Sterling sighed as he entered his living room, another long boring day in the lab. It was too bad the General didn't commission more exciting projects, Sterling was basically handing everything off to his apprentice for training. By the time he got back to his home his mind was so numb from lack of use he could barely open the door. Getting back he deciding to 'exercise' his mind by mixing a rather complicated cocktail. Perhaps not the most sensible decision after a day not using his head, but he barely cared at this point. Taking his drink in hand he flipped on the TV, fully intent on tuning into an old colleague's press conference. Instead it was still on the Atlas News Network, which was currently broadcasting the Vytal Tournament. It seemed the semifinal rounds were starting up, the first of which was beginning just now.
"And there we have it, Jasmine Gale of Beacon versus Kobalt Ward of Beacon." One of the announcers called out.
Ward? Sterling thought, I don't recall meeting a Kobalt Ward.
Intrigued, Sterling took a seat and decided to watch the fight. Very quickly it seemed this Kobalt was either holding back and simply didn't care, he barely bothered fighting back as the match progressed. Suddenly the girl he was fighting slammed her hand to the ground and the whole stadium erupted in music. The arena tiles rose and fall with the music and the girl launched a new attack, sending Kobalt flying out of the ring. Believing that was that Sterling went to take a sip of his drink, but when Kobalt blasted himself back to the ring with a wave of blue energy he nearly spit it all up.
"It couldn't be." Sterling gasped taking a closer look at the young boy, he had looked almost familiar before but looking more closely Sterling was reminded of something from years ago. Pale white skin, dark black hair with a single streak of blue in it, and bright blue eyes. He had the look of Seraphina, and with that energy there was only one person it could be. Sterling didn't wait for the match to end, he reached for his scroll and called his daughter.
"Dad? What are you calling for at this time of night?" Sera asked, the sounds of the arena crowd in the background.
"Sweetheart is there something you've forgotten to tell me?" he asked her "Something to do with the young man fighting in the tournament right now?"
"Oh my, I guess I was a bit out of sorts. I forgot to call you." Sera chuckled awkwardly over the call "My son's come back."
"Yes well I gathered as much." Sterling laughed "What happened to him?"
"It's a rather long story, and I'd rather not tell it over a call." She added "I'm sure you have a hundred questions about it all."
"Well if that's the case why not have him tell me," he suggested "In person."
"Dad I'm not sure if that's a good idea, he was involved with some dangerous people before he came back." His daughter informed him
"Then what safer place is there than Atlas?" he asked "What kind of people could get him here? In the military district no less."
"Even still..." she paused
"Sera I have seen my grandson a single time, and he was only just born." Sterling added "If you're that worried about his safety I could speak to General Ironwood about it. Or you could pay attention to the match."
As Sterling was talking he noticed Kobalt had begun truly fighting back against his opponent. It was a sight to behold, his skill despite being behind was impressive. In fact he seemed to be even more driven because of his potential failure. His speed, skill, and grace were incredible. He moved like a dance around and through pillars as they shot up with the music, attacking with precision not once missing his mark. As his foe pushed herself up and away from him he climbed up the pillars and boosted himself towards her, knocking her off the platform and securing his victory.
"He's something else isn't he?" Sterling asked
"You don't know the half of it." Sera told him "Alright, I'll ask him about it, there should be a large break from school coming after the tournament. I don't know what he'll say, Marek and I haven't seen him in over a decade ourselves."
"Wait Marek is back as well?"
"Oops?" she tried
"Don't tell me you just let him off the hook for abandoning you?" Sterling nearly roared
"Dad our son disappeared, Marek was never one to sit still in times like that." She explained "Besides I thought Kobalt was giving him enough of a hard time for the both of us."
"Oh?"
"I'll explain it to you another time." she insisted
"He's right there isn't he?" Sterling realized
"Marek says hello." Sera sighed "And sorry."
"Oh yes sorry makes up for everything he did to my daughter." Sterling added sarcastically
"Goodbye dad."
"Goodbye dear." Sterling smiled as he hung up the call.
It very slowly began dawning on him how much work he'd have to do if he was about to see his grandson. This was not only his daughter's son, but a Ward as well, which meant if he wanted to follow the family tradition he'd want a weapon. A real weapon, Sterling was nearly bouncing up and down at the prospect of making something worthy of the title again, something he would be proud to give his grandson.
Determined to actually watch the fight in person this time, Nickole arrived at the colosseum long before the first match even began. She still needed help getting there though, so now she was stuck listening to Tristan and Amber being such a stereotypical cute couple it was nearly making her vomit. It was so sickening Nickole was almost positive it was all an act, a way for Amber to mark her territory. That being said it was probably unnecessary, because despite rushing to her side in the quarter finals Kobalt still had a following. The second he made it to the semifinals there was a much larger focus on him in general, and of course the number of girls fawning over him had increased as well. It seemed he had particularly large group of fans from Atlas, which wasn't all too surprising considering he had his mother's Atlas appearance rather than his father's. Still, it bothered her to no end, didn't some of these girls realize he already had a girlfriend? She couldn't help but wonder how the hell Amber was able to put up with it all, especially after years of it. She nearly turned over to ask her when she remembered how nauseous the couple next to her was being. Rolling her eyes Nickole turned her attention to the arena, where they were getting set for the next round. She could barely see Kobalt too, after the first round they didn't bother having all the contestants on the floor at once. So now he was waiting off to the side while they got the arena ready. She had barely managed to glimpse his dark armor when her scroll went off, seeing it was him she looked back down to see he had a hand raised to his head and was waving.
"Hey you okay?" Kobalt asked her when she picked up the call and plugged in her headphones so she could hear him.
"Yeah why?" asked Nickole, confused
"Well you are sitting next to the world's most annoying couple." Kobalt chuckled into the mic.
"Oh they'll calm down once the fight actually starts up." Nickole added "What about you, getting more nervous as the rounds go on?"
"More like anxious, I'm all but itching to get out there again." He told her, and even from up in the stands Nickole could see the smile on his face.
"Well let's see if you're up next." She said as the arena was prepped and the randomizer started up.
With only four contestants left the odds were good that Kobalt would be up next. Of course luck had never been in Kobalt's favor, and it wound up being Furi Midori up next. And he was against the last member of Atlas to make it to this far, Ziel Strahl. The fourth year Atlas student had barely broken a sweat in the previous round against a Vacuo opponent, and if Nickole remembered he all but single handedly fought in the rest of the tournament. He was good there was no doubt about it, and it wasn't just raw skill. He didn't carry a weapon, instead he fought in a white and carbon fiber combat suit that looked more advanced than most gear Nickole had seen before. It probably enhanced his strength too in addition to whatever else it might do. Despite all this, Furi looked perfectly calm, as though he wasn't even troubled by his opponent.
"I'll let you go," Kobalt said "This ought to be a good fight, won't want to miss it."
The timer had barely hit zero when suddenly Ziel punched the air in front of him, seemingly warming up at first. But as his fist flew in the air Nickole heard the sound of glass shattering, and Ziel's fist suddenly appeared in front of Furi. Looking down Nickole noticed glass floating in the air next to both ends of Ziel's hand, broken into thousands of pieces but not falling to the ground. It was clear Ziel had kicked things up to eleven right out of the gate, the match had barely started and already he was showcasing his semblance, something he had hidden in the preliminary matches. Furi was caught off guard, barely managed to get his sword and sheath up in time to block the following attacks launched by Ziel. Once he realized his opponent was able to reach across the distance however, he quickly righted himself and started easily dodging the attacks. As Furi rolled under an attack he came up, slicing with his blade and sending a wave of plasma at Ziel. With his opponent briefly distracted, Furi charged forwards closing the distance in an instant. The speed of his attacks was incredible, and Nickole was starting to wonder just how well she might've faired against him if it was her up there. Furi was good, and Kobalt might've done too well a job helping him with his semblance. The green plasma that glowed along his blade seemed brighter than before, and if Professor Midori had been any indication then the brighter it was the more powerful it was. He attacked quickly and mercilessly, dropping Ziel's Aura rapidly.
Before Furi could continue any further, Ziel's hand shot out followed by a loud bang as a huge explosion separated the two. Ziel pumped his arm and Nickole saw the glint of a used up Dust core eject from his gauntlet. He loaded what looked like a new bright blue one into it and settled into an offensive stance. The moment Furi moved an inch, Ziel dashed forward and throwing out punches that reached through space like before, leaving the same broken glass in the air as before. He didn't slow down while attacking, striking out as he ran as fast as he seemed to be able to. Once he was in range Furi tried to launch a counter attack, only to be met with a rapid serious of blocks as Ziel showed just how much experience he had dueling. Now that he knew how fast Furi was he had adjusted extremely quickly, and was now dropping Furi's Aura, though slowly. For his part Furi was barely able to block the occasional hit, and seemed to be fumbling the fight at this point.
"Seems he finally found someone to give him a run for his money." Nickole heard an all too familiar voice through her headphones as she realized she never took them out. Luna. "He's never fought anyone worthwhile."
"You clearly don't know your classmate very well." Kobalt scoffed, he must not have hung up the call.
"Oh and you do?" Luna asked him, staying fairly amicable despite their last encounter.
"Better than you, clearly." Kobalt retorted, almost angrily from the sounds of it. "Maybe if you paid attention you'd see Furi is holding back."
As if on cue Furi lashed out, knocking Ziel's hand away and brought his blade across his chest. Ziel's Aura dipped even lower, below the halfway mark now. Before Furi could finish him off however, Ziel dropped his hand through space to the ground and a mountain of ice shot out from the point of impact carrying Furi up into the air. Still in the air, he sheathed his blade and it was clear he was charging it as he fell. He landed at the top of the ice mountain and slid down, sliding around Ziel's fists as the shot out towards him. Slowly Ziel started backing away from the ice as Furi sped towards him, but he should've been running instead. Furi reached the bottom of the ice and kicked off, propelling himself towards Ziel at lightning speed. In the split second before Ziel could react, Furi unsheathed his blade and cleaved through him as he passed by. He landed a few feet back and returned his blade to its sheath as the match was called. Ziel's Aura was a sliver away from being depleted, and Furi's was still above half.
"Nice job man." Kobalt congratulated Furi as he walked off the arena "I'm going to regret teaching you soon aren't I?"
"That depends on you." Furi chuckled, "You're up next, and keep in mind I want a rematch."
"Noted." Kobalt laughed as he walked on to the arena himself now, there was no need for him to wait for the randomizer. There was only one opponent left for him to face, Luna. At this point Nickole knew she should hang up the call and stop listening in on the fight. But she couldn't help herself.
"I wouldn't fret about your rematch with him just yet," Luna said as the counter began "I don't plan on going down without a fight."
"And I don't plan on playing nice." Kobalt spat back at her.
"Ooh do I sense some animosity?" Luna chuckled "How is Nickole doing right now, those legs look like they hurt."
Nickole could hear Kobalt seething at the comment over the scroll, Luna was clearly trying to piss him off. And it was working rather easily, perhaps too well. Nickole knew it would take more than jabs like that to set Kobalt off balance, and she knew from training that he fought…differently when he was mad.
The instant the countdown was done, Kobalt blasted himself towards Luna, draining a quarter of his Aura in the process. But something about it wasn't right, that alone shouldn't have drained much. It wasn't until Luna surrounded herself in an orb that Nickole knew why, not even bothering to draw his sword Kobalt punched clean through, shattering the orb without even slowing down. When Nickole saw the flames trailing his fist she knew that he hadn't blasted himself forward, he had sped forwards after putting himself in overdrive. Excessively in overdrive. His punch connected to Luna's face and sent her flying off the edge of the arena. In less than a second Kobalt was above her off the ring himself, he slammed both his hands into her gut sending her plummeting down to the floor below as he launched himself back to the arena. Luna crashed into the ground so hard she left a crater in the floor and her Aura was more than gone.
"Unbelievable!" Viridian called out as the arena floor lowered and the crowd went nuts. "A three second match ending in a knockout ring out combination!"
As Kobalt began to walk off the arena Luna managed to push herself to her knees, if she had been put off by Kobalt back when he stopped her from hurting Nickole then she was livid now. Activating her saber she threw it at Kobalt while his back was turned. His Aura was up so there was no point in it, but his reflexes were still heightened by overdrive. He ducked under the saber, grabbed it out of the air and hurled it back towards Luna, impaling it at the ground to her side.
"And my mother thinks of you as one of her favorites." Kobalt scoffed as he turned back around and left without another word. Nickole immediately ended the call, she was practically shaking. For the briefest of moments she was worried Kobalt's other side might take control and make things much worse.
"So that's all it takes for an idol to fall huh?" Amber asked as the colosseum grew quiet. "I looked into her you know, people love her she's like a folk hero. But after what she just did, attacking him with his back turned like that…"
"I hope Kobalt's alright." Tristan added
"Kobalt? Are you joking?" Amber nearly shouted "With how easily he just took her down I don't think we need to worry about him."
"Easily, more like brutally." Tristan corrected "That wasn't like him. Say what you will about Kobalt, he's not brutal."
"But his flames were blue." Nickole told them "If it was really—"
She stopped herself, Amber had no idea about Kobalt's dark side. And there was no telling who might be listening to the three of them right now.
"If it was what?" Amber asked
"It's a long story." Tristan sighed "Kobalt's past is more complicated than we thought."
"You're kidding me." said Amber "What is going on?"
Nickole opened her mouth with every intention of saying she'd explain somewhere else, but as she did her scroll rang in her pocket. She pulled it out to see the caller ID was Mrs. Ward.
"Hello?" Nickole answered hesitantly
"Nickole, something's wrong." Mrs. Ward spoke, her voice was shaky "It's Kobalt, I don't know what to do. Something's very wrong."
"I need to get down there, now." Nickole said putting her scroll back in her pocket and pushing herself up. She grabbed her crutches and pushed herself as fast as she could to the stairs.
"Hey hold up." Amber called after her as she started to move down the stairs. "You barely made it up with help you can't go down."
"That was Kobalt's mom, something is going on." Nickole said as she shakily started her way down the steps.
"Tristan?" Amber asked behind her.
"Already on it." Tristan added as he grabbed Nickole's arm and threw it over his shoulder. "You need to get down there fast, fine. But you're not getting down these stairs without help."
"Thanks." Nickole breathed as she was helped down.
"Amber a hand?" Tristan asked, his voice strained "I'm not Justin."
"Right yeah." Amber nodded, heading over to Nickole's right side and helping in the same way as Tristan. "Starting to understand what I see in him?"
"Nope." Nickole insisted as they hit the bottom of the stairs and she took off ahead with her crutches. Her arms were going to be dead by the time she stopped, but right now she wasn't even giving it a second thought. She found the entrance to the arena floor and burst through it into the long hallway that lead out onto it. There she saw Kobalt, halfway down with one hand against the wall and the other on his head. Further down a crater had been punched into the wall the size of Nickole's shield. Mrs. Ward was just behind him, clearly trying to do something for her son. Nickole rushed forward to find Kobalt with his eyes shut tight and his jaw clenched.
"Get out of my head." He muttered as they all got closer, opening his eyes it was almost as if there was a haze to them. He started to fall forwards, and Nickole rushed to catch him before he fell, ignoring the pain in her legs as she caught him.
"Come on Blue, stay with me." Nickole whispered as she barely managed to pull him up.
"I had to end that quickly," Kobalt breathed "It was all I could do to keep him back."
"The other you?" Nickole asked him quietly.
"I was angry enough already just dealing with her, but then she mentioned you and what happened in the last doubles match." Kobalt nodded "And I could feel him raging, he wanted to tear her apart."
"It's okay, it's over." She told him shakily, every part of her was worried he might fall apart right then and there. "Just calm down, push him out."
"I'm trying it's just…" he started, then Nickole felt him start burning up, every part of Kobalt's body was emitting heat like an oven. Nickole pulled him in closer, almost trying to keep him there with her as if he would run if she let go. It seemed to do the trick, for all of ten seconds. But just as Nickole was starting to think Kobalt might be calmed down, Luna walked into the hallway from the arena.
"What's going on here? After what he did to me you're all worried about him?" she asked incredulously "What is wrong with him?"
"What's wrong with him?!" Nickole reeled, any anger from Kobalt being channeled to her as she nearly lost it. "You're what's wrong! This is all your fault!"
"My fault?" Luna asked "If he wasn't so concerned for you he wouldn't have been so angry in the first place!"
"Are you kidding me, where do you get off saying that? You're the one who hated my family so much that you just had to try and humiliate me, probably hoping to get me out of your way too!" Nickole shouted "Then you go and try to piss him off in the match because you didn't get him after all! If he wasn't such a good person you'd be in far worse shape than you are now! Just leave him alone!"
"Good person? He's the furthest thing from a good person I've ever-" Luna started as she walked forward, but before could continue she was cut off by the flash of a blade flying past her head. Nickole's jaw dropped as she saw Mrs. Ward's disc blade impaled into the wall, her light cable cutting Luna off from walking further.
"P-professor?" Luna stuttered, a similar look of shock on her face.
"Your presence is hazardous to my son right now, and after what you did upon losing I don't want you anywhere near him." Sera spoke, scarily calm. It almost looked like there was a dark cloud hanging over her. "Take one more step, and for the next few moments I will not be your teacher."
"Professor please just let me explain." Luna pleaded, a look of concern finally filling her face.
"Just go!" Nickole shouted, stepping out from Kobalt to try and get her point across. She was so angry she complete forgot she was in casts. The moment she stepped forward and put all her weight on her leg it pain seared through her and she cried out as she plummeted to the floor. She barley registered the thought of bracing herself for a hard landing when a pair of hands shot out, catching her a mere few inches from the ground. Nickole looked up at him to see his eyes calm and clear, and she breathed a sigh of relief. At least for the moment, Kobalt was back to normal.
"You okay?" he asked, standing back up.
"Why do you even care about her?!" Luna shouted, and Nickole's heart dropped when Kobalt turned to her, his eyes dark. But it wasn't him who lashed out this time, it wasn't even his mother which is who Nickole would've guessed next. A loud gunshot rang out behind them all, and a trail of smoke rose from the ground at Luna's feet. A warning shot. Nickole careened her head to see Tristan with his rifle raised.
"You don't know a damn thing about either of these two! You don't know what he's been through, what they've been through together!" Tristan shouted, loud even for him when he got mad, his usual bright green eyes so dark they almost seemed like Kobalt's. "And you still think you can talk to them like that? Get the hell away from my friends or there's going to be a stump where your leg used to be."
Luna must've finally run out of courage, as she sprinted away the moment Tristan sighted his rifle. The moment she was out of sight Kobalt's eyes cleared again, and as he breathed it seemed like the whole hallway grew lighter. As Nickole slowly calmed herself down, she noticed both Tristan and Mrs. Ward had hands held to their hands.
"Tristan, you okay?" Amber asked, grabbing her boyfriend's arm.
"Got the mother of all headaches, but yeah." He said lowering his hand.
"Mom, are you-" Kobalt started
"I'm fine Kobalt," Sera sighed "I'm just, processing. In the meantime, Nickole should have her legs looked at."
"She's right, how are you holding up?" Kobalt asked her
"I'll live, I think I can make the walk to infirmary." She told him
"For those of you just tuning back in you may be about to wish you never left. As today, at the 38th Vytal Festival Tournament we have two new records." News reporter Lisa Lavender announced "Not only do we have the first time in thirty years that a fourth year student has lost to a first year, but we also have the shortest match in the tournament's history."
"That's right Lisa, a whopping three second long match between the last two contestants in the semifinals." Cyril Ian continued with the story "In the duel between Luna Langlias of Haven and Kobalt Ward of Beacon, Kobalt knocked Luna out of the ring and dropped her Aura in a single attack. Let's replay the clip shall we?"
The TV went on to replay Kobalt's near instantaneous victory over Luna, the timer reaches zero and the moment the match begins Kobalt ends it.
"Now that is truly something else, for those of you who can't figure out why this is such a big deal let us put some things in perspective for you. The next shortest match took place during the 32nd Vytal Festival and lasted forty-nine seconds." Lisa explained "That's nearly seventeen times as long, and the match was by no means close either. If we compare this to the other match of the evening, it almost seems like it never happened."
"In the match shortly before Kobalt's and Luna's, Furi Midori beat Ziel Strahl in one minute and twenty two seconds. Which is fairly close to the average time a semi-final match often takes, making it more impressive as Furi is a first year student at Haven." Cyril added "Yet despite being the only first year in thirty years to beat a fourth year student, it seems his own record may be overshadowed by his competitor's. In light of the situation we reached out to many of the spectators to get their take on the duel. Here's what they had to say."
"It was almost brutal the way he just plowed through her wasn't it?" a female spectator said as she came on screen "Knocking her out of bounds before slamming her back down, I don't know maybe it's just me but that seemed harsh."
"I'd never seen someone move that fast before in my life." An older man said "It was incredible, he never stopped moving. It was like she was a bug being splattered on the windshield."
"He just exploded on her, it was nuts." A Haven student added "Took her apart like she was nothing."
"These were only a few of the comments we got regarding the speed, and though I do hate to say it; near brutality of the fight." Lisa commented as the video rolled back to her and Cyril before switching to another student. "So we decided to dig deeper and find out if there was a reason why the match had gone this way."
"I've seen Kobalt around the Festival grounds plenty of times already," a young girl said "He seemed nice, like a normal guy. And he seemed like he was having fun in the rest of the fights. So it was weird seeing the way that duel went."
"I heard Luna had a thing for Kobalt, and when she found out he was dating someone already she took it out on them." A girl from Atlas said "Maybe Kobalt was trying to make her stop."
"She had it coming you ask me." The next student said, a Beacon student based of his uniform. "About a month before the tournament started up Luna got into a fight with Nickole Gareth, one of Kobalt's teammates. I saw it, you want brutal? That was brutal. Nickole threw everything she had at her and didn't make a scratch. Then Luna turns around and bangs Nickole up so bad Kobalt jumped in to stop the fight. I'd never seen someone as pissed as he was."
"I've known Kobalt since our Initiation at Beacon. He's a good guy, funny, smart. Get to know him and he'll stick up for you in a heartbeat." Jazz said coming into focus "He'll doing anything to help others, on a field trip he risked his life to save people from a crashed airship. And his team is like his family, not just his friends. Mess with them, well I'd feel sorry for you but you were warned."
"Unfortunately Kobalt and Luna, as well as both their teams, were unreachable for comments. We did however manage to speak with Furi, who will soon be Kobalt's opponent." Lisa said
"So why do you think Kobalt ended the fight so quickly?" Cyril asked as the video rolled to yet another clip.
"I'm sure a lot of people are wondering the same thing, most of those people don't know Luna." Furi said "I don't even know her that well and I have a good idea why. You've probably heard by now, but there's some bad blood between the two of them."
"You're referring to the duel between Luna and Nickole?" Cyril asked
"Yeah, that didn't end well for anyone. And Luna can hold a grudge, but I think Kobalt would've been willing to go easier if she hadn't." Furi went on "If Luna had just treated that like a normal duel maybe it wouldn't have gone the way it did."
"You think she took the match too personally?"
"She takes everything personal, on top of that she's cocky and she talks too much during fights." Furi answered "I think she said something to Kobalt before the match started, something that really pissed him off."
"Do you think she was trying to make him angry on purpose?"
"Maybe, it's hard to tell, but it wouldn't work on him anyway. His skill in combat is more than just raw strength. He's level headed and focused, regardless of what his emotions are. I'd know, I sparred with him not long ago. And from the sounds of it he'd just had the worst week of his life." Furi added "But I wouldn't have known if I hadn't heard from others. Someone like that, making them angry is a bad idea. Because instead of making them sloppy, you make them focus on taking you out."
"Can we turn this off?" Nickole asked as they all grew sick of listening to the excessive analysis of Kobalt's fight. She couldn't remember who had the bright idea of turning on the news after they got back to the dorm room, but it was far from what she wanted to listen to.
"Yeah sorry." Tristan said as he flicked the remote and started searching for something else on. "Can't believe they got Jazz too."
"At least she said something nice." Justin added
"Frankly I'm surprised they didn't mention me melting their gear." Kobalt sighed "That's probably why they didn't try talking to us again."
"Can't believe I'm the one asking this," Amber started "But are you going to be alright Kobalt?"
Nickole still wasn't sure if Amber fully understood what they had told her, Nickole barely understood it in the first place. But Amber was certainly smarter than her boyfriend, at the very least she didn't need them to repeat themselves.
"You want me to do the whole 'three guess' joke?" Kobalt asked her
"Fair enough." Amber said
Nickole decided it was better to keep it to herself, but she was sure that even if 'no' had been the answer to all three of those guess it wouldn't be close enough. There was no way in the winds Kobalt was alright, after what he had just been through he couldn't even be close to okay. She was almost against letting him fight in the final round of the tournament. But at the same time she couldn't take away the chance at winning after learning how long he'd wanted to fight in it. Still there had to be something she could do, as things stood right now she had barely done anything earlier. She didn't even know what to do if Kobalt ever started to lose control over his other half like that again.
Almost subconsciously Nickole pulled out her scroll, and loaded Mrs. Ward's number into her messenger list.
Mrs. Ward? It's Nickole, sorry to be messaging you like this but I think it's obvious we need to do something to help Kobalt after what happened earlier. Could you send me the entire report that psychologist made? I was hoping it would help me learn more about what he must be dealing with.
It barely took all that long for Mrs. Ward to respond, but it was clear within seconds that Mrs. Ward had been thinking the same thing.
I already went through the whole report, but I'll send it to you anyway, maybe you'll find something I didn't. It's clearly more than Black Knight knew about though, they thought it was just another personality. I think some time off might help him, somewhere quiet where he can gather his thoughts.
Like where?Nickole asked over the texts, what place could possibly be safe and quiet enough with Black Knight after him?
Atlas. Mrs. Ward responded.I didn't like the idea at first, but my father mentioned he'd like to spend some time with Kobalt now that he's come home. It's almost surreal how peaceful my father's home is, and it's inside the military district in central Atlas.
You think that will help?
Honestly, I'm not sure. But I don't know if there is much we can do, Marek has been pouring over his family's history trying to find something and even he's coming up empty handed. Perhaps with some solitude Kobalt can figure out what to do himself.
But how much solitude will he get with his grandfather?
You'd be surprised. And with the break coming up maybe it's the right time for him to visit Atlas.
Nickole wasn't convinced, after everything he had been through Nickole wasn't sure how well Kobalt would handle things alone. And she hated the thought of just abandoning him to go to Atlas alone, after the way she treated him in her own home she didn't want him to feel on his own again.
I'm not sure
But it is your father and your son. It's your call.
That's not true and you know it. You mean a lot to him, and you've been through a lot with him. You probably know more about what's happened to him than I do. So if anything it's as much your call as mine.
Nickole was shocked, she almost couldn't even respond to the message. She never imagined Kobalt's mother would so quickly accept her. Kobalt had said as much, but it was still absolutely amazing that it was true. But at the same time, the fact that Kobalt had been right sparked a realization in her.
It's not up to either of us actually, it's up to Kobalt. If he thinks going to Atlas will help then he should.
You've got a point, I'll talk to him about it after the tournament is over. Keep an eye on him for me okay?
Always.
Nickole barely realized how long she'd been texting Mrs. Ward until she put her scroll back in her purse and saw everyone was watching some cheesy movie now instead of the news.
"Who were you talking to?" Kobalt asked, noticing she had been texting the whole time.
"Hm, oh just uh, my mom." Nickole lied, saying the first thing that popped into her head.
A/N
Hey I'm alive! Hope everyone had/is still having an enjoyable winter holiday. My was great once I recovered from the flu in time for the family party.
By the way, I have a new request for readers specifically for this chapter. I noticed something weird going on with the text when I posted it, but when I looked back over there was nothing. If you saw something weird on this chapter please let me know.
Moving on from that, this chapter wound up really long, at first it was just Kobalt's fight. But I really wanted Kobalt to just flatten Luna outright for a multitude of reasons. Chief among them being his reaction to what she says. I found the best way to do that was to have him end the fight in seconds, but that led to there not being an enjoyable fight scene in this chapter. Enter Furi, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite side characters.
Also say to everyone Sterling. Another character I've been meaning to get to for some time now, he's fun. Him and Kobalt are going to have an interesting time once I get to the individual character development after the tournament. It's something I'm looking forward to getting to, we haven't seen how any of the our characters are when they're not part of a team. I think it will be a lot of fun.
As always; comment, critique, tear my work apart and point out all the glaring flaws if you feel like. Just try to be constructive, I can't fix anything if all you do is slam it.