Disclaimer: Fox owned them, but kicked them to the curb, so I'm adopting them as a result.

Rating: Um………PG-13. At least for now. I'll let you know.

**Author's note**

I made a mistake on the previous chapter when I mentioned "Blaze." Please disregard. Blaze is a fictional member of another fic, and since I was writing it at two in the morning after reading the (excellent, BTW) fic, I typed in "Blaze" instead of "Quake", that janitor who got trapped in X's earthquake suit. Thank you all for your concerns.  And for the reviewer that thought that Rikki and Fidget were acting a bit out of character (i.e., more childish than usual), I did that to merely emphasize the degree of boredom that they are going through. Maybe I went a bit over the top, but when you're completely bored, you can act almost anyhow, oui?

"I cannot believe I didn't recognize you!" Alex said for the third time, handing Alexis "Lex" Sinclair a Big Mac.  The girl had 'dropped in' on them from a small skydiving plane, propelling herself through the sky with the aid or a maneuverable parachute. Now she was sitting with them in the bedroom of a LA Holiday Inn, enjoying an impromptu picnic with the others on the floor and bed.

Alexis looked nothing like Grinder at first glance, but as Alex looked at her more, he saw the resemblances, as well as the differences between the siblings. They both had sharp, angular faces with high, high cheekbones and full lips, and both shared flawless cinnamon-colored skin and light-brown eyes, framed by long lashes.

Unlike her older brother, who was tall and skinny, Alexis was short and slim, her body type resembling Grinder's only in her legs. They were long and slim, with thick, corded muscles evident even under her loose jeans. That was a feat. She was only five feet tall (three inches shorter than Fidget, for that matter) barely reaching even Rikki's shoulder, and…leggy. Her hair was dark brown, a layered, chin-length, razor-cut style, and she sported a light brown streak that fell over one eye. She looked younger than twenty-one.  

"You sure gave us a scare, little sis." Grinder leaned back in his chair and grinned, then dug into the overflowing McDonald's bag and extracted his own sandwich. "I thought Alex was going to have a coronary when I gave you a hug."

"What did you expect me to think?" Alex retorted, laughing. "She drops in through the emergency hatch like Evil-freakin'-Kenival, and you run and hug her! For a minute, I thought that X had turned you mutant again."

"I was the one closest to having a coronary. You did some crazy flying, Desmond," Alexis put in. "I was hanging on to that door for dear life. Lord, I was scared. And you owe me a new pair of trousers." Her light-blue skydiving pants had ripped clean up the leg when she fell in the plane, and she was now wearing a pair of Fidget's cargoes, army-green overdyed jeans with the letters "Miss Understood," marching down and around the left leg.

"You can say that again." Fidget, who was sitting on the bunk next to Alexis, was munching on French fries and playing with the Hot Wheels car from Vinnie's Happy Meal. "I swear, I was watching my entire funeral on the back of my eyelids."

"Funeral, my foot." Rikki glared up at Grinder from his position on the rug, where he was flipping through the Team Extreme account book. His chicken nuggets sat in front of him, untouched. In his current state, he couldn't even eat. "The plane is what I was worried about. Lex, you must have been crazy, leaping on it like that. Thank God it wasn't damaged! Do you have any idea-"

"How much it could have cost us?" the entire group chimed in with him at the end, then cracked up.

"I'm thrilled you find this so amusing," Rikki huffed. "And Fidge- Vinnie's eating my fries!"

"Oh, lighten up, Rick," Grinder gave him a good-natured grin as Fidget hurried to rescue Vinnie. "It's over now, and nobody got hurt, right?"

"Not unless you count the main cabin," Fidget glanced out the window at the plane, wrinkling her nose. "I think it's gonna smell like bleach for a while."

"True," Grinder agreed ruefully. In his excitement to see his sister, he'd accidentally dropped the bottle of bleach he had in his lap. The plastic had split, spilling the liquid all over the floor. Even after a vigorous rinse, the plane had smelled so strongly that they'd finally made an emergency landing to air it out, rented a couple of hotel rooms for the night, then hit the nearest burger joint.

"I'm sorry for making so much trouble," Alexis said. "It was vital that I contact Team Extreme at once, but there was some unauthorized activity going on with the computer that blocked all my messages." She looked at Alex and Grinder.

They looked at each other. "Solitaire," muttered Grinder.

"Whatever." Alexis shook her head. "Anyway, the FBI spotted Azasi in Nashville a few days ago and tracked her for a while, but lost her. They handed the intel over to us, and I was told to-"

"Wait," Fidget interrupted. "Who's 'us?'"

"The CIA." Alexis, replied, matter-of-factly.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope."

"'Bout time the CIA went after X," Grinder said approvingly. Then he did a double take. "Wait. You work for the CIA? Like, an agent?" When Alexis nodded, he fell back in shock. "I thought you just did desk work in one of the London branches!"

"That was a front, big bro. I've been an agent for years."

"Were you an agent when we met you?" Alex asked, referring to Grinder's birthday bash the year before. They had all flown into London for the event, which Alexis had been running.

"Not a full agent. I was pretty much just finishing up my third training year, though."

The group stared at her in abject silence. This was certainly a new development.

"So," Fidget broke the silence and asked slowly, "Why are you here?"

Alexis crossed her legs and rested her palms on her thighs. "The CIA has never been closer to catching Dr. X than now," she replied.  "We have a location on him, though it isn't exact, and we have intel that suggests he'd planning something major."
"It's always something major with X," said Fidget, disgustedly. "So what do we have to do?"

Alexis sighed. "It's pretty complicated, actually. The CIA is concerned that his plans involve something that will affect the welfare of the entire planet. Something akin to what he did to your friend Brandon, or the Paris incident, or that whole "freeze" fiasco- but on a much larger, long-term scale. He isn't planning sudden, vicious attacks anymore."

"That's true," Alex said, slowly.

"We fear that his seclusion is an indication that he is planning something massive- something more foolproof than anything he has ever done."

"Again, I ask," Fidget said, "what do we have to do?"

"I'll be frank with you. We want to use Alex to draw him out of his hiding place, wherever it is."

"So, basically, you want to use us as human bait." Fidget's brow was furrowed.

"Well- yeah, if you put it that way." Alexis didn't even wince at Fidget's description. "Once we I.D. his location, we'll fly Alex  there- with heavy CIA backup, of course- and- well, draw him out. Team Extreme's experiences with X are very advantageous to our catching him. We need your help."

"If I got a quarter for every time I heard that…" Grinder muttered.

"No offense to the CIA or anything," Rikki said, hoisting himself up into a sitting position, "but your plan sounds pretty weak. X is never going to fall for that."

"Yes, he will. You see, his plans involve Alex."

"How so?"

Alexis shrugged. "No one knows for sure. Our intel contains records that show that X was collaborating with German scientists, among some of the best in the world, and he kidnapped one of them, a Geoff Muller. He was a genetic scientist that was famous for allegedly cloning a set of triplets in Austria."

"I heard about that!" Rikki shook his head, then shivered. "Freaky story. You can do anything with sperm and a test tube nowadays."

Alexis nodded. "This is true. And that's why the CIA is worried. I'm sure you all know that Dr. X considers Alex to be perfect athletically and mentally, and he knows about his "amp" factor."

"How did you know about my amp factor?" Alex asked, suspiciously.

"Sweetie," Alexis said, giving him a superior look, "the CIA knows everything. Anyway, our concern is that X's obsession with the perfect human race is driving him to create a genetically perfect human being- perhaps to alter the DNA of athletes to match your own. Alex, you are- or rather, your DNA is a target."

"This is really starting to sound like a bad Saturday night movie," muttered Rikki, flicking a lock of black hair out of his eyes and finally reaching for his nuggets.

"I wish it were." Alexis looked at the group. "So, are you in?"

"Does Diana know about this?" Alex asked.

"She does, a little- but other than her, you can't discuss it with anybody. It's vital that X not know that the CIA is on to him. That's why I was sent on this mission, in case you're being monitored. I'm Grinder's sister, so I have a cover story."

Alex looked around at the assembled group. "So," he said, "are we in or not?"

"Whuddya, kidding me?" Fidget sat up and rake one hand through her red, spiky hair. "I am so in."

"Count me in, mate." Grinder also agreed.

"I suppose so, since it's for the good of the country, and might get us more endorsements in the long run…." that was Rikki, of course.

Even Vinnie didn't look too displeased at the prospect.

"I guess we're in," Alex said with a smile.

"Brilliant!" Alexis put her food down and leaned forward, eager to share the inside details of their plan. "Operation Cross the X-"

"Cross the X?"

"The CIA picks out the blasted code names, not me! Stop laughing, Fidget. Anyway, Operation Cross the X is hereby in effect." She reached into her parachute knapsack and pulled out four slim folders, handing each member one. "This is how it's gonna go….."

REVIEW PLEASE!!! I realize this chapter may have seemed a bit slow, but I thought it was important to 'set the scene.' Now the story can REALLY get rolling. Please review, and I'll update soon!