It's strange what people can ignore. Strange is the word for it, alright. The animals around Merrysville have been going crazy, attacking pretty much anything with no provocation. But that's not the strange part. No, that would have to be the cars and trucks that have begun to move on their own and, again, attacking anything in sight. Of course, since their preferred method is ramming things, they mostly end up crashing into rocks.

No one seems to mind too much, though. I haven't heard anything about it on the news in a few days now. Admittedly, all of these things are happening in the area surrounding Merrysville, not within the city limits. Which is apparently better than the neighboring town of Podunk fared. I heard a few days ago that they even had zombies roaming around. Still, I can't help but feel that everyone's taking this entire situation far too lightly. The thing everyone is talking about is how the Duncan Corporation is trying to build a strip joint. Or a strip mall. Or a strip mall filled with strip joints, I don't know.

Point is, everyone is ignoring the strange things going on everywhere. Me? I can't ignore it.

My name is Loid. I'm a student at Twinkle Elementary. I crave knowledge, but more than that, I want to understand how the world works. Right now, though, I'll settle for figuring out what on Earth is going on. No, even before that, I'll settle for finding someone else who cares. Someone who understands. At the very least, someone who accepts that I want to understand.

No one around here does that. The teachers have long since gotten fed up with me asking questions. Granted, I tend to interrupt lessons to go off on a complicated tangent, and I have a bad habit of criticizing their lesson structure, but I'm only trying to help. Maybe it's the way I do it. Mom says I have a bad tendency to be rather brusque. I like to think that I just want to get straight to the point, but maybe it does come across wrong.

The other students are worse. Normally, I can at least get along with most of them, but not now. The adults are at least concerned enough about the local phenomena to keep the kids in the inner city. This understandable action has led to a lot of really bored children who hang out around the school all afternoon after classes end. Of course, they've been trying to deal with this by finding amusement wherever they can, and I happen to be one of their favorite sources. As a weakling science nerd, I happen to be an easy target.

So lately, I've been spending my afternoons on the roof of the school, seeing if I can spot any of the animals or runaway vehicles from here. It's the closest thing to an uninterrupted science experiment I can run. It's not a very good one, and I've learned nothing of interest. At least there's a good view up here. On a clear day, like today, I can even see Mt. Itoi in the distance.

I've always liked looking at Mt. Itoi. There's always been something serene about it that just makes me feel at peace. Lately, there have been numerous clouds surrounding the peak. This isn't too unusual. It's happened countless times in the past. There's something different about it, though. Looking at it, I can't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding.

Before I can think about this any further, I start hearing jingling of keys and the rattle of a doorknob. I had locked the door back down into the school so I could get some peace, but someone was about to unlock it. As fast as I could, I hop into the lone trashcan on the roof and brought the lid down over me. Just in time, too, as I hear the door swing open and footsteps on the roof. I don't know who's up here, or why, but I can just wait them out.

Now, most people would feel uncomfortable being all the way in a trashcan. I, on the other hand, feel incredibly secure here. There's just something about the confined rawness of a trashcan that makes my worries float away. My mom says I get that from my dad.

My dad. Now there's a person who would be interested everything around here. He was a brilliant physicist, like I want to be when I grow up. A few years ago, however, he decided he'd rather be a biologist and ran off to study swamps. Why swamps? I have no idea. I'm sure there's a reason. Dad always had a reason for doing things. I just don't know what it is. I also don't know what mom thinks about all this. She seems happy enough, but I just can't bring myself to ask her about it.

Before I can think any more on the subject, light comes shining down from above as someone removes the lid to my trashcan. I look up to meet the newcomer's eyes, which causes him to gasp and stumble backwards.

I poke my head up to get a better look at him. He's a young fellow with dark hair, about my age. He's wearing a blue and yellow striped shirt that's half-tucked into his blue shorts. He sports a red cap on his head that's twisted to the left, and what looks like a red bandanna tied around his neck. I don't know if he thinks he looks cool or if he simply has no idea how to dress himself. He's clearly trying to pull himself together, but he's still staring at me in shock. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but quickly closes it.

Since he's not going to talk, I suppose I'm going to have to. "If you're looking for a burger, I'm afraid this can's fresh out."

This seems to have broken him out of shock as he quickly makes a sound of disgust. "Ew, no!" he sputters. "Why would I…who eats burgers out of trashcans?"

"You'd be surprised," I reply. "Anyway, are you going to introduce yourself anytime soon?"

The boy starts, then grows a little red. "Oh, right. Sorry. My name's Ninten."

Ninten, huh? That name gives me the bizarre urge to play a video game. It's pretty weird as names go, but who am I to judge? "Okay, Ninten. Is there something I can help you with or do you just want to stare at me all day?"

The boy laughs a little bit. "Sorry for staring, I just really wasn't expecting someone to be inside the trashcan when I opened it."

"So why did you open it?" I ask. "In fact, why are you even up here?"

Ninten smiles. "Well, I'm going on a trip, but I've reached kind of a dead end because of that rockslide."

Right, the rockslide. Merrysville and the area surrounding it is almost completely boxed in by cliffs, with a few paths leading out. There's this narrow pass where the local train tracks go through towards the Union Station north of the city. The trains would head south through a tunnel to Reindeer or east towards the desert. But about a week ago, when all these other things started happening, there was a rockslide that completely blocked the tracks, as well as the only path to the station itself. Walking's out of the question, since you can't head to the desert without going through the blocked path, and only an idiot would walk through a narrow train tunnel. I had forgotten about the rockslide, what with everything else going on, but you'd think the adults would care a little more.

I wondered where he was heading and why. There was, however, a more pressing question. "And you came to the roof a school to solve the problem?"

Ninten chuckled a little. "Well, when you put it like that it sounds kinda dumb."

No kidding.

"But I just had a feeling that I should come up here. Not sure why. Just did. Same reason why I looked in the trash. And I found you." He smiled brightly. "Do you think you could help me clear the path?"

I really didn't know what to say to this. Which part sounded dumber? The part where he goes to the roof of an elementary school to solve a rockslide or the part where he asks for help from a kid in a trashcan that I have yet to remove myself from. Still, I can't deny that he found his way to perhaps the only person who cares about the whole thing.

I sighed as I considered my options. It didn't take me long to conclude that explosives were probably the answer. And unlike that time with the bowling ball and the cream cheese, I was probably right.

"Alright, I think I might have an answer for you." I winced slightly as Ninten started looking really hopeful on top of his already cheery expression. "A couple years back, there was a company around here called Sweet Little. They specialized in fireworks. They shut down around that time, but their old factory is south of here. You might be able to find a bottle rocket lying around the place. If you do, bring it back here and I'll see what you can do."

I feel like I'm going a little out of my way for the sake of a stranger, but if it gets the path cleared, I may as well.

"Old factory to the south, get a bottle rocket, bring it back," Ninten recited. "Got it. I'll see you in a little bit…" He looked at me expectantly.

"Loid," I said, realizing that I hadn't introduced myself. "My name's Loid."

"Loid," he repeated. "Alright be back soon." He turned to leave when a thought struck me.

"Hey, wait a minute!" He paused and looked back at me as I continued. "You're obviously not from around here. With the rockslide blocking the tracks, you must have come from the west, from Podunk."

"That's right," Ninten agreed.

"But I heard the mayor there had set up a blockade keeping anyone from going in or out. Did they lift it?"

"Dunno," he said cheerfully. "I got here through a magic cloud land full of seashells." And with that, he left before I could say anything else.

...Well, I just sent a crazy kid to go handle explosives. This is precisely what my day needed. Moaning aloud, I put the lid back on the trashcan and bury myself in garbage, trying not to think about the jail time that was sure to result from this.

Another few hours pass and I decide it's about time to head home for the night. I had just finished extracting myself from the trashcan when the door swings open to reveal Ninten. He looked a little worse for the wear but he pumped his hand upward clutching the bottle rocket triumphantly and smiling broadly.

"Sorry I took so long," he said. "The animals were kinda nasty down there."

Crap! I can't believe I never thought of that. I don't want to get this kid killed or anything. "I'm sorry Ninten. I should've known they'd be down there, but no one ever goes that way so I never thought about it."

Ninten chuckles again. He does that a lot. "Don't worry about it. I've faced worse. There was an exploding tree in the cloud land."

I chose to ignore that entirely.

"Come with me," I say. "We need to go to the science lab on the first floor."

I walked through the door with Ninten at my heels. The hallways were deserted, since everyone else had already gone home. You'd think they'd lock the place up, but whatever.

When we arrived I grabbed some chemicals, I won't bore you by explaining which ones, and the bottle rocket and set them on a table. "This bottle rocket won't be powerful enough to clear the rocks by itself," I explain while opening the bottle rocket up. "But if I give it some more pep, it should do the job."

"Really?" he asks, apparently in awe. "You can do that?"

"I think so," I say as I begin mixing the chemicals into the open bottle rocket. "All I have to do is…oh crap!" While talking, I realize that I made a crucial miscalculation. Putting these chemicals into a bottle rocket was, in fact, not a good idea. I jump back from the rocket and crouch behind Ninten, just in time for the rocket to explode where it was.

I look up at the sound of coughing, and find Ninten with his face and torso covered in ash. All of a sudden, I feel rather ashamed of myself. "Ninten, I'm sorry, I panicked and…"

"It's cool," he replies, having recovered from his coughing fit. "Asthma doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to. It'll take a bit more than that to get me going." Before I can respond that's not nearly what I was apologizing for, he continues, "So since that didn't work out, did you have any other ideas? I'm not sure there were any more fireworks left at the factory."

Geez, this guy gets over things fast. Still, this incident does nothing to ease my concerns of his sanity. One other thing takes precedence, though. "You still want my help after this?"

He shrugs and grins again. "Why wouldn't I? So you had one mistake? Happens to everyone. Besides, you're the first person I've met who's interested in figuring out what's been going on everywhere."

I don't know what to say to him. I'm actually somewhat touched by this. What I haven't mentioned up until now is that while I'm big on science, I'm not yet a scientist. What I mean to say is I make a lot of mistakes. Mistakes that have often ended poorly. Attempts to fix bicycles that end up with people crashing, helping people with science projects that always end in explosions somehow…I'm not ostracized from my classmates simply because I'm weak and nerdy after all. That just doesn't help.

I give my head a shake to clear my thoughts. Doesn't help to dwell on it all. Instead, I focus on the other thing he said. "You too, huh?" I can't help but give a snort. "How is it that with all of these unnatural things happening all over two cities and probably further, only two children seem to give a darn? You're on a journey to figure out what's going on, right?" He nods. "So why aren't any of the adults lending a hand? Doing something, anything!? It's outright ludicrous!"

Ninten stops smiling, even looking a little sad. "I don't know about everyone, but for some people, they have other things to think about. Everyone back in Podunk is hard at work trying to fix up the place. And even then, what about people with families to provide for? They can hardly drop everything in their life to seek out answers when they don't even know where to look? And…" he pauses, slightly, as if considering his words. "Maybe they're weak. Or at least, they think they are. It's a hard thing, to venture into the unknown." He grins again, but it's rather shaky. "I won't lie, I'm rather intimidated myself. I've actually considered quitting a few times."

He's wiser than I thought he was, I'll give him that. I hadn't even considered the family angle. But I don't focus on that, it's the other thing he said. That word he said. Weak. I feel really ridiculous all of a sudden. I've been doing nothing but complaining that no one's trying to figure anything out when I'm not either. Because I'm weak. I'm scared to go by myself, really. What can I do? Even if I didn't make mistakes all the time I wouldn't be any good on this. I sigh. I've been so angry with everyone lately, but maybe I'm just taking my frustration with myself out on them. That's not fair, is it? Maybe they care, too, and they're just ignoring it because they don't know what do to about it. I can't blame them for that, I don't know what to do, either.

Dragging myself out of my thoughts, I notice that Ninten has a rather concerned look on his face. Makes sense, I doubt I've said anything in a couple minutes. The last thing I want to do is share my insecurities with a stranger, though, even if he is rather nice, so I decide to ask him the logical question. "So why are you on this journey then? What makes you so much stronger than everyone else?"

I'm sure I sounded a bit harsher than I meant, but he doesn't seem to mind. "It's not that," Ninten responds. "You see, I'm…different."

Oh, I know you're different, cloud land boy. That doesn't clarify matters, though. "Different how?"

"Well, I…you know, it'd be easier to show you." Without another word, starts looking around the room. I'd offer to help, but I don't know what he wants. I'm also getting just a little worried. A possibly crazy kid wants to give me a demonstration of some sort in a secluded building? Not a good sign.

"Ah, this'll do!" Ninten exclaims. He comes back over holding a small metal rod, maybe a foot long. "Now watch."

He closes his eyes as if concentrating. I can see his brow furrowed. Okay, what am I looking at, I'm not seeing…wait, is…is the rod moving? Before my eyes, the rod begins to bend forward until it's made a perfect 45 degree angle. I can feel my eyes go wide with shock as he opens his.

"Man," he says, panting just a little. "That's a lot easier with spoons. Maybe I'm just tired?"

Wait. Wait. No seriously, wait just a minute here. "Y-you...you're a…but you can't be…those don't exist. They c-can't…no, this isn't…" I pause and take a deep breath. "Are you trying to tell me that you're a psychic!?"

He grins that annoying grin again. "Yep. Been one all my life!"

"That's absurd!" I can't help but yell. "I admit, there are a few documented studies of PSI, but they were all done by quacks! There's no substance to any of them!"

Ninten's grin shrinks a bit, but he's got an understanding look in his eyes. "Yeah, that's what I've heard. I'd actually like to travel to the Far East. I understand that PSI is big in Dalaam."

I snort again. "Yeah, and they'll only share their secrets if you dedicate years of your life to studying it and mastering it. And then only if you've got 'the gift'. They just don't want to admit that the whole thing's a crock." As I say that, I get a small metal rod bent at a 45 degree angle wiggled in my face by a broadly grinning boy. I look at it and force myself to calm down. I'm a scientist-to-be after all. This is just something new for me to learn about. "Look, I'm sorry for flying off the handle like that, it's just…"

"It's shocking, I know," Ninten agreed. "I don't know why I have this power, or even what it is. My great-grandfather did a study on PSI, but he didn't leave any of his notes behind. I'm hoping that by going on this journey I'll learn more about it. I feel like I just might. I hope, at least." For the first time, his smile looks fake. "Who knows, maybe I'll find a secret lab that he left behind."

A journey of self-discovery, huh? A question of self that burns so deeply within him that he's going to travel to who-knows-where while everything's going nuts in the world. In that instant, I envy this very strange boy standing in front of me.

I wonder if I could be that strong…

In an attempt to break the sudden melancholy that's descended upon us, I decided to finally get the topic back on track. "We'll need a bigger rocket." Ninten just stares are me, dumbfounded. "For the rockslide, I mean."

And just like that he's back to grinning again. "Right, I almost forgot that I asked you that. So where can we find one?"

"Just one place: Duncan's Factory."

"Duncan? The super corporation?" he asks. "I didn't know they were based around here."

"They're not, really. But a few years back, they set up a big factory to the north, and they've been getting more involved in everything here ever since. Why do you think Sweet Little went out of business? And now they're even trying to build a strip-joint mall."

"What?"

"Never mind." I've got to pay more attention to what comes out of my mouth. "Anyway, you'll have a hard time finding it. It's on a side road that's easy to overlook. So I'll take you there." Wait, what?

"Really?" he says, far too excitedly. "You'd do that?"

"Yeah, sure" I say, while I'm silently trying to figure out what's come over me. Why am I offering to go with him at all? It's not that hard to get to Duncan's by yourself.

Before I can think any further, Ninten grabs my hand and shakes it vigorously. "Thank you so much, Loid! This'll be great! We'll go there, and we'll…" he stops rather abruptly. "Wait, I don't think I can afford to buy a rocket."

"And that is precisely why we're going now, since it's nearly dark," I say as I dislodge my hand from his.

Ninten's face suddenly got a lot more dangerous-looking. "Loid, you're not suggesting that we steal one, are you? It's one thing to take one from an abandoned factory, but this is something else entirely."

"I know, I know," I say as placating a voice as I can muster. "I don't like it either, but this is important. Not just for your journey. Merrysville might not care, but I'm sure a lot of people are inconvenienced by the trains being down. We need to fix this, even if we have to bend the rules a little."

Ninten continued to frown. "Well…I mean, it is for a good cause, but still…"

"Look, we'll just head up there and see what's going on. Maybe we can convince the people there to help." I doubt it, but I'll deal with that later. "I'm sure there's still a few people around that we can ask for help."

After considering it for a moment, Ninten sighs. "Alright, we'll give it a shot. But I'm still uncomfortable about all this. Oh, but before we go, I have something for you." He proceeds to take off the backpack I hadn't noticed until now and rummage through it. After a moment, he takes something out, and it is…

"A boomerang? Seriously?" I'm not even surprised anymore.

"Yeah, I got it in Magicant." He pauses, clearly seeing my inquiring expression. "That's the cloud land. I don't really know what or where it is, but I got this while I was there."

Does this boy have any idea how crazy he sounds? Slowly, I take the boomerang from him and inspect it. I half-expect to see 'Made in Cloud Land' printed on it somewhere, and am almost disappointed when I don't.

So we leave the school, the sun barely visible above the cliffs. And I'm armed with a boomerang. I'd prefer a gun, but I'm 11 years old, so a boomerang will have to do.

We head north and clear the city limits, following the train tracks. As we approach the cliffs, however, I hear something that chills my blood.

The sound of an engine revving.

Oh no…

Oh God no…

I forgot about the cars!

From the left, headlights flicker on and an orange car charges at us. I try to move but my legs feel like jelly. It's one thing seeing these things from a distance, but quite another to be staring one down. Thankfully, Ninten dove at me and grabbed me, pulling both of us out of the way.

"What on Earth!?" Ninten yells. He pauses for half a second. "There's no one in that car, is there?"

"No," I gasp. "It's driving itself, if you can believe that."

I look up and I see that Ninten has a steely look on his face. Suddenly, he gets up and dashes away from me, yelling loudly and waving his arms, almost as if he was trying to get the car's attention.

No…that's exactly what he's doing. The car has turned around by this point and is pointing straight at Ninten. And he's…what's he doing? He's got an aluminum baseball bat in his hands and…he can't possibly intend to…

"Ninten!" I cry, but before I say anything else the car charges. I can't tear my eyes away as it gets closer and closer. And then, faster than I would have thought he could possibly move, he leaps to the side as if dodging a bull and he slams his bat into the side of the car. Even more amazingly, the car goes veering off to the side, clearly staggered. Unfortunately, as it does so it lets out a huge burst of exhaust, right in Ninten's face. As it clears, he's dropped to his knees and is wheezing uncontrollably.

Normally, I'd question how this sets off his asthma when a rocket exploding almost in his face didn't, but now's really not the time.

More importantly, the car's turning back around and is getting ready to try ramming Ninten again. I want to help. I want to go over there and grab him, but my legs are shaking like mad and I can't move.

This is bad.

This is really bad.

Come on, Loid, do something!

I force myself to look at the car and suddenly I notice something. I can barely see it over the glare of the headlights, but I could swear the windshield looks like…well, a pair of eyes.

It's utterly ridiculous, but so is everything else that's happened today. Either way, I'm out of time.

I grab my boomerang and throw it as the car charges. I've never thrown a boomerang in my life, but fortunately, my aim is rather good and it smashes into the windshield. The car veers back and forth for a moment before careening off to the side, crashing into the side of the cliff. I wait for a moment, but the car remains motionless. Clearly whatever had possessed it is gone.

I suddenly realize that I've been holding my breath. I exhale quite loudly and fall to my knees. A strange feeling begins crawling throughout my body.

I just saved Ninten's life.

Me.

Weakling Loid.

At this moment I feel proud, incredibly so. I just took out a killer automobile! I almost wish those jerks from the school could've been here. That'd show them a thing or two!

I soon remember, however, that Ninten is still down. Standing up, I see that he's got an inhaler in his mouth and is steadily calming down. I walk over to him and offer out my hand. He takes it and drags himself to his feet.

"So I'm starting to see why you've considered giving up this journey of yours," I state as he puts his inhaler away.

"Yeah," he agrees, still breathing a little heavily. "This isn't the first close call I've had, either." He looks me in the eye and smiles. "Although this is the first time that I had someone to help me out of a mess. Thanks."

"Don't mention it," I say, not wanting to brag. He did save my life first, after all. "Let's just get moving before another one of those things shows up."

"Sure, let me just get the boomerang back."

I admit, I hadn't really thought about that. As Ninten carefully reaches up into the shattered windshield, I begin to doubt that the thing's in one piece. However, just as I begin to voice that thought, Ninten gives a little exclamation of triumph and pulls out the boomerang.

"Thank goodness! I'm pretty sure I'd have a hard time getting another one of these." He runs over and hands it back to me. "But I'm definitely letting you carry it for right now."

I take the boomerang and inspect it, but it looks no worse for the wear. This boomerang that I got from my new psychic friend and used to take out a car's eyes so that it couldn't see and crashed into a cliff. I'm not saying I accept the idea of magic cloud land, but I'm certainly less opposed to the notion than I was this afternoon.

We continue north, passing by the rockslide. There's not much to say, other than it's a rockslide. Completely blocks that path, but there's another path a little to the west that continues north into the hills. Nothing bothers us this time, and we quickly reach the rather secluded factory of the Duncan Corporation.

The rather large building seems to tower above us in the almost faded daylight. Our goal is to reach the roof, but for right now we need to worry about getting inside, as right in front of the door is a rather testy-looking dog. I resist the urge to groan at the absurdity. I expected security, but this set-up actually seems rather silly.

"Any ideas?" I whisper. "I don't really want to brain this thing if I don't have to, and we don't need the noise of him barking attracting attention."

"Actually, I found an ID pass for the building a little ways back," Ninten replies. "Maybe he'll let us inside if he sees it."

"You're going to show an ID to a dog?" I ask, not bothering to keep disbelief out of my voice.

"I am a psychic, Loid," he says using the flattest tone I've heard out of him. "This could actually work."

The fact that I can no longer discount that statement offhand is beginning to worry me. Anyway, I will accept for the moment that being psychic allows you to talk to animals. At least I hope so, since there he goes.

Moving slowly and deliberately, Ninten approaches the dog which is currently giving him an unfriendly look. When he gets about five feet away, he holds out the pass for the dog to see. The dog walks up to him and proceeds to inspect the pass, amazingly. Less amazing is the fact that after a moment, the dog bares his teeth and growls loudly. Before he could start barking, however, Ninten touches his index fingers to his temples and appears to look the dog straight in the eye, though I can't tell from my vantage point. Within seconds, the dog calms down noticeably. In fact, he even collapses onto the ground in front of him with a soft thud.

"What did you do?" I ask. "He's not…"

"No, he's just sleeping," he says. "I used a PSI ability of mine: hypnosis."

"And you didn't use this on the car?"

This time, Ninten gives me a completely flat look. "You can't put cars to sleep, Loid. That's just dumb."

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were using logic now. My mistake.

I don't say any of this, though. Instead, I lead the way to the factory's door and open it. We walk into a small reception area, but it's completely abandoned. Moving past it, we enter a huge room filled with all sorts of equipment, many of which even I don't recognize. More importantly, though, are a series of ladders leading to walkways along the wall. I'll bet anything that there's a way to the roof at the top of them.

Taking another look around, I can't help but notice how disorganized everything is. Unnaturally so. If I had to take a guess, I'd say this place hasn't escaped the weirdness that's going on everywhere. Off to the side, I see what appear to be robots lined against the wall. Geez, I knew Duncan was into everything, but robotics? And some of these things look to be in pretty lousy condition, but the damage looks too deliberate. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were built like that.

We move without saying anything. This place has a heavy atmosphere to it, almost oppressive. If Ninten still has any doubts about what we're doing, he keeps silent about them. We're maybe half-way up when Ninten grabs me and pulls me to the ground. I turn to glare at him, but he has a finger pressed against his lips. He then looks down to the ground floor and I follow his gaze, where I see…

A group of fireballs. Running along. Literally running, they have little legs and arms. I can't tell from up here, but I think they have little faces as well. They don't look happy, either.

…You know what? Fine. There's a cloud land. I'm completely okay with that now.

In any case, having no desire to catch their attention, we continue along our way. I don't know if fire can climb ladders or not, and I can't believe I just thought that, but we make it to the top without further interruption. Outside, we find what I expected to be there. Namely, a couple of small missiles set to launch.

Ninten looks more than slightly shocked by this. "How on Earth are they able to get away with this? I wouldn't have thought that this could possibly be legal."

"Can't argue with that," I agree. "But I'm into physics, not zoning permits."

"I'm not sure zoning permits would cover this."

"I wouldn't know."

Fortunately, besides physics, I'm also big into explosives and heavy weaponry in general. Additionally, I'm very caught up on the layout of Merrysville and the area surrounding it, so getting this missile to point at the rockslide is far simpler that it would be for anyone else. With a press of a button, the missile goes flying off over the hills to the south. We listen, and after about ten seconds, the unmistakable sound of an explosion fills the air.

"Now, it'll probably take a few days for them to repair the train tracks," I say. "I can't imagine that they're in good shape after this."

Ninten nods. "That's fine, I won't object to taking some time to relax. Maybe I can head home for a little bit before continuing on my journey."

His journey. Questing to solve the mysteries that have been piling up over the last week, as well as those surrounding PSI. It's strange. I've only known Ninten for a few hours, yet already I feel like I'll miss him. This guy who trusts me despite my weakness. At this point, though, I'm getting tired of feeling weak. Today, I've done things I never would have thought that I could. Not the least of which is finding a new friend whom I'm closer to than anyone at Twinkle Elementary. As I ponder these things, I make up my mind.

"Ninten," I say. He turns to look at me. "This might sound strange but," I pause, briefly worried about how he'll react, but I push that aside. "Can I go with you?"

To his credit, Ninten does not burst out laughing. He seems surprised and maybe a little pleased. "Are you sure, Loid? I've got a hunch that we'll be facing things far more dangerous than killer cars."

Those hunches again. This time, though, I share that hunch. This journey could spell the end of me if I'm not careful, or maybe even if I am. Even so, "I'm sure. I want to know what's happening. I want to understand how the world works, and if PSI and this other nonsense is part of it, then I want to understand that, too." And I think I'll really enjoy having a close friend to pal around with. I don't say that, though.

Ninten smiles yet again, but somehow this one seems bigger than his others. "I would be happy to have a smart guy like you watching my back. We'll leave as soon as the trains are running again. I was planning on heading south to Reindeer after this."

"That's fine. I've always wondered what Reindeer was like." That's true, I hear they have decent science programs down there. "But for now, I think we should get out of here and now. That explosion is sure to attract the kind of attention we don't want."

"I've got it covered." He fishes around his backpack again and pulls out a small hook made out of what appears to be onyx. "This will take us to safety. Grab on to me."

Once again, I start to wonder if this kid is actually insane. He might just be. Still, I walk over and place my hand on his arm. After all, if he can trust me to fire a high-end explosive, then I don't see why I can't extend a little trust of my own.

Isn't that what bein' friends is about?