Wrench – Monday, 10:09am.

Wrench and Janice stood just outside the stairwell leading to the ultraloop station. They looked rather awkward and out of place standing still among the steadily growing stream of people going about their day, just a handful of blocks from Velvet Crumble. Furthermore, Janice was still just in a tank-top and jeans; she'd mentioned she liked the rain during the ultraloop ride, but Wrench couldn't fathom how she wasn't freezing yet.

“I'm gonna ask Ray where he is,” Wrench said.

“All right,” Janice replied.

“How close are you?” Wrench typed to the three-way chat. Still no sign of Skye online, but Ray came online seconds after Wrench sent their message.

“fuckign threshers on m y ass” Ray answered, typing very quickly. “go first meet u l8r”

“Shit...” Wrench mumbled, turning to Janice. “Gangsters are giving Ray a hard time. He wants us to go on ahead without him.”

“Ah.” Janice looked quite pensive upon hearing the news. “Is he going to be okay?”

“I'm not too worried. Ray's dealt with them before and turned out fine. But... if Zev really is behind Skye's absence, do you think we could, like, you know... take him on? Just the two of us?”

“In an altercation, no, but... I have history with them. If I can get Zev talking, we might be able to avoid a fight altogether.”

“You think so?” Wrench scratched their head, withholding their burning question about what exactly the history between those two was.

“Yeah.”

“Mmkay. Well, let's go.” Wrench put their phone away and led the way towards the bakery.

Even if there weren't many other options left, they were still apprehensive about putting their faith in someone they met just a day ago. They considered calling the police about the situation, but if there wasn't anything wrong with Skye, Wrench would certainly get in trouble for wasting government resources.

Worst case scenario, they had their taser, but if it would even affect a creature as big as Zev was yet to be seen.

However, just after crossing a busy intersection, a nearby electronic sign caught their attention, reading:

[https://zynima.net/assets/lit/nightgame19.png]

Yeah, maybe a bit late?! Wrench thought. The sign only served to intensify their worries about Skye, but upon seeing the phone number, their next course of action became crystal clear.

“Janice! Are you seeing this? Cross pupils and ghostly skin, do you think it's referring to Zev?” Wrench figured Janice would share their excitement, but instead, she was petrified, staring at the sign like she'd just been punched in the gut.

“...Janice?” Wrench leaned over in front of her vision, wondering what was wrong.

“U-uh, sorry, just... just a bit distracted by this.” She dismissed her odd reaction with a hand wave, averting her gaze. “It, yeah... it does sound like it, but... I-I don't think you should call that number.”

“What? Why not?”

“Let's keep going – I'll explain as we go.”

“Um, sure. Let me take the number down just in case.”

“A-all right.” After giving Wrench a few seconds to record the number in their phone, Janice continued while they walked onward. “MARVCF at the end of that number, right? That's a number for the Maroon corporation. I used to work there. Not only is MAR an obvious tell, but VCF is a facility controlled by Maroon.”

Wrench remembered something from their time with Gyroloop. “VCF – that's Victor Capital Foundry, isn't it!”

“Ah– yeees?” Janice confirmed, tilting her head. “How do you know...?”

“It's kind of a long story,” Wrench lied, not interested in snitching on Gyro. “What about it though?”

“Maroon is bad news. When I worked there, they practically imprisoned me. They wouldn't let me leave, they paid me nothing except food, my 'dorm' was like a prison cell. I did everything I could to get away from there, and I eventually did, but... I'm terrified of them trying to take me back.”

“What?! That's fucked!”

“Yeah. If you need to call them, just... give me a warning so I can not be here when they come.”

Wrench slowly nodded. “All right, fair.” They'd at least wait until knowing Zev was definitely involved, otherwise their thoughts returned to the same fear of getting into trouble for wasting powerful peoples' time.

Another intersection crossed and a few dozen paces later, Wrench saw the building.

“That's the bakery,” they said, pointing to Velvet Crumble's bright storefront sign. “Ray said the junkyard was behind it. Let's try down here,” they continued, pointing to the unkempt alleyway leading far behind Skye's workplace.

As they closed in on their destination, the two sped up to a brisk pace, anxious to get to that yard, looking for any signs of it. The rainfall was on the brink of becoming a storm, to the point where their coat was barely keeping them dry, but the only thing on their mind was finding Skye.

Continuing straight down the remainder of the divide between buildings, the right side soon opened up to a wide-open junkyard sunk into the ground, filled with spires and mountains of discarded metal and machinery. It was quite dilapidated and abandoned, with little sign of life.

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“This must be it!” Wrench exclaimed.

Janice took a deep breath. “Let's go.”

The fence once surrounding the yard had plenty of gaps and missing sections, allowing easy passage into the area. The two slipped by the fence and descended the slope slowly and carefully, as the ground was becoming muddy from the torrential rainfall.

“The least those High Miyatama dicks could do is not piss on us so hard when it rains,” Wrench grumbled aloud, extending their arms out to either side, trying to keep their balance. Upon reaching the bottom of the slope, Wrench hopped onto a flat metal plate, extending a hand to help Janice down.

She hesitated to accept their offer, but ultimately took Wrench's hand, letting go the instant they were both on solid ground.

They both proceeded onward into the maze-like passages of the yard; with no clear direction to start with, Wrench called out, “hello!” listening closely for any kind of response.

“Anybody here?” Janice followed suit.

A few moments later... nothing. At least, Wrench didn't think so – the wind and rain made it difficult to hear clearly, and they almost thought something or someone had said something back.

“Did you hear that?” Janice asked.

“I'm not sure. Did you hear something?”

“Hey!” Janice yelled again, holding her hands around her mouth. “Is anybody here? Skye?!”

Keeping their eyes and ears open for an answer, they wandered into a spacious junction connecting several passages formed between towering junk walls.

“...Yeah! I'm here!”

Was that Skye?! Wrench's eyes widened. It was impossible to tell where his voice was coming from in the storm, so they shouted again. “Hey! Where are you?!”

“I'm impressed, really!”

“...What?” Wrench muttered. “Skye!” they yelled once more.

“Janice... how you managed to find me again, I don't know! Ah, ah, I'm impressed!”

“Wrench, that's not Skye!” Janice exclaimed, putting a hand on Wrench's shoulder. “That's Zev! No doubt about it!”

“W-where is he?!” Wrench quickly looked around – nobody in the nearby passages, but then they turned around and looked up; sitting atop the scrap wall just behind them was the very creature plaguing Skye, smiling down at them.

“Janice! Above us!” Wrench pointed to Zev, taking rapid steps back to get out of pouncing range. Janice did the same, prompting Zev to jump down from the junk pile.

“Kyeh-heh-heh! Janice. I didn't take you for a persistence hunter. The humans must be affecting you! Have you come to talk me out of my dietary habits? Or have you come to deliver me food?” Zev slowly shifted their gaze from Janice to Wrench as they finished their sentence.

Wrench slowly slid a hand under their coat, reaching for their taser. “Where's Skye?!” they growled.

And where are the hell you, Ray?!

“What a brave human. Ah, Skye is alive. He is only second on the menu. First... is his sister.”

“What?! Why? What did she do?!”

“Skye TRICKED me, human!” Zev screamed, lurching forward towards Wrench, who instinctively took a few steps back.

“I want nothing more than to devour that little morsel, but – ah, ah, I want him to suffer first. So I decided I would have two meals instead of one.”

“Listen, Zev, please!” Janice stepped forward, in front of Wrench. “Whether or not Skye tricked you, we have bigger problems! Maroon is coming after us! They've declared a civil emergency over the onslaught of volons in Miyatama, and they're sending out strike teams to kill us, or worse, take us back to that prison. And... I-I need your help to get back at them for it!”

Zev clenched their teeth in an irritated frown, and their left hand started trembling and contorting. “You need my help. Is that what the human is for? A bribe?”

Chills lanced through Wrench's spine. For a moment, they wondered if Janice had set them up.

“No!” Janice exclaimed. “We just want to know where Skye is so we can forget all this and focus on what matters! When we broke out from Maroon, do you remember that big truck? Those were other volons who want the same thing as us – to stop Maroon from enslaving volons! If we worked together... you could... get revenge on those people that imprisoned us!” Janice's confidence faltered for a moment during her last sentence.

Temporarily ignoring Janice's revelations, and still unsure whether their taser would be effective, Wrench took the opportunity to glance around while Zev was laser-focused on Janice. Just to the left, they spotted a precarious heap of junk metal suspended against a wall of scrap, held together by what looked like a single narrow pipe sticking out of the wall. It was only about six or seven paces away.

Janice... please... keep Zev distracted!

“To fight enslavement,” Zev hissed, “you want me to be enslaved again?”

“No, that's not it. You can be free to do what you want! Free to... um... hunt people...! But you can have people to help back you up if you ever get in trouble, like if Maroon catches you!”

Wrench moved their left foot ever so slowly to the side, testing to see if Zev would notice, but they exhibited no reaction.

“Ah, ah, that is an interesting offer.” Zev leaned down closer to Janice's face. “Why now, Janice? You did not want me to eat humans before. Now you do not mind. What changed?”

“There are people in Maroon I'd like to find, too. I'd forgotten what it's like to be outside that prison, and... well... I've changed my mind about some things.”

“You're remembering what it's like to hunger,” Zev quipped. “That is why you are here. You're remembering how to be a volon.”

Wrench couldn't ignore it this time.

Janice is a volon.

Their new friend was one of those creatures everyone feared, and even if Janice wasn't intent on killing them, Wrench couldn't shake the realization that they were now alone with two volons.

They hesitantly continued their cautious side-steps towards the exposed pipe, constantly glancing between Zev and the pipe, using all their power to remain silent.

Come on! Just a bit more!

The towering volon cackled as it leaned back up, belting out that hideous kyeh-heh-heh. “Now I understand! I was right. You want to return to your real nature. You want revenge on that... REDMOND–!”

Zev suddenly wailed that name – Redmond – in a fit of anger. Between clenched teeth, they panted and huffed with their gaze still locked on Janice, drool oozing from between their teeth.

Wrench put their hands on the pipe, wiggling it to see how loose it was, causing the heaps of metal above to shift.

“...You want REVENGE as much as I do,” Zev continued as their posture gradually slouched over and turned animalistic. “And to win me over... to get me to join you...”

Zev's head slowly turned over to face Wrench, who instantly froze up.

“You brought me a peace offering,” Zev paused. “I did think Skye was getting off too easy. Two meals...? Make that three.” Zev began taking a step towards Wrench with both hands outstretched.

“Zev, STOP!” Janice yelled, jumping between the two.

Wrench's eyes widened, breaths intensifying.

Zev effortlessly batted Janice off to the side, licking their lips, creeping towards Wrench.

Letting out a loud yelp, Wrench yanked on the pipe with all their strength, destabilizing the chunks of metal balancing above, causing heaps of scrap to cascade down. They stumbled away from the avalanche, witnessing a flash of fear on Zev's face before Wrench was cut off from both volons by the newly-formed hill of junk.

A fell shriek pierced through the air; Wrench prayed it wasn't Janice. Taking a couple quick breaths to calm themself down, they grabbed their taser and surveyed their new surroundings: behind them was a long, curved passage, bordered by insurmountable heaps of metal.

That was it – no other options.

Wrench pulled out their phone and started running, desperately opening the messaging program.

“JUNKYARD NOW OR WE DIE” Wrench typed to the group chat.