AS: Thanks for the review golden sunset! Got me spurred on to put the chapter up although a complete and utter crash computer wise put it back a little! Hope you enjoy!

Alex woke up feeling hung over. Now that was odd. He'd barely touched the champagne the night before on the boat. Had he downed about ten subconsciously or something? He sat up on the bed groaning as a pain in his neck and shoulders thundered about like a torched bull. What was wrong with him? Rubbing his eyes, he glanced across at the bed next to him. Kai was wrapped up tightly in his duvet, face buried into the covers, the only part of his body on show being his alarming bed head. Alex lifted himself out of bed, and was interrupted from steeling himself to move to the bathroom by the ping of an email coming through. They must have left the laptop on. Alex moved painstakingly slow across to it, rubbing his eyes and face. The email was from Marco, inviting them to have breakfast with him downstairs in half an hour. Alex shut the laptop down and grabbed some decent looking clothes from the wardrobe.
"Kai," he said, trying to blink away his pounding head, "Kai,"

Kai didn't stir. Alex considered prodding him.
"Kai!"

Kai made a small muffled noise. He shifted, unfurling his body under the covers. The duvet fell away from his face and Alex could see his eyes were clamped firmly closed and he looked slightly pained. Kai arched his back and stretched his arms above his head.
"What?"

"Marco wants us to have breakfast with him downstairs in half an hour,"
"Do we have to?"
"I suppose he wants to talk to us about something. It's probably important, we can't miss it,"
"God I have a headache," Kai grunted, sitting up.
After a pause: "Me too,"

They looked at each other.

"Do you really think it's important?"
"Must be. What sane person would get us out of bed for fun at half past ten in the morning?"

"We'd better go then,"
"Despite feeling like someone's having a bloody good time in my head," Kai groaned, cupping his head.

"Work? Oh no boys I just wanted to have a chance to talk to you! Just thought we would do with a quiet talk time and I know how boys like their breakfast!"

The deadpanned, severely unimpressed looks on the two teenage boys faces didn't get the message across to Marco that now he had dropped that bombshell he probably should just shut up. He started babbling about what breakfast was like in his home country. Kai looked willing to thump Marco's head against the table. Alex sighed, swiping a strand of blonde hair away from his eyes that was getting on his nerves. His eyes were smudged with tired, and just like Kai he was shielding them from the vibrant morning sun with his hands. He contemplated telling Marco to stuff his chatty breakfast and go back to bed, but it just wasn't the done thing. Kai leant back heavily in his chair, and when the waitress came around, ordered a black coffee in a low, dangerous tone.

"I thought you boys should keep up with your physical training, and so did Mr Declan. So, we've organised you a training room," Marco informed them cheerfully as their food came. Alex winced as Kai took a little too much coffee in his mouth in shock and swallowed a whole mouthful heavily. After recovering from scalding his mouth and throat, Kai said, "Why is Declan taking such an interest in us? I don't know about Alex but all of the other missions I've been on, I've just been left to my own devices,"
Alex looked up from where he had been molesting the gorgeous gold mound of scrambled egg with his eyes.

"Yes but since you're both in the city, we gathered you would like some support. You may be going abroad at some point and then we would feel guilty if we hadn't given you any help when we could have. And after all, you're doing this as a favour for Sir Carbon, and Declan is very, very pleased you are,"

Kai went back to nursing his coffee, brooding softly. Alex tucked into his breakfast, deciding it was probably best to fill up if they were going to be exercising.

"Why do you have ninja death stars tucked up your sleeves, Kai?" Marco asked dubiously. Alex looked over from where he was admiring the gym space. The gym was brand new, modern, state of the art, whatever you wanted to call something gleaming and high-tech in all areas. The weights shone in the sun, the various equipment in the fitness suite were built to look as stylish as possible, all painted black with Declan's business logo printed onto the side. There was an area a little further away at the end of the gym room, which was covered in mats, and punch bags hung at intervals around the small space.

Kai, who was sat on the bench that ran around the walls, smirked languidly at Marco's question. He continued taking off his jacket, which was how Marco had seen the mean glint of the death stars.

"Security blanket,"

"A security blanket? About five dangerous weapons?"
"First thing I was ever talked to handle. Besides a sword,"
"I'm guessing you're the fighting type," Marco said. He jangled the car keys in his pocket, "And I know for a fact you are deadly with those things. I heard you sliced a man's hand off once,"
Kai began to survey the gym, "I didn't slice it off. It was just…hanging off a little more, when he left,"
"Hanging?"
"Wasn't my fault. The guy moved," he changed the subject, "Ever picked up a sword Alex?"
"Once. My uncle took me to a dojo where they practised kendo,"

A smile came to Kai's face. A proper smile that reached his eyes, "Kendo is great fun,"
"Were you trained in weapons then?"
"Learnt to throw a ninja star when I was eight. Not very well, obviously, but I've learnt since. I grew up in a dojo with a lot of others,"

Alex decided not to ask why.

After warming up, involving stretches that Marco showed them, they chose what they planned to do. Alex jogged over to the wall to grab his water bottle that he'd completely forgotten about. Kai was eyeing one of the punch bags. He opened his mouth to say something then paused. He frowned.
"What's wrong?" Marco enquired, from where he was sat lazily on an exercise bike. Alex cocked his head. Kai was staring at Alex's leg.
"Alex move!"

Alex looked down, saw the honed red spot on his thigh and spun sideways, down behind the rack of weights. The red spot skittered across the ground before disappearing. Marco dove back into the changing room, and Kai joined Alex by the weights.

"What was that-"

They were interrupted by the scream of bullets raining down on their metal hiding place. The pair threw their arms over their heads and crouched even lower. Their ears were bombarded with the sound of the bullets ricocheting off the metal. Footsteps thundered into the gym. The bullets stopped. Kai and Alex held their breaths. Shadows danced around the gym floor, growing wider and bigger as the footsteps neared them.

The four men holding semi-automatics moved softly across the gym floor, eyes trained on the rack of weights and the two figures behind it. The leader, a man with green tinted glasses and hair in short pudgy dreadlocks, took one step further than his men. There were about eight in all, the other four positioned at the main door. They had doubted two teenage boys could survive being hailed with bullets, or any such attack, but Dreadlocks had heard of these two boy's luck, and wasn't going to take them lightly. He took another step forward. The weight rack tipped, light bouncing off the impossibly shiny chrome surface and pierced their shadows. Dreadlocks jumped the huge crushing rolling weights as they bounced forward along the gym floor, their weight giving them momentum to carry forward. Dreadlocks barred his teeth and lifted his gun, firing at the two figures that sped across the gym floor and out into the second changing room. Behind him, two of his men were hissing through their teeth clutching their toes. The others at the door hadn't reacted quick enough. They opened fire in the direction of the doorway just to please their boss but just ended up blasting the white paint off the walls.

"Follow them!" Dreadlocks roared. He let them sprint on ahead then followed, letting his injured team mates hobble along behind trying to save face.

Alex and Kai sprinted through the showers, thankful no-one else was a) using them b) had used them before hand. It prevented them from either having to close their eyes or slip. They burst out of the showers and Alex swore he felt water spray hit his back. He turned, and was faced by a wall of steaming, scalding water. Kai smirked.

"Come on,"
"How did you-?"
"Spun the taps,"

They bombed out of the changing room onto the landing of the thirty three floor-high building. Thankfully they were only on the fourth floor. In the lobby, the receptionist started to flap something at them as they shot out into the revolving doors, but they couldn't hear her shouts as they were spat out onto the pavement. London teemed in the morning, and it was that that would have saved them. If it hadn't been for the men in charge of the dancing red lights on their chests. Snipers. Alex took a left, not aware Kai had followed him until he saw the familiar features out of the corner of his eye. They took a corner. They were near Regents Park, that was all Alex knew. He supposed it didn't really matter. Dreadlocks and his men were sprinting after them, guns covered but still prepared.

"Carnival!" Kai pointed.

The tops of red streamers, floats and balloons could be seen in the near distance. Alex nodded.

Dreadlocks hissed in annoyance. Where were those kids? Honestly, he couldn't even get two infants in sights of his gun. And now they had done the inevitable, and dove into the carnival. Dreadlocks pushed and shoved between the dancers. The dizzying heights of the floats around him and the noise of the crowd only brought his concentration down by a fraction. His eyes were still trained for the little brats. He swung behind the float of the head of a woman in a crazy hat. Where the hell were they?

Alex ducked behind the flapping banner of the marching band. He could see Kai winding himself between the dancers in front, keeping an eye on both Dreadlocks and him. How were they going to get out without being seen? Dreadlocks eyes narrowed. His green glasses were tinted rose and purple and orange with the streamers and coloured costumes about him. He had to get close enough to shoot those boys with his silencer quickly and cleanly then drag them off. He didn't much care how. There was excitement humming through his fingers. Trigger-happy.

Kai's eyes widened and he reared back as Dreadlocks appeared out of nowhere between two of the majorettes he had been sneaking through. Dreadlocks looked momentarily surprised and it was that moment that cost him the use of his silencer. Kai shot his hand out, grabbing the baton of the nearest majorette, and slammed the end into Dreadlocks' face. He spun it, and let it come down on the gun in Dreadlocks' hand. It clattered off under the banner for the marching band.
"Little-"
The roaring exciting scream as another float appeared down the road drowned Dreadlocks out. Dreadlocks lunged at Kai, who spun, driving his foot home into his temple. Disoriented by the blood on his teeth and the pounding in his head Dreadlocks could only roar at his men to get them. Kai felt something come down hard on the back of his head and he hit the tarmac.

Alex had only known Dreadlocks' gun had become unstuck to his person when it had skittered under the banner behind which he was hiding. He grabbed onto it, the cool steel making his fingers ache. If the police came along now and he was found with a semi-automatic he was done for. He raised himself up away from the banner, just in time to see through the screaming majorettes that had realised something was wrong, the side of a gun being slammed down onto the back on Kai's head.

Alex pushed past the head of the marching band, gun in hand. Kai groaned into the pavement and swore in his home language. A foot came sailing towards him, aiming for his side. His hands shot out, grabbing hold of the thick ankle. He spun his body, twisting the leg as he went and yanking mercilessly on the limb in his hand. The man screamed as something cracked in his shin and ankle. Kai heaved himself up, the twitching leg falling from his hand. Now, Dreadlocks.

Alex was trying to search the man out himself, but was faced with the barrier of two men whose toes he had crushed with the weights. Alex dodged backwards, just managing to get behind the next float before silenced gunshots tore him apart. The rest of the carnival was trying to see what the majorettes were screaming about. The girls clammered to each other in their purple outfits, their sparkled costumes making them look like grounded fish. Alex peered at the float in front of him. He snatched at a piece of flailing rope, tied one end to his wrist and then ran backwards away from the float. As the float continued to crawl along, the rope stretched out at about shin height. Needless to say when the men came bombing around the corner, they hit the rope and dove head first to the pavement. Alex ran forward, tying the end of the rope that had been around his wrist back onto the float, so that the men's feet were caught in a loop. As they tried to untangle themselves, Alex slipped away, trying desperately to hide the gun, and find Kai. He staggered around the cluster of frightened majorettes, pushing to try and find Kai.

"Kai!"
Kai dodged a punch. The flailing fist caught the jaw of the head of the marching band, sending him flying into one of his band. He looked upwards as a float passed by. They had been pushed to the side of the street, where more and more people were noticing that something was wrong.
"Alex!" Kai called, catching sight of Alex crashing a pair of symbols over the heads of one of Dreadlocks' cohorts. Alex turned, dark eyes searching Kai out. His cheeks were flushed and his heart hammered in his chest. Alex caught sight of him. Kai pointed, towards the head of the monkey on the float passing by. Climb the money? But Alex could see that they were slowly losing their battle. The men had no room to raise their weapons but the moment that the entire street realised what was going on, they would clear, and there would be plenty of room to gun Kai and Alex down on the spot.

The pair sprinted for the monkey, jumping up onto the base of the float. They staggered over the mesh wire coating underneath, that the small strips of brightly coloured tissue were fanned onto. Alex stared up at the huge monkey's side. They were going to have to climb it to get away from anything now. The men still hadn't realised that they weren't there, the majority of them were still tangled under the legs of the marching band. One had a drum smashed over his head. Dreadlocks had been seen with his gun and was shoving the men trying to knock him down away. His teeth gnashed, blood spraying from the blow Kai had delivered with the baton.
"Go," Alex urged, and Kai jumped, latching onto the monkey's arm that was portrayed dangling down its' side. Alex followed, willing his arms to drag his tired body up. Kai had managed to get onto the monkeys shoulder just As Alex was reaching its elbow. There was a huge banana propped up in front of the monkey, fixed securely to its chest. Alex crouched next to Kai in the crook where the banana met the monkey.
"What do we do now? Wait?"
"I've got a better idea," Alex said. He realised he was still holding the gun. He turned, and started to batter at the base of the monkey's neck.
"What are you doing?"
He managed to tear through the material. The monkey's throat was slit. He was hollow, and as Alex pushed against its chin and stared down, he could only see and feel rushing cold air, and the moving float underneath them.

"Help me push!" Kai stared down at the men beneath them, who were just starting to figure out that they had disappeared. The marching band had cleared off, the majorettes were long gone, and the police too far away. It was perfect timing. He lunged up and pushed with Alex, painfully aware he had barely any space to stand, his feet were pinned together and he was balancing precariously on the crook. Alex had found a foothold elsewhere. The sounds of ripping and tearing roared in their ears as the monkeys head began to slowly rip off and tilt backwards. Alex just hoped the shadow wouldn't alert the men beneath of their intentions. They gave one final, brutal shove. The monkeys head ripped clean off, even the back going with the pressure. It fell, and Alex and Kai were hanging over the gaping hole where the neck had once been, swinging dangerously above the solid top of the float. They reared back, only Kai's foothold wasn't being forgiving. He put all of his weight down, and one of his feet slipped. Half of him was yanked down by gravity. His right arm reacted though, catching onto the tissue paper. One foot was still planted on the crook but he didn't know how long he could hang. He was staring at the pavement and the moving ground and all of a sudden nausea and panic flooded into his head. His grip slipped.

"Alex!"

Alex turned. Below them they could hear howls as the monkey smashed over the pavement, and hopefully over the men's heads. Kai heaved himself up with Alex's help, and found another foothold. They clung to the monkey, and Alex suddenly felt the cold, extreme wind whipping on the back of his neck and biting into his fingers. Gnawing. His fingers jerked at the pain and for one terrifying, dizzying moment he thought he was going to fall. He saw himself hitting the tarmac and clung on tighter, hugging his body to the monkey. Kai tried to calm his breathing. He had his face pressed against the monkey's chest as well as his body, clinging on and hoping that someone would stop the float. He looked down. Big mistake. The float stopped with a violent jerk and before the two could do anything the tissue paper had ripped clean away in their hands. Their hands tried to grab at something through mid air as they fell backwards but there was nothing. Now their upper bodies were so far away from the monkey, gravity did its cruel work. Kai's footholds swept away, until alarmingly he could actually see them above him. He knew he was falling, back first. He struck out, trying to find something to grab onto. The top of the float loomed up and he braced himself for the fall. He hit the float probably at the same time as Alex, and was instantly winded. The pain thwacked against the base of his skull and his back, jarring him. He rolled off the side and landed with little grace on the pavement. The shouts and the screams and the questions of the crowd roared in his ears. He looked off down the road. Dreadlock's men had been dealt with in any case. Although Dreadlocks was no where to be seen. That was his last thought before he rested his head against the cool tarmac and decided to play dead until this was all sorted out.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
"Stop squirming,"
"Ow!"
"I said stop squirming!"
Alex winced as a vertebrae in Kai's back clicked loudly. Kai hissed through his teeth, "Do that one more time and I'll-"
Marco's hands moved. Alex winced. Alex put a hand around himself and rubbed his own back. He had fallen much the same as Kai, but he had had more a slope on his side to take. If they had landed on just flat ground, they could have both shattered their spines. The slopes were what had saved them both from a clean break in their spinal cord, something that made Alex shiver to think of.
The paramedics had given them a once over, under close scrutiny from a member of M16 who had turned up on Kai's behalf too. The paramedics had said they would be fine, just very bruised. They prescribed some home remedies as they left, wondering what the hell the boys had been playing at climbing the King Kong float.

"I could have built a better King Kong than that," Kai had said, as the paramedics confessed they had no idea what they had been doing up there. They had been sat on the steps of the ambulance on a quiet suburb street not too far away from the carnival, but just far enough. Alex had been too winded to laugh. He made a mental note to realise Kai only really spoke when he was in pain or feeling violent.

"Ow, ow!"
"Call yourself a hardened spy?"

Marco laughed, showing his huge white teeth. Kai's shirt had been dropped carelessly to the floor but Alex doubted he cared. Marco had given the boys both a sports massage he had learnt when he had worked for a football team. He was wearing a Leicester football shirt today. Kai was lying stretched out on his bed with his forehead pressed against the propped up pillows, whilst Alex was sat on his own bed, working away the dull ache in his knee with his fingers. Alex had already had his massage, and he admitted it was painful, but by the blooming bruises on Kai's back, particularly on his tail bone, Kai probably had it worse.
"Alright, enough with the breaking of my back," Kai muttered, swatting Marco away and rolling quickly, albeit awkwardly, off the bed. Marco shrugged and went to put away the ice bags.

"You two will be OK. Just a few bumps and bruises,"

Kai said something in his home language under his breath and stalked off to have a shower.

"Is he always so grumpy when he's hurt?" Marco laughed.
"Wouldn't know," Alex confessed. His stomach growled.
"I will order you two room service, then I suggest you get some sleep. Rest up tomorrow and then you'll be on your way to the recruitment camp the day after,"
"Whoopee," Alex muttered. He thought for a moment.

"What football team do you really support, Marco?"

He simply smiled and crossed to the phone.

"Not yours, Alex, that's for sure," he chuckled. Alex lay back on his bed with a frown. What an odd comment.

"Hello, room service?...Yes I would like to order some food, please,"

From the bathroom, over the drum of the shower, Kai bellowed, "And now I've got that bloody headache again!"

Alex snorted with laughter, and let himself sink into the mattress to rest his aching back.