20 And then we met

The scorching sand burnt Kael's feet so unbearably that he wanted to jump into the ocean but the predating shark fins on the shore greatly discouraged him from doing so. Behind his back was a huge cliff that he could not even think of climbing. While his feet greatly suffered, his upper body was in no less turmoil. The equatorial sun was shooting lasers at his body. He felt as if his body was going to smolder away because of the heat. No breath he took felt full enough and gradually all the insufficient breaths stacked into suffocation. The heat, on the top of everything, was driving him to the brink of insanity.

He looked around him but found no shades to hide under. He would bend down to lessen the burning sun but it would remind him of his burning feet. Even if he turned away from the sun, the rocks were so heated that they would almost reflect back all the heat back to his face.

As he tried to cover his face with both of his hands he noticed that his hands were very small. Too small to be the hands of a man in his twenties. He looked at his feet and they were small as well. He was definitely looking at the hands of a child. He waved his hands to see if they really were attached to his body. He took another glance at his feet that had gone red due to heat. The feet looked rather feminine so his glance shifted upwards to his knees.

"A skirt?" Kael murmured.

The distraction did not last very long as he felt nauseous and got on his knees. His knees were even more sensitive to the heat but he had no strength to get back up. With his weak eyes, he gazed at the ocean that extended to the horizon. He was forced to close his eyes as the waves reflected the lights directly into his eyes but the hurtful light persisted through his eyelids. As he struggled in darkness while the piercing light consistently probed at his eyes trying to invade his concealment, he forced them open again but this time he was staring at the white ceiling.

"Holy shit, You scared me," The blonde man that seemed to be approaching him before he opened his eyes stepped backward seeming quite shocked.

Kael found himself in a hospital room. His body felt sore but there was no pain at all. He quickly swung his right arm towards his own face to have a look at it, It was no longer a child's arm. It was his own arm but covered in bandages rendering him unable to see the skin.

He quickly picked his body up to look around the room. There was no one else except the blonde man who looked alert due to his sudden movement.

"Hey, take it easy. I don't think you should be moving this soon," he said looking a bit awkward.

Kael opened his mouth to say something but only a squeak came out of it. His body functions were all in disarray. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"Where is this place?"

"The headquarter of the UNRM,"

"Whoa, wait. What country is this?"

"The united states," Marcellus said realizing that Kael would not have any idea where he was since he was unconscious throughout his transportation.

"I'm Marcellus. I'm from France"

Kael was a bit dizzy since he had just woken up. Although his body was fine his memory was a bit hazy and he was taking a long time processing the conversation.

"I'm Kael," He said shaking off his incoherent train of thoughts.

"Like the superman?" Marcellus immediately asked.

Kael did not understand what he meant at first. He just nonchalantly sat there with a blank mind for a while making the atmosphere quite awkward.

"No, that's Kal-El,"

"Oh" Marcellus avoided eyes to look at the window and felt even more awkward, "Anyway welcome back to life"

Marcellus felt rescued when he heard the sound of the door opening behind him.

"Oh shit he is awake," Yahiko stood shocked after thoughtlessly entering through the door.

"Hi, I'm Yahiko." He said tossing a drink towards Marcellus.

"I'm Kael."

Kael had a lot of questions but he decided to save them for later.

"Oh, Is that how it's pronounced? like the superman?" Yahiko immediately asked almost as if he was imitating Marcellus.

Kael just sighed as he felt like he was wasting his energy so he looked at Marcellus who had already been given an answer to the question.

"No idiot, that's Kal-El" Marcellus looked at Yahiko mockingly.

"Oh," Yahiko looked like he had just committed a grave crime but was immediately distracted by the look Marcellus had on his face" Give the fucking drink back."

Marcellus stepped back and chugged down the drink till the bottle was as dry as a desert.

The two then started their childish argument while Kael watched from the bed. He decided to pay them no heed and focus on his own thoughts for a moment.

"Ok, what is the last thing I remember doing." Kael browsed through his memories and immediately stumbled upon one where he was being pummeled by a psychopath.

"Oh, that happened."

He then went on to check his whole body. In the places where he was bandaged he applied pressure with his hand to check if it hurt but he was as good as new.

"It's strange,"

"What's strange?" Marcellus ignored Yahiko for a while as he noticed Kael looked a little lost.

"I should be hurt pretty badly, how am I this fine?"

"The doctor here is a god with healing powers,"

It was oddly easier to talk to him. At first, Marcellus was under the impression that a god who had people like Davidson and Ivanna as his clan members would be a lot more intimidating in person but Kael seemed more approachable than he had thought. In fact, he even seemed quite underwhelming. It was definitely refreshing to meet a clan member who did not radiate an extraordinary presence but deep down he was quite disappointed because he wanted the head of the clan to be rather impressive.

Everyone turned their attention towards the opening door again.

"Who are these people?" Kael wondered. He was trying to connect the dots together without asking anyone but he could not figure out why he was brought so far away from his home. He doubted it was merely for his treatment. His family did not have that kind of wealth.

Davidson entered the room and saw Kael up in his bed.

He was comparatively less surprised than the two boys before him.

"How are you feeling Mr. Kael?" He asked standing next to Yahiko.

"Finally someone who pronounces my name correctly," Kael thought to himself, " Everything seems fine from what I can feel right now,"

On the other hand, he was getting more and more curious about his situation. The old man looked quite different. He looked like someone you would only get to see on TV or in the movies. He presented himself with manners and he had an extraordinary charisma around him.

"And you are?" Kael was an introvert who rarely started conversations or was any good at maintaining a coherent conversation but Davidson felt rather easy to talk to him despite his appearance.

"Oh, pardon my absence of mind," one could easily mistake Davidson's posture at right now as someone performing a curtain call, "I'm called Daniel Davidson."

"Is it in his nature to be this polite or am I a special case? Am I even awake right now?" Kael wondered failing to understand why a person like that stood before him.

"Can you guys tell me why I was brought here?"

Before anyone could say anything the door burst open and a man who looked very excited hurried towards Kael and took a look at the monitors.

"Hi," Martin said catching his breath.

"Please tell me If we are expecting more people, it's getting quite tiresome to be shocked at every new person who enters," Kael sighed heavily as he turned his attention towards the man who was obviously a doctor.

After Martin was done with looking at the stats he took out a light pen from his pocket and lit them up towards Kael's eyes.

"Follow the torch with your eyes," He said moving the light pen left and right and Kael complied.

"Normal," he said turning off the light, "Now tell me your name and age in a full sentence."

"My name is Kael Rai and I'm 21 years old," Kael was not sure what was going on but doing what the doctors tells one to do at the hospital seemed like a normal thing to do.

"Speech is normal, Do you perfectly remember everything about yourself and what happened to you?"

"All the pieces seem to be intact so far," Kael answered after testing his own mind for a moment.

"Memory is normal too," Martin murmured and then immediately moved on to his next test, "What's nine times seven?"

"Sixty-three." He answered after taking about four seconds.

"Not bad considering you just woke up from a vegetative state."

"Isn't it under expectation for him to be normal after you used your powers on him?" Davidson raised his concern.

"Not quite," Martin looked thoughtful as he faced Davidson, "He has some underlying conditions that I did not inform you about earlier,"

Davidson raised his eyebrows.

"Now hold on a second guys," Kael reached the end of his patience watching the two continue their conversation without him, "Can someone tell me what's happening? and why am I here?"

Davidson cleared his throat and offered his full attention to Kael. Perhaps it was because of the idea of Kael being their supposed leader instilled into his mind, he could not quite see him the same way he saw Marcellus and Yahiko. He could not bring himself to treat him as young and foolish like them even though he did not know Kael's personality.

"Let me," Martin volunteered to be the one to explain but was soon distracted by the sound of the door opening.

"You know it's getting quite irritating-" Kael lost his speech as well as his mind when he looked at the door.

He wanted to gulp down his nervousness but his brain would not command it. The dazzling figure that slowly walked towards him made him gradually lose his awareness. The colorful monitors, the annoying beeps, and all the other people in the room all vanished from his vision and consciousness. He had to periodically check if he was breathing right.

It was not anyone he did not know. It was the face he had spent many nights staring at. Those were the lips he had kissed countless times. The eyes that had showered him with love were staring right back at him. It was her. The girl whose voice had rescued him from clutches of apathy. However, this time it was her in person rather than a figment from his fantasies.

Time started moving for him again when she halted her steps. He gulped and forcibly erased all his thoughts of her in fear that her discerning gaze would see through his wicked mind that had nonconsensually claimed her as his in his fantasies.

Everyone else in the room gave him time to come to his senses because his situation was something they could empathize with very well, particularly Marcellus and Yahiko.

"He must be a fan" Yahiko whispered to Marcellus.

"He is definitely a fan," Marcellus whispered back.

The room was already Ivanna's domain. People only noticed things that she was giving attention to. If she remained silent they would wait for her to speak. If she talked they would put forth their lives to get every bit of word she said. They would speak only if she demanded answers. Even Davidson had been affected by this mysterious routine that was developing within their group, It was almost as if they had been dyed by her will.

Kael's nervousness peaked since the silence in the room had extended for an uncomfortably long time. Ivanna was not saying anything but shrewdly staring at Kael.

"It's Ivanna," Kael screamed inside his head, "It's really her"

"Maybe I'm still not awake after all,"

He pinched his thighs and immediately flinched due to the immense pain. He used too much force because he was more inclined on this being not real.

"Damn, she is real,"

"Why is she here? why is she staring at me?"

"Why is she this pretty?"

Kael grew more nervous as the time passed but in reality, it had only been a few seconds since she showed up. It was just his anxiety acting up and swallowing him whole.

"Why isn't anybody talking?" He quickly looked around and realized the spotlight was clearly on him, "maybe I should say something."

"Hi, I'm Kael,"

Seeing Ivanna not saying anything in return made him further nervous so his next move was to stretch his sentence to make things less awkward.

"Like the superman," was his thoughtlessly crafted sentence that seemed rather nostalgic.

"I thought it was Kal-El," Ivana replied nonchalantly.

"How the fuck did I end up saying that?" Kael nervously smiled in agreement and went on to mentally jump off a building.