[10:21]

Brooklyn comes upstairs from just speeding out two days of school work, financial paperwork, and updating her cyber firewall, all in just a couple hours. She opens the door seeing Olivia slightly dozing off, staring hard into the computer screen, but only a few can tell, such as Brooklyn, that she's having writer's block as her fingers hover the keyboard like she's going type at any second and her eyes don't even move in reading motion. She also sees Ace slumped on his bed and smiles in reaction, now knowing her new roommate is safe.

She walks over to Olivia, whose awareness is still narrowed to the screen. Standing right next to her and Olivia still doesn't notice Brooklyn. She then taps her friend, who aggressively flinches at her. Olivia then looks at Brooklyn with tears in her eyes due to her not blinking for so long.

Olivia- "Wassup?"

Brooklyn- "You good?"

Olivia- "No, why?"

Her eyes wander around, and then she looks at the sleeping man on the bed. Again she flinches, and her eyes turn even more watery as she blinks and the tears mashup in her eyes.

Olivia- "Shit, who's that?"

Brooklyn- "That's mister Ace."

She wipes her tears away, gets up from the chair, and moves closer to Denarrow to get a better look. Ace lies asleep with his back against the bed sheet. He has no blanket or pillow, allowing both of the girls to see his entirety. Olivia lowers her voice to that of whispering.

Olivia- "You told me he was thirty-seven. He's a jit, younger than you and I. You sure he didn't lie."

She shakes her head no as an answer.

Brooklyn- "When we went to pick up his McID, I saw his age then."

Olivia- "I guess…." 'I know she won't and can't lie.'

She looks back at the sleeping Ace with a face of uncertainty.

Olivia- "He kind of hot tho."

When she says that, she looks to Brooklyn to see if she has any reaction, and in disappointment, while also foreseeing so, she doesn't.

Brooklyn- "Well I'm going to take a nap before we have to go to school since I didn't sleep last night."

Olivia- "Wait why?"

Brooklyn- "Cause you slept in my bed?"

She said it in a way that would blame herself, ironically making Olivia feel that it was even more of her fault.

Olivia- "Why didn't you sleep on his bed?"

Brooklyn- "Cause that's his bed."

Olivia- "Why didn't you tell me to move?" 'I already know this answer."

Brooklyn- "Cause you was already asleep and I ain’t wanna to disturb ya. Plus I had docs to get through last night and now I'm ahead of my to-do."

Olivia- "Well, okay then, see ya ass in an hour. Can I change into some of your clothes though?"

She heads to her bed and takes one of the six comfy blankets off her bed.

Brooklyn- "Yeah of course."

She then takes the blanket and softly puts it over the sleeping Ace. Then she takes his phone off the bed and puts it on the charger.

Olivia- "Thank you, I've been wearing the same thing for almost a day now."

Brooklyn- "Actually there should be some clothes in my closet you left last time you spent the night."

Olivia- "Oh right. How could I forget that I did that purposely?"

Brooklyn's phone buzzes in her pocket, prompting her to check it.

Olivia- "Why you still have a Paradise Fruit?"

Brooklyn sees a notification concerning an email from Veno Vego.

Olivia- "Brooklyn."

Brooklyn- "Huh."

She looks up and looks at Olivia holding a Paradise Fruit in her hand.

Brooklyn- "What else am I supposed to do with it?"

Olivia- "Sell it."

Brooklyn- "But I like it. And it did grow into the building, it's a Holladay special."

She smiles at her clever pun. Olivia rolls her eyes in response.

Olivia- "I guess. These things don't mold so it should be fine."

She puts the fruit back into the closet and continues to look for her clothes. Brooklyn looks back at her phone and reads the email.

To Brooklyn Royce,

You and the man they call the ‘Vicino saviour' are invited to lunch at Mr.Veno's office today, April 14th@19:00. Mr. Veno wants to discuss the topic of business with both of you. If you accept the invitation, Mr. Veno's office's address will be sent. Reply 'Accept' to accept the message or reply 'Decline' to decline the message. This opportunity will expire exactly an hour before the time of the appointment, 18:00.

Gamble Safe,

Vego

After reading the email, she then looks at the sleeping Ace.

Brooklyn- 'I hope he's awake by then.'

[12:09]

Nami looks at an email, while walking. Still mad that she responded to Vego almost three hours ago.

Nami- ‘Never again.’

Shen enters the editor-in-chief's office, where chief Nicholas sighs, wondering what his most prized writer has for him this time around.

Chief- "Hasn't been long, you finished the story already?"

Nami- "About that, I met the guy. He didn't want to be interviewed or be known."

Chief- "Oh really?"

Nami- "He's just a thirty-seven year old man who was tryin to help."

Nicholas nods his head, believing in the story.

Chief- "So you want me to put you on the Hassen-"

Nami- "I'm okay."

Chief- "Oh really now?"

Before, the chief was calm with arms across his chest. Now his eyes widen, and his hands are exaggeratedly placed down on his desk.

Nami- "Yep, I'm okay."

Chief- "So after all that bullshit we had dis morning, we coo now and you moved on?"

Nami- "Yep. We coo."

Chief- "Welp, that ends it."

Nicholas is pissed but fails to hide it.

Chief- "So what's next on the agenda for Ms. Vince."

A slight amount of sass in his voice.

Nami- "I gotta call from Detective Vivian Thomas today-"

Chief- "Of course, there's always a bigger fish. Well, you better get to it. Can't argue against the detective. Whatever he has, most likely it's going to be on the Golden Hold, and that would do wonders for you, would it not?"

Nami- "Affirmative."

[17:17]

Ace walks down the school hall looking at the classroom doors and the numbers above them. The hallway is pristine and modern. It has long glass walls getting a good look at the relatively low-rise campus and the floors are spotless and made of marble

Denarrow- ‘Three-fourteen, three-fourteen, three-fourteen, nope three-fifteen, getting close.'

As he walks, girls spread along the hall, giving more than a couple of glances at him. Ace notices but doesn't care and is more focused on finding the right classroom. When he approaches classroom three hundred sixteen, there suddenly is a huge rumble behind the doors. He then stands to the side, foreseeing the future, and hundreds of college students walk out the classroom doors. A moderately filled hallway turned excessively cramped in just seconds. When fewer students started coming out the door, Denarrow enters. Not able to see Brooklyn in the sudden crowd, he hoped she would be inside the lecture hall.

The lecture hall is wide and huge. There are two floors, with the top floor cut in half and acting as a balcony over the first. Ace looks around, seeing quite a few people left and the professor at the front organizing his notes together on three computer screens. He then spots Brooklyn noticing her long brown hair. He walks down the center aisle, scoots down the row of nice college chair desk combos, and meets her. She looks to her right, a bit surprised to see him.

Brooklyn- "You found me."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Denarrow- "Of course, you told me where you were."

Brooklyn- "I know, I'm sorry."

Denarrow- "Why are you apologizing?"

Brooklyn- "I just didn't know you could make your way around campus that easily. It took a while for me so I assumed it would for you. I was being arrogant."

Denarrow- "You're forgiven I guess, you're fine either way though." 'To be honest, the GPS on my phone saved me.'

Brooklyn- "How was your slump?"

Denarrow- "Huh?"

Brooklyn- "Your nap."

Denarrow- "Oh, it was fine. Thanks for charging for my phone, again."

Brooklyn- "Of course."

Denarrow- "So is this all you?"

Brooklyn- "What do you mean?"

He directs his eyes to her backpack and laptop in front of her. He then looks to the seat next to her, occupied with another backpack and laptop.

Brooklyn- "Oh, this is Olivia's stuff. She had to go to the bathroom real quick."

Denarrow- "Who's that."

Brooklyn- "I don't think I ever mentioned her around you."

Denarrow- "I've been busy and we only met just three days ago, so you haven't mentioned too much in general to be honest."

Brooklyn- "Makes sense. You'll meet her in sec. But, how was the Nether?"

Ace sits down, the seat occupied with Olivia's stuff separates the two.

Denarrow- "The arenas, it was okay. I made rent money this month."

Brooklyn- "Oh wow, like you said, you're really good at fighting. How much money did you win?"

Denarrow- "Yeah… I don't really know. I'm not too good at math or numbers, or remembering either. But I just know I made enough."

Brooklyn- "Did you have fun? Did you struggle?"

Denarrow- "It was fine, I had a bit of fun but there was a lot of waiting around. Trust me it's not all that interesting."

Brooklyn- "Noted."

Halls- "Excuse me."

An older white man with medium-length black hair and a perfectly trimmed beard approaches the two.

Halls- "I have a meeting in a few minutes, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave the lecture hall."

His voice is so refined and relaxed it would be hard for anyone to not respect him, his words, and his wishes.

Brooklyn- "Understood professor. We'll get going in a second."

Halls- "Thank you Miss Royce and… have I seen you in my class before? Are you a student?"

Denarrow- "Uhh… Yeah I am."

His lips move to the side, displaying that he can't even tell a lie correctly.

Halls- 'A terrible lie, but it's not like it matters.' "Well then, nice to meet you-"

Denarrow- "Denarrow Ace."

Halls- "Nice to meet you Ace. Now please…"

Denarrow- "Yeah no problem."

Ace grabs Olivia's stuff. Then, like Brooklyn does with her laptop, Ace puts Olivia's laptop in the backpack. They then get up to leave. Once they get into the hallway, Brooklyn speaks.

Brooklyn- "Why did you lie?"

Denarrow- "Oh, umm… I don't know, I thought I would get in trouble if I didn't."

Brooklyn- "Oh, you wouldn't but I understand."

Denarrow- "Did you not like that I lied?"

Brooklyn- "I did not, but it's okay."

She stops walking, and Ace follows, stopping as well.

Denarrow- "How about I never lie to you or around you."

Brooklyn- "I don't mind too much lying for a good purpose, whatever that may be. But I don't like liars."

Denarrow- "Then I simply won't lie."

He says with a straight face signaling that he isn't lying. Either way, Brooklyn naively believes and trusts his words fully. She looks and gently smiles, showing her two dimples. Ace never realized she had dimples before and now looks at her face's entirety to fully understand who he's going to be living with from now on. He looks at her perfectly heart shaped jaw line, dimpled cheeks, lips, and then at her lusciously defined wavy brown hair. From there, he looks into her green-colored eyes. Brooklyn does the same looking right back into his silver-colored eyes. For neither of them, it is awkward, evident to neither of them looking away. Nor do they currently feel any such strong romantic feelings for each other. The two of them are in their own space, shared between them, and it's a space that can't be described by any combination of words.

Then in the corner of Ace's eye, he sees a young eastern Axian woman. She has long black hair with blonde strands. She's just a bit bigger than Brooklyn; not saying much since Brooklyn is skinny and lightweight herself.

Olivia- "Oh hey."

She catches Brooklyn off guard, making the both of them look at her. Olivia then sees Ace for the first time, awake at least.

Olivia- 'His eyes...'

She ponders into the man's eyes. Ace breaks her focus on him by giving the backpack to her.

Denarrow- "You're Olivia?"

Olivia- "Yes."

She slowly grabs her stuff from his hands while redirecting her eyes down to avoid further eye contact, feeling already embarrassed.

Brooklyn- "I almost forgot, are we still going to Cyberon tonight?"

She looks at Olivia, who then has to think about it before answering.

Olivia- "That's today?"

Brooklyn- "This day last month we made the appoint."

Olivia- "O'course you remember something like that."

Denarrow- "Cyberon?"

Brooklyn- "It's an event where they display new and upcoming cybernetics. Last year, some guy's whole eye was replaced with a working cybernetic one."

Denarrow- "I guess, but are we still going to the Vegos thing?" 'The only reason why I came here.'

She forwarded the message to him before leaving for class, while he was still in his nap. She also offered to take him to the appointment out of courtesy.

Brooklyn- "Vego, and yes. I'm just going to have to drop you off and then meet you later."

Denarrow- "That's fine."

Olivia- "My name is Olivia."

She puts her hand out in a handshaking gesture. Both Brooklyn and Ace look at Olivia in disorientation.

Olivia- "Sorry I didn't introduce myself yet."

She smiles out of awkwardness. Nevertheless, Ace puts his hand out to shake hers.

Denarrow- "Mine's Denarrow Ace, nice to meet you."

As for their handshake, Ace was expecting the normal up and down, but instead, it's more of a loose, active, and casual handshake one would make with their friends or teammates. However, this handshake is the Midcity standard.

Denarrow- 'This city is weird.'

Brooklyn- "Should we make way then? I don't want to be late."

Both of them nod in agreement. The three of them begin walking away down the hall. As they walk, Ace feels an unsettling presence. A presence of evil that's trying its hardest to suppress itself. His eyes begin to wander as he walks, searching for the source. The feeling grows stronger and stronger as if it is coming toward him. His hands begin to twitch, and his feet arch on their toes, readying to move at any second. Ace isn't able to reveal the source until it walks right next to him.

Ace glances to his left and sees a tall man, standing a foot taller than himself. The man's posture is perfect, and his towering stone cold aura can intimidate anyone. His black hair is slid back textured with nothing but smoothness. His eyes glimmer light blue as they slightly look back at Ace. Thus both of them momentarily make eye contact. He looks specifically Eastern Uropean with a slight tan. His face is especially handsome yet cold, with not a single aspect of happiness or any neutrality on it. To Ace, this individual looks familiar, yet no concrete solution of similarity comes to mind.

The man looks forward and keeps on walking. Ace keeps pace with Brooklyn and Olivia moving further forwards. Ace's eyes look back at what is in front of him.

Denarrow- 'Weird, I don't sense anything now. That guy was just different, I guess."

Olivia looks back to see what Ace was looking at. She noticed his eyes wandering to the side as she was sneaking several glimpses of him.

Olivia- 'What was he looking at?"

She looks to see if there is anybody or anything that Ace could have possibly looked at, only to find nothing and nobody.

Olivia- 'I guess nothing.'

[----]

Doctor and part-time professor John Halls stands at the bottom center of the lecture hall. The hall is void of all other students, faculty, and staff. All windows are covered, the only light source being the small floor lights scattered around the room. John Halls stands leaning against his desk, looking at the rest of the hall as if he's going to teach again. Then a single man steps into the hall. The door closes itself as the man takes his time approaching Halls. The man doesn't say anything even when he reaches just a few feet of Halls. They both stand quietly. The man does not look at Halls. Instead, like a blind man, he looks in a straight general direction of Halls' face. Undeterred of not properly being looked at, his voice and attitude are calm and a bit sassy.

Halls- "Good day to you too."

The man stands tall and still. His face and eyes rest still in a sharp expression.

Halls- "Sometimes I feel these introductions are too short. But in other sentences, I summoned you here today because it's time to take advantage of some information that's been made apparent to me. So Tito Vorleono, want to proceed?"

Tito finally looks at John Halls, making eye contact.

Vorleono- "Something interesting happened my way here."

His voice is smooth and deep, a voice that displays someone's infinite patience and sincerity. But with this specific person, almost anyone can tell that his infinite patience is just a curtain to allude to those who dare try him. Such a curtain shouldn't be moved, or the blood-curdling of the unknown reality will show itself. Fit for a Worldly Angel like himself.

Vorleono- "Anyways, proceed."

[18:02]

There is a self-serve cafe buffet style on the second floor of the Amerigan Hero Association's, or AHA's, building. Nami sits at a table, and Detective Vivian Thomas hands her a cup of tea he made himself. The detective sits across from Nami with his cup of peppermint tea. Then, with nobody around, they begin the conversation.

Vivian- "What happened to the saviour story?"

Nami- "Next time I’ll take a shot for everytime I hear someone mention, But he didn't wanna be interviewed, met with him and he was an upstanding guy. Just wanted to be a good citizen."

Vivian- "Very upstanding, probably an intelligent and respectable man indeed."

He says with a tad of sarcasm.

Nami- "Very. I wouldn't say intelligent but genius and honorable."

Ace somewhere else, feels his spine tickle.The detective can tell she was lying, but it did not matter.

Vivian- "Well then, since that's settled, I'll start then."

Nami gets out her portable computer and goes into her notes.

Vivian- "Do you know what a 'night doctor' is?"

Nami- "Doctors who work the nightshift I'm guessin."

Vivian- "They are doctors who kidnap people, often during the night, and experiment on them or harvest their organs for money."

Nami- "That's a little… disturbing."

Vivian- "You've heard about the kidnappings in this country, one hundred and eighty one missing over the course of four years?"

Nami- "So you think it's because of night doctors, any suspects to name?"

Vivian- "John Halls."

He says it without hesitation. There is a pause of silence where Nami looks at the detective with a glare of skepticism.Nonetheless, she types down what she just heard.

Nami- "How do you-"

Vivian- "It's easy, I've known for some time already, keeping up with the politics and his advancements in the medical field, put it all together and there you have it."

Nami- "So it's speculation, I know it's 'your' speculation but-"

Vivian- "John Halls being a night doctor is just the first layer of the cake. I only started with that because I had to start somewhere. So I'll explain further."

Nami- "Before you do, you the detective and director of AHA, why don't you bring this to your superior's attention?"

Vivian- "My power has been narrowed. What I can and cannot do has been restricted thanks to the Code-1 Lockdown. The highest priority right now from the AHA and police department to the security guards at the public schools is to find Hate. All of my side cases are being suspended and I am going to be monitored soon, they want maximum efficiency to get rid of the you-know-who.”

Nami knows who and continues to follow along.

Vivian- “Since John Halls became a leading political figure, his influential reach has ingeniously indirectly lobbied for what is my current iron cage that has been increasingly more difficult to escape from. I may be very well perceptive and good at deception, but politics and irrational beings aren't my strong suit mostly because I don't care much for either. So it took me a while and unfortunately I was too late when I began to understand that there was an institutional encirclement closing in on me. And like you said, it's just speculation. Educational guessing that I've done most of in my head. I have no concrete evidence, only a muddy foundation. Which is where you will come in to build up the evidence that I can't. I was going to save this part for last but now I think it's better to get this out of the way."

Nami is close to being overloaded with information, but she's able to fully understand and nod in understanding.

Nami- "Continue, I'm all ears."

Vivian- "Get ready to type Miss Vince. I might even put a dialect reader on just in case because I'm going to tell you everything I know all at once, and you're going to have to build off of that alone for right now."

She nods in understanding. Her silence and the constant eye contact with him further portray her sincerity, knowing this story could put her as one of the greats in the history of journalism.