Retribution

As John had left the plane, he knew he had to come up with some type of plan. One that would allow him to still train, and make sure he didn't have to think about dying every day, wether it be from his brother or sister. As he contemplated over possible ideas, he knew a few things that were going to happen. As he left the airport and got a Taxi back to his house, he made a stop at a store to get some things. As the taxi pulled up to his house, he could already feel the churning temperatures that his siblings produced. He prepared himself for the worst, and knocked on the front door. He was once again greeted by Thomas, and he looked quite tired. "Hello John, it's good to see you. Sorry you have to come back on these terms, but both your siblings delt with similar problems in this point of their time in school."

John could see patches of charcoal and water on his suit, along with a few specks of concrete. "Seems like my siblings have been keeping you busy."

"Quite a lot if I may add. They keep fighting in the arena, and your sister isn't appreciating spending time in the "dungeon". It's not a great method to teach children, but it certainly puts the point of victory and strength across."

Thomas seemed quite tired, so John didn't bother him with any questions. John simply just walked through the house. He saw Emily and Sarah looking at him from the top of the stairs, not daring to make a move. They obviously knew it saw something he didn't, but he just kept moving forward with his plan. As he made his way through the great room, he saw remains of suit and ice along the upper portions of the ceiling. A ladder was positioned on the right wall, along with a brush and bucket of paint. It looked like they didn't do any major damage, but probably because they didn't want to see father angry. As John made his way out the back sliding door, his eyes focused on the smoke rising from the arena. As he continued to walk twords it, he saw one of the concrete base tiles fly to the right of him. He then saw a large spire of ice rise, and then nothing. He anticipated that his brother had frozen his sister. As he caught sight of the arena, he saw his father looking directly at him. Judging by the fire in his eyes, he was either angry or wanted to test him. He knew this had two outcomes, "I either get my ass beat to the floor and then get my limp body impaled by ice, or I can try and yield." In the moments leading up to his father generating purple flames, he said "I yield."

His father seemed quite surprised by the question, and then said "You know that means your going into the dungeon for a week right? Why not try?"

John had to come up with something, so he tried to say something philosophical "Because I know when fighting is a lost cause."

With that, he walked passed him, passed his frozen sister and exhausted brother, opened the door to the dungeon, and began to unfold his plan. The dark no longer scared him, since he could read heat signatures. Though this ability played nothing with his main void ability, it was likely something that manifested along with it due to his genetic inheritance. He took out his bag, and pulled out two boxes of protein bars. Over the months of his captivity in that room, he found a stream that ran through the back of the concrete wall in the bottom right corner from the door. He pulled back the concrete slab to see it was still running, and he likely had at least a week's worth of calories in protein bars and a few other supplements he picked up. After he got himself situated, he began to train. Without using any form of his powers, he began to start doing calisthenics. He started with over 2000 push ups and sit ups. His body was already quite strong, but only to his own weight. He then picked up the concrete slab he used to hide the water source, and began doing squats. He then picked up other pieces of concrete that he fashioned handles in using a little void energy. After he let the void settle back into his cells. He then began using the modified concrete as barbells, and made sure to train for at least three hours a day. After he finished training, he pulled out his phone and began watching the videos he saved of different fights of all types. He was able to save three hours of video on his phone, and around six on his laptop. He made sure to bring two portable chargers, but that would only last him for so long. He once smuggled his phone down, and found that there was no reception thirty feet down below at least six feet of concrete. Now he was prepared, and was quite happy that they just let him down here without checking what he had. Now that he was situated with his setup, he used the last hours of the day to train his void abilities. He knew that he would have to learn to take in the natural void energy, but he still struggled with the concept. Over the next three days, he was able to increase his physical capacity, along with his knowledge of combat. He watched every video at least two times each, and was starting to notice the small movements, and slight differences in power. But he was still struggling with the actualization of compressing the natural void energy into himself. After hours of trying to figure out how it worked, he tried doing something he had never attempted before. Unlike his brother or sister who would have a hard time breaking through the concrete, he could simply just void through it. His new objective was to get close to the surface to where he could get reception. That day, he spent four hours digging on the other side of the concrete wall until he broke through and got some reception. He then looked up dark matter and dark energy theory. It was quite hard to find anything about it, since most scientific research was cut after the collapse. But he found some older documents and a few videos on an old website that explained a few theories on it. While most talked about how dark matter are like bubbles, and the dark matter is the air trying to escape. He found most of the stuff useless until he stumbled upon Egyptian writing. For some reason, he could fully read and understand what they were. He didn't know how or why, but he just took it as sheer luck and used the best he could. After reading until his phone died, he closed up the opening and snuck back down and went to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, the real training began.