The door to the server room was unlocked when Ash arrived. The only person inside was John, who was sitting at a computer.

"Ash," he said without glancing up. "You shouldn't be in here." He clicked the mouse a couple of times. The computer made an unpleasant error noise, and he sighed.

"We're supposed to defend the server room. Someone said they saw the Supers come in here."

"Yes. You're too late. Do you know where Claudia is?"

"Roof, I think. She was going to leave soon." Ash frowned as he examined a strange diagram on the wall behind John. "Why?"

"We need to speed up the evacuation. They planted a bomb and I don't have the time to figure out how to disable it."

"What? How long do we have?"

"Just over twenty minutes."

Ash glanced behind them. There was still some fighting on the twelfth floor, and a few stragglers on the lower ones, but many of few Altered had already gone up to the roof. "We need to get out of here, anyway," Ash said. "There's something running around downstairs."

John frowned as the computer gave him another error. "Something? What do you mean."

"I have no idea. Like a genetic experiment gone wrong. Spider crossed with a... well, I don't even know. Bat?" Ash was starting to ramble. He bit his tongue and composed himself. The creature had scared him more than he cared to admit.

John's hands froze. Ash picked up a hint of fear on the scientist's face. "Not the Predator," he muttered. "Oh no. What did that boy do?"

"What?"

"Nothing. Never mind. You're right, we need to get everyone out."

"Are you coming?" Ash asked.

"I'll be up in a minute. I'm trying to see if there's a way to recover some of the data they deleted. I was able to send out some of it before they took down the servers, but I'm afraid the rest may be gone for good. Unless we could steal the drive they took."

Ash had no idea what John was going on about. "Right, well, Claudia wanted me to grab some samples from the lab a couple floors down." He wanted to get out of the building as soon as possible.

John gave no response other than muttering something under his breath. Ash turned and left the room.

~

Ash had just picked up the container Claudia described when he heard the clicking. It was faint, but definitely there. He tucked the samples under his arm and hurried to the nearest set of stairs.

When he reached the eleventh floor landing, he heard a thud come from somewhere up ahead. A jolt of fear coursed through his body. Something was coming.

Claudia had turned the power off to all the floors but the twelfth, so Ash only had his flashlight to illuminate the area. His hand shook as he pointed it down the hall to his left. Footsteps were getting louder.

It wasn't the creature, but a dark-haired girl that appeared at the end of the hallway. Ash's lips parted.

"No," he murmured. Was he hallucinating again? But this girl was far too old to be...

She walked toward him. "Ash." she said. "Ash. What...?"

It was Tyler.

Tyler Savage.

Ash took a step backward. The container slipped out from under his arm and hit the floor. He reached out, desperate for something to steady him, and found the wall.

"Why are you with them? Why are you with her?" Tyler was moving closer. Was she a ghost?

"You... How...?" Ash shook his head. "I thought you were dead."

"Yeah. You know why? Because she killed me! At least, she tried to."

"She?" Ash frowned. "What are you talking about? The scientist that shot you..."

"Claudia shot me."

"What? No." There she was, standing behind Tyler. Young Claudia. She held up her gun.

"Tyler, look out," Ash shouted.

Tyler glanced behind her. She turned back to Ash, confused. "Ash?"

"Ash!"

Hestia flew into the hallway behind Tyler, followed by Seth, each holding a flashlight of their own.

"Hey Ash, did you see those holes in the ceiling a couple halls down?" Hestia asked. When she saw Tyler, she stopped and frowned. "Who's this? One of Newman's?"

Tyler whirled around and clenched her fists. "Leave us alone," she said.

Hestia's gaze darted between her and Ash. "Who are you?" she asked.

"She's..." Ash trailed off, still in shock.

"I'm his sister," Tyler said. Her icy gaze flickered to Ash.

Seth grinned. "No way," he said. "No way. I can see the resemblance. But I thought your sister was dead."

"Seth, please," Hestia said. She glanced at Tyler, clearly unsure what to do with her. "Claudia said someone spotted Claire on the twelfth floor," she told Ash. "She wants you to grab her and bring her with us. And Ivy, if you can."

"Right," Ash said. His breathing was unsteady. He realized with a start that he was trembling. "Okay."

"Ash, please," Tyler said. "I don't know why you're working for her but it's not too late. Come with me."

Seth laughed. "Are you for real?"

Tyler took a step toward him and held up her fists. "Fight me."

Seth laughed even harder. Tyler frowned when her jacket wiggled. Something jumped out of the inside pocket and landed on the ground. A mouse.

Ash took a step back as the mouse transformed into a boy about eight years old. Was he losing his mind?

"Felix, what are you doing?" Tyler exclaimed.

"I want to help," Felix said.

Ash took a step forward. "Hestia, Seth, go find Claire. I'll take care of them." He nodded at Tyler and Felix.

"Ash, are you sure?" Hestia asked. "You seem a little..."

"I'm fine," Ash snapped. "Go."

"Come on, Seth," Hestia said. Seth muttered something under his breath and followed her to the stairs. Ash turned to Tyler, who was arguing with Felix.

"Tyler," he said. She looked over at him. He took a deep breath and asked, "How are you alive?"

~

When they reached the eleventh floor, Claire grabbed Ivy's arm. "It's coming the same way we did. I can't stop it, but I think I can delay it."

Ivy nodded. "Whatever you think will help."

Claire turned around and took a deep breath. The ceiling over the stairs shook. Cracks extended along the walls. Ivy took a nervous step back.

The ceiling caved in, dumping a load of concrete and sheetrock and wood and pipes in between them and the approaching monster. The dust cleared, revealing the extent of the damage. There was no way to get up and down the stairs.

"It'll probably go to another set of stairs, but this should buy us enough time to get up to the twelfth floor," Claire said. There was still the unanswered question of what would happen when they got up there, but Ivy supposed they would have to cross that bridge when they got to it.

They were almost to the next set of stairs when they heard voices coming from down the hall.

Ivy paused. "Doesn't sound like fighting. What's going on?"

"Should we check it out?" Claire asked.

"What if the creature catches up?"

Claire peered down the hall, but it was impossible to see very far, even with the fire in Ivy's hand. "Well then we need to warn whoever it is."

"Right. Of course."

They hurried to the voices, and when they found the source Ivy stopped dead in her tracks.

Ash stood in the middle of the hall, staring down Tyler and Felix.

Felix?

"Tyler, where's your team?" Ivy asked, drawing everyone's attention. "And what on earth is Felix doing here?"

"I wanted to find my mom," Felix blurted.

Ash frowned and glanced at him. "Your mom?"

"Rosa Rivera."

"Rivera's your mother?" Ash asked.

"Tyler, you shouldn't be up here," Ivy said. "What were you thinking? And bringing Felix with you?"

Ash turned his focus back to her and narrowed his eyes. "Who gave you the right to talk to my sister like that?"

"What?" Ivy's gaze jumped between him and Tyler. She gasped as the realization sunk in. The resemblance between the shapes of their faces, the way their expressions changed when they were annoyed...

That was what had been bothering Ivy about Tyler. The flicker of familiarity when she spoke. When she tilted her head, argued, trained...

Metal pipes exploded from the wall next to them, leaving behind a hole that Hestia and Seth stepped through.

Seth gave them a cold smile. "Well, well, well. We came back to tell Ash that Claire and Ivy were down here somewhere, but it looks like we found what we're looking for."

Hestia disappeared from the spot next to him and reappeared next to Claire. Claire cried out in protest as Hestia grabbed her. Ivy moved to follow them, but Seth jumped in her way and swung a pipe at her head.

Ivy ducked, barely dodging his attack, and managed to land a punch in his stomach.

"A little help?" Hestia asked as she struggled to keep a hold of Claire. "Ash?"

Ivy jumped away from Seth and glanced at Ash. He was staring at an empty space down the hallway, his expression a mixture of confusion and fear.

"Ash," Hestia said.

Ash's gaze hardened. "I'm coming." He walked over to her and grabbed Claire's arm.

"Ash, please," Tyler said. "You don't have to help them."

Ash ignored her. Gritting her teeth, Ivy lunged toward him. Seth grabbed her arm and pulled her to the ground.

Ivy pulled herself to her feet and chased them down the hallway. "Come on," she growled to Tyler and Felix as she passed them.

Two loud beeps echoed through the hallway. Twenty minutes left on the bomb. Ivy threw a fireball, but it missed. Ash, Claire, Hestia and Seth disappeared into a doorway up ahead. Ivy slammed into it and grabbed the handle. Locked. Tyler and Felix reached the door, out of breath.

Footsteps came from behind them. Spencer, Victoria, and Ace ran over to them.

"They have Claire," Ivy said, fighting to keep hysteria out of her voice.

"What?" Victoria shrieked. She grabbed the door handle and pulled. When it didn't give, she cursed and took a step back.

"We have to go," Spencer said. "The bomb goes off in twenty minutes and we've got eleven flights of stairs to go down, and a nearly hundred Supers to get down them."

"But Claire—" Victoria began.

"We won't be any use to her if we're dead!" Spencer shouted. He clenched a fist. "Don't think I don't want to rescue her, too. I care just as much as you guys do." His gaze moved behind them and his eyes widened. "Uh oh."

"What?" Ivy asked.

"That." Spencer pointed behind her, to the group of soldiers moving toward them.