chyp: What better way to say thanx to you than this: thanx!

Raya: I agree with you completely! Coincidentally, I also hate Rich and think that he's bad news. Small world…

Bryan, Mike, and Rich went over their plan again as they neared their destination. They had left the garage early that morning and were almost at Fort Knox. Wesley had not said a word since they had left, fearing Rich's reaction to anything he might say.

"We go in," Rich said, indicating himself and Wesley. "We join the tour group and when everything's in place, he'll freeze the vault when they open it to show us the gold."

"Then I'll go in and load up," Bryan said. "Mike, you're on lookout, got it?"

"Yeah," Mike said. "Don't forget, work fast."

"Right," Bryan said. "You got the detonator?"

"Right here," Mike said, holding the small device.

"I have a feeling we'll have to use it anyway," Rich said, smiling evilly at Wesley.

"What?" Wesley asked in his best horrified face. "You said that if I helped…"

"Well maybe we lied," Rich said, cutting him off as the car stopped. "It's showtime, Shorty. What's a little shrimp like you doing in college anyway?"

"Don't go there," Wesley said reluctantly. "Let's just get this over with."

"Now you're sure you can freeze the entire place?" Bryan asked.

"Sure," Wesley said despondently.

"Good," Mike said. "I'll be down the street. There's an alley just down the way."

"Love those alleys," Wesley muttered to himself as Rich roughly pulled him out of the car.

"On three," James said, standing in front of the auto garage with Matthew. "Three!"

With a swift wave of his hand, the front door flew open and he and Matthew stormed inside, ready to fight. To their surprise, though, no one was there. They were too late.

"We're too late," James said. "If we hadn't spent so much time looking for keys…"

"I told you that was out of my hands," Matthew said. "Anyway, how can we make it to Fort Knox in time now?"

"Maybe I can help," John's voice said as he appeared in a sea of lights.

"I thought you couldn't help," Matthew said. "Or didn't wanna help."

"Things are a little more complicated now," John said. "If they get away with robbing Fort Knox, I'm pretty sure Wesley will be found out."

"What? How?" James wondered.

"You three are still new to this, no matter what you think," John said. "You're looking at this from only one side. Before this…job…I was a police officer. Surveillance cameras at every bank are going to show that Wesley was the common denominator in every single robbery. I have friends in the force, so I can handle that part of things, but if this gets to Fort Knox, it's out of my hands. That's federal stuff."

"Crap," Matthew said. "I didn't even look at things that way. We need to get there now!"

"Take my hands," John said, offering his hands to both brothers.

They each took a hand and soon they were all gone in a sea of lights. There was a feeling of being everywhere at once, blinding lights, and then it was over. They appeared behind a bush on a street near Fort Knox. They were both disoriented from the trip.

"What happened?" James asked, clearing his head.

"Look," Matthew said, pointing ahead, "we're here. There's the place."

"Thanks for the ride, John," James said. "Next time, though, try to make it a little less…bad."

Rich and Wesley walked into the tour group that was entering the front doors of the famous building. As they entered, Wesley was amazed to see how well protected everything was. Guards stood everywhere, unmoving, like statues. He was starting to wonder if his power would hold so many people in place for a while. After a small eternity of walking and enduring other tourists' questions, they finally reached the part Rich had been waiting for, the gold vault. It took five people to open the vault; the tour group was kept well away from it. As soon as it was open, Rich inconspicuously kicked Wesley in the leg. Rolling his eyes, Wesley looked around and took everything into account, making sure not to miss a thing. He squinted and flicked his hands, freezing everything and everyone in the area. He looked at Rich, who was frozen. He softly, but firmly, punched Rich in the face to break the freeze. Rich resumed motion, but held his jaw, looking down at Wesley in anger.

"Sorry," Wesley said. "It's the only way I know."

"That'll cost you," Rich said, pulling out a small walkie-talkie. "He did it, Bryan. Get in here."

Seconds later, Bryan ran in, careful not to touch anyone as Wesley had told him. While everyone else was frozen, Bryan slipped into the vault and returned with gold bars in all of his pockets. He ran back to the car and delivered them to Mike, who loaded them into bags. He came back to gather another load, but was surprised to see that everyone had resumed motion. He stopped in his tracks, forced to think on his feet. He casually mingled in with the rest of the group, pretending to have gone to the restroom. Rich stared at Wesley, giving him a very disapproving stare.

"Look, I'm sorry," Wesley said. "I've only been doing this for half a year. I'm good, but I'm not that good."

"You better give it your best," Rich threatened.

"I'll try," Wesley shrugged, "but I can't keep everybody and everything frozen for any longer than they were before, so whatever y'all do, make it quick."

It was a long and drawn out process, but Wesley managed to help Bryan go in and out almost forty times. Each time, Bryan filled his pockets with as much gold as he could, without being conspicuous of course, and ran outside to deliver the goods to Mike, who in turn loaded them into bags in the car. Then Bryan would return inside and mingle for a while until Wesley froze the place again. Finally, after so many trips, the guards had closed the vault, not knowing that anything had happened. When the tour was over, Rich and Bryan followed Wesley back outside towards the alley, where Mike was waiting.

Close call, Wesley, close call… For a hot minute there, I thought that Wesley actually had that much control over his powers, but of course I was wrong! He can't freeze that much stuff for that long! Now, readers of this story, comes the crossroads: there are around 2 or 3 chapters of this left (which are monumental, by the way), but as for the next story, I just really hit the wall so hard that it crumbled down. I mean I'm completely stuck on an idea, so any kinds of bones y'all can throw my way, please do! E-mail me, put it in a review, anything! I had an idea, but went to sleep and lost it. Y'all know how that goes…