Demitri waited patiently, his back to the wall as he hid in the shadows, waiting for Wufei to pass him.  Duo and Dustin were following him already.  The last thing they needed was a third Maxwell to tag along with the group.  He had already seen Derrick and Heero several times.  Deut, the last he had seen, was tagging along with Trowa and Quatre, neither of which had seen her yet.  He knew without checking that the others were roaming the halls either alone or occasionally in small clusters.

He frowned slightly.  Everyone was headed to the hanger on the southernmost part of the base.  No one had found the blueprints, they were no longer on base, or they had simply been forgotten in the excitement of blowing something up.  His bet was a combination of the first and the last of his three theories.

Grumbling, he decided that he would have to take care of it and chew the others out later.  They had no right to leave him with something like that.  He was slower and weaker than any of his siblings and therefore at a distinct disadvantage.  He had to rely on his wits alone.  Granted, that was more than enough to give Oz all kinds of untold grief, but he still didn't appreciate making the run alone.

Huffing indignantly, he ducked into a small office and flipped the computer on, ignoring the angry beeping of the backup battery.  He typed frantically, wishing he was even half as fast at this type of thing as Dante.  The records turned up blank for the location of the blueprints and he frowned slightly, trying again.  Still nothing.

Grumbling, he decided to go about it the old fashioned way and simply tear apart the officers' quarters.  With something that important, they wouldn't give it to a mere soldier.  Also, knowing that all of the Maxwells were coming, something that Darren had made sure they would know, they were bound to move the precious designs somewhere where no one would think to look for them.

Reaching the officers quarters, he snapped open the nearest control panel and used the emergency power to unlock the door.  From there, he had to push it open with brute force.  Considering the weight of the door, this took him several precious moments, but the halls were abandoned and he wasn't concerned.

The door open and out of his way, Demitri immediately knew he had selected the correct room.  This knowledge came to him simply from the flash of movement he saw in his peripheral vision before blackness claimed him.

*     *     *

The four pilots and three Maxwells had made their way to the south hanger when the speakers, trembling miserably under the emergency power, began to make a static-laced announcement.

"Attention Maxwells.  We have captured one of your brothers.  We will ensure his safety if you surrender immediately."

Derrick stumbled to a halt, gun dropping from his numbed fingers.  Heero tugged on his arm roughly before abandoning him in favor of running for cover.  The other three pilots had similarly scattered, trying to ensure that neither they nor any of the Maxwells on the field that they were aware of were shot.

Heero could only watch helplessly as Derrick was surrounded by armed soldiers and ordered to surrender peacefully.  Derrick stood perfectly still for several seconds, head down and shoulders shaking.  The Japanese pilot saw a second shadow in black watching from the shadows near him, recognizing Deut.  He did not see Dustin just beyond her.

Derrick allowed himself to be manhandled roughly by two soldiers who sought to haul him back to the main complex to be jailed.  Many more grunts circled him with guns drawn.  He moved along peacefully until he was almost to the door.

Heero watched in a daze as his friend was half-dragged towards the building.  Just before reaching the door, he went absolutely ballistic.  Derrick began thrashing and swearing, whipping his braid to beat the soldiers holding him immobile.  Heero was preparing to run out to help him when it happened.  Everything within twenty feet of Derrick burst into a searing conflagration.

Soldiers on the edge of the blast staggered away, screaming in agony and rolling on the ground in a futile effort to put themselves out.  The flames themselves flared once in an almighty show of pure death before guttering and dying out, leaving a shadowed figure standing alone in the center of the blast, hunched over and trembling slightly.  Heero tried to move towards him, but Deut caught his arm.

"Don't," she hissed.  "Just leave him alone, Heero."

"But…"

"Don't," she repeated.  "He'll be fine.  No one who values their life will bother him right now."

By the time she had said this, Derrick was gone, vanishing into the main building without a trace.  The only trace of his presence was a perfect sphere of charred, and partially melted, cement that had once been an immaculate walkway.  Heero eyed the sections of liquid stone uncertainly, wondering how the enraged American could have survived the blast.

Trying to ignore the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, he moved towards the hanger again, slipping easily past the panicked security.  He noticed vaguely that the other pilots and Deut were following him.  However, he didn't notice Dustin from where he remained in the bushes.  He didn't notice when the American suddenly vanished into the shadows, either.

*     *     *

Only by furious demand did Duo and Donovan stay behind.  Dante had left them with the assurances that no one would be able to bother him when he was irritated as he was.  They knew his claim to be no exaggeration, so they had allowed him to go alone.  Duo had crawled into the vents to go turn on the power as he had been ordered, still spitting obscenities.

Donovan had watched them go with a blank expression before leaving to spike the base's water supply with the small glass tube he held in his hand.  In it was a combination of progesterone, prolactin and caffeine.  Between the three, everyone on base would end up buxom, lactating and dehydrated.  The last ensured that everyone would drink more to try to correct for that particular problem.  The first two chemicals would take some time to manifest themselves, ensuring that by the time they were detected, everyone would have ingested a large quantity of them.  He smiled with the knowledge that everyone on base would be miserable for a long time from this.  As they should be, he reflected, for daring to attack his brother.

Dante, on the other hand, was out to do some real damage in order to get their brother back.  For a few moments, he had run side by side with Derrick before ordering him to stay with the others.  Naturally, Derrick had protested, loudly, but Dante would not be budged.  After a heated round of glaring, Derrick veered off to cause grief somewhere else on base.  He hadn't been out of sight for more than thirty seconds before an explosion sounded in his wake.

Relieved that he could work safely alone, Dante paused at a small panel in the wall, pulling out a few random wires and stripping them of their protective plastic sheaths.  He crossed several of the larger wires and waited.  A large rumbling explosion was heard on the far end of base.  He grinned.  That had felt good.  A moment later, the lights flickered, courtesy of Duo.  All over base, the electricity came back on.  Dante smiled and continued on his rampage.  What he had planned would be much easier with the use of the base's electricity.  Naturally, he didn't need it, but it would be simpler.

He automatically switched the clip in his gun as he ran, cursing softly when he realized that it was his last.  After this he was out of bullets.  He kept moving, carefully counting his shots as he ran.  Two solders down.  Neither had been armed.  Six shots left.  Another corner and three more guards.  Naturally, both of them were out of ammunition.  Three shots left.  He ended his next encounter with a single guard with his fists, desperate to conserve the minimal firepower he had left.

Stubborn to a fault, he bulldogged his way through the halls.  His next encounter found him facing five soldiers.  Swearing loudly, he used his final three bullets and resorted to fighting with his hands to take down the final two.  Staring at the corpses in utter loathing, he pressed his right hand to his left shoulder to staunch the flow of blood from the lucky shot one of the group had gotten in.  He hadn't even realized that he had been hit until it was over.

Dante had just bent over to collect one of the soldier's guns when he heard footsteps approaching.  He didn't need to look to know that he was cornered with a gun trained on his skull.  Cursing softly, he partially raised his hands and straightened up.

"I have one of them over here!" the guard yelled, attracting others from nearby halls.

Groaning softly, Dante pushed his right hand back to his shoulder and slumped against the wall to distract the soldier from what he was doing.  With his left hand, he carefully flipped open a control panel and pulled several wires free, wrapping his fingers around the free ends of the wires.  He could feel a gentle buzzing running through his body, the hairs on his arm standing on end.

"What are you doing?" the soldier snapped, grabbing him by his sleeve and trying to pull him away from the wall.  Dante grinned malevolently.

Keeping his death grip on the wires in his fingers, he swiveled his free arm around to place his hand on the soldier's face.  The two were knocked apart with the force of a small bomb, the soldier slumping against the floor, unconscious and singed.  Dante trembled slightly against the wall for a moment before releasing the wires in his hand and sprinting for cover.  He could hear the other soldiers approaching and he was too tired to play with them just yet.

The room he ducked into was not empty.  Cursing loudly, he and the soldier attacked simultaneously.  The soldier drew his gun.  Dante grabbed his hand, allowing the current still raging through him to shock the soldier into submission.  The charge was too great and the man slumped to the floor.  Dante stole his gun and promptly kicked him in the ribs to wake him up.

"Where is he?" he snapped.  The soldier just gawked at him.  Dante spat angrily on the ground, barely missing the man's head.  "Where is my brother?"

"In the officers' q-quarters somewhere," he stammered.  At the furious scowl he received, he tried to shrink away from the livid American.  "That's all I know!  I swear!"

Grunting, Dante kicked him in the temple sharply.  He went limp.  Satisfied that the unconscious man was no longer a threat, he leapt into the ventilation shaft and began crawling purposefully towards his target.  Granted, this route was much slower than running, but he neither had the energy nor the ammunition to continue as he had been.  While crawling, he pulled out his small communicator and tapped in a code.

"Daniel here.  Where are you?"

"David here.  Did you find him?"

"Heading towards the officer's quarters on the east end.  That's where Demitri is.  I want both of you to meet me there."

"On the way."

"There in a minute."

Dante closed the connection with them and tapped a second number.  The answer he received was very tense.

"Yes?"

"Derrick, I need you to blow out the entire west side of the compound.  I need a large distraction somewhere where I'm not."

"Done."  The connection closed immediately.

Shoving the small communicator back into his pocket, he continued on his path, silently thanking any gods that could hear him that it hadn't been Darren who had been captured.  Derrick had something of a violent temper when it involved his siblings, but when it came to his lover, he was downright deadly.

A small ripple of a shockwave was the only warning he had before the entire base bucked on its foundation.  He could feel the temperature rising drastically.  He braced himself as best as he could, but was still hard pressed to stay on his hands and knees.  After several minutes, the tremors stopped and he started moving again, wondering if it had been a good idea to tell Derrick to do that.  Someone leapt out of the shadows ahead of him and he paused, glaring scathingly at Dustin.

"What are you doing here?  I thought you were with the others."

Dustin shrugged.  "I found which room Demitri is in.  Just thought you'd like to know," he said easily.  "I've already told David and Daniel."

"You get around too damn fast for your own good," Dante muttered.  "Very well.  Lead on."

Like twinned wraiths, the two moved at ludicrous speeds through the darkness of the base's ventilation system.  In only moments, they peered down through a grate into a room where several officers stood with Treize, Zechs and Demitri.

"David and Daniel will already be outside," Dustin whispered.

"Gun," Dante hissed.  Silently, Dustin handed him his weapon and disappeared into the shadows once more.

Not hesitating, Dante kicked out the grate and dropped into the room, firing at the soldiers before he hit the floor.  Running out of bullets before finishing off all of the soldiers, he chunked his gun, knocking out the nearest man just as David and Daniel burst into the room, firing as they entered.  The remaining two guards fell immediately.  All three stopped dead when they saw Zechs press a gun to Demitri's temple.  Dante fumed, a muscle twitching wildly in one eye.

"Surrender," Treize said, aiming his own gun at the twitching Maxwell.  Dante bared his teeth threateningly.  David and Daniel blanched and ran from the room at a sprint, knowing that look.

Dante reached into his pocket, pulling out their communicator and tapping a code.  He didn't even hear what Deut said, only vaguely realizing she had answered.

"Sprinkler system, officers' quarters," he snapped, closing the connection.  Instantly, the water came on, drenching the four occupants of the room.

"Surrender," Treize repeated, motioning to Zechs nervously.

"Give him to me," Dante said flatly.

"You're out of ammunition and we have one of your brothers.  Your other two brothers had the common sense to flee.  Surrender," Treize stated firmly.

Dante curled his lips back in something that might have been a grim smile.  Seemingly ignoring the two men holding his brother at gunpoint, he moved to the nearest wall and slammed his fist through it, pulling back with a large wire twined around his fingers.  He pulled a length of wire out of the wall and draped the sparking end dangerously close to the floor, where water had begun to pool.  Dante looked directly at Zechs, ignoring Treize since he wasn't the one holding on to Demitri.

"Give me my brother," he ordered in a monotone.  Zechs paled, but Treize wasn't willing to give in.

"If you do that, you'll electrocute yourself as well as your brother," he explained calmly, issuing the fuming Maxwell one of his infuriating smirks.

Dante ignored him completely, reasoning lost on him.  When Zechs did not immediately respond to his order, he snapped the wire downwards, clipping the water for an instant.  Current jolted through all four men in the room.  Treize staggered into the wall and Zechs nearly dropped Demitri.

"Give him to me," Dante snapped, lowering the wire dangerously close to the water a second time.

"You'll kill him!" Zechs hissed before Treize could get him zapped again.  Treize started to support the line of thinking, but choked on his words when Dante smiled nastily.

"Wrong answer," he breathed, dropping the wire into the water.

Electricity sparked across the puddle on the floor.  Muscles locked from the current, the two commanders stood absolutely still, unable to even draw breath.  Dante moved across the room fluidly, unhindered by the power racing through him, to pull his brother forcefully from the blonde's arms.  Cradling the unconscious form in his arms to shield him from the deadly current, he stormed from the room.

Free from the large puddle on the floor, and thereby the raging electricity, Dante slumped against a wall, exhausted.  Behind him, a loud pop signaled the wire suddenly going dead in the room he had just left.  He grimaced and began staggering slowly down the hall with Demitri cradled gently in his arms.  He would have left the current on and left the two men for dead, but his orders had not been to kill the leaders of Oz.

Barely twenty paces from the room where Treize and Zechs laid unconscious, David and Daniel reappeared.  David took Demitri from his brother.  Daniel looped one of Dante's arms over his shoulders and pulled him along.

"Everyone else abandoned base," Daniel said simply.  "G ordered us to retreat immediately.  We'll come for the blueprints again later."

"What about the prototype?"

"Spontaneous combustion," Daniel answered easily.  Dante snorted loudly, wondering when Derrick had found the time.  That shifted his line of thinking immediately to his pyromaniac brother.

"Derrick?" he breathed, fighting to remain conscious.

"Darren has him," David assured him.  "Duo, Dustin and Donovan left together.  Deut dragged the other pilots with her."

"Dustin and Donovan are to meet up with Deut at the next safehouse," Daniel continued.  "You and Derrick aren't going anywhere until you've rested."

Dante nodded and allowed unconsciousness to claim him.  Both Daniel and David were stronger and faster than he was and he trusted them to get off of the base safely.  Exhaustion became overwhelming and blackness claimed him.

To Be Continued…

Ooh… I'm starting to mess around with some weird stuff here.  Will be explained later, I promise, but until then, you must wait.  *ducks out of view to avoid thrown items*  Hey!  No hurt evil authoress!  Tell me what you think about the most recent Maxwell development.  R&R!!!