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Thou art must ride yonder, my loyal steed!

The Wisdom headquarters was much louder that day than Shuko had predicted. Ace was the only one who hadn't spoken a word all morning. The rest of them, however, were either angry with Shuko or angry at Jasmin and Rhydian for agreeing to go alone to the base of the Murder.

Shuko sat in his swivel chair, eating shrimp chips while everyone argued. Jing was trying to calm down an already quite aggravated Reuben while Nina was reassuring Oscar. Luca was suffering from a headache and cursing under his breath for both their circumstances and the sharp clawing inside of his head.

"Are they completely mental? They've probably walked right into a trap!" The bookworm exclaimed, pacing back and forth behind his desk. Nina bit her lip but still managed to reply, "I'm sure they're okay. If there was anything threatening about the meeting, Shuko wouldn't have let them accompany Neith."

"They're not accompanying him, he's accompanying them. My entire plan rests solely on them. Neith-kun is only there for precautions. Since he's probably tried to bite someone's head off, I'm pretty sure he'll be isolated right now. Perfect for a mission in the ventilation systems," Shuko explained, seeming quite unconcerned about the situation.

Oscar glared at Shuko but said nothing. Nina shook her head at the boy, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Your friends will be fine, trust me," She mumbled, placing a hand on Oscar's shoulder.

The bookworm furrowed his brow. "They're not..." He trailed off, dropping his grey gaze to the floor. What were they to him?

Instead of answering his question, he whipped his head in Shuko's direction. "They better be fine, or Shuko's going to be found drowned in a river several days from now," Oscar snapped, turning his back on everyone and pulling out a book; he nearly broke the spine in the process. Shuko grinned at Oscar's comment but said nothing.

Nearly an hour later, Shuko's wristband rang and he picked it up almost immediately.

"This is the Wisdom. Shuko speaking," He said evenly. The dark haired man paused to expand the call to the others. An interesting Scottish accent came from the other end of the call.

"Thes is Finnian frae th' Mudder. Eh'd loch tae discuss somethin' wi' ye."

Shuko arched an eyebrow, spinning in his chair. "Well, that's what I'd assume."

The Scottish man laughed drily. "Woods ye-" He was interrupted by a loud crash and a bout of strong swearing. Shuko smiled.

"Neith-kun didn't seem to like his confinements too well, did he?" He asked, pulling a Rubik's cube out of his desk drawer and beginning to mess with it.

There was the sound of scuffling and then came, "Ooch, 'at hurts! Lit gang ay mah hair!"

The sound of fighting grew a bit quieter. "Sorry about that. They're um... they don't seem to get along," A familiar voice said.

"Merrick-san. Do you know what Fishy-kun wanted to discuss by any chance?" Shuko asked, an amused glint in his mismatched eyes.

"Um- guys stop- well, yes, I think- you're going to break something!" There was a click and then another, smoother voice came on. "It turns out that they thought we had started the virus. So... We're kind of in a funny spot right now. What do you think we should do?"

Oscar let out a growl-like noise and glared at the holographic screen emerging from his wristband. Reuben wasn't much better. He seemed to be using all his energy not to burst into a lecture.

Shuko turned another spot on the Rubik's cube. "First off, I think you should come back here," He said. "And we can talk about this in more detail. It's not 100% safe to talk about information over the phone, especially not stuff like this." He sniffed. "Which is why it was better to bring you all here the other day instead of sending out a message. Government officers are always sniffing around for suspicious discussions."