Cole met Hal's eyes, never breaking contact. The scar through one eye almost made Hal look away, but he showed no signs of weakness.

"It's your turn." Cole said.

"I'm thinking." He glanced down at the playing board, where thousands of tiny holographic soldiers were idling. Hal touched several of them, and moved his finger across the board, the miniature warriors following. He had set up several snipers, grenadiers and anti-tank infantry. Cole looked worried. He had never lost a game of tactics. He wouldn't give up now. He would not lose. Not to a newbie. His eyes darted across the field, trying to find a way out of Hal's lethal gambit.

"Drop a train on 'em." he breathed. His tanks crawled across the battlefield, loosing a few rounds at the opponent's heavily armoured bunker. It crashed. The entire field went up in tiny, holographic flames.

"Napalm." Hal grinned. If birds can grin, of course.

"I hoped that it wouldn't come to that." He tapped the board, and all of the pixels faded and died. "Good game." He looked through to the next room. "Hey Bissu! We got a mission yet?"

"I think something's wrong. The boss started transmitting, but never finished. We should check it out."

Cole looked back to Hal. "You're in luck, kid. Most recruits have to wait until they reach our age to see the boss."

Umbra leapt from his seat "We're doing something!" He pulled out a pair of pistols and repeatedly fired them into the air, screaming "Woohoo!"

"Umbra's kind of trigger-happy. It's a good thing those aren't loaded." Cole said to Hal.

"I can see that."

The closer the squad got to the "Throne room", the darker it got. There were more sentries around. Umbra lead the way. His eyes were so sensitive that he could make out every different shade of grey imaginable in total darkness. Bissu followed him, her gattling gun cocked and ready. Then came Coo, a massive halberd hoisted over his shoulder. Cole and Hal were at the end. Cole had a row of serrated blades down each arm.

"If you work for these guys then why do you keep weapons inside?"

"To tell the truth, we're paranoid. Every single one of us."

"SHH!" Umbra had stopped. His hand was up, showing that he wanted the others to stop. His ears flicked around, listening. Suddenly, he melted into the shadows, becoming as dark as they were. Cole and Hal crept behind a pillar. What that pillar was doing there, none of them knew. Bissu and Coo copied. The other pillar was about two metres away. Bissu leant against it. She knew that her weapon was heavy. She started breathing heavily.

What is she doing?! Thought Cole Why has her weapon not felt heavy before? She's going to get us into serious trouble. A guard came round the corner, his face buried in a box of doughnuts.

"Whassat?" He snorted, looking towards the pillar after hearing Bissu's complaint. Hal acted fast. He threw out his chain, wrapping it around the guard's neck. Bringing it back with great force, the guard's doughnuts went flying and he face-planted. Cole grabbed him by the collar, bringing him up to meet his eyes, the blades sticking into the guard's throat.

He started laughing. "Those were my doughnuts. I love doughnuts. You guys are going to be in so much trouble when I tell the boss."

"But you're not going to." Hal said from behind. The pig-guard passed out. Cole dropped him, and he started bouncing away.

"Good call, kid." He grinned. "Bissu, I think it might be a better idea if you let Hal take that. You're not that accurate with it anyway."

The reptile smiled. "Thanks kid." And she pulled out a pair of sub-machine-guns. Coo dropped the massive weapon into Hal's open hands. Hal just hoped that he wouldn't get his chain caught in the belt. That would hurt.