Sixth Street in New Eridu's Janus Quarter was a hidden treasure in more ways than one. For most, it was an out of the way glorified alley filled with a few stores worthy of a spotlight in a magazine. For those involved in less-legal, Hollow-related work, it was a Mecca for finding off-the-shelf, behind-the-curtains equipment and experience.

The toymaker built weapons. The garage modified Bangboos. The music store designed enhancing software.

And Random Play, a popular video rental store, was the prime catch, given its innocuous duo of a gray-haired brother and a blue-haired sister was actually Phaethon, one of the best guides through New Eridu's Hollows, even if it was done illegally through Inter-Knot.

Belle entered through the back of the store and entered the off-limits staff room. Customers would never question what was there, barred and guarded by a rabbit-like Bangboo robot that would peer suspiciously through a slot in the door.

For Belle though, the main point of interest was the company couch, which she collapsed into with a sigh.

"Well, bro, what do you think?"

Belle tilted her head backwards. While the hair fell from her face, her upside down world saw her brother sit on a chair mounted to the ceiling, arms folded in rumination.

"It's a solid plan," he concluded, drumming the fingers of right hand on his elbow, "and one we can look into right away. We spent so long worrying about Perlman we forgot that he ran away with a literal shipful of clues. If Rain is right, we might get another lead on this conspiracy."

Belle looked up at the ceiling and talked to the air. "Picking apart a black box shouldn't be any problem for our one and only Fairy, right?"

The bank of computer monitors taking up the back wall of the staff room erupted with noise, as a synthesized woman's voice responded through its speakers. "Affirmative, Master. It's almost insulting that you would dedicate my awesome power to de-fragmenting an underfunded data dump. But if it helps Master sleep at night, it will be no trouble at all. Feel free to praise my selflessness."

"Sure, Fairy, thanks." Belle couldn't help but laugh at the mysterious AI's now familiar self-idolatry, before her thoughts returned to recent events.

Unearthing Vision Corporation's attempt to bulldoze an actually not-at-all abandoned slum was already worthy enough of a Direct-To-TV B-movie, but it was certainly less corny when the former CEO, Charles Perlman, apparently had a heavy, shadowy, very dangerous hand on his shoulder, one that made him desperate enough to fly blind into the near-lawless Outer Ring beyond New Eridu's grasp.

It was only recently, through a series of choice alliances, that Belle and Wise tracked down the stodgy little blowhard, who was now in the ministrations of the Sons of Calydon biker gang. They promised to let the two know the moment he stopped being a dried-out potato of a man, enough to start taking questions.

It stood to reason that if the Sons were the first to find him, then they must have found the crash site…

"Hey, bro, I guess we better toss Caesar a line, huh?" Bell called over her shoulder as she fished out her phone again.

"I was just waiting on you," Wise replied from behind, while he ambled over to hover over his sister's shoulder and watch her type a DM.

[NeuroDancer] 14:35: Hey, Caesar, you free?

[DAKING] 14:42: sup done with a job

[NeuroDancer] 14:44: When you found the guy we were looking for, was he near a crash?

[DAKING] 14:45: yeh was a crazy crash

[NeuroDancer] 14:46: Is it still there? If I came over, would it be alright if you showed me the crash?

[DAKING] is writing…

[DAKING] is writing…

[DAKING] is writing…

[DAKING] is writing…

Asking Caesar King to drive them out to a toppled giant balloon seemed like a simple proposition in Bell's mind – hell, just sit on the back of a bike, get jostled about on dirt roads for a bit, climb into the wreck, rip out the flight recorder, and then reverse the process to go home.

As the minutes wore on, and Belle stared at Caesar apparently beginning a sentence before deleting it and starting over, it seemed it wasn't going to be so clear cut.

"That is definitely a pause of guilt and regret," she mused, eyebrow rising with amusement as a grin crept across her face.

"She can be hard on herself, let her gather her thoughts," Wise advised. To their surprise, though, Wise's own phone buzzed with an alert. Thumbing through his contacts, Wise hummed with curiosity.

"It's Lucy," he said, holding the phone out to show his sister.

[3pigboss] 15:10: Lucy here. The glorious leader is curled up in a ball, crying like a little baby. There's a complication for what you're asking for, but it's not impossible. It's better to explain in person, because there's an opportunity that benefits all of us.

When can you visit Cheesetopia next?

While registered as a town, Blazewood was better described as a series of aged brick shacks built around a pit stop for truckers, bikers and couriers. But what a pit stop it was, after Caesar and the Phaethon siblings chose to turn it into the foodie hotspot Cheesetopia.

The cooking and the novelty of eating out in the Outer Ring was enough that Blazewood found itself receiving more visits on the strength of Cheesetopia alone, leaving the grateful community forever indebted to them. If the Sons of Calydon once considered this place their stomping grounds, today the only reason it had yet to be called their fief was that Caesar King was too kind.

Nonetheless, this narrow row of benches and tables, hemmed in by a long window on one side and a wall covered in "quaint" graffiti on the other, was a second home, and when Belle and Wise asked Mayor Kasa to close the restaurant for an hour, the woman didn't even blink at the request, nor did the odd diner or two even complain as they walked out the door with take out.

Of course, Belle worried if this sort of privilege required them to be the Sons' Proxy for next year's Tour de Inferno…

That sort of problem, however, quickly left her mind, as the familiar bass roar of engines grew. Before long, a pair of bikers eased into the dusty side road outside Cheesetopia. Through the window next to where the two siblings sat, they could see Caesar King's tall frame shake off Outer Ring's dust off her jacket, while Lucy de Montefio brushed out her side tail and swung herself off her chopper.

In any other life, the gray-haired leader of the celebrated biker gang should have cut an imposing figure, but the way she grinned and jovially returned every greeting with a wave made it hard to fear her approach as she pushed her way through the diner's saloon doors and caught sight of the two.
"H-Hey! What's up, guys! Nice weather we're having!?" Caesar tried to joke as she slid into the seat opposite of them, eyes like dinner plates as they darted frantically in their sockets. Belle wasn't sure how exactly it came to be that the Motor League's newest Overlord was the scared one in this meeting.

"It's… okay?" Belle probed, cautiously.

"So, you, uh…mentioned a crash?" Wise spoke hesitantly, unsure how to even broach the topic when their sole Outer Ring contact suddenly looked like she was going to choke on air.

Caesar's eyes seemed to defy biological possibility itself as they widened further, and she clapped her hands together in supplication. "Look! I'm really sorry! I didn't know you were interested in the airship! But now that you told me, I went behind your heads! Or… or however you say it! And now you're not going to see it-"

"Oh, for god's sake, Caesar," Lucy groaned, before jabbing her leader with an elbow to cut off her babbling. "Shut up and take a deep breath. I'll explain things from the beginning."

For Lucy's part, she shut her red eyes, put a hand to her chest to prepare, before putting on a face of absolute professionalism.

"First things first: you're after the airship Perlman arrived in, yes?"

Wise nodded. "That's right."

"Alright. You have to understand, though, that out here in the Outer Ring, even the wreck of a zeppelin's valuable to the right people. Since you never brought it up, before now the Sons of Calydon had no reason to look after it."

The telling words were enough to fire up Belle's imagination. "Has… has it been picked clean, or something?" Her mind wandered, conjuring up the image of something like the skeleton of a beached aircraft lying bleached in the sun, its metal ribs pointed to the sky.

"Well, no. We were the only ones who knew where it was, but…"
"But?" Wise queried.

Lucy shrugged. "Well, we sold the location of the crash. Out here, that's the same as transferring ownership. There's a group out there already refurbishing the craft."

That was almost worse, and Belle felt her shoulders deflate. "Oh."

Caesar winced at the sight. "Y-Yeah, sorry. It's a proper company. I can't just bring some 'friends' over to them and ask them to let you two poke around inside their property."

"No, I understand," Wise replied, nodding in sympathy. "It was a fair transaction. It's really our fault for suddenly dumping this on you now. Still, could you tell us who bought the airship?"

"Oh! Y'know Mochizuki Machinery?" Caesar probed, peppiness perking her up again as the weight of her informal absolution was lifted from her shoulders.

When both siblings shook their heads in the negative, the Overlord continued. "They're a local business here, real high tech, I'd say. They, uh…" She paused, shooting what she believed to be a discreet glance at Lucy. "They're an airplane business?"

"Like… what, a car dealership, but with planes?"

Lucy rolled her eyes at Belle's rejoinder, but corrected her all the same, still speaking on business. "To be precise, they're an aeronautics company. They basically provide airborne services for everyone in the Outer Ring. For example," she said, raising a finger in emphasis, "do you remember how the Tour de Inferno boasted that the broadcast only had a lag of ten minutes? That's because Mochizuki had been commissioned to provide an aerial relay. Really, I guess you could say they provided a little indirect help resolving the mess that happened then."

"They're a pillar of the area," Caesar admitted, "and they're a regular client of ours. Hell, I think Burnice makes a pretty Denny consulting for them. Either way, I figured I could show off my chops as Overlord by giving them a killer sale! But, uh, yeah, I didn't think you'd suddenly show interest in the crash…"

Wise raised his hands in defeat. "It's pure bad timing on our part. It just means we need to meet Mochizuki Machinery's people and try to convince them to let us look at their new purchase."

That, and somehow not mention they would be ripping a vital component out of it in the hopes it'd shed light on a shadowy conspiracy that no one else had heard of. Totally believable.

This was when Lucy tittered, apparently waiting for her moment to boast to her leader. "Fortunately…"

Caesar blinked. "...Fortunately?"

Lucy turned to her leader, eyes lidded drolly. "Fortunately, they've been looking for someone…?"

Caesar jerked in realization, fighting back a nascent urge to succumb to embarrassment once more before slamming a fist into a palm in recollection. "Oh, right! Where would I be without you, Lucy?"

"Wisest question you've ever asked."

"Anyway – you're in luck, guys! Mochizuki's in need of a Proxy or two."

While the Overlord was too kind to entertain the thought, Lucy knew she could have laughed out loud at the way Phaethon's collective faces lit up at the words. The only thing that was missing was a glorious ray of light shining down on them through the clouds.

"How serious are they?" Belle asked trying to sound professional.

"Pretty serious," Caesar said, nodding. "I don't know what they need, but I know they've been asking me and everyone else like crazy. I'm sure they'd be super happy to get the Proxy that helped me win the Tour on their side."

Wise let himself smirk a little.

"Well, sounds like this is the perfect opportunity for the Overlord to keep showing off her chops by coming in clutch for them…again."

Seemed like it was time to pack for another trip.