Ren felt proud of himself as he beat his makeshift drum.

  “Let's be honest, a bowl in this situation was super random. This was obviously the only useful thing I could do with it!”

  The bowl in question hung from his pack at chest height. It was easy enough to punch a hole in its side and run a pack strap through it.

  He now had something to occupy his mind, which was perfect timing; those pesky bells and whistles were growing quite persistent. Whatever their warning – it had to be a warning, he was sure of it – Ren would persevere.

  "Listen, you Swamp Goliath, you're not going to deter me, I'm just gonna hang along your skirts here, you can keep all that glowing moss to yourself, okay?"

  As he traveled the no-man’s land, beating out a rhythm, the void was there – the aether resonating, again. It spoke to him, not in words; he just needed to – Ren stopped everything, slowly turning around, facing behind.

  “Frag my decks, I’m so –” the apocalypse rumbled after him—a tornado swirling with debris and dust, man-sized mosquitoes leading the way. Delicate wings, an oily sheen, propelled the monsters forward, defying physics; their legs, like dead and diseased vines, dangled beneath heads held proudly, extending bone straws fit to siphon the blood from an elephant.

  "Dude, I think you should have listened to those bells and whistles a little sooner."

  Knees to chest, arms pumping, palms, fingers flat – Ren made a snap decision, taking off at a right angle away from the treeline.

  "It's time to introduce this world to a disco classic –"

  Ren's feet dug into the ground. The forest at his back. The aether hung heavy. With a grunt, he sailed through the air, legs out front, his body charged with power, hitting the ground with a resounding thump. Ren stomped his feet. Deliberate in rhythm. Left, right, left. Each step rippling with energy and power. He sang in time with the beat, "Around, the world, A – round – the – wor – old!"

  The cloud of death closed in. Ren's speed reduced to a crawl. The blood beneath his skin is a beacon. The monsters would soon have their meal. Ren tingled all over, from his ears down to his toes, reveling in the nostalgia of his past and the euphoria of his imminent death, blood and hormones coursing through his body at unnatural levels, his fight or flight systems kicking into alien overdrive.

  The bells and whistles crescendoed. Death's kiss whispered in his ear; he could wait no longer.

  The ground cratered beneath his feet as Ren rocketed away. Laughter peeled from his lips as he distanced himself from the threat. Ren wouldn't run forever; he had a different plan. He slowed, allowing the swarm to bunch behind him, before arcing around to the forest, creating a track – he would run rings around these monsters, he felt invincible, charged with power, he could go on forever – he didn't need forever, he just needed time.

  When day gave way to night, Ren was flabbergasted; it was as if a switch had been flipped.

  Two moons glowed brightly, casting a twin light across the land, one a soft white, the other a deep, sea-blue.

  Lunar surfaces shifted, like living ink blots, faces grinning, frowning, or blank in their stare. Pleased at the excellent lighting conditions, Ren flipped around to run backward, checking on his blood sucking companions.

  What did he see: a dust cloud, translucent elliptical wings, and straws–deadly fire hoses.

  Ren pointed a finger, gallows grin growing, "Are you all here for me? I'm honored." Hands over his heart, he planted one foot in the ground, then spun around and continued forward.

  The second day came, when the sun appeared high in the sky. The night had been uneventful; the moons never moved; they just hung around, making faces. Which, if Ren was being honest with himself, and he always was, the moons were pretty awesome. It was the Sun he was suspicious of.

  "Hey, Sun! What's your deal anyway? Sunglasses? Is that some irony thing? The moons are way cooler, that's all I'm saying."

  Ren's world went black, not dark, but a complete absence of light

  "Ooof, ahhh! What in the – deck frag me!"

  Hands in the soil, Ren spat out a mouthful of pink grass. He pushed himself to his feet, then dusted his palms. The lights came back on. Out of the corner of his eye, Ren glanced at the sun; it casually looked the other way.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Inwardly sighing, Ren’s sixth – no, his danger sense reminding him, he couldn’t sit here for long. He lifted his head to the now-worn trail before him; he had to run – his life depended on it.

  “My bad, Sir Sun of the Solstice! I guess my actions have consequences!”

  Consequences, what am I talking about?

  Ren glanced in the direction of the Sun, as much as his retinas would allow. Seeing no reaction, he looked down at the makeshift instrument strapped to his chest.

  Are you seeing this, Mom? Did you come here too? After you –

  Ren had almost beaten his drum clean through, never stopping in his percussion. Music gave him joy, and the repetition calmed him.

  He wasn’t classically trained, barely able to read sheet music, but he loved to spin for a crowd – and he was good at it.

  Rubbing his chest, conscious of its energy, he thought about the feeling of bass permeating his body. Disturbed by the implications, he turned his thoughts to his mom and all the hours they spent together practicing music. Those lessons guided him even now, as he ran worlds or dimensions away.

  Inspiration gripped Ren as thoughts of his mother tangled with the pulsing in his core. He felt a familiar twitch in his hips, a smile on his lips – the show was about to begin.

  “I think the crowds are ready!”

  Ren flipped around to face the onslaught, tightly corded muscles propelling him backward with ease – his chest oscillating with power, the void whispered, and power began flowing into his limbs.

  He didn’t need speed, no, Ren needed that bass.

  It was as if that thought was all the excuse his core needed. It whomped in time with his drumming, rippling the aether around him. Ren released his drum; it was nothing but a toy, looking down at his hands, the void called.

  Swirling his fingers in the grass in opposing motions, his hips and shoulders swayed, letting the music thumping from his core guide his movements. Electricity arced through him, pooling in his fingers, their swirling increased – discs of light in the air, one yellow, one blue.

  The smile of a child, of wonder and discovery, Ren marveled at his creation.

  Dancing in place, sliding backwards in a blur, a figure skater of light and sound, Ren brought his hands up in an arc, before slamming them down, his decks shimmered into existence; an oasis of grungy, lucent neon cathodes; their home, a matte black thermoplastic case, a switchboard to another universe.

  His fingers moved, swiping faders and flicking nobs – EDM had been his life, I’ll never forget you, Mom, not then and not now.

  The sound pumped out of him now, with ear-shattering force; had this been a show, the audience would be puking in pain, and his surge protectors would be blowing in a shower of sparks – this was weapons-grade sound, and his crowd gave a blood thirsty buzz of approval.

  Ren glided over the ground, leaving an S-shaped trail in his wake. He slowly raised his head, looking up from his dancing and switches. He stopped on a dime, the crowd was ready, and so was he.

  Ren stood stock still, his hair blasted upward, reaching to the sky, their tips bouncing to the beat. His fingers sparked and his eyes glowed as he adjusted the dials, ramping up the intensity of the music.

  One beat flowed into the next, the time between them measured by the need in one's soul; the need for ecstasy, for release, for that moment. Ren drew it out, as his Mother had taught him – he could feel her here now, looking over his shoulder, as sound waves danced above his head, in an EKG of electric power.

  The tension couldn’t hold forever; something had to give, as an ocean of power gathered on the decks. A tear in reality opened above their spinning tables — a single, shimmering note emerging from the void beyond. A gallows grin split his face; the time was here, the time was now.

  Silence, stillness, the crowd frozen – not a breath, or a buzz, even the wind had stopped in the grass.

  “This one goes out to you, Mom!”

  The drop was here, what came next – the air sucked out of the room, a vacuum seal on the whole of the Coral Plains, nearby titan trees bent their colossal trunks towards Ren’s decks, a million, million stocks of grass bent in.

  WHOMP – sound mushroomed out from Ren, flattening everything in its wake.

  A sonic boom split the air as his shimmering musical summons broke the air-magic barrier. The missile impacted the crowd's center mass before detonating in a second mushroom cloud. Waves of sound intersected in a sea of chaos, cutting through the cartoon horde in a shower of blood and bone –

  Ren was lifted off his arms and feet, the release of power, throwing him backwards. He lay on the ground, splayed out like a grass angel, mouth agape, a hunk of gore dropped into his mouth. Disgusted but too tired to do anything about it, Ren drifted towards unconsciousness. The last thing he heard was a strange voice like an auto-tuner in his head.

  [ *SHING* ]

  [ Class Obtained --> Echo Runner ]

  [ Song Obtained --> Bombastic Bass Drop ]

  [ Song Obtained --> Electric Pace ]

  [ Passive Skill Obtained --> Anime Hair ]

  [ Passive Skill Obtained --> The Beat Must Go On ]

  [ Echo Runner Level 10! ]

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