The bunker I-No and Dizzy explored was rather simple; eight rooms, connected by a single hallway running the length of the small underground complex. The first room the two had explored was the official weapons 'locker', though the room was almost the same size as the Mayship's cargo hold, and about twice as packed. I-No had exhausted herself pretty early on, as her wounds were keeping her from doing much of anything. She did, however, find a stash of old flashlights with working batteries, allowing the two to explore the rest of the bunker without using their fingers.

The second room the two looked into turned out to be where the previous occupants of the bunker had lived. Metal bunk beds were arrayed in three rows down the long room, easily accommodating over two hundred people. Dizzy took the chance afforded her, and, a few vigorous beatings to dusty mattresses later, she had basically ordered I-No to get some rest on something more comfortable than lumpy earth covered in needles.

Dizzy continued to explore the bunker after she had made sure that her travelling companion was resting. Following the hallway, Dizzy decided to go along the side she and I-No had begun to explore before she'd double back and start on the opposite side of the facility. Following the hallway, and keeping the beam of her flashlight moving at everything and anything, Dizzy soon came to the second set of doors in the hallway, which were obviously locked.

Heavy chains and padlocks prevented the double doors from opening, though, due to request, Necros' axe proved to be stronger than metal that was a few centuries old. Dizzy pushed the door open easily, rather surprised to find that the doors were still well-lubricated and didn't squeak at all. Once she saw what was inside the room, however, Dizzy didn't regret splitting the chain holding the door shut. Medical equipment of every size, shape and function was set up in the room, though what she needed was slightly more portable.

A methodical search ended up with Dizzy muttering every vile imprecation she could think of, and, with Necros' own impressive vocabulary added to Dizzy's own learned skill of witty insults (due to several games played with April and May), the hybrid peppered the air for a long time as she continued to search for a simple first aid kit. Finally, taking a break next to the door, Dizzy looked just to the side of the door. She then promptly whacked her forehead repeatedly with the heel of her hand, muttering another string of curses, though this time aimed at herself.

Removing the field surgery kit from its wall mount, Dizzy scooted back to the bunk room, where she found I-No sleeping on her side. One look at the bandages told Dizzy all she needed to know, though the bleeding had apparently slowed or stopped entirely. A quick exploration of the kit allowed Dizzy to select several clean bandages, as well as some old, but potent antiseptic, which she set aside for when I-No would wake up.

Dizzy went back to her exploration, finding a crate of sealed MRE rations in the room further along, after the medical room. Picking at one of the dry rations for several minutes allowed Dizzy to feel a bit better, as her stomach was no longer trying to polish her spine. The storage room also held several strange metres that looked portable, and, when Dizzy turned one on, all it did was click oddly. Shrugging, she turned off the strange metre, leaving the small box hanging on the hook where she had first left it.

The fourth door was at the far end of the hallway, spanning the ten feet from wall to wall, and looking to be nearly two feet thick. However, the door was also partially open; just barely enough room existed between the two flanges of the door to allow Dizzy to squeeze through, though the large area just beyond the door made Dizzy smile. A large slit had literally been chopped out of the wall, looking outwards to the West.

Just as she entered the room, the sun dropped low enough for her to see clearly without using the flashlight, so Dizzy turned off the light as she looked at the strange object in the middle of the room. She walked around the long, tubular object three times, then shook her head, confused. "Maybe if Potemkin were here. He could tell what most of these things are at a glance, while I'm stuck scratching my head. Oh well. I'm guessing that whatever this thing is, it must be important, considering that it's bolted to the ground."

Her eyes fell on a lever near the back of the mounted tube, and curiosity took over; Dizzy walked over to the lever, poked it a few times, looked at it from every angle possible, then looked around her in every cardinal direction. She then grabbed the lever, squeezed slightly, and shoved it towards the tube. Nothing happened at all. Dizzy looked again at the lever, which had somehow reset itself to its original position, then shrugged, turning around to come nose to nose with I-No.

Suppressing a scream, the only thing that came out of Dizzy's mouth was a mangled squeak. I-No looked like death warmed over, and the witch's arcane hat was actually speaking, though it was a language that Dizzy had never heard before. I-No responded in the same language, which really unnerved Dizzy, as the inflections on the words sounded completely alien.

I-No's eyes were looking past Dizzy's shoulder, the colours slowly shifting away from the reddish-gold hue normally seen in the maddened glare of a dying combat Gear. I-No's eyes eventually settled on a more natural shade of dark brown, followed by the witch collapsing to her knees. "Man. That always takes a lot out of me."

Dizzy sat down beside I-No, looking at the strange unit in the middle of the room. "What did you do? I pulled the lever there, but nothing happened."

"That's because I bent time. After all, I don't think you'd appreciate being buried under a few tons of concrete because that thing fired right into a wall."

Dizzy took the comment in stride, as she honestly felt that nothing else in the world could surprise her anymore. "Well, what is it?"

"A 'pilebunker' siege cannon. That is a perfect example of blacktech, and why the vast majority of the world has banned it. Namely, you could have killed yourself. Actually, you did kill yourself. By resetting time so you didn't pull that lever, you didn't die. Comprehend?"

"Not at all. I lost you completely when you started talking about playing with time. Another one of your natural abilities?"

"Sorta. The hat acts as an amplifier; allows me to do things to a much larger-scale basis than I normally could for the same amount of energy. By the way, I'm kinda hungry; got anything?"

Dizzy laughed at the sudden release of tension in the room, and nodded. "Yeah. We still have those raisins that taste like they're about a century old."

I-No's grimace told Dizzy exactly what she thought of that 'meal'. Dizzy smiled, and continued. "We also have a crate full of something called MREs. Kinda dry, but at least they're filling."

"Anything's better than raisins that are probably older than the both of us combined. By the way, what's my back look like? It feels better, but I don't know if I'm leaking or anything."

Dizzy looked at the bandages covering I-No's back, gently probing the few areas that looked like fresh blood had seeped into the thick gauze. "I think the bleeding's pretty much stopped, but we should change these bandages soon. Also, you're going to need some liquids to help counter against your blood loss."

I-No nodded absently, concentrating instead on something that even Dizzy could not detect. Finally, the witch's head came up, and she frowned. "This is not good. Our little friend found our entrance, and he's trying to figure how to get in."

Dizzy sighed, hugging herself for a few moments. "That really is not good. Can it figure out the latch?"

I-No grimaced, not liking the answer. "Probably. We have about twenty minutes, so let's get our stuff, some food, and a first aid kit. I think one of your wings is capable of summoning pure water, right?"

Dizzy nodded, glad to be helping out in any way. "Yeah."

I-No grinned, standing up and looking at the cannon. "Good. We won't need to burden ourselves with canteens then. By the way, did you see a few portable gauges that clicked when you turned them on?"

Dizzy nodded again, also standing up. "Yeah, just in the storage room where I found the food."

"Grab one. It'll save us a lot of grief later if we have to go through a radioactive area and I'm exhausted."

Dizzy left the cannon room and I-No, stopping first in the bunk room, where she grabbed I-No's guitar and the field surgery kit she had left there earlier. Dizzy paused for a few seconds, then also grabbed the pistol I-No had picked up from the ammunition room, as well as the ten magazines of ammunition that were stacked next to the gun. Her arms full, Dizzy went back to the now wide-open doors to the cannon room, putting down her collection just inside the doors before heading to the storage room where she had found the food.

Dizzy simply grabbed two satchels that were hanging beside the door, stuffing both canvas bags with as many MRE rations as she could scrounge from the open crates. Pausing long enough to snag one of the several metres and test if it was working by turning it on and listening to the thing begin clicking, Dizzy then left the supply room, returning to the cannon room, where she saw I-No slowly pushing the cannon's muzzle around so it aimed back down the middle of the hallway.

I-No, much to her credit, looked like she could pull the ears off of Justice, even though her normally pale skin had an ashen cast to it. Dizzy looked on for a few seconds, then helped I-No properly aim the cannon. Only five minutes had gone by since the start of I-No's warning, and the witch was proven right by a muffled howl and a loud, echoing clang as something large and heavy slammed against the closed doors at the opposite end of the hallway.

"It's heeere." I-No had picked up her guitar, as well as the pistol, which, when Dizzy was not looking, was stuffed into Dizzy's satchel, as well as the majority of the ammo for the handgun.

"Yep. So, would you like a drink before we leave?"

"Wouldn't mind. I'm feeling just a bit thirsty."

Dizzy's eyes quickly lost focus, and, a few seconds later, Undine appeared, summoning a ball of cold water as large as I-No's head. Dizzy regained focus to reality just in time to stop the ice guardian from dunking the wounded witch in the water. Undine sulked for a few seconds over being nailed for a prank beforehand, but then allowed the witch to gather however much water she wanted. I-No shrank the sphere by half before quenching her thirst, which had taken enough time for the troll to batter several dents that were large enough to be seen from over one hundred feet away, in pre-dusk gloom.

Dizzy watched as I-No tied one of her guitar strings to the firing lever of the cannon, then threaded the string through a metal loop, allowing the witch to stand behind the cannon and pull towards her instead of actually pushing the lever forwards. "Dizzy, when that brute down there takes down the door, as fast as you can, go through the viewing port behind us. I'll be right behind you."

Dizzy frowned, picking up both satchels and resting them on the edge of the port. "What are you planning to do?"

"Me? I'm planning to blow this place sky-high, and all to kill one simple troll."

"But, what if we're caught in the blast?"

"We won't be, if we're fast enough. After all, we only need to be outside to be mostly safe."

"Fine. You go first."

"No."

"You're injured, you can't run as fast as I can with those chunks taken out of your back, and I'm flexible enough to get out after yanking on the cord."

"...Fine. You win. Remember, wait five seconds after you hear the doors come down. That should give me enough time to get out with our food and equipment."

Dizzy nodded, quietly holding on to the thin string as the echoing crashes steadily grew louder. Finally, with a slow, groaning creak, one of the doors collapsed, giving the troll access to the hallway. Dizzy looked at I-No, who was already climbing out through the port, then looked at the troll, which was standing in the middle of the hallway, about twenty feet in from its entry point.

Slowly, she counted to five. The troll heard her, snorted and began running towards her, but Dizzy calmly and deliberately pulled the string, then let go, turned, and dove through the port just as the cannon fired.