Blood

The man took in a deep breath as Silas glared at the man in front of them.

"Don't you love the sound of silence." he chuckled, eyes narrowing at them.

"Who are you?" Silas asked, clenching his fists. "What do you really want? What did you do with my sister??"

"Now. Now." he chuckled at him. "One question at a time, alright?"

"Where is my sister?" Silas asked as Ace continued to try and summon his magic but it would not appear.

What is going on here?

"Your sister?" he asked, tilting his head to the side before disappearing and appearing just beside Silas.

With a very quick motion, he cut his cheek and then went back to where he was before.

"Ouch." Silas hissed, pressing the cut on his cheek as blood ran down his face. "YOU-!"

"Ah." The man said suddenly, licking his finger. "So that was your sister. I see."

"What did you do to her you sick psychopath!?" Silas asked, trying to run and attack the man but Ace put his hands out to stop him. "Prez. Don't stop me."

"Wait." Ace said. "Cleo."

"Yes, sir." It appeared in front of him, doing a twirl and then looking around. "Maybe I should have appeared more discretely."

"You should have." Ace chuckled, not putting the handkerchief away as he looked at the man in front of him through the smell seemed to disappear suddenly.

"Do you know what a Pokedex is?" he asked, not taking his gaze away from the man looking at him with awe.

"What?" Cleo asked, flying in front of his face. "What is that?"

"Never mind. Can you tell me what he is?"

"You mean do a body scan?" Cleo asked, looking at the man in front of them. "Sure!"

"Great!" Ace turned to Silas who was looking at him with annoyance. "I need your help."

"Who are you even talking to, Prez?" He asked, looking at him like he was looking at a crazy person.

"Can you get a drop of blood from him for me?" he asked, pointing at the man in front of them.

"Why?"

"Because I need to know what he is." He said nonchalantly. "Come on. It won't be hard for you right? Or will it be hard?"

"I can do it." He rolled his eyes at Ace. "Do you think I am weak or something?"

"Well, you haven't picked up a weapon in a long time." As soon as those words left his mouth, Ace wanted to bite his tongue off.

"How did you know that?" Silas asked, looking at him suspiciously now. "What do you know about me? Why do you know that?"

"Never mind now." Ace rolled his eyes at him. "Can you get me his blood or not?"

"W-"

"It is amusing that you all disregard me so much that you will not talk to me or even care that I am here." The man suddenly said, a wide grin that reached from one ear to another appeared on his face.

"Sorry about that." Ace mused. "But we kind of are a little bit preoccupied. I will talk with you later."

A peal of shrill laughter came out of the man suddenly.

"You clearly are amusing." He said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Now I will surely have to kill you both. It is too bad. If didn't know about this, I would have employed your services."

"You make it sound like we would accept it." Ace said, tilting his head to the man with a smile on his own face while Cleo turned into a screen in front of him.

"Too bad." The man said, all his limbs extending once again and shooting in every direction as the two dodged them.

"Whoa. Are you Elastic Girl or something?" he mused, turning to Silas. "Will you be my sword right now or will you always just stand there wondering. Like you did for your sister."

Anger flaring in his face, Silas ran up to Ace and grabbed him by the collar. "Don't you dare bring her up."

Frowning, Ace grabbed his hand and pulled it out of his collar and said, "If you wish to do something about this. Or are you just going to stand around?"

"Fine!" Silas shouted as the two dodged the hands reaching out to them and Silas began to run towards the man, screaming while Ace watched with amusement dancing on his face.

"You are despicable," Cleo said as Ace looked at it, a crooked grin on his face.

"I am only using what I am given." He shrugged. "Besides, if we met this early on and are even having a chance to bond, that means that he will play an important part later on.

"The fourth Male Lead of the game, huh." He said, looking at Silas charging at the man in front of them as carefully as he could. "Can the leads be replaced?"

"What was that?" Cleo asked as he shook his head.

"Nothing."

They heard a shout of pain and Ace looked up to see Silas tumbling to him, rolling on the ground.

The man is clutching his face in pain as he continued to shout over and over again.

"You good?" he asked, crouching to him, still smiling.

Silas looked at him and held up a small pen with a splash of blood on it.

"I don't know." he forced himself to sit up as blood trickled down his shoulder. "You tell me."

"That looks like a nasty wound. We will need to treat it." Ace said, looking at the arm and putting the pen into a small port that appeared beside the screen.

There was this part of him that urged to help heal him but he suppressed that feeling down.

I need to be changing the story. If I am going to do that, I need to suppress these urges.

He looked at Silas clinching his arm in pain as the man in front of them laughed with all his might.

But I don't want to turn into those characters that turn bad after the world is saved. "Fine."

He sighed, bending down and picking the boy up by helping to support him as he stood up.

"What are you doing, you stalker?" Silas hissed as he tried to push Ace away but he couldn't. He didn't have the strength enough to do it.

"Stalker?" He asked, chuckling. "Why would you call me that? I am just trying to help you."

"How do you know all those things about me?" He asked as Ace rolled his eyes.

"You never shut up, do you?"

"Should I?" He retorted. "What are you doing anyway?"

"That man isn't going to die any time soon," he said, looking at the man in front of them. "I need to get the results before I can tell what I should do."

"Just kill him." Silas gasped.

"What about your sister?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "We don't know where she is yet."

Seeming to realise what Ace was saying, he could see the visible defeat on Silas's face.

"What do you suggest then?" He asked, never taking his eyes off the man. "He seems to be healing. I cut him in the eyes."

Ace stared at the skin over the eyes healing up and whistled. "I don't know yet."

"Done!" he heard Cleo shout just as the man's eyeballs fixed and a smile come on his face. "Would you like me to input all this new knowledge onto your character's memory?"

"Go ahead." Ace said as the world around him slowly turned and began to move in slow motion.

A sudden burst of knowledge filled his mind and Ace felt his eyes widened as his brain began to throb like a migraine about to happen.

As soon as it appeared, it disappeared and he felt his legs almost give out but he managed to steady himself.

"Are you ok?" Cleo asked, holding a small flashlight and looked at his eyes. "Your pupils are dilating excessively but it seems to be a success. I don't think there are any side effects so far."

"I wish I could do this all the time." He joked. "Exams would be a breeze."

"You can't use it to cheat." Cleo scolded. "Now, everything will begin to play at its normal speed again. You have ten seconds to get ready."

Ace stretched his head and saw the man fuming with anger as his arms and head twisted and stretched to them slowly.

"How do I even take him down? I don't have any sense of my magic or even the knowledge."

"It will come." Cleo nodded, smiling at him. "Good luck."

"Wonderful help you are." He said, counting down to ten slowly as the throbbing began to ease.

"Five. Fou-" His eyes widened as he realised something and his eyes narrowed as a cocky smile came on his face while looking at the man in front of him. "One."