The Rise Of A Porter

"At least I got something out of him, after smacking that idiot once or twice. Still, there are a lot of question that I need answers to, but at least I\'m not completely clueless. I need to find out more about this organisation and the \'leader\'"

Arnold had just gotten out of his domain after interrogating Bad-Breath when he heard someone knock on the door.

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"Mr Arnold, are you in there?" Voice of one of the butlers came through the door, the Butler continued what he had to say once Arnold opened the door, "Master Nathaniel had requested an audience with you, immediately."

"Umm... sure I\'ll just freshen up and then I\'ll head down to the main mansion," Arnold replied. He too wanted to talk with Nathaniel about the things he had learnt from Bad-Breath.

"As you please sir. I\'ll arrange for someone to take you there."

"Thanks." Arnold said as he closed the door. and freshen up before heading to Nicole\'s room, after all, he hadn\'t seen her for two days.

*****

\'Nicole is really mad at me this time, or maybe it\'s because if puberty?\' Arnold thought, \'I gotta spend more time with her, I guess.\'

Nicole didn\'t even speak to him when Arnold entered her room. He felt like something was bothering her. He asked her about it but she didn\'t give him a proper answer, so he hugged her and left for the mansion.

Arnold got out of the car, in front of the mansion gate when a man suddenly came running to him and gave him a bear hug.

"Woah!" Arnold mumbled and pushed the man away from him. "Do I even know you?"

"I apologise from my husband\'s behaviour. He\'s a very emotional man, you see." a woman said, slowly walking towards them, "And when he heard that you were the one who saved our daughter, he just couldn\'t control himself."

"Director Natalia, it\'s good to see you again." Arnold smiled and shook hands with her and her husband. "And you don\'t need to thank me for anything... because they were put in danger because of me in the first place."

"Mr Ling- no, Arnold, we don\'t know nor care about what you\'re saying. The only thing that we do care about is that you saved our daughter and that\'s it." Natalia said, "I know we\'ll never be able to repay you for what you\'ve done, but if you ever need our help with anything, don\'t hesitate to ask. We\'ll try our best to help you out."

"Thanks for the offer. I\'ll keep it in my mind." Arnold said, "By the way, how\'s Nina doing?"

"Better than before. she\'s still bedridden though. Maybe you should go and meet her sometime?"

"I\'ll try to do that. But for now, I think I should pay a visit to Nathaniel first."

"Of course, sorry for taking your time." Sheldon, Natalia\'s husband spoke up for the first time.

Arnold just nodded at them and went inside to meet Nathaniel.

*****

Arnold was escorted to the same hall he had been to before when he was invited by Nathaniel for the first time. But this time, the lunch hall actually looked like one. Nathaniel and Johnny were already sitting at the table, apparently waiting for Arnold.

"Ahh, Arnold, come and sit with us will you?" Nathaniel smiled and gestured to the chair next to him. Arnold did what he was told and sat down next to Nathaniel, facing towards Johnny.

"So you guys wanted to talk about something?" Arnold asked, looking at the other two.

"Straight to the point, as always. He reminds me of you Johnny, don\'t you agree?" Nathaniel looked at Johnny and smiled.

"You\'re right, he does." Johnny replied, before turning towards Arnold and continuing, "Arnold, before we go into the details, I\'d like to ask you a question."

"Sure."

"That power you used during the fight with that guy, you can\'t control it, can you?" Johnny asked.

"No, I can\'t... for now."

"Do you remember about what happened afterwards?"

"No, I don\'t remember anything, but I know what happened there."

"Do you?"

"Yes, one if my automatons recorded everything that happened."

"So now you know, what kind of destructive power is dormant within you." Nathaniel intervened into the conversation, "The more destructive the power is, the more is the need to control it, but till you can control it, you\'re a danger to yourself and everyone around you."

Arnold bit his lip and cursed his luck. He could figure out where this conversation was heading to, and he was more or less prepared for the worst. He didn\'t have any issues with being \'disowned\' by the family, after all, no one in their right mind would endanger the safety of an entire family because of one person. The only thing which troubled him was, what would happen to Nicole after he\'s gone. He had to make sure that she\'ll be allowed to live as a member of the family.

"I don\'t have any problems with you people kicking me out of the Family, but please don\'t do the same to Nicole, she has got nothing to do with my powers. She\'s still weak and-"

Both Nathaniel and Johnny burst with laughter after hearing what Arnold was saying. Arnold was super confused about what was going on.

"Haha... good lord, this was the funniest things I\'ve heard in a long time," Nathaniel spoke up after laughing to his heart\'s content. "Who said anything about kicking you out?"

"Huh... so that\'s not what you guys wanted to talk to me about?" Arnold said, with a confused face.

"You know about Nicholas Fernandez, don\'t you?" Johnny asked Arnold, wiping his tears.

"Yes, I do..."

"He has agreed to train you so that you\'ll be able to control your powers." Johnny continued, "You have a flight for Rio De Janeiro in 4 hours."

"Wait I\'m leaving today?"

"Why? you don\'t want to?" Nathaniel asked.

"I do, it\'s just too sudden..."

"If you\'re thinking about your sister, then don\'t worry. We\'ll take good care of her." Nathaniel smiled and patted Arnold\'s shoulders.

"Thanks. I too wanted to tell you guys about something I\'ve come to know."

*****

It took Arnold more than an hour to tell Nathaniel and Johnny about whatever he knew about the \'inhuman\' project, the mysterious organisation that wanted to kidnap Nicole for unknown reasons and about their masked leader. Essentially, he told them everything that Bad-Breath had told him.

"Hm... thanks for all the information Arnold. It\'ll help us a lot to uncover the secrets of the people behind this." Nathaniel said, stroking his beard. "But how did you get all this information, if you don\'t mind me asking?"

"Just an informant..."

"Could you give us the contact information of this informant?" Johnny asked.

"He\'s dead." Technically, Arnold wasn\'t lying as \'Bob\' was already dead.

"Look, if you don\'t want to tell us, it\'s okay we understand. After all, the informant\'s life might get in danger if an unknown party contacted him all of a sudden and he might cut every contact with you too."

Even though Nathaniel said so, he didn\'t believe that Arnold actually had an informant inside the \'organisation\' as it was impossible to accomplish so much in such a short duration. He decided not to cross-question Arnold, as he might get upset with all the questioning and decided to let go of the matter for now.

"I\'ll take my leave then. I hope that the training won\'t be long."

"So do we. Have a safe trip and don\'t worry about Nicole, we\'ll take care of her." Nathaniel said as Arnold got up to pack his stuff and leave for Rio.