Commotion in the Hallway

The duo really didn't have a plan because they weren't familiar with the structure of the base they were in. Femi suggested they just crash the place until they met someone familiar with the structure. It was dumb, but with no other option, Arwan decided to go along with it.

Additionally, people would come rushing to them immediately after the cell bars opened, so they didn't believe it would take long to meet people who worked there.

"Will you be able to do this, though? I mean, if the people that work here actually turn out to be adventurers, they won't be weak," Arwan asked, feeling anxious.

"It's all good. If someone beyond my power is here, I'd feel it," Femi explained. Since his hunch didn't say he'd be in danger, he believed this would be uncomfortably easy.

"Alright then," Arwan acquiesced. 

Arwan went to the opened hatch. Using his hand, he connected some wires, and the holographic wall disappeared. He had successfully deactivated the electric current flowing through the wall. Grateful that it went well, he sighed and connected more wires that led to the cell bars slowly rising.

"Good job," Femi praised.

They walked out of the cell, falling into a hallway that had the common white walls laboratories had. To their right was a dead end, and to their left were more cells that stretched down the hallway.

Femi stopped Arwan from moving and gestured at the cell of the petite girl. "Open her cage. She'll be helpful."

In response, Arwan lowly yelled, "Are you out of your mind? Why waste time here? Y'know our breakout has been noticed."

"Look," Femi conveyed. "She has a collar that looks thicker than mine, meaning she's stronger than me. She might know the paths of this base. It even feels like she wants to help us."

Femi pointed at her again, this time directly at her eyes. The iris of the girl, which usually took a vertical shape, became round and bigger. Contrary to her emotionless face, her eyes begged to be let out.

Arwan found logic in Femi's statement. Reluctantly, he accepted, "Fine."

Not wanting to waste any more time, Arwan opened the panel that served as the door's lock and began cracking it.

Three minutes in, they heard footsteps coming from the end of the hallway.

"Seems we have company. I'll keep them busy. Take your delicate time!" Femi said. He walked towards the people who approached.

A group of ten people, different races but mostly human, all dressed in shirts and trousers, halted their movements a few meters from Femi. They were reluctant to approach the individual designated top-priority good by their superiors.

"Th-they really broke free," the man leading the group said. He brought up his hands and spoke to the comm on his wrist, communicating with those in the security room. "They broke free. I repeat. 178 and 179 broke free. 178 approaches and 179 is, wait!" He assessed the situation and, seeing what Arwan was doing, he panicked. "Fuck! They are freeing X. Everyone, your tasers!"

"We can't damage the goods, though," one of the men replied.

"Fuck that! Shoot at the one at the back," he ordered.

Femi adopted a fight stance as he identified the weapon they aimed at him. "This time it's tasers? Heh," he scoffed. 

~ POW! POW!! ~

Multiple roped projectiles shot towards Femi, a few aiming for Arwan.

"Sorry, but I'm a meat shield right now!" Femi declared. He didn't dodge the projectiles coming towards him, only moving to catch the two that were about to fly right by him, towards Arwan.

"H-he caught them," the men were flustered.

"Shut up and release the fucking current," their leader yelled with a shaken voice.

The electric current flowed and zapped Femi. But instead of going down as expected, he smiled and said, "This little sting won't work."

Femi yanked the two tasers in his hand, letting them escape the grip of the wielders. He used the gun part of the rope as a hook and flung it towards the heads of the men.

The men lost decorum and panicked. They began repeatedly releasing currents in hopes that it would later take him down.

Femi endured the zaps while he kept flinging the guns and smiling uncontrollably. 

Arwan didn't pay attention to the commotion, focusing on the collar he was now trying to deactivate.

Since he was trying to break into the now familiar cell from the outside and didn't need to be careful not to trigger the alarms, it didn't take him a minute to break in and start working on the collar around the girl.

Femi, on the other hand, was about to reach his limits. He had stopped flinging the tasers around but still stood to tank, so they wouldn't go after Arwan when he was down.

'This is how you act when someone trusts you, right?' he thought as his smile increased.

"He's almost down. Make sure all your suits are activated and beat the fuck out of him. I don't care what you do! Just knock him down," the leader ordered. 

Femi, who was about to collapse, regained his original stance as he watched them approach. "No way I'm going down now." 

"Deactivated!" Arwan's voice sounded in Femi's ear.

Following that, a white-clothed figure passed Femi, dashing towards the group.

The group identified who was running towards them, making their faces turn pale.

"I-IT-ITS X!!!" they all screamed, running away from what they feared most in this entire base.

The girl, X, as they called her, ran towards them on all her four limbs. When she closed in on the men, she jumped on their backs one by one and knocked them out, each with one clean hit.

Within two minutes, she had knocked them out and silenced the halls. She proved that the collar really wasn't for show. The damage she did to those people was beyond the damage their suits could absorb. Although their suits weren't as good as the average bodysuit, giving that amount of damage in one hit was still remarkable.

Femi and Arwan, who had expected her to be strong, were amused and shocked respectively by her strength.

"I told you she'd be strong. Always trust the hunch!" Femi said.

Arwan replied, "Yeah, yeah."

Arwan helped Femi get the tasers off him and supported him as they both walked towards X. "Fool. You could have avoided the tasers!"

"Pfff. It's all good. Electrocution of this level can easily be recovered," Femi shrugged.

Before Arwan could correct him again, they both noticed X had already returned.

She walked towards Femi with an unexpressive face and pointed at the collar around his neck. Receiving his approval, she grabbed the collar around his neck, gripped hard, and then broke it. She also broke the one around her neck, revealing a tattoo that circled her neck, previously hidden by the collar. Looking closer, an X sign could also be seen tattooed on her tongue.

Femi and Arwan immediately guessed that it was a branding that was done here.

Unaware of the tense air, Femi asked, "Who's that?"

Beside X's leg was a whimpering man. The same man that led the group.

"Ask questions," X said, raising the man's head up by pulling his hair.

Arwan feared X and her actions. But he decided to brush that fear aside and at least treat her as an ally like Femi did.

Tensely, Arwan said, "Thanks... X."

"Call..." X cut her words short, then rephrased what she wanted to say. "My name is Einar."

Arwan understood. She didn't want to be called X.

Femi took charge of the questioning. Following Einar's example, he brought the man's head closer to his. He asked, "Where's Gallagher?"

"T-to..."

"Speak normally," Femi said, pulling his hair harder.

"They were out. But since they should have been aware you broke out by now, they should be on their way here."

Femi glanced at Arwan, gesturing he should continue asking.

"How many floors are there?" Arwan chipped in.

"Four floors. The top where the boss, Mr. Gallagher, stays most of the time. The second floor is where the experiment test room, lab, and security room are. Third floor, guard room and storage room. And the last floor, here, are the cells where they put the experiments and goods."

"How many more guards are there?"

"Ten."

"Hmmm..." Arwan sighed.

Seeing they were done questioning him, Einar brought her hand to his neck and knocked him out.

Arwan dipped his hand in the man's pocket, bringing out a card.

"Now I have a plan. We'll first go to the storage room, then take the stuff that they took from us. On our way, we'll take out the remaining guards. After leaving the storage, I'll handle the security room. You guys will intercept Gallagher and co. I don't think it'll be hard with Einar helping us."

Einar nodded in agreement.

Femi also agreed and said, "To the storage we go then."

They proceeded to the next floor. As they walked, those in the cells saw them. Seeing someone break free and take down the guards who had passed by earlier, the inmates saw a light of hope and started a commotion.

"Help me."

"Save us."

"I don't want to die. Please."

"Mama...? Papa...?"

"Let me out of here. I beg of you."

Their cries were pitiful. The age range of the inmates of various races was 11-20 years old.

It wasn't easy for the trio to walk through the halls without feeling compassion. The fact that they were on their way to risk their lives to help them out lessened the burden of the compassion they felt.

If all went well, within the next 30 minutes, the inmates would be freed.