It was a beautiful autumn Saturday morning. The forest's change into a striking warm color palette was in full swing. Leaves crunched under our feet, and the air had a sharp but pleasant chill to it. Like most years, fall seemed to sneak up on me. However, this time, summer also felt so distant, like a past chapter of my life I couldn't go back to. I don't know why I suddenly started thinking of the season. Maybe it was because it had been a while since I had last walked this path on my own feet. Something about that brought back memories of the very first time I had.

  "Hey, Rayleigh, how much further do we have to go? I don't think anyone's gonna hear us from all the way out here." Yong -Rae asked as he dragged his feet along the trail.

  "It's not what I have to tell you. It's what I have to show you. So quit whining. We're almost there. I promise you it's worth it." I answer, trying to hold back excitement.

  "And you got to drag me into the middle of the woods to show me? I know I said I trust you, but this is starting to feel like the beginning of a horror movie." He sighed, catching his breath.

  "Wellllll, I hope it doesn't end up like that." If the alien decided to come back, things could get messy. "But if it starts to get dangerous, you can just zap us out of there, right?" I suggested while poking around for the hidden clearing.

  "Not exactly. My Network has a range, and we might be out of it by now. Just because I was able to pull you out of danger last time doesn't mean you can use it like a get out of jail free card. Besides, even if we could escape by entering my realm through one of our phones, then the phone would be left behind for the bad guy to take." Rae tried to tell me, but I was only half paying attention.

  "Come on, I know it has to be around here somewhere…" I mumbled, "Ah-Ha! Here it is. Tada!" I pulled back some thick bushes revealing the clearing to Rae.

  "What? It's just a little hill?"

  I tossed a small rock at it, causing the holographic cloaking projection to glitch for a moment, exposing part of the U.F.O.

  Rae's jaw dropped. "Holy crap! Is that a-?"

  "Alien spaceship? Yes." I nodded, leading him inside. Yong-Rae was as speechless as I was the first time I saw it. He took in all the strange, otherworldly design that was truly unlike anything we have ever seen. The inside looked cold and sterile, but at the same time there was something about it that felt almost organic. Like we were in the belly of a metal monster.

  Rae finally regained his composure, and said, "I knew your powers had something to do with alien tech, but this is… unexpected. I thought you somehow got a hold of some leftovers from the Onicidean invasion, not- ah, whatever this is? Are you sure it's safe to be here?"

  I nodded, "Yeah, I come here all the time, and as far as I can tell, it's been abandoned for a while. Well, except for…"

  "EXCEPT FOR WHAT?" Rae panicked.

  I calmly took out the alien's journal from my backpack and showed it to him. "A few weeks ago I came here to make repairs and found this. It's obviously from earth but the writing is in that alien's language."

  "So it must have come back here and left it. But why?" He asked.

  "No idea. But we need to find out. That's why I brought you here."

  "You want my help? I'm flattered, but, well, I hate to admit it, you know way more about this stuff than I do."

  "Thank you, but what I really need is your title, it could be the key to solving this. This ship has a highly advised computer system, possibly A.G.I. It operates on presumably the same language as the journal but it's incompatible with any of our technology, so it's been no help to me. However you connected to the alien tech in my suit so I think you could do the same for this. Who knows what answers we could get from it!" I explained.

  "I don't know if that's a good idea. Activating it could be really bad. What if it activates some automatic defense systems … or starts another alien invasion?" Rae argued.

  "It's fine. I've turned it on before, and all it's done is try to talk to be. Besides, if we find out why the aliens came here, maybe we could stop an invasion." I pleaded.

  "Since when have you been the optimist?" Rae sighed, "Fine, I'll try it, but be ready to shut it down if things go wrong."

  I gave a confident thumbs up that wasn't very reassuring to him. I inserted a quintessence battery cell into the ship's main console, and it started up by itself. The liquid power flowed through the machine like veins, most of which lead to the "brain," a crystal-like prism that suddenly began glowing and pulsing. As soon as it restarted, it spoke in a language we couldn't even start to comprehend, just hearing it alone was enough to give me a headache. Yong-Rae looked a bit frightened but gathered the grit to step forward. He pushed up his glasses and his eyes ignited an electric blue as he nervously put his hand on the brain of the machine. At first nothing happened, but just as Rae breathed a sigh of relief and started to lift his hand there was a sudden explosion of color that threw him across the room.

  I rushed to his side and asked, "Are you okay? What's happening?!" The console seemed to be leaking quintessence into the air, and the prism started floating in place above it.

  "I'm alright." He winced. "I don't know what this is, but it's time to shut it down!"

  I gave him a nod and ran to the battery, but before I could get to it, the prism let out another pulse. This time it shot out a line of some kind of energy that connected to Rae's head, then from his head to my own. Then the room began to shift in a familiar way, like we were being taken to the Network realm, or rather, it was being brought to us.

  "Rae?" I gasped. The machine was still there, but it looked like we were in the outside wilderness of a strange alien planet.

  "Whoa!" He exclaimed, "Well, I know we're in my realm at least, but no computer has ever manifested itself like this before. Usually it's all organized with apps and files in neat little boxes, but this… This feels more like a memory."

  Before I could ask what he meant by that, the prism gathered all the colorful energy around itself forming into a ghostly hologram of a blank outline of something that was roughly human shaped. It began speaking its incomprehensible tongue but this time the tone was a little easy to make out, and with the added body expressions I could guess that it wasn't being threatening. Maybe it's trying to understand us. Rae looked just as puzzled as I did.

  "What do we do now?" He asked in a whisper.

  "I don't know." I muttered, "I didn't think this far ahead."

  "WHAT!?" He quietly exclaimed, "For a tech genius you can be such an idiot!"

  "You said you were a technopath. I figured you could communicate with all technology, including this thing." I explained. Rae face-palmed but then considered my point for a second. He was about to respond, but suddenly…

  "Hell-low?" A voice that sounded exactly like my own inner monologue spoke, "Welcome back, captain. I hope the expedition is going well." At first I thought it came from my head, but looking over, I saw it was the hologram speaking.

  "I guess I can just communicate with this thing." Rae said, astonished, "Hello. I have some questions for you. Ah, first, what are you?" He asked it.

  "Oh, the captain didn't tell you?" It cheered, "No worries, I shall enlighten. I am U.R.A.N.I.A. Your: Star. Voyager. Co-pilot. and Personal. Travel. Companion." Rae and I had an understandably extreme look of confusion. "Oh, I suppose the acronym only works in our native language, but trust me, it's a good acronym and it sounds a lot better than S.V.C.P.T.C., so you may call me Urania. What else can I help you or the captain with?" Rae looked at me for what to say next. Did it just call me "the captain?" I don't why it thinks that's but I should just go along with it so it doesn't find out I'm not.

  "Uh, thank you, Urania. My friend here needs help with understanding our language, that's why we came here." I explained.

  "I see. That won't be a problem. I'll upload it into their brain right now," Urania stated.

  "You'll what???" Rae asked. Suddenly, Urania's hologram flew at him and put its hands on his head for a few seconds while his eyes glowed entirely white. Once it stopped, Rae started speaking gibberish for a bit then said, "Holy… did it just??? I feel sick."

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "My apologies, human. It seems your brains are not optimized for taking in data as rapidly as those from our home world. However, rest assured, the process is completely harmless and any disorientation should wear off shortly." Urania explained.

  "So, uh, did it work?" I nervously asked.

  "Mostly. He'll be able to understand our spoken and written language, however, accurately speaking it will be impossible due to humans lacking the ability to pronounce multiple syllables at once." The computer informed.

  "Fascinating…" I mumbled under my breath.

  Urania must have heard, but misunderstood me as it explained, "Yes, humans of Sol #3 have one of the simplest anatomies of any sentient life in the universe. Even so, the potential for power within them when connected to the source is off the charts! I'd recommend sending our best royal research team back here if your mission is a success."

  Rae gulped, "Yep, humans… full of potential…. that should be peacefully studied and not invaded or anything…Right?" Urania gave no response to him. "Uh, anyway, now that I can read, I think we better get going. Got to get back to our "research," right, "captain?"

  Rae looked at me like he wanted to get the hell out of here, but I was distracted with all the questions I had. Who was this "captain" and what's their mission? I need to know. And where even are we right now? What exactly is U.R.A.N.I.A.? This could be my best chance to get answers, but what can I ask without revealing I'm not who it thinks I am? …

  "Wait! One more thing before we go." I shouted without fully thinking it through. I took off my hourglass pendant and held it up to the hologram. "Do you know what this is?"

  At first, it gave the unhelpful, straightforward answer of, "That is a necklace." Then, the prism peaked out of the hologram's chest and began scanning it. "?w-wha-tt?" It glitched, "U should n-Not have th_at! no-Not here nor now!"

  "What do you mean? Why? What does it do?" I demanded.

  "For your own safety, any anomalies must be eliminated before they can result in a potential paradox. Please hand the sand over immediately!" Urania stated, still glitching out. It reached out to grab it out of my hands like it somehow forgot it was just a hologram.

  "Rayleigh, I think it's time to pull the plug!" Yong-Rae shouted.

  "Rayleigh?" Urania repeated.

  "Wait, but I don't understand. Why is the sand an anomaly? Where did this come from?" I tried asking.

  All Urania said was, "Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate," on repeat. The glitching spread to the console, causing it to violently expel quintessence in the form of pure energy. One of them shot straight at the hourglass in my hand. Suddenly I felt an ever so slight shift, and before I even knew what was happening, my body was dodging the blast on its own. It could be just something I noticed in retrospect, but that moment felt like it was stretched out. I regained awareness, knocked on my ass, too afraid to move.

  Rae ran towards the machine, "For the love of- Rayleigh! Think before almost getting us killed!" He dove under a blast, making it the battery cell and yanked it out. The machine/ Urania instantly shut off, and the room went back to being the inside of the U.F.O. I was still shaken and breathing heavily, like I just woke up from a nightmare that ended in my death. "Hey, are- Are you alright?"

  "No, but it's too late to go back now. I'm sorry for bringing you here." I apologized.

  "What? I hope you know how crazy you sound. You're lucky that's what I like about you?" Rae laughed.

  "Really? But I- I'm supposed to be a protector for people like you, and yet I keep getting you into danger."

  "And who decided that? It's insane to believe that our city's safety is your responsibility, no matter what powers you have."

  "Thanks for your concern, but I get it; I was never meant to be a hero."

  Rae shook his head. "On the contrary, I think that having that crazy belief is what makes you a true hero."

  I didn't know what to say, but Rae's reassurance is exactly what I needed in that moment. I still had many concerns about our conversation with Urania specifically when it came to my pendant, but I wasn't ready to get into all of that with Rae yet, so I abruptly changed the topic.

  "Uh, thanks, all things considered that could have gone a lot worse." I awkwardly laughed, "Anyways, there's one more thing I thought I should show you."

  "Please show away, as long as it doesn't try to eliminate us." He joked.

  I retrieved my laptop and flash drive. "It turns out that getting caught by the Leopardi family wasn't all for nothing. I couldn't get away with the physical files, but I was to download a few before being interrupted."

  "Hey at least there was one silver lining, what'd you get?" He asked.

  I pulled up the documents on my computer and showed him. "Unfortunately, nothing too damning. All it managed to get were these "sales records". They aren't very specific about what they were selling, but I'd bet you this spaceship that's it not anything legal."

  "I hate to imagine this, but do you think it could be the missing children that they're uh…" Rae suggested.

  "I've thought about it too… As awful as it is, it's better than the alternative… At least there'd be a chance she's still alive… I don't want to get my hopes up though." I choked. "Regardless, I need to find out what they were selling."

  "Agreed, but what's your plan? Please tell me you're not gonna go back to their hideout."

  I shook my head. "No, I'm not that dumb, and even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I found out the base is only accessible through hidden portals that are normally closed. Luckily, they kept a list of their clients. The plan is to do some research on them, then Night Hopper can pay them a visit. Starting with their most recent sale, a man by the name of Wesley Simmons." I showed off his files to Rae.

  "That's… actually a good plan." He admitted. "But why that guy?"

  "Check it out."

  The report read as follows: Wesley Simmons. SEX: M. AGE: 43. HGT: 6'3" WGT: 190 lb EYES: GRN. TITLE: YES. ADRS: REDACTED Criminal Record: None.

  Mr. Simmons first contacted us on August 31st, 2052. How he heard of us is a mystery because, as far as we knew, the man had no underground connections. Normally I would have turned him down, but he had some sob story about his family, so naturally the boss took pity on him, even offering an invitation to join us. Simmons lacked the funds for our premium marks, but his refusal to leave empty handed made him the perfect candidate to be a test subject for our more experimental options. Angel and I went through with the transfer on September 23rd. We selected The Warden as we thought it the best fit for him out of our options. The procedure seemed to have gone well, his vitals were stable, and systems of ego shifting were less than expected. However, during my psychological examination on the 25th, a conflict of interest became apparent. Before I could get Corriedale to resolve this issue, Simmons had accepted the testing falsity. He's still missing as of date but we've decided to leave him to our partner. For his own sake, I'd recommend finding him before the 12th. We'd prefer him back alive, but permission for lethal force was granted.

  Signed: Shepherd. Date: 9/30/25

  Along with the report was a picture of someone's forearm with a golden tattoo of a lock and key.

  "Hmm…" Rae hummed after pausing to read it, "Wait, what is this report about? I got lost halfway through. And what's with that picture?"

  "Yeah, I'm still trying to understand it too. He went to the Leopardi's to buy something, but they used him as a test subject instead… For what, I'm still unsure of." I sighed.

  "Maybe some kind of drug? Something that could mess with his mind and needed testing?" He suggested.

  "That's what I thought, but the way they mentioned "The Warden" sounds like it could it a title or an entitled person. Like how they said they needed "The Network" when referring to you." I said, thinking out loud. I took another hard look at the photo of the marked arm and began to get a weird feeling of déjà vu. "This symbol of the lock and key, I think it has something to do with The Warden. I swear I've seen something like this before, but… uh, I can't put my finger on it."

  "Well, try to remember this is important!" Rae encouraged. "Try to jog your memory. What were you doing?"

  "Okay, Okay," I tried to think back to figure out where this idea of a symbol first came from, "… I was Night Hopper… And it was during a fight… Then, I think you might have been there too."

  "Was it the night I was almost kidnapped?" he asked.

  "You getting kidnapped… There was that big rock guy… Junky, no… The guy that got my costume all moldy." I mumbled, "Fungi?… Fungeye! … FUNG EYE!" I shouted.

  "The villain with the spore powers?" He questioned, "What about him?"

  "One of his eyes had a mushroom symbol in it. At the time I thought it was just a side effect of this title but what if it's the same type of symbol as the one on that guy's arm?" I theorized. I might be misremembering this part, but I swear I could feel a sharp pain in my left eye as I said that.

  Rae looked confused at what I was getting at, "Alright, so maybe this gang likes to get matching tattoos that represent their powers."

  "What? No, that's not what- You can't tattoo an eyeball. Can you?" I asked, almost losing my train of thought.

  "Actually, you can, but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm sorry, what were you getting at?"

  I sighed, "I have a theory about what they were testing on Wesley, but I need to see him be sure of it."

  "Great!" Rae cheered, "But how are you gonna find him?"

  "I wait for him to show himself. The report said they need to catch him before the 12th. I think that's when he's planning on making his move." I explained.

  "Oh, that sucks." Rae frowned.

  "Huh? What? I thought it was a good plan." I wondered.

  "No, that's not it. Did you forget what's on the 12th?" He laughed, "The Homecoming dance."

  "WHAT?" I gasped, "Crap! No, no, nooooo!" I buried my face in my hands.

  "Hey, no need to freak out." He tried to comfort. "I didn't think you would care so much about a high school dance. What did you have plans with a certain someone?" He joked.

  "Well, actually… about that…" I started…