Into the Unknown

Chapter 7, Part I: Gratitude

  After a long awkward silence of Katie thinking of something to say, she spoke. "So, if you're the Metal Champion, where are the other Champions?" she asked.
   "Some of them are on missions given to them by the Master, but most of them are strewn throughout the base."
   "Master? Like the Master?"
   "Yes, the Dark Master is the only one who can lead all of us so efficiently. We've all pledged our allegiance to him."
   Katie's heart thumped, "You mean, my dad is here now?" She stood up from her seat, "I have to meet him then!"
   Saireed furrowed his eyebrows, bewildered. "What do you mean? Merrick hasn't told you?"
   "Told me what? That he knows my dad?"
   "Katie. He is your dad."
   Just then, Merrick jogged into the bar, out of breathe. "Katie! There you are! Those damn Mirror Mages, I'm gonna kill them!"
   Katie didn't turn around. "Why didn't you tell me?" The air became cold.
   "Tell you?" a drop of sweat rolled down the side of Merrick's face, becoming frozen and shattering on the floor. "Tell you what?"
   "DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" A pulse of light exploded from Katie, her eyes glowing bright white. The dark mist was quickly dispelled, showing a vast underground network of bridges, elevators, and tunnels. Thousands of mages commuted through the network. The wave of light washed over the expanse of the underground network. Lights throughout the space flickered, elevators stopped, and a large amount of mages took a knee on the floor, suddenly fatigued. Some even fainted. "YOU KNEW THAT I WAS SEARCHING FOR YOU! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" The underground began to quake, dust fell from the ceiling. More mages hit the floor, suddenly fatigued.
"Now, now Katie. Calm down, there's a logical explan-"
"CALM DOWN?!" The tremors grew larger, cracks began to form in the ceiling.
Merrick held up his hands in caution, he opened his mouth to say something but quickly turned his head, eyes pitch black. He held out his hand in the opposite direction of Katie towards the open entrance of the bar and dark aura began to swirl around his arm. Suddenly, a spiral of fire and lightning launched towards Katie from miles away from the bar. The darkness swirling around Merrick's arm spiraled out, forming a whirlpool of dark aura blocking the entrance. The fire and lightning split up, catching on opposite ends of the whirlpool before spiraling down to the center. The whirlpool, having done its job, became smaller and smaller until it was small enough for Merrick to close his hand around it, leaving no trace of an attack.
"Come out you two, now." Merrick commanded.
Two women stepped into the bar. The first woman's auburn hair waved down past her glowing red eyes to her red leather jacket while the other woman's dark blond hair was braided behind her head, revealing round glasses that covered her glowing stormy gray eyes. "Merrick you have to get your friend or whatever to calm down! I'm not gonna let the Underground be broken apart because of some little light girl who can't control her powers!" said the red woman.
"Who's this bitch? What? Is she my mom or something?" said Katie sarcastically, still infuriated.
"B-bitch?! Mom?! Little girl, you don't know who you're messing with." said the red women, she lifted her hands, blood red flames alighting from her palms.
Merrick held up his hand at the woman. "Please, Cara, let me handle this." Cara looked at Merrick in dismay and disbelief, but frustratingly closed her hand. Merrick turned around to Katie, still exerting a massive amount of light. "Katie, there's an explanation for all of this. Let's talk about this civilly"
Katie's face contorted, "FUCK YOUR CIVILITY!" she screamed as she whipped out her hands, her light burning even brighter.
"Okay then, I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice." Merrick's eyes became even darker than before, becoming almost pitch black. Dark tears dripped out from his eyes as darkness began to spread on the floor from his feet. The darkness stopped for a moment, then launched out, swallowing half the room in black. The darkness spreading from Merrick pushed Katie's light as they contested for the room's space.
"What's happening? What are you doing?" Katie said with a hint of worry in her voice. She turned her head left and right, looking at the walls as the darkness encroached on her. "This isn't how you treat your own daughter, right?" she asked nervously.
"You had your chance at the easy way Katie, now we're doing the hard way." The darkness has almost reached Katie, swallowing up more than three quarters of the room. "I just wanted to talk, but you had to lose control. You're just like your mother. You never listen to reason, to what I'm trying to say." The darkness has almost reached Katie, bordering her feet.
Katie looked at her newfound father in fear, but felt that there was a familiarity in his words, in what he was saying. "Okay okay! I give. Please just, stop." Katie's eyes flickered out and her light with it.
As Katie's light faded, just as a shadow can't exist without light, Merrick's darkness faded away as well. The dark ichor flowing from his eyes dried up and withered away as his eyes returned to their natural dark brown hue. "I'm sorry I had to do that Katie, but I can't just let all that I've worked towards be destroyed in a day."
"It's okay. I... I'm sorry I overreacted." Katie held her head down and spoke in a reserved tone. It was obvious that she was scared.
"Hey hey hey." Merrick said as he moved towards Katie. "Look at me."
Katie kept her head down, arms folded as if she was in the snow with only a t-shirt on. Merrick sighed, "Katie, you're my daughter. I'd never do anything to hurt you. I've been looking for you ever since you were born. You don't know how happy I am to have finally found you. I didn't want to lose you is all. I didn't want you to be afraid of your dad being 'the master of all dark and evil'."
Katie looked at her father in the eyes. "Thanks, Merrick"
"It's M-" she got it right this time. "No, thank you Katie."