Karl stayed collapsed on the dirt for a moment, the turbines in his back whining as they cooled. Agnes hovered beside him, flickering faintly from the strain.
Finally, Karl pushed himself up to one knee.
"Agnes…?"
"Yes?" she answered, running post-battle diagnostics.
"…I just remembered something extremely stupid."
Agnes paused.
"…Define 'stupid.'"
Karl rubbed the side of his helmet.
"My Blueprint Overdrive?"
Agnes blinked.
Once.
Twice.
"…Karl," she said slowly, "you have fifty-seven functions tied to Blueprint Overdrive. You'll need to be specific."
"The rail system."
"…Rail system?"
"You know—making intangible tracks and support beams made out of blueprint projections? The ones only I can stand on? The ones meant to let me travel like a bullet train with Nova gears under my feet??"
Agnes froze.
Her hologram stared at him.
Expressionless.
Completely still.
Then:
"…Karl."
"…Yeah?"
"What the hell."
Karl threw his arms out.
"I FORGOT, OKAY?!"
Agnes' hologram put a hand to her face.
"You're telling me we nearly died running through a Class-Black Ichor Storm—using ground traversal—because you forgot you literally designed nanite train tracks for yourself?!"
Karl slumped.
"…yea."
Agnes' voice glitched from sheer disbelief.
"Karl. We've been relying on Overburn Nitro for long-distance travel for so long I… I may have also overlooked that system."
Karl's visor widened in shock.
"You too?!"
Agnes flickered, embarrassed.
"Well— you use Nitro for 90% of all movement. Gearstorm for the remaining 10. The Blueprint subsystem is usually for building structures, weapons, traps— not for travel!"
Karl pointed at the empty desert ahead.
"WE COULD BE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF COLORADO BY NOW."
Agnes sighed.
"Yes.
Yes, Karl, we could."
There was a long silence.
Then Karl slowly lifted his hand toward the air.
"Want… want me to try it now?"
Agnes pinched the bridge of her phantom nose.
"Yes.
Please.
Activate the function you apparently forgot existed."
Karl stretched out both arms.
"Blueprint Overdrive… activate: RAIL-LINE SKELETON!"
The air in front of him rippled.
Lines of blue holographic ink shot outward, sketching a lattice of transparent rails, beams, support frames, and arcs like a sci-fi rollercoaster snapping into existence.
They solidified into glowing cyan projections.
Agnes stared in horrified awe.
"Karl… that's… that's an entire high-speed transit system you just casually made."
Karl nodded proudly.
"And it costs almost no nanites because it's intangible. Only I can touch it."
Agnes pointed at the foot of the nearest rail.
"Put your foot on it."
Karl shifted into a stance and let the Gearstorm Nova turbines shift downward, forming two glowing gear-wheels under each foot.
He set his foot on the blueprint rail.
It locked.
Perfect friction.
Agnes' pupils expanded in shock.
"…It works."
Karl's voice became a grin.
"Oh it works. Agnes—set speed limiters?"
"Disabled," she said instantly.
Karl leaned forward.
The turbines roared.
And Karl shot forward along the glowing rail like a human mag-lev train, tearing across the landscape in a streak of admiral light.
Agnes' hologram zipped beside him, synced through the helmet.
"Karl—SLOW DOWN—!!"
"NO!! THIS IS AWESOME!!"
He banked on a holographic curve and raced across a canyon, blueprint beams unfolding automatically ahead of him like a 3D printer spitting geometry at Mach speed.
Agnes could only scream:
"KARL, YOU COULD HAVE USED THIS IN DENVER—!!"
Karl whipped around a spiraling corkscrew rail, laughing as the turbines shrieked.
"I KNOW—!!"
"You're an idiot!"
"I KNOW THAT TOO—!!"
"You built this and FORGOT IT!"
"LOOK, AGNES, I'VE BEEN BUSY—!!"
The track extended miles ahead, crossing broken land like a glowing highway only one person in the universe could stand on.
Agnes groaned, slapping her face again.
"I swear to Yggdrasil…
We survived a Class-Black storm by sheer… stupid luck."
Karl leaned further forward as the turbines locked into high output.
"Correction," he said smugly.
"We survived—
because I'm a genius."
"You forgot your own genius!"
Karl zipped across another blueprint curve.
"Still counts!"
The rail system expanded ahead of him for kilometers, winding, looping, jetting across valleys and ruined suburbs.
Karl was flying.
And Agnes — despite everything — let out a small exhale.
"…Fine. I admit it. This is efficient."
Karl smirked inside his helmet.
"Efficient? Agnes… this is—"
He bent low and increased turbine output to maximum.
The tracks ahead glowed royal azure as the projections auto-reinforced.
"—FUNCTIONALLY STUPID."
Agnes choked on a laugh—
then composed herself.
"Alright, idiot.
Next objective: get as far from Denver's storm wall as possible."
Karl saluted mid-ride.
"Aye aye, Captain Agnes."
Agnes sighed.
"Stop making me regret saving your life."
Karl accelerated again.
And together—
riding luminous blueprint rails across the corpse of Colorado like a living bullet train—
they left the storm behind.