eX-0704 dashed through the streets, panicked. Where should I ditch my GPS tracker?

His first thoughts flitted back to the train from earlier. If there were any trains around, that would have been an excellent place to leave it.

Thinking of public transport, he saw one of the low-riding, ground buses roll up to a stop. The hovercraft cars zoomed by in the designated lanes overhead, but that did not stop him. eX-0704 dashed forward, weaving side to side, above and below the cars in all directions.

Some slammed on the breaks and blasted their horns out of shock, but eX-0704 darted fast enough to avoid the oncoming cars. At the bus stop, he climbed the steps and froze at all the eyes that landed on him.

"H-Hello, security," the bus driver stammered. The small eyes of the plump man flitted up to eX-0704, resting on his chest with the logo of Grandesia Power Company. From there, he looked up to his black visor so that his terrified face must reflect back on him. "H-H-How can I help you?"

"Just drive. I'm getting off at the next stop."

Heavy on the petal, the driver maneuvered the bus into traffic with a lurch.

eX-0704 moved forward with one hand up to the hangars overhead. Woozy, he felt as though he might tip over in the moving vehicle.

What a headache, he thought, but eX-0704 did not have the time nor energy to think. After throwing the company off with his GPS signal, he needed to find a way to the overworld. Then, after that, he needed to find the air return vent on the outside.

Already, he realized that he forgot the coordinates again. At least I remembered that there were coordinates this time.

The nearest woman got up quickly and gestured down to her seat. "Would you like to sit, sir?"

"No," he said coldly. "Wait, actually ma'am, would you have some paper I could borrow?"

The lady rummaged around in her purse and produced an old receipt and a pen. "Here you are, sir."

eX-0704 morphed into human form in public. As useful as his claws were, the precision of human fingers enabled him to copy the numbers down more easily. After that, he lifted the helmet from his head.

"Would anyone like an authentic sub-dragon helmet?" Originally, he had planned to simply leave it on the floor, but there were enough rough-looking people here that somebody would probably pawn it off anyway.

eX-0704 might as well deliver it directly to their hands. "It's autographed!" Since the pen could not phase the metal of his helmet, he switched form and used one claw to etch his name.

The numbers 704 were chipped unevenly into the black paint. Here, he must say goodbye to his helmet and all its fancy features for a time.

Some people clambered for it, many dirty hands grasping in front of him.

"Take it easy," eX-0704 snapped. He gave it to the toughest-looking man who could probably hold onto it, lest he gave it to one of the half-starved teenagers who would get mugged by him later.

The bus was arriving to its next stop, but then he realized the pen was still in his claws. "Oops. I'm sorry, ma'am. Here you go."

"Oh!" she said, a tone of mighty surprise. "Thank you, sir."

eX-0704 ran off the bus with intent to find the Disco Menace. Alas, he had nothing but his own concussed sense of direction to guide him. "Um, excuse me, can anyone point me towards the elevator terminal?"

A frail teenage girl gave him a quizzical look. "You can see it right over there." Her limp ponytail flopped to one side as she leaned closer to him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine." He was not fine at all, but he had no other choice but to press on. eX-0704 took off towards the massive elevator terminal, wings pushing him as fast as he would go.

The closer he got to the terminal, the higher probability that he could run into the Disco Menace. He kept his eyes to the sky, on the lookout for the slight reflection of discotech colors or the movement of security drones. From the corner of his eyes, he saw just such a thing.

A small swarm of drones beelined towards the last tall building at the edge of the plaza before the elevator terminal.

eX-0704 leaped to action by leaping onto the building. His claws bit into the bricks as he climbed at a hectic pace. From side to side, his whole body swished from the effort.

Each breath left him in gasping huffs as he hauled himself to the top—another small tower scaled. His vision was almost fading out, but he staggered forward to see the Disco Menace.

Her feet spread wide in a defensive stance while her heels were pressed near the edge of the rooftop. The four drones had her surrounded. Needlessly bright spotlights flashed in her face, making the discotech mask dazzle in a brilliant display of color.

"Surrender now, or force will be employed!" a mechanical voice spewed out.

The boy was on his own two feet in front of her.

An arm lifted up to shield her eyes while she had thrust her other hand in her pocket. The Disco Menace fumbled around for something—a way out of this—but she would not need to save herself this time.

eX-0704 exploded forward, and passing beneath the first two drones, he hopped up to grab one. With the machine in his claws, he spiked it as hard as he could against one of the other two drones in front of him.

Both pieces of equipment crashed against each other. The mana that fueled the hovercraft technology detonated, making both drones plummet like flaming balls to the ground.

At the same time, the other drones unleashed their barrage of artillery.

eX-0704 had already reached the Disco Menace. With the kid scooped in one arm and her in the other, he shielded them both with his heavily armored body. Some bullets bit as his back and would leave some bruises, but otherwise, they were all unharmed as he carried them over the edge of the building.

"Ah!" The Disco Menace yelped out of fright as did the kid. On both sides, high-pitched squeals rang in his ears.

From behind, gunfire riddled some holes in his wings, much to his pain. The building came between the line of fire and luckily spared his wings any further damage.

Head tipped down, eX-0704 performed a nosedive to keep them shielded for as long as possible.

The ground sped towards them at dizzying speeds. He made sure to snap out his wings sooner, as the new holes in them made some air whistle by—a less effective parachute. It served its purpose nevertheless, as eX-0704 eased them into a landing.

Stunned for a second, the Disco Menace seemed to regard him with respect and gave a quick nod. "We need to shake those drones." Grabbing his wrist, careful to avoid the claws, she ran off with him.

"How's your mana?" eX-0704 asked. "Do you think you could pull a distraction down the street? I can strike them down."

A long pause ensued. Impossible for him to read the discotech mask, it was no less obvious that she did not trust easy. "Stay here, Marcel," she said in a soothing tone.

The boy sat alongside the building with the blanket draped over his head. Marcel gave a silent nod, a quiet hate in the kid's eyes.

The Disco Menace ran into the street, jumping atop the hoods of some halting cars. "Yoohoo! Over here." She spun around, flung her long arms into the air with the rapier drawn, and started shaking her hips to the music in her head.

The horn of the automobile blared, and the man behind the wheel must have disengaged the self-driving feature. When the vehicle started to move, the Disco Menace simply leaped onto the roof.

She tapped her heels together in mid-leap. When she landed on the next vehicle, the autonomous breaks slammed into place. Her routine started over again as the drones made their descent.

Meanwhile, eX-0704 gave Marcel a clawed thumbs-up. He jumped onto the side of the building and climbed to such a height where he could lunge for the drones.

The robotic bases of the drones' guns spun around to take aim at the Disco Menace. Bullets started to clatter out of the rotating heads, their shells flinging outward in small, gold pieces.

She screamed and dove onto the road, using the vehicle to shield her. The line of traffic was riddled with bullets, shattering the windshields and the side windows. Where bullets did not strike people, they were forced to cower beneath a cascade of glass. Blood tainted the scene either way.

"What the fuck, Grandesia!" the Disco Menace hollered. "Since when did you open fire with civilians present?"

eX-0704 knew the grim answer to that: since the compensation for pain and suffering would cost less than the asset they would lose. It made him wonder, how much was that kid worth exactly?

To end the onslaught, he threw himself from the building and glided forth to snatch one drone out of the air. Spinning around with it, eX-0704 directed the bullets to the other drone. Those that hit merely pinged off its armored encasing.

As they neared the ground, eX-0704 slammed the drone into the pavement. The Disco Menace had done that to his head just before, but with the greater strength of a sub-dragon, the drone exploded into shards of metal.

The tank of mana reacted and blasted outward like a grenade. Pieces of the metal sliced through his armor and stuck between his scales. Luckily, the shards did not embed into flesh, but tainted with refined mana, it started to erode his scales down to his skin.

Worst of all, his hand underwent the mana burns in full force. eX-0704 howled as the scales burned away and dropped to the ground in black, curling pieces.

"Lizard, you idiot!" the Disco Menace screamed.

As the one without cover in the middle of the sidewalk, the last remaining drone took aim at him.

With a little mana recovered, the Disco Menace started in a [Charged Dash]. Her legs moved with a blur of blue sparks, carrying her from the road to a car roof onto the side of a building. Sideways, her boots pushed off and sent her flying through the air, rapier first.

The blade stabbed into the drone, but before the mana could ignite, her [Charged Dash] carried her to the safety of the ground. Electricity rippled out around her from where she touched down—grounded.

Her rapier had been left in the machine, and it twisted and snapped apart along with the rest of the metal.

"Well," she said, mask tilted up to the sky, "there goes my fun, little, zappy-pokey stick."

Without further lamentation, the Disco Menace pulled him to the nearest building. Ignoring every terrified scream, she caused even more as she yanked him into the nearest bathroom. Based on the isolated, high-pitches of these screams, the Disco Menace had naturally decided to pull eX-0704 into a women's restroom.

"It's okay," the Disco Menace said facetiously, "I'm a girl, and this is my pet lizard."

The girls hugged each other in the corner of the bathroom, too terrified to run past them to get out.

The faucet was kicked on, and the Disco Menace thrust his hand under the running water.

The cool stream started to soothe his burning hand. In contrast, the mana melted the sink drain as it was diluted and ultimately washed away.

Her long fingers wrapped around his wrist, holding his hand steady that would otherwise shake uncontrollably. The last of the acid was cleared of his blotchy, scorched scales. "Is the rest of you fine?"

eX-0704 could almost not believe his ears. The Disco Menace helped take care of his injury, and she even asked how he was holding up. Timid, he admitted, "Not really." An odd hiccup slipped between his words. "I'm still hurting from when you attacked me."

"Oh, shut it."

Why did she even bother to ask if she would just dismiss him? His frustration with her reinstated itself at once. "Also, I'm not your pet!"

"I'm sorry," she spat, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings too."

"No!" eX-0704 did not have his feelings hurt by the Disco Menace! After all this effort to leave the company, he simply did not want someone calling him a pet lizard. That was all.

"My brother's waiting outside." She slammed the faucet back off and assumedly expected him to follow as she left.

He took a half-step back. The family resemblance was definitely there, if he considered how both the Disco Menace and little Marcel had some insane capabilities as thunder mages. Quickly, he hurried after her and met her around the building.

"I'm back," she said softly to Marcel. The Disco Menace scooped him up in the blanket and caressed a gentle hand to the back of his head.

When her hand stilled, she turned her fierce gaze out to the elevator terminal. "We need to get out of here…."

Across the massive column, a majority of the lights flickered. The constant hum of electricity in the background suddenly changed. Dipping in pitch, the lights dimmed and then went black.

eX-0704 drew his eyes wide. An elevator terminal was only shut down if a dire emergency had happened in the pertaining sector. Glancing to the Disco Menace and Marcel, he supposed that Grandesia Power Company kept raising its ante on that kid.