Kyle:

When we got back to the Jackson Tower, we met Allen on the base floor.

He stood with his hands out in exasperation. Dressed again in his blue denim jacket and jeans, I quickly noticed his general appearance. Brown hair, pale skin, fading freckles, and a rather large gut. He looked so utterly normal, the idea that he was supposed to be my "elite" guard... in that moment I labeled him "a" guard. He did have two side arms on his jeans and I did notice a few hunters' knives under the back of his jacket earlier, so at least he was prepared.

"There you are!" he almost shouted. He moved over to the two of us. "Where did you go?!" he exclaimed. He looked around nervously. "I can't... well I guess expressing my anger might stick out a bit, seeing as you both look too young to have been on your own... I suppose it's alright for now, but remember from now on, I have to account for you two." Allen shook his head, even gritting his teeth a little. I wasn't sure what the problem was. Did we not have the right to come and go? "In any case, we still need to address the issue of your daily needs. There is actually a wash facility you can use after dark in this building. We'll see to it that no one notices the water bill. There is also a shower on the second floor. You'll also see drinking fountains just about everywhere around here so water drinking won't be a problem either but..."

"What are we going to eat?" I asked.

"Exactly," the man replied. "You can't just go grocery shopping on your own. On this world, you'd be considered too young to be buying for yourselves. Besides I'm afraid most stores are geared towards those of us of the... taller persuasion."

I grunted, looking around, noticing my three and a half foot height was pretty far from the average tallness around these parts. That wasn't a new factor, but still annoying... especially since it would be true for another century at least. Thinking on things, I wanted to grow up just as bad as I was sure children on this planet did- just in an entirely different and more literal way.

Allen continued, "What's worse, you'll have no means of cooking anything you do get." He chuckled. "I mean you can't just set a fire on the fifth floor and cook up some fish, hey Jess?"

"I guess not," Jessica replied.

"Nothing crazy to say?" Allen asked. Jessica just stared at the picture we had taken from the police station.

"She wanted to go looking for a stray kid and I told her "no". She's not happy about the whole thing." I summarized with a sigh.

She quietly looked to me saying, "I'm sure it's for the best and all." She turned away from me.

"Well..." Allen looked at Jessica for a few moments. "Yeah well, I guess the point of what I was saying is, we're going to have to sneak you guys some cooking stuff. I can't get you a stove up there, but we got some power lines running through so a toaster oven and hot plate should be good. You know how to use those things right Jess? Did you cook when you were here last?"

"Yeah," she said not even turning around.

"Do you cook on your world?"

"No. We had servants cook for us." Jessica shrugged and walked away from Allen and I, sitting down by herself on a couch not far from us. She sat just staring blankly at that picture.

Allen watched her, shaking his head. "Doesn't it matter to you that she's upset?"

I nodded. "Yeah it does, but I can't cater to her every mood." I cared more than he knew. I wanted to make her happy, she was my friend. But I was protecting her.

"I'm not talking about catering to her whims Kyle. Frankly, I don't think you cater to her at all if you have the choice. It's almost like she's just a guard dog to you or something. Really, she's a very nice girl who seems willing to do anything for you."

"She is, and I would do the same," I said with a nod and all sincerity.

"Really?" the man said with a chuckle. I wanted to smack him. "You shrugged at her gift of a personally made sword when you first got it. You almost made her carry all the luggage from your trip, you were snide when I told you it was a good idea to do favors for her like open doors and now she has her heart set on helping people by doing something I think would be just great-"

Okay, he did NOT understand. I walked to a corner just out of sight of most people in the room, then turned and pointed straight at him. "You listen to me Allen, I am several times your age, so don't think for a minute you can tell me how to live or how to treat people! I listen to you about the customs of your world that I don't know about, but not about how I treat people from my world. Jessica-"

"And there's your problem right there. You think everything is about you." He folded his arms.

"What problem?"

"You hurt someone who cares about you, more than herself I'd wager, and you don't think that's a problem?"

I looked over at Jessica, just past the corner. She sat still staring at that picture. I bit my lip then dipped back behind the corner. "I... I've never seen her like this. Her mind is on one thing, helping this kid, who neither she nor I know anything about. But does it matter in the end?" I shook my head, looking back at Allen. "If this were something little... But it's not little. This whole city is probably looking for that kid, right? So what happens if they see Jessica and I looking for and finding him before anyone else even has a chance?"

"What makes you think you can do that in the first place?"

I took the backpack I had been lugging around, off my shoulders. "One of the items we brought with us is a DNA tracer. We can track this kid anywhere within two miles to his exact location if we just have a little piece of his DNA... it's kinda like giving a dog a sniff of his clothing." I gave him a small metal circular compass-like device. Allen opened it, again like a compass, and looked at it.

"I'm sure this thing is pretty neat and all, but that actually doesn't sound very impressive. Granted I don't have one and I'm sure it would be a nice asset, but what makes you think the kid is only two miles away from anywhere you're going to go?"

Guessed he wasn't getting it. "It doesn't just trace the kid himself within two miles. ANY trace of him within two miles it can track. I can find the very last thing that he touched within that distance. A dog loses a trail if the scent is diminished. This thing can track the kid's trail even if he only touches the ground once every mile somehow."

"And what if he were driven ten miles away and never got out until he reached his destination?"

"Okay, so the technology has its limits," I admitted. And finding a big one was easier than I thought, though I didn't say so out loud. "But we also have medical supplies that can cure almost any ailment, taking the most severe of injuries and make them like inconveniences. I mean we can't raise the dead, but I'll put it this way," I took a small syringe set out of my bag, handing Allen a small green vial. "One shot of that and this kid could have his skull cracked right down the middle. Just so long as he can hang on for a good hour, I can pretty much guarantee he'll be fine in a day."

"Okay THAT is impressive," Allen admitted. "I'll have to keep you two in mind next time Jaden gives me a good scare."

"Not to mention we can take care of ourselves in a scrap."

"Okay. So I see you CAN run a search and rescue pretty easy... so why not if Jessica is so set on it?"

"Because I don't want to watch her get burned at the stake!" I almost shouted, my voice near cracking.

Allen's eyes grew. "What?"

"The people on your world are crazy you-"

"Hold on, I think we need to talk about this in private." He looked around. "You start talking about someone torturing you or your friend and it's bound to turn some heads, but you need to be set straight on a few things. Come with me." I gritted my teeth. Sure he had a point, but he wasn't calling the shots here. "I'm sorry, did I give you the impression I was giving you a choice?" The man picked me up around the chest and carried me into the elevator. I didn't want to attract attention so I didn't fight back, but no, I did NOT like that. "I trust Jessica is alright without you?" asked Allen as the doors closed behind us.

I folded my arms and glared at him. "She protects me, not the other way around," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I get the feeling she still is in constant need of an anchor from her insanity." At this statement of certain truth, I had to smile. I WASN'T the only one who noticed. "In all seriousness, if you're going to be staying on this world, you're going to need some perspective."

"You going to try to tell me they didn't burn people alive for being different?" I folded my arms.

"At times, almost two hundred years ago in this country, it was a practiced yet thoroughly frowned upon activity only embraced by a superstitious minority."

Stolen story; please report.

"So why do the werewolves like you hide from the public? Why do you insist on making sure people think you all only exist in folklore and mythology?"

"Because people here are a lot like you. No perspective. They like to think the world can be controlled and understood to the minutest detail."

"It can. It all just takes time," I said in a knowing tone. I had to remember, Allen was only thirty, he probably thought the world was beyond control.

Allen shook his head. "So tell me what should be done with the Wildmen? You think Frank was unique? I've seen a five-year-old break a man's arm after getting upset over losing a cookie. But these men are not insane; they can live lives just as productive as anyone else. Or how about, what to do with warlocks who command massive amounts of heat on a whim? I saw a young man burn down his school in a fit of rage in a matter of minutes. It didn't make the papers because no one was in it at the time. Imagine what these normal humans, with no such abilities, would feel compelled to do to control us mutants."

"So what would they feel compelled to do to control Jessica and I?"

"Control what? A well-controlled moderately powerful individual like yourself? What would they do with a goofy young lady with massive power whose greatest desire is to help find lost children? They would make you heroes. Neither you nor Jessica would seem to present an immediate threat to them... unless they knew the whole truth of course."

"The whole truth? Like what?" Despite myself, I was starting to get curious what Allen was going on about.

"The whole truth is that if anyone has cause to be paranoid it's the normal people, not you. When your kind was created in Egypt, they were worshiped as gods. They then left for another world seeing themselves as better than the whole of mankind. Later they returned after building their own civilization and attempted to subject the Greeks as false deities. Only after a massive rebellion on your own world by a well outnumbered but resourceful minority, did the Olympians stop plaguing the nations of Greece to force their worship." I gave a nervous half-grin. The Olympians were a dark part of our history. "Again your kind returned a thousand or so years after that, and to do what? You came to make war on the gargoyle race and almost obliterated an entire subspecies of humanity. So now your kind sends royalty to the planet. What are you, Kyle? The son of the president? Couldn't you be seen as the precursor to yet another invasion?"

Seemed to be making my point for me. "Hence why I don't want people to know about me who don't have reason to trust me," I said.

"What reason exactly do I have to trust you myself?" I stood silent for a moment. That one had me. "I'm not suspicious by nature really. I'm trying to demonstrate to you your own attitude. These people aren't evil, and judging them based on an extremely loose understanding of their history is frankly stupid. In perspective, your people fought the gargoyles to save humanity, and you are descended from the rebellious Pharaohs who stopped the Olympians for the sake of the freedom of the Greek nation."

I took a minute to think. "I guess I can see what you mean. So... you're saying I should go along with this? This crazy idea to look for lost kids?"

"Yes," Allen said with a nod.

I blinked. "Don't you mean, "it's up to you," or something?"

"Did I say anything along those lines?" asked Allen. "Yes, you should definitely do this with her. Go find a lost kid, it's not a bad thing to do anyway."

I smiled and punched the button for the first floor, knowing that would open the doors back up. "Okay Jess," I said. The doors slowly opened, revealing the girl with her ear still pressed against them as they did. She grinned and stood up before the doors dragged her face into the wall. "But you have to promise me we'll be covert-"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be as subtle as I always am!" the girl shouted.

"That's not comforting," I noted. She grabbed my hand and ran, pulling me to the door. "Jess... where are we going exactly?"

"Umm." the girl stopped at the glass doors. "I... I really don't know." I chuckled more in my head than out loud.

"I was going to give you guys some food for a few days," Allen said behind us, but neither of us took notice of him. "I could help." Jessica quickly glanced over at him, shoving me aside to go back to him. I almost fell over from that, but I caught myself. I wasn't sure that was a mistake.

"How so?" she asked.

Allen shook his head at me as I walked back to them. "Well, I could think of a few things to do if you're looking for a missing kid. First thing you'll need to do is interview his folks and see his house."

"I would guess," Jessica said. "Actually that was my first instinct... but I don't know where he lives. It gives an address on the bottom of this picture but I'll need a map... do you have one?" Allen handed Jessica a small street map from one of the tables around us in a rather deliberately casual way. It looked... off. Like he was pranking us somehow... She grabbed it.

"Will that do?" asked Allen. Jessica looked at it and nodded. Jessica tugged on my arm again. "Don't worry, I'll still be here when you two come back in about twenty seconds."

"What do you mean?" I asked, but Jessica pulled me harder and forced me to either come with or be dragged on my heels.

(***)

Outside the tower, Jessica opened the map and held the picture over it. She started excitedly looking over the map, corner to corner. Her mouth was opened in a huge grin, which quickly started to fade. In mere seconds the gleeful expression started to seem almost fearful as the girl continued looking left and right over our guide. "Something wrong?" I asked.

"I was on this world for twenty years... there shouldn't be."

"You can't read that can you?" I asked with lowered eyebrows.

"I can read it... good Lord there are a lot of roads these days," she commented. She scratched her head. "I'm not even sure which one we're on... I've never seen this style of map before." The female lunatic then pushed the map in front of me. "What do you think?"

I looked at the mass of lines and seemingly aimless assembled names around them. "I think it looks like a map of a piece of an alien world that I only have a very crude second-hand understanding of."

"Yeah I know that, but can you read it?"

"I can read the words on it."

"U-huh," she said, starting to smile. "What are you getting at?" She looked very happy at saying that. I was now squarely the sole victim of the prank.

"I'm praying we're somehow NOT the last hope Tommy has... just for his sake."

"What do y-"

I pulled her hand. "I just realized what Allen meant."

(***)

Allen:

I smiled to myself, allowing a grin to take over my face as I watched Kyle pull his bodyguard back into the building. He pulled the girl back through the glass doors and over to me. "Okay." Kyle began. "Um... help."

These two were so much fun. "You mean a rudimentary understanding of how to navigate almost forty years ago somehow DOESN'T suffice for getting around on a completely alien world? I would never have guessed," I said, keeping my grin. I had to try so hard not to laugh out loud- or indulge in an "I told you so"- technically I didn't after all.

"Really?" asked Jessica. "Putting it that way, it sounds like it would have been obvious." She said poking her chin like she was 'considering'.

"You guys do have sarcasm on your world right?" I asked. Apparently, you could never be sure of things with Jessie.

"Yes," Kyle replied. "But Jessica's state of mind rarely grasps its existence."

"I see," I said with a nod.

"Oh that!" said Jessica. "So... you have a car right?"

"Yes, that I do."

"And you can read this map..."

"Yep. Like a book," I said, continuing to smile and now rocking on my heels.

"So... let's go to that car already," said Jessica. "Where's it parked?"

"I don't know. What car?"

"You-" Jessica began, but I interrupted.

"I seem to remember something about my two charges wandering off just after I left for only about an hour, leaving me nothing about where they were going, why, or exactly what they expected me to do about it."

"That sounds kinda mean. Is that why you were upset earlier... who were these two charges?" asked Jessica. I looked at her wide-eyed, "Wha- oh- yeah about that..."

"I don't require that you two stay in this tower-like prisoners." I looked around, suddenly realizing the children could say anything they liked, but after a while, what I could say to them myself without being noticed was finite. If I had reached that limit as of yet, I was unsure but didn't wish to find out. "Look follow me to the car."

"Wow, I didn't even have to apologize," Jessica said.

"Oh you do," I said. "Just follow is all."

We walked out of the tower over to my waiting Rambler. I watched as Kyle waved a hand in front of Jessica, making her stop reaching for the back door handle so he could open it for her. He was learning on some level.

Jessica beamed at me. "Can I ride shotgun this time?" she asked. I nodded. Kyle shrugged and moved to open the "shotgun" door. However, Jessica pushed him aside. "Yeah yeah, move it, slowpoke." Kyle glared at her as she opened the door and jumped in, sticking her tongue out at him.

Kyle got in back with a bemused smile, me saying as he opened the door, "You two still aren't leaving until I give my lecture about accountability."

"Fine, good then!" Jessica shouted, she then started to chant, "Lecture, lecture, lecture," repeatedly.

As she did this I stared at Kyle, who had left his door open for a moment. "Don't think for a minute I can explain her," Kyle said, starting to grin.

The girl kept chanting as I got into the car and I waved at her saying, "Can you just stop for ten minutes?"

"It will be hard, but I'll try," she replied.

"Alright you two, here it is. I know neither of you really is a child, though I must admit, you act like a hyperactive little girl and a stuck-up teenager." Jessica started beaming at me. "Jessica... you're really not supposed to like lectures."

"Isn't it better I don't fight life lessons?" she asked.

"I guess," I replied. "That was actually kinda profound..." I had to pause on that note. This wasn't like explaining things to Jaden at all. "Anyway, both of you need to start thinking about what your actions do to others." Jessica looked concerned, leaning back from me as she pointed at herself. "Yes, I know you particularly seem to think primarily about others, but I don't mean only when they're in extreme danger." Jessica looked left, cringing. "First you Jessica. I get the feeling you two leaving for the police station was your idea. You deliberately waited for me to leave didn't you?" I folded my arms on that note. It was a stance that quickly signaled to Jaden when I was serious, looked like it worked on them too.

"I thought you would force me to explain and then you and Kyle would gang up on me. I really want to help people on this world, and this is a good way to do it isn't it? I mean looking for lost kids is a good idea right?" Jessica asked. She looked at me with hopeful eyes.

I had a three-year-old, I was immune to cute eyes by this point. "Most definitely. But you won't accomplish anything if you two fight like little brats with each other and those helping you. I guess on your world you two aren't considered mature so things like that haven't been addressed to you too much."

"Not really," Kyle admitted behind me. He seemed to be upset, but about something beyond the lecture. "We really weren't taught manners, me or Jess, and no one emphasized the ones we figured out. I know it's not right, but really, dad tries never to say "no" to me or reproach me at all." Kyle looked at Jessica. "It's looking after this kid that's made me have to mature as much as I have. Nineteen years ago I couldn't stand her at times... now I can't stand being without her for more than a few minutes at a time. Poor kid drives herself crazy, and I have to rein her in." Kyle smiled again, looking up at Jessica.

"I can see you guys have a strange but pretty close relationship with each other here," I continued to Jessica. "You both need to give folks a chance before you judge them. I already talked to Kyle about that. I guess if no one really taught you like they should have, I can see a problem with trust. Sometimes the hardest thing to get over is when those who you should be able to trust, start doing what you know is wrong. Really, Jessica, I would have thought you two using your abilities for helping kids would be a great thing, and I stood up for you to Kyle."

"I realize that now," Jessica said, looking down like she was ashamed.

"You two are gonna get into a lot of trouble if you don't stop prejudging and learn to put things in perspective. In any case, I am responsible to and for you and trust me, I won't fail that responsibility." Kyle nodded to me. "I know I'm not older than either of you... but I think you both still need a role model pretty bad." I paused to think for a minute. Something was changing between us. I could sense it. Like how they saw me was changing even radically. "I can't raise you like kids, but I can be there for you, but only if you give me a chance." Jessica stuck her hand out at me, offering to shake. I shook it. Kyle nodded. "Alright. Then let's see that map and picture."