Escape [another version] - Persona 5
The Palace was falling apart faster than anyone could keep track of. Bridges snapped into ash mid-leap, entire towers collapsed into the void like dominoes, and the entire world felt like it was disintegrating around them.
The word "disintegrate" was notable here. The Thieves were used to the Palace "collapsing" when they completed their missions, but this was the first time any of them had ever witnessed an entire dimension crumbling around them like shards of glass.
"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" Sleuth barked, practically dragging Highwayman, who could barely see through the tears still streaming down her face.
"Don't look back!" Razor shouted, trying to steady her girlfriend while swinging forward with her grappling hook. "Eyes forward, dammit!"
Leprechaun pulled Mozart behind him, heart still hammering from the Killer's words.
He could still feel their grip on his throat and the chill of that declaration ringing in his skull.
He forced his thoughts aside. Survival came first. Payback could come later.
A collapsing overpass broke beneath them with a thunderous crack. Debris rained down, and a jagged beam of rebar nearly impaled Lab-Rat, only for Usami to shove him clear at the last second, her ears twitching wildly as she scanned the unstable wreckage.
"I think this path will take us straight to the exit!" she shouted, her eyes flitting over the shifting landscape.
"Then there's no time to think!" Leprechaun shouted, his voice cracking. "We're counting on you, Usami-sensei!"
Usami offered him little more than a sharp nod, and with a flash of light, transformed. The wheels screeched into being, and in seconds she was once again the bus, gold headlights flaring like a beacon in the storm of destruction.
"I know now's not the best time, but I am SO GLAD to be driving this thing again!" Sleuth exclaimed, throwing open the doors and hauling himself into the driver's seat. "EVERYONE INSIDE, NOW!"
The Phantom Thieves didn't hesitate. One by one, they scrambled inside: Razor practically lifting Highwayman in, Leprechaun hauling Mozart by the arm, Sandbox shoving Lab-Rat, clearly shaken up, through the door. Leprechaun leapt in last, slamming the door shut.
The interior lurched as Usami accelerated instantly, tires screeching across a collapsing bridge of stone. The entire structure fell into the abyss just seconds after they cleared it.
"GAH-!" Razor shouted as an enormous blade trap swung down, its jagged edge big enough to bisect the entire bus. Usami swerved, grinding metal against the wall as sparks rained down.
"Hold on tight, kids!" she called to them as another wall erupted into a storm of debris. Her hide groaned under the impacts while the Phantom Thieves inside clung to the seats, their knuckles white under their gloves.
The floor ahead gave way, revealing a yawning void.
"SHIT!" Lab-Rat cried. "WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!"
"Yes, we are! I am NOT letting us die after all this!" Usami snapped. The bus roared forward, springs coiling like a beast about to pounce, then launched into the air.
For one impossible moment, all they could see was endless nothing. Then the tires slammed down hard on the opposite side, the bus fishtailing wildly but holding.
"YEEEAH, TEACHER!" Razor whooped despite herself.
But the Palace wasn't done with them just yet. The final chamber loomed ahead; the great reactor core splitting open, spitting fire and darkness into the collapsing sky. Buildings around it crumbled like toy blocks.
YOU ARE READING
Phantom Thieves of Hope - A Danganronpa X Persona 5 Story.
Fanfiction"Makoto Naegi is the Ultimate Lucky Student as the esteemed school of Hope's Peak Academy. Now beginning his second year with little to no problems, Makoto's life is turned upside down when he discovers a cognitive realm known as the Metaverse. Thro...
