By the time everything was done, it was the afternoon. The hover-coptors picked everyone up from what was once a highway and they sped off. Seb found that he was covered in green goblin blood as he sat down on the stools.

Ivan of course, was emaculate as ever, not a spot in his princely white costume. Hemingway's druid X wizard costume has a green stain while Gabrielle's Viking like attire was simply covered.

Seb didn't realize that Perseus could also be used as a frisbee of death.

"Good job team," Sargent Griffon said, holding his tablet. "Keep up the good work. You did good for your first time Seb, but I think administration would want more flare from you."

Seb looked up, confused.

"What supports everything we do here is the views and sponsors from civilians," Ivan explained. He looked at at Seb, dead serious, "We must give them a good show."

Seb was excused from training and school that day.

The first thing he did was to fall onto his bed and sleep till nightfall. When he went back to the cafeteria, he found the peering gazes at him more profound than the day before. He hurriedly bought some spaghetti and was just about to rush out of the cafeteria when he bumped into someone.

"Sorry!"

A voice squeaked. Seb looked about a foot below to find a small boy, which he remembered was actually in his class. Another boy came up to the small boy and put an arm around him.

"Ohh, the man of the day. Name's Bryan. This little pipsqueak is Killian by the way."

"Oh. Hi," Seb said.

"Can we talk?"

"Ummm. Okay?"

And so Seb found himself sitting with his two classmates. Bryan sat next to Killian while the small boy squirmed.

"Ya see... Killian has a galdius. They named it Ceasar. And it's level one of sort. Killian wants to know if there is anyway to use it... You know. Like you do."

Seb simply stared. He never expected them to come to him for advice out of everything.

"Hay. Take it out."

"Okay," Killian mumbled. A short sword appeared in his hands. The boy almost fell to his side from the weight of the sword.

Seb had to stand up and take the sword the sword by the handle. He weighed it, frowned and swung it once.

"It's light," Seb said.

Killian paled. Bryan felt like it was a bad idea taking advice from a guy who wielded a four foot long behemoth of a sword.

Seb then looked down at Killian.

"I think you should start from getting used to the weight of the sword."

Killian looked down embarrassed. "The instructor said so too."

"It doesn't have any impressive spells you know," Bryan started to explain. "It has a strengthening spell, but it has a bad habit of appearing at random places."

"Random places?"

"It was once found up a tree. Once it was in the refrigerator. Once it was in the roof. And Killian here can't retreat t unless he touches it."

Seb really had no idea what to say.  He ran his fingers softly along the blade. Much to his surprise, a line of blood appeared. Seb stepped back. He looked at the empty plastic water bottle on the table. He took the bottle closer to him, and swung the sword.

It seemed as if the sword passed right through the bottle. Notting happened at first. Then the bottle simply fell, cut into half with a perfect fit line.

Killian and Bryan simply stared, dumfounded.

"Wow. It's very sharp."

Killian and Bryan looked at each other.

Seb handed the sword back to Killian, who wordlessly took it. "I um... And not really an expert on this you know. Uh... Maybe I can_"

"It's okay," Killian said, almost screaming. "Thank you so much!"

"How do you... You know... Trained to carry that sword you have?" Bryan asked.

"I just swung it. Your arms will ache very bad for a few weeks though."

"Uh. Okay," Bryan said.

With that Seb left.

Killian simply stared at his gladius. "I never kne wit could do that."

"We probably never noticed because we work with holograms. I wonder how sharp it is."

Bryan took the sword and looked around. He then used the sword and hacked at the nearest tree.

It cut in half.

"Bryan!" Killian shrieked.

"Let's uh... Just go," Bryan said and he pulled Killian by his arms. Fortunately, no one saw them.

"It can probably cut through anything," Bryan said to Killian with a grin. "See. I told you your weapon wasn't useless."

Killing gave a nervous smile and looked at the direction where Seb left. The two boys stopped while Killian panted. "Did you see the way he cut with the sword! It was so cool!"

"What about the way I used the sword? Hmm?" Bryan said, leaning close to Killian's face that their noses almost touched.

Killian's face turned beet red as he muttered, "You were cool too."

Bryan couldn't bear it. He felt as if his heart was going to explode as he thought, 'How can a person be this cute??? It's insane!'

While Bryan and Killian were figuring things out on their own, Seb took his dinner back to the hostel, only to find his partner with his own spread of five star food laid on the table.

The two ate in silence.

With nothing else to do afterwards, Seb tried to finish some of his homework before exhaustion took over and thus he went to sleep. At midnight, he hears the sound of a notification.

Groggy with sleep, Seb pulled his holo-watch towards him from the bedside drawer and took a look at the notice.

"Congratulations! You have earned 2 million currency points for participating in the clearing of today."

Below it was another massage.

"Notice: 2 million currency points have been deducted as punishment under the prohibition law. Please contact the below number for further details."

Seb couldn't help but stare. His part time job earned him only a measly of ten thousand currency points per month, and here he was given two million for a day.

A day.

He felt that it was quite fair that his punishment was having his salary cut for six months. How much can be actually make in six months.

Seb fell back to the bed thinking. Once the punishment period is over, he will be a millionaire. He can then send money home to his mother so that she can stop working twenty four seven. Hell, he could even throw a grand wedding if that annoying police officer kept his work and proposed to her.

Yeah. He thought to himself has his eyes closed once again. Even with his aching body and risk of death everyday, at least he had an income and other people to watch his back.

Things were not so bad. It fact, maybe things might even be better somehow.

And so at the end of the week, Seb received a notification on his holo-watch, informing that he has a hour of talk time to three numbers of his choosing.

In an age and time when phone numbers were not necessarily needed to be memorized, Seb was in a dilemma. He needed his phone to find his mother's cell phone number. But at the bottom of the holo screen, Seb noticed an option which said "Contacts"

Under it, he found three number saved. One was of his mother's, the other was the landline and the third was of Deputy Kendall which his mother forced him to save. He guessed that whoever had his phone, probably had gone through his contact list and he didn't know what to think about it. Was it legal? But he was quite glad. His fingers hovered over his mother's cellphone number. It was a Sunday, and his mother was probably at home. But his mother's mood was never quite stable. Even though Seb loved his mother, he knew she was hard to deal with. It was quite fortunate that Deputy Kendall seemed like a person who could withstand all of her breakdowns.

In the end, he decided to call Deputy Kendall first. He did have an hour of call time.

"Hello?"

"Deputy."

"Seb? Is that you?" The Deputy said. Seb heard the sound of falling cutlery. Was he cooking?

"Yes," Seb replied. "How is mother?"

"Uh... A bit down since yesterday. She watched the lives."

"She did?" Seb asked, surprised.

"Yeah... She was panicking at first. But you seem to be doing okay, she calmed down after that. I guess... Your father wasn't there right?"

"No."

"That's good.... I am just curious, who is your dad anyways _"

"It's better if you didn't know," Seb replied.

There was silence at the other end of the line.

"I am serious Deputy. Mom gets... Very sour on the subject."

"Okay okay... Just a guess though. It is the macho guy who looks like a doppleganger of Wolverine? You know, the old one? "

Seb did know what to say. He did watch Wolverine once. They said it was a classic and he liked the story. But he never thought that the actor looked even a bit similar to his father. In fact, he barely remembered what his biological father looked at all, only that he frowned alot and was never home when he was still with him and his mother.

"Uhh..."

"You probably didn't watch it. Then is he the guy with the lightning spear? Zeus or something?"

Seb froze. The name brought back a memory he was not even aware he had. Seb was probably six or seven at the time and he had a habit of watching cartoons in the evening on the old LCD screen in their apartment. He would sometimes see his father's face on the TV and yell to his mother, "Dad's on the TV again?"

It was merely an advertisement. But his mother would sit next to him on the floor and both of them would watch a man with a javaline like spear beating monsters and drinking an energy drink at the end. The caption used to say, "Zeus approves!" And the man would smile. His mother would blush and hug Sub tightly.

"That's your father Sebastian. Isn't he so cool?"

Seb would then nod, enthusiastically.

"Seb?"

The bubble of the memory broke, shattering as if it was just a mere product of his imagination. 

"It's him isn't it."

"Why are you trying to find him?"

Seb heard the deputy sigh from the other side.

"Because I want to understand what is going on. Your mother never talks about your father. I am sorry if I am being to nossy, but I went through every Wielder profile who appeared on the reruns for the past decade only to find that guy who looks probably six points similar to you. But his profile says he's single. So he wasn't married to Helena?"

"He was," Seb replied. "They divorced."

"Why? Was he abusive? Did he have an affair? Helena... Doesn't seem to be the type to have an affair... No that's impossible. She wouldn't be so heartbroken if it were the case..."

"Mom thinks it's his job that caused the divorce," Seb replied. "In truth he was just ashamed of us."

"Why?"

"They both were seventeen when I was born. He married mom because my grandparents urged him to. He got famous after that. He just didn't want his marriage to become a scandal and ruin his reputation. So he divorced my mom and used money to compensate and cover the fact that he was ever married."

The deputy didn't speak for a while. It took years for Seb to figure out his parents divorce. And the more he learned, the more he felt anger and disgust build up for a man who was almost worshipped by so many people for his handsome looks and heroism. It had been almost three years since Seb stopped looking for news about him, and he felt so stupid that he even tried to get his parents back together by sending him a fan email when he was eleven.

His mentioned that mother missed him very much. The reply was,

"I don't have a son. Please don't make false rumours."

Deputy Kendall could only say, "Oh. Okay. I don't think I can ever measure up to that guy..  ha ha."

"Please don't," Seb replied.

"Yeah well... We were packing your mother's things just now."

"Why?" Seb asked.

"Well... The reporters are quite relentless you see. It got worse after the live runnings. We I invited her to stay at my place for a while."

Seb stayed silent.

"Look. My apartment isn't the best, but it has a guest bed room and enough for two and it's nearer to the nursing home. The groceries are near too and it has good security. I know the landlord. I can assure you your mother will be safe there."

On the other end of the line, Deputy Kendall waited as he held his breath. Most people says that talking a girl's father to accept you was hard, but talking a girl's son to accept you was even harder.

"Okay," Seb replied.

Deputy Kendall released his breath in relief. "Do you want me to hand over the phone to her?"

"Okay."

"Honey. Seb is on the phone!"

"Sebastian!"

Seb heard the phone shuffle a bit before his mother's voice rang out, "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Those things didn't hurt you did they? Did you have your breakfast? That Ivan boy is friendly with you right?"

"I am fine mom. I ate ravioli for breakfast and Ivan is just fine."

"Thank goodness. I was so scared you would get hurt. That dragon like thing really gave me a scare. Oh my boy looks so handsome on TV! But please be careful Seb. Okay."

"Yes mom."

"Henry and I are packing to move into his apartment. He said it's a nice place. It's closer to the nursing home. "

"I heard."

"I will be fine Seb. But please be careful okay."

"Sure mom."

It took all of Seb's strength for his voice not to crack. No matter how broken his home was, he still missed it. His mom talked about random things and the movies she watched with Deputy Kendall before Seb ran out of call time.

In the end, Seb could only lean back on his pillow and sigh.

He wanted to read Cataclysmic Adventures, he told himself.

And so he did.