The Museum Raid
"Hmm..." I groaned, picking up a stack of documents scattered across the floor. Columns of dizzying numbers, files detailing the ages and physical data of test subjects—this was definitely no ordinary paperwork. This was information compiled for a very specific, dark purpose.
"None of them are breathing." At Rain's words, I looked around. The people collapsed on the floor, thin trails of blood trickling from the corners of their mouths, were indeed all dead. I didn't feel much of anything looking at them. Shattered test tubes, unidentified liquids pooling on the floor... I could tell at a single glance what kind of place this was.
"Hey, Shine."
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?" I tossed the documents aside and walked over to Shine. Her expression was grim. She was undoubtedly remembering things she'd rather forget. My own stomach churned too, a faint wave of nausea rising in my throat.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you, Jeff?" She was worrying about me instead. I gave a small smile and shook my head.
"I'm fine too. Doesn't bother me at all."
The information we could gather here was far too limited. It seemed Amy and Victor had already headed deeper inside. I pulled up a fallen chair, set it upright, and sat down to think.
The man who had left earlier hadn't been in a rush. He had walked out leisurely, talking on the phone with a cigarette between his lips. He acted as if he had absolutely no idea this place was being raided. Let's assume, by sheer coincidence, he had been delivering goods here and missed Victor and Amy. Since there was no guarantee this place had only one entrance, it was a highly plausible scenario.
I recalled the elevator we used to get down here. It wasn't built to transport large cargo. The hallways here were the same. That meant there had to be another path.
"Rain. Shine. I think there's another way out." At my words, both of them turned to look at me. Rain, who had been rummaging through the room collecting evidence, nodded and stepped closer.
"Another way?"
"Yeah."
Perhaps this area wasn't even that important. A decoy to stall intruders, a space built solely to buy time. I pulled out my phone and tried to call Amy, but the call wouldn't go through. Jamming signals were blocking it. My phone had been dead ever since we descended.
Letting out a soft sigh, I stood up and walked out of the room. The hallway was needlessly wide, lined with countless rooms of unknown purpose. Mysterious boxes were stacked up, but they had already been ransacked—likely by Amy and Victor—leaving papers rolling across the floor. Why keep physical documents? Why stick to such an analog method? Storing them on a computer would be so much faster and easier to manage.
As I pondered this, I suddenly sensed a strange current. A bizarre wavelength, similar to the movement I had felt when activating the elevator earlier.
"Amy?" I muttered, looking toward the end of the hallway just in case. "Is Amy back?" At my words, Rain and Shine threw down the papers they were holding and rushed out into the corridor.
No, it wasn't Amy. It was an unfamiliar presence. And not just one, but several. My expanded electromagnetic field was giving me limited feedback due to the jamming signals. I swallowed hard. My body surged into a state of extreme tension. My vision tunneled, and my heart began to hammer against my ribs.
Just as Shine noticed my shift and opened her mouth to speak, they appeared at the end of the hallway. Clad in black tactical gear, holding black chunks of iron, their faces completely concealed behind helmets. The moment they spotted us, they raised their weapons. The glinting muzzles exuded a lethal threat.
Facing such a situation for the first time in my life, my body froze solid. The primal fear of firearms—my brain, fully aware of their destructive power, instantly conjured the horrific scenarios of what was about to happen.
Bang! A single gunshot shattered the silence, ringing in my ears. My body still wouldn't budge. Why couldn't I move? Hadn't I trained with Rain and Victor specifically for moments like this? The world around me seemed to slow to a crawl. A streak of light fired through the air, stretching toward me in a straight line.
A trap. The word flashed in my mind. Yes, this was a trap. A setup by the bad guys to corner Amy and us. And in that split second, a thread of golden light unraveled before my eyes. A faint, familiar scent drifted over. Rain. She threw herself in front of me. Unlike me, she had never let her guard down for a single second.
The moment Rain stepped forward and reached out, the water droplets orbiting her body flattened into a thin sheet. Slash! The razor-thin barrier of water sliced the incoming bullet clean in half. The split lead fragments whizzed past on either side, one of them grazing Rain's cheek.
"Move!" Rain barked. With her shout, the sluggishly flowing time snapped back to its normal, frantic pace. Pop! The water droplets surrounding Rain burst outward, blasting me, Shine, and Rain herself backward. Our bodies were flung back into the room we had just left. Rain didn't stop. She stomped her foot, and a torrent of water erupted from beneath her, surging down the hallway toward the enemies.
"Jeff!" I didn't need to be told twice. I immediately channeled my power and thrust my hand forward. Crackle! Blue electricity erupted from my fingertips, racing along the path of the water. There was no need to calculate coordinates. I just had to let my power flow along the path Rain had laid out. I drew upon every ounce of my strength. My heart pounded as if it would burst, and my body burned hot.
Boom! A deafening roar erupted from my hand. The suddenly surged electricity unleashed a thunderous blast, triggering a massive explosion. Water sprayed in all directions, mixing with rising white steam and billowing black smoke.
"Haa..." I let out a ragged breath and slumped to the floor. Forcing my power so suddenly had taken a toll on my body. "Jeff, are you okay?" Shine asked, her face tight with worry as she helped me up. But there was no time to worry about myself. I scrambled back to my feet to assess the situation.
The hallway had been completely blown apart by the massive explosion. At the far end, the armed enemies lay collapsed, black smoke rising from their bodies. But this wasn't the end. I grabbed Rain and Shine's hands, bolted out of the room, and started running. "Why are we going deeper inside?" "That wasn't all of them. There are way more upstairs."
I replied, recalling the numerous presences I had sensed directly above us. Normally, one might think of a way to take out all the enemies overhead, but that was far too risky. Rather than facing unknown dangers—especially when we didn't know what kind of abilities they might possess—it was much safer to regroup with Victor and Amy below. "We have to find Amy!"
With her power, combined with Shine's and my support, we could easily escape this danger. At my words, Rain stomped her foot. A massive sphere of water formed around us, swallowing us whole. It was a technique she had used back at Pehrman's Castle.
Rain Hamster Ball
The massive wave summoned by Rain carried us deeper into the facility. The hamster ball rolled forward at breakneck speed. Thanks to that, we managed to find Amy and Victor.
"Amy!" Whoosh! The hamster ball burst into a wide-open chamber like a crashing wave, dissolving the instant it spotted Amy. Stepping out of the water, I immediately ran and threw my arms around her. Startled by our sudden appearance, Amy hugged me back, her eyes wide. "Jeff? Shine? Rain?"
Why are they here when they should be at home? The thought was written all over Amy's face. She lifted me up, cradling me in her arms. "Why are you here?" Victor was equally bewildered. He ran a hand through his hair, looking thoroughly exhausted. "Rain?" Amy's voice dropped an octave. Those two syllables carried a heavy weight of unspoken emotion. Rain flinched, quickly averting her gaze.
But that wasn't the priority right now. Getting scolded for disobedience could wait. "Amy! It's a trap! We fell right into a trap! They made the information easy to get so that..." I blurted out every thought racing through my head, flailing my arms and legs to emphasize my point. I desperately wanted her to understand just how incredibly dangerous our situation was.
Amy listened quietly to my frantic explanation before letting out a soft chuckle and stroking my back. "It's alright now." With those three words, all the tension drained from my body. My racing heart, my trembling fingertips—everything stilled at her gentle reassurance. I blinked, my flailing limbs finally coming to a halt.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Everything is fine. We'll handle it." Amy gently set me down next to Shine. Bending down, Amy met Shine's eyes and pulled her into a warm hug. "Shine is okay too."
"Yeah."
After ushering Shine and me behind her, Amy turned to Rain. "Rain."
"...Yeah."
"You have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to say, don't you?" Rain mumbled incoherently. I reached out and gently tugged on the hem of Amy's shirt. "Rain didn't do anything wrong! I was the one who insisted on coming..."
Amy cut me off with a gentle pat on the head. "Jeff. When you act stubbornly, other people can get hurt." I shut my mouth. She was right. If we had just waited quietly at home, we wouldn't have ended up in this danger. And yet, even if I had known this would happen, I knew I still would have come. Because I wanted to help Amy.
"It's dangerous, so stay behind me." Amy stepped forward alongside Victor. As she approached, Rain ducked her head and flinched, but Amy simply patted her hair. "You kept them safe, didn't you?"
"Y-Yeah..." Rain mumbled in a tiny voice. Amy smiled warmly at her, reaching out to gently wipe the blood from Rain's cheek.
"It's been a while since we fought together, hasn't it?" At Amy's words, Rain's eyes went wide—two big, round pools of blue. She nodded eagerly. "Yeah!"
"Think you can handle it?"
"Mhm!"
Amy nodded at Rain's response and raised her clenched fists. Standing with her feet shoulder-width apart, she made it clear she was fully prepared for battle. "Everyone, start thinking about what you want to eat when we get back." Behind her pink hair, a white current of energy began to billow and surge. The white aura unfurled like a cape, wrapping around Amy's body.
No sooner had Amy finished speaking than dozens of figures began pouring down from the path we had just descended. Amy didn't wait for them. She threw a punch straight ahead. A brilliant white flash erupted from her arm, blasting toward the entrance and triggering a massive explosion.