Snowyh2o They only did it once, and yes, the story was continued from there. As for Ken and Chikusa, they were trying to avoid being experimented on so they randomly ran into a room which coincidentally was Mukuro and Nagi's ;) They were uh…. Let's just say the scientists gathered all the children for that little test and it didn't matter to them whether they were in the wrong room or not. Sorry about the confusion! Hehe ^^

starbrigate Haha, good for you :D But you didn't retake the quiz when school resumed? xD Hm..After a short period I guess, I'm not going to go into detail about the experimentation because I won't be any good at writing it anyway hehe xP Sorry I took so long to reply, school was daksgdkjasgfuas :P

Bzzzt!

G flipped open his phone to read the latest text message.

From: Brat

Subject:

Stupid geezer, where'd you disappear to so early in the morning?

G twitched at the name used to address him and quickly typed back a message.

To: Brat

Subject: Re

What did you just call me?! And I'm out doing a mission, you stupid kid. Now stop bothering me.

Bzzzt!

From: Brat

Subject: Re

STUPID OLD GEEZER

A vein popped. It wasn't like G hadn't expected that, but the capitalized letters still irritated him to no end.

'The stupid brat needs a lesson about respecting his elders,' he decided to himself as he seethed. He headed back down the road leading to Luce's orphanage. It had been a couple of days since the last time he'd gone there but Luce had called him over for the latest update already, and judging by the tone of her voice, it wasn't particularly good news.

Earlier that morning, he'd snuck out of bed to do his job. While Hayato had clearly woken up earlier than expected, it would mean that he wouldn't have to hurry as much.

His stomach suddenly growled.

'Ugh, I forgot to get breakfast again.' He rounded a corner and stopped outside a bakery. His mission was important, but he couldn't possibly work with an empty stomach.

After getting his bagel, he walked into Luce's orphanage. He was just finishing the last of his late breakfast when the woman walked in.

"G," she greeted, one eyebrow raising. "That was quick; I wasn't expecting you for another hour or so."

"Well," he grinned sheepishly as the woman took a seat. "Giotto has been bugging me too. I would've loved to take away all his snacks for this but you know how I can't say no to him. Besides, the little brat was home. I had to get away without being seen."

"He does seem to worry about a lot of things." She nodded in agreement. G snorted. "Not seem, he does. I think it's pretty unhealthy."

Luce cringed slightly. "Well my news isn't exactly of the good sort; it's rather terrible, in all honesty."

"Oh?"

"Reborn found him. But the thing is, he's in the hands of the Estraneo."

Instantly G turned pale.

"What…how did he find him?" the woman shrugged. "No idea. But Reborn is reliable. His skills are more or less on par with those of Alaude-san's. He doesn't let anyone know his tricks.

"Not even you?"

Luce shook her head. "Not even me."

There was a moment of silence before anyone spoke again.

"So now that you know where he is, what do you plan to do?"

Good question. G didn't exactly know. Even if he did, it was ultimately up to Giotto to decide whether or not he'd make a move. Although he, as Giotto's friend and advisor, should be able to change the boss's mind if he thought his decision was a bad one.

"I'll be reporting this to him first, of course. Then…I don't know, it's really up to him." Hopefully, they'd manage to get the child back safely, and hopefully, they'd be able to rescue the other children too, without hassle, that is. Oh well, one can only hope so much.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, G headed straight back home. Or at least that was the plan. He was just heading through the woods to get back faster when his phone rang.

"Hello?" he grunted.

"G," Giotto said curtly. The aforementioned man straightened at the worried tinge in the man's tone. "Takeshi's gone missing."
"…What."

"He went out to the garden to play but never came back. We haven't seen him since this morning." The sun was almost overhead now. How long had he been at Luce's?

"How are you sure that he's not just hiding?"

"G…" Giotto whispered softly. "Takeshi isn't a kid who makes these kinds of pranks."

"Yeah…. You're right. But wasn't Asari with him?"

Asari was a responsible person. That, they all knew. It was why the fact that Takeshi was missing was such a huge shock. Those two after all were very close to each other.

"No, Asari was busy this morning that's why he let Takeshi play in the garden. They do both love watching nature. He never came back into the house, and when we went to look for him, he just…wasn't there."

G sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Alright, I'm almost there…. Just wait for me and don't wig out."

"I'm not going to wig out."

"Whatever. See you in a couple minutes."

At the end of the day, all four kids had faced their worst nightmares.

A crazy life-sucking, pain-inflicting machine.

In reality however, the guys operating them looked scarier.

Fine, so the process of having tubes suck your innards out wasn't a lot of fun, but they were granted powers. Sorta. Not really.

After gathering the data on their flames, they had proceeded to experiment on them, trying to make successful weapons or stuff like that.

Nope. They would not flash back on it. It was too morbid to even think about. They were all locked up in one room after that, but no one was talking. Byakuran could feel the tension building up in the air and he did not like it one bit.

"So," he cut into the silence almost too cheerfully. Three pairs of eyes turned to look his way. "We should get acquainted with one another. I'm Byakuran!"

The two kids he didn't know stared at him, the boy with growing disinterest and the girl with innocence. "I am Mukuro. This is my sister, Nagi." He said, and then turned eagerly to the brunet in the group.

"I'm Tsuna."

"Let's get out of here." Suggested Mukuro. "We're not going to be in a better shape staying here than in the streets. At least out there we can get help."

"How do you suggest we get out of here? They have every inch of this place guarded."

Mukuro made a face. "It shouldn't be that hard…. If only we had more power…wait, that's it! They are trying to infuse the six paths of whatever in us, and they're going to make you able to produce flames from your bare hands. If they complete that process, then we can wipe them out and escape from here."

"But don't you think that's going to take very long?"

"I don't think so. They were working on us all day. At the rate they're going, they should be finished in a couple of days."

"Then what about the others?"

"Naturally, if we destroy these scientists then no one will hold them back from escaping."

Er. Oops. He hadn't thought about that. Then again, he didn't think they could ever escape from this hellhole.

"It's worth a shot," said Tsuna. Byakuran blinked. "You're going to let them experiment on you?" Byakuran shook his head. "You guys are crazy."

"Well it isn't as if we'd have any chance of getting out of here either if we didn't."

Okay…. So Tsuna was on Mukuro's side. That meant he would go along with it because well, Tsuna had quickly become his best friends in the few days they'd known each other.

"Then we're going to be needing a lot of practice and planning if we're doing this."

Thanks for the reviews guys! And sorry if I don't ever reply T^T I'm not really good at answering questions OTL please forgive me :P So. Not sure if I'll be updating this story again this month. Maybe? Maybe not? Cos finals are coming and I need to set my priorities straight, like studying trigonometry instead of being on the computer. Help.

OK see you next update!