Art in the top is not mine.

Teruko and Charles ran to where the others were, worried when they heard Eden scream. "Eden!" Teruko exclaimed as soon as the two ran towards the source of the clockmaker's scream.

Levi was on his knees, a sword pointed at his neck while everyone else had guns pointed at them. The personal stylist was sweating nervously, not moving at all. He didn't want to make a wrong move. "What the hell?! Hey, wait a second, lower the weapons!" Charles called "We do not mean any harm!"

"!! Charles, wait, don't come ne- Gugh-" J warned, getting kicked in the stomach as a way for the armed people to tell her to be quiet. Ace caught her before she fell to the ground, worried.

"Hey hey hey, hold the phone, wait a second!" Eden said, scared "W-We're not bad people! Please!" she pleaded. The people with guns all looked at the person holding a sword to Levi's throat, almost as if they were waiting on their orders. So they could be the leader, perhaps. Or maybe a person of higher rank. Charles made a mental note of that, still tense.

"Lower the guns." they ordered. Their voice sounded masculine, so Teruko assumed they were a guy. Or maybe someone with a low voice? The others did as they were told.

"You all, state your names, right now." the leader ordered, removing the sword from Levi's neck and pushing the personal stylist forward, making him fall to the floor roughly.

"Gh... Ow..." he groaned, attempting to get up. However, the leader didn't let him, stomping on his back harshly so he didn't move. Levi coughed in pain.

"Stay the fuck down and don't try to get up, intruder." they deadpanned, glaring at Levi. He shivered under his glare. Ace clenched his fists. He wanted to do something to help Levi, maybe yell at the person to leave his boyfriend alone. But he had to think rationally. Something which he almost never does, although he didn't want to admit it. He could only watch in frustration.

"My name is Teruko Tawaki. Please let my friend go." Teruko said, serious. Levi looked up at the lucky student in surprise.

'...Friend..?'

The leader eyed her closely, studying her facial expression. She couldn't help but hold her breath as the steely gaze fell on her. This person was intimidating.

"The lucky student from that killing game show, ey?" they asked, a smirk on their face "And I can tell these are your classmates. What are people like you doing with people like us?" they asked, their tone of voice indicated interest. Teruko raised a brow. Well, it was good that now they weren't suspicious of them, but what did they mean by that? She could question it later, first she needed to help Levi.

"W-We never meant to stumble here! I-It's just- our friend discovered this by complete accident!" Eden explained, fumbling her words due to the inmense fear she was feeling.

"There's no way to discover this place by complete accident." the leader deadpanned.

"Well, excuse me for accidentally resting my hand on a random wall and discovering it's a secret door!" Teruko huffed, annoyed.

"Teruko!" J exclaimed. She was not making the situation any better whatsoever.

"It's true! How was I supposed to know that secret door was there??" the lucky student argued.

"...Heh. I like your backbone, chick." the leader chuckled. Teruko turned her head towards them in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Weapons down. They're not threats." they ordered. All of the guards nodded, stepping away from the group. The leader then stopped stomping on Levi's back, letting him get up and go back to his boyfriend.

"Sorry 'bout that. We're just used to getting attacked all the time by the Monokumas, we kinda panicked when we heard the door open when no one had gone out for supplies." they explained as they slowly took off their hood. Revealing a man in his thirties with short, spiky, gray hair and dull, red eyes.

"Mono...kumas?" J asked, confused. Was he referring to those bears? They had names?

"The robotic bears that plague the city. Luckily, on this side of the city, we only have the normal bears and ocassionally the ball bears. It's worse on the east side." the man explained.

"They actually have fucking names??" Ace asked, surprised.

"Yeah, believe it or not." the gray haired man shrugged, not amused by Ace's colourful language.

"Wait. There are more versions of those robots?" Charles asked, both curious and concerned. That could only mean that they were in much more trouble. The man nodded, turning to a few of the guards.

"Get them some futons prepared." he told them. Nodding, they ran further inside the building, while another guard went to close the secret door so no robotic bears with murderous intentions decided to show up.

"What... exactly is this place?" Levi asked, looking around as Ace checked the man didn't leave any injuries on his neck or body.

"Welcome to SilverWing's hideout. Well, one of the hideouts." the man said as he turned on the lights, the candles lighting up "I'm the active leader of the West hideout, Caleb Lee." he introduced himself, a small smile on his face.

"Ah- N-Nice to meet you, sir!" Eden squeaked out, bowing down in respect.

"Yes. Sorry for barging inside the hideout without any warning. We were just running from those bears." Levi apologized.

"No need to apologize. How about you guys relax here and take a breather? You surely must be tired from all that running." Caleb smiled as the guards took the backpacks from the survivors, moving them to another room.

"That does sound nice. We have been running for a while now." Charles mused. He was tired, just like everyone else.

"The guard are preparing you all some futons. How about you go and interact with some of the other refugees here before you all sleep? It'd be nice to know the others here." Caleb suggested with a smile. The others looked at each other for a few seconds, taken aback bh the question.

"That sounds like a lovely idea!" Eden smiled. Satisfied with the answer, Caleb left the room, going through one of the hallways.

"I suppose this is the safeplace we had been looking for. We got lucky." Levi commented as the survivors wandered inside the tunnels of the hideout.

"Yeah, I gotta admit, I was not expecting this at all." J admitted, hands in her pockets "Well, I... really wasn't expecting to be held at gunpoint either, but here we are." she added. Teruko just frowned, her arms crossed. She wasn't entirely sure that this was a good idea.

"You good?" Ace asked as he fell back, letting the others walk ahead. Teruko jumped, not expecting the jockey to ask her that.

"It's just... I dunno, this just seems fishy to me." she sighed "Guess it's just my trust issues kicking in."

"You should chill out a bit. What's the worse that could happen?" Ace asked, nudging her "We found a safe place, so we don't have to run anymore."

_______________________________________

"Those assholes have already searched here. They took some of the bodies that were buried under the rubble when they were being preserved." Jeanne sighed as she threw a big piece of debris around like nothing.

"Well great. That just means we are fucked in many ways." Izaya huffed through the communicator, annoyed. And he certainly was not the only one. Jeanne was, too. Because this only meant bad news.

"I'll try to find the other corpses. So they don't take them too." she sighed, searching around for the rest of the corpses.

"Good idea. That way they don't come back here and get the rest of the bodies." Izaya hummed, not against the idea. Jeanne smiled as she threw another piece of debris out of the way. She kept doing the same as she dug for the bodies.

'Ace, I hope you are safe... I really hope so, little cousin.' she thought.

_______________________________________