"Tch," Nyz clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"What?" Sen asked.

"The terrorist survived his mission."

"You don't have to be so annoyed by it," Kal said through Nyz's earpiece. "Anyway, I'm about to enter the training room."

The door to the training room opened, and Kal looked at Sen, before quickly turning around and stepping out.

"Nyz," he said, speaking through the earpiece again. "Why is she naked from the waist up?"

"Why did he leave?" Sen asked.

"Kal doesn't like the sight of bare female anatomy," Nyz looked at her. "Oh, right, you took your shirt and bra off."

"Most guys wouldn't have forgotten that," Sen laughed as she pulled her bra back on, then grabbed her shirt to pull on as well. "The way you've been the last few days, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd forgotten five seconds after noticing I'd taken them off."

"I probably did," Nyz said as she pulled her shirt back on. "Kal, she's clothed."

"Okay," Kal returned. "Do I want to know?"

"I was getting pretty hot," Sen told him. "So I stripped a little. Nyz said he didn't mind since I was doing it because of that."

"As long as she wasn't doing it to try to seduce me," Nyz added. "That would be stupid and insulting to herself. What did you need? I don't need updates on the terrorist. I couldn't care less if he died."

"Well, he did succeed," Kal told Nyz. "Gairal is in shambles now, half their leadership is in prison, and three-quarters of their overall membership is dead."

"What did you have Taylor do?" Sen asked. "He's been gone for a bit."

"Attack several Gairal compounds while infiltrating others and causing chaos," Kal answered. "There's going to be a slight change in our plans regarding Troak. Asterox is working in cooperation with the military, and they're not planning on delivering us the orb."

"Even though it's been publicly broadcast that they stole it?" Sen asked. "Are you kidding me?"

"Sadly, I am not," Kal answered. "Your father has been rather convincing regarding Nyz's attack. He's admitted to having stolen the Beacons, though has provided the 'evidence' they had that told them I had died shortly after finishing my work on them. As for the orb, well, let's not get into what he says about that."

"So what are you going to do?" Sen asked. "I mean, you can't just go and steal the orb, and they're not going to-"

"Oh, we can steal it," Kal grinned. "Remember how I had Nyz say that we would attack the Berut Research Facility if we weren't given the orb at the ruins by the appointed time?"

"Yeah," she answered.

"I came up with a plan," Kal told her. "That we'd attack their facilities, specifically, any that could possibly do research on the orb. I'd send Nyz to a different one every two days, informing them with each attack which facility would be next."

"They'd move the orb," Sen realized. "Either before the facility it's at gets targeted, or after it's stated to be the next target. They'd probably move it to either a previous victim or a storage facility, to wait out the attacks. And as soon as they moved it, you'd be tracking it."

"Already did," Kal grinned. "My first target turned out to be where they had it. It was in Berut, and they've moved it. Though the way they moved it made it clear that even most of the people there weren't aware of its presence, and the guards moving it don't know what they have. They think they're so clever."

"What did you do?" Nyz asked.

"I've got a dragonfly tailing them," Kal told him. "If they follow through with their plan? Then after we deal with them in Troak, I'll send Wys to Berut and you to where it's actually located."

"Got it," Nyz said. "This couldn't have waited until it was time to go?"

"Actually," Kal told him. "I was mostly wanting to do some magic training, too. You three training so much has reminded me of how little I do magic beyond my enchantments."

"Us three?" Sen looked at Nyz, then back to Kal. "There are only two of us."

"Wys trains, too," Nyz told her. "Just not with you around. Our training sessions are much more intense than what I show you."

"Oh," she said.

"Speaking of the irritant," Nyz stood. "I'm going to go find him. Does he know?"

"Yeah," Kal answered. "By the way, I'm sending the three of you out to Troak early, you'll be in a tiger. Tonight's going to be your last night here."

"All three of us?" Nyz asked.

"The three super beings, yeah," Kal said. "Well, excluding me. The three of you are better-suited to using the more advanced Class S suits. I've had Sen training in one for a few weeks because of that."

"I could do it myself," Nyz stated. "I don't need help, Kal. I've never needed help from anyone but you. When it comes to combat, I am all that's needed."

"Yeah, I know," Kal said. "You can take down an entire city by yourself, if you just brute force things. Even more efficiently if you follow my instructions. They're not actually there for combat, they'll be there for show. At the moment, they believe it's just you and command. Having them in a tiger will tell them there's more than they realize. That will hopefully make them realize that they shouldn't screw with us."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm off," Nyz said.

"I'll go with you," Sen told him.

"Wys will be in the central garden," Kal told them. "He's preparing to play with the kids from Honlar."

"Got it."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Nyz and Sen left the training room and made their way out of the facility, before walking to the central garden. They arrived just as Wys did with the children rescued from Honlar and approached the Scavenger.

"Did Kal talk to you already?" Nyz asked.

The boys began to remove their shirts so they were just in swim trunks, and the girls began to strip down to their swimsuits, everyone removing their footwear.

"About the mission?" Wys asked, and Nyz nodded. "Yeah, we talked about it a little bit ago, then he said he was going to go let you two know."

"Okay," Nyz said. "What are you going to play?"

"What?" Wys asked in confusion.

"Kal said you were going to play with the kids," Nyz said. "What are you going to play? There's no pool in the park, but they're all wearing swim wear. You are, too."

"Oh," Wys grinned as he pulled off his shirt and began to remove his boots and socks. "It's a warm day out, so I'm going to play a game with the kids."

"A game in swimwear?" Nyz asked.

"Yeah," Wys said. "I'm going to use water magic and throw it at them, and they're going to do their best to avoid it. They're all in swim clothes because, well, that's what you wear when playing water games."

"Oh," Nyz said. "Can I join?"

"Sure," Wys said. "But you're not in swim clothes, so if I target you, your clothes will get wet."

"I can change," Nyz looked at Sen. "Want to come with me?"

"Sure," she said.

"We'll get started while-" Wys began.

Nyz grabbed Sen's arm, then the two of them appeared in his bedroom in his apartment.

"Kal just teleported us?" Sen asked as Nyz began stripping. "I thought he was training?"

"He is," Nyz answered as Sen began picking up his clothes. "I think he took his earpiece out."

"Then how did we get here?" She asked.

"I teleported us."

Sen paused at that, and Nyz finished stripping, then walked over to his dresser and opened it up.

"Nyz," Sen dumped his clothes in the laundry hamper as he pulled out a pair of black and green swim board shorts. "You can teleport? I thought Kal had to use his magitech for teleportation."

"I can short-range, yes," Nyz answered. "I don't like to. It's easier here on the island than elsewhere, though. It's easier the more familiar I am with the target location."

"I see," she said as he pulled on his board shorts.

"Want me to teleport you to your apartment, so you can change?" Nyz asked.

"I don't have a swimsuit," she told him as he approached, then placed a hand on her arm. "Back to the-"

Nyz teleported them into her apartment, then walked into her closet. He located the swim suit he'd put in there and brought it back out, a red one-piece suit with orange, flame-like marks on it.

"Here you go."

"I saw you grabbing that," Sen said. "Why did you put a swimsuit in there? And when?"

"Yesterday," Nyz answered. "I saw it and thought about you being part-phoenix. So I got it for you. You weren't here when I came over, though, so I put it in there."

"You just saw that?" She asked.

"It was displayed in the window of a shop I was passing by in Jusits."

"Why were you in Jusits?" She asked. "Wait, when did you go to Jusits?"

"Yesterday afternoon," he answered. "I wanted to try a donut shop that's there. The swimwear store was across the street."

Deciding not to respond to that, Sen took the swimsuit and changed into it, surprised that it fit her size. After she finished pulling it on, Nyz grabbed her arm, then teleported them back to the park and looked around.

"We've been gone for a few minutes," Nyz looked at Wys. "You didn't get started?"

"You can teleport," Wys said. "We decided to wait for you to return. How long have you been able to teleport?"

"How do you think I kept stealing the muffins?"

"You've been able to teleport since you were three?" Wys asked.

"Studying me doing it is how Kal figured out what was needed," Nyz stated. "So the game is just to hit everyone with water?"

"Yeah, but let's go back to the teleport," Kal said.

"No, we can talk about that later," Nyz held up a hand. "Let's play. The children are waiting."

"Yeah!" A couple of the kids exclaimed.

A small sphere of water formed above Nyz's hand, then shot twenty feet up into the air, expanding rapidly until it stretched sixty feet across.

"Nyz, not like-" Wys began to protest.

The orb dropped, bursting a few feet above everyone. The water fell down, soaking everyone except Nyz, who stood at the center of the wet zone, dry and smug.

"I win."

Wys groaned as Sen laughed, and the children giggled.

"Nyz, that's not what I meant," Wys gestured with a hand, pulling the water away from everyone before sending it outwards in a burst, away from the zone they would be playing in. "There, now we're all dry."

"But I won."

"No, Nyz," Wys said. "There's no 'winning' here, it's just for fun. Also, we're doing it like this."

Wys held up a hand, and a globe of water the size of his fist formed above it. Then, he flicked his wrist at one of the girls, who shrieked and jumped to the side, dodging the spell. Nyz watched as Wys targeted several of the children and threw balls of water at them, most of which were dodged.

Then, he made his own orb of water and threw it at Wys, smacking his brother square in the back of the head.

"Hey!" Wys exclaimed, turning to face Nyz. "Aim for the kids, not me!"

"You are a kid," Nyz deadpanned, before summoning another globe of water.

He threw the water at Wys, who flicked a wrist, sending the orb off to the side, nearly striking one of the boys. The two of them began throwing orbs of water at each other, Nyz calmly standing in one spot and throwing them after calculating each attack, Wys moving around and throwing them energetically and quickly, going for quantity over precision. As they warred, the children ran around shrieking and giggling, doing their best to avoid the spheres of water thrown by the two brothers.

Within minutes, everyone except Nyz and Wys were soaked with water, unable to always avoid the orbs of water in the strike zone while unwilling to leave the zone, the children turning it into a game to see how many they could dodge or push others into. Wys was soaked in sweat from moving around and his efforts, while Nyz remained calm and dry, turning only as much as necessary.

"You know," Sen said when the brothers finally stopped. "It really doesn't look like you were enjoying that, Nyz."

"Oh, trust me," Wys tackled Nyz, putting him into a headlock with his left arm while rubbing his knuckles into Nyz's hair. "He was enjoying it."

"I was," Nyz pulled of Wys's grip while simultaneously throwing a ball of water at his brother's face, causing his brother to splutter.

"Hey!" Wys exclaimed once he finished spitting out the water that got in his mouth. "That's cheating!"

"Stop knuckling my head," Nyz stated.

"It's easy to tell when Nyz is enjoying something," Wys told Sen.

"Really?" She asked. "How?"

"He doesn't stop it," Wys answered. "He'd have just stopped and left if he wasn't enjoying it. It's how you can tell my little bro doesn't mind my displays of brotherly love. He'd gut me and leave me to dry if he didn't. Nyz, stop that."

"Stop what?" Nyz asked innocently.

"I think he's referring to the orbs of water you have chasing the children," Sen asked.

Nyz looked at the orbs, his expression one of surprise.

"Oh, would you look at that," he said. "Wonder who's doing that."

"You!" Wys exclaimed.

"Having fun?" Gabe asked as he and Lyan approached.

"Yo!" Wys looked at the cooler they were carrying, several brown paper bags sitting atop them. "Yes! You brought it!"

"Brought what?" Sen asked.

"Ice cream!" Wys exclaimed.

"Ice cream!" Several of the kids exclaimed, and the group of them charged towards Gabe.

"How is everyone settling in?" Nyz took the opportunity to peg the kids with the globes of water as they were distracted, resulting in the children giggling and squealing.

"Everyone's settled in fine, thanks," Gabe answered.

"That's good to hear," Nyz nodded, then looked at Lyan. "And you? Settling in?"

"I am," she smiled. "Thanks."

"Ice cream!" Some of the kids exclaimed.

"Alright!" Gabe chuckled. "Let's get you all some ice cream."

Nyz, Sen, and Wys assisted Gabe and Lyan in serving the ice cream to the kids before dishing up their own bowls of it and sitting in the grass, listening to the children chatter as they ate.

"Wys, Sen, and I will be leaving later," Nyz informed Gabe and Lyan. "We're going over to Troak this evening. Kal wants us there a few days early for some reason. I didn't ask. He wants Wys and Sen there to show Asterox and the military that we have more than me and command."

"We could send a few more out," Gabe said. "If it's numbers, then-"

"It's not numbers, specifically," Sen said. " Nyz and Kal are inhuman warriors, and I'm the daughter of Hayden Asterox. The two of them are there for intimidation. I'll be there to stain Asterox further."