A few weeks of searching for Billy later...

Alpha basically threw himself into his office chair. He nearly nodded off in front of his monitor, before finally doing things on it. He adjourned his daily work to think.

He began to find himself bored.

"...I want to do something. Anything." He muttered. "This is not satisfying. At all."

Alpha, beginning to grow displeased, stood and punched the wall, as hard as he could.

The wall caved in around his fist, shortly after his fist hit it.

Alpha quickly walked away from the fist-shaped dent and to the cell "Masky" once sat in.

"...I wonder…"

Alpha opened the cell and began to look around.

He had to have left SOME sort of DNA sample SOMEWHERE in here…

Alpha kicked the closest object across the room.

"How can there be nothing?! He sat right there, in that spot, for WEEKS!"

Alpha stopped rearing his leg to examine the floor again.

He found something. He slowly plucked what looked like a strand of hair off the floor and ran off.

In the lab…

Alpha slammed his hand down on the DNA scanner.

"Work, dammit!" He cried, to no avail, as the monitor had no ears to hear his profanities.

The lights cut off. The machine began to run off of backup energy.

Alpha stood. Again?

He ran outside of the room and into the barren halls. Nothing but silence awaited him.

Again?!

He set the machine to process the DNA and left the room.

If that mask wearing, no-brained, bone-headed, inflated ego, pathetically tall man is back in my base again-

A screech somewhere far off startled Alpha and he nearly sent himself back to the room upon hearing the sound that followed it.

Yup. That's the mask wearing, no-brain-bone-headed, inflated ego, pathetic tall man.

Alpha darted back to the machine, hoping to see the results. The machine showed 25% progress.

This isn't good…

··· - · ·-· ·-· · -· ·- - ·-·· ··-·

A loud alarm jerked Amber out of bed and into an MVP outfit, ready to kill somebody.

Amber slowly paced the halls, fake Monado at the ready.

"What am I doing with my life anymore?"

A scream very close by shook Amber. The clean cut noise cutting it off shook her worse.

"Okay, somebody died. Just one casualty. One, don't let it-"

She quickly swung her sword around and hit a creeping Shallows behind her.

"Ouch!" He cried, "How did you even hear me?!"

"MVP grade boots! Those are loud!"

Shallows(Masky) drew his blade. "So, we meet face-to-face… again."

"Yeah, AND? Those MVPs aren't gonna prevent me from cutting you to shreds this time."

"You know, I actually know you… that is, in a past life."

Amber didn't falter with her sword. "What are you playing at?!"

"I don't mean to unnerve you. But we knew each other. Or, should I say… we know each other."

"I know you as the stupid guy who stepped to me in a dark hallway and died."

Shallows sighed. "You really don't understand. Okay. Put it up." He got into a fencing stance. "I'd hate for your brother to find you in splinters, but you asked for it."

"You're not doing ANYTHING!" Alpha jumped on Shallows' back, nearly knocking both of them to the floor.

"WHY YOU-?!" Shallows stumbled around. Amber took this extra time to hit the distress call button.

"Mike, your favorite guys are on the way!"

"Great, then help me stall this guy-" Alpha flew across the room as Shallows flipped him off of his back.

"Nobody's going anywhere!" Shallows demanded as he rushed forward with his sword.

Amber tussled with him for a short few minutes. Alpha's and her face blanched as she dropped her sword. They both took off with no apparent regrets.

Shallows turned around. "You lured them right to me. Brilliant."

Amber stopped. "Wait. We have to go back."

"Go back?!" He PLANNED to say, but thought about it and turned around.

"You think you can handle him?"

"I said WE, not I."

Alpha found himself at a loss for words. "...I'm already unarmed. The guys are probably already here. I have to call up the others to fix this mistake."

Amber raised an incredulous eyebrow, but shrugged and began to walk off.

Fixed THAT problem. You are slick!

He darted back to the lab to check the samples. If I can see what species he is and who he's related to, we could bag this guy FAST!

Alpha looked back at the entryway. "I just have to defend this room… and Amber."

He set an alarm on his watch for the samples and left the room.

01000001 01110010 01101001 01100001 01101100

The team piled out of the ship to a darkened base.

"Well, this is disquieting." Alph mumbled as he cut on nightvision and pried open the nearest vent.

"We know what we're here for. Alpha's in danger and we're his top pick. So we're going in." The captain turned to the team. "S, 3, L, search on foot through the halls. I'm going with A to secure the ventilation and watch from surveillance cameras. You got that?"

The team nodded and dispatched.

Simon, 3 and L slowly crept through the halls. Both of them skidded to an abrupt stop when they saw a mangled body in the hall.

"Ohh… Roxy's gonna puke in a second…"

L gave a small side glare. "It's not real. It's a dummy, that's not real blood and that's a plastic body."

"Then where's the REAL guy?"

L paused. "Yeah… something's not right here. We have to find our masked man, NOW."

"He's a threat we have to neutralize." Simon announced, forgetting the serial killer in the base with them.

"S!" 3 and L both yelled, also forgetting the serial killer in the base with them.

"GUYS, he's moving in your direction FAST!" Alph watched the man show a clean pair of heels.

"Hi."

Everyone recoiled.

Shallows stood before them, hands behind his back.

"Hey, Masky!" Simon called, thinking of the fastest distraction he could, "Your shoes look like you tried to plunge a Taco Bell toilet with them!"

"That's the saddest burn I've ever heard-"

The others jumped in.

"You look like you bought the scary cultist pack at Dollar Tree." L remarked.

"I bet flies aren't even attracted to that face. That's probably why he's hiding it!"

Everyone began howling in laughter.

"Man, your little intimidating act doesn't work, zero out of ten, wouldn't-... wouldn't..." Simon gasped for air.

Shallows rolled a glowing eye and pointed a HUGE gun at them.

"haHAHHH- OH MY GOD-" L choked back laughter and stood up right.

"You've crossed a line. Or many lines. Any last words before I paint you down the halls?!"

Everyone held still for a second.

"Listen, stereotypical 9-year old. Go back to Tumblr." Simon began to laugh again.

Alph dropped in from the vent above, landing on top of Shallows.

Shallows tossed Alph into the group, realized the agents surrounded him, then plowed through them and to the ship bay.

Alph turned to the knocked-over agents.

"Come on, he's getting away!"

Everyone chased him to the bay, where he stopped.

"..." He turned and gave Simon a boot-shaking side glare. And then he jumped. Out into space.

A large ship flew up, with Shallows on top.

"HAHAHA!" A familiar human/toad's laugh ensued. "So long, MVP scum!"

Shallows waved.

"No! He got away!" The captain fussed, "Argh!"

"No, no, that's GOOD!" Alpha cheered, "He's out of our hair. And I got what I needed."

"Yeah, things could have gone SO much worse!" Amber chuckled.

"No, things DID go worse. He stole that huge gun and several VERY explosive components!" Alph recited.

"They're gonna blow up, anyhow. Especially within the 120-or-so-eth hour of not being in their containment cells!" Alpha clapped his hands, "I'd say that's a win!"

The captain frowned. "Okay…"

Back at base….

"That's not Alpha."

"What?" L queried, "He acted VERY Alpha-like…"

"That's unnatural for him, we need to find the REAL one. NOW."

The captain walked out.

Meanwhile, Simon sat in the training room with the box.

"How does this work…"

He began to mash buttons. After a long silence of him mashing buttons, he pressed a button on the side and a small holographic Amber popped up.

"Oh. Cute."

"Hi! I've never used one of these. Umm, so… I was just testing this and I like YOU, so… Hi!"

Simon caught himself smirking.

"So, about the date thingy, I like the idea, you're cute… but I don't know if Michael will like it. He's touchy about love and stuff. If he's always so overprotective over ME, what'll he think about me and YOU, you know? I never considered Michael's feelings for most of my life, it's why he has that huge scar on his face. Quite literally a scarring reminder of my mistakes. But then I get the choice to get a life and a REAL relationship and NOW I begin to factor in his feelings. How do I cope with this?!"

Just don't tell him. Simon reflected.

"I don't think he trusts me after Gamma. Any time I do anything myself, after Gamma, that is, I think, "what would Michael think, if I did this?" and then mess up. I think I have issues."

Yes. Yes you do.

"I've killed a man. I've killed several men. I lost count! I have watched my father do MUCH worse. And to think, how the hell did I put up with that?! I tore someone apart! I was a brat! No wonder Michael wanted to see me again, he probably assumed I was gonna get eaten alive! I don't blame him. I still act like I can do everything. I guess it's because of what my uncle used to say, "the first step to getting rid of fear is saying you're not scared." And it works,"

Simon looked around. Is someone watching me? Because this is a weird trip…

"But never for long. All because the same reason I've failed at everything my whole life; I was alone. And I get a chance to FINALLY not be alone, finally not be with a backstabbing guy who only wants manipulation from me… and I can't even confess!"

Simon was shook. Badly.

"Anyway… That was… uhh… my life story… I guess. I hope I didn't just waste an hour of your time sadly monologuing about how my life sucks. If you aren't Simon, at least you know what's in this box, right?" And then it shut off.

Simon slowly rocked back and forth.

"H...wh...m...my…" He found himself dumbstruck. "...that's… her… life story?!"

Simon slowly and shakily stood. He scooped up the box and turned right into Amber.

-·-· - -·· · -· ·- - · ··· ···· ·- ·-·· ·-·· - ·- ···

He rejoiced as the counter finally reached 100%.

"YES! Finally, we can finally-"

"Do what?" Shallows proposed, "Kill my mummy and daddy? You think I care?" He started walking forward.

"I know how to counteract you if I know what species you are."

"Then have a nice long look at that indicator and tell me you know what to do."

Alpha looked at the DNA samples. He blanched as he realized exactly what it meant by, "Star Child- Do Not Engage."

"You're a Star Child?! I thought those were only limited to the Mario Universe!"

Shallows tore down his sleeve to reveal a blue star mark on his arm.

"Clearly and visibly not."

Alpha gasped. The indicator read results he would have called blasphemy if it weren't his own creation.

"We're… related?!"

Shallows laughed. "I can't be related to a dead man."

So I'm back on track. Definitely, as I just crammed out 3 chapters. Sorry not sorry.

Alpha and Shallows are related?! Who knew? Also, Alpha's dead meat, Shallows is gonna myrrrrrderrrr him.

Amber's monologue's supposed to be like Dory's monologue from Finding Nemo. But I overdid it and ended up leaving Simon shook.

Just a thought... where's Billy been? He's wayyyy gone. But the RE are far from it. See you then!