I was the first to arrive at the red dot. I knew I would be. I had the stats to prove I would make it there first, so it wasn't really a matter of if, unless I got distracted, and that happens to me a lot.

  pixel_princess: "@kittyboy, what are you doing? Hold up!"

  I ignored her. Not a great idea, but I can't take it back. I ran.

  Down the hall. Down the stairs. Down more stairs. Through another hallway. Past where the m1 drones were doing their scanning. Down more stairs. Around a corner. Down a final set of stairs.

  I didn't slow down until I passed through a double-doored entrance. There it was. The place on my minimap with the red dot. The doom room.

  pixel_princess: "Are you okay? Is something happening?"

  shadowhacker: "Nothing new on scans."

  cyberneticflare: "We're fine. I don't know what's got into him. I've nearly caught up. He just took off."

  I ignored all of them.

  I closed the doors behind me and went to the control panel, boosting it with a bit of my own power to engage the door lock. I needed to slow down @cyberneticflare and @photon_binary. You'll understand why in a moment. Then I zoomed in on the map. @pixel_princess and @astrowave were making their way down slowly, as they were supposed to, stalking through the hallways, checking all the rooms they could access on the level above me.

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  I locked them all out anyway. This was my time, my private time.

  kittyboy: "Everything is fine here. ??"

  I lied.

  cyberneticflare: "Where are you? We reached a locked door."

  shadowhacker: "Looks like @kittyboy locked it."

  What a snitch!

  kittyboy: "They closed after I entered."

  Okay, so I lied again. I don't feel great about lying, but technically, they did close after I entered. I just didn't confirm that I had, in fact, been the one to close them.

  I hoped @shadowhacker wouldn't pick up on that. She didn't call me out right away, so it must have been plausible enough. Besides, I didn't see any m1 drones in the room to register my activity. I had sprinted past them, and they weren't close enough to pick up detailed energy signatures.

  After a moment of quiet, I went on.

  kittyboy: "Everything's fine, really. I'm fine."

  At this point, I was sure that @cyberneticflare and @pixel_princess were having a plink together, a private message conversation, about how @pixel_princess wanted him to proceed.

  pixel_princess: "@kittyboy, what did you find? Anything?"

  I had found something, but I didn't know what to say, so I ignored her.

  I was captivated by what I saw in that large basement room of the facility, encased in an awesometacular blue light at the very center, surrounded by five large scanning pillars, all angled toward it. It looked amazing and horrifying. This was the only thing in the building that appeared to still have power. No wonder @shadowhacker had sent us here.

  I walked forward with determination and a fair bit of anger.

  And stared at my dead body.