Chapter 22: The Folinr (2)
Knock~ Knock~
Eve was knocking on a certain door. She waited for a response but nobody answered. She thought that there was no one inside to answer her but she was sure that she saw someone get inside the room earlier.
Knock~ Knock~
There was still no response. The absence of a presence inside the room made Eve doubt what she saw earlier. She was certain that a man and a woman went inside with a heavy expression on their faces. She was familiar with the woman but does not recall ever seeing the man.
Knock~ Knock~
She didn't know the people who stayed in this room but what she did know is that it is the alleged Adam's parent's room. Her mother told her about the scene earlier. How Adam was desperate about finding a goat shirt and a sheep-dragon shirt, and how Adam was not a typical teenage boy driven by lust.
Eve was skeptical about the last thing Andrea told her about.
'Mother tried to seduce him?'
But she denied that thought. It would be too much to imagine a gigantic woman attempting to seduce a boy that was so much shorter than her. It was a weird thing to visualize but it is better that she did not know her mother was telling the truth, what she doesn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Knock~ Knock~
"WHAT!?" A very angry voice resounded from inside the room.
'Oh no.' Eve has done it once again.
She could hear heavy footsteps from the other side of the door. Someone certainly was angry at her constant knocking. And soon enough, the door opened with an angry woman's face.
"Uhm. Hello Ma'am?" Eve cringed in fear of the demon before her.
And seeing that the visitor was an unusual one, Jenny's anger immediately subsided. She remembered this child as the child she gave the clothes to. With her aggressiveness gone, she fixed her manner and started speaking.
"Hello. Eve, Was it? Do you need any help?" Jenny asked Eve with a refreshing smile.
Eve could not believe that the devil from earlier suddenly became an angelic being. But she asked her anyway.
"Ma'am. I'm here to return the shirts to Adam. Is he here by any chance?" Eve took her chances and peeked inside the room. But the only person she saw aside from Jenny was a man who was watching TV while he was upside down.
'Weird.' She was being rude to a person who was in his private space.
"Hmm. We were together just earlier, however he did not come back to the lodgings with us but instead walked somewhere with his best friend." Jenny said whilst looking up, trying to remember the scenes from earlier.
"Do you know where they went?" Eve pressed further. She has no intent on giving up.
"Sadly, I don't. Well, there is a place in mind but you aren't allowed there." Jenny said with a shrug.
"Why?" This frustrated Eve and it agitated her.
"It's a place limited only to Soileward family members."
At this point. Jenny expected Eve to give up on asking. There was nothing she could do after all. Of course there was the option of Jenny bringing Eve with her to Tim's training area, but she's too lazy to do that.
"Family? But I'm Adam's partner!" And in her agitation, she blurted out her desires.
'Another one of them crazies.'
Eve was now put under Jenny's to-watch-out list just like Lilith. Nevertheless, due to her blunder, Jenny pitied her and offered to bring her to Tim's training area. She did not like moving much especially after hearing the news from her father-in-law.
And the boys at this moment were currently held up in the infirmary. Brian needed special care due to Adam's earlier strike at the family jewels.
"Adam. Couldn't you have been more gentler with your hit?" Ivan, who immediately went back to the clinic after taking his wife home, said to Adam as he inspected Brian's current state.
Brian was still in a fetal position. He seemed badly hurt but in all honesty, he was feeling better.
"Yea. I'm sorry Brian. My mistake. I wouldn't do it with my legs again, I promise." Adam apologized to the still posing Brian.
"Promise me you wouldn't do it with your fists either!" Brian asked Adam for compromises. He wanted to be safe from future spars. Adam only promised not to use his legs, but he could still use his hands to do it.
"I promise you that too." Adam replied quickly. He knew that Brian was already fine since Ivan had healed him.
Ivan settled down in The Vault as a medic. He has a very good healing ability and it doesn't come at much cost. He doesn't feel fatigue at all when he heals injuries but he does feel it whenever he heals traumas.
"Thank you as always, Uncle Ivan. You're the best." Adam did his best to be on Ivan's good side today.
And it worked like a charm.
"Hahaha. I'm still going to tell your mother about this." Charms don't work.
"Well. Off you go now. I have plenty more people to look after. There were a lot of children hurt during the exercises. Geez, why do kids have to be part of the military." Ivan remarked.
'Ivan was and still is a pacifist. Good for him.'
Ivan is already happy with his life. At first, he did not feel the burden of living with a mute wife. She didn't use to be mute either, she lost her hearing at a young age. Ivan lived with his wife that had muteness as a weakness but it never bothered him.
But now, due to the cataclysm, his wife's muteness was fixed. He fixed it himself with his own hands. The power he had was a blessing from the God above and he was ever so thankful. Now his wife can hold a decent conversation after years of speech therapy.
Brian slowly stood up. He no longer felt the stinging pain on his groin, but there was a phantom pain lingering.
'This isn't pleasant. Erk.' He was still groaning from the pain that wasn't there.
"Well, let us go then?" Adam said to Brian with blue eyes that shined innocence.
Brian scoffed at Adam. He was once again angry at Adam but it was always because he lost to Adam fair and square. Unlike last time where he couldn't do anything due to it being a lesson on leadership, this time he fought Adam with his own body.
And boy, he lost badly. He could still feel it. The pain. He was beginning to worry about not being able to make descendants in the future.
"Come on. It was sparring." Adam goaded Brian but was ignored.
"Alright. You forced my hand." Adam was bringing out his secret weapon against a frustrated Brian.
"How about some ramen? My treat."
Brian smiled at this. He could not resist the taste of umami which never existed in his original world of Tepatria. He loved the taste of this world's cuisine much more than his past world.
And so the two of them went to the cafeteria. They both ate in peace and in delight. Food is a very good stress reliever, no one could deny that. The savory taste lingered in their mouths even until they reached the lodging area.
"Alright. I'll go to sleep after packing up some of my stuff. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early, with a brand new idea on how to kick your ass." Adam confidently said.
"Yea yea. Asshat. Why don't you go die in a ditch somewhere?" Brain replied to Adam's confidence in kind. He does not back down from petty bickering.
That was that for the two boy's day. But it was going to be a long day for someone else. Eve in particular was walking with Jenny. They were heading towards the training area and they conversed on the way.
"So, Ms. Partner. Since when were you two lovey-dovey?" Jenny cornered Eve with her first question.
'Since a long time ago! Even thousands of years before you were born!' But Eve could not say that.
"Since. No, not yet. But we will be soon!" Eve said this line instead. She held her chest since it was aching. She was too agitated, she still hasn't confirmed whether or not this Adam is the Adam she was looking for.
"Hooh. What confidence. I like that. But you are not the first to be this confident about being his partner, you know. Someone else took first place." Jenny warned the young Eve as she thought that Eve was very cute.
This statement of hers made Eve stop moving for a while.
'My worst fears have come to life!' She obviously misunderstood Jenny's words.
She thought that this first placer was the first one in Adam's heart but it wasn't the case. The girl she thought was Adam's girlfriend was only a very devoted admirer that annoys the hell out of Adam. But she doesn't know that.
For the rest of the walk to the training area, Eve was awfully silent. She was deliberating in her head how to separate Adam and this Lilith person but she doesn't know anything of their relationship so there was hardly anything she could think of.
"So. Now that we have arrived, I'll just have to ask the people around here if they are still inside."
Jenny walked towards a Vault employee and asked around. During this down time, Eve has turned for the worse.
'I'll kill her. Plain and simple.'
She could not think of any viable plan to separate them so why not just eliminate the threat? But obviously that was hard for her to execute so she just dismissed the thought. And due to her dismissing her thoughts, her heart once again ached.
'Kugh'
"They are no longer here." Jenny's voice woke Eve up from her trance.
"There was an accident when they sparred with each other earlier. And it is a nasty one that there is a chance it wouldn't recover at all." Jenny continued her ominous words.
Jenny did not specify about the accident nor did she say anything about who got injured but to Eve who was being crazy at this moment in time, she thought the worst of the worst possible outcome for her.
"Did Adam get hurt?" She asked Jenny with a poignant tone.
Seeing her gentle expression, Jenny was amazed. The girl before her was truly a maiden in love. It was a miracle for someone to fall for her son in first sight but it is no longer surprising since there was a precursor.
"No. They headed towards the infirmary. Let's go together, I doubt you know where it is." Jenny said to the very worried Eve.
After calming Eve down, they traced Adam and Brian's footsteps and then soon arrived in the infirmary. Once they were inside, they saw Ivan was talking to a patient. They stood quietly in the corner and waited for him to finish his conversation.
"So. What brings you here Jenny? I thought you were going to bed early due to the revelation from earlier?" Ivan asked Jenny in a calm manner as he was removing his gloves.
"Hmm. This girl with me is looking for Adam, she claims to be Adam's future girlfriend, partner or something like that. But most importantly, why are you taking your gloves off?"Jenny said without stuttering.
"It's just common medical practice to change gloves for every patient. Though I am not a doctor, more like a quack even, I still need to follow protocol." Ivan replied. He was now starting to become like a real doctor.
After removing his gloves, Ivan then removed his coat and everything related to work. He was taking a break, his mind was taxed due to Johnny's words earlier. It wasn't far fetched to call it an invasion too, since the threat was looming very near.
"Mister. Where is Adam?" Eve garnered his attention and asked.
Ivan totally forgot the main reason why Jenny came to him.
"Ah. Yes. They were heading towards the cafeteria but I do not think you can catch up with them. It has been quite a while now, they should be heading to bed to prepare for tomorrow's campaign."
"Oh. Okay. Thank you very much, Mister." Eve bowed politely at Ivan.
So Eve and Jenny just went back towards the lodgings. They missed the chance for an encounter outside of the boring lodgings so Eve was not feeling her best but she was still happy she knew where Adam was.
Slap. Slap.
'Come on Eve, still haven't checked if he's really Adam or not.' She was getting attached to someone she had a hard time connecting with.
It was a very nice string of unfortunate events. Due to her missing every opportunity to find Adam, it reminded her of her and Adam's hardship from long ago. This is why she slowly attached herself to this Adam.
However, deep within the earth near the outer walls of The Vault. Claws could be heard digging through dirt and pushed out rocks. The Folinr continued their excavation and soon found a solid wall.
"Reeeeeee!"
Chapter 23: The Folinr (3)
Slam~
Click~
The door slammed and the knob clicked. It was early morning, a quarter before 5 A.M and Adam was ready to head to the mission briefing. He had packed equipment that he deemed necessary for this excursion.
'I sure wish I could get at least secure a ham sandwich in the cafeteria.' Adam thought with a rumbling stomach.
He did not attend dinner last night due to being in a deep sleep. The previous exercise they did lasted for days and for those few days, he could not get a proper peaceful sleep. Due to the built-up fatigue, his sleep lasted far longer than the usual 8 hours.
'They didn't wake me up for food. How nice.'
Adam's parents knew about the tedious exercises and how a good sleep could significantly help. They were thoughtful of Adam's situation and that made Adam happy about his current family.
'Alright. Let's go check on Brian.'
Brian had his room right next to Adam's. However, they were separated from the adult group for no real reason. Adam and Brian just preferred to enjoy a little distance from the adults.
"Hey Brian." Adam knocked on the door.
However there was no response. That could only mean two things, either Brian was already up and about or he was still fast asleep. This wasn't a problem for Adam though, he had his ears.
Adam's ears shifted and became pointy. He used his 'Ears of the Folinr' sub-ability. This was an ability he gained after eating one of the creatures.
'I can hear his breathing. Yup, he's still alive.' Adam was being disrespectful in his thoughts.
Bang ~ Bang ~ Bang
Adam bashed the door with his fist repetitively. Now that he knew Brian was still asleep, he did his best to anno- wake Brian up. And due to that, Brian woke up with a bad attitude.
"I'm up. Geez. Could have just called out you know." Brian complained. He's the type to hate mornings.
Bang ~ Bang ~ Bang
Adam continued his assault on the door. He did not follow a certain rhythm at all and just banged the door at random intervals. This made it all the more annoying to the person inside the room.
"Dude! Stop it." Brian once again complained to Adam.
Bang ~ Bang ~ Bang
Adam was being as annoying as possible. Brian was already feeling bad due to waking up to a loud sound, the continuous banging noise made him feel even worse. Brian walked towards the door and suddenly opened it. He wanted to surprise Adam with his fist early in the morning.
"Hup." But he missed.
Adam evaded his attack. It was to be expected, Adam could hear him suddenly rushing to the door.
"Well, well, well. Rise and shine, we gotta hurry and get something light to eat." Adam did not even comment on Brian's assault.
Brian stood properly and went back into his room. He then went towards the baths and returned promptly. He was already wearing his uniform when he came back. Adam already brought his stuff outside of his room and they were ready to go.
"Here." Adam said as he pointed his finger towards Brian's dripping wet hair.
The wind suddenly moved and ruffled Brian's hair. It was not a pleasant experience as all of the moisture on his hair was just blasted from it, causing drops of water spreading everywhere.
Brian did not expect this at all. He knew that Adam was adamant about not using magic but he just did right now. This baffled him since he always wanted Adam to use magic.
"Why so suddenly?" Brian asked with an inquisitive tone.
Adam did not immediately respond but used his hand to fix Brian's messy hair. He took a while to finish fixing it and Brian just silently let him do so. After that, Adam took Brian's military cap from his stuff and put it on Brian's head improperly.
"That is because I'm sure I am going to have to break my principle today." Adam said with a strained voice.
Brian nodded his head. He understood what Adam implied with his sentence.
'He's going to annihilate them.'
Soon enough, the both of them made it to the cafeteria that was full of cadets dining on their breakfast. It was a scene similar to the mess halls in a military camp, where everyone wore their uniforms and ate voraciously.
"Come on. We don't have much time." Adam invited Brian to the counter.
They both walked up to the counter and then looked at the menu. There was nothing of much interest remaining within the menu if almost all of the early breakfast meals were sold out.
"Is there nothing else, Aunty?" Brian asked the lady.
"No. What you see is what you get, plus there sure are a lot of cadets. Are you people going somewhere?" The lady replied negatively to his question and continued her statement with a question.
"Yea. We are going outside again but this time we are all in one team to fight something else."
The lady nodded. She was satisfied that Brian answered her question since everyone else only said that what they were doing was confidential. Brian did not say anything out of line either, he did not say any detail regarding the campaign.
"Here child." The lady took a sandwich from under the counter. This was what she saved for her own morning break as they were selling like hotcakes.
Brian accepted the offer with a smile. In the meantime, Adam was quietly reading through the menu.
"Hmm. Can we just get some soup stock? And rice. If there is any meat, then include that too." Adam began ordering.
"We only have potatoes here Adam. Though if you want bread for that soup, that's all I can give you." The lady did not deny Adam's order but they had no rice to offer. Rice was not for breakfast after all.
"Okay. Thank you Auntie."
After a while, they finished their meals and found that almost everyone was no longer present within the cafeteria. They have to rush now because they're going to be late if they dawdled.
"Come on, let's go." Brian said as he stood from his seat.
Adam also stood up but he was still holding onto his bowl that was filled with stock. He sipped all the remaining stock straight from the bowl and wiped his oily mouth.
"Okay. Don't worry too much though, I'm sure Dad is going to arrive even later than we will be." Adam said as he checked his clothes for any food remnants.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the same stadium they were in yesterday. They were late of course, but due to Adam's presence they weren't stopped by the entrance. Brian alone does not have the special privilege that Adam enjoys but since he was always with Adam it did not really matter.
Once they were seated, they did nothing. The both of them took this liberty to get some more sleep. They were awoken by the sudden change in lighting as Tim began walking to the same podium he stood on yesterday.
"Good morning everyone. Pardon me for being late. Let us begin the briefing." Tim went straight to the point.
Everyone liked that.
"For convenience's sake, we have officially named these creatures as Folinr. They live underground and they displayed scavenger-like behaviour. However these Folinr also claw their way through the dirt." Tim began his speech as he read a document.
"These creatures have a great sense of hearing and they do not come out of the dim lit underground. This is the reason why unlike the rest of the otherworldly creatures such as the mermen, they are not yet widely known."
"And continuing the last point, they have been digging through the ground for quite a while and that is due to their rise in numbers. These creatures need more space to live. Once engaged in combat, these creatures have the advantage in one on one scenarios due to their superior hearing."
"They don't come out of the ground so expect to fight them in an enclosed area. That means all fire ability users are not allowed to use their Gifts. We wouldn't want everyone to suffocate after all."
Tim continued the mission briefing. After half an hour, the briefing ended and Tim quickly made it down the stage. He had a stiff expression on his face as he exited the stadium. And everyone else was excited to finally use their skills lethally.
"This isn't going to end well." Brian said aloud but due to the nature of the stadium, no one else heard him aside from Adam.
"You think? Well, we're here to moderate the situation." Adam patted Brian's back.
They both also made it outside the stadium as they were told to gather outside The Vault. It was an improper assembly and that is because they did not want to alarm the citizens. The campaign was not a public matter and thus they had to do things as discreetly as possible.
After some time, everyone made it outside the vault through a separate exit. This exit was not here 10 years ago and was only made recently for emergencies. It was a perfect passage for a huge number of people at once.
"Alright. Let us do a headcount."
Each officer began counting the heads of their units. The adults were here to facilitate the campaign, or so as they have been told. These adults were actually to make sure that there are no more Folinr remaining as per The Director's orders to eliminate the threat.
"Cough. Testing." A voice came from the temporary public announcement system. It was Tim's.
"At 0630 hours, we are to begin marching towards the Old Town Subway station. Once we get there, the proposed teams should be formed amongst yourselves and act accordingly."
That was less than half an hour. This down time is the time for organization. To make smaller teams of 5 for this specific mission.
"So Brian, do you wanna team up?" Adam asked Brian and offered his hand to shake.
Brian looked at Adam's hand. He shook his head and backed off. He did not want to be with Adam for this mission.
"No thank you. Adam, you're going to have to move separately if you don't want to reveal your magic." Brian said as he crossed his arms.
"That is why I want you in my team. You already know that I use magic so what's the harm in you seeing it." Adam countered Brian's logic with logic.
"I know, but don't you think it would be more efficient if we split up? There are a lot of these creatures after all."
After pointing this out, Adam went silent for a while whilst holding his chin with his free hand. He thought about it and nodded his head.
"Alright. That makes sense." Adam retracted his held out hand and said.
"Well, keep safe then. I'm gonna go and request for a solo dispatch from Dad." Adam said his farewell and walked away.
After this conversation, Adam went towards Tim and requested for a solo dispatchment. Tim understood Adam's wishes to remain as discreet as possible and just as efficient.
"Alright. Don't let anyone catch you using magic now." Tim chuckled. He knew about his son's reversed inferiority complex.
"Sir, yes sir!" Adam gave his salutations and soon went away by himself.
Adam was now no longer within the camp. His unit did look for him to team up but they could not find him.
'Leader is just staying in the background again.' These were what they all thought.
At this time, Eve also woke up. It was a very early morning for her but she did not care. She thought that waking up at this time would be enough to catch a glimpse of Adam.
However, reality is often disappointing. She was too late. She went to Adam's room but it was tightly locked and there was no response coming from inside.
She was here yesterday as well. She was led by Jenny to Adam's room. As she was about to knock on the door, Jenny stopped her hand and was told to restrain herself.
Jenny was being a good mother to her obviously tired son, and Eve understood her intentions so she gave up for that day.
"Oh, come on!" Eve complained to no one in particular.
She just sat with her back leaning on Adam's door. She gave up for today once again.
'It's alright, I expected the first life to be a time to look for him anyways. So waiting for a few days is not so bad.' She motivated herself.
But it was a problem, she was already expecting Adam to be the real Adam. She projected her views on Adam due to her constant failed attempts at getting together with him.
"Heeeelp!" A cry resounded within The Vault.
Crash~
Then there was the sound of rocks crumbling. The Folinr finished digging their way through The Vault's walls.
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