Chapter 59: Siblings Alike

Romaine's POV

"Based on your given description of the story," Cas started, "It's reasonable to believe that the field he created was able to manipulate the flow of time inside it upon his command relative to the outside world."

"So by dilating time he was essentially slowing down the amount of time that passed for me inside the field." I inferred

"Precisely." She confirmed, "Now I want you to take the next few days easy alright, your superhuman regeneration will close the wound in due time, but you'll need a few extra days to heal."

"Ok then, so what'd I miss?"

"We encountered an additional member of the new X-Genist group, and this time he came with Specter." Kyle informed

"Specter?" I questioned

"The dude who mentally manipulated all of you."

"Oh."

"Yeah don't worry." Dondre reassured, "We handled 'em just well without you."

"Comforting." I dismissed

"We're glad you're ok Romaine." said Shante, "We all thought that Black Zero sent one of them after you and they kidnapped you."

"Yeah, we attempted to track down Zero's lair, but had no luck doing so." Kyle continued, "So instead we started tracking his accomplice."

"Zero's accomplice?" I questioned

"Yep."

The group guided me over to the monitor screens, where Cas brought up images of our most recent villains.

Toxica and Twister were there, along with the Infernomancer and Specter. A new individual was there, who I presume is the one they encountered. And even Double Dial was there as well.

"That one over there is Music Meister." Dondre informed

"Following off of Cas and the Prince's hypothesis," Kyle went on, "These suits do in fact all bear similar design to one another, along with the behavior of their abilities functioning differently from X-Genists like you and Dondre."

"Such as?" I questioned

"Toxica and Twister were pretty simple, Toxica's toxic and Twister's an airhead." Dondre said

"Though for the others we had to delve into their lives a bit and sift through files for similarities" Cas continued

"And as you know, your friend the Infernomancer was an executive chef at a 5 star restaurant prior to taking up a life of crime." the Price added

"Theodore Nashville, the Specter, was one of the country's top 3 neurologists." Kyle went on

"The Music Meister was a musician." Shante continued

"And I'm sure that the one you encountered was some sort of physicist specializing in time dilation." Cas ended

"You see the pattern?" Kyle questioned me

"Everyone's powers relate to either their predominant trait or most notable skill." said Cas, "After a while of testing, this is currently the most defined trait of the X-Gene's Evolution, dubbed by the Prince as the Adroite-Gene."

"Yeah but we still can't figure out exactly what Kyle's skill is." Dondre whined

"What do you mean?" I questioned

"You just talk without thinking don't you?" Kyle scolded him

"Oops, my bad." Dondre mumbled

"I was able to find more similarities between the behavior of Kyle's abilities and these villains' than with yours. Hence leading to the conclusion that his abilities are rooted from the Type 2 X-Gene." Cas explained

"So Kyle's one of these Adroite dudes?" I questioned

"Yes, though I don't find the name very appropriate, hence I refer to the gene as Type 2."

"We can debate a name later lass," The Prince interjected, "but for now let's revert to the topic."

"Right. Well, these suits are what all the Type 2s have in common, besides their powers of course." Cas refocused

"And referring again to Twister's mention of the suits being custom tailored," Kyle continued "given that logic then, we believe there to be the existence of a third party."

"Someone who's supplying these people with their suits, and in turn, granting them their abilities." said Cas

"A Tailor." Kyle stated

"And you all think this 'Tailor' is in contact with Zero?" I questioned

"We all have our own theories related to it, but yes." Cas answered

"Then in that case, let's go find him." I prompted

"No need lad." The Prince stopped me, "We already did."

"And Kyle volunteered to go undercover in order to get in contact with him." said Cas

"You're kidding." I said

"Nope." he responded

"Kyle, you can't go alone."

"I'm perfectly capable of doing so, and I will."

"I can't let you do something like this; if anything happens to you then I wouldn't be able to forgive myself."

"And I won't have this conversation with you while you're in this condition. I'm doing it and that's final."

"Ok." I sighed

"I should probably get going now; the sun's setting." he said, reaching for his coat

"Yeah, I got places to be too." Dondre agreed, following him into the elevator, "See ya."

"I guess I should get going too.." I mumbled

"Your wound's barely closed up, so take it easy alright." Cas encouraged

"I got it."

"Shante, look after him for me please."

"Okay." Shante agreed

Once the elevator came back down, she helped me into it and supported my body while I stood.

"What was it like without me around for 3 weeks?" I questioned her

"Well everyone was focused on finding you and tracking down the Tailor so, kind of stressful." she answered

"I see, well you guys did a good job with all this new information."

"I still don't understand any of the science parts." she murmured

"That's fine." I chuckled

~~~~~~~

Once she'd brought me home, I checked up on my mother to make sure that she was doing well. Besides her extensive confusion of how she didn't realize that three weeks had passed, she was very excited for her upcoming birthday, which happened to be tomorrow.

Shante's POV

After I helped Romaine get home, I started walking back to Cassandra's house, which is where I lived for the past 3 weeks. Everyone there's actually really nice, even Dondre; though sometimes he makes me feel very uncomfortable. I don't really know why.

Now I was closer to Cas' neighborhood than Romaine's. I don't know why these two have to live so far apart. The stress of walking so much was nothing compared to the joy of Christmas. All the songs being sang, and the bright lights everywhere makes you just love Christmas.

"I love Christmas!" I cheered

"You love Christmas, you say." a voice came from behind me

Suddenly all my happiness was gone. My body kept shaking, and I was frozen in place.

"Come now," he said, "the least you can do is look at me."

I slowly turned around, looking up at his face.

My bones felt like they were going to break apart from shaking too much, and tears were coming from my eyes.

"How inconvenient that Kyle was able to stop you. Don't worry, I still have purpose for you."

He placed his hand on my head, and I started going crazy again.

I could no longer control what I was doing, and kept twitching. My lightning turned dark red again, and the suit I used to wear formed over my skin.

"I see he only succeeded in suppressing it, rather than eradicating it."

I looked into his eyes and only saw pure evil. They call him Black Zero, but his name should be the Devil.

"Now go, my child." He said, before running off into the darkness

Now that my evil half was in control, there was nothing I could do.

She ran around the place hitting people with her electricity and knocking them out.

Inside my mind I was chained up, forced to watch what was happening as she hurt all these innocent people. I kept trying to break loose but they just kept getting tighter.

Soon I started feeling light headed, and wasn't able to resist as much. Back in the real world, someone ran up in front of us.

We stood in place, constantly vibrating, as I tried to see who it was. The suit the person had on looked familiar, but I couldn't fully make out what I was seeing. The only thing I could tell was that the suit was mostly blue.

"Give me back my sister." He said firmly

"Donte." I gasped in my mind, not able to actually talk

My other half took full control again and charged towards him.

Donte dodged her attack then started charging up his own. They both started throwing punches at each other and either dodging or blocking them.

But it was all over once she landed a hit in his face, which ended up throwing him onto the ground.

"Donte no!" I shouted

Now that he's knocked out again I can't stop her from killing him.

"I said.." he whispered, slowly getting up

"Donte." I gasped again

No one's ever been hit with her attack and not get knocked out. But come to think of it, he was able to block more of her attacks from earlier too.

"Give me.." he continued, starting to run around us in a circle

I know lightning is bright and all, but his lightning started to actually glow. And he was running around us so fast that all you could see was a circle of light around us.

"Back my sister!" he shouted, running to us faster than I could see, then punching us in the chest

His energy filled my body, and it kind of hurt a bit, but it just felt like it was destroying part of me.

I fell down to my knees, back in control of my body. My other half was completely gone; I couldn't sense her anywhere.

Donte caught me in his arms and did his usual laugh.

"Hey sis." He said, "You ok?"

I didn't even have the energy to tell him how I felt, or what I was thinking.

All I could do was hug him and cry.

Romaine's POV

My mother and I spent some time planning what we'd be doing for her birthday, and I was glad to see her this happy.

In the middle of our planning, there was repetitive knocking on the door.

"Who could it be visiting so late in the night?" I questioned, knowing that's what my mother would say

"I'm not sure." She responded

"We're coming." I said to who was at the door, slowly getting up

The door knocking continued, and got even more persistent.

"Coming." I repeated, now hasting towards the door

Yet again the knocking persisted, as if they couldn't even hear me

"I said we're comi-" I irritably twisted the doorknob and was stopped in my tracks once I'd seen the visitor

My mother squealed from behind me.

"Haven't seen you two in a long while." she said while dropping her bags and looking at me and my mother

"Melany." I muttered, stunned in place