I snort at Declan's earlier words, "Relax, man, we got this," I mimic in a purposely high-pitched-squeaky-voice for the benefit of Charles and Declan's confused faces to my random snort. Unfortunately our job of finding the red button was significantly harder then we'd already believed. It turns out that it was in the corner in of the steel door and we had to actually hold the button down for three seconds after stopping the six second countdown by pressing the button for the first time. Of course by the time we'd figured that out, the six seconds were long gone.

"Yeah well maybe if you hadn't shoved me out of the, ow!" Declan's words of defence for himself gets paused when his knee crashes into the steel wall next to us, "Out of the way." He finally manages to get out while pausing in the cramped tunnel to rub his bruised knee.

Fortunately, fifteen minutes into our meaningless insults, excessive blaming and speeches of boredom while we waited for one long hour just for the chance to type the password in again, Alfred managed to come up with a not-so-pleasant-plan. Surprisingly enough the crazy-underground-caveman-complex, actually has air vents! Shocker isn't it? Better yet they spread over the whole centre. So what better way to get to the top level then completely skipping the lift and second level, by crawling through a tiny, dirty, stuffy pipe? Through two whole levels? Note sarcasm there.

I sigh as I shuffle around in the cramped space and dust the flakes of rock, sand and goodness knows what else, off my hands. I haven't had a shower in days and it's really starting to become more and more visible. Sure, me looking like a drowned rat that's been coated in muck, isn't exactly my biggest worry at the moment, but I'm more worried about everyone else in this fowl place being able to sniff us out. It wouldn't be hard judging by the horrible smell the envelopes my nose now as I'm stuck behind a slightly stinky Charles and purely revolting Declan.

"Alright guys, it's not far now," Charles says after a moment into our unvoiced decision for a rest, oblivious to my concerns, "We're almost through level two. Up ahead there's the tiny stairs that lead up to level one, which I can tell will be an absolute joy to climb up," He sarcastically says, "But before that I can see an air vent and I want to see what's going on down below."

Declan and I look up from our sore knees that we were inspecting, and nod our heads at Charles in sync, agreeing with his smart idea. Charles doesn't say anything except turn down a tiny tunnel to the left. He crawls a little way before stopping and making room for Declan and I to join him above the tiny window down to the world far below, also known as an air vent.

Straight away my eyes zoom in on the red flashing lights that are placed at corner of every corridor. The alarms are off. It isn't a surprise since I did kinda knew before, but as I actually see the alarms flashing, alerting everyone in the whole facility that we're here, it unnerves me slightly.

Ignoring the repetitive red flashing, I focus on what's actually happening. As far as I can tell we're above a normal hallway. Slightly wider then most of the ones that we walked through before, perhaps, but there's no real action happening at the moment. All the doors aligning the cream coloured walls are closed. In fact, if it weren't for the red blinking alarms, I'd be wondering if this place was deserted.

I momentarily freeze. Clark is the controller and basically, the guy that everyone wants at the moment so he can use the lavapick for their teams behalf. Gareth only wants power which, evidently, involves using the lavapick. To use the lavapick though, you kinda need Clark. But Gareth now knows that we've escaped and that we have more people with us then he had originally planned. In some ways, we're his only real threat aside from Marco who probably wants to kill Clark which will stop anyone from using the lavapick unless by some miracle another one randomly showed up. So what's stopping Gareth from taking his ultimate key to power and moving away from his threats? If he did then that'll explain why this place looks empty.

Slowly I turn my head away from the air vent and look up at Declan and Charles. I've heard before that if you want to live a happier life, then don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to. In this case I definitely want to hear the response of no body going anywhere, but I seriously don't want to hear that they've probably moved.

Taking a deep breath ask the question that I have to know the answer too, "You don't think they would've used the telepick and moved to somewhere else, away from here? Do you? Cause if they did then that's not good for us, I mean if they did then that would be like, really bad for us."

"If they relocated, you mean?" Charles looks up at me when he hears my worries. I nod my head to agree with him and he continues on, "Well it's possible, but honestly I don't think he did. We're under Vertango at the moment and it has his best testing facility. Gareth doesn't just want power, he needs it, he craves it. Because of that and his endless search for more of it, he believes that he's stronger and more powerful than anyone else in this world. However sensible it is for him to leave, he won't do it."

I slowly nod my head thoughtfully at him while my head somehow ends up turning so I'm now staring back into the inky red hallway far below. "Well that's good for us, I guess."

Charles dimly nods his head at me but doesn't say anything. No one says anything, we all just stare into the grey abyss below, filled with red flashes. It had been a long, strenuous crawl all the way up here and now that we're mere metres from the top floor, no one's doing anything. It's understandable though. I mean we are kinda exhausted after our journey so far and as soon as we crawl up those final steps and slide down the gentle slope to the entry of floor one, there's going to be a lot of action and a lot of blood. That much is guaranteed.

After another minute or two of pointless staring and endless swarms of unwanted thoughts, Declan breaks the silence by a loud and exaggerated sigh, or more accurately, a long huff. On cue, Charles blinks out of his thoughts, closely followed by myself.  We start to turn to go, to get inevitable fight over and done with, but the sound of heavy combat boots thumping against the concrete on level two sends us all twisting around so we can get a view of what's happening.

There must be thirty, maybe even forty hogmers, running in a rectangle formation through the corridor. My curiosity spikes straight away. They're all dressed in an inky black commando uniform. They don't carry any guns or any other type of weapon in their hands, they're simply running urgently. It makes sense for no weapons though, with their powers of spitting deadly green blobs and unnatural strength, a gun probably wouldn't be that useful for them anyway.

"Where are they going? What are they doing?" Declan's voice is barely above a whisper. I'm grateful that it isn't any louder since it would be a bit of a task trying to fight them all off if they heard us. Sure we probably could, but it still, it would be a bit of a nuisance.

"Looking for us," Charles responses in a quiet, monotone voice. I'm pretty sure Declan and I both get the shivers at his voice and words. When Charles notices it though his cold demeanour fades and his natural soft smile fills his face again, "Come on, let's go."

Charles leads again with Declan who's still creeped out in the middle and me taking up the rear. Just like Charles predicted, the steep stairs dig into your knees and pads of your hands, causing red marks and the sharp sting of pain. We ignore it somehow and manage to finally make it to the top.

At the top there's a couple of metres of straight tin before the tube dips down into a form of a slide which leads to the front entrance of the top floor. Charles was right when he said that this level had the top security. The air vent ends here and starts again inside the actual floor. Security's tight and it won't let anyone through unless they go through the tests which are required before you can push the door open.

"Alrighties team!" Alfred says in an overly cheery voice. I think we all roll our eyes at his new nickname for us all. "So this is basically what's going to happen when you drop down, okay? Well in that short time that you guys have been moving, backup team Shortie, finally arrived so they'll be inside waiting for ya's. The security tests are simple enough, just stuff like password, with no pressing of any buttons I might add, eye scan and finger print. If you remember I gave you, Charles, a contact lens and a thumb pad which will sort the eye and finger print scan for you. As for the password, I've got that all lined up and ready to go as well as the security cameras. Once your in we'll discuss the actual plan of action."

"Got it," Charles says speaking to Alfred. He turns his head over to Declan and I and does his signature reassuring smile, "You two ready for this?"

In the corner of my eye I see Declan open his mouth but in fear of him saying something totally embarrassing and stupid, I speak before he can, "As ready as we'll ever be. Let's go."

Charles nods at us before he turns his head back around, swings his legs out in front of him and with the power in his arms, pushes himself down the slippery slope. The sound of the fabric off his clothes sliding down the tunnel follows him until it eventually fades out.

Declan and I both know that he's about to go down next. I see his Adam's apple bob as he swallows nervously. With a one hundred percent serious look in his eyes, he turns to face me and puts his hand on my shoulder in an equally serious manner, "I'd just like to say now, that if, well if there so happens to be a crazy, mindless, killing machine at the bottom of this creepy tunnel, then it's been an honour to know you Micky." I smile when I hear him talking in possibly the most serious voice I've ever heard him speak while he's also being really stupid. My smile however instantly vanishes when I hear his next words, "But if for some odd reason it's you who dies then I'd like to say that as much as I'll miss you, I won't be going to your funeral cause it'd be way too sad for me and I've got an urgent appointment with Pizza Hut."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just go now would you? I don't plan on dying any time soon but at the rate you're going I might be dead of old age by the time you eventually decide to move." I playfully push him closer towards the entrance of the slide.

Declan scowls at me but still crawls over to the giant dip and slides down into the unknown. I take a deep breath. My turn. Cautiously I twist my neck to try and get a better view of the path I'll soon be sliding down. It doesn't look to steep, there's a couple of turns but still not to bad. Then again, those stairs I climbed up earlier were quite steep and what goes up must come back down, right?

I force myself not to think about that and focus on the fact that neither Declan or Charles screamed, and push myself down. The speed at which I travel down the slippery surface starts off going pretty average but after a few twists and turns I have to bite down on my tongue to stop the huge "Whoo hoo" that I really want to yell. This is the most fun that I've had in ages. Since the homestead got overrun at any rate. Sadly though, all good things must come to an end and before I know it, I'm standing up in a small corridor with Charles and Declan.

"Enjoy yourself?" Declan asks dryly at my goofy smile on my mouth. Who cares about amusement parks, let's just stick with air vents! I ignore his attempt of making me get embarrassed and simply nod my head enthusiastically at him. He sighs but I can see the amusement shining in his eyes.

"Guys, get ready," Charles mutters over his shoulder distractedly as he positions his eye with the contact lens in front of the scanner. A beep later and he's holding the door handle and looking at us while waiting for us to be ready. He must of done the password and finger print while Declan and I were coming down.

"We are ready," I tell him, still in happy rush from the awesome slide I just came down. Charles nods as a smile tugs on the corner of his lips. Balancing his weight on one side, he pushes the door open silently.

"Well it's about time that you guys decided to show up," My smile is instantly wiped off my face once again when I hear the too familiar voice waiting in the room. The voice that I never thought I'd ever hear again.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

Whoo, chapter 37 done!! Honestly I didn't think I'd be able to write this due to my writers block I had before but thankfully I managed too XD. Please VOTE and COMMENT guys. It would honestly mean a whole heap to me and it would seriously be awesome to know what you think.