As Mindgame's psychic presence left her mind, Maya’s first instinct was to start recording audio from her phone. Only audio — video would be too obvious to him. Sir Guardian faced her from across the room, clad in heavy shoulder pads and red armor with a star on his chest, clutching his signature crimson shield.

“Who sent you here?!” she said, heart thudding in her chest as she secretly reached for the tape recorder behind her, a second backup plan for evidence.

Sir Guardian took a step closer.

Maya backed into the desk. Pencils clattered to the floor, tumbling from a pencil cup. The gray sky recovered from the rain, pressing through the window behind her. Breaking through wasn’t an option. Fortified, bulletproof glass would resist anything she could do.

She needed a plan. Maya eyed the phone on the desk, struggling to remember the commands. She had to buy time. “It had to be someone with high connections,” she said. “Someone big and bold enough to hire you of all people instead of just another thug.”

“Maybe.”

“Was it Apex?”

Sir Guardian’s fist clenched around his shield.

“Was it someone else higher up in the SRB? Let me guess. Senior Agent Decker?”

“I’m smart enough to finish this job without giving you more evidence. We tried to get you out of this easy, but you wouldn’t listen. Drastic times call for drastic measures.”

“You responded further as soon as I asked you about Senior Agent Decker. That implicitly confirms someone in the SRB sent you.”

Sir Guardian scoffed. “No it doesn’t.”

“Oh? So it wasn’t someone in the SRB. It was her.”

Sir Guardian tensed his curled lip, sneering.

Maya slowly placed a hand on the desk, edging towards the phone on the ringer. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be dumb enough to give me more evidence.”

“It won't matter. You ain’t getting out of here alive anyway!”

As Sir Guardian charged across the room, Maya lunged for the phone, pressing the button for eight. Electrical panels hidden underneath the shag carpet snapped to life, electrifying Sir Guardian’s armor. He froze in place, and Maya pressed six. The ceiling hissed as sleeping gas canisters filled the room with a thick gray smoke.

She hurried to grab the gas mask under the desk and fit it over her mouth. Twitching, Sir Guardian fought through the pain and pressed a button on the side of his helmet. A facemask slid over the rest of his face, covering his beard, foiling the first of Maya’s defenses.

He shouted like a titan before throwing his shield into the wall. It cracked right through the plaster, decimating the breaker on the other side in one swoop.

As the electrical panels crackled one last time, the hiss of sleeping gas shut off, and the lights went dark. Light bounced from Sir Guardian’s shield. Maya dropped. Sir Guardian’s shield cut through the air, missing her skull by a hair.

It cracked the window.

The bulletproof windows cracked against the sheer force of Sir Guardian’s shield, thrown hard enough to decimate her skull, now lodged in place. Maya reached underneath the dresser next to the desk and drew a flashbang.

Sir Guardian yanked on a taut string between his shield and himself, pulling himself across the room hard enough to dislodge his shield. Maya threw the flashbang, but he caught it with the back of his shield and swung at her. She rolled past his clothesline as he slammed it against the wall, containing the blast.

His maneuver rolled the couch forward, making it even easier for her to grab another tool. Maya pumped the twelve-gauge shotgun tied to the bottom of the overturned couch. Sir Guardian spun towards her.

She let the barrel sing to his face.

But, against the flash of light and the skull-splitting boom, he didn’t dodge. He hardly ducked. The buckshot cracked into his helmet and knocked his head back like an inconvenience. He grabbed the barrel, crunching it in her hands. Maya reached for the fridge and pulled out a cold can of soda.

As he ripped the mangled shotgun from her hands, she gave him a second gift, arming the sonic grenade hidden within the aluminum can. The deafening boom thundered through her skeleton. Over her ringing ears, she couldn’t even hear Sir Guardian scream as it went off right next to his heard.

He let out a silenced roar and stumbled. Maya took the chance to turn tail and run for the door.

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In the hallway, Mindgame's presence entered her mind.

Maya! You’re still alive. Great.

Maya passed the first door on her left and went for the second, frantically mashing the code into the secret keypad embedded in the black door. Leaving through the main stairway and from the front door would be too easy. He would know where to follow her. But, from here, she could drop behind the apartment’s front desk, and exit from the back door.

Yes. Good idea. You need to get out of here as fast as possible. I’ll try to help, but he’ll kill you if he gets his hands on you — and this’ll get messy if I get involved.

“Thanks for telling me something I don’t know!” Maya barely heard her own words as she shouldered through the door. This room looked lived-in, too, but it was all a decoy for the trapdoor underneath the red reclining chair next to the TV.

Ten seconds before Sir Guardian followed down the hallway, and even that was generous. The door locked behind her, sure, but it would only buy a few more seconds.

At least, she thought he’d head for the hallway. She thought she’d feel his heavy footsteps. Instead, a heavy crash rumbled to her left, and she couldn’t react in time. Sir Guardian smashed through the wall like a wrecking ball to a piece of paper, spraying wood chips and plaster as he tackled Maya across the room.

Maya fell against the shattered TV, head spinning. Sir Guardian casually dusted himself off and took a lumbering step closer, now between her and the trapdoor. But, the room between this one and her own room had another pair of undercover agents, both confused at how he’d ripped through their walls.

They didn’t need further reason to attack. Both drew pistols and opened fire, but Sir Guardian spun on a dime and raised his shield, switching targets.

Maya’s heart pounded in her aching ribcage. His singular tackle left her battered, as if she’d hit a car. The trap door wasn’t an option anymore. Heading through the front door was still too obvious. Jumping through the windows would be impossible—

Wait.

Sir Guardian’s shield cracked one of the windows in her room.

Ahead, he charged towards one of the undercover agents and swung his shield. Her hearing recovered enough for her to know exactly how many ribs cracked against the force of his shield. Maya stumbled to her feet, blood dripping from her nose as she headed for the door. Sir Guardian finished off the first agent to the soundtrack of screams and crunching bones, then to more gunshots as he went for his second target.

Mindgame's presence returned. “Mindgame!” she thought. “Listen. In a second, I need you to throw off Sir Guardian’s aim.”

Why? Are you— His mental voice paused, as if reading her mind. Oh. Okay. Duck at my signal.

Silence from the other room. Maya hurried her pace, returning to the desk and the cracked window beside it. With his crimson armor stained with the darkness of blood, Sir Guardian stepped through the hole in the wall a few feet away, grinning.

“Nowhere to run.” He gripped his shield tighter, pulling back for a throw. “I knew this would be easy—agh!”

Now!

Maya ducked as Sir Guardian clutched his head at the last moment, throwing off his aim. Instead of her, his shield smashed through the bulletproof window, clattering into the alleyway on the other side. Sir Guardian clawed at his forehead. As he struggled against Mindgame's mental attack, Maya dived out of the window, aiming for the pile of trash next to the dumpster below.

It was only a two story drop. She could’ve broken her spine on the dumpster lid. She could’ve cracked her head on the sidewalk. Maya shut her eyes, bracing herself before she hit the pile of trash even harder than she thought. Old food and moist cardboard squelched underneath her weight as her bandaged shoulder went ablaze with even more pain.

But she was alive.

Maya limped to her feet, stumbling, reaching for her cracked phone. It had recorded the entire thing. She sent an SOS to Senior Agent Hale, marking it with the highest priority. He only left twenty minutes ago. Hopefully, he’d make it back in time before Sir Guardian circled through the front—

Two stories up, the outer wall exploded into cinderblocks as Sir Guardian tore through and landed at the end of the alleyway. He hit raw concrete, yet rose immediately and dusted off his shoulders.

Maya tried to pick up Sir Guardian’s shield — a desperate, last-ditch effort — but it was far too heavy for any human to lift. Meanwhile, he clenched his fist and pulled at the air, and it zipped into his grasp.

She had dropped her pistol upstairs. Mere trash wouldn’t stop him.

The case would die here with her.

Maya grit her teeth, clenching the tape recorder in her pocket, retreating with every step he took. “Synapse lied. You weren’t the only one there to kill Gigabyte, were you?”

“Come closer and I’ll show you what I did to him.”

Maya backed into the wall of the alleyway. Nowhere else to run.

Sir Guardian stepped closer, but behind him, a child stopped on the sidewalk at the end of the alleyway.

“I challenge you to a ranked fight, Sir Guardian!”

Sir Guardian’s mask folded away as he dropped his grimace and the color drained from his face. Mindgame himself stood at the end of the alleyway, his jaw set and his glare trained on his opponent. Sir Guardian didn’t even have time to retort. Menus appeared between the both of them, with a view count already in the thousands. Then, hundreds of thousands.

In seconds, millions of viewers tuned in to the confrontation between two members of the Fifty. Maya brought herself to her feet. Even though adrenaline still pounded through her heart, she chuckled as she limped past the crimson-clad brute. He couldn’t do anything to her on live TV.

Checkmate, Apex. I live again.

Mindgame's presence entered her mind as she passed him.

I’ll keep him busy for as long as I can, but I have to lose this. Get as far away as possible. Tell no one. Get to Mage Country.

Maya left the alleyway, and to her right, Senior Agent Hale swerved around the corner, speeding towards her. Mindgame had saved her life — consequences from Apex be damned. Whatever backlash he’d face, she couldn’t let his gift go to waste.

She had to get to Mage Country and meet with Avanti Mirage. But, as the referee spawned in between Sir Guardian and Mindgame, her dwindling strength zapped from her body, and she collapsed into the passenger seat.