Saxon tried to cover his ears, but after some time, the sound of EDM had yet to get any quieter, and his foot any less restless. Pulling his hands away from his ears, Saxon began to look around. The music's clarity remained the same, even when Saxon obstructed his ears, all but confirming this was the work of an avatar--though Saxon had already suspected this was the case.

What was troubling was locating the source of the music. Despite its clarity, there was no DJ or speaker in sight. Given that Saxon didn’t hear anything while in the line, it was likely that the avatar was somewhere in the building, seeing as his music was confined to its walls.

Saxon hadn’t asked Hollin if the music got more persuasive as time went on, and since he was nearly tapped out on power, he couldn’t resist the influence if it got much stronger. To Saxon that meant he may be on a very short clock to find wherever this DJ was hiding.

The bar was always a good place to make conversation, and gather information, but as Saxon glanced over he noticed there was no bartender; nobody in Saxon’s view was carrying a single drink.

Saxon tried to find a security guard other than the one at the front door--to try and avoid being kicked out for having snuck in--but couldn’t find a single one. Fortunately, the booth Saxon was in was close enough to eavesdrop on the conversation happening at the front door.

“Oi, where’s the bartender?”

Saxon pivoted his head to see that the man he had snuck in on, was calling for the bouncer’s attention.

“Apologies,” the bouncer responded, “but the bartender quit after an incident last night.”

“So there’s no drink?” the man complained.

“We’re more than happy to offer you your money back sir,” the bartender offered.

The man paused for a second, considering the offer. Saxon presumed he would take the offer. Why come on a night where you can’t get drunk when you could come on one where you could? The man came for the experience as he had nobody accompanying him, so it choice was obvious.

“I’m already here,” the man said reluctantly, “might as well make the most of it.”

Saxon raised an eyebrow.

The bouncer nodded in affirmation. “I hope you enjoy your time.”

“Next time have more than one bartender,” the man grumbled, walking back to the dance floor.

The man’s unwillingness to leave immediately raised red flags in Saxon’s mind. Catching a glance at the man as he walked away, Saxon managed to notice that the man was tapping his hand to his leg in rhythm with the music. Hollin’s words, about the music being like a drug, echoed in Saxon’s head.

Saxon needed to make a move, but his options weren’t great.

If the people on the dance floor were anything like Hollin had described himself, then they wouldn’t be of much help.

He could play the police card and try to claim that there was an expected avatar in the building, but that would cause too much chaos.

Asking any staff was out of the question too. Anybody who knew where this DJ was located, would probably be in on the whole operation.

Without access to most of his mythoi, Saxon was a little lost. So, he started to do something he never thought he would. Saxon started thinking like Herman.

Recalling the outside of the building, Saxon looked up and realized that the ceiling was too low. Standing up, and stretching his arm out, Saxon estimated there has to be at least another floor to this place. That then begged the question, how to get there?

“I need the bathroom,” Saxon requested desperately, clutching his stomach and approaching the bouncer, “where is it?”

“Sir are you alright?” the bouncer asked, hurrying to Saxon.

“Oh, I’m gonna,” Saxon said, bloating his cheeks with air, and covering his mouth with his right hand.

“Right of the bar,” the bouncer informed Saxon in a panic, pointing in that general direction, “hold it, man!”

Saxon turned away and dropped the act. He could’ve just looked, but this was much faster than wading his way through a sea of people.

During his walk over Saxon started looking over at the dance floor. He heard a thud, as a woman who was dancing collapsed to the floor, her legs appearing to give out. Nobody around her skipped a beat.

Picking up the pace, Saxon reached the bathrooms. Traditionally, there would be an attendant to collect a fee, but as Saxon tried to locate one, he found a woman, in the Epilogue’s staff outfit, dancing. It appeared even the staff weren’t safe from the music’s influence.

Opening the bathroom, Saxon instantly locked the door, flicked on the lights, and looked near the ceiling. It wasn’t long before Saxon found what he was looking for: an air vent.

Under normal circumstances, this would be of no use to Saxon as he couldn’t fit through it, but even with his low energy, he still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Prying the air vent off the wall, Saxon took a quick glimpse downward. Luckily, at the end of this air vent, it appeared to go straight up to the second floor.

Saxon set his phone to record a 10-second video, and chucked it down the vent, facing upward. Shortly after, he pulled up the video on his smartwatch. Saxon still believed there was no reason to have both, but now it seems he would need to thank Elly properly for getting him one.

Scrubbing through the video, Saxon eventually found a clear enough image of the second floor, to make use of another mythos.

Schrödinger's cat was often a useless mythos. So long as nobody was perceiving the location from which the user originated and the location to which they were attempting to travel to, then they could appear instantly at any location they could see. The restrictions on its activation made Schrödinger's cat a wildly unreliable mythos.

However, those limitations, and Saxon’s many conversations with the man who possesses the mythos, made it so that its tax on his body was slim to none. Saxon couldn’t do much, but he could pull at least this off.

Appearing above the air vent on the second floor, Saxon became aware of the music’s origin. The floor--or what was the ceiling down below--itself was vibrating and acting as the speaker.

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Saxon took off the air vent on the ground, and retrieved his phone, dusting off any dust it picked up along its travels. Strangely, the second was entirely undecorated, with no decor.

Saxon expected nobody would be up here, aside from the DJ, which was why he took the gamble of using Schrödinger's cat, but he didn’t anticipate it being barren.

The place looked completely abandoned, not a rarity for the neighborhood. Saxon had seen far too many places that looked just like this on his walks to Torch from work. All of the glamors the first floor exuded now felt like an illusion.

Saxon had to stifle a cough numerous times as he began to explore, as dust scattered in the air with every movement. It seemed like a series of apartment buildings, each of which had been abandoned for at least a couple of months. The only thing keeping Saxon from gagging on the smell was that the whole floor was still ventilated, and that indicated there was somebody still up there.

Midway through scoping out the floor, Saxon came across an outlier. Unlike many of the previous doors, this apartment’s door had no chips in the paint. Placing a hand on the door, Saxon felt vibrations.

Whoever was causing this, they were inside. Saxon’s left hand slipped down toward the doorknob, but it twisted before Saxon moved a muscle.

Knowing these doors opened inward, and that there was somebody on the other side, Saxon braced his left shoulder, and placed his right palm on the door, then swung it open as hard as he could. Immediately he felt an impact, and heard a follow-up, as something hit the ground,

The vibrations in the floor stopped.

Dashing inward, Saxon scanned the room and was stunned to see a teenager--no more than 16 years old--on the ground beneath him, his back to the floor.

“Don’t run,” Saxon warned the boy, pulling out his badge. “I’m detective Saxon Jones. I work at the FMPD.”

The boy hurriedly scrambled to his feet and took a step back.

Saxon slowly raised both his hands in the air. “I’m not tryna hurt you kid. I just got a few questions, so I want to ask you to come down to the precinct with me, and see if we can get some answers.”

The boy took another step backward, and his eyes began darting all around the room. “This wasn’t the deal.”

“Easy,” Saxon said calmly, trying to get the boy to focus on him“what’s your name kid?”

“Octave,” the boy replied.

“What deal are you talking about?” Saxon asked

“I made a deal with one of you,” Octave said hurriedly, his eyes darting around the room. “He said you guys wouldn’t come after me.”

“Who was this with?” Saxon inquired. “Do you remember a name? Any physical details? Gender? Height?”

Octave stepped back again, his back now braced against the apartment’s exterior wall. “Think it was a man. Never gave his name. Don’t remember his height, and he covered up pretty well.”

“Ok,” Saxon said, trying to put Octave at ease.

“He came down here yesterday,” Octave interjected. “Told me you all wouldn’t be coming after me.”

“Did he have a badge like this?” Saxon asked, shaking his badge.

Octave squinted his eyes. “Definitely.”

That was troublesome. The FMPD’s badges were made using a mythos to make them irreplicable, and unmistakable. Worst of all, they lose those properties when not in the hands of their original owner.

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Saxon remarked, slowly putting his badge away. “That’s all I need you to do, just answer questions. Let’s go down to the precinct, and get this all sorted.”

“Let’s just do it here,” Octave suggested.

“It’s not safe here,” Saxon said firmly.

“Why?” Octave asked. “Because of me?”

“I didn’t say that,” Saxon said.

“Well, why else would it be unsafe?” Octave questioned. “There ain’t nobody else with a mythos in here.”

Saxon was relieved to hear there were no other avatars, but the situation was growing in tension too fast.

“Listen, I’m not doing anything wrong,” Octave argued, his voice steadily growing louder and more panicked.

Now Saxon was even more confused. If Octave wanted to lie, starting now wouldn’t make any sense.

“People are happy when they listen to my music,” Octave continued, anger now seeping into his words. “I do something good with my life for the first time, and this is how I get treated! Stabbed in the back a day later?!”

Like a minor earthquake, everything in the room began rumbling again. The floor started to vibrate again, and thus the music returned in full force.

“Listen,” Saxon cut in, choosing to just say anything before his entire train of thought was lost to the music.

“No, you listen!” Octave retaliated, not giving Saxon a chance to speak. “You are going to walk out that door, and never come back!”

“You know I can’t do that,” Saxon responded.

Before another raindrop could hit the window, Octave’s hand was already on it.

Octave used his mythos, causing the window to emit a high-pitched sound, shattering the glass. Saxon only took a single step forward before he was hit with a sonic blast.

Saxon instinctively put his hands to his ears, but to no avail. The pain caused his eyes to shut momentarily, and by the time they were open Octave had disappeared.

Running up to the window, Saxon glanced down at the street below and managed to spot Octave blitzing across the street.

New avatars were always more reckless. The physical enhancements may make you feel invincible, but you’re far from it. Saxon knew that leap did a number on Octave, especially since his mythos didn’t seem like the combative type.

Although his ears were still ringing from the blast, without the music, Saxon’s thoughts began to return, but he could hear the sound of footsteps. It seems that somebody was coming up to check on Octave after the music had stopped.

On the street level, Octave had just made it across and was about to turn a corner. However, whoever was on their way hadn’t got to the door yet, and it was currently late at night. That meant nobody was in the room where Saxon was, nor was anybody at the corner that Octave was about to turn. Once again, the necessary conditions had been met.

As Octave turned the corner he was immediately met by Saxon, who teleported there using Schrödinger's cat. Taking Octave by surprise, Saxon went low, and rushed Octave, tackling Octave.

Octave went down to the ground easily; Saxon was right that the fall likely did more damage to Octave's legs than Octave had realized.

The moment Octave hit the ground, with Saxon mounted on top of him, his arms went up to guard his face.

“Don’t hurt me,” Octave cried out.

“Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me,” Octave begged, the words getting softer, and more muddled by tears with every repetition.

Saxon froze. Octave wasn’t even an adult. His ragged clothes reminded Saxon of the people from Torch--and even himself when he was Octave’s age.

Saxon just slipped the cuffs on Octave’s arms, while they were still in front of his face. Saxon knew it was proper protocol to always cuff somebody with their hands behind their back.

This was especially true for avatars like Octave, who activated their mythos through touch. However, Saxon thought the last thing Octave needed was to be forcefully flipped on his back, and have his hands completely restricted.

As Saxon was struggling to find the right words to say, Octave broke the silence.

“So are you taking me to jail?” Octave asked, being brought to his feet.

Saxon understood that Octave had broken the law. Even if somehow all his actions at the Epilogue were excused, he still ran from the police and would need to be brought in.

“No,” Saxon responded, shaking his head in defiance toward his responsibilities, more than Octave’s question.

Saxon’s gut--or as some have called it, his heart--has always been his strongest asset, and at this moment, it was screaming that this kid needed help.

“It’s a bit far from here,” Saxon said, “but have you ever heard of a place called Torch?”

Quinn was right that people get hurt when Saxon is wrong. Saxon just hoped he was right.