Third Person

Professor Pikalus knew that grinding his teeth was bad for them, but at this point, he didn't care. He was frustrated to his core and needed something to take his rage out on. His teeth were just what was nearest and the only thing that wasn't already broken. His chair and several pencils all suffered the same wrath.

The Gauntlet on the other side of the protective glass still gave off flares and was heating up the whole room it was in. Professor wasn't allowed to get any closer, not even with a heat suit, because the last person who did nearly got caught up in an explosion.

He could hear footsteps rushing to him, and then slowing down until it stopped right behind him. He waited for a moment, but the person hesitated, making him speak up first. "What?"

He turned around to meet the orange eyes of the scientist, Jill. Her curly brown hair looked a little worse for wear, most likely from the stress they were all under. She held several papers in her hands and pencils all over, a couple tucked behind her ear while she also carried one in her hand.

"Jill, talk to me. What's going on?" Professor began to walk in the direction she came, wanting to get away from the cause of his anger. Jill kept up his pace, looking down at her notes.

"The power levels so far appear to be steady with a couple spikes. It's hard to say what's causing them, but we've tried everything short of burying it in the ground and hoping it doesn't kill us all. Cooling it down, heating it up, different environments and intensities of light, nothing works. So,"

"So it's most likely someone controlling it. Whoever is bound to it." Professor Pikalus finished, putting his face in his hands. "I knew this would come back to haunt me..."

Jill paused before giving a reassuring smile. "Well, whoever it is in in some sort of distress, so that narrows it down."

Professor paused before nodding slowly. "That's true, but how much distress? It's kinda hard to tell and-"

Professor didn't get to finish as an explosion came from the Gauntlet. The glass protecting them from it shattered and the desks and everything on them in front of it were all victim to its wrath. Both Pikalus and Jill dived for cover and didn't get back up until all was silent.

Silent until the alarms rang through the lab, making Professor's ears ache. The soldiers all rushed to the scene, slowing down as they got closer, unwilling to be killed if it happened again.

"Never mind," Professor grunted. "Whoever controls it is under a lot of emotional distress, that narrows it down a lot." Jill continued to stare, gaping at it as Professor looked around. "Where's your partner in crime? He's good with energy and all of this type of science."

Jill looked down, her eyes narrowing. Behind Professor, a voice spoke. "You haven't told him yet? After all this time? Shame on you, Jill." It chuckled, making Professor turn around. The blue eyes is what he was met with, as well as a little smirk. Jack, Professor knew him well.

Professor was going to ask, but Jill beat him to it. "We're not partners anymore, Pikalus." Her eyes fixated on him, a flare of hate deep inside them. "Our ideals are too different to cooperate."

Jack rolled his eyes lightly. "Jill, I've known you for when we both started, you're really going to give up on me like that? I know your middle name, that you have ten younger siblings-"

"Eleven."

Jack paused and blinked in surprise. "What?"

"I have eleven siblings." Jill growled. "You always forget him. Every single time."

Pikalus noted that Jack's eyes flickered with annoyance. "Oh right. The freak. I forget that he's related to you."

Seeing that Jill looked about ready to strangle him, Pikalus moved in front of them before they could brawl. "That's enough. Jack, check on the Gauntlet's stability. Jill, come with me."

Jack and Jill held a gaze on each other before turning away, Jill storming in the other direction and didn't wait around for Pikalus to follow. Pikalus sighed and followed after her.

"Check the computer databases for anyone in them who has a rough life, or any reason to make the Gauntlet create an explosion like that. I-"

Another scientist ran up and quickly tapped frantically on his shoulders. "S-sir! Some of your friends are in the hospital and one of them is in bad condition."

Professor's eyes widened, looking back at the large hole in the wall and back to the scientist. It took him a moment, but eventually he made a choice. "Are any of them dying?"

"W-well, it's hard to say. One of them is going into surgery very soon and-"

"That's not what I asked. Are they dying?"

The man hesitated before shaking his head. "Not yet, sir."

Professor took in a long breath. "Keep me posted on that. As soon as they're in danger of dying, tell me, but right now, everyone in this lab is in more danger. I'll be over as soon as I can stabilize the Gauntlet." They nodded before running off.

Professor strolled over to Jill's side and caught her looking at a profile of someone he didn't recognize before exiting out of it quickly. She turned to him and huffed. "The list is short but I'm not sure if any of them have the ability to bond with an Atlantean weapon."

"Let's try anyways and pay them a visit." Professor replied. His eyes wandered until they landed on Jack coming back down the stairs, a grim look on his face. He met him halfway and searched his eyes for an answer of what the situation was. "How bad is it?"

Jack shook his head. "I'll be honest with you, not good. It doesn't show any signs of another explosion soon, but if it gets any worse, the next one might be catastrophic. Possibly destroying the whole lab if we don't do something."

Professor clenched his first and turned to Jill. "Get the list, we're visiting everyone." Then, mumbled to himself. "Where's Jerold when you need him?"

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Ace stumbled to the ground, breathing hard and favoring his left side over his right.

The ground had become his anchor, his body barely being able to sit up without it as he carefully looked at his wounds. Several burns from plasma ranging from his shoulder to his ankles, scattered but each made him regret several decisions he made.

Ace had thought that if he could gain control of the leaders, he might be able to win the fight faster, but he was quickly proven wrong. Not to mention he was once again, left just as confused as before.

He witnessed another self sacrifice, one of them jumping in front of the penguin before his electricity could hit him, and took the damage. Just like before, Ace was utterly confused by this act. It didn't make sense, Cody would've taken the least amount of damage of them all, and yet they took it anyways. Why was the point?

Ace might've pondered this for a while, but that's when he heard movement. Shuffling coming from outside, and only getting closer. His energy spiked up and he turned, fully ready to give whoever was coming a fight, but then it all faded away to more confusion when he saw who it was.

"Chester?" His head tilted. "How... Where did you-.. Why-"

The boy shrugged, his purple eyes examining Ace, particularly focusing on his side that suffered from burns, "I wanted to see you again." He answered simply. He ventured inside and plopped down across from him.

Ace held his gaze for a while before saying "Oh." and paused. He wasn't really used to anyone wanting to see him, much less tracking him down to do so, but here Chester was. Then, there was another thought. "How did you find me?"

Chester opened his mouth, but then hesitated. He scanned Ace for a moment before carefully saying anything. "Lucky guess."

Ace's eyes narrowed. Chester might've seemed good at it, but Ace knew he was lying. "No. Don't lie to me. How did you find me?"

"I already told you." The pitch in his voice rose, getting more defensive. "I got lucky, nothing more. Just like before when we first met."

"It wasn't luck then, and it isn't now. You showed your work then, so let me ask you one more time: How did you find me here? It wasn't luck, you did it yourself. How?"

Chester held his gaze for a long time before groaned and lowering his head. "Fine. You appear to like caves, most likely because of your fear of people, trust issues and because you know who comes in and out. I tried going back to your last cave, but people were swarming it, which meant you were definitely gone. If they had found you, it would've been a lot less guards there, but because there were so many, it means it was a search party. You like caves but your last one was invaded, so what do you do? You run to another one. You don't want people to find you, that's obvious from everything I've already established, so you want to go out farther from your previous spot, and keep out of sight. Hence," He gestured to the cave. "The cave in the outskirts of Sector Two. It was easy really."

Ace blinked. "How'd you know it was this one? I passed a lot of other caves on the way here, so why'd I stop at this one?" Ace of course already knew, but he wanted to know if Chester knew why.

Chester rose his head, meeting his eyes. "All the other caves had two entrances. This was the closest one with only one. It's easier to watch one entrance than two."

Ace was silent for a long while before chuckling. "I... How did you figure that out? Why would you want to hide that you knew that? That's amazing!"

Chester did a bit of a double take. He was expecting that reaction, Ace knew that for sure. Chester fumbled for the words but eventually got them out. "Because I'm only eight years old and I have an estimated IQ of 160, possibly more."

Ace's eyes lit up. "That's really cool, why would you hide that?"

Chester now was smiling a little, still perplexed but he seemed happy about it. "Everyone else, especially adults, they're all intimidated. They think that just because I'm so young, I shouldn't be as smart as Einstein, and definitely not smarter than them. So normally, I just hide it. Dumb myself down for them so they don't freak out or act even more condescending than normal. There's only a couple exceptions, thankfully some of them are my Mom and Dad but you... Don't care?" he asked, his voice testy.

Ace shook his head. "Nope. I don't see what the problem is. Then again, I'm not really an adult, I was only "Born" like a week ago."

Chester blinked, scanning him up and down again. "...You were born a week ago? I'm older than you? That shouldn't be possible."

Ace shrugged. "I didn't have a body before so I made one. Wouldn't recommend the process, pretty painful."

There was a long pause, Chester processing everything Ace told him and matching it with what he already knew, and Ace thinking to himself. "Hey- uh." Ace swallowed before meeting his purple eyes. "In that big brain of yours, do you know anything about human nature?"

Chester nodded, smirking a little. "It's my best subject."

"And if... If I were to ask a totally hypothetical question, would you be able to answer it?" Chester nodded again. Ace gave himself a little time before saying more. "Let's say there's someone who's about to be hit by something powerful and something they'll most likely get hurt with, but someone else jumps in front of them before it happens and they get hurt with it instead... Why would they do that? Why would they chose to get hurt instead of them?"

Chester stared into his blue eyes before answered. "To keep them safe. Because in that moment, you'd rather get yourself hurt than have them be hurt, so you take the blow instead. Because seeing them hurt would make you feel pain for that person because you care for them."

"But then that person has to see you hurt! What's the point in that?"

"The point is that they value the other person's life over their own. That if they get hurt, who cares, just as long as the person they were protecting is safe. That doing this is a sign that they really care about the other person." Chester retorted, making Ace go silent, staring at the floor. "Should I comment on how this "Hypothetical Question" Probably isn't hypothetical or is that something you want to leave behind?"

"Leave behind." Ace answered immediately, sighing to himself. The eyes wandered until they stopped on a little metal string looking thing hiding from under Chester's sweater. "What's that?" He nodded towards it.

Chester looked down and lifted it a little, asking if that's what he meant. Ace confirmed it, getting Chester to lift it above his sweater and putting it on top of it. It was a necklace, Ace noticed. One that had a black heart charm on it, and nothing else. "This? My mother gave it to me a couple years ago. I'm not one for jewelry but I liked it so I always have it on." He began to fiddle with the charm, starting to get nostalgic before shaking himself out of it.

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"Alright, thank you ma'am!" Professor smiled as he left the house but dropped it as soon as he was out of sight. "And that's a no to her too. She might have a bad start in life but she's back on her feet now and there's no way she could've connected to an Atlantean Weapon. Who's next?"

Jill crossed another name off the list and shook her head. "That's everyone, Pikalus. We don't have anyone left in our database."

Professor groaned loudly, messing with his hair. "You have to be kidding me! Manually checking everyone we don't have will take weeks! Months even! How are we supposed to figure this out in a matter of hours?"

Jill bit her lip before suggesting anything. "Well, who's been in contact with the Gauntlet?"

Professor paused, thinking back. "I suppose there's a couple scientists I could ask but it's unlike it's any of them, and the first thing I did after getting it back was try to bond with it but that apparently didn't work. I..." Professor traled off, and wanted to slap himself for being so stupid. "Oh... OH!"

"Oh?" Jill echoed.

"Of course! I limited the search to just Atlanteans! I didn't even think to go on beyond and it makes so much sense! I didn't let anyone else get too close to the Gauntlet because it was my baby and I was going to bond with it. The only other person who could've gotten in was Jerold but he doesn't care much for using weapons. But then, it was stolen for months, and who had it? KrakenKid! He could've easy bonded with it before I could've! But why is he-"

Professor's heart stopped. "I didn't ask who... I didn't ask who!"

He bolted in the direction of the hospital, causing Jill to rush after him, trying to keep up. "You're not making any sense! Professor!" But he didn't stop. He figured it out, and he had to get there before it was too late.

Professor burst in the hospital doors and rounded the corner to find two people waiting there: Cody, and to his surprise, KrakenKid.

The king was staring at the ground while the KrakenKid anxiously fiddled with his own gun, making some of the guests antsy. Professor skidded to a stop right in front of him, making him look up in confusion. "Oh thank goodness you're here! I was getting worried I'd have to go after you in the Conch Command."

KrakenKid gave him a puzzled look, stopping from what he was in the middle of doing. "You're... Glad to see me? That's a first." He replied, then yelped when Professor grabbed his shoulder. "What are you-"

"KrakenKid, when you had the Gauntlet, what did you do with it?" KrakenKid paused for a while before answering.

"Well, Harold found things to use it's power for, one of which was the Corruption Turbine, and then he did a bunch of other stuff? Harold went crazy for it, I've never seen the guy so excited." He answered, a slight smile edged on his face before he looked around where he was and frowned again, dropping his eyes. "Why? I'm kinda in the middle of-"

"Did he ever use your DNA or anything with it?" KrakenKid knitted his eyebrows together but eventually nodded a little. Professor nearly stumbled back but held his ground. "Then that's it... KrakenKid, you're bonded with the Atlantean Gauntlet."

KrakenKid and Cody both jumped in their seats. "He's WHAT?" Cody exclaimed loudly. "That's insane!"

"But it's true. KrakenKid, have you been under emotional stress earlier this week and today?"

KrakenKid scoffed. "If you call watching Darrel almost enter a coma, and might still go into one and seeing the same thing happen to Tanith, yeah, I'd say I'm a tad stressed right now."

Professor's eyes narrowed. "That stress is making the Gauntlet act up right now. You've barely used it so it's not as connected as Cody is to his, but events like that are intense, and will most definitely make it start to react to you. You need to calm down or it's going to blow up the lab."

"C-calm down? Are you hearing yourself right now? How am I supposed to calm down when-"

"Tanith is stronger than she looks, just in a different way. She'll be fine. She's not going to go down, at least not without a fight."

KrakenKid paused for a moment before relaxing slightly, letting out a long breath. "Right... You're right."

Cody rubbed his face with his hand and glanced towards the doors, only to find Sam came out of them and sped to their sides. Both of the leaders stood up. "Well?" Cody asked.

"She's in surgery now." Sam answered. "It's anybody's call now."

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Alrighty, let's talk about somethings

Finally, I've confirmed it, (Even though most of you figured it out) That KrakenKid is the one bonded to the Gauntlet. Professor finds out, and puts two and two together that if KrakenKid freaks out too much, the Gauntlet is going to explode the lab so he has to be nice.

Ace and Chester have a little talk about human nature, and Chester reveals that he's HECKA SMART and stuff. Hmmm, he has a black heart necklace? Where have I seen that before...? *Cough* IHaveThoseBadArtPicsOfSomeoneWithOne *Cough* (Actually starts coughing in real life, screw colds)

Also, Tanith is the one who took the blow. You'll learn more how's she doing in the next chapter, and then the chapter after that is gonna explain a CRAPLOAD OF THINGS LIKE DANG, TANITH'S PROMISE IS A GOLD MINE OF INFORMATION

I'm very excited, can you tell?

Also Jill and Jack from Ace's Interlude pop up again and Jill is still angry with Jack for how he acted in Ace's Interlude.

Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter! Be sure to comment your thoughts, and any theories you might have from information I've dropped in this chapter, and goodbye!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter