FSE

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Waking up in a dark room was frightening for Tay. Once she did, however, she quickly gasped and sat up on her bed.

"L-Lane!" she called out. She then tried to look around as she gently rubbed her eyes. "Lane... They took you somewhere..."

She climbed out of the bed and stumbled slightly, needing to balance herself after being asleep for a long amount of time. She felt over her body, making sure whoever trapped her here wasn't a huge pervert and stripped her of her clothing. Thankfully, that fear was disproven when she felt the end of her t-shirt and the fact she still had jean shorts on. Her white t-shirt seemed to be ripped slightly along the collar, possibly from a goon grabbing it. She didn't mind it though, as the shirt wasn't ruined. She found a light switch and flipped it, which revealed that she was in a doctor-like room. She found a mirror and found that her hair was untied and heading down to her mid-back. She grumbled and pulled a scrunchie from her pocket, retying back into a ponytail. She made sure her face and neck were clean enough to not really warrant questions about falling in dirt. She then let out a soft sigh and reached for the door. She opened it slowly, looking around as she had noticed there wasn't a guard posted directly outside of it.

"Strange," she grumbled to herself. She closed the door behind her quietly.

She did hear a small amount of commotion after a few minutes of walking quietly. She peeked around the next corner, finding two guards standing and talking with one another.

"You think she's awake like the others?" one asked.

"Nah, out cold," the other remarked. "Had to be for Jagger's toxin to work on her."

"Toxin...?" Tay asked herself quietly. She shook her head and sighed gently. "Lane's not here to bail me out... Prove yourself, Tay..."

"Hey, did you hear something?" the first guard asked.

"No," the other said. "But better check it out anyway."

The two guards moved toward the location of the assumed noise. Tay gulped and tried to concentrate, thinking about how Lane was helping her get used to combat for the past year and a half. When the first guard began to turn the corner, she clocked him in the face with a hard punch. She then quickly grabbed the gun and aimed it at the second guard before grabbing his arm and yanking him forward. In doing so, she slammed the butt of the gun into his forehead, sending him onto his back and knocking him out. She then placed the gun into her empty holster on her belt, taking note that before now she was weaponless. With that knowledge, she did make sure to steal ammo from both men as they used the same weapon.

"Got ammo, check," she said. "Ooh, this one has a suppressor!" She threw down the gun on the second man, hitting him in the face with it.

Heading down the hall now, she tried to be quick and quiet. She had to at least try to find the others and hope they were alright, but the mention of a toxin from the two guards still unsettled her. She didn't like the idea of some creep drugging her and possibly drugging Lane. Not to mention she did realize that perhaps the same assailant drugged the entire team. She wouldn't know what it meant but would automatically associate it with something bad. She soon came to a door and leaned against it, trying to listen out for anymore guards. She didn't hear anything other than the whirring of the air conditioning. She then grabbed the handle and turned it, finding that the door was indeed unlocked. She headed into the next hall and soon approached a room that looked like a control center. She went inside to look around, hoping to find a map of the exit route and perhaps the location of the others. She tried to read a few of the screens, but most of the wording came off as gibberish to her. She grumbled at that fact and typed a few things on the keyboard to see if anything would happen. Unfortunately, nothing did.

"Oh dear, you're awake," Jagger suddenly chimed in.

His voice caused Tay to jump back and stare at the monitors as his face suddenly appeared on every one of them.

"What's the matter, Miss Shudo?" he asked. "Don't like surprises?"

"Who the hell are you?" she asked.

"Oh, how rude, you didn't do your homework, I see," he chuckled. "I, my dear, am merely known as Jagger. And you're going to follow the rules of a game I wish to play. If you don't, then your boyfriend in my other facility won't wake up from his coma. Ever."

"Boyfriend?" she asked, then gasped and covered her mouth. You... put... him... in a coma... I'll kill you myself!"

"Oh, feisty," he chuckled. "I like that in a woman."

"Shut up, you creep!" she growled, throwing a mug at the console. Luckily, it was empty and didn't harm anything.

"Temper, temper," he said. "Disobey the rules of the game and I accelerate the toxin within Mr. Silverbane and his energy is drained completely. You would be the reason he dies. Now, you don't want that to happen, do you?"

"You bastard, fine," she said, gritting her teeth as she clenched her fists.

"That's more like it," he chuckled. "The goal of the game is to survive the guards I send at you and get to the end of this corridor."

"That'll be easy," she said, smirking smugly.

"Oh?" he asked. "Cockiness. I love it. However, it isn't justified in this scenario. You see, I have control over the game. Apart from you, total control. Look behind you."

She looked back and went wide-eyed when the two passed out guards suddenly stood up and charged after her.

"What the-!" she said, dodging a punch and slamming her fist in the back of the head of one while kicking the other in the crotch.

Both men fell to the ground again but as soon as she attempted to turn back toward Jagger, they rose up again.

"They won't stay down, Ms. Shudo," Jagger chuckled. "I'd run if I were you. Otherwise being captured and forced into a coma yourself won't be as fun."

"Shit," Tay gulped and kicked a metal trash can toward them before running out of the room and down the hall.

"Let the games begin, Miss Shudo!" Jagger chuckled, which turned into a sinister laugh.

"Games," Vinchi chuckled from his office as he had a video conversation with Bortelli. "Jagger has some free time since his plan seems to be working and he chooses to play games with his captives."

"Yeah, well, he's got his own methods, I guess," Bortelli said. "Back to the matter at hand though, Vince. What are we gonna do about Silverbane if he does, you know, best the mad scientist?"

"If he does, then it still points in the direction of her predictions in bein' true," Vinchi said.

"Yeah, I know, but that also means we ultimately fail," Bortelli sighed, sitting back in his chair.

"I don't like to think of her predictions coming true as failures," he said. "The backup plan was created because of the predictions and from the very start, she repeatedly warned us that we would end up dead one day by a Donjy's hands. I'm all for provin' the prediction wrong."

"As am I," Bortelli nodded. "The little scumbag is gonna come after me next. I'm pretty sure he's guessed the food chain by now. Morta is the weakest, Jagger is the second weakest and you're the strongest while I'm in second."

"I'm sure he knew that when you sent him to work for me instead of you," Vinchi said.

"My reasoning for that was not wantin' to show favoritism, nothin' about no power," Bortelli said.

"I'm sure it had nothin' to do with power," Vinchi said. "But to someone like Silverbane, it might have. He is a smart guy. More than she gave him credit for."

"That's probably 'cause she predicted this when he was still in the academy," Bortelli shrugged/

"Well, it's time to turn this delightful chat to a close," Vinchi said. "You go monitor the progress and prepare for when Jagger does fall. I don't have enough confidence in him right now, that'll push him over the edge in trying to kill Silverbane. As for me, I'll go on my own little hunt. There are some pawns of interest to me."

"Pawns, eh?" Bortelli asked, chuckling. "Very well. I'll get to making preparations."

"Good," Vinchi said, shutting off the video communication link and then headed out of his office, a sly grin on his face.

In another cell similar to Tay's room, there was a gentle hiss noise of a blowtorch on the wall. A marking was cut in a circular shape before being kicked outward into the hall, creating a hole. Out stepped one of Lane's team members, Jazz Hugh. Her brown fur was slightly covered in a bit of drywall when she climbed through, but she easily patted that off of herself and her jacket. She looked around, her light green eyes darting back and forth as she was skeptical of not having guards nearby. She clicked a button on the side of the blow torch, causing it to shut off fully and retract into a round portable form. She placed it on an empty clip on her belt before pulling out a modified pistol. She then headed down the hall, planning on finding and breaking the others out. She soon came to an open area. It looked like a delivery bay, telling her that she might have been held up in a warehouse. She then sensed a presence nearby and looked around, narrowing her eyes. She jumped out of the way of a sudden blast that looked like a cannon ball. She blinked in surprise, noticing the thing now in front of her wasn't an ordinary person. It was a large creature known as the Rhydon. It had the appearance and structure of a rhino, but had a tail and a jaw line of a crocodile. This made Jazz notice it was two species fused into one, with one of its arms being replaced with a large cannon. She gulped and wondered if bullets would work on it at all.

It roared suddenly, firing another cannon ball at her. She barely managed to leap out of the way in time, making her realize that for something so large, its speed was rather unusual. She fired several rounds from her laser pistol at it, but watched as the bullets just seemed to bounce off of it. She grumbled and ran East of its location, finding ladder at the end of the path. She got to it and began to climb up. She heard the monster's large footsteps from behind her, causing her to hasten her pace. She soon reached the top and quickly shoved a large iron crate off of the edge, having it come down and smash upon the creature's head. The box broke into tiny pieces, while the creature itself seemed momentarily stunned. She took the opportunity to grab a rope and jump down and onto his back. He roared out, seeming to oppose this choice of action completely. She managed to wrap the rope around his large Rhydon horn, pulling it back and caused it great pain. In retaliation, the large creature tried to slam its fists into her sides, but she jumped back, forcing his rapid striking to hit himself instead. This caused him to stumble even more before Jazz jumped off and landed next to the down knocked out Rydon-Crocodile hybrid. She sighed with relief before blinking as she heard slow clapping from the other side of the room.

"Very good, you can defeat petty underlings," a voice echoed from the same position. "It's too bad that the toxin inside of you will make you unable to match me, my dear."

Jazz raised an eyebrow curiously, though she backed away quickly when she had clear vision of who was talking. It was Vincent Vinchi at the other end of the room. However, he looked different from the photos Lane had shown Jazz and with good reason. The year and a half had been good to Vinchi, letting him trim his fat and gain muscle tone in return. That came at a price, of course. He had a few new tricks up his sleeve that he exchanged for his new sculpted form. His black hair was still short and slicked back and he was in a tight fitting gray pinstripe suit.

"Don't you even try one little trick, missy," he said. "You can't outrun me. You can't overpower me. Wanna know why? Because that toxin isn't just to make you go under Jagger's command. Oh, wait, by the look on your face, you didn't even know you were drugged, huh?"

Jazz growled at him and reached for her weapon as it was sheathed.

"Yes, yes, reach for your weapon, by all means," he said. "It won't do you any good because you can't pull the trigger."

Jazz pulled out the gun and tried to fire it at him immediately, but her fingers wouldn't move to press the trigger.

"Told you that you couldn't," Vinchi chuckled. "This is a one sided fight, my dear." He then slammed his fist into her cheek, making her groan and stumble backward into the wall. "There is no one to save you, you know. Not Silverbane, not his pathetic girlfriend that kept getting herself into trouble. No one. My idiot son even managed to almost kill her before Silverbane stepped in. She can't do anything. Now, my dear, you belong to me."

He smirked when she tried to stand back up.

"Sit down," he ordered, watching Jazz suddenly sit back on the ground rather hard.

"This is a special accelerated dosage," Vinchi chuckled. "Already, your sanity belongs to me. Now, you'll be my little drone. That's it."

Jazz tried to fight back all she could before her pupils turned a light blue in color and she stopped fighting altogether. She now belonged to Vinchi.

"Come now, Miss Hugh," Vinchi said. "We have some more to round up."

Jazz stood up and nodded, then followed Vinchi as she still remained quiet.

Tay was fighting more guards, now officially counting up to twenty pursuing her, only rising again like zombies so she couldn't knock them out or stop them from moving altogether. She came up to a doorway and tried to slam it shut, then blinked when it didn't budge.

"Now, now, Miss Shudo, that door was too easy of a target to fend my men off." Jagger said from the monitor across from her. "Keep running. I'll decided when you've run far enough." He chuckled and then disappeared.

"Goddammit," Tay grumbled, kicking a barrel toward the hoard of droned henchmen. It would buy her some time as they had to get back up. She ran up a flight of stairs and down the next hall, biting her lower lip as she tried to figure out a way to outsmart Jagger in this 'game' of his.

"Now, now, you have too much breathing room," Jagger said as a door suddenly flew off its hinges near Tay's position.

Tay gasped as a new group of guards poured from it, but seemingly augmented with rapid muscle growth. They looked muscular and like they could tip over a large vehicle. They were charging at her, making both ends of the hall fill with henchmen.

"Dammit," she muttered under her breath.

There wasn't much time for Tay to think up a strategy in order to try and get past the newly added steroid-ridden henchmen. She did a quick survey of the environment around her before noting a lone bucket on the ground and a support beam was the muscular mob passed. She ran up to the bucket and picked it up before jumping atop metal crates and then slammed the bucket onto the head of one of them. She held it down firmly, making it panic and run around, plowing into his friends with his flailing fists of fear.

"Clever girl," Jagger chuckled. "But will that cleverness help you escape, hmm?"

"Shut up!" Tay called out as she hopped off of the muscular henchman. She kicked him hard with her left leg, sending him flying backward into the others before heading through the door and slammed her fist on the lock. The door sealed shut, being made entirely out of Krazite.

Tay had rested for a moment before hearing a banging on the door behind her. Though it only occurred for a few minutes. Once it went quiet again, she looked around cautiously before heading down the hallway.

"The feeling of safety is a ruse, my dear," Jagger echoed via an intercom. "You are not safe. You best keep running."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she called out, though gasped when she heard the door suddenly burst and a large creature came through it. "W-What the hell is that thing!?"

"Do you not like my genetic creation?" he asked. "Only major flaw in Vice, my dear, is that once my henchman fused to form him, they cannot, you know, unfuse."

Tay gulped as Vice roared out before charging down the hall at her. He smashed through support beams, metal boxes, and even the Krazitre reinforced doorways. She tried to pick up speed, turning a corner sharply and heading down another corridor. She glanced back, noting that he was able to barely make the turn himself due to being so large. She also noted the guns that acted as his arms and then paid attention to the path ahead of her. She ducked under several pipes and jumped over metal crates - all of Vice eventually just crashed through. She knew the danger of the creature, as it had easily destroyed things built with Krazite. The hall, though, was coming to an end. She spotted a ladder and quickly grabbed onto it, climbing upward. She had the idea that it may have slowed him down since he probably couldn't easily climb up.

Once she reached the top, she looked back and let out a surprised gasp. Vice used his large arms to hold him up and he was climbing the corridor up quite rapidly. She headed down the hall, biting her lower lip as she was beginning to tire herself out. She soon came out into a large warehouse area. She looked around for a possible means of escape or subduing of the creature. Once Vice entered the room though, she suddenly heard a loud bang and a pained roar as he stumbled back.

"What the?" she asked, looking back now.

What she saw made her quite happy. Rolio had suddenly appeared from the higher shelves, slamming a large crate into Vice and sending him somewhat back into the hall. The muscular Festo rose up from landing on the ground and looked back at Tay.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Tay nodded. "Thanks. We need to get that creature though. It's some strange creation this asshat made."

"I know," he said. "I do my own research. Just stay back. Let me handle it. Think of a plan for us, Tay. You are the brains when Lane is not here."

"Oh, alright, but I'm helping if you need it," she said before running to a safer and more secluded spot.

Vice roared out again as he charged at Rolio. Rolio, however, didn't seem to budge. He let Vice come at him. Once he was close enough, Rolio hit a button on his wrist watch, transforming it into a cybernetic glove that covered his arm. He stopped Vice in his tracks again as he created a shield and was able to repel the attack, sending Vice into the air. Once he came down, Rolio landed a punch straight into his gut. He sent him in the opposite direction from where he and Tay entered, making him smash into a large set of metal and wooden crates.

"Whoa," Tay blinked, though she spoke in a whisper to herself so Vice wouldn't end up coming after her.

Rolio charged at Vice, slamming into his chest with a powerful punch. This was followed by a rapid flurry of more punches. Once again, he knocked Vice upward and then slammed him into the ground. Roaring out in pain, Vice struggled to get up before he stroke Rolio with a hit to his left machine gun. Since it was made from metal, it hurt far more than a punch did. It was also powerful, flinging Rolio into the wall with ease.

"Crap, no," Tay gasped quietly. She looked around for any device or diversion so she could give Rolio enough time to get up. She managed to find a pipe and grabbed it, running out into the battle and practically taunting Vice. "Hey, you big gun-toting idiot! Over here!"

Vice turned toward her and roared out, then began to charge at her. Tay gulped and jumped out of the way, using the pipe to swiftly strike at his back when he passed. The impact was effective on Vice, sending him stumbling into the nearby wall. Tay looked around as she held her pipe the side. She had to think of a plan, to at least get it out of the room and perhaps back downstairs. Spotting a large amount of metal crates on a shelf and a forklift, she noted them and ran up to Vice, slamming the pipe into his stomach. Their position had changed to where Vice had his back facing the entrance to the room. He groaned out in pain from the strike, stumbling back. He swiped at Tay, but she managed to duck and slam the piper into him again. She finally used her own left leg to push Vice over the edge and send him falling down the hole where the ladder was that she climbed up. She then ran back to the forklift and hopped into it, turning it on and pushing it into the shelf with the crates on it. She used the controls to lift it up and carried it to the hole before hitting the release button. The crates and shelf tumbled into the hole, effectively blocking it. She knew Vice could perhaps just power through it with his strength, which prompted her to use the forklift two more times and pile a shelf on top of another with the crates on them. She sighed with relief, climbing out of the forklift and running over to Rolio.

"Are you alright?" she asked, looking up at him.

"I'm fine, thanks," he nodded.

"That's good," she said. "I don't think that killed him. I still feel uneasy, so that's telling me he may come back at some point."

"If he does, then it won't be against us," he said. "Let's get going. We have to find the others. I could guess Jazz broke out of her own containment room by now, so that leaves Juno and her husband along with Toro."

Tay nodded and ran down the hall that she assumed would lead to a possible exit. She felt Rolio's presence behind her and kept looking back every so often to make sure he didn't get lost. They rounded a corner after a few minutes of running, only to find a locked door.

"Damn," she said, banging on the door. "This guy really doesn't want us leaving."

"It would seem that way," Rolio nodded. "We have to find a way through."

"Can't you just punch the door down?" she asked. "I mean, you're the most muscular out of the group."

"It depends on what the door is made of," he said. "If it's made of Krazite, then no. A normal man like myself couldn't do it. Perhaps Lane could though."

"Why would he be able to do it if you can't?" she asked, looking up at him curiously.

"There's something about him I can sense that makes him... different somehow," he said, looking at the door still. "It is very rare that my sensing ability is wrong. Much like you can sense presences behind you, I'm sure."

She blinked and look at him still, scratching her head curiously.

"Well, I can tell who's behind me, yes," she said. "I still look back just in case though."

"That means you don't trust your own instincts then," he said. "An enemy could take advantage of that." He rubbed the front of the door now. "Stand back. I will try to break it down."

"Alright," she nodded, taking a few steps back. She watched him now as he rammed into the door with his right shoulder.

I can tell you're very wise, Rolio... The wisest I've met usually don't speak much.

Her thoughts did eventually wander back to Lane as Rolio had mentioned him. She recalled what Jagger had stated earlier as her eyes widened a bit.

"Lane's... in a coma..." she said rather softly to herself.

"A coma?" Rolio asked as he rubbed his shoulder. The door had a few dents, meaning he could break it down with a few more hits. "You must not give up on him just because of the circumstances. You may be an active leader when he's not around, Tay, but you cannot take responsibility for his own inability to get out of a predicament. The more you worry the less chance we have of escaping and finding him. Lane will be fine. He is strong and as I said, he is... different."

"I can't help but worry," Tay said before blinking as she thought she saw the walls around them turn red. "What the..."

"What is it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow curiously at her.

"You don't see it?" she asked. "The walls... They turned red... And look like they're oozing blood!"

"What?" he asked, sounding more concerned now. "Tay, calm down. That man must have drugged you, too."

"Drugged!?" she asked. "I was fine until now! You're seriously telling me that you don't see it?"

"Everything looks normal to me," he said. "As I said, calm down."

"I can't!" she snapped. "I see... it... The blood..." She tried to dash away from the door before Rolio grabbed her arm.

"Get it together," he said, looking around. "I'll get this door open. Whatever that Jagger man did to you is starting to take effect. You mentioned he put Lane in a coma. It's possible Jagger poisoned him and now you. Hell, it's possible that he poisoned us all, but with different types."

"Different types?" she asked, squinting and trying to close her eyes, only to see a skull outline through the darkness. "Yes," he said. "Lane was sent into a coma, forced to live out his subconscious. You're beginning to hallucinate. For all I know the others could have been poisoned with something to make them weak or subject to mind alteration. Playing with memories, ideals and so on."

"You know about the poisons he might use?" she asked, holding her head.

"Unfortunately, yes," he said as he rammed into the door again, finally breaking it open. "There, open." He then took her hand and lead her down the corridor.

"Why do you know so much about them?" she asked, clinging to his arm.

"You must not know about my background," he said without looking back. "I disappeared for a reason, you know. I am a strategist. I know the way things work. I can study people and figure out their most predictable pattern. A mad scientist type loves to use poison, especially if it alters the subject and allows for control. I've seen it occur in more than the Crimson Gavel. I've seen it in the Cryptic Guard and the Baron knows this. I went into hiding because the first thing he would do if I was spotted was order an attack on me and make sure I stayed quiet. It's not like it matters now. The public worships him."

"He... must still feel threatened," she said, groaning as her head began to hurt quite a bit. "He... considers Lane... at least a threat."

"He considers anyone who opposes a threat," he said. "This pact with the Crimson Gavel his military had has probably long since been over and we just didn't know it. Lane wasn't safe in the organization anymore. Even he possibly knew that otherwise I do not know why he would take a stupid risk making his own team."

"He had enough of the Gavel when he found a woman murdered by them," she said through her groaning. "He didn't know her for very long, but he tries to protect the people he knows that could be in danger."

"That is the mind of a man who tries to be the ultimate good," he said. "It can't happen. Things will happen that he can't control." "I'm sure he's aware of that," she said, beginning to cough.

Rolio caught her and picked her up. He decided to carry her until they had gotten to a stopping point.

"He may be aware, but that does not mean he thinks he can still does it," he said, looking down at her. "Just rest, Tay. The effects of the poison may wear off on its own."

"AHHH!" Toro screamed as he ran from a similar hoard of soldiers that Tay had to face earlier. He jumped over boxes, slid under pipes and tried to knock down shelves he ran past to slow them down.

"This isn't good," he repeatedly muttered to himself. "I'm a tech guy... Not a fighter. Just a runner."

He turned a corner and tried to study his surroundings while still being mobile. That was hard to do due to seeing things for only a short period of time as well as the hallway he had entered was a rather dark place. He did notice a few security cameras that seemed to operate and track him even in the darkness though.

"Must have a night vision lens," he grumbled. "That scientist bastard must be tracking my every move and the others as well..."

He pulled out a small device from his coat pocket and clicked on a button on screen. A small tower rose from the top of the device, emitting a very strange hum noise that was barely audible to his ears. It was very audible to the cameras, however, as the hum was loud enough to disrupt them and fry the cameras near his location. This effectively gave Jagger no way of seeing what direction he would go. Of course, when he'd find more cameras that weren't sparking from being destroyed, he'd have to use the device again.

"That should buy me some time," he said to himself. He used the same device to switch into a different mode and then used it to scan a few of the nearby rooms. "No heat signatures... No mechanical signatures either. At least none that emit large amounts of heat."

His ears twitched a bit when he did hear a soft clanking noise in the distance. He looked around as he put his device back into his coat pocket. He began to walk cautiously down the hall since there were no immediate signs or trouble. He was still on guard though.

There was a bit of light toward the end of the hall. Once he had gotten to the door, he opened it slowly. He heard the clanking noise again, but didn't see anything in his view. As he stepped outside and closed the door, he was soon blindsided by a sudden punch to the cheek and sent flying onto his back.

"Oomph," he grunted, rubbing his head and slowly getting back to his feet. He looked up, noting the assailant standing before him. His eye twitched a bit as he stared at the figure.

"You can't be serious," he said.

The figure disappeared from his sight only to reappear behind him, blind siding him with a hard kick. He grunted again and fell forward, but this time managed to catch himself from completely falling. He looked back in the corner of his eye. The figure was clearly dressed in an attire he found utterly silly.

"You're... in disguise..." he said. "In... a... shinobi sh?zoku... A ninja."

The ninja figure ignored his comments and went for an attack again. This time Toro anticipated it and dodged it by ducking. He then grabbed the ninja's arm and flung them over his shoulder. He made sure to twist it behind their back as he held them down.

"I'm neither a fighter nor a killer, but I won't let you just attack me," he said. "Who are you?"

The ninja only responded with a swift elbow to Toro's gut. It had enough force behind it to make him lose his grip and then shoved away from the assailant. Toro only had less than a moment before the assailant landed a hard punch to his jaw. This sent him stumbling backward and then falling onto his back. Wiping the blood from his mouth, he grunted as he got back onto his feet. He immediately ducked as he caught the motion of the assailant's kick. He managed to grab their other leg and pull it from under them, causing them to fall back.

"Screw this," he said, kicking them hard in the stomach before taking off down the hallway. "And screw you, too, you stupid ninja! That disguise doesn't even belong here!"

He searched through his left pocket and then pulled out his Communicator. He then tried to dial in the radio signal on one of the others. He tried Tay's, but it was immediately declined. He then tried for Rolio's and sighed when it at least tried to go through, which meant it wasn't dead. When it did a beeping noise, he knew it had gone to the answer machine.

"Rolio, you jerk, pick up!" he said, constantly looking back as he ran. "I managed to get out, but I have this crazed lunatic after me. Lost the normal lackeys only to come across a goddamn ninja. Pick up, dammit!"

He finished his message before grunting as a sudden force into his gut made him tumble forward and fall onto the ground, only to rollfor a few seconds until he crashed into the wall.

"D-Damn... you..." he coughed. He tried to get up, groaning as his shoulder was injured now due to the impact.

The disguised figure from before landed a hard kick to his right cheek, sending him onto the ground again. Blood came from Toro's nose and mouth as his vision began to blur from the pain he felt. He coughed more violently now as he could hear the sound of metal clinking from where the figure stood. He could see it through his blurred vision. A Katana.

This... bastard... is going to kill me. I know it, he thought to himself. He closed his eyes, embracing for the Katana to pierce him through his chest.

When he heard a sudden louder clank, he opened his eyes to find a blue light surrounding him, causing a complete blockade between him and the Katana. It seemed to be acting as a shield of sorts

"Hey, masked guy!" a female voice called out. "Why ya gotta be picking on someone who doesn't like to fight?"

Toro went wide-eyed, immediately recognizing the voice and tone.

"Juno?" he asked, in disbelief.

Juno hopped down from a higher ledge and was behind the disguised figure. She raised an eyebrow as the figure turned its full attention toward her now.

"Ooh, ya wanna play now, buddy?" she asked, clapping excitedly. "Good! I'm in the mood to play, too. You see, I can't find my husband or any of my friends. Well, I found one of them. You're trying to kill him though. That's not very nice."

The figure simply stared at her before readying a defensive stance.

"Not a talker, eh?" she asked. "That's alright. Usually that's a sign of having issues with your parents. We can play to let you air out those feelings!"

"Juno... what are you doing...?" Toro asked himself, coughing a bit violently again. "This... isn't a joker. They're legit..."

He went wide-eyed again as Juno's hands were suddenly illuminated with the same blue light surrounding him.

"Come on, I want to play," Juno said, sporting a grin.

The figure disappeared rather suddenly and Juno darted her eyes around before firing two blue beams to her sides. He grin widened as the figure dodged one and ended up revealing themselves. She disappeared now, using her glowing hands to strike powerful punches to their gut. A total of four were connected before she uppercut the figure and launched him into the air. She then positioned her hands as if she was holding a gun and fired an energy pulse at them. The figure managed to barely dodge it, but ran along the upper wall as Juno kept firing.

"Come on, this is like laser tag!" she called out. "Only with third degree burns!"

The figure performed a blackflip when it jumped from the wall and landed behind Juno. This caught her off guard and let the figure swipe under her, causing her to fall and lose her position thus lose the ability to emit the laser.

"Ow, hey!" she said, getting up quickly. "That wasn't very nice. Didn't you ever learn hitting or knocking down a girl is a bad thing? Or was knocking up a girl a bad thing if you weren't ready?" She scratched her chin for a moment. "Oh well, no time to think on that now."

She blinked and looked around when the disguised figure seemed to disappear. She did hear a clank and looked up, gasping as the figure seemed capable of Invocation and transformed their Katana into a more compact Shuriken launcher.

"So you can Invoke," she said, rolling her eyes. "Big deal. A ninja can throw a ninja star. Guess that ninja sword didn't cut it!"

Her eyebrow raised in curiosity again as the figure seemed to move rapidly now, appearing to be in multiple places at once.

"Fancy," she said. "But I'm the Queen of Fancy!" Her entire body was suddenly covered in the blue glow. Her eyes turned white as several copies of her appeared and she had moved, hiding herself perfectly within them.

The figure dove down toward her along with its copies, falling straight into a trap she had set up. She and her copies fired several laser piercing beams and hit all of the copies, giving an impossible amount of room to dodge the attack. The attack caused the entire area to be engulfed in smoke. It took a few moments, but it soon departed and there was only one Juno standing in the center.

"Well, it seems like that's that," she smiled, running over to where Toro was. She lowered the shield around him and helped him up. "You're not dead! Yay!"

"What... What the hell was that?" Toro asked, through some grunting. "I mean, thank you... but... that was scientifically impossible."

"Oh, you tech geeks and scientists are all the same," she said. "That's scientifically impossible! Science schmience, Toro. Some things in this world aren't meant to be explained by a system like that. Frankly, it's a close-minded practice. My power comes from another form of energy."

"Wait, energy?" he asked, blinking. "There's more types?"

"Well, yes," she said, knocking on his forehead. "Come on, Toro. I know the smart guy in there knew that science disproves of anything supernatural. There are, like, uh... at least 3 types of energy. Nether, Arcane, and Pyro. I can harness Arcane Energy."

"Arcane Energy," he said, rubbing his shoulder gently. "If you're an energy wielder, why haven't you told anyone?"

"I didn't say there weren't burdens," she said, looking at him. "Behind my smile, there's a tone of seriousness, you know. Where Tran and I came from, energy users were feared. Usually killed. That's why he and I fled."

"Tran... is an energy user, too?" he asked.

"Mmhm," she nodded. "A Pyro Energy user. He makes things light up. It's quite useful for when we go camping!" She smiled and clapped excitedly again.

"I'm sure it is and we'll have to get into further discussion about this later," he said. "We have to find the others."

"Oh, right!" she nodded. "I still need to find Tran, too. Oh, Bunny Boo... I hope you're okay."

"Bunny... Boo...?" he asked, stifling a chuckle.

"Mmhm!" she nodded. "It's his adorable pet name I gave him. He seems to dislike it being used around others though." She thought for a moment. "I wonder what Bunny Boo would think if he knew you knew now."

"He'd probably hate it," he said. "Come on."

"Oh, right!" she nodded before jumping onto Toro's back. "Piggyback ride!"

Toro grunted and sighed, carrying her now.

Tay held her head as she was now being carried by Rolio. The effects of the drug within her seemed to be wearing off as she wasn't fidgeting or screaming anymore. Rolio just continued to carry her until they entered another large storage area. He then set her down and looked around for an exit route. As he approached a doorway, it suddenly slammed shut as a dark laugh could be heard from a distance. Tay looked up and around before a door slammed down in front of her, effectively locking her away from Rolio.

"What the-!" she blinked before getting up and banging on the door.

"Tay, just run!" Rolio called out. "I will catch up with you!"

"No, I can't!" she answered.

"Just do it!" he said. "I will catch up with you, I promise!"

She gulped and then backed away from the door before running back down the hall to find an alternate pathway.

Rolio clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes as he followed the sound of the laugh.

"Rolio Brant," the voice said. "It seems like you couldn't protect Tay after all."

"Who are you to say I haven't?" he asked.

"Oh, forgive me," he said. "I am Vincent Vinchi. You know, Jagger's boss. Lane's enemy."

"What!?" he blinked. "You dare show up here, while Lane is incapacitated?!"

"My target isn't Lane right now," he said. "It's all of you. To prove it, I have a friend of yours that would love to take you down and keep you prisoner."

"You're lying," he said, though went wide-eyed when he witnessed Jazz jump down from where Vinchi was standing.

"That's a lie?" he asked. "Oh, dear Jazz, show him I'm no liar."

"This isn't going to work," Rolio said. "She isn't a strong fighter." He positioned himself to block a punch but as soon as Jazz punched him, the block as broken and he was still hit hard.

"You think I'd let the drug Jagger manufactured not have other effects?" Vinchi chuckled. "The drug, when under my control, allows for a person's skills to be augmented by 200%. Even if that skill is initially weak. It becomes powerful, though her specialization is still the most powerful."

Rolio grunted and managed to stay standing despite being struck by the powerful punch.

"She is not a melee expert," he said. "That punch of hers may be strong now, but it is nothing more than an annoying jab in my side."

"Right," Vinchi chuckled. "Let's see how you'll fair against her then. Jazz, dear, show him how my subjects work. Oh, and do keep him alive." He then stepped out of the room, deciding to let them fight in peace.

Jazz nodded before readying herself and then charged into Rolio. He embraced himself, creating his own shield with his large arms. He was able to take the front of the charge and had a chance to retaliate. He did so by swinging his right arm at her and connecting a punch to her right shoulder. His left arm reached out and grabbed Jazz by the collar before throwing her into the nearby wall. He shifted his shoulders a bit as they were hurt, though not as much as Jazz or Vinchi would have liked. Jazz stood up after crashing into the wall, seemingly unphased by the damage that it should have caused. Her eyes darted around, seeming to check for something before flat out dodging an overhead fist slam from Rolio.

"Your skills and reflexes may be greater, but it takes more than that to best me," he said, grabbing her tail as he was behind her now. He yanked on it, pulling her backward before grabbing her collar and flinging her into the wall again.

Jazz let out a roan in pain as she recovered from the crash. She stood back up and cracked her neck to the left and to the right, still seeming unphased by the damage she had taken.

"You are certainly persistent," Rolio said. "But persistence eventually wears you down. No matter the enhancement, you'll always have a breaking point."

"Are you done making a speech?" she asked. "I'm tired of your voice."

Rolio just chuckled, but blinked when Jazz suddenly vanished from his sight. He felt her presence to his left before turning to strike. However, he only struck air. He looked around confusedly before sensing her presence to his right. Again, he turned and attempted to strike her. He growled in frustration when he only struck air again. He then sensed her presence above him and reached up, grabbing her left leg before she could get away this time.

"Your foolish trick is useless," he said before throwing her down onto the ground. He watched her slide and soon hit the wall with a bit of force, creating a dent.

"It isn't useless," Jazz said, holding up her left hand.

Rolio blinked and looked at it. It held a detonator.

"What the..." he said before looking up.

There were several small satchel charges above him and before he could react, Jazz detonated them. The ceiling from above crumbled and fell toward Rolio. The dust filled the room, causing an attempted sidestep to fail as a large chunk of the ceiling slammed down onto Rolio's head. He stumbled for a moment before falling forward and being hit with a few more pieces of the rubble. He finally passed out when he was almost completely covered in the rubble. Jazz walked over to him before throwing a few pieces of it off and then picked up Rolio's body. She then carried it out of the room, heading toward a larger room where Vinchi would be waiting for her.

Elsewhere, Tay was huffing and puffing from running for a solid five minutes. She looked around frantically, not knowing where she was heading or if it was even the right direction to try and get out of this large facility. It seemed like a definite maze to her.

"Dammit," she said to herself. "Rolio... Please be okay. I'll find the others... I hope." She sighed to herself now. "I wish Lane was here... I'd feel a bit less frightened."

She soon came across a small lab and found the door unlocked. She gulped and headed inside, looking around. She had braced herself to see disgusting experiments or perhaps one of her friends mutilated, but she didn't find that. All she did find was a few computer systems that seemed to work a security relay. She could see several monitors on and found the locations of Toro and Juno, along with seeing Tran fighting off his own strange emotionless hoard of henchmen.

"Tran!" she blinked, then looked around as she hurried to a keyboard. "There has to be an overwrite password... If I can get him out of there and shut the door behind him, he'll be safe." She tried several password combinations, though they were all incorrect.

She did get lucky after a few more minutes and found out the code at least for this terminal was the word "amalgamation" but backwards. She only found this out by searching documents on the desk and noticed it was a strange word written in red ink. It was rather well hidden and required her to take several glances before realizing it had any relevance. Once the code was entered, the door on the screen did immediately unlock. Tran noticed immediately and ran through it, while Tay hurriedly pressed the button to close it. She had managed to do so without letting a single henchman through and sighed with relief. She then sighed and headed out of the room, down the corridor in hopes of perhaps meeting him.

After what felt like a lifetime of running, Tay did run into Tran and it was almost literal. She had just stopped before Tran turned the corner, which was the only reason the two didn't collide.

"At least I found someone finally," Tran said, catching his breath. "Have you seen the others?"

"Only Rolio, but he made me run when an altercation happened," Tay said.

"Altercation?" he asked.

"Vinchi showed up with Jazz... She was acting strange, completely out of character," she said.

"That must be the work of Jagger then," he said, sighing. "He specializes in chemicals that can induce reactions in the brain and it ends up leading to brainwashing or sometimes worse, like being comatose."

"Like Lane is..." she mumbled.

"Lane is comatose?" he asked.

"Jagger taunted me about him being in a coma," she nodded.

"I'm sure we'll be able to get to him before Jagger does any serious damage," he said. "For now though, we need to think up a plan."

They both blinked when they heard a large crash and one of the metal doors came off of its hinges and whizzed past them. Tay gasped as she saw Vice running toward them seconds later.

"It's that... thing... from before!" she said before trying to grab Tran's hand and make him run with her.

Tran, however, didn't move. Instead, he let go of Tay's hand and muttered a strange sentence before opening his right palm and launching a large fiery beam at Vice. It struck violently, sending Vice easily into a wall.

"W-What the..." Tay said, shocked by the events.

"The time to ask questions will be when that thing retreats," he said. "I may have been running earlier, but I'll be damned if my pride will cost me, Juno, or any of the team's lives."

She nodded and simply watched as Tran fired another beam from his palm, though this time Vice was ready for it and managed to use its large arms to block and deflect the said attack. Tran shoved Tay out of the way, getting struck by his own blast.

"Get back, around that corner," he said, though he was straining on his words slightly.

Tay shook her head at that.

"No, I'm going to help," she said. "I can't just sit on the sidelines!"

"You're foolish then," he said. "But don't say I didn't try to keep you safe."

Vice roared out before charging at them again. Tran swiped under him when he was close enough, striking him with a flaming fist. Tay had pulled out her pistol and fired it onto Vice's charging body. She jumped out of the way in time, as Vice kept coming at her. He was still on fire from Tran's attack, so that gave her the time to get over to Tran.

"That peashooter won't do anything to a creature like him," Tran said to her before handing her a larger gun from his backpack.

It was a modified Shock Gun that turned it into a mid-range weapon rather than a short range one. Its shock pellet ammunition was modified to trigger small explosive blasts on contact.

"Use that," he said. "The kickback might be hard to handle, but it gets the job done."

Tay nodded and cocked the gun before hearing Vice roar out and run after her again. She gulped and aimed the Shock Gun and fired it at Vice. The kickback from the weapon was greater than she or Tran anticipated and she did bump into him when she fired. The shock pellets did distract Vice for a second before a large angry fist slammed into them. Tay could feel Tran grab onto her, protecting her from the blow of the walls as the punch was powerful enough to send them through several walls. Once they finally stopped and landed, Tay was set down and coughing like mad due to the dust in the air. Tran groaned, holding his left shoulder as it did suffer from bruising and a bit of bleeding. His shirt was torn due to the metal being broken by their force and the tips were sharpened because of it. His left hand began to glow again with an orange tint before he fired a beam of fire toward Vice. It struck, but seemed to do little to deter the monster coming for him. Tay scrambled to her feet and fired the Shock Gun again, biting her lower lip when the shock pellets seem to not bother Vice either now.

"He's adapting to the damage," she heard Tran grumble. "At least to projectiles like bullets."

Tay sighed before smacking Vice in the side of the head with the barrel of her Shock Gun, letting out an annoyed growl.

"You won't hurt my friends!" she said before bringing the Shock Gun down on his head again and causing Vice to stumble. She struck him again and again, growling louder as she was angry about the only means of help she could provide was becoming useless.

Tran watched her beat Vice repeatedly with the Shock Gun, seeming both surprised and impressed. Though he blinked when Vice grabbed her with one giant hand after recovering from the blows.

"Let her go!" he yelled out before running toward Vice and firing a flame ball at him.

Letting out a pained groan from the effects of the said flame ball, Tay gasped and coughed as the giant hand released her and she fell limp to the ground. Coughing and gasping for air, she watched Tran take on Vice again. His hands were glowing much brighter now before a staff-like object formed. He gripped the staff firmly before firing a more powerful beam at Vice, causing him to roar out and charge at him despite now being set on fire. Tran was hit by the charge and smacked into the wall. Letting out a loud yelp of pain, his vision already blurred as he wasn't trained to take many blows.

Tay hopped up and ran after Vice, striking him with the barrel of the Shock Gun. It seemed less effective from the back as he used his large right hand to swipe at her, striking her and causing her to fly into the wall. Crashing through the metal with such force, she did land at the feet of two familiar people.

"Tay!" Toro blinked and then bent down to help her up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Tay said, coughing slightly.

Juno looked into the other room and quickly narrowed her eyes.

"Get away from my Bunny Boo!" she shouted before charging into the room.

"Bunny Boo?" Tay asked, rubbing her head.

"Don't ask," Toro said, chuckling lightly.

Juno ran up to Vice and tapped him on his shoulder. Vice, confused, looked in her direction before being blasted directly in the face with a blast.

"Don't you ignore a lady!" she said, obvious anger in her voice. Her hands began to glow with the very same blue glow her body produced when she protected Toro.

Vice snarled at her before seeming to leap into the air and due to his immense weight, quickly coming down onto Juno. Luckily, Juno was able to barely move out of the way.

"Sorry, big guy, I don't think you're my type," she said before seeming to do a powerful uppercut to his chin. It seemed like if her energy was concentrated, she could enhance her melee abilities.

Vice stumbled backward before roaring out and grabbing Juno directly with his large left hand.

"Oh, hey, handsy!" she said, struggling to break the grip. She was then thrown down the hall, smashing into the wall at the end. The force was hard enough to go through one layer and damage another.

Tran grunted as he slowly stood back up. He noticed Vice charging at Juno and clenched his fist. He then darted away from Toro and Tay, his eye twitching as he watched Vice grab Juno again. Toro looked over Tay and then tried to patch up her wounds. He then lifted her up and carried her out into a separate hallway before trying to continue their search for the exit.

Tran fired a large flame blast at Vice's back, which ended up distracting him. Juno used this time to force a powerful uppercut once again to Vice's jaw. She was let go and landed next to Tran, groaning.

"He's one hell of a creature," she said.

"Glad to know you can drop the cute act," Tran said.

"Shut it," she said. "This is a bit much for what we're doing."

"It'll be worth it, trust me," he said.

They both blinked when Vice slammed his fists down onto them both, causing the floor to cave in and send them all toppling down, revealing they were apparently not on the ground floor. They crashed through several floors below and all three of them hit several pipes, causing rather irritating and painful injuries. Tran tried his best to shield himself and Juno from the impacts, but his attempts only negated part of the pain. Once they finally hit the ground floor, they were both beginning to fade in and out. Vice even seemed to finally show some weakening in his defense. Tran got up, though stumbled quite a bit after doing so. He prepared to fire a fiery beam but before he could, he fell forward onto his stomach and blacked out. Juno watched before finally blacking out herself.

Vice seemed to regain himself before roaring and attempting to smash Juno and Tran while they were down before a voice intervened.

"That's more than enough," a man said. "Lock them away, but not with the others. Keep them in separate, special cages, Doctor."

"Very well, sir," the voice belonging to Jagger replied. "Vice, report back to your master with those two in your arms. You served your purpose for now. Once you bring them to me, you have new targets to hunt down."

Vice growled and picked up Juno and Tran before running back toward where Jagger was located now.

Toro and Tay had finally reached a room with a window, though it apparently was in the center of the building, giving them an unobstructed view of the outside floor.

"There's a stairs icon on the door over there," Toro sighed, letting Tay rest. "That means we've never been on the ground floor. This building has to be huge."

"I don't care," Tay said. "I'm good now. We don't have to... keep stopping." She held her side as it caused her to break her sentence apart.

"In your condition, you're about as fragile as I am in the battlefield," he said.

"I'm fine," she said, though she still couldn't stand up completely straight.

He shook his head before blinking when she reached into his backpack and pulled out a first aid kit. She ended up pulling out some gauze and lifted her shirt slightly, dealing with a wound and soon had the gauze wrapped around her waist. She then grabbed a small vile and poured a liquid into a needle before injecting it into herself. It was a healing liquid natural to Krater that only helped cure minor injuries completely but did aid in speeding up the recovery rate of larger injuries as well. She was able to stand without feeling like she was about to fall over. She straightened herself up before heading toward the stairs.

"Are you coming?" she asked. "We don't have time to sit... and rest."

"You have a point," Toro said, heading after her. "Don't strain yourself though."

"Quit worrying about me," she said. "If Lane was here, he'd be doing the same. I would tell him the same thing though. Stop worrying."

"Alright, fine," he said. "Once we find a way out and the others, that's our next step, right? To find Lane?"

"I'd assume so," she said. "It is awfully quiet right now. We might be walking into a trap."

They headed down the first set of stairs with Toro checking the halls of each floor to see if there were any traps set. It was clear and they did hit a snag on the stairwell when they approached a blockade of debris.

"Damn," Toro said. "Looks like we'll have to find another staircase." He went to open the door, peeking out into the hallway.

"Let's go then," Tay said, pushing him into the hall. "Nothing's out here otherwise you would have already retreated back into the stairwell."

Toro nodded and ran down the hall with Tay following behind him. They soon came across a large room with computers and what looked like empty test tubes.

"Interesting," Toro said to himself. "Jagger is definitely up to no good if there are parts of this place... fully restored."

"It does look like this was grounds for testing or experimentation," Tay said, still holding her Shock Gun defensively. She turned and raised an eyebrow when she heard Toro let out a pained groan. "What are you doing?"

Toro had put a needle in his left arm, drawing a bit of blood. He then put it in one of the tubes and began to run a scan on it with a program on one of the computers.

"I need a sample of your blood, too," he said. "I've been feeling strange from time to time. I know Jagger did something. We all woke up here with no knowledge or recollection of getting to this place. It might also give us insight to what he's doing with Lane."

"I'll trust you on this," Tay said before holding her left arm out so Toro could extract a bit of blood.

He placed it within another tube and began to scan it as well. Unfortunately, it would take a few minutes to scan both samples. Tay stood guard with her Shock Gun since she rather not be ambushed. The longer they waited, however, the more Toro began to cough and show signs of sickness. The machine did ding shortly after Tay was starting to become impatient and Toro looked over the results.

"I knew it," he sighed. "He's infected probably the entire team with some sort of chemical... Though my strain and yours seem different. Judging from the pattern in this data, it's a biological agent that's designed to disrupt your nervous system and deal damage to your brain cells. It acts as a method of letting another entity control your body. In short, it's a mind control cliché poision. There's no time at all for an antidote, but yours seems to be happening slower than mine. I won't be of much help soon. You'll have to go on without me."

"Without you?" Tay asked, then rolled her eyes. "Why would I do that?"

"You should listen to the smartest member on your team, girl," Jagger suddenly chimed in as his face appeared rather suddenly on the monitors. "He's the only smart one assesses what's going on other than just knowing you were poisoned. Trust me, your dosage is worse than his but not worse than Lane's... special version of the poison."

Tay narrowed her eyes, letting out a low audible growl, which ended up just making Jagger chuckle.

"Any minute now, your friend there will turn on you and obey me," he said. "I suggest you worry about yourself more than your boyfriend or even that 'genius' if you can call him that."

"Tay, he's right," Toro groaned. "Run. Get away. There's... probably an antidote somewhere..."

"But..." Tay said, then blinked when Toro groaned louder and his eyes began to fade before he looked at her with little to no emotion.

"Get her," Jagger ordered.

Toro suddenly tried to grab at her, which Tay responded with knocking him away with the butt of her gun. She then took off toward an unopen door and smashed her way through it. It opened easily, so she stumbled a bit before regaining herself and darting down the hall.

"After her!" Jagger ordered Toro. Obediently, Toro did follow the order and gave chase to Tay.

The chase was ongoing. Tay stayed a decent distance from Toro while trying to not get herself lost on this floor of the building. She looked around before kicking down a door and ran into a supply room. She did look around for anything that could help her and ended up finding some experimental ammunition for her Laser Pistol and Shock Gun. She also found a small bag of altered grenades and pocketed them. Once she gathered the supplies, she looked out into the hall and didn't see Toro. She had all of her weapons in a backpack now secured on her back and ran down the hall, toward what supposedly was another stairwell.

Suddenly, she was blindsided by a rather strong Toro and he ended up with a strong grip around her throat. She kicked around and gasped as she was suspended in the air before looking down at Toro.

"Sorry," she managed to say before biting his hand, causing him to let go and she landed a swift kick into his crotch, causing him to stumble and nearly topple over.

She ran to the door and closed it behind her and tried to barricade it with a few small chairs against the door knob. Almost immediately, she heard Toro ramming his shoulder into the door.

"Better get a head start," she mumbled to herself before running down the stairwell.

It was only about two minutes later that she heard Toro get through the weak barricade. She was still running as fast as she could, though her legs were already starting to tire. Her vision did blur for a second and she blinked, swearing she saw the walls dripping again like she had before when she was with Rolio. She shook her head and then held her forehead as she ran. She burst her way into another large room. Her vision was still a bit blurry before she turned and heard Toro's footsteps. Even if her vision was failing her for the moment, she heard where he came from and dodged his attempt at grabbing her again. She managed to punch him in the ribs and then shove him away and into a wall. When she noticed he did immediately get back up, she put all of her strength into another punch. She connected it, uppercutting Toro's jaw and send him flat onto his back. He seemed to be knocked out before Tay screamed out as she stumbled and fought the need for her body to black out.

"You are tougher than you look," Jagger chuckled from a monitor near her. "Just as Vinchi predicted. No doubt that your boyfriend has indeed helped train you in survival. Anticipating this, though, is how your version of the poison works. The more work and strain on yourself, the faster it will take hold."

"I won't let you win," Tay said, breathing heavily and in obvious pain. "Lane wouldn't let you win, so neither... will I!"

"Is that so?" he asked. "I didn't want to resort to this, but you forced my hand. Watch out."

Tay blinked and managed to take out her Shock Gun before suddenly being rammed into the wall by a very powerful force. It was Vice, yet again, with a destructive entrance. She gasped out and coughed before being lifted in the air with his own incredibly firm grip on her throat. She struggled to do so, but she managed to lift her Shock Gun and fired several experimental rounds into his face. The new type of rounds seemed to work as Vice roared out, letting go of her and stumbling around. She coughed and shook as she stood up.

"I won't... go down without a fight!" she yelled out before unloading several more rounds from the Shock Gun and into Vice's body.

"Looks like she is a fireball," Vinchi said to Jagger as they both watched her take on Vice via a monitor.

"She might be putting up a better fight than you thought," Jagger said. "It won't matter though. From how she's using her energy and what I see so far, she's close to forcing herself to convert."

"Then there's no snag in our plans," Vinchi said before raising an eyebrow when there was an alarm going off. "And that is?"

"Odd," Jagger said, looking at the monitor. "I didn't plan for any alarms to go off yet. Where is this coming from?"

There was soon a hiss from his walkie talkie.

"Hey, this is Lane Silverbane," the voice stated. "Is there a Jagger Deville in there?"

"Bloody hell, you managed to break out of the coma the drug induced," Jagger said, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah, your trick into trying to get my own energy source to kill me wasn't half bad until I realized I was still in my head," Lane chuckled. "Now, you're gonna be a nice mad scientist and tell me where my friends are or I'll make this wing explode with one shot since I noticed a liquid Harite container in a room I passed by. I know you know what happens when something like a barrage of bullets come in contact with it, right? It's highly explosive."

"No deal," Jagger said. "You have no idea where I'm holding-"

He was cut off by hearing a sudden explosion on the other side of the walkie talkie.

"Have you gone insane, lad?" he asked. "What if your mates were in that wing and you just murdered them?"

"I knew they weren't," Lane replied. "Now that you know I'm not bluffing, tell me where they are."

"You're persistent, but I'm not motivated enough to tell you yet," Jagger said, chuckling. "You may have blown up one wing of my lab, but you won't have such an easy time doing that again, Mr. Silverbane."

"We'll see about that," Lane said. "I know a standard lab like this one has four wings. Five if it's a prison-like lab, which makes me think it is considering I was a prisoner."

"You'll find my guards a bit more... powered up by the time you even find something to blow up the next wing," Jagger replied. "Good luck not trying to kill your friends in the process."

With that, Jagger placed the walkie talkie down and sighed to himself.

"He does seem rather annoying," Vinchi said. "I'll leave you to deal with him. Make sure that girl is under control before then though."

"Yes, sir," Jagger nodded. "I already have a plan for that. Just like I've assured you that you have control over the squadron that controls the Cryptic Guard's nuclear science sector."

"Good," Vinchi nodded. "Once you put on your show, then we'll follow through with my plan of eliminating most of these useless dolls."

Jagger was soon left alone as he sat back and tried to concentrate on watching Lane and watching Tay at the same time.

Tay was still struggling to keep herself from passing out, but she was losing the fight with her body fast. She did manage to aim and fire her Shock Gun at Vice when he ran at her, but the shots distracted him yet again. She was soon out of ammunition for the weapon so she needed a better plan. Her vision continued to blur and play tricks on her as she had to lean against a nearby wall. The fact she had to rest gave Vice enough time to grab her once he was no longer disoriented and slam her down onto the ground. Letting out a pained groan and coughing a bit violently, she struggled even more to keep herself from keeping in.

"Lane..." she grumbled as she tried to roll onto her stomach. "Forgive me... for not being strong enough..." With that, she closed her eyes. Vice stood there as he sensed no more opposition and Jagger's command rang through a speaker nearby.

"Excellent work, Vice," he said. "Come back to me. You will be... recovering a bit as well as getting some modified upgrades."

Vice walked over to Tay, whose eyes had opened and were just as blank as Toro's were. He picked her up and then headed back toward where Jagger's office was.

Some time had passed while Jagger watched Lane progress through his lab. He also was studying Tay a fair bit while she stood in the room still with a blank expression on her face. He stood up when he watched Vice fight Lane for a few minutes before injecting a needle into Tay's neck.

"There," he said. "You'll be able to act like your old self, my dear. When he does rescue you, he won't know the difference."

Tay let out a gasp and then nodded. Jagger went around and injected the needle into the others as well, forcing their personalities back into existence but still under his control to give the illusion they were only captured.

"You all know the plan," he said. "When you are released, bring Lane to this location. A missile will be launched. You all will be terminated except for this one next to me. Understood?"

The entire group nodded, though Juno and Tran were still unconscious. Jagger did feel like he was forgetting something, though shrugged it off after a few minutes.

Bernie was walking through a hallway and looking around as he noticed that patrols were non-existent. He pulled out his Communicator and sighed as the signal seemed to be jammed.

"Can't call Lane," he grumbled. "He'd never believe me that I got myself out of the doctor's room."

He peeked into a large room he came across, noticing there was some debris in it. Carefully walking inside, he found one of the computer terminals completely undamaged. The computer seemed to be logged in as well, as if someone had forgotten to log off of the system. He looked at the desktop, noting several shortcuts to security feeds, though one was labeled differently. He opened it up and was treated to a disturbing image of decapitated specimens as well as living experiments looking like they were in agonizing pain. It didn't help that when it booted up, a loud gear noise played and an image flashed across the screen. He grumbled and covered his eyes, struggling to move the mouse to the red X button in order to close the window. After about twenty minutes of this, he finally closed it. She then reluctantly opened the other feeds, though sighed with relief when one was of Lane fighting with Vice and the other was all of his friends captured in a cell.

"That's better than the stupid freak factory," he said, then went wide-eyed. "Wait a second, no it's not. Crap."

He watched as the fight between Lane and Vice ensued, causing a hefty amount of damage to the facility they were in. Bernie opened a third stream, staring at it as he saw Minnie - strapped to a table and still unconscious. He quickly took note of the top right of the feed stating Lab Room 13-A. He closed Minnie's feed and looked back at the other feeds. He bit his lower lip, seeing Lane being badly damaged.

"You can get them out," he said, though to himself. "I'll get Minnie. I'll be somewhat useful, Lane. I swear it."

He then shut down the streams and ran off after writing down quick directions to Lab Room 13-A. He had the urgency to find Minnie, release her and get out of the facility. He had a bit of difficulty determining how Jagger had set up the facility for his own organizational purposes, but he did eventually find the room. He kicked down the door and ran over to Minnie. He quickly took out a pocket knife and cut all of her bindings He then helped her up as she came to, seeming dazed.

"Bernie?" she asked, letting out a gentle yawn.

"Yeah," he said. "Don't worry, toots. I'll help you get out of here."

"Good," she said. "I can't remember what happened ever since the blackout."

"You don't need to," he said. "We'll get out of here and regroup with Lane and the group."

She nodded and held onto his hand as she stumbled at first, but quickly regained her strength for walking. They then took off, searching for an exit.

Jagger was watching the fight with Vice and making the hypnotized group watch was well. He smirked to himself, watching Vice and Lane crash into a different room. Once Lane stood up and Vice did not, he grabbed the Communicator he had taken from Tay and reset it, causing a different number to pop up when he did call Lane.

"Oh, you sound like you're out of breath," he chuckled in response to the heavy panting over the Communicator and in general because he could see how tired Lane was.

"How the hell did you get my Communicator's number?" Lane just bluntly asked.

"That's not important," Jagger chuckled. "What's more important is that you may want to hurry up and find me. I do have a certain lady friend of yours I found sneaking around with a group trying to find you near my laboratory. Right now, she's under my complete control and at any moment, I could make her take her gun and shoot this team of hers in the head. I don't suppose that's enough so you could give up, hmm?"

"What?!" Lane blinked. "Leave Tay and the others out of this. Your target is me, not them."

"Oh, her name is Tay?" Jagger asked, chuckling. "You don't get it, do you, Lane? We're part of a mafia. We do what we want, under certain guidelines. Your friends are targets if you're our target. Don't believe me? Look for yourself." He turned the Communicator toward Tay, who just stood there with a blank expression on her face.

"Bring out prisoner 2!"

Lane seemed to have a furious look on his face as two guards escorted Rolio out onto the camera. He did move slightly and was nothing more than sedated, rather than drugged. Tay turned toward him, still expressionless. She was handed a powerful Laser Pistol, the model Long Ranger.

"What are you doing, Jagger?" Lane asked, growling now. "Don't stoop to this level. You had me where you wanted me. Why are you doing this now?"

"Because since Vice was defeated, which basically means self-destruct, that means your inner spirit purged my control," Jagger said. "Now to show you that I mean business.... Tay, shoot that prisoner in the head."

"No," Lane said. "Tay! Don't!"

Tay complied, placing the gun at the right side of Rolio's head, firing immediately. He fell to the floor, with Lane now looking like he had witnessed a tremendous amount of trauma. The other members of the team were acting out as if they opposed this and wanted to murder Jagger, making his illusion work perfectly.

"I hope that means I'll see you soon then," the scientist chuckled. "Get out of that room before Vice self-destructs, by the way. I don't like others taking my prey." He then shut the Communicator off.

He looked at the dead Rolio on the ground and then at the others.

"Guards, escort them outside," he said. "Have them carry the two unconscious. Don't have a use for them and Vinchi has stated they will all die with the missile launch. No need to murder them here. You, Miss... Tay, was it? Remember your plan."

Tay nodded before turning her tears on like a faucet and fell into a fetal position, beginning to ball her eyes out. She was simulating a tremendous amount of guilt quite well. Jagger soon left the room after ordering the rest of the team to return to their normal selves, heading to fight with Lane.

Vinchi chuckled from above as the team was escorted out. He was showing a dark figure on his Communicator what had been occurring to Lane and his group.

"This is rather convoluted," the figure said, sounding feminine.

"It is, but it's not going to be simple taking out a Donjy," Vinchi said. "You said that yourself."

"Yes, I am aware of what I said, Vincent," she remarked.

"The Dons I chose already knew what they were in for when they signed up," he said. "I don't feel sorry for their deaths. They will empower me regardless."

"And if you do still fail, then I'm correct," she bluntly stated. "He would be a match for Runo, thus a great threat to him and us."

"I've got my sources to slow down Runo's production of a brainwashed military force," he said. "Well, a gigantic scaled one at least. As I speak, I have some of my men making sure that Runo breaks that treaty off. A lot of hits were put out."

"Excellent," she said. "Weaken him and attempt to get rid of the Donjy. Remember, if you fail, then you deserve permenant death."

"I remind myself of that every day, Miss," he said, shutting down the Communicator. "Bortelli will be slaughtered, so it is up to me now. I'll make sure he's one with his parents."

He waited in the very building Jagger and Lane were fighting in and once the result was obvious, he made his exit. The building began to come down after he jammed a forklift gas pedal and rammed it into an already weakened pillar.

"Enjoy the exit," he chuckled to himself.