Drake awoke to the vibrations Jessica was causing as she was getting out of bed. Grunting mildly, he asked, “Ughh how long was I out?”

Giggling slightly, Jessica responded, “Oh not long, like probably 5 minutes. Which is surprising because I gave you quite the beating. I imagine it has something to do with your body being so small. I guess your recovery rate is also much faster along with your metabolic rate. But then again, you are naturally more durable than the average human, although that’s not saying you still can’t get hurt.”

“Gah, it’s too early to be talking smart right now.”

“Pftt please. It’s like ten in the morning. It’s not that early. And besides, you should be able to feel awoken much better than me because…”

“No no no no no don’t say it, you’re going to be smart again.”

Raising an eyebrow and tilting her head down slightly, Jessica glared back,

“I don’t see a problem. My brain is going to be what helps you get back to your normal self.”

Drake couldn’t argue with that, and he felt less intelligent in the face of Jessica when he realized that he shouldn’t be taunting her smarts.

“Yeah yeah, you’re right. It’ll be nice to actually not have to hurt my neck looking up at you all the time.”

“Oh? You stare at me that long do you?”

“I stare long enough,” Drake said with a wink. Jessica simply shook her head and smiled when a knock was heard at the door.

“Oh! That must be Kaylee!”

Drake waited for about a minute before he heard footsteps entering in the hallway to her room. The first figure to enter was Kaylee, and he couldn’t help but smile back at her enormous grin she had on her face. She had been the only other person that actually treated him good, or at least tried, while also trying to help. He noticed her extending her right arm and slowly opening her palm to reveal Ricky, who was also naked. Drake just realized that he was stark naked in front of his sister and Ricky, which made him feel uncomfortable. Was that why Kaylee had a huge grin on her face when she walked in? Ricky took the moment to jump off of Kaylee’s hand and onto Jessica’s bed with Drake.

“It’s good to see you bro! I am so happy you’re safe.”

“Likewise sis, Jessica has been taking pretty decent care of me.”

“What do you mean decent,” he heard Jessica taunt as she walked into her room.

“Oh ya know, not too many bumps and bruises,” Drake said as he winked at Kaylee.

Smiling, Kaylee looked towards Jessica.

“I can’t thank you enough for taking care of him and agreeing to help these two guys get back to normal.”

“Oh it’s no trouble. I consider it a challenge anyways. I guess I could put that on my résumé for sure.”

While Jessica and Kaylee were chatting, Drake walked over to Ricky.

“Long time no see man.”

Ricky was pretty startled to see Drake so calm. He thought for sure that he would be out for blood since it was his fault for losing the device twice, and getting it destroyed.

“Uh.. Hi, you smell kind of funny.”

“Uh, what?”

Drake then realized that Jessica probably forgot to wash him off after their last encounter and Ricky must be smelling the remainder of that.

“That’s one hell of a greeting I’d say.”

“Oh, S…sorry I just expected you to be a bit mad. I am still kind of nervous.”

Ahh that explains it, Drake thought. Ricky was always one to get extremely nervous. Especially if he thought he was about to be in a violent situation. It all makes sense at his first choice of words.

Drake began laughing uncontrollably.

“W.. what is it? Why are you l…laughing?”

“HAHAHA y… you said.. HAHA yo.. you commented on my smell!”

“Yeah, so?”

“I haven’t seen you in how long? And the first thing you can do is comment on my… HAHA.. my smell? Do.. do you even realize what that smell is from?”

Ricky new, but he was just trying to make conversation. But once the lightened mood hit him, he realized just how funny it is. He honestly commented as if her were a naïve child. It wasn’t long before both of them were laughing hysterically and rolling back and forth on Jessica’s bed.

“Looks like those two seemed to have caught up,” Jessica said.

“Yeah, that’s a good sign actually. It’s nice to see them acting like themselves.”

“So Kaylee,” Jessica said with a stern voice.

“Yeah?”

“Drake requested that I make you stay here tonight. The ‘operation’ could be dangerous, and as much as I wouldn’t want to keep you from watching over these two, Drake seemed really insistent that you stay here.”

“I.. I don’t understand.”

“Kaylee, the lab has armed security during the evening hours. You have to remember this is a privately owned corporation. They basically have their own private police force on hand. Hell, they practically have the entire business campus as its own jurisdiction. Drake just didn’t want anything to happen to you just in case. To be fair, we are all getting into something a bit our of our league. We are just highschool students after all.”

“Who’s we? And what about you? He will let you go, but won’t let me?”

“To answer your first question, I have a team that I’ve assembled that can help us get inside undetected, and hopefully remain undetected. We also plan to use Ricky and Drake’s sizes as an advantage. As for the second question, no. I won’t be going in with them. I’ll be manning the security cameras once my hacker gets linked into them. From there, I’ll be the eyes and ears for everyone else. Details will be provided when we have our ‘briefing’. I am just waiting for everyone else to get here.”

“I… I want to argue. But you seem like you already have this figured out.”

“Mostly. It’ll be best if you stay here. If something were to happen to you, Drake would be devastated, and it would only hinder he and Ricky’s ability to try and get themselves back to normal.”

Kaylee didn’t want to admit it, but Jessica was right.

‘I’ll stay then. Or.. Could I at least stay with you?”

“I’ll ask Drake during the briefing. If he approves, then of course you can. I shouldn’t be in any danger.”

“Okay.. Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do. I just wanted you to know before we try and kick this thing off.”

“Of course. So who are these team members you speak of?”

“Well, one of them is Joe Greenwald, he is actually a distant cousin of your friend Jennifer. He is my designated hacker, and somewhat of a re-enactment enthusiast. He likes to re-enact historical, or even sci-fi events on the fly. It’s… Entertaining. I mean, we get a good laugh out of him sometimes. He is still good at what he does. You’d be surprised at just how much money is in Great Britain’s treasury. He sort of, hacked into that on a dare, and managed to frame it on a ghost identity he created. The other is Tom Petty. Yes, like the famous music artist. He is our professional con artist. The guy can basically sell water to fish. He will be disguised as one of the higher up security guys. That’s going to be the key to getting Drake and Ricky on the inside.”

“Does he have a uniform?”

“Nope. That leads me to our next teammate. Shusha Kolinsky, as her name suggests, she is a Russian born exchange student. Her father was ex KGB, and through him, she learned how to speak fluent English as well as seven other languages, not counting the different dialects. She is a gifted thief. Ever wonder why some controversial evidence always goes missing? Hint is that it’s not the government. She has a knack for collecting those things. She doesn’t ever plan to use them for anything, even though she could blackmail the government into a second revolution. She simply does them just because she can. Little interesting fact is that she is red-headed. Which is uncommon in the area from which she came. She earned the nickname, ‘Krasnaya Koroleva’ which is Russian for, ‘The Red Queen.’ Than name alone has terrified some Russian mobs into submission from just her name, and has gained respect due to the ‘red’ thrown into it. After all, the Russians Love anything named with red. She is also a superb hand-to-hand combatant. It’s safe to say that she is my trump card. She will get her hands on a high ranking official’s uniform, and Tom will be able to waltz right in.”

“Oh wow. That’s quite the team you have set up there. I mean, Shusha takes the cake, but she certainly would be useless without a con man to wear the uniform she will steal. And all would be for naught, if you didn’t have Joe hacking into the grid. Looks like you guys are your own little group of kick ass juveniles.”

Smiling, Jessica nodded.

“We can be. I just know who I can talk to and get things done. Shusha just needed a friend, and Tom and Joe are guys I’ve known since childhood. We will try our best to keep your brother and Ricky safe. It’s still going to be a while before they show up, so would you like something to eat? I plan on cooking for everyone anyways.”

“Sure, I’ll be glad to help you cook as well. At least let me be good for something.”