I was the first to arrive at the red dot. I knew I would be. I had the stats to prove I would make it there first, so it wasn't really a matter of if - unless I got distracted, and that happens to me a lot.

pixel_princess: "@kittyboy, what are you doing? Hold up!"

I ignored her. Not a great idea, but I can't take it back.

I ran. Down the stairs, down the stairs, through a hallway, passing where the m1 drones had started their detailed searching, and then down more stairs, around a corner and down a final set of stairs, and finally through a double-doored entrance to the room of doom.

There it was. The place on my minimap with the red dot.

pixel_princess: "Are you okay? Is something happening?"

shadowhacker: "Nothing new on scans."

cyberneticflare: "We're fine. I don't know what's got into him. I've nearly caught up. He just took off."

I ignored all of them.

I closed the doors behind me and went to the control panel, boosting it with a bit of my own power to engage the door lock. I needed to slow down @cyberneticflare and @photon_binary. You'll understand why in a moment. Then I zoomed in on the map. @pixel_princess and @astrowave were making their way down slowly, as they were supposed to, walking the hallways and checking any rooms they could access on the level above me.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I locked them all out anyway. This was my time, my private time.

kittyboy: "Everything is fine here. 😃"

I lied.

cyberneticflare: "Where are you? We reached a locked door."

shadowhacker: "Looks like @kittyboy locked it."

What a snitch!

kittyboy: "They closed automatically after I entered."

Okay, so I lied again.

I hoped @shadowhacker wouldn't pick up on that. She didn't call me out right away, so it must have been at least plausible. Besides, I didn't see any m1 drones in the room. I had sprinted past them. They shouldn't be close enough to have noticed any detailed energy signatures.

After a moment of quiet, I went on.

kittyboy: "Everything's fine really. I'm fine."

At this point, I was sure that @cyberneticflare and @pixel_princess were having a #plink together, a private message conversation, about how @pixel_princess wanted him to proceed.

pixel_princess: "@kittyboy, what did you find? Anything?"

I had found something, but I didn't know what to say, so I ignored her.

I was captivated by what I saw in that large basement room of the facility, encased in an awesome blue light at the very center, surrounded by five large scanning pillars, all angled toward it. It looked amazing and horrifying. This was the only thing in the building that appeared to still have power. No wonder @shadowhacker had sent us here.

I walked forward with determination and a fair bit of anger.

And stared at my dead body.