Chapter 55


"Why did Kevin have to move to a stupid house all the way up this stupid hill?"

Sarah grumbled loudly to herself as she hiked up the steep road with Eddy's Brother and Doctor Andonuts. They had ran initially, but the doctor quickly ran out of breath, and Sarah followed soon after.

"Because they knew that one day you'd get sent there by some sock-headed dorkbag and made sure to make the trip as long as possible, just to spite you," Eddy's Brother hissed. "Now come on, if we don't find whoever started the fires then we can at least bash Bike-Boy's head in for leading us in the wrong direction."

"Let us have some faith in—huff—Kevin's intuition," Doctor Andonuts wheezed. Eddy's Brother had slowed down to a brisk walking pace, but the doctor still had trouble keeping up with him and Sarah. "After all—hoof—he did correctly predict that something was happening to this town."

"Remind me again why the kooky old man was chosen to be on the 'fighting' team and not the 'rescuing' one?"

Doctor Andonuts bolted up. "I'm not that old!" he protested, "I just look it because I happen to be albino." After a pause, he deflated a little, and added quietly, "And out of shape." Another pause, and he mumbled, "And balding."

He closed his mouth, and resumed walking without another word.

Cherry Falls came into view through the houses next to the three as they rose above the tall trees between the hill and the town. It was still bright against the dark forest surrounding it, but the fire was beginning to disappear. The town's lights began to replace the fire as a source of its glow between the houses. Sarah quietly smiled to herself, knowing that both her brother and her best friend were working together down there.

When they neared the top of the hill, Eddy's Brother stopped. "So, which one of these houses is it?"

Sarah and Doctor Andonuts stared at him blankly. Eddy's Brother's eyes widened.

"I thought you knew," Doctor Andonuts said, looking at Sarah. "Haven't you been to his house before?"

"No, that was Jimmy," the girl replied. "I stayed at Lemon Brook, and then went straight to Jimmy when Kevin came and got me."

The two heard an audible slap as Eddy's Brother smacked his hand to his forehead. Then, all three of them heard an audible blast as the back wall of one of the houses ahead exploded. They watched in surprise as a wave of brilliant, multi-colored energy burst from it. The light formed sharp, shifting three-dimensional shapes, which engulfed a black figure as it tumbled down the side of the mountain toward Cherry Falls. Another figure jumped from the house after it. The light of the burning city behind it turned the figure into the silhouette of a boy. The boy brandished a large wrench over his head as he fell, and gave loud roar of anger as he pursued his target.

Eddy's Brother, Sarah and Doctor Andonuts quickly forgot their argument and ran toward the ensuing brawl.

~γγγγγγ~

"That's good, Ed! The fire department can take it from there."

Standing in front of a building that was still smoldering, Ed lowered his arms tentatively, choosing to trust his friend's judgement over his urge to put out the remaining flames. Edd called Jimmy over, telling him the same thing, and then spoke to both of them.

"Kevin has gone to check on his parents, as well as find out who or what caused all of this. I've sent Sarah, Doctor Andonuts and Eddy's Brother to assist him, and I ask that you two do the same."

Ed and Jimmy both put a hand up to their foreheads in salute, and the latter quickly turned to run toward the hill. Ed, however, hesitated. He moved closer to Edd, and said, "Be careful, Double-D." He pulled his friend into a tight hug.

Edd returned it, a bit confused by Ed's sudden concern at first, but he quickly realized why. This would be the first time they'd been far apart since they moved away from Peach Creek, not counting Edd's short time in the hospital. Edd hugged a little tighter.

"I'll be fine, Ed," he said. "You promise me you'll be careful as well."

Ed nodded, and with a smile he broke from his friend and ran to catch up to Jimmy.

~γγγγγγ~

Kevin screamed. He sailed through the air down the steep hill above Cherry Falls. He found the right moment to slam his wrench down upon his target. His weapon didn't hit flesh. It hit dirt instead. Helmy had dodged at the last second. Helmy had stood before Kevin's parents. Kevin's parents weren't moving. Helmy was still alive.

Kevin screamed louder.

The two landed. Trees surround them. Some were on fire. Kevin saw Helmy get to his feet. He gathered his PSI, gritting his teeth.

"PK Riding Gamma!"

For the second time that night, a wave of brilliant light and color exploded from the boy. Not to be caught off guard for the second time himself, Helmy quickly cast a psychic shield around him. The wave hit it, and only a fraction of the tremendous energy managed to seep through and knock Helmy into a tree behind him. Hiss shaded visor kept the light from blinding him, but he couldn't see anything through the colorful blast. This is what caused him to be caught off guard for the second time, as Kevin suddenly burst through the shield and slammed his wrench into Helmy's side. He flew through the air further down the hill, and Kevin chased after him.

The hill quickly became much less steep, and Helmy landed in a small patch of forest between the it and Cherry Falls. He quickly got to his feet, finding himself in a small clearing of the forest as Kevin approached. Smoke continued to blacken the sky above them, and part of the forest was alight with fire along with the town.

Kevin couldn't think. All he could focus on was the thing in front of him, the terrible, horrible thing that didn't deserve to remain standing. To remain breathing. Kevin desperately wanted to send wave after wave of psychic blasts until he had decimated the thing, but something held him back. He paused for a moment as a memory played in his mind. It tethered him to a tiny spark of rationality that warned him what would happen if he let himself get consumed by his anger again.

Seeing a momentary lapse in his opponent's attacks, Helmy quickly conjured a large chunk of ice. He flung it at Kevin, but Kevin quickly snapped out of his thoughts. He brandished his wrench at the ice and smashed it into pieces. Kevin then swung his weapon at Helmy left and right, ignoring its weight and the horrible strain on his arms as he forced them to redirect its momentum back at his target.

Helmy found himself ducking and weaving to dodge every last blow, and took note of Kevin's mad, unblinking eyes. When Kevin made to strike one more time, Helmy whispered, "PK Flash."

The forest turned a greenish-white for an instant. Kevin fell to the ground, screaming and clenching his eyes shut. Helmy took the opportunity to stand over Kevin, where he drew his knife and held it high above his head. Gleaming in the light of a nearby fire, the knife whistled through the air as Helmy plunged it down.

Clank!

Helmy felt the knife jerk out of his grip, and he quickly jumped back to avoid a katana as it continued its path up toward his head. Eddy's Brother quickly struck again, forcing Helmy to dodge backward.

"Kevin, are you alright?"

Kevin heard a familiar voice. All at once, his mind turned back on. He breathed heavily. He forced his eyes open, though they still stung, and saw the face of Doctor Andonuts.

"M-my…" His voice was hoarse, and he babbled softly as he tried to remember what words to say. He felt sobs forming in his throat, and tried to choke them back down. "M-my p-p…"

"It's okay, get your bearings first." Doctor Andonuts turned around, and spectated the fight between Helmy and Eddy's Brother. It was intense, but short-lived. Helmy dodged a few of the man's sword strikes on his way to retrieve his knife. When he got close to it, he quickly cast another PK Flash. Eddy's Brother dropped to the ground, and Helmy delivered a sharp kick to his chest. The man writhed in pain, and Helmy picked up the knife.

More quickly than the last time, Helmy raised his knife into the air and struck at the man. The knife whirled through the air, then bounced off of something solid. A shield had appeared around Eddy's Brother, and Helmy quickly turned his attention back to Kevin and Doctor Andonuts. He charged at them, preparing to launch another psionic attack.

"Now!" the doctor suddenly screamed. The ground began to shake, and Helmy turned his head as he saw a fissure in the ground speeding toward him. On the other end of the fissure was Sarah.

"This is payback for last time!" she shouted. Helmy looked up, and quickly jumped high into the air. He grabbed onto a nearby tree branch, and the girl's attack harmlessly passed by underneath him.

For a moment, everything and everyone froze. Everything went quiet, save for the soft crackling of the fire burning a nearby tree. The silence was then broken with a loud slap.

"Oh, come on!"

Helmy dropped down from the tree branch. Kevin had quickly revived himself and Eddy's Brother, and Sarah joined up with Doctor Andonuts. The four of them surrounded Helmy in the clearing.

Helmy widened his stance. A moment passed, and then everyone attacked.

~γγγγγγ~

Ed and Jimmy walked briskly up the hill. The former did so to slow down for the latter, who almost immediately ran out of breath when the incline became noticeably steep. Ed had offered to carry Jimmy on his shoulders, but the boy refused. Ed figured it was because of his stench, but he also felt an air of pride coming from Jimmy.

Walking alone with Jimmy for possibly the first time in his life, Ed realized that he really didn't know the boy all that well. Edd had been his friend since they were very young, and Ed had gotten to know Kevin well through their adventure together. Jimmy, however, had either been scared to talk to any of them very much, or too aloof and focused with whatever was going on with his PSI to care. And speaking of his PSI…

"Hey Jimmy," Ed asked. Jimmy looked at him curiously. Ed quickly noticed the boy's eyes, how they seemed to sparkle with life instead of appearing glazed over like they used to. "Um, what happened back there? At the Boulder Mountain, with the whole Dark Jimmy monster thing?"

Jimmy's eyes widened in slight surprise, but he answered, "I… don't really know myself. Well, maybe I do. I know what I did, but not why everything happened like that."

"Well, what do you know? When you first discovered your powers, you were really afraid of them. Then all of a sudden, you could use them, and you started getting really serious and quiet."

Jimmy took in a large breath. "Well, at first I was really afraid of the thought of having powers like you guys. I don't know why, really, but it was just kinda scary. I guess maybe I just thought I was supposed to be a regular, normal kid, and the thought of having power…" He shied his gaze away from Ed, and he continued, "Well, I remembered what I was like whenever I did have power of some sort, like the time I framed you guys for giving me a wedgie, or when I had made that ice pop scam and had everyone else giving me their money. When I had power like that, I couldn't help myself with it. I did nasty things, looking back on it, and I don't want to do anything like them again.

"And yet, PSI is a different kind of power, now that I think about it. It can be used to heal, or put out fires, or even use fire to save someone's life. I think a part of me has always known that, but I was still afraid. When we got lost in the glaciers, though, something happened. When Kevin was hit and he flew though the air, I knew he'd die if he hit the ground. I was really, really afraid, more afraid of that than my powers.

"That was when I heard a voice, something in my head telling me to melt the ice and save my friend. I suddenly felt my PSI going on its own, and before I knew what was going on, I saw fire bursting out of my hand. It was terrifying at first, but I kept hearing the voice, saying that it was my PSI itself. I trusted it, and relied on it to use my powers."

Jimmy huffed, and Ed found himself walking slower to let him keep up. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Jimmy continued, "That was when I started to go crazy. I thought the voice really was just my PSI, but now that I think about it, I think there was something else in there too. I stopped seeing PSI as that good, helpful kind of power—or maybe I just never saw it like that at all—and I saw it more like the power that drove me to do nasty things to people who angered me. That part of me started taking control of the voice, if the two were ever even different things to start with anyway. It made me want to use my—or its power more and more, and made me feel great whenever I did.

"However, when I stopped using my powers, it made me feel angry. I didn't want to talk to anyone or try to figure out what we should do next or even play with Sarah." He lowered his head, and Ed saw him clench his eyes shut for a moment before he continued, "And then after we fought the giant wolf monster, you know what happened to me there."

His expression softened, and he let out a sigh. "I had nearly lost myself to the voice, nearly given in to the power it gave me. However, when Kevin brought Sarah, and I saw her face… I realized what I was doing. But the voice didn't want to stop, so I guess we split apart somehow.

"After that, I felt so light, like a heavy burden on my mind was lifted. But I also felt… well, too light, like something was missing. I didn't care, though. I thought that my powers had always been evil, and they were slowly corrupting me since I first realized them. But in the Boulder Mountain, Doctor Andonuts told me that PSI was a part of me, and that I the only one that could control it. I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him, but I did want to stop it from hurting all of you. When I jumped into the Dark Jimmy monster thing, though, I realized that what he said was true. I accepted that the power was my own, that I was responsible for using it correctly, and that I was meant to use them to help people."

A smile began to grow on Jimmy's face. "Now I can use my powers freely, without having to rely on a voice to use them for me. It's kinda hard to control just how much energy I throw into something now, but it's still better than it was before." He was beaming now, and he turned to Ed. "Thank you. It felt good to talk to someone about all this."

Ed smiled back, then gasped and pointed ahead of him. "We're here!" Kevin's house lay ahead of them. Its front door was ajar, and Jimmy gasped as he saw Kevin's bike abandoned carelessly on the lawn.

The two entered the house, Jimmy holding his golf club defensively and Ed balling his hands into fists, which he held close to his chest. Light poured into the kitchen from the back wall, which was almost completely decimated. There was no debris on the floor, save for the edges of the hole that were singed a little.

A glint caught Ed's eye, and he looked over at a nearby counter. He saw the sextant Adam had given them back at Pomegranate pool, dimly reflecting the light from the town beyond. He picked it up, and closed his eyes as it reminded him of Edd.

Jimmy jumped as he heard a cough. He and Ed looked on the floor, where they saw Kevin's parents. The two struggled to move as they tried to get to their feet. They each had welts on their heads and necks, but looked otherwise unharmed.

"Mister and Missus Kevin's mom and dad!" Ed knelt down to the two adults, and quickly poured energy into healing them. Jimmy quickly followed, and soon the couple regained enough strength to get on their knees.

"Y-you're Kevin's friends," Kevin's mother said.

"What happened here?" Jimmy asked.

"Helmy," Kevin's father wheezed. "The man in the motorcycle helmet that Kevin told us about. He appeared out of nowhere and started attacking the town. Before we could call you guys, he showed up at our house and knocked us out."

Kevin's mother turned around, and noticed the damage to the back wall. "Oh my god!"

"Kevin's probably fighting Helmy right now," Jimmy realized. "Come on, Ed! We gotta help him!" He stepped toward the hole in the wall, and judged how far it dropped off to the steep incline below. It was was a fair way down, but he gulped and leapt down toward the hill before anyone could object. He landed on the ground with a roll, and broke into a sprint down toward the forest below.

Ed made to follow, but Kevin's mother put a hand on his arm. "You don't have a weapon?" she asked. Ed shook his head, and she got to her feet.

"I have PSI," Ed uttered. Kevin's mother shook her head.

"Wait here for a minute. Kevin said that your powers can run out if you use them too much, and you simply must have a way to protect yourself without them."

She helped her husband to his feet, then quickly began to scour the remnants of the kitchen for something. Ed grew nervous as she watched her, switching his attention back and forth between her and Jimmy, who started to disappear amongst the trees. The seconds turned into a minute, then two, and Ed found himself dancing in place as he waited.

"Aha!" Kevin's mother grabbed hold of something, and presented it toward Ed. "I'm not sure why, but I think this would suit you. It feels right."

Ed grabbed hold of it, and he smiled. It felt very right indeed.

After thanking Kevin's parents, Ed leapt down the hill. He smiled to himself; he couldn't wait to show Helmy his new frying pan.