“Arcathia to Ayden, please respond,” says Keith in a delightfully cheery voice. I snap from my daydream, looking up to him from the stretcher I’m lying on.

“Hey, sunshine,” I reply. I carefully sit up, then survey the streets for my team. It’s pandemonium however, the roads are blocked off with news vans and police cruisers. A crowd of policemen congregate around the opening of Lupo’s underground hideout, preventing nosy reporters from getting too close. I spot the Captain first speaking to coroners from EvGeni. Lined in rows near them are the bodies of the insurgents zipped up into body bags including Lila. I stare at her in particular, noticing the protruding piece of metal pointing upwards from inside.

“I heard from the grapevine you killed the Kinetic,” says Keith cautiously. “How are you feeling?”

I shrug. “She was going to kill us all if I didn’t do anything...”

“That doesn’t answer my question…” says Keith with a heavy sigh. He then carefully assesses my swollen ankle, poking gently at the bruised surface.

“Any pain or tenderness?” he asks.

“All of that,” I reply with a slight wince. Keith purses his lips then goes on to scan my ankle with his medical tablet. I glance past him, the Captain is gone. Surveying the streets I see Pyrrha and Jorge wrapping up their smoke break beside a lamppost.

“Yeah, nothing’s broken. Just a minor sprain as I suspected,” says Keith. “Nothing bedrest and a few painkillers can’t solve.”

He rummages through a medkit strapped around his waist. The kit looks old and worn. The lettering is faded and the fabric straps are chewed with tearing. I tilt my head curiously.

“Where’d you get that?” I ask.

“My grandma. She had an old medkit and gave it to me.”

He produces a small bottle of fast acting painkillers hands me two red and white capsules. I graciously pop the pills into my mouth then get comfortable. Pyrrha and Jorge approach the two of us, both smelling like cigarette smoke.

“What’s the prognosis, Doctor? Is he ever going to race again?” asks Pyrrha. Keith cannot help but chuckle at her lighthearted inquiry.

“Yes, he’s going to be fine but he is going to need some time to recover. What about you two, are you any of you injured?”

“We’re okay, Doctor. A little shaken up, but in perfect physical health,” Pyrrha replies. Jorge silently nods his head. The Captain joins the four of us, looking quite irritated.

“Ayden, I’ve browsed online and even dug through ABI records but didn’t find any results about XXXCapades with that address you gave me. Are you sure this is what Lila meant?”

“I’m positive,” I reply confidently. “You won’t find anything about XXXcapades. It’s an exclusive underground retreat for the worst of the worst and it’s all run by Roy Mack. He’s also known as The Broker.

The Captain’s cybernetic eye flickers briefly. “The Broker… he’s been on the ABI’s watchlist for years. He’s wanted for his involvement with human trafficking, drug manufacturing and black market arms dealing. That would likely explain how Lupo acquired her vast weapon arsenal and that old war gunship, not to mention the stockpile of Hauteclaire Steel war automatons.”

“How do you know all this stuff, chino?” asks Jorge. I didn’t want to answer his question. I glance to Keith but he narrows his eyes curiously. My heartbeats in my throat.

“I used to… work for Roy,” I reply shamefully. “I was his hired muscle. Sometimes he would have me move merchandise, other days he’d send me to collect payment.”

The lively sheen vanishes from Keith’s eyes. It’s a look of utter betrayal. He clenches his tablet tightly in his palms, fidgeting with the screen. He then takes a deep, shaky breath. I can tell he wants to say something. The Captain picks up on Keith’s body language however and taps his shoulder.

“Doctor, I think you’ve done all you could for now,” she says. “I’ll call for you if we need anything else.”

Keith nods vacantly then dismisses himself. Pyrrha and Jorge watch him leave, intrigued by his sudden unexplainable change in behavior. The Captain glances over to me and subtly winks her eye. I thank her with a slight nod.

“So what are we going to?” asks Jorge, turning back to the group.

“I’ll need to update the Director on the situation,” replies the Captain. You two go and find Dawud, then meet me at the truck.”

Jorge and Pyrrha nod their heads then set off to find him. The Captain watches them leave then turns back to me. She leans against the gurney, resting her head on one hand.

“Is everything alright?” she asks, her eyes pointing over to Keith in the distance. I gaze to him fondly. I know deep down everything isn’t alright. The love of my life just discovered the truth about me, and I feel ashamed.

“No, I don’t think it is,” I reply. The Captain puckers her lips then whistles loudly in Keith’s direction.

“You got two minutes,” she says.

My heart plumments when he looks over. She flags him down with a wave of her hand. It’s hard to look him in the eyes.

“Yes, ma’am?” he asks. She doesn’t say anything, she just tilts her head towards me then walks away. I swallow. Keith crosses his arms over his chest nervously. He looks more broken than when he left.

“What?” he says, his voice trembling.

“Keith, I’m sorry,” I say remorsefully. “You weren’t supposed to find out this way”

“What the hell, Ayden? Then how was I supposed to? Were you ever planning on telling me?”

“Eventually,” I reply, but even that’s a lie. “I was ashamed to tell you, Keith. So I swept my past under a rug.”

“Why?” he asks. I can see faint twinkle in his eyes. His cheeks puff with anger. I bow my head.

“Did you not think I could handle the truth? Why did you lie to me!”

“I never you lied to you! I just didn’t tell you the entire picture. It’s no different than when you held the secret about your mother from me!”

“This is nothing like that!” he exclaims, voice quaking with stress. I hold my breath. “Do you remember what you told me on our first date when I asked you what you did for a living?”

He doesn't give me a chance to answer, let alone give me enough time to reflect on the conversation.

“...You told me you were a delivery boy and never elaborated further, and I bought it.”

My heart aches. I recall those words precisely. At the time, I was still collecting support from EvGeni and running small errands for Roy behind Petyr’s back.

“You lied to me, Ayden. Just like my mom lied to me…”

“Keith, please understand. I was afraid. I didn’t want you to think of me differently, like I was just some street thug from the Neon District.”

“I’d rather date a thug than a liar… at least they’d be honest about themselves.”

I sink into the gurney. There’s nothing else I can say can make this right.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur. “I’m really sorry…”

“How can I trust you now?” he asks irately. I shake my head and shrug. I don’t know how. Keith’s lips quiver helplessly and his eyes begin to water. He tries his best to wipe away his tears before they roll onto his cheeks but they drop onto his shirt. I can’t stand to see him cry.

“You can trust me, babe. I’ve been completely truthful about everything else. Don’t let this one fuck up get in between us. I still love you.”

Keith mulls over my statement with a scowl. His gaze and prolonged silence fills my heart with consternation. I reach for his hand but he pulls away.

“I need time...” he replies plainly. It feels like I’ve been hit with a ton of bricks. My eyes burn with grief. I wipe my face, then I hear a whistle in the distance. My time is up.

“Fuck…” I say under my breath. I wipe my face harder with my palms, drying the bit of tears with my shirt. I hop to my feet, the painkillers doing their job in numbing the pain of moving. I glance to Keith a final time.

“I love you,” I say. “I never meant to hurt you,”

Another tear drips falls from his face, but he looks away. “Just go…” he says coldly. I leave, my tail tucked between my legs. I find Elnora leaning against an SUV, arms crossed over her chest. She takes one look and knows.

“How’s your ankle?” she asks instead.

“I’m fine. Lets just go,” I shrug. I open the rear passenger door and take a seat besides Pyrrha in the middle row. Seating upfront in the passenger seat is Jorge, leaving Dawud alone in the far back. He and I exchanged glares at each other from the rear view mirror. The Captain hops into the driver's seat and activates the navigational system on the center console. She enters the address into the menu screen and the search result is exactly how I remember it.

“A laundromat?” Jorge asks with disbelief.

“It’s a front,” I say assuringly. “The club is underneath. You get in with a special invitation and a small card that you use to reveal the hidden door into the club.”

The SUV engines rumble and begins to drive autonomously through the street.

“So what’s the plan, Captain?” asks Dawud impatiently try The Captain tilts her head towards me.

“Are there any ways you can get us into the club?” she asks.

“Not… conventionally,” I reply quizzically. “It’s an underground fortress! You’ll need an army!”

“We have one, we just need to get in,” she replies.

I scout my memories for any alternative entrances but I blank. I used to come in through the front, swipe my invitation and traverse the stairwell down into the club, but that was long ago. I’ve since gotten rid of that thing. I close my eyes and think harder, then suddenly I remember something. One word.

Magnolias.

“There’s a freight elevator that takes you down to the storage area of the nightclub. Roy uses it to store his stockpile of magnolia.”

“Magnolia?” Pyrrha asks.

“Street drug,” replies the Captain. “Arcathus Magnoliaeae, or commonly known as the Spring Virgin. It’s a highly invasive species of Magnolia native to Arcathia. The white flowers the vines produces are toxic, and cause interesting psychedelic effects.”

Pyrrha blinks, unable understand the Captain’s insinuation.

“They make you want to fuck for hours, as well as making you trip balls,” I say.

“Oh…” says Pyrrha. “Oh… and he just has a whole stockpile of it?”

The Captain receives an incoming call from Sandra.

“Yes Sandra?” she answers. A project of Sandra appears from her wrist.

“Giving you an update preliminary scout of the address you provided. We noticed the laundromat is mostly empty except for a few customers and the clerk but one of the drones spotted something interesting. An unmarked truck with no license plate.”

She projects a few stills from the drone footage for us to see. I lean in for a better view the point to one of the images once I find what I’m looking for.

“See that flower mural right there? It leads to the freight elevator. That truck is one of Roy’s.”

“Excellent, looks like we found our way in,” says the Captain with a pleased grin. “Sandra, have the Director form a perimeter three blocks in diameter around the laundromat and organize operatives for a siege. My team will enter first, locate the Gifted rogues and neutralize them.”

“Yes, ma’am,” says Sandra before ending the call.

“Ayden, is there anything else you can tell us about this club?” Pyrrha asks.

“I’m more curious about how you became associated with the Broker,” says Jorge. Keith comes to mind and suddenly I don’t feel like speaking anymore. I shake my head.

“It’s stupid,” I reply. “I was stupid back then. I really don’t want to talk about it.”

I hear a faint, audible scoff from behind me. I glance up to the rear view mirror and see Dawud grinning sarcastically. His eyes appear red and irritated and his pupils dilated until you could no longer see the color of his iris. He wiggles his eyebrows before knocking back something in his palm. The truck continues further into the heart of the Neon District. As the sun begins to set over the skyline, the district iluminates with life. Pimps and their tricks dressed in skimpy clothes line the sidewalks. The addicts who spend the day sleeping in the dark alleys migrate into the street to panhandle for their next hit. It’s a depressing sight. I can hardly believe I used to live in this squalor. A few bad memories come back too as we pass a few notable landmarks, like the drug store where I committed my first theft, the abandoned lot where I used to sleep before bulldozed the old building and the alley where I had my first fight. To think I’d still be in this if it weren’t for Petyr.

As we near our destination, the Captain shifts to manual steering and drives towards the location of the white truck from earlier. She slowly creeps through the streets and parks along the curb about eye shot from the truck. We all settle in our seats, observing silent as two men unload large boxes from the rear trailer.

“Do you recognize those men?” The Captain asks. I squint for a better look but the men are too far away to identify. I shake my head.

“Don’t think so,” I reply. “But they’re definitely one of Roy’s men. See their sleeves? They have purple bands around them.”

“What’s Roy’s security protocol for moving merchandise like this?”

“Pretty standard for drug shipments. Two on watch while two unload, assuming what’s inside the boxes are drugs. If not, then usually half a dozen guys on watch armed with rifles.”

The Captain responds with a shake of her head. She concentrates for a moment, staring intensely towards the truck. Without breaking eye contact she activates her cybernetic and runs a software program.

“Let’s move,” she commands. We all exit the truck, the Captain leading us down the middle of the street. We all stay on guard while following her closely. The Captain glances to the running program displayed above her arm before closing it. We’re about ten yards from the truck. I move onto the sidewalk to prevent any chances of being spotted. The men continue to unload stacks of crates with doleys, unaware of our presence. Suddenly, the truck engine rumbles. The two men look at each other.

“Did you turn on the truck?” asks the tall, skinnier man. His counterpart shakes his head dumbfoundedly.

“Ain’t’chu got the little clicker?”

In their distraction, the Captain leaps from behind cover and fires two rapid fire electro-darts from her cybernetic arm. The men shudder, falling to the concrete as electricity paralyzes them. Two additional men appear from the other side of the truck, armed with rifles just as I said they would. I quickly seize their weapons, pulling it towards me before they even have a chance to use them. Charging in, Jorge pins the closest guard knocking him unconscious with a vicious head-butt while Dawud secures the other with a telekinetic hold. I’m concerned for the man succumbed to Dawud’s wrath. His face turns blue from the lack of air, and he begins to kicks his legs frantically.

“Enough,” orders the Captain sternly. Dawud reluctantly complies and releases his grasp. The man collapses to the ground desperately gasping for air. Dawud flares his nostrils and snarls with dissatisfaction. The Captain crouches to the injured man and takes out a pair of cuffs from her utility belt.

“Wait, take his shirt before you cuff him,” I say. I crouch beside the Captain and begin to disrobe the man’s shirt. “Same thing with the others. It’ll help us blend in.”

The others begin to remove the tee-shirts of the unconscious men. Dawud, Pyrrha and the Captain fit into the tee-shirts with ease while Jorge struggles to fit into his. His bulging muscles stretch the thin synthetic threads, defining his pectorals and shoulder areas.

“My team subdued four armed individuals at the unmarked truck. We’ll be moving into the storage area of the faculty momentarily,” says the Captain into her communicator.

“Roger, we’ll send somebody to pick them up,” replies a male agent. The five of us move on towards the flower mural. A portion of the building facade is open, revealing the freight elevator. We step onboard, then the Captain pulls the lever beside a control panel. Safety bars spring upwards around the edges, then the elevator steadily declines into the shaft. My heart races, I can feel it about to burst from my chest.

“Where will this elevator take us to?” asks the Captain.

“It leads to the second sub-level corridor. It’s mostly used for maintenance so we won’t run into a security, but there’s a door that leads right to the main dance floor and bar area.”

The elevator stops and the five of us advance through the corridor. I can feel subtle, rhythmic vibrations on my feet. The air feels warmer, and the ambient light gets dimmer the further we walk. It’s exactly how I remember it. I’ve been down here once before, a tour given by Roy when I first began here.

The rusty metal door leading to the dance floor shakes to the violent beats of the EDM music. I stop in my tracks. A memory flickers in my mind, a younger me pushing the door open with a bags of magnolias tablets tucked into my vest jacket pockets. I remember how anxious I was, it was a lot like how I’m feeling at this moment.

The Captain takes point and opens the door. Hot, moist air hits us in one singular wave. We all hold our breath then step inside. The club is almost how I remember it with the exception of a few upgrades. Closest to us is the bar area fully stocked with choice liqueurs and spirits from around the galaxy. Topless mixologists tend to their criminal patrons with charming enthusiasm. Exotic dancers grind on poles while thirsty viewers invest their cryptocurrency to make it holographically rain dollar bills. Beyond that, an artificial intelligence mixes beats for the dancers on the dance floor. Colorful lasers and holograms create a rhythmic light show that is almost an art form on its own. The Captain looks to me with a look of wondrous disbelief. We huddle in the shadows.

“We’re looking for either, Veronica or the twins!” shouts the Captain, but her voice still gets lost in the loud music. I glance around the club, my heart still beating within my chest. I spot from the corner of my eye a silhouette of a man from a window watching over the dance floor. I feel my heart pound harder.

“Roy…” I say to myself.

That’s his office overlooking his club like a perch on the highest tower of a castle. The ambient light of his office switches off, and his shadow vanishes into the darkness. I turn back to the Captain and the rest of the group.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult locating the twins. Our priority is to find Veronica instead,” orders the Captain “Research indicates she cannot influence more than one person at a time, we’ll split into teams and sweep the club. If you locate her, report your location before engaging.”

We nod our heads in understanding.

“Pyrrha, go with Ayden. Jorge with Dawud and I’ll explore solo,”

“What if you get influenced?” asks Dawud.

“I can’t...” she replies, pointing to her head. “My synthetic implants prevent that.”

We break off and separate. Dawud and Jorge explore and survey the dance floor, while I direct the Captain to the private pleasure rooms on the same level. Pyrrha and I take the stairs to survey the veranda overlooking the dance floor. There’s a look of stress across Pyrrha’s face. I can tell she’s completely uncomfortable, but so can everyone else. They stare wide-eyed, perplexed by her odd, clunky attire. I lean close to her.

“You need to relax,” I say. I take her hand which is unsurprisingly hot to the touch. “Pretend your my trick, or something…”

She manages to crack a grin then improvises by locking her arm around my bicep. It works, and some club attendees look away but the rest still stare with bias. We circle the veranda twice, and find no sign of Veronica. To not draw further attention we stop at a different bar on the second floor. I gaze at the window of Roy’s office across the room. To my right is a door sectioned off by red rope which leads to his office. I remember frequently passing that door to receive my next task from Roy. I also remember being eager, and pleased when I got paid. I was only in it for the money. I needed to eat…

I shake my head, banishing the thought. Then I feel something tap my arm softly. I turn around and see a shot placed in front of me on the counter. The drink is dark and filled to the top. Confused, I look up to the mixologist and realize I know him.

“Strange to see you here again…” says Carlos. I blink a few times, unsure what to say or do. Before Keith there was Carlos. He was my first. A young, soft spoken man with deep brown eyes and curly hair.

“You never returned any of my calls after you left…”

I’m dumbstruck. A million thoughts invade my mind and I can’t think clearly. I stare into his irresistible, unblinking eyes. The music faints gently into obscurity, yet I still feel the powerful vibrations on the bar’s surface. Something is wrong. The thoughts continue, whispering over themselves in a calm tone. I panic, but I can’t move my legs. Then I see her, a vague shape in the darkness standing from across the bar. Veronica.

“Pyrrha…” I say, but my voice barely creeps above a whisper. I slowly turn my head to her, and realize that she’s already been affected long before me. Pyrrha stares into space, wide-eyed and motionless. I want to scream but Veronica seizes the thought before I can even act on it.

“Don’t scream, little lamb…” she whispers. Someone grips my shoulder tightly, and a rush of electricity surges through my body until the entire world goes black.