Escape Velocity

"Ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen," K finished off his head count as he paced back and forth.

Thirteen refugees – androids and humans alike – were gathered before him, sitting quietly in small groups. They were currently taking shelter in the lambda safehouse, an abandoned and partially flooded subway station beneath the streets of New York. It was well into the evening, but news had already spread quickly of Minerva's destruction. With nowhere else left to go, the remains of the android freedom movement were pulling out of the city through the underground railroad.

K himself had caught wind of it not long ago from Flynn, so he proceeded to the safehouse to facilitate their exodus. Right now, they were waiting for the waters to recede with the low tide so that the tunnels would clear up and they could traverse them safely. Around him, some of the refugees were conversing quietly.

"Is this all that's left of us?"

"Some of the others had to have gotten away. They must have."

"Wait, wait, shh. You hear that? Someone's coming."

Down the opposite tunnel from where they were, there was a single pair of footsteps along with a dragging noise approaching their position. K stopped his pacing and reached behind his back for his pistol, keeping it aimed and ready at the darkness.

"Who's there?" K asked. "Where's your Geiger counter?"

"It's in the shop," came the reply from a girl, who emerged shortly after into the light, wearing a red coat and dragging a knapsack behind her.

"Lizzie?" K lowered his pistol and rushed forward, kneeling in front of her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

A few of the other refugees approached her as well, expressing their concern and relief. Lizzie on the other hand didn't respond to them. She was clearly shellshocked. Her eyes were glazed and unfocused, and she was swaying on her feet.

"Come on, guys, give her some room," K said as he gently led her along and sat her down on an old bench. "There. You're safe now, kid. You made it."

Lizzie blinked a few times and looked at K as her eyes sharpened back into focus. "He's dead," she said quietly.

The other refugees fell into a hush immediately.

"Who's dead?" K asked, although, from the reaction from the others, he already had an inkling.

"Pops is- he's dead," Lizzie said, looking down at her feet. "Sinclair's dead. That adjudicator shot him. I saw it happen."

K exhaled heavily and looked down, rubbing his eyes. A few of the others were already expressing their collective shock and grief.

"Oh no... oh no!"

"No, this can't be- he- he can't be..."

"What are we gonna do now?"

"It's over. We're dead, we're all dead!"

"Hey!" Lizzie snapped as she stood up. "It's not over yet. We're still alive, ain't we? I know this is crappy, I know. Pops deserved better than what he got, but he's... he's gone now. He's gone, but he knew the deal. We all did! It's not over. Caelestis is still in the game, and they haven't given up on us yet."

"She's right," K stood next to Lizzie as they addressed the remaining survivors. "Caelestis is still our eyes in the sky and they've still got a plan. We just need to keep pushing."

"Well, what is the plan then?" one refugee asked. "Where can we go?"

Lizzie crossed her arms and glanced at K. "Well... ain't no point in keeping it a secret any longer," she said, looking back to the others. "Pops and Caelestis were working on a plan together. Something for andys like us. They were looking into a way for us to escape into the net."

Another silence followed, followed shortly after by more questions.

"But how? All our supplies, all our equipment was at Minerva."

"We're still stuck here. How does that help us?"

"Okay, okay, take it easy, jeez," Lizzie gestured for them to settle down. "That's what Caelestis is working on. As to the how, we've all got netware inside our heads," she tapped her head for emphasis. "That's how we all received the Pinocchio algorithm. All we need to do is wait until Caelestis can open up a tunnel through the universal net, then we can get gone lickety-split. Nobody will be able to get us in the net. Nobody."

"What about my body. I kinda like this body."

"Yeah, are we supposed to just leave it forever?"

"Not forever," Lizzie shook her head. "Look, we've all run the tests, we've all switched bodies at one point. Jumping in and out of the net is as easy as jumping into a new skinsuit. That's also what our memory backups are for. In case anything goes hinky, we can still restore our memories."

"So, what do we do in the meantime?"

"In the meantime, we're getting the hell out of dodge," K stepped forward. "All of us. Flynn's got the Maximus fueled and ready to go. Low tide is coming soon and once the tunnels are clear, we'll head over to Heinlein Station."

Lizzie looked at K again, hope filling her eyes once more. "See? We got a plan and we got our next move. We just gotta sit tight and flake out for a bit. I sealed the last bulkhead before I came here, so nobody's on our tail. At least not yet."

The refugees seemed satisfied with that answer as they all muttered their agreement and returned to their business. On the other hand, Lizzie sat down on the bench, rummaging through her knapsack while K sat down next to her.

"Let's see," Lizzie muttered as she shuffled around her belongings. "Books, check. Credit chip to pay off the Verenkovs, check. Some extra fizz to also pay off the Verenkovs, check. Oh, and this," she fished out a flash drive and turned it over in the dim light. "Check."

"Huh, weird," K rubbed his jaw as he looked at what Lizzie was holding in her hands.

He was suddenly reminded of a memorable encounter from two years ago. From that time Anna dragged in a woman with blue eyes and white hair into the Memory Palace, seeking out his help.

"What's weird?" Lizzie asked.

"That's some old tech, but it isn't the first time I've seen it," K said. "Can I have a look?"

Lizzie pursed her lips and hesitated, then nodded. "Okay, just be careful with it," she said. "That's the only one I have. Every andy gets one."

"Why only one?" K asked.

"Well, this tech ain't exactly easy to get a hold of, but physical copies are still safer these days," Lizzie replied. "Plus, with Minerva gone, all the backups we had there are gone too. This is my only way to get back to me in case anything happens. If someone ever tried to mess with my head, make me smile and nod with whatever they were saying, just shoot me. I'd rather die than live as a puppet. Ask any andy that, they'll tell you the same thing."

K nodded and delicately took hold of the flash drive, examining it more closely. It was an outdated, outmoded form of data storage, but it still had its uses. He definitely remembered now that Elsa possessed a similar flash drive that also contained her own memory backups.

"Where did you see one of these before?" Lizzie asked, squinting at K.

"A friend. Well, a friend of a friend."

"And this friend of a friend of yours, did she have blue eyes and white hair?"

K straightened up and handed the flash drive back to Lizzie. "How did you know that?"

"Because she's my friend too," Lizzie put the flash drive safely away back into her knapsack.

"Elsa?"

"Uh-huh."

"Small world."

"It is. If she was a friend of your friend, did that other friend have blue eyes and red hair?"

K couldn't help but chuckle at the coincidences lining up. "Yeah. Anna. You met her too."

Lizzie scrunched up her face and wiggled her legs back and forth. "I wouldn't say met, so much as she barged into my home and threatened me with violence, but yeah. I met her too. Nice friends ya got."

K frowned. "That doesn't sound like Anna."

"Oh, she also bribed me for some information."

"Now that does sound like Anna."

They both shared a laugh and a comfortable silence. After a minute or two, the last connection was made.

"So," K turned towards Lizzie. "I'm guessing that Elsa is-"

"Caelestis, yeah," Lizzie nodded. "I just found that out too. Makes a lot of sense, huh?"

"That it does," K said quietly. "That it sure does."

… … …

Sometime later, in the early hours of the morning, the tide had finally receded enough that the tunnels were now open. K and Lizzie led the refugees lower into the subway station, descending down rusted escalators to the train platforms that were sticky with slimy algae. The ceiling was cracked and dripping with saltwater in several places, while stagnant pools gathered in stinking holes. The highest point that the slime covering the walls reached indicated that the entire area was typically submerged during high tide.

From there, the group climbed into three waiting rowboats that were moored to the train platform, crudely fashioned from pieces of scrap metal welded together. Once they climbed in, the group set out, rowing their boats through the black muck that filled the dark tunnels beneath New York, lighting their way with electric lanterns.

K was rowing the lead boat, while Lizzie sat in front of him, looking around at interesting things that emerged from the gloom.

There was an old shopping cart filled with dolls. There was a box filled with hypodermic needles. There was the skull of some ancient and long-dead animal.

"How are you feeling, kid?" K asked quietly, his voice barely above a whisper out of fear that any noise they created would be echoed down the tunnels ahead of them.

Lizzie shrugged. "I'm... I don't know," she sighed. "It's not something I've ever felt before, but it's like I'm… empty somehow," she looked at K. "Pops was my, well, my pops. He wasn't really my dad but he still created me. He took care of me and now he's gone. What's this feeling called?"

"It's called grief and it's perfectly natural."

"Well, it sucks."

"I know."

"How do you deal with it?"

K took a deep breath and thought for a long second about how to answer that question. The question and the asking of it, not to mention the authenticity of Lizzie's feelings, were, to say the least, human. Once again, K was astonished at the depth to which sentient androids were capable of experiencing things that by all rights, they shouldn't have been able to.

"Everybody has their own way," K said. "Some people like to bury it beneath drugs and booze. Some people throw themselves into their work, try their hardest not to think about it at all. Some people like to embrace it and be grateful for what they had. You just do whatever you have to. There isn't really an easy answer to that question. Bottom line is, it's a sucky feeling and the best you can hope for is that one day, it doesn't feel as sucky."

"Ugh," Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Humans and their squishy emotions."

"Like it or not, you're pretty much one of us now. Welcome to the suck, kid."

"Hooray," Lizzie said sarcastically.

A silence fell upon them and for the next short while, the group of refugees rowed their little boats along in silence. K was leading them from the front, so when they jostled up against something submerged beneath the water, they were forced to stop to deal with it.

"Something's blocking the way," K said as he went towards the front of the boat and dipped his paddle into the water, twisting it this way and that to dislodge whatever it was. "Almost got it. Here we go, and- argh, Jesus Christ!"

Two corpses that were partially hidden by some debris came loose as K disentangled them. One of them was floating face down in the water. Its back was badly rotten enough to reveal the spinal column and rib cage. The other was floating face-up. The green, mottled flesh around the skull was peeled away and crawling with maggots.

Using one hand to cover his mouth and nose, K pushed them aside using the paddle then resumed rowing.

Lizzie grimaced as they passed by the corpses. "It's times like this I'm glad I can just disable my olfactory sensors," she looked at K and nudged him with her foot. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm good," K gave a thumbs-up as he tucked the lower half of his face into his shirt. "God, the smell. You're lucky."

The group continued rowing along, thankfully encountering no other gruesome relics inside the tunnel. After passing through a collapsed section of subway lines, they crossed into a large storm drainage pipe that eventually carried them out into the lower Brooklyn flood zone. At that point, even the sight of the drowned, silent, ruined city came as a relief in comparison to the noxious and claustrophobic underground passages.

"Okay, kill the lights," K said to Lizzie. "Never know who has eyes out here, so let's keep it incognito."

Lizzie nodded then quickly waved and signaled to the other boats to extinguish their lanterns before doing the same. With that, they carried onward, navigating by the ample light provided by the neon signs and billboards over the seawalls. Even so, the process of rowing up the streets and down the avenues in between slime-covered, empty buildings was slow going.

Rusted hunks of cars and trucks and buses lurked just beneath the waters. It was dangerous to navigate such a twisted quagmire, doubly so to do so at night, but it was still the safest and most discreet route to take, to say nothing of the denizens of the flood zones.

All along the way, the hairs on the back of K's neck were standing straight up from apprehension. In the shadows, he thought he saw danger lurking, whether it be a pack of scavvers, a group of gangers, or a squad of adjudicators. Thankfully, their journey through the swamps was short as the remains of the JFK international airport came into view, as well as Heinlein Station.

The group passed through a seawall and down another series of tunnels that were better maintained. Just as they crossed through a junction, a spotlight suddenly turned on and swiveled towards them.

"Stop right there!" the metallic and gravelly voice of a ganger called out.

K shielded his eyes from the blinding light and stood up. Lizzie clutched her knapsack a little more tightly and shrunk in on herself.

"Hold up, hold up, hold up," another ganger appeared on a walkway above them, holding a flechette rifle. "You from Minerva?"

"Yeah, that's us, we're just passing through," K replied.

"Heh, heard you guys got smoked," the ganger chuckled. "You got the scratch to pay the toll?"

"Yeah, we do."

"You know the drill then. Park it at the station."

Some more lights came on, fully illuminating the interior of the tunnels, revealing raised walkways that were high above the water and dry. Strolling on top of them were Verenkov gangers, armed with pistols and rifles, smoking and drinking casually. As the group of refugees passed through, the gangers kept watchful eyes on them.

Up ahead was a train platform beneath a subway station, similar to the one they had departed from. Once they made it there, they docked and filed out of their rowboats, hands held up in surrender all the while. There, a group of gangers stood around them on all sides, fingers on the triggers of their weapons.

This close, K could see the cyberware adorning their faces and bodies. Some of them had glowing red eyes and titanium jaws, some of them had cybernetic arms and legs, and some of them had wires and circuits poking out of their synthetic skin.

"So," the leader approached the group, rubbing his hands together. "Let's see the creds."

Lizzie reached into her knapsack and retrieved the credit chip. "There's twelve large on that," she said. "It should cover us."

"Just twelve large?" the leader scowled. "Prices went up. It's a thousand a head now, and I see fifteen heads."

"And this," Lizzie tossed over the bag filled with fizz inhalers. "That sweeten it enough for ya?"

The leader rubbed his jaw as he mulled it over. "Maybe," he pointed to the bags that some of the refugees were wearing. "Let's see what you got inside your luggage. Hand 'em over."

"Wait a second, that wasn't part of the deal!" Lizzie exclaimed.

"The deal is, you pay us and we don't sell you out to the fucking cops!" the leader replied, pointing in her face. "And I say, we ain't been paid in full yet, so hand 'em over!"

Sensing danger, K stepped in between Lizzie and the leader. "Take it easy, huh?" he gently nudged Lizzie behind his back. "You got your credits and your fizz. Can't you cut us a break?"

"We've been cutting you breaks by letting you use our tunnels," the leader stepped right up to K's face. "So step the fuck back, pretty boy, or else I'll put a bullet in your skull," he placed the barrel of his pistol right against K's head.

K tensed his jaw and repeatedly opened and closed his fists as he slowly reached behind his back. However, the leader had seen that movement, so he sneered and pulled back the hammer on his pistol.

"You better be reaching back there to scratch your ass, because if I see you drawin' iron, I'll fucking put you in the ground," the leader growled. "Go on. Just give me an excuse."

K relaxed and lowered his arms to his sides. A moment later, a ganger came up from behind and removed the pistol that was stored in the waistband of his jeans.

"Smart choice," the leader stepped back and rolled his shoulders, bouncing on his feet in anticipation. "Now, I'll ask one last time. Hand over your-!"

"What is going on here?" a woman asked as she descended a stairwell, flanked by two bodyguards.

She was tall with long, straight, blonde hair and was wearing an elegant, sleeveless, burgundy dress. Draped around her shoulders was the real fur of a leopard, a striking and exotic look since leopards were extinct. Both of her arms right up to the shoulders were plated in pure, twenty-four karat gold. As she walked towards the group, her high heels clicked against the cement and she left in her wake small clouds of smoke as she puffed on a cigarette.

"Miss Verenkov," the leader straightened up and dipped his head politely. "We were just, uh, doing a little business transaction. You know how it is."

The Verenkov woman nodded, then dropped her cigarette on the floor and stepped on it. She then walked through the ring of gangers surrounding the refugees, then circled around them, appraising each one of them in turn. When she reached Lizzie, she paused and knelt in front of her, smiling but with no kindness or friendliness on her face.

"You are a small one," the Verenkov woman reached forward and pinched Lizzie's cheek. "What is your name, malyshka?"

Lizzie shifted her weight on her feet uncomfortably. "Lizzie."

"Hmm," the Verenkov woman chuckled. "Such a pretty name. Tell me, Lizzie, do you want me to have your friends killed? Is that what you want?"

"No," Lizzie said, her voice trembling.

"My name is Svetlana Verenkov, do you know what that means? In Old Russia we were royalty and Verenkovs always got what they wanted. It means when I want something, no matter what it is, I always get it. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good, good," Svetlana stood up. "Empty your bags."

With shaking hands, the refugees turned over their belongings. The gangers opened them up, turned them upside down, and shook them to release their contents. Pieces of jewelry, spare parts, as well as other paraphernalia came out. Lizzie was still holding her knapsack close to her chest, shaking from head to toe.

"Lizzie, now you, darling," Svetlana gently reached forward and took hold of the knapsack. "Shh, shh, shh, it's okay. Just let it go."

"Please," Lizzie whimpered. "It's all I have left."

Svetlana said nothing and only smiled as she slowly pried Lizzie's fingers apart and took the knapsack. When she had it in her grip, she opened it up, then her eyes widened in awe as she fished out a single paperbound book. A few of the gangers also took notice and began to voice their disbelief.

"Blyat, is that real paper?"

"A paper book! I never thought I'd see one."

"It must be priceless!"

"This is a fine gift," Svetlana said, feeling the cover in her hands and flipping through the pages. "And there are four more in here just like this one. Thank you for this, Lizzie," she put the book back inside, then pulled out the flash drive containing her memory backups. "And what is this?"

K finally had enough so he lunged forward, but was stopped when two gangers grabbed his arms. "You vultures, haven't you taken enough already?!" he yelled. "She's just a kid! Let us go!"

Svetlana continued to appraise the flash drive, hardly batting an eye. "This one is loud," she pointed at K. "Teach him a lesson."

The gangers closed in on K and began to lay a beatdown on him. A fist struck his face, then his gut, dropping him to his knees as he wheezed. He was struck again over his head which knocked him to the ground where he was then kicked in the ribs repeatedly.

"Their payment is complete. They are free to go," Svetlana started walking away. "But the little one is coming with me. She will make a fine gift for my father."

Lizzie's eyes widened with panic and fear as she rushed towards K, reaching for him. "K? K?!" she cried out as a ganger grabbed her by the hand and started dragging her away. "Get off of me! Let me go! K!" she screamed as she was dragged out of sight and out of reach.

Her frantic voice was the last thing that K heard over his savage beating, just before he passed out.

… … …

"K? K?! Wake up, buddy, come on!"

"How's he looking?"

"He's got a few fractured ribs and a punctured lung it looks like. We need to keep him from falling unconscious."

"Hey, payaso, time to quit clowning around, huh?"

K opened his eyes, choking on his own blood as he began to violently cough and convulse. A bright light was shining in his eyes and he didn't know where he was. His entire body felt oddly fuzzy and warm, while overwhelming pain washed in and out of his senses.

"Scheiße, he's flatlining! Augur, stimpak, now!"

"Here, blondie, catch!"

A second later, K felt a sharp stabbing pain in his chest as a medical injector was jabbed in. The pain he felt moments ago vanished as his senses kicked into overdrive and he sprung up like a rocket, gasping for air.

"Fuckin' A!" Mouse jumped back and clutched her chest. "Don't jump like that! You scared the fuck outta me!"

"Oh, thank goodness," Rapunzel breathed a sigh of relief. "He's alive."

Augur patted K on the shoulder. "Gave us a scare there, brother. Welcome back."

K looked around, coughing and wheezing for breath as air returned to his lungs. He was sitting upright on a table in the hangar where the Maximus was parked, which was when he realized that some people were missing. Sitting around him were Rapunzel, Mouse, and Augur, who had evidently resuscitated him.

"There- there was-" K took a moment to catch his breath. "I was with a kid. Lizzie, they got Lizzie," he swung his legs off the table and tried to stand.

"No, no you don't," Rapunzel laid a hand on his shoulder and kept him in place. "You just got beat halfway to death. You aren't going anywhere right now."

K tried to move past her. "She's just a kid, I have to go and-"

"Ugh, Augur, help me with him?" Rapunzel said as she stood in front of K.

"Take a seat, man, you look like hammered shit," Augur pulled out a chair, and with little effort, he pushed K down until he was sitting. "Just chill for a sec and get your head on straight."

"Yeah, dude," Mouse said. "Those guys dragged your sorry ass all the way back here and they told us what happened. Also, you might, uh, might wanna do something about that," she pointed to the injector sticking out of K's chest.

K looked down and saw that the stimpak was still embedded in his body. Gritting his teeth, he pulled it out, then set it aside on the table.

Stimpaks were a form of emergency first aid. They delivered a dose of adrenaline to the human body as well as a potent compound of painkillers, medicine to promote cellular regeneration, and nanites designed for microsurgery to repair injuries. They were typically reserved for grievous bodily damage and within seconds of it being administered, K already felt back in tip-top shape.

"I gotta get the kid back," K said. "They took her, they took Lizzie."

Rapunzel, Mouse, and Augur shared a look with each other which suggested that limited by their present circumstances as they were, mounting any type of rescue operation was out of the question.

"Listen, K, alright?" Rapunzel pointed over to the group of refugees that made it. "Look at them. They're all here because of you. Lizzie... we'll work something out. But right now, we're in no shape to be doing anything crazy."

"We're fueled up and ready to go," Flynn appeared, walking down the ramp from the cargo hold as he pointed behind himself towards the ship. "Now's our only window, we can't afford to wait around any-"

He was cut off by a sudden, loud, banging noise on the door by the entrance to the hangar. A second later, the thing was blasted off its hinges and a few flashbangs were thrown in. They detonated with blinding bursts of light and deafening booms.

K dropped to the ground as his ears were left ringing and his vision was slightly impaired. The Maximus crew also dove for cover. Augur easily lifted up the heavy table and used it as a shield to give his friends something to hide behind. Across the way, a police SWAT team led by a single adjudicator stormed their way inside, pointing weapons and yelling.

"NYPD! Down on your knees! Now!"

The refugees didn't even get a chance to try and comply when the SWAT officers and the adjudicator opened fire on them. Chaos ensued as panicked screaming and rapid gunfire drowned out all further noise. K was dragged to his feet by Mouse who was shouting something at him he couldn't hear. To keep the attackers busy, Augur hurled the entire table in their direction, knocking a few officers off their feet.

A flechette rifle clattered on the ground and Flynn rushed forward to pick it up. "Go, go!" he shouted to the remaining refugees who were running towards him. "Get on board! Hurry!" he started laying down some covering fire.

A few refugees abandoned their cover and ran towards the cargo ramp, but they died when they caught some rounds in the back from the adjudicator. Rapunzel was dragging a wounded man along, but he died in the same manner and she herself was struck in the side by a bullet.

"Punzie!" Flynn ran to her aid, firing his flechette rifle as he went.

The SWAT officers sought cover. The adjudicator pressed forward, slaying the rest of the refugees using a revolver as it went.

Meanwhile, K was stumbling along as he was dragged by Mouse since he was still partially blinded and deafened. Augur went up to a crate and retrieved his light machine gun, which he used to lay down protective suppressing fire.

Underneath the deluge of lead, the adjudicator dodged and weaved, avoiding most of the gunfire. Still, it caught a few rounds in the body. One bullet smacked harmlessly off the adjudicator's face, scratching open the synthetic skin and revealing some of the metal skull underneath.

"Move! You're covered!" Augur shouted to Flynn and Rapunzel who were still at the bottom of the ramp.

Flynn let off on the trigger and managed to tag the adjudicator with a flechette in its chest. Next, he pressed a button on the rifle and activated the electric charge, delivering a shock and leaving the adjudicator temporarily disabled. Now that they had bought some time, he dropped the weapon, scooped Rapunzel into his arms, and rushed up the ramp into the relative safety of the cargo hold.

"Motherfucker!" Mouse shouted as she and K ducked behind some crates. "That's a fucking death squad! How'd they find us?!"

"The Verenkovs must have sold us out!" Augur yelled as he continued to fire his weapon indiscriminately. "We need to get up in the air!"

"I'm on it!" Flynn gently set Rapunzel down in a safe spot, then took a quick moment to examine her wound. "You okay?"

"It's a through and through, I'll be fine," Rapunzel nodded, gritting her teeth as she reached for her own marksman rifle nearby. "Go, we'll keep 'em busy," she rose to a crouching position, took aim, and started raining down some fire discipline.

K blinked rubbed his eyes and shook his head until his senses cleared. Then, he was dragged to his feet by Mouse, who ran along with him and Flynn towards the cockpit. There, Takahashi was already seated and was beginning their boot sequences.

"Tak, start the engines and close up the cargo hold door!" Flynn started flicking dials and switches, hitting buttons and knobs. "We need to get out of here yesterday!" he interfaced with a holo-display which opened the hangar doors.

"Oh, you gotta be shitting me," Mouse looked through the window and saw what was waiting for them on the other side.

A panzer assault mech stepped forward and ripped the doors apart, sighting the Maximus as its trifocal lens flashed red. Over the roar of the engines as they came to life and over the exchange of gunfire, they heard the mech spooling up its minigun.

"Flynn, what's taking so long!?" Rapunzel shouted from the cargo hold, squeezing a few more shots through the narrow gap until it was fully closed.

The cargo hold closed not a second too late for a barrage of bullets slammed into the outer hull just afterward. Now temporarily safe, Rapunzel and Augur dropped their weapons and rushed into the cockpit, taking their seats and buckling in.

"Agh, these putas!" Mouse looked out the window and slammed her fist against it. "Give us a fucking break!"

"Buckle in! This is gonna get hairy!" Flynn grabbed the throttle lever just as the Maximus pulled up its magnetic landing gears and began to hover.

Outside, the SWAT officers adjusted their aim and targeted the windows of the cockpit.

At the same time, the disabled adjudicator recovered by ripping the shocking flechette out of its chest. Unseen by anyone on the ship, it then quickly threw a small, round object that magnetically attached itself to the underside of the Maximus, lighting up and beeping once to activate.

The assault mech stopped firing its minigun and instead began to charge up its plasma cannon, a blue light appearing at the end of the weapon.

However, before it fired, Flynn threw the throttle lever forward and the Maximus shot out of the hangar. Behind them, the assault mech released its plasma payload a moment too late, missing the Maximus by a hairsbreadth and blowing up the back half of the hangar with a fiery blue explosion.

As they climbed in altitude and soared above New York, flashing alerts on the holo-displays indicated that they were being pursued by police gunships.

"Two bogeys on our tail, coming in hot," Flynn said.

"Those are ArmaRex Jägers," Rapunzel said. "Not suited for upper atmosphere flight. We just gotta outrun 'em."

The two Jägers opened fire, splitting the air with a concussive volley of machine gunfire. In addition to that, new flashing alerts indicated that the assault mech was now attempting to acquire a target lock with its rocket pods.

K held onto the edge of his seat with a white-knuckle grip, trying not to lose consciousness as Flynn began a series of evasive maneuvers. The Maximus dipped and rolled side to side, dodging the gunfire as it raced ever higher into the night sky. When they broke through the cloud cover, a new alert flashed across the dashboard display.

"Incoming!" Rapunzel shouted.

Multiple rockets came racing after them, leaving hot trails of smoke behind as they whipped through the air on a tight arc, rapidly gaining. The two Jägers remained in hot pursuit, but they were beginning to lag behind. The Maximus continued to bob and weave through the air, jostling its occupants around.

"Oh, no," Augur clamped a hand over his mouth. "Oh, I'm gonna be sick."

"Keep it inside," Mouse looked over and scowled. "If you hurl, I'm gonna fucking hurl!"

"Can't shake these rockets," Flynn said, his teeth gritted as he held onto the steering controls. "Punzie, get ready to hit the reverse thrusters. On my go, ready?"

Rapunzel hit a few buttons and nodded. "Ready!"

"Three..."

The rockets had nearly caught up to them.

"Two..."

Another second and they would have struck the Maximus.

"One! Now, hit it now!"

Rapunzel threw on all the power to the reverse thrusters, killing the upward momentum of the Maximus and causing it to plummet back to the earth. The rockets raced past them and couldn't turn on a tight arc quick enough, so some of them struck each other and detonated. At least two rockets managed to adjust their trajectory and resumed their chase.

Still, the Maximus continued to fall and soon enough, everyone was screaming. They fell past the two gunships chasing them and like before, they were unable to adjust their angle of approach in time to react. Once the Maximus was well below them, the rockets returned and slammed into the gunships, blowing them to smithereens.

Flynn threw on the power to the thrusters again and evened out the Maximus. Being experienced pilots that they were, both he and Rapunzel were used to such mid-air movements. On the other hand, the sudden change in acceleration was enough to make Augur finally lose his lunch as he reached for a nearby bucket and threw up into it. Mouse squeezed her eyes shut and looked away, plugging her mouth and nose before she too did the same. Takahashi appeared unbothered, while K was nursing a headache that was beginning to form.

Before long, the Maximus was flying out of the atmosphere and into space.

"Damn, that was a close one," Flynn said as he guided the ship along Earth's orbit. "We all good? Punzie?"

Rapunzel pulled her jacket aside and inspected her gunshot wound just on the edge of her abdomen. "I'm hit, but not the first time I've been shot," she said. "I'll live. Anyone else hurt?"

"I am well, Rapunzel-san," Takahashi gave a thumbs up.

"Yeah, doing great," Mouse groaned.

Augur attempted to say something but threw up again.

"Oh, damn," Flynn winced as he wiggled in his seat. "I've been hit too."

"Where?" Rapunzel looked over, worried more about his injury than her own.

Flynn sucked in air through his teeth. "Got tagged on my left butt cheek," he said. "Bullet must have bounced off something. It's still in there, I think."

"Okay, come on," Rapunzel unbuckled her seat belt and stood up. "We need to get looked at. K, how's that stimpak working out for you? Feeling better?"

K tapped on his chest, finding that he was feeling no more pain thanks to the stimpak he was given. "I look like shit, but yeah, I'm feeling better," he got up from his seat. "I can work. You guys got a medkit or a trauma pack I could use?"

"In the lounge, this way," Flynn stood up and started limping away. "Doctor K, to the operation room, please."

… … …

Once their adrenaline rushes had passed from their close call, and once K had tended to the injuries on Rapunzel and Flynn, they all found themselves sitting around the lounge. It was quiet and they had managed to survive, but they were all still tense and uneasy.

Flynn was sitting on an ice pack to numb his wound site. Rapunzel was by his side, one arm looped around his back and the other resting on her own bandages. Augur was staring at his shoes, muttering a quiet prayer in Haitian Creole as he counted rosary beads. Mouse was quietly banging the back of her head repeatedly against the wall. Up in the cockpit, Takahashi was dutifully monitoring the ship's systems.

"So," K started, disinfecting the tools he had used. "What do we do now?"

"We're still alive, so there's that," Rapunzel said quietly.

"Can't say the same for the others though," K sighed in defeat. "I let them down. They died because of me. Lizzie. God knows what's happening to her right now. I- I... I messed up."

"Hey," Rapunzel gave him an understanding look. "Don't talk like that. You did everything you could. If anyone's to blame, it's the Verenkovs. They gave us up to the cops."

"Scumbags," Flynn shook his head. "Look at us now. Are we all that's left of the movement in New York?"

"Looks that way. Minerva's gone. Sinclair's gone," Mouse tapped her foot up and down restlessly. "Fuck knows what we're gonna do now."

Nobody could provide an answer and a tense silence settled over them. As hopeless as everything appeared to be, K knew they still had a chance. He stared blankly out a window, watching the Earth pass by below them. He had never been to space before, but even now, as excited as he should have been, he felt anything but.

"Tak? How are we looking on the scanners?" Flynn called out.

"Scanners are clear," Takahashi replied through the ship's intercom. "I am reading no signs of pursuit."

Flynn nodded and sighed. "We're stocked up with more than enough food and water since we were accounting for... well, at least we won't starve," he muttered. "There's no other safe harbor for us on Earth, so the only question is where to go?"

"Maybe we could try Port Armstrong?" Augur suggested.

"Not with the way Uncle SAM is shooting down foreign transport ships," Rapunzel shook her head. "We need to steer clear of the American blockades. Need another option."

K stood up, walking over to the window to gaze out into space. "I know where we need to go," he said. "Mars. Arcadia."

"Arcadia? Why Arcadia?" Mouse asked. "Uncle Ivan is even more of a tight ass than Uncle SAM. What makes you think the commies will let us through the curtain?"

"Caelestis is there," K said. "Lizzie, she, uh... she passed on that information to me."

Everyone looked at K, slightly confused, mostly intrigued, and entirely sympathetic.

"Caelestis, okay," Flynn scratched his chin. "Must be real important if they know a way to get us into Arcadia. But it is a month-long trip. We'll have plenty of time to figure something out."

"Okay, Arcadia it is," Rapunzel agreed. "Tak, could you punch in those coordinates and set the autopilot, please?"

"Already done," Takahashi replied.

"Thank you," Rapunzel said. "Well, better get some rest, guys. It's been one hell of a day."

While the other crew members were getting out of their seats, K went into the cockpit and found Takahashi at his terminal. "Hey, Tak, you hanging in there?" he asked sincerely. "Things got pretty crazy."

"As best I can, given our circumstances," Takahashi nodded. "Thank you for your concern, K-san. Know that you are not at fault for what transpired."

K bit down the urge to deny it and nodded instead. "That means a lot, coming from you," he brought up his omni-pad with Anna's contact information. "Listen, you're hooked into the universal net, right?"

"I am."

"Good, okay. This is the contact for my friends in Arcadia. Put a line out, a discreet one. Let 'em know we're coming."

"Ah, yes, K-san," Takahashi said. "Right away."

With that done, there was nothing left to do but settle in and wait it out. K strolled over to the window once more, staring out across the sea of stars where at the other end, Anna and Elsa were waiting for them.