“So, Michael…”

“Oh, you can call me Mike,” the Architect, now Mike, replied. “’Michael’ is a mouthful anyway.”

“Okay, Mike. Now can you tell me about the information you have?”

“Sure,” nodded Mike. “But it’s not really nice just standing here in this abandoned warehouse, right? Wanna crash at my place?”

“Uh… what?”

“You know, come to my place and we’ll discuss things there.”

“Are you sure about it? I’m still a convict… well, not like you’re any better, I guess.”

“I’ll have you know I’m a perfectly normal, law-abiding 17-year-old boy on vacation,” Mike stuck out his tongue and posed a joking frown. “But no worries. We’re not going in from the front door, after all.”

“Not going in from the front door? What do you…”

“Observe,” Mike snapped his fingers once more as an answer. To his signal, the lights that were used on Zain and himself a moment ago all directed their attention towards the far-left corner of the storage – where a mysterious object covered by a large sheet lay.

Quickly, Mike approached the strange contraption, and, without a moment of wait, took off the sheet to reveal a giant glass tube on a metal platform, along with a keyboard and monitor - in a similar style to the one that trapped Zain back in the prison.

The only, but major, difference between them was the fact that this one was open, and was empty.

“Behold! My ultimate ride!” Zain didn’t even get to ask what the machine was, as Mike had already eagerly explained it to him. “It’s an old model – the first model, actually, but this is a teleporter! Only two copies in the entire world!”

“What, the teleporter?”

“The first model teleporter, mind you. Nowadays, its design has been shrunken enough to fit in a wristwatch, but back in the day, this bad boy is humanity’s first success of instant travel.” Mike patted the glass tube proudly.

“Okay, but… why an old model? Wouldn’t a new one…”

“Of course not! There’s value in the antiquity!”

“Uh… sure,” unable to retort to the claim, Zain could only reluctantly nod. “But it does work, right?”

“Yup. I helped resurrect it, after all.”

“Hold on, you ‘helped’? Then who…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll cover it later. Now get in the tube, man.”

“But is it…”

“It’s safe, I guarantee it! I’ve used it a bunch of times now!” Mike raised his voice as he pushed Zain closer and closer to the contraption.

In the end, the latter had no choice but to comply, settling himself in the frankly cramped space of the device.

“Oh, right, sorry for the tight space,” Mike scratched his head in embarrassment. “It was tailor-made for me, so…”

“Just do the thing already.”

“Okay, okay. Now… ready… Start!”

A quick announcement from the boy as he dramatically pushed down the big red button like some kind of comical villain and his doomsday device. Of course, there was no explosion of any sort, just Zain being whisked away to the other side of the contraption.

There was one thing that Mike didn’t mention, however, and it was the fact that teleportation itself was a controversial method to the general populace. The fact that one’s body would disappear and reappear in another place was filled with questions on all sides, mostly regarding the concept of the soul. Though it had been proven, assured, and mass-produced, teleportation was still seldom used on humans.

For Zain, however, this would not be a problem. It was weird since it was the first time he had experienced it in the real world, but this sensation of having his body disintegrate into data was something that he was far too used to, and was pleasantly surprised to feel it again.

“Ah, this sure takes me back…” Letting out a smile on his face, the young man soon disappeared from the scene.

Once the young man came to, he had already reappeared on the other side of the device. Surrounding him were literal walls made out of bookshelves, all packed with all kinds of written works of all genres – from textbooks to novels, dictionaries to comics, as if each and every single kind of book in existence all gathered in this single room.

To the corner lay a giant computer monitor, perhaps even bigger than the one he saw in the Infinite Prison, and it was hooked up to an equally large case running at full capacity, making the kind of sound that would send the neighbors to a fit of rage had the room not been soundproof. On the monitor was a program depicting two linked tubes, with a giant green “Success” message on the bottom side – a synced operation for the teleporter.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Soon after Zain had emerged out of the contraption and was looking around the room, a flash of light shone from behind him along with a small “poof”, and Mike had also appeared in a blink of an eye.

“See,” grinned the boy. “I told you it’s safe!”

“I gotta admit, it’s more familiar than I thought.”

“So, what do you think?”

“What do I think… about what?”

“This room, of course!” Mike raised his arms and gestured around the place. “You gotta admit it’s cool, right?”

“I… guess?”

“Oh, come on! Look at all these books! All valuable antiques from all ages!”

“Do we not read books anymore?” The claim made Zain squint his brows in doubt.

“Of course not,” to his surprise, the answer was a shake of the head. “Books have been dead for almost a century now, especially after the current global knowledge server opened itself to public use. Heck, even my monitor is considered an antique at this point – everyone has already switched to holo.”

“Holo?”

“Holographic display, of course. Like the one we used in VR…” Mike answered, but after a brief hesitation, continued. “You… really don’t know anything, huh?”

“Of course I don’t,” Zain let out a bitter laugh. “I was stuck in jail all my life, remember?”

“I mean, I know that, but… y’know, I’m still surprised.”

“… Well, that’s enough about me,” Zain redirected the matter, realizing that the conversation was derailing further from his purpose. “Now let’s get to the main point.”

“Right, of course. About my favor, and the way for you to get to your destination…”

Though the room was indeed Mike’s, and it was he that had it made soundproof, Mike would still occasionally forget about this small detail. A soundproof room would be great in many situations, but not so much when someone else would be entering the room without your notice. Unfortunately for Mike and Zain, the former wasn’t living alone, and the door to his room inevitably opened at the most inopportune of times.

“Hey, Mikey, ya still awake? I got…”

“Uncle?”

“So it was you!”

***

Zain had his arms crossed while he sat firmly on the chair, with his two victims kneeling while keeping their heads down – the kind of scene that he didn’t expect to experience after he’d gone out of jail, but didn’t mind having it again.

“Explain. Now.”

“Well… I did tell you that I was on vacation at my uncle’s…” Mike stuttered.

“Well? Why did you not tell me you had a nephew? Or, as a matter of fact, why did you never bother to tell me your last name, Mitch?”

“Ya… neva asked…” the big man answered. “And besides… da kid is mah sissy’s son, so…”

It was an obvious answer, but of course, Zain wasn’t really mad at such minor detail.

“And why did you think it was a good idea to tell your nephew about me?”

“I mean… ya were da coolest back in da prison… so I thought why not…”

Once again, Zain did not deny that fact. After all, didn’t he become a hero precisely because the ones in the slums thought that his fighting brought them hope?

“… Fine. But did you know about the fact that your nephew was the one who nearly screwed over my nanobots?”

“He wat now!?” Mitch shouted as if stepping into a land mine, while Mike could do nothing but facepalm, cursing himself not to tell Zain to keep their encounter quiet.

“Yung man, explain yerself!” Turning to Mike, Mitch showed a dead-serious face – the kind Zain thought he would never be able to have.

“I… uh… remember when you said some of your marketing drones were missing, Uncle?”

“Marketing drones?” Zain interrupted. So that’s what the cloth inside was…

“Yea. I have sum drones to fly mah slogan around… Wait, dat was ya?”

“I’m sorry! I really am!” Mike put his hands in a praying position, repeatedly rocking his body up and down like a seesaw. “I know that Zain was the Masked Lion thanks to your stories, so I thought he would be able to help! But I had no way to contact him, so I had to resort to this…”

“So you knew that I was the Masked Lion purely because of Mitch’s words?”

“Yeah,” Mike nodded. “You have been all over the news for the past year, after all. Once I saw your soccer moves, I could easily connect the dots.”

“… Fine,” Zain had no choice but to let out a sigh. “So, out with it. What is this favor you’re trying to ask me?”

“Well…” instead of a straight answer, Mike glanced towards his uncle for a moment. A fact that Mitch couldn’t help but notice.

“Me? Wat’s wrong, bud?”

“Remember how you said business wasn’t doing too hot lately?”

“Uh-huh.”

Mitch’s words made Zain recall his brief moment in the Lion’s Den. Aside from the Mountain Lion Gang appearing to test him, the bar was indeed practically empty. It was a tough pill to swallow for Mitch, but it was the truth.

“And,” Mike continued. “Remember how I said I might have found a solution for it?”

“Yup, dere was dat,” Mitch nodded, but it only took him a second to stop and raised his voice. “W-Wait, ya don’t mean…”

“Well… technically yes,” Mike awkwardly scratched his head before the question. “But it’s not what you think it is! Take a look at this!”

Going to his computer, the boy opened another folder. Revealing itself on the screen was a giant flyer with an equally large picture of a lawnmower in the middle, while on the top was a line:

“Come to the greatest competitive grass-cutting tournament of all time! Win yourself the latest, state-of-the-art leaf-busting machine of destruction!”

“I saw this being passed around recently,” Mike continued. “The grand prize is this lawnmower thing and thirty-five thousand pounds, but even the prize for the top four is already five thousand. If we can win this tournament, then…”

“Mah business is saved!” Mitch almost jumped for joy. “Mikey, yer a lifesaver!”

But the man didn’t get to be happy for long, as he soon realized the one problem he faced. “But…”

“Uncle, what are you worrying about?” Not even letting Mitch finish his worry, Mike gestured towards Zain and answered with a confident grin. “We have our champion, the ultimate cheat code right here! No matter the game, he’s gonna handle it for sure!”

Mitch’s face lit up once more, as he quickly turned to the young man in question.

“Ya gonna help me out, Zain?”

It was mostly a formality. For Zain, he had nothing to lose anyway. And if it was to do his old friend a favor, how could he say no?

“On one condition,” the young man raised a finger. “You let me crash at your place for the time being. Deal?”

“Deal!”

“Perfect!” Mike eagerly clapped, but before anyone could react, the boy had already stood up and was slowly pushing Mitch away. “Uncle, I know you still have a lot to catch up with your old friend, but can you give the two of us a bit of space?”

“But I hafta show ‘im his new room…” Mitch tried to argue, but it was soon proved to be futile.

“Come on, it’s only for a minute!”

Mitch glanced towards Zain for a rescue signal but only got a shrug from the young man.

Without any hope left, he was soon gotten rid of. And soon enough, right after Mitch had left the premise, Zain turned to the awaiting boy:

“Alright, now that he’s gone, how about you tell me the real reason why you asked for my assistance?”