Daniel’s feet pounded along the sidewalk as he danced between people along the sidewalk, twenty paces behind Carmen. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't catch up — and he caught Chip’s legs fading in over Carmen’s shimmering legs, boosting her speed.

As she disappeared around the corner to the Fighting Center, Daniel put restraint to the side. “Sorry!” he called out before clumsily shoving past a man as he lunged forward to follow.

And he was a breath away from bumping into Carmen, standing rooted in place. In front of the Fighting Center, leaning his head against his smug fist, Raph sat beside Mr. Stone on the bench, grinning at the both of them.

“Yes, I’d like to make a carryout order,” Mr. Stone said. “A family meal with Lo Mein and Fried Rice, and for the entrees…”

Raph snapped. “Black Pepper Angus steak. The best.”

“Black Pepper Angus Steak for the first one. One moment.” Mr. Stone muted the phone, glancing at Daniel and Carmen as they paced over with slumped shoulders.

“How?!” Carmen said. “I finished faster than Daniel! I should’ve got here first! How did you win?”

“Go ahead and pick your order,” Raph said, smirking. “I already picked Chinese.”

Carmen crossed her arms. “You picked Chinese last time, too. I don’t know if I—”

“Get me some of their Beijing Beef!” Daniel said, earning a look of disdain from over Carmen’s glasses. “What? I mean, we lost, but I can’t say no to free chinese. It’s not coming out of my pocket.”

Carmen sighed. “I’ll get Orange Chicken.”

As Mr. Stone repeated their orders on the phone, Raph swiped his menu open and navigated to his Fighter menu, displaying his rank. Daniel brought up his rank to compare. “It’s even higher than mine!”

“And mine, too!” Carmen started. “How the hell—”

Mr. Stone cleared his throat.

“Sorry. How the heck did you get that much higher than me?”

“Oh come on — it ain’t that much of a difference! Only…” Raph leaned over to look at her menu. “A few hundred thousand. I prolly just got lucky, but remember that time you was tryna say King of the Hills were the worst?”

“You’re not gonna get me to say I told you so.”

“What if I say how I got this rank from my first match, and got out safely from rank protection since I won the next three? Ain’t that enough for you to admit you were wrong?” Raph chuckled.

“Trust me, man. You’re never gonna get her to admit that. I’ve tried.”

Carmen scoffed. “Who’s side are you on?”

“The one that’s getting Chinese food!”

“Okay. Yes, I’ll pay at pickup. Thank you.” Mr. Stone hung up the phone, and leaned onto his walking cane as he rose. “Healthy competition always ignites a strong motivation in any young Fighter, and you three are no different. But, it seems Rafiq came out on top, and he chose Chinese.” As they strolled back towards the Maroon Sports bar, his cane tapped against the concrete with every step. “I’ll walk you three back to the Garcias's bar, and I’ll return to pick you up so we can go pick up the food. Would you rather eat there, or bring it back to the bar?”

“Let’s bring it back,” Daniel said. “That Chinese place is always stuffy. I don’t think they have—”

The sky shrieked.

A wave of golden energy streaked across the clear blue sky, as if the sun itself rippled through the clouds. All around them, the world froze — traffic slowed and stopped in place. The words died on Daniel’s tongue as Carmen, Raph, and Mr. Stone watched paralyzed in awe.

Mr. Stone gasped. “Dear God.”

“What? What does that mean?” Daniel asked. “Should I be concerned?”

Raph pointed. “I don’t know, but ain’t that—”

“The One,” Carmen said. “That means The One just made a wish.”

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

Agent Maya Wolfe charged up the stairs to the fifth floor and paced down the hallway to Senior Agent Decker’s office, ready to give him a piece of her mind. It wasn’t hard to find his door; his was the only one that stood a foot taller than every other office. The sign on his window had been flipped to busy.

Maya paused, placing her black gloves on her hips, staining another part of her suit with black paint. She and Agent Hale had taken Twotone into custody, but the cleanliness of her gray suit became a casualty against his attacks laced with monochrome paint. As her interaction with Senior Agent Decker earlier in the morning replayed through her mind, the hands on her hips quickly became fists.

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The sign says busy, but…you get what you give.

Maya turned the unlocked handle and pushed inside, greeted by Agent Decker facing away from the door, standing behind his desk.

“Okay, honey, but you need to rest after today’s chemo surgery. I’ll visit whenever I can, alright? Okay. I love you. Be—”

He froze like a deer in headlights.

“Decker. We need to talk.”

Decker’s gaze was puffy and red, and each breath followed a rhythm different than the last. A tear slipped from his eye; he turned away from her. “Sorry, honey, I’ll have to hang up, now. I love you. Be safe.” He hung up, and let his head hang. “I had my sign set to busy.”

“It was an urgent matter, but…you have a daughter, Decker?”

Decker nodded. “She’s all I have left. After her mother passed, we hoped it wouldn’t get to her, too, but…it was hereditary.” He sighed. “And she’s finally getting surgery for it. She’s getting treatment — she’s finally gonna live.” His tone pinched towards the end. “The greatest news I’ve had all year, and here you come, barging through the door. Ever heard of basic fucking respect, Maya?”

Anger rose in Maya’s chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that was something you knew of, either, considering how slick you thought you could talk to me earlier,” she snapped.

“You’re really still stuck on that? Oh…” He let his head fall back, chuckling. “I’m dealing with a crybaby. Of course. This is different. This isn’t some case I’m busy with — this is my daughter.”

“Then I’ll start first. I’m sorry for interrupting your phone call.” Maya gestured, expecting him to follow.

“You aren’t gonna be talking all about this to the rest of the force, are you?”

“Depends on your next words.”

He sighed. “I spoke out of line earlier and let being the big guy in the room get to me. Although, I’m usually that anyway, so that's usually how I am, but…sorry. I know that’s not all you came for, though.”

Maya took a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. “I want to ask about the investigation.”

“That’s what this is about? Did Hale not scold you enough? I don’t have time to be a babysitter for another Senior’s Agent.”

“No, he did. As always,” Maya rolled her eyes. “But…let’s just say, I can’t be at peace with this unless I know firsthand what progress we have. This isn’t just something we can sweep under the rug.”

“Yeah, because the whole world will obviously blow up if we don't solve this by today.” Decker chuckled, but Maya glared at him. “Sorry. It is important. That’s why we’re working on it. “

Maya scoffed. “Gigabyte died almost a month ago. His funeral’s coming up soon, and the only progress you guys have made is that you’re ‘working on it’?”

“Do you know the physical descriptions of the people that infiltrated the train that Gigabyte died on?”

“I—” Maya looked at Senior Agent Decker, biting her tongue.

“Eyewitnesses reported a young woman walking with Mindgame as Gigabyte fought the criminals that hijacked the train, before Gigabyte and Mindgame fought. We also tracked down a member of their gang who chickened out of the train heist, and he said their boss, Tucker Denali, said he’d been approached by someone promising justice for Ajax’s death. Not only that, but no one saw Mindgame leave the train before the driving car separated from the passenger cars and Gigabyte’s body was found in that canyon.”

Decker tented his fingers. “Progress. Don’t come in here and act like my team and I have been doing nothing but twiddling our thumbs, Maya. We aren’t that bad.”

Maya mentally jotted down the details. “I didn’t think you made it that far.”

Decker nodded in return happily. “All that’s next is to investigate the chip we received from an outside source.”

“Who?”

“Jonathan Stone, an ex-Fifty who’s career crashed a long while back because of rumors that he pushed his student to suicide. Whether they were true or not, he recently turned in a data chip that he said held key evidence towards Gigabyte’ murder.”

Maya gasped. “Of course! Gigabyte was a cyborg, but they didn’t find any data banks left on his body. They must’ve been taken!”

Decker squinted. “How do you know that?”

Because I eavesdropped on your idiot associates talking about it at lunch. Maya cleared her throat. “Not important. Why haven’t you gone through it yet?”

Decker’s eyes rose to the ceiling, following his drifting mind. “Things…came up.”

“So you have free evidence served to you on a silver plate for who knows how long, but you haven’t gone through it yet because things just ‘came up’?” Maya asked, scoffing. “How can you—”

“I don’t know, maybe because my daughter’s fucking dying, Maya!”

Maya couldn’t form any word louder than the ceiling fan.

Decker paused for a moment, pinching his nose. “A representative from Arise Health approached me recently on an experimental treatment that may be able to save my daughter’s life. I had to do the paperwork for it and sign off on it all, and they gave me a bit of guidance on dealing with somethin’ big like that. Ordering the team to start going through that chip was the last thing on my mind. I do this for her. If I lost her…” He shook his head. “But I won’t now. And I need a bit to realize that. Are we done here?”

Maya nodded. “Sorry for barging in. I’m glad you got the news you needed.”

“I hope you got the same.”

Maya quietly rose and left the room, mulling over his words in her mind. Mr. Stone — where had she heard that name before? She paced towards the elevator, and a quick online search brought up the information she needed. The School of Flow was based in South City, and they had recently won the South City beginner’s tournament. If Decker’s team couldn’t get the info out of that chip by now, going to the source — however he retrieved it — would be even better.

And yet still, something didn’t add up. Sure, by her eavesdropping of their lunch conversations, it was clear that Decker’s team wasn’t exactly the most studious bunch. But, he wasn’t the only person there with a brain. Even if he was busy with his daughter’s health, surely someone would’ve started going through the chip, anyway.

Unless they were ordered not to.

Maya jotted that down mentally — without any real evidence, it was only an idea to focus on later. Right now, she had a school to track down.