Isaac froze, turned to a pillar of salt. Not literally, but he was so still he might as well be. And given how alard Bailey was acting, it was obvious. Fingers trembling, Isaac pulled out his phone and searched for his mother’s number in his contacts … it was blocked. He had blocked it during that night a long while back. The first ti he’d let himself feel the repressed loss from that other tiline, the loss of humanity in its entirety. And then he’d basically blocked everyone and not even noticed he’d also blocked his mother in the process. That … wasn’t good.
And just like Bailey said, he’d moved and not yet left a forwarding address as he was still renting his apartnt, he was just never there.
… that was probably sothing he should fix in the near future, but right now, it was quite literally the least of his problems.
Email would have been possible, but he’d stopped looking into his account once it had started to accumulate job offers by people trying to poach one of Bailey’s team mbers. Any mber. It didn’t really matter which one, nor did their individual qualifications, especially as their research didn’t properly indicate which one of them had contributed what. People were simply desperate for any kind of edge in the race to turn the [System] into sothing profitable, and a mber of one of the world’s most prominent research teams, the most prominent after tonight, was assud to be useful in so way.
All in all, between him ignoring his email, blocking a lot of numbers, moving and focusing on the [System] research … he’d fucked up royally.
“Where is she?” Isaac asked hollowly.
“On campus, between us and all the reporters.” Bailey said.
“Can you ask her to head away from there, sowhere clear of the caras … or anyone with supernatural hearing? I’ll et her there, promise.” Isaac told him, still reeling.
“Of course.” Bailey nodded “Actually, she gave her number ‘in case that kid realizes that there’s more in this world than his projects’. I’ll call her. Fair warning, there’s a whole bunch of reporters up there, but that shouldn’t be a problem for a [Rogue] like you.”
“Shouldn’t be.” Isaac echoed the older man’s words, still sounding hollow.
“Anyway, you’d best get going, I’ll tell her to et you at that old statue of the globe.” Bailey nodded.
Isaac walked out of the room, activating [Stealth] for the first ti in ages and going completely invisible. There were a bunch of reporters outside the door, but Karl had physically sealed up the staircase. They could get out, but the reporters couldn’t get in.
He went visible for a brief mont as he phased, using [Phantom Step’s] Level 10 upgrade to teleport right through the solid material and then repeating the [Skill] midair, appearing on the nearest building. Really, he could have just saved the mana for going invisibility.
He ran onwards, a blur as he leaped from building to building, until he reached the statue Bailey had indicated. As he jumped down, he went invisible. His mother was (justifiably) mad at him, no need to pour more fuel onto the fire by pulling what looked to all the world like a suicidal stunt. He’d live and it would be imdiately obvious when he hit the ground, but that brief, heartstopping mont as he flew through the air … yeah, he really should be careful there.
From there, he walked into the clearest alley, still invisible, and waited.
An older woman, black hairs streaked with grey falling down to her shoulders in a ponytail, the sa piercing green eyes he shared, and anger bubbling underneath the surface. That was his mother, alright.
Isaac erged from the alley with trepidation, fully visible.
“Hi, mom.”
It was hardly the most intelligent of greetings, but what else was there to do? Nothing really, but take it on the chin.
She glared at him for a mont and he could barely stop himself from fidgeting nervously. A normal parent had only one chance get it right, only one chance to learn, at least for their firstborn. A kindergarten teacher, on the other hand … they’d have a lifeti of practice dealing with unruly children, which sadly prepared them for far more than just three- to six-year-olds.
“Isaac, what you did hurt deeply.” she said flatly “I’ve been worried sick because after that one call, you never once talked to over the phone, you never once picked up, and you weren’t at you apartnt. You vanished of the face of the Earth right as the world beca dangerous, as the news showed mass casualty events every other day. I thought you died.”
If disappointed looks could kill, the glare she shot him could have reduced a [Raid Boss] to ash.
“I’m sorry.”
Once again, there was nothing else to say.
She sighed.
“Godd- …” she paused, clearly biting off a curse.
“You got too focused on one of your projects again, didn’t you? First your studies, and then … this. Systemology. It keeps happening, then soone beats you over the head with a brick and you rember the rest of the world exists … until you forget again. That isn’t good, not for anyone.”
“I know. Adam gave that particular talk, this ti around …”
“But you didn’t call your family?” she said sharply “And who’s ‘Adam’?”
Isaac froze. He was currently talking himself deeper and deeper into the hole. While he was quite adept at doing this in political situations, but when dealing with his mother … all that went out of the window.
“That’s Professor Bailey’s first na.” Isaac told her “And I’ve mostly been partying when I’m not working or summoning.”
“Summoning.”
It wasn’t a question, or an accusation, just a flat statent.
“HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!”
“No, I’ve …” Isaac sighed and looked around.
“You’re not getting out of this, Mr. What are you doing?” she glared at him.
“I’m making sure that there isn’t anyone nearby to overhear.”
“I get that you’re being careful, but that isn’t going to help much of anything.” his mother admonished.
“Actually, it is. I specialize in Perception, so I can tell there isn’t anyone close enough to overhear.” Isaac explained “Basically, there’s sothing we need to talk about, but it’s sothing that the team only suspects without having been able to prove it. It’s still not sothing we want to put out there in the world.”
Slowly, Isaac began to walk north, away from the major concentration of people near the team’s new worksite.
“The [System] seems to be a trap. It has so many hidden dangers, nasty traps that entice people to call powerful monsters into the world and get a lot of people killed. Like the LA incident with the Stormheart Gestalt. I was actually there, on the teleconference, helping to figure out what they were fighting. But as far as we’ve been able to tell, that won’t be the first or last such incident, even without things like this Event. I need to be ready for that.”
“So you do one of the most dangerous things you could possibly do?” his mother redoubled her glare.
“I have two thing to say in my defense. First of all, I’ve spent every waking mont learning how to best defeat monsters. Professor Bailey’s team excels at figuring out weaknesses and how to exploit them. Second of all, I’m really fucking strong.”
“Language.”
“Sorry, mom.” Isaac apologized “What I’m trying to say is that I’m very powerful due to training diligently. I’m being completely honest when I say I could now take down a Stormheart Gestalt like the one that attacked LA on my own.”
His mother just shook her head.
“Oh Isaac, you always have things you focus on, and then you forget about everything else. The rest of the world, people you love, yourself and your own wellbeing. First your studies to beco an accountant, and now this. I could appreciate you trying to get a good job, and I can appreciate you working to save the world even more, but you still can’t do things like this.
“You’re my son, and I love you. I’d support you even if you wanted to go to Las Vegas to beco a male stripper. I’d try to talk you out of it, of course, but if you were absolutely certain that was what you wanted to do, I wouldn’t stand in your way.
“The only thing I won’t do, I can’t do, is support you ignoring . Why weren’t you at your apartnt?”
“I kinda moved.” Isaac admitted “I moved and forgot to leave a forwarding address.”
“Da- … Isaac, I taught you better than that.” she sighed again. She’d been doing a lot of that, lately.
“Where do you live now, what’s your address?”
“I don’t really have an address … I kinda live in the woods.”
“You’ve gone camping for eight weeks?” she asked skeptically.
“No, I bought a property and build a house out of shipping containers my colleagues helped get out there.”
“How did you manage to afford all that?”
“I won it in Vegas.” Isaac admitted.
“You …” she took a deep breath “You went gambling and won enough money to buy property?”
“I specialize in senses, rember? I morized all the cards, then got a fat paycheck from the casino for helping cover up the new security flaws created by the [System].”
“So, you had ti for that, but nothing else?”
“I also got a lot of funding for the research team.” Isaac admitted.
“Like I said, I can appreciate what you do here, but you need to learn to avoid tunnel visioning like that, and stop dropping off the face of the Earth for weeks and becoming a completely different person.”
“I know, and I’m trying. But that doesn’t change the fact that I have a new and very demanding job, complete with international travel. I promise I’ll call and stop by ever so often, but I don’t have that much free ti.”
“I suppose that’s all I can ask for. But if you ever do sothing like that again …”
“Fire and brimstone, got it.” Isaac nodded “Now, there’s sothing else we need to think about.”
“And that is?” she sounded curious, now.
“Making sure you’re safe. Your [Class] is sothing like [Kindergarten Teacher], isn’t it?” he asked.
“Was that a guess or can you tell?”
“I have a [Skill] that lets glean enough to make an educated guess.” Isaac explained.
“I see. You were right about my [Class], so what?”
“It ans you don’t have any [Skills] for fighting, and given what I know about the [System], you’ll likely have to face a monster at so point.”
“So you’re going to try and persuade to start summoning and killing?”
… and the glare was back on.
“No. I’ve got several Aspects and I’ll give any one you want. Dad, too. I’ve got so great defensive ones, including one that bestow the regeneration capacity of a Hydra or a Specter’s ability to phase through walls. And if you want to, I know people who could reinforce your house and the kindergarten to the point where even a Tier 5 monster would have trouble getting in.”
For the first ti, her only reaction was stunned silence. After a long mont, she looked at him with astonishnt.
“Aspects?”
“Aspects.”
“I don’t know if I’m willing to beco part monster.”
Isaac held up his right hand, palm facing towards him, and phased it. It turned a pale blue and beca translucent, the cobblestones clearly visible through it.
“I’ve seen people whose [Classes] partially turn them into monsters. Aspects … aren’t that. They’re more like a cheat sheet that lets you grab [Skills] that your [Class] doesn’t provide.”
“Just … give so ti, alright?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“Now you just have to show where you work.”
“Absolutely not.”
Now it was Isaac’s turn to shoot her a glare and she chuckled.
“Is it really that embarrassing to have your mother show up at your work?”
“Oh, it absolutely is.” Isaac glowered.
“Besides, according to Professor Bailey, you’ll be working on this all through the day, I won’t interfere with that.”
“Yeah, so I have to go back to that …” Isaac cautiously said and took a careful step backwards …
“Hold it right there, Mr.” she said, freezing him in place “You’ll text , tonight. And you’ll sent a photo of where you live now.”
“Yes. Goodbye, mom.”
The two of them slowly split up and Isaac slowly walked back to the new building, emotions roiling. That had been oddly cathartic, seeing his mother in person again. Or at least, this tiline’s version, one he barely recognized anymore.
It had awoken a fierce protective instinct of not wanting anything bad to happen to his mother ever again. No longer content with rely saving them along with everyone else on the planet, he wanted to protect them, specifically. Hell, he wanted to wrap them in cotton wool and keep them away from anything even remotely dangerous, but that wasn’t realistic.
Yet it had also hurt. It had hurt more than anything else he’d ever done, even taking an [Acid Bolt] to the family jewel couldn’t compare if combined with every near death experience he’d ever had.
Yes, it had compounded his wish to save everyone, but it had also sowhat proven his point about not wanting to seek out people from the other tiline. They were so different from the people he rembered, changed by years of living, but they looked so similar. It was impossibly painful, and wasn’t that the understatent of the century.
He needed to deal with this, sohow. This sucked.
Isaac clenched his fists in anger, unsure just what he was angry at. The gods? The world? The [System]? Himself? Or was it just a general sense of impotence that boiled over into a thunderous fury?
Regardless, while it might not be the healthiest way of dealing with anger issues, he was in a position to take his feelings out on a bunch of monsters.
Now just to make sure his face didn’t scare the hell out anyone who saw him … [Hundred Faces] activated and he took manual control of every aspect of his face, carefully schooling his expression into sothing mainly neutral, with a tinge of contrition for good asure. A quick check of his reflection in his phone and … done. Monster punching ti!
Reviews
All reviews (0)