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Drip. Drip. Plip. Plop.
That sound! I sat up straight in my sleeping bag. The faucet was dripping it's-too-disgusting-for-words water. The things I do for my friends. I didn't have to be here in this grimy room. I was for Jon and Jade. I hope they appreciate this.
"Jon." I hissed. "Jon, fix the faucet." He was close enough next to me so I hit him with my elbow. I was probably wrong in waking him up, after being so tired from driving.
"Wha…" he yawned
"Eh..." I realized how stupid it was to tell him to fix the faucet. You know how everything gets weird in your mind when you're tired. "The faucet is dripping and it's keeping me awake, so I… uh."
"Yes that's very nice, now goodnight." Jon pulled his head into his sleeping bag and quickly became a snoring lump.
I forgot how cranky Jon is when he's tired. Oh well.
I got up quietly, dug my sweater of my suitcase, and went outside. When I got into the light of the bulb that was attracting way too many bugs to it on the out side of the building, I noticed I had accidentally grabbed a T-shirt instead of my sweater. So I stood out side shivering until something happened that almost gave me a heart attack (I probably did have one).
I was wandering around in the grass behind the hotel, stepping over the hundreds of discarded bottles when I heard someone coming up behind me. I screamed as loud as possible (my throat was a bit sore all the next day) and for some reason an image of Bob flashed through my head. I turned around to see Unicorn 008 behind me.
"Why… how did you do that!? I almost died! You scared me so bad!" I yelled shakily.
"Stealth mode." She said in monotone. "You didn't almost die. It would be impossible to die from a fright like that."
"Why did you follow me?"
"Mistress Jade saw you leave and requested I make sure you're 'okay'."
"Oh. You can do math and stuff like a computer, right?" Unicorn nodded, very mechanically. "What are the odds of us finding Mr. and Mrs. Ashton?"
"Let me see…" Beep, beep, bleep. (many computing sounds came out of her) "One in-"
"That's it! I can't take it!" Screamed Jade (about the dripping I guessed) as she burst through the door. "We'd sleep better in the car!"
"But I'm still too tired to drive." She was followed by Jon, who said 'tired' in a very childish whine.
"Not this again. I'll drive." I said.
"Okay, but if we need another 'Bob' you're gonna be in big trouble." Said Jade
So Jade and me dragged our stuff back to the car while Jon checked out. We're never sure what really happened while Jon was checking out, but he came back to the car the angriest I've ever seen him and told me to drive off very quickly.
Jon and Jade slept while I drove. I got lost a few times and was happy no one was awake to tease me. Our 'droids', as Jon called them, helped me with their radar, though.
I was listening to the radio when all of a sudden I heard a sizzling sound. I prayed we wouldn't have to call another 'Bob' and pounded on the radio a bit, but the sound persisted.
"Droids, can one of you fix this?" I asked, then turned around to see the beginning of something that was probably the worst thing yet.
Dragon was fizzling and Unicorn had all sorts of tools sticking out of her trying to fix him.
"Jon, wake up!" I yelled. Jon was in the seat next to me.
"What? Is the faucet dripping again?" he asked sarcastically with his eyes still closed.
"Open your eyes, stupid!" That really got his attention 'cause I never called people names.
He looked in the back seat and gasped. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"I am… unsure. Something may have interfered with his satellite waves." Said Unicorn sadly (if that was possible).
By this time Jade was awake, but all she did was make a small 'eh' noise. She knew she couldn't help. Now, keep in mind I'm still driving through this.
Everything was fairly quiet, but very tense for a few minutes. Unicorn was frantically trying repair Dragon. Then all of a sudden Jon doubled over in pain.
"Jon! What wrong?" Jade asked
"I think… Argh! Those health… monitors are shock… Ah!" he struggled to say.
Jade leaned forward to try to take the circular pads off him.
Then I made a huge mistake. I was so worried about Jon that I didn't watch the road. When I reluctantly took my eyes off him and looked at the road, I saw a deer just a few feet away. I hate hurting animals more than any sane person should so my first reaction was to swerve off the road.
Now, you're probably imagining a huge movie-style crash, right? You know, the car tumbles down into the woods, everyone is nearly dead, one person manages to save them, etc. It honestly wasn't bad at all. The car went of the road a bit and hit a tree. It was just bad enough for steam to come out of the hood.
Me and Jade hopped out of the car, flung Jon's door open and finished taking the health monitor things off.
By the time we were done he didn't look very good. I could've sworn I saw a blue-purple, sci-fi movie style electric wave go over him.
"Jon, are you okay?" I asked. I knew he wasn't, but what else could I say?
"I'm already feeling better. I'll be fine in like a half hour."
Seeing that Jon was sort of okay we turned our attention to Dragon.
"He'll be fine once we get to DC Someone on your parents' project will be able to repair him, I'm sure." Said Unicorn.
"Well, what can we do now? Unicorn, this is too much damage to repair by yourself, right?" asked Jade (about the car).
"Actually no. But it will take longer to complete without Dragon."
"We don't have that long!" yelled Jade, in a sudden outburst. "Our parents could be suffering right now!"
"It'll be okay Jade. Remember, we will find them." Came Jon's voice from the front seat of the car.
"Yes, I'm sure they can wait for the car to be fixed." I added.
"I know. I'd just hate for us to be five minutes to late and…" Jade said
(Note: this is switching to 3rd person while were with Quillin )
"Huh? That's weird."
"What is?" asked Giles from behind his comic book.
"It looks like they went off the road. Maybe they crashed. We should hurry up. If they crashed we can catch up to them quicker," said Quillin.
"You know, it was a good idea you had to trick that idiot Bob into putting a tracking device on the car," said Giles.
The two of them were in a car in a mall parking lot. Quillin was watching the equipment and Giles was supposed to be.
Quillin turned the car on and speed off.
Unicorn had finished the car faster than expected with Jade's and my help. Jon seemed to have made a quick recovery, but I think he sat in the car after he recovered so he wouldn't have to fix the car. Now we were in the parking lot of the building where the Ashtons worked. The only problem left was Dragon.
"Well, we're here. What should we do?" said Jon
"How about go inside?" said Jade sarcastically.
"The thing is, what are they gonna do when three teen-agers knock on the door of a government building?" he said.
"Maybe they'll know who we are." She said
I walked up and knocked on the door. A very serious looking man with dirty-blonde hair and brown eyes opened the door and said "Was the door locked?"
"I don't know. I just knocked."
"It's a public building. You can just walk in. Is there some thing I can help you with?"
"We're the Ashtons' children. Have you heard of the Ashtons?" asked Jade.
The man raised his eyebrows and made a thinking face. "Follow me and bring the Fantasy Project androids with you." He said and walked in to the building.
"What do you know about the droids? Mine is broken." said Jon as we were following the man through halls.
"Come in here and sit down." said the man, opening the door to a room.
We went in. It was a very plain office room without windows. There were three chairs in front of the desk so we sat down. So did the man.
"My name is Tobias Artemis Wild. I never knew your parents, but I've heard a lot about them and requested to take your case. Give me Dragon 006."
Jon made a worried face like he was considering weather to trust Tobias. He handed him Dragon (he had been carrying it). Tobias pressed a button on his desk and a drawer opened at the bottom of the wall behind the desk. He put Dragon in the drawer, which closed.
"He's been sent to a lab for repairs. Now I'm sure you're wondering what happened to your parents. Let me explain." So Tobias explained.
"Do you see them?" asked Quillin.
"No. I think they're in one of the rooms without windows." Said Giles. The two of them were on the neighboring roof with a telescope. Watching. Waiting.