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"Fifth pick, huh" Isaac called back to the AI, as he stood up from the workbench in his room. Giving his arms a stretch, he turned to where his SNAG was sitting on the bed. "So I beat out either Blizz or Sol then. I kinda like that. Although, I have to wonder what could possibly be so important in the Rumor Mill section of a magazine?"

As his door slid open, and the smell of hot soldering iron wafted from the aperture, Isaac strolled from his room to the main lounge of HQ, surprisingly devoid of people. "You know,GRAY," Isaac remarked to the SNAG, now strapped to his arm, "I'm curious. Who on the Team wanted their weekly celebrity gossip so badly they set HQ up with a subscription? I've seen these in here before." Picking up the magazine in question, Isaac flipped through the pages until he found the relevant section.

"GRAY," Issac admonished as he browsed the article, "Shouldn't you know better than to trust gossip magazines? These guys will publish anything, just to make a sale." Tossing the magazine back onto a table, he raised his arm so he spoke directly into the display of his SNAG. "I know you suffered severe damage at the hands of Cipher's resident afro junkie, but still. Do you have any other proof of these claims? From a more reputable source, preferably?"

"Alright, alright," Isaac raised his hands in a facsimile of surrender, as he started back to his room. If he was going on a mission, he was going to need a few things. Grabbing an earbud with an attached microphone, he threaded the long cord through his shirt, out his sleeve, and attached it to his SNAG. This way, GRAY could talk without everyone in a local radius hearing. Placing the earbud in his ear, he set about gathering other materials. His typical hoodie and his father's old over sized wrench among the first things he grabbed, various flash drives with different programs on them were a finishing touch. "So, GRAY," Isaac inquired as he fi ished gathering his materials. "Two questions. One, how am I getting to Black City from here? Two, am I getting any backup on this?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Isaac replied, completely unable to keep a wide grin off his face. "I simply inquired about backup for a mission. Speaking of which, I'm late for a teleport. Se ya there!" Isaac dashed for the Claydoll, laughing madly as he was warped over to White Forest. "GRAY, that was hilarious! I take back half the bad things I've ever said about you."

"And yet, you keep both of us around," Isaac replied evenly, as he adjusted his SNAG's GPS. Fortunately, GRAY had dropped them off near the edge of the forest, so the trip into the city would not take long. "Come on," Isaac continued, as he started walking in the appropriate direction, "I think I can already see the city over the trees. Oh, and while we are walking, can you think of any reason why Cypher would be so fixated on this one engineer? What makes him so valuable to Ein?"

"Or left alive," Isaac responded grimly, as the pair exited White Forest. Sprawling before them lay the hyper developed urban sprawl of Black City. The gigantic black skyscrapers standing in stark contrast to the bright pristine buildings of Goldenrod and Lumiose, no less overbearing but yet still more to Isaac's liking. "So," he remarked as he craned his neck to peer back at Sub, "Where exactly is this warehouse? It's already mid-afternoon, and if this supposed 'haunting' takes place at midnight, we should get there a couple of hours before so that we can scout out the place.

"You know, why can't we ever go anywhere nice, that doesn't inevitably go to s**t?" Isaac asked, as the pair started on their way through the towering spires of the city.

On foot, the trip across the city took hours, and more than once was the pain almost run down by either cars of cyclists, seemingly heedless of where their transports were careening. By early evening, however, the two Snagems finally had reached the warehouse GRAY had indicated. The A.I. had not been exaggerating about the state of this district. The dilapidated, deteriorated buildings of the area reminded Isaac of the similar district from which he grew up in, in Goldenrod. It almost made him nostalgic, until he remembered how much he hated living there.

Brushing off the memories of his past, he turned to Sub, "I'm assuming we aren't just going to walk in the front door, right? Or are we completely confident that S-22 or the like isn't behind those doors.