Watching some unfamiliar faces approaching the entrance, he leaned leftward and spoke to the Chest. "Arona, who are these people?"

There was a pause until she disappeared offscreen, then said. "Judging from their clothing, that's the KSPD, Gehanna Academy, Trinity General School, and the GSC."

"General Student Council." He blurted, looking around him and grabbing the backpack nearby. "We need to get out of here."

The anime girl leaned into view, her eyes blinking a few times before she asked. "Hold on a second. Are you not the Sensei?"

Min paused upon despawning the CRT monitor with his toolgun, absently saying. "The Sensei? Why such particular emphasis?"

"Well...only a certain person would know the password to the Shittim Chest: The President and the Sensei."

"Well, I'm not either one, especially the former, who's dead."

Watching the man despawning the light overhead and tenderly place the modem in the backpack, the anime girl babbled. "Dead?"

"Look..." Min said and lifted the Chest. "I can really use your help. All I want to do is go back home and not cause any trouble. If you can get me somewhere safe, I can explain everything."

She looked at him blankly, blinking a number of times, her metaphorical gears obviously churning.

"Please, can you help me?" He asked.

"Um...sure." She said...innocently. "Just one question, though."

"Ask away."

"Why are you doing this?"

Glancing at the staircase, he eventually said. "I didn't come here willingly nor knowingly, Arona. I'm just a man who's trying to find meaning amid all the craziness. That being said, I could really use an escape route..."

Seeing his digital avatar jumping repeatedly, he watched him hover a CRT monitor into view via the Gravity Gun, the CCTV footage showing the metal security doors opening.

"And I'm gonna need it now." He completed his sentence - an action prompting Arona to turn and jolt at the footage.

"Right! Uh..." She stuttered, eying past Min. "I'll stall them for 60 seconds. More than that, I cannot promise."

Curtly nodding, he lifted his toolgun, but upon pressing it on the IBM 5155...

"Oi, wait, wait, wait!" She mewed. "What're you doing?"

"I can't lug this thing around. I must get rid of it."

"Don't do that just yet! Let me try something." She insisted, where, a few seconds later, all the screens turned black.

His grip tightened on the toolgun, his breathing heaving silently as he waited. However, he was just about ready to pull the trigger, when the Shittim Chest rebooted.

"Alright, pull the plug!" Her disembodied voice chirped, a familiar FWOP sound followed by every wiremod contraption despawned.

Holstering his toolgun, he lugged the now empty backpack on his shoulders and snatched the Chest, Arona appearing on screen alone. Spinning around, he sprinted up the stairs, racing to the ground floor. Then, Arona yelped. "Get in the elevator!"

Retracing his earlier steps, the lift doors automatically opened remotely, but a chill up his back when he heard footsteps echoing nearby. Fortunately, the doors closed before he could see them, Min having already been hiding beside the doors, preemptively. Breathing moderately, his back straightened stiffly against the wall - a pose he strictly maintained until the lift opened moments later.

Slipping out of the lift, he found himself in a familiar atrium, freezing for a second and mouthing 'Come on, don't fuck with me'. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait when Arona barked. "Hangar bay, straight ahead!"

Grunting, he ran through the doors, an audible clicking and deep whirring sound reverberating ahead of him via the sliding double hangar doors. Knowing there was no available aircraft, he stood at the edging, eying the distant street below amid a sneaky leftward breeze.

"Arona...!" Min growled.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" She stuttered rapidly. "I thought there was something available here."

"Please tell me you froze the lifts."

"I just did, but for as long as they're smashing the buttons, I can only do so much."

"Where are they now?"

"Uh, fifth floor."

With a sigh, he twirled his toolgun, an electronic BOP sound ringing in the hangar upon spawning an airboat, including two pallets. Welding a pallet to each pontoon, he placed two hoverballs on each pallet, including a hoverball under the nose.

"Um, I'm no engineer, but this 'thing' is NOT airworthy."

Having already mounted the vehicle, his hand was on the ignition when he deadpanned. "We're not flying."

With the flick of his wrist, the V10 petrol engine sputtered excitedly and the propeller spun instantly, his finger squeezing the throttle for a quick rev.

"Hang on." He barked and accelerated.

A tremble vibrated through the vehicle's enterity when the hoverballs shined, allowing the hoverboat to glide. Seconds felt like minutes as the contraption whooshed through the air, but the urban landscape steadily loomed closer below, otherwise remaining a shakily levelled flight. Though Min could've sworn he heard something else vibrating, his attention was fixated on his grip, his knuckles throbbing ever so minutely.

Only when he saw flashing blue and red lights, including sandbags and barricade signs, did his concentration vanish. So, upon flying over the checkpoint, startling the lonely unprepared KSPD officers on duty, the pontoons skidding across the asphalt several times, signifying Min to disable the hoverballs. Lacking a seatbelt, however, his chest was joslted downward upon impact, then again thereafter.

Withholding a hearty grunt, pain oozed onto his hips, but he sailed onward, the weldings buckling under the stress and the pallets separated.

"Yep..." He hissed a minute later. "Nailed it."

And at last, he felt the Shittim Chest vibrate under his denim tunic, Arona crying. "Don't ever do that again! What were you thinking?!"

"Sometimes...unsolvable problems require unthinkable solutions." He groaned.

The AI was still whimpering, a sniffle snorting intermittenly.

"Daijōbudesuka?" Min asked.

"J-Just shut up! Shut up and drive."

"Coordinates?"

"North, north, okay!"

So, he continued.