Helona and Killian looked around the lab for a manual for the weapons. After Linux and Kauss left, she took the case that he gave her, and brought it down here. When she set it down, they began looking around for anything that could tell them what everything did and how to use them.

They’ve been looking for more than a half hour, and Killian had already given up. Helona knocked around on the walls, hoping to find some sort of hollow layer. The only places she refused to even touch were the tables with active machines. Killian grabbed one when they began searching, and red lightning shot out of the device, burning his hand. It healed quickly after, and they learned their lesson to not just touch things randomly.

After thirty minutes, Helona was searching by herself, trying to find secret hideaways. However, there was no hidden department anywhere. The ceiling, floor, and so far the walls were all one solid piece of mass. Everyone has something to hide, so why did he not have a place for his secrets. Were they that important to him?

Helona groaned and stood up, her back slightly unnerved from bending down for so long. Apparently, the device didn’t hamper minor inconveniences like she thought it would. She could only thank it for making her knees feel perfectly fine.

“God dammit.” Helona muttered under her breath. “There’s nothing in this room.”

“Well, why don’t we check up there?” Killian pointed to the stairs.

“Why would he hide something up there if he doesn’t even lock his door?”

Killian shrugged. He wasn’t going to argue with her about it. There was no reason to, since Linux was much more cunning than they gave him credit for. Someone incapable of locking their door when they leave isn’t someone anyone would think can hide stuff effectively. Or it may have been because of his excellent hiding talent that he didn’t feel the need to lock the door.

Helona crawled on the ground again, checking everything a second time. She heard the cabinet move on the top of the stairs, so she stood up, hoping they got everything they needed. She sighed and decided it was probably best to bring up the journal with the person who would’ve written it.

The stairs creaked as footsteps came down. The door to the lab open, exposing a tired-looking Linux and Kauss. They entered the lab, a bag in Kauss’ hands. It was much smaller than normal, and she wondered what happened with the rest. He set it down by the door and leaned on the closest table.

“How was the trip?” Killian asked.

“Well, a few things happened.” Kauss answered. “We walked there, organized the bag, got attacked by a monster, and came back here.” With each description of what happened, he held up a finger. “I think that’s about it.”

“Nice to see you back.” Helona said. She approached Linux, and he looked at her with his squinted, tired eyes. “Now where are your notes at?”

“Notes?”

Helona grumbled. “Of course notes. You’re an inventor; you should have some.”

“I do, but what’s the point of notes when I’m going to teach you everything you need to know tomorrow.”

Helona sighed and went up the stairs. She couldn’t wait till tomorrow. They needed to climb the tower soon. They needed to ascend as fast as possible before anyone caught them. She squeezed the door handle, frustrated, denting it into the shape of her palm, and opened the door. It flew off the hinges and fell onto the floor, the carpeted wall bursting in electricity.

She didn’t pay any mind to the fact she completely ripped a door off its frame as she went up the stairs. Linux groaned and covered his face in his hand. It wasn’t the first time something like that has happened. When people gain their new strength for the first time, they didn’t know how to control it.

“We’re going up after her.” Kauss said, climbing the stairs. Killian followed behind without a word, glancing back for a single second, then continuing the climb.

Linux looked around at all the machines and devices in the room. They were all glowing from the energy that flowed within the tower, repurposed for fighting and general use. His stare went from right to left, scanning the room, until settling on the egg-shaped device sitting by itself on a lone table. It hummed endlessly, taunting him.

He snarled at the machine, as if it were some sort of omniscient being that could sense his every negative thought. It always sat there, drilling at his skull, breaking his mind piece by piece until it was nothing but a caging hatred. He remembered the last time he was down in the lab working on it. An overwhelming anger filled him, nearly causing him to destroy it.

However, today was different. With those three here, he was sure he could complete it. Turning his snarl into an accomplished smile, he walked up the stairs, ignoring the door he had to step over.

Linux didn’t know what to expect when he left his lab, but when he saw the three looking over his journal on his bed, he expected them to have everything figured out. Closing the cabinet behind him, he walked up to Helona, who had the journal in her hand, and snatched it from her.

“What the hell man.” Helona complained. “I was just looking at it.”

“You could damage it without proper care.” Linux growled.

He enjoyed their lack of knowledge before, but now it was just gnawing away at his sanity. He wondered how his Dad even put up with it from that woman years ago. His Dad had always said she was awfully ignorant about nearly everything, but he didn’t know it was such a chore having to deal with it.

“Okay, so what do you want to know?” Linux asked, finally giving in to their demands. He wanted to wait until tomorrow, but they forced his hand.

“Are they really called Gaxtex?” Kauss asked.

Linux could see the slight smile on the corner of his mouth. He could hear them stifling a laugh, as if the name didn’t sound badass and cool to everyone that heard it. They should be the ones that knew where the name came from, not laughing at it.

“If you would like to know, it is named after the scientist that came from the first floor.”

That did nothing. Instead, Kauss burst out in laughter, and even Helona chuckled at it. The ever emotionless Killian was even smiling from the info. Linux couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about it despite not being the one who named the devices.

“Who in the fuck would name their kid that. The parent was just asking for their kid to be beaten.”

“Well,” Helona spoke up, still chuckling. “It’s not like I don’t understand it. Names like Gaxtex were normal back in those times.”

“Doesn’t make it less funny.”

Linux groaned at their childish behaviour. He wanted to discuss with them in a neat and orderly fashion. They were making it extremely hard on him to explain what exactly they’re getting themselves into. Opening his journal and sitting on the floor, he began to get the conversation back on track.

“Now, what other things do you want to know?” Linux asked.

“We were about to get to electricity before you took it from us.” Helona pouted. Linux’s face reddened and Helona caught that. She winked at him, only making it worse and making Kauss laugh even louder.

“Okay!” Linux shouted, losing his temper. “Do you want to know or not?” They all sat straight on the bed, like children being directed to get in a straight line.

Taking a deep breath, Linux brought out his staff and felt around the tip. Once he found the latch, he opened it and out spilled different types of charged devices. There were many different colors, and they cast the room in many colors of light. He picked up the first one he saw, a device that was filled with yellow energy.

“The energies have different functions based on the colors we collect from the elevator.” Linux explained, turning the device in his hand. “This is the typical energy, being able to power devices and machines incredibly easily. All of them can be used as a power source, but yellow energy is much more efficient at it.”

He dropped it and picked up another one, a red device. “Red is the standard battle energy. It will damage everything it touches with little to no effort. The user is also in danger if used incorrectly.”

He moved the red Gaxtex to his other hand while picking up a blue one. “Blue is the energy we use to protect ourselves. These only hurt monsters and when paired with other blue Gaxtex, they can even camouflage objects into the background. They also can be used as a pain treatment, since although it hurts monsters, it feels amazing for humans to use.”

Helona smiled cheekily and looked at Kauss. He looked back, and she whispered something in his ear. Linux couldn’t hear a word she said, but when she finished and his eyes widened, he could only imagine what they had in mind.

“You think we can borrow the device?” Helona asked.

Linux raised his eyebrows since he didn’t expect them to ask him that straight on. He didn’t know what to say. People weren’t too keen on exposing certain things about them like that.

“You don’t even know how to use it for that purpose.”

“You can make something for it.”

Linux shook his head. They were trying to get him riled up, and it was working. He did make devices like that if someone in town specifically asked him, but he only did it for a high pay since they were much more delicate and tougher to make than any other Gaxtex. He wasn’t just going to do it for someone just cause they felt horny one moment.

Getting back on track, Linux picked up a green Gaxtex. “Green enhances a person’s physical capabilities. I put this type of energy and blue energy in the Gaxtex devices you put on you.”

“So why doesn’t it get rid of pain?” Killian asked. He could still remember the pain in his arm when it broke from being flung off by the Tetson.

“It doesn’t get rid of pain instantly, just quickly. It all depends on the amount I put in. If the Gaxtex shields have too much in, then people would be under an overload of ‘nice feelings.’” Linux said, putting more emphasis on the last few words as if he were too embarrassed to say the actual word.

“You mean pleasure.” Killian said, not reading the room, or intentionally read it and said it, anyway.

Linux finally returned his face to normal after the last time, but his face returned to a reddened state. Moving on in order to get his mind off of their informality, he picked up a brown device.

“Brown is standard use for traps. It basically acts like a net, and when activated, it will take the shape and color of whatever it’s laying on. With a click of a button, it will entangle anything, keeping them trapped. Because of its properties, it’s also impenetrable.”

After all that, there were only two energy capsules left. A purple and orange capsule sat by themselves, waiting for their turn to be in the spotlight. Linux picked up the orange one, and Kauss imagined that the purple one was crying out of jealously. He wasn’t the most excited at the moment, but absorbed the info none the less.

“Orange energy isn’t the most exciting. The only function it has is boosting the effects of the other energies.”

“How is that not exciting?” Helona asked.

“Mainly because we don’t have the technology necessary to add it into other Gaxtex. We only know what it does because of some failed experiments with trying to integrate it, but its too powerful to contain. So for now, orange energy is useless.”

Helona didn’t understand how they didn’t have the technology to contain it. They could use the stuff to hide an entire town in plain sight. Was there really nothing they could use to contain it outside of its natural device? Now that she thought about it, if there was no way to contain it, how was it inside of that cylinder of metal. She was about to ask, but he had already begun his explanation of purple energy.

“Purple is the most interesting out of all of them, at least if you ask me. It can change into whatever type of energy it wants to. All I would need to do is let it detect blue energy, then it’ll transform into it with all the same properties. The major downside is that the effects aren’t as potent as the normal energy and should only be used as back-up if there is ever a shortage of a specific energy.”

Seven different colors and seven different uses. Helona absorbed every last piece of information he spouted. There were some things she needed to ask but was confident that she understood everything he said.

“I do have a question.” Helona said. “In the first floor, all we had was yellow energy. We didn’t have any others besides that.”

Linux shrugged, not knowing himself. He had a theory as to why that was the case, and he’s been thinking for a while. He already knew about the way that the first floor achieved power due to the woman’s recounts about the first floor all those years ago.

“One more thing.” Kauss began speaking out of nowhere. “If you couldn’t contain orange energy, then why is it surrounded by that metal and glass?”

“I was just about to ask that.” Helona remarked.

Linux held up the orange capsule in the palm of his hand. He could feel the electricity spark out at him, slightly tingling his skin. It was too volatile to hold up like this, but he needed them to understand, and visual presentation was the best kind to use.

“There are two different parts of the tower’s energy.” Linux explained. “Gaxtex called them Io-Grade and Po-Grade. Io-Grade is the metal and glass around the fluid like center. When exposed to air, Io-Grade hardens into a metallic substance. Po-Grade is the fluid inside the Io-Grade, or Ioniest, which is the metal. When Po-Grade is exposed to air, it creates the lightning that we use. You understand.”

All three of them nodded, taking in the information. Now that they understood what they were dealing with to a certain extent, they were hyped to go up another floor. If they took a weapon with them, which Linux was willing to give them, then they should be able to quickly climb the tower to search for whatever meaning was waiting for them.

With that, they stood up and headed down to the basement. Linux saw them going down, but he wasn’t finished talking yet. He stopped the last person who was going down to the lab.

“Killian, what are y’all doing?”

Killian stopped and turned back, his bald head reflecting the light of the capsules. His face wasn’t as emotionless as usual, showing with much more determination. The emotion just fit so well on his face that he wondered if he just thought that he was emotionless.

“We’re going to pick out a weapon and leave.” He said.

Linux gasped. He couldn’t let them leave just yet. He still needed their help with his own ordeals. By himself, he couldn’t do anything. He was just a prisoner with the ability to walk around. Otherwise, he was forbidden to leave, both by title and imprinted nature.

Killian was heading to the lab before he could completely understand what had been said. He came to his senses and followed them, desperate to stop their advance. If he didn’t, then there was no telling how long he’d be stuck down here.

Coming down to the basement, he spotted Helona and Killian looking around the lab for a weapon to use. Helona slowly turned her gaze across each weapon, crossing out options silently in her mind. Killian, however, gravitated toward the gauntlets. They were designed like gloves, but were much more suited to combat than any normal gloves.

“Stop!” Linux yelled.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Confusion and frustration showed on their faces. They wanted to grab a weapon, then leave as fast as possible. They were too busy thinking of themselves, no room in their mind for other people. He couldn’t just let them walk away with his future in their tow.

“I can’t let you leave the floor just yet.”

Kauss turned around and stared Linux down. His mouth curved into a frown as they began having a mental competition. Kauss was trying to intimidate him as much as he could. There was no way he could win in a fight against him, and he knew it.

Linux spent all his life around these weapons. He knew how to use them better than anyone, so a novice wasn’t going to even come close to hurting him. He would most likely do more damage to himself more than to his opponent with the lack of skill he had with handling such a potent weapon. The only option he had was making Linux think he could fight back, but the pointlessness built up soon after.

Sighing, Kauss gave up the stare down. He wasn’t to used to being backed in a corner like this. The times it happened, there was usually a way out. This time, there was nothing he could do except try to come with a compromise.

“So what do you want for the weapons?” Kauss asked.

Linux took a deep breath. Once he said what he needed to say, there was no going back. Before he spoke up, he could have sworn he heard someone knock on his door, but there was no way that was true. The door was too far away to hear anyone knocking. The only way to hear the door from down there was if they opened it with tremendous force. Not just plain weak knocking. It was as if a phantom had come to visit him just seconds after making his final decision.

“I want you to take me with you.”