Dorothy screeched to a halt, knocking the gear out of place to stall the car, clambering out of it, in a desperate attempt to get to the console where Beck stood. She ran to the console, pausing as she got to the back of it. She heard Roger yell Beck's name, and Beck turned away from looking at her to see what was going on, then heard Roger yell once more, and then she heard static.
No.
She moved to the front of the console, her steps heavy, her mind feeling in a trance-like state after seeing the words flashing across the screen: SIGNAL LOST.
No.
"Bring him back online, you buffoon!" she yelled at him. Beck stumbled at the sight of her yelling at him and began pressing a bunch of buttons while calling into his headset.
"Crow Boy! Crow Boy!"
But Dorothy pushed Beck out of the way, now pressing the comm video link on the console, trying to bring him up on the screen.
"Roger. Roger! Roger, come in! Roger… please…"
But Roger didn't respond. Dorothy stood there for a moment, her mind not processing what had happened. She came back. This wasn't supposed to happen. She came back, she came back…
Dorothy then let out a cry of frustration, the sound echoing in the hangar, the realization now hitting her, and the realization of the last words she spoke to him, hitting her even harder. She hit the console with her fist angry at herself. She was too late. The fight… everything was…
She blinked her tears away as they fell on the console, near her comm watch Roger had given her so long ago. Unlike everyone else's, Roger said she could summon Big O to help her, and that he would come to her aid as soon as he heard her distress signal. She gingerly put it on, ashamed she had taken it off in the first place, and raised it to her chin.
"Big O, you promised. You promised to come home. You promised to bring him home to me safe and sound. You promised…"
The tears began flowing freely from her eyes and she let her wrist fall. However, if she had held it a moment longer, she would have seen the signal on the watch flash blue.
**********************
Norman and Dastun removed themselves from cover, having seen the glow from the giant ball of energy and feeling the shock wave of its release upon impact from the direction of the sea.
"Michaelson! Do you read? Michaelson!" Dastun yelled into his radio.
Norman cursed at himself. He had tried to relay the message, but with the onslaught of robots, he had not been able to pass it on in time. At least now with the shock wave from the blast, the assault of robots had been blown into nearby buildings, destroying them in the process.
"Yes… sir!"
"Thank you… do you have a sighting on the black megadeus?"
"….Sir… no…."
Norman gripped his rifle tightly.
"Are you sure?" came Dastun's voice, wavering.
"….Positive…. No sighting confirmed."
Dastun leaned against the wall.
"It's over then…"
"NO. It's not, Chief."
Norman was gripping his rifle tightly, but went over to Dastun, grabbing his shoulder. "Our fight is not over. If we stop now, many people are going to get hurt. And Master Roger would not want that. He's alive, biding time. Have faith in him."
Dastun looked at him. He had lost Angel, and now, he had lost Roger. But his butler believed he was still alive. How did this man have so much faith, even after Michaelson had confirmed that Roger was dead? It didn't matter. Norman was right. They still had a fight ahead of them. Dastun stood up, gripping his rifle tightly.
"Michaelson, maintain your position with your units. Keep an eye for the megadeus."
"But sir…"
"That's an order! Everyone else, MOVE FORWARD! DO NOT STOP!"
*********
Angel and Lucy were trying to access the controls to shut down the containment cylinder, but nothing was working. Lucy spotted men heading in their direction on camera, the doors still open.
"We need to think of something and fast! We don't have much time!"
Angel turned around, looking at the cylinder's top. There was a bunch of wires and tubes.
"We need to sever the connection from the top! Look!"
"And how you propose we do that Miss Angel?"
Angel turned her rifle to the top of the containment container. Lucy realizing what she was about to do, ran after her as Angel fired multiple rounds at the top, diving on top of her.
The attack, while reckless, was a success. The console began flashing warning lights and the container itself powered down, the signal now lost. The bullets had done their job despite ricocheting around the room. Lucy had bladed her hands, covering Angel's head. They slowly both got to their feet.
"Don't. Do that. Again," said Lucy quietly.
Angel had emptied her magazine and ditched it. "I'm out. You have a spare?"
"I got two. Take one," and she tossed a spare magazine to Angel.
Their success was short lived however as the group of guards finally caught up to them, and they began to open fire. They found cover behind the wall.
"NOT AGAIN!" yelled Angel, "Don't they quit?"
"No, unfortunately not!"
Lucy looked around her, trying to find anything useful. Her eyes fell upon the base's self-destruction button. Angel saw her looking at it.
"How much time would we have?"
"Ten minutes and we're close enough to the entrance to make it out, if these idiots don't get in the way."
"DO IT!"
Lucy hit the button on the console. The base's lighting turned off for a moment and then the lights came back on dimmer than before. A loud alarm had sounded, and a countdown appeared on the console, 9:59 and counting down. The guards stopped shooting and fled, desperate to get out of the base.
"Well, it worked, but we have to go!"
Angel and Lucy took off out of the control room and down the hall. Angel now starting to feel the energy bars wear off, but maintained her pace with Lucy. Lucy darted down the hall, taking multiple turns until Angel finally collapsed. Lucy doubled back for her, grabbing her hand, pulling her to her feet.
"COME ON!" she yelled at Angel and Angel got to her feet.
They continued running for their lives, the base now in complete panic. Multiple people were running past them, not stopping them, and not caring why they were running. Angel noticed they were going in multiple directions.
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" she yelled.
"Yes! Trust me!"
Angel saw a screen showing less than five minutes left. Lucy stopped at door and kicked it open. They stepped out. They were in a spillway tunnel, with light at the end. Freedom was in sight.
They both ran for their lives, but Angel started falling behind again, feeling the tiredness come over her once more. She fell and then began to feel the base rumble. Lucy doubled back for her once more, picking her up this time, and ran as quickly as she could out of the tunnel. She moved off to the side, finding a ditch to hide in as the base imploded, collapsing on itself, fire and debris shooting out of the spillway tunnel.
Angel leaned back. She was in a lot of pain, but she was outside, and it felt amazing. She breathed hard, then Lucy pulled her to her feet.
"You can probably use that comm now and track down who you need to find. It seems like those bars are wearing off, but you'll have some time to rest on the way there," Lucy said. She saw a bunch of MP patrol vehicles lined up. "I'm gonna hotwire a car."
"Actually, they have spare keys. I know where to look for them," said Angel. They walked over to one, Lucy opening the door, and Angel rummaged around the floor, finding a spare key underneath the floor mat.
"Most of these are high ranking officer cars. Apparently, Dan had to write up bunch of supervisors for doing this." She handed the key to Lucy and went around to the passenger side, climbing in.
Lucy started the car as Angel looked at her communicator. Dastun was located by Roger's place.
"How far is the Smith Mansion from here?"
"I'm not doing the speed limit."
"Then let's go fast and catch up with them."
Lucy put the car in drive and drove quickly back to Paradigm City. She set a timer on her watch.
"We'll need to hurry. There's a fail safe on the mech that will cause the end of Paradigm now that the signal is destroyed," she told Angel. Angel glared ahead of her, watching the road.
What is it Dan always said to me? Adding fuel to the fire? I think that this is one these times. We need to hurry.