"Which do you want, behan?" Nisha asked.

"I was light last time, I'll take darkness this time."

"First hit wins?"

Diya nodded.

Nisha nodded and the two of them stepped toward each other, reaching out their hands to almost touch. In the space between them a ball of light began to grow, then swirl, becoming a smoky maelstrom of the purest gold and darkest black. It spun and spun, growing in size and intensity until it seemed almost ready to explode. In the penultimate moment when it seemed as if the power would break free, the colors split - gold light flowing up Nisha's arms and black smoke up Diya's.

Cass watched in amazement as Nisha's hair turned the purest gold, the light flowing from her scalp and down to the tips of her hair, the color in her eyes matching it in color and intensity. For Diya it was the opposite - her already black hair began to fade into shadows at the tip, the space behind her darkening into shadows that were already obscuring her. Cass leaned closer and could swear that Diya's body was actually dissolving into smoke where it touched the blackness.

The last wisps of light and smoke flowed into the women and the court was split into two, one side filled with a radiant gold light, the other an inky blackness that gave only hints at the room behind it. Nisha jumped backwards, rings of light appearing around her forearms. In an instant her arms were up and she was firing the rings like a Gatling gun into the shadows where her sister had been a moment before.

Cass realized that Diya was gone, the rings creating eddies of black smoke as they passed. Nisha was strafing the darkness, shooting low and high. Streams of darkness began to flow around the sides of the walls, trying to push back the light surrounding Nisha as it sought to encompass her.

A spike of blackness shot out of the shadows on one side, only to be caught by a glowing shield that had appeared on Nisha's left arm. Instead of firing into the spike Nisha shot at the shadows that had been encroaching from her other side, recognizing the distraction for what it was. The shadows dispersed but Diya wasn't there, the shadows dissipating into nothingness.

Cass gasped. In the split second where Nisha's arms were spread to either side a massive black skull pushed from the center of the darkness, straight at Nisha's exposed chest. The girl danced backwards, shields appearing on both arms as she rebuffed the forward assault. She wasn't given a chance to recover, though, as more spikes began to shoot out from either side and even the ceiling. The golden light was being forced backwards as more and more of the room fell into shadow.

With a scream of frustration Nisha clapped her arms together, the shields combining to form a massive golden wall in front of her. She allowed it to push her backward until her foot hit the far wall. She reached behind her and actually grabbed the light, the room dimming as she pulled it all into a single shape. Almost instantly a massive golden sword was in her hand and she was swinging it in a wide arc. Cass jerked backwards as it scraped the glass in front of him, throwing sparks, the crowd behind him laughing as he did.

The sword cleaved the darkness in two, its blade extending all the way to the far wall. She pulled her hand back and struck the sword, causing it to explode in golden shrapnel that tore the darkness apart.

As the darkness was ripped asunder Cass caught a shadowy black form twisting and spinning in the air, small spikes of darkness erupting around her to deflect the shards of cutting golden light that were flying through the room.

Nisha's eyes went wide as she saw Diya spinning towards her, a long spike extending from her arm mid-flight to hammer into Nisha's chest.

Nisha fell back with a cry and a curse just as Diya landed lightly, a triumphant smile on her face.

"It looks like I win this one, behan," Diya said. She reached down to help her sister up, but Nisha only chuckled through bloody teeth and pointed to Diya's side, where a shard of golden light was stuck.

"I believe first hit was mine, sister."

Cass and Marcus sat at a table with Nisha and Diya as the two sisters each ordered healing potions from the tables. Cass marveled at the ease of just being able to have one appear in front of you whenever you needed.

"So what can we help you with?" Nisha asked.

Cass looked between the women - he was having a hard time telling them apart now that they weren't using their powers. He felt bad about it, he'd always assumed that as a twin he'd be able to easily tell other twins apart, but these were the first others he'd met and he was chagrined to realize they were too identical for even him to notice. He stared intently, trying to discern differences between them.

Marcus slapped him on the arm. "Cass! You're being rude!"

"Sorry!" Cass's face blushed red. "I was just…"

"You were trying to determine which of us was Nisha and which was Diya?" One of the girls said.

Cass dipped his head in embarrassed acknowledgement. "I'm a twin too, but my twin is a sister. I really thought I'd be better at it…"

The girls leaned back together, both laughing. Cass flushed again at their dusky, low laughs. They had voices that couldn't be called deep, necessarily, but definitely had a depth that set his insides on fire. Focus! He thought.

"This has always been a problem," one said. "If it helps, we will forgive any missteps - for now. We are aware of how we look." They both fixed him with a look that held more meaning than just them being similar in appearance.

He nodded and kept his mouth shut.

"Nisha," Marcus said. "My friend here is looking to recruit some talents to help out his community."

"And what is this help you need?" Diya asked.

Cass took a deep breath. He'd prepared a speech but it felt hollow now. Forced. Should he start with the pitch? Tell them the rewards they'd get? Bring up that he knew it was a risk, but the rewards were worth it? His skin was starting to prickle and he could feel himself clamming up. He needed to go for it before he lost his nerve completely, deciding to go with honesty.

"We need help. With the Cryptid Challenge coming up we're not strong enough to handle it on our own."

"So you want us to come save your village for you? Do the fighting while you cower behind us?"

Marcus shook his head but Cass jumped in before he could respond. "No! We have strong people! Just not enough. We have a neighborhood of about 100 people or so right now and some really, really strong individuals. We also have really good tech and are building up our fortifications. We can make it through most things, but we need some powerhouses that can help us out against either large groups of low level monsters or some big ones. Although, honestly, we could probably take most high level monsters. There just aren't enough of us is all."

"And how will the two of us help with that? Two against so many? You ask us to risk our lives, what is there to gain?"

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Marcus held up a hand before Cass could respond. "Ladies, my friend here isn't the best at explaining so, if you'll permit me, I will lay out the situation."

The women looked at him and nodded in unison.

"They have some high level individuals and have done what they can to help the low leveled ones in the surrounding areas. They took in everyone who needed help, to help them survive. I have no doubt that if Cass and his family were left alone they could survive anything that came for them, but with so many to look out for they find their resources stretched thin. What they need are crowd control specialists who also have abilities that aren't focused in only one area. With your dual skills you have the unique advantage of both light and dark attacks, and your skills are extremely suited for wiping out a lot of low level creatures, allowing their powerful members to handle the large creatures without distraction."

Diya's eyes narrowed and she leaned forward. "Are you saying we are only good for clearing out the chattel? We will not be a cleanup crew."

"No!" Cass interjected. "We may not know exactly what is coming but we have a pretty good idea. Okay, look - recently my family and I went to explore a power station. What we found there gave us a pretty good idea of the structure of what we may be facing. It's video game logic - there will be a lot of low level creatures in the first waves, each with a different set of skills and abilities. Then we will likely face boss-level creatures that will have weaknesses we need to discover and exploit. There will be plenty of opportunities to do both!"

Now both sisters leaned forward with interest. "Tell us about this power station," Nisha said.

"It's a bit of a long story," Cass said.

"We have time, and if this is important to you then it's worth the telling," Diya said.

Cass ordered a coffee for himself and sat back to tell the story.

When he was finished everyone around the table, Marcus included, were staring at him with wide eyes.

"This sounds incredible. Almost too incredible to believe," Diya said.

"Here, I can show you!" Cass pulled out the equipment he'd gotten from the facility and allowed them to inspect them.

"These are incredible," Nisha whispered. "We have nothing like this here."

"Oh! And look at this. I got these from our trip to the Milwaukee Zoo," he pulled out some of the items he hadn't given to Ginny. He'd wanted to save some items for trade or bribes.

"Boy, put that stuff away," Marcus hissed. Cass looked up and realized that he saw a lot of curious eyes looking his direction. He quickly stowed everything back into his storage.

"Okay, you have many interesting items - but what is to stop us from getting them ourselves? If you are here I am sure these will appear on the market in due time."

"This may be true," Marcus jumped in, "but wouldn't you rather have first crack at it? Also, if this is the stuff he brought to sell just imagine what they've kept for themselves."

"Not only that," Cass said, "but we also experienced a lot of skill breakthroughs."

"What is that?" Diya asked.

Cass looked between the women with confusion on his face. "You guys haven't broken past your skill limits? You haven't reforged any of your skills beyond your levels?"

"This is possible?" Nisha asked.

"How does one do this?" Diya followed up.

"Well, you just have to push yourself so hard that you need to break through to another level of power to survive. You do it by putting yourself into life and death situations, where the only way out is to push beyond your limits."

"I have not heard of this, even amongst the top Climbers," Nisha said.

Cass shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you guys here just haven't had to push yourself very hard."

He saw the offended expressions on their faces but didn't understand what he'd said wrong. Luckily Marcus jumped in to recover the situation.

"Ah, but my friend here does not mean to offend! Life is different outside the city, that's all he meant."

Diya fixed Cass with a dangerous stare. "Are you saying that we do not push ourselves? That we have not had to struggle?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying! I'm just saying that you haven't been in a position to push yourself past your limits is all."

Now Nisha had his attention. "I wonder how one such as yourself would fare against us in the arena, since we have not pushed ourselves to earn what we have."

Cass felt the situation slipping out of control and he didn't know what to do to stop it. He blurted out the only thing he could think of.

"How many times have you almost died?"

There was silence around the table, no one willing to answer. Cass pushed forward. "I have almost died…" he thought and realized he couldn't come up with a number. "Well, I don't even know how many times. From my very first day of The System we were put in situations that we almost died from. Hell, my own father set up situations where we could die just so we would be forced to push past them. In the power plant I had my first breakthrough when I watched my mom falling to her death and I was out of everything I had to save her. I had to find the bottom of my speed pool and break through it to save her. I forced The System to give me more power."

"Your father sounds similar to ours. And yet, are you the only one that has done this?"

"Not at all!" Cass was getting excited as he realized they had something that most of the people in this city didn't. "My mother pushed through multiple times. She actually changed some of her skills by forcing The System to give her the powers that she wanted - not just what it decided to grant us. My father…" a dark look passed Cass's face. "He actually forged a deal with the Architect, someone high up with The System, to create his own skills as he sees fit. Our neighbors have created an entire compound that goes beyond anything I've seen anywhere else. Our friend Ed has learned to harness System energy to create whatever he can imagine. My sister… well, I don't think she's had a breakthrough yet. Actually! She had one in the power plant, I just don't know if she's had a chance to fully exploit it yet. The point is, this city is too safe. Your bouts - as impressive as they are! They don't make you fear for your lives, and thus The System doesn't treat you like you need to grow beyond what you're currently doing. It gives you what you need to survive, and here," he waved around indicating the city in general, "doesn't take a lot to survive. You fight because it's fun, because it gets you recognition, to get a higher status in The Climb. Out there we fight to survive, and The System rewards us accordingly."

He stopped his breathless rant, the others at the table staring at him with mixed expressions. After a few moments Diya spoke.

"This has potential, but it sounds like you are building another version of this city on a smaller scale. How will we get these opportunities you speak of? How can you assure we will survive long enough to bring these skills back here?"

Cass chuckled and shook his head. "Opportunities? You'll have plenty and more. As for surviving?" He fixed them both with serious looks. "I can't guarantee that, but that's kind of the point, isn't it? We all survive and grow, or we die. That's our lives every day out there."

Nisha leaned back and sighed. "Opportunities abound, but it sounds exhausting. How long would you expect us to stay with you?"

Cass rubbed the back of his neck. He knew this was coming but didn't know how to sell it. "We would need you until the end. I can't afford to bring anyone back that will decide it's too hard halfway through and leave us in a bad spot. We need commitment. It's all or nothing for us, and so it needs to be the same for anyone who joins us."

"That is quite a commitment," Diya said. "The rewards would need to be commensurate with the risks. What are you offering?"

Marcus smiled, taking over the conversation. "Well, what are you looking for?"

The conversation continued for another hour with Cass mostly staying silent, only nodding or shaking his head at certain points. The sisters wanted any items from the creatures they killed but Cass rejected that.

"We distribute items to those who can use it the most, although the ones who kill particularly difficult creatures get first dibs. You're not going to get cheated - if you absolutely want an item it'll likely be yours, but I can't promise that'll be the case every time. All I can promise you is that if you don't get something you wanted to sell, then you'll get something else of equal value."

The negotiations continued longer with points being hammered out, Marcus noting all of them on a contract that only he could see. In the end he shared it with all of them and, as with any good negotiation, no one was completely happy but everyone could live with it.

Before the sisters would sign they had one more stipulation, one which both excited and irritated Cass and Marcus both.

"This is acceptable, but we will not be the only ones taking this risk. You speak highly of your friends and family, but we don't know if you speak the truth. We need someone known. We will agree to this provided you can convince another top Climber team to join. We must be assured that we are not the only powerful individuals to join your cause."

Marcus checked the time left on the contract and sighed. "I think that's doable, but we need to be quick. I will send you a message by tomorrow morning to either join us at my tent or that the deal is void. Be ready to go, just in case."

They all stood, shaking hands all around. Cass mostly kept his eyes above the sisters' shoulders.

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