"No! Oh no! What we do?!" Trivo panicked, somehow managing to keep her voice down in her jumpy state.

Shock shook her head, and, evidenced by the shape of her eyes, she was pissed. "This isn't our mess! I'm not doing shit to save you if those machines are coming to take you away," she exclaimed, pointing down the hall leading to the main tunnel.

"They are! But they're the ones setting me up!"

I still wanted answers from Trivo. For that to happen, I needed to keep her around probably a lot longer than Shock did.

"Shock, she's our only lead," I pleaded. "We need her with us!"

"Yeah, when she's got heat on her? Fat chance!"

Without warning, Trivo ran down the hall connected to our room. I quickly followed, with Shock not far behind me.

"Oh, for god's sake," Shock barked.

Trivo stopped just before the hall entered the tunnel, before sticking her head out and peering left and right.

"This way! Please!" she shouted before stampeding around the right corner, away from the tunnel's main entrance.

Hoo boy, Shock wasn't gonna like this. Without thinking too hard about it, I did as Trivo asked and flew around the corner in pursuit, my guitar bag almost swinging off my shoulder in the process. Like a true friend, I heard Shock following me once again.

"Why bother hiding if you're just going to run anyways, genius?" Shock yelled, though something told me Trivo wasn't about to stop and turn around.

While we ran across the tattered floor, I looked behind us to try to get a glimpse of what exactly we were running from. And, of course, there were at least two machines racing down the tunnel right towards us. I couldn't make out any visual details in the low light, but I didn't need to to know they probably weren't our friends.

Boy, I wish I knew what I had been getting into before I jumped into this mess.

Even with the intensity of the situation coercing my legs to move as fast as they could, Trivo still kept ahead of us. Man, she was fast. To the contrary, I could hear Shock slowly trailing behind us as we bolted along.

What looked like the end of the tunnel was quickly approaching, leaving us in front of a huge wall that stopped us dead in our tracks. I stared at Trivo, waiting for her to give us some sort of instruction, and she did just that; before Shock had the opportunity to verbally lash out at her again, Trivo pointed to a closed door on the other side of the tunnel.

"Here!" she shouted, promptly running to the door.

We ran across the tunnel towards the door without delay. Those machines weren't far off now.

"Who are they?!" we heard from one of our pursuers. "Who cares? Just get Trivo!"

Fear told me to give Trivo up so my life would be spared, but morality told me she needed to be protected. Good thing my morality got the better of me.

As we approached the door, Trivo rammed it with her shoulder, bashing it open a mere inch or two. From the way the door opened, it seemed like something was blocking it from the other side.

"Move!" I screamed at Trivo, charging at the door myself. She dodged out of the way just in time for me to slam into the door in the same manner as she did, but it only opened another couple inches further.

Just as I recovered from the recoil, I heard the yelps of a familiar bot.

"Aaah! No! Help!" Trivo screamed out.

I spun around to see Trivo in the arms of one of the robots who'd been chasing us, both of whom were only a foot or two away. She was aggressively struggling to break free, but her attempts were largely futile. Shock was just to my left, with the blue beams on her back visibly sparking with some kind of electric charge.

These machines were probably a foot taller than me, wearing bulky, dark grey armour plating and a round face made of several slanted lines, forming two angry eyes and an LED frown.

In a moment of bravery I didn't think I was capable of, I did what I thought was the best idea at the time - while those robots were occupied with getting Trivo under control, I swung the guitar bag off my shoulder, grabbed it by the neck, and swung it as hard as I could at Trivo's captor.

The guitar grazed the bot's head just enough to cause a bit of shrapnel to fly off the side of his head, and he reeled over to the side from the impact.

"Aural!" Shock called out. Pausing in disbelief of what I just did, I ignored her call.

I saw Trivo fall to the floor and frantically crawl away from the robot I just whacked. Before I had any time to react, our other adversary in my peripheral vision raised a silver, wand-like item in the air towards me. All I heard was a massive CRACK before my vision became totally distorted in an instant.

I was hardly able to move most of my body - all I could manage was a couple steps backwards before I fell on my back, my guitar following suit with a terrible clank.

Well, I had a good run.

Immobile and almost blind, all I could do was listen. Shock shouted, a snap, clashing metal, and a painful grunt. Trivo screeched, one of those other bots yelled, and I distinctly heard one of them say "let's go." After that, two pairs of footsteps along with Trivo's terrified screams.

"Lavil! Find Lavi-"

~~~

I don't know how long it'd been since our tussle. I'd guess 15 or 20 minutes. I was still lying on the ground, even though it seemed like my motor functionality had returned. However, my optics were still completely non-functional.

So far, this was lining up to be the worst day of my life, and it just kept getting worse.

I heard some movement just to my left. I prayed it was Shock.

"Aural? Hey, Aural." Judging by the voice, my prayers had been answered. "Stay still."

Gladly.

I felt an uncomfortably powerful jolt, and my vision slowly flickered back into reality. Shock was hovering just over me with a pair of electric rods in her hands, smiling faintly now that my visor had beamed back to life.

"Shock, what happened? Where's Trivo?"

"You got zapped - big time." She held out a hand for me, which I took as I clambered to my feet. "You should be fine."

"Where's Trivo?" I repeated.

"Well... snatched, by the looks of it."

"No, no! Shit!"

"Against all of my better judgment, I tried to help her after you got electrocuted. One of those bastards hit me hard enough to keep me down long enough to get out with Trivo. Good thing it seems like those guys were only here to grab her and go."

"Shock, we have to tell someone about this..."

"Sure," she began with a distinct tone of sarcasm, "let's tell people about how we associated ourselves with a potential serial killer, and now we need help rescuing her."

"Isn't it obvious she's not a killer? She knew about the bot that barged into my place, so why would she tell us about it if she was trying to orchestrate my murder?" I argued. "And those were clearly not good guys we were just dealing with."

Shock crossed her arms. "Hell if I know what was going on here, Aural, but she's the biggest suspect of these murders right now. You're way too trusting," she remarked.

"You were the one who said it was our best option to follow this lead!" I countered.

"That was before we knew we were coming to meet with Trivo!" Shock shouted back. She looked away and paused for a moment before sighing. "Whatever. We can't afford to be fighting down in this place. Let's get somewhere safer before spewing at each other."

"Yeah, fine," I muttered. I turned away out of frustration, but in the corner of my vision, I saw my pal smirk rather suddenly as she glanced around our immediate area.

"Now, I don't condone violence, but if you're going to hit someone, you might as well make it count," she said as she bent down and picked up a nearby piece of damaged, dark grey metal. "And, judging by this..."

"No way," I said, muffling my voice in awe. The piece of metal Shock picked up was shaped just like the gear-shaped decorations our adversaries had attached to the sides of their heads. "Was that actually me?"

"I watched it happen."

I had trouble believing I did that. I won't lie - as terrible as that whole altercation was, slamming that huge robot in the head with a guitar was one of the most satisfying feelings I'd ever experienced... for about a tenth of a second. After that, all I felt was regret.

"Ugh, why did I do that? My axe..." My guitar was still in its bag, but I would've been amazed if it was undamaged. Not only that, but I could sure use a waxing after all this roughing around.

"You tell me. Let's get out of here, though. I don't detect anyone down here, so let's not wait for that to change."

No objections to that notion. We wasted no more time leaving.

"Did you recognize those machines at all?" I asked while jogging down the tunnel alongside my partner.

"No, I don't think so. I've seen quite a few designs in my time, but I've never seen bots with builds quite like those. I can't quite put my finger on what made them stand out like that, though."

"Gee, maybe it was because they were big and scary?"

Shock let out a dry chuckle, staring straight at my face. "Have you looked in a mirror recently?"

I laughed. She really did have a point.

Shock held up the piece of metal I broke off Trivo's kidnapper, inspecting it as best as she could while running. "Maybe if we get lucky, someone can tell us what kind of design this is. Could be a lead."

"Not a bad idea," I agreed.

We exited the tunnel and reentered the dark alley. I couldn't see anyone around, and Shock's silence told me she didn't either. With that in mind, we flew back through the uphill, zigzag pathway. Still not a soul in sight, which I could definitely appreciate right about then.

"Just stay cool," Shock advised me as we opened the door to Packet Park once again.

Despite Shock's advice, however, I couldn't help but look around the building's interior to see if anyone was paying us any attention. I couldn't shake the sensation that everyone in here knew we just got our asses kicked, even though I knew it couldn't be true. So, as quickly as we walked in through the back door, we walked out through the front entrance.

"Where are we gonna go?" I asked, only now realizing we didn't have much of a plan in that regard.

"Not your place, that's for sure." She slowed her pace and looked upwards for a few seconds. "Let's go to my home," she insisted, though not as confidently as usual.

"Ya sure?"

"Just.... make sure we're not being followed," she advised me.

From just outside Packet Park, we jogged over towards the side of the plaza we came from earlier, both of us keeping a keen eye out for any suspicious robots. We were following the path that led to Assault, but instead of going straight down the street and passing by my nightclub, we took a left at a nearby intersection before we reached it. I quickly made a habit of checking my six as we took each corner.

But, just like it was when we went to Verdin, the streets were bare and there was no one around to observe us. At least, as far as I could tell.

"How far is your place?"

"Not far. I'd say it's probably halfway between Verdin Square and the city outskirts," Shock explained.

"Good," because I really needed a place to sit down and collect myself right about then.

I was still distraught over losing Trivo like that, let alone getting into an actual physical fight. I was certain she was going to be the key to solving this mystery, but now I was just hoping she wasn't suffering the same fate I almost did back up in my tower. If only we could've done something different to prevent that scuffle...

As we ventured into this unfamiliar territory (for me, at least), Shock took the lead and we moved single file.

"Here," Shock explained as we turned around another block, pointing to a building at the near the middle of the next downhill street.

Looked like a pretty nice home, if she was pointing to the one I was looking at. It was a rather petit two-storey house with a substantial overhang on the left side, covering lots of what appeared to be scrap metal, tools, and a small side entrance.

Shock approached the house I was just examining, confirming that it was the right place. She walked up to the front entrance first, unlocking the door and promptly inviting me in.

For the first time since this all started, I felt safe. Shock's home was truly a space of repose. Everything I could see was neat, orderly, and lavishly decorated. She even had some nice furniture in a living room over to the left of the entrance, and a big storage unit in the wall just to the right. It was strange to see a place like this on Zynima, since robots usually had little interest in comfort.

"Sweet crib," I complimented.

"Thanks. Feel free to have a seat."

With me and my poor guitar in mind, I did just that. The couch over in the living room was super fluffy, totally throwing me off when I sat down and sank about half a foot into the cushion. Once I found my bearings, I propped my guitar up beside me and unzipped the bag.

I laid it down in my arms, carefully inspecting it in its entirety. I couldn't believe it - there was a tiny dent in the side. Well, I mean, I could believe it after what I did with it, but my perfect instrument was no longer in mint condition. My life was effectively over.

From the hallway connected to the room, Shock peeked around the corner. "Need to recharge before we head out on our big adventure?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely. You have your own station?"

"99.97% purity. You bet I do."

"Sick," I lazily replied.

Recharge stations were machines a robot could hook up to to enter sleep mode and have their systems refueled. The higher the purity of a recharge station, the less "corruption" that would build inside us when we did so. Needless to say, corruption is bad. 99.99% is considered the best purity rating out there, so with a number as high as the one Shock just gave me, I had nothing to worry about.

"So, what's on our to-do list?" I asked, thinking over everything that happened today. "We need to find this Lavil bot and see if we can identify that piece of metal along the way. Oh, and avoid Tangent."

"Basically. How we're going to find Lavil, I have no idea."

"Trivo said they're number one on one of the charts, right? Why not check them and see if you can find that name."

"Right!" Shock exclaimed. "Forgot about that." She hopped over to her living room computer. I left her to do the clicking and typing while I fiddled around with my guitar, until she called me over about a minute later.

"Got it. There they are, at the top of the skill chart."

Gently laying my guitar down on the couch, I went over to go check it out. Just as Trivo said, "Lavil II" was the best of the best in the skill category, according to the global charts. I sure hoped that was the right person, since I didn't hear anything from Trivo about the "II" after their name.

"I guess there wouldn't be a profile on there, would there be?" I wondered.

"There is. Let me pull it up."

Excited, I leaned in closer to the screen, just over Shock's shoulder. They lived in Grilith Tower, apparently. That was pretty much all the useful information I could see, other than miscellaneous details like age, height, and interests. No contact information.

"How are we supposed to get in touch with someone so famous?" I asked.

"It won't be easy," Shock began, "but it's not impossible. We know where they live."

What an upstanding person. "Grilith. It's a ways off, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's pretty far from Zynima city."

There was a tower several kilometres away from the city that looked like a gigantic stone monolith, with several seemingly random bits of metal sticking out everywhere, and impossibly steep and curvy pathways flying in and out of the huge structure. I was assuming that's what Grilith Tower was, since my knowledge of the place was pretty limited.

"All right. Let's check out Grilith tomorrow, then. Show me where that recharge station is," I insisted.

"Right this way." Shock guided me into a hallway branching off from the living room, leading me into a room with a bed, a couple of desks, a closet, and a small chandelier in the middle of the ceiling.

There was no denying that there was something different about Shock's decor, and it was a bit unsettling in some strange way. Like, I knew what a bed was, but I'd literally never seen one before. Maybe she was just a bit eccentric.

The recharge station was built into the wall over on the far side of the room, across from the bed.

"I hope you don't mind the floor," said Shock.

"Of course I don't." What a weird question. "Mind if I hook up right now? I'm spent."

"Go for it. I'll just be puttering around for a bit before I shut off too."

"Okay. See ya in the morning."

"Night." With that, Shock left the room.

Every robot had a spot on their body where they could plug into a recharge station to recuperate. For me, that spot was on my left arm. I delicately opened up the concealed panel on my arm and fiddled around with a couple of wires on the station, plugging them into the exposed sockets in my arm.

I assured myself that we'd get to the bottom of this. Sleep mode engaged.