“What?!”
“What?!”
Kyle screamed at the top of his lungs, but someone screamed louder. He turned to Maya in confusion.
“Why are you that excited?”
Maya’s lips trembled and she found it hard to speak coherently. “T-The..H-he P-Plut..”
Kyle turned back to his mother and asked with a serious face. “Varian is alive? And he is The Dreamer?”
“Pretty much,” Alison said in a nonchalant tone.
“But how did he survive the assassination…wait, if he’s the Dreamer, then he definitely could,” Kyle muttered in realization.
“Just why didn’t you tell me earlier? I almost thought he was dead.” He demanded.
Alison just shrugged with a helpless expression. “Trust me, I didn’t know until recently.”
‘Do you really expect me to trust your statement?’ Kyle glared at her but seeing her expression, he gave up.
His past experiences told him that his mother wouldn’t do what she didn’t want to. Confronting her was useless.
He held Maya’s shoulders and shook her lightly.
“Ah!” Maya snapped out of her trance and looked at Alison with an excited expression. “So, Varian led you to Pluto? And the recent CTFs are to escape from Julius, right? Arghh! I should’ve guessed from the coordinates!
B-But! I really helped in the first successful expedition against Pluto! Yay!”
Maya covered her flushed cheeks as she exclaimed in visible joy.
While Kyle felt that she looked cute, her words nearly caused him another cardiac arrest.
“Pluto? CTF? MOM!!!” Kyle stared into her eyes and demanded with the most serious he could muster.
If it was any other person, they’d have stared away from such intense eyes.
But Alison merely stared into his blue eyes with hers nonchalantly and even complimented him. “Intimidation, not bad.”
“I—” Kyle wanted to deny, but he quickly shook his head. “Don’t divert the topic. Tell me what happened already.”
“Sigh.” Blue Flash sighed and looked outside.
Kyle followed and saw a fleet of spaceships on the radar.
“Fuc—ouch!” He was slapped on his head before he could even curse.
“Language,” Alison said lightly and tapped her comm.
The asteroid they were present on shook violently and Kyle was nearly floored as the spaceship took off.
Whooosh!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The patrol ships opened fire without hesitation and the whole space seemed to be filled with fireworks.
This continued for a few minutes until the pursuers were off the radar and were no longer a problem.
“W-What was that?” Kyle clutched his chest and asked.
“A routine patrol fleet,” Alison answered casually. “Don’t worry about it. There is a bunch of level 9 and level 8 chasing us.”
“…” Kyle wanted to cry.
“Hahaha!” Alison ruffled his hair after seeing his expression and said. “Alright, I’ll tell you about Pluto…”
Maya also perked her ears and listened carefully.
After a few minutes, Kyle stared blankly into space.
“Hey! Varian is so brave! I contributed to the mission as well.” Maya cheered from the side.
“If not for you, we’d have failed. CTFs are terribly important.” Alison said with a grateful tone.
“Eh, it still needs a lot of fixes.”
Their words didn’t register in Kyle’s mind. He just blankly stared and stared.
It didn’t make any sense.
His mother was the deputy head of Shadow Guardians
His girlfriend apparently joined the organization quite a while ago and was also working on a product called CTF.
More shocking than both of these was the fact that his best friend was the hero.
And he?
‘Is my entire life a lie?’ Kyle sighed as he gazed outside.
“Kyle.”
“Yes?” He replied weakly.
“Julius found Varian’s identity. Your lives are in danger. So, it’s better to stay low for now.” She said in a firm tone. “Don’t think too much about it. Things will settle down soon.”
“I understand.” Kyle nodded.
“I’ll be going out. Vari-Dreamer and I have a mission.” Alison was already in all-black, the regular Blue Flash uniform.
“Then this spaceship?” Kyle’s lips twitched. There were fucking level 9s after this spaceship. In case of emergency, he’d be of no help.
“Don’t worry about it. We are not the only ones on this ship.” Blue Flash said and teleported to the exit.
“Wait, who else is there?” Kyle shouted but Blue Flash was already gone.
“…”
“…”
Kyle and Maya looked at each other stupidly.
Then Maya pointed out a door to what seemed like the Control Room.
“Right.” Kyle walked to the door and knocked. “Hello?”
“Hello? I just want to know what we can and can’t do. Can you give us some info, please?” Kyle asked politely.
“…”
There was no response.
Knock. Knock.
“Hello? Hello?”
After a few minutes of knocking, Kyle shrugged and slumped on a couch.
He looked at Maya who was similarly slumped beside him and said with a complicated expression. “I didn’t expect this…”
Maya looked into his eyes and sighed. “I wanted to tell you initially, but your mom insisted…”
“Some secrets must be kept.” Kyle waved his hand and said in a low tone. “But I’ve been thinking, every one of you is pursuing your dream and progressing towards it. While I…I feel like I haven’t lived a proper life at all.”
Maya was taken aback by his words. Then, she stroked his head lightly. “I believe in you. So, believe in me that believes in you.”
Kyle smiled warmly but was honestly confused. As he was about to respond, the spaceship suddenly stopped.
“Ouch!”
Kyle and Maya rolled on the couch due to the sudden stop.
“Hey!” Kyle yelled in protest at the control room.
As expected, there was no response.
{Pathway being deployed}
Whoosh!
With a light creaking sound, a cylindrical pathway extended out of the spaceship.
Kyle and Maya walked to the entrance with curiosity.
Someone else was joining them.
Swish!
As the door opened, Sarah found two people in the room.
“Where is Varian?” She asked with an urgent expression.
“He is—”
“Safe.”
The Control Room’s door opened and Enigma walked out.
Sarah and Enigma’s gazes clashed.