A sharp alarm echoed through headquarters.
Volcan stood alone in the vast command chamber, molten cracks faintly glowing along his arms as a holographic warning flared to life.
⚠ UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED — DESERT ZONE ⚠
"…Desert?" Volcan muttered, eyes narrowing. "Tch. Of course."
There was no one else. No backup. No discussion.
That made the choice simple.
He stepped outside, heat rising around his feet. The ground beneath him swelled, magma pushing upward as Volcan formed a miniature volcano under his boots. With a sharp stomp—
BOOM.
The volcano erupted, launching him forward like a living missile. Each impact created another eruption beneath him, chaining explosions across the land as he rocketed toward the desert, faster than any aircraft.
The desert was silent.
Too silent.
Endless dunes stretched beneath the burning sun. No ruins. No creatures. No visible threat.
"…Nothing?" Volcan scoffed. "HQ really sent me for this?"
He closed his eyes, power spreading outward like heatwaves, scanning the sand itself—
A sudden killing intent surged.
Volcan twisted on instinct.
CRASH.
A massive fist of compacted sand and stone smashed through the air where his head had been, missing him by inches. The shockwave tore a trench through the dunes.
Volcan slid back, boots carving lines in the sand.
"…So you're hiding."
He turned.
A man stood atop a dune, arm still transformed into a giant sandstone limb, grains constantly shifting and hardening. His grin was wide. Too confident.
"Heh. Nice reflexes," the stranger said. "Name's SHIFT."
Volcan clenched his fists. "State your purpose."
SHIFT laughed. "Purpose? Nah. I just felt like testing my power."
The air around Volcan ignited.
"Wrong place."
He slammed his fist into the ground.
VOLCANIC ERUPTION.
A pillar of molten force exploded upward toward SHIFT—but SHIFT raised his arm, his hand shifting into an enormous stone wall, blocking the blast head-on. Lava splashed and hardened against it.
SHIFT smirked. "See? Can't touch me."
Volcan stared.
He can shift into anything… and that's all he does?
Before he could move—
BAM.
SHIFT's stone fist crashed into Volcan's chest, driving him straight into the ground, sand and rock erupting skyward.
Volcan coughed, then grinned.
"My turn."
Another eruption fired from his palm—this one direct. SHIFT didn't dodge.
The blast hit him square in the torso.
The impact was catastrophic.
SHIFT was launched hundreds of miles away, his body skipping across the land like a thrown asteroid before vanishing beyond the horizon.
Volcan exhaled. "Over already?"
He started walking forward—
Too late.
A hand slammed into his back.
Not sand.
Not stone.
Something impossibly dense.
SHIFT reappeared, arm transformed into a blackened sandstone mass, pressure screaming through the air.
"I shifted it," SHIFT sneered. "Ten thousand times denser."
BOOM.
Volcan was sent flying—past the clouds, past the atmosphere—
Into space.
He collided with a distant planet at full force.
The planet cracked.
The core shattered.
And the world exploded.
The explosion consumed everything.
Yet within the collapsing firestorm, something remained.
Volcan.
The energy of the destruction didn't erase him—it gathered around him, compressing, fusing, reshaping.
His body burned away.
His essence did not.
When his eyes opened again, they glowed like collapsing stars.
CORE had awakened.
"...So that's how far I go."
Using the remaining supernova force, CORE turned—and launched himself back toward the desert, riding the explosion's recoil like a god descending.
SHIFT stood in the ruined dunes, arms crossed, confidence restored.
"Took you long enough. Guess you didn't—"
The sky split open.
CORE landed silently.
SHIFT froze.
"…What the hell are you?"
CORE stepped forward.
"No volcano," he said calmly.
"No eruption."
He threw a normal punch.
The air screamed.
The impact struck SHIFT with the force of a meteor annihilating a planet.
There was no scream.
No resistance.
SHIFT—and the desert itself—ceased to exist.
Silence followed.
CORE turned away, energy dimming.
"…Mission complete."
He rose into the sky, heading back toward headquarters, leaving nothing behind but a crater that would never fill.
---
Prime called a meeting a few hours after the following incident that just happened. "Do you all know why we're here?" He asked
Core read the room and answered "is this about typhoon? I mean yeah i get it, he's not here for the past few days. Not to mention what happened to me earlier aswell"
Tidal asked "nice look bro. But to the main topic, typhoon has a life of his own, and its not like we own him, just let him live his own life"
Omega muttered "so it seems that both of you have not a single idea to what's happening right now.."
"To put it simply.... His energy had Vanished"
Stream was in shock "wait what!? So you're saying he's...."
Prime broke the rough atmosphere "missing, we can't throw random conclution without proof"
"But for now... All we can do is wait"
---