A thunderclap echoed through the Italian morning air. Marcus had returned with Gamma higher up than normal, to avoid waking everybody up. The sun had just started to illuminate the world. As they descended Marcus could see even more reporter vans in front of the estate. The public interest in his person hadn't reduced as he had hoped, but seemingly increased instead. His feet touched ground again and he waved Gamma goodbye, watching the man vanish a heartbeat later.

The estate was still quiet and Marcus made his way to the villa. After a few steps he stopped, unsure if he was hearing something. He followed the faint sounds to the training field and found Grace already going through her motions.

Grace was tall and athletic, but her movements were agile and fluid, quick and precise. Marcus had no problem understanding her huge fan base, she was a sight to behold. The way she moved the two glowing blades through the air… wait. "GRACE!" Marcus exclaimed and his friend instantly stopped and turned to him. "Marcus! You are back," she said surprised. For some reason she hid her blades behind her back. "You were not supposed to see this yet. It isn't done yet," she said and was positively awkward about it.

Marcus moved closer to her, dropping his bag and said "Why? This is amazing! How did you do that? I thought Channel Light can only affect one object at the time?"

Grace rolled her eyes "You always get so intense when it comes to abilities and I wanted to figure this out on my own and show you once I feel comfortable with it." Marcus understood what she was saying, but felt hurt all the same. "Okay, then I will leave you be," he said, but couldn't hide his feelings.

"Bullshit. Now that you know, you can help me," Grace said with a smile, and Marcus' face lit up with joy. Grace laughed, "You are so easy to read."

"So, how does this work then?" Marcus asked, unable to hold back his curiosity. "I call it 'twisting'. I stretch Channel Light from one weapon to the other, through my body. Then I twist every area until it does what I want. The part in my body is super thin and does nearly nothing right now, but the weapons are highly concentrated, ready to slice and dice," she explained and Marcus could tell she was proud of her advancement.

"Wait, does that mean you could in theory mix and match other modes too?" Marcus said and Grace gave him a wide grin. "You are amazing Grace!" Marcus said and Grace gave him a look, "What about you? Success?" She asked and Marcus sighed, "Yes, but… it is a handful. I need to show you, to make you understand." Grace nodded, eager to see the cool new thing.

"I can only show you a low powered version, but it scales rapidly to ridiculous levels." Marcus said, and moved into a more open space. He made sure Carapace was running full power and aimed into the open space of the training field. Marcus compressed a small amount of red energy and used a half strength Impulse Hammer, like he had done before. The shock wave barreled down the field removing all sand and gravel in its path before it slowly dispersed, shaking the branches of the nearby trees.

Grace clapped her hands, "And that was the low powered version?" Marcus nodded and told her about the trench in the scrapyard. "Lord almighty, how am I or anybody else supposed to confront that in melee?" She said with a white face. "I can also use it with a stomp which causes basically the whole area to rupture." Marcus said with a grin, and Grace facepalmed. "I guess it comes with downsides?" She asked, and he told her all about it. After this demonstration they both agreed breakfast was in order.

"You haven't told Kim yet about your new technique?" Marcus asked, in the midst of destroying some cold, leftover chicken from the fridge. "No, I don't know if it is good enough yet." Grace said, while being more normal with her toast and jam. Marcus spoke with some chicken in his mouth, "You really should, he will be completely blown away. Right now, this might give him the boost he needs. And don't worry, he isn't the kind of man who would try to steal your achievement or be angry about it," Marcus added at the end, to remove that idea right away.

"First chewing, then talking." Candis walked into the kitchen in her yoga getup and took some coffee. She looked younger (and hotter, is that okay to say?), but she was still the same woman on the inside. Shortly after, Achara, Kou and little Sophon showed up too. Achara and Candis went for a yoga session, Grace went to the showers, and suddenly Marcus was alone with Kou and his son.

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Marcus watched Sophon play with a wooden toy and excitedly exclaim his feelings about the little horse in his even smaller hands. "That's a nice toy, it looks handmade." Marcus said, and Kou looked proud, "I made it myself."

Marcus had to blink twice before he exclaimed, "You made that?!" Kou laughed and kissed the hair of his son. "Surprised? I started to do handicraft two years ago. It helped me to reduce stress and gave me something to do. I have a little workshop, I can show you if you like," he smiled and Marcus suddenly felt really bad. He had missed out on so much, it felt like he didn't even know his friends anymore.

Let's not go down this road again, Marcus. There is nothing you can do about it and nobody blames you.

I know, but I still feel bad.

His thoughts must have been visible on his face, because Kou said, "A lot has happened in four years and nobody expects you to pick it all up in a few weeks, especially given how busy you are. You have been running non stop since you came back. Everybody is super proud of you." Marcus looked into the eyes of his friend and wanted to say something, but Kou was faster. "We were all in a bad place after you were lost. Janette cried non stop for two weeks and the rest of us had problems coming to terms with the events. Of all of us, you were the last we thought would ever 'fall'. Things were rough. We talked about disbanding the clan, and for some time Achara and I also questioned our relationship," Kou said and Marcus felt a heavy mass in his stomach.

"BUT," Kou said with a bright smile, "One day Janette emerged from her room announcing you were still alive and that we had to get our asses going, to make the clan work until you come back. Grace and Candis were instantly on her side and Achara and I just tagged along. Janette pulled us through these hard months and in the end it all worked out." Kou ended and Marcus saw him play with his wedding band.

"Life comes down to the choices you make and how you deal with the consequences," Kou said and Marcus wondered if this was a quote from one of his old movies. After that talk life dragged them along again, with Achara and Candis returning from yoga. "Where is the little demon?" Marcus asked and Kou said, "She is with Amelia." Achara rolled her eyes and Kou quickly added, "But it is all okay. You don't need to worry." Marcus squinted his eyes and said, "Worry about what?"

Achara walked up to him and took one of his big hands into both of hers. "You think, now that you are back you need to do all the things and be everywhere, taking care of everything. But you are wrong. We are capable too. This conflict isn't your responsibility, you don't need to be in the front row all the time," she said and Marcus remembered that Achara could be very direct at times. Since she had become a mom her commanding presence had only increased.

"If Amelia needs or wants our help, she will hire Colors of the Wild for the job. Then, we all will go and wipe the floor with those criminals," Kou said with a smile and Sophon found this really funny for some reason. His bright laughter broke the serious atmosphere, "Da Da."

Slowly but surely Marcus came to understand that everybody around him had joined a conspiracy to keep all trouble away from him. The battle with the covert organization, the media and fandom, all of it was sealed off. Marcus had nothing to do. Even training his new ability wasn't an option, because it was dangerous and needed a reclusive area to keep it secret.

After some light daily training Marcus was actually bored, for the first time in forever. He stared at the ceiling of his room and had no idea what to do with himself. He left his room and strolled over the estate ground in the hope to find some impetus. The sound of Luca's voice in the distance quickly drew Marcus to something interesting. The rookies were training in the woods behind the estate. The clan had bought the whole area and now it had become their outdoor training area, a place of suffering for the rookies.

Marcus watched the young men and women run, jump and crawl through an obstacle course, while also attacking dummy targets with their abilities. "How are they doing?" Marcus asked while he walked to Luca. "Very good. Since you have returned they work doubly as hard," the Italian man said with a smile. "Really?" Marcus was surprised. He had barely talked with them. "Especially your duels are the stuff of legends," Luca said with an even wider smile and Marcus got red ears.

They continued to watch the rookies in silence and only Luca shouted some orders from time to time. Marcus' eyes found Fin and he saw the young man struggle along the course, using a rifle to attack the targets. "Why is he so thin? He looks like he is made out of paper," Marcus said and Luca answered. "Fin? He is a special boy for sure. Extremely young, bright eyes, very sociable, but because of his past physically a mess. He needs special care," Luca said, watching Marcus from the corner of his eye. "Past?" Marcus asked, still watching Fin.

"He had some ugly cancer, and fought it for years. In the end he got lucky and got a PR spot for a class. The Canadian government needed good headlines and saving a bunch of young people from death through transformation was good press," Luca said and Marcus furrowed his brow. This is why Janette took him in, Marcus thought. She could have told me.

What do you mean?

Janette has lost her brother to an illness before he could transform, and she took his spot.

Ah, so she wants to make sure Fin can succeed where her brother never got a chance.

Something like that, Marcus thought. A large ball of complex thoughts emerged from Marcus' consciousness over the next minute.

"Do you mind if I give Fin some special training?" Marcus asked Luca, without looking away from Fin. "Of course not, but don't break him," Luca said with a small amount of concern, and watched Marcus walk to the unsuspecting Fin.

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