Off the coast of Brazil, a man burst from the ocean, a briefcase breaking the surface next to him in a flop before it began to float on the ocean. Nothing could be seen of the agent but his tanned chin and cheeks as he opened the case to examine the innards.

"Retrieval of the nanowires was a success," he muttered to himself, picking up and taking a close look at what looked to be near-invisible threads of hair through his goggles. "Time to call HQ and—" His watch began to beep, a shrill noise that could wake even the dead. He quickly put the wires back into and shut the suitcase and clicked a button on the watch to check the time. "She isn't supposed to be home…"

The man clicked another button on the watch and looked at the reading. Then froze.

"Oh my—"

"GAAAAAAAAH!"

Adrena raised her arms into the air, grasping it and shrieking to nothing. It was like they were chasing her or something! What was with all of these freaky flamingos? Why were they all over the place? Why would anyone have one in their backyard?

She let her arms fall to her side and lolled her head back. Really, what was the point of having a lawn decoration in your backyard? No one could really see it back there. Maybe it was some sort of thief deterrent? It would certainly deter her…

...-...-...-...-...-...

"Hmm…what to add…" Tara had immediately set to work on creating Adrena's sandwich, pulling out some lettuce, deli meats, mayonnaise, and tomatoes and setting them on the island that was in the kitchen. It looked like she had everything that one would need for a sandwich, but it still felt like something was missing…

She tried to remember all of the times that she had given Adrena sandwiches: the shrieking comments, the gagging, the backhanded compliments. Tara knew that her homeless friend didn't mean to be mean. No, she just really liked to make a joke of things. It reminded her of her best friend, Bonnie.

Bonnie always needed to have things her way, have control and be the best even at the cost of others. That sort of attitude had always made Tara uncomfortable. What was the point of doing that to other people? 'There always has to be losers, T' Bonnie had always said. 'Just make sure you always have someone below you to be them.'

Tara could remember from years ago when she had first met Bonnie. She didn't use to be so cynical and cruel. Just an awkward young girl that had some mean older sisters. But the more her sisters won and lorded their statuses above her, Bonnie changed. She started dressing older, dancing harder, dating guys much older than her just to increase her status at school. As much as she hated it, Tara couldn't bring herself to do anything about it. She just let herself go along with Bonnie's suggestions for dates and clothing. It was just easier that way.

Now at least Tara didn't have to worry about her anymore. Her friend had found her rich knight in shining armor and hair gel to take care of her and show her sisters that she is, indeed, worth something. Last she'd heard, Bonnie was celebrating her oddly quick engagement to her boyfriend by starting on a world cruise to go to all the beaches around the globe. Bonnie had said she would call when she could…the last one had been two weeks ago.

That was okay though. Bonnie was probably just enjoying herself. Getting massages, bathing in mud, relaxing with some cucumbers on her—

"Cucumbers!" she suddenly cried. THAT'S what she had forgotten. Adrena had commented that one time when Tara had brought her a sandwich that cucumbers were really good to have on a sandwich. She opened up the door to the white speckled fridge and rooted around for one of the vegetables.

Tara opened the vegetable drawer and stood for a few seconds, letting the cold air from the fridge roll over her as she thought more about her friend. Her main problem was that now she was alone for the most part. Sure, Tara had some casual friends from the cheer squad and a few others, like some of the people from the chess team that she could call. But none of them were her Bonnie.

No…not her Bonnie. Her friend Bonnie. That had a boyfriend/fiancé. Her best friend that she dearly missed. The loss of B left some sort of hole in Tara. She didn't know what it was, but it ached fiercely ever since even before her brunette friend had left on her trip. The same area that always got tingly and hot whenever Bonnie gave her one of her mischievous smiles.

Tara hadn't known what to do to fix it. It was just painful and strange and something that Bonnie just would not have tolerated. And now things looked to be settled in a way that left the blonde in an unhappy position.

But she had seen Adrena sitting by herself a few days before and had felt…something. Not pity. True, she pitied the woman, but this was definitely not pity. It was a tiny excited tingling. Not as much as she felt whenever she thought of Bonnie. She wasn't even sure why she got this sort of feeling with women like her friend. Adrena, though…she gave her this strange feeling and it helped to make the hole that was in her fill up just a bit.

Strangely, Tara wasn't able to find the cucumbers in the veggie drawer like she thought she would. She shut the drawer and straightened up, letting her back crack. The blonde pulled a knife off the knife rack that sat next to the fridge in one smooth motion and searched through the rest of the refridgerator for the cucumbers. She didn't really like them herself. They were a bit too crunchy for her taste. Tara liked to just relax and chew on something soft when she wanted a simple sandwich so she could space off better. To each their own, though.

She had just closed the door to the refrigerator when a loud scream burst through the air. It wasn't horrified or angry. It sounded more like the kinds of screams that Bonnie had when her dates cancelled and her sisters took her clothes without asking. Frustrated and annoyed, that's what it was. And Tara was sure that it had been her new houseguest that had shrieked.

Tara bit her lip as she tentatively approached the door to the dining room. The worst-case scenarios flashed through her head: her mother had come home before she could explain, her brother came down and tried one of his 'super spy' moves on what he would see as a home invader, Matilda wandering over to borrow something and scaring Adrena…or maybe she hurt herself…or maybe the aliens came back and started to—

No. Tara shook her head to clear it. There's no way the aliens would come just to remove one woman's brain and spine. Well, not this woman, anyway. Kim would probably be the target in that situation.

Wait. She shouldn't be thinking of that. Her guest had screamed and she should be going to check out what happened. So Tara steeled herself for what could possibly be wrong and went into the dining room.

...-...-...-...-...-...

Agent Gedum sighed as he walked down the long nondescript hallway of GJ headquarters. He had been trying for the last…how long? Four days? Close to five? He checked his cell phone and groaned. Nearly 100 hours straight of walking around the complex, failing to find even a hint of another person, much less the room he had been told to go to to pick up some routine paperwork. He would have called for help, but he'd lost his commwatch at some point during the second day and his cell phone couldn't get through the walls. Not to mention he was underground.

Most people probably would have given up and just curled up somewhere in the first few hours, but Joe wasn't one to simply give up like that. Being a middle linebacker on his school's football team made him built to be tougher and more stubborn than most others. And considering how dense some of his teammates were, he's better able to handle frustration as well.

But trying to explain to Brick the quarterback about how you can't just pull the ball out of someone's hands and run with it was nothing compared to trying to navigate this maze. Several days ago, Dr. Director herself asked him to get her a refill of Form 212.3b from the west wing of the administration office. He had left her office, following the directions she had told him…and hadn't seen hide nor hair of a person or place since. Heck, the only reason he was alive was because he kept running into vending machines and a unisex bathroom every day or so.

Much to his frustration, he'd found that it was the same set of vending machines that he kept passing throughout his long fruitless journey. He had marked on the small table in the corner of the open area with a highlighter and had discovered that the table in every single vending machine spot had the same marking on it.

The little bit of wisdom that he had had told him to just wait by the vending machines until someone came by for a snack, but the words went unheeded by the linebacker. The big boss lady was counting on him to get her those documents and he would not fail!

He was just starting to hope that the vending machines would come up again just so he would have a chair to sit in for a small rest when the wall ten feet ahead suddenly opened up, spitting out another agent onto the ground. The agent was dressed in a still-wet full-body scuba outfit and was carrying a suitcase, but that didn't matter to Joe. All that mattered was that it was another person. Another person that might actually know where in the world the administrative office was. Or, maybe, the exit.

So with all the dignity and grace that Agent Gedum could muster, he approached the senior agent.

He obviously didn't have much left.

One second, the agent had been trying to cut through the training area of headquarters to take the shortcut to Doctor Director's office. The next second his ear was overwhelmed by an enormous war-cry of some sort and he was flying through the air, subject of a mid-air tackle.

Thanks to his training, the agent managed to roll with the tackle and free himself from his attacker. He rolled up into a kneeling stance and aimed his watch at his opponent, taser ready.

He was surprised to find that it was not a member of WWEE as he'd originally thought, but a recruit. A recruit that he was repulsed and irritated to find in violation of the hygiene code. That wasn't the biggest thing to catch his attention though. The recruit was in violation of several other codes as he began to cry and praise his deity…or deities.

"Thank you Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Thor, and anyone else that I had prayed to!" Joe cried in relief. "Thank you for showing mercy on this poor intern!" He got up from his knees and grabbed the other agent's hand in appreciation. "Sir, you have no idea how much I appreciate you coming here and saving me."

The agent blinked, nonplussed. "My apologies, but I only came through here as a shortcut to Doctor Director's office. You are…?"

"Oh! Right." Agent Gedum searched through his jumpsuit's numerous pockets for his identification card. He could've sworn that he had put it in his front pocket, but was surprised to find it in his back pocket. Pushing his confusion aside, he presented his card to the other agent. "I'm Agent Gedum. I just started a few days ago."

The other agent's eyes lit up in recognition. "Ah. That's right. You came with the batch of new agents. An intern." He said the last sentence with a sort of disdain that immediately made Joe less appreciative of him. The agent looked from the card to him several times, his face falling to a dissatisfied frown. "You don't look much like the picture on your card." He gave the new agent a sharp glare. "You were instructed on the day that you were to have your picture taken for your identification card that you were not supposed to dress in any way other than what you look like on a normal day."

"Huh?" Agent Gedum took the card from the senior agent and looked at the picture. "I don't—"

The senior agent sighed and pulled a small mirror out of a side pocket, holding it out for Joe to make a comparison. Joe looked into the mirror and winced. His usually softly spiked brown hair was lying flat against his skull, shiny with grease and his tanned face had broken out into a vicious acne outbreak, many of them concentrated on his bulbous nose.

"Ouch. This is gonna take a while to fix." He gingerly touched his nose, his thoughts turning to how his dating life would be on hold for a while, before he snapped back to reality. "But I have an explanation!"

"I have an explanation sir," the other agent corrected.

Joe ignored what he considered a barb and dove right in. "I was sent by Dr. Director herself to get form 212.3b from the west wing of the administration office. But—" he self-consciously scratched the back of his head "—I seem to have gotten lost…"

Did the other agent just smirk? "So you stopped me from finishing my mission because you happened to get lost?"

"Not just lost, sir. I've been down here for several days!" Joe anguished. "I haven't seen my family for days. Heck, you're the first person I've seen in nearly a week!" He rubbed his wet face on his jumpsuit. "Now that you're here, I can finally—…huh?" Where the agent had been standing in front of him was now devoid of said agent. Joe quickly looked around the hallway to see the agent had gone down the hallway a short ways.

The agent knocked on the wall in a sequence that Agent Gedum didn't recognize. A panel opened up and the scuba-clad agent presented his card. A beeping noise that Gedum recognized as the all clear was issued from the opening and a tube descended from the ceiling.

"As much as I recognize your plight, I cannot tarry here any longer. Doctor Director is waiting for me and I cannot keep her waiting," the agent quickly said before he was sucked up into the tube.

Joe had been transfixed by the scene up until he realized that he was being left alone again. He went into a staggered run for the tube, screaming, "WAIT! Don't leave me here!" Before he could even make it half the way there, the tube, the panel, and any hope Joe disappeared into the hallway walls without a trace.

The intern had caught more momentum than he had intended with his haste to catch the way out and ended up plowing into the nondescript wall. He bashed into the wall and fell to the ground, slightly dazed. The reality of the now once again hopelessly lost situation hit him full-on once he had gained his senses and got himself right-way up.

He dramatically got to his feet and stumbled to the middle of the hallway before dropping to his knees like he knew that most people did when faced with something this dramatic. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he gripped his hair and pulled before he raised his head to the heavens and screamed for all he was worth.

Gasp! A new chapter! I know, I'm as surprised as you guys. Thanks to Pojko and kgs-wy for looking at the chapter before I posted. Enjoy!