It turned out that Grimsley was not going to be psychologically screened by the young man who led him down to the medical ward. In fact, as soon as Grimsley arrived outside the door his escort bowed at him then hurried away down the hall in the same rush he had been in when he had first come up to Grimsley. That left the soldier from the country alone at the door to a room marked "PSYCHOLOGY."

He went to knock but the door slid open automatically as soon as he got close to it and he chose to awkwardly step inside. The room was rather large and was mostly being consumed by a medical table for someone to lie on and a large machine hanging from the ceiling above it, with multiple mechanical arms and screens dangling down. Other than that centerpiece, there was a small metal desk to the left that was nearly pressed up against the wall, with twin bookshelves adorning it.

There was also a small chair beside the desk and bookshelves for a patient to sit in but Grimsley's eyes never got that far. They were glued to the person sitting behind the desk in a cushioned chair. A female person.

She had long, blonde hair that fell down to her shoulders and curled towards the bottoms, framing a thin face inlaid with icy-blue eyes and a pert little nose. Her lips were a light pink and were a thin line drawn across her face. It all came together to form the second most beautiful female face Grimsley had ever looked upon (in a tie with Raven's. The first spot was reserved permanently for Miss Easley of last year who went on to win Miss Enia later).

Unknown to Grimsley, this blonde bombshell was actually a native woman from the northern lands whose family had immigrated all the way down to Narrius when she was a little girl, and so she blended in with the average citizen, other than her remarkable looks, something common to many tribal folks. Ochenkov had been quite a handsome man in his prime years but had always been on the large side.

Grimsley read the nameplate sitting on her desk: Dr. Alice Kostinev. She looked up at him once the door shut behind him with a serious look to her face. Regardless of her beauty, it was all business with her, all the time. Without introduction or words she motioned for Grimsley to sit and he obediently followed, entranced by her looks.

"Mr. Aeroth-"

"Grimsley. You can call me Grimsley. Nobody ever calls me mister anything." He gave her a goofy smile as he sat on the edge of the medical table and bent his neck so that he was avoiding the machinery overhead.

"Right, Grimsley then." Her voice sent a cool tingle through his body. It sounded like the jingle of crystal icicles ringing against each other as wind rustled through them. Or at least that was how Grimsley imagined it would be since he had never been in that kind of situation; Easley never got cold enough for snow. "I need you to undergo a psychological screening to check if your brain is functioning at a normal capacity and-" She paused and looked up from the folder she was examining, which contained Grimsley's record. "Mr. Aeroth, it is not necessary for you to be naked for the machine to work."

"Oh." Grimsley's face went red. He was down to his underpants as she had said that, just finishing pulling his pants off. "I thought it was like a medical examination-type of thing."

Dr. Kostinev rolled her eyes at yet another patient stripping in front of her. At least this one seemed sincere and naive about it. Most of them were doing it as part of an excuse to get naked and show off their military bodies to impress her. "Yes it is a medical exam but I'm only going to be looking inside your head. Just put your clothes on, lay back, and this will be over in just a few minutes."

Thoroughly embarrassed, Grimsley hurriedly did everything he was asked and was soon staring up at numerous blank screens that returned his gaze with the cold capacity of a machine. Alice pushed a few different buttons at her desk and began fiddling with them as the device started. Grimsley's vision became filled with bright lights flashing by in an array of fantastical colours and he started to feel his consciousness ebb away into the swirl of rainbows.

But just as he was ready to shut his mind down, it was over and the machine was shut off, leaving him with an empty feeling and burning retinas. He sat up rubbing his eyes and a blurry Dr. Kostinev handed him a small plastic rectangle. He looked down at it but couldn't make it out with his obscured vision. "What's this?"

"This is a communication device. The results of the test will take this contraption a couple of hours to process, and then I have to analyze them personally. That device you're holding is for communication but it can only receive calls from this office and nothing else. I will alert you when the results are in."

"And what do I do until then?"

The psychologist turned away to return to her desk and threw up her hands with a shrug. "I don't know. Go to the city, walk around, explore. Just take the elevator down the hall. If you'll excuse me now, I have other patients to see." She motioned for Grimsley to take his leave and he stood up from the medical table.

"That was really fast."

"Fast? You were in there for three hours." Grimsley's response to the woman was a blank stare. "Bizarre experience isn't it? I've had to be tested so many times I can't count anymore. It's as natural to me as sleeping these days. Anyways, good luck out there in the city."

"Uh, right, thank you." The door slid shut behind Grimsley before he realized he had forgotten to make any moves on the beautiful doctor and he kicked himself mentally.

* * * * *

Grimsley had taken a couple of turns down some of the streets of Narrius and was starting to wonder how he would get back. The city was of a unique design, built out of a large steel foundry originally, and now it was an enormous conglomeration of buildings and connections, an intricate network of metallic edifices and moulds that criss-crossed through each other and the different vertical layers of the city, all surrounded by a steel wall so high it blocked out the setting and rising sun each day.

And it was damn confusing. Since everything looked like a mash-up of the last two things Grimsley had seen he couldn't tell if he was looking at something new or old or just seeing it in a different light. And he dared not take any of the tunnels or interior passages, lest he be caught in an indoor maze and couldn't find his way out. No, he remained outside, walking the roads and alleys and frequently looking up at the vehicles that sped overhead in the air through the designated lanes. If he could see them, he could always hope to climb up high enough to flag one down and get directions.

The further he walked though, the dirtier and dingier things got. Pristine storefronts turned into little huts and shacks that had been hastily set up on the walkways and were selling unique and puzzling items. One shopkeeper thrust what looked like an animal tail at Grimsley and he had to push the elderly lady aside to cease her incessant attempts at a sale.

Most of the bazaars and shops were offering their different metallic contraptions, as the city had such an over-abundance of the resource. Others had cheap, counterfeit electronics (or cheap, stolen electronics). Grimsley stepped into a puddle of a conspicuous liquid that seemed a bit too solid for his liking and looked down to check out his shoes for a bit. When he looked up, it was into the grizzled, old face of a hunched man. His skin was twisted and gnarled like that of an ancient tree and his smile revealed roughly five teeth that were still intact. One of his eyes was permanently shut but the eyelid was frequently twitching as though it craved sight once more.

"Uhm, hi."

"You know what you need son? You need to get that crummy device of yours refurbished!" The old man's voice resembled noise if put through the strainer of tree bark.

"Refurbish my what?"

"This!" The man held up Grimsley's communicator device in his hand and revealed his almost-toothless mouth again.

"Hey how did you get that!?" Grimsley patted his pants but found they were indeed empty. His pocket had been picked quite expertly. Or he just wasn't a very aware person. Both options seemed likely.

"Why almost everyone down in this section of town can do that. I'm but an amateur." The ageing thief tossed the device back to Grimsley, who barely managed to make the catch without dropping it. "We don't get many military men down here, not unless they know what they're looking for. You don't seem to be that kind of man, so I'm going to help you out a bit sonny, no problem."

"Well I don't need help so much as directions really." Grimsley looked up at the sky but found it tough to see through the canopy of twisting pathways and connections running between the buildings.

"Nonsense! What you need is for us to fix up that crummy communicator for you. Only receives calls? Ha! That's standard issue in the army. Boy, we see so many of those in a day it'd make your head spin. Come this way." The man walked down the street a bit before pulling aside a brown, tattered curtain that led into an ancient storefront.

Grimsley hesitantly followed and was greeted with the aroma of metal and rust; a dangling light illuminated enough of the store for the young soldier to see little orange flakes of rust floating through the air. The shop was a clutter of heaps of machines and spare parts that were strewn about in no particular organization.

Somehow, the elderly gentleman managed to navigate it all to reach a semi-clear area that must have been his workbench. "Come now boy, gimme that communicator of yours and we'll fix it right up."

Grimsley nervously found his way over, trying his best to avoid knocking some of the more precisely balanced piles over before handing over his little square block. "I don't know about this, seems a bit risky to do." Grimsley's index fingers pressed together in the same nervous manner as his sister.

"Oh no need to fret, this will be done in a jiffy. Why I've been re-wiring military machines since I was near-walking age." The man uttered some sort of cackling laugh that was caught short by a coughing fit stirred up by the copious amounts of dust in the air.

He was accurate though. Within ten minutes the tinkerer had already pried open the little rectangular box and inserted some new components (removing some old ones in the process) and the precision in his ancient fingers shocked Grimsley as he watched, mesmerized.

The old man held up the finished product gloriously before handing it back to Grimsley. As soon as the boy touched it a small light shot up into the air and illuminated a holographic display filled with options. "Just select what you want to do and do it. It taps into the military networks around here for communicating and network access so you shouldn't have any issue. Those things are quite secure and stable. Most of the city is piggybacking on them. Course, the military don't know and what they don't know don't hurt 'em I say!" The laugh started up again and the old man wiped a tear from his single functioning eye. "Anyways, how will you be paying for that there device?"

Grimsley looked up from the display with a startled expression. "I, uh...hmm." Grimsley started to look through his pockets until he realized he didn't have any currency on him. He didn't really think he would need much as a soldier. "Well I don't really...I mean I have no money or anything so...I'm not really sure how..."

"No money you say! What, making a poor old man like me work and thinking you could pull a fast one on me?! Ha! Not likely boy. I've been around the block too many times for that to happen!"

Grimsley slowly backed away towards the doorway, not really worrying about the junk he was pushing through as he thought of only one thing: escape. He took another step back and bumped into the body of someone who had entered the store and was now just inside the entrance.

The young soldier looked up and found he was being stared back down on by one of the largest men he had ever seen. The stranger's head was nearly touching the ceiling of the storefront, almost seven feet high. This mysterious giant was wearing a dark trench coat that ran all the way to his feet. His face was covered up by a red scarf that wrapped up to his nose and so only his eyes were visible glaring back down at poor Grimsley.

With a little shriek, Grimsley scrambled out from underneath the man overlooking him as though it were a boulder coming down on his head and he whipped around to face the stranger. From behind the immense bulk of the giant, two more figures stepped out. One was a shorter version of the first, another man with a red scarf concealing his face and a dark trench coat. Grimsley noticed they were both wearing black gloves as well, but he especially noticed it on the smaller man because he was holding a pistol up.

The third figure stepped in front of the other two. This one was wearing a black outfit as well, but it was much more form-fitting and didn't hang off their frame like the other two. And that was the first indication that this third person was a woman and Grimsley felt his heart flutter a little. She wore her scarf down low though, just under her chin, and so her face was visible to all.

It was a pretty face, this Grimsley could see. In fact it was probably absolutely stunning but it had gone through a period of degradation from years in the slums and what looked like the hardened life of a criminal. The normally soft, feminine features her face once possessed had solidified into a grim look of intimidation and the scar running along her left cheek only added to the visage. Her long brown hair was drawn into a ponytail that dangled down all of her back and she smiled at Grimsley and the shopkeeper.

"Ronald, you know what time it is for me right?" The lady took off one of her gloves as she spoke and inspected her nails in boredom.

"So...so soon? I mean, I thought I just paid for the last time and-" the old man named Ronald stuttered as he backed away from the trio.

"Yes well, now I need to be paid again. Six hundred cenoias should cover it I think." The woman seemed to find a bit of dirt on her nails and brushed it off indignantly.

Grimsley saw the shopkeeper's eye go wide. The closed one fluttered insanely. "But Chandana, I don't have...surely you can't...please, give me a day or two at least. Some warning." Ronald looked over at Grimsley and the communicator in his hand. "You! You owe me money! He owes me money, it is him. I could pay you if it weren't for him!"

"What?" Grimsley adopted the look of an animal caught in a beam of light.

"You hear that boys?" Chandana looked back at the two figures over either of her shoulders. "Sounds like we'll be taking two in today; Ronald, and his down payment in a soldier! Should pay well in the market right?" The two men chuckled along with her before advancing on Grimsley in a flash and smothering him...

* * * * *

Grimsley shook his head and groggily felt himself awakening. He tried to rub his head but his arms were bound behind his body crudely, with an ageing rope that was biting into his skin. As his vision returned he started to make out the shape of Ronald sitting across from him.

The two of them seemed to be in a tiny room with enough space for them to fit on opposite sides with their feet almost touching each other. There was nothing else in the area but a door to Grimsley's left and a couple of lighting panels in the ceiling above.

"Oh, you're awake now. You know you can take quite a beating, even for a soldier!"

"I can?" Grimsley's head was still swimming and he had no recollection of anything that had brought him to this position after the encounter in the store.

"Oh yes! I mean, they had you drugged up and all but they gave you such a beating to try and makes you talk and you stood strong! Good lad, lots of respect for you, you know. I thought you would've died for sure!" Grimsley thought back to Aunt Shauna and her frying pan and shuddered. Nothing could be worse than that. "Sorry 'bout this mess though. If we get out of here, consider that communicator free of charge now. I don't know if you'll ever get a chance to use it but at least you saw it and nobody can accuse ol' Ronald of shoddy workmanship ever, no sir."

"Thank you I think. Who was that lady?"

"Chandana? The Red Fang? Her and the Red Scarf gang roam through this part of town and try to extort cenoia from us poor citizens and run organized crimes through this district, robbing us blind in the night. Police can't do nothin' 'bout 'em either on account of how slippery they are. But they're usually caught up in a couple of fights with other gangs for territory and that's our reprieve. Time off from that crazy bitch!" Ronald spat out the final word with no hidden malice.

Grimsley sat there and wordlessly nodded, thinking about Porter and the crew and what they were doing right now with Gretta. Probably some fun adventures or off in battle. And Grimsley thought about how he never seemed to be in battle for a soldier.

Then the communicator started buzzing in his pocket.

A/N: Grimsley finds himself caught up in a strange situation. Can he escape such perils? You'll have to wait to find out!