"Your... sister?" Bruno repeated.

"Yep," Cove nodded, "Winter, meet Bruno. Bruno, meet my sister Winter..."

His gaze moved on two the young men.

"... and company."

"Bruno?" one of the young men repeated in a smooth Sokovian accent while getting to his feet, "you're Lilian's twin brother! I'm Hugo."

"Wait, you know Lilian?" Bruno enquired in surprise.

"Long story," Hugo grinned, holding out his hand.

Bruno shook it nervously.

"We met her and Steve yesterday evening," Winter explained, and Hugo mock glared at her.

"When I say 'It's a long story,' I mean 'You don't have to tell them.'"

"Stop it Hugo," the other young man instructed, and the first thing Bruno noticed was that he was only other person besides himself that didn't have a Sokovian accent, "I'm Rudy, by the way."

"Wait just a minute," Hugo squinted at Cove, "it this bothersome ребенок the reason you dragged me out of bed and into the Forbidden Forest at six o'clock this morning?"

Cove paled.

"You... you were looking for us?"

"Yes we were," Winter answered, her eyes narrowing as she leaned forwards.

"Cove, why don't you tell me..." she enquired, and Cove took a step backwards, "where in the NAME of ICE and SNOW is Pascal?"

"So... um... on the topic of long stories..." Cave began sheepishly.

"Sorry to interrupt, but who is Pascal?" Bruno asked.

Winter blinked at Bruno in disbelief, and then turned her glare back to Cove with even more intensity than before.

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL HIM?!?"

"Like I said," Cove laughed nervously, "long story."

"Um... I have no idea who Pascal is either," Hugo broke in.

"SHUT UP HUGO!" Winter hollered without even looking into his direction.

"Hint taken," Hugo muttered to himself.

"What did Cave — I mean Cove — not tell me?" Bruno frowned, becoming increasingly confused.

"Cove," Winter gritted her teeth, gesturing to Bruno, "I think you own him an explanation."

Cove turned to Bruno.

"Well, uhm... it's... it's..."

"If you say 'a long story' ONE MORE TIME—"

"...complicated, I was going to say complicated."

"Cove."

"Okay, okay."

He took a deep breath, and answered.

-

Meanwhile, somewhere else...

Hanna allowed her gaze to inspect the entire cell slowly, taking it all in.

Steve was awake again, although he had a nasty bruise in the making on his side. Cave had managed to sleep in the helicopter, but he too was up again already. Everyone else had stayed awake through it all, although now that it was a bit more quiet Lilian was rubbing her eyes and Tessa was struggling to sit upright.

The two guards had disarmed them completely, taking even Tessa's Iron Man glove and Steve's backpack and supposed "pot-lid". Then they'd flown for at least an hour in the helicopter before it landed in middle of a building that somewhat resembled a giant ashtray.

Now they were locked up in a cell in the underground systems under the center-segment of that ashtray-building, and Lilian was threatening to fall asleep on the small wooden bench she was sharing with Tessa. Hanna and Steve sat on the stone cold floor, while Cave was huddled on the floor in one of the four corners.

"So... now what?" Hanna enquired.

"We wait for Bruno to save us," Lilian answered confidently.

Steve shook his head slowly.

"I love your enthusiasm and trust in Bruno, Lilian, but I don't think he can save us on his own."

"What if he's not alone?" Cave spoke up softly, and everyone turned to him in surprise.

"What do you mean, 'if he's not alone'?" Tessa frowned.

Hanna gasped, finally connecting the dots.

"That's why you were acting so weird!"

Cave looked at her in surprise.

"But... I haven't even told you anything yet..."

Hanna laughed.

"Yes, but I suspected it for a while and this is the final proof I needed."

"Final proof for what?" Tessa almost snapped in impatience.

"Cave should tell you," Hanna gestured to the agitated speeder, "it's his secret after all."

Cave sighed, and took a deep breath.

And answered.

-

"Well... you see... Ihaveatwinbrotherandwe'vebeenswitchingplaces."

A twin sixth sense told Cove that Pascal was saying exactly the same at that moment, and he grinned to himself.

"You WHAT?!"" Bruno exclaimed, and Cove rubbed his neck.

"Yeah... long story."

Winter let out a sigh, uncrossing her arms and stepping in.

"I'm sorry for any trouble my brothers may have caused you. Unfortunately, they've been running away from the orphanage since they could walk. And once they start running..."

She gave Bruno a half-smile as she trailed off, while Rudy and Hugo looked confused.

"No worries," Bruno reassured her, glancing at Cove, "he was reasonably well-behaved."

"Reasonably well-behaved?" Cove countered indignantly, "I saved your guts, Mr Scientist!"

"Name one time you've saved anyone since you joined them," Winter challenged.

"I saved a cat in the Forest — okay no wait, that was Pascal. Um..." Cove paused to think, "I saved all of them back when Bruno, Lilian and Hanna first joined Steve and Tessa."

"What?" Bruno frowned disbelievingly, "when was that?"

"You know, when those AWSOMR agents showed up? Did you really think that that first AWSOMR agent just collapsed for no good reason? Honestly, I didn't hear anyone say 'hey, what about that first guy?'. For all you know he could've been faking it!"

"Okay okay, I get it," Bruno answered, his memory sufficiently refreshed.

[*if any of you still need refreshing, try chapter 12.]

"Mmm, anyone could've claimed to do that," Winter decided, "try again Cove."

Cove rolled his eyes.

"I saved Lilian from the the-floor-is-lava attraction in Parker Mansion."

"THERE WAS LAVA?!?" Bruno exclaimed, a look of horror on his face.

"He wasn't there," Cove explained to Winter.

"Then it doesn't count," Winter smirked, and Cove groaned.

"Fiiiine... I brought Bruno to the secret cave when he fell asleep against a tree, so I essentially saved him from death by wolves, cold, and annoying sisters. Good enough?"

Winter looked to Bruno as if to confirm whether it was true, and Bruno nodded.

"Alright then, you're excused," she said to Cove.

"Good, I was already starting to wonder why I'd called in your help to begin with," Cove grumbled.

"When did you call her?" Bruno frowned.

Rudy frowned.

"Yes, I'd like to know that too. I don't remember Winter calling anyone."

"Um, unimportant details guys," Cove pointed out, "what's way more important it... Winter, do you know where Pascal is?"

Winter pursed her lips.

"I have a vague idea, but nothing to concrete. Pascal described it to me, he says the building they're in belongs to the AWSOMR, is probably a prison and is shaped sort of like an ashtray, but that's all I've got."

Bruno bit his lip.

"How many AWSOMR prisons are there?" he enquired.

"42," Rudy answered, "that's not including any secret ones."

Hugo gave him a sharp glare, and Rudy rolled his eyes, dismissing his friend's over-cautiousness.

"I don't think I've ever heard of a prison shaped like an ashtray," Winter mumbled, "but then again, I don't know a lot about AWSOMR prisons."

She looked to Rudy questioningly, but Rudy shook his head.

"I don't recall having heard about it either, which means it's either not a prison or one of the secret ones."

"How do we find out which it is?" Cove asked.

"There's no way," Rudy shook his head again, "they're called secret for a reason."

There was a silence, and then Hugo let out a deep sigh of resignation.

"There is one way..." Hugo began, and he immediately had everyone's attention, "if you had a really good hacker, you could hack into the AWSOMR system and search through all the buildings in the immediate area. It would take a short while, but we have all the time we need, right?"

"But we don't have any hackers," Winter pointed out, "and I'm not about to hire one off the internet."

Bruno's eyes lit up.

"I might know someone."

All eyes turned to him.

"Who?" Cove enquired.

A small smile spread over Bruno's lips as he took a small piece of paper out of his pocket. 

On it were three words.

And a phone number.

-

Question of the chapter: DID YOU SEE IT COMING?

Thanks to all of you voting & commenting, I really appreciate it :)

~Evanlyn