CHAPTER XXI

"Who the fuck is that?" there was a tall slim looking man standing 'at ease' in front of the fountain as they approached their dorm.

"Ryder shush!" Fred shushed Ryder, placing his index in front of his circled lips, "that's Ezekiel, he's not a very nice guy."

"So who is he?" Ryder insisted but Fred only rolled his eyes.

"He's a guard," Yuan came to his rescue, "We have encountered him before."

Ryder furrowed his brows and squinted trying to recall where that was.

"Ow!" He exclaimed, circling his lips, "At the cabin!"

"Yes at the cabin and we are in trouble," Yuan grinded his teeth.

"Why? What did we do?" Ryder asked, in an insanely calm manner.

Fred and Yuan stopped walking, it was past curfew and they were caught, maybe another punishment was awaiting them, they were not too sure. Maybe explaining that they were busy with one punishment would help them out, they weren't sure. But Ryder being stubborn wouldn't help them out, they were sure of this.

Ezekiel beaconed to them to approach him and they did, carefully. When they were only a few steps away from him, he moved closer to meet them halfway. To meet Ryder precisely.

"Ryder Hall." He pronounced Ryder's name, as if trying to decipher something from it.

"Ezekiel," Ryder called too. "What's the last name?" He boldly asked.

"That is of no importance," Zeke smiled.

He looked softer this night than he did that time Ryder had first seen him. Black haired, black eyes, tall and lean — tanned. Good looking too. Were words one could use to describe him, and from the last encounter with him 'stern' would have been a word. But right now he was looking like a typical playboy, and especially with that smirk playing on his face.

"Can I ask a silly question?" he requested, leaning towards Ryder.

"Sure," Ryder was confused.

"Do you know your father?"

This question made Ryder's heart skip. His father? He knew nothing about the man, whatever he believed he knew, he was sure are just imaginations, simple make-believe. Like the little happy memory of his father that he has in his head, where he was playing with a stuffed wolf and his father slowly transforms into one, seeing how interested his son was in the wolf. From what he remembered, he wasn't terrified, unlike most kids would have been. He was actually amazed by what his father could become, as the 'imagination' went, he believed he had transformed then. For the first time.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well I'm just interested," Zeke laughed, "Transformers don't come around easily," he added. Ugh! Ryder was tired of hearing that. Words about him must have spread, he thought. That was the only way Ezekiel would have known what he was.

"Do you know anything about my father?" he asked, this man wouldn't have brought questions up on his father if he didn't know something.

"What are you saying man? I just met you," he laughed.

Ryder wasn't very pleased with this.

"Yuan, Fred," he called his roomies, "Let's go," he made the first move to leave.

"Wait!" Zeke's voice cut through the atmosphere, "We are not done yet."

"What is it you want from me?" Ryder's anger was spiraling out of control now. At some point they must have been loud, because the students were peering through their windows to see what was going on outside.

"I want to know you, Wolf."

'I want to know you, Argent' contrary to his actual words, those were the ones that echoed inside Zeke's head.

"Well I'm not interested in being your friend." Ryder growled.

"You seem angry," Zeke stated, "What are your thoughts on fighting it out?"

All three of them turned to face him; all with furrowed brows. Was he asking Ryder to fight?

"What do you mean by that?" Fred said something, finally.

"I'm asking for a friendly duel," Zeke replied with his eyes fixated at Ryder.

"I will take it."

"Ryder, No!" Fred held Ryder back. "Let's go inside, the man seems drunk."

"No he's not," Ryder couldn't perceive alcohol on him, "He's not drunk," he broke off Fred's hold, "You guys should go inside, it might get messy." Ryder warned then advanced towards Zeke.

"Awoo!!!" Ryder howled long and loud. Shortly afterwards he began to transform. With his face looking disfigured, his jaws building up, his bones cracking, breaking and reforming. His clothes tearing; and hair growing all over his body. Zeke waited for Ryder to make a full transformation.

Ryder was groaning and growling and howling all the way. Once he was done; he had turned to a full wolf, with little traces of human traits. This wolf was huge and black and fear invoking. It was the first time Fred and Yuan saw Ryder make a full man-wolf transformation, he was just a wolf at the stadium.

'Clap, clap, clap.' Zeke clapped slowly. "Now that was simply great," he commented, "I'm really impressed. How people go from human to wolf is just beyond me."

Ryder wasn't very interested in the talk, he charged at Zeke. Zeke didn't attack nor did he defend, he just jumped out of Ryder's way, he was really quick. Ryder ended up crashing into the iron fence guarding the fountain, this impact hurt a lot and it only fueled Ryder's anger.

He charged at Zeke again but this time Zeke took to the sky in an orange burst, that was surprising. Ryder's eyes followed the fire up but it was too fast, before he knew what was happening, Zeke had landed behind him.

"That's enough," Zeke shouted, "You all can go and rest now, let's call it a day."

Ryder slowly went back to his human form, naked.

"Ooh!" Zeke covered his face with his hand, "I thought about that, and I have a solution," he went to take out the 'solution' from a bag he had left close to the fountain.

"Ryder that's your uniform!" Fred exclaimed, "Now you would be left with only the spares of your un..."

"I said I have a solution," Zeke repeated and tossed a packed bag at Ryder, "You want to change? Or would you rather do that later?"

"Later," Ryder said, not caring about how naked he was.

"Yuan do something," Fred whispered restlessly to Yuan.

'Whoosh!' And a few seconds later Ryder was on a black robe.

"Cool." Zeke smiled, clapping.

"Thank you," Ryder turned to thank Yuan.

"I will be seeing more of you Hall," Zeke said.

"Yeah, I guess."

And with that Zeke took to the sky again, this time he seemed to have gone slower; they were able to trace the orange circle as he flew overhead. He is a fire manipulator too.

They were all lying on their beds, quiet. And they have been like that for a few minutes now.

"Can't you turn down a fight?" Fred broke the silence, "Seriously Ryder, get a hold of yourself, it's exhausting!"

"I'm sorry," Ryder wasn't in the mood to fight.

The apology seemed to have done its bit, it left Fred speechless.

"What about your father?"

Ryder raised his body from his bed to get a proper look at Yuan. He met that Yuan was seated on his bed.

"What about him?" Ryder asked.

"Why were you not able to answer Ezekiel's question earlier?" Yuan asked a deeper question, "Don't you know anything at all about him?"

Fred was surprised at Yuan's questions, why was he asking? It's pretty personal.

"Well, I don't know him," Ryder gave a simple reply, then he went back to his lying position. "My mother didn't allow that. She never talked of him and she always waved my questions aside whenever I asked," he explained further.

"Ow, that's..." Fred was lost for words, "That's sad."

"Well it doesn't matter honestly," Ryder said in an excited tone, he was trying to lighten the atmosphere, "I did survive, I didn't die because of his absence."

"Well that's true," Fred agreed.

"Your mother is Southern isn't she?"

Ryder smiled lightly at this. He wasn't particularly enjoying the questions Yuan was throwing at him, but he did find it lightly amusing, to say the very least.

He sat back on his bed. Fred was seated now, well, it wouldn't be bad if they all got to know one or two about each other that night, he thought.

"Yes, she is a Southerner," he answered.

"You have the accent for it," Fred commented.

Ryder chuckled, he was raised by his mom, he learnt how to speak from her, he learnt most of his basic human behaviors from her. But he grew up on this soil, his accent was no more than a sprinkle of salt in an ocean.

"The accent isn't strong, I'm surprised you guys noticed, for real."

"It's there, and it's noticeable. But not many people would know. You don't talk much." Fred explained.

"Ow! That's true," Ryder nodded thoughtfully, "And what about you guys? Say something about your family," he demanded.

"Well, my family isn't very interesting," Yuan was the first to talk, "But Fred's is quite interesting," Fred rolled his eyes while Ryder waited patiently for whatever Yuan wanted to say, "They are generation." Yuan blurted.

"Cool."

"Yeah, it's not all the flex being generational as much as it is being a transformer," Fred said.

"Is it that cool? Being a transformer?" Ryder asked still feeling like it was being over-hyped.

"Yes, aside from you I think there is only one other recorded occurrence of a transformer," Yuan answered.

"And is this... Transformer... a wolf?" Ryder asked.

"Yes." Fred's answer made his heart beat quicken, he wanted to know more. "The record was from the early 1800s," Fred added, killing Ryder's buzz.

"Ow," he said, disappointed.

"Are you interested in finding your father?" Yuan asked.

"I don't know," there was a distant look on his face, "Is there a need for it though?" he asked no one in particular.

"If you want to find him we can help!" Yuan bobbed excitedly on his bed.

"This place can be helpful too," Ryder got even more interested, "This place has been holding mutants since the 1700s and has a lot of books on most mutants they have encountered. We learn a lot from reading books," Fred shrugged.

"And all these books are kept where?" Ryder asked.

"The school library," Yuan answered, "It would be a great adventure," he stated. He was all excited for the 'adventure' to come.

"We can start our search there," Fred concluded.

Ryder still wasn't sure. What would he gain from looking for this man? The same one who had abandoned him, but he wasn't sure, did he abandon him? His mom would never say. But maybe knowing his roots might be of help. He wasn't decided and he wasn't sure if he ever would be.

"Come on Ryder," Fred urged, "Just for the fun of it."

"Yes! Yes!!" Yuan jumped on his bed.

"Sure." Ryder said, "We should all collect whatever we can find on transformers."

"There isn't much," Fred admitted, "Not many transformers around to warrant a lot of books."

"Yeah, but that's what we have," Ryder reasoned.

"We will take it," Yuan agreed.

"Ezekiel."

"What about him? What about him Ryder?" Fred asked again.

"I think he knows something," he said.

"Well, I will say, let him be our last resort," Fred carefully put.

"Yes," Ryder agreed, "It won't be any fun if we get the answers laid out for us," he reasoned, "And we are doing it for the fun of it," he added.

"WE ARE ON!!!" Yuan shouted and the other two laughed heartily at this.

"Ezekiel," Ryder started again, Fred sighed warily, "He's a fire manipulator." Ryder stated more than asked.

"Yes. But unlike the Philips, he isn't generational," Fred answered.

"He's a first degree mutant," Yuan added, "You know what that is, right?"

"Yeah, sure I do."

"Do you think Zeke will come back?" Yuan asked, concerned.

"I hope not." Fred said, shaking his head.

Ryder was being quiet so they turned to check him out, he looked like he was deep in thoughts.

"You howled like a wolf in human form," Fred called his attention, "Is that ... Even supposed to be?"

"Sure, I do have some of my wolf abilities even in human form," Ryder answered then laid on his bed almost immediately after.