The scene was Alan's house, and the mood was tense and grim. Upon hearing that Prunella had been recovered, her parents rushed to the scene and besieged her with questions. An hour had passed, and both children remained taciturn.
"You claim that space aliens repaired your brain," said Mrs. Prufrock to her daughter. "That's utterly absurd. If aliens were anywhere near Earth, I'd have picked up their vibrations."
"Alan, you're not leaving this house until you tell me the truth about where you were and what happened to you," Mrs. Powers demanded.
"The same goes for you, Prunella," said Mr. Prufrock. "I mean, you're not leaving our house, once we get there."
The two classmates dared not speak a word. Alan stared at the floor hard enough to burn a hole in the carpet. Prunella's rat nose drooped with sadness.
"If you were with the Brainchildren, we need to know," said Mr. Powers firmly. "They're a danger to the rest of us. They need to be taken into custody."
And what am I? thought Alan. What will you do to me if I tell you that I just destroyed a man's identity?
"We'll get the truth out of you one way or another," said Mrs. Powers to her son. "Now if you'll pardon me, I'm going to fix dinner, then send you to bed without it."
Alan gazed at his mother as she strolled into the kitchen. His mind's eye beheld a shifting desert of sagebrush and juniper, linked to the woman's memories by some mechanism he could control but not understand. Everyone in the room presented the same picture to him.
Everyone except Prunella. Why?
As Mrs. Powers reached for a head of arugula lettuce in the crisper, a knock came at the door. "Will you get that, dear?" she called out.
Must be Dolly, come to thank me for turning her back into a girl. The prospect brought a bit of cheer to Alan's troubled heart.
His father pulled the door open. Every eye in the room went wide.
C.V. Oberlin stood in the doorway.
The owl boy trained his bespectacled eyes on Alan. "You're one of us now," he said with a menacing air. "Come along quietly, or we'll tell your folks everything."
Alan leaped to his feet, his mouth gaping, his hopes shattered. His father lunged forward, seizing the intruder by his flabby, feathery arms. C.V. expressed no worry, but merely flicked his eyelashes.
A wave of intense fear bolted through the house.
Alan had been on the receiving end of C.V.'s fear-projecting powers before, but never at such an extreme level. The very furniture seemed to swirl around him in a dizzying blur. Losing all reason, he put his hands over his face and shrieked in agony.
Both his and Prunella's parents felt the full brunt of C.V.'s mental attack, and were writhing in terror within seconds. The house echoed with their delirious screams.
C.V. folded his arms and grinned confidently—until he noticed that his fear blast was having no effect on Prunella.
The puzzled rat girl glanced around at the tormented adults. She didn't know why she had been spared, only that C.V. had to be stopped at once.
Snarling with rage, she threw herself at the overweight owl boy, knocking him onto the doorstep and sending his glasses flying. "Stop!" she bellowed, tightening her fingers around her gasping enemy's throat. "Stop it or I'll kill you!"
The two struggled as the screams from the living room subsided. Evenly matched for size, Prunella and C.V. rolled in the grass and exchanged blows. Prunella gained the advantage due to C.V.'s fuzzy vision, and the owl boy stood and fled, leaving both his cracked glasses and diabetic I.D. bracelet lying on the concrete.
Both of Alan's parents raced out of the house and pursued the frightened boy, hardly noticing the raven-haired bulldog girl who stood at a nearby corner and watched them with striking blue eyes.
Stop! a female voice shouted in their heads. Mr. and Mrs. Powers halted and looked around, unsure of who was speaking to them.
Alan heard the voice as well. Racing to the window, he spotted the blue-eyed little girl on the other side of the street.
You were warned, Alan, uttered the disembodied voice. Now your parents will know what you are, and what you have done.
Alan's heart churned. It's her, he realized. The telepathic girl from Scepter City. I've got to shut her up! He hurried to the door, certain that he would do something dire to the girl.
Your son is a Brainchild, the voice continued. He has the ability to erase memories from the minds of others.
We know that, thought Alan's mother.
He can only do that when he's merged with his sister, thought Alan's father.
"What's going on?" Prunella asked Alan's motionless parents.
Not anymore, spoke the girl's voice. His powers have expanded. He wiped the mind of our leader…
The telepathic message was cut short as the girl, frightened by Alan's approach, ran away down the sidewalk.
Just a little closer, thought the bear boy as he pursued her with vigor. Wait…what am I doing? What if I accidentally erase her mind, like I did with Mansch?
He slowed down and watched dolefully as the girl sped around a corner and vanished.
Turning about, he saw the indignant expressions on the faces of his parents, and groaned. This is it. I am so doomed.
"Get inside," said Mr. Powers as his son shuffled closer.
Once Mrs. Powers had locked the door, she marched to the kitchen and picked up the telephone receiver. "I'm calling the school," she told Alan. "If what we heard is true, then you need to be examined."
All of Alan's entrails sank at once. It mattered nothing that they were his parents—they had locked up his sister, and they would lock him up as well.
"I'm sorry, Alan," said Prunella with pity as she laid a hand on her classmate's shoulder.
Alan gently brushed her hand away. He hadn't yet run out of desperate acts.
"Uh, Mom," he said with a devious smile, "how will you call the school if you don't know the number?"
Mrs. Powers gave him a patronizing stare. This was followed by a confused look.
"Er, honey," she said, lowering the phone, "do you remember the number of the school?"
Alan's father opened his mouth. Alan peered at him, and he closed it again.
"I, uh, forgot it," he admitted with a shrug.
"What are you doing?" asked Prunella in a rumbling whisper. Alan ignored her.
"I've got it written down on the Rolodex," said Mrs. Powers, stepping out of the kitchen.
No, you don't, Alan thought at her.
His mother stopped in her tracks halfway to the den. "Er, where was I going?"
"To find the phone number for Ballford Prep," Mr. Powers reminded her.
You remember nothing about Ballford Prep, thought Alan, deftly pruning a patch of sagebrush from his mother's memory.
"Ballford what?" Mrs. Powers gaped in confusion at her husband.
"Stop it, Alan," Prunella muttered to her friend. "You're scaring me."
"Not half as much as I'm scaring myself," Alan responded.
His parents stared and gesticulated, trying to make sense of what they were saying to each other. "I'm going to Arthur's to play video games," he informed them.
"You're staying right here," said his father. "You're not safe as long as the Brainchildren are out there."
"None of us is safe," remarked Mr. Prufrock, who, along with his wife, was recovering from the fear attack by relaxing on the couch.
Alan shook his head glumly. There's only one way to get them off my case, he realized.
Focusing his attention on Prunella's parents and his own, he executed the horrific deed.
The adults blinked and looked about quickly, as if coming out of sleep. Their stupefied expressions caused Prunella tremendous concern.
"Hello," said Mrs. Prufrock to Alan. "I don't know you. Are you a friend of Prunella's?"
Alan smiled warmly and nodded.
Prunella's jaw plunged halfway to the floor. "Play along," Alan urged her.
"You look hungry," said Mrs. Powers to her son. "I've got some cookies in the jar. Do you like oatmeal raisin?"
"No, thank you," Alan replied. "Prunella and I are going to Muffin Man for a bite, then I'm flying back to Walla Walla."
"Have a safe trip," said Mr. Powers cheerily. "Visit us again soon."
Without further ado, Alan walked through the front doorway, followed by the visibly outraged Prunella.
"You made them forget you!" the rat girl shouted when they were half a block away. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Yes," Alan acknowledged sadly. "Yes, I am."
"I supposed you'll make me forget you next," said Prunella, a tinge of worry in her voice.
"I can't," said Alan. "Something about your brain makes you immune. You've got to promise not to tell anyone that I've gone."
"Gone?" Prunella blurted out. "Where?"
"I'm not sure," answered Alan, a tear forming in his eye. "Someplace where the Brainchildren and my parents won't find me."
"Don't leave," said Prunella earnestly, grabbing her friend by the shoulders. "We'll fight this."
"I am fighting it," said Alan with a tone of hopelessness.
Prunella bent her knees and buried her face in Alan's shirt, letting out muffled sobs. "I promise…I promise I won't tell anyone."
Mrs. Powers watched the touching scene from her porch. "She cares a lot about that boy," she remarked to her husband.
"Did we ever get his name?" was Mr. Powers' response.
Having taken leave of Prunella, Alan trudged along the street, his hands in his pockets. He didn't know if he would see his parents again. He certainly didn't want to see the Brainchildren, or the sister that had betrayed him, again. His only hope for freedom was to move, and keep moving.
THE END