They made a left down the street. Max followed behind them.

Max made sure to keep a good distance away from the boys. He didn’t want them to spot him. They might not be keen to share their personal training spot for the midterms. Also, since the one boy had described it as a “secret training spot,” it might not be easy to find if you didn’t know where to look.

The boy’s hurried along the street, shadow boxing and hyping each other up.

Max followed them from across the street.

The city was in full swing as Max followed the boys.

Wafts of gasoline and manatech exhaust fumes filled the air, mixing with the smell of fried chicken and ramen restaurants. Cars honked. Construction workers drilled a hole in the ground. If it weren’t for the odd glow of a monster core powering a manatech street sign, Max felt like he was in the outer-rim again. Just another city going about its day-to-day business as the tower that dictated so much of their lives loomed far above them all.

As soon as Max had learned that not everyone in the tower-zone was a climber, he had wondered what they all did with their time, but it was very much like any other city. You had bakers, carpenters, janitors, bus drivers, and the list went on.

And then there was him, a student stalking three boys in the streets.

The boys turned another corner and Max crossed the street to catch up with them.

They turned into an alleyway next. Max hurried to the corner and peeked around and saw that the boys had completely disappeared.

What the heck!?

Max looked to the end of the alleyway and could see that it had no exit, so where had his fellow student peers gone then?

They couldn’t have just simply vanished, could they?

In the middle of the alley was an unmarked black door.

Max approached it and pulled the handle. The door opened up into a plain white hall with a stairwell leading underground.

“Is this really it? You’re not tricking us, are you?”

It was one of the three boys. They had already gone down the stairs.

Max tiptoed down the steps being as quiet as possible. He hung back on the last step and listened further down the hall.

“Password?”

It was a new voice entirely. A gruff older man.

“Zodiac,” said the boy and Max listened to their steps go further and further down the hall until they dwindled out of earshot.

Max then took a step into the basement hall.

A large man in a black suit and tie stood in front of a hanging red velvet rope.

A powerful thrumming sound like the bass of a nightclub trembled all along the walls.

When Max got close enough to the man, the man spoke. “Password?”

Max gulped and said. “Zodiac.”