(Aspen's POV)
I watched as the kids happily walked down the stairs of the space jet. I took a deep breath of victory as I treaded every step confidently. we walked to the receptionist's deck and I quickly strayed to the visitors lounge to relax. Fortunately, Annabelle was there as though she'd been awaiting my arrival.
"Welcome back." She said without staring at me.
"Did you find more clues?" I asked and she shook her head.
"But I think there's someone who could give us a clue." She said and gave me a straight face while I replied with a questioning look.
"Follow me." She said and got up.
i stood up and followed her into the vip lounge and there, Tiana's dad was seated with a news paper at hand.. He ushered us both to seat down while he continued reading his papers.
"Your team has certainly done a very good job protecting this city. It's as marvelous as I'd imagined." He said referring to me even though he didn't look at me.
"Thanks for the compliment." I replied him and dropped the newspaper on the table.
"That student of yours, what's his name?_." He asked.
"Richard_."
"Richard!" He said and sat back.
"Right from the day he'd challenged my sister to a duel, I'd known he was special." He said and looked at the both of us.
"What do you mean?" I threw him a curious look.
"Elsa is alive??" I asked again and the atmosphere of the room suddenly changed.
"Barely." He replied.
Annabelle was still trying to put the pieces together but one thing I could say for sure was that Elsa got sucked into a dimensional crack which is more than enough to erase her from all existence.
"Unbelievable." I muttered.
"38 years ago, after the first siege that almost cost the era of heroes, Elsa went into the dimensional crack to close it from the inside. She promised everyone that she'd return in one piece but unfortunately, the crack sealed and Elsa never returned." He said and shifted his gaze downwards.
"Three years ago, Elsa finally came back. Surprisingly, nobody could see her aside from the herites. Few months ago, that changed when Richard challenged get to a duel." He concluded and adjusted his seating position.
"So she survived the dimensional crack?!" I muttered to myself.
"Correct." He said and my eyes widened in shock.
"But I still don't know what she needs Richard for." He said and stood up.
"I'm sure I closed a few holes." He said and picked up his news paper before leaving.
I walked out of the vip lounge to angry faces staring at me.
"You left us!" Tasha said as she clenched her fist to get luggage.
"I was gathering Intel." I quickly said and they walked past me headed for the main hostel while i heaved a sigh of relief.
"That's one hell of a team your control, Aspen." Annabelle said as she held my arm.
"My 20 years of research is finally giving some light." She said as we walked towards the staff room.
"What research is that?" I asked and she gave a light chuckle.
"Twenty years ago after learning about the undefeated goddess, I felt the need to research her. Her heroism needed audience but each time I looked for a good story, I never got a concrete evidence to back it up." She said.
"What's your catch." I asked her.
"I'll request a favor." She said and from her tone, she wasn't happy.
"What favor?"
"That's my secret." She said and threw me a big smile.
As we walked, I began to think about what Tiana's dad had told us. Even though there were truths in his story, it still seemed shady. Something was being left out. He made mention of her going to close a dimensional crack and getting stuck there for 35 years and her return has prompted her to choose Richard, for what? Many holes were covered and a lot more were left open.
Richard's pov
I slowly shut my eyes and took a deep breath to listen closely. After a while of silence, I slowly began to hear rumbling sounds approaching me. In a swift, I turned sharply and ran my fist through a boulder and it disintegrated immediately.
"That was good." Tiana said as she clapped inaudibly. I gave her a weak smile and we proceeded back to the cabin.
"You're becoming a lot more stronger." She said and I blushed.
"Surprisingly, I can tell." I said and she smiled back at me.
"Aspen sent me an email of a location and said we should check it out." She said and pushed open the cabin door and we both walked in.
"Did he say what we're up against?" I said feeling excited.
"No, he said it was top secret." She said and headed for the bathroom.
**
We alighted from a taxi and Tiana paid the fare. In front of us was an abandoned house obviously by the look of it.
"What do we do from here T?" I asked and took a deep breath.
"We flank." She said and smiled at me.
It took us about ten minutes to get to the top of the building. It had an opening at the centre. I crawled near to get a closer look. Below were a bunch of Eirwen's men and the abandoned building turned out to be a lab.
"They're building something." I whispered and looked at Tiana who seemed to not care.
"Yea.. it's a weapon. They have about 52 of these stationed in every part of the earth, one blood from a herite woman and the earth goes kaboom." She said demonstrating a nuclear explosion with her hands.
"Yea, kaboom." I said giving her a disgusted look while she gave me a smile.
"Are you ready?" She asked
"Yes, let's do this." I said even though my heart was pounding really hard.
Tiana's flawlessly jumped into the opening, landing in their midst. They sounded the emergency alarm and the lights in the laboratory turned red. There was commotion beneath while I stared waiting for my time. Just then, there was a break out from the main entrance and SUV's stormed out, each of them carrying a box. I inhaled and sped off.
Arriving ahead of them, I raised my arms up in the air and charges my fists. They increased their speed to ram me but I stood my ground. I send a ground destroying punch to the first SUV and there was a massive shockwave that changed the trajectories of the others. The first SUV obliterated almost immediately causing a huge mess on the road.
"Ah shit!_." I said as I placed one arm at the back of my neck.
I noticed someone was still alive and I ran towards him. He held the box to himself and when I tried to collect it from him, he detonated it.