It been a while hasn't it, but I'm glad to be updating again.  By late next week I should have the last chapter of 'Why Me' published and I can finally stop feeling guilty for saying I would update soon and then not doing it for months. What with my head all up in this story and the previous document lost I sort of pushed it aside but now I found a copy of it on my brother's laptop so I'm gone about half way now.

When I do update I'll give a special bonus having made you all wait so long, but for now enjoy.

Disclaimer: Anyone with good sense can answer that question before they perceive to ask it. 

Thanks again to Reidluver for taking the time out of her busy schedule to beta this for me. I appreciate it.

"What do you mean you have no idea? You've dealt with them before; can't you go to MI6 for help? Didn't you hear her? They're going to use you to get information about MI6, you have-"

"I KNOW WHAT SHE # SAID TOM!" Alex exploded at him in sudden frustration. "I heard most of this stuff from MI6 already; the government has one month to comply with their demands, if not they'll release a virus so contagious that it will-" Alex abruptly broke of his angry rambling and scrambled away from Tom; positioning himself as far as the narrow alley would permit.

"Listen Tom, I can't just go over to MI6 headquarters and ask for their help." He continued in a whisper. "Scorpia doesn't bluff; if the woman said you're being watched, then you are. They will NOT hesitate to kill you and your mom if they think I'm trying to get help. I can't risk that."

"Then you're just going to accept what they say and do nothing. You're just going to tell them everything they want to know just like that?" Tom asked in near disgust.

"Tom, you don't understand. This isn't some movie or storybook plot where everything magically turns out alright at the end if the hero is brave enough. If I was in it alone, then I wouldn't hesitate to defy them but I can't take all those daring chances and gambles with your life okay?" There was a meaningful look in Alex's eyes as he stared at Tom seriously as if underneath what he was saying he was also trying to say something else too.

"It doesn't matter how quietly you speak or how discreet you think you're being, don't go to anyone for help; it's too dangerous."   

Tom nodded with a hopelessness that didn't quite permeate his perception of the situation. He understood that Alex wasn't truly giving up but that anything, any mess up could mean death. It was crucial that they didn't outwardly show signs of defiance but not to give in to despair either. Then he remembered something.

"Alex, if this thing is contagious, then what are you going to do about the folks that you're staying with? If you have to interact with them they're going to catch it."

Alex's eyes widened in dismay; he hadn't remembered that aspect of things.

"I'm just going to have to stay out of their way. Pretend to be moody or something."

"Oh boy," Tom sighed. "What have we gotten into?" He sank down in his corner of the alley.

"Now's not the time to rest Tom; we need to get back before we end up having to explain why we we're out here so long." Alex got up and dusted himself off, keeping his distance from Tom.

"Right."

 They emerged from the rundown alleyway and headed in the general direction of the nearest Underground station. The ride to Tom's neighborhood was silent and melancholy with Tom quietly considering the magnitude of what he had gotten himself into and how Alex must feel about the whole thing; from the confrontation in the sitting room at his house up to this point.

 Alex on the other hand was furiously at work trying to figure out a way he could literally save everyone involved. He could not see himself giving Scorpia anything, but he couldn't afford for them to unleash their manufactured sickness on the populace, nor could he bear the thought of anything happening to his best friend because he was being defiant. Outwardly he tried to look hopeful for Tom's sake but deep down, in the recesses of his consciousness, he was gripped with despair and raw fear.

They parted ways, as a frigid rain began to fall, promising that any contact between them would be initiated by Alex, and then, only in an emergency. It would be disastrous for Scorpia to act on the assumption that they were trying to formulate a plan when in truth they weren't.

When Alex finally trudged up to the front porch of Wolf's house and rang the bell, Rachel was the one who opened the door.

"Alex! Get in out of the rain!" She near dragged him into the house. "Are you trying to catch you're death of cold or something?" He tried to explain that he had accidentally gotten caught in it on his way back, but instead shut his mouth remembering the virus. Rachel ran upstairs and retrieved a fluffy green towel for him to dry off with.

"Here, make sure you're thoroughly dry," She stood by to watch.

"What's going on?" Alex heard Wolf ask from the back room.

"It's Alex."

Wolf entered the front hall and gave Alex a peculiar look. "Didn't I tell you to call me when you were finish? There was no need for you to walk back in the rain."

Alex peeked out from under the towel with a slightly bewildered yet annoyed look on his face at Wolf's question.

He realized he couldn't get out of answering so he spoke quietly; with out force. "I know Wolf, but since I had enough money to take the Tube back, I did. Then on the way back from the station, it started raining. I don't see anything wrong with that; I just got a little wet."  This strange caring Wolf was becoming downright scary; was there an ulterior motive to his kindness or something?

"You should look in a mirror before you say that. You look dead on your feet," Wolf answered in a matter of fact tone. "I imagine taking it easy isn't something you do easily, but you need to stop pushing yourself if you intend to get better anytime soon."

Alex nodded as he finished drying his now thoroughly tussled hair.

"Thanks Rachel," Alex remembered as Wolf went into the kitchen.

“No problem," She took the towel from him. "Why don't you go and change out of those wet clothes now and in case you're hungry, dinner will be ready in about half an hour, okay?"

"Thanks."

Alex went up to his room, meeting and petting Seth on the way, and sat on the bed to think for a moment before changing into a dry t-shirt and jeans.

Then he retrieved the digital journal that Smithers had given him, from the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers that he was temporarily keeping his clothes in, and sat down on the bed again.    

If there were no video recording devices hidden in the room, only audio ones, then Scorpia would not be able to monitor anything that he wrote only what he said. He could communicate with others that way as long as wherever they were, wasn't visually monitored either. Email and snail mail probably would be watched, but a digital journal on a secure frequency would probably be safe.

Next he took the vial of supposed antidote from the pocket of his wet jeans and examined it.

It was the size and shape of a standard test tube but half as tall and with two rounded ends. What ever it was coated with had a metallic gold luster to it that, if he remembered correctly, was one of the characteristics of one of Titanium's alloys. It basically looked like a gigantic, valuable tablet.

He slowly turned it over in his hand testing the weight of it, judging whether it was really impenetrable or not. He concluded that MI6 were the people to deal with it because if he did something wrong, he might waste what was inside. Besides he doubted he would have the means of undoing that metal capsule that the antidote was supposedly in.

He put it in the drawer with the rest of MI6 related items and returned to the bed to compose his written message to Smithers.

After a moment of consideration he went under the bed instead.

Hello Smithers,

I desperately need you help. Scorpia knows that I didn't die in the car crash and now they're after me and my friend Tom Harris. They intend to use me to gather information about MI6 and this particular mission and they know about the game you gave me to gain access to the mission specifics.

To make sure that I cooperate, they've threatened to kill Tom if I mess up.

The next thing is that I've been injected with the virus to make sure that even if I decide not to help, within a week, I'll be too sick to work against them and they've given me an container that I can't open, that's supposed to have the antidote in it as a tease.  They intend to bring me in a week from now.

I really, really need your help.

Alex

Alex reviewed what he had written and decided it would do. He hit the save button three times and turned off the device.

“Mr. Smithers sir, I think you should take a look at this.”

Smithers laid down the piece of computerized clothing he’d been working on and rolled his extra wide, high back, swivel chair over to his assistant’s dual monitor display.

“What is it Henry?”

Assistant Henry rolled aside and gestured to the screen. “It just popped up, disrupting what I was doing, it looks grave.”

Smithers’s usually ruddy face became very pale as he read Alex's message. The gears in his sharp mind began turning and he suddenly gasped. “Send a message to Blunt, telling I’m coming up there to report a detrimental change in plans!

“Yes Sir.”

A couple minutes later, Smithers barged into Alan Blunt’s office with a print out of the transcript from Alex and the knowledge that all of their efforts had been aimed in the wrong direction.

“What is this urgent news you have Smithers?” Alan asked.

“Read this,” Smithers puffed, sitting down in a chair as Mrs. Jones stepped into the office as well.

“What’s going on?” She asked

“We just got this from Alex,” Smithers answered gesturing to what Blunt was reading.

A moment later Blunt slammed the table in an uncharacteristic display of emotion.

“DAMN IT! They've been stringing us along all this time like a fool."

"Alan, what the hell is going on?"

"This just came in," He handed her the paper "Scorpia didn't intend to contaminate an air or water supply in a school or library. We already know that this disease is extremely contagious, meaning that they would simply have to introduce a patient zero into a crowded environment and the person unknowingly spreads it to everyone they come in contact with. That's what they've done to Rider. Unless he remembers how contagious we told him it is, he could be spreading it to any number of people now. And I don't think he's Patient Zero.  For all we know, they could have already begun spreading it around long before now." he was silent a moment in furious thought. Then he pressed a button on his desk. "Michelle, report to my office immediately."

He turned to Mrs. Jones "We're going to have to notify the Prime Minister about the change in plans. We need to focus on finding the antidote rather than the source."

The door opened and Blunt's secretary, Michelle, stepped in. "Yes Sir?"  

"I need you to have Agent Lance Betriss sent to me immediately."    

“Right away Sir.”

 When she left, Mrs. Jones spoke “Our best chance of finding that antidote is that container that Alex has. If we can get a hold of it without Scorpia knowing, and it's genuine, then we might be able to copy it.”

Alan nodded and turned to Smithers “Do you have a way we could communicate with him surreptitiously?”

“Not at this moment. As for retrieving the container, the easiest way would be to simply steal it from him.”

“Okay then, Jones, get somebody on that right away. I want that thing here by tomorrow morning.”

When she left, he said “Smithers we need to talk.”

 “Alex, are you hungry?” Rachel called from the bottom of the steps for the second time.

“No thanks,” Alex answered quietly, appearing at the top of the stairs. “I’m just going to go to bed.”

“Just a moment, I know you don’t like that machine, but you need to take your dosage for tonight, then you can sleep, okay.” Rachel explained sympathetically

Alex visibly sagged “Sure.” Tiredly making his way down the stairs, Alex realized that with all the contact he had to make with Rachel because of the help she gave him, she was bound to catch the virus sooner rather than later if he didn’t keep his mouth shut tightly at all times.

When he dropped down into the same sofa as the day before, Rachel looked at him in concern.

“Are you okay Alex? You look exhausted.” She asked as she prepared the treatment.

When he didn’t answer but continued to stare into space she called louder. “Alex!”

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you .What did you say?” As clearly as he could while keeping his mouth mostly closed.

Rachel frowned and touched his forehead with the back of her hand. “Are you feeling okay? You seem much more out of it than yesterday, are you catching a cold from the rain?”

“No, I’m just tired,” He said it without any edge to his voice but there was a certain dismissive tone to it that, as Alex predicted, led Rachel to feel that he simply didn’t want to be fussed over anymore than he already was.

“Okay then, if you need anything just say so alright?”

He nodded.

Satisfied, Rachel went back to the kitchen where she and Wolf had been about to eat.

"Has he been like that all day?” She asked sitting down with her own bowl of soup.

“Like how?”

“So tired and withdrawn.”

Wolf frowned "No; he was fine this morning when he told me about his school work situation. Maybe something happened between him and his friend Tom."

 "Maybe," Rachel nodded. "What did MI6 say about his absence from school?" 

"According to them Alex has already made it clear that he doesn't intend to help them again."

"And they buy that?" She asked incredulously "They don't exactly come across as easily persuaded."

"That's what I asked. It's really because they don't think he's going to be the up to working standards again after this so he'll pretty much be left alone."

"You mean this mishap could have ruined him for good?" Rachel asked gravely

"That's what MI6 thinks."

Rachel sadly shook her head at the injustice and continued to eat in silence. Thirty minutes later when they heard the high pitched beep that indicated that Alex's treatment was over, she stood up to unhook him, but Wolf interjected.

"I'll deal with it. I have something to give him from MI6 anyway," He explained

 When he entered the sitting room, Alex was sitting there with a worried expression on his face, staring out into space.

When he noticed Wolf enter, annoyance flashed across his face so quickly that Wolf wasn't sure he saw it before the child schooled his features back into neutrality.

Alex watched Wolf undoing the various parts of the machine for a moment before he asked, quietly with his face mostly turned away, "So did you talk to them?"

Wolf looked at him strangely "Yes, based on what they tell me, you're not going to be working for them again so your schooling should be smooth from here on."

"How come?"

"Didn't you quit?"

"Yes, but I didn't think they'd actually take me seriously."

"Neither did I," Wolf answered as he collected the injection and pills.

"So then why are they releasing me; I know it's not because I fussed."

Wolf prepped the needle for the injection. Strangely, Alex shivered at the sight of it.

"Well?" Alex pressed him

"Based on what the doctors told them, they don't think you're going to be in operational shape again after this."

"Oh." Alex was tempted to argue against it. Not because he wanted the job, but because he was pretty sure that with time, the constant fatigue would wear off and he'd regain the focused and levelheaded manner he used to have. But that would mean more talking which would mean spreading the virus, so all he said was 'Oh'. 

"At least, not in the near future," Wolf added, trying to ease the blow. When a soldier was told he could no longer serve because of irreversible injuries, it was usually a crushing blow, one Wolf had witnessed a few times in his career so he understood somewhat what Alex how Alex felt.

Alex hadn't liked his job much, but to be damaged because of it at such a young age was devastating nonetheless.

Alex simply nodded in acknowledgement and swallowed the pills.

"Um, look, I met Smithers while I was there and he said to give you this." He retrieved a flat medium sized box from the corner of the room. "He said it might remind you of your first mission.

He handed the box to Alex who seemed only mildly interested. When he opened it, he saw a state of the art laptop computer that looked distinctly like a Stormbreaker.

 It was equipped with a full quota of education software to make lessons fun, and a few games. If he used this instead of constantly writing, Alex was bound to finally catch up if he lived for long enough.

"Thanks Wolf." He said tiredly "Good night." he added, heading up to bed.

Wolf stared thoughtfully at Alex's retreating back until he was gone. He was by no means an oblivious or overly single-minded person, in sensitive sometimes, but not dense. On the contrary, he was pretty observant. So he knew that something bigger was bothering Alex, bigger than some argument with a friend or school work even. But he didn't know what and he knew that the child did not trust him enough to simply come to him as a confident.

And Wolf was sure the he would not appreciate him prying, but if he was this depressed about it, someone needed to help him.

That night Alex slept so soundly that he never stirred when the expert burglar quietly crept into his room.  The motion sensors' receiver was unfortunately stowed a way in the same bottom drawer as the vial, so the man came and went with the goods, fortunately without a trace.

The next morning Alex didn't wake up until ten o' clock. When he did, he had the distinct sensation of feeling sick; not weak but sick and he knew that his current condition had interfered with the virus's course and had perhaps accelerated it. 

After dressing, he was about to go down stairs when he heard voices talking in the sitting room.

"That's crazy, that could only cause pandemonium, why would they do that?" He heard Wolf ask

"Well," Alex recognized the Scottish accent of Snake "The Department of Health has reported three deaths and twelve other cases of an unidentified virus without a known cure. They're talking about notifying the GDS and advising the public on how not to spread it. "

"What about containing it?" Wolf asked

"I don't know." Alex heard Fox answer

"And this is all Scorpia's doing," Wolf more stated than asked. But Eagle answered anyway.

"Yep. We may be called back into action before our time off is up. OPCON says they may need the entire CT wing."

Wolf said something that Alex couldn't hear.

"What?" Eagle asked

"I wonder if Alex knows about this." Wolf repeated "He'd said something about Scorpia trying to kill millions of people back when he was discharged from the hospital."

"How did he know?" Snake asked more quietly than before so that Alex had to move down a couple more steps and strain to listen.

 "Apparently, it's the mission that MI6 had intended to send him on before this happened. They told him about it when he insisted on quitting."

Fox near shouted "I'm getting sick and tired of this stuff that MI6 is dealing with; children aren't spies. Did you know that they sent that boy out on a mission after just being shot in the chest on the mission before?"

Silence

"He told you that?"

"We pried it out of him on your birthday when you and Rachel were gone," Eagle explained

"You didn't know, did you?" Snake asked

"I didn't know about the mission but Rachel found out about the shot; she saw it the same night while he was asleep. Did he tell you how he got it?"

"Are you kidding, if we didn't already know his name we'd have had to pry that out of him too? The kid doesn't tell you a thing unless you demand it and then some,"

 Eagle exclaimed

"I've noticed."

"Where is he anyway?" Eagle asked

"Still asleep, but I think he should get up now. I don't think him sleeping this late is a good sign because he was fine yesterday and the day before."

"Getting some practice for your own fatherhood eh? I think you're doing okay so far." Fox joked but Alex didn't hear Wolf's reply because he made a hasty retreat to his room before Wolf caught him eavesdropping.

He made believe that he was just leaving his room when Wolf reached the top of the stairs. "You okay? It's pretty late."

"Yeah, thanks. I was just tired I guess."

"There's breakfast for you in the kitchen and when you're finish you can get your exercise in the yard; I don't think you should run today."

"Okay thanks." Alex didn't really want to run into the rest of k-unit but Wolf was expecting him to go down stairs and eat. He couldn't full well claim not to be hungry, after having no dinner the night before, with out arising more questions. So he reluctantly journeyed down there only to be stopped by Eagle when he reached the bottom.

"Morning Cub," he said in a cheery and mostly non provoking way.

Alex nodded in answer and headed towards the kitchen.

"What? No 'Morning Eagle', not even a grudging one?" he teased following Alex into the kitchen "I didn't do anything, Wolf is the mean one, yet you love him enough to be civil with him."

Alex gave Eagle a murderous look that said 'Shut up before I make you.'

"Whoa, backing off." Eagle exclaimed holding up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey James are you sure it's safe to keep this kid around? He has a mean temper," Eagle called to Wolf who had just brought Seth inside.

"I've witnessed it before," Wolf answered non-chalantly

Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He hadn't down anything that would qualify as losing his temper, around Wolf before as far as he could remember.

"But what could you have done?" Wolf continued mockingly

"That's an understatement," Fox remarked with Snake close behind him.

"So, how are you doing Cub?" Snake asked in a conversational way pulling up one of the chairs and sitting on it backwards.

"I'm okay," Alex answered. If this was going to become a conversation he really needed to get out while he could; from what he'd heard earlier, Scorpia was already making people sick.

"You don't look too good," Snake pressed "You look troubled. You can talk to us; consider us your friends since the incident in the Underground."

Alex stared at Snake and then Wolf who nodded at him as though to confirm what Snake just said.

"I'm fine, really," Alex insisted quietly. Friends or not he wasn't going to start talking now of all times.

"No you're not," Wolf insisted in turn, leaning on the counter. "Ever since you came back yesterday evening, you've been especially quiet."

"What do you mean especially quiet?" Alex decided to play dumb

"Come on Alex," Wolf said getting annoyed "You were and still are, acting as if there's a sleeping baby in the house."

Alex couldn't readily come up with an explanation for that, so he simply clammed up. A few questions later the men hadn't made any progress and Alex desperately wanted to get away.

"Look, I'm FINE, I just-" he paused before he said something he'd regret "Its nothing." he finished quietly, getting up from the table, and his barely touched food, going out the door mumbling "It's nothing I can't handle."

The four men stared at each other for a moment. "Something's definitely wrong," Wolf finally voiced

"And I can't shake the feeling it has something to do with all this Scorpia business." Snake added

"Do you think he knows something?" Eagle asked seriously

"Maybe"

"We're just going to have to wait and see." Wolf decided.

The rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon was uneventful at best and downright boring otherwise.

It eventually dawned on Alex, as he sat working on his laptop, that Wolf was probably as bored as he was and that in times past he would most likely have been spending his time off in a more entertaining way, not babysitting a fourteen year-old invalid. If he could convince Wolf that it was fine to leave him alone in the house from day to day, then he would be able to cut down on the amount of contact and therefore virus transfer between them.

He found the man in the lounge doing, in his opinion, the strangest of things; he was playing a video game.

You couldn’t say he was absorbed by it, but he did seem to be enjoying it. It was a typical RPG with a military theme to it. When his character died he swore quietly and put down his controller to see Alex standing in the doorway.

“Do you play often?” Alex asked quietly, his curiosity getting the best of him.

“No, not really, only when there isn’t anything heroic for me to do.”

It was the closest that the man had come to joking about himself that Alex had ever heard and he actually found himself more at ease around him because of it. Wolf wasn’t really all that bad; just rough around the edges.

"Did you want something?" Wolf asked trying to read the boy's eyes although he knew he wouldn't gather anything. The kid wasn't unlike himself in that respect; he didn't talk with his eyes.

"No" Alex answered hesitantly then changed his mind "Actually, I wanted to ask: when you're not playing, what else do you do when you're on holiday?

"Are you bored Alex ?" Wolf asked suspiciously. If there was one thing he'd learned about the kid so far, it was that he wasn't one to talk or ask questions simply for the sake of talking; if he asked 'what else do you do on holiday?' it was because he wanted to know for his own private reasons.

"Not really, I just thought you were."

Wolf continued to eye the child in a suspicious manner but didn't press the matter. He was curious as to why Alex was so secretive but as he'd already learned, interrogation wasn't going to work. Instead he asked "Do you want to play?" gesturing towards the screen.

For Alex, that was totally unexpected. It occurred to Alex that perhaps Wolf was doing these nice things to lure him into a false sense of security and trust so he could pry his secrets out of him. But he immediately dismissed the thought; not everyone was Scorpia, he chided himself. Besides, considering the fact that he was bored of school work and Wolf obviously was trying to reach out, he decide a small game wouldn't hurt if he kept his distance. So it was with a small measure of suspicion and a little more hesitance, that he accepted the invitation and sat down on the couch beside Wolf for a game or two of Splinter Cell.

When they finally stopped, it was because a familiar voice interrupted them "Well, well, well, for two guys who don't get along well together, you sure are now."

Wolf hit the pause button and turned around "Hey Rachel, how long have you been back?"

"Only a few minutes. Having fun Alex?" She answered patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah," He answered preparing to exit the room.

"That's good, I was beginning to get a little worried about you with your strange behavior last night, but it looks like you're okay.

"And I'm glad to see that you two aren't avoiding each other."

"He's an okay kid." Wolf answered lightly "and a good player."

"Thanks" Alex answered enjoying the compliment despite himself  "I'll be upstairs if you want me.

"So how was work?" Wolf asked as he and Rachel made their way into the kitchen.

That night, as Alex lay in bed contemplating his situation, he heard a scratching at his door that sounded like Seth's claws on the door. Alex got up feeling a bit achy and hesitantly opened the door. Sure enough Seth came trotting in with a decided manner about him and settled himself on the floor by Alex's bed.

As he got used to the new members of his family pack, the people loving dog had decided to try out different sleeping areas asides from the lonely sitting room. When he'd scratched at Wolf's door, Wolf had kindly but firmly led him back down stairs to his bed. Perhaps he was still getting used to the idea of having a pet but for what ever reason, he didn't want his dog sleeping in his room yet. After ward Seth decide to try Alex's room where he succeeded, and now that he was in, he was staying for the night.

Alex shook his head at the audacity of the proud animal but aloud him to stay nonetheless.

The next time Alex awoke, it was because he had just been gagged and his hands were in the process of being bound. He yanked his hands apart, panic rising in his throat, and rolled over unto the floor, landing on the spot where Seth had been a moment before. Now the animal was standing in front of him with ears erect, bearing his teeth at the intruder. He was an intelligent animal and could discern that this wasn't simply a stranger but a hostile one.

Earlier that evening

"No, it can't wait. Somehow the kid must have gotten word to his superiors. We need to retrieve him now and as promised kill Harris."

Ariel Mastrat aka Carmen was quiet a moment. "I don't think he is the one who notified MI6, we would have known. They were bound to figure it out sooner or later. When we bring him in Tom Harris could still be of use if he is still alive, not that he has to know that."

Her superior, the leader of this assignment, looked at her. "I see. I think it would be more effective if he does know that the boy is alive but at an opportune moment, since he is bound to resist, we pretend to kill him" 

Ariel sneered in a perfect imitation of a hyena. "Understood"

As the Scorpia operative made a savage movement to kick the dog in the rib cage, Seth instead leapt onto the man, growling threateningly but not barking. With the intruder occupied, Alex took his opportunity to yank the gag out of his mouth and yell as loud as he could.

"WOLF!"

The man managed to throw the animal from him and kick him brutally in the ribs anyway. Then he grabbed Alex by his hair. "You shouldn't have done that. Now you've sealed your friend's fate." He spat

The man spoke into a mic at his lapel "Kill him."

The command and its implications sent Alex to temporary insanity. All his pent up emotions just exploded when he heard those two words and he elbowed the man wickedly in the ribs and then lunged on top of him. When Wolf came bursting in with his gun drawn and turned on the light, the sight that greeted him was Seth picking him self up off the floor, obviously injured, a masked figure dressed completely in black lying on the floor and Alex sitting on top of him near hysterical with tears, beating the crap out of his bloody face while the man tried without success to choke him.

"Alex!"

Unfortunately, because of his frenzied state, Alex had forgotten that he'd screamed for Wolf at all. When he heard Wolf shout to him, the second of surprise caused him to turn his head, allowing the man beneath him to land a punch in his face that sent him reeling. Then the man grabbed his gun and aimed at Wolf who ducked and fired a shot at the man's hand, blasting the gun out of it.

Seth picked up the weapon and brought it to Wolf who was about to take aim again, but then the operative grabbed Alex, who was recovering from the punch to the side of his head, and revealed a switchblade, holding it at the boys neck." 

"Make one more move and I cut the boys throat."

Wolf froze

"Now drop the gun."

"DON'T WOLF,ITS A TRICK! "Alex shouted fighting the man with all his strength.

"You'd better keep still you little brat before I kill you anyway."

"Just keep still Alex and let me handle it."

"Handle what Wolf? You don't even know what you're dealing with, this is Scorpia. Just don't put down the damn gun."

"I SAID shut up and put down the gun."

"Wolf just shoot, he pl-" Alex was effectively silenced because of the pressure on his throat. The next second a shot rang out and the man dropped dead releasing Alex.   

When he looked up he noticed that Wolf wasn't the one who'd fired the shot, it was Rachel.

I hope these chapters are of a consistent quality and continue to meet your expectation and above all I hope they continue to be as fun for you to read as they are for me to write.

(yawns enormously) Good Night.