“This is really uncomfortable.” Nero spoke, seemingly aloud, but the person his words were directed at heard him due to the recorder attached to his glasses.

“No doubt, I’m pretty sure that no rational person feels comfortable in a racism rally.” Johnathan spoke in response, looking at the screen in front of him, seeing from Nero’s glasses and looking at the Null-Sons rally.

Johnathan was impressed with his student’s for getting an inside man like this, though they did not have the resources or ability to make this part of their plan go off without a hitch, so he had to step in.

This was the mission of the second year S-Class, Johnathan was just support, so if he could he wasn’t going to deal with their problems, and instead he would just handle the things they couldn’t.

Such as getting a pair of spy-glasses to record sound and video of a Null-Sons rally, as well as being close enough to be able to get Nero out of there without Nero getting hurt.

“Seriously though… I feel ashamed at humanity for displays like this…” Nero complained, listening to the propaganda and hate-speech of the man on the stage, vilifying all Sages, Fae, and Mystic Beasts to the point of saying they would have long since been better without any such beings.

“Humanity, Sages included, are all pieces of crap, it’s just a matter of how smelly one is.” Horrible analogy aside, Jonathan wasn’t wrong, at least in his opinion.

Everyone had something horrible about them, no one was perfect, and if they seemed like it they were probably just hiding their problems.

Yule Argos, who his students had met two weeks ago, was an excellent example of someone good at hiding their problems yet being a horrible person.

“Uh… what the hell?” Nero spoke, drawing Jonathan’s attention back to the screen, a frown coming onto Jonathan’s face…

“Everyone, rejoice, for we have one more to send to the embrace of the void…” Jonathan stared at the masked man on the stage, the mask was black and featureless, and kneeling in front of the man was a woman gagged, crying, their hair a vibrant green.

“Nero, get the hell out of there now, we’re breaking in.” Jonathan warned, Nero didn’t even need to be told twice, having been ready to leave since he got to the crazy rally.

Rather… with his luck, Nero had joked that he just needed to be near the rally for their target to come to the forefront, but Jonathan had denied the possibility.

The S-Class students on the other hand… considered it.

It was why, as the man lowered a knife to the neck of the crying woman, Edward crashed through the wall in a perfect rendition of a certain ad Jonathan had seen involving mixing a powder with water to make a soft drink.

To note, more detail was not added to that explanation to avoid possible copyright issues, even within the confines of Jonathan’s mind.

“Ooh yeah!” Edward roared, and Jonathan just palmed his face even as Edward rushed at the black masked man, the many Null Sons protesters screaming and running in fear at the ‘violent Sage’.

“What the… how did you find me?” The masked man shouted, jumping back and away from Edward, who stopped to secure the woman rather than chase after the man…

Kazuya dropped from the ceiling a moment after Edward put himself between the masked man and the woman, Kazuya holding out his katana, not willing to use a spear within a building.

Kazuya was realizing once more why his parents kept insisting that he train in multiple disciplines… if he had only known how to use a spear, he would have been in trouble in extreme close quarters.

“We have our ways…” Kazuya looked back to the woman, his eyes lighting up slightly before he looked back to the masked man.

“So… care to explain why you, a Sage, are executing this human woman?” Edward’s eyes widened, as did Jonathan’s within his observation area.

“…Guess the jig is up, eh?” The masked man said, raising his hands, twisting them as Darkness coiled and gathered around his hands.

“Ed, he’s a four Star.” Kazuya warned, the prince standing further back nodding, picking up the woman and getting ready to run, only for more presences to make themselves known.

From the shadows of the masked man climbed out more people, one by one, until he was flanked by five others, leaving Edward and Kazuya frowning…

None of them were below four Stars… one was even six Stars.

“Shit…” Kazuya cursed under his breath, and that prompted Jonathan to focus his senses, noticing why Kazuya cursed.

“Damn it, both of you, just stay alive until I get there!” Jonathan shouted before he jumped from the fourth storey of the hotel room he was using as the command post.

“And to make things worse, it’s raining…” Jonathan cursed, already seeing the problem with the situation.

“It’s a shame you kids were sent in to stop us… but there’s too much at stake for us to be caught here.” The masked man said, his compatriots all dressed similarly, large coat, mask, only differing in heights.

“…” Kazuya and Edward didn’t speak, fear that the Six Star Sage would decide to attack them staying their hands, but it was rendered a moot point as said Sage placed a palm on the shoulder of the speaker.

“Let’s not. Run, if we attacked them we’d just call down the wrath of her.” While Edward and Kazuya didn’t understand what the stronger Sage meant, both managed to get the idea that these six wouldn’t willingly attack them…

And that gave Kazuya the courage to stand his ground, Edward putting the woman down with a soft apology for not being able to take her away from the violence, instead asking her to run.

Edward didn’t have the leeway to help her escape, and the woman nodded, tears still streaming down her face as she nodded and then ran away.

Edward’s fists clenched, having seen that the woman had a jagged scar upon her throat, wondering if that was why the woman had not spoken, only sobbed and shivered…

“Oh? You’re feeling sorry for that woman?” the original masked man spoke, ignoring the glances sent his way by the rest of the masked Sages, the rest were all edging away, clearly getting ready to make a break for it.

“Don’t be. I found her, trying to kill her own child.” Edward froze, his eyes snapping between the door the woman had left through and the masked man.

“You’re lying.” Edward spoke, and yet the masked man only chuckled, waving to the rest of the group of six.

“You all move on… I’ll do what I can.” The group hesitated, clearly not wanting to leave the original masked man behind… one of the shorter members of the group reached out and grasped onto one of his sleeves.

“…Don’t die.” The feminine voice spoke, and the masked man nodded…

There was a burst of movement as the five other Sages ran, the six Star Sage swinging his hand, a wall of Water appearing and blasting through one of the other walls of the building, letting them run through.

Edward tried to pursue, only to be stopped, forced to block a heavy fist coated in Darkness from the one masked Sage who didn’t run.

Even as Edward stopped in place due to the blow though, Kazuya kept moving, jumping onto Edward’s shoulder and pushing off, propelling himself to the hole in the wall.

“Shouldn’t you be chasing my friend?” Edward asked, shaking his arm and forcing the Darkness using rogue Sage back, Edward taking a step back himself, shaking his arm.

“No… I think you’d kill me if I did, Prince.” Edward frowned, not liking that the rogue Sage so easily figured out his identity, sighing at the uselessness of his disguise.

Edward only had dyed hair at the moment, so it wasn’t much of a disguise, but the thought counts in Edward’s opinion.

“I’m a bit ticked off that you know who I am… but yeah.” Edward added, looking to where the eyes of his opponent should be, smashing his suddenly gauntlet-clad fists together with the clanging noise resonating through the now empty building.

“If you had tried to chase after him, I’d have put my fist through your back.” Edward admitted, sliding his feet and dropping his stance slightly, the movement of his feet letting his opponent see that Edward’s lower legs were now covered in armour much like his fists.

“Ah. Well it’s a good thing I didn’t then.” The rogue Sage admitted, raising a western long sword which had wafts of black smoke rising off of it, a dark, cloth-like garment covering his form, stretching down to just below his knees.

Edward, after a moment, recognized it as a male Cheongsam, a Changpao, or Dagua.

“Your weapon and Clad don’t seem to mesh.” Edward pointed out the irregularity of a western weapon and eastern garments, the rogue sage reaching for his mask and finally removing it.

“It doesn’t have to. They’re mine after all.” The Asian man said, reaching to his neck and grabbing his now noticeably long hair, tying it into a pony tail before tucking the length into the back of his Changpao.

“Good point.” Edward admitted, recalling that Tony who looked vaguely Spanish seemed to possess a weapon known in Australia.

“Before we start though… let me just say this.” The rogue Sage, who Edward was beginning to internally want to call Chang, spoke, lifting his blade, and then pointing it away from Edward, the empty hand of ‘Chang’ stretched out towards Edward.

“It doesn’t matter if you believe what that woman did or not. You have your beliefs, I have mine. If they bring us into conflict, that’s all that has to be done.” ‘Chang’ reminded and Edward blinked before grinning.

“Ah right… might makes right.” Edward recalled, and ‘Chang’ nodded.

There was silence for a moment. Then a loose stone from one of the broken walls crumbled, impacting on the floor.

Edward and his opponent moved at the same moment.

Kazuya was going through a different situation as to Edward, the rank two of the S-Class second years trusting that the nominal leader of their class would be fine on his own.

So Kazuya instead chased after those other masked rogue Sages who ran, his katana vanishing into his inventory as he chased them down.

When Kazuya heard a few thuds to his sides, he spared but a glance to see that the rest of the S-Class had gathered, and he adjusted his pace to the slowest of the group, that being Leah.

“Sorry!” Leah shouted before jumping, Kazuya catching her legs as she latched onto his back, and just this once Liza didn’t mind her ‘spot’ being stolen as the group didn’t break stride, increasing their pace once more.

“Five enemies, one six Star Water Sage, the rest are four Stars.” Kazuya warned, his teammates nodding in immediate understanding of the situation.

“Take care of the four Star Sages, I’ll handle the six Star.” Jonathan spoke over their communications, letting his students know that the most dangerous of the group could be left alone...

It was moments after receiving this communication, chasing the Sages through the winding streets of Regalia, that they came across an open square, four of the five suddenly running off, one turning and raising their hands and creating a massive wall of Metal.

“Tony!” Kazuya shouted, the shiest member of the S-Class nodding and tossing one of his Dark Bolts high into the air, the boomerang twisting at its apex and spinning back down, on the other side of the wall.

“The Water Sage ran straight ahead, one ran to the left, and the other two went right, down different paths!” Leah explained after a moment, and Kazuya nodded, sharing a glance with Liza.

Without a word spoken, Kazuya passed Leah to Liza, then he ran to the right with Jade and Vince, Tony already creating a portal using his Dark Bolts to enter the ‘arena’ created by his opponent.

This ‘split’ had already been established, rather than go one on one, it was better for each of the Sages to have a partner in a fight. Unfortunately, it wasn’t viable against four or more enemies, so the S-Class had to improvise.

If splits had to happen, Edward, Tony and Kazuya were to fight alone, the other four were to team up in some manner because of either short-comings or being better in a team than alone.

Besides, knowing that Tony’s opponent had a Metal Element… the other members of the class felt that Tony’s opponent drew the short end of the stick.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Tony had an accurate guess of what his classmates were thinking, even as he appeared within the square, the rogue Sage sighing at the appearance of Tony.

“Figures one of you could teleport… Doesn’t matter. So long as this helps the others escape.” The rogue Sage tilted their head, cracking their neck, and then removed their mask, Tony blinking for a moment.

“…Wouldn’t it be better to keep that on?” Tony asked, the woman shrugging off the coat she had worn, revealing a short top, revealing her midriff and shoulders, her silver hair glistening in the rain as it clung to her.

Tony took that moment to snap out of it and dislike his hormones.

“Nah. Would have made it difficult for me to fight seriously. Besides, I can see you seem to like it.” Tony immediately brought his knees together, a blush overcoming his face as the woman giggled.

“I’m seventeen!” he shouted, drawing more laughs from the woman as she placed her hands on her hips, twisting and stretching.

“Age matters little in the Sage world kid. But jokes aside, I’m not actually into guys, or girls for that matter.” Tony blinked and the woman shrugged.

“Oh. Uh, you alright with that?” Tony felt a bit conflicted about this entire situation, mostly because he felt that he was the wrong person to be in this situation. If it had been one of the other guys maybe?

“Eh, it’s how I am. We got a bit off track though.” The woman admitted, pulling her arms back, bringing her fists to her sides as armour formed over her form, covering her arms, chest, and thighs, and then she reached out, a long handle appearing in her hand as Tony saw her swing the weapon down, eventually bringing it to rest against her shoulder.

Now with a clear view of the weapon, Tony saw the hammer at the end of the long pole, but on the other end of the hammer was a knife like protrusion, and recalling Kazuya’s weapons lectures, he recognized it as a war-pick.

Kazuya would be insufferable when he found out that those ‘lectures’ he started giving actually helped Tony recognize a weapon and how it could possibly be used.

“We’re supposed to be trying to kill each other. The name’s Carly by the way.” The woman added, a helmet appearing to cover her skull, and Tony blinked, nodding as his Dark Bolts appeared in his hands.

Oddly enough, his Dark Bolts could ‘pass through’ each other despite both being two ends of his portals. Tony found this strange and weird, eventually just comparing it to how one would turn a sweater inside out or something.

With his Dark Bolts, Tony also summoned what he could of his Clad, which at the moment was black greaves with yellow spikes along his shin, with the feet section strangely looking like hooves.

In addition to his greaves, Tony felt a chest-plate form, to guard his vitals, the armour spiked and rugged just like his greaves…

Tony was already dreading the future ‘edge-lord’ jokes.

“Tony.” Tony responded to his opponent, holding his Dark Bolts like one would hold daggers.

Nothing more was said as they charged at each other.

Like Tony and his opponent, Edward and ‘Chang’ were battling, Edward’s eyes widening as he ducked under a roundhouse kick, then bringing his hands together and catching the tip of ‘Chang’s blade, the prince jumping back along with the attack to kill the momentum, a blast of Ice from the ground attempted to stab through ‘Chang’s’ chest and instead was met with Chang’s shadow rising and slicing through the tip of the Ice spear.

“Damn he’s fast…” Edward cursed, hating that he just so happened to be fighting a fast Darkness user.

Edward was already kind of used to fighting such people thanks to Tony, but this ‘Chang’ was an entirely different situation than the other case.

Tony used his Dark Bolts and dashed around erratically, his movements associated with ‘twitching’ to Edward, a pause then a burst of motion.

‘Chang’ on the other hand… Chang had a flowing move-set. He wasn’t innately faster than Tony, he was just consistently fast compared to Tony’s more erratic movements.

It reminded Edward of what the King of Ice had told him, and Edward paused, recalling the words while raising a wall of Earth to block the spiralling spear of Darkness attempting to gouge out his heart.

“Soft, not hard.” Had Vince been around there would be much snickering and lewd jokes made, but Edward got the idea, sinking into the ground and forcing himself out behind ‘Chang’.

Edward had been trained in numerous martial arts, he had his preferences, which were clearly shown with Tae-Kwan-Do, Karate and Muay Thai.

Edward had learnt others though, his occasional barehanded spars with Kazuya had him teaching Kazuya what he knew, and Kazuya teaching Tai-Chi, Judo and Aikido to Edward.

When it came to hard-soft techniques, while it was typically used to refer to how one defended, it could also refer to attack and movement.

Edward tried to incorporate it now, sliding forward rather than stomping his foot to generate power as he normally would.

‘Chang’ seemed to notice that something was different, though not exactly what was different, slashing with his blade in an attempt to deter Edward’s attack.

Edward, seeing the attack, felt the urge to raise his arm, to block the blade with his gauntlet and then respond in kind with a front kick or elbow strike.

Instead, Edward shifted his weight, his leading foot remaining rooted in place as his legs gave out beneath him, dropping him under the strike, then dragging his back foot forward while twisting, straightening his leading foot to gain back his footing as he lashed out with a backwards kick.

‘Chang’ jumped back, but a scowl was on his face, and Edward twisted lowered his leg, frowning as well.

There was a definite bruise on ‘Chang’s jaw, the rogue Sage stumbling and taking a moment to spit some blood to the side letting Edward know that his attack was actually effective…

But at the same time, Edward hadn’t wanted to strike in that manner. Edward had wanted to use the ‘soft’ principles to somehow convert his opponent’s force to his advantage.

“You… imitating my movements will not help you.” Edward chuckled awkwardly, knowing that yes, some of his movement was taken from ‘Chang’ and his movement.

“Oh I think it will… but I’m actually copying a friend of mine more than I’m copying you.” Edward said with a chuckle, taking his previous stance from the start of the fight… and then lowering himself even more, his closed fists opening, his palms shown to ‘Chang’ and fingers together.

“…I hate fighting those who grow in the middle of a fight.” ‘Chang’ admitted with a muttered curse under his breath, and Edward could relate…

Kazuya was very much the same during their spars.

They attacked each other a moment after, Edward’s gauntlet covered hand going out in a palm strike, aiming to stop the thrust aimed at his chest.

‘Chang’ in response, twitched his wrist, the point of his blade now going away from its previous point, and the Rogue Sage began to twirl the blade, hoping to cut Edward’s arm at a point where the gauntlet wouldn’t reach.

Seeing ‘Chang’s wrist flexing, starting the spin, Edward stopped his palm strike, leaving his arm at the same point, bringing up his other arm to smash against ‘Chang’s sword, the force of the attack making both fighters scowl.

Immediately following the block, Edward continued his attack with the original arm, shifting from palm strike to knife-hand, his hand catching on Fire as he did so, only for the glow of the flames to be snuffed out upon contact with a leg covered in Darkness, the wince on ‘Chang’s face showing that defending that attack was still damaging.

Seeing the pain on his opponent’s face, Edward saw the chance for what it was, and struck, his hand still in contact with ‘Chang’s leg twisting so that he grabbed the leg, keeping Chang from jumping away or bringing down his leg.

The Rogue Sage widened his eyes, letting go of his sword and leaping, twisting to bring the leg previously keeping him standing up to Edward’s face.

Edward smirked, and instead of letting the kick hit him, he spun in the same direction, surprising ‘Chang’ as they fell, a sickening crack going out as ‘Chang’ shouted in pain.

Edward has his knee against ‘Chang’s ankle, the Rogue Sage’s foot now bent unnaturally, and the first crack was followed by another as Edward lashed out with a kick, heavy with Earth covering him, hitting and breaking ‘Chang’s knee.

The Rogue Sage screamed in pain, summoning his sword instinctually and swiping at Edward, trying to force more range.

Edward rolled backward, vaulting upwards while doing so as the ground was raised by his Earth control, creating a wall for him to land against, and before gravity could even take hold, Edward pushed off, crossing his arms and impacting ‘Chang’s chest, along with the arm still crossed over it from his slash.

The fight was over when Edward bounced off, landing in a crouch, standing up and looking over at his opponent, coughing and wheezing from the impact.

“You were strong. But I only needed one opening.” Edward pointed out, looking at ‘Chang’ and his broken leg and arm, the Rogue Sage clearly wanting to stand and continue a fight… then visibly reconsidering.

“…I guess so.” Edward narrowed his eyes, seeing that ‘Chang’ could have forced himself to move using Darkness… it would have been painful, but the man could have kept fighting…

“…Why did you do this?” Edward asked, clearly wondering why such a strong fighter would turn to being a Rogue Sage.

“… My sister. She was a normal human. She got killed by the Null Sons for defending me when I was younger.” ‘Chang’ said, and Edward’s eyes widened, a frown on his face.

“…I’m sorry. I can’t tell you to forget, or to abandon your revenge… I can only say that it makes sense now… before I knock you out, what’s your name?” Edward asked, the Asian man looking up at Edward and then scoffing.

“Nick. And don’t tell me that it doesn’t fit either.” Edward opened his mouth, immediately shutting it at Nick’s words, pre-empting the statement Edward would have made.

“Right… one last question I guess… did that woman really try to kill her own child?” Edward’s final question had the Rogue Sage looking at the open ceiling, the rain pouring in…

“Yeah. Her daughter became a dual element Sage two weeks ago. She had black hair before then, now she’s an Ice and Lightning dual-Element. The girl had a cut on her throat.” And things started to make sense to Edward…

“I see…” That was really all Edward could say.

These people… were they really evil?

Edward be contemplating this for a long time, but his part in this fight was over, so he had the leeway to look towards where the other Sages ran.

Tony’s fight was still going on though in comparison to Edward’s, and his fight was… a slight amount easier.

“Seriously? I was under the impression that you were a Darkness Sage… this is bullshit.” Carly, the Metal Rogue Sage, complained, and Tony could sympathize, as far as Elements went, he was horrible against Vince, so he knew what it was like to fight someone who could make using your Element nigh-impossible.

With Carly being a Metal Sage, all of her use of the Element would create or control something that was very conductive to electricity, and with Tony having Lightning as one of his Elements…

The result that Tony was freely smashing his Dark Bolts at his opponent, Carly responding as best she could with using the handle of her war-pick, deflecting and blocking the high speed attacks as best as she can.

Now Carly was a Rogue Sage, she had likely fought Lightning users before. She couldn’t fight the way she wanted to against them, but she could fight back.

Whenever Tony attempted to shock her with a blast of Lightning, he’d find it near impossible to force it to head towards her, instead finding his Lightning redirected to a newly formed piece of Metal nearby, or distorted by the rain falling around them.

With the rain, it became especially difficult to control the Lightning, and clearly Carly was hoping that with the new danger of shocking himself, Tony wouldn’t try and use Lightning in this way.

“If it weren’t for this rain… lucky for me in that sense.” Tony frowned at Carly’s words, flipping one of his Dark Bolts so that it was held in ‘reverse’ and then taking a swing at Carly, the force of the attack blowing the Rogue Sage backwards.

“Right… lucky for you.” Tony didn’t say much more, though Carly detected some confusion in Tony’s words, leaving the Rogue Sage to scoff.

It almost sounded like Tony was trying to say that being in danger of shocking himself was nothing bad. Sure, his own Elemental power would never hurt him, but once Tony’s Lightning hit the water and started going out of his control, it would be able to hurt him.

It was the same with all Elements to an extent, an Element under the control of a Sage would never hurt the Sage, a subconscious thing all Sages did, instinctually, but once it was out of their control, they couldn’t defend themselves from their own Element.

It was this effect that could cause a Fire Sage to have burn scars for example.

“Ugh… but while I’m holding you off…” Carly looked around, Tony raising a brow, wondering what she was looking for.

“I just need to escape to win.” Carly said with a smirk, dashing suddenly, heading towards the direction Liza and Leah had ran in.

Tony clicked his teeth, knowing what was going on, but being unable to stop it as he sunk into his own shadow, then reappearing in front of Carly out of the shadow of a taller building.

Carly’s grin widened, her war-pick trailing behind her as she kept her momentum, spinning before getting her weapon ready for an overhead strike, the size of the war-pick increasing massively at the apex of its arc.

Right, the handle itself stayed the same, but the hammer head grew until it was larger than Tony, and the dual Element Sage sighed, having known that this was Carly’s aim from the start.

In their exchanges, Tony had already proven that he was physically superior, a one armed swing of one of his Dark Bolts required Carly to prepare herself and use both hands on her weapon to block, let alone not be sent flying a short distance.

Extreme strength for his physique was something that Tony had as a trait, and it was shown in how well he competed with Edward in their occasional hand-to-hand fights.

So instead, Carly ran, because again, her goal was just escaping, Tony had to defeat and capture her. By running away, she forced Tony into trying to stop her, he had to either launch an attack at her from a distance, something he was bad at with Darkness and couldn’t do at the moment with Lightning, or run in front of her.

And Tony wasn’t fast enough to overtake Carly while attacking, so she now had a ‘free hit’ in a way.

“Got you!” Carly shouted, and Tony sighed, crossing his Dark Bolts in front of him in an ‘x’ shape, leaning forward.

“You know… it’s really difficult to push a bull back.” Tony said blandly, as, just before the moment of impact, he shoved forward, the impact of both Armaments hitting one another causing a clashing noise, the weapons grinding against one another.

“Oh? I was wondering about those boots… still, you’re awfully close.” Carly said, even as her weapon slowly grew, growing in weight and causing Tony’s arms to tremble with the combined force of gravity, the weight of the weapon and Carly’s added strength.

“I could say the same.” Tony said, staring right at her as his weapons began to spark, Carly going wide eyed at the sight.

“What are you doing, you’ll shock us both!” Carly shouted, seeing the blue flashes of electricity building up higher frequency.

“So?” Tony asked, a raised eyebrow, with the Rogue Sage paling, wondering how crazy Tony was being…

Then the Lightning was released, a crackling boom along with the flash of light as both Sages shook and groaned from the electricity flowing through both, finally blasting apart from one another after a moment, both steaming from the heat.

…After a few breaths, Tony groaned audibly, rolling onto his side and trying to stand, failing to brace his hand properly and falling onto his face.

Tony took a moment to be thankful none of his classmates were there to see that, trying once more to stand and slowly managing it, shivering limbs and all, watching as Carly tried to crawl away with slow, jerking movements.

Tony couldn’t even chase her, unable to hold the Dark Bolts, it was taking all he had to stand, hands on his knees to brace himself.

“C-c-cra-zy b-bas-bastard…” Carly cursed, having managed to look over her shoulder and see Tony grabbing his own legs and trying to force himself forward to chase her down, clearly less affected by the Lightning than she was…

It was to this pitiful scene, that a voice interrupted.

“Hey. What the heck is going on here?” Tony looked over at the voice, Carly slowly managing to do the same, and while Tony was confused, Carly paled upon realizing who it was.

“I was just taking a walk, off to go talk about a meeting, when these two kids take my bike in pursuit of a Rogue Sage, then while lamenting the possible loss of my bike, I see the lightshow and realize some Lightning Sage is probably fighting. So again, what the hell is going on here?” The blonde man spoke, Tony taking in his appearance, hair cut short and clean, with red eyes and a jagged scar on the right side of his forehead… and wearing suspiciously dry, orange robes.

“A-a mo-monk?” Tony cursed the fact that his stutters were showing up again, but with his nerves fried at the moment, he couldn’t exert enough control to slow down his perception.

“Hey emo kid, speak at normal speed, if I couldn’t understand you, no one would.” The monk spoke, Tony’s eyes widening as he began to have an idea of who it was…

“As the King of Lightning, I have no need to be catered to.” The man said, revealing his identity as Goku Adohira, the Head Monk of the Temple, King of Lightning, and widely considered one of the top four Kings.

“S-s-shit…” Carly had already stopped crawling, just twitching and shivering, too scared to move anymore with a ten Star Sage standing right there.

“…Oh, I think I get what was going on.” Goku said, a hand held up to his chin as he considered the fact that there was another case of a Rogue Sage running away from some kids. And looking at Tony and Carly…

“I see… Well, congrats, I’ll take her into custody.” Tony looked at the King walking towards Carly, his footsteps making no sound as his sandals impacted the concrete ground before lifting Carly and carrying her in a fireman carry.

Tony looked down, breathing a sigh of relief that he had managed to incapacitate Carly at such an opportune moment… then he felt himself suddenly being lifted, coming face to face with the King of Lightning.

“By the way, that was a putrid showing from a Lightning user, and you have potential. You’re coming with me.” And like that, Tony found himself looking at Carly, both being carried by the King of Lightning who… began singing?

Both found themselves paling at the frankly horrible and off-key rendition of ‘Can we talk’ by one Tevin Campbell, somehow knowing it was going to be a long night…

And yes, it was going to be a long-night, especially for the other S-Class members.

Their hunt wasn’t over just yet after all.