False Alarm

'Huh? Why is he shouting?'
"I need more training! And why would people prank our phone line?! I SHOULD JUST TAKE THEM ALL OUT!"
"Damn."

I look at Gaia when she says that but only see her as she's about to dash forward.
'What?'
She very quickly tackles Tarou to the ground, causing me to run to them.
Tarou is struggling to get free but is unsuccessful.
"He got infected too."
I look around to see if there's anyone suspicious nearby before the realization hits me.
'Only heroes are affected...'
I turn back to Gaia as she tells me, with a serious look in her face.
"Teleport us back to that room, it should be enough to contain him until he gets better."
I crouch down and hold onto both of them before teleporting.

...

The moment we appeared in the room she quickly got up and locked the door, before turning back to Tarou and using her magic to hold him down on the ground as iron bars grew from the ground and twisted around him.
"Sorry leader boy, it's for everyone's safety."
"SO ANNOYING!"
As Tarou shouts from the ground I approach Gaia to tell her my realization.
"I think it was that request."
She turns to me, waiting for me to continue.
"Only heroes are affected, and he just went to one, maybe it was a false alarm?"
"...And it might have been there just to attract more heroes."
She finishes my train of thought and continues.
"I was hoping that wasn't the case, there's no way we can start ignoring those... What the hell does this group want?!"
'Our downfall clearly... I better not say that, at least not in that tone.'
"So what will happen to him?"
She turns back towards Tarou.
"He'll live, it shouldn't last long. At least so far they've all been able to sleep it off."
"That's good."
"Yes it is, not for me though. I don't think his family is going to be too happy when I tell them about him having to sleep here."
'Ah, yeah...'
She turns to me, still with serious look.
"Meet us back here tomorrow."
"What?"
"I'm not letting this go on rampant, and I'll stay here with him to make sure nothing bad happens. Make sure to wake nice and early, we'll be walking all day."

...

Early the next day, I took a ride with dad to the HQ again.
"Good luck with your training son!"
"Thanks, cya!"
'Can't believe I had to lie to him a second time.'

I make my way into the HQ and down a set of corridors to a familiar room, knocking a couple of times on it.
When I do, Gaia comes out and a smile beams out when she sees me.
"Great! Nice and early. Come in!"
I make my inside while she closes the door behind me, and we sit down at the table.
"Hey there man... I uhh... Sorry about yesterday."
Tarou was sitting on the other side of it, looking regretful.
"Don't worry, you got controlled after all."
"Yeah..."
Before he continues however, Gaia interjects.
"Actually that's what we're starting with, give me the details of how it felt when you went mad, and also of how exactly that happened."
Tarou looks at her and nods before beginning.
"Well, it felt like the smallest of things got bigger and pushed all the way to the top... I think that's why I mentioned that whole prank call thing again..."

'So he remembers everything... Hopefully he can forget being tackled.'

"As for how it happened, I went to the call like you said, to help and get more experience in how things work, when I reached the place a very nice man was there, we just talked for a while and then I came back and...
I think I kept getting angrier and angrier."
Gaia leans in and asks.
"What did you talk about?"
He looks down, searching his memories.
"I... I don't remember. It's a bit foggy... But I think... Yeah! He knew that I said I didn't like the prank thing. You know, what I said in the training grounds."
Hearing that, Gaia leans back on her chair as she thinks.
"How did he know that... Doesn't matter, we'll find out when we get him."
I turn to her, surprised.
"You know where he is?"
She smiles.
"Nope. But I think it's time you also got to experience those requests."
'Huh?'

...

Gaia approaches a little boy with a cat in hand and gives it to him with giant smile.
"Thanks miss!"
"Hah, no worries little man. You watch over her okay?"
"I will!"
After that, the dad approaches Gaia.
"Sorry again about him, I didn't notice him grab the phone."
"No worries at all, we're here to help."
With that she comes back to us as Tarou then says.
"It was definitely not that boy."
I turn to him.
"Yeah, I think that's obvious. We've been at it for hours now."
Gaia laughs.
"Hours not wasted! You're gaining experience!
Also it's not like we know who's it going to be until we get here. Given the heroes affected, the list of request is quite varied, from dangerous stuff, to the small stuff. So we need to tackle each one of them."
"I might fight that guy myself... Making me waste a whole day's practice..."
Gaia laughs as I accidentally say that.
"Never expected you to say that, but no worries, we'll get him."

As more hours go by, Tarou, Gaia and I go through as many requests as we can, from robbery, and helping someone get to a hospital quickly, all the way to finding lost objects and getting animals down from weird places. Until we finally reach the end of the day and we all sit down on a bench in the park.
'I already knew they had it tough, but damn, I didn't expect to have to do these things myself...'
Tarou looks at me with a smile.
"Your first time dong some hero duty, it feels great doesn't it?"
I give him a smile back, then turn back down.
'Can't believe this took the whole day and still nothing.'

As we rest on the bench, Gaia receives a message, and we both turn to her.
'Could it be...'
She finishes reading and looks back at us.
"Final request of the day, you ready?"
We both nod.

...

We walk around for a bit until we get close to the place and she finally explains the request after making us guess.
"Wrong! Oh, we're almost there. It was man requesting help with cleaning his grandpa's house."
I look at her with a dubious look.
"That kind of thing gets requested?"
She look back at me.
"We take care of all sorts of things. This would be something sent to Little Heroes. You remember right? The guys who don't have much experience or training? So yes, we do take these."
'Oh right...'

We turn a corner and see a man with fair skin and long black hair tied in a pony tail, leaning next to a gate, he wore black clothes, a red flannel jacket and a hat. He quickly notices us and gives us a smile as he extends his hand for a handshake.
"Good evening."
As usual, Gaia walks forward in front of us, giving him a handshake, and starts talking while Tarou tries to get a good look at him.
"Evening to you too. We came from the hero HQ, ready to help."
The man looks at each of us before asking, still with a smile.
"So many, just for a small request?"

Gaia lets out a small laugh and keeps giving an explanation while I turn to Tarou to ask him in a low tone.
"What do you think?"
He looks back at me before replying.
"The clothes are all different, and I can't get a good look at his face because of the hat."

"Oh? What are you two whispering about? Not about my poor fashion hopefully, hah."
He lets out a small laugh and Gaia turns back to us, giving Tarou a curious look as she mouths out a word "Anything?".
Tarou looks at her, then back at him, and finally asks.
"Excuse me, sir. Could you remove the hat?"
"Oh?"
"Ah, it's just... I was wondering if you were a friend of mine... Yeah, he likes playing pranks."
"Why, sure."
He removes the hat and Tarou's eyes widen at his uncovered still smiling face.
"It's... It's him! This is the false request!"

Instantly Gaia grabs Tarou, throwing him towards me and away from the stranger, moving herself in between us before she says.
"We have some questions for you actually, if you wouldn't mind."
"Normally I'd gladly go with you, but unfortunately I can't. I apologize."
"And why is that?"
"You see, I have a mission. Surely you know how it is, like your missions making you constantly have to be away from your family."
'What is he saying?'
He moves sideways slightly, then Gaia shakes her head and moves sideways too, mirroring his steps, still making sure she's able to rush in, should he try to run to us.
"No, I don't think I know what you're talking about."
"Oh? But does it not make you sad? Does it not make you angry? Especially when you're deemed too useful to be allowed too many days off, didn't you want to just spend time your family?"
At this point Gaia looks almost sleepy, unable to stand still, constantly wobbling.
"Yes. But... That's not... No."
The stranger laughs before continuing.
"You don't need to lie, it would make sense to be angry about that. Though it's a recent occurrence isn't it? I believe you only wanted time off recently. If I recall... Some incident?"
'Tsk. I'm not gonna let him keep going.'

I'm about to teleport when Gaia suddenly shouts.
"AHHH! Damn it... Damn it... Damn it..."
Tarou rushes over to her but she remains in the same spot.
"Coach?! Are you okay?!"
"Damn it... Damn it... No... I won't let you..."
I look over at the man, he's standing there also motionless, watching her.
"You have a strong mind. But you're stuck. You can't bottle that up, it's not healthy. You should try letting it out."
'He's using his magic! She's saved me countless times, it's my turn!'

I make up my mind and finally teleport behind him, grabbing him.
"Stop! I'm taking you to a cell, next to your frie-"
Before I finish I notice he doesn't do anything and just smiles while looking at me.
"Hello, how terribly rude of me. I forgot to extend my kindness to you and your friend. What was it again? Ah right, it seems I took up your entire day, making you look for me. My apologies, but you found me now."
'H-How... Isn't that what I said...?'
"Though, maybe not that, maybe it's the fact you couldn't practice today. I'm sure that makes you angry. It's natural."
'It does.
No... Wait... Huh? She was right... Mind magic.'
"Oh? Strange, usually the effect would have gotten bigger by now. Your mind doesn't look that strong either."
"Huh?!"

Before I know it, plants seem to sprout right beneath me, tripping me and pulling me away from him.
The moment it happens however it seems to bring Gaia to her senses as she screams.
"DON'T YOU DARE!"
He only has time to turn towards her before she's already on him with a kick, launching him down the street as she, along with Tarou, then run to me.
"Are you okay?!"
Before I can answer, Gaia tears the plants apart, and helps me up.
"Yeah, I'm ok..."
I look back towards him, he's starting to stand back up.
"You were right, mind magic."
She suddenly hugs me and breathes a sigh of relief.
"You're unaffected, good."

"It would appear I might have made a mistake."
The moment he says this, we all turn to him seeing him looking up, with Gaia still keeping a hand on my shoulder.
"I'll have to apologize again. I'm out of time for today. It's getting late you see, and I wouldn't want to disturb the people in their houses while they try to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."
Gaia immediately dashes to him as I start to teleport as well, but before either of us can do it he casts another type of magic.
"Forest."
The moment he says this trees, of all sizes grow everywhere, causing us to dodge to not get hit by them as a dense forest replaces what was once an empty road.

I teleport to the roof of a nearby house to see the extent of the damage and immediately shocked.
'As far as I can see... Only forest.
...Where's the road?'