"Puberty?" Nero repeated as his mind struggled to come to terms with the answer he had received. He had imagined all sorts of answers, from a new type of curse, to the influence of the Primal Exarch, or maybe even something from deep down in that underground cavern they had visited. He even went as far as imagining that his fluctuating emotions were a consequence of him repeatedly manipulating his internal aether to boost his strength and speed.
But no, it was puberty. It was his hormones.
If there was any good news, it was that this would eventually pass. But if he was going through an aetherically charged puberty, Nero could well imagine that it would hit him harder, and last much longer than it was normally supposed to.
Instead of being bothered by Iri’s sly smile and her wink, Nero just sighed disappointedly. Yes, he felt slightly embarrassed internally, but he’d never let it show. It was like the time he was tickled. No one could know how ticklish he was, so he endured that torture with a straight face.
Instead of revealing his current mental state, Nero decided to focus on something else. He extinguished the blue flames in his hand, marveling at how the room had not dropped in temperature at all. He was certain that the doctor had been responsible for that.
Regardless, now that his eyes and hair had returned to normal in colour, it was time to address the Grey-Scale Elephant in the room.
"Dr. Iris, would you happen to know where my cards are?" he asked, his voice completely normal. "I had my card case on me when I collapsed, and the case contained some sensitive cards."
The doctor laughed, as if recognizing this as an attempt to divert the conversation from the topic of puberty.
"What are you so embarrassed of? I’m a doctor, these things are natural. In fact, you should use this as an opportunity to ask me more questions," Dr. Iris said as she moved to a cabinet beside Nero and opened it. From within, she grabbed Nero’s case and brought it to him.
"For example, if you are curious, you can ask me any more questions you may have about your body. Do you have a sexual partner, loveboy ? If you do, you will need to take care to use proper protection! Now that you’re an Initiate, you’re more prone to attracting Apparition curses, and in a state where your body is leaking a lot of excess aether, if you know what I mean
Nero ignored her entirely, not deigning to answer such ridiculous questions. Instead, he went through his cards to see if all of them were there. Nursing touch, Binding string and Infinite Lux were gone, but the rest were there. It made sense, those three were not only innate cards belonging to his teammates, they were especially potent innate abilities.
After all, not everyone was so lucky to have such useful innate abilities. For example Hildi back at the AAB when he synchronized. Not only was her innate ability a passive that made her smell good, her entire family seemed to have similar abilities.
Ignoring all of that, Nero took out Luminalink and saw its condition. The card was pretty worn out, and probably wouldn’t last long, which was a shame. This thing was pretty useful. He would need to get his dad to make him quite a few the next time they met.
Snowflake, too, was basically useless now. As a 0 rank card, taking in Nero’s Initiate level aether alongside his heavy usage had drained that card’s durability drastically.
Nero looked at Iris, basically telling her through his eyes not to resist, before activating Luminalink, bringing the both of them into his illusionscape.
"I have to thank you, doctor, for looking over me the past three days," Nero began, without wasting a single breath. "If someone had seen me in that condition, then I might have compromised a highly classified mission."
There was no way Nero was going to admit to having two innate abilities. He had no idea what Iris had seen, but his defense was, essentially, going to be simply blaming his changes on a classified military secret. He’d thought long and hard about what he would do if he was ever caught, so naturally he had contingency plans in place.
"A classified mission?" Iris repeated, amusedly. "I’m one of the highest ranking officers in this base, and I take especial care to keep myself updated on all things relating to the soldiers bodies and aetheric changes. How come I haven’t heard about this ’ classified mission’ ?"
Nero nodded, as if such a thing was expected.
"This is a classified mission, jointly issued by Kolar and Nova so it’s natural that information about it is not going through the usual channels. As for the details, I cannot divulge them. This is basically all I can say. If anyone other than you saw my appearance for the last two days, please let me know as I will have to include this in my report."
Iris raised a single eyebrow as she looked at Nero, entirely unable to judge whether he was lying or being honest. Truthfully speaking, she herself had been unable to fully comprehend the reason for the changes in his hair. The reason she has watched over him personally was so that she could continue to study him and the changes.
If she wanted to learn more, she would either need to conduct a highly invasive test to study his synchronized innate card, or she would need him to tell her himself.
Honestly, learning that this was the result of some classified mission made sense. After all, Fordham was a research center, Vanessa had been working there for a while, and Nova had a reputation for being far ahead of Kolar in terms of research. The only field where Kolari seemed to maintain an advantage was in designing weapons - because of course they did.
So, learning that Nero and Vanessa might have had some secret missions made sense. After all, Nero and Vanessa had clearly worked together before. At the same time, however, it was not lost on Iris that Nero could simply be using this as an excuse to push this matter under the rug.
She wouldn’t blame him. Everyone had, and was entitled to their own secrets. However, she was also entitled to pursue her own research.
"No one else saw you, loverboy . You don’t need to worry, I won’t ask unnecessary questions. But at the end of the day, I am your doctor. No one can blame me for giving you a thorough checkup, and if I learn anything while doing that, well too bad."
The doctor smiled, while Nero maintained a neutral expression.
"It’s not really up to me to say. All I can request is that you keep this matter confidential. If the higher ups have any concerns, they’ll contact you themselves."
Iris studied Nero closely, but even as a Mystic, she could not sense any nervousness or falsehood in his expression. What’s more, she was also aware of his physical state, and there were no abnormal fluctuations in his heartbeat or even his internal aetheric cycle. He did not seem to be lying.
But then again, the whole reason she liked Nero was so much was because of how abnormal he was even compared to Arcanists. That was when he was a mere Neophyte, so now that he was an Initiate, she doubted there would be any fewer mysteries waiting for him.
"Well, you can relax. I have no interest in telling anyone anything. I’m merely here for my own research, and to treat a sick patient of mine," she said, forcibly dismissing the illusion once she was done.
She tapped Nero’s body a few more times, sending pulses of aether in his body, and reduced the amount of soreness he was feeling.
"You’re on bedrest for at least three more days. If you try to get up from the bed, I’ll strap you down. After three days, I’ll evaluate you again and determine whether you’re allowed to leave or not. I’m also prescribing you some medication, but the nurses will take care of that. The only thing you need to do for now is sleep, eat, and stay in bed. Don’t test me - if you dare ruin such an amazing specimen due to youthful rashness then you’ll have to answer to me."
Nero looked at the doctor who had gone from smiling to scowling in a second with confusion on his face. Was she bipolar?
"You realise that the specimen you’re talking about is myself? I won’t do anything to harm myself," he assured her.
"The specimen is your body, not you, and you, little brute, do not take care of it. Now get some rest. I’ll send over some soft food for you - you’re only allowed a semi-solids and liquid diet for today. I also need to report that your situation has stabilized. After all, you will need to be debriefed."