The skull knight stood up while I kept my gun's barrel pointed at his chest.

"How did you find me?" I interrogated.

"How do you think?" he retorted. "Between us, you are the better engineer."

Perhaps he triangulated my walkie-talkie signal? Was he just trying to mess with my head, by reversing my question back at me? I didn't have time to guess. For all I knew, he could've had a Seekflower in his possession.

"You can't scare me," I said. "I know your type well enough."

The knight gave a curt scoff. "Do you truly? Tell me. What type am I?"

"Overconfident, yet preying upon the weak. You oppress and exploit. The Bounty Hall tried the same. I made them pay for it."

"Hm. We are not so different after all. You have the same eyes I once had. Scornful, and indignant." The knight extended an open palm to me. "Come to the Syndicate, Sophia. There you'll find many like ourselves. With our powers combined, we will be unstoppable!"

"I'll never!" I shouted. "I'm not siding with criminals like you!"

"Do not lie to yourself, mage. You want to usurp the order of the world. You want to topple those who stand upon your neck and make them pay. I see the ambition in your eyes! The reckless drive! Join us, and we will grant you power and influence beyond your wildest dreams."

I furrowed my brow and stared into his dark, crimson eyes.

"And what's in it for you?" I questioned.

"Your hand in overthrowing this blasted world. Nothing more, nothing less." He clenched a fist at his chest. "With our combined might, we shall claim these realms as our own! We will be kings and queens! No master shall rule over us –"

Stolen story; please report.

"Sounds good enough," I conceded. "I'm in."

The skull knight's arm drooped down to his side. "...Wait. Actually?"

"I mean, I think so?" I said. "Like, you sounded evil at first, but now that I think about it, maybe taking over this world isn't so bad."

"Are...ahem," the skull knight coughed. "Are you sure about this?"

"What?" I asked. "Do you not want me to join?"

"I-it's not that," he denied as he shook his head. "I mean, I just didn't think you'd say yes right away. Look, I had this, uh, whole insult planned out to say right before you teleport away. Like, 'Curse you, you spineless mage! You won't be able to run away forever!'"

I tilted my head. "That's pretty tame, far as insults go."

"I mean yeah, it's not like I hate you or anything."

I finally lowered my gun. It was getting awkward keeping it pointed at him. It wasn't like I trusted him fully yet, but for the time being, I doubted we'd be fighting.

"Just to confirm," I said, "your org, the LCS, wants to take over the world?"

"That's right," the skull knight replied.

"And to do that, you're planning to take out Alic–"

"Wait!" he interrupted. And in a quieter voice, he continued, "You're not supposed to say that part out loud…"

"I mean, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" I asked.

The skull knight slumped his shoulders. "Alright, look. If we're going to be working together, I'll need to get you up to speed. Which I didn't really prepare for today. I only scheduled 15 minutes for this, because again, I thought you'd just run away. And, uh, I'll need to get going soon. I've got a team dinner scheduled right after this, and my boss invited me so I don't want to ditch him…but look, I feel bad for ditching you right after you agreed to join…"

"Maybe I could come too?" I proposed. "To the dinner."

"What if they don't have enough food?"

I rolled my eyes. "I can bring my own. Do you know where's the nearest McDonald's?"

The skull knight walked to the edge of the rooftop and scanned the landscape. "I'm pretty sure there's one that way," he said, pointing.

I sighed. "Let's go."