A week after Narvy and Elsa had visited Zach, Bobby spent a day at home. He had spent the morning making muffins and was getting ready to put them in the oven. They were vanilla muffins filled with raspberry jam and topped with sugar. Bobby had just put them in the oven when Loren walked into the room. He looked quite a lot like Bobby, with brown hair and blue eyes, but he was three years older than him. He wore a black unzipped hoodie over a yellow shirt. He was also wearing some ripped grey jeans and some white shoes. In his hand was a newspaper, kept in its rolled state by a rubber band. When Loren placed the newspaper on the table, Bobby immediately went over and grabbed it. Upon removing the rubber band, he unrolled the newspaper and saw a very interesting headline.

‘Breaking News: Mysterious person found in Bytari alleyway’ claimed the newspaper. As Bobby read the front page, he discovered the context behind the headline. The article claimed that a mysterious person in a black jumpsuit had crept into an alleyway and jumped into a manhole. People who witnessed the event have video footage to prove it. Once he was done reading the article, Bobby came up with an idea.

“I have to go,” announced Bobby, as he walked towards the door. “Where are you going?” asked Loren. “I’m going to see Narvy. Me and my friends are trying to expose a hacker,” explained Bobby. “Why?” asked Loren. “It’s a long story. See you later. By the way, if Mum’s not home in fifteen minutes can you take my muffins out of the oven? I set an alarm for them.” replied Bobby. “Bye,” replied Loren.

Bobby left his house and headed straight to The Engineering Club. After a short walk, he reached his destination. Bobby had no problem finding Narvy at the club. He was at his usual spot, building one of his drones. It was one he had been working on for the past two weeks. He would have made more progress by now if he hadn’t been occupied by the hacker mission. “Hi, Bobby,” said Narvy, acknowledging Bobby’s presence. “Hi. Did you read about that guy in the news?” Bobby asked. “Yes, I did. Why?” asked Narvy. “I was thinking we could go to Bytari and explore the manhole,” replied Bobby. “We’ve been looking at suspects for the past week or so and that hasn’t worked out. I think it’s time to try something new,” he explained. “Good point. Let’s go there now,” replied Narvy. “But how are we going to get there?” asked Bobby.

“I need to confess something,” announced Narvy. “I might have done something kinda naughty,” he claimed. “What do you mean by that?” asked Bobby. “Once the Maioura Invasion was over, all of the artefacts owned by Harold and Pierre were sent to the Department of Valuable Artefacts,” explained Narvy. “I saw the workers enter the building and I asked one of them if I could have the telecoin. It took a little bit of persuasion, but in the end, I got it,” he added. “Why did you do that?” asked Bobby curiously. “I thought the telecoin would come in handy for future missions. I know I shouldn’t have done it,” explained Narvy. “Don’t worry, you didn’t steal it, you asked, and they willingly gave it to you,” replied Bobby. Narvy felt better after hearing Bobby say that. Without stalling any longer, Narvy went to a drawer and grabbed the telecoin. “Are you ready?” he asked. “Yes,” replied Bobby. Narvy pressed the button on the telecoin. After a couple of seconds, he and Bobby were nothing more than a pair of glowing silhouettes, connected by a string of light. Then they both disappeared.

In the middle of Bytari, those same silhouettes appeared out of nowhere. Shortly after, the glow that obscured Bobby and Narvy disappeared. “Where do you think the alleyway is?” asked Bobby. “Honestly? I don’t know. Hopefully, we can find it,” replied Narvy. The two of them set off to search the city in the hope of finding the manhole. As they searched for the manhole the city buildings loomed over them. Each building was made out of a modern material such as steel or glass. They were so tall they made the citizens of Bytari feel like ants.

In this field of skyscrapers, one of them stood taller than the rest; that being Nimbus Tower, a mega project created by the people of Bytari six years ago. It was an extravagant silver tower with a very unique design. It was cylindrical and only decreased in width near the top. But it also had a spiral feature that coiled around the building and slightly jutted out of it. At night, it would sometimes glow in different colours, depending on the season or circumstance. Nimbus Tower has been used for many different purposes throughout its life, from a hotel to a government centre. But no matter how the citizens chose to use it, Nimbus Tower always stood tall as a piece of Bytari’s architecture.

After walking around the city for fifteen minutes, Bobby and Narvy still hadn’t found the manhole. Upon seeing the crowded streets, Narvy had an idea. He walked into the crowd and approached a random woman. “Excuse me, do you know where that alleyway is?” asked Narvy. “The one that appeared on the news,” he added. “Sorry, I don’t,” answered the woman. For the next couple of minutes, Bobby and Narvy roamed through the streets, hoping to find someone who knew the alleyway’s location. Eventually, their luck changed when they approached a random man. “Excuse me, do you know where I can find the manhole?” asked Bobby. “The one that mysterious guy jumped into,” he added. “Yes. Go down the street in front of you and continue past the next five buildings. Once you’ve gone past them, you’ll find an alleyway to your right-hand side. That’s where the manhole is,” explained the man. “Thank you,” replied Bobby. “I was a witness, so I should know,” explained the man.

Without any hesitation, Bobby and Narvy walked past the five buildings. After they turned right, they were greeted with a narrow alleyway. Once they walked down it, they found what they had been looking for. A large metal disc lay on the ground before their feet. However, this manhole was different from others. It had a bunch of knobs and switches built into it. “How do you open this thing?” asked Bobby as he looked at the manhole. Narvy knelt down and investigated the contraption. He solved the part with the switches by flipping all of them the other way. When he got to the knobs he noticed an interesting detail. All four of them had a small red mark on them. Narvy thought that if he turned all of the knobs to have the marks face each other, the manhole would open. Once all the marks were lined up like a connect the dot page for a square, he was proven correct. He grabbed the lid and took it off with ease. Beneath it was a hole that disappeared into a dark abyss, and nothing else.

Bobby stared into the hole. He could easily fit through, but he held off from jumping since he didn’t know how deep it was. After staring into the pitch-black abyss for thirty seconds, Bobby found the courage to jump. He fell to the bottom of the manhole and landed on what felt like concrete. He appeared to have gone quite far down since the entrance above seemed rather small from where he stood. A little bit of light came in from the entrance, but it was nowhere near enough to illuminate the place.

Suddenly, the light vanished. The lid seemed to have been placed back over the entrance hole. Bobby heard the sound of footsteps coming closer from above. This could only mean one thing. “Just letting you know, there’s a ladder near the entrance,” explained Narvy. “How did you find it?” asked Bobby. “Before going in I tried looking for a safe method of getting down here,” explained Narvy. “I put my arm into the manhole and found a ladder attached further down it,” he added. “Talk about bad design,” commented Bobby. “I know,” replied Narvy. Just then, Bobby decided to take a few steps forward. Upon doing so, he crashed into something, or rather someone. “Ugh! I’m sorry,” exclaimed Bobby. “It’s fine,” replied Narvy. “Do you have a torch?” asked Bobby. “I always have one on me,” answered Narvy. He reached into his tool belt and grabbed a mini torch. Once he activated it, Bobby and Narvy could not only see each other, but also the path they needed to take. Without any further setbacks, the two of them began to walk through the tunnel.