The door creaked open. Goro didn't hesitate.
The room was real. Exactly as Veyron had described it. Files scattered across metal desks. Screens dark. Symbols carved into the floor at the entrance, sharp and deliberate.
Sealbreaker Research.
Goro's jaw tightened. He moved fast, scanning shelves, drawers, terminals. His eyes snapped to the bottom right shelf.
"There," he muttered. External hard drives.
Heavy. Too heavy for something that was supposed to just hold data.
He grabbed three of them, shoved them into his bag like they weighed nothing, and tightened the strap. That was when Axel slid into the doorway. Breathing fast. Eyes wide.
"Cars," Axel whispered, words tumbling over each other. "Army jeeps. A lot of them. We missed two guards—they definitely reported it. Mayor's gone. I think he escaped and called backup. At least ten, maybe twelve full transports."
Before Goro could respond—
A voice thundered through the house.
"We know you're here!"
The sound echoed unnaturally, amplified, crawling up the walls, someone was using a megaphone.
"The house is surrounded by soldiers. You have no way out!"
Axel swore under his breath. Goro didn't even look shaken.
"We go straight down!" he said.
Axel blinked. "What?"
"Straight down," Goro repeated, already stepping forward. "I'll open a zone through every floor, through the island itself. We drop. Then I push forward underground."
Axel stared at him like he was insane.
"You'll burn out," Axel said sharply.
"I know."
Axel grabbed Goro's arm.
"Then after that, we run." Axel said. "Both of us. If anything happens, you don't turn back. Got it?"
Goro smirked faintly.
"Got it, brother."
They clasped hands once.
Then Goro slammed his foot into the floor.
The pressure hit instantly.
A vertical zone tore through. Floors collapsed in sequence. Concrete, steel, earth, everything crushed and dragged downward by impossible gravity. The house screamed as it broke. Goro jumped. He fell fast, hit hard, landing on fists and feet like a meteor. Axel jumped right after him. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, but he stayed upright. The space around them was barely wider than their bodies. No room to breathe.
Goro raised his hand again. Another zone. This one forward. The dirt ahead imploded, crushed and pushed aside, forming a crude tunnel just large enough to crawl through. Then water rushed in. Cold. Fast.
"Go!" Goro shouted. They swam.
————————————————————
Some time later.
Goro and Axel's lungs burned as they broke the last stretch of water. Finally, land. Darkness surrounded them, except for a street faintly lit by streetlights. Shadows stretched long and thin across the park benches and children's playground. They ran.
Park benches blurred past. Swings creaked eerily in the wind. They left the park and started running straight down the empty night street. Halfway down the street, pain exploded in Goro's arm. A sniper's bullet had hit, slicing clean through his forearm.
"RUN! Why are you standing?! Run! RUN!" Axel shouted, voice raw with urgency.
Goro gritted his teeth, forcing his legs to move. Axel darted along his side, eyes flicking to every shadowed window. Another bullet slammed through—this time through Goro's bag, shattering one of the external hard drives. Only two left.
"Run faster. Don't look back!" Axel barked.
He turned his head slowly. A shot missed both of them. Pure luck—or maybe Axel's uncanny timing.
"I predicted it," Axel murmured, voice low, almost to himself.
Then—suddenly—a woman dropped from a nearby rooftop. She landed lightly, pistol pointed at Goro, who's now far away from Axel or the woman, glowing orange lights tracing the edges of her massive Desert Eagle.
"I wouldn't try it if I were you." Axel's voice was calm, controlled, but sharp.
"Or what—" she started teasingly.
Axel appeared behind her faster than her eyes could track, as if he teleported.
"You're gonna drop dead." he said, emotionless.
The woman tilted her head, smirking. "You wouldn't have a heart, baby."
Axel's jaw tightened. She moved, hopping across the road, sliding the pistol back into its holster. Her appearance was striking: red nylons, black army boots, dark brown army jacket with no t-shirt beneath, revealing a red-and-brown sports-camo bra barely holding her huge breasts. Her gloves mixed red and brown, covering up to her elbows, and her skirt clung tightly to her thick thighs.
"Long time no see, baby boy.." she said, voice teasing, sharp.
"Don't patronize me, old hag!" Axel spat, lips tight.
"Come on you were 19 and I was 36. Seventeen years difference isn't that much, bab—"
Axel snapped.
His fist shot forward, smashing square into her face. Both of them crashed through the wall behind them, debris raining down, leaving the street silent except for the scuff of boots.
They landed inside The Hive, Neoterra's largest people-made market.
Farmers, car engineers, programmers, street food vendors—all with their own booths. Electronics hummed, vegetables stacked in neat rows, fruits glistened under market lights.
Across the market, the woman stood. Across from her, Axel adjusted his stance, blood trickling from his knuckles. Axel froze slightly, mind racing, recalling every moment spent with her in their past, every memory tied to her. Everything.
He whispered under his breath:
"Rika Hayase."