Let's begin

After exchanging their stories, Tyler and Harry simply talked a bit more together. Not about anything important or too personnal, simply about little anecdotes of how life was in the higher and lower sectors. It was a good moment. A simple one. For both.

Finally, Harry asked for a bit of loneliness, and Tyler agreed, leaving the kitchen.

"Erica, John, come out, I know you guys are here" he said.

Nothing happened in the first seconds but then, a blanket suddenly appeared and fell near the wall:

"How did you notice us?" Erica asked.

"I didn't, I was just thinking there was no way that you'd let me try to convince someone to give us the most crucial thing in our whole operation while I was so drunk- or even sober" Tyler explained. "So I tried this to be sure, and looks like I was right"

"Uh, sorry" John apologized. "We just wanted to... make sure..."

Tyler offered them a smirk as he interrupted him:

"Eh, no need to apologize, I would've done the same for you, that's what friends are for after all" he joked. "Anyway, Erica, isn't it a bit contradictory to use your mutation for stuff like this while you almost died last time you abused it? I'm gonna think you just love near-death experiences"

"Heh, I better love this since I'm fighting the damn Paradise Council with you as an ally" she scoffed. "More seriously, it's like soreness, I need to start using my mutant ability again at a reasonnable extent so it'll become completly operationnal again for the mission"

"Oh. That actually sounds pretty logical. I guess. Welp, anyway, when do we start our little plan?"

"Tomorrow" John replied. "You think you're ready for this, Tyler?"

The drunkard smiled:

"Never been more fucking ready, just wait for the alcohol in my body to diminish a bit and then we can go for it and escape this shithole planet"

He started walking toward his room for one last sleep before the moment of truth but then, before entering, he added:

"And of course kill this bastard Enry Arsin on the way"

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.

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Twenty hours later, as the day was once again starting to fade while the sun was sinking in the horizon, in the capital city of sector A, the city with the terminal Erica and the others sneaked in some days earlier, a tall building was still fully lit.

It illuminated the entire part of the city it was in with beautiful colored lights, as last-model floating car were approching, all driven by elegant and richly-dressed men and women, all showing their faces to the identification device on the walls of the giant building before passing through it. Some of them, though, failed this process and crashed miserably against the walls.

It was because they weren't invited. The gigantic and unrealistic building, floating right in the middle of the city, was actually named the 'Party Hall', a gigantic structure officially created for reunions and logement of the district managers while they were visiting sector A, but was instead used by Enry Arsin as a place to, every month, organize the most luxurious and extravagant parties of Glactia-62.

Of course, the entry conditions were severe, to say the least.Only the district managers, the high-ranked members of Glactia-62's institutions and a few well-known figures of sector A were invited, allowing them to pass the authentification and pass through the wall thanks to the Fefnir technology in it. Then they could enjoy the festivities with the other guests.

But this night, three of the original guest weren't there. Instead, as three other persons took their places, easily fooling the authentification systems of the massive building, all three of the guest wer lying on the floor of a certain building, solidly tied with ropes, with no hope of being found nor freed before a few day pass.

And indeed, instead of them, the three that just entered disguised as them were none other than John, Erica and Tyler!

"Ok, we're in now, meaning we can go to the next step" John said.

They followed Erica's pla, which mainly consisted of one main point: aiming for the head!

Indeed, after their last intrusion, to be sure they didn't escape, Glactia-62's higher-ups decided to close sector B's terminal. However, closing sector A's terminal too would've required too much ressources, and completly cut the planet off from any interaction with the rest of the galaxy, which would've been far too problematic on far too many points.

Therefore, they moved all the sector B's terminal's defenses that could be moved to the other one, and sent most cyborg there too. With such a security, even if Ercia and the others managed to steal a new functionnal spatial ship or even a space ship, they would likely never be able to get past the terminal's security and cross the Outergate to escape in the cosmos.

But the question was: if the cyborgs were stuck at the terminal, how weakened would the director Arsin's security be? That was what they were going to discover during the party!

In fact, capturing someone like Enry Arsin, be it to use him as an hostage, use him to pass numerous identification gates leading to interesting things or even punch some information out of him was a key part in their success.

Therefore, it was the moment when John's presence came in handy, as he revealed to Tyler his specificity: somehow, John was able to make masks that were so realistic that they could even fool the Fefnir technology of the building. He didn't really seem like he wanted to explain the method to Tyler, who didn't insist.

Once inside, they immediatly separated, blending into the small crowd of guests, trying to not bring any attention to themselves as they weren't sure at all to be able to maintain the facade if they had to talk to someone.

The building was truly gigantic, and having to pass through the wall and tap complex commands only to move to another place of the Party Hall in a way that didn't make any sense didn't help, also Tyler rapidly got lost.

A gigantic warming pool circled by numerous jacuzzis and therapeutic baths, then a colossal stadium that could adapt to play any sport in it, followed by a field where you could simulate a war with laser guns, with the assistance of ultra-modern- and probably ultra-pricey- holographic technology, the same kind as the one in the destroyed spatial ship.

Those were all places Tyler passed by while exploring the Party Hall in search of Enry Arsin. Just seeing those were already enough for him to get murder intent: for the lower sectors, just one of those place was already something unimaginable. But for those people, it was just something they had to have to preserve the appearances, he wasn't even sure they everused it considering this look they always did all they could to keep no matter what, this look of perfect, clean, polite and reserved gentlemen.

'Tssk, motherfuckers, wait till I commit fucking terrorism at your stupid party and see how elegant you look' he thought.

He met with numerous 'important guests', while always putting on the same mask of elegance and discretion. He always had been a scammer, so faking being one of them wasn't that hard for him. All while limiting his discussions with them to small ones, only ever ripping some pieces of information before getting away and switching to someone else, to make sure his interlocutors never got suspicious.

And then, by slowly assembling these numerous small pieces of information he acquired from everyone he talked to, he managed to learn a few interesting things. Added to John, Harry and Erica briefings, he know had a general comprehension of how the higher spheres of the planet worked. But more important, he had a pretty good idea of how the Party Hall was structured, and how the guests were moving inside.

On the other side, a pretty worrying thing was that nobody even saw Enry Arsin's shadow yet. It was as if he didn't even come this day, which gave Tyler a bad feeling.

At this point, he decided that moreinteractions would be too risky, and discretly got away from the rest of the guest, isolating himself on one of the numerous balconies of the magnificent Party Hall. Leaning against the guardrail, he sank in deep thinking, trying to put the numerous fragments of information in place to try reaching conclusions that could help him, all while admiring the complex geometry of the other floating building composing the capital city of sector A.

Suddenly, someone leaned on the guardrail too, right beside him, to the point they were only a few centimeters away from each other.

This person was wearing a long black and white plaid coat, with a mask to hide their face, with two ^^ for the eyes, and a small hand-drawn smile for the mouth. There was a single thing Tyler was sure of, and it was that this person definitly wasn't one of the guests.

On the other side, he too wasn't one of the guest, so he had to choose what to do: ignoring this person, talking to them or just denonciating their intrusion, which gave him the less chance of being unmasked?

Just as he was thinking about it while still maintaining a clam face and looking at the city, the figure beside him suddenly spoke:

"Well, well, my dear friend Tyler, I don't mean to judge you but, uh, aren't you a bit too calm for someone who just jumped into a trap?"