Gutter and I walked outside of the store and exchanged looks. The rest of the group followed soon after. It was a standoff between me and a notorious gangster of zone two. Ori spoke up before we began our fight.

“Don’t you think it’s unfair to use a stemata in a hand to hand fight?”

“He’s using a stemata?!” my head snapped to Ori.

I didn’t even notice! If it was, then I wouldn’t have noticed. It didn’t do anything that helped him.

“It’s his left eye.” Ori explained. “When he started his fight with us, he moved his eyepatch from his left eye to his right. After that, he gained the upper hand against us. This may be a stretch, but I’m almost certain…that stemata of his can predict the future.”

“You’re very perceptive, little miss. That’s right. My left eye helps me see far enough into the future to help me react to it. If I’m fast enough, I can virtually dodge anything.”

“You sound like you’re proving my point.” Ori narrowed her eyes.

“Well without it, I’d be fighting with one eye. Isn’t that a bit unfair in of itself?”

“Hmmmmmm. Fair point!” I nodded in agreement.

“NO! THAT”S NOT FAIR AT ALL! That’s it. I’d rather take my chances and jump him again. I’ll go get the training pistols—” Ori was about to go back in the store, but Derris stopped her. Anna quickly patched both him and Gollie up inside with a first aid kit just in time for the fight.

"This…is a fight between men. On my pride as the governor's son, I won't allow you to interfere!"

"When you say it like that, it sounds kind of cool!" Rono said with a hint of admiration.

“Arno, I’ll be careful if I were you. Closing the gap in strength between a stemata user and a non-stemata user is difficult.” Gollie gave me advice as he massaged his neck.

"You guys are being so insufferable!" Ori sat down and opened one of her treats.

"I'll tell you what kid: if you can beat me in this fight, I'll tell you some important info that you wannabe government officials might wanna know. Especially that Hotch over there." Gutter pointed to Anna.

"Why are you calling me kid? I'm a grown adult." I tilted my head in confusion.

"So what do you say? Deal?"

"Sounds good to me!" I said as I finished stretching.

"Count us down, little miss…"

Ori reluctantly counted down to zero. Once she did, I charged Gutter and pulled my fist back. When I threw out my punch, he dodged it with ease and punched me in the stomach. I winced in pain and attempted to swing at him again. I shot my punch straight at him, and was met with a kick in my side and a punch in my face.

This continued on and on. I would send out a straight punch, he'd dodge, and counter with an attack. He only let up when he noticed I was on the floor beaten and bloodied.

"You talked all of that smack, yet you're getting your ass beat, kid. You sure you wanna do this for a living?"

I propped myself up, spat out some blood, and put my fists up to make another straight punch.

"With all of my heart."

In response to that, Gutter took out a cigar and started to smoke it. Once he blew all of his smoke in the air he started to lecture me. “This is the problem. This is where the disconnect lies. You like to think of yourselves as heroes saving the day everywhere you go, but some people don’t want your interference. Some people wanna stand on their own two feet. This zone doesn't want any help from a CT. Especially a Haustorian CT.”

“As long as you are a citizen of this country, you’ll take my help! Whether you like it or not!” I yelled out as I sent my fist flying to him and finally connected. Everyone including Gutter was shocked and I began to grin at this step towards victory.

“It doesn’t matter if I can write faster than you can read!”

“H-huh?!” Gutter was speechless, but Ori quickly caught on to what I was trying to say.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Those straight punches…he was practicing sending out punches faster than Gutter can read! In that case, it won’t matter whether or not he could read the future since Arno strikes before he can react at all!”

“That sounds like a very Arno-like thing to do…” Anna chuckled at the solution I came to.

I then landed another undodgeable punch. I did this over and over and didn’t let up. I even mixed some kicks in as well. As I was laying into him, making each one of his movements slower by the second, he put a hand up in surrender.

“Fine…A deal’s a deal…You wanna know what’s going on? I’ll tell you.” Gutter dropped onto the floor to help relax and ease his pain.

“Gather ‘round, government dogs. You’re gonna want to hear this.”

Once we were all gathered, Anna began to patch me up and Gutter explained the state of zone two.

There are currently three factions: the current government under governor Ambrose Baxton, the Gutter gang, and the rising star of zone two that’s running for governor this year: Lucien Shaw. The governor has been mysteriously winning the elections back to back for the past sixteen years. Lucien Shaw became an overnight sensation when he ran multiple polls to keep track of Baxton’s approval ratings and they came up with less than 10% despite him winning these elections. He used that momentum to gain a following and challenge Baxton any chance he gets. As for Gutter’s gang, they’ve been doing whatever they want under the current government along with the police: Robbing stores, taxing, and spying on others are just a couple of things he could think of off the top of his head.

“But it all changes tonight. Tonight, the Hotch family’s having their usual Bountfest party. This year is different though. It’s also election day. After the event, they’ll be taking their ballots from the party to the governor’s square to vote and announcing who they’re voting for. If it’s overwhelming votes for Shaw and the announced victor is Baxton, there will be a rebellion right then and there.”

To combat this, the government has issued multiple polling places around the zone with cops stationed at these places. They say it’s for accessibility but in reality, it’s to break up any possible rebels and subdue them.

“Any stragglers that still want to march to the governor’s square are to be ‘redirected’ by yours truly. They’re most likely to be violent, so we’ll just ‘defend’ ourselves.”

I gave him a death glare and he quickly continued explaining “Honestly, you guys came at a suspiciously opportune time. Six CTs visiting right before a battle that’ll shape the future of this zone is pretty…convenient.”

“Yeah…very convenient…” Ori averted her eyes and stared at Anna. Everyone else slowly followed suit. Everyone except for me. Am I missing something? Best to act like I know what’s going on.

“Yup! Convenient!” I crossed my arms and nodded in agreement.

“Guys…I may have withheld some details.” Anna confessed.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Arno, she lied to us.” Ori said.

“H-hey! I used the word withheld for a reason. Besides, you guys wouldn’t have come if I told you! This was my only chance to do something!”

I understand how she feels, in a way. If I knew the Fall of Haustoria was going to happen, I would’ve done everything in my power to try and stop it. Even if it meant I would look like a villain to some. But I never thought Anna had the nerve to lie to so many of her friends.

“Luckily for you Anna, this is just the opportunity we were looking for!” Ori puffed out her chest.

“What do you mean?”

“Why else do you think Arno and I agreed to this? We’re on a time-table. I knew you were up to something ever since you invited us, so I jumped on this opportunity. I could’ve never guessed the amount of potential this had! It’s a complete underdog battle against the zone two governor! At this rate, Arno will have to activate his stem system!”

Now that I think about it, Ori was a bit quick to jump on the idea. Especially given the fact that there wasn’t a guarantee we would make progress in the time we spent here. Although I agree that this is an opportunity, we shouldn’t be doing this because we expect to gain out of it. I guess the result of us helping is the same, but It’s different, you know? How do I put this…the ends don’t justify the means? Is that it?

“Lives are on the line and you’re treating it like a little game? You’re more messed up than I thought.” Derris broke the silence with his laughter.

“So!” I turned around to meet everyone’s glances. “Does anyone else have any objections?”

“I do!” Rono raised his hand and was quickly intercepted by Gollie. “Nope!”

“What’s the excuse this time though? I don’t think we can get away with saying that we’re part of Ori’s harem again.” Derris said.

“Oh, I know what to do! Follow me!” Anna motioned for everyone to follow her back into the store.

As everyone walked into the store, the clerk did a double take at seeing Gutter follow us. This led me to notice him and ask Ori what exactly I should do.

“I’ve already devised a plan. We’re gonna go to where Gutter has his men stationed and subdue them before they could intercept the mob. I’m sure you have a hideout right, Mr. Mob boss?”

“Sure do, missy. Two, in fact. I’ll show you guys after this shopping trip.”

“You’re being awfully helpful, Mr. Mob boss. There wouldn't happen to be contingencies for if someone were to compromise you and find the hideout, right?”

“If there were, I wouldn't tell you.” Gutter said with a crooked smile as he lit another cigarette.

“Duly noted…”

“I found them!”

Ori and I walked over to Anna and saw the clothing rack that she was looking at. They were skin-tight costumes with matching helmets colored very vibrantly. These helmets also had visors.

“With these, we’ll be able to hide our true identity!” Anna said.

“WAIT! THESE ARE HOLY POWER COSTUMES!” My eyes lit up with joy.

Holy Power Force was a comic book series that started running fifteen years ago. I’ve basically been reading it since I came to this country! It’s about this group of teenagers that were chosen by the master “Holy White” to fight the forces of evil. They have some good lessons in there and have in a way, made me who I am. Of course, because I was saving money, I had to skim through the volumes when the corner stores near zone four had them.

“I wanna be Holy Red!” Rono pushed everyone out of the way.

“No way! Holy Red’s the leader! I wanna be Holy Red!” I butted heads with him immediately.

“Let me have this one thing, ARNO!”

I’ve never seen Rono be so passionate about something like this…