Wolph stood in the corner of the bathroom waiting for Twarp to arrive. Impatiently he tapped his foot in time with a tune he was whistling. All the while thinking to himself something along the lines of “This guy is taking forever. Maybe he decided to chicken out at the last second”. Just then, the door opened and he heard a familiar girl’s voice speaking.
“Twarp, this the men’s restroom. You aren’t trying to trick me into something weird, are you?”
“N- no! N- never!”
“If I didn’t know you’re just nervous around girls, I’d assume that was just a bad lie.”
Rayvin and Twarp came around the corner to see Wolph.
“Is this the man you were telling me about?”
“Yeah, that’s him…”
Wolph realized who the voice belonged to, then looked Twarp dead in the eye, “Hang on! You snitched on me to little miss ‘Rules Lawyer’ over here?!”
“Wait! That’s not-!”
“Excuse me?!” Rayvin shouted, “I’ll have you know I’d just rather not get in trouble!”
“Yeah, so you’re here to ruin my plan, huh?! Is that it?! First, you wanna take away my fun, now you wanna take away my right to freedom??”
“I never said I wanted any of that! I want to be free just as much as you do!”
“Is that so?!”
“Yeah!”
“And why’s that?!”
“I’ve had enough of you two!” Twarp yelled at Wolph and Rayvin. They looked at him, “We all want the same thing and that’s to get out of here! That’s why we’re in this bathroom, to begin with! So just shut up and work together on this one thing!”
Wolph sighed deeply, “You’re right, guy. We really are in this bathroom together. I’m sorry, girl.”
Rayvin frowned, “You have my apologies as well. Also, it’s Rayvin, not ‘girl’.”
“What, like the earth animal?”
“No, it’s my name.”
“Weird name, I’ll call you ‘kid’ for short.”
“That’s not even close to my name…”
“S-so what’s the plan?” Twarp said quickly as to prevent them from arguing about what Rayvin should be called.
“Ah, thanks for reminding me,” Wolph pulled out a key card from… somewhere on him, “This bad boy will get us into anywhere that requires level 3 security clearance to access. We’ll use this to get our stuff back and steal a ship from the hanger.”
“That’s it?” Twarp asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. What else would there be?”
“No convoluted plan that’ll require all three of us to use our skillsets to the fullest while sneaking and fighting tooth and nail to our very last breath until we get out of here?” Rayvin inquired further.
“God no!” Wolph protested, “I wouldn’t have trusted two people to know about my plan if it wasn’t so simple, I’d just get the hell out of here myself. Also, anything that’s too difficult to do wouldn’t be a very smart escape plan.”
“That… actually makes sense…” Rayvin admitted.
They leave the bathroom one at a time. Twarp and Rayvin follow Wolph at a distance, though they never saw any guards on the way there. Neither did they find any in front of the door to the storage room. Wolph swipes the card on the door to the room, which contains the personal effects of all the prisoners, including theirs. They each find the lockers with their prisoner numbers on them and open them up. Wolph changed into his leather jacket, jeans, boots, and t-shirt. All black. A style not typically associated with the decade… nor the century for that matter. Twarp changed into his attire: a tight, striped tank top, a cap, baggy pants, and a pair of gloves that went up to his elbows. An outfit very closely resembling that of one who hunts creatures that live and die in the vacuum space that has recently been deemed a type of whale. Finally, Rayvin had… nothing to put on.
“Tch, figures,” Rayvin said to herself.
“What’s wrong?” Twarp asked her.
“None of my stuff is in here.”
“Heh, sucks to be you,” Wolph mocked, “They held onto my blaster AND cigarettes for me!”
“Cigarettes..?” Rayvin asked, “How old are you?”
“Only 38.”
“Old.”
"It's not that old!"
"Yes, it is. You're even dressed old."
"I don't think this is a good time for this," Twarp said.
"Ah, right. Guards could be here soon," Rayvin looked into the corner of the ceiling, "We're on the cameras."
"Well if we've got all our shit, let's get the hell outta here!" Wolph suggested and they all excit the room in a full sprint to the ship hanger. When they reached the door, Wolph pulled out the key card, "Alright, freedom time! Aaaaannnnd, swipe!"
Nothing.
"Uh, swipe."
Still nothing.
"Am I using the wrong side? Swipe!"
Nada.
"Hang on," Twarp took off one of his gloves and placed his bare hand on the card reader, "That card won't work on this."
"Why the hell not?"
"It requires a level 4 access card, not level 3."
"There's 4 levels?"
"There're 5."
"W- wait a sec how do you know that?"
"I'm psychic."
"Psychic?" Rayvin asked.
"That's the word I used, yes."
"Bullshit!" Wolph denied, "Prove it!"
Twarp pressed the index and middle fingers of his ungloved hand to the center of Wolph's forehead. Without removing them he leaned into Wolph's ear and whispered something. Rayvin had no idea what, but whatever it was it made Wolph turn pale. Twarp took his fingers off of Wolph, then stepped away.
"Uh… I guess that's proof enough…" Wolph coughed and waved his hand as though he were trying to clear the air of the awkwardness he felt.
Rayvin looked at Twarp, "Hang on, what did you say to him?"
"No idea," Twarp answered, "I know everything there is to know about whatever I touch, but as soon as I let go, all the information goes 'poof', gone. But I'm still able to remember any emotions I feel."
"Woah!" Rayvin's eyes lit up, "That's cool! I'd like to ask you more about that later!"
"Oh? Uh, okay. And th- thanks…" Twarp looked away from her, blushing slightly.
"Hang on!" Wolph shouted, "Why don't you use that handy dandy power to find us a way out of here! We just lost our only means of escape! You're basically a living map of this place!"
Twarp blinked at Wolph.
"What? What's that look for?"
"You're secretly really smart, huh?"
"There's nothing secret about it! You're just dumb!"
Twarp touched his hand to the floor and made a shocked expression, "There… are no guards coming."
"That can't be good," Rayvin realized.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Wolph asked.
"Not in this case, it's not," Rayvin answered, "Think about it. Why wouldn't they send guards to capture a trio of high-security prisoners in the process of escaping?"
"I really don’t know, just tell me.”
“So you’re not THAT smart,” Rayvin smiled.
Wolph shot her a death stare, “Excuse me?”
“The reason,” Twarp answered the question for Rayvin, “Is because the way they see it, our chances of escape were 0 from the start.”
“I- impossible…” Wolph denied, “My plan was foolproof!”
“Apparently not,” Rayvin said, “Since we needed level 4 security access to get into the hanger.”
Her words, although not intended as an insult, felt like a thousand tiny knives stinging his pride. Wolph had nothing to say for himself or his plan anymore. At this moment, he was utterly defeated, and he knew it.
“The way they see it is wrong though,” Twarp continued.
“Huh?” Rayvin and Wolph said in unison.
“There’s an old ship in the garbage chute they’re throwing away in 10 minutes. We’ll only need level 2 security access to get in. If we run we might be able to repair its life-support and thrusters so we can get out of here before it’s ejected from the station. Also, no guards there, they don’t expect us to know about it.”
“Garbage chute?” Rayvin paused to think for a moment, a bead of sweat dribbled down her forehead, “I know where that is! Let’s go!” She took off down the hall. Wolph chased after her.
“Of course she would know where that is…” Twarp mumbled to himself before following and putting his glove back on.
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