Rheba held Hal in the air, with one hand holding the back of his shirt and the other hand holding the back of his leg. He flailed around, trying to escape her grip, but her strength overwhelmed his own.

“Unhand me!” Hal shouted.

“You said you would go,” Odell commented as he pushed the final few bars out of the way in the corner. There was now a hole just big enough for Hal to slip through to escape the cell. With the broken bars bent, he was at risk of getting snagged or cut if he didn’t slide through carefully. He had tried to protest as such, but Odell and Rheba expressed that he ought to hurry.

“I agreed to no such thing. The whims of my fellow journeyers have simply taken shape on their own!” Hal shouted back.

“You might want to straighten your arms out, or they could get caught on the sharp edges,” Rheba said as she moved her arms back in preparation to slide Hal forward.

Hal wanted to protest more but sensed that she would go through with it. He put his hands forward into a point like a diver might before jumping into the water.

Rheba swung Hal forward while gently lowering him to the floor. He gracefully slid forward through the created hole, across the floor, and impacted the wall on the other side of the room. Since his hands were out, he could stop himself before his head collided with the wall as well.

Hal stood up and brushed the front of his clothes off.

“Alright, now once you find our Needaimus, you can bring them right back here!” Odell said with a smile.

“Perhaps I ought to abandon you lot in favor of my own hide,” Hal said with a grumble as he continued to brush himself off.

“Thank you for all your hard work, Hal,” Rheba said with a polite bow. The emerald hair Netzian frowned and turned away.

“I shall return,” he said once his back was turned from the duo. He headed to the door and began to open it slowly. It creaked much louder than he, or the two in the cell, would have wanted.

Fortunately, as Hal poked his head out, he saw no one in the vicinity. None of the trio were aware, but the guard stationed at the door left to report all the noise they were making. The guard was currently seeking some support to go quiet down the prisoners.

Hal let out a sigh of relief before slipping out of the prison room. He shut the door gently and began to creep down the hallway with care.

The hallway was long and curved gently as it went around the building. Hal rolled his eyes at the Aqueenian inability to make straight rooms and started his walk. As he passed by a window, he could see that the second sun had already set. The dead of night would be upon them soon, and that would make for the most suitable time to escape.

The green-haired Netzian reached a fork in the hallway where he could go straight or turn. Hal opted to turn and go deeper into the building. If the Needaimus were still in the place, they would have them somewhere farther within.

Hal continued to sneak around and examine the building. He slowly opened a door and investigated the room. It was an empty office, with paperwork still left on the table. The dates were from over a year prior, and Hal guessed it was left in a rush when the bandits took over.

The next few rooms were in the same sorry state that the first was. The Netzian soldier sighed as he realized he was not getting anywhere.

Hal continued to walk down a hallway and turned another corner. He came face to face with a patrolling guard. The guard was a Netzian that wore similar dark clothing to the rest of the enemy. He had brown hair that went down to his chin and two pointy Bentulousian style ears on his head.

He stared at Hal with wide blue eyes.

“Your…” the Netzian began, but he was quickly kneed in the stomach by Hal. The green-haired Netzian collided his knee with the opponent's stomach. The brown-haired Netzian let out a gasp, took a step back, and began to put his fists up, but Hal was quicker as he got in close and delivered a series of punches that resulted in a knockout.

Hal quickly pulled his opponent's unconscious body into one of the abandoned office rooms. He stripped him of his clothes, leaving only the undergarments, and put them on himself.

With a change of clothes, Hal set out into the hallway once again; as he walked deeper into the facility. More of the enemy could be seen down the hallway, this time a set of two.

“I can’t believe we have to go search the mines….” one grumbled.

“Let’s just look around for a little and say that we couldn’t find them,” the other guard said back.

Hal made a salute to the duo as he passed. He pressed the thumb of his right hand on the right side of his chest. The palm faced downwards. The enemy duo awkwardly did the same as they passed.

“Who was that?” the first one said.

“Don’t know, probably some new guy. Haven’t seen anyone bother to salute in a while,” the second added as they went on their way.

Hal let out a little sigh as the change in clothes had been enough to avoid suspicion. He continued down his way until he found a new room.

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As he entered, it was clear the room had once been a mess hall. There were still impressions on the floor from where tables had once sat, and some discarded, or perhaps thrown, food still stained some of the walls.

The room itself had been changed from an eating room into a giant science lab. Equipment sat on the floor with odd devices and vials of substances lining some of the tables. Many metal coffins, which Hal guessed must hold equipment, lined the walls beyond the tables. Savvy, who fiddled with the anti-needaimus glove she had used in the tunnel, stood at the end of the room.

“No, this isn’t quite right. There is still so much more that I can do,” she mumbled to herself while being oblivious to the fact that Hal was standing behind her.

The Netzian soldier, under normal circumstances, would have quietly backed out of the room and left the opponent that might recognize him alone. However, another sight in the lab caught his attention. Three glass domes were placed on the far side wall—in front of where Savvy worked. Each dome held one of the Needaimus in suspended animation.

Hal sighed to himself as he stepped forward into the lab.

***

Rheba and Odell remained sitting in the cell after Hal left. They had stayed standing a moment after he had shut the door but chose to sit down once it became clear it would take a while.

“Do you think it will work?” Odell asked after a moment of silence.

“This plan was your own; you should show a little more confidence in it,” Rheba replied.

“I suppose your right,” Odell said with a nod. They continued to wait for what seemed like a long time while Hal snuck around the base.

“So, if we run into their mortals, how are we going to defeat them?” Odell asked.

“The Zenotote's ability could be trouble; we’ll need to think of a counter. The Bentulousian will be tough, she overpowered me earlier, and I suspect she won’t go down in a one-on-one, and we must try to avoid the Hobusian’s device once we get our Needaimus,” Rheba gave her honest assessment.

“She made something really nasty. I never thought I’d see an anti-Needaimus device realized,” Odell said with a shake of his head.

“Is it so uncommon? I thought there was a story about such a device in the Needaimus Rush,” Rheba asked.

Odell shook his head.

“That was such a long time ago, and it’s hard to say if that was fact or not. There has been a lot of research to create one ever since, but no one has succeeded. At least until now.”

“Hmm, she might be a troubling opponent,” Rheba said.

The two became silent for a moment, but their quiet was quickly interrupted.

An explosion in the distance shook the building. The duo in the cell was immediately alert. Everyone in the building stopped what they were doing. The whole place came alive as everyone became mobilized. Grimes, who was asleep on his throne, woke up and made a lazy yawn.

Inside the prison room, the guard and his backup came running in. He had just gotten someone to come to support him when the explosion rattled the building.

“Prisoners still inside the cell,” he reported to his radio-like device. He began to walk forward and eyed the duo. The second guard chuckled and followed after.

“It seems some of the locals are making a fuss. I’ve been put in charge of watching you… two…” The new guard stopped in his tracks. He reached for his radio but was not aware how close to the bars he was.

“Wait!” the second guard shouted as he tried to pull his ally back.

Rheba lunged her long arms out of the cell and grabbed the unsuspecting guard by his shirt. In his shock, he let go of his radio. As it hit the floor, Rheba jerked the guard, and the second one who held on, in close and smashed him against the bars. He was out of commission.

Before the second guard could escape, Rheba reached out with her second arm and drove him into the cell bars as well.

“Quick, Odell, see if they have anything useful,” Rheba said as she held the unconscious guards close to the bars.

Odell began to rummage in their pockets until he produced a set of keys.

“You don’t think….” Odell asked.

“He was sent to watch us after all,” Rheba answered.

Odell fiddled with the keys in the lock until one slid in and clicked the door open. The guards were tossed aside as the duo became free.

“Huh, what did we make Hal do all that for anyway?” Odell asked as he slid the keys into one of his pockets.

“Now is not the time; we need to find our way out of here,” Rheba said as she pulled open the door to the room. They exited into the hallway and began to run in a direction.

Though they did not know it, the duo had gone the opposite way Hal had. They ran down the hallway and around a couple of turns until they came bursting through a door into an open space. The room resembled an auditorium with rows of seats and a small stage that could be stood up to make announcements. In the space, all up and down the rows of seats and on the stage, troops dressed identically in black clothing were dueling each other.

A side of Aqueenians was shouting while swinging heavy pickaxes around while the bandit troops wielded more conventional swords and other blades against their foes. The two sides clashed with fury and might. However, it was clear that even with the passion the Aqueenians held, they struggled with the skill and technique of their foes.

Every bandit troop member was able to hold their own against even a crowd of the miners, and the Aqueenians were being pushed back. The bandits, however, were careful not to wound the miners too much as to keep the labor force intact. Though some miners fell, they were taken down with gashes and knocked unconscious.

Rheba was the first to get a grasp on the sight she saw. She immediately lunged forward and picked up a bandit soldier from behind. The soldier had been overwhelming a trio that had clearly never fought a day in their life.

The trio spoke to Rheba as she casually threw the opposing bandit over her shoulder.

“Could this be?” the first said.

“It has to be; she is clearly not with them,” the second added.

“We have aid at last,” the last finished.

“It’s Lady Fiona’s allies!” they said in unison.

“You know Fiona?” Rheba asked as she casually punched an enemy troop charging at her from the side. The opponent was sent flying while Rheba never looked at him.

“Do we know Lady Fiona?” the group said in sing-song unison. They might have continued talking, but Rheba ignored them and turned to Odell. The Hobusian prince ducked as an enemy swung a sword at him. The attack narrowly missed as it sailed over his bony crown.

“Odell, these Aqueenians are allies to the others,” Rheba yelled to him while he avoided another blow.

“I was starting to pick that up,” Odell yelled back as he ducked again.

“Where are the others?” Rheba asked the trio.

“Oh, well,” one said.

“We got split up when the fighting started,” the next added.

“And now we aren’t sure….” The third finished.

Rheba nodded.

“Odell, let’s support these guys for now and catch up with the others later,” Rheba yelled.

“Are you sure you can support us?”

“We heard you normally use Needaimus.”

“We can take it from here if you have to go.”

“We can handle the likes of these opponents without some Needaimus,” Rheba said with a smile. Another opponent tried to run up and slash her back, but she kicked him from behind without a glance.

“Speak for yourself!” Odell shouted to her as he avoided another sword swipe from the same opponent as before.

Rheba shook her head.

“Hold on; I’ll help you.”

She leaped across the room and kicked the opponent that chased Odell into a wall.

“Thanks,” Odell said through heavy breaths. He knelt low.

“Don’t rest now; we have a room of opponents to take down!”

Rheba leaped back into the fray. Odell, and the Aqueenian miners, slowly realized how quickly she would turn the tide of the battle.