Duo let out a cry of thanksgiving when the ladder came into view.

"Finally! I thought we'd be stuck in this gross pit for the rest of our lives!"

"We should come out into the end of a corridor. One more room and then the laptop," Damian said as he grabbed a rung and began climbing.

Shiris followed him, then Duo and Hiiro.

Hiiro grimaced as his hands touched various molds and funguses. "Hasn't been used in a while has it?" he called up.

"I guess not. I don't see why people would need to come down here often, anyway," Damian replied, reaching a grate in the ceiling and shoving it up.

Once everyone was assembled, he motioned for them to follow him.

They were a corridor and heading for a fork in the road.

Damian calmly stepped through the invisible laser detector and tripped a trap.

"Whoa!" Duo exclaimed and put his hands out to stop Hiiro as the floor disappeared a foot in front of Damian.

"It's a trap. We need to get across, quickly," Damian urged, looking behind him with frightened eyes. "Guards will start pouring in any time."

"What? What do you think we can do? Its too wide to jump!" Shiris cried, peering down into the black hole that didn't seem to end at the sewer. It just spun off into a dark abyss.

"I suggest we try, because we have more immediate problems than guards!" Duo suddenly exclaimed, pointing behind them.

They heard a 'chink', and a thin, tall metal spear shot up out of the floor. Then it disappeared, only to appear a moment later in a different, closer place.

"It's drawn to body heat," Damian warned when it popped up again.

"Oh shit, jump!" Shiris yelled, panicking.

Damian backed up a few feet, bent down, and pushed off.

He sprinted down the hallway past the staring spies and leapt over the chasm. His coat blew out behind him, his arms outstretched. Then he landed roughly and rolled, coming to a stop a few feet from the chasm.

"Come on! You can get across!" he shouted, holding out his hand.

They all hesitated, afraid of falling.

"He has a lot longer legs," Duo muttered, but backed up and took a running leap, the metal spear coming up where he had been standing. He landed safely across and Damian helped him up.

"Shiris, you go next," Hiiro ordered, glancing behind him. The spear was feet away. Shiris was in the danger zone just by backing up.

Nodding, she went a few feet back, steadied her nerves, and ran like hell. She flew across and landed in waiting arms, looking back at Hiiro fearfully.

The spear was now in the area of Hiiro, and he was trying to dodge it.

His heart skipped a beat when it came up and snagged his shirt, just missing the skin underneath. Ripping himself away, he backed up and waited for the spear to appear again. Once it had shot up a few feet away from him, he sprinted for the edge.

He could see his friend's faces, urging him on, ready to catch him if he should fall. He was almost to the edge, his legs were pumping, his heart pounding, and he felt confident.

The spear burst out of the ground directly in front of him and he frantically tried to dodge it and leap at the same time.

He felt himself fly up into the air, nothing below him, and then swiftly fall back down, the air rushing by him.

Frantically, he threw his hands up and felt something catch them. He crashed into the side of the cement hole, his feet dangling into empty air. His flashlight shook loose from his pocket and swiftly sailed silently into the dark, the light obliterated by the black after a few seconds. He didn't hear it hit the ground. Glancing up, he saw Damian gripping his hands tightly, on his knees and bending over the edge. His eyes were glinting and a smile curved his lips.

"Damian, pull me back up," Hiiro whispered, afraid of the look on Damian's face.

He didn't move, only continued staring, almost thoughtfully, at Hiiro, who was looking up at him with fear in his eyes.

Then Damian's eyes snapped and he squeezed his hands painfully tight around Hiiro's and Hiiro knew he was going to drop him.

"Damian, no!" he hissed, then cried out as Damian released him. For a split second, he thought he was going to die, going to be smashed to pieces on concrete hundreds of feet down. Then someone threw themselves down and grabbed his flailing hand, gripping it tightly with two.

Shiris was staring down at him, her dark brown eyes relieved and also frightened, her hair reaching down into the pit.

"Hiiro, I got you, its okay," she whispered, and held out her other hand. Reaching up, he grasped it and she pulled him up over the side, tumbling to the ground.

He immediately turned on Damian, only to find him at gunpoint. Duo was standing in front of him, gun aimed directly between his eyes. Damian was still smiling his unnerving, infuriating smile.

"You son of a bitch!" Hiiro shouted and punched him in the jaw.

Damian's head whipped to the side and he clutched his cheek, but didn't fall.

He started laughing.

"I can see why you'd be mad, Hiiro," he chuckled, only making Hiiro angrier. Shiris grabbed his arm as he went to punch him a second time.

"No, Hiiro, we still need him. He is the only chance we have of finding the laptop. You know how important that is now!" she pleaded.

"The freak tried to kill me. He lied to us all. He deceived us all. He deceived me! He made a fool out of us, and we're going to let him live?" Hiiro yelled at her, but she calmly told him to back down.

Muttering under his breath, he walked away and leaned against the wall, looking back at the hole. The spear was still trying to hit them, fruitlessly trying to cross the chasm.

"Okay, Damian, the game's over. Now you lead us to the laptop," Duo ordered, shoving him forward and keeping the gun on his back. Shiris and Hiiro took out their own guns and kept them trained on him as well.

Damian sighed as he turned down the right hand corridor. "I will admit, that was fun while it lasted. But I just got carried away. It was too much of a temptation to let Hiiro go. He was in the perfect spot. All I had to do was let go! It would have been beautiful," he added wistfully, while Shiris tried to prevent Hiiro from strangling him.

"You are one messed up guy," Duo muttered, "You really should see a good psychiatrist."

"Duo, I have to hand it to you," Damian replied coolly, "you were the smartest of the bunch. You and that girl, you never ever trusted me. I applaud your intuition."

"And you think I should feel honored to have your praise? Please. You sicken me."

Damian just grinned.

"You do know that if you lead us to the wrong place, we will shoot you and find it ourselves," Hiiro warned him, itching to fulfill that promise.

"I know, I know. Don't worry, I promise to get you to the laptop," Damian assured him, putting his hands into his pockets.

"Ah, ah, ah, I don't think so. Hands out right now," Duo ordered.

Damian sighed. "All I want is a cigarette. Is that too much to ask?"

"Yes," Hiiro answered, but Duo shushed him.

"One cigarette. Hand the lighter over to me and I'll light it. And don't blow the smoke towards us, it's disgusting," he said, grabbing the small gold lighter when Damian handed it back. Then he pulled out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and leaned towards Duo.

Flicking the lighter on, Duo put it to the cigarette, his gun still trained on Damian.

Shiris watched the process carefully, almost positive Damian wanted to use it somehow to get free. But even she didn't move fast enough.

Damian, as soon as the cigarette was lit, whipped his hand up and shoved the lighter towards Duo and ducked at the same time.

A chunk of wall fell to the ground as a bullet slammed into it and Duo shouted when the flame from the lighter touched his face. Not waiting a millisecond, Damian spun and stuck the lit cigarette against Hiiro's cheek, causing him to back away and bend over.

Shiris shot at him, but he moved like a shadow. He was next to her before the shot hit the wall, Duo' gun pressed to her temple.

"Never, ever, give a prisoner a cigarette," he whispered in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Hiiro spun, gun in hand, towards Damian and fired. His eyes widening and mouth dropping, he jerked it to the side at the last minute.

The bullet smacked into the wall two inches from Shiris' head and she ducked her head from pure reflex only to have it shoved up again by the gun.

She knew enough about him that he would shoot her if she tried to get away and so stayed perfectly still.

"Back away or I will shoot her," Damian warned in an icy cold voice when Hiiro kept the gun trained on him. Duo, a hand over his cheek, turned to Damian.

"You ba-"

"No foul language, please. I know what I am, don't worry. But I'm afraid the tables have turned once again. Now, if you will please continue down this way? I will still lead you to the laptop. You forget, I still have your friends to deal with. Move!"

"Not until you let her go," Hiiro muttered.

Shiris heard Damian growl deep down in his throat.

"Look, I don't have time to fool around! Move, now, or I will be forced to hurt one of you."

When they didn't move, Damian shot Duo in the leg and had the gun back on Shiris within a second.

For a moment, Duo didn't move. Then he yelled in pain and clutched the bleeding leg and pulled his pant leg up.

The bullet had only skimmed the skin but had still left a large mark that was freely bleeding.

"You asshole! I wasn't even the one talking!" Duo shouted, his face pained and angry.

Hiiro put the gun down.

"Much better," Damian said with a smile. "Now, go through the door at the end of the hallway. In that room is your precious laptop."

Hiiro, with a last glare at Damian, went to Duo and put his arm around him and hoisted him up, Duo grinding his teeth in pain.

They started walking down the hall, Shiris and Damian following slowly. Damian gripped Shiris tightly around the waist with one hand and held the gun up to her temple with the other.

"Damian," Shiris muttered, "why did you do this whole elaborate set up? Why impersonate an Alliance member? Why not just kill us?"

Damian smiled at her nativity.

"Its simple, much more simple than you ever would imagine."

"Then please enlighten me, all knowing one," she muttered, and then hissed as he dug the gun in further.

"Because we needed to test out the new traps and security cameras, as well as to see how many guards we would need in each room. You are the top agents, the best of the best. You would be the perfect test subjects because you would give us accurate results on what needed to be upgraded."

She was completely blown away. Never in a million years did she think the answer would be that simple.

"So we were guinea pigs?" she said incredulously and angrily, her eyes narrowing.

"You only wanted us to test out your security defenses? You didn't care if we actually got the laptop back?"

"Oh, of course we did, but that's why I went along. I was to prevent you from getting it, which is what I did."

"But the other group-"

"Is about to find the laptop as well as a full army of the Federation's best soldiers and elite guards!" he cried gleefully.

"No…" she whispered. Their plans were finished. The base would be found, the Alliance decimated, they would be killed…

"Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that you would be test subjects for the new viral agent as well."

"The new what?" Shiris murmured, already putting two and two together in her head.

"Oh, yes, we have a surprise for you. A new airborne toxin that burns anything it touches. So far it has only been tested on rats. You will be the first human tests subjects."

"You sick people! How could you do that?" she hissed, but knew that the people they were dealing with were not humane in the least. She also knew what the new weapon was that was going to be used on Greece.

"Through that door, yes," Damian said, directing Hiiro and Duo.

Hiiro opened the plain white door, revealing the entire remaining army of the base all shoved into one room.

"Oh my god," Shiris whispered, feeling the last of her hope ripped away. Even if they were superheroes they wouldn't be able to defeat these men. They looked like they had all won the strongest man contests as well as the Mr. Body competition. No lean skinny man in this bunch.

"Shit…" Duo managed, pressing himself against the wall, Hiiro next to him.

Damian stepped in and the door slammed shut. He shoved Shiris away from him and she was propelled into the open arms of a buff, body-armor clad elite soldier who immediately pinned her arms to her sides and gripped her tightly around the waist. She would be able to go through a nuclear war and not move.

Hiiro and Duo were soon gripped in similar ways, each not bothering to struggle.

Then the ranks of men parted in front of them and Sethin stepped forward, a pleasant smile on his lips.

"I have been waiting eagerly for you to arrive. Excellent work, Damian," he said to the man, who bowed slightly and shrugged.

"It wasn't hard. They were so trusting."

Sethin grinned at the glares Damian was receiving.

"Don't be angry," Sethin told the three, "it was a mean thing to do, I'll admit. But, I had to. I did need to test out a few things, and you also needed to be killed. Two for the price of one,"

"How could you sell yourself out to a pig like Charkovky?" Duo demanded, his eyes flashing.

Sethin looked surprised. "How did you find out about that?"

Damian went quickly over to him and whispered something and Sethin glanced back up.

"Duo, I should have known you would be able to do that. You weren't the best hacker for nothing. But yes, I have donated my abilities to the PM. And for a hefty profit, I might say. You see, I sold him the toxin for an unimaginable sum, first of all. Second, I will be in charge of all security forces and computers and technology in the new Russia when he takes over. You can't imagine how much wealth and power that will rake in for me. Think world leader, only better. I will be able to do anything I want, when ever I want."

He walked over to the two boys.

"I was going to ask you three to join me, after you killed the girls," he glanced over at Shiris, "but that didn't work out. And I knew if you were to join me, you would have to be able to do that. So, plans had to be changed. And you turned out to actually be a pleasant bonus, the perfect test subjects for the toxin."

"You're willing to get rid of us that quickly? After all we've done for you?" Hiiro demanded, his cold blue eyes looking like liquid nitrogen.

Sethin stepped over in front of him and leaned down.

"Yes."

Hiiro jerked towards him but couldn't reach.

"You'll never get away with this!" Duo shouted, "Do you think people will just stand by and let this happen? Do you think people will submit to you?"

"Yes, after they see what T-59 can do. They'll be willing to do anything, even hand over their countries to me."

A soldier suddenly came up to Sethin and whispered to him.

A smile slowly formed on Sethin's lips.

"Good, good. Lady and Gentlemen, the last three spies are about to find us. Please, prepare yourselves,"

"No!" Shiris cried, struggling but to no avail. "No! Please, let them go!"

Sethin went over to her, a pitying look on his face.

"Are you upset? Do you want us to spare your friends? Poor little girl, all upset. Don't cry now, that's not lady like."

Shiris was irate. Did it look like she was crying? She spat in his face when he bent down in front of her.

With a growl, he stepped back and motioned for help, a soldier coming up and wiping the spit off his face.

Then he whirled around, stepped up to her, and slapped her across the face.

It stung like hell, but she didn't let him know it. Glaring, she turned her head back to face him.

With a furious look on his face, he turned away from her.

"Your lucky I already have plans for you, or I would kill you myself," he muttered, and was swallowed up by the ranks of men.