The helicopter carrying the two Master Builders, Agent and *Chimaian eventually left the Darkness Realm and into another realm, that Chase had informed the others that it was his home city; Astor City.

"This is where all of the information comes from and goes through; the agency has been working pretty hard recently with certain…predicaments," said Chase as they soon reached a modern-looking building, with mostly glass exterior windows and walls to give a more 'open office' feel.

"What predicaments?" asked Emmet as Chase stopped moving the helicopter forward and began lowering it, since they were now over the HQ at the centre of the city.

"…I…I think it's better if I were to show you. It's harder to explain verbally," said Chase slowly once he had landed the helicopter on the helipad, the wheels coming into contact with the helipad's surface with a bit of force; enough to knock some files off one of the seats that wasn't occupied.

Getting up from his seat, Emmet saw that one of the files had been opened up when it had fallen off the chair; it had exposed some of the words at the top of some papers, which consisted of 'OPERATION' and what looked like a small diagram that Emmet couldn't see the details of.

Though when he tried to get up and get a better look at the files, Agent Chase got up from the co-pilot seat and grabbed the files before Emmet had a chance to open it.

"That's a need to know bases, Emmet," said Chase firmly, shutting the files firmly and setting them down on the chair, adding, "and it doesn't have information you need to know."

Though he felt a bit hurt that Chase didn't seem to trust him enough to tell him what was in the file, Emmet tried to put it to the back of his mind as he, Wyldstyle and Laval got off of the helicopter after Chase; since they were on the room, they could see most of Astor City in all directions.

Though it appeared to be a bit smaller than Bricksburg, it looked far more high-tech than Bricksburg; there were large screens covering some sides of buildings, like Emmet had seen on some of the larger skyscrapers, as well as helicopters flying through over the city.

"I like this city," he said, turning to look at Chase as he said that.

Chase turned to look at him when he heard the Master Builder saying that, and looked out of the city as well. "Yeah, I guess…"

"I don't like it; too much concrete," said Laval suddenly, breaking the silence that filled the area.

Emmet chuckled lightly at the comment, but Chase made no comment; he simply turned around and started walking away, saying, "We need to get going; there's something we need to do first before we meet with Thunder and Jones."

Raising an eyebrow, Emmet and Laval shared a look between them, as Wyldstyle walked up to Emmet and shared the same look with them; as though they were all silently asking each other if something was up with Chase. He hadn't been this serious when they had met previous; what could have changed since then?

Deciding not to linger too much, the three of them quickly headed after Chase, who had walked down a staircase that went through the side of the helipad, and into the building beneath it.

Though just as Emmet tried to walk down the steps, one of the security guards, that had opened the helicopter, stopped him by stepping in front of him. "Sir, I'm going to need to ask you to come with me," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument.

Wyldstyle pushed in front of her boyfriend before Emmet had a chance to reply.

"We're not here to listen to you!" she retorted, glaring at the stone-like expression of the security guard.

"It's alright, guys; just listen to what they tell you," called Chase from the bottom of the stairs, leaning back so he could look back up at the top of the stairs, seeing one of the security guards blocking the Master Builders and Chimaian from coming down to join him.

Emmet glanced at Wyldstyle and Laval, before he looked aside at the security guard and sighing. "Fine; we'll listen to you," he said finally.

The security guard nodded and said, "Please follow me," as he headed down the stairs; the security guard on the opposite side of the three gesturing for them to get a move on.

The three of them walked down the stairs, though Laval growled at the security guard as he passed him, and the other security guard brought up the rear.

They walked down the stairs and began walking down a corridor, where there were several people behind desks and people walking around, with large amount of papers in their hands.

Chase walked alongside them, looking as though he was trying to hide a limp as he walked. "This is where all the, quote-unquote 'magic', happens; the epicentre, of sorts," he explained, gesturing to all around him.

The three looked around as they walked, before Emmet noticed something; as they passed the last section of glass walls that allowed him to look into the interior of the Agent HQ, they were soon blocked from view when the walls suddenly turned to concrete when they took a left turn.

They began to head down a slope into the bowels of the facility, where there was someone waiting for them; it was a female Agent, though she wasn't wearing the Agent suit that Chase had worn the previous time they had seen them.

She was wearing a pink blazer, with a white shirt underneath. A dark red tie visible through her opened blazer. She was wearing a pink skirt, and strangely, she had pink hair and, even stranger, pink eyes that matched her blazer.

"Who's she?" asked Wyldstyle under her breath, quiet enough so that only Emmet could hear her.

Chase seemed to hear her as well, seeing as he answered, "This is Agent Rosalina Flowe, or Rose for short. She was part of a special forces part of the Agency called the E-Force, though she has worked up the ranks to be my personal assistance."

"Sir," Agent Rose greeted, nodding her head in greeting and nodded slightly in greeting to the three others. She pulled out a clipboard from behind her and began walking alongside the others.

"We've had five more MB's coming in to become logged onto the database," said Rose, scribbling something down and showing it to Agent Chase; who took the clipboard and glanced over it.

"This is good," he said, handing the clipboard back to Rose and continuing to walk; though he stopped when Emmet asked a question.

"What does MB stand for?" he asked.

Chase had stopped walking, and slowly turned around; a hardened expression on his face.

"Try and guess," he answered simply, giving it up to Emmet to figure it out.

Emmet was quiet for a moment, left alone with his thoughts; and since his mind was often empty of any ideas or thoughts, it didn't take him long to come to a guess.

"Melon Bowling?" Emmet guessed.

Wyldstyle face-palmed herself and Laval rolled his eyes slightly.

Chase simply glared at Emmet and Rose giggled softly in amusement.

"It stands for Master Builder, Mr Brickowski," said Rose.

Emmet nodded slightly, before he ran the thought through his head a couple of times; his eyes suddenly widened.

"What are you doing to Master Builders?!" he exclaimed, Wyldstyle and Laval glaring at Chase around Emmet; they were going to get an answer from Chase.

Chase glanced at Rose, making a slight gesture for her to leave them for a few minutes; Rose quietly nodded and headed off, down the corridor and disappearing down one of the rooms.

"You know those 'predicaments' that I mentioned earlier? Well, they involve some Master Builders; ever since the…events-let's call them-that have happened earlier in the year, some Master Builders have…turned. There have been reports of Master Builders, often in gangs, causing trouble for the rest of the worlds."

"To prevent this from getting to out of hand, we've decided that it would be best to catalogue all known Master Builders; which includes you two," added Chase, gesturing to Emmet and Wyldstyle.

The couple shared a glance with each other, before looking at Chase; both looking comprehensive about the idea.

"Don't worry; it's nothing serious. We just need to register you and put some identification chips in you," said Chase, trying to reassure the Master Builders.

Emmet glanced aside at Wyldstyle, before he said, "Alright…if it's something that important, I'll go through with it."

Wyldstyle glared at her boyfriend, as though wondering what was going through his mind when he agreed to go through with this. Though after thinking to herself a bit, she thought, this was Chase, what was the worst thing that could actually happen?

"Good," Chase said, nodding as he and the security guards guided Emmet and Wyldstyle down to the room Rose had just been in.

Laval was left being watched by a couple of other security guards, just to make sure that he wouldn't go anywhere he wasn't allowed to go.

"Uh, Duke…we've got a problem," said Brains, stopping the large, mobile-drill yet again: the sound of the engines grinding to a stop.

"What is it this time?" asked Duke, clearly getting annoyed at this point.

"There's something wrong with the engines; I don't know what it is, but…something's not right," said Brains, tapping some dials to get some accurate readings.

Duke rolled his eyes slightly, putting his helmet back on again as he said, "Let me deal with it…" as he walked out of the control area, picking up his pickaxe as he did so.

"No, no!" said Brains, quickly stepping in front of Duke and keeping him back from getting into the engine room. "The engines; they need to be treated right, if you want them to work. Hitting them won't make it better; if anything, they'll be worse. They need to be-"

"Alright, alright! But I'm coming with you; if it's those Rock Monsters, I'm going to make 'em pay," said Duke, holding his pickaxe firmly as he gestured for Brains to get a move on.

Brains grabbed his toolbox and headed out of the control room, heading into the engine room of the machine, with Duke following behind him to give arms support in case it was anything dangerous.

Heading down into the bowels of the machine, Brains brought out a torch he had gathered on the way to be able to see in the engine room.

"Any idea of what could be wrong with it?" asked Duke, resting the pickaxe on his shoulder as he walked with Brains, looking around the engine room; it had been a while since they had taken the ol' girl for a service, but she was still as reliable as ever.

"It could be a loose fan belt, or it could be an oil leak; I'm not sure. I'm just hoping that it's nothing too serious; there's not much I can do permanently," said Brains, shrugging his shoulder as he got to the engine that was the cause of the problem.

Opening his tool kit, he and Duke froze suddenly when they heard movements coming from the darker side of the engine room; the lights hadn't been working down here for a while, hence why Brains had brought the torch.

"Is someone there?" Duke called, holding his pickaxe with both hands now to have a better hold on it, if it turned out that this person was on the offensive.

Brains hung back a bit, seeing as he wasn't the one that was best with combat, and quickly grabbed a monkey wrench; he had to defend himself with something, didn't he?

"I said, is someone there?" asked Duke, this time a bit louder, as he dropped the end of his pickaxe against the ground, so he could drag it along the ground threateningly as he walked closer to the source.

Silence came from the shadows for a long pause, before some movement came from the shadows; a dim, dark red light coming from the shadows.

Duke held his ground just a few feet from the shadows, saying, "Who are you? Don't try and attack me; I'm armed," as he waved his pickaxe about threateningly.

Silence continued to come from the darkness, before it eventually gave an answer. Though the very tone used sent an unnatural shiver of terror down Duke's normally firm and hardened spine.

"Amusing…how a simple mining figure, could think he could even harm a being from beyond our time itself…with a simple pickaxe…" said the figure in the darkness, before a hand shot forward; it grabbed Duke around the neck and threw him back, sending him crashing back into Brains.

As the two miners tried to get back to their feet, the figure walked out from the shadows.

His clothes looked a bit roughed up, what with his black hood covering his face and his black robes covered with a few holes dotted around it, as well as having dirt scuff marks covering his clothes. Even the dark red light coming from under his hood seemed to be damaged; it was much dimmer than it looked as though it was originally.

Brains scrambled to his feet, and quickly pulled out his scanner; it was letting out a high-pitched warning sound, as Brains read something odd about the readings.

"That's strange; it's saying he's a powerful energy source, but it's not coming up with anything," he said to Duke as the latter got to his feet.

Duke glared at the figure, slamming down the visor on his helmet and ran at the figure, pickaxe raised over his head.

But before he could attack, an arc of red lightning came from the figure's extended hand; it arced over Duke's body, the metal armour conducting the energy and making it worse, tenfold.

Duke grunted and yelped loudly in pain, before he was thrown back into Brains with much more force than the previous time; the two knocking into the metal wall of the engine room, knocking them out.

As he watched the two figures lying unconscious on the floor, the dark red energy covering his hands for a split second longer before, with a distorted, pained grunt, the energy sparked out, backfiring onto the owner.

Shaking it off, the figure walked past the two unconscious figures, and up to the control room. Spying the small case and sensing the energy being given off by the dark grey crystal, he grabbed the contain with the arcs of red energy and picked it up.

As though it was made of butter, the contain started to melt; the only thing left was the crystal that it had been holding.

Though the blindingly bright light started again the second it was released, it didn't affect him in the same way that it had affected the two Power Miners.

"Chaos, I have found you…" said the figure under the hood, slowly levitating the dull-formed, yet bright crystal into his hand.

"One down…two more to go…" finished the figure under his breath, a slit where his eyes should be glowing dark red brightly for a second before it dimed down.

With that, he disappeared through the shadows; moving on to the next crystal.

Damn...stuff's getting serious...Do tell me if you think this is getting dark; I don't actually mean to write it dark :S

Rcdapikachu - Don't worry, I plan on using Robo-Kitty.

BUTT-SMACKER - Oh, you've met him before... :)

FourthMind - All will be revealed...

edger230 - Thanks! I love the support you guys are giving me :D

Nf991 signing out.