All DSP agents gasped at the sight of the reporter at the center podium. "That's the guy from the news who keeps asking people if they know anything about some vigilante group!" the bluenette exclaimed.

Alice dropped her phone. No wonder he kept asking if I would attend the debate. Joe knew that he would be moderating. But other than the counterfeit goods being possibly connected to Hydron, what's the significance of this debate to him?

Shun picked up and handed the fallen device back to the redhead, who was still staring in complete shock. "Do you know him?"

"No... not personally," she stuttered. "I've only seen him on local television. News reporters don't usually get invited to be debate moderators. I'm shocked...and a bit envious."

"You want to be up on a stage like him right now?"

"I don't necessarily want to be a debate moderator, but the way he works is so... intriguing. My supervisor said that he's freelance, which actually makes it harder to properly claim your income and copyrights for your works, if that makes any sense."

"Basically, he works for himself. If he's truly freelance, then you should be grateful that you found a supportive job in Bayview after moving back."

"More like... I'm envious that he can do whatever he wants without restrictions."

"Maybe he's been working long enough that he's self-sustainable, although I've never heard of him in Bayview until recently. But Alice, you have nothing to be overly envious of. You're in good hands with your current company, even if things are slow at first. I know what I said about you working smaller tasks implied that it was a waste of your talent, but you're doing what you like." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. "Right now, let's focus on the debate."

"You're right. Comparing myself negatively to others does me no good." The redhead squeezed her phone tightly with her other hand. Joe's purposely provoking me with these photos and text messages for a reason. If only I could figure out why...

The moderator organized his papers and asked the first question of the night. "Since both of you are using drastic measures to gain votes from constituents, would you like to express your positions on current voting rights and any measures to improve and streamline the voting process?"

"That was an extremely straightforward question..." Shun whispered.

Hydron answered first. "I think our current voting system works extremely well. Overall voter turnout during every election has always been consistently over three-quarters. We do need to emphasize the importance of voting and civil duties in the younger generation, though."

"I'm glad you mentioned that, because their voter turnout has been consistently below fifty percent!" Jesse refuted. "If you want students to learn about politics as early as possible, then you need to improve the education system so that there's sufficient time and resources for educators to teach about the importance of voting. There's only so much we can do as politicians to increase voter turnout in the younger population. I plan on making voter registration easier for all eligible populations. My first step would be to expand options for voting by mail."

"I can't believe Jesse just interrupted Hydron's response," Alice whispered. "He may be the incumbent and have more political experience, but still."

"I think frequent interruptions will be common throughout the entire debate," the raven-haired agent sighed.

After wrapping up the answers to the first question, Joe asked the second debate question. "What's your response to the current legal and illegal opioid crisis?"

Some of the audience members began whispering to each other. "This doesn't sound like a normal debate question."

"I feel bad for Hydron. He looks completely roasted already."

While stationed in the middle of the balcony seating, Dan covered his yawn and spoke. "I'm absolutely bored. This is only the second question, but Jesse is clearly stealing the show."

"It's not that boring," Runo replied from the eastern balcony exit. "I like Jesse more because he actually provides useful responses, whereas Hydron looks like he doesn't know what he's saying. How's everyone else holding up?"

"Everything's good," reported Baron from the first floor eastern exit.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," answered Jake from the balcony western exit.

"Fingers crossed that things stay that way," replied Rafe from the first floor western exit.

"If Dan thinks the debate is boring, then he can come outside into the hallways," Paige complained. "I'm watching over the one place that has barely any people because they're all inside y'all are."

"You never know when someone from outside might sneak in," Shun explained. "I really want to know who drafted the debate questions. All of these are controversial topics—voting rights, opioid crisis, internet safety, travel regulations, labor laws, and firearm restrictions... Even the normal work volume at the Department of Special Projects doesn't involve that many cases like this..."

"If Joe was able to surprise us all by being tonight's debate moderator, the who knows if he wrote the debate question himself?" the bluenette hypothesized.

Alice processed everything that Shun told his colleagues and asked, "Don't you think that everything Joe asked about relates to your previous cases?"

"Like with Barodius and Klaus? I get why he asked about the opioid crisis and travel safety. Marucho said he had some info about the other cases that Joe asked about on television when interviewing other authority figures. Maybe he's referring to those as well."

"But I don't understand why he's obsessed with asking if anyone knows about some unidentified vigilante group out there. He definitely knows way more than what he lets on."

Now I can't agree more with what both Runo and Alice said. "With his skill set, he could be the one giving us anonymous tips."

"You know, my supervisor opened an anonymous tip line and reactivated the regular help line too. We got a lot of anonymous tips as well, but most weren't useful to—"

By surprise, Joe tapped his microphone loudly before asking the next debate question. "I sincerely apologize for that. I just wanted to make sure my microphone was still working. Here's the next question—how would you rate the current crime activity and law enforcement response?"

"Local police are doing very well in the way they handle isolated cases," Hydron praised.

"The Department of Special Projects has also done an excellent job in neutralizing threats," Jesse complimented. "I fully support providing additional funding to local police as well as DSP."

Dan gagged after hearing the incumbent's comment. "Neutralizing threats? Did he read our minds or what?"

"I don't think he realizes that we didn't truly neutralize any threats," his best friend refuted. "Not a single law enforcement agency has any leads on the snipers from Wardington's courthouse or Bayview Expo Center."

The debate moderator elaborated on his question by asking, "On the contrary, how are local police and DSP handling organized and largescale crimes? We've been hearing more of that on the news than the isolated cases, as Mister Hydron Lyons mentioned."

"That was a threatening statement," Runo muttered. "Joe Brown doesn't seem very happy with law enforcement."

"He also seems like the type of person that would take matters into his own hands," the brunet added.

Dan has a point. Why is every inexplicable concept starting to come together tonight during this debate? While lost in his own thoughts instead of watching the debate, Shun asked Alice, "This might sound insane, but what if Joe is part of the vigilante group that he keeps asking about?"

"Are you serious?" The redhead froze in place as she recalled all her previous interactions with the mysterious reporter. Is there even proof of any vigilante group out there other than Joe's own leading questions? "Shun, I had this same thought before and asked my coworkers what they thought. They didn't have any strong opinions since there's no proof. But now that I think about it, being a freelance reporter would give Joe a lot of flexibility to do whatever and appear whenever he wants."

"If he's part of this vigilante group, then you'd think he'd keep a low profile and not publicize it on air to thousands of viewers on the news. But it's all speculation."

"But if our speculations are true, then he's foiling his own plot. Also, we've all been calling this a vigilante 'group', which implies multiple people. Who else could Joe be working with?"

"Don't get me thinking—"

Suddenly, every single person in the building was interrupted by the notification sounds coming from their phones. An unknown number texted several photos. "Isn't this Hydron?" someone noticed.

"That's his father, Zenoheld!"

"This picture's so dark. What are they doing?"

"Hold on, I also see Mister Lyon's mother in this other image."

"Everyone, please quiet down!" the debate moderator begged unsuccessfully. Joe then opened his text messages to scroll through the photos in question. "Hold on... Mister Hydron Lyons, would you like to explain why you and both of your parents are looking through several cardboard boxes full of purses in the dark?"

The lavender-eyed candidate looked at the images for himself as well. "I don't know what you're talking about! These compromising images are clearly fake and an attempt to ruin my—"

"Are you involved in manufacturing counterfeit purses?"

"That's absurd! Both my parents are law-abiding citizens who—"

"I've never faced an election candidate who has zero experience like you!" Jesse suddenly interrupted. "Just look back at all your responses to previous news interviews and these debate questions. I don't care how much social influence your parents have. You do not run for any election if you cannot do it on your own!"

Runo immediately called Julie's direct line. "We need help. Can you trace who texted all these people at the debate the incriminating photos of Hydron? Here's the number."

The analyst executed as requested and watched her computer screen load results. "This is taking a long time for me to get results. How's the debate? Is it a disorganized mess? Should I call Marucho?"

"Everyone's either looking at their phone or demanding Hydron for answers. It's not a mess inside here yet, but let me ask Paige if the hallways—"

Suddenly, the overhead projector attached to the ceiling turned on and projected onto the white wall behind where Joe stood. He stepped aside as everyone watched the upcoming video. The hidden camera that captured the scene was at ground level, making every person appear extremely tall. "How many more of these do you have?" said one of the people on-screen.

"Isn't that Hydron's voice?" Jesse questioned.

Another person in the video replied to the first voice, "Not much actually. If you want more, then you'd better pay up."

"How much do you want?"

"It's about time that you paid me more. Child labor and fake purses may be cheaper than the legit stuff, but they still aren't free."

"The second speaker sounds like Shadow," Shun noted. "I remember this warehouse as where he and Mylene kept some of the counterfeit purses. This video must be from a hidden—"

At this point, the entire audience was enraged by the photos and video that they rushed onto the stage. "Hydron, we demand answers!"

Runo finally answered Julie's last question. "You'd better call Marucho. The audience is attacking Hydron after an incriminating video just played itself on the projector."

"Girl, what kind of hacker magic is going on?! I'm calling him right now!"

With no other choice, Hydron sprinted through one of the back doors, despite not knowing where he was going. Paige saw the crowd that followed and informed her colleagues. "Hydron just ran outside! I'm running after him!"

"Be careful!" Rafe warned. "The audience is also after him! They're very angry with the photos and video that they saw!"

The chasing crowd continued following Hydron and yelled expletives. "Jesse Glenn will win the election again no matter what!"

"How dare you exploit children for child labor!"

"You deserve to be arrested!"

The blond candidate continued running down various hallways. "Stop following me! I'm just trying to run for office!" He made a right turn down another hallway and conveniently found the janitor's closet. "Perfect! I'll hide in here."

The crowd stopped running after they noticed Hydron was gone. "We're going toward the eastern wing."

"We'll take the western wing then."

"The rest of us will go forward."

Marucho's voice then echoed through all his agents' earpieces. "That was an unexpected mess. Does anyone have eyes on Hydron?"

"I lost him," the pink-haired agent replied. "The audience crowd also split up to cover more ground. I've never seen a crowd of strangers act so synchronized before. Everyone hates Hydron now."

"Thanks, Paige. Meanwhile, every news outlet sent their reporters here immediately for news coverage. How's the situation in the conference room where the debate was held?"

"Pretty much empty since the entire audience went outside," Shun answered. He looked around and saw that Alice was no longer next to him. She disappeared again? Please don't do something stupid this time either... "Does the city hall staff realize what just happened? Do we need to implement a lockdown?"

"I'm calling the mayor now, but no response yet. No lockdown is needed since there isn't an active threat, but you all need to find Hydron as soon as possible. I think the text message hack was only limited to phones inside in city hall. Julie and I are at DSP headquarters but didn't get those texts."

"Wel... the whole world will know eventually. What do you want us to do now?"

"I want Dan and Runo to stay in the conference room. Everyone else will search for Hydron inside the rest of city hall."

"Got it," all the agents replied.

After a few minutes of silence from the hallways, Hydron stepped outside and closed the janitor closet door quietly. "That was uncalled for. I need to find out who texted these photos and rigged the projector to—hey!" From nowhere, a pair of hands grabbed Hydron and dragged him down the hallway into a random room. "Let go of me!"

"You wish," the hooded abductor replied.

"If it's money that you want, then perhaps we can negotiate—"

Hydron's proposal earned himself a gun to his forehead instead. "Not every is about money, kid. You may be new to politics, but you're not new to organized crime. Do you think hiring hackers to cover your tracks and make yourself squeaky clean from what your parents do will solve any problems? The more people you get involved with your dirty work, the more collateral there will be."

"Who are you? Police officers? Mystery hackers? Jesse Glenn's people? DSP agents? Secret vigilantes?"

"All wrong. I'm just a regular citizen who's tired of law enforcement not taking matters seriously." The abductor pulled his hood and mask off, revealing choppy mint hair and gray eyes. "You might've seen me before, but it won't matter because—"

"Ace?!" a third voice exclaimed. All eyes faced Alice as she opened the door. "What are you doing here... with Hydron?!"

The mint-haired reporter's jaw dropped slightly. "How did you find me here?"

"Actually, I wasn't looking for you. I was following Joe and—"

"Alice, move out of the way!" a fourth voice ordered. Although unsure of who it was at the time, the redhead stepped aside and saw Joe run over. He dragged Alice inside, shut the door, and took out a steering wheel lock from his laptop bag. "Farewell, Hydron."

"Wait, what's going on?!"

Gunshot.

"Did any of you hear that?" asked Shun from the front lobby. "I thought security took away everyone's firearms except ours."

"We could have another auction situation on our hands again," his best friend replied. "Everyone, listen up! We might have a shooter on the premises again!"

Meanwhile, everyone in the hostage room remained silent until Alice spoke up. "Did you just...shoot him?!"

Joe was still holding the steering wheel lock when he faced the redhead. "It's over now. No way was I going to let him continue running for the election. Hydron was way too spoiled to realize what he was doing wrong."

The redhead stared silently at the lifeless body on the ground, then looked up at her coworker. "Why did you kidnap Hydron? What's going on? Do you and Joe know each other?"

Instead of answering the redhead, Ace faced the debate moderator instead. "Did you know you were being followed? Now the whole plan is ruined!"

"I'll take the fault for underestimating Alice, but at least we got Hydron—"

Suddenly, a fifth person appeared and pressed a piece of cloth over Alice's nose and mouth. "Guys, stop arguing. Okay to leave the weapon and Hydron's body behind, but make sure to clean up after yourselves."

"Mira?!" was the last thing Alice said between muffles until she passed out.

A few minutes later, Shun and Baron arrived in front of the hostage room. "Master Shun, are you sure this is the right place?"

"Only one way to find out..."

With his pistol in hand, the raven-haired agent introduced himself before kicking the door open. All they saw was Hydron's lifeless body on the ground. "Hey guys, Baron and I found Hydron, but he's unconscious. I need medical assistance."

"No offense, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's dead," Runo sighed.

When their backup arrived and began processing the scene, Shun called Alice's phone. Straight to voicemail again... Standing next to me during the debate wasn't so safe after all. Like last time, he called Julie afterwards. "I need your help again."

"I'm still busy tracing the source of the SMS photos and who could've turned on the projector remotely...but what's up?"

"Same as last time. Can you trace Alice's phone and see where she is? She was right next to me during the debate."

"Shun, this is starting to sound like a recurring issue. I can't keep pinging people's phones you people if it doesn't directly relate to the case."

"What do you mean by 'you people? Did someone else also ask you to do the same thing for personal needs?"

"Uh...let me trace Alice's phone right now." After several keyboard clacks, the silver-haired analyst sighed in disappointment. "I'm out of luck. Alice's last known location was just city hall in general, and I can't even remotely turn it on either. Either her phone's dead, or someone took out the battery."

"I don't think modern phones come with removable batteries anymore, but thanks for trying." He hung up and saw Dan and Runo running over. "You two can take. I've had enough chaos for one night."

-x-x-x-x-x-

After some unknown amount of time, Alice finally woke up after being gagged by chloroform. Mira, Ace, and Joe were all standing in front of her. "What's going on? Do you all know each other?" She looked around and found herself on some rooftop with surprisingly only one hand tied behind a chair. "Where am I? Why are you doing this?"

The guys remained silent as the editor-in-chief asked, "Don't you want to know who murdered your grandfather?"

"Murder?" The redhead glanced at Joe, who simply shrugged. "It sounded crazy at first when Joe explained it to me, but even Mira is saying this now. What you did to Hydron was complete violence. There must've been better options!"

"Mira, I really tried my best," the freelance reporter admitted. "Maybe Alice will listen to you instead."

"I don't think she'll believe that Doctor Michael was murdered until she sees proof," Ace scoffed.

"Guys, calm down," Mira ordered. "Alice, I'm sure you know better than anyone that the investigative work you did overseas cracked a lot of open cases, but it also got you in dangerous situations. Your grandfather did the same type of work here. Unfortunately, it appears that murdering your grandfather was their only way to lure you out of hiding and back to Bayview."

"Who are 'they'? What do 'they' want from me? What's your involvement with all this? Are you guys the so-called vigilante group?"

"Investigative journalism isn't glamorous at all. Sometimes we do more work and accomplish more than local law enforcement can. Your only way to stay safe is to work with us. There are some powerful people other there with secrets to hide. Our job is to expose and neutralize those threats for the greater good."

"But violence isn't the answer! Even after my work was done, I handed everything over to the police so they could properly charge the suspects accountable for their actions."

Mira extended her hand to Ace, who handed over a touchscreen tablet. "This is what we found on the dark web. You have a target on your back that you never knew about."

"How do I know that you didn't create this website to gaslight me?"

Joe whispered to Mira, "She said the exact same thing to be before."

"And you texting her directly is the reason why she was able to ping and find you inside city hall," the editor-in-chief scoffed. "Alice, this hit on you isn't recent news. Your grandfather found out and wanted to help but got killed along the way. Remember the first day you returned to Bayview? That stab-and-run was no accident. I know you won't rest until you get revenge on Lync for assaulting you, but has DSP made any progress in finding him?"

"No... but what you're doing won't solve any problems either."

"You're right, but at least it'll stop these people from advancing further. Ace, Joe, and I have been working closely against these powerful people. You've seen what happened to Julio, Klaus, and Hydron...just to name a few examples. We're prepared for the possibility of having a hit placed on us. In your case, you've been working solo and doing multiple people's work at once."

"I just don't think that executing or assassinating guilty people is a sustainable idea."

"Long story short, you're either with us or against us. What's your choice?"

Alice breathed deeply as she processed everything that she heard. How did I end up in this situation? If I didn't ask Julie to ping Joe's phone, then I wouldn't be here. Joe was very straightforward about his intentions, but also purposely omitted some details to increase my curiosity. Mira and Ace haven't done anything harmful to me. However, they don't seem to like how local police and DSP aren't doing their jobs quickly enough. Will their existence put Shun and the others in danger? "Fine, I accept your offer."