We were close to Susan's place when I started having doubts about my plan. Maybe telling the Alchemist was going to be a big mistake – I thought. I took my phone out of my pocket and saw I had another voicemail, it was Amy again. It totally skipped my mind to call her after her first voicemail, in my defense I was distracted by my encounter with the Chimera. I put the phone to my ear to listen to the voicemail.
'Hey Fred, it's Amy, again. Did you lose your phone or something? Call me when you get this, something serious is going on, Lyra is here with me. Just call me'
"Who's that?" Karen inquired.
"It's Amy"
"Your cousin?" Chris' eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Amy spent Christmas in Stowe a few years ago and ever since Chris has been subtly asking when she'll visit again. "Is she coming to visit?"
"Way to play it cool" Karen taunted him with a smile.
"This is her second voicemail, apparently my other cousin Lyra is with her and something is going on. I need to call her" I said.
"We're here" Karen said. "You want to call her before we go in?"
I looked at my phone "No, she probably just wants to catch up. I'll call her back later"
We rang the doorbell and Susan came to the door "Hey guys! This is a total surprise, I don't remember us making plans" she ushered us in.
"We're actually here to see your Dad, his car is in the driveway I'm guessing he's home" I said.
"Uh yeah. Is everything alright?"
"Not yet but hopefully your Dad can help with that" Karen answered.
"Dad, my friends are here to see you" Susan yelled.
Mr. Adler walked into the living room, this was my first time seeing him since the attack at the winter carnival. He had a bandage wrapped around his arm where the Chimera attacked him.
"Hey kids, what can I do for you?" Mr. Adler asked.
I took a step towards Mr. Adler "We want to talk to you about taking down the Chimera. We know…"
"Let me stop you right there" Mr. Adler cut in. He looked directly at me "I heard your friends told you everything about what's been going on and now you want to help but you can't"
"Dad, c'mon" Susan tried to get him to be friendly.
"No, they need to hear this. I'm grateful that you guys didn't tell the AMU that I'm an Alchemist but I can't feed you information anymore, the AMU is in town so let them handle this"
"I know where he's going to be" I said. "The Chimera, I know where you can find him"
"How do you know where he's going to be?" Susan asked.
I took a deep breath to calm myself because I knew I couldn't take back what I was about to do. I stretched out my hands and buzzed lightning off my palms. Both Mr. Adler and Susan eyes shot wide open in complete awe.
Mr. Adler took a step back "You're lightning boy from the woods"
"What are you?" Susan asked.
"Human" Karen answered before I could get a word out.
"What she said" I concurred.
Mr. Adler walked over to his couch and sat down "This is how it's going to work kids, if you want my help then you need to start answering my questions honestly"
I looked Mr. Adler in the eye "I'm human"
Susan scoffed "No offense but what we just saw says otherwise"
"We're focusing on the wrong thing, we know where the Chimera will be and we need help stopping him" Chris said.
"Oh I'm focusing on the right thing" Mr. Adler responded "That night at the carnival, that Chimera had some interesting things to say about you. Like he's been looking for you for years, care to explain?"
"You want the truth? Here's the truth, a few weeks ago I manifested theses abilities, on the night of the full moon I was meeting with the Werewolves' custodian to see if he knew what was happening with me but he wasn't much help. Later that night we met for the first time, you were in your Halloween costume" I lashed out.
Mr. Adler didn't respond well to my Halloween costume comment, he gave me what a thought to be a literal death stare which made me take a calmer tone.
I continued "Few day later, we had our encounter with the dire beast and chimera, and yes I know he said some things but I don't know what the hell he's talking about"
The room was quiet briefly before Susan spoke "The custodian of the wolf pack, what did he tell you when you asked for help?"
I was honestly shocked that of all the things I said, that was what she wanted to ask me about "Nothing useful, just some old prophecy"
"What Prophecy?" Mr. Adler inquired.
"Apparently it came not long after The Circle blew pathogen bombs around the world, it says three shall rise and be tested, the usual cryptic prophecy stuff" Chris answered.
"Intriguing" Mr. Adler said and got to his feet "It's incredibly risky for me to be an Alchemist in a town surrounded by the AMU, so even if I wanted to help I wouldn't be able to do much"
"He's not going to be in Stowe" I responded.
Susan snapped her fingers "The class fieldtrip, outside Stowe. The Chimera knows who you are and he's threatened you to meet him on the field trip"
I nodded to show she was right.
"Away from Stowe and the AMU, that's actually clever" Mr. Adler said after which he gave a heavy sigh "If I'm going to help you then I have rules that you all must follow, if you falter on any of these then I'm out. Are we clear on that?"
Chris, Karen and I exchanged glances "Yes" I answered.
"Rule number one, honesty. I know you left a couple of blanks in your story and I'm going to be understanding, you don't know if you can trust me and that's fine but what is not going to happen is you guys withholding information that can get me or my daughter killed, I want to know everything else aside from your abilities, your encounters with the Chimera, what he said and I want to be the first to know if he meets with you again. Rule number two, you follow my plans to the letter, no deviations or improvising and finally rule number three, from this moment you are sworn to secrecy, you will talk to no one about all of this, not your parents or your friends. Is that understood?"
"Honesty, stick to the plan, secrecy. We got it" Karen responded.
Mr. Adler walked across the living room to a wooden drawer, he opened it and took out a mobile phone. He tossed it to me and I caught it with both arms "The AMU is monitoring everything including calls. That's a burner, it'll mask your voice and location, use that to contact me from now on. How long is this field trip going to be again?"
"One week. Dad, how do you plan on handling the Chimera?" Susan asked.
"It's a two part plan, the first part can be planned and executed while the second is unpredictable, we'll have a plan but it will most definitely fall apart so we'll have to just roll with it"
I couldn't believe my ears "Roll with it?"
"Yes. The first part of the plan is me accompanying you on this trip with my weapons, the AMU searches all vehicles coming in and out of Stowe so we'll need to be creative"
"How?" Susan inquired.
"You guys are going to carry my weapons" Mr. Adler responded.
"What?!" Chris exclaimed.
"Calm down, it's a school field trip of at least three buses, I doubt the AMU would search your luggages one after another and besides everyone knows this field trip is a way to get the kids some fresh air, the AMU wouldn't hassle you guys much. I will follow you guys from a distance and when my vehicle is searched I'll be weapon free"
Chris was clearly not satisfied with the response "What if they decide to search the buses anyways?"
Mr. Adler smiled "The weapons will be in its own separate bag, if it's ever discovered all you have to do is play dumb"
I looked at Mr. Adler "If the weapons are discovered then we're back where we started right?"
"I have a contact where I can get weapons but it'll take me two days to get it and catch up with you guys, by then the Chimera could've made his move so we'll try this out first and if it fails we'll discuss a contingency"
"What's the second part of the plan?" Karen asked.
"The fight, fire is the generic weakness of every Chimera but we don't know when he'll make his move or how he'll make his move, he might come alone or he might bring company" Mr. Adler turned to me "The last time we fought the Chimera wasn't so pleasant, he got the better of us"
"That's a polite way of saying he mopped the floor with our faces" I responded.
"I need to know the full extent of your abilities, what else can you do aside from the lightning?" He inquired.
"I'm super strong and I think I'm invulnerable, I haven't really had time to confirm that" Before I could react Mr. Adler grabbed my arm and sliced me with a pocket knife. I pulled my arm away and looked at the spot where he sliced but there wasn't a scratch "Are you crazy? What if I wasn't invulnerable?"
"Luckily you are, this improves our chances against the Chimera. Its weakness is fire and lightning is basically a concentrated ball of heat. I need to train you as best I can on hand to hand combat and focusing your lightning so we don't have a repeat of what you did downtown after the dire beast attacked" Mr. Adler said.
"I'm joining the fight too, there's no way I'm letting Fred go up against this thing without some supernatural backup" Karen said.
Mr. Adler sighed "I doubt there's anything I'll say that will dissuade you and the only reason I'm even considering this is because I know your pack trains their werewolves to fight, just know that you are a secondary fighter, you don't attack until you get a clear shot because if the Chimera gets his hands on you then things are going to get ugly"
"Fine" Karen answered reluctantly "Anything else?"
"Yes" Mr. Adler responded. "You claim you don't know what the Chimera is talking about but in all his ramblings he should've at least given you a clue to what he's after"
"You were there, he said he's been searching for me for a long time, and when he confronted me again he told me to gather the others like me on the fieldtrip and surrender ourselves and he also implied that he's working for someone"
"Others like you?" Susan asked. "There are others that have abilities like yours?"
"I haven't met any but that's what he's implying" I responded.
Susan turned to her Dad "I can help in the fight. It's a good opportunity to practice my shots at a live target, from a distance of course"
Mr. Adler paused briefly "You keep your distance, understood?" Susan nodded with a smile on her face.
Chris grabbed me by the shoulder "Pack the hoodie I gave you, I have a feeling things are going to get crazy"