Shadow, Kira and Celty headed over to Tom's tent where he was waiting outside. His face was grim and there was blood in his trench coat. He was repairing his robotic arm. No one knew what happened to his arm, and no one had the courage to ask. He looked up.

"You called us Tom?" prompted Kira.

"Yes"he said"I found a Loyal by the border. We managed to get some information out of him before he ate the cyanide pill." Tom looked disgusted. "It was quite a messy affair, but we now know the approximate location of Timothy's lair. Once there, if we knock his system offline or overload it, the virtual reality will be broken. We need someone's help though. His name is-" but they never found out his name because a loud crash along with some swearing was heard coming from the forest off to their right. They looked at one and other and drew their swords.

Shrimp was sitting at the base of a massive oak, its leaves rustling in the wind. He had set up the camera and thought he was doing good until Timothy yelled at him because he had forgotten to set up the audio. He sighed. He often wondered why Timothy had wanted him. He was so clumsy and hardly did anything right, but that might be the reason. People saw him as stupid, so they wouldn't suspect him. He had been ordered to infiltrate the Rebels and a plan was being devised at this very moment. He was not helping though, because he was a 'clumsy, stupid and naive fool'. There. He thought. All finished. He moved to sidestep the camera, but ended up tripping over a root. He realized with horror was was going to happen, and tried unsuccessfully to prevent it. He threw himself to the side, but he still hit the camera on the way down, making a loud crashing sound. There was no way they didn't hear that. He barely had time to conceal the broken device when the undergrowth parted and the four most powerful Rebels were standing in front of him.

Shadow blinked in surprise, and it wasn't easy to surprise her. What she saw was not a rogue Hack or a terrifying monster, but the boy that had been with Duke. He held up his hands in surrender.

"I'm unarmed" he said. Tom looked him over. He was skinny, with messy brown and wary green eyes. Tom smirked.

"Doesn't even look like you can hold a sword anyway." The kid looked taken aback. Shadow narrowed her eyes.

"I know you. You were with Duke. Shrimp right?"

"I hate that nickname." Was all he said. Kira looked suspicious.

"Did Duke send you to spy on us?"

"No, he's not that smart." Shrimp took a deep breath. "I was the one who summoned you guys to help save those Greenies." Tom raised his eyebrows at Shadow who frowned.

"Is this true?" he asked her.

"I got a distress signal from the south border where the guys were, but the guards were nowhere in sight." Shrimp shifted uncomfortably. Tom gave him a sharp look that made him wince.

"You hiding something?" Tom inquired.

"No it's just.. Duke killed them. The guards. Duke killed them for their food." He looked disgusted."I didn't want them too, but-" he swallowed. "I noticed one guard had something in his hand. A little device with a button. I assumed it was to summon reinforcements, so I took it. I didn't want them to kill anyone else. When they found those Greenies, I knew that Duke would kill them. Just for the fun of it." Even though his story was convincing, Tom still looked suspicious.

"And you are here because..."

"They found me out. I heard them talking, that were planning to kill me while I was sleeping. So I ran. I think there's a bounty on my head now."

"I suppose you're looking for asylum then." said Celty. Everyone looked at Tom who threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. Shadow was amused to note that yellow sparks flew from his robotic fingers which he hadn't finished repairing.

"I still don't trust him, so put guard outside his tent, ok?" Timothy was right. Thought Shrimp. His naiveness made him the perfect weapon.

"Wake up Rage!" said an overly cheerful voice. "It's morning!" Rage groaned.

"It's not normal to be that excited in the morning. Maybe you have a medical condition." Shadow ignored this and put her hands on her hips.

"Do I have to drag you out of bed? Your other friends had no problem getting up." Rage looked around him. It was true. He was the only one left in the tent. With a sigh, Rage got up to see what today would bring.

After he had eaten alone (everyone else had finished ages ago) he was directed to the main tent where everyone else was waiting. Along with his companions was Shadow and an other man. He had short brown hair, a slight beard and eyes that were gray and another colour, though it was hard to tell what it was. He was dressed in a long black trench coat and at first Rage thought the was holding and repairing a gun, but then realized he had a robotic arm and was fixing the fingers.

"There" said the man, wiggling the metallic fingers. He set a screwdriver down on a table in the middle of the tent where everyone was seated. "That's better." He looked up, noticing Rage for the first time. Fluke pointed to an empty seat next to him and Rage sat. "So you must be Rage." inquired the man holding out (thankfully) his non robotic arm. His gray eyes sparkled with intelligence. "I'm the leader of the Rebels, Tom." Rage shook his hand.

"We were just discussing what we plan to do. We know how to get out of here, but getting to place is a whole different story." said Shadow, raking her fingers through her long black hair. "There's growing fear that an attack on the Rebel camp is being planned, and it is not wise to leave four untrained Greenies here. So, you have a decision to make. I along with Celty, Kira and about two other Rebels will be going to Timothy's lair to attempt to shutdown the virtual reality. You will receive basic training and can either come with us, stay at camp or go out on your own though I don't advise the last one. You don't have to make a decision now, but by the end of today." Celty stuck her head into the tent.

"The looters are back." she said. "Today was good day. There were no casualties. I have to say, it was mostly because of Endless. She walked into a store that was being looted by Duke and scared the hell out of him by telling him he forgot to check the cabinets. He dropped his bags and ran so fast. Now he's probably babbling about talking cats." Celty, looking very amused, left to go help sort the loot. An ocelot slunk into the room and jumped on Tom's lap. She had green eyes bursting with curiosity, intelligence and excitement. She also had a blue ninja headband.

"Did ya hear what happened Tom?" she asked excitedly. Not waiting for an answer, she continued talking. "He was soo scared! He ran like he was on fire! It was the greatest thing EVER!"

"Since sliced bread?" asked Tom jokingly.

"Hell yea!" Was the reply. Shadow looked at the boys who had their mouths open in shock and couldn't help laughing.

"What, never seen a talking ocelot before?" she teased.

"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself!" exclaimed the ocelot. She jumped gracefully onto the table and sat. "I am EndlessCartoon, though you can just call me Endless. I had gotten the name because I loved drawing, but then I got turned into an ocelot. It's a long story, but it involved Scribblenauts. I almost died after but Tom saved me." she smiled at her friend.

"Well,that makes a lot of sense." said Rage. "Don't the games go through a cycle? Scribblenauts should comeback, right?" Endless looked a little sad.

"No. Timothy erased it from the list of games because too many people became either too powerful, or escaped the virtual reality entirely. I don't mind being a talking ocelot though. Oh by the way" she said turning to Tom and Shadow. "Kira wants you to know that everything had been set up for their training." she looked at the boys. "Good luck guys. You're going to need it. The Deadly Dummy has no mercy."

Shadow watched Rage train with growing despair. The dummy shot another tennis ball at him and he tried to dodge it, but it still hit his shoulder with a loud thump.

"Ow!" he yelled as tennis balls weren't known to be soft.

"Well then, dodge it next time!" was the reply. Rage glared at Shadow.

"Aren't you supposed to be teaching me?"

"No, this is just a test to see where you're at. I'll have to search for a patient teacher to deal with you and your attitude. Or maybe all you need is harsh discipline." Shadow grinned and Fluke snickered.

"So why couldn't I do the survival testing first?" Rage complained. "This dummy is ridiculous!"

"Endless warned you, and what was it that you said?"

"Oh, come on, you can't-" Rage stopped when Shadow sent him a look that could freeze the sun.

"You had said 'Oh come on, how much damage can a rusting lump of metal do? I bet it won't even turn on.' So stop complaining, and try to dodge those tennis balls."

"Why do they have to be tennis balls? Can't you load it with something else?" Shadow grinned.

"There's special throwing knives if you want..."

"Um, no thanks." After about 10 minutes of complaining, swearing, and bad puns, Shadow sent him off to go work with a more patient instructor while she tested Fluke. He was a lot easier to work with, and could actually dodge the balls.

Meanwhile, things at the survival testing went going so hot either.

"Dammit, we keep going in circles! We passed this tree like, 10 times!" Evanz glared at the map he was holding.

"Let me see the map." Hollow put his bags down and strode over to Evanz. He gave the map one look and started laughing.

"What?" Asked Evanz

"Dude, you're holding the map upside down!" Celty and Kira who were tasked with following them (only allowed to help for emergencies like a missing arm or terrifying monster) both started laughing. Evanz looked at them.

"You guys totally knew that."

"Yes but were not allowed to help you." said Kira for the umpteenth time.

"We also wanted to see when you'd notice." admitted Celty. Suddenly, the sky above them rumbled. The boys looked up and noticed big, dark clouds.

"It's gonna rain." Hollow noted. He looked at the girls. "But you knew that too, didn't you?"

"If you had looked at the sky or had thought about asking when we were at camp, you would've known too." replied Kira. Hollow sighed.

"Do we keep going or camp here?" inquired Evanz.

"We could camp but you wold have to take a penalty. Muscles takes penalties very seriously." said Celty. Hollow and Evanz shuddered. Muscles was one of the people Tom had enlisted to help with training. His name suggested what he looked like. With his shaved head, bulging muscles and angry expression, he wasn't someone you would want to annoy. Warmup for this exercise had been lead by him. It consisted of many laps, push-ups, and more push-ups. The two of them probably would've died of exhaustion if hadn't been for Shadow. She had walked past and noticed they were close to collapsing.

"Hey Muscles, you might wanna lighten up a bit. Don't want them dead before the exercise."

"Yes m'am!" He had shouted. Both Hollow and Evanz had been amazed that she could talk to him like that with out being beaten to a pulp. Hollow wasn't sure who was scarier, Muscles with is big stature and loud voice, or Shadow with her freezing glares and angry silence.

"So continue it is then." said Evanz with a sigh. They made it to the campsite before it stared raining. The next objective was to set up their tent. Both pairs had one to share. Celty and Kira had theirs setup before Hollow and Evanz had finished unpacking. The two sat inside their tent and watched the boys struggle to put the tent up, laughing when wipeouts occurred (Hollow was holding up a pole and when it stared falling, it took him with it) and at their confusion in general. The sky continued rumbling and had darkened to a gray so dark if was almost black. A bit more swearing and frustration later, the girls pointed out nothing forbade them from using their tent as a reference. Twenty minutes later, the tent was ready and the boys didn't get too wet.

Finally, he was alone. Shrimp hadn't been alone since he got here. There was the night, but he shared a tent and couldn't risk loosing their trust. The other boys had their training today so everyone was looking after them. He had passed their test with flying colours and he finally managed to slip away unnoticed. He was deep enough in the woods now that he could talk without anyone overhearing him. He turned on his mic which had miraculously not been damaged by his fall. There was a little delay before it came online.

"Hello, Sir?"

"Shrimp." There was surprise in the normally angry voice. "You're alive."

"Listen, I don't have much time. I managed to infiltrate the Rebels. They've heard about the attack sir, and are getting ready. About coming to you to disable your systems, they're leaving tomorrow. I know they need someone's help, and I think I know who it is. They probably have no idea where he is but I do. I've met him before. If I tell them I can lead them to him, I could go on the trip with them and report to you every night."

"This is great news. I had my doubts, but you've proven to be a great choice. When they come I will be ready. That Shadow girl and her stupid friends have no idea what they're up against. And as for Tom I'll pay him a little visit. To die at my hand is more than he deserves after what he did to me. Now don't fail me." Shrimp turned the mic off, ignoring the strange feeling in his stomach.

When all the training was done, everyone was deemed ready. Well, everyone except Rage (who annoyed everyone with his cockiness and bad puns so much that no one wanted to train him) and there were enough fighters they he would be safe. Tom had ordered another meeting, but this time with Shrimp, Kira and Celty. They sat at the base of maple tree and talked while they waited for Tom. Shrimp looked a little nervous for some reason. Tom came with Endless by his side. He sat down and she draped herself around his shoulders, her favourite spot. She watched the meeting with a curious green gaze.

"Alright, everything has been prepared for tomorrow. All we need to know is what the four of you plan to do." he looked at Rage and the gang, waiting for an answer.

"We'll go with Shadow. We could probably be of more assistance there. Here we would just be in everyone's way."replied Fluke. Tom nodded.

"You'll need someone's help though. He is called the Master, also known as Curaxu." Tom's voice wavered briefly on that name. "He probably knows where Timothy's lair is. The only problem though is that no one knows where he is. It could take days to find him." Shrimp cleared his throat.

"I do." This granted him a suspicious look from Tom, but he continued. "It's really easy to find him in Minecraft. He lives in a giant castle. It's really hard not to miss."

"And you know this how?" said Tom raising his eyebrows.

"Duke had seen it and thought it would be fun to raid. He was smart enough to send two people to scout ahead. They never came back." this wasn't really a lie. He told himself. He was just omitting some details.

"So it's settled then. You'll go with Shadow." Shrimp nodded. The meeting was over.

Tom was walking back to his tent, when there was tap on his shoulder. It was Shadow.

"I think we should keep an eye on Shrimp. I noticed that he was not telling us something about how he knew the Master. That's not the only thing. He had disappeared for twenty minutes while everyone was helping with the training. He said he had been practicing, but he wasn't sweaty. No one can practice for twenty minutes and not break a sweat. Well, except Muscles, but that guy is crazy ripped and probably not human." Tom smiled.

"And that's why you're my second in command. I'll look into him."

Shrimp ducked behind a tent and peered around it. Shadow had been talking to Celty but stopped suddenly . She was so close that he could've reached out and touched her.

"What?" asked Celty. Shadow shook her head and continued walking.

"I thought I saw something." Shrimp sighed with relief. He had heard her conversation with Tom. The Rebels were not as stupid as Timothy had said. He wold have to be more careful so they didn't distrust him completely and kick him out. Or worse, kill him. He turned and walked back to his tent so he could get ready for tomorrow.