~Chase's POV~

A man was standing in front of Fiona and she was pointing her gun at him.

"Don't kill me!" he begged. Athena looked at the man suspiciously.

"I-I've been watching you. I don't mean any harm." The man stuck his arms up.

"Everything's okay...if you're not here to hurt us, we're not here to hurt you," Fiona said.

"Thank you for that. It is genuinely rare to encounter reasonable, somewhat intelligent-seeming people," the man said. I felt a little offended.

"Hey there!" Gortys greeted him.

"We're looking for an upgrade for Gortys. You wouldn't happen to know where to find it, do you?" I ask. He looked over at Athena.

"Well I-I can't help you that. I know nothing about it. So you should leave. All of us, going our separate ways." The man was acting strange.

"We aren't leaving without it. And you're acting very strange. What's going on?" I asked.

"Oh! Y-your friend there...does he happen to suffer from artificially induced hemispherical obdormition?" The stranger asked. We were all clueless at what that is.

"Paralysis?" He asked again and raised his eyebrows. Vaughn then made noises.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question, Vaughn. Why didn't you just say paralysis?" Rhys asked.

"There's no way you understood what he said," I told Rhys.

"Well, I wanted to ask," Rhys said.

"I didn't call it paralysis because he's not technically paralyzed. The contortion, the blinkless eyes. All signs of a toxin called Thanatopsol," the stranger said.

"Could you help him?" I asked.

"We don't know if he's a doctor," Fiona said.

"Well, let's just assume he is one," Rhys snapped.

"Yes. Of course. Put your friend on the table." Rhys and I untie Vaughn from LB's back and put him on the table. The stranger pulled Fiona to the side and handed her a syringe.

"What do I do with this?" She asked.

"Plunge it into his heart," he answered. Fiona walked over to me.

"Chase, could you do it?"

I took the syringe from her.

"Uh...sure." I stand next to the table and I see Vaughn looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

"I hope this doesn't hurt." I stabbed it right in his heart and pressed the button to release the medicine.

"Soooo....what now?" Rhys asked.

"I don't know. I've never done anything like this," the man said.

"What?! I though you knew what you were doing!!" I yell.

"Gggaaahhhh!!!" Vaughn flies up and screams.

"Someone, please spit in my eye! Or lick! Lick my eye! I don't care! Lick me in the eye!" He yelled.

"Oh, god. The toxin turned him insane. Or into an eyeball fetishist," Sasha said.

"He's dehydrated, but the shot you gave him should help," the man said.

"Oh, god. It's so nice to blink again!" Vaughn cheered.

"Geez, I thought I ended up killing you when he said he never has done this before," I sigh.

"Thank you for jamming it into my chest and not killing me," he said and laughed. I shove him and he falls off the table. He was still laughing when he hit the ground. The stranger tried to walk off but Fiona cut him off.

"I'm not done with you," Fiona said to the man.

"What? I helped hi-" he was cut off by a glare from Athena. Then, the man told us about how he lost his family and pet. The whole story was sad but in the end, he said he has only been here for a few minutes.

"There's no way that you just got here. The clothes and the fruit are proof enough,"I said.

"Maybe his cat really sucked," Fiona taunted. I let a giggle slip from me.

"That was adorable....." I heard Rhys whisper. When I turned to him, he pretended to cough. Then, the man got angry because we talked about his cat and he let his secret slip.

"Fine, if you're looking for the upgrade, it'll be in the bunker in the middle of the jungle. But, your problem is the automated security system. You can only deactivate it from the security tower over there." The man pointed everything out from the window.

"Automated security system, huh? Huh, just realized the acronym for that is ASS. Ha!" Vaughn started laughing.

"Yeah, that's probably why no one calls it that," Sasha said.

"Hey, Rhys. Guess what we're gonna do? We're gonna disable Atlas's ASS. Hahahahaha, so good!" Vaughn wiped away a fake tear.

"So we need to split up into two teams and send one to the bunker and one to the security tower," I said.

"Basically, yes," the man answered.

"Chase and Rhys are the professional hackers here. We'll send them to the security tower. Fiona, you're with me," Athena said.

"Vaughn and I will stay here," Sasha said.

"I can do something while you guys are gone. I could check the computers or-or even watch this guy," Vaughn said.

"Vaughn, you've been through a lot. Just...rest for awhile," I said. Vaughn smiled at me.

"Yeah, rest sounds nice. Thanks, Chase," Vaughn said. Athena, Fiona, Rhys, and I got on the elevator. Rhys and I were the first stop. We got off and I waved to Fiona and Athena. Fiona waved back and surprisingly, Athena gave me a small wave.

"I just witnessed a miracle...." I said.

"What?" Rhys asked.

"I'll tell you later. Let's go explore!" I turned into my normal body and ran down the long corridor. Rhys was walking so slow.

"Come on! You have longer legs than me. Hurry up!" I shouted at him. Rhys started to chuckle at me.

"Wow...." I stepped out of the metal corridor and saw beautiful plants and things that looked like jellyfish. Rhys finally made it and stood by me.

"It's so...so...."

"Romantic?" Rhys asked. I snapped my head to the side and saw that he was serious.

"Romantic, beautiful, breathtaking all describe this place very well. Before I get lost in imagination land, let's get to the security tower." I started walking down the catwalk and saw a panel had fallen off. I got a running start and jumped and made a clean landing.

"You're turn, Rhys," I said.

"Oh, I don't know, Chase. I might not make that jump," he said and scared away.

"Rhys, if I can make it, you can. Just run and jump. Oh, and....don't look down. You get cold feet when it comes to heights," I said. Rhys still looked at me with uncertainty.

"I promise, you won't fall," I said.

"You promise?"

"I just said that. Hurry up and get your butt over here," I said.

"Alright. I'm trusting you." Rhys ran and jumped. He made it across but was about to fall backwards. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to safety.

"See? You're not a pancake yet," I said.

"Yeah.....yet," he said. I heard a creaking noise and looked below.

"We shou-" the panel snapped underneath us. Rhys screams and grabs on. I fell further down and grabbed his ankles.

"O-okay, I'll pull us up. Just don't let go, Chase." Rhys started to climb up the panel. When he reached the top, the panel in front snapped, causing us to fall further down. I looked down.

"Rhys, I'm going to let go," I said.

"N-no! Don't let go! I won't let you go!" He yelled.

"Rhys, it's alright." I let go of his ankles and fall.

"No, Chase!"