10 Airson's Story, Part Eight

Midnight soon came.

Airson, Nigel, Niwea, Katie, Reesus, and Miraka all met up on the outskirts of Arbok City, ready for their departure.

Nigel groaned. "Ahhh, and just when we were supposed to start living it big. Another villain shows up. Great."

They started flying south.

"So where are we going exactly?" Katie asked.

"There's a settlement called Kelvin Village near the coast, it's a few miles south of Starlight Square." Niwea replied.

When the group reached their destination, it was what you'd expect from a village. Only the bare necessities, some houses, a few inns, a marketplace where merchants sold goods, and a lot of open space outside.

"Airson's paying for our stay here since he's the rich one now." Nigel said.

Airson sighed. "Fine. I'll pay for our rooms, but I'm not paying for food. You're on your own Nigel." Airson went to the most expensive inn in the village, since they'd be staying there for who knows how long. He bought three rooms; one for himself and Nigel, one for Reesus and Niwea, and the two girls had their own room.

Airson went to put his stuff in his room. He threw his bags on the bed and turned around to close the door so he could change into some more comfortable clothes.

"Interesting times we're in right now hm?" someone said.

Airson quickly turned around to see Mastermind leaning against the back wall of the room.

"Who are you?" Airson was on edge, he assumed a fighting stance.

Mastermind held a hand up. "Now, now, no need to be hostile. I am not here to fight you. As of now I'm going by the title Mastermind. I'm here to acknowledge your efforts in defeating Carnage."

Airson kept his stance. "How do you know about that?"

"I was watching through Carnage's mind."

"So there really was someone controlling him the entire time! Why would you turn someone into a killer?!"

"Hey, calm down, I am appalled you'd assume that I'd participate in such a vulgar task. Carnage was already a criminal. A weak one, maybe a C-Rank at the time I came to him. All I did was simply give him the bloodlust he needed to be strong. I only controlled him to the point where he wouldn't slaughter more than eight people. If he did, his bloodlust would've reached out of my control. He could've very well been one of the strongest people in the world had I let him loose."

"So why are you here now? Why me?!"

"Because I'm interested in you. You are a boy who has been blessed by lightning itself. Your very existence is a force of nature. It's intriguing."

"Get to the point already." Airson said darkly.

"Very well. Your brother is currently in my custody. I thought I'd tell you since you two have never met. His name is Neo."

Airson wasn't believing a word of what was coming out of Mastermind's mouth. "I don't have a brother. I'm sure of that." he said, thinking back on his dream.

"But can you be so sure? You've never seen your father have you?"

Airson was paying attention now.

"I thought so. Neo is only your half-brother. You don't share your mother's DNA. He was born without much power, so I gave him some. He's your final test."

Airson was almost speechless. "Half brother? My father? Test?" he thought.

Mastermind continued. "The world is not all black and white you know. There's so much more that this world offers, and I want to know all of it. Of course that isn't possible. But nice talk. I will now take my leave." He took a bow.

Airson lunged towards him, but Mastermind simply disappeared, as if he was never there at all.

Airson looked around, he couldn't find him anywhere. He took a deep breath. "Focus on the mission." he thought to himself. He changed into some comfortable training clothes and left out.

Airson went outside to meet his group. "I'll be somewhere in the wastelands training. Nigel, Niwea, Reesus, you all should come."

Reesus looked at him. "Only if I get to fight against you in a two on two."

"I call Nigel." Airson said, walking away.

"Aww, no fair!" Reesus whined.

The boys went to change into their training clothes.

"Well Miraka and I are going to relax in the hot springs later tonight, you boys enjoy your sweat fest." Katie said as they walked off, waving her hand.

Niwea was feeling annoyed with himself. "I need to work on my hand to hand combat. I can't let the other three pass me up."

Airson and Nigel were already training on the wastelands when Niwea and Nigel walked up.

"You two ready for this beating?" Nigel said with a grin on his face.

Everyone knew that Airson and Nigel were stronger than any of the other Alphas, so whenever they would have sparring sessions, they were almost always on the same team to push the others to do better.

Nigel covered himself with his armor.

Airson went Ultrasonic.

The four of them trained for several hours.

Naturally, Airson and Nigel won all of their matches.

Reesus and Niwea were sitting on the ground catching their breath.

" You...*huff*... two...*huff*... are...*huff*... not fair." Reesus said, exhausted.

Nigel was exhausted as well, but Airson wasn't as tired as the others.

Niwea looked at him. "I thought Ultrasonic drained your energy." he said between breaths.

"It does, just depends on how hard I use it. If I keep the energy flow to a minimum, I can use Ultrasonic much longer. I'm working on its endurance."

Nigel laughed. "So while we're training to get stronger, you're working on stamina? Madness."

"So we gonna keep going?" Airson asked.

It was nighttime now.

"Are you insane?" Nigel said, jumping to his feet. "Listen. Katie and Miraka are in the hot springs right now. You know what that means?"

"We should take a bath 'cause we stink?"

Nigel facepalmed. "No you idiot!"

"He wants to peep." Niwea flatly said.

"HEY. Don't say it like that!" Nigel said pointing at Niwea. "As a biologist, and lover of the earth and its living things, I'm feeding my curiosity with knowledge about female anatomy." he said proudly.

Niwea rolled his eyes. "You almost make it sound noble."

Nigel slid next to Reesus. "So you telling me you don't wanna know?"

Reesus looked away. "Not really."

Nigel slid next to Airson. "And you telling me that you don't wanna know what Miraka looks like when she's just free in the skin she was born in?" he said, waving his hand at the sky, as if visualizing it in the stars.

Airson looked down for a moment. "Nigel. We're better than that. I'm not doing it."

Nigel groaned. "You guys are boring."

--

Airson laid down in his bed. He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

He woke up to the smell of smoke.

"AIRSON WAKE UP!!" Nigel was yelling at him.

He jolted up. "What's going on?!"

"Someone lit the place on fire!!" Nigel wood armored himself and ran outside.

Airson ran to check the other inn rooms to make sure no one was still indoors.

He opened the last room down the hall.

A person was standing in the middle of the room, his back facing Airson. "So you are here." the person said.

It was a boy the same age as Airson. They looked nearly identical down to the hair. The only huge difference was the boy's clothes and his skin tone was fair.

"So you're... my half brother."

Airson released his Ultrasonic immediately, the floorboards cracked and the walls smashed. "You're that Neo guy?!"

Neo didn't answer. His hair began glowing a bright hot pink, and pink lightning filled the room. His eyes were glowing sky blue. He started to unsheathe a sword from his back.

"You must die by my hands... Airson."