The quick patch job they did on Wolf was just that. It hurt so badly Wolf could barely think, but he had experience with ignoring pain. Any flexing tested the Laska synthetic skin coating that held his shoulder together. The were pacing around the dock, trying to figure out how to follow King. Wolf's whole body shivered with anticipation. Sloan was within reach, and he wasn't leaving without her. He prowled around they edge of the dock, where King had disappeared.

"What are looking for?" Nikki asked, "he's gone."

"I know that, but how?"

"I don't know, maybe its magic."

"If there's one thing I've learned, when someone makes an exit like that, there's always something hidden for the quick getaway. The more supernatural it seems, the more sure you can be that there's a reasonable explanation."

"Unless it's you."

"I guess we all have secrets." Wolf stared down into the frothing waves. He noticed that the waves didn't truly break against the pier. There was a rocky outcropping a little ways away that kept most of the water at bay. It was a foot or so lower than the pier, and it looked as if you could possibly fit a body between them. The outcropping quickly curved out of sight, but there was a possibility that it was a tunnel of some kind. King's escape route. Wolf called Nicola over and pointed out the gap between the rocks and the pier.

"You really think he could get in there?" She asked.

"It's King, I don't doubt it for a second. It could lead to the base, or it could be nothing and it'll drown us when the tide comes in."

They looked at each other for a few long seconds.

"I'll go first," Nikki said determinedly, zipping up the black jacket she had put on over her vest. Wolf reached to ask her to reconsider. She looked at him with blazing eyes ringed with gold. "The tide is coming in, and Sloan doesn't have time for us to waste talking about this," she hissed in the same raspy voice she had used during the mission to blow up the chemical warehouse. She walked purposefully to the end of the dock, stepping off like it was nothing. As she fell, she turned in mid-air, her wrists crossed over her chest. No splash followed her trip, so Wolf ventured nearer the edge.

"Come on," Nikki's echoing voice called from somewhere below him. Larger and less agile than the Special Operations soldier, Wolf's entry wasn't so graceful. He couldn't understand how King, a man with a build very similar to Wolf's, could slip in the way Nikki had. After lowering himself into the crevice, he found nothing to greet his feet. He didn't fancy a drop that he couldn't get back out of if King was lying in wait for them. A waved lapped at his back like the tongue of some great beast. The rising tide snapped to his mind with an unwelcome jolt, pushing him into the tunnel. After letting go of the pier he slid for a few seconds in a tight, pitch black tunnel. He was unable to move, could only trust that he would hit solid ground.

The tight space and slow decent suddenly became wide open space and free-fall. He just barely managed to right himself before hitting the floor. His wounded arm screamed with pain. A light floated a few feet away, illuminating Nikki's face and a little of the surrounding area. They were in a tunnel that was about six feet in diameter. The walls were wet and dripping. Wolf had to hunch forward just to stand, and he could feel the grimy water soaking into his fur. Nikki was of slight build and a little over five feet, so the confines didn't bother her.

"It took us a good hour to fix your arm, so King should be far enough ahead that he won't see us coming. Let's make tracks." She turned and started to head down the very center of the tunnel. Wolf had to walk behind her, for the tunnel was a perfect circle and had no real floor. It looked almost like some kind of pipeline that had never been finished.

"Do you think that they made this just for King?" Wolf asked, trying not to impressed.

"I wouldn't put it past them." She glanced around the small tunnel. "This explains how King comes and goes without being seen."

"Still, it must take hours to get back and forth."

Nikki nodded. That thought settled like a cloud on them. Hours to cross the sea and get to Sloan. Did she have hours? If they were already turning Sloan into an Unnatural, how long would the procedure take? Nicola couldn't remember what the procedure was like. They wiped the memories of all Spec Ops units to make sure they had nothing to go back to, nothing to make them waver on the path of death they were meant for. All she could remember was pain. Indescribable, life ending pain that made a person beg for death. Pain that she was sure Sloan was going through that very second.

Nicola began to run.

XxX

It was easy to lose track of time in the darkness. It was the exact same view over and over again, so she almost didn't notice when the knock of boots on stone changed to the clang of metal. It was Wolf that stopped her and pointed at the ground, signifying that they were getting close. Nikki shook her head yes and began to creep forward, her footfalls making no sound on the plated metal beneath her. Eventually the tunnel began to slope slowly upwards, the floor flattening as it levelled out again in front of a massive, circular door. Nikki stopped Wolf, gesturing to the motion indicators on either side of the door. Wolf leaned into her.

"Let's pray there's no one on the other side," and he took the first step forward into the detector's line of sight. There was a heavy noise as a lock disengaged. The door fell slightly, then split in two and rolled back in either direction to let them through. They were inside the base.

Though Wolf was still tired from his excursion into Regis King's mind, he tried to muster up the strength to send his out consciousness out again. This time he hoped to connect with Sloan and find her position.

It backfired horribly. As soon as he tried to reach out, he was met by a wall of screams and tortured souls. The energy he was struck with was powerful enough to knock him off his feet.

"Guess we'll have to do it the old fashioned way," he growled. Nikki was staring at him confused, but she decided not to ask questions.

"Sloan will already be in the middle of her procedure. If we don't get there before her programs are downloaded and brought online, we've lost her."

"It would help if we knew where the hell we were." They were in a vast, dark room with high ceilings. It was strewn with the occasional stack of crates. The emblem on it was one that Wolf had never seen before. It was a blood red diamond, with a stylized RG on it that followed the lines of the diamond. It didn't take much to figure out who the emblem belonged to. He took a few seconds to commit it to memory, then turned towards the only way out of the room: a thin set of corrugated steel steps leading up to the next floor. He listened, but could hear no footsteps. Waving Nicola forward, he unholstered the only weapon he had, a hopelessly inadequate projectile pistol, and started up the stairs. His ears were straining to catch any sound, but it was all strangely quiet. Nikki was bothered by the silence too. No sounds, no smells, nothing to indicate that another living thing resided on the base. He knelt down a few steps from the top of the stairs and looked around, holding up a closed fist. Nikki froze in place.

At the top of the stairs was a long hallway that went on out of sight off to the left. To the right it ended in a heavy steel door. Wolf didn't give himself time to mull it over, he waved Nicola forward, pointing to the door. Nikki slipped past him, silent as death, and pressed herself to the wall beside the door. There was no lock on the door, no security features at all. This seemed to be the theme, because Wolf had noticed a distinct lack of surveillance cameras. He came forward and put his free hand on the latch to open the door. He glanced at Nicola's empty hands. Nikki replied by flicking back her coat, revealing the serrated blades that she had used before. They would come out when it was time. She nodded for him to open the door.

The opening of the door brought a wave of heat, stink, and sound that washed over the two of them. Wolf recognized the hallway as the one that he'd seen in King's mind. He crept in, and recognized the boy in the closest cell. He turned to look down the hallway, his heart pounding, but the dark outline of Sloan was no longer in the hallway. There was however an angry shout as two guards saw him in the hallway. He was thrown against the nearest cell as a plasma bolt went whistling past his head. It was so close the fur on his ear tips sizzled. He brought his own weapon to bear, but was afraid to shoot for fear of striking on of the children in the prisons. The guards did not take such precautions. The metal bars hissed as they were melted by plasma.

One of the guards made a choking noise and toppled. The second one squawked in surprise, and Wolf took that chance to put three rounds into him. The man collapsed.

None of the people still alive dared to make a sound. The silence was enough to make Wolf's ears pop. Nikki strode through the door as if nothing had happened, right up to one of the dead guards. She grasped the hilt of a blade that was sunk into the man's neck and wrenched it out. She held her second blade, the longer one, in the other hand. A gurgling noise came from the wound, along with blood. The body rolled over onto its face, undeniably dead. Wolf couldn't help but be impressed by the incredible precision it would have taken to kill the man from opposite sides of the long hall. Nikki turned to him calmly, her eyes cooling, become less a person, more animal-like. The façade she had created was beginning to fall away.

"Lead and I will follow," she rasped. The only problem was that Wolf wasn't sure where to go. He ran down the hall, looking desperately for a way to move forward. He was starting to think he'd reached a dead end when he found a door hidden in a recess between the prisons. He was sure this was the right track, because the door was locked. He relayed this information to Nikki, who came with the card from one of the guards. He slipped it through, and it unlocked. Wolf snarled to himself as he threw the door open. It was all too easy. Could Red Generation really be so arrogant that they'd think they need no security?

Their lack of fortifications was a testament to the fear surrounding the place. No one went in or out without their knowledge, and everyone stayed away because they cared more about there own lives than what was happening behind the base's closed doors.

He was confronted by another dark staircase. This one was solid steel steps that were scuffed and worn from use. Wolf walked slowly closer, inspecting the dark drops that were on each step. The whole stairwell smelled of a scent Wolf knew well, and had been hoping to catch. Staring into the darkness above, he vaulted up the steps, two at a time. The fresh scent made his veins pulse with adrenaline. They were getting so close.

He burst through the door at the top of the steps. There was nothing except a very short, grey hallway. The only thing in the hallway was a door. It was thick, and looked to be reinforced, with three locks on it. There was a light above the door that was lit red.

"We need to get in that room."

Just as Nicola stated what Wolf already knew, a bone-chilling scream erupted from behind the door. As tortured as the voice was, Wolf recognized it immediately.

"Sloan!"