Blitz was a streak of blue lightning in the dark. He had followed the faint, oily signature of Circuit's machines from the Ashen Flats to a hidden geothermal vent, and from there, into a gaping maw in the earth that led down, down into a world of stone and steam. It wasn't a natural cave; the walls were too smooth, etched with strange, geometric patterns that hummed with residual energy. An ancient, forgotten place, now repurposed as a highway for robots.
He moved too fast for the occasional sentry drone to track, a phantom winding deeper into the planetary gut. The air grew hot and thick, the only light coming from glowing mineral veins and the cold red eyes of Circuit's constructs marching in silent rows. He was a ghost in the machine's own cathedral.
Then, in a vast, echoing chamber where a subterranean river of magma cast a hellish, dancing light, he saw it: the silver arrowhead craft, now bearing the dents and scorch marks of its recent crash, hovering near a monolithic data-terminal that jutted from the stone like an altar. And there, transferring the glowing Celestial Stone from a containment claw to a larger, more sinister-looking analyzer array, was Dr. Victor Circuit himself.
"Hey, Circuit!" Blitz's voice echoed, bright and taunting, cutting through the low hum of machinery.
Circuit's head snapped up. His usually pristine suit was rumpled, a dark water stain on one sleeve from his lake escape. He saw the blue-haired boy leaning casually against a stalagmite, and a vein twitched in his temple. "You. Great. Just what I needed. Another headache."
He didn't bother with robots or monologues. Survival instinct had taken over. He lunged for the cockpit of his craft.
He wasn't fast enough.
The air cracked. Blitz was suddenly there, in front of the vehicle's nose, already in mid-kick. It wasn't a fancy move; it was a straightforward, hyper-accelerated piston blow delivered to the craft's front sensor array.
CRUNCH-SCREEEECH!
The vehicle was thrown backward as if hit by a runaway train. It skipped across the cavern floor like a stone, shedding pieces of its outer hull, before slamming into the base of the giant data-terminal with a terminal-sounding crunch. Sparks fountained from its ruined core.
Circuit was thrown clear, rolling to a stop in a cloud of dust and rock fragments. He groaned, pushing himself up on shaking arms.
Blitz strolled over, whistling. "Tough little buggy." His eye caught a flash of blue on the ground nearby. The Celestial Stone, jolted loose from the analyzer, had rolled to a stop against a rock. He picked it up, hefting its surprising weight. It pulsed warmly in his hand, its light reflecting in his curious eyes. He looked from the beautiful gem to the bedraggled, furious scientist.
"Were you really causing all this trouble," Blitz asked, genuine bafflement in his voice, "for some sort of fancy house decoration?"
Dr. Circuit, his dignity in tatters, his plans unraveling, could only spit dust and venom. "You imbecile! That 'decoration' is the key to rewriting existence! You have no idea what you're holding!"
"Seems like a lot of work for a glow-y rock," Blitz shrugged, tucking it into a pocket on his shorts. "I'll take it off your hands. Seems like you've got enough junk already."
With a roar of pure, unhinged fury, Circuit scrambled back into the wrecked cockpit. It was non-functional, but one system responded, the emergency destabilization charge. He slammed a fist onto a cracked panel, not to flee, but to destroy. "If I can't have it, NO ONE WILL!"
A series of concussive pulses erupted from the craft's underbelly. They weren't aimed at Blitz. They struck the bases of the massive, ancient pillars that supported the cavern ceiling.
The world began to come apart.
With a groan of tortured rock, the ceiling started to collapse. Gigantic stone teeth crashed down, smashing machinery and blocking exits. But worse was the sound, a deep, approaching roar. The destabilization charges had breached the wall holding back the underground lake that fed the surface one above.
A wall of icy, black water exploded into the chamber.
Circuit's craft, partially shielded, was swept up in the torrent, sucked into a secondary tunnel, an escape route he'd clearly pre-scouted. Blitz was not so lucky. The water hit him like a solid fist, snuffing the air from his lungs and the light from his eyes. He was tumbled, disoriented, the incredible speed useless in the chaotic, drowning dark. The Celestial Stone was torn from his pocket. He saw a flash of its blue light, a metallic claw snatching it from the water, and then the silver submersible shape vanishing into a safer channel.
Then, only the cold and the crushing pressure. He kicked, but didn't know which way was up. His lungs screamed. The world narrowed to a pinprick of agony. His thrashing slowed. Darkness crept in from the edges of his vision. So this is it? he thought, with a strange detachment. Drowned in a puddle by a guy in a suit... lame...
On the shore of the surface lake, Zhèn's head jerked up. His senses, honed in the mountain silence, felt the deep subterranean thump of the collapse through the earth. Then he saw the lake's center begin to churn and bubble violently.
"Something's happening down there," he said.
Before Elara or Kael could respond, a flash of silver broke the surface halfway across the water, Dr. Circuit's submersible. It hovered for a second, then shot away into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.
But Zhèn's eyes were on the bubbling water. A shape, pale and limp, broke the surface, a boy with black hair, floating face-down.
Without a second thought, Zhèn dove. He cut through the water with powerful, precise strokes, reached the boy, and hauled him into a rescue hold. Back on the bank, he laid him on the grass. Blitz wasn't breathing.
"He's full of water," Kael observed grimly.
Zhèn remembered a first-aid technique Hanzo had taught him for fallen climbers. He rolled Blitz onto his side and delivered a single, sharp, controlled thump with the heel of his hand to the diaphragm.
"GUH—HACK—COUGH!"
A torrent of lake water erupted from Blitz's mouth. He gagged, gasped, and his eyes flew open, wild with the panic of near-death. He scrambled backward on his elbows, clutching his aching stomach, staring at the unfamiliar faces looming over him. His memory flashed: the crushing water, the claw taking the Stone, the drowning... and then being struck in the gut.
His foggy mind connected the dots. This strong-looking kid had punched him. He must be with Circuit. A trap.
"You...!" Blitz snarled, energy returning in a surge of adrenaline-fueled anger. He vanished in a blur of motion, reappearing behind Zhèn, a fist aimed at his kidney.
Zhèn, however, didn't need to see him. He felt the displacement of air. He sidestepped, the punch whistling past him, and used Blitz's own momentum to hook his ankle and send him sprawling face-first into the mud.
"That wasn't very nice!" Zhèn exclaimed, more confused than angry.
Blitz rolled over, mud-smeared and furious. He pushed himself up, hurt and pride stoking his power. "You wanna see not nice?" His body seemed to vibrate. Then, he multiplied.
Not literally. He moved so fast, darting in a tight circle around Zhèn, that he created a ring of perfect, shimmering afterimages. A dozen Blitzes, all glaring, all poised to strike.
Zhèn's eyes went wide. "Whoa!"
The circle contracted. Attacks came from every direction at once, feints, jabs, sweeps. Zhèn blocked, parried, and dodged with incredible skill, but he was being tagged, bruises blooming on his arms and ribs from impacts he couldn't fully anticipate. It was like fighting a storm.
But Zhèn was a mountain. A storm could rage, but the mountain learned its rhythms. He stopped trying to watch the afterimages and instead listened, felt the real pressure shift in the air a microsecond before the strike. He took a glancing blow on his shoulder, and in that split-second of contact, he pivoted.
His fist, moving with the crushing, deliberate force of a landslide, connected squarely with Blitz's jaw.
It was like hitting a steel beam, but Zhèn's fist was the hydraulic press. Blitz's afterimages vanished. He was one person again, skidding backwards ten feet on his heels, shaking his head to clear the stars.
They stared at each other across the torn-up grass, panting. One glowing with residual kinetic energy, steam rising from his skin. The other rooted, unshakable, fists raised in a perfect, ancient guard. Both saw something entirely new in the other: not just an enemy, but an equal. A challenge.
They tensed to surge forward again, the air crackling between them.
"STOP IT!"
Elara's voice cut through like a knife. She stepped between them, arms outstretched, facing Blitz. "Just stop! We're not with Circuit! We're trying to stop him! He just stole from both of us!"
Blitz blinked, his fighting stance relaxing a fraction. "He... stole from you?"
"He has the Celestial Stone," Zhèn said, rubbing his own sore ribs. "The one you took from him down there. It belonged to my master. It's my duty to protect it."
Elara saw the confusion on Blitz's face. She took a breath, pulling out the two remaining glowing shards from her pack. Their light painted Blitz's astonished face.
"That Stone is part of a whole," she explained, her voice urgent. "He wants to combine it with these shards and one more he already has. If he gets all of them, he gains power we can't even imagine. He's not just a thief or a guy who builds annoying robots. He's trying to rewrite the rules of reality. And you," she said, pointing at Blitz, "just had the one thing that could help us do that, and you lost it to him."
The anger drained from Blitz, replaced by a dawning, cold understanding. He looked from the determined, serious girl to the incredibly strong boy who had just saved his life, then pummeled him, then stood as his equal. He touched his tender jaw, then his sore stomach, the one Zhèn had punched to save him.
He'd been fighting the wrong person.
"Oh," Blitz said, the word small in the sudden quiet. The steam around him dissipated. He offered a lopsided, weary grin to Zhèn. "So... you punch really hard. And you saved me. Thanks. And sorry."
Zhèn lowered his fists, a matching, hesitant smile appearing. "You are very fast. And you hit many times. It was... good training."
Kael Jin, who had been observing the entire spectacle with the calm of a grandmaster, finally spoke. "The enemy of your enemy," he rumbled, "is often a very strange friend. He has the Stone and one shard. You have two. The final piece is still out there. And he will be coming for it and for you."
Blitz looked at the trio: the fierce girl with the glowing rocks, the unbreakable mountain boy, and the old man who radiate quiet power. His solo war against Circuit's robots had just gotten complicated. It had also, for the first time, gotten interesting.
"Alright," Blitz said, cracking his neck. A new, determined light sparked in his blue eyes. "So, what's the plan? And does it involve me hitting that smug guy in the suit a lot?"10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc00pH4F1PG
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