In this chapter they finally go after Cassidy. Yeah I know, finally, right? I've delayed it for way too long. Well this is the first part of the battle and it's mostly about them sneaking in stealthily so there isn't that much fighting until the end of the chapter when their cover is blown and Jessi shows off her asskicking skills. The next part there will be a LOT of fighting.

The sun had already set a few minutes ago but the sky was still orange when a car drove towards a tall building in the distance. From the outside there didn't seem anything special about this building. It just looked like a regular office building belonging to one of the largest corporations in the world. However unknown to people outside the corporation and even most people in the corporation, this building was being used for some very illegal experiments. From his office Cassidy looked out the window and watched the lone vehicle drive by on the road below. His heart started racing but then he closed his eyes and took some deep breaths to make him calm down. You're just being paranoid again he told himself in his head.

Everything had been going great for him until now. Mark, Jackie, and the other kids from UW had spent the last three weeks creating more than a hundred of those pods (it helped a lot that Madacorp was providing them with anything they needed) and making enough fluid to fill them all. Cassidy had everything he needed but time. Everyday he was getting more and more paranoid that Kyle and Jessi were going to find him. Just three days ago Taylor called him up and told him that they broke into Madacorp headquarters and stole something off his computer although no one was sure what. That place was much more heavily guarded than this place. There weren't even any cameras in the parking lot besides the two watching the main entrance. And if some one did break into this place, the alarm wouldn't go to the police because obviously they didn't want the police to find what they were doing here.

And to make things worse, today afternoon, Mark's car was broken into and everything inside, including his and Jackie's I.D. cards were stolen. They both said it wasn't Kyle or Jessi who did it but Cassidy was too smart to believe that. If it wasn't them then it was probably a friend of theirs like Emily Hollander. She helped them break into Madacorp didn't she? And who would steal an I.D. card unless they knew what it was used for? The first thing he did was deactivate their cards on his computer so no one would be able to use them anymore but Kyle and Jessi would find a way. They always find a way…

Cassidy's thoughts were interrupted by an alarm ringing on his cellphone. He opened it and looked at the time. Soon his mother would be arriving by helicopter to generally see how things have been going. Cassidy walked out of his office and headed for the roof of the building where the helicopter was going to land. As he walked away he didn't notice Mark peeking around a corner watching him leave. As soon as Cassidy was out of sight, Mark turned to Jackie and said, "Okay, he's gone. Let's do this."

The two of them quietly walked into Cassidy's office and headed for the computer. Jackie sat down in the chair and immediately went to work trying to crack his password. She attacked the keyboard with her fingers, furiously typing stuff, while Mark watched over her shoulder. "What? Access denied?" she said surprised and annoyed.

Mark chuckled and shook his head. "Stand aside. Let the real genius try," he said to her. Jackie rolled her eyes and got out of the way. Mark sat down and tried to do what Jackie couldn't. She carefully watched him to see what he was doing that she should have done. After a few seconds Mark stopped typing and looked up at her with a very broad grin on his face.

Jackie scoffed. "Whatever, computer hacking isn't really my specialty anyway," she said. She watched him navigate the computer with the mouse. After opening some files and folders they finally found what they were looking for. Mark clicked on it.

"Our cards are now reactivated," he said sounding very pleased with his computer hacking skills.

"Don't log off yet," Jackie told him. "How cool would it be if we locked him out of his own computer?" she suggested with a mischievous smile.

"Way ahead of you Jackie…"

Cassidy was right to suspect the vehicle driving by because it parked itself right outside the parking lot. Unlike the Madacorp headquarters up in Seattle this building had very little security outside. There was nobody guarding the parking lot so anybody could basically come in there and park. Emily was explaining her theory on why the security here was so light compared to what they faced in Seattle.

"When I was boss there was nothing special about this place. It was just a regular office building with a lot of underground space for storage. But there wasn't any scientific stuff being done here. Taylor must have had it converted it into a laboratory very recently. But from the look of things he still hasn't had time to upgrade the security," she was saying.

"But we've only seen the outside," Foss pointed out. "For all we know the inside could be crawling with guards and have cameras around every corner. And turn that shit off!" he yelled at Declan who had been blasting Jessi's Avril Lavigne CD from his speakers for the whole ride here. Now that they were waiting in the parking lot he was playing it at a much lower volume so they wouldn't attract any attention but it was still incredibly annoying to Foss. "You've been listening to that crap for the past thirty minutes!"

"Hey! This is my car, Foss! I'm going to play whatever the hell I want to play and if you don't like it then go wait outside!" Declan shouted back with surprising assertiveness. He then increased the volume a little bit. It was quite obvious that Declan hated Avril Lavigne as much as Foss but everyone knew there was only one reason he was playing it. There was only one person in this car who liked listening to Avril Lavigne and he was trying to be as nice to her as possible. Declan had been trying all day to make up with Jessi but he didn't know if it was working or not because now she wasn't mad anymore she just seemed really distant not only towards him but towards everybody except Kyle. Foss and Emily actually felt bad for him. Neither could understand why Jessi was mad over such a simple thing but then she was Jessi. Foss looked over at Emily who was sitting next to him to see how she was coping. He couldn't believe it when he saw her bopping her head to the music.

"You actually like this stuff?" he asked her in disbelief.

Emily laughed. "No not really. But I guess I'm used to it after having to listen to it for eight months. I don't know why Ballantine couldn't just make Jessi listen to Nirvana or Pearl Jam or something."

"So you were a 90s alternative girl, huh?" Foss said shaking his head and smiling. "I can't picture you wearing a flannel shirt and looking like you were homeless."

"Are you kidding me? I was a teenager growing up in Seattle right when the whole country was jumping on the grunge bandwagon. I saw all those bands before they even became famous. Man those were some good times…So what are you into?" she asked.

"Guns&Roses, Motley Crue, Van Halen, ACDC…" Foss went on to name a bunch of 80s bands.

As they nostalgically talked about their favorite bands and their teenage years, Jessi and Kyle were quite busy in the back of the SUV trying to make out as quietly as they could and maybe take it further than that if they could get away with it. The thought that Emily and Foss were sitting right in front of them and had no idea what they were doing gave them both such a rush. Even Kyle who normally wouldn't do such a thing just didn't give a damn about getting caught right now. Pretty soon they would be fighting and trying not to get shot, so why the hell not? The adrenaline flowing in his bloodstream had made a lot more adventurous and Jessi loved it. They both gasped into each other's mouths as they felt that electric current they loved so much jumped from one tongue to another in the form of a spark. Kyle and Jessi didn't know it but Emily and Foss were perfectly aware of what was going on behind them but they were trying their best to ignore it. They awkwardly pretended like they didn't know and were both trying to distract themselves by talking to each other. Finally Emily couldn't take it anymore.

"I feel like we should say something," she whispered to Foss. "I know she's not really my sister but I can't help but feel…over protective I guess."

"It's none of our business though. We're not their parents. And all they're doing is kissing right?" Foss whispered back. Emily didn't answer. Foss raised an eyebrow. "Right?" he asked her again.

"I don't know! I don't want to look back there."

"Hey, Declan," Foss called. "Hey could you please turn it up a little bit? We'd really appreciate it."

Declan gave him a weird look. First, Foss had said please, and second, he wanted it louder but a minute ago he was just telling him to turn it off. He shrugged and turned up the Avril Lavigne.

They all heard the sound of a helicopter but didn't think anything of it. There was nothing special about a helicopter. However on the roof of the building Cassidy was waiting as the helicopter slowly landed on its pad. The door opened and two men who looked like they were dressed in SWAT gear with all the body armor and the face shield jumped out and scanned the roof for any threat. They were armed with any puny pistols either. Those were fully automatic assault rifles. Cassidy was a little amused at how seriously these Latnok bodyguards took their job but he was glad they did. A week ago his mother had sent a whole bunch of them to help with the security just incase the regular Madacorp guards turned out to be no match for Kyle and Jessi, and Cassidy knew they weren't. These guys on the other hand were highly trained and very well equiped. They had all prior combat experience and had no problem with killing. If Kyle and Jessi managed to sneak in and sabotage the experiment they weren't getting out alive, of that he was confident.

"Mother, welcome, I hope you had a pleasant flight," Cassidy said smiling politely.

Grace did not smile back. "I most certainly did not," she replied. "Now Michael, I've taken time out of my busy schedule to come see you so you better impress me."

Cassidy swallowed hard. No matter what he said it wouldn't be enough for his mother. He would never be able to impress her. "We have managed to build a hundred and sixteen pods and we have fluid for all of them. We are finally ready to begin the cloning process," he said as he led her downstairs to give her a tour.

Just as he expected her response was, "You mean to tell me you haven't even started yet?"

Meanwhile many floors below, everyone was spending their last few minutes in the car in a very tense silence. In just five minutes it would be time to start their mission. Jessi heard all the heartbeats of everyone around her. They were all beating faster than normal but Foss was probably the most relaxed out of all of them. Followed by herself, then Kyle, then Emily, and of course, Declan whose heart was beating the fastest. "Declan, your heart is beating really fast," she told him breaking the silence.

He turned around looking surprised to hear her address him. Then he gave her that same look he always gave Kyle when Kyle pointed out something really obvious. That look was often followed by a sarcastic remark such as 'really Kyle, I didn't know that' or a 'thank you Captain Obvious' which for some reason Jessi thought was the most hilarious thing in the world even though it wasn't that funny. But now Declan wasn't in the mood to make sarcastic comments. "Of course it's beating fast. We're about to walk into something really intense here. Aren't you even a little nervous?" he asked.

"Hmm, well, I guess I'm a little nervous but not that much because I've already done something like this twice already. But you know what I do when I get really nervous before a mission?"

"What?" Declan asked.

"I think of something I really want to do. Then after I complete the mission I reward myself by doing that." Jessi answered. "That way I can just look forward to getting the reward." She thought of her reward this time with a bitter smile. Cassidy going to jail for the rest of his life…

"So…what we did after the Madacorp mission…that was the reward?" Kyle asked her. "You had that planned before we even started that mission?"

"Of course I did," Jessi said with a mischievous smile. "Why? You don't like the idea that I completely manipulated you into breaking Steven's and Nicole's rule?"

Kyle really didn't mind. "I just thought it was more spontaneous, like one thing led to another, but it doesn't really matter. I enjoyed it." he told her.

"Kyle, nothing I do is just spontaneous. I plan everything I do and if I want something I go after it. I think that's how everyone should be."

"If you guys don't mind me asking, what are you talking about?" Emily asked curiously.

"Bowling," Kyle replied quickly. It was the first thing that came to mind.

Everyone in the car besides Jessi gave him a weird look.

"Anyway, that's a pretty good idea and I'm going to try that." Declan said. "After were done here I think I'm gonna reward myself by getting completely trashed. You know what we all should do that. Mark and Jackie can join us; I know that girl likes to party. Foss and Emily are buying. Kyle don't ruin it by saying no."

"Let's just focus on the mission for now, then we'll see," Foss told them.

They checked all checked their gear to make sure they all had everything they needed. They were all wearing bullet proof vests that may or may not stop a bullet. Foss and Emily had guns and plenty of rubber bullets so they wouldn't kill anyone but knock them down temporarily. Emily had a syringe with a sedative that could keep someone asleep for hours. She would make sure no one shot with a rubber bullet would get back up and shoot them in the back. Foss also had several flash grenades that could temporarily blind someone. Kyle and Jessi didn't have any weapons but they didn't really need them. Declan had nothing because Foss didn't want him fighting yet. He would contribute in some other way. They were all wearing backpacks loaded with explosives to destroy the pods and incase they needed to open any doors. Declan found it ironic as hell that he had a pack loaded with C4 he didn't even know how to use but had nothing to defend himself with.

As soon as the car's clock which was also cellphone time read 8:55 Declan turned it off and they all got out of the car and began sprinting towards the main entrance of the building, approaching it from the side so they wouldn't be seen by the two cameras. As soon as they got there, Kyle immediately focused on manipulating the electrical current inside the camera to temporarily disable it. He nodded to Foss who wasted no time because he knew Kyle couldn't keep them disabled for long otherwise the guards would know. He swiped Mark's I.D. in the slot on the door but before he opened it he spotted three more cameras watching the entrance from the inside. He signaled Jessi to come forward and pointed to the cameras. She concentrated and did the same thing as Kyle. After she nodded Foss opened the door and he and Emily ran inside and swept the room with their weapons ready to shoot anything that moved. But Mark was right and the guards had left their shift early. Foss knew they didn't have much time before the next shift came to replace them at 9:00. Foss and Emily ran all the way to the other end of the room and stopped right under the cameras where they couldn't be seen. As soon as they reached there Foss nodded to the others telling to follow. Kyle was the last one to go into the building because he had to make sure everyone was inside before he let the camera see again.

Meanwhile in the room with all the screens the guards were getting briefed by Cassidy's second in command who was none other than Nate.

"As you guys already know by now, earlier today someone broke into the car of one of our employees and stole everything in there including two I.D. cards. Cassidy thinks someone's going to try to break in here tonight. He wants you all to be extra vigilant. If anyone attempts to break in here you are ordered to use deadly force. I'm warning you for your own safety. Do not underestimate these guys. Do not hesitate to kill them or they will kill you. There were only three of them at Madacorp and yet they managed to beat the shit out of a bunch of cops who were all armed with guns without using any weapons themselves. If you see them you better not hesitate to pull the trigger or they will make you regret it, assuming they don't kill you instantly."

The way that Nate described this mysterious threat to the guards scared the hell out of them. But at the same time they were all determined to do their job and protect the building no matter what it took. Nate scared them into thinking that it was kill or be killed. All these guards had families to go home to and they wouldn't let anyone prevent them from doing that.

"Just one thing though," one of the guards told Nate. "Those I.D. cards have been deactivated. No one can use them anymore."

"Regardless you still need to…hey! What's the matter with those screens?"

All the guards turned around to see what Nate was talking about. By the time they looked the screens had gone back to normal. They turned back around looking confused. "Uh, what screens sir?" the same guard asked him.

"That, that, and that," Nate pointed to three TV screens. "A second ago they weren't working. There was no picture all I saw was static."

"We'll have one of our techs check it out right now," the guard said to him.

"This isn't the time to be fixing cameras!" Nate shouted angrily. "This should have been done long ago. How long have you had this problem?"

The guards looked at each other confused waiting for one of their co-workers to answer. After no one said anything the guard who was talking said, "We were never aware of any problem, sir. And according to our log book, none of the other shifts were either. Those cameras have been working fine until now. And they seem fine right now…"

Nate carefully studied the three screens waiting for them to malfunction again. All of a sudden he realized what he was looking at. "Wait a minute, this is the main entrance!"

The guard didn't know what was so special about that. "Yeah, so…"

Nate ran his hands through his long hair and looked down thinking. "I think they might be in the building already," he said in a low voice sounding a little scared.

"What? There's no way they could…"

"And why the hell not?" Nate snapped. "Look I know what I saw. Those three cameras all watching over the main entrance stop working together. And then they all come back on at the same time like nothing ever happened. And this happens on the same day that those idiots lose their I.D. cards. Isn't that the least bit suspicious to you morons?"

"Look if they're going to come in, it's not going to be through the main entrance. First of all those cards don't work anymore, second, how the hell can they disable the cameras like that?"

"Oh trust me, these guys can," Nate said seriously.

"Okay well even if they could it wouldn't matter because we have guys stationed over there," the guard tried to reassure him.

"What guys?!" Nate yelled. "I don't see anybody in these screens!"

"Well they…sometimes they leave their shift a few minutes early…" the guard confessed sheepishly.

Nate was dumbstruck by their stupidity and incompetence. He pulled out his cellphone and called Cassidy.

Cassidy picked up. "I'm a little busy right now so this better be important."

"Yeah I think this is a little more important than impressing mommy. I think we might have intruders in the building."

For a few seconds there was silence on the other end. Then Nate heard Cassidy's voice saying, "Excuse me mother I have to take this…"

"Alright why do you think that?" he asked Nate in a hushed voice.

"Three of the cameras watching over the main entrance from the inside all stopped working together. A few seconds later they all went back to normal at the same time. And the idiots who were supposed to be watching the main entrance weren't even at their post when it happened!" Nate hissed furiously. "Kyle and Jessi could have walked right in and no one would have even seen them!"

"But how would they have gotten in through the main entrance when the I.D. cards have been deactivated?"

"Are you sure it's deactivated? Check again to make sure no one's tampered with it. They could have inside help. I'm thinking maybe Mark and Jackie weren't robbed at all."

Elsewhere in the building…

Now that they had all successfully managed to sneak into the building (hopefully none of the guards noticed the cameras temporarily not working) their first priority was to take out the guards in the room with all the screens so that they don't have to worry about those damn cameras. Kyle was the only one who knew how to get there since he remembered what Mark told him word for word so he was leading the way. Emily was the last one and she was making sure that no one would sneak up behind them. As Kyle approached a turn he stopped and everyone stopped behind him. He took out that mirror that Foss had given him and used it to look around the corner without exposing himself. Instead of seeing a camera however Kyle saw a confused pair of eyes looking right back at him through the reflection.

Kyle reached around the corner and grabbed the guard standing there and pulled him back around the corner where the rest of the team was waiting. The guard struggled against Kyle but was no match for his strength. "Hey! What the hell are you…" Kyle covered his mouth so he wouldn't yell and pinned him against the wall. Emily quickly injected him with the sedative. The man stopped struggling. Kyle let go of him and body fell onto the floor knocked out.

"Nice and easy," Declan whispered.

"They're not all going to be like that," Foss told him.

Kyle picked up the guard's baton. "I might need this," he told the others.

"Yeah, Kyle, that's what I'm talking about," Declan said with a big grin. "You ready to crack some skulls with that?"

"Hey I want one too," Jessi said. "I hope we run into some more guards so I can take theirs."

"Well I guess it's better than taking their gun," Emily said. She turned to Declan and said warningly, "Don't even think about it."

They continued sneaking through the hallways looking around every corner for cameras and disabling them when they found them so they could quickly sneak past them. However to Nate watching the screens it was obvious that they were in the building and he could tell exactly where they were by which camera had malfunctioned.

"The camera near the intersection of hallway 7 and corridor B just stopped working," he notified the guards in the room with him. "Send all the guards nearby by to intercept them." They did as he told.

Kyle looked over a corner and quickly pulled the mirror back. He turned to the others and said, "A lot of guards are running in this direction. I think they know we're over here."

"Well I guess we have to fight then," Jessi said with a thin eager smile. "I was getting tired of all this sneaking around anyway." She and Kyle dropped their backpack, ran over the corner and faced the incoming guards. The guards stopped running and pointed their weapons at them but suddenly all their legs were somehow pulled up from under them and their bodies did back flips in the air before they landed painfully on the floor. The first guard who tried to get back on his feet, Jessi sent flying straight up so his head hit the light on the ceiling and shattered it sending sparks flying everywhere. Jessi then used her mind to pull one of the guard's batons out of their holders and send it flying towards her. She ran forward and caught it.

Behind her Foss and Emily were ready to shoot but they couldn't get a clear shot because they didn't want to accidentally hit Jessi in the narrow hallway. "Jessi get out of the way!" Emily yelled. But Jessi didn't want to do things the easy way. She continued running towards the guards, who were just getting back on their feet, with the baton in her hand. When she was close enough she jumped through the air with her leg sticking straight out and kicked one of the guards in the chest knocking him several feet back. One of the guards to her left pointed his gun at her but she smacked his hand aside with her baton and punched him in the face. She wheeled around and elbowed the guard behind her in the face. One of the guards tried to tackle her down she was way strong for that and he just ended up getting clubbed down by the baton.

Declan and Emily watched in awe as Jessi fought five guys much bigger than her without any of their help. Foss and Kyle didn't look surprised because they already knew what she was capable of. Jessi kept lashing out with the baton with incredible speed hitting a guard all over his body several times in just one second. Before he even began falling she spun around and swinging the baton and smacked guard across the face. One of the guards tried to grab the baton from her but she just head butted him in the face and kneed him in the groin. She then grabbed his body and pulled it between her and another guard who was pointing a gun at her using him like a shield. Of course the guard wouldn't shoot his friend. Jessi pushed the unconscious man's body into the guard that was pointing the gun knocking him down. From the floor he tried pointing the gun at her but she easily kicked it out of his hands and stomped him in the face hard. She spun around once more with the baton raised, ready to bring it down on the head of anybody foolish enough to get back up but this time they stayed down.

Jessi looked at the rest of the team and simply said, "Okay, I'm done. Sorry I didn't save any for you, Kyle."

Kyle shrugged. "That's fine. There'll be plenty more for me. Let's keep going."

Next chapter Kyle is going to step up and do a LOT more fighting and prove he isn't a pansy. I think I'll split them up into groups like Kyle and Foss can go after Grace, Jessi and Emily go after Cassidy, and Declan might square off against Nate. CptLatnok you're right, the argument from last chapter seems contrived now that I reread the whole thing but I think I have an idea on how to save it without editing. Jessi is not going to die although she's still going to try that crazy idea of hers. Anyways please review.