"Man, this place is a dump. No offence."

Manic and Sticks were standing in the doorway of a run down little shack at the edge of the enclosure. It was worn, frayed, and practically falling apart. The last vibration had already knocked a few boards loose. One more and it was sure to collapse like a house of straw.

Sticks was too lost in thought to take heed of Manic's accidental crack. She was slowly stumbling through the doorway entranced, as living in another time. As though she were glueing together an old photograph, it was all coming back to her. "I remember this place…"

There was an old abandoned stove in the dusty kitchen and various pots and pans to go with it, and as Sticks touched them, she could remember every one. Of how she'd put them on her head and pretend she was some of pot-monster monstrosity. And her parents couldn't help but laugh.

She turned towards the living room. Small as it was, that room held a special place in Stick's heart. She darted over, stopping only to drink it all in. Like everything else, it had lost its'lustre over the years, but Sticks could still see the bright red rug in the middle of the room, or the stack of books she'd always used to play her own personal game of Jenga.

And then there was the couch. That couch in the back where they would all sit together. Where her father would tell her such wild stories of his youth, and where her mother… her mother…

"Mom." A single tear flowed down Stick's cheek as though a trickle had managed to make its' way past the damn. A damn that was steadily beginning to flood.

"You okay, Sticks?"

Sticks barely heard him. "I remember now. Some of it anyway. My parents were taking me on a trip in the woods. We wanted to see my Uncle, and my dad was a hunter on the side. Far as he was concerned, he could handle anything. But then…"

Sticks almost couldn't take it. She backed away towards the nearest corner and almost retreated into a fetal position. She started to hyperventilate, her heart pounding like a hammer.

"Whoa, Sticks!" Manic rushed over to Sticks, desperate to make sure she was alright. "Calm down, calm down! Come on now! That's it! Deep breaths. Come on. Easy does it…"

With some help from Manic, Sticks managed to ease up and calm herself down. She was still ever so slightly frightened and nervous, but she was no longer hyperventilating and she was able to stand up straight. At the very least, she could manage.

"Thanks, Manic. Which ain't something I say often."

"Gee, thanks." The sarcasm in Manic's voice was dripping like honey.

Regardless, it was time. Time to hold nothing back. "I remember. Me and my parents ran into a pack of mangy mutts. Non-Mobian wolves to be specific. And they didn't look happy. Dad tried to hold them off, but it wasn't good enough."

"Oh, Gaea. I'm so sorry, Sticks. I had some problems with my parents, but still. Losing mom was something else. And, well, I hate my Dad's guts, but if I ever lost him too—"

Stick's steely eyes cut Manic to the quick. "Who said anything about losing my dad?"

Manic swore he had to rub his eyes more than once. "Come again?"

"Look. I don't remember much, but I remember this. Dad? Dad ran. Like a dog. He up and ran after my mom… my mom…" Sticks took another deep breath. She did her best to remember, to bring it all rushing forth. And at long last, as she collapsed to her knees she did. And her tears did the same.

"Mom… Mom was… the wolves… there was nothin' I could do. I was only six. They… they…"

Manic closed his eyes and grabbed Sticks around the shoulder, giving her the biggest and perhaps only hug of her life. And the tears kept coming. "I'm sorry, Sticks. I know what it's like to lose someone. Even if they treat you like scum, it still hurts."

Sticks shoved Manic away, but did so gently, as if giving him a light push. "Sorry! Sorry. I just, just don't wanna be touched right now, 'kay? Or like, ever. Got a serious thing about being' touched. 'Cause you might have the bad touch. And Sticks don't want the bad touch. Sorry."

As perplexed and baffled by that most recent scenario as Manic was, he still knew the best thing to do was just respect her wishes and move on. "So. Your dad. What about him?"

The tears stopped. She wiped away the remaining ones and slowly rose up like a machine of war, her sadness giving way to righteous anger. "Dad. Dad. DAD!" She seized the nearest portrait of him and began tearing it like a mad dog, with nothing but murder in her eyes.

"Whoa, Sticks! Hold on, girl!" Manic tried to tug the portrait away from her, but it was no good. Sticks may not have been a heavy hitter, but she was still stronger than most. If he didn't use the ring, she could beat him with her hands tied behind her back. So it was no surprise that he wound up with his ass kissing the floor. "On second thought, I guess it's technically edible…"

Just then, the door to the shack creaked open. Sticks stopped in her tracks. She could smell the heretic as soon as he touched it. She raced right over like a wild beast. Within seconds, Clarence Litefoot was in her literal clutches once more. Deja vu.

"Whoah, Sticks!" said Manic. "Put him down, okay?! There's no reason to—"

Sticks wasn't listening. "I've got just one question for you," she said to Clarence, "and you'd better answer it before I put you in a grinder and turn your nose into cheese-wizz! Why the hell did you and everyone else keep this place standing? After what he did?!"

"After what who did?" said Manic. "Wait, you mean your father?"

"He turned and ran! I saw it! Second my mom kicked it, instead of trying to save me, he threw down his gun and hightailed it out of dodge! And he couldn't save mom either! SO WHY IS THAT NO GOOD DEADBEAT'S HOUSE STILL HERE?!"

"We didn't know!" said Clarence. "Least not at first. When he came back to the village, he said that you and your mom had gotten lost after getting chased by a wolf pack. And when he found you, there was nothin' we could do. We only learned the truth after all that. It was during the Great Gaea Gathering. It's something we hold every year to celebrate the harvest. As for your Dad, long story short, he got a hell of a lot more plastered than usual and he… told us some things. Things which none of us was too happy about. We ran him out of town not long after that. Not sure where he is now. But since then, we've been so busy with the crops and everything else that this place has been the last thing on our minds. And I really am sorry about that."

Sticks looked at Clarence for the longest time before plopping him down to the ground, which he was somewhat grateful for. ('Not the best landing, but it'll do.')

"Where's he now? Where'd that dirty rotten guacamole-for-brains run off to after you chucked him out like stinky, smelly garbage?"

"Don't know. After all, we was pretty drunk ourselves. Still, he's probably on the island somewhere. Either that or one of the outlying islands. But what you do with him is your business."

"Oh, I've got a lot of things to do with him, let me tell ya!"

Manic held up a hand as if to say that perhaps she should back off a bit before going too gung-ho. "Hold on there. Look, maybe he did turn and run, but maybe there's an explanation for it."

"What 'explanation' could he have for ditching me like tossing away a plastic wrapper?!"

"I didn't say it'd be a good explanation, but he's still your father. You should at least hear him out. And I just realized that makes me a damn hypocrite. Gaea, do I hate myself sometimes."

Clarence slowly got off the ground, dusting himself off as though he couldn't stand the thought of being touched. "Look, I can't say I really know how you're feeling or how you should handle it, but I can say that, regardless of what you do, he's still family. And family ain't that easy to get rid of. Even if you want to be rid of it." As Clarence went on, his voice started to become filled with regret and loathing, as though he was saying more than he was letting on. "Take it from me."

Sticks wasn't quite sure what to think, but Manic had an inkling. "You talking about Johnny?"

"Let's just say he ain't as innocent as you think."

"We there yet?"

Shortfuse was starting to get pissed. More than he had been already. He and the others had been walking along the mountain range for what seemed like forever. In truth, it had only been thirty minutes, but Shortfuse couldn't care less. Amy was skipping along without a care in the world while Tekno was holding out that device of hers. With any luck, it would get them where they'd want to go in a timely fashion. If it didn't, then he might have to bust some heads.

Johnny for his part was doing his best to guide the others around the mountain range while taking heed of Tekno's readings, taking them up and around as they made their way up the path. Though it seemed like he had more on his mind than just the vibrations.

"Shouldn't be too long now," said Johnny. By this point, if they looked to the left, they could see a sea of tall, thick trees below, with more and more trees coming into view the higher up they went. "Just gotta hold on a little longer."

"Eh, it's okay!" said Amy. "Gotta get my exercise in somehow!"

"Uh-huh," said Shortfuse. "Me, I don't even need exercise. Not in this hunk of metal. But I still don't like having to wait."

"Patience," said Tekno. "With any luck, we should be arriving at our destination any minute now, or at least close to it."

"Is that it?" Amy had sprinted ahead of the others and was pointing towards something down below. Something hot, very large, very bright, and very dangerous. Shortfuse rocketed towards it while Tekno fluttered. Johnny almost couldn't bring himself to get near it. He didn't even have to see it. By the time he managed to drag himself over there, he already knew what it was.

"Wow!" said Amy. "Talk about a lava pit!" Indeed, a lava pit was what it was, and a huge one at that. Bubbles of molten magma boiled at the surface, and it was warm enough that even Shortfuse with his built-in cooling was starting to sweat.

"Yeesh," he said. "Talk about hot under the collar. This is gettin' warm even for me!"

For her part, Tekno was glad she still wasn't wearing that sweater. She took another look at her device and then did a slow scan of her surroundings as if attempting to see something that couldn't be seen. "By my calculations, we should be almost near the source of the vibrations. In fact, it's almost as if we are on top them."

"Hey, maybe we are!" said Amy. "What if they're underground somehow? It wouldn't be the craziest thing we've seen. What do you think, Johnny? Johnny?"

By the time Amy turned towards Johnny, he was kneeling on the ground and slumped over like a doll. His eyes were blank as if his soul had been ripped straight out of him, and he couldn't help but stare at the pit as though remembering something that couldn't be forgotten. As though he just couldn't let go. In some ways, it was almost like he was dead inside.

"Johnny? What's wrong? You okay?"

"Maybe he had a stone," said Shortfuse.

"Unlikely," said Tekno, her gaze becoming narrow and hard. "I believe this is something that runs that much deeper. It could possibly be PTSD."

Amy could scarcely believe it. "You can't be serious."

"Hate to say it," said Shortfuse, "but I think she's right. I couldn't care less about him, but I didn't think he'd go down like this."

"He hasn't." Johnny slowly rose from the ground, nearly stumbling as he did so. It was as if hearing that he was down for the count was enough to snap him out of his funk and spur him back into action. Even if he was still somewhat worse for wear.

"Thank Gaea. Are you okay, Johnny."

Johnny looked again at the lava pit. He gazed at it as if there were something there only he could see. Something precious. Something he'd rather forget. And he couldn't forget. Not really. "No. No, I'm not. Then again, I guess haven't really been okay for seven years or so now."

"Johnny," said Tekno, "I do not wish to pry, but if there is something we should know about…"

"Yeah," said Johnny. "Maybe there is. Maybe it's time to finally let it all come out."

"What the hell are you yappin' on about?" said Shortfuse.

Johnny didn't listen. Or if he did, he wasn't letting on. "It happened seven years ago. Almost feels like yesterday. Almost wish it was. I can still remember it. When the sun was shining bright like fire in the sky, and it seemed like we could do nothin' wrong. That nothin' bad would ever happen to either of us. We couldn't have been more wrong."

SEVEN YEARS AGO

"Got you, Johnny!"

"No, you didn't! I'm still hiding behind this rock!" Johnny and a little girl in a red and yellow dress were each sidled behind two large slabs of rock in the middle of the mountain range. Their arms were stretched out like they were holding bows and arrows, and they had been pretending to shoot each other again and again until someone finally 'kicked it.' Knights and Thieves, they called it.

"I still got you! Ricochet and angles for the win!"

Johnny could scarcely believe it. Had he been bested that easily? And by a girl no less? "Oh, come on! Arrows don't even work like that!"

"Come on, Johnny, just admit you lost! Then we can go home and have some of Mommy's carrot cake! Don't be such a baby!"

"You're the baby!" Johnny stayed hidden behind the rock, or at least as much as he could. He wasn't going to just give in. Not that easily. Or so he thought.

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are! You're still only six years old, I'm ten. So you're the baby!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"AM NOT!"

"ARE TOO!"

"That does it!" She threw her hand as if lobbing something forward, something only she could see. "I just threw a grenade! And it landed on your side! So you're gonna blow up!"

"Yeah, well, I've got a… a double-super-mega rocket launcher!" Johnny motioned with his hands, acknowledging the existence of such a thing. "So you'd better say I win!"

Silence.

"Lily? You still there? Lily?" Johnny started to wonder. It was possible that he had merely been too impatient, but if something had happened to Lily, he wasn't sure what he'd do. He peeked his head out from his rock desperate to know if she was okay when the unthinkable happened.

Just when he began to wonder where she had gone, Lily lept out from behind her slab and started plugging imaginary arrow after imaginary arrow into Johnny, who in turn was flailing back and forth as though he really was being skewered. He slammed to the ground like a giant meat bag (or at least as much as he could considering how hard the ground could be on the range,) and began to do his best impression of a corpse. Or at least make the attempt.

"Got you!" shouted Lily. "Let's play again! Again, again!"

Johnny slowly picked himself off the ground and chuckled as if he wanted to do the same, but reality was a harsh mistress. "We can't play now. Sun's coming down!" Just as Johnny said, the bright autumn sun was starting to settle down in the sky above, and at that time of the year, the days were growing ever colder and the night ever longer. Not the best time of year for little kids to be out and about. Not that Lily cared.

"Oh, come on! Pretty please? We still haven't played near that giant lava pit yet!"

Johnny started to tense up, as though his arms had suddenly become stiff. He knew about the giant lava pit. Who didn't? Particularly, he knew that his parents had ordered him to stay away from the pit and all others like it. And more importantly, to make sure his little sister didn't step foot near it. He still didn't grasp the full ramifications of all of this, but he knew better than to disobey his parents. For his parents' word was law.

Lily began to pout like a small child, which to be fair was what she was. Her face brightened and her mouth puffed up like a puffer fish, and she began to sulk as though the greatest pleasure on Earth had been denied her. "Dagnabbit! I really wanted to see that lava pit."

"Look, Lily, we'll play again tomorrow, alright? We can even play 'Knights and Thieves in a Lava Pit' if you want to."

Lily was curious. "Is that a real game?"

"It is now."

Lily almost began to look pleased as though her wish had been granted. But then, as if the wool over her eyes was being lifted, she saw the reality of the situation. "You just made it up!"

"No, I didn't! Honest!"

"Liar!" Lily continued to pout, and yet Johnny could tell it was getting less and less genuine by the second if that occasional slight chuckle coming out of her was any indication.

"Well, maybe I did. And in that case, I've got a new game."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Race you back home!"

"You're on!" And so they ran. They ran and hopped over the mountain path and the fields and past the seesaws with wild abandon, everything blurring together until all that was left was the race.

But Johnny wasn't the fastest thing alive or close to it. By the time he was halfway home, he found himself starting to gasp and wheeze as though all his breath had left him. "Sorry, sis! Give me a minute here…"

Johnny had half expected to hear Lily giggling or pouting, or perhaps running past him and leaving him in the dust like the little imp she was. And yet, for one reason or another, he couldn't hear a thing. Not Lily, not her footsteps, not anything. "Lily?"

He stood up straight and turned around. Lily was nowhere to be seen. His thoughts started to race even quicker than they had been, but his mother had always told him that being panicked only resulted in getting your knickers in a twist, whatever that meant. He then remembered something his father had taught him. For the last year, he'd been starting to teach him bit by bit about the fine art of tracking. And that's when he remembered what he said about footprints.

He looked down, and… there wasn't a single thing. Not so much as a faded toe. His thoughts started to race again, but he did his best to keep himself steady. If he wanted to find his sister, that's what he'd have to do. He retraced his steps, running back the way he came and focusing on his own footprints until, at last, he finally found his sisters'. They had been going right alongside his to a point or close to it, but partway down the path, they'd made a sharp turn to the right.

Whether or not Lily had turned straight away or stopped for a moment before deciding to change course was unknown to Johnny. All he knew was that he had gotten so caught up in the race that he had completely forgotten about her. And as he looked at the footprints, his fur began to raise almost like goosebumps. Because he knew exactly where she was headed.

"Gaea."

Johnny hopped along like a jackrabbit and followed the footprints as best he could. As he did so, the air became warmer and more stagnant, and he could smell the scent of fire and brimstone ahead. And he hoped against all the odds that she hadn't gone where he knew she'd gone.

It wasn't long before he made it. He could see the bright red light emitting from it; could feel the sheer, blazing heat. But above all, he could see her. Lily. She was standing right at the edge of the pit with a look of innocence and sheer glee upon her face, as though she could not in any way comprehend the absolute horror that awaited her if she made so much as a single tip-toe forward.

"Lily!" Johnny called out to her. He thought that if he called out to her now, he might be able to convince her to turn away. To call her back before the inevitable happened. At the time, it seemed the sane, sensible thing to do.

Only it wasn't.

Like a whirlwind, Lily turned to face Johnny, almost in shock that he was there. This was a mistake. She had moved so quickly and was so close to the edge that, before she knew it, her good foot was suddenly up in the air and her arms were flailing about like a monkey, doing her best to keep herself from falling into the lava below. She screamed as though death itself was upon her, trying her best to keep herself from going over. "Johnny!"

"Lily!" He rushed over to her. If he could just reach her, if he could just take her hand, if he could just do something—

"JOHNNY!"

Too late. Just as Johnny made it over, the frayed ground underneath Lily's heel collapsed. "LILY!" Johnny kneeled down in a flash, trying desperately to grasp her, to reach out to her, but it just wasn't enough.

"JOHNNY!"

"LILY!"

NOW

"Good Gaea."

Amy stood there several feet away from the precipice of the pit, not sure what to think. Neither was Shortfuse or Tekno. All they knew was that the rabbit standing before them was looking down at the lave-pit as though he'd seen a ghost. But as the tears started to flow down below like a drizzle, they knew he was telling the truth. And they didn't know what to do.

"Not much to say after that," said Johnny. His voice had become tired and husky as if it had taken nearly everything he had to get the words out. "My mother tried to understand. Key word being 'try.' Father was a lot less forgiving. He blamed me for not being able to save her. Called me a bane on existence. A disgrace to the family. And for a long while, Clarence thought the same way. Can't say I blame 'em."

Still nothing. None of them knew quite what to say. Not at first. Even Johnny wasn't quite sure where to go from there.

"Sometimes I wonder. Wonder if I paid just a bit more attention. If I were a bit more protective of her. You know why I started that race in the first place? It was to try to get her to just follow me back home. That was it. And I got lost in the whole darn thing. Forgot why I was even doin' it to begin with. If I was a bit more careful, a bit more responsible—!"

Like a splash of cold water, Johnny felt something else that was cold; a slap of cold hard metal from a cold hard metal gauntlet belonging to a cold hard metal-coated squirrel landing right on his face.

"SHORTFUSE!" yelled Tekno.

"Hey, what did you do that for?!" cried Amy.

"Shut the hell up!" said Shortfuse, though rather than aiming it at Tekno or Amy, he was instead hollering straight at Johnny. "Look. Shit happens. Sometimes some things happen that, maybe if you'd done something else, something different, you could've done something about it. And maybe you should've. Maybe you should've been more careful, more protective, whatever. But you know what else? YOU WERE DUMB LITTLE PUNKS! Only dumb little punks would go looking straight over a damn lava pit, and only dumb little punks would lose track of their sister when there's a damn lava pit in walking distance!"

"Shortfuse!" yelled Tekno. For his part, Shortfuse couldn't care less.

"I ain't done! But you know what? You WERE dumb little punks. And when you're a dumb little punk, you do things that only dumb little punks do. And there's nothing you can do about it. So rather than beat yourself up over it, maybe you should just accept it happened and move on. Or are you gonna let one bad day make you as crazy as everybody else?"

Johnny had been rubbing his jaw, the sheer pain still ringing in his ear, but that hadn't stopped him from listening to every single word Shortfuse said. And with one hard look from his now steely eyes, all Johnny could say was, "Are you?"

Shortfuse had been cut to the quick. Tensions were starting to rise, to the point where even if there wasn't a giant lava pit nearby you could still swear you were beginning to sweat. Tekno was looking at the both of them with a keen gaze. Amy had her laser-crossbow at the ready, just in case things went south.

"Whatever." Shortfuse shot Johnny an evil eye or rather attempted to before he stomped away. With that potential crisis averted, Amy felt it was finally time to step in. Before, she wasn't quite sure what to make all of this, but if nothing else, Shortfuse had put things in perspective.

"Look, Johnny," she said. "I can't say I know what you've been going through but, well, Shortfuse is right. You were kids. Maybe you could've something else but, hard as it is to say, things happen."

"I know," said Johnny. "Still though. I saw her falling into that hellhole right in front of me. I saw her body burn, melting away, and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it! So the only thing I can do is make sure nothin' like that happens to anyone else."

This piqued Tekno's interest. She coolly walked forward, feeling that she at last had something relevant to say on the matter. "Excuse me, but are you implying that you can somehow right every wrong? That you can prevent anything bad from happening to anyone ever?"

"Of course not! But I gotta do somethin'. It's all I can do. And if that means doin' what I can, so be it."

Before anyone could pursue this matter further, something began to move under their feet. It was small at first. Nothing more than a minor sensation. But it quickly grew. And grew. And grew until the earth began to tremble with great sound and fury signifying anything but nothing.

"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?!" yelled Shortfuse.

Tekno whipped out her device and quickly checked the readings. "Oh dear. The goods news is that I am now %99.9 sure where the vibrations are coming from! The bad news is that this one is, well…"

"Out with it!" said Johnny.

"…well, on the one hand, this particular vibration stands a fair chance of lasting quite a bit longer than the last one and will be manageable enough for some time. However, once it finally goes full blast…"

"Then all hell will break loose." And in that moment, Johnny was fairly certain that moaning about the past was the last thing that should've been on his mind.