Phil poured a packet of sugar into his coffee, stirring it with a small brown straw as he grabbed a donut from the dessert cart. BITT floated alongside him as he took a quick sip before asking, "Anything important I should know before I wrap things up for the day?"

"Yes, there is." BITT's screen changed to a quartet of black rectangles as he said, "Four techs have gone dark within the last ninety minutes. Zahra and Haneesh have been offline for one hour and twenty-four minutes, while Miko and Five have been offline for thirty-three minutes. Here are their last known locations." Two separate maps appeared on BITT's screen, and as Phil looked them over, he asked, "Can you pull up any footage from their gauntlets before they went offline?"

"Now loading." An hourglass appeared on BITT's screen as he set about his duty, but ten seconds later, a large red X appeared on the screen. "Unable to recover the requested footage," BITT said with a frown. "It appears the data has been corrupted."

Phil froze upon hearing that last word, coming to a dead halt just before reaching the door to his office. Suspicion and disbelief were in his eyes as he asked, "How much of it is bad? Can you play anything from their gauntlets?"

"Unfortunately, no." BITT frowned as he continued to explain: "It appears that the gauntlets belonging to Zahra, Haneesh, Miko and Five all experienced a massive power surge, which overloaded the circuitry and resulted in a blackout. And since these blackouts all happened within a relatively short timeframe, I believe it is safe to assume that they ran afoul of the same glitch."

"And considering what happened to me and Mitch... I think I can guess the glitch you're referring to." Phil downed half of his coffee as he entered his office and sat down at his desk, but no sooner had his butt hit the seat than a phone call alert rang out on his gauntlet. Mitch was on the other end of the line, and when Phil tapped the green phone cursor, the first thing he heard was his best tech breathing heavily and mumbling, "God... son of a... come on, pick up... pick up..." Phil glanced at BITT with a look of worry as he replied, "Mitch? You okay?"

"Far from it." He gulped back the tension in his voice before continuing with, "I'm in the parking lot. Miko, Five, Zahra and Haneesh are on their way. You in your office?" Phil narrowed his eyes in anticipation and replied, "Yeah... I am."

"Okay... I see two vans coming up the drive... That's them. Everyone else just pulled in... and we need to talk to you. Stay there." Mitch hung up and the signal went dead before Phil could reply, but he breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his missing techs were accounted for and, for all that he knew, okay. BITT reinforced this assumption with an optimistic, "Perhaps I was mistaken. Maybe their gauntlets suffered a simple malfunction."

"If that were the case, their gauntlets would've rebooted." Phil's statement literally wiped the smile off BITT's screen as his expression crossfaded into a frown. "Although," Phil continued, "stranger things have happened around here. You may be right, but... considering everything that's happened recently, I'm still leaning towards the Neurosurgeon being the cause of this." He finished off his donut and took one last sip of coffee before he heard a knock on his door, replying with a call of, "It's open!"

The first tech to enter was Mitch, followed by Zahra, Miko, Haneesh and Five. The latter pair each held a vest in their hands as they entered the room and placed the devices on Phil's desk, and Miko sat down in the chair to Mitch's right while Zahra stood behind her. Five and Haneesh remained standing, taking their positions on either side of Mitch's chair. The Brit stared at the floor with wide, angry eyes, an expression echoed by Haneesh and Zahra. Miko and Five, on the other hand, wore a pair of thousand-yard stares that sent a chill down Phil's spine when he got a good look at them. No one said a word as Phil took one of the vests in his hands and looked it over - the mounting shock and disgust forming on his face told the whole story as he pulled one of the road flares out of its holster and snapped the top off. As soon as it began to burn, a small nozzle emerged from BITT's side and put the flare out with a small spray of white foam. Phil gritted his teeth and slammed both objects down on his desk with a loud thud, exclaiming, "Son of a bitch..."

"Our thoughts exactly," Miko sighed.

"Before anything else happens... first things first." Phil moved from sitting in his chair to sitting on the front of his desk as he made himself closer to his techs. "Are you all okay?"

"As okay as we can be," Zahra replied.

"Aside from the fact that we all stared death in the face? Sure. Sure, we're fine," Haneesh said through narrowed eyes and clenched teeth. "And if I ever have to go through something like that again, I'm turning in my gauntlet. That was... too much. Way too much."

"And not only that..." Mitch picked up the other vest and laid it flat on Phil's desk, exposing the setup for all to see. "The fact that he used road flares instead of dynamite proves that he's adapting faster than we thought. Despite the fact that he can fast travel through electrical wires, he's practically a human being at this point."

"Wait a minute," Miko said. "How does swapping dynamite for road flares prove he's becoming more human?"

"Because glitches can't improvise. This version of the Neurosurgeon... he can." Five's declaration caused the entire room to turn their attention to him as he continued to speak. "Mitch said that this was a puzzle from the game... that screwing up would've meant death. The fact that the Neurosurgeon made it non-lethal, that he went against his own code, is proof enough for me. I mean, he's already got his programming from the game itself, but when you combine that with the AIQ chip, that makes him just as much of an artificial intelligence as BITT is. He's combining real world tactics with gaming tactics, and given his affinity for mind games..." Five stared at the vest and declared, "He said he wanted to see what we were made of. This wasn't his endgame; this was just a preview. Whatever he's really planning is gonna be ten times worse, and it's gonna involve me, Miko and Mitch whether we like it or not. And I don't know about you guys, but this is a game I wanna end before it gets out of control."

"That makes all of us," Miko said as she reached out and took his hand. "I wanna bury my hammer in that smug face of his after what happened today."

"And besides, the only one who gets to jerk you noobs around is me," Mitch declared as he clapped his hand over theirs. Everyone else in the room replied with an unimpressed stare, a stare that Mitch willfully ignored as he continued with, "We're in this together, and we'll finish it together."

"And speaking of finishing things..." Phil rose to his feet and held out his hand, asking, "Your gauntlets. What did he do to them?"

"He just... grabbed onto it," Zahra answered with a shrug. She slipped it off her wrist and handed it to Phil, adding, "When he did, my sword disappeared and my screen went dark."

"He did the same thing to us," Miko replied with a frown. "Grabbed me and Five by the gauntlet, held on for a few seconds, and then he let us go. When he did, our gauntlets were both dead. I'm thinking maybe it was a power surge or something." She handed her gauntlet to Phil as Five and Haneesh did the same; a scanner emerged from BITT's body and examined one of the devices, and after twenty seconds of study, an answer was provided. "Miko's hypothesis is indeed correct," BITT declared in a relieved voice. "A glitch-induced power surge led to an emergency shutdown of her gauntlet, and..." He paused as he scanned Five, Zahra and Haneesh's gauntlets, and another twenty seconds passed before BITT's screen reverted to his smiling face. "The same exact thing happened to these gauntlets," he said. "All it takes is a quick reset, and you'll be back to capturing glitches in no time!"

"Let's get everything back in order then." Phil placed the quartet of gauntlets on his desk, tapped the keys on his keyboard, and hit enter. A white aura surrounded the gauntlets as they floated into the air and their screens flickered back to life, followed by a resounding collective plop as the aura vanished and they fell back onto the desk. The quartet each retrieved a gauntlet and activated it, cycling through the menus to see who they belonged to. Miko and Haneesh were lucky enough to grab their own, but Five and Zahra had wound up with each other's gauntlets by mistake. When she realized this, Zahra's face blushed a deep red as she stammered, "Uh, I... I think I got... your gauntlet by mistake, Five."

"Likewise," Five replied with a smile. "I don't remember having a green rabbit as my pet... but I will admit that sword is pretty nice."

"Th-thanks," Zahra mumbled as they exchanged gauntlets. "If you ever need to borrow it..."

"I'll make sure to let you know." Five slid his gauntlet onto his wrist as Zahra did the same for hers, and once they booted up, the pair exchanged a quick glance before looking away just as fast. Now it was Five's turn to blush as Haneesh observed, "I don't know about you guys, but it looks like someone's got a crush."

"Seems that way," Miko said with a smile as she slapped Five on the back. "And it looks like the feeling's mutual."

"C-come on, Miko!" His high-pitched declaration led to a round of chuckles from the group, with Mitch even getting in on the laughs as he rose from his chair. "I knew it," he said with a cocky grin. "Looks like Bergy owes me five bucks." Zahra and Five just stared at Mitch as he added, "I've never been one for lovey-dovey stuff, but after what happened today... I think it's safe to say that we all needed some levity."

"True," Zahra admitted with a sigh. She then turned to Phil and asked, "Is it... okay if we take the rest of the day off?"

"If you wanna do that, I won't stop you," he answered. "I'll make sure you still get paid for the day if you do." Mitch grinned and replied, "Thanks, Phil, but no thanks. Duty calls." He opened a portal in the room and jumped through it with a departing "BOOSH!" The portal dissolved within seconds as Miko asked, "You're sure that'll be okay, Phil? You won't be short-handed in the store or in the field?"

"Trust me, it's totally fine," Phil replied as he thrust his thumb towards the vests. "You all deserve a break after going through something like that. Go home and recuperate for a couple days, and give me a call when you're ready to go." The quartet of techs responded to their boss' gesture with either a handshake, a hug, or both as Haneesh said, "That means a lot, Phil. Thanks."

"Anytime. You all stay safe." He returned to his computer as the quartet left his office and headed downstairs to the main floor. When there was enough room to be had, Miko released Ally from her gauntlet and cuddled alongside her, giving her a big hug and stroking her feathers as she cooed, "You okay, girl? You're not all scrambled up, are you?" The bird replied with a cheerful chirp and an affectionate nuzzle as Miko retrieved a berry from her inventory, a treat that Ally gobbled up in seconds. Beside her, Five stood on Alpha's shoulders as the robot let out a series of happy metallic grunts that echoed through the room. Five patted him on the head and asked, "Everything okay, buddy? No major problems?"

Alpha smiled and let out an affirmative grunt as he leaned into the head scratches. After Ally had finished her berry, she noticed the small green rabbit Zahra held in her hands and tilted her head in interest. The bird let out a curious chirp as she craned in to get a closer look, with Miko echoing her gesture as she exclaimed, "Awww, Zahra, he's so cute! What'dja name him?"

"Minty," she replied with a smile as Haneesh gave the bunny a series of scritches on the back of its neck. "I don't know what his special ability is, but I'm sure I'll find out soon." Miko joined in the fawning as she pet Minty's back, smiling as the hare's nose twitched. "You're so adorable," she cooed as the rabbit remained focused on Ally. "Yes you are! Yes you are!" Alpha lumbered over and moved his monitor as close as he could, taking care not to startle the small creature in front of him. Minty remained calm as he moved his attention from Ally to the hulking metallic beast in front of him, cuddling closer to Zahra as a smile appeared on Alpha's screen. Five jumped down to the floor, waiting until Miko and Haneesh were done before taking his turn petting the rabbit. As he gave Minty a series of gentle head scritches, he smiled and said, "I'm happy you found a pet, Zahra. He's really cute."

"Yeah," she replied with a warm smile as her eyes darted between Five and her furry friend. "He is."

Miko and Five parked their bikes next to the garage and placed their helmets on the respective handlebars. They wiped the sweat from their brows as Miko let out a downcast sigh, and Five was quick to notice. He put his hand on her shoulder and asked, "You okay?"

"No. No, I'm not," she replied with a sad shake of her head. "If those vests were for real, we all could've died. I'm not okay with that."

"Neither am I," Five said with a grim stare. "I'm... honest to God afraid of what's next."

"Yeah. If that was him screwing with us..." They both let out a shudder as Miko added, "I don't know what to do, Five. I thought he'd be an easy capture, but... he's becoming more and more human by the day. That's what scares me the most." She dragged her arm across her eyes and sniffled, "After today, the Neurosurgeon isn't just our number one priority... he's our only priority. I don't want anyone else to go through what we did. I don't want anyone else to get hurt. What I do want is him broken, beaten and contained ASAP. You feel me, Five?"

He smiled a determined smile and replied, "One hundred percent. You know I always have your back, Miko. Especially in times like this." She responded by throwing her arms around him and enveloping him in a hug, lifting him off the ground as she did so. Her grip was almost too much to bear as Five tapped her on the shoulder and croaked, "Miko... c-can't... breathe... AIR!"

"Oops... heh heh. Sorry." She put him back down on the ground and let him go, which led to another hug initiated by Five. This one was much gentler and more soothing as they rocked back and forth, with the peaceful sounds of their breathing calming them. They stayed like that for a minute and a half before Miko broke the embrace and pulled her set of house keys from her pocket, unlocking the door and granting the pair access to her kitchen.

"Hey guys, I'm home early," she announced as Five closed the door behind them. "Anybody home?" The muffled sounds of the TV in the next room answered her question as the pair headed for the source of the noise. Five grabbed a can of soda from the fridge on his way to the living room, calling out, "Mrs. Kubota? Lexi? Anybody here?" They stopped in the hallway behind the living room and observed the broadcast of a baseball game on the TV. The batter had a 1-2 count with two outs and men on second and third, and by the looks of things, the couch was empty. Miko shot Five a confused glance before asking, "Mom? Lexi? You there?"

"Hold on," a male voice said as a hand shot up with its index finger extended. "The inning's almost over." The familiar timbre of the voice froze Miko and Five to the floor. The colorful patchwork of tattoos on the arm the hand was attached to made the pair begin to sweat bullets. The batter struck out on the next pitch, and at that point the man on the couch sat up and turned around.

The Neurosurgeon smiled and saluted Miko and Five before exclaiming, "Took you long enough!"