A few days had passed since my parents told me my powers were a result of a serum pumping in my veins, I had already told Chris and Karen everything and their reaction was as you would expect, staggering amazement followed by more questions. My Dad has been dropping me off at school personally ever since they found out about my powers, he even picks me up afterwards, I don't have any breathing room, it's like everywhere I turn my parents are there asking if I'm okay. It was obvious he and my Mum wanted to keep tabs on me as much as possible, I used to think my parents overreacted when I was involved in any incident but after our conversation I realized that was them being calm.
I walked past the AMU vehicle stationed in front of the school and was about to enter the main building when I saw Chris talking to someone, I took out my phone as I walked in his direction and saw I had a voicemail. It was from Amy, you may remember her as my Aunt Tracy's daughter, my cousin. I played the voicemail.
'Hey Freddie it's been a minute, my Mum told me you're no longer on the basketball team, I've been meaning to call and talk about it but it keeps slipping my mind. By the way something's going on over here, I can't really explain it but my Mum accidentally mentioned your name, and I thought maybe you could… um, just call me when you get this message Freddie'
She sounded tense, I decided I would call her after school.
"Hey Fred!" Chris called out. "You have to meet this guy"
When I looked at this person, I got what was definitely a panic attack. It was the Chimera, I immediately took a step back.
Chris was caught up in talking that he didn't notice my panicking "This is Luis, he came to Stowe for vacation and then the attacks happened, and now because of the curfew he's holed up in his hotel…"
"You recognize me" The Chimera cut in, he wasn't so blind to my panic like Chris.
"What? No" I responded.
He chuckled "When I heard that three kids were picked up by the AMU, I figured the one I'm looking for must be one of them. So I asked around and your friend Chris was pointed out to me, he wasn't frightened to see me like you clearly are"
I turned around to look at the AMU vehicle parked in front of the school.
"Don't even think about it" The Chimera said. "If you draw attention to me, I will kill as many students as possible as I escape"
It wasn't until he mentioned killing students that Chris started to realize something was off "Fred, what is going on?"
The Chimera smiled "Fred. Nice to put a name to the face by the way"
"He's the Chimera" I responded.
"You do know who I am" He said cheerfully. "You pack a hell of a punch by the way, I still feel sore"
"Why are you doing this?" Chris asked.
There's no way he's going to try anything with the AMU parked a few feet away, and since he seemed chatty I figured I could get a little more information "I know what you want with me"
The Chimera smirked "Really? Educate me then. Why am I here?"
"For my blood, to make more people like me, super soldiers"
The Chimera laughed hard, hard enough to make me feel like I said something stupid. Chris and I looked at each other, he signaled at me to move back with him, we slowly took steps back towards the main entrance.
The Chimera didn't seem bothered by the AMU's presence, he boldly walked towards us as we backed away "I don't care about your blood, I'm here for you and the others"
"Others?" I inquired.
"Don't play games with me kid" The Chimera's smirk turned into an immediate frown. "If you are here, the others like you can't be far behind. After all it is written that 'you shall lead'. So where are they?"
"It's Luis right? That's your name?" I asked.
"That's the name you're getting"
I stopped walking backwards "Look, I have no idea what you're rambling on about, I think you might have the wrong person"
"I'm going to go before I get mad and paint your school red, literally if you know what I mean. I could take you now but he wants all of you. Thanks to your chatty friend, I know you have a field trip in four days, the perfect opportunity to hand yourselves over without the AMU interfering. You have four days to gather the others and quietly come with me, or I will let the beast loose on your town once again and this time it won't stop until everything and everyone is torn apart and destroyed"
"You made the exact statement on the night of the carnival when you attacked me, 'he wants all of us'. Who's he?" Chris asked.
The Chimera smiled, teeth wide open so we could see his fangs "You'll find out soon enough. I'll see you in four days" he turned around and walked away.
Chris started breathing heavily like he been holding his breath the entire time "That was insane, what are we going to do?"
I was overwhelmed in thought, I just received a threat from a murderous Chimera who now knows my name and face.
"Fred" Chris called, snapping me back to my senses.
I grabbed Chris by the shoulder "We need to find Karen"
The two of us raced into the school and found Karen already seated in class with Susan, obviously we couldn't say anything now with Susan around.
Susan waved at us "Hey"
We walked up to them, the bell hadn't rung yet so the class was practically empty so we could talk more freely
"I was just catching Karen up on my Dad's theory" Susan said.
I was surprised that she's eager to share information "Your Dad is okay with you keeping us in the loop?"
"No"
"Then why are you telling us?" Karen asked.
"You guys could have outed my Dad as the Alchemist to the AMU but you didn't. I trust all of you" Susan answered.
I turned to Chris who hadn't said a word since we entered the classroom, he was far less composed than me. I grabbed him by the shoulder to try and calm him down.
"Is everything okay?" Karen asked, noticing Chris nervously shaking.
"I'm fine" Chris answered.
I immediately tried to change the subject "So Susan, you were about to tell us your Dad's theory"
"Oh yeah, as you all know, my Dad went into the woods to hunt the dire beast on the night of a full moon. He encountered someone who could create electrical outbursts from his hands, almost like throwing lightning, my Dad said this person was also at the Carnival when the Chimera and the Dire Beast attacked. According to what he pieced together from their conversation, it would seem that the Chimera is hunting this person for reasons we do not know yet"
"Does your Dad know how to kill a Chimera?" I asked. I could see Karen's stare, she was probably thinking something like 'I better not be planning on going after this thing'.
Susan sighed "That's where it gets complicated. A Chimera is a hybrid of different predatory creatures created by experiments, Alchemy experiments to be precise"
"So you're saying this thing wasn't born supernatural?" Karen inquired.
"Correct. Whoever the Chimera is, he was once a man"
"How do you kill a Chimera?" I asked again.
"My Dad said if he can find out the specific creatures that were used to conduct experiments on him then he would be able to create potions that would make it weak"
"Finding that out won't be easy" Karen stated. "What if we can't find out all the creatures that were used in creating him?"
"We move to plan B which is fire" Susan responded. "Fire slows down its healing ability and does permanent damage"
"How do we set him on fire?" Chris asked. This was his first input in the conversation, I guess he was finally able to pull himself together.
"Beats me. Too bad we don't have a flamethrower" Karen responded.
Susan smiled "Not to brag, but I have a flamethrower"
"I guess we have a solution" I said.
"It's not that easy" Susan said. "We don't know where the Chimera is, not to mention the AMU is everywhere so it would be unwise to be walking around with a flamethrower"
I knew a way to take down the Chimera, Fire. He stood in front of me and threatened my parents and my town, I thought about the whole thing and this was going to end one way and it wasn't with me giving into he's crazy demands. I hadn't come up with a plan of how I intend to set him ablaze but I had four days to figure it out.