* ThIrTeEn * Change of Plans

A Chapter by Allison

Everything goes perfectly as planned . . . until that one small mistake changes it into something different.

Koki was fuming quietly in the kitchen, while the rest of us were in the living room thinking. I was sandwiched between Steve and Kei on one of the couches. Kei had his arm around my shoulder, while Steve was playing with my long brown hair. Eventually, Dan started explaining a plan we could use to attack the base. Shylo and Tai were sitting quietly on the other couch and paying attention carefully.
Dan had his voice raised enough so Koki could hear, "I know one of the entrances is lightly guarded. It has a retina scan, but I can activate it. Should be easy, the only hard part would be the fighting."
"Shouldn't we at least have us split into two teams? So if one doesn't get fully through, the other can get to my father," said Koki loudly from the kitchen. I could hear the irritation spilling out though his voice. He obviously liked being the one making the plans.
Dan looked back at the kitchen carefully. "I suppose you should be giving the plans then?"
"Oh, no, no, go ahead," Koki mumbled loud enough for us to hear.
"Koki, do you really?!" I shouted.
"What? Do I really have to be in such a bad mood, because everyone thinks I could possibly still be in cahoots with my father? No, I'm in a bad mood, because I'm an attention-wanting person!"
I rolled my eyes then stood up. "Let me go deal with him," I mumbled to everyone.
"No punching, please," Steve smirked.
I walked to the kitchen and looked in to see no one. I knew he was in here, because I could hear him breathing. I walked toward the fridge and oven section of the kitchen. Looking over the counter, I saw him sitting on the floor in the corner with his arms crossed. "You okay there?" I asked.
"No, I need a cage just to make everyone happy apparently."
"Would it help if I said I trust you?"
"I-" he stopped and looked surprised. "You do?"
"Well, you haven't tried killing any of us AND you saved me a few times. So yeah, I do."
"Oh, why can't they see it that way?"
"I think Shylo and Tai see it that way. Dan and Steve aren't sure what to think. And Kei probably just has that brotherly hate on you," I explained, ticking my fingers off for each person.
Koki looked at me carefully in thought.
After a minute of thought and a phone ringing in the background, he shouted with a glare to the ground, "He's a jerk!"
I shouted back, "Oh, shut up, Koki!"
He looked up at me with shock, "What did I do?!"
"Just stop complaining!"
There was a minute of silence between us, then Dan stepped in.
"You loud-mouths just got yourselves captured!" exclaimed Dan.
"What?" Koki and I asked at the same time.
"That phone call was Rio! He thinks I captured you two!!" panicked Dan.
"How?" I asked.
"He heard your shouting in the background! Don't you understand what I'm conveying to you?!"
Koki and I glanced at each other quietly. Finally it donned on us, "Oh, crap."
"Yeah, he wants me to take both of you to him. So now that team plan is going to have to go into action . . . just differently than expected."
"Did he say where he was?" Koki questioned.
"He's at the base in Tron. He also said he's looting your house, Taryn."
I looked at him in thought, "I don't think he'll find anything there."
"You're sure?"
"I'm not sure."
"Does Steve know anything of her parents' plans?" asked Koki.
"Nope, he said they said they didn't trust anyone but their children."
"Then they must not have told them then," said Koki.
"They might have . . . just not clearly," I stated quietly, while looking down and thinking.
Finally, I looked up to see Koki and Dan looking at me with questionable faces. "It doesn't mean I know!" I kind of shouted. "Besides maybe it's best we don't know. We don't need anymore weapons in the world."
"But if you knew and could destroy the plans, that could be even better. Then no one would try to look for them anymore," suggested Dan.
"True. Maybe I'll figure it out later. Let's go tell everyone the plan." I headed for the living room, and they followed.
We walked in and everyone looked at us. I glanced over at Koki and asked, "Okay, so what's the plan?"
Koki looked surprised but regained himself and looked over at everyone. "Rio is at a Tron base and he looted Tai and Taryn's house. Dan, Taryn, and I will go through the main entrance, because we're going to act like we're captured apparently." He looked at Dan then back at everyone else. "Shylo and Tai will go look around Tai's house to see if anything was taken. And Steve and Kei will go a different entrance into the base." He looked at Dan again. "You're going to have to tell them where another entrance is."
Dan nodded, "You should both be able to go through the basement door to the left of the base. I unlocked it for future reasons."
"'Future reasons'?" asked Tai.
"Escape plans," Dan winked.
"Pfft!!" I held in a laugh. "Okay, so what do we do once we reach Rio?"
"We could have Dan hold our weapons. We would be tied loose enough to get free. And then Dan would give an excuse to leave the room and put our weapons somewhere near us. We would free ourselves and unleash on Rio!!" Koki exclaimed. "And Steve and Kei should be able to find us eventually to help."
"Question . . . do you think Rio may have experimented on himself?" I asked, raising my hand as if in school.
Everyone looked at me. They seemed to be thinking of something he enabled himself to do that would be dangerous to us all.
"Let's hope not," replied Koki, after a few seconds of silence.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"This plan has to go into action now. Rio wants me there as fast as I can get there. I suggest we take the van from the garage," Dan said with a sly smile.

Because we were not on a bus this time, we got to Tron in fifteen hours. We stopped at my house, to drop Tai and Shylo off. My house. So silent for being left without its family. I missed it, but we obviously cannot stay at it during this time. We are being hunted by the Rulers.
"Man, I so need to change my clothes!" Tai exclaimed. "I'll grab some of yours, too, sis."
"Thanks," I smiled out the window of the van to him.
Then Steve drove us to a parking lot a distance away from the base.
"Are we ready?" Steve asked with a serious expression, that I could never believe was on his face.
"As ready as we'll ever be," Kei spoke calmly.
We all got out of the van and got our equipment around. Dan tied Koki and my wrists together as loose as he could possibly put them. Then Dan directed Steve and Kei where the basement entrance was. They walked across the street and disappeared to the side of the building quietly.
"Okay, to make this believable to Rio . . . " Dan said and grabbed Koki's and my arm. "I'll have to act rough."
"Yeah, that acting back at the fake house wasn't very believable 'til you flipped me over your shoulder and threw the knife at Koki," I stated with a smirk.
"Hey, at least this time you two are acting with me," Dan smirked back playfully.
"Well, if Rio fell for it this long, he's bound to still believe it," said Koki with a shrug.
"Well, let's go. Don't say anything stupid," commanded Dan.
"Stupid?! You really think we say stupid things?" asked Koki.
Dan took an intake of breath, "Yes." He grinned, turned, and pulled us toward the house.
Koki and I looked at each other like, "We really do?!" Then we looked forward to see the base entrance screaming at us. We will soon find out what is in there and what will happen. Are there more experiments? Are there any new secrets? Will there be any other Rulers? We will soon find out by just walking through this door. Dan used a key-card that looked similar to the one we found a long time ago.
"Hey, Shylo was right about that key-card!" Koki exclaimed.
I chuckled, "I was just thinking the same thing."
The door flew open, and we saw that there was a normal-looking hallway.
We were pulled into it and Dan rushed with us to the doorway straight ahead.
"Just be silent for now," muttered Dan, before we walked in to see Rio at a desk reading.

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