“Hey, Vince!” a familiar voice called out to Vincent.

Upon hearing that voice, a warm chill worked its way down Vincent’s spine. The hairs all over his neck stood up and goosebumps filled his body, almost like there was a sudden change in temperature. He then began to feel the warmth of the sun above.

Turning around, he saw the familiar faces of Eliot and Zander, huddled around Robert.

“I got your friends, here, Boy,” a smiling Robert called out. “I have no idea what ya just did, but ya did good.”

Vincent just stared at Robert, not knowing how to respond. His thoughts began to suddenly swirl around in his head. A whiplash of emotions rushed back to him, causing him to keel over the now-slanted rail of the ship, and vomit. He felt a pat on his back and a bit of laughter.

“Not a very heroic pose I’d say. I didn’t think you of all people would get seasick,” Zander said in a semi-mocking tone.

“Y-yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Vincent replied, turning back to face Zander.

Visibly taken back by what he heard, Zander replied “W-well of course I am.” He then coughed and said, “Anyways, we need to head over to the emergency vessels that will carry us to safety. Robert and the rallied crew took out the invaders that were guarding them.”

Nodding in agreement, Vincent began to make his way to the group. Together, the group made their way to the side of the ship where the emergency boats were. Looking over the edge, there were already a dozen or so red emergency boats already afloat in the water. Looking ahead, there was one left and Robert was already working on releasing it from its harness.

After everyone was in, Robert released the harness and lowered them down into the water. After a few minutes, they were in the water and only a few dozen yards away from the rest of the boats.

“Um...Mister Huron,” Eliot sheepishly said to Robert, “how are we going to catch up to the rest of the boats?”

“Yeah,” Zander added, “I’ve investigated this whole vehicle, and I did not see a motor apparatus anywhere.”

“Hahaha, that’s what these are for,” Robert laughed, pulling out some oars from underneath his seat.

Zander had a look of complete horror upon seeing the oars. Vincent immediately laughed at the sight, because he knew how much physical work terrified Zander.

“You know what those are, right, Zander? You know how to use those, right?” Vincent asked mockingly.

“O-Of course, who do you take me for? I’m not a smoothed-brain marsupial like you,” Zander replied, a bit of confidence peaking through in his voice.

Zander held an oar in his hand and stared at it for a solid twenty seconds before putting it in the water. He then proceeded to put both hands on the end above the water and push it up and down, effectively doing nothing but splash water in the boat.

“What are you doin’ there, Boy? Ya mining for gold or something?” Robert laughed.

“His pale, smooth hands don’t know what hard work is,” Vincent added. “I bet they’re, as you would say, Zander, as smooth as your brain is right now.”

Both Robert and Vincent both roared in laughter. They continued to add on to each other’s insults, with each new addition causing them to become even redder in the face. The way they both laughed and the way they were in sync with their insults made them seem like the same person, if but for a second.

“Well, I don’t need to put up with this baseless banter!” A crimson-faced Zander yelled. He then slammed the oar down in the boat and stormed off to the back of the boat.

“Maybe we were too rough on the boy, Vince,” Robert said, wiping the tears from his eyes.

Now realizing how much fun he had with his father, Vincent felt a strange awkwardness creep up into him. “N-no, he’ll be fine,” he stuttered.

Robert coughed and silently made his way to the front of the boat. Vincent then silently grabbed an oar and sat on the other side of the boat and began to row. Eliot picked up the oar that was on the ground and sat where Zander attempted to row. Vincent looked over and saw Eliot struggling to row, which caught Vincent off guard. Eliot was usually decently athletic, so he shouldn't be struggling this much.

“Man this is hard,” Eliot said out loud, seemingly to no one. “I really wish someone was here to help me. I don’t think I can do this myself.” Eliot’s eyes then looked back at Zander, who was still turned away from the group and staring out behind them. “Zander, I need your help right now. I can’t do this by myself.”

Zander slowly turned around and stood up. He carefully made his way over to where Eliot was sitting and sat down next to him.

“I suppose I can help you. After all, how can I say no to you?” Zander said, with half a smile on his face. After one long sigh, Zander sat down and began to row with Eliot. Eliot placed his hands over Zander’s in a very gentle way and showed him how to row.

After a few minutes of rowing, Robert returned to the group and sat down in front of them. His elbows were on his thighs and his chin was resting on his balled-up hands.

“Well, boys, this has been the most unique trip in my entire life. If you don’t mind, I’m gonna hafta ask a few questions.”

Vincent began to nervously sweat on instinct. Robert’s used the phrase I’m gonna hafta ask a few questions countless times in the past. And every time it was because Vincent had done something wrong or Robert suspected he had done something wrong.

“Absolutely, sir, it’s the least we can do,” Zander replied. “So, what are your queries?”

“What in the fuck is going on? What was that thing that attacked us?” Robert asked.

There was a bit of silence before Zander spoke up. “Well, sir, we have no idea; we were just as shocked about it as you.”

Vincent could see that Zander was lying through his teeth. It was very hard for people to read Zander, and even Vincent has trouble at times telling if Zander is lying. But he’s known Zander for so long, and every small tell-tale sign of him lying was showing at that moment. Still, it was probably convincing enough for Robert to believe.

“I see,” Robert said plainly. “Well, are you sure this has nothing to do with those black orbs that came out of your fist, Boy?” Robert asked more intensely, staring at Vincent.

“W-well y-you see sir, I—” Zander started to stutter. It seemed like he even fell before Robert’s intimidating presence.

“Hold on, I wanna hear an answer from my son,” Robert said.

Vincent began to panic a bit; his eyes were failing to meet Robert’s gaze, his back was sweating more, and his breathing grew slightly more intense. He tried to calm down and answer, but nothing came out.

Why does this always happen when Robert is talking?

“Vince, you know there’s no point in lyin’ to me. I may be an idiot, but I’m not stupid,” Robert said.

Vincent tried to look at Robert’s eyes and lie, but the harsh, cold gaze he was met with paralyzed him.

“And what about your convenient timing with coming up to our ship, asking to go to Egypt? Seems a bit strange to me.”

Vincent still couldn’t think of a way to answer.

“Now, after you got on the ship, I checked my phone before we left port and found something interesting,” Robert said, now turning to Zander. “It turns out, what you were saying about the school shooting and bombing was true, and even worse than I thought. There was a news article about it. Methane explosions, gunshots, and even an international special detective having to take this case.”

Robert then turned back to Vincent and Vincent still could not answer.

“And you know what? The suspects were three high school teens, according to the detective. Now—”

Before Robert could finish his thought, Vincent snapped and stood up. He couldn’t bear to hear another bullshit accusation from Robert. “Are you fucking accusing us of doin’ that? Are you fucking serious?!” Vincent yelled at Robert.

Stolen story; please report.

Robert immediately stood up, towering over Vincent. “Now hold the fuck on, Vince, I ain’t accusing you of shit,” Robert replied loudly, his voice booming.

Vincent didn’t hear a word of what his father was saying, for he was now in a blind rage—something he hadn’t been in years. “The hell do you know about me, anyways? You’re gone most of the year, I only see you a few weeks a year, and you think you can tell me who I am or what you think I’ve done? You don’t even know me.” There was now a weird feeling of pressure building up from behind his eyes.

“Vince! That’s enough! Of course I know my own son!”

“Oh really? I bet you don't even know a single class I’m taking this year.”

“Well…”

“Exactly! And ya know what? There’s so much I’ve wanted to tell you, but I never get to see you,” Vincent said, his innermost thoughts flowing through his mouth with no restraint. “You might think that I care about Mom more or that I like her more, but guess what?” He hesitated just a little, but the quickly emptying head of his forced the thoughts right out of him. “I really look up to you Dad, I really do. I fuckin’ hurts to say it, but it’s true.” A waterfall of angry tears were now flowing down Vincent’s cheeks. “Besides, Mom doesn’t even see us anymore.”

There was a moment of complete tense silence. Both Vincent and Robert had beat red faces, stretched with tension and anger. While both of their bodies flexed with aggression, neither one bothered to continue the argument for that brief amount of time.

Finally, Vincent’s face softened ever so slightly and he said, with complete vulnerability, “Why can’t you just believe in me for once?”

As soon as those words were spoken, the hard and rugged exterior of Robert cracked. The first thing that gave it away was how soft his eyes got. They then shifted, looking straight into his son’s eyes, not just at them.

Before Vincent even knew how to react, Robert suddenly made his way over to him. Instinctively getting into a defensive stance, Vincent backed up slightly. He would have backed up more if it wasn’t for the shock he felt upon seeing tears make their way down Robert’s face. And before he knew it, Robert embraced him and with a natural reaction, Vincent embraced him back. In that moment, a strange sensation began to fill him up, it began to fill a place in his heart where it had been seemingly cold and empty for so long.

“I’m sorry,” Robert softly spoke.

Still filled with emotions, Vincent replied by saying “I’m sorry for being such a shit son. I know I haven’t done shit with my life, I know I’ve caused ya a lot of headaches, and I know I’ve never really listened to you or showed you much respect. But damn, it’s hard to care about anything when nothing seems to care about you.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, Vince.” Robert pulled back from the embrace and placed both of his hands on Vincent’s shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes. “You’re right, I promise I will try to be better. I’ll...” and there was a bit of hesitation, but he shook his head free of it, “...believe in you.”

After a bit of silence, Robert pulled away and sat down, motioning Vincent to do the same. “Now, let’s start this whole thing again,” Robert sighed, “and I’ll listen to everything you say.”

Vincent was taken a bit back, that was not the response he expected. “W-Well first off, that headline is wrong, ‘cause I know who really did it,” Vincent said, stumbling his way through the sentence.

“I thought so too. I may not know my son as well as I wish, but I know one thing for sure: my son is NOT a killer.” Robert’s face began to soften after saying that. “Now that being said, it is a bit strange that you three came directly to me after this horrific event, and to go to Egypt of all places. I would be an idiot not to think that you guys were related to all of this in some way, though. Let’s just talk about this honestly.”

Vincent stared into Robert’s eyes and thought hard for a second if he wanted to share what he knew with Robert. But, after a few seconds, he couldn’t think of a reason not to.

“I’m just gonna hit you with everything as quickly and as best as I can,” Vincent said matter-of-factly.

“Alright, that sounds like—”

“So, basically there are superpowers now and I got one. The person who did the school shooting was some fire dude. I saw him after I came to consciousness and he controlled the fire around us. He then—”

“Hold on, Son, maybe take—”

“—shot his fire out of his hand towards us, trying to kill us. We ran away as fast as we could to get to the docks. The reason why is ‘cause we gotta get to Egypt ‘cause the obelisk in the park said that I have to—I’m The Chosen who has to save the world.”

“Uh huh,” Robert said slowly.

“Now, when it comes to that big fish thing, it seems that it is also related to those superpowers. It seems like some people can control things and others control monsters—or at least something like that, we haven’t really figured that out yet. For example, we think one of the guys that were with the fire dude has the same power as the fish guy,” Vincent said.

“Controlling a fish monster?”

“No, he controls a wolf.”

“Ok,” Robert said plainly.

“So that guy on the ship was probably one of the people with powers. That’s about it. Any questions?”

Robert just sat in silence in a position much like The Thinker. He looked as if he was trying to process everything that he was just told. After a few minutes, he spoke up.

“I’m gonna be honest, Vince, that’s a lot to take in and believe,” Robert sighed.

“Well, it’s the truth,” Vincent replied intensely.

“You’re right,” Robert said with a sigh. “I know it’s not you who was behind all that. Besides, if it was you who did the thing at the school, I know that I wouldn’t be the first place you ran to,” Robert said somberly, his eyes looking down at the ground.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Vincent said flatly.

“Well anyways, I suppose it’s time for me to start believing in you a little bit, Vince.”

Vincent was so taken back by what he heard, he almost tripped over his oar as he stumbled backward. After a swift recovery, he tried to say something back to Robert, but couldn’t manage to get a word out. Today was full of surprises for him.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Robert coughed, breaking the lingering silence

“So, uh, is there anything you guys need from me?” Robert asked a bit awkwardly.

“Well, I’m glad you asked,” Zander suddenly stated. “I’ve been silently deliberating on what questions I would ask you, but of course, I had to wait until I knew you could be trusted.”

“Ok?” Robert replied with some confusion in his voice.

“So, as Vincent so elegantly put it, we need to get to Egypt to see an obelisk. There was one in the middle of the park that suddenly appeared.” Zander’s back suddenly straightened and his chest puffed out. “I was able to brilliantly create a cipher to decode what was on the obelisk and it essentially said that The Chosen—your son—had to go see the rest of the obelisks to save the world.”

“And how did you know that he is The Chosen?” Robert asked.

Before Zander could even answer Vincent jumped in. “Because of me!” he said, standing up out of his seat. “I found a small shard that looked like the obelisk and it said that I was The Chosen.”

“That’s it?” Robert questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Yep!” Vincent replied confidently. "And since I have this awesome power I have no doubt in my mind that—”

“Anyway, back to my question,” Zander interrupted, staring Vincent in the eyes. “What I was getting at is that we need some more information on where the obelisk potentially is. Based on the previous one I would hypothesize that it is either in Cairo or in the middle of the desert.” Zander then began to walk around the boat as if he was teaching a class. “Based on the fact that the previous one was in the middle of a city, I’m going to assume that this one is as well, for the time being. My question to you,” he said, looking at Robert, “is if you have heard anything about this. I find it awfully strange that this ship was going to Egypt at the same time we were.”

Robert sat in a position that made it look like he was in deep thought. After a few moments, he looked back up and shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t think of anything, but I also find it kinda strange. We were originally planning on going somewhere else, but last-minute Cap’n said we were to change course,” Robert stated.

“Do you know why that was?”

“Somethin’ about the president of Egypt needing emergency supplies or some shit. I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really pay any attention.”

“Is the President’s name Lucretia?” Vincent suddenly interjected.

“Wha—well actually I have no idea. But that name doesn’t ring any bells,” Robert replied.

“The president of Egypt is Ahmed Akins,” Zander jumped in. “Although there has been some controversy around him and his presidency.”

“Like what?” Vincent asked.

Zander plainly replied, “Nothing but typical political rumors. Although, the baseless one about his gambling addiction was pretty humorous.”

“You know your shit, Zander. Are you like an Egyptian expert or something?” Vincent half-jokingly asked.

“No, no, I just did some research during the night of when I created the cipher, but that’s irrelevant—why did you ask about the name Lucretia, Vince?”

“Oh, that? I heard Captain Neil mention that name to the pirate captain,” Vincent replied “He said something about this ship holding ‘precious cargo’ for Lucretia. Seemed like a pretty big deal to Neil, so I figured it was important to say.”

“And what happened to Captain Neil? Did the name mean anything to the pirate?”

“Oh, the pirate just shot him; it didn't seem to mean anything to him.”

“Oh.” Zander then turned his head towards Robert again. “Do any of these things seem familiar at all?”

Looking over at his father, Vincent saw that he was trying his best to try and recall anything at all that would pertain to the situation at hand. After a few seconds, he just shook his head in a manner that said that he couldn’t think of anything.

“Sorry, kids, none of this seems familiar to me at all. I’ve never heard of the name Lucretia before and I certainly never heard of any ‘special cargo’ being aboard this ship,” Robert said with some self-annoyance in his voice.

Just as all hope was becoming dimmer, a sound called out from a ways ahead. Vincent heard the sound and looked in the direction that it was coming from. It was coming from one of the emergency boats ahead. As he looked in that direction, he immediately understood what the sound was—it was a voice.

“We’re saved!” the voice called out.

As he looked past the emergency ship where the voice was coming from, Vincent saw another ship in the distance. This one was larger, more imposing, and bore a symbol on the side that he didn’t recognize.

“Well, look at that, kids, that’s an Egyptian Naval ship,” Robert said with a bit of a smile, pointing at the giant, incoming ship. “Looks like we’ve made it to Egypt.”