The interior of the aptly named Mice Labs facility, for which the logo was a white lab mouse with a six pack, was exactly what the outside suggested it would be. Lots of clean hallways constructed from synthetic, white and blue material, with closed doors leading to rooms unknown.

The party had immediately split, with Short Bus following Atomis to 'See what that maze was all about' after the mouse had told him the maze was full of food. Ben and Ghost Ears followed Nick, and Namey was immediately put into an isolation unit when Ben ratted him out as a Void Soul. Thirty-One had volunteered to stand guard over Namey.

Nick had looked at Namey much the same way Ben did, with a great deal of apprehension and exasperation. Namey, for his part, didn’t resist being arrested again, and took it in stride, immediately wheedling everyone around him to make a wish. He was gagged at Ben’s suggestion.

Ben was an avid lover of Sci-Fi, futuristic labs, and genetic engineering, but at the moment, he didn't give a shit about any of that. The only thing he cared about, and the only thing he realistically could be expected to care about, was that there was a cafeteria, and he'd been cleared to eat as much as he wanted.

“It's been a devil of a time,” Nick said as they briskly walked down the well-lit hallway, “tracking down as many Earth plants and animals as possible. At first, they were cheap, but they've been getting more and more expensive with each passing day.”

“Oh,” Ben said, “you said there was food, right?”

“You've been out in the woods for a while, haven't you?” Nick said, laughing, “yes, lots of food. Our recent acquisition was some fertile corn, so we've got plenty of that now. We also acquired a good strain of spinach and cabbage, so there's that as well.”

“Mmm,” Ben said, “yeah, food sounds good. Got any meat?”

“A bit, but it is bug meat, so fair warning,” Nick said, “though, I have to admit, I've developed a taste for it. It’s better than it has any right to be, plus, it's hard to want a steak when cows can talk.”

“Tell me about it,” Ben said, remembering Betsy, “also, do you happen to have-” Ben considered asking Nick if he had the tools to properly butcher Betsy's body, but then decided he would hold back. Nick might be human, but, humans were also assholes more often than not. Ben was reminded of the tattooed thugs in the lobby of Desperation Rapids.

“Changed your mind?” Nick said.

“Yeah, I'm not thinking straight. The last thing I ate was some weird raw fish.”

“Oh, do you have any samples left? We're building a [Gene Bank], and everything helps. Hell of a time acquiring solid samples from Solas, hell of a time. That place,” Nick said, frustration openly displayed on his face, “is one of the most corrupt, monopoly ridden-” the man stopped himself, “excuse me. I'm not thinking straight either, I haven't eaten in about eighteen hours. Every day I feel like I've made a twenty year leap forward in scientific advancement, and then I realize I'm a billion years behind everyone else. I might even mean that literally, which is frightening.”

Ben looked at Nick, and the truth was apparent. The man was overworking himself, his clothes were slightly rumpled, and he had a shadow of a beard on his face. His eyes had that 'I've been running on Mad Science and Adrenaline' look that one often sees in cutting edge facilities. However, despite that, Nick had the look and mannerisms of a decent, hardworking person. Ben looked down at himself, at his new, Leap-rechaun green outfit, and grinned at the absurdity of it. He was about to say something when the smell of food hit his nose, and he forgot about everything else.

There's something about the smell of cafeteria corn that's just so universal. Ben had been to many different rooms such as this one, and they all had the exact same smell. It was a smell that wasn't quite anything in particular, but that was definitely hot food. 

When Ben stopped being overwhelmed by the smell of, let's just admit it, average cafeteria food, he noticed the hundreds of white mice everywhere. There might actually have been thousands of them, and every one of them was wearing an identical lab coat, but were distinguished by a variety of eyewear and haberdashery, that is to say, hats. Some were wearing welders goggles; some were wearing steam-punk style brass; some were wearing reading glasses; there was a group with little tiny monocles and top-hats.

“What,” Ben said, not even having the energy to turn it into a question.

“Welcome to Mice Labs,” Nick said, grinning, “hope you like cheese.” Nick's joke was immediately met by a wave of psychic exasperation, like most of the room had groaned at the joke. It's worth noting that their psychic voices were high pitched, exactly like their physical squeak would be. 

“Nutella!” one of them shouted, “get some damn nutella! Cheese is a myth!”

“I like cheese!” another shouted.

“I liked cheese till I learned about the stereotype!” a third shouted. After that the entire room started chatting at a thousand miles a minute, which was sixteen point six miles a second, and way too fast for Ben to follow.

“Just focus on your feet for a few seconds,” Nick said, trying to talk over all the psychic noise and barely succeeding. Ben followed the advice, and as his focus shifted away from the incomprehensible chatter, it lessened in volume until it was tolerable.

“Thanks,” Ben said, and the two of them kept walking.

“No problem,” Nick said, and then the next half an hour was spent in silence as Ben and Nick both ravenously devoured a meal of boiled corn, some delicious breaded, fried meat that Nick swore came from a giant predatory slug monster, not an Aeon Slug, some bitter greens, and water. Ben had asked about some soda, and Nick had grumbled something about sugar being both illegal, and extremely hard to get.

When they were done eating, they walked from the cafeteria and went over to a speaker built into the wall.

“Are you handy with electronics?” Nick asked, not having pressed a button, “like, are you able to make a short range radio or any kind of wireless communication device?”

“I’ve got Youtube knowledge, but that’s about it,” Ben said.

“Good, don’t build one. If you meet anyone, spread the word. Do not make a radio or any kind of broadcast device. Analogue only, and even then, keep the range down. I’ll show you why in a few minutes, uh, hang on a second” he said, then pressed a button on the wall and navigated several computer menus before settling on one that said 'Maze'. The screen went dark, then straight into a video call. Ben could see Atomis, the lab mouse, sitting on a little chair taking notes, occasionally snickering as he watched Short Bus navigate his way around a frustratingly complicated looking maze. Scattered around the maze were various plates of food identical to the kinds Ben had just eaten.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Nick, I'm busy,” Atomis said, then snickered again when Short Bus got shocked by a floor plate that was apparently electrified. Short Bus, who was muted, leaned back with what looked like a roar, and slammed into a wall of the maze, breaking through it, and then immediately jumping through two more non-lethal traps to get to a large plate of cooked meat. He grabbed the plate and tipped the whole thing into his enormous mouth, visibly relaxing once he started chewing. It looked to be about fifteen pounds of food, all eaten in one single bite. Atomis pressed a button, and then Short Bus got shocked again. The little mouse snickered agian.

“Would you let him out of there,” Nick said, sounding exasperated, and Atomis looked like he was ignoring him. “Just meet us down in the Luxury Morgue, all right? You know, so we can do our jobs?”

“Handle it, I trained you well enough,” Atomis said, then pressed another button, which was simply labeled ‘Super Bees’.

“He’s fun,” Ben said with a grimace, watching as Short Bus started running from a swarm of insects.

“Atomis has been in and out of every kind of lab on Earth his entire life,” Nick explained, “and they were all running experiments on him. Me? I was an assistant manager at a grocery store,” Nick explained, “I got the [Scientist] class from working under him, but he's the [Mad Scientist] in charge here. I think he might have some unresolved anger from all the experiments,” Nick confided, “but honestly, he’s a great guy. I’d be dead without him.”

“I know the feeling, I’d be dead without Short Bus,” Ben said, “that guy is seriously the best.”

“Oh yeah? Tell me about it,” Nick said, and to Ben, though it wasn’t even that long ago, a wave of nostalgia washed over him. He exhaled a long breath through his nostrils and felt the memories wash over him like a psychedelic spell.

“I fell from the sky like Sora in Kingdom Hearts,” Ben said, “straight into the ocean.” Ben told the story, feeling it sounded alot cooler in retelling than it did when he experienced it firsthand. “I was getting tired, about to pass out, when I see this big fucking fin coming straight at me. I’m thinking ‘This is it, this is how I die,’ and I pass out. Next thing I know, I wake up on a sandbar and the sun is getting ready to set. That fucking clown,” Ben said, laughing, “he’s out in the water trying to pretend to be a mermaid or some shit, like changing his voice so he sounded like a cute girl.”

“What?” Nick said, laughing.

“Yeah! I was so fucked up from being tired I was even buying it too. Then, just as it was getting dark, right as the sun gave its last light, he just all casual like surfaces so I can see him. He brought me a weird war-tuna fish monster, and we’ve been best friends ever since. I think we’ve even got the same birthday, we’re both twenty-nine, what are the odds?” Ben chuckled, “Fucking love that guy, that’s the truth. He’s my brother,” Ben said, suddenly feeling way more emotional than he’d meant to get.

“Atomis,” Nick said, letting the name hang in the air, then he pulled out a Smartest Phone, which looked significantly more advanced than Anna’s and had a Mice Labs phone case on it, “well, I was in the Plus Player Portal Area, right?”

“Right,” Ben said.

“And I’m messing around with this thing. I find a navigation App with an hour free trial and I’m like, ‘yeah, I could use some directions right now,’ so I get the app and it asks me where I want to go and says I can be as vague or as specific as I like. 

“That’s fucking convienent,” Ben said, eyes widening, “I’ll be honest with you, I really don’t know a whole lot about the phone. I asked a bunch of questions about all the other stuff, but I sort of dismissed the phone as a gimmick or something.” Nick shrugged.

“Personally? I love the thing, and yes, it’s super convenient. This is the only safe long range communication device in The World, period. Everything else is risking getting haunted or an interdimensional incursion,” Nick said, and Ben blinked several times but didn’t say anything, “So anyways, the phone says ‘tell me where you want to go,’ and I say, ‘I don’t know,’ and it says, ‘would you like to take the suggested route?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that sounds good.’ Then, i’m walking for what feels like days.”

“That place seriously sucked,” Ben commented.

“Yeah it did, so finally I get to this portal that’s just labeled ‘Your Destination’, and I just jump on through,” Nick said, miming a hopping motion as he walked, “no hesitation or anything. I appear right in the middle of this underground, black market lab in Solas, surrounded by Enelim and undead.” Ben winced. “So I’m immediately captured and put in a cage. They were going to do some pretty bad stuff to me, I think, but it never happened because that fucking mouse,” Nick said fondly, “was in the cage next to me, calm as a goddamn cucumber while I was losing my shit. He looks over at me and says ‘First time?’, and I’m just crying, and he nods a little and looks away. It was at that point I realized I was next to a talking mouse,” Nick said, laughing. “I’m losing it, when Atomis, not even looking at me, starts humming real quiet like and you know what it is? You know what he does?”

Ben shook his head.

“He starts doing Pinky and the Brain at me, real quiet, just does the whole song without looking at me once, like he’s heard it a million times. He’s almost reverent about it, like the deepest nostalgia mixed with. . . pain. Stopped my mental breakdown dead in my tracks, I tell you what. It was so unexpected, you know?” Ben nodded.

“Short Bus did Jaws.”

“So you do know,” Nick said, "anyway, I’m looking at him now, really looking, and he says ‘You know, my whole life I’ve known three things. The first was that I wanted to be The Brain, not Pinkey. We had a lab tech who thought it was funny to put that show on his laptop and leave it in the lab overnight where we could see it. I think I was the only one really watching it, trying to understand what I was seeing. The second thing. . . I don’t need a Pinkey in my life. If Brain had even a half competent helper, he’d have won a thousand times over. The third thing that I’ve known my entire life was how the lock to my cage worked, and that even though I knew exactly what to do to get out, I didn’t have the right kind of hands to open it. I’ve read your mind, Nick. I’ve looked at your soul. I want you to be my hands, because I can get us the hell out of this cage, and then you and me? We’re going to take over the world.” Nick paused to look Ben in the eyes, a moment to convey how crazy that moment had felt, his eyebrows raised and eyes wide, then broke contact and looked forward again.

“You guys got out,” Ben said, stating the obvious.

“Yeah we did. That’s a story for another day though, we’re here.” The two of them had arrived at a door which, upon inspection, was mostly similar to all the other doors in the lab. Except for the ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ sign hanging on it in big red letters, with a smaller sign that said ‘That means you Rufus’ under it.

“Rufus?” Ben asked.

“He’s an idiot,” Nick said, shaking his head.

“Oh yeah, we’ve got one of those. His name is Vivi,” Ben said, silently laughing to himself, and then immediately feeling bad about it. “I was joking, Vivi’s a great guy. He saved my life too. Actually, pretty much all my friends are awesome. We’re here to save their lives, actually.”

“Lives, plural?”

“Yeah, it’s this whole thing. They think Vivi opened a portal to some kind of higher reality and pulled a bunch of shit through, including our new friend Red. She’s got green skin and antlers with big eyes made of fire or plasma inside of them,”

“Like eye of Sauron stuff?”

“No, her eyes are purple. Well, I guess you could say that there’s a similarity, but they’re different. Anyways, she was some kind of big shot Chaos Warden. A bit of a psycho, but I’m not sure how much value that word has anymore.”

“Damn,” Nick said, pausing in the act of opening the door and looking at Ben with respect, “I thought getting out of the lab and starting a small business was exciting for an Isekai-”

“Yes,” Ben said, clenching a fist when Nick said Isekai and cementing Ben as a somewhat normal person for using the word in his own head.

“But it sounds like you’re having a proper adventure.” At the word adventure, Ben stopped in his tracks. His father’s final words still echoing in his soul, filling him with strength and certainty that he was walking the right path.

“Damn right I am,” Ben said, and the two of them descended into the lower levels of Mice Labs.