"We know they're in there!" the mob screamed. The door to K. Robeson shattered under the weight of the attack. Stephanie had hidden in the bathroom, which had no windows. Muse and Sphinx guarded the door. The first to enter didn't even see them before they went down. Then the back windows went and people started climbing in.
    Sphinx picked up a desk and threw it across the room. Muse pulled out a blunt fencing saber and laid into the crowd with a will, but there were too many. The computers were splintered in moments. Sphinx was struck in the back of the head, roared, threw a man into the wall with raking claw wounds in his back.
    Muse turned swiftly, sword ready to strike—at an eight year old girl. He froze. A brick caught him in the head and he collapsed. Eventually they pulled Sphinx down as well. The bathroom door was kicked down. Stephanie screamed.

    Lucky sprinted down the stairs, she could hear the hum of the generator below. People panicked at the sight of her, but it was a different kind of panic, more "she's not supposed to be here" than the mob rage she had seen outside. Someone tried to block her path, fired a shotgun. She defended herself with the staff and kept running. There was the source of the sound. No time to look for doors. She went straight through the wall. Five men inside, all armed. She paid them no attention, vaulted over their heads and yanked the main switch.

    A well-dressed blonde woman ran into her office, a panicked expression on her face. She tried to yank open a desk drawer, only to be stopped by the cane which caught it and slammed it shut once again.
    "I wouldn't go for the gun if I were you, Miss. C'est fini. Did you really think I would not figure it out?" Albert chided her. "That Needle's clone, what was her name, Susan? Why would they have a clone working in marketing? Doesn't make sense. Unless you're dealing with someone with biokinesis. The manipulation of the emotional centers of the human brain. The synthetic memories proved to me that this was possible. You probably, in the amount of time she was working here, were able to mechanically generate the effect. Oh, on a weaker level, no doubt, but enough that you could broadcast it out. It's been running through those insipid commercials, the pointless crunchy snacks, the cars everyone has been driving, that insane restaurant. For months now, building up this animosity against me and my friends. It's over now, do you understand me?" He stepped nearer. "Go ahead, go for the gun."
    She had a look of sheer, trapped panic. She reached for the gun and pulled it out. Against her own will then, it seemed, she looked up at him again. And screamed. And collapsed.

    Lucky's phone rang.
    "Yeah?" She never took her eyes from the men, who didn't seem sure what to do.
    "I will need you to turn that generator back on in a few minutes, do you understand me?" Albert asked. "Hold them off as long as you can, then turn it back on at a count of sixty."
    "Got it."

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