Final. We never went looking for information, I swear. Raiser just didn’t want you to remember yours and his encounter, and his powers went a bit into overdrive, I suppose. That part, I honestly don’t know about. We don’t exactly have real doctors here who could look into something like that, and there aren’t specialists who could help us that we know of, so his power struggle is still a mystery.”
Eli shook his head in agreement, believing what he was being told.
“Okay. I’m in. Show me.”
Boss smiled, quite happy with the decision Eli made. They rose together, him motioning to the door, allowing Eli to go first, him right behind. There were people around, smiling, waving to them both—a couple of hello’s, hi’s, and even some how do you do’s. A woman came casually through the crowd, beautiful as could be, and kissed Boss.
“Final, this is Daze. She is the thing keeping me around,” he joked. She whispered something in his ear, a slight nod from him then a whisper back to her.
“She helps me run things and sends the teams out on missions and is second head to the Beyohuman finders. Lame name, I know, but we can’t always think up something clever. Now I know I said I would answer all your questions, and I promise, I will, but there is a very important matter I must take care of currently, so I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of your guardian.”
Boss and Daze went off to the front desk together as Raiser walked up to Eli, putting an arm over his shoulder.
“Young love makes you miss the olden days, ah. I’ve got you from here, Final. Tour and possibly if you’re up for it, a bit of training? It would be nice to see just how strong those beams of yours are, wouldn’t it?”
Eli didn’t seem too happy with the lack of information he actually got out of Boss, and he had a feeling Raiser wouldn’t do too much in that way either. He nodded to Raiser, a slight disdain on his face evident, though he quickly followed behind him. The basics of the Order was mostly just room and board for the Beyohumans who were there, some fighters, some scouts, and everything in between. What should have been the lobby or office had this been a normal motel was the base of operations essentially—screens covering the walls, newspaper clippings around them, and very few people taking care of all of it. Raiser and Eli walked past the front desk lobby/office-type building, and Eli noticed a bit of panic inside, though Raiser moved him along and continued on with the tour.
“Daze!” Boss yelled. “What’s going on? Where is Ranger? I need you to tell me everything now.”
Daze became teary-eyed with her response. “We lost contact with Ranger last night. This morning, we got some weird messages, really cryptic. No one has been able to get around it or through it. Also, Sweets took her team and went after him. And it’s all a big mess. I know I screwed up, and yes, and I’m scared. I need him back! I need them all back here safe!”
“How did this all happen? Sweets shouldn’t have been allowed out. We have been on lockdown for a few days now with recent events. Where was the last location he was known to be? I’ll grab Raiser and Pres, and I’m sure we—”
“The Black-Zone.” Daze cut him off, clearly afraid of what may have happened to him. “It was the Black-Zone, and I let him go. I knew what could happen, how dangerous it was, and I authorized it,” she spoke softly, the tears now running.
Boss quickly embraced her, holding her tight to his chest. “I will find your brother, I promise. I won’t return until we have him safe and sound, and you can give him your patented big sister beatdowns, and we can all laugh about this later.”
Boss called over the intercom to have Raiser, Loun, and Pres meet him up front, cutting short Eli’s time to tour and train. They quickly ran back to the head of the buildings, one other man already standing and waiting, Loun or Pres he assumed. A panicked Boss stood awaiting them, a crying daze stood by the doors.
“Raiser, Pres, and Loun with me. Daze runs things until I get back. No one is to step foot outside of these gates until we return. Is that understood? We have two teams MIA, and I’m not looking for a third.”
One of the men who he called for Eli recognized from last night, standing near Boss when they met. A car pulled up next to the three men, driven by who he could assume was the other one Boss called for, though Eli wasn’t sure who was who. Eli sighed as all the three men hopped in the car and left. He walked back to his room, though he stopped at the door as he noticed the woman from before, Daze, sniffling and wiping tears away. He wasn’t sure why she was so sad, though he didn’t like seeing it. She was smaller in height, had nice blond hair, and had a few freckles across her face. He nodded to himself, knowing it wasn’t his business, though as his door became opened, there she was, sitting on his bed. He looked back to the lobby, noticing she wasn’t there.
“So teleportation? Super speed?” he asked.
“When a lady is clearly distraught, you should know better than to stare at her. A proper introduction, I suppose, should be given. I’m Daze.” She had a sweet southern accent, one that Eli liked.
“I’m Eliot, though I go by Eli. I, uhm, shoot pulse-type beams from my hands. It’s pretty cool.”
He tried talking himself up, though she didn’t even look at him, her head still down.
“I can move in between space and time. I don’t go through dimensions or anything like that, so yes, teleportation would be the easiest way to describe it. Boss asked me to look after you, make sure you’re comfortable in his and Raiser’s absence. So what would you like to know?”
“Well, I guess, what’s going on would be a good start.”
She nodded.
“My brother, Ranger, took his team on a deep mission, one he shouldn’t have gone on, and I allowed him to. There is a specific town east of here, Brookswood. Outside of it is a small desert, and hidden in that desert is a small base full of people who want us dead. We call it the Black-Zone. Ranger and his team were our top scouts as he had a wonderful sight ability. The best way he described it to me, imagine if you could extend your eyes out of your head and stretch them far away, looking anywhere around them as you went. He could see far, really far away. It was only him and one other guy, Monkey, had a super extensive type of hearing. They were the perfect duo. There is no way anything bad could have happened to them, right? And now, Sweets, our resident sweetheart, has gone after him. They were really close. She was one of us, ya know? Like a little sister to us. Someone he could really help. Her team, Witch and Omni, is with her.”
Eli processed all the information she gave him—an evil organization, a missing brother, two teams at that—and she was just so calm about telling him.
“I’m so sorry to hear that. Surely, he wouldn’t have had to get too close to the Black-Zone with his sight though, right?”
“He could see far, not whatever he wanted. He surely would have had to enter the desert, and I’m not even sure where the building even is. I’ve never seen it.”
They both got quiet, Eli moving to the bed to sit next to her.
“What, what am I? I thought this was all a dream. I thought I was alone.” His tone dropped, like nothing in the world mattered anymore, like he had no reason left.
“You’re you. You are the Final, and sure, you may have been Eliot King at one point, but now you can feel it, right? You’re the Beyohuman we have been waiting for. All these years, we have been tracking them down, rescuing them, and you are the last one Iris has seen that we don’t already know of. You are literally the Final. We are a people who break the limits of reality, all special and unique in our own ways. We can protect you and train you, Final. You are us, and we are you. We need you. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
And there it was, what he needed to hear. Just like that, he knew he was home. He had found what he has been searching for all this time. His fears lessened and lessened. He and Daze spent hours in his room talking, learning, her telling him about the Order, him telling her about his life up until now.