Loud bangs of gun fires blast out. Yells of prisoner’s urging on the riot. Guard’s frantically running around, trying to suppress the commotion. It’s a symphony of destruction; Hejigonne stood at the window, hopping to get a glimpse of the action taking place. Dr. Gromm sat in the corner, completely uninterested in what’s going on.

“The warden would have picked you up by now to lead you back to your cell,” the doctor stated. “Unfortunately, he must be busy with what’s going on.”

“Come on, don’t you see any excitement? You don’t hear all that anarchy and want to go wild?” Hejigonne pleaded. The serious doctor sat, scratching the scar that crossed his eye. Hejigonne leaned against the wall… completely frustrated about not being able to be a part of the action. Quietly, he listened at a sound that softly glistened softly. After hearing the sound, he turned to look out the window to notice a guard fumbling for the keys outside the door. After it opened, the guard dragged another guard inside, Hejigonne hiding behind the door.

“Doctor, quick… he’s been shot!” the guard pulled the man onto the table. Dr. Gromm examined the wound.

“This injury isn’t fatal,” the doctor assured him.

“Oh, thank…” Hejigonne jumped from behind the door, kicking the guard in the head.

“Hey, what are you…?” Dr. Gromm started to ask.

“Are you coming with me or not?” Hejigonne asked.

“Are you crazy, we’ll be caught,” the doctor was insistent on staying, “I have a patient I need to take care of.”

“You said yourself that the wound isn’t fatal,” Hejigonne replied, “just come with me, and let’s have some fun.” Dr. Gromm blankly glared at Hejigonne. “Do you really want to go the rest of your life doing nothing but rotting in a prison?” Hejigonne pleaded, “Come with me.” Dr. Gromm nodded and followed Hejigonne out of the room. Prisoners, locked in their cells cheered as they both ran past them. After turning around the corridor, they bumped into someone. A woman will long red hair. A rifle hung over her shoulders. The woman looked up at Hejigonne.

“Heji….” the woman cried out in a high pitched voice, grabbing on to Hejigonne, “Heji, I missed you so much!”

“Ohmi? What… why are you here?”

‘Get her!’, ‘Grab the intruder!’, ‘Don’t let her leave here alive!’

Hejigonne turned to Ohmi, “Ohmi… why did you come here? You shouldn’t come here to break me out.”

“Heji, I didn’t even know you were here,” Ohmi’s tears flowed faster. After clearing her tears, she tugged Hejigonne, “Follow me.”

Ohmi ran off, Hejigonne and Dr. Gromm following behind. They then came across a special section of the prison. A sign on the wall stated ‘Restricted Access: Area X - Most Dangerous Criminals Beyond this Point!’

“What are you doing here?” Hejigonne asked.

“I came here on a mission,” Ohmi declared, “I am here to escort Alt Black out of this prison.”

Both Dr. Gromm and Hejigonne were stunned. Release Alt Black? The Black Family, also known as the Royal Black Family or the Black Crest, controls more than half the universe. Outside of Black Crest owned territories, most planets are threatened by the Black Family, and consider them criminals.

“King Alt Black is being held prisoner here?” Hejigonne stammered, “Why wouldn’t I know that?”

“You think they would just tell anybody that?” Ohmi turned to Hejigonne, “Do you know how strongly people would react to that?” Ohmi turned back and ran into Area X. Hejigonne nodded to Dr. Gromm and quickly followed. Dr. Gromm, completely afraid of confronting Alt Black, decided to stay back.



Hejigonne and Ohmi ventured into Area X. Hardened criminals yelled and taunted them as they carefully crept further in.

“Alt’s cell should be a little farther…” Ohmi began to say. A noise interrupted her, as she looked down in its direction. A man was banging on the cell to get Ohmi’s attention.

“Hey, come here!” the man yelled. Ohmi and Hejigonne approached the man, hoping not to get the attention of any of the guards. “You are looking for me?”

“Alt Black?” Hejigonne asked, “Is this him, Ohmi?” The man pulled up his sleeve to show the Black Family’s Royal Crest tattooed onto his arm. After rolling up his sleeve, he punched the lock, breaking it, opening the door by himself.

“Wait, you could have done that yourself?” Ohmi asked, “Why then was I sent here, couldn’t you have broken out yourself?”

Alt turned around, and replied, “It wasn’t whether or not I could break out, but a matter of deciding when.” Alt chuckled, knowing that they would be confused. He explained, “My father, High King Zeon Black, decided that I needed to be punished. He told me to wait in this prison until he sent someone to tell me I can go home.”

“So, wait,” Hejigonne asked, “you let yourself get caught just because your old man told you to?”

“The High King’s orders are the High King’s orders,” Alt continued to move forward, “we must leave… we can continue this conversation later.” The three of them started to move forward, when a giant machine blocked their path.

“WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” the Security Bot then opened a compartment, extending a long, wide barrel from within it. A missile shot out, while Hejigonne and Ohmi panicked, Alt stood still, smiling as the large bullet came closer. A shadowy figure jumped from nowhere, knocking the projectile upwards. Bang! Debris from the explosion fell; smoke covered the shadowy figure that had saved them. When the smoke cleared, you could see the man who had saved them. Dr. Vinous Gromm.

“Doctor? What was that?” Hejigonne yelled. Dr. Gromm did not respond. Instead, he turned to face the Security Bot. An additional compartment opened, revealing a buzz saw. As the saw spun, it grew closer and closer to the doctor. Gromm’s hands spread out. “Doctor! You’re not going to try to catch that saw, are you?” As this was yelled out, Gromm’s hands grabbed the saw. It spun violently in his hands. The jagged edges of the saw caught his gloves, ripping them clean off. Hejigonne looked at the hands, or what was in its place. “Your arms are…”

“Mechanical?” Ohmi completed Hejigonne’s sentence. Dr. Gromm held the saw tighter, stopping the saw’s rotation. While holding onto the machine, he kicked a water pipe next to him. The machine lightened. “Is that rust?” Ohmi asked. The machine rusted, faster and faster.

“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! WARNING! WAR… NG! IN… DER… ERT…” the machine completely stopped working.

“How?” Hejigonne asked, “What just happened?”

Dr. Gromm turned, and replied, “Water and Iron create rust…”

“But… how did it happen so fast?” Hejigonne queried, “It takes time for water to rust iron.”

Dr. Gromm smirked, and finally replied, “It’s my Mana ability. You said to me before that you have a Mana Blood-Line limit, well so do I. I have the ability to make chemical reactions occur faster.”

“But why don’t you have one of these collars?” Hejigonne asked, tugging on the collar he wore, that completely negates all mana-user’s powers.

The doctor responded, “Well, let’s just say their machine had a malfunction, and was unable to detect it.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Ohmi interrupted, “we need to move on… and fast.” Ohmi ran ahead, quickly followed by Alt. Hejigonne and Dr. Gromm looked at each other and nodded their heads, quickly catching up to where she was leading.