61

"Okay Skiff, let's try it."

Collins took a pair of glasses and placed them over his Trial Beast's eyes, then placed another on his and let the virtual reality tour begin.

"Woah...it feels so real...aaah! Zombie!"

The Electro Skiffer blasted a bolt of white lightning at the wall and obliterated it in seconds then Collins chuckled and said,"It's only pretend, false scales."

It struggled to get the glasses off then sat down and looked at him with its head tilted, then he scratched its back.

Kofi had given him an Electro Skiffer without anti matter abilities and Collins understood it perfectly as the effects of long or even short term gamma radiation exposure were deadly, for his opponents, himself and even the Electro Skiffer, he couldn't take that risk.

He went to the living room with a frown as the glasses had already connected to the door camera and shown him who was at the door.

He opened it and saw that same, obnoxious girl from before, then he said,"Didn't girl scouts go out of date centuries ago?"

She looked at him, confused, till he asked,"What did you want and how did you know the new apartment I moved to in order to escape creepy fanatics like you?"

"I found you once, I could find you again."She said.

She pushed past him and he looked at her with a shocked frown as she commented on how...okay his apartment was.

He then lost his patience when she started playing with the Electro Skiffer, without it frying her circuits, then pushing her out, he said,"I don't need real estate advice from some homeless freak like you, thanks but no cookies today, good night!"

After banging the door, he let out a sigh of relief then went to his trial beast which was still confused, he smiled then said,"Why don't I get you some lightning lotus flowers for lunch?"

It brightened up, literally and figuratively as there were sparks jumping all around it.

He wore something to keep away attention and went to a beast tamer bureau, he bought some food...proper food for his trial beast then walked out and went down a market road, blending in.

He took a few turns before going into a park, then immediately turned and yelled,"Electro Skiffer, plasma globe!"

Twelve scales removed from his beast's body and started circulating around a man playing with his son and formed a glowing blue sphere of electric charges around them both.

Collins went to the frightened duo then asked,"Why were you following me?"

"What?"The man said,"I don't know what you're talking about!"

The little boy started to cry as Collins said,"Oh really? Fine, Skiff, start the lightning parade, on the kid."

His trial beast caused the scales to start striking lightning bolts at the crying child as a crowd gathered, but Collins didn't care, his cover had been blown the moment this dude started following him.

The man begged for his son's life, but Collins rather made the Electro Skiffer start striking him with the lightning as well.

After a few seconds of the pure torture, the crowd also dispatched their own beasts, trial or civil to stand up for the man and his child, when the man gave up and told his Devil's trumpeter swan to put off the Illusion.

The child turned into a swan like beast with coal black feathers and a bill which started out pale green, to white, ending in a star like pattern on its face in a bright yellow colour.

It also had pink, mascara like feathers around its eyes and silver flight feathers on its wings and on its tail.

Its webbed feet were blood red and looked like something straight out of a horror movie with claws which seemed too big for one to fit even into the entire talon.

The man himself changed and became much bigger and more heavily built, and the crowd was shocked as Collins asked,"Why were you following me?"

The man, who seemed to feel the literal lightning hitting him from every angle...twice, less than before, grinned then said,"You are good, Swan, put off the Illusion."

The creature opened its wings and vanished then Collins realized those he trapped were also an illusion, he looked around and saw the man and his beast beside him, in the crowd clapping.

The man then said,"I have to admire your observation skills, no wonder you are able to tame such a powerful beast."

"Cut the compliments and tell me what you want."

The scales, still dispatched, started generating charges, ready to blast lightning on command when the man said,"I just wanted to talk..."

"About what? You don't seem like someone with a high amount of self respect pulling a stunt like this on me."

The man actually began to laugh at Collins then said,"Okay, sorry, back to business, I just wanted to invite you to the next..."

"Not interested."Collins said, partly because he was really not interested, and mostly because his ego had suffered a deadly blow from that very man's laughter.

He was leaving when he bumped into the man and was confused, how many illusions had that goose made?

"Like I was saying, I wanted to invite you to come to the Academy of Beast Arts, Engineering, Studying and Manipulation, or the ABASEM, for short. Knowing that you don't belong to any academy and keep such a low profile because you're actually wanted for murder...on several occasions, this could be your opportunity to learn much more about your Trial Beast, and start with a clean slate as well, think about it."

And just like that, the man was gone, only with a card stuck to Collins' wrist like his skin was, it was probably just an illusion as well.

But even then, of course he wasn't going...but he really had to leave immediately, the cops were coming...

***

"Betrayal..."A cold, quiet whisper said.

Dollovan looked around as white, icy mists started pouring into the black room of his mind.

He then said,"If you're not going to say something useful, then why don't you just shut up for once?"

A head, formed of clumped together ice crystals formed right in front of his head and blew a chilling wind around and behind him as it bit into the air with its razor sharp teeth, then began laughing as it disintegrated into nothingness.

Dollovan looked around again then yelled,"All I want is answers!"

"And the answers you seek are the ones you shall find...just look."

The world cleared and so as the thin layer of ice around his eyes then he looked around and saw something... someone.

A small, white crystal of ice floated in the air, as vapour slowly converged into it, making it larger by the second.

Randall had the snowflake levitating above his fingers, then threw it in the air as it grew, straightened his arms and it fell onto nothingness and rolled down the invisible pathway to his other hand.

He spun his fingers around it, floating over his left palm, then touched it in the center and an explosion of frigid, cracking sounds formed as it rapidly expanded, then he flung it without touching it and taking a curved path, Dollovan slightly tilted his head and narrowly escaped decapitation.

Randall was caught by surprise and went to apologize but he was still in his cold self, devoid of emotion, mostly because if he wasn't, it could cause everyone else on the planet to act like him instead and if it continued...could freeze time as a whole, as before.

Randall asked why Dollovan snuck up on him like that then he said,"I met someone that I think you all should meet."

"Who?"

He motioned towards her as she said,"Please, it's a matter of life and death..."