We both made our way to the training room, the very one we first used together. Even if Rowan wasn’t his true self then, it still felt… fitting.
Walking inside, I saw Rob, Issac, Rose, and Isabelle, standing in front of a mannequin stand with a suit of armor taken from one of Robert’s robots.
“Ah… good. Thanks for getting the armor Rose,” I said, approaching them.
“Don’t thank me. Thank Isabelle. She did most of the work.”
I turned to see Isabelle, and, after a moment, I said “Well, thank you. Both of you. I appreciate it.”
Rowan stepped awkwardly to my side, leaning on my arm. I smiled a little.
“So… have you filled them in on who Rob is yet… dad?” I asked Dylan.
Looking up from a tablet in his hands, he said “Sort of. Thought you’d want to tell them yourself.”
I can’t believe it… Rowan and I are actually… together.
…
Pemo? You there?
“Steve?”
I pressed a button on the computer on my left gauntlet, before saying “He’s an otherworldly being, who’s lived on our planet since the Jurassic age. He’s fought in several wars since, and has proven time and time again to be an unstoppable powerhouse.”
I turned to Isabelle and asked “Now, can we do what I gathered y’all here for? We need to figure out a weakness for Robert’s robots.”
She nodded, and pulled out a Remington Model 780 shotgun, and aimed it a couple inches away from the robot armor’s chest.
She fired shells for several minutes, but yet no progress was being made. Eventually, the sixth click of the shotgun occurred, signifying the gun was empty.
Then, Isabelle groaned, informing us that “I’m out of ammo. This bitch is tough.”
I walked to the armor, running my hand along the strange metal. Despite my suit separating the metal from my skin, I still felt a weird tingle, sort of like when random electricity shoots between your skin and a carpet.
“My father told me a b-bit about the material… I think he mentioned something about… s-sub zero? I dunno, he said whatever that is has s-something to do with how it’s created.”
“Hmm…”
“Steve? Y-You got something?”
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I smiled. Rowan always knew me, and he could always tell when I’m about to share an idea.
“Rob?” I asked.
“Yeah?” he replied, snapping out of a trance.
“I need you to hit the armor with just enough force to set it on fire.”
Giving me a confused expression, Rob stepped in front of the armor, curled his fist, and wound it back. He took a deep focused breath, then, his arm flew forward, colliding against the thick wall of metal, sending a shockwave across the room along with, as requested, a blazing hot fire catching on the chest-piece.
Everybody else was pushed back by the shockwave except for me and my adoptive parents. I assumed it was because they were already aware of Rob’s power, but, well… let’s just say that just because I’m the best at problem solving doesn’t mean I’ll always guess a solution correctly.
I waited for the fire to reach its peak, then I walked up to the armor, my suit’s helmet forming, and I got close enough for the flames to bounce off my visor.
“Scanning…” my AI repeated a few times.
“Scanning complete. Results show that small fractions of the material have completely evaporated into a gas.”
“Hmm. Figured,” I said loud enough for everybody else to hear, “The armor is weakened by fire. It’ll take really hot fire, but at least it has a way to be weakened.”
The crackling of fire was the only thing heard for the next minute, until a few seconds of silence.
Then, Rob walked up to me and asked “You got anything to help with—”
Before he finished his sentence, I pulled out a disk and placed it in Rob’s hands, telling him “Here. This’ll help. But you’ll need me for a refill every few minutes or so.”
“What’s that?” Isabelle asked, trying not to look at Rowan despite him being right next to me.
“It’ll help protect him from electricity.”
“Umm… why?”
“Oh, his species is…”
I stopped, and turned to Rob, who nodded.
“They’re weak to electricity. Incredibly so.”
“Isn’t every living being?” Rose asked.
“Oh, yeah. But he doesn’t have nerves. Or… any organs whatsoever.”
A message appeared on my visor, telling me that our unit’s escort vehicles were ready.
“Then… how does that make any sense?” Isabelle said, making it sound like she was asking on behalf of everybody else.
“You see, their bodies are made up of a material that shares similarities with both solid and liquid materials. Because of the liquid traits, when electricity hits them, it spreads throughout their body, but because they’re also part solid, they’re able to get burned and hurt as a result.”
“Oh…”
“Cmon. The trucks are ready. We should head out now,” I said, before we left the training room, but with Rowan lagging behind.
I went to Isabelle’s side, feeling a glare despite her not looking towards me. After a bit, I assumed she didn’t realize I was there, but then she whispered to me.
“Look… everybody else seems to trust you, even Rose. Though she’s a bit… overly nice.”
“I-I… wanted to apologize, a-again.”
“Don’t,” Isabelle spoke up, raising her hand to stop me from speaking.
“Look, if you say you’ll try find a way to get Luke back, I’ll be a little easy on you… but I won’t give you complete slack until Luke is back. Got it?”
“I-I… I don’t… d-deserve…”
“You’re right… you don’t. But… Rose would argue otherwise…”
Isabelle turned away from me. The group made it to the stairs, and we started walking to the most bottom floor the stairs could reach.
Is she… relying on Rose to make her decisions for her?
Gee, that sure sounds familiar. I wonder why, Raen insulted.
Can you stop being a dick for one day? Pemo asked, defeated.
“I-I… l-look, I may not h-have the full picture, b-but… it sounds to m-me like you need to learn to make your own choices. Y-You could, p-possibly, m-maybe, be relying on R-Rose to make most of your d-decisions.”
Right before we reached the bottom, everybody stopped, with Isabelle staring down at the ground deep in thought.
…
“I-I’m so sorry… I d-didn’t mean to—”
“Let’s keep moving. We don’t want to keep them waiting,” Isabelle interrupted.
Freedom is never something you’re born with. You’ll always have to earn it.