Episode 14: You Got A Deal
Bella and Raijo were about to reply to Travis's question when Liam teleported himself right next to Paisley's side and they both ran to give him and Brittany a hug. "Oh hey you guys! We missed you too! Ha ha." Travis said. "Paisley, are you okay honey? Why are your eyes wet?" Brittany said, spotting tears coming from her daughter's eyes from a mile away. Bella chimed in, "Actually, it's because of something that happened to me! Hey, it's nice to formally meet you both. I'm Bella! I'm going to be honest, I doubt you would believe me in a million years if I just told you what happened. I think someone has something to show you." She then gestured towards the range and they all could see the shattered target. Travis jumped forward and said, "Liam! Holy cow buddy! I knew you were strong, but I didn't know you had it like that!" He then looked back at the group to see Liam's excited face when that's not what was seen at all.
Brittany and Travis had a gut feeling that things weren't as they seemed. Bella was seen pointing secretly, but proudly, at Paisley behind her back. They looked at their daughter and could only see a small grin on her face. Brittany spoke confused, "Wait… no. What? It was Paisley? Did someone give her a gun or something? That looks more like a bomb went off. I know they were getting training, but firearms? I think it might be a little early for something like that, right?" Raijo responded, "No, this was not the work of any instrument of war, weapon, or secondary tool. This was her own talent and strength. This might come as a very serious surprise to the both of you, but it's almost like she's had her ability activated." Travis and Brittany didn't believe what they were hearing. They couldn't. It was less than twenty four hours ago that they even showed up here. How could so much have changed in such a short timeframe? It felt like it just was impossible to be real. "Paisley," Bella said, getting her attention, "why don't you show them what you did to the target? I'm sure it would be easier than trying to explain it." Without waiting for a single second, Paisley stepped forward and out in front of the group. In the background, Bella put her hands over her ears to protect herself. It looked so natural to the others and felt the same to Paisley. She raised her hand like she did before and felt the power surge within her. Aimed at another target, a bullet sized ball of pressure seemed to show up out of nowhere right at the end of Paisley's finger. Only a fraction of a millisecond later and the target was blown apart. She forced the energy to dissipate after hitting the target so it didn't continue into the wall.
Brittany couldn't believe what she was witnessing. It felt like a dream that she didn't know how to feel about. Should she be happy or worried? She turned to see what Travis was thinking, but he was no longer standing next to her. Instead, he was lying on the ground and stiff as a board with visible tension throughout his body. Bella jumped down on her knees next to him and held his head up. "This is exactly what happened to me! This is what upset Paisley to the point of tears. I think her power has multiple properties, one including powerful sound waves." Brittany, worried for so many reasons at this point, slightly yelled, "Do something! How do we help him?!" Bella stated, "Liam, he is the answer." Brittany turned her head to the little boy and saw him snap his fingers. A huge breath was taken and she turned back around to see it was her husband having taken that breath. "Travis! Baby! Are you okay? Are you alright?!" Travis took a few more labored heavy breaths before answering. "I… I'm fine now. Not really sure what happened to me just then. It was like the sound was so loud it forced my body to lock up. I have never in my life felt so weak and useless to protect myself." He said this without thinking about how it would make Paisley feel, since, after all, she was the reason it happened to him.
Paisley started balling her eyes out and collapsed into sitting cross legged on the floor with her hands covering her face. "I'm sorry daddy! I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry!" Travis immediately jumped up regardless of how he felt and ran to her side. "Sweetheart, look at daddy! Look at me! I'm okay, I promise. It's okay. You didn't hurt me at all. I was just stunned. I can't believe how strong you are baby girl and I want you to know that I am so incredibly proud of you!" He got to thinking, "How did she get her ability in the first place? Something had to have happened while we were in that meeting, so what was it?" Before he could speak up, Liam moved his hands as if he was fiddling with something. The entire room grew dark except near where the group was at. It looked as if some type of holographic display just spawned in from nowhere. Over the course of the next few minutes, the hologram replayed exactly what happened with Paisley and how Liam had been the cause of her becoming so advanced so quickly. Suddenly, everything made sense. If anything extraordinary happened, it always seemed to come right back to Liam being the root cause.
"I could hear what you were thinking Uncle Travis, so I just showed you what happened." Liam said this as the hologram dispersed and the darkness left the room. "What? What did you say? Are you telling me you can read my mind?" Travis couldn't believe what he was hearing, much less the light show that just went on in front of them and what it displayed. "Yes sir. I just wanted to know how you felt about Paisley and what I did to her. I wanted to know if you were mad at me." Travis couldn't help but have such a soft heart for the young man. "No buddy, I'm not mad at all. In fact, I want to say thank you Liam. Thank you for loving us as much as we love you. I know life is hard for all of us right now, and you most of all, but even now you're protecting Paisley. I think what frustrates me the most is that I know I don't have the strength to do that for you. I don't want you to feel alone or scared and now that Paisley is strong, maybe you two can keep each other safe." Travis and everyone else, besides Raijo, was getting a little emotional.
Raijo coughed intentionally to get Brittany and Travis's attention. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak real quick, especially seeing as both of these kids are under your legal guardianship. Do both of you understand the measuring of power levels?" Travis said that he did while Brittany shook her head and gave him a thumbs up. Raijo then faced the stennerometer in their direction and it read forty eight thousand nine hundred sixty four. Brittany shuttered and stuttered while saying, "Th… that… is that Liam's? Everything makes so much sense now! I… I knew he was stronger than normal, but this?? This is just insane!" Travis was in agreement, but couldn't bring himself to speak. The power level shown was out of this world and completely unfathomable.
Bella once again let the cat out of the bag. "I don't mean to be the one that spoils everything, but that is not Liam's power level." Brittany and Travis had their eyebrows raised and eyes wide in disbelief. She then nodded her head at Paisley to let them know just how wrong they were. "No way. There's no way. There is absolutely no way! How is this even possible? Paisley, is this true?" Travis was freaking out, because he had never seen a power level that high in his life. The most he knew of was the king's strength and even he only had a whopping ninety nine. Did this mean that their child was ahead of the current king by light years? Paisley responded, "Yes sir, that's mine. Liam gave me more power than I had before. Am I really that strong?" Everyone in the room still couldn't fully grasp the concept that this little girl had such monstrous power.
"Yes sweetie, you are possibly the strongest person in the world, well, all except for Liam there." Bella didn't want everyone to skip over Liam's strength and kind of wanted to see the ridiculous number show on the stennerometer once more. "Hey guys if Liam is okay with it, would you want to see the difference between Paisley and Liam's power levels? I'm gonna be honest, I want to see it again. I still can't really wrap my head around it." Both parents kept glancing back and forth between both of their kids. "Liam, are you okay with showing us? If not, it's alright." Liam smiled and said he would while walking over to Raijo for his second testing. After pricking his finger and dripping his unusual looking blood into the bowl style piece of the device, numbers started flicking across the screen. It went one by one starting from the lowest point in the number and kept going up. At the end of it all, everyone read the number out loud in unison. "Fifteen Million one hundred thirty two thousand four hundred fifty nine?!" Separately, Raijo yelled in dramatic confusion, "Your power level rose over one million just from the last time you were tested! That's just not freaking possible!"
Brittany was so shocked that all she could do was babble to herself incoherently and Bella wasn't doing much better. Travis on the other hand threw his arms up in defeat. He said, "This world makes no sense to me anymore. I'm just not gonna let myself be surprised. They say to expect the unexpected, but even the unexpected couldn't come close to this." It took about an hour for everyone to calm down with small bits of conversation here and there, but mostly, it was quiet. A feeling of absolute relaxation and calmness washed over all of them, Paisley included. Everyone already knew that this was the work of Liam, and they looked up to see him looking at all of them. "Hey guys, can we please do something? I'm getting pretty bored just sitting here. Raijo, what you were thinking about before might be fun! I want to see how strong I am in fights!" Raijo took in a breath to attempt to reply, but before he could get it out, the room door opened up again and a large figure walked in and everyone besides Paisley and Liam bowed respectfully. Brittany and Travis were among the people bowing and they knew that if they didn't have that meeting as soon as they arrived, they wouldn't have known who this man was to bow to.
"Lord Thanatos? Is that your name?" Liam asked after reading some of the thoughts in the room. "My, my. I see my reputation precedes me. I've been looking forward to meeting you as well, little guy. Before you ask anything else, I am here to get to know you, but to know you well, I think we should spar to test your limits. So if you will, come along and follow me." With that pretty short introduction, Thanatos turned around and walked to the door. He held it for a few seconds before Liam even moved an inch. With a smile, Liam grabbed Paisley's hand and they both ran out of the room looking excited for what could come next. Thanatos then told everyone else to come along, but they would have to sit in a viewing room with a one way mirror. The rest of the group was led to the viewing room by Raijo.
Paisley, Liam and Thanatos entered into a large dome like arena with a terrain that simulated the bone chilling winter of a mountain peak. Immediately, Thanatos's skin looked to be smoking. "First lesson kids, learn how to adapt to your environment without having to rely on your wardrobe. You won't always be able to go shopping or look through your suitcase in the middle of a fight." Without a flinch of his hand, an iridescent colored hoodie was instantly placed around a shaking Paisley, as if she put it on when she got dressed. "Oh wow!!" she said and it sounded like all of the cold didn't affect her anymore. "I have never felt this comfortable in my life! You should make more clothes like this for me! This is amazing! You are amazing!" Thanatos looked at Liam with more curiosity. "I saw your power level in a report I received from Raijo, but would you be able to protect her all the time?" Without hesitation, Thanatos shot black flames at Paisley, but not to harm her. He was aiming for the hoodie that Liam created. He wanted to prove a point by burning it and knew that he was skilled enough to only get the hoodie. After only three seconds of the flame being shot around Paisley, Thanatos ended the stream of flames. The part that had him confused was the hoodie remained perfectly intact and without a scratch.
"I won't let anyone hurt the people I care about ever again. That hoodie can't be destroyed by people weaker than me. I made it to keep her comfortable in every type of environment so she will never have to worry. Even if I'm not near her, she can't be hurt or uncomfortable with that on." Thanatos grinned from ear to ear, "Kid, you really are something else. Without a doubt, you're definitely ahead of the curve, but I still feel like you have a lot to learn. I'm just happy that you care for your people that much. I only wish everyone else had your heart. If we had more people like you, maybe the world would be a great place to be." Thanatos could see a slight smile on Liam's face due to the compliment, but he turned away and put about one hundred feet between him and the kids. "Hey Paisley, do me a favor and stand off to the side for this next part, okay? I want to test Liam for now and I will get to you after this." Paisley nodded and walked over to the wall and sat down to watch what would happen. "Liam, for this, I don't want you to feel like I'm attacking you because I want to take this slow so nobody is accidentally hurt in any way, alright?" Liam nodded to signal that he understood.
No more words were said as action after action ensued. Thanatos sparked up a flame in the palm of his hand and threw it in Liam's direction, but in a way that wouldn't hit him if he couldn't stop it. The moment the flame left his hand, Thanatos watched his power disappear as if it never existed. He lit up his entire hand and blasted another stream of flames off to the side of Liam, but again, his power was snuffed out like the end of a burning cigarette being dipped in water. He looked at Liam with a raised eyebrow and an expression of excitement was attempting to be held back by confusion and it grew more and more on Thanatos's face. "Wait, I feel like you have a decent grasp on your ability. Are you comfortable with me moving faster? I can try a bit more to push you, but only if you think you're ready."
Liam balled up one of his fists and slammed it into the palm of the other and said, "Bring it on! I've been waiting for something like this for a long time!" This made Thanatos laugh a little, because what was just said had come from a kid that wasn't even seven years old yet. He thought that 'a long time' had to be relative to who was speaking. "I'll happily move faster, but do me a favor! Try to get in a few hits here and there just to show me what you got." He remembered the astronomical power level of the little boy in that moment and rubbed the back of his head, "Just try not to kill me ha ha!"
Liam disappeared from sight and a massive wave of pain hit Thanatos in the back to the point that he wasn't able to catch his breath for a moment. He still had the awareness to make sure he jumped away from where he had just been hit. He turned to try and find Liam, but he just couldn't see anyone. Looking around, he saw Paisley still sitting along the wall and she was looking right back at him. "If I can't see him, how can I make sure I don't hurt him? I want to go harder, but I'm just not sure how I can guarantee his safety while training like this. Ah, screw it, I have healers on standby and he's a monster in his own right." Thanatos was getting in his head, but a split second later and black flames erupted from his hands that stretched about eight feet long. After the flames dissipated into nothing, a scythe revealed itself. The blade was unusual, because it looked like an entirely different language was etched into it. The lettering itself remained flickering with the black flames and a moment later, the whole of the blade lit up in flames once again.
Liam revealed himself next to Thanatos's left side. Liam pulled his hand back, balled it into a fist and as fast as someone could blink, he threw a punch that sent shock waves out and distorted the view where it connected. A deafening thunderous crack was heard from the snap of Liam's hand hitting the grown man , which made Paisley jump from where she sat to standing upright. Thanatos was sent flying faster than the speed of sound straight at the wall and he was seriously hurt. Just before he crashed into the wall, Liam saved him by pulling him right out of thin air and placing the man right in front of him. It was obvious that Thanatos needed help and he needed it quickly. Behind Paisley, a door opened and several healers ran past her and to the side of their Lord. Liam stepped back to let them do what they needed to.
The lead healer yelled, "My Lord!! Can you hear me?" They all lit their hands up in a bright white light of energy and aimed their fingers towards Thanatos. "We are going to save you! We have to! Everyone, give it all you have! We must not let him die!" Out of the corner of their eyes, the young boy, who had done this to their organization head, stepped into view and asked, "Do you guys need some help? I can save him if you want. I just didn't want to get in your way." The lead healer said frantically, "Well, yeah! If you think you can heal him, then please don't waste anymore time and do it!" Without doing anything that anyone could see, Liam just looked at Thanatos, and he went from where he was lying on the floor to standing upright without any injuries at all. "I… I'm alive?? I really thought I was beyond saving! I'm alive???" Thanatos just couldn't believe what he had been through. He remembered all the pain, the feeling of hopelessness and resigning himself to his fate. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it would hurt that bad." Liam said with honest remorse. He felt awful because the man was just trying to train him up and he almost died. "No Liam, do not say sorry to me! I'm the one who should be thanking you for saving me. Also, you are still learning to control your power so I expected there to be some hiccups, but that was other worldly."
Thinking a bit about their fight, Thanatos came to a simple conclusion. There was no way Liam's ability had ever been on this planet. He had so many different ways to apply it and even though Liam was a beginner in combat, there most likely would never be anyone that could overpower him. "Hey Liam, let me ask you something. You found out what Paisley's ability was called right? Have you ever tried to do the same to yours? Can you try and find out what the name of your ability is? I'm very curious." He never thought about it, even after finding out Paisley's, but Liam wanted to give it a try. He closed his eyes and focused on flowing the energy around his body and stayed like that for no more than five minutes.
Once he opened his eyes, a smile as big as one could get was stuck on his face. "I know what it is now! I didn't think it would be like this at all!" Liam was giggling so hard that it became difficult for him to tell the others anything for a few moments. Eventually he calmed down and said, "My ability is called 'Creativity of the Entity'! I got more information and it is supposed to be the same ability as the mysterious entity who gives us all our abilities. Does that mean I could be a god for real?" Thanatos and the others could not understand how this kid got an ability like this, but even if his power level wasn't as strong as it was, it would be hard for anyone to face Liam with something like this. "It's hard to wrap my head around it, but honestly Liam, I think you're closer to a god than you are a human. Let me be up front and blunt with you. I want to be your trainer. If you'll accept me, I want to teach you everything I know about fighting and combat. Will you accept my proposal?" Liam thought for a moment, but eventually answered, "I will accept if you train both of us." Thanatos could see Liam pointing to Paisley and knew he couldn't pass up the opportunity to have the two strongest people in existence to learn under him. "You got yourself a deal young man!"
End of Episode 14: You Got A Deal
Author's Name
ClodiasManga