Well, I guess I should cover what investigations he made. After all, they were interesting. Inside of the base, there was a big laboratory with a lot of mechanisms to create gadgets and such, but also some weird appliances, like torture devices, electric chairs, gas rooms (Which only really seemed to be made with truth serum) and an isolation room. It honestly seemed a bit scary, but, it was weirdly… attracting so to say, as if it was pleading to be used.

Anyway, after each of our missions, which, as said before, don’t really make interesting stories, I normally went along with Ness to his investigations, since that was really the only way I could improve my friendship with him, plus, with me being more of a trained Hunter than a trained Sylph, so my blood and genes could be more of a comparison than Martha, who only really seems to be a Sylph, or Mark, whose powers up until now have come mostly from his armor piece… at least, that’s what I thought at the time. All the processes were painful, I will admit that. Tons of blood samples were taken, even some skin samples to have some access to my genes, which was able to regenerate quickly (There were some incredible medicines in that laboratory). Most of his experiments required his blood and his own powers, taking out a piece of skin from himself to compare what his hunter genes were compared to mine. While mine were fully activated, his seemed to be… corrupt, if I were to put it into words, the lightning seemed to have damaged some of them, while activating the others partway. It seemed like the broken-down genes were starting to regenerate, but, the part he found the most interesting were the ones that did turn on. Why did they only go partway and not fully convert? With my help, the only possible solution is that maybe, since Lightning wasn’t his original element, it would make sense that the body would try to reject the Lightning in the genes, but due to the overexposure to it, it fixed itself into the genes. Maybe, if he got the same type of exposure to those other elements, he could eventually find his element and finally trigger his Hunter genes to be reborn…

After a big day investigating and a night of sound sleep, I woke up to the sound of knocking at my door. It was really early in the morning, so I wasn’t fully awake yet… morning… it’s been a long time since it felt like that. Here on the base we only base ourselves with our clocks, but in reality, we don’t know what it truly is outside. I’d even forgotten how much time has passed since we’ve been here. But, that’s outside the point. Either way, I got up and went to the door, and without opening it, I answered.

“What is it?” I asked this with a somber tone since I was still a bit sleepy

“I know this will probably sound like a prank” Ness was on the other side, clearly awake “But, I need your help one last time”

“Oh… do you need another chunk of skin?” I said this while still half asleep, slowly waking up

“No, no, not with investigations… I need to train” Ness said this in a tone that signaled worry, but he clearly wasn’t joking. That fully woke me up as I answered

“Wait, what? You really want to learn how to use your new powers now?” I was wide awake now, going to quickly change into my usual clothing.

“Like I said, it sounds a bit like a prank, but I’m serious… I want to be of more help to the team. And if I don’t learn how to control this, I’ll never be of use” He still sound worried, but still serious.

I quickly opened the door, now fully clothed “If you’re serious, then yes, I will help you”

“Oh, you really would?” Ness said this with a slight tone of happiness in his voice, still a bit worried.

“Look, learning hunter tricks is dangerous. You need someone that’s already trained in this type of stuff. Plus, I could help with something else”

“... thank you” Ness already had his helmet on, but I could sense that he had a smile on his face when he said that. He was ready for this and I did not want to have him hurt himself while learning. He might’ve been an asshole, but he was still part of the team.

We spent almost no time with chit chat and went immediately to the training room, which was a few rooms down mine. Once we got in, the normal part of that room activated, of us not being able to exit for now, the room infinitely expanding as we walked in.

“So, have you kind of gotten the hang of how to turn on your electrical powers?”

“Kind of. I can manifest them throughout my body, kind of like a barrier, but I haven’t gotten the hang of shooting them or doing shit like that”

“Well, just with that you’re already ahead of various others that have gotten their powers late. The manifestation is usually the hardest part, since it’s tied to how much you know about the element, and since you’re tech savvy, manifesting lightning should be a cake walk” I said this with a calm tone as I summoned my double buster “Could you manifest it right now? We shouldn’t take long training in case some mission comes up”

“Oh, sure, no problem” Almost as soon as he finished saying it, I started hearing sparks coming over from his direction. In almost no time, lightning was already going around his body.

“Now, I will not hold back. Since we are mostly in life or death missions, you should really be prepared for anything. Of course, Power Overdrive is out of the question for now, but standard should be fine” I said this with a playful tone as I got into a battle position, holding my buster with both of my hands by my left side.

“Okay, but what else did you want to t-” I cut Ness off from this sentence, quickly slashing in his direction with the water edge of my blade. I made myself slow on purpose just to give Ness enough time to dodge quickly, which he did, jumping back.

“Oh, you’ll see. For now, fight!” Now there was no holding back. I quickly started to slash in his direction, trying to spray water on him with the water edge. He was also pretty quick, being able to dodge most of my strikes, but still getting sprayed quite a bit. Once he was kind of close to me, I made an upwards slash, spraying water in a straight line, and just as I thought, making him jump back into a puddle.

“Is that seriously everything you’ve got? You haven’t even hit me once” Ness said this a bit confused as he looked at me.

“Do you really think that’s it? Have you been analyzing the situation?” Once I said this, he turned to see all of the water around, then had a hit in his mind as I turned my sword and plunged the electric blade into the straight puddle, making electricity run over in his direction

“Oh fuck!” Ness quickly hunched back, expecting a lot of pain just like the one he received back with the Iago fight, but surprisingly feeling nothing, as I expected. “H-huh?”

“Did you really think I would put you through that shit again? Since you have the electrical element manifested, you’re not able to receive any electrical damage” I laughed a bit after saying this as a slight shadow aura started to surround me.

“Okay, that is pretty cool… but, now that I know what you had planned, I can now return it!” After saying this, Ness plopped his hand down on the ground, making the electricity he manifested run through the water. Of course, I expected this to happen, that’s why I had already activated Ghastly Illusion.

“I will give you credit for that counter attack, but, you always need to consider all of your enemies capabilities and abilities. Honestly, I don’t know what kind of abilities a Thunder Hunter has…” As I said this, I appeared right behind him “But, Shadow Hunters are really skilled in stealth” As I said this, a sphere of energy of both light and dark combined appeared on my hand, as I quickly lunged it at him “Dawn Nova!”

[ABILITY DESCRIPTION]

Nova

Novas are a weird ability, being able to be used by both Sylphs and Hunters. While Sylphs use it mainly as a means of defense and a last resort, hunters can combine Novas with their native elements, making them range for a deadly weapon, making the elements seep into the victims.

The Nova hit Ness back, exploding right on him, as both the light and dark elements seeped into him, hearing him scream in pain. When I heard that, I quickly went to his side, placing both of my hands on his back as he kneeled down in pain on the floor

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Ness said this while wrapping his arms around his stomach, trying to endure the pain as the room slowly made it go back to normal.

“Nothing much, just my own experiment”

“W-what do you m-mean!?”

“Well, since Thunder didn’t fill up your genes, that means that it wasn’t your innate element, so, since I had two of the elements on me, I decided to test to see whether any of the two were your original ones”

Some streaks of light and dark aura appeared on Ness’s body as he was once again in an uncontrollable state, just like in the fight against Iago, some beams coming out of him as he tried to calm down

“You do realize that you could’ve killed me with that?! You had to use the same energy that HE used!” Ness was clearly worried, still shouting

“Why do you think I waited until we were in here. Believe me, it would’ve been nice to see you suffer after the shit you put me through with the beginning weeks, but I’m not like that. This room can help calm down the pain and not make you faint. And I’m pretty sure you were already interested in finding your original element, so this can be of help”

Ness did not respond. Minutes passed, the only thing coming from Ness’s mouth being grunts of pain as the room fixed him back up. When the room was finally done, Ness finally calmed down, breathing deeply.

“So, how do you feel?”

“I feel.. different… I can’t really put it into words, but I do feel like what you did did, something” Ness said this while slowly taking control back over his breathing.

“I knew that could help a bit… would you like to go to your lab to investigate how your genes are holding up?” Right after I said this, the alarm inside of the training room turned on

“QUICKLY, EVERYONE COME TO THE MEETING ROOM. ANIMA DAEMONIUM MISSION INBOUND!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a no” Ness said this while grunting a bit, clearly annoyed of not being able to investigate this…

“Well, we’ll check it after this mission, don’t worry” I said this in a calm tone as I stood up and started to run towards the exit of the room, with it clearly in my mind to not be stopped.

“2 MEMBERS MISSING OF CROSSING THROUGH THE PORTAL”

Ness quickly stood up behind me and ran with me towards the meeting room, quickly jumping into the portal before me.

After I jumped in, my jaw dropped… there were signs of destruction everywhere, with explosions still occurring around us as we looked around.

“Took you guys long enough” Martha said this in a confident but annoying tone, one Flame of Hatred revolving around her as she looked forward.

“Do we have a visual on who it is?” Ness said this as he prepared his lightning, looking forward.

“We know Iago is here, but, he has someone else with him” Mark said this as he stood in front of everyone, his Impenetrable Armor protecting all of us as the explosions came closer and closer in front of us.

Once the source got right in front of us, we could clearly see Iago flying above all of us with some sort of platform, looking us over.

“Yes, YES! This experiment is showing to be successful!” Iago shouted this as the other member crashed right into the Mark’s barrier. We could see him clearly now… 022… but, something wasn’t right… and as soon as I noticed the aura surrounding him, I knew what it was…

“Oh… oh no…” I said this with a clearly scared tone as 022’s aura grew larger… it was a dark red aura flowing like fire all around him. “Guys, this is not safe, we’ve gotta get out”

“What do you mean Colin?” Ness said this while being a lot more scared than I was from just his shear sight.

“Oh, believe me! There’s no way you can run away no! Specially from the new and improved 022!” Iago shouted this from above as 022 started to break Mark’s barrier.

“Colin, explain, quickly” Martha said this in a loud tone as I walked back slowly, scared to my soul…

“Power Lust” That’s all I said, as Mark’s barrier fully broke, with a now enraged 022 lounging at us.

END OF CHAPTER 15