I had to wonder why I trusted a girl like Meiko. She could have been trying to lure me into danger, but I desperately wanted to know what she knew. She was the only possible lead I had in finding out what happened to Miku. If she knew who she was, she might be able to tell me what exactly had been going on.

The problem was that I wouldn't get any answers if I remained thinking of the "what-ifs" of this situation, and instead tried to get to the bottom of this. I spent most of today in class trying to convince myself of that, still worrying on whether something bad would happen or not. Something told me, though, that I could trust it. It was a gut feeling, and I wanted to be sure it was right.

Meiko wanted to meet back up at the hospital immediately. She rushed into this pretty quickly on a gut feeling herself, now that I thought about it. Was what I said that important to her? It seemed so strange to me. Nothing made sense. In any case, I needed an excuse to go to the hospital after school. David wouldn't buy it with group therapy because that only happened every two weeks. I needed to think of something.

When I got around to talking about it with him, I had to make something up.

"So," I started with, anxiously trying to explain it to him, "there was someone I met at group therapy yesterday. She said she wanted to hang out."

"Oh," he was intrigued, "and did she tell you why she wanted to hang out?"

I paused for a second, and continued, "Yeah, it was about Miku."

Inside my head, I could hear myself screaming, Griff, why did you tell him what she told you not to tell anyone?

David laughed, "I kinda figured that's what it was for. Where are you going to meet?"

"Oh, we're meeting after school." I lied. We were actually going to meet at the hospital. but if it meant that Meiko wouldn't find out about what I had already told him, maybe it was for the best. I hated doing it, but I felt like it was necessary.

He nodded. "Just let me know if you go somewhere and what time you'll expect to be home, okay?"

I was about to remind him that I didn't exactly have a way to contact him since last week, but he already figured it out.

"Oh, before I forget," David went to the kitchen, "Griff, this came in the mail."

David handed me a small package; inside of it was a new cell phone. Same model as my old one. A touchscreen phone that did what it needed to do, and then some. It came in handy, and maybe would have been helpful if it didn't get its signal blocked during raids when criminals were attacking, but no phone is capable of that.

I thought back on the incident again, wherein we had been under siege by criminals, where Miku and I were frantically trying to escape criminals. She was so confident in everything and hadn't been scared at all during it. I kept thinking about that, how she was able to get me to pull myself together and acted as if she could get us both through the situation safely. She did the best she could, and I had wished I could have done more to help out through it. Maybe then, I'd still be able to talk to her. And, even more, we'd both be safe.

In the end, though, that wasn't what happened. Miku disappeared, and things didn't make sense to me. None of it did. After Meiko told me that she knew what happened to her, I wanted to know what she was going to tell me. If I could find out that much, I could maybe put this to rest. I didn't care if it was the actual story that Miku didn't want to talk to me anymore, or that she moved away. I just wanted to find out.

Despite thinking what the answer was, I'd never know until I got out to meet up with Meiko again later today. That had its own set of questions all its own, but none of those could be answered, either. Questions like "who is Meiko," and "how did she get her hands on that photo?"

I'd soon enough find out why, but that wasn't until after school was over. I was growing fairly antsy in class, and couldn't really pay attention. I kept writing down more notes trying to put pieces together, as if this was some huge mystery in the first place.

I was coming up with different answers in my notebook about everything that came up. First about Miku, and how after such an intense situation, had no interest in talking to me anymore. I could sit and ask that question forever, and still never turn up anything.

Why is it, then, I thought to myself, that she went back to her hometown in Japan, but didn't bother to tell me? Was she hiding something? Was she kidnapped?

Then I thought about that. I wrote in my notebook "kidnapped?" and circled it. Maybe that was the case. However, if she was kidnapped, why wasn't she included in the news about it? Why didn't the police inform me of that? I'm sure I'd have found that out already.

I kept scribbling in questions and tried to answer each one, but all that came about was more questions. I should have been paying attention in class, but I couldn't stay focused on the lectures for long. This had my full attention. It was just that important to me.

Until the school day was over, I would continue to write in my notebook, even during breaks and well through the lunch hour. Coming up towards the end, my heart started beating a little faster, knowing that I'd be heading out towards the hospital to meet Meiko, and maybe just maybe, get to the bottom of this.

Since I had lied to David and told him we'd be meeting each other at school, I was on my own to find a ride to the hospital. Luckily for me, that wouldn't be too much of an issue. There was some volunteer kids who worked there, and I found out that the bus line would take me directly to it. Things were maybe working out in my favor.

It would be about another forty minutes before I'd arrive, and Meiko would be waiting for me right at the entrance.

"Well," I said to myself, "time to get to the bottom of this."

I walked off the bus and went towards Meiko. She was sitting on a bench outside the entrance door, her arms crossed.

"Honestly, I'm surprised" she started, "I was worried you got scared off."

"I guess I don't scare that easily." I said, trying to sound cool.

"Apparently not. You're here, aren't you?" She said, standing herself up.

"So, why did you wanna meet up again?" I asked her.

"It's not safe to talk about it here. Trust me. We'll get in my car and we can talk about it there."

Not safe? What did she mean by "not safe"? It didn't make sense to me. Meiko seemed like she was being cautious, but I got the feeling she was just being paranoid. It's not like there were people after her, were there?

Her car was an old gray Chevrolet Volt. One of the 2016 models. There were various scratches in the paint, and a big dent on the passenger side door. The passenger side mirror was cracked, too. The interior was just as bad, with some mild tears in the seating, and what looked like beer cans scattered about.

Getting into the car, it smelled of alcohol and days old fast food. I felt my nose starting to tingle, and my stomach turned a little.

"Sorry about the mess," Meiko said, "but that's all I've got right now. It's better than not having a vehicle to get around at all."

"All you've got?" I asked, "do you live out of it?"

"Sometimes. I have a place I stay at, but I'm out most of the time."

Just what had I gotten myself into? I thought about that for a second while getting in the mess of a motor vehicle.

"Now, before I start the car," she said, pulling her keys out of her jacket, "I want to know if you want to go ahead with this."

"Go ahead with this?" I asked. "You haven't even told me what it is we're doing."

Meiko looked at me, "If you have a bad feeling and don't trust me, I get that. You can back out now."

"You said that you knew something about Miku."

"Good answer," she said, grinning, "This was your last chance. There's no backing out from whatever it is you're about to find out, you got that?"

I nodded, and she started the car.

"Alright, then." she placed her keys in the ignition, "no backing out."

As we left the parking lot, Meiko stayed quiet, keeping her eyes on the road. She wouldn't look away, and would keep herself on the speed limit without breaking it. I stayed quiet, thinking I'd break her concentration if I said even a word.

However, she broke the silence once we got on the freeway. "You don't need to stay quiet, I'm not going to hurt you."

I apologized, "Sorry, you looked pretty serious."

"Oh, ha," she chuckled, "I know, I'm scary, but trust me, I've got a good reason for it."

"Understandable," I nodded, "I just didn't want to break you away from the road."

She laughed, "Trust me, it's not easy to distract me from the road. I've been doing this for a while."

"I guess I just don't have much to say."

"You could tell me how you met Miku," she suggested. "Maybe give some background there."

"It's not super important, is it?" I said, apprehensive. "Besides, it's a little embarrassing."

"Fine," Meiko said. "But feel free to talk if you're bored. It'll be a little while before we get there."

I kept my eyes on the road. Meiko was hard to read. She seemed to easily change her mood in an instant once she started driving. Part of me still didn't trust her.

About twenty minutes had passed before Meiko finally stopped the car. We had taken a turn off of the main roads into a park. There were lots of trees surrounding us when we got out.

"So, this is where your friends are staying?" I asked, looking up at the trees.

"No, it's a little bit of a walk, but we have to cover the car first."

Meiko walked up to the trunk, and pulled out a camouflage tarp. She waved me over to help her.

"We're covering it?" I asked.

"What's it look like? We can't exactly leave it parked here," She handed me one of the ends of the tarp, "if anyone finds it, we're going to be in trouble."

I helped her cover her car. It looked almost as if it was never there in the first place. Only bushes.

"That's some pretty good camo," I said, "Where'd you get it?"

"I made it," Meiko announced proudly, "it helps if you don't want people to find it."

Meiko made sure everything was secure, and we walked through the park. I followed behind her, taking note of the scenery along the way. It was calming, especially after the ride I had just taken. It was looking to be an interesting day.

"Just a little bit longer, Mister Griff," Meiko said, "and then you'll finally get the answers you're looking for."

"Am I going to like what I'm gonna hear?" I asked her, letting out a nervous chuckle.

She looked at me, making a bit of a stern look, "I dunno, that's up to you if you'll like it."

After a couple of minutes, we made our way to a storm drain. A large open view was in sight. Meiko slid down the diagonal ledge and signaled me to follow her. The concrete felt rough as I slid down it, but I followed her. I was finally going to get my answers.

We arrived at a large rusted grate with a waterway. Meiko stopped.

"Is this where we're supposed to be?" I asked, sliding my hands across it.

"Yeah," she said, reaching into her jacket, "we just need to get it open."

"Get it open?" I was skeptical, "I don't think they wanted anyone to open this."

Meiko wasn't listening. She pulled out her phone, and dialed again.

"Yeah, we're here. Let us in." Soon after, the grate slid open.

"Well," she announced, "we're here. Ready to see this through?"

I walked over to the opening, looked back at her, and assured her, "I'm ready as I'll ever be, I think."

She smiled confidently

"Follow me, then. You'll see it soon enough."

If there's one thing I learned from reading comic books as a kid, it's that superheroes have a lot of really great tech that goes with them. Not even the tech they carry, but what they store it in. Their secret lairs were some of the coolest stuff to look at, especially with heroes where they could enter into their lairs from a secret elevator, or a secret waterfall. That always had me excited as a kid.

Now it wasn't a fantasy, not anymore. This was all real. I was entering what seemed to be the closest thing to a secret lair in any story I'd read. Winding tunnels that would deceive any who walked by, hidden from the world.

I followed behind Meiko, and kept close while she held her phone up to serve as a flashlight. The farther we got in the place got darker. There wasn't any lighting, or any electricity, at all. I had to wonder how this place would serve as a meeting place if we couldn't actually see anything aside from a cell phone's light.

"It's dark now, but it's a security measure," Meiko told me, almost as if she was reading my mind, "and trust me, we need to make it look as obscure as possible. Like I said, it's a secret, and we can't let anyone find out about it."

"Why exactly is it a secret?" I asked, and she looked at me as if about to say something, but stopped.

"It's better if you just see it for yourself, trust me."

I nodded, instead of pressing on it. The fact we were exploring a darkened sewer system that led us to a place of mystery should have been enough, I didn't need to ask anymore. I wondered if I asked too many questions.

As time passed, and I pondered that thought, Meiko put her arm in front of me,

"Stop," she commanded, "we're here."

I looked up at her, "Yeah? Where?"

She pointed to the floor, "Right here," she crouched and put her hand on the ground. Suddenly, the floor opened, and a bright light filled the sewer. Meiko pointed in and looked back up at me.

"Any more questions?"

I shook my head

"Good," she said, "we're going in."

A ladder was propped below, and I climbed in first. Inside, the room was lit by a single industrial lamp. The walls were dirty, and seemed to have aged. It looked old, but not as old as the sewer itself. It wasn't grimy looking, either. It felt dry, not humid, despite the location.

I waited for Meiko, who was climbing down.

"We're almost there," she said, "just a little bit longer."

I kept behind Meiko, but we didn't talk until we got to where we needed to be.

The hallway led into another room that had less light with it, but I kept up with her. The sounds of water dripping started, and the place felt a bit tighter than the room we were just in. Wherever we were, it was definitely a secret lair.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

After a little bit more walking, we had arrived. A large metal door with hydraulic pulleys was in front of us. It was different from everything else, with how shiny the metal framing was. Clearly, this was newer than the rest of this sewer.

"Definitely where we want to be," Meiko said, lifting up a panel, which exposed a keypad"time to show you what I'm hiding."

Meiko punched the code in, and pressed enter. The door opened, and inside, a mass of cables ran along the ceiling. The walls were curved, with a metal framing holding it all together. The floors looked like metal grating.

"Well, come on in," she said, walking in, "don't get left behind."

I followed behind her, as the door shut, and locked. We walked down the cable-lined hall in silence, though it was short. It wasn't until we got into the crown jewel of this place that I realized that there was a reason why this was being kept such a big secret.

We approached another door, and heard two voices, audibly feminine sounding, talking inside. Meiko opened the door and walked in. A bright blue light was the first thing I immediately noticed, with two large bowl shaped metal clamps on both the floor and the ceiling holding it in place. It sat in a cylindrical shaped container in between the two clamps.

Meiko approached it, and I followed behind her. The two women that were in conversation stopped when they saw us come in. One of them, a girl with green hair and an orange tee-shirt, who was sitting in a chair in front of the cylindrical device, looked over at us.

"Finally, took you long enough," she said, "is this our guy?"

Meiko took off her jacket. "He's been pretty compliant."

The girl in orange looked at me, scanning my person with a look of distrust. It was a little discomforting.

"He doesn't look like much," she commented, "though I shouldn't expect much from someone in high school."

"You don't need to be mean about it, Gumi," Meiko said.

Gumi laughed, "Oh, I wasn't being mean. He just doesn't look like much."

Meiko sighed. "Whatever. This is Griff, though I think you two know that."

I walked over, trying not to be nervous, and held out my hand. "I'm Gri-" I said.

"Yeah, Griff Darhen, I'm very familiar with you already, nice to meet ya"

She shook my hand and giggled, and went back to what she was working on.

Gumi seemed like an eccentric personality, far different from Meiko. Rather than being stoic and serious, she seemed more bubbly and outgoing. Something about her seemed welcoming.

There was another girl, however, who was talking to Gumi before we interrupted both of them. She was busy reading what looked to be a manual. She had pink hair, was tall, and wore a casual white shirt with black pants.

"Oh, Luka," Gumi said, "Griff hasn't introduced himself to you yet. Say hi!"

Luka looked up, and I walked over.

"Luka Megurine. I'm already familiar with you, Griff."

"Guess I don't need to introduce myself, then," I shrugged. "Sorry."

Luka smiled, "Don't be, Gumi here filled us in before you showed up."

I looked over at Gumi, who was still grinning. "Fact is, Griff," she said, typing, "we knew about you for a lot longer than you'd think."

Longer than I'd think? I met Meiko just yesterday. How long?

"Here, I can just show you," Gumi pulled up a video on her computer, "It'll help explain things a little easier."

A video recording, just like the image Meiko showed me, was pulled up. It was security footage from the mall incident. Miku was standing over me, and the two robbers were holding her at gunpoint, while I lay on the ground unconscious. She was crouched over me, her two fingers resting at my neck.

"He's still alive," Miku said.

She stood up, and brushed herself off. Another voice, an adult man, started talking. It wasn't either of the robbers; the speaker wasn't even visible on the cameras.

"I'm glad to see that you're still around, Miss Hatsune," the voice said. "I'm a little annoyed you never got back to me since we last spoke."

Miku looked behind her, and glared.

"Not happy to see me?" He continued, "Shame, I was starting to think you'd have missed us. Why else would you be going out into public?"

Miku kept her eyes on him. She didn't trust this man at all, clearly.

"Friend of yours?" He asked, changing the subject. "I notice you two hanging out."

"No..." she said, trailing, "I don't know him."

"That's a relief," he said. "Then you won't mind if we take care of him."

The sound of a gun being loaded could be heard as the man got closer, and was now clearly visible. He was well dressed in a suit, with a gun in his right pointed at me on the ground.

Miku lunged towards him, and grabbed at his gun. The two robbers behind us pointed their weapons at her.

He laughed, "So you do care about him."

She looked down. "I know why you're here. He doesn't know anything."

"We won't hurt him," the man said. "It's clear he doesn't know anything."

He had the two armed robbers grab Miku, and handcuff her.

"I'll take her," he said, waving them away. "See to it that no one is able to access this conversation."

The recording stopped.

"You're still alive because of her," Luka said. "And you probably can guess what happened next."

"They took her," I said. "Do you know where?"

"Don't know," Gumi said. "But we brought you in because you might know her better than we do."

I felt like Gumi wasn't telling me the whole story. Something just felt off about all of this.

"All I know is she and I were friends that hung out over the summer. We met a few months back and hung out pretty regularly. Do you know the people that took her?"

"If I did," Gumi said, "I'd have that knowledge in front of me, and you'd have known by now."

I nodded.

"Now," Gumi said, "how about a little rundown of everything here? You game?"

"Sure," I said. "Let's take a look around."

Meiko had left the room to find something while Gumi showed me blueprints of the facility we were in. She called it the "Operating Room." I still felt like I was in a dream or a sci-fi movie. The place was unbelievable. I was learning more about science than anything I had been taught in science class.

According to Gumi, the whole base was powered by a set of cores that connect to a central power core. The core could handle everything, but the extra help made it easier. Plus, on the off chance the core needed to be offline, we'd still have the spares to take most of the load off for the severely important stuff.

"And that's not even the strangest part," she continued as she pulled up another blueprint, "the base was built underground with being able to use the sewer in mind. Whoever built this place wanted to be able to utilize all of it. They have a whole filtration system built here."

She zoomed in on an image in the blueprint that said "Water Cycling System (W.C.S.)".

"Water Cycling System," I asked, "is that how the core doesn't overload?"

"Correct!" she exclaimed. "It's a little weird considering how we already have separate cores operating around it, but the cycling system also serves a dual purpose." She pulled up the W.C.S. 's design document. "See," she pointed at the central mechanism, "it was designed to filter out the sewer water, as to build it into a coolant, sorta. The core temperature is kept low because it's pulling in water, filtering it through various pipes, and it comes out as a coolant. The power core runs hot, so having a coolant is a good idea."

"You said it had a dual purpose, though," I said. "Does the water also serve as a means to power the system?"

"Yep," she said, closing everything, "like I said, whoever built this place really wanted to get everything they could out of it."

"Is it just powering this computer, though?" I asked. "It seems like a lot to run just this one device."

Gumi shook her head, "But you're forgetting, Griff, that this whole place is powered by it."

I had forgotten that part. I have a tendency to miss the big picture sometimes, or so I've been told. Especially here, where I was inside of a giant facility that spanned an underground sewer system. To think, just yesterday I was a high schooler who didn't know anything about this. It was even more bizarre to realize how little I knew.

As Gumi was explaining things to me, Meiko had returned from another room.

"Hey, Gumi," she said, as she walked in, "I'm gonna need to take Griff off your hands, gotta show him the other 'thing' before we're done."

Gumi nodded, and waved at me. "I'll talk to you later!"

I followed behind Meiko, and she led me through another part of the facility.

"I see you've gotten acquainted with Gumi," she said, "what do you think?"

"Well she seems pretty nice. Seems to know a lot about the more technical stuff behind this place."

"Yeah," Meiko said, "she could go on for hours on anything here. She's smart, but she's also the reason I'm outside this place so much."

Explains all the food wrappers in your car, I thought, do you not live here? It's pretty spacious, why would you want to sleep in your car? I wanted to ask Meiko about it, but I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. Now wasn't really the time to get bogged down into personal questions, or thoughts about people that I didn't know much about. Whatever it was Meiko wanted to show me, it was probably more important, and she'd probably ignore my question if I asked it anyways.

I did, however, want to know what else it was she was going to show me. This place was already on the list of unbelievable happenings that I've come across, what could top it? Was it going to be that there's a whole group of people living here underground? Or a bunch of abandoned military hardware? Now that I thought about it, was this base abandoned by the military? How did this even get here, and with no one finding out?

It was a mystery; this whole place was, really. I couldn't figure any of it out, but maybe it'd be better if I just relaxed on the questions I was asking. At least, that's what I try to tell myself to calm down. I hated asking so much, and I hated not knowing anything.

"So, Griff," Meiko said, and I snapped out of my thoughts, "I just want to ask you one thing."

I looked at her, "Yeah? What about?"

"I want to know, and be honest, how did you meet Miku?"

I thought about that for a second. It wasn't all that long ago when we had met, but to me, it felt like a whole lifetime.

"We met around April, I think? There was a festival happening near the park, and David, my uncle, told me that I should go out to it. He told me it would be nice if I got out of the house once in a while. I didn't get out much, and I didn't really have any friends to go with, but he insisted, and I eventually gave in. It's a good thing he did, too, because I ended up meeting her there."

Meiko stopped me. "So, you ended up going and she was there?"

"Well," I said, "I got on my bicycle and went over, and it was going to be a couple hours before they actually kicked off the festivities, it turned out. Rather than head back home and wait, I decided to cycle around the park.

"And this is where you two met?"

"We met because I lost focus," I continued, "because she was sitting on a park bench, and I had never seen a girl like her before. She had blue pigtails, and wore a nice sweater, and I kinda ended up staring at her longer than I should have."

"And you ended up hitting something, didn't you?" Meiko interjected.

I laughed. "Yeah, right into the fountain. I got lucky, though, she pulled me out of it, asked if I was okay, and we ended up hanging out from that point forward."

"Cute," she said. "Now I get why she stuck around you."

I chuckled, though I was more confused than amused. "What makes you say that?"

"You're a dork, that's why."

After our little chat, Meiko led me to a door. It was locked behind another keypad, and had "Medical Station" written on it. She punched in the code, and the door opened to a long triangular room, with thick orange lines along the wall, and the word "DECONTAMINATION" written on them.

"Just a second," she said, "can't go through until they spray everything off of us."

"Wait, spray-" I was interrupted by a stream of water. It was light, but it still startled me.

She grabbed my arm. "Just hold still, it'll be over in a second." I calmed down, and she laughed. "Geez, you really do space out."

Once the cleaning sequence had finished, the door in front of us opened up, and we proceeded inside. The room was unlike any medical facility I had ever seen. It was painted black, surrounded by nothing but monitors that provided most of the light in the room. Though it didn't have any real light source, I could still see well enough. The equipment was beyond comparison, too. Medical tables with an array of tools sitting over them that hung from the ceiling. All of it looked to be automated. Not even hospitals had this kind of technology, aside from the ones you see in movies and medical dramas.

One machine in particular, a circular device with a large, crane-like appendage hanging over it from the ceiling. Right next to it was a monitor, displaying the message "Ready to perform biometric scan" written on it.

I looked over at Meiko, puzzled, and pointed at the monitor. "Biometric scan?"

She nodded. "It's the only way we're going to see if you have any physical conditions that need addressing."

I stepped up to the machine, and inspected it. "Is this gonna hurt?"

"No," Meiko said, typing on the keypad, "though I'd suggest keeping your eyes closed. The laser is a little bright."

I gulped, "Okay, then…"

She waved me forward, telling me to get in.

"After we're done here," Meiko said, walking over to the machine to lock me into place, "I'll explain everything to you."

I looked at her while I placed my arms into the machine's restraints. "I'd appreciate that. Gumi got kind of distracted on telling me about the base."

"She gets distracted like that."

I laughed as she finished locking the restraints. "Ready?" She asked.

"Yeah," I nodded, "let's do this."

She walked back over to the monitor, and pressed a button. The machine pushed forward, then turned upwards about ninety degrees. The crane lowered, and a blue light started what I assumed was the scanning process.

It began at my legs, moving up to my torso, and then to my head. I felt nervous being suspended as a device scanned my entire body, but at least I knew it was harmless. I also knew that by the time I was done here, I'd get what I had initially come here for: answers.

The scan continued; my body was flipped over, and I could see the floor. An odd feeling of vertigo came over, despite being only a couple feet above the ground. It was a weird, foreign feeling. My stomach churned, but it was over fairly fast.

When the scan had finished, I returned to where I was originally, and Meiko walked over to undo everything.

"How ya feel?" She asked.

"A little nauseous," I replied. "I've never been left hanging like that before."

"That's completely normal," she said, chuckling, "it'll subside. Take a seat if you feel like you need to."

She walked me over to the terminal, and had me take a look at the results.

"You're green across the board here," she said, pointing at the text. "No illnesses or anything severe. You've got no signs of any disabilities, and you're in pretty decent shape."

"So it means I'll be able to help you guys?"

She saved the report, and shut off the terminal. "Yep, it means you're ideal as a candidate for when we start up our operation."

"Operation?" I asked. "You make it sound like we're some sort of agency."

"You didn't think you were gonna be doing anything from here, did you?"

I was puzzled. I didn't really know exactly how we were going to do anything here, I just kind of waited until someone told me. I hadn't thought of it until she pointed it out.

"Wow, Gumi really didn't explain anything to you."

We left the medical examination room, and went back to the Operating Room.

As soon as we entered, we both saw Gumi sitting in the same place as before. Meiko started speaking immediately.

"Yo, Gumi, when were you planning on telling him about the actual purpose of this place?"

Gumi, who sounded confused, said, "I thought you were going to tell him?"

"I was hoping you'd at least give him a general idea of what this place is for."

"I mean, I did," Gumi said, "I just, well, got caught up in telling him all the really cool stuff."

Meiko sighed, placing her hand over her face. It started to make sense why Meiko had wanted to leave this place so often.

"Oh, uh, well, should we tell him now?" Gumi looked at me.

"Tell me what?" I asked.

"Since we're all here, I'd like to." Meiko said.

"But Luka's not here," I said, just noticing that she had been away the whole time. "Is she okay with not being around for this?"

"She already knows everything we're going to tell you," Gumi said. "The only person who needs to hear any of this is you."

I walked over to Gumi's chair, and she turned the chair back towards the monitor. A blueprint appeared, with a description titled "Virtual Full-Body Scanner."

"This is the main purpose for this whole facility," Gumi said, "it was built to, from what I believe, observe another world."

"Another world? Like, in space?"

"Close," she said, "it's 'cyberspace'. A virtual plane, modeled after our own planet. An entire living, breathing, ecosystem. Animals, plants, even people. We've been calling it 'Other-Earth' until we figure out what its actual name is."

Meiko pointed to one of the doors in the Operating Room. "The Full-Body Scanner is how we've gotten there."

"I was getting to that, Meiko," Gumi said. "I just wanted to give him a little bit of an introduction."

Meiko rolled her eyes, and Gumi continued. "As Meiko mentioned, those doors are how we can access them. The scanner system they built is the gateway to this place. Our intent is to document what we find, and figure out how it came to be."

"Which is where you come in, Griff," Meiko added, "we want you to help us. We're not forcing you, but since you know now, we think you should join on our next expedition."

I paused for a moment at the request. "Would I be a good fit?"

"We think you'd do just fine out there," Gumi said. "Maybe with a little bit of training you'll be able to work well enough over there."

I wanted to say "yes" immediately, but I hesitated. All of this was so much to take in. Another world, with a gateway for us to enter it. Enter into a world akin to our own. It was something I'd have seen in a movie, even more than this whole facility already was. Why I didn't agree right away was because I needed time to think it over.

Meiko must have noticed I was hesitating, because she added to Gumi's statement. "I think we should give him some time to think it over. Wouldn't you agree, Gumi?"

Gumi nodded. "So long as we get an answer before next Saturday. I'd say think it over, like Meiko said."

"For now," Meiko said, heading towards the exit, "we should get you home. It's getting late."

I had forgotten about that. David might end up getting worried if I stayed out too late. Especially with the recent events, he's probably wanting me to check in. I couldn't call, though. My cell phone had no reception here. Hopefully he got busy with work and wasn't home yet.

Meiko opened the door we took to head to the medical room, and signaled for me to follow her.

"Nice to meet you, Gumi." I said, and she waved with a smile before the door closed.

Meiko told me there was an easier way to exit than the way we came in. I followed behind her. We didn't really say anything until we ended up at a door down at the end of the hall.

Meiko opened the door, and inside was another sewer access tunnel. It was a much shorter tunnel, and at the end of it was an elevator. We walked over to it, and stepped inside.

Meiko started talking as she pressed the up button. "I figured you'd want to take some time to think about all of this. I know, it's a lot to take in."

"I guess it's better I didn't immediately say 'yes.'" I said. "I'm just not too sure about this virtual world business. She's not kidding about that, is she?"

"No," Meiko replied, "and the fact of the matter is, we could use the extra hands around here. It's only just us three at the moment."

"Well, that makes it a pretty easy decision, then."

"Not so fast, Griff. The problem here is you're still pretty young, and I know you want answers on Miku. I know that's why you were drawn here. I'm sorry I couldn't give much more than the surveillance footage of her. I would tell you more, but that's all we know. Where she's gone and who took her, it's all theories. We can't really say who did what until we know everything first. I just wanted to show you that there's more to this than you thought."

"I knew that. The fact she disappeared worried me enough, and having a lead to follow was enough for me to go after. I just hope I'm not messing up by waiting on giving an answer."

Meiko sighed, then she laughed. "It's okay. Sometimes it's better to make sure you're one hundred percent sure about something before you jump into it. Something this big is probably a lot for you, so I'd suggest sleeping on it."

The elevator pinged that it had reached its stop. The door opened, and outside was an abandoned electrical station. It was overgrown with plants and flora all around it. We walked out, and saw the elevator was actually an electrical panel, it was just hidden away behind it. When the door closed, it looked exactly like a normal panel you'd see an electrical engineer working on.

"You ever wonder who built this place?" I asked.

Meiko shrugged, walking towards the entrance. "I don't think too hard on the people who built my home. I leave that to the geek girl who sniffs through the data."

She opened the door, which was also covered in green vines and plant life, and I followed her outside. When I looked at the wall to the station outside, the station looked completely obscured by plants. From a distance, you wouldn't be able to see any of it.

When I looked behind me, I had also noticed that it was close by the park we had driven in from. How no one had found this place was beyond me, and how it was so well hidden was something else.

As we walked back to the car, my phone started vibrating. I checked it, and it was a bunch of notifications I was receiving now that I had an actual connection again.

One notification was for the FotoFriend app, telling me that I could sync with the cloud to recover any lost photos.

I'll have to look at that when I get home, I thought to myself. I don't wanna be rude to Meiko.

Another was a text from David.

"Gonna be home late tonight. Around 9. Don't worry, just busy."

The good thing was, David never really expected a reply from me. I didn't have to worry about him chewing me out if I came home late, too. I tried not to do that often, if ever.

We walked over to Meiko's car, still covered.

"How about dinner?" She asked.

"Now that you mention it, yeah. I'm pretty hungry."

"Know any good places?"

I opened the car door, and that rotten smell returned to my nose.

"Not too sure," I said, trying to fight the urge to gag. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"I usually eat at the Burger Champ. It's pretty close to your school, so we can head there."

"Sure," I said, lowering the window as she started the car. "I can give directions to my house from there."

We drove over to the drive-thru for the Burger Champ, and we sat in the parking lot eating our food. We were mostly quiet until I decided to break the silence.

"So, what if I say no?" I asked.

Meiko thought about my question for a second. "I guess you'd go back to your life. No need to worry about us. We go our separate ways, and we never see each other again. You could tell everyone about our base, but I don't think you'd go that far."

"I wouldn't do that, no."

"But you join us, and I promise you, we'll find a way to get Miku back. I promise."

"Well, I think I have an answer then."

"Okay," Meiko said, "I'm not forcing you, but I'll be glad to have you on my team."

I put out my hand, telling her, "I'll join. I want to find a way to help any way I can. I owe Miku that much."

"Then welcome to the team, Griff," Meiko said, gripping my hand, and a confident smile on her face.

From here on, things would change, and I wouldn't ever look back.