Jay

It's been about three months since the incident with the Serpentine and the ninja who got stabbed in the throat by Kai, which led to the five of them being kicked out, because the Hypnobrai now had to find a new home because Kai stabbing the Blue Ninja meant that the ninjas might come back for revenge.

They still didn't have a home and they had to leave behind everything that they didn't need or couldn't carry along without it looking weird.

They had to leave behind their photos, their fridge, their car and all of Zane's plants, which left him complaining out loud for the first few days, until he decided that it would be kinder to the others if he just complained inside his own head.

Unfortunately, that meant that while the others were spared from his whining, Jay wasn't.

It was really affecting Jay's mood, as he learned when he snapped at Cole when their leader wanted to know if he wanted some scrambled eggs (Kai stole three of them from some kind of ostrich that morning) and started yelling at him, which he didn't stop doing until the next morning, when Jay got up before dawn and tried to catch a falcon that was roaming around for breakfast.

When he did, Zane told him off and let the falcon go, but now it was following them.

"It's endangered, Jay," Zane told him. "We can't eat an endangered falcon."

"Besides, their meat is tough," Kai added, scratching the bird with a gloved hand. "Tough and tasteless."

Everybody turned to stare at Kai with expressions of varying shock.

"Whoa there, little guy," Kai told the bird when it opened its beak to try and bite him, "I'll bite back."

"So, are we going to keep him?" Lloyd asked from Cole's shoulder as he carried the young boy.

It's been a while since the falcon joined their group and it caused the complaining in Jay's head to stop, because Zane liked the bird and so did everybody else, even if they were worried that Kai might actually bite it.

It wasn't as if Kai never bit something before. In fact, when the five of them met with some bandits in the jungle who attacked them, and their leader grabbed Kai, thinking that he was just a little more helpless than Lloyd (who was hitting his men with a stick), he bit off the man's thumb.

They didn't find out until after the bandits ran away and Kai spat it out while Lloyd was taking a nap as not to mentally scar the poor boy.

"We kept you," Kai joked.

"And we kept Kai," Cole added, changing his legs into a Serpentine tail after the fourth time he almost tripped and dropped Lloyd. "If somebody were to see us right now, they'll definitely freak out."

Jay didn't disagree, watching Cole slither over some roots and dead trees as if they weren't there.

The rest of them just had to go under the tree (sometimes it was good being the short one of their group) or over it (sometimes it wasn't good being the short one of their group) with their legs.

Morning had turned to noon by the time the five (sorry, six) of them decided to rest a little.

Cole brought back his legs and helped Zane make a nice basket-bed-thing out of the vines for Lloyd to take a nap in, because they'd been walking all day and Lloyd was tired, which was why Cole had to carry him in the first place.

Jay knew that Kai would've offered to carry Lloyd if he could, but considering the way his powers worked, it could be dangerous.

At the moment, Kai was trying and hilariously failing to untangle their rope while Jay was putting down the chair from the coffee shop, which he dragged along for the past three months (he refused to sit on the ground) and named Sir Chairsalot.

It wasn't Lloyd who named the chair. Why do you ask?

Jay snorted.

He didn't know how, but Kai somehow got himself tied up and couldn't get out.

"It's not funny, Jay," Kai growled at him. "Let me out."

Jay looked around. Cole and Zane had left and were now looking for food, so they couldn't help. And Jay wasn't sure he could untie Kai without making things worse. If he used his telekinesis, Kai might get torn apart or strangled due to his lack of practice. And if he used his hands, the most unstable person in their group might get Jay's powers and that would end very badly.

"I'm sorry," Jay told his friend. "We have to wait for Zane to come back. He's the only one who can untie you without touching you."

Kai sighed. "Okay."

"Hey, would it be okay if I messed around in your head while you're like that?" Jay asked, pulling Sir Chairsalot closer to Kai. "I need the practice, and you can't run away."

Kai grumbled a little before letting out a loud sight. "Okay. But you better not mess around with anything important!"

"I won't do that!" Jay argued. "I'm just going to see if I can find any of your real memories!"

Kai stopped wiggling and waited for Jay to turn off his collar, which would allow him full access to his telepathic powers, thus, making it easier for him to poke around Kai's memories.

Unfortunately, it would also lower Jay's awareness to his surroundings, allowing him to be taken by surprise more easily.

Both of them were vulnerable. The world blurred around Jay as he heard the minds of everybody around him. From the animals, to his friends, to the falcon, to somebody who was flying around in a giant Samurai mecha with aggressive thoughts.

It would be very hard for Jay to do anything if they were attacked, and Kai needed to relax for this to work.

Speaking of Kai, Jay managed to put all of his focus on the tangled-up teenager in front of him.

Okay Kai, I'm moving in. You'll feel a light prickle in your head, but it's harmless.

Kai twitched.

As I said, don't mess around with anything important.

Jay couldn't move anymore.

Kai, I just need to let you know that you'll have to turn the device around my neck back on. I can't move myself like this, so I can't do it myself. I'm in some kind of catatonic state caused by my powers. You're actually the one who'll be the least affected during all of this.

Kai looked up at Jay with a mortified expression on his face. He said something, which Jay couldn't hear.

Kai, I can't hear you like this. What did you say?

You never said you'd go catatonic!

Well, I do. Now, calm down…

Jay!

I'm moving in, Kai, and it'll be much easier if you just calm down.

Jay was just about to move in, when something with many arms grabbed him, Kai, and the basked that Lloyd was taking a nap in. Kai was struggling, doing his best to escape while Jay only got some weird thoughts from Lloyd, something about flying on the back of a giant bird?

Apparently, Lloyd was heaving nice dreams.

Okay, so I'm going to try this again.

Now?! We're being kidnapped!

What? I can't move, so why not?

Okay, so what do I do?

All you have to do is stop wiggling like that. This person might drop you.

Kai stopped wiggling and relaxed, as Jay asked him to, which allowed Jay to safely cross over into Kai's memories and look for something that seemed wrong. While there were a whole lot such memories, some which happened well before Kai was born, Jay could only do so much.

Kai's mind was a mess. There were memories all over the place, and so many of them seemed wrong.

All he did was pull forward one of the memories that seemed about right (Kai was running after some Skeleton Warriors in it) and push back one of the memories that seemed wrong (somehow, he doubted that the sixteen-year-old would've fought anyone a hundred years ago, much less with an army) before he decided to move out, back into his own mind. Their captor was still carrying him and Kai.

Kai, I'm done for now. I'll explain what happened when I can move again.

I'm a little dizzy. Are you sure I'm the least affected by this?

Catatonic, Kai. I can't move anything other than my eyes.

To prove his point, Jay moved his eyes, but Kai told him that he couldn't see him.

When they landed (in the middle of some kind of old dojo), and the three of them were put down (gently, for some reason), Kai immediately pushed the button on Jay's device, which made things get clearer and giving him back the ability to move freely.

Now he could see where exactly he was and who kidnapped him and his friends.

Some creep in a Samurai mecha.

And somehow, it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd been kidnapped by in the past. The first one was a cult, who took him from his parents' home a year ago, the next one was a bunch of monks, who saved him from the cult but were an entirely different cult, and the third one was a lunatic who threatened to kill him, almost killed Cole and Zane upon first meeting them, stabbed a ninja in the throat, bit off a man's thumb and somehow, Jay considered him a good friend, despite the whole kidnapping thing and threatening to kill him.

Kai had really come a long way, and considering how messed up his mind was, Jay could honestly say that things could've been a whole lot worse for their group. But now, he first had to figure out who kidnapped him, Kai and Lloyd and why.


Italics & Bold: Kai telepathicly speaking

Italics: Jay being telepathic

Poor Cole and Zane are going to be so worried to find everybody missing when they come back to camp. And so will Lloyd, when he wakes up.

Man, that kid can sleep.

Thank you for reading this, and I like reading your reviews, so please comment! :D