In the midst of her breakneck sprint, the Disco Menace released the mana that she had recovered. A [Charged Dash] enveloped her, particularly focused around her legs. She sped up two fold and attempted a monstrous leap across the road.

She's out of her mind, eX-0704 thought.

The Disco Menace was trying to clear the roof of a building one story higher across the street.

He almost faltered in his step. Already, he knew that he could not make the jump and neither would she. The system was not needed to confirm that much.

But eX-0704 could scale buildings just like eX-0281 had done earlier. Therefore, he kept up his sprint and glided off the roof.

Though he sailed through the air more slowly than the Disco Menace, he had a direct path from one building to the next. He covered the distance in less time while her electricity flowed overhead in a sweeping arch.

Claws scratching against the bricks, eX-0704 landed on the side of the building. Immediately, he began to climb in the event that the Disco Menace would somehow clear the jump.

As expected, she fell a hair short.

Since she held the boy, only one free arm could gasp at the rooftop. Her forearm slammed against the edge and slid downward. Her nails bit against the shingles, desperately trying to pull herself up.

"Argh. No!" The flash of reflected colors from her discotech mask directed down to him. Her legs kicked more frantically against the building as soon as she saw him in pursuit.

eX-0704 continued to slink up the building. If he could get to her in time, he would give her a boost in a show of his goodwill. Otherwise, he would catch her when she slipped, and fall she did.

A high-pitched shriek escaped her. The boy cried out in similar fear.

"I got you!" he called out in an attempt at reassurance.

Careful to keep his claws angled away from her, he grabbed the Disco Menace by the slender waist and pulled her in close. "See? Gotcha," he said in a friendly, smiling tone.

To thank him, her knuckles smashed into his visor. The assault only served to make his head lurch back and her shake out her hand.

"I just caught you," eX-0704 bellowed. "Why would you hit me?"

"Exactly, numbnuts. You caught me." Unamused, the Disco Menace rammed her knee into his crotch.

Though his body was encased in military-grade armor, it did nothing to spare him of the impact. The pain made him lose his grip on the wall, falling to the street with the Disco Menace in his arms and the kid in hers.

Not quite able to move just yet, his wings went limp and naturally filled with air. Their descent slowed momentarily, but the Disco Menace had to ruin things again.

Still struggling against him, she flipped him over in the air and wrapped a fist around his horn.

Since he now descended backwards, his wings folded upwards uselessly. Gravity hastened them towards the ground, and eX-0704 landed flat on his back. His spine immediately ached from the hit, but luckily his health percentage did not show undue damage.

As the Disco Menace landed on top of him, she leveraged his horns and slammed his skull into the cement with all her strength.

The back of his head thunked against the ground. Though the helmet held up, his vision went black and fuzzy for a second as he swore that his brain sloshed like a pendulum.

"Ugh." Some spittle came from his mouth, but aside from that, he could not remember what he had wanted to say.

If she slipped away again, then eX-0704 would not even know which way to run. Already, he was seeing multiple versions of her mask like a kaleidoscope. Floundering in multiple kinds of pain, he was the one to upturn the Disco Menace this time.

He pinned her with his weight, simply laying his limbs over hers. A sub-dragon was sizable and naturally had a lot more muscle—probably two hundred pounds heavier than her. With the help of the extra appendages, wings and tail, she was not going anywhere.

eX-0704 was only careful to make sure he left room for the kid between them. Another [Discharge] rocked his body, but at this point, he could afford to let his body go slack.

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As much as the Disco Menace struggled against him, he was dead weight. "Argh!" she screamed out of sheer frustration. "I'm not a treasure hoard, you fat dragon.Take your nap somewhere else!"

"I'm really here to help." His ears were accustomed to his words sliding together with extra sibilance in dragon form, but it sounded odd to hear everything slur together.

"If you want to help, let me go!"

"No can do. Lottie and 281 are together. There's no reason why the two of us can't team up."

Not a facial feature was visible through her mask, but eX-0704 could feel that her eyes nearly bore holes through it. Her fiery glare beheld contempt for him, but she agreed. "Fine. Get off me."

Since he trusted easily, he let her up at once.

The Disco Menace sat calmly with her elbows draped around the boy, waiting.

A relieved sigh left his lips. Objective complete, he had her on his side now. Swiftly, panic flooded over him.

There was something that eX-0704 had wanted to remember, only he could not recall what. Something to do with numbers and eX-0281….

As it turned out, 281 was a number and also the name of his friend. That must have been what he had wanted to remember! His friend…. eX-0704 tested to make sure that he remembered their secret code, the patterned flicks of his tail.

"Well?" the Disco Menace asked. "Where is she?"

Oh, right. He needed to focus, so he replied, "Stuck in an air vent."

"How…?" she started to ask, but quickly changed her question. "But where?"

"Coordinates…." eX-0704 mused. "That was what I was supposed to remember!" Though he wracked his brain, his head felt too foggy to regurgitate the numbers. "The helmet has them." He swayed a bit in place, tempted to lie across the ground.

"Lizard!" The Disco Menace tugged at his horn and held his head steady. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three," he said. "Wait, no." eX-0704 had his wits about him enough to know that he could not judge her fingers properly, so he moaned, "I don't have the battle assistant to help me count."

"One," she barked. "Too bad you didn't try to help me before you got yourself hurt. I don't have time to deal with a concussed snake."

"But I did! What about your friend?" eX-0704 asked, reaching out to her with a clawed hand. What about my friend?

They had not come so far together just to never see each other again. eX-0704 would simply not stand for that!

The boots of the Disco Menace froze in place, her attention shifting between him and her precious cargo. "You said they're stuck?"

"Yeah." His voice lifted with hope.

"Let's keep moving." Without further ado, the Disco Menace took off in a run, leaving him to scramble after her. "Tell me the coordinates. We need to get there before the GPC does."

Hesitant to turn his helmet back on, eX-0704 realized that he had no other choice. The full welcome screen came on, displaying his status after that massive tumble.

Name: eX-0704 [Sub-Dragon Shifter (Dragon Form)]

Vitality: 92%

Discrete Parts: Right Wing (98%), Left Wing (97%), Tail (100%)

Mana Reserves: 10 Mu

Element: Ice

The screen failed to capture his concussion—how that would render him more susceptible to subsequent attacks. It followed that a lower percentage in vitality usually indicated higher vulnerability.

Then, he queried for eX-0281's location and read back the numbers.

"What?" the Disco Menace barked. "That can't be right. That's all the way back in the Central Sector!"

eX-0704 hemmed and hawed as he recalled how he had overwritten eX-0704's last logged location. No new data had been received from him since. "Uh, um, I think I scrambled his coordinates because the company will go after them otherwise."

"If they're stuck, they haven't been moving around a lot recently. The company tracks your every movement, right? Can you access a log?"

Suddenly, eX-0704 felt foolish. He had just been trying to protect eX-0281 but did not actually do anything meaningful to that end.

"Wait," he said suddenly. "His GPS coordinates just updated! He must be back online."

"Issue solved."

As soon as eX-0704 read out the coordinates, the Disco Menace turned to go.

"We travel separately from here," she said. "Good luck avoiding the GPC."

"I'll turn off my helmet—" he tried to say hastily.

"I wouldn't trust that thing unless I struck it with an [EMP]," she sneered, "and I don't have the mana to spare on you. The helmet's bugged, and your body's chipped. If you can lead the company off my trail and successfully meet up at the goal point, maybe I'll reconsider this… alliance."

Though he was saddened by her cold nature, eX-0704 still wanted to aid her in helping eX-0281. He nodded to himself as she disappeared into the city.

I can provide that diversion for her.

Since eX-0281 had turned his helmet back on, he tried to reestablish a channel to report on the good news. Help was coming his way.

But then, an error message displayed on his visor.

Member eX-0281 is disconnected.

Communication is not possible at his time. Please try again later.

Puzzled, eX-0704 watched the coordinates update yet again with near identical numbers. Somehow, despite his helmet being off, the GPS was still outputting information.

Slowly, it dawned on him that it did not matter if they had their helmets on or off; the company would track them either way. His tail began to lift, the equivalent to a smile in human form.

Most definitely, he could throw the company off his tracks. All he needed to do was ditch his helmet on a moving target.

The fact remained that eX-0281 would remain in danger so long as his helmet was on his person.