"OOF!!" My breath is knocked out of me as I am thrown down, unable to see with a bag over my head.

The bag is yanked off. As I gasp for air, I look around. I appear to be in some underground laboratory with many monitors, a ceiling that looks like it could collapse at any minute, and a large crystal, a third of the room's size, behind a man sitting in a chair, playing a video game.

"Level up," he says before turning around.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" he says to me.

"Not that long, Dodge. What's this about?"

"You're getting in our way, that's what."

I turn around and see - I assume - Chates, as I know Oren wouldn't do this to me.

"Isn't it what YOU have been doing this whole time?"

"Mmmm..... Perhaps. Yes and no."

I stumble to my feet, but realize that my arms are tied.

"Then why the extremes? I may not approve of your actions, but surely you can see the benefit of this movement!"

"It would be more accurate to call it a 'vain attempt'. Granted, this is the first time in this city's history that this many strikes and protests have happened all at once, but you as a teacher should know the history of this city better than anybody. The rich can be threatened, but the threats will not change them. They'll crush you and go back to whatever they do to pass the time."

"A vain attempt it may be, but tell me, what am I doing wrong?"

Dodge gets up from his seat and looks to the giant crystal.

"To play the game of life, you have to be flexible, try different strategies. Can't do the same things we always have. We must learn from the past, not repeat it."

I try to walk towards him, but Chates gets in my way. Ironically, he's still in Oren's form.

"All will be over tomorrow."

With a quick surge of electric rhime at his feet, he dashes towards me so fast, I can barely react. I don't remember him being this fast - too fast for even an electric tone. I look at his hands and feet and see some unusual kit. Gloves and anklets decorated with small crystals. Kit used for war in previous ages. How did he get his hands on those?

"If you truly value what you do," he whispers in my ear, "I suggest you play your part right."

BBBAASSSHHHHIIINNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Following the smashing of a wall and debris flying everywhere, I suddenly hear a familiar voice.

"Soul Conversion 5...BEAT!!!"

With speed on par with Dodge's, Oren rushes in and kicks Chates in the chest, knocking him away from me and into the wall on the opposite side of the room.

"Son of a bitch," I hear another boy's voice say, "you really get mixed up in the more complicated parts of this job, don't you, Oren?"

As the dust clears, I see that handsome newspaper boy from before. To quickly disperse the remaining debris, he envelops his arm in darkness rhime and swipes it through the air, knocking the debris back.

"So, we meet again." Dodge says to the handsome boy. "Yamiso, was it?"

"So, this fucking ugly face is your true face. I must say, considering how many of those dimwit newspaper boys believed in your motives, you almost convinced me, too."

"Perhaps you can say I tricked them. Perhaps you can say I did not. My motives are clear and consistent. My methods are all that changed."

He jumps back.

"And also truer than yours."

He pulls out a handgun specific to electric tones. He charges it with his rhime, then shoots off a small sphere of electricity in our direction. Yamiso jumps into the air, and Oren towards me to knock us both out of the way. As I look up, I see Chates, still in Oren's form, above us ready to land a dropkick. I push Oren out of the way, and we roll until Chates lands in between us. Oren performs a low spin kick, pushes himself off the ground with his one good arm, and backflips onto his feet. The two then begin to attack each other with a barrage of kicks. A roundhouse kick to the face. Blocked. A lower sweeping kick. Dodged by jumping over it. They continue to counter and evade one another's attacks. It's almost like the they are dancing together, if you don't consider their hatred towards one another. By this point, if it wasn't for Chates keeping both arms in top form, I wouldn't have remembered which Oren was the real one.

With the sound of rhime flowing from Yamiso, I look and see him with devil wings of darkness on his back. He rushes towards Dodge at full speed, blocking all shots fired at him with his darkness claws. That's the benefit of the darkness tones. They may not be very fast, but they have great stamina and are physically strong.

These two fights continue for some time, will all fighters equally matched in their own right, and all I can do is stand here. Watching. Unable to fight back. I'm a teacher. Should I fight if I could? Would that make me a bad example? But wouldn't doing nothing be just as bad of a bad example? If only I had something to fight with! If only I was free! Should I try to fight? Or shouldn't I?

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

"What're you trying to accomplish!?" I hear Yamiso yell at Dodge.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Considering everything you've done, I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"Everything I've done is rally the people."

"And the source of that fucking large crystal?"

Dodge is silent as he ducks under a claw swing.

"Casualties...of progress."

He seems to have regret in his voice. Enough to make Yamiso hesitate.

I look back over to Oren and Chates. At that instant, the two each land a kick to each other's face with their left legs. They stagger back in the exact same way.

"Enough of this," I hear the real Oren say. " Soul Conversion 7...BEAT!!!"

The Orens restart their battle, only this time the real one seems to have the upper hand. For every three kicks Chates blocks or dodges, he is hit with another. Even after Oren begins to slow down to his normal pace following the use of his soul conversion, his blows have taken their toll on Chates...

!!!!

In a matter of seconds, underneath Chates' cloak, the parts where he was hit begin to glow with blue rhime. After the blue rhime disappears, Chates doesn't seem to show any signs of pain in those areas.

"Truth be told, you're quite skilled." Chates remarks. "Guess it's hard to beat an original at their own game."

He readies himself in a sprinting starting position.

"But for every strength..."

He rushes towards Oren, who dodges by shifting his weight to the right...

And is continuing his sprint in my direction!

"There's also a weakness!!!"

"Soul Conversion 13...BEAT!!!"

Oren rushes past him to intercept, and gets headbutted in the stomach. With this collision, Oren is launched past me and into the wall.

"Perhaps it would only be fair to tell those who I am to beat how I beat them." Chates begins state. "My rhime subtone is called 'Molecular Adjustment'." As a water tone, my subtone allows me to control the water molecules in my cells to reconstruct my body structure to any form I want. Although I cannot use an original's subtone skills, I can perfectly duplicate, if not surpass, another individual's physical prowess. As you also noticed, I can even reconstruct wounded areas of my body! You can only fight hand to hand. Well, guess what, you're playing by my rules. And as long as I have enough rhime to maintain these forms..."

He again goes into a sprinting starting position and pushes off towards Oren.

"I have no equal in close combat!"

Chates quickly jumps into the air and prepares to land a kick on Oren's....

BASHIN!!!!

(What!?) All of us think at once.

Before the debris can disperse, somebody picks up a large chunk of the broken wall's side and throws it at Chates. It hits him in the stomach, knocks him to the ground. With a quick dispersion of what looks like animal rhime, a horse with pink hair rushes into the area and uses its hind legs to kick Chates in the face. The animal rhime begins to surround the horse and, in its place, is Sueka, clad in what looks like a First Age Chinese dress. Most likely made of silk specific for animal tone transformations. She rushes over to Oren, who now seems more surprised than injured.

"Are you alright, Oren!?" she asks.

"S-s-s-s-s-Sueka!?!?!? Why are you...!?"

"You promised!!"

Oren is silent. Sueka puffs out her cheeks and pouts.

"You meant it, didn't you?"

Before Oren can respond, he quickly moves away from the wall and pushes both Sueka and himself out of the way of another one of Chates' kicks. When Chates lands, it seems that he is starting to have trouble breathing. Seems that he's running out or rhime.

"Any day now, brother!" Chates yells out.

Another gunshot is fired. The sound of claws ripping through the wall then follows.

Oren looks to Chates and shrugs him off, as if he's no longer a threat. He quickly turns his attention to Dodge and rushes in his direction.

"Dodge, watch out!"

Dodge, as if knowing of Oren's position in advance, jumps over him to avoid a kick, shifting his weight in the air to also evade a slash attack from Yamiso. Although harder pressed that before, Dodge continues to maneuver around the incoming attacks but is still able to fire off a few shots.

"You might be fast and strong, you two," Dodge proclaims, "but I am the one with enhanced weaponry."

As he says this, he charges his anklets with electric rhime, allowing for him to move around even faster.

"What I use are manmade crystals called 'channelers'. Much like the ones you saw out in public; they allow for better circulation and radiation of rhime through the body. A buffer so to speak. The only downside is that they absorb the rhime from the host if used for too long, leading to rhime deficiency."

Yamiso flares up in anger.

"So that's what was happening to the victims!"

"I take no pleasure in doing this, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And besides, all I did was distribute them at random. I had nothing to do with how people abused their channelers."

"Flank him!" Yamiso yells.

Oren sprints around Dodge and attempts to trip him with a low sweep. Dodge again jumps.

A mistake this time.

A full powered punch from Yamiso's demonic claws launches Dodge into the wall. Oren then starts running towards him. Dodge readies his gun.

And then...something I never would have expected happens. Yamiso yells out...

"Show them what the Keisetsu is made of!!!"

At that moment, a flood of rage washes over Oren. Oren's movements began to become more reckless, as if he has lost all focus. He bombards Dodge a countless number of poorly aimed kicks...

And failed to dodge a shot to the chest.

He falls, tumbles across the floor and, when he comes to a stop, seems to remain motionless. Not motionless because of death or immobility, but in a state of both anger and shock.

(Keisetsu!?) he thinks to himself.

"Oren!! Get up!!" Yamiso yells.

(So...they ARE from the Keisetsu!?)

At that moment, he lets out a cry of agonizing pain and presss his good hand against his head. What is going through his head I can only guess. Who have I been working with all this time? What is so obvious I failed to see it because I was only focusing on something else? Are they really who I think they are? One could really wonder. Looking around, all of us, with the sole exception of Sueka, are trying to understand what is going on.

Oren quickly gets up and rushes over to Sueka. He then puts his one good arm in front of her, as if to block anyone from getting to her.

"What are you doing, Yamiso!?" he asks.

"What the hell!? You're asking that now!?"

"Why did you need my help!?"

Yamiso looks even more puzzled than before.

"We're trying to protect this city!"

"The same way Mydrea tried to 'protect' Terraz!?"

Before Yamiso can respond, Dodge rushes towards his chair, knocking down a container of what looks like channeler crystals, and grabs his gaming system, a data storage item of some kind, and a button. I assume the data storage item is some sort of floppy disk. Chates rushes over to him.

Dodge then starts to speak.

"I know not what is going on between you two, but I cannot let you interfere. Even if it means sacrificing this place and a few other civilians, we've come too far to let anybody, even the Keisetsu, stop us!"

He quickly presses the button. The laboratory begins to shake. Above us, the monitors black out and the crystal is moved into one of the walls. A door opens up behind Dodge and Chates, and the two make their escape.

"Don't let them escape!!" Yamiso yells to Oren.

Oren continues to stand in place, motionless and confused.

"I don't know what happened in Terraz," Yamiso begins to say, "but are you going to let them do the same thing here!?"

Realizing that Yamiso knows he is the only one to catch up with them, Oren then comes back to reality. However, he still seems to show hesitation. Should I trust this boy? Is he no better than them? No doubt many questions are causing him to hesitate. However, in the end, he grits his teeth and yells...

"DAMN IT!!!!"

And rushes towards the escape door.

BBBBOOOOTTTTTOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before Oren reaches the door, the ceiling above us begins to quickly fall!! At the same time, the escape door starts closing. The four of us continue to look up.

"OREN!!!!" Yamiso yells. "GET THEM!!!"

Oren glances at the closing door, then back at the ceiling.

He then turns to me and Sueka...

And rushes back in our direction.

"You idiot!!!"

The escape door completely closes.

Oren stops in between Sueka and myself.

"Soul Conversion 20...BEAT!!!"

Right before the ceiling crushes us, Oren uses his one good hand and pushes on the ceiling with all his might. However, even with his newfound energy, it's only a second or two before the weight becomes too much for him. He slowly gets pinned down, forced to put the weight of the ceiling on his shoulders.

"HHHAAAA!!!!!" I hear Yamiso cry out.

Right where Yamiso is standing, I see him engulf his hands in darkness rhime and push up on the ceiling with his claws. Seeing what they're doing, Sueka too pushes up on the ceiling with them.

But...I'm afraid...they seem to be pinned down still. To rig the place in case of even a powerful animal tone. Those brothers thought of everything.

And again...all I can do is watch. I cannot even free myself from the bonds they have on me. At least, not without divulging a secret of mine.

"Save yourselves!" Yamiso yells out.

"I don't want to hear anything a Keisetsu member has to say!" Oren retorts.

"This isn't the time for that kind of bullshit argument!"

"I wouldn't be here if I knew!"

The three of them struggle to keep the ceiling from crushing all of us.

From the look of it...escape is impossible.