Chapter 13

"So Ed, what's been going on around here?"

Kevin walked his bike alongside Ed, constantly scanning the area around them for a potential threat. Even after healing himself, he could still feel a ghost of the horrible pain that came from getting tackled to the ground by two hundred pounds of football jock swimming around in his bones.

"Weird stuff," Ed replied. His voice was soft but cracked, as if he didn't enjoy talking much. Kevin could understand why, considering everything that had happened to the poor boy in such a short time. He just wished it didn't make him feel so terrible as well.

"What kind of weird stuff?" Kevin asked. He'd been alone for quite a while, and talking with a familiar person—even if it was Ed of all people—felt comforting, like not everything had changed from his old life.

"Weird stuff, like monster birds and evil snakes and blue people who attack people and monsters who kidnap—"

"Alright, I get it," Kevin interrupted. He silently thanked himself for cutting Ed off in fear that he'd talk about Sarah and possibly have a breakdown. The boy almost seemed on the verge of tears as it was.

"Let's just concentrate on getting to the mayor, alright?" Having no leads on who or where Sarah's kidnappers were, Kevin decided it would be best to find the mayor of Lemon Brook and talk with him. He could get a map of the town or possibly some kind of sympathy. Or at the very least, he could call his parents.

"Oh—ok," Ed replied. Despite his depression, the boy kept his awkward walking posture; where he would lean back and let the upper half of his body bounce to the rhythm of his legs moving back and forth. Curious, and somewhat bored, Kevin decided to mimic him and leaned back as well. It was immediately uncomfortable, and he nearly lost his balance until he braced himself on the bike for support. Before he got back up, however, he noticed the sky above him. With no clouds to get in the way, it glowed in the sunlight, showing a billion different shades of blue at once.

Kevin found himself forgetting his discomfort as he gazed up. He realized that he'd never really looked at the sky before; it was always there, but in the background. But when he really looked at it, he felt his eyes widen in wonder. It was as if the sky was a projection cast by the aliens of Geegg-9 in order to cover up the fact that they're towing the planet out of its orbit—

Wait, what?

Kevin snapped out of his trance and stood up straight. He shook his head, which was now flooded with thoughts of aliens and what appeared to be scenes from some kind of cheesy sci-fi film that he'd never watched. He looked over at Ed, who was still walking at a brisk pace but with eyes glazed over in thought.

"Hey, Ed," he questioned slowly, "what are you thinking about right now?"

Ed snapped out of his own trance and answered with a "Huh?" Kevin repeated himself patiently.

"Oh, I was thinking about The Invaders From Geegg-9, a movie where these aliens steal planets and sell them on the intergalactic black market and—"

"And it's up to Captain Netnin to get Earth back to its solar system?"

"You've seen it?" Ed's face lit up in surprise.

"No!"

It then sank into confusion. Before Kevin could explain, a soft rhythm of thuds grew loud enough to gain their attention.

With a yelp, the two jumped to the side. Half a second later, three large football jocks charged down the sidewalk. Their skin was so blue that it nearly glowed. Their humanity was even more alienated by their yellow football helmets, which covered their faces in darkness. With protecting his bike becoming the first priority, Kevin scrambled to it and ran across a small turf of grass to lean it up next to one of the large, tan buildings that populated the street in lieu of houses.

One of the assailants ran up tried to grab for Kevin. He quickly brandished his wrench and smacked it down on the jock's hand. He smiled for a moment at his speed but had no time to change his expression to shock as the enemy slammed his other fist into the smaller boy's side. He felt a disgusting spray of air and saliva blast out of his nose and mouth as he flew across the street.

He skidded across the rough pavement, leaving behind small tatters of cloth and skin. His ability to think rattled and blurred with each horrid bounce, leaving nothing but pain and instinct to take over. When he finally stopped, he lay sprawled on the ground for a few seconds, desperately trying to conjure enough PSI to heal his wounds—or at least damper the excruciating pain on his side.

A spark of thought quickly wormed its way through the panic, asking him why he wasn't getting attacked again. He managed to muster enough willpower to force his eyes to open, and he was greeted with the sight of three monstrous athletes beating down on Ed. They punched the boy back and forth between one another. Ed then tripped, and the brutes began to kick at him. Giving in to the pain of keeping his eyes open, he closed them and managed to draw some PSI from his mind.

Almost instantly Kevin felt better, allowing the energy to permeate through his wounds and soothe the pain. By the time he had fully healed himself, he had almost no PSI energy left. He managed to get up, but a sudden exhaustion forced him to stagger as he tried to get to Ed. With his own pain gone, the impact of seeing his friend in such peril was much greater.

Before Kevin could help, however, a burst of heat and light exploded from the battle. Kevin shielded his eyes for a moment, but the light died as quickly as it had come.

He lowered his hands to see fire enveloping all three jocks. They failed around wildly in an attempt to extinguish themselves. The flames burned brightly, even in the midday sun. In the middle of the chaos, he saw a badly beaten Ed struggle to his feet. The boy's eyes were wide open, emanating fear and panic as he gazed down upon the figures that were previously beating him into the concrete.

Before he could react, Kevin saw Ed twitch and he felt a sudden wave blast through him. It drove the remainder of his PSI wild and caused it to buzz through his skull. It ate away at his consciousness, so much that he barely realized the instantaneous drop in temperature around him and his sudden inability to move or breathe.

By the time Kevin managed to regain control of his own mind, he blacked out.

~αα~

"Kevin! Kevin! Kevin! Wake up!"

Crack!

Kevin opened his eyes, blinking away the cold from them. His mind felt numb like his body, and all he could see was Ed's face. In a sudden fit of panic, he gasped, forcing his stomach out. A freezing pressure pushed back on it, cutting his breath short. In a small burst of awareness, he shivered and tried to move whatever part of his body that he could. It was then that he realized that his body was encased in solid, clear ice. His face was uncovered, and the ice around his midsection had cracked, allowing him to move his stomach in and out just enough to breathe.

"D-don't worry! I-I'll h-h-help!" The panicked Ed held up the wrench. Before the frozen boy could protest, Ed closed his eyes and struck the weapon against the ice. Kevin heard small clinks of ice bouncing along the ground, and his arm was free.

"G-give me the wrench, Ed," he commanded, still not fully conscious, "I-I'll take it from here." The green-clad boy obeyed, and Kevin started hacking away at his frigid prison. He glanced over at Ed, finally able to see the boy properly. A shiver went up his spine, this one stronger than the others that were trying to warm him up. The large boy in front of him was badly beaten; his clothes were ripped and blood was spattered in a few places, and half of his face was either bleeding or swollen. Kevin gasped in horror. Those guys were in for the kill, he realized, and if they could do that to someone like Ed…

Kevin tried not to dwell on it as he began chipping away at the ice surrounding him. His mind was filled with questions, but he blocked them out in order to focus on the task at hand. A few minutes of hacking and huffing later, Kevin was free, though a few stubborn pieces of frost still clung to his drenched clothes.

"Help me with these guys," he said after shaking the feeling back into his legs and walking over to the frozen boys. "They turn back to normal when you beat them up."

Ed complied without a question and helped Kevin hack away the ice on the first boy. With Kevin's instruction, Ed found that breaking the ice with a small rock was much more effective than breathing on it.

"How did you do that?" Kevin asked as they worked.

"Do what?"

"Set those guys on fire. And then freeze all of us."

Ed's face lowered. "I-I'm sorry."

"What?"

"M-Mom and Dad…" Ed's voice wavered, and he stopped working on breaking the ice. "They told me t-to never do it again. But it hurt—and I… it hurt so bad, I just… I'm s-sorrry!"

Kevin paused, letting the wrench slip out of his hand. "Your parents knew you could do that? How long have you known how to do it?"

"I w-was little," Ed explained, clearly uneasy about the subject, "I-It just happened one day. I was so excited. I thought I h-had superpowers. B-but then I showed it to Mom, but she screamed and told me never to do it again. The fire or ice."

"Oh… darn." Kevin winced inwardly at how that came out. Ed resumed working, but seemed more miserable than ever. The fact that half of his face was swollen and beaten didn't help with that.

The boys continued working without a word, and they soon had the first jock free. His skin was still blue, though it was from the cold rather than… whatever else was causing it, Kevin wondered. Confused and dazed, the large boy simply complied without a question when Kevin told him to help free the other two.

The three managed to free another, and quickly they all broke the third jock out. The large boys, though not fully aware, didn't seem to be harmed by being frozen for so long, and after a simple "Thanks dude," they left peacefully, if confused.

"At least I didn't have to come up with a story this time," Kevin thought aloud. After retrieving his bike, he turned back toward Ed. With a comforting hand—and the last of his PSI, Kevin saw the boy brighten up a little, and they continued their way toward the heart of Lemon Brook.