With a loud, sharp noise sounding incessantly, the five of them were left completely without reaction, as the red glow on the floor below kept appearing from time to time through the small gap.

"Shit, what do we do now?" Breaking the tense silence, Yusuke asked, clutching his hair and looking nervous.

"What we do is obvious." William replied, apparently also regaining his composure, with a serious look. He drew a weapon strapped to his waist and, pressing a few buttons on the side, quickly fired toward the gap.

With the shot of the small blue ray, a sharp sound rang out, and a hole opened in the metal of the air duct.

"Now that we've been discovered, we only have one option left: finish our mission." Saying this, William took a small ball attached to his belt and fixed it to the floor near the hole. He then pulled one half of it, making a kind of light rope appear and, in a sequence of fluid movements, he descended, immediately stretching the blue light rope, as if he were rappelling down.

In a smooth motion until reaching the ground below, he raised the half of the ball, making it return like a slingshot. Then he shouted up to them, "Quick, come down one by one!"

While the other three still seemed impressed by William's apparent professionalism, Jonathan did not hesitate to draw his weapon.

Grabbing the small ball and pulling its half free again, he jumped, descending to the ground just like William, immediately releasing the ball and making it return.

He moved into an alert position near William while, at the same time, activating the bracelet on his arm, causing a blue light shield to cover his left forearm.

William, at his side, shouted once more toward the others, "Move! We don't have time!"

…

Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier, with the girls. Similar to the boys, they moved silently and quickly.

Their plan was different from theirs.

The objective was to head toward one of the command centers and, by timing their actions with the boys', create chaos at the same time they invaded the room where the piece they wanted was, creating a disturbance and making the boys' objective easier.

Basically, they would serve as bait, drawing all the attention — or at least most of it — from the enemies inside the base toward them.

It was a risky plan. And there was a chance it could go wrong, since they were dealing with professionals who could easily realize the plan. But they had few options, and it was something everyone had agreed on.

Well, most of them, at least.

"I can't believe we're actually going to do this." Naline said quietly, while following the others from behind.

"Well, we all kind of agreed, didn't we? I think those two are even looking forward to it." Responding to her, Nina, running a bit ahead, pointed toward Emília and Xiao, who ran silently without saying a word.

"I don't like this very much either, but it was the best option." Running on her other side, with a calmer look, Vanessa commented, joining them. "In the end, we're the best ones to do this." She finished, smiling lightly.

Nalini and Nina exchanged a look for a moment, understanding very well what she meant.

Vanessa's phrase did not refer to the fact that they were the best for the role of bait, but rather because they were better than the boys for this riskier part.

Something William had said, and on which his theory was based on a simple and uncertain fact, but one they followed considering their few options: the fact of the roles being reversed and how, because they were women, if they served as bait, there was a chance — small, but still existing — of them being a priority target instead of the boys.

This was one of the theories that made William believe in his plan: that their distraction would draw most of the base, even if the agents knew they were not like the men of that world.

But, in short, Vanessa was content. She felt vindicated, even knowing it was an extremely stupid thought, considering they were at greater risk. Still, she couldn't help it.

"Right, we're the best for the job." Chuckling lightly, without commenting further on it, Nina simply agreed, while Naline wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.

After a few short minutes running, quickly passing through several places, just like the boys, they finally reached their objective.

Looking through the gap, they were met with the sight of what seemed to be a command center similar to the one the boys had seen: full of computer screens on various desks, with people arranged in a semicircular position.

Different from the other one, however, that was a closed room, without corridors or multiple doors — just one, which served as both entrance and exit.

There were five main command centers, each with a specific purpose. The regular centers served mainly to relay orders and interact with agents inside and outside the base, while the main ones served exclusively the base itself and its surveillance.

And the one they were at now covered what could be said to be the main function.

Covering the distribution of the energy source to the rest of the base.

Their plan was, obviously, to disable one of these distribution sources — if not all, then at least the one related to the area where the Correction Disk piece was.

As for why they didn't go straight to the base's main energy source: naturally because it was much more difficult. The place had constant surveillance and, without a better plan, equipment, and better-trained people, it was simply impossible.

Even this plan of shutting down just part of the distribution wasn't perfect, since they would probably only have a few minutes before the system corrected itself. That is, the boys would only have a few short minutes to grab the disk and then retreat.

That was the plan discussed: grab the disk piece and retreat immediately.

They looked down silently, realizing that now they would really have to descend. Nalini swallowed hard, nervous. Emília and Nina watched calmly, Vanessa frowned, and Xiao shifted her gaze between them before speaking.

"The moment is now."

Drawing the others' attention and receiving confirmations, just as each of them was about to grab their equipment, a sharp sound rang out loudly, catching them by surprise and making them stop, while a red light flashed strongly through the gap.

While some instinctively thought they had been discovered, the loud shout coming from below made them think otherwise.

"We have intruders! Intruders in section Z! Quick, send agents there now!"

That made them immediately realize what had actually happened.

"Damn it, those idiots were discovered." Vanessa cursed.

"What do you think happened?" Nalini asked, looking more anxious.

"That doesn't matter." Cutting through the tense air that was beginning to form, Xiao's calm voice reverberated through the air duct, drawing the other girls' gazes.

She calmly adjusted her weapon — clearly identical to William's — and aimed it at the floor, toward the gap. "We simply continue with our mission."

Without waiting for a response, she pulled the trigger. With a low hum, a small beam of energy struck the floor and, just like with William and the others, a large hole opened in the metal.

The reaction was immediate. The women on the ground below raised their heads, seeing the five inside the air duct.

"We have intruders in the command room! Send reinforcements immediately!" A woman shouted, while others quickly changed expressions as they grabbed their own weapons.

Xiao raised her weapon and fired toward some computers, causing a small explosion. Then, pulling something from a pouch behind her waist, she spoke to the others. "Let's go."

Without hesitation, she jumped.

"Shit." Cursing quietly, Vanessa took only a moment to pull out hers as well. Pressing a few buttons on her boots, which began to glow, she jumped.

And the others, seeing the actions of the two of them, quickly jumped as well.

…

At the same time, with the boys, Yusuke had just come down the energy rope right after Jonathan when, finally, from inside the room with glass walls and doors, the guards — who until then hadn't reacted — showed a response, running toward the door with their weapons already raised.

William reacted faster, aiming his weapon at them.

Twisting the tip of the weapon, he pulled the trigger, causing what had seemed to be a single shot to become several shots in succession, like a machine gun. The energy bullets passed through the reinforced glass doors and walls as if they were nothing, hitting the guards inside.

Some reacted in time, taking cover behind desks and counters. And even those who were hit got back up quickly in search of cover, showing that, although they hadn't died, they had been badly injured.

"Tsk, damn genetic enhancements." William frowned as he saw that.

He then addressed Jonathan. "Jonathan, your shield."

Jonathan took a step forward, intending to raise his arm, but William stopped him. "No. There." Pointing to the corridor on the left.

Jonathan looked in that empty direction, confused for a moment, but still did as told. 'Don't tell me that…' Until his suspicion was confirmed the next moment, when, without any sound, several other enemy agents came running out of the corridor.

Reacting accordingly, Jonathan made his shield expand, covering them.

Immediately after, they began firing.

With the shots continuously hitting the shield, Jonathan frowned, knowing he couldn't hold it like that for long. "The shield won't last much longer!" He said toward William.

In response, William calmly removed pieces from the pouch on his leg and connected them to the weapon. "I know. Ivan, throw one of the bombs into the other corridor. Yusuke, barrier."

The two reacted quickly. Ivan grabbed one of his bombs from the pouch, throwing it immediately in the opposite direction, while Yusuke pulled a baton strapped to his leg.

The bomb Ivan had thrown then exploded upon hitting the wall, but instead of an explosion, what appeared was a barrier that ended up blocking the passage.

With Yusuke, the baton he had pulled then activated as he took the front in front of William, the object in his hand projecting electricity that expanded to the sides, creating a kind of protective electric net that he raised in front of him.

And advancing all at once, Yusuke collided with what remained of the glass door and wall, burning them.

Following behind him, William walked calmly while finishing modifying his weapon as if the shots hitting Jonathan's shield and Yusuke's electric barrier didn't affect him.

Finishing modifying his weapon, William spoke to Ivan. "Ivan, help Jonathan." He said shortly before entering the room.

Doing as told, Ivan threw a bomb toward those firing at Jonathan, and this time it wasn't an explosion or a barrier, it was ice that expanded, quickly freezing the corridor and some of the women.

"Hmm, I should get other types." Ivan muttered to himself as he saw the result.

Already inside the room, William silently raised the weapon with both hands, now larger and with a thicker barrel, and he pulled the trigger, making blue targeting lasers come out of the tip.

The lasers pointed at all ten guards present there and then, with the trigger fully depressed, the weapon fired, blue energy beams coming out of its tip that traveled through the electric shield, which opened a gap for each shot.

Each shot then hit its target without fail, bodies being thrown back in reaction as a charred hole opened in their torsos.

With his shield already diminished on his arm, Jonathan, Alex, and Ivan had entered the room just before he fired.

While Ivan, Alex, and Yusuke seemed impressed, Jonathan saw it with different eyes, that scene basically confirming something he had suspected.

Looking sideways at William, he asked calmly, "This was your plan from the beginning, wasn't it? We're the real bait."

Hearing this, William turned his eyes to him and then, without saying anything, he smiled slightly.

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