Elias planted a foot onto cold, dry, tile, taking a towel and drying himself off. 'So what's the plan now, mister voice. I lost the chip you cared so much about.' He grabbed his crudely piled clothes from the floor in the corner, and slipped into them, antagonizing his mental neighbour. The pants were a bit baggy, but otherwise fit.

"An alternative objective has been verified. You may continue on your current path."

'Sounds like you've got everything sorted out.' Elias slicked back his long wet hair, retrieving the towel he had dumped on the floor which was now wet. He sighed and looked in the mirror, waiting for the voice.

"Perhaps."

'Ok. So, I was thinking, - do you have a name or something? Anything I can call you?'

"You may address me as Administrator."

'Addy.' He smirked.

"Administrator."

'Addy-' He teased, wondering why it seemed to actually care.

"You're takin' your sweet-ass time in there! Still constipated or somethin'?" Anders called out from across the room. Elias jumped, before swiftly turning and opening the door, meeting Anders outside. Anders, potentially literally, scanned him up and down. "Better. Now c'mon."

Anders went over to a door with multiple locks at the end of the room, pulling out a key and dislodging the chains in what seemed like a specific order. He opened the door, revealing the golden hue of an early morning, and the cold of the outdoors.

Elias shivered, stepping out first as Anders implicated whilst he held the door open. He was led down a concrete catwalk along what seemed to be like a C shaped apartment block - a few shoddily clad individuals leaning on metal fencing that lined the catwalk, either checking their phones or smoking cigarettes - more so the latter. The two made their way down a stairwell, arriving in open parking central to the apartments. Anders pulled out some car keys and pressed a button - a familiar truck flashed it's lights.

"Get in." Anders said, opening the driver's side and sliding in. Elias followed suit, getting in the passenger seat. The engine roared as the truck came to life, jolting slightly as the parking was disengaged. Elias was slightly anxious, be it from the lack of a seatbelt, or being stuck in a car with the guy who turned someone into a donut infront of him. They slowly rolled out of the parking lot, before making their way onto the narrow roads of The Unders.

Elias was hesitant to ask, but eventually managed, "Why do you trust me being in a vehicle with you? I mean... you know nothing about me."

Anders grunted, still looking at the road, "I trust me being in a vehicle with you." His expression remained unchanged. Elias didn't respond - Anders didn't leave many openings.

A few uncomfortable minutes went by for Elias, as he stared out the window. Slowly, the amount of people on the streets began to increase. Whether that was because it was lighter, or they were moving to a more populated area, Elias didn't know. It all looked the same to him anyways. Lots of concrete.

"You ever been to Party Town, kid?" Asked Anders.

He hadn't. After all, he had only been... conscious(?) for a day or so. What even was 'Party Town?'

"Party Town is the coloquially acclaimed commerce district of Anomina, where wealthy, renowned or powerful individuals find themselves." The voice chipped in.

Anders glanced across to Elias, who was silent. "Oh - uh. No." He said, tuning back in.

"I see. You got any plans? Try'na go somewhere in life? Become famous or something?"

"... No. I don't think so."

"So you're just doing what this 'voice' tells you to." Anders commented with a snort. "No different from a corpo slave."

Elias didn't respond. Why was he here? Did he have a purpose? Anders was right, he had just been blindly following the voice this entire time. That pissed him off.

The truck came to a sudden halt, as Anders pulled in on the side of the road. Elias, who had been resting his head on his arm, was caught off guard and abruptly yanked forward, smacking his nose on the dashboard. "C'mon." Anders said, pulling the handle of his door and pushing it open with his leg.

Elias pulled himself out into the hazy air, rubbing his nose with teary eyes. "So you said we were out to do 'something', what is 'something'?" He looked across to Anders, who just slammed his door shut.

"There're some people I need to ehhh... quiet down."

And once again, Elias remembered he didn't want to be involved with this man.

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

Anders set off up the road, this area seemed to be a bit more well-off comparatively to the direction they had come from. Instead of old concrete buildings, here and there were shop-fronts with dimly buzzing neon lights. Elias spotted a clothes shop, 'Tills',' with the same black hoodie he was wearing right by the window. Anders followed a section of path that extended away from the road into a plaza with a dead tree in the center, surrounded by benches.

Anders took a detour to one of the concrete fronts, with a big red and white sign out the front with 'Polars Opposites' written on it, a holographically displayed beaver sitting upright with a frothing golden mug of beer infront. From where Elias was standing, he could hear EDM music , and see pulsing lights and fog coming from the bottom of the stairs.

Anders passed Elias a $10 note, "Get a drink or somethin."

Elias raised his eyebrows at the surprisingly kind gesture, suspicious of it's spontaneity. "What if I run off?"

"Oh, you won't be gettin' far." Anders tapped his visor with an insidious grin.

Elias shivered.

The two travelled down the stairs, which led to a surpisingly packed club. While the streets were nigh empty, it was hard to travel in a straight line in this place. Strobes pulsed above drawing lines in fog that seemed to come from cooling units in the ceiling, while music blared on speakers at the front of a dancefloor. An individual with a snake mask DJ'd at the front of the venue, risen on suspended platform from the ceiling, projectors built into his shoulders displayed pulsing synaesthetic bars.

The corner of Elias' mouth twitched. All this seemed so vaguely familiar yet so alien at the same time. All of the people dancing with their horrible moves; the ear piercing music, the smell of alcohol and stains of questionable origin on the floor. It wasn't a life he'd lived, but he certainly felt adjusted to it.

Elias relocated himself to a bar at the side of the room, glossing through a display with drinks and their prices above. There wasn't much he could do with ten bucks, but something caught his eye.

"I recommend against consuming alcohol, especially in a foreign environment such as this."

'Would you let me enjoy anything? For once?'

Elias lifted an arm to signal the cocktail waiter. A tall, slender man rolled over to Elias, wheels implanted on his heels. He leaned over the bar bench, a beaver embroided on his black button-up chest pocket.

Peering through a black fringe with purple stripes, the waiter asked, "What can I do for ya?" A female voice caught Elias off guard.

"Risking your health and safety for entertainment is hardly desirable."

'What's one drink gonna do???'

"Oh- Uh I'll get the 'Typhon'."

"Ooh, look at you." The waitress(?) swivelled around, grabbing a Dark Rum, Absinthe, Blue Curacao, Grenadine and Lemon Juice. Little claw-arms came out of their forearms, assembling Elias' drink almost instantaneously.

Elias slid the note across, the waiter raising an inquisitive brow and then giving a chuckle. "Cash? Ooh, honey, you must be up to no good." They gave a devious smile, taking the note.

"Ahaha..." Elias took the drink and stepped away from the bar,

'So, Addy. What's your take on all of this? Why'd Anders bring me here?'

"He is likely meeting with someone."

'Why here?'

"Because of the crowds, it is easier to 'lay low.' "

'I see'-

Elias stumbled a bit to the side, just barely avoiding spilling his probably overpriced drink. Phew.

"Ohp- Shorry *hic* about that." A man had bumped into him, a couple of girls giggled and waved at him from the dancefloor, before being absorbed back into the thumping fleshmass of a dancefloor.

Elias brought his attention to the clearly drunken man, "No worries." He was about the same height as Elias, had short-cut brown hair and was slightly freckled and tan. His salmon-pink button-up shirt was untucked from his dark blue chinos, his collarbone left exposed.

'See this guy gets it!'

"I didn't spill yer *hic* drink, did I???" He drunkenly swayed side to side, patting Elias on the back which very nearly made him spill his Typhon again.

"At the rate you're going you will." Elias joked... not really.

'Maybe... This is a bit much.'

"Hah! I like y- *hic* you! I'mm uhhh, Nick."

"Elias. Let's uhh.. Get you sat down." Elias, gently put a hand behind the Nicks back, leading him over to the bar where there were some seats. Nick groggily took a seat, chuckling and murmuring to himself every now and then from his drunken stupor.

"You should not waste your time with this individual."

'Hey I'm just trying to be a nice person, maybe you could learn a thing or two.'

"You're a reeaalll nice guy, Elias, like realll, *hic* real coool dude. Wee're cooool right?" Nick gave a hearty laugh to Elias, who just looked at him concerned, "What, we're not coool?" Tears started to well up in Nick's eyes.

"You all good man?" Elias furrowed his brows at this mess of a man.

"You're going to regret this."

"Yerr I'm sorry, *hic* times'a just been real'a tuff recently."

'Oh god he's about to start ranting isn't he.'

"-Hah, yeah. I get it." Elias attempted to come across as at least a little experienced, taking a sip of his drink.

"That bloody manager~! She put me, a newbie, in charge of the comp-, *hic* company couriers, and low 'n behold one's gone AWOL! Now they're investigatin' my position n' I might lose my job n' I'm all FUCKED."

"That sucks." Elias gave a pretty blank answer. He felt bad for the guy, but somethng told him if he engaged he'd end up here for a couple more hours.

"Yeeahh! and just when I was about to change departments. Paperwork man, I'm so sicka numbersss! If I change now I'll look bad."

'Okay that coulda been worse I reckon.'

"Yeah," Elias chuckled, "Numbers, am I ri-"

"You're a real cool dude, dude. What was your name?"

"This individual is a liability."

'Chill out, he's just a random dude.'

"El-"

"Elias, you're like, cool."

Anguish.

"I know like, this isn't any of your business, but like thanks fer listening."

"Oh yeah," Elias chuckled, "For sure."

'Shit now I just feel bad.'

"Mmkay I'mma go baack to dancin' " Nick slammed the table, standing up abruptly.

"Uh I dunno if that's a good-" Elias reached out, before Nick disappeared back into the droves of people.

Elias felt simultaneously happy and a tad annoyed that his first real interaction had been with a drunken man. Regardless, his eyes returned to the dance-floor, pondering whether he should give it a go.

"Who was that?" Came a gruff voice from behind.

"Oh, Anders." Elias faced the resident party-pooper, who had a plastic bag in hand, "Just a random guy, what's that?" He pointed a finger to it.

"You'll see." He said almost eagerly, "Let's go."