Coop noticed the approaching descending wave of the factory. His body tensed. He rubbed his shoulder reflexively, and hunkered down as the collapse raced towards them.

When it was fifty feet away, he began to run towards it, stubby legs pumping like pistons on a race car engine; at ten feet, he spread his wings; at five, he hopped, and skipped, and then he was flung into the sky, catapulted by the fierce exhaust of the factory’s implosion.

How to escape the rooftop of a collapsing building:

???

That must have been Midian's conclusion in the heat of the moment as he sped toward the edge of the structure in his fastest possible sprint, because once he got there, he just... ran straight off. Really, he barely even got a good jump in there. He just ran off the the building.

It probably wasn't his proudest moment in terms of displays of agility and deft feats of daring-do, but really, he just didn't spy anything as useful as what Ace found in time. The hard street twenty stories below looked more inviting than the explosions and falling rubble, so he fell.

...

Aaand there went the shattering glass and car alarm.

Somewhere down below, the yellow jackal could be seen shaking his stupor off and clamoring, flailing, off the roof of a parked (and now severely dented and largely glassless) car. He was limping away just as the hot, obscuring tidal wave of concrete dust and smoke washed over the roads and sidewalks.

Next on the way down were Rodolf, who made his way down largely unscathed; Geoff, who landed at the bottom of the drop, shaken but protected by his various crystalline accoutrement; and Mako, who free-fell, screaming the whole way up until the point that his fall was broken by a dumpster inexplicably full of mattresses.

And lastly, Coop hit the ground, perhaps a bit too hard. He grunted and rolled, slightly awkward, but was up again instantly. He was breathing hard, and made an effort to filter some of the dust out of the air with his hand as he struggled simultaneously to regain his balance.

Eventually the clattering smashing banging crashing of the collapsing factory stopped, and Coop wobbled upright.

“Whoof,” he said, “that was,” he said, taking a deep lung-full of still-dusty air, “that was hgnghgnahaghackhack,” he coughed, "insane. That was too close.”

He breathed deeply for a few seconds more.

“That was too close,” he repeated himself, "Stu—“ he took another breath, “stupid kid almost blew us up again. I am going,” he added, holding up a finger to make a point, “to kill him. I am serious. I am going to shove his skull,” breathe, "down his throat.”

He looked around. “We’re going—to be covered in robots if we don’t move it. Come on,” he beckoned, beginning a tipsy, still-slightly-stunned jog to a nearby alley-way.

Some distance through the alleyway ahead of Coop was an open manhole, its cover laying aside on the asphalt. A pair of arms and hands flailed wildly from within in an "over here" motion. The head of the waving individual couldn't be seen, but the teal and white gloves and black arms probably didn't look familiar to anyone present anyway. At least they didn't belong to Seven.

As the party drew nearer, they'd find that whoever opened the path for them had descended into the storm sewer to get out of their way—if they chose to take the risk and follow. Straight ahead, the alleyway opened into clear street, and with no irritating Cop Speeders yet closing in on them, they still had a good chance at simply running away if they chose.

Coop returned, looming over the two like a black cloud.

“Hey,” he said to Ace, waving his hand in front of the cat’s face, “can you walk?"

“Yeah we’re fine,” said Coop, brusquely, “come on.”

He turned and strode back to the alley-way, where he had had the discomfiting sensation that he had seen something near an open man-cover.

He approached it, and stuck his head in suspiciously, looking for signs of...

something.

Midian at first passed their alleyway up, hunched forward, holding his gut in one hand and his head in another as he moved in lurching steps.

Pause. Insert imaginary "reverse" beep. The dazed jackal backed up in the exact same motion, squinted in the direction of the group's retreating back, then hobbled off after them. The farther he walked, the less he limped, and the more he seemed to pull it together, but... well, give the guy some credit. He just busted up the roof of a car with his body, and he did not quite have a rugged Ace Physique.

Inside the manhole was a ladder into a shady space. It was a conspicuously clean ladder, and at its bottom was a suspiciously clean, smooth, industrial-looking concrete floor. Though darker inside than out, that was just the effect of the sun on the eagle's vision. As soon as his eyes adjusted, should he enter, he would find that the area at the bottom of the ladder was in fact quite well lit by incandescent light bulbs mounted bare in fixtures on the concrete ceiling.

It was a tunnel. It looked a little small and crude, with wiring and pipes running seemingly willy-nilly along the walls, but it was clean and rather new-looking, and broad enough to allow at least a Coop and an Ace to walk side-by-side if they so desired (and did not mind modestly intimate contact in the process).

Waiting or the group was a mercifully non-robotic, non-snot-nosed-human individual. It was a sporty-dressed spider fellow. Teal, white, and orange, neatly-matched gloves (a lot of them) and running shoes against a so-dark-blue-it-was-almost-black body. Save for having significantly more limbs than the average bear, he was unremarkable at best.

"C'mon-c'mon everybody," he urged in hushed tone, waving briskly at whoever was descending the ladder. One of his many hands hovered over large, round-buttoned toggle-switch box that he seemed rather anxious to use.