with it. Anyways, you’re right, and I would love to tell you about her. Laura, her name. But that, friend, is a conversation for another day. So after your father, your mother was next. One year to the exact date. Difference was, it wasn’t cancer. It was you. You got mad. It was an accident. I know, you didn’t know how to use your powers or even what they were. To go for so long alone, it must have been a nightmare of never-ending pain. I wish we could have found you sooner, but even we were not so lucky to have each other at the time.”
“Cool history lesson, the date. It is very specific, and I need to know how you know. Only three people knew, and one of them is me. The other two, my parents, have been dead for almost fifteen years.”
Boss rose from the chair, joining Eli on the bed, sitting next to him.
“Many believe Raiser can read minds, but he cannot, and I know the quickest way out of this would be to blame him, but he simply fogs the mind, not quite full-on control but can stagger it for a bit and completely wipe a memory or two in the process. With you, however, on one of the occasions he went to wipe your memory, one of the times you turned us down, he saw it, and he regrets it. And I don’t want you to get mad at him. Be mad at me for putting him in the situation. It truly is my fault, and I’m not sure how I thought this would go over or how I thought it would go over well, but I figured, you would feel more welcomed with this room over any others. I recently had it changed, specifically for you, once we found you, of course, though I must admit, you were playing quite the game of hardball.”
“What else? What else did he find when he went snooping through my brain?”
“Nothing, Final. I assure you.”
Boss placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him and be reassuring, though Eli was clearly angry.
“My name isn’t Final! It is Eliot King, and I go by Eli! You want a nickname? That is one! How can you people do this? You ransack someone’s brain, take the most important things away from them, get knowledge on them for reasons, I assume, of situations exactly like this. You had someone pick my brain apart, and you expect me to want to be here with you and help you with, well, whatever it is you want me for!”
“Final, please calm down. I know this is a lot, and trust me, I had no intentions of it going this way, and I meant no disrespect. Please let me show you. Let me show you the Order, show you who we are, what we do. I want you to understand that what we do is for the greater good of, not just Beyohumans, but all mankind. We are all human at the end of the day after all, right?”
Hesitant to listen futher, Eli tried to calm himself so he could. He saw the sheer number of people earlier, so he knew there was some truth to what Boss was saying.
“You promise, on everything you are, have, or will ever be, it was an accident?”
“Yes, Final. We never went looking for information, I swear. Raiser just didn’t want you to remember yours and his encounter, and his powers went a bit into overdrive, I suppose. That part, I honestly don’t know about. We don’t exactly have real doctors here who could look into something like that, and there aren’t specialists who could help us that we know of, so his power struggle is still a mystery.”
Eli shook his head in agreement, believing what he was being told.
“Okay. I’m in. Show me.”
Boss smiled, quite happy with the decision Eli made. They rose together, him motioning to the door, allowing Eli to go first, him right behind. There were people around, smiling, waving to them both—a couple of hello’s, hi’s, and even some how do you do’s. A woman came casually through the crowd, beautiful as could be, and kissed Boss.
“Final, this is Daze. She is the thing keeping me around,” he joked. She whispered something in his ear, a slight nod from him then a whisper back to her.
“She helps me run things and sends the teams out on missions and is second head to the Beyohuman finders. Lame name, I know, but we can’t always think up something clever. Now I know I said I would answer all your questions, and I promise, I will, but there is a very important matter I must take care of currently, so I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of your guardian.”
Boss and Daze went off to the front desk together as Raiser walked up to Eli, putting an arm over his shoulder.
“Young love makes you miss the olden days, ah. I’ve got you from here, Final. Tour and possibly if you’re up for it, a bit of training? It would be nice to see just how strong those beams of yours are, wouldn’t it?”
Eli didn’t seem too happy with the lack of information he actually got out of Boss, and he had a feeling Raiser wouldn’t do too much in that way either. He nodded to Raiser, a slight disdain on his face evident, though he quickly followed behind him. The basics of the Order was mostly just room and board for the Beyohumans who were there, some fighters, some scouts, and everything in between. What should have been the lobby or office had this been a normal motel was the base of operations essentially—screens covering the walls, newspaper clippings around them, and very few people taking care of all of it. Raiser and Eli walked past the front desk lobby/office-type building, and Eli noticed a bit of panic inside, though Raiser moved him along and continued on with the tour.
“Daze!” Boss yelled. “What’s going on? Where is Ranger? I need you to tell me everything now.”
Daze became teary-eyed with her response. “We lost contact with Ranger last night. This morning, we got some weird messages, really cryptic. No one has been able to get around it or through it. Also, Sweets took her team and went after him. And it’s all a big mess. I know I screwed up, and yes, and I’m scared. I need him back! I need them all back here safe!”
“How did this all happen? Sweets shouldn’t have been allowed out. We have been on lockdown for a few days now with recent events. Where was the last location he was known to be? I’ll grab Raiser and Pres, and I’m sure we—”
“The Black-Zone.” Daze cut him off, clearly afraid of what may have happened to him. “It was the Black-Zone, and I let him go. I knew what could happen, how dangerous it was, and I authorized it,” she spoke softly, the tears now running.
Boss quickly embraced her, holding her tight to his chest. “I will find your brother, I promise. I won’t return until we have him safe and sound, and you can give him your patented big sister beatdowns, and we can all laugh about this later.”
Boss called over the intercom to have Raiser, Loun, and Pres meet him up front, cutting short Eli’s time to tour and train. They quickly ran back to the head of the buildings, one other man already standing and waiting, Loun or Pres he assumed. A panicked Boss stood awaiting them, a crying daze stood by the doors.
“Raiser, Pres, and Loun with me. Daze runs things until I get back. No one is to step foot outside of these gates until we return. Is that understood? We have two teams MIA, and I’m not looking for a third.”
One of the men who he called for Eli recognized from last night, standing near Boss when they met. A car pulled up next to the three men, driven by who he could assume was the other one Boss called for, though Eli wasn’t sure who was who. Eli sighed as all the three men hopped in the car and left. He walked back to his room, though he stopped at the door as he noticed the woman from before, Daze, sniffling and wiping tears away. He wasn’t sure why she was so sad, though he didn’t like seeing it. She was smaller in height, had nice blond hair, and had a few freckles across her face. He nodded to himself, knowing it wasn’t his business, though as his door became opened, there she was, sitting on his bed. He
