ZERO ONE: ONE HOPE!

BOOOOOOMMMMM!

The massive explosion shook the entire district. The floor trembled violently, nearly knocking Hariel and his crew off their feet. Glasses on the tables fell and shattered. People on the street screamed in panic, running for cover.

From a distance, a thick plume of black smoke billowed high into the sky from a large research building, turning the calm dusk into an apocalyptic scene.

"WHAT WAS THAT?! IS THE CITY COLLAPSING?!" Bolt yelled, his face pale as a sheet.

Instead of backing away, a wide grin spread across Hariel's face.

"Looks like..." he answered in a strangely calm tone, his eyes narrowing towards the source of the chaos, "...someone just blew something up in a very, very spectacular way."

Seeing his expression, Pipe immediately shouted from behind a pile of junk. "Don't be crazy, Captain! That's obviously dangerous!"

"Dangerous?" Hariel chuckled, as if the word were an invitation. "I'm just going to take a quick look, it seems like fun! Hehe."

Without waiting any longer, Hariel dashed outside, heading towards the chaos. Outside, the situation was absolute mayhem. Alarms blared loudly. People were running in a panic.

"Whoa... whoa... what in the world is happening here?" Hariel muttered, amazed.

He overheard a few people talking. "I heard... it's the work of that mad scientist from the north tower again..."

A mad scientist, huh...? Hariel thought, the grin on his face widening.

As he was navigating through the crowd, his eyes caught something else. A swift movement on the rooftops of Gizmograd's buildings.

A young man with silver hair was running nimbly, chased by several people in black uniforms. The young man was carrying a strange device in his hand, which he occasionally used to hinder his pursuers.

Who's that? Hariel thought, his adventurer's instinct flaring up. Looks like... he's in big trouble.

And without a second thought—because that's just how his brain worked—he immediately changed direction and broke into a sprint, looking for a way up to the roofs. After successfully climbing an emergency ladder and leaping onto the first roof, he yelled at the top of his lungs.

"HEY! YOU UP THERE! WAIT!"

The silver-haired youth turned in surprise, nearly slipping on a slick, steaming pipe. His face was pale and covered in sweat, but his ice-blue eyes looked incredibly sharp and calculating.

"Who are you?! Stay out of this!" the youth shouted, his voice breathless but still arrogant.

"I'm Hariel!" Hariel answered, easily leaping across a wide gap between buildings, landing as gracefully as a cat. "And it looks like you could use a little help!"

"I don't need it! I can handle these goons myself!" the youth retorted curtly, firing something from the strange device in his hand. The shot released a small shockwave that sent the pursuers into a brief state of confusion.

"You sure you can handle it alone?" Hariel smiled wryly, now running parallel to him on a different roof. "Looks like there are quite a few of them, and they've got you surrounded."

He was right. SWOOSH! From the side, a blue energy net was shot rapidly towards them both.

"Look out!" Hariel shouted reflexively.

With lightning-fast movement, he jumped, grabbing the silver-haired youth's arm and shoving him aside, just before the energy net could hit them.

"Th... thanks..." the youth said, slightly shocked and embarrassed at almost being caught.

"You're welcome! Thank me later!" Hariel replied with a wide grin. "For now, let's just get out of here! A rooftop chase like this is actually pretty fun!"

They now ran together, crossing the labyrinth of Gizmograd's rooftops. Leaping from one building to another, swinging on large pipes, and sliding down slanted metal surfaces.

"What's that cool gadget you're carrying?" Hariel asked between leaps.

"It's a prototype for my portable teleportation device," the youth answered with a hint of pride. "Unfortunately... it's not one hundred percent perfect, and the battery is almost dead."

"Teleportation?! The kind that lets you move instantly?!" Hariel's eyes widened in amazement. "That's so cool! Make me one later, okay? One with a stealth mode!"

"We can talk about that after we're safe! Focus on escaping first!" the youth snapped, annoyed by Hariel's misplaced enthusiasm.

They kept running, until they finally arrived in front of... a giant, vertically rotating gear. Its teeth were as sharp as giant razors, spinning viciously as if ready to grind anything that touched its path. Its roaring sound was deafening.

"We have to jump onto one of its teeth to escape!" the silver-haired youth shouted, pointing to the part of the gear that was moving upwards.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Hariel yelled in disbelief. The choice sounded like suicide.

He glanced back—their pursuers were getting very close.

"There's no other choice! Hurry!" the youth urged.

Hariel stared at the giant gear. His heart pounded, not just from fear, but from the surging adrenaline.

This is insane. This is absolutely insane.

But in a corner of his heart, a spark of excitement ignited even brighter. A wry smile spread across his face.

If this is how I die... at least it'll be the coolest story ever!

Without waiting any longer, he followed the silver-haired youth's lead. He ran hard to the edge of the roof, and then he leaped.

His body hung in the air for a moment—a silent beat amidst the roar of machinery—and as his feet landed with a thud on the surface of the rotating gear, his anxiety instantly transformed into a wave of pure elation.

"Woooaaahh! This... this is totally crazy... but also fun!"

He slipped a little but managed to hold on by gripping tight. The wind whipped his face fiercely, lifting them upwards like the most dangerous amusement park ride in the world.

"THIS IS AWESOME! MAN, I FEEL LIKE I'M ON A RIDE AT GIZMOLAND!" he screamed while laughing, though his face was still pale.

"Don't be so loud, you idiot!" the silver-haired youth snapped, though an irrepressible, thin smile appeared at the corner of his lips. "If you keep shouting, they'll find our position!"

After a few rotations that felt like an eternity, the gear slowed slightly as it reached its peak.

"Now! Jump!" the youth shouted.

They both leaped, landing on a hidden metal platform. They had made it.

"Hah... hah... OH MAN! I can't believe it... but that... was incredible!" Hariel laughed as he sat down, trying to catch his breath. "I thought I was going to die, but... it was like a nightmare theme park ride—in the best possible way!"

"You're insane," the silver-haired youth said, smiling faintly. "But... it seems we made it. They won't find us here."

For now... they were safe.

"By the way," Hariel finally said, "What's your name, anyway, my Crazy Silver-Haired Scientist Friend?"

The youth looked at Hariel, then a thin, unreadable smile appeared on his lips.

"My name... is Niki," he answered softly. "Niki Stella."

Niki then guided Hariel along the hidden platform to a simple metal door. With a tool like an electronic screwdriver, he opened the door and pushed Hariel into the darkness.

The lights turned on automatically, illuminating a vast room. This was Niki's private workshop.

The ceiling was high, the walls covered in scribbled formulas and strange machine sketches. A steel workbench was cluttered with a pile of advanced tools, flickering blue holograms, and cables dangling like mechanical vines. Giant shelves were filled with ancient books and lab bottles containing glowing liquids.

"What... what is this place?! A secret base?!" Hariel asked, his eyes sparkling with admiration. He had completely forgotten his fatigue.

"It's my private workshop," Niki answered flatly, walking past a pile of components. "One of them."

"Incredible..." Hariel muttered. His eyes immediately locked onto a strange tool on the table—a large wrench with a pulsing blue crystal core.

Without thinking, he picked it up.

"Wow! What's this? A black-hole-making wrench?" he exclaimed, brandishing it in the air as if it were a lightsaber.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

Niki's sharp, panicked voice made Hariel jump.

With a lightning-fast movement, Niki was beside him and snatched the sonic wrench from Hariel's hand. "It's not a toy! One wrong button press and this thing could disassemble the molecular bonds of a screw at the far end of this room!"

"Oh... cool," was Hariel's only response, not looking scared at all.

His eyes immediately shifted to another object that caught his attention: a small, silver metal cube hovering low over a magnetic pad.

"What about this one?" he asked, his curious finger already reaching out...

"NO!"

This time, Niki moved even faster. He dashed over and slapped Hariel's hand away just before his finger could touch the cube. He then snatched the cube and hid it in his pocket.

Niki massaged his temples, his face looking extremely tired and frustrated. "You really are... do you have no instinct to not touch other people's things? Especially things in a 'mad scientist's' workshop?"

"But it looked cool!" Hariel defended with an innocent face. "What was that thing? A mini-bomb?"

"It's a prototype for a gravity grenade," Niki hissed, staring at Hariel sharply. "Now, could you please stand still over there and not touch anything... for just five seconds?"

Hariel held up both his hands in surrender, grinning wide. "Okay, okay, I won't touch anything else. Promise!"

After seeing Hariel finally stand still, Niki took a long sigh. He walked to his cluttered desk, his gaze turning serious again.

Seeing the change, the grin on Hariel's face slowly faded. He looked at Niki's tense back and his reflection on the metal surface—a face that looked incredibly weary. The humorous moment seemed to evaporate, replaced by the seriousness of their actual situation.

"So," Hariel asked again, his voice now calmer and more serious. "Why were you being chased by such tight security forces anyway? And that big explosion... was that your doing too?"

Niki was silent for a moment, his hands stopping their movement. He stared at his tired reflection on the metal surface of the desk.

"I... was working on something dangerous, something I shouldn't have been," he answered in a low voice. "They aren't the city's official security forces."

"Dangerous, huh?" Hariel was only more intrigued. "I love dangerous things! And who are they?"

"Something that could potentially change this world forever," Niki continued, ignoring Hariel's question. "And there's another party that wants it too. They call themselves The Gear Phantoms."

Before Hariel could continue, a loud, heavy thud suddenly slammed against the workshop's metal door from the outside.

BOOM!

The sound was so strong it made some of the small tools on the shelves fall.

Hariel and Niki instantly froze. The atmosphere, which had started to calm down, immediately turned tense again.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two more thuds, this time much louder, slammed against the same door. The thick metal door now seemed to be slightly warped inward, and some of the bolts on its hinges were visibly shaking.

Muffled, angry shouts began to be heard from the other side.

"Damn it!" Niki hissed softly, his already tense face turning pale as a sheet. His eyes looked in horror at the door that was being brutally battered.

"They found us this quickly!"