Val shoved his hands into his pockets as they walked in the dark, leaving the brightly lit pseudo hallway behind them. He gnced over his shoulder only oo see Greg and Alex making their way towards the first door they saw. Val reached down and scratched at his elbow, sniffing a little and gng over at John. Among their little circle of friends, he was closest to John. The guy’s stoic silence was something he was used to so he didn’t mind the ft expression on his face even as he returned Val’s gnce.

  Val looked past him at the walls befng at the wall closest to him, he reached out and ran his fingers along it, “Everything’s mismatched in this pce,” He muttered, “Fu’ weird.”

  “Testing new ideas,” John muttered as they he first door on their left which turned out to be a pair of double doors. There was another ahead of them before the hallway turned sharply to the right, ing around the building.

  Val g him, “She’s using her own summer house for prototyping?” He asked, then pursed his lips before raising his eyebrows, “Yeah, sounds like her. Bet all this stuff is made by Dr. Carter. He hooked me and Snow up after all,” He said, flexing his arms. They couldn’t be seen with the hoodie he was wearing for their little ‘incursion’ but the ues for his gear were still affixed to his skin to ceal and protect the physiological parts of his ability. They were light and small enough that they could be worn under clothing.

  He turo the doors and tilted his head, “Way out you think?”

  “No, kit probably,” John muttered, he gestured to the hall they’d e from, “Large opening for easy traffic, close to the entry to the on area.”

  Val shrugged, He’s talkative today. He thought and pushed the doors open. They swung out easily and revealed exactly what John had predicted. A spacious and well lit kit. He tilted his head and listened for the sound of artificial lighting as he stepped inside, sing the windows that looked out towards the garden that ed around the rear exterior of the building. He could see the path leading out towards the thick trees beyond. Val walked over to the gss and ran his fingers across it before tapping his nails against it. It made a dull sound almost like pstic.

  “Something unusual?” John grunted, walking past him to examihe ters for a moment before beelining in another dire.

  “It’s some kinda reinforced gss,” Val said thoughtfully, “I dunno, it's weird.”

  “Everything here is,” John mumbled and Val turo see him holding a kit k was an off-white color and had the ASTA logo on the handle, “Monster bone.”

  “Damn,” Val murmured and walked over. John ha to him aur over in his grip, “I’ve ouched monster bone before, this is sick man,” He said, marveling at the texture of it. It was oddly smooth a dehan boo be fair, I’ve only ever handled chi bones, he thought. He gnced up from the knife, “Anything else iing?”

  “Visibly, no,” John said and turned in a stiff circle, “Standard service kit, if well equipped. Anything iing is well hidden.”

  Val shrugged, “Well I’m not gonna waste time ihen,” He grunted as he walked back out into the hall, scratg his head, “Though you’d think there’d be more staff.”

  “Handmaiden? She is a maid,” John ented as he joined him, the pair gng at the door.

  “Oh yeah,” Val said thoughtfully, “All I think of is her throwing people on TV at the Hague i,” Val pointed out and started walking towards the door. “Dining room you think?”

  “Mm,” John grunted and pushed the door open, they slipped inside and froze. While the kit had beey standard for all is and purposes, the dining room was anything but.

  “What the fuck!” Val blurted as he stepped out onto what amouo a baly with stairs going down and to the left. Across from him was a fish tank that hung from the ceiling, stretg out across the entire room and supported by metal supports that went through the water before affixing themselves to the walls and ceiling. There had to be hundreds of fish inside, all provided gentle illumination from skylights that fed in from above. He gaped as he walked dowairs, looking up at what felt like the o above his head. “Woah…” He breathed.

  “Yes,” John agreed, his own words ing out a little breathy too. They looked at one another befng around the open space beh the fish, illuminated with the ripples of water from above. The room was rge and given its location stretched out beh the soil outside. There were over a dozen tables set up with chairs and plenty of space for other activities.

  A shadow darted over Val’s head and he looked up quickly to see somethiallid silver move through the water, it stopped near a gathering of fish before expelling a cloud of fkes and darting away again. “Robotic fish keepers,” Val muttered.

  “Bar,” John murmured.

  Val turo John who ointing towards a long, fully equipped bar built into the wall beh where the baly had overlooked. The bottles were all sitting on top of bck shelves with white rings around their bases. Occasionally a little flicker of light would fsh through the bottles giving it an appealing effect.

  Val grinned and hurried over, sliding up to it and spping his hands down on the ter, “Oh man, Luke’s gonna love this!” He ughed and leaned over the ter. He was about to reach out when John grabbed him and pulled him back. Val opened his mouth to protest wheiced a floating sphere drift down from the ceiling of the bar, it rotated and fshed a faint red light as John pulled Val back around the er and to the stairs. “Holy shit,” Val whispered, “Security?”

  “Likely,” John murmured, “We should move on.”

  “Yeah,” Val agreed.

  They both hurried up the steps and out into the hallway, shutting the door behind them. They go their left, down the hall where two more rooms remained. Val smirked, one run in with security wasn’t enough to chase him away. Not when he hadn’t seen the real prize. He hustled down the hall towards the room, John close behind, and pushed the door opeook one look at the interior and threw his fists up, only a look from John sileng the whoop that nearly escaped his lips.

  The walls were just like those in the living room, except these had a pink fme in them, steadily flickering and glowing around the perimeter of the space giving a bit of an eerie ambiao the left side of the room was a long heavy-looking table that’s entire surface was slowly pulsing with a very faint pink glow, like it was on standby or something. Surrounding the table had to be at least ten bookcases filled with books, bames, and other things. One full bookshelf was liirely with rows of small pstic boxes filled with dice.

  The right side was by far more appealing. Separated from the table with a l was a ring of sofas like the ones in the living room fag the wall. There was no sign of anything besides the Sofas but he wasn’t fooled for a moment. He grinned and hustled over, John going over to the bames to ihem. Val crouched and ran his hands along the lower part of the wall right in front of the sofas, pushing here and there, “, there’s gotta be a-” He heard a clid grinned, “Yes!”

  A very faint seam in the wall appeared as it popped open, revealing a drawer that slid out. Inside was a treasure trove of gaming trollers from any number of soles and brands, old and new. Some of the older ones had been fitted with some sort of bck spike where their cords should be. He picked one up and tur over in his hands, it had a funky shape to it but there was a clear start butto to his feet and took a few steps back, pushing the button. The drawer retracted at his feet and the pink fmes in front of him went dark.

  The hing he saw was a familiar logo across the entire wall, “Holy, fug, shit,” He breathed, turning from the s and looking around, “I need snacks, oh man,” He murmured as the sound of hooves came from all around him followed by piano. He spotted a cluster of ets, one looking like a refrigerator, resting against the wall to the left of the door they’d e in through. String instruments started pying and some kind of flute. He raced over and reached for the fridge only to see a fshing red light glinting down at him from above it.

  Another sphere! He gasped and turned, “Joh-” The sound like a zipper being pulled quickly interrupted him followed by the feeling of his entire body getting bound up in thin bck strands of something. He spun, startled, and fell right on his faly to hear a simir sound ring out a sed ter as John came running. He tried to pull himself free, but whatever the bck stuff was, it didn’t budge an inch. A light shone down above him from the sphere and he squi it. “Ah damn it.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t mess up my save data, Val,” Sonya’s amused voice came from the sphere, “Your exploration time is up, boys.”