“Is this,” Chen began.

“It is,” the scorpion whispered in a coarse voice. “Take it before I die! If I die, your powers will die with me! You must take it quickly, Chen.”

Not wasting another moment, Chen grabbed the gem and absorbed it into his body. Chen cringed at the strange feeling as he began to glow with a bright light. The scorpion clacked his pincers weakly and nodded.

“Congratulations, Chen… you’ve found your… pow,” the scorpion hadn’t a chance to finish his sentence when his life left his body.

Chen held the husk of his guardian in his hand in disbelief. He stared at the light still encasing him then glanced at the Darkness still lingering in the distance. Reverently, he placed the scorpion’s body onto the ground and stood up confidently. He pointed at the Darkness, seemingly taunting him as it moved around.

“You… its all your fault! You killed him! You killed my guardian!” Chen shouted angrily.

For that, he received a dark, eerie laughed that boomed across the sky. A flash of anger and adrenaline was all Chen needed to summon his powers for the first time. He clenched his fists and pushed them out towards the Darkness, opening his fists. Tendrils of lightning unleashed themselves from his palms, releasing a great amount of light that stung the Darkness. Shouting in pain, the Darkness retreated, disappearing over the horizon.

Chen on the other hand, couldn’t stop his lightning, which went awry, shooting every which way. The injured MAMA then took a chance and stepped in. She jumped towards him, pushing him down, causing him to close his hands. The lightning disappeared, leaving a burning smell in the air. Chen breathed heavily on the ground, staring into the night sky.

“Thank you,” he whispered, completely drained of energy.

“You’re welcome,” MAMA groaned, holding onto her still bleeding side. “Now that that’s over, are you ready to go home?”

Chen sat up and nodded. “But not before I do something…”

He got up and went over to the scorpion’s exoskeleton. Picking it up, he looked to the skies where the stars twinkled. Putting all his thought into it, he tossed the scorpion into the sky, where he scattered into hundreds of stars. MAMA watched as all those stars began to move together, forming the shape of a scorpion. The edge of MAMA’s lip twitched as if she tried to smile, and she patted Chen’s back with her bloodied hand.

“That was a really impressive,” MAMA commented, staring at the constellation. “What are you going to call it?”

Chen stared up at the scorpion and smiled, “I’ll call it… Scorpio.”

“That’s a really great name,” MAMA commented nodding her head weakly. “Can we go back to the camp now?”

Chen frowned at MAMA’s lack of strength and crouched down before her. He lifted up her shirt slightly to examine the wound. He began to worry at the condition of it.

“It doesn’t look too deep,” Chen murmured to himself.

Without hesitation, Chen took off his shirt, leaving MAMA to stare at him wide-eyed.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“You need to stop the bleeding,” Chen smirked mischievously. “Don’t worry, I’m wearing a tank top underneath. I’m not going to try anything funny.”

Hesitantly, MAMA let Chen rip his shirt into a long piece of fabric, which he then tied around MAMA’s abdomen, covering up her wound. Once that was done, he pulled MAMA’s shirt back down, brushed her off, and lifted her up in his arms.

“What? What are you doing?” MAMA asked, struggling in his arms.

“You’re injured. An injured lady shouldn’t be trekking through the night desert,” Chen bent down next to the pile of firewood MAMA had brought. “Pick that up and put it in your lap. We shouldn’t waste the firewood.”

Sighing, MAMA obliged and stared at him as he began to walk back to camp.

“You know, you humans are strange. Do all men do this on your planet? Do men do everything for women?” MAMA asked curiously.

“Sadly, no. On Earth, there are men who are polite and courteous, and then there are the men who don’t care,” Chen laughed. “Quite frankly, Earth is a mess with all the crazy things going on.”

“Well, you know, if all men were like you, I bet Earth would be ten times better. Right?” MAMA stated.

Chen stopped and thought about it. He then nodded, “Yeah, I guess it would be.”

Short chappie so I decided to go ahead and double update today ^_^ I hope you all weren't too disappointed that Mr. Scorpion died Q_Q