“... We’re just going to walk up to it?” I whispered.

“How else do you expect us to get there?” Kendrux replied as we walked over the reddish brown ground. “You don’t have to whisper, either. Just keep your voice below a certain threshold.”

I furrowed my brow. I didn’t like any of this, because I could barely even tell something was going on. There was a slight distortion around our group, as we were apparently contained in some sort of bubble. I imagined that the tech was probably illegal on Mars, but I didn’t ask about it.

Olim and Evans walked along behind Kendrux, keeping their arms down. They would be able to draw their weapons at any point, but they didn’t seem to expect imminent peril.

Zeb was proving to be an entirely unconvincing Martian, running along with her face to the ground- but she was a Bunvorixian so I wasn’t even certain she could move in a different manner.

“I don’t smell any of us yet,” she commented.

Midnight also moved on all fours, and seemed to be sniffing too. “She’s right. No Bunvorixian scent out here but her own.”

Zeb spun around in a circle. “I can’t smell me.” She twisted back in the other direction suddenly, and the illusion over her was stretched to its limits trying to make things vaguely believable.

I could definitely see why they needed me to Gate us here, but the rest was… less clear. Hopefully the disguises would be important soon, because they wouldn’t last forever. Though they would last longer than the size changes which only lasted fifteen minutes at best.

But before I even noticed, we were standing at a damaged section of wall, red stone scattered inward. It was covered over by a metal grate. Kendrux stopped and held up a finger. “From here on we have to be careful,” she said. “There will be guards flanking the opening, and we’ll have to narrow the range of the stealth field to not incorporate them. First, though…” she looked towards Zeb. “Smell anything?”

“Yes!” Zeb replied eagerly. “Martians!”

“You’re supposed to be smelling for Bunvorixians. Not us.”

“Then nothing,” Zeb said, looking defeated.

“Are you certain? This is supposed to be their intrusion point.”

“Umm… It could have been too long ago or they could have all been wearing Mark III scent suppression gear, but I don’t know if they would have,” Zeb said. “And the melt patterns are inconsistent with Bunvorixian weaponry,” she said, looking through the grate.

Kendrux looked down at Midnight, who shrugged. “I’m not familiar with… melt patterns,” he replied.

“So how do we get in?” Zeb asked. “They closed it up.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Swiss Arms declared. She reached out towards the grate, and began melting it away from the wall around it with welding jets from her fingers.

“When we get through, press close together on the other side,” Kendrux said. “We want everyone within a two meter area, or preferably less. Here is where we need to be more quiet.”

Swiss Arms extended unnaturally as her arms circled around the grate, pulling it away when it was detached. She held it as we all slipped past. She swung around to the other side, pulling it back against the wall as all of us squeezed together. When she let go, it held in place.

I had to assume all of that was hidden from camera view or weird alien sensors otherwise we would be caught soon.

Kendrux strode calmly and precisely forward, and I could see the edge of the distortion had contracted. Just as predicted, there were two guards flanking the doorway.

I spotted one of their elbows peek through the distortion field, but that didn’t seem to have any reaction from them. I held my breath as we walked away.

“Now we need to access both the cell and the records office,” Kendrux said quietly. “Swiss Arms will be coming with me to infiltrate records. These two will guide the rest of you towards the cell Spot was kept in. They know where we’re going to meet up, so try to keep one of them alive.”

“... You’re gonna be tall soon,” I mentioned to Swiss Arms. “I think we’d better recast that?”

“When we get to our separation point,” she nodded. “There is supposed to be a sensor dead zone there.”

“Isn’t that a security risk?” I commented.

“Obviously,” Kendrux said. She… might have rolled her eyes. But it was difficult to tell given her eyes not having a visible pupil to differentiate eye movement. They were just black.

I was slightly concerned at how we knew so much about security holes in an Extra facility, but I supposed we did have insider information. Or maybe they weren’t as secure as they thought. We were here investigating a big breakout.

When we reached a random intersection, Kendrux stopped. “Here’s where we split. Walk naturally. Don’t say anything suspicious.”

WIth that, the slight gray tinge to the world disappeared. That was how I ended up walking along awkwardly with a dog paw on one shoulder and a cat paw on the other. Because now we were visible. Neither Midnight and Zeb were meant to walk upright, which meant we were staggering along slowly. Hopefully, they looked like old folks who just needed some support. Having elderly individuals touring secure facilities was normal, right?

I almost jumped out of my skin when we turned a corner and spotted guards. I felt Midnight’s emotions spike as well, and a tail slapped my leg from the other side. Khithae was behind me so I could see her reaction.

“Hey, we’re just bringing these folks through,” Evans said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It obviously wasn’t, of course. “You know how things are.”

The woman of the pair grunted.

Was that all? Were they really not going to inspect us? We walked on, awkwardly. How could they not tell that a shrunken orc and lizard were walking along with a sized up canine and feline? Only Olim and Evans were actually Martians!

“Good thing I barely have facial muscles,” Khithae commented as we stopped in front of a flat wall. “Is this it?” she asked the two in front.

They nodded.

It sure didn’t look like much to me, but I heard Khithae muttering. “Let’s hope this isn’t picked up…”

I certainly felt the mana as I was standing right next to her. I wanted to ask what it was, but there was a shimmer and then wall opened up, a rotational aperture pulling away angles to make it look like the wall was never there.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

But the guards behind the wall sure were there. Why were things like this? I couldn’t ask in front of them, obviously. The worst thing was the guards just nodded at us. What did that mean? Did they just assume because we got this far we were supposed to be here?

… I could actually see that happening, yeah. We had uniforms and everything as part of the illusion. But it still seemed… bad. Wasn’t this supposed to be high security? Then again, that secret door wasn’t supposed to open. Tech-magic and all that to get past their fancy stuff. I don’t know when Khithae learned that, but she’d had a long time to practice weird spells I wouldn’t understand. Which hopefully made them double difficult for people who didn’t understand magic.

I wanted to comment on pretty much everything. Like, the way that we couldn’t really see what was inside the cells we were walking by. I could only see the doors by a thin outline, but that was obvious enough. I mean, would looking at whatever was contained there hurt us?

Oh right. It definitely could. I could feel various sorts of powers, quite dim through the walls and not clear enough to even guess what they would be. But all sorts of extraterrestrial or extradimensional stuff could be contained within. Well, mostly things of a reasonable size that they had a reason to keep captive. I was pretty sure that most extradimensional monstrosities would be killed- the sorts of things that couldn’t be talked to. Though I wasn’t certain if the people here on Mars were as accepting of people like Jim as in New Bay.

We walked along as quickly as we reasonably could, which was not, in fact, quickly. Then we came to the right cell. I could tell because it had collapsed inward, metal bent and twisted.

I heard sniffing right next to my ear. “I smell ‘em!” Zeb commented in delight. “It’s old, but this was the place!” She sniffed again. “A bunch of us came through here. And some other Martians, obviously.” She leaned forward, nearly dropping away from being propped up. “The melt patterns fit,” she said.

“I thought they didn’t fit?”

“The ones on the outside wall,” Zeb replied. “These fit." She sniffed again. “Everyone went back out that way,” she gestured along the hallway.

“We’ll continue on, then,” commented one of Olim or Evans. It wasn’t that I didn’t remember them, but I’d met them both like one time. “Preferably we’d figure out how they got to the opening they busted in.”

“They didn’t, though,” Zeb commented. “I didn’t smell anyone.”

We all thought about that as I helped the two quadrupeds waddle along. I heard something crash against a door. I couldn’t quite understand, but it asked to be let out I think. Unfortunately, at least some people from Extra were my friends so I had to assume whatever was behind the door was just trying to take advantage of random people coming by. Or they couldn’t talk. Maybe I could come back here officially at some point.

“It’s about time,” I commented as we were walking along. The facilities weren’t all that big so the time limit on Shift Size wasn’t that bad… but we were supposed to meet up with people.

“We’re still going the right way,” Evans commented. I was almost sure that was Evans. Maybe if I could see their typical suits…? “To reach our destination, I mean.”

They had to have cameras watching. They might even have stuff that would pick through Disguise. This was probably a bad idea. But it was a bit late to think that, as we were hopefully on the way out.

We soon reached another group of guards, and what I presumed to be a door. Either that or we hit a dead end. But Evans and Olim kept walking. Fortunately, Khithae got the word and used her spell again. The wall shimmered.

We walked through after it slid open almost silently. It closed behind us a few moments later. I thought I heard something as it was closing.

“Hey uh,” Zeb commented. “I know I’m not supposed to talk. But that guy said something about ‘alarm’ and ‘weird’.”

Olim tensed up. “You all have your defensive gear on, right?”

“I never got any!” Zeb declared straightforwardly. “Even when I was working on the ship.”

“... We’d better get to the rendezvous,” Olim said.

“But that’s the wrong way,” Zeb commented. “They went that way.”

“Who?” Olim asked.

“The Bunvorixians and the Martians I haven’t smelled before.”

Olim looked at Evans. “What’s that way?”

“Just the roof… right?”

“Suspicious. Come on, let’s keep going.”

“Umm, you two,” Zeb commented. “What sounds do martian guns make when they shoot?”

“Well you see-”

“Is it *Pew pew pew*?”

“Not really,” Evans said. “They’re energy blasters so it’s more-”

“Because it sounds similar to Bunvorixian laser pews,” Zeb commented. “And some Bzzzzps and Fwips.”

“... Where?”

The building trembled as an explosion filled the hallway ahead of us.

“That way,” Zeb commented.

I heard the sounds of rapid footfalls, and two figures burst forth from the smoke. Kendrux and a shrunken and disguised Swiss Arms.

Kendrux didn’t stop as she barreled past us. “Get moving you punks! Unless you want to get locked up!”

“... Does this mean I can run now?” Zeb said.

“Go for it,” I confirmed. “Hey, you don’t want to run that way! There are guards straight through the secret door!”

“But the only other way is- the roof!” Kendrux said. “Come on, let’s go! I’m not looking forward to being the first in my family to get caught! And we can’t exactly fight here!”

“Why not?” I asked. Running and talking was well within my capabilities.

“Because we’re up against Extra,” she emphasized.

Oh right. We were working for them and against them and they probably didn’t want us to maim anyone associated. “Did you get… the stuff?” I asked.

I didn’t know what stuff we were here for, but it had to be something.

“We’ll find out,” she replied. “How about you? Learn anything?”

“They went this way!” Zeb commented happily, looking quite foolish as she ran along on all fours. It would have been normal if she looked like a dog but… she currently did not.

Swiss Arms was the fastest, and turned a corner ahead of us. A moment later, I heard her shout. “Exit’s locked!”

“I can handle it!” Khithae called back.

I could feel her gathering mana. It was a bigger spell than I had previously pictured. She might not have much extra after this, unless she was higher level than I thought. Around the cost of Stoneskin at 9 mana.

We turned the corner and Khithae slapped her hand at some sort of door. It beeped and booped and… didn’t open. “Uh… why didn’t that work?” Khithae asked.

“Manual override,” Kendrux shrugged. “Emergency situation protocol, perhaps. It might be routing the request elsewhere, depending on how your magic works.”

The sound of tearing metal came to my ears, and I saw Swiss Arms pulling open a wall panel I hadn’t noticed. It blended in with the walls just as well as everything else was made to. She pulled out a bundle of wires.

“No, don’t cut that one!” Zeb said.

Swiss Arms looked over at the Bunvorixian. “Why not?”

“Ninety percent chance that it will fail closed!” she darted forward. “Let me do it.” She took all the wires in her mouth. Then she mumbled something as she twisted her head. Somehow, she managed to bite through just a few of the wires.

“Hmm, I see,” Khithae nodded. “That would be a ----- bypass,” she nodded. Some sort of technological jargon maybe?

Khithae reached out, and, without using any mana, began working magic. Sure, it was just a bunch of zaps and lights, but the two of them snipped and twisted wires until finally…

“Fr- whoa!” a whole squad of Martians rounded the corner into Grease. Cast by Midnight. I should have thought of that, but I was distracted.

With a sudden whoosh of air, the door opened. The pile of Martian guards seemed to practice proper trigger discipline and hadn’t blasted each other when they collapsed into the pile.

We ran through the door out onto the roof, where we were looking down at a hundred foot drop. I didn’t even remember going up so much.

“... How are you at climbing?” Swiss Arms looked at our group.