Ziva tapped an impatient foot against the cracked pavement of the sidewalk that ran from the back door of the school as she checked her watch."I'm going to murder him if and when he ever gets here."

"This is insane. Where is he?" Craig paced back and forth across the grass beside the sidewalk.

"I think the more important question is what has he been up to this past week and a half?" Skylar asked.

Craig stopped pacing. "You think he's not telling us something?"

Ziva snorted and gave him a 'duh' stare. "No, we think he's off fetching ice cream for everyone."

"Not funny, Ziva," Craig replied with a scowl.

"Never said it was, but it's obvious Lenny isn't telling us something. It's been over a week, why is he working for this guy and not letting us in on what's going on? Even better why's our good buddy Bucky-boy avoiding us too?"

"I don't know! Maybe that's what the boss wants!" Craig was pacing again, and he looked more than a bit frustrated. "Maybe he's testing us."

"That's crap, Craig, we all know it. We're supposed to be working as a team here. Lenny should be telling us what's going on."

Lenny strolled up and everything about him was relaxed. He gave them all a fat grin. "Hey, guys what's happening?"

"Well, let's see, shall we? You are half an hour late meeting us. It's been more than a week since you started working for the boss man and you've told us exactly zero about the operation. And you're acting all secretive about everything. I think that about covers it."

"Hey, now come on, Ziva. I told you he wanted a trial, one of us first and then he'd bring the rest of you in. Since—according to the false records Storm had Stevie create—at my old school I had experience with this sort of thing, he figured he'd start with me." He gave a small shrug as if to say it was no biggie.

"You should still be sharing with us about what's going on," Skylar said with a small pout.

"I can't. If he catches me telling you anything he won't trust us. I told you that from the start!"

"Bullcrap," Ziva snapped at him. "You had better fill us in or we walk and tell Logan what's what."

"Lenny, we've got to fly, the boss wanted us at the warehouse ten minutes ago," a girl called as she strode toward them.

Skylar leaned over and whispered to Ziva, "Who is she?"

"No idea. I know as much as you do." Ziva stared at the girl who'd appeared from around the side of the building and strolled up to stand beside Lenny. She tilted her head to the side as she watched the girl, realized she probably resembled a dog and stopped it. The chick was no older than they were which meant she fit in perfectly with the operation the boss was running. Ziva frowned, studying the girl, short hair, cut just below her chin, straight and oddly enough just about the same shade as Craig's. Her eyes were amber and held onto an angry look. Her head tipped to the side again, come to think of it, once you stopped staring at the bright red streaks in her hair and concentrated on the blond-brown and got a good look at her face, you realized one thing: she wore the exact pissed off look Logan usually carried around on his mug. Who knew, he had a kindred spirit?

Skylar leaned over and spoke to Ziva again. "It is just me or does she have that same really angry look Logan always has?"

Ziva only nodded. Listening to Lenny as he made excuses and then blew them off. "Listen, guys, we've really gotta run. I'll see you at home later. All right?"

"No, not all right. Who in the hell is she?" Ziva pointed a finger at Logan's angry little female doppelganger.

"Oh, this is A'Cadia, she uh works with me."

"Lenny, can't you come home now?" Skylar pleaded.

"No, sorry work to do. See you later guys!" He turned and moved off quickly with A'Cadia.

"I really hate him right now." Ziva glared at Lenny's back as he walked away.

"Come on guys we need to get home and let Logan know what's going on, we can't keep this from him any longer."

Skylar and Ziva followed Craig off toward the house, neither happy that they now had to tell Logan that Lenny was hiding things from them.

***

Ziva slammed her locker and turned to Craig. "And wow, look two more days of silence from Mr. Communicative," she said as they left her locker behind.

"Just stop all right?" Craig pushed his way through the crowded hallway toward their first-period class.

"No, I don't want to stop it. He's up to something! Admit it, Craig! I know he's your best friend and all that, but you have to admit he's acting weird."

He stopped and yanked her to the side of the hall and pushed her against the lockers, slapping his hand flat against the metal on either side of her face. "Fine, he's acting strange, even for him. But that doesn't automatically mean he's up to something!"

He was standing too close. Way too close, for her comfort. She glared up at him, hanging onto her anger at Lenny. "Whatever. Believe what you want to. When the poop hits the fan blades, I for one, won't be standing anywhere near you. I don't want to get hit by that sort of splatter."

Screams started behind them, two girls—both of whom looked terrified—ran past heading for the doors at the back of the school building. More screaming and a stampede started rushing past them.

Skylar appeared next to Craig. "Houston, we have a problem. A huge one."

"What kind of problem?" he asked her.

"The kind that can manipulate water and that we used to call friend," she answered him straight-faced.

"Shit. Lenny?"

"Bingo! Wow, first guess, nice one, Craig."

"Oh, gee, look who was right," Ziva said, sarcasm lacing every word.

"Not now," Craig growled. He started shoving through the running crowd in the opposite direction, heading for the front doors of the school. He broke through the crowd, stumbled out onto the steps, and froze. Ziva and Skylar staggered out behind him and smashed into his back.

"Lenny, what are you doing?" he screamed.

Lenny stood in the parking lot in front of the school flanked by his new girlfriend A'Cadia. Behind him, enough mutants stood spread across the lot to be considered a small army. Among them, they spotted the Barbie triplets, Buck, and a few others they'd seen him hanging out with since he started working for the boss. He was currently dousing people with a steady stream of water from a nearby fire hydrant. A few unlucky pigeons hit the ground and didn't move.

The water subsided for a moment and Lenny looked at Craig. "I'm taking over, what does it look like?"

"Why are you doing this?" Craig raised a hand in front of his face attempting to block the fine spray of water that was making its way over to them as Lenny moved steadily toward the school.

"Because it's about time I showed my power. About time people respected me. I'm tired of hiding in your shadow. Of simply being, Lenny Burke the guy who throws water, it's time people realized I'm a hell of a lot more. I have power and I intend to use it."

"But you are more, Lenny, you're my best friend! And you're part of our group! What happened to proving to Storm we could be part of the team?"

Lenny was closing in on them, the water no longer simply a fine spray, their clothing was getting soaked, clinging to their skin. Ziva wasn't happy about the fact that Lenny was soaking her leather jacket. She scowled in his direction.

"That's crap, all of it. Storm will never let us be part of her precious team. No one notices me beyond you! I'm done standing in the shadows!" He pushed his hands forward, shoving a wall of water at them.

Ziva ripped a blast of power from the electrical box near the street and used it to create enough heat to vaporize most of the water before it struck them. "That's it, you asked for it, Car Wash!"

She saw Lenny scowl at her newest nickname. The next bolt of electricity should have hit Lenny square in the chest. But it bounced sideways and struck an uppity little Prius in the parking lot. She hoped it didn't belong to the principal. How the hell had he thrown off that bolt? Just behind Lenny stood the Barbie triplets and one of them—uh, Tiffany? Maybe, she couldn't be sure, the three were too much alike for her to keep them straight, was smirking at her.

Lenny laughed loudly and threw another wall of water, at only Ziva this time. "You can't strike me down, Voltanna. I've got Tiff here." He gestured to Tiffany who's grin widened as she sent them a little finger wave. "Know what her power is? She can shield anyone or anything, big or small. I'm invincible with her by my side. I took over this operation and these mutants are loyal to me now. I'm leaving small time crap behind." He made a scoffing sound. "Drugs, what a stupid idea. I'm bigger than that." His arm whipped forward and water rushed toward them.

Ziva reacted quickly to disperse the wall of water but it was close. A roar behind the small army had Brittney turning. Her eyes widened, and she spoke quietly to Lenny, who nodded and dropped the water. Leaving the hydrants spewing a steady stream of liquid.

"Looks like it's time for me to depart, Britt informs me that Logan has arrived." As if on cue, another roar sounded, and Logan sent a mutant at the back of the group flying several feet into the air.

Lenny looked a bit put out by that and shook his head. "Goodbye. I'd say it was nice knowing you, but it really wasn't."

"You'll never get away from here!" Ziva shouted.

"One thing I forgot to mention, Barbie here, her power is teleportation." He flicked his fingers toward the third Barbie triplet. And it would figure that at least one of them would be named Barbie.

Skylar sent him a confused look. "So, what if she can teleport? I can too. She can't save all of you at once, even the most powerful teleporter can only move a few people at a time. She can't take your entire army!"

He laughed at her. "She's not like you, Skylar." Without warning, Lenny and his entire following simply vanished.

Ziva gaped. "She teleported all of them! At once!"

Skylar sent her a wry look. "No kidding? I thought Harry Potter showed up and vanished them with his wand."

Logan stood in the parking lot, chest heaving with the effort he'd put into racing to the school (apparently Skylar had been multitasking and sent him a text while they ran from inside the school), and the claws were still out.

"Pack it in, kids. We're through here," he said with a scowl before turning away and stomping out of the parking lot.

With sighs all around, they followed Logan. They would have to pack and head back to the school to face Storm. Something none of them wanted to do. Especially since Lenny had hauled butt over to the dark side and they doubted it was because someone had offered him cookies.