The Custodes

Chapter 9 - Reunited

Neo was breathing heavily on the ground, but managed to slowly pull himself to his feet as he looked over at Noah. The boy appeared to be as unharmed as him, which filled him with immediate relief. The battle passed by as a blur in his mind, Neo had never experienced anything like it before, though he couldn't help but feel like it was only the first of many. Zuro was testing them, that was clear even to him through the way he had been talking, and even though the pair had fought like hell they never once seemed to do any damage to him. If there was anything to take away from what had happened it was that he was unimaginably strong, but not entirely invincible. Every grunt or exhale of pain from Zuro felt like a small victory in and of itself, and only spurred Neo on to fight even harder in those moments. He was sure he wouldn't have put up anywhere near as much of a fight as he did if Zuro actually wanted to hurt him, and not just see the true extent of his abilities. The fact itself pissed him off. He thought back to the entire scuffle and everything that had happened throughout. The definite turning point for him at least was breaking through Zuro's tendrils. Sure, they were probably weak in comparison to Zuro himself, but at least now he knew the chances of countering them weren't zero. He wasn't sure what it was but when Zuro had started talking about the evil misdeeds he was going to do, it filled Neo with pure rage, which somehow seemed to heighten his abilities. There was only one other time when his anger had gotten to him during a fight, and at that point all he saw was red. He'd entered some sort of blind fury, and although it did seem to make him more powerful during the fight, he still ended up losing. He wouldn't let that happen again with Zuro. "You alright?" Noah asked as he jogged over, face still hidden by his mask as his eyes examined Neo. "Yeah, you?" Neo asked, glancing behind Noah as a few people came out from the building they'd been hiding in and began filming the two. Come to think of it, he'd actually completely neglected the fact he was out in public during his fight with Zuro. The three of them had been fighting in the middle of the road, and he now turned to see that there was a pile of cars a good few metres away that had all been left behind in the terror of the situation. People were started to flood the streets now, moving from whatever hiding spot they had been in in seeing that the main threat had left. A few of them were beginning to approach both boys, a factor Noah had already noticed since approaching Neo. "I'm perfectly fine, though I think it's definitely time for us to go. No doubt someone got a good video of all that." Noah said, before placing a hand on Neo's shoulder. The boy was about to speak when the two suddenly teleported, reappearing in Neo's apartment. "Whoa..." Neo muttered, glancing around his usual messy place before his gaze fell on the huge gaping hole in the wall Zuro had thrown him through "Shit...that's not good." Civilians from the streets would definitely be able to see inside, but none of them seemed to have noticed where both boys had disappeared to. Neo quickly raised a hand and conjured a dark wall to appear, precisely filling in the spot in the wall that had been destroyed. Noah's mask fell away as he pulled out his phone and began typing something, as Neo watched and dismissed his own disguise "What are you doing?" He asked as Noah quickly sent whatever he'd typed and looked up at him "Messaging the others. I feel like we ought to go talk to them, don't you?" "Yeah, actually, that sounds like a good idea. Did you send anything to Kayla?" Neo questioned as the other boy shook his head "I don't know if her or her parents even heard what went on outside, but either way it's unlikely she'll meet us till the morning." Neo nodded, then paused to think for a second. He was sure Kayla would want to hear what happened, and if she was still at home with her parents surely it wouldn't be too much of a problem for her to meet them. He pulled out his phone and typed a quick message before sending it to her "Noah and I just had a run in with Zuro. We're both okay, come to my apartment if you can and we'll tell you about it". Noah's phone rang suddenly, so he picked up and placed it against his ear "Hey...don't worry, we're both f-...yeah, we were going-...I'll tell you about it there, okay? Bye." He hung up, catching Neo's questioning look and letting out a soft chuckle "Synthia." He said as an explanation, as Neo nodded with understanding. "No doubt her and Axel will be on their way to Kelsie's, if they aren't there already." Noah went on, letting out a small sigh "We ought to head. It's too far for me to just teleport us there, but walking shouldn't be too bad." "Yeah, alright. You think we should tell them about Hector, right?" Neo asked, with Noah nodding as confirmation "I do, especially now that we know trusting our powers while fighting works pretty damn well." "Yeah, I agree. Though it does feel strange that Hector sought us out to tell us that minutes before we came across Zuro." Neo said, simply speaking his sceptical thoughts out loud, but Noah paused at it. "That's...something I didn't consider. Now that you mention it, it is awfully coincidental. What do you think it means?" Noah asked, with Neo giving a tiny shrug, surprised at the proposal that his random thought might actually lead to something "My immediate thoughts go towards the two of them working together, or at least somewhat intwined in a way. But then again, why would Hector help us if that were the case?" Neo said, leaning his back against the wall with a considering expression. "Exactly. It could be possible that Hector has some sort of future sight and knew we'd need to learn to fight before Zuro attacked. That is...weird to think about. Plus that scruffy old man doesn't seem like someone to have such a great power, regardless of how much he weirdly knew." Noah said, shaking his head and dismissing most of the strange theories he was starting to come up with "We'll just have to ask him next time we see him. Being sceptical probably won't help us." Neo opened his mouth to agree, but stopped as a small knocking sound came from the door. Noah flashed Neo a puzzled look, but the boy was already heading towards the apartment door and swinging it open. Kayla stood in the doorway, looking Neo over as soon as the door opened before hurrying past him to examine Noah as well without so much as a hello. "You two don't seem hurt." She stated, looking Noah in the eye sceptically before turning to face Neo. "That's cause we aren't." The black haired boy said, shutting the door and walking over to Kayla "We managed to somewhat hold our own against Zuro but he uh...he wasn't exactly trying to hurt us. More like testing us." "Then you're lucky to even be alive. How did you end up facing him anyway?." Kayla asked him, before taking her first real glance around Neo's apartment, her expression refusing to show whatever her opinion of it was. "He was sorta waiting for me here when I got home. We ended up outside after he threw me through a wall. Which is when Noah joined in." Neo explained to her, motioning to the large black section of the wall that he'd filled in. Kayla furrowed her brow as she looked between the wall and Neo, then spoke "Something tells me there's more to this than you two are letting on. Even if Zuro was testing you, it seems hard to believe you two would get out without a scratch." "You're right. There's something we learned about our powers that ended up giving us a slight edge." Noah said, getting Kayla's attention while Neo nodded to himself in understanding. "We have to trust them." He went on, trying to figure out the best way to go about explaining what happened with Hector "Trust our instincts, though it's more like if we trust our powers then our instincts become heightened because of it. If we're able to rely on them, they'll protect us to the best of their ability, as well as helping us to fight to the best of our ability." "And you know this how exactly?" Kayla glanced between Neo and Noah, somewhat disbelieving what she was being told. "I was getting to that. While me and Neo were leaving the hospital we kinda got...kidnapped. It's not as bad as it sounds, we ended up meeting a man named Hector who knew a lot about our powers. It was strange, but he told us what I just told you and he was right about it all." Noah looked at Kayla, trying to see if he was getting through to her, but he only appeared to have made her more confused "And this guy, Hector, knew this all how?" "That we don't quite know." Neo spoke up, rubbing the back of his neck "But he told us that we'd meet again, and that eventually he'll be able to explain more to us." Kayla glanced down slightly, taking a minute to gather her thoughts, then took a deep breath and looked up at the two "Do you guys understand how crazy you sound? Seriously, you're lucky we've all got superpowers and there's a murderous otherworldly being threatening the city otherwise I wouldn't have believed anything you just said." Neo and Noah exchanged a glance, before the latter spoke up "Does that mean you do believe us?" "Yes, for fuck sake, stop making me second guess it. You guys have no reason to make up something like that, and it does explain why the fight with Zuro went so well." Kayla let out a sigh as she brushed a hair out of her face, then Neo looked at her with a small smile "Glad we got that sorted. Though now we'll have to go tell the same exact thing to the others." "Yeah, tell me how that goes in the morning. Are you guys heading there just now?" Kayla asked, receiving a nod from Noah "We were planning to, yeah." "You can't come?" Neo questioned, with Kayla's head spinning to shoot him a grim look. She examined his slightly stunned expression, then carefully softened her own "No. I'm afraid I can't join you all, at least not until...never mind, I'll let you know if it's possible or not. Until then, I should probably head back to my place." She flashed Neo a gentler smile, a quick look of guilt crossing her features before she turned towards the door and began moving towards it. "Wait!" Neo said as he quickly grabbed Kayla's arm, causing her to turn back around in surprise to face him "I just um...now that we're here, talking, I was curious. About your powers. You never told me exactly what they were, and I've never seen you use them." Kayla's gaze flicked to Noah for a second, before turning back to meet Neo's "Another time, Neo. It's not something I-...it's difficult to show it off. And it could be a little...surprising, to hear about. Next time we get the chance to talk, preferably alone, I'll tell you, okay?" Neo gave a small nod, moving his hand back to his side as he suddenly felt a tad bit awkward. Kayla placed her hand on his arm this time, the small smile back on her face as she locked eyes with him "Stay safe, you two." She looked over Neo's shoulder at Noah, giving him a friendly smirk "Would be a shame if you wound up dead." "That was a short discussion, you sure there isn't anything else you want to ask?" Noah questioned as he walked towards the pair, with Kayla shaking her head to him and waving her hand dismissively "I'll hear the rest some other time. I'm playing it risky coming here in the first place, and Kelsie and the others will definitely be worried about you two. You ought to get going." "Alright then, have a good night." Noah said, giving her a small wave goodbye. Kayla smiled, then turned her attention back to Neo to exchange a small glance. He stayed quiet however, not quite sure what else there was to say, until she uttered a soft "Bye." And left through the door, closing it quietly behind her. Neo turned and immediately caught Noah's eye, with the boy standing cross armed and wearing a slightly amused yet still serious look on his face. "I know what you're thinking, and before you say anything, that is a bad move." He said condescendingly, with Neo looking suddenly aghast. "I didn't say anything." The boy defended, but Noah gave him a knowing look "You were considering, I can tell. She has far, far too much on her plate. Trust me when I say the possibility of it working in the long run is a trillion to one." Neo grew quiet, a slight red flush coming to his cheeks as he said nothing for a few seconds, before opening his mouth "Who said anything about the long run?" "Neo, have you ever actually had a girlfriend before?" Noah questioned, noting the sight of Neo's embarrassed expression. "There's never a bad time to start..." "Halfway through dealing with someone like Zuro doesn't seem like a bad time to start?" Noah countered, with Neo letting out a small exhale in return "Well I don't know, I've never been in this position before. My life could be over at any time nowadays and with everything me and her have in common and all that, maybe it would be good to have each other. Plus, she sort of...gave me a look." "She gave you a look?" Noah piped up, looking sceptically at Neo, who gave a small nod to signal that he stood by what he said "Kayla Lennings does not give people looks." "Can we drop this subject?" "Sure, sure, I just wanted to try and clear that thought from your mind." Noah let out a sigh, then nodded towards the door "Are you ready to go?" "Give me one minute, I'm gonna change quickly." Neo hurriedly ran to the other side of the room, grabbing some clothes from the wardrobe against the wall then heading into the tiny bathroom. Not long after he reemerged in jogger bottoms and a short sleeved t-shirt, then pulled his hoodie back on over it, pocketed his phone and wallet, which he'd grabbed from the dresser, before moving to the door, opening it, and heading out with Noah at his heels.