Xero dropped the capsules without a second to lose.

They both closed their eyes as they continue to lower towards the chemicals.

"Zero," Xero started again "I-." She was cut off as the duo landed on a thin layer of ice. "Move, move, move," she yelled as they started to inch worm their way across the already melting ice.

With a last burst of energy the duo lunged off of the remaining ice as it dissolved into the chemicals.

The duo breathed heavily as they thought about all their life choices and weather or not this near death experience could have been avoided.

It couldn't.

Xero strained as she rotated around him in her chains, eventually coming face to face with her friend. She could see the blush rush to his face, just as rosy as hers; his heartbeat even faster than it was a moment ago.

"So…," she finally said, "On a scale of 1-10, how mad do you suppose Katz will be over this mission?"

"I don't know, maybe a cool 6," he said hopefully.

"Don't be to sure about that," a familiar voice said.

The duo turned and saw Mole with Susan Shadows.

"I radio for backup," Mole explained.

"And I happened to be in the neighborhood. Now let's get you out of those chains," she said as Mole turned into a chain saw.

"Wait!" Xero yelled, "can't Mole just turn into a skeleton key?"

Susan looked at Mole who just shooked no. "Apparently not. Now just hold still."

Xero clinged onto Zero as though that would make a difference, while he turned his head about.

"Did you see that?"

"What?" she asked unsure what he was talking about.

"I swear I saw a pair or red eyes."

Katz lowered the paperwork and looked at the 'dynamic duo,' their hair and clothing a shuffled mess. "He got away," he asked as he re-read the report.

"Well, yes," Xero said cautiously.

"But," Zero said quickly, "we have an idea what Roach is planning."

"Yes," Katz said sarcastically reading through the report, "He's trying to admass an army of roaches. Which he can't control whatsoever."

The duo looked at one another and then down sheepishly.

"This was supposed to be an easy mission," Katz continued. He then stopped and looked at them mournfully. "If you two can't complete even the simplest of missions together, maybe you two shouldn't be together."

Zero looked up at him shocked. "You want to split up our team?"

"I never said that's what I wanted."

"Katz, I know we messed up," Xero said panicky, "just give us another chance."

Katz leaned back in his chair rubbing his temples. "I'm leaving tomorrow morning, and the council is sending a temporary replacement, Mrs. Whitman. I will warn you, she is known to be a very strict woman. When I return, and she has the tiniest of complaint about either one of you, I'm going to separate you both in definitely."

Katz watched as the duo left silently out his office door.

"You were a little rough on them," Susan said hidden in the shadows.

"You're only saying that because that boy is yours."

"Even if he wasn't, that was rough on both of them.

"Let's just focus on how we're going to rescue the Poppyfield's."

"Well for starters, I think we're going to need a M.O.L.E unit."

"Right," Katz agreed, "I'll have the technicians send one up."

"Might as well just uses Xero's and Zero's partner, Mole. You're going to have Mrs. Whitman breathing down their necks, why keep Mole hear if he's going to do the same thing?"

Katz turned to her annoyed. "I get it, you don't like how I handled diciplining them, but lets not forget we have a mission to complete."

"Fine," Susan said standing down, "but we're not done talking about this."

Katz turned to a monitor, "Please send up M.O.L.E unit 349."

Hello readers this is Mod. HQ, just writing to let you all know that I'm back to classes tomorrow, so it might take me more time than usual to up load chapters.