The Mender had already sent the collected data, including the program they’d been tasked with making and the schematics that had been scanned. Lance looked back to the closet. With heavy feet, he trudged over and opened the door, quickly backpedaling as he let the gas air out. The bodies of the two Gremlins slumped out, while Zimthose remained against the wall, unconscious but seemingly uninjured. Lance stepped back and turned to the mecha-knight the Gremlins had been fumbling with. He lifted the mechanical head up and peered into the eye sockets of the machine. Inside, he could see the dark gleam of a camera lens.

With a quick roar, he leaned back and smashed the heel of his foot into the face of the mecha-knights. It dented and cracked under the force, and Lance repeated the attack a few more times.

“Damnit! The timing couldn’t have been worse! Grah”

The mecha-knight’s head was in pieces now. Lance kicked the body over and stomped back over to the closet. It had mostly aired out, and he took a breath as he stepped over the Gremlins, grabbing Zimthose and hauling him out into the open. He propped Zimthose up in the chair at the desk and slapped his helmet a few times. “Oh, that’s just great.” 

Zimthose wasn’t stirring. Lance tried smacking him a bit harder, and shaking his shoulders, but there was no response from the Striker.

“Grrr…Grrrough…”

There was a noise like a creature waking up from a nap coming from inside Zimthose’s inner coat pocket. Bigsby was stirring a bunch, and let out a few startled chirps.

“Sorry lil’ buddy,” Lance said, pulling the hem of Zimthose’s coat up enough for the dust bunny to climb out of the pocket. It reached the ground and looked about the room. “You have a nice nap? I’m sure it was getting warm in there, huh?” The dust bunny turned to look at Lance, but made no other noises. The Tech knight kneeled down and lowered his voice. “Look, I’m sorry we haven’t gotten along, but I need you to listen to me, okay? We don’t wanna get caught now.”

Again, the dust bunny did not make a sound. Lance shook his head.

“Look, you’re cute. But that’s not gonna get us out of here. And we need to go, we’ve got what we came for,” he said, patting his pocket.

No response.

“What am I doing, talking to a dust bunny? A wild animal isn’t gonna understand anything I say!”

“Grrrough?” The dust bunny hopped over and snuggled up against Lance’s side.

“Oh, don’t respond to me now, damnit!” he grumbled. The dust bunny didn’t let up, and as he pet Bigsby, he couldn’t help but relax at the touch of the fluffy critter. 

“Mmm… it’s too early for this…” Zimthose mumbled.

“Zim! Wake up already!” Lance spun and began smacking Zimthose again. “We got what we came for, we need to get going now!” Zimthose just shoved Lance off of him, readjusting for a more comfortable position and trying to sleep again. “Oh no you don’t!”

Lance grabbed Zimthose by the shoulders and threw him forward. 

“Woah!” The Striker shouted as he rolled over himself and lay sprawled out on the floor for a moment. He jumped to his feet, whirling on Lance. “You! What? Huh? Where am I? Did I miss dinner?”

“Zim! Focus!” Lance said, waving the new schematic papers in Zimthose’s face. “We did it. We got what we needed. Now we need to get going, ASAP.” 

Rubbing his eyes, Zimthose nodded and unsteadily got to his feet. He looked around the room, and began softly patting his coat. Then he began searching more frantically. “Where’s Bigsby?”

“Relax,” Lance said, gesturing behind himself. “He’s right there.”

“Lance… if you’re trying to be funny right now…”

Lance gave him a confused look, then realized what Zimthose meant. Bigsby was nowhere to be found.

“What? He was just here a moment ago. That wild animal!” Lance muttered, at a loss.

“Come on, we’ve gotta find him!” Zimthose said, looking around the room again.

“No,” Lance said, shaking his head, reaching into his pocket. “I’m sorry Zim, but there’s no chance of that. We got what we–” Suddenly, he began panic searching just as Zimthose had been. “It’s not here. Where…Huh?” He kneeled, looking around for the Gremlin’s data drive that he had pocketed. There was no sign of it. “How? I had it in my pocket right–no… he didn’t…”

“What is it?”

“I think… Bigsby ran off with the data drive?”

“He what?” Zimthose asked, shock on his face. “That’s the first time he’s misbehaved!”

“Congrats then. He’s in his rebellious stage now,” Lance said, rolling his eyes. He trudged over to the still unconscious Gremlins and gently ushered them into the closet. He closed the door and moved the busted mecha-knight from the corner to sit in front of the closet. Their tracks covered for the most part, he turned to the Striker. “So,” he said with a sigh. “You wanted to find him? Fine. Lead the way,” he said, gesturing towards the double doors.

Zimthose nodded and, stumbling a bit, headed for the exit.

* * *

The whir of machinery and electronics being turned on could be heard coming from the facility. Balldrick and I had been waiting near motionless for a while now, so we knew it couldn’t have been a result of us.

“Lance, Zimthose. Give me an update; the facility is abuzz with life again. It sounds like they’re planning on another firing test. What’s your status?”

There was a moment of silence before Zimthose replied.

“So… we got the physical data. But we’re hunting for the digital data now.”

“They weren’t together?” I asked. “Did they anticipate us and separate them beforehand?”

“No, no, nothing that sensical,” Lance interrupted. “Bigsby ran off with the data drive. We’ve tracked him to the basement of the facility. There’s a bunch more beasts trapped in here too.”

“Even more, huh?” I glanced at Balldrick, who just shrugged. “Look, if you guys want, we can go with plan B. As soon as you’ve got the data drive, give us a signal and we’ll initiate the distraction out here. You two will have a few moments to let the beasts out, and then you’ll make a break for it immediately after.”

Another moment of silence.

“Thanks… Squad Lead,” Zimthose said. “We’ll get it done.”

“We’ll find another way out as well,” Lance said. “I can’t imagine we’ll be making it up to the roof so easily once we get started. Not to mention that Seerus has sent a sergeant here to oversee the work going on. Fill you in later, and be careful for any patrols.”

“Roger that. We’ll be waiting on two signals, like you asked, Zim. You’ve got one chance, so make it count.”

Balldrick stood up as I finished giving out orders. He checked our surroundings, and motioned to me that the coast was clear. We began moving towards the facility, avoiding the searchlights as we reached the same spot that Zimthose and Lance had used to climb up. 

“How do you suppose we get this thing down?” I asked, pulling on the dangling rope that had been left behind. Balldrick looked up, his head crooked. 

“Well, if you can’t pull it down,” he said, taking the rope from me, “then it’s gotta go up.” He reached his hand high and gave the rope a hard whip, twice in succession. The zigzag motion of the rope was visible as it made its way up, just out of sight in the dark. A few moments later, something jagged could be seen slowly fading into view. I backed up a few paces as Zimthose’s Striker sword landed a few feet away, point buried in the ground. Balldrick walked over and untied the rope from it, stuffing the equipment on either side of his belt. “Simple enough.”

“Right…”

Next, we began moving towards the west side of the facility until we found our target: the ventilation ports. 

“Oh yeah, they’ll fit alright,” I said with a nod. I took out two Blast Bombs from my back pouch and tossed one to Balldrick. “Your throwing arm as good as your shooting one?”

“It’s only a few dozen feet high. No problem.”

“Heh, sure,” I replied with a grin. Now, all we had to do was wait for the signal, whatever it may be."