The other group was huddled by the door to the first room.
"Okay, I'll take the two on the left, Trowa, the two on the right, and Julie, go for the security cameras," Mayumi ordered, her stolen gun in her hand. Trowa nodded, readying his own gun. Julie muttered a response, her blue eyes flashing in annoyance. All she got to do were the security cameras? Did Mayumi think she couldn't handle a guard?
"Okay, good. Go!" Mayumi exclaimed, and slammed the door inward. At the first sound, all the guards turned towards them, their machine guns raised. Each was dressed in army fatigues, complete with sunglasses.
Trowa dove to the right, taking out one guard before hitting the ground and sliding behind a desk as bullets riddled the wall behind him. Looking forward, he saw the other guard's legs through the desk. Taking careful aim, he shot at both knees. The guards went down, and Trowa leapt up and finished him off.
Mayumi spun to the left, unable to shoot either guard before taking cover behind a computer console. She heard it sizzle as bullets smacked into it, but they didn't go through it. Looking around, she realized she couldn't hit them from her position. If she got up, they would take her out. In fact, they hadn't stopped shooting. Sparks from the computer rained down on her, singing her hair. She had to move, or else the computer console would be gone and she would be their target practice. She was facing the wall, her back to the console. To her left was the door, and she could see Trowa aiming under his desk at something. Looking right, she saw her escape route. Lying on the floor, next to another, larger console, was the supply of weapons. And among them, a rocket launcher.
Taking careful aim at the rocket, she screamed above the roar of the bullets, "fire in the hull!" and squeezed the trigger. Immediately a fireball exploded into the air, hitting the guards standing next to it and enveloping them in flames. Mayumi covered her head as bits and pieces of weapons fell onto her, and moved to the right, away from the crippling heat.
Trowa had just finished his last guard when Mayumi shouted. He dove to the ground behind the desk and covered his head and ears as the left side of the room exploded. He saw two guards fly to his side of the room, followed by countless scraps of metal and stray bullets.
Julie had just finished shooting out all the visible security cameras when Mayumi yelled. Since she was still standing outside the door, she was able to duck back out behind the wall and cover her ears. A blast of heat shot out the door, then nothing. All she could hear was the light 'pings' as metal fell back to the ground.
She quickly went back in, and saw a chunk of wall missing on the left side of the room, further up then where Mayumi was crouched behind a computer. Trowa and Mayumi stood up as Julie entered.
"Well, that was certainly being stealthily," Julie muttered as she stepped between dead guards and scraps of guns.
"I didn't have a choice," Mayumi returned hotly, re-holstering her gun and wiping soot from her face.
Trowa checked guards lying at various places in the room.
"All dead. Come on, lets get out of here."
"I have to find the hidden security cameras first," Julie said, going up to a thermostat and ripping it off the wall.
"We can leave them. Come on, we're behind schedule. The others will want help when they reach the laptop," Mayumi said, going over to a slightly gray block on the floor, set off from all the other white ones.
"No, we have to find them. Remember what Mr. Perfect said?" Julie retorted sarcastically, examining a black, half-moon protrusion from the wall that was about the size of an apple.
"I wonder if this is one. There's no harm in trying, right?" she said to Trowa, who looked wary.
"He never mentioned this—"
Julie tugged at it, but it didn't move.
"I think that means don't touch," Mayumi warned, rising from her crouched position.
Julie took out her gun and smashed it off the wall.
Immediately the lights flickered and died, a low siren wailing once and then dying as well.
"Great! Now what!" Mayumi shouted in anger as the room was enveloped in darkness. "Nice going Julie!"
"How was I supposed to know that would happen? It doesn't have a sign saying DON'T TOUCH on it! Besides, the backup lights should be coming on any second!"
"No, they wont! Did you hear that siren? That only sounds when the BACKUP lights go offline! Did you ever even LISTEN to Jane's lessons?" Mayumi yelled in into the darkness.
Julie didn't reply.
"Hey, I got these," Trowa said calmly, and flicked on a flashlight. In the thin beam of light, he saw Julie, her arms folded, glaring at him. Swinging the beam, he found Mayumi, who covered her eyes and held out her hand. He gave her and Julie flashlights.
"Got them off the guards. Now come on, we have to keep going. This means the lights are off in the whole complex, so we'll have an easier time of getting around without the guards seeing us."
Mayumi went back to the gray tile and lifted it up. It crashed in the ground, revealing a passageway underneath.
"Nice escape route," Julie commented, aiming her flashlight down into the hole. About six feet below was a cement ground. Not hesitating, she jumped down.
Immediately she wanted to go back up as her nose violently protested her action. The passageway smelled like a sewer. Putting her hand onto the curved wall, she yanked it back with a yelp. Holding her hand up to the flashlight, she could see slime and dirt caked on it, and began furiously wiping it off on her pants.
"Come on!" she called back up, "but don't breath out of your nose and don't touch the walls! It a sewer!"
Trowa and Mayumi quickly landed next to her, both making disgusted noises.
"How long to we have to be in here?" Trowa muttered, covering his nose with his sleeve.
"About 15 minutes. Then we should come to another opening." Mayumi replied, lifting her shoe out of a particularly disgusting path of grime.
"And how will we see the opening?" Julie asked, aiming her flashlight at the ceiling, which was rounded and made of cement.
"I guess we see another block of gray," Trowa said, walking in between the two girls.