Tex frowned into his tea cup, and not just because he'd burned his tongue.

It had been five months since Junji had left after trying and failing to start a one-world government. Tex knew that Junji was hiding out on some private island, but that was the only information Junji had given him before taking off. Tex hadn't gotten a single call or message with any sort of update.

He'd been starting to give up hope of ever seeing Junji again.

It was a sobering thought. Tex still hadn't been able to bring himself to find a replacement for Junji, and he'd just been having Sean, Luke, and Caverly take turns doing Junji's job. But Tex knew it couldn't last, as Caverly was quickly getting too pregnant to help and Luke seemed like he was starting to resent the extra work.

Tex's coworkers had hounded him about where Junji had gone after his leave, and Tex had been forced to lie to save Junji's face. It was annoying, but what was even more annoying was when they stopped asking.

Tex tried another sip of his tea. It wasn't too hot anymore, but it could use some milk.

With a sullen expression, Tex got up with a sigh and made his way over to his fridge. As much as it stung, he knew he needed to move on and accept the fact that he wouldn't be seeing Junji for a while.

Tex opened the door to his fridge. Junji tumbled out of the fridge and onto the floor.

"Dallas!" Junji greeted happily with his head on the floor and his legs on top of the vegetable drawer. "It's so good to see you."

Tex blinked twice at the sight before him. The scene stayed the same.

"Uh." Tex stated.

"Although I can't say I was expecting to find you here." Junji replied.

"Yeah, I can relate to the--feeling."

From his position on the floor, Junji darted his eyes back and forth to examine the insides of Tex's tiny kitchenette.

"We are in apartment five-hundred and twelve, correct?" asked Junji.

"Yes."

"Which is your apartment?"

It was subtle, but Tex could see that Junji's appearance had changed since the last time they'd met. Some of the hair behind his ears had turned grey, more than that should have at his age, and his eyes looked like they'd only just woken up from months of exhaustion.

It didn't not suit him, although Tex had bigger things on his mind.

"Yeah." Tex replied.

"Oh, I understand what happened."

"Would you mind explaining?"

Junji opened his mouth only to burst into a happy fit of laughter. Tex used the time to lend Junji an arm and help him off the floor.

"I've just realized." Junji said as he got to his feet, still laughing to himself. "You must be so confused!"

"Ain't gonna deny that."

"Ying and I have spent the last several months trying to bend three dimensional space to link our laboratory and my old apartment together. I misremembered my own apartment number as yours, so I ended up here when trying to pass through the portal."

Junji's reply felt like it shouldn't make sense, but it did nonetheless.

"Could you, uh--could you fix it?" Tex asked.

"Unfortunately not. My lab and your fridge are permanently entangled."

Tex knelt down and examined the back of his fridge. It looked the same as it always did, flat and white.

When he stood back up, Tex let his eyes fall back on Junji's face.

"Sorry." said Tex. "Kinda at a loss for words."

"I understand. I wish I could have called ahead."

"Yeah, about that..."

"Hmm?"

Tex chewed on his lower lip and did his best not to look hurt.

"There a reason I've gone--five months without a word from you?" he asked.

Junji nodded.

"Considering the amount of political adversaries I had attempting to kill me, I thought it safest to destroy my phone and any other traceable devices." Junji answered.

"...That's a good point."

"But I wanted to see you. I spent every second I could working on this teleportation device, in the hopes I could come back."

The answer made sense. The anger Tex felt melted away fast enough to give himself emotional whiplash.

"You still worried about getting--assassinated?" he pushed.

"The few assassins that knew my true identity are either dead or now Buddhist, and no one has come in contact with me for months, so no. Although I still think it best to lay low."

"...Think you could come back to work?"

Junji shot Tex's fridge a look.

"I suppose it is not out of my way." Junji shrugged.

There was nothing Tex could do to stop the smile from spreading across his face. Junji looked pleased.

"So, uh." Tex stated. "You got an island?"

"Yes."

"Can I see it?"

"Of course. I--"

Junji cut himself off when a buzz and a short tone rang out. It took Tex a moment to realize they'd both come from his own phone.

"Might be Tala." Tex said as he pulled out his phone. "Mind if I check?"

"I do not."

Tex unlocked his phone to see the message had indeed been from Tala. More specifically, she'd messaged the entire extended work group.

From Gamer Gril

something just opened up, local. is everybody free today?

From Sean

whose turn is it

From Caverly's Husband

I think it's mine

Tex smiled to himself as he wrote out his reply.

To New Work Group

it's neither. I got a permanent replacement

From Sean

oh thank god

From Caverly's Husband

yeah it's been fun getting to watch Tex roll around on the floor in torment, but I've been wondering when I can start being a father to my unborn child

From Gamer Gril

why would you need to father an unborn child

From Sean

do yall think Freud was right when he said we all actually wanna go back to our mother's womb?

From Supreme Jackass

no

From Gamer Gril

no

From Caverly's Husband

more like Sigmund Fraud

From Gamer Gril

Freud broke into my house last night, snorted a line of coke off my penis envy, and then started crying when someone on Reddit called him an incel

From Supreme Jackass

who's the replacement

To New Work Group

youll see

To New Work Group

can we meet now?

The conversation wrapped up when both Barton and Tala agreed to meet right away. Tex grabbed his shoes and stepped into them.

"Are you going somewhere?" Junji wondered.

"Shit, forgot to ask. You good if we head out now?"

"Sure. I am looking forward to seeing the others."

Tex let Junji lead the way out of the complex. Junji chose the stairs over the elevator, just like he always did.

"So, uh, whatcha you been up to?" Tex asked once they'd gotten to the street.

"Building a teleporter."

Tex nodded to no one in particular as they walked down the left side of the sidewalk. He resisted the urge to jump over the leash of a tiny dog whose owner had allowed it to take up the span of the entire walkway.

"What about now that you're done with that?" Tex pushed.

"Finding a sustainable energy source for my teleporter."

As they walked to the end of the street, Tex noticed a car approaching them perpendicular from the left.

Tex frowned. The car was moving quickly enough that, theoretically, it would have already passed them by the time they got to the crosswalk. However, the driver was likely to stop for them, which would not only waste its own time but force the two of them to momentarily halt if it slowed down.

"This car is going to stop for us." Junji said with irritation.

"Yes."

"If it kept going at its current speed, it would simply pass us before we got there."

"Let's pretend we're turning."

Tex could already see the car slowing down, just the tiniest bit.

Tex nodded and turned left with Junji when they reached the end of the sidewalk.

"Come on, doggy..." Tex muttered to himself as he watched the car out of the corner of his eye.

Tex's chest swelled with pride when the car whizzed passed them instead of stopping. Immediately, he and Junji crossed the street and continued on their way.

"Nice." said Tex.

"Yes, that was a good idea."

Junji seemed quite proud.

Thanks to their continued efficiency, Tex and Junji managed to make it to the office about thirty whole seconds before anyone else did. Tex took a seat at the table while Junji made himself a coffee.

"Did you tell the others I was coming?" Junji asked.

"Uh..."

The door opened. Tex looked over just in time to see Tala roll into the room on heelys with seventeen copies of the Communist Manifesto balanced on her hand.

"You would not believe the day I had." she said, her eyes on her phone.

"It's eleven in the morning." Tex replied.

"Hello." Junji greeted.

Tala's eyes widened. When she turned her attention to Junji, several manifestos fell from her hand.

"Junji?" she asked in amazement.

"Yes." Junji stated.

"Where did you come from?"

"It's a long story. I--"

Junji was cut off when the door opened once again. Tex glanced over to see Barton with a small white slip in her hand.

"What the hell?" she greeted.

Junji waved. Barton narrowed her eyes.

"So how's that scurvy looking?" followed Barton.

"Hmm?" Junji asked as he took a seat at the table with his coffee.

"Tex said that you left because you got scurvy, but that you were embarrassed about it so we couldn't visit you in the hospital." Tala explained.

Junji looked over at Tex. Tex looked at his hands.

"Yes. I got scurvy." Junji stated. "I have recovered now."

Barton scoffed.

"In that case, I got something I wanna give you." she said.

"What?" Junji replied.

"It's in here somewhere..."

Barton fumbled through her pockets for a moment before smacking Junji upside the head.

"Oww!" Junji yelped.

"Junji, are you going to stick around this time?" asked Tala.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Yes. I never wanted to leave."

Tala and Barton exchanged a look. Tala shrugged.

"Alright." Barton sighed as she took a seat at the table. "Obviously Junji's being a little bitch and doesn't wanna share, but we got more important things to deal with right now."

"And what important thing would that be?" Tex wondered.

Barton tossed the white slip she'd come in with on the table. Tex gave it a quick look to see it was from the landlord of the office building they were currently in.

"Rent increase?" Tala asked.

"Fifteen percent, yeah." Barton replied.

Tex frowned. Considering their rent had also been increased the year before, he knew he was going to have to accept that pinching pennies and scanning all the vegetables he bought as non-organic potatoes just wouldn't be enough anymore to keep things moving.

"Darn." said Tala, eyeing both Barton and Junji. "If only someone here had some money..."

"If it's gotten to the point when I'm offering to help you financially, I can assure you that you've got bigger problems to deal with than office space." Barton replied.

"We could relocate ourselves." Junji suggested.

Tex rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

"Let's figure it out later." he said. "I wanna get this done first."

"Yeah, that's fair." Tala replied.

"Did I miss anything other than a rent increase?" asked Junji.

"Not really." Barton answered. "We mercy killed some robots."

"Anything interesting?"

Barton began to count on her fingers.

"We found a guy who'd given consciousness to a bunch of Grand Theft Auto NPCs for the purpose of eternally drowning them in mayonnaise," she started, "and there was another guy who'd created a virtual clone of his ex-girlfriend and forced her to live in a garden where every flower bloomed in the shape of her dead son, then there was a lady who created a virtual clone of her husband and made his penis a millimeter smaller everyday--"

"Why do you remember this stuff?" Tex cut in.

"Somebody's gotta."

Tex rubbed his temples until the wince left his face.

"Can we just get to the job?" he asked.

"Sure, let me grab the Pain Finder Thing." Tala replied as she reached into her laptop bag.

The Pain Finder Thing was a GPS-like device that mapped out the physical locations of discomfort being experienced. Discomfort was represented on the map with pink dots, and the size and shade of the dots indicated the intensity of the pain.

It was an impressive and sophisticated piece of technology, far more advanced than anything Tex had ever seen before. Tala had found it in a dumpster behind McDonald's.

None of them were sure how the device worked. Junji and Tala had spent some amount of time theorizing that it somehow detected chemical compounds that represented distress, but Tex didn't have much drive to think about it too hard. He was happy enough simply having the device, and not just because he could use it to disprove his long held worry that plants felt pain when harvested.

"There's a big dot in Alaska that's been there for a while." Tala said, showing Tex the screen. "There's also this dot in California that’s been coming on the last few Tuesdays.”

There was indeed a large pink dot in Alaska, the biggest one Tex had seen in a while.

"Let's do the one in Alaska, then." he replied. "We'll figure out the one in California later."

"No land disconnect, that's good." said Barton. "We can get there by train."

As she spoke, Barton got up from the table and pushed in her chair. Tala did the same.

"Are we departing?" Junji asked.

"I don't see why not." Tala replied.

Tex nodded in agreement, always happy to get things done sooner rather than later.

Above ground trains had been the fastest way to travel ever since 2050. Buses and cars, however, hadn't been updated, and Tex usually found it frustrating that it took a whole half hour to drive the eight miles downtown. And Barton didn't make it any better, considering she made them all chip in for gas and parking. Still, Junji's arrival had left Tex in such a good mood that he didn't even put up a fuss when a pug in a service dog jacket peed on his shoes while they waited for their train.

The train to Alaska ended up being pretty empty. Tex would’ve liked to have planned more for the job they'd set out to do, but he chose to honor their agreement never to discuss work in a public place and instead just let Barton monologue.

"...mad at me, just cause I called the cops on them for making noise after eight pm." Barton finished. "What gives?"

"Everybody knows who you're talking about when you say 'urban people', case you were wondering." Tex replied.

"Barton, stop saying bad stuff about black people." said Tala. "It's weird, it's like self hate."

"It's not self hate." Barton scoffed. "I hate everyone the same amount."

Tala shuddered.

"Oh man, I've never heard anyone say that before." she said.

"Fine, I'll make fun of white people." Barton replied. "Look at me, I like to kiss my dog on the mouth and kiss my kids on the mouth and get triggered."

Tex broke into a laugh along with Tala. Junji didn't join them, but Tex wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't gotten the joke or because he was too busy looking at his train ticket.

"Have our tickets always been a hundred and fifty dollars?" Junji asked. "I thought they were only a hundred."

"The value of the dollar dropped like, ten percent more than usual this year." Tala replied.

Junji pouted and looked down at the table.

"I wonder how responsible I am for that..." he trailed off.

The ride only ended up being about ten minutes in total. Still, Tex managed to get pent up. He was so ready to leave by the time the train rolled into the station that he unintentionally bumped his hip against the exit door, shifting the gun hidden in his pants pocket ever-so-slightly into his testicles.

'ase;rdl;alksdfn;ldfgl.' said Tex's brain.

"We'll have to take a Zipcar to the house." Tala stated.

"Do they got anything with four wheel drive?" asked Barton.

Tex took out his phone so he could help find a good car on the app. Since they were by the train station, it would likely be easy to find one.

"Woah." Tala said as they left the building. "That's a lot of ice."

There was indeed a lot of ice. The outside was grey, cold, and devoid of human intervention. The only person outside the train station was an old fisherman with a worn face and a scraggly beard.

"Ahga--graga--ahh." he grumbled as he limped past them.

"He seemed nice." Tex said absentmindedly, having found the encounter still more pleasant than most of his run-ins with strangers.

Tex ended up regretting being the one to book the car as the others left him with the task of driving. Although all things considered, the scenery and lack of other cars kept Tex from complaining too loudly.

"Are we going to fish him out of his home?" Junji asked as they left the main road.

"It's ten miles to the next house over, so..." Tala trailed off.

"Let's just barge in." said Barton. "What's he gonna do, shoot all four of us before we can shoot him?"

The area was rural, to say the least. Tex couldn't see anyone in any direction for miles as he turned into the long rocky driveway of their target's house.

"Do you know anything about this guy, Tala?" Tex wondered.

"His name's Jeremy." Tala replied. "He has brown hair."

"Woah, slow down."

The house quickly came into view between the trees. It was made completely out of wooden planks that had been left stylishly unpainted. The whole thing gave the appearance of a well-kept farm house, except the land around it was only home to birch trees and snow.

The sight made Tex wistful, somehow.

There was a car parked in front of the house, although it didn't look like it got out much. Tex wasn't sure if anyone was home. He parked their car a dozen yards down the road, not wanting to alert anyone who might have been in the house prematurely.

Tex turned off the car and opened the door.

"Ah, man, smell that air." he said in wonder.

"It smells like dead skunk." Tala replied.

Barton was the first to reach the front door of the house. She twisted the doorknob to find it was unlocked.

After exchanging an uncertain glance with Junji, Tex stepped inside with Barton and took a look around. He saw no signs of movement, and when he turned his focus to his ears, he found there was nothing to hear but the wind.

"I, uh, guess no one's home?" Tex muttered as he let everyone else in.

The inside was unkempt, but Tex had seen messier. There was a dirty plate of beans on the table that looked like it couldn't have been more than a couple of days old. And some of the lights were on, which led Tex to guess that their target had left for work.

"Found a cord." said Tala.

Tex looked where Tala was pointing to see a black cable snaking across the ground and around the corner. With Tala at his side, Tex followed the cord until they came to a small room without a door.

The cord they'd been following was plugged into an oversized power strip. Most of the other outlets were occupied by other dark cords, the vast majority of which were headed towards a large desktop computer in the corner.

The computer had three monitors and several brightly colored fans. Tex wiggled the mouse to bring up a password request.

"Junji, you wanna get over here?" asked Tex.

As Junji came into the room, Tex pulled out his gun and made sure everything was in order. Tala grabbed her laptop and hooked it to Jeremy's computer with an Ethernet cable.

"I'm gonna roam." Barton said from the hall.

"Don't kill anyone who isn't named Jeremy." Tex replied.

"No promises."

While Tex put his gun back in his pocket, Junji glanced at the computer monitors.

"The computer is locked." Junji observed.

"Hang on, I'll grab the adapter." Tala replied as she reached back into her bag.

The adapter was a strange piece of equipment that allowed any machine to view the inner workings of another machine, even without a monitor. Because the adapter classified humans as machines, they'd been able to use it for all sorts of things, like examining the internal logic of a T1-84 calculator or having a T1-84 calculator examine them.

Tala had found it in a dumpster behind the same McDonald's.

"You two ready?" she asked.

There were three cords attached to the adapter, one green and two blue. As she spoke, Tala fixed the green cord to Jeremy's computer.

"Sure." Tex lied.

Tex was handed a blue cord. He hadn't learned anything about their target yet from the house, so he had no idea what he was in for.

"It is good to be back." Junji said as he attached the suction cup on the end of the cord to his forehead.

"One way to put it." Tex replied.

Tex stuck his own cord to his forehead. Immediately, the visual reality of the room left his eyes and was replaced by the familiar inside of a strange, old fashioned train car.

The train car itself wasn't physical, or at least not in any sense of the word Tex could understand. The main purpose it served was the window, which just functioned as a simple monitor.

Junji was the only other person Tex could see in the train, as he was the only other one hooked up.

"After you." Tex muttered to Junji.

Junji put his hand on the window. When Tex placed his own fingers next to Junji's, the window sprung to life with the image of Jeremy's desktop background.

The experience was as absurd as always. It might as well have been magic to Tex.

"What's the program called?" Tala asked.

With his free hand, Tex tapped on the screen to open the task manager. He scanned the top of the list to see a program burning more CPU than everything else combined.

"Think it's this one called spankbank.exe." answered Tex.

Tala frantically began to clack at her keyboard.

"Ok, I found it on my laptop." she said. "I can start editing it whenever."

"Shall we open it?" Junji wondered.

Tex frowned.

"Sooner the better." he heard himself reply.

Junji maximized the program from the system tray. Tex took a deep breath.

The train car window sprung to life with the image of a completely flat surface, without any fancy three-dimensional graphics. The only thing Tex could see on the surface was what seemed to be an absolutely massive motherboard, in that flat wires were stretched across the plain in neat but unpredictable patterns. The closer the wires got to the center, the more concentrated they became.

The surface that the wires were on was flickering between bright red and black in ten second intervals. Each time it turned red, Tex felt a wave of agony radiate from the wires.

"What does it look like?" Tala asked.

"Like a two dimensional mass of interconnecting wires." Junji answered.

"It's in pain." said Tex.

"Dallas has empathized with the two dimensional mass of interconnecting wires."

The black surface under the wires turned red again. Tex yelped in alarm.

"The--entity is quite large." Junji noted. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's nothing but a consciousness with a massive amount of pain receptors."

While Tex resisted the urge to vomit, the surface under the wires continued to flicker between black and red. He could tell the pain was subsiding for the wires every time the background turned black, but it somehow made the times when it was red feel worse.

"Intervals..." Tex managed.

"It's being tormented in intervals, to keep it from getting used to the pain." Junji said.

"Sounds a little abstract." Tala replied.

"Yes. It seems Jeremy created this being in an attempt to maximize the amount of torture something could experience."

Junji’s tone was overflowing with what sounded like suppressed excitement. Tex's eyebrow twitched.

"I don't like the way you--said that." Tex managed.

"I am not advocating for anyone to create a lifeform for the sole purpose of tormenting it." Junji scoffed. "I'm simply saying that if I did support creating lifeforms for the purpose of tormenting them, I would find this work inspirational."

There was a faint sound of a mouse wheel buzzing as Tala began to scroll. Tex fell to his knees and only kept his hand touching the window when Junji forced him to.

"There's a bunch of negative signs in the code." said Tala. "Like just the dash that means minus."

"Yes, that would make sense." Junji replied.

Tala clicked a few buttons.

"And...enter." she muttered.

Immediately, the background behind the wires stopped pulsating between black and red and began pulsating between black and green. Tex's eyes widened in surprise. Each time the board turned green, he was hit by a new burst of pleasure.

"Whoa!" he called as he jumped to his feet. "What'd you do?"

"I just ran a 'find and replace' to change every minus sign to a plus." Tala explained.

Tex was barely able to process what Tala had said over the intense relief he felt. Although he knew the two dimensional mass of interconnecting wires couldn't talk, Tex was pretty sure he felt a wave of appreciation come through from it into the train car.

'No problem.' Tex thought at it.

Since the first part of the job was finished, Tex and Junji both took off their suction cups. Tala unhooked the adapter and her laptop from Jeremy's computer.

"Ah, to be a collection of nerve endings only capable of feeling maximized amounts of euphoria." Junji mused. "I can't say I don't envy it."

"Good job, Tex." said Tala. "You didn't even freak out that much this time."

"Are you done?" Barton asked from the hall.

"Yes." Junji replied.

Tex felt himself frown.

"Wait." he said. "What if it gets sick of living?"

"Hmm?" Tala hummed.

"What if it wants to die someday? We didn't give it mortality."

Tala shrugged.

"It's not like the computer is going to run forever." she replied.

Tex supposed Tala had a point. Barton entered the room with a blank expression.

"Did you see anyone?" Tex asked her.

"No." Barton answered. "We're gonna have to wait until Jeremy comes back to kill him."

Tala's eyebrows scrunched together into an indescribable expression.

"Uh, about that?" she said.

"Hmm?" Tex replied.

"This case was super abstract. I feel like maybe it was just a science project or something and he doesn't actually know he's created life."

Barton pursed her lips.

"Does it matter if it was intentional or not?" asked Junji.

"What do you mean?" Tex replied.

"He means that if somebody's stupid enough to create life without realizing it, maybe we're better off without letting them blow their loads of idiot in our daughters." Barton explained.

Tex waved the thought away and scoffed.

"That's awful." he said. "We should question him."

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to do that?" Tala wondered. "Do we just tie him down and ask 'hey, did you know the robot you created is alive and being tormented?"

"No, that would be ridiculous." Junji replied as he began to pace. "Tala will spend the next three weeks seducing him, and then when he's most vulnerable she'll casually bring up her passion for creating life forms for the purpose of torturing them."

Tex frowned.

"Seems like a lot of work." he stated.

"Yeah." said Barton. "Which is why we're just going to kill the guy and get--"

It was at that moment that a door slammed somewhere in the house.

Tex exchanged a frantic glance with his coworkers. After a moment of uncertainty, the four of them all turned away from the computer.

The sound of footsteps ascending a staircase was heard. Tex wasn't certain if the occupant had heard them until the footsteps began to get gradually louder.

"Uh oh, spaghettio!" Tala whispered while Tex readied his gun.

Cautiously, a figure stepped into view.

It was a Caucasian man in his mid or late thirties with brown hair and an old sweater that had the name 'Jeremy' embroidered into it. In his shaking hands, he held a hunting rifle.

"Woah, guys, do you think that's him?" Barton asked helpfully.

"What--what did you do?" the man stammered in a sharp whisper.

"We shut down your program." Tala replied.

"You mean the program I created for the purpose of torturing?"

Tex pulled the trigger twice with his sights set between Jeremy's eyes. Both shots ended up landing a little lower than he would have liked, but they were still fatal enough.

Jeremy's body crumpled to the ground. A loud bang told Tex he'd apparently managed to hit the trigger on his rifle, but the shot sank safely into the ceiling.

"I always hate when you kill the guy." Barton said once Tex could hear again. "I didn't get to do anything."

"That ain't true." Tex replied. "You got to not find him when you searched the house."

"He was prolly in the basement. I didn't check it."

Tex didn't respond, opting instead to examine the dead man bleeding out on the floor.

"What should we do with the body?" asked Tex.

"I'll just--chuck him outside." Barton answered, grunting for a moment as she tossed the dead body over her shoulder.

Barton carried Jeremy into the kitchen where she dumped him out of the second story window. His body fell neatly into a pouf of snow next to what appeared to be a compost patch.

"We totally missed an opportunity to make a snow angel with his body." Tala pouted.

"No, the compost is good." Junji replied. "His body will return to the earth.”

Tala, Barton, and Junji all walked happily away from the window, reminding Tex that he was the only one of them who wasn't a complete sociopath.

"Woah, check this out." said Barton.

Tex looked over to see that Barton was pointing to a bookshelf. He followed her finger to see a small metal safe with a combination lock, half hidden by books.

"Maybe there's money in it." Tala noted. "We could use it."

"Too bad we're never gonna get it open." Barton replied.

"Too bad, yeah." Tex agreed as he picked up the safe and put it under his arm. "Guess we'll have to leave it."

Since Jeremy's body had been disposed of and they'd dealt with the tortured program, there wasn't much left to do. Junji did a quick search for any evidence they might have left from their crime, but it wasn't like the cops were going to find the scene anytime soon.

"Nice place." Tex said as they left, admiring the cool, fresh air on his face.

"Mhm." Barton replied.

"And it's empty, now. Maybe we could move up here."

"You'd rather live in the middle of Alaska than the city?"

"...Would y'all not?"

Tala and Barton both gave Tex looks of confusion.

"Junji, just think about it." Tex pushed. "All the fish you want."

"It is not me you have to convince." Junji replied.

Tex took another look at Tala and Barton, but they both waved it away. Tex wasn't surprised, considering he'd never been able to persuade them to move to anywhere else before.

They made it back to the train station without incident. Tex felt a little awkward hiding a seven cubic inch metal square in his bag, but he'd gotten weirder things through in the past.

"Guess this is where we part ways." Barton stated once the train had come to a halt.

"You gonna give us a ride back?" Tex wondered.

"Nah."

"We should meet tomorrow." said Tala. "To discuss the dot in California."

Along with Barton and Junji, Tex mumbled in agreement. Tex joined Tala and Junji as they took off for the bus stop.

"What happened to my old apartment?" Junji asked.

"Think Bianca leased it out." Tex answered. "You could probably get a new one, if you asked real nice."

"It is not necessary. I'm just glad I didn't teleport into it successfully."

Tala broke away from them after the bus, saying that she was too tired to jog. Tex was a little confused why Junji followed him all the way to his room before he remembered that Junji's home was located through his fridge.

"So, uh, see you around?" Tex managed.

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow." Junji replied. "Did you still want to see my island?"

"I'm a little burnt."

"I understand."

As he spoke, Junji reached for a loose sheet of paper on Tex's desk and tore off a tiny piece.

“May I have your phone number?” asked Junji. “That way I can contact you when I buy a burner phone.”

“Sure.”

Once Tex had finished giving Junji his phone number, the two of them made their way to the kitchenette to say their goodbyes.

Tex opened the door of his fridge for Junji. After giving a tiny bow, Junji rolled his neck and dove straight through the center of the fridge to disappear completely from sight.

Tex shook his head in amazement.

The last thing Tex did that day was open the safe. After realizing his apartment was too small, he ended up walking the safe to an empty parking lot and taking to it with a crowbar.

It was a small safe, and clearly cheaply made. Still, Tex felt a rush of excitement when he finally managed to crack it open.

Inside the broken remains of the safe was an envelope, yellowed with age. It most likely contained money or savings bonds. Tex's expectations were wide as he read the text on the envelope, as the insides would likely be worth more considering its age.

To my great great great grandchildren, I leave my life savings for if you ever find yourselves in need. In my time, the contents were enough to buy several horses. I can only imagine how much it will be worth in yours.

--Theodore Makinly, 1912.

Inside the envelope was sixty one dollars.

Tex sighed and slipped the money into his pocket. He supposed his financial problems were there to stay.