The LONGEST chapter yet! *happy dance*

Chapter 3: "Mairi To The Rescue.... Sorta..."
 
 Just as suddenly as they went out, the lights came back on. People screamed at the sight of dozens of large robots surrounding the tables and exits.
 
Ace, Lexi, Seth, Quick, Duck, Tech and Cassidy stood up.

"I knew you'd try somedin' like dis!" Ace glared at Pierre.

"Maybe so, but I bet you didn't see THIS comin'!" Pierre held out a little TV remote like thing and pressed the only button on it, a big red one.

Suddenly, the tables and chairs dissapeared and the gang found themselves staring down dark tunnels beneath themselves.

In a moment of pure craziness as the team were seemingly suspended above the tunnels, Ace shrugged. "Eh, can't win 'em all."

And with that, all eight went plummeting through the pitch black tunnels. The guys tried in vain to grab hold of the girls, who were screaming.

The tunnels broke off into several more smaller ones, and each member went down a different tube.

Soon, the tunnels came to an end and the team was thrown down on the ground.

Ace looked around to see himself in a old-days style jail cell, with only one little difference. The bars were not regular metal ones, but lasers. He looked to his left and saw that Duck was in here with him.

"Oh  brudder...."

.YELLOW TRIANGLE.

"Rev!" Icy called as she walked through the hallways of HQ. "REV! Where the heck are you?!" Although quite unsure of her decision to leave Quinton with Shadow and Slam, Icy went off in search of Rev, Cale, Vanessa, AJ, and Eric, who had been missing for about fifteen minutes.

Suddenly, the fox could hear loud mumbling coming from a nearby closet. Curious, she opened it.

Out popped Rev, who, in his claustrophobic state, paniced and tripped over his freind.

"OOMPHH!" Icy landed on her back, with Rev on top of her. "Rev.."

Rev's eyes went wide. "OH MAH GOSH ICY! I'm sososososososososososo sorry!"

"Sure..." Icy sighed. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Of course, Icy! What is it?"

"GET OFF OF ME!"

Rev scrambled off of the fox, mumbling loud 'sorrys' every half of a second.

Icy picked herself up off the ground. "So, where are the kids?"

Rev gulped. "Uuuuuhhhh....." He stammered. "........I'M SORRY ICY BUT I COULDN'T FIND THEM I LOOKED EVERYWHERE EVEN IN THAT CLOSET BUT SOMEHOW I GOT TRAPPED IN THERE DO YOU KNOW HOW CRAMPED CLOSETS ARE? I STARTED FREAKING OUT YOU KNOW I'M CLAUSTROPHOBIC I CAN'T STAND TIGHT SPACES LIKE THAT I-"

Icy swiftly clamped Rev's beak with her hand. "That's okay, Rev.." She talked softly, trying to calm her freind's frazzled nerves. "I know how to get those kids out into the open..." Icy led Rev into the kitchen, where she grabbed four sugar cookies. Then, she ran to her room a grabbed a large blow horn. She then stood in the hallway, held the horn to her mouth, and shouted. "Cale! Vanessa! AJ! Eric! SNACK TIME!"

Rev stared at her, wide-eyed. Icy winked at him. "Wait for it..."

After a few seconds, Cale appeared, with Vanessa, AJ, and Eric hanging on to her arms. "Snack time!" They shouted excitedly.

Icy gave Rev a knowing look. "Told ya so..."

.RED TRIANGLE.
 
Cassidy groaned. However long she was gonna be locked up, it was gonna seem a lot longer if Mairi didn't settle down soon. She leaned against

the cold metal wall and closed her eyes, trying to think. But Mairi's constant pacing and loud mumbling to herself was very distracting.
 
'If ever there were a time when I needed to sit upside down, it's now! And of course there's nothing to sit upside down on!'
 
"Flop! Flop! Flop! What about DUCK? What if he's hurt? OR WORSE?! Bah, he'll be fine. He'll be fine. He'll be fine... But... Oh, he's prolly all alone and worried he'll never see me again! And if he DOESN'T see me again, then I won't ever have his babies!! I WON'T EVER HAVE HIS BABIES!"
 
Cassidy's eyes snapped open. She had an idea! She grabbed Mairi's arm to snap her out of her panic-like state. "Mairi.. I have an idea as to how we're getting out of here.. I need you to help me, though. Can you do that?"
 
Mairi went to nod, then stopped. "Wait, do you we as in just you and me or as in we're gonna go rescue the others?"
 
"Of course we're gonna rescue the others!" Cassidy took a deep breath. "I'm gonna shape-shift out of here, then I'll unlock the door for you. There's a good chance the doors are protected with alarms, so we've got to work fast. When you get out, just smash the locks on the other doors."
 
Mairi stared at her for a few moments. "You sound like Ace.. 'Cept without the funny accent. I don't know whether to mock you or not."
 
Cassidy smiled. "Just trying to get you to calm down a bit." She held out her hand. "So, are you with me on this?"
 
Mairi tilted her head, then smiled. "I think so." She replied, slapping her hand on Cassidy's.
 
Cassidy turned around, facing the door. She closed her eyes again, concentrating. Her body glowed light blue, and began to take a different form. As the glow disappeared, Mairi could see she had turned into a snake. Cassidy quickly slithered under the electric bars that had been caging Mairi and herself. She turned around and looked at Mairi. "Funny, I thought you'd freak when I did that."
 
Mairi shook her head, smiling widely. "Nope. I lived in AcmeAustralia, we've got some of the most dangerous snakes down.. there.." Mairi's voice dropped off a bit and her eyes went big.
 
Cassidy titled her small head to the side then turned around. Standing about two feet from her was a very tall robot. Before either girl could react, the robot swiftly kicked Cassidy back into the cell with Mairi.
 
 Cassidy slowly shape-shifted back into herself. She clutched her stomach where the robot had kicked, wincing in pain.

 "OH MAH GOSH! Cassidy! Cassidy! Cassidy! Speak to me! Speak! Speak! Speak! PLEASE!!" Mairi began to panic.
 
 "Crap, that hurt." The coyote muttered, still holding her stomach.
 
 "Oh, flop! Flop! Flop! What are we gonna do now?!" Mairi resumed her nervous pacing.
 
 Cassidy sat there for a few minutes, thinking. 'Wow.. That robot must've hit me harder than I thought.... Hits to that area usually don't bug me...'

She attempted to shake off the strange feeling in her stomach and focus on the challenge at hand. But the sickening feeling would not go away.

Her face saddened. "Tech..." She whispered. "If ever there was a time I needed your advice.... it's now.."
 
 Suddenly, Cassidy's wrist communicator began making wierd noises. Mairi sat beside Cassidy as the coyote tried to figure out what was wrong with it. 
 
 "C-Cass!" A familiar voice came from it.
 
 "Tech!" Cassidy called back through the communicator.
 
 "You--.....get out!.... Stand!...." Tech's message was coming in broken, most of it covered by static.
 
 "Tech, I can't understand you, repeat!"
 
 "Stand Back!"
 
BOOM!
 
 The bars locking Mairi and Cassidy were suddenly blown up. The force of the blast didn't hit them so hard, as they were already against the back wall. The girls covered their faces as peices of debris were scattered everywhere.

 The girls could hear the sound of other small explosions.

 "Sounds like Tech found a way of getting out of here." Cassidy smiled as she and Mairi stood up and ran towards the now cleared doorway. Just as they turned the corner, Cassidy was hit by another shot of pain in her stomach. She stumbled and fell to the ground.

 Mairi froze in panic. "WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo???!!!"

"Mairi.." Cassidy mumbled.

"Oh, goodness me! WhatdoIdo!"

"Mairi!" Cassidy shouted. The lyre bird faced her, eyes wide. "Get to Tech and the others... Tech will know what to do...."

"Butbutbutbutbutbutbut!"

"Mairi, GO! I'll be fine."

Mairi hesitated before running as fast as she possibly could in the other direction.

THUMP!

Mairi suddenly fell to the ground. Tech sat a few feet from her, rubbing his head. "What the heck was that? A train?"

Mairi opened her mouth to mock him, but cut herself off. "TECH! CASSIDY NEEDS HELP, LIKE NOOOOWWW!!!" She screamed.

Tech stared at Mairi for a moment, not sure of what she said.

"She's hurt! She told me to get you!"

Tech gazed off in the direction Mairi had come, gritting his teeth a bit. He stood up and ran off.

Mairi threw a terrified look at Duck, who was a few feet away. "Shouldn't you go help him, Bubby? I mean, he is your teammate!!"

Duck thought for a moment. "Nah, he'll be fine."

Just then, the whole area was flooded by bright red lights and alarms started ringing.
 
Mairi screamed and jumped into Duck's arms. Duck wobbled and fell over.

"DIOS MIO!" Quick suddenly yelped. Several large robots, like the one that had kicked Cassidy, were running towards them.

Seth stood in front of Quick, rubbing his hands together. He then faced his hands to the ground and transmuted a sword. He held it out towards the robot, warning it.

Unfortunately, the robot payed no heed to Seth's warning, and fired a laser beam at him and Quick. Seth blocked the bean with his sword, aiming it right back at the robot. The robot, however, received no damage.

"What the-?" Seth was cut off when he and Quick were grabbed roughly by the robot. Quick tried in vain to use her powers to remove the robot's hand from them.

Ace lept at the robot, his Guardian Strike Sword glowing brightly. He went to chop the robot's arm off, but his sword just clanged off the metal, sending the rabbit into the wall.

Duck quacked several times, trying to escape the robot that was chasing him and Mairi. But the robot kept up.

Lexi jumped down from a cubby hole near the ceiling on to the robot chasing Mairi and Duck. She fired a brain blast, but no effect. The robot

reached around and grabbed Lexi and then threw her back at the wall where Ace, Seth and Quick were.

Duck grabbed Mairi's arm and attempted one more quack, this on landing him beside Ace. They were trapped.

Meanwhile, Tech ran down the hallway, in search of Cassidy. He soon found her, trying to stand up. "Cass!" He shouted, running up to her and giving her a tight hug. "Mairi told me you were hurt. What happened?"

Cassidy smiled weakly. "Just got kicked around by a gaurd robot. I'll live."

Tech held onto her arm as the two ran back down the hallway to join the others. Upon seeing the others trapped by two robots, the pair froze,

hoping they weren't seen, hoping they could rescue their freinds. They turned around to see another robot pointing its laser gun at them. Tech growled, eyes and hands glowing as he attempted to tear the robot down. He gritted his teeth and concentrated, but nothing happened.

"Uh, Tech ol' buddy... You don't need to worry 'bout doin' dat!" Ace said, chuckling nervously.

The robot backed Cassidy and Tech up into the same corner the others were trapped in.

"Unbelieveable! Not even my powers were able to take them down!" Tech took out his hand-held computer and began typing away on it.

"What'cha got, Tech?"

"These robots are designed much differently than any other we've encountered."

"Figured that part out, already!" Duck shouted at him.

 "The only way to destroy them is to disable their internal circuitry system. And to do that, we need to make ultrasonic sound waves."
 
 "If only I had my suit from when we were battling Sypher!" Lexi moaned.

Quick's eyes lit up. "Mairi!"

The others gave her confused looks. Then, Cassidy clued in. "Great idea!"

This time the team looked at her funny.

"Just last week, Tech and I were trying to repair those suits from when we last dealt with Sypher! They still weren't working properly, but Lexi was able to do the sonic screech with her suit!"

Everyone blinked, unsure if she would finish or if she wanted them to guess.

"Mairi was there when Lexi did it!" Quick and Cassidy said at the same time.

Tech smiled, knowing their plan. "And being a lyre bird, Mairi has the natural ability to mimick sounds and voices!"

"She can reproduce the sonic screech from Lexi's suit!"

Mairi was staring at them, her eyes so wide they could have popped right out. "Butbutbutbutbutbutbut!!!....... MEEE? Why ME?"

"You can do it, Mairi! It's natural for you!" The girls tried to encouraged her.

"Butbutbutbutbutbut! I caaaaaaaaan't!" Mairi whined. "Not under pressure like this!!!!"

Duck coughed nervously. "Uhhh.. Mairi... If it makes any difference.... I know you can do it, too..."

Mairi's eyes brightened. "Really, Bubby?!!" Duck nodded slowly. Mairi squealed and gave Duck a bone-crushing hug. "Yes! I CAN do this!" She let go of Duck and faced the robots. She took a deep breath.

Lexi, Quick and Cassidy all gave her thumbs-up.

Mairi opened her mouth. "AAAEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHH!!!!" Is what it sounded to Lexi, who could hear it with her sonic hearing. She covered her ears. Cassidy and Tech could hear a little bit of it, just a small buzzing noise, though.

The robot's insides fizzled and crackled. Sparks flew from them and the robots tumbled over.

"YES! IDIDITIDIDITIDIDITIDIDIT!!" Mairi squealed. Lexi, Quick, and Cassidy cheered and hugged her in congratulations.

Ace smiled. "Game Over."

(END CHAPTER)

BUT NOT  COMPLETELY OVER!! 8D