Ranger stood outside the gates of McCollen's Mental Institution. "Why the devil did I agree to this?" She muttered.

Before she could fully comprehend the reality of what she was about to do, she walked toward the gates. Two sentinels stood guard at the entrance, and the first one said "State your name and your business here."

"Autumn Rift, military representative from the castle of King Notch." Ranger said, and her tone was surprisingly that of a soldier. She held out a note with an ornate seal stamped on the bottom in red wax.

The second sentinel took the note and, after thorough inspection, handed it back. "Go through the security hall. Leave any weapons outside. I assure you'll find the housing to be secure and to standard."

Of course. That was her cover story. She was checking the rooms the residents of the Institution stayed in as a surprise protocol inspection. Ranger nodded to the guard and stepped past the gate and into the courtyard.

Open land stretched from the gate to the entrance of the building itself. She'd have to figure out how to get from the door to the gate without being seen. Shaking her head almost imperceptibly, Ranger walked to the enormous building.

She had created a mental picture of the Institution - dull gray stone, iron bars, towering over the landscape.

In reality, it was nothing like that. It was low to the ground, and the outside walls were polished and painted white. All in all, it wasn't quite the imposing structure Ranger had been expecting. Either way, she had a job to do.

Pushing open the iron door that led inside, Ranger was met with a uniformed guard who she presumed was the security officer.

"Leave your weapons here and take the cloak off. Standard safety procedures, I'm afraid." The security officer said with an apologetic look. Apparently, he had already been informed of her ostensible excuse for being here.

Nodding, she slung her cloak off her shoulders and lay it down on a table. The security officer checked it to make sure nothing was amiss, and gestured for Ranger to remove her weapons.

Ranger complied, taking off all her weapons but one throwing knife. As she tried to remove the throwing knife from the sheath, she frowned as it didn't move. Stuck. "I'm sorry, this happens all the time. I need a new sheath for this thing."

"Not a problem. Here, allow me to help." The security officer stepped forward to help release the weapon. Before he had time to react, Ranger slipped the throwing knife from its sheath and slammed the hilt into his temple.

The security officer's eyes glazed over, and sank into unconsciousness. Ranger caught him by the front of his uniform before he could clatter to the floor. Quickly taking the uniform off him, she pulled him to the corner of the room and flung the cloak over him.

She now had a uniform and an excuse. So far so good.

Now, her greatest enemy was time. She needed to find out where Pro's room was located, get there, break her out, and get both of them out of the Institution - after retrieving her cloak and weapons - all without being caught or seen and without the unconscious security officer being discovered.

This was real life mission impossible.

But she had made a deal, and Ranger intended to hold up her end of the bargain. Opening the door on the opposite end of the security hallway, she glanced briefly at a map, committing it to memory.

She needed to get to the main control room. That was where all the information on inmates was stored, and where the security cameras were checked. Before anything else, she needed to ensure that there was no video or photographic evidence that might condemn her.

Being a thief was bad enough.

Quickly, turning her head to the side so that nobody had a clear view of her face, she made her way down a few hallways until she was met with another iron door. She was about to knock when she noticed something strange about the door.

Electrical pulses ran along the length of the iron. The origin point was in the center, and there was a rectangular sign near the top that read "High Security - Please Proceed With All Necessary Caution"

Of course. Ranger had seen this kind of door before. It was programmed to shock anybody who didn't give the proper sequence of knocks. It was odd, but apparently effective. Sadly, they didn't realize that the intruder had taken an advanced science classes.

Compare the strength of the electrical surges to the distance between the point of origin and the edges of the door, then find the radius of the emitter...

Ranger knocked twice just below the sign, once below the handle, once more under the sign, three under the handle, and one final knock in the exact center of the door. Pulling on the handle, she watched in satisfaction as the door clicked open without incident.

An entire wall was covered in live security camera footage. Walking over to them, checking for any sign of other employees, she began altering the recording process. Grabbing a small metal attachment from where she had hidden it in her boot, she plugged it into the control computer.

After a few moments to confirm it was working, she walked to the other side of the room to the countless files lining the wall. Ranger went pale as she saw the organization system. Or rather, the lack of one.

This was mission impossible with emphasis on impossible.

She began flipping through random files, searching through every one in sight, hoping to pick up Pro's file by chance. Every second that went by, Ranger half expected a squad of armed soldiers to burst in.

Soon the files became a blur. Then, after almost seven minutes of frantic searching, Ranger grabbed a file from the pile and flipped it open, already tensed to throw it over her shoulder.

She froze. It was Pro's file. Stuffing it in the uniform, Ranger quickly left the control room before someone could walk in and see her. Pulling the file out again, Ranger followed the relatively simple number classification method they used to match people with their rooms.

As she gradually reached the more dangerous asylum inmates, she felt her nerves begin to fray. Stealing diamonds was one thing. Freeing a legally insane person labeled 'extremely violent and without empathy' was another ballpark entirely.

She stopped at the cell marked 599-60. This was Pro's cell. The glass used to separate them was bulletproof glass, so cutting through it was out of the question. Melting it might be a better idea, but where in the world would she get a flame hot enough?

With a sinking feeling, she realized the only solution was herself.

Pro was standing in the center of the room with her hands clasped behind her back. She seemed to be deep in thought. Taking advantage of the fact that Pro was momentarily looking the other way, Ranger made her move.

Quickly placing a hand over the bulletproof glass, she waited in tense silence as the glass glowed purple, then began to melt away. The door was magnetically sealed, so that nobody on the inside or outside could just open it.

As the glass melted away to reveal the inner mechanisms of the magnetic lock, Ranger debated blasting the whole thing to smithereens, then decided against it. Instead, she only blew the lock open.

Pro turned on her heel at the sudden noise, and the flicker of recognition in her eyes as she beheld Ranger was enough. "Come on. We have to get out of here, now, otherwise we'll be caught." Ranger said urgently.

Pro started grinning like crazy as she stepped out of the cell. "Lead the way." She said.

And Ranger did. Together, the duo ran down countless hallways until they reached the security hallway. Pro raised an eyebrow as she saw the unconscious security officer.

"Don't ask." Ranger muttered as she grabbed her cloak and weapons.

Thankfully, Pro kept her mouth shut about the guard. "We need to get past the gate." She said instead.

Ranger gave her a crooked grin. "I already have that covered." She pulled a small metal mechanism out of her pocket and clicked a button. Almost immediately, there was absolute chaos inside the Institute as a shrill siren began to blare.

The two sentinels on guard duty at the gate looked up in surprise, then at the urging of one of the other guards, ran to a side entrance and vanished from sight.

"What did you do?" Pro asked.

"I erased everything they had downloaded into their main computer. Any video or photo evidence that I helped you escape is now lost in cyberspace. And in the process, I've created a situation in which we can literally walk out the front gates." Ranger said proudly.

Pro had to take a moment to be impressed. They opened the iron door and stepped outside. No soldiers came rushing at them. No officers yelled at them not to move. In fact, there was nobody here at all.

It was silence in a sea of chaos. Pro seemed to be enjoying it, and as Ranger pushed the gates open, she said "Such a flamboyant escape. I wonder just how mad they'll be."

"I'd rather not stick around to find out." Ranger said, and Pro gave her a dramatic salute.

"Nice to see you held up your end of the bargain, soldier. I'm forever in your debt." Pro said, and Ranger returned the salute, though in a slightly more serious manner.

"Don't make me regret breaking you out of there."