Chapter 9 - The Awakening

"Vulcan. You are to make a choice from here. I don't have power over your decision. Do you wish to join us and take down Arcadia?"

I did not expect the General to actually press that question towards a young boy. I cannot let this slide. Well, he did say he want to take down Arcadia, but if anyone else saw that kid fighting, the government will be involved and took legal action against Base Zero

"General. I won't allow it. He is way too young to wage any war. Plus, is the government even allowing this kid to do so?"

General shifted his attention towards me.

"Rilles. I hate to break it to you, but that kid saved both of you from Nathan's engagement. Don't you think you owe him something? About the government, I will explain it to them."

What is the general on? What is he thinking?

"General, with all due respect, we could provide him protection at this base, at least it should be enough."

Kyro then step in to back my argument

"I agree with Rilles. He may have saved us, but that shouldn't be the way to offer some sort of thanks."

Vulcan then steps in to give his answer.

"General. I do. But I need resources from here to assist in the war."

Of course, I am shocked to hear such an answer. This kid is indeed brave, but with his current condition he is not fit.

"The kid gave his consent. That is the final decision. Here is what we should do now. Kyro, you will accompany me to The Azalean Government Office to discuss our current situation. As for you Rilles, you are to train Vulcan at your own will. He needs to be well prepared for the war."

All of us gave our answer. As soon as that happened, Kyro and Raz made their way out of the office.

"Vulcan. You will have to stay here at the time being. I will bring you to your room. But, tomorrow, meet me back here at 9 am sharp to begin your training."

Vulcan nodded in agreement. Despite him trying to put up a tough expression, he is still a kid. Under the orders of General Raz, I need to train this kid. I feel bad, but what choice do I have? I am capable of teaching, but I am not sure if Vulcan is capable of learning my skills. I deemed it difficult at this point. As for Arcadia's fight, I need to prepare him for this fight based on the Case File 401. I took the file that was left on the table and went to the dormitory section to place Vulcan there. Then I go home to my family while bringing the file home.

*At Home*

"Oh, honey. You are back. How is your first day?"

Honestly, it is shit

"Oh it is nice today, reports after reports on the first day. Nothing interesting to be honest."

Suddenly my wife put her right hand on my cheek and found a scar on my left cheek.

"What is this, honey? You don't seem to be doing reports."

Shit man.....

"Ohhh that, that is...that is...ohhh, I fell down. Don't worry, it is not that severe."

My wife looks at me pouting. I think she knows what is going on.

"You know, Rilles. You may be the smartest person in this household. But you are the worst liar. 12 years, I have known you. Tell me the truth."

I cannot make my family worry about something I consider trivial.

"I will tell everything at the dinner table."

*At the dinner table*

This could be the first time in a long time I see food presented towards me, but it is actually only last night I ate. It feels long, but it is only short. My wife seems to be very desperate for my answer as she stares at me while I am eating. But, I am not sure whether this is right or not.

"Honey, hear me closely on what I am about to say."

She leans in closer to me as she drags her chair.

"I work for a secret organisation called Base Zero. It is supposed to be secret. We got caught up with a former agent turned enemy. Now, we are technically gambling our lives to stop the resurfaced threat. I'm sorry to say this but..... I may not meet you both starting from tomorrow.... ever again."

I am a terrible father and a husband. I am unable to contain myself and spill everything out on the spot. This will not put them at ease thinking that I will always be okay, but this is not APD. I may be powerful, but it is not enough to be with my family.

"The threat is extremely dangerous, so saying this might put you people at risk of losing me. I have brought myself into this mess. I said I would volunteer to take down the threat, but my heart thinks otherwise. My heart said not to lose you people, and I have a choice to make. Either choice will have a risk of losing you people."

My wife then looked at me and interrupted me.

"And you are not gonna let that happen, right?"

I am not sure if she is trying to cheer me up or to not let me worry about them.

"You are Rilles. You are the greatest detective in Azalea. We all looked up to you. Even if you lose all hope, at least you have our support. I don't care what threat, but I know that my husband is very intelligent and you will win against it all. At least, you could inspire someone in your life to be like you. You can do it, Rilles. Trust yourself, and we will trust you. Even if we lose you, we won't lose you in our heart and soul."

Inspire someone in your life? Trust myself, and others will trust? I will resonate in the heart and soul of others? It kinda makes sense. After all, 12 years of marriage to this woman, never in those years have I seen her this inspiring. Honestly, it is difficult to make a choice here. I could leave Base Zero, be with my family and live my life as a traitor, or I could put an end to this threat, be with my family, and live my life as a hero.

"I'll think about it, by the way thanks for the food, and thanks for the advice. Still, I don't want to lose you both."

I left the dining table, but a shadow figure caught my attention. I supposed he had heard it all. Thankfully, I did not have a proper answer, but how am I gonna put him at ease? I don't want to pressure him with the thought of losing me.

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*The next day*

The day is here. While the other two have some negotiations to make, I have a promise to be fulfilled. Well not exactly a promise, but rather an order which I should refuse. It is too late to turn back at this point because the kid is involved. I make my way to Base Zero as I bid farewell to my wife and son in order to train Vulcan. After carefully analysing the file, I have come to the conclusion that Arcadia is some sort of a time bender. Since I am a time bender myself, I should train Vulcan in the ways of time. As I reached Raz's office, the person I needed to see was already sitting on the chair.

"You are early today, although I did mention 9 am."

Vulcan then got up from his chair

"I'd rather not have someone waiting for a long time. I read your punched cards,knowing you would arrive at this hour."

Some things are as annoying as such. How did he even read it?

"Let's head over to the training room. I have done my research on Arcadia and maybe I have an idea how his ability works."

We then make our way to the training room which is located underground. One might ask why is the training room underground instead of someplace in the sky? Simple. The training room can be converted into a bunker because of its massive space, and basic supply, especially oxygen, is abundant here.

*Training room*

And so the training begins.

"Vulcan, I need to know a few things. What is your Metavoid?

Vulcan went speechless for a while. Don't tell me...

"Wait, you don't know your own Metavoid???"

Are you serious right now???

"I never knew anything about Metavoid. If you are talking about my swords projecting everywhere, that is some sort of a dark art. Just like Kyro"

"Dark arts? You meant The Forbidden Ways of Fighting? I have heard of it, but why?"

"It is passed down from my parents. So far that is all my parents have taught me, The Dark Arts of Weapons Summoning."

I have not much knowledge on dark arts, one thing for sure is that this method is simply used by Kyro as well. But how is he aware of the term Metavoid?

"Okay then, Vulcan. Next question, how well is your close quarters combat?

"Mostly to be able to stop threats like Nathan, maybe not Arcadia."

"So it is good?"

Vulcan doesn't give any answer. Knowing that he managed to stop Nathan is good enough, I just need to fight him to show how it works.

"Vulcan. I may not know much about dark arts, but I can help you hone it. For now, I need you to defeat me with all you have. Use your dark arts to defend my attacks. If you could, I will trust you to not have training. Otherwise, I might reconsider."

Vulcan agreed to the deal.

"In positions."

I took out my daggers, one on each hand to engage into CQC. As the buzzer sounded, Vulcan started his attacks first by summoning six blades behind him and launched directly at me. I dived in and deflected the incoming blades. As I went into a stabbing motion with my right hand, Vulcan side steps, projected two blades one on each hand and attempted to slice me on my right. I have to use my Metavoid.

"Time Defy-Stop the time."

For the next 3 seconds, time has stopped. I get out of Vulcan's range to prevent that attack. But his blades, is it supposed to be that low? I suppose things might move while the time stop is taking effect. It's my first time seeing such. This is without my Light Transformer, and I don't know what I will see if I use it. At least I am safe.

"Not bad kiddo, your CQC is exceptionally well. I was hoping you would deflect it with a summoned sword, but you side stepped instead to attack me."

"I was taught to not use common moves, but to take advantage of the opponent's movement."

The kid is smart. Then I should not go easy on this kid.

"Light, Transform!"

Of course he is surprised by that. That should have deflected his previous moves due to the suit's material. I charged at him with all I have and he charged with all he had. He then projected a sword from his hand and attacked me at full scale. With my skills, I defend myself with merely two daggers. Surprisingly his sword skill is amazing, he even launched some swords to defend against my dagger. Time for my finishing move then. He does have good sword skills.

"Try to defend against this, Vulcan."

I jumped backwards into the air and threw 5 daggers in circular motion to land the 5 daggers at the same time and prevent him from making any movements. Vulcan held his sword in defence mode, but it was useless.

"Time Defy-Stop the Time."

Given such a huge opening, I immediately threw a dummy dagger made out of polystyrene to his head. This time, my finishing move is not any more finishing. But this time, something caught my attention and took me by surprise. From what I saw, he moved his head to the left for a short period of time. And it is not even a second. That slight move made the dummy dagger miss the target, which is his forehead, rather than the dummy dagger grazing his right head.

This could be his Metavoid, but I don't understand. I immediately ran behind him and touch his left shoulder to end the training and ask him to take five. As I retracted my ability, I cannot comprehend the strange abilities I have witnessed. First I could see a future, now my time stop reality can be penetrated?

Note to readers: Did I ever mention how am I familiar with this place? How is it that I know exactly where to go and how it exactly looked despite only my second day? On the day of the interview while on the lift, I saw the training room on the lowest button on the elevator. And I know exactly how it looked like because of the flyer at the lobby while I exit the building to head home.(irony)