Someone grabbed him from behind, and he struck in that direction landing an elbow that caused a satisfying whoosh of air. The arms released him, and he turned back to his original opponent. But he was too late; he felt his arms gripped in an iron grasp, and a familiar voice spoke to him.

"Snap out of it Joe!" Startled, Joe turned his head, and realized his mistake. Chet sat on the ground, nursing his ribs and glaring at the younger Hardy, while a young woman helped a young man with dark hair to sit up. Turning his head further, he stared at his captor.

"Frank!" His brother finally let him go, and he struggled to make sense of the situation. "What, how...?" His brother silenced him with an eyebrow, and he stopped stammering long enough for Frank to reply. "We were following our kidnappers, hoping they would lead us back to you guys." He surveyed the group gathered around him. "It seems that we were successful, although I didn't exactly expect my own brother to ambush me." Joe grinned wryly.

"I suppose I ought to have thought to look at who was coming first, sorry about that guys." Joe looked around the circle. Chet smiled gamely, even though he still held his ribs. "That's alright, I should have remembered that you pack one mean wallop." TJ nodded, still rubbing his head. "You definitely do. I'm sorry that we didn't say anything right away, but we kind of expect it from a different source."

"Well," Mike glanced at the others, "let's head back to camp, shall we? I'd kind of like to eat that lunch we were talking about earlier, and I'm sure it would do wonders for Chet." Nods answered his statement, and Jared again led the now larger group toward camp. Joe walked beside his brother for a while in companionable silence. Finally he spoke.

"How did you find out your kidnappers identities?" Frank looked over at his brother briefly, before turning his gaze back to the ground they were walking over. "They knocked us out with some kind of gas, but TJ got a glimpse of them, and later, when we broke free, they came back and we caught part of their conversation." He looked over at Joe again. "We can talk more about it later."

Joe nodded and turned to look back at the others when suddenly something heavy landed on his left shoulder, causing him to lose his balance. Biff gave a wry smile, and moved off, leaving Joe to hang onto the ruined climbing rope. Man, I didn't think it would be this heavy!

* * * * *

Later on, after a delicious lunch of canned chicken noodle soup prepared by Mike (with Chet "helping"), six people stood with their gear packed, ready to move down into civilization again. Mike waited patiently while goodbyes were exchanged, then signalled his group to move out by slipping on his pack. "Good to see you boys, stay healthy up here." He grinned at Joe. "We'll make out a full report of what happened when we get to the ranger station."

Joe nodded and glanced at his brother who seemed to have Rebekah Merrell glued all over him. By the slightly panicked look on Frank's face, he guessed his brother wasn't exactly thrilled. Joe snickered when the girl kissed Frank. Frank looked over and caught his brother's eye with a glare. Joe just laughed. It was always handy to have a little blackmail on hand.

He was shocked when Donna broke away from Joe Thompson to give him a peck on the cheek. "Thanks for all your help." she whispered, before turning back to her boyfriend. Joe reddened at her comments and turned his head. "You're welcome." he muttered, before realizing she couldn't hear him.

Jared and Paul shook hands with Joe as they walked past. "Sorry we can't stay and help out. If we didn't have those classes to make..." Paul's voice trailed off, and Joe nodded. "It's okay, we know you'd love to stay and find out what's going on here. It's not like you're chickening out or anything."

Jared nodded, and he and Paul joined the others on the down trail. When they disappeared from sight, Joe turned back to his remaining companions. Frank leaned against a tree, eyes closed, while Chet lay on the ground, a contented sigh escaping his lips. Biff and TJ sat a little ways apart, talking in low tones. Joe made his way over and stood beside his brother.

"So, what does the great brain dictate we do now?"

Frank frowned at him. "I don't dictate and you know it. However, that aside, I think our best bet is to pool all the information we've gathered so far and see if we make anything of it."

Joe smirked and nodded. He followed Frank back to the smouldering remains of the campfire and sat down on the rough log that served as a bench of sorts. Biff and TJ got up and came over, and Chet sat up and groaned. "Just my luck! Have a nice afternoon nap interrupted by the chief attractions for trouble in the known universe." TJ laughed at that. "It can't be that bad Chet, or you wouldn't be here."

"No, I'm just too staunchly loyal for my own good." the stout boy replied. He turned to Frank. "So Sherlock, what's the answer to this case?" Frank waited until everyone was settled to begin. "We are here to discuss what the facts of the case are, to this point. Then we can decide an appropriate course of action."

He sighed as he sat down beside Joe. "Joe and I ran talked it over for a little while after lunch. I think that the cliff is a good place to start. First, Rebekah's rope was caught in a man made object, designed to shear off any rope that got stuck in that crevice. Obviously, someone wanted anyone witnessing an accident to think that it was caused by the friction between the rope and the face of the cliff."

"Second, when we went down to rescue Rebekah, someone shot at you guys and/or the ropes. We made it to the ground in time, and you all took cover. Then two people rigged up a 'ghost' and kidnapped Rebekah, TJ, and myself. Then we escape and overhear our abductors talking. They're more worried that we might have found something, than the fact that we broke out."

"So?" Joe leaned back and stretched. "So that could mean that they weren't planning on keeping us there. We messed up whatever plan they had, but it didn't upset it too much. They headed out to check out a factory?"

"In other words, there are two different entities in some sort of battle, and we stepped right into the middle of it." TJ sat up straight and wrapped his arms around one knee. Frank nodded. "Seems that way."

"But what would a factory be doing out here?" Chet asked. "Nobody lives out here, and what would they build out here anyway?"

Biff took a turn around the circle. "Maybe they're running something illegal; it wouldn't bother them to be in a secluded place where no one is around much." Chet shrugged. "It have to be pretty profitable for someone to want to take it over."

Biff laughed. "Sure it does Chet. Maybe they put together nuclear bombs or something."

Frank looked up at Biff. "You may have a point there." Joe broke in hurriedly. "Problem is, we don't know for sure. Instead of just sitting here, maybe we should try to find this 'factory' that our two intrepid spies are talking about. Maybe then we can put part of the puzzle together." Frank frowned. "I don't know..."

Joe cut him off impatiently. "Sure you do. Biff, you ready?" He nodded. "Chet, you with me?" Chet frowned at him, but nodded. "I hope you know what you're doing." he grumbled quietly.

Joe turned to his brother. "Jared gave me the heading he used to get us back here from where we found you. He also thought to take the heading for the direction that the kidnappers used, so we have a pretty good idea of were to start looking. Come on Frank," he pleaded, seeing his brother's doubt, "you know its the best chance we have of finding a solid clue. We have to start somewhere."

Frank sighed and turned to TJ. "Think we can find our way?" TJ nodded. "It shouldn't be too hard to find, but...I've got a bad feeling about this."