Three floors beneath the Egghead Island Laboratory.
A shrill, piercing alarm echoed through the metal passage.
Emergency red lights spun wildly overhead, bathing the cold alloy floor in crimson.
"Hurry!"
"Atlas, pull storage drive number three straight out! Don't wait for the system to eject it safely!"
Vegapunk's main body sprinted down the corridor on his short legs, clutching a silver metal case half his height.
The case held thirty years of core master data on the lineage factor and Devil Fruits.
"Got it, Doctor!"
Atlas ripped through the thick data cables with one massive iron fist.
Sparks crackled wildly through the air.
She stuffed the last few recording chips into a blastproof backpack and slung it onto her back.
"The escape submarine is ready!"
"Once we get through the pressure gate on the lowest level, we can enter the deep-sea turbulence!"
Atlas shouted, her footsteps pounding against the floor.
"Mr. Stark's pickup ship needs another five minutes to breach the outer atmosphere."
"If we can hold out for those five minutes, we'll survive!"
Vegapunk ran with sweat pouring down his face, his tongue dangling from the corner of his mouth.
Just as their fingers were about to reach the gate's release button.
A piercing air raid siren blared without warning.
The lights throughout the underground base flickered violently twice.
On the main control screen, every green dot marking the outer defenses turned a glaring scarlet in moments.
Boom!
A muffled roar came from above the island.
Five layers of automated laser defense arrays had been deployed over Egghead Island.
That high-energy interception network could hold off bombardment from a standard Marine fleet for half an hour.
Yet now, those defense arrays had not even finished locking onto their target.
A dazzling pillar of golden light descended from the sky.