Staring into the flames that now danced throughout the shop, he counted the charred bodies that lay on the floor. Five... six... maybe eight, plus whatever were still engulfed in the fire. Maybe a dozen total, if he was lucky. He closed his eyes and sighed. No, not if he was lucky... if he had been, nobody would have died.

Catching sight of a security officer rushing over to help who was, for some reason, handcuffed to a scruffy teen with a blue ponytail, he quickly turned and walked away from the destruction. There was nothing else he could do here, and being noticed would just raise questions that didn't need to be asked, and would most likely end in even more death. That had to be avoided, no matter what.

Sliding his hands into his pockets and stalking off into the darkness, his voice came out as a low growl. "I will stop you, no matter what."

Her feet propped up on the table and chair resting on the two back legs, Meredy chewed absent-mindedly on a wad of bubble gum as she hummed along with the lyrics coming out of her headphones and tapped the keyboard on her laptop in time with the beat.

On the other side of the room, Chat was sitting on the couch and piecing together a CAGE prototype. "Hey, Meredy?"

Meredy leaned her chair further and tilted her head back, looking upside-down at her friend and blowing a bubble.

"Do you think it's fair for me to be helping you with this?" Chat wondered, tightening one of the miniscule screws. "I thought you and Keele were having a competition to see who could get done first."

"Yup! Keele's a programmer like Meredy, he needs help on the mechanical stuff too!" She said brightly, somehow without the inflated gum bursting.

"Are you sure? I mean, you've introduced him to me, but I've never even heard him mention anyone else in the Inferian Complex. Does he even know an engineer?"

The bubble popped and Meredy stared at her for a few moments before speaking. "Chat thinks... Keele doesn't have any friends?"

"I don't know. He sure doesn't seem like the social type to me... and you haven't heard him mention anyone else, have you?"

Meredy's chair dropped back onto four legs as she took her feet off the table and set aside the laptop. Striding over to the large console on the wall, she began pushing buttons.

"Um... what are you doing?"

"Going to ask if Keele has friends." She replied simply, bringing up the phone menu and selecting the first name on the list.

"You can't just ask someone that!" Chat exclaimed. "Especially not someone that grouchy!"

"Yup. Easy question, just four words." Meredy said as the ringer chirped a few times.

"That's not what I mean! It's-"

Keele's face flickered onto the screen and before Chat could stop her, Meredy blurted out; "Does Keele have friends?"

There was a second of silence before Keele spoke. "This is Keele Zeibel's residence, I'm either not home right now or ignoring any calls. If this is Meredy, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If it's Chat, I will too, since it's probably regarding a mechanical fix and I'd rather not get blown up again. If it's Farah, most likely calling to accuse me of something, I would like to state here and now that whatever it was, I didn't do it and you need to stop blaming me for every little problem. If you're someone else... you probably have the wrong number and are a complete idiot to have listened this long. That is all." The screen flicked to black with "Would you like to leave a message?" written in green flashing in the center.

Pressing no, Meredy turned and grinned at Chat. "Farah."

Chat shrugged. "Okay, he knows someone called Farah, it sure didn't sound like she was a friend though."

Frowning, she turned back to the console and punched in another set of commands. A two-dimensional top-down map of the Inferia Complex appeared on the screen, though if it wasn't for the name in the top left corner, it would have been impossible to tell the difference since it had the same design as Celestia. Meredy tapped the screen and it zoomed in on a residential section.

"What is all this?" Chat asked, joining her at the console for a better look.

"Inferia security map readout, Meredy can see where everyone in the Complex is in real time. See?" She pointed to a room on the map with two dots in it. "This is Keele's room."

"This can't be legal... though it explains why he didn't answer... he has company. Guess you were right, Meredy, he does have a friend."

She nodded, thought for a moment, then a sly grin crossed her face and she began typing in more commands.

"What are you doing...?" Chat asked nervously, knowing it was never a good sign when her friend got that look on her face.

"Meredy wants to see Keele's friend and test her new security camera hack."

"Hack? Hold on a second! I don't want to be caught up in your illegal activities! I've got a reputation to think of!"

"Meredy isn't doing anything bad, she's just curious. Here!" A window popped up on the screen, showing Keele on the floor of his apartment under a woman in a security uniform, his voice coming from the speakers.

"...you're that hell-bent on it, have your way with me. Just make it quick, I have..."

Chat's face went bright red and she smacked the disconnect button on sheer instinct, making the sound and picture vanish. "Oh yeah, he definitely has a friend."

Meredy continued to stare at the screen with a look of shock on her face and her mouth hanging open just enough that the gum in it was threatening to topple out onto the floor. "Not the first..." She mumbled, walking over to her laptop and dropping back onto the chair by it. "Meredy wasn't the first..."

"Are you okay, Meredy? I mean, I know you said you liked this guy, but... he lives in the other Complex. Not exactly relationship material." Chat tilted her head as Meredy closed her current coding project and began working on something new. "Meredy?"

"Meredy has to know who was the first and tell Keele." She said simply, tapping away on her keyboard.

"Okay, you're starting to creep me out a little. Hacking into security systems is one thing, but you know stalking is bad too, right?" Chat waited for a few seconds, but got no reply. "Meredy!"

"Baiba!" Meredy exclaimed, putting her laptop back down and getting up again. "Please Chat, Meredy needs time alone. She can't focus and talk, finding the first is important!"

Chat wanted to argue, but decided against it. There was just no making the girl see reason once she was set on doing something. "Alright... I'll let you work for now. Let me know what you find?"

"OK!" She said brightly, grabbing her laptop and going over to the couch.

Heading out of the apartment, Chat sighed as the door closed behind her. "Meredy's my best friend and Keele might come off as a jerk, but having her fixation isn't a fate I'd wish on anyone. Poor guy."

A man's voice chimed in."Ah, so our eccentric genius has herself a little crush?"

Chat jumped a little, taking note of the muscular, green-haired man that was nearly twice her height. "Geez, don't sneak up on me like that, Max!"

Max just laughed. "Sorry, sorry. Wasn't trying to scare you."

"Yeah, right." She muttered, having gotten surprised by him so often that she knew he couldn't be doing it by accident anymore. "I'd say it's more of a little obsession than a crush, you know Meredy can get."

"Yeah." Max grinned. "Who's the lucky guy?"

Chat gave him a shrug. "Doesn't matter, he lives in the Inferia Complex. She's getting worked up over nothing."

"A long-distance relationship, eh?" Max scratched his short beard thoughtfully, then gave her a wink. "You'd be surprised, with the right person and motivation, those sorts of things can really pay off."

She arched a questioning eyebrow at him, but he didn't elaborate, choosing instead to turn and head off down the corridor.

"I'm starved! Care to join me for a bite to eat, Chat? My treat!" He called back.

Giving his back a frustrated look, Chat hurried after him. "Alright, but you better not start talking with your mouth full again! I needed a shower after the last time!"

"Not right. Not right at all." Meredy mumbled to herself over the rapid clicking of her keyboard and rough chewing of her gum. "Meredy should have been first... maybe second... but third? No, not right... Meredy has to find them, talk to them, stop them if she can. Even by force if she must. For Keele."