Hollywood Zenith



" What? How?" Arthur exclaimed.

" Reyes family had one ledger too. They found it in one of their abandoned hideout." Zero informed.

" Haaah, wait a minute..... Where is young master right now then? He didn't went after them right?" Arthur knew about Samuel's outburst at a time like this.

" He is still at the Reyes' residence but I had to tell him about your involvement in this."

" Why? You could have lied?" Jane said frustratingly. 

" I could have but he was very serious over the phone and what I know from my subordinate who was present there, it was intense."

Jane was frustrated because she and the team offered to help him with the investigation when they were first made aware of the existence of these ledgers, but Zero flat-out refused them. Now Zero was running point on both fronts, monitoring the witness and interrogating moles inside the LA Verdant headquarter.

" I see."

" We should get to the witness before he opens his mouth, I will send someone to help you and you can leave the 'disposal' to me." Zero suggested a simple plan.

" Isn't killing him a bit too extreme?" Steve argued.

" We can't take any chances that is why I should handle it. You should also consider this man is not innocent, I am sure no one would blame us if we make him go away." They understood where Zero was coming from; they had handled plenty of missions and knew they should not leave evidence that might implicate them in the future.

" I see."

" And he might want to visit tomorrow because he sounded very mad at everyone. After all It's a type of betrayal." Zero sneakily added before hanging up.

" Fuck! I don't want to."

" He would chew us alive! I told you it was bad to keep things from him." Steve lamented.

" Why are you blaming us? It's not like we are the leader of this team!"

" Now, you are trying to pin this on me! Boss, would not fall for such cheap tricks!"

" Why are they so scared of a kid?" Adrian asked Arthur.

" Young master is a very vengeful person and also the strongest of this group. He used to thrash them around since he was fifteen, I think you get the picture." Arthur said with a smile.

It was chaos for a few hours; they debated, competed, and threw out personal secrets but could not devise a scapegoat. Ultimately, they decided to face the 'boss' together; in their defense, they had very good reason to keep this from him. Indeed he would consider it before handing out punishments, right?

...

...

...

Meanwhile, Samuel was twisting and turning on his bed in the Reyes' residence, unable to sleep. His mind was constantly occupied with dark thoughts and rash actions in front of everyone.

" Everything alright there kid?" Apollo popped into his mind.I think you should take a look at

" Mentor, yeah, I am fine." Samuel sighed. He was not naive enough to think there would not be crimes inside his company, but he hoped with his meticulous preparation, it wouldn't have gotten this heinous.

" You almost lost yourself earlier. It's a very bad sign." Apollo said seriously.

" I know you warned me before but I can't help it. Even now I have some urge to barge outside and deliver justice by my own hands!" He started getting angry thinking about it.

" Then what? You will move on to look for the next thing? Even if you spend all eternity looking for such evil you would barely be scratching the surface of it. Sooner or later you have to accept it."

" Still, I can't believe people are capable of such things." Samuel's naivety showed with this statement. Even with all the knowledge in his footsteps, Apollo knew some things needed to be experienced.

" I know you are upset but it's not the time to lose your head. I warned constantly since it happened the first time, you have to maintain your sanity or else even I don't know what would happen."

" I know but why is it happening to me?"

" I don't have any concrete answer but I think it something to do with your titles specifically related to your mind. When you focus too heavily on a single thing, especially evil your mind works over the capacity to amplify your emotions." Apollo presented a theory.

Samuel was a unique existence in the universe; he was directly connected to the source and harnessed magic power in a world devoid of magic. Only the future and the original source knew what would happen to him in the future.

" Parallel processing? I can envision it would overheat like some supercomputer out of space to run commands. You are saying my head would explode?" Samuel asked fearfully. It would be a horrifying way to die.

" I don't know. But what I could say it only goes to the extreme when you are angry, I never saw it happening when you are lustful or happy."

" Why do you even go there? I don't want to discuss my sex life with you!" Samuel wondered why his conversation with Apollo went sexual?

" Fine. It's only an observation, maybe it's natural chemicals which makes it different?"

" What do you mean?"

" During anger, adrenal glands floods the body with stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. The brain is preparing itself for physical exertion, in your case you can control your body functions perfectly which makes it more odd."

" You are right! I can practice to regulate it." Samuel seemed to have an epiphany. 

" On the other hand, during intercourse, it is more affected by vasopressin, which helps male bond to his partner and instills a protective instinct toward his partner or in your case partners?" Apollo some nonessential information.

" That's it, I am going to sleep." Samuel forced himself to sleep. 

...

...

...

It was almost six o'clock in the morning when someone sneakily entered his room. Seeing him still sleeping, the intruder moved closer, stretching their neck to look at his face.

They arrived at his bedside and observed his face first, confirming he was still asleep. Moving their face closer to his hand, they started observing his wound, but what the intruder didn't know, Samuel was already aware of their presence.

At the next movement, Samuel grabbed them and covered their whole body with his thick blanket, making it pitch black inside. Samuel was very confident about who this person was before he made the move.