XV

                                    

                                          
    "It's okay, Lancelot." Merlin said, gesturing with his hand for Roxy to lower her gun. "Put it down. It's verified." He glanced at Arthur's  phone one last time. 
                          
     Roxy— well, now Lancelot— let her pistol fall to her sides. 
                          
     "Arthur's phone is receiving update texts about getting to safety— we don't have a lot of time." Merlin said, his lips forming a tight line.
                          
     "What are you going to do?" I asked.
                          
     "Question is," The older man looked between Eggsy, Roxy, and I. "what are we gonna do? God knows who's in Valentine's pocket and who's not. We have no choice. We're gonna have to deal with this ourselves."
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      "What the fuck is this?" Eggsy asked, picking up a yellow, amusing looking rectangular gadget as I stared out the window of the plane into the foggy clouds.
                          
       "I have no idea." Roxy laughed.
                          
        "What you're playing with is a prototype personal trans-atmospheric vehicle." Merlin explained coming out of the cockpit. "It was developed as part of Reagan's Star Wars Project. It's pretty basic... but it should work. We're going to take out one of Valentine's satellites. We're going to break the chain, stop the signal." He glanced worriedly at me before continuing. "It'll take him a couple of hours to reroute it, which buys us enough time for you two to get me into Valentine's mainframe so I can shut it down."
                          
      Eggsy and I nodded our heads. 
                          
     "Lancelot, you're gonna be using it." Merlin commanded. "Get in your halo suit."
                          
       Roxy shook her head up and down, but I could already see the panic in her eyes.
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     Merlin inspected the implant Arthur had in his neck, and hummed quietly. "It seems the implant can emit some kind of counter signal to ensure the wearer remains unaffected by the waves from the SIM card."
                          
       "The waves that turn everyone into a psycho killer." Eggsy added from the armchair where he sat.
                          
      Like Harry, I thought, closing my eyes and trying to suffocate all my emotions. It was mission time. I couldn't get the feels now.
                          
      "Quite." Merlin confirmed. "But what he probably didn't tell anyone is it can also super-heat their soft tissues at his command. Valentine selected his chosen few to get the countdown warning, but he had to be sure they didn't blab to the wrong people beforehand."
                          
         "How does that help us right now?" I asked finally. I hadn't spoken in what felt like forever. 
                          
        "It doesn't." Merlin said grimly. "Roxy! Here we go!" 
                          
       We headed outside where Lancelot was getting ready.
                          
        Merlin quickly adjusted and attached the two gigantic balloons to Roxy's suit. "The higher you go, the more the balloons will expand. When you reach the edge of the atmosphere, they'll explode. You'll need to deploy your missile just before that, okay?"
                          
         "The edge of the atmosphere." Roxy muttered shakily.
                          
         "Once you've deployed, you'll need to release for descent fast. Good luck." Merlin said.
                          
       Eggsy and I each took one of her hands. 
                          
       "You can do this." Eggsy encouraged.
                          
        I gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze. "There's literally nothing you can't do, Roxy. Let me just tell you, I'd have shit my pants already."