Sep. 2, Heather Holland's Masquerade, Psykonet; Afternoon

With the enemies cleared, Thorne proceeded with the newfound confidence given to him by his Persona, Hamlet. There were a few more halls to explore, but there was only one connected to the ballroom that he hadn't been down. He proceeded.

The hall led to a downward staircase, which led to yet another hall. Thankfully, it didn't appear like there were any guards in this area, but Thorne walked onward with appropriate caution nonetheless. There were mirroring doors on either side of the hall, but Thorne opted to go for the door at the end of the hall instead. He assumed that maybe it would lead to an exit… not that he knew what to expect outside the mansion.

He peered through the door… there was no exit there… even though he was sure there had to be. It was as if the interior of the mansion was the entire world in this strange place.

The door led into a dining room, with a dining table and a smaller chandelier above it. There was mouthwatering, perfect-looking food laid out on the lengthy dining table. He snooped around, scrutinizing everything his eyes landed upon.

A lot of the items on the table were packaged and labeled as if they had been bought from Dollar Star. This included many drinks, hot and cold. Thorne was tempted to take a bite out of a perfectly-sliced meat and cheese sandwich…. he couldn't help himself! He pulled it into his mouth and took a big bite!

It was delicious. Just like as if he'd bought one from Dollar Star himself. "Mm-mm!" he sounded, licking his lips. "Wow, tastes so real."

He continued to look around. There were a lot of selfies of Heather on the dining room's walls, fancily framed like the rest, right down to her doppelganger's ruby mask. In fact, Thorne had seen a bunch of these while scrolling through Heather's accounts in real life… except, of course, none of them had masks imposed on them in real life.

Thorne decided to leave before he was tempted to eat the entire dining spread. The next room he investigated wasn't locked… but it probably should have been. He entered with caution… there were already guests inside, despite the masquerade not having officially begun. The guests inside were all girls. They had surprisingly more recognizable facial features than the guards, though… and they gave off a different aura. Thorne's visor didn't identify them as a threat… he decided to trust his visor.

As he walked in, one of the girls gasped, covering her mouth in shock. The gasp caused the other girls to look at what caused her to gasp. They were also in shock when they saw.

"I-is he not wearing a mask!?" one of the girls yelped.

"N-no. He's n-not," the girl standing next to her stuttered, lip quivering in utter fear.

Thorne scowled in the ladies' direction, and continued to investigate as if nothing had happened. The pictures in this room were all of other people. There were plaques underneath the pictures' frames, too, which told the titles of the paintings.

The first painting that caught Thorne's eye was one of a young girl with fluffy brown hair, sitting under a tree and writing in a notebook. She wore a skirt and a polo shirt… it wasn't stylish, but at least it looked comfy in the hot city weather depicted in the painting. The girl was seated under a tree. He looked down at the plaque underneath the painting to see its title. "No-Life" the plaque read.

He looked at another painting. It was of a boy with messy brunette hair with dark streaks and a large, muscled-looking body. There was a faint scar on the boy's cheek that looked to be very old. The painting depicted the boy simply walking in the direction of the school from the parking lot, although he was hunched over and his large hands were in his pockets.

Thorne peered down at the painting's plaque to see its title. "Aimless Delinquent" it read. Thorne though to himself… what a rude gallery… The last painting on the wall was crooked, as if it had been partially pulled off its hooks.

Thorne recognized the subject of the painting immediately. It was a boy in a white and black sweater with gray-tipped black hair, facing towards the bar counter of a Dollar Star. "Is that… me?" he gasped.

His eyes darted down to the plaque on the wall under the painting, almost with anger. "Totally Fucking Insane" the plaque read.

"Hey!" he shouted. He grabbed the painting and threw it off its hooks, letting it crash to the ground and fall face-down. The other girls in the room all yelped and jumped back in shock, the liquid inside the wine glasses they were holding sloshing out and dripping to the ground.

"That's it… I'm finding the bottom of this…!" he proclaimed, his fist in a tight ball.

Suddenly, he heard a commotion outside. He ran up to the door and pulled it back just enough for him to see through.

"Catch that intruder!" he heard Heather's voice call.

Suddenly, he heard frantic footsteps… it sounded like the footsteps were made by metal shoes! They were quite loud, frankly. The clanging of the frantic footsteps echoed through the tight hallway. Thorne saw who had been making the sounds.

It looked like… a robot? Not like anything he'd ever seen before. No, this looked like a full-on future sci-fi robot. Then, he saw the guards who were gaining on the sprinting bot! When he saw the guards, he quickly slid behind the door so as to not be detected by them.

"You won't get away… whatever you are!" one of the guards shouted as they made chase against the robotic runner.

The robot had run right into the dining room… which was a dead end, as Thorne had already discovered. He hadn't had enough time to diagnose just what that robot was… was it a Shadow? Or something else, like the women in the gallery? However, he knew that since he had a Persona, he had to help it!

He waited for all the guards he could see to pass by the door he was hiding behind, then followed them into the dining room!

"My intent is not to cause harm or trouble," the robot said in a mechanical voice. "I do not wish to perpetuate conflict with this Headquarters or its Boss."

"How are we supposed to believe you?" one of the guards scoffed.

The robot was cornered by guards. The whole room was full of guards… What could Thorne do? He couldn't fight all of the guards on his own! He pressed his finger against his temple out of stress.

Suddenly, everything went darker as his holographic visor lit up a plan of action before his very eyes. A line of light had been drawn between Thorne's perspective and the actual dining room. It weaved between the guards, and even ricocheted off one of the walls at one point. Thorne wasn't sure he was agile enough to pull off such a maneuver… but he had to try!

He pushed off on one foot, immediately breaking into a dash! He kicked over one of the guards, who never saw or heard him coming from behind! The guard toppled over, shocked, and collided with another guard, who fell backwards as well! Thorne then punched a nearby guard square in the gut before they could react! The guard was unprepared and became winded, unsteady on their own very feet. Thorne ducked down and slid underneath the legs of another guard, flipping them right over!

He quickly got back up to his feet and readied his pistol… and… jumped! His weight pressed against the wall, and as he jumped off he fired a bullet through one guard's shoulder and into the chest of another! He grinned as he glided through the air in what felt like slow motion. He landed in a roll right next to the robot who he had been protecting. He took a breath, and fixed his hair, before getting up and getting into a combat stance.

He watched as the injured guards split apart into Shadows one by one, until the room was full of angry Shadows.

"Thank you, agile spy," the robot thanked, bowing at it mechanical shoulders. "That was very… impressive."

"Aw, gee, thanks!" Thorne grinned, blushing. "It was nothing. You okay?"

"My diagnostics determine that I am unharmed," the robot responded. "I am Android 07. Pleased to meet you."

"Thorne." He prepared his pistol for another shot. "And the pleasure's all mine! Hamlet!"

Hamlet materialized behind Thorne's shoulder, poised for a tense battle!

"Golem!" the robot called.

To Thorne's surprise, a Persona appeared behind the android's back as well. Or, at least, something that looked like a Persona. But something about it just didn't feel right... It was a large-bodied Persona made of what looked like perfectly-prismatic stones with lime-glowing etching that looked almost like circuitry on their surfaces. The stone which appeared to make up its head was carved a bit like a Gladiator's helmet, with lime-glowing eyes very similar to the robot's own digital eyes glowing out from under the helmet's 'rim'.

The stone Persona had two arms made of the same stones that made up the rest of its body. One arm ended with smaller stones forming a hand and rough fingers. The other arm ended in a canon, very similar to the one on Android 07's own arm, but made of the same rectangular stone as the rest of the Persona.

"Wow…" Thorne sounded. "You have a Persona too?"

"It is part of my equipment as an Android," explained Android 07. "Caution, Thorne!"

Suddenly, a rapier blade was being thrust towards Thorne! He was almost caught off guard, but activated a Counter just in time! Hamlet slashed his own rapier against the enemy's rapier with enough force to knock the enemy back! The skull removed itself from Hamlet's rapier's tip and floated in the air as Hamlet thrust the sharp end of the now-untipped rapier right into the formal-dressed Shadow's diaphragm, causing great damage! Hamlet flourished his weapon for a brief moment before the skull put itself back on the tip of it.

"Skillful," commented Android 07.

One of the Shadows, this one another Prince Charming, attacked Android 07! The Android, however, dodged the attack, and dealt an attack of its own!

"Golem!" the Android called. A bright cyan power built up inside the robot's chest, where a gem of some sort was imbedded, which it allowed the energy float up towards the Android's Persona, who was apparently named Golem. Golem centered the cyan energy in front of itself, before dramatically firing the cyan energy from its huge arm-canon, and making contact with multiple Shadows!

"What was that?" Thorne asked.

"A Nuclear attack," explained the Android.

"Persona!" Thorne shouted, clenching his fist. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an intense gust of wind and snow, like a hyper-concentrated blizzard, shot through the room, blasting through multiple Shadows!

Suddenly, a blast of fire flew through the air! It hit Thorne right in the chest! "Take that!" scoffed the attacker. The attacker was another one of the King's Horse Shadows.

"Ow! Fuck!" Thorne shouted, holding his chest in pain. However, the pain was only temporary. Somehow, despite being his with literal fire, Thorne had avoided being burned. It didn't even singe his fitted tuxedo!

The Prince Charming who had attacked Android 07 now attempted to attack Thorne! However, Thorne fired a bullet right into the Shadow's face before he could slash his cutlass into him. Prince Charming fell back and disintegrated.

"One Shadow eliminated," Android 07 confirmed.

Android 07 pressed a button on its wrist, which caused its arm to reform, changing its hand into some kind of cannon! Android 07 ran out into the fray, and blasted a few blasts of the same Nuclear energy at some of the Shadows out of the cannon that had replaced its hand! It didn't seem to do as much damage as when it had called upon its Persona to attack, but it was still effective!

Thorne stayed back, and used Hamlet's power to launch ice shards at the Shadows, like he had before! Many of the Shadows were defeated by the onslaught of sharp ice shards and concentrated Nuclear blasts.

There were only two Shadows left now. A maiden with long braided hair, and a golden chalice with a bloody red liquid inside and an also-golden snake wrapped around it which had jewels where it would have eyes if it were living.

"State your names," Thorne demanded.

"I don't have to tell you anything," the maiden challenged.

Thorne pointed his pistol at the maiden's face, and slowly pulled back the trigger.

"If you insist. My name is Belle," answered the Shadow. Belle snapped her fingers, which caused the air around her to become distorted, as if she were in the center of an intense heat wave. But that obviously wasn't the case. With another snap of her fingers, the disorienting air waves flew towards Thorne.

They rammed into him with way more force than they looked like they were able to muster! Thorne was knocked over! He squinted his eyes in pain as he fell to his ass. When he opened his eyes again, he could barely see straight. It was like everything was spinning!

"On no!" Android 07 shouted, although still in a mechanical tone. "Thorne has been struck with confusion!"

Belle prepared a blast of fire, and launched it as Thorne while he was too disoriented to react! Even though he couldn't see straight, he could feel the heat intensifying as it went straight for him!

"Golem!" Android 07 called. "Now!"

Golem appeared behind Android 07 yet again, and then punched through the air and dug his fist deep into Belle's stomach! The Persona rammed Belle, who was on the tip of its knuckles, into the wall, where she promptly depixelated.

Thankfully, now that Belle was gone, the fire she launched at Thorne also depixelated into nothingness. Thorne shook his head and got up, a little unsteady. He looked around. He could see straight mostly again.

"You," he said, glaring at the golden chalice Shadow while rubbing his head as his vision unblurred. "What are you supposed to be?"

"I am the Poisoned Chalice." The words flowed out from the snake's mouth even though the metal snake couldn't move its mouth. As such, all of the 's' syllables dragged on into hisses. "Feel the intensity of my poison!" The liquid inside the chalice bubbled up, raising up above it as if a fountain had just been turned on. The liquid was then launched towards Thorne like spit. Thorne dodged the trajectory, though, and shot a bullet right through the Poisoned Chalice! Like with the Shadow named The Ideal, even though the Poisoned Chalice was made of metal, the bullet pierced it like flesh. It clattered to the ground, spilling its contents, which collectively evaporated along with its golden body.

"You are very skilled in the use of a Persona," Android 07 robotically complimented. "As well as a gun, actually."

"Thank you!" Thorne smiled. "I could say the same for you. Uh… Android 07. Is it okay if I give you a nickname?"

"I am capable of responding to any name you assign to me," Android 07 answered.

"Um… how about… Seven?" Thorne suggested.

"I will hereby respond when being referred to as 'Seven'."

"Awesome… So…" Thorne thought of how to interact with a robot. "Seven… what exactly… are you?"

"I am an Android. Specifically, the seventh model deigned to assist PsykoLink users."

"I see… so… you were made specifically to help people who end up here?"

"Correct."

"So, can you answer my questions?" Thorne asked. "I have… many."

"I am equipped to answer most questions regarding PsykoLink and PsykoNet.," Seven confirmed.

"Great!" Thorne excitedly cheered. "Where do I even start? Well… what is Psyko…Link? Net? Whichever. What exactly is this place?"

"PsykoLink is simply the app-portal used to access the PsykoNet, which is where you are currently. More specifically, you're inside the Headquarters belonging to Heather Holland. PsykoNet is a manifestation of the Collective Judgement Phenomenon. More specifically, it portrays someone's world as onlookers from the world around them would see it."

"Oh… so… this is what people see when they look at Heather's life?" Thorne asked. "I… well, actually, I don't quite follow… I've been following Heather since I met her, and I've never once seen her talk about a mansion or a ball."

"PsykoNet is linked to social psychology," explained Seven. "Rather than portraying the literal things that people observe in a person's life, it portrays what is presented in a perceptive sense. It is a rather complicated platform, I know."

"So then… tell me, why is this place presented as a mansion with a ballroom?"

"I cannot tell you that precisely, as I do not actually know what Heather presents in her life. If you show me, I could perhaps help you formulate an answer."

"Oh… I see… Hm… the other Heather said it had something to do with school starting… Um, could you tell me what's up with Heather's doppelganger?" asked Thorne, contemplating.

"The person you are referring to is actually Heather's own Shadow," explained Seven. "As this place, her Headquarters, is representative of society's perception of her, her Shadow is representative of her perceived identity. Shadows can only exist if someone's real identity and perceived identity are disassociated from one another."

"I… I think I get it…" Thorne sighed. "That's a lot to learn... all at once… but it's helpful knowledge. So, you wanted me to show you Heather's life?" Thorne offered. He had an idea. He pulled out his phone, temporarily forgetting it was stuck on the PsykoLink app. "Uh… how do I get to my other apps?"

"You cannot close the PsykoLink app while you're inside PsykoNet," Seven explained.

"Oh…" Thorne shrugged. "Sorry, I guess I can't show you her online activity then."

"You should probably go," Seven suggested.

"Huh? Why?"

"It isn't particularly dangerous to stay here. However, there are still Shadows to be cautious of, and your Persona can't restore its power until you return to the real world."

"Oh. I didn't know that. But hey, what about you?"

Seven said, "As an Android built specifically to function within PsykoNet, my Persona's abilities function differently from those of humans."

"Will you be okay?" Thorne worried.

"I will be fine. Given that I am a computer, and PsykoNet technically exists in the digital world, it is difficult to explain my abilities to a human who exists in reality. However, I can confirm that I am at no risk of harm. Perhaps I will be able to explain better at a later point."

"All right…" Thorne sighed. "As long as you'll be okay. Um, I'll probably see you again soon, if you're still gonna be here for a few days."

"You will most likely see me again sooner than that."

"Uh… okay… well, bye," Thorne smiled while waving goodbye to his new robotic friend. He pressed the 'Exit' button on his phone's screen and was taken back to reality.

Sep. 2, Vancouver; Late Afternoon

Thorne immediately opened his texting app and looked for Heather's message log. There was a missed message from her.

Thorne didn't even notice that his outfit had changed back to his jeans and a sweater from before. He read Heather's missed message.

"Hey. Wanna hang out again? I need to get away from my mom."

"Heather," he sent. "We need to talk. Why is there a picture of me in your Headquarters titled 'Totally Fucking Insane'?"

"What? I don't even know what a Headquarters is," Heather responded.

Sep. 2, Heather Holland's Residence, King Junior Ave., Vancouver; Late Afternoon

Meanwhile, on Heather's end, she received a message from her group chat.

"Haha," texted someone from her group chat. "Is that the guy who keeps talking about going to another world? He sure looks insane. Oof… and is that Snow behind the counter? They're practically made for each other."

"L.O.L. I ship it," Heather responded. She scrolled up. Right there, with her indicated as the sender, was a picture she had taken of Thorne from behind his back while he ordered a drink at Dollar Star.

She muttered aloud to herself, quietly, "The truth is… I like Thorne… but everyone else thinks he's just another one of the weird students who's gonna be going to our school… and… if everyone else thinks that… I have to think so too, right…?" She sighed, sounding distraught. "Ugh… I'm sorry, Thorne… but more importantly, how did he possibly find out I posted that!? Isn't this a private group chat? What if… he's right about that other world thing!?" She gasped.