“What?” Roun exclaimed, much to Rueben’s continued amusement.

“Don’t be so surprised, you’ve been through a lot.” He did his best to reassure the youngster. “Awakening a guardian takes an incredible toll on a person’s Ki – your ‘zeta energy’.” He raised his hands to make ‘air-quotes’ as he explained the situation. “Honestly, if you were anyone else, I’d be genuinely surprised that you’re even conscious at all.”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards once again as he continued to piece the scraps of information that he was being fed together.

“But… being the son of Shin and Naomi Itami, I suppose I can’t expect anything less from the likes of you.” He added.

“If you say so.” Roun dismissed the platitude, still rather off-put by the entire situation.

“Come one man – a legenday-tier father and heroic-tier mother – few of us can boast being the son of not one but of two of the most powerful channelers on the planet.” Rueben pressed, but Roun just growled in reply.

“Okay, whatever.” He dismissed him once again, causing Rueben to just chuckle lightly and get up. “Where are you going now?” Roun questioned as Rueben turned his back and made his way towards the inside of the house, leaving the grumpy youngster lying on his hammock in the veranda.

“Me? I’m gonna go have a shower and get changed… probably head down to the nearby market. I hear there’s a bunch of tourist-y activities going on down there, so – as I’m a tourist – I figured I’d go on down and check ‘em out.” He explained. “You should stop being a Grinch and come along.”

“—or not.” Roun scoffed. “Shouldn’t we be keeping a low profile?” His eyebrow tipped upwards once more as he delivered the inquiry.

“I thought that was what we were doing.” Rueben replied dismissively, furthering Roun’s annoyance. “Do you even know why your dad built a safe house in this particular part of Merricent?” He inquired.

“Not particularly.” Roun shook his head dismissively. “Maybe he liked the view.”

Rueben just chuckled at the counter. “—or not. You happen to know the channeler population in Frigaheim?”

“Not really.” Roun shrugged dismissively this time.

“Try like zero.” Rueben smirked. “All you elitists live, work and hang out in the capital or the surrounding suburbs – functionally shunning the ‘recreants’. Rural areas like this act as hubs for non-channeler activities – so really, this is the last place anyone would expect to find someone like you.”

“I see.” Roun had to admit that he was impressed with the reasoning. He’d lived in Merricent for most of his life and he wasn’t even aware of these subtle social truths.

“Yeah, so once we stay powered down we should fit right in.” He smirked. “Needles in a haystack, dude.”

With this he made his way off the small veranda and towards one of the bathrooms of the rustic beach house so that he could prepare to go out. Roun scoffed once more as Rueben made his way off, shifting his body and making his way out of the hammock before unsteadily rising to his feet. He had to fight his reflexes to prevent himself from drawing in zeta to compensate for the fact that he was still groggy. Instead he just shook his head and slapped himself lightly on both cheeks with his hands, hoping to accelerate the flow of blood to his brain.

Using this method, it took him a few seconds to steady himself but once he did, he made his way towards his old room within the small beach house. His room was on the opposite side of the loft from the master bedroom, which Rueben now occupied. As he entered the small space, a smile broke across his face. It was still as he remembered it. He made his way over to his closet, where he found a single new expansion suit, along with one alternate outfit, both hung neatly in the middle of the small closet. Slowly, he moved to the door and locked it, before getting undressed and making his way into the small bathroom that adjoined his room and the one that would have been Kairi’s so many years ago.

As Roun entered this bathroom, the faint scent of bamboo greeted him and filled his mind with memories of the three weeks that his family had spent at this hideout in his youth. Even back then these plants lined the small showering area that he was stepping into, being a particular favourite of his father. He remembered Shin always saying that they reminded him of home and the memory brought a slight smile to his face. With that smile he entered the shower and extended his hand, resting it on a small touch-sensitive surface on the wall just beneath the shower-head. Next he swiped his hand horizontally to turn on the water. Another swipe vertically allowed him to adjust the temperature of the water, before the room became saturated by soothing steam. A light sigh escaped his lips as the steam expanded and the relatively small bathing area was permeated with the pitter-patter of droplets on the floor. This sound and the warmth of the water rolling over his body placated him, drowning out the world around him and wrapping him in the arms of comfort for just that moment.

In fact this moment was so comfortable that it was easy for the young channeler to become lost in it and it wasn’t until the sound of Rueben pounding on his bedroom door roused him from his daze that he realised that he’d been in there for almost half an hour.

“You soon ready, Roun?” The voice inquired, causing Roun to reply frantically.

“Yeah, just gimme five more minutes.” He announced, reaching out and touching the console before swiping down to turn the water off.

Soon he was rushing out of the bathroom, still dripping wet and making his way back into his bedroom. Drying his skin took just seconds and soon he was jumping into the new expansion suit that had been provided. Next he threw on the long pants left out for him, then the sleeveless shirt that fit snuggly over the top of his expansion suit, before he threw on a short-sleeved jacket, socks and sneakers and rushed out of the door.

“Done powdering your nose, ma’am?” Rueben inquired with a smirk, drawing a light growl from Roun that only further amused him.

“Wait, aren’t you changing that jacket?” Roun inquired, noting that while Rueben was now wearing lighter clothing, he still wore the fur-lined jacket that he’d been wearing when Roun came to.

“Nope. Why?” Rueben inquired, genuinely puzzled by the query.

“Cuz we’re in the tropics…” Roun replied matter-of-factly, much to Rueben’s further amusement.

“What’s your point?” Rueben challenged, checking the small screen on the embedded console of his phone, which he wore on his forearm. “My environmental regulator is set to a cool twenty-four degrees centigrade – I could throw on ten more jackets and that won’t change a thing.”

Roun just rolled his eyes.

“Plus, this is my favourite jacket.” Rueben smirked, before changing the subject. “How do you like the new expansion suit, by the way?” He inquired, causing Roun to turn his attention to the garment that he had simply thrown on without much attention.

“It’s fine, I guess.” He replied as he activated it and synced the garments to his own phone, which allowed them to adopt his usual black and gold motif.

“That’s it – fine?” Rueben inquired, causing Roun to take a closer look at what was usually an easy to ignore piece of modern technology.

“It’s an expansion suit… it’s zeta-powered underwear, should it really be anything more than fine?” Roun shrugged, completely ignoring Rueben’s exasperation.

“Well first off, it’s staff issued by your dad – an Itami Enterprises prototype that’s not even on the market yet.” Rueben replied. “The environmental regulator is state of the art, and the visor that comes with it has built in zeta scanning.” He explained. “The vest reads and regulates biometrics – powered-up or down – and the jacket and pants act as energy balancers when powered up and muscle stimulants when powered down.”

“Do the shoes also come with thrusters?” Roun questioned with a smirk; mocking the excitement that filled Rueben as he described the technology.

“No.” Rueben smirked. “But they do boast shock absorption and redirection. Add that to the fact that all the fabrics are zeta-reinforced and you’re practically wearing a military-grade combat suit that looks like regular clothing.”

“OK, fine.” Roun cracked a smirk of his own. “I’ll hand it to the old man, that is pretty cool.”

“I know right?” Rueben laughed lightly in reply, causing Roun to chuckle as well.

“You’re like a kid in a candy store with this stuff, man.” Roun shook his head while Rueben continued to chuckle lightly. “I gotta ask, how old are you?”

“Twenty-three.” Rueben replied, much to Roun’s surprise.

“You’re almost my age.” He stated.

“Well technically, you’re almost my age.” Rueben replied jokingly. “How old did you think I was?” Roun just shrugged.

“Up until 5 minutes ago, I would have sworn that you were a lot older than me.” Roun replied quite seriously. “But after ‘gushing’ about the expansion suit, I was willing to guess somewhere more in the pre-teen range.”

“Oh, so the Grinch has jokes now, does he?” Rueben smirked in reply. Roun just chuckled lightly.

“Actually, I’ve been known to be pretty hilarious at times.” Roun replied with amusement, before pausing slightly. “…I guess it goes without saying that we got off on the wrong foot.”

“Understatement of the day, dude.” Rueben jabbed. “It’s cool though.”

“Cool.” Roun nodded. “Well, I guess we should get going.”

“Yeah.”

Rueben just nodded before the two made their way out of the door and toward his vehicle. As they cleared the doorway and approached the vehicle, Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards as it so often tended to.

“So clearly working for my dad pays well.” Roun stated as he looked over the vehicle that was parked in front of his dad’s old loft.

He could tell just by the shape of the chassis that the vehicle was a Detrel, a high end model of hovercraft created by Drago Enterprises; a bitter rival of the Elixer Corporation. But this particular model was way out of the price range of the Archel, being worth almost ten times that of the vehicle that Roun and Kairi shared.

As the two entered the vehicle, it became obvious why. The entire vehicle was made for luxury, causing the designs to cast practicality to winds in ways that made even the Archel seem Spartan. Everything from the materials used in its construction to the interface of its systems were designed to flatter the driver, and when the engine started it simply drowned out the noise of anything else. It was, in a word, showstopping.

“Low profile, huh?” Roun inquired, casting Rueben a side glance.

“Scroll down to the bottom of the visual themes for your expansion suit.” Rueben seemed to ignore Roun’s jab.

“Cover dot T-H-M – that’s not one of mine.” Roun replied with a puzzled expression.

“Yeah I know, you should select it.” Rueben suggested, causing Roun’s eyebrow to tip upwards with scepticism before he eventually complied.

Roun watched as the gold highlights from his gear bled out and were replaced by greys and white, causing him to stand out much less than he previously did but what shocked him more was the fact that he could feel the energy from his expansion suit running over his body as well. His gaze narrowed as he activated the sun visor on the windshield of Rueben’s Detrel, causing a mirror to be projected near the top of it.

“What the hell?” He exclaimed with shock, noting that his hair now appeared predominantly black with far less outstanding blonde highlights, while his eyes now took on a hazel hue.

“I told you, these expansion suits are pretty sweet.” Rueben smirked as he did the same, muting the colours of his own black and red gear before his hair also became less outstanding. “You see, it doesn’t matter how flashy this car is. You’re kilometres away from where anyone would think to look, with someone who no one expects to see you with and looking completely unlike yourself.”

“Great.” Roun shook his head. “I wouldn’t even recognise me in this get-up. I look so… mundane.”

“Just like a recreant—” Rueben smirked. “—which is the idea. We should fit right in.”

“Indeed.” Roun shook his head before deactivating the sun visor on his side of the vehicle.

“So now you can relax and try to enjoy yourself.” Rueben suggested.

Roun just nodded and exhaled heavily, sitting back in the comfort of the Detrel’s leather seats while Rueben sped toward their location. Soon the two channelers were pulling onto the parish’s hyper-rail system, a highly energized roadway designed specifically for modern zeta-powered vehicles. As Rueben pulled into the merging lane, the two felt the surge of energy rushing into their vehicle from the roadway, boosting the thrust significantly to accelerate the vehicle beyond its usual capabilities. Within seconds they were moving at speeds in excess of five hundred kilometres per hour, forcing the vehicle to retract the steering wheel and initiate the auto-pilot. Soon Rueben was relieved of his duties as driver, surrendering that task to the vehicle’s navigation systems as it completed the merging process at high speed. This allowed the older of the two chanelers to turn his attention towards the vehicle’s stereo system, through which he searched for some decent music.

Roun watched as he flicked through the lengthily list of names before coming upon a familiar band --Resonance Theta – and selecting them. Next he browsed their discography to find one of their songs that he liked and soon the vehicle was filled by the sounds of electric guitars, bass and drums as the modern-rock band’s most popular song started up. Soon the powerful voice of the band’s female lead singer exploded within the car. Rueben nodded his head casually to the beat, causing Roun to smirk as he rested back and did the same.