Tri awakens leaning on a park bench as he stares out at the lake in a daze as he forces himself up He looks around and spots the punk lying down next to him on the same bench still unconscious as he lays with his mouth open. He stands and checks the watch, noticing the now rusted coin still stuck inside.
“What the? Edmond, hey Edmond!” Tri yells out as he stares at the watch. “What the hells going on?”
“Tri!” Saffy yells out.
Saffy runs up to Tri carrying canned drinks in her hand dropping them as she leaps up and grabs hold of Tri. “Your okay, you were unconscious and asleep so I….”
“I’m fine get off.” He says blushing slightly.
“Sorry, I’m just happy okay.” Saffy grins and releases Tri picking up the canned drinks and sitting on the bench. “So, how’re you feeling?”
“I feel a little warm, it feels odd though,” Tri says rubbing his head. “I might have a fever or something.”
“I don’t think it’s a fever,” Saffy says. “When you turned back you were warm, almost burning even.”
“It’s because of the rejection.” The punk says waking up and reaching for a drink. “Because you pumped out more power than you could handle, your Phantom took on the feedback and took the damage for you.”
“What the?” Tri asks.
“Basically, the guy’s in recovery mode, so he’s basically unconscious for now.” He says seriously. “It happens when the user pumps out too much power, normally the user takes the blowback and almost dies but it’s unusual for a Phantom to suffer the affects.”
Tri walks up and stares at the punk. “And how do you know this?”
“Because of the Prof’s tests.”
“Tests?” Saffy asks.
He turns to face her as he opens the drink. “Well, when the Prof first showed up he tested the Boss and everyone else, deciding which one of us could handle the Phantomizer.”
“And you all voluntarily did it?” Tri asks.
“When we saw the Boss transform, it was amazing. We all looked up at him and we all wanted to stand on his level.” He says taking sips.
Tri stares down at him and then at the watch on his arm. “You all wanted this?”
He smirks. “Of course, that power. With it, one could change the world, do anything. We tested it and we’re impervious to conventional weapons and we can still cause damage.”
“So, you want to take over the world?” Saffy asks.
“No, we want power. We want to use that power to cause a revolution that’ll save the world from its current path.” He forces himself to stand. “Welp, I lost and now it’s time for me to go.”
“Go where?” Saffy asks.
“I have to make my reports and turn this into the Prof to see if he can fix it.” He says walking off as he holds up the broken Phantomizer as it crumbles away. “If we meet again, I’d like to try my hand at beating you.”
“Really? I doubt I’d be able to even transform again.” Tri says holding out the watch.
“As long as the coin’s intact, you should be able to transform if everything works right.” He says.
He walks off taking sips from his drink along the way as Tri and Saffy watch on staring as he walks off.
“Shouldn’t we stop him?” Saffy asks.
“No, there’s nothing we can do even if we wanted to,” Tri says as he holds up his watch. “Hey Edmond, you hear all of this? Can you wake up and get up here!? Come on come out already!”
They both wait and there’s no response with Tri and Saffy simply staring up into the air waiting for Edmond’s ghostly visage to appear. Only for nothing, only the wind and time passes at the pair wait around with Tri sitting down on the bench exasperated.
“Don’t worry Tri, I’m sure Edmond’s okay,” Saffy says seriously.
Tri looks back on the watch and smirks, he then laughs loudly and stares up into the sky. “It’s over. With this, it’s all over! I’m free of this mess once and for all!”
“Tri?” Saffy asks.
“Saffy, this is a hidden blessing. Even if I can’t get the watch off yet I still have my freedom from this. I don’t have to fight anymore!”
Saffy stares at him. “But Tri, you can still transform.”
“No, it’s only possible that I can transform. And if Edmond’s not talking in my ear, then I don’t have to worry about fighting anymore.”
Saffy stands. “But you were the one who wanted to fight. Edmond told you, he didn’t want to fight with someone half-hearted.”
“Saffy?”
“Tri look at yourself, do you want to fight or do you want to run away!?” Saffy yells. “Edmond sacrificed himself for you and here you are calling it a blessing and using it as an excuse to run away.”
“Run away?” Tri asks.
“You keep doing it, you run away and then look back regretting your actions,” Saffy says. “Tri, please stop.”
Tri stands and stares at Saffy. “Sorry, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll stop running away, I won’t call this a blessing.”
“Good,” Saffy says with a grin. “Now, what’re we going to do?”
Tri sighs. “I’m going to handle this. Saffy, you don’t have to involve yourself in this mess any longer.”
“But Tri…”
“No, I’ll find some way to bring Edmond back. If worse comes to the worst than, I’ll figure something out no matter what.” Tri says happily.
Meanwhile while sitting on a bus the punk stares at the broken mess of a watch in his hands as he sighs loudly. He stares out of the window thinking of excuses and how he’ll explain the situation, and how he’ll be able to get a second chance.
The bus stops and he gets off walking onto the streets as he walks into an alleyway. “Damn it, this is a mess.”
“It is because you failed your assignment.” A voice says coming out from above. “You failed to kill the target, and you had a precious piece of equipment damaged.”
“Prof? Where’s your voice coming from?”
“Because of this and because your oafish Boss won’t deal with it, I’ll deal with it myself.”
A figure appears above and a large claw descends from above reaching out for the punk. A large claw wraps around him and lifts him up into the air as the figure fades away disappearing into nothingness.
As he disappears a speaker falls off of his clothes and onto the ground. “Well, if you’re going to be a useless peon, then you can at least feed the beast to fuel my plans. But you can’t hear me, any more can you? I’ll just have to have someone pick up the pieces in a bit, but trust me your sacrifice is not in vain.”
