About half an hour later, Carmen and Gray were ready. Though they hadn't been able to get Carmen's metal collar off, Graham had pried the control panel open. After a bit of work, he was able to shut off the electrical shocker and tracking device inside of it.

The plan was fairly straightforward. As Coach Brunt's battle strategy class had taught them, the simpler a plan was, the less likely it was to go wrong. Complicated plans with too many variables tended to turn out not in the way you wanted.

So, anyway, the plan: when the V.I.L.E. guards came back to take them for more torture or something, Carmen would pretend to be too injured stand up while Graham faked being asleep on the bed. At least one of the guards would step inside the cell to haul Carmen out, and Graham would jump him.

He would snatch the guard's crackle rod and use it to take out the other guards before they could raise the alarm. Then, the two of them would sneak out the headquarters, locate the exit, and find some sort of escape vehicle.

Hopefully they could pull all that off before anyone realized they were gone. Neither of them were in prime physical condition, so he hoped they could get out without a fight.

Graham laid down on the bed and pretended to close his eyes, though he was actually peering out from underneath his lashes. Carmen sat in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest. Soon, the guards arrived.

There were four of them. The first guard demanded that Carmen come to the door, but Carmen pretended to stumble and fall when she tried to stand.

The first guard scowled and held his hand out to the second one. Two handed One the keys, and One unlocked the door. He stepped inside the cell and, as he bent down to grab Carmen's arm, Graham leaped up from the bed and aimed a powerful kick at One's head. One went down, and Graham yanked the crackle rod out of his belt.

Three shouted and charged into the cell, and Graham brandished the rod at her. But what he had forgotten was that the rod was fingerprint activated, so it didn't power on.

Thinking quickly, Graham just hit Three on the head with the rod. It didn't need to channel electricity to knock someone out. After all, a metal pole is still a metal pole. Three collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll.

Carmen had already brushed past them and was dealing with Two, so Graham turned to Four. But Four was gone.

Graham quickly scanned the hallway and caught sight of Four turning a corner. He raced after the guard, and managed to tackle Four to the ground. He took the guard's crackle rod from him and used Four's fingerprint to unlock the weapon.

"Thanks, mate," he smirked before promptly zapping the guard with the crackle rod.

He walked back the the cell and saw Carmen brushing her hands off as Two sunk to the ground.

"You got him?" Carmen asked.

Graham nodded. "Operation: Octopus is a go."

"Octopus?" Carmen frowned.

"Yeah," Graham confirmed. "Have you heard any aquarium stories about octopuses? They always manage to escape their tanks."

Carmen shook her head, exasperated. "It's octopi, not octopuses. Anyway, it doesn't matter what this operation is called. If V.I.L.E. catches us, they wouldn't care if we told them our plan was named Operation: Bunny Rabbit. They would just kill us."

"Fair point," Graham conceded, "but we're still calling it Operation Octopus."

Carmen sighed and grabbed his hand. "Just come on."

They winded their way through various corridors and passageways, careful to stay out of sight. Once, they had to knock out a V.I.L.E. Academy student because she had seen them climbing into a vent, but otherwise, their escape was going pretty smoothly. They just had to find the exit, which was proving harder than they had first thought.

"This place is like a maze," Graham hissed to Carmen, who was crawling in front of him. "I'm pretty sure we've passed this same classroom twice now. "

"I think that's intentional," Carmen whispered back. "But don't worry, if we just keep going in one direction, we'll make it out at some point."

Graham nodded, shivering. He hoped they could get out of the vents soon. Frigid air was blowing through the ventilation system, and it was freezing in here. Why did V.I.L.E. have to keep their facilities so darn cold?

He remembered wondering the same thing when he first arrived at V.I.L.E. Academy. It felt like a lifetime ago now. Had it really only been a few years since then? Oh, how things had changed...

Keep your head in the game, Calloway, he chided himself. You can reminisce later when you're out of this place.

"I see something down below!" Carmen whispered, peering through a grate. "I think it's a window!"

"Is there anyone else around?" Graham asked.

"No. The coast is clear."

"Alright. Let's go down," Graham said.

Carmen shifted backwards and pulled up the grate.

"Ladies first," she said, before dropping into the room below.