The lights to the elevator terminal just blinked out. The fast-moving motion of the cars halted at once, making some muted shouts resound from that direction. A swell of murmurs rose from the line of people who waited to get through the security terminals, not trapped in an elevator—lucky for them.

"Damn it all," the Disco Menace growled. "This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for you!"

"Weren't for me?" eX-0704 repeated, exasperated. "I've done nothing but try to help! I just saved you!"

"I could've saved myself," she said snidely. "If I didn't have to waste time washing the mana off your hand, I could've been on the last elevator out of here."

That last bit was a lie, and they both knew it.

eX-0704 flicked his tailed about in furious agitation. "You're really ungrateful, you know that?"

"You should be grateful to be alive! Do you know how many sub-dragons I've killed?" The Disco Menace kicked her feet and paced about.

eX-0704 turned his face away, not wanting to think about all his squad members that had fallen by her hand earlier that day. For all the pain and trouble that he was going through, he at least deserved a modicum of respect. eX-0281 would have to thank him big time for this.

More calmly, she analyzed the situation. "We need to force power to the terminal or move on to the next one. Do you realize how hard it's going to be to get out of the city?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. Neither of those options seemed particularly desirable.

"I have a couple plense on me, so I could [Glitch] out of here," the Disco Menace mused. Quickly, she shook her head and dismissed the idea.

Though mana replenishers were as powerful as they sounded, they were a last resort for only the most desperate mages. The addictive stimulants had a mild corrosive effect, a lesser version of what had just happened to eX-0704's hand. Mana replenishers crushed the body's ley system over time—terrible for anyone who wanted to keep their magical efficacy for future fights.

"No," he murmured, "we're not that desperate yet." In need of another solution, eX-0704 offered, "I can climb the side of the terminal."

The Disco Menace nodded. "Let's do that. Avoid the crowd. GPC clearly does not give a shit about human life right now."

eX-0704 nodded. Scooping her up, he beat his wings into a sprint and climbed the security fence. The live wire of the fence tried to electrocute him, but between his elemental resistance and the Disco Menace's low level [Thunder Bend], the jolt to his muscles helped him climb faster.

"Haha!" eX-0704 laughed at the jittery feeling. "Teamwork."

"Focus," the Disco Menace said. Grumpier than usual, she did not sound happy about holding onto his chest like a koala.

At the top of the fence, eX-0704 sliced a path through the barbed wire with his claws. He perched atop the fence like a gargoyle and glided past the bridge with the security checkpoint.

"Intruder!" some soldiers at the gate called. Naturally, they tried to greet him with a flurry of bullets.

He angled his wings right and left to avoid any further bruises to his armored body or holes in his leathery wings. It used to suck when eX-0704 and his squad could not aim like that, but now he felt incredibly happy.

The bullets zinged past him until he was safely shielded by the elevator terminal. eX-0704 latched onto its side and tipped his chin to the cavernous sky above. The structure of metallic braces let him climb it like a ladder of triangles.

"Nice going, lizard!"

"Thanks," he huffed while scrambling up as quickly as he could.

"What's your name?" the Disco Menace tried to ask.

"eX-0704." If his tail did not always swish back and forth as he climbed, eX-0704 would have lifted it in a smile.

This was some good progress. They were almost out of the city, and the Disco Menace had given him a compliment and asked a considerate question. Of course, she had to ruin the moment by following that up with a laugh in his face.

"That's actually so sad. They call you a frickin serial number!"

It's my name, he thought with dismay. Maybe eX-0704 and eX-0281 would have to do something about that later.

"I'll call you Liz," the Disco Menace continued, "short for lizard."

"What?" eX-0704 did not know whether to feel happy to have a name sans numbers or more offended that she called him a bastardization of his species. Way cooler than a lizard, he was a dragon!

Given the fuzzy ache of his head, he chose to ignore it for now. "I think we've got more company."

A larger hovercraft roared to life behind them. Sirens blared and spotlights illuminated their section of the elevator terminal. "Cease resistance!" the mechanical voice said. "This is your last chance to surrender."

His heart rate elevated two times over. "Crap. Do you have the mana to take care of it?"

"No," the Disco Menace drawled out. "Marcel, can you strike it with a [Lightning Bolt]?"

"Mhm." Though eX-0704 could not see the kid, the slight movement of his nodding head could be felt against his chest.

"Alright!" the Disco Menace cheered for verbal confirmation. "Just give us a clear shot and let Marcel do his thing."

When he came to the next large triangle in the support beams, eX-0704 clambered through it and slunk around to the underside of the elevator terminal. The cloud of bullets sprayed for them, but many pinged off the braces.

In this orientation, Marcel and the Disco Menace were now facing the drone—most vulnerable to attack. eX-0704 shielded his wings around them the best he could while still leaving an opening for the kid's line of sight.

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The Disco Menace slung an arm over eX-0704's neck so that she could twist around, holding Marcel in her other arm.

His sickly frame stayed curled into her chest, but all he had to do was lift one arm. Thunder clapped from Marcel's hand as a massive streak of lightning burst from a singular, pointed finger.

The white lightning caused an eruption when it struck the drone, and their adversary went careening to the ground.

eX-0704 could feel his eyes widened as he watched the ball of fire strike the ground, thereby causing a secondary explosion. "Wow," he breathed. Why did this kid need his sister to escape again?

"Ugh." Marcel slumped over, even more still than he had been to begin with.

Right. The kid was in critical condition and needed medical attention as soon as possible. Considering how much the company liked their electricity, they could have been using Marcel as his own little mana reactor.

The disease manzy resulted from mana deficits in the body, often plaguing overworked mages. If the condition lasted for too long, it could prove fatal.

Hence, eX-0704 tried his hardest to climb faster. When they neared the top, he crawled into the elevator shaft and let the Disco Menace cling onto the walls. "I'll get this open."

Charging forth, eX-0704 leveled his claws into the crack between the sliding doors. The metal curled outward, resulting in some screams on the other side. By the time he got the door open, security would have swarmed on the other side.

While he could most likely stand his ground against a barrage of bullets in full armor, eX-0704 was left vulnerable without his helmet. He sorely missed its displayed screens. [Predictive Analytics] could have told him how many hits it would take for him to plow through this door, but he had to blindly try with all his might.

A large breath filled his chest, and he focused on breaking it down in the second charge.

"Argh!" He grunted while he slammed into the door again, making little progress on it. After a few more crashes, a visible hole started to appear—too slow.

"Get ready," an authoritative voice said on the other side. "Guns ablaze as soon as they come through that door!"

"Can you get it with one arm?" the Disco Menace asked.

"Ha," he laughed in his ragged exhale. Last time he rammed into it, the door felt so flimsy that he could lean on it one-handed to make it fall apart. "Yeah, I got this."

"Take Marcel," she said, passing over her brother in a trance. With her hands free, she bounded onto the wall nearest to the door and climbed up to the ceiling. "I've got enough for a [Dash]. Dive onto the ground when you get it open, and I'll take care of 'em."

eX-0704 nodded. Enacting the plan, he busted through the door and dove onto the shiny tiles littered with cracked paint. Marcel shielded beneath him, he tucked his face down and wrapped an arm between his horns. Both wings encased his head to slow any stray bullets.

The security squad unleashed their fire in the air above him, where they had been expecting the enemy to come charging through. Before they could correct their aim for him on the floor, the Disco Menace leaped out of the elevator shaft from above.

She performed a spinning kick and sent one of the security guards back into the other. Empowered by her [Charged Dash], she danced around the new bullets that were aimed for her. With electrified punches and kicks, she had all of the men knocked to the ground.

Those who had not been electrocuted on the spot were left there groaning, struggling to recover. The red wings of these sub-dragons marked them as fire elementals which had not proffered them the same thunder resistance as eX-0704.

"Let's go!"

eX-0704 leaped up with his tail lifted high. Quickly, he gained on the Disco Menace who had gotten a head start for the doors. In his free arm, he scooped her back up and ran his fastest, wings a blur.

Metal grates had already been dropped over the front doors, drawing him to a halt. "Uh, what do we do?" eX-0704 looked all around, but he failed to see a clear way out of this.

More soldiers were swarming towards them. The crimson wings sent a greater wave of panic through him. If any happened to be trained as a battle mage, eX-0704 would be toast with his ice alignment.

"Up there!" The Disco Menace pointed to a large skylight where the sun was setting overhead.

As he stood there and faltered, eX-0704 sputtered, "But the air is poisonous."

"Where else did you think we were going?" she said, voice hitching in a scream of disbelief.

Right. That makes sense.

The buildings on the surface were in a controlled air system just like the Grandesia underground. Connected like hamster tubes, they had doors to enforce security protocols and to close-off compromised facilities.

eX-0704 worried not only for himself and his companions, but everybody in the immediate vicinity. As soon as he busted that skylight, he would endanger them all.

Focus on yourself right now.

He snapped from his daze and did a [Double Jump] just in time, as the bullets flew for his feet. eX-0704 grabbed onto the chandelier, leaped onto the chain, and thereby busted through the glass. His wings opened against the glimmering shards.

Ignoring the cuts he earned, eX-0704 leveled into a glide at the top of his final [Double Jump]. The air of the outside world burned his lungs at once. Eyes watering from the acid sting, he could barely see his clawed feet land safely on the rooftop.

Though he coughed and wheezed in pain, he found that he could indeed breathe out here.

"See?" the Disco Menace barked. "You're fine." She twisted out of his arms with Marcel and started in a run down the sloping roof.

eX-0704 followed obediently, excited to save eX-0281. There was one problem with that, he realized as he looked down to his empty claws. "Oh no!" he cried out. "I dropped the paper somewhere."

"What paper?" The Disco Menace slid down the last stretch of the smooth, metal roof and tapped onto the mossy ground.

The iridescent, greenish turquoise color hurt his eyes just looking at it, but he dropped down after her. "The coordinates for 281 and Lottie's location!"

"Relax, Liz," she chuckled. "I already plugged them into my helmet."

"Right." A sigh whooshed past his fangs, grateful that he had done that earlier.

They wrapped around the facility that they had just broken out of. Similar to the aged skyscrapers from the information age, the buildings had been covered in animated vines. A few tendrils curled around, their movement visible to the naked eye. When the leaves swelled as if drawing in a breath, some clusters of yellow and green glowing pollen drifted about in the subsequent exhale.

The old city had been taken over by mana-infused plant growth, a product of the pollution from the mana reactors and refineries of Grandesia.

"Where are we going?" eX-0704 asked, confused as to why they always stuck so close to the building that they had just escaped from.

"We need to get my bike," the Disco Menace explained. "It has Lottie's mask and air tank. Unlike us, she'll die if she breathes this shit."

eX-0704 recalled some information from the screens; Lottie was a regular human, no ley system to handle an influx of mana. Thus, the body of a non-mage would go into arrest from mana poisoning much more readily.

Like all those people back there….

Trying not to think too hard, he admired the Disco Menace's hovercraft bike.

"Get on." She swung one leg over the seat, keeping Marcel in front of her along with the air tank.

Not made for two, eX-0704 had to take care and wrap his arms around her waist. Shifting into human form made him a little smaller and also provided the easiest way to get his wings out of the way.

Without looking back at him, the Disco Menace revved up her vehicle and sped off at its top speed.

eX-0704 closed his eyes and breathed the natural, toxic air for the first time. He supposed this was what freedom tasted like, and determined that he liked it. Only, he could not wait to celebrate with eX-0281 when they would be reunited.