"Right... How do we do this?"
After what felt like ages of nonstop climbing, we finally managed to reach the point where we could actually hear all the commotion happening above ground. And listening in to all of the panic and anger being thrown around, I could safely say that showing ourselves to them like this would more than definitely get us arrested or even killed.
"I'm trying to look for an opening, Moriya," Shizu whispered out, her eyes squinting as she looked up and around the edges of the crater. "There's gotta be a place for us to squeeze through."
"And if not, we'll just have to punch our way through the blockade," Guidance sighed, her keyboard already prepped and ready for a fight. "Besides, I highly doubt that we'll be able to find a small hole through their defenses right now. Even from here, I could tell that everything's locked tight."
"Yeah..." I sighed. "It feels like we're inside a military inclusion zone right now."
And that was putting it mildly as well. Even a few floors away from the surface, the rumblings and movement of dozens upon dozens of people thundered through the walls. We were completely hemmed in, and I seriously doubt that even Shizu's eyes would be able to find someplace for us to sneak through all of this. Sure, maybe we could use the smoke to our advantage, or maybe Guidance could code something up for our convenience?
"I know that look, Moriya," Guidance called me out on my thoughts. "I won't risk doing that to Shizu right now, especially if we'll have to fight our way out of this mess."
"But what if that's the only way we could even avoid said mess in the first place?" I rebutted. "I know it's going to suck, especially for her, but we can also always just wait for her to recover before we move."
Guidance sighed. "That's true... Still, do we really have the time to wait? Our friends are out there doing who knows what. For all we know, they might already be-"
[*BOOM!*]
A sizeable explosion shuddered across the facility. Quickly, we assumed that the weapon below had exploded yet again and dove right and away from the crater, only... it didn't. Instead, the shockwaves came from right above us, most probably from the surface.
"W-What happened?" I couldn't help but gasp.
"G-guys?"
Shizu?
Turning to the princess, the fact that her eyes were wide with a look of utter surprise and shock was already telling of what kind of news she had to give.
"What is it?"
Shizu didn't even bother looking at Guidance as she replied. "I-It's them... Shen and the others... They're fighting!"
And just like that, a shot of adrenaline surged through me as Guidance and I bolted upright. They were here... They were actually here right above us... and currently fighting what should be an unwinnable fight.
"We have to get up there," Shizu voiced out, her tone starting to shift from surprise to anger. "They've got them all surrounded."
"Figured," I clicked my tongue. "Then again, we're kind of stuck here still. And even if we can get back up there quickly, our arrival wouldn't be ignored that easily."
"As much as I'd like to disagree, Moriya's right," Guidance sighed. "We have to plan our approach. Us getting caught the moment we emerge from here would only make things worse."
Blinking, Shizu turned to the two of us, her eyes still active as she growled. "Leave it to me then. I'll leave the planning to you two."
"Got it."
"Of course."
[*BOOM CLANG!*]
Facing one another, Guidance and I did our best to ignore the carnage above as we went on to strategize. Taking a deep breath, I took in all of the available information we had before realizing that we still need more info for this to work.
"Shizu, can you tell us what you're seeing above us?" I asked.
"Sure," Shizu quickly replied, her eyes narrowing as she nodded. "What kind of stuff do you need to hear?"
"As much as possible," Guidance chimed in, having taken the gist of what I was hoping to do. "We need every scrap of data we can get."
Hearing our request, the princess took a deep breath before nodding. "I'll do what I can."
Falling silent, the two of us did our best to listen as Shizu began to promptly give us the lay of the land with excruciating detail. Every man, woman, building, and structure were all painstakingly described to us, their respective locations and prospective make also not being spared as Shizu just went full on in her analysis.
"O-Oh, I think I see an opening," Shizu whispered out, her throat going hoarse from her constant talking. "It's south of us, right there."
Guidance and I both nodded as we followed where she was pointing. The distance was kind of daunting, but it was nothing we couldn't do, especially after all of the climbing we just did.
"Good work, Shizu," I sincerely praised. "That was way more than what I expected you to give us."
"Yeah," Guidance chuckled. "You really went overboard with all the detail."
"T-Thanks~" Shizu turned to us with her trademark smile, her blushing cheeks contrasting against her eyes' current state. "I just want to save our friends, is all."
"And we'll do just that," I nodded. "Now let's go and position ourselves above our opening. We'll just have to talk strategy while we walk."
With the three of us sharing a nod, we all began our long trek toward the other side of the crater. All the while, the commotion above ground continued to shake the walls and the floors, the intensity of the fighting above making things worse for the destroyed facility's already rickety foundation.
"So, once we're above ground, we're gonna have to hit fast and hard," I began as we all started scaling sideways through the crater's edge. "We won't have enough time to try and prep our hits, and we'll have to come to our friend's rescue before they get completely overwhelmed."
"On that, I agree. However, we might still be able to leverage some stealth in our approach," Guidance suggested beside me. "If we can get the jump on them, we might be able to thin them out before they even knew what hit them." She then turned to Shizu. "Shizu, are there any new developments up there?"
Shizu took a small breath as she looked up, doing her best to see through the pillar of light erupting from below us. "They're... They're still holding. Maruki's [Manifest] is holding strong, and it looks like Shen is able to keep them healed up while Shade tries to fight back."
"That probably means they can hold for a considerable amount of time," Guidance pondered even as we were all starting to scale up the crater again. "We can try and thin out the herd from behind them, making sure that they wouldn't get completely overwhelmed while we do our thing."
"That's something to consider," I nodded. "So we go up, hit fast, thin the herd... What else?"
"We fight," Shizu quickly chimed in with a cheer in her tone. "We're going to be right on the opposite side from the rest, which means we'll fight our way around the crater again."
"All while supposedly keeping operational stealth too," I chuckled despite the exertion I was currently doing. "Are you sure we can still do that part of the plan, Guidance?"
The dev grumbled through her obvious exhaustion. "N-No... But I still hope we can at least try..."
"True..."I couldn't help but chuckle at my girlfriend's words.
Soon enough, we finally reached our destination. With our target now sitting right above us, the only thing we had to do was quickly scale our way up and go along from there. The sounds of fighting were faint now, but it didn't mean that it wasn't happening still.
"Right... We'll catch our breath for a bit then we start blasting," I called out, my pistols already in my hands as my companions nodded. "We be going left as soon as we clear out the first batch, then we'll work our way towards our friends."
"I'll be taking point, right?" Shizu excitedly asked, her fists already balled up in anticipation.
"That's gonna be the plan," I shook my head in mirth. "I'll keep you covered from behind, while Guidance makes sure that we're both not going to keel over all of a sudden."
"As if you both even need me to heal you two," Guidance scoffed. "You're both good enough fighters not to get hit."
"Which would allow you to also start attacking?" I asked.
"Damn right," she chuckled.
As the fights happening in the distance echoed from across the crater, the three of us all shared a determined nod before we positioned ourselves by the edge of the crater. With one jump, we'll be back above ground, and from there, we'll have to start fighting for our lives again.
Then again, what else was new?
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