Starburst Jailbreak Part Three

Sara and Muse were surprised when the doors finally opened. But instead of finding a view of the city, they were in a cramped hallway. Muse leaned out and looked both ways, not seeing anybody. Sara followed suit, a curse escaping her smile.

"That Lookalike must have sent us down instead of up," Muse whispered. "It tracks with what she thought I was."

"Well, what do we do now?" Sara whispered back. "We are way in over our heads. At least Flynt's office would have had some privacy. Who knows how many guards are down here?"

Instead of answering, Muse's eyes roamed the hallway. She rushed to the first room she saw, Sara trailing behind. The blonde tried the door, finding it unlocked. Both women had slipped into the darkness beyond while Connor suffered his fate within the Pinnacle chamber.

For a solid 3 seconds, darkness claimed the United States.

Ever present electricity had returned by the time Sara flicked the lights on. Within the small room were simple janitorial supplies. The main prize was a map of the entire facility on the wall. Despite the secrecy of the place, even Flynt had to follow municipal fire codes. Muse’s stoic eyes scanned the thing while Sara listened through the locked door.

All of a sudden, a group of armed guards rushed past the closet. Sara bit her lip at the racket, praying they wouldn't try and open the door. Muse simply took a small camera from her pocket. Thanks to modern technology, it was a gamble going digital. Film was the way to preserve such valuable data. A sharp click and they had something for Smith to analyze later. Muse looked back to Sara and nodded.

The driver opened the door and slipped into the hallway.

Muse followed, turning the opposite direction the guards had been going. An archive was set up only a few hallways away. Digital and physical data waiting to be plundered. Muse rounded the corner only to find the hallway filled with three guards. Black body armor with the Flynt company logo stamped on their helmets glistened under the halogens. All were armed with top of the line ballistics. Muse even noticed one carrying a portable railgun. At the front, the leader was screaming into his earpiece.

“No, it isn’t a drill, Berk!” a rough voice came from behind the faceplate. “I don’t have enough clearance to know what exactly is in that room. Training dictates that anytime something like that happens, we have to investigate. Yes, everybody means everybody. Who knows if that janitor is some sleeper agent with an EMP device. Or if it’s even a human at all. The Reds might have some sort of infiltration machine nowadays.”

Muse couldn’t see the guards’ features through their faceplates. But as she backpedaled around the corner, she heard one cry out. Sara’s smile never wavered, but her face grew pale. Both sprinted as fast as they could down the hallway. Behind them came the sound of thudding boots. It grew louder and louder as the guards gained on the two women.

“Stop running or we will open fire!” the captain yelled.

“Shove it!” Sara yelled back.

The captain began yelling into his shortwave and at his men. A sharp whine was heard as the railgun began to power up. Muse was surprised they would waste such a weapon on two fleeing women. Her eyes then lit upon the sprinkler system overhead. She pointed, and Sara understood. The driver calmly focused her eyes on the bit of metal. A stinging pain lanced through her head. Then a small beam of light shot from her eyes to the target. It blew in a shower of sparks, causing the surrounding area to be showered in water. The two women slid to a stop, turning to face the incoming guards. Sara couldn’t see the surprise on their faces, but she could sure feel it. She grinned, put a finger to her lips, and blew a kiss.

A small spark leapt from her lips right at her enemies.

The falling water was replaced by a violent violet torrent. All three of the men screamed as they were lanced back and forth with positive charges. Bullets erupted in their casings. The railgun’s system was fried into a million dollar hunk of plastic. Only the captain was left standing. He took a single step forward, then fell to his face. Muse walked forward and examined them. Nothing salvageable.

Sara swayed a bit, and took a knee. Muse rushed back to check on her ally. Sara shakily rose, Muse supporting her.

“I was told you have some trouble after doing things like that,” she said to the driver.

“Yeah, still not used to using the powers,” Sara croaked. “Even though I’ve had ‘em for quite a while.”

“You’re fine. Let’s just evacuate for now. It isn’t worth it for us to lose our lives and not bring anything back.”

“Always focused on the mission, ain’t you?”

“There is nothing else besides the mission.”

Despite their size difference the women were able to make it back through the underground maze. Upon reaching the corner to the elevator, they encountered a problem. Two large twin guards were facing them. Both sentinels paused, scanning the biological data of those facing them. One was foreign, the other familiar. Any intruders were to be stopped. Both men raised their hands towards Sara. These Lookalikes ran on a whole different system than the one Muse could access. She could also tell the things were equipped with subdermal ballistic implants. No time to go back, and Sara was unable to affect them.

The two were nuked.

Sara found her thoughts drifting to Smith. She was sorry the poor man would never get closure. He would blame himself for not helping more, not stopping her. Sara’s death down here would haunt him for the rest of his life. Even if she had been the one to volunteer for the mission. Her gaze drifted over to the poor girl holding her up.

Muse found herself thinking of the clear blue sky. Raul had taken her far out of the city when he had rescued her. Memories from before that fateful ride were hazy. Yet what captured her attention was its clean nature. The blue stretched endlessly on, clouds floating free along the breeze. Muse felt Sara look over at her. But her eyes remained fixed upon the Lookalikes in front of her.

The end had come to their freedom, and to their mission.

All at once, a pillar of light sheared through the guards. Sara watched in disbelief as the men were reduced to skeletons like a children's cartoon. Charred bones tumbled to the ground as a figure walked around the corner. A janitor, riddled with bullet holes. In spite of that, the holes glowed brilliantly. His arm was pinstriped with extreme gold and dazzling white. Upon his face was an iron mask, red eyes shining brilliantly out of it. Muse was unsure of what the thing was; her mind was busy shifting gears back from despair to hope.

The gearshift then got stuck again as the Pinnacle raised his glowing hand towards her, eyes glowing red as hellfire.