Octavia was floating. There was nothing around her except darkness.

Where was she? Was she still alive? Was the Steelix dead? Did she stop it?

Her question was only answered by silence. It was deafening. She hated that it was so quiet. It meant that she was hiding.

The darkness withdrew a bit and her surroundings became clear. She was in the fetal position, sitting on a hardwood floor. Although it was still considerably dark, she could make out gray walls beside her and a wooden door in front. Above her were several shirts and pants, each held on hangers.

The closet, she thought.

It was no longer silent. She could hear him. His footsteps pounded outside the door. She started shaking, hating the fear that was taking up more and more of her mind. Hiding made her feel so alone. Everything around her shut off, all she had was herself.

The heavy footsteps were getting closer.

"Octavia! Get out here, now!" a voice boomed.

She tightened her grip around her knees, bringing them closer.

"You are in big trouble, young girl!" A sudden bang on the wall made her jump but she kept her silence.

Octavia started crying, feeling the tears stream down her face. She hid her face in her knees.

The footsteps stomped outside of the closet, each step making her flinch.

"It's okay," another voice said. This one was devoid of any anger or vitriol.

She looked up. It was herself, the reflection. Its eyes no longer glowed red, only having Octavia's icy blue.

"It's okay. You're strong now," the reflection said.

Octavia took one of her hands that was wrapped around her knees and extended it to the reflection. It reached back.

Their hands mingled and their fingers became interwoven. Octavia didn't feel so alone anymore.

With a shaky breath, Octavia said, "Thank you."

And then-

-Her eyes shot open.

Her vision was met with a gray ceiling. A fluorescent light shined into the corner of her eye and she averted her gaze.

She felt so tired, like she had woken up after taking a nap for too long. No thoughts could make it through the haze that was just beginning to clear.

Slowly, she was able to recognize more. She was in a hospital bed that was adorned with white sheets, her upper back slightly propped up by one half of the bed. On her wrist was an IV, hooked up to some ambiguous clear liquid. She was dressed in a soft blue hospital gown. The color reminded her of her tank top.

Then the memories began flooding back. Vicke. Officer Jones. The Steelix. Her reflection. Had any of that actually happened? Did she actually-

A thought intruded into her mind.

Where's Ace?

She reached down to wear her belt would be and came up blank. Her anxiety spiked.

No. No. No. Ace? Where are you, Ace? Please. Please don't be gone.

She felt her breathing speed up. They were small, shallow breaths that barely gave her any air, making her lungs sting. Her heart raced. Her panicked eyes landed on the door in front of her.

I need to find him.

Her hand went to the IV and ripped it out. She hardly felt any pain.

A hand suddenly placed itself on her shoulder. "Woah, woah, woah. Easy, kid. There's no fire."

Her eyes looked at the hand and traveled upward, finding the face of the person who owned it. It wasn't hard to discern who it was, if his short brown hair and tired eyes were anything to go off of.

Captain Max gave her a calm look. The gesture was small but she could feel her breathing slow and deepen. "You're okay, Octavia. Just slow down," he said, taking his hand off her shoulder.

Taking a deep breath, she asked "Where's Ace?" Her tone was firm.

Max was quizzical for a moment before a spark of realization lightened his eyes. "Oh, you mean that Pawniard you have? He's in the hospital's nursery. All the pokemon that the patients have end up there while their trainers get treated."

His answer allowed her heart to stop sprinting. Ace was okay. He was safe. He was still there.

Octavia felt out of breath, finally feeling the anxiety leave her. She laid back on the hospital bed, the pillow cushioning her head nicely.

"Actually, speaking of pokemon…" Max said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

She looked at him, "Captain Max?"

"Well, to put it simply, good job back there."

Octavia instantly felt confused. "What?"

"Good job. I mean, seriously. It's not often someone can take on a Steelix and come out alive."

"Sir, I-"

"But that was reckless. Really reckless. You could have died. In fact, two people did die. So tell me what the fuck were you thinking when you ignored me and charged in like that?"

Octavia struggled to get her words in line, "I-I uh.. I don't- I wanted to…" She let her voice trail off. Her eyes dropped down, away from him. He was angry with her. Of course he was. That's what happened when you disobeyed your superiors. She thought of the closet, and how fast she could run to it. If not the closet then under the bed. If not the bed then-

"Octavia? You still there, kid?"

Her eyes hesitantly went back to meet his. His expression was angry, but underneath was a level of genuine concern that softened him. Octavia felt her voice come back to her.

"I couldn't just let that happen. If I didn't do something, people would die."

Max let out a sigh and turned away. He took out a hand from his pocket and scratched at his hair. "Well, you certainly did do something," he mumbled.

Memories of the fight played back in her mind. Max tackling her out of the way. Her charge for the stun gun. The Steelix being electrified. Her reflection punching the Steelix into pieces. It all felt unfathomable to her now. Especially her reflection. It felt illusory to her, like it hadn't been there at all.

"Sir, my reflection, did that… actually happen?"

Max looked back at her, "Yes, it did. If there's one thing that I didn't expect to happen this morning, it was someone awakening their aura ability."

"An aura… what?"

He shook his head, "Look, I can't really explain it well but there are people here to see you who can. They've been waiting for you to wake up." He walked across the room and put his hand on the door.

"Can I please see Ace first?" She hated the pleading tone that was present in her request.

He glanced back. "I'm sorry, kid. This is important."

Max pushed the door open and stuck his head outside the room. "You can see her now," he said to someone outside. With that, he stepped away from the door.

The door swung open and two men walked into the room. The one leading was short, even shorter than Max, and had pink hair that covered one of his eyes, only letting one peridot jewel shine in the fluorescent light. The one following close behind was the complete opposite. He was tall, easily taller than Octavia, with short golden hair done up in three braids, two down each side of his face and one longer one down his back. The short one wore a blue cardigan and white pants while the tall one wore a gray suit and red tie. It was difficult to discern whether they belonged to an official organization or the world's most pretentious gym.

The pair stopped just before her bed. The tall one cleared his throat and spoke. "Good afternoon, Miss Aldark. My name is Miles Arthur and this is my associate, Miyuzai Misty. We're detectives of the SDA."

The short one, Miyuzai, gave her a small wave and grin. It hardly improved her mood.

If there was anything that she didn't need more of at that moment, it was things to think about. First it was the memories of the Steelix, then it was Ace not being there, then it was aura abilities and now? Now two men she had never met were talking about an organization she had never heard of.

Perfect. Just real perfect, she thought.

His statement going unresponded, Miles continued. "I'll cut to the chase. Miss Aldark, we-"

"Octavia. Just Octavia, please," she said, not hiding the slight bitterness in her tone.

He nodded and continued. "Octavia, we would like to recruit you to the SDA."

Her eyes bounced between the both of them, looking at them like they were crazy. "Me? Recruited? To the SDA? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"The Supernatural Detective Agency," said Max, cutting in. "An organization that the government likes keeping secret from the public. The SDA specializes in those with aura abilities."

Octavia turned to Max. "Aura abilities? How do you even know I have one? I thought aura was for pokemon like Riolu and Lucario, not for humans!"

Max shook his head and huffed. "Listen, Octavia. I understand why you have some doubt about us. I had the same thoughts when I got my aura ability," he said, looking down at his partner. "Miyu, show her."

Miyu nodded and moved to Octavia's bedside, leaning over her.

"Hello, Octavia," he said. His voice was soft and sweet, much like a girl's. His eyes looked over her body with an almost analytical gaze. They locked onto her hand.

Octavia followed his eyes and looked as well. The place where she pulled the IV out was a deep red and surrounded by a pinkish purplish bruise. The pain from it rushed back to her and she clenched her hand, feeling the spot throb in tandem with her heartbeat.

"Welp, this shouldn't take much time at all!" Miyu said cheerfully, taking his hands and holding Octavia's hand between them.

"Wha- What are you doing?" she asked, a hair-trigger placed on when she would yank her hand back from him.

"I'm healing you all up! I already healed you up when you got to the ER, that's why you don't have any injuries."

Octavia pondered it and realized he was right. Her broken ribs had mended, and she felt no pain from them. Her head, which had been thoroughly knocked around, felt completely fine.

A new warmth brought her attention back to Miyu. He had closed his eyes and relaxed his face as though he were in meditation. On his hands, Octavia could see a faint golden glow emanating from his pale palms.

The warmth spread from Miyu's hands and into her body. It traveled from her hand and up her arm. Octavia looked on in awe as the bruise on her wrist faded back to her tan skin tone and the blood from the injury disappeared completely. However, the warmth didn't stop. It flushed through her body, giving her small tingling sensations as it worked its way through. It felt like her body was going through a thorough cleanse.

Miyu took his hands off of Octavia's. The warmth ripped away from her body and she shivered.

"There we go! All better! Even got some bone fragments in your chest I missed the first time around," said Miyu, giving her a wide smile.

"Could you… give me a second, please. I need to think about this," she replied, looking over her healed hand.

"Take your time!" Miyu replied.

"Or don't, we do have a schedule we're on," Miles stated coldly, "And I'd rather not spend any more of it waiting."

Octavia let herself sink into thought. It was hard to comprehend everything that had just happened. What Miyu had done was unlike anything she had seen before. A wound that would have taken at least a day to look marginally better had completely vanished from her. She wanted to say that her eyes deceived her but it happened right there. Whatever these abilities were, there had to be some truth in what Miles and Max had said.

"So… what are aura abilities?" she asked.

"A manifestation of someone's strongest desires," said Miles, stepping aside to give room to Miyu beside him. "It's not as simple as wanting something a lot, you have to reach a certain threshold of desire in order to obtain one."

"So when my reflection came into the world and destroyed the Steelix, there was something I really wanted?"

Miles raised an eyebrow, "Did you not want anything at that moment?"

"No, not at all, I wanted to be there for Ace but…" She recalled seeing the reflection in the Steelix right before she shot the stun gun into its mouth. "The reflection was there before, in the Steelix before I even thought about Ace."

Miles looked up to the ceiling thoughtfully, "Well, is there anything you really want then?"

She considered the idea but not much turned up. There had been the want to do something against the Steelix but that didn't nearly fuel her desire as much as being there for Ace. Could it have been something more? Something that had been silently growing until it had bloomed at that moment?

She realized what it was.

"I guess if there's one thing I want… it's to know my past. My real parents and all that. I don't know who they are and my foster parents never told me anything about them." She breathed, making sure her voice was steady, "There's always something that feels slightly familiar and I don't know why, like it was part of my life so long ago and so far away.. I.. maybe that's what I want. I don't.. I don't really know.. Sorry…"

The room fell uncomfortably quiet.

Max scratched his chin before looking down at the floor in thought. Miles and Miyu looked at each other, silently exchanged thoughts, then nodded at each other.

"Well, how about this," said Miles, breaking the silence. "If you come work for the SDA, we will help you find your parents."

Octavia perked up, "What? You'd do that?"

"Yep! No problem at all!" said Miyu, tilting his head to the side.

"Don't take it the wrong way," said Miles, "We're low on members and you'd be a great addition. If it means doing some pro bono work, that's fine by me."

She looked over at Max who gave her a tight smirk.

"Kid, I'd love to have you on the brass squad but the SDA is the place for you. You have a lot of talent, you showed that this morning, but I wouldn't be able to bring the most out of it," he said, giving her an affirming nod.

She turned back to Miles, "So… when can I start?"

"Right now, we're leaving," Miles replied abruptly.

"What? Wait-"

"We've already arranged a tour of our facilities. Get ready, your ride leaves in fifteen."

Octavia quickly sat up in the hospital bed and swung her legs over the side, realizing that she still didn't have her belt with the single pokeball on it.

"I need to get Ace first!" she said.

"Then hurry up!" Miles replied, a fierce tinge lining the edge of his voice.

She was dumbfounded at his tone; it had bubbled up out of nowhere. After a moment, she let it go, only replying with a simple "Yes, sir…"

When they had left the hospital, Octavia had assumed they were driving. She was right. Although, she had been under the impression that she would have an actual seat to sit in.

They were in a black van, driving through the traffic-congested streets of Zuheimer. Miles was helming the vehicle with Miyu in the passenger seat. She had been relegated to the benches in the back of the van, the lackluster strip of plastic laid overtop it hardly giving her any support.

At least I'm not on the floor, she thought, struggling to find much to make light of her situation.

The interior of the van did little to comfort her. Aside from the floor and the windows, an array of guns and weapons thoroughly covered every square inch of the van. She attempted to assure herself that all the appropriate safeties were active but did little in the way of convincing. Her body had leaned forward on its own, putting as much room between it and the firearms as possible.

Why the hell do these people need all these guns? What about their abilities? she thought. They had seemed off-kilter at the very least to begin with in the hospital room. Miles had his spontaneous fury and Miyu had something more about him, his cheerful attitude seemed to be laced with something almost devilish.

Octavia touched Ace's pokeball and looked out the tinted window across from her. A few cars passed by of varying shapes and sizes, each of them knowing where they were going to go. It gave her a touch of relief.

Though her relief was short lived as Miles suddenly slammed on the brakes. The entire body of the van lurched forward, carrying Octavia with it. She desperately grabbed the bench and held on for dear life. Her death grip didn't stop even after the van was fully idle.

"Motherfucker!" Miles swore, laying on the horn. "Fucking cut me off again, I dare you, you lobotomized Spinda! Choke on your food, you reject of society!"

Miyu giggled at his partner's frustration at the driver in front of them as Miles began hitting the steering wheel with his hand, a tapestry of profanity being written in excruciating detail.

Octavia had changed her mind. These people weren't off-kilter, not in the slightest. They were crazy.

I'm going to die.

"We're here," said Miles.

Octavia peered outside the window and was met with a small coffee shop, a far cry from what she envisioned a government organization's headquarters might have looked like. Above the entrance to the coffee shop was a large wooden sign that read 'Joltin' Joe's'.

"Here? Really?" she asked.

"Yep!" Miyu replied, looking back at Octavia from the passenger seat, "Had to set it up because of the unwanted attention. We're not exactly the most popular, hehe."

Miles turned the engine off and got out with Miyu quickly following. Octavia stood up, making sure Ace's pokeball was still with her and opened one of the van's back doors. She stepped out and as soon as the door swung shut, Miles clicked the keys and locked it behind her.

They approached the coffee shop, Miles and Miyu walking beside each other while Octavia lagged behind, taking in the little cafe. It had a small flower bed just next to the door and a blue metal lantern hanging above it.

Miles pushed the door open and walked inside, a small bell ringing as the door swung on its hinge. Miyu followed close behind and threw the door wide open, enough for Octavia to step inside.

Contrary to its small entrance, the cafe opened up to the size of a small restaurant. It smelled greatly of coffee grounds with a slight hint of cigarette smoke that she wrinkled her nose at. Against the left wall were booths that had red leather cushions and a dark brown wooden table between the seats. Above each of them was a lamp that gave off a tired yellow glow, reminding her of the interview room she had been in just a few days ago.

Across from the booths was a wooden bar that wore its age on its sleeve, some of the wood beginning to peel at the very bottom. Flush against the bar were a set of accompanying stools, each one with shiny metal legs and a red cushion. Behind the bar was a set of shelves that housed mason jars of coffee beans. Beside the bar was a set of stairs with peeling white paint. A round man with a small patch of black hair on his head but a goatee to make up for the loss was tending to the bar, dutifully washing its top with a rag.

The round man looked up from his work at the trio, his eyes lighting up. Octavia felt it was safe to assume this was the Joe from the cafe's name. Though, judging by his size, she also felt it was safe to assume he wasn't exactly 'Joltin''.

"Howdy gents! Back with our new recruit, I see?" Joe said, wiping his hands with the rag and dropping it ungraciously onto the bar.

"Mhm, she's here," Miles said, walking toward the bar with Miyu and Octavia following. "She'll need to get accustomed to the workplace quickly. Jobs aren't exactly slowing down, not to mention the one I had to put on hold because someone caught the director's attention."

Octavia felt a pang of guilt and a pang of annoyance rose to meet it. Well gee, sorry for not controlling when I got my aura abili-whatever. I'll make sure to follow your schedule next time , she thought sarcastically.

"Aye. Well then, you'd better head upstairs then. Boss man's been waiting on you," said Joe, picking up the rag again.

Miles nodded and walked past the bar, starting up the stairs beside it.

"Thanks, Joe!" said Miyu, bowing. He followed Miles up the stairs.

Octavia took a short glance at Joe before following suit.

The start of the stairway had little more than cracked drywall, its surface scarred with scratches and craters, but quickly turned to a more appealing green wall as the stairs eventually came to an end. They were in a hallway now. The lights above periodically flickered as the group walked down the hall. There were a pair of doors on each side of

the hall every so often but Miles did not turn to any of them.

Eventually, the hallway came to an end. One last door lay ahead of them. Miles opened it and walked inside with Miyu and Octavia behind him.

It was an office. Wooden desks lined the room in a grid like pattern, each one carrying a computer and chair though not many of the seats were filled. Most that were at their desks didn't take any pause as the group came through the door. Those that did gave a fleeting look before putting their nose back to the grindstone.

At the head of the room was one big desk, scattered papers nearly covering its top. Behind the desk was a man with dusty red hair. He wore a maroon hoodie over a gray collar shirt and red tie and was typing away at his keyboard intently.

Miles walked up to the desk, leaving Miyu and Octavia behind, and stood up straight. "I've returned with the recruit, sir."

The man looked up from his computer to Miles and then to Octavia. "Good work. I'll handle things from here, you keep working on your case."

"Yes, sir." Miles bowed and turned ninety degrees to the left. He walked off to find his desk somewhere in the grid.

"Miyu, please bring the recruit over here," said the man, shuffling the papers on his desk around in a half-organized manner.

"Of course~!" said Miyu, grabbing Octavia's hand and dragging her over to the man. They stopped in front of the desk and she caught sight of the man's piercing red eyes.

"Octavia Aldark?" the man asked.

"Yes, sir?" she replied, a pit of unease forming in her.

The man nodded and extended his hand towards her. She reached out with her own and shook it. The pit slowly left her.

The man spoke, "My name is Rusty Linzfield and I'm the commander of the SDA. From now on, I will be your boss. You do not have a choice in the matter.

As quickly as it left, the pit returned. "What? What do you mean no choice?" Octavia asked.

Rusty sighed, "I'm guessing that Miles left out some information when he explained things to you."

"He did," chimed Miyu.

"What information did he leave out?" said Octavia, unconsciously touching Ace's pokeball.

"Let me put it simply," said Rusty, putting his hands on his desk, "Those like you and me, aura ability users, the law doesn't like us. They'd more quickly compare us to the most savage pokemon than an actual person. Are you following?"

"Y-Yeah, I am." She added another finger to Ace's pokeball. It was the only thing keeping her in the moment.

Rusty went on, "When they find us, we're given a choice. Either we work for them, or get thrown in prison. I hardly think you'd want to be a prisoner, right?"

She nodded, barely hearing him. "Sir… I don't think I'm supposed to be here. You see I…" She gave her a head shake and took a deep breath. "I won't impress you with whatever weird abilities I have. I'm- I'm just a normal girl." A battle of certainty and doubt arose in her mind when she said that.

"Well, on the impressing front, you've got no issues." Rusty typed something on his keyboard and dragged the mouse around, clicking it a few times as he did. He turned the monitor toward Octavia. "I trust that you remember at least some of this."

Octavia leaned in to look at the monitor and Rusty clicked his mouse. A video began playing.

Oh my Arceus.

It was security camera footage from the Zuheimer Police Department. Despite its low resolution and poor coloring, Octavia could easily make out the scene. In the video, she had just been flung down the hallway by the Steelix. She watched on in awe as the video went on. Her getting to her feet, then to running at the Steelix, then to punching and then…

It was actually there. The reflection left the Steelix with a flash that painted the camera's footage white. Just moments after the reflection came, it bolted at the Steelix and punched over and over, breaking off pieces. The footage stopped as a shard of Steelix skin shot out and broke through the lens of the camera, abruptly cutting off the footage.

"That was…" she started, feeling the last word get stuck in her throat.

"Well?" Rusty replied.

"I don't even… I don't know how to actually use that…" She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to keep her breath steady. "What… What even am I?"

"Hey," said Miyu. He put a hand on her shoulder. Octavia snapped a displeased look back.

"It's okay. I know what it's like getting a new ability and not knowing what to do." He smiled, "We're gonna help you all the way through it, alright?"

Her displeasement deflated. "Miyu…" she mumbled, taken aback by the kindness Miyu exuded. It wasn't common that someone was this kind to her, aside from Ace.

"Plus, why would we keep a detective that can't even do the thing we hired her to do!" Miyu continued.

Octavia immediately took back her feelings. As far as she was concerned, Miyu was the devil.

"I disagree with the wording but not the statement," said Rusty, turning the monitor back to him. "If you're working here, you need experience and you need it ASAP." He typed something on his keyboard and decisively pressed the enter key. "We'll have our interns move your things from your home to here. Shouldn't take too long."

"M-Move?!" she said, feeling a few pairs of eyes look in the direction of her raised volume.

"Yes, move. The government doesn't like it if, as one minister put it," he drew his fingers up in air quotes, "'dangerous magical demons' are just being left around unsupervised for a good period of time. It's a bunch of bullshit but we hardly get much say in the matter."

Octavia looked down at her feet, feeling emotions rush by her. It was hard to decipher any of them. She felt almost… happy? Her home seldom held fond memories. The only ones she could recall were of her and Ace. She touched the pokeball again. As long as Ace was with her, she could make due with whatever living conditions they had.

"Okay, if I need to move… then I'm fine with that."

Rusty nodded "Well,I believe that's everything for now. I'll get you paired with detective 80, you'll be following her for the rest of the day." He shifted through his papers, looking for one amidst the white sea of sheets.

"80? As in the number?" She put on a skeptical face.

"Indeed. She's working on a rather pressing case right now which should give you some good experience as to what it's like here."

"Where is she then?"

A roar of anger rang out across the room and was shortly followed by hysterical laughter. Octavia turned to look at what was causing the ruckus.

A short, brown haired woman wearing a camouflage bomber jacket was bending over forward laughing. A short distance away, Miles was walking towards the woman and was visibly winded.

"I swear on the legendary pokemon that watch over us, I will fucking kill you," said Miles, closing in on the woman.

"If you can catch me, Smiles!" the woman yelled. She started sprinting in the direction of Octavia and Rusty.

Miles was in hot pursuit. While their paces were nearly even, Miles was beginning to make ground. Every step he took he got the slightest bit closer to the woman. By the time the pair was just a few desks away from Octavia, Miles had nearly caught up and was starting to reach out to the woman.

The woman smirked, shot out her arm and pointed to the left.

In an instant, she was off the main path and against a desk to the left. There was no transition between the events. For a moment, the woman was running and for the next, she was against the desk. The woman stuck out her foot and tripped Miles, who had just noticed his prey's departure from his sight. He fell flat on his face, an angry groan rising out of him.

Octavia was astonished. She had thought that teleportation was only reserved for pokemon. Yet, there was no denying what she saw. The woman had teleported.

The woman was quick and immediately went down and pulled Miles's hands behind his back as if he was being arrested. Grinning, she climbed up and sat on his hands, removing all maneuverability from him. Miles began struggling and squirming, swearing up a storm as he did so. The woman laughed.

"Well, how ya doin' down there, Smiles?" the woman asked.

"... Heavy…" Miles muttered.

The woman gained a tick mark. "Yeah? Well how's this for heavy?" she said, leaning more of her weight on him. Miles grunted in pain.

"80, could you stop embarrassing Miles and come here, please?" asked Rusty.

The woman, 80, huffed and hopped off of Miles. "Here's your pen back by the way. See you, Smiles!" said 80, drawing a pen from her jacket pocket. She gracefully flung it to the spot on Miles's back where she had just come from.

80 walked up to Rusty's desk, a wide smile plastered on her face. "What can I do ya for, boss man?" she asked.

"This is Octavia," said Rusty, gesturing his hand toward the taller woman, "She's our newest recruit and needs experience. I'm pairing her up with you. Bring her out, show her the basics, the whole thing."

Octavia looked down at 80 who was studying her over with a curious eye. 80 held out her hand and Octavia shook it.

"Hiya! I'm Adelaide, but you can just call me 80," said 80 jubilantly.

"I'm Octavia… You can just call me Octavia," she replied quietly.

"Anyway, since it's your first day and all, I don't expect you to do too much. But if you did, that'd be pretty freaking sweet. Basically all we'll do is just work on the case we're focussed on right now. You know, looking for clues and stuff like that. Ooh! Right! The person we're looking for is supposed to just be this monster of a murderer. Like, every time we find the body of a victim, it's hacked to pieces! The murder weapon looks like its a blade of some kind which is really weird 'cause the guys who die always have guns on them. Like, why not just shoot the killer then? But it's also weird because there were always bullets at the scene so they were shot but for some reason the killer still didn't die, isn't that nuts?! Oh shoot, I've been talking for way too long. Heheh, anyway, let's go!" 80 turned around quickly and began walking toward the hallway door.

Octavia was in bewilderment. Hardly any of the information 80 had exploded onto her was actually processed. She stood there, stunned, and looked on as the figure of 80 got smaller and smaller as she walked away.

She looked to Rusty, "Am I… supposed to follow her?"

Rusty looked up from his work and peaked behind Octavia to see 80 beginning to open the door to the hallway. "I believe you are," he said.

Octavia scrambled to chase after 80.