—A Few Months Later—
As expected, relations with my family and the Flints were tense for a while. As my parent's only child, they took the matter incredibly seriously as any normal child would have been critically injured by her actions. After several repeated apologies from Crystal's parents and herself, my parents forgave them but kept a close eye on her from then on. I had expected my mother to fight back more, but one day she just stopped for some reason.
Training with my grandfather was irritatingly slow, and that was due in part to my overly protective grandmother and mother. Both of them felt that combat training wasn't needed yet as I was only six years old. My grandfather and dad argued I was ready with them, but both relented when their wives threatened to stop talking to them. That said...I felt there was some tension between my mother and father afterwards.
'It reminds me of Celestial and I…', I thought as I ate lunch, 'That Elf used that on me every time we saw a festival on our journey. She loved stuffing her face with steak on a stake and kettle corn.'
"Everything okay Cole, you look sad.", my grandfather asked.
"I…I am fine.", I lied realizing that my facial expression reflect my depressed thoughts, "I am just upset we can't do any combat yet."
"Your mother and grandmother said you can start practicing when you are twelve.", he assured me.
Parkour training was of little use to me now as I had worn the rust off my skills. The only reason I was still training was that if I went all out my grandfather might have an actual heart attack trying to keep up. Trying to think of a way to get some physical training in, an idea came to mind. Instead of pitching it as combat training, I could spin it as self-defense training since my parents had a lot of enemies. Pitching him the idea, he seemed onboard with it almost immediately.
"Hmm…that is a very good point.", he admitted, "Your father was almost kidnapped on several occasions so your grandmother should be for it."
Calling her first, he explained what I was asking him for. Reminding her of several attempts on my father's life as a child, she conceded that it was something that I should know as I was only able to run at the moment, as far as she knew. After several more calls between my parents and grandparents, we got the green light to proceed.
"So what sort of self-defense training do you want to do?", he inquired, "Are you wanting martial arts training, weapon training, or something else?"
"Can we train with my Quirk? I might not be as strong as some villains out there so learning to control my power will help me greatly.", I replied playing on my childlike appearance.
"Alright, let's get going then.", he chuckled.
Talking me to the replica baseball stadium, he assured me that I could cut loose here. Everything around us was metal so there was no need to worry about a stray bolt of electricity hurting anyone out training in the replica city. Flipping on the power to the stadium, I could feel all the power sources around me ready to charge me up.
"Alright Cole, we don't know how your Quirk works exactly so take it easy so you don't hurt your-", he said before I tried pulling the electricity to me.
I was surprised by how easy it was to pull the electricity into my body. Unlike Cole who had to be close to drain electricity, it appeared I was more than capable of pulling it towards me from quite a distance from me. Having a vague sense of when I was fully charged, I cut off the supply as I would only waste it now.
"My word!!", he gasped, "What did you just do!?"
"I gathered electricity into me.", I replied as I watched small arcs of lightning dance around my body.
"Interesting!! Your father and I can only use electricity nearby to fight, that's why we usually carry battery packs on us. If you can store it internally, you won't need to worry about that!", he said with excitement, "You already have a leg up on your old man and me, haha!"
'I will still want one though…Kessler had one that he wore like a chest plate I think.', I thought, 'I will need it in case I am in a situation where none of my elements are available. Besides which, Cole was generally weaker when electricity wasn't around. I don't want to be in that position, I need to always be in top condition.'
Starting with the basics, I started shooting bolts of lightning out at some of the seats in the stands. Hitting them wasn't that difficult at all, I even confirmed that I could hit any target so long as I was able to see it. When it came to more precision shots, it did take a bit more focus to ensure it didn't miss its target. The precision shot would take some getting used to, but I was confident that I could use it consistently with a few weeks of training.
"Grandpa, is there a pitching machine here?", I asked, "I want to try some things out."
"Absolutely, let me pull it out for you.", he agreed walking to the closest edge of the field.
Wheeling it out of the storage shed for me, I told him to load it up and aim it at me. Since I was about thirty feet away, he was comfortable with it and did as I asked. Turning it on once the balls were loaded, I created a shield out of electricity and started to approach. The moment one of the baseballs hit the shield, it burned away leaving not even ash behind.
"What did you do!?", he shouted, "What is that thing you are making!?"
"It's the shield, I think it's made out of plasma!", I replied as I dropped the shield and created plasma blades on both forearms.
Rushing forward, I sliced the baseballs to pieces as they flew towards me. Bobbing and weaving my way forward as they flew towards me, my body felt extremely light just like in the old days. Whipping my arms around to bisect every ball that flew at me, grandpa turned the machine off a split second before I destroyed it. Looking at me in shock, I realized I had probably overdone it a bit with the demonstration, but decades of training kicked in and I acted on instinct.
"You really are a prodigy, where did you learn how to do that?", he asked me with concern, "That is certainly not something I taught you."
"I did what came naturally to me.", I replied honestly, "There are a few more things I want to try."
Testing the electric rockets and grenades I could generate, I was delighted that everything was so easy to do. That said, the more I did, the more my grandfather looked at me with mixed emotions. It was understandable, he saw what I could do and was worried about what would happen if I went down the wrong path. I wanted to tell him that I had no desire for world conquest, but that wouldn't settle his nerves…it would just make it worse.
"I think that is enough training for today Cole, let's go get some ice cream.", he suggested.
Accepting his offer, since I didn't want to push him any further, we left the stadium and got ice cream.
–3rd Person POV—
After Cole had gone to bed, his grandfather explained what had occurred at the stadium. Telling them about how powerful Cole was, everyone looked a bit nervous about what he was saying.
Giving them every detail of what happened in the stadium, the women were noticeably worried about this.
"You don't think someone has been training him on the side, do you? What if one of our enemies has been brainwashing Cole!?", Cole's Mother gasped, "I told you repeatedly not to push this on him, but you refuse to listen to me! Cole doesn't want to be a Hero!"
"She's right, villains nowadays aren't the same as they were when we were crime fighting.", Cole's grandmother agreed, "This isn't the same world it was when David was a boy, villains will do whatever it takes to hurt a Hero's family. Why can't you two just respect his wishes!?"
The men were at a loss for what to say to that. They wanted to argue that he'd grow into the position as they did, but that argument never worked with their wives. That said, the possibility that Cole might be being manipulated behind the scenes was a very real possibility. Leaving the table to check on him, the women left the father and son pair at the kitchen counter.
"What do you think Dad?", David asked, "You think he is being manipulated?"
"I think he is bitter for being born into this family, it's a lot tougher on a Hero's child now than when you were a boy.", Cole's grandfather admitted, "When you were a kid, they called you my son or called you David. With Cole, he is called the Bolt Family Heir…hardly anyone calls him by his name. Maybe we should accept his answer, and close shop when you retire. I don't want Cole to resent us when he is older."
"I…I didn't think about that.", David said looking at his glass of wine, "Surely our employees don't call him that, right?"
Telling him that they do, Cole's grandfather went on to say they called him their future boss. Seeing where things would start to wear a young boy thin, David felt frustrated he hadn't seen it sooner. If someone was preying on Cole's bitterness…it was his fault for not quashing it sooner.
"You know we can't stop it now, Cole has to take the family business over. There are a lot of negative effects that will happen if we close shop.", David stated, "How about Cheryl and I start helping out with his training? We can make it a family activity, maybe that will help him out."
"I guess...let's not jump the gun quiet yet.", Cole's grandfather laughed, "How about slowly working up to that point? If you suddenly change everything not only will the agency be in chaos, but he might resent you further. Try starting with spending family time with him doing things he wants to do. He is a young boy so see if he likes working on things or maybe even sports. Bond with him that way, that's how your grandfather and I did it with you."
"Yeah…you are right!", David chuckled, "We never did finish restoring that really old twentieth-century sports car, maybe Cole and I can finish that with you."
Nodding his head in agreement, his father agreed that was a splendid idea. Returning from checking on Cole, David told his mother and Cheryl what he wanted to do. Wholeheartedly agreeing to the plan, everyone was on board with how they would bring Cole back from the path he was on.
Getting a jump on things, David called his intelligence team to start running background checks on all of Cole's friends and former teachers. He wanted to find the person responsible for corrupting his son and make them pay dearly for it.