Over the next few days, I began to notice what looked like piles of metal on the floor of the hotel. I decided to let it go for now and get them cleaned up, but I had a feeling Alfred had something to do with it, so I planned to ask him about them at some point.

At this point, Alfred seemed perfectly friendly. He helped improve the penthouse like he said he would, and we got along rather well. It seemed as if he was the first genuinely decent person to stay in the penthouse since I became manager.

But I still had a bad feeling gnawing at me that would not fade away.

And...then there was Tristan. I still hadn't told him about my sudden change of heart, and I knew I needed to. But I was afraid of breaking his heart. I knew how that felt and I hated the thought of putting him through that sort of pain.

But at the same time, stringing him along would probably be even worse. So I called him and asked him to meet me in the lion lounge tonight so we could talk.

When I arrived there at 8:50 PM, he was already there waiting for me. "Hey, Alessa," he said," You said you wanted to talk to me about something. Is it about..." He looked around to make sure no one was listening, "The Ratticator thing?"

"No, Tristan...it's about us," I said, "More specifically, my feelings for you..." I then explained everything I'd come to realize over the last few days since that kiss. "I feel terrible for having to do this, it's just...I didn't want to mislead you any more than I might have already done," I said honestly.

Tristan listened with patient ears. He definitely looked hurt, but not angry. "It's OK, Alessa...I get it. Thanks for being honest with me."

"I'd rather do that than string you along or something. I figured that, in the long run, doing that would've only hurt you more," I said. I then gave him a hug, not knowing what else to do at this point. He hugged me back, and we talked a bit more before I went to take care of some hotel-related things.

Once done, I decided to head up and ask Alfred about the metal piles now before turning in for the night.

"Hi, Alfred," I greeted him as I stepped out of the elevator.

"Manager Alessa, I have much to regret this day," he replied,"It seems I have been the victim of entropic forces. My primary heuristic data modulator has been acting very strangely lately. I am unable to prevent it from randomly ejecting metal detritus. To put it another way: I am responsible for the heaps of metal Ick piling up in your hotel. I apologize."

"It's okay," I told him, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"To prevent this from occurring on a regular basis I will require a new heuristic data modulator. If you would be so kind as to procure me a new data modulator, I will clean up what piles I can."

"I've taken care of a few of them, but yeah, they really are piling up at this point," I said honestly, "Thank you, Alfred, I'd really appreciate the help."

"And I yours," he said, "I assume you would like to sleep before going to procure the data modulator, am I correct?" Alfred asked. I nodded. "Then do so. I will patiently wait in the penthouse for you to return."

"Thanks," I said, heading back toward the elevator. "Night, Alfred."

"Goodnight, manager Alessa," said Alfred.

The next morning, I purchased the data modulator from the store. They only had the one, so I hoped Alfred could use it alright. I had to replace a couple of items in one of the other hotel rooms and run a few errands before I could return to Alfred, and I also had a shit-ton of work to do as mayor since I'd fallen behind during my abduction. Thankfully, Strangetown was quite a small town, so I was able to catch up eventually.

Speaking of the abduction, I'd been wondering, since it had happened, why Xizzle decided to let me go. Sure, they'd been defeated, but they could easily have held onto me if they'd wanted. But they didn't, because he ordered them not to.

But why?

Was Xizzle having second thoughts about taking over Strangetown?

Whatever. I wasn't going to complain about being released from their ship. I wouldn't have been able to stop Ava if they hadn't let me go, so I guess I should've been thanking them.

After I finished up the paperwork, I brought the data modulator to Alfred, who examined it closely. "Is THIS the only heuristic data modulator you could find? If my memory banks are correct, this model was recalled in 2002."

Yeah, sorry about that, it was the only one the store had," I explained.

"I suppose it will serve for the time being, at least until a replacement can be obtained. Installing now..." He then started making some strange noises as the modulator installed. Something along the lines of...BZZZT...*ding!*...tick ticktick... Inst-inst-installation success-ss-ss-ful... *plip!*

Alfred blinked a couple of times before speaking again. "All right... what the heck did I say I was gonna do? Oh yeah... clean up this dump. Great." He sighed.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Hey, don't thank me or anything, jerk... sheesh. I'm going to my room. I feel funny," he sounded really irritated. I didn't bother to tell him I'd already given him my thanks, or that I'd asked if he was alright. I just nodded and left the penthouse. With this latest interaction with him, that feeling I had before only grew stronger. It didn't help that, a few hours later, he called me up to the penthouse in order to complain. "Hey, you.Yeah, you, Alessa. I'm bored! Give me something to do!"

"Like what?" I asked him.

"I don't know...I'll clean something! Whatever, just make a plan and stick to it, huh?"

"I don't...I guess you could check the wiring in the hotel?" I offered, not knowing what else to suggest.

"Check the wiring in the hotel? Is that the best you got?" demanded Alfred.

"Look, Alfred, I don't know what else to tell you, okay?" I defended.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK. I can do that...but it's a tall order. I'm gonna need 20 fuel rods."

"20?! How in the hell am I going to get—"

"I said 20 FUEL RODS. That's it. I'm not doing it for less," he snapped. Not wanting to piss him off any further, I left the penthouse once again. I knew it would take me a few days to get all those fuel rods, and I planned on taking my sweet time with it. I was getting tired of his attitude already, especially since we'd been getting along so well before.

And I had a feeling this was because of that heuristic data modulator I gave him. He was acting fine before he installed the damn thing, so that had to be the issue. And if that was the case, I couldn't just evict him. He wasn't like Ava or Frankie, who I could handle for the most part. I'd started to consider him a friend before he started being such a prick.

Eventually, I got him the fuel rods and he snatched them from my arms as soon as he saw me. "You have the fuel rods? Give them to me. Now!" After what could only be described as consuming the fuel rods, he continued with, "Ah! Sweet nuclear energy! I must find more! Once I learn to process this volatile fuel I won't need organic peons like YOU around. I mean that in the nicest possible way, but I really don't think you humans are capable of much."

Thanks for that, jerk, I thought.

"Fuel rods...so rich...in...energy! Yee ha haha! So powerful!"*Kzzzt*"M-m-m-must calm down to...To..." *klang!*"Must calm down or...HA HA HA!...must...down...calm...HELLO...I AM ALFRED MODEL NINE THOU—"*Tchktchktchkpling!* *WARNING--PARITY ERROR!* "Eep! HA HAHA!"

That's why you shouldn't consume so much nuclear fuel, Alfred.

He then seemed to come to his senses...or as much as he could right now, anyway. "Whoa nelly! Those fuel rods have got some INSANE kinetic energy! I need to take a nap, man. To wind down, to chill out.Sheesh. If you need me for anything, just...forget it."

"Works for me," I said. I preferred to leave him be while he was like this, at least until he calmed down a bit more. Having said that, I decided to go into the desert and look for some metals or something. A nice change of pace would do me some good, I figured.

I found several valuable things in the desert. Silver and copper bars, lead rocks, some spaceship parts...even a mummified alien or two. I brought it all back to the store with me to sell it to Johnny, who smiled when he saw the spaceship parts I'd collected. I saw how many had been brought to him already, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, you should keep these," he gestured to the mummified aliens I'd found (I hadn't been trying to sell them for simoleons; they just happened to be mixed in with everything else I'd found out there.). "I hear there's some sort of lab in the basement of the hotel. You could bring them there if you wanted."

"Where's you hear that?" I asked, having never heard of it.

"From Cory. I stopped in not too long ago and he mentioned a locked grey door down there. You're the manager, so you should be able to get ahold of the key, I'd imagine."

"Yeah, I'll have to check that out," I replied, "Thanks, Johnny."

"Anytime, Madame mayor," he replied.