I look up at Mr. Eun-ji and tell him, "Let me go with you!"
Mr Eun-ji looks down at me and laughs, "You can't be serious, Ray. If I took you with me, Claire would have my head on the stake. You shouldn't go out and accompany me on missions like this. Not that I think you can't handle yourself with me around, but more that Claire has made it very clear that she wants as few people as possible to know about you."
I sigh. I mean, he's right. But still, I wanna go.
"What if you left and I just 'coincidentally' happened to follow you, so you were forced to let me tag along?" I ask him.
"You know what? If you pull something like that, I guess you could come because Claire would be mad at you and not me. But seriously, Ray, I still don't recommend it. But your actions are your own." After saying that. Mr Eun-ji turns around and leaves. I hear him say goodbye to Miss Claire and say something to the effect of: "I was called for a case, I need to go."
Miss Claire then walks into the training room, "Hey kiddo, so I had an idea. I know recent events have been hard on both of us. So I thought we could both have a little free time and just chill. I'll be in my room if you need me. Have fun." she smiles softly and ruffles my hair before leaving the room.
Well, it's the perfect opportunity to leave without her noticing, no questions asked. But I kind of feel bad, like I'm betraying her trust.
With very little contemplation, I decide to leave. It shouldn't be that long. Hopefully, she never notices that I left. I don't like worrying her, but I also don't want to pass up an opportunity to tag along and see Mr. Eun-ji in real combat.
I take off my current shirt and put my favorite shirt back on. I walk out of the training room and go into the bathroom. I reapply my brown hair dye. I then go out onto the couch in the living room to wait for it to dry.
After about ten minutes. I stand up and enter the elevator, riding it up. I soon exit it into the warehouse. I overheard Mr. Eun-ji's phone call. I heard the man on the other side talk about the Museum with the WWSHA exhibit. It isn't far from here, merely a ten-minute walk.
I exit the warehouse and begin walking towards the museum. I should probably figure out what I want to do when I get there. Should I watch from afar? No, that's too suspicious in the case that another hero shows up. But watching up close is a good way to get dragged into whatever goes down, whether I get taken as a hostage or added to the fight. Should I just join the fight myself?
Not the worst idea I've had. If my options are to watch closely and most likely get dragged in anyway, or to join the fight from the get-go. I would choose to just join the fight, even though that'd probably piss off Mr. Eun-ji.
I soon arrive at the museum. I see Mr. Eun-ji on top of the roof of the museum across from ten masked men. All of the masked men have giant green crosshairs painted on their masks.
I hop up onto the roof. The masked men don't immediately spot me, but Mr. Eun-ji immediately looks over and whispers to me, "You did it?! What the hell, kid? I thought I generally implied that I didn't want you here!"
"You did say that I could if I wanted to. My actions are my own." I reply.
"Goddamnit." Mr. Eun-ji says, probably cursing the words that he said to me earlier.
Mr. Eun-ji tries to shove me away and tries to hide the fact that I'm here. When one of the masked men finally spots me. He is very large and burly. He immediately lunges forward to grab me, most likely wanting to use me as a hostage. I spin around and hit him with a kick straight to the nose.
"You know, going after a ranker's apprentice is pretty stupid. Especially considering you're all so weak." I say, looking down at the man who just tried to grab me. I see no aura from any of the men. There are many non-powered people in our society. They make up 40% of the total population. But I wonder why they'd try to actively engage Mr. Eun-ji. That's so dumb, they'd have no chance, and I refuse to believe that they didn't know any better. It's common sense.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see one of the slimmer and smaller men, only a bit taller than me, come at me with a small dagger and slash at me. I have little time to react, and Mr. Eun-ji comes and pulls me out of the way, getting a small cut on his arm in the process. After he gets cut, I see his aura get shaky, rapidly swerving in ways it typically wouldn't.
Mr. Eun-ji starts frantically scanning his surroundings. That isn't something he'd have to do with his power. So why?
He leans in by my ear and whispers, "Hey, Ray. I don't know what's happening, but my senses are dampened. I need you to be our eyes and ears."
Dampened?!
Great. I was kind of hoping he'd be able to handle it while I observed. But also at the same time, this probably wouldn't have happened if I had just stayed in the lair and hadn't gotten involved. But how did this even happen?
It had to be the dagger. Weapons that disrupt powers? I have no time to ponder how they work. I just need to do as Mr. Eun-ji says.
I see the man with the dagger rushing back at us, and the bigger, burlier man getting back up and rushing from the other side, pulling out an axe.
"Mr. Eun-ji! On your left!" I shout. Mr. Eun-ji turns and kicks the burly man in the chin, and I roll onto Mr. Eun-ji's back over to the burly man and use the momentum to knock the man to the ground, stomping his head to knock him out.
Mr. Eun-ji front-kicks the man with the dagger and then slams his head into the concrete on the roof, cracking it.
The rest of the men come rushing at us, each with their respective weapons. Until they stop in their tracks, and a man with a black mask with a King of Diamonds painted on it shoves them aside and walks forward. "Eun-ji! How great it is to see you!" The man says, his voice giving off a genuine excitement as if he were meeting an old friend for the first time in years.
Mr Eun-ji whispers to me, "Kid, he's relatively on my level. A little weaker. But I can't handle him in my current state. And you can't handle him in any state. But we can't exactly run, or else my boss will have my head. I'll page for backup. We both hold him off. You got him alone for a few minutes while I make the call."
I whisper back, "Are you sure he's even here to fight?"
"Trust me, he is." Mr. Eun-ji replies with utmost certainty.
The man in the King of Diamonds Mask walks closer, "Eun-ji? Not happy to see me? C'mon, I was going to be nice, I was gonna let the kid go. I only need you gone after all."
Mr. Eun-ji hops back and grabs his phone out of his pocket, presumably dialing someone. I see the man in the King of Diamonds Mask tries to approach Mr. Eun-ji; however, I step in front of him and stop.
"And what's your name, little one? I'd step aside if I were you, I'd rather not have to kill you just to get to Eun-ji." The man tells me.
"I'm Parker. Mr. Eun-ji's apprentice." I reply. I look back and see Mr. Eun-ji's face. He looks appalled at my lie. I'm not sure if he hates the notion that I'm his apprentice, or if he thinks my fake name is dumb.
"Apprentice? Oh. I suppose you need to go as well." The man replies, his voice in that exact same happy tone. It's honestly creepy how he can say all of this stuff the way he does. Before I can further react, he picks me up by the neck.
"Eun-ji sure has some audacity. Involving a poor child in his life when he knows that we're after him." The man says condescendingly.
We?
"Who is this 'we' you're referring to?" I ask through struggling, choking sounds.
"Oh? He hasn't told you? Well, it isn't like you'll be living long enough for it to matter." He replies.
I lean down and bite his wrist, and he lets go immediately. I waste no time and step to the side and try to backkick him in the chest; however, he grabs my leg and slams me into the ground, causing me to cough up blood.
He sticks an arm out, and a weird, blue translucent blade appears on his hand. "I'll allow you some last words. Any family you'd like me to relay them to?" The man asks me.
Wow, how oh so kind of him.
"Relay my last words to Ben," I tell him.
"Who's Ben?" He asks.
"Ben Dover," I reply.
That childish remark seems to have agitated him. He swings his arm up and slashes at me, cutting me open across my stomach. The pain is almost unbearable since I'm using Mr. Eun-ji's power.
Does he want me to slowly bleed out? I think I'm starting to regret my attempt at humor.
He's about to slash at me again when suddenly he's lifted up by… nothing? Before I can even react to that, whatever lifted him up threw him further up, and a figure not yet clear to me kicked him right back down onto the roof. The man quickly stands up and retreats alongside his men.
It all happened so fast. The figure lands and it's a girl who's probably in her late teens. She has pale blue eyes and a short, wolf-cut. It's like she's kind of familiar to me. "Don't move." She says flatly. She swiftly heals me.
Healing? Stronger than Jane's? No. The girl in front of me looks tired. She likely overextended herself to heal my near-fatal wounds so quickly; she's likely on a similar level of healing as Jane; healers are rare after all. She helps me up. "You still hurting anywhere?" she asks. "Nope," I reply. Soon after, a girl who looks similar to her, but with neater blonde hair in a ponytail, runs over alongside Mr. Eun-ji. She seems slightly younger.
"Elaine, please stop running in like that. I barely had time to lift him before you intervened." The blonde girl says, clearly exasperated.
"It's fine, Beth, I handled it." The other girl, Elaine, replies with a yawn.
Ah. Of course, they're familiar. Elizabeth and Elaine. Rankers and children of Paragon and Elementalist.
"Sonar. Who's the kid?" Elaine asks Mr. Eun-ji.
"Elaine. This is Parker, my… apprentice." Mr. Eun-ji says It seems my fake identity doesn't exactly roll off the tongue for him.
"Apprentice, huh? You sure love emulating Ironhide on many things. This, too?" She says, taunting him.
Oh, where does she get the right to act this way?
I may think that. But I can't really bring myself to say anything. Chameleon would. But I don't think Ray can.
"So, think he can measure up?" Elaine says, taunting Mr. Eun-ji further.
"Elaine. That isn't exactly a fair comparison." Mr Eun-ji replies.
"Knew it, the runt wouldn't-" Elaine starts, before getting interrupted by Mr. Eun-ji: "Nope, he'd absolutely destroy those two."
Elaine looks annoyed. While Mr. Eun-ji looks more smug, a complete turnaround from earlier. Elaine grumbles and walks off, something like: "This is what I get for helping."
Elizabeth walks over to me, "Sorry about her. She doesn't like your mentor very much."
Oh, if only she knew how true her statement is.
"Well, she probably has another reason to be annoyed at the sight of you, but… never mind. Probably not important." She says a little nervously.
Ok?
I don't respond. I just look up at her and scowl.
"Alright then! I'd better go catch up to Elaine!" She says before scampering off in the direction Elaine walked off.
Mr. Eun-ji stomps over to me, "Parker?! Seriously?!" Yeah, should've expected that.
"Well, what else was I supposed to say?" I retort.
"Fair enough, but this complicates things! This is why I didn't want you to come!" He shouts.
He sighs and grabs my hand, we both hop off the roof, immediately met by cameras and a reporter. "Sonar! Who is the young man right here accompanying you?" the reporter says as a mic gets shoved in Mr. Eun-ji's face.
"This is Parker. My apprentice." Mr. Eun-ji says. I notice it rolls a little easier out of his mouth this time around. It's all a blur. It's so odd to receive all of this attention. I'm not too sure if I like this. Living in the lair for so long, it was like I didn't exist. But I suppose I did this to myself by coming out here.
After a while, Mr. Eun-ji dismisses the reporter and the camera crew, and he takes me to a nearby bench. "You know what this means, kid? When you're outside, not as Chameleon, you have to be Parker. You're leading a triple life here, Ray."
"I know. It complicates things." I reply.
As if on cue, Mr. Eun-ji gets a phone call. "Shit, it's Claire," he says, panicked.
He answers the phone, and I can hear her shouting even though she isn't on speaker phone, "Parker?!"
Oh no. I'm screwed.