When Kyle punched out and checked his phone for the first time in the whole day, he saw there were fifteen missed calls from Wendy and a very close number from Stan. That was how he knew something was wrong. He called his friend back immediately.

"Dude! It was about time! It's Ike! They've doxxed him! They've found out he is Maplebeard!"

Kyle stopped right where he was. If someone had seen him at that moment, they would have seen his face turning completely white.

"Wha...? Who did?"

"We've tried to call, but he won't pick up the phone! ...What...? Wait, Wendy wants to say something."

"Kyle, it's me, Wendy. I'm going to hack his microphone so you can hear what he's hearing."

A couple of seconds of silence followed, and then Kyle heard it. His mom's voice.

He was sure that not only his skin, now his hair probably went white too upon hearing that.

"Crap...Oh, crap!"

He ran to his car as fast as he could. He had his Human Kite suit in the trunk. He had barely put it on when he flew off at missile speed.

When Gerald returned home after work, he found Ike sitting on the sofa and Sheila blocking his way out of it with her large body.

"What are you guys doing?" He asked.

"That's precisely what you should ask our boy here." Sheila replied, looking at Ike severely from the corner of her eye. "It seems he goes for a different name: Smuggler Maplebeard the Pirate King."

"...Wait...Isn't that...?"

Sheila nodded, and Ike avoided looking at his father.

"But Ike, how could you!" Gerald exclaimed.

"He's been lucky that I found him first." Sheila said. Funny, Ike didn't feel lucky at all..

"So you have been their manager all of this time, promoting them, doing...? I can't believe it!" Gerald exclaimed.

"Where did you meet these people?" Ike didn't reply, Sheila forced him to look at her. "Are they friends of yours? Who are they?"

"...I can't tell you..." Ike finally muttered, still not looking at them.

"You can. And you will." Sheila replied. "You are eighteen now, do you know what that means? That means, you can go to jail for cooperating with criminals...You are my son and I don't want you to ruin your life so young."

"I can't tell you who they are! You will hurt them!" Ike said.

"They deserve it! They are terrible people!"

"No, they're not! They just made mistakes and you made things worse! You are terrible! You are the ones chasing them down like they were animals!"

"Please, Ike. Listen to me." Gerald knelt down before him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You won't have to go to court. We will cover you up. No one will know you had something to do with the Freedom Pals. But you have to help us catch them, do you understand? You have to help us..."

Ike was silent for a few seconds, then shook his head energetically.

"All right, young man, I'm getting tired." Sheila intervened. "Tell us who these people are or...!"

"Or what?" Ike stood up. "You said it: I'm eighteen! I am an adult! You can't keep bossing me around!"

"Ike! How dare you talk to me like that! I do this because you are my son and I want you to be safe!" Sheila sounded so hurt...But Ike didn't fall for it. In fact, all it did was anger him.

"How? Controlling every thing I do? Thinking every time that I do something you don't like that I've been brainwashed? Spying on me?" The boy stood up to shout at Sheila's face, much to her shock. "Well, I'm getting tired of you loving me! That's why Kyle's always out of the house and why I'm on the computer all day long! You're unbearable!"

And he dashed towards the door.

"WHAT WHAT WHAT?! IKE! GET BACK HERE!" Sheila shouted. She ran as fast as she could, but Ike was much faster, and by the time she reached the door, Ike had already disappeared. "Gerald!"

"Oh, gosh..." Was all he could mutter, and he quickly ran after his son.

The two of them were in such a hurry that they didn't notice the young man dressed in black that emerged from the shadows behind their garage.

"That one?" Mike asked.

"Yes." Another figured, only not in full sight, of a hand with painted lips and eyes.

"I've always wondered what Canadian blood tasted like, per se..." Mike's fangs shone as he flashed them, hunt being on.

He was so dead. One didn't talk Mom back and live. As good as it had felt and as much as it had given him the courage necessary to avoid those questions and escape, Ike was starting to regret everything. If they found him, he would have to pay for that.

Also, where could he go? His feet drove him automatically to the base, but he stopped, considering that perhaps it wasn't a good idea. He didn't know how close they were, if someone had joined them in the search. He didn't want anyone to find the base, where surely they could find lots of fingerprints and other traces that could lead them to discover the secret identity of Kyle and the others.

Without that option, he didn't know what else to do...Perhaps take that path in the forest that lead to Canada and hide in there for a while, camouflaged among people his race...

It was then when his phone rang. He took it feeling he should throw it away, considering he had been found thanks to his gadgets, but he then saw it was Kyle. He really hoped they were not using him to locate him...He answered because if there was a moment when he needed his brother, it was then.

"Ike!"

"Kyle! Mom's-!"

"I know! I'm on my way! Where are you?"

"I'm..." Ike had to pause and look around him. He could barely distinguish the shape of some crops or...What was it? He smelt the air. That scent in the air...Marijuana! "Tegridy Farms! I'm in Tegridy Farms or very near it! Yuck, it smells like my Arts teacher!"

"Okay, okay, don't move. I'll be there in no time!"

He hanged up and all he could do now, Ike guessed, was wait...He saw cars driving on their way to get some weed, so he penetrated into the field a little bit, to hide crouched down among the plants but not too much. He hoped nor Mr. Marsh nor Towelie found him there...They would tell his mother and it would be game over for him...

Everything was fine, Ike comforted himself. Kyle flew very fast. He would be there in no time.

A crack behind him made him get up and turn around, gasping.

The moon was hiding under the mountains. He couldn't see if there was something moving among the bushes. The breeze was shaking them gently.

Maybe it was a little animal, like...a badger, or a rabbit...If it was something human, he would have seen it: marijuana plants were not that tall...

He was about to sit again when he heard something again that made him stop mid-air and look around. Another crack—steps.

For a second, he almost wished it was just Mr. Marsh, who was harvesting Tegridy in the night because the moon gave the weed properties or something like that...

In a fraction of that second, something knocked him down.

"Hey, Gerald and Sheila!" Thomas Tucker said to Sheila and Gerald when he saw them approaching his house, right when he was taking out the trash.

"Thomas! Did you see Ike?" Gerald ran and grabbed and shook him.

"Wha...?"

"Did you see him?!"

"Y-Yes, I saw him running that way..." Thomas replied, pointing into the south.

Gerald and Sheila kept running in that direction.

"Hey! Did something happen?" Thomas shouted, but they didn't reply.

Mom called. She told him about his little brother running away from home—she didn't mention why. He had the car, he had to drive around and see if he found him...

According to the information Wendy had sent him, Ike had to be around...But Kyle couldn't see him...He only saw marijuana bushes and the Marshes' house in the distance, the only light around in some miles. He descended a bit, hoping to see him better, but no...There was no trace of him...

"Ike!" He called him, at the risk of being caught.

No reply. Kyle ended up landing and combing the field himself. He continued to check the screen of his phone. Ike had to be there...But...why couldn't he see him?

His foot stomped on something hard. Using the light of his phone to see, he found it was Ike's.

"Ike?"

No response. Using his flashlight, he looked all over that field of Tegridy, intoxicated by the disgusting smell.

Thanks to this light, he found some strange stains in several plants that caught his attention. Splatters. He touched one of the leafs with the tip of his fingers and looked at it closely, studied its consistency.

Blood.

"Ike?" He called again, louder, feeling a pressure inside his chest.

Something emerged from the ground, attracting his attention. It was a hand full of blood.

"Ike!"

It was his brother, lying on the ground. He barely had a second to see all the blood around his neck before the phone slipped from his hands.

"IKE!" Kyle dropped on his knees and held him carefully, because he didn't know in what condition he was.

"Ky...Ky..." Ike tried to talk, but his voice sounded so faint—so weak and defenseless, like back to his babyhood.

"I-It's okay, Ike, I'm here, I'm here, little brother..." Kyle stammered.

The phone, he needed light...He picked it up and used the flashlight again to see how severe his wounds were...He saw Ike had been attacked by something with claws and jaws...Something big...He had fought like a tiger, because he saw signs of a fight. Probably that saved his life. But he was not out of danger. There was blood everywhere. His green T-shirt was totally dyed red. He saw a particularly big slash in his neck that he didn't like at all, because of how deep it was. It seemed whatever that was had tried to bite him in the neck and Ike had managed to get it off him, but the fang had still ripped his skin. Kyle was afraid that it had cut an important vein. He was bleeding so much...

He looked around. Even if he flew as quick as he could—which didn't seem the most convenient to Ike—, he could bleed out in the way...

"Ike, listen...I'm going to cauterize this wound...It's gonna hurt..."

Ike just gazed at him, panting. Kyle couldn't wait for him to express he was ready.

He used his lasers, trying not to think too much, either. Ike let out a loud scream that echoed through the field.

Sharon looked away from the plate.

"...Did you hear that, Randy?" She asked.

Randy turned his head towards his fields with a frown.

Sheila grabbed Gerald. "Wait! I heard a scream! That way!"

And she changed the direction, into the Marshes' farm.

That sounded like her boy...Sheila's heart pounded hard inside her chest. She hoped it was just a fake impression, her imagination, because if Ike was screaming that meant her baby was in danger...She ran faster than ever before in her life, among the bushes, not minding about ruining the crops or invading someone's property.

"Ike!" Gerald shouted behind her.

There was an intense light ahead of them, something they couldn't identify...Sheila followed it.

It was then when she saw it. Ike, barely conscious, all white due to all the blood he was irrigating the farm with, in the arms of Human Kite, who was attacking him with his lasers!

She let out a ragged cry that made the Marshes rush out of the house.

"IKE!" Gerald shouted, and ran to defend his son.

Kyle gasped and, hating having to do so, dropped Ike to fly away before they captured him.

"Ike! Ike! Can you hear me? Ike, my boy!" Gerald quickly forgot about Human Kite and grabbed Ike and touched his face, trying desperately to get a reaction.

Randy saw Human Kite fly above their heads when he and Sharon approached, lantern in hand, but there was no way he could catch him.

"Gerald?"

"Randy! Call an ambulance, quick!" His friend shouted.

"Oh, dear Lord!" Sharon covered her mouth when she saw Ike all covered in blood.

Sheila was crying. She wanted to touch her son's hair but was so afraid of his state that she stopped herself. She clenched her fists and looked up at the figure that was vanishing in the distance, to shout as much as her lungs allowed her:

"I WILL FIND YOU, HUMAN KITE! I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN LIKE THE ANIMALS YOU ARE! I WON'T STOP UNTIL I SEE YOU ALL ON DEATH ROW! BUT YOU—I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF! I'M GONNA KILL YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!"