From the moment I woke up in that stupid dollhouse, I knew that I was definitely stuck up a certain infamous creek without a paddle.

I was in a bad situation, one that had become increasingly worse with every passing moment, to the extent that it was almost laughable.

Hell, at the announcement of the Underground's plans for world domination, even the most pessimistic of people would think it was safe to say 'things can't possibly get worse'.

The shock of finding myself still sinking after hitting rock bottom only made the last straw a heavier burden to bear.

As Nigel screamed, Artemis stood frozen, eyes wide with growing horror, earning himself the ire of the crowd as the room was filled with jeers and shouts. For all, they still wore their elegant clothing and held themselves with arrogance, the high-class members of the Underground, were quickly becoming a bloodthirsty rabble.

Artemis took no notice, seeming to forget his purpose as all his earlier determination evaporated in the face of Nigel's suffering.

I, on the other hand, trembled with rage.

The hardest part of being shrunk isn't the inconvenience, the loss of independence, or the frightening size of the world around me.

Its the fact that being small has robbed me of the ability to fight. The option I relied on the most, my first reaction to every conflict, was now lost to me.

I'd taken it well. Spent my time sulking on the sidelines, even managed to think my way out of a few scenarios. Through it all, I had always been acutely aware that there was no chance of me winning a physical battle against my giant adversaries.

Nigel screams were morphing into sobs as the boy tried to regain control, curling into himself as his body was overloaded with agonising sensation.

And that sound drowned out all the logical voices in my head that tried to tell me I wasn't strong enough to stop this.

With a darkly superior smile, Dr Cassandra Floid looks down at the two boys.

"Continue." Dr Floid demanded flatly, eyes cold above the smirk.

And I moved, for once not wasting time on words or passionate outcries.

Without a sound, I turned and threw myself from Apollo's shoulder.

"Don't...!"

There was no plan, no clever way of saving the day. I had literally no idea what I was going to do.

My body just refused to do nothing.

And I knew Apollo felt the same way, as I saw Alan quickly grab his arm, yanking it up against his back and instantly pinning the smaller boy as he started to move.

The sudden display of speed and strength, the realisation that Alan had been holding back all this time, wasn't what worried me.

Because I knew, he was still just the brains of the operation.

And what I had to contend with was the muscle.

"Maddison!"

The outraged roar went ignored as my feet hit the marble floor.

Then I was running.

Which, honestly? Really sucked.

I was still wearing a dress after all, and that made the whole affair incredibly awkward on top of dangerously suicidal. The jump boots helped a lot, adding a boost to every step as I weaved my way through the sea of expensive shoes.

Shoes big enough to crush me if I was unfortunate enough to be caught under one.

"Stop!" I heard Alex shout, thinking that the command was directed at me until a black dress shoe landed in front of me with all the weight and force of a falling car.

Heart stuttering in my chest, I took a split second to wonder if perhaps this wasn't the best idea ever... Then vaulted over the shoe with a determined cry.

Chickening out was for sane people whose friends weren't being tortured by the incarnate of pure evil.

Great. Always wanted to try my luck against the odds of almost certain death! Mwhahahahaaaaa...

I'm going to die...

The universe and its best friend Irony must have overheard the damning thought, as a woman's voice suddenly squealed, and a high heal narrowly missed impaling me into the floor.

Jumping to the side to avoid the likely killing blow, I scampered to my feet in time to see her foot raising to crush me again. The woman screamed like I was a rat with the plague.

Figures, surviving this long and enduring so much just so I could be killed off in the most demeaning way possible.

As the shoe came towards me and I prepared to dodge, the floor beneath my feet shook with a violent crash. A large shadow fell over me as someone fell to their knees behind me and grabbed the ankle of the falling foot, shoving its squawking owner off balance.

Recognising the black and white checkered sleeve, I started forward, attempting to escape while he was distracted with the flailing woman.

I had taken barely five steps when a large shape approached rapidly from the corner of my eye. Swallowing a panicked yelp, I raised my arms defensively a second before the giant hand snatched me up, the fingers wrapping around me with near crushing force.

Furiously, I thrashed against the restraining hand as Alex stood, and I was elevated to an uncomfortably high eye level

"Are you insane!?" Alex shouted, eyes livid as he held me just in front of his face. "You're lucky you didn't get yourself killed!"

Feeling lightheaded with anger and frustration, not to mention all sorts of fear, I glared back at Alex with overwhelming hatred.

The look alone, caused Alex's hand to loosen around me in shock.

"So what?" I snarled back harshly, voice mocking as I continued to struggle. "News flash Mr Scout of the Underground. You don't get to care. You have no right to care, or feel guilty, or sympathetic or anything. That's the point of being the backstabbing traitor."

Alex actually cringed.

That alone, made me feel... horrible.

Alex, whose facial expressions ranged from evil glee to irritably bored to "I'm going to kill you with my gaze alone" to.... well, yea, Alex wasn't meant to feel stuff normal human beings could.

"How dare you do that to my wife!" A broad middle-aged man furiously grabbed Alex's shoulder. "I demand...!"

All the rage he had been trying to hide was unleashed in a brutal punch to the man's face, knocking the guy out before he could finish. Alex turned his back on the outraged little group before the man could hit the ground, dismissing them with the warning of violence.

In true Alexander form, the redhead didn't flatter for long, covering all trace of hurt and meeting my anger with his own. "Don't mouth off when you don't understand anything." He growled, his hand tightening almost painfully around me as he drew it away from his face. He began to storm back to the railing, me gripped tightly at waist level.

The better to ignore me I guess.

Unfortunately for Alex, I had not just risked my life to be dismissed and dragged back to the starting point.

"Oh, you're right about that, Alex. I have no freaking idea why you are doing this." I drawled, voice scathing. "Its kind of obvious that you guys don't actually like these people, that you hate doing their dirty work, so whether you're acting under duress or have some sort of ultimate goal in mind, is all a big mystery to me."

"Then. Shut. Up." Alex gritted out from behind clenched teeth, coming to a stop so that he could glare down at me.

Hah, who do you think you're dealing with? No near homicidal mood swing is going to scare this stubborn idiot into shutting up!

Wrenching my arm free from where his grip trapped it at my side, I pointed at him accusingly.

"I'll tell you what I do know Alexander Floid. I know that you have to be the most prickly, bad-tempered Jerk on the entire planet. I know that there is no one more cynical, more pessimistic, more distrusting or just plain judgemental than you are, and I know that there is no one you judge more harshly than yourself."

Except maybe Alan...

I flung an arm out in Nigel's direction.

"And down there is the one person in the whole world too dense to notice what a complete jackass you are! That idiot actually believes that you are secretly a nice guy, just because you abuse us every time we do something stupid."

Watching me with a face so unnaturally blank it had to be hiding a storm of emotion, Alex just waited for me to finish, refusing to comment. I could tell that the words bothered him, but they weren't going to change his mind. After all, if guilt had any effect on his motivation, we wouldn't be standing here right now.

Frustrated with the cold rejection I could sense coming, I bit my lip. Lowering my gaze to his hand around me. Red-faced and nearly tearing up, I pointed towards myself.

"And this is the lonely idiot you let hang out with you for two years after she screwed up the only friendship she ever knew." I added quietly. "I know you never asked for or wanted our friendship. The reason why you always kept your distance is pretty obvious now, but..."

"With a click of her fingers, she was able to make Nigel feel pain." Alex interrupted, his voice stiff with restraint. I looked up, eyes widening at the tortured look on his face.

"Now that she has infected his body with her tech, it will take nothing more than that to stop his heart. From anywhere in the world, whenever she wanted, she could kill him. She could morph him into something inhuman or manipulate his mind and memory."

I stared at him, terror building in my chest at the defeated anger burning in his eyes.

"So tell me, Maddison, how is getting sentimental and upset going to save Nigel?" His words were punctuated with a sharp shake of his hand."How do you suggest I protect him, or you, or anyone else who is dragged into this mess? If your way is so much better than give me one real reason not to stand here and watch this!"

For a long moment, I couldn't speak. Shallowly, it appeared as though he was mocking me, sarcastically scolding me for thinking myself nobler than him, when I had never been in his shoes.

But by the raw edge of his voice, I could tell that he was truly asking me.

What do I do?

"More often than not, standing up for what is right involves more sacrifice than anything else," I told him softly. "Obviously, if it was easy to be good, more people would do it."

I met his gaze firmly.

"People like the Underground will always fight dirty. They will take hostages and attack innocent people. Because of this, people like you will be put in a situation where they have to choose between rolling over to protect the people they love or standing up to the people who threaten to hurt them. "

With a shuddering sigh, I shook my head.

"I know, if it was Monica or Devin's life at stake, I wouldn't have done anything differently. I would have made the exact same decision as you. Deciding to do this doesn't make you a bad person, Alex, just human, like everyone else."

Guiltily Alex averted his gaze, and I knew him well enough to understand why.

Alex was too proud to except sympathy, would see forgiveness as an injustice for what he had done.

I took a deep, steadying breath. "But you know, Nigel and I aren't just your friends, we're your comrades." I shook my head at him irritably. "We never asked you to protect us, because we intend to fight with you. And uh, I realise that sounds really lame, considering that neither of us are really in any condition to fight... but it's the thought that counts I'm sure..."

Okay, now I was babbling, but that was only because Alex had covered his face with his hand, shoulders trembling in... Rage? Irritation? Frustration? I don't really know, and it's starting to freak me out here...

"So stupid." He gasped breathlessly, and my eyes narrowed.

Nope. The Jerk is just hysterically laughing at me. What an insane moment to suddenly develop a sense of humour...

"My comrades? I've been babysitting you brats for years! I can tell you now, I'd been safer with the whole lot of you locked away in a playpen than fighting beside me!" He snickered, grinning madly behind the hand, hiding his eyes from me.

He sort of has a point...

"Excuse me? I think it's pretty safe to say you'd have to be at least a little bit brain dead to stay in high school for nearly a whole decade." I snapped back haughtily. "Sure you're like a superpowered anti-hero grampa or something, but that doesn't change the fact that you're an idiot, And as far as I'm concerned, that means you fit in perfectly with the rest of us!"

Alex didn't remove his hand from his face, but he was no longer laughing, completely sober as he listened in silence.

Anger dying down, I glared irritably down at his giant hand around me.

"That's not what I meant anyway.... stupid Jerk... I was just trying to tell you that, if you chose to fight them, to fight for what is right, instead of protecting me..." My voice went incredibly small. "... I would feel nothing but proud of you, Alex."

Hesitantly, the hand fell away from his eyes, and for the first time, I was able to see his expression.

For a second, I wondered if Alex and Alan had a secret triplet because the heartbroken, sad, grateful, relieved, joyous, apologetic, thankful smile was not something that belonged on the face of either brother, especially Alexander Floyd.

Then it was gone, replaced with a grumpy/ neutral glare.

And I blinked at him wordlessly, unsure of what exactly... just happened....?

But somehow, it felt like I had just fixed something.... by whacking it blindly with a hammer.... and here I was, wondering how the hell that had even worked...

"It's when you say stupid crap like that, Maddison Tramph, that makes me not what to let you out of my sight." He shook his head, irritably. "It's not safe to leave people like you unsupervised."

Why is everyone in my life such an insensitive moron? It's like... I'm some sort of jerk magnet...

Pissed, I opened my mouth to instruct Alex on exactly which technique he should use to go screw himself when an outraged scream echoed across the room.

"What is the meaning of this?!"