As the luminescent pillar of neon-blue light that had apparated out of nowhere began to lose its neon-like brightness, a top-hatted figure was revealed from its faded mirage.
He wore a finely established London Suit coupled with cleanly ironed trousers and a tie that was hooked to his white-button shirt.
'He' was a male.
Dark-raven-blue hair had been dressed in a fringe that pierced through his eyebrows. His hair had been pushed down and flattened by a top hat that felt neither too tall nor short and his face was that of a young man in his 20s.
His body too was hardly taller than 5'9.
His eyes were still bright-blue from the most recent use of his ability.
Insensitive to his surroundings, he brushed non-existent dust off his shoulders before strolling over to Pueris casually.
His demeanor was a subtle mix of curiosity and bewilderment as his shined shoes weighed lightly on the cobbled ground.
His face was without flaws yet exceedingly normal. No beauty to shock or vice versa to mortify.
He glanced upon the sight of Pueris.
A boy surrounded by gloom and boredom.
His shoulder-length metallic white hair felt like it could strangle him. It just had an odd tenacity about it. His eyes seemed to be consuming his pupils in one way or another and his entire body seemed to be enthralled with some odd white-black cotton blanket.
He was acting on par to the descriptions handed out at HQ.
One might ask what such a gentleman was doing just after the New Year had struck but his task was clear.
Reta: "Recruit that vigilante swiftly. We've got a secure sighting from Eye-Line."
Rockfish sighed at the sound of a deep and heavy voice in his mind.
"Hey."
Rockfish let out a small wave revealing two dark-dyed gloves.
Pueris looked up, in acted-wariness.
"Hello..."
Pueris held back a cough as he was certain he ought to not ruin this moment.
Rockfish tipped his hat forwards as he eyed Pueris cautiously.
"You... Pueris by any chance?"
Rockfish pulled out a small note of paper, a grey and white picture matched the boy before him and all witness reports matched his current face-value characteristics.
Pueris merely nodded blankly.
"Yeah. I'm Pueris."
Rockfish placed a hand upon his chin,
He turned around and muttered to himself discreetly.
A bad habit of his.
"Gah. How do I speak to people like this."
"Is he 12 or is he 23..."
Rockfish's sea blue eyes darted back to Pueris' figure.
"I'll settle with 17."
Rockfish turned around in a flashy spin, the tailcoats of his suit wavering in the air as he cleared his throat slowly.
"Hey ki-. Hey man."
"How would you like to join Red 0."
Pueris looked at Rockfish flatly.
A look that felt abnormal given the current invitation.
"You do know what... Red 0 is. Right?"
Rockfish resisted the urge to shake Pueris' shoulders and get some sense into the boy-. Man. Whatever he was.
Pueris nodded his head mechanically.
A moment of supposed genius flashed into his mind.
"You see, I already knew that this moment would come to me at this exact time."
A look of dishevelment fell upon Rockfish.
"Eh."
"I can see the future."
"No, you-."
"At significant points. There are many blurry gaps, but I can assure you of certain points. That I guarantee."
Pueris met eyes with Rockfish.
His eyes had returned to two mere voids.
Any trace of silver had vanished with the new year.
Rockfish nodded solemnly.
"I'll... look into that."
Subtly, Rockfish checked the info sheet prepared for him by Red 0.
He muttered in frustration.
"Nope. Not here either."
His eyebrows furrowed as he let out one big sigh of pent-up problems.
"Listen. Whatever you are. I'm here to offer you a deal."
Pueris lifted his head ever so slightly higher, he had to join Red 0. Only from there would he be able to make connections and have a fighting chance in this world.
He had committed too many naive crimes to be let go now even in the year 2031.
Although the big opponents like Burla would come after this point in time he had still taken down 4 -S- Rank Heroes and 7 -A- Ranks. His -B- Rank kills had reached the triples already.
He would become a puppet if caught by the government due to his useful ability.
Being in a team was subjectively the best choice for Pueris as his ability did wonders against even people like Justice 7.
And truthfully, he had taken a liking to Red 0 over a questionable timespan.
"Alright."
Rockfish nodded to himself as he received such a response.
"As I said, I'm here to invite you to Red 0. Where you would become a permanent member. You'd get all the stuff you expect. Cash. Estate. Ability-help. Connections. Food. Whatever you want."
"You just gotta tell me what you need, and I'll add it to the list."
"Once I get you all you need, I just need you to join Red 0 and sign a Volild-Contract."
A Volild Contract was your average you-fail-you-die sort of jig.
"A Volild Contract is a contract where the fail-condition is always death."
'I just explained that already.'
Pueris felt annoyed but shook it off.
All he needed was to set a clear goal so that he wasn't suspicious,
"Alright."
Pueris stood up, allowing the cotton blanket around him to crumple within the constraints of gravity.
"I want to be able to see light on the surface world. When the Sun rises and fades, I want to see that light."
"I want to see light. Not justice. Light."
"So you want to remove Justice and with it corruption."
Rockfish restrained a head tilt and accepted the wish.
"Sure. I hereby declare that we shall aid you in your search for the light."
A luminous set of neon-red letters engraved themselves onto a piece of pure-black paper. filled with red markings.
"Do you accept this contract? Pueris?"
Pueris dismissed the rush of nostalgia coursing through his veins.
"I accept the contract before me."
Rockfish had a blank face as he nodded.
"Nice. That's settled. You stay here Pueris."
"I'm off to take a piss. I'll only be 5 I swear. We can leave after that."
Pueris was perturbed by this unexpected development but his behavior seemed to have affected Rockfish.
Nevertheless, he had joined Red 0 once more and even managed to sneak in a future ability.
Suddenly another flash of genius came to Pueris' attention.
His thoughts ran rampant.
'Wait. What if I say it's my force control? But a future ability is needed for force control. And the only person with a future ability is...'
'Fateless.'
A shallow shilling silence descended upon Pueris' mind.
Rockfish didn't actually need to do his business. (Sorry if you were expecting that kind of scene.)
After spending a few minutes on a mobile game on his iPhone 37XLC his thoughts built up and toppled at once.
Rather he found too much odd about Pueris.
Rockfish went back into his bad habit of muttering.
"Just now... he recited the code for the Volild contract perfectly. I didn't have to teach him a thing. Could he already be under one?"
"And seeing into the future. He can't have two abilities so it must be a force-control. And there are very few future abilities that accumulate information over a long period of time. Most are only for a few seconds into the future."
"I don't think anyone of a high scale has a future ability that goes far into the future actually..."
Rockfish groomed his chin.
"I'll contact HQ for now. From there they'll take it on. Now I just have to take him back with me via my Osmo-Port."
"Yes. That sounds good."
He set up a small-notes file before sending it off in a hurry.
He was over his time limit of 5 minutes.
Although talking to oneself could be seen as a bad habit, Rockfish wasn't insane.
Maybe.
A stray ginger cat trod up to Pueris. Oddly enough Pueris remembered worrying for this cat in his past. But right now it could be a test if Rockfish was watching. The future had changed ever so slightly.
Uncomfortably, Pueris prodded a rather fatigued ginger cat away with a sway of his right hand.
It left in solemnity.
The silence and isolation caused the wounds within Pueris to sting.
Pueris grunted heavily.
"Not now..."
He needed to hide them before he got to the base. He couldn't ruin his flawless image from the past of -0- Losses.
Rockfish soon strolled over from an alleyway upon the right.
His form was that of acceptance as his figure popped up and down along the cobblestone street calm and collected.
The impalpable shrewdness of London was quaking. It would soon be unable to pollute two souls.
Rockfish looked down at Pueris' figure which had sat in a kneel from the tire.
"You good to go?"
Rockfish pulled out a lollipop he had prepared earlier.
"Yes."
Pueris took the lollipop from Rockfish's hand smoothly.
"And no."
Tossing it back without a second look, Rockfish shrugged.
The London cleaner bots would get to this kind of stuff in minutes.
Rockfish cleared his throat.
"Well. I suppose now we do the thing."
The mood had grown strange and awkward.
Pueris felt forced to retort as the flash of blue did not come.
"Yeah."
"You wanna know something cool about the thing? You see-."
"Do the thing Rockfish."
Rockfish sighed. Nobody cared about his ability after seeing it once.
"Okay. I'll do... the thing."
Boop.
A computer-game-like sound transmitted into the world.
Soon a neon-blue pillar burned itself into reality.
It apparated the two individuals of varying heights from London to the Shadow Realm.
Yes.
The literal shadow-realm.
A place where only shadows can live and where only shadows can breed and writhe.
Only with the help of a certain -S- Rank Villain could Red 0 establish a base in such a dangerous location.
And only an ability as optimal as Osmo-Port could travel across 'Realms.'
Only powerful Shadow-Abilities could make use of this supposedly hidden realm.
And only one Villain could turn a land of darkness into a 5-star holiday resort copied tile for tile.
A sight of vibrant and lively colors, sloshing water pools and a grand hotel estate welcomed Pueris' eyes.
Joy and wealth were exuded and leaped around this premise.
It was so vast that one could not even see the edges of the true nature of the shadow realm.
A mutter slipped through Pueris' lips. It was all coming back to him, his eyes burned with recognition.
"Just like old..."
Rockfish couldn't notice due to the bumbling all around his body due to the use of his ability.
"Agh-Ooh."
Rockfish let out an ached yawn with two hung-out arms. He ignored the tight pull of his suit and looked around with raised eyebrows.
"Welcome to the shadow realm, Pueris."
And so Rockfish led him by a hand.
"Enjoy your stay. Because it's the only stay you're gonna get for the rest of your life, probably."