The blue flashes of light faded away, and Alf rubbed his eyes, mentally exhausted. Redirecting the lightning into the spheres had demanded even more focus than using the Basanizos. As Alf's shoulders began to relax, Zaphaniea exclaimed, "It's not over yet. All I did was reboot the system. As soon as the power comes back on, so will the security system."

"Ugh," groaned Alf, lowering his arms. Gazing at the round ceiling high overhead, he waited for Zaphaniea's visions to resume. Sure enough, the ceiling tiles began to glow again, and the lights in the room flickered back to life.

Zaphaniea stepped closer to where the screen had been and raised her hand, getting ready to tap away. "The security system is booting back up. Get ready," she warned.

Drake's shoulders tensed, and he repositioned his small spheres around them. However, instead of arcs of blue lightning, a loud, mechanical, female voice suddenly declared, "Unauthorized personnel detected in the Ganglion. Initiating emergency lockout procedures."

Thick grey metal plates slid over the white walls and screens. A hard armored box then shot out of the floor and ceiling, shoving aside the dead body. The armored box tried to encase the floating image, but Zaphaniea's eyes glowed as she thrust out her hand. Her pink spheres wedged themselves into the box's corners and sides, preventing it from closing entirely around the image.

"Not good!" Drake spat as his spheres raced to the door. But he was too late - thick, armored, metal walls slid over the entrance, trapping them inside.

"Thirty-eight percent of unauthorized personnel have been confined in the Ganglion," the AI, or whatever she was, declared. "Awaiting supervisor's next order. If no order is given, directive 1948 will be initiated, and unauthorized intruders will be purged."

"That doesn't sound good," Alf said, switching his focus to his spheres.

Zaphaniea's eyes glowed brighter for a second. "It's not!" she exclaimed in panic. "The stupid thing is going to flood the room with lava!"

"What?" Alf blurted. His eyes widened as he imagined lava flooding the circular room and burning them alive.

"You heard me, L-A-V-A lava," Zaphaniea said sharply. "The stupid AI is going to flood the room with it."

Drake bounced his spheres off the metal walls blocking their way out. "Is there any way to stop it?" he asked in frustration.

As Zaphaniea's attention returned to the floating image, Alf pulled water out of the air. If she couldn't stop it, he might be able to freeze the lava before it reached them.

Zaphaniea examined the screen and muttered, "I don't know. Someone has overridden the security and locked out everybody until a special command is given. But now that I've rebooted the system, it's gone back to its default settings."

An ice crystal formed above Alf's shoulder as he grumbled, "Yeah, I think I liked the other setting better."

Drakovian helped feed water into Alf's crystal. "Can you override it?" he asked.

"No," Zaphaniea said, fiercely tapping away on the screen. "It has completely locked me out."

"Now what?" Alf asked in desperation as the last bit of water in the air flowed into the crystal.

Drake glanced up at the rather small ice gem and said, "Our only option is to retreat for now." He jutted his chin at the metal wall sealing the exit. "Alf, see if you can break through those armored panels."

Alf nodded, mentally grabbed his giant sphere, raised both of his hands over his head, and slammed them down. The massive sphere whistled as it raced through the air and smashed into the metal wall. A loud clang rang out, but the wall remained unscathed.

"Uh, yeah, this isn't good," Zaphaniea muttered.

Determined, Alf once again raised his hands and slammed them down with all his might. The sphere pulled back and crashed into the door again, but the armored wall still didn't budge.

A loud beep echoed in the chamber, followed by the mechanical female voice announcing, "No order received. Initiating purge."

Vents in the floor slid open, and a wave of heat flooded the room. Zaphaniea's eyes briefly glowed, and her face paled. "Alf, you better get that door open, or we're going to be fossils!"

"I can't get through it with my sphere," he told her. "And if I hit it with a fireball, I'll burn us alive!"

"That's going to happen either way. Just try! Besides, you have much better energy control now," Drake said, using wind to push back the intense heat.

The grand champion's eyes briefly glowed again. "No," she said. "He's right. He has a lot better control, but not that good."

Alf's eyes glowed neon blue as he channeled energy into them. Maybe there was another option. The world shifted hues, and he eagerly looked around. There was no energy left in the walls, floor, or ceilings, and only a tiny bit of energy powered the screen. His shoulders sagged. There was nothing there.

As the sound of liquid gurgling from the floor vents grew louder, Drake pressed his back against Alf's. "This is not the glorious end I imagined," he said.

With those words, lava began to bubble up and out of the vents. As it oozed and rolled across the floor, Alf let the energy fade from his eyes and fired off several ice spikes.

The ice plunged into the lava with a loud hiss. Clouds of steam billowed up while the bright red liquid turned into muddy black rock, freezing it in place. But the lava beneath it pushed it out of the way.

Alf reached out to pull the steam to himself so he could reuse it, but Zaphaniea grabbed his arm. "No," she warned, her eyes glowing. "It's far too hot; you'll burn yourself."

He nodded and channeled a shield around them as the room's heat singed the hair on his arms. There was nothing for it. Alf would have to blow the door open with a fireball and pray he could bend its explosion around them.

But just as he focused on the door, Zaphaniea shouted, "Hurry it up, froggy!"

Suddenly, a glowing blade plunged through the thick metal plates and started to carve out a hole.

"Hurry!" Zaphaniea shouted again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going as fast as I can," Rex hollered back.

Within seconds, a large circular chunk of metal clanged onto the floor, opening a hole in the entryway. Alf released his shield, grabbed Drake, and hurled him through the hole as if in slow motion. With a snap of her fingers, Zaphaniea rocketed out of the room, and Alf sprinted after her.

Diving for safety, he flew through the hole and landed on a blue shield covering a destroyed floor. Metal fragments bounced off his head, and he glanced upward. The ceiling resembled melted Swiss cheese. Apparently, they'd had to destroy the electric plates to reach them.

"What happened?" Olivia asked, panting with her hands on her knees.

"No time to explain!" Drake exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and dashing down the hall. "We need to get up the shaft!" he called back.

"The stupid AI is flooding this entire floor with lava," Zaphaniea yelled while she chased after Drake.

"Whoa, no way I'm not swimming in that. Let's Go!!" Rex slammed his blade into his sheath and dashed after them.

However, as everyone reached the end of the hall, the mechanical female voice declared, "Containment breach. Initiating emergency process directive A1."

"Get out of the shaft!" Zaphaniea shouted, thrusting out her hand and yanking back hard. Seeing Zaphaniea's vision, Alf grabbed Olivia's arm and pulled her back.

BOOM!

The entire shaft exploded, throwing them back down the hallway. Alf landed on his backside and slid across the floor as a cloud of dust filled the air.

"All intruders now confined. Continuing purge," the AI declared pompously.

The heat from the control room brushed the back of Alf's head, and he sprang to his feet. He quickly glanced around, making sure everyone was all right, then raced back up the hall to the elevator.

Huge chunks of rock and dirt clogged the shaft, spilling onto the floor and blocking the way up. Alf brushed away floating dust particles and charged earth magic into the collapsed shaft .

"Can you clear it?" Drake asked, running up beside him.

Alf released his charge, but nothing happened. "No," he said in frustration. "It's already locked down with powerful earth magic."

Drake stared at the wall of rubble blocking their path, his jaw twitching. He glanced back down the hallway and opened his mouth to speak. But dust floated up his nose, and the prince sneezed three times in quick succession.