"Oh, that came out way more hostile than I imagined."
stand said smacking his forehead.
"I meant I'm here to teach you to control them."
slightly put at ease by this clarification, Grapple let his guard down. still he was quite worried about what this must entail, being trained by this random man, or would he be a god? Grapple wasn't quite sure; he didn't even know if he could trust him. He could easily be lying; his story revealed a lot, yet it would be awfully easy to make up.
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"Good point i could just be lying to a random kid."
Strand joked, this did not make grapple belive him anymore than he already did
"How about you give me some proof?"
"Of course, how can I prove that I'm not lying?"
"First show me a spell."
"Hmm, ok, but there are a lot of people here. I really think we should do this another day and place. How about I give you this location, and you meet me here ill show you not just a spell, but ill prove to you I know your brother."
Grapple thought about this for a couple of minutes before replying. hed been taught to defend himself by his brother and even bested him on rare occasions when they sparred. This meant that losing to some random person was unlikely. Yet he still wouldnt care to fight someone with magic that would complicate things. But on the chance he was telling the truth, it would be very stupid to pass up an opportunity such as this.
Upon reaching a concusion he finally spoke.
"ok, if you knew my brother, you should know where we live, so meet me there in 2 weeks, and I'll go with you."
"alright ill see you in 2 weeks then."
And with this statement, he left the funeral.
Strand had just left a store near Grapple's home, where he had been picking up snacks and a drink for both of them. He hoped this would help put the boy at ease when he showed up at his apartment. After a short walk, he arrived at the tall, white-bricked building where Grapple lived. He headed to the elevator and pressed the button to call it, which arrived in just a few moments.
Once inside, he pressed the 17th floor button and stepped back as the doors closed. When the elevator doors opened again, he walked down the hallway until he reached apartment 1715. He knocked on the door and waited for Grapple to answer. A bit shocked, Grapple opened the door. He had dry eyes, red from crying, and a just-woken-up look to him. Without saying a word, he went to grab his things, inviting Strand inside with a gesture.
As Strand stepped through the door, he took in the small apartment, which was sparsely decorated and cluttered with various parts spread across the table and counters. A few minutes later, Grapple reappeared, wearing the same gloves he had on before. This was the first time Strand had seen them, but he didn't question their purpose.
After that, they left the apartment and exited the building. They got into a city car—a public-use vehicle that was typically self-driven, minimizing the risk of theft. Even if a car was stolen, it wouldn't go far before being intercepted by a hero. Once inside, Strand set the bag down in the small center console and input their destination into the system. Once Grapple got into the car, Strand offered him the bag, and they drove off.
Upon reaching the destination, they got out of the city car and grapple observed a rather large hill with a long staircase leading up it, ending with a building looking like a temple. This was very out of place looking in a city setting.
"How very cliché, a magic user living in a temple."
However, Strand was not approaching the stairs; he was still following the road they were on. Seeing this, Grapple ran over to catch up with him. After just a few moments, they reached a small building. Strand immediately opened the door and held it open for the boy to walk through. Once Grapple was inside, he noticed that the building appeared to be three or four times larger on the inside. This alone could have been proof that magic was involved, yet Strand continued through the building into a room to the left of the main area. Grapple stood still until Strand motioned for him to follow.
As they entered the room, Grapple saw a space so dark that it was nearly impossible to see the walls. A large curved table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by possibly a thousand or more small orbs, each about the size of a marble. These orbs were placed in an open ring box, and names were inscribed on the inside of the lid.
Without any hesitation, the strand led grapple to a speciffic orb, the lid inscribed with the name STAFF, and with this strand finally spoke.
"These are the memories that I had to remove. I believe this should be proof enough for you to believe me, but just in case."
After finishing his sentance strand put two fingers together on each hand and crossed his thumb across the other two bound fingers and placed them together right on top of the left before sliding the right off and pointing out to the wall opposite the way they entered and fired a bright purple beam firing at a speed that was almost hard to see what had happened.
"satisfied?"
Strand said with a small smile on his face,
"yea that confirms everything you said to be true."
"oh good then I suppose I'll start to train you follow me."
"Wait, before anything else i want to know what this charge magic you said it was very dangous yet you never actually told me what it does."
"oh yea i totally forgot about that."
Strand said, hitting his forehead.
"ok so basically, charge is the magic in which the user can charge atoms and molecules up and freely control them, make sense so far?"
" I guess."
"ok great. This means that all the stuff charged is chaged making it highly explosive if not properly trained. A master charge user can use the molecules any way they want, from railguns to armour to even nukes that are harmless to the user, but this is not an easy feat, so I must train you so you can control it."
"How do you know I even have this 'charge ability'? It could've just been my brother."
The smile faded on Strand's face, and he stared blankly
"You have it. and its much more powerful than your brother. With proper training and experince you can even rival me in terms of raw power."