Chapter 3: The Monster (Part 2)

{With Max, inside his room}

"Whew! That was close!" said Max as he let out a big breath of relief. Eavesdropping on his mom and grandfather's supposedly private conversation wasn't probably the greatest idea this ten year old has ever made. But hey, at least he made it out in one piece. And what's even better is that no one even realised a thing.

Or.....so he thought. "Max? Are you still in there?" asked his mother from behind the door.

"Oh! Mom! Yes, I'm here! I'm still inside" replied Max, feeling a bit anxious.

"Can I come in? I want to talk to you about something" said Lucina.

"Sure mom! Come in!" Max reluctantly invited her inside. It's not like he had any other choice.

"So Max...what were you doing earlier?" asked Max's mom as she slowly walked into his room.

"Umm...you know, I played with Cy, read some books. The usual" Max lied, with the best of his capabilities. Well, he tried at least.

"Hmm, read some books eh? Are you sure that you didn't even stepped outside of this room?" asked Lucina again, trying to force Max to confess.

"Nope! No I didn't! I stayed inside.....like you told me too" Max lied again, trying desperately to stand his ground.

Max's mother continued staring at her son's eyes, causing him to sweat furiously in panic. Max felt like he was drowned in guilt and fear as his mother's eyes continued staring down upon him like a vicious hawk.

"Max....are you lying to me?" she asked him again.

"Umm...no?" Max answered half-heartedly, hoping that his mom would finally stop her interrogation.

" *sigh* You do know that I am a Psychic Magician right? I can sense that you're lying to me. And I also heard you running of earlier after your grandfather and I finished talking. So Max, can you tell me why you're lying to me?" Lucina finally nailed the coffin with that, as Max immediately stood still in fear and guilt.

"I'm... I'm sorry mom. I was curious. Please don't be mad at me" said Max as he had his head down.

"Look Max. I'm not mad at you for being curious. It's normal for a young boy like you to be curious. But, I'm upset at the fact that you lied to me. If you would've just told me the truth than I wouldn't be this upset" explained Lucina as she shook her head slightly.

Max could do nothing but listen to his mother's advices. He could feel tears collecting in his eye sockets but he managed to held it back in. However, he was feeling really sad especially now when his mother is looking at him with a slightly disappointed expression on her face.

"Mom.....are you.... disappointed at me?" asked Max, a deep sorrowful tone could be heard from his voice and Lucina picked up on it.

Lucina slowly kneeled down to his height and put her right hand on his shoulder. "Max, I'm not disappointed at you. But you need to learn to never lie, especially to your mother. The magic inside you, it's nature will bend according to your principles. To be a good magician, you need to be a good person. Like your father" Lucina explained.

"Like father?"

"Yes. Your father was a really good person. He was kind, smart and disciplined. And he never lied to me. You might not remember him much since he left for the Magic Corp when you were only 5 years old. If he was still alive today, he would be saying the same thing I'm saying. So, can you promise your mother that you won't lie again?" asked Lucina as she waited for an answer from Max.

"I promise" replied Max.

"Good. Back to the matter at hand, I think you've heard enough of what your grandfather and I talked about, yes?"

"Yeah, just a bit" answered Max.

"So you know that the both of us can't leave the house right? It's for our safety" explained Lucina, getting a nod from Max.

"But....what if it comes here? Shouldn't it be dangerous if we stayed?" asked Max, sounding a bit scared.

"It won't. Your grandfather will make sure it never reaches here. Still, we need to stay inside. The monsters likes small children and animals. If you don't behave, it will come and kidnap Cy and you!" Lucina deliberately shouted the last part and immediately startled Max. The scared little boy immediately ran up to her and hugged her tightly.

"And that is why I want you to stay inside this room and don't come out until I say so, okay?" asked Lucina.

"O-okay." Max answered timidly.

"Good. I'll be going downstairs now. If you need anything, just give me a holler" said Lucina as she left Max's room.

"I guess it's just you and me now, Cy. What should we do now?" asked Max to his pet snail. Cy responded to his answer simply by eating the leaf in his cage.

"I guess I'll just read the book mother gave me then" said Max as he grabbed a book from his shelf and laid it down on his bed. Max opened the first page of the book and before you know it, he found himself lost in the magnificent pages of the book.

{Magic Corp Laboratories}

Max's grandfather has arrived at the location and was surprised at how packed the facility had become. Dozens of people presumably the reporters crowded the entrance, trying their best to get an exclusive scoop of the incident but were denied entry by the soldiers guarding there.

Max's grandfather scoffed in annoyance. "God damn it, I hate these paparazzis" he muttered under his breath as he approached the entrance.

As he was walking, he took the opportunity to scan the area outside of the facility. "No traces, no damages outside. This creature is really careful with it's tracks. Though, it's impossible for a creature of that scale to just leave this area without leaving any trail. And yet it did.....hmmm. Something's not right here" he deduced as he tried to rack up his brain for every possible explanation while he nears the entrance.

However, he was stopped in his tracks as two soldiers immediately stood in front of him.

"Halt Sir! You can't enter this facility!" said one of the guards.

"At ease soldiers. I was called here to investigate" stated Max's grandfather as he pulled out an I.D. from his shirt pocket.

"Oh! Sir Moreou! Sorry, we didn't recognize you!" both of the soldiers apologized immediately.

"Figures. It's okay, just make sure these paparazzis leave this area soon. The last thing I want is for some leaked information getting reported live and causing mass panic. You got that?" asked Moreou.

"Yes Sir!" both of the soldiers replied and saluted the old man as well as gave him entry to the lab.

Moreou walked past the soldiers and made his way into the lab. As soon as he made it though the automatic doors, he was immediately approached by someone.

"Mr. Moreou! You're finally here, thank God!" said Harry as he walked towards the old man.

"Harry, what the fuck happened here" asked Moreou in a serious tone.

"A breach.....the Morphed we transported escaped. The soldiers tried to stop it bu-"

"Yeah....yeah. I can pretty much guess how the rest of the story goes. Any casualties?" asked Moreou after he cut off Harry.

"Just one. We were lucky to have only suffered one casualty though" exclaimed Harry, sounding a bit relief. However, Moreou didn't like that statement one bit.

"What did you just say? Lucky?" asked Moreou, as he stared daggers into Harry. Upon seeing the old man's gaze, Harry immediately backed himself into a wall, fearing for his safety.

"One person, my men that served to protect you bozos from your own insolence just died. If it wasn't because of you lab junkies messing up, that person would still be alive right now! Now, I dare you, you fucking clown! Tell it to my face! Fucking tell me how lucky it was for one man to die because of your mistakes! C'mon! " yelled Moreou in anger. With only using one hand, Moreou immediately lifted Harry up by grabbing onto his collar.

Harry tried his best to struggle out of the old man's grasp but to no avail as Moreou easily stood his ground.

"Moreou! Stop it! Let him down!" yelled a voice from behind the duo. Moreou tilted his head and looked backwards and saw the owner of the voice.

"Kaso...tell me why I should let this ungrateful bastard of a scientist go?"

"Moreou, calm yourself. Even though he has an asshole of an attitude, he's still an employee of the Magic Corp. Just let him go. If you do anything to him, you'll only be adding more oil to the fire" adviced Kaso, trying to calm the powerhouse of a Magician in front of him.

As the scene unfolded, a few soldiers were already on standby near the area to dismantle the fight. Moreou took note of this and sighed. He knew that these soldier would still be no match for him even if there were more of them, but he wasn't immune to the law. With a heavy sigh, he immediately let the poor scientist down, releasing Harry from his iron grasp and letting him fall down on the ground.

Unfortunately, Harry landed on his belly, causing him to gasp in pain as the power of gravity inflicted pain on his abdomen as he hit the hard stone cold ceramic floor at top speed.

"Ugh! That hurts!" yelled Harry.

"Quit your whining! Just go to the infirmary you dolt!" Kaso yelled back at him.

In pain and in shame, Harry reluctantly stood up and left the area. "Now that this problem is solved, shall we go and solve the main issue?" asked Kaso.

"After you" said Moreou. With that, the duo made their way to the loading bay so that Moreou could start his investigation.

"Sorry again about Harry. He is a good scientist, but not as good with his words" apologised Kaso.

"No surprise here. These scientists.....they act like they know these creatures the most. You give them all the fancy tech and everything else they need to know about these things, and yet these bozos still find a way to mess everything up" said Moreou in a venomous tone.

"It wasn't their fault, Moreou. The person in charge of handling the Morphed didn't give the sedative injections on time" explained Kaso.

"Any idea on who it is?" asked Moreou.

"Based on the reports, it was a man named Kyle Matsumoto. He is the usual Morphed transportation supervisor" stated Kaso, causing Moreou to give a confused a look at him.

"And where is this man?"

"That's the problem. We don't know" said Kaso.

"What do you mean 'we don't know'?" asked Moreou.

"This man...he was supposed to be present when they delivered the shipment earlier today. However, he wasn't there. What's more stranger is that.....he didn't even come for work yesterday or even the day before. So, who-"

"Who in the hell even gave the approval to transport the Morphed?" Moreou finished Kaso's sentence.

"That's right. Everything seems to be suspicious. Too suspicious. First, someone is M.I.A for days. Then, we have a surprise transport and it happens to be an enhanced one. Something is amiss" deduced Kaso.

"Kaso...can you get someone to find any information they can on this Kyle person?" asked Moreou.

"Yeah, I could.....but the higher ups warned to not let any more parties be involved in this case. It's already madness as it is"

"Look, we have more questions than we have answers. If we could track the source of this problem, then we could solve this case faster. Besides, we already have our feet sticking deep in mud with this case. A few more inches deep won't hurt" said Moreou.

Kaso complied with his order and began making a few calls while the both of them heads to the loading bay. As soon as they were there, Moreou's gaze immediately shifted upwards. He looked at the open hole the Morphed escaped with and sighed.

"What the hell did we get ourselves into?" he muttered under his breath.

[Meanwhile]

{On a deserted rooftop of an empty building}

A horrifying creature was perched near the stone ledge of the building. It's arms were bloody and a charred wound could be seen on it's abdomen. It huffs in pain and anger as it's eyes overlook the city below.

"MANY....PREY" it said as it eyed over the people walking down below.

"MUST..... KILL! MUST...EAT! MUST.....FIND.....THE CURSED ONE!" it roared in a heavy voice towards the sky.