Vida and Amora stood up, trying to gather whatever confidence they could find within themselves.
"Hardy said the control room is on the third floor. We'll just have to hope there's a way into the center room up there." Vida thought as she peeked into the hallway.
The guards still stood on either side of the hall, looking for the rebels they had just been shooting at.
"As soon as I put up my wall, we'll run." Vida whispered to her friend. Amora nodded in response.
With no warning, the guards shot up towards the ceiling, a wooden structure breaking through the concrete below them.
"What the hell?!" One of the guards screamed.
They tumbled back onto the floor, gathering their thoughts as they turned to see what had caused the commotion.
The guards were now separated from the girls by a giant wooden wall. They looked at each other, their faces covered with confusion.
"C'mon!" Vida ran down the hallway with Amora right behind her.
The squeaking of the girls' boots was the only sound in the hallway besides the prisoners' banging. The siren had cut out, but the flashing red lights had continued.
"There's gotta be stairs somewhere around here." Vida muttered to herself.
As the girls zoomed past an intersection, they glanced into the other hallway.
"There!" The teens heard from down the hall.
Vida and Amora picked up the pace. Another set of footsteps could be heard down the hallway.
Amora looked back, hoping it was just another guard.
Ocho sprinted at the two teens, his sister on his tail.
"Oh god!" Amora exclaimed as she looked back, her breathing growing heavy as she tried to run faster.
Vida looked back as well, her eyes widening as she recognized the Deputy uniforms.
The girl channeled her Spirit into her hands as another wooden wall shot up from the ground, dividing the rebels from the Deputies.
Vida went lightheaded for a second, stumbling over her feet. She quickly regained her balance, catching up to Amora as they continued to sprint.
With no hesitation, Ocho reeled both of his fists back. He shot two punches through the wood, shattering the roots with ease.
Another punch, and another, and another. The Deputy charged through the weakened wood, followed by his sister.
The wall might have been broken, but it put just enough distance between the two duos for Amora to see an elevator up ahead.
"Right there!" Amora exclaimed as she pointed towards the elevator, a dot of white light in the sea of red tint.
Ocho and Tine were starting to catch up. The two girls' amateur physicality was nothing compared to the Regime's military training regiment.
"One more time." Vida muttered to herself as she spun around. She could feel her muscles getting weak, but she shrugged it off as a symptom of the running thus far.
She summoned an army of mushrooms, littering the walls in front of the Deputies with fungi.
Ocho halted, stopping his sister with his arm. He watched the mushrooms carefully.
Hissss
The caps of mushrooms popped, spraying their yellowish-gray cloud of fungal spores into the air.
Ocho and Tine jumped back, but not before they took a breath of the spores. They collapsed as their nostrils began to burn, stumbling over their own feet as their senses dulled into nothingness.
They couldn't smell, see, or hear—nothing.
"Brother?!" Tine called out, feeling around the air in a futile attempt to find her sibling.
Ocho swung at the air, his fists clenched with anger.
Vida and Amora jumped into the elevator, spamming the button for the third floor until the door shut.
Both of the girls let out a sigh of relief.
In the hallway, both of the Deputies began to fear that they would be stuck without their senses forever.
After about two minutes, their senses came back to them. The two of them shot over to the other, making sure their sibling was unharmed.
"Are you okay?!" Ocho asked his sister, holding her shoulders.
"Y-yeah. That was weird." Tine rubbed her eyes, trying to get her eyes to focus again. "Where did they go?!"
"They made it to the third floor. We'll have to find another way up. For now, we'll just have to let 1001 do what she does best." Ocho sighed.
"Tennie's in Tokyo?!" Tine said, her mouth agape from shock.
In the elevator, Amora smiled through her gaiter, covered in the pink hearts Hendrix had sewn. "You're so cool, Vida!" Her relief vanished when she saw Vida's eyes.
Vida leaned her head against the metal wall of the elevator. Her eyelids drooped until only a sliver of her pupils showed.
"This feeling… Don't tell me I've run out of Spirit already." Vida thought.
"Vida?!" Amora grabbed her shoulders, trying to keep her from sliding down the wall.
"I'm fine. I just needed a second." Vida blinked slowly, nodding her head at her friend.
Ding
The screen at the top of the elevator showed the number three.
"C'mon, I gotcha." Amora threw Vida's arm over her shoulder, helping Vida walk forward towards the elevator door.
The doors slowly slid open, revealing a small figure.
A young, short girl with white hair stared up at the two teens. She wore a Deputy uniform, just like the one Ocho and Tine wore.
At first, Amora couldn't believe her eyes. The girl couldn't be older than them, but she was a Deputy.
The two teens stared, perplexed at the girl's stature.
"Freeze." The young girl uttered.
Suddenly, a miniature blizzard blasted from her gloves, shooting layers of snow into the elevator. The cold front filled the air with a biting freeze.
"Vida-" Amora attempted to call out to her friend, but her mouth filled with snow.
Inside the panopticon Akilah and Hardy stood motionless, waiting for the Warden's next move.
"We knew you'd target the prison. You wouldn't leave those heretics to rot in prison like they should. We've got every Deputy within Tokyo patrolling these grounds. You're done." The Warden crouched, ready to charge.
The man was at least six-foot-six, with enough muscles to fill out that giant frame with ease. His military-style cut and thick mustache that dropped past the corners of his mouth made him look like the picture perfect Warden.
"They were ready for us?!" Akilah thought. She covered her mouth with her hand. Her thoughts began to blur as every outcome she walked through ended in death, or worse.
"Akilah… Akilah!" Hardy's voice faded in as Akilah snapped back into reality.
"Don't check out yet. It's not over 'til it's over." Hardy nodded, his brows furrowing as Akilah's thoughts slowed, even if just a little.
"You… You're right." Akilah took a deep breath, her face returning to that emotionless stare.
"Keep your blade steady." Jason's words rang through the girl's head as she unsheathed her sword, holding it in front of her.
The Warden shook his head and clicked his teeth. "Such a waste of life."
"3045, just sit back and document, I don't have time to deal with the paperwork once I finish them off." The Warden charged into one big leap towards the two rebels. A metallic clanking rang through the air as steel shingles unfolded onto the Warden's fists, eventually covering the entirety of his arms.
Hardy pointed his right hand down as it glowed orange.
Boom
That explosive sound shot from Hardy's hand. Akilah covered her ears just in time.
The wall of noise was enough to knock the Warden off his balance. The ginormous man tumbled through the air.
He put his metallic arms in front of his head as he shot facefirst into the floor.
Thud
The Warden crashed into the floor, breaking the concrete into pieces. Dust flew into the air around the man, covering him in a cloud of debris.
"Try harder next time." Hardy shouted with no amusement on his face.
"Warden!" 3045 yelled for his leader. He whipped his service weapon out of his utility belt, aiming it towards the purple-haired girl.
"Shit." Akilah muttered. She ran towards a pillar closer to the watchtower in the center of the panopticon as the guard started to fire.
She held her sword out while trying to focus as much Spirit as she could into her arms, blocking the rest of her torso with them.
Bang, Bang, Bang
Bullets shot towards Akilah in rapid succession.
"Almost there." Akilah thought. She was only a few steps away from cover.
Ping
A bullet ricocheted off of Akilah's blade, shooting towards the watchtower. The girl broke into a full sprint towards the pillar.
Bang
Another bullet ripped through Akilah's upper arm.
"Ahh!" Akilah screamed in pain, rolling behind the pillar at last.
"Akilah!" Hardy yelled as he made his way over to her.
The girl didn't answer. She was too busy thinking through the situation.
"But… I was focusing my Spirit into my arms… It just wasn't enough Spirit… I wasn't enough." Akilah thought. Her breathing grew shallow and fast as she gripped her arm.
"Just hold on." Hardy took a roll of gauze out of his pocket, wrapping it around Akilah's bloody jean jacket.
"Ugh, god dammit." The Warden's voice echoed out from inside the cloud of dust. "This'll take a while."
That metallic clanking filled the air as he stepped out of the shadows.