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When the sound of thebecame audible, Kurt left his covered spot and rushed to the stairs He bounded up the first flight as the warbot entered the building at the front of the structure and began scanning

He’d noisily cli down There, he found an opening that had once been aand glanced out into the dark He could see othertheir way

The plan orking—except for one thing The firstfaster than Kurt had expected Much faster It was already on the stairs two flights below him

Kurt took off and raced up the next few flights There were no doors to shut, no obstacles to create, nothing he could find that would slow the ain, it was probably pointless; he’d seen theh plenty of doors in the simulation

Passing the seventh floor, he could hear Joe and Nagano banging against so?” he shouted

“First miscalculation,” Joe shouted “Roof door is padlocked We’re trying to break it down But, hey, there was bound to be at least one problem with the plan”

“One problem would be fine,” Kurt shouted, “but we have two The lead warbot isn’t waiting for backup”

“So slow it down,” Joe shouted

Easier said than done, Kurt thought He considered the sword in his hand “Too bad Masamune didn’t make rocket launchers”

“Should we look for another way up?” Joe asked

Looking around, Kurt spotted so on the door”

“What are you going to do?”

“My best exterminator routine”

While Joe and Nagano continued to batter the door two flights above hi the edge of the stairwell After hacking through the rusted metal at the bottom, he wrenched the obstruction out of his way

That done, he rushed to a pile of rubble, where part of the wall had collapsed He found a sizable wedge of concrete lying on the floor It was too heavy to lift, but getting low and pushing with both legs, he was able to slide it across the floor He pushed it to the edge of the stairwell and waited