"Failed. Again." Ava's fingers danced across her wrist interface, her usual confidence eroding with each unsuccessful attempt. "The protocols are cycling too fast to match." She shifted uncomfortably, wedged between Viktor's massive augmented frame and the maintenance tunnel's cold wall.

"Perhaps," Viktor suggested his voice a low growl, "a more forceful approach is needed. If you just—" His exoskeleton whirred as he attempted to adjust position, driving his elbow into Sarah's ribs.

"Ow!" Sarah's ghost protocol gear laminated against the metal wall, sending brief arcs of blue light around her sardine-can refuge. "Perhaps you could not demonstrate your tactical brilliance for five minutes..."

"I'm trying to get comfortable," Viktor protested, his frame humming as it attempted to find a stable configuration in the cramped space.

"How's that working out for you?" Ava snapped, crushed against the unforgiving metal door while operating her interface the best she could. The security protocols kept shifting, morphing into new patterns before she could complete the handshake. Outside their refuge, the abacus's electromagnetic field crackled with impossible energy. The ancient tunnel infrastructure groaned.

"That's not good," Sarah whispered, her ghost protocol gear going haywire. "That's really not—"

The sound hit them like a physical force. A shriek of reality shattering, so massive it bypassed their ears, vibrating through their bones. Viktor's augmented frame locked up into a stability mode, servos whining in protest.

"What the…" Viktor barked, military training kicking in despite being frozen into a malfunctioning action figure position.

"Well," Kai observed from his increasingly precarious perch, "I would say something very large and very expensive just had a very bad day." He adjusted his grip around Viktor’s neck and repositioned his stance on Viktor's leg. However, as he began to elaborate, a cataclysmic force cut him off, unleashing a tremor as torrents of dust and debris came through the door from outside their electric-blue storm. The team held their breath as the seismic upheaval built to a crescendo lasting minutes before finally subsiding slowly in a near-constant chain of explosions shaking them internally.

A silence settled over the group, broken only by the rhythmic hum of Viktor’s exoskeleton and the distant rumble of what sounded like the aftershocks of a collapsing city. "That," Sarah broke the silence, checking readings on her ghost protocol interface, "was new." Her gear flickered as it processed the data. "Also new, the harmonic frequencies from the abacus are changing."

"Fascinating." Kai mused as some sort of consulting gargoyle. "Possibly an emergency response," Kai coughed. "But certainly not standard containment."

"In the middle of an infrastructure collapse?" Sarah added to the line of questioning.

Viktor attempted to gesture skeptically, but only succeeded in wedging his arm further into Sarah's back, "Some response team with the worst timing possible." The entire tunnel network shuddered violently again.

"It appears to be working…,” said Sarah. Another tremor, weaker this time. “They are introducing seventh and ninth modulations..." She paused. "Kai, this looks like a much older containment protocol."

"Maya," Kai muttered, recognition dawning. "She's using the old failsafe." A small smile played across his face despite their situation. "Perfect."

"Perfect?" Viktor's exoskeleton ground against the door he tried to move. "We're trapped in a closet while the city collapses and that's perfect?"

"It gives us cover," Kai explained, somehow managing to sound pedagogical while dangling like a bat. "When we're found, we were all investigating anomalous readings in the Neural Substrate. Sarah's expertise with ghost protocol was essential for pattern recognition. Your military background made you the ideal security consultant. And then..."

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Another tremor, but different now. The angry blue storm outside their door was fading, its electric fury diminishing to a dull hum.

"And then," Ava cut in, her fingers flying across her interface with renewed purpose, "we got stuck in a maintenance tunnel when everything went wrong." A faint smile touched her lips.

“All good, that is, if we ever get out of here,” Viktor quipped. A wave of awkwardness washed over him as no one spoke again for a long time. For what seemed like an eternity, Ava continued to work the protocol while the others let her focus, everyone reflecting as Viktor’s words continued to hover.

Then, out of nowhere, the blue glow from under the door stopped. The constant humming from the field stopped. “The electromagnetic lock just released!” Ava’s relief evident in her excitement. “We can get out of this sardine can."

"Maybe," Sarah suggested with infinite patience, "let those of us who aren't wearing a tank get out first?"

"Tactically sound," Viktor agreed stiffly. The access panel clicked, then groaned as ancient machinery fought decades of rust. "Finally," Viktor started to push forward following Ava who slipped through before the door stopped opening with a crunching sound. Sarah followed Ava through the opening.

"Back on plan," Kai interjected awkwardly catching himself as he slid off and past Viktor. "Remember we are investigating irregularities, nothing from here forward happens, period." He paused. "Someone could’ve helped me down you know.”

However, Viktor was too large for the opening. "I’ll have to force it," Viktor offered, servos humming as he took hold of the door.

"Yes, because brute force has worked so well today," Ava retorted, not looking up from her interface. "Just let me..." The door shuddered and opened fully, causing Viktor to stumble forward into the larger maintenance tunnel.

"Well," he brushed off his clothes with practiced nonchalance, "that was invigorating." The outer chamber was a disaster zone of fallen debris.

Ava's scanned security patrol routes through layers of infrastructure. Each sweep of her augmented vision revealed guard positions, sensor locations, and probable blind spots in the surveillance grid. This was her element: pure data converted to actionable intelligence. Ahead, she disappeared into shadows that shouldn't have been able to hide her. “Security checkpoint lay fifty meters up: two guards,” she whispered over their group comms.

Above them, where the old maintenance tunnel met modern infrastructure, the guard’s attention was focused on failing systems rather than potential intruders.

Sarah added, “Standard augments, they are scanning electrical protocols.”

Viktor hung back, his enhanced frame making stealth impossible. But that was part of the plan. If things went wrong, he'd be there loud and proud, an effective distraction. In the meantime, he mapped structural weak points automatically - old habits from urban warfare simulations.

The team moved with a precision born of careful planning, each member playing to their strengths. Kai’s role was simple: remember every detail, craft the perfect cover story, turn catastrophe into plausible deniability.

"Access shaft,” Ava whispered, “Maintenance records show it connects to... oh, this is interesting."

"Define 'interesting'," Viktor responded unhappily.

"The kind that gets us where we need to go," she replied. "Assuming the tank can fit through a cooling duct."

"'Tactically enhanced personnel carrier'," Viktor muttered.

"Children," Kai chided gently, "focus. Ava, can you also mask Sarah’s approach?"

“Hopefully,” Ava responded, her gear already flickering a warning. The dust had impacted her stealth field. She held up three fingers to Sarah to indicate the duration in minutes before the field would fail. Sarah stayed close as they increased their speed.

"Wonderful," Viktor chided. "Stealth mission with wishful stealth tech. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Time for some plausibly deniable chaos,“ Kai challenged.

The first guard never Ava her coming, a shadow among shadows. One moment he was giving his diagnostic display a good whack, unable to interpret the readings, the next he was unconscious, caught before he could hit the ground. The second guard turned, hand reaching for his comm unit. Watching remotely, Viktor tensed, ready to abandon stealth with an overwhelming, charging force.

But Sarah was fast, moving with liquid grace. The second guard joined his companion in silent unconsciousness. The rest of the team caught up quickly, Viktor's heavy frame free to advance.