Just as Aggaron's blade made contact with Dre, he felt it ricochet off of something metallic. Aggaron's smile vanished as he saw Dre defend himself with the Suscéptor, his head still bowed. "Still have some fight in you..." His voice trailed off as he noticed the sword began to change in his hand. Horrified, he watched as the sword took shape of a katana, the same shape that had killed him so many years ago. Both sword and sheath was made of the same crystal-like material. Even worse, behind the sword, he saw that Dre's hair turning silver.
In fact, he saw that Dre's aura itself began shifting. He began to emit a deadly, educated aura, an aura that he'd been faced with before. Panic flooded his psyche as Dre's head slowly raised, revealing a pair of furious and luminescent, red eyes. "This can't be."
"It is." Dre rose to his feet, his voice unlike the same Dre that he'd been fighting. He yanked the sword from its sheath and tossed the sheath to the ground. "You've a lot of nerves attacking like this, especially with an unprepared King. I expected nothing less of you. Unfortunately for you, I was caught on a bad day."
"But, you're supposed to be dead," Aggaron growled.
"Oh, I was. But, you see, death did nothing but piss me off. However, since you're so prepared to fight, then come fight me. I still have some unfinished business to finish with you. And with you at such a weakened state, I'm sure you won't last long."
Aggaron laughed. There was no way that Hiro would actually kill him. "I don't answer to idle threats, boy." He pointed an accusing finger at him. "You of all people know what would happen if you killed me before I regained my power. You'd throw the balance between good and evil off, effectively ending reali-" Aggaron was cut off by the Suscéptor slicing through his arm. He looked as his arm fell to the ground, spilling black blood before the flesh evaporated, leaving nothing but bones. Realizing his arm had been severed, he looked up to Hiro. "How dare you."
"The balance between good and evil would've been disrupted if you'd killed Dre anyways. I'd rather disrupt the balance myself than give you the pleasure."
"You're bluffing." Aggaron vaulted backwards as the Suscéptor soared inches from his face. Hiro pounded towards him, the blade prepped to kill. He wasn't bluffing. The man would actually throw the world into chaos before he allowed Aggaron to kill the King. He teleported away from him just before the blade came down on his head. Aggaron growled; things would get more difficult with Hiro interfering. Then again, things would just be more interesting with one of his best friends in his pocket. He smiled in anticipation of what was to come.
Things were only getting started.
~~~~~~
Ichi jerked himself awake. He shuddered as he saw a reality T.V. show playing. Immediately shutting it off, he hopped up from the recliner. It was suspiciously quiet upstairs. He'd hoped that his niece's group wasn't exploring themselves, though that would be hilarious to tell Toney. Laughing to himself, he strode upstairs to the theatre room.
Silence washed over the hall. Now, he was getting concerned. "Hey. Make yourselves decent, you guys," he said as he rapped on the door. He covered his eyes with a hand before opening the door.
Only Keiko, Michael, and Rose sat in the room. Keiko was asleep on Rose's shoulder as Michael scanned through the extensive movie collection. He didn't seem to pay Ichi any attention. Rose looked over to Ichi, looking slightly annoyed. He couldn't hide his grin. "Where's the rest of your group?" Ichi mused.
"Amity," Michael said before Rose could speak. She looked to Michael, betrayed. "What? It's obvious he knows that everyone went to Amity. What kind of babysitter would fall asleep when there's a war going on?"
"Well, I'm offended." Ichi smirked as he pushed his glasses up the wing of his nose. "Why are you all behind?" Michael growled as he pointed to his arm tied in a sling.
"We were supposed to cover for them, until he threw them under a bus," Rose said with a glare at Michael.
Ichi laughed. "That's a good little snitch."
Michael scrunched up his face. "Ignoring that. Since you know where the team is, what are you going to do about it?"
Ichi's pocket buzzed. He pulled his phone out as he spoke with Michael. "There's a lot of things that I could do. Report it to Toney. Expel them myself. The choices are endless." His smile quickly vanished as he read the text. "Uh, oh."
"Uh, oh? What's uh, oh?" Rose asked. Both she and Michael stood up; Keiko's head was rested on the back of the sofa, drool dripped from her opened mouth.
"Toney wants us to go to his office. They must have gotten caught." Ichi sighed as he placed his phone back in his pocket. "Son of a bitch. I thought they knew better to let themselves get caught." Angrily, he opened a pack of honey drops and handed Michael two and Rose one. "Make sure you wake Keiko up. Reiax Academy gates." He swallowed his candy.
~~~~~
Ian lost track of how long they'd been in Toney's office. He was shocked to see just how much of a nerd Toney was. His desk was covered with superhero action figures, statues, and a mini television with an Atari 2600. This was a bad time to think about this, though. He, Megumi, Katherine, Kim, Kamatsu, and Dre were all standing in front of his table, waiting for him to show up. Even worse, Dre was beginning to worry him. Ever since Ian saw him at the Edge Walker's forest, he'd looked completely different. Even if his hair was silver, and his eyes were brighter, almost as if they were glowing, there was something else that was different about him. He looked stronger, as if coming here had matured him.
He wished the same could be said for the rest of the group. Megumi kept her eyes on her shoes, and despite Ian asking her questions about Dre, she didn't speak a word. Kim was already sobbing lightly, wiping her tears on the back of her hand. Katherine and Kamatsu were the only ones who looked reserved. Their hands placed behind their back, they stood boldly, not letting the slightest amount of fear show.
The door opened behind them. The group jumped, except for Dre, Kamatsu, and Katherine, and heaved a breath of relief as Ichi, Michael, Keiko, and Rose appeared beside them. Ichi looked at them with disappointment before he faced forward, his hands placed behind his back. He cleared his throat. "You do know that you weren't supposed to get caught, right?" He inclined his head over to Dre. "What happened to him?"
Dre looked over to Ichi. With a smile, his eyes flashed. "The baby boy matured." Both Ichi and Ian looked over to Dre in shared shock.
Just as Dre spoke, the door behind them opened again. This time, Toney marched to his seat. His jacket was ripped to shreds. A towel was draped across his shoulders, splotched here and there with dried blood. The lacerations across his body looked to have been recently healed. Once he sat, he glared at the group with a furious glare that stabbed fear in Ian's heart. He looked as if he would jump over the table at any second. "I'm... so disappointed in you. In all of you. Do you not realize what could've happened to you all tonight? You could've been killed, struck down before your prime. This wasn't just some mock battle where you have people supervising in case things got out of hand. This wasn't just a simulation in the Emblem of Valor Arena. This was a real live invasion, and you would've been shown no mercy if any of the renegade Sirens got their hands on you. Not only that, but you blatantly disobeyed a direct order from your headmaster. It pains me to do this, especially since you all had passed your final exams, but you all left me with no choice. I'm afraid I have to expel all of you."
The group flinched at the word. Ian couldn't believe it. All of their hard work, all of the training they'd endured. It was all going to be for nothing. He clinched his teeth as he lowered his head, fighting back the anger boiling in himself. The anger he was feeling for himself.
Dre suddenly began laughing, catching everyone off-guard. Toney even looked at him with a bizarre stare. "Wow, man. When did you become such a stick in the mud?" The room fell silent. The clock sitting on his desk hadn't even dared to betray a tick. There was a thick cloud of confusion hanging over Toney as he only stared, speechless. "I'd expect this kind of behavior from Ichi. I mean, he was always the tactful, bookwormy type of person. Did one of his experiments switch you guys' personalities or something?"
"What in the hell has gotten into Dre?" Ichi stammered.
"Come on, Ichi. The silver hair hadn't tipped you off yet? And Toney," Dre turned to the table to the dumbfounded Toney, "I figured that you'd remember this." He placed the Suscéptor on the table.
It was different from what Ian remembered how it looked. He could've sword that Dre's blade was a broadsword. This sword was a katana, with both the blade and its scabbard made of the same crystal-like material. What was going on here?
"Oh!" Ichi's eyes lit up with realization as he saw the Suscéptor. His sneer crept on his face, he said, "I never thought I'd have the pleasure to speak to you again, Hiro."
"Hiro?" Toney's eyes were widened.
Dre turned to Toney and nodded. "I had to take control of Dre's body. The kid was getting manhandled by Aggaron. He's also scrawny. Like, I was scared that his leg would snap if I put all of his weight on it." Dre's face suddenly hardened. "Look, Toney. I don't know what made you so... opposite of you, but expelling those kids would be a huge mistake on your behalf, in more ways than one. Do I need to remind you of all the shenanigans we got into when we were their age? Should I even mention when you almost got me devoured by going to the Serene territory, or how you almost got Ichi dissected by playing a prank on some rednecks on Earth? Expelling them wouldn't be right, and you know it. If you expel them, you'd have to give up your title, since the stuff we got into would've gotten you permanently expelled. Would that be right for the King of Elements? Would that be right for your daughter?"
Toney looked flabbergasted. He fumbled around his words, as if he didn't want to say what was on his mind. He looked to Megumi, who hadn't dared look up. "But... but she's my little girl," he said with a pained expression. "I saw so much stuff in my time, so many people getting killed and separated from their families. I saw parents grieving the loss of their children, and vice versa. I have to be there to protect her. I can't let her go through that."
"And she won't. She has you to protect her, as well as your family." He looked to Dre's crew. "And her new family as well. I know that she appreciates your protectiveness, but you've got to loosen up a bit. She's going to make mistakes. That's a given. But she'll learn from those mistakes, just like you did when you were the leader, and it'll make her a better person for it. If you expel her, you'll sever that sense of adventure you always said ran through the Gladestone's veins. Let her know what it's like to be an adventurer."
Toney fell silent. He clasped his hands on his desk, allowing what Hiro said to flow through his mind. Finally, with a sigh, he said, "Okay, fine. She won't be expelled. None of them will. However, since you guys love to be here so much, you'll come here during your summer break and clean the school each day."
"What?!" the group exploded. They turned to Hiro, expecting him to defend them. Instead, he only laughed before Dre's natural hair color returned. Dre stumbled over, as if some invisible force pushed him from behind.
He looked around as if he'd just woken up from a dream. "What's going on? Where's Aggaron?"
"Hiro saved us," Kim answered. "He used your body to fight Aggaron. He also saved us from being expelled."
"He did?"
"Yep," Megumi said, sounding glum. "Though, now we have to come up here during our summer break and clean up the school."
Dre glared at her. "Darn it, Megumi! You just had to play the hero and drag us along, didn't you? I had plans for this summer, too." He folded his arms across his chest and took a quick look at the Suscéptor. "Man... So, now what?"
"The tournament's most likely gonna been cancelled for a while, and we'll have to up the security during the rest of the final exams. I don't even want to think about how many casualties we have."
"Has the renegade Sirens been taken care of?" Ichi asked.
"Well... at the moment, no. After hearing that Samantha turned herself in, they all fled. We've no idea where they all went, or how many of them there were. But we do have some Sirens working with us to guard the academy until they're all captured."
"Oh, what's going to happen to Samantha?" Megumi asked.
"Queen Melody said that since she lost her Siren abilities, she would be exiled. She would've sentenced her to death, but since she turned herself in, the queen decided to show her mercy. But that's another subject. For now, just head back to the house. Ya'll had quite the ordeal. An illegal ordeal, but difficult nonetheless."
"All the blame goesto your daughter," Ian said before he, along with the rest of his team, tookout a piece of honey drop and swallowed it.