Part VII

The man left B.A. and Hannibal, yelling for his two henchmen as he did. Furious, he was storming down the stairwell to the floor below where the other cell was.

He was going to kill that chemist that mixed the drug concoction for him. Very painfully. Perhaps he'd tell Baracus about the special cocktail that the chemist had injected into Peck. Why not? Then another thought occurred and he grimaced. If that combination had made someone like Peck violent, he didn't dare have it given to Baracus. That would be too much like an angry tiger on massive amounts of caffeine. The big man might rip the place down around them.

He could hear Peck still screaming before he even unlocked the door. Gesturing inside, he instructed his men.

"Pull Peck off of Murdock. Maybe the fool is still alive."

Still staring angrily at the screen in their cell, B.A. started pounding his right fist against his left palm.

"Ain't nobody ain't on our team allowed to call that Fool a fool. Man needs a beatin' bad, Hannibal."

"When we get out of here, he's all yours, Sergeant."

Neither of them took their eyes away from the scene playing out so near, yet so far away.

The henchmen both had weapons in their hands, but Face didn't acknowledge that the men were even there, let alone their guns. Grousing, each of them shifted their weapons to a one-handed carry and used their free hands to reach out for him. The men each grabbed one arm and pulled Peck off of Murdock. He had stopped screaming now and was just softly sobbing, not fighting back against them at all.

Their captor came into the room and stood straight in front of Face briefly, studying him. Deciding he was a broken man, he gestured to his men.

"Drop him and help me with the pilot."

As the three men stopped beside the bloody body, all of a sudden, Face lifted his head and shouted.

"Hey kids? Do you know what time it is?"

All three men turned automatically at the shout. Behind them, Murdock sprang into action like an jack-in-the-box. The two henchmen hadn't bothered to reshift their hold on their weapons and before they knew what had hit them, one micro-uzi was skittering across the floor and the other being wrestled away by Murdock as he yelled out the answer to Face.

"It's Howdy Doody Time!"

Seeing Face reaching for the fallen uzi, their foe cursed and ran from the room. B.A. and Hannibal exchanged glances again. Odds were that the man was coming their way - possibly to try to use a threat against them to regain control over Face and Murdock. Neither of them intended for things to play out that way. There was very little time judging from how long it had taken the man to go from them to where Murdock and Face were.

"B.A. - grab us some of that wire. Let's make a little welcome if we can."

Quickly jerking out the microphone wires he'd been using, B.A. freed about a yard worth of one of the thin wires. The door to their cell opened outward so B.A. quickly tied off the wire on either side of the door, about a foot off the floor. Hearing the sound of running feet approaching, he quickly backed away from the door.

Their now red-faced captor unlocked the door, pulled his M1911 pistol then jerked the door open. He was barking out orders the whole time.

"Baracus - you in that corner. Smith - you in the other. We'll see if your men are -"

Are what was a question for another time as the man didn't see the wire that caught his leg. His gun went off as he fell, imploding the television screen. The last the man remembered seeing before everything went black was a jewelry covered fist headed straight for his face.

Feeling a little better after knocking the man out cold, Baracus took the gun from the unconscious man and passed it over to the Colonel. They both braced again as they heard the sound of more running feet. However this time, it was Face and Murdock who appeared. It was difficult to say which pair was more relieved to see the other.

It took longer to set things up than usual because both Murdock and Face weren't doing so well after their adrenaline died down, but soon the restarted business along with the remaining stockpile of the drugs went up with an impressive fireball. The defeated man cursed at them - he and his men were handcuffed circling a tree to await police.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't supposed to be able to shut me down again!"

Hannibal just pulled out a cigar, shaking his head.

"You know, if you'd just left us alone, you might have pulled it off this time. Because quite frankly? I don't even remember your name any more."

B.A. just laughed at the expression coming onto the man's face.

"Me neither. Enjoyed punchin' your lights out though."

Face let out a giggle again.

"We could always call him George."

Murdock beamed over at Face, then the two men continued in perfect unison.

"And I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him!"

There was a very audible groan from B.A.

"Someone please tell me that stuff is gonna wear off of the Faceman soon. I don't know how much more of Dueling Fools I can take."

"Not to worry, Big Guy. Billy seems to think that Facey will be back to his normal self by tomorrow."

"You're gettin' medical advise from a dog?"

Hannibal just chuckled as he guided Face into the van.

"Let's go, men. We'll find a place where we can tend to Murdock's nose and let Face sleep this stuff off."

"We need to find some place that allows pets."

"You ain't got no pet with you, Crazy Man!"

"Ooooooo - that's a good angle, Big Buddy. Since they can't see Billy, if we don't mention him, they'll never know he's there."

"He ain't there, Fool!"

Face just gave Murdock a slight grin as the pilot climbed into the seat behind him. Hannibal was smiling as well as B.A. started the van and drove off. His team needed some serious rest and recovery time, but they were still together. What else really mattered?