A/N: Sorry everybody! I took a long time to get this out, I know. I've been plugging in on "Deeper Than Blood." The next chapter after this is the final confrontation—most of which I have written already. So I shouldn't take toooo long. Hopefully.

Disclaimer: Any characters that bear similarity to those I talk to everyday are completely not coincidental.

In Which There is a Kayak and a few Nameless Freshmen

Chapter Ten

7:59 a. m., Wednesday

Ventilation about Band Room

Team Green

"How much time left?" Verran demanded of their Team Leader, Becky. The sophomore (Becky) had at first been intimidated by the fact that she was in charge of several ingenious juniors, but now she swallowed and decided to take this by the throat.

"One minute," she answered, loading yet another Paper Bunny Bomb onto her violin bow.

Autumn, Verran, and Dude, another sophomore, had discovered that they could make quite an adequate catapult using duct tape, a cymbal, drumsticks, a clarinet, two tennis balls, and an alto saxophone. Now Autumn and Dude were taking turns catapulting unsuspecting freshmen across the room. Usually, to Autumn's sadistic satisfaction, they let out a small cry before landing with a sickening squeak of used band sneakers.

Verran now shoved the latest unsuspecting freshman (who happened to be wearing a red shirt) off of the catapult and started loading the special Paper Bunny Bombs on. On impact, the two powders inside the paper vessels would mix and ten seconds later…

"BOOM!" illustrated one particularly "easily-amused" freshman.

The walkie-talkie in Becky's hand crackled to life. "Showtime," Sebras announced, sounding quite terrified. Verran did not even think how worried his twin must be as he jumped on the cymbal, sending the Paper Bunny Bombs to ricochet against the wall of the ventilation shaft before dropping right on the heads of an unaware Team Puce. The thought of dropping capsules of stinky smoke was enough to send Autumn into wild cackles of glee.

"Go!" Becky commanded, and the first load was off. "Wait…wait…NOW!"

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.

It was roughly the equivalent of how knocking over a line of 19 trumpets would sound, minus the loud complaining from Travis, Mike, and Alex.

Meanwhile, Dude and three of the nameless freshmen were pelting the confused Team Puce members with Paper Bunny Bombs.

It didn't take long for the Team Puce members to figure out what to do. When faced with giant volumes of disgusting smoke versus the clean, filtered air of a band hallway, even Puce members knew what to pick. Travis jumped in their way, bellowing, "NO! They're trying to smoke us out—don't give in!"

"Dude," one of the sophomores snapped. "Being captured is better than dealing with that smoke." Travis was quickly knocked out of the way.

Verran, Autumn, Becky, and Dude all continued to throw Paper Bunny Bombs, snickering with near bliss as they watched Travis stand up. But then he spotted them and tables turned. "Mike! Alex!" he shouted to his two henchmen. "Up there!" No other words were needed—each of the minions grabbed one of Travis's arms and flung him straight into the ventilation shaft. He landed, flattening some poor nameless freshman, and brandished his dinged up trumpet at them.

"RUN!" Becky shouted.

Verran provided a distraction by snatching up his cymbal and flinging it at Travis's head. Travis ducked and sprinted after the retreating group.

"BECKY!" Sebras shouted over the walkie-talkie. "What's going on in there? The cameras aren't picking up anything because of the smoke!"

Becky, still running, reported, "Travis found our hide-out, sir, and is attempting to chase us down."

There was a pause on Sebras's end of the line. "Is he alone?"

"Yeah!" Autumn yelled.

Another pause, this time longer as the group split up into two at a fork—the freshmen to the left, everybody else to the right. "Are there NOT four of you that are larger, stronger, and smarter than Travis?" Sebras finally demanded. "Turn back and chase HIM down! Squish the rat! Now!"

"Oh…yeah…" Becky said sheepishly. Smoke collected as four sets of sneakers ground to a halt and turned the other direction. Travis barely had time to turn before they were on him. Suddenly, the tables were turned once again. "AAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!" Travis screamed as he discovered two angry juniors and two angry sophomores on his tail.

8:08 a. m., Wednesday

Tunnels

Team Green

Elyse's group was hopelessly lost.

"This is NOT cool," Rachel reported, having just peeked out of the hatch Elyse had opened. "We're in the History wing."

"How can we be in the History Wing?" Trisha demanded. "We just left the Choir Room!"

"Which, I might point out, is right next to the Band Room! There's a practice room connecting them—how'd we miss that?" Lisa continued for her.

Elyse blushed. "Misread the symbols. Let's go back the other way."

8:10 a. m., Wednesday

Tunnels

Team Green

"Nope, still History wing," Gina reported.

Everybody groaned.

8:12 a. m., Wednesday

Red Hallway

Team Green

"This water is COLD," Meg complained as she stripped out of layers of band shirts to reveal a black tank top. Laiva was hurriedly pulling off her sneakers, trying to keep the kayak on the stairs with one hand. Andrea, sitting in the kayak, held onto a pole, but the current was almost too strong for the freshman. "We have to swim in this thing?"

"And make sure that Andrea doesn't get a concussion," Laiva pointed out. "The water level is almost too high. If she sits up too straight, then she knocks her head on the ceiling. That leaves one of us to keep hold of the kayak and one of us to keep her on the surface."

Sebras appeared at the top of the stairs. Miss Adobe's classroom was the one right next to the stairs, so he kept appearing to give reports. "You'll be needing to set off in about two minutes," he reported. "Rand's got the door-opening mechanism working."

"Glad to see something going according to schedule," Andrea muttered. "Any news on the guard?"

"They're hopelessly lost, probably," Laiva predicted. "Elyse probably misread the symbols in her excitement."

"I'd better get to the classroom and check on that, then," Sebras decided. He disappeared, leaving the three with the kayak to their own devices. Meg, the ever-vigilant drum major, counted out 120 beats at a tempo of 60 beats.

"Time to go," she announced, slipping into the water. Laiva slipped in on the other side, trying to ignore the fact that she was numbing quickly. "Three…two…one…"

"YEEE-HAAAAAAAW!" Laiva shouted as the doors on the other end of the hallway open and the current tugged at the kayak…

8:13 a. m., Wednesday

Tunnels

Team Green

"Good news," Rachel told everybody. "We're in the English Wing now!"

"Which is right next to the History Wing."

Everybody groaned.

8:14 a. m., Wednesday

Right Outside Red Hallway (Where the Flood Is)

Team Puce

Bob Smith was a smart guy. He was also a percussionist, which meant that he was half-deaf and had very little rhythm, but he was still smart. And even though he had "Percussionist's Back" and hearing problems, he could definitely hear the sound of water.

"RUN!" somebody to his right shouted, and suddenly Bob was being pulled out of the way as water flushed over Team Puce in a tidal wave. He could hear somebody shout "YEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAW!"

And then there was darkness.

8:14 a. m., Wednesday

Red Hallway

Team Green

The kayak sped like a percussionist towards food.

Meg and Laiva, riding surfboard-style beside it, were focusing on keeping Andrea conscious. The water rushed around them, occasionally banging them rather painfully into lockers and wall partitions. Laiva's ears were ringing by the time that they burst out in to the spot where all of the hallways and the main staircase met. Team Puce members screamed as the kayak rushed over them.

And as quickly as it had began, Meg and Laiva were hauling Andrea out of the kayak and slipping over the bodies of the unfortunate Team Puce members, racing down the obstacle course in the Green Hallway. "Hey!" cried Bob Smith, a rather stupid percussionist. He gave pursuit, leading several of his group down a very wet trail. They slipped and slid, but still managed to keep on the tail of the three Team Green members.

Meg went first, vaulting over the cow and landing on the couch. Andrea went next, using Meg's arm as support as she scurried off of the couch. Laiva's hand slipped on the cow, but her momentum carried her to a rather painful landing on the couch. "Owwww," she complained even as Andrea and Meg were tugging on her arms, inspiring her to MOVE! Still with their crowd of followers, the three dodged backpacks, stands, sports equipment, pinatas, textbooks, O'Malley's cardboard cut-out, and a very annoyed squid. Finally, they were at the pile of boxes, hauling their way through the top while a cluster of Team Puce ran right into the trap Rand had set up. Quickly, people waiting for the runners hauled the unconscious Pucers into the cage Gabi had created for them.

"Success!" cried Meg, Andrea, and Laiva as they slapped a three-way high-five.

"I don't think so. We've only got about forty more members to go," Solan told them from where he was dispatching the next group of runners.

"I know, but have you SEEN the Red Hallway? That's going to go down in the Band Book of World Records," Meg gushed. She slapped a high-five to Gabi and moved to sit down.

8:17 a. m., Wednesday

Tunnels

Team Green

"Wait…yes…I think…YES! I have found the band room!" Elyse chirped, doing a victory dance with an imaginary rifle. "Is everybody loaded and ready to go?" Each member nodded affirmation and held out a strange variety of instruments and colorguard rifles/flags/sabres. "Let's go!"

"I think," Corey commented to Gina and Rachel, "that's the first time I've gotten lost on the way to the band room before."

"You must have never been a freshman, then," Rachel told her.

8:18 a. m., Wednesday

Ventilation Shaft

Team Green

"Blast it, doesn't this bugger EVER DIE?" Verran swore as the four now very sweaty Team Green members continued to chase Travis down. They had been going at full speed down the ventilation shafts for some time now, and knocking his head on the ceiling was just starting to get to Verran.

"He's like a cockroach or something. They can live for a week without their heads," Becky gasped, struggling to keep up now. "He's gotta fall through a hole sometime."

"For the Down-World's sake, I hope he doesn't!" Autumn said fervently. "They can only handle one Travis, even IF Lewis is there!"

Travis took another sharp turn up ahead, nearly crashing into the wall as he did so.

Dude was imagining all of the things he planned to do to the annoying Team Puce leader once they caught him. Roasting him on a spit seemed to be the nicest thing on Dude's list.

Up ahead, Autumn swore that she could see light. Like there was a window or something…in the ventilation shaft? Belatedly, Autumn realized that there really was a window and that Travis was headed to crash straight through it. "STOP!" she shouted, but he didn't listen. The sound of breaking glass ensued and then Travis was gone, outside and free.

"That…" Verran broke off into several curse words, the nicest being 'dog-eared jerk.'

"Let's just get back to the base. As long as Travis is free, we have planning to do," Becky decided, leaning against the wall to catch her breath. "Dude, can you plot his course?"

"Nah, I didn't get a good enough tracker on him," Dude sighed, pulling out a large control box. "He wasn't holding still long enough. Even Star Wars technology isn't that good." He flicked a couple of switches and watched the images on the screen for a long moment. "My camera-spy is picking up a disturbing amount of movement in the Green Hallway. Team Puce people running to their fates as baked potatoes, I suppose?"

"Let's hope so. I'm hungry," Verran commented. "We'd better get back before Travis can run very far."

"He's a trumpet. Trumpets hit sunlight and they complain. He won't get too far." Still, Autumn was already heading back to the base.

8:24 a. m., Wednesday

Miss Adobe's Room

Team Green

Elyse's and Becky's teams arrived back at the same time, several escaped prisoners in tow. Corey was holding a very shell-shocked Krista up, murmuring, "It's going to be all right. It's going to be all right. The evil trumpets will go away when you feel better." Nearby, Rachel and Gina were checking over the escaped hostages for any external injuries. The only trouble seemed to be to the fragile psychological conditions.

"They're in shock," Lisa, a Psychology I student, reported needlessly. "They need rest." She and Trisha helped cart the injured hostages into the office, where they could sleep off the hardship. "That task was surprisingly easy."

"The whole day's been surprisingly easy," Rand groaned.

"Hey, speak for yourself." Verran, Autumn, Becky, and Dude were still breathing hard from the exertion of chasing Travis down. "You didn't spend twenty minutes hunting down some rat."

"No, we were lost in the History Wing," Rachel supplied helpfully, just as a very drenched trio of Meg, Andrea, and Laiva walked in. "What have y'all been up to?"

"Wreaking havoc, flooding the school. You know, normal stuff," Laiva said as she collapsed into one of the desks in the back row. She didn't bother to notice that it was the very desk she sat in every seventh hour of a normal school day. "What's going on?"

"Gabi and Brorby report that about forty people have managed to escape outside," Rand announced.

"Where Travis is," Verran growled.

A brick chose that moment to sail through the window. It landed on the desk, a white paper fluttering in the breeze. Quickly, Meg, who was nearest, unwrapped it and read, "Come get us, you ninnies."

"Ninnies?" demanded Andrea and Gina at the same time. "What kind of word is that?" Andrea continued.

"Eh." Laiva shrugged. "It's an insult. I say we kill 'im."

"You know what this means, right?" Sebras asked, taking the sheet from Meg. "This means war. Let's go get him. First one to take Travis down gets ten bucks. Let's go get him, like he said."

Somebody, nobody was sure who, laughed evilly as Team Green headed out the door and down the stairs to face their biggest enemy for the last and final time.