Terra groggily woke up one morning to find herself far from rested. It had been a week since she had started 'Lance's Training Program' and since then Terra and Lance had been continuously training in sparring sessions. Each day, Lance would assume a number of his alien forms to help Terra develop a particular skill. First, there was the blue saurian creature Lance had been when they first met; its speed had been used to help hone Terra's ability to react. There had also been the crystal creature, the eyeless beast, the four-armed humanoid, and even a being made of molten rock; their sheer power tested Terra's control over her own strength in more direct confrontations. Lance had even transformed into a living metallic mass, a large flying alien insect, and a creature that greatly resembled a classic ghost; he would then possess near invulnerability or quick reflexes that would enable him to be used for target practice.

Terra rolled over in her sleeping bag, her muscles aching. Practice had also meant taking the brunt of Lance's alien forms. Not that Lance was having any easier of a time. He had taken his own share of beatings from Terra's geomancy and had his own problems regarding his accidental transformations.

Most of these transformations resulted in Lance becoming the small gray frog-like creature. If this occurred both Lance and Terra would merely wait until the timer ran out. However, there had been the time Lance had accidently transformed into a bipedal aquatic organism. This had resulted in a disastrous and terrifying fiasco in which Lance was left gasping for breath on hot dry land. If the two hadn't brought along canteens filled with water there would have been no telling what would have happened. At least there had been some progress, very slow progress. Terra sunk deeper into her sleeping bag. Perhaps if they kept this up for a few months, she could avoid creating an avalanche…

"M-morning…" Terra turned to see Lance sitting up in his makeshift bed.

"Yeah, morning…" Terra mumbled groggily as she rubbed the side of her head. Despite the fact that they had slept in, the two were still far fairly drained from the week's activities. Lance, who decided that perhaps a few minutes more wouldn't be so bad, decided to fall back into his makeshift bed.

"Ow!" Lance shot straight back up.

Terra whipped her head around. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing, I just laid down on something…" Lance's body was quite sensitive at the moment and even the smallest object could cause discomfort. He reached under his sleeping bag to remove the object of distress. "What is it with me and these small rocks—" Lance's face froze when he picked up a small metallic object, definitely not a rock. It was a circular object that was completely gray except for an orange center. At the orange center was a stylized black letter S. It appeared to be a small electronic.

"Hey, i-is that…?" Terra had seen what Lance had pulled out and was staring at it wide-eyed. Terra was coming to the same conclusion Lance was coming to: They were being watched.

Lance and Terra immediately rose to their feet despite their exhaustion and began investigating the cavern floor and walls. "I can't believe it!" exclaimed Terra, "Someone's actually spying on us!"

"Yeah," Lance was equally tense, "And look at the design," He produced the electronic, "I-it looks like those masked robots we fought!"

"I know," Terra said nervously.

Lance's mind was racing. How long had he and Terra been watched? He remembered sleeping on a small hard object in another cave earlier on, could that have been another listening device? And if the person who planted the device had also created the masked robots…Lance shuddered at the implications. For now, all that he and Terra could do was to see if they could find any more surveillance devices. They could then try to avoid detection or somehow get to the bottom of this. "Well," Lance began, "So far everything on my end seems clean," Lance turned towards Terra, "Anything on your end?"

"Not yet," responded Terra. The geomancer was scouring the rocks on the cavern wall. "But that doesn't mean I won't find any—" Terra stopped when a rock on the wall turned like a doorknob at the touch of her hand. Terra grabbed the rock and twisted it even further. The rock swung aside as if attached to a latch, revealing a set of computer keys.

"Whoa…" Lance walked over to Terra upon seeing what she had discovered.

"What do you think it is?" asked Terra.

Lance began fiddling with the watch's dial. "Only one way to find out…" He breathed. After being engulfed in a green light, Lance was transformed into the small gray frog-like creature. Lance then walked up to the wall. "Um," Lance motioned his head towards the set of computer keys that were high above him.

Terra chuckled to herself and reached down. "Here," Terra extended an open palm that Lance jumped into, "Going up!" Terra lifted Lance up and held him out to the computer keys.

Lance cracked his tiny knuckles. "A computerized lock, huh? Well, let's see what I can do…" Lance's small gray hands began flying across the computer keys as he began punching in code after code. It was barely a minute before a beeping noise was emitted from the computerized lock. An odd noise came from the wall at the back of the cavern. Lance and Terra turned to see a camouflaged automatic door open to reveal a lit passage way. "Piece of cake…" squeaked Lance; he rubbed a fist against his chest in a satisfied manner.

Terra looked solemnly at the door. "This could be it," She said flatly. Their tracker could be at the end of the passage. Terra felt Lance hop onto her shoulder.

"We can take it," Lance squeaked reassuringly. He gave a small smile that Terra returned.

"Well, here we go," Terra stepped through the doorway and began making her way through the passageway.

***

The passageway spiraled and inclined downwards as it went along. It was leading underground. Terra progressed silently along the passageway with Lance perched on her shoulder. Neither of them spoke, their focus was at what laid ahead. Both of their bodies were tensed, prepared for any unpleasant surprises. After what seemed like hours, the two came across a hermetically sealed metal door that was equipped with yet another computerized lock.

Terra and Lance gave each other sideways smirks. This was too easy. Terra scooped Lance up with a single palm and held him out to the computerized lock. Lance then proceeded to crack the code of his second lock for the day. Again, Lance's alien brain succeeded in causing the door to swish open in little time.

After Lance hopped back onto her shoulder, Terra stepped through the doorway to a sight that astounded them. They had walked into a very large cavern which was a room equipped with machinery. Most of the machinery appeared to be old and was covered with rust, but most of it appeared to be still functional. "What is this place?" wondered Terra.

"Beats me," shrugged Lance, "But…judging from both the state of things and the present equipment, I believe that we have encountered an abandoned research facility, likely to have been used for military purposes." Terra stared at Lance wide-eyed. Lance shook his head and placed a hand over his dazed face. "It's the watch talking," explained Lance. Sometimes the watch would change aspects of Lance's nature when he was transformed. Terra and Lance paused when they heard odd noises coming from another area in the facility. Their faces hardened.

"Get ready," Terra's fists clenched. Lance nodded in acknowledgment. Terra could feel Lance's amphibious fingers and toes dig into her shoulder as she crept towards the source of the noise. When the noises grew loud enough, Terra crouched behind a piece of machinery. Terra and Lance each held their breath. Someoneor something was only feet away.

Terra motioned to Lance with her head to signal for him to take a look ahead. Lance complied and leapt from Terra's shoulder to climb up the side of the machinery using his suction-cupped fingers. Lance peered over the top of the machine with his bulbous yellow eyes. What he saw was one of the most bizarre things he had seen yet.

It was a circle of large fluid filled glass containment tubes. Lance could make out large dark forms floating in the tubes, but he couldn't tell what they were. He couldn't tell what any of things in the tubes were because they were nothing he had ever seen before. They appeared to be preserved specimens of creatures that had been created from mixing and matching various animal parts.

And to top everything off, a strange person was attending to the fluid filled tubes. He was a silver-haired old man whose skin had an odd green tinge. Despite the laboratory setting, the old man was only wearing a thin sleeveless shirt and appeared to be using colander for a helmet.

Lance leapt back onto Terra's shoulder. "Someone's here all right," Lance whispered into Terra's ear, "He might be our mystery guy. If we're going to do anything we might want to do it fast, while we still have the element of surprise—" A loud beeping noise filled the facility as the hourglass symbol on Lance's back began blinking red. Terra and Lance's eyes each widened with terror.

The old man turned away from his work. "Who dares intrude?!" He demanded angrily. His angered face contorted even further when he saw a red light flash from behind a piece of machinery. The red light was all too familiar to him. The old man flipped a switch on a control panel and the air was soon filled with the sounds of doors sealing shut. He then flipped another switch, which activated a pair of mechanical claws from overhead. With a few more movements of his hands across the control panel, the metal claws were manipulated to reach behind the piece of machinery of interest. "Thought you could outwit me, didn't you?" growled the old man, "But now you shall see who—" The old man's brow furrowed in surprise when Lance and Terra came into view, struggling in the grip of the metal claws, their arms tightly bound to their bodies. "Y-you're not the Tennysons…" said the man in incredulously.

"Tennysons?" grunted Lance, "Who you're talking about?"

The old man caught sight of Lance's left wrist. "Oh, I believe you do know…" The old man began slowly, "You wear the same device as that Tennyson boy!" Lance and Terra were brought closer to the man's face. "You are undoubtedly collaborating with the Tennyson family in hopes of defeating me!" snarled the old man. "Do not deny it!'

"Defeat you?! We don't even know who you are!" shouted Terra.

"So they didn't even bother to fill you in on the details," The old man stroked his chin, "But I suppose there is no harm in you learning the name of your better," The old man smirked before he made a fancy sweep with his hand and motioned to himself. "I am Dr. Animo."