Nond's scream echoes continuously through the dark and foggy halls of the hidden Grandmaster base as he watches a dark figure raise what seemed to be a small knife over Chris's head. Chris has no time to react whatsoever, just standing there and looking dumbfounded at Nond. Nond, without thinking, pulls out one of his Proto-Pistols and shoots at the figure behind Chris, the energy shot flying by his shoulder. The figure disappears back into the pinkish fog that had filled the area, dropping its murder weapon. Chris quickly turns around to inspect the area, now starting to slightly panic, before noticing the knife on the ground. Nond walks up next to him, his breathing shaky.

  "A-Are you ok Chris-!? There was someone there... He was gonna kill you-!!" Nond stammers.

  Chris takes the knife and looks at it. He thinks about things in his head, examining the craftsmanship of the weapon before coming to a conclusion in his head; It was a throwing knife, a very well-crafted one, and seemingly handmade.

  "Stay on guard, Nond.... I think we found our Grandmaster." Chris says shortly.

  Nond freezes and frantically looks around the room, trying to perhaps spot the enemy among the thick clouds.

  "You have that watch, right? What other features does it have?" Chris asks quickly.

  "Uhhh... W-Well... Let's see... It has an electromagnetism radar, it has sonar, a fshlight, it can-" Nond starts.

  "IT HAS A FLASHLIGHT-!? WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THAT BEFORE-!?" Chris shrieks at Nond, completely and utterly outraged.

  "Oh, right, I didn't think about that-" Nond says casually.

  He lifts his arm and presses a button on his watch, a bright light now emanating from its side. Immediately after turning it on, a magenta silhouette can be seen standing a little way away from Chris and Nond, facing the two of them silently. Nond yelps and runs behind Chris, still holding the fshlight over Chris's shoulder.

  "Who are you!? Tell us!! Get off of me Nond!" Chris shouts.

  Chris had turned to look back at Nond, reprimanding him, before turning to look back at the silhouette... Only to see that it has vanished.

  "What the- I didn't even hear him! Where'd you go-!?" Chris yells aloud.

  Suddenly, the walls start to move away, increasing the size of the room. Not long after, the floor begins to descend in separate pieces, it was unclear what was holding them up. Chris and Nond stumble around a bit before falling onto the floor from loss of bance. When Nond looks again, his head was hanging off of the edge of the ptform they were now on, screaming as he quickly sits up.

  "I can't see the bottom... if we fall off of one of these things, we're so done for..." Nond whimpers.

  "....How the hell did they build all this in secret...?" Chris wonders to himself.

  "You wished to know my name." A soft male voice calls out.

  The voice catches Chris and Nond's attention, causing them to look up at a higher ptform. The fog had dispersed a bit from the walls opening up, making the figure visible. It was a thin man wearing what seemed to be a traditional ninja outfit with baggy bck pants and a sleeveless shozoku with fingerless gloves. He was also wearing a full head cowl, only his brown eyes showing from it. Along the shozoku and cowl were ashy purple accents that really stood out from his mostly bck outfit.

  "Grandmaster Alx is my name." The ninja states.

  "So your hunch was right on the money, Nond... This guy really is a Grandmaster..!" Chris whispers.

  "I-I wonder if h-he has powers... Like the o-other one..." Nond stutters fearfully.

  "The transgressions you have performed against Techway are unforgiveable. For this, you will perish by my hand." Alx says bnkly, drawing another knife from under his shozoku.

  "It's no use reasoning with him, get ready to fight!" Chris shouts.

  "Oh no..." Nond mumbles, gulping as he pulls out his two Proto-Pistols.

  The Grandmaster hops off of his ptform to another one that was adjacent to it, then to another, then another. He was moving at blinding speed. Chris hops down to a big ptform that seemed to be the middle of the endless looking room, Alx finally nding on the other side. Alx goes for the first blow, peeling out towards Chris at unthinkable speeds, barely giving him any time to react. Chris manages to put his arms up to block in time, Alx punches his arms, but the sheer speed and force causes Chris to slide backwards, almost flying off the edge of the ptform.

  "Ouch... What the hell are you made of!? Steel!?" Chris yelps, rubbing his arms.

  The ninja speedster does not respond, he was already going to attack Chris again. Nond was watching from his ptform, waiting for the right moment to try firing at Alx. In the moment that Alx moves, Chris manages to dive out of the way, making the Grandmaster stop abruptly at the edge of the ptform. Seeing his opportunity, Chris goes in for a strike, decking Alx right across the face. A popping sound is heard from his knuckle as he makes contact, causing pain to quickly fill Chris's hand. Alx had recoiled from Chris's attack barely catching himself from falling off the edge as he looks at the now screaming Chris. He gut-checks Chris with his knee before returning the punch across the face, then finishing by putting his hand on the side of Chris's face and smming him into the floor. He presses his body onto Chris as he readies his knife to jab into Chris's throat. Seeing as Alx had stopped moving, Nond takes this chance to attack, firing his Proto-Pistols at the stealth warrior. Alx sees the blue bolts heading his way and quickly backflips off of Chris and starts hopping around the ptforms again.

  "Ngh... Thanks Nond, you really saved me there..." Chris groans, holding his knuckles.

  Chris's knuckles definitely weren't broken, but he certainly wasn't prepared for Alx's face to be so hard.

  (Alright... I was unprepared st time... Next time, I'll be ready.) Chris thinks to himself, clearly not knowing how pain worked.

  As Alx blurs through the room, he starts to throw kunai knives towards Chris and Nond. Chris zigzags around the knives, trying to get closer to the ninja, while Nond dives around his ptform, trying desperately to dodge the oncoming projectiles while also avoiding falling off the edge of the ptform. Alx eventually stops throwing projectiles and zooms towards Nond this time, jumping from a ptform to try and perform a flying kick toward Nond's head.

  "Nond-!!!" Chris calls out.

  Nond screams and ducks instinctively, Alx flying right over his head, nding on another ptform. Confused, Alx turns around and lunges towards Nond again, who slides out of the way to avoid the oncoming attack. Alx flies past yet again, hitting his head on the side of another ptform, barely managing to grab on to the edge and pull himself up.

  "How is he...?" Alx wonders to himself.

  Alx eventually decides against attacking Nond, hopping around the room yet again to prepare for attack against Chris yet again.

  "Damn it... This guy just doesn't seem to stop...! He just keeps moving, it's getting annoying...!" Chris grumbles.

  Nond was watching very closely, if he focused hard enough, he was able to see Alx and which ptforms he was jumping to. He noticed a pattern, Alx would continuously jump in a set path to build up momentum to attack Chris with. He waits for the right moment... Before finally firing at the first ptform to the left of the main one. The shot hits Alx in the foot and makes him spiral off onto the main ptform yet again. He hits the floor and rolls next to Chris, rubbing his head as that was where most of the impact happened at on his body. Chris jumps at Alx and starts kneeing him in the face, grunting every time. After about 4 consecutive strikes, Alx grabs Chris's knee and puts him into a leglock, causing Chris to fall ft on his back. Alx then grabs Chris by the colr of his shirt and lifts him up, preparing to deal the final blow.

  "Guh... Hey... Speedy... Can I just say something real quick before you end it all...?" Chris groans.

  Alx seems to just stare for a bit before finally responding, his eyes unmoving from Chris's.

  "It is proper courtesy to allow you to do so. Go ahead." Alx says.

  Chris takes a deep breath before grinning.

  "Electro-Spark." Chris says before sticking one of his shock grenades onto Alx's chest and pushing him away.

  Chris falls onto his back again as Alx lets go of him, pushed away by Chris. The Electro-Spark grenade detonates on Alx, sending a rge bolt of electricity shooting through his body, making him spazz left and right. As his body freaks out, something slips out from his shozoku and ctters onto the floor. Alx, still feeling the effects of the electricity, drops to his knees, his muscles painfully contracting. Nond starts shooting at him, blue bolts of energy hitting Alx on various different points on his body. Scorch marks are left all over the Grandmaster's torso and limbs as he backs away towards the edge of the main ptform, a wheezy groan escaping his concealed mouth.

  "Mara... Keller... Forgive my failure..." Alx says in an airy tone before falling backwards off of the ptform and into the abyss.

  A loud thud is heard from the bottom of the dark pit before the ptforms start moving up again and the walls close back in to recreate the hallway again. Once the hall is finished rebuilding, the lights finally turn up, making the ends of the halls visible. Nond groans, sitting down on the floor and putting his hands to his face.

  "Oh my god... I killed a man... " Nond whimpers.

  Chris notices the object that Alx had dropped and heads toward it, picking it up. It was an iron key with a decent amount of weight to it. it had "#1" inscribed on the side.

  "What's this, I wonder...?" Chris inquires.

  Nond sees Chris holding the key and gets back up, holstering his guns as he walks towards Chris.

  "It looks like a key... #1.... Let's hold on to it, we might need it ter..." Nond suggests.

  "Sounds good." Chris accepts, putting the key into his pocket before the two of them look down the hall.

  "...How do you think Corry and Pool are doing?" Chris asks.

  "We can only hope that they're still alive..." Nond sighs...

  To be continued...