AN: Sorry about the long wait. For some reason I couldn't quite get this chapter done and my muses were having fun jumping from one fandom to another. But rest assured I still have big plans for this story. Anyway, thanks to everyone still reading. Enjoy!

xxxx

Project Onyx. That name popped up several times during Hawk's explanation about Renegade. Renegade seemed obsessed with Hawk finding out what Project Onyx was. Hawk didn't seem to have any clue what it was and I could tell that he was worried about what Renegade would do to him if he didn't get answers. I didn't want Hawk worrying about something like that. The dude had enough on his mind with Sam around and the upcoming convention where his father was going to be. He didn't need to worry about some mysterious stalker too.

So I once more talked King into helping me. He was more enthusiastic about helping me the second time around. He dropped the other things he was working on and started in with his mad computer skills. I watched in complete awe as he worked his magic. I knew enough about computers to find some good sports websites and play video games. Just thinking about trying to do everything King was doing made my head hurt.

I shifted my thoughts to Hawk. My friend was under so much stress. He was trying to figure out what his twin was up to not to mention he had been trying to keep some pretty big secrets. He had finally spilled his guts first to me and then later on to the rest of our friends. He still hadn't revealed to them that Sam was a lying snake, but most of the gang has got that impression already. However, I could tell that Hawk was still stressed out and I really wanted to do something to help him.

"I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to find anything," King admitted as he typed furiously.

"We have to find something," I urged as if he didn't know that already. My friend shot me a no-duh look. "Sorry, I know you're doing your best, dude. This whole thing just makes me worry."

"I know, me too, but--oh shit."

My friend's quick change of voice and rarely used explicative caught me off guard. I quickly moved to see what had startled him, but he was closing out of stuff so quickly I didn't get a chance.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

When all the windows were closed and he seemed satisfied, King turned to me. "My search led me into something military, something classified. I'll be lucky if I didn't get caught."

"Military? Think it has something to do when Hawk was with the Air Force?" I mused.

"I don't really know how the Air Force works, but I don't think he was there long enough to become involved with anything," King replied thoughtfully. "In any case, that's as far as our investigation goes."

I was disappointed, but I didn't push him. How he had managed to actually get so far as a classified military project stumped me. I knew he was good I just never realized he was that good. I let him go back to whatever it was he was doing and wandered off to find Hawk.

I knocked on his bedroom door and waited for him to answer, but after a few minutes there was nothing. I knocked a second time just to make sure, but again there was no response. I turned and decided to check the garage, but was startled when I bumped into Sam. Hawk's brother gave me a smile that would have fooled me if I didn't already know what a snake he was.

"Hey dude, do you know where Hawk is?" I asked.

"Nah man, haven't seen him," Sam replied and I could tell he was actually telling the truth. "Did you check the roof though? He likes going up there."

I was kinda annoyed that Sam would give away Hawk's personal getaway spot like that, but I thanked him and walked off. I had no intention of invading Hawk's space like that. I decided to check the garage just in case he was down there instead.

xxxx

"You can stop saying I told you so."

"No I can't, I'm getting way to much enjoyment out of it."

"Jerk."

I listened to Drew laugh and rolled my eyes. Sometimes my older brother could be a real pain in the ass.

"What are you going to do now?" Drew asked once he was done laughing.

"I dunno," I admitted. "It's only a matter of time before that Renegade character comes back and I really don't want to think about how I'm supposed to deal with our father."

"Just remember you won't be alone for that. I'm coming along too, much to his annoyance.."

"Good, maybe you can help me thwart whatever Sam is up to."

"You know I'll do whatever I can to help you, Zach," Drew replied. "Now, I have to get some work done before the convention. I'll see you then."

"Have fun."

"Yeah, right," And with that Drew hung up.

I flipped my own phone closed and slipped it into my pocket. I then just sat and enjoyed the view of the sun setting. I didn't usually take the time to watch a sunset or a sunrise for that matter. But I wasn't ready to go back inside and have to deal with my twin. I hated that I was giving him that kind of power, but I wasn't really sure what to do about him. My friends knew most of the truth and other than Shark I was sure Axel and King had doubts about him too. I could probably have revealed him for what he really was and gotten the full support of my friend, but at the same time I thought I had a better chance of stopping him from doing whatever he was up to. I was pretty sure he was after the Razorwing and I had no intention of letting him have it.

"You isolate yourself a lot, y'know."

I cringed at the one voice I didn't want to hear. "Can't you leave me alone?"

"I think you know the answer to that," Sam replied with clear taunting in his voice. "I had hoped to get a little bit of a challenge from you. I thought maybe you'd fight for what you care about a little more."

"You haven't won anything yet," I snapped in reply.

Sam smirked. "You told me the other night that I had your friends wrapped around my fingers and your crush totally into me."

"What's your point?" I demanded. "I could end your game right now by revealing everything."

"And take the chance of them hating you for it? I seriously doubt you have the balls to take that risk," Sam sneered.

I opened my mouth to keep arguing with him, but decided again it. Instead I shot him a look full of fury and stormed past him and had to once more ignore his triumphant laughter. I couldn't wait to put him in his place but I couldn't afford to do it yet. All I could do was grit my teeth and try and get away from him. I grabbed my jetpack from where I had placed it and slipped it on as Sam insulted my pride a few more times.

"Stick a sock in it," I snapped and then fired up the jetpack and took off.

xxxx

Later that evening as I was coming down to the living room I found everyone except Hawk gathered there. Sam was chatting happily with Lioness who seemed to be hanging off of every word he said. How she couldn't pick up on what a jerk he was I'll never know, but she seemed to be buying his act. King looked like he was trying very hard to ignore every word Sam was saying without looking like he was ignoring him.

"Hey Shark, you're joining us for dinner, right?" Axel asked.

I started to say yes and then thought better of it. I didn't really want to spend anymore time with Sam than I had to. Instead I made an excuse about not feeling well. I could tell King didn't buy it, but he didn't call me on it.

"Do you know where Hawk is? We wanted to invite him too."

"Nope, haven't seen him," I replied to Lioness's question.

The group then headed out and I plopped onto the sofa to wait for Hawk to make his appearance. There wasn't much of anything good on TV so I decided on Mythbusters. I loved how they so enjoyed blowing stuff up.. Sometime while the Mythbusters were shooting frozen chickens at an airplane cockpit window I must have fallen asleep. And I was deep in a pretty pleasant dream consisting of me, Hawk, and a deserted beach when I was woken up by the sound of shattering glass. I jerked up as I heard someone cursing from the kitchen. I got up and headed into the kitchen to find Hawk picking up pieces of a glass. He looked up at the sound of my bare feet on the floor and smiled sheepishly.

"Butterfingers," he said in way of explanation.

I smiled and kneeled down to help him. "Where've you been, dude?"

"Went for a flight to clear my head," he replied as he picked up a fairly big piece of glass.

"Sam getting to ya?"

There was just a moment's hesitation that caused me to look at him and I saw a brief flash of something I didn't quite recognize. He shrugged and threw away another piece of glass. "Yeah, I'm not used to having him around."

I snorted. "I'm pretty sure that's an understatement."

"Yeah, guess that's true. It's just all so much to deal with," Hawk said.

"Oh, that reminds me. King and I tried to find out more about that Project Onyx, but it led to some kind of classified military thing," I told him. "Any idea what that could be?"

"Why would I know anything about a classified military experiment?"

"Well, you were in the Air Force for a little bit, dude," I retorted. "I thought maybe knowing it was military might jog your memory."

"I wasn't enlisted long enough to get into any kind of classified anything."

"Then why is Renegade so intent on you finding out what Project Onyx is? It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe Renegade is just some psycho who thinks Project Onyx has something to do with me."

I gave my friend a curious look at that. Hawk had seemed insistent that finding out what Project Onyx was. From the way he had talked he seemed confused about what Renegade was really all about. I didn't understand the sudden change in his attitude.

"Anyway, there are more important things to focus on," Hawk continued.

"Like Sam?"

There was another brief flash of something in his face, but it was gone before I could recognize what it was. "Oh, I must have forgotten to mention it, but while I was out Sam found me and told me that he had to leave."

"So we don't have to worry about him anymore," I said with relief. "That's one problem solved. Now we just have two more left."

"Two more?"

"Project Onyx and the Prometheus Convention," I told him.

"What's wrong with the Prometheus Convention?" He asked.

I once more gave him a curious look, searching his eyes. "Dude, I thought you were freaked because your Dad is gonna be there."

"Oh, right, my dad. I guess I'll just have to deal with that when it comes up," Hawk replied.

We finished cleaning up the broken glass and went to the living room where we turned on a movie. I didn't pay attention to the movie. Instead I tried to figure out why exactly something felt wrong. Hawk was acting weird and his answers to my questions were just kind of…off. But he was under a lot of stress and I decided that must have been why. Satisfied with that answer and turned my full attention to the movie and forgot about my worries for a little while.