Chasing Dreams (Dropped)

Chapter 104: Questioning

"You're telling me she is a member of Blight?"

Ren lowered his voice slowly silenced by disbelief. "How can that be possible." Ren quickly exchanged looks with both Sarah and Arthur, but neither of their stares faltered. They both wore soft gazes, gazes guided by confusion. To them the reasoning for Eve's place in Blight seemed obvious, there was little reason to doubt her capabilities regardless of her handicap.

Ren waited for an answer, an answer grand enough to suspend his disbelief. But the longer he stared at the two of them the quicker Ren realized they were as baffled as himself. "Is there something I am just missing?" Ren asked, noticing the dumbfounded stares.

The expressions that they had reminded Ren of the looks he'd see on Dustin or Olivia's faces from time to time. Looks that expressed genuine disappointment or perplexity, normally brought forth by Ren saying something dumb or being ignorant about something that was common knowledge.

Sarah lightly ran her tongue against her lips sitting on the thought. Her face formed a string of emotions while simultaneously attempting to phrase what she wanted to say in the best way possible. "Well Ren, you see...Eve she is..." 

Sarah quickly stumbled on her words at the sound of Eve's childish giggling. The young heroine was entertaining herself by forming bubbles out of her own spit. Something that initially seemed cute until Sarah looked at the grander picture. Sarah had momentarily forgotten that Eve had pinned Ren down so he was staring at her with pure disgust. 

"No no no no!" Sarah reflexively reached her hand out causing wads of iron sand to swarm constructing a giant metallic arm. By using her mind Sarah directed the arm to grab onto Eve and place her beside Ren rather than directly on top of him. 

"You can't do that darling." Sarah sighed. Sarah then looked down at Ren who was now wearing a blank expression. He was still laying in a puddle of drool thanks to Mercy who was licking him nonstop. "Mercy stop that! Bad girl!"

Mercy then trotted away from Ren still donning a smug look. 

Sarah let out another sigh "Ren I am really sorry about that. I don't know what's gotten into her or why she keeps acting this way around you." Sarah then looked to Eve who was giggling nonstop playing with Mercy like a child with a puppy. "...I guess Eve saw what Mercy was doing and tried to copy her."

Ren wiped his face before producing a light frown "It's fine." 

"Are you sure? Something's telling me that you aren't actually fine." Sarah wheeled over to Ren breaking the distance between them. "I can get you a change of clothes if you want."

Ren shook his head "No its fine, you've already done enough inviting me into your home. Besides I don't want to be anymore of a pain than I already have." Ren said drying his clothes off with his own flames. 

Sarah quickly shook her head "No trust me its fine. I don't mind, besides you are a guest you need to be treated with the upmost care." Sarah then grabbed Ren's arm unintentionally pressing it against her large chest. "I can make it up to you."

Ren noticed this and his face quickly spiraled red. Ren looked down sweat quickly collecting along the base of his forehead at the sight of her cleavage. Since it had been so long since they had last seen each other, Ren had forgotten how large Sarah's bust was. 

"Snap out of it Ren it's not the time to focus on that."

Ren quickly snapped out of his senses regaining his usual calm composure. He pulled his arm from Sarah's grip and raised his hand to his mouth looking away awkwardly. "Trust me I'm fine." 

Sarah lightly frowned before beginning to pout. Something she'd do whenever she didn't get her way.

Ren then turned returning his focus onto Eve who was still playing with Mercy by chasing her around the garden. "I still don't get it. If Michael is supposed to be this amazing guy, if he is supposed to be as strong as people make him out to be, then why is he allowing someone like Eve to risk her life protecting him while he should be the one protecting her."

A light wind coursed through the garden, acting as the only sort of noise in its otherwise unrivaled silence. Sarah remained quiet having no answer to Ren's reasonable question. Both Mercy and Eve were too far to be heard, not that Eve would even be capable of giving Ren a proper answer anyways.

So Ren looked to Arthur. Out of everyone there he was the closest to Michael, and the only one capable of giving Ren an idea of what kind of man the Number One Hero was. But similar to the others Arthur stayed silent, it was the only time throughout their entire meeting that Ren noticed that Arthur's charming smile was nowhere to be seen. 

"Ren." Arthur called. His voice had slightly deepened becoming a bit more serious than normal. "May I ask you something?" Ren peered over his attention drawn by Arthur's words. "What is it?"

Ren felt a small shift in the air. It felt tense, a growing intensity that had yet to become lethal. 

"Why is it that you continue to question Michael?" Arthur voice was a knife that gently grazed Ren's skin. Ren tilted his head a bit surprised "What do you mean?"

Arthur lowered his head removing his arms from his pockets. "I'm talking about the comments you made before, and the comments you are making now." Arthur raised his head once again staring at Ren. His golden eyes were still tense, but not tense enough to evolve into a full fledged glare. "Why is it that you seem to question everything that he does?" 

Arthur waited for a moment expecting some sort of reaction from Ren, but he witnessed nothing. Ren kept a tightly stitched frown and stared at Arthur with eyes of blood. Although Ren wasn't expressively showing it Arthur could sense a deep rooted anger from within him. A burning emotion ready to explode at any moment but was forced to remain hidden and cook from within.

Arthur looked down his eyes weighed down by a sudden sadness. He had sensed it for awhile now, the anger Ren had only would spew out in short burst, and only at the mentioning of Michael.