"... Cuz I'm the numbah one, Ason!"

It was a full concert, baby!

Jaden had the entire stadium filled out with his loyal fans and they were screaming his name! Life couldn't have been better for the Numbah One Ninja! He was standing right on stage with his swords on back, and a microphone in hand as everyone was cheering (as they should). All that was above him was the sunny skies because that was the limit baby! Though, speaking of skies, the sky started going all dark n' shit? He looked up over his shoulder and saw Abel's fuckin' dickship up in the sky!

Then that was where the record skipping sound could be heard as that fucker started shooting lasers up into the city! It was killing his vibe... along with a lot of people. That was pretty bad, too. Everyone was scrambling away, screaming as Jaden just had to shake his head. There were explosions in the distance, and he knew that MIRAGE was behind this. Unfortunately for Abel, he just made the mistake of a fucking lifetime.

Nobody fucks with the J's vibe.

Jaden disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Ready to shove his sword directly up Abel's ass... once he finds him.



She took a sniff of a rose and then smiled.

She added the flower to her basket and then carried it to the cashier and smiled.

"Sixty-dollars, please," The Cashier said before Oh-Seven handed her the money before she bid her adieu and walked out with the flowers in her basket. After Oh-One was defeated, Oh-Seven convinced Justin to come here with the others. They needed some time... after what happened. They saved the world after all, with some help of course. Oh-Seven's goal was to stop Justin from going on another revenge quest and getting himself killed - and thankfully she was successful thus far. For how long, she was not entirely sure herself.

As she was walking down the streets of Gold City, she was sniffing that flower.... until the red laser beam cut through the sky and made her drop her flower. While everyone was screaming, fleeing, she was watched as Abel's airship darkened the sky. She turned her head to the TV screen and saw Abel's announcement to the world. If she had a heart, it would be sinking right now.

Her feet transformed into jet thrusters as she flew off into the action. She knew that Justin would be sitting around doing nothing.



"... No, Oh-Seven, I am not obsessed."

Justin said to himself as he sat on the rooftop, lying down on his back and throwing a rubber ball against the wall. He sighed as he kept throwing the ball against the wall over and over again. He was bored out of his fucking mind sitting here doing nothing in Gold City. He wanted to go after MIRAGE, he couldn't stand it seeing them go on the rampage place after place with nobody trying to stop him. However, Oh-Seven was trying to keep him on the straight and narrow and staying out of that. Justin... he wanted to do it, for her, but he couldn't let Abel's rampage go on and on.

He threw the ball against the wall but the earth-shattering boom launched it completely off course. Not that Justin was worried about it as he had already hopped to his feet and he saw it... Abel's ship. Abel had finally come to Gold City... to hell with what Oh-Seven said, Abel had finally come to him. He wasn't going to let this opportunity to end Abel's rampage.

"ABELLLLLLLL!"

He screamed as he hopped off the building into the streets of Gold City. Everyone ran past him as he began his march towards Abel and revenge...

---

---

The past few months were, for the least, rather trying for Jill Breicen.

After she collapsed in Antarctica, she spent the next three months in a coma. Despite everyone’s best efforts, she didn’t move a muscle the entire time, simply remaining hooked up to the best life support systems SHINING could buy and Horizon Frontiers could provide as she clung onto life.

It was weird waking up again, getting immediately caught in a bear hug by her sister, tears streaming down her face. It didn’t exactly feel like she’d just instantly woken up in a hospital room, but more like everything before that felt hazy. She’d woken up feeling so weak. And the black roots in her hair were easily visible. Both of these would need to be fixed.

Jasmine and Isabella had filled her in on most of what happened since she defeated Oh-One. She had even received a surprise visit from SHINING CEO Ryuuna Raiden. But, really, she was essentially locked away from the outside world. She was not allowed, under any circumstance, to have any contact with the press, and received a diet and training regimen even more carefully curated than before. Her luxury suite in Gold City’s finest hotel was something more akin to a gilded cage.

Not that she minded. Gave her a chance to reconnect with her sister, for one.

---

Jasmine lazily inserted another potato chip into her mouth as she shifted around on the couch, legs hanging off the armrest. Jill had dibs on three quarters of the couch, obviously. It was really weird, seeing her curled up under a blanket, watching anime. She’d been so good at projecting this larger-than life image since she became a Justice Rider that it was weird seeing her do something so mundane and human again. It was actually pretty cool.

Jasmine’s train of thought was interrupted as a large black bat swooped down and scooped the bag of potato chips off the table. Wayward crumbs scattered to the floor as the snacks disappeared into its maw, plastic bag and all. Pit Stop quickly flew down and began cleaning up the mess.

“Beez!” Jasmine groaned. “You little shit, that was my last bag!” The bat responded with a grin that stretched across its bulbous body.

“Sorry, kid!” The demon let out a hearty laugh. “Guess I got hungry.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. He was always hungry. She got up to see what room service could get her, but quickly stopped when the TV changed channels seemingly on its own.

"Citizens of Gold City. You know who I am so I'll skip the pleasantries, it has come to the attention of MIRAGE that there is a Power Stone located here. You have thirty minutes to place that Power Stone in my hand or I will burn this city to ash. I'm waiting."

The screen promptly switched to a countdown timer.

“You need to get out of here.” Jill said, throwing off the blanket and standing off the couch.

“Are you kidding?!” Jasmine huffed. “You need to get out of here!”

“I-I can’t just let this happen, Jazzy-”

“You’re not even finished with all your physical therapy shit yet, what the fuck do you expect to do?!” Jasmine could hear her heart pounding as the stress hit her like a wall.

“The best I can.” Jill said as she disappeared into the bathroom.

Jasmine took a deep breath as she waited for Jill to finish changing. She heard an odd buzzing sound, and looked down at the coffee table. It was her sister’s phone. Izzy was calling. She picked it up and answered the call.

“It’s Jasmine.” She said curtly. “Jill’s getting ready to head out right now.”

“What?!” It was less a word and more a startled reaction. “Whatever. Just tell her I’ve got it covered.” Jill promptly burst through the door, wearing her usual outfit, and adjusting her hat. She quickly snatched up her phone.

“What was that, now?” Jill asked.

“I’ll handle it.”

He promptly hung up.

The sisters nodded at each other as they left the building.

---

---

Lo-fi music drifted throughout the room while sunlight poured in through the window. Rosie let out a sigh as warm water fell down her back. She had slept in today, because she was beholden to no one’s schedule but her own, and more importantly, because she liked sleeping. An afternoon shower was just icing on the cake, so to speak.

The Antarctica job was a massive success, all things considered. Her son didn’t die, she managed to negotiate her way into a satisfactory amount of cash for all the work she obviously did, and her friends downstairs weren’t displeased, either. She’d gotten enough to take a long, well-deserved vacation to Gold City. Though, now that she was here, she did find something particularly inspiring about the place that she felt the need to capture. The sense of glitz and glamour and undertones of vice were particularly strong, here. It would be art for art’s sake, rather than profit.

Oh, and she managed to walk away with a Stone of Power, too. Can’t forget that.

She’d briefly considered pawning the thing off, though experience had taught her that the second you revealed you had something so desirable, mortals went straight to thievery and bloodshed. It was best to keep such things a secret. Even though that rock was far more trouble than it was worth, in her eyes.

As if on cue, the speakers cut out and immediately switched over to a city-wide message from none other than Abel himself. Someone she’d been keeping tabs on, though she had little interest in aside from a potential source of income. And he was only giving her thirty minutes to get out of the shower, too. Did he have any idea how long it takes when you have this much hair? Let alone the amount of conditioner… Well, technically, as an immortal, eternally beautiful, shapeshifting demoness, Rosie didn’t need to sleep, or take a shower, or use conditioner. But she did it anyway.

Still, though, he had to be bluffing about destroying the city, right? He wouldn’t seriously risk destroying the stone. Though he could be a moron. That was a definite possibility. She began rinsing her hair out as she heard the front door open.

“Isabella?” Rosie called out. “Is that you?”

“Just grabbing something.” Isabella said back. Rosie had to strain to hear him over the sound of the shower. He only rarely raised his voice.

“Alright,” Rosie rinsed out her hair. “Just be careful out there, okay? And stay sober until eight!”

“... Yeah.” Isabella said back. Rosie heard the door close again as he left. He couldn’t have come here for the stone, could he?

Well, obviously he could have. He was prone to these kinds of dramatic episodes.

She shut the water off and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her body before drying out her hair. She stepped out into the living room and peeked out the window, watching Isabella walk to his motorcycle with a familiar glowing object in his hand. She checked on the enchanted safe she’d procured for the artifact, and saw it was sitting wide open.

Rosie sighed.

Just as Isabella quickly left the building and rode off, a masked figure wearing a birdlike jacket and concealing their face with a beak mask peeked her head from above the nearby rooftop. She gave the area a good scan-over of energy, immediately surprised to see the large spike of energy following Isabella as he left. Completely caught off guard, Arianna pressed the side of the Huginn-Module's hood, activating it's communications.

"Alright, he's gone. The only subject guarding the package is clearly off-guard. Package is ripe for the taking."

Ever since the battle in Antarctica, Arianna had been tasked with observing the group that reclaimed the Power Stone themselves from afar, as they traveled back to Gold City. For months, she'd been tracking down the Power Stone, using process of elimination to find out who didn't have the stone, and who did. Even after narrowing it down to the demonic mercenary in her own vacation suite, she'd been waiting for weeks to make a proper move, observing people's comings and goings, trying to formulate a plan for Horizon to make a complete and clean smash and grab. That is, until notorious terrorist Abel flew in with his gunship, turned a few buildings into rubble, and announced that the entire city had a half hour to hand over the Power Stone before the gunship resumes the destruction, throwing the biggest wrench possible at their plans.

"Alright, Arianna, good work. Your new directions are to retrieve the Stone yourself." An ethereal, authoritative voice began to give directions through the built-in communicator, completely bypassing the radio static or acoustic aberrances.

"Wait, me?! What about Daren, or Ulric?" she pleaded, looking for literally any other alternative.

"There's no time, Arianna. That fool, Abel, is threatening to rip the city brick by brick within the hour. Before that, something's going to happen with the stone. Obtain it as quickly as you can, and arrive back at the outpost for evacuation. Understood?"

"yes," Arianna answered quietly, signing off. Sheathing the communicator, she unzipped the Huginn-Module, and pulled out three robotic birds strapped to the inner jacket. Placing them down on the rooftop's edge, she let out a sharp whistle, causing them to flutter their robotic wings and light up their eyes, looking at her for directions. She then held up her arm, tapping away her fingers on the back of the jacket's forearm, causing various squares to light up in response to each tap. After a moment of pressing several "buttons", the drones turned around and locked onto the building Arianna had been observing, stretching out their wings outward and necks forward.

"Guess it's like they say... You want something done right..." Arianna began. she pressed a red flash of light, and all three of the drones screeched as they descended from the roof, taking flight in an upward curve as they flew straight towards the wall of the building. The drones she sent slammed into the wall closest to where the Power Stone was being held, each one causing a small detonation, which combined to create enough force to blow a large hole through.

"...Stick it to the least capable person..." she finished, before leaping from the roof and gliding towards the opening she created, the featherlike cuffs at the sleeves of the Huginn-Module suddenly straightening and sharpening into thick blades. Unfortunately, she was completely aware that the Power Stone she sought after was now a good mile or so away and counting.

---

"Yes... Fascinating... Amazing..."

Ulric Dotair sat in a lab room, analyzing various materials and samples laid out on the table in front of him, along with various other electronic equipment and sheets of data. On a laptop sitting on the desk played a distant video recording of the battle in Antarctica; Most importantly, the fight between Oh-One and Jill... or rather, whatever she became for the short duration she thrashed him in. Shortly after the battle ended, Jill was admitted to a hospital that was a secretly a front for Horizon Frontiers. During the duration of her recovery, they ran several tests, gathering data and samples to better analyze the anomaly, as well as it's effects.

Behind him in the corner sat Daren Metzger, who perpetually sharpened his ridiculously large meat cleaver with a whetstone, his only defense against mind-gnawing boredom. Bodyguard... Yeah right. For weeks now, he'd been sitting in a Horizon Frontiers' facility, guarding an old-man who could probably kick his own ass in a fight, when the Power Stone was literally just a few blocks away. When was something exciting going to happen?

Suddenly, the small TV sitting on Ulric's desk changed channels as the current broadcast was hijacked. Abel, terrorist leader of MIRAGE, informed the viewer that had he not a Power Stone sitting in his hand within half an hour, he'd obliterate the entire city, before changing to a countdown matching that time. Instead of being overcome with dread, Daren stood himself up, tossing his whetstone aside.

"Alrighty! Guess I'll see you in a bit, doc," He bid farewell, gathering his various other supplies.

"What do you mean? You can't just leave, you're under strict orders to protect me and this facility!" Ulric protested, swiveling around in his chair.

"I know. And how else to protect you besides going to give the big-scary-TV-guy a good few chops before he blows up the entire city?" Daren countered, sheathing his cleaver behind his back. He unlocked the reinforced metal door to the room, heading out into the hallway.

"Hey, Hey! Stop! Get-- Oh what do I care..." Ulric retired, slowly turning back to his desk, "Atleast now I can get some research done without that damned shining noise..."

Daren head out of the facility and into the chaotic streets of Gold City, seeing Abel's battleship blot out the sun, as well as a few buildings on fire or in ruins, creating massive pillars of black smoke. Daren's constant grin ever-so-slightly widened as he went out into the streets, cleaver in hand and trouble in mind.

---

---

Rosie had hardly taken another step before her bedroom wall exploded, looking entirely unfazed. Really, all she could think about was that all the dust and debris had thankfully completely missed her. It was rather annoying to get dirty right after a nice shower. She held onto her towel and leaned slightly as she peeked out the opening. One of Horizon’s agents. Lovely. And judging by the dramatic entrance, they weren't here to hire or buy anything from her. She stepped back from the opening to allow the birdlike figure to come inside. A black paintbrush manifested in the demon's free hand.

“Arianna?” Rosie asked, head tilted slightly sideways. “I do have a door, you know.”