Chapter 69 - 69 - A New Ally?

"Sorry." Raising his hands in the air, Lucien flashed a friendly smile, he spoke in a crisp, clear tone. "We may have not started on the best of terms, for that let me say I'm sorry."

Before the teen could respond, Lucien raised his right index finger in the air, silencing him before he could talk, explaining his reasons further himself.

"Please let me go first." He smiled, giving a light nod at the blonde mature woman standing behind the still nameless youth. Upon his non-verbal command, Sera gently placed his palm atop the boy's head, startling him instantly. However, in the next instant, as the soothing warmth was injected and spread throughout his body, his worried, agitated state slowly but surely began to calm down.

Lucien watched with a calm smile as Sera did her best to resolve the problematic situation, already mostly aware of the incredible qualitative traits her guardian had processed.

The boy's tensed muscles slowly began to relax, his shoulders slumped down, the cold, nervous look in his eyes warmed up to their presence. Feeling that the boy was no longer akin to a burning keg, Lucien spoke once again.

"So, let's start this over, shall we?" He asked, continuing after a few seconds. "You can call me Lucien, the woman behind you is Sera. We mean you no harm, I can assure you, in fact as you can see, we made sure to settle this distasteful debate as soon as we got here."

"Why did you do such a thing though? Why would you guys care for someone like me?" Although Sera's holy energies soothed his agitated nerves, it did not cloud his presence of mind. Knowing that both of them were part of those that his grandpa only referred to as 'Evolved', he was quite wary and cautious. 

Though they effectively saved him, Evolved people were usually quite unpredictable, some of them easily influenced by the nature of their powers. Those that were gifted with the elemental powers usually reflected that in their behavior. 

Even if the woman had some strange, healing properties, this black-haired boy that was roughly his same age had some very-

Suddenly he felt dizzy. As he tried to remember the events of the last couple of seconds, his mind pulled blanks. No matter how hard he focused, he couldn't recall what just happened.

Reaching for his temple, the teen groaned painfully. His body suddenly felt weak, he swayed only to be caught by the blonde woman behind him.

Meanwhile, Lucien retained the friendly smile on his face, his eyes not leaving the teen, he kept looking at him with a silent disposition.

Eventually, as the second kept passing, Sera finally stopped injecting her energy into the youth and was fully helping the boy regain his footing. Several more seconds passed, slowly growing into a minute of silence before the teen finally groaned once again.

"W-what happened?" He muttered, slowly raising his head and looking at the boy in front of him with a momentary confusion before his expression eased up.

"Lucien, right? T-Thanks for helping me…"

Lucien smiled at his words. Tilting his head to the side he responded to the greeting with his innocent look.

"Sorry, I do not know your name yet…"

"Jack… Jack King" Realizing he never spoke his name to his saviors, the boy, Jack, flashed an apologetic smile as he replied.

"Alright, Jack… Before we get into the reason for our timely intervention, let us make sure you are not suffering from some concussion. Can you perhaps recall what happened just a few moments ago? What came to that buffed bald tattooed guy?"

There was no response at first, Jack was thinking about Lucien's question, trying his hardest to recall the events of just a moment ago. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. 

He revealed a confused look as he pondered about what could have happened. The last thing he remembered was that he was hurting everywhere and was barely holding on when suddenly he heard some strange sounds from behind. A commotion happened, and by the time he came back to his senses, this blonde woman… this Sera was beside him, with this unknown teen questioning him. Between the two moments, he was drawing blanks, no matter how hard he tried to think back.

Spending a while he remained silent, not knowing how to answer the boy. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure what they did, he couldn't even recall how or when exactly did they save him, but the scene was obvious without any memories. More than two dozen burly men sprawled around in the dark alley, unconscious with bruises of all kinds.

Eventually, he gave up. Heaving a heavy sigh, he smiled bitterly at his saviors and shook his head. 

"I'm sorry… ehrm…" He still had trouble recalling the name, but after a brief moment, he managed to. "Lucien and Miss…  Sera, I might have lost my conscience I guess… I can't remember anything after your timely arrival. Even that is mostly a blur, I apologize." Jack bowed, surprising both Sera and Lucien in the process.

Chuckling at his courteous behavior as he reached out and raised the bowing, subservient posture of the teen.

"Ahaha… there is no need for such courtesy Jack… I am not some rich, arrogant kid that is on the stroll to recruit servants or slaves or whatever they call them…" He gave a meaningful, appreciative glance quickly at Sera behind Jack before he immediately returned his attention to him.

"Also, you don't need to feel bad, you were quite beaten up when we got here. It took all of our pow- *cough* effort to get you back to a relatively stable state." He gave a light cough, masking his momentary slip-up. 

Taking a sigh, his smile shifted into a slightly more serious look as he asked Jack.

"Listen, Jack, there is a reason for us to come here. While we gladly helped to get you out of the predicament you were in, there's something I want to ask you…" Glancing in the store's direction he continued. "Can we go inside the store and talk a bit?"

—

With a loud, creaking noise the large metal door was pushed open, allowing the thin, lanky figure to rush in, and make his way quickly towards the second, white door further at the back.

Ignoring the surprised and even, in some cases, shocked looks of his peers, he only stopped for some air when he finally got to the guarded, white door. The two guards looked like literal giants, bursting with muscles no matter how many layers of clothing or kevlar they wore. Their skin dark as the night, these walking statues raised their giant palms in front of the heaving, gasping skinny figure.

"What business do you have with the boss?" The gorilla on the right asked in a rough, deep, commanding tone.

"He… Hoo… I…" The lanky man kept gasping for air, clearly, the distance he traveled was above the normal limits he could handle with his physique. "I… need to… talk to the boss! It's urgent!"

Taking a couple more moments, to calm himself down and quench his thirst for oxygen, he slowly raised his head and looked at the cold-looking giant in the eyes.

"We have found him!" He cried out.