Apprehensively, I walked in first with Shock just behind me. The sudden transition from the bright outdoors to a dark, barely illuminated room was a bit jarring. Lavil turned on a light in the shape of a cluster of violet and cyan crystals on the ceiling, brightening the place up with a colourful variety of lights.

“Shut that,” Lavil commanded. “Button by the door.”

Shock looked over to the doorway and pressed the only visible button, slamming down the heavy door with a startling thud.

I took a brief moment to look around the room. The juxtaposition between here and the rest of Grilith was immediately obvious. It was pretty cramped, but had just enough room for the three of us to move around comfortably. Lots of bright trinkets and packets lined the dark grey walls, two brown, ornamental chairs sat on opposite ends of a matching table that was covered by a colourful assortment of gems and crystals, and-

A missile launcher. Plain as day, there was some sort of black and grey rocket launcher leaning against the wall in the corner of the room. It looked like it'd been very well-used with all the wear and tear on its exterior.

The atmosphere became palpably tense. It felt as if we were meeting the head honcho of a gang, and one wrong move would spell the end for us.

“Feel free to fight over the other seat,” Lavil suggested as he sat down at the left end of the table.

With Shock's injury in mind, I shakily gestured for her to sit down, and she did without a word. I stood just to her left, leaning against an open spot on the wall. I was about to glance back over to Lavil, but found myself looking at the heavy weaponry in the corner again.

Either Shock hadn't noticed it, or she was much more skilled at keeping a cool face than I'd ever imagined.

Lavil pointed a finger at us. “From the top. The full story. I want you to tell me how you met Trivo and what happened to her.”

Shock looked over to me and raised the eyebrows she'd rendered above her eyes. Calming myself as best as I could, I started by first explaining my encounter with Tangent, then the e-mail I received after I returned home, meeting Trivo in the tunnel at Verdin Square, what she told us in the tunnel alcove, the attack, and finally mentioning how she told us to find Lavil.

Lavil put a hand on his chin and looked down at the table, tapping repeatedly it with a pointy finger. “I have way too much on my plate right now. Now she went and got you two involved.”

There was a long enough pause that I felt comfortable speaking. “I wouldn't say Trivo got us involved, since Tangent was the one who started this, right?”

Lavil let out an empty chuckle. “Tangent was the one who started it, huh?” he spoke just barely loud enough for me to hear. “Yeah, okay. You're right, it wasn't Trivo.”

“She specifically asked for you, Lavil,” Shock began, speaking in her calm and calculated voice. “Can you do anything to help?”

“Fuckin' right I can. I can do anything.” Lavil paused again. “What're your names?”

Shock introduced herself first, and I did the same just after her.

“Ah, Aural Automaton, huh?” he blurted out, disregarding Shock's introduction. “That explains a bit.” He stood up.

Another pang of distress jolted through me. What did that explain?!

Oh no. Lavil turned and started walking over to the corner with the missile launcher.

“Hey, wait, if I did anything, I'm sorry! I don't even know what I did!” I blurted out in fear.

Halfway leaning down to pick up the weapon, Lavil stopped and slowly turned his head to me. “Calm down. If you wronged me, I would've fucked you up already.”

Whew. That was relieving... I think. But it didn't make me feel any better watching him pick up the rocket launcher with one hand and rest it against his shoulder, aiming it at the ceiling.

“I'm 99 percent sure I know where Trivo is and what happened to her. But, boy, am I getting tired of doing this.” Lavil shook his head.

“Hold on, can I ask you something else?” Shock inquired.

“Yeah, what.”

“Has this happened before?”

“Trivo getting kidnapped? Yeah. I've almost lost track of how many times she's been lifted off to this place.”

“What place?” Shock continued.

Lavil stepped over his seat and took gently skated towards the door. “Guess that depends. How involved do you want to get in this?”

“My friend was attacked by a serial killer who apparently has ties with Trivo. I'd say we're in pretty deep.”

“No, you're not, lol.”

It really threw me off hearing Lavil say “lol” out loud. That was just wrong.

“But,” he continued, “hell, if you want to dive into this mess, be my guest. I know for a fact that this is going to be the point of no return for you two. You can go back to your lives and do whatever you did before this all started and pretend none of this ever happened. Although, I can't guarantee Tangent won't come back.” Lavil looked at the door for a brief moment, then back to us. “Or, I'll rescue Trivo, and we'll give you the full explanation of what's going on here. Then you'll really be a target, and you'll be in this for the long haul.”

I said nothing, slowly tilting my head to the ground a bit. How was I supposed to answer that? My immediate reaction was to get out and go back to my old life. But if Tangent could come back? If I was attacked once, who's to say I'm not still a target?

“Shock, what do you think?” I whispered to her.

She also remained silent, her gaze unmoving from the wall in front of her. The 15 seconds she waited before speaking up felt like several minutes.

“I want to get to the bottom of this.”

Her response shook me a bit. “Are you sure? We'll...” I sighed, unable to straighten out my thoughts.

“I'm not going to let Tangent keep killing people every goddamn day just so I can get to the scene of the murder to find out there's no possible way to fix them. Every single time. I'm done with it. Done,” Shock declared very adamantly.

“Sounds like your friend's not so convinced.”

I shook my head weakly. The silence lasted only for a few seconds.

“These deaths have been eating at me for too long. You can go back if you want, but I'm going to figure this out,” Shock declared.

I turned just enough to see the glare on her face after she spoke. This felt unfair.

“Clock's ticking. Make up your mind.”

...No. I couldn't be flaky like this. I needed to make a decision. The realization that I was tired of being a coward hit me with full force. How could I leave my friend to go on such a dangerous mission with a guy who already looked primed to blow someone up? How would I be able to live with myself if something happened to her?

I took a step away from the wall. “We're doing this together,” I announced, brushing aside my fear in the bravest (or dumbest) move I'd ever made.

“Then let's go.” Lavil slid over to the door and slapped the button to open the entrance-way up.

“Now, hold on,” Shock barked. “You better tell us where we're going before you drag us off somewhere we've never seen before.”

Lavil hit the button again, slamming the door down while propping his missile launcher up on the ground. “It's a small underground facility out in the desert. I don't know what else to tell you. I sure as hell hope you've never been there before. Nobody should even know where it is unless they're ready to make the commitment you two just did.”

Oh, that was nice and reassuring.

“...How far out is it?” Shock asked with a bit of hesitation.

“Takes me six minutes to get there. Seven on a bad day. You guys have vehicles?”

We both nodded. Shock hummed in affirmation.

“Good. It'll probably take you 15 minutes on wheels.”

Shock grunted. “15 minutes? Then we'll have to ride back here, and then back to Zynima...” She slowly trailed off and became nearly inaudible. “I don't know if I can handle that much right now.”

“What?” Lavil laughed with the clear intent to mock. “You tell me you want in on this and you can't even handle a short ride there and back?”

“Hey!” I wasn't about to let Lavil trash talk my friend. “Shock was smashed by someone while riding out here and her bike landed right on her. Her leg was torn open and she's still battered all over.”

“Chill, dude, damn. All you had to do was tell me.”

Maybe my voice was a bit more aggressive than I intended it.

“So, what?” Lavil continued. “Is she going to stay behind?”

“Do you plan on coming back to the tower after getting Trivo back?” Shock crossed her arms. “Will you need my help for this?”

Lavil laughed some more. “Don't insult me. I could do this with a hand tied behind my back. And yeah, I'm coming back here with her.”

“Then I'm sitting this rescue out. I need to rest for a bit.”

“Suit yourself. Not in here. Anywhere else in Grilith, ya, I don't care, but not in here.”

Shock shrugged. “Fine.”

Lavil was about to hit the door button again, but did a double-take at Shock. He pointed at her hat. “...You a techy?”

“Chief Medical Officer.”

“Sick. Maybe go look at that corpse while we're gone, then.”

Shit. I knew I'd heard “corpse” earlier. My spirits sank a bit.

Shock sighed. And then she waited. “Fine.”

“Someone died? Wh-who was it?” I mumbled, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“Viniko,” Lavil answered without a moment of hesitation.

“Oh no...” I wasn't sure if I'd heard the name before. I peered over at Shock. She looked quite visibly dizzy.

“Viniko.” Shock's head drooped down and she put a hand on her forehead. “I can't take any more of this.”

“Did... did you know...?” I was almost too scared to ask.

“Viniko's a musician. He's number three on Zynima's sound chart. I listen to him all the time.” Shock took a quick, deep breath. “Let me go see him. If there's a chance... maybe there's a chance this time...” she continued as she marched over to the door.

“Yeah, go, be my guest.” Lavil hit the door button again, and Shock ran outside with Lavil quickly accelerating past her. I followed behind them both as close as I could. Damn, that guy was fast.

“Yo, III! CITE!” Lavil screamed over to the crowd. “Let miss techy have a look at the body! She knows what she's doing!”

“T-t-techy! M-medical techy on the c-c-c-corpse!” the jittery, unidentified voice from earlier rang out from all around me. That was weirding me out.

Lavil stopped skating for a moment, so I took the opportunity to catch up to him.

“Lavil! What is that voice? The stuttery one?”

He turned to me. Another laugh from him. “Hey CITE! Come on out for a second!” he shouted out to the air.

A black swarm of particles crept up from the edges of the tower, ascending into the sky above us, creating a thick canopy of eerie darkness. The top of Grilith had suddenly become nearly pitch black – except for the shining lights of some robots' bodies and eyes – despite the shining daylight illuminating the roof seconds ago.

“What is that?!” I screamed.

“Chill.” Lavil lightly backhanded my shoulder without a hint of panic.

“Not CITE! Not CITE, SCAN!” a huge voice bellowed from all around us.

I looked all around, trying to figure out where this voice was coming from. It was everywhere. This made no sense.

Light started creeping in from the edges of the roof. Slowly, the black mass of particles converged into a massive conglomeration of darkness above us, temporarily blinding me with the sudden transition back to daylight. I watched, completely mesmerized, as the huge glob of blackness in the air slowly shaped itself into the enormous floating cross I'd seen when I first arrived on the roof. This time, however, the half-shut blue eye on the front had been replaced by the red outline of a wide-open eye.

“Lavil! SCAN is here, :)” the big voice continued. A little red smiley face appeared below the floating cross's eye; I could only assume that voice was coming from the cross.

“'Sup. Let the techy see the body.” Lavil pointed to Shock, who had just about blended in to the crowd by now.

“Techy will see the body! >:)” The smiley turned into a mischievous face. Despite how astounded I was by what I'd just watched, those little faces it made still struck me as pretty cute.

Lavil turned to me. “What you're looking at is a nanomachine hivemind with a split personality. It's cool with us, so don't freak your metal tush out, ya?” He spun around and pointed a hand at the airborne cross. “Its name seems to be CITE+SCAN. CITE being one personality, SCAN being another. This is SCAN.”

“H-hey, SCAN,” I awkwardly greeted it, still feeling a bit intimidated by its sheer size.

“Hello! :)”

“I'm Aural Automaton.”

“Aural Autooo! :0”

“That thing is the leader of Zynima's sight chart. Number one,” Lavil explained.

“Wow. Lot of famous people hang out here, huh...”

“Not famous. Talented. There's a difference,” Lavil corrected me rather condescendingly. “Probably not for much longer, since Viniko was murdered...”

“You can't be serious. A murder...?”

“He sure as hell didn't have an accidental death. He was killed.”

“Y-you didn't...?” I asked, speaking before thinking.

“Fuck no!” Lavil put a hand on my chest and forcefully shoved me. “You're actually accusing me of murdering the guy?”

Staggering back, I stood my ground the best I could. “Sorry! Dude, I'm sorry, I just have no idea what happened up here, okay?”

“Ya better be. Shit.”

I guess I deserved that.

He turned away from me and slowly drifted towards the crowd, propping his missile launcher back on his shoulder. “I'm off for a while! III and SCAN are still in charge!”

I was about to follow Lavil to the crowd, but the idea of the murderer potentially being over there was a heavy deterrent. So, I waited where I was, pretending there wasn't still a giant nanomechanical eye staring down at me from the sky. Did it want something from me? Was it just... staring? Ignoring it was tough. Very tough.

Thankfully, Lavil was sliding back over to me, presumably done chatting with the crowd. Shock had already gone and blended in, leaving me with Lavil and... SCAN. Still floating there. Still staring.

“You use that thing?” Lavil asked me, breaking me out of my uncomfortable haze.

“Hm?”

“Your guitar.”

“Of course. I'm a musician.”

“Well... no. I mean, can you swing it?”

O-oh. “I... yeah, I guess I can...” Still wasn't too fond of the idea.

“Good. You'll be decent in close quarters then, ya?”

I didn't like where he was going with this. “I mean, I guess, if I had t-”

“Good. Meet you down there at the vehicles.”

Lavil did things too fast. Before I could respond, he skated off towards the edge of the roof in the direction of Zynima City, and then he flipped over the edge.

He... jumped off the roof. With a front-flip. Wow. Well, okay. We had something in common, apparently.

I didn't want to keep him waiting (which I knew was going to happen anyways), but I also wasn't about to repeat the stunt I did back home, so I took off to the staircase that led us up here earlier, and shamefully started hopping down steps two at a time.

If Shock and I had've come here on foot, I undoubtedly would've been exhausted and in need of recharge by now. Much to my delight, the bike ride saved me a ton of energy, so I knew I'd be able to go on Lavil's mission without problems in that regard. I just hoping I wouldn't have to go up or down these steps again.

The moment I reached the bottom of the stairs, I swung around Grilith's main doorway and scoured the rocky lot for my bike. Naturally, Lavil was waiting not too far away in an open area, raising an arm in the air and tapping his wrist.

“You're gonna have to work on your speed, kid.”

It didn't feel right being called “kid” by someone that much shorter than me. I ignored his remark and kept looking for my bike. Only a few seconds later, my ride was in sight, but I instead jogged over to Lavil.

“So, how will this work?” I asked him.

“What? I skate, you follow. Easy every day.” He picked up his heavy weapon off the ground beside him.

Could he seriously out-skate a dune roller on this terrain? “All right,” I plainly responded, putting faith in his ability. “I'll get started up.”

As I ran over to my bike, Lavil skated past me and started picking up speed before I'd even sat down on my vehicle. He wasn't going to make this easy for me.