Corridor G/32 was quiet. It was just like any other of the dozens upon dozens of long, winding corridors laid out in the meticulously measured grid pattern embedded into the solid sandstone bedrock. In fact the only reason one could even tell it apart from the rest was thanks to the tidy little metal plaque mounted on the wall by the corner right at eye level.

It was clean, well-lit and its wastefully spacious interior smelled faintly of lavender; once again conforming to the standards of the facility.

Soketsu: "Slow doooown!!!"

… Of course these details were all completely lost on the one eyed man. Not that anyone could blame him though, taken that he was speeding down the aforementioned corridor at speeds every cop worth their penny would take a spit-take at. In a wheelchair.

Gabe: "I can’t!" The scientist answered with a second delay. "There’s no time to waste!"

Soketsu: "Yes there is!"

Gabe took one last sharp turn with Soketsu’s wheelchair and finally came to a halt in front of a dead end capped by a solid looking metal door. For some reason the Rover could have sworn he just heard the stereotypical screech of pedal-to-the-metal braking, but he decided not to be bothered by it in favor of trying to keep his heart from escaping his chest through his throat.

As far as context goes, this all happened approximately ten minutes after they had left the infirmary, though Soketsu had a hard time telling the actual time or distance passed. In retrospect he had to conclude he was too busy watching his life flash before his eyes. As excuses went, he considered that a reasonable one.

At last the injured man let out a groan and limbered up his arms. The task proved to be a fair bit harder than expected, as they went quite numb from gripping the arm-rests of the wheelchair, but he managed.

Soketsu: "Finally…"

Just as he let out a relieved sigh, Ahazkun’s figure appeared from behind the corner with an amused look on his face. Of course that only looked so for the initiated observer. For the average onlooker his expression would have held more similarity with the exhausted disapproval of a mother-in-law finding an unwashed sock under your bed.

Ahazkun: "You are hyperactive as always," He spoke in his usual sardonic voice, prompting a toothy grin from the mad scientist in response.

Gabe: "Thanks!"

Soketsu: "I’m pretty sure that was not a compliment," The wheelchair-bound man grumbled after finally getting his heart-rate out of the radio frequency range.

Gabe: "Whatever," The man shrugged, the jabs sliding off him like water from a duck’s back. "Hurry up Ahaz, we have no time to waste!"

Soketsu: "I told you we have! This is not a race!" Soketsu protested, straining to scowl at the man standing right behind him.

Gabe: "It is!" Gabe countered ferociously. "We can only show you around before Pabloc and the girls arrive!"

Soketsu: "So? That should be plenty enough."

The mad scientist shook his head and let go of the wheelchair.

Gabe: "You know; the main labs are big. And I mean BIG big, not small big."

Soketsu blinked at the man exactly three times with a completely pitiful expression before answering.

Soketsu: "That… made no sense whatsoever…"

Gabe: "Stop nitpicking!"

He was about to give a retort when Soketsu realized that something was missing. It didn’t take long to realize what it was.

Soketsu: "… Wait a second, where did Tiari go?"

Ahazkun: "She went home to change her clothes," The oracle told him while finally lining up with the two of them.

Gabe: "Yeah, didn’t you listen to her?"

Soketsu: "I would have, if I didn’t have to concentrate on holding onto my wheelchair in mortal terror the whole way," Soketsu answered in a deadpan voice.

Gabe: "Big mistake. Anyways…"

Gabe suddenly began pushing the wheelchair and they started moving once again. Thankfully this time it was at a comfortable walking pace. The wide metal door in front of them quietly slid open, revealing another long, brightly lit corridor on the other side. It looked more or less like all the other hallways of the facility save for the half dozen black plastic spheres embedded into the walls and the ceiling in pairs at regular intervals, their dark, shiny surface sticking out of the conformity of the place like a series of sore thumbs. Noticing the curious look on the armchair-bound man’s face, the mad scientist was more than happy to come to the rescue without any further prompting.

Gabe: "It’s the quick-decontamination chamber. It will be just a few seconds."

Soketsu: "That’s quick," The man muttered absent-mindedly. Gabe shook his head with a wry smile and told him in a chiding voice,

Gabe: "That’s why it is called the ‘quick-decontamination chamber’ and not the ‘slow-decontamination chamber’."

Soketsu rolled his eyes just as the first set of hemispheres flared up and a bright ray of cyan light ran over them several times like a strange laser-show. Weirdly enough the beam of light felt slightly cold and he could swear there was a faint whiff of ozone in the air afterwards.

In the meanwhile a low humming noise could be heard from the other side of the walls. For some reason Soketsu immediately pictured a set of giant hydraulic machines ready to crush the walls together at a moment’s notice. He paused for a second and he had to conclude that Kay wasn’t the only one who watched too many vintage horror movies recently.

Thankfully the sound abruptly subsided without any bone-crunching result as they finally reached the door on the other end and a discrete digital ‘ping’ notified them of the completion of the process. The entrance itself was quite unremarkable; it was just another metal door with the words ‘Main Labs’ written on its surface in large black letters. It was so unassuming that Soketsu had a really hard time imagining just what could be on the other side.

Well, that wasn’t completely true. He had at least a basic idea. Knowing the mad scientist, he was quite sure there would be at least one antique alembic somewhere in the room, with some bubbling green liquid and whatnot, just for the heck of it. Also, a giant laser gun. Or rather a dozen giant laser guns. Oh and those glass things with the plasma inside. A really, really big one.

However, as much as he steeled himself for any and all kinds of weirdness, what awaited him on the other side still managed to take away his breath.

Soketsu: "Wow…"

Gabe: "Neat, huh?"

At first Soketsu didn’t even know what he was looking at. Then for a moment he even questioned if he was looking at anything at all, but then a few reflections told him that yes, he was indeed seeing something.

It was hard to describe the scenery in front of his eyes, mostly because he practically couldn’t see most of it courtesy of the little fact that the entire place was made out of glass; or at least something equally transparent. He figured it had to be some sort of plastic, for he was fairly certain that glass was not exactly the best building material when it came to everything.

The facility’s trademark white ambient lighting filled the air around them as they rolled onto the translucent floor, and as Soketsu looked down he could feel a small part of his brain screaming about falling and imminent bone-crushing doom, but the rest of his mind was too preoccupied with absorbing the sight to really care.

The facility appeared to be at least ten floors deep and constructed of a completely transparent material with a matte sheen to it. As he looked around Soketsu could see several colored stripes leading to different parts of the facility on the walls and floors, creating an illusion of a long, suspended mesh of ribbons filling the space between a plethora of haphazardly placed furniture and equipment seemingly levitating in thin air. However, there was one thing that baffled him even more…

Soketsu: "It’s so empty."

Gabe: "Well, duh," The man rolled his eyes like Soketsu just stated that the sky is blue. "It’s weekend."

Soketsu: "It’s what?"

The mad scientist gave him another almost pitiful look, like he just asked something really stupid, but Soketsu was still too enchanted by the sight at hand to get angry at the man.

Gabe: "What do you mean by ‘what’? This is a research facility. We have free weekends, holidays and every fourth Wednesday is ‘Bring your daughter to work’ day…"

Soketsu: "Wait for a second!" The man in the wheelchair cut in with an even more incredulous look on his face. "You mean there are other people working here?"

Gabe: "Yeah. Why?"

Soketsu: "Since when do you let people get near your work?"

Gabe once again gave him one of those looks that practically said ‘How can you ask something so dumb?’ and let out a sigh.

Gabe: "Oh, I think you are in a little misunderstanding here. These are not my labs per se; these are the main labs. I have my own facility a few dozen kilometers east from here. You know, for safety."

Soketsu: "So, what is this place if not your lab?"

Gabe: "Glad you asked! Here, let me show you through this map."

Saying so, Gabe put a small parchment into Soketsu’s hands with a huge grin on his face. At first it was hard to make out just what the hastily scribbled shapes were about, but considering the man’s previous words it was obviously supposed to be some kind of map.

Gabe: "You see; the labs are divided into two wings. The East Wing does the theoretical research while the West Wing is responsible to putting those theories into practice. Here, this is the main hall where we are standing right now, and these are the supporting facilities, this is the generator room and this is…"

Ahazkun: "Don’t bore him with the details," The oracle butted in with a face as unimpressed as ever.

Gabe: "Oh, yeah. Sorry." The mad scientist seemed surprisingly understanding of the interjection and flashed a smile at Soketsu. "You can keep the map, it’s on the house. So, any questions?"

It took the Soketsu a few long seconds to get his thoughts in order, but when he did that a veritable flood of questions rushed into the forefront of his mind, forcing him to stay silent for another few seconds while he combed through them. Thankfully his companions were understanding enough not to rush him.

Soketsu: "All right, let’s start with the obvious one," He finally spoke in a slightly more collected voice. "What exactly are you doing here?"

Before answering Gabe straightened himself as if he was to give some great declaration. It took just about enough time for Soketsu to brace himself for the inevitable absurdity that was coming, at least to some extent.

Gabe: "This, my friend, is the home of scientific miracles and wonders, where we are trying to find brand new and even more creative ways to bully the laws of physics into giving us their lunch money."

Soketsu went slack jawed for a few seconds before letting out an audible groan and began massaging his temples.

Soketsu: "I was the stupid one for asking…"

Ahazkun: "Agreed."

Gabe: "Oh come on! That’s really what we are doing! Only figuratively, of course, but even if I told you the dirty details you probably wouldn’t understand a word."

Hearing that was just what Soketsu needed to tickle his defiant streak and he frowned back at Gabe.

Soketsu: "Try me. For example, what does that particular machine do?"

The mad scientist glanced at the large cylindrical machine one floor above them. He was in deep thought for about a second before he abruptly straightened himself once again and started tapping on the bridge if his nose while doing his best Pabloc impression.

Gabe: "Oh, I’m glad you asked. That is a three-layered anti-gravitronic phase oscillator used in experiments regarding the determination of the spin of subatomic particles within specialized time-space pockets in the nexus of proto-molecular reactions."

Soketsu ever so slowly narrowed his eyes in a deadpan reaction and poked his finger towards the man’s nonexistent glasses with a disappointed face.

Soketsu: "… You just pulled that out of your ass."

Gabe: "Gah!" The mad scientist almost fell over like he was jabbed in the solar plexus. He quickly regained his footing and began scratching the base of his neck with a slightly embarrassed look. "W-Was it that obvious?"

Soketsu: "Well, yeah…"

Gabe let out an uncharacteristically huge sigh and shook his head in defeat.

Gabe: "Okay, if you really want to know, it’s a scalar field generator. It’s used to remotely hack the energy state of every molecule in an area. In layman terms, it is a machine that gives a titty-twister to the law of energy-conservation."

Soketsu: "…" Soketsu appeared to be genuinely lost for words and was ineffectually opening and closing his mouth for a few times while he waited for his brain to make sense of the mad scientist’s words. It didn’t happen, and for some reason he felt relieved about it. "That was—"

Ahazkun: "Don’t ask him to elaborate, please."

Soketsu sent a small glare at Ahazkun’s direction before snapping.

Soketsu: "But I don’t have an earthly idea what the hell he is talking about!"

Ahazkun: "Exactly. Trust me; you are better off that way."

Gabe shook his head and clicked his tongue.

Gabe: "Don’t listen to the grumpy guy in the corner. He just doesn’t understand that searching for answers is the romance of science! Ask away!"

Soketsu: "Yeah, sure…" The man with the eye patch quickly scanned the premises for the next target of inquiry and quickly settled on a large machine that appeared to be made of interlocking semi-circles suspended from the ceiling in a viscous liquid. "What about that particular machine then?"

Gabe: "Oh, that one is a particle-unradomizer. We use it to push the face of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle into a toilet."

The answer came so fast and sounded so obvious that Soketsu didn’t even have time to be outraged.

Soketsu: "And… the one next to it?"

Gabe: "The one that flushes the toilet, obviously. A marvelous scientific wonder, I tell you."

The look Soketsu gave to the man’s response was a worthy nominee for the ‘blankest stare in the history of humanity’ award, though Soketsu was fairly sure there wasn’t such a thing. Right after this thought he also made a mental note not to mention this to Gabe otherwise there might actually be one by tomorrow…

Soketsu: "You know what?" He finally said after sighing in defeat. "You won. The romance of science it might be, but she’s apparently not my type."

Gabe leaned closer and lightly patted his comrade on the shoulder, accompanied with a huge grin.

Gabe: "Nah, you just need to get to know her better!"

The surprisingly cozy scene was promptly broken by the oracle at the back clearing his throat.

Ahazkun: "I hope you are aware that you just personified the concept of science. As a woman."

Soketsu once again blinked in awkward confusion. In retrospect he had to realize he had been feeling like that all the time as of late. For a moment he wondered what might have caused this, but then he glanced at Gabe and felt kind of embarrassed about the stupid question.

Soketsu: "S-Sorry, I think he’s rubbing off on me…"

The mad scientist let out a heartily laugh in response, but he was cut short before he could really get into it by Soketsu hitting his own temple with his palm.

Soketsu: "Wait, I feel stupid that I only ask this now, but… Why is this place transparent on the first place?"

Gabe: "Isn’t that obvious?" The man flashed yet another toothy grin that somehow managed to display even his molars and threw his arms apart like he wanted to hug the entire place. "Because it’s awesome!"

Another blink later Soketsu considered just staying quiet and sparing his brain-cells from the further assault of the mad-scientist’s thought process, but his mouth seemed unexpectedly wayward in this regard at the moment.

Soketsu: "… Seriously?"

Gabe: "Okay, that, and because the researchers can find each other faster this way," The man answered in a surprisingly low-key manner.

Soketsu: "That still sounds like a weak excuse…"

Gabe: "Shut up, it’s working."

The scientist gave him a small glare and turned around with his hands folded in front of his chest, positively pouting. It was a… unique sight, to say the least, and one that quickly prompted the wheelchair-bound man to change the subject.

Soketsu: "On another note, there’s one more thing that’s been bothering me ever since we came here…"

Ahazkun: "Which is?"

It seemed like the oracle finally ended his self-imposed separation and returned to the conversation, and Soketsu could only be so happy about it.

Soketsu: "How the hell do you move between floors? I can literally see through the whole place here, but I can’t find a single lift or stairs or whatever."

Gabe: "Oh, that’s because there are none."

The mad scientist abruptly spun around, completely shedding his previous expression, and gave a huge, childish smile to Soketsu. He actually looked like a big kid being really proud of his toys, he thought. In other words, typical Gabe.

Soketsu: "Then… How?"

Instead of answering Gabe simply pointed at the middle of the main hall. At first Soketsu had no idea what he was trying to say, then he noticed something.

Soketsu: "Is that… a hole?"

Gabe: "Yup."

As he took a closer look he could see the series of circular holes running through the whole facility like a tunnel, barely recognizable in the transparent structure. Each of the holes were about one and a half meters in diameter and their edges were marked with dashed lines. Still, no matter how one looked at it, it still didn’t look like the answer to Soketsu’s question.

Soketsu: "So… a hole? And?"

Gabe: "What do you mean? It’s what we use."

Soketsu: "But how!?"

Gabe: "Well, it’s—"

Lily: "Gabe-samaaaaaa~!!! Soketsu-saaaaan~!!!"

The sudden appearance of the second group cut their discussion short as Lily entered the facility with her usual wide smile. She was also wearing a nursing cap for some reason, but that was beside the point.

Tiari: "Stop shouting you idiot."

The blonde girl was followed by a deadpan catgirl at a cautious distance. Tiari had already changed and was wearing a comfortable looking, if slightly oversized jumper and pants combo, her hair still wet and giving off the fresh scent of shampoo.

She casually strode up to Ahazkun’s side and practically snuggled up to him while Lily was apparently more occupied with shuffling around the wheelchair.

Ahazkun: "Did you take a shower?"

Tiari: "Yeah. I couldn’t take a proper one when we came back so I took my chance now," She gave a playful wink to her master and added, "A girl has to take care of herself after all."

Ahazkun: "True enough."

In the meantime Lily reached Gabe and began tugging on the sleeve of his black lab-coat with a bright smile.

Lily: "Pabloc-san and Kay-chan are waiting for you outside, Gabe-sama."

Gabe: "Why don’t they—?" The scientist cut himself off as the realization came to him. "Oh, yeah. The decon chamber…"

Noticing the wheelchair-bound man’s inquiring expression, Gabe quickly turned to him with a reassuring smile.

Gabe: "You see, the decontamination system would not let them through because of Kay’s infusion, so they are waiting for us outside."

Soketsu: "I see." While Soketsu was still curious about the whole “hole in the floor” deal, he was even more curious about the purported city he have been hearing about, and he didn’t want to make Kay wait either, so he just filed it to the steadily growing “ask later” corner of his mind and faced the mad scientist. "So, are we going?"

Gabe: "Yup, I still haven’t show you the machines that we use to count the parallel dimensions that have no hot dogs in them, but I suppose that can wait for another time. Let’s just get going and—"

Ahazkun: "Just a moment."

Gabe frowned at the oracle as he cut him off mid-sentence and rolled his eyes in impatience.

Gabe: "Yes?"

Ahazkun: "Sorry, but could you get me the test reports on the MFC system?"

The mad scientist frowned again, this time from simple irritation, and groan with a silent voice.

Gabe: "Oh come on! They are right over there! You could have gathered them while we were speaking!"

Ahazkun: "No I couldn’t. They are probably mixed in with a heap of other papers and I have no way to tell them apart."

Gabe: "Uh… well, that’s true." Gabe sighed again and pointed at Ahazkun with his index finger. "Don’t go anywhere; I’ll be back in a moment!"

Saying so he hastily left the others behind and entered into one of the offices in the West Wing. In the meantime Soketsu couldn’t help but shake his head in disapproval as he turned to the tall man standing beside his wheelchair.

Soketsu: "Okay, what was that for?"

Ahazkun: "What do you mean?"

Soketsu: "Please don’t play dumb, my head hurts enough as is. You sent him away quite conspicuously so I bet you had a reason for it. I know your ways."

The oracle fell silent for a second or two and finally nodded with a solemn expression mixed with traces of approval.

Ahazkun: "You are right; I wanted to speak with you in private."

Soketsu: "Then what about the— " Soketsu wanted to covertly point at their companions, but to his surprise he couldn’t find Lily or Tiari anywhere. "…girls?"

Ahazkun: "I sent them back to Pabloc."

Ahazkun spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world, prompting Soketsu to narrow his eyes into a wary squint in return.

Soketsu: "Okay, this is getting really suspicious. What’s with the secrecy?"

Ahazkun took a quick glance towards Gabe, who was still messing with some papers behind a transparent wall about a hundred meters to their left and turned back to Soketsu.

Ahazkun: "I prefer the term ‘privacy’ in these kinds of situations. Anyways, I just recalled that we didn’t have the chance to discuss a specific issue. Do you remember Jill?"

Hearing the name filled Soketsu’s mind with images of a perpetually deadpan fairy perched on the mad scientist’s shoulder. The long silver ponytail, the iridescent wings and the impossibly frilly clothes in jarring contrast with her cynical attitude… The image was so vivid that it almost dazed him for a moment. In the end he gave a weak nod.

Soketsu: "Yes, I do."

Ahazkun: "Good. I would like to ask you to never mention her in front of Gabe unless he brings her up."

Soketsu: "What? Why?"

The oracle glanced over to the scientist and once he confirmed that he was still looking for the papers in question he leaned closer to Soketsu.

Ahazkun: "We don’t have the time to discuss the finer details, but it is part of an understanding we built in the past few years. We have enough problems as is without Gabe getting moody, if you know what I mean."

As Soketsu thought about this, he suddenly recalled the moment he accidentally mentioned her name when he regained his memories and the subsequent change in the mad scientist’s behavior. He would have been lying if he said he wasn’t curious about the details, but even he had to agree that this was hardly the time or place for such inquiries.

In the end he firmly nodded at the oracle.

Soketsu "… All right, I got it."

Ahazkun: "Very well."

Gabe: "What’s with the long faces?"

The scientist’s voice rung out abruptly and right next to them, naturally startling both men like they were kids caught in the middle of mischief. Slowly turning around, Ahazkun gave the man a smile that was about as hollow as it gets.

Ahazkun: "Nothing."

Gabe: "Are you sure…?" Gabe studied the face of the man for a few moments; apparently amused by the way he was straining to keep the unnatural smile on his face. In the end he shrugged his shoulders with a theatrical sigh. "Well, whatever. Here are your reports."

He handed over a thick dossier to Ahazkun with hastily thrown together pages sticking out of its sides. The tall man graciously accepted the folder and gave him a small nod.

Ahazkun: "Thanks."

Gabe: "Don’t mention it, although I have no idea why you don’t just use that fancy precognition of yours to learn the results…"

Ahazkun: "You know it doesn’t work that way."

Gabe: "Yeah, yeah, I know, but I wish it would. It would spare us soooo much time." As he was saying so, the man stepped behind Soketsu’s wheelchair and grabbed the handles. "Let’s go, the others must be getting fidgety by now."

Soketsu and Ahazkun only nodded in response. They quickly skimmed through the entrance and the decontamination chamber. It appeared that the scanner, or whatever the cyan light was supposed to be, didn’t check them when leaving. For a moment Soketsu thought he would ask, but then he recalled the mad scientist’s previous ‘explanations’ and decided otherwise. In the meanwhile the door on the far side of the corridor slid open and the two groups finally met up.

Pabloc: "Took your sweet time…"

Pabloc, fidgeting with his glasses as usual, sent a slightly annoyed glance in the group’s direction.

Ahazkun: "I held things up a bit. Sorry."

The scientist rolled his eyes and waved his hand in defeat.

Pabloc: "Whatever, I don’t even want to know. Are we ready to go yet?"

Gabe: "Yup, we can go."

Soketsu: "Just a second," The man in the wheelchair raised his hand in protest and once he confirmed that everyone fell silent he gently beckoned to the girl by Pabloc’s side. "Are you okay?"

Kay weakly nodded in response, though it was easy to see she was straining herself just to stand straight.

Kay: "I-I’m fine…"

Soketsu: "Are you sure? You look dead pale."

The girl’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment and averted her eyes.

Kay: "I’m… just not really good with needles."

The black-coated man rolled his eyes in front of the lukewarm exchange between the two and decided to push things along a little. Partially to move things along but mostly just for fun. As usual.

Gabe: "If you are feeling dizzy, hop into Soketsu’s lap. I will push you too."

Soketsu: "Objection!" Soketsu’s voice sounded like he was panicking as he glared at the mad scientist. "I’m not letting her into this wheelchair if you are the one pushing it!"

Gabe: "What? Do you have a problem with me?"

Soketsu: "Yes, you are a menace as a driver of anything with wheels! I was praying for my life all the way here!"

Gabe: "Hey, I’m not that reckless!"

Soketsu: "You wanted to take a shortcut on the stairs by jumping off the side!"

Gabe: "Well—"

Soketsu: "And later, you tried to take sharper turns by using handbrakes… on a wheelchair!"

Gabe: "Okay, maybe that was a uncalled for, but—"

Soketsu: "And do I need to mention when you—"

Gabe: "Okay, okay! I get it! Geez!"

Gabe theatrically jerked his hands away from the wheelchair’s handles and groaned in irritation as he stepped back while gestured to Ahazkun.

Gabe: "Here, take the driver seat."

The oracle raised his hand in protest with a blank look on his face.

Ahazkun: "Why me?"

Gabe: "Just shut up and deal with it. And you…"

Gabe swiftly circled around the wheelchair and stood right in beside Kay, appearing right in the girl’s blind spot. Before she could utter a single word the man slid his hands under her arms and raised her up without any visible effort. By the time she realized what was happening her legs were already ineffectually dangling in the air.

Kay: "U-Uaaaa! I’ve changed my mind, I’m fine, I walk!"

Gabe: "Objection overruled!"

The mad scientist raised her over his head in one circular motion and softly dropped the flabbergasted girl into the lap of her equally stunned partner.

Kay: "Ummm…"

Kay glanced over at Soketsu, then back at Gabe, then the rest of the group one by one, but she only met with weary shrugs and a few sympathetic glances. In the meanwhile the mad scientist put his arms akimbo like he just finished some arduous task and he looked over the group as well.

Gabe: "There you go. Now, can we go already!?"

After a few moments of awkward silence everyone just shrugged in unison. Pabloc on the other hand took it upon himself to act as the team’s voice and gave a firm nod to the mad scientist.

Pabloc: "Yeah, let’s just get going."

As such the group finally started moving with Pabloc and Lily leading the group. Gabe was mostly beside them, when not teasing the people at the back, while the column was closed by Soketsu and Kay in his lap pushed by Ahazkun and Tiari following in tow. Like this the small band slowly disappeared in the labyrinth of corridors while barely managing to stay silent for more than a few moments at a time…