Gus sighed and leaned against the back wall of the elevator rubbing his eyes, letting his head fall back against the wall. He had imagined that life would somehow be better if he only had powers, but the feeling in the pit of his stomach, the indescribable unease he always felt when he was overwhelmed with worry resurfaced. He thought back to how the hybrid-Nth had shown him being a leader.
His reality was so far away from that vision, and it pressed on him like a heavy weight. Would the hybrid-Nth reject me if I don’t make progress towards that ideal? His experience with the robot showed that Nth could be forcibly removed, but for some reason, they chose to stay with him. For now, at least. How much time would it take for them to realize I don’t have what it takes and abandon me? Could I even go back to a life as a reg now that I have seen the other side?
Before he could mentally torture himself more, the elevator opened on the training arena. Some of the Crew were there. His father had brought a group of talented prodigies that were willing to follow him as he went to investigate Aurora’s distress signal, who referred to themselves collectively as ‘the Crew.’ In truth, Purple Faction had apparently written off his mother some time ago and didn’t want to expend more resources for Tempest’s pet project.
After his father’s demotion, he decided it was time to go find his wife under the guise of finding the distress signal’s source. The Crew had decided to accompany him, despite the fact that many of them outranked him now. They either respected him or his mother a lot to come along for an indeterminate period. All of them knew they could be called back by Purple at any time if a mission arose, and Gus could see Tempest planning furiously, trying to get as much done in as short a time as possible.
Gus’ jaw tightened as his eyes flicked to the others in the room, but he could still train. With upgrades to the arena, the back wall had lifted and revealed five additional battle areas, arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Gus scanned himself and wordlessly got into position. He had been training and sparring with the other supers and had already learned a lot. But right now he needed to be alone, or at least away from other people and their demands.
He entered in the parameters for training then nodded to himself and got into a ready stance as the program began. He melted into habit, thinking about the latest turn of events.
He had locked himself from assimilating any of the abilities he had taken from the Mandrite core, knowing that implementation of that many changes simultaneously would be too much for him. All that power right there and none of it available. It was maddening. With the multitude of abilities he had already stolen from other supers though, he really couldn’t complain.
Gus blocked a swing from a pillowbot and grappled the arm, taking the robot down. He sprang away as another attacked and only succeeded in hitting its partner. By the time the hit connected he was already across the arena, in a ready pose.
Truly, the manor had made improvements in leaps and bounds in the week since his father had come, and yet he felt unsettled. This did not feel like the Tempest he had come to know. His exuberant acceptance was something Gus had always craved. But to him, it felt like a large part of that acceptance was of his powers, not of Gus himself.
Plus, Gus was uncertain if he was being genuine. All of it kind of pissed him off. He was mad at himself too, for biting his tongue and allowing Tempest to help take the lead. In his mind’s eye, he had planned to meet his father when he was good and ready. After he had leveled and mastered his abilities, not when he was still bumbling around trying to make sense of everything.
He landed an anger-fueled punch on one pillowbot before dancing away. The situation was idiotic but it was how he felt. He had dreamed of what he would say when the ‘confrontation’ with his father inevitably occurred, but he had been so caught off guard that Tempest just went along with everything before Nick berated him and guided him into setting some boundaries.
He recognized that the manor had to be secure enough to leave, but he longed for the Crew to finally be ready to go. Some days were better than others. Since the incident, he hadn’t been able to allow himself to sleep. So he had to do other things to occupy his time. His Energy Absorption ability allowed him to never feel physical exhaustion, but he had times when his brain started to just get a little foggy.
He had noticed himself react with a little more edginess and have a bit more of a temper than he was used to, but it was hard to distinguish what was due to sleep deprivation and what was due to having his father back in his life.
And just when he thought he was getting Zen, *bam*! Headaches hit without warning. Sometimes like a vice threatening to crush his temples, other times like a stiletto to the base of his skull. They came with no warning, and he tried his best to hide his handicap from the others. It would involve answering too many questions.
He grit his teeth and landed another punch; the pillowbot staggered back and fell with a satisfying thud. The impact was therapeutic, draining off a portion of his pent-up emotions. Fortunately, they were relentless attackers and Gus pushed himself to take out his frustrations on the poor automatons.
His mind fell into a rhythm while he attacked and defended, his body going on autopilot. He
