A/N: Hey, guys... Remember, like a year ago, when I told you I'd give the reviewers of the last chapter a sneak peek of this one and then I'd update? Well… yeah, obviously that didn't happen. Really, really sorry about that, guys. I had chapter four written this whole time, and a bit of chapter five, but life and laziness happened, and I just never got to it. I'm really sorry. So, if you guys are still with me, here's chapter four. To make it up to you, anyone who reviewed the last chapter, and anyone who reviews this chapter, can tell me in a review a plot or a character you want me to write a oneshot about, and I'll write it, dedicated to you. Now, here's the long-awaited chapter four. Please enjoy and review!

Disclaimer: I have a lack of ownage.

Chapter Four

"Quick! Hide the loris!" Lisel shouted.

Marta pried Bovril from her lap and handed him to Lisel, who locked him in a closet where, hopefully, he'd stay hidden.

Just as Lisel stepped in front of the closet, the back door burst open.

Six police officers burst through the door, holding out their guns. "Put your hands up where I can see them!" one shouted.

The three girls raised their arms hesitantly.

The officer blinked in surprise. "They're just kids," he muttered to his comrades. He turned behind him and called, "Chief! They're just kids!"

Lisel saw Lena's eyes widen. "Chief?" she squeaked.

A man pushed his way through and stopped suddenly when he saw the girls. "Lena? What are you doing here?" he demanded.

Lena waved shyly. "Hi Daddy."

"Daddy?!" Lisel exclaimed.

Marta nodded. "Daddy."

The police chief turned to her. "Marta, does your father know you're here?"

"Not exactly," Marta replied.

Head Police Chief Kurt Vaughan sighed. "What has gotten into you two? Sneaking out and going to a casino?"

"Only the back of one," Lena muttered.

"Do not sass me, young lady," the chief scolded. "And I don't doubt this whole incident was your idea and you just dragged Marta into it."

"No, that's not how it—" Marta began.

"Please, Chief," Lisel interrupted, stepping forward. "It was my fault. You see… I work here. And when Marta and Lena walked by, I asked if they would help me with something."

The chief gave her a doubtful look. "The neighbor who called us said someone was in a choke-hold."

Lisel cleared her throat awkwardly. "It was a head-lock, actually. But, uh… they were a little hard to convince."

Chief Vaughan gave the girl a long look. "Who are you? How do you know my daughter?"

Lisel shifted her gaze to the floor. Her father had been friends with the chief, so it was possible that he could recognize her. But hopefully, three years of avoiding the police station on the way home from school would keep her out of his memory.

"Lena's an old friend of mine," Lisel said simply. And just as she said it, she realized the statement was true. Lisel could just barely remember playing in the station with the girl while their fathers talked about politics.

"Either way, you forced her to unwillingly come with you, which is a criminal offense," the chief pointed out.

Lena gasped. "No, Daddy! You can't take her to prison!"

"Oh, it's not just her," he assured them all. "You're all coming downtown with me."

Lena rolled her eyes. "Daddy, it's not 'downtown' when the station's two blocks away."

Her father rubbed his temples tiredly. "You know what I mean." He gestured to the other officers. "Get them in the squad car."

Police officers, Marta noticed, were not nearly as formal as they ought to be.

Two of the men were laughing as they pushed Lena and Lilit towards the police walker. Although they tired to whisper, Marta overheard the officers muttering about "another family arrest." She assumed that they were talking about the many times Lena had been taken "downtown."

The chief himself pushed Marta's chair to the walker, saying nothing. Marta always felt bad when she saw him, because she knew that he felt guilty about what his daughter had done to Marta and that nothing she said could change that.

"You know I'm going to have to tell your father about this, right?" he asked her as he hoisted her chair into the walker and strapped her in."

Marta nodded. "I know."

The six officers and their chief climbed into the pilot's cabin of the walker and started up the engines.

The machine was quite like a turtle, Marta noticed. The head was where the pilots sat, their viewport opening like eyes. The three "criminals" were on (or, in, really) the back of the animal with a clear see-through shell over them.

Next to where Marta's chair was strapped to the floor, Lena and Lilit sat on two blocks of metal that stuck out of the wall/shell. Lena looked like she lived there, while Lilit was shaking in fear like a lost puppy.

The three girls sat in slightly awkward silence the entire ride to the station (which honestly wasn't that long a ride). When the walker stopped, the police chief sent a message from the pilot's cabin through an intercom, telling them to stay there until further notice.

Which gave them plenty of time to talk.

Lena unbuckled herself, then hopped down from her seat and helped to unstrap Marta. Once free, Marta wheeled her chair to the other end of the cabin so she could face the other two.

"So, Lilit," Marta began. "What are the other Committtee members like?"

Lilit shrugged. "Oh, you know. Most of them are just kids, so they don't really know what they're doing. But they're so sweet when they try. I just… don't want to let them down, you know?"

Marta nodded. Lena wasn't really paying attention. She was fiddling with the intercom her father had spoken through earlier.

"Lena, what in the world are you doing?" Marta asked her best friend.

"I am trying," Lena replied as she poked the machine with a large stick, "to rig this thing up so we can listen in to my dad's radio and see what they're doing out there." Lena glanced outside to where her father stood conversing about something important-looking with some of the other officers. "I know something big's happening, but I can't figure out what!"

Marta rolled her eyes and turned away as Lena continued to try to hijack the police equipment.

"Anyway," Marta said. "About that artifact I can give you. You see, my father has this—"

"I got it!" Lena suddenly exclaimed. A crackling noise came from the intercom, and then a voice.

"Attention all units. Attention all units. The president has just been robbed!"

A/N: I know, right? Cliffie! Anyway, I hope that chapter was good enough to make up for the long wait. I promise the next chapter won't take as long. Please review, and give me oneshot suggestions to serve as my apology.