We located the stairs to the uppermost level easily enough and headed up, keeping our eyes peeled for any stray gangster-ghouls that may have tucked away to jump us. Thankfully our ascent was uninterrupted and we made it to the top floor, where the detective was being held captive. As we approached, I got a better look at the man behind the circular window. If I could even call him that. A robot, perhaps?

"Woah…" Prompto voiced my internal surprise, his eyes widening for a moment when he caught sight of Nick.

No, he had to be a synth, either a damaged one or prototype of some sort, as he was missing skin along his neck and side of his face, the inner workings and components exposed. His right hand nothing but a metal skeleton. He lit a cigarette, yellow eyes flicking back and forth between our group. His voice was...From a different era, a slicker from the old black and white age of film or something. "I don't know who you are, but we got about three minutes before the real shit for brains show up to the party. Get this door open."

"Did they have a key?" I hoped this wouldn't involve politely asking some baddy if we could borrow it.

Valentine gestured to the door. "That monitor on the wall over there will let you in. Gotta hack it though, hope one of you kids are good with computers."

How the hell…The screen was black, save for a single green blinking cursor. I turned back to Valentine. "Hey, how do-"

"Oh this will be easy-peasy!" Prompto hummed next to me. "Step aside, milady. Let the expert show you how it's done."

I let him access the computer and his fingers all but attacked the keys, the screen a jumble of random letters and words. I gave Noctis a puzzled look but he grinned back at me. "Don't worry, he's a total tech geek. Knows what he's doing."

"If anyone here's the geek dude, it's you," Prompto cracked as he hacked away at the terminal, blowing his bangs out of his face. A few seconds later, followed by an electronic beep beep beep, the door slid open and Valentine joined us. "Ah, my knights and er, lady in shining armor." He flicked the ash from his cigarette. "But the question is, why do they come all this way, risking life and limb, for an old private eye?"

A couple silent seconds passed as four, then five heads turned in my direction. I hesitated, preparing my lips for the stinging words that would follow. "My son Shaun is missing. He was kidnapped, but I don't know who took him, or where they went."

Valentine paced around our group. "A missing kid, huh? Well, you came to the right man, if not the right place. I've been cooped up in here for weeks. Turns out the runaway daughter I came here to find wasn't kidnapped. She's Skinny Malone's new flame, and she's got a mean streak.

"Anyway, you got troubles, and I'm glad to help." Valentine flicked his butt over the railing. "But now ain't the time. Let's blow this joint, then we'll talk."

Without a moment to spare we let the synth take the lead back downstairs and across the main room where the explosion went off. The tang of innards and residual grenade aroma coated the back of my throat as I fought the urge to gag. "Damn, that's disgusting," Gladio muttered, pulling the collar of his shirt up and over his nose and mouth.

"Rather unsavory," Ignis had done the same with his t-shirt.

Valentine scoffed. "Malone's thugs must have caught wind of your arrival. Those jerky-faces were hustled in here just a few hours ago. Barely had time to get acquainted before you came along and blew them up." He chuckled dryly. "No idea how they got them into those gangster getups, though, unless they found the poor bastards like that already. Best dressed ghouls I've ever seen."

We backpedalled our way through the vault's corridors and made for the exit. I was surprised how well Valentine could remember the route; We were making double-time compared to when we first came through. He must have memorized it or something. He gave us some backstory about this Skinny guy as we snaked through the mess of toppled furniture and litter. "Malone's crew here used to be small-time, muscled out of the old neighborhood by bigger players. Until they found this place. Don't know what happened to the previous owners but they're not exactly around to charge rent. An empty vault. Perfect hideout."

"A secure hideout," Ignis added. "Nothing could permeate the entrance without extreme force."

"Exactly."

We happened upon a closed door. Valentine tried the control switch, but the electronic hatch refused to slide open. "Locked," he announced to us.

"That's impossible," Noctis's thoughts were in-tune with mine, it seemed. "We came through here and didn't lock anything behind us. Someone else did this."

Valentine stroked what remained of his chin with spindly metal skeleton fingers. "Malone's boys no doubt. I'll have a crack at it, step aside will you?"

With a couple quick rotations of the synth's wrists the hatch was unlocked and the door lifted to grant access. "Hell of a lot easier to do when the lock isn't on the other side," he scoffed sarcastically.

We reached the last door before the vault exit, surprised to find this one locked as well. Our master locksmith got to work on the door but stopped halfway through, listening. "Almost got it, but I hear big, fat footsteps on the other side," he warned. "Be ready for anything."

"Roger that," Gladio stood back and his great sword appeared from particles. He casually hung it over his shoulder as the other gents followed suit and summoned their weapons as well. Valentine was none the wiser as the final mechanism beeped loudly and the door unlocked. He gave us an uncertain look, of which I was surprised to be able to read from his glowing yellow eyes. I nodded, and he slid the door up and open.

Sure enough, we had company. Three men - no, three men and a woman - blocked our path to the exit catwalk, dressed in dirty suits and looking like discount mafia meatheads. The woman donned a sequined dress, of which did not properly fit either her nor the time and place. It was apparent they weren't looking to make friends; each of the men cradled an automatic rifle, the woman brandishing a Louisville slugger. I gulped.

It was easy to tell who the fat cat was, and Skinny Malone's voice echoed with an annoying twang off the metal walls of the vault entrance. "Nicky! What're you doin'? You come into my house, shoot up my pets, blowin' up the joint?! What's the big idea?"

To my surprise, Prompto was feeling brave enough for us and spoke first. "You keep ghouls as pets? That's disgusting!"

Malone stopped pacing. "Not pets, more like eh, collateral. Better them gettin' blown to bits than my men. Speakin' a'which! Very unappreciated what you did to my lounge back there!"

"We wouldn't have had to at all if there weren't a bunch of zombies attacking us," Noctis offered, unfazed. Damn, these kids were ballsy today.

The boss was not having it. "The hell're you riff-raffs doin' here anyway? Get lost on the way to band practice?"

"They came to break me out of your hideout," Valentine replied, drawing a cigarette from the inner pocket of his trench coat and lighting it. I had to wonder how a synth managed to smoke without lungs. "And I wouldn't be here if it weren't for your two-timing dame, Skinny. You ought to tell her to write home more often."

The woman swayed cooly to the side and stroked the bat she was holding. "Awww...Poor little Valentine. Ashamed you got beat up by a girl?" Her tone was chiding, mocking him. "I'll just run back home to daddy, won't I?"

"Shoulda left her alone, Nicky," Malone added. "This ain't the old neighborhood. In this vault, I'm the king'a the castle, ya hear? An' I ain't letting some private dick shut us down now that I finally got a good thing goin'!"

Tensions were rising on both sides. I felt uneasy, like if I didn't step in soon I would regret it. The woman interrupted my thoughts, her whiny shrill voice an unwelcome sound. "I told you we should've just killed him! But then you had to get all...sentimental, all that crap about the 'old times'-"

"Darla, I'm handlin' this!" The mobster boss cut her off though his pride was noticeably bruised. "Skinny Malone's always got things under control."

"Oh yeah?" Darla retorted, nodding in our direction. "Then what're these guys doing here, huh? Valentine must have brought them all here to rub us all out!"

The room was silent. Guess the boys only had a few ounces of courage left earlier cause now they were fresh out it seemed. Was this seriously going to fall on my shoulders? If someone didn't speak, and soon, they were rife to start firing at us. After all, we were technically trespassing. I had to think fast.
This Darla chick looked like she was putting on a hell of a face for this situation. Maybe, if I played my cards right, I could convince her this wasn't a good gig. Reason with her, perhaps...I exhaled. "Darla, listen to me. You have a home to go back to. You don't want to throw your life away with these thugs."

"I...I…" Her lip quivered, and her hold on the bat slacked. "You're right! What am I doing? I've gotten all mixed up!"

I couldn't believe our luck. Darla dropped the bat and turned to leave, just like that. Malone looked traumatized as he turned to stop her. "Darla! W-where are you goin'?"

She stopped and turned back to face Malone. "Home, Skinny, where I shoulda been all this time." Her eyes narrowed to slits. "This is goodbye, for us." And with that she was gone, hightailing it out of the vault.

Now I was panicking. If they had didn't have a better reason to shoot us up than trespassing, now they did. Malone's neck was splotchy red, a vein popping out from his tight shirt collar. "Ah come on, Nicky. You cost me my ghouls, now you and your friends cost me my girl?!"

"My friends here just did you a favor, Skinny," Valentine reasoned with Malone in a low tone. "You always did have bad taste in women. Now that she's not around to feed that temper of yours, maybe you'll see sense and let us walk. You still owe me for two weeks in the hole."

Malone's eyebrows dipped, voice almost a growl. "Smug, overconfident ass! Get out of here!" He stepped aside, positively fuming. "Alright, you get to the count of ten. I still see your faces after that, I'm gunning all of you down!"

Jackpot. Without a moment of hesitation we bolted passed the gangsters and headed towards the exit, crossing the metal catwalk and down through the vault door, Malone's voice counting behind us and giving me goosebumps. We reached part of the old subway tracks, unable to hear Malone's voice any longer; we were safe. But where was the detective. "Over here!" Valentine called, and we followed his voice. He was halfway up a ladder and reaching for the hatch. "Found a shortcut," he said. "Let's get out of this dump."

"Nick! About time you showed up."

Piper was first to greet Valentine when we made our way back to Diamond City. A few patrons nodded to him and patted his worn trench coat. "Can't say I missed this place, but then again can't say I didn't. How's the press running, Piper?"

She shrugged. "Oh you know, the usual. McDonough tried to throw me out again, but your new friends helped a girl out and I'm here to stay," Piper winked at me. "That is, until someone gawks about the paper again."

"Well aren't you kids a bunch of everyday superheroes," Valentine chuckled. "Been meaning to tell you, thanks for saving my behind back there. I don't know how long I would have been cooped up in that room had you not come along." Valentine pulled a stack of caps from his pocket and gave them to Noctis. "Here, for your troubles. Dinner's on me tonight."

Noctis counted through them. I could tell it was more than enough to cover dinner for at least a week. Damn, I should have gotten in the detective business. "Thanks, Nick. About my son…?"

Valentine's eyebrows raised. "Right, come with me to my office. I'll want to ask you a few questions, get you to go over the details, if you're okay with that. We'll use it to build a case file and start narrowing in on a possible suspect."

I nodded. "I can do that, whatever it takes." I looked to my four friends, who hung back idly. "You guys can go get something to eat if you want, I won't be long."

"Oh please," Prompto bounded over to me and hung a dead weight arm around my shoulder. "Haven't you realized yet, we're in this together! A team no matter what." From what I could tell of their expressions, the other boys were in agreeance.

Though it wasn't overly sentimental it tugged at my heartstrings a bit. I was glad to have a group of people I could count on in this wasteland. "Oh you guys," I tried not to be overly bashful.

Valentine motioned us to follow him back to his agency. "Guess now that vacation's over, I best be getting back to work. Let's get this missing persons case show on the road."