After speaking with Lamia, Colt made his way back to his shed to read some books.

Back when his life was still "normal", he always made time to sit down and just read. Whether it be action and adventure, or romance and mystery, there were few experiences like getting absorbed in the compact universe of a new story.

It's been about an hour. I should check on Jax.

-

Colt stepped towards the front gate of the village, where Jax sat on a tree stump.

The mobster from earlier was strung up against a tree, unconscious. Streaks of blood ran down his legs, where his knees were slit. Besides the glossy shine of his bones peeking out at him, there were no other injuries to speak of.

"How did it go?" asked Colt.

"I got tons of information out of him."

Colt scoffed, "For a mobster, I'm surprised that this is all it took for him to talk."

"Not exactly. I have a plethora of methods."

"Damn...do you carry a thesaurus around with you?"

"Shut up."

"So, what did you find out?"

"Let's gather everyone else first. I've already devised a plan for killing Hokkaido."

Already?

Colt went off to gather Lamia and the villagers, and Hisa and Hemiko returned from wherever they were.

Jax stood in front of the crowd, "Okay, I have good news. I managed to get a ton of information from this punk right here. With this information, I created a carefully thought out plan to overthrow Hokkaido."

"Woo! Go Jax!" Hisa playfully cheered.

"Moron...Anyways, the first point of focus is our opponents. Besides the swarms of useless grunts like this guy over here, there are three main guards, and Hokkaido himself. Me and Hisa already encountered two of them, and Hisa managed to kill one of them. Colt killed the other one. That leaves us with one guard, and Hokkaido."

Hisa groaned as she grabbed ahold of Colt's shoulders, "Why? I wanted to kill that chainy guy..."

I know I'm the one who told Jax that...but did I actually kill that man?

Since he collapsed right after fighting Touya, he didn't have the time to think about it; However, his memory wasn't failing him. Touya's arm was blown off without a doubt. Healing helped him with his own injuries, but for someone without instant regeneration, that'd be instant death.

Did I really-

"Colt!" Jax shouted.

"Wha-" He shook his head, clearing his troubled mind, "What's up?"

"I said that me, you, and Hisa are going to jump the remaining guard and Hokkaido together since we're the strongest people here."

"Ok...that makes sense."

Jax nodded, "Right. This leaves one component unchecked. And that is the grunts that litter the mansion. The people who will handle them will be you villagers."

Colt glanced his way, "Jax! We're supposed to be helping them!"

"I am. We came to help, right? What's the good in doing all of the work for them now? When we leave, someone else will surely come along to bother them again."

"But-"

Lamia stepped forward, "Thank you for your concern Colt, but your friend is correct. This entire time, we've submitted to Hokkaido's desires out of fear. This is the first moment we have where we can fight back. I believe that I speak for all of my people when I say that we're tired of this oppression."

Colt wanted to speak up, but the fire in Lamia's eyes told him everything he needed to know.

"If we're to move forward as a village, we must overcome this challenge as well. As the village leader, I want to take back my village with you."

The villagers began to erupt in cheers for Lamia's valiant display of conviction. The festive vibes were almost too powerful.

"That's wonderful." said Jax. "You guys will be in charge of handling the goons. I'm sure these guys have guns, so stick to a more defensive position. You don't have to kill them, or even win, just hold them off. Once we get rid of Hokkaido, the entire mafia will fall apart."

"Understood." Lamia nodded her head.

"So...What time are we moving out?" asked Colt.

"As soon as we can. Since Hokkaido wants the apples today, we can't afford to waste time."

"Alright then. Men, help me prepare our Sandbox Pods." Lamia walked away with her two large guards.

Everyone began to go their separate ways, leaving only Jax and Colt.

"Jax? What makes you so sure that we can trust the info that dude gave you?" asked Colt.

"I'll admit that I'm a little skeptical about his intel as well. However, we don't really have a choice but to believe him. Without this information, we're not doing anything." muttered Jax as he cleaned his glasses.

"I guess you have a point. Is there a contingency for this?"

"Of course. Most of his claims match up with things I've already gathered. By some cosmic stroke of luck, I got sent flying into a stone wall during our fight yesterday. It turns out that that wall belonged to Hokkaido's mansion." Returning his glasses to their destined location, he sat down on a nearby stump, "From the peek I stole, security was pretty tight."

"Alright, I guess we'll believe him."

Jax sighed, "Moving on, we need to strengthen our teamwork. Now that you have a core power, there's a lot more to consider in our strategies." "Wait a second, if we're going to work together, we need to improve on our teamwork."

Colt nodded in affirmation, "Right. I guess I should explain how it works. I can use my core energy to heal injuries on my body. That's it."

"That explains how you survived getting shot in the head. But it's pretty simple for someone as complicated as you."

"Tell me about it...It manifested before I even knew what hit me..."

"Don't worry about it, it's still an amazing power. I was just saying that it was simple. As for me, my core power lets me transform into a dragon hybrid. They're three stages of this, with each stage requiring more and more core energy to maintain.

Colt shuddered, "Should I be taking notes?"

"It's not that complicated. Stage one lets me cover my body in scales, and I get sharp claws. Stage two lets me grow wings and breathe fire, and that's it."

"No! What about stage three?"

"I don't want to imagine a plan where I have to use stage three. So as far as you're concerned, it doesn't exist."

"I can't be the only one who feels like he just got blue balled..." Colt groaned as he sat on another stump, "How did you even get that power? Stages and transformations? Most of the shit I've seen has been pretty straightforward."

"You have to focus during your manifestation period. That's all. Dakota helped me too."

"I should've known. What's her deal anyways? I respect her, a lot, and I've barely known her. There's just this aura about her, and she's strong as hell to boot. Why is someone so powerful out in an abandoned city?"

"I don't know, ask her."

Colt titled his head and let out a sigh, "I feel like you do know, but you just don't feel like telling me."

"You catch on quick. Just focus on Hokkaido for now."