Black-clad figures scattered at Maddens scream of rage, some leaving the room altogether while others huddled in one corner.

"Who did this?" Madden bellowed, "who compromised the containment units?"

Fury oozing from every pore, he stormed the control panel, punching in codes and numbers, but nothing happened.

"Why is it not responding?" he glanced around before his angry gaze landed on a technician. Silently he pointed at the periscope monitoring the containment units. The technician quickly looked before slowly turning to the room, caution in his stance and fear rippling through his eyes.

"It appears to have holes in it," he whispered, moving toward the others still huddled in the corner.

"What?" Madden frowned, "how can it have holes in it?"

Striding across the room, Madden looked through the periscope blinking in disbelief. The reinforced containment unit was fracturing in places, while other sections seemed to have widening holes. White hot rage steamed at his core. Whoever was doing this would pay. Looking through the periscope again, he ground his teeth as the extracted and contained energy was leaving. Everything he had planned and worked towards was being destroyed.

"Who did this?" he screamed.

The frightened technicians glanced at each other before silently shaking their heads. When Madden was like this, they knew to remain silent. Too many of them had died due to his anger.

"Find them," he yelled, "and when you do, either bring them to me if you're too scared to kill them or kill them yourselves."

Jesse ran toward the extraction unit to find the door open and the captives fighting as best they could against Madden's highly trained forces. Two children huddled together at the door behind a frightened woman who could only be their mother.

"Tania," he yelled, pointing at the trio, "extraction of non-combatants."

Swinging in front of the woman, he deflected the downward death strike. Kicking into the man's solar flex and taking a fighting stance, ready to defend them in any way required.

"I'm here," Tania panted, "mother and children. On it."

"What is going on?" the woman whimpered.

"Go with Tania; she will get you three into the tunnels and away from the fighting," the black-clad opponent pulled a lethal-looking blade from his belt, "go ... go now."

Tania waved the woman to go with her, "Jesse, don't allow him to get too close. That blade is laced with poison. He only needs to get a slice, and you're dead within minutes."

"Thanks for the tip," Jesse said, pulling out his two katanas, "get them out of here."

"Are those Katana's?" Tania frowned.

"Yes, would you like me to use my khopesh's instead?" Jesse asked flippantly, not looking away from the approaching opponent.

"Those are fine," she said, shaking her head while turning toward the trio and pushing them through the fighting toward the tunnels.

Jesse breathed in and blinked slowly as he exhaled, sinking into a waiting fighting stance. A deep sense of calm slipped through him and was not destroyed by the bellow-like war cry; instead, he found his focus on reading the man's fighting skills and intentions. Swinging into action, he evaded consistent attacks while deflecting the knife and inflicting as much damage as possible without allowing the contaminated blade near him. It didn't seem the man felt pain or even bled when injured. Frowning, Jesse continued to fight; however, he knew he was tiring. His opponent seemed to have endless energy resources, although clearly sweating.

The sudden crackling of energy in the air distracted Jesse momentarily, allowing his opponent the seconds required to attempt a direct hit. Jesse stopped the death both in the V of his swords, twisting and slicing across the arms, the wound should have been fatal, but the man only winced, throwing the knife to his other hand. In mid-air, the hilt was caught, and the blade was thrown into the attacker's forehead. Jesse frowned, looking around and then up. One of Titan's men hung from a strange rope contraption, saluting Jesse with two fingers before he swung toward another point in the fray.

Jesse's opponent dropped to his knees, bent his head and remained in position. The fighting seemed to continue around him for a moment. The bubble popped as Breanna entered Jesse's line of sight with two black-clad men attacking simultaneously. Shaking his head to clear the haze in his mind, Jesse sheathed his swords and sprung into action, distracting one while Breanna dispensed the other.

Standing back to back, they rested, panting hard, "None of this is going to mean a thing if we cannot stop these forces and get to the control room."

"Clio cannot do another blast for at least another thirty minutes," Jesse glanced at this watch, "and someone broke the containment units."

"It was Birgit and Val," Cara said, kicking into her attacker, "but her body is still in the extraction room. Over there."

Jesse followed her direction as her punch connected with the persistent attacker.

"Now I know why those captives are still in front of the door," Jesse sighed, "they are trying to protect her from whoever is trying to get inside ... I thought it was another captive ... but it's not."

"Go," Breanna shouted, flying into the fighting again, "get her out of here and away from the fighting."

Birgit turned to Valencia, "I think we've completed our mission. The units are broken beyond repair, and the energy is all gone. I don't sense another unit anywhere."

"Good," Valencia said, frowning, "Cara tells me that the captives have not made a way to get out because our body is still in the extraction room."

"Let's move," Birgit said, taking Valencia's hand and closing her eyes. Valencia did the same and opened them again to find them back in their shared form.

Groaning, they rolled up onto their knees, looking around and up. Madden stared down at them, fury and murder written in his eyes and on his expression.

"We need to get out of here," Valencia said, moving toward the door.

"Jacob, coming out," Brigit called as they stepped out of the room.

The smell of blood, death, anger, desperation and sweat mixed in the air around them.

"Val," Jasmine called, "close the door. Birgit, send the excess energy to the points of delivery."

Before they could ask questions, she was gone again. Bewildered, they waited a moment.

"Did that make sense to you?" Birgit whispered.

"No," Valencia answered.

"Me neither," Birgit sighed, "since we have no idea what is happening, perhaps we should do as they wish."

"Good point," Valencia said, turning to close the extraction room door leaving Birgit to gather the excess energy,

"V, I don't know the delivery points," Birgit said, "do you think it's somewhere around here?"

"Think explosives and sense the signature," Jesse said, skidding underneath the fighting forms, coming to a halt in a crouch in front of them, and drawing his weapons, firing at the approaching opponents. The retort of gunfire startled everyone, "Jacob, I've got this, get everyone out to the tunnels. Tania," Jesse called, "non-combatants."

Tania swung her arm in a circular motion above her head, giving direction for escape.

"We go that way," Jacob said, looking at Birgit / Valencia, nodding his thanks, "see you on the other side."

Valencia nodded as Birgit fell silent, "Is this Jasmine's work?

"Yes," Jesse said, "we need a big boom, and we need it now."

Birgit nodded, "I'll do my best."

Jesse turned toward the persistent attackers opening fire once more, noting a large round silver door on the other side of the room. The constant stream of attackers came from the tunnel on the other side. Titan and his team were busy working on the release while keeping an eye on the fighting and assisting where necessary. What were they doing?

"Got it," Birgit panted, "here goes."

Pumping her hands into the air like she was happy in a meadow on a beautiful Spring day, Birgit focused the energy bolts in the direction of the explosives. Some may go off at the same time or in the same time frame, but she worried that others would take time to do the necessary damage.

"You've got this B," Valencia murmured, keeping Birgit centred, focused, and blocking her from anything visual, "just do what you need to do."

"I know what you're doing," Birgit chuckled, "I can still hear but thank you ... it's helping."

"Jesse, brace for impact ... in five, four, three, two, ..." Valencia staggered a little as the first explosion happened, "under us ... the extraction room."

"Move," Jesse shouted over the rumbling under their feet.

The Protection Agency team resorted to weapons to escape danger, landing kill shots with alarming accuracy and speed. Jesse glanced around the room as he took Valencia and Birgit's hand, pulling her toward the tunnels.

Titan and his team were moving into small cave-like holes in the ceiling. The Agents moved toward the tunnels, protecting the captives as much as possible.

They made it into the tunnels as the centre of the floor caved, showing a large cave underneath dropping directly into the ocean below.

Startled cries and gasps died into a collective silence. Above, quiet commands could be heard before Titan hung out of a small cave-like hole looking over the crowd below.

"Tania, crab style collect and capture," Titan bellowed before disappearing.