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Author's Chapter Notes:
Max descends...
Max and Bandit continued down the stairs and turned at the next landing. Around the corner were more stairs. Just like all the levels above him. While Shades wandered off down the hallway near the entrance, he headed downstairs to explore from the bottom up.

As he made his descent, he found a few minutes to think about recent events. He was still taken aback by that scene at the entrance earlier. By how much Justin and Shades argued with each other from the moment they first met. At a total loss for what to do about it. That last argument still ringing in his ears. Shades had once told him that his old friends, John and Tom, never really got along with each other.

Yet both of them were friends with Shades. He wasn’t sure he understood how they could all still be friends like that, but Shades had also told him about the one time he actually got the two of them to truly work together, and he wondered if he couldn’t figure out a way to do the same. Yet all he was drawing was blanks. Felt sure his friend cared about something, but Justin just wasn’t sure what yet. He would have to figure out what both of his friends wanted, hopefully before things got any worse, but at least for now he still had Bandit for company.

All this time, he had envisioned the three of them becoming the best of friends and traveling all over the world…

Of course, on the subject of things that would take some getting used to, he still couldn’t shake off his misgivings about Kato. Even with Justin’s endorsement and the fact that she so disliked the TSA, even having no association with Layosha’s old enemies, he found he still didn’t like teaming up with a Cyexian. More than that, Bandit also seemed to disapprove of her.

He just kept telling himself that Justin, who had also had nothing but bad luck with Cyexians, saw fit to trust her. Still, Shades was always telling him don’t judge a book by its cover, and at the library, had told him, Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. We can learn a lot more about her by the company she keeps. And, now that he thought about it, he remembered out of the blue that Mom and Dad did have Cyexian friends along the way. From many years ago, Mom’s voice drifted back to him, reminding him not all of them are like Slash, don’t forget… Shades’ words especially, though, made him feel ashamed of his enmity towards her.

Unity. That was what Shades was always saying. Maybe he would give it a try. If nothing else, Kato wasn’t like any other Cyexian he had ever encountered.

He turned the next corner and started down another flight. So far, he had found only locked doors at each landing, so he doubted any of them had gone those ways. Figuring this place couldn’t go too much farther down, he resolved that if he didn’t find something soon, he would double back and try to catch up with Shades.

Beside him, Bandit acted more nervous than Max had seen him since they went to Tranz-D, something he honestly didn’t like.