"I can't believe we didn't find anything!"

Fletcher kicked a random rock as he walked alongside the other knights. It rolled off into the underbrush. Clay shook his head and pulled his robes closer around himself.

"Maybe that's for the better," He said, half mumbling, "We don't know how those ghosts would react to us. Merlock did say that most of them had turned evil later on in life."

A snort came from Fletch, and he rolled his eyes. With one hand, he pulled his bow off of his back and pulled the string, aiming at nothing in particular. It glowed a sort of magical blue color, and a magic arrow formed in between his fingers. Hardly paying attention, he let the arrow fly. It pierced a leaf roughly 10 meters away.

"We could've taken em." He said after showing off. Aaron, from the front, spun on his heel to face Fletcher.

"Or we could've been way over our heads." He argued, "Within the first five minutes we lost Robin, we're lucky we found him again before anything happened."

Fletcher turned to face Robin, and frowned. Robin had been almost eerily quiet since they had found him, standing alone in a large banquet hall. But at the mention of his name, Robin smiled.

"Yeah, that place was creepy!"

"Creepy is an understatement," Aaron replied with a huff. He spun back around as their vehicles came into view. "Place felt like we were always being watched."

A collective murmur of agreement passed through the group as they climbed into their respective vehicles. As Fletch settled into his motorbike's seat, his system started to reconnect to the Fortrex. The signal had been cut earlier when they had grown close to the castle. It looked like Ava had finally found a way around whatever was cutting them off. He revved his bike to life, and suddenly Ava's voice cut through to him from his ear piece.

"Thank god I got through to you," She started, Fletch could hear the distant sound of rapid typing from her end, "I thought you guys had run into some cyberbyters or something."

"Nah," Aaron replied. Fletch watched as his hoverbike lifted up off the ground, "We got lucky. Looks like whatever was keeping you from getting through to us kept em away."

"Well, that's good to hear."

Across from Clay's mech, the Black Knight mech sparked to life. It moved its arms as if it were stretching, and then Robin joined in on the conversation.

"Have you had any problems? I mean, other than having trouble finding the next power from Merlock."

Ava snorted. "Fuck off. And no, I haven't. It's weird to not see anything from Monstrox for as long as we have. Usually he's after us like a cat on a mouse." She paused, "Did you guys find anything in the castle on how to dispel the virus that turned the vampires into cyberbyters?"

"No," Macy chimed in from Hotspur, "The place was abandoned. Nothing but dust and spiders."

"Creepy."

"I know."

The conversation dulled for a moment as the collective of knights made their way back to where the Fortrex was parked, far in the distance. Jestro broke the silence.

"Hey, uh, Robin?" He started from where he was sitting in Axl's siege tower, "Are you alright? You've- You've been acting a little weird since we entered that place."

Robin's mech stumbled at the question, but recovered so quickly that Fletcher could hardly tell that it had stumbled in the first place. There was a second where he didn't reply, before, "Yeah. I was just kinda overwhelmed with the whole thing, yknow?"

Jestro hummed in response, but Fletcher could tell that he still wasn't convinced. Actually, now that he thought about it, Robin had been acting weird. He was always training, or making weapons. Fletch wasn't sure when he last saw Robin sleep. He leaned forwards on his bike, and sped up ahead of the rest of the group.

A couple more minutes of driving, and the group pulled up to the Fortrex. The banners on the tops of the building lit up, turning from the kingdoms ensignia to Clay's iconic eagle, and the bridge slowly lowered to allow the incoming vehicles into the Fortrex.

Fletch slowed his motorbike to a stop, then parked it. With one smooth motion, he pulled off his helmet and set it on the seat of his bike. Something in the back of the bridge clattered.

At once, the knights went from "get off your bikes/siege towers/mechs" mode to "Oh god there's something in our house" mode. Fletcher pulled his bow off of his back and aimed it threateningly, only to put it back where it belonged with an annoyed sigh as he saw what was making all the noise.

A green haired girl, every inch of her covered in half dried mud, was digging through the scrap metal pile. Aaron, from where he was getting off of his bike, groaned.

"Allie," He started, "What are you doing here? How are you here?"

The girl's head popped up from where she was digging. She sneezed once, and proceeded to wipe her nose with her muddy hands, caking more mud onto her face. She grinned.

"Implyin' that I ever left." She said, standing up all the way, "Lemme tell ya, th' inner workins of this here rollin castle 'r'some of the comfiest darn walls to sleep in. I jus' came out cuz all yer darn dishes 'r'dirty n'I fi'gured I could jus', yknow, use some of this here nonsense as a plate. I git hungry too, despite what ya'll might be thinkin."

Aaron snorted, but didn't say anything, and Allie continued her search for something to use as a plate. Fletch hoped nobody remembered that it had been his turn to do the dishes. He didn't feel like getting a lecture from Clay. Again.

From the scrap pile, Allie gave a triumphant shout and held up a small, semi-flattened piece of steel.

"Lookie here, I got myself a nice new piece o' silverware-" She stopped, eyes locking on Robin, who was climbing down from his mech. The piece of steel clattered to the floor.

"Who in the hell is that?" She asked, taking half a step backwards. Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, me?"

She nodded so fast, twigs that had been lodged in her hair flew out. Macy leaned up against Hotspur and frowned.

"That's just Robin." She said, "You've met him before."

Allie shook her head and took another step back. She shot a fearful glance at Macy.

"Nah, I don't know what in tarnation that is, but it ain't Robin." She dropped onto all fours and darted out of the room, leaving her metal scrap behind. All eyes were now on Robin. The mechanic gave a nervous laugh.

"Wh-what was that about?"

Clay frowned and walked over to Robin, arms crossed. "I dunno," He said, "But that's the most scared I've ever seen her. Are you sure nothing happened back in the castle?"

Robin's face twitched once, like he was debating on saying something, but he settled on a frown that mimicked Clay's. For the first time since leaving the castle, Fletcher could feel some sort of weird magical energy. It was vaguely like the vibe that Robin gave off when he was having a vision, but strangely more sinister. Just as quick as he noticed it though, the feeling seemed to disappear. From the way that Clay's eyes narrowed, it looked like he had felt it too.

"Of course I'm sure!" Robin replied, "I'd tell you if anything happened!"

"Right." Clay said, turning around and walking over to help Jestro down from where he was having trouble getting off of the Siege Tower. "Well, let me know if anything comes up."
Robin nodded, but Fletcher got the feeling like something else was going on. Something that Robin either wouldn't tell them, or couldn't.

(Title is from Settle for Less by Red Vox. Please give it a listen if you can!)