"Thanks Vincent, for taking the kids today, I'm just swamped with work so you know how it is" Thanked Jacob, Dakota's brother-in-law.

The kids in question were two teens, about 3 years apart, Amanda and Jackson. They were stepping into a car parked in front of their dad's home.

"Ah, yeah, it's no problem Jake, I love having these two around, and you know, maybe they could help me out a bit today" Dakota said that last half in sing song, simultaneously directing at the kids.

He turned around to see their reaction, meeting the nervous smile of Amanda and the rather unimpressed expression with Jackson.

"Well, in that case, it seems they have a pretty fun day ahead of you guys" called Jacob "I'll let you get to that, thanks again bye"

"Bye" Vinnie smiled as walked toward his car. Getting in, he began to drive away. He gave a little wave out the window.

The teens gave their goodbyes as well. After a little while they got pretty far from the house.

"Sooo" Dakota drawed out "How would you feel about helping me out today?"

"You mean by being evil?" Jackson asked sarcastically, he was like that.

Amanda chuckled nervously.

"Well, yeah by being 'evil'" He made small finger quotations with his hands on the wheel and shrugged "It could be fun, you guys could be like my assistants, my minions, I mean, that'd be cool, I hear it's a growth industry... or is that henchmen?"

"Not really" Jackson rolled his eyes in that way only angst filled goth teenagers could.

"Uh, Uncle Vinnie, it's just that, it all seems a little silly" Amanda explained "I mean you always fail for one, and you're not trying to do anything really, and well, it's not all that interesting to us anyway" she shrugged apologetically.

"Aw, c'mon, please" Dakota tried to give the kids his puppydog eyes through the rearview mirror, hoping they were looking "We could make a day out of it, like a, a, um, a 'Bring Your Niece and Nephew to Work Day', yeah? Yeah?" Dakota smiled, trying to get them on board.

They said nothing, only looking at the scientist unimpressed.

"Can't you guys do this for me, pretty please?" He tried again "I got a warning notice in the mail today from OWCA, saying my previous evil schemes have been lacking lately, if they get any worse they're gonna assign me a new nemesis" Dakota explained sadly "I gotta seem 'eviler' eviler... is that even a word... eevvvilllerrr, ah whatever, anyways, what's more seriously evil looking than having two evil assistants working for me?"

"Wait, you're still trying to get this guy to notice you?!" Jackson questioned, absolutely baffled.

"Hey, hey, he notices me," Dakota defended "he just... doesn't like me romantically" he sighed disappointed, he came to terms with that fact a long time ago.

"Then what's the point of all this, I mean, you don't exactly enjoy being evil, do you?" Amanda quizzed.

"Eh, It has it's fun moments sometimes," Dakota shrugged. "And look, this agent guy, he's... he's really something, he's Cavendish, what're you gonna do? I can't lose him, at least not till I'm ready, so if I have to appear to be a little more evil, so be it"

For a few beats it was quite again, until a feminine voice said "Fine, I'll help you"

"Really?" Dakota was overjoyed

"What?" Jackson was very much not "Amanda you don't want to this"

"It could be fun" she smiled "and you know what, it's romantic, I think it's cute.

Jackson rolled his eyes again and groaned "Ugh, fine, guess I'll help too"

Dakota smiled the widest smile he had in a while "Aw yeah! Thanks guys! You won't regret it, and you know what, I'll even get us ice cream afterwards, sounds like a plan?"

"Sure thing" Amanda grinned

Jackson grumbled an agreement.

****

It wasn't too long before they reached the temporary seaside lair, and it only took a quick jet ski ride to get into it.

"So, now what?" Asked an unimpressed Jackson.

"oh, we just gotta wait now, it shouldn't take too long" Dakota assured him, he looked down at his watch, "he should be here in just two minutes, get into intimidating poses, remember, this has got to look evil or else they're gonna reassign Cavendish"

The next two minutes were spent trying out evil looking poses that may work out (excluding Jackson, who refused to participate). Amanda was really only going with it because that thing was going on where the adult of the room is trying to do a gag and out of awkwardness of not knowing what else to do the kid joins in.

Eventually a pose was settled on, it worked well with Jackson's indifferent slouch making even his non-efforts seem intentional. It was just in time too because just as the pose was chosen Cavendish came smashing in through the jet ski entrance, the jet ski he was riding hurling off into some direction and crashing into something.

Cavendish had gotten off just in time and was now in a heroic pose before Dakota and his small family arrangement.

"Cavendish, hey," Dakota gave a small wave "Nice of you to, drop in," He paused for a moment to let everyone absorb the joke "Get it, cause, y'know, you dropped in from yo-"

"Yes, I get it, you don't need to explain, Hello Dr. Dakota" Cavendish greeted reluctantly.

The scientist smiled at this, it wasn't often Agent C gave him a proper greeting, normally he'd be too wrapped up in the whole good vs. evil thing and simply say something that involved addressing him like a fiend or villain.

"Well, now that you're here, I'd really appreciate it if you'd HANG around a bit" With that Dakota took a remote from his pocket, pressing the large red button on it.

This dropped a rope from the ceiling which quickly had the agent tied and bound in them, suspended from the tiles above.

"Heheh, get it, cause, now you're hanging cause you're being suspe-" Dakota was once again interrupted

"We get it, the joke doesn't need explaining" Jackson exclaimed

"Well nobody said anything, if you understood you shoulda said something in the first place, sheesh" Dakota huffed "Well anyways, Cav, meet my assistants, Amanda and Jackson Lopez" he gestured to the teen behind him.

"Hello" Amanda smiled and waved

"Yeah whatever" Jackson crossed his arms and looked away.

"Uh yeah, Jack's a little new" Dakota said with a nervous chuckle "Not used to the whole evil assistant thing yet"

"Really? You're wrangling children into this now?" Asked a very displease Cavendish.

"Hey they chose to go along of their own choice, and they're teens technically not children"

"Oh as if that's so much better" the agent growled

"It is, for your information" Dakota crossed his arms "And I am not wrangling them into this, wrangling... that's fun to say, try it"

Cavendish said nothing but stare disapprovingly.

"Try it" Dakota restated "Wrangling, wrrraaangling, wrangling, it's fun c'mon"

"Alright, alright, wrangling... wrangling, oh that is quite fun to say now that you've mentioned it" Cavendish conceeded

"See, I told ya, wrangling," the scientist laughed "Uh, alright, we got off track"

"Indeed"

"Alright, so, my evil plan..." Dakota clicked his tongue a few moment "Okay so I'm going to have the power to control termites, all over the TRI-STATE AREA, or most of them at least" He pulled out a device that looked like a helmet with an antenna, putting it on his head. "Using this helmet here"

"Termites?!" Both Amanda and Cavendish seemed shocked and disgusted.

"Yeah, termites, see" He pulled out a jar filled with termites from his pocket, as well as a magnifying glass which he held up to it "They got matching helmets and everything, uh yeah... don't ask how long it took to put them on," Dakota cringed to himself in recollection "All you need to know is that it was longer than expected, and there are more than a few termites in my building now."

"Termites? Really?" the Agent still seemed to be in disbelief.

"Yes really, I mean I have the proof right here, and look what I can do with them" Dakota grabbed a piece of wood from the ground and poured it on the jar's contents onto it, focusing very hard on a single thought, the termites began their work.

It was only a matter of seconds before the log was turned into a wooden harmonica, "ta-da, it's a little harmonica, isn't it cute" He grinned, showing the small instrument off "it's not really functional of course" he noted, "I don't really know the inner workings of the harmonica, and of course, and if I tried to play it, I get splinters in my mouth... eh but yeah, that's neat."

"So is that all?" Cavendish asked with a raised eyebrow, "you'll just cover the world with wooden unusable harmonicas?" he questioned sarcastically.

"So impatient, of course not, you see" Dakota pressed a button turning on screens that were set up all around them "I'm going to have them eat all the wood in the city, what do you think of that?" Dakota snuggly smiled as the screen showed a graphic of a swarm of termites devouring the city.

This was sure to keep him in the evil ranks.

"And that's it? That's your evil plan? 'get rid of all the wood?'" Cavendish quizzed.

Dakota thought for a moment "yeah pretty much"

Cavendish muttered something along the lines of "I can't believe I have you as my assignment" then in a louder tone said "I do suppose it's fairly evil, I hope you know you won't get away with this, you never do"

"Yeah well, I don't know about that, I say things are looking up for me" Dakota stepped back with the teens into an elevator that was not too far behind them "And not so much for you" He pressed another button on another remote which opened the floor beneath Cavendish, showing a pit of lava.

This caught all three of the other people off guard, and as the elevator door closed, surprisingly enough Jackson was the one to show the most emotion "WHAT?! LAVA?! I thought you were crushing on this guy! You can't kill him?!"

Dakota was thankful that he had soundproofed the elevator, he didn't want the agent to overhear that he had a crush on him.

"Yeah, whatever happened to not actually being evil" Shrieked a panicking Amanda.

He also didn't want him knowing he wasn't actually evil.

"Whoa, whoa, don't worry, it's not actual lava" Dakota assured, he had to do some damage control so the kids wouldn't think was a maniac. "I don't want to kill the guy of course, it's just heated tomato juice, the only thing it would kill is some skunk stink, besides he's not actually gonna fall into it, he'll escape before then, and if he doesn't, well it will be like he just dropped into a hot tub"

Huh, Hot tub of tomato soup, he'd have to remember that...

The elevator took them to the second level of the building, it was similar to the first level just a lot more clean and less lava-y.

"Okay, Jack, can you press that button over there? It's basically an autopilot so the Termites destroy the nearby fair," He pointed across the room to a large green button.

He saw Amanda's worried expression "it's gonna get taken down tomorrow anyway, so no real harm is gonna be done if you're worried about that" Dakota assured.

This seemed to Satify the girl

Jackson looked at the scientist confusedly "I thought that was what the hat was for, why do you need an auto pilot?"

"What? Do you know how much thinking power goes into controlling these guys just for a few seconds? Or, I don't know, however long it takes to destroy a fair?" Dakota asked rhetorically "It's a lot, the hat's really just for demonstration purposes, so that Cav gets the idea"

Jackson put his hands in the air and walked over to the button "Okay Okay, sorry I asked"

An onslaught of termites were released to the fair, as they consumed any and all wood in their path, terrifying the masses. They actually ended up scaring more people when they ate through a fence and released a frantic herd of cattle on the world. Though fortunately the herd was taken care of by a group of kids playing cowboys.

"..." Dakota watched the screen "Well that certainly wasn't intended, whoops, good to see it's being taken care of though" he commented.

"Soo, We just wait here until this secret agent escapes or something?" Amanda asked.

"You know what, let's check on Cav, see how he's doing" Dakota walked to the front desk and sat down, pressing a button which turned on the camera. Jackson and Amanda walked over as well to see what was going on.

"Ahem, Hello Agent Cavendish any last words" He proclaimed in a fake menacing tone.

Cavendish was just inches from the "Lava" still trying to figure out a way out of his trap.

"None today" He grunted, he swung himself toward of a ledge just beside the lava "sorry"

"Oh, that's a good one" Dakota noted nodding "real good one"

The agent looped the rope around a steel pillar and easily broke the rope in two, allowing his restraints to fall.

"Haha, take that!" Cavendish smiled with a child like glee, pointing definitely at the screens "now..." He struck a thinking position while he looked over the buttons.

Dakota's eyes grew wide at the same time Cavendish's did, which was when roughly the same thought occurred to the both of them.

Cavendish bent down to press a button with a large "CAUTION" sign beneath it.

"NO NO! CAV DON'T PRESS THAT BUTTON PLEASE-" Then the scientist realized and relaxed in his chair "Oh wait, that's not the self destruct button"

Cavendish seemed to hear that because he switched his pointing direction to another (more dangerous looking) button labeled "CAUTION" just next to it "So this button instead?" Cavendish asked smuggly.

"YES, I mean, NO, er, DON'T PRESS THAT BUTTON CAV, DON'T DO IT"

Too late.

The man was like a cat...

The button was pressed.

The alarms blared and a robotic voice spoke "Self destruct sequence initiated"

"Oh dear..." was all Dakota muttered.

"You put a self destruct button in a death chamber?" Amanda asked disbelievingly.

"Ugh, and we're out of here, c'mon Amanda" Jackson took the girl by the arm and began to walk off "This is the worse 'Bring you Niece and Nephew to Work Day' ever" He scowled.

Dakota had a small frown "Tell your dad you had fun though" He suggested.

They were off screen when Jackson said "Oh, and we're gonna take the last escape pod if that's alright" he didn't wait for a response though cause the two teens were already in."

"Uh yeah, that's fine, I'll just use the jetpack" He called after them, "Where did I put it..." He looked around the room, where the pack's was escaped him though.

"Is this it by any chance?" Cavendish asked.

Dakota's eyes glided to the screen and his heart dropped, Cavendish was standing right next to the only jetpack he bothered to bring.

"Aw! Come on! I put the Jetpack in the deathtrap too?!" He through his arms in the air, what was he thinking... "Geez, my brain, it's everywhere except here today, let me tell you"

"Ah, well, good luck with yourself I suppose" Cavendish said snuggly, slipping the pack on as he rocketed through the an escape hatch.

"Huh... and an escape hatch" He muttered, well at least Cav was gonna be alright, the same couldn't be said about him though "Guess I'm running."

He sprang out of his chair and quick as he could began running towards the nearest exit, screaming all the while, maybe it wasn't the most useful, but it felt right.

The timer was at 5 seconds, and he was less than half way there, looks like he was getting into another explosion, darn it...

Then out of no where he felt himself be scooped up, as well as his speed increasing exponentially.

"Cav! You came back for me!" He yelled in surprise, but also joy.

"Yes it appears I have, haven't I?" Cavendish said nonchalantly.

"Aw I shoulda known I could count on you" The scientist grinned and wrapped his arms around the agent's neck affectionately.

The managed to get through the exit at the last second, just before the whole building blew up.

"HAHAHAHA" Dakota was grinning ear to ear "WE LIVED! We SURVIVED! WOO!"

"You didn't think I would leave you behind did you? you doltish snackhound"

Dakota chuckled nervously "Well, I did a little bit" he admitted.

"Well I didn't, did I?"

"Guess ya didn't"

The flew over the mainland, though just as they did they heard a beeping noise.

"Dakota, what is that noi-" and before he could even finish asking they were falling, yes it appeared that noise was the sound the Jetpack made when it was just about out of fuel.

"AHHHH" They both yelled, though fortunately Cavendish the parachute string just in time for them to gently float down.

"That was fast, I was expecting us to fall for waaay longer"

"Yes, that did feel rather rushed now that you mention it."

"Well, curse you Cavendish?" Dakota said awkwardly "So uhh, now what?" he asked

In the distance a roller coaster fell down in just the right way to fence in the cow herd from earlier.

"I could go for some lunch, you?"

"You had me at lunch"

"Of course I did..."