Our So-Called Friends

On one end of the gun was me, Tabitha. On the other end of the gun, a supposed friend, Michelle. She smiled coyly at me as she cocked the gun. "Say goodbye Tabitha."

The whole gang knew Michelle and liked her. She was under no suspicion to be a controller or anything like that. She was very respected and admired. Heck, she even wanted to go out with Marco!

It Friday night, around seven o'clock and we did our usual routine. First we went out to pizza as usual and chatted and hung out. Then we to go get ready for our mission.

We were getting ready to do our mission. We were standing maybe two, three blocks away from a factory, where the mission was going to take place.

"Okay, here's the plan for tonight." Jake started. "We're going to explore the factory and learn about it. Then in about, an hour and a half we're going to meet back at Cassie's Barn. If you aren't there at the two hour mark and nobody has heard from you or your partner we are coming to get you!" he paused for a moment. "We're all going to be in partners by the way."

"Do we get to pick our partners?" Cassie asked him.

"No, I'm picked everybody's partners, based on strengths, weaknesses, and all that stuff." he explained.

"Poor person that gets Marco." Rachel whispered to Cassie and me.

I smirked. "I hope you don't get him." I whispered back.

"Since there is an odd number of us one is going to be out here, that's Ax, Ax you're look out...er, you watch what goes on out here. Cassie you're with me, Rachel and Tobias, and Tabitha and Marco." then Jake and Cassie started getting prepared.

Marco's not really that bad even though he does whimp out here and there. He's okay, I have no problem with him. We even get along together, too.

"Tabitha, how about we just stay here and make-up what we saw?" Marco suggested.

I shook my head. "I don't want us to mess up big time if we end up going back to the factory. Besides, if you get killed or hurt just blame it on Jake."

Marco smiled. "Okay, I'll go...but only if you go in first."

"Okay, that'll do for me." I started to walk ahead of him.

When we got there the gate was already open, and walked right in. Then we found a vent and climbed through it, we crawled around for a while, looking for a good opening and we found one.

I placed my hand on the vent opening and pushed slowly and trying to be quiet, so no one will hear us, and making sure no one is coming

"I hope you don't break a nail." Marco whispered to me.

"Chicken." I whispered back to him.

"Rooster." he rephrased.

I stopped and looked at him. "What?"

"Rooster, I'm a rooster. Chickens are the female ones, roosters are the male ones." he explained to me.

"Whatever." I raised my eyebrows and went back to trying to get the vent opened.

It was a long, long hall with white walls and a greenish-bluish marble floor, with a couple of doors on each side of the wall. I climbed out.

"Hey Rooster, we're clear." I called to him.

"Chicken, don't you think we still need to whisper?" he whispered.

I nodded. "You're right." I whispered back to him.

"How much longer?" he asked me.

I glanced at my watch. "Hour and fifteen minutes." I walked over to one of the doors and put my hand on the door knob. "Should I?"

"Ladies first." Marco said reaching for the door and opening it for me. I wish he was doing it to be a gentleman.

"Come on in." I said in my normal voice and looked around.

He walked in. It was the Yeerk Pool. "I haven't seen one of these for a while."

I nodded and walked around the pool. "I hope there are no cameras around here."

Marco stopped walking. "Wouldn't we see it?"

"No. They'd want to make it so no one finds it. Besides, they won't want to catch us until they find out who we are or why we are here. We could be spies, Andalite Bandites, whatever." I continued talking.

Then we heard footsteps and a woman laughing. Marco immediatley morphed into a fly or some kind of insect. I ran off to the side, but she saw me.

"Tabitha, no need to run. I already see you." the woman said, she walked out and I saw her.

"Michelle." I said underneath my breath.

"I'm surprised I even found you here...Andalite Bandit. Who were you talking too?" she asked me, she didn't pull her gun out yet, but had her hand on it.

"Myself." I said quickly, if I said no one I would of gotten shot for sure!

"I'm surprised, I always saw you as a...sane person." she pulled out the gun and aimed it at me. "Why don't you come join our side?"

"Never. I have to much loyalty, honor, pride, and respect for my planet and species!" I told her and prayed in my mind that somebody would hurry up and save my ass!

"Well the, I'll let you change into your natural form before I kill you." she smiled to herself and got better aim at me.

I took a deep breath. "This is my natural form...but why were you here?"

"I was waiting for someone, then you showed up, talking to yourself." she cocked her gun. "Say goodbye Tabitha."

Just then Tobias came flying down and attacked her, throwing her on the ground. She fired the gun and missed, then a lion attacked her.

< Are you okay? > Tobias asked me.

"Yes, thank you all very much. You saved my life...where's my partner?" I asked. I didn't want to say any names, I'd be risking them getting caught.

< Right here. > Marco buzzed by me.

< Now what? > Rachel asked (she was the lion).

"Someone has to kill her. She knows--thinks I'm an Andalite Bandit." I told them.

< Who's going to kill her? > Marco asked.

"I will." I told them.

< No, Tabitha, I will. > Rachel said.

"No, I don't want any of you, too. And then explain to our leader what you guys did? No...I'll do it." I walked over to Michelle. She was in an Andalite body, her natural form.

Bang! Bang! I shot her twice and through the gun into the pool. Rachel and Marco demorphed.

"Are we going to tell Jake?" Marco asked.

"No." I turned towards them. "We can't, he'll tell us that was the wrong thing or something like that. Let's just keep it between us."

We all agreed to do that, since it was the right thing to do.

Everybody was back at Cassie's barn on time, probably a few minutes apart from everybody else though.

"So," Jake started. "Everybody ready to share?"

< I'll go first. > Ax started. < Nothing, the outside of the area is pretty spacious. Lots of trees, plants, stuff like that. Other than that there's not much there. The whole lot is vacant, with some windows on each side. Other than that nothing. >

"Jake and I got the same thing, nothing." Cassie told us.

< Well, > Tobias started. < we found a Yeerk Pool, the same one that Marco and Tabitha found actually. We met up with them at the Yeerk Pool and found nothing much between us. >

"Yup." Marco nodded.

Rachel and I exchanged glances. I knew one of us was going to tell Jake, and I was going to have to be the one.

"And I came across an...old friend." I started. Marco, Tobias, or Rachel didn't try to stop me. "Michelle was there, kind of saw me. Almost killed me, Rachel and Tobias saved me." I paused, hoping that someone would finish the rest.

"There's more...isn't there?" Jake said immediately after I paused. He glanced at Marco, Tobias, Rachel, then me. "Did someone kill her?"

"Yes." I said softly. "I did, shot her. Found out the girl was an Andalite."

< How come she didn't turn into an Andalite and kill you? > Ax asked.

"Dunno, probably trying to trick me or something. Who knows, thought I was an Andalite Bandit..." I trailed off.

Jake sighed. "Tabitha, I can't believe you! You were talking about something and Andalite Bandit just happened to slip out, huh?"

I nodded pathetically.

"It's okay, as long as we're all safe and okay. But we'll probably have to lay low for a while, at least a week." Jake stood up. "Anything else anybody cares to share?"

Everybody looked around, nothing.

"Anybody want some soda?" Cassie suggested. Everybody nodded and started talking at once.

Rachel walked over to me. "Wow, Jake took that kind of easy, you know that."

I nodded. "Oh yeah. He must be in a good mood."

"Well, I have know why he's in a good mood." Rachel smiled widely.

"Why?" Marco asked walking up to us.

"He and Cassie just started...officially, going out. One of them asked the other out." Rachel continued to smile and walked over to Tobias.

Marco and I looked over at Jake and Cassie, talking and drinking soda. "I'm happy for them." I told Marco.

"Who would of ever thought, a Tree Hugger and our Fearless Leader, a couple...together..." Marco joked slightly.

I nodded. "I'm glad their together. They make a cute couple. But you're right on one thing, a Tree Hugger and a Fearless Leader a couple...together."

The End