“It’s Power Time!”

I made transforming sounds and jumped out of the store in my shining red costume.

“Holy Red! Ready to fight evil!” with each word I said, I striked several dynamic poses.

“Holy Blue…” Rono followed me with a very depressed slouch.

“I guess the next move is to get the location of the hideout, right?” I asked Ori.

“Yeah, Gutter marked the map for us.” Ori came out in her Holy Purple costume.

“Guys! You’re supposed to say your Power Force color!” I snapped at Ori.

“No one cares about that nerd crap, man.” Derris stepped out in his Power Force costume.

“You’re one to talk! You’re wearing a Holy Yellow outfit! That one’s meant for girls!” I teased Derris.

“Are you a child or something?”

“Well…at least I didn’t get stuck with Holy Yellow. She dies in the latest chapter.”

“SHE WHAT?!” My eyes widened at Rono’s spoiler.

“Holyyyyyyyyyyyy Pink!” Anna jumped out of the store with such finesse that you would think she’s the actual Holy Pink. Once she landed, she did peace signs near her eyes. Not the best, but I’ll take anything at this point.

“That’s what I’m talking about, Anna!” I cheered her on.

“H-holyyyyyy Green!” Gollie walked out with a Holy Green costume and nervously flexed his muscles.

“So here’s the plan, everyone!” Ori gathered everyone to begin discussion on zone two’s problem.

The plan was to split between two groups to handle the two hideouts that Gutter has, and then escort the angry mob to the governor’s square. The first group going to “hideout A” will be Ori, Gollie, and me. The people going after “hideout B” will be Derris, Anna, Rono. Afterwards, we’ll meet back up at the train station to go back home. We’ll be in and out and no one will even notice that we were here.

"What about him?" I pointed to Gutter who was surprisingly still here.

"He's coming to hideout A with us. He won't do anything. I don't know why, but it's best to keep an eye on him throughout this." Ori glanced over at him before putting on her helmet.

"Alright team! It's power time!" I tried to form a huddle to set us off and at first, Rono and Anna were willing to do it, but everyone else just began walking off. Damn…

The two groups went their separate ways and once they did, us in group A traversed the farmlands of zone two to make whatever difference we could.

"We're here." Gutter pointed out.

Overlooking the hill, we could see Gutter's main hideout. It looked like a small town on stilts over a bayou. The bayou itself was a lake with trees sparsely covering the area. The water itself had a layer of algae spread around the body of water as well. Regardless of the overwhelming presence of nature here, you could still see a hint of humanity. Men were moving crates, playing cards, and drinking liquor in that town. All with a watchtower looming over them.

"I thought hideouts were supposed to be hidden."

"They are supposed to be hidden, Arno." Ori responded.

"No need to hide as much when the local government approves of your criminal activity." Gutter blew more smoke into the air.

"So what's the plan, Ori?" Gollie looked over to her for a strategy.

"I picked the three of us for a reason. Arno, go make some noise and Gollie and I will provide cover-fire for you. REMEMBER: we're not killing a single person here. Even though we're anonymous, if any of us get exposed, we don't want to have it revealed that we killed multiple groups of people."

“That’s your only qualm about killing others in this situation? That you’d be caught?” Gollie seemed concerned.

“Well…yeah. If we get caught—especially Arno and I—that’s game over.”

“I’m just worried about how ready you guys would be to take lives…”

“Is that not normal? We’ve had to kill back in Haustoria to stay alive tons of times.” I said.

I guess if your life’s not always in danger, it could seem pretty scary to find someone so ready to kill others. But when Ori and I were running to escape Haustoria, many times we had no choice but to defend ourselves. I guess that gave us a numbness to the thought. I guess that made us more heartless in a way.

“Seems we’re alike in that regard. When society’s broken and the law can’t back you up, you gotta do what you gotta do.” Gutter said.

“No offense, but it doesn’t make me feel better to relate to a gangster.” Ori said. "But other than that, go crazy Arno." Ori pointed down at the hideout and I led the charge.

"The name’s Holy Red, but sure thing!"

I ran off and was greeted by two thugs in suits and duster coats at each side of the dock. They took out their guns, but it was too late. Gollie and Ori landed headshots on the two guards and knocked them out. On doing that, I jumped onto a boat and shouted “RED POWERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”

Everyone in that distant hideout immediately aimed their weapons at me Ori and Gollie got on the boat with Gutter in the very back driving it. The closer we got to the hideout on the boat, the more accurate the enemy’s aim became.

“You better have a plan other than a straight shot! Otherwise, we’re gonna get filled with lead!” Ori said to Gutter.

“Of course I do! I used to race these bad boys out of boredom!”

Gutter then used the environment to his advantage. He swerved the boat around the collection of trees that lies between us and the hideout. Although it took us a bit longer, it provided us with cover until we reached the docks.

When we were finally there, I hopped onto the docks and rushed throughout the entire hideout, leading the charge, Gollie and Ori provided cover fire, and Gutter walked behind it all and watched the carnage.

“Don Gutter?!” The men watched as their leader did nothing as we took out their forces. As we pushed further and further, we noticed a large house that was bigger than any structure in the hideout. From it, emerged a tall muscular man that looked to be on the older side and had hair that reached his shoulders.

“So you finally did it, you bastard…” His raspy authoritative voice was another thing that set him apart from the rest. Although we were led to believe that Gutter was the leader of this group, this man had an entirely different aura.

“You already knew this was coming, old man.” Gutter said.

I…wasn’t really sure if what we were doing was right anymore so I looked over to Ori for guidance. If we’re just dancing around in Gutter’s palm, I don’t want to continue. Sensing my worry, Ori clarified the situation.

“Regardless of whatever Gutter’s planning, the less opposition going against the rebels, the better. No matter what’s going on here, the bottom line is that the Gutter gang will end tonight.”

“Dear Taramos, Gutter. If you were gonna trick some random people into overthrowing us, you could at least come up with a better name for the organization.”

“Wait, it’s not called the Gutter gang?” I asked.

“Of course not. It’s called the West Triad. Gutter the snake over there led the weakest branch. A branch so weak, they don’t even have a hideout.”

The man went on to explain the truth of the West Triad. The leaders of each branch are Don Gutter, Don Alejandro, and himself, Don Matteo. Don Matteo owns hideout A and Alejandro owns hideout B. Gutter’s branch were just the thugs that went around harassing people.

“Does anyone else in our fun little group have zone-level relations or secrets?!” Ori looked over to the three of us.

“Regardless, it doesn’t change anything. These guys are working for Governor Baxton, who is a tyrant.” Gutter made his rebuttal.

Oh yeah…that’s right! So what if Gutter omitted parts of the conflict? At the end of the day, it’ll be a net positive for zone three to take down the West Triad!

I readied my fists and in response to that, Don Matteo snapped his fingers.

“Yes, father!” A couple of remnants of Matteo’s men ran off in a hurry and just as quickly brought back a large black suitcase gilded at the edges with gold. Once he opened the suitcase, he equipped a black pair of gauntlets stylistically gilded with gold throughout the weapons. On seeing this, Ori’s eyes widened.

“Holy Red, be careful! I’ve never seen that stemata before. The crystal on it is a different size than standard. It’s way smaller than even our training pistols so I don’t know its stability or how strong or weak it is.”

If Ori can’t get a read on the stemata, then I need to be careful. I looked over to Gutter to see if he’d know, and his cigar fell right out of his mouth. He stepped up next to me and said “It looks like there’s a change of plans…” As he said this, I studied his face and could see a sharp light of conviction shine in his eyes. As if this was exactly what he was looking for.

“What a turn of events…Gutter becomes an actor instead of an observer…” Ori said. In response Gutter took another cigar out, put the end of it to his mouth, and lit it. “This just became personal and now I wanna blow off some steam. So for now…” Gutter exhales the smoke as he makes his declaration.

“Don Gutter joins your party.”