Sorry it's a bit late, I wrote Chapter 10 with both David and Alec really OOC and ended up rewriting it.

I'm going to summer camp in California, and I don't know if I have wifi. So here's my plan; I'll write at least a chapter a day and post them as soon as I can. You might get chapters every couple of days, or you might get eight chapters a week from now.

So, a recap: now Alex and Sabina are both at the compound. Brynne hates Sabina, but Sabina doesn't know why. And Sabina might have a crush...

Chapter 10

Alex, Ben, and David were working out in the gym while Sabina watched. She was supposed to be spotting them, but she'd gotten bored and decided to paint her nails. Now she was waving her hands absentmindedly in front of her face to dry them and enjoying the sight of hot shirtless boys. "You know, we could hurt ourselves without a spotter," Alex said, shaking her out of her reverie.

"Do you want pink glitter streaked over your back?" She asked, waving the nail polish threateningly. All three of them shook their heads fervently, and she smiled sweetly, pulling off her boots to paint her toes. "You're invincible spies, and you're scared of this one little bottle," she mused. "Kind of pathetic."

"We're not invincible," Ben got out, straining to lift the dumbbells. "

"Well, obviously you haven't failed a mission, as you're still alive," Sabina pointed out. "So I'd say you're pretty dang close to invincible."

"Is she always like this?" David asked Alex. "I mean, she acts sweet and naive and at the same time she's threatening to paint us..." He shuddered. "Pink."

"Unfortunately, she is," Alex assured him. "What you see is what you get. She will follow up in her threats, though. Don't get on her bad side unless you want a closet full of glitter."

"As long as you're here, you could work out," Ben told her, choosing to ignore his favorite unit member. "You could do, I don't know, chin-ups." David cleared his throat from his position under the chin-up bar. "Or the treadmill," Ben backtracked.

BANG! Everyone jumped, looking over at David. Sabina shrieked and buried her head in Alex's chest. One of David's gloves had fallen off, and a smoke bomb hidden inside had gone off. He coughed, waving his hands around to clear the smoke.

"You look just like Sab trying to dry her nail polish," Alex informed him. David shot him a glare.

"Just because we're working together on this one mission doesn't mean we're friends," David bit off. "After this, we'll cut contact, and probably never see each other again. We might end up as enemies later, and it would be better for that if we're not friends now. "

"Whoa," Sabina snapped, her teasing mood evaporating. "We didn't do anything to you! I get that you might have had a rough life so far, but we're on your side. You don't need to push us aside all the time." She turned away, picking up her nail polish and walking out of the gym. As she walked by Alex, he heard her mutter "and I thought you were cute."

Alex wiped his face off with a towel, and turned towards David. "Sabina's right, that was kind of uncalled for. We need to work together on this. And frankly I don't care how rude you are to me, but at least be nice to Sabina. Despite her threats of pinkness, she's innocent."

Brynne accosted Ben and Alex outside of the gym, her smile not unlike that of a crocodile. "I saw Mallina," she said faux-sympathetically. "The poor thing seemed rather..upset."

"For the last time, her name is Sabina," Alex sighed, tired of Brynne's pettiness. "And she's a girl, not a thing."

"Yes, of course," Brynne smirked. "My bad. Anyhoo, Nathan and Jillian wanted you two to come the meeting tonight. It's in the labs at eight." Getting the feeling this was more of an order than a request, Ben assured her the two of them would be there. Alex hurried upstairs to Sabina, worried by Brynne's description. She was lying face down on her bed, cursing boys, spies, boy spies, the Indian secret service, and the world in general.

"Hey. Sab." Alex sat down next to her as Ben left quietly. "You okay?" She rolled over to look up at him, her hair coming loose from its braid to frame her face.

"Yeah, I'm just peachy," she retorted. Alex raised his eyebrows and waited for her to continue- she obviously wasn't finished with the inevitable tirade. "He doesn't have to shut everyone out! I know from your experience he's probably gotten people killed by being friendly to them, but that's no excuse! He's human too, so why is he pretending he doesn't have any emotions? I mean, sometimes I'll think he's about to say something funny, but then he'll go right back to the walled-off David who doesn't care at all about other people. It's just so annoying and he's not even taking into consideration the fact that other people might care about him too! Because we do, and now he's just hurting us all and making us want to withdraw from him, so now he won't have anyone to care for him. And then if he gets sick or hurt, no one will care, and-"

Knowing she could go on forever, Alex cut her off. "Sabina and David, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," he singsonged. Sabina's mouth fell open with an audible pop, and she smacked his arm as hard as she could. Which wasn't very hard. "I-we-he-he'd never- I don't- you-," she sputtered. "I hate you! I don't like him! And anyways he'd never like me back so it's a moot point!"

"Denial isn't just a river in Egypt," Alex told her. She began protesting again. "I have to go," he interjected, putting his hand over her mouth. "There's a meeting thingy I have to get to. Try not to set anything on fire while I'm gone." She stuck her tongue out at him when he removed his hand.

A few minutes later, in the labs-

"Now that everyone's here, lets begin," Nathan said, standing up in the front if the room. "Those of you who are new, I assume you've been filled in on our plans?" When everyone nodded, he continued smoothly. "Operation Mutation will be finalized within a few weeks. Our creations have been nearly perfected. We have successfully created hybrids with lupine DNA, avian DNA, reptile DNA, amphibian DNA, and fish DNA, feline DNA, and canine DNA. All of them have human DNA, of course, and a select few are a mix of more than two types of DNA. They are currently being trained in fighting, and we will have an effective army by the end of the month. You are the last part of the plan. Once the mutations have successfully terrorized the world, you will step in. The fifty of you will be the leaders. You will reassure people that everything is safe, and it will be YOU who decides who survives the apocalypse."

Interesting, those fifty people would have a lot of power. I'm tired so I'm going to bed now. See ya!