Chapter 20

"You're that guy I saw when I first came to Magical City, ain't it?" Hanabi asks as they gather around the assigned leader of their squad, Gusion Paxley.

They are all currently inside Gusion's room while Dr. Baker and Dr. Rooney are making sure that Emperor Scorpion and Monitor Lizard are truly in good condition after what had happened the other day.

"I can't believe I'd be working with Paxley even in this kind of situation," Harley comments as he crosses his arms and rolls his eyes away from their leader. "He's even the team leader, errr, goosebumps."

Gusion scoffs at Harley's statement and tells him to be thankful to him instead for he is the reason why he is chosen to be the mage of the squad among the countless mages in the city.

"Nephila, you look better compared to the first time we crossed paths," Gusion compliments, turning his attention on Hanabi. The scarlet ninja simply smiles and nods at him, acknowledging his comment.

"It seems lively here," a hoarse voice comes booming inside the room as the door creaks open. Mr. Ton just arrived as soon as he is informed that the VENOM Squad is now fully equipped. His smile almost made him look creepy. It's as if the corners of his mouth would always stay smiling.

"My beautiful VENOM squad," he adds up to his comment. Hanabi, who is just standing beside the bed of their leader, suddenly feels a sharp pang of pain in her head.

She groans in pain and almost loses her balance. She sees few glitches of memories but she cannot make anything out of it because she saw them for only a few seconds. Before she could fall on her knees, Gusion grabs her arm and pulls her towards him. She lays her head on his chest, pain evident on her face. She has her eyes closed and bites her lower lip due to the feeling of her head being drilled forcefully.

Her vision starts to blur and her knees couldn't stand on their own anymore, it's like they start to melt.

"Is everything okay?" he asked as the doctor walks up to them in assistance.

Gusion holds her in his arms but when he is in contact with her bare skin, he immediately jolts in shock. He takes his hand away upon feeling the hot temperature of their team's spearhead.

"She has a fever!" he claims which alarmed everyone. He voluntarily gets off the bed and lays Hanabi instead. He wipes off her face with a dry cloth for she is sweating a lot abnormally. Her breathing becomes ragged, and it seems like she has no strength to move any part of her body.

Dr. Rooney comes over and checks on her. He gets her temperature and it is way above the normal heat of a person.

"All of you leave the room," he demands which the others obediently did.

Gusion sits down on the couch comfortably, his eyes set on Mr. Ton whose mood seems to have turned bitter. His eyebrows almost meet at the center of his forehead.

"Don't be too disappointed, CEO," Gusion states as he looks away from him. He crosses his arms and smirks as he set his eyes the other member of the team. "We'll be ready before you know it. Just a bit of time to adjust, then we'll wage war against the demons."

Mr. Ton grins as he walks towards Gusion and sits beside him. He simply nods in response and says nothing as they wait for Dr. Rooney's report about Hanabi's state.

Harley clicks his tongue while playing with the wand that is made only for him to use. Its eye stares at Gusion which the leader finds creepy especially that the second green eye on Harley's weird looking hat is also staring at him.

"It's better seeing the leader on the bed, it would be much more entertaining to see him convulse to death," he states without looking at Gusion. Their leader did not feel offended at all for his attention is still focused on the eyes that are gazing at him.

Harley's hat has its electronic tentacles that move on their own as if swimming in midair. Right on the center front is the green eye that has a black slit which determines where it's staring at. And on his wand, the green eye is located at the rounded top and with that kind of setup, Gusion wonders why Harley seem to not mind the awful look of his armor.

"Stop staring at me!" Harley yells with his ears turning red, "You're creeping me out!"

Gusion snorts at his comment before looking away. His eyes set on the closed-door where Hanabi is currently in.

"Those extra eyes of yours are the creepy ones. Every girl would fall for me if I gaze at them, they'd even have their noses bleed," he says proudly, his confidence still intact.

"Grock agrees with Gusion," says the giant who spoke for the very first time after being taken out from the tube. Among the five members, he is the one that changed. No one would recognize him as the once rock giant for he is now like one of the extinct kinds of lizards years ago. His once blue eyes turned purple, his rocky build turned into a scaly skin of a reptile.

The door creaks open as Dr. Rooney leaves the room. He lets out a sigh before facing Mr. Ton.

"Nephila had amnesia during the process of her transformation. Her condition right now is a bit unstable especially when her brain starts to make her remember her past," he states while taking a few glances on his diagnosis paper. "I injected some pain reliever to her so she could tolerate the pain. Consistence in injecting her would repress her  memories from coming back."

Mr. Ton stands up with a face of disappointment. He shakes his head while clicking his tongue.

"You better keep your eyes on her. You cannot even make your work properly," he says before fixing his suit and walks out from the laboratory. Meeting the expectation of the arrogant CEO has been always a problem.

This time, Dr. Baker gives no much attention to the reaction of Mr. Ton for he could not blame them if the experiment is not perfect. It was the first try for them to inject exousia to a person so the results would not be as accurate as they have predicted since they were given little time to fully know what the exousia is capable of.

"All of you go to your assigned rooms. There is a chance that you all might be unstable and it would be problematic if you all get bed-ridden," Dr. Baker instructs them. No one has complained, they simply follow what they are told to do but before going inside their designated rooms, Harley gets the documents about the Magic Cube.

Dr. Baker notices the grin that the mage has worn before closing the door of his room. From that, he somehow thinks that probably both Gusion and Harley have set their eyes on obtaining the Magic Cube. He simply shakes his head before heading into the room of Nephila together with Dr. Rooney.

As they enter, Hanabi is sound asleep thanks to the help of the pain reliever injected to her. Her lips are a bit violet in color, her complexion is paler compared to the time she was submerged in the tube. And opposite from a while back, her heartbeat is now abnormally slow. The two doctors are a bit puzzled for they could not find the exact problem that causes such symptoms.

"She needs the most attention for monitoring since she is the very first one that has been exposed to the alien substance," Dr. Rooney stated, his attention focused on the monitors.

To further examine her, Dr. Baker extracts a few drops of her blood before going to the other wing of the laboratory, leaving his co-worker to keep Hanabi stable and avoid letting her die in any case.

Hanabi, who thinks that she's dreaming, starts to remember fragments of her past but still, she cannot understand it for she could only see one person. He is a man whose deep, penetrating eyes could make her freeze in place and keep staring at his good-looking face. His lips are pinkish as if he had put some ointment on it. His eyelids are longer which makes him look more attractive. 

"Kenshin," she hears herself call out his name in her dream.

"Kenshin?" Dr. Rooney repeats what he had heard and stares at Nephila who suddenly speaks of a stranger's name. He simply ignores it and left the room for a bit.

"How is Nephila?" asks Mr. Ton who just came back and he is not alone, he has brought someone with him. The doctor asks the CEO what business he has that he had brought a newcomer inside the laboratory which he does not usually do. 

"He's my son and you said that the team's spearhead could regain her memories back so I brought him with me to keep his eyes on her. He will also be responsible in accompanying Nephila in case she gets in some kind of trouble," Mr. Ton states and the doctor simply acknowledges his presence for he has no room for rejecting the decision of their boss.

"Kenshin, you know what you're supposed to do," says the CEO as he pats his son's shoulder before leaving the laboratory.

His name rings inside Dr. Rooney's mind and he tilts his head as he tries to remember where he had heard his name. They've known the CEO for quite a long time but have never heard that he has a son.

"Do you probably know Nephila? Do the two of you know each other?" he asks Kenshin who is looking curiously around the laboratory. He stops wandering around and faces the doctor.

"Well, you can say that we know each other," he replies and seeing the nodding head of the doctor makes him ask why he had question him about it.

"Nephila just mumbled your name a while back, probably remembering you in her memories," the doctor replies before deciding to leave the room. 

A grin forms on the corner of the lips of Kenshin upon hearing such news. His father told him of Hanabi's amnesia and having the chance of being with her once again, he is thinking of fooling Hanabi by telling her false stories about her past and take advantage of her.

"Shall I go and see her?" he grins, wanting to grab the chance to finally have her all by himself.

Dr. Baker nodded for he might be of great help in keeping Hanabi's memories from returning.

Kenshin walks inside Hanabi's room and sees her poor state. But what has awestruck him is the change in her which he had never expected. He sits beside her and gazes at her sleeping face, she seems peaceful which brings back the memories of him waking up and seeing her lying beside him on the bed. That was a long time ago but seeing her at that moment made him feel like it was just yesterday. He runs his finger from Hanabi's forehead, down to her pointy nose and down to her cold, violet lips. 

"You should get better," he whispers while running his thumb over her lower lip, "Get better for me, Hanabi."

On the other hand, the head of the Paxley household sent a Dawnian message to the important leaders of both Magical City and Moniyan Empire.

He is currently in his office, feeling a bit uneasy for he cannot hide the fact that the prophecy is already nearing its peak.

"Why did you ask for a meeting? The prophecy needs not much attention from all leaders, the authority you hold at this moment would be at stake," Esmeralda stated, her chin leaning on top of her hand while she lies down on the couch comfortably.

Mr. Paxley ignored her comment for he has decided that the prophecy needs to be known and discussed. For him, such choice is the best among the others so they could prepare for the stated doom from the prophecy. And his decision would be the very first in history for the prophecies had been kept from the leaders before but now, it has to change for the sake of everyone. Especially that the situation is not something that could be handled with ease.

"Head Mage! The leaders had sent their response!"

Diggie came hooting, waving his clock around to show the Dawnian message from the leaders. Both the heads of the mage households, the Baroque and Vance, is on their way to the Paxley mansion.

No message had come from both Princess Silvanna and Princess Odette, same goes with Minsitthar who manages the Warrior's Society. Mr. Paxley washed his hand over his face for he will surely be receiving the anger of the leaders.

"Diggie, have everything be prepared before the leaders arrive," he instructed which the little owl had obliged to.

Watching the frustration building up within the head of the Paxley made Esmeralda smile secretly.