"Slip!" Clang's voice rang out.

I turned my attention away from the building frenzy down below.

Clang stood over Soaks's unconscious and newly limbless body. Miss Toontastic was standing a few paces away, her long curly hair whipping like a black flag in the wind.

"Yeah?" I said, with no resonance to my voice.

I felt numb. Not just from the weariness which came from having to heal severe wounds like the ones Soaks had dealt me, but from the exhaustion of too many crazy things having happened in a row.

Clang put a foot on top of Soaks's body.

"If I go into Tension times two – maybe even Tension times three – for a bit, I'll be way too fast for the Peepers to keep up. Are you both ready to run?"

"No," I said, "I've got nothing left. I'm sorry, but one of you will have to carry me."

"That's fine!" Miss Toontastic yelled, in Xandra's voice, "I'll carry Slip – Clang, you carry Soaks. If he wakes up and starts using his acid at least he won't hurt you."

"Right!" Clang's voice rang out, "Slip – you cool with it?"

"Yeah," I said, "Let's do it."

"Ah," Clang rasped, "We can't start running from here, it's too high up for me. We'll need to - er - take the stairs."

I nodded, and joined Miss Toontastic's side as we hurried to the broken rooftop door.

"Hey Miss!" Clang's voice rang out shortly after we finished descending the first of many more flights of stairs towards the ground floor.

"Yeah?" said Miss Toontastic, who instead of taking each step at a time was jumping down each entire flight in one go, then waiting for Clang and me to catch up.

"Did you get that Peeper pilot to safety alright?" Clang's voice rang.

Clang and I reached Miss Toontastic at the bottom of the stairs, and in unison the three of us started down the next flight.

"Oh yeah," said Miss Toontastic to Clang's question, "He's safe – broke his leg, but he'll be okay."

"Great going!" Clang's voice rang out, echoing off the tight stairwell, "I'd give you a pat on the back but my hands are full!"

"Thanks," said Miss Toontastic, appearing just a little bashful at the compliment.

She flew down the next flight of stairs, her dress rippling like she was some kind of Mushroom Princess floating rather than falling to the ground.

"You know!" Clang's voice rang, "We could-a taken the lift!"

"Nah," I said, "Getting trapped in a lift and fighting for our lives is the last thing we need. Gotta be smarter than that."

"Eh," Clang hummed like microphone feedback, not sounding too convinced.

He hoisted Soaks higher up against his chest. The stench of the acid which coated Soaks had mingled with the meaty pungence of his freshly cauterized wounds - smelling like barbeque meat drenched in cleaning chemicals.

I had to force myself to look away and concentrate on keeping up with the others. My body wasn't tiring from the running, but I was easily the slowest out of the three – and there was a vague pain in my right leg, as well as my right arm, from where I had rushed healing them before to get back into the fight against Soaks.

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"I can't believe we hijacked a helicopter!" Clang's voice rang excitedly, "So sick!"

This comment didn't earn a response from either me or Miss Toontastic, since neither of us were in the best of moods.

"And Slip!" Clang's voice rang.

"Yeah?" I said between huffs.

"You took out Chips and Lure on your own, din't you?" he said.

"Yeah," I said.

"And you finished off, Soaks?" Clang's voice rang.

"...yeah…" I mumbled.

"Ah!" Clang rasped, "I didn't get to do anything cool during the fighting! I'll do better next time!"

I started smirking despite how completely exhausted I felt.

"You idiot," I said, "You did amazing!"

Miss Toontastic soared by me and landed at the bottom of the stairs again. She had a somewhat petulant look on her face.

"Come on!" She said, "We're wasting so much time! The Pipers are gonna be down there waiting for us at this rate!"

There wasn't much we could do but continue to take each flight of stairs at a time. Doing so brought back memories of racing down the hidden stairs at the Wedder Gorge facility. Sophie and Walter had been with me then, but had gone their own ways when I had made my choice to get the Pied Piper officers to safety. That had been an understandable line in the sand neither Sophie or Walter were willing to cross. In that way, I could hardly blame them for leaving. Maybe it had just been a touch of madness, or some fake need to be heroic which had inspired me to risk my life to save the officers who certainly hadn't deserved being saved.

But, even thinking back on that decision to help them, no part of me regretted it. I had many regrets, but that decision was not one of them.

I looked from the corners of my eyes to Clang, and then Miss Toontastic, and wondered if there would be something similar that would, inevitably, cause us to go our separate ways too.

Clang and I shared a look and picked up our pace some more.

At last we reached the ground floor. We had managed to avoid people all the way down, but that must have been because so many of them were gathered at the ground floor entrance looking out the large pane windows to the chaos beyond.

The clanging of Clang's footsteps as we neared drew everyone's eyes on us.

As if on cue, a middle-aged woman let out a horrified scream at the sight of the three of us (and Soaks).

Cautious murmurs broke out among the three dozen people around us – most women, middle-aged, elderly, with only two elderly men, and a dozen or so children of various ages.

"We don't mean you any harm!" I said in a raised voice, putting my hands up.

The crowd backed away to the entrance, nearly a third of the number racing out rather than stay inside. Those remaining talked frantically among themselves, and then created an opening for Clang, Miss Toontastic, and I to leave.

"Thank you," I said.

I led the way outside.

The smell of burning and acrid smoke was thick in the air.

Ahead, across the street, the great twisted black metallic husk of the crashed helicopter continued to be consumed by a raging inferno.

Screams and shouts drew my attention to the other side of the street to the right, where a two-story building was partially on fire, and had collapsed in on itself.

Several men were desperately heaving away huge slabs of rock and other debris at the ground floor.

Then, above all the chaotic noises, there came the distinct, shrill, choking sobs of a little boy.

He was standing several paces from me, on his own, his face red and dirty.

I hurried over and knelt in front of him.

The boy continued to sob, hardly noticing my presence at first. And then, as I put a hand to his shoulder, he looked at me.

Of course I looked quite terrifying in my make-shift Slip-suit mask.

I tore it off, showing my real face.

"It's okay," I said, quickly, "Where's your parents?"

The little boy pointed towards the collapsed building.

"They're in there?" I said.

"M-m-my M-Mum," the boy choked out, "They're t-trying to get her o-out."

I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Miss Toontastic's. She had a knowing look on her face.

"Slip!" Clang's voice rang from a few paces away, "We need to go! Put your mask on!"

I pressed the mesh of sinew-strands in my left hand back to my face, recreating the mask, and faced back to the little boy.

"Go inside," I said to the little boy, pointing to the estate tower block entrance, "It's not safe out here. I'll help your Mum."

The little boy nodded and raced into the estate tower block foyer, joining the others that had remained in there.

"What are we waiting for?" Clang's voice rang.

"There's people in that collapsed building!" I said, "They need our help!"

I saw a look of indecision in Clang's golden eyes for an instant, and then he found his resolve.

"Right!" his voice rang out.

Which left Miss Toontastic, but from the look I had seen on her face I already knew she had made up her mind about what she wanted to do.

"Okay," she said, "But we have to move fast!"

Together, the three of us raced across the street to the collapsed building.

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