Yep, I'm back. Happy aren't you? At least something that I'm writing is being liked by my readers. Oh, en this should answer the most frequetly asked question from the last chapter. You know what it was. Sorry about the delay, there were issues with my computer, I'm hoping they're all fixed now and the readers who are enjoying this can rest assured that I'm not abandoning it.

Forte stumbled into the main laboratory of the compound, using his hands to cover his face. The only one he found there was Blues,who was poking at something on one of the tables.

"What the hell are you doing?" Forte demanded, his voice muffled by his hands.

Blues turned sharply, holding in his hand what looked like a metallic skull.

"Alas, poor Chong. I wish I could say I knew him well," he half chuckled.

"You know as well as I do that his name wasn't Chong," Forte remarked, still not removing his hands from his face.

"The hell are you talking about? You should know that I don't care about those things," Blues remarked, tossing the skull onto the table again, "And why are you holding your face? I mean, we all know that you've got one of the ugliest mugs that any of us have ever seen, but that calls for a paper bag, not hands."

"Very funny," Forte growled, lowering his hands to his hips.

"How did you pull that off? Jeeze! Your nose looks like a rotten pancake "

"Up close and personal meeting with my 'sister's' door,"

"Pissed her off that bad, huh?"

"I would seem that I have a talent for that with women. Kind of like that time I snuck into that party and tried to tell your sister that she looked nice in the dress she was wearing. You know, being civil until someone gave the signal to attack, and what do I get for my trouble? Her knee right in my crotch!"

"Well, it probably would've helped if you didn't look like you were looking down aforementioned dress," Blues pointed out, sounding more then a little annoyed at his current companion, "You're just lucky that she hit you before I could get over where you were, if I had, there wouldn't be anything left to call you," he finished coldly.

"Yea, lucky me," he grumbled, rubbing his nose in a manner that would keep it from healing, "think you can fix this?"

Blues responded by cracking his knuckles and grinned deviously.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" Forte asked once Blues had hold of him.

"Try not to move," was the only response that Blues had for the red eyed male.

There was a loud crunching sound as Blues straightened out his 'friend's' nose.

"Thanks, I think," Forte responded, touching his already healing nose.

"By the way, got that mutt of yours a new chew toy," Blues said as he tossed something from one of the worktables over to Forte.

"And what is this?"

"What's it look like? It's a weapon converter that's what!"

"This didn't come out of your arm I take it?"

"Hell no!"

"Then where'd you get it?"

"Forte, I'll let you in on a little secret, my brother is naïve, not stupid."

"So, I'm guessing that has something to do with why he was so cooperative today?"

"You'd better believe it!"

"That is the only other reason that you would be so nice to the dweeb," Forte chuckled, looking the piece of equipment over, "Should have known, should have known."

"Yea, you should have, but you didn't," Blues finished, grinning deviously.

Rock pried open his eyes to see the carpet of his home's foyer, and the furniture as well. It didn't take long for him to figure out that his 'brother' was the culprit behind this stunt.

"Should've seen this coming," he grumbled, working his right wrist free from its confines.

He started on his right leg. After several minutes of struggling, he managed to yank free his leg and savor a few seconds of victory before crashing to the floor and nearly knocking himself out cold again. He listened as he heard hurried footfalls coming his way.

"Hey sis," he said without looking up.

"And you knew it was me how?"

"Dad can't move that fast," Rock remarked off handedly, starting to pick himself up.

"Need some help?"

"I'm okay,"

"What's going on out here?" Dr. Light asked, poking his head into the room after the commotion was over.

"Our 'big brother' dropped Rock off, on the ceiling," Roll reported, finishing helping her brother up from the floor.

"What did he want this time?"

"I'm still not sure about that one myself," Rock answered, rubbing the back of his head.

"I'll never understand that boy," the Dr. remarked, ducking back into the lab, "You are alright, aren't you?"

"Yea, I'm fine,"

"You're sure nothing happened?" Roll asked, pulling at her brother's sleeve.

"Not that I'm aware of, no," Rock answered, hoping that he could calm his sister down, "I'm gonna go crash for the night, okay?"

"Yea, sure,"

Rock slipped through the kitchen on his way to his room, grabbed something from the refrigerator and hurried up to the one place that still felt like a sanctuary to him. He stopped when he reached his desk and started feeling around the underside for something.

"You're behind the door," he said without looking up.

The door swung shut with Roll standing behind where it had been.

"Are you ready to tell me what really happened?" she asked, making her voice as threatening as she could.

"I took the hit," Rock stated flatly, still searching under his desk.

"You didn't fight back?" she asked, sounding rather annoyed at her brother.

"The way I saw things, I had two options; one, I could take the hit and pay him back with interest at some point in the future, or two, I could throw a punch and get my titanium back-side handed to me right before I end up in one of the many smelting pots that they have around that place!" he stated, more then slightly annoyed at his sister, "Where is it? Ah!"

"What are you looking for?"

Rock yanked out into view the spare weapon converter that he'd been looking for.

"This, which is also why I didn't fight them," he stated, clipping the piece of equipment into his arm where it belonged, "They were probably thinking that I hadn't noticed it was missing. Dopes."

"Yea, real morons."

Forte kicked open his door, a somewhat pleased smile on his features, and kicked the door back closed behind him.

"Hey, Gospel!" he called cheerfully, "I've got something for you!"

The large, dark furred wolf crawled out from under his master's bed where he'd been dozing, stretching his limbs before padding over to his humanoid counterpart.

"Look it here!" he nearly sweet-talked to the canine.

Gospel sniffed at the item in front of his nose briefly before sneezing at it.

"What's the matter boy? You've always loved chewing on Blues' leg, what's wrong with a part from his younger brother's arm?" he watched as the canid gave him a pointed look, "No, I am not feeling guilty about anything!" he shouted before collapsing onto his bed.

Gospel looked between the object that had been offered to him earlier and his master laying face down on his bed. After a moment of consideration, he jumped up onto the purple-haired male's back and tried to get him to play.

"Damn mutt!" Forte yelled, trashing around until Gospel scrambled off and bolted for his dog-door that Forte had put in himself when he got sick of replacing his door.

Gospel padded along the hallway sniffing around for a place to sleep, finally collapsing outside Rose's room. Rose walked out of that very room moments later and almost tripped over the canine in doing so.

"Hello," she said in her imitated accent, "You somebody's pet?" she asked, watching Gospel sit there wagging his tail, "I need to take a walk. You're welcome to go inside if you like, just don't destroy anything while I'm gone, okay?" she asked before walking away down the hallway.

Gospel picked himself up off the floor and trotted into this new, and still very sterile, room and flopped himself down next to the bed.