Chapter 37
"Oh, my hea—"
Edd gasped and shot up. The sudden movement made his head ache and his vision go black as blood buzzed around behind his eyes. Slowly, his vision came back, and he looked around.
He was in a sleeping car, laying on a surprisingly comfortable bed. He sat up, and felt very warm air move around him. His last waking memories flashed before him. A man forcing him to the ground. A knife against his neck.
A burning in his lungs reminded him that breathing was a thing, and he took a deep breath as his heart raced. He glanced at the window and saw not an ocean beyond, but a frozen tundra whipping around the train, bathed in the glow of the morning sun. He was suddenly understanding and appreciative of how warm it was in the room.
Curious, but alert, he carefully climbed down the ladder of the bunk bed and grimaced at the thought of having slept—or having fainted for a full night, apparently—in his normal clothes. Changing his expression to a different grimace, he wondered why he hadn't brought a change of clothes in the first place, and lightly smacked his forehead. He opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
"Hey, you're awake!"
He turned to see Kevin walking toward him, followed by Ed. "I was just about to come and check on you." He held out a hand containing a plate with scrambled eggs and bacon on it. "Here's breakfast, if you want it."
"W-why, that's very thoughtful of you," Edd stammered, taking the plate from him. "Thank you. But I must ask, what happened after I passed out?"
"Well, Helmy and I started fighting again, and we busted through the door. I used PK Flash to blind him, and he fell over the edge into the ocean. After that, we took you here. You were out for the whole night."
Kevin seemed in much better spirits than Edd had last seen him, talking lightly and smiling gently. Curious, Edd voiced that thought as he nibbled on a piece of bacon.
"Well, I just felt kinda bad about our fight," the boy said. "But I thought about it the other day, and I just want to say that it's cool."
"…E-excuse me?" Edd dropped the bacon back onto his plate as a mixture of worry and disgust formed in the back of his mind. Ed, as if sensing that feeling, took a concerned step back from the two.
"I mean, I forgive you, for getting mad like that. I know it must be hard to be the only one without PSI, and—"
Edd dropped his plate on the ground.
"You forgive me for that fight?!" He stomped forward, too furious to care about the mess of egg and porcelain under his shoe. Before Kevin could respond, he added, "How dare you denounce my utility and worth in this 'team'—if you could even call it that—and as a person and then casually insinuate it was my fault for doing what any self-respecting human being would do by getting offended by it?!"
Kevin took a step, but sneered. "Hey, who do you think saved your life back there?"
"I am not denying that." Edd spat back. "In fact, now we can be considered, for all intents and purposes, even,"
"Excuse-mua? When did you ever save me from someone going at my throat with a knife?"
"Have you already forgotten about that god-forsaken prison out in the middle of nowhere, and how I literally busted you out of it at quite likely the cost of my very academic future?"
Kevin spat a retort. Edd countered it. Kevin brought up something else. Edd argued against it and made his own accusations. Kevin fought. Edd fought.
Ed cowered in the corner of the sleeping car hallway, watching his friends tear each other apart with increasingly harsh words. He watched them argue against one another. He wanted to cover his eyes, to stop seeing their horrible, angry faces.
"S-stop!" he cried softly. They didn't hear.
"Stop fighting!"
"Stay out of it, Ed!" the two screamed in unison, giving him less than a second of their attention before turning on one another again.
It was just like last time.
"I-I demand you stop—stop now!"
This time the two didn't even notice. Ed stepped toward the door, blinking mist from his eyes. He could make fire and ice. He had superpowers! But he couldn't make his friends get along. He couldn't even do that.
"Huh? …Oi! Oi!" Two large hands wormed their way between the two boys and forced them apart, silencing them at the same time. "There vill be no fighting amongst friends on zis train!"
Ed had never been so happy to see the conductor—or anyone, really—with such a stern face. The man wore a large coat over his uniform, bearing the same stylish purple and gold color scheme as the clothes under it. Kevin and Edd sneered at each other, but then turned their attention to him.
"I don't know vat you're squabbling about," he said before either one of them could talk back, "but zis vill be the last of it for the remainder of ze journey." He looked down, and grimaced at the dropped plate of eggs on the ground. "You two vill have to clean zat up later, but right now I must talk to all four of you."
He stepped towards the door leading to the dining cars, his stern face turning to one of concern when he saw Ed. Tears were streaming down the boy's face. He said nothing, but herded him across to the dining car with a gentle hand, along with the others. He sat them down at a table, making sure to keep Kevin and Edd from sitting next to each other.
After gathering a reluctant Jimmy from the kitchen, he sat down and placed the children's tickets on the table.
"Zese are quite peculiar tickets," he said. "Normally, a ticket has the date and time of departure on it, but zese are blank. This means zat zey weren't obtained through normal measures."
"Well, like we said, we didn't purchase these ourselves," Edd explained, and then quickly sputtered, "B-but that's not to say we stole them, or anything!"
"I understand, and zat is why I am showing you zis." He placed a small envelope on the table. It had been torn open, but a piece of paper sat folded inside it. "A few days ago, ve found zis with a note on it. The note told us to give zis to 'a passenger or passengers with a blank ticket'. Normally ve wouldn't do zis, for safety reasons of course, but after vat happened the other day, I'd say it might be important. Kate and I read the note—again, to make sure it vasn't anything that could threaten the passengers on ze train—but we couldn't make much sense of it. Now that you four have come along, zhough, it now seems more important."
He put the envelope down, but when Edd and Kevin suddenly dove across the table for it he snapped his hand out of their reach.
"On second thought, maybe I should hold onto it until you two make up?" he sneered. The boys shot each other a glare, and slowly sank to their seats. After a brief pause, the conductor opened the envelope and pulled the piece of paper. He laid it on the table and turned it so everyone could read.
If you are reading this, then you have accepted to take the Talastsbo Express to meet me. I cannot reveal who I am just yet, for the possibility of him intercepting this letter.
Anyway, it does not sit right with me to send someone I don't know off on such a journey with so little information. Doubly so if you are children, as I expect.
Everyone looked up to glance nervously at each other, but nobody said a word.
While I cannot reveal everything, for the reasons mentioned above and the fact that it would be better if I were to tell you in person, I do wish to enlighten you on the situation that you—and the world itself—are in.
The process of a living thing—be it plant, animal or human—turning blue or becoming hostile to its immediate surroundings is what you know as the "Blue Plague". It is not a mere disease. It is more like a curse, caused by PSI.
I'm sure you've come up to someone who has been corrupted before, and you might have noticed that those who are affected target you more often than they do other people. This is because you or someone travelling with you possesses PSI abilities.
Kevin puckered his mouth in thought for a few seconds, thinking about all the times he'd been attacked in Lemon Brook.
I'm afraid to say that this corruption and its effects can become permanent if one is under it for too long. What's worse is that these effects are absolutely intentional, as they serve a dual purpose: First, to take out any who posses PSI, as those who do are the most capable of reversing its effects, and second, to allow the victim's mind to be controlled.
Ed gasped in horror more loudly than anyone else.
Do not worry, however, as the chances of it affecting someone with PSI or a strong sense of self are very low. It is mostly those who are caught off guard or mentally unstable that are more susceptible to it.
I look forward to our meeting. When you arrive at the station, you must head further into the country. I cannot tell you the exact place, but trust me when I say that you will find it. You may be the key to saving your world, and do not scoff at this; it has been done before, and may certainly happen again.
Everyone at the table sat in silence for a moment, everyone taking the time to absorb what they had just read.
And then they got attacked by a giant rabbit.
The car shook violently, throwing everyone out of their seat and knocking several tables over. Sprawled on the ground, Kevin looked out the window to see a humongous, white hare hopping alongside the train. The wall of the car next to the window was severely dented. The hare's head came up to the windows from the ground, and its eyes were bloodshot with tiny specs for pupils. The car shook and jerked back and forth, as if the cars around it were also being hit.
Kevin, confused but alert, scrambled to his feet. The glass of the windows was cracked where it wasn't completely shattered around the dent, and cold air whipped around the once-warm car. It made his eyes sting and brought in a somewhat musky scent that reminded him of a zoo.
"Vhat on earth is going on?!" the conductor screamed on the floor, just as the hare made an extra high hop and kicked the coach again on its way down. Everyone except a determined Kevin clung to the floor as the coach rocked back and forth, but the boy kept his balance.
"It's rabbit season, that's what! PK Flash!"
After the sudden, intense light appeared and vanished, the hare whipped out of view as it stumbled in pain and snagged on the icy ground beneath it, forcing it to the icy ground while the train kept going. Kevin couldn't help but smirk to himself, but another gust of wind quickly faded the satisfaction.
"Arctic hares, that's a new one," Edd remarked as he helped a frightened Jimmy up.
"I'm allergic to bunnies, guys!" Ed cried.
Kevin turned toward the boy, and gasped in disgust. Faint splotches of purple began forming on Ed's skin before his very eyes. Edd and Jimmy quickly backed away from him.
"Dude, those are some serious allergies!"
"You have no idea, Kevin."
Another small rumble shook the car. "I think there're more attacking further down the train," Kevin said.
"Please, help!" the conductor pleaded. He cautiously approached the wall and gave the signal cord a series of timed tugs. "I vill try to get us out of here as fast as we can, but we don't have any kind of defenses. Zhis is a luxury express, not a battleship!" he said, half-jokingly. He wore a confused yet strangely calm face, as if he didn't entirely believe this was happening. Kevin didn't blame him in the slightest.
"I'm on it." Kevin opened the door towards the sleeping cars and winced as a blast of icy air hit him.
"Take zis," the man insisted, taking off his large coat and holding it out. "You three stay here if you can. Without a coat, you'll freeze trying to cross. I'll get more for you and the other passengers in ze luggage car."
He hopped the gap and helped Kevin across.
The two made their way down the train, which got more and more beat and battered with each passing coach, much to the conductor's horror. He checked every room, urging terrified passengers to stay away from the windows and keep calm. Upon spotting another giant hare out the window, Kevin used PK Flash again and this time it disintegrated into nothing. The conductor stumbled in shock, but the boy grabbed his arm and told him to keep going.
Soon, they consoled the last of the passengers. "I know zhis isn't ze best time for zhis," the man said as they made their way down an empty car, "but I must ask, in case the opportunity passes. Why vere you and your friend fighting back zhere?"
"He's just being a total dork right now," the boy replied without losing speed. "He's all mad and uppity about how he doesn't have PSI and can't fight."
"Well, I know it's been a large part of your adventure so far." The man paused as they opened the door and hopped the gap. When the roar of the wind was blocked off by the next door, he continued, "But do you really sink zhat fighting is the only thing zhat matters?"
"Well, it matters right now!"
He took down another hare in the same fashion as the first two, and then another before reaching the luggage car at last. Despite the creeping fear of something happening to the train to make it stop, Kevin felt confident with his ability to protect it, and mentally laughed at Edd for denouncing his powers. The conductor unlocked an emergency cabinet and took supplies while Kevin grabbed as many thick coats as he could.
"Even if you fight a lot, you should try and see zhe situation from his point of view. Vhat would you do if you had no PSI?"
Kevin froze in the middle of piling coats in his arms. The thought burrowed itself into his mind under the pretense of a simple question, but the more he considered it, the less of an answer he could think of.
"Not to mention your other friend, who's caught up in zhe middle of it. You both should think about how your attitude affects zhose around you."
"You mean Ed?" Another confusing thought wormed its way through his thoughts and decided to pick a fight with the first one over which Kevin should consider first. Frustrated, he shook his head free of both thoughts and walked toward the door with whatever he could carry. "Let's just get back to the others."
They made their way back through the train, stopping to give passengers emergency supplies and warm clothes. Many of the cars were dented and beaten, and cold air through cracked or broken windows whipped at Kevin's face and threatened to never let it become warm again.
"Put up your hood," the conductor demanded. Kevin complied, but he was careful not to let it cover up his Franklin Badge. He wasn't sure why.
At last, they reached the dining cars. The Eds and Jimmy crouched near the center, huddled against each other—two of them doing so quite begrudgingly, due to the third's stench—for warmth. Kevin quickly passed them coats and thick pants, and they got dressed just in time for one last hare to nearly knock the cart off the rails.
The thing's kick burst the wall in completely, and it grabbed onto the edges of the hole with clawed hands to rip it open wider.
"That's it! PK Riding!"
As Kevin sent out a familiar blast of energy, something flickered in his mind that demanded all of his attention. When he tried to reach it, however, it vanished, as if it were a faint memory that had just escaped his grasp.
He had little time to wonder what it was, however, when he came back to reality in time to see the hare jump over the car onto the other side with not a scratch on it.
"W-what?…What?!" The boy darted his gaze between the hare and everyone else, an expression of complete disbelief plastered on his face. "It dodged it?!"
"Now is not zhe time to be worrying about zhat!"
"Oh, you're going down this time," Kevin sneered at the creature. "PK Riding!"
The flicker happened again, slightly stronger this time, blackening and muting everything around him except for the multicolored energy bursting from him. It still only hung on the edge of his mind, however, and disappeared again when he tried to reach for it.
The hare dodged the attack again, and Kevin screamed in frustration.
"I'm really allergic to rabbits, guys!"
"We know, E—" Everyone gasped and took a step back from Ed. The purple spots on his skin grew darker, and he began to swell all over. The hare itself even seemed taken aback, but it quickly resumed tearing through the coach until Kevin fired a third attack and finally hit it.
"Goodness sake, Ed! You didn't even touch the darn thing!"
"Uh-oh! Help!" The boy swelled even further, and began to float off the floor of the car like a parade balloon.
"Quick! We need to tie him down!" Edd screamed. The air blasting through the place pushed against Ed, moving him toward the hole in the wall.
"Ed!" Kevin, Jimmy and Ed all jumped to grab hold of the boy, but by the time they had a firm grip on him, they found themselves flung out of the Talastsbo Express and into the icy skies of the Arctic.