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He couldn't help but think of his friendship with François.

He first thought of when they met as newly 6th-grade students.

François had been as lonely as he was for different reasons.

But when they were assigned the same room, they found to have much in common.

Altin and François were innocent kids who did not mean harm to others yet struggled to find their place in society and express their thoughts.

François had always used his well-built body to protect the group of four.

When the first anomaly stopped that distant football game the year before, François had vigorously defended Altin and his team against Jean's.

When the dark hole anomaly had created mass panic in the school, he had protected Julien from being crushed by the panicked crowd of students reaching to leave the school.

When the gym was about to erupt into the most destructive application of the 5th force, Français had stayed behind in an attempt to save lives.

And now... he had protected Paul by blocking a knife strike with his body, pushing one of the guards aside so that they could all escape.

"Could I have done that? No..." Altin doubted he could have knocked that guard over. Altin had it easy, for his opponent was reluctant to kill him. He did not have to face an aggressive opponent with the knife already drawn.

The last few hours seemed like a dream to Altin, yet it all happened. Altin didn't even attempt to do a reality test. He instinctively knew that any real test would remind him of the cruel reality:

They had been kidnapped.

Now, François was dying.

They were trapped in a dark place where many had already died.

"Many died here already?"

A thought surfaced in his mind.

In this hopeless moment, in the tragedy that this situation had become, he thought: "Jurgen's men carried phones to communicate between themselves."

He saw in this thought his best ray of hope.

Bodies.

He had to find bodies.

Suddenly, he remembered seeing a body when they had yet to find the goodies. It was when they came across the first light anomaly. At that time, they all saw a charred body on the left.

"One of the guards that searched the warehouse before us."

He felt a strange hot wave filling him with strength and energy. They had avoided the area because it was still affected by dangerous-looking electric currents, but now...

Altin remembered that as they left the warehouse, the electric anomaly had moved...

"So the body must be reachable now..."

Altin awoke from his thoughts fully.

He shouted: "Paul, I know where to find a phone. FOLLOW ME!"

And he ran without looking back.

He ran as if his life depended on it because his friend's life depended on him;

He reached the 2nd alleyway, and 3rd rack in a record time;

He found the body.

It laid still and blackish in some places after being continuously roasted.

At the sight of the lifeless body, Altin felt instinctive disgust. His horror was great, but his fear of not being able to call for help quickly was even greater.

He suppressed his disgust and searched the vest of the body.

There he found it: a phone.

The phone, by some miracle, had survived.

Altin pushed the phone out of its sleep mode; the phone was locked.

But it didn't matter; emergency calls could still be passed without unlocking the phone.

For a moment, Altin forgot what to do.

Then, Altin's focus returned to this single thought: "I have to call the police and have them come ASAP with an ambulance."

He made the call...

He put the phone on speaker...

One second...

Two seconds...

"Hello, this is the national police. What is your emergency?" The phone had spoken. A voice had spoken.

His friends and himself will be rescued.

Altin didn't know what to say. Where should he begin?

He took the deepest inspiration he could, repressing the overwhelming feelings of fear.

He said in the most neutral tone: "Please listen very carefully. I am about to get killed. My name is Altin Boucher. I was abducted by four men armed with knives with my 3 friends. We are high school students. We are trapped in what appears to be a warehouse. The men must be a dozen in numbers. One of us is grievously wounded; he needs immediate assistance. Please come as fast as possible!"

The voice on the phone gasped."That's not a joke, right?"

Altin replied in no time: "NO! HURRYYY! "

The voice took the request seriously: "I understand. Wait a moment." A second later. "The call is being prioritized. You are being listened to by four agents. Do you know where you are?"

Altin didn't know. For a moment, he didn't know what to reply.

However, Paul, who had kept silent all the time and listened to the conversation, knew.

"We know!', Paul said, "We are probably at a warehouse located at 1, zone Industrielle Montblanc, code 93521 !"

Altin stared at Paul with a surprised look.

Paul shrugged his shoulders and said: "While we searched the boxes, I realized that many of them shared this address on their label. So this is probably the address."

Altin thanked Paul's wits. "I should have thought of it, too." Unfortunately, Altin had been too worried and too much a hurry to care.

The phone voice replied: "There is indeed a warehouse. We are sending help. Please tell us everything you know."

Altin motioned to Paul to come back by François's, and as they walked back, he started to describe what he knew of the men that abducted him. He warned the police that they should be careful when facing them. He explained how he woke up with his friends in a detention room. Finally, he gave the address of the map that Paul had found - the one Jurgen didn't want them to know.

Having reunited with François and Julien, Altin then asked when help would come, and the voice said they would need 30 minutes to gather two patrol cars with armed officers. The ambulance would arrive at about the same time.

But all they could hear was this:

30 Minutes.

It seemed a short time, but it was an extremely long time for the boys. François had already slipped out of consciousness!

"Please... François, our friend, please come faster... we aren't sure how long he can hold on. We need you!" Julien pleaded through the phone; he had noticed that François had become pale and cold. He was losing too much blood.

The voice could only apologize and ask them to continue to press against François's injury to avoid further blood loss.

Altin then put the phone on the ground.

He sat next to François... he held his hand. "François... listen. Hear my voice. Hey!" Altin shook his hand.

François seemed to wake up, but his eyes were still half-closed. "Hey, Altin. It's you, right? I'm fine, don't worry. I'm super fine..."

Altin's voice trembled with pain: "I know you are. You heard the phone, right? Help is coming soon; you just have to hold on. You'll go to a hospital and recover in no time."

François could feel the pain in Altin's voice, but he could barely think. It was as if he had taken sleep drugs after staying awake for 3 days: he had hardly any energy. Everything seemed blurred around him.

"Will we, "François said, "Play football together again?" He asked.

Julien and Paul could not bear to watch. They were crying.

"We will... we will," Altin promised.

"You promise?" François said.

"I do.... I won't be late..."

Altin cried. It was... too much to bear.

He struggled to say: "François... remember how you wanted to be a superhero and fight injustice ?"

François was only able to reply: "Um."

Altin continued his story: "You will be... you will master the 5th force. You have saved us already. You will save others too. You're good at manipulating gravity, right? I'm sure you'll fly in the future."

"Um... that would be great." A soft, powerless voice replied. Even talking now required much effort for François. He felt so sleepy.

Seconds passed without anybody saying anything... Altin, Paul, and Julien could find no word.

"5 minutes... I'm sorry. The army's coming," The voice on the phone said softly. The voice had heard the whole discussion.

In fact, the whole call center had heard the discussion. The agents were heartbroken.

Exceptionally, after insistent and urgent requests, they had managed to enlist the army's help, whose base was nearer than that of the police.

François fell asleep again.

The friends did not say a word.

They cried silently.

But François's heartbeat could still be heard. There was hope.

A few minutes later... distant sirens and crushing tracks could be heard.

The sound of cars speeding away rang right after that.

And Altin knew in one part of his mind that Jurgen and his men were escaping.

The vehicle gate of the warehouse exploded.

A trunk had enforced the gate, blowing the metal apart.

Men in green spread out.

Blinding light filled the whole warehouse.

The light was so blinding that no corner remained dark; dangers became clearly visible.

The light woke up François.

"You hear that, François?" Seing that, Altin asked him;

In a moment of clarity, François said with a wide grin: "I do. I'm glad... you guys are safe... my friends."

He turned his head towards his friends.

He said his last words.

"Thank you for being my friends."

His eyes closed.

His heart stopped beating.

"FRANCOIS!!!!"

"WAKE UP!"

"WAKKKE UP !!!!"

The boys screamed with no restraint from the top of their lungs.

Around them, men took position all around, rifles at the ready.

A moment after, they were forcefully pulled away and carried into the trunk.

Two men came around François and felt his pulse.

They had grave looks.

François was put on a stretcher.

Drip. Drip.

Blood dripped from it.

---

The three friends cried for hours.

They were unable to calm themselves.

Altin, Julien, and Paul didn't need to be told that François was dead.

They had felt it.

They had his presence disappear. It was hard to describe, but they had felt it.

They were transported to a hospital room.

They asked to see François's body.

When they did, they couldn't help but be shaken once more.

Altin, Julien, and Paul were ordinary teenagers.

Life had not prepared them for death so early in their youth.

It became clear to Altin, like never before, how life was cruel.

Atlin couldn't help to feel guilt.

He pondered whether he should have hidden his nascent power more, whether he should have left the gym with his friends without alerting anyone. This way, none of this would have happened. They would have remained anonymous. He realized, however, that doing so would have caused the deaths of more than a hundred of his classmates.

Altin wasn't sure whether he preferred these strangers dead or his friend. He realized he was having selfish thoughts.

After guilt, Altin felt anger.

Rage.

Rage didn't seem a word strong enough to describe how burning, hot and violent Altin felt towards Jurgen.

The man had played with them, promised them life, but still ordered their death. They were innocent! The man had escaped.

The man... had survived, while François had died.

"HE DESERVES TO DIE!" he screamed internally.

Altin had hidden a vital secret from everyone.

After he succeeded in manifesting light, he had tried to display the disintegration power of the 5th force before they left the warehouse.

He had succeeded.

Altin had long been found to have a particular affinity for destruction, but he feared this power. He was afraid to fight; he was scared to kill.

Now, he realized that his most significant restraint was not his lack of talent; but the fear of hurting with his power.

Since he drew dangerous electric arcs during the talent test when he first held the orb, he had become afraid of hurting his friend with uncontrolled powers.

He had, therefore, focused on feeling and control, hiding his talent for destruction.

He could have used this power to take the initiative to fight.

However, he would suppress himself subconsciously every time he drew intense power.

But Altin was afraid to hurt and kill no more.

Crushed by guilt and grief as deep as the ocean, he walked to the body of François and kneeled.

He promised: "I swear on my very life that I will revenge you, François. I swear that I will be the protector you were to us..."

The raging determination in his eyes was as deep as his grief.

No matter the difficulty, no matter the cost, be it his arms and legs pulled apart, he would fight.

He chose to give up his naïveté.

That very moment, something unlocked in Altin.

From there on, the 5th force would flow with incredible power from his body.

He would never hesitate to use it again.

His hair acquired another patch of white.

Altin had changed.

He had awoken.

---

At the same moment, a tiny tremor shook the whole multiverse. It was so tiny that it was akin to feeling the ground tremble after the passage of an ant. It should have no effect.

Yet, uncountable spacetime lines collapsed.

The change that had occurred at that moment had been minimal, but it impacted an infinite number of universes, their fate forever changed.

Even the parallel universes where Altin did not exist!

The change was only detectable to the oldest Energicians of the worlds that had already entered the String age.

But our planet and our time, Earth today, was still far from entering the String Age.

The story of Altin and his friends... had begun.

It was the beginning... of a change so profound and deep that history would record it as...

The new zero of the calendar year.

The year, 0.

It was the early beginning of the String Age, at a time when none was known and the true changes yet to come.

It was the beginning of the beginning, yet..

There was no mistake...

That the beginning had started.

Chapter 18: Friends until death do them part -- end.

Part 1: The awakening -- end

Part 2: The beginning of the String Age: BEGIN