— a.h.a. headquaters of the oregon state, portland, oregon, september 2022

  The first to utter a word was the original troublemaker among them. "If you're not gonna tell me the truth about the birds, at least tell me why the fuck we are running into a dead end here."

  "It's not a dead end. We still need to meet Hunter Choi In-Sung, don't we?"

  There were several things that made him gape from this reply, he still couldn't tell which was shocking him the most. The way Isaac came back to their original reason for ending up here out of nowhere in an elevator shaft? Or the fact that even Hayden himself had forgotten why they had even come here in the first place?

  "How is that still gonna happen?"

  "I'm actually interested in that as well," the female adventurer replied, "and why did we even run away?" Though she was still slightly pale, she seemed to have acclimatized.

  "First of all, we need to make sure not to get caught," crossed Isaac's mind bitterly, "I don't want to end up in a situation where the Association has an eye on me for the rest of eternity. Before we move, I need to know what you remember seeing in the abandoned building."

  "A monster that came in and started fighting against Choi In-Sung… and that weird man who came in with him."

  So Rue had definitely seen the Vampire and the Werewolf. "Alright. And you?" Isaac asked, looking over at Hayden, who started furrowing his brows.

  "I'm not sure," he answered honestly, "I mean, sure it was a monster, but there was something off about them – the monster and the guy who flew in with them."

  "Do you think you can describe the monster?"

  "It had a lot of fur? Let's be real, it looked like a textbook example of a werewolf. Didn't you see it yourself?"

  "I did." If that was all they could say, it was very likely they wouldn't be pursued for too long, they would probably only get reprimanded and forced to sign some sort of NDA about the "Second Gate", which didn't actually exist. "Since none of us know a lot about what happened back there, I guess they will make us sign an agreement to keep quiet about what we know with the two Gates. They will have to disclose at least one to explain what happened at the abandoned district, right?"

  It would be entirely different for Hati, but he couldn't care any less about her, since she had created her own mess.

  "Fair enough. But what are we supposed to do now? Didn't you say you don't want to be taken in with your identity?"

  Tired, Isaac put a finger up to his lips, as steps closed in on the door. Waiting and hoping there wouldn't be too many hulking men among the people getting into the lift, they smoothly waited for the elevator to move upwards.

  "What if it goes all the way up?" Rue whispered nervously.

  "It likely won't since they lost us on the fifth floor and likely followed us down to the first."

  The A.H.A building hat fifteen floors in total, if they actually were in danger of getting squashed against the ceiling, they would climb back in before that happened.

  "We just need to wait for a bit and get lost before they think of checking the shaft, right?"

  Isaac looked up at Hayden and nodded. "It will fill up again, then it will go somewhere else and if it doesn't move again right away, we will get out."

  They would send the Agents on a wild goose chase. If anything, at least they could annoy them a little.

  At that word, the elevator shook slightly, as people stepped in fast.

  "That Skill you used to eavesdrop on their intercom," Rue asked, "how long is the Cooldown on it?"

  Taken aback for a second, the upperclassmen had to think. "It's ten minutes."

  He was able to listen in on others for ten minutes and had to give it a rest for ten minutes. It wasn't a great skill, per se, so it wasn't too complicated or hard to do.

  "Why didn't you say so right away?"

  "How would I know you would care?"

  The brown-haired shook his head and addressed the girl next to them. "Good thinking." Skills were not really his forte, so he didn't calculate with them. "In that case, how does it work? Can you hear if someone is close to the elevator?"

  "Not really, I can only pinpoint if someone is close to the elevator when someone is talking and then I don't know how far away they are. My radius is five meters."

  "'Meters'? How many miles is that?"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "You mean how many feet, in that case – it's less than a mile," Hayden explained for Rue, "let's just say it's around ten feet. So if I look in that direction and get something, there might be someone within ten feet of my field of vision."

  Which also meant it could be someone a floor below, because his direction on top of the elevator has to be angled slightly downwards. It wasn't very specific.

  "Try it anyway. Let's decide if we get off or not when the time comes."

  After coming in, they were brought into the back of the building; an annex of sorts, which was likely why this part of the skyscraper has no windows, seeing as the entire front is made of glass. If he only knew where the windows are located.

  'Alright,' he thought, 'here we go again.' He concentrated to call upon his familiars.

  His body had started acting weird after he had gotten up from the chair earlier. His blood seemed to be running more steadily than before and his head was getting lighter. It was as if his body started opening up to the world around him, like water that got stuck and was finally leaking out of his ears.

  The problem was that there was nothing stuck anywhere to begin with. It was an alien feeling that had no reason to be there. Yet despite his efforts, he couldn't shake it off even now that he crouched there on top of the elevator.

  He could have done this so easily, if only it hadn't been for those two imbeciles barging in and kicking up a fuss. That was an unprecedented occurrence and it interfered quite a bit with his calculations.

  Also, at least four Association Agents had seen his face, so there was that problem as well.

  He could feel one of his friends nearby, they must have built the elevator right against the outer wall. His head felt as if it was about to explode, but he could see a few floors above them were windows.

  Through one of those windows, he could see painting materials and a few plastic sheets. On the wall, it had a small plate next to a door, which read the number "12".

  The lift hadn't moved in a while and a quiet sound rang out, giving them the sign of the doors closing on the dormant wagon. In the end, even the inside of the lift would have a camera.

  "Change of plans. We take the maintenance ladder."

  "What? What if we get crushed?"

  "We won't be. And we can get off before we get flattened." In theory, at least.

  "Are you the type of person that would jump off a cliff on a motorcycle with a parachute?" Hayden asked, looking incredulous.

  "Why would I do something so foolish?" Of course, he wouldn't – he couldn't even imagine how he would get to a cliff in the first place, and the idea seemed to make no sense to him whatsoever.

  "Never mind. We will try. How far up?"

  "The twelfth floor. Check that with your Skill once we are up there."

  "Where are we even?"

  "After going down to the first, we went up to the seventh. So we need to get up five more doors," Rue helped them out.

  She didn't really know why she tagged along with those two, but it felt as if she would have a lot more fun if she did. And if they really were to meet Choi In-Sung, it would be all the more of a win to her.

  But as they started climbing, it was the one who had come up with the idea who felt it had been a mistake first. They needed to be fast, since they really didn't want to play with fire for too long, but Isaac felt more and more dizzy.

  As they had reached the fifth door above them, the elevator below started moving again.

  "I can't hear anything, but I really want to get out of this shaft right now."

  Isaac wanted to disagree, but his familiar had confirmed that the floor was being renovated and there had been no one in sight. And he felt as if he was close to falling off as well. He had to cut the connection that was loosely held with his crows and gave a tug to the other's pant leg, to signal him to climb over and pull the door open on the upper red knob of the mechanism.

  He was the first to jump out, as the lift, which had again reached the lowest floor, started coming up again. With one hand reached out, just as they had climbed up through the hatch, Hayden pulled his two companions onto the safe hallway floor.

  But Isaac still felt queasy. Usually, this body was as healthy as a horse, so he couldn't fathom what was wrong. The feeling reached from the top of his spine, down into his empty, subconsciously clenched fists. His head felt even lighter now and the air in his lungs became thinner.

  "You fine?" a distant sounding voice asked all of a sudden.

  Only then did he realize that his blood had been pumping at an alarming rate – as droplets of it were flowing over his lips and splat onto the transparent cover draped over the tiles underneath his feet.

  He couldn't even swallow drily, as the beating in his throat made him feel as if he might gulp down his heart. Another alien feeling, yet also… a feeling akin to greeting an old friend. Just as he had imagined a while ago, yet this wasn't what he had in mind back then.

  "Hey, maybe should call for Help?"

  "No, I-"

  Out of nowhere and with an ear violating beeping sound, a half transparent red signboard popped up in front of him out of thin air, acting like a tool for a jump scare in a cheap horror movie.

  Lots of fanfare and fireworks exploded into his face together with the message. He might have imagined it, but he'd swear he heard someone going "Yay" in the background. As if the Window alone hadn't been enough to work as a bucket of cold water for him.

  "Say something." Hayden shook his shoulder as lightly as possible, as the younger teenager, even as he was technically a young man, always looked as if he was ready to break if you did as much as blow at him. "You're not going to faint, are you?"

  Isaac grabbed the hand on his shoulder for reassurance. "Say, Hayden Chase," he mumbled, barely thinking straight, "what was it like when you first awakened?"

  Taken off guard, the other had to pause and think. "Why? You want to know how I felt?"

  "No, I want to know what you saw."

  "Er, there was a message that popped up? A notification window, but it said 'Congratulations,' I think."

  Isaac had a terrible premonition. No, not a premonition, since this was far more than a wild guess into an unknown future. This was a 'System Window' – it even said so.

  "So you also had this red thing jump in your face?"

  Startled, Hayden realized what might have happened. "Yes." The color description had been oddly specific, but it kind of seemed to fit his character to be doing so, so Hayden didn't question it.

  "It also said that you had been awakened by some Authority?"

  "Yep."

  "And the name of said Authority as well?"

  "Yes." He got more eager and faster at answering these questions.

  "They also told you how to open your Status Window?"

  "Again, yes."

  "And all that cheering and the confetti as well?"

  "As I said, ye-," Hayden stopped himself to think, "wait, what?"

  But Isaac could only sigh heavily. "Yeah, I thought so," he accepted unwillingly, 'Poor me.'