Roswell Fanatics

Title: Blonde and Dangerous
Author: Drogyn



Couples: Mainly CC with some references to UC
Category: AU without Aliens
Rating: Teen

Disclaimer: The characters of this fic do not belong to me; they are the property of Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and a bunch of other people. I didn’t make them; I’m just borrowing them.

Summary: Three highschool girls are leading a double life as secret government agents. When a wealthy computer hacker is kidnapped, the girls go out to investigate.

A/N: I know I'm behind on all my other fics. I've written this fic in an attempt to regain some inspiration. Let's hope it was succesfull at that. As always, feedback is very much appreciated.

~~

It was just a normal day; one like any other. The girls had gone on assignment the day before, and now they were at school again. It was lunchtime now, which meant that this was their chance to relax and catch up. After all, they hadn’t seen each other in at least sixteen hours.

“So how did it go with Max last night? Tell us all about it.” Tess chirped as she set her plate on the table and sat down next to Isabel, facing Maria.

“Nothing happened; he kept talking about math. I knew that this guy required some work but a girl can only take so much.” Maria said with a tired expression.

“Well, he is your math tutor.” Isabel said cautiously

“What does that have to do with anything?” Maria asked, annoyed and confused. “We only ask cute guys to tutor us when we want to spend some quality time with them. He can’t not know that… can he?”

“Honey, maybe you need to give him a hint.” Isabel suggested.

“I asked him if, instead of studying, we could just make out.” Maria said with a frown.

“Subtle. So what’d he say?” Tess smirked.

“He started to talk about math again.” Maria sighed. “That guy is hopeless.”

“There must be a way to save him from dorkdom! He’s too gorgeous not to try.” Isabel bluntly said. Granted, he wasn’t the world’s best dresser, but he was definitely hot.

“Preaching to the chior. I’m still up for the challenge.” Maria said with a smile as she took a sip from her orange juice.

“What if he’s just not interested?” Tess asked. Isabel and Maria looked at Tess questioningly for a few seconds before the three of them burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” A timid voice sounded from the table next to them. When the three girls looked to where the voice came from, they saw Liz sitting there; eating her lunch all by herself.

“Well, certainly not your outfit. That’s for sure.” Isabel said, frowning at the Liz’ blue jeans which looked like they could really use replacement and the simple dark blue shirt she was wearing on top of it; neatly tucked into the jeans. “That outfit is so sad, it almost makes me cry.”

“Y.. you know you don’t have to be so hostile.” Liz said shyly, cautiously looking down at her shirt, but she didn’t understand what was so bad about it.

“Can’t you drag yourself and that disgusting outfit to the other side of the room; the ugliness might be contagious.” Maria added with a smirk.

“Well, I…” Liz stammered before quickly picking up her plate and carrying it to a table far away.

“Was that really necessary?” Tess asked with a little annoyance.

“Yes it was. She is an embarrassment to the entire school and her sitting next to us can only look bad.” Isabel defended until she saw Tess’ annoyed expression. “Look, I know she helped you pass geometry last year, but you can’t keep living in the past; you gotta look at the here and now.”

“Yeah, and right now, she’s just asking for it with an outfit like that.” Maria added with a smile.

Tess shrugged and took a bite of her sandwich. “So how are things with you and Alex?” Tess asked with a grin.

Isabel immediately shot a deadly glare at Tess for bringing up the subject. “Well, he left me five messages yesterday instead of the usual six; that’s gotta be an improvement.”

“Why don’t you just go out with the guy? If you don’t like him, you dump him and he’ll stop calling… hopefully.” Tess proposed.

“You want me to date my stalker?” Isabel asked with raised eyebrows.

“Uh… yes!” Tess and Maria said in unison.

“Not a chance in hell!” Isabel said loudly. Alex wasn’t just a geek; he was considered the king of geeks and no good could possibly come from any contact between him and Isabel.

“So, are we going to the mall after school?” Tess asked excitedly.

“Yeah. I still need to find a dress for homecoming.” Isabel said

“Any ideas on who’s gonna be your date yet?” Maria asked

“I have a few candidates.” Isabel said with a smile. She knew she could have just about any guy she wanted and that suited her just fine.

“And who are you taking? Asked anyone lately?” Tess asked Maria with a grin. She knew that Maria had asked Scott Maynor; one of the star football players, and that he had turned her down.

“Shut up!” Maria said in a playful manner. “At least I had the guts to ask someone. Just for the record, how many guys did you ask out again?”

“This thing about the girls having to ask the guys is totally screwed up.” Isabel noted

“Amen!” Tess agreed. “And it’s not that I’m too chicken to ask someone out; there’s just no one here that I would want to go out with.”

“That’s bullshit, but whatever.” Maria laughed.

Suddenly, all three girls’ cellphones buzzed simultaneously. ‘Eraser room’ was the message all three girls read on their cellphones.

“I haven’t even touched my lunch yet.” Tess complained.

“I’m sure she can wait a few minutes.” Isabel reasoned, taking a bite from her salad. The second she took that bite, all their cellphones buzzed again. ‘Now!’ was what the message said now.

“Later!” all three girls said simultaeously.

“Not later! Now!” a female voice suddenly shouted through the intercom. It was so loud that the entire population of the cafeteria covered their ears in pain and shock.

“I hate it when she does that.” Tess whispered, but all three girls got up in a hurry, leaving their lunch on the table.

“Look at it this way Isabel; you just saved fifty calories.” Tess said with a smile as they hurried out of the cafeteria.

“Shut up!” Isabel said, a little annoyed.

“So what do you think she wants this time?” Maria asked

“With her, you never know.” Tess said

When the girls arrived at the eraser room, all three girls looked for any sign of life in the hallways, but as expected, noone was there. Better safe than sorry though, the girls figured; if anyone saw the three of them enter the eraser room together, it wouldn’t exactly do wonders for their reputations.

When they were sure that noone was around, they stepped into the eraser room. When the door was closed and locked behind them, a hidden door opened to their left, revealing a staircase down. The girls quickly climbed down and arrived in a large lab-like room with monitors attached to almost every wall. Behind the desk sat Kathleen Topolsky, who was looking straight at them.

“Took you long enough.” Topolsky said.

“Hi to you too mrs T.” Tess said sarcastically “Are we finally being promoted?”

To her surprise, Topolsky started laughing heartily “Oh, you’re serious?! You’ll be promoted when we feel it’s time.” Topolsky said seriously. “At this moment, I have an urgent mission for you.”

“You say that about every mission.” Maria countered.

“It’s gonna be dangerous.” Topolsky added, not reacting to Maria’s comment.

“You say that about babysitting too.” Tess said with a smile.

“Have you ever heard of Kyle Valenti?” Topolsky asked, satisfied when she got no witty comment back.

“Isn’t he the owner of Valenti systems?” Maria asked

“Yes, and he’s also one of the best computer-hackers around.” Topolsky added.

“Okay, so he’s a nerd who owns a company. Fascinating… so what’s that got to do with us?” Tess said, not really interested.

“He was kidnapped from his home a few hours ago. This is a picture of him...” Topolsky said, pushing a button on the panel next to her. All three girls looked at the screen where a photo of Kyle Valenti was shown. Tess eyes went wide; that had to be the most gorgeous man on the planet.

“Tess?” Isabel said with a wide smile, causing Tess to snap out of it. “A little drool.” Isabel added, pointing to the corner of her mouth.

“He’s mine!” Tess said loudly, casually wiping the corners of her mouth for any sign of saliva.

“What happened to him being a nerd?” Maria asked.

“When a guy is so… godlike, I’m willing to overlook that one little detail.” Tess said excitedly, with a smile on her face.

“…and this is his girlfriend Bitsy Lefey.” Topolsky finished her sentence, not being able to surpress a laugh when she saw Tess’ dissapointed expression..

“That bitch!” Tess cursed loudly, causing all the others to burst into laughter as well.

“Well, she might be.” Topolsky said. “Her bank accounts show that she received fifty thousand dollars only two hours before Kyle Valenti was kidnapped.

“So our mission is to get to the girlfriend and beat the information out of her?” Tess asked hopefully.

“That won’t be necessary.” Topolsky said with a grin. “We already traced the money to an account registered to a Michael Guerin. Your job is to find out if he is in any way involved in all this… covertly please.”

“Okay. So where does this evil genius live?” Isabel asked

~~

“A trailer park?!” Maria exclaimed loudly as the girls arrived at the address Topolsky gave them.

“So much for the evil genius theory.” Isabel said. “Let’s check it out.”

”Don’t we need a rabies shot before we enter a place like this?” Tess asked with disgust, but before she knew what happened, Maria and Isabel had already pushed her towards the trailer marked 511, which was the one registered to Michael Guerin.

“The place looks empty.” Isabel said as she covertly looked through one of the windows. “Let’s have a look inside, shall we ladies?”

“This is a perfect opportunity to test out my locksmith-lipstick.” Maria said as she fished a lipstick out of her purse and opened it to reveal a tiny locksmith set.

“No, I think the acid-gloss would be quicker in this situation.” Tess argued.

“What? No way. My locksmith-lipstick was made specifically for a situation like this and it doesn’t leave a broken lock afterwards.” Maria countered.

“My acid-gloss doesn’t require you fidgeting that lock for an hour before it finally works.” Tess countered.

“Girls!” Isabel shouted as she opened the door, earning her two very confused stares. “The key was under the mat.” Isabel clarified with a smile.

“You know, what’s the point of having all these cool gadgets when we never get to use them?” Tess complained before looking around the trailer. It looked a lot bigger from the inside, which made the lack of much furniture all the more apparent.

“What a dump.” Maria and Tess said simultaneously

“Very right.” Isabel agreed. “Doesn’t this guy know the meaning of the word dustbuster?”

“Apparently, the word ashtray is also unknown to him.” Tess added as she pointed to a small pile of used cigarettes on the floor

“Maybe we can get some DNA from one of those cigarettes and match it through the government database.” Maria suggested.

“You watch too much Crime Scene Investigation.” Isabel said, shaking her head.

“Okay, so what’s your bright idea, Jessica Fletcher?” Maria countered.

“Let’s check the trash.” Isabel suggested, walking towards a trashcan in the corner of the room. “Dammit, it’s empty.”

“Uh… girls?” Tess said, looking inside the refrigerator.

Maria and Isabel walked towards Tess and looked inside the refrigurator as well. “What?” Isabel asked. She didn’t see anything wrong.

“There’s no beer in the fridge.” Tess clarified, looking directly at Isabel and Maria.

“No beer?” Maria asked disbelievingly, looking again to make sure.

“There’s no guy living here!” Tess stated.

“That’s great; that’s just great. You know, I…” Maria complained, but halted when she heard movement just outside of the trailer. All three girls instantly ran to the nearest available closet, quickly dove in and closed the door, right before a blonde girl of about their age stepped in, holding a cellphone to her ear.

“Ow, you’re on my foot.” Tess hissed inside the closet, causing Isabel and Maria to shush her.

“Yes, I’ll pay the little hacker a visit later. Don’t worry about it Mickey-G; I got it covered.” The blonde girl laughed into the phone before hanging up. With a smile, she threw her leather coat in the corner. After that, she casually removed her clothes as she walked towards the bathroom. When she was down to her underwear, she disappeared into the bathroom.

“Thank God this is a PG-rated piece. Now let’s get out of here.” Isabel said and the girls quickly exited the closet and sneaked out the front door. They then regrouped about a hundred feet away from the trailer.

“Okay, so what are we gonna do?” Maria asked.

“We take her in and force her to talk.” Isabel suggests.

“Don’t you ever watch any James Bond movies?” Tess asked. “We should follow her! She said it herself; she’s going to lead us straight to Kyle.”

“The knowing movie-freak has a point.” Maria agreed, earning her an angry glare from Tess.

Isabel sighed and relented, and so the girls waited. It took more than an hour for the girl to emerge from her trailer. She walked to her car and drove off and the girls followed her in Maria’s silver-colored Jetta.

“Would you step on it?! We’re losing her!” Tess shouted to Isabel, who was behind the wheel.

“Step on what? This is a Jetta, not a Porsche!” Isabel countered.

“Never mind. She’s pulling over.” Maria noted and Isabel quickly pulled over as well. The girls then watched as she stepped out of her car and walked towards one of the nearby houses.

“Now this is a place I can see myself living in one day.” Isabel said in appreciation of the house. It didn’t just look big; it was also well-maintained and the garden was spotless.

“Why is it always the evil ones who live in places like this? It’s not fair!” Tess said.

“Ssshhh!” Maria said as she held a small speaker to her ear and aimed a small sound amplifier towards the blonde girl.

“Hey, why does she get to use the cool gadget?” Tess said in a dissapointed tone.

Maria ignored her and focussed on the blonde girl who just rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, someone answered, but because of the angle they were looking from, they couldn’t see who it was. “Courtney, it’s good to see you. Do you have it?” a man asked.

“Yeah.” Courtney simply said and stepped in a second later. The man stepped outside for a second and scanned the immediate surroundings. He didn’t seem to notice the girls and quickly stepped inside again.

“Uh Isabel? Wasn’t that…” Tess started.

“…Alex? Yes, it was.” Isabel finished, completely dumbfounded.

“Whoa whoa… the same Alex who’s totally and majorly obsessed with you?” Maria asked.

“The one and only.” Tess said before turning to Isabel with a grin. “Now, didn’t you say something about wanting to live here?”

“Oh, just stuff it!” Isabel said with a small laugh as she tried to snap out of it.

“Okay, when you two are through bickering…” Maria started.

“I have more, but you go on.” Tess joked.

Maria glared at Tess but finished her sentence. “…we need to find a way inside. The amplifier isn’t picking up anything anymore. If Alex is involved in kidnapping Kyle Valenti, we have to find out exactly how.”

“Okay, that is just not possible. Alex may be a nerd but he’s not a kidnapper.” Isabel stated.

“If you say so.” Maria said, shooting a sideway glance to Tess. “But I’d still like to know what they’re talking about.”

“Wait a minute!” Tess suddenly said. “That Courtney girl said that she was going to pay a visit to the hacker. We assumed it was Kyle, but what if it’s Alex?”

“You mean, what if he’s the next victim?” Isabel said, suddenly feeling worried.

“That’s exactly what I mean.” Tess clarified.

“Okay, we need to get inside.” Isabel said in a hurried tone as she ran towards the house. Maria and Tess grinned at each other but quickly followed Isabel. Fortunately, one of the windows on the first floor was open and the girls managed to sneak in by climbing a drainpipe. When they were all inside, in what looked like the master bedroom, they already heard voices coming from the next room. As on command, all three girls put their ears on the wall and listened intently to the conversation.

“I understand Michael’s predicament; I really do, but I don’t see what I can do about it.” Alex said.

“You don’t understand Alex. This is not just about my nerdy brother; it’s about that!” Courtney said. The girls all looked at each other in confusion; not being able to see anything was turning out to be a serious handicap in following the conversation.

“Don’t we have something to see through walls?” Tess whispered.

“You mean like Superman?” Isabel laughed.

Much like Isabel, Maria looked at Tess like she had gone crazy. “Like I said, you watch too many movies.” Maria said before the both of them put their ears to the wall again.

“You’re right.” Alex apologized. “What do you want me to do?”

“Find him. Use your nerd-skills or something and find him.” Courtney said.

The girls didn’t have to be able to see through walls to picture Alex’ annoyed expression, but he decided it wasn’t even worth a comment. “Fine. Why don’t you go and see if Michael needs anything on his end?”

“Gladly.” Courtney said as she left the room.

“Okay, she’s going to Michael now. Quickly, let’s follow her.” Isabel suggested.

“No need to hurry.” Maria said with a smile. “I planted a tracking device on her car before we followed you in here.”

“Good thinking.” Isabel complimented.

“Yeah, I’m a genius. Besides, I figured that with your driving style, we’d probably lose her otherwise.” Maria said.

“Thanks for the confidence.” Isabel muttered.

“Come on. Let’s get this over with.” Tess said, wanting to find Michael as soon as possible.

~~

“Uh, Miss Genius? Any throughts on finding out which room they’re in?” Isabel asked. The girls had traced the car to a hotel in west Roswell, but finding the car didn’t tell them in which room they were, and since the hotel had over one hundred and fifty rooms, that could be a problem.

“Okay, I miscalculated. How was I supposed to know they were going to a hotel?” Maria said, defending herself.

“You miscalculated?” Isabel asked astoundedly. “You don’t mean screwed up?”

“Okay, this isn’t helping!” Tess intervened. “How are we gonna find out where they are?”

“We wait.” Maria suddenly said, making Isabel and Tess give her a confused look. “This hotel has three floors so all we gotta do is split up and keep watch on every floor until we see her coming out of a room. After that, one of us follows the dyed blonde and the other two question Michael Guerin.” Maria explained.

“I don’t like waiting, but I suppose we don’t have a choice.” Isabel said

“Sounds good… except for the part where this hotel has four floors.” Tess said.

“What?... Shit!” Maria shouted, looking pissed off before she saw that Tess was trying desperately not to burst into laughter.

“Just kidding.” Tess said with a big smile, earning her a hard punch on the shoulder, which didn’t stop Tess from bursting into laughter.

“Very funny.” Isabel said, trying to sound serious, but failing miserably.

~~

Much to all three girls’ delight, it didn’t take long for Courtney to emerge from Michael’s room. About five minutes after the girls were in place, Maria saw Courtney coming out of a room at the far end of corridor on the second floor.

“Okay Isabel, she’s coming out of room 211. You follow her and me and Tess will have a little chat with mr Guerin.” Maria said into her wristphone.

“Okay, I’m heading over to the car.” Isabel said.

“And I’m coming to the second floor.” Tess added.

About thirty seconds later, Tess joined Maria on the second floor and the two of them walked towards room 211. After pausing for a few seconds, Maria knocked on the door twice. After waiting for a few seconds, a tall rugged man opened the door dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a dark-red shirt. His hair was a total mess and he clearly hadn’t shaved in a few days, but all things considered…

“Can I help you?” Michael asked in a sharp voice.

“You can, mr Guerin.” Tess said, looking Michael straight in the eyes to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything stupid.

“How do you know my name?” Michael asked, eyeing the girls suspiciously.

“Mr Guerin…” Maria started.

“Michael, please.” Michael offered.

“Would it be possible to come in and ask you a few questions?” Maria asked.

Michael thought about it for a second and then stepped aside to allow the girls in. When they stepped inside, they saw at least four computers running some sort of weird code. “We’re looking for Kyle Valenti.”

“Yeah? Well, so am I.” Michael said.

“Michael, I’m going to be straight with you here; we found out you paid fifty-thousand dollar to his girlfriend only a few hours before he was kidnapped.” Maria said.

“What makes you think he was kidnapped? And who the hell are the two of you anyway?” Michael asked, suddenly realizing he had no idea who he was talking to.

“I’m Tess and that’s Maria.” Tess said, not failing to notice Michael’s sneaky glances towards Maria.

“Okay… so what do you want?” Michael asked calmly.

“How does Alex Whitman fit into this whole thing? We know he’s trying to find Kyle Valenti. What we don’t know is why or how.” Maria asked.

For a second, Michael seemed to panic. “Alex? How do you know about him?” Michael asked with a half-scared expression.

“We followed Courtney.” Maria said calmly.
“Shit! I have to warn him.” Michael said, reaching for the phone. Tess wasted no time and grabbed the phone out of his hand before he could dial.
“Give me the bloody phone!” Michael said loudly.
“No! First you’re gonna tell us what the hell is going on.” Tess demanded.
“Fine.” Michael said with a sigh. “About two weeks ago, I was contacted by an old friend, Bitsy Lefey. She sent me a piece of computer code. I examined it and I found out it was some sort of advanced computer virus.”

“Well, so far I’m not really impressed; dozens of virusses are being built every day. Why would this be special?” Maria asked.

“Oh, it’s a special one, believe me.” Michael said. “I’ve been working to make an antivirus program, but it needs to be installed on the same server the virus will be running from. You see, this virus infects computers from a single location using a hexagonal pattern, which makes it…”

“I really don’t understand any of that, and it still doesn’t answer your interest in Kyle Valenti.” Tess noted.

“Because Kyle Valenti made that virus and he’s going to use it. Now my counterprogram is almost ready, but we need to find out what server Kyle is using to broadcast it. That’s what Alex is doing.” Michael said, before grabbing the phone from Tess’ hands and started dialling.
”It sounds strange, but I believe him.” Maria whispered to Tess.

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that because you’ve been flirting with him since the moment he opened the door?” Tess asked.

“And would the fact that you don’t believe him have anything to do with the fact that you practically drooled when you saw Kyle Valenti’s picture?” Maria countered.

“Okay, you got a point there. So what now?” Tess asked, not interested in bickering over this any more.

“We’re going to find Kyle Valenti; It’s the only way we can find out what the hell is going on. We’re gonna turn his place upside down to find out where he is.” Maria said with a smile.

~~

“So what’d you expect to find?” Isabel asked Maria in a I-told-you-so kind of way. The three girls had arrived at Kyle’s place to find some clue as to what was going on, but they had no idea what to look for.

“I don’t know, but if you have a better idea, I’m all ears.” Maria said, a little agitated. They had been searching for over half and hour and it got them nowhere. That alone would be enough to make anyone grumpy.

“Maybe we just need to take a minute and recap what we know.” Tess said, running her hands through her hair in frustration as she sat down on one of the chairs. “What do we know?”

“Rabbits can’t sweat.” Isabel said knowingly.

“Anything else?” Tess said with a smile.

“Mosquitos prefer blondes to brunettes.” Isabel continued. “What? I’m just trying to lighten the mood before I have to scream into a pillow.” she added when Tess gave her an annoyed look.

“We know that Kyle Valenti is nowhere to be found and that’s about all we know for sure.” Maria said.

“Michael said that Kyle made a dangerous computer virus and that he will release it. He also said that he hired Alex to find Kyle on the net.” Tess said.

“Yes, but all of that is coming from Michael. What if he’s lying?” Isabel noted.

“If he’s lying… I think I’m getting a headache.” Maria said, grabbing her head in frustration.

Suddenly, the girls heard a loud breaking noise coming from one of the rooms upstairs. The girls looked at each other for a second before Isabel broke the silence. “Wasn’t this house supposed to be empty?” she whispered.

Tess and Maria nodded in agreement and the girls hurried upstairs. When they opened the door to the room that the noise seemed to come from, they noticed a large vase that had been knocked over and had broken into a hundred pieces. They quickly entered the room and did a quick scan. They didn’t see anyone and the window was wide open. None of them saw that there was someone hiding in the walk-in closet.

“Great, he’s gone out the window!” Tess said, looking out of the window for any sign of movement.

“Yeah right! Whether it’s Michael or Kyle, we’re dealing with a deranged nerd; not Batman!” Isabel claimed, earning an annoyed glare from both Maria and Tess. Isabel noticed these looks and smiled. “I’m just saying! Maybe the wind made the vase tip over.”

Maria shrugged and reached for the doorhandle to the walk-in closet. When Maria opened the door, she was instantly shot. Before Isabel and Tess could even turn around, they were both shot as well.

And then, everything went dark…

~~

“Tess! Tess!” Maria hissed, slapping an unconcious Tess in the face.

“Ow! Ow!” Tess yelled, rubbing her cheek in pain. Maria already saw Tess’ cheek turn red.

“Look, we’re in a bit of a situation here.” Isabel whispered from behind Maria. It wasn’t until then that Tess got up and took a good look around her. They were in a huge, dimly lit room with a small window and besides a few beds and a bucket, the room was empty.

“What happened? Where the fuck are we?” Tess hissed.

“Well, it seems like we’ve been captured and this is some kind of holding cell.” Maria said seriously.

“Thank you Einstein, but the bars in front of the window didn’t leave much room for any other explanations.” Tess sneered. “What I meant was: does anyone know where we are?”

“Seventeen Pine Avenue.” A dark voice suddenly said. He sounded close, really close. The girls then saw a man hiding in the corner, in the shadows. The three girls slowly approached the man to find out it was Kyle Valenti.

“Kyle? Kyle Valenti?” Tess asked with a small smile.

“Please don’t tell me you three are the rescue crew!” Kyle said with a face of utter dissapointment. “Great!” he said, making no efford to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

“You know, a little gratitude wouldn’t kill you.” Tess said, looking at Kyle with a fuming expression. To say that she was pissed off would be an understatement; this was not how their first meeting was supposed to go.

“For three dumb blondes who got themselves captured? Or is it…” Kyle said with a smirk before Tess punched him in the face so hard that he staggered back and crumbled against the wall.

“He’s our mission objective, you know.” Isabel whispered.

“We’re supposed to rescue him. Whether or not his bones are broken is a totally different matter.” Tess said back to Isabel loud enough so Kyle could hear it too.

“Just my luck; a psychotic blonde!” Kyle said, rubbing his cheek where Tess hit him.

“Calm down, lovebirds!” Maria shouted, not reacting to Kyle and Tess’ indignant expressions. “Kyle, what’s going on here? Did Michael do this?”

“I have my sweet ex-girlfriend to thank for this.” Kyle said sarcastically, putting an emphasis on the ex-part.

“You mean Bitsy?” Isabel asked disbelievingly.

“Don’t let that cute smile distract you; it distracted me and look where it got me…” Kyle said, biting his tongue before another sarcastic comment would come out that would surely earn him another punch in the face. “Bitsy and I were working on a special computer program called ‘Athena’. Athena is capable of infiltrating almost any system without being detected. We were supposed to demonstrate Athena on the National Internet Security Symposium in a few weeks to show how flawed our current computer protection is.”

“Let me guess; Bitchy had other plans?” Tess asked.

“This morning, I found a hidden folder on Athena’s main computer. It contained a modified version of Athena. I knew it had to be Bitsy’s work, so I sent word to a friend of mine that there was trouble.” Kyle explained.

“Was that friend Serena Hellman?” Isabel asked. When Kyle nodded, Isabel continued. “She reported you missing this morning when she came to your place and didn’t find you.”

“So did you confront Bitsy with all this?” Tess asked.

“Of course not; do you think I’m stupid? She must have had the Athena folder flagged or something.” Kyle said.

“So how does Michael fit into all this?” Maria asked.

“Who?” Kyle asked, not understanding who Maria was talking about.

“You don’t know who he is?” Isabel asked.

“I have no idea. Is he working with Bitsy on this?” Kyle demanded to know.

“Actually, he claims Bitsy told him that you created this killer-Athena thingie. Michael is trying to make a program to counteract Athena.” Maria explained.

“Thank God! I guess we just have to hope that Guerin will succeed.” Kyle said. “Is he using a G1 network connection? And what about his server?”

“How the hell should we know? Do we look like dorks to you?” Maria said bluntly.

“No, you look like three brainless bimbos, but that comment just got me a punch in the face. Let me put it this way: was he working at a big company with an expensive network?” Kyle asked.

“No, he was in a hotel room.” Tess answered.

“A hotel room? You have got to be kidding me!” Kyle said with a grin on his face.

Just before Isabel wanted to say something, Tess interrupted. “Okay, all of this makes no sense at all.” Tess said. “If Bitsy made this uber-virus…”

“Uh, technically it’s not a virus.” Kyle interrupted.

Tess glared at him and then continued her sentence. “I was saying: if Bitsy wants to use Athena, why would she want a counterprogram? And even if she wants a counterprogram; why doesn’t she make it herself?”

“That’s a good question.” Kyle said, thinking hard of an answer.

“Wait a minute!” Isabel said, narrowing her eyes as she gazed at Kyle. “If you never heard of Michael, how did you know his last name was Guerin?”

Kyle thought it over for a few seconds and flashed a smile at the three girls. “You three are more intelligent than you look.” He said with a sigh. “I guess you’re not gonna tell me what hotel Michael Guerin is staying at. That’s a real shame.” He said, reaching behind his back and pulling a large tranquilizer gun from behind him. He then aimed it at the girls. Then everything went blank… again.

~~

“Tess? Tess! God, why is she always the last one to wake up?!” Maria said, shaking Tess body to wake her up. “Oh, what the hell!” she sighed when she realized this was not waking Tess up and she slapped Tess in the face like before.

This instantly woke Tess up. “Jezus! Didn’t you abuse my face enough for one day?” Tess whined before realization suddenly hit her and she immediately closed her mouth.

“Has anyone ever mentioned just how pathetic we are?” Maria said loudly and without waiting for any reaction, she continued. “Well, I’m saying it now. This whole mission has been one disaster after another.”

“Maria, you’re not helping.” Isabel said. “We need to find a way out of here and stop Kyle.”

“Actually, I think I have to agree with Ria. So far, we only managed to make this situation worse.” Tess said.

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Isabel said before dramatically raising her voice. “Get your asses off the floor! Now!” she shouted loudly. As if his by a lightning bolt, Tess and Maria jumped up, making Isabel smile contently. “Now, all we have to do is break through that door.” Isabel said calmly, pointing at the large oak door that blocked the way out.

“We need our stuff.” Maria said, knowing full well that their gadgets had been taken away.

“Well, we’re gonna have to use our heads.” Isabel claimed.

“We’re so screwed!” Tess stated.

“Come on Tess, I know that you’ve seen every episode of MacGyver at least three times, which by the way I think is really dorky. What would he do if he was in a situation like this.” Isabel asked.

“Well, he would uh…” Tess said, breaking off her sentence and looking around the room. “Oh! Oh!”, she suddenly squealed excitedly. “I have a plan.”

~~

The oak door shook heavily before finally giving in and crashing on the floor. The girls dropped the large metal framework that they pried loose from the bed and stepped out of the room.

“You know, I don’t think MacGyver would have used the bed as a battering ram.” Maria said dryly.

“Well, if we were locked in a metal workshop or a chemistry lab, like he always seems to be, I might have been able to think of something a little more sophisticated.” Tess said.

“Let’s save that discussion for later.” Isabel said hurriedly. “We should go see if Michael has an idea where to find Kyle.”

“When I find Kyle Valenti, he’s gonna wish he was never born… or something a little less cliché, but he’s definitely gonna be sorry!” Tess grunted.

“Okay then, let’s go.” Isabel said, motioning for the girls to follow her. Tess took a few steps but Maria didn’t move. Isabel and Tess stopped and looked at Maria questioningly.

“Something wrong with exacting vengeance?” Tess asked.

“No, it’s not that; I’m all for breaking various bones in his body.” Maria said. “It’s just that we’ve been one step behind Kyle this whole time. What if we lead him straight to Michael?”

“He couldn’t know that we would escape.” Isabel said, not sure about what Maria was saying.

“Okay, then why didn’t he just kill us?” Maria asked.

“There is actually a difference between a nerd who gets off on building a virus and someone who can kill three highschool girls.” Tess said in Kyle’s defense.

“Still, what if he’s just waiting for us to lead him to Michael? Can we really take that chance?” Maria asked.

“I hate to say it, but you have a point. Maybe we should call for backup and have Michael protected.” Isabel suggested.

Maria smiled at Isabel’s suggestion. “When have we ever gotten backup?” Maria said

“Then I guess there’s only one thing to do…” Tess said, a smile suddenly forming on her face as she walked into the next room, picked up the phone and handed it to Isabel. “…time to call Alex.”

“What?! Are you insane? He’s not gonna tell me where Kyle is… if he even knows.” Isabel said defiantly.

“Are you kidding?” Maria said. “If you asked nicely, he would run through the streets of Roswell naked, singing Mary Had A Little Lamb in C-minor. Believe me, if you ask him where Kyle is, he’ll tell you.”

“And while you have him on the phone, don’t forget to ask him out.” Tess said with a grin. Despite her earlier protests, Isabel obediently dialled the number and waited for Alex to answer.

“… Hi Alex, it’s Isabel. I need to ask you a huge favour.” Isabel said on the phone.

~~

“Are you sure this is the place?” Maria asked when the girls arrived at the Roswell power plant. Aside from a guard at the gate, it was deserted, which wasn’t uncommon at nine pm.

“Absolutely. Alex said that this place is the only place in Roswell that has the network and power to run that virus.” Isabel said.

“I still can’t believe you agreed to go out on a date with him.” Tess said with a smile.

“Well, I couldn’t very well blow him off after he helped us.” Isabel said defensively.

“Hey, I’m not judging.” Tess said with a smile. “Now, how do you propose we get in?”

“Uh…” Maria said, nudging towards a rip in the fence surrounding the facility.

“Looks like Kyle’s already here. Why am I not surprised?” Tess said.

“Because you expected him to… oh, you were being rhetorical.” Maria said, suddenly feeling really stupid.

“Well, at least he saved us the trouble of having to find a way inside.” Isabel said with a shrug as she moved towards the gate. “Don’t they have any security here?”

“This place isn’t like fort Knox. Why would any normal person break into the Roswell power plant?” Tess asked, quickly continuing when she noticed that Maria wanted to say something. “That’s me being rhetorical again, Maria.”

“Let’s just get in.” Isabel said impatiently as she walked towards the rip in the fence and crawled through. Tess and Maria quickly followed her and the three of them quickly made their way to the main building where Kyle had to be hiding. When they got to the main door, which seemed like the only way in, they stopped.

“No acid-gloss...” Tess said with a dissapointing voice.

“…no locksmith lipstick…” Maria continued, equally dissapointing.

“…and there’s no mat to hide the key under.” Isabel finished

The three girls gave each other a quick look and simultaneously kicked the door as hand as they could. “Ow!” All three girls moaned when the solid door didn’t budge even the smallest bit.

“I don’t know why we thought we could do that.” Maria said with a small smile.

“At least you kept your sense of humor. I think I broke my bloody foot.” Tess moaned.

“Don’t be such a baby.” Isabel said, grabbing the doorhandle and pushing against the door as hard as she could. The door immediately swinged open and Isabel fell inside, managing to shield her face with her hands before she fell flat on it. “Ow.” Isabel said dryly a seconds after she fell.

“Hey, you got it open.” Maria said cheerfully

“From now on, we’re putting ‘checking if the door is locked’ at the top of the list.” Isabel said as she stood up.

The girls then closed the door behind them and moved into the interior of the building until they saw light coming from one of the large rooms at the end of the corridor. The girls made their way there and peered through the ten-by-twenty inch window in the door. There was Kyle, sitting behind a laptop and a pale, skinny redheaded woman sitting beside him, looking at her own laptop.

“Who’s the skank?” Maria softly asked and then noticed that Kyle was suddenly smiling and taking a sip of his drink.

“I don’t know, but it’s three against two. Let’s bust in and kick his ass.” Tess whispered. Suddenly Kyle spewed his drink on the screen in front of him as he bursted out in laughter while the woman next to him scowled at him.

“Can he hear us?” Maria asked, staring at Kyle who was suddenly staring right at her.

“Wait a minute, I know that woman… I don’t fucking believe this!” Isabel exclaimed when she peered through the window.

“You can’t believe what?” Tess asked, still oblivious to what was going on.

Isabel opened the door and walked right to Kyle and the woman next to him. “What the hell is going on here!?” Isabel asked forcefully. Tess and Maria looked at each other questioningly and then followed Isabel.

“Good evening Isabel.” The woman said with a smile.

“Do you know her?” Maria whispered to Isabel.

“She’s the agent who recruited me!” Isabel whispered back before turning back to the woman. “Don’t good evening me, Serena!” Isabel said in an icy tone. “What is this?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” a voice sounded behind them. The girls looked behind them and saw Michael standing there, accompanied by Courtney and Alex.

“Congratulations agents; all three of you passed.” Serena said with a satisfied smile.

“This was a test?” Tess asked incredulously

“Well, the three of you wanted to be promoted, didn’t you?” Kyle asked and smiled widely when Tess wanted to say something. “That’s me being rhetorical, Tess.” He added.

“So there is no virus?” Maria asked, wanting to make sure.

“No, there isn’t.” Michael said.

When Michael, Courtney and Alex walked past the girls towards Kyle and Serena, Courtney quickly whispered something in Maria’s ear. “Next time, try not to leave the fridge open; It’s a giveaway. But I’ll keep it between us.”

“Alright agents, go celebrate!” Serena said.

~~

Twelve days later, the girls arrived at their homecoming dance. Alex had managed to get Isabel to ask him to be her date, Maria asked Michael to accompany her and Tess had asked Kyle, but not before slapping him in the face for shooting her. After half an hour, they saw Max walking in with Liz.

“Okay whoa… how did that happen?” Maria asked, nudging at Max and Liz.

“Oh what do you care? You got a guy of your own now.” Isabel said.

“But after all the time I put in him… he goes with Liz!” Maria complained.

“I heard he asked her over a month ago.” Alex commented.

“That’s just great. Apparently, I’ve just made a fool of myself for over three weeks.” Maria said with a scowl.

“Well, it’s his loss.” Michael said, looking at Max and Liz. “Although I have to say she’s looking good.” He added which earned him an elbow in the gut. “Not as good as you, of course.” Michael quickly added to that, looking at Maria with a sheepish smile.

“A lame save, Guerin.” Kyle commented.

“You don’t think I look good?” Maria asked, gazing at Kyle with her hands in her sides.

“I think I’m gonna shut up now.” Kyle said, which was answered by an understanding smile.

Suddenly, all three girls’ cellphones beeped at the same time. ‘Eraser room in ten minutes’ was what the message said. “You have got to be kidding me!” Tess squaled. “This just cruel.” Then, their cellphones beeped again to deliver another message:

Just kidding