Part 7: Alchemy Accident

Lopera: Ugh, darn it! Open this door!
Crack!
Though it's only a thin bit of wood, her small frame can't make it budge an inch. The force propels her back to the center of the room.
Lopera: Traitor! Rodrygo, you lying old jerk! Damn you!
Lopera: You were lying to me from the start!
In a moment of silence, distant gunshots echo through the air.
The gunshots are far from their location. Sandro must have moved further, and Rodrygo must be closing in.
Lopera: Hmm, let me think. There's always a way out. Stay calm, Lopera. I can still find them.
Lopera: A way out, a way out—how do I get out of this?!
Lopera: I'm out of bullets; otherwise, I'd shoot the lock out.
Lopera: Hmm.
Lopera falls back on the rough, damp floor, accidentally tipping over her cauldron. Several gray pellets roll out.
These ones appear to be darker than before. She picks one up and examines it.
Lopera: What's going on? Did those smoke bombs in the cauldron react with something else?
After pondering for a moment, she gives up on trying to understand, tossing the pellets back into the cauldron.
Lopera: Ugh, I've never been able to wrap my head around alchemy.
Lopera: But maybe I can use this thing to make a bomb or something.
Lopera scrapes some gunpowder residue out of her gun barrel and adds it to the cauldron.
Lopera: This should make it more explosive? Let's see, what else can I use?
Lopera: Uh, a rotten banana peel?
Lopera: I guess it could give things a kick of energy, hopefully.
The young alchemist doesn't follow any particular recipe, choosing her materials by intuition alone.
Lopera: This should do! Hopefully, it'll be some kind of bullets or explosives.
Lopera: And it's bound to pack a punch with bombardier beetles in the mix.
She adds a few drops of blood dripping from a wound on her thigh, the doing of a sharp branch during their rainforest trek.
Lopera: Blood, the source of life and strength. That's gotta do the trick.
Lopera: Get boiling, parce!
It shakes like a toad that swallowed a beehive in a single gulp.
The self-heating arcane cauldron transforms her motley materials into a kind of metallic fluid. For a moment, she starts to believe she may actually have the chops to be a professional alchemist.
The fluid begins to broil and smoke, getting darker and hotter by the second.
Lopera: cough
Lopera: What's going on? Is this thing about to explode?
It becomes abundantly clear that the cauldron is, indeed, about to explode.
Lopera: Whoa!
Lopera kicks the cauldron toward the door and ducks for cover. There is a dull thud, then—BOOM!
Lopera: —!
Distant gunshots echo again. She remembers her father's words—find Sandro.
???: ...
???: Lo ...
???: ... pera!
???: Lopera!
???: Could it be that ...?
???: No, no, she's alive. She's one tough arcanist.
Bang—
???: You know she's taken a bullet before? Some slum kid that gave her a run for her money once upon a time.
???: She survived then, and she'll survive this time, too.
???: Why did she come to such a place?
???: Looking for Sandro, I guess?
???: What, Sandro? Who's Sandro?
Bang! More gunshots ring out.
???: Forget it; we need to get her out of here.
???: Copy that, Major.
Sandro.
???: Look. Her eyelids twitched!
Bang! More gunshots.
Find Sandro.
Lopera: Sandro?
Lopera: Sandro ... Where is he?
Major Kasyan: My God! You're awake!
Lopera has never seen Major Kasyan like this—drenched in sweat, eyes bloodshot.
Lopera: How did you find this place?
Major Kasyan: You were lucky, Lieutenant. We weren't far away when we heard the explosion.
Lopera: An explosion ... Besides the explosion, did you hear gunshots?
Major Kasyan: There are gunshots everywhere, Lopera. Carlos ...
Lopera: I know, he was killed by the mutineers.
Major Kasyan: Huh. I don't know how you found out, but that's the long and short of it.
Major Kasyan: Traitors didn't manage to take the base. They scattered—now we're on the hunt.
Lopera: I was talking about gunshots in the rainforest. I heard ... I heard gunshots. Constant, distant gunshots.
Major Kasyan: I don't think we heard any gunshots before, just the howling of some wild bears.
Lopera: Tch. Idiota ... Wild bears, here?
Major Kasyan: Are there no bears in Brazil?
Lopera: It must have been the mapinguari.
Major Kasyan: Mapinguari ...?
Lopera regains some energy from her confusing joke. She forces herself back to her feet, taking her blown-up cauldron from the hands of her comrade.
Lopera: Never mind. How many mutineers are there?
Major Kasyan: cough At least half of our forces in São Paulo. They did a number on what was left of us too. It will be difficult to take direct action against them until reinforcements arrive.
Major Kasyan: So, for now, we're attempting to keep them disorganized by harassing their positions.
Major Kasyan: One of our prisoners said the rebels and the Apostles Brotherhood are meeting at an estate nearby, but we haven't been able to pinpoint the exact location.
Lopera stays silent, taking several unidentified pills and swallowing them down with water from her canteen.
Major Kasyan: Lieutenant Lopera! I know what you're thinking, but you can't. You may have a concussion!
Lopera: I'll be fine. If there is anything wrong with me, these pills will cure it.
Lopera: I have to find Sandro.
Major Kasyan: Forget Sandro!
Lopera: My orders came directly from Admiral Igor.
Her rescuers exchange glances. The mention of Admiral Igor forces them to set aside their concerns for now.
Major Kasyan: Admiral Igor?
Major Kasyan: Alright, then we find Sandro. But where do we even start?
Lopera: Follow the gunshots, and you'll find him.
Major Kasyan: Gunshots?
Bang—
Major Kasyan: Like ... that?