Thank you! Thank you! Thank you , Guardian of universes (love the name by the way) for sending me the link on youtube. Didn't think of looking there.

This chapter focuses on the others in the group because I am constantly doing it about Oscar and Lizzie. Enjoy!


'We need to act and we need to act fast,' Luke said decidedly after Lizzie and Oscar finished describing SKUL's attempts at creating a climbing wall on the cliff face, 'Lizzie, can you sort some of those pegs out? Get rid of them.' Lizzie was already running at the far wall when Luke called after her, 'and make sure there are no SKUL agents on them when you pull them out. We don't want to be responsible for anyone's death, whether they are a SKUL agent or not.'

Lizzie pulled a face at him. 'Do you really think that I would do something like that anyway?' she asked brusquely before placing her hand against the stone wall and sliding through it as if it was nothing more than a sheet of water.

Luke watched her go before murmuring, 'some days I really don't know.' He glanced sideways at Oscar and muttered, 'could you possibly keep an eye on her? Check that she's not doing anything too dangerous?' Oscar nodded understandingly and hurried from the basement. Both boys knew how Lizzie could get when faced with the prospect of ruining her brother and that sometimes she could forget her own safety could be at risk. Once Oscar had gone, Luke turned his back on the place his teammate had exited and strode to the opposite end of the lab where Max and Rose were working. 'How's it coming along?'

Max finished wiping his glasses, put them back on his nose and studied the device he and Rose had constructed from the old computer equipment. 'I think it'll work,' he said, 'provided we have good signal and a regular supply of electricity.'

Luke nodded slowly. 'Your thoughts, Rose?'

Rose sighed. 'Like Max said, it may work. This technology is quite out of date and even with all our communicators, the signal here is very poor. We might not be picked up the other end. If the worst comes to the worst, we might have to relocate the device in order to send the message. The electricity problem can be easily solved though. We can use the battery in my spy pod.'

'Will it work?' Max asked, taking the spy pod from Rose and examining it, 'it looks pretty small to me.'

'It managed to keep the SKUL doors open in order for me, Oscar, Carrie and the head of MI9 to escape from SKUL in our last mission,' Rose said, 'the mission where we found Oscar's dad.'

'We'll have to put it in and keep our fingers crossed,' Luke said, reaching down to pick up the device. Jessica was at his shoulder in an instant from her position with Carrie at one of the workbenches.

'What do you mean "we"?' she snapped, 'you're not planning on going, are you?'

'I thought I told you not to eavesdrop when I'm discussing business,' Luke growled, turning away from her. Jessica sidestepped him and stood directly in front of him.

'I wasn't eavesdropping. In a room like this, it's impossible to keep any conversation a secret, it echoes so much,' she said crossly, 'and you haven't answered my question.'

'Someone has to go with Max to send the message,' Luke told her calmly.

'And why can't that be Rose?' Jessica pleaded.

'Because we need one genius to stay behind and help defend the castle against SKUL,' Luke said.

'But you said…'

'I know what I said Jessica, but things have changed. You told me yourself that you would rather die than be forced to rejoin SKUL and I don't blame you for that. I know you feel…' Luke searched for the right word, 'vulnerable at times because we can do so much more than you, but you can look after yourself so much better than you believe you can. It's nice to have people to depend upon, I know, but you have to stand on your own two feet every once in a while otherwise you forget how to walk alone.'

Jessica hung her head. 'Have you told Lizzie yet?' she asked after a while.

'No,' Luke admitted.

Jessica grinned. 'She's going to be furious you know. She hates being left by herself.'

Luke chuckled. 'And yet, she often decides to go it alone. It's like she doesn't want to be separated when we have no choice and yet when we could be together, she prefers her own ways.'

They shared a smile. Silence descended in the lab, broken only by Rose and Max's whispering as they adjusted the communications device. Carrie, who was slightly irritated by being left to search alone, got up to try and get Jessica to come back and help. She stood a bit too suddenly from her high stool and wacked her knee against the desk. Next moment, she had been knocked backwards off the stool as a hidden drawer in the desk had shot out, hitting her in the midriff.

'Carrie!' the other four ran over to her. Jessica and Rose helped her up as Luke and Max bent over the secret workstation. Max picked up a couple of the worn pages lying at the bottom of the draw. He scanned it and then tossed it back with one word, 'toxic.' He picked up another, and another, but neither were the one he was looking for.

'These appear to be old formulae,' he concluded excitedly, 'not much use. But maybe there's another drawer.' He started tapping the bottom of the workbenches, checking for anything that might indicate any more secrets. Carrie, now excited by what she had discovered, moved off in the other direction.

Rose stepped closer to the drawer already discovered. She took all the papers out and lined them up on the desktop, frowning. There was something bothering her. 'Why hide formulae that have no use?' she pondered aloud. She skimmed over the sheets, searching for clues, familiar symbols leaping out at her. 'He's used tritemerite in one of his formula,' she said to the room in general, 'that's really dangerous!'

'Probably in the real formula though,' Max replied, peering under the desk at something he had found, 'that's most likely where we get our power from.'

Rose knew there was still something out of place and it was bugging her. She was distracted however when Carrie, who seemed to be having luck with this sort of thing, cried, 'aha!' and clicked something she could feel. She was quickly surrounded by Max, Jessica and Luke, Rose only staying where she was to figure out what was wrong.

This drawer was smaller than the first, but deeper, and hidden within it was a leather-bound rectangular book which sat lengthways, covered by dust. Carrie carefully pulled it out and dusted it down. She glanced at the others, relishing the fact that she had discovered something important again, and opened it. She couldn't understand half the words on the page. It was partly the handwriting, but there were random symbols here and there on the pages. She turned them carefully so that they all could see them. It appeared to be some sort of diary, but the Professor had not kept much of a record about his life. It was filled instead with different attempts at the formula, the children he had abducted and the new world he dream of creating. It sounded to Carrie like the talk of a madman, which she stated quite clearly to the rest of the group.

'Are you insane?' Max asked, as if Carrie really was, 'this is incredible.' He took the book off Carrie and started studying the pages himself. He turned the last one and grinned slightly, turning the book round so that the others could see the page. It depicted three sleeping babies, clearly meant to be the young Trio, and something was scrawled across the centre of the page.

'What does that say?' Luke asked, indicating the message in the middle of the children. Jessica leaned close and read, 'Though individual they may be, as one they will always seem.'

Carrie giggled. 'He sounds very poetic for a madman.'

Rose had snapped upright at Jessica's words. 'What did you say?' she said hurriedly.

'I said…' Carrie began.

'I meant Jessica,' Rose interrupted.

Carrie frowned. So did Jessica and she pointed to the book. 'I was reading from that,' she said, 'it's referring to the Trio.'

'Could be,' Rose said, returning to the pages on the desk, 'or it could be referring to this. Thought they are on different sheets of paper and seem totally unconnected, this is the formula!'

Max joined her and after a few seconds, his disbelieving expression changed into one of pure delight. 'You're right!' he exclaimed, 'this is it! We found it! We found it!'

Carrie coughed. 'I think you'll find that I found it.'

'Yeah, yeah, I suppose,' Max said distractedly, waving the thought aside. He was studying every part of the formula. 'I did mention this stuff is toxic, you know. In high dosages, it could be lethal.'

'That was something that the Professor experimented with no doubt,' Rose said, 'the quanity to give.'

'Of course he did,' Max said absentmindedly. He slid the papers into an order and stacked them neatly on the side. He and Rose stared at them for a while before turning to one another. 'Shall we get back to the communications?' Max offered, 'the sooner we complete that the better.'

'Sure,' Rose agreed and they headed up to the end of the lab again.

The other three looked at one another wondering what to do next. They were saved the trouble of thinking of something when there was a cry from the wall behind them and Lizzie toppled through it. They swivelled round to face her and could now hear footsteps racing in their direction. Jessica let out a short scream as Oscar burst into the room and both ran to Lizzie's side.

Oscar wheeled back after a second with a curse. 'They got her!' Luke and Carrie started towards the group. Lizzie reached up towards Oscar to console him and as she did, Carrie and Luke noticed the blood on her fingers. Luke swore and sprinted the rest of the way to Lizzie followed swiftly by Carrie, Max and Rose.

'It's okay,' Lizzie was telling Oscar soothingly as they reached her, 'it's okay. I'll be fine.'

'What the hell happened?' Luke demanded as he stood over Lizzie. Her left hand, which Jessica was now gently holding, was bleeding.

Lizzie winced as Jessica's fingers gently rubbed the area around her wound, trying to see it better through all the blood. 'I was pulling the metal bars out of the rock like you told me to. I had sent most of them clattering down into the valley when a SKUL guard pulls his gun out and starts shooting at me. I thought I was safe as I retreated into the rock, but he managed to catch my hand as I withdrew.' Lizzie batted Jessica's fingers away and wiped her right palm over the back of her left hand. The blood went with it and the others were given a few seconds to see the long line across the back of Lizzie's hand before the blood welled up again. Carrie hurried off to find the first aid kit.

Luke stared long and hard at Lizzie's hand as Jessica and Carrie tended it. Finally he said, 'we need to keep going. They won't be expecting me after they've just seen Lizzie.'

Jessica realised too late what Luke meant to do. 'Luke!' she cried out in alarm, 'Don't!' but Luke was already out of the door.


Thanks once more for the link. I think I've spelt it correctly. It does become important later on so... oh I shouldn't be giving clues away should I!

Enjoy the rest of the fic!