I got bored so here's another chapter for you to sink your brains into. Don't expect these chaps to come out like candy though as I probably will be too occupied this weekend to add more. We'll see. This already feels so awkward for me to write, I dunno why. I feel like my writing skills seem to have disintegrated lately. Oh well.

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Mark knew it was fragile. So much, in fact, that his hands were shaking just opening the refrigerated device the tube had been stored in. He had to take deep breaths as he cautiously pulled it out. The neon blue liquid continued to swim. It would jellify once the transfer's completed.

"Doctor?" Mark nearly jumped at the sound. Thank god he had a good grip on the tube or Bell would've killed him.

"Dammit, what is it?!"

He turned to one member of his team no longer wearing his camouflage shirt and pants but instead was wearing doctor scrubs. "We're ready for the procedure."

"Alright," Mark sighed. "We're gonna need about an hour to do this. But standard procedure might require her to remain lying down for at least 6 hours. You'll have to inject her with a paralyzing drug so that she doesn't move. 5.3 mg should be sufficient enough without causing any damage."

"Doctor, I've studied these kinds of transplants before. Wouldn't you normally require at least two of those things?"

"This one is going to be enough," Mark assured the man knowing he was referring to the tube he held. "Wait and see."

~*~*~*~

Peter felt like shit.

But after taking a few minutes to clear his mind, he decided it was still better than having copper wires shoved up his nose.

The room he found himself in was empty and all steel. Various pipes hung from the ceiling and only a small ceiling light was for him but he knew its time was running out. He could tell by the small circular window in the room that he had to be on some sort of shipping freighter…and judging by the rusting of the steel and the mold that was creeping into certain corners of the room, a very old one.

He couldn't see any of the Boston skylights through the window, which was a bad thing because it meant he was far out into the water. Yet for some reason he could hear no engines running throughout the old ship.

It was time to figure out how to break out of this room he had been locked in. Judging by the aging of the door, it shouldn't be too hard. Yet Peter could still hear footsteps passing back and forth sparingly on the other side. He couldn't just break it down first. He had enough of surprise attacks for the night. Lucky for him, he always carried copper wired for such occasions. Still the large size and material of the door worried him as he was unsure if his trusty "keys" could undo the lock.

As he struggled with the lock work, his had a new main concern in mind, and that was Olivia. Peter knew nothing of what had happened to her after he blacked out. Was she on the boat with all of them? Did she escape? He didn't want to delve too deeply into the matter and kept hoping that it was the latter.

A faint clicking sound confirmed that Peter was finally getting somewhere with the lock. He began pushing on the door handle carefully and much to his relief it started moving. The timing was perfect too, as there were no guards present. The hallway he stepped into was unusually dark. But he could still hear people. Carefully he proceeded toward the noise and peering around the corner he saw the men that jumped him and knocked him out. They were now carrying equipment up the stairs to the deck of the freighter. One of the devices he could've sworn was an ultrasound machine.

That Mark bastard came into the picture as well.

"She's cleaned up and back in the clothes she came in, Doctor."

"Good. Let's start getting the boats ready and head out then."

"I don't think we can just leave her here."

"She won't be able to move for about four more hours. That should be enough time for us to clean out this place and we'll be long gone by then."

"And her friend?"

"He should still be unconscious, yes? I suppose we can leave his door unlock so he won't be stuck here either."

Peter smirked. Those idiots didn't hit him hard enough obviously or else he would still be out in the dark.

"DOCTOR! MARK!"

A man came rushing back down the stairs.

"They found us! I dunno how but they have a boat! They're coming this way!!!"

"Dammit!" Mark cried. "Forget the equipment, start shooting at them and prepare the boats!"

Peter watched as the team began to scramble. Soon nearly every one of them was grabbing a gun and running up to the deck. All of them, except for Mark.

As soon as the hallway cleared, Peter turned and followed Mark as he stepped into a lighted room. The panic seemed to be sweating from his pores as the noise of the shootout on deck commenced, but Mark simply ignored the noise.

Peter peeked into the room and saw him still panicky. There was bed in the corner and Mark was standing over it looking panicky.

And in the bed, seemingly unmoving, was Olivia herself.

Mark felt himself being yanked from where we stood and was swung against a wall by Peter. But he punched him and shoved him to ground. He began to wrestle Peter but he flipped Mark into the direction of a medical tray in the room that came crashing down on him.

When Peter attacked him again. Mark quickly kicked the tray to fend off Peter but he merely leaped at him grabbing his neck and pinned him to the ground.

"What did you do?!"

Mark squealed. "We have to get out…now!"

Peter tightened the grip on Mark's neck. "What did you do to her, you son of a bitch!"

Mark began to cough out his words. "It was…it was for the greater good. You must…trust…"

"You Bastards." Peter let his grip go and looked down at him coldly. "I've heard that one from you guys too many times to count! Do you think I'm gonna fall for it again?!"

Peter felt a blow hit him hard to one side of his face. Mark was seemingly good at swinging a punch from out of nowhere. But Peter still overpowered him as he punched back.

"Augh. Peter?"

His froze at the very sound. Not even the gunshots above him were registering in his brain as he looked instantly towards the bed. That familiar moan, which was her own, was the most heartbreaking but relieving voice he ever heard.

Mark was forgotten, left in the dust, as Peter rushed over. She was slowly gaining consciousness, gaining awareness, but she found herself painfully immobile. Her eyes were looking up at Peter's. A very uncomfortable mix of pain, fear, and confusion for the both of them.

Peter's arm reached around her back in an attempt to lift her up, but she only cringed from the pain. "Dammit," he cursed under his breath.

Mark panicked. "She can't be on this ship when they get here."

Peter turned to yell at the man he almost forgot was in the room. "What the hell are you talking about?!" He remained unmoving from Olivia's side as he watched Mark peer out into the hallway looking both sides.

"Don't take the front steps up," he said. "We can slow them down if you go down the hallway. There's a stairway that will take you to the back of the ship. There should be a lifeboat on that side waiting for you."

"Tell me what the hell is going on first!" Peter demanded. "You drag us out here and now you want us to escape?! I want some goddamn answers from you!"

"There will be time for that, soon enough."

Mark had disappeared from the room and started running down the hallway before Peter could yell at that son of a bitch to come back.

But there was nothing more Peter could do now. Like hell, did he want himself or Olivia to still be on this cursed boat if more of these bastards were on their way.

He scooped Olivia out of the bed and into his arms. But having to bend her back slightly, Olivia began to cry out.

"I can't do anything, Peter! It hurts," she moaned.

"I know," Peter said with pain in his voice from having to hear her suffer. "Just hang in there."

He carried her out and saw the darkened hallway Mark suggested to him. It was very long and seemingly unending compared to the quick getaway he could take by turning the corner and taking the stairs that were right there. But the various noises began to occur from above the ship.

Whoever these bastards were, they had already gotten on board.

So Peter really didn't have a choice.

He moved as quickly as he could down the dark maze with holding on to Olivia like dear life. She in turn was fighting every temptation to scream out from the pain raging through every muscle within her.

He nearly tripped when his foot hit something. It was a step the first of many up a complex stairway.

The sound of footsteps entering the inside of the shipped echoed down the hall alarming Peter. He cautiously made his way up. When Peter reached the top, there was nothing but ceiling until he felt a notch and slowly lifted it open.

He peeked out and saw the new batch of men with guns making their way inside the freighter through the front end. Once Peter saw all of them disappear from the deck, he quickly pulled himself and Olivia up into the deck.

Peter looked everywhere but could not any form of lifeboat left on the deck that was promised to the two of them, which only made him grind his teeth. Then he looked out into the water and saw a measly little life raft floating unoccupied near the ship's hull.

"This is gonna hurt, Liv," he warned her. He carried her to the edge of the ship and in one fell swoop, Peter plunged, holding Olivia tighter than he ever had in his life.

But she slipped out his grip when they hit the freezing water. She cried out both for air and pain when she resurfaced. Her back seem to straightened up by itself knowing that it was the only position that did not give her pain and now she was floating on her back. However the water was still ice cold. It did nothing for her paralyzed form except pierce every part of her with a new wave of immense pain.

Peter was feeling the cold when he resurfaced as well. Tugging at the back of Olivia's shirt collar, he was able to pull her and himself out of the waters and into the life raft, where only exhaustion and pain waited for them.

The men who now inside the freighter meanwhile found all of the rooms empty. They did find one empty window and looking out, into the distance was Mark swimming back to short.

He was barely able to escape the range of bullets flying at him.

He reached shore successfully and in a quick amount of time. Looking out towards the waters, he could see familiar looking life raft floating away from the freighter. Two individuals were no doubt inside. Mark wasn't sure but could only hope that it was the two of them, Olivia and her friend escaping.

There wasn't much time left now. Mark pulled out a remote device from his coat and could only hope that it was still working despite being exposed to water.

The men on the ship were unaware that in one of the rooms, a massive storage of detonation devices were set up ready to destroy the freighters remnants longer after Olivia and Peter left the ship but since there was some unpleasant now occupying the ship…

…Mark pressed the button.

Peter didn't know what the hell was happening but on reflex he found himself hovering over Olivia while flaming debris began raining down on them. Fortunately, only small particles were hitting the raft. But it was already too much to unnerve Peter who was doing the best he could to shield Olivia from the particles.

He looked back to the freighter, now no more than a melting spectacle of steel and fire slowly sinking into the water.

He heard Olivia muttered "damn". Peter didn't know if she was responding to the pain or the explosion.

"You okay, Liv?"

All Peter got in return for his concern was a slight "ugh". They were both exhausted and if it were up to them, they would lie there in the raft and hope it floated the both of them back to shore by morning. After all, they were only about 3 or four miles out, but there was barely a tide out tonight and Olivia was already in pain and shivering. Peter leaned over the raft and did his best to push it forward to shore, cursing that son of a bitch Mark for not leaving them an oar at the very least.

Mark watched the raft as it got closer and closer to the shoreline. He could confirm Olivia was in the raft and gave a huge sigh of relief. His work was finished for now and so he disappeared.

The whole plan almost fell to bits but he wasn't surprised that everything worked out. He liked keeping a set of bombs handy for possible situations like this.

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Me liking the new alerts and reviews! It shows me you're interested.