As they passed through the halls, the old friends parted ways. Taro had to feed his kitten, as did Wylde; Mel and Manny were both weak with hunger and had to be carried to the mess hall. Alec, Banjee and Vert, however, went back to the garage to assess the damage to their vehicles. And boy, were they surprised to find Angie ever so politely calling the guards fascists.

Vert and Alec moved to contain the situation; they apologized to the SHIELD agents, who didn't seem to be bothered much anyway, and explained to Angie why the base was on lockdown. Grudgingly, the drummer offered his apologies, but only after the two surfers threatened to sit on him.

Banjee laughed. "Took you long enough."

"Well, I don't want to be sat on," said Angie. "Alec has a big fanny and I would be quite squish-ed."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Would you listen to this guy? Halloran, you are freakin' weird."

"Of course I am or I wouldn't be Angie."

"Sure, little drummer boy," Alec said with a roll of his eyes. "Whatever you say."

Skeet pulled a double take at what he had just heard. Those big blue eyes, that dog collar, that unmistakable jacket with bunny ears on the hood… The road Beast yanked the latest copy of Rolling Stone from his glove box; he looked from the cover, to the young man, to the magazine cover again. Finally, the rather broad shouldered racer let out an uncharacteristically girlish squeal of delight. Indeed, it was…

"Angie Halloran!!" Skeet pranced around in excitement, squealing once more. Angie smirked when Skeet ran to him, still squealing. "Oh mah goodness, it's Angie Halloran!!"

"Well, I know who I am, oh stranger who won't stop hugging me, but who are you?"

"All my friends call me Skeet," he said. "I saw the Foundlings open for KISS at the Hard Rock in Tampa. Y'all changed mah life. In fact, can I have your autograph?"

"Wow, I'm flattered. Usually, people ask for Nona or Jimmy. I'm just the drummer."

"Well, Ringo was always my favorite Beatle, if'n ya know what I mean." Skeet humbly offered Angie a beat-up looking pair of drumsticks.

"Aww," said Angie, cocking his head to the side. He made puppy dog eyes and pulled out a marker. "Of course!"

Banjee and Esmeralda snickered when Skeet pranced back in their direction. Who would expect a big tough guy like this gator hunting good ol' boy to act like a high school girl?

"Cute," Es laughed. She took the drumsticks and read aloud.

"'To my number one fan—what kind of a nickname is Skeet anyway? You'll have to tell me sometime. Bet it's a great story! Hugs & kisses! Angie.'" Es scoffed in an attempt to keep from laughing. "What kind of man signs anything 'hugs and kisses?' Weirdo."

Skeet snatched the drumsticks back. It was official: he had a new second most cherished possession right below his car. Banjee rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Just try not to let your little boy-crush get in the way of your driving."

"Boy-crush?! I don't—"

Es laughed even as Banjee continued. "I don't know how, but that weird kid won the first leg, even after having to deal with Taro."

Skeet was still red in the face. "I don't like him like that. I'm just in the fan club. He's a great drummer and I respect him."

"And you have a crush on him."

"Esmeralda, tell Banjee to stop picking on me!"

"Oh, you crazy kids."

The guards were making some kind of commotion again as Tezla came out of his lab and down to the garage. The good doctor had a bandage on his cheek and another around his throat. Treading patiently behind him was a tallish woman with short black hair, and much to the surprise of those drivers milling about in the garage both she and the doctor marched right up to Angie.

"Aren't I popular today," he murmured. "Why, hello there, Dr. Tezla. How wonderful to be formally introduced at long last. That piece in Scientific American about artificial intelligence and alien technology was inspired."

Tezla chuckled bashfully, taken aback that one of the drivers was actually familiar with his work. "You actually read that? Oh dear, I'm so flattered."

"That's not what we're here to discuss," Agent Hill reminded him. Tezla cleared his throat.

"I noticed that you had some trouble with Taro towards the end of the Realm, Angie."

"Trouble…? Oh, the collision! That's no big deal. I'm okay. No harm done."

"But you ran Taro off the road," Tezla asserted. "He could have been killed."

"But I—"

"Competition is one thing, but we can't have you eliminating other drivers."

"Hey, lay off him, Pops," said Nona with an emphatic shove. "Maybe someone shoulda told that to Taro, 'cause from where I was driving it looked like he started the whole thing."

"Yes, well, that may be the case, but I still can't stand idly by with this psycho loose in the realms."

A spark of righteous anger the drummer did not know he possessed cracked and sizzled on the underside of his brain and he could not keep himself from hissing his next words.

"Kitano was the one who tried to sideswipe us. HE tried to run US off the road. We had no choice but to defend ourselves." He glowered and clenched his teeth, but quickly lost his resolve; Angie shook his head, seemingly confused. "I mean, I had to defend myself."

Tezla quietly watched him for a long pause. "Uh, right…That was something else I was going to mention. As part of standard security procedures, when all the extra drivers crashed our little party, extensive background checks were commissioned on each and every one. And I must say there really were quite a few items in your file that we find rather… troubling."

Angie blinked unknowingly, the absolute picture of innocence. "Why, doctor, whatever do you mean?"

"I'm going to be frank—"

"Can I still be Angie?"

"What are you even doing behind the wheel?"

"My van is my baby, sir. I wouldn't trust anyone else to drive her."

"That is not what I meant"

"Well, what do you mean, doctor? I can't very well give you a straight answer to a backwards question. It's any wonder Keesha Maddox found your presence intolerable."

That remark was completely uncalled for, and Tezla found himself deeply offended. He had no sympathy left for the man-child who now stood before him and would pull no punches.

"Angelo David Halloran, your reckless disregard for the safety of your fellow driver is alarming to say the least. God forbid something had gone wrong with the EDR on Night Prowler and Taro had been killed; that blood would've been on my hands for letting you into the realm in the first place. You are far too dangerous to be allowed to race with the other drivers and you will never return to the realms. EVER."

"E-excuse me?" Angie scoffed. "You can't do that! That's not fair!"

"I can, and I have. According to the state of Nevada you are not legally supposed to drive until you are twenty-four. You are currently twenty-one. The courts were very clear."

Angie threw up his hands in exasperation, rolling his eyes for good measure. "Five little arson charges and you're marked for life! This is ludicrous. I was acquitted—"

"Yeah, by reason of insanity," muttered the woman.

"—and still you people put me through the wringer." Angie shook his head and scowled. "Y'know what? Fine! I am SO out of here."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," the woman said, blocking his path. "Agent Maria Hill; I'm in charge of the base while Nick Fury watches the world. He left me in charge while he's kicking around and his orders were 'no one gets in, no one gets out.' So, Mr. Halloran, I'm afraid you aren't going anywhere."

Angie froze; soft laughter only he could hear sent a chill up his spine. "What…? So…So I'm not allowed to drive and I-I can't go back to the city?"

Agent Hill shook her head resolutely and Angie heard the laughter again.

"Poor little Angelo, trapped like a rat," said an artificially sweet voice like antifreeze. "I told you they'd never let you leave, insolent cur, but you're just too stupid to listen to Mommy dearest…"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!!" Angie clutched at his hair and frantically shook his head. "No!!I have to get out of here. I-I-I can't be stuck here, feeling claustrophobic, there must have been a door here in the wall when I came in…"

By now the trio had drawn quite a crowd. The Road Beasts rubbernecked from a safe distance while Vert ran to find his twin. Tezla himself took a cautionary step back while the drummer composed himself.

"No," he said through clenched teeth in as calm a voice as he could manage. "You can't keep me here against my will."

"Well, there's always 'Option B,'" replied Agent Hill.

"'Option B?'"

Maria Hill smiled. "Oh, boys?" she called sweetly. Two guards held an open straight jacket between them, and a third had a syringe—a syringe, no doubt, loaded with sedatives. Angie bolted for the opposite end of the garage, streaking past the Wheeler twins as they emerged from the men's room and shimmied his way up a chain used for hoisting engines. And since the garage had such high ceilings, by the time Agent Hill commanded the trigger happy guards to hold their fire, he was already three stories up and still moving. Soon, he was perched in the rafters, resting peacefully.

Hill was livid, gnashing her teeth. "You get down from there this instant, young man!"

"Te audire no possum! Musa sapientum fixa est in aure!"

"What did he just say?" Tezla cringed before he answered St. Jimmy.

"My Latin's a little rusty so I could be paraphrasing, but I think he just said 'I can't hear you, I have a banana in my ear.'"

St. Jimmy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "No, that sounds about right. Hoo boy."

The agent with the sedatives giggled in spite of the situation until Agent Hill sent him a death glare.

"Man, it's about time!" Alec hissed when the Wheelers finally showed. "Things have gone all to heck in a hamster ball, Mikki. What took you so long?"

"Cut me some slack, jack. Don't have a heart attack. I was in the john. What's going on?"

"Angie's freaking out again…and you sound like a Hallmark card."

Mikki glared. "I rhyme when I'm nervous."

"C'mon, you guys, this is serious." Vert nodded to his twin.

"Angie, Angie, when will those clouds all disappear?" he called out with a playful smile. "I'm gone for five minutes and these are the hijinks you get up to? 'Up' being the operative word…"

"I won't go back!" Angie cried from his precarious perch. "I'll never go back! You can't make me! I WOULD RATHER DIE!!"

"What, to the realms?" Okay, now he was confused. "Angie, you won the Realm of Eternal Night. You seemed like you were having so much fun."

Mikki was given pause as a single water droplet hi his face. He looked up and saw that Angie was crying.

"They want to take me back to Barstow Sands, Mikki." In his voice they heard his sorrow. "The loony bin, the funny farm, the crazy person's hoosegow. Do you remember that awful place…? The laughter, the pain, the fear; all of the gaping, drugged out faces that stare and twiddle their thumbs and toes. The screaming still hasn't gone away from last time, Mik. It never stops. The screaming never stops!!!"

Angie swayed and grabbed the chain to regain his balance. There was a chorus of gasps and murmurs from both the drivers who occupied the garage and the guards who surrounded them.

"O-okay, Angie, just…take it easy." Mikki hoped no one noticed he was trembling. "I know you're scared, but no one's going to make you do anything you don't want to."

"You…you won't let them take me?"

"Of course not, Angie. Now, why don't you come down here and we can talk this out?"

Angie shook his head. "No way! Not until Mata Hari and her thugs put away the straight jacket."

"You heard him, ma'am. Ball's in your court."

Hill snapped. "I am not taking orders from this psycho!"

"Just think of it as a condition of his surrender."

"The split second he's on the ground, we take him. He's being committed." Hill stepped on the Goth's line before he could interrupt. "The kid's deranged. He's a liability and I want him out of here."

Mikki stood tall, resolved. "Then you'll have to take me with him. I know you look at Angie and see a dangerous psychopath, but I've lived with him for seven years. Angie's not just a good kid, he's an angel." Mikki paused. "He's my angel."

Vert stepped up confidently and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "If Mikki goes, I go," he said. Alec copied his best friend's actions on Mikki's other side.

"Me too."

"Well, it's just too bad you can't leave the base because of Fury's orders."

"Doesn't mean we have to cooperate," Mikki asserted. "And I guarantee you we three aren't the only ones who will be up in arms about the little drummer boy."

Alec's eyes darkened. "Stryker started that whole mess with the Silencerz over a driver being called off active duty. You eliminate Angie Halloran and the others might get nervous."

"It isn't elimination," Hill said icily. Alec shrugged as if to say that was what it looked like. Dr. Tezla contemplated carefully what next to say.

"Alec has a point," he started. "The drivers will hope for the best, but these people only know about top secret intelligence organizations what they've seen in the movies. No matter what explanation you offer them, they will assume that Halloran has been, for lack of a better term…eliminated."

Hill tried desperately to think of a way to stall for time. What would Nick fury do in this situation? Nick Fury would not bow down to his underlings, no matter what points they made. Nick Fury would not compromise. Nick Fury…would have thought all of this out and come to the same conclusion twenty minutes ago, avoiding this whole conversation. Crap!

"Stan down, gentlemen," said Agent Hill, and the three agents lowered their weapons. She called up to Angie. "But you can't leave and you can't drive! This ain't baseball, kid. You don't get three strikes with me!"

"So you won't send me to…to the psych ward?"

"Not today," answered Agent Hill, and Angie made his way down. As soon as his feet were touching the garage floor Hill grabbed him by his dog collar. "But the split second you mess with Tezla's research or hurt another driver, you are mine. Don't make me regret the second chance I just gave you, got it?!"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And don't call me ma'am! It makes me feel old."

"Yes, Agent Hill." Even as Hill commanded the guards back to their posts Angie just stood there, deep in shock. He felt rather silly about the way he had acted and wanted to apologize for upsetting everyone, but he was still so very frightened. More that anything, even more than his mother, Angie feared being sent to the nuthouse. Because he had been there before. Because he knew what it was like.

And because it was only a matter of time before he ended up there again.

"It's all right, Angie; just go to your happy place." Mikki smiled in a comforting way and pulled up the hood of Angie's sweatshirt which, for some odd reason, had bunny ears. "Ringo Starr running through an endless field of flowers."

"…With…bunnies?"

"Yes, Angie. With lots of little bunnies."

"I like bunnies; they are fluffy and nice…Except the devil bunny of Kaerbannog with the big pointy teeth. He's a meanie."

And to think this bundle of nerves had defeated Taro Kitano.