Chapter Six

Rain

To say that Sam was furious would be an understatement. He could barely control his anger. The teen was certain that he would lose control quite soon had it not been for all those years of training with his clan. Tears welled up in his eyes but he managed to recollect himself. Sam Alexander tried to forget all those thoughts that had to deal with his past. The superhero managed to dismiss most of them and with resoluteness in his eyes he continued the rest of the walk to those bastards' hideout.

There is one thing I have to remember, though – they aren't the people I grew up with.

Nostalgia found its way into Sam's heart and he cursed under his breath for forming such strong bonds with these people in the past. It was true that you needed friends and people to count on but sometimes Nova wondered why we bothered building and fighting to maintain these relationships when most of them ended up in someone being hurt or getting stabbed in the back. The latter made all of his anger return and he gritted his teeth. He had to stop them. Either that or he would not have another choice but to go with them.

"If it isn't my worthless little bro. What happened to ya, wimpy, decided to crawl back to your mommy?" Akantha asked mockingly.

Sam froze in his spot. He couldn't believe it. His heart started thumping quite violently and he could swear it was trying to escape out of his ribcage. The only thing he didn't understand was why he was still afraid of her. Oh, on the contrary, he knew exactly why she had such an effect on him – she was a monster. And despite being his sister, he would see to it she won't be alive to witness the sun rise tomorrow morning.

Nova clenched his fists as he whispered:

"Why are you here, Akantha? What do you want from me?"

"Awww, poor wittle Sammy is scared." She mocked him yet again.

"If I remember correctly you were the one that had fear in her eyes when we were younger." Sam countered.

Akantha scoffed and retorted:

"I'm not the same little girl anymore, Sammy, or should I say, Arestius?" She questioned.

Sam's eyes widened when he heard the name his parents had given him. Even though he hadn't heard anyone call him that in a long time, it still felt right to be addressed that way. He shook his head and stilled his beating heart. He needed to be calm and collected and get this over with as soon as possible.

"And I'm not the little boy I was back then, either." He replied and started walking towards Akantha. The girl looked at him menacingly and adopted a battle stance. Just before their fight began Sam decided to tell her this as well in spite of the fact that it may sound cliché:

"And for the record my name is Sam Alexander, not Arestius. After all, that's the name my real parents gave me, the ones that raised me and turned me into the man I am today unlike the good for nothing mother and father that only created me."

The last sentence obviously had the desired effect and made Akantha's blood boil. Her normally icy cold blue eyes turned into furious scarlet ones as her hands clenched into fists and fire started surrounding them.

"You are going to regret that, Sam." She spit his name as though it was laced with venom. Sam cringed at the hatred and loath it contained. He would lie if he said that he didn't care about his sister, but that didn't mean he was going to allow her to endanger his friends' lives. On the contrary, he was going to make sure this issue was taken care of and what better way than to do it personally.

"Make me, Akantha." Sam taunted. He knew it was quite risky trying to make her make all fired up when she was literally all fired up, but that was a chance he had to take. Because if he could make her so angry as to start shooting balls of fire at him uncontrollably, then he would certainly be able to win this thing.

Akantha, unable to contain her anger any longer, screamed and started shooting fireballs at Sam. Nova dodged each one of them successfully but one nearly hit him with full force. He sucked in a breath and tried to calm himself down because if he wanted to be victorious, he had to keep his emotions under control.

After Akantha was finished with her first attack she screamed yet again and soon started laughing hysterically. Sam stopped moving after having landed swiftly on the ground. His green orbs held sheer horror as they watched the scene unfold before them. Nova couldn't comprehend what was happening. It was true that he had wanted his sister to lose control, but not like this. He knew what she was going to do next and was just about to say something when it was too late. Her eyes became fully red. Her orbs and the white part were completely gone. Pure blood tinted those formidable yet fascinating eyes. Her mouth hung open but soon blood started dripping from the corners of it. Sam's eyes widened even more and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Akantha! No, don't do this!" He screamed and was just about to rush to his sister's aid when a huge tidal wave came out of nowhere. Nova had heard the clasp of the water and was able to move out of the way in the nick of time, but, unfortunately, Akantha was numb and too far gone to sense anything or do anything to prevent herself from getting harmed in that matter.

Sam's eyes softened once he heard coughing and saw the water start to dissipate. At that rare moment of weakness Akantha looked almost human. She resembled the big sister that always tried to act strong and seem indestructible, but like everyone else she was vulnerable and in that small moment said vulnerability was shown.

"Arestius!" Someone yelled.

That snapped Sam out of his own world and brought him back to earth. Nova became alert and searched his surroundings once again when his eyes fell on someone he thought he would never see ever again.

"Ademus!" Sam yelled with the same strength and love in his voice.

The two brothers ran towards each other and embraced one another. It was a brief yet tight hug. With it they tried to convey everything that they hadn't had the time or opportunity to say. Their tender moment ended when someone cleared their throat.

"If you two idiots are done with your 'moment', can I have my revenge?" Akantha asked.

Ademus shook his head and laughed fondly at his younger sister:

"No, Akantha, you can't because Aresty here has a lot to learn."

"Hey, don't call me that! You know I hate it!" Sam said rather loudly. Ademus just laughed at his youngest sibling and ruffled his hair affectionately. Sam soon smiled and noticed that Akantha too was enjoying their rare moment of happiness. Sam's smile grew but soon he remembered what his brother had said and questioned:

"Ademus, what did you mean when you said I had a lot to learn?"

Sam was frightened. It couldn't be. He had kept everything under control during his fight with Akantha. Though he didn't exactly fight back, he still managed to prevent his powers from going out of hand while she didn't. Of course, there was the possibility of them actually going out of control and endangering the lives of not only his teammates, but those of the citizens as well. The only thing he had to hope for was that the answer Ademus was going to give would be negative. Of course, it was positive.

It was settled then. Sam was going to leave his team and go with them.

A huge thank you to everyone who read

And just to let you know – no I am not dead.

I was simply away and filled with exams.

Now it's high time I got back to Peter and Sam

And revealed part of the latter's past.

So here is chapter six at last.

Please follow/favourite/review/criticize/ or simply read freely.

Don't be afraid. I don't bite deary.

Until next time I update and/or post a story my fellow readers,

~ QueenofRhymes ~