Previously....
Eva has to find her kids. Her two sons.
She wondered what they were doing right now. Kaizo would be a young man now. And her little Pang will be not little anymore.
As per the details she got, Fang was somewhere on Planet Earth. But that was about two years ago. Maybe he is still there.
Well... There was just one way to find out.
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Ava was one step away from snapping off Aurelius' head for good. That guy was irritating... So very irritating..... The only thing stopping her was Amato's subtle hold on her hand.
Usually, Amato was the short tempered and reckless one among the both of them. And it was usually her who used to calm him down. But their roles have been somehow reversed in these couple of days if she's being honest.
And this Aurelius guy was not helping at all.... He keeps on teleporting around the room without any warning with the sole motive of scaring the shit out of everybody. Or maybe to test their patience.... Who knows what's running inside that guy's head????
Aurelius was doing all this while evading the one question she asked him.
"Will you help us with a mission?" was the question. And it has been more than an hour!!! She still did not receive an answer. All she got was some gibberish blabbering from him. That guy is just talking and talking and talking, without making any sense at all!!!
Even her son Boboiboy looked irritated, and he did nothing to mask it. Ava could even see some sparks coming out of his hands!!!! And God knows how Fang was maintaining his 'duh' face till now.
On a second thought... Why did she even agree to bring her son and his friends to meet this insane guy??? That's easy to answer. Aaron was hell bent on accompanying them. One look at his face, and you know that there is no talking him out of his decision. His eyes held that much stubbornness.
And why does he have to be this much stubborn???
Oh she knew the answer to this question very well too. Aaron was her and Amato's son after all. And they were known across Tapops to be the two of the most stubborn people ever.
"Aurelius!!!!" Tarung finally snapped out of his patience, finally.
"CAN YOU HELP US OR NOT!??!?" Tarung shouted, and she did nothing to stop him. She would even encourage Tarung to beat the heck out of Aurelius if she can.
"Geez... Why are you shouting, fancy tigerman???" Aurelius mockingly responded and Tarung looked like he was one step away from strangling him after his reply.
At least... Ava wasn't the only one who had the urge to strangle him.
"Admiral..." KokoCi stepped into the conversation. Honestly speaking, KokoCi deserves a medal for being the only person who did not roll his eyes at Aurelius during this entire time.
"You keep quiet, KokoCi!!!!" Tarung barked again. "Aurelius, you are testing everyone's patience here!!! Say yes or no before someone decides to behead you for all your antics!!!"
"Rude... Tarung... So rude..." Aurelius responded, shaking his head. "You people are in my place... In my planet!!! Is this how you speak? Is this how you ask for help??? Where's your manners!??"
Oh gosh... Here he goes again...
"Aurelius..." It was Amato, who spoke now.
"What do you expect in return for helping us?!?" Amato asked in a slow and steady voice.
Aurelius smirked at the question. "Ah... The Armored Hero... You certainly do know how to ask for help!!!"
Oh so this is what this guy was expecting all along!!! Why didn't he say this before!?!? They wouldn't have gone through this torture if had told this earlier!!!
"What do you want???" Ava spoke this time.
"That..." He paused, and Ava was 99.99 percent sure that it was for a dramatic effect. ".... I will ask once your mission is over!!! Anyway... what help do you guys need???"
Ava breathed out in a mixture of tiredness and relief... Finally...
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"Alright alright... Let me get this straight..." Aurelius looked around, meeting everyone's eyes. "You want to know about the location of the twin pendants since a crazy dead woman who is somehow alive is after them?!?!"
Everyone nodded in unison.
"Are you guys OUT OF YOUR MIND???" He shouted, bewildered.
"Do you guys even have any idea what you're asking for??? Those pendants are dangerous!!! They maintain the fundamental pillars of life!!! Even taking them out of their place can cause serious imbalance of nature!!!"
"Then how will Eva use them if she cannot even move them???" Amato asked, confused.
"Look here, Armored Hero... Those pendants represent the cores of life. Creation and destruction. Creation is necessary for destruction and destruction is necessary for creation to happen. They are intertwined with each other but at the same time, they are completely opposite to one another. Only two people, with opposite traits like that of the pendant, but having a deep connection can wield them. That too, they should pick both the pendants at the same time. But this is not as easy as it sounds.... The pendants are in a temple. The key to the temple is ShieldBot. Not sure how it works though, but all I know is the two halves of ShieldBot must be merged back into one. And that will happen only at the command of its true owners. So firstly, lock the Bot and its owners somewhere safe." Aurelius explained, and the color drained of from everyone's face.
Oh no.
"She already has them...." Boboiboy said, panicked laced in his voice.
"WHAT?!??" Aurelius shouted, bewildered. "Then nothing can stop her. She already has the key."
"Look dude, we have to stop her. Tell us a solution!" Ying spoke, with pleading eyes.
Aurelius looked conflicted at that.
"Please..." Yaya added, matching Ying's pleading look.
"Alright." He sighed in defeat. One last chance to stop her.
"I will try to track that crazy lady with my dark magic. You can follow her wherever she's going. And do whatever you have to, to stop her."
"Why can't you tell us the location of the pendants instead???" Gopal asked.
"Because there is a rule. One who has the knowledge of their location cannot share it with anyone, if they do, their head will burst open. This is done inorder to protect their location."
"Then how did you learnt where they are???" Gopal pressed again.
"I tortured the guy to make him tell me. He told me and he died. As simple as that. And don't even try of doing the same to me, I will rip all of your hearts out in just one second..." Aurelius' tone dropped to a deadly tone at the end of the sentence.
"Geez bro... Alright... Relax..." Gopal muttered, while raising his hands in a surrender motion.
Amato, Maskmana, Tarung and KokoCi looked at each other hearing the exchange and sighed simultaneously.
"Alright, Aurelius. Track her." The 4 said together.
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Okay so... this Aurelius guy is downright creepy, if you ask Boboiboy. First of all, he lives in a literal horror movie set and dresses up even worse. One look at him is enough to tell that this guy is a shady individual. And that guy's teleportation tricks, or moving via shadows in his words, was absolutely terrible. Thunderstorm was in the verge of coming out at all of his irritating antics!!!
Now he's sitting inside a big circle that has white colored flames surrounding its perimeter. And that guy's eyes were glowing(?) black!!! He looked very terrifying, from Boboiboy's perspective.
He suddenly snapped his eyes open, making his heart skip a beat in fear.
Dude!!! At least give a warning or something....
"I need a blood relative of the crazy lady that you are searching for. The older and closely related, the better." Aurelius spoke, his voice very, very serious. Boboiboy can ever hear Gopal gulping in fear.
"I'm related to her!!!" He and Fang spoke in chorus and stepped forward, but they were blocked by Amato's hand.
"Why!??!" Amato questioned, still stopping the boys from moving forward.
Aurelius' deadly black eyes snapped to look at Amato and even he shuddered a little at that.
"I am not going to murder them, if that's what you are wondering..."
"No, Aurelius... Why do you even a blood relative??? We already gave you Eva's photo and her armor that we have preserved since her death to you, didn't we???
"Because I am not able to track her with her scent. It's been too long since she touched that armor of hers."
Track with her scent!?!? What was he? A dog???! Boboiboy mentally wondered.
"I need some other connection... that will lead me to her. And blood relations are more special than you can think. Genetical similarity aside... Blood has the bond, you know, a unique bond... I am going to use that bond to track her. And that bond grows stronger with how close the two people are related. It gets even stronger with time."
Amato looked very conflicted. Understandable, really. Who would willingly hand over the blood of their kids to some creepy guy with dark magic??? Boboiboy will definitely not.
"I want the oldest closely related person's blood." Aurelius stated. "How are you both related to her???" He directed the question at him and Fang.
"I'm her son. And he's her nephew." Fang answered back. And Boboiboy nodded along.
Aurelius' black eyes peered at Fang, who was visibly sweating.
"But you are not the oldest closely related person, right???" Aurelius asked looking at Fang, his tone a degree lower than what is considered to be a threatening tone.
"No. He's not." Amato answered, slightly gulping. "He has a brother, Eva's oldest child. But he's currently injured at the moment and was unable to accompany us here."
Aurelius smirked at Amato's reply. His black eyes slowly moved to look at Amato who was standing abnormally stiff.
"Are you sure, Armored Hero?" Aurelius questioned and Amato quickly averted his gaze from Aurelius.
What was the meaning of that question!?!? What was he implying on??? Boboiboy didn't understand.
"Yes." Amato muttered, but his voice had a slight shake that made Boboiboy stare at him, as confusion took over.
Aurelius' eyes looked at Maskmana for a split second before focusing them back at Amato. But Boboiboy didn't notice this as he was busy starring at Amato with a concerned look on his face.
"Alright." Aurelius' voice forced Boboiboy to divert his attention from Amato.
"Get me your youngest nephew's blood, Armored Hero." He said and Boboiboy watched as all the color draining from Amato's face.
Heck!!! Even Maskmana stumbled a bit at that sentence. Boboiboy noticed.
But what shocked Boboiboy to the core was, his dad shifted slightly and held MASKMANA's hand discreetly... He would have totally missed it if he wasn't looking!!!
Oh gosh!!! Were Amato and Maskmana in a....
Boboiboy immediately shook his head, dismissing the utterly idiotic idea. Even friends casually hold hands!!! Nothing wrong, Boboiboy convinced himself.
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Ava wanted to freak out.
Aurelius knows!!! He definitely knows!!!!
The way he looked at her for a spilt second even after Amato answering his question.... There was no mistaking!!! Aurelius definitely knows her secret!!!
And just when Ava thought that maybe him looking at her might have also been a strange coincidence, he went on and called Fang as Amato's nephew.
That, was a confidential information and only a very few knew about what relationship Fang and Amato share!!!! Maybe he pieced it together after Fang mentioning him and Boboiboy as cousins!?!
Heck... no... not even a soul knew that other than immediate family and friends that Boboiboy was Amato's son, her son.
There was just no way Aurelius could have known.
Unless he had used his creepy dark magic.
Still shocked, Ava almost didn't notice when Amato held her hand, offering his comfort. He squeezed it three times, telling her that I got you...
Ava took a deep breath. Why did she even panic in the first place??? With Amato beside her, she can even carry the entire burden of the universe single handedly. And she has been carrying the burden of Maskmana all these years! Aurelius was just a thorn compared to that.
And she didn't knew why, but she had this feeling that Aurelius will keep her secret.
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Phew......
How was the chapter!??! And what do you think about Aurelius????
How did he find out??? Will he keep Ava's secret?
Next chapter will have Eva's point of view...
See you all next week!!!!