Syn was humming as he walked through the the streets not even two hours later.

On his lonesome, he was searching for some place to eat, while Alexa searched for a place to stay.

"It's literally just pizza places... how do I even communicate with her?" Syn sighed.

'What's up?' Alexa asked in his head.

"Pizza alright? Literally the only thing in a mile radius of where we landed." Syn asked, no longer startled by her mental intrusions.

'Really? Did you go downtown or something?' She asked.

"...I don't know where I am, ma'am." Syn admit.

'Quit calling me that, it lost its touch. And give me a minute, I'll see you in a sec.' Alexa exclaimed.

Syn rubbed his nape and fixed his cap, shivering a bit at the winter cold. The sun was setting and he was nearing the more rundown and shifty area of Purgatory.

"Yeah there's no way we're eating here. I'm headed back the other wa—"

The loud screech and gust of a train drowned out his voice. Syn scoffed at the train in amusement, but as he turned to walk away, a loud bang rung through the air.

Syn felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, and began to topple over in disbelief.

Before he could fall completely, he caught himself with his hands, looking back to see only the smoke whisk away from the barrel of a gun.

"I don't even have to see you to know it's you, Pico..." Syn said with gritted teeth.

With a sudden snap, the two disappeared, reappearing in the center of their distance to clash with Syn's forearm against Pico's.

Pico kicked him in the bullet wound, sending Syn crashing to the floor, where he had to roll back and vault away to avoid two more bullets.

Pico stopped to analyze Syn, vice versa.

Pico's slick-back ginger hair, green crewneck, cargo pants, and sneakers didn't match his murderous intent at all. Although, the expression on his face did.

"Listen. A job's a job. You live for 5 minutes and maybe I'll see about what we can do to avoid this." Pico shrugged, whipping out a second sub-machine gun from behind him.

"Motherfucke—"

Syn snapped six times, negating the sudden barrage of bullets headed his way, using only one hand since the left was covering his wound.

With a nearly silent stomp, Syn appeared behind Pico and sent a high kick towards the back of his head.

Pico leaned forward, swinging his leg around to counter the kick, and Syn stumbled from overexerting himself.

Syn staggered back, lifting both hands up to prepare to defend to himself. Pico simply watched as Syn blocked in fright, smirking at his helplessness.

"Such a glass cannon..." Pico chuckled.

With the crack of thunder, Pico was suddenly sent barreling away towards a passing train. Flying through the window, he crashed into a seat and next to a few passengers who screamed in shock.

Syn began running beside the train with a glare on his face, disregarding his wound as his adrenaline kicked back in.

Pico shook his head at Syn's tenacity, reminiscent of the expression he wore as he literally began to outrun a train...

Syn's stride was impeccable and he didn't miss a single step as he attempted to out run the train.

Suddenly, Alexa faded into reality, flying beside him with a curious look on her face.

"Uh— what did I miss?" She asked, looking at the blood leaking from his stomach.

"My ex is now a hitman." Syn said vaguely, before suddenly leaping forward.

Now airborne, Syn flicked his right wrist out, before suddenly crashing through a train window and into the car, narrowly avoiding an old man who was resting his eyes.

Syn flipped forward and snapped his fingers again to fly through the car's doors and kick an unknowing Pico into a pole.

Pico lunged the barrel of his SMG at Syn's chest, but with a knee and the jerk of his head, Syn got a bullet through his hat's brim, extending that knee into a kick into Pico's chest.

Pico rolled back as everyone began to scream and cry, running away from the fight and through the broken doors into the other cars.

Pico and Syn slammed their fists together, ready for an old-fashioned brawl in the tight-spaced corridor.

Kai threw two quick jabs at Pico's chest, following with a left hook to his jaw. Pico retaliated by kicking his knee, making Syn nearly fall to the same one, before sending a haymaker right at his nose.

Syn crashed into a seat, but appeared above Pico with a splash, stomping his foot into the back of his neck.

Pico rolled forward from the hit and shook his head. Syn assumed that meant he met the time requirement, and lessened the tension in his muscles.

"Haven't lost your touch. How fortunate for your predicament. I'll make arrangements." Pico said with nod of respect.

He began walking down the train cars, and Syn fell over as soon as he felt that Pico was far away enough.

"Ow~... Holy shit!" Syn cried, holding his wound. The pain was starting to make his head nauseous, and he heard Alexa land as he curled into the fetal position.

"Oh my— that's a lot of blood." Alexa said with a gulp, worried that she'd be unable to help.

Syn's consciousness was leaving him, but he wasn't all that worried. He welcomed the darkness that began to shroud his vision, sighing as he fell asleep from the shock and pain.

"Wait! No, no! Wake back up! Don't die on me, we haven't even kissed yet!" Alexa panicked. "There's always a hospital, but I don't think either of us can afford that and a run in with the authorities..."

"Oh! Let's try a church. Maybe they can patch him up. Gotta keep my presence down though..." She sighed and picked him up in her arms, teleporting away.

•

Syn's eyes swiftly opened feeling a weird aura was over him. He planted his hands on the floor, before disappearing, using his speed to leap into the air to get a good look at where he was.

"Woah, woah! Calm down. You're safe now." Alexa said seeing his glare at the woman who 'healed' him.

Syn landed, his hair fluttering over his eyes as he stood up.

"Where are we now?" Syn asked with a sigh. "Well—"

"Greetings, strange little boy—"

"I'M A MAN!" Syn snapped, his attention back in the nun.

"Pardon my intrusion, but now that I've done my service, would you be so kind as to join our parish?" The woman asked with squinted eyes and a smile.

"...What the hell did you do?" Syn asked Alexa.

"Listen, I'm doing my best here. Hiding out identity is pretty hard when you're infamous for punching my damn dad in the face." Alexa replied with sass.

"As in parish, do you mean like... devote myself to your religion?" Syn asked.

"Why, of course. What greater privilege is there other than giving your soul to the lord and accepting his protection?" The nun asked, flicking back her long pink hair, also with a hint of sass.

'How the hell do I tell her I'm an atheist...' Syn thought, slowly turning to Alexa in nervousness and fear.

'There's always... actually, our best bet is lying.' Alexa shrugged.

"Aww, please consider!" The nun began, seeing their distraught expression. "It would do our choir a great number to have the esteemed Synchro." The nun said with a smirk, her eyes squinted again to hint she knew his identity already.

"My likeness reaches far and wide..." Syn mumbled.

"It's been a week." Alexa reminded.

"What the actual hell is this pacing...?" Syn said with a face palm.

"Listen, ma'am. Right now, I'm broke. Homeless. Extremely tired. STRESSED beyond belief, after getting shot, sent to another dimension, and fighting some alien guy, and meeting her demon dad... would it be so wrong to say no in this situation?" Syn asked, his rant making the woman raise her brow further with each factor to his stress.

"My word... I believe it wouldn't be right of me to spring such a thing on you, after all you've been through." The nun sighed.

"Thank you so much for understanding..." Syn said with a bow of respect, simply elated that he was left off the hook.

"No, thank you, for your time. Please, be sure to visit again, lost lamb." The nun said with a wave, Syn and Alexa beginning to walk towards the large arch hall where the entrance like.

"Surprised she didn't sense you were a demon or something." Syn whispered.

"Heh... and I'm shocked you didn't just blurt out you were an atheist—" Alexa's words were cut off by a sudden gust of wind released their way.

"A... what...?" The nun asked.

"Syn... I'm just gonna apologize now before what ever happens next." Alexa said placing a hand on his shoulder.

Syn wasn't actually bothered, and welcomed whatever happened next.

"Ruv." The nun muttered quietly, but with Synchronoise, Syn easily heard it.

Syn spun Alexa out of the way and threw up his left arm to block the sudden straight punch of a man with a tracker hat, furred hoodie, and grey hair, a sash over his left eye.

With one punch, Syn's entire forearm was mangled as a shockwave of pure thunderous sound was produced from the contact.

Flying away and past the nun, Syn crashed into the cathedral's organ, breaking every pipe leading towards the ceiling.

Falling flat on his stomach, Syn felt no urge to scream in pain with how much energy that took out of him.

Alexa teleported for his side and looked at his arm, seeing flesh and bone nearly intertwined.

"Should've kept your mouth shut." Ruv said with a wag of his head.

"You should've... bought a better hat... bitch!" Syn shouted back, the numbing of his arm not helping the lack of adrenaline.

"...Such a poor tainted soul, whose mind isn't even open enough to consider is far past the point of saving." The nun muttered again, the rage seeping through her words evident by the scowl on her face.

"Shall the lord shine his grace upon you even so." She said with a blank stare.

"Ha! I don't need courtesy to kick ass..." Syn said standing up, letting his left arm dangle as he stood off across from Ruv, the Enforcer of the Lord.

Disappearing from their positions, the two met in the middle with their dominant hands reeled back.

With a boom loud enough to crack the ground and even break windows, the two leaping back from the recoil.

"Tempo." Syn whispered to himself, speeding up beyond belief.

Less than a blur, Syn circled around Ruv and slammed his foot into his rib cage. Ruv ate the hit and punched Syn in his jaw, but both of them disappeared and reappeared against their fists at each other's heads.

Both grazing each other's temples, the two kept up the alternating attacks.

Syn sent a jab at his chest, but Ruv weaved left and sent a left straight. Syn leaned right and sent a roundhouse kick with his left, landing on Ruv's hip, but with quick reaction time, Ruv elbowed Syn's chest to gain distance.

With momentum on his side, Ruv rushed for Syn and grabbed him by the head, twirling on his heel before throwing him back across the cathedral and through twelve rows of pews.

After the twelfth, Syn was launched up via the angle of his body and the decrease in velocity, giving ample air time for Ruv to meet his body in midair for a hammer-arm back into the ground.

Syn rolled away just before Ruv could stomp on his chest, but the eruption of the floor sent him flying back anyway.

Skidding against the ground, Syn used his right hand to slow down and watched Ruv speed up as well.

"Six String." Ruv announced, a white aura surrounding his body.

"Tempo. Double Take." Syn repeated, his eyes starting to dilate.

Syn slowly faded away from sight, making Ruv glance around. But his glances weren't just quick. Ruv darted his eyes around at seven locations in under a second.

Disappearing himself, the two reappeared in the air with Syn slamming his fist into Ruv's rib cage again, making him crash into the alter in the back.

Syn landed roughly on his feet, staggering onto all fours with a pant.

"I can't... keep going..." Syn said, wiping whatever blood was on his face onto his sleeve.

'...How the fuck is he alive?' Alexa thought in disbelief.

Ruv was barley able to claw his way out of the rubble, knelt down on one knee in pain.

"This guy... he's a cut above the rest. I'm sorry... Sarv." Ruv sighed.

'HOW THE FUCK DID HE WIN???" Alexa thought, holding her head in shock that he took that much damage and came out on top.

Syn stood up, and motioned for Alexa to follow, thinking all was over, but in a flash of light, he was sent spiraling into the ceiling.

Alexa switched focus towards Sarv, and saw she was no longer looking so holy. She had horns, her eyes were now hot pink, and her outfit was now only a leotard, and bicep high gloves, her boots almost trailing into skin.

"Ironic..." Syn whispered in agony, planted into the cement with blood trailing all down his right eye and lip.

"To defile this church as you have... and continue to insult our way— God's way... I'll destroy you where you stand." Sarv declared.

"Kinda... laying... in the ceiling. Not standing." Syn chuckled, but ultimately, blood came out.

Sarv appeared, parallel to him, grabbing his throat.

"Oh no."