Chapter 7

"So where are we right now? According to the surface?"

Atlas checks his map, "I think we are under a mall."

"Really?! Jeez how far did we walk?!" Ilia asks,

"An old mall Ilia, in the same town, on the border of it anyway."

"Still, I didn't know malls were still standing in this town."

"Makes two of us." Atlas says,

****

She takes a big silent breath, no response from the Syndicate. Shes on her own.

She will not let them take or kill Ashe and if they find her, they will do one or the other.

But what does she do? If she tries to raoe them down, she'll likely be killed, if she charges past, killed...or captured.

She's got to bolt past them, catch them off guard, it's her only chance. She steps quietly around the corner and runs at them, as they turn around, the one in the suit pulls his sword and begins swinging, but she jumps up, grabs his shoulder and pushes off, flipping over him. She rolls up to her feet and faces them with arms raised.

She didn't think she'd be able to make that. Regardless she holds her battle stance.

"Sorry guys...that power crystal is mine." she says, praying that they don't know it's Ashe.

"What?! No way! It's ours! We got here first!" the blonde boy yells,

She backs up against the door and kicks it open with her robot leg.

Bang! boom!

The doors slam against the rock pillars within the room.

"You aren't careful you'll collapse the pillars and no one gets the power crystal."

The brunette steps forward fast, trying to throw her off, she jumps back, but is still steady, watching them all.

"You're good, talented, let's just, calm down okay? We can come to an understanding."

"No way Atlas!"

"It's ours!" the brunette shouts,

The blonde seems to smile at his comment, indeed it even threw off Atlas, she can tell by the widening of the white eyes on his suit. So they are connected to his eyes huh?

She sighs, "I didn't want it to come to this. Leave, it's mine." she spits,

She dives backward, throwing her hands out. They charge forward, but then they realize what she threw. The small round explosives, the size of a thumb nail detonate.

The walls and two pillars even collapse and disappear in the dust cloud.

She lands on her back with a grunt, but she throws her legs up towards her head, forcing her to roll to her feet.

She slams her robotic hand against the stone ground to stop herself from sliding. She waits for the dust to settle, she can hear their muffled voices on the other side. Good, she didn't kill anyone.

She lets out a sigh of relief. She looks at her robotic arm and hand, she follows the metal up to her shoulder. It goes up her foot to her mid thigh.

'What a monster I am.' she thinks to herself,

She shakes her head to snap out of it and looks around, she finds a door and bolts to it. It won't be long before they find a way through, that guy in the suit seems like the smart, quiet type.

She throws open the door and gasps almost immediately. She slams the doors shut and runs to a pillar, and places one of her explosives on it, only its destructive power is more reduced than the previous ones, to make sure it falls the right way.

BOOM!

She hurries to Ashe and stands in front of her to protect her from flying rubble.

BAM!

She feels a few pebbles fly against her back, but they were nothing. She takes a step back Ashe groans and shakes horribly.

The only reason she isn't on the ground is because the chains on her wrists hold her arms outward and keep her from falling.

She hurries over and pulls a pistol and shoots the chains, Ashe falls against her. She lowers Ashe to the ground, on her back.

She then pulls out three needles from her body that had been injecting Tardicone into her blood stream.

She pulls out a syringe and bottle from her bag, the syndicate was sure they'd be using this on her.

She loads the syringe and injects it into Ashe. Within a few seconds clover jolts upright and yells out.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hey-hey, look it's okay."

Ashe looks at her, breathing heavily, as if she doesn't know her. Then Ashe's jaw drops.

"Toni? Toni!"

Tears stream both of their cheeks as they embrace each other. Ashe shakes harder than Toni as they hug so tight.

"I thought you were dead." Toni mutters,

"Heh....I thought you were faster." Ashe jokes,

They both let out loud laughs as they sniffle. "It's so good to see you Toni." Ashe says,

She sounds like she's at such ease. They pull away and laugh again.

"Okay, we got to go, some others are after the 'Power Crystal'." Toni says,

"Tch! Power crystal?! I am a human being." she jokes,

Toni rolls her eyes, "Yeah yeah come on."

"Awwe Toni I'd love to go on a date with you."

Toni rod her eyes as she pulls clover to her feet, "You are impossible woman."

Ashe grins and hugs her again quickly.

"So feeling better already?"

Ashe nods, "I...feel amazing, like I can do anything."

Toni smirks, "Good, let's go."

They run to another door, Toni bursts through and looks down both ways of the T they just came to.

Toni's eyes widen. "oooOOH Frick!"

"Eat this!" the blonde boy tells,

"Ilia no!"

"Toni!"

Ashe tackles her friend to the ground. Already having reached for it and thrown it towards the ground, the blue explosive detonates and forms a blue shield. As the grenade hits it, it explodes and the three guys disappear behind the flames.

Toni looks up past Ashe, at the ceiling, she rolls and throws Ashe away, towards the shield in reaction as the rocks fall all over the place.

Toni tries to roll away but a rock falls and pins her hand to the ground. She yells out.

Ashe groans and pushes herself up to her hands and knees. She looks at the rock wall, somehow they've landed perfectly and not crushed or pinned her. The shield beside her is bends backwards and the top and bottom, it had helped protect her.

The door she and Toni had gone through, the one that leads to the room where Toni found Ashe, there's a few rocks but it's pretty clear. It's also her only way out...hopefully those guys got out and she won't have to deal with them.

She hurries through the room and to the other door. She has a few scratches, but she's mostly untouched.

"Thank you, please let Toni be okay God." she whispers,

She throws the door open and peeks out, Atlas grabs her instantly and throws her down to the ground.

He pulls his pistol and aims it at her. She hits hard against the stone wall and groans.

"You know...I actually blame them. They were good men, but that was freaking stupid of him."

He sighs and lowers his arm, she flinches and breathes out shakily.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you. In their place."

"I'm sorry about them...we didn't want any of you to die...but we can't let some bounty hunters have the crystal. Namely because we had been searching for this for a very long time. We got here first, you just got in the way."

Atlas narrows his eyes, "How does that make sense?"

"You look more intimidating than you might think." Ashe mutters,

Atlas sighs and holsters his pistol. "I liked them. Where's the crystal?"

"Taken."

"So what now then?"

Bam.

Ashe frowns and looks at the ground under her hand, why did it get so cold?

Chills run down her body, she follows the water trail not far away and searches the ceiling, Atlas follows her gaze.

Bam-crack! Tsss-splat-splat-splat!

"U-uhhhh."

"Get up, get up!" Atlas says,

She jumps up as the ceiling breaks, water hits the ground and as they turn to run, the water knocks them down and sweeps them away.