《Globe Tracers 1: The Case of Thomas Crain》
Prologue
(Above is the chapter in visual novel format^^)
February 20th, 1966.
My name is Thomas.
I woke up but didn''t remember falling asleep; my head hurt, throbbing with the beats of my heart. I tried to hold my head, but for some reason couldn''t. Slowly blinking, reality gradually came into focus. I wanted to rub the sleep out of my eyes, but again, couldn''t.
Finally, the fog in my mind cleared enough for me to start looking around and taking things in.
I was sitting down in a small wooden chair. I moved my right arm to rest my head but then realized it was tied down... why? My other arm was tied to the other side of my chair, both anchored to the sides of the wooden back by thin ropes that were so tight they were cutting into my skin. I gave a small whimper, realizing the pain from those ropes as I came to more and more.
Much looser ropes held my chest, hugging it to the chair as well, but they weren''t budging either. I tugged my legs, but they were held down to the legs of the chair. I rocked back and forth, trying to move, but the chair would not move at all.
My heart started racing, and tears started coming out. I was cold but couldn''t warm myself. I kicked and pulled at the bonds again, fear and anger starting to mix. I was still waking up, more and more trying to scream.
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Where was this? I looked around, but everything was dark and silent me, slowly realizing there was something over my eyes, feeling cloth against my eyelashes. Wherever this was, it smelled terrible, as though I was sitting in a trash dumpster with several jugs of expired milk. The air was thick and damp. Unable to move or understand where this was and unable to feel anything but pain, I was starting to panic.
My arms hurt more and more as the thin ropes, near twine, cut in deep. Moving them only made the cords dig deeper, and that smell was only getting worse. As I finally felt the energy to scream, there was a voice.
"Hello, Joshua," the voice said. The voice was a man''s, but one I had never heard before. Hearing it stopped my scream. I had no idea who this was, but felt I needed to listen.
"My name isn''t Joshua," I replied. "It''s Tom." Was there a mistake? Was someone else supposed to be here? Someone who would understand why?
"I know it''s you, Joshua," the voice said. The voice was deep, echoing a small amount, sounding like whoever it was had no doubts about what he was saying. He spoke like my father when correcting me because I said something that wasn''t quite right. The tone was reassuring and calm- or at least calm and meant to be reassuring. "Green eyes, the same hair, the same height. You''re you in every way. I know who you are."
"My name is Thomas." Really, I liked my name, more so now than other times. It was a tick to be called things like "Tommy," but now- Joshua was a name I was really starting to hate.
"Yes, Joshie, I understand who you really are. You''re nine this year, aren''t you?"
"My name isn''t Josh!" I shouted, "My birthday was last month... yes, I''m nine."
"You tried to leave when you were nine before, remember?"
"What are you talking about?" I tried to move again but couldn''t budge. All I managed to do was dig that twine into my arms a little further.
"You''re not leaving this time, child."
"Let me go... please, I want to go home." Tears were streaming down my cheeks now. I didn''t even remember meaning to cry. It was like there was no choice.
Then, the voice said something that scared me more than anything else. "My child... but you are home. Joshua has come home."
"Who are you?!" I shouted, but he seemed to ignore me.
"On this date, February 20th, nineteen sixty-six, my little boy has finally come home. And here he will stay."
My stomach sank.
Chapter 1: Planet Fall
February thirteenth, 1966.
My name is Kyle; I have no last name; my kind never has last names. We belong to ourselves and no one else.
I look enough like a human: black hair, brown eyes, about three feet tall, and the body of a small boy- but I''m only part human.
I was leaving my home, headed for a faraway world¡ªa world called dirt¡ªcalled Earth. Seriously, that''s all the more creative the inhabitants were.
On the ship, I laid stomach down on my bed, kicking my feet in the air above me. Facts about where I was were ticking off in my brain as I semi unconsciously took in my boring surroundings once again. I''d been stuck on this ship for so long and needed something to do.
The room around me was white with green and brown squares in seemingly random locations on the walls. The walls themselves were actually curved rather than straight to condense how much space the room itself took up in the ship. Opposite me was an energy projection that showed a black void outside the ship, but that wasn''t much to look at after so long.
Looking at the projection, the sun was visible and one would expect my room to light up with it. But no, nothing so interesting. The actual warm rays of the sun were hitting the side of the ship, which only had real plexiglass windows in the front. This was only an image on a screen.
It was taking us a full week to simply travel from one solar system to the next, practically next door!
I was going crazy. Thank goodness I had mom to talk to. I think I spaced for a while, but in my defense, sometimes she droned on a bit. Just hearing her voice made me happy.
I looked at my net device and smiled. On the other end, my mother spoke up again.
"Now, one more time," my mother started. I rolled my eyes. "Are you rolling your eyes at me?"
"Um... no..." I quickly said, sitting up as though it would make any difference to someone who couldn''t currently see me.
She chuckled. "Yes you are. Or you did, now you''re sitting up trying to look like you care." I tried to stifle my laughter, hearing her do the same. She sighed. "Fine, let''s go with it. Your allies on Earth will be who?"
"The werewolves."
"And their powers?"
"Twice normal human speed and strength." I rattled off these facts as my eyes wandered, counting the colored squares- again.
"Their origins?"
I sighed. "The year fifteen-ahhh- something, Dr. Frankenstien made them... along with a lot of other things. Wildmen, hounds of rebirth, that weird undead thing... the guy was... let''s say an entrepreneur of mutants... we''re sure he wasn''t one of us?" Truth was, I studied the history of my people all the time, but when it came to studying humans- they didn''t hold my interest. I knew their race was the origin of mine, but they were idiots who barely lived a hundred years- and it was only recent that living that long was at all common for them. I had friends who made nuclear reactors in their backyards. Humans would think it would take a genius to do that!
"No dear, again, Frankenstein was not a pharaoh. Moving on, why are the werewolves our allies?"
"The Purge- how could I forget that?" I asked back.
"What''s the Purge?"
"Are you serious?" I asked, giving a slight gaff and almost a small choke.
"Well, honey I... when you drop out of Q-ton into normal space-this is the last time we''ll be able to talk for two hundred years. I- maybe I''m dragging this out as long as I can."
I rolled over and looked at the ceiling, releasing a heavy sigh. "Yeah... but still, maybe we can talk about something else- or maybe something related? Hey- what was it like? I mean, the Purge? What was the name of your unit again?" I didn''t want my last conversation with my mother in two centuries to be a pop quiz.
"The eighth battalion? Kiddo, it wasn''t a unit, I commanded multiple companies. Hmmm," she paused. "It was exciting, I''ll tell you that. But gargoyles are monsters. They were so fast and strong, there were times... if they could think on the same level as us, they might have been able to overtake us- I''m not kidding either." Mom got excited talking about her past sometimes. It sometimes made her speak rather rapidly, but it was a fun tick to listen to. Maybe solely because she was my mom, but whatever. "I-thanks for reminding me I somehow let your father talk me into sending our son to the world where they exist in order to "protect" him."
''Great I set her off. Damage control!'' I thought.
"Mom it''ll be okay. I think the home world''s insurrectionists are a bit more dangerous to the son of the president than a nearly wiped out race of mutants," I said with a grin and an audible chuckle. "Hence why I''m going to earth and not staying there."
"Maybe," she sighed. "I guess... you are going to the world of our ancestors. Maybe you should be honored."
I shook my head. "Ehh... maybe. Bunch of primitives, we could fix half their problems in a weekend."
"Those people have a right to determine their own future. Don''t get too arrogant boy of mine."
I smiled. "Oh, c''mon I''m the most humble person alive." She laughed hard at that one. "Besides, I have the monster to watch over me," I said, laughing.
"Oh yes, the monster," she repeated.
"Don''t roll your eyes at me!" I demanded. "Really, she can handle a lot- you''ve seen what she can do."
"I''ve seen what she can do- and I''ve seen why you call her the monster- I''m not rolling my eyes," The ship shook gently.
"Yes you are," I said, laughing now, though tears were falling from my eyes. "The engines are starting to cut mom... I gotta go."
"Can''t they keep going...?"
"If we wanna overshoot by a couple million miles, sure," I joked.
"Well... I mean you guys have enough supplies."
"Mom, I''m sorry... I gotta go."
"Okay well the-"
The call cut out. We were in normal space. I sat up and held the phone to my chest, holding back the urge to immediately start crying. "Bye mom." She had cared for me for one hundred years. I would not see her again in twice as long.
I looked at my projection, the planet Earth in view. "Goodbye home, hello Earth." I rolled over and slowly went to sleep, my tears not entirely stopped.
We were still several hours out. I passed out, dreaming of home, my mom and dad and the monster... all of us together, like we were supposed to be.
(***)
Hours later, I woke up and left my room.
I sat down in a small chair near a holographic window on the ship, watching the clouds of planet Earth come closer and closer as we descended through the upper atmosphere. I was told something about needing to go slow so we weren''t noticed, but I really didn''t care much.
The ride was so smooth the actual movement of the ship didn''t make me feel anything, but staring at the clouds through that screen did give me a kind of hypnotic feeling of being carried through them. It was a sensation that... that I lost interest in after about twenty minutes.
My eyes traveled over the interior of this room- for the eighteenth time. It was also white with curved walls, but this time the room was around fifteen feet in radius (my room was barely big enough for me to sit on my bed). There was a couch near the middle of the room and the chair I was sitting in. Both were very basic in construction and white as well. Behind me was a small corridor that lead to my room and opposite me was a box of toys. Hey, I was still a kid, I did like to play... and yes they were mostly for the monster.
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The monster was still asleep. That was how she dealt with long journeys. Me, I was restless.
One of our escorts, Joseph, a servant from my home on Triad, stood by the far corridor that lead to the cockpit. I went over to him and tugged on his shirt looking up at him. "Can we play a game?" I asked.
"I don''t have much time for games these days, child."
"Child?" I asked, "I''ll have you know that where we''re going, I''m a senior citizen! They think one hundred is old."
Joseph was a massive five foot three and dressed in blue jeans with a red shirt and wielded a massive blue-hued double-bladed staff. To me, he was huge, and to be honest, most of the people on my planet would have thought so too. It was like I was looking at a casually dressed and armed Hercules. He even had the muscles he had gained during the war still on him- those that hadn''t long ago been eaten by the fat of a relatively sedentary life. You could feel, as long as this man was around, there was nothing to fear.
He smiled down at me and petted my hair with his large hand, messing it up and gently pushing me away.
I hated that this was the last day I would see him or anyone from my world... save for the monster of course.
"If you''re old, what does that make me? Course you will remember that to them you will look like the infant you are."
I rolled my eyes. I anticipated him telling me to stop but he didn''t... yeah that wasn''t really anyone else''s tick besides mom. I kept going like I wasn''t disappointed. "Yeah, yeah, we age twenty years to their one, simple math. How old are you these days?"
"Five hundred thirty-three, do you know how old that makes me physically?"
"Do they really track this stuff on earth? Who cares about age?" He gave me a slight glare. "Um... five hundred thirty divided by twenty... let''s say I solved that problem and start a game." Joseph shook his head, smiling at me. I could do the math, but I wanted to exercise a muscle besides my brain.
"We calculate our age by twenty-year intervals, they live year to year down there. You''ll need to know how to do this."
"Joseph, half the kids at school don''t even keep track of twenty-year intervals. Why bother..." He folded his arms. "Really?" I asked. He nodded. "You''ve seen... twenty-six ages, right?"
Joseph stooped down to me. "And you''re only five. Hence you''re an annoying kid."
Shoving my face into his, "So then- can we play a game? Kids play games right?"
"Tell you what," he said standing up and backing up, swinging his staff in the air slowly in front of himself. "Impress me kid, and we''ll play something."
I grinned. Joseph loved to spar. Really he was a great teacher of anything. Still, everyone knows swordplay is loads more fun than math problems, it''s just a fact of life right? Some philosopher said it I''m sure. I grabbed my weapon from under my chair where it was resting by its scabbard.
I held up my blade. I called her, the "blue assassin"- because I was even younger when I made her and thought it sounded awesome. It was a short double-bladed straight sword, big enough for me, but probably too small for an adult. It had a small dagger-like blade on the handle as well.
"Remember Kyle, judge the distance before you jump to speed, or you''ll end up slamming into the side of the ship." I took in my surroundings. The living area of the ship wasn''t especially large. As a Pharaoh, I used the electricity-based powers that I had to move at incredible speeds, but I only had about twenty feet to move around.
Joseph raised his staff and thrust it forward, me thinking fast. I quickly deflected the blade left with my blade, moving right as I did. I sent an electric pulse to my legs and used it to shoot across the room. I moved so fast I couldn''t see the ship around me. I had to just stop before even a second had gone by. It really was a good thing I had practiced this stuff!
I stopped and spun around, quickly turning a somersault as Joseph''s blade came at me. He barely missed. Joseph would never hurt me, but both blades on his staff were each two feet long, well long enough to cut me in half so I knew better than to test his skill to NOT land a hit. I moved backward a little.
"Your weapon is short-ranged, what are you going to do from there?"
I tossed my sword in the air, switching grip on it and pulling it back. "I could always throw it at you."
"Throwing a sword..." Joseph sighed and shook his head. "There''s a brilliant strategy. Not like you''ll have abused your primary weapon and left yourself defenseless or anything right?" He looked ahead to give me a crooked smile, but I had already been in motion. He looked down to see my sword poised right at his gut.
"Rule number one of combat," I reminded him of something he had taught me a long time ago. "If you''re too busy taunting your opponent, you can''t see what he''s doing beyond your own ego. In other words, shut your trap." Joseph moved a hand down to push my blade to the right.
"And rule number one of sparring. No cheap shots," Joseph said. I grinned and shrugged.
"Still you have to admit, that was clever."
Joseph nodded side to side. I shot energy down to my legs again, jetting across the room some ten feet. "If we''re really gonna practice this right we need to enact what would happen in real life, right?" I asked, trying to process an idea in my head while speaking.
"Um..." Joseph said.
"Course I''m right. I''ve been trained by the best."
"Yeah. Me." The man grinned.
"So I''m gonna turn my back."
"Think I messed up somewhere," Joseph said on that note, his grin fading.
"No no, that''s not the point. The point is to simulate an attack I''m not expecting." I said as if I wasn''t making this up as I went along.
"Oh. Okay then," Joseph took his staff and stood it up vertically against the floor. I turned around.
I stooped down to a couple toys left on the floor while putting away my sword. "Go ahead, do something I don''t expect," I said. Looking at the specific toys, my plan finally formulated.
"Gottch-ya," he said. I then heard the distinct sound of someone crunching down on a carrot. I sighed turning around to- and at that instant, there was a blade at my throat. Joseph smiled at me, saying, "I seem to remember a rule that "turnabout is fair play". Not a combat rule mind you, but it still works."
"And I seem to remember you saying if I impressed you, we would play a game."
"And I''m supposed to be impressed by-"
I clicked my teeth nodding to a toy gun in my right hand. "Rule number- oh I forget which one: if you get the chance to set the rules, why not set the weapons? I could have gunned you down easy if this thing were real."
"This is a draw at best you know."
"You can''t really STOP someone less than ten feet away, we both know that. Still, always have a weapon on you right? Just in case you''re given a chance."
"Hmm..." Joseph took his blade and set it on the couch across the room. I grinned putting a small leather casing on the dagger end of my sword and sliding it into its scabbard and under the same bench from earlier.
"So what do we play?" I asked. My right leg was then grabbed as I was hoisted off my feet and upside down into the air. I yelled in response, but it was a happy scream.
"I didn''t bring anything, but do you remember the gravity game?"
I relaxed. "Sure." I shrugged, keeping my t-shirt from falling over my face. I pulled my arm across my chest, closing my eyes. The hand was released from around my leg and I threw my arm to the right, the electricity in my body forcing it to move with such momentum I was tossed across the room. I quickly turned in the air, touching down in a crouching position. I tried to strike a pose with my arms out, but all I got out of Joseph was a smirk for it.
The gravity game wasn''t a normal game. Since we were so far up from the Earth, gravity wasn''t very powerful up here. I loved to pull tricks in low gravity sometimes, trying to test how far I could go before gravity made me smack the deck with my face. Sure the ship had artificial gravity, but not enough. "C''mon, give me a challenge!" I shouted.
Joseph approached me, "well..." he grabbed me around the stomach and threw me to the ground. He then put a hand on my chest. "Get up."
"Um." I pushed on the floor with my hands. "C''mon man, you weigh like three hundred pounds!"
"I beg your pardon?" he said. "I sense you''re lacking motivation here." He then sent five fingers wiggling into my stomach, tickling and forcing me to scream out laughing.
"Stop you''ll wake the monster!" I shouted. Joseph did stop, sighing and letting me up.
(***)
I played with Joseph for a while and we sparred a few more times. Finally, we felt another vibration go through the ship, meaning we were about ten minutes from landing.
I had gotten Joseph to tell me one of his stories about a time two hundred years ago when he fought against the terrifying gargoyles from Earth.
Joseph had turned down the lights to tell some of the creepy tales of the powerful creatures.
The gargoyles had it all, part lizard, incredible strength, speed (sometimes even faster than us), they could morph, heal fast and they were immortal. One problem. They were evil, every one of them destined to be monsters. It was sad really if you thought about it too deeply, but it was still fun to hear tales of battles with monsters. It was especially fun with Joseph as he made sound effects and used the darkness to his advantage in telling the stories. Every so often he would throw something or poke me at just the right moment to make me jump or look around.
He turned the lights back on, me sighing as I adjusted.
"Wish I could have been there," I said. "Saving the people of Earth from monsters, sealing alliances with other mutants..." I said fist-pumping the air. "What''s left for me to do?"
Joseph looked at me with an air of seriousness. "Keep your head low. The humans on that world aren''t ready to know mutants walk among them. I trained you how to act like an earth kid... like you really need practice."
"What do I do if I see a gargoyle?" I shrugged. "Run behind my bodyguard?"
"You really think the monster will be able to do anything against one of those things? You''re more na?ve than I thought. If you two want to live, you take my advice. You see a gar, you run like heck and don''t look back." He shook his head, "I''ve seen those things rip men in half, and wield massive weapons like toys. And make no mistake, your status as son of the president will only make you a bigger target. They''re a smidge resentful of us. We did almost wipe them out after all."
"But really, if they''re so bad, why send me to Earth at all?" Not sure why I asked that. I already knew. Maybe there was a part of me thinking I could leverage him taking me back home.
"The odds of you seeing one of those things... really the rebellion moving against your father back home should scare you much more. There''s probably more of them and besides, with our technology, we Pharaohs are the things you should really be afraid of. In any case, just don''t go looking for trouble alright? Any world has plenty of that."
"Who are we meeting down there anyway?"
"I know... his name and what he looks like. A werewolf. Some guy named Allen." I tapped my fingers on the couch, waiting for him to say more. "Sorry, all I got. The other guards might know more."
"Yeah but you''re my friend... maybe I''ll ask them eventually." I sighed and looked back at the projection. From the angle I was at only clouds were visible, but I could make out the changing colors that told me how close we were to landing. Also, their shades told me what time it was as apparently it was dark out.
It wouldn''t be too long. Soon I would step off the ship. A point of no return. I would meet... Allen.
I sighed scanning the stars, wondering if I could figure out where my sun was. Course now, it wasn''t a sun from here, here it was just another star. From here, you couldn''t even see my world.
Chapter 2: Welcome to Earth
February thirteenth.
The sky was black, and I, werewolf Allen Reign, stood in an open field.
I couldn''t see a single star. The night was blank, not cold, not hot, no stars, no wind, all I had to focus on were my thoughts.
You might expect seeing them coming would be easy, right? When they rained down hundreds of years ago during the Purge, they lit up the daytime sky in fire. But I couldn''t see anything as I scanned the horizon.
I pulled my jacket around myself, but not from cold- more to feel whatever safety I could.
I was told their ship would be arriving around this time, nineteen thirty.
That''s seven-thirty p.m. as my wife had been teaching our son Jaden. Jaden was with me today. He told me he wanted to know what Pharaohs looked like. Four-years-old and ever curious, even when I told him they were nothing to look at, his imagination still soared when he heard they were from space. My wife even told him that the young Pharaoh I would be looking after wasn''t much older than him, which made him think they could be friends. Yeah,... not much older... by who''s definition of age?
I thought back on our history. I was scared. The first time our species met, the Pharaohs had come down from the sky and nearly slaughtered an entire race known as the gargoyles. Now, I was charged with protecting the son of their country''s head of state, the only child of their president. If I screwed this up, my entire world could burn.
Jaden hugged my leg, hiding himself from the cold under my long jacket. I could sense he was getting tired. I was, too; we''d been waiting out here for half an hour.
The night was getting colder, but I didn''t want to shiver. It would make me look weak. I instead tightened my grip on old Calamity Jane, my twelve-gauge shotgun. Beside me stood Frank, my backup, a mutant known as a "wild man". He carried a few five and ten-pound dumbbells in his jacket- if you knew him, you''d understand.
Why were we armed? One word: gargoyles. Their remnants would have done anything to sever ties between the mutants on Earth and those in the stars.
It started to rain. Great! At least now I knew why I couldn''t see the stars.
Only Frank had thought to bring an actual hooded raincoat. My cotton overcoat would soon be soaked as we stood in the open. More concerning, rain made noise, and so made it harder to hear monsters sneaking up on you... ''c''mon, Mr. Reign, get hold of yourself. You''ll see them easy in this open field if they attack unless they just choose to snipe you off at a distance. Then what can you do anyway?'' I thought.
And what did the rest of humanity think about all this? Oh, don''t you know? None of us exist. Werewolves and gargoyles are folklore, and wild men are just people who have had too much to drink. And Pharaohs... what are those? For what it''s worth, they were also often called fairies. Hundreds of years ago, humanity feared us and other mutants and would have done anything to be rid of us, often trying to kill us, calling us unholy abominations. So we spread stories about ourselves in tall tales of heroes and horrors, all too fantastic to believe. Soon enough, no one believed we were real in the first place, so in a way, everyone got their wish. We were left alone, and the normal humans believed there were no more monsters haunting the night. Keeping up facades wasn''t too hard. After all, when not fighting, most mutants looked like normal humans.
I gripped my weapon tighter again, looking at my friend Frankie, who looked at me with the same toothy grin he had on the entire ride over here. Of course, he didn''t actually put up his hood- constantly having to prove how tough he was.
"So hey, Mac," said Frankie, "You tried that new cola... what was it called again? The red stuff. It''s cherry-flavored."
"You''re thinking about that at a time like this?" I asked.
"A time like what, Al? We''re standing around in a field waiting for that stupid ship to arrive or our weapons to rust, whichever comes first." Frankie looked up. "Ah, speaking of which."
A bright light showed over my shoulder, the field suddenly illuminated in a blue hue. I turned, raising my weapon as I did, snapping it into the crook of my right shoulder and aiming at the descending glowing object.
Frankie slapped my weapon to the side before I could open fire, shouting at me, "You paranoid mutt, that''s the ship. Don''t do the gars'' job for em'' alright?" Had I really allowed myself to get that worked up? I didn''t normally like Frank, but for the moment, I was glad he was along.
''Still have to say, ya think sneaking up on an armed group camped out and waiting for possible conflict... maybe a bad idea?'' But I knew we had to just go with it. The pharaohs were the ones calling the shots here.
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I looked back at the object and saw a large silver ship in front of me. The ship had two wings, both thirty feet in length, which faced down and forward. The nose of the craft came out perhaps only a few more feet. The wings and nose joined seamlessly several meters back, where I could not see but guessed the thrusters for the vessel resided.
I took my weapon back to a low, ready stance, watching as a door dropped from the nose of the ship. The door acted as a ramp, two men walking out of the ship before it even touched bottom.
The men were not dressed as one would suppose royal escorts should be. They wore blue jeans and red shirts, each of them. However, the clothes caught less attention than their weapons when they came to stand on either side of the ship exit. Each carried a three-foot staff with two-foot blades on each end. The top blades were half a foot wide and made in the style of scimitar swords, the bottom blades of similar length but more shaped like spear tips. Each blade had a strange blue hue, characteristic of the alloy from the Pharaoh homeworld, known as Cyra. Pharaohs were terrible with guns, at least at the speeds they could move, but given that speed, those blades could be nightmares.
The man on the right side of the platform spoke. "We were told an armed escort would meet the first son. What is this? I only see two men. One of you isn''t even armed."
"These are all I''m gonna need," Frank replied, tossing a ten-pound weight in the air.
"Do you think this is a game?" asked the man on the right.
"Oh yes, I do, and it''s a fun one," said Frank. He yanked the weight back and hurtled it forward like a frisbee, sending it flying at a large birch tree several meters away from our group. The metal weight slammed into the tree trunk, wood splintering, and the entire neck of the tree giving way like a heavy sledge had just smashed through it. Frankie chuckled.
I shook my head. "We also have snipers in place," I said. "But we''re trying not to draw attention. Remember, the number of people, even among mutants, who know what''s happening here had to be handpicked. The boy is not public knowledge."
The left man nodded. "Very well," he said. He started to shout, "All kneel and prepare to receive the first son of all Triad." I bowed and knelt down to one knee, guiding my son to do the same. Frank, however, just shook his head.
"Yeah, that''s not happening," Frank commented.
"We''re not bowing to him in submission," I snapped, "It''s a show of respect. Now stop embarrassing us." And thus, I was back to regretting him being here.
"I''m here to represent my people, not play submissive." He shook his head. "Bowing to a five-year-old, I''m not the one being embarrassed."
"He''s not five. He''s one hundred, you imbecile," I said in a growl. Frank was so being so obstinate- I didn''t get it. What if we went to Korea, where bowing was just the thing to do, would he act the same?
"Bring out the pipsqueak," Frank shouted to the two men. "We''ll just say I''m keeping watch."
The right ship guard rolled his eyes. He then yelled into the ship, "Come forth, Kyle, First Son of the President of the Planetary Republic of Triad, Children of the Titans."
Out of the ship, he walked. I supposed he was cute.
He didn''t look a day older than five, just like I expected¡ªpuffy cheeks, slightly pudgy, and bright and wide brown eyes. The boy had dark hair, and wore a red dress shirt with a pair of slacks and shined black shoes. He walked out at a brisk pace. He stopped and looked at the four of us, hands in his pockets. He gave a right-sided smile as if he were deciding what to do with us. Finally, he raised his hands, giving my son and I permission to get back up.
Now, I had to look down as the boy barely came up past my knees. His smile dimpled his cheeks, and even as he walked with an air of discipline, it still looked awkward and clumsy.
Frank walked over to him and knelt down but not to bow. He put his face directly in the child''s and spoke. "Listen up, brat. You''re not royalty here. Don''t expect me to bow or talk all nicey nice to ya. And don''t expect that looking like a kid is going to get you anywhere around me, either. Go ahead, step out of line... I''ll snap your neck like a twig."
The boy stifled a laugh. "If you imagine you scare me, then my dear claud, your imagination is far richer than your intelligence." Frankie raised a finger to point into the child''s face, but before he touched the boy''s nose, the child disappeared in a flash of colors, appearing again five meters away, chuckling. "Don''t imagine yourself my equal, infant."
"Infant?" said Frankie, getting up and glaring at the child.
I put a hand on Frank''s shoulder, noticing as one of the guards had shifted his stance, aiming his blade for a strike to Frank''s head. One more false move, and my "friend" wouldn''t have a head at all. "Need I remind you, my friend," I said, "with their technology, there are those of that boy''s race who could wipe out your entire family in less than a minute. So ya know, try not to tick off an entire nation planet, if you please." The guard seemed to relax his stance.
Kyle looked at me and then shivered and pulled his arms close, looking up into the air as if he suddenly realized he was getting drenched. His shivering caused his whole body to shake, and I had to resist the urge to offer to pull him close to warm him up like... well, like a kid.
He looked at my boy Jaden, who by this point had practically attached himself to my leg. Jaden usually wasn''t shy around people he knew or other kids, but my guess was he was scared of the two men with giant bladed staffs that could have cut any one of us in two at a moment''s notice... come to think of it, I couldn''t blame him. "I see you brought someone my size," Kyle said. He got down on one knee to seem smaller to my son. Had Kyle been our son and just put his knee in the mud like that with slacks on, my wife would have freaked. Immediately, his outfit was ruined, but, yes, he was a boy- he didn''t even notice.
Since Jaden wasn''t moving away from me, Kyle walked over to him. "I''m really not a mean guy; give me a chance." He tickled Jaden''s neck, making my son grin, but he wasn''t letting go of my leg. "Oh well." He moved back away. "Never did have a way with kids."
"Ironic," I commented.
"You have no idea. You''ll meet her soon enough, and then you''ll see real irony."
"Her?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. The monster. My bod-"
An object appeared next to Kyle and shouted at me, "Hey, hi!"
Chapter 3: Jessica
Allen:
I nearly jumped at the surprise- my son did jump, quickly tightening his grip on my leg.
The object was a girl. She had dark hair and a grin that looked ready to split her face in two. "Hi," I said with a confused, slow wave.
"How are you- I''m doing good, just great- good good, good!" She clapped, and then her head turned so fast I swore it would snap her neck with the inertia, water spraying out from her long hair. She stared into Kyle''s eyes.
Kyle''s eyes widened a bit, looking back at her. "She gets a little excited around strangers," he commented.
"A lit-" I began, but I was cut off again.
"Oh my gosh, he''s so cute!" The girl cooed. She was now looking at my son, though I might add, I''m not sure when she turned around. "What''s his name- he has a name, right- everyone has a name here right?"
"Most of us," said Frank, rolling his eyes.
The girl spun around to look at the man, still crouched where he had threatened Kyle. "You''re the one who threatened my Kyle about twenty seconds ago, aren''t you?"
"Um-" Frank began.
Her grin changed instantly to a scowl. "I could kill you with a thought... it would be fun... aaaanyway-" Her grin reappeared, and she turned back to me. "So-name?"
"Um, yes. My name is Allen."
"No, no. Not that there''s anything wrong with you- what''s the name of your kid?"
"Oh, of course," I said, shaking my head. "Jaden."
"Oh, how cute, little Jady," she said, looking back at my son.
"Kid, that''s not a nickname-" I began, but Kyle cut me off.
"Don''t bother, she won''t get it. She nicknames everyone." he interrupted.
"Hi," she said, kneeling down a little.
She was bigger than Jaden or Kyle, looking more around seven. I took the few seconds she spent trying to un-scare Jaden to get a good look at her. This girl was quite a spectacle in every way. I even noticed as she was leaning down, she was actually just standing on one foot. Where was she getting all this energy? Besides that, she had really weird taste in clothes. She wore a pair of dark red boy''s jeans with black shoes and a bright green T-shirt. Her hair was black, long, and just straight, nothing off there, I supposed. Then there was her face. She had freckles, but somehow only on the right side.
"It''s okay, I''m not gonna hurt you," she said gently. Jaden clung to my leg. She was moving too fast for his liking. "Oh c''mon, give me a chance... oh, I know!" she finally shouted. She was also too loud, Jaden clinging harder. She reached into her pocket, still standing on one foot, and pulled out a few pieces of hard candy. She unwrapped one and popped it in her mouth. "They''re really good. Want one?" She offered one to my son.
If one were to wonder about it, I suppose it''s not too much of a surprise that Pharaohs have candy, too, but of course, it wasn''t any kind I recognized. Jaden''s grip on my leg started to loosen. He looked up at me. "Go ahead, Jaden, she''s just a quick little bugger, but I doubt she can hurt you."
"Oh, I could never hurt you," she assured him.
My brown-haired little kid finally left his father''s leg. He took the piece of candy, which I guess was his mistake. The girl moved faster than anyone could see and grabbed him in a bear hug, and then started tickling his sides. Jaden was pretty obviously startled, but there wasn''t much he could do now besides crumble into a pile of giggles. Kyle grinned at the two. "Like I said, ironic that I don''t know anything about kids," he commented.
I decided Jaden would be fine as he got up with his candy and ran behind my legs to play at hiding, really hoping Jessica would pretend to chase him.
I looked back to Kyle. "I wasn''t told the president had a daughter too. They just don''t like to talk about her?" I asked, chuckling as I did. Pretty sure I was off the mark.
"Oh no," Kyle said back, almost laughing at the thought. "That stack of- pure energy, is my bodyguard, Jessica." At the sound of her name, Jessica let up, making faces at Jaden as he jumped back and forth behind my legs, giggling at her.
"Jess, Jess, Jessie, Jessica, that''s my name, don''t wear it out! Oops- too late."
Kyle started to chuckle. "She''s really kinda fun sometimes," he said, smiling at the girl.
"I hope so!" Jessica shouted. Her eyes widened. "Oh crap, I forgot my bag!" The girl disappeared.
Kyle looked back up at the ship. "I think there''s a strategy to her bright clothes- they draw attention... I think..."
"That''s your bodyguard?" asked Frank. "I thought you guys were supposed to be the nigh-unstoppable alien force that almost wiped out the entire gargoyle race." He stood up. "You''ve got to be kidding me with this." He looked at the right ship guard next to him. "Can I totally kick your butt too?"
"I would love for you to try," the man said back, smiling and tightening his grip on his twin-bladed staff. Frank stood tall, dwarfing the man by a full foot, his shadow covering the man who didn''t even seem phased. The guard started to lower his blade to attack.
"Frank... Ya know what? No one is gonna miss him," I said, shaking my head. Maybe I should have regretted such a line, but this guy was on my last nerve. What did he think he was even after?
Jessica appeared next to Kyle again, me swearing I could hear a cartoon "pop" noise as she suddenly- popped in. This time, she had a bright yellow backpack on her shoulders. "Your buddy there sure is bellicose, isn''t he?" she asked, understating the obvious.
"Very much so," I said, still looking at Frank.
"Hey, Ky... where''s your bag?" Jessica asked her protectee.
"I don''t know, you''re my servant, so where is it?" asked Kyle with a slight grin.
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Jessica lowered her eyebrows at him. "Mmmmhmmm... my mistake," she said in a low tone. She dashed away again.
"Something tells me that was a bad thing to say," I commented.
"There''s a distinct possibility," Kyle admitted, just before a black backpack was dumped on his head and he landed face-first in the dirt.
"Will there be anything else, my noble master?" asked Jessica, folding her arms over Kyle and tapping her foot.
I couldn''t help it, I laughed openly at that one, both kids smiling up at me.
I think the rain kept falling, but by this point, it could have stopped, and I would have felt the same. These two were rays of sunshine, just like my kid.
Kyle started getting up, saying, "Nope. I''m good here." He returned to his feet, slipping the bag onto his shoulders, his face covered in mud.
"Okay, seriously," I had to ask. "Not that I''m trying to start anything, but what in the world makes you a bodyguard? Looks like you''re more likely to cause trouble than solve it."
"You know why it''s a bad idea to touch a ticked-off Pharaoh, right?" Jessica asked.
"They can shock anything they touch," I replied. "Up to six feet away sometimes." I was now rattling off my understanding of pharaohs because- why not? I was getting pretty relaxed with these two. They were disarming.
"Exactly, so imagine what would happen to ya if I touched you," she said. The girl opened both her hands, raising them in the air, electric energy firing off them in every direction, some bolts even four feet in length like the girl was a living Tesla coil. Jessica threw her hands down and forward, one electric bolt flying off from each, zipping through the air and impacting a large fir tree some twenty yards away. The tree instantly caught fire, branches splitting and snapping to get out of the way. The tree split and the earth shook, thunder going out from Jessica, everyone near having to steady themselves from the tremor.
Frank and I looked at Jessica, eyes wide. The girl folded her arms with a look of pure satisfaction. Kyle chuckled. "Oh, that''s not even a sample kids," he said. "Some call her the Queen of Lightning." She grinned at that line.
"That reminds me!" Jessica shouted. She disappeared back into the ship again.
I blinked a few times, recovering from the surprise of Jessica''s power. But then, the way she moved, the way she talked, was there even more to it? "Ya know... "jumping" that''s what it''s called when you guys channel electricity into your legs and move really quick, right?" I asked. Kyle nodded. "Okay, I thought you guys could only jump so many times in a short period of time."
"Yeah... it''s kinda like sprinting, if ya do it a lot, you can do it a lot more," Kyle replied. Jessica appeared next to Kyle again.
''So maybe that isn''t more unique powers.'' I supposed.
"Ya know, I''m starting to see why Jaden was scared of you," Frank commented.
Jessica looked at my son, who was standing next to me.
"He really doesn''t seem so scared anymore," she said to Frank as she dropped a small pile of swords she was carrying. She picked up two scimitar-style blades from the pile, both sheathed, and clipped the sheaths onto her belt. She pulled one out. "Though you should be." She pointed the tip at him, electric bolts dancing up and down the blue-hued blade. "I''m still considering cutting you into tiny pieces for being a prick- itsy bitsy ones- all on fire."
"Ummm...." Frank began, the girl making a mock sizzling sound at him. "I''m just gonna zip it for now."
"Good idea," Jessica replied, sheathing her blade. She turned back to Kyle, picking up the remaining two sabers. "Mmmhmmm." She disapproved as she gave him an old English-style short sword with a long dagger on the end of its handle. "I believe this is yours."
Kyle took it. "It is," he said, taking the blade and clipping the sheath to his belt. The hilt had a sheath of sorts on it too, but you could still tell what type it was. "Your point?"
"Tisk, tisk," she said. " Typical." She shook her head. "You made it, didn''t you?"
"Yes... why?" Kyle asked defensively.
"Okay, we all have time after all, so I get that we''re supposed to make our own weapons, but c''mon, what''s special about this?"
Kyle drew his sword, looking at it. "Nothing I suppose. I''m working on a magnetic weapon really. This is just something for the meantime."
"I''ll be interested to see that when it''s done," Jessica said back. I noted to myself that so would I. "But, c''mon, don''t you want a sword made for you and you alone, not just a couple pieces of steel attached to a handle?"
"The magnet weapon should be a few years developing... isn''t that what a sword is?"
Jessica grinned, drawing out and handing him the final blade. This one was somewhere between another scimitar and a rapier. Its handle was like the pirate sword, decorative, with a small hand guard around the hilt. The blade itself went out straight until about halfway up, at which point it curved, widening to have a scimitar''s unique second tip, and then, of course, the true tip was at the end. "Strange mutation," Kyle commented.
"I had to compensate for your lack of training, kid," Jessica shoved the weapon''s handle into his face. "Take it. Feel what real power feels like."
Kyle raised an eyebrow, putting away his own sword. He took the hilt of the weapon and took it with both hands. "What am I supposed to be feeling?" he asked.
"Oh, you still haven''t caught on? It''s a lightning blade kid. I figured it would be the perfect earth day gift."
"Earth day?"
"First day on earth. Earth day. Mine was several years ago. The man who taught me how to use my powers gave me my first blade here. It was a normal scimitar blade, but for you, I realized you can''t make bolts jump really far like I can so you need the steel of the weapon actually touching your hand, hence the handguard design of a rapier."
"What''s a lightning blade?" asked Frank, seeming to take an interest.
I decided to answer this time, best to keep him from causing more problems. I was going to have to talk to Brass about sending this guy. "When the Pharaohs first landed, this technique was pretty well known. Most Pharaohs carry melee weapons, but actually, a number of them can use them to amplify the electricity they generate, sometimes up to a hundredfold. They can use their weapons to actually throw huge bolts of electric energy at their opponents."
"Like Jessica can do with her bare hands?" he asked.
Jessica smiled up at the two of us. "You bet ya," she said. She tapped her right saber. "So imagine what I can do with one of these puppies."
I wagered Frank would rather not see what she could really do, but me, I was intrigued. Sure, I knew about what I would see but- I still wondered if at some point I would get to.
Kyle looked at the sword he had been given, backing away from the group, off to the left. ''So what does it look like when a pharaoh gets his first lightning blade?'' I thought.
I watched as the child began to glow, a blue haze starting to lift off of him. Visible currents of electric energy flowed over his body but never sparking more than a few feet out. Several currents traveled to his right hand and jumped from it to his new sword. The boy took the sword back and jabbed forward, electric energy firing off it a full... about six feet.
''Well, kinda disappointing. But maybe promising...''
"Not exactly the most impressive display, but I can''t do it so- ya know," Frank commented. Jessica made a sizzling sound at him again. "Right- sorry," he stepped back, showing her his palms.
Kyle sighed. "Is there something wrong with it?" he asked.
"How dare you!" Jessica said, snatching the weapon from him. She petted the hilt. "There there, he just doesn''t understand Bobby."
"Hold up, you named it?" Kyle asked.
"Of course, I name all my creations. Like you, I named you Kyle!"
Kyle gave a bemused look. "My mom named me."
"Yeah, she did... and I liked that name, so I let it stay."
I knelt down to Kyle''s level. "Did she have anything to do with your birth?" I asked.
"No... not a thing, but I''m just gonna let that slide, for sanity''s sake."
I grinned. Sanity did not seem like something Jessica was friends with.
"You see, Bobby here is matched perfectly to your unique electric signature," Jessica commented. "You and I have been together twenty years, and I''ve been making absolutely certain of that for ten of those. But using a lightning blade isn''t like pulling the trigger on a gun. You have to be trained for it."
Kyle took the weapon back. "It really took you ten years to make this?" he asked. "Really that''s... thanks." He walked over and picked up its sheath, planting the sword and hooking the scabbard to his belt. "Still, I don''t know how to use it."
"I''ll teach you," Jessica said. "Need to keep you safe, and I can''t always be around, so I gotta be sure you can look out for yourself and all."
Kyle smiled as Jessica gave him a one-armed hug.
I already liked these two. I could easily have spent quite a while watching and talking with them, but- well, I had a job. "So, will there be anything else you''ll be needing? Any specific orders?" I asked the right-hand ship guard, reluctantly turning away.
"The president did have certain requests," the man replied.
Chapter 4: New World
Kyle:
My new sword on my waist, I moved over to a nearby road. No one seemed to care too much that I was walking away, besides that creep Frankie. He eyed me like a hungry cat looking at a mouse. I didn''t know what his problem was, but I didn''t like him one bit. It took everything in me not to fight him right there. I really wasn''t fond of the way he looked at Jessica either, like he really wanted to hurt her. Truth was, Jessica was supposed to protect me, but if anyone wanted to hurt her, they still had to go through me.
In any case, I had a lot to think about. I stayed in view but still traveled over to a set of rail guards on the side of a nearby road. I leaned on them, looking to a far-off city. I started talking, the words I would have said if my father could have been there. "Dad... what were you thinking? I don''t need anyone besides Jessica anyway. The people of this world are primitive, and the ones you sent me to are a paranoid group of crazies." I sighed. I heard a subtle thump next to me. I turned to look at Jessica.
"So... what do ya think?" she asked.
"The blade is beautiful Jess. I just don''t know how to use it," I said, fingering the new sword at my waist.
"Oh goodness not that," she said. She rested against the railing too. "I mean about the planet so far."
"Well, we''ve only been here for a couple of min-" I began, but she cut me off.
"Oh my- look!" she shouted, pointing at the city. The sun was peeking out over the horizon. The black sky was gradually changing colors, dwarfing the lights of the city and making the buildings seem like silhouettes. The slowly clearing clouds caught the light and changed colors too, the sun creating a strange reflective effect beneath the raining clouds. "This planet is breath-taking sometimes."
I chuckled at Jessica. "You are so easily enchanted. We have sun rises on our world Jessie, this is nothing new."
Jessica pulled me around and pushed me against the rail, jumping back and holding up her hands like she was focusing me for a picture. I couldn''t see obviously, but I guessed I probably looked pretty... imposing? I was pretty small so... maybe I just looked "cute". That was a thing Jessie liked.
"Don''t tell me you''ve ever seen a sunrise like this- cause I know you haven''t." She shook her head. She shot back over to me and I turned around so we could keep watching together. "I have. This was always something special between me and my old trainer when I was here the first time, back when I was your age. I used to imagine myself as the only Pharaoh in years to have seen this planet''s beauty."
She was being sentimental, again. I realized that, sure, but I was not sentimental at all, at least not on this, so I rattled off trivia. "There are between one thousand to three thousand Pharaohs on this planet at any given time Jess. It used to be our home. Just because no one knows what we really are, doesn''t mean we''re not out there."
"There are over half a billion people on our world Kyle. It''s still pretty unique to be the only ones here and not there... just enjoy it." She breathed in the air like she was savoring it. I did have to admit, though not out loud, the sun reflecting off her did make her look rather pretty. I was too young to really see her in that way, but I could still appreciate. "Not a lot of our people see this. You see what''s different don''t you?" I shrugged. "You don''t? How could you not? No huge ships in the air, no floating landmasses, no massive amounts of pollution obscuring the whole thing, no sky advertisements... just a massive blank sky with buildings where they''re supposed to be, on the ground."
"Hmph," I laughed to myself.
"What?"
"Oh, it''s nothing really. You talk about all our inventions and technologies as if they''re a curse that interferes with your view of the sky. But really, do you have any idea how many people here would love to know how to make masses of land fly for instance?" I looked back at Allen. "Wonder what guys like him would pay to see a sunset over a floating city."
"I''m not saying it''s bad in either place Kyle. It''s just different. It''s just..." She continued looking forward with a deliberate pause.
"It reminds you of your old master? You missing him?" I put a hand on her shoulder. Okay fine, I was sentimental- I just sucked at it.
She pushed the hand off, giving me a raised eyebrow. "Can''t you just appreciate something that''s pretty?" I shook my head.
"Gotta have a reason, kid."
"Kid?" She pushed me a little. "You''re younger than me, pipsqueak!" she chided. "And don''t you ever forget it." She looked back over the city. "Besides," she sniffed the air, "you gotta love that smell."
"I think I smell..." I sniffed a few times, "grass... maybe."
"That''s a freshly mowed lawn Ky," she said, shaking her head and laughing.
"What?"
"We just let grass grow wild cuz half our structures fly anyway, but they cut it here. Pretty short too. It''s a matter of appearance. They think it''s unsightly if the grass is too tall."
"Why?" I asked, a look of confusion on my face, my mouth even slightly ajar.
"Not sure. But that''s why your shoes are green," she said, pointing down at my feet with a chuckle.
I sighed, trying to rub the grass blades and green slime off my new shoes. Oh and that rain still hadn''t cleared. How wonderful that mom had me fitted for this penguin suit before I came, just to have it ruined within minutes by minor environmental conditions. Yes, I hadn''t done much to protect it, but that was beside the point.
She laughed again. "Not grass little guy..." she threw her arms open, "adventure!" she shouted. "It''s a new world Ky! Don''t you hear it calling? It has so many secrets to show us, things the people back home can only dream about. I''ve seen some of them, but that was forty years ago, long before I even met you. I can tell you, a lot is probably different between now and nineteen twenty-seven when I left. I want to see those differences. And I want YOU there when I do." She poked me in the shoulder hard enough to shove me a little.
"Whatever kid."
"What was that?"
I had since gotten long use to Jessica referring to me as a child. To her I basically was, being half a century younger, and she referred to most of her friends as if they were children as a label of endearment. However, she really wasn''t crazy about any return of the sentiment. She was a lady, not a girl. In her eyes anyway, and that''s how I needed to see it. Jessica couldn''t let "childing" her go unpunished.
Just to make sure she heard, I stated it more slowly and specifically. "Whatever you say, little girl."
Jessica''s smile turned to a smirk and she punched her right palm.
The useful thing about having such a hyper bodyguard is that whenever you''re starting to feel down about something, like leaving your home light years behind, it was so easy to get her riled up. I grinned and took off running, knowing exactly what was coming.
(***)
Allen:
The orders the ship guards had were very simple. Jessica was Kyle''s bodyguard and they were not to be separated. Despite their actual age, Kyle and Jessica were used to being treated like children, and on their world, they were viewed as such, not adults. They were to be provided for and they were to be protected.
I grinned watching as the two Pharaoh children rough-housed a few meters off. The rain was finally starting to clear and they were silhouetted by the setting sun. They were like two kids in an ad on television, showing you how perfect the world could be if you bought some new nick-knack.
Kyle had tried to run from Jessica for some reason, and now they were both rolling on the ground, Kyle being tickled, starting to beg for mercy. You could certainly see their duality, Jessica''s threats had teeth, but she wrestled with the method of- no method at all, like your typical kid. Kyle was very prideful and seemed intelligent, but right now he curled up into a kind of half ball that barely defended his stomach and chest. They were both having fun with that game, neither angry nor shocked like it was natural to them.
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The right ship guard shook his head saying, "You must understand something. Young Kyle is used to a degree of autonomy and if I may speak from my own feelings, I believe he needs it to feel a sense of independence. Please do not take that from him if you can help it. I would hate to hear that he had a hard time leaving his home without an entourage. Kyle has his bodyguard, which should be sufficient to move around normally."
I nodded my head. "But Kyle still lives at home on your world right?" The guard nodded. I shifted uneasily. "In the mutant societies of earth we''ve been made aware that Pharaohs live as family units on their homeworld. However, here they don''t, or at least they stick to their own kind. Being tailed constantly by a werewolf would stick out like a sore thumb to other Pharaohs, almost like he had a strange pet. We were hoping Kyle could live on his own for the most part, as most other Pharaohs here do. Remember, Kyle''s father was specific to us that Kyle''s identity was to be an utmost secret."
Yes, seeing them tumble around, I realized how silly that sounded. We had seriously expected two little kids to live on their own, and I was pushing that idea. The old story of hating your own position, but fighting for it anyway.
The guard twisted his face. "I suppose the boy could live on his own. As long as he is provided for."
I bit my lip, but still pointed out, "not exactly independent."
"Well for goodness sake of course not! He''s only one hundred years - of course..." The guard paused. "If I may be upfront, the president doesn''t wish to do this, and frankly neither do I. The rebellion is just so dangerous and... as a servant I have watched the boy grow from his birth in his father''s house for many decades. He''s a very smart boy, and he should be exploring his potential on our world, being taught by people actually older than him. Instead, he''s to be here with you, hiding his gifts and the oldest person in his life will be Jessica."
I nodded. "We''ll do our best to keep him safe. There are other Pharaohs on this planet, but I don''t know if we can trust them, nor should you. I''ll care for him as I would my own- if he were five times my age- somehow." I paused on that note. I was doing my best to try to empathize with the guard, and still, tell him the truth. Still, with what I was saying, I would be close to marching a child in my care right back onto that ship. "Look, I know what it means to want someone to grow to their full potential. I promise we will give him any supplies he needs for his education and-"
"Until you die?"
That one hadn''t occurred to me. "Well-"
"His father will be president for a further two hundred years, at which point the boy will finally return home. No one on your world lives much longer than one hundred years, and anyone who befriends Kyle, the child will have to mourn soon enough." He shook his head, eyes fixed on the roughhousing children. Jessica had Kyle in a kind of headlock and Kyle was trying to tickle her to get her to back off... turned out she wasn''t as sensitive to that as he was, it wasn''t working.
I didn''t want to think about them in mourning. The guard continued. "I would tell you to keep your distance so you don''t hurt him by making him say goodbye to everyone who ever cares for him, but that would be worse, wouldn''t it? If no one ever cares for him, these will be the coldest days of his life." He looked back at me and put a hand on my shoulder. "None of this is your fault." He looked back to the kids. "But still this is a terrible idea, a horrible thing to do to a child. A group of renegades is garnering support on our world, which poses a threat to any member of the president''s house, but part of me still thinks the boy would be better there than raised by you." He turned back to the ship, gesturing for his friend to go back in.
The man who had been speaking walked with a sort of military discipline like he was marching. I suspected he didn''t have to walk like that, rather he was falling back on it to hide his desire to turn back. I expected a few more words from the other guard, but instead, he simply followed. The door of the ship closed and the ship itself seemed to vanish into the air. I felt a gust of wind push by me, realizing it was a breeze from the cloaked ship taking off.
Well, there was a weight on my shoulders. This was nothing like a babysitting job, which some of my superiors had said. This was... it was akin to a strange sort of adoption. Very strange.
Frank started walking towards the kids, both of them stopping their play and looking at him. The girl rose to her feet, bolts of energy traveling down both her arms, Kyle fingering his short sword while still on the ground. I grabbed Frank''s shoulder. "Frankie... we''re all used to you. But they''re not. Just keep your distance for now."
"You think they''re the ones who need to adjust?" He turned. "I see the way they look at us. Doesn''t it irritate you? Like we''re a planet of simpletons. I hate pharaohs... how arrogant can you get to call your whole race kings?"
Finally, I felt like snapping. "Okay, that does it. You think you''re making sense but... the fact is I''m embarrassed. You''re a grown man! You complain like they''re being so discriminatory, but the fact is those two guards treated us like equals the entire time and you treated them like dirt because of their race. You''re allowing the actions of a child to rile you up, a child that you threatened the second you saw him. Grow up. I''m tempted to smack some sense into you."
Frank glared, but sighed. "Believe what you want. I''ve stated my qualms. Let''s just go."
He was working my last nerve. "Get back to the cars," I simply ordered. Not all wild men were such bad examples of humanity, but there were more than a few rotten apples in any mutant race. I was just glad Frankie was under me and not the other way around.
I walked over to the two children. "We have some vehicles waiting by the side of the road to take you into town," I said, trying not to make the edge I had from that argument audible.
"Oh great!" Jessica shouted. She pulled Kyle to his feet so fast he nearly fell onto his face, her not even watching. He steadied himself while she just kept talking. "You got a Deusen? How fast do they go these days? I remember those things were pulling some serious speed. I went to a few races before I left earth in nineteen twenty-seven. I''ve been here before and lived here for twenty years."
"A Deusen...?" I had to think for a moment. "Oh!" She was still beaming at me, so I hated to tell her the truth. "I''m afraid they stopped making those a while ago Jessica. You mean the old Duesenbergs right? Sheesh, even my Grandma got rid of her''s a few years back, the thing just broke down. Lucky it made it that long. The whole company went under."
"Really? That''s too bad," she replied, snapping her fingers. "I thought Mr. Cord would get those things to make a comeback."
I chuckled. "He did. Whenever something''s really hard to believe, these days we call it a "Duesy" because of what he helped make. Best cars of the time really. But good Lord, they must have gone under more than a decade ago."
"So what''s the big name in transportation these days?" she asked.
I started walking to our cars, young Kyle and Jessica following.
"Probably Mustang," I said after a little thought.
"The horse?" she asked. "What did you guys regress a little?"
"Mustangs are fast!" Jaden shouted at my leg, walking next to me.
"Yes they are buddy," I said with a chuckle and messing up his hair a little. "A mustang is a car, Jessica."
"Call me Jess," the girl replied. "Since when do they name cars after horses?"
My smile was becoming more and more genuine talking to her. "You''re the boss little lady. I wonder what you''d say to a Corvette, Jess."
"I''d ask it if it wanted a carrot."
I had an even better question then. "What would you say to a Thunderbird?"
"What''s that supposed to be?" the girl asked. I just chuckled in response as she gave me a fake angry pout.
"I thought you told me they rode around on horses on this world," Kyle said.
"Well, some do," Jessica said back. "I guess not very many by the time I left."
"Jess," I began. "No one''s ridden a horse in this country for anything but sport in a long time. Besides..." I stopped mid-step and looked down. "What about the Cadillac? Isn''t that a kind of horse? I thought those were cars made back in the day. My grandpa always seemed to like them."
"Well not a lot of people actually had those," Jessica responded.
I shrugged and kept walking. We finally came upon the cars. I spoke up. "Myself, I ride around in a good old Rambler. An old Rebel my dad gave me."
Jessica looked at the lead vehicle in our little convoy. We had brought three vehicles, not sure how big Kyle''s entourage would be. Two other men drove them but hadn''t been with myself and Frank. Course it turned out there was just him and the little girl so I could fit the whole parade in my back seat.
My Rebel was a good looking little car if I did say so. A boxed-off front and back, and short seats. Rebels were the first cars to have seat belts, which I made my son wear these days, just in case. Course I didn''t bother to wear one myself. It even had the wood stripe down the side doors looking nice and new, if for a few dents. There was a new Rebel just coming out, but really, I liked mine just fine.
"Rambler eh?" Jessica said, nodding to the vehicle. "Sheesh, they probably aren''t going anywhere for a while huh? They''ve been around since cars were first made. I swear they''re going to make it to the next millennium if they made it this far."
"Are you kidding? These things aren''t going to make it past the 70s when all our cars fly. You''ll see." I replied.
"Before you do, maybe you should make it so everyone can afford to ride on those airplane things you guys were still working on when- those are still around right?"
"Oh yeah, they are. Maybe I should take you to an airport sometime."
"Take a while to get to one won''t it?"
"Are you kidding? We got a few in just this city." I was loving this. Talking to Jessica was like talking to a young lady from the past. She was like a time traveler. Honestly, there were things I wanted to ask her. Easily we could switch places and I be the little kid asking about all kinds of things that no longer were.
"Did you guys make it into space yet?" Kyle asked, sounding unimpressed.
I grinned. "For your information, the president says we''re going to have someone walk on the moon before the end of the decade."
"Hm!" Kyle grinned. "You''re making me laugh friend. Laugh harder than you know. It took you how long to figure out how to fly? Space isn''t something you get to that fast after you just learn how to get off the ground." He sounded so sure on that point. There weren''t many space fairing civilizations, just Triad, America, and Russia, so what he was basing his diagnostic on was anyone''s guess. I was starting to suspect a little more than the general arrogance I had become aware of when talking to most pharaohs.
Frankie shook his head. He mumbled to me, "Guess they didn''t get word about Explorer 1."
I shrugged.
Jessica moved over to the Rebel to ride shotgun. Frankie pushed in front of her. "I think I should ride up front kid." He motioned, this time sounding a smidge timid.
"AAAHHH!" Jessica wined. "I wanted to ride shotgun!"
"Aren''t you suppose to stay with Kyle anyway?" I asked.
"Doesn''t mean we have to hold hands," Kyle replied for her. Jessica ran back to the left side of the car where the rest of us were standing. She opened the door to the back seat and gestured for Kyle to get in.
Okay so normally I wouldn''t just correct random people on this, but they were so much like children, I felt myself going into a parent mode.
"Alright, I''m not having this," I said, walking in front of Kyle.
"Excuse me?" Kyle asked.
"No, I won''t excuse it," I motioned for Jessica to move away from the door and then pushed it shut again. "Jessica is a lady, powerful or not. On this world, you respect women. She''s not your servant around me, is that clear?" Kyle looked at me inquisitively. "For starters, you open doors for her."
"Since when did men become the servants of women on this world?" Kyle asked. I decided it better not to answer directly and just folded my arms. "If you insist." I moved out of the way and Kyle opened the door for Jessica. He let my son Jaden go in after, piling in himself once they were situated. Our convoy was off.
Chapter 5: The Tower
Kyle:
We had been driving for quite some time. It struck me over and over just how slow earth vehicles were. Jessica pushed her head out the window, insisting the wind felt good. Personally, I just saw this as another symptom of her teeter-tottering sanity. Still, it was funny to watch.
Finally, the car came to a stop in front of a large clock tower in a small city square. I was told I was supposed to let Jessica out as well as letting her into the car, but when we stopped, she didn''t seem to care what custom dictated, which was fine by me. She shot out of the vehicle shouting, "WHOA!" spinning and looking at the structures around her. "This state has really grown. The buildings are getting BIG!"
Allen chuckled. "You should see New York."
"I did," she replied. "Is the Woolworth building still the tallest?"
"No, afraid not," Allen said, getting out of the vehicle after us. Frankie was dropped off drove his own car, probably to his home. Good riddance. "It''s the empire state these days. Has been for a long time really. One hundred and two floors."
"WOW!" Jessica shouted.
"Jess... stop acting so surprised at everything will ya? We''ve got bigger." I urged, still smiling.
Jessica shook her head. "I''m not amazed at its size Kyle. I''m impressed at how far these people have come. They had just discovered flight when I got here, and now they''re shooting to walk on the moon. They really are moving fast kid."
Allen looked at a building the vehicle had parked next to. He blew out long and hard, as if nervous. "Well," he finally started, "this is where you''ll be staying."
I looked up at the structure. It was some twelve stories tall, standing as a single obelisk. At the top was a large timepiece, like the face of a grandfather clock that Jessica had brought back from earth decades ago, only this clock face was so large you could probably tell time from a few kilometers out. There were hundreds of lights around its perimeter illuminating it in the darkness, as well as some kind of light behind the actual face. "So there''s an apartment or something up there?" asked Jessica.
Allen shook his head. "Um... no. There''s a large room behind the clock and no one really ventures up to care for it except three employees of this building. This building used to belong to a newspaper publisher, the clock was a gimmick to get people to notice it, but all the same, someone has to take care of it. But worry not, the only three who do, are all members of a mutant race called banshees." I looked at Allen with a raised right brow. "Yeah... that reaction kind of figures."
"Figures"? That wasn''t the word I was thinking. "I''m the son of the president of an entire planet, and you''re sticking me at the top of a clock tower like a war prisoner?" I asked.
"Was hoping you wouldn''t think about it quite that way but essentially-"
"This will be so cool!" Jessica shouted, mouth gawking in an expression of glee. Also not what I was thinking... and just hearing her I had to make an effort to ignore her and my own childish love of exploring. I hid my smile.
"It''ll be what?" Allen asked. "Well, figure it will be, but I don''t imagine there''s much we can do about that."
"Jessica uses that as a slang term to mean "good"... don''t ask how she made that connection."
"How?" Allen asked in spite of me.
Jessica tried to reply, "It made sense at the time... wait- no it didn''t- just you wait though, that word will be used more often than "baby" I''ll see to it, I will!"
"Um, little lady... you''re a little late. That''s already a popular term, just didn''t think you''d know it."
"Darn it." Jessica looked up at the building. "Well let''s get in this spire eh? I need to see where I''m gonna be restn'' ma'' dogs."
"Your what?" asked Allen.
"My feet... everyone called them that before I left... yeah I''m gonna have some adjusting to do." She started to look a sound a bit discouraged, so I slung an arm around her shoulders. She grinned and pushed me off, me jumping back and pushing her back.
(***)
The elevator for this building took an eternity to reach the twelfth floor. I learned while walking in that this place was called the Jackson Tower by glancing at a pamphlet. When we reached the actual clock itself and went inside it was time again for me to be unimpressed. I knew I was being a bit of a prick but was this really the best these people could think to offer the son of a president? I looked around the room housed behind the great clock. It was barren with a large wood floor. Really the entire area seemed like just a giant flat board that the elevator came up the center of. There was nothing on the floor, there were no windows, and the ceiling was some twenty feet up with nothing on it. Of course, leave it to Jessica to find the bright side of anything.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"ECHO!" she shouted. And indeed the room echoed her sentiment several times. "This is cool!" she shouted again, the echo sounding off again. "Hey!" It echoed again. "Stop copying me!" She listened and there came the echo again.
"Well I-" Allen began, but Jessica jumped up on his chest and grabbed him around the neck, staring into his eyes,
"Tell it to stop copying me, NOW!" she shouted.
"Kid it''s an echo... that''s what it does..." Allen replied fearfully.
"I know!" she shouted, a huge grin on her face, jumping off and shooting off into the room, looping around behind the elevator.
"What the hooey?" asked Allen, his son at his legs, looking confused himself.
"Isn''t she beautiful?" I asked. His confusion wasn''t much revenge, but still, after seeing this room, I felt a sense of what I would later learn was called "schadenfreude" here.
"If you say so... anyway." The man pointed at a mattress a few yards away. For an empty room, this place was at least spacious. I also noticed the ticking of the large clock face in front of me, the gears and actual controls for the hands visible behind a large see-through partition. There was a part of me that REALLY wanted to explore the mechanics of this place. But I wasn''t done being angry. "We had a mattress for you up here and a couple blankets, they''re in the gear room in front of you... didn''t actually count on having another person to prepare a bed for and all-" And by this point- I was boiling.
"That''s not a bed, it''s a mattress you threw on the floor the day before we got here." I finally declared. "This whole thing was thrown together on a weekend, wasn''t it? You had two weeks to prepare for me!"
"Kyle we are not a nation here," the werewolf snapped back. "The societies are a conglomeration of disjointed groups hiding from the rest of the planet. If you think we''ve got five-star hotels just waiting around for royalty to show up and-" but Allen cut himself off holding up a hand as if to signal himself to stop. He calmed his voice. "I don''t exactly live like a king myself. Try to understand our position. You and your bodyguard can''t exist in any official capacity at all... ever. You can''t own a house, and you can''t be dependents. If anyone sees you not aging it will stick out like a sore thumb, especially at your age." Allen waved his hands at the corners of the room, clearly trying to hide exasperation. "This is what we have kid. And it''s not getting better."
I let my shoulders down. I knew I was wrong. Probably knew before he started talking. I still folded my arms and walked away from the man, not wanting to appear like some dumb human had taught me a lesson. Jessica jetted up behind me. "He''s just homesick," she said to Allen and his boy. "Wait till you get to know him, he really is a nice guy, you''ll see."
I would be nice to her.
(***)
A few blocks away.
Nathan:
I had prayed with everything I had that this would work, but I doubted it. I opened the doors to the police station slowly, holding the picture in my right hand, feeling my fingers tighten, but being careful not to crinkle the paper.
I knew many of the officers here, and seeing Raymond, one of my church deacons, gave me comfort about what I was doing. I didn''t even look at the rest of the building and just headed for the front desk where he was. He was basically a beat cop these days. Probably not a glamorous position for him, but I still chose to see this as a sign. He was a good man and a man of his word. I put the picture of my missing son Thomas on the counter in front of him.
Raymond stood up, nodding. "Yeah... I knew he was missing." He took the picture. "Suppose you want me to put this up on the wall right?" he asked, pointing at a wall of missing persons photos. I nodded. My mouth was dry and I wasn''t sure what to say, so I just kept quiet. He shook his head. "Hate it when this stuff happens to folks I know." He took the picture. "We''re doing everything we can Nate."
He looked at the photograph as he continued. "You know the department is looking high and low for Tommy around here. I''m not sure what you think posting a picture here is going to do. Half the cops here knew your kid personally. We won''t forget he''s missing. You should be posting these all over town. I got to be honest though, you don''t need to waste your time here. I would personally be trying to find him, but of course, missing persons isn''t in my job description." He handed the picture back to me.
I gave it back to him. "Something is telling me to do this." Something was... not that I knew what it was. And at this point, I would listen to any notion anyone had, even just my own. I pointed back at the door. "You know how many people walk in that door, and how many check that wall... is it very many?"
"Depends on the day really," Ray said shaking his head. "Every so often someone will come in here to check rewards for missing persons to see if they can answer any of them, but... well bounty hunters aren''t the best shot, but they''re a shot aren''t they?" He took the picture, moving over to the wall to post it up. "Were you going to offer a reward by the way?"
"What would catch eyes?"
"Well... the bigger the sum, the more folks take notice." Looking at the picture for a minute, he finally turned back around to me. "Ya know, you could have a fundraiser at the church for a reward. A lot of people care about your family. We''re there for you buddy."
"I really don''t care how much I have to pay," I said. "Truth is I''d willingly go broke for just a clue on this." It was true. I wanted my son back. My wife Janet was going nuts, she cried herself to sleep the first day and myself... coming home was so strange. The dog ran up to greet me, but no little boy. Thomas was like a highlight to every day, so much joy and energy... it was just amazing to watch him discover life for the first time and now...
I had prayed over and over that he was alright, that I would have my son back. This was fear... real fear.
"I know you would," he paused. "You said something told you to do this... what?"
"I... I really don''t know. I''m hoping it''s God but... Even if it is, what would that mean?"
"I don''t know mac. I hope it means this is gonna turn out."
"Something tells me... I can''t explain it... it says, it kinda will... and kinda won''t. Feels like I have to say it." I licked my lips. I didn''t like that my feeling didn''t just feel like an answer, but just a step in a journey. One with some dark turns, but what, or for who, I didn''t know. "Something about this will not work out."
Chapter 6: Photograph
Kyle:
Allen had left, allowing me and my guardian to settle down. I started looking around the inner-workings of the clock, trying to find the blankets Allen had told us about, while for some reason Jessica watched the road from outside. I supposed the girl was fine standing outside for the moment; it was actually pretty dark, so no one would see her.
For a while I did examine the gears of the clock, just to see them... and take a few notes... if I was going to live here for- probably a few months- best to know how it worked for... I was just curious. It''s a thing for me.
I unpacked my few belongings. Besides clothes that meant a few books on earth culture, some project components (I still wanted to make that magnet weapon), and a few pictures of my folks and a few of my better friends among the house servants and guards. In Jessica''s declared area I saw her normal belongings aside clothing as well: a few earth books, a few books from our homeworld (actually she was a big reader), and an old worn Bible. Jessica was a Christian, but we rarely talked about it because I wasn''t. Still, I did wonder why she never bought a new Bible, maybe I would ask someday.
I found the blankets. Seeing them covered in dust, I held my head. I was about to grab them anyway when Jessica shouted from outside. "He''s finally gone!" She zipped back into the main room, spinning several times. "Kyle?" she said aloud several times, looking around for me. I left the blankets and headed back out of the gear room. "There you are. Look, get in the elevator, I want to go somewhere."
"Since when do you tell me what to do?" I asked.
"Since I''m half a century older."
"I''m still royalty."
"When has that ever mattered between us?" she asked.
That was true to a degree I supposed. Jessica, being older, stronger, and more experienced at just about everything, never felt the need to look to me for orders or guidance of any kind it seemed. In fact, back home, if ever we were in danger, I was to almost take her word as law. However, when not in danger, I really did have the final word as her boss''s son. It irritated me, but her independence was also one of the crazy things about her I would never change. So I let her tell me what to do and give me advice, even if half the time she was off her rocker. I stomped my foot when I meant to be taken seriously, but there was no need now and I knew it.
I looked over at my magnet device. It was a device on a wrist band with a small computer attached to it that looked something like a small earth calculator. I really had been looking forward to working on it, but... I refrained from sighing, not wanting to upset Jessie.
I walked over to the lift, pushed the button and... waited... and waited... and waited... sheesh things took a while in that building... how did humans do this? I guessed I was going to learn patience on this planet if nothing else.
Maybe I could have worked while I waited.
While we waited, Jessica opened her bag. "Ya know, in that get-up, you stand out like a dragon on a puppy farm," she commented, pointing at my basically ruined slacks and dress shirt. I had to think about that statement as she continued. "If we''re just going around town, people will wonder why you''re all dressed up." She pulled out a light blue sleeveless jacket with a red t-shirt and blue jeans. "I''ll hold the lift. You go behind the partition and change into these alright?" I looked at the clothes. We wore things like this on my world too, like a set of play clothes. I shrugged. "Hurry up will ya?" I smiled and dashed off to change.
(***)
After we reached the base floor of the Jackson Tower again, Jessica hurriedly asked directions to somewhere from a random person... I didn''t hear where, she jetted off to a counter in the room and had finished getting the directions before I was able to walk over. She then grabbed my hand with nary another word and almost dragged me outside and down a few city blocks. Finally, she stopped in front of a building with glass doors in front. The entrance to the building read "Oregon State Police". On our world the police force was pretty small, relying mostly on groups of armed citizens paid by bounty to enforce its laws. There were several rules about the conduct of hunters, however, they were pretty much autonomous. Thus I had never actually seen a police station in all one hundred years I had been alive. I knew what they were, but this place looked well manned, yet not especially important, like it was just another office.
Jessica quickly ran up the stairs to the door, pushing one open and waving for me to follow. I wasn''t liking this, so I let on. "Jess... are you sure we should even associate with law enforcement?"
"They''re friendly here Ky, don''t worry about it."
"I''m not worried about being attacked Jessie, it''s just we''re not supposed to exist remember? Besides, don''t these people have a thing about kids wandering around alone on their own? Folks on the street probably didn''t notice us, but in a law enforcement establishment... it just might stick out, ya know?"
"You worry too much Munchkin. C''mon." With that, she moved inside without me. Truth was, half the time, I was pretty sure I was the one keeping an eye on her. I shrugged and moved in after her.
Inside I noticed her looking around the lobby area of the station. I looked around too. It wasn''t particularly interesting, though I guess different for me. There were several desks with men in blue uniforms at them, each with a large stack of paperwork. Most of these men appeared armed and I felt like shifting uneasily, thinking about the swords Jessica and I carried. I''d seen many people carrying weapons on the way here and it didn''t seem like a big deal, but I saw no children doing so. Course I had only seen two or three kids anyway so... I tugged on Jessica''s shoulder, motioning for her to come in closer, and then whispered in her ear. "What about our blades? As far as these people know, I''m five and you''re seven. If someone that age walked around with a weapon on our world, what would you think?"
"Considering most folks are still in diapers at that point on our world, I''d ask how they were walking at all."
I shook my head but whispered again. "Please tell me you get the point."
"I do, we could just say they''re toys, ya know some toys look pretty close to the real thing sometimes."
"Yeah, I guess." I moved away from her ear. She was still scanning the room. "What are you looking for anyway?" I asked.
"Um... THERE!" she shouted. I felt every eye in the large office turn to the two of us.
"Try NOT calling attention to us will ya?" I asked in whisper.
"By constantly whispering, you''re doing that better than me," Jessica noted. I paused, trying to deny in my own head that she had a point.
The man at the desk in front kept watching us, even as the others went back to work. Jessica ran over to a small partitioned blue wall that stood only four feet tall like it was just a divider more than an actual wall. On the wall were a series of photographs. I moved over to the partition to look at them too, though at a walking pace. The pictures were of people the law enforcers were looking for. Some were just lost kids, but others had descriptions under their names that made them sound like pretty scary criminals. I was sure I could handle myself, but I was hoping Jessica wasn''t thinking about going after them. In fact, "We''re not fighting crime here Jess."
Jessica looked back at me from the wall. "It looks like these people could use the help." I stomped my foot twice. "Fine... I wasn''t planning on that anyway. Although something in the same vein you could say..." I didn''t like the sound of this, so I stomped my foot again. "Stomp all you like, you''re going to hear me out." I REALLY didn''t like the sound of that. "No way am I staying cooped up in that tower for the next two hundred years bud, and don''t think you will either. I won''t hear of it."
"You aren''t in charge here Jess."
"Except when it comes to what''s best for you. Stuck up there we''ll both go stir crazy and you know it." I grunted but listened. "Alright, so here''s the deal. Folks go missing on our world all the time, but with DNA tracing technology it''s usually pretty easy to track them down."If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
"Yeah, unless they don''t want to be tracked down. Need I remind you that some of the Joe''s on this wall might be members of the societies that had to be relocated because someone was noticing they were too different?"
"Not the Joe''s under twelve."
"You mean to... no... no no no." I stomped three times this time.
"Find lost kids," she replied. I shook my head. "Oh c''mon Ky, it''s a good thing to do. Your dad gave me a DNA tracer, so all we have to do is scan something that has majority DNA from the missing kid and we can track him within two miles."
"And how do you suggest we get into a missing kid''s house to do this?"
"Oh that''s easy," Jessica said, she pointed at myself and herself. "Meet whoever''s best friends that the parents just somehow never knew." I gave her a raised eyebrow. "Oh c''mon Ky, you said it yourself, we look like kids to these people, it''s not like they''ll suspect anything."
"It''s not so much that Jess really, and I''m sure it''s a good thing to do and all but... c''mon people care more about getting their kids back than catching the most violent criminals in the world. You don''t think we''ll be noticed running a search and rescue?"
"They don''t care who does it Ky, just that it''s done."
"What are you two up to?" asked a voice behind me. I turned around, almost spinning as I did, looking into the eyes of the man who had been watching us earlier. "Where are your folks?"
"Um..." I began, doing my best not to sound conspicuous and... failing miserably probably.
"Oh they''re just outside," said Jessica, casually pointing- really in a random direction, but there were people in that direction outside the glass doors. Okay so... maybe she was better at subtlety than me... her own brand anyway.
"And what are you doing in here then?" he asked.
Jessica looked at the man, checking his name tag, "Well officer... Raymond, we''re looking for... a friend of ours."
"Really?"
"Absolutely, really," I confirmed. Nothing else to do I supposed at this point, so I just played along. "Our best friend in fact."
"Really? He''s missing?" He shook his head. "Well, that''s kinda bad, missing your best friend. Maybe I can help." He stooped down to my level. "So, what''s his name?"
"Um... kinda forgot."
"Well that''s not very helpful little buddy," the man chided.
"So did I." Jessica admitted.
"Really?" The man frowned. "Are you two really looking for someone, or are you lost yourselves?"
"No no..." Jessica said, waving her arms, I repeated the gesture. "I mean, I could tell you um... what he looks like."
I had a quick idea. If I could make it so this kid that we "were best friends with" wasn''t actually on this missing persons wall, Jessica would be running low on options. Maybe I could spin it to make her admit she was "playing". The officer didn''t appear to be taking us too seriously, so there was a chance he''d buy that. I interrupted, "he was kinda pale." Jessica looked at me, but then back at the board, I noticed several kids on the board had white skin, and realized that the more brownish complexion I actually used to on my world was the exception here. Jessica and I were pretty pale ourselves, but here, it probably looked normal. "Um... dark brown hair," Yeah, nice going on that one, half the kids on both our worlds had dark hair no doubt. "Um freckles and um... green eyes!" I shouted the last part. "That should help." The man looked at me, eyebrows down a little.
Jessica pulled off a picture from the wall. "Him!" she shouted, excited. "Thomas... Tom, Tom, Tommy!" She nodded her head and held the photo to her chest. I felt like slapping my forehead as hard as I could. How- just how? That detailed of a description and GREEN eyes. How many kids have green eyes on any world? What did I have to say he was missing a nose? Would that have been on the board too?
Jessica leaned down and whispered in my ear. "Nice try munchkin, but it''s fate now. Face it."
"What are your names?" asked the officer.
"Um..." I began.
"You forgot that too?" the man asked, a crooked smile crossing his face as he raised an eyebrow.
"Oh that''s my brother," said Jessica. "He''s always forgetting EVERYTHING!" Jessica said. "My name is Karen and this is Titus."
"I thought he called you Jess a minute ago."
"Oh, you know... Jezebel, from the Bible, we were playing around."
The man looked at me. "That sounds like a very- interesting game." My eyes widened. Actually, the Bible was in wide circulation in the nation of Triad. Jezebel... what exactly did Jessica want this man to think? Or was she thinking herself?... Again, she was the one who was doing the better act out of the two of us if I was reading things right.
"Well look," said the man, shaking his head a little. "We do have an ongoing investigation of that kid right now. If you could tell us anything, anything at all, that would be great."
"Um... he''s shorter than Karen here," I said. It was a last-ditch effort. If "Tommy" was somehow tall I was home free, even if I did sound kinda dumb for saying that.
"Yeah... he''s nine. Seems normal he would be taller, but actually, I use to know the kid and he was pretty short." Darn it! Nine-years-old and still shorter than Jessica... he should have known better! "But moreover, Karen, have you seen him recently, or do you have any idea about where he might be now?"
Jessica- Karen I guess- shook her head. The man reached for the picture, but Jessica pulled back. "Can I keep this?" She looked at it, letting her shoulders down, looking as if she were ready to cry. I thought at first she was pretending, but she looked like she was genuinely concerned about something even to me. "I''ll use it to see if anyone else has seen him." The man shook his head and reached for the picture again, but again Jessica backed up.
"I guess we have another picture we can put up... I don''t know if you''ll have much luck on your own with this." The man looked to the doors. "Besides, shouldn''t you be headed back to your folks? Strange how they never came in."
Jessica shook her head. "They told me this wouldn''t work anyway. But I had to try, I really need to know where my little friend is... I will find him. You''ll see." Jessica looked at the door. "I think I just heard mom call." She looked at me. "C''mon Tity, say goodbye to the nice man." I waved with my right hand at the "nice man" and Jessica grabbed my left, yanking me along as she ran to the door.
(***)
Soon as the doors closed I looked at Jessica and lost it. "ARE YOU CRAZY!" I grabbed her and pulled her away from the doors, dragging her and myself behind a wall on the right side of the building, hoping those walking by wouldn''t take notice.
"Yeah- but is that new?"
We were standing in an alleyway now. It was empty save for ourselves and some papers that had blown in. I didn''t notice at first, but maybe a cloud was going over head. The light around us started fading.
"Yes... well no- but I mean have you lost what''s left of your mind?"
"It''s a possibility."
"Ya think?!" I shook my head and grabbed the photo from my "sister". I looked around. "You-" I looked around again, watching the people walking by, not one looking at us. "You..." I finally couldn''t take it anymore. "HELLO!" I shouted at a random person walking by. The woman waved at me.
"Yes, dear?"
"Um, nothing." She shrugged and moved on.
"What is wrong with these people?" I asked.
Jessica giggled. "We look like little kids Ky. They don''t care what we do as long as we''re not in trouble. Truth is, kids on this world are taught not to talk to strangers, so no one who doesn''t know us is going to pay attention to us because there wouldn''t be a point."
"They''re not concerned that I''m yelling at you?"
"Why would they be? I''m bigger anyway, and you''re probably just playing for all they know. Kids on earth are always making some kind of racket, but it''s usually only important to them. Folks might notice, but I guarantee most of them won''t care about anything we say."
I allowed myself a grin. "Ya know I never figured on naivety being an asset." I shook my head, "But that''s worse in some ways." Jessica raised an eyebrow at me. "Think Jess. If we do something important, like beat their law enforcers to finding a lost boy, it''ll stand out even more if we''re not supposed to be able to do anything on our own."
She grabbed the photo quickly and flipped it over. "Look at him though." I glared at her. "No, really look."
I did. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"Someone who needs you." The area around us was now a little darker.
I tried to visibly calm down- but failed. I was already looking at someone who needed me. "Jessica, need I remind you? We are friends with werewolves and a wild man. What''s worse, there are full societies of them out there just waiting for these people to be alerted to them by one slip up on our parts." Jessica looked at the picture like she was longing for something. "I know he''s cute Jess, but what about little Jaden? Do you want to put him in danger? You want to put his father in danger?"
"We won''t tell anybody what we''re-"
"So what will we tell them? What will you tell Tommy if we find him?" I asked pointing at the picture.
"We could tell him the truth outright, that won''t matter, no one will believe him anyway. You see how well these people listen to their offspring."
"And what do we tell his parents?"
"We just drop him off and leave. We don''t explain anything to anyone over the age of twelve. You''ll see, these people think there''s a magic switch in their kids'' heads that makes them suddenly reasonable at thirteen. Truth is I think they''re actually less rational at that age."
"Jess..." I was finally calming down. I was winning this argument. Course, from the way Jessica kept looking more and more unhappy as we went, I wasn''t happy about that myself.
"Kyle, Thomas is out there somewhere." She looked at the picture. "He''s scared... he''s probably hurt, and he''s probably in the hands of someone who''s the reason he''s hurt. He can''t protect himself." I tried to turn away, but Jessica grabbed my head and forced me to look at the picture. "Look at him, Kyle. Unless someone saves him, it won''t matter what he does or how hard he tries. He can''t save himself." She bit her lip, looking at me, eyes begging.
Around us, it got darker still.
I knew I was right. We could find this kid, or we could mess up and be "found" ourselves. I remembered the horror stories about the superstitious people of earth. Even if these people didn''t find out about all the societies, if they just realized that Jessica and I were different, I would probably have to watch her be tortured to death and not be long behind myself. Jessica found herself afraid for this little boy, but I found myself afraid for us. I gritted my teeth, stomping my foot. "No. This is too dangerous."
"But..." she just paused, shoulders going down.
"We have no reason to do this anyway."
The sun must have gone overhead because it was getting pretty dark in this... who was I kidding? I knew why it was dark. There was no shadow, no clouds... some things make it hard to see light. Things like disappointing someone you care about.
"I know that. I just..." Jessica sighed, still looking at the picture. I grabbed her hand and pulled as I moved to go back to the clock tower. Jessica gave in, allowing me to lead her, but putting in no energy of her own.
I hated doing this, but I knew I was right.
Chapter 7: Search and Rescue or Not?
Kyle:
When we got back to the Jackson Tower, we met Allen on the base floor.
He stood with his hands out in exasperation. Dressed again in his blue denim jacket and jeans, I quickly noticed his general appearance. Brown hair, pale skin, fading freckles, and a rather large gut. He looked so utterly normal, the idea that he was supposed to be my "elite" guard... in that moment I labeled him "a" guard. He did have two side arms on his jeans and I did notice a few hunters'' knives under the back of his jacket earlier, so at least he was prepared.
"There you are!" he almost shouted. He moved over to the two of us. "Where did you go?!" he exclaimed. He looked around nervously. "I can''t... well I guess expressing my anger might stick out a bit, seeing as you both look too young to have been on your own... I suppose it''s alright for now, but remember from now on, I have to account for you two." Allen shook his head, even gritting his teeth a little. I wasn''t sure what the problem was. Did we not have the right to come and go? "In any case, we still need to address the issue of your daily needs. There is actually a wash facility you can use after dark in this building. We''ll see to it that no one notices the water bill. There is also a shower on the second floor. You''ll also see drinking fountains just about everywhere around here so water drinking won''t be a problem either but..."
"What are we going to eat?" I asked.
"Exactly," the man replied. "You can''t just go grocery shopping on your own. On this world, you''d be considered too young to be buying for yourselves. Besides I''m afraid most stores are geared towards those of us of the... taller persuasion."
I grunted, looking around, noticing my three and a half foot height was pretty far from the average tallness around these parts. That wasn''t a new factor, but still annoying... especially since it would be true for another century at least. Thinking on things, I wanted to grow up just as bad as I was sure children on this planet did- just in an entirely different and more literal way.
Allen continued, "What''s worse, you''ll have no means of cooking anything you do get." He chuckled. "I mean you can''t just set a fire on the fifth floor and cook up some fish, hey Jess?"
"I guess not," Jessica replied.
"Nothing crazy to say?" Allen asked. Jessica just stared at the picture we had taken from the police station.
"She wanted to go looking for a stray kid and I told her "no". She''s not happy about the whole thing." I summarized with a sigh.
She quietly looked to me saying, "I''m sure it''s for the best and all." She turned away from me.
"Well..." Allen looked at Jessica for a few moments. "Yeah well, I guess the point of what I was saying is, we''re going to have to sneak you guys some cooking stuff. I can''t get you a stove up there, but we got some power lines running through so a toaster oven and hot plate should be good. You know how to use those things right Jess? Did you cook when you were here last?"
"Yeah," she said not even turning around.
"Do you cook on your world?"
"No. We had servants cook for us." Jessica shrugged and walked away from Allen and I, sitting down by herself on a couch not far from us. She sat just staring blankly at that picture.
Allen watched her, shaking his head. "Doesn''t it matter to you that she''s upset?"
I nodded. "Yeah it does, but I can''t cater to her every mood." I cared more than he knew. I wanted to make her happy, she was my friend. But I was protecting her.
"I''m not talking about catering to her whims Kyle. Frankly, I don''t think you cater to her at all if you have the choice. It''s almost like she''s just a guard dog to you or something. Really, she''s a very nice girl who seems willing to do anything for you."
"She is, and I would do the same," I said with a nod and all sincerity.
"Really?" the man said with a chuckle. I wanted to smack him. "You shrugged at her gift of a personally made sword when you first got it. You almost made her carry all the luggage from your trip, you were snide when I told you it was a good idea to do favors for her like open doors and now she has her heart set on helping people by doing something I think would be just great-"
Okay, he did NOT understand. I walked to a corner just out of sight of most people in the room, then turned and pointed straight at him. "You listen to me Allen, I am several times your age, so don''t think for a minute you can tell me how to live or how to treat people! I listen to you about the customs of your world that I don''t know about, but not about how I treat people from my world. Jessica-"
"And there''s your problem right there. You think everything is about you." He folded his arms.
"What problem?"
"You hurt someone who cares about you, more than herself I''d wager, and you don''t think that''s a problem?"
I looked over at Jessica, just past the corner. She sat still staring at that picture. I bit my lip then dipped back behind the corner. "I... I''ve never seen her like this. Her mind is on one thing, helping this kid, who neither she nor I know anything about. But does it matter in the end?" I shook my head, looking back at Allen. "If this were something little... But it''s not little. This whole city is probably looking for that kid, right? So what happens if they see Jessica and I looking for and finding him before anyone else even has a chance?"
"What makes you think you can do that in the first place?"
I took the backpack I had been lugging around, off my shoulders. "One of the items we brought with us is a DNA tracer. We can track this kid anywhere within two miles to his exact location if we just have a little piece of his DNA... it''s kinda like giving a dog a sniff of his clothing." I gave him a small metal circular compass-like device. Allen opened it, again like a compass, and looked at it.
"I''m sure this thing is pretty neat and all, but that actually doesn''t sound very impressive. Granted I don''t have one and I''m sure it would be a nice asset, but what makes you think the kid is only two miles away from anywhere you''re going to go?"
Guessed he wasn''t getting it. "It doesn''t just trace the kid himself within two miles. ANY trace of him within two miles it can track. I can find the very last thing that he touched within that distance. A dog loses a trail if the scent is diminished. This thing can track the kid''s trail even if he only touches the ground once every mile somehow."
"And what if he were driven ten miles away and never got out until he reached his destination?"
"Okay, so the technology has its limits," I admitted. And finding a big one was easier than I thought, though I didn''t say so out loud. "But we also have medical supplies that can cure almost any ailment, taking the most severe of injuries and make them like inconveniences. I mean we can''t raise the dead, but I''ll put it this way," I took a small syringe set out of my bag, handing Allen a small green vial. "One shot of that and this kid could have his skull cracked right down the middle. Just so long as he can hang on for a good hour, I can pretty much guarantee he''ll be fine in a day."
"Okay THAT is impressive," Allen admitted. "I''ll have to keep you two in mind next time Jaden gives me a good scare."
"Not to mention we can take care of ourselves in a scrap."
"Okay. So I see you CAN run a search and rescue pretty easy... so why not if Jessica is so set on it?"
"Because I don''t want to watch her get burned at the stake!" I almost shouted, my voice near cracking.
Allen''s eyes grew. "What?"
"The people on your world are crazy you-"
"Hold on, I think we need to talk about this in private." He looked around. "You start talking about someone torturing you or your friend and it''s bound to turn some heads, but you need to be set straight on a few things. Come with me." I gritted my teeth. Sure he had a point, but he wasn''t calling the shots here. "I''m sorry, did I give you the impression I was giving you a choice?" The man picked me up around the chest and carried me into the elevator. I didn''t want to attract attention so I didn''t fight back, but no, I did NOT like that. "I trust Jessica is alright without you?" asked Allen as the doors closed behind us.
I folded my arms and glared at him. "She protects me, not the other way around," I said, rolling my eyes.
"I get the feeling she still is in constant need of an anchor from her insanity." At this statement of certain truth, I had to smile. I WASN''T the only one who noticed. "In all seriousness, if you''re going to be staying on this world, you''re going to need some perspective."
"You going to try to tell me they didn''t burn people alive for being different?" I folded my arms.
"At times, almost two hundred years ago in this country, it was a practiced yet thoroughly frowned upon activity only embraced by a superstitious minority."If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
"So why do the werewolves like you hide from the public? Why do you insist on making sure people think you all only exist in folklore and mythology?"
"Because people here are a lot like you. No perspective. They like to think the world can be controlled and understood to the minutest detail."
"It can. It all just takes time," I said in a knowing tone. I had to remember, Allen was only thirty, he probably thought the world was beyond control.
Allen shook his head. "So tell me what should be done with the Wildmen? You think Frank was unique? I''ve seen a five-year-old break a man''s arm after getting upset over losing a cookie. But these men are not insane; they can live lives just as productive as anyone else. Or how about, what to do with warlocks who command massive amounts of heat on a whim? I saw a young man burn down his school in a fit of rage in a matter of minutes. It didn''t make the papers because no one was in it at the time. Imagine what these normal humans, with no such abilities, would feel compelled to do to control us mutants."
"So what would they feel compelled to do to control Jessica and I?"
"Control what? A well-controlled moderately powerful individual like yourself? What would they do with a goofy young lady with massive power whose greatest desire is to help find lost children? They would make you heroes. Neither you nor Jessica would seem to present an immediate threat to them... unless they knew the whole truth of course."
"The whole truth? Like what?" Despite myself, I was starting to get curious what Allen was going on about.
"The whole truth is that if anyone has cause to be paranoid it''s the normal people, not you. When your kind was created in Egypt, they were worshiped as gods. They then left for another world seeing themselves as better than the whole of mankind. Later they returned after building their own civilization and attempted to subject the Greeks as false deities. Only after a massive rebellion on your own world by a well outnumbered but resourceful minority, did the Olympians stop plaguing the nations of Greece to force their worship." I gave a nervous half-grin. The Olympians were a dark part of our history. "Again your kind returned a thousand or so years after that, and to do what? You came to make war on the gargoyle race and almost obliterated an entire subspecies of humanity. So now your kind sends royalty to the planet. What are you, Kyle? The son of the president? Couldn''t you be seen as the precursor to yet another invasion?"
Seemed to be making my point for me. "Hence why I don''t want people to know about me who don''t have reason to trust me," I said.
"What reason exactly do I have to trust you myself?" I stood silent for a moment. That one had me. "I''m not suspicious by nature really. I''m trying to demonstrate to you your own attitude. These people aren''t evil, and judging them based on an extremely loose understanding of their history is frankly stupid. In perspective, your people fought the gargoyles to save humanity, and you are descended from the rebellious Pharaohs who stopped the Olympians for the sake of the freedom of the Greek nation."
I took a minute to think. "I guess I can see what you mean. So... you''re saying I should go along with this? This crazy idea to look for lost kids?"
"Yes," Allen said with a nod.
I blinked. "Don''t you mean, "it''s up to you," or something?"
"Did I say anything along those lines?" asked Allen. "Yes, you should definitely do this with her. Go find a lost kid, it''s not a bad thing to do anyway."
I smiled and punched the button for the first floor, knowing that would open the doors back up. "Okay Jess," I said. The doors slowly opened, revealing the girl with her ear still pressed against them as they did. She grinned and stood up before the doors dragged her face into the wall. "But you have to promise me we''ll be covert-"
"Yeah yeah, I''ll be as subtle as I always am!" the girl shouted.
"That''s not comforting," I noted. She grabbed my hand and ran, pulling me to the door. "Jess... where are we going exactly?"
"Umm." the girl stopped at the glass doors. "I... I really don''t know." I chuckled more in my head than out loud.
"I was going to give you guys some food for a few days," Allen said behind us, but neither of us took notice of him. "I could help." Jessica quickly glanced over at him, shoving me aside to go back to him. I almost fell over from that, but I caught myself. I wasn''t sure that was a mistake.
"How so?" she asked.
Allen shook his head at me as I walked back to them. "Well, I could think of a few things to do if you''re looking for a missing kid. First thing you''ll need to do is interview his folks and see his house."
"I would guess," Jessica said. "Actually that was my first instinct... but I don''t know where he lives. It gives an address on the bottom of this picture but I''ll need a map... do you have one?" Allen handed Jessica a small street map from one of the tables around us in a rather deliberately casual way. It looked... off. Like he was pranking us somehow... She grabbed it.
"Will that do?" asked Allen. Jessica looked at it and nodded. Jessica tugged on my arm again. "Don''t worry, I''ll still be here when you two come back in about twenty seconds."
"What do you mean?" I asked, but Jessica pulled me harder and forced me to either come with or be dragged on my heels.
(***)
Outside the tower, Jessica opened the map and held the picture over it. She started excitedly looking over the map, corner to corner. Her mouth was opened in a huge grin, which quickly started to fade. In mere seconds the gleeful expression started to seem almost fearful as the girl continued looking left and right over our guide. "Something wrong?" I asked.
"I was on this world for twenty years... there shouldn''t be."
"You can''t read that can you?" I asked with lowered eyebrows.
"I can read it... good Lord there are a lot of roads these days," she commented. She scratched her head. "I''m not even sure which one we''re on... I''ve never seen this style of map before." The female lunatic then pushed the map in front of me. "What do you think?"
I looked at the mass of lines and seemingly aimless assembled names around them. "I think it looks like a map of a piece of an alien world that I only have a very crude second-hand understanding of."
"Yeah I know that, but can you read it?"
"I can read the words on it."
"U-huh," she said, starting to smile. "What are you getting at?" She looked very happy at saying that. I was now squarely the sole victim of the prank.
"I''m praying we''re somehow NOT the last hope Tommy has... just for his sake."
"What do y-"
I pulled her hand. "I just realized what Allen meant."
(***)
Allen:
I smiled to myself, allowing a grin to take over my face as I watched Kyle pull his bodyguard back into the building. He pulled the girl back through the glass doors and over to me. "Okay." Kyle began. "Um... help."
These two were so much fun. "You mean a rudimentary understanding of how to navigate almost forty years ago somehow DOESN''T suffice for getting around on a completely alien world? I would never have guessed," I said, keeping my grin. I had to try so hard not to laugh out loud- or indulge in an "I told you so"- technically I didn''t after all.
"Really?" asked Jessica. "Putting it that way, it sounds like it would have been obvious." She said poking her chin like she was ''considering''.
"You guys do have sarcasm on your world right?" I asked. Apparently, you could never be sure of things with Jessie.
"Yes," Kyle replied. "But Jessica''s state of mind rarely grasps its existence."
"I see," I said with a nod.
"Oh that!" said Jessica. "So... you have a car right?"
"Yes, that I do."
"And you can read this map..."
"Yep. Like a book," I said, continuing to smile and now rocking on my heels.
"So... let''s go to that car already," said Jessica. "Where''s it parked?"
"I don''t know. What car?"
"You-" Jessica began, but I interrupted.
"I seem to remember something about my two charges wandering off just after I left for only about an hour, leaving me nothing about where they were going, why, or exactly what they expected me to do about it."
"That sounds kinda mean. Is that why you were upset earlier... who were these two charges?" asked Jessica. I looked at her wide-eyed, "Wha- oh- yeah about that..."
"I don''t require that you two stay in this tower-like prisoners." I looked around, suddenly realizing the children could say anything they liked, but after a while, what I could say to them myself without being noticed was finite. If I had reached that limit as of yet, I was unsure but didn''t wish to find out. "Look follow me to the car."
"Wow, I didn''t even have to apologize," Jessica said.
"Oh you do," I said. "Just follow is all."
We walked out of the tower over to my waiting Rambler. I watched as Kyle waved a hand in front of Jessica, making her stop reaching for the back door handle so he could open it for her. He was learning on some level.
Jessica beamed at me. "Can I ride shotgun this time?" she asked. I nodded. Kyle shrugged and moved to open the "shotgun" door. However, Jessica pushed him aside. "Yeah yeah, move it, slowpoke." Kyle glared at her as she opened the door and jumped in, sticking her tongue out at him.
Kyle got in back with a bemused smile, me saying as he opened the door, "You two still aren''t leaving until I give my lecture about accountability."
"Fine, good then!" Jessica shouted, she then started to chant, "Lecture, lecture, lecture," repeatedly.
As she did this I stared at Kyle, who had left his door open for a moment. "Don''t think for a minute I can explain her," Kyle said, starting to grin.
The girl kept chanting as I got into the car and I waved at her saying, "Can you just stop for ten minutes?"
"It will be hard, but I''ll try," she replied.
"Alright you two, here it is. I know neither of you really is a child, though I must admit, you act like a hyperactive little girl and a stuck-up teenager." Jessica started beaming at me. "Jessica... you''re really not supposed to like lectures."
"Isn''t it better I don''t fight life lessons?" she asked.
"I guess," I replied. "That was actually kinda profound..." I had to pause on that note. This wasn''t like explaining things to Jaden at all. "Anyway, both of you need to start thinking about what your actions do to others." Jessica looked concerned, leaning back from me as she pointed at herself. "Yes, I know you particularly seem to think primarily about others, but I don''t mean only when they''re in extreme danger." Jessica looked left, cringing. "First you Jessica. I get the feeling you two leaving for the police station was your idea. You deliberately waited for me to leave didn''t you?" I folded my arms on that note. It was a stance that quickly signaled to Jaden when I was serious, looked like it worked on them too.
"I thought you would force me to explain and then you and Kyle would gang up on me. I really want to help people on this world, and this is a good way to do it isn''t it? I mean looking for lost kids is a good idea right?" Jessica asked. She looked at me with hopeful eyes.
I had a three-year-old, I was immune to cute eyes by this point. "Most definitely. But you won''t accomplish anything if you two fight like little brats with each other and those helping you. I guess on your world you two aren''t considered mature so things like that haven''t been addressed to you too much."
"Not really," Kyle admitted behind me. He seemed to be upset, but about something beyond the lecture. "We really weren''t taught manners, me or Jess, and no one emphasized the ones we figured out. I know it''s not right, but really, dad tries never to say "no" to me or reproach me at all." Kyle looked at Jessica. "It''s looking after this kid that''s made me have to mature as much as I have. Nineteen years ago I couldn''t stand her at times... now I can''t stand being without her for more than a few minutes at a time. Poor kid drives herself crazy, and I have to rein her in." Kyle smiled again, looking up at Jessica.
"I can see you guys have a strange but pretty close relationship with each other here," I continued to Jessica. "You both need to give folks a chance before you judge them. I already talked to Kyle about that. I guess if no one really taught you like they should have, I can see a problem with trust. Sometimes the hardest thing to get over is when those who you should be able to trust, start doing what you know is wrong. Really, Jessica, I would have thought you two using your abilities for helping kids would be a great thing, and I stood up for you to Kyle."
"I realize that now," Jessica said, looking down like she was ashamed.
"You two are gonna get into a lot of trouble if you don''t stop prejudging and learn to put things in perspective. In any case, I am responsible to and for you and trust me, I won''t fail that responsibility." Kyle nodded to me. "I know I''m not older than either of you... but I think you both still need a role model pretty bad." I paused to think for a minute. Something was changing between us. I could sense it. Like how they saw me was changing even radically. "I can''t raise you like kids, but I can be there for you, but only if you give me a chance." Jessica stuck her hand out at me, offering to shake. I shook it. Kyle nodded. "Alright. Then let''s see that map and picture."
Chapter 8: Janet
Janet:
Where was my boy? Was he hurt? Was he alone? Was he even... I couldn''t think of the last possibility.
Nathan was out to work at this time.
I sat on the couch in the middle of my home''s living room. I was surrounded. The white walls covered in pictures of a little boy in every stage of his life. His baseball team, his favorite shirt, first, second, third grade... film was expensive, but every moment was worth it. His books were neatly stacked next to a small group of magazines. Among the magazines was an article I was studying to see how to help a child raise a puppy- that was for Christmas. If I had gone into the kitchen his drawings were on the fridge and his remaining unwrapped presents we forgot a few days before were hidden under the sink.
It was all I could do not to go mad in that house all alone these days. Don''t get me wrong, I could have figured out things to do on my own but that wasn''t necessary much of the time. For crying out loud I was a mother, normally I just had to wait a few minutes before the next crisis or for something silly to happen. But now it was like the house was haunted by the ghost of a nine-year-old boy who never came home. I was in hell. How many times had I asked Thomas for peace and quiet? This was a quiet hell.
His pictures were on all of the walls like they were asking me to play, to help, to love... he loved me so much back. "Help me" I cried to God. Those walls were closing in.
I picked up a small toy Thomas had forgot to put away when he last went to school. It was a birthday present.
I pushed my thoughts to try to get relief. I rolled the car along the couch arm. "Vroom, vroom!" I shouted to myself and remembered.
(***)
Thomas had just finished eating his cake, as was rather obvious from the chocolate all over his face. I had since cleaned up but not like there hadn''t been any cake on my face at some point, he did learn from the best how to scarf something down after all!
My half-pint offspring was out in the yard playing with his toy cars, including the new one I just got him. His jeans were covered in grass from the last time Nathan and he had roughhoused, as were mine from when I helped him gang up on Nathan. His green shirt might have had the same stains, but I couldn''t tell.
Okay, so the car was my husband''s idea. I wanted to get him a toy that had the image of a large bluebird. It reminded me of one of the old storybooks he used to love about a bluebird and his friend a small rabbit. Nathan said he would probably be happier with a plain red car and... it wasn''t as cute, but Nathan was probably right on that point. Besides, my son didn''t need the help being cute.
"Vroom vroom!" he shouted. I realized of course, as any good mother, that something was missing from this scene. ME! I moved around behind him and walked quietly. "RRRRR!" I heard him exclaim, impersonating the squealing brakes of a car. It was at that moment I accidentally stepped on a twig. He paused. His mistake.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
I grabbed his left leg and pulled him into the air. He screamed and laughed. "Happy birthday short stack!" I shouted.
Still upside down the kid didn''t miss a beat. "Ya know, technically I wasn''t born until three hours from now."
My husband Nathan walked over at this moment. "Of course she wouldn''t remember something like that, not like she was there or anything."
I shook my head. "Oh, I was more present than either of you two." My son was quiet for a moment, thinking about this one.
"I was present..." he said with a pause.
"Do you remember it?"
"Well no but..."
"Well if you were there you would have remembered, trust me, I made a lot of noise and this thing about the size of a watermelon came out of me."
He blinked looking at me. Still trying not to be lost in my train of thought, which was quite a doomed voyage by any standards. He replied, "hard to believe I was ever that small huh?"
"Oh you weren''t, you were always about this size, you came out after the watermelon," I replied doing my best to keep my poker face.
Nathan, grabbing up a ball from the ground shouted over to the two of us, "And let me tell you, that was one strange pregnancy." He started tossing the baseball in the air.
By the look on my son''s face, my train of thought had finally achieved its goal of colliding with a speed train going the other direction. "No... no, no, no..." He was lost. "Daddy, if I were to study women at the library, do you think I would ever figure out mom?"
"I think the people at NASA would have a hard time with that one," Nathan commented.
I was kinda surprised at what did and didn''t faze this kid. He was STILL upside down, but that didn''t seem to affect him much at the moment after all science stuff was being talked about. "Hey that reminds me, Dad, did you hear how fast that rocket is gonna have to go to get to the moon? Mach 25 I heard."
"Darn quick," I opted. "Do you think Rocket Man could beat it?"
Thomas chuckled. "Of course, he''s Superman." Thomas looked at Nathan again. "You know what would happen if they ever fired a missile going that fast at something?"
Nathan shook his head. "I think you just figured out how to beat the Viet Cong."
The boy paused for a minute, watching us both. Holding him in the air I was actually still trying to figure how what the next step in my master plan was. It went something like this: step one, grab kid, step two, hold kid upside down, step three, step four laughing and screaming... maybe working on step three should have come up- "BOOM!" Thomas shouted. As his arms went out his shirt fell down and I figured out step three.
"I see a tummy," I threatened. Thomas suddenly realized his grave error but it was too late. My left hand went in for its mission, tickling and making a little boy go crazy.
Still, through his squeals and gasps for air, he still managed to continue his previous conversation, no derailing that kid I tell you. Course he was fighting me with both hands. "They said the HAHAHa- moon has no-YEEP- air on it. It has no ¨CAAAH-atmosphere." I stopped my assault for the moment.
Nathan came over to him and crouched down. "You know how you know all that right?" he asked. Thomas shrugged. "You are a nerd. You''re upside down and being tortured and you''re still rattling off facts."
"I''m not a nerd, I''m just smarter than you," Thomas replied.
My husband looked into the boy''s eyes for a few moments. "Welp," he said, grabbing the boy''s arms and gathering them into one hand as I grabbed his other leg and hugged both tight to my chest. "You asked for it."
I don''t know why maybe not being able to fight back had an effect; this tickle assault had the boy''s full attention.
(***)
The memory ended. When I came back there was the silence again. No laughing or screaming. If I didn''t move the whole house would have been still. A quiet Saturday. Every mother knows that''s not right. Not when you have a nine-year-old.
"Guess what Thomas," I said aloud. "I know something you probably don''t. You''re coming home. I don''t know how, and I don''t know when, but you''re coming home. And then you''re going to make a proper racket as is your job, which you''re right behind on you little twerp. You know how I know what you don''t? I guess I''m just smarter than you." I closed my eyes. "Lord please, make my house noisy again. I hate peace and quiet."
I wanted to be confident I was right. He was coming home.
Chapter 9: Tommys Home
Kyle:
We approached the house where Thomas was supposed to live. I realized in the back of my mind that talking to Tommy''s parents would be an interesting experience. We needed information from them, but we couldn''t give them any ourselves. We would have to play everything by ear. I also realized that Allen was becoming a Godsend in more ways than one now. He had provided us transportation, and now, he was the perfect cover. If all went according to plan, Jessica and I would not only get information, but DNA samples and a meal, and Allen was crucial to that plan. It needed to work too, cause boy I was HUNGRY!
We pulled up to the side of the road near Thomas''s house. Jessica and I left our weapons in the car, instructing Allen to watch them carefully. She then dragged a pair of sleeping bags with clothes stuffed in them alongside us.
The house was one story and painted baby blue on the outside. It was surrounded by a worn wooden fence with evenly cut grass... why cut grass again? It''s just grass.
One thing in the yard caught my eye, mostly because I couldn''t figure out what its purpose was, not even a remote possibility occurred to me. A tire, like the ones on Allen''s car, was hanging from a tree branch in the middle of the yard. Why in the world would you just hang a rubber tire?
Jessica got out and ran ahead of me. She knocked rapidly on the front door of the house, almost sounding like a woodpecker. I followed her, coming up on the door as it was opened by a woman. The lady was blonde, slender, and pale in complexion. "Is Tommy home?" Jessica asked. "Can he come out and play?"
The woman gave a half frown, "I''m sorry... are you friends of his?"
"Yea we are," I opted. "We sometimes wrestle... she always wins," I said, pushing a thumb in Jessica''s direction.
The woman smiled. "Of course she does." I decided to just eat that one, Jessica really was stronger than me.
She folded her arms nervously and continued, "well, I''m afraid Thomas has gone missing." I waved two fingers at Allen behind my back, hearing his car start to back up. "You two really should be heading back to your..." The woman watched as Allen''s car pulled away. "Isn''t that the man who brought you?"
Jessica''s eyes widened. She spun around. "DAD!" she shouted. She ran down the sidewalk leading from the house, waving hard at Allen in the car, but he just pulled off into the distance.
The woman raised an eyebrow. "Yeah..." I started, "he said we could spend the night... something about wanting to be alone with mommy."
The woman smiled, shaking her head. She shrugged and stepped back, motioning me into the house. "C''mon in, I''m not leaving you two out there."
"Thanks," I said, walking in. Jessica suddenly appeared behind me- even without her powers she moved fast!
As the woman closed the door, she looked at me. I fumbled with my shoelaces, as though I had only just learned how they worked. As I finally just pushed my shoes off "in frustration" without fully undoing the laces, the woman spoke up. "It seems odd that you two wouldn''t know about Tommy''s disappearance."
"Why?" I asked, looking up at her.
"Well, the police were looking to interview all the children in his class... how old are you two?"
"I''m five!" I shouted.
Jessica ruffled my hair a little. "Yea, he''s my little bro," she said. "I''m seven, he''s five."
"Your names?"
"I''m Karen, and this is Titus," Jessica replied. I nodded.
"Well, I suppose you two are probably too young to have been in his class, maybe that''s why they missed you." She turned away from us, heading back into the house. "Have you two eaten yet?"
"No ma''am," "Karen" replied. My stomach growled, my eyes lighting up at the mention of food.
"I heard that," said the woman. "Well, c''mon to the kitchen I''ll get you both something to eat."
"Thank you!" I said, racing ahead of "Karen" at the mention of food. I wanted food now!
As I moved through the house, I suddenly remembered we were here for a reason. I slowed down and paid attention to the things around me. There were pictures on the walls. Some were of the woman and her husband, but most were of the young boy we were looking for in his various stages of life. My Dad''s house would have been similar in that respect. He made sure to get a good picture of me every twenty years or less. He said it was just for memory''s sake. I realized it probably also had a practical reason, a photo can make finding someone easier but... well mom always wanted me to dress up for those photos so I figured that kinda reduced their practicality for that.
The place was warm, with white walls and a small couch in the living room. I moved into the kitchen. "I''ll make you two some sandwiches," the woman said. The kitchen had a round table in the center with three chairs around it. As I walked in, there was a stove to my right and a series of cupboards on my left, next to a large... I think it was called a "fridge". The woman took out a brown jar and a red jar from one of the cupboards as well as some bread from the fridge. Behind me, Jessica spoke up.
"When did Tommy go missing?" she asked.
"About a week ago," said the woman taking out some bread. Naturally, I was watching her with the food like a hawk... yes my stomach sometimes took over my higher functions.
I moved over to a chair at the table and pulled it out clumsily. I started trying to climb up onto the seat, having to take my eyes off the food to get up while pretending to be a clutsy little kid. The woman chuckled behind me. "Oh dear," she said. "You need some help there?" I tried climbing up again, not quite seeming to have the strength to get on the chair. (Sure I was milking the act, but why not?) The woman picked me up around the chest and planted me on the chair. She then squeezed my ribs, forcing me to laugh as her fingers tickled down my flanks. (Okay, that''s why not.) The woman started tickling my stomach as I turn on my back on the chair and started squirming to fight her, squealing in laughter.
"Je- Karen help!" I shouted, mistakenly believing Karen would be directly on my side.
"Of course Tity!" she said. The woman stood at my legs, me laying on the chair. The woman was holding my legs down with one hand, but I could still fight her with my hands- that is until Jessica grabbed them and pulled them up, making it so all I could down was laugh, scream and eventually beg for mercy.
"Alright let him up," the woman said after a few seconds. They both let me go and I sat up, thankful to be able to breathe again and still chuckling. The woman put a sandwich in front of me.
Jessica spoke up. "Ma''am, what''s your name?"
"Janet," the woman said. Janet gave Jessica a sandwich as well setting a napkin at the seat next to me.
"Thanks, Jan." Jessica said with her mouth full, taking her seat again. "So where did people see Tommy last?"
I tried a bite of my sandwich. I then poked Jessica. "This really isn''t too bad," I whispered. I then promptly scarfed down half in two bites... quite a feat when the sandwich is half the size of your head.
"Peanut butter and jelly- at least something hasn''t changed," Jessica whispered back.
"I''ll tell you this much," Janet replied. "I''ll have trouble letting him go that far from my sight again. I suppose not many adults were around when he was taken... but don''t they watch the children at..." She looked at me and Jessica. "But again, there''s nothing you two can do. Don''t worry your little heads about it, I''m sure Tommy is just fine. The police are looking for him right now, and then you can come over later and play with him after they find him," she said with a nod.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Yeah but... we''re just... curious," I said. "Where was he seen last?"
"I know what you''re trying to do," said Janet. "You two are too young to be trying to chase after a lost friend... Karen, you really should be more concerned about your brother getting lost himself if you try."
Jessica waved at the woman as if waving off her concern. "Oh, he gets lost all the time. In fact, I''m sure he''s lost in his head right now." I glared at Jessica. I had my food, I wasn''t lost anymore! "Still, you''ll take whatever help you can get right?"
Janet sighed. "I would children," she said, leaning on the counter, looking at a picture of her family over the sink. "But I''m afraid of you two putting yourselves in danger looking for him. I wouldn''t want to put your mother through this." She folded her arms, her shoulders down. She then looked over at the fridge. "Say... would you two like some strawberries?"
Jessica shrugged. "Never really tried them."
"Never tried strawberries... in seven years?" The woman opened her fridge and took out a small see-through box of red berries, each shaped like cones, rounded on the top and on the edge. On the outside of each, I could see several black pieces that looked like seeds of some form.
Janet set the box in front of us and I noticed it had a red bow on it. "What''s this for?" I asked.
"Oh, that..." Janet said. I untied the bow and opened the box, taking one of the berries to try. "It was going to be a gift to Thomas, a surprise I had planned before he disappeared." The woman looked at the berries, shaking her head. A berry in hand and mouth open, I paused, not sure if I was really hungry for them after all. My stomach was kicking me for it, but another part of me was kicking at the moment. Jessica grabbed a few and set them on her napkin, immediately starting in on them.
"These are really good!" Jessica exclaimed. Janet smiled.
"You guys have your fill. Those don''t last very long. I''m going to do some cleaning around here... Karen, you keep an eye on your brother alright?" Jessica nodded, mouth full again. Janet stifled a laugh at her. "Oh, and Tommy''s room is down the hall." Janet pointed down a hall on the other side of the kitchen. "You can sleep there when you''re done if you''re tired." She headed out the opposite way, back into the house.
I shook my head as the woman left. Checking behind myself to make sure the woman was out of immediate earshot, I spoke quietly, realizing she was actually purposely staying in range to hear us. "How can you eat those?... They were a gift." I said to Jessica.
"They still won''t keep Tity," she replied. "Go ahead and eat. I think the woman gave these to us kind of as a substitute for giving them to her son. So just don''t be rude." I really didn''t want to eat the berries, even less with that in mind, but I tried one anyway.
Taking a bite my eyes lit up. "These really are good!" I exclaimed. I half did it so Janet would hear, and a half because they really were that good. We had pretty decent food on Triad, stuff that would really wow anyone, but this was... different. A flavor I had simply never had, completely unique. After a hundred years, that really was something.
Jessica spoke quietly again. "Yeah they are, you haven''t eaten till you''ve eaten earth food. We''ve only got so much fruit on our world, just what our ancestors farmed after bringing it from their original nation on earth. I don''t think strawberries grew in Egypt."
I shook my head. "What are we gonna do about this though?"
"Do about what?"
"No one will talk about things to us for our own good," I said, surprised she wasn''t having the same thoughts. "Unless Thomas just happens to be within two miles of his room, our trail on him could go cold in just a few days. We don''t even know where he was last seen."
Jessica grinned. "Didn''t you hear? The boy was far away from his mother at the time, with "those people" who were supposed to be watching him, but might not have been."
And for me, that registered... nothing. "In other words..." I said, waving at her for her to continue.
"Put it together-oh right, it''s your first trip to earth." Jessica shrugged. "My best guess is he disappeared at school. At Tommy''s age, they usually don''t let kids far from their parents, unless they''re someplace where others are pledged to watch them. Now, on this world, they go to school when they''re young. They''re supposed to be watched by adults, but sometimes, during something called recess, they''re all let out together to play. Now keeping an eye on a couple hundred earth children playing together... that can be quite a chore and you''ll probably lose track of one or two."
"So he was lost during recess at school?"
"That''s my best guess." Jessica finished off another berry, having eaten five, myself having only eaten one so far. "Go ahead and eat... if it makes you feel better we''ll get some for him when we find Tommy."
I shook my head. "That''s not the point of a gift... at least not for the giver," I pointed out with a sigh. I really did want to have my fill of them, but I could only enjoy them if my conscience was quiet.
"I''ll figure something out," Jessica said back.
I decided that would do and took out a few more.
"So where is this "school"?" I asked. I knew what schools were essentially, but on our world, they were learning institutions with no emphasis on the age of the attendees.
Jessica paused. "No idea really."
"Are kids on this world supposed to get there by themselves?"
"Sometimes. However, usually, they''re taken there, especially much before ten years of age like you and me supposedly. So I don''t think we can just ask how to get there, since no one will see any point in telling us. Besides remember, we know the kid already from a place where his mother never would have met us, hence we''re his friends from..." She waved at me to continue.
"His school," I finished. "So we would be asking directions to OUR school."
Jessica sighed. "Another roadblock."
I opted quickly, "Allen has a kid."
"Little Jady is too young to go to school."
"Do you really have to nickname everyone... Jady... seriously?"
"Of course, Ky," she replied.
"Point," I conceded.
"In any case, talking to folks isn''t the only way of finding information. I''ll put these berries back in the fridge over there and let''s take our leave in Tom''s room. Remember, part of an investigation is also building profiles of the people you''re investigating. Probably have more privacy in there anyway, at least for a while."
Finishing, I walked down the hall to Tommy''s room. Jessica soon followed. Walking in I said to her, "you sure Janet didn''t hear any of our conversations?"
"We talked quietly, but really, she could have heard every word and would have just thought we were playing some game."
"Do normal human children really live half their lives in a fantasy world?" I asked.
"Not really, but they do play a lot, and they don''t have much perspective on when it''s time to stop."
"Kinda like you," I commented.
"I know, isn''t it great?!" Jessica shouted. She wasn''t wrong. Jessica looked around the room. I did too.
It was a small room, maybe twenty feet wide by twenty feet across. In the middle was a large bed with a giant red comforter. Toys were everywhere. Most of them were the creatures humans thought went extinct before the modern age. "Dinosaurs" they called them. Course my people knew many were actually once called "dragons" and lived alongside humans. Some of my people were alive in person to see them before they were hunted to extinction.
I picked up one of the dinosaurs with three horns. "Hey, Jess remember these things?"
"Who?" asked Jessica.
"Oh right... Karen, do you remember these things?"
"Margons!" Jessica proclaimed. "I remember we had one as a pet back home once," she said, taking the toy. "Didn''t have him for very long... aren''t they supposed to have fur?"
"Dinosaur means "terrible lizard,"" I replied. "They don''t have any creatures like this here, so they have to make assumptions on what they looked like before they went extinct here. Besides," I said taking the toy back and setting it back on a dresser near the door. "They don''t really grow much fur until they''re at least fifteen, and they stopped living that long even on our world a while ago outside of captivity." Off hand, I had studied some earth science. It was laughable for someone on a world of people who live to be over a thousand years old, like the musings of children. Still, if nothing else, I had to admit, human science was creative.
"Oh!" Jessica almost shouted. She ran over to the bed and picked up a small stuffed bear. "Isn''t this adorable?!" she asked.
"Yeah... cute," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could, which wasn''t much for something to just be "cute". I took the bear. I noticed how worn it was like it had seen quite a bit of use. On a feeling, I took the small DNA scanner out of my pocket. I opened the compass-like device and pushed a few buttons on the lower flap. The upper half lit up with a green computer screen. I scanned the bear. "This thing has a lot of DNA on it," I said with a nod. "Wait..."
"What?"
"It''s all from one person... almost no one else ever touches this thing." I chuckled to myself about just how ideal this toy was for our needs.
"Well it''s Tommy''s right?" asked Jessica.
"Most likely," I replied, sitting on the bed. "I mean it was on his bed in his room." I reached back and scanned the white pillow at the head of the child''s bed. "But really, it has a higher concentration than even this pillow. Like it doesn''t get washed as often, but he still sleeps with it every night."
"Every night?" Jessica asked. "Why would you do that?"
"I don''t know," I said, scratching my head. "Lucky break though." I pushed a few buttons on the tracker and programed in the samples from the bear. Jessica took the bear back, gently playing with it, pretending to make it walk. I heard approaching footsteps and quickly put the scanner away.
"I see you found Jacks," said Janet, now standing in the doorway to the room.
"Jacks?" asked Jessica.
"The Teddy bear," Janet said, pointing at the bear Jessica was playing with.
"Well is its name Jacks or Teddy?" I asked. Janet paused, looking very confused, which I couldn''t help with because so was I. "What?"
The woman shrugged. "Jacks is what Thomas calls him," the woman said. She sat by us on the bed. She offered her hand to Jessica. "Can I see him?" Jessica nodded. Janet took the bear. "You see Tommy has had this little guy since he was four." She smiled. "I don''t think he''s slept a single night without him since... well until recently of course." She looked saddened on that last statement. She breathed deep and continued. "I assume your father will be here tomorrow to pick you two up, right?"
"Yep," Jessica said with a nod.
"That''s good... you guys want to play a game?" the woman asked.
I knew if we wanted to keep planning, we needed to get this woman out of the room. "Ya know... actually I''m kinda tired," I said.
"Really?" Jessica asked, "I''m wired... fine stay here and doze." She looked up at Janet. "Betya can''t catch me!" she ran off back into the house. Janet smiled and went quickly after her. I shook my head, listening to the giggles and screams that soon resounded through the house. Well, at least Jessica was distracting Janet right? I set to work on the next stage of our mission.
Chapter 10: Automatic Rail Car
Kyle:
Jessica finally came back into the room. "Why didn''t you come play with us?" she asked as she bounced onto the bed.
"I thought you were trying to distract her so I could work," I said offhand, paying attention to some paper I had been writing on as I thought.
"This is MY idea," Jessica pointed out. "Why wouldn''t you be running distraction?"
"Cause you''re better at it."
"Point." Jessica looked at the DNA tracker. "But that''s still not why I played with her."
"Then why?" I asked rolling over on the bed. I was only mildly curious, but no sense in not satisfying that.
"She needed it, Tity. She misses her little kid. She needed to play with someone like she was still a mother."
"She''s not the kid in the relationship Je- I mean Karen. She doesn''t need to be played with," I said sitting up.
Jessica just shook her head. "First off, she''s out of earshot, if you want to call me Jessica, it''s okay. Second off, playtime isn''t just for the kids. That''s just what the kids think. You''ll understand when you become a dad."
"I call you Karen to get used to it so I don''t slip up when it matters. Besides your parents haven''t been around for a while... how do you understand parents?" I asked. It struck me after saying that how insensitive it sounded, but it was out now.
"I- I don''t know..." Jessica looked back and forth a few times, confused, like the idea of being offended didn''t even occur to her. "Well... I think I''m just deep- or so crazy I come full circle and just look like it anyway." She continued. "So, I trust you came up with something, right?" I showed her my notepad.
"I did. You''re right, we need to start building a profile." I started going over my notes with her. "So I figured a few things out. First off, Tommy is a homebody. You see, aside from when he''s at school, I gather his mother is used to knowing where he is."
"That''s not too unusual for a human child."
"Maybe not, but it gives us something to go on. You''re right, he was probably lost at school. You''ll remember Janet didn''t seem too surprised that he got lost when she wasn''t around, so he was somewhere she expected him not to be watched too closely."
"Didn''t we already clarify this?"
"Stick with me," I said, gritting my teeth at Jessica derailing my train of thought. I flipped a page. "If Tommy isn''t used to being without his mother then she''s going to be a security to him, meaning he''s probably not going to stray very far unless he thinks he knows where he''s going."
"Fair guess."
"Stop interrupting," I sassed. "Now with all that in mind, I entered his mother''s DNA in here as well, you see I scanned her when she was in here before you two took off." I showed Jessica the scanner. "This thing can show me where both of them went up to a year back. I isolated it to just the last two months of course." I flipped between a few sketches in my notebook of the screen of the DNA scanner.
"Oh of course," Jessica said. I gritted my teeth- okay that one she didn''t even try to disguise.
I closed my eyes. "The comments don''t add anything, Karen."
"No, they don''t, but it''s fun to see you react."
I don''t know what irritated me more, what she did, or that it worked. I shook my head to stay on track. "Anyway... in the last two months, like one would suspect, everywhere Tommy goes, Janet is usually with him. Every so often not, but usually not if he goes much further than a mile or so, except, nearly every single day at the same time, each day." I pushed a part of the screen on the scanner, making it zoom in. "Check it out. These red dots represent traces of Tommy as you know, basically, they''re when he touched something or something with his DNA on it touched something in this area. But there''s something weird about these particular traces. They''re all made eight hours apart."
"Hold up," Jessica said. "What do you mean "apart"?"
"I mean there''s no trace of him in the area or leaving the area by any means for eight hours. He goes, leaves, and comes back, but he doesn''t leave by means of his own feet or there would be traces where his shoes met the pavement." I showed her a few other quick sketches I made of a figure walking with an X through it and a circle with the words ''but he leaves this area'' above it. "Now, I can guess he gets in a ride of some kind that keeps him from touching the ground while he travels to his destination. The ride is some kind of vehicle most likely." I showed her an image of what looked like a brick with wheels.
"Your drawing sucks by the way," she said, looking over the notes. I lowered my eyebrows at her. "What? You''ll never improve without honest criticism. Anyway, what kind of vehicle?"
My brain was doing its best to switch between her quips and her honest questions- was that one supposed, to be honest? I had to pause. "Um... a floating giant moth named Jeremiah, how am I supposed to know?! Please stop interrupting! Again, anyway, I''m guessing his destination is this school you talked about. We go this vehicle stop, we might be able to get on the vehicle and go to the same school."
"And if we get to his school we can find out where he disappeared at."
"Exactly!" I said.
"Ya know, despite what people say, you really are kinda smart."
"Thanks... I think," I said. I looked around the room. "Well... no time like the present. You think it''s possible to catch this vehicle now? Maybe it''s a rail car that runs automatically. This device doesn''t show what''s in an area, just which direction we need to go in order to get there."
"They didn''t have any automatic rail cars when I was here last." She noted looking up as if trying to think. "Maybe a few trolleys but kinda doubt that''s what we''re looking at."
"Yeah, and relying on your past experience has served us sooo well up until now," I said punching her arm. "Think we might be safe assuming that half of what you remember is going to be utterly useless to us."Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
"That''s not fair," Jessica replied.
"It was forty years ago Karen, this world has changed a lot since then." I paused, eyes widening as a thought occurred to me.
"What''s wrong?"
"Oh, nothing I guess. I was just thinking if you''re lost here after forty years and these people don''t advance near as fast as our people, imagine what it''s gonna be like when we return home in two hundred years." Jessica''s eyes widened as well. In my mind, I tried to visualize what we might see in two hundred years on Triad... I couldn''t. Just random colors appeared in my head, my people changed so rapidly, especially in their technology. Allen envisioned flying cars showing up on earth soon enough- we already had about five thousand different varieties of flying personal vehicles and about two thousand different operating systems for them, some interchangeable... I was drawing a blank.
Jessica shook her head several times. "Okay, let''s try not to think too much on that. Anyway, we can''t just walk wherever we want. It''s getting dark outside so I doubt Janet is going to let us just wander around on our own. We''re younger than her own son in her eyes, remember?"
"Fair enough," I said, figuring that straight defiance and sneaking out would probably be ill-timed right now for a number of reasons. "But what do you want to do now?"
Jessica looked around. "Well Allen said he would pick us up tomorrow morning, so why don''t we just wait for him and leave then?"
"In the meantime?..." I said getting up and shrugging. I waved at her.
"Hang around I guess... Janet wanted to show me this weird game, Parcheesi, I think it was called... looks like something I played a few times that they called "Game of India" when I was on earth last time."
(***)
Allen:
I pulled into the driveway of the house I had dropped Kyle and Jessica off at yesterday. The sun was just coming over the horizon and little Jaden lay asleep in the backseat. I kept thinking of the paradoxes of the existence of those two. Really, physically Kyle and my son, could easily be compared to each other. It was odd to think of my elder as a "cute little guy". And then Jessica... where would one even begin to try to understand her?
Another thought did occur to me. As I taught them a few things earlier, just how did they get along at all? What could they teach me?
I chuckled to myself and opened the door, walking over to the front door of the house. I knocked on the door. Young Tommy''s house was not a bad-looking place. It was a one-story white home with a small front yard and shrubs that ran along the sidewalk. There was a walkway from the sidewalk that the kids had used earlier, but I decided I would be alright using the driveway this time rather than parking by the walk. After all, at this stage, I was a "friend of the family" wasn''t I? Or at least "my kids" were.
A blond-haired woman opened the door, a huge smile beaming across her face, a young girl riding on her shoulders. The woman appeared somewhat relieved and also disappointed that I was there. She let her shoulders down at the sight of me but nodded as well. She pulled the girl off her shoulders saying "I believe this one belongs to you." She set the girl down. "Can I keep her? I don''t have a girl... maybe you have another one..."
I laughed, taking Jessica by the hand. I thought about teasing and saying something like "sure why not" but-
Kyle wasn''t escorted out. In fact, he came running out from behind the woman shouting, "Freedom! Let me out of here!" The woman watched him with wide eyes as he ran to the car, myself doing the same.
"I think he wants to leave..." I said, looking over at the boy. I shook my head and looked back at the woman. "Sorry I left in such a hurry earlier. You see-"
"And we should really get going now too... I don''t want to miss the um... show." Kyle stuttered out. "About the... dogs that''s um... on the radio."
The woman looked at him, "A dog show on the radio?" she asked.
"Yeah..." I said. It occurred to me that maybe Kyle needed some improve lessons. "The um...barking dog show. They figure out which dog has the best bark- not sure what he sees in it." Jessica turned a curious eye to Kyle as well. Kyle looked at me with pleading eyes. "I guess I''ll get moving."
Back in the car, after I let the two kids in, Kyle in back and Jessica beside me, I decided to have a talk with Kyle. But he started talking before I could think. "Thank God you showed up finally!" he shouted.
"Kyle, what is wrong? Do you know how rude that was?" I snapped. I decided just now was not the time to follow up with "or how poorly executed?".
"I''m five!" Kyle shouted. "I''m too naive remember!?" The way he said this sounded almost fearful.
"Okay, maybe you don''t like being babied, it''s still no excuse to-" I began, but Kyle interrupted.
"Keep telling yourself it''s uncalled for. We''ll just have the nice lady dress YOU."
"You let her dress you?" I asked, starting to chuckle.
"I didn''t have a choice... she even cut up my eggs for me... why would you cut up eggs?"
"Kid, she was mothering you. You weren''t expecting it? You look five. I would do stuff like that for you too if I didn''t know any better. I cut up Jaden''s food all the time." Kyle looked at Jaden, still sleeping. "But I''m not Jaden," Kyle said. "I''m a hundred years old... that was embarrassing." I wanted to say something but looked at Kyle. The boy''s eyes had grown to twice their normal size and the kid was starting to rock like an insane person. "I''m not five. I don''t want to be five."
"I don''t see what your problem is," Jessica commented.
"Of course not, you''re seven. No one feels the need to ask if you need to be spoon-fed."
"Did she?" I asked.
"No... thankfully she let me eat my own food."
I still wanted to try to say something about being considerate, but I finally gave up. Honestly, I wasn''t sure if this was hilarious or if I felt sympathy. Maybe both. "Ya know, that''s so outside the norm, I''m gonna go ahead and say your reaction was okay. Did you learn anything?"
"I learned I don''t want to be a kid anymore," Kyle said, looking out the window and staring at the house like a prisoner back at his hated cell.
Jessica shook her head. I pushed the car into gear and backed out the driveway.
As we drove out of the driveway, Jessica spoke up. "We figured out Tommy probably disappeared at school. I''m thinking during recess."
"Do you have any idea where school is for him?" I asked looking at them through the rearview mirror.
"Well..." Jessica said, trailing off and looking back at Kyle.
"Not as of yet, but we''ve got a plan. I''ve been looking at the kid''s traces on my DNA thing here," Kyle said waving the device he had earlier dubbed a "DNA tracer". "It looks like he leaves this area from a designated spot every day at about the same time and leaves for about eight hours each time. I''m guessing that''s when he leaves for school each day."
"Good guess," I said, nodding.
"I think the kid takes an automatic rail car of some kind. If you could take us to the place where he gets picked up, we could probably hitch a ride ourselves."
"A what?" I asked.
Kyle pointed in the direction of the rising sun. "Due east," he said enthusiastically.
I pulled out and started heading that way. "What in the world is an automatic rail car?" Kyle looked at me through the rearview mirror he seemed to just notice, just staring, a look of concern on his face. "What?"
"It''s a rail car that runs automatically... what did you think I was referring to?"
I shook my head. "I suppose I guessed that," I admitted. "But that I know of, there''s no such thing as an automatic rail car, on this planet anyway."
"How do you get to regular appointments?"
"We drive cars... or walk," I said.
"Those are the only choices?" Kyle asked.
"Pretty much. Can''t think of anything else... I guess you can always run or take a horse."
"What in the- you mean you only have ONE method of accelerated transportation on this entire planet?"
"We have many different kinds of cars," I offered. Kyle just became quiet for a moment. I had to think of something... it was the sixties for crying out loud, we were pretty advanced! "Trains and planes if you''re going cross country." That didn''t get a reaction. "Um... manually operated bikes?" Yeah, they had those two hundred years ago I realized. I was out of ideas.
Kyle shook his head. "You guys are primitive."
I sighed, realizing his was a race where one person could live to be over a thousand years old, their Sir Issac Newton was probably still alive. What did I expect? Still, it was kinda insulting the way he said things. "Look... just tell me which direction you guys want to go. We''ll see this rail car of yours." I said, lowering my eyebrows.
It didn''t take long to get directions to the area with the "rail-car". I looked out my window at the area, seeing a street corner with a sign over it with a large yellow picture. I knew exactly what I was looking at. But just for kicks, I decided to let Kyle and Jessica out and watch them piece it together, pretending I had no idea what they were looking at.
Chapter 11: Prisoner
Kyle:
Allen was surprisingly less of a help than one would have thought. When Jessica and I got out of the car Allen got out himself, looking around like he had no idea what he was looking at. "I guess... you say he just leaves here every day right?" Allen asked.
I looked around. "That''s what the tracer basically says happens... every day almost." I looked at a nearby sign. On the sign was a picture of what appeared to be a vehicle of some sort. If the vehicle were real, it would have been long and black with about ten windows on each side. It didn''t seem like it would have been much to look at in reality, like a large brick with wheels. "Any idea what that means?" I asked, pointing at the sign.
"Never seen one in my life," Allen replied. "Looks like a drawing of a vehicle of some kind."
"Ya know, I figured bringing a native would help, but yeah... a vehicle..."
"Real Sherlock Holmes this one eh?" Jessica chided, playfully kicking his leg.
"Sherlock?" I asked. "Who in the world is that?" Both creatures stared at me, completely unmoving. "What?" They still didn''t move. What was a Sherlock Holmes? Sounded like a house security system. Why was that such a big deal? "Okay... we still have a kid we''re looking for."
"Right um." Jessica looked around herself. "Well, when does this vehicle, or rail car or dinosaur or magical moth pick Tommy up exactly?"
"Magical mo-" Allen began.
"Don''t ask- I think it''s in reference to something, just don''t ask," I cut Allen off. I remembered something from last night, but it probably wasn''t important. "I don''t really know when the vehicle arrives."
"Magical moth!" Jessica demanded.
"What?" I asked. Okay, so I realized it was about to become important.
"Until we know what picks Tommy up, henceforth it shall be known as a magical moth!"
"Sure," I said. "There can''t possibly be any more reasonable concepts, right?" I shook my head, realizing I was with Jessica, "reasonable" wasn''t in her vocabulary. I stopped in place. "Alright." I turned around. "Allen, you know exactly what this is don''t you?"
"What makes you say that?" he asked.
I rested my chin on my fist. "You keep turning away and chuckling at me."
"Am I that obvious?"
"What is it?" I simply asked, tired of people playing with my head. Seemed like a sport in those days.
"It''s a bus stop," Allen said. "They''re as commonly known on this world as... well the children who ride them, every day, in the morning, to get to school. Really, you didn''t do too badly in your deductions."
Was he sure about our deductions? I mean mine were okay but- "So it''s not a moth?" asked Jessica.
"No, it''s not," Allen replied.
"If you put wings on it, could it pass as a moth?"
"No- well actually... okay I''m envisioning that and..." Allen froze. "Kyle... she''s making sense to me- help." I looked at both of them, eyes traveling back and forth several times. "Really, if you put wings on a bus it would look like well... a moth."
I shivered. Jessica can sometimes get to people. "Okay, that happened," I stated, Allen still staring at Jessica. I did too, knowing that from that point on, she had won and I would be mentally attaching moth wings to every vehicle I saw for the rest of the day. "You said they get picked up in the morning... so we just wait here."
"It''s Sunday," Allen said. "Kids have Sunday off most of the time."
"I see, so what do we do?" I asked. I folded my arms and sighed, "I guess we could always just spend the day in the clock tower."
"We could go back to Janet," Jessica said.
My eyes went wide and my mouth suddenly had a mind of its own. "I like the clock tower, the clock tower is good, let''s go to the clock tower!" I said quickly walking back to the car.
Thomas:
I didn''t know how long it had been since I had seen home. Days... weeks? I had no way of telling time in here.
I looked around me again. I supposed it was morning, but I only guessed so because I had woken up, not because of any changing light. My prison had no bars, no windows, and barely had a door. It was just four cement walls with a single fluorescent bulb on the ceiling our only light. The people who had taken me told me the date every day, I guessed to rub in that I was their prisoner, but I didn''t know if they were telling the truth. They said it was the thirteenth of February, but for all I knew from this room, it was still the same day as I had been taken, the fourth.
Thank God for Tamar and Sam. Tamar was a girl a little older than myself, and Sammy was a little boy, about five maybe. With nothing but a dirt floor and cement surrounding us, there wasn''t much for subjects in the room, but just to have someone to talk to kept me from going crazy. How did I get here though?
It had been an ordinary day on the fourth. Nothing seemed wrong when I got up and dressed in the morning, and when I went to school, nothing seemed out of place. It was recess when something strange happened. It played again in my mind, the memory of how I was stolen.
"So here I stand, King of all I see!" shouted my friend Jason. He stood on a rock that was about five feet tall, making his proclamation to no one in particular. Well maybe to me on the rock under him. I wasn''t sure what he wanted from me though. "Kiss my feet, humble servant!"
I looked up at him. "Yeah um... that''s not happening."
"Ah c''mon Tommy, it''s part of the game."
"I don''t care, I''m not kissing your feet." I laughed. "What are you on about anyway?"
"I''m playing king. I''m Xerxes, ruler of the land of Assyria."
The speed at which that processed for me I was sure was impressive. "That''s Persia, your highness."
"We just conquered Assyria."
"That never happened."
"It did too!" he shouted back down at me. "Persia took over their land, so they took over Assyria."
"Assyria was conquered by Babylon two decades before Persia even showed up."
"Whatever nerd."
"Not a nerd. I''m just smarter than you," I corrected.
Jason sat down on the rock looking down at me. "Them''s figthin'' words."
I smiled, "You''ll have to catch me first!" I shouted, running off.
Jason was only a year older than me, but he was a rather large kid, so I didn''t really want to fight him. We were friends and I knew he wouldn''t hurt me too bad, but I still decided it was best to make a break for it after insulting him. He slid down the rock and gave chase. We ran off the border of the playground, to a large field near the parking lot.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Jason finally overtook me and pulled me to the ground. "You''re gonna get it for that!" he shouted, laughing behind his scowl.
Just then, Jason''s weight was lifted off me. The boy was dragged up and held against a man''s chest as another man smothered his mouth in a small white cloth. Jason squirmed around for a few seconds then was asleep.
Who were these guys? I thought to run and scream, but I couldn''t just leave Jason like that.
I quickly got to my feet, realizing we had both run too far outside the playground to expect to be seen. I grabbed the arm of one of Jason''s attackers, slamming a rock into the back of his hand. I drew blood and the man turned quickly, raising his hand to back hand me. His hand stopped in midair.
"Hey, Charlie... how did you not notice this one?" He grabbed my arm before I could strike again, taking and tossing away the rock. "The other one''s a fat kid anyway, no one wants those, but check it out," he wrapped one arm around my chest, locking my arms in place. "Green eyes. How often do you see that? He''ll fetch a few more bucks than a fat kid I''d wager." I was both scared and furious by this point, my heart racing, and I was practically grinding my teeth. Who were these jerks?
Charlie was a blond-haired man standing several meters away. He looked at me as I kicked and thrashed in the man''s hold. I breathed deep, ready to scream, just before I felt a sharp pain in my head.
From there I woke up in this prison with my two new friends.
(***)
Tamar shook me awake. "You thinking about when you were grabbed again?" I looked at the ground, nodding. "Not like we have much else to think about in here."
Sammy stretched and got up from the corner he was sleeping in. The boy was covered in mud and dirt, as were Tamar and myself, but he hadn''t brushed himself off of the worst of it yet. "You guys shouldn''t be concentrating so much on how we got here. Start thinking about what you''ll do when you get out." He tossed a rock in the air. "I finally got one loose see?"
"Sammy..." I sighed. "Is this about that Xao guy again?"
"I told you guys, he made a deal with me. If I can throw a rock out that door when the prison keepers come to feed us, he''ll save us within an hour."
I shook my head, holding it in my left hand. "Sammy... how did this Xao get in here without the rest of us seeing him?" I looked down at his hands and noticed... something. Something I didn''t like.
"I didn''t see him either. He''s invisible. He just talks to me sometimes."
I walked over to him and stood him up. I ruffled his hair, noticing the dirt as it fell out. "Invisible friends, I remember when I had one of those. Look Sam just... just don''t be surprised if he doesn''t come." Wasn''t sure how to tell him, but I was pretty certain by this point, no one was coming. Least of all, some five-year-old''s invisible friend.
"Let him believe if he wants to," said Tamar.
I looked back at her. "Oh he can believe whatever he wants, I just don''t like seeing this." I held up one of the boy''s hands, showing Tamar that his fingers were now bleeding, his nails broken and dirt was pushing into the wounds. "He doesn''t just believe in this Xao, he''s been hurting himself to obey him. He''s going crazy."
Concern instantly showed up on Tamar''s face. She rushed over to Sammy.
"All I gotta do is throw this out the door," said Sammy, defending himself. "I''m not crazy, I''m not." I took the rock out of his hand. "NO!" I looked the rock over.
I bit back how I really felt seeing one of my only friends willingly hurt himself. Truth was, there had been one scare after another these days anyway. "It won''t do much for a weapon. If you really think just throwing this out the door is going to do anything, go for it." I tossed the rock back.
Sammy quickly snatched the rock out of the air, as though it were his most precious treasure. "I believe in my friends Thomas, you''ll see. Believe in me. Xao is real."
I looked back at him, at his fingers. I turned around, my back to him, eyes quickly scanning our prison once again. This was so hopeless. If Sammy was going crazy, why bother trying to stop him? I just didn''t feel like joining in was all. "Yeah, yeah, you go on ahead. I think they''ll be along with our food in a few minutes anyway."
"But you have to believe me. Xao made the deal for me and Tamar, but you weren''t here when I made that deal... he said he couldn''t help you when he came unless I got you to believe in him. It was something about a loop hole he could just barely get away with. So just say you do."
"Sammy I-" We both heard footsteps approaching.
"Just say it!"
"I can''t. I don''t."
Samuel walked away from me, moving quickly as the door cracked open. He reeled back and threw his rock hard at the opening, the pebble flying out as three small bowls of oatmeal were slipped into the room.
Sammy started laughing as I walked over to the food. "HAHA! Doesn''t matter now!" he kicked the bowls over, the meal flying all around.
"What are you doing!" I shouted. That was the only food I had gotten in... I didn''t know how long but he just wasted it!
"We''re getting out!"
I smacked him across the face.
I felt myself slammed against the wall of the prison hitting the back of my head. "What the heck do you think you''re doing? No one hurts Sammy!" shouted Tamar. "NO ONE!" She clenched her hand into a fist to punch me straight in the face.
I actually could have fought her but... why bother?
A blast of energy fired behind Tamar''s back and the door to our prison, which was really just a large stone block on our side, shot inward. The door flew across the room, crashing into the opposite wall. Tamar quickly forgot about punishing me and grabbed both myself and Sammy and threw us behind her.
In walked a dark-haired teenage boy. He folded his arms looking around the room. "Well?" he asked. "You''re getting outright?" I regarded this boy. Tamar was pretty insistent we both stay behind her, and for the moment I didn''t care, either way, he didn''t look dangerous though. The teenager didn''t look much older than Tamar. He was maybe four foot five and if I had to guess, about thirteen. I''m sure he would have called me a little kid, but I''d seen my father wrestle someone that age before... let''s just say my dad was less than impressed.
I was happy not moving, but Sammy ran around Tamar before she could react. He jumped onto the boy, who obliged and held him up giving one of his sides a quick pinch making him giggle. "Just who are you?" Tamar asked.
"My name is Xao," said the boy. "I thought the little guy would have told you all about me by now."
"Oh, he did..." I said with a long pause.
Tamar backed up a little, continuing to push me back. I shook my head, but let her "protect" me anyway. "What are you?" she asked.
"I''m what you might call a trickster god," Xao said. "Something like a genie. Your little friend''s wish is my command- for a price. Course I set the price see. And today, I wanted a rock." He tossed the little rock in the air, holding Sammy in one arm. He chuckled. "Course what do you care, you''re free. Let''s get out of here."
"Are they really getting out now?" asked a voice behind him. The teenager turned quickly, setting little Sammy down. Sammy seemed to have an instinct about this and ran back to Tamar and myself.
"Tyrin!" the boy shouted. A heavy-set man in a business suit walked into the room. The man appeared to have no muscles at all, but he strode confidently into the room, as though not fazed by the blasting of the door. The man''s features seemed like exaggerations. His nose was long and his cheeks puffed, his stomach sticking out like a balloon. I would have laughed if I wasn''t busy processing everything that was happening. The boy threw a closed fist in the direction of the man, a blast of energy seeming to fire from his hand. Just as the blast came out, a field of energy seemed to become visible around the man. Whatever energy the boy had thrown-how that was possible, don''t ask me- bounced off the air in front of Tyrin and tore a small groove in the floor. The man grinned.
"Give me one good reason not to strike you down right now for trying to steal my goods." said the man.
"I''m not stealing." The boy said, backing up. "I made a deal with the little one." The man raised his hand, fire appearing to spring from his fist. The boy put up his hands. "You heard me!" he shouted. "It''s the will of the gods now. Not even you can stand in the way of that."
The man chuckled, "A trickster god?" he asked. He loosened his fist, the fire fading. "Ha... alright then. What was the deal?"
"I told the boy I would get him and his girlfriend home if he threw a rock out that door. And he did... You know deals with trickster gods are made in blood. If you hurt me or them, the entire nation of the tricksters will seek your head."
The man nodded. "So you mean to tell me the deal was made with the youngest, to get him and the oldest out, very well, take them and leave. But leave the third."
"He''s coming with me."
"You made no deal with him, and thus have no power between me and him. If you fight me, the other tricksters will not interfere."
"Wait," Sammy said. "I don''t know what''s going on... but you made a deal with me for Tommy too... he said he believed me that you existed and that was the deal... so he comes too."
Xao looked at me. My eyes must have bugged out to twice their normal size. I was so lost and confused by what I was seeing. Trickster gods? Deals with creatures of incredible power... Xao was real? These things ran through my mind, at the root of it, flashed the idea that I had a way out. The man grinned. "Did you believe?" asked Xao.
"Might I interject here?" asked the man "A deal made falsely with a trickster god invalidates all deals made with the parties involved. Basically child, if you lie, you forfeit Sammy''s deal for his and Tamar''s release as well. If and when I discover and can prove that you did not believe that this young man existed before you saw him, as the little one reported were your terms, I will kill everyone here, save for you... you can just watch."
I shook my head. I couldn''t do this. I didn''t know what was going on for sure, but if I took everything at face value, then this man seemed to be somehow in charge of the people who were keeping me here. I didn''t know who or what Xao was, so I didn''t really think too much about risking his life to escape, but little Sammy and Tamar could be on the line too. In any case, fighting Tyrin didn''t look like it was on the table. "I never believed," I admitted.
Sammy''s eyes widened. "But you must have, somewhere, friends trust each other... right?" I shook my head. "NO!" Xao appeared to become solemn. He picked up Sammy, the boy kicking and screaming. "TOMMY!" Xao offered a hand to Tamar. She took the hand.
Tyrin, the large man, backed away from the group. A light flashed around Xao and my two friends, showing so bright Tyrin and myself had to hide our eyes. When I open my eyes again, I was alone with the large man.
Tyrin looked back at me. He chuckled. "Are you so naive? How could I ever know what you believed or did not?" I let my arms fall to my side. He was rubbing it in my face, I was so helpless. "You might not have understood what was happening, but for your friends, for the love of two you barely knew for a week, you gave up your chance at freedom. Humans are such pathetic animals." I backed away from him as he walked towards me, his shadow overtaking me he was so large. "Didn''t you guess? I''m not like you. I''m not a man, I''m a son of the gods, a Pharaoh."
"What are you?"
"You don''t even begin to understand do you? Oh, what does it matter anyway? What shall I do with you? I know! Allow me to show you how much of a perversion love is. I didn''t know until now who to sell you to, but now I do... he''ll just love you. Absolute love." He gave me a toothy grin that caused me to involuntarily swallow.
Chapter 12: Blades of Lightning
Kyle:
"I really don''t want to go back to that tower," I said aloud in the car, after assuring myself in my own mind that they wouldn''t go back to Janet''s. I looked at our swords riding with me in the back seat of Allen''s car. I picked up the blade Jessica had given me. "Hey Jess," I called up to her.
"That''s my name... well kinda, it''s a nickname and-"
"Yeah yeah, anyway, I was wondering, could you teach me to use this thing? How long did it take you to master lightning?"
"Actually throwing lightning?" she asked back.
I eagerly nodded. Even without the need to avoid the tower, I loved the idea of learning to throw electricity. "Yeah, how long?"
"Oh, I was born able to do that-parents had to play dodge whenever I was upset as you can imagine."
"No, I mean..." I had to think for a moment on that. "Exactly where are your parents?"
"Not sure... wouldn''t blame them if they skipped town a few days after I was born considering." She was grinning, but it started to fade.
Trying not to think about that on too deep a level, I proceeded with my inquiry. Truth was, I wasn''t sure if she was serious. "No, I mean when did you finally master the actual blade?"
She paused like she was thinking of something. Then she resumed. "It''s not something you master per se," she replied. "There''s no on-off switch... kinda like my personality, but not at all." My mind tried to think on that comparison, but I mentally told it not to bother. "Ya see, the skill evolves over time. For you, actually pushing a bolt out six feet would be impressive I''m sure. As you practice you''ll be able to throw bolts of energy further and with more power... who knows, one day you might actually compare to me in any way shape matter, or form."
I decided to ignore her brag at the end- it was kinda true anyway. "So that six-foot bolt I pushed out earlier... that was normal?"
"I told you I customized the blade for you, of course, it works," she said looking back at me from the front.
I took out the blade. "I want to train with... Bobby here."
"Oh no, you don''t!" Jessica shouted at me. "It''s your sword now. You name it. You sleep with it and take it everywhere you possibly can. That thing needs to become apart of you."
"I''m not a soldier Jess."
"Yeah, like you''d make it as a soldier." She said chuckling, which stung a little because her tone sounded a tad honest. "It''s part of training kid. I need you to get used to having that thing. Your body needs to be able to push part of itself into that blade, something it has only ever done with things that are actually part of you. I want you to feel lost without that thing." She nodded at me. "Well put it on." I clipped the scabbard to my belt. "It''s your baby... so what are you gonna call it?"
"I''m not naming a sword Jess."
"You''re not naming your own flesh and blood?!" she demanded. "I won''t hear of this."
"I don''t think-"
The girl reached back and grabbed me by the collar. "NAME IT!"
"Rita..." I said with wide eyes and a voice that almost squeaked in fear.
"And thus shall be her name," Jessica said pushing me back into my seat and returning to hers. "Don''t forget it. No one forgets the name of their own child."
"It''s not my child Jess."
"The point is to treat it like it is Kyle," Allen said back. "Jessica is trying to teach you proper weapon discipline from the sounds of it. You clean it, name it, keep it with you at all times, and always know where it is when it can''t be with you." Turning a corner, Allen continued to speak. "The werewolves have properties that we unofficially own all over town. There''s an exclusive gym with a very large basketball court not far from here. We''ve set aside a pretty decent chunk of change to maintain it. It''s where we practice using our powers. It should work pretty well for training."
"Well then let''s drive on!" Jessica shouted.
"We''re there," said Allen, parking the car beside a large building with glass doors.
"I see... well then just drive around the block a few times to justify that statement then." I blinked at the back of Allen''s seat. If he said no... heck with it, I would defend Jessica''s point.
(***)
After driving around the block about six times, Jessica finally admitted it was time to actually enter the gym. Mutant and normal humans are different in many ways, but the basic form is human for both races so I wasn''t taken for a ride looking around the place. I knew for the most part what each piece of equipment I saw was for. There were weight lifting benches and free weights and different running machines. Allen commented to me as we went by some of the running machines and people using them, that they were called treadmills, but really, outside this and a few other werewolf gyms, no one outside the societies really ever used them aside from doctors and prison inmates. This made no sense to me, but I took it in stride nonetheless.
We walked presently into what Allen called a basketball court. In truth, the sport of basketball had been imported to my world a long time ago, but we had modified it for a much bigger court to incorporate a few of our powers into the game. I was used to nets being three times higher, in the sky, and in constant motion. Course I doubted the technology to maintain that kind of game was even on this planet.
Jessica entered the huge court. I noticed it really was quite big, possibly the ceiling a full forty feet above me, with the actual room being about one hundred fifty feet across by one hundred feet wide. The baskets were only about ten maybe twelve feet above the ground.
You could smell the sweat that was evidence that other people had been through here but it was pretty bare for now. It did seem strange to me to have a solitary building to work out in- just go outside. We had facilities for fitness on Triad, but generally, they were huge so you had room to run around during bad weather. This place was about the size of... maybe two or three moderate-sized homes.
Jessica and I both had both our swords attached to our belts at this point. As we walked into the stadium, Allen spoke up. "Ya know... ever since you two got here and started talking about the lightning blade I''ve been wondering what exactly the attack really looks like. I''m pretty sure Jaden would like to see it too," he said, nodding up to the child riding on his shoulders.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
Jessica nodded with a grin splitting across her face, one cutting across my face too. "Get clear kids," she said. The three of us moved away to the edge of the court as Jessica moved to the center. "See those seats?" she said, drawing one of her swords and pointing it at a large series of benches on the edge of the gym with it.
"The ones in front of you?" asked Allen. I folded my hands in anticipation. If she pointed at it, soon enough it wouldn''t exist.
"ALL of the ones in front of me," she said. Across from her were a series of stadium seats which must have been a full two stories high, spanned fifty feet, and stood in front of Jessica, being about twenty-five feet from her.
The girl turned to face us, closing her eyes. I grinned even wider. The girl started to glow subtly at first. Then bolts of electric energy flashed from her form, shooting out in hundreds of directions many firing off as far as ten feet out. She slowly drew her second sword, bolts of energy dancing around it, firing off and cutting into the floor, starting to rip through it. Both swords started to emit like this. There was no need for this lead-up, but Jessica was nothing if not a showman. The girl spun around, her swords drawn out, bolts of energy shooting out from them. A huge electric blast fired out from her blades, impacting the seats and tearing through them like they were made of dust and scrap, rather than wood and metal.
The energy around her ceased. "Now imagine if you will, that you were standing somewhere I didn''t want you to be standing," Jessica said, not turning to look at us.
Allen and I both stood quiet, surveying the shredded benches. Metal bars had been split and wood chips lay everywhere. The wall of the gym only showed slight burns, but the entire stadium seating had been dealt such a blow no single bench was still intact over three feet up and the base was burned and splintered. There were wood pieces all around us, the metal frame cut in half as well as having several pieces broken off besides.
Allen seemed speechless, his kid looking at Jessica with his mouth gaping open. I smiled. "She kinda scares people as you can imagine."
"You guys can buy new benches right?" asked Jessica turning around. "Cause I really wanna do that again." With Jessica''s priorities in that moment- I completely agreed.
"I''ll bet you do," I said moving over to her. "Course now that you blew up all the benches what am I supposed to shoot at?" Jessica looked at me with concern. "What?"
"You''re not targeting a bench the size of a building for practice kid. I think first we''ve got to get you able to actually project a little, but once we get there, you''ve got to learn control of this technique or it''s useless for doing anything but blowing yourself up. You''ll never have a target bigger than your head. That wasn''t practiced, it was showing off." Jessica picked up a small piece of wood. Walking out a few feet she threw it in the air saying, "Now blast it."
"I can''t project yet Jess," I replied, not even trying as the board dropped back to the ground. "I thought you said we were working on that first."
"We are," Jessica replied. "Who practices throwing without something in mind to hit? I just don''t expect you to impact anything."
I drew Rita from her scabbard, wanting to prove Jessica wrong and show her that I could indeed throw electricity pretty well. Well, at least that I could exceed her low expectations. I had no practical idea how, but that didn''t need to stop me.
"Visualize pushing your electricity through that sword," Jessica said. "It''s pretty simple." The girl threw the board in the air again as energy erupted from my body, nowhere near the potency of Jessica, but it still... existed. I fired a bolt as the board arched in the air to go back down. The moment of satisfaction of getting out an actual bolt was momentary as I realized the bolt only arched at about seven feet, Jessica now about where the benches had been, over three times that distance away from me. Jessica threw the board up again, me lighting up again. Again, a bolt shot from Rita, again not even close to far enough.
Behind me, Allen chuckled. "Guess you two will be here a while. I think I''ll take little Jaden and get to church." Jessica threw the board again, grinning at him. I didn''t like looking helpless like this. I had no practice with a blade in this way, what did they expect?
But if they wanted a show then that was what I would give them. My body lit up again, but I decided to throw out the actual lesson for the moment. Instead of directing my energy to Rita, I shot it to my feet, forcing my legs to move at a blinding speed, jumping in the air with my blade out to the side. I sailed past the board swinging Rita with an energy burst to my arm, splitting the board. I then fired my right hand forward throwing myself forward and to the ground, rolling as I hit.
"Let''s see you pull that off Jess," I yelled, snapping my fingers at her.
"You have any idea how many things can go wrong with an attack like that?" Jessica demanded. "Suppose you didn''t hit the board with your blade and just ran into it?" Wasn''t sure when Jessica suddenly became a killjoy.
Allen spoke up behind her. "You gotta admit, it was still pretty cool."
I grinned. "You''re just jealous because you can''t do it."
Jessica shook her head. "I don''t have to," Jessica pointed out.
"Not all of us were born freaks of nature missy," I said snidely.
Allen put up a finger. "Actually... I think technically we all were."
"Point," I admitted. I shook my head. "How far do you think we''re gonna get today Jess?" I asked.
"How far?" she asked, "Honestly? Most lightning blade masters take about five maybe ten years to get an arch that travels further than twenty meters."
"TEN YEARS?!" I shouted. I walked over to her. Oh no, I would not be... helpless that long. I wanted this power NOW! I needed it. I really did need it. "Give me that board," I said snatching a piece of the board from her as she went to pick it up again. I lit up in mid-stride as I passed by her. "I''ll see about that!" I threw the board into the air myself, swiping Rita through the air, pushing my energy into her, but again she failed me, only pushing out a three-foot arch this time. "C''mon!" I shouted. I stabbed Rita into the board on the ground. I was furious with both the sword and the board.
At that moment I wanted with every ounce of me, to push every last bit of energy I had into that blade and rip it apart in my frustration. I barely noticed as I lit up, that my energy, even outwardly, arched directly into Rita.
I did however notice when I stopped glowing period and no further arcs emitted from my form. I pulled up Rita, backing up a little. "What the he-" The floor erupted in a tremendous electric blast throwing me like a rag doll, forcing me to slide across the floor as I landed.
"KYLE!" Jessica shouted, running over to me. Both she and Allen were by my side in seconds, young Jaden not far behind. (Not sure if he did or didn''t understand that I probably just got hurt.) Jessica helped me to my feet, steadying me. "Are you okay?"
My ears were ringing, I was incredibly unstable and a feeling of nausea was taking over as parts of my skin were turning red, still, I nodded my head, pushing her away a little. "Yeah... guess I''m fine. Just a few electric burns really, lucky there wasn''t much shrapnel in that blast."
"I think all the shrapnel was disintegrated," Allen commented. "That was like an electric bomb you just set off there."
"Neither statement is possible," I stated matter-of-factly.
"Well there WAS shrapnel," Jessica stated, pointing at a piece of the gym floor, now embedded in a wall a few meters away. "At the same time, that WAS a bomb." She looked back at me. "You''re lucky it didn''t shred you. Just how did you do that?"
I paused for a moment. She was right. I had planted a bomb, hadn''t I? "More than that," I commented without answering. I shook my hand, expecting sparks of electric energy to shoot out. Instead, nothing came out, me just meaninglessly flopping my hand in the air. "I want to know what happened to my powers."
"They''re gone?" asked Allen.
"That''s not possible," Jessica said.
"I''m sure it is if he just doesn''t-" Began Allen, but Jessica interrupted, beating me to the punch.
"No, our powers aren''t just a sideshow Al, they''re part of what we are. You can''t just turn them off any more than you can just turn off your right arm."
"You can turn off the outward electric field... or drain it," I said, slowly trying to work through what happened out loud. "But that would be a tremendous drain and would put out a massive amount of energy..." I looked over at the crater left by my blast. "That... that''s just not possible." Jessica walked away from me over to the crater.
"You... you sent your entire electric field through that blade?" she asked.
"I get the feeling we''d basically have a thermo-nuclear explosion if you did that Jess," Allen commented.
"Why would I ever WANT to do that?" she asked.
I looked at my blade. "With an attack like that and a little control, anything I hit would die instantly, even gargoyles."
"But it drains you."
I looked at my hand, electric arcs dancing between my fingers on command. "Not permanently." I smiled, "I got some choices in my attacks already." I said, feeling pretty good about this. Like I had a few tricks up my sleeve.
"Yeah," Jessica said back. "You can either run dead at someone with a strong chance of killing yourself on arrival, or you can completely deplete your primary weapon. Choices, choices."
I sighed, "It''s progress."
Jessica walked over to a small scrap of metal lying about twenty feet from me. Picking it up she said, "You want to learn the lightning blade or not?" I nodded, feeling better. At the very least, I had discovered a pretty cool power of my own. The thrill of sparing was building up in me. "Good, then let''s get moving," she said tossing the bar in the air. I lit up.
Chapter 13: School Time
Kyle:
It was inevitable. We had to go back to that clock tower sometime that day.
Allen had invited Jessica and I to church, but I let on that I really wasn''t Christian myself. Jessica was, but she would never force me to go. She had always just studied on her own. I actually wanted to tell her to go ahead without me. She could worship and I could use the chance to practice and maybe work on my invention. Unfortunately, she and I being separated for that long wasn''t allowed.
Jessica and I had practiced throwing lightning for hours. After about three hours, I convinced her to practice more direct blade attacks with me. Jessica doubted she would ever need such skills, but did not begrudge me the chance to at least practice my own functional attacks. On the way back to the tower, Allen driving us again, we stopped by a restaurant. While there I ate something called a hamburger with cheese. It was good, and I enjoyed the "french fries" that I was given as a side dish too. Jessica didn''t take the meal as given however, she often didn''t. When she was given her burger, she sighed saying that she had already tried burgers. She then asked for yogurt and dumped that between the meat and the bun when she got it. (Whatever "yogurt" is.) She said it was good... I didn''t know what I was looking at, to begin with when it came to burgers, but one with a giant pile of pink dairy product added I REALLY didn''t know what to do with.
From there we went to our final destination for the evening, the tower.
Allen had brought a second mattress for Jessica with him and put it down for her when we reached the floor behind the clock. He also had a bundle of blankets that he set down with it. Setting up her bed with two blankets, Jessica said she was turning in. I nodded and said I would do the same.
However, Allen asked me to come away from Jessica for a few moments.
"What''s going on?" I asked as we went out on the balcony.
"I skipped out to go to church earlier while you two practiced, but did you practice your own attacks?" he asked when we were out of Jessica''s earshot.
I looked up at the stars; part of me wasn''t in this conversation. "Yeah, we did. Jess doesn''t like direct attacks, says they''re too risky, but me, they''re really all I can do. The idea of actually shooting someone at a distance... well maybe if they were right in front of me I could do that."
"So, explain something to me."
"Suppose I''m an open book to you, shoot," I said turning around and giving him my attention.
"You have one of the most powerful people in the world looking out for you and you''re on a planet where almost everyone is so young you have a hard time taking them seriously, am I right so far?"
"Well, I can take humans seriously..." I tried. But I could tell from the look he gave me, he wasn''t buying it. Still, I was liking Allen, so I wanted to soften the blow. "Just not too seriously, so I suppose that''s the gist of it."
"So why are you so worried about learning to fight for yourself?"
I had to stop at that question. I looked around, thinking. Self-defense was just a basic thing on my world, but there was more to this than that.
It was chilly out. I looked down into the street, watching the lights of cars as they passed under us. Strange to notice, but the lights of cars and the stars in the sky have a lot in common. White lights with little distinctiveness, you can''t tell their shape from a distance, you only see the bright light that reflects off them. I had thought a few times... home was just a light.
"You know how long Pharaoh''s live right?" I asked looking up into the sky.
"Long time I hear."
I nodded. "About two thousand years. In the life of a human, there''s a pretty good chance you''ll never see violence. That''s only about a hundred years though. But do you really think there''s even a chance that you''ll never get in a fight for two full millenniums? Even the idea of not having a weapon is considered the very definition of naivety where I come from."
"Still, Jessica pretty much is your weapon. Aside from that, she''s trying to train you. Why were you so worried about it taking ten years to learn a technique?"This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I turned my head to him, a small amount of fear in my eyes. "But what if something happens in those ten years?"
"I''m sure Jessica will handle it."
I folded my arms, it was getting colder out there. "You really don''t get it, do you? That''s what I''m afraid of. You know what her purpose is right? She''s a bodyguard. Her entire purpose in being here is to take a bullet for me. In fact, she even says she can see no better way to die." Colder still.
"Sounds like she really cares about you."
"Fights come several times even in a short life... but real friendship- real love, even in a lifetime as long as mine, you might only come across it once." I took out and looked at Rita. "I''ve lived without Jessica for eighty years. I''ve lived with her for twenty. I think I forgot how to live without in just that short time." I looked back directly into Allen''s eyes, dropping my arms to my side. I didn''t feel the cold anymore as I said clearly, "No one will take her from me. It will not happen. She won''t die protecting me, she won''t have to."
(***)
The next morning came quickly. When he arrived on our floor, Allen hadn''t brought little Jaden this time. School in the area apparently started at 7 am and that was apparently earlier than his mother would have liked him to be about.
I groggily got in the car wishing my mom had forbid me getting up so early. Jessica was bouncing around like a rabbit of course. I was sleepy, still, every so often, it was good to laugh with her.
Thus Jessica and I were in the car by 6 am and I was doing my best not to pass right back out. I was dressed in a red jacket, a green shirt, and black jeans.
Jessica wore a red t-shirt with yellow pants and bright green shoes. Looking at her outfit did help me wake up. Where Jess came up with her outfits, God only knows. I suspected she felt a need for variety, but often she would repeatedly wear the same badly formed get-up several days in a row, having several pairs of red, purple, or yellow jeans. I''m not even sure who sold such clothes, but somehow she found them. At least on earth, that would stop being the case. I hear that here, they''re much more uniform in their clothing designs.
We two were dropped off at the bus stop.
The grass around reflected the sun and I had to admit, there was a beauty to it. The trees and grass in a natural condition, even though I knew it had all been planted; it wasn''t something you saw on Triad. For what it was worth, Jessica was right.
As we got out of the car, a small group of kids had already gathered. As he dropped us off, Allen ruffled my hair in front of the assembled crowd saying quietly, "You''re lucky it''s not a uniform school kid... course I think Jessica is gonna stand out anyway."
I shook my head. "On my planet, everyone has a different first name, most everyone makes their own invention by aged 10 and we have several thousand different kinds of buildings, at least two hundred of which are types that float and fifty are types that orbit the planet. On my world, Jessica is still considered unique by our standards. She''d be able to get your attention if you were on fire."
"Hence why you''re together."
"I couldn''t stand life without her," I said with a big grin.
Allen nodded. "Alright, listen up. You''re five, on this world they''re generally a little shy at that age. You should probably stick close to Jessica... we are going with her being your sister still right?"
"Why not?" I asked.
"I don''t know if you noticed, but you two have almost nothing in common beyond dark hair and light skin color." He shook his head. "Just something to keep in mind... One question, does the same mother who dresses you," Allen pointed at me, but probably more at my clothes, "Dress her?"
I shook my head. "Don''t worry. You''re liberal parents. She dresses herself because you don''t believe in discipline."
"Ah- um- yeah don''t use my real name then."
I laughed. I didn''t know too much about child-rearing on earth, but some things are easy to translate. "No problem daddy."
Allen drove off, leaving Jessica and me with a group of assembled clueless children. Yeah... I realized what I had just done about three seconds after Allen left. It wasn''t long before Jessica had engaged the largest of the group in some kind of fight, teasing and taunting him. He was good-natured and she didn''t hurt him, but somehow I got involved and me and three other kids ended up on the grass being tickled and otherwise tormented for the next ten minutes.
(***)
The "bus" arrived. It was a giant yellow vehicle with ten windows on each side. Despite myself, all I could think about was putting giant yellow wings on either side of it. Sure enough, would have looked just like a moth... and so would the other three cars around it... and... I shook my head trying to get out Jessica''s logic.
As we sat down together on a small black cushion I confided in Jessica, "sure wish we had our swords."
"They don''t let their children carry weapons here Ky," Jessica said back. "Not our age anyway."
"All conditions being as we suppose," I continued, "you know school was only the last place Thomas was actually seen. He''s not there anymore and with a whole town looking for him, it''s a good chance he''s pretty far from there." She nodded to this. The bus started to move forward. "If we think like criminals in this, whoever grabbed Thomas, especially after seeing a huge search for the boy, if he doesn''t want to get caught, is going to want to keep Tommy as far from that school as possible."
Jessica pointed back at me, with an ''ah-ha!'' kind of expression. "But if he''s smart, he''s gonna return to the scene of the crime regularly to see what progress folks have made in finding the kid." Jessica pulled out our tracer. "And when he does that, this thing will pick up traces of the kid''s DNA all over him."
"You do realize Tommy, from what we''ve seen, was a pretty well-known kid right? Chances are a number of people have had physical contact with him of some kind in this town. At this stage, we really can''t rule anyone out either."
"Ah but there''s a catch," Jessica said with a cocky grin while bouncing her head side to side. "There is no approximation of a DNA tracer on this world. Not that normal humans know about anyway. We don''t have to look for a person with Tommy''s DNA period. We just have to look for the guy who came into contact with him AFTER he went missing and no one knew where he was.
Chapter 14: Finding the Rat
I stumbled off the bus. My mind was half gone from having to listen to Jessica''s choir of off-key children singing a song she invented on the fly for ten or twenty minutes... don''t ask how that happened... I don''t know.
Looking around the school I surveyed what must have been the playground. It was like a miniature amusement park, though I doubted one could get MUCH amusement out of such primitive equipment. The children around us started moving towards a building not far from us. Some ran full speed, bursting through the glass doors of the one-story structure, while others chatted for a while with their friends. I watched as several buses dropped off more and more children. I looked around for adults. There were a few older people here and there, but they were like some five or six goats in a sea of lambs. "What are they gonna herd them like sheep?" I asked. "Is it really a good idea to put this many little kids together- I mean young as they are and all?"
"Probably not," said Jessica with a half-smile. "One or two could wander off completely unseen..."
I was concerned but quickly filed the concern away, after all, these people were still around, so their systems for child care couldn''t be as crazy as they looked. "Let''s go," I said, taking out our DNA tracer.
"I do wanna know what they learn about in school when they''re so young."
To be honest, there was not a single cell in my brain that was even slightly curious about that. They were so young I doubted half these little people could even read, let alone were they on a learning level that could challenge me. "Probably something stupid," I shouted, already heading for a patch of grass across from the playground. The tracer indicated this was the latest trace of young Thomas in the area. I looked around the field and surrounding roads. "This is the last place he was. No one here has a trace of him on them later than about nine days ago. Guess that rules out the bus drivers."
"Good guess," said Jessica next to me.
"Ya think? Well here''s another one. Even if our perp does return to the scene of the crime, he probably doesn''t frequent it. He''s probably gonna come around sometime when there''s less activity or at least something to watch, like the cops checking around."
"So we gotta stakeout for a while eh?"
"Somehow," I said, scratching my head and looking around.
"We could just go to a class."
"My guess, nothing they''re learning is even close to our level. You hear how half the kids supposedly my age talk? We''ll stick out like sore thumbs in there. We won''t even know where we''re going. Are you out of your mind?"
"Kinda."
I smiled. "Yeah, walked into that one. If our experience on the bus is any indication, putting you in a small space with a lot of kids isn''t exactly a recipe for subtlety. Remember we''re trying to keep a low profile right?"
"Yeah... did it already occur to you that I''m a really bad partner for that kind of thing?"
"At some point, I figured it out," I said with a nod and lowered eyebrows. "Look, let''s just hide in those bushes over there."
(***)
Jessica and I hid in the bushes in a small forested area across from the school. Our small stature made it easier to hide in low vegetation, but I was still nervous about our brightly colored clothing. I started to wonder if we would have been better camouflaged in our birthday suits. Heck... aside the embarrassment, everything around us was so filed down and comfy, even outside, we could do it.
I looked to my left, noticing a strangely familiar vehicle. "Allen," Jessica whispered. "He must have followed the bus."
"Hm... well good," I said. "Think we''re gonna need a little help here. Did you notice everyone went inside the building when that bell rang? I don''t think you and I are still supposed to be out here. However, I just thought of something."
"What''s that?"
"Well we could wait around in the bushes till we''re discovered or the kids come back out, or we could find a way to talk to these police without them getting suspicious."
"And you think Al might know a way to help us with that?" Jessica asked. I nodded. I had no good ideas of my own at the moment. "Good idea, I''ll get his attention." She grabbed and rock and threw it, beaming the poor man directly in the forehead.
"Jess!" It was all I could do to not yell at her. I shook my head though, Allen was now looking right at us and motioning with his foot to some small bushes beside the parking lot. Jessica and I made our way over. Allen waited by the bushes and lit up a cigar when we arrived, as he spoke, to those who couldn''t hear him, he probably looked like he was just puffing the cigar.
"So, you making any progress?" he asked.
"Do you really smoke?" I asked. "I hear it''s bad for you."
"So is hanging out with a crazy person, but that didn''t stop you from practically marrying one now did it?" he asked, rubbing his head. I just smiled, holding up a finger to indicate he had a point. "Ya know, throwing a rock over my shoulder would have had the same effect," he said, looking at Jessica.
"No it wouldn''t," she replied, Allen, glaring at her. "In any case, we need to talk to the cops, any ideas?"
Allen shrugged, still rubbing his head. "Really there shouldn''t be a problem if you just speak to them during recess. I can''t hang out forever, it''ll call attention. When all the other kids come running out, that''s recess, I suspect Jessica already knew that of course. Ask around then. I just followed the bus so as to not lose track of you two. I''ll be off now."This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Wait, how do we hide till then?" I asked.
Allen looked around. "I don''t know... shoot... find an unlocked car and hide in it till you hear a bunch of screaming kids come running out."
"And if someone wants to drive that car while we''re still in it?"
"Up a creek without a paddle then I guess."
"That''s the best you got?"
Allen shrugged. "Next time you want to pick my brain don''t throw rocks at it." He thus walked away, giving a small snicker as I sat back and glared at Jess.
(***)
We managed by basically moving from tree to tree any time an adult came out. It wasn''t the best, but it was all we could come up with. We were actually lucky no one was seriously looking for two children running stealth. There was a part of me that suspected there was a reason for that, but I only had suspicions as to what it was.
A long time passed but sure enough, eventually, hundreds of children came running out of the building, once again the ratio of adults to kids must have been one to a hundred. I had no idea how there was anything but chaos on that playground. I ran out of the bushes, as everyone else seemed to be running. Jessica outran me and almost slammed into the leg of one of the patrolmen. "Hello!" she shouted. The officer took notice of her, a slight smile on his face. "I saw a couple of you guys around. What are ya doin'' here?"
The man had white skin and was dressed in a blue uniform. He regarded Jessica and answered, "We''re just on the lookout. Seems one of your schoolmates went missing. Don''t worry too much. We''re just seeing if we can learn anything here."
"It''s a school, that''s what it''s for," Jessica said back.
I shook my head, trying to be subtle about the gesture. "How many of you are there?" I asked.
"A couple," said the officer. "There''s a small group of us on the other side of the school too. The missing boy''s name was Thomas, did you know him?" Wow, he was loose with information. I had an idea.
"Tommy... didn''t we see someone grab him?" I asked.
"You... you did? We have another witness too... I gotta go get my captain." The man left us quickly, going over to another officer not far away.
"What are you doing?" asked Jessica.
"Moving things along," I replied. "It''s working too, you see we already know there''s a witness."
"We''re witnesses now!" Jessica almost shouted.
I chuckled, giving a cocky grin. "Jess these guys are incredibly naive. They think we''re helping and really that''s not too far from the truth now is it?"
"If we give them false information..." she said nervously.
"We won''t. We know someone grabbed him, that''s not false. Now we can confirm what the kidnapper looked like. Really it should be a matter of well-placed words to make them reveal what the original description from the real witness was." She sighed nodding. I was thus playing everyone like a fiddle, including a senior!
A tall skinny man in a uniform walked over to us at a quick pace. "Hello," he said in a friendly tone. "So you say you saw Thomas taken about a week ago?"
"Was that how long it was sis?" I asked Jessica.
"Um... yeah... I think so,"
The man took out a sketch pad. "Is this what the man looked like? The one who took Thomas I mean."
Surprised that I didn''t have to plant questions at all, I studied the picture. It was a black and white pencil drawing. The man shown looked to be in his thirties. He had dark hair and I supposed white skin. His nose was rather large and he had firm cheeks. I looked at a few notes below the picture, denoting that he had brown eyes and his hair was actually light brown. "I don''t remember," I admitted.
"You''re sure?" asked the man, focusing my attention on the picture by tapping it with his finger several times. "How about you little girl?" Jessica shook her head.
Jessica took out our tracker.
"What''s that?" asked the officer.
"It''s a toy... actually I think I do remember that man," she said. I looked at her with wide eyes. "But I think you got a few things wrong."
In my head, I thought, ''Jess, leave the manipulating to the professionals- what are you doing?''
"Did we now?" asked the officer. He stood up. "Alright, do you mind telling us what at the station?"
"No, why not?"
"Come with me," said the man, moving to one of their black and white cars.
"What are you doing?" I asked Jessica quietly as the two men walked away.
"That man has traces of Thomas on him that are only three days old," she replied. I paused, nodding. "Let''s get going. I''ll take care of his partner. In the car you get answers."
I ran over to the two officers as they opened the doors of their vehicle. The senior officer we had been talking to opened the driver''s side and got in as his subordinate opened the back seat for me and Jessica. I saw a set of metal fencing separated the front from the back and realized I couldn''t get at him from there. I quickly moved around the subordinate and to the passenger side door. "You really should get in back." The man commented as I opened the door. Just then Jessica tugged on his coat. "What''s wrong?"
"Nothing," she said, she offered her hand to shake. "Just thanks for helping to find my friend."
"Sure," he replied, taking her hand. That instant electric energy shot into his body and she threw herself at him, forcing his unconscious body into the back so no one would see it. She didn''t hit him with a lethal shock, but he would probably wake up with a... doosey of a headache.
"The heck is going on here?" asked our perp as I jumped in beside him. I quickly grabbed a small service pistol on his side and pointed it at him.
"Where''s Thomas?" I demanded. The man slapped his right hand into the air and grabbed the gun before I could even think.
"Not a smart move!" Jessica said in a low tone behind me. She pulled the hammer back on another small pistol in her own hands. "Now where is he?"
The man smiled. "You are the strangest children I have ever met. How could you have possibly known I took him? I arrived five minutes ago to oversee things and not a single piece of information to indict me has come into circulation. So what do you know? Child heroes... something I always dreamed of as a boy." He laughed. "Very well, I''ll give you your chance to shine. I don''t know where the boy is now, but there is a chance he is in a basement on the corner of 5th and Chance."
Jessica grinned. "You have no idea what you''re into my friend," she said. Jessica ejected a small metal chamber from her weapon, grabbing mine and doing the same. She threw both weapons at the man and grabbed me by the hand, leaving the man.
This was SO easy!
The officer shouted at us from the car. "It will be sheer chance if you find him, girl. I didn''t give you the answer I was only playing with you. You search 5th and there''s a chance you''ll find him. But then again, you don''t know anything about guns, so chance wasn''t on your side today. You''ll have to do it without your little brother there."
I turned quickly as the man picked up one of the guns Jessica left and pointed it at me. I shot electric energy into my feet, forcing myself to the side with incredible speed as I heard a loud blast go off into the air. When I stopped a few meters away I saw electric energy visibly travel up Jessica''s form as she threw her hands forward. Three bolts of lightning flew out of her hands into the officer and forced him through the driver-side door of his vehicle, ripping the door off as he continued to travel several feet and finally roll in the dirt. In that moment, I couldn''t be certain, but I was pretty sure he was dead.
"I think you just blew our cover... sis..." I turned around, forcing energy into my legs, and shot for the bushes we had hid in earlier.
I quickly ducked into the brush meeting Jessica inside. "How many do you think saw us?" she asked.
Well... things just got less easy. "I don''t know Jess, you lit that guy up like a star, we''ll be lucky if the whole school doesn''t know you have powers now!"
"We didn''t stick around and no one got photos of us so it doesn''t matter," she said with a nod. "If no one is sure what we look like, this will just become a local myth."
"Jessica you lead the entire bus in song, they know who you are."
"Well... maybe the same kids didn''t see."
"Jessica you and I both know what this means. We can''t be in public for the next year at least! Not in this city anyway."
"No one will believe the kids."
"Even if they all have the same story?"
"No, not if it''s not something the adults wouldn''t believe in the first place."
"D- these people are amazing." Even with all the silliness, I had seen from these people, I wasn''t sure how much I shared Jessica''s confidence in how easy covering up THAT would be.
"For us, I guess we just hide for a few hours until we can find a way to get through to Allen." I bit my lip, hoping for the best as we continued to hide.
Chapter 15: Innocence Lost
Kyle:
Allen finally did arrive again and we explained what happened, needless to say, my nervousness showed on my face. To top everything else off, there was a full investigation of the officer going on behind us as we talked, children being evacuated from the premise.
"You two realize we''re part of a secret organization... besides that, you took that man''s life!" he said glaring at Jessica. "You, Jessica, need to rein in your shenanigans. You seem to think there is no end to the naivety of the people on this world. You don''t seem to realize that adults may not always believe their children, but we do listen to them."
"Is this about the song on the bus?" she asked.
"Who cares about the song?" Allen asked angrily.
"Because if you''re talking about what I did in attacking that man, he was scum."
"We don''t get to decide who lives or dies Jessica," Allen said back. "We don''t say whose life does or doesn''t matter."
"Kyle was in danger. When that happens, I don''t care who I hurt, I will save him."
Allen sighed. He looked up, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth. "I guess I understand that. The wolves will be keeping their ears open for any rumors about today. Burying your silly episode on the bus should be a simple matter of not bringing it up, but a man died out here today. His family will want answers and there will be investigations of this until doomsday. Do you know how serious this is?"
"What did we do exactly?!" I demanded, not liking this line of questioning.
"What do you think you did? You killed a man."
"We did not murder him!" I barely held myself back from shouting, realizing we were not yet in private. As long as we talked in normal tones no one was close enough to hear though. "We defended ourselves."
"Did I say murder?" Allen asked. "Any jury would have exonerated you two. You were after all attacked and you were trying to do the right thing right?"
"Of course," I replied. I started folding my arms as I spoke. "It''s not like we wanted to kill him-"
"You cornered him and threatened him, what did you think was going to happen?" I had to pause at that one, my arms not quite folded. "Do either one of you think of your actions before you take them? You could have followed him, tricked him, found a way to reveal him to the authorities; any number of things you could have done, but you chose to confront him openly in a way that things had to come to a head."
"So what, another crook is off the street," Jessica said with a slight glare. "He won''t steal any more kids."
"Not once have I said that that man was a good man. But there was a chance he could have been changed. If not that, there was a chance his family could have said goodbye before he went. What about them, did they deserve to have that taken from them?"
"Well... no." I began.
"No? I guess you''re the one I''m especially disappointed in, Kyle."
"Me?" I asked.
"You think I haven''t noticed? How could anyone not? You''re the voice of reason here, aren''t you? Jessica looks to you for guidance, or haven''t you noticed? So where was that guidance?"
"I think the life of a little boy is worth a few tears-" I began, tears of my own starting to form. More tears of rage.
"More than tears," Allen interrupted. "It won''t stop at tears. A man died out here. Everyone will see that, but no one can know who did it. Don''t you realize what that means? Everyone can become a suspect except the guilty. And you think you''re so not guilty? How guilty is the other officer who you knocked out? He''ll be suspect number one and his only defense will be a story no one will believe. He and every man in his patrol group will now be investigated like criminals and even if no real crime was committed since no one can know that-"
"Stop acting like you''re so innocent!" I shot back. "When we first met you, you carried a shotgun and looked like you were looking for a fight."
"I can''t speak for my compatriots," Allen replied. "I am an officer charged with protecting those around me with force if necessary. For myself, I only kill if it is necessary."
"It was necessary," Jessica replied.
"And I don''t MAKE it necessary!" Allen almost shouted.
I couldn''t help but squirm in my own shoes. Allen was... Allen was right in so many ways. I folded my hands but started to look down. I wasn''t quite sure what that meant we did. "Will, someone take the fall for us?"
"You should have thought about that before you cornered him, but no. We''ve been able to keep that from happening thankfully in most cases. Don''t think this is the only time someone has been killed in the wars for order in the societies. We''ll do our prudence to make sure that man''s death becomes a cold case. Course the truth is, as much as I hate to say it, all I have is your word that you didn''t kill that man in cold blood." I moved to speak but Allen cut me off again. "You said he told you there was a chance you would find the boy on 5th street. For your sake, if you don''t want to find out what it means to be on trial for murder in the societies, there better be something on Portland''s 5th street." Every piece of me wanted to shout that we weren''t guilty, that everything we said was true. But what could I do? We had done what we had done. We had not held life sacred, and there was now no telling how many people would pay for that. "Get in the car now," Allen demanded, pointing to his rambler. "I want you to think about something. I''ve killed, but I would like to think that it was always somehow worth it. So I ask you, was it worth it?"This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
I didn''t know.
(***)
Allen:
Through the city, we drove. I felt like we were already at a trial. Everything kept hitting me like a freight train over and over. Trial for murder. Had I really said that?
I allowed the two to reclaim their weapons for the moment, after all, did I really think these two were capable of murder? Sure they COULD kill, any idiot could see that, but really neither kid seemed like the type. Seriously, two kids who just randomly start looking for a missing kid because- because it''s the right thing to do I suppose- does that sound like a pair of killers? But I had to let the facts speak for themselves if there was nothing on 5th Street. I was actually starting to think of these two as my own children. They both needed so much guidance, just like a real little boy and girl. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. I thought for sure this would be the worst I would feel about anything for a long time.
We approached 5th street, Kyle taking out his DNA tracker. He was nervous and I couldn''t blame him. We drove for a few minutes down the street. Truth is, I was ready to drive both ways down 5th street, but I had actually turned onto it only about a mile from where it came to a T section in the opposite direction. 5th street was really only three miles long.
I was so relieved to hear Kyle shout back to his bodyguard. "I''ve got something!"
"Is it the boy?" I asked.
"No... not technically," he admitted. "Just drive for about three more minutes alright?" I happily complied. At the time I didn''t know if I would allow the two to continue their little adventure after this day, but this exercise was at least proving them to be as innocent as I saw them.
Kyle pointed at a building just a few meters away as we stopped at a red light. "There... right there," he said. "It- I don''t know what I''m looking at."
"What?" I asked.
Jessica looked back from the passenger side at the tracer in Kyle''s hands. She spoke slowly, as though confused too. "Just pull over at the building."
I nodded. The light turned green and I moved the vehicle to the building, parking. Kyle and Jessica both got out quickly. The structure was about five stories tall. It was like a normal glass-windowed office building. The only strange thing was that every light was off on a Monday at just six pm. Jessica moved to the front glass door and pushed on the latch. It didn''t budge. "Hmm." I began. "I guess I can pick-" Jessica grabbed the push bar latch and sent electric energy into it. I watched as something on the inside flew off of the door. "Was that the lock?"
"A trick I learned last time I was on this planet. Kinda cool right?" Jessica asked.
"A little," I admitted. Jessica opened the door and walked in. "Hold up, it could be alarmed!" I almost shouted at her.
Jessica spun around a few times and did a mock can can dance... why... I have no idea. "Don''t seem like it to me... automatic alarms, when did they make those?"
"I actually don''t know," I answered
Kyle shook his head as he stepped around me. "Once again, your knowledge does NOT come in handy," he said snarkily.
Best I could tell, his respect for me was growing, but still, I had to sass back a little. "Mememe," I said following behind him.
"What?" Kyle asked.
"I was mocking you- kinda," I said.
"That sounded kinda weird," Jessica said. "Kinda like memememme... memememem... I kinda like that... memememe-" Kyle grabbed her by the hand before she got too far off target.
Kyle pointed at the ground and spun in a circle. "He was in here, or above... or maybe below here... but he never left this area right here in this circle. There are actually heavy DNA concentrations in four areas, formed like corners. How is that possible?" I shrugged. "The boy didn''t walk in or out, he was just kinda here."
"They could have carried him in," I volunteered. "Probably unconscious. Some kind of prison room I would guess."
"Four corners," Jessica commented. "No."
"What?" Kyle asked.
"Where is that prison?" Jessica said under her breath.
"If they''re trying to be subtle I''d guess the basement," I said.
"Kyle..." The girl was almost in tears of rage at this point about something. "You still able to do what you did in the gym? Blow up the floor."
"Hold up! You remember about thinking through your actions?" I asked. "You really think you need to blow up the building? I mean can we at least try being subtle? Ya know, try to find the actual door to the basement." What was upsetting her?
"Where would the access door be?" asked Kyle.
"You better find it," Jessica said, clutching one of her lightning blades.
I was at a loss. I pointed at a wooden door on the right-hand side of the main room we were in. "Probably in the closet over there." Kyle moved over quickly and opened the closet. He found and removed a trap door revealing a hole leading to the basement of the building. He then jumped into the hole.
"Sweet mother of... it STINKS down here!" Kyle shouted back up. I shrugged and jumped down after him... he wasn''t wrong about the smell. Like urine... maybe they had a rat problem.
Jessica came down in short order as well. Kyle started walking into the poorly lit basement. Even in the small amount of light down there we could see a concrete barrier that would have been just below where we were standing. "It really smells... I... no..." Kyle said.
"What?" I started to demand of the two.
"Do you see a door?" Kyle asked.
I spoke up. "No... but if it''s a cleverly built prison for a little boy there''s probably a hidden latch or something, this is getting weird." Kyle drew his sword. "Kyle, every time you think of taking violent action, you have to think if it''s worth it or-"
"I need practice," said the boy. "I just developed this technique, besides trust me, this is worth it, now stand back."
"What''s worth it?" I asked.
"I''m gonna blast this prison wide open. Then you''ll see how much it''s worth to make sure it''s never used again." I backed away from the concrete barrier, Jessica following.
Kyle grabbed his rapier blade and drew it out. His whole form lit up with electric energy and he slammed the tip of his blade into the cement wall. The energy seemed to travel from his body and through the blade. The energy around him disappeared and the boy quickly dropped to his back and somersaulted a good distance away rolling to the side. The wall erupted as Jessica and I both dropped into cover positions, my ears starting to ring. In the midst of the explosion, a flash of electric energy shot out and dust filled the room along with stone rubble being thrown every which way.
Kyle returned to his feet as did myself and the girl. I noticed the smell was getting worse and I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. In the cement a large hole now stood, large enough for a man to walk through, I, however, did not want to walk through. Kyle moved forward despite the stench and into the room now revealed behind the wall. I reluctantly followed and looked around.
What I saw was hardly fit for young eyes. The room was basically four stone walls surrounding a mud floor. There was a section of the wall that looked like a door on our side of the room which had no visible means of opening from the inside. I knew what the smell was. This wasn''t just a cell, it was a confinement-like one made for animals. The idea that a young boy lived, ate, slept, and even had to dispose of his waste in this small room was despicable.
"They made a child live with his own filth... like an animal..." Kyle said. "No, they treat animals better than this." Looking around the room the idea struck my mind that the boy imprisoned here could easily have been my boy Jaden. Even the idea of that sent a wave of rage through my entire body. Anyone who would do this to a child deserved everything they got. In that moment I began to wish Jessica was not the one who killed the officer, but me instead.
I spoke up again. "Tell you the truth, building a special prison-like this would take money like you wouldn''t believe. I hate to say it, but I think it''s a possibility this is not a prison built solely to imprison one nine-year-old boy. This was a room built to hide human trafficking. Someone wanted to sell that boy for money, and I bet you they''ve done it to more than one kid in the past."
"If he''s not here still," Kyle said. "Do you think it''s possible they already sold him?"