"Jack?"

I ran to him, and hugged him. Jack laughed and hugged back.

"Oh, Jack, I've missed you so much! I'm so sorry I yelled, I just got out of hand again! And you never told me about Nark! Who is he? Where's the real Mark? Who's Lux? Where's Chica? Where's your house? Who's Deb, Charlie, and Doug? Why the fuck did Nark shoot me? Why does he look like Mark? Who-"

"Eve! Eve! Calm down! What the fuck are you talking about?"

I pulled back in shock. For two reasons. One: Jack called me Eve. He always calls me Ellie, or Elizabeth at times. Two...

"Um... where your accent? Why'd you say 'fuck' instead of that little 'fook' like always?"

Jack looked down at me in confusion. "What do you mean 'accent'? I've never had an accent in my life. Unless I'm undercover. And what the hell is a 'fook'? Who's Jack?"

I didn't know what to say. So I did what I usually do.

I turned to the white wall and started banging my head against it. It hurt, but not as much as when I first did it when I was three. I was kind of used to it.

"God-damn-this-fucking-place!" I said, each word ending with a hit.

I got a couple more bangs in when someone grabbed my wrist and spun me around. I faced those pale pastel-blue eyes, wide with worry. But during my head-banging, I realized something. This wasn't Jack.

"Eve, what are you doing? You could really hurt yourself!" Hack said, pulling me into a hug. Once again, I found myself not knowing what to do. So I cried into his gray sweatshirt. We stood like that for a few minutes.

I felt myself being picked up, and taken to a room. I was put on what seemed like a bed, but still in Hack's arms. He said nothing while I cried, but that was fine by me.

Finally when I calmed down, Hack set me aside, and faced me.

"Hack," I said.

"Yeah?"

"I'm... scared."

"Heh. You know, Eve. You've never struck me as being scared. And I've known you for a long time."

"No!" Hack jumped in surprise as I got off the bed.

"You don't know me! And I don't know you! I thought I did, but you aren't... you weren't... you're not Jack! You made me believe you were Jack. The last thing I ever did was yell at him! I told him he never had time for me, that he was always too busy. But he was busy! I've never stopped to think of how much he has to juggle all on his own, without adding me to the mix. And now no might never see him again. And it's all my fault!" I leaned my back against the wall and closed my eyes. Hack said nothing.

"What did you need me for?" I asked, opening my eyes and turning to him. He looked up, confusion clouding his gaze.

"What?"

"When I saw you down the hall, you said you needed me for something. What did you need?"

Hack got up and went over to a computer in the corner, and sat down. I followed and looked over his shoulder.

"We need reinforcements downstairs. Charlie was supposed to do it, but after his injury, he has to stay in Deb's office for a while. Can you take over?" He explained, turning to me.

What do I do? Do I accept? I didn't even know there was a downstairs.

"Sure," I said. Hack nodded. There was an uncomfortable silence. After a moment, I got up and left, closing the door behind me.

In the hall, I saw Doug walking out of another door.

"Can't keep away from me, can you? Don't worry, people get it often," he said, straightening his nonexistent tie and looked off into the distance dramatically.

"Oh, please," I laughed. He grinned and looked up at me. "Heard you're gonna have your first shift downstairs."

"You seem to hear everything."

"What can I say? I have a gift."

He pointed to an elevator. "It's the bottom floor. Oh an, Eve?" He added as I started off. I turned to him.

"Be careful. What's down there... it's not good. Deb calls it the devil's work. Once you get down there, you'll see why."

Taking this in, I nodded. "Thanks Doug," I said, and stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the bottom floor.

The whole thing lurched, almost carrying me off my feet. I grabbed the railing to keep steady as the elevator shot downwards.

After a moment, it stopped, and the large steel doors opened. What I saw made me regret accepting to take over the shift.

The walls, ceiling, and floor were black, unlike the heavenly white upstairs. A dim light shone above. Large, unfamiliar, dangerous-looking weapons lines the wall. Heavy armoured suits hung on pegs. A few droplets of blood littered one spot on the floor, probably where Charlie was injured.

The whole thing was eerie and scary. And I don't do eerie and scary.

Grabbing the weapon that looked the most familiar, and armour to drape over my shoulders and strap onto my arms and legs, I walked over to the small door on the other side of the wall. My boots clicked on the steel floor.

Opening the door, I stifled a cry of shock by covering my mouth with my hand. Hundreds of test tubes lines the walls, all larger than me. The whole room reminded me of Jurassic Park III.

Inside the tubes was a strange green substance and bodies. I'm not sure what scared me the most.

a. They looked alive, and were moving
b. They were staring right at me
c. They looked human

Stumbling closer, I realized they all seemed familiar, but I couldn't put a name to them.

In one tube was a rather tall man. He had a thin goatee, and light brown hair, except the top was dyed a metallic gold. He was wearing a black T-shirt with the Bing logo, and a yellow leather jacket over that. He had jeans and-surprise, surprise- gold leather boots. He seemed to be breathing, despite the green stuff. In fact, it just seemed to be a mist.

He was staring intently at me, his gaze curious.

I jumped as a voice rose up behind me, "That's Bing. He never gave us a real name, but we just kinda dubbed him that. Most of the things he says, besides answering questions, are quotes from Hamilton."

I turned to see Nark coming up behind me. He had his own gear, and was positioning a large gun on his shoulder.

"Beside him is Google. Little quieter, but once he's in his 'mood'... Well, yeah," he explained, pointing at a tube next to Bing.

Inside was a much shorter man. His face was shadowed behind a blue hoodie, which read 'Google' near the chest. I noticed that one eye was a sky blue, whole the other was blood red. He was leaning against the back of the tube, staring at his shoes.

"Both can answer any question you ask, and can even show you images and videos," Nark said, coming up beside me.

"How can they do that?"

Grinning, he turned to Bing. "Bing, show me images of pandas."

Sure enough, holographic pictures appeared in front of the smiling man, each portraying the animal.

"Woah! That's amazing!" I exclaimed. Bing looked down at me. I noticed how his gold eyes glowed.

"Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against and what you're for," he said. His voice was high and silken.

"Hamilton?" I guessed. Nark nodded. "Yup."

"So what are these other things?"

Mark proceeded to give me the tour. There were so many, I only remembered three: Dark, a creepy man with black eyes, save the small white pinpricks for pupils, and Virus, a rather young looking man, around Doug's age, yet shorter. His skin was pale, and had blue glowing computer codes written all over his arms and neck. He had long dark brown hair, and was wearing a black and blue suit and a round white mask, cracked in half and covering only the left side of his face. The eye was merely a small hollow ring, and the mouth was a wide, zigzag, glowing blue smile. And finally Anti. I didn't see him, for his tube was empty, a large hole in the bottom.

"This is where Charlie got hurt, right?" I asked Nark when we passed the broken tube. He nodded.

"Anti tried to escape. Luckily the guards captured him and have taken him somewhere more secure."

I gulped. People actually got hurt here, seriously hurt.

Finally, we reached the last tube. Well, room. It took up the whole back wall. The creature inside was way different than the others I've seen.

In other words, it was a dragon.

A dragon wearing red sunglasses to be exact.

The whole thing was about the size of an elephant. It was black, with a silver underbelly and spokes on its back. It had a set large leathery wings, which twitched restlessly.

I couldn't believe what the plaque said it was called.

"Sparklez? You named a dragon Sparklez?"

Nark laughed. "We sure did. Trust me, there was a reason behind it. Sadly, only Hack and I know. No one else is supposed to."

I sighed. I hated not knowing things.

I was unerved by the look in Sparklez's eyes behind his sunglasses. It wasn't evil or angry, like you might think. It was desperate.

Help me, it seemed to say. Help me get out of here.

I turned to say something to Nark, but before I could, he turned and started walking away.

"It's end of shift," he said. "They're cutting it early, so that they can bring Anti back in."

I watched as he disappeared into the gear room.

Turning back to Sparklez, I sighed. This didn't seem right.

Well, it's not like you can release it into the streets of L.A., I thought.

Shaking my head, I headed out of the room.