Should I say I'm sorry for the delay?
Chapter 5 : Rediscovering
Norton Mansion, Troy, Pennsylvania, USA
"Here. How do you feel, now, dad?" Eathon eagerly stuffed his mouth with sausages and bacon, and let out something that could be an encrypted 'much better'. Sophie, sprawled on a chair, muttered : "Now I get from which parent Lok gets his manners!" The elder Lambert nearly choked on his meal, trying to stifle his laughter. "I'm not that bad, Sophie!" Lok protested, frowning. "On that, I have to agree with Lok. After all, this is his first regular meal from years!" Dante pointed out, failing to hide his huge grin.
Before Eathon could think of something else, the door opened. Frank leaned against the door frame, and in a dangerous casual voice announced : "There's someone here who would like to meet ya, Eathon. Here they are!" He sidestepped, and the figure of his wife, Sandra, appeared. He gulped loudly, shifting in the sheets, and heard himself mutter the stupidest thing he could have said. "How are you, honey?"
Two steps later, Sandra began to apparently use her husband's chest as a drum, improvising a fast melody. Between blows, she hissed furiously : "You... complete... asshole!... Eathon... Lambert!" Unable and unwilling to defend himself, after a few seconds he struggled to whisper : "Yeah... missed you, too!" Sandra stopped her beating, looked down at him with fire in her eyes, then hugged him hard, breaking down crying. Frank snorted. "If I didn't know that for them it's just foreplay, I would've said that thing was the damnest thing I ever saw!"
It was the last thing he could say, because a mean straight got him in the solar plexus, and his lungs exhaled all the air they had got. "You couldn't stop him for disappearing all this years, all you could do was standing there and approve, eh, you fat-headed, two-timing bonehead?" Frank had to fight hard to keep standing. Luckily, Sandra's wrath seemed to vanish as they heard a sharp : "Dad!", as Cathy ran over to Eathon. "Cathy! My God, look at you, you're beautiful! I didn't dare hope you would turn out as good as you are... guess you got all the pretty genes, uh?" Before Lok could metabolize, laughter exploded everywhere, even from his mother's side.
Eathon's face turned flabbergasted as he looked at the man standing by the door, smiling. "Metz... then it's true!" "I'm afraid it is. I'm completely healed, old friend!" He grasped his best friend's hand, who reciprocated it with surprised joy. Metz went on : "I owe it to your son and his friends... without them, I'd be done for. But Lok has demonstrated what he can do!"
Eathon's head collapsed back on the pillow, all the energy drained from him. "This must be some kind of a miracle. But perhaps, it's because everything back then was so desperate..." Cathy took advantage of this, and dutifully raising a finger asked : "Yeah, by the way, could someone explain this to me? Mom told me just the basics, but that's all, and I would like to know something more about what happened to you, and about this 'Seeker' stuff!" Frank nodded and sat down on a chair, beginning : "Well, it's a long story..."
After he had finished telling his story, it was Lok's turn to explain how he had become a Seeker and how the Organization had been defeated. Then, Lok said : "The only missing piece of the puzzle is what happened to Dad when the Professor was hunting him..." All the heads went in Eathon's direction, who sighed. "It's not something pleasant, you must have understood it by now, but you have a right to know. When I left this house, nine years ago, I didn't have a destination in mind; all that mattered was keeping as far away from the Organization as possible; the first months, I managed to lose my pursuers in Mexico. That's when I sent home the Aztec vase where you, Lok, found my diary and Kipperin's amulet; I didn't want it to fall in their hands, diary apart. Then, they sniffed my trail again, and I had to move again; it was the beginning of a nightmarish voyage, that took me right in the middle of the Amazonas forest. Then, I was cornered on a rock standing near a waterfall..."
Eight years before
As the burly man in the white suit approached him, Eathon's heart sank. Behind the bulk, behind the balding head, behind the self-assured smirk, he still could make out the features of his old mentor. The man who had taught him about Titans, and magic, and lore. The man with whom he had a deeper relationship than with his parents.
"Well, Eathon, aren't you going to say hello to an old friend?" The voice was deeper, but what shocked him most was the complacency he could feel... the complacency of the hunter whose prey is now trapped beyond any hope. His reply was steel-cold. "I don't see any friend here... only someone whose curiosity and eagerness led him onto a dark path!" Mock hurt appeared on the Professor's face. "What dark path? I only learned the ultimate lesson; which is, there is no good and evil after all. There's only power... and those unworthy or unable to understand it!" A smile formed under Eathons' mustaches. "That was not what you taught me... Simon." "Neither you are the same boy whose only concern was finding old and mysterious things, not caring from anything else!" the Professor replied, unfazed. "Or the man who cared so much for his friend that he spent a year of his life in the hospital." He added, with a strange expression twisting his face. Eathon felt a pang of nostalgia in his chest, stronger than he expected; it fed his delusion and his rage, and he took out Dendras' amulet. The agents' reactions were stopped by an imperious gesture of Simon. "You left this to me when you left... and now I give it back. I don't want to think I might be in debt with you!" The amulet disdainfully fell before the Professor's feet; for a moment, he was stunned, then his expression went hard. "Is this your final word?" And he didn't mean the amulet only. His former pupil shrugged and said matter-of-factly : "You bet!"
For long seconds only the waterfall's voice was heard. Then, Simon lifted his right hand, the hand with Araknos' ring, and bellowed : "Then, I'm sorry for this, old friend!" The ring glowed, but Eathon didn't wait for it to go off and suck all the secrets in his head. He was completely lucid, he had no doubt of what to do next; he abruptly turned around, his backpack with the Holotome slipping from his shoulders, and jumped. Simon could only stare, his mouth hanging open, as the figure of Eathon went smaller and smaller, to finally disappear in the foam. His eyes stared fixedly at the bottom of the waterfall for some minutes, then went on the amulet lying on the rock. For a moment, sadness was clearly etched on his features; then, he forced the feeling away, and with a Bubblelift he took the familiar amulet and the Holotome he knew all too well. He walked slowly away, never turning around again.
Now
"Then that's why the Professor had Dendras' amulet and your Holotome in his castle!" Lok exclaimed. Eathon merely nodded; Frank went up and in a mock solemn tone proclaimed : "Ladies and Gentlemen, please give your rewards to the suicidest Seeker of the Huntik Foundation, Eathon Lambert!" Some chuckles were heard, including Eathon's, who commented : "You can stop it right there, Frank. I know that in my place you would have done the same thing!" Grimacing, Frank scratched his head, but before he could say something sharp, Cathy spoke up again.
"I'm sorry, but now can I ask something else?" "Sure. What do you want to know?" her father said. Cathy bit her lip, a usual gesture for her when nervous, then she blurted out : "Are you sure I didn't inherit the Seeker's genes or whatever thing that you, mom and Lok have?" The question was met by blank looks, but Frank nodded approvingly and said : "A damned good question, dear. A question that has only one possible answer; here, catch!" And he threw at her something he had taken from a drawer when Lok was speaking, and with which he had toyed throughout Eathon's tale.
She automatically caught it in mid-air, but before she could do more than staring at the silvery jewel with a green stone, a blue aura surrounded her, and everyone in the room shivered, as if they had sensed an arcane energy forming up. Frank was elated, and sported a huge grin. "That's your answer, my dear Cathy : as your father, mother and brother, you're a Seeker! Congratulations!" He took her hand and started shaking it, visibly happy, while she was still stunned. Eathon smiled broadly, and said : "Well, it's not that being a Seeker is a bed of roses, but I'm happy for you. And I could have not chosen someone better for one of my best Titans!" "This Titan... was yours?" his daughter asked. Frank said : "Yes; it's Jirwolf, a spectral wolf with great powers. Eathon left it here before leaving; I was to give it to you if he didn't show up in ten years, because he suspected you could have inherited his abilities!" "What? You knew Cathy could be a Seeker? Then why did you asked me and mom to keep silent around her?" Lok said somewhat irritated.
That observation was met with thoughtful looks, and this time it was Metz who sighed and bowed his head. "It was my decision, and Frank and Sandra agreed. Since your personality was more like your father's we guessed you would almost certainly turn out to be a Seeker, which was proven correct; she, however, was a more uncertain possibility. And if she was, then..." The American interrupted him by adding : "We wanted her to be our reserve. The Organization can be quite sexist, and we knew that if they went searching for Eathon's kids then they would focus on you, Lok; therefore, Cathy was more protected if she was unaware of this. And if something happened to you, well, we hoped her potential would be as great as yours. It's cynic, but we were fighting a war, and such thoughts become your bread and butter!"
For a moment, the American's eyes resisted the force in Lok's, then the young boy huffed and sat down, crossing his arms. Cathy was quite annoyed, too, but she was still curious. "Well, okay... and now, what?" Her father looked at her, and told : "Now, you'll have to receive some training, because now that your powers have awakened you are going to be a target, even with the Organization gone. And even before I went away, I had already made clear that for at least one of you, I would have liked Frank to be your teacher." Frank grinned, and turned to the girl, saying : "However, it's up to you; your father asked me to train your, but if you'd like another, I'm not gonna be offended." Cathy quickly said : "What? Oh, no, I'd be delighted to, er, train with you, if mom is ok with that..." Sandra came over to her, and hugged her while saying : "I knew this could happen; and with all his shortcomings, Frank is one of the persons I trust most. I would choose no one else to teach you to master your powers!" "It's settled, then. It appears your mansion will be quite crowded for a while!" Metz said cheerfully. Frank swatted him lightly on his arm, and snickered : "You're just jealous, because you know this is going to be fun!"
This was my intention from the beginning, to have Cathy discover she is too a Seeker, and formally join the team, since the team for a while is going to hang around Pennsylvania. It's not just because this way I have someone unexperienced to make fun of, it's because something greater...