9 Years Later

Malachi stuffed a hand in his pocket, pushing back his long white hair, grumbling to himself. Silently, he cursed Vox. 'Dammit. I know we can't share our locations right now, but could they be any more vague!?'. He reopened his messages with the aforementioned friend, seeing their last message. "Internet cafe in Zuan City. Be there by 10" Letting out an audible groan as he looked at the time, he noticed it was a full hour past the times he was supposed to be there. He attempted to drag his hands down his face before being stopped by the light brown mask covering his nose and mouth. 

He realized that he already stood out, wearing a long cream colored trench coat, a plain white turtleneck and matching pants in the middle of a busy street. At least he had an excuse, not having enough time to change after his shoot, but the time he saved didn't seem to matter at this point, as he was already late. An annoyed look spread across his face before he smoothly continued on his hoverboard, going over the crosswalk. 

Approaching a quaint looking internet cafe, he pressed the small white device on his temple, a translucent light green and gray screen hovering in front of him. He went to his contact section listed under his name and found the one labeled 'The Spare' before glaring at the screen. Malachi opened the contact information and went down to messages. Swiftly typing "If my calculations are correct, I believe your current coordinates are in the realms of 'not present'. But I'm bad at math so" and pausing for a second after hitting send. He eventually decided to continue with "bitch please tell me you can see me. this is literally the tenth one I've been to today", hitting send then waiting for a reply. As he tapped his foot, he started impatiently fidgeting with his white latex gloves.

A notification flashed across the screen. If anyone could see his manic grin, they would probably call the roided up android squad they know as the 'cops'. "Fina-fucking-ly…" Malachi huffed with a still irritated look on his face, despite the fact that he was smiling. "Come on in, jackass" was all it said. 

Hopping off the board, he kicked it up, catching it before compressing it and stuffing it into his brown backpack. The door flung open, the bell at the top too poorly maintained to properly ring. He was greeted by one of the servers.

She had long, pink hair put up in double braids. It was hard to tell whether or not she was cosplaying because she was wearing a black hanfu dress, with the edges obviously altered, cut midway down her thighs. 

Although it was commonplace to use a fake name in the workplace, no matter the job, he still found himself pulling up his interface and looking up her work information. The woman, Valkyrie according to her tag, wore a blank expression. However, that expression faltered for a moment and she had an uncomfortable look in her eyes. 'Ah, I've just been staring at her. Way to make a first impression…' Malachi scolded himself internally. He would've put on a polite smile if the mask weren't in the way. Instead, he settled for a light nod before speaking. "I'm here for Mr. Zion." 

Valkyrie opened up her own interface. Just based on her appearance alone, you could probably guess that she had made her interface pink and black. Scrolling through the list of guests, she finally settled on the name. "Follow me, sir," the girl said, turning to lead him inside. She stopped in front of one of the rooms and knocked.

Before she could say anything, the door flung open, revealing a grinning 'Zion'. Sighing, the woman walked away. Malachi couldn't faintly hear her mutter "I don't get paid enough for this bullshit…" before returning to her duties.

"Well, well, well, Zion," he smirked, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. "C'mon. I already checked the room for cams. We're all good," they ran their hand through their short, neon red hair as they leaned against the wall. "When you get caught, I'm gonna laugh," Malachi replied with a smirk, finally pulling down his mask.

"I was wondering what the mask was for," they started, then paused for a second. "But then I remembered how famous you are," Vox poked fun at him. "Shut your ugly ass up," he said in a joking manner.

"Now then, back to business. What's she got for me now?" Malachi asked them in a serious tone, rubbing his gloved hands together and pursing his lips. "Hm. Well, y'know how auntie hates the council with a passion?" Vox started carefully. "Yeah, yeah, get on with it," he snapped, glaring at them. "...Sorry. Um, well, y'know Councilman Evalde? Yeah, she needs to stock up on supplies from Stexirk, and he's kind of the only person with access to these materials. And auntie said she would rather gouge her eyes out with a heated spoon than speak to him again," they explained with an awkward chuckle, their brown eyes avoiding meeting his gaze.

"Gimme the list and I'll be on my way," Malachi held his hand out impatiently, ready to head out as fast as possible. With a sigh, Vox reached into their pocket, pulling out a small sliver of paper. "I'm surprised you can still find this stuff…" he remarked, looking at the piece of paper carefully before taking it from their hand. "Eh, you know auntie. She can get her hands on damn near anything," Vox chuckled awkwardly. "Except the stuff on this list, apparently," he replied with a smirk. "Yeah, just don't let her catch you sayin' that," 

Malachi rolled his eyes at his friend's serious tone, tucking the piece of paper in his trench coat pocket. Vox let out an annoyed huff. "Oh, come on, you've been on the grunt end of most of her wrath… you of all people should understand why she scares me," they replied with a shiver. Malachi went quiet at that.

After a moment of awkward silence, Vox cleared their throat. "So… you gonna get going?" They asked with an innocent expression. "Oh, right, yeah," Malachi said quickly before heading out of the room.

He walked back out of the cafe, letting out a huff as he remembered to pull his mask back over his nose. Opening his interface, he pulled up a model of Stexirk, analyzing the streets and finding a few paths to the city hall as he walked through the streets. 

Stexirk was set up in a very strange way. Malachi supposed it made sense, considering it was a 'Red Light District' of sorts. The city itself was divided into sectors, the largest one, obviously being the 'business' sector. At the very center was the city hall. Ironically enough, it was shaped like a Roman catholic church, despite the nature of the city. 

There were very few ways in. "Dammit... I payed a lot for this info too," Malchi internally groaned.

Sliding his backpack off of his shoulder, he once again pulled out his hoverboard, stepping on it and starting to speed across the sidewalks. He quickly arrived at the train, slowing to a stop as he neared a crowd of people watching the train approach. Malachi stepped off the hoverboard, not even bothering with his usual flair, placing it back in his bag as he merged in with the crowd. The mask he was wearing only became more suffocating as the crowd near the train became denser.

After finally pushing his way through and onto the train, he quickly walked down the aisle. Finding an empty seat and sliding into it, he set his backpack beside him, refusing to let anyone sit beside him. He pulled down his mask and let out a breath. Malachi leaned back, propping his feet up on the seats in front of him. Staring out the window beside him, he rested his forehead on the cold glass. A slight jerk spread through the train, making Malachi accidentally bang his head on the glass with the force of the vehicle beginning to move to its next destination. He silently grumbled, opting to simply lean his head on his bag.

After sitting in silence for around ten minutes, Malachi finally decided to pull up his interface, taking his headphones out of his bag as he did so. Pulling a small earpiece out of a case and placing it in his ear, he scrolled through his downloaded music, he quickly realized he was not in the mood for it, instead listening to a podcast about bugs. He made sure to only put one in so he could still listen to his surroundings. Around twenty five more minutes passed when a woman's voice echoed through the train. 

"Now arriving at Stexirk," the automated voice spoke when the train slowed, falling still with a screech Malachi could hear through the windows on the tracks.