Touching a Hot Thing

"Oh? Hello my little, how is going school?" Loren White said, Ethan White's mother, after gazing at him briefly. She seemed to be so busy that she could not stop for a moment, even if it was to greet her only son.

"Everything is fine as always, mum. History is taking me a bit more effort to pass, but the teacher is giving me some private lessons after class." Ethan White said, a sigh of resignation escaping from his lips.

Even here, his mum was still being annoying about his academy's qualifications. He had enough just hearing her at their weekly phone calls or the uncommon occasions when she was back at home.

He used to be proud of his qualifications, but it was only when his parents were not present in the same room. Ethan White knew how much his parents wanted him to inherit the company, and he was not going to give them the pleasure to know how pleased he was about his qualifications.

"Oh? I will make someone contact your academy later to give him my appreciation. How much time has passed since the last time you were here? If I knew you were coming, I could have called someone to bring us sushi…" Loren White replied after a short while.

Ethan White did not like these kinds of formalities and treatment. He was fine without eating expensive food, even preferring some cheap steaks rather than eating sushi.

"Mum, do not worry, I am fine. I had eaten before coming. You know I dislike being in the company. I solely have come here for the thing you told me about in our last call." Ethan White said bluntly, denying what thoughts his mother could have about him wanting to come back to the family's business.

He saw as his mum stopped what she was doing, arching one of her eyebrows while gazing at him, an inquisitive expression on her face. "And for what do you need that many Heart Cores, my little?"

Ethan White spent days before coming, only to think of an excuse to tell his mother. Therefore, he was not going to disappoint her.

"Well… you know mum how hard it is for me to get Ascended… so, I got interested in what a Heart Core looks like since maybe it could help me know how to form one… But after getting the one you gave me, I thought that I would need more, for... you know mum, to see if every Heart Core looks the same…"

After saying what Ethan White thought was a superb excuse, he felt proud, thinking that it went just exactly as he practiced yesterday. However, he was more nervous than yesterday, having his mother looking at him with an "I-do-not-trust-you" expression on her face.

"Mole, go to my private storage and take the item's number 8962." Loren White ordered her secretary.

Mole was the nickname of his mother's secretary. Before the Stellar Age, everyone called him by his real name, but after The Descend and the superpowers era began, everything that mattered was your ability.

Mole got Ascended quickly, only taking a few months. He even was labeled as one of the few geniuses who appeared at the beginning of this new era.

But his power was a disappointment even to his family. He got a shape-shifting ability, one that enabled him to turn himself into a lion-sized mole.

The military contacted him shortly after awakening his power, wanting to recruit him for a special squad for Ascenders with an earth manipulation ability. His duty would have been to dig trenches and other kinds of ground fortifications.

In the end, Mole decided to stay in the company, even if it meant enduring the nickname his superior gave to him. It was a stable job with a good salary, and he also did not have to risk his life.

After half an hour, Mole was back at the office, his right hand grabbing a familiar black suitcase with the number "8962" in the front.

Ethan White was seated on the only sofa in the room, playing games on his phone to pass the time, while his mother was the entire time busy with paperwork.

He only saw her stopping to look at the papers for a few minutes, but it was solely to give a call to some foreigner in a language he did not know.

After he placed the suitcase on his superior's desk, she gave Ethan White a look and proceeded to introduce the password only she knew.

Ethan White got up from the sofa, getting near to his mother's desk, to see a big semi-transparent sphere inside the suitcase. It looked bigger than the previous Heart Core he absorbed, and while the previous one had some feathers, this Heart Core did not have any.

It was almost transparent, being able to see the surroundings which would be blocked by the enormous orb but also seeing the purple outline of the sphere.

"It was taken from one of our soldiers fighting on the frontline in Russia. Her ability was fire manipulation." Loren White said after looking at the mesmerized look on her son's face.

Ethan White found strangely the look of the Heart Core, expecting to see some flames around the orb. If the owner of the Heart was a fire Ascended, it at least had to have some hot feeling at the touch or something which resembled fire on its appearance.

At least, this was what he thought based on his previous experience. The Heart Core he absorbed before had feathers and it seemed very solid. It also was smaller than this purple one.

He remembered the time when he asked his mother about the Ascended that his previously absorbed Core belonged to, finding out that it had a shapeshifter ability that enabled its previous owner to turn himself into an eagle.

The owner was not a soldier, but an Ascended working for a special squad, a secret one the Earth Alliance used to dispatch in missions that were not suitable for the public to know.

Therefore, Ethan White found a similarity between the Heart Core and its Ascended. But this rule was not being applied this time, a strange occurrence he found odd.