Liz had absolutely no idea where she was, and judging by the surroundings, she wasn't sure she particularly wanted to find out. From what she could make out, she had somehow ended up in a basement-like area, to be specific, it was a poorly maintained basement area.
Shallow pools of water covered much of the floor, reflecting the faint light from the magical light orbs Liz had conjured around herself, while rusted pipes ran along the walls and ceiling. The concrete walls were stained with years of moisture, while loose pipes hung from the ceiling in various places.
Liz stared down at the water surrounding her shoes and felt her mood sour. She put considerable effort into her outfits, thank you very much, and having to wade through ankle-deep mystery water was really not the sort of thing she considered acceptable treatment for someone who looked this good.
"Ugh" she muttered, lifting one foot and watching dirty water drip from her boot before reluctantly setting it back down. She just hoped the water wouldn't get any deeper from this point onwards.
Liz sighed and took another look around as her light orbs drifted through the room, lighting up the surrounding darkness just enough for her to get a better idea of where she'd ended up. And, honestly, this place looked awful.
She had expected something considerably cleaner from a massive corporation, especially one as absurdly wealthy as Divinity Inc., but apparently none of their oney went to basic maintenance. Liz did her best to ignore the grime, the rust, and the water soaking her feet as she continued down the passage, although every step through the ankle-deep water made her increasingly miserable.
Liz wanted to fly, but the ceiling was far too low and the corridors too cramped for her wings, so she was unfortunately stuck trudging through the disgusting mess. All she wanted was to find a way out of this miserable place, preferably one that didn't involve getting any wetter.
Eventually, Liz felt herself tense as a disturbance reached her senses, someone was coming. She stopped walking, her expression souring as she slowly turned her head, trying to determine where the presence was coming from. It wasn't ahead or behind her. No, this mysterious presence was coming from above.
Liz took a step back and looked up toward the ceiling, eyes narrowing as she sensed something moving on the other side. Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
Not wanting to look stupid, Liz prepared by raising one hand as a sphere of dark energy began forming in her palm. Whatever was coming down, she was going to be ready for it. A moment later, a bright beam of light suddenly appeared above her, slicing through the ceiling as some kind of laser weapon traced a circle through the metal and concrete.
Liz's eyes narrowed further as the cut section began to separate. Had Divinity Inc. actually sent another one of its ridiculous robots to retrieve her?
The circular section of ceiling suddenly dropped, and Liz immediately raised her hand, dark energy swelling around her fingers as she prepared to blast whatever came through. She braced herself for the worst.
But instead of a robot, a familiar figure came tumbling through the hole. Chloe dropped down into the basement and landed with a splash, immediately recoiling as dirty water soaked around her feet. She looked down at the puddle with an expression of pure disgust before glancing around the basement, apparently coming to the exact same conclusion Liz had.
Then her eyes landed on Liz, and her entire expression brightened. She lifted one hand and gave Liz a cheerful wave. "Heya, Liz!"
Liz stared at her for a moment, the dark energy still hovering around her hand. "Chloe?"
"How've you been?" Chloe asked cheerfully, as though they hadn't just been separated inside a bizarre futuristic prison. Without waiting for an answer, Chloe casually reached up and tucked the laser sword into her cloak, where it vanished beneath the darkness as though the cloak had simply swallowed it. Liz watched the weapon disappear with a faintly raised eyebrow. She still wasn't entirely sure how Chloe's cloak worked, and at this point she couldn't really be bothered to ask.
"I've been better," Liz replied dryly, glancing down at the water around her shoes before looking back at Chloe. "How did you even get in here?"
"Oh, that was easy! I woke up in a cell, tried punching my way out, then I tried kicking it, and then I used my Eyes of Dominion, but that didn't work either. So I asked Cloaky if it had any ideas, and it gave me a laser sword! Then I cut through the floor, and then I went…"
Liz wasn't sure where Chloe got all of her yapping from, but geez, this girl can really talk. Liz tried her best to keep up, but eventually she just couldn't resist the urge to sigh really loudly before making her opinions known.
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"Okay, okay, I got it," Liz finally said, raising a hand. "So basically, you cut your way down here."
"Yep!"
"Cool, then let's just figure out how to get out."
Chloe nodded. "Yeah! We should be able to get out of here together."
Liz looked up toward the perfectly circular hole Chloe had made in the ceiling, then back at Chloe. The opening was certainly large enough for them, and considering they both had wings, the solution seemed obvious. "Maybe we could just fly up?"
Chloe looked up as well, then shook her head. "We could, but there's another cell directly above us."
"Another cell?"
"Yep. That's where I started. And then we'd just have to figure out how to get out of that one, and the one after that, and the one after, okay, you get the idea."
Liz stared at the hole for a moment, then slowly looked toward the laser sword she'd watched Chloe casually store inside her cloak. "Couldn't we just... use your sword to keep going up?"
Chloe's eyes widened. She looked at the ceiling, and then at Liz, and then at her cloak. A huge grin slowly spread across her face. "Ohhh, that's actually a really good idea."
Liz sighed. "Please don't sound so surprised."
Sometimes, Liz did wonder how Chloe made it this far in life. But if nothing else, the girl did always seem to have a positive attitude, and that was something.
Chloe flew upward first, slipping through the circular opening she'd carved into the ceiling with her wings beating steadily behind her, while Liz followed close behind, doing her best not to think too much about the fact that they were essentially climbing through a series of holes. One level became two, then three, and Chloe continued leading the way until they finally reached the top most containment cell. Chloe landed lightly inside, and Liz descended after her, immediately looking around the unfamiliar room. "So this is where you woke up?"
Liz stepped closer to the barrier and examined it. Dark energy gathered around her palm, swirling into a dense sphere before she thrust her hand forward and fired an energy blast.
The blast slammed into the barrier, causing the entire cell to tremble, but when the smoke and dark mist cleared, the wall remained completely intact. Liz's expression flattened. "Ugh, lame."
She tried another blast, this one stronger than the first, but the result was exactly the same. The barrier barely even flickered. Liz slowly lowered her hand and turned toward Chloe, who was already staring at the wall with a suspiciously confident grin. "Well?"
Chloe cracked her knuckles. "Leave it to me."
"Hey, Cloaky," Chloe said. "Laser sword, please."
Almost immediately, one of the familiar shadowy hands emerged from beneath the folds, reaching into the darkness before taking out one of Commander Sirius's glowing laser swords. The hand held it out toward Chloe, and the girl happily grabbed the weapon. "Thanks!"
Chloe flew toward the ceiling, raising the laser sword above her head as she approached. The glowing blade touched the metal and sliced through it, carving another circle into the ceiling. Once she'd completed the cut, Chloe deactivated the blade, grabbed the newly separated section with both hands, and shoved it upward. The chunk of metal groaned before dropping away, leaving another opening above them. Chloe immediately flew through it, with Liz following close behind, and the two of them continued their improvised escape route through the facility. Chloe repeated the process again and again, cutting through each ceiling they encountered, pushing the severed sections aside, and flying upward before Liz followed after her.
Eventually, when they got to this new room, Chloe swung the laser sword across the ceiling once more and frowned when the blade barely made a mark. She tried again, pressing harder this time, but the sword only scraped across the reinforced material, throwing off a few sparks without actually cutting through. Chloe hovered there for a moment, staring at the stubborn ceiling before giving it another half-hearted attempt.
But when that didn't work, she finally lowered the sword and looked back toward Liz. "I can't go any higher."
Liz looked around the cell they'd reached, her eyes slowly scanning the reinforced walls, the glowing barrier, and the complete lack of anything resembling a door. Her expression became increasingly unimpressed as she took in their situation. "Great."
Chloe glanced around as well, though she didn't see anything particularly useful either. Liz eventually sighed and turned toward her. "Back away. I'm going to try something."
Chloe did as she was told, flying backward until she had a comfortable amount of space between herself and Liz. She hovered a little above the floor, her wings keeping her suspended as she tilted her head. "What are you planning on doing?"
Liz ignored Chloe, then spread her wings and flew upward until she was hovering just beneath the circular cut Chloe had made in the ceiling. Dark, shadowy tendrils slowly emerged from her body, slipping out from beneath her sleeves, the edges of her clothing, and even between the feathers of her wings. They curled upward toward the cut Chloe had made before slipping into the narrow gap, squeezing through the opening.
"Does having all those tentacles crawling around make you ticklish?" Chloe asked.
Liz didn't even look down. "I need to focus, Chloe."
"Oh, sorry."
More tendrils continued to emerge, steadily increasing in number as they pushed deeper into the cut. They slipped through the narrow opening and spread beyond it, winding around the unseen structure above before disappearing farther and farther into the ceiling. Progress was slow for a while, until Liz finally drew in a breath and then suddenly began retracting all her tendrils.
Every tendril vanished back into Liz's clothes and wings, but as they disappeared, they dragged something enormous along with them. The ceiling groaned as a huge section of the reinforced structure was ripped apart and pulled downward, chunks of debris tumbling away as the tendrils dragged the entire mass toward the opening. With one final crash, a massive portion of the ceiling broke free, revealing a really, really big hole.
Liz hovered there for a moment, surveying the newly created opening with a tired expression before turning toward Chloe. "Come on."
Chloe stared at the gigantic hole. Then she looked at Liz. "Uh… yeah, sure"