Flying up into the heights of the cavern reminded TO of flying back in the flight room in training. It was dark enough that they had to use their echolocation to navigate, and they had to find perches in the surrounding stone to land and regain their bearings as well.
It was a game. They were in training again, had a target, and were in flight. This was something they were used to.
It was almost comforting.
They flew up as close as they dared, finding not a ledge to perch on, but a pipe which they could wrap an arm around and hold themself in place. A quick check told them that the multi-gun was ready and was in the proper setting. They took careful aim, and as was their habit, fired three times, adjusting their shots each time, although the blaster didn’t need accurate firing to work.
The ground above them shuddered, and TO nearly let go of the pipe to soar down and get out of the cavern, but the ground held. They aimed and fired again. This time, some water leaked through, trickling over the rocks and dripping to the floor of the cavern.
IT wasn’t enough.
“Tham!” TO called down, “Send me the coordinates-”
The coordinates suddenly became unnecessary. They had worried at first that maybe they went to the wrong spot, or maybe the damage done to the tunnel was mild enough that they had to be more precise, or get closer in order to cause the cave in. That wasn’t the case, of course. The water that trickled though was just the prelude to the deluge that followed as dirt and rocks overhead suddenly gave way, and a mess of water, debris, and screams.
The screams were unexpected. TO knew that time was short, and that soon the authorities would have passed this point, but they didn’t realize they were so close that they were right on top of them. A handful of officers with fancy uniforms, helmets, and breastplates fell through the new hole in the ceiling, falling to the ground.
The first one fell head atop a large boulder. Even over the sound of the water and the noise that the surrounding earth was making, TO could hear the civilians helmet’s crack. Despite the sudden chaos, they could see the civilian fall backwards, their spines bending back too much to be natural.
That… that wasn’t right. Was that civilian dead? Of course, the civilian was dead; the way they moved, the way they now lay still, facedown in the quickly rising water was enough to tell them that.
TO had killed them.
Before they could consider that, they heard another sound- the sound of wings flapping above them. They looked and saw another officer; this one fully armored, with mechanical wings fashioned to look like the powerful wings of some bird of prey. Plastered on their chest were two crossed feathers.
Was this one of the special forces that got mentioned earlier? Where had they been when the prison was attacked?
TO didn’t have time to think about that. The special forces agent soared about, and because they were looking down and not up, they saw Tham first, and took out not a multi-gun but a basic civilian gun.
They aimed and fired before TO could react. The noise was deafening, and TO’s ears rang from it. They could feel their sensitive ears flick down as though trying to protect their hearing. They looked down, frantically looking for Tham. At first, they couldn't locate him. The chaos of the falling ceiling and the flooding cavern confused them, but soon they located them; their tail mostly hidden by the rising water, one hand covering their arm as bright red blood seeped from a wound that TO couldn’t see.
Blood. TO wasn’t sure if they could actually smell it from where they were, or if that awful, metallic tang was just part of the cacophony of other things their mind threw at them. The sound of cracking bones. A knife through skin. Plastic gloves on their hands. The stench of disinfectant. All these things swirled in their head, fading their vision as they felt their grip on the pipe grow weak.
The special agent aimed again.
GiDi asked them to take care of Tham.
Suddenly, TO couldn’t explain it, but they felt like they were in a simulation. The simulations they had done in training felt very real and were nearly indistinguishable from reality, but somehow they felt like they were a step away from it, like they were sitting behind their mind, and directing the action of the simulation.
A lower quality training simulation. That’s all. Even as they could feel the storm of panic somewhere deep inside - a red storm that stank of copper and cleaners- they took the multi-gun and acted.
Objective; Escape the Cavern with Tham.
They let go of the pipe and dropped, their wings opening up and lifting them across the cavern and over the armored special agent. They looked up and saw TO for the first time, and turned their gun to them.
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The gun. It would make a big noise when it went off, and their echolocation would be useless.
They landed in front of the agent, falling into a crouch just below the line of the gun. Before the agent could adjust their aim, TO had their multi-gun up, ready. They fired three times, adjusting each time as DH had taught them. The blast setting sent the agent flying on the first shot, caught them on the second in midair and sent them into a spin. The last one hit them and pushed them into the unstable wall behind them.
They smashed awkwardly against the wall. Their arm twisted the wrong way as their side hid the stone and one of the mechanical wings broke in three places. TO’s focus wasn’t on how the agent’s arm twisted behind their back, or the way their head rolled to the side; their attention was entirely on the sparks coming from the wings.
They’d fall in the water. How strong was the power supply for that thing? What kind of damage could it do in muddy water?
TO wasn’t sure, but they would not take a chance. The objective required Tham to be alive. Tham was already injured, and TO didn’t know if they were still in the water.
They fired again, slamming the agent into the stone again. They knelt down and fired upwards, sending the agent spiraling into the air, the arms and legs spinning in unnatural ways, the broken wings twisting about, held together only by fraying wires.
A few flaps of their powerful wings got them airborne once more, and they soared up, catching the limp by an arm. The agent was too heavy for them to carry very far, but they could throw them to the side and onto a nearby ledge where they would hopefully stay out of the water.
Or at least, they’d stay out of the water until TO escaped with Tham.
How the agent just fell, limp and too still on the ledge, made something deep inside TO’s mind recoil, but that didn’t matter. They turned in midair and soared back towards Tham. They had to get out of the cavern now.
The water was up to their knees when they landed. They and Tham were thankfully on a mound, but the water was rising fast, and they had little time. “We have to go.” TO snapped, grabbing Tham by his good arm. Tham hissed in pain and pulled away.
“We can’t!” He snapped, then jerked his head at the tunnel. “Look.”
The tunnel was still fine, still open and dry. At first, they didn’t know what the problem was, but then they realized what Tham was talking about. While the tunnel itself was still fine, the initial deluge of water had washed away that path of dirt and stone that led to it. TO hadn’t noticed it at first because the path wasn’t important to them; why walk when they could fly? But now, they realized that, of course, Tham couldn’t take that path to the tunnel now. With an injured arm, they couldn’t climb up to it either.
“Can you lift me up there?” He asked, and thought there was still a bite to Tham’s voice, there was something else too; his words seemed to shake at their core, and the question felt a little more desperate than he perhaps wanted it to be.
“Unlikely.” TO said, “What do you weigh?” Tham gave them a number, and To shook their head, “No. I couldn’t carry you, let alone fly with you.”
To still had to get Tham out of there, and out safely. That was their objective. They didn’t know these tunnels, and the only one they knew was already flooded. They could probably swim through it if they were careful, but would they be able to hold their breath that long?
Doubtful.
However….
“Out the way we came.” TO said, “Come on.”
“Idiot, it’s flooded.” Tham hissed, “We need to come up with another way-”
“We don’t have time.” TO snapped. The water was already up to Tham’s waist. “Well, I have time. You don’t.”
“Yes, I’m aware!” Tham hissed, clutching at his injured arm, “But that path is flooded!”
“It’s fine.”
“We’ll drown.”
“We won’t!” TO turned to Tham, their wings puffed, their ears back. They needed Tham to cooperate, and didn’t have time to argue with them. “Do you have a better idea?”
“No, but-”
“We’ll be fine. There’s air in there. You can swim faster than me, so let’s go!”
Tham looked around the cavern, their eyes darting around as they looked for another option, but all they saw was the water pouring down around them, and tunnels that were all either flooded or out of their reach. Finally, with a disgusted hiss, they made their way to the tunnels.
“Hold on to me.” Tham snapped, “I’ll try to get us through as fast as we can.”