Mahō at the first sight of Eon Nexus was astonished at the size of the city he had never seen or heard of anything this large, But Gramps had been away from society for a while so that's not too surprising. Gray and Mahō kept walking through the city unnoticed due to the sheer number of people walking the streets, this city looked like a functional normal city compared to Flagsmaine. The people in Eon Nexus, we're all living normal lives and having normal experiences. But they were poor, nobody had nice clothes and most didn't have shoes on, but they didn't seem as much in despair as the people before, it made Mahō feel nice that not everyone was suffering in this world.
"Hey we're almost there, be ready because nobody will be happy that I brought some stranger back with me after I left against orders." Gray said to Mahō walking a little faster now than before.
"Don't worry, I'm ready to plead my case to the Revolution, I deserve to be here." Mahō responded with vigor.
Gray turned into an alley and then walked into a broken doorway then down a flight of stairs before seeing two guys sitting in the corner next to another doorway which looked a lot more secure.
"Hey Gray your dumbass actually made it back alive, what a nice surprise." Random guard 1 said to Gray with sass and relief in his voice.
"Yeah I had some unexpected help when I was there, that's the only reason I made it back." Gray said, glancing back at Mahō.
The other guards tensed when they realized someone else was with him and stood up before opening the door to let Gray go through, they whispered to Mahō good luck as he was entering through the door. He walked into what looked like an abandoned old subway that used to run under the city. Mahō kept following Gray through the open space getting glared at by almost everyone they walked by with whispers following their passing.
"Don't be nervous man I'm sure it'll be fine you helped me survive that's going to count for a lot." Gray said trying to lighten the mood for Mahō which did not work.
They come up to a large metal door with 2 more people standing outside of it and they give Gray a dirty look before opening the door.
"He's waiting for you and your new friend Gray and he didn't sound very happy." one of the guards said as they walked by.
Walking in the door slammed behind them and there was an older looking man with a full gray beard and medium length dark hair with gray streaking through it.
"Sir before you say anyth-" Gray gets cut off.
"Who the fuck have you brought back into my shelter without my permission and proper screening, what if you can't trust this random dude you found on the street and you get us all killed because he was a little nice to you do you know how dangerous it is to trust people in this society do you know how dangerous it is to be one of us." The old man finally takes a breath after the rant and glares at Gray and Mahō waiting for a response
"If it wasn't for me he would be lying dead in the dukes mansion in Flagsmaine right now sir, and to be frank if it wasn't for him I would be lying dead in that mansion too." Gray responded.
The old man looked at Gray then at Mahō then spoke, "Get out of this room and go stand with the guards I need to discuss this privately." The old man said while waving Mahō out of the room.
After a short period of time maybe 20 or so minutes the door came open with Gray walking rubbing his arm like it hurt Mahō hears,
"And you better make sure that fuck doesn't mess anything up he's your responsibility Gray."
Then the door closes and Gray smirks, "Looks like you made it in greenie, time to go meet the team." Gray said as he walked past Mahō gesturing to follow, still rubbing his arm from being grabbed by the old man.
Gray led Mahō down the main tunnel for a mile or so before turning down a long hallway like walkway. About half a mile more down that hallway Gray stopped at a door and sighed before looking at Mahō.
"This is going to be rough man, my team tends to be a pretty tight knit group and don't like outsiders. So please don't take what they say to heart." Gray said in a light hearted tone.
"Man, I feel like I've been accepted a lot easier than I expected up to this point, maybe my luck will prevail here too." Mahō said with a grin of confidence.
Gray opened the door labeled T7 - 41 and walked in with Mahō following just behind him.
"Gray what the hell you were gone for months how could you just leave us here and not tell us where you're going again and you were gone longer than ever you jerk." A blonde girl scolded Gray as he was walking in but everything fell silent when they saw Mahō.
"Who is he?" The other boy said plainly.
"He's the new member of our squad and I want you guys to accept him." Gray responded with no hope for a good reaction. The man Scoffed and the girl who spoke before glared at him with distaste.
"You gotta be fucking with us Gray our team is fine without some kid from who knows where, we can't trust someone we don't know with our life are you dumb." the dark haired girl said before turning around to go sit back down.
"Guys we haven't even exchanged names and you're already assuming you'll hate him. Just give some proper introductions please." Gray said.
After some brief and unenthused introductions Mahō knew the other boy was named Luke and he's 20, the blonde was Bella she's 19, and the snarky dark haired girl is Sophia she's 18.
"Now that he knows our names and feels welcome can he leave?" Sophia said irritatedly."
"Sohpi can you please stop with that I'll explain how I met him." Gray responded to the glaring room that was his team.
"I met him in flagsmaine, the stupid kid was walking down the street with a useless ass invisibility spell that anyone with a drop of mana would see through. So I waved at him thinking he was part of the revolution in Flagsmaine. Little did I know the kid had a horrified look on his face and charged into the building and attacked me accusing me of being part of the government because I could see hi-." Gray gets cut off by sophi.
"So he's just some random kid off the street that happens to have mana, you bring some outsider maybe even a spy here and introduce him to us and show him the tunnels are you fucking stupid gray like what the fu-." Sophi cut off Gray to yell at and scold him.
"I'm Just upset you didn't talk to us first Gray." Luke cuts off Sophi to stop her angry response to try and cool things down and have a proper discussion.
"Guys just let me explain a lot more happened just sit down and listen please?" Gray asked them sympathetically.
Sophi sat down and crossed her legs with a mean looking face, Luke kept standing with an understanding but skeptical look and Bella sat next to sophi also concerned. Gray proceeded to tell the story of them raiding the Duke's mansion and the long hard journey back trying to make sure to avoid any suspecting government personnel. Hearing the fight with the Duke and how Mahō sacrificed himself to say Gray they all seemed to loosen up a bit but were still unhappy with the situation.
Chapter Seven: Trust
It had been 9 days since Mahō had met the team and Sophia and Bella still refused to talk to him, while Luke would only talk about work things. No one on the team wanted to know him, and all seemed pretty pissed that Gray was being so buddy buddy with him. On a positive note though, Gray had shown Mahō a lot of cool things. The tunnels had a whole bunch of shops like Blacksmith, clothing stores, and Restaurants. The Revolution even had things like a basketball court and competitive chess players. Mahō was surprised that he lived what Gramps had described as a pretty normal life from before the Jogi took over, which surprised Mahō greatly but left him with a sense of relief. Mahō was far less relieved about the team's first training session since he joined, which was later today.
Arriving in the training room first, Gray started to set up sparring mats for 1 on 1 fights to take place. Gray also set up a sparing mat for them to do a few 2 on 2 matches. Gray wanted to show Mahō how the team fought in pairs and hoped that they would do some matches with him to try and get them some semblance of teamwork.
Luke arrived in the room right around the time Gray was setting up the last mat and asked, "Oh, are we doing some sparring with Greenie on the first session?"
"Well no one wants to work with him, so I'm going to make them so we can actually take a mission and get some work done." Gray responded.
"Good point, I still don't trust the kid or the situation you met him so, It'll be hard to rely on him not even knowing his strengths." Luke responded plainly before beginning stretching.
"Hey Gray now that you're back can I try and do a hand-to-hand match with you again? I think I cant beat you this time." Sophi said, walking into the room with Bella.
"Sophi today we're going to go all out and see where everyone stands as for power in the team, on Friday we can spar no magic." Gray responded in an excited tone.
"Is that new guy going to be here today, Gray?" Bella said in a shy voice.
"Yes bell you know he is part of the team, you guys need to work on accepting him." gray said.
"Fuck that guy, he's pry some spy he shouldn't train with us, he really shouldn't even be on this team." Sophi yelled at Gray.
"Stop with all that we are a team, and you need to accept that." Gray said back, visibly irritated.
As they kept conversing, Mahō walked into the training room. Looking around, he saw a grin on Grays face, the girls were avoiding acknowledging his existence. Luke gave him a somber look but waved for him to come over to them. Mahō making his way over feeling uncomfortable decided he'd just keep his head down and not try and push for their trust so soon.
"Mahō, nice to see you finally made it, not good to be the last one here on your first day." Luke said in a light-hearted tone.
"Yeah I kinda got lost a few times on the way here, but no excuses, I'm ready to do some training." Mahō said while rubbing his head and avoiding eye contact
"Alright everyone, come here so we can discuss what we're doing today." Gray spoke loudly so the team would listen. After everyone gathered around Gray he spoke again.
"Alright guys, were doing some all out sparing matches. Use all utility and spells, make sure to not kill each other but we do have the healing chamber in the room over for severe injury." Gray said
"So that means we're able to beat up greenie?" Sophi said with a smile
Luke and Bella stepped onto one of the mats. Look at each other and bow, then look at Gray.
"3, 2, 1, FIGHT!!" Gray says before taking a few cautionary steps back away from the large mat.
Luke starts out by jumping back to the edge of the mat and whispering "Let my blood flow and burn." then a noticeable growth happened to his physique as he started another chant but before he got a full word in Bella finished her chant. "Slice through the air, Wind blade!" as a blade of wind went flying through the air at Luke causing him to roll forward under it and closer to Bella.
"Blinding Light!" Luke shouted as a ball of light appeared then exploded in the air causing a super bright light blinding Bella for a second. "Spear of light that I shall summon reap my enemies of life to make holy light shine again." a blinding spear of light flew at incredible speeds from Luke's staff into Bella's stomach while the coughed and spit blood on the ground, Gray leaped in and grabbed Bella while Luke casted a minor healing spell on her. "Luke that was a little overboard and you just learned that spell last week, you think you should be using your strongest spell in a spar." Sophi scolded Luke while he looked away embarrassed. Gray set Bella into the healing chamber and let her be, "So that was a way to kick of today seems like Luke needed to show off." Gray shoots a side eye to Luke before continuing, " Looks like Sohpi and Mahō are up next." Sophi grinned as she slipped on some impact enhancing gloves before stepping onto the mat. "You ready greenie, I want you to go crying back to whatever noble hole you crawled out of." Mahō shook his head is disappointment, "I am going to feel bad for what I do here." Before Sophi could rebuttal gray started, "3, 2, 1, FIGHT!!" Sophi covered head to toe in light moved faster than Mahō expected almost slamming her hand into his face but he just barely dodged it by leaning back. Mahō Turns his lean into a back handspring and kicks Sophi in the chest in the process and she flies back to where she originally started. Mahō starts silent casting a lightning and fire combination spell called flame bolt which pretty much covers a lightning bolt in fire then shoots it at the intended target. Releasing the spell after about half a second to cast Sophi gets hit while getting a grasp on her surroundings after being thrown. The flame bolt hitting her in the chest sent her flying again out of the considerably large training mat area and into a wall. After the smoke cleared and Gray ran over to Sophi to check on her Mahō sees that he burnt a hole in the middle of her shirt and immediately turns around in embarrassment not realizing what the spell would do to clothing. Gray patting out the little fire on the edges of the whole in Sophi's shirt and covers her chest with his jacket and sends her to the healing chamber just to make sure shes okay.
A few hours later
"So I guess you're not weak like I thought you were Mahō." Bella said while everyone began sitting in a circle. "Well it doesn't make me feel good you had so much doubt, I had already been on a mission with Gray." Mahō pointed out to make himself feel better. "Well I think we should all go out for a drink, and maybe a change of clothes." Bella replied glancing at Sophi. With her dark hair hanging down and the tired expression on her faced Sophi reluctantly agreed they should go get a drink. "Well it will be a good opportunity to go over the mission we got assigned." Gray cut in in a happy tone. "We already got a mission?" Mahō Asked "I thought they would wait until I was more accustomed to the group.", "Well if we waited that long we wouldn't go on missions this year and I'm sure everyone is wanting a little money after not working for over a month." Gray shot back. "Dam right I could use a paycheck I'm out of study material." Luke said with excitement for being able to work. "I don't think Mahō should go with us I don't trust him to have our backs still, Just because he's strong doesn't mean he's loyal." Sophi said in a still hush tone, Everyone looking at her gray ended up responding, "If we don't give him a chance we wont know if it'll work out or not, just give it a shot.", "We'll talk over booze your paying Gray you're the reason we haven;t had any work." Sophi cut back before standing and walking to leave, the rest of the group following to go get drinks on Gray.
"This is some bullshi…"