Frequency

by Vanessa S. Quest

Long-haul fanfic involving my OCs in the verse. All is not well in Denmark, the familial strife comes to a head- and GAIA has made a major move, only they grabbed the wrong kid? What's going on! Please R & R!

5. Chapter 5

Frequency Chapter 5 by Vanessa S. Quest

The car ride had been stifling, and Jonny didn't want to admit it, but his leg was throbbing again, but at least he could move—it was rigid mobility, but mobility was mobility. He looked at his dad and Race through the rearview mirror, his dad looked pensive, and Race looked focused. The kind of intense focus he got when things were going real south, real fast.

"Kiddo, you think the diplomat can come out for a visit?" Race asked after a long moment, he knew intrinsically it was a facet of Jonny and not a character or half-baked role. If anything, he saw it as Jonny's future self he was growing into, and right now, he needed it, Phil needed it, and Jenna most of all needed it. He saw more of Jonny's father in that than he thought the teen did, and he could understand that—Benton was more of a hot-head and would use the conjuncture of his reputation and his readiness to adapt, but he was a devout papa bear and one did not mess with bears and expect there wouldn't be consequences if the bear took the upper hand.

The calm, stoic head bob made Race's own anxiety drop a notch. He could tell Jonny was furious, but he was holding it in and frankly that too was a necessity.

"We'll be in the room with you, and we'll speak with Phil, if Jenna tries anything, just walk away." Benton added to the foray.

Jonny gave another nod, not that it convinced any member of the car that it would play out that way.

"Jonny, I mean it." Benton said again in a gentle rebuke, "She's still dangerous."

The teen's eyes narrowed, "Dad, trust me."

"I do, it's her that I don't." He turned to look at his son, neither mentioned Jonny was still walking with a limp, one that he hadn't had before last night.

They parked in a parking deck toward the deserted sublevel, more people having a tendency to turn toward the right and thus ascend the deck versus the left and descend. They found parking on SL-2.

Efforts to enter the wing Jenna was admitted to were more relaxed than Race thought appropriate, but he'd take that up with Phil in a few moments. The man probably hadn't realized security wasn't set up when he was rushing there in the witching hours of the morning.

Benton was silently simmering as he recognized the wing to be general ward instead of the psychiatric ward. He glanced at Jenna as she laid in a fluffy white hospital bed, the contrast of what he'd imagined her to seem like and what she was acting like was night and day.

She was flopping a stuffed teddy bear on her belly, laughing at it as it went limp and sprang back up, half of her forehead was under gauze, the rest seemed well coifed, brushed to a shine, she did look an awful lot like Venus from that angle, though he couldn't remember the other girl ever smiling so infectiously.

"Daddy, we have visitors! I think uncle's here!" She cheered as she looked at her weary father.

"Oh? Is that so, honey? Let me check to see what he wants." He turned in time to see not his brother, but Race and Dr. Quest, and better yet—Jonny. He grimaced, "Why, whatever are you doing here? You really are into wellness checks, hmm?"

"Stow it, Phil, I'm sorry about what happened, but we need to get to the bottom of it… does… does she know?"

Phil shook his head, "No, and I'd really prefer that to be on my terms."

"Of course, Phil… Phil, Jonny thinks she may be key to working out something important. And there's something you need to know too. We need to talk," Race cocked his head to the corner of the room. "But we plan on staying in here with both of the kids."

"Oh certainly, I'm at your beck and call." He said in mild sarcasm, sarcasm that Race felt ran far deeper than he meant to reveal and knew he'd have to file that away and examine it later.

He put a hand on his childhood friend's arm. "I mean it Phil, that's an awful thing that happened. We both know that first hand." He cocked his head to Benton who had a similarly grim, contrite look.

"…She made her choices, selfish as they were. I don't even know how to begin telling…" he put a hand over his mouth to contain his own pained sob. The woman might have been money hungry, but it didn't stop him from loving her anyway. He shook his head with the resolve to stay strong for his daughter's sake. "You're not here to discuss that, and I'm not currently in the mood to do so either."

He was surprised to feel Benton's hand on his shoulder, "You're right—about that first part at least. She made her choices, and now we have to unpack those. We've discovered a link between Gaia and Ezekiel Rage."

"…Rage? What the hell would compel him to work with eco-terrorists? He's not exactly against the carbon footprint."

Race smirked, "Yeah, well it gets better."

"…Where are you sourcing your information from, anyhow?" He crossed his arms, "I don't doubt it, you Quests have a tendency to get to the bottom of things, but I'd still like to know where you're pulling data from."

"Your niece had it, she's been putting together her own working hypothesis, we see it a little differently, but we also have a fuller view of the picture." Race said evenly.

"…Venus had it? And Darren knows? Well, now he knows at least…" he blew out an annoyed sigh, "Goodness, one more fire to put out."

"…Fire?" Dr. Quest asked, unsure.

Phil smirked darkly, "I gave my niece archive rights to Intelligence One files after her little visit to my rehab center. She needed a sense of security and I was in the position to provide it. Intelligence One and Alpha One work on two very different models of observation and sometimes we get intel we store that they aren't otherwise privy to. Namely, I knew damn well that Darren was on a sting operation before things went so far south. She did not. He'll be miffed, but what are big brothers and uncles for if not modeling behaviors like how to break rules in the best of ways."

Race let out a laugh under his own cough, he could definitely see Hadji having a similar world view.

Benton's eyebrow rose to demonstrate he wasn't sure the relevance of the derailment, but was happy to return to the subject at hand. "Ezekiel Rage is linked to the men who abducted Jonny and me in Florida, to that pig." He glanced cautiously to Jonny, glad the hushed conversation wasn't hitting him, it was already hard enough just knowing that monster was out, planning god only knew what.

"…You mean to tell me that Ezekiel Rage has access to a nerve gas?" His jaw dropped, "And he's working with Gaia?"

"It seems that way. Phil, what can you tell me about Rick Cobin?" Race said in an even voice. He saw Phil's body go taut, Race filed that under interesting.

"Rick Cobin you say?"

"…Or I could say Rick Allen Corbin, if you're more comfortable." Race crossed his arms.

In the first time in five years, he heard Phil "The Boy Scout" Korvin let out a string of profanities, "Shit balls. So Darren and Venus know?"

Race smiled, he was getting pissed off playing this game, they didn't have time for it. "Phil… read us in so we can read you in."

He shook his head, "…He helped me find Jenna in Europe when Claire and she got separated in a crowded marketplace. Jenna was missing for over two weeks. She hadn't been feeling well that morning and it turned out that someone had given her a mickey of sorts. It was a drug cocktail meant to disorient her and make her easier to abduct—which they did, but the effects were far more than what they'd obviously intended. She was seven, for crying out loud, and they thought she was just being imaginative and was willfully being obstinate. Rick helped me track down the bastards, that was my first encounter with Gaia."

"…And how did he know where she was, and why did he help you?"

"Because he's a CIA mole, and yes, I knew who he was the moment I laid eyes on him. He's a spitting image of the old man."

Race's eyebrow shot up, "So are you." Phil laughed darkly.

"Hardly, Rick has the part that mattered, he's a grey hat. He's more willing to dirty his hands in ways both Darren and I find reprehensible. In that look in those eyes, I recognized my father instantly." Benton's confused look made Phil rethink of how to explain. "My father was known to bend rules to his whim, if it was for the greater good, the lesser evil was okay in his books. That's how he justified the affairs to himself. It's how he justified trying to cart Darren off to the army at 14 so he could serve in Vietnam—luckily, we took after our mother, much more of a white hat, and said no way in hell. My baby brother didn't need to be shot just for the honor of serving. We took the moral high-road to get things done, and when you have the high-road on your side it's easy to look down at the others who don't. Not that we do, we try to understand circumstances, but there's times they are very unpalatable, and we frankly try our damnedest to keep that blood off our hands."

"…And Claire, how would she feel about that?"

He shook his head, "We got Jenna back. That's what mattered, and that's blood I have on my hands, but we're fathers here. You understand. I did what I had to and I don't regret it. A lot of good came out of it for a lot of kids, too… but the consequences of my actions and of Rick's do haunt me, and they will for the rest of my life."

"…You opened the center for rehab for her?" Benton asked rhetorically, "What was the trade?"

Phil scoffed, "From that ivory tower, you'd never expect I'd give them access to the French databases, do you? I gave them other opportunities, and what they'd view as a means of blackmailing me later on, except Rick fell on that sword, he came up with that plan and pulled a name out of a hat. A Giselle Arquette. She wasn't babbling incoherently, either. They happily traded out the information that 'I' gave them and a functional child they could work on in exchange for my little girl."

"Did you try to get her back?" Race asked in shock. "The Arquette girl?"

"No. I didn't, there wasn't a way to pry her back out and the resources weren't going to be afforded to her or her family. So Rick did the next best thing, he flipped. He joined Gaia and kept tabs on her and other targets. But there are appearances and things you have to do to be that deep and for that long."

Benton's jaw hit his chest.

"How could I tell my little brother that I was perfectly willing to make an omelet when it wasn't my eggs getting broken? Knowing what he'd endured? No, I never told Darren the truth, and that also meant he never learned about Rick being alive. I… I was selfish there, too."

"So Claire would work with Rick because she felt she owed him?" Race asked.

"She blamed me for what happened to Jenna, and it was because of my job, but that was when our marriage really began to crumble. That she was always looking at the balance sheet was one thing, but many men marry high-maintenance women, that wasn't the issue—but she thought I sold out our daughter for a non-blood relative, Darren's daughter could have been a faster trade… that I was weak and didn't make the hard decision soon enough—that that was why Jenna was broken, for some street-urchin my brother got attached to in his despair. She thought of her as a mutt. And then here's Rick, willing to dirty his hands, brave, and dark—she left me for him. I never contested it, and we split custody, I didn't bring up the emotional affair, I just took it. But I wouldn't take her belittling my brother's choices or life. That was my line in the sand, she had to play nice. As long as she upheld that end of the bargain, I didn't care what she did with herself… except I did, of course, she's the mother of my child and she's the love of my life. And she died because I made that call."

"Arquette took her revenge." Benton said in a low voice.

"Only part of it. I'm alive, Jenna's alive, and if Claire threw my niece under the bus, do you really think she'll be in high favor there?"

Race sighed. "No, probably not." He glanced toward Jonny. He doubted he'd be safe from her rage, either or if he was far enough removed.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Jonny looked at the happy, playful teenager in the hospital bed. She seemed so young, younger than him. He felt so unnerved by her joyful expression, he approached anyway.

"…Uh, Jenna? It's me, Jonny, we were… playing the other day. Do you remember me?"

The girl stopped flopping her teddy bear to look up at the boy, she frowned. "Oh, you…" She smiled brightly, "I remember! Mom said I had to play especially nice with you!"

"…Oh, did she?" Jonny smiled through the broken glass in his mouth, "Does your mom like me?"

Jenna nodded excitedly, "Mom thinks you and your dad are really great, everything a family should be…" she giggled, "But I think you need to get faster at playing hide and seek. It took you way too long to find me! Thanks for picking my pack outta the water! I was really worried, mom told me not to get my wool socks wet." She went back to flopping her teddy bear around. "You seem to be getting faster though, this time it only took you a day to find me, but you weren't tagged."

Jonny swallowed hard, "Oh, yeah? Who did you tag the last round?"

"…That bitch," Jenna scowled, she drew the teddy bear to her lips, "I don't like her. She's so stuck up and mean. Mom told me about all the bad things she did to me, before then I thought she was nice too… but boy was I wrong! You have to be careful around her. She's evil." She shook her head, "Anyway, dad says I have to stay here for a while, so I can't play tag today."

"Oh, no, that's okay… I came to visit you. I heard you weren't feeling well. Jenna, when we were playing I had to go home before you could show me that thing… I—I didn't mean to be rude, but you know how parents are about curfews, don't you?"

Claire smiled, "I don't have curfews, when it's time to go out and play I get a free pass… usually I'm stuck at my school though." She fished under her blankets, she frowned as her hands kept trying to shove into pockets that simply weren't there. The more upset she looked, the more ready she looked to pounce, Jonny noted, he took half a step back.

"Oh, honey, what are you looking for? You're in pajamas, remember? Because you have to stay in bed," Phil called to remind her, breaking off from the landmine-laden conversation that was his life. He pulled her jeans from a drawer.

"I need my pockets!" She said in an important voice, "My pockets keep important things!"

"I'll get you a pair of pajamas with pockets then, but can you wait out until a little later, after our guests go home?"

"Ok dad!"

He smiled sadly, "Here honey, what did you need from them?"

She pulled out a wadded pair of photos and handed them to Jonny.

"A girl can keep her secrets, dad! No peeking, mom says boys have to let girls keep their mysterious ways!" She winked playfully.

The stabbing anguish Phil felt was masked quickly by an at your leave smile. "Of course so, honey." He meandered back to the corner, now much more intent on listening in to the kids than conversing with Benton or Race. His soul felt weary, he wondered if his 47 years had finally caught up with him. He took a seat and bowed his head, too tired to keep up the appearance of flawless control.

Benton and Race looked between themselves and said nothing.

"Who's that, Jenna?" Jonny smiled as he locked eyes on Dr. Arquette and Ezekiel Rage as they sandwiched a brunette girl who looked oddly familiar.

"Oh, Ellie? Only my best friend! She and dad travel for work lots, and sometimes mom takes me to see them both."

"…Your dad?" He looked at Phil, he really doubted he knew who that girl was.

"Mhmm, mom says he's my new dad… but it's okay to have more than one."

Jonny kept the sour look off his face, "What's your new dad's name?" He smiled, "I wonder if I've ever met him."

She laughed, "Oh, that wouldn't help you, he's a spooky ghost, he changes his names all the time so no one knows where or when he's been somewhere! But I don't mind him being a ghost, he's scared away so many bad men it's okay… and besides, you have to be scary to do those kind of scary things."

"…Those kind of scary things?"

"Like pulling fingernails off people to make them talk, or burning them with wires, nice dads don't do that. He's not mean, of course, just scary." She smiled as Jonny palled in complexion.

"Oh, and who has he done that to? Did he ever have to scare you?"

"Oh no! He'd never!" She giggled, "He did that to the mean men. He and Mr. Ezekiel did that to some really not nice guys who they had to work with, they couldn't make them go away because they knew too much that they still needed…"

Jonny internalized that, they'd tortured the shit out of some guys they forced to work for them instead of outright killing them. "…How were they bad men?"

Jenna shrugged and played with her teddy bear again, "They didn't say, but he told me they weren't nice and I shouldn't try playing with them." She watched him look at the second picture. "That's him."

"Him? Your …new dad?"

She smiled, "Mhmm."

He looked at Phil, the photo of Jenna and the man who looked strikingly similar to Phil and Darren confirmed Venus's theory in his mind. "Does he go by Rick or Allen sometimes?"

"Oh, so you have met him! He usually hides in plain-sight, he likes to do that lots."

"Jenna, does he talk to you about things sometimes, like work things? Does… oh I don't know, does Argentina mean anything special to him?"

"Argentina? Oh yeah! He visits there, he says I have a cousin there, and in Maine… we're cousins, did you know that?" She smiled at him again.

"…I did learn that recently, yes." Jonny smiled politely. "A cousin in Argentina? Is that his daughter?"

She frowned, "No, then that would make them my sibling, silly! She has to stay there so that blood-sucker won't hurt her anymore!"

"Blood sucker?"

"That witch, the body snatcher—you have to be careful of her too, she's scary. She hit me, you know! I was just doing what mom told me to and she hit me!" She said indignantly. "And she did it the mean way! I've seen her do lots of mean things. She shot a nice man… shot him dead, all because he wouldn't tell her a secret! And I've heard what she's done to others. She's evil."

"…I'll keep that in mind, Jenna." He made his place go neutral, "Do you mind if I show this picture to Race? I think he might know him, and I just want to make sure."

She looked at him crossly, after a long moment, she crossed her arms and nodded, "Okay, but no telling dad about how he's my dad, too! Mom said dad can't know that! She said it would hurt his feelings."

"…Uh, yeah, what would you call him in front of your dad if they were in the same room?"

"That wouldn't happen." Jenna said firmly. "Ghosts hide when they don't need to be seen."

"And what if he did need to see him, though? Then what would you call him?"

"…I dunno, he'd tell me what, or mom would."

"Oh, okay." He smiled and headed over to the three others. "Race, can you take a look at these, I think you've met him, but I'm not sure."

The lilt in Jonny's voice conveyed far more meaning than anything, he pulled out his camera pen and snapped a picture of the two images. "Hmm, he looks an awful lot like Phil, but no I can't say I have." He said in a louder voice for Jenna's sake.

"Oh, okay, just checking. Let me bring these back to Jenna."

"Okay, kiddo, but it's time to go soon so say goodbye."

"Yes sir." Jonny returned to Jenna with the two photos and handed them back to her. "Jenna, I'll visit you later." He said politely, "Maybe next time we can play checkers."

"I love checkers! Okay! Bye-bye!" She flopped the teddy bear in front of her and had it wave goodbye too. "If you see my mom, tell her she should come by soon. I miss her."

Jonny's smiled faltered, "…If I see her I sure will."

-Chapter 5 JQ-

In the hallway, Jonny turned to face his dad, as they traded information, Jonny could feel the energy sap out of him, what Jenna had said about the bad men Allen tortured made him particularly squeamish. Who had those people been, and why did he do it?

Who else had he done that to, and who did he do worse things to?

Benton put a hand on his son's shoulder, he didn't like the distant look his son's eyes housed.

Race cleared his throat, "So it looks like Arquette works with Ezekiel Rage, from what Phil said and from what Jonny's said—it looks like Arquette really did kill her, but was that on her urging or Rage's?"

"Why would Rage order that?" Jonny asked mutely, "…he's too direct, he doesn't send lackeys to kill people, he sends them to grab them so he can."

"…You make a strong case." Race said, hoping to pull Jonny more from himself, "But Claire wasn't some agent, she was some agent's ex-wife. Even Zeke would have a hard time on that level of hypocrisy."

Jonny's hands curled around his waist, "Dad, that photo looked like it was fairly recent, what do you think changed?" He shivered, "Alex said her husband and son went missing recently too, but they also thought they were dead… maybe… maybe Rick put them in witness protection? Maybe he's trying to get Giselle out?"

"And Arquette thinks she's being turned into an agent, which from Rage's view-point would be treasonous."

"Or is it just because she's not following their brainwashing? Is she even like that? Is there really any evidence to say what she is or isn't?"

Benton put a hand on Jonny's shoulder, "I don't think it makes much of a difference, if she wants out of their death cult, she might have limited ways to do it."

"Arquette said something about Catskills, I think there's another cell there." Jonny frowned again, he felt his body shaking.

"Let's regroup and look at this together—as a team." Benton smiled softly at Jonny, the blond turned his head up to smile back.

"Bannon—one more thing!" Phil called back, the three men turned to face the approaching figure.

Race stepped off the sidewalk.

"Race, we'll get the car." Benton offered, steering Jonny toward the street as Race pivoted.

"What is it, Phil?"

Phil pulled Race over to the side and handed him a small driver, "Give this to Darren, he… he's never going to forgive me for keeping it from him for so long. I'm sorry for my cowardice in asking you to do my dirty work."

Race clapped his friend's shoulder, "Phil, your idea of dirty work has always been far over-stated, what's on the drive?"

"…Pa's letters from his estate. I saved it from a certain executor of the will that thought burning them was more apropos. He has to confront this head on if he's going to be of any use to you three."

Race laughed, "Cat's cradle, that's a tall order. I'll get it to him, but I can't guarantee he'll have an open mind."

Phil laughed, "Oh, that stubborn little brat won't, but it's for work, so he'll read it anyway."

-Chapter 5 JQ-

In the freshly emptied house, Darren returned to reading the dossier his daughter had painstakingly built over several weeks.

This intel, a vast majority of it was news to him and he didn't like that implication at all. Why the hell would Phil have been holding out on him, and how the hell did his daughter stumble into such a trove?

And then his earth shook, Venus had been trying to figure out how Arquette fit in from the information Jonny had given her, and then from last night, it painted a picture rather nicely, but if that was the case, why did Gustav and Pierre Arquette show up on the other network? He took to scrolling through the secured browser. What the actual fuck did the CIA have to do with them and more importantly why?

Why had Arquette been to Argentina, for that matter?

And with that ball of string to unravel, he fell into the answer. Arquette wasn't a free agent at all. She was with Rage and they were playing both sides.

As he pondered on what that meant about Gaia, and why the CIA had any involvement with them at all, he heard Venus at the door.

"…Dad?"

He closed his eyes and lowered his computer screen before opening them and turning to look at her, "Hey sweetie, what is it?"

She shuffled over to the couch and took a seat, waiting for him.

"I really need to read through this, is it urgent?" He asked tiredly.

Venus shook her head, her words belying that very message, "I made a connection between Rage and Argentina, but it doesn't make sense… why is Dr. Arquette following him around if she's been looking for her daughter and Gaia has her?"

Darren's eyes went wide. It was clicking into place far too quickly now. "Because she's a damn ruse… shit, we need to contact the others—how do they tie into Argentina?"

"…That's where their arms dealer is. Dad, they manufactured enough sarin to put a state to sleep. Permanent sleep. It gets better, you know how to reverse the effects of sarin?"

He eyed her suspiciously, "Not particularly, I'm not that advised in medicine or chemistry for that matter."

"Atropine, isn't that the same thing Dr. Yuan was calling for Jonny to get ASAP?"

"Oh fuck, Gaia had her called in to figure out what the hell they've been working on?"

Venus lowered her head, "Looks like it… and Arquette set the snare to make Gaia look like turn-coats instead of grey work."

He rubbed his forehead. "You mean to tell me that they're Grey Hats?"

"…Maybe… or maybe they have an inside guy, too… or it could just be they don't want to watch the world burn, they just want to make it pay."

"Princess, how did you make that connection to Argentina?" He gave her an admonishing look.

"…I… kind have sort have piggybacked your connection into the CIA's mainframe and went fishing… like Uncle Phil told me to."

Darren let out a low, slow breath, "And when did he tell you that?"

She frowned, "He sent a text message a few minutes ago."

"No he sure as hell did not." Darren scowled, "Venus, he's not leaving Jenna's side, his phone's off, I tried to call him earlier."

She frowned harder. "…But it says it's from his number—who'd piggyback off his phone?"

"...Bring it here, I want to see if he'll get something if we reply back."

"What should I say?" Venus asked, phone at the ready.

He shoved out his hand, "I'm going to ask your uncle if he knows who killed Claire." Thumbing in the message, he hit send.

Within seconds, the phone chimed back, "Get out of the house now."

He powered off the laptop while loading it up into its carrier, "Sweetie, get the go bags, I'll get the weapon kits."

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Race returned to the curb-side mildly surprised by the absence of Benton and Jonny and the car. It had been a ten-minute hallway conversation, ample time to find the car and head back up.

The sounds of tires squealing and gunshots, however, quickly changed that perspective. He pulled out his holstered glock and dove toward cover, taking in the details as a car whipped around the embankment from SL1 onto the ground level and the exit.

He was shocked to see Jonny in the back seat of a pewter Subaru, struggling against the goon who undoubtedly had made the grab, the front-seat passenger was laying cover fire but clearly aiming high while the driver sped around the parking deck to the exit.

He focused on the license plate and shot at the tires for good measure, but the car had already made progress on clearing the deck by time it all hit him.

Benton wasn't in the car.

Once the car was out of range, blasting through the turnstile and shattering the drop-guard gate, Race raced down the stairs to where they'd parked.

The mostly empty deck was scorched and smoking. "Oh Christ! Benton!" He called out, rushing to clear the scene.

Benton rubbed at his forehead, his ears still ringing as he staggered next to a blown out vehicle three spaces down from where they had parked. By how the scorch-marks looked, it was obvious the boxy Subaru had been between the now destroyed vehicle and their rental, Race's mind compiled it all, envisioning the scene as he imagined it.

Jonny had walked up to the car faster than Benton while he fiddled for the keys—suddenly the car exploded in a small blast and knocked both of them stunned, then some goon hurried Jonny into the back of the get-away car and sped off leaving Benton in the dust.

He was checking his friend over head to toe, he looked okay, stunned but not seriously hurt, he must've barely been in the blast zone. "Benton! Are you hurt?"

Benton watched Race's lips move, blinked as he tried to disentangle the noises he heard into logical sound and tinnitus. His head was throbbing, "What happened…?" He shook his head slowly, that stung, as the shock-wave seemed to blast past him, he asked in a panic, "Jonny! Where's Jonny?!"

"Some goons grabbed him, I got the plate number and already dialed it in. Are you alright? Can you go on?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation there, but then again, his bloody leg could be off and he'd have said the same thing, Race knew from first-hand experience.

"I'll check the car." Race was not surprised to find out that it was in fact disabled, two tires had been deflated with a puncture of a screwdriver. He punched the hood of the car, furious.

They'd been played. That's why Arquette didn't go after Jenna, loose end his ass, she was bait and they walked right into it!

He punched it again for good measure. Suddenly, there wasn't a doubt in his mind of who sprung Ali, and that only made him want to hit someone, and harder. Race dialed Darren's line.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Jonny looked at Dr. Arquette with a sense of lassitude that cut to the quick. His eyes scanned the room he found himself in, groggily, as he came around from whatever henchman #3 had smothered him with, he thought it smelt vaguely of ether, but he was hardly a connoisseur for knock-out gases. He supposed with as much practice as he got, he probably could be better at that come to think of it. His head ached dully, he really hoped he wouldn't get a migraine from this. The bite of too-tight zipties forced him back to his senses.

Arquette pulled the gag from his mouth, letting it drop around his neck like a noose.

He let out a shaky breath, "Why?"

She let out a laugh, "Why, Joannene, I 'ave simply decided to tell you about my research now. Ees this no longer what you wanted to hear?"

His arms and legs quivered, he could feel eyes raking across him and only could assume that monster was behind him staring. He tried to hide that motion, he had to be brave and push through, "Well, I didn't think I'd hear it strapped down to a chair… would you be so kind as to untie me and then tell me about it?"

She let off a coy laugh, "Alas, that will not do, eet ees to be this way if you are to hear of it at all."

He closed his eyes as if considering it, mulled it over, "I have a bit of a headache, can we keep it to English?"

"But of course I can compromise on this trifling thing." She pet his face, and his skin crawled for it. "I 'ave been developing a means to disperse a perfume. Eet ees the most beautiful of perfumes, with eet, the wicked shall perish and the pure shall live."

"…And who decides who's pure and who's wicked?" Jonny asked, he'd heard a speech like this a time or two.

"Ah, but even before that, there ees a test, one you and you alone may face."

His eyes narrowed, that was off-script, "Go on…?"

"You see, there 'as been this argument that we are playing god, and that this ees not for us to decide. Our counterparts in Gaia have been most helpful but they have corrupted so many of our flock that eet has become tres cumbersome to keep down the een-fighting, so I 'ave proposed this solution… our most corrupted man will sit with a kind-hearted child of pure soul and worldly experiences een a room destined to alter the fate of many. Eef you were to falter and walk the path of the wicked, well then, these people will die. Eef on the other hand you offer forgiveness to this man, he controls your fate, but the others will not meet the sword this day."

"…So either way, I'm going to die?" Jonny asked bluntly. "You're just asking me if I'll die alone or take others with me?"

"No! That ees not at all what I 'ave said! There ees a tortuous path to your own salvation, as ees the peril for all men's souls… I cannot tell you this path, for the test ees on you to resolve, though you are most fortunate een that your test will conclude een an obvious way." She smiled smugly on that last point.

He kept his face neutral, not particularly enjoying the conversation. "And that obvious way would be-? I mean, besides death. Is it a specific kind, besides horrific?" He asked dejectedly, it was growing into a migraine, just what he needed. "You've been lying to me this whole time, about Gaia, your daughter, everything—haven't you been?"

"That ees not true. Gaia stole my Giselle away, and even after Rage in his compassion performed a missionary miracle and converted these undeserving heathens, she still was impure. And then my Pierre and Gustav vaneeshed…" She shook her head, "Ah, yes you must be most curious of your tribulation, but first, let me alleviate your pain, there ees no need for an added handicap."

Jonny scowled when she injected him with a syringe of an unknown agent into his hand. His pupils dilated within seconds as the pain in his head subsided just near as instantly. "What… was that…?"

"Medicine for your headache," she patted his cheek and cut free the zipties that held his ankles and wrists bound. His body flopped toward the side. "And enough extra for you to rest for but a few minutes while we set the stage for humanity's test, of course. When you awaken, you will be in purgatory, though eet may feel like hell."

As his eyes rolled up, he caught sight of a control panel and Ali, though he was just outside the room, he couldn't tell if the unknown drug was making him feel nauseated or that thought alone.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Race looked through the inventory of one of the two duffel bags Darren had shoved in his trunk to his zippy little Z3. "I called in reinforcements, but a siege always works so much better in low numbers for that first wave."

He shook his head, he couldn't disagree there, "How in tarnation do you have military-grade gear in your house?"

Darren shrugged, "There's perks to being the boss, and I'll have you know, this gear exceeds military ratings. Our boys don't get plasma guns." He smirked as he pulled out a ray-gun that Quest himself held the patent to. "I assume you'd be comfortable with one of your own?"

Benton took the gun and checked its charge, "There isn't anything in that bag I don't think I could tackle."

Darren laughed, "Well, there is a bazooka…"

"…Darren, he's shot one of those before, too. And disarmed a nuclear reactor about to go for that matter."

"Ah shit, Phil didn't tell me about that one, here, I'll give your Betty Bam-a-lam, too." He handed Benton a Smith & Wesson M&P Pro.

"…A 9mm? What do you want me to do, swat flies with it?" Benton asked, almost annoyed by the gesture.

"I'll have you know that's Venus's favorite for competitive shooting, it's also one of the fastest with the least recoil, you hit a person twice in the head and I can promise you whether it was a .45 or a 9mm, it won't fucking matter, dead is dead. Besides, larger caliber rounds produce more sounds and I think we really should be going the stealth route."

"Hardly a convincing argument when you have a grenade launcher in the bag, too." Benton reminded him.

Darren smirked, "I don't bring all my toys in with me, but I make sure if I need it, it's nearby."

"Dad, you have my kit?"

He frowned at her, "…" As he looked her up and down for the eighth time, Venus cleared her throat.

"You want me in there unarmed because that would be less awful? Is that what you're thinking?"

"No, I'm trying to think which gun won't beat the shit out of you, sweetie. The Baretta might do the trick, but you know her risk of jamming in a rapid fire situation…"

"I'm taking in my knives too." She offered in defiance, "And if you even think of asking me not to—"

Darren shook his head, "The smoke bombs too. When we get in there, Venus—you and Race will be on the lookout for Rage, Benton and I will go after Gaia, and between the four of us find Jonny as quickly as possible."

"Wait—why am I with Race and you with him?" She gestured, she felt bad but simply couldn't figure out the right way to address her birth father. He hardly fit the 'dad' option to her, 'Dr. Quest' seemed way too formal, and 'Benton' was so crunchy-granola she would rather puke.

"Because Gaia has a nerve agent and Dr. Quest will know how to disrupt production for good, and Race knows how Ezekiel Rage operates and he needs backup with technical skills who can do a damn job, or do you want me to bench you because you can't pull your damn weight?"

She looked down, "…No sir."

"Then focus, it's the best plan we have for now. You'll go up front and scout our in-roads. Exfiltration is priority for these two, but you and I are finishers, we each have a radio, use them, keep each other posted. Venus, Race is your CO on this one and I mean it. He says jump you damn well do it. Benton, I'm sure you're interested in exactly 0% of that, but I need to know I can trust you to do what I ask—I won't ask for a stupid reason, I can promise you that."

"Race and I have been in these situations before. I know what I need to do and I won't be a liability, you'll figure that out for yourself soon enough."

Darren gave a curt nod. "Alright, then I'll switch out our rides." He pulled into a mechanic's garage that had several motorcycles off to the side before walking into the garage. Several minutes later he came out with three helmets in hand and three sets of keys, his own mirror-coated helmet on.

Venus's pout intensified, "…I'm not going to get to drive, am I?"

Race let out a laugh, "You can't even drive a car yet and you want to take on a motorcycle?"

She rolled her eyes as her dad handed her the smallest of the helmets, "Not an extra one for Jonny?"

"That's in the side-car already." Darren offered back.

"Race, I can drive a car, a motorcycle, and a mother fucking helicopter to name a few things. I just can't do it legally on public roads. But I can do it on tracks and I can do it better than you think." Venus walked back to the stock of bikes and waited for Race to catch up.

"Damn, Snow, showing off your way with the girls, huh? And here I thought you knew how to deal with the stubborn types." Darren smirked, he gave Benton a wink. "Benton, have you ridden a motorcycle before? If not, you'll take up the one with a sidecar, they're more stable."

"I'd prefer that one anyway."

Darren nodded more solemnly, "He's the first priority, Benton. We'll find him first."

The redhead nodded at the platitude, but he knew damn well how I-1 worked, things were first priority until they weren't. He trusted Race and himself to prioritize Jonny, and that's all he really had. For the first time he had to wonder how often Darren had deprioritized other children over the years though.

There had to have been times he had to cut losses, and considering what he worked with, who he worked with…

"We better get a move on it, are we sure the location is right?"

Benton nodded, "As long as Jonny's still wearing his watch, we have his coordinates."

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Pushing up from the floor, Jonny's head was swimming but it wasn't aching. "Where…" he looked around the small room filled with control panels. His breath hitched as the air-sealed door opened and Ali and Ezekiel Rage strutted in.

He quickly found himself pressing back against the opposing wall, the memories of what Ali had done to him crashed over him in waves of panic. If he didn't focus he'd drown in them and worse- whatever Ali had in store for him now.

"Awake at last, Mr. Quest," Ezekiel Rage smiled as his voice boomed in the small room. "My associate explained in the briefest of ways what you are tasked with. Allow me to make introductions."

Jonny's fists shook in heated anger, as if Rage didn't know exactly how thoroughly introduced Jonny was to this pig.

"This is your day to shine, Jonny. Everyone is counting on you, the golden boy—the prodigal son, in this room is all you need to disable my bomb, of course, I can't just let you interfere, so you'll have to earn it." He smiled politely, his leathery face stretched tightly from under his skeletal mask. "This is Ali Hussein, he joined camp after Gaia used him up, he helped orchestrate this great purge and has most willingly offered himself up as a sacrifice in this final test for humanity… a brave soul indeed, but he is not a pure heart. He has viciously killed and has appetites of the flesh."

Jonny could feel Ali's damn appetite exude from him in a sleaze of foulness radiating from his groin and eyes as he devoured Jonny's image. He knew he had to control his fear, he knew intimately just how much fear mattered to Ali. He crossed his arms loosely across his hips in an act of indifference.

"But he doesn't wish to die like a dog, and I can assure you, the fate of those if you fail, will be just that."

His eyes returned to the round sunglasses that covered Ezekiel's dead eyes. "And how exactly is that?"

"Why, a perfume of death, while there is an antidote for sub-lethal exposure, I can assure you, those within range will far exceed that threshold, while we few chosen people have all we need to survive."

"…So my task is to diffuse your bomb?" Jonny looked at him in confusion. "She implied I was dead either way. What am I missing, Zeke?"

"Of course, there's more than one bomb. This room contains the remote for the bomb that will destroy the neighboring townships in a 50 mile radius, but our friend Mr. Hussein also has his own bomb on a dead-man switch. If you kill him you doom everyone, if you don't kill him I have on good authority he feels you owe him a great debt."

Jonny's eyes felt wet, he blinked back that tremulous fear before it could engulf him. "I never knew you to be cruel, Zeke…"

"I'm anything but that, Jonny. I have given you all the tools you need to save the world, is that not a benevolent gesture? And for the son of the infamous Dr. Quest, a bomb like this is but child's play."

Jonny gave a caustic glance at Ali Hussein, "Did he tell you how he knows me? Is that what you discussed while plotting your prison break?"

Zeke smiled passively, "You stole away his freedom, what more is there to say?"

"…He stole more than that first."

Rage laughed, "Then you are well on your way to give the earth a rebirth in a perfume of death." Rage slid a knife toward Jonny. "And if you should kill him, you will experience that same sweet perfume."

As he exited the air-sealed door, Jonny called after him, "Rage! I never thought you were a monster before… but this—you can't pity a person who does this!"

The morphed, demonic face Rage turned on him made his insides feel hollow.

"So too go the wicked in the vapors of their own sin; to lay their heads in the beds of lies and deceit, so it is written so says the book of Rage."

"Damn it, Rage! He's a—" Jonny turned to glare at Ali as he stepped closer, he quickly grabbed the knife from the floor, no point in giving up what little advantage he may have. "You signed up to die that way? Do you have any idea what sarin poisoning is like?"

Ali scoffed, "I'm dead either way, I'd rather have fun first…"

"So you don't." Jonny pushed onward, he wasn't going to let this man do this to him again. "…Ali, if I don't diffuse this, you're dead. You'll die feeling as if your skin is burning and peeling off, but it won't be. Your lungs will feel tight, you'll feel weak, you'll convulse, you'll die in your own shit and piss, probably aspirating on your own vomit. It's not a dignified corpse."

"…Why should I care what my corpse looks like? Hmm?" Ali laughed.

"…You're right, that won't matter to you, what with the excruciating pain you'll feel. Then again, it might be the first time you ever experienced real pain. You usually dole it out, how often has it ever been dealt back to you? Was your first time when my dad and Race whooped your ass?" Jonny smiled, "Or maybe it was when Allen peeled off each of your nails and poured salt on them? Because sarin's still a lot worse."

Ali's eyes narrowed.

"Of course, you still have me as a hostage in here once that's diffused… but you'll have an actual chance of survival. A roach like you, that's what you crave, isn't it? A way out, that freedom to live…?"

"I'm listening, boy."

"I'll deactivate the bomb in here, you just keep back until that's done and then we'll discuss that next hurdle."

Ali reached forward to pet Jonny's face. "Make it worth my while."

Jonny shoved Ali back hard, "I need to be able to focus to diffuse that bomb, if you hurt me we're both as good as dead."

He approached again, "It's been a long time since I've had companionship, almost three years… and while I can wait for the pay-off, how about some foreplay? A gesture of good faith." He laughed as he grabbed Jonny by the throat, his other hand fished under Jonny's shirt as he leaned toward his face and licked his cheek. Eyes closing tightly, Jonny elbowed him under his ribs.

"I said no."

Ali slammed him back again, "And I don't care about what you say." His hand fished lower, the grip on Jonny's neck went lax to cup his jaw, he leaned in and kissed him roughly, taking pleasure in the feeling of skin against skin. After a long moment his hand receded. Jonny could feel his knees buckling in panic. He punched Ali squarely in the nose.

"Do it again and I'll jam this knife in my carotid and leave you to it. I won't be dying like that." Jonny threatened, and honestly, that was his only ace he was holding.

Ali flitted his wrist away indifferently, he took to watching Jonny as the teen made hasty work to look over the control panel.

He blew out a sigh of relief that Rage hadn't lied, it really was a functional control panel which meant the charge wires had to be nearby too. Not that he was thrilled to have so much of his body exposed in the presence of that rapist bastard, he was still glad he at least didn't have to look at him.

He could hear what he was doing, though, and that was awful enough.

With a shake of his head, he returned his focus to the underbelly of the control panel, Rage was right, Jonny knew his way around a control panel, especially in frying one, but he didn't want to fry this one. He was going to need it for his plan to work, but he still needed to deactivate the bomb and make it inoperable. In the back of his mind he wondered where the dead-man switch was. He wasn't holding it in his hand—was it even activated yet, hell, did he even really have one? He had to pause what he was doing, his hands were shaking too much. Taking a deep breath, he pushed those feelings away. He had to do this, innocent people—well, more innocent people might die if he didn't stop these maniacs. What he also needed to figure out was a way to stall once he had this problem at hand. Closing his eyes, he hoped his dad wasn't hurt, oh god, what if he was? Or worse?

Sure Race would still look for him, he knew that, but still… he and his dad had just gotten back to where they'd been all those years ago. His eyes caught sight of something peculiar, he pulled up further under the control panel, there was another detonator. That bastard! Rage was just doing this to torture him!

His eyes narrowed, that small piece of fabric had been what made him even see the second unit, this one had a counter—and a note? Before he could think better of it, he grabbed it and read through it.

'There's an access port to the fill room under this unit if you can get through it, you can get out of there.'

Jonny swallowed thickly, he felt a hand wrap around his ankle, a jolt shot up his entire body as he kicked blindly at the hand before trying to scramble under the control panel.

"Are you crazy?! I'm working on electrical wires! You'll fry us both!" He shot quickly, praying silently that the madman would believe him.

The hand released from his leg. He shoved the note in between a crease to hide it. He was out of time, he bought a few minutes at most, but then this was going to get ugly.

Jonny clipped the cables to the first detonator and was answered with the lights going dark on him. He closed his eyes and went to work on the backup system. Within minutes it was also deactivated, within minutes, Ali's hand was back groping for him. This time, they found both his ankles and hoisted him out from under the control panel.

Jonny hooked his arms around a sturdy beam in the construct. Using a bulk of his upper-body strength he locked in a stale-mate. Ali's hands could reach as far as his lower thighs, the feeling of fingernails digging in through his jeans was unpleasant, but he could think of worse things.

His arm fished forward looking for anything he could reach that he could use to pull himself up further under the panel, if he could get past the L-bend, he could hole off and as long as that bastard wasn't a complete nihilist, maybe wait him out.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

At the precipice of the sizeable stone yard, Venus and Race looked over the schematics Hadji and Jessie had forwarded them.

In the dusty earth, Venus drew out a rough plan with her finger as to how to circle around. The thick concrete was messing with the watch's transmitter, only putting out a rough range of where Jonny was, and also making the radio transmission shoddy at best, the closer they got, the better the reception though, and from what they were overhearing, that was very bad.

"We can use the signal strength as a homing beacon, we know the rough layout, and those air vents? They're the older style, it'll be a tough fit, but I can still squeeze into them." Venus mentioned.

"…And then you'll double back for me?"

Venus nodded, "Yep, that's the plan." She grinned, "I'm not like my dad, I don't do the breadcrumb trail thing."

Brown eyes narrowed, he somehow doubted that, "Can you get a count of guards while you do that?"

She nodded, "Easily enough." Venus looked at her cell phone to read off the text message from Hadji, the update anything but positive, they still hadn't been able to transmit to Jonny to let him know they were coming.

"Race, Jonny said that Rage thinks Jessie is his daughter Carla…?" He nodded to answer her question, "I have a fail-safe, then. A worst-case scenario tie breaker…"

The white-haired man let out a sigh, he expected that much, "Alright, go for it."

After a fast set of texts, Venus handed Race her cell phone for him to read up. "Okay, game on. By the way, you drive a motorcycle like a little old lady on her way to church."

Speeding through the texts, Race shot the retreating teen a glare for the pot-shot. "If you'd held on, I could have driven faster."

"No way, I'm not a hugger, haven't you heard that?"

"Here, take your phone back." He handed it to her just as the vent cover was dismantled.

"Thank you." She shoved it into her pocket, her grey-blue jeans had a relaxed fit and the miracle of deep pockets, her tactical 3/4 sleeved, bowl-necked black t-shirt had reinforced leather straps over her flanks, her shoulders, and elbows, her above-clothe holster tucked behind her back toward the right, while her concealed holster tucked flat at her left hip and knife-set on her right, a pocketful of smoke bombs just below them, her black Adidas sneakers were scuffed from the wear something she normally couldn't abide by that she let slide if only because she used the shoes when scaling and scuffing was inevitable in such tasks. She clipped one last surprise to her left calf, just enough charge to blow a few doors if she needed to.

With a shimmy, she made the vent opening with four inches to spare, just enough space to work her arms through.

Once she was a good fifteen meters in, she took a shaky breath, like hell she'd own up to it, but it hurt like hell to use her abs so aggressively. She looked through the slits in the vent at the first opening. There were a solid ten thugs just busying themselves with mindless cult work, she was surprised no one was stirring up the kool-aid. Continuing onward, she shot Race a text to signal the first set of numbers. 'Donner party of 10 and no one brought a covered dish.'

By the second vent, she had two options, left and right, left would take her along the outer wall of the building while the right would take her more central. There were three more creeps just minding their own lackey business, one of them was polishing off an impressively illegal automated rifle, the submachine gun definitely violated at least 3 local laws for NY gun ownership, 4 if she counted them as a felon, which kidnapping was indeed a felony.

She shot off another message to Race telling him her plan to head right first, now more than a third of the way into the building. 'Three to party, turning right on red.'

The odd way the vents were diverted after another twenty meters made her take pause. The signal was definitely pinging now, he had to be close, but she didn't see any obvious entry point from birds-eye view.

'I've got a fix on his location, reversing out. Weird feng-shui shit here.' She sent off.

By time she wriggled back to the side entrance, she felt like her stomach was on fire. She sent another text as she was reversing through. 'Is my drop clear? I couldn't maneuver a Uey.'

Race tossed two pebbles at the vent to signal it was clear.

Kicking the screen off, she let her lower body drop then scuttled out the rest of the way. Her left hand found her waist as she sucked in air.

"Only 13?" Race asked carefully, the kid looked grey. He put a hand on her shoulder, "You need a minute?"

"We don't have a minute. 13 on the route I just took, I didn't veer left, there's probably more."

"Yeah, well, it's just like roaches. Flip a light switch and what was once an empty kitchen becomes anything but."

"…You and I have very different kitchens." Venus said in open discomfort.

The sound chuckle that floated over her gave her just enough of a break to be able to regain her breath, "I didn't say it was my kitchen. Ten people is a lot for a single breech point."

"I concur, but I think we can get in through this way and then curve around them, the three getting ready for the dance, however, I think we'll have to take to task. That looked like the only port to call."

"Alright, I'll go in first- high and fast, you roll in within 3 seconds low and stealth assuming there's still only three. Whoever finishes first can get the third on their punch-card."

Venus nodded tiredly, she had the suspicion Race was going to pick up that second dance partner.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Darren and Benton looked over the holographic projection from Benton's wrist watch, Darren in silent amazement and greatly curious how much that kind of Timex cost.

"Team 2 will have covered this route here…" Darren pointed along the vent shaft snaking it toward the center of the building at the fork and then swiveling back around, angling toward the left vent then back to point of breech. "…so we need to cover this pathway, obviously the vents won't work for us, but that looks like a storage closet. You know that wall drain-o you made? I've got myself a few canisters of it. Not going to lie, I can see why people would want to raid your supply closet."

"Well, that's kind of you to say. Believe it or not, I don't store my inventions like an inventory for B&Es."

Darren's eyebrows waggled a shrug, "Well maybe you should, make it easier on yourself that way. Today I feel like a burnt sienna sweater and a death ray."

Benton's mustache tilted upward as he smirked back in a lopsided gesture, "You're a bit of a schmuck."

"Oh I've been called way worse and deserved it." He gave his own confident smile, "So let's see if they'd like some girl-scout cookies."

"Is that another club activity I need to schedule in?" Benton quipped, he took the canister from Darren and applied it liberally to the thick brick veneer, stepping back once the spray began to erode through the stony exterior.

"Nah, you're safe. They asked her not to come back after… well, well I'll say this, at least she didn't make anyone radioactive like that one boy-scout did, but the property damage from her little project was enough where I'd have asked them to ask her to not come back if they hadn't already reached that decision."

"Don't tell me it was another bomb? She isn't actually an arsonist is she?"

Darren swallowed a laugh, "No, she's not an arsonist. She turned a lady's front yard and porch a luminescent blue-green after a bioreactor she worked on got rapidly depressurized when someone bumped into it. I personally think she was sabotaged, but I also personally think she made a projectile that wrecked a lady's car and chances at Home and Garden showing for a solid three months."

Benton let out a low whistle, "The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, when I was a lad I turned a front yard blue with a goop that was non-Newtonian. My parents were less than impressed by the gesture."

"Oh, and you're unhappy that Jonny's not into chemistry…"

They approached the hole carefully, both edging in without making contact with the corrosive material. "I'm incredibly proud of my son's accomplishments. I never realized how gifted of a painter he is, though I probably was being prying. He keeps them at the school. He says there's going to be a viewing in November and that he was tasked with making 10 pieces, the ones I've seen so far were amazing."

Mind back on the task, Benton was no longer envisioning sunflowers on a wide canvas but a room full of weapons and ammunition.

"Jack-pot," Darren let out a low howl, "That goo will work on metal the same way, yeah?"

"Yes, a stockpile like this, how many people would you say that would supply?"

"…Fifty in a pinch, thirty if they're veteran and carry multiples."

Benton nodded, "Check the door, we won't want to be in here when these start to dissolve."

With a nod, Darren approached the door and felt it give at the knob, he dropped to the ground to look for shadows or feet, seeing neither, he pressed up and opened the door. "Now would be as good of a time as any."

Giving his own head-bob, Benton sprayed the corrosive goo over the piles of weapons and ammunition then followed Darren out the door. They edged around the spacious room surprised at how empty it was.

"…This is a pretty big space, but I can't imagine he'd really leave it unguarded like this. You don't think they've been diverted, do you?" Darren asked cautiously. He touched his earpiece, "Team 2, report?"

"Team 1, we're in. Count is up to 17. Three down, no eyes on Rage, Chameleon, or the Arquettes, we do have a lock on Jonny and are moving in to exfiltration."

"Alright, send the known location, we'll rendezvous once we clear our partition."

"Sent." As Race spoke, Benton's watch pinged, a fixed image of the holographic map showed the pin-point.

"Team 2 out." Race clicked off his radio so he could keep scanning the perimeter as Venus zip-tied a fourth dancer.

She looked grey again, "Okay, help me drag them out of the lime light, would ya?"

"Yeah, take a breather and I'll do the manual lifting." Race offered, dragging two of the unconscious, gagged, guards to a corner then returning for the other two and made a similar trip to the same corner. "You look like hell, what's wrong?"

Her hand reflexively curved around her waist, "It's exactly what you think it is, but I can get this done. I'm running at 60% at best though." They made their way down the corridor toward the signal.

"…60?" He asked cynically.

"…Alright, 40, but I'm trying damn it." She grimaced. "It's up ahead, we need to hurry, he's going through hell in there; I can trudge through being tired."

Race offered her a tight-lipped frown, "You're going to wait here and keep guard. I'll go in."

"…That's an awful plan. We know he's sealed in, we know there's one person with him, and we highly suspect there's a bomb somewhere. I should be working that angle, not trying to be a fucking bouncer."

"Damn it how many people do you think we can rescue right now?" Race seethed.

"All of them." She growled back, "I might be running sub-optimal, but that doesn't mean I'll accept half-assed work! I'll work in my limits but I'm going to work."

Race clenched his jaw, "Report in regularly." He knew she and Darren would flake on their first chance, bypassing the top priorities for their own bullshit, he just wasn't sure why it pissed him off as much as it did. He hadn't really trusted them, had he?

"From a sealed room—are you serious?" Venus's lip rose in an unimpressed snarl.

"You want to go in?" Race gawked, "I thought you were trying to track down the bomb?"

"…Well no shit it'll be in there with him, its skullduggery and its cruelty. From my encounter with Gaia, that seems to be their modus operandi, and your buddy Rage seems to be the same ilk."

"...Alright, we'll both go in."

"You'd be the better bouncer, you know."

"Not happening." Race nodded toward the entry, "And we're wasting too much time."

Venus smirked, damn it was easy to steer him to her own objectives. "Well then, let's make like a Mr. Baba and open says me." She said as she cracked the lock on the door and gestured toward it for Race to open.

Race muscled open the o-ring to breech the door, while heavy, the door was giving, he had to give her credit for that. "Ali is dangerous, Venus, don't drop your guard."

The cocky laugh she breathe out reminded him of a certain 8 year old, covered in welts, dusting off and walking right back up to the tallest and meanest of the foster kids only to wail him in the nose and demonstrate just how much one good shot mattered. Darren had done that in front of a crowd to get the kid to lay off some of the youngest and newest kids at the home at the time.

"That's an order."

"Oh yes sir." She said in dripping sarcasm, she drew a blade. "I've got plenty in the tank for this."

He thought he should tell her to take the high road, but he sure as hell wasn't planning on it either.

Pulling the door back, Venus dove in a hedgehog roll to reach the opposite corner and then righted herself, Race rushed to the left, the side Venus had left open for him as they surrounded Ali as he pulled at Jonny's legs.

"Get off me!" Jonny threw another kick as he pulled at the further bar. Ali yanked on him causing him to lose ground, his hand snaked further up Jonny's leg, curving toward his inner thigh. Race responded with a swift kick to the son of a bitch's teeth, whipping him off the kid.

The momentum was enough to make Jonny lose his grip entirely, he peered through the narrow opening and saw a new set of legs. He let out a relieved sigh, reached further and continued his work on the second detonator. He wished Jess and Hadji were around, or at least on a computer! He could short out their set-up, sure, but that was no worm or kill-virus. Jessie had a version of ransom-ware that would seize a system entirely with a tight encryption.

"Thanks for the save, Race…" Jonny called from under the panel, "I've got my hands full, there's a detonator, it's almost done."

The lights on the console blackened.

"Got it!" Jonny shimmied out from the crawl space. As his eyes landed on Race's, he felt his resolve shake, Ali was moaning, "…Ali, where's the dead-man switch?"

The man began laughing through his anguish, "What's that?"

Venus curved her blade and sliced it over the man's shirt splitting it before he even realized she'd made the motion. "Oh, I can look for it. It might get messy though. Maybe I should check under his fingernails first?" The blade slung at his hand, stopping just above his thumb.

"My shoe! It's in my shoe, it's not activated…"

"Take off your shoe then, dumbass." Venus taunted, she returned her ministrations to his hand, the blade made fast lines just above him to demonstrate what she could do, would do if need be.

He kicked his shoe off and kicked it toward Race. Race saw the small switch and the charge.

"Well, I'll be, he's telling the truth."

Venus locked eyes on the man with a red mouth, beside that he didn't look particularly rough, "I'm not buying that, he's holding out on me. This little piggy went to the market—"

Jonny winced as he watched his sister slash Ali's arm drawing a thin line of red. He turned into Race's side to shield himself from the awful look on Ali's face as the man still locked eyes on his form.

"Come on, kiddo, let's get you out of here." Race suggested, a strong arm slung around Jonny, he could feel the boy shivering. "Venus, leave it."

"And this little piggy stayed home…" She sliced his hand deep enough to catch a tendon, ignoring him.

Ali howled as he punched at the girl, focus leaving the boy for the first time since they'd intruded, Venus leaned back reflexively, her knife landed in his knee with a hard punch, "This little piggy became corned ham, and this little piggy did not…" With a slinking sound, the knife ripped free, she drew it up to Ali's throat, "Do you want to be able to squeal as you run alllllll the way home, or do you want to be made into bacon?"

"Venus…"

"He's at the reactor! There's a bomb there… he's going to use it… We're all dead, so do it! It'd be more merciful than that gas… This room had an air-tight seal, but you ruined it now!"

Venus rolled her eyes, "You moron, there's a vent right there, that door might be air-tight, but this room isn't exactly hermetic." With a sucker punch under his jaw with the hand wielding the knife, she dropped Ali into an unpleasant dreamland.

"He's lying about how to get there." Jonny said after a long moment, the comfort of Race's hand on his arm made the tremors half as obvious with a look.

"I'm sure there's more to it too, Race, let me see that shoe, I want to borrow that blast cap."

He gave her a dirty look, "What the heck happened to listening to me?"

"Oh? We weren't playing good cop, bad cop? My faux pas." She smiled, Race was hardly convinced, he also wasn't sure why her eyes looked off but thought better than to ask. "Well, well! That's enough C4 to do in a stubborn lock."

"…What about the sarin?" Jonny frowned.

"Sarin? Jonny, the only thing on him is C4 and a charge." Venus didn't like how he curled his arms tightly around his own waist at that.

"Right, I think it's time we head over to that reactor…" Race said trying to pull Jonny from his own gloom, his arm still connecting to Jonny's left triceps.

"…He said if he died it would kill us both… Rage locked me in here with him, knowing what he was…"

"Well, your best weapon in the room would've been hand-to-hand melee, and that blast cap could've made you bleed out, which is a lot nicer than sarin, all the same."

Jonny shook his head, "Race—do you have a phone? I have to call Jess and Hadji… I might be able to tank their detonators, but they can brick their reactors and that'll really hurt them."

"That's the spirit!" Venus smirked, "Go big and then go home."

"Race, there's another thing…" Jonny looked at his bodyguard. "There's an access port under this panel, if we can move it, I think we can get into that room, otherwise we'll have to look for another way in."

"Alright, do you think you can help me with that?" Race eyed the teenager and more precisely his leg.

"I'm sure going to try."

Venus looked between the two, "Ugh, heavy lifting… I don't technically think I'm cleared for that, but… if I must."

"Thanks, sis." Jonny smiled at the girl.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Catching Benton's arm, Darren pulled the redhead toward a doorway and out of the open as a handful of guards meandered back from rounds.

Darren touched his finger to his mouth and pulled his pistol, Benton nodded and drew his piece as well.

In a fast strike, both men rendered the two guards unconscious via pistol-whips and pulled them toward the doorway. While Benton holstered his, Darren cleared the room connected by the door, another closet space, what the hell was this place, Linens & Things?

Both men caught sight of a shadow hanging just at the periphery before exchanging a look and continuing toward it. Darren caught himself signaling in ASL only to realize Benton probably didn't speak the language. Instead he whispered in a low voice, "I'll go first, hang back five feet."

Benton nodded and hugged against the wall as instructed.

In a fast pivot, Darren shoved his gun against the chest of the man on the other side of the corner, his other hand catching his wrist and pulling him forward.

The man's other hand shot up in a gesture of surrender before following the pull to behind the corner.

"Oh my, you caught me. I hadn't counted on that at all." He said, craning his neck to gesture the ten people he'd put down himself, though his take-downs were lethal if the blood-smears said anything.

"…The infamous Allen…" Darren said, more for Benton's sake.

"In the flesh," he grinned the cat's canary. "My, is that a grey hair I detect?"

Darren's mood soured. "You went through an awful lot of awful for this, what the hell do you want?"

"Hmm, no Hallmark Moment for our little family reunion? By now I know you know." He shot Darren a wilting look to suggest he re-aim his gun, the gun didn't move. "Always so pleasant, just like Phil said you'd be… Dr. Quest, you're familiar with my work, at least the late Rick Cobin's work, it was a bit heavy handed, I know, but theatrical flourish has always been so much more fun."

Darren brought his pistol back and uncocked the hammer. "So you're really working against Rage and Gaia?"

"From the inside, yes, though the Gaia angle has been long-hand." His tongue darted, "Speaking of hands, how's Alex's? I felt just dreadful when I had to break it but if I didn't they were going to break his neck."

"Well there was that one other option to just have not kidnapped them at all." Darren suggested, furious.

"Not actually an option, I had to convince them that they couldn't handle Alpha kids, and the best way I could do that was to target those two with the best chances of escaping and least chances of murdering people I needed still alive." Allen shrugged, "I take that to mean he's well, swell! So, on to business at hand… I need your help. Rage has a stockpile of a nerve agent, he's calling it sarin, but it isn't. Sarin has an antidote, the stuff he has? Not so much, Dr. Quest, you remember the formulation I take it?"

The man crossed his arms, "I do indeed."

"Problem is, R&D solutions like that don't always have cures added as a line-item. On a plus, it's less lethal than sarin, but a major minus is that as much as they'll use, it won't matter. I need to stop him, and I need to get Ellie out, she's been stuck here long enough."

"…Giselle Arquette?" Benton asked, unsure of the implications.

"Yes, her papa and big brother are quite worried about her, and her mom knows she's stopped drinking the kool aid. You've been around Rage, you probably know how that's a death-sentence. I've been staving it off by keeping her useful to Gaia, but the in-fighting about how to profit from the world going to hell in a hand-basket is making that quite problematic. I couldn't just spirit her away, though, if I did—I'd blow my own op, and as you can probably surmise, the scale was bigger than that."

"Who decided to pull in that Hussein guy?" Darren asked levelly, he needed to gauge the odd-ball, he seemed the definition of a loose cannon.

"That was Hussein's own bidding. His ties with Gaia which had made ties to Rage's Cult made it a worthwhile op to see what intel he could glean from Rage in prison, but then they hatched their own plot to escape instead. He was gaming the system and if I made him for it, I'd have outted myself, and as we've already covered—it was bigger than that. Unfortunately, Rage decided they needed some cosmic coin-toss on how virtuous this venture is, that's what Ali and he cooked up—a purity test of sorts, to which, there haven't been any alarms so your boy passed. Not that Rage will play fair, he'll just change the prophecy as he goes. How're my nieces?" He slapped Darren on the back.

Darren swung a fist before he could think the better of it, the blow connected hard into Allen's jaw, though he hardly seemed fazed by the strike.

"Really, now? I thought we were past that." Allen tsked at the brunette, "Here you are, almost 40 and you're still taking swipes at your brother?"

"You leave my daughter alone. I don't give a shit how important you think this is or anything else for that matter!"

A boisterous laugh burst through the air, echoing off the empty stones in the bare-bones room. "I don't take orders from you. But you'll follow mine if you want to get back his son and prevent all of our most untimely and uncomfortable deaths."

"After this is over, I am going to mop the floor with you, just so we're clear."

Allen laughed, "You might try, but I promise you're not going to succeed."

Darren holstered his gun, "Lead the way, asshole."

"After this is over, I would like to catch up, just us boys… I think it's time."

An eyebrow shot up, "Oh sure, let's go camping in the woods, I'll bring the shovel."

"My god, could you two focus! You're both convinced this is critical and yet you're acting like it's anything but." Benton shot, "My son is with a maniac…"

With a flamboyant hand wave, Allen pulled out a walkie-talkie, "Ellie, my poppet, could you tell me if you have eyes on Mr. Quest yet?"

"I do, there are three of them in the control room, Mr. Bannon dealt with the first wave of security, the others have went to work on disarming the device."

"Oh wonderful, they're ahead of schedule! Keep out of sight lest they'll think you're unfriendly. Have you seen where Rage and your mother have gotten to?"

"No sir, that worries me, I'd have thought they'd be nearby."

Benton nodded, "How familiar are you with this facility, Allen?"

"Intimately, why?" He smiled toothily.

"Is there a sound system? An intercom?"

"Of course, how else would he blast his sermons ad nauseum to the masses?"

"Darren, we need to get to the kids, but there's a detour we have to make first. We can draw Rage to where we want him."

"And that would be where?" He looked at the auburn-haired scientist.

"…Ideally somewhere we can corner him. Mr. Cobin," he started.

"Please, call me Allen, we're all family here." He goaded.

"…Allen," he said in a bristle, "where can we corner him, what room doesn't have multiple egress points?"

"Well he's hardly going to go to into a broom closet, but the room he set Jonny up in only has two exit paths, and frankly, he'd be surrounded."

Benton winced, that was not his ideal, "Is there anywhere else?"

"…Afraid not, old sport. This place is an abandoned factory, not an office building, most of the rooms were converted into living quarters and the maniac was surprisingly regimented about following building code laws. He seemed worried about the hazards of fire."

With the new objective in mind, the three made way to the comm center.

"How long have you been working this angle?" Darren asked in a low whisper to Allen.

"I've worked deep ops the better part of twenty years, this one has been on again, off again for a decade as Gaia shifted meanings, it hasn't always been something we thought had to be shut down, but we've always needed more agents in it, it snow-balled. But it's been worth it, I've been able to curb organized crime quite well from inside."

"…Organized crime?" His eyebrow rose.

"Oh, did you just think Oleski was playing nice?" He laughed, it was too rich, "you may well not believe it, but I've been your guardian angel ever since… well, that doesn't matter."

Darren scowled, "Since when asshole?"

"Well if you're asking so nicely, I had to make sure your gung-ho ass made it out of the fire ever since you decided to return to the world of the living."

"Bullshit. I'd have known."

Benton let out a groan, "Would you can your family melodrama until we've dealt with this?" He dialed Jessie's cellphone.

"Dr. Quest! Is everything alright?"

"Jessie, we need your help."

"I know, Jonny already has Hadji and me working on that virus, I'm running it now—"

"That's great, but I need something else, we need to draw Rage in…"

Jessie let out a knowing sound, "Oh! Venus's contingency, huh? What's the plan?"

Benton's voice hung with an authority in the airways, "We need to make him return to the room he sealed Jonny in, he isn't in there now, but it's the easiest location to contain him until authorities can move in."

"Are there cameras?"

He looked at Allen, waiting for that 'intimate' knowledge to come bubbling forth.

"There are, but he doesn't use them." Allen mentioned breezily, "That Hussein fellow is probably still in the room, though."

"Hussein…?" Jessie asked, unsure of who that was.

"Ali," Darren provided, which by the furious look Benton was shooting his way had been an overstep.

"Rage locked Jonny in with him?!"

"Jessie, he escaped. Your father is with him, he's safe, we need you to draw him there. I need you to focus on how to do that. Do you have an idea?"

"..." She took a breath, "…Yeah, Venus's idea isn't too bad, but man oh man, Dr. Quest does your daughter have a mean streak!"

"She gets that from De, that woman can hold a grudge better than a camel can carry a cigarette and sunglasses." He looked around, apparently Benton wasn't into vintage adverts, fuck he could use a smoke to take the edge off, not that he'd dare draw that much attention to himself in theater. "What did she suggest, if you don't mind me asking?"

"She said I should play it like Carla is alive, and incredibly disappointed in him."

Both Darren and Benton looked at each other, "I'd nix the alive angle, he's spiritual enough that dead and disappointed is probably safer for you."

Benton drew Betty Bam-a-lam and set to work connecting the comm-center's radio to read the cell phone signal as a direct line. "It's time to get into position, Jessie, we're counting on you!"

"I'll do my best, Dr. Quest!" Jessie beamed, "Just tell me when to start."

"T-minus five minutes, sync your watch and we'll head into position." Darren offered.

-Chapter 5 JQ-

Jonny looked at the rig and exhaled slowly. "This is bad." He looked over at Race, he'd just subdued two guards, blocking a spray of gunfire that unfortunately hit the control panel and destroyed the key-commands. "I think I can disconnect it from its power-source, but if I'm wrong we're going to be at ground zero…"

A knowing look passed between he and Venus, "Well, on the plus side, you're either right or it's not your problem anymore." She shrugged, "How can I help?"

"It might not be possible, but if you can dissemble the canister from the blast caps then we'll only be worrying about a bomb instead."

"…On it. We'll need to drop it into the sewers to shield it from a blast, that's probably the only place that would contain it."

"You two really need to be more positive." Race critiqued; unhappy at the morbidity of the topic at hand. "For starters, it's a lovely day, the air is still, and that crisp autumn air is refreshing…"

"…That actually is good, it diminishes the radius. But it'll linger, so anyone there is as dead as we'll be."

Race's eyes narrowed, "Aren't you a ray of sunshine."

Venus let out a laugh as she pulled out a knife to get to work with, "That's exactly what dad thinks…" She pulled off the casing and saw the pressure-plates and drew a breath. "Damn, challenge accepted."

Jonny called back, "It's a complex circuit in here, do you have any scissors or pliers?"

"I've got a few good knives, will that do?"

"It'll have to."

Venus pulled out a kit of four, "Race, can you give these to Jonny?"

"Yeah, kids, is there anything I can do to help?" He looked at Venus thinking those pressure plates might be something he could assist in.

"I could use extra hands." She mentioned, "See that one just above my left hand? Think you can keep it stable while I disconnect the wire housing?"

"Sure."

The overhead comms crackled to life just as Race was approaching. "Daddy, why are you doing this?"

Race's hand jumped at the sound of Jessie filling the airways. "CAREFUL, dammit!" Venus hissed.

"Sorry, I didn't expect that." Race chided himself, that was one hell of a flub. "I'm good, I've got it." He put his hands on the edges to keep the pressure plates separated as they'd need to stay to not activate the switch.

"I'd hope so…" Venus scowled, working quickly to disconnect the wires.

As the transmission continued, Jonny could feel the beads of sweat slide down his neck in a tickle. He shut his eyes trying to forget the hands that had moved over him, he shook his head violently, now was not the time to process that. He had to work on destroying the circuit board.

He cut three wires and let out a shaky breath, the easy part was done, but that timer was still going. "The time is now T-minus 17 minutes and counting." Jonny announced.

"Daddy how could you be so cruel, I like Jonny! Why would you hurt him like that?"

Jonny's eyes went wide, he felt nauseated as Jessie spoke.

"You have to help him; I'll never be able to forgive you if anything bad happens to him, daddy! You were trying to help people. That's not helping anyone! It's cruel."

He had to pause as his hands started to shake, tears prickling in his eyes. "Damn it, Quest, focus…" he whispered to himself, "I've got to get this stopped—I've got it! I just have to short this out… Where's the live line?"

His nimble fingers worked in finding the active charge and tracing it back, that counter was going to be how to fried this whole system… or so he had hoped, there were too many decoys to contest with. He had to think of another route.

The sound of scuffling was getting louder just outside the room, he really hoped there weren't more guards.

"Carla? Carla where are you? Jonny? Are you here? I've come to help you…"

Race toed Venus to warn her he had to stop acting as a safety for the pressure plates. She gave a singular nod, he withdrew his hands and drew his pistol.

"You can't use a gun, it's too sensitive in here, use the knife…" Venus gestured to her kit at her side, still laden with several she'd kept for her own use.

He nodded, re-holstering his piece as he picked up a bowing knife, the lightweight material had a nice ergo grip but he could tell the alloy was strong and it looked sharp enough to shave with. He was a bit envious of her kit if he was being honest with himself.

He maneuvered toward the entryway. At the sounds of a continued scuffle and struggle, the trap door began to fold inward. Race shouldered it hard to keep Rage from making it into the inner sanctuary. The burnt hand tried to reach through, anyway.

"Jonny, I've come to save you, to purge this evil from you… come, you must see! You must…"

Race swung the knife in his hand and sliced it through the burnt hand. He was disappointed with how little of an effect that seemed to have on Rage, the man didn't even wince, what the hell?

"Race—he's covered in burns, he probably has severe neuropathy… you're going to have to do better than that." Venus suggested from her angle. She returned her gaze to the several remaining pressure sensors, she needed to deactivate two more to have a clear path to slide out the canister.

"T-minus 7 minutes…" Jonny called out in warning.

"You are in here…" Rage called back in response, more sounds of a struggle echoed through the room as he shoved at the door.

"Race! I've got it!" Venus called back, she pulled the canister gingerly from the connections, he looked at the teen, her face was ashen as she warily handled the container with enough nerve agent to wipe out a city block without the assistance of a detonator to spread it. "It's really heavy. Help me. Trust them, because even if he gets in here, that's secondary if this falls…"

"Alright, I'm coming!" Race shoved up at the trap door again to keep Ezekiel off balance before returning to Venus's station, he helped her pull it through the narrow opening she'd worked open, the canister was easily 70 pounds from the heavy tank and then the deadly pressurized liquid it stored inside.

As he set it gently on the ground, he watched the teen begin to pant from the strain of holding the device for the past 8 minutes while she worked it free from wires, connectors, and cabling. Her arms twitched angrily. "I'll get the door, think you can ditch that?"

He nodded, "Be careful, you look like you're running at 30% now."

Venus laughed darkly, "That's still a good 29% more than he can handle." With a slight sway, she headed to the trap door and angled her body to brace against it using her legs. Her knees bent slightly as the door was slammed against.

"Jonny, how's it going?" Race called before making his run.

"It's going quickly, we've got 3 more minutes…" Jonny fingered a power cable, he could stretch it to reach the panel, but he'd only have one shot at this. He looked for more options, a charge like that would work, but it was also going to sting like hell, if not worse. "…I've got a working solution, but it's not a great working solution." He called up.

"Race is making his sprint." Venus informed, she pressed her hands behind her ears to help enhance the sounds coming from above her, with gusto she called up, "Is he restrained yet, you slow codger!"

She heard a rapid two-tap slow one-tap to signal a yes, she detangled her sore legs from the trap door, it pressed open as Darren slipped through.

"About time, what took you?" Venus muttered, she felt exhausted, as her eyes cast upward she shot back up to red alert, "What the hell?!"

Scrambling to her feet, she saw Allen and Ellie, Rage below them, momentarily subdued as they worked on securing him with zipties.

The lights cut out, five seconds later, the auxiliary lights powered on as Jonny's legs twitched then fell flat.

"Oh shit!" Darren rushed toward the teen and hoisted him from beneath the panel, he slid out limp as well-cooked spaghetti, a charred mark on his right hand accompanied by a smaller charred mark on his left arm told the story of an electrical discharge. "Hey, snap out of it!" He ordered while digging for a pulse.

Venus's eyes went wide as her mouth dropped open.

"Venus—guard the prisoner." Darren barked, desperate to get her out of the room, he was glad in her shocked state she nodded ton concur and made her way straight up through the trap door, the sound of a palm-strike to something hard, probably Zeke's mask if he had to guess, told him she had decided to make new friends, "Benton—get down here! She's got it." Darren ordered while maneuvering Jonny to a flat surface.

He began chest compressions aggressively while he started to hum the song Lucky Twice to keep his thrusts at 100 bpm.

Benton slipped through the opening in time to see Darren start the compressions. "JONNY!"

"Save it—he needs rescue breathing!" Darren disrupted his hum to instruct Benton, he resumed the song as he continued the compressions, the unnatural give to the kid's chest made him almost feel guilty, he'd probably bruised four ribs at a minimum, hell, he may even have cracked some.

Every ten compressions, roughly 3 seconds, Benton forced his breath into the teen, his own hands busying themselves to seal egress points so the air would be forced into his lungs and not right back out his nose or mouth, his other hand leaned Jonny's neck back to give him a direct pathway, his fingers curled around toward his carotids, desperate to find the return of a pulse.

"Anything?!" Darren said with a pause, "I'm so lucky, lucky… I'm so lovely, lovely…" he continued to himself to keep the pace. As he continued his ministrations, Jonny's body hissed out the air Benton had so kindly force-fed.

"No—not yet…" Benton said then took in a deep lungful of air before exchanging it with the teen again.

"You can fool yourself, I promise it will help, now every single day I just want to hear you say it…" Darren sang out while forcefully compressing the teen's chest. "…Don't ever stop, through night and day, the words to say are… I'm so lucky, lucky, I'm so lovely, lovely…"

As Benton pulled back to draw another deep breath, Jonny drew in a raspy breath. "I've got a pulse!"

Darren leaned back on his heels, "Finally, damn…" He panted out thankfully. He eyed the blue orbs as they fluttered open, the cloud of unfamiliarity readily apparent.

Benton pressed Jonny's head back to keep his airway unobstructed. "Jonny, you're okay. I've got you, you're okay…" he reassured.

"…Dad…?" He rasped, as he blinked more and more awake. His eyes scanned the room, he let out a low groan, "…Owww."

With a grimace, Darren tapped the kid's shoulder, "You bruised some ribs, don't go trying to sit up. Trust me, you won't like that feeling." He was answered in a faint set of head-bobs.

"Benton, I can carry him, strap him to my back… Jonny, you think you could hang on if I did that, yeah?"

"…Where…?" Jonny blinked his fatigue, "…Did Jess… the virus… Hadj?"

"It worked." Benton offered, he dug through his own pack to find a set of zipties, not particularly eager to use them on his son and yet knowing the necessity given his state. "You did it, son. You stopped him."

"…We… stopped 'im… where's sis…?"

"She's upstairs entertaining our hosts. Of which, we've overstayed our welcome, Race, you think you can make sure they're happy little clams and then be a peach and send my daughter down here?"

"A peach, huh?" He shot back, as he reentered the room looking over the boy, more questions in that than they had the time for. "Doc, I stowed that nerve agent under a sewer grate, we'll need to get that to the proper facilities to destroy it."

Benton nodded, "We'll worry about that once we regroup outside. We still don't know where Arquette is."

As Venus dropped back through the trap door, she shot another glare at Ezekiel. "That nut-job is contained, what about Gaia?"

"…Allen cleaned house. Sweetie, I need you to run point with Race."

She drew her pistol, "Yes sir," she declared in a forceful bravado.

Jonny let out a loopy, wispy laugh, "…That really does sound bratty…" he winced as his ribs complained about that whole breathing thing.

With a sad glance back, she nodded, "I'll find us a clear path. Race, I want my bowie back." She reached her hand out expectantly and wasn't disappointed when he returned it with a strong slap into her hand.

"I would too, it's a damn good blade."

Venus smirked, "I know, right?" She spun from the room, looking left and right, she knelt low and darted cattycorner toward the right and scanned before waving over the others.

Locking eyes with the teenager, Benton added a parting, "Scout, good luck and be careful." He wondered if he imagined the blush as she quickly pivoted before he could confirm the odd reaction.

"Luck is the fall-back for the unskilled." Venus offered with her particular flourish, she chambered a round into her Baretta. In a similar dive as she'd done earlier, she swept the hallway for any unknown players.

Edging back to the wall, she nodded toward Race and made her way further into the factory. Her eyes continually trailed back to the remainder of her party as she kept a buffer of twenty feet. At a corner, she held her gun-hand at a right angle to halt them, gesturing it into a low crouch as she slipped closed to the corner to increase her peripheral view. Her right hand tucked to her right ear, pressing it forward to listen more closely to what was happening just out of sight. She pushed her gun hand back to warn them to take cover and dropped low. Drawing a smoke bomb from her pocket, she tucked around the corner and lobbed it a good fifteen feet at the opening of another hallway. As it blew off lilac-colored smoke that reeked of coconut, the guards pivoted and opened fire into the diversion.

From her low angle, she fired four shots and tucked back behind and signaled for them to catch up quickly. She thumbed to the room the others had been standing in front of.

At the sound of additional gunshots coming from the smoked-out hallway, Darren obliged her request, pressing his back into the corner to guard his payload.

The sound of labored breathing on the back of his neck was making him feel particularly expedited as Darren eyed the room. A handful of bodies tastefully decorated the space, red accent-walls really made it all the more inviting. "Shit, this is becoming a blood-bath." He whispered toward Benton, "Where's Bannon?"

He shirked toward the door suggestively, "Helping with the clean-up, most likely."

Darren shook his head, "Once we clear the next two hallways it'll be a straight shot back to where we came in."

"I gathered." Benton looked back toward the door, he could see motion under the door in time to see Race slip in.

"Come on, we've gotta move."

Darren and Benton tucked out the door to Race's urgings, "Where did she get up to?"

"She's laying a trail doubling back in." Race whispered, still palming his glock. "There's a pretty sizeable welcome-committee left."

Punctuating the sentiment, a barrage of shots and screams carried through the walls and vents.

"What are you doing?! We're on your side!"

The questions were cut short with more gunfire.

Looking between themselves, Race turned toward the action.

"Darren, can you get him out?" Benton asked cautiously.

The nod that answered him was enough to send him hot on Race's heels. "Good, we'll rendezvous at the bikes."

-Chapter 5 JQ-

With a frown, Venus stared at the Mexican Stand-off before her, Dr. Arquette and Ali Hussein were each seeming to vie for where to aim while Allen and Giselle Arquette seemed to know just where their allegiances were though, Ellie's gun honed on Ali, Allen's on Dr. Arquette.

"So eet comes to this." Arquette drawled, "A stand-off, but I do not fear death." She spun her gun toward Giselle.

"That's real good, you can go first." Allen recommended, volleying several shots into the woman just as she went to open fire.

Giselle fired her own set of shots into Ali before he could react.

Not one to outstay her own welcome, Venus took a step back only to freeze as she felt metal against her back. She let her eyes trace back, "What do we have here? A lost little lamb…"

Venus tried not to groan to herself, she knew she should've shot the bastard dead.

"Ezekiel, thank goodness you're alright." Allen offered a polite volley, he and Giselle rounded the corner, "The late doctor was vying for a coup."

The shark-smile he shot through Venus made her skin crawl.

"Drop the gun." Rage ordered.

"Hmm, I thought about that, I really did, and you know what I decided?" Venus asked, her eyes not leaving Allen's, "No." She hooked her elbow around Rage's shotgun and shoved it away from her before turning to blast him squarely in the mask, not surprised that it was plated, but disappointed all the same that she hadn't redecorated his skull, she pulled the shotgun down with her arm as he fired, the shell ricocheted across the floor and planted into the wall.

With a click of her trigger, she was unhappily informed that her Baretta had jammed on the rapid fire. Shoving off, she made a sprint to the next cover point, certain of two things— she wasn't going to outrun being shot at, and she was about to get shot in the back.

The gunshot rang out, by time she rounded the corner she had to reevaluate the previous assessment. There was no way two of them would have missed her. She'd been within ten feet!

"What is this treachery?!" Zeke sputtered as his lung filled with his own fluids.

"We at the bureau like to consider what you did 'treason.'" Allen explained, "On high."

Venus quickly went to work unjamming her Baretta as she kept her eyes pinned to where she'd entered.

"Oh poppet, you're out of time."

"Shit! Shit…" She mumbled, still working to unjam the gun, finally abandoning the idea, she drew her bowie only for Allen to not enter the doorway at all.

"You need to get out of here, I'm not about to hand over all that hard work for your dad to swoop in and take credit for."

Her eyes narrowed, "You leave him out of this you son of a bitch!"

Allen let out a scoff, "Oh poppet, thems are fighting words, and you're fresh out of fight."

"Wanna test that hypothesis?" She bit back, she drew a second knife just in case. She looked down in time to see a smoke bomb start to discharge, "Shit!"

"Run along now. We'll catch up later."

Venus kicked the smoke bomb to the opposite corner then rounded the door, she sailed the knife through the air, Allen dodged it aptly and shot her an impatient look.

"I don't have time to make snowbunnies with you today, get lost."

Her eyes shot wide at the dangerous tone in his voice, sensing where she'd fall in that fight, she led her own charge to sprint back toward where she'd led the others—with an easy pathway out. She near collided with Race and Dr. Quest on the corner, and grabbed her chest as she halted the knife from making a strike.

Race and Benton locked eyes and made fast work grabbing both of her wrists and pulling her back toward the exit.

"It's time to go, come on!" Race called. Running at a slightly too-large of a gait, Venus was tripping on herself by time they slipped out of the open and into a very well ventilated supply closet.

Gasping, she pulled her hand back from Race, her hand fished to her chest over her side as she grimaced. "What the hell?"

Benton loosened his grip on her wrist but didn't let go, "We need to leave. Rage activated a fail-safe."

"Another one?! What is that, five?!"

"Does it particularly matter how many there are besides one left?" Benton asked almost sarcastically.

"Touché," Venus agreed, doubled over despite the urgency. She was surprised to feel her arm sling over the redhead's shoulder and a hand curve around her waist as he hoisted her back up to standing.

With a much gentler pace, the trio made their ways to the motor-blockade.

"About time, princess! It's not like you to be fashionably late."

Venus pouted as she locked eyes with her dad, "My Baretta jammed on me." She took a shaky few steps to her dad before launching into his waist to give him a big hug.

He ruffled her hair, "I should've given you Betty Bam-a-lam, sorry about that… you okay?"

"No! I feel awful. My pain killers wore off hours ago!"

Darren laughed, "Well, chew on your next dose, you riding with me?" He asked rhetorically, like there was another option, though she readily nodded to agree to it.

He glanced back at Benton, "Shall we reconvene at our abode?"

Benton set a sad smile, "I think we've overstayed our welcome, we'll see you at Thanksgiving, and I politely request we leave the terrorists off the invite list."

"Well that seems mean to not invite Venus, but…" Darren winked at his daughter as he dodged her swipe, her reaction time was significantly slower than he'd have hoped for. "…we'll see you there."

-End.-