A/N: Hey guys! I've finally come back! Sorry for not warning you, but the month of March was simply insane for me, and so I decided that ten chapters was enough to be getting on with for a month. I have returned, and will be updating every Tuesday once again!

I hope this chapter satisfies your appetite- or leaves you begging for more! Bon appetit!

Chapter 11: Man Up

They say Mondays are the worst days of the week. Who "they" are, I have no idea. "They" just say that. But I say that come days can have identity crises and think they are Mondays. Despite it being a Thursday, Zerubbabel would have most definitely agreed with me on this point.

Zerubbabel could honestly say she had no idea how she had ended up in a dingy motel room somewhere off the coast of Portugal. The whole world seemed to have decided to speed up time, as though it weren't going fast enough already. One minute, she had been calmly interrogating a SAD official. The next, she was in a little hole of a room that, as Flynn would've said, "smelled like the color brown." Sitting back down on the floor, Zerubbabel tried to recall what had happened. Ah, yes. It had all begun in a cellar back in Germany.

With the woman in the bright blue jumpsuit still swung over her shoulder, Zerubbabel had sprinted out of the building. Or, more precisely, into a set of stairs. The passageway was certainly dark and dingy. It even had stone steps, the kind you would expect to see in some ancient castle of some sort, not in such a high-tech area as the SAD headquarters. Without wasting a moment of precious time, Zerubbabel started up the stairs. They were a trifle for her at best, what with all the self-defense she had acquired through years of training. Upon reaching the top of the staircase, she came face-to-face with a heavy door. Zerubbabel had to use all the strength she could muster to get it open, even setting the official down on the floor for less distraction.

After a few moments of painful waiting, she managed to swing the door open. The German sunlight welcomed her to freedom from the confusion Flynn had put her through. Flynn. The idiot. Whatever gave him the foolish notion that she worked for such a superficial agency? At least NINJA had some sense of decency when it came to their clients. SAD, they just paired to idiots together and called it a romance. Thank goodness there were good storytellers to cover up their blatant ignorance.

Cursing Flynn and his stupid agency, Zerubbabel hoisted the woman back over her shoulder, and was about to step out the door when she stopped. I can't go out carrying her like this; it'll look suspicious, she thought. Thinking fast, she shifted the woman into a piggyback enough for her to duck into an alleyway without too many people asking questions. With any luck, they would think she was being a good friend and taking her girl friend, who had had a little too much to drink, back to her parent's house. It would have to do. Zerubbabel took a deep breath, and stepped onto the pavement.

Immediately ducking her head, she made her way down the street, avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone. She spotted a gap between two shops just across from her as she lifted her gaze to glance around. Still avoiding eye contact, Zerubbabel looked left and right, then proceeded across the street. When she finally made it into the alleyway, she let out an exhausted sigh, and carelessly dropped her hostage onto the pavement. She leaned against a brick wall, gradually sliding down until she was in a sitting position. Taking heaving breaths, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

Calm had just begun to overtake her when someone else entered the alleyway. Without opening her eyes or giving any sign that she was aware of their presence, Zerubbabel listened carefully. The person crept closer and closer to her position in the alley, obviously trying to keep very quiet. Judging by their level of stealth and the speed of their approach, she hazarded a guess that they were over six feet tall, and quite wide. She continued to listen for the invader's approach. Quite soon, he or she converged on them.

Chancing a minuscule parting in her eyelids, Zerubbabel watched the person, a man by the looks of him, approach the official first. She watched him trail his humongous fingers down her cheek. Zerubbabel couldn't begin to fathom the meaning of this. When he glanced in her direction, she quickly shut her eyes and began breathing deeply to give the (false) impression that she was asleep. She listened to him approach, and breathed even deeper. She sensed the man draw close to her, and she guessed he was studying her face. Then, a moment later, she felt a set of lips on hers. On hers! Zerubbabel leaped up from her spot on the ground, any pretenses she had forgotten. "And just what do you think you are doing?!" she yelled, not caring that half the street could probably hear her.

"I—uh, I—," the man stuttered. He held his hands up defensively and backed away.

Now that she could see his face, Zerubbabel knew what he had been doing. The man was maybe 6 foot 5, with a fantastic upper body and face. He looked very familiar indeed.

"Give it up already. You need to just get over her! There are plenty of perfectly healthy, hormonal women out there dying for you to carry them off on a white horse! Why do you have to pine like this?" Zerubbabel scolded.

"Uhmmmm…" he said in his deep baritone.

"It's grotesque, unsophisticated—," Zerubbabel continued.

"No!" he shouted, seeming to have found his voice. "Don't you dare say it!"

"Why not? Maybe you ought to hear it!"

"No! Please!"

"—and… unmanly!"

The man before her stumbled, hands clutching his throat. He made garbled rasping noises as he began to descend to the floor, trembling from head to foot.

"Sheesh, what a baby," Zerubbabel muttered as she turned around to ensure the kidnapped official was still leaning against the wall. But the official was not there. Zerubbabel checked again. Still nothing. She began investigating the corners of the alley, hardly daring to believe that she had really lost her. Beginning to panic, she ran out onto the street and began searching in pure desperation. The man crawled out, whimpering.

"I need you on this case now!" Zerubbabel affirmed. "Are you going to get up and act your age or am I going to drop you off at a nursery on the way?"

Still shaking, the man stood up. He looked down at her feet, which was no small feat, considering his immense size.

"What do you want me to do?"

A/N: Aaaaaand that's all for today folks! I promise I will have chapter twelve up on Tuesday! *doubtful expression* And when I promise something, I never, ever break that promise. *raises eyebrow* Ever.

Thanks for the two reviews in one week I got! (It's almost too bad, seeing as I was really looking forward to throwing Flynn into a well. Ah well- ha ha- there's always next chapter, right?) Let's try for three this week, okay? Guess who the mysterious stranger is for a fantastic prize! Come on, I know we can do it! Fighting!