I'm shocked there's still people reading—

Hallez immediately stood, and strode to the door. But before she touched the handle, she paused, thinking.

    Was this a trick? Were they trying to get to know more about her with this elaborate trick?

    It didn't seem unlikely at least. But what choice did she have? Stay here to be interrogated while her friends were out there, with the deadline being in less than three days, assuming it was still July fifth?

    She sincerely hoped it was still July fifth.

    Either way, she had to get out and find her friends and the Sword and Shield.

    She took a deep breath, and grabbed the handle, pushed down, and swung it open. Immediately, as she crossed the threshold, a blaring alarm sounded, and red lights flashed, alerting two people who she assumed to be guards. They turned, and pointed their guns at her, but she was already running towards one of them, grabbing his gun and twisting it out of the guard's grasp. She kicked the guard in the back of the knee, and knocked him out with the gun.

    Hallez grabbed the guard, hauling him up, and used him as an uncooperative, unconscious human shield against the other guard, who hesitated, unable to get a clear shot without hurting his partner.

    She knew talking wasn't going to work, and she wasn't really the talking type, so she just silently sidled backwards, watching her step while making sure the guard was in front of her. It was just a little exhausting, especially since she had the large gun in her other hand. She considered threatening to kill the guard, and get the other one to drop his own weapon, but something about that idea made her nervous. So what if she was the daughter of Death? It wasn't like she agreed with the idea of killing without thinking.

    However, before she went far enough to reach another corridor, she felt the cold, metal barrel of a gun on the back of her head.

    "Drop the guard, Ms. Kane," an unfamiliar voice said. "And the gun, if you will."

    She sighed, cursing at herself internally. She dropped the guard on the ground as gently as she could, and then the gun, which she heard was kicked away by someone. She raised her hand up in surrender.

    "Nice try," they said sarcastically. "But you'll have to do better. Now get back in the room."

†††

It was just cruel that they left Hallez's room open, teasing her. She wasn't even stuck to the bed. However, a total of four guards were now posted outside, insight of the door, and all four were annoyingly paranoid about her. If she paced in the direction of the door, or just glanced at it, they would tense up, and raise their gun a little, until she rolled her eyes, turning away from the door again to continue pacing.

    She tried to keep track of the time, and figured it must've been at least half an hour since her attempt and failure of an escape. Possibly more. Time was moving slowly, and she didn't have anything to do, so she just paced. She was also hungry, but she didn't really have the room in her brain or the appetite to think about food.

    It was starting to get on the guards' nerves though. Which was good.

    "Will you stop that incessant pacing?!" one of them demanded.

    Hallez openly ignored her.

    They let out a melodramatic groan of annoyance.

    "Can't we just call Agent Ev?" another asked. "Isn't he coming back soon anyway?"

    "If you count two hours as soon, then yeah."

    The second guard shrugged. "So can we call him?"

    The fourth guard looked appalled. "No! Do you want to be sent on guard duty outside in the snow for a week? He told us specifically not to do anything of the sort! Our orders are to stay here, guard the prisoner, and injure her if she tries to escape."

    As they were busy arguing, distracting both themselves and Hallez, none of them noticed when a small, dark-clothed figure suddenly ran past silently, like a mere shadow. The effect was only clear when the two guards standing against the opposite wall promptly collapsed, unconscious.

    The others yelped, raising their guns, and shot in the direction of the figure, but apparently they missed, because they came back, knocking out the guards by spraying something in front of their faces.

    Hallez stood there, slightly stunned. As the last two guards fell, the figure reappeared, and walked into the room. They wore all black, with a belt full of tools, and a mask and beanie on their head. Hazel eyes stared at her over their mask.

    Hallez doubted they would go into all that trouble only to kill her, but who knew. She stepped back, cautious, until the figure took off her mask, revealing a familiar face.

    "...Agent Fai?" Hal asked.

    The girl smiled back at her, though it was half-hearted. "Yep! That's me! Hi! Uh, my real name is Faith. For some reason they thought it would be cool for my code name to be the first three letters of my name, which is kinda stupid—not that I can do anything about it. But anyways, I'm here to rescue you!"

    She was suspicious. Of course she was. It's not everyday that the nervous-looking, quiet agent of a secret underground organization comes up to a prisoner and abruptly frees her with no warning. "Why?"

    "Well, the people here are jerks, and I don't want to be one of them, so yeah! I'm on my break anyway, so they wouldn't notice me gone." Faith turned and beckoned to Hallez. "I'll help get you out of here, but we have to go quickly!"

    "Wait, last time I walked out the alarm sounded." She held up her arms. "I think it's because of these cuffs."

    Faith turned around, looking embarrassed. "Ah, sorry! I made that mistake the first time too."

    "So you were the one who kept the door unlocked."

    "Yep!" She quickly took out a remote, and pressed a button, causing the heavy cuffs to open and drop onto the ground with a loud clang!

    They both winced. Faith at the sound, Hallez because one of them landed on her foot.

    "Let's just get out of here quickly," Faith suggested.

    "Where are my friends?"

    Faith looked slightly shocked as they hurried outside, Hallez massaging her wrists. "I thought you were alone?"

    "Did you actually believe me?"

    "Well you sounded convincing!"

    Hallez sighed. "They're not here then...good. Faith, do you by any chance know where a magical sword and shield are, do you?"

    She blinked. "How do you know about that? It was one of the latest finds! ...Well actually, they kinda just found it along with a guy on the front steps."

    "...A guy?"

    "Yeah, he just kinda appeared one day, with a sword and a shield, unconscious and stuff. Kinda weird. Anyway, I can take you there if you want."

    Hallez stared at her for a few seconds. "...Thank you."

    Faith smiled enthusiastically, before covering it up with her mask. "You're welcome! Anyways, let's try the elevator, and hope it isn't occupied!"

    The elevator was occupied.

    Five guards stood inside when the elevator ding!'d and the doors slid open. The two girls stared at the guards, who stared back. For a total of five seconds, no one made a move.

    Then one of the guards—the most sensible one, Hallez suspected—reached over towards a bottom on the elevator panel.

    "SHOOT!" Faith cried, took out a small perfume bottle, and sprayed it inside the elevator. "Hallez! Back up!"

    Hallez covered her nose and mouth instinctively as she backed up. In a panic, she reverted to her "state" again.

    The guards tried to back up to the far wall of the elevator, covering their noses and mouths, but the sedative, or whatever it was, must have spread fast, because they collapsed soon after.

    "Alright, it lost its potency, you can breathe safely now without collapsing!" Faith waved a hand in front of her face, even though she was wearing a mask. When she turned around however, Hallez was still invisible. She yelped. "Uh, Hallez? Kane? Ms. Kane? You there? Did I fail my rescue mission already?"

    Slowly, Hal forced herself back. "I'm here."

    Faith jumped. "How'd you do that?! What the— Do you have, like, the Cloak of Invisibility or something?"

    "Something like that..." Hallez looked at the elevator. "I'm guessing we're not taking the elevator..."

    "Darn, we'll just have to take the stairs, I guess..." Faith said dejectedly. "This is the only elevator accessible on this floor. The level we have to get to is literally twenty floors below us."

    Twenty— Seriously?

    If only there was another elevator...

    Hallez had a light-bulb moment.

    "Faith, I have an idea that can get us down there other than the stairs," she told the CEIRA agent. "Though you may not like it. And I can't promise it'll be safe, because I've never tried this with another person."

    "...I hate this idea already, but if it doesn't include the stairs, count me in!"

    Hallez nodded, grabbing Faith's arm, and concentrating. She hadn't thought of this idea before. She could only hope that it would work. That she could also make others go into the state-which-she-needs-a-better-name-for. She went into the state herself first, then she imagined Faith as an extension of herself, and, to her surprise, she saw Faith's blob disappear, but her energy was still there, linked to hers. She felt Faith struggle, but their arms were bound together.

    Hallez sincerely hoped there wasn't going to be any adverse effects that went with this.

    They floated through the floor, down, passing the levels much faster than the elevator's could've. Hallez had to focus intensely on counting the number of floors they passed.

    Nine... Ten... Eleven...

    Around the tenth floor they passed, she felt a distinct, overpowering energy that she was surprised she hadn't sensed before. It was similar to Minerva's, but distinctly different.

    She floated towards it, until she was right outside the door, and turned back to her physical form, along with Faith.

    She wobbled on her feet. "That...that was..." She leaned on the wall, pulled down her mask, and puked all over the floor.

    Hallez awkwardly reached over, and patted her on the back, then turned her attention to the door in front of her. It was a heavy metal door, much more different than her own, and a panel for a keycard and a password beside it.

    "Faith? Would you mind, uh, opening the door?"

    Faith finally recovered enough to see where they were. She panted as she spoke. "...How did you know where— Actually, no, don't answer that. The less I know, the better. Uh, card..." She rummaged around in her pockets, and then triumphantly pulled out a white keycard. "Aha! The password is 2904. That door, over there"—she pointed at the door directly across the hallway—"sword and shield. Same card, password is 7361."

    "Thank you," Hallez said. "Uh...you can go now, if you want."

    Faith let out a big exhale. "Thanks! I mean, usually I would insist that I help you some more, but honestly, no offense, I think I'm good..." She wretched, and puked again. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and Hallez wasn't quite sure if that was very hygienic. "There's...escape...horses...like, twenty-five floors above... Sub Floor 8? Uh, yeah...keycard, stuff...thanks, you're welcome!"

    She walked away at a relatively fast pace, considering she just puked twice, and didn't seem quite orientated yet.

    As Hal watched the CEIRA agent turn the corner, footsteps came from the other end. She whirled around, alert, but only saw Fiona, Travis and Lavi.

    Before she could react, Fiona barrelled into her, nearly stepping in the puddle of...you-know-what.

    Fiona hugged Hallez fiercely. "THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE ALIVE!" She turned to shout to Travis and Lavi, "HA! SEE! I TOLD YOU SHE COULD GET OUT BY HERSELF! PAY UP!"

    Travis only facepalmed, and Lavi chuckled, amused. When Fiona pulled away, Hallez was shocked to see that Fiona had been crying. The brunette quickly turned away, wiping them with the back of her hand.

    "...Let's just get what we came for and get out of here as soon as possible," Hallez said.

    "GOOD IDEA!"

    Travis sighed. "There's no need to shout, Fiona!"

    As Hallez turned to unlock the door with the "guy" inside, she was thinking:

    But I couldn't have gotten out of that by myself.

    And she wasn't sure what to think of that though.

--
A bit short but eh
I've been obsessed over a new fandom and now it's taking up 60% of my time
I don't regret it

-Lunya