"Next time Cousin Kyle comes, make him fly! I'm sure he'll be like: 'eeeeeh, my nose's bleeding!', hahaha!" Ike was still talking. He wouldn't stop. And he didn't talk with a reasonable volume either.
"Heh. No, I don't want him to start whimpering and tell Mom." Kyle couldn't help smiling at the idea. "But, hey, don't shout."
"Sorry."
"Ah, look, there he is."
Kyle was surprised to see Stan and Cartman at his door—Cartman already wearing that stupid Coon uniform, which made Sheila stay at the door and watch.
"Kyle! Where the fuck have you been?" Stan shouted, running towards him.
"I'm here, I'm here, what's happened?" Kyle asked, seeing how frayed his best friend looked.
"I got this text from Wendy! Asking for help! I called her but she's not answering! Something happened to her!"
"We've been calling the others to see if they had seen her and they are not answering either." Cartman informed. "There is something very wrong happening here."
"What's the matter? Where are you going, Kyle?" Sheila shouted from the door.
"Nothing, anonymous citizen! I am taking for son for a mission!" Cartman replied. And added under his breath: "Meddling bitch..."
"Okay...Uh...She must have been with Gregory...She's with that guy all the time...He has to know where she is, or where he saw her for the last time." Stan suggested.
"Yeah, let's go." Kyle opened his car again and all of them got into it. Ike too.
"No, Ike, you're not coming." his brother told him.
"Why not?" he protested.
"This could be dangerous."
"The fatass is coming." Ike pointed at Cartman.
"I'm not fat, stupid!" Cartman protested.
"Come on, let's go, we can't lose more time!" Stan shouted.
"Okay, but you're staying in the car." Kyle ended the discussion, making the car move.
"It's not fair...I am a knight." Ike crossed his arms and pouted.
"Yeah, from Canada." Cartman remarked.
"Says the grown-up guy who wears a racoon disguise..."
"Do you have something against racoons?!"
"Shut up you two!" Kyle exclaimed. "There could be something very serious happening here."
"It has to be. Else, why would she...?" Stan muttered.
Much to his regret, Stan knew where Gregory of Yardale lived. Actually, it wasn't that difficult to tell: his family was pretty wealthy, most probably the second richest family after Token's. Their house wasn't as common as the ones one could find all around the town.
They were near when they found a human barrier.
They were their friends.
Kyle stopped the car and stuck his head out of the window. "Guys! We've been trying to find you! Do you know what happened to Wendy?"
There was no response. Instead, Scott moved forward. He had something in his hand. The others couldn't see what it was from where they were, but they saw him swallow it. It had to be sugar, because his muscles started to swell.
"Whoa! You didn't tell me that!" Ike's eyes opened wide.
His brother didn't reply. Something was not right.
Transformed, Scott walked to them. He then dealt a blow on the hood of the car which made the whole vehicle jump.
"Hey!" Cartman shouted. "What the hell's your problem?!"
Another hit. Craig punched the copilot's window, where Stan was sitting, and grabbed him, forcing him to come out.
"But weren't these your friends?!" Ike asked, hunched over.
"Guys! What the fuck are you doing?!" Kyle shouted, coming out of the car before Scott squashed him inside of it.
Outside, Token was ready to get him. He grabbed him by the neck with this two hands, pushed him to the ground and started squishing. Kyle fought, kicked his legs in the air. Cartman came to the rescue, grabbing Token to knock him with a headbutt. A sudden pain made him scream. Tweek was approaching, sparks coming out of his arms.
"You can throw lighting volts too?! That's not fair, you greedy bastard!" he protested.
Tweek didn't care. He kept attacking him with them, while Token recovered, not showing any sign of pain in spite of that terrible-looking hit.
"Guys! It is us!" Stan had to roll before Craig punched him in the face. He left a hole in the pavement. "Why are you doing this?!"
Ike was about to leave the car, in spite of his brother's orders, when something went through it. Ike didn't stay to watch it; Clyde seemed to be willing to show him a few more times. Standing on the roof of the car, he pierced it with his proboscises, trying to get him. He tasted Ike's blood after he got to scratch him, but the teenager succeded in coming out. Clyde jumped to get him, and Ike received him with a punch. He ran towards the trunk and quickly grabbed the wrench and hit Clyde before he could grab him.
Seeing Ike with that tool gave Stan what he needed to fight. He extended and arm and the tools Kyle had to take care of his car went straight to him. Although he didn't wish to hurt his friend, he had started. Using a screwdriver, he made him fall to the ground.
"Stan!" Kyle called him. Token and Tweek were attacking him at the same time and he had to jump, almost looking as if he was dancing, to avoid losing his feet. "Go ask Gregory for help! He's right there!"
"What?! No! We need him here!" Cartman protested.
"That's precisely the idea: he has to get help!"
"I'll be right back, guys!" Stan, with a screwdriver in each hand, got both Craig and Jimmy out of the way and started running.
Kyle managed to use an air wave to push Tweek and Token away from him. Scott charged.
"Hey! Leave my brother alone!" Ike shouted, throwing the wrench to his head.
Scott didn't even seem to notice. Praying to his god, Kyle extended an arm towards him and used the air to lift him in the air and throw him aside.
Jimmy hit Cartman in the face with his crutches and then in the back of the head, making him fall to the ground. When he approached, Cartman scratched his face and punched him repeatedly in it. He then tried to prevent Scott from getting up. Token teleported, blocking his way.
It was amazing, Ike thought, how little they were affected. Those wounds and bruises had to hurt a lot. How could they get up and keep fighting so quickly? There wasn't even pain in their faces when they were hit. Nothing.
He jumped in time to avoid Clyde knocking him over. He pulled his wings, but there was no reaction from him apart from the resistance. Yes, that was wrong. It should have hurt like hell. Clyde managed to escape and got up. Ike punched him in an eye, then in the stomach.
It was then when his eyes fixed on Timmy.
He didn't move from a safe distance, unnoticed, watching everything that was happening calmly from his chair, with the cold scrutiny of a chess player, his eyes narrowed, his fingers caressing the leather arm of his wheelchair.
Ike knew from the moment he saw him what was going on.
"TIMMY'S CONTROLLING THEM! HE'S DOING ALL OF THIS!"
But nobody came to help him, because they were too busy trying not to die in the hands of their friends. The only one who heard him, unfortunately, was Timmy himself.
Casting his eyes upon the youngest Broflosvki, he squinted even more and Ike gasped, that gasp turning into a scream. His head was starting to hurt so much, like some truck was driving over it, smashing it, like something he had never felt before.
"Ike!" hearing his brother scream, Kyle looked around him desperately, trying to find him and save him from whatever was making him scream, but he couldn't because Craig missed by a foot, making a new hole in the ground with his fist. Taking advantage of his condition, Jimmy mowed him down, making him roll in the ground. He then raised one of his crutches and Ike barely had time to duck.
He saw what to do.
He tried to punch Jimmy in the nose. Of course, Jimmy was fast enough to grab his hand before he did it. However, he didn't know it was a distraction: Ike's real aim was his gonads. A strong kick was enough to make him drop to his knees. Quickly, Ike grabbed one of his crutches and, with all his might, threw it straight to Timmy's head. It was too late for Timmy to react. The hit cut his swollen head open and made him lean so much to the right that he fell from his wheelchair.
The attackers stopped. Scott and Tweek fell to the ground. Scott breathed with difficulty, very pale—finally, he found his syringe and managed to inject himself the insulin.
Craig buried his face in his hands. Some seconds later, he looked up at Kyle.
"...What...What happened?" he muttered.
Clyde touched his eye. It hurt a lot, and the worst thing was that he didn't know why it did.
"Guys? Why are you bleeding?" Token looked at his hand. "Why am I bleeding too?"
"It was that guy! He was controlling you like puppets! He made you attack us!" Ike pointed at Timmy.
"...What?"
All eyes turned to the handicapped lying on the ground.
"You...mother...fucking...bastard..."
Timmy did not use his powers to defend himself or try to escape. He let Craig kick him in the stomach and grab him by the hair.
"How could you?!"
"You're dead. I swear to God I'm gonna kill you." Kyle walked to them with his fist ready to punch Timmy's face.
"Timmy..."
"Wait." Jimmy took a step forward. "Wait, guys, please."
Timmy looked up to look at his friend, but quickly turned his head, unable to do so.
"Tim-Tim, why...Just...Just why?"
Timmy closed his eyes and weakly touched his temple with his index fingers.
["I'm not proud of what I've done...but I never wanted to hurt you guys..."]
"Do you think that saying that is going to save your ass?" Tweek replied, wiping the blood from his nose.
["Of course not. You can beat me to death. I deserve that. But first I want you to know why I did it."]
"Don't listen to him, guys." Cartman warned them.
Timmy raised a finger to his head.
"Look out!" Cartman shouted.
But no one could do anything. Soon, the road, the wrecked car, everything disappeared...
..But they were still in the street. They recognize which one it was, a few blocks away. They were crossing a pedestrian crossing. All sounds had been replaced by a Metallica song. Even though some of them didn't like that band or even the genre, they all felt endorphins dancing inside of their bodies, making them feel great.
"Timmy...Tim...Timmeh..."
They understood what was happening. They were seeing one of Timmy's memories from his point of view. They were hearing what he was hearing, seeing what he was seeing. Yes, it was precisely that. The view turned to his lap as he put a hand inside of his pocket to get the keys of his house.
Timmy had barely taken them when everything went dark. The streetlights and the light coming out of people's houses put out all of a sudden and it didn't come back minutes later. Timmy didn't think about it. He loved that guitar solo. He just groaned in frustration when he wasn't able to put the key into the keyhole once he got home.
As expected, his house was all dark too. He removed his headphones. No sound was heard.
"Timmy!" he announced his coming to his parents.
"Timmy!" his mother replicated.
The voice came from the kitchen. And he didn't like what he heard. She sounded tense, scared. Timmy got scared too.
"...Mom?" he asked.He went as fast as his wheelchair allowed him to the source of the voice.
He expected her to have fallen from her chair in one of her attempts to do more than she could, and that his father, who didn't have to work that night, had not been able to get her up.
He never suspected he would find both of them on the floor and, standing next to them, a blond young man wo brought light to the kitchen with the screen of the phone. Timmy's heart skipped a beat.
"I see you have no curfew." the stranger spoke with a Brittish accent. Timmy didn't know him but it seemed the stranger did know him.
["Who are you?!"] Timmy sent him a telepathic message.
"Don't worry, I am not interested in your money or possessions. I came here to talk to you."
["Get out of my house NOW!"]
The intruder suddenly writhed in pain, raising a hand to touch his head. Timmy wasn't sure of what was happening, but whatever it was, he was responsible and that man deserved it, so he didn't make it stop. The intruder managed to talk through the agony.
"I...have to send a message in...ung...fifteen minutes.!" he said, showing the phone to Timmy. "If they don't receive it, they have orders to kill your parents...Do you understand?!"
Timmy doubted. Then, he commanded his brain to stop the torture. The blond man only needed a moment to breath and recover.
"Alright...That was very sensible from you."
["Who is they?"] Timmy demanded to know.
"That doesn't matter. I will go straight to the point: I know about your abilities. You just gave me a sample. From now on, you are going to do with them as I tell you."
["Go fuck yourself"] Timmy mentally growled.
"Timothy Burch, twenty-one years old, born in New England and moved to South Park at the age of eight. Bachelor in Science, since you were eighteen you have been a monitor at Lake Tardicaca, entertaining and taking care of handicapped children. Children like you when you were younger. Children like Harry Glenn, Penny McDonald, Andy Smith..."
["Don't you dare..."] Timmy made the reflex movement of getting up from his wheelchair, although he could only get up a few inches.
"That depends on you. Only you."
["I'm not going to do anything."]
"I see I'll have to be a little bit more convincing."
He approached Mr. Burch, extending an arm towards him. That was too much for Timmy. He charged, but there were two factors which made the fight unfair: the trespasser was fit, and he was abled, too. First, he punched Timmy in the face. Timmy's friends felt a sharp pain in the nose. Next, he knocked his wheelchair down. Mrs. Burch screamed, trying to crawl to her son. He left Timmy lying on the floor to grab her by an arm; she whimpered with fear.
"Last chance, Timothy. Do you appreciate your parents and pupils enough?"
Timmy raised his eyes to his parents. They were obviously having a very stressing moment, not knowing how that person could be conversating with their son when he didn't move his lips, not understanding what he wanted from him. His mother was crying. His father was only able to say 'Richard! Richard!'. They were completely defenseless.
All of them felt the horrible lump in Timmy's throat.
It was all a trip to be back to the present reality. It took them a moment to remember what had happen and where they were.
"Don't trust him, guys!" Cartman was the first to speak. "He's trying to make himself look like a martyr, showing us fake memories!"
Silence.
"...I believe him." Jimmy finally said, walking to his friend's side to help him get back to his wheelchair.
"Me too." Clyde joined him.
"Are you crazy?! After all he's done?!" Cartman looked at everyone with his eyes wide open and his arms spread.
["It was me the one who made Mr. Kern and Ned shoot at you guys. I also convinced Towelie that you guys had meth you could share with him. I made Doctor Mephesto show me the portal to Imaginationland and open it, to set the critters free. I took Bebe and gave her to them. I made those disgusting men attack her, when the convicts were released...I did everything..."]
"Gregory..." Kyle placed a hand on his head. "But...why? Why would Gregory do that?"
["He never told me. All I know is that he wanted to put the blame on Butters. As for Kern, Ned and Towelie...He said he wanted you to fight people who were dear to you..."]
"Well, Towelie's more of an acquaintance, really." Cartman commented.
["It seems he wants to test all of you...But I don't know for what purpose..."]
"Well, Stan's going to find out." Ike commented.
"Oh, shit, Stan!" Kyle suddenly gasped, and used his powers to fly away, as fast as his little domination allowed him.
"He can fly too?" Craig raised his eyebrows.
"Come on, I hope it's not too late!" Token made his partners touch him and they teleported all together.