Hero of all Worlds- Metamorphosis

"Kiddo?" Pride forcefully and repeatedly poked Kuro's shoulder. "Kid? Kuro, my boy wake up!"

Kuro's eyes slid open to see Pride back in his regular form leaning over him. They weren't outside anymore. Kuro slowly lifted his head. He was laying on a couch in the ship's lounge. 

"Woah are you okay?!" Kuro exclaimed as he noticed Pride, who had a cloth pressed to the left side of his mouth. Blood stained the cloth, dripping down his chin and onto a white shirt, making him look like a murder victim. 

Pride opened his mouth to answer, blood spilling from between his teeth. "Yeah, I'm fine. My broken tooth is really sensitive to the cold and we were out there a while. I'll get it fixed soon; It looks worse than it is." Kuro was about as pale as a black lion could get. "How are you feeling? I didn't expect you to pass out back there." Pride's eyes conveyed his worry, even while bleeding he was more concerned about Kuro. 

Kuro swings his legs over the side of the couch, sitting up. "I feel perfectly normal. Should I test anything out?" He asked, holding up his hands trying to see or feel anything different. 

Pride motioned no with his hands. "Don't do that. I don't want you using your talent for a while. At least until we know how your body will react. You see some talents will attune to your body faster than others, and for your sake I hope some of the healing ones attune first." He sat down on the couch next to Kuro. 

He saw a few light streaks across his vision. They didn’t go away when he blinked. He reached up with his hand and pulled out a few pure white strands of hair. “What happened to my hair!?” He choked. He looked down into his reflection on the table, carefully inspecting just how much of his hair had turned white.

“Woah Kuro,” Pride tried to calm him down. “It’s all right. It’s the mark of Voice of the Stars.” He lifted up his shirt to reveal a white star mark on his chest. “Didn’t expect yours to be in your mane.”

“How am I gonna explain this?” Kuro whispered more to himself than Pride. If the mark had ended up anywhere else he might have been able to hide it for a while, but not front and center on his forehead.

Pride saw that Kuro was startled and offered, “I could take you to get it dyed back to black before I take you home. That would probably make you later getting back, though. I can try to come up with more ideas before morning if you want.”

"How late is it?" Kuro asked. He left his phone on the bridge with his night bag. 

Pride pulled up a screen. "I think the better question would be how early is it?" Pride chuckled. "It's 2:30 in the morning. There's a few rooms down the hall with beds if you want to sleep for a while. I'll get you back to your house safe in the morning."

Kuro agreed and went to sleep in a room down the hall. He expected to be sleepless with excitement but the moment his head hit the pillow, he was out cold.

---

The rumbling vibrations of the plane landing jolted Kuro awake. He gathered his things and joined Pride on the main deck. The hero asked how he slept as if it was a normal morning, both carefully avoiding the topic of last night's ritual. 

"Uh oh." Kuro checked his phone, seeing missed calls and messages from his mom. "We gotta go, like now."

"What is it?" Pride tilted his head curiously. 

"My mom. She wants me home soon to say goodbye to my relatives."

"Let's get you home then kiddo." Pride quickly shifted to his hero form.

They stepped out of the jet onto the tarmac, Pride quickly asking some of the airmen onsite to park the spaceship. Pride stopped walking about halfway from the hangar, looking like he forgot about something important. Kuro was about to ask when the answer came.

"How am I gonna get you home?" he turned to look down at Kuro. "I can't drive and I didn't even think about arranging for someone to pick you up." The giant hero slaps his hand to his head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." Kuro politely waits for him to stop hitting himself. 

Then Pride stands a little straighter, features contorting into that signature grin and loudly announces, "I have a great Idea!"

Kuro can almost imagine a little lightbulb flickering on above Pride's head. He hoped that whatever it was, it would be fast because he did not want to be grounded for the rest of the year. 

Pride kneels down to be at Kuro's eye level before asking, "Hey kiddo do you want to see how a real hero travels? I've never taken you flying before."

Kuro really needed to get home so he hastily agreed and the next second was held securely in one of Pride's arms as the hero took a few running steps.

"Hang on tight my boy!" Pride yelled.

Kuro could feel Pride's talents activate, a sudden surge of power just under his mentor's skin. For all those months of training with him, Kuro had never been able to feel that before, surmising that he could now because Voice of the Stars was bonded to both of them. And then with a giant leap, they were flying.

Well it wasn't so much flying as it was being catapulted into the air. Kuro saw kilometers of savannah blur by underneath them and clutched onto the arm holding him even tighter. 

"Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck" Kuro whimpered in English, closing his eyes. He had never been afraid of heights, but then again he had never hung on to a superhero as they leapt a hundred meters into the air. He already trusted Pride with his life, which was flashing before his eyes as the outskirts of the city slowly came into view under him. 

Pride noticed his young successor panicking and tightened his grip on the boy in response. "You're okay kiddo! I've got you!" He reassured, unaware if Kuro could even hear him over the rushing sound of wind in his ears. 

If going up was terrifying, then the moment they started free-falling was even more devastating. Quickly the feeling of flying turned into the feeling of weightlessness as the ground rapidly grew closer and closer. Kuro squeezed his eyes tightly shut, not wanting to see the landing process. 

The landing was surprisingly soft. Pride's very experienced with his talent so of course if anyone could land softly, he could. Kuro slowly peeked open his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. 

Pride checked in on Kuro to make sure his young apprentice wasn't too frightened of flying. They had landed in a parking lot of a supermarket on the outskirts of the city, still very far from Kuro's home. From here Kuro could see the tall skyscrapers and layers of streets and buildings. It was odd to be out of the city in such a flat area. He'd never seen his world from this angle before.