A computerized voice bellows through the hallway of a dark spaceship.

“Arriving at our destination.”

Near the gate that was forced open by Demo’s arrival a horizontally lined crack in space appears. The crack seems to divide itself into several layers that are stacked on each other as if time and space have been compressed like a paper folded upon itself. The layers of cracks in space spread themselves out until at its core a portal can be seen and from that portal, the dark spaceship with the word STITCHES on it emerges.

Once the ship has safely emerged from the portal, the layers are folded back into a single line and the line then collapses in on itself and disappears. The ship is facing the interdimensional gate. Then a door opens up on the spaceship and 7 figures dressed in all-black space suits emerge.

They carry with them 6 huge black rectangles and a single red one that are almost the same size as the men themselves. They bring the big rectangles in front of them and each one puts a single hand on their rectangle. Six of the figures start a mathematical chant. The big rectangles start to glow but unlike with Ten, these rectangles are surrounded by a wide array of numbers and equations as well. The rectangles start to disintegrate and mix with the numbers that surround them and then recombine.

Two of the rectangles turned into huge needles, and the other 4 turned into black ropes with several big knots on them. Once the 6 were finished the figure with the red rectangle placed his hand on his shape and started his chant. His rectangle turned into what can only be described as a huge red demon. With wings that seemed to hide millions of stars. The figure with the red demon raises his hand.

“Let’s begin.”

The 4 with the ropes take their sides next to the two with the needles and push their rope through the holes in the needle. The two with the needles then make their way to opposite sides of the gate. They gently control the needles with their hands. They point the tip of the needle towards the gate, and then slightly pull the needle back like an arrow on a bow. With the force of a star exploding, they throw their needles through the gate. The hole created gets plugged up by one of the knots on the rope. The two-needle wielders continue this process until the entire gate is covered with the rope and each side is riddled with knots.

Once completed the giant red demon glides over to the gate and places its hands on the two top knots that are connected to each other. A blinding light spawned from its hands and the explosion that followed swallowed up not only the knots but all seemed to close the gate in between the two knots he consumed. The demon proceeds to do this for the next 2 knots and those after it.

Everything seems to be going according to plan. An alarm goes off in the helmets of the Stitches crew as a storm of space debris is about to hit them. All 7 of them go into their pockets and take out a small cube. They then quickly chant to transform the cube into a shield capable of withstanding the storm. The crew and the ship survive without a hitch. But one of the pieces of debris hits the demon’s hand as it’s about to consume another knot. Slightly knocking the hand to the side a little. The red demon smiles as he followed his orders perfectly but this small thing could usher in chaos. He quickly stops smiling so as to not warn the crew something happened. After the debris passed, the shields went down and the focus was back on the gate. After a while, the gate closes as the demon touches the last 2 knots.

The needles and ropes as well as the demon disintegrate and return to their rectangle forms again. The Stitches crew looked at the space where the gate used to be, as if to do a final check, and then turned around went back into their ship, and flew away.

Tranquility fell back over the space above the planet.

Back on the planet, Demo stands with a sorrowful face as he again looks at Ten’s body on the ground. He turns away from Ten as if turning his back on him would allow him to ignore what he has just done. As he is about to walk away.

“AHHHH YOOOOO, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts. YOOO What the ….”

Demo turns back with his eyes open filled with hope. He sees Ten on the ground wriggling and turning and screaming in pain. He runs to Ten with a huge smile on his face and crouches next to him.

“You’re ok.”

“No, I’m not ok. That hurt, who the hell wakes up and blasts everybody? What’s wrong with you?”

Demo just smiles as he is happy that Ten isn’t dead. The fact that Demo is smiling creeps Ten out as if he is enjoying the pain Ten is in.

“Why are you smiling?”

“I thought you were dead.”

“Because you tried to kill me.”

“No, no, that’s not what I wanted to do. But last time I woke up …”

Ten still in pain looks at Demo suspiciously.

“Who are you?”

“I don’t know, but I think my name was Demo. What’s your name?”

“Ten.”

Demo stands back up and extends his hand to Ten to help him get back up.

“Nice to meet you Ten.”

Ten looks at Demo sideways unsure if he should trust him or not. But except for the blast Demo doesn’t seem or feel dangerous. He takes his hand.

“Yeah, you too I guess.”

As Ten stands in front of Demo he does a quick head-to-toe check and feels obligated to ask.

“So, this whole naked thing. Is that a religious something or just a fashion statement?”

Demo looks down at his naked body and back up to Ten.

“Neither.”

“Why don’t you just make some clothes?”

“I don’t know how.”

Ten looks at him confused as if he just met someone who doesn’t know that the world is round. But then quickly checks himself as he remembers that Demo came from out of space. So maybe they didn’t teach him the basics.

Ten looks around the crater and picks up some sand, some rocks, and some fallen leaves that are scattered here and there. He walks back to Demo and gives him a quick look over as if to get his measurements. He lowers his head and starts the math chant. The things in his hands start to glow and disintegrate into a million small pieces. Demo looks at what is happening with his eyes wide open and filled with amazement. Ten raises his head and looks at Demo as he softly pushes the disintegrated pieces towards Demo. The million pieces cover Demo’s body and then assemble to become a whole outfit. The hoody of which has a 1 on the right sleeve and a 0 on the left sleeve. Ten smiles as it’s a perfect fit.

Demo looks at his outfit, touches the fabrics, and looks back at Ten with eyes like a kid who just found a magical lamp that grants wishes.

“Teach me.”

“What?”

“Teach me how to do that!”

Ten is a little startled because no one has ever asked him to teach them the basics you learn in elementary school.

“Euhm … well it’s pretty simple.”

Demo starts nodding his head as if he is about to receive a grand prize.

“So first you use the base of the Poincaré Conjecture, which is that every simply connected, closed 3-manifold is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere. Using that as the underlying theory you then combine it with Fermat’s Last Theorem which obviously states that there are no three positive integers a,b,a, b,a,b, and ccc that can satisfy the equation an+bn=cna^n + b^n = c^nan+bn=cn for any integer value of nnn greater than 2 …”

Ten continues like this for a while. With each new sentence, Demo gets more and more confused as to what it all means. Each new sentence makes his head tilt a little to the right. By the end of the first minute, Demos’s neck is almost at a 90-degree angle. At which point his eyes light up, as if his frustration triggered something. Ten feels a shiver run down his spine as if a predator just recognized him as food. Ten immediately stops explaining.

“Let’s just say I used numbers magic.”

Demo turns his neck back.

“So I can’t learn it?”

“No, you could still learn it. There are two ways of doing this. The Instinctual method or the Theory method. I think you might be the Instinctual type.”

“Can you teach me it?”

“Nah, I’m a Theory type.”

Demo drops his shoulders in disappointment.

“So I can’t get stronger?”

Ten looks at him with a certain amount of pity. As if he could sense how much Demo wanted to get stronger.

“If you want to get stronger, I know a gym that teaches martial arts and the Instinctual method. It’s a pretty famous gym I’ve heard.”

“Will I get stronger if I go there?”

“I don’t know, but I heard the Prime Perfect used to train there as well.”

Demo doesn’t know who that is, or why that is an important point, but he might be able to get stronger and that’s all he needed to hear.

“Ok lets go.”

The two start walking towards the city of Numbers. Where Ten lives and the gym is located.

Chapter 4 Fin