Disclaimers: Look, u should know by now! IF IT'S GOT A DISCLAIMER, I DON'T OWN IT! Soz, kinda bad day at skool.

A/N: Contrary to popular belief, I am alive! I just haven't been able to post, what with being blocked, then FFN going into read-only mode, then getting blocked (again!) for the second time in as many weeks…U're getting bored of my ranting, so on with the story!

Chapter 2:

"What's the security breach?" Jim asked one of the junior agents, almost as soon as he reached the real N-Tek.

"Make that three," the young agent replied, turning to face the monitors. "One is a member of the terrorist organization known as DREDD; the other two have yet to be identified." Having been in the field for many years, there weren't many enemies Jim didn't recognize. He did recognize the other two people, but they weren't DREDD operatives.

"I am going to kill those two when we get home," he muttered under his breath, making his was down to the basement levels. Remembering the data on the screens, he saw than no one seemed to have thought about checking where the probes were kept, and he was positive he'd find them there.

He entered the room, and knew instantly what had happened. Melissa heard his footsteps, and turned round to look at him, fear present in her eyes.

"He is gonna be OK, isn't he?" She asked, fearful of the response, and turned back to Josh. Jim noticed his son for the first time since walking in. He was still unconscious, sprawled on the ground where he'd fallen.

"Security, we need a medic in Sector 7F-11, now!" He all but yelled into his comm. device.

"Dad, what's going on!" Melissa challenged. Jim just looked at her seriously.

"I'll tell you later," he said simply, walking out of the room. Melissa was about to follow him, when he turned around. "You'd better stay here until someone comes to get both you and Josh." He ordered, before leaving. Melissa looked back at Josh and, realizing that it might be a long wait, knelt down beside him, holding his hand, until the agents came.

"Josh?" He heard a familiar voice, and opened his eyes, looking around at the room. He was in what looked like a hospital ward, and wondered how he got there. The last thing he remembered was having all of that green gunk dumped on him by some kind of freak. His mother was standing up, looking at him.

"Mom? What happened?" He questioned, sitting up. She just looked away for a second.

"Josh, you need to rest," she said, pushing him gently back down to the bed.

"What was that gunk? The green stuff?" He asked, looking around the room. His sister was there as well, her arm in a sling. He smiled slightly, and reminded himself to ask her what had happened.

"That was suspension fluid for something we call Nano-Tek max, microscopic machines capable of reproducing at an astounding rate." Jim replied, having just walked in. Melissa jumped to her feet in shock at this revelation.

"Machines! Is this some kind of joke?" She yelled at her father, but was interrupted before she could say anything else.

"These max probes have invaded all your systems," a doctor said, walking in and carrying a clipboard. "Both of yours." She added, looking at Melissa. "Skin, bones, muscles, even your skin and hair."

"Machines! Inside me? Get 'em out!" Josh panicked, immediately sitting up. "What'll they do to me?" He asked, after being pushed back down onto the bed. The doctor, Jim and Molly all looked at each other before Jim answered.

"We don't know," he said simply, turning to leave.

"What do you mean 'we don't know'! You've been developing them!" Melissa argued, in frustration.

"Melissa, we don't know because we've only used them for specialist equipment. We have never tested them on humans, or any animal for that matter, so we're in the dark about this. In the meantime, you'd better still go to school."

"Oh, sure, and what if one of us ends up dropping down dead?" Melissa spat. Josh managed a smile. This was the sister he knew.

"Let's just hope that it won't come to that," Molly replied.

"One sec," Josh said, interrupting, "what does n-Tek really do?" Jim and Molly both looked at each other, before explaining.

"You're kidding. Terrorists!" Melissa asked sceptically, after hearing what their parents had to say. She nodded to herself. "So, I take it that guy was one of those terrorists, then."

"Yes," Jim replied. "An employee of one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world known as DREDD."

"What are we actually going to do about this?" Jim asked, sitting in front of a large desk belonging to the CEO, Mr. Jefferson Smith. "Three people, one of them no older than a child, managed to break into N-Tek last night, and two of them got infused with the max probes."

"We need to keep an eye on both of them, just to make sure nothing happens to either of them. Psycho knows what they both look like, and that could pose a problem. If they join…" Smith started, but was interrupted.

"There is no way Melissa's joining! Some of the time, it's too dangerous for a well-trained agent, never mind a young teenager. She'll be dead within the week!" Jim replied furiously, half-standing up.

"Maybe not," Molly replied, and both men turned to face her. "We use the max probes in some of our more advanced mission equipment, like the Hawk. In every machine the probes are used in, they develop the ability for stealth, amongst other things."

"What do you mean by that?" Her husband asked her, enquiring.

"What I mean is: if the probes give machines certain abilities, then, possibly, it'll give Josh and Melissa certain abilities as well."

"We have to decide quickly, though. We may not have much time before they die." Smith stated bluntly.

"What is wrong with me!" Melissa yelled to a, fortunately empty, classroom as she dumped her bag, and nearly fell over for the third time that morning. She growled. "I bet it's something to do with those probes. They really need to beef up their security." She commented, and laughed at the irrelevance of it. Soon the rest of the class swarmed in, chatting and laughing, and the lesson started. Felling tired, and seeing as she was sitting at the back of the class with her best friend, Denise, she folded her arms on the desk, leaned her head on them, and fell asleep.

Frustrated, Josh walked out of his class, complaining of the mother of all headaches, pulled out his cell, and speed-dialled the number he'd been given in case of an emergency, and waited for it to ring.

"Josh?" He hears his mother's familiar voice on the other end of the phone, comforting, like when he was ill as a young boy.

"I don't feel so well," he commented simply, and turned the phone off, waiting. All of a sudden, his vision went blurry and he couldn't focus properly; everything was a wash of color with no definition.

"Melissa? Hey, Mel, wake up!" Denise said, nudging her with her elbow. Frowning when she got no response, she tried harder.

"Go away," Melissa mumbled, waving an arm in Denise's general direction, before lifting her head off her arms. Somehow, she was in the medic room with Denise and her father.

"Er…nice surprise dad, what are you doing here?" She asked, surprised. He hesitated slightly, and she knew what it was going to be about.

"S'OK, Denise, I'll be fine." She said unconvincingly. Denise wasn't sure, but left anyway. Melissa turned to her father. "What's up?" She asked, staring at him.

"Something's happened to Josh, and it might happen to you as well. We're pulling both of you out of school for the rest of the year." Melissa nodded, there was only a week or so left anyway.

"Any improvement?" Jim asked the shift nurse at N-Tek, Melissa in tow. The nurse just shook her head, no verbal response. Melissa shot a worried look at her father, but he ignored it, and walked in to the ward Josh was in. As soon as Melissa saw him, her stomach turned.

"Oh, god," she muttered at a loss for words for once.

"He's getting worse," the doctor, Dr. Yevshenko as Melissa now knew she was called, said as she walked into the room.

"There's another possibility," a new, male voice cut in. Jim, Dr. Yevshenko and Melissa all turned round to look at him, and Melissa tried to fight down a blush, before reverting to her normal personality.

"What kind of possibility?" She asked, suspiciously.

"If the max probes have integrated with his system, then the reason he's dying is because the max probes are, literally, starving to death."

Yeah, and? Melissa though impatiently, tapping her foot against the concrete floor slightly.

"The max probes need Transphasik energy to survive, and so do your children. I think." Melissa let out an audible snort of laughter, but quickly turned it into a cough.

They're placing both our lives in the hands of someone who's barely out of high school? Are they serious?"

"Who is this kid?" Jim asked, looking at Dr. Yevshenko closely.

"Dr. Roberto Martinez, an expert on nano-tek. It's not that simple," she quickly added, knowing what Jim was going to say. "Transphasik energy may save them, or it may speed the growth of the probes, killing them sooner."

"Do it," a hoarse voice whispered. "Besides, he's got braniac written all over him." Melissa smiled.

"Yeah, I mean, we haven't exactly got anything to loose, have we?"

"Are you sure?" Jim asked his kids, who both nodded simultaneously. "Just remember: we don't know what'll happen when you come out of the Transphasik regenerator chamber, so just be careful."

"Always am," Melissa replied, before walking off, Berto watching her.

She looks no older than thirteen, he thought. To have something like this practically forced onto her, she's handling it well. Only problem is, how's she going to cope with the realization that her life, and her brother's, will never be the same again?

"This place is just so…weird." Melissa said to herself, looking out one of the windows in N-Tek. Both her and Josh had gone through the regeneration process, no problem, and had even survived. Melissa had woken up about an hour before, and was watching the sky, looking at in wonder. Josh was still unconscious.

I wonder what will happen now. I can't become an agent, I'm too young for that, but I know they can trust me with this secret. She smiled to herself. If I can wrangle it, I might be able to work here part-time; I might even get to see more of Berto…

"What am I thinking!" She told herself, embarrassed at her own thoughts.

"Thinking about what?" a voice said, and Melissa nearly had a heart attack. She spent the next five minutes trying to calm down.

"Next time, give me some warning, OK? It kinda freaks me out!" Even though she couldn't see him, Melissa knew he was smiling.

"Your parents want both you and Josh in the O.R room ASAP."

"Two problems: Josh is still asleep and I don't know where or what the O.R is!"

"Sorry, I forgot. Down the corridor from the hospital ward you're in, the third left, second right, and it's the first door on the right."

"OK, got it, I'm coming."

The next few days for the McGrath siblings were taken up by figuring out what kind of powers they had, of which Berto was in charge of. Both of them had been fitted with bio-links, enabling them to contact N-Tek at a moments notice, and was cunningly disguised as a watch when not being used. However, when it came to controlling their powers, well, that was a different matter entirely.

Melissa winced as she pushed a swing door open, and it hit the wall, creating a huge dent.

Perfect, just perfect, she thought to herself, heading down to the O.R. The doors opened automatically, and she stepped inside.

"What's going on?" She asked seeing her parents and her brother there. Jim and Molly looked at their son.

"We still have to wait for Smith, though." Josh replied.

"Smith? What has he got to do with this?" Both Melissa and Berto said at the same time.

"Well, I've been giving this some thought. With our powers, I get the feeling that we'd be a great help to N-Tek, as agents."

"No," said a new voice curtly. Mr. Smith was standing in the doorway, looking at Josh.

"Why not?" Melissa countered, looking at her brother.

"For one thing, it'll be too dangerous for both of you." Molly said, putting a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder, who shrugged it off.

"Didn't stop you recruiting Berto." Josh replied.

"That was different." Smith said, cutting Josh off. "He's a technician, not an agent." He paused. "But really, it's up to you two, Jim and Molly, whether they join or not." Both Josh and Melissa looked at their parents hopefully, waiting for their response.

"We're probably going to regret this," Jim began, and the sibling's faces fell, "but they would be a valuable asset to our team, not to mention N-Tek. I think they should be allowed."