Intermission: Making a Choice

We shielded our faces from the heat, and when the conflagration finally faded, Joseph was a vaguely humanoid husk of ash on the ground.

A long moment of silence passed as we tried to figure out what just happened.

“So… wait, I’m confused,” Blake said. “He WAS a good guy?”

“He could be playing us,” Bernicia muttered. “How do we know he isn’t lying?”

“Well,” I began, “If I knew I’d become a fireball, that would probably incline me to be honest. And he mentioned some of our last names, too. So he probably did know our parents.”

“Yeah, like my mom…” Travis thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “She can help us if we can find her, I’m sure of it.”

“But where would she be? He didn’t give a location or any identifying features,” I said. “I say we look for those biotools first.”

“Yeah, but what exactly are they? Like, are they even animals? We could easily end up on a wild goose chase without some kind of description,” Bernicia pointed out.

“We have to start somewhere,” Blake cut in. “Two needles, two haystacks. Which one are we hitting first?”

“I’m not waiting for a vote,” Travis shouted. “I’m going after my mom RIGHT NOW!” With that, he turned and flew off towards Chandonis.

“HEY! Get back here, Travis! TRAVIS!” I threw a frustrated look at Blake and Bernicia, who both shrugged.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “Fine! This is fine. Splitting up is… probably more efficient in the long run… or something…”

“You go make sure he doesn’t get himself killed,” Bernicia chuckled. “We can figure out this biotool thing.”

“Right, right. See you in a bit,” I sighed. Then I launched off after Travis.