Strictly speaking, the control room had no need of the huge windows which dominated one side of it, overlooking the vast array of instruments a full story below it. Rather, it was a show piece, something the people who worked there could point to when the grant makers and donators wanted to see where all their money went. Today, though, at this point in time, it provided a second purpose and shattered outwards into uncountable pieces, saving the lives of the group in the control room by allowing the fire and debris from the remaining consoles somewhere to vent when they domino exploded from the energy feedback of the last surge.

For a good few minutes, there was no movement. The room was scarcely recognisable from what it was before – debris, console parts, ceiling tiles and wires were scattered everywhere, a a horrid stench of burning filled the air. With bent glasses and one lens cracked, Brains' head emerged from under the heavy table a few of the occupants had managed to hide behind, scant moments before the explosion had over taken them.'T-Tin-Tin!' he called, the effort making him cough. 'Tin-Tin! A-are you safe?'

A pained groan answered him. 'I'm here, Brains. I'm trapped. I think – I think my leg is broken.' Brains quickly searched the room until he found her, one leg pinned under a heavy bank of computers that had fallen onto her leg. He knelt next to her. 'Did you m-manage to get through?' he quietly asked.

'I don't know.' Tin-Tin sucked in a breath. 'I lost my compact when the surge hit. How about you?'

'I, er...' Brains looked embarrassed and apologetic at the same time. 'I, I forgot to put my watch on this m – morning.'

Tin-Tin groaned, then hissed in pain. 'So we may be trapped here for a while.'

'I – I – I'm sorry. I've let you down.'

Tin-Tin patted Brains' hand. 'Don't worry. It's not like you could have predicted this. Though I swear I'm never coming here again, until the next time.' She offered a thin smile. 'We did want to see the Collider's insides.'

Brains was no Doctor – Medical Doctor, that was – but even he could see Tin-Tin was putting a brave face on things. 'We, we need to get you out from, from under there.'

Tin-Tin looked at the heavy piece of machinery on her. 'And ideas how?'

'We're en – engineers,' Brains answered. 'There's nothing we can't, can't do if we p – put our heads together.'

It was around half an hour later that they small group had managed to cobble an idea and working system together. A good twenty minutes of it had been taken up by stripping and gathering enough wire together to find a long enough cable for the rest of the plan. One end was lashed and secured around the console pinning Tin-Tin's leg down: the other had been managed to be looped around one of the couple of huge coolant pipes running through the room past the shattered windows and pulled back again, and again lashed around a bigger console. This one, leverage had been employed to raise it up to the window sill. Being heavier, as long as the cable held, it should drop enough to raise the one on the other end up at least enough to get Tin-Tin out from underneath.

'H-here.' Brains passed his friend a wooden pointer. 'Bite on this. I'm afraid this will, this will be painful.' His voice was full of apology. She smiled, thinly, back at him and took hold of his hand. 'I'm ready when you are, Brains.'

Brains looked across the room to the small group holding the counter weight ready. Taking a final, deep, settling breath, he nodded to them. After a three-count, they pushed the console out of the window. As they figured, the cable snapped taunt and pulled the console Tin-Tin was trapped under up and away.

Brains winced when he saw her leg, but quickly recovered and pulled her free in a swift, smooch movement. He didn't fully trust the improvised pulley system to hold up for too long, and wanted her to be free from underneath in case it failed.

Tin-Tin had passed out from the sudden pain. Swiftly but steadily, Brains splintered her leg as best he could whilst he had the chance. His best guess was that she had broken it, but fortunately not as a protruding fracture. That would have been really messy and nasty. Finally, though, there was nothing else he could do, so he settled for sitting on the ground and cradling her head on his lap.