A/N: Sorry for the delay. I had to deal with a little writer's block, but finally managed to work through it. Thanks for sticking with me this long. There'll be at least 1, probably 2 more chapters to go.

Chapter 6

Dr. Quest and Race ran out of the building, immediately looking for cover. In between taking potshots at the guards who were now after them, Race asked, "So, where to now, Benton?"

Dr. Quest fired a shot and ducked behind the wall where the were hiding, before answering. "Where else? We have to speak with J'orda. Only he can help us out of this."

"How? Siert'a was able to stop us and the kids from getting in there," Race replied, before smiling almost evilly and glanced down at his energy rifle, "Of course, we could probably make him a better offer this time around."

"We're doing whatever it takes to get Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji out."

So, they decided to make their way back once again to the building where the day's adventure had begun. First, however, they would need to make it out of their current predicament, pinned down behind a building. Because of the city's depth, the only light sources were artificial, so even though night had fallen, it still seemed to be daylight.

After a while, the men concluded the rifles were set to stun targets by default, or at least would stun on the first shot. The situation was too hectic to stop and try to figure it out for certain. When most of the guards had been dispatched, Race started glancing around, before settling his gaze on a gap between two buildings leading to another street, which could provide a good escape route. He pointed the location out to Dr. Quest, commenting, "It may be our best shot."

The scientist nodded as they continued returning fire against the remaining guards, before it was finally safe to make a run for it. Dr. Quest dashed to the gap first, with Race providing cover fire. The bodyguard then followed suit, stunning the final Akieran guard as he cut across the open street.

The men raced along, narrowly avoiding the guards that had been set on them, probably by Siert'a. Whatever was going on, all their problems could be traced to him. Eventually, when the pair made it to more cover, they took the opportunity to catch their breath.

"Whew," Race said with a half-hearted laugh, "I'm starting to think I'm getting too old for this."

"I know I'm getting too old for it," Dr. Quest responded.

In the meantime, the teens were trying to come up with an idea to escape and go help Race and Dr. Quest. The guard who had been knocked out by Race was just standing to his feet, preparing to look in on the prisoners and make sure nobody had escaped. He staggered a little as he approached them. Without saying a word to the others, Hadji put on his translator and calmly took the Ruby off his turban to show to the guard.

"I hope you are not injured," he said calmly, "Perhaps this will make up for your troubles. It is a valuable jewel that has been in my family for many years."

The guard stared at the ruby as Hadji continued talking, moving it in a way to reflect the light. "Notice the way it flashes. That is how you can tell it's worth."

The guard had been silent the whole time, but finally nodded slowly at this. Hadji then commented, his tone as calm and level as it had been the whole time, "You no longer wish to keep us imprisoned."

"I no longer wish to keep you imprisoned," the guard repeated.

"You will unlock the cell to free us."

"I will unlock the cell to free you," the guard repeated again as he used the scanner to unlock and open the cell door.

The trio stepped out, with Jonny and Jessie very surprised at what was happening.

"You are tired. You will now step inside the cell and lie down."

The guard stepped inside the cell as Hadji motioned for Jonny or Jessie to grab an energy rifle. Just as the guard was laying down, Hadji then pointed to the panel controls and signaled for Jessie, who was holding the rifle, to prepare to fire on it.

Finally, the guard lay down on the floor and Hadji shouted, "Now, Jessie!"

Jessie shot the panel, causing the cell door to automatically slam shut and waking the guard from his trance.

Everyone ignored his protests and ran out the door. with Jonny carrying Bandit so he wouldn't get lost in the confusion. "Great work Hadj, but I thought you said they couldn't be hypnotized," Jonny commented curiously.

Hadji smiled, "That would appear to be true, but I took the chance that Race's hit with the energy rifle had given the guard a concussion, or that he would at least wake up dazed, and tried again. It would seem that his injury was severe enough to disable the immunity to hypnosis."

"Hey, where are we going, anyway?" Jessie asked, realizing they were running somewhat aimlessly.

"Back to the ship," Jonny answered, "We need backup."

At last, Race and Dr. Quest made it to the headquarters building. Outrunning the guards, the realized they would need one of them to get past the scanner. Both knew that, while they could attempt to short it out, there could be some security measures in place to guard against tampering. Looking around, they saw a guard monitoring some sort of view screen a short distance away, and Race began to walk in his direction. Unfortunately, their energy rifles had apparently gone dead a short while earlier, or Race would've simply stunned the guard.

"I think I just found our ticket in," he observed.

Dr. Quest reached out to stop him. With a smile and a tone of voice revealing his anger at the Akierans, who had betrayed them, "No, Race. Allow me."

Dr. Quest crept over behind the guard, who had removed his helmet for a moment. Dr. Quest and Race had avoided detection so well that none of their enemies knew where they were and, judging by the lax attitude of the guard, none apparently expected them to be at the administrative building. The guard at the view screen seemed to be the only one around, which seemed odd. They had already encountered less guards than should be patrolling the city.

The guard didn't notice someone was behind him until it was too late. He turned around to see a right cross coming from Dr. Quest. Regardless of how different they may be from humans native to earth, the Akierans could still be knocked out.

"Ow," Dr. Quest exclaimed as he rung his right hand. His opponent had a surprisingly hard head.

"Nice one," Race complimented him as they each lifted one side of the guard and walked him over to the scanner. After it confirmed the guard's identity, the door opened and the men were now inside the headquarters yet again.

Siert'a happened to be nearby and heard the door open. Thinking it was one of his guards, he walked over, startled to see the humans.

"What are you doing here?!" he shouted, trying to step in front of them yet again, but Race wasn't having any of it.

"Not this time," he said firmly, throwing a punch that almost knocked the Akieran through the air.

At last, they were finally about to get to the doors to J'orda's chamber. Each man shoved a door open and walked in angrily.

"What is the meaning of this?" J'orda asked.

"Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji have been captured and we want them freed," Dr. Quest announced matter-of-factly.

J'orda looked genuinely surprised. "What? I promise I knew nothing of this. Siert'a!" he called for his second-in-command.

It took a moment for Siert'a to arrive, as he had just come to, so Dr. Quest and Race had time to fill him in on the events of the past few hours. As Siert'a appeared in the doorway, J'orda asked, "Our guests say that you have imprisoned the young ones that were with them. What is going on? You are to consult me about matters such as these."

"The answer to that, J'orda, is that you are too soft and it is time Atlantis had a new leader."

"To me!" J'orda ordered his personal guard, all of whom sprang into action and raised their weapons toward the traitors.

Siert'a walked into the room as a large number of guards gradually appeared behind him. "I have been planning to deal with you for a long time. The humans forced me to adjust my schedule somewhat, and I tried to get them out of the way, but everything has worked out nonetheless. Guards, I order you to eliminate everyone, including J'orda."

Roughly half the guards trained their weapons on Dr. Quest and J'orda, while most of the other half turned on everyone, including the other guards.

"What?!" Siert'a exclaimed, "You are supposed to serve me."

"Not all of us," came a gruff voice from under one of the helmets.

The guards who had turned on everyone else removed their helmets, revealing faces unknown to those present, but known to the teens. It was the scavengers!

Captain Newman explained, "We took out about half your guards and decided to keep their gear. And, after exploring the city a little bit, we kind of like it here, so we're taking over."

"Oh, great," Race grumbled, "What's next?"

From the doorway, everyone heard Jonny and Jessie both shouting, "Dad!", with Hadji exclaiming, "Dr. Quest! Race!"

After they had gotten free, they returned to the ship and got everyone available from the two crews and crewmembers wandering the city to help, which totaled around 30 men. All carried a variety of weapons, ranging from sidearms to a few energy rifles.

"Well this just got more interesting." Race thought.