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Topher heard Rose and Reiku land and had come out to see. He had been helping to clean the floors. After moving the MAT, the mechanics had put him straight to work.

When Rose spoke to him he had wanted to respond and say he appreciated what Reiku had done and wondered what she meant by ‘connected’. Instead though he simply watched Mr. Acumen, her father James, pull her away. He had been so busy earlier with the dirt and crud on the larger archetypes that he hadn't even noticed the smaller one.

When they went behind it he spotted the thing and was very surprised.

"Hey...” was all he said.

"Rose. Topher doesn't want to go back to his father’s world right now. I don't know all the details but I know enough that making a call to Tolly wouldn't work. As for Reiku... I think it can wait a few days. Besides he just got here. Don't you want to see him for a little while before he runs back off to save the world again?"

Taking her hands in his, he gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry dear, when the time is right I'll make sure that they know. In the mean time, we have to try and help Topher and Reiku. They've been through a lot and I think it's only going to get more complicated once they leave here. For the time being I want you to promise me you won't tell Reiku about Topher.. or about Tolly and his news about the Twilights Compact. Please just promise me. Okay?"

From the hanger area Topher's voice came ringing out. "Hey Mr. Acumen, what's with this small archetype? I didn't know anyone was digging up the type 2's yet? This one looks like it's-" He stopped talking as he rounded the edge of the archetype and saw them together. "I'm sorry.. um Rose.. Mr Acumen... am I interrupting something?"

There was a strange feeling like a knot in his heart. Reiku felt cold and adrenaline began to course through his veins. Without realizing or understanding why he found himself running. Running for Twilight.
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"Don't worry dear. I won't do anything that I don't think is safe. And as for Sunlight. We'll be ready to test fly it soon. I just want to do some final testing to make sure we've got all the bugs out of the system. Frankly, I was kinda scared when it moved the other day. I've never seen them do that without a pilot inside and I want to make sure there's not a loose input signal somewhere."

Topher listened to Rose and smiled. Realizing it might be rude he covered his mouth. "Um... yeah I'll look for the plate. Not sure if we'll find one though. Um.. I saw that happen once. It was freaky. That purple psycho's LFO did it. Happened when she was in the other room." He ran his hand over the edge of the small motorcycle mecha and then turned back to them.

"Purple psycho?" James mimicked. "What purple psycho?"

"Oh... she was this crazy girl with an LFO called Senturi. I don't remember her name though. Just her dumping a bag of pliers and underwear out on the floor trying to fix her LFO. It was kinda funny actually. I never did understand how she was gonna fix a cracked servo motor with a pair of pliers and her dirty underwear."

James laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "Why don't you go see about finding that plate for the small one here?"

"You mean this thing?" he said pointing at the smaller archetype. "I don't mean to be rude but have you looked over the input links? I know Da... I mean... others have had problems with the inputs being corroded. It's those spots on the inside shell towards the back." He leaned over the front hole and pointed inside at a track of holes and notches that ran up the back inside of the frame. "The processor boards would hook up to them and act to boost signal from the Compact drive. A full size LFO used loads of wires and stuff for the harness but these things only need the processor interface. They're the hardest part to make cause the details always have to be unique to the archetype. Plus if the links aren't good then the whole thing is a waste. Um... I mean. Not that I've ever done it.. but well my d- I mean.. that's what I heard. "
He smiled and realized James was staring at him with a baffled expression.

"How old are you again?" James asked. It seemed strange to him that a boy as small as him would be speaking about mechanic stuff on such an advanced level. After a moment it occurred to him that after growing up with Tolly Marcius as a father is was most likely all the boy knew.

"Um... 14?" Topher replied crawling down out of the archetype.

"And this is what you heard?" James continued.

"Um... well it was a big problem. See Lagore... that's the.. I mean... that's well..."

"I know who Lagore is, Topher." James said crossing his arms. "He's one of the field surveyors that works for MAT Facilities. He's also considered a damn good controls man and LFO mechanic. That old geezer probably forgot more about LFO's than most will ever know."

"Uh... yeah, he's a loudmouth." Topher said. "Anyways Lagore brought back three of these things with bad input links before he finally hit on a good one. I know cause I had to hear all the yelling. Now, he isn't allowed to buy them until the internal section has been fully inspected and-"

"Wait a minute." James said holding out his arms. "Listen kid. I appreciate you talking my ear off and trying to help, but is there really a point to all this?"

Topher bit his lip and rubbed the back of his head. "If you want, after I find a plate, I could clean and look over the input links. If you don't mind. I got an idea what there looking for. This seems about right. It's not scubbed in the sides which says that the carbon-layering is probably-"

"Hey hey woaw.." James said cutting him off again. "I get the point. Okay fine. If you think you can tell me what the value is on reselling this thing to MAT then look it over and we'll price it based on that."

"Okay!" he said with a big grin. "Hey Rose. Let's go find a cool chest plate for it. I bet something in red would be really cool."

As he took off he turned to her with a puzzled look. "Hey, is your dad building a new LFO? Is that what Sunlight is?"

Without thinking about it Topher reached for Rose’s shoulder and pulled her away from the crazed mech. He didn't know what was going on but he didn't want anyone to get hurt.

As the out of control machine came at Twilight to attack, James came running in and saw what was going on. His eyes were wide with fear and looked around to find Rose.

"Get down. Get away you too!" He yelled and ran towards the huge thing.

While the battle had raged, James ran right past the foot of the crazed LFO. It had nearly stepped on him when the two mechs collided. James paid it no attention. He ran directly for Rose and Topher, scooping them both up. He then dove into a side room where they would be away from the fight. As the door slammed behind them they heard a crashing thud and the wall moaned under the weight of metal being blasted into it. A hole opened above them and smoke flowed in through it.

The group all stepped away from the closed room and back into the light. The fallen LFO was smoking from the blast and the plating was burned in several places.

James looked up at Reiku warily. He had no idea the young man could be so destructive. "Thank you Reiku. If not for you we could have all been in serious danger. I owe you my life as well as Roses."

"Jeez." Topher said looking around. "What the heck could make an LFO attack on it's own like that. Moving is one thing but that pile of junk almost seemed to be doing that stuff on purpose. You don't think someone’s in the cockpit do you?"

He started to climb up the LFO's chest and jumped back down when he reached a piece of hot plating. There were burn marks on his fingers. He let a few words fly loudly.

"Topher," James barked, “I don't know how you spoke on the road, but here we don't say things like that." In his mind he had to wonder what other bad habits Topher had learned on his own.

"Okay fine. But what if there's someone inside the LFO?"

Reiku sat on the beach with his head in between his knee's. Tear's where falling. He lifted his head as he looked at the sun going down. " I put everyone in danger I was reckless.. " He mumbled as he punched the ground.