Megacity 14 was a gravity sandwich: one city above, one city below, and millions of hovercraft and floating structures in between. Although the complex was enclosed, the horizon borders filtered in sunlight and emitted a warm glow.

The up and down cities spanned the size of a small nation, and like any nation, they were split into various territories. Megacity 14 had exactly one-hundred Sectors, ranging from bustling cultural hotspots to serene farming plains, from growling factory grids to eerie dead zones. Sector 58, the one Marvin lived in, was a hybrid—the cozy metropolis that was Nagatown in the east, and the farms that allowed it to prosper in the west.

The shuttle entered seamlessly into a stream of other hovercraft. The airspace to Marvin’s left was clear, where he could observe a canvas of metal monoliths and suspended islands, of streaks of light crossing from one edge to the other. Those distant traffic streams looked as fickle as schools of fish.

“Have you been on the airways before?” Caroline asked.

“Yeah,” Marvin said. “I was actually supposed to go hypergliding after beating Gammagrade.”

That brought a pang of sadness. For three months, Lindon’s promise had been unfulfilled.

“Hypergliding!” Caroline exclaimed. “You couldn’t pay me to do that.”

Marvin smiled. “It’s actually really safe.”

“Sure, until I start choking on my vomit.”

Hmm, Marvin had never considered that. Maybe some people took stomach-suppressant pills before hypergliding.

“You were a really good pilot, right?” Caroline asked. “Like, championship-worthy?”

“I made it to Mecha Realm,” Marvin said. He didn’t mean to show off, he just hoped to prove her point.

“Oh, right.” Caroline tapped the top of her head. “Do you think you could beat Ninth Gen?”

Marvin furrowed his brow. Who did she think he was? “No,” he replied.

“What about The Everlancer?”

“No.” The Everlancer was the antithesis to Saberstar.

“Immortal Ignition?”

Marvin wasn’t sure if Caroline was joking—she had just named three top-ten teams and expected him to be as good as them.

“I heard Immortal Ignition got a new pilot,” Caroline continued. “Came in right after the season ended. I doubt they’re gonna do well at Mecha Realm.”

That managed to pique Marvin’s interest. “What happened to the old one?”

“He had a stroke or something,” Caroline said. “I think he spent too much time in the robot.”

Marvin gulped. Was that to become his fate, too?

“What are they saying about me?” he asked. “I mean, like, what happened to me.”

“Your teammates made a public statement a while back. Apparently your brain overheated and you needed to take a break. So Gammagrade qualified instead of you.”

My own teammates? Why? Were they threatened?

Maybe it was true. Maybe the last few moments in the pilots’ room had been a hallucination, and so was this. Maybe he was actually lying in a hospital bed, comfortably dreaming.

“The Sawblades wouldn’t kill me,” Marvin muttered.

“They’re still a gang. I’ll only tell Ishaan about you once I’m sure it’s safe,” Caroline said.

After a while, their shuttle diverged from the stream and headed towards a shuttle garage. The forty-floor building had no walls, only a forcefield that scanned them as they entered. There were no hiccups with that—at least Caroline wasn’t a criminal.

They parked on the thirty-seventh floor and took an absurdly fast elevator to the street level. As they were about to exit the garage, Marvin suddenly realized something.

“Shouldn’t you hide me?” he asked.

“It’ll be fine. I’m just an engineer taking my mech to the repair shop, who is also talking to her brother on the phone.”

Marvin supposed no one could recognize Saberstar in this state.

The two of them stepped out onto the streets of Nagatown. The familiar scenery was comforting: neon lights, curved roofs with pointy tips, warmly-lit alleyways, cramped street vendors, lantern drones… a million sounds and colors. There used to be a million smells, too. A wide aqueduct flowed beneath the stone paved road, and traces of luminescent water could be seen between the cracks.

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Caroline weaved through the alleys, arriving on a wider street with larger stores and holographic advertisements. They returned to the narrow paths not before long, took a lift to a lower level of the town, and stopped at the edge of an intersection. Up ahead, across the street, was a simple garage, halfway underground with a sloped road. Two guards stood at the steel gate. It was surrounded by ragged shops and rundown apartments, and a few gleaming skyscrapers loomed over it.

This place is supposed to be famous? Marvin wondered. I guess it’s the inside that counts.

His next curiosity was: why had they stopped? He tried to look up at Caroline to no avail.

“That’s their garage, right?” he asked.

Caroline didn’t seem to see his words, or if she did, she was focussing on something else.

“Caroline?” Marvin said.

“It’s being guarded by the Manhunters.”

Marvin observed the two men at the garage and noted their sharp black suits and cybernetic goggles that looked like insect eyes—signature attire of the most powerful gang in Nagatown. What were they doing here? The Manhunters had a rather infamous rivalry with the Sawblades.

“I have to rethink my plan,” Caroline mused. “Not that there was much to begin with, but um… maybe we can try to talk to them.”

What other option was there? Tiptoe their way in?

“The Manhunters are the real deal, though,” Caroline said. “They control a lot of the police and Amir might’ve told them about me. If things go south, I’m gonna run as fast as I can and I can’t promise I won’t drop you.”

“What?”

“Just kidding.”

You sure didn’t sound like it.

Caroline hoisted Marvin’s sorry robot head a little higher and approached the two Manhunters. The one on the left held up a hand once they were within ten feet.

“The garage is under lockdown. Please turn around.”

Instead of trying to argue, Caroline asked, “Can I leave a message for Ishaan?”

“The team is not talking to anyone at the moment,” the Manhunter said.

“It’s alright, he can reply whenever he’s ready.”

“Even the mention of a message is a distraction,” the guard said. “We’re not open to any arguments. Turn around and go.”

Why are the Manhunters speaking for team Gammagrade? Marvin wondered. Ishaan and the Sawblades weren’t the type to simply allow that. Perhaps the Manhunters had taken over?

“Is there any time at all when Ishaan’s free?” Caroline probed.

The guard’s nostrils flared and he took a menacing step forward. “Do you not understand-”

“Okay, okay.” Caroline backed away and waved for the Manhunter to calm down. “I’m leaving.”

“Wait what?” Marvin yelped as his world spun 180 degrees. “What about Ishaan?”

But Caroline was already walking away. Marvin understood that the Manhunters were to be taken seriously, but Caroline hadn’t even tried.

“We have to go back,” Marvin implored. If the Manhunters were going to guard the garage 24/7, they would never get answers.

Maybe this is part of the plan. Trick them into thinking we’ve given up.

Caroline kept walking. Once she had ducked into a dark alleyway, she finally stopped and held Marvin’s head slightly farther out.

“If they start suspecting us, it’s over,” she explained. “We can’t rush this.”

Marvin stared at her in confusion. So it wasn’t part of the plan? They had just left after haggling for, what, two, three seconds? Now that he thought about it, Caroline was awfully cautious for someone who had promised to help.

We can’t rush this.

Something in Marvin finally started to unravel.

“It’s been three months!” he shouted. “My teammates could be dead! My uncle could be dead!”

“I’m sorry, but-”

“Tell the Manhunters about me. They might let us in.”

“Are you serious?” Caroline scoffed. “They could’ve been the ones who killed you!”

“If they wanted me dead they wouldn’t have put me in Saberstar.”

“Saberstar got sliced to bits! Why do you think that is?”

“There could’ve been an accident-”

“Marvin.” Caroline’s voice was unexpectedly cold. “This is what we’re gonna do. We’ll watch the garage from a distance and we’ll track where Ishaan goes. Then we slip him a message.”

“What if he never leaves?”

“Then we can try to get inside. But we play things safe first, understand?”

Marvin found that he was losing his will to argue. Where had this sternness come from?

All the more reason to suspect her.

But there was nothing he could do. Until he had a working body, he was at Caroline’s mercy.

And that was when reality finally seized him. Someone tried to kill me. There are people out there who hate me so much they want me dead.

He suddenly felt a fear he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. He was a six-year-old again, hiding under his blanket, terrified that thieves and intruders would try to hurt him. He wanted to curl up and shiver. At least shivering gave him assurance that he was still alive.

What had he done to deserve this?

He squeezed his eyes shut.

Wake up. The dream is over. We’ve gone on our little adventure. Just wake up.

He imagined his bedroom: the smartcloset, the holoboard above his bed, his toy mechs, his Bessmer chair, the scent of eggs and waffles drifting in from just beyond the door…

I’ll be back soon. Lindon, Theo, Sina—I’ll see you again.

But when he opened his eyes, he was still in that claustrophobic Nagatown alleyway.