Chapter 13: The Lucky Seven

Cole wakes looking for Gaze. He uncovers more of the plot and learns that he’s part of the Lucky Seven. Lastly he dives into the controversy of the missing persons.

Cole, fast asleep, is once again presented with that familiar voice. The same voice that has followed him since he can remember. Normally it would fade as fast as the dream. This time however, it shakes him to his core.

“Cole… Cole… Wake up Cole. It’s time…”

“Gaze! That voice! It was hers all along! Where is she?”

Cole jumps out of bed before realizing the room is pitch black. It takes him a moment for him to understand where he is. His memories flood back.

“Magi? You there?”

“Yes Cole.”

“Umm can you turn on the lights?”

The lights automatically illuminate reaffirming his memories.

“Thank you.”

Part of him hoped that she didn’t answer so there would be a possibility that he wouldn’t actually still be in this crazy world. Then again he was happy to have met someone who he could only imagine to be his soulmate. A lone white rose sits on his dresser.

“Oh no oh no!!” he cries.

He mutters to himself rushing to put on the clothes left behind by Gaze.

“Thirty seconds?!... What am I gonna tell her?! What could I possibly say?! Umm ya sorry it's been a while?... Come on man you gotta think of something.”

He looks at his old sneakers completely destroyed by black drone blood. Fortunately Gaze also left the black boots he received from the ogres and that Toxic stole. They fit perfectly, moreover they are the most comfortable shoes he’s ever worn. He wiggles his toes. Yes they are used, yet they seem to have already been formed to his feet. He charges out of his room through the hallway into the large dome.

The hologram Magi materializes in front of him. She greets him, “Good morning Cole.”

With his steam he runs right through her.

“How rude!” she calls with a pouty face.

Cole replies, still jumping with energy, “Sorry! Have you seen Gaze?”

“What am I the babysitter now? She went out.”

Leaving Magi quite jumbled he runs to the exit with the speeding cart. Once on the cart he’s left with his energy. The cart isn’t moving. He hasn’t even given enough thought as to how the thing worked. He sits looking around for a big red button but to no avail.

“Umm hey Magi?”

Magi’s voice echoes in the chamber, “Just so you know I’m not the butler and I’m not the maid. Maybe you should start treating me with a little more respect.”

With her words the cart rockets forward.

“Jees what a temper.” Cole says out loud to himself.

The multitude of guns in the tunnel simultaneously lock onto him. He screams, “Sorry sorry! I didn’t mean it. You’re awesome! No really!”

The guns move back to their original position. The ride this time around goes by incredibly fast. Within a minute he passes the first blast door. Soon after that he arrives back at the entrance of the base. He approaches the door speaking, “Hey Magi, what do you say when I get back we get to know each other a bit more. Being a robot and all I’m sure you’re really smart.”

The large metal locks release.

“That would be nice Cole. I’m glad we are starting to understand each other.”

He steps out into the camp. For a moment he stands surveying the area. He has no idea where to even start. A human man and woman walk past in their futuristic armor. They stop their conversation and stare as they pass by. Cole takes this time to fully check out the armor. The metal gleams in the sunlight. It’s so shiny and smooth it could almost be chrome. Dozens of black lines travel the lengths of their limbs. Perhaps some sort of circuitry. That's where the similarities stop though. Each suit seems to have been customized per the individual. The man’s suit is much larger than the woman's. It's powerful, rigid, having been built for heavy lifting. It has enormous hydraulics on the legs and arms to enhance the wearer's strength.

In contrast the woman’s armor is much more lightweight, made for agility. Attached on her arms, two flamethrowers. On her back, two small turbines which Cole assumes to be a jetpack. They continue their conversation as soon as they break eye contact. Cole musters up a little bravery to talk to them, “Hey!! Do you know where Gaze is?”

They turn only to shrug and continue on their way. Cole wanders around asking anyone willing to make eye contact with him. The ogres simply ignore him. The humans, even with their powerful suits seem scared just to be in his presence. They instantly look distracted by something, anything else.

Still wandering he once again stumbles onto a missing person poster. It’s poster-sized, nailed to the side of a hut. With his interest piqued, he can’t ignore this any longer. He examines it closely. The poster depicts a bald man with a goatee. Below the picture in red letters it reads, ‘Missing Ultra - Name: Gemming’.

Why would an Ultra go missing? How is that possible? Did he run away? Was he taken? Where’s Blazer when you need him...

He moves on speaking to the local merchant, the same human he bought the canvas bags from.

“Well well well, look what the cat dragged in. Back for more already?” says the merchant in a muffled voice from his suit.

“Do you know where Gaze is?”

“I might. I might not. Have ten black crystals?”

“Ten black crystals! Again?! You gotta be kidding me. I know you’re trying to rip me off.”

“She can be hard to find. That’s my price.”

“You know I already gave them all to Death.”

“Ya a real good idea there. Smart as a brick is what you are. I tell you what, I like you, how about five red crystals?”

“Red crystals? You mean something other than black?”

“Yes red, like I said, that's my price. You’re free to go somewhere else if you like.”

“You’re right. I will.”

“Suit yourself but you won’t find a better deal than that.”

Cole heads to the shack next door. It’s a small restaurant hosted by another human. In front two small round tables greet customers. One table already has two Ultras eating sloppily. They are identical twins but everything about them is of complete contrast. Their physical physique is of the same nature, strong muscle bound men. However their eyes, facial expressions, clothes, and hair don’t allude to them being twins.

The first of the twins has a large green mohawk with blue piercing eyes. His clothes are padded, geared for combat. His face, full of ferocious energy. The second has a full head of black spiky hair. Strangely his green eyes fade with his expressionless face. He sports a fedora and a nice button up jacket, not combat oriented at all. Through these differences they still look quite rugged. They seem cautious of everything and tied at the hip. Cole speaks to the owner of the restaurant, a female human.

“Excuse me, do you know who Gaze is?”

“Yes.”

“I’m wondering if you know where she is.”

“I might.”

“Not this game again. What’s your price?”

“Ten black crystals.”

“What the hell! What I get ripped off one time and now everyone thinks they can take advantage of me?!”

Intimidated, the merchant takes a few steps back. The twin with the large mohawk stands up so aggressively his chair crashes behind him. Cole turns to see this large man in all his presence. His face is that of someone ready to kill. His brother stands up just as aggressively backing him up. Obviously terrified, the merchant jumps in front of Cole yelling, “No! Alpha! Omega! Please please sit down. Don’t let this guy interrupt your meal. He was just on his way, aren't you?” She nods her head motioning for Cole to get out while you still can.

Her comments don’t reach the twins. Alpha is already overly excited, and Omega is ready to go wherever his brother does. Alpha speaks to Cole in a sharp tone, “Looks like the new guy thinks he runs the place! Look at him just happily ruining our quiet meal. Picking on a lowly human, how powerful you must think you are to have already ranked up in the NGP.”

Cole has butterflies in his stomach. The twins aggressively step at him, looking serious, confident, and most of all, intimidating.

If I show any sign of weakness, I’ll never survive this place.

Cole musters up his newfound confidence in being a ranked member then squares up to them. He matches eyes with Alpha, then speaks in the most dominant tone he could muster, “What’s up guys.”

Omega counters his dominance with, “He doesn’t look so tough to me.”

“Ya well the drone hive would have to disagree with you.”

The brothers both smile a mischievous smile.

“Oh is that a challenge?” replies Omega giggling.

Alpha raises his arm up not breaking eye contact with Cole. The table between them blasts away hitting the side of another hut. It breaks to pieces splattering food on the wall. Two humans dash outside of the hut. Realizing the twins are responsible they jump back inside. Alpha leans in close, whispering to Cole, “Ready to play?”

Luckily Cole is joined by his comrades. They stand directly behind him speaking loudly. Blazers loud voice calls out first, “I don’t know guys! He sure did bring back a bunch of crystals for Death.”

Kid Cannon joins in next, “You should have seen that place. It was an outright bloody massacre!”

“It was awesome!” interjects Rush with enthusiasm.

The men firmly take their stance behind Cole. Kid continues, “Now I really, really, think I misheard the conversation, because I know there is no way you would be challenging one of our fellow New Generation Pirates. I mean it’s just ridiculous to think that. We would have to step in to defend him of course.”

Blazer quickly adds, “You definitely misheard because we all know how pissed off Death would be if he had to come settle another one of our arguments.”

Rush jumps in front of Cole over exaggerating his movements and speech, “Oh man! Even if one of the buildings got knocked down you know we would be on cleaning duty for a week.”

“I freaking hate cleaning duty…” says Blazer, his voice going deep at this point. His stone cold face giving no expression to the twins.

Cole quickly catches on to the situation, “So guys, now that we understand each other, I’d like to ask you a question. Do you know where Gaze is?”

The twins' expressions go through a hundred changes in an instant. It’s obvious they want to fight, yet it would be foolish to try anything. Still full of spite, Cole expects them to lash out, to yell obscenities, to tell him how cowardly he is to hide behind this group of men. Instead their words are something entirely different.

Alpha replies with a simple, “Nope sorry man.”

Omega replies too, “No sorry, Gaze really is hard to keep track of. She does what she wants if you know what I mean.”

Blazer takes Cole by the neck then calls to everyone, “Come on guys let’s go. Alpha, Omega, clean up that mess, and stay out of trouble ya hear?”

Once out of eyeshot Blazer gives Cole a noogie, “I can’t believe you man! I told you to have Magi call for me when you woke up. I knew you would get into trouble!”

“Ouch ouch! Ok ok I get it!”

Blazer releases Cole. The small group walks aimlessly through the village just talking.

“No I don’t think you do get it! You gotta be careful. Those guys are no good. They would have no problem taking out half this village if it meant they could prove their strength to Death and join the Lucky Seven.

“What, are they that powerful?”

“Yes! Most Ultrasapiens are! The intimidating guy, his name is Alpha. He has the power to create force fields. Then his brother has the power of infinite endurance. By themselves they aren’t amazingly powerful, but together they are an unstoppable force. Somehow Omega has the ability to lend his power to Alpha. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that they are twins. Your little scuffle would have crushed half the village! There’s no way you could have taken them on!”

“Man I’m glad you guys showed up when you did.” says Cole wiping a bead from his forehead.”

Blazer punches Cole in the arm.

“Ouch!”

“What the hell are you doing out here? Looking for Gaze? What the hell!”

“Well, ya! You didn’t have to hit me!”

“You’re becoming a pain in my side! You keep getting into trouble! I’m not sure who told you about her but she’s dangerous. Waaay more powerful than you. Don’t go messin around with her.”

“What why?”

Kid interjects, “How do you even know about her anyway?”

“Well…”

Cole looks down pondering how he should address this situation, “She came to my room last night. Death sent her, for, well, you know.”

He looks down embarrassed. Rush explodes in reaction, stomping his feet and kicking up dust, “Noooo way! She was the one sent to your room!!?”

“Yep.”

“Holy shit! What was that like? I mean she’s not the type of girl to be in a situation like that. I mean, was she pissed?! I bet she tore you a new one.”

“No nothing like that?” replies Cole slightly confused. “It was more like she wanted me, like really wanted me. She kinda forced herself onto me. I mean I was totally into it but, man its just kinda hard to explain.”

All three men yell out in unison, “Whaaat?!” Kid punches Cole on the same shoulder Blazer hit.

“Ouch! Again?! Why?!”

“There you go making up stories again. Are we going to have to call Justice again?” says Kid smirking.

“No no no! No need for that.”

“I knew it! Gaze is way too powerful to be told what to do.”

“No, it totally happened. I never forced her into anything. In fact I told her to leave. I just don’t want Justice probing around in my mind watching a sex scene.”

Kid doubles over laughing, “I guess that makes sense! But, I mean really? She came onto you?”

“For sure man! But it’s not like that. It was a crazy night. Pretty much, she told me everything.”

Blazer questions with his right eyebrow lifted, “Wait everything? What do you mean, everything?”

“She told me about how she came from another dimension, about the demon that came killing Ultras. Everything.”

Rush ecstatically blurts out, “What a mind blow right?”

“That’s what I said! What really hit me though, is when she told me about Cain, about her, and how we’re all really the same person from alternate realities.”

Blazer questions, still carrying his never ending expression of surprise, “Whaaat?”

“Ya man she told me.”

“No really, what are you talking about? What do you mean you are the same person?”

“You know... You don’t know?! The other realities!?”

The men are now completely focused on the conversation. It seems this has piqued their interest. They move in closer allowing Blazer to speak, “We know that Gaze came from another reality. She told us this much. That she ended up here after some guy named Cain tried to kill her, but I have no idea what you're talking about with the same person thing.”

“I guess it makes sense that she didn’t tell you that part. She told me that I’m essentially her but from a different dimension. Then she said that Cain is another version of us from yet another dimension, but you know, like an evil version.”

Pure silence from the men. They sit perfectly still allowing Cole to collect his thoughts. After biting his thumb for a moment he continues, “She said that Cain came for her. The NGP in her dimension gave their lives protecting her. Even Death ultimately was no match for him. After, the very same demon showed up in her reality too. She thinks it was attracted by the mass slaughter of her fellow comrades, that maybe the demon is attracted to mass death.”

“It senses death?!” gasps Blazer.

“That’s the theory. Luckily it fought against Cain, almost wiping him out and saving her life. When Cain escaped to this dimension, somehow Gaze was pulled along with him into this reality. She’s basically been here hiding knowing that Cain could attack at any moment. Although he’s probably stuck until he figures out how to get past attracting the demon. After he figures that out it's only a matter of time before he comes after me and Gaze.”

Kid takes a deep breath then says, “Ah great just one more thing to add to the list of things trying to kill us.”

The band chuckles. Cole remains serious looking at the ground. He replies in a serious tone, “There’s more. Gaze thinks that the reason the demon showed up in this reality is because there was another mass slaughter.”

Blazer repeats to himself, “Another mass slaughter? But when? We haven’t had any big issues since the treaty with the humans.”

“Exactly! Gaze thinks that there was no treaty, that Death killed all the humans as a test, and that's why we are told to stay away from their bunker. To make us think we are keeping the treaty when actually he’s keeping it a secret.”

Kid Cannon rapidly questions, “Ya but why would he do that? Why would he even want to keep it a secret?”

Blazer itches his chin saying, “If that was the case that would explain why the demon showed up…”

“Ya but like Kid said, why would Death do that?” comments Rush.

With cool collected thoughts Blazer continues his speech, “Hold on guys, let’s think outside the box for a sec. If we continue along with this thought, in another dimension it sounds like we figured out that large amounts of killings will summon the demon. So would it be possible that Cain took out all the humans to test this theory?”

Kid replies, focusing on the ground, “It’s possible, but I doubt Cain would risk running into that thing again right? Especially if it almost killed him last time. Unless he somehow got Master Death to do it for him? Then he could just sit back and see the results without worry for himself.”

“Ok… Ya would make sense.” replies Blazer in the same tone, “But why would Death do what Cain asked him to? He isn’t the type of guy to take orders from anyone.”

“You’re right there. There must be something else going on.” replies Kid.

Once again Kid takes a deep sigh then releases his pent up energy, “Ah!! This world is impossible to keep up with! You think you start to get a handle on things, then bam!”

The group stops under a large tree. Kid leans up against it resting one foot on the trunk folding his arms. He bluntly questions Cole, “So there are three versions of you?!”

“Yep, I guess so.”

“Man what a mind blow.”

“See! But wow I thought you guys knew!”

Blazer speaks almost a whisper at first, growing louder with each word, “No man. We didn’t know about that stuff. In the time we’ve been here we’ve never put together connections like that. It’s like as soon as you got here things started happening! Why?!”

“Oh man! Maybe I was supposed to keep it all a secret?”

Kid punches Cole on the arm again.

“Ouch!”

“Come on man! Don’t you know anything about girls? You’re definitely screwed. Why are you trying to find Gaze anyways? Isn’t like, the deed done?”

If Cole could blush he would be bright red, “Ahhh, well, you know, I just wanted to talk to her.”

“Ohhh you got a crush! That’s so cute! I think I’m gonna puke.”

Blazer attempts to rescue Cole, “Alright alright guys, come on let’s show Cole around.”

Blazer takes the role of the experienced tour guide leading them back into the village. He periodically points and comments on various structures. Cole is too distracted to take in everything blazer says. He’s simply enthralled by all the Ultrasapiens and humans. They all appear to be busy doing something. Everyone is either gathering, tinkering, building, or tending to their shop. With their robotic suits of armor, the humans achieve incredible feats, moving boulders well beyond their size. The Ultrasapiens also possess strange unimaginable powers. Each of them using their power to help with the collective cause of building their village.

One Ultra uses his power as a blacksmith creating armor for the humans. He’s shirtless exposing a large flame tattoo on his back. His hair and eyes are red as a flame. With rippling heat waves flowing from his hands, he heats up a metal plate to a glowing red. A human with a huge hammer connected to his robotic arm hits the metal into shape. Lastly the red haired man still using his bare hands lowers the armor into a basin of water producing a large amount of steam.

A female Ultra next to them hunches over a pile of stone. On her forearm she sports a tattoo of an atom. She pulls out a large stone piece, setting it on the table in front of her. Cole watches as she gently places her hands on the ore. In a bursting flash of light she changes the ore to a piece of flat metal. She passes it to the red haired blacksmith then proceeds to grab the next bit of rock out of the pile to repeat the process.

As strange as this was, it's another strange sight that catches Cole’s attention. Another Ultra woman, hard at work bringing in heavy boulders. She’s dressed exactly like a pro wrestler before The Event. Not like an Olympic wrestler, more like a hit you with a chair type wrestler. On the back of her leg she has the tattoo of WWF. She has long blond hair wearing tight red spandex. Her red boots have unmanageably tall heels piercing into the ground.

Cole pulls Blazer’s sleeve, “Who’s that?!”

“You dummy! That’s Sierra Rose! Man you sure know how to pick em!”

“What do you mean?”

“What is it about the dangerous ones that pull you in?! I mean seriously this is the reason why I can’t take my eyes off you!”

Hearing her name, Sierra wastes no time to shoot a fiery glare back at the men. An icy shiver goes down Cole’s spine.

Sierra throws one of her oversized boulders at Cole then yells, “What was that?!”

Out of pure instinct he throws his hand up producing a wind blade slicing the boulder in two. The two halves land with a thud next to him. Suddenly Sierra falls out of the sky landing in front of Cole. She’s completely unsurprised by the fact that Cole had just cut the boulder in two. The fierce nature of her movements command respect from all the men.

She questions almost in a whisper now, tilting her head slightly, “Did you have something to say to me, newbie?”

Cole stutters, “Uh, um, no.”

“Good! Just because you already joined in with the Lucky Seven doesn’t mean I can’t take you down in an instant!”

She snaps her fingers still telling him off, “Are you going to cry like a baby?! Learn your place newborn!”

Blazer yanks Cole by the arm, “Come on let her work. She’s a feisty one. Don’t even look at her!”

“Where did that come from!?”

“Because man! She’s probably one of the strongest Ultras in terms of strength, and giving pain! What, you’ve never heard of Sierra Rose?! She was a pro wrestler back before The Event. She can’t even feel pain! I’m trying to help you!”

Blazer quickly leads the men away to the perimeter by the chain link fence, “And don’t touch the fence! It’s electrified!”

“Wow that would have been good to know earlier!”

“Well I didn’t know you were going to go sneaking off the first chance you got! Anywho it doesn’t do much against Ultras or humans, but at least it keeps some of the more creepy critters out.”

Blazer takes a few more paces forward pointing out in the distance, “You see that water dyke out past the fence? It looks like we’re using it for electricity, but do you wanna hear a secret?” Blazer pulls Cole in close whispering, “I’ll tell you because you’re one of us now. It doesn’t really do anything. The whole base is already powered by our Ultra robot friend. Remember him? Cake!”

“I think I remember him saying something like that. It doesn’t make much sense to me.”

“Sure it does! That’s part of his Ultra power. Anything here is connected and powered by his life force.”

“But why go through all the trouble? Who cares if the base is or isn’t powered by Cake?”

“Because! If someone wants to attack our base, and they do any recon at all, they will notice that our water dyke is a weak spot outside of the perimeter. If they strike that first then our lights will go out. It will look like our defenses will be rendered useless and they will lose the element of surprise. Pretty ingenious right?”

“Sure I guess so.”

“Ah whatever man…”

Blazer points up to the guard towers, “As you can see there are quite a few towers with lookouts. These towers are always stocked with guards, human and Ultra alike. We don’t like surprises. If you haven’t noticed yet, everyone around here has a job. It just so happens that you landed one with us, the Lucky Seven! The best job in the house if I do say so myself.”

“I did?! I heard Sierra say something about it but I didn’t know what she meant.”

“For sure! It's the most dangerous job too! We recently lost a man. Luckily you showed up and nominated yourself. Thanks for that!”

“Ah crap!”

Cole slaps his forehead frustrated that he let his hopes up for even a second.

“When you hit that crystal gold mine you went straight into the thick of it. You pleased Death so much he threw you straight onto the team.”

“Ahhh! Just my luck! So who are these Lucky Seven anyway?”

Blazer points at some of the men, “You already know us. Rush, Kid Cannon, Toxic, Thunder, Arch, and me.”

“But that’s only six.”

“You’re the seventh dummy! Although you haven’t really met Arch yet. The name derives from the fact that we’re treated so well. With the Bunker, and the special treatment. It’s kinda an ironic twist that we have to go out and do all the dangerous jobs.”

“And you're the boss of this, Lucky Seven?”

“Not yet. I’m only second in command. Arch, that guy you saw for a second in the bunker last night. He’s the boss. You’ll meet him soon enough. He’s been here at the base even before Master Death. Even before the NGP was founded.”

Cole scratches his head, “You’re telling me I impressed Death, and now I have to work for the Lucky Seven risking my life all the time. That right?”

“You get to, yes.”

“What’s the job then? What do we do?”

“Since we're so lucky, we get only the most dangerous jobs and the best of the spoils. We are the first line of defense, and offense. When Death needs something done he sends us out. We explore, protect, investigate, and police if need be. Whatever master Death wants us to do basically. We’re his eyes and ears.”

“This sounds terrible! Why me!? Why would we want to do something like that? Nobody even asked me if I wanted to join.”

“There’s a few reasons why you want this job. First of all it doesn’t really matter if you wanted to join. If Death told you to, well then you’re going to do it.”

“Uhg!”

“Second, we get to stay in the bunker and get special treatment compared to the rest of the NGP. Plus we get to be outside doing our own thing. We explore, bring stuff back to trade like crystals, hone our powers, recruit survivors. We’re free.”

“I get it. It’s an important job, but don’t you think it's too much for me? Someone who just got here with no idea what’s going on?”

“Believe me, you already proved that you can handle yourself. You’re more than equipped to survive. We still need to get you practiced in your power though. Get you up to speed eh? Just take pride in the fact that we have such an important job here.”

“Alright, time to sink or swim I guess.”

“Keep in mind not everyone can become one of the Lucky Seven, or join the NGP for that matter. They have to prove their skill, and their loyalty to the clan.”

“And I’ve done that already?”

“You’ve proven your skill multiple times now. Definitely by taking out the done hive, then your loyalty by bringing the crystals to Death. Not to mention being judged by Justice twice with no consequences! I don’t know how you did it man. You’re like a machine...”

Cole’s attention is captured by a shadow lurking just past the fence. He exclaims, “Do you guys see that?! It's just a shadow, but it’s moving! But there’s nothing around to make the shadow! What is it?! Why does it look like it's following us?”

Blazer and the other men laugh hysterically. The shadow continues to follow them as they move but never passing through the fence. Blazer replies to Cole, “Yep don’t worry. It’s just like a ghost or something. We see it all the time nowadays.”

“Ya ok don’t worry it's just some ghost or something…”

“It never does anything though. It just hangs outside the base. If we try to approach, it simply runs away. Welcome to this crazy world of ours. I would say you get used to it all eventually, but something tells me that ain’t gonna be the case for you.”

Blazer continues working as the tour guide pointing out random things in the encampment, “Here’s a hut. There’s a hut. Here’s the main part of town. This is the market.”

He continued in this way until Cole once again noticed a missing poster on the side of a hut. It’s the same image that he saw before.

“Yo Blazer. What’s up with those posters? How could anyone go missing around here?”

“Damn it... I was hoping you would have brought that up later.”

Kid Cannon and Rush sit silently not wanting to address the question. Blazer sighs followed by a long silence stuck searching for the words, “It’s true. This place, the New Generation Pirates, is not perfect. But damn it's the best we have! We’ve had a few go missing recently, and it doesn’t really seem like it’s going away.”

Blazer points to the poster, “More recently him. He was an Ultra like us. No, he was more than that. He was part of the Lucky Seven, he was strong, cunning, he was a friend… His name was Gemming.”

“An Ultra?” gasps Cole.

“Yes, and luckily, you just took over his position. There’s something strange about the Lucky Seven. Something almost mystical you could say. Something that surrounds us, binds us, and watches us. Whenever we lose a member, for some unknown reason we gain a new person. It’s as if the universe senses the unbalance, then creates circumstances for someone to join. I know that doesn’t make sense.”

“Yep you’re right. Are you saying fate brought me here?”

“Fate! Or luck? Well, you’ll figure it out soon enough. Now, you have the ability to control the air right? Gemming on the other hand had the ability to control water. He was extremely handy to have around. More importantly he knew how to defend himself. Nothing could take him by surprise. At first it was just the humans disappearing. We didn’t suspect too much because I mean, humans die off easily in this world, even with all their tech. If their suit's hull gets breached they still go out quick.”

“Ya but this was an Ultra. There’s no way he’d go missing without you guys knowing right?”

“That’s what’s scary about it. Gemming was the first Ultra to disappear. Now that really caught our attention.”

“So something is happening to humans and Ultras... What do you think is taking them?”

“Good question, spot on actually. Geming was only a D class. He wasn’t as strong as some of us, but still he could have handled himself against anything he ran into in that forest. Which makes me think about the one creature that could possibly take on an Ultra. The demon.”

“You think the demon is hunting us?!”

Rush and Kid silently listening to the conversation shiver with the thought. Blazer replies, “It’s just a thought. I mean I could be wrong. In fact I hope I’m wrong. Last time that thing showed up it was so ferocious, too wild to be a methodical killer. There weren’t even any remnants of their bodies. We searched everywhere! That’s why I find it hard to believe that it is indeed the culprit.”

Cole questions out loud, more talking to himself, “If it’s not the demon, what else could possibly be powerful enough to take on an Ultra?”

Kid replies in a trembling voice, “Something terrifying…”