A/N: *phew* You guys liked the last chapter! I was a little concerned 'cause I really don't know anything at all about hacking into computers (or secure bases, for that matter...). I'm just, like, making up technical shit as I go along, lol.

As usual, thanks for all the awesome reviews, threats, and the occasional nice "please." I hit a record last night in hits - 807! That's the most I've gotten in one day, by far, since I joined up with fanfic! You guys ROCK! I'll continue to do my best to give you quick updates. See, I'm actually publishing this chapter right now from my hotel room at an anime convention! I love you that much!

Jensen pulls out his laptop, flipping it open and placing it on the desktop. He connects a few wires from it to the tower, puts a headset onto the ear that doesn't have the comm., then frowns when he can't find the port to plug it into.

"Come on baby, Daddy just wants to communicate with you," he mutters, flipping down a small plastic lid on the side of the machine revealing a single hole underneath. "Ah, there you are," he smiles, "You are a unique little critter, aren't you?"

Everything set, he sucks in a breath and holds it as he flips the power switch on the monitor, first, then the tower. The second the tower begins to hum, a spark flashes through Jensen's ear bud. He jumps back, throwing the headset off.

"Ah, ffffuck me!" he spits out, touching his ear. He pulls back his hand to see a little bit of blood on his fingertips. "Shit."

"What happened, slick?" Aisha asks. "Your new girlfriend doesn't want to play nice?"

He sits back down, wincing as he touches his ear again. "I stuck my thing in the wrong hole," he says, then looks up in alarm. "Wait, that's not what – That didn't come out the way -" He shakes his head. "It's far too late to backpedal from that one, isn't it?"

"Oh, you know it," she says, humor in her voice, and he shakes his head.

"You got me good, Sparky," he utters to the computer as he sets back to work. "Now alllll the other kids in school are gonna be making jokes behind my back. And not the "kick me" sign sort of jokes. Oh-ho no, my friend, they'll be making the kinds of jokes that will leave me girlfriendless for the next twenty years. That's all thanks to you. I hope you're proud of yourself."

The computer beeps.

"Sure, sure, gloat about it now," he continues, "but in about…..two minutes, you won't have much to say for yourself."

He types a few more things into desktop keyboard, then shifts over to his laptop.

"Okay, Sasha, let's show Sparky, here, what a civilized girl can do."

Jensen watches as numbers, letters, and symbols go flying across both screens. His eyes flick back and forth between the two computers, swiveling in his chair as he trades out which keyboard he needs to type on. He takes a quick glance at his watch and frowns.

"You guys are all still alive out there, right?" he asks.

Clay is the one to answer. "We won't be if you take too much longer."

"I'm going as fast as I can. Sparky didn't exactly take to the voice command option, so I have to do things the old-fashioned way. I don't have time to decrypt the files, so I'm transferring them to Sasha, now, and we can look at 'em later. I'll have everything I need in roughly thirty seconds."

A loud clang resounds from the other side of the door. Jensen flinches, looking back at it for a second before turning back to the computers. The symbols abruptly stop moving and the desktop screen goes blank. "Sorry, Sparky," he says, patting it, "You fall in with the wrong crowd, and you're gonna get burned." He places a small magnetic device on the side of the tower and takes a few steps back. Pressing the button on the remote trigger he's holding, he watches as bolts of electricity spring from the magnet and dance around the computer. After a few seconds, they fizzle out, leaving the tower smoking.

Another clang echoes through the room. "Uh, Colonel?" Jensen asks.

"We're coming, Jensen."

"Yeah, about that. Just thought you should know that the guys on the other side of this door, here, are pretty pissed off. And probably still half blind."

There's a pause before Clay speaks again. "A bunch of angry soldiers aiming wild, huh? Sounds like fun."

Jensen watches as the banging continues on the outside of the door. As it begins to bend, he holds his gun out in front of him, ready to fire. With one final hit, the edge bends in just enough to leave a gap a few inches thick between the door and the frame. Jensen fires directly into it, hitting one man square in the forehead. He spins off to the side, throwing himself against the wall as shots are fired into the room. He sees the tip of a large wench being jammed into the gap, prying it open even further. Sweating, all he can do is aim his gun and wait.

"Clay?" he calls urgently.

"Almost there, hang tight," comes the response.

With a metal-scratching squeal, the door bends open a little further.

"Clay, they're coming in, Clay, and I have nowhere to hide. They are going to shoot me."

"I told you, we're close."

The gap widens again, almost big enough for a man to fit through.

"Clay?" Jensen calls again, his body tensing.

With one last push, the wench suddenly drops to the ground. Jensen licks his lips, stepping out from the wall just a little bit. Just as a man is about to enter, gunfire rings out from the hallway. Instead of stepping in, the man disappears back out into the hall to meet the oncoming attack. Jensen lets out the breath he was holding, leaning back against the wall for a second to regain his composure before rushing back over to the desk. He grabs his laptop, shoving it back into his bag, then turns around in time to see one of the soldiers coming through the door, pointing his gun at him. The man goes down before Jensen can even react, Pooch now standing in the doorway. The noise in the hallway falls silent behind him.

"You got it?" Pooch asks.

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you," Jensen frowns. "Did I get it? Practically became a human bullet sponge and all he can ask is if I got it." He steps through the door. "Nice timing, by the way, guys. I appreciate the near loss of my bladder control, really. I mean, could you be any more last minute?"

"Better late than never," Pooch grins.

Clay looks around a corner, waving them forward. "There'll be more coming. Let's grab Aisha and get the hell outta here."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Jensen says, and they spring down the hall.

They meet Cougar at the perimeter of the fence, running hard. They race into the trees, Clay giving out orders as several men chase after them not too far behind.

"Split up, lose 'em in the woods. No one gets followed to the rendezvous, understand? Get there as soon as you're clear."

Without a word, they simultaneously split off in different directions, scattering the force coming after them.

Jensen is the first to reach the raft, leaping into it without slowing down. Quickly, he pops the latches on the large black box, lifting up the case of ammo and sliding his computer underneath it. He throws one of his guns into it and reloads the other, then takes a few seconds to attach a large rubber band to his glasses. Pooch runs up just as Jensen fits them snugly back onto his face.

"What the hell is that?" he laughs, throwing a couple guns at Jensen so he can put them in the box, Jensen tossing him a new cartridge for his remaining gun, in return.

"In case I fall out," he says, "These glasses don't float, Pooch. Duh."

Cougar and Aisha get to the raft at nearly the same time, also exchanging weapons. From a short distance, Clay hollers at them.

"Get that raft into the water!"

They begin pushing it out into the current as Clay comes out of the trees, leaping into it as it gets swept out into the river.

"Anyone get followed?" he asks as he puts most of his own weapons into the box, locking it down when he's done.

They shake their heads.

"Actually, it was incredibly easy to lose them," Jensen speculates.

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about," Clay frowns.

A few minutes later, the sound of a motor can be heard in the distance. A small boat, moving fast and full of armed men, is quickly catching up to them.

"Dammit, where were they hiding that thing?" Pooch asks.

Clay looks back "Can we outrun it?"

"Nope, but we can outmaneuver it," Pooch grins, pointing to where the rive splits up ahead. They guide the raft down the right fork where instantly the rapids increase. Sharp rocks seem to spring up at them from every direction, but they expertly avoid every one. Jensen turns back and looks down the river.

"Well, that did it," he smiles. "They didn't even try to follow us."

No sooner do the words come out his mouth than gunshots fire at them from the shoreline. They duck down as far as they can into the raft without losing their ability to steer.

"Where are all these guys coming from?" Jensen asks, firing back at their assailants.

"Jensen, you help Pooch," Clay orders. Nodding, Jensen trades spots with Cougar, taking the paddle as Cougar takes aim into the woods. As Aisha, Clay, and Cougar exchange shots with the men on shore, Pooch and Jensen do their best to keep the raft from slamming into the increasing numbers of rocks. Jensen looks ahead down the river.

"Uh, Pooch?" he starts. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yup," Pooch answers, keeping his head low.

"Are we…?" Jensen continues, pointing at himself then at what's in front of them.

"Yup," Pooch smiles.

Jensen nods. "Okay, just making certain that was the plan, here…..Are you sure this is a good plan?"

A bullet ricochets off the side of the raft, nearly missing both of them. They look at each other.

"Yup," Jensen answers for him, and they aim the raft straight for the waterfall.

Jensen stares into the fire.

"That's it," he shrugs, glancing at Cougar. "There were no guys in bio-hazard suits, no long, creepy syringes, no ominous cloud suddenly being blasted into my face-" His eyes widen for a second. "Wait, wait, there was a cloud," he says. Cougar raises an eyebrow at him. "The dust cloud from the brick." He stands up, pacing. "The generator hut. Think about it – the thing was totally locked down, there weren't that many guards hanging around, and I was the only one of us who went anywhere near it." He stops pacing. "Cougar. I think we just released Max's mutant virus on this whole region."

A/N: Meh, was going to do a little more "back in the present" stuff, but it seemed like a good place to stop. :) Ha ha, in doing the edits, I was laughing at my own lines. That's a good thing, right?