"Well, this could be a perdicament." Strife said. The good news was that the group had sucessfully found the cave that apparently led into the hydras' mine. The bad news was that the cave entrance was only two, maybe three feet in diameter(6-12 decimeters). While Strife, Wallace, and Lockheart could fit through; and Kisaraki could squeese in, there was absolutely no way Vincent could get in the cave.
"Well big guy, seein' as you can't get through, I reckon the best thing for you to do is stand guard here," Wallace told him. Vincent simply nodded.
After a few minutes of crawling, the four reached an opening. "Well, judgin' by the tram rails, I'd say you've led us to the jackpot. Good job Kisaragi!" Wallace told her. Kisaragi couldn't help grinning from ear to ear.
"I thought I heard something coming from this way!" said a voice from deeper inside the tunnel. From around the corner came two hydra guards. "Hey, it's a half-breed!" said the same one who had given away their location, pointing at Kisaragi.
"I thought the Empire got rid of all of those. There aren't supposed to be any left!" Said the other.
"Once we're through with these guys," the first one said, charging his gun, "there won't be." However, before the two could fire, Lockheart rushed at them and knocked the pair out.
After she had tied up the two soldiers, Lockheart looked around. "There isn't much time! reinforcements are going to be here any minute now," she told them, already running deeper into the mine.
While sprinting through the mine shaft, Strife asked Kisaragi a question. "Back there, the guards called you..."
"A half-breed" she finished for him. "The hydras never were ahead when it came to weapons or armor, but what they did know about was genetics. In an attempt to make the ultimate warrior, the hydra Empire captured dragons from the other races and bred them with their own warriors. I was one of the results. A cross between a wyvern and a hydra."
"I guess that explains why you're so slim. and all this time I thought it was from diet and exercise," Strife joked. Kisaragi tried to hide a smile, and then continued.
"The Empire regarded us as faliures, so they killed us off."
"But you escaped?" Strife asked her. Kisaragi nodded.
"I joined Avalanche to stop that from happening ever again."
"Finally, we're here," Wallace declared. "Okay, so the bomb goes here," he said, unstrapping the device from his back and putting it on the ground. "Now we just set it to one hour and press start," he thought out loud. "That should give us just enough time to crawl back through the cave and..."
"Wallace! You idiot!!" All three of Kisaragi's heads screamed. "You didn't set the timer to an hour, you set it to ten minutes!"
As the group ran for their lives through the tunnnel, they all agreed to go through the main entrance. Meanwhile, Wallace contacted Vincent through his radio.
"Vincent, do you read me?"
"loud and clear sir," they heard through the speakers.
"Vincent, we've got a little problem."
"Little?" Lockheart yelled.
"Make that a big problem. We need you to go to the main entrance and clear out the guards. Is that clear?" Wallace asked into the radio.
Instantly, the reply came,"Got it."