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She waited to be sure that the white-coats were truly gone before hesitantly trying to remove the grate. It seemed to be stuck in place -of course it was securely screwed in, but she did not understand those things, only locked doors and crates-. Having little choice, the hybrid backed up until she could turn her body around and kicked at the grate with all her might. The metal bent and groaned. Usually, such a loud noise would be what she wanted to avoid, but if the girl was correct in that the scientists wouldn't hear, then she held no worry.

Pain shot up her ankle, but that did little to dissuade her. She'd dealt with worse, certainly. Bending her leg once more, she again kicked the vent. The grate was forced out and landed harshly on the floor. Now with a way out, Valerius lowered her body down and dropped in. She most likely broke her ankle as her bones are brittle like a bat's, but she had long since learned to continue through pain.

"How do I get you out?" she asked, looking uncertainly at the machines and computers. Never in her life had she known what the lab-coats did on these things. What were those buttons for? Would they harm the girl even more? How did she open the odd thing keeping the girl suspended in what she assumed was water? The experiment was at a loss.

The odd contraption that the girl was apparently hooked up to was a strange thing, egg-shaped with tubes and wires trailing from the computer to this strange, almost coffin-like capsule. The translucent material barely allowed sight of what was inside--the only thing that could be seen was a colored silhouette of something human-sized--mint-blue, peach, blank, brown, white.

There was a succession of images that flashed through Valerius' sight. Highlighting certain buttons, knobs and switches in an order, and then at last a lever with a horizontal bar. This, this, turn that all the way left, flips this down, and...this one, pull down. Each of the said buttons had its own function, not that Val really needed to know. A button would disable the alarm of the opening. Another would begin the disconnect process of all the wiring. The knob regulated the anesthesia that was being pumped through her system. The switch would begin to drain the fluid from the capsule and the lever would cause the capsule to hiss before the egg would open up with a hinge, again like a coffin. As the water finally drained from around her face, Val would be able to hear her coughing and gasping.

She had pale skin, and her long black hair was plastered to the side of her head and shoulders. The mint-blue was of the hospital garb that some of the other experiments wore, but some of her hair was draped around whatever the white and brown thing was behind her. The slowly draining water also obscured what the strange aperture might be for the time being.

The bat hybrid followed the instructions that flashed through her eyes, step-by-step until she was done. The contraption opened and she watched with a golden gaze as the pod released its captive. She was transfixed, never seeing anything like it before. It was obvious the voice in her mind was this small experiment.

"Can you walk?" Val asked, not sure if she should approach or leave her to cough and heave.

She glanced around nervously, not knowing how long they would have before the labcoats returned to check on her. They may call the Erasers as soon as they realize the two of them were out, then they'd be in serious trouble. Hopefully, they'd make it out in one piece.

"Thanks," came the rasp of a reply before she coughed once again. The small voice was rusty and creaked with disuse, but without a doubt it was the same voice that had echoed rather clearly in Val's mind all this time. The small girl made some attempt to brush some of her hair out of her face before she weakly swung her legs over the edge of the capsule. Her thin arms wobbled as she pushed herself out of the water and off the egg to stand--only for her knees to buckle the moment there was enough weight on them, and she grunted as she sprawled onto the ground clumsily.

It was only now that they moved that the mystery were made clear--there were appendages on her back--wings, Val might realize in comparison to her own--however, rather than the thin membrane of a bat, her white and brown mottled wings were made up of sopping feathers all plastered together in a way that looked heavy. She made some meager attempt to stretch her wings, but the remains of the anesthesia in her system made her whole body sluggish and clumsy.

"I--I need a minute," she croaked, albeit a bit stubborn to ask for any assistance despite not really being able to stand properly.

The brunette nodded her head, understanding that being confined in any prison -large or small- wears down on even the most strong-willed people. She shifted from foot-to-foot, not knowing if she should offer to help her up. After a brief moment of consideration, she decided against it in case the girl didn't like being touched.

Upon noticing her wings, Val tilted her head to one side. The younger experiment's wings looked odd and fluffy as opposed to the amber-eyed teen's sleek pair. She had never seen anything like it before. She wondered if they were heavy.

Val fidgeted nervously, waiting for the child to tell her the rest of the plan before the lab-coats figure out what they were up to. She trusted her, but she didn't appear to be in the best of shape.

After a few more shaky breaths, the girl reached up the side of the capsule and slowly pulled herself up, using it as s support as she reacquainted herself with having her body weight being supported by her own two feet again. If asked, she could not say how long she had been in that capsule. The simulations often warped her sense of time, and it had only been through a small window of true clarity that she had been able to create this opening to escape. With thanks to a cooperative Valerius, of course.

She made some attempt at wringing out her wings by shaking them mildly, but to little effect. Some of the dripping lessened but that was all.

Her mind raced, all of her training kicking in. They had tested her intellect endlessly through series of simulations involving combat, reasoning, and survival tactics. She wasn't sure how accurate the simulations were in relation to the world outside these School walls, but it was all she could go on.

Windows. Where were any windows in this place? It would be difficult to navigate the hvac tunnels again, and this time, without her being outside at the finish, they would be going in blind. In the halls, cameras would be a problem, as they always had been in simulations. She could get past a physical guard with her ability, but cameras were the ones who could remotely map her exit and make some way to block them off. But the tunnels were...

Ugh. Back to the tunnels it was.

Her breathing had steadied and her knees had finally stopped shaking. She tested more of her weight on her legs, shifting foot to foot, at last releasing her grip from the capsule. Like Val, she was a tiny, petite thing. She glanced back at her wings, folding them tight against her back as a test, and they collapsed together into a neat bundle like an overly long backpack.

"Okay." Her voice was still unsteady, but her expression seemed a bit more firm now. She glanced up at the tunnel that Val had gone through, and then wobbled over to pick up the grate cover that Val had kicked out. She pointed up at the tunnel. "We have to get back up there. Can you help me up?" While flight was a theory the whitecoats had allowed her to experiment with in the simulations, she had little faith in doing so now, especially with her soaked wings.

Val watched the small child shake her wings out. Was that what those were? They looked very different from her own, which were thin to the point that one could see her veins and bone-outlines. They had brown fur on them, of course, but the large, triangular things on the girls' didn't look like fur, but she had to admire how graceful they appeared.

The bat-hybrid shook her head. Now was not the time to be caught up in her mind. Their time was limited. They had to use it wisely. The teen nodded and hooked her hands together in a cup-like manner.

"Step here. I'll hoist you up and follow after."

Her foot was in pain from being broken, but she put weight on it regardless. Whining about it would do them no good. It didn't occur to her that her eyesight might be better in the dark tunnels of the air-vents. She just assumed their sight was the same since she had similar -yet different- wings. How was she to know the difference in a bird and bat having been isolated save for Erasers and Lab-coats?

The young girl took a deep breath, steeling herself. She was afraid that even such a small maneuver would be so out of her league because of her clumsiness in her own body--which had been inactive for almost as long as she could remember. But the fear of the whitecoats returning and dragging her back into the capsule overpowered that, and she pushed herself, setting the grate back down on the linoleum tile floor before taking a few short steps to Val's cupped hands.

It took much more effort than she expected to cling to the edge of the vent with the lack of strength in her fingers, but she gritted her teeth and with enormous effort and a groan she hoisted herself above the edge and crawled into the shadow of the opening.

"Come on," she murmured for Val to follow. "See if you can bring the cover with you. Can you put it back once you're up here?"

Heading forward, the girl groped about in the dark gently as she tried to make her way against the current of air that flowed through the vent. If her logic was correct, the airflow would ultimately be coming from a generator that would be drawing air from outside.

Valerius grabbed the cover and examined the dented metal. It may not fit back into place since she had literally busted the bolts holding it on the ceiling, but she was sure it could be jammed enough to prevent it from falling, if only for a little while.

The hybrid jumped, holding on to the edge of the vent opening and pulling herself up with only slight difficulty. She had practice with the large tree in her enclosure. Once she was in the dim vent, she worked at wrestling the cover into the opening. Nodding once she had succeeded, Val turned to face the young girl, whom she could see clearly.

"Which way?"

The girl had to grope about the tunnel, moving just slowly enough to make little to no noise. She wiped her mouth with her forearm, allowing a thin layer of saliva to coat the latter, and every time they hit a fork, she would hold up her arm and select the path with more airflow moving against them.

“Towards the air,” she murmured. Had both of them not possessed enhanced hearing, her soft voice might’ve been swallowed up entirely by the torrent all around them. “There’s a machine that is outside pushing the air through. If we find it, we can back up and find a way nearby where this vent tunnel leads outside.”

It was cold in there, and now it was damp as the water from the girl’s wings and clothes dripped onto the floor of the vent as they continued. “I don’t know how long we have until they find out we’re gone. Let’s keep moving.”

The water coming off of Xyla was collecting enough on Val's white pants and white shirt as she crawled after the girl. She shivered in the frigid air, but could only imagine how cold the other hybrid must be. Whatever kind of liquid she had been kept in was still soaking her through the bones, after all, as there hadn't been time nor resources to dry the younger of the two off before they made their escape.

She crawled quietly but swiftly, movements calculated and clear. Unlike Xyla, her eyes could make out the area around her, so she wasn't simply reaching into the darkness. The bat teen would have gladly told her had she known the difference in their sight, but even speaking allowed frightened her. Erasers had excellent hearing, and even if they could not hear the wolf hybrids over the air systems, that didn't mean that the guards couldn't hear them.

This fact kept her from voicing anything in return to her statements, instead opting to just continue on their course. They had to reach the end some time, preferably before they were discovered missing from their respective captivity. They wouldn't be treated lightly for trying to leave.

The girl couldn't help but shiver as she crawled. the frigid air was contained, of course, in the metal tunnels of the vents while she was still dripping. Her soaked baby-blue scrubs clung to her skin in the most uncomfortable way, oddly scratchy and humid between the battering cold of the air and her attempts of her body to create enough body heat for her to continue.

The roar of the air slowly became louder as they moved toward the flow's origin. There was...light there, after they turned a corner. But it was just an odd blur with the rotation of the generator's blades barring that exit. The girl blinked as she adjusted to the sight of light again. Once she did, she turned into another intersection away from the fan.

Suddenly, a deep, echoing voice ran through the speakers, accompanied by the deafening sound of sirens.
~We have a Code Black situation. All patients must be secured. I repeat, code black. All patients must be secured immediately.~

"Come on!" the girl hissed back to Val once she was able to find her breath, almost stumbling as she crawled faster, with slightly less regard for stealth in turn for speed. There was only so much time she could buy them with fooling the whitecoats with her ability, and that time was up now.

Light! There was more light ahead. Horizontal stripes like the vent cover that Val had kicked open to access the girl's room. But the light from these gaps weren't quite the same as the cold whites of the School's artificial light. While still mostly white, they held a softer, golden glow. The girl bumbled at last to the edge, sidling up to the vent. However, the tunnel was narrower, and hardly any room to turn about. She drew her elbow back, slamming it against the vent cover with a loud clang. The metal dented heavily and one corner was tossed off to pull more light into their small space, but the obstacle remained in place. She tried again, rearing her elbow back...

Val reached around the small girl, albeit with great difficulty due to their limited space, and grasped her arm to prevent the second blow. She was making too much noise. Any Eraser nearby would hear if she struck it anymore. The teen thought hard about their options. Suddenly her eyes lit up.

"How much time would it be to go back to the intersection?" she asked, trying to speak over the air while remaining quiet enough to not give away their position.

If she could break off anything from those rotating metal things, or perhaps even another vent cover, they could use that to wedge the metal blocking their exit. Only one of them had to go, and Val would move a lot faster without having Xyla unable to see in front of her. Then the child could get them out without injuring herself in the process, and make a lot less noise.

The young girl jerked with surprise as Val took hold of her arm. "What're you doing, we're right there," she whined, gesturing at the partly-open vent. The bat girl's question utterly puzzled her. Why one earth would she want to go back when the victory of their freedom was just on the other side of the wall.

"I dunno, twenty seconds? Why're you going back? You might get lost!" She pouted. While she would escape my herself if she absolutely had to, the idea didn't exactly sit well with her. Val had helped her, after all, and in return she'd promised to help Val escape the School too.

"You could hurt your arm and break it that way," she explained. "Besides, I know what turn we took, and how to get here. It won't take me long to get something and come back. You've gotten us this far. Trust me enough to do it quickly and quietly. Besides, the Erasers are looking for us everywhere. Banging on the grate will catch their attention, and then we won't have enough of a head-start to loose them."

It's the most Val's talked at once in a long time. She was confident in her ability to get them out with the right tool. Besides, an injury to Xyla's arm could cause trouble. If they couldn't reset the bone properly, it would heal wrong, and need to be re-broken. She didn't want her to go through that pain if it could be helped.

Her golden eyes seemed to shine brightly in the dark space around them, determined to show the child that the teen was willing to put in the extra work for her sake.