Aaron rode on his hovershield, helmet visor flipped down to shield his eyes from the fast moving wind. That, and any bugs that decided to fly into his face while he flew past. In the distance, the Fortrex grew larger and larger as he grew closer and closer. He leaned back on his shield, slowing it, before hopping off.

So far so good. Everyone had been too busy lately to ask where he went every few nights, but with the slow in activity from Montrox, he knew he could only continue to visit his new friend for so long. He smiled to himself as he thought about them.

They were like Romeo and Juliet, but with less death and more vampires. The way that they had had their hair pulled back into a long braid tonight was super good looking too. Aaron slung his shield over his back and hummed to himself.

"Ya have fun on yer date?"

Aaron jumped about a foot in the air, then looked up at where the voice was coming from. Allie sat on top of the Fortrex, watching Aaron from above. She chewed on a toothpick thoughtfully as she studied his every move.

"Date?" He asked, half laughing, "Who said I was going on dates? I'm just going on missions."

Allie snorted at him and pulled the toothpick out of her mouth, "No you ain't. Th'only time ya come back to th'Fortrex lookin like a sun wearin sunglasses is when ya come back from yer dates w'Axl. But y've bin comin back lookin like that w'out Axl. They're dates. I ain't no fool."

Aaron huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Am I that easy to read, or are you just super good at reading people?"

"Like I'd tell ya that!"

And then she ducked behind the balcony at the top of the Fortrex, hiding herself from Aaron's sight. He half snorted, then opened up the bridge of the Fortrex by punching the button with one hand. He would never understand her. And honestly, he didn't really want to.

As the bridge slowly opened, Aaron found himself staring at Robin who was, for lack of better terms, staring creepily into space. His eyes were wide and unfocused, and his mouth was half open. It almost looked like he was talking to himself.
Aaron waved a hand in front of his face, then frowned.

"You ok dude?" He asked.

At once Robin snapped back to reality with a shake of his head.

"What? I mean. Yeah, yeah I'm fine." he turned, almost tripping on his pant legs, "No worries. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Aaron put a hand on Robin's shoulder, holding the younger knight in place, "I know people have been saying it a lot, but you've been acting really weird lately. If you need to talk, I'm here."

Robin wrenched his shoulder free and made his way towards the back of the bridge. "I'm fine," He snapped back at Aaron, "Really. Just leave me alone and I'll be fine."

Aaron huffed at Robin's tone, but didn't say anything. If that sort of attitude persisted, Clay would be the one to bring it up. That was a family issue and absolutely nothing that he wanted to involve himself in. So instead of pressing the issue, he simply put his shield and armor up before heading into the common room.

At the console sat Ava, and at her side was Fletch, watching her like a parrot. Every now and then Fletch would say "now". It was a… confusing ritual to say the least. Aaron walked over to lean up against the podium where Merlock 2.0 should've been.

"What're you guys doin' over there?"

Ava didn't look up from where she was typing when she replied, only waved a hand in recognition. "Fletch is using his magic to help me figure out where there are bugs in the system. Nothing too terribly exciting, I'm afraid to say."

He snorted, then looked up at the ceiling where dull thunking sounds were coming from. Allie must've gotten into the ventilation system again.

"You gonna get her out of there?" He asked. Ava shook her head.

"No. I don't really care that she does it as long as she doesn't start chewing on the wires that connect the Fortrex together again."

A pause.

"Where did she even come from anyway?" Fletch asked, "Why don't you guys just kick her out?"
"We've tried," Aaron responded, crossing the floor to stand on the opposite side of Ava's chair, "From dropping her off where we found her, to using magic to cast a barrier around the Fortrex, none of it's worked. We're stuck with her."

A hum of agreement came from Ava, and then she gently lifted Fletch's hands away from the console.

"Alright," she said, "Get out of here. I'll let you know if I need anything else."

Fletch nodded and left with a wave. From where she sat, Ava let out a long sigh, then put her face into her hands. For the first time in a long time, Aaron got the sense that she was overwhelmed with her work. He sat on the edge of the console and crossed his arms.

"Somethin bugging you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She huffed and gestured vaguely at the screen.

"This. All of this. Something really bad is going on and I'm not even sure I can tell you what it is."

Now that had Aaron concerned. With her stressing and Robin snapping at him, as well as Allie… doing whatever it was that she did, his head was starting to hurt. Aaron felt a nap coming on.

"What do you mean you can't tell me?" He finally said after a second of thinking, "Is it a girl thing? Cuz you know I don't really care. I told you-"

"No! God, no it's not- why would you-" Ava sputtered at him before turning back to her console so that she wouldn't have to look at his stupid face, "No. It's not. Here, let me check something."

She flickered through each of the Fortrex's cameras before settling on one that was directly aimed at Robin, who was working in the bridge alone. But his movements weren't as quirky as they normally were. He moved slowly and thoughtfully. Aaron chewed at the inside of his cheek anxiously. It was almost like Robin was an entirely different person when nobody was looking.

"Ok, that's kinda creepy." Aaron settled on, "But why are you showing me this?"

Ava sighed and pulled back up the program that she had been working on with Fletch. All the numbers, Aaron couldn't exactly wrap his head around it. But he was able to notice how different these number patterns were from the ones she usually used. Certain lines were highlighted in red, and every now and then an error message would pop up.

"The program that I've been working on to find Merlock's powers that he left for us has been… Well, put simply, it's been failing horribly. At first I thought it was just my mistakes. But look," She pointed at a section of the numbers that was changing, "Someone is actually coming in through our servers and changing what I've written. I was lucky to have caught it before things got worse, but the new problem is that whoever is doing this took down my tracing system first."

She gave Aaron a look as she closed out of the program, but kept the camera on Robin up.

"There's only one person who's had personal experience with my tracing system."

At once, all the things that she had just said started to click into place in Aaron's head. He stared at Ava, and then at the screen.

"You don't think Robin is doing this, do you?"

She let out another sigh and shook her head.

"Honestly, I don't know what I think at this point." Ava said, "Part of me says that he'd never do anything like this, but the other part… Well the other part is scared. If Robin turned against us, there's a 100% chance that we'd lose against him. Lose against anything he would throw at us."

Aaron inhaled sharply. Ava was right. With all the knowledge Robin had about both the Fortrex as well as just building in general, they would be like gnats against a flyswatter. Monstrox would be nothing compared to the damage that Robin could do to them if he wanted. Aaron chewed on one of his thumbnails, eyes glued to the screen.

"Do you want me to say anything about it to the others?"

Ava shook her head, "No. If we're wrong about anything, then it could mean bad consequences for all of us. Just. Please keep an eye on him for me? Watching him all the time and trying to get this system to not shut down completely is tiring."

Aaron nodded and patted her head a couple of times before giving her a thumbs up, then leaving. He knew she said not to do anything, but there was one thing that he wanted done. He'd have to ask Axl about it later.

((Smashing Pumpkins this time! Song title is Bullet with Butterfly Wings))