Cole

It may be the first time the leader of their little group had to have a young child with him who didn't look anything like him, but he wasn't stupid as to how it would look if somebody were to find him with Lloyd like that.

He changed his form into an older version of Lloyd, but slightly different too.

A few years ago, he might've accidently turned into a grandma with four arms and a tail, which would freak out a startled pizza delivery-boy, causing him to drop all the pizza he was supposed to deliver (Free Pizza!) and the place to refuse sending any more people to the place with the "demon-grandma", forcing them to have to get deliveries from another pizza franchise (Ninja Pizza), until Kai scared the poor guy by doing his "impression" of Samukai, which resulted in another free pizza, which was nice, but led to them having to beg Zane to make pizza whenever they wanted some.

Lloyd looked up in wonder as Cole's black hair became blond and his dark brown eyes became blue and changed shape and his entire facial structure changed, as did the rest of his structure.

"Wow, you look like me, but older!" The boy exclaimed.

Cole messed up Lloyd's hair as he laughed. "I know, kiddo. That's the whole point. I'm going to tell people that you're my brother or my kid or something, and this way, nobody will know I'm lying."

"It looks like everybody here has some kind of power, but I don't know what Kai does." Lloyd looked around to where Kai was getting dressed for work (he apprenticed at a blacksmith's shop) and putting his work-clothes on over the clothes he was wearing, because Kai couldn't have somebody touching him.

"Kai's powers are…" Cole paused to think of the right word to use. "Complicated. They mess with his memories. Jay helps as much as he can, but he won't risk removing the memories from before we met him, because we don't know which ones are actually his."

Lloyd was about to say something, but Cole pulled his skeleton hoodie off him, which led to some muffled screaming. His green shirt had to be removed too and Cole put one of Jay's shirts on him, because Jay was the smallest of them and his clothes would fit the small boy much better than anything the others owned.

"We'll wash that when we come back," Cole told Lloyd.

They had to take a bus, because Jay took the only car and Zane left with Kai on Kai's bike.

When they got off in the city, Lloyd got very excited and started dragging Cole all over the place, asking if they could go into various stores.

Cole would go with him, but he had to remind the boy that the money Cole had were for clothes, they would see if they could afford a toy or candy after, because he and his friends piled the money they made together and they only got a certain amount to spend once a month.

Their mysterious employer would only pay them after they did a job for him/her, and this strange person only send instructions via notes and text messages. Their money would be given to them in the way kidnappers were given ransom: a paper bag filled with money, hidden somewhere only they knew about. They were told about the job they were supposed to do through a tape recorder that would get delivered to them through the mail.

Cole finally got to a second-hand store where he and his friends got most of their things very cheaply.

As he and Lloyd browsed, an older couple came into the store, looking sad and carrying boxes of stuff inside.

They spoke in quiet, low tones, as if somebody had died, as they handed the box over to the woman behind the counter.

Cole snuck closer to hear what they were saying more clearly.

Apparently, the couple had a son who wandered off about a year ago.

"Maybe he'll come back," Cole suggested, but the woman sobbed and her husband held her, telling her that it was okay, and that he couldn't have known.

"Our son needed special care ever since he was ten," the man explained softly. "He can't take care of himself without help."

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea," Cole told the weeping woman and her gentle husband.

Lloyd inched closer to get a better look at what's inside the box, because apparently it looked good to eight-year-olds.

The woman stopped crying for long enough to smile at the boy. "Aw, your son is so adorable."

Cole looked at Lloyd, who was practically inside the box by now. "Thank you, Ma'am. And I'm sorry to hear about yours." He picked up Lloyd from inside the box and put him back on the floor. "I don't know what I'd do if Lloyd here goes missing."

The woman cooed at Lloyd while her husband gave the boy a pitying look.

Cole managed to find three pretty good shirts, four pairs of pants, a set of green pyjamas and a jacket for Lloyd while the poor kid had to deal with a strange woman crying and telling him all about her missing son, telling him not to wander away from his dad (Cole) while Lloyd nodded, not knowing what to say.

Cole paid and listened to the couple talking to each other.

They left after they were done donating, but Edna (the woman) first gave Lloyd a stuffed bear from the box and took out several other things, which she didn't want to give away, while her husband tried to convince her that it would be better for her if she just gave it up.

"Quiet, Ed!" Edna yelled at him, before grabbing the entire box and running off, leaving behind an unsurprised cashier and a completely startled Cole and Lloyd.

"They come in all the time," the woman behind the counter told them. "They never really leave anything."

Cole paid for the stuff and left the store with Lloyd.

"So, I've been wondering…" Cole looked down at Lloyd. "You got any family around to take care of you?"

Lloyd thought a little, but then he shook his head. "No. I don't know where my parents are and my uncle doesn't like me."

Cole sighed. "Okay. So you're staying with us, then."

Not that he disliked the kid (who looked very sad), it's just that they were also pretty much still kids and they only just met Lloyd. Jay told him (telepathically) that Lloyd was afraid of the Serpentine, and those snakes would walk or slither through their part of the tomb whenever they were going outside to bask in the sun or catch something to eat.

Just a week ago, one of the Serpentine invited them to watch a fight in the Slither Pit, and it wasn't at all unusual for something like that to happen.

"You don't like me either," Lloyd sighed. "You're just being nice and…"

"No, no, that's not it at all," Cole told him. "It's just, Jay noticed this morning that you don't seem very comfortable with the idea of living in a tomb full of snakes and we don't want you to be scared. We like you, you're a nice kid, but all in all, me and my friends, we're just kids ourselves, and we're still trying to figure out our powers."

"I can get used to the snakes! And I won't bother you!"

"Lloyd, we don't expect you to get used to the Serpentine overnight, and we won't mind if you bother us, but we're going to have to set up a couple of rules for you. I'm not being unreasonable, we all follow these rules, but I'm just going to make sure that you know them, okay? We have our rules for a reason and…" Cole trailed off. "We should be getting home."


Ed and Edna are still Jay's parents.