Chapter 13

Arc 1

Sunstone City

Kala and Natalia had showered and dressed and left the childhood home of Cedric Harvey. They both sat in Kala's car on their way to the famous burger joint in Sunstone City, Burger Bros. It wasn't Pop's burgers but they were still good burgers nonetheless.

"I gotta ask. Have you always wanted to do this?" Kala asked, making Natalia look over at her confused by her question.

"Do what exactly?"

"Be a reporter."

"Kinda sorta. I've always had a passion for justice. It started back in my hometown. There was a family. The Del Sol family. They motivated me to become an investigative journalist. If it wasn't for them, I don't know what I'd do. What about you?"

"I had a passion for uncovering the truth. It started back in High School when Cedric and I would uncover some of the mysteries going on in our school. It started back when my dad cheated on my mom, he gave me an option. Either help him cover it up or tell mom and risk her happiness. I told her the truth and she kicked him out. Funny thing is when I told her, she was the happiest I ever saw her. Crazy right?"

"Yeah, you would think that someone that just found out their husband cheated would be upset."

"Yeah, sometimes I think she never loved him in the first place."

"That may have been the case."

"And we are here." Kala said as she pulled into a parking spot in the parking lot of Burger Bros. Kala and Natalia both got out of the car standing outside looking at the burger joint. Kala looked down at her phone as it began to ring while Natalia looked over at her.

"Why don't you go ahead? Get me a number 1." Kala said as Natalia walked towards the door of the joint.

"Hello, old friend." Kala heard making her look up to see Azalia Keating standing in front of her making her frown.

"Azalia." Kala said, making Azalia smirk as she then grabbed her and quickly bolted up into the air. A clatter was heard as her phone had dropped out of her pocket onto the ground. A few minutes later, Natalia came running outside looking towards the car. She walked towards the car looking around for her friend. She looked inside, seeing no one inside kinda confusing her. She looked down on the ground seeing her phone making her frown up as she started to panic while breathing frantically.

She didn't know what to do. She didn't know whether to call the cops or call Cedric. It was something about him that just gave her a feeling that he was the person to take care of situations like this. She kneeled and picked up the phone unlocking it and calling Cedric.

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Charge HQ

Cedric sat in the living room area of his new base. He had a lot of things on his mind. And right now they all involved the one man who he never thought would ever be back in his life: His father. Oddly enough the same bastard that walked out on him and his mom was the same bastard causing him so much stress right now. Cedric had to grow up in his life saving himself and his mother keeping them both from trouble while his father ran around doing God knows what. And he did a pretty damn good job for himself without him. Made it all to college, working a good job making good money. He learned how to shave, how to drive, had plenty of good birthdays without him but at the same time, there was a void. A void that could only be filled with the love of a father.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Dr. Alyssa Hart as she walked into the room looking at Cedric with concern in her eyes. He exhaled, shaking his head.

"You wanna talk about it?" Dr. Hart asked again as she took a seat next to him placing a comforting hand on his back.

"You know I spent years hating him. I hated him growing up. He abandoned me and my mother in a time of need. And when I met years later, I still hated him but I guess a part of me actually loves him. Crazy right?"

"He's your father. It's not crazy for a son to love their dad. Your dad only wants to protect you. He wants to do what he couldn't do all those years."

"But I'm older now. I don't need him to protect me anymore. I just-" He exhaled as he closed his eyes thinking about Koya. "I just need my father."

"Well-" Before Dr. Hart could say anything comforting to help her friend, they both were cut off by his phone ringing. He picked up his phone looking at the name coming across his screen with a confused frown. She usually didn't call him that match at times like this.

"Hey, Kala." He answered the phone but didn't hear her voice instead he heard the voice of Natalia.

"Slow down Nat-"

"What do you mean she's-"

"Just stay put I'm on my way." He said standing up to his feet. Dr. Hart noticed the change in his demeanor. He was no longer the sad, confused man that he was now he was full of anger and passion and a man of his stature with his abilities, that was a dangerous, dangerous man.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"It's Kala. She's gone missing."

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Sunstone City

Cedric came rushing in an alleyway. The perks of having abilities, you could get around fast. Very fast. He walked out of the alleyway walking towards Natalia who he could see was in the process of breaking down as she leaned up against Kala's car.

"Nattie!" Cedric shouted, getting her attention as he walked towards her. She looked up and he could see the worry in her eyes. She ran towards him and engulfed him within a hug to mostly calm her own worries.

"It's my fault. I should've never-" She said as they both separated.

"Don't."

"We can't waste time putting blame on others. The only thing we can do is look for her."

"I don't know if I should've called the police or you."

"You made the right choice. Tell me what happened."

"I don't know. I went in to order and when I came back out, she was gone. Her phone and her car were still here."

"Okay, well listen, I need you to take her car and go home. Go where you know that you're safe. In the meantime, I'll find her."

"But how-how are you gonna-"

"Nattie, just stay calm and let me handle this."

"Are you gonna be safe?"

"Don't worry about me. You just stay safe yourself." He said as she nodded. She opened the car door and got in. Cedric gave her one more nod easing her nerves a bit as she backed up before continuing on to drive. Cedric's frown once more appeared on his face as he looked up at the sky, he had a feeling about who took Kala.

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Charge HQ

Cedric came bolting back into his base with a frown on his face. Dr. Hart, who was sitting in the living room on the couch with a tablet in hand, looked up. It was evident to her that he was angry. Very angry.

"That bitch!" He said walking towards the table slamming his hand on it.

"Woah! I have never heard you use that type of language."

"I'm sorry Doc. I just" He sighed as he ran his hands over his face."I just want to find her. That's all. I think I know who took her."

"Azalia." Dr. Hart said as he nodded along.

"We need to focus our efforts on finding her. Track her anyone that you can."

"When she absorbed your powers, she took your energy too right?"

"Yea."

"Whenever I need to find you, I usually track you by a unique energy symbol that you leave when you use your powers. I think I can find her."

'Good. The sooner, the better."

"You just have to figure out how you're gonna take her down."

"I never thought about it."

"Then I suggest you start thinking about it." Dr. Hart stood up and walked out of the room leaving Cedric there alone thinking about his upcoming battle. There was no doubt that this one was gonna be a tough one.

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Flashback

Azalia Keating was walking through the hallways clutching her books with her backpack on her back. She was wearing glasses and had her hair up in a high ponytail. Despite her efforts, she could not keep the boys from messing with her. She was the one freshman around school that the guys kept messing with despite all of her efforts to get them to leave her alone.

"Hey Zaza." The voice of Trent Stewart said. He was the star Quarterback for Sunstone City High and believed that he was untouchable, going around flirting with girl after girl. Having Sex with girl and girl and etc. Zaza was the name that he gave Azalia, he was hoping that she would be the one to fall under his will. Trent had a quota, he tried to get a freshman each year and this year, he chose Azalia.

"Don't call me that. That's not my name."

"So what do you want it to be? Bae, maybe?"

"No, I'm not interested in being your Freshman slut of the year. That's not how I want to spend my years in high school."

"Come on just one night?"

"No, just please leave me alone."

"Bitch, I'm not asking no more. I'm telling you." He said as he pushed her up against a locker making her drop her books. He grabbed her by her wrist and pinned her on the lockers by her wrist.

"Hey man what the hell are you doing?!" shouted Cedric as he came walking towards Trent dropping his bag and pushing Trent down to the ground saving Azalia from his clutches.

"Yo, stay the hell out of my business."

"The minute your horny ass starts messing with freshman and forcing them to have sex with you, it becomes my business. If I catch you doing some shit like this again, I won't hesitate to whoop your ass in front of everybody and expose you, Trent."

"This ain't over Harvey. This damn sure ain't over." Trent said as he stood up and walked away leaving the two alone while he walked away with a frown. Cedric bent down and collected Azalia's book from the ground before stacking them up and handing them to her.

"Thanks." She smiled as she looked down at the ground afraid to look Cedric in his eyes. Cedric rose a hand up and watched as she flinched clearly afraid that he was going to hit her. He exhaled as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's fine, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm not Trent. But you make sure that anytime that idiot comes near you, you come get me. I'll give you my number in case you need to call me." He said as he then took out a gum wrapper from his back pocket and pulled out a pen writing down his phone number before handing it to her, getting a smile. He reached down picking up his backpack and putting it on.

He looked back at her once more waving as he continued on making his way down the hallway while Azalia smiled clutching her books in pure bliss.