Rico's hands shook as he sat alone in the quiet, dark room -- the walls slowly closing in on him.

When had it gotten this bad? It was difficult to remember. At first, he'd just indulged himself in Bubble as a way to escape the daily stresses of his life -- the grooming to succeed his mother in the family business, the grueling training to protect himself from their enemies, and the disgusting nature of the powers he'd been told to develop for that purpose.

At some point, though, the Bubble had become something he needed, rather than something he wanted.

If his family hadn't been the Oliphant Clan, Rico had no doubt he would have ended up as some half-lucid junkie slumped in an alleyway somewhere. Still, with the way things were going, that future seemed to become more and more likely -- if he even survived long enough to find that grotty alleyway. The chances of him ending up with a knife in his guts were pretty much even now.

His fingers fidgeted together, like they were trying to work at some invisible puzzle. He could protect himself -- if nothing else, he could do that. Tiny Garden was a horrible, awful ability, but it was one that would keep him safe without fail.

Once Rico and this group he'd somehow become attached to had arrived at this backalley hospital, they'd quickly thrown him into this dark storage closet before anyone could get eyes on him. It was clear to see why: the doctors here were not the scrupulous sort. There was no telling what they'd do with someone dangling 100,000 stator right under their noses.

Itches spread across his arms, like worms crawling under his skin. This was the worst part: that itching would spread out, deeper and further, until Rico indulged himself again. Before long, he was willing to bet he wouldn't be able to move.

Someone spoke outside.

Rico's head jerked up, peering through the darkness at the wooden surface of the door. Had his pursuers found him? His Aether oozed around him, Tiny Garden ready to reach out and transform any assailant into a bubbling pool of meat. All he had to do was touch them when they weren't expecting it.

The door opened, sickly light flooding in, and Rico stood up from his chair -- ready to respond to any attack.

It wasn't one of the hunters, though. It was the Cogitant who he'd brought here -- the guy with the silver hair, Dragon or something -- his face even paler than it had been earlier. He was breathing hard.

"We need to go," he said simply.

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"What's going on?" Rico asked nervously, trailing behind the group as they marched out of the hospital -- the leader flinging the doors open with a mechanical arm.

"Dear Miss del Sed looks to have gone walkabouts," the man in the green coat said, grimness peeking through the strained smile on his face. "As responsible adults, it's our job to go find her, yeah?"

Rico furrowed his brow. "Huh? Who?"

"Serena," growled the cute girl with the red hair -- Rudy or something -- as she glanced back at him. "The girl we were with -- the one who lost her foot. She was pissed off, so she's gone to get revenge."

"Without her foot?"

"Yeah," Dragon nodded, walking alongside him. "These kinds of places usually undercut the Panacea so it takes longer -- that way they can make you pay more for the room. If someone came along with a purer supply…"

Rudy -- actually, it might have been Ruth -- looked at Dragon. "What, you think there was someone else there?"

The cool night air flowed around them, sending goosebumps rippling over Rico's itchy skin. In this district, a holographic crescent moon hung high over the buildings, bathing them in pale light.

Dragon answered Ruth. "I don't know," he said, rubbing his temples. "I get this feeling like there should have been someone else there, but I don't know why I think that."

Skipper leant over the edge of the building, his emerald eyes carefully scanning the crowded streets below. "Common thing with Cogitants, Mr. Hadrien," he murmured. "You noticed something, but you didn't notice that you noticed it. You get me?"

"No. What the fuck are you even saying?"

"Brains work funny. You get that?"

Dragon nodded wearily. "Don't suppose she's down there?"

"Nope," Skipper sighed, stepping away from the ledge. "Okay, okay. This is fine -- well, no it's not, it's actually pretty awful, but we've gotta maintain our positivity here. Bruno and Serena are missing -- but even with better Panacea, they couldn't move far with the state they were in, yeah? Thoughts, Mr. Hadrien?"

"Wait," Rico blinked. "Who's Bruno? Someone else is gone?"

"Bruno's the boy we were with before," Ruth snapped at him with surprising ferocity. "The one who lost his foot. Try and keep up, man."

Dragon just ignored him entirely, looking up at Skipper as he spoke. "If they were trying to get out of here, but they weren't in a state to move quickly, they'd have gone for the nearest public transport."

Ruth frowned. "What, like a taxi?"

The Cogitant shook his head. "No, they wouldn't be able to count on those being available. This place uses monorails, right? I'd be willing to bet Bruno looked over some maps of the area before we went to the Oliphant meeting. He's careful like that." In a flash, he had his script out, flicking through maps of the district with a thumb.

Skipper rubbed his hands -- organic and metallic -- together, producing a strange scraping sound. "Alright, alright! Which way would they have headed, little buddy?"

"There's two stations with about equal distance from here," Dragon replied, holding his script up towards them. "And don't ever call me little buddy again."

"Course not," Skipper lied, waving a hand. "But this is a tricky one. Two places to check and four of us here. After what happened last time, I don't really wanna split up, but…"

Rico stepped forward. Things were moving at an absurd pace here, and he'd been sucked along with it so far, but there was only so much he was willing to take.

"Hold on a second," he interrupted. "Why the hell am I being counted as part of this? I don't even know you people!"

Skipper blinked. It seemed that this defiance was a possibility that had never even occurred to him. Awkwardly, he scratched his cheek.

"Well," he drew out the word. "If you really want, we can leave you right here. If you're 100% confident nobody will find you hiding out in that closet, you're welcome to, uh, take up residence."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Rico narrowed his eyes. He'd brought an injured friend here, once, after a car accident they hadn't wanted on the books. His face was known, and he wasn't sure those doctors wouldn't turn their scalpels on him if the pay was sufficient.

"Asshole," he muttered. "You just want some reward from my family, right? Look good being the one to bring me back?"

"Exactamundo, little man!" Skipper snapped his fingers, ignoring the scorn in Rico's voice. "Well, that's that, then. Me and Dragan will check out the first station -- Ruth, you take Ricky here to the other station. Make sure he's not spotted."

Ruth nodded, before suddenly reaching over and grabbing Rico's arm. He winced: It wasn't like he disliked the attention, but her grip was really tight.

"Come here," she muttered, red Aether crawling across her arm -- and a second later, Rico felt a weight on the front of his face as a recorded mask manifested there, red lenses tinting the world scarlet for him.

Panic swelled for a moment, and his hands groped in vain at the metal plate covering his head. His Aether hadn't been ready to defend at all -- if that had been some kind of attack, it could have been devastating.

Ruth pulled his hands away -- and then flipped his hood over his face. "Keep that up," she ordered. "This way, nobody'll see your face."

"You don't think a man with an iron mask will attract attention?" Dragon raised an eyebrow.

"That's what the hood's for, obviously," Ruth replied, grinning. "We're wasting time talking about it, anyway. Let's get going."

Skipper offered a lazy salute as he climbed up onto the ledge, his free arm swaying as he did his best not to fall off. "Godspeed, kiddo. Don't go dying on me now."

Ruth's grin widened. "Same to you."

And with that, Skipper let himself fall backwards, disappearing out of sight. Rico's gasp of shock and horror could be heard, filtered as it was by the mask, but there was no need -- with a boom a second later, Skipper rose back up, floating in the air using some kind of shockwaves erupting from his hands and feet. He grinned at them before turning and zooming off in the direction of the station.

Dragon simply sighed -- the noise cutting off part way through as his body fizzled away into electric blue Aether. After a second, it was like nobody had even been standing there at all.

Before Rico could so much as ask what the hell he'd just witnessed, Ruth had seized him by the hand and pulled him away with horrifying speed. If he wasn't an Aether user, Rico was sure his arm would have been pulled out of his socket just from that.

The chase was on.

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Scout greedily accepted the bottle of water offered, gulping down half of it before passing it down to his prone cousin, who sipped at it much more conservatively.

With the help of the new arrival, the orange-haired young man named Lionel, they'd managed to limp out of the crater and make their way into the sewer systems that ran through the district. It wasn't nearly as disgusting as it sounded. Waste disposal was given a huge chunk of the budget on the Cradle, so these systems were pretty hygienic, little more than sterile maintenance tunnels with secure pipes running alongside.

The pipe was hard against the back of Scout's head as he leaned back, but he had no energy to seek a better pillow.

"Thanks," he panted, looking up at Lionel.

The other man glanced up and nodded. "No problem," he said, cleaning out the insides of his weapon with a handkerchief. "Like I said, you two looked like you needed a hand."

Scout wasn't sure why, but he felt like he could trust this person. Something about him just made that self-evident.

Chloe wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she finished the bottle of water, putting it down on the ground. "How'd you know to find us, though? And why did you help us?"

Lionel scoffed. "That explosion wasn't exactly quiet. I followed the noise and found you two."

That made sense. Even if someone wasn't looking for them specifically, the explosion caused by releasing Perfect Palace: Palisade Princedom was substantial -- the police had been starting to arrive as they'd snuck away.

"You haven't answered the second question," Chloe persisted, narrowing her eyes. "Why did you help us? There's no way you don't know about the Hunter Game."

Lionel hesitated for a moment, glancing away. "I mean… is it that hard to believe that there's people who care about more than money? Who care about doing the right thing?"

He said that, but the real answer was obvious.

"You work for our Grandpa, right?" Scout said, interrupting. "Abraham Oliphant. He hired you to come and protect the family here."

Lionel smiled sheepishly.

----------------------------------------

Deceit smirked devilishly.

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"That obvious, huh?" Lionel laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, that's right. I work for your grandfather directly -- he ordered me to come out here to the Cradle and make sure everyone's safe and secure before he arrives."

"Before he arrives?" Chloe sat up. "You mean he's still coming here? Even with everything that's going on?"

Lionel sighed. "For people in this line of business, you can't afford to be seen as weak. He's got no choice but to come, really. Otherwise he's as done as if he got a bullet in the head."

"Everyone's got it tough, huh?" Scout sighed, staring up at the cold ceiling. "What's the plan, then? How are we going to stay safe?"

Lionel clicked his tongue. It was clear to Scout that the young man knew what he was talking about, and so he leant forward to listen to the advice.

"There's safety in numbers," Lionel said seriously. "And right now, the family's scattered. We don't even know one-hundred percent where everyone is right now. First order of business is regrouping."

"Easier said than done," Chloe grumbled.

If that pessimistic attitude was an obstacle, Lionel didn't let it show. He simply pressed on, gesticulating with his hands as he explained.

"One of the big problems is the fact that communication between family members has been cut off -- we can deal with that and bring everyone back together in one fell swoop. Do you guys know about the security systems on the Cradle?"

Scout shook his head. He didn't see Chloe, but he was willing to bet she'd done the same.

"It uses something called Silver Vision," Lionel went on. "Everyone that boards the Cradle has their script tagged, and from then on the auto-brains that maintain the station automatically track them wherever they go."

Some excitement seemed to finally enter Chloe's voice. "We can use that to figure out where everyone is?"

Lionel nodded. "If we can get to the main security complex and seize control of Silver Vision, we can track everyone down and bring them together."

Another truth was going unsaid -- it was obvious. "But if the people trying to kill us get ahold of the system…" Scout muttered.

"They'll be able to chase you wherever you go," Lionel confirmed, his face grave.

That grim connotation settled in the dark tunnel, a flare of danger running through all their bodies. Just like that, they were in imminent peril again. Scout's body was so tired. It felt as if his bones were about to crumble into dust.

How much more could he really do tonight? How much more was he expected to do?

"I…" he began, not knowing what words would leave his mouth.

"We'll do it," Chloe said firmly as she stood up, her face serious. "We'll make it happen."

Scout looked up at his younger cousin for a second, his face blank, before a quiet chuckle left his lips. Look at him. Was he really going to let himself be shown up like this?

There's nothing manlier than looking after your own.

He stood up, ignoring the protests of his body.

"Let's get going!" he grinned. From here on, they'd start the process of turning things around once and for all.

Lionel smiled and nodded.

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What a pair of fucking idiots.

Unseen in the darkness, Deceit grinned to himself as he led the pack. Things were going better than he could have ever hoped. He'd barely even had to use his ability, and he already had them eating out of the palm of his hand. Executing the plan would be no issue.

First, he'd do as he said he would.

Then, he'd bring them together.

And then… then it was time to really have some fun.