Author's Notes: Whoa, sorry I'm late everyone! I've been having an extremely busy week, and I plumb forgot about this. I just remembered now. So, here's your chapter, four days late. Enjoy!


A week later, Friend slowly came out of a dreamless sleep, hearing, as if in the back of his head, whispers and movement, periodically interrupted with a "shh" or a "shut up!"

Finally awake enough to wonder, Friend rolled over and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, he's awake," he heard Light whisper. "Ready? On three. One... two... three."

Now thoroughly curious, Friend opened his eyes just to be hit in the face with two pillows.

"What the-" he started.

"SURPRISE!" Sparky yelled, hitting him again.

"Dude," Friend said, pushing him and Light away and standing up. "What on earth are you doing!?"

"It's called a rude awakening," Chill called from across the room where he was sitting on his bed and leaning against the wall, watching them with amusement. "You have Light to thank for it."

"Light?" Friend asked, turning to Light, who grinned.

"Happy birthday," he stated.

"...What?" Friend asked.

"Happy birthday," Light repeated. "It's been a month now since you first woke up. At least, it's been thirty-one days, unless you lied to us about your initial twelve. So, it's your birthday."

Friend stared. "Are you serious!?" he demanded. "You woke me up and hit me with a pillow just to tell me I've been here for a month!?"

"Come on, man, don't be such a downer," Light said. "It was getting boring around here. I wanted to mix things up a bit. And what better way to raise the excitement level than to throw a birthday party? Check it out, I went all out with the decorations."

Friend looked around, all the blankets from the beds (except for his, of course) had been somehow hung across the windows in graceful arcing patterns, like banners, with another hung across the door, and the pillows had been pinned up over each blanket, almost like balloons.

"How on earth...?" Friend asked.

"Don't ask," Light told him. "Just know that it took me forever to get 'em to stick. Also, in honor of your birthday, I figured out how to hack into the kitchen and work the release in the food dispenser." Going over to the window, Light waited as the first four opened, the bowls filled with food. "Extra rations, baby!" Light said happily, pulling his and Friend's bowls out and handing Friend's to him.

Friend looked down at the food. "Really?" He asked.

"Yep," Light said. "I actually figured it out a couple days ago, but don't get to used to it. If I do it too often, someone could get wise. This is only for special occasions, like birthdays."

"You do realize birthdays are supposed to be yearly, not monthly?" Friend asked, swiping up a bit of the food anyway.

"Yeah, well, I don't feel like the kinda guy to stick to stereotypes," Light said with a shrug. "Just enjoy it while you can."

"So then," Chill said. "Are you planning on repeating this performance for Sparky in twelve days?"

Sparky beamed at the idea, and Light laughed. "I wouldn't miss it," he said. "Although we might have to change our strategy, now that he'll be expecting the wake-up call."

"I've got a few ideas," Chill said. "We'll have to confer together later."

"Deal," Light said. "I'll schedule an appointment and get back to you on that."

Friend looked up at the three of them, Light smiling and laughing, Chill smirking mischievously, his eyes bright with plans, and Sparky grinning at the both of them, obviously excited at the prospect of a surprise of his own, and Friend suddenly had to blink back tears.

He hid them well, he saw that none of them had noticed, and he smiled down at his empty bowl, feeling... very happy now. He felt... a little less constricted, like he was a bit less trapped, like he was finally breathing easy. Whatever their situation, no matter how strange and wrong it was, he had three friends, he had three brothers, to share it with.


The next drop-off happened three days after the birthday party. The door opened like usual, and two HAZMAT dudes brought in another teenager, this one a girl. The four teens in the room didn't even stand up until the HAZMAT dudes left, knowing that all that would happen was they would have weapons pointed at them.

After the door slammed shut, though, they all stood and walked toward the door.

"Whoa," Light said. "It's the girl I saw through the camera."

"The one who was on fire?" Friend asked, bending down and picking the girl up. She was fairly light, and she was shorter than all of them.

"Yeah," Light said. "You can tell, too, look at her skin."

Her skin did look rather burnt, really. Parts of it were pale, but mostly her face was mottled, varying in shades of pink. Her arms were burnt as well, and Friend felt more mad looking at them than he'd felt in awhile.

Setting her down on one of the free beds, they all stood back, giving her some space. As they waited, Friend tilted his head, looking at the girl. Her hair, which was bright, bright red, such a perfect shade of red that it looked as unnatural as Light's white hair, was straight and tangled, splayed out on the gray pillow. It looked a bit like blood, and Friend found himself frowning, remembering his recurring nightmare. There was a bit of hair in the girl's face, and without thinking, Friend reached out to brush it away.

The girl's eyes shot open at the slight touch, and she shot up, grabbing his hand and pulling him forward, somersaulting over him and twisting in midair, landed behind him easily, twisting his arm behind his back and holding it there.

She said something in another language, and in front of him, Light, Sparky and Chill were all staring in shock.

The girl tried again, in a different language. Then a third. Then, she spoke in French, which, Friend was surprised to realize he understood.

"State your name and purpose," she was saying.

"Uh, Friend," he said, repeating back in French. "My name is Friend. I am... Helping."

The girl paused.

"Whoa," Light said. "Friend, you speak French?"

"Apparently so," Friend said.

The girl released him then, and Friend turned to her, only to see that she was feeling the edges of the door.

"There's no escape," he said in French.

"I speak English," the girl said, without even an accent. "I ought to have tried that first. It has become almost universally spoken, after all."

"...Oh," Friend said. "Well then. Um, there's no escape. We're all prisoners here."

"There is always an escape," the girl said. "You did not look hard enough."

"Yeah, well, we're still looking," Light said. "But really, the front door? You think we didn't try that? Give us some credit, here."

The girl paused, then turned around, looking at them with eyes as red as her hair. "Tell me the situation," she demanded.

"Okay, well then," Friend said. "We're all held here by an organization known as Hydra, they've been experimenting on us, resulting in some pretty strange side affects, and then wiping our memories and dumping us here. You're the fifth one to get brought here. My name's Friend, the big blonde guy is Sparky, the dude with glow-in-the-dark eyes is Light, and the quiet mysterious one is Chill."

"...I see," the girl said. "So we are all held here. How do they feed us? I assume that is the purpose for the windows on the far wall?"

"You assume correctly," Light said. "Three square meals a day."

The girl nodded, then turned away from them, her arms folded.

The four boys all looked at each other.

"So..." Light said. "You need a name."

"Why?" The girl said. "I don't see how it would matter."

"Of course it matters!" Sparky exclaimed. "How will we know by what to address you without a name?"

"Maybe you just shouldn't address me," she said.

"Yeah, that's not gonna work in these close quarters," Light said. "We've all got a name here. You can either choose one yourself, or I'll assign one for you."

The girl turned, staring at him. "You would assign one for me without my consent?" She asked.

"I never wait for consent," Light snarked. "Consent is for people who can't make up their mind."

"Perhaps it is for people who wish to keep their head to store their mind in," the girl shot back.

"Okay, did you seriously just threaten to rip my head off if I picked a name for you?" Light said. "Because that's a little extreme, though I don't doubt you could do it. What do you feel about Spitfire?"

"What?" The girl demanded.

"For a name," Light said. "See, I hacked into some security cameras awhile back, and saw the HAZMAT dudes trying to take you down. You were pretty ninja back there, and you were on fire. You totally took down, like three HAZMAT dudes before I had to pull out."

"You were... spying on me?" The girl asked.

"Naw," Light said. "I was trying to spy on Hydra. I just happened on some security footage of you as I snooped."

The girl nodded. "I do not like that name," she said. "Too demeaning. Try again."

"How about Red?" Light said. "Like Red Riding Hood."

"Red Riding Hood?" The girl asked. "Do you insinuate I would sell out my grandmother to a hungry wolf in exchange for flowers?"

"Okay, that's not the version I know," Light said. "I mean the Red Riding Hood who goes all spy and ninja-beats the wolf while delivering secret information to her thrill-seeking grandmother."

The girl stared.

"It does seem to fit," Chill spoke up. "What with your current appearance."

The girl looked down at herself. "Strange," she said. "You say we were experimented on?"

"Aye," Sparky said. "And we all display strange affects of our time before coming here."

The girl considered this. "...I am alright with Red," she said.

"Cool, so it's settled," Light said. "I'm Light, Sparky's Sparky, Chill's Chill, Friend's Friend, and you're Red. Friend, want to go through the ground rules?"

As Friend repeated the rules for Red, he watched Light went over to his bed and laid down, closing his eyes, going back to his hacking. Friend had a bad feeling about the hacking. He knew it had to be done, right now it was their best hope for learning new things about their situation, as well as their best hope for escape. But he didn't have to like it. He just... had a bad feeling, one that he hoped was just him being a worrier.

Shaking the thoughts away, he finished with the rules and watched Red continue with her inspection of the room. Five, there were five of them now. There was room for three more. He found himself wondering who the other three would be, and when they would show.

He also wondered what would be done with them once they were all here.