I sat at Big Mike’s, the neon afflicting my reflection as I stared out the window. The brightest sign on the street flickered, causing a momentary darkness as I looked at myself. I hadn’t looked in a mirror in a long time, but I had changed quite a bit.

The childhood fat had long faded thanks to my diet of Silage, though I was finally starting to fill out more with my recent eating habits. I could still see a few of my bones poking out, but It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been. I had some muscle and fat starting to fill in the gaps.

There were other changes, of course. As others had pointed out to me, my dark hair was far more… luscious? It had a sheen to it that was reminiscent of a model, though not quite to that extent. I was still very much a street rat. At least in my heart. That sheen caught the neon ambiance, twirling it around my dark hair and swirling it into a colorful mess as if a painter had flicked paint all over my hair.

Ever since I got the interface - more specifically Fox’s Grace, I suspect - my appearance had done a one-eighty. I wasn’t a flawless beauty or anything like that, but I had noticed the changes. They were subtle, though they just kept stacking up. If I put a bit more effort into my appearance and diet, I could probably blend in with the sculpted faces of corporate execs without hassle. It was a bit worrying. Many people loved beautiful things without caring how they were acquired.

Even my skin had turned almost flawless, the small scars and blips from puberty completely vanishing into smooth skin. Well, almost smooth skin. I still had a few scars, though only one was on my face. The jagged scar splitting my left brow down to my cheek was still as present as the day I got my chrome. It seemed even Quick Healing couldn’t touch it… Maybe because the scar tissue had been there for so long? It had been a long time since I last saw that bastard.

A day had passed since I chatted with Granny Smith, and I had requested Uncle Ezra to look up Edward Smith and see what happened to him. I should’ve known when the request popped up in my interface. It wasn’t a one-and-done type deal like I had hoped it to be. That would be too easy for the Skill Point reward. Instead of simply giving me some information, he had asked to meet up somewhere. Hence Big Mike’s.

I sat across from both him and Mira, and I couldn’t help but feel the tension in the air. They both had rather serious looks on their faces, which was an oddity for Mira at the very least. She was never serious, and the few times she tried to be tended to fail spectacularly. This time though, she nailed it. She wasn’t even reaching for the food, which was by far the scariest part.

“So… what is this about?” I asked as I idly grabbed a slice of burger in a bid to dissipate my nerves. It didn’t work.

Uncle Ezra sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he looked out the window. “Where’d you hear about Edward Smith?”

That didn’t bode well for the rest of our conversation. “He’s uh, he's my neighbor’s grandson. Why?”

“Why are you looking for him?” He asked. Unease was rapidly growing in me. The fact Mira still hadn’t spoken was rubbing me seriously the wrong way. Mira was never silent.

“My neighbor wanted to know if he was still alive...”

He cocked his head, staring at me for a moment with a seriousness I seldom saw. He tilted his head this way and that for a moment before sighing again. “Right… officially, Edward Smith went AWOL off of Blitz Base ten years ago.”

I idly ran a hand along my backpack as I thought about Edward. I had packed it full of my equipment before I left. Just in case. Something about the phone call asking to meet up had clued me in on something being wrong. Maybe it was the tone of voice when we spoke of meeting up?

Soldiers don’t just go AWOL, not in this day and age. “Is he dead?”

“I can’t speak much more on the matter.” He stood up without his bag, seemingly forgetting that he brought it. “I’ll see you at home later tonight, Mira.”

Mira smiled for the first time in the entire meeting, which took a bit of weight off of my shoulders. “‘Course Pa’. Safe travels.”

“You too…” His expression suggested a weight to those simple words, one that carried a much deeper meaning. “I’ll take a cab back.” Then he simply walked out of the restaurant without even taking a slice of burger.

I sat there in a confused mess as I tried to piece together what was happening. Nothing was making sense, other than the fact I had definitely bitten off more than I could chew. Something was obviously going down. Were we under watch? It would make sense considering their reactions.“What-”

Mira glanced around and then shook her head, causing me to stop. “Hey, bestie… I found this new arcade. I’m headed there next. Want to check it out? It might be in a dangerous area.”

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A final chance for me to back out. And a warning. But she said so herself, Mira was headed to the ‘arcade’ anyway. No way I could leave her out to dry. And that Skill Point was calling my name. “Nova! Your car?”

“‘Course!” She smiled as she grabbed a slice of burger, acting as if nothing was going on. It wasn’t hard to slip into normality as we had lunch together. We were just two friends eating a meal, nothing suspicious.

It wasn’t until we were driving towards Ichiban in the car, which just so happened to be filled with guns, that Mira spoke more freely. “You’ve dug us into a hole this time, Shiro.”

“Just what in the hell is going on?” Nothing was making sense. Or rather, I didn’t want things to add up the way they were. As it stands, this might be quite the dive off a cliff.

She sighed. “Your man, Edward Smith, had his file under a heavy lock and key. ‘Course, Pa’ bypassed that, but in doing so became tagged by the mainframe.” So that's what this is all about? That didn’t seem so bad. As if sensing my thoughts, she continued. “Pa’s high up, you know that. So high up that it would take a General to pull such a thing.”

“Fuck.” How the hell was this all connected to something so big? This was just supposed to be a simple look around, not- not all this.

“Yep! Anyway, Pa’ is under watch for the time being… he suspects a cover-up. If there is one thing he hates, it's dirty laundry. Just so happens he misplaced the file for Edward.” She handed me the bag.

I pulled out the file and read through it. It was short, too short. There were two files, the first simply stating he went AWOL. The second barely said anything other than Edward went MIA in the Underground - a massive array of tunnels, caves, and ancient abandoned systems below the city - after a scouting trip for something called Operation Beachhead. “Operation Beachhead?”

“Doesn’t exist.” She glanced up at the rearview mirror with a frown. “Hence the suspected cover-up… Pa’ kindly asked me to help you ‘play around at the arcade’...”

“Why not send in a squad or something?”

“He suspects he’d get pulled into the military court quicker than he could say ‘oh’ by the person who messed with the files. This is some seriously high-level shit, and he won't be able to do anything without solid evidence. That's where we come in.” She glanced up again, this time drawing my attention.

Insight triggered as I looked around, noticing a certain trend in the surrounding cars. They were hiding it well, but we were definitely being followed. I could recognize the ‘undercover’ vehicles with just a glance. They were too… uniform compared to the others around.

If this was so high up, why even bother? Sure it was a conspiracy, but so what? Conspiracies weren't all that rare. “Why does he want us to look into it then?”

“Because two hundred troops also disappeared around that time and half as many quick promotions. That doesn’t just happen. He suspects a Fedra conspiracy, which makes the entire thing more volatile. And we’ll give the families closure if we find out what happened.”

Nothing in this world was quite that simple though. If he was credited, at least partially, with taking down a Fedra conspiracy in the military, he would be fast-tracked for a promotion of his own. Sure I would be getting the least out of this, but I didn’t really care. Helping Uncle Ezra and Mira, especially after everything they’ve done for me or attempted to do for me, was a reward in itself. And taking Fedra down a notch would be nova.

Fedra was one of the biggest enemy organizations of our nation, however splintered it may be. The Free - or Fallen as most people put it - States of Arkhanikas put quite a large focus on the splinter-cell terrorist organization and offered quite a few benefits for taking out the cells. Hence the promotion, and the potential rewards for taking out a Fedra conspiracy.

But this was all dependent on it being a rogue operation initiated by Fedra infiltrators and not an ordained black op trap. If it was a black op, we were more likely to get snatched in our sleep for stepping on someone’s toes than being congratulated for taking out a conspiracy. “Does he think it was a rogue operation?”

Mira glanced back once more but didn’t otherwise react to the tail. “Yeah, otherwise the file would’ve been sealed with a far higher authority. This also happens to line up with some other stuff he’d been looking at, and it gave a perfect excuse to further look around.”

“We’re a bit underqualified...”

She shrugged. “A bit, but it's not as bad as you think. I mean, you stole out of the back of an armored truck without getting spotted, and I’m good at combat. As long as we move smart and leverage our advantages, it shouldn’t be too bad. And he can't hire a proper merc team without a paper trail, hence us.” Mira slowed down, pulling into a parking garage just within walking distance of Ichiban Street. Our tails, or at least the cars suspected of tailing us, drove by which wasn’t too surprising.

Mira sighed as she looked at the backseat filled with guns. “I had wanted to bring along some of my beauties, but that will look suspicious to our watchers.” Then she reached back and grabbed several knives, SMG, and a pistol while managing to hide them all about her body. She also threw on a plate carrier, one that she quickly covered with a trench coat.

“Are we expecting a fight?” I already knew, of course. The Underground was incredibly dangerous. It was more so a question of how big of a fight. If we were going against actual Fedra soldiers, we probably wouldn’t win without some serious luck. Or skill. And that was assuming we even got far considering the volatile nature of the place.

“Think you could hold a couple of these?” Mira asked as she picked up a briefcase and popped it open, revealing several different kinds of explosives. Mostly grenades, but I spotted some other kinds in there. Ah, explosives, the great equalizer.

“Why the hell do you just drive around with grenades in your car?!” Saying that I managed to stuff the entire briefcase into my backpack, as well as some additional equipment into my various pockets. Mostly auxiliary stuff, though I was impressed by the sheer variety. The back of the car was basically an armory in its own right, and I was almost scared to think what was in the truck. Among the auxiliary items, the most interesting thing I grabbed was a spool of micro-wire. It was a super thin wire that was difficult to spot and non-reflective.

She shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like they’re hard to get…”