Gomiko liked small, confined spaces. It was instinctual and probably had something to do with her raccoon features. The first time Sofiane rolled her up in a blanket like a burrito, she was forced to admit it felt incredible and thereafter got so embarrassed she couldn’t tell Sofa about it for a month afterwards. But never had she wanted to be in wide open space more than while guarding the Mage’s College sewers.

Every boom overhead felt like it would be the one to bring the ceiling down and bury not only Gomiko but the rest of her friends and the entirety of the science team under a pile of slimy rubble. She tried to convince herself the Xian weren’t that strong, that they didn’t know where the Shuixing was, and that there was a lot of not-easily-broken rock between them and her. However, every time she tried to tell herself this, another explosion rocked the sewers, and the image of Hammertal Canyon blown to bits filled her mind. Nor did it help that they were growing closer and more frequent.

She snapped out of her latest doom spiral when a large hand squeezed her shoulder.

“Sofi’ll be alright. He’s fought those Xian types before,” Harald said.

Gomiko nodded. “I know. I’m checking the Use-Rankings constantly. But I’m also afraid for us down here. The roof—”

Harald clapped her shoulder. “The roof will be fine. Trust me.”

He was lying to her. Or, at least, hiding his own fears. Whenever they went to a new dungeon or fought a new boss, Harald was always the one to anxiously over-prepare, fretting over the worst case scenario of losing stats and becoming trapped in a vicious underleveling cycle. Gomiko had no doubt he was as terrified as her and only putting on an act for her sake.

“I know we’ll be fine. Thanks Harald,” Gomiko said, lying right back at him.

She glanced over to the other side of the sewer where the scientists were passed out in chairs being periodically re-injected with the weird potion that let them see into the Yishang’s world. Guard duty might not have been so nerve-wracking if they weren’t guarding what felt like two dozen corpses. The only one moving besides the students re-injecting them was Shuixing periodically twitching and shuddering. Gomiko had no idea whether that was a good or bad sign.

“Oh gods, I’m gonna hurl,” Margaret said as she learned over the side of the sewer and made good on her declaration.

Gomiko’s stomach twinged in sympathy. Aside from the omnipresent anxiety and nauseating rumbling, the decorative sewer they were in (which technically did not lead to any toilets) smelled like it did. One more thing to thank the Yishang for.

Off to her side she watched Faisal put a fist to his mouth to keep his own dinner down. At least what was left of it. None of them had eaten since the bonfire feast the previous night. Not that Gomiko would’ve been able to keep anything down anyway. To distract herself she recalled better times, specifically the occasions when Faisal and Harald had one of their friendly competitions to see who could eat the most baked potatoes in one sitting. Both she and Margaret thought it was disgusting, but the two insisted on proving who was the best potato-guzzler and roped the girls into cooking the potatoes for them.

“Hey, Faisal, do you remember who won the potato-eating contest?” Gomiko asked, the expulsion of air easing her nausea somewhat.

He looked up, face sweating profusely. “I did.”

“No you did not!” Harald called out from the other side of the sewer where he was pacing back and forth. “We tied!”

Faisal cleared his throat and under his breath said, “I won.”

Gomiko giggled. She loved Sofiane to death, but the time before he joined their team had a special place in her heart. It was silly and simple time and there was a part of her that almost wanted to roll the clock back to it. Not that she would ever admit that to Sofa who had a bit of a jealous streak in him. After he joined their team everyone settled down, Faisal and Harald didn’t compete anymore, Margaret stopped flirting with every single Hero she met, and most of Gomiko’s attention—when they were allowed to be together—was directed towards Sofiane. It was nice and content, but it lacked the chaotic vitality of the early days.

“What do you think the other world will be like?” Gomiko asked Faisal.

“Not a clue,” he replied.

She pouted. “What a boring answer!”

He shrugged. “I was born to play the straight man.”

“How about you guys?” Gomiko asked.

“I hope there’s fighting,” Harald said, smacking the stone wall with an FDJ rod. “If it’s too comfortable I’ll go insane. I’ve gotta have something to struggle against.”

“Comfortable would be fine by— urp— by me!” Margaret said, still bent over the sewer.

Despite asking the question, Gomiko wasn’t sure how she herself would answer. Thinking too hard about it scared her. She empathized with Harald in hoping it had some kind of struggle, but if it was anything like Po-Lin they would just be going from one hell to another. She was uncomfortable with the thought of either a heaven or a hell, as well as both the possibility it might go on forever or that she and everyone she loved might die for good. The more she thought about it, the more this paradox gnawed at her.

“What do you think it’ll be like, Gomi?” Faisal asked.

“Not in a sewer, I hope,” Gomiko replied.

Whatever residual existentialism was still floating around in her mind disappeared in the next moment as voices echoed from the other end of the sewer tunnel. The four members of Team Harald glanced at each other to confirm they had all heard it.

“Fuck…” Harald whispered.

The others picked up the unspoken order to remain quiet and moved to the side of the sewer holding the research team. The graduate assistants looked at them with panic in their eyes. They were waiting for answers.

“We can’t fight the Heroes down here. We’ll be slaughtered,” Harald whispered. “We need to run.”

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“You mean move the eggheads?” Margaret asked at the same volume.

“As many as we can take. Shuixing gets priority,” Harald replied.

“And the rest?” Faisal asked.

“We’ll take as many as we can take,” Harald said. “But if we don’t want to be interrupted while carrying them, we’ll need an early warning.”

“What did you have in mind?” Gomiko asked.

Harald grinned. “Me. As soon as you hear abilities going off, cut and run. Leave the rest of the science team behind.”

“Wait! Harald, we— there has to be a way to get you out too!” Gomiko said.

He shook his head. “Not at this point. We should’ve prepared better, maybe had someone standing guard by the grate. It's too late now, so somebody has to go greet our guests.”

“I’ll do it,” Faisal said.

Harald kept his laugh to a whisper-level. “Nope! I already volunteered. Besides, you won the potato-eating contest, so I gotta redeem myself.”

“You’ve got broader shoulders, you can carry more science team members,” Faisal said. “If we want to get as many out as we can, you need to be the one carrying them. Not to mention I’ve got Become Wind. Out of all of us I can buy the most time.”

Harald opened his mouth to argue, but Faisal was right, and everyone knew it. Harald punched him in the shoulder.

“This ain’t the end, alright? I’m gonna find you in the other world and I’m gonna beat your ass for stealing my moment of glory from me,” Harald said, his voice choking up.

Faisal saluted and turned to go before Gomiko and Margaret threw him into a combined hug.

Faisal chuckled. “You’re wasting seconds.”

“No we’re not,” Gomiko replied, barely able to get the words out past the sob building in her throat. Tears were already stinging her eyes.

Margaret and Gomiko held him for a few seconds more before letting him go. The four teammates had one more look at each other before Faisal began his walk down the sewer tunnel to greet the encroaching Heroes. Gomiko wanted to watch him go, refusing to allow a single moment to be the last one she saw him, but Harald put his hand on her back and nudged her towards the sleeping scientists and she jerked her head towards the task at hand.

“I’ve got these two,” Harald said, hefting both Shuixing and Dr. Cox onto his shoulders.

The graduate assistants moved to help pick up the other scientists but Margaret waved them off.

“We’re gonna need stocks of your Aqua stuff to keep them under, aren’t we? Start bringing it upstairs,” she said.

The student she was speaking to blinked. “B-But the faculty—”

“—will be useless if they can’t get into Numberspace. Then the rest will have died in vain. They would want you to grab the chemicals,” Gomiko said.

At that the rest of the students hopped to stacking vials in crates. Margaret and Gomiko let them get a headstart up the stairs to make sure the all-important combo of Shuixing plus drugs made it there first before pulling a couple more slumbering professors into a piggyback ride and beginning their own ascent. At the top they left Shuixing and the other researchers with the graduate students to keep watch and went back down to bring up more.

On their third descent, a boom shook the foundation of the college and forced Gomiko to press herself to the wall to keep from falling. For a moment they hoped it had come from outside like the rest, but a second later lightning and fire flickered at the bottom of the stairs and with it came the sounds of yelling and shouting.

“That’s the sign…” Harald said. “Turn around!”

The three of them bolted back up the stairs. They hit the top step and Harald scooped up Shuixing and Dr. Cox while yelling at the students to grab whatever they could and run.

“Where!?” a student asked.

“Somewhere quiet and out of the way! Just get us there!” Harald barked.

The girl who had been attending to Shuixing took the lead and directed them to an out-of-the-way laboratory. The students set down their supplies inside and Harald and the others lay the researchers on the lab tables.

“Is this place safe?” Margaret asked, glancing at the room and its tiny supply closet.

“Not if they come looking,” the girl said. “Erm, I-I— don’t want to presume, but—”

“You need us to run interference. Give the Heroes something to chase,” Gomiko finished.

The girl nodded.

Harald puckered his lips. “Fuck… Alright, if that’s what we have to do then that’s what we do. We’ll run and go grab the scientists we left out in the hall and bring them here. After that, we’ll split up to grab their attention. If you all can find more ways to buy Shui some time, do it. Stick her in the closet and cover her with a tarp if you have to.”

Once the plan was decided, Gomiko sprinted with her teammates to retrieve the scientists. She worried they would be interrupted by Heroes, and that her last moments with her teammates, possibly forever, would be cut short. But what little luck she still possessed came through and they delivered the remnants of the science team unmolested. Their first task complete, the three Heroes walked back to the stairwell to the sewers, dreading the moment of their impending separation.

“I guess this is it,” Harald said, flipping an FDJ rod in his hand.

“Not how I thought it would end,” Margaret said. “And Faisal…”

Gomiko immediately felt herself preparing to cry again and Margaret teared up along with her. Harald looked between the two, unsure what to do with the two crying girls.

“H-Hey! We’ll be together again on the other side! Save your tears, or you’ll get dehydrated,” he said.

Margaret and Gomiko both punched him in the arm.

“Ow! Just a suggestion!” he said with a laugh. He was silent for a moment, busy tucking away the part of himself that didn’t like to be sentimental, and having done so added in a softer voice, “I’ll miss you both.”

This triggered the wetworks and Gomiko and Margaret hugged Harald for twice as long to make up for Faisal’s shortened hug while he fought down the urge to crack a joke to lighten the mode. Not that he could have delivered it with his throat quivering. Soon he was blinking back tears of his own.

“I love you both,” he said. “But I mean it, we’re gonna win and we’re gonna escape Po-Lin and I’ll see you both there and we’ll laugh about how sappy and stupid this good-bye was. I promise.”

Gomiko hiccuped and swallowed a sob. “If you break that promise I’ll kill you.”

As they neared the stairwell they heard footsteps and voices approaching the door. Margaret and Gomiko peeled themselves off Harald and drew their FDJ weapons.

Harald took a deep breath. “Here’s the plan: I’m gonna stick in front of the stairwell and keep on whacking them as long as they keep coming. When they get me, they get me. You two take off running down either end of the hallway to split them up. Do whatever you can to waste time and keep them away from the eggheads. Got it?”

Not quite able to speak yet, both Gomiko and Margaret flashed him a tearful thumbs up. A few seconds later, the door handle rattled.

“This one’s for Faisal!” Harald screamed as he kicked the door inwards on a hapless Hero who tumbled backwards into the Heroes lined up behind them. In the same movement he brought his rod down on the one in front, dimension-jumping her and filling the doorway with flickering polygons. Margaret and Gomiko looked at each other one last time and sprinted in opposite directions.