Nyla didn’t respond at first.
She took a deep breath and waited for her son to speak.
Zach was taken aback.
“No freakout?
No rapid-fire questions?
No yelling or screaming?”
Nyla leaned forward and sighed.
“Baby, I work and protect the first lady of the country.
I have seen many things that I can’t talk about.
Granted, I wasn’t expecting to see one of those things in my in-laws’ house, inside of my 15-year-old son’s room.”
Zach felt bad on the inside.
Nyla was in her late thirties and stood 5’8 “, which is considered tall for a woman.
Her skin tone was a dark, beautiful obsidian black.
Her accent was there, but not very strong, because she grew up in America.
She kept her figure because her job required her to.
Causing her to look younger.
Her curly and wavy hair was down as she looked at Zach.
‘I might not have directly experienced her love, but she would do anything for me.
I feel like I just made her age just by popping up.’ Zach sat down next to her on the bed.
He gave her a hug.
“Welcome home, Mom, and surprise, I guess.”
Nyla hugged him back.
He could feel her hug him tightly and the worry she was feeling.
One hand on his back and the other on his head.
Zach sat in her embrace before letting go.
“I will explain everything, but can it wait until Dad gets home?
I know the moment he does, you will tell him anyways.”
Nyla placed one hand on his face.
“Ok, it can wait.
If I got here early, then you can expect him to show up sometime tomorrow.
Your dad has friends in almost every department.” She stood up and stretched.
“Zach, you are 15 now, so it’s ok to lock your door.”
Zach chuckled when she pointed out the obvious blunder.
“Yeah, I will make sure to do that from now on.” Nyla nodded and moved towards the door.
“What are you going to do now?” Nyla stopped at the door.
“I am going to drink a glass of Henry’s whiskey and then go to bed.”
She left the room, and Zach sighed.
He stared at the ceiling before going to get ready for bed.
He was in the middle of brushing his teeth when Fred messaged him.
He spat out the toothpaste and dropped his toothbrush.
‘No fucking way we both get caught.
My luck is pretty high.’ [This is the result of not completing the mission of winning the fight and the tournament.] Zach’s eye twitched, and he stopped himself from punching the wall.
‘This is certainly annoying the hell out of me, and it’s inconvenient.
I will never fail or cancel doing a mission again.’
Zach messaged Fred back, telling him to stall and tell his dad that he would explain everything tomorrow.
He messaged Blair to see if she was also caught, and she replied for the first time.
[Thankfully, I’m not the only one.
My little sister barged into my room right when I had just finished my first talisman.
She ran out before I could stop her and told my mom and dad I was doing magic.] Zach facepalmed himself.
‘Can things get any worse?’ He saw Blair’s next message.
[My parents think I am a witch and are talking about calling a priest.
What should I do?] Zach couldn’t help it and squeezed the sink and made it crack.
Zach messaged her back, telling her to bring her whole family to the Sanctuary tomorrow, where he would explain everything.
Blair liked the message but didn’t respond.
He splashed water on his face.
‘Easy peasy, Zach.
Nothing too big, just explaining that you are human, have powers, and are an ambassador for a being many people would never think existed.’ Zach shut off the light to the bathroom and flopped onto his bed.
He scanned the shop to see if there was anything that could help him in any way.
He found two things: one was a technique called [Mental Bending], and the other was [Enslave].
[Mind Bending: Teaches the practitioner the basics of using the mental element or energy.
The basics include telepathy, telekinesis, and shielding one’s mind.] [Enslave: Teaches the practitioner how to leave a mental mark on someone’s brain.
The mark will not grant control over the marked person’s actions, but it will block or prevent the person from performing certain actions.]
Zach thought about which one he should buy.
‘I will probably need the first one down the line, and the other one sounds like something a villain would love or some weird pervert.’ Zach chose to bite the bullet and get them both.
‘How do I gain access to higher-level items to buy?’ [Host needs to spread the influence of the ALL of Nature to at least ten percent of the world’s population or become the strongest on the planet.] Zach rubbed his hand down his face.
‘Who is currently the strongest on the planet?’ [In the physical sense, the strongest is Nolan Grayson, aka Omni-Man.
If the host is asking, overall, the strongest is Samantha Wilkins, aka Atom Eve.] Zach thought about Atom Eve’s powers and came to the realization that the system was right.
‘She has matter transmutation, energy manipulation, flight, and telekinesis.
That’s not even mentioning that, without that mental block, she could one-shot Omni-Man.
Even he needs to have functional organs to live.’
Zach let out a breath.
‘Am I able to do the same thing?
[Theoretically, the host can do something similar to matter manipulation.
Once the host learns, buys, or creates the right techniques.
The host is already able to manipulate energy.]
Zach felt like fireworks were shooting off in his brain.
He sat up and focused on his clothes.
‘Of course!
I use my energy to transform and control the elements.
Every single thing on earth has a form of energy; the only differences are density, active, potential, and passive.’
Zach stuck his hands out and concentrated.
A few minutes passed, and he opened his eyes.
He saw a silver wall in front of him.
‘Mhmm, it seems like I have the same limitation as Eve does when she uses her powers.
I wonder what if I injected some elemental energy?’
Zach pictured water as he used his energy again.
He created another silver barrier.
He sighed and laid his hand on it.
His hand sank before it was pushed back.
His eyes lit up.
‘It didn’t change on the outside, but rather its structural properties changed.’
He then wrote it on a sticky note to do so.
‘That should do it.
Time for me to head to bed and deal with everything tomorrow.’
Nyla shook her head as she finished putting her hair up for bed.
‘My son has powers.’ The thought still didn’t make any sense to her.
‘My grandma used to tell me we were connected and touched by the spirits, but I didn’t think that it was true.’ She patted her face.
‘Nyla, relax, those were just stories.
Your grandma’s mind was drifting when she told you those stories about her travels to the spirit realm and her encounters with different creatures.
Besides, Zach didn’t have any weird markings or tattoos.’
Zach didn’t know about his mother’s side of the family’s connection to the spirit realm or any stories about them.
His mother rarely spoke about her family.
If he did, he most likely would groan at another inconvenience rearing its head.
Nyla turned off the lights and went to bed.
On a private jet
Jared watched the videos again to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.
‘Someone had to have helped Henderson escape since there is no footage from inside the school.’ Jared set the tablet down and sighed.
A flight attendant walked towards him and offered him some food.
Jared looked up and jerked his head just in time to dodge a knife meant for his eye.
He kicked out with his left foot and stood up.
He put himself between the pilots and his would-be assassin.
“I am not going to waste my breath and ask you who hired you.
I just want to know the why.” Jared got into a fighting stance as he watched the woman in front of him.
The woman snorted, twirled the knife around, and attacked.
She slashed at Jared from the right to the left.
Jared moved back just enough and hammered a left hook to her side.
The woman grunted and slashed the opposite way.
Jared pivoted and kicked her left knee.
The woman fell.
“You bastard.
For an ambassador, you move pretty well.” She stood and faced him.
Jared shrugged his shoulders.
“I didn’t earn the call sign Badger for nothing, dear.” The woman huffed before attacking again.
She swiped at his feet.
Jared picked his foot up and blocked her kick.
“Do better.
All of your attacks seem choreographed.” The woman grunted and threw her knife.
Jared ducked her knife and caught her arm.
He flipped her over and, in the process, dislocated her shoulder.
He let go because she pulled out a syringe.
He didn’t give a chance to swing before he stepped in and landed a clean right hook to her temple.
He notified the pilots and made a phone call.
“Victor, I am just letting you know that you owe me another plane ride.
There was an invited passenger aboard.
He hung up the phone and secured her to a chair.