Rama had a headache. It felt like he had repeatedly bashed his head against the wall. He grimaced as his eyes opened and was overwhelmed by seeing so much color. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, shaking his head as he sat up. Rama recognized he was in Sifu Ramos’ office, located in the back of his studio. The place was quite filthy. Old newspapers littered the floor along with food wrappers and letters. From his position, he could see that most of them were bills Sifu Ramos was late in paying. There was an old desk before him, covered in papers. The walls were white but their age showed, the paint peeling off badly in certain spots. Rama was sitting on the ground. He touched his head, the memories of what happened flooding in. He stood up when the door to the office opened.

“And that was when I realized that the guy wasn’t a Nigerian prince” Sifu Ramos said as he and Mei entered the room.

“Why would you think a Nigerian prince wanted to give you money?” she asked.

“He was very convincing. He said we were related through my grandfather’s great great grand nephew thrice removed. The broken English made it more authentic.”

“Mr. Ramos, you are not financially savvy.”

She stopped when she saw her brother.

“Rama!”

Mei eagerly went up to Rama, about to hug him when she stopped herself.

“I’m…glad you’re ok.”

She stepped back, embarrassed.

“Yeah, likewise.” Rama said. “My head is killing me.”

“After the damage you’ve taken, if your head is the only thing that hurts then you got off easy” Sifu Ramos smirked, sitting on his desk.

Rama remembered all the wounds his body should have. He looked over his body, surprised by the lack of cuts.

“What happened?”

“That’s what I want to know!” his sister added. “Mr. Ramos, can you finally explain what’s happening? My brother’s awake now.”

“Not yet. Rama, I think you need to tell us some things first. You know who attacked you, didn’t you?”

Rama grimaced. He felt guilty about having hid things but it was only because no one would’ve believed him. A part of him was also relieved to reveal the truth.

“Yeah. It…was an assassin who wanted to kill me so that I could be sent to another world to be its hero. Mei, he wanted to kill you so that I would give up on living or something.”

“W-what?” Mei sputtered.

Sifu Ramos simply nodded.

“Ok, makes sense.”

“No it doesn’t!”

“When you said you got into a fight.” Sifu Ramos said, ignoring Mei. “It was against another assassin wasn’t it?”

“Yes Sifu. It was at school. She was able to increase gravity. I only beat her thanks to Lorraine and Jet.”

Sifu Ramos reached into his pockets, taking out a bag of peanuts. He began to eat while Mei looked at her brother, mouth agape. She didn’t believe any of this.

“Wait what? N-none of this makes sense.”

“I know!” her brother concurred. “It all happened out of the blue. She was like ‘my god needs you’ then I got attacked. Then today, that guy just went after you. Speaking of which, what happened to him?”

“I kicked his ass,” Sifu Ramos answered, mouth full of peanuts. “It was easy to predict his movements. I wish you saw it Rama, I looked really cool. Your sister will attest to it.”

“It was amazing,” Mei agreed. “He beat him like it was nothing.”

“And now I got the gist. Weirdos from another world want to kill my student. Can’t let that slide. You’re one of my best. The fact you have the Glow is proof of it.”

“The what?” Mei and Rama asked.

“Oh yeah, guess I can explain stuff now.”

Sifu Ramos went behind his desk and took out a pen, a piece of paper, and round glasses. He placed them all on his desk, removing everything else. Sifu Ramos put the glasses on which the siblings noticed did not have lenses in them.

“Sifu, why are you wearing those glasses?” Rama inquired.

“To look smart. Makes what I’m about to say more believable.”

“I think at this point, I’m willing to believe anything” Mei stated.

Sifu Ramos used the pen to draw a row of five circles. He then drew two outer rings around each one.

“Ok so this circle in the middle is us,” he began. “This is our world. These outer rings represent other worlds. If I could draw in 3D this would look better but basically these are worlds above and below ours in the cosmic sense. There’s three layers and we’re in the middle. These other circles are the worlds we share our layer with and the rings around them represent the worlds above and below them respectively. Got it?”

“Ugh.”

“Ok, perfect. So anyway, it’s not always like this. In fact, this is rare. The worlds, or I guess universes, are in rotation. They rotate around the center of all creation or something I dunno I didn’t really pay attention to that part. But what I do know is that the layers being aligned is a very rare event, like how the planets being aligned in our solar system is a rare event. In fact, it’s much much rarer. Remember when the planets were last aligned?”

“949 AD” the siblings answered.

They glanced at each other, surprised the other knew the answer.

“Smart kids,” Sifu Ramos said. “But yeah that’s right. Now the planets won’t line up again until 2492. The gap for when the universes align is even greater. Last time it happened was like 3 million years ago. The universes didn’t line up again until now. This is where it gets interesting.”

He put some more peanuts in his mouth.

“Now because we are aligned with the universes above and below us, the gap between our universes has shortened, almost to the point it’s nonexistent. This allows people to travel between them. And how do you think they do it?”

“Magic?” Rama guessed.

“No! But also yes. They may call it magic or whatever, but we don’t. We call it Chi. Remember what it is?”

“The energy current that runs through our bodies.”

“Yes but there's more to it. Chi is actually the energy of all living beings, including the planet itself. It flows everywhere, even in this room.”

“Like the-”

“No it’s not The Force! I hear that every time I explain it. Anyway, this is where our worlds differ. They have a lot more Chi in their world, allowing them to conduct what they call magic. In reality, they’re just manipulating world energy both from the world and from within themselves. It’s what allows them to do strange things, and it’s what allows them to come here.”

“But they said something about a God. How does that fit in?”

Sifu Ramos tapped his chin, thinking to himself.

“I don’t know about that. My order does deal with spiritual things but I wasn’t exactly the best student. I’m sure someone knows though.”

“What order?” Mei asked. “And how does any of this relate to that ‘glow’ thing you mentioned?”

“Ok brace yourselves. I’m part of a secret order that protects the world from spiritual threats and those that seek to harness Chi for malevolent purposes.”

The siblings stared at Sifu Ramos, then laughed.

“Oh come on” he complained. “I even have the glasses so you’ll take me seriously.”

“I-I’m sorry Sifu.” Rama said after calming down. “It’s not the order that’s funny, it’s the idea of you of all people being part of it.”

“W-what? How dare you! I’m extremely high ranked in The Council!”

Rama and Mei guffawed some more. The man that constantly fell for any scam and lived like a pig couldn’t possibly be highly ranked in anything.

“Focus!” Sifu Ramos ordered, making the siblings quiet.

“Now, about the Glow. It’s a manifestation of one’s ability to harness the world’s energy. It allows them to do extraordinary things. I’m talking of faster reflexes, increased dexterity, nigh superhuman abilities.”

Rama looked at his hands.

“Is that why I healed so quickly?”

“Yup. Have you also noticed other things?”

“Yeah. I’m fast. Faster than I ever was before.”

Sifu Ramos smiled.

“Now that’s what I like to hear. I knew you had potential. You have the ability to become a Lightcaster. That’s what we call those with the Glow, you know, since massive amounts of Chi is seen as light being emitted. Humans aren’t the only ones that can channel Chi. We can also harness it in objects and we call them Lightwielders but that’s a whole different thing.”

“I shouldn’t believe any of this, but I do.” Mei admitted. “This is insane. What do we do about the people coming after us? Survive until the worlds are no longer aligned?”

Sifu Ramos shook his head.

“You can’t wait this out. The worlds will be aligned for the next hundred years. As for your problem, I only have one piece of advice.”

Mei and Rama leaned in, eager to learn what to do.

“Get a shotgun.” Sifu Ramos said nonchalantly.

“What?”

“Yeah, get a shotgun. Fire it once and that'll scare off whoever comes after you. ”

“Sifu, we're too young.” Rama reminded him.

“It’s ok. I have guns. You can have one of mine. I think I have a double barrel somewhere.”

“How many guns do you own?”

“No more than 15 I think. Shooting them at the range is a blast. Heh blast.”

Rama was about to tell him how irresponsible it would be to give children weapons when they heard something crash through the studio’s entrance.

“Rama!” a voice yelled. “Are you alive!?”

“Jet?”

Rama went to the office’s door and opened it. It was indeed his friend. Jet looked damaged, his head bloody and outfit drenched in sweat. He wielded a broom for some reason, raised as if he was ready to swing it at a moment’s notice.

“Rama!” Jet exclaimed, running across the studio’s mats. “Bro, you’re alive!”

“Y-yeah! W-what happened to you?”

“I went to Lorraine’s place. Bad stuff happened. She had to fight Buddha, I had to fight Sadako, it was a whole thing.”

“What?”

“I-I know it makes no sense.”

“No, I believe you. I had to fight a weird teleporting guy. He tried to kill Mei and I.”

Jet’s face became serious.

“Where’s he at? I’m gonna kick-”

“He’s already gone. Sifu Ramos saved me.”

“He did? I didn’t think he was legit.”

“Hey!” Sifu Ramos called out, exiting the office with Mei. “Why does no one think I’m legit? This is a real black belt alright?”

“H-he didn’t mean anything by it, Sifu.” Rama said to calm his master down.

He turned back to Jet.

“You got attacked?” he asked, feeling a wave of guilt wash over him.

“Yeah.” Jet replied. “It was weird but we pulled through. Lorraine’s place got slightly burned and we both hurt a lot but we live. I think we were targeted because we helped you back then. I don’t understand it all, my opponent was socially awkward. More than me actually.”

Rama tightened his fists. He was getting angry. They attacked his sister, and his friends? He didn’t care they wanted him dead, but the fact they went after those close to him was where a line was crossed.

“Oh hey Mei.” Jet greeted. “How’s your day going?”

“Horribly.”

“Same.”

“I can’t believe this.” Rama muttered.

He looked at himself via the studio’s mirror wall. He was a mess. Dirty clothes, dried blood on his limbs, purple bruises on his body. Jet explained to Mei and Sifu Ramos what happened to him as Rama thought. He needed to do something. There was no way he could brush things off this time, no pretending nothing happened. He whirled around.

“Sifu, there has to be something we can do. I can’t live in fear, paranoid of when someone else will attack me, my family, or my friends. I want to deal with this head on.”

Sifu Ramos smirked.

“I guess you’re right. When it comes to stuff like this, it’s best to be proactive isn’t it? I’ll take you to The Council. They’ll probably know how to deal with this.”

“The what?” Jet asked.

“I’ll explain later.” Rama assured him. “Sifu, I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

“Well alright then, guess we’re going on a road trip.”