Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 190: Proposition

"You!" Stanley paused the moment he saw Max. He reached for his sword instinctively, only to not find it there. "What are you doing here?"

The young man was sitting on top of the desk with his legs dangling around in a playful manner. He wore the same clothes he had the other day, not the association clothes he would’ve expected to see someone in here.

Amy turned around from her seat in front of the desk where the young man was sitting and looked toward Stanley. "You two know each other?" she asked.

"Yes," Max said. "He’s the one I said would come to you soon. I was right, see?"

Amy looked back to Stanley. "Are you wounded?" she asked Stanley.

Stanley was caught in a daze as he tried to make sense of what exactly was going on. He looked at Max and then at Amy, and then it finally clicked.

Amy was the sister that he had said worked in AAA.

"He’s your brother?" Stanley asked, just to confirm.

"Yes," Amy nodded simply.

"He tried to kill me," Stanley said.

Amy frowned and turned toward Max.

Max simply shrugged. "I told you earlier, didn’t I? Meera was kidnapped and I had to go fight those gangsters. I told you I met with one of your people."

"You never mentioned anything about trying to kill him," Amy said.

"Uhh, well... he didn’t die. So isn’t that enough?" Max asked.

Amy sighed. "I’m sorry. My brother is a bit of an idiot and quite impulsive. He also probably wasn’t thinking straight because his sister was kidnapped," she said.

Stanley couldn’t even say something before Amy’s eyes narrowed and she turned to her brother. "Did you apologize yet?" she asked.

"Uhh... I think so?" Max said.

"Max!" Amy shouted. "Apologize to him right now. You tried to kill him. Apologizing is the least you could do."

Max pouted. "But it was only a mist—"

"Do you want me to force you to apologize?" Amy asked.

Max’s eyes widened. "Alright, alright. I’m doing it. Geez, no need to be so angry," he said. He turned toward Stanley. "Sorry, I tried to kill you."

Stanley watched the two siblings with a blank look on his face. "It’s alright," he said. He didn’t know what else he could say.

"Happy?" Max looked at his sister.

Amy looked at Stanley and sighed. "Come, sit here. I’ll fix your shoulders," she said and made space for Stanley.

Stanley nodded and walked up to her before sitting in front of her. He felt Amy place her hand on his shoulder and started healing him.

As the familiar healing energy did its work, Stanley couldn’t help but think about something weird that just happened.

"How did you know my shoulder needed healing?" he asked. "I don’t think I mentioned it, did I?"

Amy smiled. "I’ve seen enough broken shoulders to know what one looks like," she said. "Alright, done."

Stanley stood up and moved his arm around to feel his pain. It was all gone.

"Thank you, sister Amy," he said and looked toward Stanley.

"I did what I am here to do," she said. She then turned to her brother and asked, "Shouldn’t you be leaving now that you have done what you came to do?"

"What? I didn’t come to apologize to him," Max said.

"Then what did you come here for?" Amy asked.

"Just because," Max said. "Well, actually thats not really true. Did you know he’s strong?"

"Of course I do," Amy said. "He’s one of the strongest members of our association. He needs a bit more training and experience, and after that he will be a strong backbone of the association."

Max nodded. "I can’t argue with that. He actually got a hit on me when we fought. I was surprised. No one has managed to hit me yet," he said.

"Didn’t you lose against Gray?" Amy asked him.

"Does that count as losing?" Max asked. "His aura was simply unimpregnable for me back then. Its not like he actually ever got a hit in on me."

"I guess that makes sense," Amy said. "So, what do you want? Revenge? Are you here to pay him back for the hit?"

Max grinned. "Something like that," he said.

Stanley frowned when he heard that.

"I want to pay you back for hitting me," Max said. "And I don’t mean it in a way where I want to take my revenge. I truly want to pay you."

"You’re the only one that has managed to land a hit on me in recent times and I can tell our strength is around the same level," Max said. "So, I want to pay you back by letting you train with me."

"I’m sure you have trouble finding fighters that can keep up against you, so you must desperately want an opponent," Max said. "Let me me that opponent for you. What do you say?"

Stanley remained silent for a while, trying to judge if he was being serious or not. Seeing that he was, Stanley tried to judge if this was a good proposition.

No matter how he looked at it, it was an amazing proposition.

There was no one in the association that he could fight freely against. That had stagnated his training quite a bit, and with Gray being back in the field, even that was going to delay his training.

"Alright, I’ll accept," Stanley said. "I hope you’ll help me get stronger."

"Well, I’m gonna help myself get stronger," Max said. "Well, time for me to leave."

"Take care of Meera and your parents. Stop showing off your strengths to random strangers," Amy said.

"I know, I know. I want to take them all away, but you know how my parents are. They don’t want to leave," Max said.

"Convince them," Amy said. "Leave now."

"Okay," Max said. "Rest well. We’ll start our training tomorrow."

Max disappeared from right where he was, surprised Stanley a bit. "What? Where did he go?" he asked.

"He teleported away," Amy said and stood up.

A wounded person came to get healed, and Amy moved them. Stanley didn’t know if he was supposed to leave or not. He had so many questions.

He waited for the wounded person to leave before asking. "He can teleport?" he asked.

"Over small distances, yes," Amy said. "He barely made it out of the mountain."

"Oh... he can teleport too then," Stanley said and cocked his head. "What sort of Nova is he?"

Amy smiled. "If you want answers about my little brother, you’re not going to get it from me," she said. "Anyway, you can go now. Go train or something."

"I’ll have to go to the director," Stanley said. "I have to somehow convince him to let me go train with your brother."

"Don’t bother," Amy said. "I’ll do it for you. You just get ready for the training."

"Oh, you will? Thank you," Stanley said and left.

Amy waved him away and went back to her small room where she pulled a drawer and pulled out a small rectangular plate.

It was her phone and she called the director.

The call rang for 3 times before the director picked it up. "Amy!" he said in surprise. "What can I do for you?"

"Your new Nova, Stanley," she said. "Is there any mission in his upcoming schedule?"

"For Stanley?" the director asked in surprise. "Yes, there is a mission coming up for him. Its quite the important one too."

"Cancel it," Amy said. "He will be going on a small training session with my little brother and will need all the time he can."

"But... this mission is quite important," the director said.

"How important?" Amy asked. "Is it more important than your Nova becoming a better fighters?"

The director thought for a moment and said. "Alright, I’ll move it back a bit, but 2 weeks at most. That is all the time I can give him. That too only because you are asking for it," he said.

"Thank you," Amy said.

"No need to thank me," the director said. "It is an honor to have you ask for something of us in the first place. Anyone would be more than happy to help one of them association’s founder."

Amy nodded and closed off the call before going on with her work for the day.

The director looked at the black space where there was previously Amy’s face and sighed. "I guess I have no choice but to delay that mission then," he thought to himself.

He thought for a bit longer and opened up his list of operatives and scrolled through the names for a while before sighing and closing it.

"Those bastards have a talented tech expert for sure," he said. "They will find out if I use anyone else. I must use someone that’s a complete mystery to them."

The director was still worried about what was happening in the north as the complete lack of information from that side created a haunting presence in his mind.

There was not only something there that could make someone stronger, but there was also someone that could completely hide their digital presence. That only made one question a single thing.

What more could they do?

He didn’t want to think of the possibilities, but he did.

"Now that I think about it, it might be a good idea to let him train a little more before sending him there," he thought. "Who knows what could await him."

The director nodded to himself. "Although, is 2 weeks of training going to be enough?"