Thomas carefully scanned his surroundings ducking into a nearby alley as a pair of sweepers ran past. Through the eyes of his puppet he watched them sprint by before the puppet resumed its journey. He needed to avoid detection which was difficult enough without concealing skills, but there were far more people moving than usual. Nevertheless, he'd managed to do it so far. His puppet was getting close to his current location.

A sudden flash of metal caused the puppet to duck and look up as a four-armed figure barreled over the rooftops. Arms Slave, a silhouette as infamous as his name.
[color=gray][i]"Where is he going like that?"[/i][/color] Thomas thought.
Arms slave was heading in the same direction he was getting his puppet to go, which meant...

Thomas opened his eyes and his own vision overlapped onto his puppet's vision. He got up and quickly glanced outside, just in time to see Arms slave arrive at the black guild hall. But the apparent blue guild threat should've had sweepers tied down at the front line, so that meant that Arms Slave was either here for another reason entirely, or that Arms Slave was thinking the same thing that Thomas was thinking. There were other possibilities, of course, but Arms Slave's presence affirmed that Thomas was on to [i]something.[/i] And besides that, this would be a good opportunity. Thomas pulled a cloak out of his inventory and went outside.
[hr]
If there was any chance to infiltrate, it'd be now. A double layer of security made up of bulky meatheads and hidden assassins was a pain to deal with but the minion patrols were disrupted somewhat with Arms Slave's arrival, and he wagered that some of the hidden rogues were going to check it out too. Some or most would still keep watch but there was no better time. 

Thomas headed out towards the guild hall under a brown hood, threading through shadowy areas. He got close to the guild hall but stopped before an exposed area. Several visible guards had gone inside; something was going on. Thomas inched around the side and abruptly made his way forward, straight towards the guild hall. For a few meters he thought he could get inside unmolested before a keen whistling sound grabbed his attention. The cloaked figure stepped back and a knife embedded itself into the ground in front of him. A shadow appeared behind the cloaked figure and manifested an arm, bringing a blade to the figure's throat.
"What are you doing here?" The rogue asked. "Not just anyone can visit the black king, you know."
The figure said nothing as a shadow appeared behind the shadow and brought a thin sword-wielding arm down onto the rogue. The puppet master hit the rogue with the hilt of his blade, knocking him into a state of unconsciousness. 
[color=gray]"Gotcha."[/color] He said.
He couldn't kill the rogue as he wasn't an outlaw, and he was at the throne room of the black city anyway. He was pretty sure killing wasn't allowed there. So instead, he opted for unconsciousness. Poking the unconscious rogue with one foot to make sure he was out, he then took another cloak out of his inventory and put it on before he urged his puppet onwards and went to follow suit. He'd seen this particular rogue from the window who had stayed behind while 2 others nearby had gone in to see what the commotion was. He'd been waiting looking for a good spot to enter and he'd finally found it.

Jogging quietly, the 2 metal men stepped over the boundary of the black guild hall, finding a hidden staircase and walking up into the ramparts. They quickly found a door and went inside, to the throne room. It was dark, in the ramparts, but he had a good view. The puppet master moved slowly, he had no doubt that more rogues sat in wait in the rafters. He was in the space between the ground floor and the first floor, a mezzanine. He thought that there would definitely be patrols there, and he wasn't sure why he hadn't immediately been found. Looking over a nearby railing, he found out why.

Thomas watched it all. Arms Slave's confrontation with the Moon Rider, Moon Rider's mysterious powers, Arms Slave's odd behavior and seemingly the real Moon Rider coming in to save the day. He watched silently and recorded it all. As he watched, his eyes adjusted and he saw that the rogues patrolling the mezzanine were also watching the scene. They were doubtlessly confused about it all, but the whole scene confirmed Thomas's suspicions. There was indeed another hand at play.

Thomas's mind was in a whirl. Thanks to his vantage point he'd managed to overhear their conversation, and what surprised him the most (other than the 2 black kings) was Arms Slave (or Asahi, as he'd heard) and his surprise at the Moon Rider knowing his name. The fact that it was surprising was the issue. The only 2 ways of knowing someone's real identity in deep ground was to have them tell you about it or ask someone who knew. At least, those were the legal ways. The only possible solution he had that fit the criteria was that the fake Moon Rider was some sort of hacker. He was pretty sure that there was an ability to copy someone's avatar, but there was no way to know someone's real life identity. Getting to secured information and copying the black king's appearance, equipment and stats? A certain sweeper branch was infamous for hacking into deep ground to carry out their activities, but the sweepers were under the black king. So outside of the sweepers, who else could hack into the Deep Ground servers? No organisation he knew of, besides the erasers, who ran the sweepers. So it was either something done by a skilled individual or a secret organisation. But he couldn't say for certain.

As Arms Slave died, Thomas began to exit the black guild hall. He needed to do so, or else he'd miss his chance to leave. He couldn't log out in the throne room, that would've made for a sticky situation. He needed to get out while they were distracted. He rushed out carefully, back into the black city, and made his way back towards outer gate conflict, his head spinning with theories. A person with a grudge? A hidden strike made by another guild? The other guilds had a lot to benefit from in this whole escapade. And while there were few with actual grudges towards the black king, they couldn't be discounted just yet. While he had answered some of his question, the incident had raised a lot of new ones. He had a lot of thinking to do if he was going to get to the bottom of this mystery.

[@Lucius Cypher](probably)