Situation rooms. Command centres. CICs. Police offices. For fans of the thriller or procedural, these liminal spaces were places of fantasy – a private space without feeling intrusive, or a workplace without the propriety of a business. This was where audiences could live out their childhood fantasies of putting post-it notes on walls, or rolling out a map on a long table before defacing it with a marker.

In essence, it was a space few believed they would ever have for themselves, unless they joined the army, or perhaps a start-up that still had its enthusiasm.

Mochizuki was neither, though its hangars exuded a certain air that captured shades of both, and one in particular doubled as a warehouse during lean years. Presently, it contained a very familiar FOORKS-model car.

It was surprising how fast Phaethon had been permitted a workspace of their own, even if it consisted of even more whiteboards and cheap tables assembled next to the car, whose back had been opened up to vomit out all manner of computer towers and monitors, all hosting a veritable carpet of cables that had been hauled over to hook the equipment into Mochizuki's network. Eous was presently perched atop this melange, eyes shut as it rested atop a charging pad built for its kind.

Beyond all this, however, was the rare opportunity to tape a topographic map of the Hollow against the side of the car, one that Belle privately relished – it was, after all, a fulfilment of a personal fantasy.

That, however, was quickly quashed as she turned her attention to the Mochizuki executives, who were waiting for her input.

"-Nora, runway's busy, so don't clear CI-30 for taxiing yet. Coolboo, Teaboo, double check which flight's been out the longest and which hangar won't be occupied in-"

Well, most of them. Queqiao's mind seemed ever detached from her body, grounded only by the countless radios strapped to her, including the one she had just ripped the jack out of, the plug being inserted into yet another in a smooth and practiced motion. She flipped a switch, and raised the radio to her lips.

"-Delay FO-15 for the moment, just let them sit and drink coffee, the mail can wait-"

"So…" Belle drawled, eyes slowly drifting back to the group arrayed before her. "In summary, you think the Terminals are artificially expanding Hollow RGFA-56, and maybe even hiding in there. But you don't know how to find your way in there, so you want us to lead you to whatever it is they have so you can break it, then come back out."

Mia nodded. "That's about the gist of it. Of course, I can hear the 'it's more complicated than you think' tone in your voice, Belle."

"-Robert, I'm going to leave YB-12 with you-"

Wise, standing nearby with his arms folded, sighed, eyes closed in contemplation. "Proxies don't guide with a magical sixth sense. Even if we charted a course manually, we'd still need the most up-to-date data of the interiors. Data collection piles usually handle that, but we can make do with scans, camera footage and similar in a pinch. Was the Hollow formed over a building? Or an oil field out here?"

The assembled Mochizuki members hummed to themselves for several moments. With the way Mia and Stella furrowed their brows harder than ever, it seemed even they were drawing blanks. Queqiao, meanwhile, turned her attention away from matters in the distance to return to the immediate vicinity, craning her head back to throw a glance over her shoulder.

"-Some charts from way back show some roads going in and out of the Hollow, but RGFA-56 has been around long enough that the desert's eaten them up and destroyed them, there's no telling what used to be there."

The rest of Mochizuki, along with the Proxies, shared a glance, as Queqiao simply watched soundlessly before immediately losing interest in the meeting, removing yet another radio from her bandolier as she walked away.

"Nora, CI-30 should have an outgoing path now, guide it over-"

Wise placed a hand to his chin, formulating. "We'll need to install new data piles to survey the interior before we go properly looking around for the Terminals. This is going to be a multi-phase plan."

Mia's eared raised, twitched, flattened out as her eyes darted between the two siblings. "As long as it doesn't take too many steps," the Thiren aceded, though not without a hint of concern. "If we take too long…"

"It won't, but this first phase can't have any cut corners, or we'll waste more time getting lost in the Hollow."

"The smallest Hollow exploration teams come in groups of three for safety," Belle said, changing topics. "If you're coming, Mia, it'd be best if you take two more with you. We'll of course, be providing live support from right here."

"You'll need me and my two kids, anyways," Queqiao interjected as she switched off her walkie talkie, and tilted her head in the direction of her two Bangboos, who watched off to the side with idle curiosity. "Until we have the data, Beef and Basket can provide some limited surveillance."

"The Hollow isn't going to play nice with paragliders, you know," Belle advised, suppressing a frown. Bangboos were an omnipresent factor in Hollows alongside Ethereals, Agents, and Proxies, but they sometimes were a warning sign of amateurs who believed they were a universal answer to personal incompetence.

Queqio allowed herself a knowing smile. "Don't worry. My kids know plenty of ways to fly."

Meanwhile, Kessler shrugged, sliding his hands into his pockets. "I'm not going. Your shit's jacked into our power, so I'll be spending your entire trip making sure it's not an electrical fire about to happen."

"I'll go, then," Stella simply said.

"So," Belle concluded, steepling her hands, "if that's our Hollow team decided on, I'll provide support. All you need to do is bring Eous and the Data Piles when it's time."

"Huh." Mia murmured at the surprising brevity of instructions, before frowning in confusion. "Just those? You don't use any more equipment when inside the Hollow?"

Belle winked, "It's a kind of magic. You'll get to see how Phaethon does navigation."

"A surprise. How terrifying," Queqiao said, bemused, before a squawk on her walkie talkie came through, making her bring her sleeve mic to her mouth. "Westley, Teaboo has the schedule, ask it."

With the amount of equipment required for the upcoming expedition, plus the distance involved, it was only natural that Queqiao and Stella drove out to the periphery of the looming Hollow in an open jeep, its folded down backseats and bed housing various wrapped parcels. Beef and Basket sat atop this teetering pile of packaging, cheerily enjoying the wind in their faces. Mia, meanwhile, rode out on Arsh as always.

With a quiet ride ahead of them, broken only by the hum of the engine and the steady drumbeat of Arsh's gallop, there was not much else to do but to dust off that old immortal pastime of the work-free worker – engage in scuttlebutt.

"So," Queqiao, air traffic controller turned impending Hollow diver, broke the ice as she nursed the steering wheel, keeping their transport on course. "Think they're really Phaethon?"

It was just pure curiosity similarly driving the query, the airiness of her voice lending neither condemnation or acceptance.

Stella looked down at her lap. There, nestled in her arms, was Eous, eyes shut and resting, and she wondered if Belle and Wise were listening.

"There's a game of telephone going on," she diplomatically suggested. "Kessler says that Caesar says that they say…which of them would you blame if they turn out to be wrong?"

"...Kessler."

"Kessler."

Queqiao had to laugh, and even Stella's lips curled upward for a moment, before Mia's tinny voice cut its way into the hot air from the radio taped to the jeep's dashboard.

"Sparing our poor engineer's feelings aside, I have a good feeling about these two. Whether or not they're Phaethon… here they are, sticking their necks out for us like this and asking for nothing but a simple fee!"

Queqiao gave Stella a look. "Fair point, you know. Not often you get a pair of hands who look like they can put their money where their mouths are."

The blonde snorted. "Anyone can talk the talk these days."

"You and Kess are more likeminded than you think."

"All I'm suggesting is that they have to prove their credentials when push comes to shove. No sense placing too much faith in unproven variables – we all know what's riding on this."

"Well," Mia offered, undeterred in her optimism, "I think they're undeniably nice people who are perfectly willing to help us. They'll do our best for us. I think that's all we can ask for."

Stella sighed, leaning back into her seat and looking up into the blue sky. "They'll need to be more than nice, or willing – they'll have to be able. The Hollow isn't going to pop as a consolation prize for effort."

As if on cue, Kessler's own voice piped up on the radio.

"Girls, how close are you to the Hollow?"

Mia, overhearing, sat up from her riding position, allowing Arsh to stroll onward independently. Reaching into one of the pouches installed on the sides of the seat, she pulled out a rangefinder and brought it to her eye.

"Just a hundred metres left. We only need to drive right in."

Kessler thumbed the transmission switch on his walkie talkie, leaning back to look over his shoulder at the pair who called themselves Phaethon, busying themselves with preparations.. "Right. Dynamic duo's about ready to do their Proxy shit, which I have no idea how any of this works."

While he knew a lot about how to run a line, build a scaffold, and fix an engine, when it came to Hollow diving gear handled by the HIA or HAND, it may as well have been a unicorn. Computers interfacing with the malign powers of an alternate dimension? Good luck explaining that to him – and when seen through the lens of the jerry-rigged substitutes a Proxy used, like the stacks of computers and peripherals Wise and Belle were currently hovering over, Kess could only trust that Caesar knew how to pick her Proxies.

Belle sat down in front of the main monitor, and took a deep breath as she looked at the bland blue screensaver. "Wise, all good?"

"Good connection, minimal latency. Mochizuki's not fighting with anyone here for the airwaves." Wise

Nodding, Belle spoke to the air. "Fairy, are you there?"

A familiar, metallic voice suddenly emanated from the laptop's speakers. "Affirmative, Master. The networking capabilities this facility provides me with will allow me to support you adequately."

"Fairy, be nice."

Kessler stared, his head wheeling to car and back, and a fresh cigarette dropped to the floor, unlit.

"…Did your car just talk?"

Belle pushed past his comment, all business. "We're ready. The team can enter. I'll be working live through our Bangboo."

As Kessler relayed Belle's instructions, the Proxy centered herself, reached deep into her mind, and flicked that internal switch that had parts of her thrum to life. The blue light of her ocular implants burned bright, interfacing with the Hollow Deep Dive System.

"Holy what the fuck-"

The engineer, as always, had the last word, matched only by the small snort of Wise's amusement, and with that Bell felt the familiar sensation of … leaning? Falling? Pulling? However described, it was like her face was being dragged through the screen, traversing airwaves and electric signals until it pressed up against a cold mask, and through those eye holes, she saw double.

After a few cursory blinks, Belle was no longer inside Mochizuki Machinery's hangar.

Instead the desert sand crunched under her stubby feet, and above the blue sky was tinted with a glassy, crystalline sheen, as if she was trapped in a snow globe – which wasn't far from the truth.

Hollow RGFA-56 had the initial impression of a "standard" infestation. The land took the template of a desert community and repeated it ad nauseum and ad infinitum, with repetitions of crags, collapsed house, abandoned gas stations, and warehouses spreading across the interior of the realm, a desolate sameness punctuated only by the jagged black crystals of Ether that rose into the air at awkward angles, their cracks glowing with fluorescent radiation.

A flash of disorientation hit her again as she saw Stella, Queqiao, and even little Mia tower above her, monolith-like, vertigo almost setting in as Belle all of a sudden had to crane her neck up to look at her clients, before realizing:

Ah, I'm in Eous's body.

A quick intruding thought cut the dysphoria short, letting the years of experience pour back in and let Belle remember why she was here.

"Is everyone alright? No problems entering the Hollow?" The synthetic echo of her voice exiting the diminutive Bangboo body was enough to give the newcomers that age-old look of first-time surprise.

"Belle?"

Stella, taken by curiosity, shared a look of quiet, subdued astonishment with Mia before she slowly and carefully prodded at Eous' faceplate with a gloved hand. "Is that really you?"

"What, were you expecting someone else?" The Proxy couldn't help but joke, Eous's digital eyes winking in amusement.

Queqiao strode over, intrigued, and crouched down, laying an arm across her knees while a free hand pulled down her sunglasses to stare at – almost right through – Eous's small frame.

"You're taking over Eous? What happened to the original consciousness? Is it safe?" Queqiao probed further, staring hard at the Bangboo with what Belle thought might have been concern.

The Bangboo promptly raised a stubby hand, its eyes widening. "It's better to say our senses are running in parallel," Belle explained. "Eous is just permitting me to have first say on how to move its body."

There was a lot more to that explanation, but it would require whole academia to explain – something sadly in short supply.

"You will take care of it, right?" Queqiao asked, and this time Belle was sure it wasn't so much as a question as a warning. Anyone could own a Bangboo or two, but it seemed she was the rare breed that actually took that responsibility seriously.

Belle frowned with her Bangboo's eyes, little arms planted on her hips defiantly. "Eous is irreplaceable. I'm not the sort of Proxy… hell, I'm not the sort of person who'd sacrifice a Bangboo for convenience."

Queqiao remained crouched, her gaze level, seeming to scrutinise Belle all the more closely, and just as the distant Proxy began to feel herself starting to wither beneath the intensity of her inscrutable expression Queqiao shrugged, rising back to her towering height. "I'll hold you to it."

As she walked off back to the jeep, Belle felt the ears on Eous' body twitch, and received a signal Fairy pushed all the way through the wall of the Hollow via the Bangboo.

"Ladies, just to warn you, whatever it is the Proxies are doing, it just spiked our power use by a few percentage points," Kessler's voice gravely warned. "I just had our electricity budget this month figured out, so maybe get those Data Piles handled before I get another headache."

Mia blinked, before frowning as she brought her radio up to speak. "...Okay? I mean, I understand that it's important… but is it mission-critical?"

"Birth, death, taxes and utilities are life's four constants, little Mia. Having less to spend is always critical. Who knows how you'll cope if this continues – I hear Tin Master's Premium is due another price hike."

Mia felt her throat turn dry, paling even under the sun's relentless glare.

"Don't you dare jinx that-"

"Don't get impatient, Kess," Stella added tersely, having finished tying her hair into a bun before unclipping the bubble helmet from her waist to slot it into the ring collar of her spacefaring suit, fully sealing her inside. "We'll be on our way."

Belle could feel the slow building of tension in the team, their stances firming up and their banter mixing further with ever studious reporting and activity. Queqiao had all the while been pulling the tarp off the back of the jeep revealing a trio of inert Data Pile columns, among other objects hemmed in by steel frames.

The Proxy's view was cut off by Queqiao's two Bangboo, who had waddled up to her to extend their friendly greetings.

The cowprinted one spoke first, bobbing up and down excitedly.

"En-nah-nah! Nauh!" (Hello! We're Mister-and-Missus-Beef-And-Basket!)

The Bangboo clad in the sweater bowed courteously, beaming all the while.

"Nuaah!" (My husband and I look forward to flying with you! Hollows are so interesting!)

…Huh.

All the way in Mochizuki Machinery's warehouse, Belle still couldn't help but raise a fine brow, but shrugged. Curious indeed – but what difference did it make, in the end?

"Beef! Basket! Ready up!"

The pair immediately perked up at their master's call as she busied herself dragging two frames onto the rough ground, before kicking each of them over so they lay flat. Her two Bangboo obediently ran over, and jumped into the strap seats. They fiddled with the Bangboo-sized controls, until a sudden droning buzz emanated from their frames; with a series of loud pops from blowing charges, the frames fell away, allowing the duo to suddenly rise to the air on a pair of unfurling quad-copters, like drones writ large.

Mia and Stella, for their part, carried one of the Data Piles and mounted it to the side of the Thiren's mechanical steed. A display on its dashboard showed several gauges, all of which were well in the green and in the lower halves. Mia gave Arsh a look of equal parts care and concern.

"You all set, Arsh? Sure it's not too heavy?"

Arsh nodded in affirmation with Mia patting its face, a light smile pulling at the edges of her mouth, and Stella slung her flagpole over her shoulder as she watched.

"Looks like we're good to go then," she said through her helmet, as she slapped its mirrored faceplate down.

Mia clambered aboard Arsh, before reaching down to extend a hand to the Proxy. "Climb aboard!"

The Thiren gripped Belle's offered diminutive limbs and pulled her up to deposit her in front of her, giving the Proxy a commanding view of the corrupted landscape, and immediately she began calculating the best location to plant their first Pile.

All her many years of experience took a swift hold – some things never truly changed with time's ceaseless passage, and remembering that only served to fill Belle with a familiar sense of bravado, which Eous used to glare defiantly at the Hollow, stamp forward with one foot, and point its hand forward.

"Well, ladies, and gents who are a thousand miles away. It's been a long time coming, but let's go get this pimple popped!"