"What a headache." Lucas opened his eyes slowly, his head hurting and his body very tired. Soon, sunlight hit his eyes, forcing him to close them again. He heard a voice beside him:
"Ohh, finally woke up." The voice was male and was a little hoarse. He didn't recognize the owner of that voice, but from his calm tone, he could tell there was no hostility. He opened his mouth to speak:
"Where am I?… What happened?" He didn't remember when he slept or why he had one more person with him. The voice replied:
"What happened? I haven't seen so much blood in my life, even in the army! Boy, you're either very lucky or very unlucky, but I prefer to consider it lucky. It depends on your point of view." When Lucas heard this, some scenes of what happened popped into his mind. Some showed his struggle with a beautiful girl and others were simply total blackness.
'My God! Ruby!'Slowly but constantly his memories were restored and he remembered everything, they disturbed him a lot. He tried to get up immediately, but at this point a hand gripped his shoulder, preventing him from getting up.
"Whoa, whoa buddy. Where do you think you're going?" Despite having a friendly tone, his posture and action were very dominant, Lucas even hesitated a little before answering:
"It's just that I have to see how Ruby is doing, I went overboard this time!" He spoke urgently and tried once more to get up, but the hand again stopped him.
"Don't worry, she's fine. You better get some rest, your ability can be strong and maybe miraculous, but it must have some side effects, so rest well." He spoke even more calmly, but pressed harder, forcing the young man to stay on the bed. However, Lucas did not feel tired. All he wanted now was to see how his friend was.
He lifted his head to see who was preventing him from leaving and saw someone he knew. It was Roberto, the man with the black hands and one of the trainers from before. Lucas calmed down after hearing that Ruby was fine and went back to bed, obeying the coach's 'friendly' advice and, not being sleepy, decided to check his memories.
He remembered the whole fight with Ruby and this time made sure he did her 'best' not to hurt her before turning that drop into a small cloud. He never imagined that the power of a single drop would be enough to wreak such damage, especially after reducing the drop to a minimum size he could control.
'I don't understand, I've already tested it on plants, why was it so strong when it hit Ruby?! The trees lost at most a little bark, while the grass just withered… ' He was lost in his thoughts, trying to understand why his friend had been hurt so much.
'Ruby is a mutant, will my blood work better in contact with them? Or is it because she has blood too?" He spent the next few minutes wondering what had really happened. He also talked a little with Roberto about what the exploration team would be like and some details about training.
Lucas memorized the most important lines:
"I'll teach you to at least defend yourself, only then can you go out with us. As for your skills, Asa is responsible for that, as I'm not very skilled at it, but I guarantee that I can take down every one of you." Roberto completed the speech with a laugh.
"We have 12 official explorers and 8 in training, some are deformed but most are not. I don't know if you know, but your friend, or maybe a former friend, is very important to us." The young man bowed his head later when he had heard this, regret was written all over his face and reflected in his eyes.
He decided not to concentrate at that time, as there was no way to see her at that moment. However, part of the coach's explanation made him curious, so he inquired about his doubt.
"Why is her mutation so helpful to you guys? What kind of situations do you face?" He had never stopped to think about it, but now other doubts popped into his mind.
Roberto was surprised by the question, but still decided to answer it after thinking for a while.
"Well, we went out looking for certain items and fruit trees. We take some fruits that have seeds and bring them back to planting. We also collect as much new information as possible, look for survivors and classify geographic changes."
Soon after explaining, someone came to call for Roberto and he had to be away for a few hours. During this period, Lucas' head kept asking:
'Items? What is it? There's nothing special about the other tasks, so why do you make such a big deal about this department? And why didn't he talk about the dangers?" "He didn't know, but Roberto didn't talk about the dangers because he didn't want to scare him; a new recruit was unprepared, he said, for what happens outside the base. When Roberto returned, the young man didn't take long to ask.
"What items are these?" He couldn't contain his curiosity, he wanted to understand everything. Roberto was surprised by the question, he did not expect the young man to still have this subject in mind. However, he didn't stop his walk and soon sat down in the chair next to the bed. Unfortunately, before the coach could respond, the door opened abruptly and a tall young man entered the room.
"You son of a bitch! Why are you alive?! You there, all recovered while she's there, suffering from pain!" He walked in hurried steps towards the young man on the bed, pointing his arm and yelling.
"You know she can't fucking defend herself! She's just controlling the light and you come with her fucking blood! I'll kill you, you burglar!" Ace could not control himself and the room began to shake, the objects on the tables and floor levitated forming a cloud that curled around the room.
The young man in bed was startled, but prepared to activate his mutation. However, contrary to his expectations, the sound of a palm echoed through the room. However, there was something very strange about that palm, as it continued to ring around the room, it felt like a deep, unbroken musical note. Time seemed to stop, both Lucas and Ace saw everything in slow motion, but the effect was greater with the tall young man.
Roberto got up and walked towards Ace as the sound of the palm flooded his target ears. As much as the tall young man tried to move, he could not; that sound had some peculiar vibrations that prevented it.
The black-handed man reached Ace's side, stretched his arm until his hand was at the young man's ear, and snapped his fingers. Another sound spread through the room, this time it was weaker, but with a stronger effect on the invader. The objects, previously floating around the room, fell. Ace also fell to the ground shortly thereafter, unconscious and drooling.
"These young people today have a weak temper! Your parents didn't raise their children like they used to." Roberto sighed, he was also startled by Ace's sudden action and since he started cursing, he was prepared to prevent something bad from happening.
He picked up the unconscious body on the floor and put it on his shoulder, went to the door and opened it, before leaving he said:
"Well, hopefully it doesn't happen again. As for you, rest well and go back to the training area, Asa will help you." With those last words he left the room.