There's this one thing called the "Serial Killer Genes", MAOA and CHD1 to be precise. In some cases, convicts during trials of offenses reported with the gene are led to reduced punishments.

The "Warrior Gene", as some people call it, links to aggression in survey-based studies.

Well, the Dark Goon is another thing. His dark side is driven by revenge, jealousy, envy, bitterness - name all the synonyms - not by his "Warrior Gene" whether he has it or not. He is a complete sociopath, and I cannot express it even more. 

That killed his two friends. And now... he's out for the third one. Problem is, we have literally no idea who the heck that is. 

"Gotchu!" I yelled, leaping out of the bush I was hiding in.

The old man dropped his cup of coffee. "What the...?"

"Don't lie to me," I said, heaving.

Sabrina jumped out of the bush. "He's right."

Sabrina's grandpa gasped, but quickly recovered. He grinned uneasily, waiving ten hundred-dollar bills. "Went to the casino. Won-"

"Tell the truth," I demanded. "You turned right. The casino is on the other side."

He grumbled, walking over to his chair. "Right," he said softly, taking a seat on his rocking chair. "So I went to the grocery-"

"Seriously, or we'll turn you into the police, I swear," I said. "Explain this." I took out my phone from my pocket and showed it to the old man. 

He frowned.

I crossed my arms. "C'mon."

"I work for Mr. Hutchins," he sighed.

Sabrina gasped. "What?! Why?!"

"Just go on," I told Sabrina's grandpa.

"What are you kids even up to?" he said, trying to stall.

I punched my fist on the table. "I said go on."

Sabrina's grandpa looked away, humphing. "He forced me to, in my defense. He said he'd kill me if I wouldn't work for him and go to his lodge every single night."

I looked at the bag he was trying to hide behind his back. "Give me that," I ordered.

He looked around, acting dumb. "What? Where? Which one?"

I pounded my fist on the table again. "Don't make me call the cops. Hand. Over. The. Bag."

Sabrina's grandpa lowered his head, handing the bag to me without a word.

I snatched it from him, zipping it open.

I took out a few things, holding up a mask and a gun. I laid it on the table, fixing my eyes on the old man. "Explain this."

He frowned, taking the mask and fidgeting it back and forth. "I'm Mayor Claud."

Sabrina and I stopped dead, and I fell a few steps backward. "No way!! What is wrong with you?!"

He nodded. "The Goon forced me to. He threatened my life. So I had no choice, but to take that mask... and play mayor."

I exchanged glances with Sabrina, then I reached in my breast pocket and pulled out a photograph.

I swiped it across the table to the old man. "So... are you the third kid?" I asked, pointing at the kid on the right corner of the picture.

His eyes widened. "Where'd you get this?"

"I'm the one asking questions here," I snapped, and Sabrina shot me a look. "From the granddaughter of a friend of yours."

Sabrina spoke up, putting her hand on her grandpa's shoulder, shooting me another glare. "Gramps! Are you okay? What did the Goon do to you?"

He smiled. "I'm okay, Sabrina."

"Hold up. Tell me if I'm right," I told Sabrina's grandpa. "You touched The Hypnotist."

He nodded a nervous nod faintly.

I clasped my hands together. "Okay. Great. I was right, all along."

"About what?" Sabrina asked.

"Tell her," I ushered Sabrina's grandpa.

He sighed. "The Goon and I and Alex's grandpa used to be friends... until a meteorite called 'The Hypnotist' crashed onto our backyard. Three of us touched it, except for the Goon. Long story short, we got awakened somehow, got smart, and the Goon got jealous and wanted to kill all of us. Killed two of them, but spared me and forced me to be mayor."

I leaned in towards the old man. "Listen... count your days, because the Goon told me the other day he's after you. That's what he implied."

"He's already after me..." he mumbled. "There's nothing I can do. I can't tell on him, can I?"

"Why?"

"Because the cops are useless! That's why he got rid of Westdale," Sabrina's grandpa said, getting up from the chair. "Come. I think you need to see this."

—

The wooden doors of an old shed creaked open, and Sabrina and I followed Sabrina's grandpa, Mayor Claud, into the wooden shed in the middle of the woods.

It was grandpa's old forbidden shed, according to Sabrina's grandpa, filled with all sorts of keep-out signs on the outside.

"The day after your grandpa's death... the Goon followed me here," Sabrina's grandpa explained as we carefully and slowly walked deeper into the shed. "He kidnapped me, and he stole the Porter 3000."

"Stole," I repeated, perplexed.

"Didn't you know?" he said, turning around to face me. "He invented it."

"What in the world?" My jaw dropped flat. "That's... impossible! Why would he do such a thing? He told me personally before he died to stop the Goon! He was so against it!"

He frowned. "Perhaps he saw it coming. But believe it or not, he invented it. Check out the Porter 3000. It has his signature on it."

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, scrolling down the gallery to the picture I took of the Porter 3000. I slowly zoomed in to grandpa's signature, gasping. "You're right," I mumbled. "How'd you know?"

"I was his assistant," he said.

I frowned, sliding my phone back into my pocket. "Why would you guys do such a thing?"

He sighed. "If it wasn't for the Goon, it would've gone perfectly. Just imagine Neon City without the Goon!"

I pulled out a chair beneath the desk, sitting on it. "Couldn't agree more. So what did you want to show me?"

"Oh right," he suddenly remembered, walking to one of the drawers.

"But why didn't you tell us from the start?" Sabrina suddenly asked her grandpa.

"That I was Mayor Claud?" Sabrina's grandpa said, opening the drawer and taking out a folder. "I was afraid to spill. If the Goon found out he would kill me. Don't you know my life is at risk more than it already is?"

He dumped the folder on the desk in front of me. "Here you go. Your grandpa told me if anything happens if anyone laid his hands on the Porter 3000 or him..." he rubbed his nose, pausing. "Look, dude, I'm sorry for your loss."

I humphed. "Yes, alright, thanks, dude. You don't have to remind me. Now, what were you saying?"

"I was saying... if anyone laid his hands on the machine, your grandpa told me to hand this to you," he finished.

I opened the cover to the first page. "Keep out," I read faintly. I turned over to the next page, reading the letters in bold. "The Porter 3000."

I flipped the page to the next one. "Guide," I read the headline. "Connect the machine to a power source, a thousand volts and..."

I flipped the page again. There was a mini notebook in it, and I picked it up. I skimmed over through the pages full of grandpa's handwriting, stopping at one with big bold letters, "IM DONE" written messily like he was so frustrated.

"First of all, the machine's too big. Second, when I added the memory-erasing element for everyone except for the Anderson family and Dewayne, it turned to total crap," I read out aloud. "Who's Dewayne?" I asked, taking my eyes off the paper.

"I'm Dewayne," Sabrina's grandpa said. "And yes, please do call me Dewayne."

"Okay, Dewayne," I said, turning back to the notebook. "Now the machine is total crap. Those affected..." I gasped. "Would suffer brain cancer if they stay in Neon City for exactly seventy-seven days."

Sabrina looked at me, gasping too. "What?! That means me too?!"

I looked at her, then at Dewayne. "That's why grandpa didn't want us to get to Neon City in the first place. How long have we been here?"

"We left Westdale June fourth. It's August twenty-two," he said. "Seventy-six days."

Sabrina glanced at her watch. "It's ten now. That means... we only have two hours left," she said. "Grandpa! Why didn't you tell us earlier?!"

I frowned. "Okay, everybody stay calm. What's done is done, okay?"

She slowly nodded, and I continued. "We need a plan. And to do that, we need a map of the Grand Lodge, if we will pull off something that massive. I searched online, but I couldn't find anything," I sighed.

Dewayne grinned. "I can sneak that out from Hutchins' office."

I nodded. "Please do. Then meet us at Sabrina's house."

He nodded, then he walked out of the shed.

I flipped the page back to the guide, turning over to the last page. "Use the emerald key to shut down the machine in case of emergency," I read aloud. "See drawer 3A."

Sabrina walked over to the pile of drawers, tracing her finger to drawer 3A, sliding it out, and taking a box out of the stack.

A piece of paper fell out, and I bent down to pick it up. "This stuff ain't even readable!" I said as I tried to read it, holding the paper up high for Sabrina to see.

Sabrina laid down the box on the desk and took the paper from me, which read: Neggypeggyineggypeggye seggypeggyix eeggypeggyight. 

She grinned. "My parents taught me this, it's an old code," she explained, taking out a pen and scribbling something out. "Eggypeggies go before the vowels..."

Sabrina handed the paper to me. "Nine-six-eight. It's a number combination."

I took the box, entering nine-six-eight on the lock. I grinned as it swung open. Inside was another paper, another code. "Dang it! We're losing time!" I shouted like I was about to tear the paper into two.

"What's in it?" Sabrina asked.

"A-p-p-l c-o-m-f-o-r-t," I spelled it aloud. "Interesting."

She held her hands up. "I don't know about that."

Then I suddenly remembered that Harvey had used this code before - when we passed notes during class. I quickly grabbed my phone, typing the words on the paper, but shifting each of the letters to the left. "Look under," I read it out.

"Under what?" Sabrina asked.

I looked at Sabrina. "There's a hidden basement!" I exclaimed.

I started looking under me, standing up. I stomped my way around the shed, looking for a trapdoor, anything that would possibly lead to a hidden basement.

Nothing.

I read it again. Look under.

I grabbed a cutter and started cutting the edges of the box, grinning as inside was hollow. I cut the entire layer out, and we both gasped as an emerald key fell out.

I carefully picked it up, holding it high in the air, smiling.

This was it.

The key back to Westdale!