After the heart-to-heart—or as much of one as you have with Tweak's eternal air of indifference—Fii bid farewell and stepped out of Tweak's ir bato the dim alley. Overhead, the usual sprawl of pipes and wires greeted her like a familiar opy. As she left, the entrance melted bato the graffiti, leaving no trace of its existence.

  Walking down the alleys, Fii was grateful for the te hour, when the sun no longer bore dowlessly, granting some respite from the relentless heat. Even so, the residual warmth radiating from the crete was stifling, and the humid air g to her skin. Every step felt sticky.

  Fii's thoughts drifted to the Zippers. Though there wasn't any kind of official association, she sidered many of them friends. In their own peculiar way, the Zippers were like a loosely ected family, bonded by the wires they raced across and the risk they all took. Getting hijacked on a run wasn't pletely unheard of—a certain danger came with the job—but this time had felt different.

  Refleg on what happened, it wasn’t just the theft that bothered her, but the methodology. The tactical gear. Coordinated movements. The fact that someoo the trouble of strug drones for a one-off heist was beyond overkill.

  They even mao take her out yet didn't bother to finish the job. A few more zaps like that while she was down and out could have... well, it wasn't worth thinking about.

  The whole situatio... off. Fii’s gut instinct rarely steered her wrong. It was often the first to raise a red fg when something didn't sit right.

  ing out into a slightly wider alley, she tinued along her path back to the Rust Market. She a couple of familiar faces a her distance from a group of junkies huddled around a burning barrel, their eyes gzed over, their voices slurred. Most of them were lost in their own world, tooo aowledge her passing. But she made sure to give them a wide berth anyway.

  Soon enough, the muted buzz of the Rust Market grew louder. She could hear the mingling voices, the sound of goods being shuffled about, the itent crackle of old sound systems and the distant rumble of aging trucks moving merdise.

  As the path curved around a er, the entire market y sprawled in front of her, bustling even at this hour. People haggled over prices, stall owners shouted their deals, and the odd fight broke out here and there.

  Fii sidestepped a pickpocket rushing past and pretended not to notice as a burly-looking man in a torher vest eyed her with i.

  "Hey, Super..." he called out, fshing a set of teeth that had seeer days. "Got some extra batteries, if ya know what I mean."

  Smiling diplomatically, Fii walked oing the busy rhythm of the market drown out the ensuing jeers as she moved deeper into the heart of the bazaar.

  The t bulk of a derelict ste tank sat to her left. A beam of sunlight cutting through a break iructures shone on the dull, corroded surface of the tank, highlighting a deep gash ial he top where an old, peeling sign read 'No Climbing.' Of course, the sign was a waste of time. Looking closely, she could make out a few kids sittihe edge, legs dangling over the side, chatting and taking in the view.

  The colors in the sky began to shift, taking on the deeper hues of approag su. Purples and es chased away the st traces of blue, refleg off the twisted metal and gss of the slums' ramshackle buildings.

  Rao's shop wasn't far from here, just a couple more streets. He had the uny ability to get his hands on just about any piece of tech imaginable. Maybe he'd heard a thing or two. Or would hear things in the near future.

  ***

  Finally, she arrived at a run-dowal shed wedged between twer buildings. The door was an old sliding roller shutter with a yer of rust on it. While she didn't immediately see Rao himself, his glowing green token sat in pin view on a makeshift altar nearby—a sign that the shop owner was around and open for business.

  As she lifted the metal shutter, the meism groaned, protesting at first, then yielded with a loud creak. She poked her head in. The smell of old, dusty eleics greeted her in that familiar, f way they did. The interior was cramped, dimly lit, and filled with an array of sged tech, all ly arranged on shelves. Boxes piled up in the ers, with parts and gadgets spilling out of them.

  Behind a ter at the back of the store, Fii noticed a small television quietly droning. An old VCR was ected to it.

  Fii sighed. That expined what she tripped on wheering. A cord she had barely noticed ran from the outlet and disappeared into the tangled mess of wires behind the aV.

  Her attention shifted to the figure bent over, frantically searg underh a stack of discarded keyboards. Rao's thick, salt-and-pepper hair was wild, matg his overall disheveled appearance.

  Rummaging through an old radio, he fished out a burnt-looking fuse. "Aha! I khis could be salvaged!" His voice held a victorious note as he pced the part carefully on the desk o him.

  The space around him was an anized chaos of sorts, where every seemingly random pile or messy heap had a purpose in his mind. To anyone else, it might seem like a junkyard, but for him, each pieo matter how worn or seemingly broken, held potential. Even the 'useless' parts often found their way into something new, or they could be traded.

  "Rao?" Fii called out.

  Startled by her voice, Rao jerked upright. A hollow thunk resounded as his head bumped into the underside of the ter.

  "Ouch!" he groaned, rubbing his head. He turoward her, a sheepish grin appearing. "Why if it isn't my favorite t-ssh-goods-distributor extraordinaire-ssh-resident-superhero!"

  "Which is a very long name, Rao."

  "I get enthusiastic."

  The tertop was a cluttered array of meical innards. Capacitors, transistors, resistors, and diodes, all mingling with circuit boards, ectors, and what seemed to be fragments of LEDs and switches. Among the mess, there were even more esoteripos: vacuum tubes, crystals, and antennas—a kaleidoscope of tech bits that hi everything from abandoned iions to whimsical repair projects.

  It was a chaotic colge, refleg not just his profession but his personality too.

  Fii idly lifted a chip from the table. The sticker had yellowed, making the inscription illegible. It had two rows of pins, bent in various dires, resembling an i with broken legs.

  "I really don't get how you and other tech vendors mao sell old junk to people here," she fessed, running a finger over a circuit board that was mreen than brown, its copper traces corroded with age. She made a fad wiped her hand against her pants.

  "What do you mean?" Rao asked. He adjusted his smudged gsses. "Someone always hese things, especially in a pce like this. Here, funality is a retive term, a cept, not an absolute. People modify, adapt, make do. Many are still holding onto appliances from three, sometimes five geions ago! Finding patible rept parts is no easy feat nowadays."

  "A, business is booming. What's the secret?" She pced the chip ba the pile and leaned on the ter. "It's not like everyone afford the stuff, they?"

  Rao ughed. "Sure, if you're only looking at the obvious."

  "Enlightehen."

  Fii was always in awe of how effortlessly he slipped into a stream of scious thought. "For one, a lot of folks trade for what they need. Sure, we use tinks and ChitCreds for the most part, but it’s not the only currency. Did you know I oraded a twenty-year-old salvaged coffee mae for five meals? Imagihat. One m, instead of my usual bitter sludge, I was having a savory bowl of yato soup. It ure bliss."

  As he tinued his monologue, Rao's attentiouro the little traption he had been tinkering with. She watched as his slender fingers worked deftly. Even though she couldn't see exactly what he was doing, the swift, assured movements hi a level of dexterity and familiarity that only came from decades of hands-on experience.

  "A's not fet the favame. You know, lending a helping hand, exging services, that kind of thing. Oh, and did you know someoraded me a weekly meal for fixing their speakers? I mean, the damage wasn't major; just a couple of worn-out transistors, but you should've seen their faces light up when the bass started thumping again!"

  "Okay, I get it. I kinda just fot about all these other things." She brushed her hair from her eyes. "I'm so used to... you know. Running errands for tinks or a few spare meals here and there."

  The hustle and flow of trade and barter in the slums often found their way around the ck of ventional currency. Out there, goods and services held tangible value, providing a safety and a sense of security in the absenaterial wealth. There was always a way for people to get by, one way or another.

  Even if a few tricks had to be employed along the way.

  But most importantly, what went around, came around.

  Rao nodded, his fingers tinuing their dance of calibration with the precision tool. "Maybe spending too much time doing superhero business is skewing your perspective! You losing that rooftop wisdom you've built up over the years. A while longer and you'll be saying 'please' and 'thank you,' like those fancy HighRise folk."

  Fii puffed a lock of white hair out of her face. "Ha. Ha. So funny."

  "Anyway, how are you doing, my dear? I take it this isn't a casual visit. Not that I'm pining, of course. If anything, the surprise is quite wele." He gave her a sincere smile, his voice taking on a fond tone as he fixed her with his kind, pierg gaze.

  Fii scratched the back of her head, feeling a bit embarrassed by the sudden shift in his tone. "Ah, right, that... yeah, I got caught up in some trouble while tagging along with the Zippers the other day. Their run was intercepted mid-zip. retty nasty, so I thought maybe you'd heard some stuff."

  "Hm, Zippers, huh? No surprise there, as hard as they push themselves. Surprised you aren't boung off the walls right now with that story." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Remind me again, please—who are you?" His lips quirked into a small, amused smile.

  A lopsided grin graced her face. "Really, though. This was... different, let's say."

  "Then tell me what happened."

  For the few minutes, Fii reted the hijag from her perspective—the drohe attacker, the timing, the precision—and the into the specifiica's and Luxy's experiehe more she narrated, the mrim Rao's expression became, which was saying a lot sidering his usually carefree demeanor.

  "...After I took that fall, my best guess is that Luxy and Mica bailed. Only mao see Taro briefly after that; he was by himself and things had already settled down, but that's about it," she finished, leaning back against the tertop. She wasn't particurly ed about knog anything over—not in this madhouse, at least.

  "Well, if yoing to mess around, might as well do it in style." Rao sighed. He folded his arms and shook his head, pting her words. "Does Tweak have an opinion?"

  "Not yet. I stopped by her p the way here, but she's pretty caught up in ahing right now." Fii chewed on her bottom lip. "She did seem ied though."

  "I'm sure she's buried up to her ne data or whatever she does. Might take her a bit to pull her head out of the wires." He chuckled lightly. "No harm in trying, at least. You never know with her."

  "Yeah, probably, and true."

  Rao adjusted his gsses, the frames sitting a bit crooked on the bridge of his here were smudges on the lenses, refleg his pent for hands-on work. He hummed to himself, a nonsensical ditty she found oddly charming.

  "I'll keep an ear out for any gossip or chatter reted to your story. It sounds like there's something fishy going on, and we o make sure everyoays safe around here." Rao winked, shifting his attention back to the circuitry in front of him. "For now, just take it easy. It's not every day our superhero falls out of the sky."

  "Or takes a nap mid-air, I guess." She groaned, palms c her eyes, imagining how ridiculous the spectacle must have been. Fii raised a finger. "And no one else hears about it."

  "But you know, speaking of easy, how are you holding up?" His voice softened. "Been a while since we sat down and had a good heart-to-heart over some hot broth, hasn't it?"

  "It really has... I'd like to do it soon. It's beey hectic all around, and life hasn't gotten any simpler or easier. We're still setting things in order. Still trying to figure out a way to rescue Edith," she admitted, absently drumming her fingers on the ter. The dull thud of her fiips on the wood underscored her words, punctuating the heavier tohat had crept into their versation.

  "You're w too hard." Rao exhaled. "As usual."

  Fii nodded. "Yeah, maybe..."

  "And I know yood, kid. But everyone o catch a breather on a while, even the legendary 'Axion.' So, rest up, hmm?"

  Rao's gentle voice tugged at her, like a soothing balm for the exhaustion she was carrying. It was a lot easier to face her own struggles in the familiar, musty surroundings of Rao's shop. Surrounded by the hum of eleid the gentle k of tools, Fii allowed herself to rex a bit, her guard dropping a fra.

  "Oh, almost fot to ask. How're things since you've hooked up with Quinn?"

  A deep scarlet washed over her face. "Wait, how did you—"

  "Not hard to put two and two together." He smirked. "Quinn works for me sometimes, remember? Doesn't take much to pry a little bit out of him, you know."

  Fii stared at him, someerplexed, trying to keep her features from betraying the embarrassment welling up inside.

  "So... how's he treating you?" Rao asked with a faint grin, leaning bad g his fingers behind his head. "Did he make you cry yet? I told him that if he ever did, I'd personally—" He emphasized his statement by hammering a fist into an open palm, his smile never faltering.

  Fii knew he wasn't serious, but her cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red at his words.

  "Y-you guys had that talk about me?" she sputtered, mortified. This was absolutely not the kind of attention she needed in her life.

  "I did a bit more than talk—I basically threatened his balls off. Not that he needs it. You two have been skirting around each other for far too long. Getting you two together was like watg snails mate. Fun fact, snail sex takes anywhere from ten to fifteen hours, depending on their mood."

  He shrugged nontly, that little glint in his eye revealing the joy he was getting from watg her squirm.

  "W-what? Wh-why?" Fii stammered, heat spreading from her face all the way to the tips of her ears. "That's—that's not—"

  "Ahh, don't be shy now," he teased, enjoying her obvious disfort. "Quinn's a good guy, you know? Heart's in the right pce. Bit rough around the edges, but then again, you're ly all sunshine and rainbows yourself, are you?"

  His grin was wide, teeth showing and eyes kling in mirth. He had the look of someone who had clearly won the exge, and he k. "And what's more—he's nuts about you. I've got no doubt he'll treat you well. But just so we're clear, if he does something stupid as a smack upside the head, it won't be from you."

  Fii buried her fa her hands. "Please stop. It's still... it's all a bit new, and we're still trying to figure this whole thing out..." Her words were muffled, but the embarrassment in her voice was unmistakable.

  "Oh?" He tilted his head. "Tell me more. I'm all ears."

  "No, no... let's talk about anything else. Work stuff. Market stuff. How are the repairs on your ticker going—"

  Rao couldn't tain himself any longer and burst out ughing. "Sorry, sorry. Just messing with you. You should see your face right now, like a ripeomato." His chuckle was a deep, throaty rumble, eg in the cluttered space.

  "S-screw you, old man!" Fii shot back, exasperated, but a smile tugged at her lips.