Grant

The days started flying by. Soon, a couple of months had passed since Naos had returned to Calico. Now that he was accepted, he started to work with the townsfolk to improve the livelihood of all parties.

Of course, Logan would be at his house almost as often as he was at home. Martha was casual with her son hanging around Naos because of the trust that he had built with everyone.

Whenever someone had a question about almost anything, Naos would always be the first one to be consulted.

In their eyes, Naos was well of knowledge deeper and more vast than their own well.

"Hey, Naos!" Logan called from afar. The boy was once again running over to Naos's house to relax, and maybe pester the man. "Tell me a story!"

Naos contemplated his response when he saw Logan's sparkling eyes. He sighed, before starting a retelling.

"There was once a man who had lived a very long time," he started, "that man was exceedingly tired from all of his adventures over the years."

"He hatched a plan, one to end his journey for him. The man was very evil, and he had teamed up with a group of mad scientists..." Naos told his story to the boy, omitting some gruesome or unnecessary details, and started nearing the end.

"And then the man woke up in a crater. The en-" Naos was cut off by distant screaming. It was short and brief, so Logan didn't hear it.

"What else?" Logan nearly fell off of his chair when Naos stopped suddenly, "Why'd you stop?"

Naos stood up and looked in the distance where the sound had come from. "We'll have to continue this sometime else," he said absentmindedly, "it seems that something has happened."

Not long after he spoke, another scream sounded out. This time, it was not only longer, but much louder as well. Logan heard this one and said nothing when Naos closed the door behind him.

Navigating the small town, Naos reached the bar that the noise was coming from. When he turned the corner, he saw that a small crowd had gathered around the door.

The mayor who was in the back of the group noticed Naos, "Naos! Thank goodness you're here!" His wrinkled face lit up for a moment but quickly became even more gloomy than it had been before.

Naos noticed this and questioned him, "What's going on here? This commotion is not normal."

"It's that man from those gangsters," the mayor sighed, "they've been pestering us for 'protection money' since we've inhabited Calico. They had much more power and money than us so we couldn't refuse."

"And someone from their group is causing trouble here for the money?" Naos pushed his way through the irritated crowd, eventually reaching the front. The Mayor simply followed behind him.

"Naos, you really shouldn't involve yourself!" he pleaded, "If you go overboard you might make things worse!"

The mayor accidentally spoke too loud in his hurry to halt Naos and got the attention of the gangster who was causing all of the trouble.

The man had been holding the long auburn hair of the bartender who worked there to the side. He saw that there was someone he didn't recognize and in his drunken stupor, he approached.

"Hey newbie," The man got up in Naos's face, "you're new here. Hmm, maybe I should mess with you a little bit?"

Naos watched on as the man started mumbling to himself about what he would do to Naos, "What's your name?"

"What're you talking about, asking my name? Of course, I'm G-!" The man paused before face-palming, "Right, you're a newbie. I'm Grant, the representative of the Goblin Gang!"

The man named Grant looked very proud of himself. He puffed up his chest before curling his fingers into a fist and pushing his thumb into the center of his chest. It was an attempt to look tough.

Naos was not impressed.

"Look, Grant," Naos began, "I honestly don't care about your little Gremlin Gang, so leave. This place doesn't have any money to give to you."

The mayor who had been quietly observing up until this moment jumped in front of Naos without missing a beat. He immediately thought of Grant beating up Naos, or even killing him. After all, Grant was someone with superpowers!

"Mr. Grant, I am so sorry about his actions!" The mayor dropped to his knees at the feet of the drunken man who had been causing so much trouble, "Please don't blame him for a minor mistake, I will make sure to punish him!"

The mayor's worries were not unfounded. After all, they had once tried to fight back against the Goblin Gang a while ago. The revolt seemed like it was going well at the start, but then multiple people from the gang arrived.

The revolt became a display of the immense power the gang could display effortlessly. Many people walked away with injuries, and that was the people who had survived.

Unfortunately, many had died. Not even children were spared.

That day was an event that cut the population by a quarter, and those who had walked away with mere injuries were as relieved as they were scared. The mayor did not want something similar to happen again.

But to his dismay, their hero was directly picking a fight with the man that could cause so many of them to die on a whim.

The mayor looked up from his position of kneeling to see the face of the man he was trying to appeal to, only to see a tomato in place of his head.

"What the hell..." Grant fumed, "We are the Goblin Gang, not gremlins you moron! I don't care about getting the money anymore, I'll kill you and sell your organs instead of collecting money!"

While Grant was ranting and the mayor was tearing up, Naos's attention was directed to something right beside Grant's foot. It was a small node of a shiny metal. Soon after it appeared, it liquified and seemed to seep back into the earth to reveal a hole that led to beneath the bar.

Gallium. Naos thought to himself as he looked back into Grant's eyes, Was it because of him?

Naos almost couldn't believe that this man had caused a small amount of gallium to appear. After all, his only evidence could barely be called so, just a rumor from a child who loved to talk about superpowers.

A mineral appeared suddenly out of the ground that was similar to "Project Flair" in a vague way. If this buffoon named Grant might have some magic-like ability, does that mean the time that he had spent on that project might not have been wasted at all.