As Alex approaches the other blonde, Alex taps him on the shoulder and places the stone in the older man's view.

"Do you need to exam this?" Alex questions him.

"Yes, thank you Devil," Hi-Tech says as the teenager walks back to his seat. Sighing, he takes his seat. His head leans back against the cool metal. Figured he should get some sleep after he checked himself for any wounds. Taking off some of the armor in order for him to check himself, completely forgetting about his bullet wound. He examines his arms and there are no new wounds. He exams his chest and there is nothing except a few scratches as well as his bullet wound. Slipping his clothes back on, no one was paying attention to him. This was surprising to him, considering everyone never noticed him. As he is slipping his shirt back on, Duke notices the wound.

"What the hell have you been through, Devil?"

"It's classified, Duke. No matter how much I want to tell you I can't," Alex answers.

"Whatever you've been through, you can tell us," Duke says trying to coax out the answers.

"Duke," Alex begins, "I can't. My life would be in jeopardy as well as yours."

"We can handle it."

Alex places his head in his hands with his elbow resting on his knee. Could he really tell them what he went through? He's the youngest Joe at the moment. His mind raced as he ran through different situations. Alex feels a gloved hand placed on his shoulder, his head jerks up and sees Snake Eyes of all people looking at him. Sighing, he sees Snake Eyes sign to him.

*Train with me when we get back. You look like you could use it.*

"I think I will. I could use it."

*You will talk to him after training.*

"Alright," Duke agrees.

As they arrive back at the Pit, Alex instantly walked back to his room. As he enters the code, he tries to figure out what to wear to his training. He notices that his room is clean a bit which surprises him as it was bit of a mess before he left for the trip. Instantly he grabs the palm pilot that Smither's grabbed him and hit the Gem Hunt application. Quickly scanning the walls, he discovers there aren't any bugs in his room. Quickly throwing on a lose red t-shirt and shorts, he walks out of the room. The door whooshed from behind him. His boots click along the floor to the training room. He had full access to the codes of the base except one room, General Hawk's quarters. As he reached the training room, entering the code and walking in. Looking around the room he notices that it looks like a normal training room but with some changes. The whole floor was padded and half of it looks like it was part spring board as most of the moves that Jinx and Kamakura executed required an immense amount of height. Along one wall were different weapons, swords of different lengths, throwing stars, and anything else. Along another wall was a target wall. The targets looked like they were connected to a small string no thicker than a piece of thread, but they were actually connected to strong cables that were on mechanical pulleys that moved them to any place in the room. In the center of the room, Snake Eyes is doing a kata but wasn't disturbed as Alex walked into the room. The young man of 16 walked into the room and leans against a wall. His back is pressed against it and his right leg is bent as his right foot is on the wall, watching closely. The kata seems familiar to the young man. Gently pushing himself off the wall, he begins his own kata. It was a series of punches and kicks. Something he learned long ago from his martial arts classes. Alex felt someone's breath on him. Out of instinct he attacked. A full out battle started. Alex knew he had to be careful. He didn't want to hurt his teammates to badly.

"Yield," Someone shouts. Alex instantly stops as he notices he has Kamakura with his stomach on the ground with his arm behind his back and himself sitting on top of Kamakura.

"Sorry, didn't mean to do that," Alex states as he gets off the blue clad ninja. He extends his hand to help him up.

"It's alright. What exactly happened to you? Your eyes were cold and your face showed no emotion," Kamakura inquires.

Sighing, he states, "I have a lot of enemies so when I get captured by them I can't show any emotion and give very vague answers as well as become a smart mouth."

"Interesting. We can protect you from those enemies," Jinx states as she walks up behind them.

"No you can't," Alex explains, "because anyone who tries to protect me gets hurt."

"We get hurt all the time," Kamakura says cockily.

"You could get shot or worse," Alex voice turns deadly.

"Kid, we can survive it." Jinx counters.

Alex sighs, "Let's get this over way." A voice comes over the intercom.

"Everyone report to the debriefing room," Duke's voice comes out.

As they walk down the metal hallway, their boots clicked. Reaching a giant round room. There is a map in the middle of the room that is computer generated. The table is a round circle with a concave bottom. There are computers everywhere. Radar devices along one wall. Chairs surround the circular table.

"Devil, you have a lot of explaining to do," Duke announces.

"What do you mean?" Alex/Devil inquires.

"Why were you running your mouth during the battle? Why were you sent to us in the first place? As well as who trained you? We all saw your training session with Snake Eyes," Scarlet states her left hand is on the table while her right hand is on her hip as she stands at the table.

"It's what I do sometimes, especially since my opponents underestimate me. You even did. As to who sent me here, that's classified information. Honestly I wish the people who sent me would stop. My uncle trained me as well as my sensei."

"We would like to speak to your uncle," Duke states. They all watch as Alex's eyes turn from his calm self to dark and sad.

"You can't," Alex states, firmly, "he's dead."

"Well, I would like to speak to your parents," Duke tries again.

"You can't do that either," Alex's voice stays dark, "They are dead as well."

"Who takes care of you then?" Jinx questions.

"A woman by the name of Jack Starbright. And the people that sent me also take, I mean use me."

"What do you mean use you?"

"They send me all kinds of places. I haven't had a normal life since my uncle passed. I'm surprised I'm not kicked out of school yet. I have missed so many days," Alex explains.

"What kind of places have you been sent to?" Kamakura inquires.

"I've said too much already."

"You haven't said enough," Duke scolds.

"No, I have said way too much. I shouldn't have even told you what I did."

Alex gets up from the table and starts to walk off as he hears the mummers of them talking. He needed to clear his head. He let his emotions get the better of him. He finds an area where he can sit. The field is luscious green, the grass is perfectly cut, and there are benches surrounding the place. Taking a seat on one of the benches, he runs a hand through his hair. He tries not to release the tears that want to come (A/N: I know this is out of character for Alex). He puts himself in a meditative state. His eyes are closed and he leans his head back. A black figure approaches the young man of sixteen. He takes a seat beside him and lays a hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex's head jerks up and looks at the direction of where the hand is placed. He sees Snake Eyes sitting there waiting patiently.

"Yes, Snake Eyes," Alex states.

*I know what it's like to lose everyone.*

"I don't want pity," Alex says in disgust.

*I'm not giving you pity. I'm telling you about my past. How long have you been used?*

"A few years."

*I'm surprised you're not killed after I saw that bullet wound*

"It was right above my heart. It was a pretty close call."

*I bet. I won't tell what you said to me to anyone*

"Thanks."

They sit in silence for a few more minutes until Snake Eyes gets up and stretches. He gets the smart idea to take his blade and go for Alex. Alex instantly dodges it, by leaning forward and launching himself towards Snake Eyes' legs.

"You'll have to do better than that, Snakes," Alex says as he goes up higher on the ninja and starts tickling him. Snake Eyes flips over and pins Alex to the ground and starts tickling him. Alex starts laughing. It was his first laugh in a long time.

"Stop," he yells out, "You win."

Snake Eyes gets off him and holds out a hand to help Alex up.

A/N: I'm sorry this wasn't out sooner. I have had a lot going on. I also talked to a few other authors to help me. I had exams as well. I'll try to get back into the habit of updating. Any particular enemy of Alex's you want me to bring back let me know. I'm still trying to figure out who I'm bringing back. Or if you have a new villain in mind for Alex please send me a pm or an email at brelee625 (at) gmail (dot) com I would love your feedback. Just let me know that you are from Fanfiction. I also can't forget to thank hewhoreaps for beta reading this chapter for me. Thanks to everyone who has read the story so far.