That day, Turk forgot all about his gadgets; for the first time since he met his missing brothers, he felt completely alone, and couldn't help wondering if Artie's sudden departure could have anything to do with him. Was it something he said, something he did? As he was musing about such things at the lab, he then remembered what Artie told about the lair, and, as he did, it struck him: the uncharted part of the sewers! Clearly, if the problem was finding bigger living quarters, he might be able to find something by those parts.

As fast as he could get up he looked up on his computer, after connecting to the sewer department's files, to see if he could find anything about it; not a single corridor appeared on the vicinity of the place Artie had marked in their blueprints. This was really odd, and intrigued him; he decided that he should go and look for them himself. So, he took a lantern, his trusty bag, and marched off into the unknown.

After several minutes, he reached his target: it was a great, damp corridor that had many corridors running from it, like branches off a tree. He then took out a device from his bag, none other than the old DNA tracker but modified by him for the task of recording his way through the sector. While the program charted the prints for him, he looked at the walls: some of them had a distinctive look, resembling more catacombs than sewer tunnels, and Turk wondered why; he knew that portion of the sewers was old, probably dating back to the 1920's or the early 1930's, yet it all had this odd feel, like it was much older…

Suddenly the roof disappeared way above his head, where a gigantic pipe poured down green water on a hole some thirty feet below his level; right ahead of him, a grated steel bridge was suspended. He looked at the red-brown spots that lined the bridge: he wasn't one bit looking forward to cross the darned thing, if he could help. But it turns out that he couldn't: he had completed his search on that part of the tunnels, and it seemed the only way to go ahead was across that gallery, and the only way to get across the gallery was – guess what – the rusty bridge a hundred years old!

He started to make his way across it by crawling gently, to avoid disturbing it; but some booming noise coming from the piping above startled him and he lost his balance; he reached for a support, and felt his arm get cramped as he needed to twist it in order to avoid falling down there in that pool of muck. However, it seemed his luck was running out: the support was starting to fall apart, and, in the awkward position he was, he couldn't reach for the platform with his other hand. Then all of a sudden, the support gave out, and fell down; and Turk would have gone along with it, if a mysterious hand hadn't quickly pulled him up at the last moment.

When Turk turned his face toward his savior, he couldn't help screaming when he saw a human's face staring back at him: - Ahhhhh!

- Ahhhhh! – the girl screamed back; by the light of his lantern, Turk could see she was about his age, and had strands of purple in her hair; soon, another voice was heard in the corridor ahead, a voice that Turk recognized with great relief as being Jack's: – Angel! What the hell is going on there?

Both Turk and the girl shouted back at him: - Jack, there's a human girl down here! – Jake, who the hell is this?

As he saw his brother approach, Turk heard a gruff. – Calm down, Angel, is just my brother Turk – he's not a monster or anything; just looks like one.

- What the- Jack, you know this person!?

- Yeah, yeah – been hangin' 'round wit' her for longer 'an wit'ya, bro. Now: Turk, Angel; Angel, Turk.

- Nice to meet you, "Turkey". - She held up her hand; Turk, still a bit disorientated, shook it sluggishly; she then reached for his fallen bag and tracker: - Here, lemme help ya with your things.

- Th-thanks...

After gathering his equipment, Turk rushed to his brother and started to whisper frantically: - Dammit, Jack, what the hell are you doing? Who's this human girl, and why does she know about us?

- Relax, brainiac; she's a friend. We both have history with the Dragons...

Turk then started to remember Artie told him something about an acquaintance of Jack's from his gang, that knew about their secret identities; as he further recalled, the name "Angel" did sound familiar... he chose to shrug it off his mind, and simply sighed. - That still doesn't explain what you two are doing down here, muscle-boy...

- Same as you, my good turtle: thought fearless' speech from yesterday about our home condition got only into your bright mind? So I was thinkin', and I figured I'd start lookin' for 'em tunnels fearless spotted the other day; and, naturally, two people searching find things faster than only one; better yet wit' three, if ya follow my hint.

Turk took a deep breath, and chose his next words carefully: - Jack, I believe you came to this old place to search for a new secret hideout, just like I did; so, bearing in mind the concept of "secret", why in blazes is she – and he nodded meaningfully in Angel's direction – also here?

- Well, duh, that's because it'll be lots easier for her to call us after we skip address if she knows the new address; why else?

Turk looked stupefied at his brother's face; but then, he shrugged off those thoughts too and instead asked: - Whatever; have you two found anything yet?

- Not really; we came down here just a few minutes before you. We got Artie's notes to come by, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you. - he then pointed at Turk's tracker. - You definitely get around, dontcha, lil' bro?

- Yeah, I guess I do.

- Great. So, what's the holdup? Let's get a-going!

- … Yeah, OK...

Turk turned around and stared at the girl's face; she did seem friendly enough, but it was difficult for him to put aside his suspicions, having lived in secrecy with his brothers for all the time since he came back to Earth.

- Bah, that ain't gonna do... - Angel and Turk could hear the annoyance in Jack's voice, and they couldn't blame him; after all, they had searched for what felt like days the old corridors, which were just that – corridors after corridors, all unmapped in their charts, all damp, musty and filled with a dusty and heavy atmosphere. The place was oppressive, as if there was a presence down there, lurking in the shadows, watching as they walked through the forgotten passageways. Turk, once in a while, caught a glimpse of strange, often bizarre inscriptions here and there in the walls, which looked much like ordinary graffiti, but that were oddly out of place in there. Also, his tracker seemed to be experiencing some sort of malfunction, for no apparent reason at all, since he had just checked it before leaving the lair.

Angel stopped for a moment, turning her head around, and said: - Guys, I think I recognize this place; we're walking in circles.

- Ohhww, man... - Jack really wished he had something to kick really hard and make a lot of noise with, but there wasn't a single pipe or can down there. - That's just great news; terrific; so what are we supposed ta do now?

Turk put on the light over their annotations and his tracker's screen, and then he turned his head around; although the directions in that place were highly counterintuitive, plainly confusing, he guessed that they had explored most of the complex by now – except for one last corridor, tucked between two main passageways. - Well, it seems there's only one place left for us to check out.

- Lead the way, bro; let's be done wit' this already...

They walked down the small passageway filled with pipes coming out of the walls and floor, like veins and arteries in an arm; it was a short walk to an arc that lead to a spot they had already visited, which led further in to a dead end.

Jack looked truly disappointed; he sat down, holding his back against the wall. - I guess this is it, then; we seem to have ran out of ground to cover.

Turk, too, was down-crest; he had really hoped that down there they would be able to find a safe haven to move in. Suddenly, Artie's words from last night came back to his mind, and he put his back on the wall filled with pipes, trying to sort out his thoughts.

Then, when his shell hit the piping, the noise it made surprised him. He sprang up, took a screwdriver out of his bag, and started to hit delicately the metalwork.

-What's that now?

- Shut up. - After each hit, Turk could distinctly hear a hollow sound, except on the spot his shell contacted earlier; he then tried gluing his ear to the cold brickware, knocking on it with his knuckles: for his surprise, it echoed in the distance. - I... I think there's something behind this wall!

- Like our mining shafts?

- Could be. - Turk then turned his attention back to the old pipework, and examined it more closely; it was a mess of metallic pieces, bolts and valves, all old-fashioned and teeming with rust. He started to fumble his way through the metalwork, until he felt the jut of a piece that shouldn't be there, and pulled it up; a grinding sound was heard then. - Aha! Jackpot!

As Angel and Jack stared beside a grinning Turk, they saw the wall recede and slide sideways, lifting a heavy cloud of dust during the process. Jack whistled, and tapped on his shoulder: - Well, I gotta hand it to ya; nice trick, brainiac! - he then waved his hands and nodded towards the hole in the wall: - You found it, you get the honors... - Oh, no, really, I don't mind... - but Jack was already pulling him through the secret entrance into the unknown interior.

Turk gulped, and then lifted the lantern: he found himself inside a large recession in the tunnels' walls, right where there should be only solid rock. There were some steps down; for his amazement, down them he found a sofa and a desk, many files, and also a very old radio communicator; evidently, someone lived there, a long time ago.

Jack and Angel were at the doorway, so they couldn't see what he was doing; Turk thought calling them down, when he caught a glimpse of something lying on the musty sofa. As he got nearer, he saw a book or heavy-bound notebook; he picked it up, and opened it in the first page: it read "Randall Cartwright, II". Apparently, it was someone else's diary. Turk decided to keep it, and managed to discreetly slip it into his bag, for further study - perhaps it might contain clues on who lived there before, and, who knows, some useful data on that part of the sewers. - Everything OK, come check this place out!

Meanwhile, as the others climbed down, he managed to find a switchboard on the wall: - Awesome! We have electricity! - he checked the old generator next to the switchboard, and started working on it; after a while, the machine made a loud bang, and started humming monotonously, as the lights flickered on all over the forgotten room, from a crystal chandelier in the domed roof.

The place was far better than anything in their wildest dreams: the main room, where they were now, was huge, about one hundred and twelve meters square, and the ceiling some five meters high. There was a lot of furniture there, besides the sofa: cabinets, bookcases, desks and bins, and a lot of antiques, dating back to the Depression. Looking around, they could also see small niches or something like that on the walls, most of which were littered with piles of paper and exquisite artwork, and, of course, the pipework that surrounded everything; part of it was connected, it seemed, to a large heater lying in a corner.

For the first time since he could remember, Turk saw Jack laugh: - Our lil' bro is gonna have a shell of a surprise when he gets back from sick school, ey, Turk?

- Haha, yeah...

A real surprise... for all of us...