Inspirational quote: Be happy, not because everything is good, but be happy because you can see the good side of everything.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

At Dr Kozak's Laboratory...

Dr Kozak did not believe what he had just heard for one second, still continuously blinking and staring at his daughter.

"Me and you? At DIE ANNA INCORPORATED? What? Are you crazy?"

Arista moved her head, nodding vigorously all the way.

"Realise that we can't help the kids at the mission, Arista," Dr Kozak warned her, not smiling like Arista seemed to be doing.

"Yes we can. It's their first mission. We're always allowed to help them."

Dr Kozak shook his head, stood up and threw his lollipop stick away, then sat back down again.

He had a sweet jar in his office, which was near his cupboard, in case one was wondering where he had gotten the lollipop from in the first place.

"No we can't. We only help them if they need help, we can't just appear out of nowhere and help them, they could get disqualified."

Arista rolled her eyes, dropping her clone who still, for some reason, couldn't be deactivated.

"Look. You need to sort this out with Kieran & Esperanza as well. And we're going to do this by going to DIE ANNA INCORPORATED, right now. What else can we do to talk to them in real life? Real life conversations are way more meaningful than those through texts as they could get misinterpreted or understood the wrong way."

Dr Kozak was confused as he watched his daughter Arista put on her jacket, then put on another one over it once she realised that there was still thunder and lightning going on really deafeningly outside.

"So you just want us to go there so that I can apologise to Kieran and Esperanza as well? That's a bit stupid, realise that I can just wait until seven o'clock am to see Kieran in real life again."

Arista shook her head.

"You don't understand Doctor K. When partners doing a mission argue together, terrible things can happen. So that's why you need to apologise to Kieran & Esperanza for leaving them to do the mission themselves."

Dr Kozak rolled his eyes as he put on his light purple sleeveless hoodie, saying nothing else.

"We may also need to help them getting the trophy back."

Arista was about to leave the room, that was until Dr Kozak abruptly pulled her back.

"No! We can't help them! Unless or until they need help. And trust me, I'm pretty sure that neither Esperanza or Kieran really need my help right now."

******
"Dr Kozak, me and Kieran really need your help right now!"

This was coming from Esperanza as she was hologram chatting to Dr Kozak, although for Dr Kozak he was speaking to her on the computer, like always.

"What happened, kid?" Dr Kozak wanted to know, choking but then choking to himself once again once he realised that he had just broken another toothpick accidentally.

"I forgot to tell you guys earlier, but we need help getting out of these booby traps! I need to go toilet and I can't hold it any longer."

Dr Kozak stared at her in surprise, taking some notes down for some reason when she said that.

"Okay. Anything else that you'd like to tell me, Esperanza?"

Esperanza nodded, looking like she was about to cry because she needed to go toilet so badly!

And it would have been unladylike of her to wet herself.

"Yes! There's a timer right there that is secretly a countdown, and it tells us how much time left we have to live otherwise Kieran and I die, which isn't really that much time left! So please, hurry up!"

Dr Kozak just nodded, taking some handwritten notes down, playing with his cyan fidget spinner on his left hand as he was writing with his right.

"Dude! What are you doing?"

"Taking notes down," he ordered, also promising Esperanza that he would show her them later.

"Why? For what reason?" Esperanza asked, which was originally supposed to come out as a question although instead came out as a loud, vicious yell.

Dr Kozak didn't reply, just showed Esperanza his handwritten notes, flashing them to her.

"Okay so here are the notes I've got so far, Esperanza," Dr Kozak told her, and as he said that, he turned his computer camera upside down so that Esperanza wasn't upside down anymore from Dr Kozak's point of view, even though she was still upside down in real life.

Once again.

"Okay so what notes have you got?"

Dr Kozak showed his handwritten notes that he had just handwritten to her.

"I still don't understand why you need to write them," Esperanza told Dr Kozak.

"Listen, Esperanza. I need to write them down because in order for me to help you during this mission, I need five things that can persuade me to help you. You've only got four. Well three and a half really. But you get what I mean."

Esperanza didn't say anything, just tried thinking of what to say to Dr Kozak that she hadn't already said before.

"Me and Kieran might die!"

"Yeah. I know. You've said that already, Esperanza. I wrote it down and showed you that just now."

Dr Kozak then thought something without telling Esperanza, handwriting it down with everything else he had written down as well.

Apparently, both of them needed my help but I wasn't there to help them. It wasn't even worse because I told them that I wouldn't leave them but I did, and Kieran's mad at me for that.

"Okay. I've got five things. Thanks, Esperanza."

Esperanza was confused.

"I thought you just said that you only had four things?"

Dr Kozak nodded, sort of doodling in his notebook that he had taken the notes on, not looking at Esperanza once.

Talk about having a really short attention span.

"Yeah. I know. I just got a fifth thing. Would you say that Kieran being mad at me is a problem?"

Esperanza nodded, which was when Dr Kozak smiled, closing his razzmatazz coloured notebook and putting it away.

"Well then. We've got five problems. Arista and I will be on our way to help you, Esperanza. Don't worry."

Dr Kozak just turned to Arista, who claimed that she had left her phone in her dressing room, so therefore she went to go and collect it.

She then came back about one second later (who Dr Kozak thought was her daughter but was secretly her clone who had mysteriously followed her into the dressing room without Dr Kozak even noticing), meeting Dr Kozak once again.

"Whoa. That was really fast!"

"What was really fast?" Arista's clone asked, not saying anything, just drinking Capri Sun, orange flavoured that had just been in the fridge.

"Erm..." Dr Kozak didn't say anything. He had even forgotten what his daughter had gone for.

"Anyway. Are you ready to go to DIE ANNA INCORPORATED?"

Arista squealed.

"Yes! Yes I'm ready. Come on dad! Let's go."

The real Arista had stupidly told her clone that they were going to DIE ANNA INCORPORATED.

The craziest thing was, Dr Kozak didn't even realise that she wasn't wearing her jacket anymore, because he had just went and locked the door instead, getting the train to DIE ANNA INCORPORATED with Arista's clone.

When the real Arista was out of Dr Kozak's dressing room, the light was off completely, and Arista was left alone.

"What the heck! Dad?!"

She then switched on the light, looking for her father everywhere but got no luck whatsoever out of doing that.

"Dad!"

She had also cupped her hands to her mouth when she yelled that so that Dr Kozak could hear her properly, but no one responded.

She tried to exit his laboratory but it turned out that it was locked, making Arista scream.

"Oh my gosh!" She realised. I think that my father has left me behind!"

And I think that he's gone to DIE ANNA INCORPORATED with my clone!

At DIE ANNA INCORPORATED

Kieran and Esperanza were as bored as hell as they were both patiently waiting for Dr Kozak and Arista to come.

"Kieran..." Esperanza told him, trailing off, still desperately wanting to use the toilet and everything.

Kieran just stared at an upside down, booby trapped Anastasia, like him, not saying anything.

"What?"

Esperanza did not hesitate to say her next sentence. She was genuinely curious on this.

"Are you still mad at Dr Kozak for abandoning us? He did say we had to do things by ourselves and he couldn't help us."

Kieran just shrugged, kind of frowning as well as muttering the words 'I don't want to talk about it'.

Esperanza slightly forced Kieran to tell her what happened, but Kieran refused each time.

There was a monotonous silence in the room for a while because Kieran and Esperanza refused to talk to each other, and the silence was broken when Cynthia Rose, the real Cynthia, not a holographic one, came into the room and locked the door.

"Kieran, Esperanza. Sorry this is on short notice but I'm here to bail you guys out!"

Esperanza and Kieran were a bit bewildered when they heard that voice, and as soon as they heard Cynthia Rose, they both screamed.

"Cynthia Rose?!" They both ululated at the same time.

"Hey. I'm here to help you guys out. Stay right where you are. Don't move. Either of you."

"Oh my gosh, your voice is way deeper than I thought it would be!" This was coming from Kieran, which was when Cynthia Rose just laughed.

"Yeah. I get that a lot. Genetics. I think," she replied, stopping the countdown on the timer her mum had given them before using something to bail both of them out.

Even though Kieran didn't seem to mind Cynthia Rose being here, and was quite triumphant that she was here, Esperanza on the other hand had seemed to be very annoyed at this fact for some reason, literally yelling at poor Cynthia Rose when she was trying to help her.

"Can you get lost, please, Cynthia! We don't need your help! Stop inferring with our lives, you're not wanted in your own life anyway, so stop trying to help us!"

Cynthia Rose was really offended by what Esperanza had just said but still kept on going anyway.

"I'm sorry if I've startled you guys. I just wanted to help you guys out, it's not fair on how my mum treats you guys like this when you've barely done anything wrong."

Esperanza lost it, Kieran just smiled to himself when he had heard that because he hadn't been receiving any compliments from anyone in a long time and that was one of the first ones he had received in a while.

"Yeah well, go away. We don't need your help, you idiot! We don't need anyone's help!"

"Said the girl that asked Martinez for help just a few minutes ago!" Cynthia and Kieran told Esperanza simultaneously, where Esperanza just rolled her eyes and folded her arms, not doing or saying anything.

She was kind of slightly annoyed with Cynthia Rose where she got to the point where they had a full on argument, Cynthia Rose trying to be nice to Esperanza each time, but Esperanza not buying it.

Esperanza then got so annoyed even more that she decided to laser beam Cynthia Rose, as in she had practically electric shocked the poor girl with a laser she had found lying next to her, which made Cynthia faint and lie completely unconscious on the floor, probably dead but most likely still alive.

Kieran realised what she did about five seconds after Esperanza laser beamed and possibly killed Cynthia Rose, Cynthia still lying there lifeless(?) on the floor.

"Esperanza! You just laser beamed Cynthia Rose! Why would you do that!"

"There's only one explanation!" She answered for Kieran.

"What?"

"I don't like Cynthia Rose !"

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Moral of chapter: Dear reader, I give you permission to slap Esperanza in the face.