WARNING

This is the darkest chapter so far. There's no turning back now...

"Coast is clear." Number 5 whispered to Number 2. They were just outside of Father's study. Hoagie tried to convince her to let him be the first one in, but she wasn't having any of it. Number 2 took a deep breath and followed Number 5 into the dimly lit study.

"So what are we looking for here?" Number 2 asked his Sector leader, pulling up Father's plush leather chair and plugging in a flash drive that would crack Father's password and get him whatever he wanted off the computer. Number 5 didn't answer him.

"You sure you know what your doing?" Abby asked nervously. Hoagie typed a few buttons on the keyboard. "Don't worry, this little baby should burn through any firewalls Father has set up. Get it? Burn through firewalls!" Number 2 began to laugh and Number 5 groaned before whacking him on the back of the head with her hat.

"Quiet! Do you want Father to come in here and kill us both?"

"Sorry, Number 5, it's just my way of dealing with heat." Hoagie smiled, "Get it, heat?" Number 5 groaned and walked over to a bookshelf.

Truth be told, she was feeling guilty at the moment. Seeing Number 2 working at the computer while she stood guard reminded her of her latest outing with Cree.

"What do you want me to do?" Number 5 needed to stay alert and focus on the mission. She couldn't get distracted yet.

"Take a look around. See if you can find any files. Anything you want me to look for on the computer? Besides the Rainbow monkey stuff?"

Number 5 was about to say no… but then her last job with Cree made her think of something.

"See if you can't find anything about that senator you and Number 4 had a run-in with last spring. Number 5 got some intel from spying on Cree."

Hoagie's pilot goggles rose when Abby mentioned her older sister, but she gave him a look that made the flyboy turn his head back to the screen. Hoagie P Gilligan was obviously owned and operated by the younger of the two Lincoln sisters.

"Senator Safely?" Number 2 asked, changing the subject back to the mission.

"Just a lead. Probably nothing." Number 5 said flatly. Number 2 wanted to ask more questions, but Abby's tone gave him the feeling it wasn't wise to ask.

Abby looked through every file on Father's bookcase. Most of them would have been pretty good intel… about 4 months ago! Plans and patents for Father's beam that turned all the Kids Next Door into animals, rough sketches for the Cake 5 super cake, and a cross-dimensional licensing agreement with some bozo who's name sounded like a German garden gnome named Doofenshmirtz(Abby was no stranger to alternate dimensions, and this did not interest her as much as it would you or I).

After finishing raiding Father's filing cabinet, Abby stood in front of the door with the ice cream pistol drawn, but she knew there was no point. Father was out for a spa day and the Delightful Children… well, they were probably doing something weird. She wandered over to the computer desk and leaned over to look at the screen.

"Found anything?" Abby asked in a hushed voice. "Tons." Hoagie whispered back.

"What did you find, Number 2?"

"Can't really say, but there's a whole bunch of files that say teen ninja, and evil plans for next year and I found all the Rainbow Monkey stuff in a folder. When we get back to the treehouse we're going to have a field day!"

Number 5 left the desk. There wasn't much more to do other than do one last sweep of the room. She saw a bust that was carved out of marble. One of Father's ancestors, probably, older than Grandfather. One of Fathers ancestors... Didn't that make him one of Number 1's ancestors too? The guy even had Nigel's ears and wore glasses, giving him a very Number 1–like appearance.

Walking over to the bust, she touched the glasses and realized that they were loose. Curiosity got the better of her and she tugged the glasses off. They came off easily and to her surprise, she saw a big red button on the bust's right eye.

"Number 2, come look at this!"

Number 2 looked up from Father's computer desk and stared at the hidden button. "What do you think it does?"

But Number 5 most likely didn't hear him because she was already pushing the button. The bookcase slowly began to rise, revealing a secret passageway in which a flight of stairs descended.

"Number 5's going to take a look at this."

She started to go down the cracked old steps that were made of black marble, but Number 2 put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm coming too."

"You can't leave the flashdrive..."

"It can run itself. I'm not going to let you wander around the Delightful Mansion all by yourself."

Abby was about to order him to stay put, but he wasn't having any of it. She gave him a nod and adjusted her hat.

"Follow me."

The two descended the stairs, which unlike the rest of the mansion were poorly lit and had a musty old evil feeling, older than Father or Grandfather or even Grandfather's grandfather. The way would have been pitch black if it weren't for the torches, which gave off light exactly the same as Father's furious frightful flames.

Down, down, down they went, further than the mansion's basement, further than the inner sanctum and as they went further it got darker and damper. Both Number 5 and 2 were on edge. It was like the spirit of whatever built these stairs, the thing older and more evil than Father or even Grandfather was still down there with them, following them...

They both broke into a run and they ran as fast as they could. They at last reached a passageway that was better maintained and lit in the traditional manner of the Delightful Mansion. There were three sets of stairs, the left and right ones going up respectively and the center one going down. Above the left was a sigh that read Inner Sanctum and on the right was a sign that read Laboratory.

"Which…way…?" Number 2 asked, panting. They both felt like they'd been running from whoever or whatever was chasing them.

"Don't know. Whatever we choose, not the one that goes further down."

Number 2 nodded. They both looked at the three sets of stairs. The one going down was pitch black, just like the set of stairs they had been taking. The one leading to the Inner Sanctum was lit by gas lights and the one leading to the laboratory was lit with fluorescent lights. After traveling in the dark for so long, they were both drawn to the lab's brighter staircase. Number 5 pointed at the lights.

"I've already seen the Inner Sanctum and it's nothing to write home about. Let's take the laboratory."

They both began to climb the lab staircase when Number 2 asked "Say, Number 5, what was the inner sanctum like?"

"Nothing special, Cree seemed to like it okay."

Hoagie gave a purr.

"She was there with a boy." Number 5 said smirking.

"Maurice?" Number 2 asked, smirking right back at her. Number 5 went bright red. There wasn't much talking for a full two minutes after that. They were going up and up and up without stopping until a horrible thought dawned on Number 5. She turned to Number 2, who was panting a few steps behind her.

"Number 2…what would Father be working on in a lab?"

They climbed a final set of stairs until they came to a set of double doors atop a catwalk. It was a miracle that they hadn't run into anyone by now. The double doors reminded Number 5 of hospital doors where her dad took her in to work every so often. When they opened the doors they were on another catwalk overlooking a large warehouse-like room.

"Where are we?" Number 5 asked.

"Must be at very top of the Mansion." Number 2 guessed. They were both very sore from climbing from Father's study on the second floor to almost the very bottom past Father's Inner Sanctum to the very tiptop of the mansion.

Number 5 and 2 carefully climbed down and marveled in sheer horror at the sinister experiments going on. A special strand of broccoli that was supposed to be ten times as nasty, eggs for the mutated head lice that had been unleashed on their treehouse, a new and "improved" delightfulization chamber, a chalk board with a picture of the Delightful Children and Sector Z with a bunch of mathematical equations all over it and most impressive and terrifying of all was a large glass tube. Inside floating in a strange liquid was a boy.

He was a teenager by the looks of him, short and stocky. He had darkish looking skin, and hair with red and blonde streaks colored into it. One of his hands looked badly broken. A tube ran down his throat and both arms had tubes running through them as well. He bobbed in a fluorescent green fluid that reminded Number 2 of the antifreeze he used in his planes. The boy wore what Number 2 automatically recognized as one of Chester's Happy Headbands.

"Project MMS2…" Hoagie read aloud, but Number 5 was gone, walking towards a long corridor close to the back of the warehouse.

"Number 5?" Hoagie called trailing after her. "I think it's time to get out of here and get back to the others. I don't want to end up being a specimen in here and—"

"Shh!" Number 5 whispered. "Listen. Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? All I hear is beeping."

"Exactly. I've heard that sound before…it sounds like life support."

Number 5 continued forward into the long hallway. Number 2 kept trying to drag her back but she went on.

Beep.

Beep.

Drip.

Beep.

The sounds echoed though the long hallway, which had cells lined up on either side. All of them were empty except for the one at the very end where the hospital sounds were coming from. In the cell at the end of the hallway sat a bed, and in that bed laid a figure who was hooked up to all sorts of medical equipment.

"Who is it?" Number 2 asked. They couldn't really see what was going on from the corridor.

"Number 5's about to find out."

The leader of Sector V took a deep breath. She ran her fingers over the outline of the G.U.M.M.B.O. in her pocket. It was already empty, but she wasn't going to go into enemy territory unarmed. "Got any gum?"

"Why?" Number 2 said, opening the cell door. It wasn't even locked. Why bother?

(He wasn't going anywhere...)

Number 5 and Number 2 approached the bed and they both gasped. Numbuh 2 turned a nauseous shade of green.

In the bed was a kid—no, not a kid, a teenager. And not just any ordinary teenager, but The Steve, the infamous leader of the Teen Ninjas.

But it wasn't all of The Steve.

Parts of his head were there and part of his chest, but the rest of him was nowhere to be seen. Number 2 bent over to have a look at his face but gasped. "I'm gonna be sick!"

Number 5 leaned over and was about to have the same reaction, but she held back the impulse. Her Dad was a doctor and some of his bedside manner must have rubbed off on her. She forced herself to look and much to her surprise, she was able to smile. The Steve attempted to smile back, but the breathing tube prevented it. Although Number 5 suspected that he may not have had all his teeth, she looked at The Steve's previously intact face. The poor boy was missing an eye and his nose. His signature sunglasses sat mockingly on a bedside table. The Steve rolled his eye to the machine that the tube down his throat was attached to. Number 5 followed the eye and her stomach dropped.

"I can't." she said feebly in a trembling voice, but the one good eye stared at her, pleading.

"Can't what?" Number 2 asked from the doorway. He couldn't stand being in there any longer.

Number 5 sighed. "Can't do anything to help... Number 2, I think we've seen enough, start heading out of here. Let's get back to Father's study."

Number 2 was happy to oblige, running as fast as his portly frame would allow and Number 5 was left alone with the Steve. Slowly, carefully, gently, she removed the breathing tube. It was horrible the way he was gasping and coughing, but the eye looked at her gratefully. Number 5 put a hand against The Steve's temple and began to hum a lullaby. Soon he became still, and Number 5 replaced the breathing tube and tried to leave the cell as she found it. She left the room...

Abby's hands were shaking and trembling worse than if she had been on a sugar high at the Candy Bar. This felt a hundred times heavier than anything, even the day her sister betrayed the Kids Next Door. When she found Number 2 she put her hands behind her back to keep them from trembling so much.

"Ready?" she asked, but before he could answer a smell began to permeate the laboratory. It was a horrible smell, like a skunk, only worse. Much worse.

"The others!" gasped Number 2, who was running again. For a few seconds Numbuh 5 managed to forget what happened back in the cells. She put on a burst of speed, calling out "Let's go!" to Number 2 as she passed him.

She had helped The Steve as best as she could. Hopefully she wouldn't be too late and have to help the others like that.