Luce tried to wiggle free of her bindings, but the zip tie was well secured and scratching away her skin. She could feel her hand soaked in the blood of her wrist and her wrist burning from the air touching her exposed skin. She was tied to a chair, stuck in one of the Faraday area's rooms with an inbuilt generator running somewhere within the facility. Red emergency lights made it hard to differentiate her blood from the floor.

"I'll ask you again," Corlyle spoke, circling her. In the corner, a masked guard stood menacingly with a rifle armed. "What did you do?"

"I told you already. I destroyed GASP." She swayed her head back sluggishly.

"And?"

"That's it," she lied. "I came here myself."

"You had an E.M.P grenade!" he roared, leaning into her face and spitting spittle. "Now, the entire base is down and you expect me to believe you didn't do that?"

"That wasn't me," she insisted. "Lachesis must have activated her E.M.P."

He raised the baton in his hand and smashed into her ribs. She choked violently and began coughing, the pain wracking her inside and out. But her mind was still clear. She wondered how much blood she needed to bleed over the zip tie to make it slippery enough for her to slip out of.

"And whose fault was that!" Corlyle roared. "We were supposed to activate them together! But now she has an army of Titans and we have nothing!"

She was panting hard. Her body pumped with adrenaline to keep away the pain, but she could feel herself slipping. She might have been able to handle this kind of beating a decade ago when she was still a Titan Hunter, but she was practically a civilian now. Fit was as far as she kept her body and skilled as far her abilities. Not superhuman.

The president turned to the soldier standing guard. "Where is Jenson? It's been over an hour!"

He had earlier sent his other guard to check on and report to him the status of the world outside. The three had not left the Faraday area since, given the nature of the attack being E.M.P in nature and the rooms there were coated to protect against it. That meant the only working electronics - and safest place to be - was in the Faraday area.

The soldier admitted, "I don't know. Our radios aren't receiving anything."

Angrily, Corlyle yelled, "Well, get out there and find him!"

"But sir, I cannot leave yo-"

"That's an order!"

The soldier breathed in deep and saluted. "Yes, sir!" Quickly, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

"You..." Luce panted out. "Need to get out of your own head, man."

"Shut up."

"Shou's right. Your ego is going to get us all killed."

"I said shut up! You're the ones who have doomed us!"

"Only because you were trying to kill millions!"

"Which part of "shut up" did you not understand?!" The door to the room opened and another masked soldier walked in. "Jenson! Where have you been?"

"Sorry, sir. I got word that it's not just the camp. The whole power grid is down."

Corlyle turned back to her, his face coated in the shadows of rage. "What did you do?"

"I told you," she bit back. "Nothing. Lachesis must have used her E.M.P."

He spat away from her and mumbled to himself. "The earliest attack will take at least three days."

Luce retorted, "Not if Lachesis activated Exodus. She might be on her way here now!"

"You expect me to believe a myth to hold some kind of weight?"

"You should. It's the truth, after all." She knew nothing was going to get through to him

He clicked his tongue. "We'll get to the truth soon enough." Torture. He was talking about torture. "At least if it was an E.M.P attack, that'd get Kenta out of my way."

Luce smirked. "Are you sure about that?"

Behind him, the soldier had closed the distance between the door and Corlyle. It was already too late by the time the president sensed fake Jenson's presence and turned to face his attack. The butt of the rifle was already on the rise and slammed straight into the man's forehead. Corlyle stumbled back, wobbled for a moment, and finally collapsed onto the floor.

Shou took off his mask and directed to the unconscious Corlyle, "You really need to get your head out of your ass."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Luce slumped back in her seat, a sigh of relief escaped her at the rescue. "How did he not see your leg?" She noted Shou's cyborg feet sticking out of his left pants leg.

He shrugged. "I told you, the man has an ego. Head's up his own ass." He circled her as a switchblade flipped out of his pocket.

After her hands were cut loose, she wrapped her a palm over her chaffed and bleeding right wrist for pressure. "Did the E.M.P really happen? How did you survive? What happened to the guards?" The questions exploded out of her.

"Calm down. In order, yes, it seems that Adelle failed to stop the E.M.P." Shou moved to free her legs and he must have seen a worried look on her face for he quickly added, "I'm sure they're fine though. Have faith in them."

Luce breathed deeply and gathered composure. "And what happened to you?" The ties at her feet were removed and she stood unsteadily up.

Shou lent his shoulder for her to stand. "The moment I realised Corlyle was here, I rushed to you. I got into the Faraday area after Corlyle but before the E.M.P went off so I was protected. I hid outside after they caught and waited for them to leave since communications with the outside were cut. Taser pistol took out the guards. Miu really worked her magic on it."

Once she was sure she had her bearings and the vertigo from being forced to sit and be beaten had left her, she pushed away from Shou and cracked her neck. "Marble? Reggie? My gun?"

"Marble's with Miu, and your gun's outside." He then tapped his quantum chip. "Reggie's here."

They left the room in a jog. Outside in the reception area, the two knocked out guard - one still spasming from the taser - were left tied up with the same zip ties they had used on her. She grabbed her equipment from the desk and the pair headed out.

Outside, the only lights left on in the hallway were the red emergency lamp that spun slowly, striking each second with shadows. Soldiers and other personnel rushed about at breakneck speed. Shouts of "Fire!" and "Medic!" echoed the corridors. She followed Shou as he traced their way out. Eventually, they came upon an automatic door that was closed before the power went out. They could circumvent the barrier and attempt to find another exit, but having the president and his guards possibly waking any moment to hunt them down had her prefer the rushed method.

She jammed the lance head of her rifle into the gap between door and wall. She stepped aside, holding her gun up from the side carefully.

To Shou, she instructed, "Stomp it in."

The cyborg raised his mechanical leg and aimed at the butt of the rifle. With an oomph, he kicked into the stock. Sparks flew from the friction between lance and door as the weapon ripped and pushed apart a gap. She watched as a hairline crack split halfway through the stock. Still, the gun held its shape.

Using the rifle as a lever, she pulled to get the door opened. Shou moved to the right and with the powerful pneumatics in his leg, added even more force to the effort. At first, the door creaked painfully against gears. Then, Shou changed his footing and gave another oomph filled push and the door jarred opened enough for them to squeeze through. Thankfully, there were no other closed doors between them and the exit. They rushed out of the double steel door into the centre square of the base.

The scene outside was far more chaotic. Begone of any source of bright lighting, fire mages held flames in their hands, running across the entirety of the Trashsite to emergency areas to give light. Half a dozen vehicles and two tanks were stalled on the road, steam rolling out of the hood of two trucks, the interior components likely fried. An explosion rocked the land, lighting up the back of warehouse 1 with dancing orange. Whatever machinery that kept whatever explosives from doing its job had obviously failed. Luckily for them, they could see the bunker's main gate had been opened at the time of the attack. Now they just needed to find a working vehicle.

"Where to?" she asked.

Something ran into her leg and she looked down to see Marble seeking her attention. Once the little gnome saw her looking at 'er, 'e spun around in affirmation before racing off towards warehouse 4.

Shou shrugged. "Guess we're following the ball."

They jogged after the gnome. Not surprisingly, in the darkness and commotion, no one noticed the ball-sized creature leading the charge. But they were sure the confusion was not going to last. One of the garage doors was left half raised and Marble rolled inside. The pair followed in and found a garage for four trucks. Lit by the same rotating emergency, the vehicles within were in much the same state as those outside. Only three engineers were left inside desperately trying to repair what components they could.

"Hey!" Miu waved to them from a corner inside next to a silver cloth-covered mount. In her hand was a large duffel bag, likely with the rest of their gears and the bio-cell.

Shou ran past Luce towards the former. "What are you doing here? We need to find a way to escape!"

"The truck got dud," Miu explained as Luce jogged up. "But get this. After Shou said Corlyle was here the activate GASP, I figured that means Lachesis must also be turning on the E.M.P. So I got a bunch of aluminium heat shielding tarp they use for fires in these garages, taped them together and..."

She grabbed the silver tarp next to her and pulled it off, revealing an ATV with a seat for two and a loading rack. She pressed the ignition button and the vehicle roared to life.

Giddily, she proclaimed, "Electrical shielding!"

"Miu!" Shou exclaimed excitedly. "You genius!" He jumped forward and quickly kissed her and immediately climbed onto the ATV driver's seat after.

Luce laughed and pushed a slightly stunned Miu to the back seat as she picked up Marble and climbed awkwardly into a kneeling position on the rack.

The engineers had noticed the strangely functioning vehicle and started calling out to them. But by then, it was already too late. The trio were already racing out of the garage, ducking under the half-opened door. A third of the way through the bunker and heading to the gate, soldiers finally caught on to their commotion. From warehouse 3, Corlyle stormed out screaming incoherently at them. His two guards fired, bullets bouncing off the ground around them. Concrete pillared up in dust clouds. They blew past the bunker gate.

Outside in the Tainted air, the trio hurtled towards the outer, less fortified entrance. One of the soldier at the guardhouse sparked his fingers with electricity, charging up a lightning spell. Luce leaned over Miu, using the latter's shoulder as an impromptu embrasure. When the mage motioned to throw out their bolt, she fired her grappling lance and quickly threw her gun aside.

The electric blast brightened the area as it arced in the air towards them but was intercepted mid-flight by the lance. She could see the lines of jagged storm run down the wire of the lance to the launcher, reached the gun, and finally exploding the firearm at the end into shards. She was going to miss that rifle.

Before the soldiers could recompose themselves from the unexpected counter, Shou had already pushed the throttle to maximum speed and broke past the weak plastic barrier.

As they raced off into the deserted plains, Shou let out a triumphant yell of success. Miu breathed a sigh of relief as she rummaged through her bag to retrieve their masks for them.

Slowly, Luce turned her body around and sat backwards on the loading rack. With left hand holding onto the side of the ATV for balance, her right reached for her lower left abdomen to push down the blood from the bullet wound.