Kai grunted as a torrent of blistering flames pounded his photon shield.
Of all the sparring partners he'd had in the past few years, Troy had to be his favorite.
Not only was he the only other member of their team that would go all out during their training sessions, but his grit and tenacity certainly cemented him as a worthy opponent. His enhanced strength, pain tolerance and durability-though it was only slightly above that of a normal human-made him qualified to throw hands with just about anyone.
"You're looking like you're about to fold over there, Brandson." Troy taunted with a grin, his voice breathy. Sweat flowed down his face like an angry ocean as he conjured two twin swaths of flames on his palms. "Need a break?"
Kai scoffed. "You kidding?" he panted, chuckling as he twirled his black, plastic training sword. He slipped back into his conventional orthodox boxing stance as he bounced on the balls of his feet. "I can do this all day."
Maintaining his footwork, he slipped to the right-out of the way of a bright, seething sphere of orange flames-before batting it aside with his shield and surging forward. Swiping his arm outward, he flung the concave disk in the direction of the pyrokinetic. It soared through the thick, snowy air, on course to strike Troy in the chest. Troy swiftly dove underneath the shield, evading it by the skin of his teeth.
The airborne weapon sawed clean through a tree before striking a portion of the facility and clattering to the ground. It blipped out of existence a few seconds later, leaving a lingering cluster of red particles in it's wake.
Kai's shoulders slumped.
Seeing that his old shield was unable to take the brunt of the force behind Rampage's thundering blows, Leo had taken the liberty of constructing him a newer, more durable model. While the newer version of the weapon could withstand twice as much impact as the it's predecessor, the tradeoff was that it no longer returned to his containment matrix automatically.
This meant that if he wanted his shield to return to his wrist when he launched it at his foes, he'd have to put more hours into learning how to calculate his throws and precisely ricochet it off objects so that it would come back to him.
That was easier said than done.
The sound of tree bark cracking pervaded the area for a quick second. With horror, Kai and Troy looked up as the slim yet towering spruce tree looming over them began to topple over. The snow-covered tree plowed through the wind as gravity seized control of it, bringing it down the freezing, metallic surface of the sparring platform like the gavel of a judge.
"You're a menace to trees everywhere." Troy teased, extinguishing the inferno coating his forearm as snowflakes clung to his sleeveless shoulders. "You should honestly start a woodworking business."
Kai deadpanned, ignoring the two other collapsed trees behind him. "Very funny."
A few months prior, Kai had made weekly outdoor training sessions mandatory for the original eight members of the task force. Though they were a highly effective unit by default, he couldn't have them getting too sluggish. They had to be prepared to endure an experience like a Titus Island again. In his mind, the first step to that was acclimating themselves to harsher climates and more strenuous conditions.
Besides, nothing beat the outdoors.
The idea had first surfaced in his mind when he'd stumbled upon Troy training outside in the wee hours of the morning, so he supposed he had him to thank for the revelation. Dissatisfied with the nature of his abilities, the pyrokinetic had been lobbing fireballs at some of the many trees surrounding the upper level of the compound, honing his powers in an effort to increase his tolerance to the cold.
After suggesting the idea to Director Callan, the man had readily obliged, and The Outlook-the compound's only outdoor training area-had been born. Within a week, a few flat, padded sparring platforms had swiftly been constructed around the small plateau outside the man's office. A jumbled barrier of crooked trees, whitened by the snow, lined the wintry forest spiderwebbing around that portion of Glacier Peak like crevices in an old sidewalk.
He drew in a breath, his nostrils taking in the distinctive and refreshing scent of the terpenes in the hardened resin coating the tree bark.
Ah. No hyper-advanced technology. No colorless, whitened walls. Just the majestic, outside world.
A world that had changed so much in an instant.
Just a couple of years ago, he'd been walking the halls of Grayfield High, harboring goals of enlisting in the army-or the marines, he could never decide-and eventually being promoted to the rank of a Brigadier General or higher.
The guy that wanted all that had perished in the Genodium explosion. He couldn't help but feel as if a different person had emerged from it.
That person was The Guardian. The 'Man On A Mission' as the media had entitled him. A beacon of morality and willpower. Now he had a bigger calling than being a mere soldier. He'd been gifted with strength. The strength to protect those that couldn't protect themselves.
He'd been given the chance to make a difference.
He sure as hell wasn't going to waste it.
He'd gone from watching old boxing matches for fun to launching old, battered cars across football fields when he was feeling bored. Memories of him carrying his new, Genesis-commissioned jeep over his head for a mile after it had run out of gas surfaced within his sea of thought.
His abilities had only improved over the years, too. A stark contrast when he'd first obtained his powers, he'd gone from struggling to lift a mid-sized sedan over his head for a few seconds to being capable of bench pressing a miniature bus-a little over five tons-for over ten reps.
His old man always used to be in his ear saying that the only constant was change. Though Kai had tuned him out then, it'd recently become strikingly clear just how true the quote was.
Ceasing his musings, Kai adjusted the material of the form-fitting, sleeveless muscle shirt he donned as he assessed everyone's progress.
Amber and Leo were currently in the midst of a full contact sparring match on the other end of the platform-in which the latter seemed to have gained the upper hand at last. Eliza was launching her throwing knives at the various makeshift targets she'd bolted to the trees a few weeks prior. Off to the wayside, Adam was practicing manipulating and shaping objects with his telekinetic abilities.
Kai smiled, pleased to see his teammates grinding and putting in the work.
He frowned when he realized Dylo wasn't among them.
He hadn't seen the babbling blond since the meeting the night before. The speedster had been "uncharacteristically nonverbal" as Adam had put it. Even when Kai had gone up to his room to fill him in on the morning's training regimen, he was nowhere to be found.
Kai wagered that Dylo would be back to normal by the end of the day, though. Having known him for over half of his life, he'd gotten quite accustomed to his fleet-footed friend letting his emotions get the better of him.
"Okay," Kai panted, his eyes glued to the grounded tree he'd just severed as he rubbed the back of his neck. His chest heaved. "I think that's enough sparring for today."
"It's about time you said that." Troy concurred, snorting. His skin tinged red. "You keep this up, you'll end up taking the whole forest down."
"With the way things are now, passing it off as collateral damage wouldn't be ruled out." Kai chuckled, flopping down on a smooth rock near the edge of the cliff after brushing all the snow off of it. "By the way, you seen Dy around by any chance?"
"Nope. Haven't seen him since last night." Troy answered, plopping himself down on the chilling ground. He freed his long, black, neck-length hair out of the ponytail holding it captive. "Looked a little pressed, though. What's up with him?"
"Yeah, he's still a little rattled about Mirage escaping." Kai said. He snatched a snow-littered pebble up from the ground, his fingers toying with the nugget of earth. "I could see it in his face, you know? He thinks he let everyone down. Like he fumbled the ball and that everyone's-"
"-pinning the blame on him like a professional wrestler?" Troy finished his sentence verbatim, his voice barely audible. His cryptic gaze spanned across the colossal, glorious mountain range beneath their feet, which was a wonder to behold.
Kai turned to him, his demeanor softening.
"Yeah, I felt the same way when I was living with my parents, so I guess you could say I know how he's feeling." Troy elaborated. Softly, he chuckled, tilting his head a little. "Only difference is that they tried to make me feel that way."
Kai's jaw clenched like a warrior's fist at the thought of Troy's botched upbringing. Back at home, he'd gotten accustomed to his own father being stationed at various Marine Corps bases for lengthy periods of time, but at least there was no question that his old man was thinking about his family twenty-four seven.
Troy's parents, on the other hand, had their son within arm's reach and barely gave him the time of day. The topic of his family had only been brought up a handful of times, but even those were enough for Kai to come to his own conclusion: Troy wasn't to blame at all for how he'd acted. His parents were the sole reason he'd been morphed into the bully he once was.
"I didn't have an outlet, man. No one to go to. My emotions were like... a wildfire. Scorching through everything in it's path. Everyone got burned. Leo... my other classmates.. my opponents on the wrestling mat. Hell, even myself. But then there was this." Troy's gaze hardened as he held his fist up, willing a plume of fire to materialize atop his knuckles. "After Titus, it became a different flame-one of hope, you know? One of rebirth. It represents a second chance that was given to me by the skin of my teeth."
Kai, remaining wordless, nodded slowly.
"On some level, I agree with Buck. Everyone views these powers as a burden. A disease. Something to get rid of." Troy whispered, his voice breathy. "But that isn't the case with all of us, and if they can't see that, then maybe they really are blind."
A stiffening silence plagued the thick air, swirling in between the two of them as it swallowed their would-be sentences whole. Troy's words rattled around in the base of Kai's mind for what seemed like hours as he mulled them over. Every single syllable he'd uttered reeked of undeniable truth.
"Amen to that, man." Kai replied. "Amen to that."
Pursing his lips, he toyed with the rock that had been resting in his palm. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the pebble off the cliff. It soared through the air for what must have been miles, seemingly on course to poke a hole in the sky before plummeting down to earth like a meteor.
Kai sucked in a breath.
What went up had to come down eventually.
Would Genesis end up like that lone pebble? Flourishing at the apex of its potential only to be brought down by those who wished to unseat them?
The mere thought of his home, family, and security being ripped away from him was enough to make him shudder, for it encompassed the one thing Kai could never manage to escape. The fleeting ghost that haunted his mind and kept him up at night. The single greatest fear that even his impenetrable skin couldn't keep at bay.
Change.
-
A shower had never felt so good.
Though Kai's durable skin was a tiny bit more resilient to extreme temperatures than that of the average human, he would've been lying if he'd said that the warm drops of water beating down on his body didn't provide some major relief. While he could deal with the freezing cold to a certain extent, all of the moving around he'd done as a child had prevented him from adjusting to nippier climates completely.
After drying off, he'd changed into a pair of cozy, black Genesis sweatpants and a gray, fitted sweatshirt. He sauntered down one of the many corridors in the facility. The overbearing scent of what seemed to be steak and mashed potatoes assaulted his nostrils, likely originating from The Café, the chief dining hall of the compound.
Any other time, Kai would've opted to snag a quick bite after a morning training session.
Unfortunately, the raging whirlpool of thoughts swirling around in his head drowned his appetite. Plus, while the culinary specialists in The Café were certainly nothing to scoff at, he doubted that anything on the face of the earth could hold a candle to the home cooked meals his mother whipped up.
Frowning, Kai stopped in his tracks.
Mom.
He hadn't seen her in months. Though dozens of phone calls had been exchanged between the two of them, he longed to see her in person. Living in Fort Sentry was great and all, but truthfully, he yearned to be up in their house in Warrior Peak-a double summit mountain located in the state of Washington, his home turf. He missed the sound of her singing along to the various R&B and 90's rap songs blaring from the speaker on the counter.
He wanted to hug her. To feel her warm, cozy bear hugs that even his super strength wouldn't allow to him to break free from. But he couldn't. His unbreakable obligation to protect the world wouldn't allow him to, for the time being. When he saw someone being wronged, he couldn't just stand by on the sidelines and ignore it.
Sometimes he wished he could.
As he continued to trudge down the corridor, the sound of rapid footsteps was thrusted into his ears. It presumably originated from inside the walls of The Gym. As he got closer to the entrance to the gymnasium, he heard the rattling of metal and the smack of bare feet plowing into the landing mat. Curiously, he peered inside.
He was met with the breathtaking scene of an airborne Bianca swinging off the high bar like she'd been bitten by a radioactive spider. She somersaulted through the air, taking flight like an eagle. A full head of black, glistening hair flailed around her head in luxurious braids. Her pristine, caramel-colored skin shone like beacon of light in a hopelessly dark universe.
Her landing was even more graceful than her dismount. After tumbling through the air so many times that Kai got dizzy himself, she plummeted down to the mat, sticking the landing with unrivaled expertise. The black, spandex one-piece uniform she was clad in made her look like a silhouette.
"Feels like I'm in Grayfield High all over again." Kai chuckled, clapping slowly as he sauntered over to her.
Seemingly having just noticed his presence, she briskly whipped her head in his direction, her hair flailing as she moved. Droplets of sweat slipped from her impeccable figure before trickling onto the floor. A pair of eyes the color of emeralds sparkled in his direction like diamonds.
Sporting a small smile, she looked him up and down. "Shouldn't you be outside training?"
"I was just about to ask you the same thing."
"Gotta keep some aspect of normalcy in my life." Panting as her chest heaved, she spun on her heel, heading back to the highbar she'd just swung off of. "I'm taking a mental health day."
"Okay..." Kai said inquisitively, cupping his chin. "And this is helping with your mental health.. how, exactly?"
Just as she was about to initiate her mount onto the uneven bar, she stopped mid-movement, her toned arms hanging at her sides. She sighed as she took one of her wireless earphones-which had presumably been blasting one of the many Drake songs clogging her playlist-out of her ears.
"I tried to call my parents again last night. Fourth time this week. Still didn't get an answer." she revealed softly, her voice stern and her expression tense. She tugged on her leotard. "I'm not surprised, though. Haven't talked to them since Titus. I don't even know why I still try to contact them anymore."
Kai bit his lip. Bianca rarely mentioned what had happened with her parents, especially her stepmom. However, Kai was fairly certain that he could piece the story together accurately.
From what he'd heard, Bianca's parents had divorced a couple years before her senior year of high school. The cause was nothing major-the flame of desire burning between the two of them had simply extinguished-but from the way Bianca's voice quaked when she spoke of the matter, it had carved a massive hole in her heart.
Then everything was a blur. The Genodium. Their abduction via Primus. Her powers surfacing. The Battle Of Titus Island.
That was when everything had changed for her.
Up until the aftermath of their super-powered showdown on the snowcapped island, Bianca's parents had maintained contact. Though her father had remarried rather swiftly, they still kept in touch for the sake of their daughter.
The revelation that said daughter possessed the ability to shoot blasts of energy from her hands put a quick stop to all of that, though. Both of them had cut off contact with Bianca nearly a month after they found out. No matter how hard she attempted to reach them, they wouldn't budge. It was as if they'd fallen off the face of the earth. No checkup calls, no gifts during Christmas. Not even a simple birthday text.
It boggled Kai's mind to think about how someone could simply abandon another-let alone their own flesh and blood. Though, the pressure wasn't light nowadays. For two years, Elites had been branded as harbingers of mass destruction. Protests against super-powered beings popped up around the globe at an alarming rate. Some firmly believed that people like them were a cancer. Others blindly joined in on the hate, not wanting to be labeled a sympathizer due to their silence.
But that couldn't serve as justification. Regardless of their motivations, in the end, Bianca's parents had been given a choice. It was either them or her.
They'd chosen their side.
A few tedious seconds passed before Kai could muster a reply.
"I'm sorry about that, but you know-"
"No offense, but if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side and focus on the positive," Bianca chuckled quietly, pointing to the additional silver poles stacked up against the wall. "I'm about to hit you in the head with one of these metal bars."
"I mean, it probably wouldn't hurt."
"I know. But a girl can dream."
"Sorry. Force of habit, I guess." Kai snorted, rubbing the back of his warm neck before tucking his hands into the pockets of his pants. "But seriously, though, if you need to talk, I'm here. Trust me, I'm all ears."
"Not really much to talk about, to be honest." Bianca said with a dismissive shrug. "They all seem to think I'm some freak because I can shoot beams of energy from my hands and everything. The last time my dad called me, he said I was a ticking time bomb, and that'd I'd end up exploding sooner or later. Somehow, I can't help but feel that he's right."
"We're not human, Kai. Pretending that we are is just as bad as claiming we're superior." Bianca continued, her green eyes now boring into his own. "And I hate to say it, but... sometimes, I wish I hadn't been here to witness that beacon of light in the sky that day."
Kai nodded, pursing his lips, his gaze meeting the floor. He exhaled quietly before speaking.
"The morning after Titus, I woke up and the entire world said we'd won." Kai's voice was quiet, yet orotund. He lifted his chin slightly, his solid, umber-colored eyes meeting Bianca's. "They didn't want to face what we'd lost."
What they'd lost had been their humanity.
At least, that's how most of the world seemed to perceive things.
"Well," Kai said, letting out an exasperated sigh, "I'd better get out of your hair. Don't wanna derail your progress." He started on his way out of the white-walled gymnasium. "Guess I'll see you in the The Café later."
"Wait."
Kai halted, whipping his head around inquisitively.
"How often do you think about it?" Bianca asked, her voice in the midst of war with the phantoms of silence themselves. "About Titus?"
He opened his mouth, yet not a single syllable emerged. A lump forged itself in his throat as he choked on his own words. He remembered the day quite vividly. So vividly, in fact, that he wished he could forget it.
The earth-rattling beam of light catapulting itself into the atmosphere. The hellish sensation of burning, sharpened chromanium ripping through skin and flesh that had previously been deemed indestructible. Those thundering violet skies that had changed the world felt as if they'd been cemented into his psyche for a millennia.
A chill raced down his spine.
"Everyday."
Bianca's smile was bittersweet.
"Nice to know I'm not alone."
Kai lingered there for a few seconds, pondering her words. Shakily nodding, he slowly turned and promptly exited the recreational fitness area.
-
Kai's mother often said that he acted as if the world itself rested upon his shoulders.
Bench pressing ten thousand pounds may not have been equal to lifting an entire planet, but at the moment, it was certainly feeling like it.
His toned, sculpted arms quaked as he lowered the hefty bar down to his chest. Veins bulged through his hyper-durable skin. Gritting his teeth, he briskly exhaled, bracing himself for the struggle. He was one single rep away from breaking his maximum bench press record.
For weeks he'd been attempting to shatter the record, but had always ended up falling short.
But not today. Today was going to be different.
His success would be cultivated by his failures.
His fingers clasped around the slippery, sweat-soaked barbell like a lobster's claw. He was careful not to grab it too tight, though, for if he did, it would crumple like tissue paper.
Showtime.
His biceps tensed as he pushed upwards. His jaw clenched so hard that he was bracing himself for the possibility of having to replace it. Even with his strength, the bar seemed to be growing heavier and heavier with every passing second.
White spots dotted his vision; his sight was waning. He was starting to see what his father had meant when he said to never go all out in the weight room without a spotter. Though, that info might as well have been worthless now. Finding someone who could spot him these days would prove to be rather difficult.
Only his willpower could save him now.
He preferred it, anyways.
Pursing his lips, he soldiered on, groaning as if he were a caveman. He could only see half of the bar now; he was close to blacking out. His throbbing arms had nearly reached full extension. One final grunt of exertion flew from his lips as his elbows locked, officially cementing his new max benching record.
Carefully racking the weights, he beamed triumphantly as his chest billowed like an airbag.
Kai: One. Barbell: Zero.
He let his arms hang as he went limp against the cushioned bench. He relished the feeling of the relieving, cool breeze from the fan sitting atop his bedroom dresser fluttering across his tense body.
His friends often hounded him for the 'ludicrous' decision to bring one of the bench press stations into his bedroom, but he failed to see their point. There was still plenty of space left in his room, especially due to the fact that he'd set the station up in the corner of the spacious living quarters.
The convenience wasn't the primary reason, though. No, his main reason was Rampage. Pound-for-pound, the brute had eclipsed him in terms of pure strength during their first bout. He was determined not to let that happen again. Designated weight room days alone would no longer suffice. He needed to be working around the clock.
Lethargically, he sat up. A dull ache permeated his core. His dimly-lit room had been doused in muted, white light thanks to the flatscreen television resting atop the large black dresser up against the wall. The potent sound of MMA gloves brutally striking flesh and bone as the crowd went wild blared from the TV's speakers.
Even through all the distraction, he couldn't stop thinking about what Troy and Bianca had said to him.
In Troy's case, being an Elite seemed to be somewhat of a blessing. For Bianca, it was definitely striking him as more of a curse.
A hefty sigh flew from his mouth. Elites just weren't as simple as people believed them to be.
Plucking him from his thoughts like a dandelion from fresh grass, a knock sounded at his door. After drying himself off with the towel hanging on the rack of the bench press station, he chucked it aside before trudging across the gray, hardwood floors of his room to answer the door.
After twisting the doorknob, he yanked the door open.
Clad in a teal t-shirt and a pair of black joggers, an exhausted Leo stood on the other side. His dark gray laptop was clutched in his hands like a newborn baby. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. The bags lingering under his eyes seemed as if they were fit to carry groceries.
"Thought you'd be asleep by now." Kai said.
"Yeah, well, I don't get much of that these days." Leo flatly replied. "You mind if I come in? We need to talk."
Eyeing at him curiously, Kai obliged. He stepped aside, gesturing to his room as Leo entered. Briskly flopping down in the wooden chair next the desk, he opened his laptop and powered it on. He leaned backwards, waiting for it to load.
"So, what's this about?" Kai asked, shutting the door.
"You'll see." Leo yawned. It seemed as if he was struggling to keep his eyes open. "You need a new chair, by the way, because this one sucks."
"Eh, it gets the job done." Kai replied.
Leo stifled a laugh. "Barely."
"You come in here just to roast my room, or did you have something to show me?"
"I'm doing a little bit of both at the moment."
Kai rolled his eyes as Leo began entering his password, his fingers flying across the navy-blue keyboard at the speed of light.
He narrowed his gaze, examining the electrokinetic closely. While he'd grown accustomed to the presence of superhuman beings, it simply boggled his mind to think about how someone could've developed a skillset as versatile as Leo's. Out of all them, the boy genius had arguably gone through the biggest change after receiving his powers.
By a considerable margin, he'd displayed more skill and control over manipulating his abilities than any other Elite Kai had ever come across. The brain had been mixed in a with a bit of brawn, as he'd put on a fair bit of lean muscle mass, and had even grown to be one of the team's most capable hand-to-hand combatants.
The icing on the cake was that he was extremely proficient in the fields of electric, mechanical, and aerospace engineering, even dabbling in some other areas. His immense intellect often led to Director Callan tasking him with managing most of Genesis' various scientific endeavors.
Frankly, Leo impressed him. While Kai may have been the one calling the shots, it was no secret that the team's resident tech guru carried the most responsibility of them all. His work ethic and time management were unparalleled.
He was certainly glad Leo was on their side.
Leo's laptop had finally booted up, displaying the plethora of tabs he'd left open. The sheer amount nearly gave Kai a splitting headache. Rapidly, he began to swipe through them all one-by-one. He caught a glimpse of a few interesting things; most notably a rotating 3D model of some kind of metallic exoskeleton, and a graphing chart riddled with purple lines trickling upwards like a staircase.
"What was that chart for?" Kai asked inquisitively.
"Bianca wanted to start logging her energy readings to see improvement. I'm a bit of an overachiever, so naturally, I made two graphs-one for her current energy output, and one for her potential energy output."
"Huh. Has she been improving?"
"Yeah, and at a high rate, too. Just last week, her current output increased to a little over a thousand megajoules." Leo elaborated with a boyish grin. "I did the math, and according to my calculations, that should be enough to destroy an entire basement of a house. Like, in one go. You know that means she's a Class Three Elite now, right? Hell, she's bordering on Class Four."
Kai's eyes widened at the good news. Aside from Dylo, Leo, Troy, and Adam, only a few Class Four Elites had been identified on the planet: the fugitive Elias, the deceased Dr. Matthews, and the recently added rogues Rampage and Mirage. In certain temperature conditions, Amber was also capable of attaining that level of power.
Adding Bianca into that territory was certainly a win. Mirage and the other Elites at her disposal would surely be in for a rude awakening the next time they crossed paths.
Leo was right; she was progressing abnormally quickly. Now that he knew her situation, though, he hoped the improvement wasn't at such a rate that her mind couldn't catch up. Hopefully that increase in power wouldn't lead to her feeling even more disconnected and stripped of her humanity than she already did.
"That's not all, though. Her potential energy output is... well... it's off the charts. Literally. Like, I had to make a second chart just to graph it correctly." Leo continued, his blue eyes wide. "Nearly thirty-thousand megajoules of energy. Thirty thousand. Do you know how much energy that is? That's powerful enough to level an entire supermarket."
"Woah."
"Yeah. 'Woah' is right."
Kai's mind was a whirlwind. If what Leo was saying turned out to be true, then Bianca hadn't even scratched the surface of her unique, mysterious abilities. Though it was hard to believe the words spewing from his teammate's lips, he'd be lying to himself if he said that he never wondered what Bianca could do if she truly cut loose and tapped into her full potential.
However, with the looming threat of Mirage and her lackeys, something told him they'd all find out sooner or later.
"That isn't what I wanted to talk about, though." Leo said with a wave of his hand, dismissing the subject. He'd finally located the tab of interest. With a click of the single key, it's contents burst onto the screen. "This is."
A triumvirate of maps, each depicting a different location, decorated the pristine, spotless screen.
Kai squinted, immediately identifying one of the locations-Cancún, Mexico. His dad, an infantryman at the time, had been deployed there once to assist in reconnaissance. In fact, he could recall nearly every country his father had been deployed to throughout his career nigh-perfectly, even being capable of pointing it out on a map.
Still, though, he didn't know why Leo was showing him this.
"Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Nothing looks too out of the ordinary on these maps, right? But watch this." Leo said. He leaned back and cleared his throat before speaking. "P.A.R.I.S, scan for energy signatures."
"At once, Mr. Hargrove." the servant's feminine, robotic voice rolled out from the laptop.
Instantly, the color of the screen shifted to black. The countries were still visible, but each had now adopted a neon color, reminiscent of something someone would see during a game of laser tag. Dozens of crimson and violet circles appeared across the winding landscapes, snaking through them all in the form of a pathway like a series of checkpoints in a video game.
That had certainly piqued Kai's interest. Placing his hand on the desk, he leaned forward a hair to get a better look.
"Who do these energy signatures belong to?"
Leo faced him. "Other than Dylo, who's the only Elite capable of hopping from country to country in a matter of hours?"
Kai's blood went so cold that he could've passed as a polar bear.
Elias.
"No way." Kai asked, having leaned even closer now. The edge of the desk would've splintered off into scattered chips of wood if he gripped it any tighter, so he broke away from it, pacing around the room slowly. "Are you sure it's him?"
"I'm positive." Leo answered. "The resemblance between these signatures and the residual energy left in the air when he geo-leaps is uncanny."
"You mean when he teleports."
Leo shrugged. "Geo-leaping sounds cooler."
"Whatever." Kai retorted, rubbing his chin. His gaze was magnetized to the floor as he lost himself in thought. "You tell Callan yet?"
"Thought you'd want to be the first to know."
"You thought right." Kai sighed tensely, marching back over to the laptop and folding his arms. "He leave anything else? A trail or pattern, maybe?"
He immediately regretted asking that question. It was foolish of him; he already knew the answer. Following his induction into Primus, Elias had been trained and taught by some of the best mercenaries and assassins the world had to offer. He was far too clever, far too cunning to leave any tracks or clues behind that would compromise his mission-whatever that was.
However, Elias also had a temper. It was only a matter of time before some wannabe thug from the streets ended up trying him and meeting the business end of his infamous katana. It was up to them to locate the former bio-terrorist and ex-mercenary and bring him into Genesis' custody before that came to pass.
"Nothing obvious. But I've noticed something." Leo replied. "Most of these jumps are a little over two miles apart. After every eight jumps or so, there's about a three to four-hour gap before he begins geo-leaping again. If I had to guess, I'd say that he's using those breaks to recharge his batteries."
"So that's how we catch him." Kai nodded, his brain lighting up. He was slowly beginning to catch Leo's drift. "Just when he thinks he can stand up, we knock him off his feet."
"No. Sorry, but that's as far as I'm looking into this." Leo firmly stated with a shake of his head. He closed his laptop. He held his hands up. "I'm not going any further. You'll have to take it from here. Hope you understand."
"What?" Kai asked, quirking a brow. "Why?"
Leo halted inches away from the door. His gaze dropped, fists tightened. He turned around, jaw taut and eyes crackling like one of the bolts of lightning he seized control of. He gripped the left sleeve of his shirt until his knuckles whitened, forcefully rolling it up.
Kai's eyes were exposed to the gruesome scar Leo had received from Elias' energy-coated sword. A singular line of mottled, almost scaly skin stretched around his entire shoulder, forming a complete circle that stopped just in the middle of his armpit. The slice that had stripped him of his arm had been masterful and precise-a remnant of the day Leo tried so hard to forget.
He remembered the dreadful month following Titus. An unconscious, drugged up Leo had been confined to the walls of the infirmary for over two weeks, spending an extra three weeks in therapy afterwards. Even with their equipment, surgeons had barely managed to reattach the appendage.
"He did this to me." Leo hissed. His voice bled with repressed trauma. His lip quivered. For a split second, Kai could see the vengeful hatred in his eyes before it vanished. "You don't want to know what I'll do to him if I ever get the chance."
Kai's nodded. "Understood."
"I'll send you everything I've got on Elias." Leo reassured, his sleeve unraveling. "But only if you promise not to ask me to do anything else remotely related to him."
"You know me, Leo." Kai stated. "I'm a man of my word."
Kai offered a handshake. Leo accepted it.
"Thank you, Leo."
"No problem."
Leo sauntered over the door before opening it, well on his way out of Kai's room.
"And one more thing." Kai called, flopping down on his bed as the mattress cushioned his fall.
Out in the hallway, Leo faced him. "What's up?"
"Get some rest." Kai commanded. His voice was firm, uncompromising. "That's an order."
For about a second, Kai could see the metaphorical gears shifting within Leo's mind. Then he fought back a chuckle, a small smile carved into his face as he fake-saluted him.
"You got it, boss."