Prologue: Dust, Gears, and Unfinished Stories
A harsh wind chases dust over a nameless road. Metal tracks burn beneath racing wheels. Ryo Hinatsu, sixteen, chases clues to a lost city through wild badlands. His next hope comes from a half-burned journal. The only words easy to read? “Eidolon Oasis. Travel north by dusk, choose your secrets.” Do you recall that pang when every map looks blank, but you keep on anyway? That’s him now.
“Hey, Jun, think this clue’s real?” Ryo calls to his friend, voice cracking. Jun Ishida—older, wise, limps beneath piled packs. She shrugs. “Does it matter?” she teases. “We move, or we vanish out here.”
Scene One: Oddball Heroes, Oddball Dreams
Both come from the smog crammed city. Ryo lost family. He travels for answers. Jun travels for her brother. Sometimes their reasons mix. Their old world is gone, worn out by greed. Traveling binds them to hope, to find a new answer, maybe even justice.
No one packs well every day. Ryo forgets batteries for his hover-board again. Jun barters bits for water, sweetbread. Weirdest dog rolls up—a fat, three-legged mutt, bits of blue in rough fur.
“Tag,” Jun says, tossing bread near the dog. Next instant, a metal plate glints under the dog’s jaw. It blinks. It talks. “North. Oasis. Bring me—I remember things you don’t.” Awkward silence.
Road Legends: Trouble Ahead
An old green rail car houses their gear. Each train stop echoes with faded music. Ryo is tense—something’s off. Jun points; thin wires meet over the sand, tougher than they look. A group wearing old army coats steps out, faces half-hidden by sand masks. Do they mean harm? You ever felt eyes track your steps?
Old leader, scar on chin, raises a palm. “Ticket for the Oasis? Prove you’re worth a damned story.” Tag-the-dog huffs and hops forward. “Ask your boss about Sector K-7,” it says. The army crowd freezes.
Confessions and Deals
The group has one Motive: keep travelers out. Ryo, stressed but not shaky, points to his journal.
“We don’t mean harm. My city fell. My dad worked for Paragon Energy—K-7 is real, right? We want answers.”
Silence. Jun holds her friend’s shoulder. Soldiers circle them, tense but not hostile. Commander Mato squints. “If you know about K-7, you trouble Paragon. Come. But mind your tongue—you speak the wrong word, we let you roast out here.”
Walkers on the Road: New Team?
It’s hot, yet chill seeps into anyone waiting for dusk’s caravan. Soldiers call for horses, Jun jokes she wants a hover bike instead. The trek north is rough. Each water stop is met with a devil’s quiz: where are you from, why go north, what debts do you owe?
No two answers are the same. What drives each soul? Is it duty, grief, greed, hope? The heroes wonder the same walking on cranky legs, squabbling with Tag, sometimes just being silent.
Glowing Waters and the Last Gate
The group halts before an open canyon. Faint green lights glare off weird, living rocks. Jun grips Ryo’s sleeve. In quiet, Mato pushes forward:
“Show your story, or you’ve reached your end.”
Ryo, broken watch in hand, tries to gather lost nerve. “Our world, my world… it’s drowned from souls pretending to know the truth. But secrets belong with the people—not beasts like Paragon.”
The gatekeeper sees pain behind bravado. Not trust, maybe respect. She parts curtains of reed, slow, heavy. Beyond her, Eidolon Oasis hums—cool rivers, warm neon, the shine of lost tech in the desert. 
“Have you brought your ghosts?” Jun whispers, half scared, half in awe. Blue lights flicker on faces—Tag the dog whuffs and scans shadows.
Half-kept Promises
The trio—with Mato’s team—enter beneath arching palms. Soft laughter, for the first time. Small bits of happiness light up Jun’s cheeks. Ryo knows this step costs. A hooded woman calls to them from the bridge. She claims to know more.
“Ryo. The journal you carry. Did your father tell you the whole story?”
He steps forward; hands sweaty, mind alive with doubt. He doesn’t want another lie.
Ending: Old Friends or New Foes?
The riverbed lifts, arches shifting on strange gears. Mechanical tanks are hidden just beneath calm water. The woman’s eyes stay locked on Ryo.
Without warning, dune-choked engines rev near the oasis rim. Black vans, Paragon marks on doors, close fast. Jun shouts:
“Get down! Ambush!”
Lights blind them. First shot cracks off steel. Tag leaps, shouting code words that scramble locks.
Everyone runs for cover.
You know that moment before a battle when you’d rather hear a friend’s voice over the gunfire? That is all they have left. Ryo grabs Jun’s hand. The last thing he hears is the hiss of water engines and the sound of a secret starting to wake. 
Everything disappears behind a new wall of gun-smoke and stories neither side is ready to claim.
Cliffhanger: “What Will You Leave Behind?”
Which side told the real story? Is Tag just a stray, or a lost memory from Paragon’s last war? Who really owns the Oasis, and why do maps try so hard to erase it?
Ryo shouts for Jun. Mato fires into the dark, alone. You hear boots in dirty water, gears straining. Is home what you chase, or who you travel with? What answer do you hope these heroes will stake their life on at dawn?
