"Dad?" Sky whispered in a shaky voice. As if he had lost control over his eyes, which glued themselves to the man standing in front of him, he froze before that impossible fact.

His father was alive.

A wave-like sense of warmth overtook his entire body. It was as if spring had come all of a sudden, blossoming with full force inside his heart.

Meanwhile, behind him in that deep valley at the top of the volcano, Mrs Evergreen's phoenixes engaged in a relentless face-to-face battle with Endurance's forces. The air crackled with the clash of beaks, strikes of lightning, and the blaze of plumage set on fire, a visceral battle producing a foul smell of burnt flesh and metal and agonising cries.

Not the best setting for a family reunion of that relevance.

"I know. It's been a long time," his father said.

Alistair's voice was rustier than Sky remembered, but his warm smile echoed deeply from his most cherished memories. His skin was wrinkled, giving him a much older look.

Tears started to well in Sky's eyes. How is this possible?! But he was supposed to be dead! What's happening here? Where has he been all these years? Why has he come back now? Why is he with my mother? Did she know? If so, why didn't she tell me?!

Despite the gazillion doubts Sky had in his mind, the only sound that came out of his mouth was a weak whining sound as he let his tears loose. He closed his eyes, smashed his chest into his father's, and hugged him hard. His father's bracelet with charms dangled, getting Alistair's attention.

Alistair pulled his son back to inspect the bracelet.

"I've missed you so much!" Sky whisper-shouted as his voice broke.

"You're wearing it," Alistair whispered with a warm smile. "It suits you."

Halle stood a few feet away from them, with her arms awkwardly crossed over her chest and her head hanging low. Pressing her lips into a thin line, she sank her fingers into the black jacket she was wearing, visibly uncomfortable seeing such an open display of affection.

But the colossal figure of Endurance loomed, a cybernetic eagle of monstrous proportions, its metallic feathers reflecting the fiery turmoil that surrounded it. The enormity of its wingspan cast shadows over the desolation below as he turned to face Mrs Evergreen, a menacing silhouette against the backdrop of darkened skies with threatening clouds and the two hordes of phoenixes battling against each other.

"What happened to you, Dad?" Sky asked.

Alistair turned to his son with a warm gaze. "It's a long story, son."

"I'm not waiting a single minute longer. I've missed you too much all these years." Sky's need echoed in his pushy tone and the obsessive quality in his staring.

Alistair sighed and nodded. "Okay. But we have to hide."

They squatted close to some dense bushes. Alistair took a peek just to check nobody had seen them.

"The day I was supposed to die, I suffered lethal injuries at the claws of a Thunderbreaker," he explained, speaking fast, while Sky glued his eyes to his face, "and transported in a medical unit to Anti-Ageing Inc.'s headquarters instead of the hospital. Mrs Evergreen had issued that command. I found it strange, but I could do little to complain at the time. I had lost a lot of blood and my wounds were killing me—literally.

"Her lab personnel took care of me. They gave me a powerful drug under testing that would restore my health in record time, one of them told me," he added with irony. "I was glad to be so lucky. Special treatment from the boss. Who wouldn't want that?"

A chuckle escaped from his scarred lips.

"But the thing is, she issued my death report while I was still conscious," he went on. "The drug soon overtook my senses and everything faded to black, but before I fell unconscious, she told me she had a special mission for me—that it started then, right at that moment, after my fake death, she said."

"She faked your death?!" Sky exclaimed. So, my mother had no idea about this?

Both men glared at Mrs Evergreen, who was flying on the back of the Blue Ranger while attacking Endurance.

Then, Sky bit his lower lip and took a sky glimpse at his mother.

She was also glaring at Mrs Evergreen as she squatted down behind those bushes, her firm grip on an electric shotgun tightening until the knuckles went white. A vein in her neck protruded as she swallowed.

Sky focused his gaze on his mother's blood pulsing in that thick, angry vein. While he did so, a tear ran past it, reaping a silent gasp from his lips.

She rushed to wipe the tears away with the back of her hand.

She's truly affected by this.

"I didn't understand anything," Alistair continued, still glaring at his boss-captor. "I had nasty nightmares until I woke up with a startle and a sweat—in an isolation room in that same lab. There was no knob on the door. The only window there was a mirror, like those in interrogation rooms, and I was alone on a stretcher.

"I didn't want to be isolated," he said, turning to his son. "I didn't want this new mission, whatever that was. I only wanted to go back to you, my family." His eyes got cloudy. "The thought that Mrs Evergreen had faked my death and told you that I was gone made my heart go wild.

"But I couldn't escape. I was brought food as if I were a prisoner in a cell, through a bean slot. I had little human contact—and nobody would tell me what was wrong with me. Because there were certainly a lot of wrong things going on inside me."

"Yes," Sky replied whispering, interrupting him for a moment. "A lot of things are still going wrong in this company. Mrs Evergreen is a true mistress of secrets and evil."

"The drug they had given me was..." Alistair said, making a brief pause, "the Lifebringer serum. I found out about it later. Much later, once I was free... this evening."

Sky's entire body shivered as he recalled how badly he had suffered thanks to that same drug.

"My muscles and bones ached as if something was tearing me apart from the inside," Alistair said. "My eyes burnt until they bled. But after a few hours, the wounds from the battle were completely healed. My eyes stopped burning, but I had tunnel vision all day, every day for months.

"I was given subsequent shots of the serum, which felt even worse. I couldn't fight against them. I was administered the drug against my will, shot from the bean slot with ruthless precision."

Sky's fists trembled. This was inhumane, but at this point I'm no longer surprised by Mrs Evergreen's and her company's lack of ethics.

"The shape of my head started changing," Alistair went on. "Then, it was the shape of my jaw. My shoulders became wider, while my spine developed tiny spike-looking crests. My nails got thicker and harder."

Sky guided his eyes to watch each of the mentioned body parts as blood drained from his face.

"Every round of testing brought new physical adjustments—each more painful than the last, and leaving keloidal scar tissue."

"What's this... keloi-what?" Sky asked.

"Keloid is a result of an overgrowth of granulation tissue at the site of a healed skin injury. Here," his father said as he pointed at an awkward-looking reddish scar tissue. "Keloids are firm, rubbery lesions or shiny, fibrous nodules, and can vary from pink to the colour of the person's skin or red to dark brown in colour. A keloid scar is benign and not contagious, but sometimes accompanied by severe itchiness, pain, and changes in texture. My normal skin was no more."

Damn. We have experienced different outcomes. I guess that's because he was shot with earlier versions of the drug.

"But Mrs Evergreen was unsatisfied with the results, much to her annoyance. I wasn't looking any healthier, stronger, or younger. My telomeres were tested over and over throughout the years I spent in confinement, a lab assistant once told me, and they never showed any rejuvenating process, which was the true aim of the Lifebringer.

"But the last round of shots was the most brutal. I got superpowers this time. Super strength, vision, and speed."

Sky's eyes were shot open wide. Like me!

"Nobody saw that coming," Alistair continued. "Like the nasty side effects: memory loss and constant arrhythmias. I was confused most of the time. I had difficulty breathing, and I gasped frequently during sleep. I felt dizzy the entire time, and I always felt tired, to the point I fainted sometimes. But the worst was losing my memories of my family and myself... even my name."

This is outrageous! Sky's fists balled with rage and frustration.

Halle's face got paler and paler.

"I was kept in the headquarters so that they could watch over me in secret. As a human guinea pig in an experiment gone wrong, Mrs Evergreen refused to let me go. I assume that would cause serious problems for her company and its image.

"I received multiple medications over the years to combat the nasty side effects of the Lifebringer. I also had heart surgery more than once. My arrhythmias always came back. My keloid worsened. I only know this because somehow now my memory's restored. But at the time, I was a mess—not that anybody there cared for that, anyway. The more I kept forgetting, the better."

I want to get my hands on that stupid bitch and smash her teeth in! And more! Sky's thirst for revenge snowballed the more his father talked.

"I must've resembled an Alzheimer's patient, constantly forgetting the people and things around him, like a computer restarting over and over again." Alistair scoffed. "Thank God that Endurance messed with the company's systems—so Halle's told me."

He turned briefly to her wife and smiled. He put a hand over hers. Now, this is something I hadn't seen in a really long time. He used to smile at her, exactly like this, with that kind gesture of the hand and all. Sky's lips briefly trembled.

"Right then, when Endurance overrode the company's security system, I was lying down in an MRI machine, about to undergo some routine testing," he went on. "But all the electric devices started going crazy. An alarm went off. The lab assistants fled in panic and left me alone.

"The machine kept making funny noises until... I don't know what happened exactly, but the machine must've rewired my brain or something, restoring my memories. I escaped, got some new clothes, and tried to look for Mrs Evergreen to set the scores right... but she was gone.

"The next thing I know, all devices were trying to kill me, until they didn't. I didn't know what had happened until... on my way out of the building, I bumped into Halle.

"She had just issued a fake public relations report and was stealing some gadgets when Mrs Evergreen's goons spotted us. A fight ensued. We fought together, like in the good old days." He smiled at his wife once more, looking straight at her eyes. "And we had an emotional reunion later, after setting the headquarters on fire. It turned out that she was as angry at the company and Mrs Evergreen as I am—but for a different reason. You, Sky."

When Alistair turned his gaze to Sky's, the teen's heart skipped a beat.

"Your mother told me what had happened to you, son. I'm so sorry you've had to go through all this mess." His gaze went sadder and more tired. "The Lifebringer. Being manipulated by this egomaniac woman. Kovak going nuts and using you, too. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, son."

Alistair leaned towards Sky and hugged him.

"It's not your fault," Sky replied as he hugged him back again. "You couldn't escape."

"You look in a much better shape than me, though. I'm happy for that, at least. Anyway, when we decided to come here to fight," Alistair went on, loosening their embrace, "your mother's also told me about your... fallout."

Sky rolled his eyes. To put it mildly.

"Yeah, about that..." He sighed.

"She's stolen your stuff from this bitch, Evergreen," his father said with admiration. "Pretty cool stuff, by the way. I knew you had a special thing with gadgets that would prove useful someday. And she's also faked a company statement to restore your reputation in the media." He made a brief pause to look deep into his son's eyes and whisper, "I think she deserves a second chance, son."

Second? More like a millionth.

"And... hmmm..." Alistair tried to say as his eyebrows furrowed. An awkward smile appeared on his lips and he said, "There's this one other thing that... bugs me. What's that she told me about you befriending a phoenix?"

"Oh, that." Sky didn't know what to reply. "Well, I... sort of..."

He made some unprecise movements with his hands as he tried to explain but failed.

"Haywire, she said you called him." Alistair laughed in a good, whole-hearted way. "None other than the gold Sonic Echo Ranger that has kept attacking the Control Tower over and over all these years!"

"Yeah," Sky replied with an awkward wide smile as if he were a child caught doing mischief.

"Damn, son. You're... one of a kind, I guess."

Sky chuckled lightly.

"So, you're friends, huh?" Alistair raised an eyebrow. "How does that work when the entire city wants to kill phoenixes like him, and the phoenix army wants to kill us all?"

"It's crazy, believe me," Sky replied.

"Now that I'm back, things will go back to what they were before, I promise," Alistair said, putting a hand over his son's shoulder and smiling with pride. "We'll be a family again... with a new pet?" He chuckled and smiled, only to make it disappear when he added, "But I want to wipe out this awful company from the face of the earth first."

"Agreed. We also have to get rid of Endurance and Mrs Evergreen," Sky replied.

The three of them turned their faces to the current battle.

Haywire was being used as a weapon as much as the other phoenixes were, launching attacks at Endurance and his brand-new minions. The gigantic beast had lain some extra eggs to replace those which Mrs Evergreen had crushed a few minutes before.

The sky was a dark canvas made of ebony and ash, with strikes of blinding lightning and tongues of fire, which occasionally tore the sky apart and hurt the eyes.

Mrs Evergreen posed like a magnificent warrior queen as she rode the Blue Ranger, as if she was worthy of the most epic ode. The whistle she had in her hand emitted yet another shrill frequency that reverberated through the air when she blew hard into it, a calculated assault on the senses of the phoenixes that flew near Endurance to protect him.

As she unleashed the piercing notes aiming at her main enemy, she drew an evil smirk on her face.

Many of Endurance's minions spiralled down, whining in pain and losing control of their ability to fly. Their subsequent crashing down below widened Mrs Evergreen's smirk.

Sky narrowed his eyes at her. Wait! Now that I realise... It's not my original design. This device is gold and purple, not silver and green. It's just a sinister mimicry of my enhanced whistle. But she's unaffected by it. So is the Blue Ranger. How come?

"This pathetic noise cannot harm me," Endurance's metallic, booming voice echoed through the tumult in a serious, defiant tone.

Undeterred, Mrs Evergreen, her eyes ablaze with determination, continued to unleash the auditory onslaught. She gave more orders to her two Sonic Echo Rangers through an app on a tablet attached to the back of the Blue Ranger's neck.

Haywire groaned loudly and shook his head violently, as if trying to shake something annoying off his head.

Sky narrowed his eyes at his winged friend. Is he fighting against the orders?

The Blue Ranger didn't react like that. He simply corkscrewed in the air in spectacular pirouettes all around Endurance while it shot its trademark sonic blasts at him.

Eventually, Haywire had no option left and surrendered to Mrs Evergreen's commands to attack Endurance. His sleek movements mimicked those of the Blue Ranger, until both created a beautiful but deadly orbit of sonic echo waves all around Endurance, distorting the air.

"I made them," Endurance said. "Their attacks will cause me no harm, like your insignificant whistle."

Sky said, "Speaking of the whistle, why did the other phoenixes fall and why did Haywire hurt, but Mrs Evergreen and the Blue Ranger didn't?"

"Earplugs," Halle replied, making Sky turn his face to her. "Customised for the occasion, especially after what happened to you in the glass tower of Anti-Ageing Inc."

Now I get it. Those two little metallic things flying off Haywire's ears a few minutes before, when that Airshark hit him! Those must've been his earplugs! He lost them.

"What should we do now?" Halle asked, whispering. "There's only three of us."

"Nope," a female joyful voice said behind her. "There's a whole army now."

The three of them turned with flabbergasted faces to see Naomi standing behind them—with Kovak, Sky's friends, and quite a handful of Mrs Evergreen's soldiers.

"I managed to convince them to join us," she added. "After all, I was Head of the Elite before you and their teacher at the academy." She winked and smirked. "And they love me."

Hello, my sugar cubes!

Did you like Sky's reunion with his father?
Did you enjoy his backstory?
How are things gonna go from here, now that Naomi's here?

Stay tuned!

XOXO

Mar