"Guys?" Taro lifted his head slowly, his gaiter covered in blood.
"Don't worry, kid. I've gotcha." Alex scooped up Taro in her arms, her eyes saddened at the exhausted teen.
"Everything hurts." Taro chuckled before the pain shooting through his lungs threw him into a coughing fit.
"Just shut up, dude." Chase looked over to his friend, chuckling despite his worried expression. "Go to sleep or something."
Taro nodded. "I'll tell you guys about it later."
He closed his eyes as his muscles relaxed, resting on Alex's arms.
"That was fast." Chase shrugged as Alex let out a small smile.
"I think we should be able to get back to the surface if we just keep walking straight." Alex said, nodding towards the end of the hallway as the two conscious boys agreed.
Every now and then, the group would pass by a door, sometimes sporting a large window next to it.
Out of curiosity, Chase would peer into these windows as he passed, surprised every time by the sight of dozens of green tubes, surrounded by screens plastered onto every wall.
The screens showed heart rates, Spirit levels, and other vitals, presumably of the people in the tubes, though Chase couldn't see anyone in the tubes that were lit up.
"Try to keep moving, Chase." Hendrix put a hand on Chase's shoulder, his mind replaying Tripp's death in his mind at every glance of the green tubes.
"Yeah… Okay." Chase reluctantly agreed, examining the fear in Hendrix's eyes as he turned away from the window.
The group finally reached the end of the hallway, where they followed a set of stairs up to a sign with a glowing red "EXIT" sign above it.
Alex pushed the door open with her shoulder, familiar dim lightbulbs beaming against their faces as they stepped through the doorway.
"Up there." Hendrix pointed towards the stone staircase to their right, sunlight intruding on the otherwise dark cave.
The group walked up the stairs before meeting that metal door Sev opened at the very beginning of this whole debacle.
Chase pushed it open, the rebels meeting a wall of noise.
"Bring pink hair back!" The protestors chanted rhythmically, holding up signs that now wore simple drawings of a masked Hendrix.
"Stop!" A guard turned to notice the group of rebels exiting the cave, pointing his rifle at Alex as he stepped back.
"Relax. We're leaving." Alex sighed, dragging her feet out into the grass as the boys followed.
The protestors paused, one after another noticing the rebels ducking under the tape.
"Pink hair, is that you?" One protestor asked.
"What did they do to you guys?" Another said.
The rebels went silent, entirely unprepared on how to answer the rebels.
Suddenly, the group saw someone pushing through the crowd, moving protestors aside as the occasional citizen exclaimed in annoyance.
The group stepped back, using what strength they had left to take a combative stance.
The force made their way to the front of the crowd-
"Tokyo News Channel Five, Reporter 4378 on the scene." A blonde woman with a microphone exclaimed as she pushed her way into the rebel's view.
A man wearing a hat pushed his way behind her, carrying a large camera rig on his shoulder which he seemed to be struggling with.
Chase smirked at the news logo on the side of the cameraman's rig as Reporter 4378 began to talk.
"Last time we saw you, three of this city's most respected Deputies, along with a Deputy from Kanagawa." Reporter 4378 continued. "Now, you come out battered and bruised, with the Deputies nowhere to be seen. Can you explain what happened in that cave? Did you find any secrets of the hidden world?!"
The reporter held her microphone up to Hendrix, awaiting an answer as the camera zoomed in on the now black-haired teen.
"Uhhh…" Alex looked around, trying to find any excuse to get out of talking.
"Well, you see…" Chase pushed his way into frame, fixing his gaiter over his nose. "Those guys were talking about world peace, this and that bullshit-"
"Um, please don't curse on live television." Reporter 4378 interrupted before letting the rebel continue.
"Oh shit, sorry… Anyways it was all a lie. They pushed us down these stupid tunnels and we got to fighting." Chase pulled out his pistols. "I used these babies right here to scare them off…"
Chase paused, contemplating his choice of words as he thought about the story Hendrix told him. "We tried to end it without hurting anyone, but sometimes you can't get around it."
Reporter 4378 nodded before turning to Hendrix. "And pink hair… Well… Black hair, I guess. What do you have to say to your fans?!"
Reporter 4378 pushed the microphone towards Hendrix, practically hitting his gaiter with the end of the device.
"Fans?!" Hendrix asked, equal parts confused and shocked.
"Yep! Your face is being plastered on every news channel in the state of Asia, and some in other states too! People are screaming your nickname in the streets! The Correctional Forces have even made a public statement about you!" Reporter 4378 ranted. "So what do you want your fans to hear?"
Hendrix thought for a second. He looked around at the protestors leaning against the caution tape, eagerly awaiting his response.
The Tokyo Tower stood in the background, standing tall over all that's happened today.
He looked to Chase, who put a hand on his shoulder and nodded.
The boy let out a sigh, closing his eyes for a second before looking straight into the camera.
"We fight for the used, the poor, the lied to, we fight for you." Hendrix pointed towards the camera as he continued. "The Correctional Forces lie to you like it's nothing. They take innocent lives on a daily basis. They imprison people for asking too many questions. We fight to end that."
The protestors looked at each other, a few moments of silence passing only broken by the low murmuring of the crowd.
"We stand with you!" One protestor said as the crowd erupted into a roar of cheer.
Hendrix's eyes widened as he watched the protestors throw up their signs, the afternoon sun beaming a victorious orange onto the crowd.
"Alright, alright." Reporter 4378 waved her hands at the crowd in an attempt to quiet them down as she turned back around towards Hendrix. "And now that your hair isn't so… Pink… What would you like people to call you?"
Hendrix's brow furrowed.
"Is that really important?" Hendrix thought, scratching the back of his head as he tried to think of an answer.
"This is perfect!" Chase thought, grinning through his gaiter. "I've been preparing for this moment since I was born!"
Chase pushed into the camera's view, Hendrix letting him take over after a few seconds of thinking.
"He's the Steel Reaper!" Chase screamed into the microphone as the crowd erupted into a roaring cheer once again.
"Steel Reaper! Steel Reaper!" The crowd chanted.
"And there you have it. The Steel Reaper stands firmly against the Correctional Forces, and-" Reporter 4378 paused as she put a finger to the device in her ear. "What's that…? We got taken off the air five minutes ago…? Goddammit!"
The reporter threw her microphone onto the grass as her and the cameraman trudged back through the crowd.
"Alright, let's make our way home." Alex smiled through her gaiter as she roughed up Hendrix's hair, starting the journey through the crowd.
The group walked through the crowd with surprising ease, the protestors pushing to the side to make way for the rebels.
"In all my years of fighting, I've never seen the public so united." Alex thought as she looked at the protestors on either side of them. "This is unheard of."
They got to the end of the crowd as Alex looked back to address the protestors.
"Make sure to scatter. Don't let the Correctional Forces track you." Alex nodded before the rebels jogged down an alleyway.
The protestors did as they were told, sprinting back into the alleyways they had come out of at the beginning of the organized protest.
The rebels turned into another alleyway, where they found their black van untouched.
Alex laid Taro down in the back row before hopping into the driver's seat, starting up the car with a stuttering hum.
She backed up, taking alleyway after alleyway while looking for security cameras all the while.
"I want to say that…" Alex pulled down her gaiter while she looked at the kids in the backseat through the rearview mirror. "You guys did great. All of you. No matter how many hiccups there were, you all pushed through until the very end."
Chase and Hendrix smiled, nodding before resting their heads on the headrests.
Even though the Correctional Forces had gotten Tokyo News Channel Five off the air before Hendrix spoke, the folktale of the Steel Reaper spread like wildfire. Before anyone could react, Hendrix's masked face was inescapable, from news channels demonizing him and his rebels for needless violence to people sneakily posting the slogan "We Fight For You" on VChat, the only social media platform open to citizens.