"He'll huff and he'll puff and he'll blow your house down," the man whispered merrily, continuing to mock Mr Irving's laboured breathing. The teacher ground his teeth and bit down on his retort: Hazmat wasn't worth it. 

"If Anthony is the big bad wolf," a quiet voice said from just behind them, "Then that makes you the fat pig."

Ms Smith pursed her lips and kept her eyes focussed ahead of her, but as she stepped up beside them, Mr Irving could see the twinkle in her eye. 

Hazmat refused to be out done: "Would you like a slice of bacon, Ella?"

Before his thoughts could register, Mr Irving abruptly dropped the man. Haz let out a grunt as he fell, hitting the edge of the tunnely and coasting down to the bottom. He glared up at the other man.

"What was that for?"

Coach shushed him. "I thought I heard something."

Grumbling something uncomplimentary under his breath, Haz fell quiet, and all three strained to hear anythign in the darkness. Carissa slipped up beside them, raising a thin brow. 

"Why did we stop?"

Salena's softer voice echoed her question with less attitude. "And where is Finnegan?"

Their coach blinked once, then twice, before tearing off down the tunnel, leaving a desperate "Shit" hanging in the space he had occupied. Ms Smith gasped and followed suit, waving the girls back as she did. 

"Stay with Hazmat."

Salena looked down at th injured man who was checking his stitches, and then up at the other teenager who was checking her nails. "Oh boy."

Ebony refused to admit that the heat that remained in her cheeks was because she had been walking beside Austen for the last five minutes. Or because three minutes ago, when she'd tripped, he'd taken her hand. Or because he hadn't let go since. 

It was just unquantifiably hot in this storm drain. 

They'd managed to stand in the middle of the skate park for about 30 seconds before the feeling of being watched drove them to find cover. Phitz assured his friends that If Finnegan knew anything about this skate park he would have led them through the tunnel because it lead directly to where they were supposed to meet. So now they were scurrying through the drains, eyes and ears pricked for the first sign of the others.

Ebony was getting a cramp in her face. 

Somewhat relunctantly, she removed her hand from Austen's and rubbed her face, slowly coming to a stop. 

"This is ridiculous," she murmured, "We're just running around like... rats in a maze. We could be going in circles for all we know."

Phitz snorted and flapped his hand at her. "We're not going in circles."

"Dude, how do you know?" his best friend shrugged and spun in a tight circle. Ebony couldn't help but notice that when he finished turning, his shoulder was almost touching hers. "I mean, I didn't even knoe they built these drains anymore."

"They don't. That's why it's being renovated."

Ebony sunk to the ground as the boys continued, Austen mentioning something about 'unstable' and 'dangerous', to which Phitz responded with 'that's not what your mum said'. She sighed and leant back against the side of tunnel. Instead of hard concrete, the surface wobbled, sagging with her weight. Ebony gasped and jerked forward again, rolling onto her knees and staring at the surface.

Austen and Phitz stopped their bickering and exchanged a glance. "You ok their Ebbie?"

She ignored them, squinting in the bad light until she could just make out the different coloured square she had leant against. The flourescent emergency lights above them were few and far between, but Ebony held out her hands and confirmed the different texture gently. 

"Give me a hand would you?" she asked, digging her nails into the crack between the two materials. The square felt like wood, but she wasn't sure whether it was curiosity or lunacy that drove her to ply it out. 

Something sharp dug into her finger, and she let out a small cry. Austen gently pulled her away.

"Let me." He raised his foot, and quicker than any of them could blink, put it through the wood. It gave a fairly resounding crack, and Austen yelped as his foot kept going and he toppled forward. He caught himself with his palms pressed against the concrete and gingerly extracted his foot as Ebony and Phitz rushed forwards. 

"You idiot!" Ebony admonished, before letting worry crease her brow. "Are you ok?"

His friend just rolled his eyes and mouthed: "Smooth move."

Ignoring Phitz, the other boy nodded. "Yeah I'm fine." He bent over and tore the rest of the wood to the side, throwing the peices over his shoulder. They landed with a thunk and Phitz cast a glance back the way they had come. He licked his lips, but joined the other two to peer into the cavern Austen had created. 

The boy turned to look at Ebony, who shrugged, before turning back and plunging his arm into the gap. As he lost his elbow in shadow, Austen's fingers grazed metal and he quickly gripped the object inside ad pulled it out. All three of them stared at the wrench in his hand before Ebony nodded slowly. 

"Well..." She met Phitz's gaze and raised a brow, "Renovations right?"

The boy took the tool from his friend. Gripping it in both hands he made a violent swinging motion. "I'm thinking weapon." Phitz repeated the action and a peice flew off, slamming into the side of the tunnel with a crack. wincing, he scuttled over and picked it up.

When he met the gaze of the two other teens, he rolled his eyes. "I'll fix it."

Austen nodded slightly, smirking at his friend. "Are you done with the rabbit hole?" he asked Ebony, already walking away slowly. Grudgingly, she fell into step beside him and nodded. 

A loud click behind them had both teens spinning quickly, but Phitz seemed unaware of the noise as he played with the wrench. Trying to reattach the other peice, he spun the dial, tonguehis  poking out of his mouth in concentration. It clicked again and Ebony coughed pointedly. 

"We are running for our lives here, mate," Austen said, "If you wouldn't mind being a tad quieter so they don't find us."

"Who cares if they do? We can defend ourselves now." for emphasis, he swung the tool in a curve to catch it in his other palm. The second peice flew off and the other pair sighed and walked away. They continued down the drain in a heavy silence, broken only by the steady click of Phitz's new toy. 

Ebony stumbled as they came to a turn, grazing her palms as she tried to brace herself against the wall. 

"You ok?" Austen asked quickly, pressing a hand to her shoulder. 

Feeling her cheeks flame again, the girl quickly dropped to a crouch. "Yeah, my shoelace is just untied."

There was another click, different to those Phitz was emitting, and Austen's head jerked up quickly. He was looking down the barell of a gun. 

"Holy shit!"

The weapon was lowered quickly, and a pair of familiar if hardened eyes stared back at him. "Austen?"

The boy let out a jagged breath. "Coach?"

The man nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. He nodded at Phitz, who had finally lowered the wrench, and then when Ebony rose quickly he noticed her and smiled. 

"It's great to see you're all alright."

"Are all of you alright too?" Ebony asked quickly, as a panting Ms Smith appeared behind Mr Irving. She grinned broadly, resting her hand on his elbow.

"You found us!" she said, meet each of their gazes quickly before her smile faded. "But where's Finnegan?"

Austen frowned, folding his arms across his chest. He took a small step closer to Ebony. "He was with you guys."

"Hey," Mr Irving mirrored his stance and expression, his own stride carrying him closer to Ms Smith, "he was. Finn just ran on ahead a few minutes ago. You guys must have just missed each other. Where's the nearest branching tunnel? We'll start there."

Shaking her head, Ebony felt her breath coming more quickly. "There were not branches. And we were sitting in the same place for at least two minutes less than," she turned to Austen to check the numbers, "what? 20, 30 metres from here?"

He nodded. 

"That's not possible though," Ms Smith murmured at the same time at Mr Irving muttered, "He can't have just disappeared."

Then Ebony shrieked and collapsed, one hand raised to point at the opposite wall. The others turned to stare into the shadows, each of them emitting a startled sound when they saw the hands emerging from the concrete. Ms SMith staggered backwards with a choking sound as Austen, Phitz and Mr Irving lunged forward. For lack of a better plan, the teenagers each grabbed one of the hands and gave a hard pull. His flesh compressed beneath their grips, startling them, but as Finn's wrists were sucked free of the substance they continued. 

Slowly, his face appeared and as the group watched on in wonder he dragged a breath through his teeth. His eyes were glassy and unfocused, but one his torso as freed his tugged his arms from the boys and pushed himself out. He ended on his knees, entire frame rising and falling under his laboured breath. 

Mr Irving raised a hand, his expression bemused, and tapped the wall where, not 30 seconds ago, one of his students had been encased. The noise and his now bruised knuckled confirmed it, but he turned slowly to the others anyway.

"It's solid," Coach's eyes drifted down to Finn, "Completely, concretely, solid."

"What happened?" the teen demanded, sitting back on his haunched, "Where am I? What..." 

Austen interrupted by squatting and clamping a hand across his peer's mouth. "You were in the wall, Dude. That's all we know."

"What do you remeber?" Ms Smith asked kindly, squatting down beside him to brush some of the powder out of his hair. 

"There was a clunking sound..." Finn shook his head, "I thought it might have been the suits."

"No, no," Austen smirked, crossing his arms, "That was Phitz."

On the ground, the boy's eyes licked with fire. "We are being hunted and you were clicking like a bloody cicada?"

With no response, Phitz shrugged apologetically. 

"Who yelled then?" Finn asked, still breathing heavily. 

Phitz clapped Austen on the shoulder, returning his smirk.  "Our very own karate kid."

Mr Irving spun quickly to meet Ms Smith's eyes, and tried to smile comfortingly as his turmultuos insides would allow.

"What is going on, Anthony?" she asked, tears threatening to spill over. "I can't help but feel that we are in way over our heads. Who are these people?"

There was something so open-ended about the question that Mr Irving honeslty didn;t know if she was asking about the suits or the teenagers. 

"You kno what, Ella? I have no idea," he raised a hand to briefly touch her cheek, before striding purposely past her. "But I know someone who just might."

Wiping her eye quickly, Ms Smith smiled at Austen and Phitz, hooking a thumb at her disappearing colleague. "Would you boys mind going to make sure he doesn't kill Hazmat?"