The next morning, Mike got up before his uncle did. He got ready and wrote a note so William wouldn't worry about his absence. After a good leftover breakfast and some coffee, he got into his car and drove back to the field he was at yesterday. He continued to practice since he still had time until noon. He was able to recreate everything he had yesterday. Mike tried again to make his whole body catch on fire, but failed every time. He then turned his focus to attempting to create a fire shield. After multiple fails, he was finally able to do it.

    "Cool," he said to himself with a proud smile.

    He kept practicing that and eventually got the hang of it after an hour. Mike then decided to try focusing on combo moves like having a fire shield in one hand and a ball of fire in another. It was hard; he only managed to do it successfully four times in two and a half hours. After a few more failed attempts, he moved on to something different. He tried using fire to give him the ability to fly, but ended up falling flat on his face several times. When 11:30am came around, he packed up and drove fifteen minutes to 555 California Street. He decided to explore the town a little bit.

    A tall office building stood in the center. Mike drove down Pine Street. To the left was the bank.

    Well, since i'm here I might as well do a little shopping. That is, if I live through this.

    He parked and took out some cash from the ATM. He continued to drive around until he saw his dad walking towards the meeting place dressed in dark purple clothes. Mike followed him in his yellow and black Camaro. When his dad stopped, he parked on the other side of the street. Mike took a few deep breaths before grabbing his dark red jacket and getting out. He slipped his jacket on and walked across the street.

    "You're a lot braver than I thought, but you're just as brave as I had hoped," his dad said with a smile.

    "We don't have to do this. We could be together again as father and son, like a normal family," Mike tried to talk him out of it.

    "Normal? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? We're far from normal, so why should we act normal? Nobody would accept us if they knew what we were capable of. They would fear us! We're better off just skipping the whole mess of trying to make them accept us. The world needs to know who we are and why we're here," his dad explained.

    "Don't you have any feeling of guilt when you hurt innocent people?" Mike asked.

    "In order for us to survive, son, we have to bury the guilt. Better yet, cast it out like I've done," he replied.

    Mike shook his head in disgust.

    "No. I won't do that. In fact, you're not my father. You're just a egotistical monster," he spat.

    "I'm sorry you feel that way, Mikey. I truly hoped that you would change your mind about me because the fact is, I still love you and I hate that you're forcing me to do this," his father replied as a shadow fell over him once again.

    Mike charged up his fire powers, flames appearing on his arms. The few people that were around them noticed and started talking. A few even screamed as electricity travelled up and down his opponent's arms. They stayed like that for a few moments, each evaluating and planning out a course of action.

I don't need to kill him. I just need to get him to surrender or knock him out.

"Well? You're the one who challenged me. Are you going to make the first move or do I have to be the grownup?" Mike taunted.

His dad chuckled and smirked.

"Your taunts have no effect on me but in case you were wondering, I'm letting you make the first move because you're the youngest," he replied.

Hm, he could be leading me into a trap but do I really have a choice? How could I lead him into a trap?

Mike shrugged.
"Whatever you say, old man," he said.

He noticed his dad seemed a little hurt by that. He smiled slightly.

"I was just offering you a chance to get a head start since you seem frail and weak," he added.

Mike knew he had hit the mark. His dad growled and attacked him with enhanced speed, knocking him down before he even had time to react.

Ow, okay. Note to self: he's not as old and frail as I thought.

"I thought you said my taunts didn't affect you," he said.

"They don't. I just got tired of waiting for you," his dad replied.

Sure, I'll believe that when giant alien robots come to Earth.