Back at the building however, they discovered a scene very different from the one they expected.

"What the hell happened?" asked Taker, looking around at the mess. "Where is everyone?"

"Matt!" shouted Jeff. "Lita!"

There was no answer. The members of DX exchanged worried looks. Hunter stepped forwards. "Where were they headed?"

"Mother Lil’s." answered Taker. Jesse made what he thought was the obvious suggestion. "Then wouldn’t everyone be on their way there?"

"No." Jeff replied firmly. "Matt and Lita wouldn’t have left. No matter what I tell them to do, they wouldn’t just leave me. "

"Blind loyalty." Chyna nodded in understanding and shot affectionate looks at the conscious members of DX. "Nothing like it in the world."

"We’ll have to check the place over." Jeff sighed, slipping back into leadership mode. "Teams of two. Brothers of Destruction, check the building."

"All of it?" Taker exclaimed, looking up at the imposing building . Jeff shook his head. "Just up to the dorms. See what you can find. APA, east grounds. Outlaws, north grounds. Chyna and I will check out the south. Meet back here in 20 minutes."

"What about him?" Shawn motioned at X-Pac, who was coming around. Jesse smirked. "Leave him here."

Hunter opened his mouth to protest, but Chyna shot him a look. "We don’t have time to wait for him to come round and explain the situation and I will not risk any of my friends."

Hunter nodded. He didn’t appreciate being told what to do by someone he considered nothing more than an impulsive youngster. Admittedly, Jeff had more than earned his battle stripes and mainly by looking out for those he cared about. Despite his personal feelings towards the kid, he recognized that the RTC referred to Jeff as the NCC’s leader and that older and better men than himself agreed with that assessment. For now, that was good enough for Hunter.

They moved off, to check out their designated areas. Within 15 minutes everyone bar Jeff and Chyna had returned. None of them had any news to report, other than the fact that it was clear a group of people had left in a hurry.

"Shawn!" Chyna came running out of the darkness and into his arms. He stroked her hair. "What’s wrong baby?"

Jeff returned to the group, a limp figure in his arms. Bradshaw swore. "Lita?"

"We need to get her to Mother Jayne’s. She’s badly hurt. Get X-Pac and head for Lilly’s, Explain to the others and give Matt my love. Catch on the flip side. He turned and disappeared into the darkness. Bradshaw and Farooq exchanged looks. "He’ll collapse from the exertion within half an hour."

"Um, I hate to be the one to point this out…" Billy said slowly. "But X-Pac’s not here."

"What?" exclaimed Hunter. "Where the hell is he?" They looked around uneasily. A suspicion crossed Kane’s mind, but he pushed it to the back of his thoughts. "He’s nowhere around here."

"I hate to say it-" The tone of Farrooq’s voice indicated otherwise - "But we may have to leave without him. If he’s free, we’ll hear about it on the Grapevine. If not, we’ll bust him out."

"There’s nothing else we can do Hunter." Shawn softly. "But we won’t jusr forget about him."

"What if he’s injured? What if they beat him up like they did Lita?"

"They wouldn’t. Pac can defend himself against them, Lita can’t." Chyna replied. "Can we get outta here? I’m getting bad vibes."

One by one the others nodded and shouldered their packs, setting off into the night after Jeff.