Lyn watched as the reinforced steel doors of the top floor opened, revealing the other teams in a room surrounded by screen displays and terminals. No matter what city the retrieval teams were affiliated with, they were all on alert, judging by the many fearful gazes that found their way to Visette.

“She’s a fucking monster,” Someone muttered loud enough for all to hear.

Lyn guessed that everyone had somehow witnessed what happened. If that was the case, it was likely they would all want Vis dead.

Even the Abnormals from Freedom City didn’t appear to be sympathetic. Or at least, their fear of the unknown was stronger than any sense of empathy. They established a city for the sole sake of freeing themselves from the control of others, but at the moment, Visette’s existence went beyond their understanding.

“You all arrived safely… good, good… Ah, does she need medical attention?” Lucas, the man who spoke to Lyn’s team from the intercom, spoke up.

“...Yes, I think so,” Lyn replied but quickly looked around. She was completely surrounded.

“Head right over there.” Lucas gestured to a small set of glass rooms.

Lyn’s eyes narrowed cautiously, immediately realizing it was a trap. But what could she do? She couldn’t face everyone and her own team wouldn’t be willing to protect Visette. It would only take a few seconds for both Lyn and Visette to be executed by a hail of bullets if she tried to flee. The only chance she had was to fight her own team and maybe hide in one of the lower floors, but that was only a short term solution. When the Hoverwing's inevitably came for extraction, it was doubtful that everyone else would simply let her leave with Visette, even if it meant starting a conflict with New Mayhall.

So, Lyn went into one of the small medical rooms. And as expected, the moment she stepped in the sturdy glass door closed behind her with a loud clicking noise, indicating she was locked in. The rest of her team was surprised, but they remained quiet, giving their silent approval of the situation.

“Forgive us, but we cannot ensure our own safety with that girl being let loose,” Lucas said with a slightly apologetic expression.

“Fuck you,” Lyn cursed. She didn’t even spare him a glance and she laid Visette on the bed inside.

She then drew her gun and aimed at Lucas who had no change of expression. Even as she pulled the hammer back to fire, he only shook his head.

“I wouldn’t recommend that you-”

The sound of a gunshot cut him off as Lyn fired, but the bullet hit the glass before falling to the ground.

“The glass was designed to account for the strength of type-four Abnormals with enhancements to their physical strength. You won’t be shooting your way out any time soon-”

Before Lucas could finish, Lyn fired several more shots out of spite before unwillingly holstering her pistol. Even as her ears rang, she hadn't regretted a single shot.

“Fuck. You,” She growled before sitting at Visette’s bedside with her back turned to Lucas.

“What is she? Judging by the reaction of your companions, it appears that none of you were aware of whatever it was she did.” Lucas inquired as he and the other researchers turned to a large screen display in the room.

A crystal clear video of Visette unleashing her psionic power began to play on repeat.

“Astounding,” Lucas muttered before falling completely speechless.

“No, no, no- Whatever the fuck she did wasn’t astounding it was seriously fucked,” Fitzgerald rattled neurotically.

Clearly, the psionic exposure still had lasting effects on his mental state. It wasn’t just Fitz alone as the rest of New Mayhall’s team seemed to be on a constant edge, even more than everyone else.

“If we were to ask her to help deal with the Corrupted and ensure the safety of everyone here, would she cooperate?” Lucas suddenly asked. He turned an expectant gaze toward Lyn who said nothing.

“What? We should kill her here! It was pointless to even let that thing up here,” said the leader of the Roslin Team.

“Agreed.” The Copperhaven leader interjected. He continued, “Judging by their expressions, her own team doesn’t want her alive either.”

All eyes turned toward Freedom City for a final decision. Hawk, as their leader, began speaking.

“I don’t know about you all, but we’re here to get the researchers and extract. If hadn’t noticed, there is a massive horde as well as an entirely new variant outside. Our transport is on the way, so we’ll be loading up all the data we can and leaving. Do whatever you want, but we won't have a part of it.” Hawk crossed his arms and took a step back.

A period of brooding silence passed before Lyn’s voice was heard.

“She’ll cooperate.”

“Will she really? I need your word that she won't attack any of us.” Lucas was optimistic.

“Are you serious?” Roslin’s Team Leader huffed.

“You saw what she was capable of, correct? Open your eyes. What is standing outside this building is a Calamity Variant with extremely high intelligence and an unknown potential for evolution. Put aside your fears for a moment and look at the situation rationally.”

The remaining research staff all seemed to agree with Lucas. Solemn nods or low declarations were shared before they went back to packing up their equipment.

“Being rational means realizing that all the researchers here are our best choice to deal with the Corrupted not some freakish girl. I heard that you had some sort of weapon to deal with them in my team briefing, isn't that right?” The leader from Copperhaven wanted nothing to do with Visette and even wanted her dead.

“We’re developing a biochemical weapon, a virus of sorts, yes. It is a potential solution, but we haven’t even managed to get it off the ground. It could be years before we achieve results and even then it isn't guaranteed to work.”

“So you just need time?” The Copperhaven team leader pressed.

“And how much time do you think we have? Eden Hall was the most advanced city on this side of the continent and look at us. If our city fell this quickly, how will all of your own cities fare?” Lucas asked a gut-wrenching question.

Being forced to stare down the barrel of a gun wasn’t a pleasant feeling. As of now, it was a guarantee that many more cities would fall before a proper countermeasure arose.

[Attention, attention, This is the Moss-Four of Copperhaven…] A speaker began to crackle, shifting the focus of the room with it.

[ETA is ten minutes, but it’s not looking good down there. By Anton’s heart, there are thousands of them below us!]

Lucas scrambled to the radio before quickly replying, “We read you, Moss-Four. Copperhaven’s Team is already present and we’re ready to send the first group of researchers. We’ll be heading up to the landing pad now.”

[Copy that. Make it quick, those Corrupted are starting to move.]

As soon as the pilot finished speaking, the monitors began switching their display. ‘BREACH DETECTED’ appeared in big red letters right in the upper corner of the screen while video feed of the first floor was displayed. Hundreds of Corrupted were spilling over each other just to enter the building. They mindlessly tore, ripped, and trampled whoever got in their way, uncaring as to whether or not it was one of their own.

“Anton, protect us,” A female researcher whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“The first group needs to leave now!” Lucas shouted as he manned the control console. “I’ll set the lower floors to fire containment protocol and that should buy us more time. In the meantime, someone try to contact the Hoverwings from the other cities. Everyone else, be ready to move and keep the samples and data safe at all costs.”

“You heard him!” Copperhaven’s Team Leader raised his hand and signaled for his team to move.

“Hey! Let us out!” Lyn shouted, slamming her fist into the reinforced glass as she did.

“Just a moment.” Lucas waved Lyn away.

The room grew restless as people moved back and forth. Copperhaven had already headed toward the landing pad with a group of researchers, but that made everyone else anxious. Even Lucas could barely keep his composure when faced with the idea being devoured by the horde.

A breath of relief came in the form of the other Hoverwings making radio contact. The landing pad was enough for several aircraft to occupy at the same time, so all they had to do was get there.

One by one, the teams left until there was just New Mayhall’s team.

“Okay! We should be fine!” Lucas let out a nervous chuckle.

Even at that moment, the screen was flashing with multiple breach warnings, indicating that the frenzied climb of the Corrupted was still happening.

“Then let us out!” Lyn banged on the glass violently.

“Right, right.” Lucas nodded but was made to stop in his tracks after hearing the sound of a hammer being pulled back.

“What are you doing?” One of the remaining researchers asked in pure disbelief. It was an older man who couldn’t contain his shock.

Lucas slowly turned around and discovered that a few members of Copperhaven’s team, as well as Roslin, had their guns turned on him.

“That girl isn’t leaving.” One of them said, glancing at the passive team of New Mayhall.

It appeared that they all shared the same opinion on the matter.

“Morris? Arnold? Fitz? Lucy?!” Lyn called out to them.

Each one of her team members looked away with shame, but none of them raised a protest.

“You fucking traitors!” Lyn smashed her hand into the glass until her knuckles began bleeding. “Fuck you!”

While she continued cursing them, Lucas and the remaining researchers were forced out of the room at gunpoint as they were too valuable to kill. Lyn and Visette, on the other hand, still had their weapons so rather than waste time trying to fight with Lyn, it was easier to leave them for dead.

“Fuck!” Lyn gave up on attempting to break down the door and fell onto the ground.

…

“Just so you don’t get any ideas, go ahead and seal this floor.” A Copperhaven soldier ordered as he poked Lucas with his gun.

“I-I understand.” Lucas sighed but didn’t try to reason with them. The clock was against him in the current situation.

With some reluctance, he swiped his keycard at a small panel before it clicked open. After entering a code, half of the hallway was sealed. Unless he came back to override it, the control room, main lift, and central staircase were all sealed off by a wall of steel.

“Good.” The soldier grinned before guiding them toward the landing pad stairs.

…

Back inside the empty control room, Lyn could only watch as the monitors displayed new footage of the approaching horde with each floor they passed.

“Fuck!” Lyn kicked the glass, hoping that it would miraculously open.

She was so focused on escaping that she didn’t notice Visette’s eyes were open.