The Messenger of Death

Al continued to infuse his flames into the metal door, the hotter the flames, the redder the metal door became. Soon the whole metal door had turned red but it wasn't showing any signs of melting or giving in to the heat from Al's hand.

Gustavo took a few steps back, the heat that radiated out of Al's hand was too much for him to be comfortable in.

"Huh?!" Al exclaimed.

He increased the heat and everything he has into it this time.

['Nothing is happening. The door has only been getting redder but nothing else. It still feels firm underneath my touch.'] Al noticed.

['It seems like the stalker wasn't lying about this.'] Xander commented.

Al frowned as he removed his hand from the metal door and stared at it. Slowly after he had stopped heating the door up, the red-hot color of the flames started to fade. It was cooling down on its own.

['Is this still metal? Or some kind of metal that we don't know about? A lot of things in this world don't add up.'] Al thought. He was frustrated that he couldn't get to find out what was behind the door.

He turned and faced Gustavo.

"Tell me the truth, do you know how to get past this door?" He asked.

Seeing his expression, Gustavo could tell that Al was really curious about what was behind that door.

"I don't know, I am a very curious person so I know what you are feeling now. I also want to know what is behind the metal door." Gustavo could empathize with him.

"You and I are different, so you can't possibly know what I'm feeling right now," Al stated coldly as he turned around and started heading for the exit of the underground bunker.

"Ouch, he really doesn't like me. Well, that's nothing that I'm not used to." Gustavo whispered to himself. "Wait for me," He chased after Al.

"Why are you following me? Do you really want to die?" Al asked without sparing him a glance. He kept on walking.

"I was wondering when you were going to introduce me to the rest of the team. Remember, you said that I could join your team."

"Yes, I don't have amnesia. I can remember what I said, and I still regret saying it." Al responded. "If you want to meet them, then you have to do that on your own. I am not going to introduce you to them." Al said and continued to make way to the area that he came out of.

"If you are planning to leave the bunker then it would be more convenient for you to use the other manhole," Gustavo suggested.

Al looked up and glanced at the hole from which Xander came in from. It was above his aerial ability. Although it was above his strength, he didn't want to rely on Gustavo after ignoring him several times.

"I don't need your assistance. If I came here then it means that I want to go out from here." Al dismissed him.

['That is quite childish don't you think?'] Alex asked.

['Hmph, I am going out from the same place that we came in from.'] Al concluded.

"But, can you make it from here?" Gustavo asked.

"That's not your business," Al replied rudely.

['Can you though?'] Alex asked.

['You freaking rabbit, who's side are you on?'] Al questioned.

['Hey, I'm just asking.'] Alex replied.

"Watch and see," Al said to Alex.

He opened his palms and formed two balls of fire the size of his palms. Al turned his hands and made sure that the fireballs were facing the ground.

Al began compressing the flames in his hands and at the same time, he was increasing the flames. The fireball in his hands started to rotate clockwise – the speed of its rotation increased after every complete circle.

Gustavo could feel the heat coming from the balls and he decided to keep his distance. He could tell that if he got hit by the flames in Al's hands, he was likely to get roasted to death in a few seconds.

Although he was wary of the flames, he didn't stay too far away because he wanted to see what Al was going to do.

Al bent his legs a bit, he looked like he was about to launch himself into the air. 

-Whoosh.

He shot up into the air. His jump could only take him so far, at one point gravity started to pull him back to the ground.

That's when he decided to use the fireballs that he had in his hands.

-Boom!

Al let the compressed energy in the balls out. It was like an explosion, however, this one was a continuous explosion. The blast came from his hands and hit the floor beneath, causing the same thing that happened to the huge metal door to happen to the ground.

It also started turning red.

Gustavo quickly dived to safety.

The force from the explosion pushed Al higher into the air, and in no time he reached the entrance that he came in from.

['I told you that I could do it.'] Al smirked as he retracted the flames into his body.

['Didn't know that our ability could be used like that.'] Alex was impressed by Al's way of improvising.

['As long as you can think of it then it can be done.'] Al stated smugly, feeling proud that he wowed Alex.

"I didn't expect you to be able to do that." Gustavo's voice reached Al's ears.

He turned and looked at Gustavo with a 'Where did you come from,' look. 

Understanding why Al was looking at him like that, Gustavo pointed to the side of a grave not too far from where they were. "The other manhole is around there. I use it as an exit because it's easier." He mentioned.

Al felt a little bit dumb. He turned and fixed his expression before he started to make his way back to the guest inn.

Gustavo still chose to tag along with Al. on the way he attempted to start up a conversation with Al many times but it always ended with him being ignored like he didn't exist. Nonetheless, he continued to do it.

Walking out of the forest and into the vicinity of the guest inn, Al and Gustavo saw a lot of blue badge students standing around the entrance of the guest inn.

['What's going on?'] Al thought.

['Did someone do something in front of the guest inn?'] Alex thought.

['If someone did something then it wouldn't be only blue badge students that will gather here.'] Xander pointed out.

['Exactly. Why do I feel like I'm being targeted again?'] Al thought as he looked around, searching for a student with a different color of the uniform.

After taking a few seconds to do that, he noticed that the only one with a different color of uniform was Gustavo. He turned and faced him the now retreating nuisance that walked the way with him.

"It seems like this is exclusively for blue badge students. As I am not one of you guys, I think I should go and come back when this whole thing has been resolved." Gustavo slowly retreated into the forest that they came out of.

['Alex, do have that bad feeling that you normally have before anything bad happens?'] Al questioned. He too wasn't quite sure if what was happening was going to be something good for him.

['No, I can't feel anything of the sort.'] Alex responded.

Al sighed in relief. ['Okay good. If you did then I would be more worried.']

['Find out what's going on here.'] Xander suggested.

"Hey!" Al walked forward to where they were gathered and dragged a guy that was at the end of the crowd. He grabbed the guy's shoulder.

"What!?" The guy struggled to get his shoulder out of Al's grip but Al's hand was like a vice on his shoulder.

"Argh! What do want?" When he saw that he couldn't even make Al's hand budge away from his shoulder, he caved in.

"Why are there only blue badge students here?" Al asked.

"Because the academy said that blue badge students should gather in front of this place." The guy asked as he winced in pain.

Al's grip on his shoulder continued to tighten and it showed no sign of loosening.

"But it doesn't look like all of the blue badge students in the academy are present here." Al thought out loud.

"That's because there are different gathering sights that we were told to meet. This is one of the gathering sights." The guy was on the verge of crying.

"Why were asked to gather? And why only us?" Al questioned.

"Argh!! Please, let go of my shoulder." The guy pleaded.

Al didn't listen to his plea and increased the strength of his grip on his shoulder.

"Because the person that killed the 4 students in the academy is said to be a blue badge student."

['Are they trying to look for the bald guy?'] Al wondered.

['Perhaps. If that's what they are searching for then we should be alright.'] Lex uttered.

"There a rumor that they are looking for a particular ring. But no one knows what ring they are searching for. They are going to check the storage devices of every blue badge student." The guy added.

Hearing that, Al was shocked. The first thing that came to his mind was to run. He let go of the guy's shoulder and was about to make a run for it.

Just as soon as he took the first step, the staff of the academy arrived.

['Sh*t!! Rabbit is your hazard radar broken. You couldn't even tell that something bad was about to happen to us!!'] Al put the blame of their misfortune on Alex.