Marcus ran over with a fire extinguisher, taking out the flames on the tree while I pushed the wrecked vehicle out of the way. Maio grabbed the singed beast covered in black soot from the wreckage, head missing. We took it away from the flames and got a good look at it.

“It really is a suit. Looks like it took the brunt of the force” said Maio.

“Yeah, I knew it was one when the helmet flew at us,” I stated matter of factly. “Who the heck is this person? He looks around my age.” The suit looked like it had kevlar, metal plates, soft padding, hydraulics, chain mail, and electronics on the inside.

“No clue, take him to the medbay so we can figure out what’s going on. We should all patch ourselves up anyways” answered Cornelius, now fully healed.

We went over to the medbay and got a doctor to check us all out. Some of the guards had broken bones, scrapes, and cuts but nothing life threatening thankfully. Marcus even lost an ear but the doc said they could take an ear from Cornelius and attach it to him. I got some bandages for my wounds too. I was left on my own on a chair and then heard a voice say “That was pretty entertaining, you should’ve dragged it out some more though.”

“No way, he could’ve killed someone. I mean, he was planning to, anyways,” I replied to Xiz. I turned over to see what he was up to and it looked like he raided the fridge, eating some strawberries from a bag labeled Clarence. “What did they do with Bear Boy?”

“He’s been strapped to a bed now. They did a blood test and it looks like he’s been enhanced by some strong drugs like adrenaline and steroids. The effects are probably gonna wear off soon though.”

“Damn, he even had a mech suit that gave him super strength. Who is this guy?”

“Dunno, but I could find out. He should be waking up soon - last I saw was the doc saying something about popping his shoulder back in pl-”

“AHHHH” A scream echoed throughout the house.

“That’s probably him, let’s go check it out.” We went over to the source of the scream to see the stranger strapped to his bed and struggling against his binds. Clarence and Cornelius were already there alongside Dr. Nguyen.

“You’re finally awake. Who are you? Why did you come and attack me on the exact same day as the curse? Are you the crazy wizard that cursed my family?” Interrogated Cornelius.

“I aint saying $#!7” yelled the stranger, wriggling like a worm against his restraints, struggling to break free.

“Fine, be that way. Clarence, tase him.” Clarence took a step forward and shocked him, making him scream in agony.

“Woah woah woah, chill. No need to stoop so low, I can get the answers we want” I advised, gently pushing the taser away from him. I turned to Xiz and asked “Well?”

The others looked from myself to what seemed to be empty space in front of me. “Who the heck are you talking to?” questioned Doc.

“It's hard to explain, just gimme a sec”. Xiz spoke in a language I’d never heard of before to someone that I couldn't see then turned to me and relayed the message that I in turn passed to the others. “He’s Archibald Brock, the great x 12 grandson of the guy you claim was a wizard. There never was a curse, the guy your great x 12 grandpa pissed off killed every man that turned 30 in your family and when he couldn’t anymore he got his son to continue. They’ve been passing down this twisted family tradition for decades, getting better and better at it as time passed with connections to classified military tech.”

“H-how did you…?” stammered Archy, seizing his struggling.

Everyone stood in shock, absorbing the info that I just shared, dumbfounded. “What did gramps do to your grandpa that you’ve been coming after us for so long?”

“I-I don’t really know, we’ve just been doing this. Everyone said it was so bad that great x 12 grandpa would never tell anyone” answered Archy, staring into the distance. He then turned to me as did everyone else in the room. I turned to Xiz, seeing him ask the question to our invisible guest in whatever tongue he spoke. Finally, he told me what happened. I let that knowledge sit in my head for a bit, mulling it over, wondering if I should tell Cornelius the reason and then finally decided he had to know.

“Cornelius’s Gramps had a farm with some potatoes growing on it. He saw a pig eating it and tried to stop it from eating all of his crops. He yelled at it, tried pushing it, poking it, and other stuff until he couldn’t risk it ruining his harvest so he killed it. Turns out it was Archi’s grandpa’s prize winning pig so he was furious. Corny’s gramps offered the little money he had left but it wasn’t enough for Archi’s gramps. That’s when he placed the ‘curse’ on his family and has been keeping that going till now…”

“...”

“...”

“...Are you kidding me? A pig??” quaked Cornelius, freezing up before finally taking a seat on a nearby cot. “My family members were killed…over a pig!!”

Everyone turned to Archibald, who seemed like his whole world was falling apart around him. “A pig?? No. No no no no, that can’t be true. This whole time? Dad murdered people because of a pig? You’re lying, there’s no way that was the reason!”

“Was there ever a prize-winning pig?” I retaliated, crossing my arms.

“You’re a liar, I don’t know how you knew about the pig or who I am but there’s no way that’s the truth. You’re a demon! That’s what demons do! They add a pinch of truth to make their lies seem true! The pig got eaten by a tiger!”

“A tiger in the middle of Borealia? That’s where both your families used to live, correct? There’s no way there was one in that kind of climate…”

“I don’t care what you say, there’s no way that’s the truth” hollered Archy. Clarence shoved a sock into his mouth to shut him up.

“I believe you, you’ve proven yourself to me, Rumey. What are you going to do now?” questioned Cornelius, turning to me.

“Well I gotta go back to Borealia. I’ve gotta deal with some people chasing me.” I told Cornelius, scratching the back of my neck.

“Really? You can stay a bit here if you want, we’ve got your back! Come, we can go to the bar and celebrate a job well done Right guys!” beamed Cornelius. Everyone else cheered "Yeah!" in agreement.

“You know what? Yeah, I wouldn’t mind sticking around for a bit. Let’s celebrate!”

“Sounds great! For now, let’s rest and then tomorrow night I’ll book a bar for us to use.”

And so that’s what we did. Cornelius paid me some more for being a great help during the battle. I ended up with a grand total of $25 million from this whole ordeal. I thanked him profusely for that and then went to my room, my eyelids feeling heavy the second my head hit the pillow. Fighting and getting knocked around does that to you I guess. As I laid there, drifting off to sleep, I thought to  myself that I now had more than enough money to deal with my financial woes. I was excited to finally get those big monkeys off my back. I remembered Xiz’s predicament, getting betrayed by someone he loved, stuck to the paw, and then being forced to grant wishes to others for centuries as a slave. I felt bad for him and decided it was time to help him out. First thing I’d do would be deal with my money problems, then celebrate with my buddies at the bar, and finally surprise Xiz with his new found freedom. I was excited to see his reaction as everything slowly faded to black, finally getting some needed shut eye.