To be frank there, that set of never-ending punches and kicks had made him wide-awake.

Badly bruised and injured, Clair raised his shoulder and wiped the blood out of his face. With the thug with possible intention to violate his sister, he found himself giving the man a powerful head butt before he proceeded to attack the boy while shouting angrily in Spanish. Sure, the kicks broke a bone or two in his ribs, but that alone had made him very much awake in this cold storage.

The thug left hastily to get away from him, his bad temper unable to stand those pesky kids standing in his way.

Clair was thinking of finding a way out of this warehouse, be it hopeless or not. Strange…is it him or is the temperature here dipping fast? Touching Rosalia's cold hands, he was sure that it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him. The other children sleeping around him were still sound in their dreams, unaware of the situation they are in.

Well, at least they are safe…for now. He was thinking of lying down next to his sister-

Wait a second. He could hear a strange noise coming nearby. Clair listened intensively. He was probably hallucinating weird noises, with an empty stomach making the noise difficult not to dismiss. The ropes binding his arms and legs made blood circulation around the area hard to function.

"Tick… tick…"


The dark sky spread across the endless space as police cars sped through the bustling roads, the never-ending siren can be heard all across the city. A restless Albert and Carlos were taking the back seat this time, leaving Carlos' fellow colleagues to do the driving as they devised a plan to infiltrate El Paco's hideout.

Carlos shoved a gun at Albert. "Don't show this to anyone. Just to play safe in case El Paco's men start hurting Rosalia and Clair." He spoke with a hoarse whisper. The professor took the gun and placed it in his jacket and nodded.

As the cars continued driving towards the hideout, he could hear his heartbeat palpating quicker and quicker every minute. But there's no time for self-depreciation. He must do whatever it takes to save his children. He did not spend his life adopting two kids just for nothing. Soon they found themselves out of the city, with the lack of streetlights making it difficult for Carlos, with an injured head, to have clear visibility of his surroundings.

The group of policemen then found themselves a large fortress-like warehouse situated in the middle of endless shrubs, finding the sea right at the back of the base. Finding two trucks with boxes full of cigarettes and drugs, the police find themselves the syndicate as devils in plain sight; they are definitely up to no good.

The group put themselves in position. Holding their guns with caution, Carlos and his team made sure they do not catch any attention from whatever it's in there, be it the hostages, the rest of their 'goods' or thugs. Carlos signaled Albert and three other policemen to follow him, sneakily finding a way into the warehouse. Surprisingly, the men find themselves an open door, but nonetheless proceeded with caution just in case they were in for a nasty trap.

"(When I say tres [Three in Spanish], we go in, but don't fire.)" Carlos instructed, with a response coming back from Albert and his colleagues. "Uno, dos…tres!"

Carlos delivered a strong kick at the metal door as the five of them moved slowly into the hideout. Glancing at the dim-lit surroundings, it took some time before Albert could find what he was thinking the entire time prior to the kidnappings.

There was a safe Rosalia sound asleep with his brother, hands, mouth and legs tied together. Clair muffled louder upon seeing his father in sight, shaking his head to show the other kids that were kidnapped too. A delighted and relieved Albert then made his way to untie his son, separating from the rest of the group, but little did he know…

Albert could feel the tip of the gun touching his head.

"(Don't. Move.)"

The professor turned to the other policemen. "What did he say?"

Carlos and his colleagues then point their guns at the criminal. "Just don't move." Translating the man's words, he turned to the children before returning back to the thug. "(What do you want?)"

"(Those drugs you found at the store that belonged to Don Leo; we need them. We were supposed to bring those drugs away for transport but you meddling policemen ruined the plans of our syndicate. Just doing what my boss instructed.)"

"(And the children?)"

"(Heh. Do you think I'm that stupid to tell you what we're going to do with them? Fat chance.)" With that, he aimed at one of the policemen, hoping to shoot one of them down, conveying the message that he wasn't kidding around with them. The policeman, noticing the thug's actions did a roll to avoid getting hit by the bullet then aimed at his weapon before opening fire onto him.

Out of the three shots, the thug managed to escape two of them with the last one shot at his upper thigh. Blood then dripped out of the injured area as the thug tried stopping the blood flow. A number of people, probably with the thug too then got out of their hiding areas and began firing at well. Figuring that they were outnumbered, Carlos and the others tried dodging the bullets firing in their way. Despite the help of crates lying around the warehouse, the situation became dire, as Carlos must be wary about the amount of bullets to use.

Replacing the bullets in his handgun, Carlos tried aiming for the heads of those syndicate members, and succeeded in taking some of them off out of their mini-battlefield. It was impressive, despite the injury he got at the amusement park earlier on. He proceed moving forward while getting other thugs out of the way until he reached Albert where he pulled out a unexpected, deserving punch on his face.

"(Avoid shooting the children. Do not fire at will.)" Carlos ordered, simultaneously kicking the thug's abdomen to make sure he doesn't find any means to hurt anyone. "What are you waiting for? Go untie those kids and flee!" A startled Albert takes immediate action in untying his children and the other kidnapped hostages as well. Clair, with his hands and legs untied then pulled his father towards a dark corner with trails of unknown liquid leading the way, trying to find something as he crouch on the cold floor.

"Professor, if my hunch is right," The red-eyed boy pulled something out at the dark floor, an electronic timer with several explosives and colorful wires tied around together. "It's a trap from the beginning, the moment we set foot here."

0:48... 0:47…

"(Move out! Move out! Take those drugs and get away from here!)" One of them screamed like a madman, his voice booming across the cold warehouse. Everyone stopped firing bullets at their opponents, carried as many boxes as possible before making their escape from the police.

Carlos joined Clair and Albert in stopping the bomb. "Told the kids that were wide awake to untie the other children. Don't worry, Rosalia's fine. Great, if only I knew that there's a bomb located in this stupid place. I would have brought a bomb squad to diffuse this thing."

"It's too late for regrets now. All we need to do now is to find a way to stop this bomb from exploding." Albert took out his Swiss Army knife from his pocket, opening the case as he progress in preventing their impending deaths. In it were three wires, one red, one yellow and one blue.

0:12… 0:10…

"Son," Albert tapped the boy's shoulder with the knife on his other hand. "Go join Rosalia and the other kids out of this place."

Clair wished his father would never say that, his father's smile making it hard to make this urgent situation a little calmer. "You won't die. You'll definitely go to pick the right wire to stop that thing from exploding." Saying those possibly last words to his father, he turned and dashed out of the warehouse.

"So, nitroglycerine…eh? They could use a better substitute for this." The mood turned gravely serious as Carlos dismissed his friend's bad sense of humor. With his hand shaking as he tried to find the right wire to break, both men then closed their eyes and Albert hastily snapped the red wire in half. They waited quietly, hoping that the bomb will deactivate in time.

Please work…God, please let this work…

0:05… 0:04… BOMB DEACTIVATED

The moment Albert and Carlos opened their eyes, they find themselves lying down on the cold hard floor, taking in a few deep breathes as they succeed diffusing the bomb on time.

"I never want to join the Bomb Squad again, shall I have the chance from HQ."


I would like to thank Clarissa Gavin for beta-reading this chapter just before her camping trip. Many thanks.

It's a short chapter this time, but I will make up the short length of this chapter to the next chapter. The fluff will be back (Can hear the cheers from those who wants that softer tone back.), so many things to do. And about the action scenes, probably this chapter took long to write is because I seldom write people fighting. It's good practice for me, however. Man I need some tips on writing actions scenes in future.

Sorry for the big delay. So many things to do with the new school term approaching in less than two weeks time… Especially all those new anime shows coming up this season. (If you're wondering, I'm only following Shiki and Ookami-san consistently since new school life's becoming hectic for me.) The good news is, I'm attending their orientation program on the 14th which is 5 days before the new term begun. Good bye, vacation; hello, school. (Don't feel like going outside; wanna stay at home playing video games and finish writing fanfics.)

Like I said in my A/Ns in previous chapters, I can only update weekly, or maybe longer than that (About every fortnightly, I don't know). But please give me some time to settle into my new school life, I'm entering a new school BTW. I hope I can meet new friends and push the old shame of my primary/secondary school life aside. I feel like composing my own songs, seeing how those composers using the VOCALOID software made all those awesome songs in NND.

I was thinking deeply about the Rosalia Virus to sink into my mind for quite some time. I'm afraid I have to delay some chapters a little longer since things don't flow the way I expect them to be. But after that the rest of the plot remains as usual.