Mike fumbled like a drunk through the dark, his ears ringing from the booming echo of thunder in his head.
Alarms were blaring, a keening repetitive siren that he registered only slowly in his dazed state. The room around him had erupted into chaos: power to the entire floor had gone out, the room was a haze of smoke and shadows and darkness.
The emergency lighting kicked in, casting a dim glare of pale red light in the corners and on the walls. He could see shapes moving in the darkness, panicked voices shouting over the din of the emergency sprinklers going off. Mike shook his head to clear out the cobwebs, blinking to try to regain his scattered senses.
"Get down!" He heard Allynna shout. She leaned in on him from one side, shoving him with her shoulder to the ground as he collapsed onto the ground. Unable to catch himself due to his bound hands, he fell hard against the floor. Gunfire erupted behind him, wild and unfocused, firing blindly into the dark in search of missing targets.
The jolt of the fall brought his consciousness screaming back to reality. Mike crawled for his life. He wormed his way away from his would-be executioners to the far side of the vault, glancing over his shoulder and seeing that Aly was doing the same right behind him. The fire sprinklers above them sprayed wet foam onto the ground. It coated everything with a sticky, slippery fire retardant. They both soaked.
As he crawled Mike worked his hands in desperate, jerking motions behind his back, using the malleable liquid metal to cut at the bonds that held him in place. It was hard to get leverage, hard to see, or even to move properly.
He navigated his way blindly through the dark, reaching the wall as more gunshots rang out from another part of the room. He pushed himself up onto his knees using his shoulder, leaning back against the wall as he sawed the bonds apart at a frantic pace. Mike gritted his teeth and cut through the final link, snapping the cuffs in half and freeing his hands from behind his back.
Aly crawled up next to him. He groped for her in the dark, taking her by the arm and pulling her to her knees. Mike felt more than saw a large shadow appear at their side.
They will recover from their shock at any moment.
Came Lass' voice clear in his mind. He felt her large hand fall upon his shoulder in the dark. When her fingers touched his skin, he felt a rush of unexpected emotions. She was feeding him her fear.
We need to go
.
Follow me.
Acting on a smugglers' favorite cocktail of instinct and adrenaline, Mike followed her lead. He pulled his still-handcuffed first mate to her feet as he stood, bracing himself against the wall of the vault as the three threaded their way towards the dimly lit exit in the distance.
The Loupians were still shouting at one another. More gunshots rang out but Mike could hear the Veiled One's modulated voice roaring at them to stop. The ground was slippery, covered in foam and difficult to navigate. Mike nearly lost track of where he was going more than once.
Clearing the exit of the vault and the pitch black room they came to the hallway. Mike at last could make out the bulky form of the Orc in front of him, lit only by the dim glow of the red emergency lighting running across the edges of the hall on the floor on either side of them.
She looked energized, like a coiled spring tense with potential velocity about to snap. She turned back to look at them, and Mike could swear he saw her eyes burning like a Promethean flame in the dark.
Run.
She said in his mind. It was not a suggestion, but a command.
Before Mike even had time to process the thought, he was off like a lightning bolt. He ran for his life, his legs carrying him forward without his mind ever willing him to do so. It was an almost dreamlike, out of body experience.
Mike glanced back behind him, surprised to see that Aly was right at his side, running with the same wide eyed momentum. She didn't even glance at him, her arms still bound behind her back as she ran with a long, graceful stride.
Two figures arose in the dark; a pair of Loupians returning from the hangar were jogging down the dark hallway. They shouted out warnings and lifted their weapons.
Lashvara sped up, letting out a bellowing roar that shook the walls with its intensity. It grew louder and louder,
far
too loud for any beings' lungs to realistically produce. The Loupians dropped their weapons and shrank back. Had Mike any control over his own body he might have cowered in fear as well.
Lass did not so much as slow down, bowling the two stunned Loupians over, smashing into them with her shoulder and sending them flying to either side in her wake. Mike zoomed past them with barely a side glance, his legs carrying him forward after the rushing Orc.
Hurry
. Came her voice in Mike's mind. He felt his footsteps quicken.
Coming to the end of the vault hall just before the hangar bay, Lass skidded to a stop. Mike and Aly arrived right after, huffing and puffing. Spotting his chance, and feeling a it of his own will returning to him, Mike grabbed Aly by the arm and dragged her behind the nearby support pillar next to the closest vault side door.
"Quick, your cuffs." Mike said, crouching down as he made a sharp gesture with his right hand. Aly went down on one knee and turned her back to him, allowing Mike to saw at the links.
There is no time.
Lass said in his head, her eyes almost burning a hole in his head from their intensity.
We are being pursued.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Mike shouted, too caught up in the moment to ponder the inherent ridiculousness of arguing with a voice in his head.
Sweat poured down his temples as he sawed frantically at the final cuff links. Mike heard the rapid approach of footsteps from the hallway they'd run from. There was the
snap
of metal, and Aly's hands came free. "Cmon, let's-"
Bang
,
bang
,
bang
