Erased and Rewritten

Chapter 1: The Forgotten Girl
Alex sat in the back of the classroom, head resting on her hand. The lesson droned on, but her notebook was filled not with notes, but doodles of numbers. Zeros, fours, X’s…
Her T-shirt bore the joke: “4 x 0 = 0??”
To her classmates, it was funny. To Alex, it was truth. She’d always felt like a nothing. Multiply her by anything, and she was still zero.
“Class!” Samantha burst in, dragging Nolan by the wrist. “This is Nolan, my new friend, and over here..” she pointed directly at Alex “this is Alex! Don’t let her fool you, she’s secretly awesome!”
Alex groaned. “Thanks for the introduction I never asked for.”
But before she could roll her eyes again, the room began to hum. The lights flickered.
“Sam?” Nolan whispered. “Something’s wrong-”
Blue light exploded from Alex’s chest. She gasped, clutching at herself as her body warped and twisted. Her fingers stretched, her hair melted away, her eyes burned into hollow white ovals.
Inside her mind, a voice deep, nasally, American spoke:
"Alex was Zero. And Zero is nothing. But nothing is the beginning. Alex is gone. You are Four."
Her memories burned like paper. Samantha. Nolan. Her parents. Her name. All gone.
In their place came strange new images: contestants, challenges, elimination spaces, a yellow friend floating by her side.
When the light cleared, Alex was no more.
Standing there was a tall, blue figure. Grinning. Alien.
Nolan’s voice shook. “A… Alex?”
The figure tilted its head.
“Alex? Never heard of her. My name’s Four. And I’ve always been Four.”
Chapter 2: True Yellow Friend
Four’s new reality spun into focus quickly. He was not alone, for at his side floated X, a bright yellow figure with a squeaky, high-pitched voice.
“Foury!” X beamed, hovering in front of him. “You’re here!”
Four blinked. The name felt… right.
“Of course I’m here!” X giggled. “You’re my true blue friend… literally!”
Four’s grin widened. “And you’re my true yellow friend.”
The bond was immediate, inseparable. Where Four was chaotic and sharp-edged, X was soft, nervous, and kind. Four protected X fiercely, and X’s loyalty never wavered.
Together, they became hosts, running challenges, recovering contestants, watching over the game.
For a while, it was good.
Chapter 3: Enter Two
Then came Two.
Their voice was smooth, medium-pitched, and British. They walked into the world like they owned it, words dripping with charisma.
“Contestants!” they called. “Surely you’d prefer a leader who’s fair, organized, and elegant, wouldn’t you?”
Contestants, tired of Four’s chaotic temper, were intrigued. Two promised order. Control. Professionalism.
But it was a lie. Two’s supposed “powers” were smoke and mirrors. They had only one true ability: hypnosis. And they used it cruelly.
Worst of all, they set their sights on X.
“Well, well, what have we here?” Two sneered, never once using his name. “Times, the silly symbol. Always fluttering around that brute. Doesn’t it get tiring?”
X flinched. “M-my name’s..”
“Shhh.” Two’s smile sharpened. “She doesn’t need a name. She just needs to listen.”
Their eyes flickered, and X’s will bent under the weight of their hypnosis.
“Stop calling me that…” X whispered weakly.
Two leaned close. “But silly symbol suits you. And you’ll do as I say, won’t you? Good girl.”
Chapter 4: Wrath of Four
When Four discovered this, the sky split open with his screech.
“YOU HURT MY TRUE YELLOW FRIEND!”
Contestants clapped their hands over their ears as Four’s voice shook the earth, hearts bursting from the sound and flinging them across the arena. Lightning crackled from his hands, scorching the ground at Two’s feet.
Two smirked, unfazed. “So protective of her. How adorable. But she listens to me, not you.”
Four’s grin twisted into a snarl. “You don’t get to call them that. Their name is X. And they’re my favorite character here.”
X hovered anxiously between them, trembling. “Foury, p-please don’t..”
Four’s form warped, expanding, towering over Two until he blotted out the sky. “No one hurts my little bud. Not ever again.”
With a wave of his hand, gravity itself twisted, pulling Two to their knees. Contestants scrambled as the battlefield cracked apart under Four’s fury.
Two only laughed. “Bluster and noise. That’s all you are. But me? I don’t need power. I have control.”
Their eyes glinted again, and a few contestants stumbled forward, hypnotized, shielding Two from Four’s wrath.
Chapter 5: Contest of Hosts
The war between them stretched across contests.
Four warped reality crushing landscapes, creating weapons from nothing, screeching until hearts burst across the sky.
X supported loyally teleporting, recovering contestants, nervously standing at Four’s side even as his hands shook.
Two manipulated and hypnotized, turning contestants into pawns, mocking Four, belittling X.
“Come, silly symbol,” Two purred in one battle, holding out a hand. “You don’t belong with him. You belong with me.”
X shook their head furiously. “N-no! My name is X! And Foury’s my best friend!”
Two’s smile curdled. “Ungrateful little thing.”
Four descended like a storm, lightning and screeches splitting the air. “You don’t get to touch them. You don’t even get to LOOK at them.”
The clash raged on, not just a battle of powers, but of truth versus deception, of cruelty versus loyalty.
Epilogue: Erased and Rewritten
One evening, after another brutal challenge, Four floated beside X, watching contestants recover.
X whispered, “Do you… ever feel like something’s missing, Foury?”
Four tilted his head. “Missing? No. This is how it’s always been.”
But for the briefest instant, a flicker stirred inside him. A whisper. A name.
Alex.
He pushed it away. “Come on, little bud. The show must go on.”
X smiled nervously but warmly. “Always, Foury.”
And so they hovered side by side:
Four, the erased and rewritten storm.
X, the loyal yellow light.
Two, lurking in the shadows, still plotting, still waiting.
The hosts of reality.
Forever at odds.