Week Four: The Trick

  Vile would fly over after he finished his homework and made sure that Xeq would be okay on his own. Mikey would wait for him outside every day so they could head out. Being the only child wasn’t so bad but having Vile and Xeq around was even better. For now, he would have Vile because Xeq was going through his own transformation. As long as he didn’t have to go through this pain alone he was happy.

  When they arrived, Vile hurried to the place. They raced to the designated area. Mikey was surprised how fast Vile was. Determined, Mikey cheated and partly turned into his true self just so he could beat Vile. It surprised Vile to see Mikey fly past him. Somehow, when he changed the structure of his legs to match the Wyvern's he was lighter on his feet. This made Vile proud and laugh after he heard what Mikey had done.

  “It’s a start.” Vile explained. “Being able to switch partly into you true self is a skill that comes in handy. It also gets your reflection self to accept that it has more than a regular soul occupying it.”

  Vile took Mikey flying over the ocean. They finally made it to Maine and back after a week of training. It was the farthest Mikey could go but that was still more distance than before. Vile assured him the whole way. It made him happy. It was almost like they were real brothers. Even though Vile was seventeen while he was thirteen it was still cool to have him around. Mikey would doubt the friendship at times but even his family loved Vile and Xeq. They weren’t from London but they did know a thing or two about Doctor Who and that was enough to make Mikey ecstatic.

  After school, Mikey would run at the track and then he’d spend time with his friends. Vile and Xeq kept suggested that he try to be as social as possible to keep himself from thinking too much about his true self and then save it for when they got there. It had worked for the most part. Only sometimes did Mikey have to put on his mask so he wouldn’t poison anyone. It was a little harder on him knowing that he had killed someone and for the most part a lot of people were afraid of him but for the few friends that stuck around he realized he didn’t need thousands of people’s attention. All he needed was a few.

  Keeping the Wyvern true self secret was harder than he thought but it was simple. Stay away from water. He already did that. He wanted to tell his friends but Xeq and Vile, mainly Xeq, told him to not say anything. They would find out in time and transformation time wasn’t the time to find out even though it was the easiest.

  The main emotion he had to keep down was anger and panic. Fear set him to his instinctive mode and that’s what he needed to avoid. It needs to be natural. Like Xeq said. It wasn’t. That was for sure but with the help of Vile and Xeq he could do anything.

  “Xeq mentioned that there are different kinds of poisons that I could use.” Mikey said as he walked with Vile down a path in the forest. “Can you tell me a thing or two?”

  Vile took a second to think. It wasn’t something he even understood completely but he took a shot at it even though he wasn’t that great at basketball. “When I use a different level of fire it feels different. It even taste different. You can only know how ‘acidic’ you are when you take control of your emotions. When you’re your strongest. Take Xeq, he’s a pretty fearless and calm guy who has a long fuse. Anger isn’t his strongest emotion. He can get that way which will represent a certain level of fire but he doesn’t lose himself to his fire when he’s angry. When he enhances his abilitiesthough angry he can manage to stay conscious.

  However, if you frustrate him or annoy him he’ll start to break. He loses control of his strength and can easily break someone’s limb. He gets frustration to take the best of him because he ignores problems sometimes. You know, he makes someone else deal with it instead of himself and when he finally can’t take it anymore, he starts to show the frustration on others wondering why they haven’t fixed the problem.

  I’m thinking you might be one for panic, Mikey. If you are then your most vulnerability to finding how acidic your poison can be is through anxiety or fear depending on which is more effective. You’d have to be able to tame your strongest fear to find how strong you poison can be.”

  “Kind of like…” He thought for a second and then continued. “Heights?”

  Vile laughed. “Well, you’re not afraid of heights but yes that is an example.”

  Mikey smirked. “Well, I was but it’s so fun flying with you guys that I tend to forget that I was ever scared and then when you get to see things no one else can see because you can fly? Now that’s something.”

  Vile nodded. “Indeed. Indeed.”

  “How about you?” Mikey asked as they sat down in the grass looking out at the sea.

  “What about me?” Vile wondered as he raised an eyebrow.

  “What’s your strongest emotion?” Mikey was tilting his head now.

  “Oh.” Vile said and then sat in silence. Finally, when he came to terms with figuring that Mikey would rather be warned than find out first hand he spoke. “It’s my anger.” Vile shrugged.

  “Figures.” Mikey commented while laughing.

  “Ay.” Vile said and punched Mikey lightly in the arm. “My fire’s in the core at least.”

  Mikey shrugged. “Does my venom have to do with bees?”

  Vile raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

  “Bees.” Mikey said again. “For the most part they only attack you because you scare them.”

  Vile laughed. “No. Most animals attack you because you scare them. It’s not always the same for bees. Sometimes they’re protecting the hive so they have to go on the defense.”

  “Aren’t most animals like that too?” Mikey was tilting his head again.

  Vile smirked. “No. Just you.” He winked and they both laughed and smiled.