After hours of paperwork, the events of the day continued to haunt Shinobi. He couldn't wrap his head around Allen’s ability. If his power only granted him strength and speed, where did the suits, the shifting weapons, and the capacity to fly and manipulate fire come from?

  “Any word from the higher-ups?” General Titan asked as he walked through the door.

  Shinobi shook his head. “They’re staying silent. I haven't reported Allen’s strange elemental shifts yet; I only listed him as having massive strength, sharp reflexes, and inhuman speed. On another note, the vote count for America and Oceania is in. The good news is you’re in the lead. The bad news...”

  Shinobi trailed off, hesitating for a moment before handing a flyer to Titan.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Shinobi sighed. “Calibur has entered the race as well. That puts us in a real bind if we want to follow through with the plan.”

  Titan crumpled the flyer in his fist and glared at Shinobi. “What about the new guy? What did the big shots decide?”

  “I got a call from City A... they’ve assigned Allen F-Rank. He’s officially dead last in the global hero rankings.”

  Titan punched the wall, his fist sinking through the drywall.

  “Easy... Allen has A-Rank strength at the absolute minimum—likely higher. It’s only a matter of time before public opinion forces them to change it.”

  Pulling his fist from the wall, Titan leaned over Shinobi’s desk with a forced, jagged smile. “Time is exactly what we don't have. What the hell do we do if Calibur wins the election? We’d have to wait another year just for me to run again.”

  Shinobi rubbed his eyes, staring intensely at Titan. “There’s another option. We find Firmament.”

  “Are you serious? It was pure luck that he showed up for that Lupus Mega, and I already told you—he vanished without a trace. It was like he never existed.”

  Shinobi nodded. Titan was right; Firmament appeared and disappeared like a ghost. Searching for him would be like looking for a needle in the heart of the ocean.

  “When you saw him... what was your impression? What rank would you give him?”

  “Not even S-Ranks make Category 1 monsters run in fear,” Titan muttered. “He has to be above that. Maybe S-X... or worse, a Rank X.”

  Shinobi’s eyes widened.

  In the Federation, S-Rank heroes possessed the power to level a country. S-X Ranks had the strength to shatter a continent. Ranks F through A were typically for those still discovering or mastering their abilities, with A-Rank usually being the ceiling for most.

  The Federation had originally designed the ranking system to give heroes a baseline for their power, but with the emergence of figures like Calibur, who far exceeded A-Rank, they added two more: S and X. The S-X Rank was added later as a middle ground—stronger than a country-killer, but weaker than a world-ender.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Rank X was the absolute pinnacle, and there was only one way to describe it: a walking cataclysm capable of destroying the world.

  “He couldn't be a Rank X... could he?”

  Titan shrugged. “Don’t ask me. He’s not on the hero list, and he’s not on the villain list. I doubt anyone’s even been able to catalogue him.”

  Shinobi leaned back in his chair. “I’ll ask my brother to see what he can scrape from the Federation’s database.”

  Titan nodded and left. As he watched him go, Shinobi felt a chill down his spine at the thought of Firmament being X-Ranked. An X-Rank only needed a "sigh" to eradicate anything below a Category 7 monster, but that same sigh would leave an entire city in ruins.

  Shinobi turned his attention to the Federation’s hero roster, scrolling through the F-Ranks, but something didn't add up.

  “They’re scrubbed his data.”

  Allen, the newly designated F-Rank, wasn't on the list at all. Shinobi’s distrust of the Federation and its high-ranking "gods" deepened. He grabbed his phone and dialed a secure line.

  “Hey, big brother.”

  Shinobi nodded, keeping the phone pressed to his ear as he stared out the office window.

  “Don’t worry, I’m fine. The Federation still hasn't figured out that the villain Crimson Shadow is my brother. I need your help with... well, you know what.”

  Shinobi stifled a laugh, looking down at the empty streets. “Don’t say that. The Federation might be incompetent at gathering intel, but calling them that is a bit much.”

  He spotted a faint red dot on a nearby rooftop and smiled. “Found you.”

  He gave a thumbs-up to the distant figure. “You know I’m one of the few people who can actually track you down. What kind of brother would I be if I couldn't?”

  Shinobi placed a thumb drive on the windowsill.

  “Yeah, it’s on the ledge. Dig out everything you can. Titan’s okay, but the news about Calibur has him on edge. Finding out they gave the new guy the lowest rank nearly made him snap. Don't be surprised if a few cars end up trashed tomorrow.”

  He nodded again. “Exactly. That new hero is the same one who took out Tortus Petra and Vermis Terra. For some reason, they’re burying his file.”

  Shinobi closed the window and sat back down.

  “No, the hero list thing is because we want to find Firmament for help. As for Allen... it’s curiosity. Besides, you must have seen it—his suit changed. He looked just like the hero who took down the Gigax Leo.”

  Shinobi smiled. As he listened to his brother, he opened a folder on his computer and pulled up a photo.

  “I see you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

  He stared at the image: a man in a yellow suit with a long-handled hammer resting on his shoulder. In front of him lay the massive white-maned, red-eyed lion—the Gigax Leo.

  “The theory holds up. Allen could be the one who killed the Gigax Leo when the Federation refused to deploy the S and S-X Ranks. The dates line up with when Firmament started appearing. It’s possible the man in yellow, Firmament, and Allen are all the same person. But I still don't get why the Federation covered up the Gigax Leo incident... or why they're hiding Allen’s data and whatever they have on Firmament.”

  Shinobi looked at the window. A figure dressed in identical gear but in deep crimson stood there. The man took the drive, tucked it away, and pulled off his mask.

  A jagged scar ran from the man's left eye down to his lower lip. His hair and eyes were a dull brown.

  “I’ve told you not to show me that scar, brother,” Shinobi muttered into the phone. “Every time I see it, I want to kill Calibur a little more slowly.”

  The man shook his head and spoke through the line.

  “You almost lost your eye, brother. It’s a miracle a Category 4 showed up to distract him for those few seconds, or Calibur would have ended you a long time ago.”

  The man pulled his mask back on and left a stack of papers pinned to the windowsill with a safety pin. Shinobi hung up as his brother leaped from the ledge to a nearby roof. Once he was gone, Shinobi grabbed the papers. He began to scan them, his pace quickening as he realized what he was looking at. His hands began to shake.

  He dialed General Titan immediately.

  “We have a massive problem... Calibur just killed a Category 5.”