Liam stormed through the halls with Hyrum in tow. He walked right downstairs and down the hall and out the doors passed the security guard. Hyrum waved at the security guard as they left. The guard just grimaced. Hyrum just continued to flail his legs. Liam didn't let go of his grip on him.

Hyrum was brought across the street to another building. Liam followed the steps down into the basement. He fiddled the lock on one of the doors and opened it up with a key. As he closed the door it locked behind him. He flicked the light on, and Hyrum was able to see some of the room.

Despite the light in the room, he still wasn’t able to see much of the room. A single light hung from the ceiling. The room wasn’t very clean and had stuff piled in the corners. Near the center of the room was what looked like a dentist’s chair. Hyrum was placed in the chair and then his arms were strapped to the sides so he couldn’t get out.

“Thanks for getting me out of there,” said Hyrum ignoring his situation. “I’m not sure what I would do without you. Though maybe next time you could clean up this place before we talk business. It is disappointing when guests see this place. I don’t hold very high standards but you could…”

Hyrum’s mouth was stuffed with a rag to stop him from talking. Liam looked him over while holding the rag there for a moment longer.

“You seem to have a lot to talk about and few people to tell your stories to that would actually listen. Now I did not get you out of there because I wanted to but because you can do something for me. Do you understand?”

Hyrum nodded his head slowly trying to get the stuff out of his mouth in the process.

“I could crush you with my hand and send you back to the atom smasher. But I won’t do that because you can be useful. Would you like to be useful?” he asked.

Hyrum nodded his head.

“Good. You see you are special because you are not unique. It is probably how you almost got away with your stunt until I stepped in. I didn’t realize until I stepped up and became a Lithium. Do you know how much Lithium there is in this sun compared to Hydrogen? You see for every Lithium there is there are ten billion of you. What you do doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Who cares what you do day to day as long as the great machine that is the sun keeps working to fly through the galaxy and perform its fusion. I on the other hand am part of just a few. Not quite as important as Iron but just as noticeable. If I disappear people are going to notice so I need to keep things on the down low. You understand why it is important to not yell things in a crowded room now?”

Hyrum nodded his head.

“I am going to remove the rag now.” Liam removed the rag and Hyrum screamed. He pushed the rag in front of Hyrum’s mouth once more. “What was that for? Do you feel the need to vocalize constantly?” shouted Liam.

Over the rag Hyrum vocalized. “I needed that out of my system, and you said it was ok. We aren’t in a crowded room anymore. What is the big deal?”

Liam sighed and dropped the rag. Shortly after he did so a sound came through from the other side of the door. Another atom stepped through the door.

“What were the noises? Oh, it is you and… a Hydrogen,” Said the atom.

“Who are you?” asked Hyrum. “Are you the other voice?”

“I see you found a new subject. Are you sure this one won’t break The last one did run right into the collider and vaporized itself,” said the atom to Liam.

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“I am not sure yet. I think he will be more promising than the last at least,” said Liam. “What do you think Benny? I haven’t used any of my tools to break him and see if he can withstand the pressure.”

“Not pokey tools anything but that. I hate the feeling of them on my skin. So cold and lifeless,” interjected Hyrum.

“Calm yourself little one. It is mostly a figure of speech, but you will be required to answer some questions. You should answer honestly. I can apply great pressure if needed to force you to tell the truth. Ok?” said Benny.

“I will answer as best I can. As long as pointy tools aren’t used.”

“I can do that. I already heard a bit of what happened from all of the chatterings around the Lithium Lobby so we can skip over that. Why were you at the apartments? Who sent you there?”

“I wasn’t sent by anyone miss. I swear. I just have an extreme level of curiosity. As for why I went there. I snuck in because I overheard you at the Gravity Factory. I don’t want the sun to go out. If I can do something to stop it from happening I will do it.”

“Overhearing conversations. That is quite a rude thing to do,” said Benny as she slapped Hyrum’s cheek.

“I know it won’t. Not unless we tell you to. From now on you follow orders from me. Now, what is your name?”

“Hyrum.”

“Nice name. Did Liam give you the spiel?”

“Some of it until you came in.”

“I can continue to avoid retreading things,” said Liam. “Let's see. I already spoke about how you are 1 of billions and… that is what makes you useful. At least for what we need from you. We can’t wander through certain areas without being noticed and you are small enough to sneak into areas we can’t. I have already seen that first hand. I assume you already know about the issue the sun faces.”

“I know that the planet will crash here.”

“Yes. It will crash in less than a rotation. It is already shifting the course of the smaller planet. I have a plan to stop the planet. Will you help us?”

“I already knew I would when I started searching for you. I will help you.”

“Now on to the Planet Plan. It requires two things before we can stop the planet. The first is a tool from Photon Production. I can get you in there with my pass, but it will be up to you to get what we need. I have prepared a list of the stuff and what it looks like. One of them is a pass card. It is very important to find one so we can get into deeper areas of the sun to stop the planet. The last atom we sent on this mission died partway through. I hope you can make it farther in. If we can complete that then we will move on to part 2. Benny here has access to the Magnetic Field Farms. They have much stricter security so we will need to prepare a way for you in. I will prepare a list of items for you to collect there as well.”

“How many times have you tried this?”

“Two,” said Benny, “Hundred.”

Hyrum gulped.

“We have learned a lot from the first attempts. I am sure you will do much better. I even got a hold of a radio so we can talk to you during the event,” said Liam. “I just have to find it.” Liam started looking around the room and sorting the piles.

“There is nothing too bad to worry about,” said Benny encouragingly. “You might lose a few electrons in the process though.”

“But I only have one.”

“Then you will have to be extra careful. Come I will show you the other room where you can see some of the tools you can use. They will keep you moderately safe and we have only had to replace some of the items. Twice.”

“Why did the others fail?”

“It depended. Some of them were forced into this and jumped to their deaths. I had a few crushed by machinery. Some were too arrogant and got in the way of a particle beam. A few were too timid and waited until the last minute to sneak through areas. You’ll do fine. I think. You are at least more willing than the others and you like cramped spaces. That’s got to count for something.”

“I found the radio,” shouted Liam. He held up a small radio in one hand with his feet buried in a pile of trash.

“They are supposed to come in pairs,” said Benny.

“Oh.” Liam’s excitement faded. He returned to the pile after dropping the radio on the chair.

Benny opened the door to the other room.

“Anyways. Here is the less messy room. Here is all of our current equipment. You are lucky that you are the two hundredth participant or else at least half of this stuff we would need to have you scavenge for or we might have to do it.”

Inside the room, it was indeed much cleaner than the last room. Piles of stuff were around the room, but it was more organized. Clothing for different departments hung along one wall and workers' tools were sorted into buckets below them. Broken tools and parts were placed elsewhere in their own piles.

“You know I wasn’t so sure for a bit when Liam first tied me up and gagged me, but I like this place. It may be dirtier and messy, but it is cool. Definitely fitting for my plan to save the sun,” said Hyrum.

“It was actually our plan first.”

“Same thing. Now show me which one of these suits I have to wear.”