

"We are both the big cheeses." Ruby giggled

Jamal laughed. "You 're so cute-"

He stopped short as a young woman with cat ears and tail entered. Her nose was buried in a packet og papers, a back pack with a laptop was slung over her shoulders and a brown paper envelope was tucked under her arm. She was limping slightly.

"Daria?" Jamal asked.

She looked up and dropped all of her stuff on the table.

"Jamal? Is that you? You're all grown up!"

"Its been forever, man." Jamal ran to her and wrapped his arms around her picking her up and spinning her around. "I heard about the DC thing but I was at Pop's funeral." he said sadly putting her down.

"Funeral? Your dad..."

"yeah.."

"I'm so sorry, Jamal. What happened?"

Jamal swallowed hard and shook his head. "I'll tell you later. I..its should be a happy moment now."

"well what are you doing here?" Darai asked him smiling at Ruby who was still nibbling on her pizza.

"I'm here to stay." he said.

"You're...?" Daria began.

"mmmhmm." Jamal pointed at the napkin holder on the table and the toothpick container. He animatesd them so that four toothpicks acted as arms and legs for the container and the napkinholder becamea steed. The "knight" rode his "horse" all around the table. "Animation."

"thats so cool." Daria said.

"Yeah!" Ruby said giggling. Jamal smiled back at her and a strange moment passed between the two. Daria grinned knowingly.

"So...how did you two meet?"she asked.

"I found him in an alley. He saved me from-" she stopped. She couldn't tell on herself. "hunger...he gave me an apple."

Daria raised an eyebrow. "Um..alright..."

Jamal laughed.

"But he says he knew me from before...from when I was little and I stayed at your house.."

"My house?" Daria asked. "My house?"

Jamal shook his head. "It takes some explaining."

Daria shrugged..."okay."