Chapter 134: Brand New world
Hugo slowly opened his eyes finding himself in the familiar environment of his bedroom. His bed felt warm and his pillow thrown on the ground due to his bad sleeping habits.
'Mom was right... My sleep schedule sucks...'
Groaning, he climbed out of the bed and stretched before leaving his room and entering the bathroom to wash up.
With that done, he went downstairs, smelling a delicious aroma.
There in the kitchen, his mother was preparing his breakfast. She was not the best cook in the world, especially considering she had a job to go to everyday in the morning, but hugo didn't complain.
Having parents was a great thing.
"Morning."
"Morning!" his mother said as she quickly put on her make-up, adjusted her suit collar and handled the frying pan all at the same time.
'Talk about multitasking...'
Finding his way to his seat, Hugo sighed
"Man, those last few days of college really sucked..."
His mother looked at him with a Confused expression, then she quickly turned off the stove.
"Aren't your friends all there? There was that sunny boy, that silver haired girl and the tall girl... Oh there was also that pretty celebrity boy."
Hugo shrugged.
"Well yes I'm glad they're there but it's still an annoying place. The teachers sucks, and principal cor is a pain in the butt sometimes"
Listening to him, his mother nodded and put a plate of food on the table for him, before kissing him on his forehead.
"Eitherway, just bare with it a little more untill you get your diploma. Alright now, stay safe and make sure to go to your university at time, got it?"
Hugo nodded, digging into the food.
"Bye bye!" She waved him goodbye before leaving, letting him bask in the silence of the house.
It felt oddly quite nowdays, especially since his parents were separated...
Shaking the thought away, Hugo finished his food and washed the dishes, before going to the couch and relaxing for a while.
A few hours later, his watch peeped. It was the alarm he had put for himself to get ready to leave.
Quickly getting up, he dressed up, grabbed his backpack and headed outside.
'Time for another day at college...'
He exhaled, stepping outside.
His neighborhood was a relatively safe neighborhood, as far as they went, with plenty of nice people around...
There was a certain neighbor that was particularly creepy though.
Looking at the side, he saw him...
It was a tall man with slightly dark skin, his golden eyes, which was rare and almost unnatural, were almost glowing as they reflected the light of the sun.
His neighbor, asterion, was a strange man indeed... Always watching, always observing people and always... studying them.
It was if he was stalking them.
Of course, the man himself meant only good. He was a rather pleasent person to be around but his habits were just slightly problematic.
What was even scarier, the man was always eating for some reason.
Ignoring the thought, he took a taxi cab to university and relaxed.
His university was noticeably bigger then other colleges, easily dwarfing most institutions in the country, with its talk dark walls rising to meet the sky.
The place strangely looked like a fortress and was called the awakened academy. Almost as if they were preparing for war.
What even was an awakened?
He saw a familiar face among the hundreds of people entering, it was a beautiful short man with pale skin, dark hair and onyx eyes.
"Sunny! Good to see you!" Hugo face was plastered with a beautiful smile as he saw his friend.
As he approched him ,sunny only scowled.
"Must you always embarrass me with your obnoxiousness... Geeze, you're worse then Kai."
Hugo smile grew wider.
"Why are you so scared of being emeberassed ? oh let me guess... It's because you don't want to look like an idiot Infront of a certain somebody? Hehe"
Sunny turned his head away, a faint blush appearing on his pale cheeks.
"N-no... I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hmmm, really? So you don't know that I was talking about a certain silver haired girl that happens to be a little autistic?"
Sunny's face became even redder... So much so that one would assume he was a tomato.
Before he could tease him further, he heard a voice from the side.
"Hey you guys!"
The voice was loud and boisterous, causing both of them toturn their heads towards it.
It belonged to none other then Effie, who was walking alongside Cassie and Kai.
"Sup shorties!"
Hugo looked at her with an annoyed expression.
"... I'm not even that short..."
"Meh, you're shorter then Kai, neph and obviously me. Just because you're taller then Cassie and sunny doesn't mean much. You know, big fish in a small pond"
"Effie that's not how the saying work..."
Cassie spoke with a hesitant smile
"It isn't?" The boisterous woman responded.
Sunny simply looked at her with a frown.
"How could you possibly be in college and not know that?!"
The tall girl shrugged.
"I don't know, how can you know nephis since high school but you still haven't asked her out.
"Ask me what?" A new voice appeared, belonging to none other then nephis, who was carrying a bunch of books in her hands, with a pair of headphones slinged over her neck.
"Ah... Not you... But like-"
Sunny stammered with his words, not knowing how to answer.
He was not ready for this!
"I think he meant asking you to practice fencing together later! He's been talking about how good you are at it with me for a while now."
Kai came to rescue, making sunny look at him as if he had just saved his life.m
Nephis brushed a strand of her hair and looked at sunny intently.
"Sure, I can make time... For you."
The odd group walked into the college campus together, drawing multiple gazes wherever they went. After all, they had like three idols in their group.
Their different fields of studies required them to spilt up for the day, giving Hugo some alone time in his classes.
He studied under instructor rock, biology, miss jasmine, language, professor jet, politics, and lastly, teacher Julius, history.
After his classes were over, he spent sometimes alongside sunny, as they were the only ones who finished early.
Looking at him, his short friend said:
"So... You're not going to ask out that senior?"
"Who?"
"... Don't feign ignorance, you fool. I'm talking about senior revel..."
"Like I told you, the relationship between me and senior revel is purely platonic, we simply have similar hobbies. Nothing more. "
"Sure, just like the platonic crush you had on professor jet a while ago."
"It was a stupid thing teenage me had! I blame puberty, now forget about that, will you?"
"I don't think I will."
"Weren't you the ones eying Effie when you first met her, you pervert?"
"... Respectfully, I eye everyone I see equally, and not just women"
"....that's worse, you degenerate."
The two had continued their conversation, before splitting up at the bus station.
Hugo decided to go back home on foot this time, getting some much needed fresh air.
On his way, he came across a peculiar scene, with a young man standing before a tree, one that a beautiful black cat stuck on top of it.
The young man had long brown hair, emerald green eyes and around Hugo's age.
Of course, he knew him well... That was his cousin, Benjamin.
His cat seemed to be stuck on a tree...
"Yo!"
Hugo weaved at him
"Oh hi couse... Ah, I have a little situation going on right now."
"Yeah I can see that." Hugo responded looking up at the long tree.
'I should help...'
He raised his arm and touched the faceplate of his watch.
And suddenly...
Nothing happened, after all it was a regular watch.
'why did I do that?'
Frowning, Hugo shook his head and took of his backpack and jacket, deciding to climb the tree.
"Hold out my jacket" Hugo said, climbing up and reaching towards the cat.
Right as he touched it, the cat panicked and jumped off the tree.
Ben, to avoid hurting it, grabbed the cat using Hugo's jacket, giving it a safe landing.
"All safe!"
Hugo gave him a thumbs up as he carefully climbed back down, bending down to grab his backpack and jacket.
The two of them ended up walking together, before sitting on a bench, chatting calmly.
"Man, life has been strange those last few days... Sometimes I get dreams that I'm a blonde man fighting monsters in the sea atop a warship! It's wild."
Ben chuckled.
"Tell me about it. I sometimes dream I have a watch that can turn me into aliens"
Hugo eyes widened at his words.
"You too?! I thought I was the only one!"
"Didn't you say you were a blonde sailor ?"
"Well not exactly, sometimes it's a sailor and other times it's a guy that looks like me transforming into monsters... It's weird, but strangely the sailor part feels more... Real."
"... Yeah, maybe we lost our marbles..."
The two of them laughed for a while, before suddenly falling quite.
They ended up staring at the distance, looking at the empty street.
Hugo eyes seemed to become clearer all of a sudden, as if he had just woken up from a deep slumber.
"... This isn't real, isn't it?" Hugo asked with a somber expression.
Ben only sighed.
"Took you long enough to figure it out"
"So what's your deal? Nightmare Creature parasite? And how are you doing this, I thought I was resistance to mind attacks."
Ben, or whatever was taking his form, shook their head.
"I'm not a nightmare creature. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm the manifestation of your omnitrix given this form by your mind to keep your company in this illusionary world while the internal defense system of the omnitrix handles a powerful intruder."
"Intruder? The corrupted devil?"
If the omnitrix had to shut down, and knock him out, then that means the intruder was truly powerful... It couldn't merely he a corrupted devil.
"No... It turned out that the tyrant leading the horde parasitizing its own minions, using the devil as a vessel. Right after you killed its vessel, it latched on to you and entered your soul after you detransformed, but don't worry, the omnitrix is dealing with it."
"I see..." Hugo stared somberly at the world around him...
He was glad he got to experience this, even if it was all a brief dream.
Seeing his mother again... It was a blessing.
But he still had his duties in the waking world, and he couldn't allow himself to fall asleep through the entire campaign.
"How do I wake up?"
"You only need to kill yourself here to shock your mind briefly, forcing it to wake you up."
Listening to the omnitrix, Hugo smiled despite the eerie words.
"I don't know if I'll ever get to say something like this again... But thank you, omnitrix. For everything you've done for me and for all the times you saved me from impossible situations...Truly, I could not ask for a better aspect, or companion for that matter. But next time, at least take my form. Taking the form of Ben Tennyson really makes you look like a toxic ex."
The omnitrix looked at him with a Smile.
"Noted..."
With that, it begun disappearing into blue light.
There was more time in the dream, so Hugo decided to go to see the most important person of his life one last time...
His mother.