Chapter 26 - Preparations

Ashe woke up on the very edge of town. He was laying on a dirt road that separated the last couple of industrial buildings from the grass plain.

He sat down and opened his phone only to be greeted by a multitude of missed calls from his mom.

It was already past 12 and he still wasn't home after all.

He sent her a quick reassuring message and opened his MAT app.

'The day after tomorrow I leave for the expedition. I'll tell Mom tomorrow. She won't like it but I have to go, this expedition only has 5 people registered… Dad told me about his expeditions before and almost none of them were this small.'

'I should prepare more. And the best way would be to practice and study.'

Ashe rested for a bit before making all of his demon energy flow out of him in liquid form. The red liquid pooled around him, slowly surrounding him and turning into a bubble that could comfortably fit another person inside. The bubble's wall was quite thick as well, making it muffle the already quiet outside.

Ashe looked at the floating energy. Unlike its solidified form, the liquid was a much brighter shade of red.

'When I saw Sap's demon energy it was a lot darker than this, did It condense liquid energy?'

Ashe separated a blob of energy and began to experiment with it. Contorting it in new ways, as if stretching muscles he had never used before.

The liquid turned into various states of matter and gained different attributes along with them. The first thing he made was a thick paste, even though it wasn't the condensed liquid he was looking for he still experimented with it out of curiosity.

He learned how to make it sticky or not, how to make it thicker. Eventually, he even used it to make a different type of solidified energy, this one was more flexible but less tough.

With Ashe's second attempt at condensed liquid energy, he managed to turn it into mist which was a pleasant surprise.

On the third attempt, he made dust. After the third failure, he decided to condense solid energy to study condensation. The process was quite simple, put more demon energy into a preexisting form.

'How can that even work for liquid energy? Wouldn't it just turn into a solid?'

Ashe continued to observe and decided to compare the process to solidifying energy. He commanded the energy to liquefy But when he did, the liquid was a couple of shades darker.

'Huh?! Is that how you do it? Let me try something...'

He started de-condensing the liquid and he realized what he was doing wrong.

'Changing its form is a completely different process than condensation. I must have gotten confused because it felt like an extension of solidification. I wonder what else I can condense?'

With this small mental block gone, as well as learning a couple of new forms of demon energy, Ashe felt a lot more confident and he continued to practice undisturbed for a while.

____

In another part of the outer city in a spacious office, two young men stood in front of a desk, Behind which an angry bald man berated them.

"Is this the kid? You got beat by a literal child!" An angry and slightly round man was screaming from behind a luxurious desk.

"His mutation is way stronger than what it says on the profile." One of two young men that were standing before the desk responded timidly.

The scene was strange at first sight, both young men were incredibly fit and had a dangerous edge to them. Yet in front of a single man, they acted like scared dogs.

"You had a gun idiot! Just Shoot him next time! You know what, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourselves. Look..."

The large man pointed at a monitor that showed Ashe's profile on the mutant registry.

"Here's his address. Make sure to make it clean, do I make myself clear?"

"Y-Yes boss!" The two men stuttered, bowed slightly, and quickly left the room. They didn't bother explaining how the young mutant destroyed their gun, why would they waste the opportunity to leave the room entirely?

After the two men left the older man sighed and sat back in his chair.

'How did those Azel bastards even manage to recruit that kid so quickly?

*knock* *knock*

"What!" He responded angrily.

A woman came into the room holding platter covered with a cloche. The man's face lit up when he saw the platter.

"It's ready?" He asked with excitement.

The lady nodded, then left the platter on his desk.

"Thank you, Malory." He responded softly, all the frustrations of the past week suddenly disappeared.

"I just wanted to see your reaction. I was hoping for more... but what can you do?" She said before leaving the room.

Now he was left alone with the platter, he lifted the cloche to reveal three beast eggs. They were hardboiled and cut into slices, and the shells were cracked on the side and seasoned like chips. When eating a beast part, no inch can be wasted, and eggs were especially potent at inducing mutations.

The boss of the Stella gang is about to become a mutant.

_____

*Knock* *Knock*

The door slowly opened and behind it, two tall men standing with police badges in their hands. The moment the door opened a man spoke up.

"Good afternoon, my name is Martin and I'm the head detective on Joshe's case. My partner here is Philip I think you've met him before."

...

"Yes we've met, but why are you here." Catherine Warten responded on the other side of the door, with a slightly annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry to disturb you but some new information came to light and we wanted to ask you some follow-up questions. If that's okay with you of course." Philip spoke in a sincere tone.

"Of course... sorry about that. Things have been tough lately." Catherine apologized and let the detectives inside.

When they walked in she closed the door behind them.

"Are you watching?" a short man asked from atop a rooftop. He was currently looking through a pair of binoculars and observing the Warten family's apartment through a window.

"Yes... let's hope this doesn't get too complicated." a taller man responded from right beside the other.

The two of them observed as two members of the police force talked with the house's owner. They couldn't discern the emotion of the room as the sun's reflection on the windows inconveniently covered the figures' faces.

"What do you think?" the short one prodded.

"Be patient." the other scolded.

The three figures talked for slightly under an hour and when they started to leave one of the men with badges handed something into the woman's hand before closing the door behind them.

The room that they were watching soon became empty, and as soon as it did the sky became cloudy and the room became perfectly clear.

"So..." the short man asked.

"I think we'll need an outside opinion." the tall one responded

"But if we come back emptyhanded again we might actually die. I say we just go ahead and get it done."

"Don't you realize what this could mean! If we kill someone important to the police our whole gang's carefully built partnership with them might be thrust under scrutiny. But if we just wait, the worst outcome is we'll postpone this for a couple of days."

"You're right..."

"Also... this is where the mutant from Azel lives right? Why would some cops come here for a simple talk? Maybe Azel got a mole handed to them on a silver platter, and they're about to be finished."

"Wouldn't we get information like this? If they have such a mole wouldn't we know about it? The last update we got was that they still don't have anything on Azel."

"Shit... this is getting complicated."

A moment later it started to drizzle and the two left the roof of a neighboring building.

_____

Ashe was still practicing on the empty edge of the outer city. This time however he was practicing and watching videos on spears. He decided to abuse his enhanced strength while not wanting to get too close to a wild beast.

He managed to make a decent spear shaft out of the newly found more flexible solidified demon energy, and a large blade out of its usual tough variant.

He was striking at the air, familiarizing himself with stances, and learning the basics of spear combat.

Time had been passing this way with nothing and no one to distract him for hours until a raindrop hit his forehead.

'It's raining? what time is it?'

Ashe pulled out his phone.

'4 PM! Time flies... huh. I should head home already, I hope Mom's not too worried.'

On his way back, Ashe went through a usual checkpoint and took a train home.

After almost an hour he made it back and walked through the front door. On a cupboard in the entrance hall, he saw a slightly crumpled business card belonging to someone in the police force.

"Hello?" He called out.

"Hey! Where were you?" His little brother responded from another room before quickly running into the small hall.

"Oh... just hanging out with friends. What did you do while I was away?" Ashe responded.

"I got to play games all day!" Roy said excitedly.

"Lucky you. Do you know where's mom is?"

"I'm here," Catherine said while walking into the room. Her face and tone were a lot colder than usual.

"Hi, Mom," Ashe said awkwardly, not used to the more serious side of his mother.

"Where were you?" She asked.

"Ashe was hanging out with friends." Roy interrupted.

"Was he now... I think me and Ashe need to talk alone for a bit, would you mind giving us some space?" Even towards Roy, her voice didn't have its usual warm tone.

"O-okay" The little boy slowly walked off, made uncomfortable by the tension.

...

When Catherine heard the sound of a door closing behind them, she sighed.

"Where were you? And don't even try to lie to me." A stern voice berated.

"I uh... was in the outer city." Ashe sa

"For what? You just decided to go around the outer city from dusk till dawn. And when I call you dozens of times all I get is a short text hours later! We were worried sick about you!"

"I'm sorry... It won't happen again!" Ashe spoke timidly.

"But it's been happening, again and again. You think I don't notice how you disappear for most of the day. Are you avoiding your home?" Her tone shifted from anger to slight sadness.

...

"I get it... this place feels wrong without him. But we also live here, and we have to stick together. Especially now." Tears were forming on Catherine's face.

"If you want to we could scrounge up some money for a therapist for you."

"B-but we can't afford it, can we? not with Da-"

"I'm sure you're father is fine, he was always very resilient. And I'm sure that MAT is doing everything it can to look for him, so we just have to persevere too. "

Both of them were silent after that. Tears were rolling down both faces. Only after what felt like an eternity did Ashe's mom speak up again.

"But this is just another reason why I need you here. We need to stick together, and I don't care about the cost. I want to help you, so please don't push me away."

"Roy will have to learn what's happening soon, and he'll need his older brother more than ever. And I need you too because it's too much for me to deal with alone."

"Can you promise me? That we'll stick together."