Time Tangled Cpt. 6

Tiger noticed the twins coming back downstairs. So that's where they had been. But the way they acted aroused his suspicions. They were up to something, weren't they? He watched them both closely.

The twins noticed his glance and averted their eyes, not wanting him to get suspicious. After what had just happened in the backyard they were certainly not asking any more direct questions; no, they were going to find out their information through sneakier ways.

Their sister noticed their behavior as well and made note of it. She knew better than to just think they were still skittish from getting told off in the backyard. Whenever they stayed quiet and started behaving, then something was definitely up. What, she didn't know yet, and hoped she wouldn't find out the hard way.

Tiger's eyes narrowed when the twins refused to meet his eyes. Oh yeah, they were definitely up to something.

Myriam was blissfully unaware of all this, since she had gone to peek in the kitchen and see what the mac'n'cheese looked like.

Sandy's mom glanced up at Myriam as she came into the kitchen, giving her a smile. "You can come see, it's almost ready." She put the recently drained noodles back into the pot, before mixing in the other few ingredients. "Would you like to help mix?" she asked Myriam, offering her the long spoon.

"Sure!" Myriam replied eagerly. Taking the spoon, she dipped is into the pot and began mixing it. Another experience to add to her list, since her mom didn't often let her help with cooking. Mostly because they bought ready-made food.

Tiger went and idly sat on a chair in the living room. He was getting bored, and was again tempted to use his Utilipad for something. He glanced around the room, looking for the twins, or Sandy's dad.

The twins were nearby, but out of sight. When nobody was looking they had ducked into the coat closet, from which they could see the living room through the crack in the door. They peered anxiously through it, practically on top of each other, but very excited to be doing some spying. It was just Tiger in the living room- Sandy had gone up to her room to change and their dad was rinsing off the car outside. A perfect opportunity for them to spy on their target!

It didn't look like anyone was around, so Tiger sat back and tapped on his Utilipad to make it appear. When it was visible again, he put a cordless ear bud in one ear, leaving the other to listen in case anyone else was coming. Then he opened a game up in holographic mode and started playing. It was a little like the fruit ninja game commonly seen on the iPad, but with a sci-fi twist. Instead of fruit flying around, it was round robot-like machines you had to slash at. As Tiger flicked at them, the machines got slashes to pieces in an amazingly realistic way.

Two small gasps erupted inside of the closet, luckily too quiet to be heard from the living room. The twins gave each other amazed glances. The technology was like nothing they'd ever seen before, and certainly set their imaginations running wild. In their eyes it definitely seemed like a cool spy gadget, only furthering their belief in the erroneous theory they had made up. They clustered around their peephole once again to watch, spellbound by the amazing graphics of the holographic game.

In the middle of the game, Tiger felt the pad vibrate. Yes! Finally! They must be on their way! he quickly closed the game, and answered the call.

"Is it ready mom? How soon are you gonna get here?" Tiger asked in a semi-low voice. He was still wearing the ear bud, so only he could hear his mother when she replied. "Actually, no...there's been a bit of a setback. Apparently someone dropped the device we need to bring you all back, and damaged it."

"What?!" cried Tiger. "Ok, who did it?!" Ruby face appeared beside his mother's, looking a bit sheepish. "Um, that would be me..."

"Ooooh, you are SO dead when I get back there Ruby!" Tiger snarled at her. "Enough!" his mother said sternly. "We've been delayed, but not for that long. It will probably be near late evening before we can get over there."

"Ok..." Tiger mumbled, disappointed.

The twins had to stifle another gasp as the holographic call popped up. They listened to Tiger's side of the conversation with increasing interest. "What do you think he's so upset about?" Jack whispered to John.

John shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't want the other girl to come too," he said, meaning Ruby. They were both wondering why a spy would need his mom to come and pick him up- that seemed kind of lame. Then again, despite his cool tech and powers, they didn't have a very high opinion of Tiger.

Then another girl appeared on his mother's other side. She had long blonde hair tucked up in a bun, with the rest pinned into a look, and silver eyes. Interestingly, besides being the same age, she bore a resemblance to Tiger in terms of face shape, skin, and hair color. "Don't worry, Hannah and Michael are fixing it! You'll be home soon," she said with a gentle smile.

Tiger's mother nodded in agreement. "Just tell them we'll be coming rather late. And above all--" here the faces of two more teens crowded onto the screen. One was of a sober looking girl with chocolate skin, dark blue hair, and aqua eyes, and the other of a boy with purple eyes and long light brown hair. "Stay out of trouble!!" they all yelled at Tiger.

Tiger winced at the volume. "Ok, ok I get it!! Geez!" he cried.

The twins laughed silently in their closet, getting a kick out of Tiger being apparently scolded by a great deal of people. "They all have such funny colored hair," Jack commented, and John nodded in agreement. Evidently Tiger and Myriam were the most normal looking of their family; an interesting thought to the twins, since they found the two to be kind of weird anyways.

"Maybe their whole family is spies?" John suggested quietly. Jack shrugged and he grinned. "That would be so cool! Why do we have to have such a boring family?" Jack shushed him, realizing they were getting a bit too loud for whispers. Hopefully Tiger couldn't hear them over whatever kind of headphones he had put in.

Unfortunately for them, Tiger did hear, mostly from the ear that didn't have the cordless ear bud in it. He glanced at the closet, and his eyes narrowed. Then he turned back to the group of the screen.

"See you guys..." he said distractedly, and ended the call. Then he suddenly jumped up and dashed over to the closet. Yanking the door open, he glared down at the two boys. "How long have you been there?!" He hissed.

The twins started in surprise as the door was yanked open, flooding light into their hiding place. "Long enough," Jack said bravely, standing up and staring back determinedly. John scrambled to his feet and did the same. "We saw the thing on your arm, and the holograms, and your mom."

"What is it?" John asked, staring at the still-visible Utilipad on Tiger's arm. "Can we see it?" He reached out to touch it.

Great...so they heard everything. As he continued glaring at them, he had to admit they were pretty brave to stand up to him.

When John reached out for his Utilipad, Tiger abruptly moved his arm out of the way and touched it, making it disappear again. "You'd better quit spying, and you'd better not tell anyone about this, understand?!" he snarled at them.

The twins scowled up at him, but they didn't really see a choice. If they tried to tell their parents they'd get yelled at for making up things, and if they told anybody else both Sandy and Tiger would kill them. "Fine," John said grumpily, and Jack started glaring at the floor instead. They weren't going to tell anybody... but they hadn't exactly promised to quit spying either.

Further discourse was interrupted by the sound of Sandy coming down the stairs, and their mother's call of "Lunch is ready guys!" Given such an out the twins immediately took it, dashing around Tiger and into the kitchen before he could say another word to them.

Tiger glowered at them even as they left, frustrated that he didn't get a chance to say anything else. Though, if he had, he would have downright threatened them, hoping to scare them into laying off.

"Grrr!" He finally growled before following them to the kitchen.

Oblivious to the quickly escalating tensions between the twins and Tiger, Sandy's mom smiled to him as he walked into the kitchen. "Here you go," she said, setting a bowl of mac'n'cheese at his place at the table. The twins were already sitting down and eating, on the opposite side of the table of course, and Sandy and Myriam were doing the same on either side of him. Sandy's dad had a double helping and was eating standing up, leaning against the wall with an easy smile. Sandy caught his eye, however, and quickly gauged that something had happened. She shot a look at the twins, who avoided eye contact with her.

Tiger sat and began eating silently. If he could get his hands on those two boys, he'd...he'd...actually, he wasn't sure WHAT he would do. All he knew was they were not gonna like it at all. When Sandy caught his eyes, he suddenly remembered what his mom said.

"Mom called me, and said she got delayed, and couldn't pick us up until later tonight." he told Sandy's mother.

"Aw..." Myriam said, a bit disappointed too. When she looked at Tiger, she too could tell something else was wrong beside that. Then she looked at the twins and saw how they acted. Uh oh...

Sandy's mother gave him a smile and said, "That's too bad. But you kids are welcome to stay as long as you need." That said she struck up a conversation with their father, leaving the barest bit of cover for the children to talk with one another.

"What did you do?" Sandy practically growled at her brothers. They squirmed under her keen gaze.

"Nothing much," Jack mumbled, still avoiding her eyes. "We just saw him make a call with that thing on his arm, s'all." The Utilipad? Sandy was getting worried; the twins kept learning more and more about Tiger and Myriam, and she was sure it wouldn't be long until they figured out the truth. What then? That was dangerous information for two seven-year-old tricksters to have.

Tiger glowered at the twins again, stewing silently.

"Will you stop please?" Myriam quietly pleaded, turning the power of her puppy eyes onto the boys. Even though she didn't have any real physical superpowers, she had a rather high chance of getting someone to do something when she turned on the puppy eyes.

The twins bit their lips and looked away, falling silent. As much as they disliked Tiger, they had absolutely nothing against Myriam and the last thing they wanted to do was make a girl upset. (Their sister was usually an exception to this, of course.) Sandy sighed. It looked like it was going to be a long day indeed.