Their footsteps came alive in the corridors. Blue light rippled overhead and followed in the wake, bouncing in hazy swirls in the boy's head. His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing lines after lines of code to override the protocols. The piece of glass bobbed with every step they took.

He punched another code into the system, rerouting the access traffic back to itself. They reached the elevator—just a slab of metal doors and ancient pulley mechanisms. A girl waved a keycard across the sensors, forcing the doors open. Before they piled inside, the boy sent out a command into the integration. Access Denied. What the—

Access to the mainframe on multiple points are grounds for troubleshooting protocols. Restarting in 5 minutes. 4 minutes and 59 seconds. 4 minutes and 58 seconds.

"No, no, no," the boy hissed, pounding on the keys to execute an emergency override. It might not be the best algorithm, but it should be close.

"What's going on?" Another boy with flat, dark hair demanded, oscillating between the lip of the corridor and the yawning elevator car. "Why aren't we moving?"

"If you want to be lasered to a fry inside before the doors even close, go right in," the boy with the keyboard replied. His eyes flitted across the lines of letters and numbers. Signal lost. Signal regained. System rebooting in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Access Denied. Access Denied. Access Cleared.

"Yes!" He pumped his fist.

A streak of silver and blue speared towards them, followed by a blur of black and gray. The bullet was thrown out of its trajectory by a lance of wind, embedding instead on the elevator's frame. That was close. Who—

"Whatever you're doing, stop now." a feminine voice bled into his ears. The boy's head snapped up to find the girl with dark blue hair and fair skin standing opposite them on the corridor's curb. She might have gained a few more pads and a helmet with the visor turned up, but she was the same girl he knew. "I don't want to fight you."

A curse rang inside the boy's mind. He should have seen that coming. Another set of boots clambered into the scene. A girl without a helmet appeared, and she possessed a face Thirteen recognized. What a damned reunion this was.

"Step away from the elevator," the girl without a helmet said, drawing a black dagger from her belt. Her baton hung from her belt and knocked against her leg as she stepped forward. "We don't want to fight. Just...come with us. Quietly."

The boy glanced at his companions, mind flaring with the plan. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl reach up and craft a gun from her white hair. Two of their companions carried the conversation as intended.

"What made you turn tail?" the boy with dark hair asked. "What did he promise you?"

"He will not let you see your families," the other spouted, having read the response from their heads. "He lied about us and where we came from. And you won't be seeing them again because of the job you entered."

Non-helmet girl gritted her teeth. "I don't care," she said. "You're not getting in that elevator."

They lunged just as the girl with white hair whipped a newly-crafted gun towards the female sentries and fired. A loud shot resounded in the corridor. The boy's code slipped past the integration's safeguards, and he tapped a quick command to lock it out of its own systems.

The darker-haired sentry stumbled back as his companion's shot landed. Her helmet flew out of her head. That was all the boy needed. His ability surged through his veins, spreading towards their minds.

"Now!" the boy yelled, ushering the others to the elevator. The doors closed in front of their faces, long before time resumed and an electric blue bolt rushed towards them. He turned to his companions, huffing. "Take us to the top."