After a not so long search, Yinsak finally found the trapdoor he was looking for. He then calls Baxter, who was unwrapping a lollipop, while twisting the round handle open.

– What should I expect down there? – Baxter asks him as they start walking down a set of spiral stairs.

– Some messed up stuff here, some disturbing stuff there, but other than that, nothing serious. – Yinsak jokingly answers. After a while, they reach the end of the staircase and face a door as white as the rest of the building so far. Next to it, a numeric keyboard.

He thinks for a while before pressing some numbers a handful of times. The keyboard flashes a red light and a message appears, saying: "Warning! One out of two failed attempts."

– What happens if you get the wrong password again? – Baxter asks, a bit anxious. Yinsak grins with excitement.

– The trapdoor we came from locks us here and my old man receives an instant message on his phone. He would be here in less than an hour and we would have to fight him...

In his voice, there was a hint of amusement and wonder. To make sure he wouldn't potentially kill them, Baxter asks him to insert the actual password. – Let's leave the fighting to when it becomes necessary.

After inserting the real password, the door unlocks with a heavy "click", slowly giving them a view of a long corridor with a handful of doors.

– When you said as much evidence as possible... – Baxter starts but Yinsak waves his hand at him.

– As much relevant evidence, that is. They're just doors. What we want is what's behind them.

– You know, there's something I wanted to ask you ever since you asked for my help. What exactly are the Astarosas doing?

– Classified.

Dumbfounded by the answer, Baxter decides not to say anything. A minute later, Yinsak starts.

– They're trying to find a way to trigger more than one Affinity in a person.

It takes too many seconds for Baxter to process the info. – Wait, what? Are they delusional or something?

– You could say something like that. – Yinsak pries inside one of the rooms before shaking his head while closing the door again. – The worst part is how they're doing all of it.

– Which is...?

– They're using slaves from poor countries as lab rats.

Baxter widens his eyes with shock. – How did no one notice something like this?! I mean, this is supposed to be one of their bases, right? Someone had to figure something out at some point!

– Wrong. I can ensure you that if I didn't know those things for being part of the family, I wouldn't even consider the fact. They're this good in hiding their tracks. – By now, they had opened a few doors but Yinsak didn't take a single photo.

Now facing the door opposite to the one they came from, Yinsak starts to slowly open it. – This is where they're keeping their experiments I just talked about. Get ready for some guards.

After that, he takes a step back and slams his foot on it, wide opening it at once. True to his word, in it were two guards wearing leather uniforms and black lens helmets who were already pointing their pistols at the intruders.

– This is Admiral Astarosa's private facility. You have five seconds to explain yourselves before we open fire. One. Two. Three

– Yinsak... – Baxter's tension grows with his potential imminent death.

– Four!

– Yinsak! Do something! – Not wanting to die, the young man jumps away to take cover.

Before the final count, Yinsak takes a deep breath, tightens his muscles, and lowers his stance slightly. Right at the end of his preparation, both guards opened fire, shooting all eighteen bullets both of them had combined.

Not a single one hit any of the intruders.

With breathtaking speed and precision, Yinsak grabs all bullets while still mid-air. Once the firing ceases, Baxter makes a shocked face. Neither guards could utter a single coherent word. Yinsak's grin widens as he opens his hand, dropping all bullets on the metallic floor.

– It itched a bit. No wonder, considering how long has it been since I last did this. – He rubs his palm as one of his eyebrows twitch a bit.

The guards only had time to merely try and reload their guns. Yinsak elbows one of them so hard his helmet shatters like glass. Baxter stands up while dashing forward, jumps and spin kicks the other guard on the side of his head, cracking its helmet.

– Why hold back against them? You could have easily ripped that thing in two if you wanted.

– And put someone that was just doing his job into a coma just because I could do it? I'm not you.

If he was offended by the comment, Yinsak didn't show.

Ahead of them, instead of the slaves Yinsak mentioned before, or anything for that matter, they saw nothing. Not a single soul or trace of usage could be seen anywhere, making both men wonder why would anyone bother with having guards there in the first place.

– Theories? – Baxter asks. Yinsak shrugs.

– They're Russ' job and I don't care enough to ask him.

– You know, something has been bugging me ever since I figured why we were here. – Baxter says as they head towards the exit. – Why do you have this vendetta with your family? What did they do to you that made you be so obsessed with hunting them down? You now, aside from the whole capturing slaves as lab rats and stuff.

– You sure like to make questions, don't you? – Yinsak remains as nonchalant as ever. Not seeing how he could gain something else from it, Baxter drops the subject and unwraps a gum package.

Once out, they spot Russ' car in the distance and no signs of anyone other than them. When approaching where the mercenary was knocked out, they realize he is no longer there. Then, Russ opens the driver's window with a smirk.

– He's over that bush. Still breathing, but not for long if no one finds him.

– Not such a coward when your opponent is unconscious, are you? – Yinsak mocks him while smirking himself. Russ drops his' and half closes his eyes, more bored than annoyed at the man's remark.

After their rather eventful evening, the trio goes back to the city they came from and once there, prepare to each go to their respective places.

– So. – Russ starts. – Now can you tell me why you brought Baxter if you could easily handle everything by yourself? I mean, I was the driver and all that but what about him?

– He asked me to come but didn't really tell me why. – Yinsak looks at the man before shrugging. – Not that I care. I figured he was strong, so I let him come as a little favor.

– And ever since when you do people favors? – Russ mockingly asks Yinsak, who smiles menacingly at him. – Uh... In any case, where are you going to now?

– I'm going to bed. – Yinsak says while already leaving them behind, hands inside his pocket. – I have a lot of stuff to take care of tomorrow, so I expect you there early, Russ.

– Right... – He sighs sadly before addressing Baxter. – And you?

He grabs a piece of paper and reads something in it. After pondering for a while, he answers. – Visit a relative.

On the afternoon of the next day, after his daily section, Magatsu corners both "siblings" with an excited expression.

– You two have nowhere to run, so spill it. What's the deal with you two?

They look at each other before Ramon starts.

– This isn't simple to say, so bear with us. – Magatsu nods. – First things first, we're not siblings.

– Not in the common sense, anyway. – Vanessa finishes for him. Before she continues, she looks at Ramon, who nods reassuringly. – This bread head over here is kind of adopted. When he was a child, his family abandoned him for whatever reason and my mother found him wandering near our house with rags for clothes and nothing for shoes. She took pity on him and invited him in. The bastard ate a meal meant for two people all by himself.

– In my defense, I hadn't eaten in three days. – Ramon says with the voice of someone who was accused of stealing a cake from the fridge. Magatsu laughs before gesturing for them to continue.

– He didn't want to survive out of scraps again, so he begged us to let him stay, Lucky for him, my father's soft side was more obvious because I was still young, so he took him under his wing and raised him as if he was his son.

– And what about the whole you two dating thing? – Magatsu was itching to get to the bottom of it. Ramon takes the lead.

– As we grew together, we realized more and more how much we liked each other. That liking didn't stop there and before I realized, she asked me out on a date...

His story is interrupted by Vanessa, who pushes his shoulder. – As if. You pretty much came on your knees when you asked me out. – Magatsu snorts while shaking his head with a smirk.

– In any case. – Ramon continues. – That happened around eight years ago. She said yes and ever since then we've been dating. But because we didn't want to raise a ruckus at the time for the fact that we were "siblings" having an intimate relationship, we kept it a secret.

– Who else knows?

– Our parents, who only figured it out after a year, and Disarm a while after we came here.

– You do know this won't be a secret for long if you keep making out in public like this. – Magatsu jokingly says while placing his hands on hips.

– We don't plan to keep it a secret forever. – Vanessa answers his non-verbal question. – After we take on the Brotherhood League, we'll start planning out our wedding.

Surprised with the news, Magatsu claps with wide eyes and his lower lip curved down. He then smiles defiantly.

– I plan on taking this League in the near future myself, you know, so you better keep your heads up.

– We will. Especially after we mop the floor with you.

They all laugh like the good friends they are before Magatsu says. – Thanks for clearing that out for me.

– You're lucky we're bothering less and less with keeping this a secret. – Vanessa says. – I'm the one who suggested we should try our first real date in the Food Plaza and after we were almost busted, under that abandoned energy tower.

– My Power Tower, mind you. – The couple snort at the name. – What?

– That's such a silly name. How did you even come up with it?

– I find it quite cool. Powerful, even. – A fourth voice coming from behind them speaks while approaching them.

The trio looks back and sees a man with the sides of his head shaved wearing pajama-looking cotton clothes while eating a small chocolate cake slice. His chin had some bits of it in it as he smiled. Next to him, an annoyed Shinda.

– Good afternoon, friend. – Ramon doesn't waste time in greeting. – Need help with something?

– Yeah, actually. I'm looking for him. – He points at Magatsu, who raises his eyebrows.

– Last time someone came looking for him, things didn't end well very well. – Vanessa jokingly says. Baxter nods.

– I imagined Yinsak would do that. – He says while approaching an even more surprised Magatsu, extending his hand.

– How do you... – Magatsu starts but is cut by the young man in front of him.

– Hello, Magatsu. My name is Baxter Astarosa.