Each second in the elevator seemed to drag on for eternity and each pause of time made Maitho feel as though he could count several beats of his heart. He realized that time wasn’t moving slower. It was just that his blood-pumping organ was beating faster. He reached into one of the bags strapped to Quinn’s seat, which was the one he had packed. It didn’t take him long to find out what he was looking for, knowing exactly where to find the item.

“Load a shotgun,” said Maitho, his words almost coming out in gasps. “We can’t take chances that we won’t mortally wound someone.”

“Na time,” said Epona. “A will aim ma shots carefully. Besides, Guardians can heal faster.”

Maitho didn’t have the time to argue. He just had to hope that Epona was right. He pulled out two smoke grenades, placing one just below the zipper of the bag so he could reach it easily should the need arise.

“If the doors open, shoot your beams,” said Maitho.

“They won’t know what hit them,” said Quinn. “I don’t think they know I am here.”

Maitho tried to force some optimism in his thoughts. “Let’s hope so.” So much for that exercise.

After using the elevator a few times in the past, he guessed that they should be arriving at the basement parking level soon. He wasn’t wrong. The elevator began to slow down.

As soon as the doors opened, Quinn’s beams flashed open. Maitho had already closed his eyes. “Now turn it off,” he said. As soon as the beam blinked out, he pulled the pin of the smoke grenade and tossed it just beyond the elevator door frame. A white cloud began to quickly leak out of the grenade.

Maitho saw some of the draugr outside the elevator moving haphazardly, fighting the effects of the beam that had struck their eyes. They recovered quickly, screeching at the occupants in the cabin. If they had any plans to attack, they had lost their chance as their entire view was now blocked by thick white smoke that covered a wide area in front of the elevator.

A draugr collided into the doorframe, making Maitho jump back. It was obvious that the creature was aiming for the inside of the cabin, but the smoke had confused its sense of aim. It pulled back and faced them, rearing itself for another leap. An arrow through its forehead ended its intention.

The doors began to close, but another draugr ran towards one side of the elevator. It stopped in its tracks, perhaps realizing it was headed in the wrong direction, and course-corrected itself. It leaped, but the doors closed before it could complete its journey.

Maitho heard a thump from beyond the doors followed by a series of poundings. Then everything went silent. Even though he wanted to take that moment to relax, he knew that they had only faced the first hurdle. There was one more floor to go. He reached out for the second smoke grenade. His fingers pinched the pin, ready to pull it open. He knew that he still had his handgun that held just a few more bullets. There weren't enough shots to take down an army of draugr, but perhaps all he needed was a few careful hits to give them a chance to escape. He would take any opportunity that he got. He simply hoped that he didn't have to come across any Gaurdians. Even though he knew how to injure them, he didn't want to resort to such violence.

A ding sound announced their arrival on the next floor. Maitho turned his head away and closed his eyes. He heard the doors opening. Quinn’s beam switched on and even through the closed eyelids, he could see a certain degree of the brightness.

Then he heard a whistle, followed by a small explosion that sounded like glass shattering. The brightness disappeared like someone had switched off the lights.

Quinn gave out a cry of pain. Maitho opened his eyes and turned around to see that Quinn’s headlights had shattered. Something had managed to break through the glass exterior. It was a solid object the color of moss green. It had a conical structure with a pointed top and a flat base. The glass had stopped the object, but its upper half had managed to penetrate far into the headlight to crack the bulb.

“Whit the hell is that?” Epona exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise and concern.

Quinn began to heal himself, pushing out the conical object. There was no time to analyze what it was.

Pulling open the pin, Maitho tossed the second smoke grenade just beyond the elevator and into the main lobby of the building. Another cloud began to disperse into the wide room. He had barely managed to stand back up when something whizzed past his head. He ducked instinctively and heard a metallic twang behind him. Turning around, he spotted another of the pointed conical objects. It had managed to bounce off the back of the cabin wall, though it left no visible mark, and was now of the floor.

This time, Maitho had the opportunity to look at the object in detail for just a few seconds. Its shape was like large drill, except that its outer texture did not look smooth like a metal. It then occurred to him that the object was.

It was a thorn. A really large thorn.

Another moss green thorn bounced off of Quinn’s body. Then another. The thorns were relentless. Through sheer dumb luck, one of them cracked Quinn’s headlights again.

A draugr appeared outside the elevator. Maitho did not hesitate. He whipped out his handgun and fired one quick shot into the creature’s chest, stopping it in its tracks. Then he aimed at its head and put a bullet into its forehead.

The doors began to close. White cloud prevented Maitho from finding out who their adversary was. Then again, that meant that their opponent could not see them as well. When the elevator began to move up, Epona was the first to break the silence.

“Who or whit wis that?” said Epona, her frustration leaking out through her voice.

Maitho had an idea. He didn’t want to give out names without knowing for certain. He spotted one of the thorns near his feet and picked it up. The surface was not entirely solid, even though it was tough. It felt as though if he put enough pressure into pressing the thorn, he might just be able to create a dent.

“This looks like it could have come from a plant,” said Maitho. He looked up at Epona, worry now slowly spreading inside him like the discharge of a smoke grenade. “I have a feeling it’s Adahlia.”

The look on Epona’s face told Maitho that she was too stunned to say anything. The elevator, through another ding, announced that they had arrived at their destination; the first floor.

“Close your eyes, my dearies,” said Quinn. After a quick flash of his beam, Maitho and Epona checked around the doorframe into either direction of the hallway beyond.

“Looks clear,” said Maitho.

“Same,” came a similar announcement from Epona.

The trio exited into the hallway, turning to face the direction Epona had checked. They knew their destination. After all, they had discussed it earlier in the day in great detail.

Maitho and Epona nearly sprinted towards the room at the end of the hallway. They didn’t bother trying to hold the doors of the elevator. At this point, it would only delay them. If they had any goal, it was to exit the building as quickly as possible before anyone made their way to their floor. Reaching the end of the hallway, Epona opened the door to a room.

Earlier that day: A little past noon

“That's actually no such a bad idea,” said Epona.

Maitho nodded. “It’s the only part of the building they won’t be looking at. Or at least, that’s the hope.”

“What makes you so certain?” said Quinn.

“The last time we were in a similar spot a few floors higher, we got attacked,” said Maitho. “It’s not the best place to be, simply because the escape route isn’t that great. You end up in an alley that traps you between two buildings and forces you to choose heading back to the front or towards the back of the building, which I don’t know what’s there.”

“It leads tae a dead end” said Epona.

Maitho looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You know that your building is poorly designed, right? There are no proper escape routes.”

“It's meant tae be a strong defensive structure,” said Epona defensively.

“Well, it sure has not proven that lately. But that’s not our focus. It is precisely because it isn’t a proper escape route that they probably won’t believe that we would use it.”

Quinn chuckled. “I agree that it could do with some renovations.” His voice turned serious. “So you want to use the fire exit like when you fought with Raiden?”

Maitho shook his head. “Not exactly. We break through the windows of the room. More precisely, you're going to leap outside Quinn."

Present time: Inside the Celtic base

Epona entered the apartment with her crossbow raised. She aimed down the sights as she quickly made her way into the room.

Maitho was behind her, his gun held close to his chest but pointed down. He could hear Quinn behind him. The bike was small enough to squeeze through the front door and make its way into the narrow hallway that connected to the main section of the apartment.

When they entered the living room, Maitho was hit with a sense of nostalgia. Flashes of his encounter with Raiden zipped through his mind. He pushed them away as he forced his mind to focus on the present.

“The windows,” Maitho shouted. “Quinn, get ready.”

Quinn didn't hesitate. He was halfway to his destination.

They would have made it.

Something burst out of the floor a few feet away from Maitho. He instinctively covered his face and looked away. His recovery was quick and soon, his handgun was pointed at the potential new threat.

Maitho could only gape at what he was seeing.

A tentacle-like object had pierced through the floor, waving and wriggling around like it was an underwater creature. It was thick, easily able to match the dimensions of a small tree’s trunk. The tip of the tentacle reached the ceiling, brushing against it and chipping away at the paint. It was unlike any tentacle Maitho had seen. It's body was actually a series of tentacles all wrapped and twisting around each other to form one single organism.

Then Maitho realized what it was.

It wasn’t a tentacle. It was a large vine.

Maitho aimed and fired a bullet. The vine stopped moving. Then it bent backwards until its tip was touching the floor. Maitho knew what was coming next. He leaped out of the way a split second before the vine slammed into the floor where he was standing.

“Step aside please,” came Quinn’s voice.

The vehicle had created the blade of a bulldozer just below his headlights. He revved his back tires before shooting forward like a bullet. The blade struck the vine, sawing it clean off.

Whatever victory they had gained, it was short-lived. More vines broke out of the floor all around the room. It was like the floor itself was trying to reach out to them.

Quinn began to change into a small car, like the ones that were compact and ran on electricity. It was a two-seater with some trunk space. The top of the car was curved like a dome and it resembled a small beetle.

As soon as the transformation was complete, Maitho opened the passenger door and got in. Epona had entered the car into the driver's seat the same time as he did. Seatbelts slithered across their chests and strapped them for safety. One of the vines slammed on Quinn’s roof, after which it began to wrap around him. Another nearby vine did the same. Their aim was clear. They simply wanted to trap him to the floor. In response to the attack, more vines appeared all around Quinn, trying to hold him in place.

They never got a chance. Quinn’s solution was simple. He shrunk a few inches shorter. Maitho saw the roof move towards him. The minor transformation was effective, giving Quinn some space to move. He shot forward, aiming for the window. The vines were left to grab empty space.

Quinn broke through the window and into the world beyond. For a moment, it seemed as though they were hovering in the air before the vehicle began to descend towards the ground. It never got to land, at least not safely.

Several vines shot towards them. They struck Quinn’s side and sent him spinning through the air.

“Hang on,” said Quinn.

Maitho pressed his hand to the ceiling of the car. He could feel that they were descending, from the way his stomach seemed to move towards his throat. The world outside the windshield was moving too fast for him to see anything clearly. But from brief glimpses, he could see that they were soon going to reach the ground.

That was when Quinn crashed into the outer wall and the draugrs attacked.