They descended the stairs, ending up on the sidewalk. They were surrounded by people doing different things, a couple holding hands, a bunch of kids kicking around a ball, old people sitting on a bench. Everyone was happy.
"Look at that officer." Amy pointed to a man in a white and blue long coat, leaning against a similarly colored car, eating a donut and chatting with another cop. "He's not doing anything?"
"Beck said that this sector actually had good cops. I don't think we need to worry about getting harassed anymore." Jamie patted her back.
"Well, how do we go and find places for sale?" Amanda looked around, dumbfounded. "I don't see any shops around here…"
Hearing her, they all sighed, with Yeti whimpering. Jamie scratched his head, failing to notice a little girl skipping behind him, about to run into the cloaked Prime.
"Let's ask around, I guess?"
"Ow!"
They heard a metal thunk and a person hitting the ground behind them, only to turn and see a little girl sitting on the ground, crying as she rubbed her head.
"Waah! It hurts!"
"What happened, dear? Did you run into something?"
As the girl's mother started comforting her, Jamie's eyes widened as he made Prime silently float higher so as to be above everyone's heads. He turned back and quickly nudged everyone to move as the girl's crying started attracting unwanted attention.
"Go go go go!"
Following his lead, they all ran off in a random direction, Prime following in the air. While the rest long disappeared, Armin ran back to the little girl, leaning towards her.
"Here, this should help your boo boo." He said, sticking out his palm to reveal a small, transparent purple band-aid.
"T-Thank you…" She sniffled.
He neatly placed it on the red spot on her forehead before running off to follow the family, leaving the child and her mother slightly confused.
"Wait for me!"
******
They ran until they entered what seemed to be a park, stopping to catch their breaths.
"Why did we run again?" Amanda huffed.
"What if someone saw the girl fall after running into thin air? We can't take any risks." Jamie wiped his forehead with his sleeve.
Once they were all ready to move again, they quickly moved around the park, asking passerby for possible shops for sale, and how to get there.
After exploring for around an hour or so, they ended up in an area called Blue Avenue. It was a wide street where people walked and relaxed often. It had some benches and trees, but the main attraction was a large fountain in the middle, with the water shooting out of a sculpture of a tall, middle aged man wearing a long coat.
On the sides of the road were a bunch of different buildings lined up, some being restaurants and places to eat and drink while the rest were businesses or places offering service. Apparently, Blue Avenue was the place with the most skilled trades available and held the highest chance of them finding a mechanic shop for sale.
"Here we go, a mechanic shop for sale. Quite the upgrade compared to our last one."
They stood in front of a large garage, nestled in between a convenience store and a karaoke bar. Past the garage was the inside room of the mechanic shop, and they could see it had a second floor from the outside. Compared to their old mechanic shop which had the garage side by side with the rest of the building, this one had the garage in front and served as the main entrance.
From the see-through panels of glass in the shutter door, the garage was dim, though the corners of the walls were lined with blue neon light strips. The garage itself was also filled with different tools, workbenches, and even a familiar metal frame noutline that could be used to hook Prime up to.
Amanda had her face pressed up to the glass, and Jamie thought he could see her drooling. Blinking and shaking his head, he tapped her on the shoulder.
"Uh, Amanda? We still have to buy it first."
"So big… tools…" She was muttering until Jamie finally caught her attention. "Oh! Right, let's go contact the seller already."
She turned to a poster placed on the garage's shutter door. It read MECHANIC SHOP FOR SALE - ONLY 17999 CREDITS! At the bottom of the poster, it also contained the seller's contact number as well as the address to see the seller in person.
"Call their number? Seems easy enough." Armin leaned in to read the poster, before getting back up with a smile. "Who has a phone?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Arf!"
Amin's smile quickly disappeared. "...We're walking again?"
Jamie sighed, wrapping an arm around his shoulder before he started moving. "Let's just try to buy this place by nightfall."
The rest of them groaned.
"Ugh, can we at least grab some slum sliders on the way? I'm hungry." Aiden complained.
"Uh, Aiden?"
"What?"
"I don't think they have slum sliders in this sector."
"WHAT!?" Aiden's sudden roar surprised the people around them. "What about fried rat? Lizard stew?"
"I don't think they have those either."
"I hate this place!"
As Aiden continued to grumble, Amy pinched the bridge of her nose.
"This is gonna take a while."
******
Somewhere near the train station, a couple buildings away from where everyone entered the middle class sector, there stood a wide building with the Dynamos insignia on it. It was one of the many police stations in the sector, having many holding cells and interrogation rooms underground.
In one such interrogation room, a middle aged man with black hair and eyes sat, wearing a Dynamos uniform. Even though his right arm was currently handcuffed to the table, his expression remained calm and relaxed. He looked at the one-way window in front of him that was next to the door, seeing his reflection look back at him, though he knew on the other side he was clearly visible.
Soon, the door opened, and an officer entered the room, carrying a tablet, pen and paper, and a recording device. He was an older man, with graying hair, an earpiece, and his uniform was different. While Beck's had one single blue stripe on the white long coat, the older man had two, as well as a crest on the left side of his chest.
The man sat down in front of Beck and turned on the recording device with a click before opening his tablet and reading some information from it.
"Brandon Matthews, 44 years old, goes by the name 'Beck'." He leaned back. "My name is Carl Lewis. So, Mr. Matthews, care to tell me why you impersonated a Dynamos officer as well as discharging an unlicensed firearm in the train station?"
"Why, I thought it was a rather excellent way to introduce myself." Beck flashed a grin. "I'm certain an organization of Dynamos' caliber could find use for a man with my… talents."
"Pfft, what would we want with someone like you? You even had to disguise yourself to escape the slum. Tell me, why shouldn't we just ship your ass back there right now?" Carl scoffed.
"Who said I snuck on the train? Who said I needed to 'escape'?" Beck replied smugly, making Carl frown. Seeing he made the cop silent, Beck continued.
"I'll have you know Mr. Lewis, that currently, there is a complete lack of Dynamos presence in the slum sector. As a matter of fact, I am currently in charge of the slums. I, along with a few trusted allies, completely overthrew the Dynamos branch there and took control.
The only reason I wore this uniform was to make you want to interrogate me. Had I just fired a pistol in the air with nothing else, I would have been thrown in a cell as some violent maniac."
"You're lying." Carl narrowed his gaze. "To make the hovertrain move, you'd need to take over the control panel…"
He went silent as he saw the grin on Beck's face widen. His mouth slightly opened in disbelief. "No…"
"Like I said, I'm certain you lot will be able to find use for my talents. I assume that what I offer is worth much more than the losses suffered at the slums?"
Seeing his confidence, Carl started to falter. "Y-Yes but, to do all that, you'd have to have fought and won against multiple Grunt Mechas, which is only achievable by either Wizards on the same level of our Agents or another mecha…"
"I'd be happy to tell you all about how we did it. Of course, I won't hog all the credit as I tell the story."
Hearing him, Carl paused, looking at the table deep in thought. After a moment, he breathed in and turned off the recording device with a click, before looking at the one-way window behind him and making a gesture, probably to turn off whatever camera was watching them. After that, he activated his communicator earpiece.
"I want a few officers sent over to the control rig for the middle to slum class sectors. If they see unfamiliar personnel in control, advise them to hold fire and to not engage. Have the highest ranking officer to be sent stay in contact with me."
After giving his order, he turned the communicator off and looked at Beck in a friendlier light. Clearing his throat, his tone became awfully nicer compared to his earlier aggressiveness.
"Could I get you anything to drink, Mr. Beck? Tea, coffee, perhaps?"
Hearing him, Beck leaned back in his chair comfortably with a smile, fiddling with his handcuff chain.
"Coffee. Make it sweet."