Some Chapter

The clock seemed to change form before his eyes as Max sat in the conference room staring at it. Six o'clock. Way too early to be conscious. Looking around the room, he could tell by his dad's bloodshot eyes and Berto's nodding head that he wasn't the only one who didn't sleep much last night. They hadn't even heard anything from Kat yet.

Jeff shifted in his chair, and looked like he was about to say something when the door swung open and admitted the third member of Team Steel…wearing a hat. She turned her back on the three men in the room, closed the door, and then went to sit down in her usual chair near the window. Refusing to make eye contact with anyone, she sat and stared at the polished wood surface of the conference table.

Max looked from Kat to Jeff, then from Kat to Berto. Berto shrugged, but said nothing. Max looked back at his partner.

"Kat?"

"What do you want, Steel?" came the grumbled reply.

"You're not supposed to wear hats inside the building you know."

"So?" The reply had a venomous sound to it that would let any ordinary person know they would have to be stupid to continue. Max could be thick under normal circumstances, but after two hours of sleep he had no chance.

"So…you should take it off?"

She gave him a glare in reply, but said nothing.

Jeff sighed, but motioned for Kat to take off the hat so he could continue on with his presentation without the three people sitting before him being distracted anymore than they already were.

Giving a sigh of indignation, Kat yanked the baseball cap off her head and sat there with her arms folded, glaring defiantly at the three of them, challenging them to say anything.

This time it was Berto who couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Kat, your hair!"

Kat rolled her eyes, then responded "Yeah, thanks for that. I hadn't noticed anything was wrong."

Max giggled. "It's pink!"

And he was right. Kat's hair was a bubble gum pink. All except for her bangs, which though usually blue, were now a light purple color.

Kat made a movement to stand up, but Jeff had anticipated her reaction and was already behind her with his hands on her shoulders. He pushed her back into her chair. "Listen to briefing now, kill my son later."

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth, but continued to throw murderous looks at Max and Berto whenever she caught them looking at her out of the corners of their eyes.

Afraid to turn his back on the three at first, Jefferson finally got his hastily prepared presentation started. Using a remote control, he dimmed the lights to make the square of light projected on the far wall easier to see.

"What, no popcorn?" Max commented.

Berto rolled his eyes, and Kat made some unintelligible comment accompanied by a derisive snort.

"What you are about to see," Jeff started, ignoring all three of them, "is a surveillance video from Berlin. In my opinion, I think it's pretty self-explanatory." With that, he clicked another button and sat down at the table along with the three members of Team Steel to watch along with them.

The tape began with an image of a mostly empty lobby, which became less and less lively until only the two security guards were left at the big desk against the back wall of the lobby. All was quiet, and then without warning, one of the guards looked at the door, did a double-take, and sprung out of his seat. The other guard jumped up and grabbed his gun, but only half a second before the wall flew inwards, obscuring the camera's view in one huge cloud of dust.

When the dust cleared, it left the two security guards lying motionless on the floor, and two people standing where the front door used to be.

"Hurry up, someone would've noticed that," one of them said, but that went unnoticed by the youngest three people in the room as they realized who the two people were. Or…actually it was more like two of the same people. Jeff paused the video at that place, freezing two Psychos standing amid the rubble.

Observing the gaping agents sitting before him, Jefferson decided he would be able to finally speak uninterrupted. "The camera was taken out right after this point right here. Now, we're assuming Psycho's found some way to clone himself. That's the only explanation we could think of, really." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Berto shaking his head slowly. Jeff turned to face him. "Problem, Dr. Martinez?"

"It's a good theory…but for a bunch of reasons it's not possible."

"We figured as much. Care to explain?"

"Well, first-" Berto pointed to the two Psychos-both had bionic parts "if Psycho had cloned himself, the clone wouldn't have the bionic limb and face because he wasn't born with it, so it isn't in his DNA. And second, clones start out as infants, they aren't 'born' the same age as their counterparts."

"What about my clone? And Rachel's?"

"That was new technology like the max probes only available to N-Tek," Jeff answered. "So basically, we're back to square one. No theories, no idea on how this is possible."

Berto shrugged. "Sorry."

They sat there in silence, Berto and Max now flat-out staring at Kat's head as she mouthed wordless threats to them, all three of them waiting for Jeff to either come up with something for them do to or to tell them they could leave. And then the door swung open.

"Morning everyone!" Abigail called energetically as she entered the room with her wheelchair, letting the door bang into the wall as it opened, leaving a dent from the doorknob in the plaster.

"YOU!" Kat jumped up from her chair and flew across the room at the other woman, stopped mid-attack by Max's grabbing her around the mid-section.

"Let. Me. Go!" She snarled as she attempted to escape from his grasp.

"Kat, what's the matter with you! We've been through this, remember? She and Dread are staying here? That whole thing?"

"I know that!"

"Well then what are you freaking out about!"

"She's the one that did this to my hair!"

Max let go abruptly, and Kat fell onto the floor. "She made your hair pink?"

Kat scrambled up, brushing her uniform off. "What, do you think I'd do this myself!"

"We never know with you…" Berto mumbled before being silenced with a deadly glare.

"Well, I didn't do it, so you can just cool off. You're hair looks better now anyway," Abigail commented as she pulled up to the table with her wheelchair.

"Nobody else has access to my shampoo bottle."

Abigail shrugged. "With all the radiation and weird chemicals around here, it probably just warped. Happens all the time."

Berto started to open his mouth in defense of his 'radiation and weird chemicals' when yet another person entered the room to add to the party.

"Dread, get out of here," Jefferson groaned.

"I told you to call me Nathanson, Jeff, and I think I'll stay."

"This is ridiculous!" Jeff fumed. "This is official N-Tek business and does not concern you."

Dread took a look at the screen, then answered quietly "Yes, I think it does."

Knowing he was fighting a losing battle, Jefferson motioned for Dread to finish his thought.

"Well," the man started, "Psycho obviously doesn't have the brains to accomplish his recent feats all by himself, so we're agreed he must be having some help?"

Jefferson nodded slowly.

"Well, there's another former employee who left my organization with some bitter feelings towards me as well."

"Oh, her." Abigail curled her lip. "I never liked her."

"Dragonelle?" Berto questioned.

Jefferson nodded grimly.

"Well at least we agree on something," Max replied.

"That doesn't make sense," Kat interjected. "She's never disguised herself as a male before, it would be too difficult."

"Whoever said old dogs can't learn new tricks has obviously never had any pets."