A man in a strange garb ran through a steel corridor, his breath heavy and agitated, he stopped at a door. The door opened automatically, allowing the main inside. It was a great alien living room, with outwardly décor and a great glass window overlooking a sunset, the red sun reflecting off the sea and beach sand.
The man looked around in panic, looking for something or someone. Then a woman in similar attire appeared from another hallway, holding a baby. Her black raven hair, fair skin and blue piercing eyes allowed the man to find a smile in his concerned and stressed visage. He looked at the baby, the babe was asleep unknowing of what his parents' agitation. The woman looked at the man, they met eyes, tears began to accumulate on her eyes.
Suddenly the entire building shook, and the sea beyond their window began to create violent waves, which hit the beach. The woman looked at the man, he had been injured, wounds on his shoulders, abdomen, and arms. Blood running down his tanned skin, but he was determined, dead sure to do what he risked life and limb for. He walked towards a panel on the far side of the room, the area was full of science equipment hastily placed together. The biggest contraption was a pedestal…holding a single thing on it. A small rocket aimed into the glass, the computers were turned on and the system was ready. The man looked at the woman, the woman nodded with immense sorrow on her beautiful face. The rocket's hatch opened revealing a bassinet for a single occupant.
The building quaked again. The door in which the man had come from was being stricken, luckily the man had locked it beforehand. Worried the woman placed the baby in the bassinet, the man using the panel to close the hatch once more. But before anything else could be done, the man walked towards the rocket and placed a small gold token on small compartment next to the hatch, the small gold token adorned with his family's crest.
The quakes began to intensify, this was it. The door was blown open, men in armor holding weapons entered and aimed at the couple. The rocket's engine began to roar, it moved with force upwards towards the glass window. The rocket cracked the glass, while the armed men shot at it but the plasma rounds missing it as it left their sight. The woman cried on the man's chest as the armed armored men aimed at them but there was the final quake. The earth outside cracked and the seas erupted and boiled as great pillars of magma exploded out of it. The skies darkened and died. The man looked at the woman tenderly, he smiled one final time for they have done what they wanted to do, ensured that the baby they loved so much was now safe and on route towards a place where he could be happy. They kissed as the world around them erupted, the final thoughts inside the man's head being the woman, his wife, and the baby, his son. The culmination of their lives…their final hope.
Steele woke up, he opened his eyes tiredly, he rubbed them and looked around. It was still early so it was still somewhat dark, he got off from his bed. After the team had been assembled during the ceremony they were giving a room to share, his bed being placed next to Naran's, Aurum was sleeping on the far corner below some stands holding books and Daku's bed in the darkest corner of the room with little light from the window hitting him. Steele walked towards the window and looked outside, he had been having a bit of an odd feeling racing in the back of his mind for a while. Not being able to find the will to go back to sleep, he decided to take a walk outside.
The cool wind of the early morning day flew across Steele's hair and face as he walked through the outskirts of Beacon. As he walked across a bridge that had a very nice view of the sunrise, Steele could feel the sun's warm light envelop him. He closed his eyes and smirked, memories of a life that he wouldn't see again in a while flew through his mind drifting him away from that odd feeling that he'd been having.
He was now walking through a wheat field overlooking at the same sunrise, the sky was clear, and a dog stood beside him. The smell from the barnyard and the sound of far off tractors filled his being, this was home. "Steele!" A voice called up to him, he turned around to see a house not to far away from where he stood. There a middle-aged woman called to him, "Steele!".
"Steele!" He was snapped out of his daydreaming by Aurum who was standing behind him, "Hey, Beacon to Steele, come on, wake up."
"Oh sorry, was just thinking about back home." The young man was a bit embarrassed but quickly composed himself not wanting to appear awkward in front of Aurum. "What's up?"
"We have hours in a couple of hours, and I wanted us to get together before class to catch up on the class lecture for today." Behind Aurum were Daku and Naran, they were both tired and seemed to be annoyed from waking up earlier than what they should've been. "Early bird gets the worm!" Aurum proudly said holding onto her books with a sly smile and an aura of determined academic prowess.
"Isn't it a bit early to study?" Steele said as he walked back to the dorm with his team, most of them still too sleepy to engage in conversation.
"Well, isn't it too early to walk around aimlessly throughout campus?" Aurum retorted while she smiled at the concept of this tough guy having a sort of a soft side to him. Ever since he met him, Steele had been projecting an attitude of dense forwardness, optimism, and overall gleeful demeanor, never one of self-thought and meditation. Steele awkwardly laughed while rubbing the back of his head. "Don't worry, I didn't wake up to study, I noticed that you left the room earlier and wanted to see where you went. These knuckleheads just heard my stealthy footsteps…somehow."
"Oh? A bit curious?" Steele wondered why she had gone out of her way to follow him, early morning walks aren't super-weird…
Aurum thought about it, she really didn't know but she had an idea; "Your abilities are really weird, I've never heard of someone being so incredibly strong and being able to do all of these things without the need of a weapon. It's rather…unique." Aurum said, "And to be fair, you've been ticked off about something for a while now."
"I'm not sure either, something in the back of my noggin. I'm sure its nothing to be honest, just need to re-adjust to this 'leader' thing. Never been chosen to be in-charge of anything in my life." Steele explained, he was unsure of what the title of leadership entailed to. "Not saying that I won't try to be a good leader."
"Ozpin chose you for a reason." Daku's voice was heard from behind them, "I'd rather not question our positions, just act according to the station given to us."
"Easy for you to say, your whole thing is 'let me throw these things at the enemy while hanging out in the back'." Naran said as he stretched his arms. The team entered their dorm, Naran quickly jumping onto his bed. "Ahhhh, it's still early enough to catch some sleep."
Steele sat on his bed, he looked at his duffle bag, he grabbed it and had a closer look at his sigil. He always remembered the words that his parents had told him before leaving to Beacon about the meaning behind this symbol, this strange sigil in the shape of an "S". He placed the bag back where it was, he would have time to think about it later, class wouldn't start until four hours from now and he might as well get an extra two hours of sleep before the bell rang.
Midday came and most of the older students were done with classes for the day, and the new ones were ready to enter the cafeteria and have lunch. Team SAND had taken a seat next to one of the windows looking out into the courtyard, Steele looked at his lunch tray full of food, Aurum was properly eating her lunch, Nara pnigging in his food, and Daku reading a book while eating an apple.
Aurum looked at Steele, he was rather quiet and not eating his lunch. Normally he would be loud and having a conversation with Naran or with her and devouring his favorite food…bacon and eggs. "Steele…are you ok? You haven't touched your food." She asked worryingly.
"Oh." Steele was taken out of his daydreaming. "Just thinking about our last class for today."
Naram finished eating and burped loudly. "Gross." Daku dryly stated still reading his book.
"Babygirl here is right, my dude. Something's wrong?" Naram was also worried but the pet name bothered Aurum, wanting to hit him with her tray but she relented. Steele looked at his teammates, he didn't know if he could just be open about his feelings.
"Listen guys, I'm fiiine. Nothing can hurt me, trust me." Steele assured them. Aurum and Naran looked at each other, they knew there was something wrong, but they respected Steele's wishes. Nevertheless, Aurum wanted that their team leader should be in top shape, if the head of the snake was cut then the body dies, and she would have none of that.
Aurum thought to herself, 'Hm, I think I'll ask him tonight. We're too busy right now with classes.' Daku's watch hit 1:15 PM, he stood up signaling the others that it was time to go back to class. Steele lagged behind the rest of his team, still thinking to himself.
The day passed without a hitch, it was now night and all the students had gone to their dorms or walked outside in the cool autumn breeze. Steele sat on the roof of his team's dormitory looking at the cracked moon in the night sky, no clouds, it was clear as it could be. The stars in the sky adorning the moon's light as if were an infinite crown really pulled into Steele's mind, something beyond called into him. He remembered his last few days before he left the farm, his parents were ready to say goodbye to him for the next four years. Steele walked down the wooden steps from his room towards the living room, the small house was very conservative with two sofas, a rug with a coffee table in the middle, and an old television set in front of the set up. Nothing too fancy. Steele had his duffle bag hanging from his left shoulder prepared to embark on this long journey. But before he left, he would say goodbye to his parents.
Steele's mom and pop, Jon Kripto and Mary Kripto were farmers living in the outskirts of Vale, near a small village called Smallville. Steele's father came from a long line of farmers who traded with Vale and Vacuo, they traded wheat, milk, and pork. After the modernization of the kingdoms, the family business switched to dairy products being the focus with corn and wheat being a secondary focus, traders from Vacuo were the most interested in the farm's products. But recently they weren't doing so well with the increase of Grimm attacks throughout the frontier and caravans being attacked by the monsters in an almost daily basis. Still though, this didn't deter the Kriptos from continuing their work.
"Son, seems like it was only yesterday when you learn to walk." Pa placed his hand on Steele's shoulder, he was smiling proudly at how far his son had come. Passing all his entrance exams with excellence and finishing first in his class at Signal Academy.
But Mary looked at her husband, "Jon…" She reminded him, he sighed and agreed. He walked towards the front door and grabbed his coat.
"Uh, what's going on?" Steele asked.
"Your mother and I have to show you something." Pa Kripto placed his farming cap on. "We're going to the barnyard."
Steele heard the door opening behind him, he was brought back from his memories towards the sight of Aurum walking towards him. She sat next to him looking at the moon as well, he decided to let her speak first and remained silent.
"When I small my mom would take me outside to look at the stars, and she would tell me the names of each constellation in the sky and the stories that each one held. Like that one next to the moon to the left, that's the god of the hunt Orion that the ancient peoples from Mantle worshipped. And that other one being Herakles, who was the son of the divine and a mortal woman." Aurum showed him, the last one made his eyes widened as he looked at her looking at the sky with the moon's light reflecting off her blue eyes. "It was always fun listening to these stories before going to sleep back then. My mom told me these stories so many times that I practically know them like the back of my hand."
"Listen, Aurum, I know you want to…"
"You're our team leader, leaders are supposed to be strong and assertive. And normally, you are strong, brave, and loud but recently you've been as quiet as Daku. And that's worrying, I've seen you look outside the window during class barely listening to the lecture. So please, tell what's wrong." Aurum pleaded.
Steele sighed, "Okay…I…" He didn't know how to start, Steele was trying to find the words. "I guess I'll begin from the start."
Little Steele was running through the wheat field playing with another child, a redheaded girl, her parents visiting the Kriptos. They had been playing tag and laughed as they looked for each other, Steele hid behind a thick layer of wheat as he looked at how his friend looked cluelessly for him. He jumped out and caught her in a surprise tagging her, "You're it!" He exclaimed with laughter and running away.
"You won't get away!" The girl yelled back chasing after him. Steele ran far enough to lose her in the field, he looked behind him…he had moved fast without noticing. He smiled, there was no way that she would be able to catch up now, he won. Steele smirked in victory, but then his gloating was cut short as he heard a harvester's engine nearby.
"Oh, better get away before…" He heard a scream before he could finish saying his sentence.
"HEEEELP!" It was her, the girl, screaming for help. Steele could hear the distance her cries for help were coming from…the same distance as the harvester. He ran fast back towards her, he knew what those machines could do, he had seen his dad drive on them, the blades on the harvesters were huge and would easily tear apart a small child.
Once he arrived he saw that the girl had tripped and had trapped her foot inside a mudhole in the middle of the field. Steele quickly went to see her trapped foot, he helped her take it out of the mood leaving her shoe in the mud. But it was too late, the harvester driver hadn't seen them and was about to crush them. Steele couldn't allow it to harm the girl and placed his body in between both. The girl closed her eyes in fear as the sound of metal being broken and a motor being pushed to the limit filled the air. She opened her eyes again, Steele was still on top of her with his eyes closed tightly. "Steele…" She said in awe, he opened his eyes again and stood up. He looked at himself. "Your clothes…but you…"
"I'm okay." Steele finished her sentence, "Woah. I'm as strong as steel!"
"Amazing!" This amazed the girl greatly, "So cool."
"Steele! Come back home supper's ready." Ma Kripto was heard calling to them, "Tell Pyrrha to come too, her parents are staying with us for a while longer!"
"Oh! We better go." Steele said.
"What about my shoe…and your clothes?" She asked, as they ran back to the farm the driver of the harvester stepped out of the vehicle and looked at the children. He scratched his head in bewilderment, the motor of the harvester fuming, and the blades of the machine having been twisted by the force.
"That was the first time I experienced the strength of my abilities, at first I believed that it might've been my aura activating in that moment of need. But once I told my parents that my clothes had been ripped but I was still fine, I could see the worry appearing on their faces." Steele told Aurum, "There was another time when I was around 13 years old when I found that durability wasn't my only ability."
A young teenage Steele walked around the town of Smallville, having been told by Ma and Pa to buy some groceries. It was summer, so he wasn't going to Signal for a couple of months, normally Pa was the one who bought the groceries, but he had been busy with one of the neighbor's windmill.
As he finished buying bread, ham, butter and ice cream, Steele was stopped by one of his friends. His name was Ross, and unlike Steele he was a meek boy with a lack of social skills. His unkept brown hair, dirty white shirt, jean overalls and the straw in his mouth gave him away immediately. "Hey, Steele!"
"Oh, Ross, what are you doing here?" Steele was a bit surprised by seeing his friend here, normally Ross hanged out in their local bookstore reading fantasy novels and not paying for them. They began walking back along the street, towards Steele's farm. "Is the bookstore closed?"
"Nah, I was wonderin' if you could uh…help me with somethin'."
"Sure, what's up?" Now Steele was surprised, "Whatever it is, it must be incredibly important if you need my help."
"See…there's this girl…"
"Ooooh okay, I see."
"There's this girl that caught my attention, she's really pretty and I really want to talk to her." Ross said as he hid his hands in his pockets. "But I have no idea how to."
"Why are you asking me? Just talk to her, man." Steele replied.
"Gosh darn, man, just talk to her? Its not that easy ya know, we all don't have yer looks. I mean that amazin' redhead girl that comes by every now and then has always orbited 'round ya." Ross was a bit on the edge about the girl he talked about, he really wanted to know what made Steele so special besides his physical appearance.
"Hey now, I just have an awesome farm with a horse. A brand-new horse! Horses are awesome." Steele joked.
"Yeah yeah…but c'mon, you gotta tell me your secrets."
"Have your heard of the toast in envelope trick?" As the duo walked and talked smack at each other, a figure followed them, not too far behind. The pair wasn't paying attention to what was occurring, that is until Steele heard the footsteps behind them. "Hey…I think someone's following us." He whispered to Ross as they walked at a normal pace.
"Are you sure?" Ross whispered back.
"They've been following us since we got out of the plaza." Steele mentioned, "We gotta-"
Before Steele could tell his friend what they were going to do, the pair was interrupted by a person standing in front of them, it was a girl and she hugged Steele tightly, picking him up from the concrete ground. "Woah!" Steele exclaimed as his feet left the ground.
"Hello!" The cheery voice of the person who picked him up tickled Steele's ears.
"Pyrrha?" She placed Steele back on the ground, he smiled at the sight of his childhood friend. "What are you doing here?"
"Visiting! I have a couple of weeks before going back to school back home, and I decided to drop by with my parents to visit! We're staying in-town, dad says that the blacksmith makes the bests swords in Vale so he's going to be hanging around the forge for a while too." Pyrrha explained, "Oh, is this your friend?"
"Hi…" Ross shyly greeted her while extending his hand for a handshake. His cheeks reddened, and his hand was shaking with nervousness. "My n-name is…is Rus I mean Ross yes."
Pyrrha smiled tenderly and shook the boy's hand. "Nice to meet you Ross, I'm Pyrrha!"
Steele kept his ears on alert still, the figure behind them stopped making sounds, he turned around to see if it was still there. Nothing, just an empty street. Odd. "Hey guys, let's go the park nearby and talk there."
"Don't you have to go home?" Ross asked.
"No…not yet." Steele led the way towards the park while Pyrrha talked to Ross behind him, Ross was barely saying a thing, just agreeing with everything Pyrrha said about school, homework, and what stuff she was going to do after graduating from the academy she was in. As they arrived at the park, Steele noticed a picnic table that was unoccupied, he thought that would be the perfect place to have a good look around them. He smirked. "Over there."
The trio took their seats around the wooden picnic table, it was nice and sunny out still so there were going to be people around the park, at least that's what Steele hoped. Nevertheless, he lowered his guard slightly to be able to speak to his friends without drawing suspicion. But he needed to tell Pyrrha what was going on. "Hey Pyrrha."
"Yeah?"
"Before you came there was something or someone following Ross and I after we left the store." Steele pointed at his plastic bags in front of him on top of the table. "Whatever it was disappeared when you arrived, and I've been on guard looking around."
"Is that why you brought us to the park?" Ross asked.
"Yeah, whatever this thing is probably still shadowing us." Steele said cocksure of the situation at hand. Pyrrha scanned the area as well, her green eyes looking at the other tables, at the trees and at the playground nearby. No one around. That was the most worrying thing. Steele's ear twitched at something… "Hey you guys hear that?"
"Uh no…" Pyrrha said not being able to hear what Steele was hearing. "What is it?"
"It's a slight flap of a…" A person crashed into their table before he could say what it was. As they were thrown away by the shockwave of the crash Steele was able to get a good look at the thing that had been following them. "…a robe?!"
Standing in front of them was a strange looking being, it resembled a man but was covered in a black robe hiding any noticeable features. But out of the sleeves of said robe came out long white claw hands and from the cowl that it wore red eyes opened and a toothy smiled stared at him. "What the hell…" It lunged at Steele trying to eviscerate him, but he moved out of the way, the monster's claws hitting the grassy ground.
"Is that a Grimm?!" Ross said as he was helped up to his feet by Pyrrha.
"It's a new type of Grimm!" Pyrrha analyzed the beast, it was indeed an uncategorized species of Grimm. It was humanoid, but slightly taller than the regular man and aside from its Grimm features it could camouflage. "It probably chose you guys as its targets."
"Great." Ross commented, "What do we do?!"
"Go call for help, I'll assist Steele! Go!" Pyrrha told Ross, she didn't have her weapons with her and Steele seemed to be on the defensive. Ross got away as fast as he could, "Good." Pyrrha spotted the nearby playground, most of the playground was constructed using steel tubes and railings.
Steele avoided each slash, he didn't know if the Grimm were strong enough to pierce he supposed 'aura' but he wasn't willing to try. The beast roared and screeched at each missed slash, Steele was still too fast for it. That is until the Grimm slammed the ground making Steele miss his footing and falling on the ground. The monster was ready to attack until a floating playground slide away smacked it, it struck several trees cracking them in half. "Woah!" Steele said looking at the slide and then at the controller. "Pyrrha, you can use telekinesis?!"
"No, I can control metal!" Pyrrha pushed the slide towards the Grimm who had recovered quickly and had been running towards them. The slide crushed the monster, but it wasn't dead yet. "We must kill it; this Grimm is extremely insidious."
"I don't know how, all I know is that I can survive being ran over by a tractor." Steele said not knowing what to do exactly.
"Hm…look!" Pyrrha pointed at his arm, his clothes had been slashed but his skin was fine. "It didn't hurt you!"
Steele looked at it, his skin had been slashed by the monster's claws but nothing aside from the faint trail of bone dust from the Grimm's claw was left there. He smiled, now this was something, but he still didn't have a weapon to use. "I think we're gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way."
"Is it punching it really hard?" Pyrrha asked.
"Punching it really hard! Let's go!" Steele exclaimed with Pyrrha sighing a little, the two ran at the monster who stood back up. Pyrrha pulled several metal tubes from the once assembled playground and threw it at the beast at breakneck speeds. The tubes got incrusted into the humanoid Grimm's hide, Steele ran towards it and pulled one of the metal tubes out. He noticed that the metal long tubes didn't weigh at all, he struck the monster with it repeatedly. Each strike denting the metal, but he still went at it. Pyrrha was also strong enough to assist Steele, she grabbed the monster by its robe and tossed it at some trees again, Steele this time ran superfast and executed a flying kick at the monster's stomach not only hitting it but also burying one of the tubes there deeper into the monster and pinning it into the oak tree. "Now's our chance!" He said, Pyrrha agreed. But the beast responded grabbing both by the head and pushing itself out free from being pinned. It still held the two teens and then brought them into the ground hard, digging them into the soil. Pyrrha couldn't see, she was panicking and couldn't attack the monster.
Hearing her grunts and cries for help, Steele was trying to move the monster's arm away from his head, but the monster had placed most of its power into holding him in the ground. He could feel the monster's hand trying to crush his head, he knew that it was doing the same thing to Pyrrha, he couldn't allow it to happen…not under his watch. He was still trying to budge himself free but to no avail, he began to panic…he began to imagine what would happen to Pyrrha, and then to Ross if this thing got away free…to the town and to his parents…." No!" He yelled, two red hot beams ripping through the monster's hand, it recoiled and screamed in pain letting the two free. Pyrrha was rubbing her head as it was being squeezed tightly, but her aura had protected from any severe trauma. She looked at Steele who had placed his hands over his face.
"Steele?!"
"Stay away…I can't control it!" He was hopelessly trying to prevent the beams of heat from escaping but the light was filtering through the cracks in-between his fingers. The Grimm went back to the offensive, this time towards Steele alone.
"Duck!" Pyrrha screamed as the beast jumped towards Steele, when Steele heard this he moved his hands away from his face. At that very moment the world surrounding him seemingly froze in place. The monster wasn't moving and so was Pyrrha, this was the time, his chance in ending this thing finally, he allowed that heat build up inside his retinas and let it flow through.
Two red beams struck the beast in the chest, the intense heat melting right through it like butter. The Grimm screamed as it fell on the ground, twisting and twirling until it finally died and its body starting to decompose into a black mist. Steele covered his eyes again, the feeling of the red beams exiting his eyes had strained his vision. Pyrrha ran towards him, "You…you shot fire out of your eyes." She said in awe.
"I…I can't see…Pyrrha…everything's black…I can't see." Steele took his hands out of his face once more and tried to open them while looking at the ground not wanting to accidentally hurt Pyrrha. Nothing came out, he blinked many times to recover his sight. His vision was blurry, but he composed himself and looked at Pyrrha. Back-up arrived, two huntsmen and Ross, they were ready to take down the Grimm.
But the two huntsmen looked at the scene in front of them, the charred smoking body of the Grimm laid in front of two scared teens. Not only had the Grimm been burned to death, the trees behind it had been scorched. One of the huntsmen approached Steele and Pyrrha, "Kids…what happened here?" He asked.
Steele didn't know what to say, he was still rubbing his eyes. "We…were attacked by a Grimm, sir." Pyrrha told the truth in a way not wanting to imply what happened that led to the monster's demise. The huntsman looked at Steele who moved his hands away from his eyes, he noticed that his eyes were red and small embers surrounded his eyelids.
"Alright…move along, we'll secure the area." The huntsman said, Pyrrha grabbed Steele's arm and pulled him away towards Ross. The trio walked away not looking back. The other huntsman approached his partner.
"What's going on?" The second huntsman asked.
The first huntsman knelt in front of the decomposing Grimm, it was almost fully gone, he looked at the embers surrounding the body. These embers were all over the grass, then he looked at the trees that had been burned, oddly the fires that would've been made extinguished before they arrived…the fire would've spread. "Nothing, just a dead Grimm. Secure the perimeter around town with the others, this one got inside without us knowing."
"Affirmative." The second huntsman acknowledged and left. The first huntsman smirked and left as well.
"I told my parents what had happened in the park, they told me that it was part of my semblance. I believed them, after all some people have weird semblances, but the day before I left for Beacon they showed me something that changed my life forever." Steele continued telling Aurum his story.
"Changed your life?" Aurum asked.
"Yeah." He sighed and looked at the moon once again. "See, I'm…"
Steele followed his dad out towards the barnyard accompanied by his mom, it was almost midday and the sun shone high in the light blue sky. Approaching the barnyard Steele felt a peculiar sensation coming up from the pit of his stomach towards his throat, he'd never felt it before when he used to play around the barn before. As if he knew deep down that something was off. "You okay, honey?" His mother asked him seeing his perplexed face.
"Yeah…I'm fine."
They reached the red barn door of the barnyard, Pa opened it. The creeks that the old wooden door made confirmed that the barnyard hadn't been opened in a long time. It was dark inside, but Pa ignited a nearby lightbulb it took a while to turn on completely, but it did, the power was still functioning here. The old copper wiring hadn't been chewed to hell by the wild animals that might've made the abandoned barnyard their home.
"Over here." Pa walked towards a patch of hay that looked different from the others. It was placed in a position, he moved it away revealing a wooden hatch. A trap door. Pa opened it revealing a stairway leading down. The family walked down into whatever was down, the wooden floor being replaced by concrete, the foundation of the building, resembled some sort of basement.
They reached a small concrete room with a single lightbulb in the ceiling providing light. Inside the room there was some sort of object covered in a long blanket. "I hoped in waiting for your eighteen birthday to show you this, but ever since you began developing your abilities…and now that you're leaving to Beacon, your mother and I believed that it was time you knew who you really are." Pa said.
"What?"
Pa unveiled the object beneath the blanket, it was a rocket ship. It was small but the sight of it surprised Steele, his mouth was open from the reveal. "It crashed while your mother and I were coming back home from your aunt's house. Crashed landed in the middle of a farm field. We decided to take a look at what it was, and when we did it…we found something that we've been asking for all our lives…it was you, son."
"What…no…"
"We couldn't leave you there, you were so small and scared. We took you in, and your Pa hid the rocket here. He even made a friend of his help him build this here room." Ma said, "But you are our son, Steele. We love you so much."
Steele approached the rocket to see it closer, he noticed something on it. It had carvings alongside the small cockpit, they look like symbols. There was one that caught his attention, the symbol was diamond-shaped, and had what looked like an "S" in the middle. He placed his fingers on it trying to feel it, feeling connected to it. When he did the ship lit up scaring the three of them, but the vehicle didn't move instead the lights appeared to move towards a single area of the small vessel.
Steele touched it, and a secret compartment opened revealing a small gold token that had the same symbol he had seen on the ship inscribed on it. He took the token out of the compartment and looked at it. As he watched, the "S" began to shine and emitted a small light towards Steele's forehead, his eyes widened and…
…He blinked from the bright light, Steele turned to talk to his parents about it but was instead in another room. A big hall with multiple alien devices and furniture, there was an immense window that faced an endless ocean with a red sun setting behind it. "What the…" He said stepping back, "Where am I?!"
"You are back home, son." A voice spoke from behind him, it startled him. Steele quickly turned to see who had spoken. It was a tall man in an odd attire, it was a black suit with a red tunic held by two gold buttons alongside his chest. There was also a woman standing next to him, she was dressed like the man. "You've activated the message we placed in your escape rocket."
"Who are you?" Steele interrogated them.
"My son…you don't remember us, we are your parents. I am Jor-El and this is your mother, Lara." The man said walking towards Steele. Steele wasn't moving instead looking at the man who claimed to be his father, he was trying to make reason of what he was experiencing. "By now you've reached your sixteenth year as it is measured in your adoptive home."
"Some years earlier than we would've expected." Lara added walking towards them, she was smiling. Somehow this made Steele relax, he wasn't feeling as anxious as he did before.
"By that reckoning…we've been dead for many thousands of your years. The knowledge that we have archived in the devices we've sent with you matter in a physical and historic, these are important to be sure." Jor-El said.
"But there are questions to be asked." Lara stated knowing that Steele was full of questions now that he was here.
"Like your mother said, there are questions to be asked. Many. So, my son…speak." Jor-El said. Steele thought deeply what to say, so many questions raced through his head but they all led to one that has been aching in his mind since he saw that rocket.
"Who…who am I?" Steele asked.
"Your name is Kal-El, you are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Even if you've been raised as a human being you're not one of them, you have great powers with only some of which you've begun to discover." Jor-El answered.
"No…I am a human being!" Steele responded denying what Jor-El said about his origin.
"Your Kryptonian body gets its strength from your world's yellow sun." Lara continued onto what Jor-El first said. "It will give you powers which no human being has."
"This can't be true."
"There are those who will fear you, and even hate you for being different. But you will need to use your powers for the greater good, Kal-El. Promise us, that you should continue living as one of them, Kal, to discover where your strength and power are needed." Jor-El said, tears began forming in Lara's eyes as he did. "But always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage."
In a broken voice Lara tried to regain composure, Jor-El held onto her as he too tried to contain his emotions. "They can be great people Kal-El, they wish to be…" Lara sadly said holding to her husband.
"They only lack the light to show the way." Jor-El continued, "For this reason above all, their capacity for good…we have sent them you, our only son."
The message began to fade as the entire hall they stood in shook, Lara stretched her hands towards Steele. He walked towards her as tears formed in his eyes, he tried to hug her, but he went through them. They were holograms. The image of Jor-El and Lara vanished away, Steele collapsed on the floor as the simulation ended. He began to cry.
He felt two pair of hands holding his shoulders, he looked an it was Pa and Ma, they've been watching Steele experiencing the entire simulation in dismay. And when he fell on his knees crying they went to hold him, Steele looked at them. "I…I…am not human." Steele felt that his entire world was coming apart, but Pa and Ma embraced him.
"You're still our son." Ma said. The gold token then stopped glowing and fell from Steele's hands onto the floor.
"I left the day after. Learning that you are different from others is normal for people our age, but I guess I'm lucky enough to be really different from everyone else…on the planet." Steele said standing up from where they were sitting at. "Haven't shaken that thought off the back of my head, and I don't know what to think."
Aurum stood as well, "Remember what your Kryptonian parents said?"
"Huh?"
"To fight for others, for the greater good, and to continuing living as one of us." Aurum said, "And before you say that I don't understand, just think, you've been living with us for so long, you're as human as any of us, Steele. But you have gifts that none of us have and using those gifts to help the world is what your parents would want."
Steele smiled, "I never thought I would tell this to someone, and yeah…thanks for that. You're right, I've been too occupied thinking about myself that I forgot to think about those who matter. You and the others, my team."
"Hey, we're not only teammates, we're friends now. And we look out for each other." Aurum said patting Steele on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go get some rest."
"Oh, and Aurum…"
"Yeah?" Steele hugged her surprising her a bit, but she hugged him back. "Hey now, I'm here if you ever need help."
"Thanks, again." They separated and walked back into the dorms, "I hope that the others aren't worried that we've been gone for a couple of hours."
"Eh, I wouldn't think to hard about it."