“Send it in, Rom.”
Marv stood in the battle room, his body tense and coursing with a newfound energy. Like he had just guzzled a pot of coffee. The only Thaeons capable of handling two aspects were Evo3, and even then not everyone could actively use all of their secondary aspects with true skill. It was something that Trainers had to work for years to accomplish at being fluent in. Developing and mastering techniques with one aspect was the norm; two aspects was hard; combining them together into dual aspect techniques? This was something only the elite Trainers could do. Having complete mastery was what made them elite in the first place.
Marv was about to find out what it felt like firsthand.
“Rom! What’s the hold up?”
“Incoming now. Evo1 [Static]. Get ready.” Rom, weary, his chest still throbbing from the Water Jet, pressed the button to open door 2. His own Thaeon, waiting patiently in the next room, had almost barged in and attacked Marv after what he did. It wasn’t worth it. Not yet. His own Evo1 wouldn’t stand a chance against this new strength that Marv had suddenly found. It made no logical sense as to why or even how. All he could do is sit back and hope someone else stopped by and caught a whiff of suspicion He was simply too weak to do anything.
From the open door shot out a yellow rodent-looking Thaeon with sparks of electricity popping around it. Its pointed ears perked up when it saw Marv, narrowing its eyes and baring sharp fangs. With an explosion of static it zigzagged towards him, unleashing a bolt from between its ears.
Marv laughed. His eyes glowed a fierce purple now and an invisible wall formed to deflect the blow around him. Pushing it away he opened his mouth to let out the Water Jet that missed. This Thaeon was fast. Unphased, Marv held out his hand and gripped the thing from afar using [Mind] to fling it aside as it had so many before, simultaneously barraging its head with a Mind Strike that, for a moment, gave his opponent pause.
That pause was what he wanted.
Rom was correct that humans had the unique advantage of high intelligence. Thaeons on their own could be incredibly strong, but it took the bond of a thinking individual to work on new strategies and techniques that would propel them into untold levels of power. All Marv had done now was cut out the middleman. In that split second pause, he wrapped his head around the aspects that coursed through his body now. [Mind] was never physical as opposed to its contrary aspect [Beast]. [Water], on the other hand, often gave rise to mixed attackers. What it lacked in direct power it made up for in its flexibility as an aspect. With that info stashed away, he curled his fists with dark blue veins spreading over his arms and around his purple eyes. Rom watched with a sense of awe and complete fear. The door buzzed behind him, making him almost jump out of his clothes.
The yellow Thaeon, shaking its head from the attack, zoomed back towards Marv. Too late. He raised both hands, from which glowed dark blue light let out a stream of water onto the floor. The water piled up and solidified to mimic Marv’s own body shape–an exact doppelganger–held together by a purple aura. The water mimic stepped in to intervene the attacking party with a bright, purple fist that sent the charged Thaeon into the far wall. It crumpled to a heap. [Mind] may not be physical but in combination with others it could pretend to be. Part of being an elite Trainer was blurring the lines between aspects until their use was completely natural in every way.
And this was only the beginning.
“Rom, send it another. There’s something else I want to try.”
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No response.
“Rom?”
The intercom crackled. “There’s someone here to see you.”
“I’m not accepting guests at this time. Send them away.”
“It’s Raven, sir. He…insists.”
A side effect of these new aspects, Marv noted, was a growing sense of rage. Thaeons were wild things naturally, given over to their more base instincts which meant, at times, uncontrolled attacks on Trainers as has been observed and reported on several occasions. Marv felt the same thing; a cloud enveloped his brain for a moment and he shot out a jet of water that put a dent in the metal wall.
Up top again, donning his white coat, Marv shoved open the double doors into the main lab where Raven stood by flipping through research papers. He forced a smile and raised his arm in a handshake.
“Raven! What a pleasant surprise. Had I realized you were coming I would have tidied up the lab–what a mess it’s been around here.”
Raven had scanned the room upon entry, noticing smashed cans, file cabinets wide open and puddles of water dotting the area in front of Rom’s desk.
“Science is nothing if not chaotic at times… I have come to discuss our new batch of Trainers. I believe they show much more promise than the previous years’.”
“Yes, yes, you mentioned someone with a [Void] starter? That’s never happened before.” Marv made eye contact with ROM who stood off to the side with a haggard expression. There was an understanding there: say nothing, do nothing. Come to think of it, their lab had never had a [Void] essence, even before someone had sent off their stash. More eye contact.
“I have brought the files over for your review. There was a bit of a disturbance heading over here from the cave.”
Marv’s eyes widened. Raven swore he saw a purple glow, but ignored it. “Not the trial cave? Surely someone wasn’t attacking Demiurge’s progeny?”
“I’m still waiting for the report. I called in help through a contact of mine.”
“TEA?” Marv waved nonchalantly. “It's probably some rogue Thaeon bustling around from below. You know the legends of that place.”
“I will keep you informed. Tell me, Marv, what’s been keeping you busy these days? I haven’t heard much from you in a couple of weeks.”
Raven felt a general unease being in the room. Dagger, not far off in a holding room similar to his own back at home, shared the same intuition. Rom’s own Thaeon was in there, too, rolling about with nervous jitters. Dagger told Raven such through their Bond, that something was clearly off. Both became tense.
“We have been furthering bond research by decoding our genome. Remember some years back when I found that flaw in our DNA? Well, we are currently looking for a solution that may help humans draw closer to Thaeons in a way we have never seen before.” Though not strictly a lie, it was risky to reveal too much too soon. “I will have more information in the coming weeks. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any spare crystallized aspects, would you?”
“I thought this lab had the biggest collection?” Raven said.
“Had, yes. They have been shipped off to other labs per their request.” Another look at Rom.
“I don’t have any, sorry. Fan Town is strictly concerned with new Trainers.”
“Indeed… Well, Raven, I’m afraid I need to go now. We’ve already been up doing tests for the past couple days and I am beat. I will review these files and get back to you as soon as possible. Okay?”
Raven nodded and left. He knew when he wasn’t wanted here. He got what he came for, though. No one makes it far as a Trainer without a strong sense of suspicion. The nervous and reticent Rom; the jittery Marv who was always cool as a cucumber; the lab in disarray with an obvious lie to cover it up. None of this was the status quo here at the main lab. Raven left, staring at Rom’s eyes who returned a gesture of fear. He collected Dagger and left with a jolt into the sky, circling around for a bit to take in the sprawling city around it before disappearing into a low cloud.
He needed to find a way to get Rom to talk before whatever they were doing went too far.