A/N: AAAAAAALLLRIGHTY THEN! Here we are with part 2 of "Through Hell and High Water" - and it's a doozy! First of all, though, credit where credit is due. Phoenix Revenge sparked the idea for the "totally epic lightbulb moment" (pun intended), though perhaps not in the way she intended. And ReillyScarecrowRocks gave me the means for the boys' escape - I gotta say, I can't believe I didn't think of that myself x} And sorry, Reilly, but no gillyweed. I've already done a Harry Potter-themed chapter lol

When we last saw our heroes, they were trapped at the bottom of the ocean, with nowhere to go and water rising fast. Eagle actually -gasp- had a thought...but lost it somewhere between the one about the unicorn feed and the one regarding his hunger. Alex Rider, also known as Cub, had heroically come to K-unit's rescue, but failed when the aforementioned fast-rising water cut off their escape route. Cue dramatic music...

Duhn duhn duuuuuuuuhn!

"There's that dramatic music playing ominously in the background again!" Alex exclaimed.

Fox eyed the boy sidelong. "I think the pressure is messing with your head," he said.

Alex stuck his tongue out at the older man, feeling like a child and not caring. Before the snarkfest could escalate, Wolf asked Alex, "How did you get here, anyway?"

With a last glare at Fox, Alex turned to the team leader. "Mini-sub," he said. "MI6 actually dropped me off this time."

"So is that how we're getting out?"

Alex scowled. "No. Apparently it wasn't designed for this depth of water – they couldn't stick around for long. If we can find the proper gear, we could swim out, but I doubt that'll help much considering we're under a good thousand feet of ocean."

"A thousand feet!" Snake cut in. "No way!"

The boy grimaced. "Way, unfortunately. We're gonna have to find our own way out."

Eagle, who had been silent so far, pouted. "This sucks," he said, summing up everyone's thoughts in far more polite language.

Wolf made a face that could be best described as pained. "I never thought I'd agree with Eagle, but he has a point." Fox and Snake nodded agreement.

There was a moment of despondent silence as the cold seawater swirled around their shins and crept up to their knees. Suddenly, Eagle's face began to light up and he gasped. "GUYS!" he yelled. "I just had a totally epic lightbulb moment!"

His team stared first at him, then at each other. Wolf shrugged. "Why not?" he muttered. "Explain," he said to Eagle.

Eagle grinned. "How d'you s'pose St. John got out of here?" he asked semi-rhetorically. St. John was the name assumed by the madman who had captured K-Unit.

The men, and boy, blinked. "A sub of some kind?" Fox ventured.

Eagle scowled. "An escape pod, dummy!" he exclaimed indignantly.

"Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe," Alex interrupted. "What's your point?"

Still glaring at Fox, Eagle continued his thought. "When he took his escape pod," he said, stressing the words, "he left one behind. Remember we took out like a dozen of his guys? There's gotta be one left over!" He smiled around at his blinking teammates, satisfied with himself and amused by the looks on their faces.

Snake was the first to break the silence as the icy water reached his knees. "Eagle," he said solemnly, laying a hand on the other man's shoulder, "I never thought I'd say this, but...good thinking."

Eagle beamed. "Then let's go!" he exclaimed, turning to the door. Then he stopped. "Uh..."

"Leave it to me," Alex said, slogging toward the portal – the water was higher on him. He pulled what looked like a pencil eraser out of his pocket and pressed it into the door. It stuck, and he backed off quickly and ducked, prompting the others to do the same. A few seconds later, a decent-sized explosion disintegrated the knob and knocked the door cockeyed on its hinges.

Alex grinned. "Good ol' Smithers," he said to himself.

Fox and Wolf wrestled the door open, admitting a torrent of water that soaked nearly everyone completely through and subsided to rest just above the level of Alex's waist. Shivering, Wolf motioned the others to fall in behind him and started making his way through the collapsing base.

Several minutes, much impatient snapping, and a good foot of water later, they found it. The mini-sub definitely lived up to the first half of its name, but they would all be able to fit if they squeezed – and really, they reasoned, could it be any worse than folding themselves into Eagle's tiny car?

Apparently so.

"Get your foot out of my face!" Fox grumbled as Wolf piloted the mini-sub away from the base.

"My foot's not in your face!" Snake snapped.

"Not your foot, Cub's foot!"

"What makes you think it's my foot?"

"I don't think anyone else in here has feet that size, Cub."

"Oh, yeah...sorry." He shifted the offending appendage the best he could.

"I can not believe I'm stuck in here with you people for another nine hundred and seventy-six feet," Wolf muttered.

Someone smacked him as hard as he could, which given the confined space, wasn't very hard.

"If I ever find out who hit me, there's going to be blood," Wolf said conversationally.

Four voices rang out in perfect harmony: "I didn't do it!"

"Riiiiight..."

A hundred feet and a lot of grumbling later, Alex piped up, "Why in the world did he leave this behind, anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to destroy it, or at least cut off access to it, just in case?"

The men considered this for a moment, then Snake said, "Cub, this is the guy whose idea of a self-destruct is the base collapsing ever-so-slowly in on itself. He has less brains than Eagle."

"Hey!"

Alex ignored him. "Good point," he said.

"Hey!"

"Shut up, Eagle."

A/N: Well, what'd you think? Again, many many thanks and virtual cookies to ReillyScarecrowRocks for getting the boys out of that jam. Or jelly, if you're American...

Please review! I have a suggestion I think I'm going to take after this, but please feel free to share yours! This fic is mostly sustained by things you guys, my ever-wonderful readers, suggest, so don't be shy! :) Also, I want to know what you think, so again I ask you to REVIEW! 8)