Chapter 19: Scouting Around

Onto the familiar path they went, two notorious teens on their way to an equally notorious location. Just like the reconstruction of town, The Forest of Sunshine had recovered from much of the infernal destruction that had raged through a great part of the woods those years ago, and the cataclysmic events from just a few months ago. Though some scorched fallen logs, now covered in moss and other brush, lay scattered every here and there. They served as traces for what had once happened, truly this location had been through a lot but the land was fast adapting and the scars of the earth would never be gone, but would continue to serve in the creation of flourishing new life.

The changes in the replete foliage were drastically noticeable, taking all of the young boy's attention as he followed close behind his pink-haired friend and ahead of her, his dog. The night before, he had ran through a great part of this forest, unable to see the details. Not like he wanted to in the moment. But as they went past the shorter trees into the taller ones, something about this place seemed eerily familiar. He allowed his eyes to scan the area behind him as he turned around for a glance. Now as he stood there, the familiar motion reminded him of something he thought he had forgotten. The dark void that had been present in his dream flashed in his mind briefly along with the red mailbox. There was no turning back now, is what he remembered thinking. He had fallen behind and took larger strides to catch up to his friends. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

No. That was just a dream. He could not consider it to be part of reality, he would not allow for that. Heh, Claus is right, I guess I do worry too much. He stopped. Uhh, I mean, he was right . . . He stood there, twiddling his fingers as he remembered . . . a bit of last night's events. If he could ask for anything from his dream to be real, even for just a few minutes, it would have to be—

"Hey Lucas! Where'd you go?" His friend's voice called. The boy heard his dog barking up ahead.

"I'm—I'm back here, wait up!" He broke into a dash, actually watching where he placed his steps this time. He could not keep up this speed for very long. He found the princess looking at the device and stopped next to her, having to lean his hands on his knees to calm his breathing.

"Sheesh Lucas, don't tell me you're still tired after that nap."

"I am—*pant*— a little tired." He wiped his brow. "But I should be okay." He finished his statement with his mind to get his breathing under control.

"Just try not to wear yourself down, unless you want a migraine to go with that fever." She began to move the device to adjust the communication between signals. "Come on, this way. We're getting closer to one of the posts." Kumatora rotated herself to the proper direction and continued.

Boney was soon by his boy's side, licking his forearm. This behavior seemed it was the dog's attempt at comforting him. Even so, Lucas knew how he felt. "Heh, thanks buddy." Boney gave him a quiet whine.

They soon caught up to Kumatora. "Damn it, I can't always make out what this stupid thing means, but I do know that all these squiggly circles here signify mountains and hills, this one with a lot of rings is Mt. Oriander. Good thing we were able to reference one of Mapson's old maps with this one on the device so we have a better layout of the forest. And according to this topographic map, a post should be around—" She looked back. "Lucas are you even paying attention?"

The boy seemed out of it. "Hmm, uh, yeah! Of course I am."

She looked directly into his eyes. "Don't lie to me."

He forcibly gulped.

"What, something on your mind?"

"You would know, why do you even ask when you know the answer."

"I swear I haven't read your mind since we were back with Wess so I don't know. I'm trying to implement your old man's advice and quit with the sudden intrusions. But that's not gonna stop me from sensing what's around you. It's not like you're trying to hide your aura."

He looked away and let out a nervous sigh.

"Let me guess, is it about the dream again?"

"So you are reading my mind! You just said you wouldn't—"

"No, I didn't. It was just a lucky guess. I mean I figured since that's what troubled you yesterday. All I'm saying is that now is a good a time as any to tell me what you want to get off of your chest since we're just here, walkin'." She had her eyes on the device.

He did not want to admit to her that it was more than just about the dream. In reality, he did have some things he wanted to talk to someone about but doing so to Kumatora might imply he was giving in due to pressure. Lucas did not want her to believe that he continued to be easily made to do what she said, but then remembered that her final goal was to help him, not boss him around. She would never force him to speak if he didn't want to and hadn't said much of the matter before because there was little he could remember. But now that he could recall some of his dream, he was more inclined to speak to someone about it. He had wanted to discuss these matters with his grandfather but had thought he would have trouble understanding, not because he may not have wanted to understand, but because he did not feel connection to his grandfather in relation to PSI, though Alec was more understanding than anyone he knew (other than Kumatora) when it came to the supernatural. Lucas knew his grandfather would always attempt to support him but with this situation, it was not his call. After all, support was different from understanding. So maybe the person more suited to hear his worries was Kumatora after all.

"I remembered more about it this time. Even though little comes to mind about the other dream, I know this one was not as bad as before. But I'm sure they were different from each other, otherwise I think I would have been able to recall similarities." He would start off simple. And would attempt a brief summary of everything he could recollect. "I was going into Sunshine Forest with . . . with my brother."

Kumatora's expression had changed. When mentioning his brother, she knew how sensitive he could get. She prepared herself to be careful with how she would act and with what she would say.

"He . . . he said he wanted to show me something but didn't tell me what it was. We climbed a tree and . . . we saw . . . something. Um . . . I forget. He wanted to go find where it was coming from, and check it out. I remember getting hurt when I tried to follow him, and then he . . . he went on without me. That was the worst feeling, letting him go. I didn't want him to leave. I didn't want us to be separated again."

She emotionally braced herself.

"I remember feeling like I couldn't do anything but then all of a sudden, I could. I went to go find him. I was set on discovering the place he wanted to go to, thinking that we could meet back up there. But things happened in between and it felt like no matter what I did, something kept getting in my way . . . In the end, I never found him." His last words came out in a shaken tone.

Oh, it's one of those dreams. Kumatora was familiar with the frustration. The kind of dreams where they leave you hangin'.

"Also when I finally woke up, I was on the floor and I couldn't move. S-sleep paralysis I think."

She raised an eyebrow. "Sleep paralysis? What happened in your dream that caused that? Do you remember?"

He could still recall it clearly. It gave him chills. "There were multiple things that caused it I think." He did not want to mention the Red Slitherhen, the guilt of that slaying still hurt to remember. "Um there was this . . . uh . . . creepy smile thing. R-remember, Tanetane Island and the—"

"Hallucinations? I don't think anyone of us will ever forget that."

"Yeah, those. Whatever it was, it took the shape of that smile thing . . . it did some s-scary stuff to me . . . pretended to be my dad . . . It made me feel . . . helpless. It wanted me to stay afraid and keep me trapped that way. But then, it hurt Boney and th-that's when I think I really lost it." He rest his head on a hand.

Kumatora moved her attention away from the device. "You felt angry, huh?"

His nod was subtle.

She almost did not want to say it. "Angry enough to kill?"

The expression he looked at her with was serious, enough for Kumatora to act accordingly. He broke eye contact, no longer able to keep it with her, for fear of what he would see in her eyes.

"I don't know why I felt that way in that moment but maybe because it made me see things . . . you know . . . things that I don't want to say. But that was enough for me to act on it the way I did."

"It could be that you just had to overcome that part of your mental stress. And by defeating it, you were able to break free of some of your internal issues. It hurt someone that you deeply care about and you felt threatened, so you acted on your own sense of self-preservation and you did what you had to do. I can see why you did it. But remember Lucas, this was just a dream, a nightmare, in that sense I think anyone would have done the same under the circumstance." Aside from this there was another thought from her. But that doesn't explain the urge to kill . . .

That's what they felt unsure of, each in their own minds. What if this behavior in the dream, projected itself onto the real world. Both of them pondered this for a brief moment but neither sensed it within the other, Lucas because he couldn't and Kumatora because she had boundaries to respect.

The boy couldn't exactly agree with her because he knew something she didn't. It wasn't just self-preservation, it was more than that . . . even if it was an obvious enemy, I . . . enjoyed what I did. I enjoyed inflicting pain on it like it had done to me, and like it had done to Boney. I enjoyed doing something so twisted. I enjoyed having my revenge . . .

Kumatora didn't catch these thoughts, but the aura she sensed from him gave her something to think about.

"If it was my dream, I know I would have gone through with it, without hesitation. I'd had wiped the floor with it's face, those things do give me the creeps. I would've especially done it if all it wanted to do was fuck with my mind." She tried to play-off the seriousness that had accumulated in the atmosphere.

He felt that her response was forced but not out of place. Maybe she said this so he wouldn't feel as bad. It didn't work. "Uh . . . yeah . . ." He cleared his throat. "But that wasn't all that happened." He reached over his shoulder and drew his stick and began poking the ground with it. "After that, I kept going. Then I got distracted by something so I followed it. It lead me to a dark place, with trees surrounding me everywhere. And in the middle of this place . . . was . . . a happy box."

She remained quiet.

"It was as if it was calling to me, some weird gravitation that I couldn't ignore, so I got closer. The closer I got the more 'happy' I felt. But also the more I felt something was very wrong. I wanted so badly to go inside the screen, but something stopped me at the last second. Then there was . . . a spider . . ."

Now Kumatora could not ignore the emotions radiating from him even if she tried. Him being a strong psychokinetic user and her being on par with him only made it that more intense. Hell, she could sense his anger from a great distance so this wasn't anything new.

"K-Kuma . . . It was . . . H-Him . . . He was coming for me — no, he was coming for all of us, he was going to escape. He was going to be free—"

"I'ma stop you right there . . . Luke . . . He can't escape. He's Absolutely Safe. It's impossible for him to do so. Remember what the Doctor said—"

"Yeah I know but . . . Kuma . . . I don't know why but . . . This gave me the feeling that . . . somehow . . . s-someway . . . He's coming back."

His emotions were too real, too certain . . . It was rare to ever feel the emotion from someone who had complete confidence in what they said. And if an absolute statement such as this came from a Psionic Individual . . . To say this worried her would be putting it lightly.

"Lucas . . . It was just a dream, remember that none of it—"

"Stop saying that 'it's just a dream', I know it is. But why do I get this feeling . . . Like I can sense this is going to happen—" He had to drop his stick to cover his face. The other hand clenched his heart. This was Boney's cue to be by the boy's side.

"We may be psychic, but we're not clairvoyant only the Magypsies were capable of true clairvoyance. Hey, even if you could sense the future and if him escaping were possible . . . We kicked his ass before, we could do it again. And this time he would have no where he could retreat to. So it would be his mistake if he ever tried to seek us out."

"But what if . . . he doesn't want to come after us . . . but he wants to hurt everyone—everything else? It's what he did before he showed any interest in us."

"What, are you gonna let him? Hell NO! The moment he wants to hurt anyone or anything, will be the moment he's gonna have to deal with us. He'll never be able to get away with anything ever, not in this universe."

Not in this universe . . .

Not in this universe . . .

Not in this universe . . .

For some reason, he did not acknowledge that last statement. He hadn't even payed attention to it in the moment. Almost as if something prevented him from understanding any significance it may have had.

"Besides, didn't the Doctor say that he got what he wanted? That might be enough for him to stay put in his fun little hamster ball. The idea of him escaping should stay a dream, not like he deserves attention at all after what he put everyone through. You can't let the idea of him haunt you, especially when he's no longer around. You dealt with that nightmare so don't think about it too much Luke, it's not something you should prioritize now. It's only gonna distract you. I know you have some strong feelings about it but, you have to continue being strong to not let it affect you, that will guarantee you'll overcome anything else in your way. You've been through a lot worse, more than anyone, you're not about to let some twisted little dream stop you right? And I know you'll keep at it, seeing how persistent you are."

He began to feel a little better. "Yeah . . . Yeah I know." He smiled. "It's fun to hear you admit it though."

"Admit what?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"That I'm strong." His smile grew. Like my brother was.

"Uhg, oh my fu— you tricked me into saying it again didn't you?"

"I didn't trick you, you said it on your own." He let out a small chuckle. Boney noticed his boy smiling again and felt at ease. His tail wagged, pleased with the emotional state his boy had regained. He did not feel like this for very long as there was the movement of leaves behind him, something only the hearing sense of a dog could detect. He turned around, the tip of his snout twitching, and began to follow his nose.

"Yeah? Well have your fun with that while you can. 'Cause I'm not about to keep up the compliments."

Her last statements helped him keep his smile for a few more seconds until his face became neutral, then quickly saddened. In the end, he could live with the results of the dream, he could say it was a small price to pay if it meant he could see his brother again. He sighed. "I miss him." He let the thoughts quietly slip his mind. "It was my fault. If only I had gone with him that day, if I was there to help him, or if I tried harder to talk him out of it then maybe"

"I hate to be the one to say but, Lucas, if you had gone with him that day, then your father would have to bear the weight of two missing sons. Your grandfather would have felt the same. And just after . . . well . . . you know . . ." She had wanted to say this out loud, but her mind produced her words faster than her mouth could. "You keep blaming yourself, but don't. You did what you could to convince him against the idea and sometimes our efforts can only go so far. And your brother . . . he was too determined to see his idea through, there was no one stopping him. And there is nothing that can be done about the past. We can only look at what we can do."

He closed his eyes, accepting the harsh truth that she spoke. He harsh truth that he had to be constantly reminded of.

His emotions were soon clinging onto her. "Sorry I never got the chance to get to know him, you know before he . . . but the small memories you've showed me in the past say a lot about what kind of kid he was. He was like me! Only younger and . . . Oh Lucas, you're gonna cry again huh?"

He had a collection of tears in his eyes before she began speaking. He quietly sobbed and used the palm of a hand to remove them from his vision. While he composed himself, Kumatora also had been affected by his feelings, and memories of her caregivers flooded back to her as well. Those whom she considered a family for a long time . . . were gone now.

She cleared her throat. "Come on we're on a scouting mission so let's keep going when you're ready."

He took a deep breath then reached for his stick on the ground.

So, that was parts of the dream he's been having. It does sound serious. But that emotion from him . . . vengeance? And that precognitive feeling. Aside from his anger, both of these things . . . sound troubling. "Hey come on, it looks like Boney ran off somewhere again."

The Chocolate Lab was no where to be seen. "B-Boney, where'd you go this time!"

"I swear, when he does this, sometimes it makes me wish you would put a leash on him."

"Kuma! I wouldn't do that! He would hate it! And how would he be able to act in a battle of if I was restraining him. He's a good dog, so I would trust him any day, even when he runs off like this."

"Well if you trust him, then he should be left alone to do his little side quest. I'm sure he'll be okay if trouble happens to find him, he's pretty fast. Meanwhile, you and I gotta get to the Post."

He worried for his dog but knew that Boney could handle himself in a pinch, although he was not comfortable with it. Maybe this is how Dad feels about me being out here.

Relying on the device, the two friends continued in the direction of its signal, one that was causing a quiet beeping. As the beeping continued, Kumatora noticed the screen of the panel began to flicker. "Oh, no, no, no, you'd better not die on me now." An icon on the top right, a small rectangle, began to flash signaling the charge level of the device. "Just hold on for a little bit more—" The screen became blank. "Damn it Wess! If only you'd charged this thing. Shit, I should have been paying attention to the battery level."

"M-maybe try using PK Thunder again. It worked last time." Lucas suggested.

"Yeah it did work, but it's risky to try it again." She shook her head. "What the hell, it's our only option now." Flipping open the back cover once again, she controlled the smallest spark that she could, holding her breath as she did so. "There . . . We're just lucky that this keeps working, and it's best not to rely on luck. I don't know how long this will last so we should do this quick. Are you good for Running Luke?"

He ran an arm across his forehead. "I just tried that a while ago and I didn't get very far."

"I'll take that as a no. Okay then, Plan B."

"Plan B? What's Plan—" He felt his body freeze up, an invisible grip restrained him. "What? K-Kumatora, what are you—"

"I did say yesterday that I might have to drag ya! Well I'm doing it, even if you're not knocked out!" She swooped an arm around him, grabbing him by the waist and held him under her arm. His body was now parallel to the ground, his arms locked tight in her grip, though his legs were the only part of him that hung down. "We'll get there a lot faster this way." She let her intent be known again.

"W-w-wait a sec, K-Kumatora I-I don't think you should—thisisn'tthebestidea—!" The Psychic Princess rushed ahead with a running start. She expertly maneuvered her way though the short grass and sandy earth. She then took a huge stride forward, covering several feet across the ground and followed this up with a few more strides, each one greater than the previous. Finally on the last one, Lucas thought he felt a large force gathering underneath them, only to have Kumatora bend a knee and with the power of a single leg, had sent them both meters into the air, leaving a comically large dust cloud underneath them. The force caused his breath to be knocked out of him. She leapt on boulders and fallen trees, only occasionally making contact with the ground. The way she landed after each jump felt 'floaty' to Lucas, almost as if she didn't touch the surface of anything. On her largest leap, Kumatora sent them both onto a high branch, then used its elastic potential energy to propel them even higher. They were well over the trees now, free falling. The sensation of falling down in an elevator was all too familiar again.

"Aahhh! Kumatoraaa! You're gonna drop m-meeeee!" He had to shut his eyes. It was more than a fear of heights.

"I'm not gonna drop you! Just hold on, we're almost there, I can see the cliff ridge we gotta get to!" She had to yell aloud to be heard.

"Hold on to what?!" His panicked thought rang out.

While in the air, as if in slow motion, Kumatora took a casual glance at the device with her free hand, smiled and gave a little nod. The grin she now wore was a testament to her confidence.

"Please look at where you're going!"

Another cushioned landing and she began her sprinting. Just ahead of them was a large wall of solid rock, the edges of a stone cliff. They were around the lowest slopes surrounding Mt. Oriander which were still at a considerable height for a low plateau. Her pace was beginning to slow down until she came to a sliding stop to the side of the cliff. Her boots arose the dust, causing the blond boy to go into a fit of coughing.

"Thank goodness it's over." He said feeling dizzy. He didn't think he could take any more rapid movements. "Can you put me down now?"

Kumatora could feel his body trembling. "Who said it's over, we still gotta get up there." She pointed to the sky. "No Wall Staples, you know what that means, we gotta scale this thing ourselves."

Who's idea was it to put a post all the way up there? "Kumatora, I can't even run, how do you expect me to climb this steep"

His pupils shrunk, she took a deep breath and gathered enough psychic force to send them into the air like a cannon would to a cannon ball; another dust cloud. To scale it, Kumatora made contact by kicking against the stone structure continuously, using the edges as brief footholds. It appeared she liked making her final jump the highest one because not only did it send them well above their destination, she even had enough airspace to perform two front flips. Lucas's insides had had enough.

Despite appearing like it was going to be a hard landing, Kumatora eased into it instead, slowly hovering down before touching the ground. "I wish there was an easier way of launching ourselves into the air that doesn't require levitation jumping." She panted. "That actually got me a little tired. Maybe because I also had to carry you. Heh."

She finally put him down on his own legs but he did not straighten out, in fact he fell on his knees, his head lowered to the ground unable to be held up. His arms wrapped around himself. "I think I'm gonna loose my oatmeal . . ." His stomach turned.

"Aww come on Lucas, don't do that—here I'll fix you up." Her hand glowed as she performed a Healing α. "There, all better right? Nothing else to fix up?"

"Only my trauma . . ." He joked, but not really.

"You already have too much of that and you know I can't fix that up. My healing skills are lacking remember? Title of best healer goes to you! You've developed Recovery PSI at a rate hardly anyone has ever achieved before."

"Is that suppose to make me feel better?" Because it did kind of work honestly.

She felt his aura was normal. "Hey, at least I'm trying here. Besides, that stunt wasn't so bad. I should get around like that more often, it really gets the blood flowing. You should try it sometime Luke."

"No thanks, I like walking like a normal person." He needed to pat himself down after all those dust clouds, and then went about trying to fix his hair.

"Exactly, walking is for 'normal ' people, which we aren't. You never know, there may come a time where you have to jump over large obstacles, you won't be able to just casually walk through everything."

"I don't have the stamina for that." He adjusted his Better Stick.

"Well then, it's time for you to work on that stamina, it's important. Building upon it also helps in preventing too many frequent headaches you know."

He looked at her intrigued. "R-really? You didn't mention that before."

"Didn't I say yesterday that it's important to use PSI frequently, so you don't get headaches? Sheesh, maybe you need to pay more attention." I guess I'm gonna have to explain it later so you can really understand.

"You didn't say anything about the stamina or the headache part."

"Well now you know."

"So let me get this straight, if you use too much PSI you get headaches but if you don't use PSI you also get headaches?" How is that fair?

"It's better to get headaches from using PSI than from not using it. Not using it is very dangerous. Well in a way, using it is also dangerous, it's a double edged sword really. My whole point is that it's better for everyone that you use that energy. And there has to be a middle ground when using PK and in order for you to know that middle ground, you have to know your limits, which you don't so that's why I'm here." She pulled out the device to take one last look. "Enough of that for now, the Post should be right around that large boulder over there, come on."

They continued at a normal pace, it was clear to Lucas that Kumatora needed a minute to catch her breath, and he took the opportunity. It was time for a little more teenage opposition.

"I thought you said walking was for 'normal' people." Lucas began.

"I do it when it's convenient and besides, you don't expect me to float everywhere I go. Just because I'm psychic doesn't mean I'm gonna act like a weirdo. I mean I know I'm weird but there are levels of weirdness, you know, and that would be too weird. And if we don't use our legs for basic movement, our limbs would become flimsy and turn to noodles. Middle Ground remember. We need to keep our hearts as strong as we keep our minds in order to properly use PSI and to reach its highest potential. You know that more than anyone."

"You know I'm just playing Kuma, and apparently you're taking my back-talk too seriously." He had to smile.

"Meh, you don't think I know? I'm just using the chance to explain stuff to you so we can pass the time, gotta keep the script going you know. And there's no way in hell I'm using small-talk to do that. You know how much I hate it."

"What do you mean by scri—" She stopped him by placing the device over his mouth.

"AH, Haaa! There it is!" She pointed to an object that stuck out among the surrounding vegetation like a sore thumb. A tall metallic rod implanted in the soil that stood over two meters tall, it had a good width for its diameter. Its base had two pairs of prongs that had been ingrained for more stability, the center of the rod was made of a darker, matte black coating. A cover on the side of the rod concealed some of its internal controls. Towards the top was a tesla coil, and at the tip sat a very large, very shiny metal sphere.

"Lucas, let me introduce you to the elusive POST #4, the only working of the five outward posts . . . for some reason. Come on, I'll show you how to hook it up to the control panel."

"You don't need to introduce me Kuma, I've seen it before. And why are you referring to it that way. You are weird." He chuckled.

"Just as weird as you my fellow psychic. Now let's go!" She yanked on his arm almost dragging him with her. The shadow the rod cast loomed over Lucas as he was strangely captivated by the shiny chrome sphere on the top. He had to look away and shake his head, he didn't exactly approve of its presence. He saw Kumatora now crouched low to the ground and navigating through the menus of the device until it released a small cord from the top, which Kumatora pulled on to extend it out further. She plugged the cable, which acted as a key, into a small port. A few beeps later and the metal cover clicked open revealing further buttons and wiring consisting of the internal components in the rod. She disconnected the cable from one port only to connect it to an interior one.

"Why do I get the feeling you are really excited about this Kumatora?"

Excited? Naw. That's just the way I mask my nerves. "Because I'm interested in what we're about to find out Lucas. I've been looking over this device and from what I've been able to make out after reading further into the error messages, I've concluded that the rest of the posts could have been tampered with. Sabotaged or broken by who knows what. I'm suspecting wildlife couldn't have had anything to do with this, someone or something must have deliberately messed with the other posts. The only way we'll know for sure is when we check out one of the other locations. I feel the only reason this one is okay is because it's really well hidden and hard to get to unless you have climbing gear or can fly. Duster removed his wall staples after we got this set up because he had the foresight to do so—I guess it's just his Thief's intuition—and it was his idea to put one up here in the first place, it is a good vantage point so I agreed with him."

Okay she was definitely nervous from what Lucas could tell. "But why would someone want to mess with the posts? And more importantly, who? Wouldn't that just arise suspicion from us?"

"Who did this? I can't say. Obviously they're up to no good so they don't want to have that invisible eye on them and their activities. Or maybe . . ." A new thought had just occurred to her. Her hands were now still, frozen in the middle of what they had been doing.

"Kumatora, what are you thinking?" The way she trailed off had him worry.

"Or maybe . . . they're trying to distract us."

"D-distract u-us?" He gulped.

"Think about it Luke. They mess with devices that are under our surveillance so we can come out here to investigate. Us, the ones they know are two of the largest threats to them. It leaves Tazmily wide open, unprotected."

"But—but if that was their plan, wouldn't just busting one of the posts be enough to get our attention? Why would they go through the trouble of seeking out and try to break all of them."

"I don't know. I'm just throwing the idea out there." She thought some more. "Maybe breaking as many as they can will buy them more time, at least enough time before we find out what's really going on."

"Are—are you saying Tazmily is in danger? Right now?" He panicked, the realization hit him harder than the princess had expected. He began pacing, ran his fingers over his head through his hair and walked away to the edge of the cliff as if expecting to see smoke arise from the direction of the village.

In this exact moment, I don't think so, we would have felt something— Noting his reaction and his drastic change in demeanor, she had to say, "Calm down Luke, we aren't going to figure this our if you start panic—"

"Calm down, calm down? Telling me to calm down isn't going to help!" The air was becoming charged, crackles in the area snapped back and forth to each other.

Remember Kuma, strong emotions might be enough to set him off. And that fever isn't helping. She set the device down, just in case she needed to act. And for another reason.

"Last time I was told to 'calm down', I only got—" He had to pause for a moment. "Wait, last time I . . . I got angry. And you . . . you put me to sleep! You used Hypnosis on me!" His worry had now become another emotion, and that emotion was being directed at her. Kumatora readied herself for what he was unintentionally preparing to do.

She stood up strait now. "Yeah I used Hypnosis on you. You wanna know why I did it? So I could calm you down. Look at what you're doing now Lucas, there's tons of static in the air. You think I was gonna let you act this way in a retirement home? You think I was gonna let you use PSI in a place where you would put tons of people in danger again like what you did with the fire? NO! If you wanna be mad, then be mad at me! Take your anger out on me! In fact, show me what you can do huh, come on, send some lightning at me. Give it your best shot, I dare you."

Realizing she had forcibly knocked him out before, the boy hated she had used that specific PSI on him to accomplish it. The word hypnosis alone was enough to have his mixed feelings about it turn to spite. He did not want to be mad, he tried not to be. But the high levels of his own PSI now emerging prevented him from keeping a level head. The realization that he would have put many people in danger did not cross his mind in the slightest, he was only focusing on her and what she had done to him. She wants to see my PK Thunder? Fine. I'll show her . . .

She needed to hide her grin, so she covered her face with her readied fists. I hope all he uses is his Thunder, I'm screwed if he decides to use that attack . . . Beads of sweat had formed, she had just caught her breath from all of the levitating she did. The young woman made sure to stand in front of the rod, ready to dodge at the slightest inch of his threatening movement.

He prepared his fingers just like he had done when he had last used the deadly electric attack. He crossed his arms in front of himself, similar to a letter X as he allowed the flow of electricity to coarse through him. After striking himself with it, and using it more precisely the night before, it was as if his body was beginning to adapt to the high voltage of electricity. This time around, the mental energy he was about to output caused him to rise from the earth, either electromagnetism or levitation, the princess was unsure. He raised his hands, planning to use electrokinesis to rain down on his target, similar to what the Princess herself would do.

At this motion, Kumatora knew what the exact outcome would be, it couldn't have been more perfect. She saw as the boy collected the lightning above them, quickly muttered Defense Down α casting a layer of energy over herself before the teen released his power. This layer of defensive PSI would weaken the bolt if it did strike her.

"UHHAAAHHH!" He swung his arms down and from above, the attack descended. The crackling she heard was enough to get her moving just as his body was in motion. It would have been convenient to have had something to protect her ears from the sounds. The blast was indeed viscous, it tore through the air and was almost as bright as the sun and shockingly quite as hot as its surface would be. Had it not been for the sun, the light would have been able to be seen for miles, probably from as far as Tanetane Island. No doubt that the sound had been heard throughout the islands.

Kumatora was always fast on her feet, but the speed needed to dodge this could not have been provided from her physical body alone. She used both a short-hop and hovering to evade the attack and instead of the lightning striking her, the metal rod behind her took the charge of the blast. It had absorbed the energy and had harmlessly dissipated most of the electricity into the ground. The sphere and coil on top were engulfed in erratic light, brush discharges were now present and it gave the rod's top half a luminous violet glow.

After he had released the attack, he had to recoil from his own blast. When the smoke cleared away, he was eager to see the result. What he saw only gave him motivation to attempt it again.

"You missed! Is that really all you got?" She taunted him. It was very effective.

She . . . She dodged it! Well let's see her dodge this! He was not going to shy away from using PSI this time. She had demanded that he to use it after all, she only deserved to get zapped for challenging him. He channeled his focus in one arm on his second attempt and this time, he was going to be sure he had perfect aim on her. Even if she was fast, she would never be fast enough to dodge every bolt thrown at her.

With two fingers he pointed and brought his arm down again, this time more rapidly and with a greater intent to strike her. Just before releasing the energy, he noticed that Kumatora had no interest in moving, in fact she just stood there with her arms crossed as if knowing about something he thought he was so sure of. The lightning's descent was just as intense. This time it collected directly over her only to have it strike at a slanted angle, it had branched to the chrome sphere again. He had prepared his other arm with more energy in case his second attempt did not strike his target and sent an equally powerful ray of lightning just above her in the exact same spot. The third shot had acted the same, being attracted in that direction. Now the high tip of the rod conducted streamer arcs, the energy was unable to be contained in the rod so the excess had to be expelled into the air, a constant electric hum along with the smell of ozone filled their surroundings.

Why isn't it hitting her? Is my aim that bad or is PK Thunder just this inaccurate? Was I just lucky that I hit something last time? He needed to stop to think. Pausing aided in clearing the fog that clouded his judgment. Wait a minute, the post! It's acting like a lightning rod! Again, his foul mood had prevented him from understanding it the first time. Now he felt so foolish. Kumatora knew what the outcome of this would have been all along. He felt deceived, tricked into thinking that he was about to show her what his new power could do, only to have his own PSI work against him, and instead work in her favor. He needed to breathe, this seemed to help the last time his temper had slipped.

Though electric currents still sparked around him, the threatening aura surrounding him had withered down, Kumatora found it safe to be at ease. "Holy hell, I'm impressed. Those blasts were very powerful for your Alpha Thunder Lucas. Did you get that out of your system, or do you need to fire some more shots? I'm sure the rod can take a few more."

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?" He said in a serious and sour mood.

" 'Course I did, why do you think I was egging you on so hard? You need to have a good understanding of the properties of PK Thunder before you think you can use it to—"

"Shut up! You don't need to keep explaining stuff to me."

"Are you sure you don't need to blast something again? This is your chance to go wild, come on, go ahead and do it one more time, or that electricity you're in is not leaving you."

"There's no point. As long as we're here, my PK Thunder's not going to hit you."

"Oh, you wanna hit me? You can go ahead, I'll stand still for you." She folded her arms behind her back.

"It won't make me feel better if you let me hit you."

"Ah, I see. Then wait 'till we get to the sparring part of your training, then you'll get to take as many shots as you want, that is if you can manage to land any on me."

This . . . this had all been a training exercise? And here he thought she was trying to get on his nerves. "Psh, damn it. Why is it you always know what you're doing Kumatora? It's not fair."

"I don't always know, I just have a little more familiarity is all." She pointed and tapped her temple. "Wait a few years, then your mind will start clicking in ways you wouldn't know."

The remaining electric current that continued to spark around him prevented him from moving. He looked to the tip of the rod, which was still humming with overflowing electricity, and focused his remaining PSI there. He slightly raised a hand to discharge the extra energy. It was only a small bolt, nothing that was going to get out of control. You will get struck by my lighting, just you wait . . . He felt bad. This was wrong. Why did he suddenly have the urge to be violent and . . . defiant? Lucas could only shake his head to dismiss the idea, it was enough to rid himself of these feelings for now.

"One thing I've had to learn the hard way is that lightning is erratic, random, even I don't know how exactly it will behave once released. We can only provide a guide to where we want it to go and if it so happens to decide it wants to change course, we can't do any—" Her words were too true. The extra amount of electricity that Lucas had expelled had been enough for the added power to arc from the top of the rod to a neighboring object. One who so happened to be walking closer to it. BOOM! One final strike, this time being accurate at hitting the target who so easily had avoided it.

Kumatora had lost her balance, she had to fall to her knees. "Sssee what w-w-was I just say—" She couldn't finish and used her bit of muscle strength that she could muster through the paralysis to support herself with her arms. Now an electric spark was around her.

He had recoiled. "K-Kumatora!" Seeing how she had fallen snapped him out of whatever state he had been in. The boy rushed to her, worried.

"There, I g-got s-struck by your lightning, are you happy now? Must've had it coming to m-me huh. G-guess there's a down side to being an over-confident bitc—"

"Shush! Don't talk while I heal you." He stood next to her. He tried setting a hand on her shoulder but coming close to contacting her had him receive a spark of power.

"Heh, that layer of Defense Down did help . . . I d-didn't get b-blasted a few feet this time. Like when Ionia t-taught me—"

"Kuma, stop talking!" He prepared his PSI in one hand. "Healing β !" The energy displayed a refreshing glow, one that Kumatora was happy to accept. The numbness was lifted and the remaining bits of electricity vanished. Lucas opted for this level of healing just to be on the safe side in case Kumatora had another ailment he did not know of. Then quickly cast a Life-Up α for good measure. She recovered quickly and was soon up straight.

"I'm not gonna say you didn't deserve it." He had to say after seeing she was okay.

"Well I'm not saying I disagree with you. I got struck by lightning today, you got struck by lightning yesterday, you know the usual daily activities. And we're even now." She did not want to admit she had miscalculated but she still welcomed that she had made an error. "At least on my part I should have seen this coming, especially when something similar happened to you at Thunder Tower. Hey, where's my realization of PK Flash?"

"I dunno." He shrugged. "Maybe I was just lucky?" Lucas thought she had asked without expecting an answer. "I guess PK Thunder really is that unreliable and unpredictable huh?" Knowing this now made him nervous, especially since he had used variations of it multiple times last night and all of them, for the most part, went where he had wanted them to go. He did not want to think about what would have happened if he had missed any one of those shots.

"That's why this is a good place to practice it. Since we're surrounded by rocks, there isn't much that can catch fire here. We're also at a good height and if any bolts were to go outside of our range, most likely they wouldn't leave this plateau." Kumatora walked to the rod, the overflowing sparks of power were no longer very intense but were still present. Nothing a pair of Psychokinetic teens needed to worry about anymore. "Anyway, now that you fired off some of that PK energy you were holding in, I guess I should show you what else it did."

"It did something else?" He followed her. From a distance he saw where the device had been set down. Once it was in her hands again, she had a large grin.

"Holy smokes, it actually worked!" Before he could ask, she thrust the control panel in his face. He had to pull his head back. "Look it's fully charged! Not only that, the post is fully functioning! Wow, thanks Lucas, you inadvertently got this thing up and running again."

"W-wasn't it always working?"

"Not at full capacity. It's been relying on solar power, which isn't very efficient. But thanks to your Thunder attacks, now that it has more output, maybe I can . . ." Now looking further into the device, she was able to retrieve more essential data, and she pulled up a screen and showed it to the boy.

Lucas didn't know what he was looking at. "Is this important?"

"Oh, it's very important. Those extra bursts of power you gave it served to highlight this area. Now we have a more accurate location of where we are by having our current coordinates saved and the coordinates of all the other posts. Now we will know exactly where to look especially since the other posts are unreliable at this time." She thought for a minute. "You know I haven't tried something yet. Now that this Post has energy to spare, maybe I'll see if I can control the other Posts remotely from here, that is if they can connect with #4."

While Kumatora placed her focus here, Lucas looked back to the south and the ocean. "Kuma, what you were saying before, do you really think someone is out there that's a danger to Tazmily?"

"Hmmm no, not in this exact moment but overall, I don't know. I was just thinking of the extremes when I said that. But if there is, they are not just a threat to Tazmily but to the entirety of the Islands." He looked to her. "I'm thinking this: one, there are Chimeras, at least one new variant we've never seen before. Two, the posts that we've put in place were non-operational, whoever or whatever did this know what the posts are for. And three, the only ones that come to mind who could be responsible are—"

"Pigmasks." Lucas finished for her. They had both agreed upon this conjecture. A sting of hate shot through him. He thought of his dream again, the certainty of His return filled his mind so much so that Kumatora couldn't avoid picking up his thought.

"Lucas it's not him. If it really is Pigmasks, they could be following orders under someone else. Someone who doesn't have enough resources. Remember, the past four months have been perfectly fine, just one new Chimera sighting. This is slow progress, considering the amount of chimeras they were outputting before. This makes me think it's a small group that could still be out there. Four months isn't really a considerable amount of time. And taking into mind that it was a full army and they had three years to fully have a grip on the islands, catching them this early in the act will allow us to snuff them out before they get the chance to become the power they were before. We're much more prepared this time around."

This still was not enough to ease his worries. "If He really is gone, then what would be the point of their return to constructing Chimeras? They only ever did it under His orders." He thought out loud. Then he found himself providing an answer to his own question. What he had told Pidgey last night; Maybe it's just because they're bad . . . that's it.

"Maybe they truly believed in the Fascinating Chimera Project. It could be they still want to change this world to better suit them and their ideals. Or whoever their new leader is might have something different in mind."

"Then that would be my next question, who could be their new leader?"

"I'm just as clueless as you are. Let's not rule out the possibility that they could be operating without one, they don't necessarily need a leader for a small group. Their crime doesn't seem as organized like before, they could just be scattered, hoping they do something just right and have it go from there. But I might just be thinking way too much into this. What we should focus on now is checking the rest of the locations. Then I feel like we'll be in a better position to make assumptions."

"I thought you said assuming things was a stup—"

"Yeah, yeah I did. But that's all we can do until we have evidence to support our ideas."

So until they investigated further, they would only be left with a surmise. This wasn't very reliable, the boy thought. But there was not much else that could be done. He tried to move his focus away from the idea for now but with no success. He was not the person to become impatient, but this situation had him feel under pressure to do something. "Are you almost done?"

"Wait a bit, this takes time you know." During their conversation, she had tried to synchronize this post with the others. It was not as effective. The text on the screen displayed other messages as the princess sought information regarding their current status. The same blocky letters from before overtook the screen:

INQUIRY OF ERROR 278-B: CURRENT STATUS

POST 4: ONLINE

POST 3: . . . CONTACT FAILED

POST 5: CONTACT FAILED

POST 2: WEAK SIGNAL

POST 1: . . . DETECTION UNAVAILABLE

The boy took note of some more characters that seemed to have been cut off. "Wait. Scroll down some more Kuma." She did as she was asked.

POST 6: OFFLINE

"Wait, there's six posts? I thought Duster had only put five." But it does make sense there would be six. The princess thought to herself.

"Doesn't the inner barrier have six posts? Why would you think the outer barrier wouldn't have the same number?"

"Because when we picked up the equipment from the Chimera Lab, one set of posts only had five. I didn't realize there was always six."

"Does it make a difference?"

"I think it does. I don't know how significant of a difference it is but it's still important. Well I consider any extra amount of info good to have." She continued to press more buttons that were below the screen. "Post 6 says it's 'offline' which could mean that it isn't damaged, probably in a low power operating state."

"I mean if it isn't broken like the others that's nice to know." Lucas admitted.

"As far as I can tell, the other's aren't broken just the signal between them is. It seems to me that Post #4 is capable of connecting with the others but because they are having issues, they're unable to relay any information back. It's only one way communication at this point. Damn, I was really hoping I could do something from here, but we're going to have to visit every location to get them up and running."

"Okay, so where should we start?"

Kumatora stood, now looking into some distant trees. She tilted her head as her senses extended beyond their location. The motion she did made Lucas grin. Someone he knew would do something similar when Lucas offered him treats. "We can start by getting Boney first. It looks like he found something. Nothing too worrying though."

Exactly the someone who he had in mind. "I shouldn't be surprised that you can sense him from all the way over here. Could you like, you know, teach me how you do it?" It would be nice if I could find him easily when he runs off like this.

"I can, but later. At least I've gotten the information we needed from here and now that we know we can get these posts running again with PK Thunder, figuring this out might be no problem. Now I'm thinking we should also use PK to charge the ones close to the village once we're done with these." She disconnected the cable and closed the cover. It locked into place. "How's that fever of yours goin'? Firing off that lightning should've helped. You think you can move fast or do I have to carry you again?"

He stepped away from her. "I-I'm better, but I don't think it's gone completely yet. I can move on my own just d-don't pick me up again."

"Fine, if you think you can keep up then let's go." Kumatora walked in the direction they had come from.

"Wait, how exactly are we getting down from here?" He did not want to go near the edge of the cliff.

Her eyes shined as she grinned at him.

"Oh, nu-uh! I don't want to go through that again." He dismissed the idea as he waved his palms in front of himself.

"Come on Lucas, we're descending this time, it won't be as fun just a smooth way down." She used a hand and made a slanted downwards motion with it. "Nuthin' to it."

F-fun? "I-isn't there another way? Maybe Duster left a few wall staples and I could probably use those to—"

"Lucas there is no other way. Just come on, don't be such a wimp." She was prepared to go ahead with her idea.

That word had him shoot her a dirty look. "I'm not a wimp." He muttered under his breath.

"Exactly, you're strong as hell, you just don't demonstrate your power. So come on this will be a piece of cake for you." The Princess did not hesitate to leap off the cliff, she twirled to face him as she descended, winking and giving him a salute. "See you at the bottom Luke!"

She's . . . She's crazy! "Wait Kumatora you're not gonna leave me to do this by myself . . !" She was long gone. " . . . A-are you?" He slowly edged closer to the steep drop. He had levitated before it was not difficult, but never to the degree she would. He readied himself as he took a deep breath, mental preparation always need to come first before committing to something so extreme. "O-okay, like she said, there's nothing to it. Just go for it." He took a step back allowing his confidence to take over . . .

"Let's gooo!"

. . . if he had any.

He regretted his motions just as he came to the very edge of the warm colored stone. His body had gone over the edge but his feet never left the ground. It was as if the tips of his toes had latched on to the brink of the cliff for dear life. He panicked and waved his arms in large circles to regain his balance and he fell back. Lucas placed a hand over his racing heart. "This is insane! Why does Kumatora think this was a good idea? I'm not about to let myself just fall like that!" He opted to use his legs instead and began slowly, not all the cliff was steep and there were portions where one would have space to walk. "Kumatora, thinking that there's only one way to go down." He muttered. He slid down lesser steep slopes, used his hands to grip the wall to go across small gaps in the rock and even used his branch as a walking stick to help him traverse the many uneven surfaces.

He had descended a great amount, though he eventually realized that he could only go so far. And now he failed to find a way around. The boy was basically hugging the wall, sliding the tips of his shoes on the narrow path that was the width of a hand. Though he was closer to the ground, he did not have the confidence to levitate the rest of the way down. "I'll prove her wrong, I can do this without using PSI. I'll have her eating her wor—" He heard cracking underneath himself. The narrow rock was beginning to crumble. "Oh . . . oh crap"

He drew his stick in a panic, and managed to wedge it between two conveniently placed rocks. He heard the echos of tumbling rocks and how they sound as they hit other stones. That would be him soon if he did not figure something out. Lucas was now hanging, gripping his Better Stick with much more force than needed. Why couldn't Kumatora have stayed to help him? Her voice sound in his mind again: Someone's not always gonna be around to hold your hand all the time. She had said something similar to this.

No! I can do this myself this time. Lucas tried to pull himself up but now as per comic fashion, the rocks holding his stick were chipping away. He did not have time to think, just act. Using levitation was not yet second nature to him but in a situation like this, his body did the thinking for him. It made him kick against the wall, dislodging his stick from the crumbling rocks. He began to fall, and mentally prepared himself for a painful landing. A landing his body was not going to allow. No ground had been under him when he kicked thin air with one leg which propelled him. He performed a backwards mid-air jump, safely distancing himself from the cliff. The world seemed to become upside down for a moment and soon enough, he found his legs become firmly planted on stable ground. He blinked a few times and just stood there a moment, needing the time to grasp what he had just done.

"Yo Lucas! That back-flip was siiick!" A cheer praised him. He had to turn to its source.

"It was 'sick'?" He questioned her choice of words.

"Yeah I mean it was bad-ass. Sorry, it's from all the thoughts I pick up from the new kids from East Tazmily. Their language is sticking to me I guess."

"Oh so that was a compliment." Okay, he would take it. He should have been mad at her but found he was feeling impressed with himself. Especially after Kumatora's genuine excitement.

"How . . . how did you jump like that when there was nothing under you? That's some levitation that I've never seen, like some sort of double-jump."

"I don't know exactly what happened. I'm just glad that I don't have to do that again."

"Like hell you're not! You have to do it again so you can teach me how you did it. I'm ready to take my levitation jumping to the next level and what you did right now is definitely next level stuff."

"B-but—"

"Okay how 'bout this, you teach me that awesome style of jumping and I'll teach you how to better control your PK Thunder. Deal?"

"I thought you said you were gonna teach me that anyway and you were also gonna teach me—"

"Deal. Alright that's settled. We should meet up with Boney."

Lucas had to sigh after that one. He let his arms hang in defeat. Sometimes he didn't know why he tried to talk over her. "So where is Boney? Well, which way do you think he is?"

"I know he is . . ." She looked to the southern parts of the forest. "That way. Okay Lucas, for you to sense your dog, it's really easy. Just focus on thinking about him. Think about the feeling you get when he's around you. Once you feel it, expand your telepathy outward."

"E-expand my telepathy? H-how do I do that?" He did not want to continue to increase the power of his telepathy. It was the contrary, he wanted to silence it so it wouldn't continue to bug him.

"Oh boy, I guess we're gonna have to start from the beginning with this one. Never mind. You just follow me for now, go it? Boney doesn't seem very far from here. If we hurry, we'll be there in in a jiffy."

"Oh okay. Since he isn't very far, we're just walking to his location right?"

"Or maybe we'll just get there faster using my way." He avoided eye contact with her. "Come on Luke, it will be a good way to use up some of that PSI."

"I d-don't think I can right now." I would just prefer walking. But she's right it's better to do this as soon as we can.

"Hey don't worry, I'm not gonna expect you to do it as extremely as I did before. We're just using a simple levitation short-hop. It's easy! We won't do it very long, only as much as you can handle. 'Kay?"

If this is what she had in mind, then he would agree with her this time. It was nice to know that she would also tone down the intensity for him so he could practice her teachings at his own pace. "Uh, okay I'll try."

"Alrighty then. What you wanna do is . . ."

Lucas had already began tuning out the surrounding environment. He did hear Kumatora, only partially though. He wondered what Boney had found, though noting from the direction the princess indicated he had an idea where it was.

" . . . Got it? So just follow what I do . . . or don't. It's up to you really. If you want to do it your own way that's fine too." She was preparing to perform her own maneuvers.

Lucas had to take another deep breath for more then one reason. Then followed close behind the princess.