Pitch black darkness all around, with nothing at all to see. And yet as the darkness persisted, a spotlight pierced through. Revealed within its glow is a red and blue curtain, which was soon pulled back. And standing there behind the curtain, in the spotlight, was a pair of boys. Each were around eight years old, and had identical faces and outfits. They were dressed in the sort of fancy outfits you would see a classic magician wear. The only difference between them was their hair and eye color. The boy on the right had blue hair and bright blue eyes, and the boy on the right had red hair and bright red eyes.

"Welcome, one and all, to a story and a tale. My name is Riya, and I shall be your narrator" the red haired boy, Riya, proclaimed.

"Today we shall begin to tell you a fable and a legend. My name is Ruya, and I shall be your guide" the blue haired boy, Ruya, exclaimed.

They each gave a bow to the audience and readers, breaking the very notion of the fourth wall.

Ruya then began. "Today here, is the beginning of a legend of destruction and loss..."

Riya then followed through. "From here, we shall tell you a story of salvation and gains".

The two brothers then each took something out of their pockets, each one had a purple crystal and a white crystal.

"A tale that comes from the depths of space" Riya mentioned.

"A fable that speaks of the power of human emotion" Ruya added.

"Perhaps you are wondering who we are?"

"Will we be protagonists, or antagonists? That will be up for you to decide".

Riya puffed his cheeks at that comment. "I wanna be protagonists!"

Ruya just chuckled and motions his brother to calm down. "I am aware, but we are subject to the whims of fate as well".

The two then turned back towards the audience and the readers.

"This will test the very aspects of battle ability and tactics..." Ruya said.

"And it will also be a test of emotion and conviction" Riya followed up.

"It will be a legend of order..."

"And a story of chaos".

"Of greed and power..."

"As well as friendship and hope".

"From criminals and the insane..."

"...to adults and children".

The two brothers spoke as one now, synchronizing their voices.

"This will be a tale of the end of the world...and the saving of the world!"

And with that, they gave a bow, as the curtain closed on them once more.

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Chikara City. A port city that became a melting pot for all sorts of different people, a major hub of the pacific. With large scale developments and an ever growing industry, the city has become a huge bustle of activity, so much that no one is truly even able to keep track of even half of it most of the time. Its sheer size had grown especially, with countless new skyscrapers and tall buildings, and several thermal power facilities. There is even word of some sort of new, non-nuclear reactor, known as the Arc Reactor, in the city underground. The city has a lot of underground tunnels, subways, and even various storefronts and such have been located inside of them, but also a lot of old and outdated facilities that were quickly rendered obsolete by new creations, resulting in an almost labyrinthian underground network of various things.

Of course, this has led to an uptick of immigration, as well as various industrial accidents, so there have been many hospitals built, planned but then abandoned, and repurposed, as well as orphanages, factories, offices, and other buildings. The word of new rich mines having been found, even if quite a few of them are under the ocean, also came to light ten years ago, and as resulted in even more business and industry heading their way. Lots of new schools were also founded, such as the Institute of Enlightenment, one of the top schools in the entire world, and Ascension Academy, a school that helps realize student's skills to new heights. There are lots of general schools, as well as schools that focus on honing a student's specific talents.

And that meant that its police force is always looking for the talented and capable, and looking to grow and become better. And it meant there was always a lot of work to do. This was no different for Detective Simon Jakota, who right now was busy looking through some papers at his desk.

"This is problematic".

"What is it?" another detective asked.

"I noticed an alarming trend. Remember that case about a missing boy I had last week? Well, I thought I remembered a few others from different precincts mentioning they had cases that sounded similar, so I decided to look into it...and it looks like there might be a trend of kidnapped children".

He looked over various names and ages. In the last ten years, a lot of people had gone missing, and runaway children were nothing new either so they could often get overlooked. And yet, based on the trend he was looking at, there seemed to be a serious spike lately. Especially in the past six years, a lot of children between the ages of seven to fifteen especially had been taken. Among them were a few that even had deep investigations but turned up nothing, including:

Adam Wexler. Went missing six years ago, fifteen years old at the time. Blonde hair and hazel eyes, he was known for being very good at athletics.

Zarian Root: Went missing four years ago, seven years old at the time. Had rare darkish but deep green hair and purple eyes, perhaps some sort of albanism variant. Did often use glasses to help him see better. Very good at electronics and dexterity tasks, and had above average grades overall.

Theodore Veil: Went missing two years ago, nine years old at the time. Silver hair and red eyes. Highly emotional and empathetic, a brave yet otherwise average boy.

Irina Kokoro: Went missing five years ago, eleven years old at the time. Black hair and black eyes. She was very good at thinking things out but was rather bossy, forceful and physical. Good at team sports.

Izuku Tachikawa: Went missing a year ago, nine years old at the time. Brown hair and blue eyes. A highly creative boy who was already interested in designing things, but had a strange fondness for traps.

Alana Smith: Went missing five years ago, fourteen years old at the time. Red hair and green eyes. Very good with science and math. Spoke multiple languages as well, including English, French, Japanese, and German.

Tommy Granger: Went missing four years ago, twelve years old at the time. Brown hair and brown eyes. Good at athletics, also a big reader of fantasy and science fiction, although his grades in science weren't that good.

Maria Mayfield: Went missing three years ago, ten years old at the time. Brown hair and blue eyes. Twin sister to Maze Mayfield. She has a strong bond with her brother, and the two are highly capable of working together to complete tasks. They seem to always have known what each other were thinking, even more complex thoughts. They were both about the same, both had really good grades and did well in sports, although not the best in either.

Maze Mayfield: Went missing three years ago, ten years old at the time. Brown hair and blue eyes. Twin brother to Maria Mayfield. He tends to mirror his sister in talents and abilities. Even though they are different genders, both look alike still and were even capable of impersonating each other.

Chihiro Reynart: Went missing four years ago, eleven years old at the time. Black hair and brown eyes. Notably had some sort of personality disorder or learning disability. His parents seeing doctors about medicine and dosage when they all disappeared after getting an invitation to a new treatment plan. Message never found.

Raya Kamita: Disappeared a year ago, seven years old at the time. Had red hair and blue eyes. Nothing about him had really stood out before he disappeared, although he did seem to love showmanship and magic. The most notable thing is that he seemed to have a more complex and developed sense of self then other children his age.

The list just kept going on, but it was a clear pattern. All of them just disappeared without a trace. Some of them however were only noticed months or even years after they went missing, and many of them disappeared along with their entire families. At first everyone just figured they moved, in fact many of them were informed as such, but they just seemed to disappear without a trace. No followup with any friends or anything, they just straight up disappeared off the face of the earth. But even when entire families disappeared, it was always a constant that there was a child there in this trend he found. That and that all traces just disappeared. It did seem to be mostly boys, although there were plenty of girls as well.

Not all of them had this indication, but most had left messages about getting a new job and moving, and other things to explain their disappearance.

No matter how you look at it, its clear something is behind this. They have done very well to keep themselves behind the scenes to not be detected, even these scraps I had to collect by hand, the computer's search engine and databases wouldn't connect them even.

It was obvious to him some sort of organization was behind it. Probably a human trafficking group, but there was no actual evidence of their existence, so he couldn't get resources to open a large scale investigation. Even the connections between all these disappearances could easily be declared circumstantial and speculative in court. It was even very possible not everyone on this list was actually kidnapped, and some of them were out there just not making any noise to go into the police system database.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Thanks to all the construction, expansion, and immigration, this city always had people coming and going. So it was not odd for people and documents to fall through the cracks. Still, to him, it was clear that this was more than just circumstance and coincidence. He had been trying to circulate the photos to his CIs to see if they ever saw or knew anything, of the kids or the parents, but so far all he had was mis-identifications and false sightings.

He himself had tried his best to memorize all the names and faces himself, at least of the kids. There were hundreds, but he did his best.

Maybe, just maybe today, I will get lucky. I wish I would. To find and save at least one kid on this list.

He took a piece of the list he had and put it in his pocket.

"I am going to go see if I can find a lead at some of their favorite locations again".

"Are you going to check each one? You should take a break. They are celebrating the anniversary of when they founded the city today you know? Try tuning into that, join in on the celebration. Considering the massive factory explosion last year that caused a lot of damage and death and ruined it, and costing many people their lives and jobs, it's important for the city after all. I hear we are getting way more tourists this year as well".

"Maybe. But I need to do this. Anything to get a lead, a trace of something to follow" he replied. I just hope we can save even half of them. After all this time, the odds we can save them all...is likely zero percent after all.

He thought that to himself, but it was in that moment he thought he heard a child's voice behind him, whisper something into his ear.

"You shouldn't give up on that dream, it will help you reach more hands to save".

He turned around, but there was no child there. It seemed to have just been his imagination, but then he thought he heard it again.

"Keep working hard. It will help in the long run".

It sounded identical, but also different. Shaking it off, he figured it was just the exhaustion getting to him, and decided that heading out would also help him clear his head.

----------------------------------------

Chikara City had a lot of storefronts and businesses all around, as well as apartment buildings and condos. But it also had an extensively developed underground, with many underground walkways as well as subways. As such, there were also plenty of businesses for children that used these ways to get to and from school, as well as other places.

And that was why Simon Jakota checked it every so often. He hoped to see something he could use to get a lead, or even just seeing someone on that list alive and well might help ease his burden a bit as well. But so far he had been coming up empty. It was like they had been totally erased from the face of the world.

He couldn't help but notice all the banners and decorations that were up for the festivities. Perhaps thanks to the immigration, but a lot of people went into various decoration and customs, although a big influence was always Japanese culture, so a lot of people could be seen in yukatas and kimonos. It was a rather big festival for progression, but they also liked to show and utilize long held cultural traditions and keep them strong, and spread them to others.

There were all sorts of different legends and ghost stories that got spread around though as a result, from all sorts of different groups that had arrived. Supposedly there was going to be a huge fireworks display tonight as well, and given the new self sustaining facilities, a lot more people could attend than usual. Of course not everyone would watch, but he figured they might even get around ninety percent at least.

Either way, he was more focused on his current task. And that was running down a few more leads before things got chaotic. It was already starting to get dark, but he figured he should check it out to be safe. In truth, for some reason, those voices he had heard inspired him to add a few more places to that list. One of them was a book store, Gramps and Son's Bookstore. It was a rather old store, but it had charm and quite the selection, as well as really good recommendations. As such, despite the fact it wasn't some big franchise store, it was very popular with quite a few people.

As he stepped inside, he actually had to step to the side as one boy wearing a blue hooded vest came out holding a new book. He soon slipped in afterwards, and saw that the check out desk was currently unoccupied, so he decided to take advantage of his luck and go to the store owner. He quickly got out his badge.

"Hello, I am Detective Simon Jakota. I am following up on a missing child case. I was wondering, had you seen any of these kids before? Some of these photos are a few years old, so some might look older then this".

Simon showed the old shopkeeper a list, who looked at it curiously.

"All these different kids are missing? Such a shame. I think I recognize a few of them. They would stop by here before taking the stairs up. Apparently there is a bus station outside that went near a lot of residential areas, so sometimes they would use that".

"A few of them you say?"

"Yes. Some better than others. If you hurry, you might just make it".

"Really? Thanks! I will be back later with more questions!"

"Hope you find him!"

The detective quickly ran out, heading towards the stairs that would take him back up to the surface level. There was no guarentee it was the same bus driver, but if several of the victims had taken this bus, perhaps it held a clue or something? Could they have had a driver in on it to scout them out?

The wind was blowing strong today, but he was able to handle it fine. And yet, the moment he got up, he saw something else. The wind blew through everyone, causing people to drop their bags and quickly pick them up. Umbrellas got blown away almost, and hoods were blown off of heads. And Simon saw something unusual amid all of that.

A green haired, purple eyed boy. He used his arm to brace himself from the wind, protecting his glasses as he fixed his blue hood. Yes, it was the boy he had walked by just a moment ago. He had not seen his face or hair color then, but he saw it now.

It was Zarian Root, a boy who had disappeared four years ago. He was a bit older now, although he seemed a bit short and youthful for an eleven year old. But who knew what happened to him that might have hampered his growth. He looked more ten then eleven. But it was without a doubt him. He was wearing a blue hooded and sleeveless vest with a zipper, a white T shirt with a rocket on it, a pair of black shorts, and blue sturdy shoes that looked half sneaker, half boot. There was a scar of an old cut on the left side of his neck, not very large but something a detective would certainly notice.

The detective was sure of it. He rushed up to the boy, and grabbed his left wrist.

"Zarian! You are Zarian Root right?"

The boy turned towards him, shocked and startled as he immediately stomped on Simon's foot, causing him enough pain to release him.

"Some weirdo just grabbed me! Help!"

He shouted that before bolting, causing everyone to look at him and get in his way. He had to take out his badge to stop them, and then quickly took after Zarian. He finally found a victim. He wasn't sure why this kid was walking around on his own, free, but given the way he ran away Simon thought the boy might have mistaken him as one of the people who abducted him. That was admittedly Simon's fault, he should have identified himself, but he had been so surprised and relieved to see someone alive and okay.

He chased after Zarian, but despite being an adult with longer legs, somehow Zarian seemed to be staying out of his reach. But he knew he couldn't let him escape, not when he could be the key to finally getting good and solid leads on these abductions. This was the key to finally gaining some traction. This motivated to push himself, and he sped up, quickly catching up to Zarian.

He quickly grabbed Zarian's wrist again, so Zarian spun around and tried to kick Simon in a sensitive area. At this point Simon knew he didn't have much of a choice, it was clear this boy wouldn't listen so easily, so he got out his handcuffs and quickly forced Zarian to the ground, cuffing his arms behind his back. He spread out his palm behind him, but Simon spoke before he could try anything.

"Stop this! I am a police officer investigating a string of missing children! What happened to you?! Your parents?! Where have you been the last four years?!"

"Get away from me! I need to leave the city, and I wont fall for any more lies!"

"I am not lying! Please stop resisting so I can stop restraining you!"

"Like hell I will listen to some random stranger! That badge could be fake! Or they could have planted someone inside the police force! If yo uare a good guy, then let me go and let me escape in peace!"

"But I need to know! Where are the others?! Can they still be saved?!"

As the two shouted at each other in this back alley, the police officer finally got Zarian onto his feet as he picked them both up off the ground.

"Help! This guy is kidnapping me, he is a ped..."

At that point, Simon had to cover his mouth and stop him from speaking.

"Would you just listen for one damn moment, I am trying to help you! I will just have to take you back to the station!"

"No! We need to leave!" he shouted, as the sun finished setting fully. The city was now lighting up, with plenty of illumination to see everything.

"Looks like we are missing the festival after all" Simon sighed, as Zarian tried to break free still. He seemed to almost try something a few times, but stopped himself as he was processing the situation. Simon brought him to his car and locked him in the back, still handcuffed, as he quickly moved to get in himself.

But that was when the car radio sparked to live, without him even turning it on or getting in yet. And it wasn't just his radio. Every TV and phone screen suddenly seemed to turn on, and showed a strange image on it. It appeared to be a square, with two triangles inside of it. Each one met in the middle, splitting it perfectly in half into a top and bottom section, and then their points touched the top edge and bottom edge respectively. The shapes were all purple, on a completely black background.

The moment this happened, something even stranger happened. A huge dome rose up from the outskirts, made of some sort of strange green energy, and it completely encircled the city until it met at the top, isolating it completely.

ANd then suddenly, a question appeared on the screen.

"Do you have a strong sense of desire or a strong will? Do you have a wish you absolutely want granted, or have already acquired?"

That question was projected across every screen throughout the city. It was made clear for everyone to see, and it permeated the minds of everyone. Between smartphones, TVs, monitors, and tablets, it spread everywhere. It also came out as a voice over every radio, and even showed up on screens inside of cars. The voice was obscured heavily, but Simon thought the way it spoke sounded like they were young.

And then, a moment later, the text on the screens changed as the voice repeated the new words.

"The tally is in. Now in accordance with The Cataclysm Game, everyone who was found to be lacking...shall now die".

In a moment, countless people seemed to drop dead. All around them, there were so many that collapsed. Simon quickly looked in the back seat, but Zarian was still there and alive, and desperately trying to kick his way out of the car by kicking out the window. What was surprising was that some cracks actually did seem to appear, which probably indicated Zarian's stress level. Meanwhile, a lot of cars just stopped in the street or collided into each other. Since there was a lot of traffic around this time however, there were no major collisions, however it appeared that they might be the only two people still alive in their area. Everyone else seemed to become a corpse.  They just dropped dead, with no visible wounds or injuries.

Everyone had just died like that. With the car no longer able to move since all the other vehicles gridlocked it in, Simon had no choice but to let Zarian out or abandon him there.

However, another message came over first.

"Please be advised, the area of Chikara City has now been isolated. Attempting to pass through the barrier will result in instant death".

"Various challenges and games will now occur around the city. However, there is one overall one which is the most important. And that will be known as Cataclysm: The Game of Wishes, and it will be a Death Game, a Battle Royale with a twist. There are crystals scattered throughout the city that hold special powers. Purple crystals hold what we know as Major Wishes..."

"...and White Crystals are known as Minor Wishes. You may collect as many crystals as you wish, but everyone can only inherent one Major Wish and one MInor Wish each.  Major Wishes tend to be more powerful but focused, while Minor Wishes are weaker but more versatile. Each one will grant you supernatural powers and abilities. Not only that, but various mundane weapons and tools, even those that would not be ordinarily available to the general public, have been scattered across the city".

"Should you collect a sufficient number of these crystals and turn them over to The Game Master, you will be allowed to leave the game and the city. But should you survive to the very end of the game and win, one wish of yours will be granted, and one person who you wish to be resurrected.  Furthermore, you will be allowed to keep the powers you have inherited".

The voices sounded the same, but it almost sounded like two people were speaking one after another.

"There is more than one way to win this game..."

"...so we hope you enjoy your time, as one of the remnants of humanity".

And with that, all the TVs and radios turned themselves off. And yet, even with all of them off, it was clear that this was only the beginning.

The beginning of Cataclysm: The Game of Wishes.